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down soon, definitely never to climb back to the heights they once achieved. Twilight realms made of virtual memories and aging code, flitting in and out of the mind’s eye forever.
Ian Williams has written for Salon, Jacobin, The Guardian and more.Battlefield 1 Artist Accidently Leaks New Weapon on Design Blog
Battlefield 1 expert Westie appears to have found something very interesting.
Peter Olofsson Hermanrud is the lead weapon artist for Battlefield 1. While browing his profile on ArtStation, Westie found several artist renders of existing battlefield 1 weapons, and a render of a weapon that does not currently exist. This render appears to be a crossbow grenade launcher.
Related: 10 Really Weird But True Things About Battlefield 1
Battlefield 3 had a similar weapon, that was released in the Aftermath DLC. You could argue that grenade launches are a staple of other FPS shooters. It’s time that Battlefield caught up to the pack. Westie makes a valid argument in his video below.
It’s also been speculated that this new crossbow grenade launcher could be added to the Medic Class. Chlak this up to being another Battlefield 1 mystery.
Speculation has also lead us to belive that this weapon could be included in the first paid Battlefield 1 DLC, which will be called “They Shall Not Pass”letter to my parents a guest Jun 18th, 2014 578 Never a guest578Never
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rawdownloadcloneembedreportprint text 0.97 KB Dear Mom, I wish you would get this! I am so upset right now, and cant talk to anyone! You are out, and my dad is not here at the moment! I am so hurt right now, and dont know what to do :( This is the time I wish i would just fucking die! People betray you so easily in your life, and it hurts the most! I have been through so much, and seen so much to give up now! I wish it was so simple, were you can just tell your true friends! I really wish that shit went back to how it was when other people were around! I love you so fucking much, and I love my sisters! I know I am suppose to be a man, but i broke down, and It hurts so fucking much! I wish none of this would of happened! This is my only way of putting this out there without it getting back to you, because I dont want you to see your little man like this! Thanks so much for being there for me! I really wish you could just be able to read me like a book, and help me through all these problems! I love you soo much! :(
RAW Paste Data
Dear Mom, I wish you would get this! I am so upset right now, and cant talk to anyone! You are out, and my dad is not here at the moment! I am so hurt right now, and dont know what to do :( This is the time I wish i would just fucking die! People betray you so easily in your life, and it hurts the most! I have been through so much, and seen so much to give up now! I wish it was so simple, were you can just tell your true friends! I really wish that shit went back to how it was when other people were around! I love you so fucking much, and I love my sisters! I know I am suppose to be a man, but i broke down, and It hurts so fucking much! I wish none of this would of happened! This is my only way of putting this out there without it getting back to you, because I dont want you to see your little man like this! Thanks so much for being there for me! I really wish you could just be able to read me like a book, and help me through all these problems! I love you soo much! :(65 Pages Posted: 30 Jul 2009 Last revised: 12 Nov 2013
There are 2 versions of this paper
Date Written: November 9, 2010
Abstract
The Panic of 2007-2008 was a run on the sale and repurchase market (the “repo” market), which is a very large, short-term market that provides financing for a wide range of securitization activities and financial institutions. Repo transactions are collateralized, frequently with securitized bonds. We refer to the combination of securitization plus repo finance as “securitized banking”, and argue that these activities were at the nexus of the crisis. We use a novel data set that includes credit spreads for hundreds of securitized bonds to trace the path of crisis from subprime-housing related assets into markets that had no connection to housing. We find that changes in the “LIB-OIS” spread, a proxy for counterparty risk, was strongly correlated with changes in credit spreads and repo rates for securitized bonds. These changes implied higher uncertainty about bank solvency and lower values for repo collateral. Concerns about the liquidity of markets for the bonds used as collateral led to increases in repo “haircuts”: the amount of collateral required for any given transaction. With declining asset values and increasing haircuts, the U.S. banking system was effectively insolvent for the first time since the Great Depression.You may have seen some new green paint in Philadelphia bike lanes. You can thank red light cameras for some of that paint. The City of Philadelphia is using Automated Red Light Enforcement funds (ARLE) to stripe new bike lanes and improve existing bike lanes at intersections.
Known as the Bicycle Encourage and Enhancement Project, the bulk of the money will pay for installing green paint at 34 conflict zones where bike lanes cross over right-turn lanes. The first one going in is at 6th and Market. Fifteen years ago, Philadelphia painted these conflict zones blue, which at the time was an innovative treatment. The anti-skid green paint is more durable than the now-faded (or entirely gone) blue paint of yore.
Some other highlights of this project include:
Spring Garden Street West Gateway: new and improved bike lane markings and bike boxes connecting Spring Garden St to Eakins Oval. (This project is being funded by the William Penn Foundation and was coordinated by the Pennsylvania Environmental Council.) Columbus Blvd: new bike lane lines between Race St and Spring Garden, replacing the City’s first shared-lane markings (installed before the adoption of the modern sharrow). Torresdale Avenue: refreshing bike lanes along Torresdale from Linden Ave in the far Northeast to O Street adjacent to the Erie-Torresdale Station.
The red light camera program is expanding, due to their proven safety record, plus the safety improvements that the red light tickets are funding. In January, Abington Township installed the first red light cameras outside of Philadelphia and Pittsburgh will be activating cameras in the summer.
Posted by John Boyle at 3:48 pm
Topics: Biking in Philly, Featured, UncategorizedPillars of Eternity is not a game designed explicitly to attract a wide audience. At a time when it sometimes seems like an undue imposition to unmute a Facebook video or expand a Tweet, Pillars makes you read long passages of descriptive text and written dialogue in order to digest its world and unlock its treasures.
Hungry for more spells and dragon-slaying? Seek out our list of the best PC RPGs.
It’s also very difficult, frequently and spiritedly cutting you and your party down for a) failing to pause and plan an imminent fight, b) failing to find the right balance of classes in your party, or c) failing to equip your perfectly-balanced party with suitable abilities and equipment.
And why does it make such reaching demands of its players? Why, to evoke and homage a cluster of isometric RPGs released between fifteen and twenty years ago, of course. Now – hands up who thinks that sounds like a game destined for an estimated Steam audience of over half a million players?
Obviously, Pillars found that audience. Not in spite of those idiosyncrasies, but because of them. Viewed through the gamer’s eyes it seems almost a no-brainer for veterans of Obsidian and Black Isle Studios to come together and launch a Kickstarter for a new Infinity Engine-inspired RPG. But if you’re the creator about to put your livelihood on the line, as Obsidian cofounder Josh Sawyer was in September 2012, you don’t take anything for granted.
“Our original goal was $1.1 million, and we really weren’t sure if we were gonna make that goal,” he tells me. “We knew that there was an audience but we did not realise that it was as large or as passionate as it turned out to be.”
Project Eternity, as it was known early on in its Kickstarter campaign, hit that goal in just two days. In the month that followed, that figure rose to just short of $4 million, pledged by 73,986 backers. Despite narrowly missing its final stretch goal by $14K, the Pillars crowdfunding effort could only be considered a success story. However, as Sawyer explains, developing a game amidst such moving goalposts posed a formidable challenge.
“The Kickstarter campaign was very gruelling, which is a common theme other people who have been through the [same] process have reported. It sounds like a silly complaint: ‘Oh god, it was so successful, we had to keep working so hard at it.’ But we had preliminarily discussed [a budgeting plan] and we really didn’t think we’d have to move on that for a few weeks. So when the money started coming in, we realised ‘Oh crap, we really have to move quickly with this.’ We launched on a Friday, and the next day we were in the office at 8AM on a Saturday going, like, ‘Oh crap, we have to figure this out right now.’”
In many cases, Sawyer says, the team were using their best guesses to assess how much certain elements of their game would cost. “For example, we had our two big city goals. It was like, does it cost five hundred thousand dollars to make a huge city? It seems like maybe it’s more. Does it cost a hundred thousand dollars to make a Linux version or a Mac version? I don’t know.”
With backers continuing to tick off the project’s stretch goals, the team had to decide where to allocate their time and money quickly, and commit to those decisions. Ultimately, Sawyer concedes, it led to certain features such as the player’s upgradable estate, Stronghold, “not quite getting as much attention as it should have.” With the game garnering a Metascore of 89 at launch, though, and many of the rough edges subsequently ironed out in post-release updates, Sawyer is in a position to reflect on any mistakes without too much chagrin.
Among Pillars of Eternity’s stretch goals was an expansion called The White March, the first part of which was released recently. While the base game draws much inspiration from the Baldur’s Gate series, often described as a spiritual sequel, The White March finds inspiration from the sub-zero climes of another Black Isle RPG family: Icewind Dale.
“It’s not really that big of a departure,” says Sawyer, “but in the base game we very much made something that was very cosy, very Dalelands, very temperate. Meadows and forests and things like that.” The White March is a chance to put the player in a more perilous environment, then, while servicing the Pillars community with yet more Infinity Engine nostalgia.
But while the expansion is obviously a conscious effort to summon something old, the question of Pillars being a spiritual sequel to Baldur’s Gate is less straightforward. There’s the matter of the actual Baldur’s Gate threequel (aka Project Jefferson), announced back in 2002 by Black Isle and publisher Interplay, and cancelled in 2003.
Add to that the further complication that Black Isle themselves never intended that game to be a Baldur’s Gate title. Rather, Interplay were contractually obliged for any RPG they put out to carry either the Baldur’s Gate or Icewind Dale name. With such a convoluted history colouring the BG lineage, how closely is Pillars related to those games? I put the question to Sawyer.
“There are some mechanical things that we carried over. The reputation system that tracks different personality types and has people react differently to the certain personality that you gave your character, that was something that we initially conceived for Jefferson.
“And there might be a few elements here and there – obviously the name of the inn in the first town being The Black Hound is not a coincidence. But the story is very different from what we were doing with Baldur’s Gate III. And really none of the characters came over. It was its own thing, although obviously we tried to evoke the feeling of the Forgotten Realms, and the Dalelands, specifically.”
Pillars of Eternity clearly isn’t a paint-by-numbers recreation of Black Isle’s RPGs, but all the same it did require a return to old working practices in some areas. For the first time in over a decade, Obsidian had to get used to working on 2D maps again. Some younger developers had never worked on an isometric game, Sawyer tells me, and others were suddenly using techniques they hadn’t practiced for years.
“We had to go over best practices for how to lay out levels, how to space things out, how to look at level flow in a way that you wouldn’t necessarily need to if you had a rotating camera or if you just had a real 3D camera.”
One of the early stumbling blocks was a particular optical illusion created by the isometric camera, where all perspective is flattened. “So you have a big tall cliff you can walk up to the top of, but the place where the cliff’s overlapping in the background, is actually hundreds of feet up screen from it. If you can stand next to it, what winds up happening is that you have people who are actually separated by hundreds of feet but they look like they’re standing right next to each other. So early on people were doing that, and I’m like, ‘Dude, doesn’t this look insane?’” [Laughs]
Obsidian also had to get back into the habit of writing a lot of prose. “That’s not something we’ve had to do in dialogue for a while, writing in descriptive texts about how characters are emoting and things like that.”
Perhaps due to the fact that it had been so long since they’d worked in this way, Obsidian had to re-learn some of the lessons they’d once learned as Black Isle developers. Specifically, says Sawyer, when it comes to starting a voiced line and written text entry differently, but presenting them simultaneously.
“[The player is] reading prose, but the voiced line that’s speaking the dialogue starts after the prose. So, for example, the description says, ‘Pallegina blinks and shakes her head’ and then she says something. But you hear the line come in as you’re reading ‘Pallegina blinks…’ It’s disorienting… We made mistakes in certain cases that went into the final game.”
What Sawyer, a developer with credits on many of role-playing’s seminal titles, might deem mistakes, gamers might see as endearing anachronisms. It’s easy to deify the games Pillars evokes, because to many they represent the carefree days of youth – a time when you could devote an entire school holiday to braining kobolds without a moment’s guilt. But it’s also important to remember that they weren’t perfect.
Similarly, while Planescape: Torment, Baldur’s Gate, and Icewind Dale are now widely regarded as classics, it’s interesting to hear that at the time they were being developed, Sawyer and his Black Isle colleagues were simply throwing ideas around, with no over-arching feeling that they were working on all-time greats.
“I started in ’99, right in the middle of Planescape: Torment’s development,” says Sawyer. “And I think at that period of time, there were a ton of designers working at that studio who were junior. For example, Icewind Dale was made almost entirely by juniors. Most of the designers were juniors, the programmers were juniors, the artists were neither new or juniors. We had no leads. [laughs]. That’s kind of crazy. Icewind Dale actually had no leads on the team at all.”
“I think we were all just very focused on making things that we thought were really cool. And I think the Torment team – and I’m speaking as an outsider because I just did web development – their focus seemed to be on just making the coolest stuff that they could.
“We were all working so much – I went to work every day of the week, I didn’t know what to do when I wasn’t at work, which was kind of unhealthy. But I think that a lot of us had… I don’t even want to say it was a work ethic, it was just a desire to be there making cool stuff and seeing it in the game.
“When Torment was released, I don’t think people got the impression that it would become an instant classic. I think people loved working on it, and thought it was very cool. I thought it was very cool. But I don’t think at that time people thought it would be an instant classic. It wasn’t until much later that people realised, ‘wow, we made something that people are gonna love for a long time.’”1 of 8 View Caption
photo courtesy LDS Church Elder Dale G. Renlund of the Church's Quorum of the Twelve Apostles and his wife, Ruth Lybbert Renlund. photo courtesy LDS Church The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and Brigham Young University were presenters at an inter photo courtesy LDS Church ìReligious freedom is a marker for other freedoms in society that temper the natural impulses that are photo courtesy LDS Church Sister Ruth Lybbert Renlund spoke with her husband, Elder Dale G. Renlund of the Church's Quorum of the photo courtesy LDS Church Elder Dale G. Renlund of the Church's Quorum of the Twelve Apostles and his wife, Ruth Lybbert Renlund, photo courtesy LDS Church Elder Dale G. Renlund of the Church's Quorum of the Twelve Apostles and his wife, Ruth Lybbert Renlund, photo courtesy LDS Church An appreciative audience listened to Elder Dale G. Renlund of the Church's Quorum of the Twelve Apostles photo courtesy LDS Church The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and Brigham Young University were presenters at an interThis week's market action serves as a vivid reminder of how dependent valuations are on central bank policies, and especially the aggressive provision of liquidity by the Federal Reserve and the European Central Bank. The question for markets thus boils down to whether central banks will do more; and the issues these institutions face are extremely and increasingly complex.
The global sell-off started on Tuesday with the release of the minutesof the most recent FOMC meeting. They were read by many as signaling less eagerness on the part of the Fed to embark on yet another round of liquidity injections ("QE3 "). Virtually every asset class promptly slumped, including bonds, commodities and equities — a reflection of how liquidity, rather than fundamentals, partly underpins recent market strength.
The sell-off in risk assets accelerated on Wednesday as the European Central Bank also cautioned about expectations of yet more unusual policy activism on that side of the Atlantic. The disappointing Spanish government bond auction was also a problem, coming at a time of mounting market concern about the country's outlook.
This time around, however, German and U.S. government bonds decoupled reflecting the "flight to quality" trade — out of risk assets and into what are regarded as safe heavens.
Against this background, it is natural that investor conversations center on whether central banks will renew their liquidity injection programs if markets continue to sell off. Some believe that the institutions have no choice but to do so. Others are less sure.
This uncertainty is not surprising. The analysis conducted here at PIMCO, including research for next week's presentation of the Homer Jones Memorial Lecture at the St. Louis Federal Reserve, confirms that central banks face extremely complicated policy challenges:
They are dealing with what Chairman Bernanke correctly called an "unusually uncertain outlook." They are forced to use blunt tools. They receive very little support from other government agencies. And their repeated interventions inevitably distort price signals, alter market functioning, and disrupt liquidity.
In sum, the critical trade-off in policymaking — between benefits, costs and risks — is becoming less attractive for central banks. Thus, recent signals of their hesitancy to do more, especially in light of improving economic data.
When push comes to shove, however, we suspect that central banks may ultimately resort yet again to their printing presses, especially if meaningful economic and financial weaknesses reappear. Remember, this is not about what central banks SHOULD do; rather, it concerns what they are LIKELY to do. And in being forced to inject liquidity into the global system, central banks would be driven not by positive motivations but, rather, negative ones.
In their hearts, central banks know that their policies cannot by themselves deliver the desired economic outcomes; and they are increasingly aware of the collateral damage associated with their unusual policy activism, as well as the unintended consequences. But they also feel that, for many reasons, they cannot be seen to stand on the sideline while politicians bicker, other agencies dither, and the economy stumbles.
The markets' obsession with central bank policies will not go away any time soon. Moreover, it will evolve over time to also include the question that holds the key to sustaining over time the bull market: whether central banks will be able to hand off the policy challenge — either to a robust economy or to other institutions that have better tools yet, for a host of reasons, have preferred to remain on the sidelines until now?
Dr. Mohamed El-Erian is CEO and Co-CIO of PIMCO, the global investment manager.Mayor rescues man trapped in women's prison
Posted
A mayor in Germany helped rescue a man who became trapped in a women's prison after mistaking it for a shortcut to a nearby park, police in the northern city of Hildesheim said.
Hildesheim mayor Henning Blum heard the man's cries for help while passing by the prison near the city centre and notified police, who came and freed the 24-year-old.
The man told police he was strolling through town and did not immediately notice he had walked into a prison.
By the time it dawned on him where he was, the gate to the jail had already closed, locking him inside.
Police said they are investigating why the prison gate was open, enabling the man to wander in.
- Reuters
Topics: offbeat, human-interest, germanyThe 84th Academy Awards happened last night. If you’re anything like me, you’ve seen a fairly shameful percentage of the nominated films, so here’s a guide to some good reads about the Oscars and the stars of this year’s awards to help you get acquainted.
Raymond Chandler on the Oscars in 1948.
But in the motion picture we possess an art medium whose glories are not all behind us. It has already produced great work, and if, comparatively and proportionately, far too little of that great work has been achieved in Hollywood, I think that is all the more reason why in its annual tribal dance of the stars and the big-shot producers Hollywood should contrive a little quiet awareness of the fact. Of course it won’t. I’m just daydreaming.
On the Academy Awards’ odd, arbitrary rules for inclusion in the foreign films category.
David Niven was interrupted at the 46th Academy Awards by Robert Opel streaking across the stage behind him, but Opel was so much more than a streaker.
A little background on how the Oscar winners are selected. Nobody should feel “robbed” by what is simply a popularity contest.
Neil Gaiman on being invisible at the Oscars in 2010. His film, Coraline, had no chance of winning Best Animated Picture against Up.
The Nominees
The Artist left David Denby dreaming of the lost style of actors like Greta Garbo and Louise Brooks in the heyday of silent movies.
Elbert Ventura disagrees with critics who dismiss The Descendants as undeserving of scrutiny.
Fast Company profiled Scorsese as Hugo was hitting theatres. Even after making 22 movies, and the freedom to make whatever he wants, he still feels the pressure of never having had a major box office hit.
Juliet Lapidos watched every Woody Allen movie prior to Midnight in Paris. Here’s what she learned.
Michael Lewis’s 2003 New York Times article on Billy Beane and the Oakland A’s that Moneyball is based on.
Margin Call definitely isn’t a documentary, but it says a lot about the societal costs of high finance and the embrace of personal corruption.
W Magazine profiled David Fincher on the set of The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo. He distinguishes between his work as films (Fight Club and Zodiac), conceived for the public and filmmakers, and movies (The Social Network) as overtly commercial.
A profile of Moonbot Studios, winners of the best animated short for The Fantastic Flying Books of Mr. Morris Lessmore.
Have you read anything good about the Oscars? email me or let me know on Twitter.
(Image via ABC)The dream of an artificially intelligent computer that can study a problem and gain expertise all on its own is now reality. A system debuted today by a team of Google researchers is not clever enough to perform surgery or drive a car safely, but it did master several dozen classic arcade games, in many cases surpassing the best human players without ever observing how they play.
“The results are impressive,” says Tomaso Poggio, director of the Center for Brains, Minds and Machines at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Cambridge.
In theory, computers could learn new skills at incredible speed if they didn’t have to wait for human teachers to give feedback on whether they are on the right track. But this approach—known as unsupervised learning—has rarely worked for skills more complicated than correctly recognizing handwritten ZIP codes or recorded samples of pop songs.
Then a year ago, Demis Hassabis, a wunderkind computer scientist and former video game designer, gave a talk at a technology conference in Paris and provided a glimpse of a success. Just a few months before that, Hassabis's small artificial intelligence startup called DeepMind—about 50 employees based in London—had been acquired by Google for more than $500 million. The video playing behind Hassabis showed what seemed impossible: A computer learning on its own to play complicated video games like Breakout (see video below), in which you have to break down a wall by bouncing a ball off it. After exploring the game by playing it, the computer discovered advanced strategies that few humans know about, such as digging a hole to bounce the ball along the back side of the wall.
Video credit: Google DeepMind (with permission from Atari Interactive Inc.)
In a study published online today in Nature, the DeepMind team finally reveals how they pulled it off. The researchers dub their computer learning system the Deep-Q-Network (DQN) because it combines two different strategies: deep neural networks and Q-learning. The deep neural network is a perception system—very loosely inspired by animal vision, which has made huge strides in recent years. The DQN sees and interacts with the game exactly like humans do: making moves and seeing the game pixels change.
The “Q” in DQN is how the system knows that it’s on the right track. Q-learning is a mathematical version of a concept from psychology called reinforcement learning, a reward system thought to guide the process of learning in humans and other animals. In this case, the DQN’s reward comes in the form of game points. As it tries out different moves in the game, it keeps track of which combinations lead to higher points.
To test the system, the DeepMind researchers let it loose on 49 classic Atari 2600 games from the 1980s. These games are at a “sweet spot,” Hassabis says—not so easy as to be trivial, but hard enough that humans actually struggle to become experts. They gave the DQN only modest resources: just 2 weeks of play for each game with the power of a single desktop computer.
It was far from a sure thing that this strategy would work. Researchers have tried to make computers learn video games by simply optimizing for points, but computers get stuck on games like Breakout or Space Invaders, where long, complicated strategies are often required to score big. In Breakout, for example, you have to have the patience to discover that setting up a hole to the wall’s back side will pay off later.
For about half of the games, not only did the computer not get stuck in a rut, but it also learned how to outperform the best human players. The DQN scored about 20% to 30% more points than humans at classic games like Space Invaders and Pong, and for others, such as Breakout and Video Pinball, it racked up more than 10 times the number of points. The next step, Hassabis says, is “knowledge transfer”: teaching the system to apply what it has already learned from one game to another. For example, it should learn to play games with paddles and bouncing balls faster now that it knows how to play one such game.
The finding “suggests that [computers using] reinforcement learning may be able to learn similar realistic tasks such as driving a car,” Poggio says. However, he is skeptical that this approach alone can enable computers “to learn abstract thinking from scratch, or reasoning, or abilities such as social perception.” Even a self-driving car needs to do more than rack up a high score.The Emergence of ISIS
Understanding the campaign requires going back to my time as Deputy Secretary of Defense. When I departed that job in 2013, the Pentagon faced a daunting set of challenges: growing threats from Russia, a continuing war in Afghanistan, destabilizing regional actors such as North Korea and Iran, a strategic imperative to rebalance defense resources to the Asia-Pacific region, and more. All these had been priorities for me since 2009, when I had become Undersecretary for Acquisition, Technology and Logistics, and continued as priorities when I became Deputy Secretary in 2011. By the time I left in 2013, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, the barbaric head of a terror group called the Islamic State of Iraq, had no large base of territory or power, but was seeking to gain power and influence by merging with other extremist groups. In the year I was out of government, between leaving the deputy secretary role and becoming Secretary of Defense, Baghdadi’s group had emerged, suddenly and unexpectedly, as a major threat. Shortly after I left the Pentagon, Baghdadi’s forces shocked the world by seizing control of Fallujah.
Baghdadi had taken advantage of the power vacuum and sectarian strife in Iraq that followed the departure of U.S. forces in 2012—a departure that, as Leon Panetta’s deputy, I had argued against—along with Leon, Michele Flournoy, and the Joint Chiefs. An agreement reached with Iraq during the Bush administration called for withdrawal of all troops by the end of 2011. Over Christmas of 2011, as that deadline approached, I participated in conversations with the White House and State Department to try to preserve some sort of U.S. military presence that could remain engaged with Iraqi forces. Iraq was refusing to grant legal protection to U.S. troops who would stay. My own view was that the legal debate was made more difficult by the fact that a pullout was politically popular in both countries. On Christmas Day I had called Leon, who was in California. I apologized for bothering him on the holiday. He said it wasn’t a problem—“I’m just cooking sausages.” I had to tell him, “Boss, I’m not getting anywhere with this.” Leon told me to hang in there and do what I could. At one point in the discussions, the State Department declared that it intended to “normalize” its embassy in Baghdad, making it more like embassies in India or Saudi Arabia, where our major national security focus was arms sales. I pointed out the difference between those countries and Iraq: We hadn’t invaded India or Saudi Arabia. As the clock wound down, I remember being asked by another senior administration official, incredulous, “Don’t you get it?” The message: There would be no residual force. I needed to move on.
I believed then, and still believe, that if the governments of Iraq and the United States had been able to reach agreement on a small but meaningful residual force, it is possible that we could have averted much of the violence that followed. Such a force, to advise and assist Iraqi forces in keeping order, could have provided some ballast to an Iraqi military that dissolved under ISIS pressure. One cannot say for sure, because many other powerful factors contributed to that failure: sectarianism abetted by Prime Minister Nuri al Maliki, Iranian meddling and more. Ultimately, Iraq’s government failed to meet its basic obligations to its people in allowing ISIS to rise. But leaving when we did, combined with these and other important factors, made ISIS’s emergence more likely.
By the time Denis McDonough called me in December 2014 to ask if I would fly to Washington to discuss with the President a return to the Pentagon as Secretary of Defense, ISIS had rapidly expanded its reach. It had seized Mosul, Tikrit, and wide swaths of Northern Iraq, key oil and gas fields, the cities of Raqqa and Tabqa in Syria, and important border crossings that secured its ability to move forces, money, and materiel between Iraq and Syria freely. It had openly declared an Islamic caliphate in Iraq and Syria, and announced its intention to expand into Yemen, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Algeria, and Libya. Tens of thousands of foreign fighters had streamed into Iraq and Syria to bolster its ranks. And in an era of gruesome terrorist attacks, it had set a new bar for brutality, as evidenced by the savage executions of American journalist James Foley and British aid worker David Haines, its enslavement and mass murder of ethnic and religious minorities such as the Yazidis, its imposition of violently repressive rule over millions of Iraqis and Syrians, and its use of social media to foment hate and inspire violence around the world.
In public statements at the time, military officers described ISIS as “halted”4 and militarily “in decline”5. While the United States had begun conducting air strikes against ISIS in September 2014, and had begun advising Iraqi ground forces, ISIS was not yet halted. Over the next four months, ISIS would capture At Tanf and Palmyra in Syria, and Ramadi in Iraq—a “battle” in which a small ISIS band chased away a much larger Iraqi force that simply refused to fight, a fact I bluntly stated publicly. The news was not all grim—as I was awaiting confirmation, Kurdish forces had ousted ISIS from Kobane, Syria—but good news was the exception.
Meeting the ISIS challenge was clearly going to be a big part of my job as Secretary of Defense. It would not quite dominate my time as Iraq did for Bob Gates—who, when he took over in 2006, described his job as “Iraq, Iraq, Iraq.” But ISIS would be an important focus, and the issue that would receive by far the most public attention—more than Russia, China, Iran, and North Korea combined, and far more than efforts to modernize our personnel systems or rebuild bridges to the U.S. tech community, all of which I knew could have a lasting impact on the department and our national security, and which I was careful not to neglect. But for the media and for Congress, ISIS was the news of the day.
The Need to Change Course
Given that urgency, two days after I was sworn in, I flew to Kuwait, where I assembled all the military commanders, diplomats, and other civilian leaders from across the U.S. government—everyone associated with the problem. CENTCOM commander General Lloyd Austin was there, as well as his subordinate commanders, including Lieutenant General James Terry, the commander of what had been designated Operation Inherent Resolve just months before. So were combatant commanders from EUCOM and AFRICOM; presidential envoy John Allen and his deputy Brett McGurk; U.S. ambassadors from the region; and senior intelligence officials. We informally called this the “Team America” meeting. (We agreed to use that phrase only privately after my staff reminded me of an irreverent film of the same title). The goal was to hear not just what we were doing, but why—how the pieces fit together into a coherent strategy. The United States was bombing ISIS targets and trying to strengthen the Iraqi security forces, but I was deeply concerned by the state of the effort.
I gradually concluded that despite the enormous talent and experience collected in the secure conference room at Camp Arifjan, the United States and its coalition partners lacked a comprehensive, achievable plan for success. Also lacking was a way to talk about the effort that could inspire the confidence of the American people or the publics of European allies who were at even greater risk from ISIS terrorism. The coalition lacked both useful tools to fight ISIS and a realistic assessment of the tools at our disposal, and was almost totally bereft of accurate intelligence about the enemy. It lacked clearly articulated objectives or a coherent chain of command for the operation. An American public stunned by ISIS successes, European nations concerned about ISIS terror attacks by their own nationals, a business community with rising concern about the effect on tourism and commerce—all these constituencies saw no plan to defeat ISIS and had little confidence in the campaign’s success.
What would follow over the next 23 months was a massive reorganization in the planning, execution, and communication about the counter-ISIS campaign. During that time, the department developed a comprehensive and specific campaign plan that won the approval of the President, local partners, and the international coalition. The coalition waging that campaign would slowly constrict ISIS’s hold on territory in Iraq and Syria to the point where, when I left office on January 20, 2017, ISIS’s hold on Mosul and Raqqa was teetering.
As I look back on the counter-ISIS fight, it divides into clear stages. From my confirmation in February 2015 until late that summer, we were still struggling to get a handle both on the operation and on how to talk about it with confidence—and to be forthright, it’s fair to say that we took longer than we should have to get our act together. In fits and starts during this time, the department began with slow but increasing success to address the weaknesses in the counter-ISIS campaign. In the second half of the year, we began introducing “accelerants” to the campaign that increased the pressure on ISIS and helped shape events to come. By the final weeks of 2015, after a key presidential visit to the Pentagon, Joe Dunford and I put a detailed military campaign plan before the President that offered a clear path to retaking Mosul and Raqqa. From that point, there was a clear public message on the strategic goals of the campaign and our methods of identifying and enabling local Syrian and Iraqi troops to |
whittled down to 23 players in one year, with only of those roster subtractions involving players who were on-the-field contributors. While the roster below is as accurate as possible, the Vols may make further moves before the season. Below is a breakdown of current players and the numbers involved.
Tennessee Vols Football Roster by Expected Graduation Year Year Players Number 2016 Mack Crowder, Pig Howard, Marcus Jackson, Johnathon Johnson, Kyler Kerbyson, Curt Maggitt, LaDarrell McNeil, Von Pearson, Brian Randolph, Trevarris Saulsberry, Chris Weatherd, Owen Williams 12 2017 Dontavius Blair, Cody Blanc, A.J. Branisel, George Bullock, Kenny Bynum, Jason Croom, Joshua Dobbs, Malik Foreman, Lemond Johnson, LaTroy Lewis, Marquez North, Danny O'Brien, Jaylen Reeves-Maybin, Devaun Swafford, Cameron Sutton, Corey Vereen, Dylan Wiesman 16
2018 Derek Barnett, Elliott Berry, Evan Berry, A.J. Branisel, Rashaan Gaulden, Jalen Hurd, Jakob Johnson, Alvin Kamara (JUCO), Todd Kelly, Jr., Brett Kendrick, Josh Malone, Justin Martin (JUCO), Cortez McDowell, Aaron Medley, Dimarya Mixon, Emmanuel Moseley, Charles Mosley, Jashon Robertson, Austin Sanders, Josh Smith, Coleman Thomas, Kendal Vickers, Ethan Wolf
23
2019 Micah Abernathy, Dillon Bates, Gavin Bryant, Jocquez Bruce, Venzell Boulware, Andrew Butcher, Neiko Creamer, Quinten Dormady, Stephen Griffin, Chance Hall, Jauan Jennings, Jack Jones, Sheriron Jones, John Kelly, Darrin Kirkland, Riley Lovingood, Kahlil McKenzie, Darrell Miller, Kyle Oliver, Vincent Perry, Kyle Phillips, Quay Picou, Drew Richmond, Ray Raulerson, Quart'e Sapp, Austin Smith, Zach Stewart, Darrell Taylor, Tommy Townsend, Shy Tuttle, Preston Williams 31
Total recruited players 82
Roster Management Numbers Total recruited players, fall 2014
78 Winter graduates Coleman, Gilliam, Johnson, Pair, J. Williams 5 Likely spring graduates Darr, Downs, Jones, Lane, Orta, Worley, Young 7 Confirmed transfers Bowles, Helm, Hendrix, Jenkins, King, Miller, Payne, Peterman, Scott, Wharton
10
No longer with team Sawyers, Paulk
2
Academic casualty Henderson 1 Total recruited players, spring 2015
53
Early enrollees Butcher, Dormady, Griffin, Hall, Jennings, Jones, Kamara, Kirkland, Phillips, Tuttle,
10
Recruiting class Abernathy, Boulware, Jones, Kelly, Lovingood, McKenzie, Martin, Miller, Oliver, Picou, Richmond, Sapp, Smith, Stewart, Taylor, Townsend, Williams 17
Potential blueshirts Bruce, Perry 2
Projected total, fall 2015 82
Walk-on scholarship Alex Ellis 1
Potential transfer Ralph David Abernathy, IV 1
Potential late add Joseph Young (or possibly Treyvon Paulk)
1
Complete roster, fall 2015 85
NCAA scholarship limit 85
Updated Scholarship Matrix
Although I don't expect this project to be completely accurate (because schools don't have a handy way to keep track of awarded scholarships), the scholarship matrix has been updated to account for expected transfers and to reflect position changes. The columns have also been relabeled by football season rather than graduation year to prevent confusion. Note that scholarships awarded to former walk-on players have not been tracked.
UPDATE: Thanks to sharp-eyed reader Gary Huntzinger for pointing out that I didn't update the matrix for the redshirts from 2014, and for keeping track of the status changes. The full list of changes:
Tight end Neiko Creamer, linebacker Gavin Bryant, and offensive lineman Ray Raulerson all received redshirts and are now listed in the 2018 class as redshirt freshmen.
Linebacker Dillon Bates received a medical redshirt for the shoulder injury he suffered during the 2014 season and is now listed in the 2018 class as a redshirt freshman.
Wide receiver Josh Smith received a medical redshirt for the ankle injury that knocked him out of the 2014 season and he's moved from the 2016 class to the 2017 class. He's now a redshirt sophomore.
Tight end A.J. Branisel received a redshirt and is now listed in the 2017 class as a redshirt sophomore.
Offensive lineman Dontavius Blair and wide receiver Cody Blanc both received redshirts and are now listed in the 2016 class as redshirt juniors.
Quick Observations on the current roster:
With the departure of Ryan Jenkins and Vic Wharton, the Vols have signed only two true wide receivers combined in the 2014 and 2015 recruiting classes. While Tennessee has several versatile athletes who could play wide receiver in a pinch, the Vols need to sign at least four wide receivers in the 2016 class to restock the two-deep once the current crop of seniors graduate.
The Vols lose two defensive tackles to graduation, but defensive end might be a bigger position of need, following the unceremonious exit of Dewayne Hendrix and Joe Henderson. 2016 looks like a great year for defensive tackles, so expect Tennessee to sign a few there, especially if they whiff on top defensive end targets.
Offensive line numbers shouldn't be a problem for Tennessee. With Drew Richmond flipping to the Vols on signing day, Tennessee has 15 scholarship players on the line next year, including a pair of four star tackle prospects in Richmond and Jack Jones. The Vols will look to upgrade the overall length and athleticism of the offensive line, but this is no longer a bottom of the conference group.When it comes to street food, there's no one like Astoria's Fares Zeideia ("Freddy" to everyone that knows him), the self-appointed King of Falafel and Shawarma and bronze medal winner of our top falafel sandwich championship. If you've ever visited his cart in Astoria (or his new one in Midtown), you've probably been passed an on-the-house falafel, fresh from the fryer, while you wait on line. If you haven't, you should know that Freddy's King of Falafel title is well deserved.
A few months ago Freddy released his first consumer goods: frozen heat-and-eat falafel and the raw spiced chickpea mix to fry at home. You can find both products in some Astoria supermarkets, Balady Halal in Bay Ridge, Al Aqsa in Clifton, NJ, and at Trade Fair locations around the city (except the Metropolitan Avenue location). Could falafel reheated at home possibly be as good as the real thing? Could I fry falafel as well as Freddy? I picked up some packages to find out.
Heat-And-Eat Falafel
For $3.99 you get an 11.5 ounce package with about nine or ten falafel. Freddy's oblong fritters are larger than most, a little over an ounce each; four or five make a well-stuffed pita sandwich. There are instructions for baking the falafel in an oven or cooking them in a microwave—opt for the former to keep their crispness intact. After about ten minutes in a moderate oven they came out hot and crisp, with just a little oil seeping up to the surface.
How'd they taste? Falafel connoisseurs—and Freddy fans in particular—will be able to tell that these aren't quite as crisp, light, or intensely flavored as when they're fresh. But as a quick fix for a homemade falafel sandwich or as part of an impromptu snack platter? They're pretty solid stuff.
The D-Fry-Y
If you're willing to deep fry at home, go for the frozen falafel mix. Priced at $2.99 for 24 ounces, it makes about 20 Freddy-sized falafel, though one of the joys of frying your own falafel is forming it into whatever shapes you want. Prefer spheres? Go for it. Like Egyptian-style lentil-shaped patties? Those were my favorite.
The mix is a little dry, so you'd do well to wet your hands before forming it into shapes. Dig around and you'll find bits of herb, onion, and spices in the coarsely ground chickpeas. Compared to some commercial falafel mixes with long, additive-enriched ingredient lists, Freddy's falafel mix is straightforward stuff.
The instructions call for heating vegetable oil to 375°F, then to fry five or six falafel at a time until they're brown and crisp, about three to four minutes. Your eyes are your best guide: look for a dark mahogany crust that feels solid when prodded with a wooden spoon. After a quick drain on paper towels the falafel are ready to go.
Short of frying my Freddy mix in the same pot as the one at his cart, I can't do a side-by-side comparison of my fresh-from-the-fryer falafel against Freddy's, but I've eaten from the cart enough to know that these are the real deal. Super-crisp, full of warm spices, with just a hint of onion richness, they're everything great falafel should be.
What To Do With Them?
True Freddy fans know that his falafel sandwich, made with subpar pita, isn't the best the cart has to offer—his falafel over rice, with plenty of tahini, hot sauce, and pickles, is the way to go. But in the privacy of your own kitchen you're free to use whatever pita you like; Brooklyn's Damascus bakery, common in many Middle Eastern markets, is a good pick to get you started.
Or skip the sandwich all together and eat falafel the way some of Astoria's Egyptians do: for breakfast. With some foul (stewed fava beans), bread, cheese, and cucumber salad, it's a hell of a way to start your day.
Want to try the falafel yourself? Head this way for store locations and more information.
PS: Turns out the King is looking to expand to a brick and mortar space. Keep an eye out for more updates.
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.Guattari Reframed presents a timely and urgent rehabilitation of one of the twentieth century’s most engaged and engaging cultural philosophers. Best known as an activist and psychiatrist, Guattari’s work is increasingly understood as both eerily prescient and vital in the context of contemporary culture. Dafne Muntanyola-Saura finds that this book usefully reassesses the major concepts developed throughout Guattari’s writings, whilst using imaginative examples to invite the reader to transform their understanding of Guattari.
Guattari Reframed. Paul Elliott. IB Tauris. May 2012.
Find this book:
Guattari Reframed is part of the Contemporary Thinkers Reframed Series, which makes great figures in social thought accessible to an undergraduate public. Félix Guattari (1930-1992) was a French psychoanalyst and activist that founded and worked at La Borde clinic as a psychiatrist. He developed most of his published work hand in hand with philosopher Gilles Deleuze, a key figure in radical Marxism and postmodernism. Paul Elliott’s introduction swifts through Guattari’s life and work, carefully avoiding his controversial political activism that involved taking into refuge revolutionaries such as Bifo, Antonio Negri or Klaus Croissant, the Red Army’s lawyer.
Elliott puts together a powerful and complex piece of work, which offers a tasting rather than a full menu of Guattari’s conceptual contributions. The volume includes an excellent glossary that will help more than one dissertation, an exhaustive and up to date bibliography, and a suggestive filmography, which gathers the examples used throughout.
The first section accounts for Guattari’s critique of his professional, cultural and political environment. In Chapter 2 Elliott draws from Deleuze and Guattari’s most popular works, the Anti-Oedipus (1972) and A Thousand Plateaus (1980), and introduces the concepts of the molar and the molecular. Elliott finds their roots in Guattari’s previous solo essay on Balthus’ paintings, Cracks in the street. Both concepts deal with the aesthetic experience: The molar names the institutional knowledge that the viewer acquires in her personal educational background, while the molecular is the ego feeling one gets when strolling through a museum or sitting in a dark movie theatre Most importantly, these two experiential dimensions interact constantly, in a dynamic process that pushes through the micro-macro debate between structuralism and phenomenology. Elliot follows up with an example extracted from Cameron’s film Avatar. He puts forward the plurality of experiences that a single viewer might have while watching the film, which can take place not only at an ideological level- the film has been conventionalized as a neoliberal metaphor- but also at a perceptual, lets say epidermic level- the emotions shaped by the colours movement and the overall 3D experience. As Deleuze and Guattari say “There is no question…of establishing a dualist opposition between the molar and the molecular that would be no better than the dualism between the One and the multiple”.
The search for a performative explanation of the aesthetic experience continues in chapter 6, Faciality. Deleuze and Guattari’s main corpus strongly influenced the post-modernist perspective in the 1970’s academic world. Elliot connects A Thousand Plateaus to Guattari´s essay Concrete Machines and explains how the individual face is both a source for the expression of subjectivity and a tool for communication. With communication comes discrimination: Elliot includes Zizek’s analysis of Chaplin’s facial expression in Citylights. This example illustrates beautifully the authors’ tour the force in analysing white supremacy “based not on otherness but `waves of sameness`, not on the simple binary but on a spectrum of difference that recognizes not exteriority, only faces that differ from the white one”. Instead of the Us/Them divide, the concept is a continuation of the dictatorship of normality. Not surprisingly, an amused Michel Foucault propelled the Anti-Oedipus into a best-seller concluding in his preface that the objective of the book was “The tracking down of all varieties of fascism, from the enormous ones that surround and crush us to the pretty ones that constitute the tyrannical bitterness of our everyday lives”.
Precisely, in “Molecular revolution” the author moves towards political action. This outlines Guattari’s personal chaosophical analysis of social change, broad in scope, since it integrated the aesthetic, ecological and embodied dimensions of social life. Guattari believed, together with Deleuze, Foucault and Sontag among others, in the liberating forces of 1968. He hoped for individual action to break down the reproduction of the established morality of capitalism In essays such as “I have even met happy drag queens” Guattari finds inspiration in alternative behaviours from different areas of art and sexuality. The quest for singular lifestyles continued in his visit to Brazil in 1982, where he found examples of non-standardized expressions of desire. These encounters contributed to his concept of becoming-homosexual. Both in a metaphorical and literal sense, homosexuality is taken as a token for breaking the prevailing Cartesian polarity between good and bad, proper and improper, legitimate and deviant.
This is a book students will want to play with. Elliot follows Guattari’s eclecticism and makes concepts more accessible. He mixes a specialized philosophical vocabulary with examples extracted from the arts, such as Hitchcock’s films, John Lennon’s “bagism” or Antonin Artaud’s analysis of Van Gogh. The use of examples is imaginative, despite some of them being, to put it in psychoanalytical terms, more a projection of the author’s interests than an illustration of Guattari’s perspective on art and culture.
The attribution of authorship is always a complicated matter, but ultimately Elliott succeeds in bringing Guattari out of the Deleuzian cave. The result is an informative and attractive little book, which grounds key concepts for the analysis of our cultural world.
Read more from the IB Tauris Reframed Series.
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Dafne Muntanyola-Saura has a Ph.D. in Sociology from the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona (2008), where she is currently teaching Cultural Consumption and Ethnography. She has been an MA student at Stockholm University, and a postdoc reseracher in Nice and Madrid, as well as Fulbright Scholar at University of California, San Diego (UCSD). She is part of the interdisciplinary project Dance and Cognition, with the Wayne McGregor-Random Dance company and professor David Kirsh from UCSD. She translated Cicourel (2007) and Kirsh (2007) into Spanish. Her current research crosses over the fields of contemporary cognitive science (embodied / distributed cognition) and video-aided ethnography (Muntanyola, 2012, & Kirsh, 2010). She studies expert and creative teams in different work environments, such as hospitals, TV sets, dance and swimming. You can also see her academia.edu profile. Read reviews by Dafne.(Scott Olson/Getty Images)
The Senate recently passed a 1,200-plus page immigration reform overhaul bill, S. 744, with bipartisan support, and the dust is just beginning to settle on the massive set of amendments agreed upon in the days prior to the final vote. As the focus turns to the House of Representatives, immigrant rights advocates are starting to uncover the significance of tragic changes those amendments wrought.
For example, take the "Corker-Hoeven" amendment, which now represents the bi-partisan consensus on reforming our already broken immigration system, an immigration system that has measurable results: deporting 1.7 million people, imprisoning hundreds of thousands of others and leaving more than 11 million children and families in daily fear of being raided, deported and separated. With its unnecessary increases in border security spending and its legal traps that are guaranteed to exclude millions of those 11 million immigrants from a path to citizenship, the punitive approach to immigration reform at the heart of the Corker-Hoeven amendment marks a line that large majorities of Latinos cannot cross.
When we began this latest journey towards comprehensive immigration reform following the major display of Latino power in the 2012 elections, the promise of legalization for 11 million undocumented immigrants ran highest among our demands – and highest by massive margins. The dream of citizenship for the 11 million drove us to mobilize our community and to deliver our votes.
Since then, many of us have had to stand by and watch as right-wing policies and priorities have replaced and watered down the promise of citizenship and legalization with the promise of even more punishment for current and especially future immigrants. We have also watched as Democrats, led by Sen. Charles Schumer, D-N.Y., have agreed to more punitive policies on top of more punitive policies.
While our resolve for seeing humane immigration reform enacted is a strong as ever, support for the legislation that was supposed to create a clear pathway to citizenship, legalization for all 11 million and reasonable border enforcement has waned as the process has made a sharp rightward turn. A major blow came in the form of a Congressional Budget Office report confirming that the promise of a path to legalization for the 11 million was a lie: three and a half million of the 11 million will be left out.
Some legal experts consider the CBO estimate "conservative" and say that millions of immigrants are, in the words of Peter Schey, one of the country's top immigration experts, "almost certain to eventually…[face] detention and deportation (if detected)." In an immigrant world defined by the Corker-Hoeven amendment, the dream of citizenship for the 11 million is dead. And the nightmare of even more punitive measures for current and future immigrants looms larger than anything in our lifetimes, as Republicans and Democrats appear ready to spend billions more on 20,000 more border agents, 700 miles of fencing, increased surveillance and other wasteful and expensive measures that do nothing but squander billions of taxpayer dollars.
A major poll Presente.org conducted with Latino Decisions confirms a whopping 81 percent of Latino voters reject the notion of the "border-security-first" approach that now defines comprehensive immigration reform. Latinos also stated their clear preference for a fair five-year path to citizenship, not the extended path of 15 or more years.
After consulting with our community, our allies and with Latino voters, Presente.org and I decided that the time has come to draw the line against Republican extremism disguised as "bi-partisan immigration reform," which now incorporates the Corker-Hoeven amendment, and to push for real solutions that don’t tie a promise of citizenship to increased punishment. We will continue fighting extremism in the House and pushing for the kind of legislation Latinos actually voted for.
It's critical to draw a line now, not just because of the broken promises, but because failure to secure serious and real reform will deepen the harrowing vulnerability of millions who have watched and waited as 1.7 million of their husbands, wives, children and fellow immigrants have been deported. Similarly, we cannot and will not stand by and allow Democrats to continue yielding to the worst proposals coming from Republican extremists. The promise of citizenship for all 11 million must not wither away in the name of political expediency.
Arturo Carmona is executive director of Presente.org, a national organization that exists to amplify the political voice of Latino communities.
Read Daniel J. Gallington: A Plan for Real Boarder Security
Read David Brodwin: Small Business Owners Back Climate Action
Check out U.S. News Weekly, now available on iPadFor some reason, Alex Jones, our favorite lunatic conspiracy theorist, was booked on a BBC show called Sunday Politics, hosted by Andrew Neil. I’m pretty sure that will never happen again. Jones was in England because of the Bilderberg conference – a closed-door meeting of world leaders from the realms of politics, finance, academia, media and business – is being held in Hertfordshire this year. One wonders who at the Beeb decided to put Jones on their airwaves and whether or not they are still employed there. Perhaps they had not seen Piers Morgan’s “interview” with Jonesy this past January.
However Jones ended up there, he didn’t bother to adjust his atrocious behavior. When Neil and his other guest, journalist David Aaronovitch, questioned Jones’ assertions that Bilderberg was “a Nazi plan,” Jones went right over the brink. Now, as any good webizen knows, “Godwinning” the show means Jones automatically loses his argument. Apparently, Jones doesn’t understand that.
On the heels of Jones’ pronouncement regarding Bilderberg, Aaronovitch had a question for Jones that, I’m sure, many of us have thought of:
“It leaves me with a huge question, Alex. You have uncovered the New World Order, which is deadly, it’s full of people who are criminals… who seek to run the world and will kill anybody that gets in their way, and you are almost a lone crusader powering against them. So, how are you still alive?”
Oh, snap! But Jones had a comeback, saying that he had received death threats for “exposing” Hillary Clinton for attending a meeting (wasn’t that part of her job?) and for his online “empire” and paranoid rants on YouTube. But he can’t be killed, he insists, because he’d become a martyr and everything he claimed will be true. Self-important, much? He began shouting:
“Hey, listen! I’m here to warn people, you keep telling me to shut up. This isn’t a game, okay? Our government, in the U.S., is building FEMA camps. We have an NDAA where they disappear people now. You have this arrest for public safety… life in prison!”
It was at this point that Neil quipped:
“You are the worst person I have interviewed.”
As Jones bellowed in reply about “liberty” and, of course, plugging his hack website (“Infowarsdotcom!”), Neil looked at the camera and made the universal sign for “crazy,” spinning his index finger next to his ear. Andrew Neil spoke for all of us as he took Jones down in inimitable British fashion. But Jones, as usual, just did not get it. His act is getting stale and now the entire UK understands what we in America have to put up with.
Here’s the video:
[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xgBq6q4x8Fw?feature=player_embedded&w=640&h=360]A Muslim teen in New York City who claimed to have been harassed on the subway by men chanting "Donald Trump" and told her to get out of the country has been arrested and charged with filing a false police report. Yasmin Seweid, a student at Baruch College, first reported the harassment on Facebook on December 2, and chided the bystanders who did not come to her aid. Seweid was charged with filing a false report on Wednesday.
NYPD confirms they've arrested Yasmin Seweid, who said she was attacked on subway, for filing false report https://t.co/9a1lT2OKYU pic.twitter.com/rIYr7mzbYx — David Mack (@davidmackau) December 14, 2016
Detectives decided to charge Seweid because she did not recant her story during the "numerous opportunities" she could have done so. Detectives had suspected her story because there was no corroborating evidence, witnesses, or video of the incident. Seweid cited "family problems" as to why she made up the harassment.
Shortly after Seweid's "story" broke, New Yorkers protested in support of her to "stand up to hate."
Right now: BK residents saying #NotInOurCity at Grand Central to respond to attack on Yasmin Seweid. We must stand up to hate together. pic.twitter.com/ZRNn8HWzJS — Brad Lander (@bradlander) December 4, 2016
Here are seven more fake hate crimes that were blamed on Trump supporters.David Ramsey talks about Diggle's new helmet for Arrow Season 4.
The latest issue of TV Guide Magazine – featuring John Stamos on the cover – has a short Q&A with David Ramsey conducted by Damian Holbrook, and in it, the new Diggle helmet is talked about.
“I like it,” Ramsey told the magazine. “I know there’s a lot of criticism that it looks like the Magneto helmet. But by the time you see Diggle in action – we also get into what the helmet can do – you won’t be thinking of the X-Men at all. There is a very cool gun too. The gun and the helmet, by the way, are S.T.A.R. Labs creations.”
The magazine profile – the issue is now hitting newsstands, so buy it to read everything – also reveals that Diggle has been running the show with the Black Canary and Speedy while Oliver and Felicity have been out of town. There’s also some talk of H.I.V.E., forgiving Oliver, Hawkgirl, and more.museum of natural history in Frankfurt
The Naturmuseum Senckenberg is a museum of natural history, located in Frankfurt am Main, It is the second largest of its type in Germany. The Senckenberg Museum is particularly popular with children, who enjoy the extensive collection of dinosaur fossils: Senckenberg boasts the largest exhibition of large dinosaurs in Europe. One notable exhibit is a dinosaur fossil with unique, preserved scaled skin. The museum contains a large and diverse collection of birds with 90,000 bird skins 5,050 egg sets 17,000 skeletons and 3,375 spirit specimens. In 2010, almost 517,000 people visited the museum.[1]
The building housing the Senckenberg Museum was erected between 1904 and 1907 outside of the center of Frankfurt in the same area as the Johann Wolfgang Goethe University, which was founded in 1914. The museum is owned and operated by the Senckenberg Nature Research Society, which began with an endowment by Johann Christian Senckenberg.
Diplodocus longus dinosaur model and columnar basalt in front of the Senckenberg Museum. dinosaur model and columnar basalt in front of the Senckenberg Museum.
Today, visitors are greeted outside the building by large, life-size recreations of dinosaurs, which are based on the latest scientific theories on dinosaur appearance. Inside, one can follow the tracks of a Titanosaurus, which have been impressed into the floor, towards its skeleton on a sheltered patio.
Attractions include a Diplodocus (donated by the American Museum of Natural History on the occasion of the present museum building's inauguration in 1907), the crested Hadrosaur Parasaurolophus, a fossilized Psittacosaurus with clear bristles around its tail and visible fossilized stomach contents, and an Oviraptor. Big public attractions also include the Tyrannosaurus rex, an original of an Iguanodon, and the museum's mascot, the Triceratops.
Although the dinosaurs attract the most visitors due to their size, the Senckenberg Museum also has a large collection of animal exhibits from every epoch of Earth's history. For example, the museum houses a large number of originals from the Messel pit: field mice, reptiles, fish and a predecessor to the modern horse that lived about 50 million years ago and stood less than 60 cm tall.[2]
Unique in Europe is a cast of the famous Lucy, an almost complete skeleton of the upright hominid Australopithecus afarensis. Historical cabinets full of stuffed animals are arranged in the upper levels; among other things one can see one of twenty existing examples of the quagga, which has been extinct since 1883.
Since the remodeling finished in 2003, the new reptile exhibit addresses both the biodiversity of reptiles and amphibians and the topic of nature conservation. An accessible rain forest tree offers views of different zones of the rain forest from the ground to the tree canopy and the habitats to which the exotic reptiles have adapted.
The Senckenberg Museum offers regular evening lectures and tours. One such lecture, by Alfred Wegener on 6 January 1912, was the first public exposition of the theory of Continental Drift [3]He spoke to Prosoccersport about his new role at Swansea:
I’ve always had an interest in being an owner of a sports team and a football team in particular,
The new owners met with me a few months back and said this is likely going to happen and admitted that they didn’t know a lot about football and said ‘we know that you know the game and you’re passionate about it, you played at Everton, spent time in world football and sort of understand it a little better, would you be willing to help us, advise us and consult with us on certain things?’ I said yeah, that would be great and that’s something I am certainly open to.
I made it clear from the very beginning that this isn’t going to be a situation where I am going to be in there telling them what players to sign. They’ve got a chairman there in Huw Jenkins who has been arguably as valuable to a team as anybody in the Premier League. He has brought them from the lower leagues in England all the way to the Premier League and has done an incredible job.From the deliberate shock and awe of Modern Warfare 2 to Rocksteady's uniquely stylish distillation of the Batman mythos, 2009 was a year that brought us a lot of intense video-game experiences. But none featured more visceral excitement, stunning visuals, and uncontainable momentum than our pick for Game of the Year.
Game of the Year, 2009
Part of the appeal for Uncharted 2 is that there's no gimmick, no hook--the appeal is that this is a very excellently crafted game experience. It's fun to play and a pleasure to look at. But that's awfully reductive, so let's get into what it is, specifically, about Uncharted 2 that makes it our game of the year.
First off, there's your main character, Nathan Drake. Despite his incredible, preternatural physical abilities, Nathan Drake is no superhero. He is, for all intents and purposes, a dude in a t-shirt. A dude in a t-shirt who just so happens to be racing around the globe in search of an artifact of supernatural significance, juggling an exceptionally evil Eastern European heavy and some duplicitous companions with their own agendas, while dodging a near-constant hail of gunfire, falling buildings, and helicopters. Considering the incredible situation he's gotten himself into, it's impressive that he's able to come off as Average Joe as he does, but it's a key part of the character's appeal, and the game's overall success. That the first time you see Nathan he's sitting on a wrecked train with a bullet in his gut reinforces that this guy is incredibly fallible, which brings a sense of danger to everything he does, despite his actual resilience and the infinite opportunities the game affords you to try and try again. Nolan North, who provides Nathan's voice, deserves much credit for establishing the tone for a character that doesn't quite know what he's doing, but is going to do it anyway, hoping for the best.
Uncharted 2 is also an absolutely gorgeous-looking game, the best we've seen in 2009, which puts it very high in the running for best-looking game of all time. The colorful, exotic environments are rich with detail, and the game's pacing is so relentless that you never linger in one place long enough to even begin trying to pick at it. A combination of performance capture and crazy technology that we have little hope of understanding produce character animation that impresses simply by looking natural in a way that few games would even know how to approach, let alone have the technical skill to actually pull it off. Uncharted 2 aims for a look that's just on Hollywood side of real with its world and its characters, which it pulls off while deftly avoiding the uncanny valley. It says a lot that the game is able to pull of subtle stuff like convincing facial animation and realistic-looking hair just as capably as it is a breakneck chase sequence or a fight with a helicopter.
It's one hell of a production, but Uncharted 2 isn't just about shiny things, it's got a real tactile feel to all of the running, jumping, climbing, and shooting that you'll engage in. And this is all to speak nothing of the game's highly credible co-op and competitive multiplayer modes, which leverage both the strength of the shooting and traversal mechanics which are the backbone of Uncharted 2's single-player experience. Too often do we see single-player games paired up with an afterthought of a multiplayer game, or vice versa, but Uncharted 2 nails it with both, and without ever compromising the tone of the game.
Uncharted 2: Among Thieves is the total package, a crowd-pleasing thrill ride that's incredibly difficult to put down and remarkably easy to recommend without ever feeling like it's pandering to the lowest-common denominator. It's funny, it's exciting, it's beautiful, it's nerve-wracking, and it's our 2009 game of the year.
Runner-Up: Batman: Arkham AsylumImage caption Wind turbines were keeping some people awake at night, the petitions committee said
Tougher noise guidelines to protect people living near wind farms have been recommended by a group of AMs.
The assembly's petitions committee said wind farm buffer zones should be amended to ensure turbines are placed further from homes to protect people from noise in some circumstances.
The committee also said faulty turbines should be switched off at night.
A Welsh government spokesperson said: "We have received the report and will respond directly to the committee".
The inquiry was launched after hearing from people who said they were suffering because of the noise created by turbines near their homes.
A petition, which had more than 1,000 signatures, called for greater control of noise from wind turbines.
People in Gwyddgrug, Carmarthenshire, which is near two wind farms, had complained that the noise disturbed their sleep and disrupted their everyday lives.
Welsh government planning guidance says 500 metres should separate homes from wind turbines.
But the committee said that should be a minimum distance and in some circumstances - depending on the topography and ambient noise levels - the buffer zone should increase to 1,500 metres.
We were told that some people can no longer enjoy simple pleasures such as sitting in their garden in the sun William Powell, Petitions committee chairman
Although the landscape can shield people from sound, the report says one respondent living within 1km of a wind farm said the sound echoed off a nearby mountain into the valley where they lived.
In a report, the committee says faulty turbines should be switched off at night if they start making more noise.
AMs were told by energy companies that stopping turbines overnight would mean they lose half their generating capacity.
For small projects, the night was the most profitable time to generate electricity and switching off turbines could make them financially unviable, the committee heard.
The committee says it recognises the importance of green energy sources, but it should not be done at the expense of people's health and wellbeing.
'Persistent whine'
Its chairman William Powell, a Liberal Democrat Mid and West Wales AM, said there was an "overwhelming number of responses" from people affected by wind turbines.
Some were worried that their homes would be devalued and others could not sleep because of a "persistent whine", he said.
"We were told that some people can no longer enjoy simple pleasures such as sitting in their garden in the sun," he added.
Industry group RenewableUK said its members took the noise from wind farms very seriously.
Llywelyn Rhys, deputy director of RenewableUK Cymru, said: "Industry guidance currently exists that recommends a 500 metres distance from turbines to properties.
"Developers and planning authorities are aware of this guidance and it is always considered during the planning process, which would include meaningful consultation with the people living close to the proposed wind farm."
RenewableUK Cymru would recommended faulty turbines are switched off for maintenance, he added.NBC 6's Angie Lassman has the latest on what experts predict will be a more active 2017 hurricane season than they thought. (Published Wednesday, Aug. 9, |
): “The British film, The Wicker Man,…premiered in the U.S. in 1974 and was screened by a group called Abraxas in April of 1977, during the height of the frenzy of the Son of Sam killings…A hit man who participated in both the Son of Sam and Double Initial murders, John Wheat Carr, signed himself, ‘Wicked King Wicker.’”
The writings of Michael A. Hoffman II demonstrate other examples. The solving of the Unabom murders involved a certain deeper understanding of the symbols left behind by Theodore Kaczynski. In the Unabom case, the precursor literary work in question has a more prestigious literary pedigree. Joseph Conrad’s 1907 book, The Secret Agent, concerned a mad professor clothed in rags, who lived in a tiny room where he built a bomb with which he sought to destroy the “idol of science.” “Joseph Conrad” was the literary non-de-plume of the Polish writer Theodore Korzeniowski.
In certain murder-suicide, serial, and mass crime rituals a synchronic work of literature, usually fiction, appears before the crimes are perpetrated, serving as a virtual script. In the case of Patty Hearst and the Symbionese Liberation Army (a group which featured salamander symbolism), the book, Black Abductor, had been published before the SLA came to the fore, paralleling many incidents that would come to fruition in the activities of Hearst and her comrades. The Oklahoma City bombings had its Turner Diaries. The collapse of the Silver Bridge had its Mothman news articles.
….
and on and on.
pages 166-167
Psychotronic technology
Who is wielding it?
Cycles of Psychological Reinforcement
…
Steven Greer, Carol Rosin, Werner von Braun & 911
The UFOs of 911 & Global NDE
“In a flash, Operation Northern Vigilance is called off. Any simulated information, what’s known as an ‘inject,’ is purged from the screens.” [Toronto Star, 12/9/2001] NORAD has the capacity to inject simulated material, including mass attacks, during exercises, “as though it was being sensed for the first time by a radar site.” [US Department of Defense, 1/15/1999]
historycommons.org/entity.jsp?entity=vigilant_guardian
911-related slides from SMiles Lewis’ 2013 lecture: UFOs and Consciousness, Part 2
11 Years After That Clear Blue Tuesday…
8bitAgent’s 911 Notes Towards a Modern Day 9/11 Coincidence Guide
(Notes: Pre [8bitagent-911] & Post Interview)
Warnings and Warnings of Warnings
Multiple intelligence warnings from around the world
Bojinka
American Intelligence Connections
FBI Agent John O’Neil who died mysteriously on 9/11, was at a Madrid Spain counter terror conference the week after some of the hijackers had been in the *same* hotel
In the summer of 1999, a high ranking ISI agent and a bin Laden weapons procurer met with FBI informants to discuss weapons deals. Allegedly the comment about the Twin Towers coming down was made
Timing
National Emergency 9-1-1
Date & Time: 9/11 at 9:11
Astrological
11 years to the day after George H W Bush’s infamous “New World Order” speech
Location Location Location
California – San Diego
Florida – Anthrax Attacks, Israeli Art Students, George W. Bush Some of the hijackers were only a couple miles from where George W Bush would sleep in Florida not long before 9/11
Maine – Portland
WTC / NYC – 1993 bombing Israeli “B Thing” art group in WTC Mystery Vans Security, Maintenance, etc. “Irregularities”
Oklahoma – Dreamland Hotel in Oklahoma City
Pennsylvania – Shanksville
Texas – Dallas
Washington D.C. / Pentagon
WTC Weirdness
A man named Rocky Hammad was caught up in part of a DMV scam in Memphis. He and his cohorts allegedly had WTC building maintenance crew badges. And the woman who helped them was found killed in a burned out car, and another man with a pipe bombs trapped to him. Rocky worked for a Ukranian mob/pedo/arms/narco linked plumber outfit in New York.
Israeli Intelligence Connections
During the summer of 2001, Israeli art students were using whirly copter toy kiosks at malls and door to door soliciting at US military bases as possible cover for spying
Strange reports of white vans darting around NYC and NJ with reportedly Israeli men. One group of which was reportedly joyful as they saw the attack at the WTC unfold. These men would later say they were “there to document the event” and some CIA analysts spoke candidly of possible Israeli shadowing of the hijackers
While in Florida, Israeli agents were living next to and or near some of the alleged hijackers (especially in Hollywood Florida)
One of the STRANGEST of all 9/11 facts: The avant garde performance art team “B Thing” who snuck into a higher floor room in the World Trade Center had a member that a year later was living with the very Israeli agents living next door to some of the hijackers. Another B Thing member lived near Hamas fundraising front Infocom in Dallas
The Hijackers: Coincidences Surrounding Their Whereabouts and Activities
Mohammed Atta
Anwar al-Awlaki (also spelled al-Aulaqi, al-Awlaqi)
Sakher ‘Rocky’ Hammad
Ziad Jarrah
Sam Kouchesfahani
Mujahid Abdulqadir Menepta (a.k.a. Melvin Lattimore)
Khalid Sheikh Mohammed – a militant held in U.S. military custody in Guantánamo Bay for alleged acts of terrorism including the mass murder of civilians.
Zacarias Moussaoui
Bert Rodriguez
Ramzi bin al-Shibh – Yemeni citizen being held by the United States as an enemy combatant detainee at Guantanamo Bay in Cuba. He is accused of being a “key facilitator for the September 11 attacks” in 2001 in the United States.
Zacarias Moussaoui
The co-pilot of the downed Wellstone plane had hung around alleged “20th hijacker” Zacarias Moussaoui in Oklahoma, even giving Moussaoui software found on his laptop
The same laptop where beheaded Nick Berg’s passwords and accounts were found on, as word had it he and Moussaoui were seen together
And Moussaoui was at the same motel with Mohammed Atta in 2001, that his roommate Melvin Lattimore was at with Timothy McVeigh in 1995. Moussaoui’s roommate was Hussein al-Attas, who drove to Minnesota to try and get Moussaoui out of jail despite the FBI trying to seize his laptop before 9/11.
Sam Koutchesfahani
Friend of FBI informant/hijacker housing helper Sam Kouchesfahani (also alleged to have had ties with housing alleged terrorists) rented out the Heaven’s Gate mansion near San Diego to the death cult
And while Heaven’s Gate got kicked off with a call in by former protégéof an FBI/remote viewer, the top “Men Who Stare At Goats” guy Bert Rodriguez (played by Clooney in the film adaptation) trained 9/11 hijacker Ziad Jarrah in 2001
The Anthrax Attacks … in Florida
The first victim of the anthrax attacks was the Sun Tabloid, owned by the Irishes who were renting out a condo to some of the hijackers in Florida
Terrorism Funding Networks (and Intel connections?)
Saudi Arabia was sending money to some of the hijackers in San Diego, but was also sending funds to Care International (not THE “Care Intl”) which in reality was simply the retitled al Kifah Center that was an al Qaeda / Maktab al Khadamat splinter group in Boston and Brooklyn. This got folded into the Yasin al Qadi group of companies, such as Bannon Technologies, PTECH, BMI real estate, Logan Furniture and other Braintree area Mass. businesses. Yasin al Qadi was known as a top financier for bin Laden, but had also been a good friend of some Washington DC Republicans. al Kifah was at the center (allegedly) of the WTC 1993 bomb plot, which also included Rabbi Khahane killer mastermind and green beret/special forces Ali Mohammed. Also allegedly involved, OKC 1995 and 9/11 hijacker connected man Melvin Lattimore AKA Mujahid Menepta, as well as FBI informant Emad Salem and a literal Iraqi agent (tho much of this was kept quiet)
Most of the 9/11 money was said to have gone through Standard Chartered Bank in Dubai, which had its main HQ in America in the WTC7 building. SC is now being taken down by regulators for alleged laundering of Iranian money
Allegedly now protected by BND intel, Mamoun Darklazanli was one of Mohamed Atta’s main men in the so called Hamberg cell. He and his associates were working for “Tatex Trading” and other Syrian intelligence connected groups.
One character fingered as a 9/11 financier was ISI asset Omar Saeed Sheikh, who allegedly was involved with KSM in the Pearl plot. He would be one of many ties to the Pakistani ISI
Dubai and the UAE could be said to be some of the lifeblood of al Qaeda, where high level Arab elites would meet with top al Qaeda chiefs and give them money and blessing
Anwar al Awlaki
Anwar al Awlaki, the so called head of Yemeni Al Qaeda (AQAP) alleged to have been behind several anti US plots (and killed by Obama via drones) had a power luncheon with some of the top Pentagon brass a few months after 9/11
This is significant, as Awlaki is alleged to have been in close contact with Ramzi bin al-Shibh and KSM in Hamburg via telephone, and was one of the main hosts and liasons for Khalid al Midhar and Nawaf al Hazmi. He allegedly was being paid by the Saudis to “show around” these two guys, who were getting funds from Saudi Arabia. Awlaki allegedly took these two guys to Falls Church Virginia to stay at WAMY, which was started by Abdullah bin Laden and Omar bin Laden.
Other bin Laden’s
Abdullah bin Laden and Omar bin Laden were one of several “persons of interest” on the bin Laden flights as well as others who had direct dealings with terror financing. Another one was prominent Saudi elite Saleh Ibn Abdul Rahman Hussayen, who was in the same hotel as three of the hijackers the NIGHT BEFORE 9/11
Misc Loose Ends
Credit cards some of the hijackers were using in 2001 ended up *still* being used up to two weeks later
The morning of 9/11, as the hijackers were already in the skies, one of the maids at the hotel was said to have been shooed away from an unknown man still occupying one of the rooms the hijackers stayed in.
Allegedly, the Dentist (Dr. David Graham) had come in contact with two of the alleged 9/11 hijackers.
Of Airplanes and Airports
Some witnesses claim that they saw the 9/11 hijacker suspects hanging out with some airport/tarmac crew employees
Early reports indicated the weapons used were pre-planted behind or under the seats the hijackers used
One of the suspects who helped the hijackers at the airport (Mohdar Abdullah, a Yemeni) somehow was released despite video of him and several of the suspects
NORAD, Palladium, Injects, War Games, Backdoor Software
PTech: in 2001 a majority of US computer systems (CIA, DOD, FBI, Air Force, Secret Service, etc) had Ptech backdoor software on it
The “Angel is Next” code threat on 9/11 that seemed to spook even the neocons (who, according to truthers believe were running 9/11)
Esoteric & Occult Aspects
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One more point I was thinking of: Egypt.
Crowley over a century ago had his “epiphany” at the pyramids. The entire origin of al Qaeda comes from Egypt(the jailing of Anwar Sadat plotters/1988 merging of Egyptian Jihad with the Saudi backed MAK) “ringleader” Atta was Egyptian. That particular strain of Salafism comes from the Grand Orient Lodge in Cairo in the late 1800’s.
Egypt ties together notions of Sirius, a theme that ties to 9/11. You also of course have the date itself, september 11th which is seen by some as the New Year in Egypt (the month of Thout feast of Nayrouz) I’ve tried to separate the wheat from the fluff, though I do find some of the DC-Pentagon/Cydonia of Mars parallels interesting. But if we trace Crowley’s time in Egypt to the “40s” of mass collectivist UFO media, Jack Parsons and the atom bomb to 9/11 its quite an interesting ‘alternate’ timeline of sorts.
One more note with that… Gemini is represented by twin pillars… Sagitarius by an arrow. It’s another layer of “huh” when you see.
“On Tuesday September 11th the Moon was still in Gemini, widely conjunct Saturn, while the Saturn/Moon midpoint exactly conjoined U.S. Mars, also in the seventh House of the U.S. chart. It is interesting that Saturn was in Gemini, especially as we can regard Saturn as the structure that was destroyed by the Plutonic forces, namely the twin towers of the World Trade Center. Gemini also represents the Descendant of the chart of the U.S. for 5:13 PM July 4th 1776.
In fact, the Descendant of an entity’s chart represents the way that entity reaches out to partnership with the rest of humanity, namely in the case of America as symbolized by Gemini in the form of communication, commerce and trade. And since Gemini is the sign of the twins, this symbolic identification with the structure of the World Trade Center is quite apt.”
http://www.astrograph.com/learning-astrology/911.php
Saturn of course often meaning war. The other, mass communication, partnerships, etc. As an arrow strikes the pillar. I also see the North tower as “male” with the antenna, so male female duality occupying in the same spaces.
Astrologers with no interest in conspiracies have often pointed this sort of thing out. I remember the first theories re: 9/11 actually had to do with numerology. Or the “$20” bill fold trick.
I don’t share the negative view of Freemasonry as most conspiracists do, however I can see how it’s foundation is a bootlegged groundwork for many black lodge and spinoff esoteric orders.
No doubt to me Washington DC and even later in 1941 the foundation of the Pentagon in Arlington are based upon complex astrology and Egyptian rooted templates.
I find this a really strong primer as to the extreme detail and guts of the matter for that awful day. And the weather… that beautiful clear blue tuesday.
http://astronomologer.com/2011/09/ophiuchus-september-11-2001-aa-flight-11/
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Ha thanks man. I guess for some subjects I lean toward a sort of Dustin Hoffman in Rain Man/Mark Lombardi circle sort of mindset. One of the reasons
I felt alienated by researcher circles was this refusal to change viewpoints, even when pet theories or “facts” they held onto were debunked. Thats about as un rigorous
as it gets. When something even I’ve peddled seems to not be the case, I’ll toss it out. There’s also this obsession for obsessions. Ive seen some great info that ends up
getting muddied by a writer’s “Israel obsession”. Or a pure focus on neocons/pentagon. I just kind of see an abyss with this sort of thing. Gotta look at the micro and macro of any devoted subject. this line, so classic:)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3ema7lfEAMk (Preview)
Play
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JFK (3/7) Movie CLIP – A Mystery Wrapped in a Riddle Inside an Enigma (1991) HD
movieclips
JFK Movie Clip – watch all clips http://j.mp/Vy0ZH1 click to subscribe http://j.mp/sNDUs5 A frenzied and paranoid David Ferrie (Joe Pesci) confesses his knowledge to a conspiracy before emotionally breaking down. TM & © Warner Bros. (2012) Cast: Kevin Costner, Jay O. Sanders, Michael Rooker, Joe Pesci Director: Oliver Stone MOVIECLIPS YouTube Channel: http://j.mp/vqieFG Join our Facebook page: http://j.mp/tb8OMH Follow us on Twitter: http://j.mp/rZzGsm Buy Movie: http://j.mp/QTYBEs Producer: A. Kitman Ho, Arnon Milchan, Joseph P. Reidy, Oliver Stone, Clayton Townsend Screenwriter: Oliver Stone, Zachary Sklar, Jim Garrison, Jim Marrs Film Description: The November 22, 1963, assassination of U.S. President John F. Kennedy shocked the nation and the world. The brisk investigation of that murder conducted under the guidance of Supreme Court Justice Earl Warren distressed many observers, even though subsequent careful investigations have been unable to find much fault with the conclusions his commission drew, the central one of which was that the assassin, Lee Harvey Oswald, acted alone. Instead of satisfying the public, one result of the Warren Commission Report was that an unimaginable number of plausible conspiracy theories were bruited about, and these have supported a sizeable publishing mini-industry ever since. In making this movie, director Oliver Stone had his pick of supposed or real investigative flaws to draw from and has constructed what some reviewers felt was one of the most compelling (and controversial) political detective thrillers ever to emerge from American cinema. Long before filming was completed, Stone was fending off heated accusations of artistic and historical irresponsibility, and these only intensified after the film was released. In the story, New Orleans District Attorney Jim Garrison (Kevin Costner) is convinced that there are some big flaws in the investigation of Oswald (Gary Oldman), and he sets out to recreate the events leading up to the assassination. Along the way, he stumbles across evidence that a great many people had reason to want to see the president killed, and he is convinced that some of them worked in concert to frame Oswald as the killer. Among the suspects are Lyndon Baines Johnson (the next president), the CIA, J. Edgar Hoover, and the Mafia. Over the course of gathering what he believes to be evidence of a conspiracy, Garrison unveils some of the grittier aspects of New Orleans society, focusing on the shady activities of local businessman Clay Shaw (Tommy Lee Jones). Garrison’s investigations culminate in his conducting a show trial that he knows he will lose and which he is sure will ruin his career in order to get his evidence into the public record where it can’t be buried again. This movie won two of the many Academy Awards for which it was nominated: one for Best Photography (Robert Richardson) and the other for Editing (Joe Hutshing).
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re: the foreign name thing, sadly I don’t know a lick of Arabic, so I’ve no idea if I’m even phonetically correct. And many of these players had a zillion different names/spellings, more intentional confusion(like Saaed Sheikh) Many truthers will dismiss writers if they dont have an “INSIDE JOB!” frame of reference, which I feel is a shame. Given I find Lance’s work absolutely invaluable.
Now I will say a lot of what I talk about could be syncs, as is often said any sort of event will have seemingly copious amounts of syncs. The main “Men Who Stare At Goats” dude
training Ziad Jarrah in Florida six months before 9/11 could just be a coincidence. Though the anthrax connection to Florida might point to something more tangential
Regarding any ‘woo’, that line of inquiry didn’t even occur to me til I saw Jake Kotze’s video short on youtube in 2007 regarding 77/Crowley. Which got me thinking about 11, 93, 175, and the towers and pentagon themselves as esoteric batteries of sorts. I soon found not just doubles but triplicates of the same repeating numbers. Like Flight 77 crashing into the 77 foot tall Pentagon on the 77th meridian. Or Flight 11 hitting the 11(0) storied 11 shaped towers on the 11th of September (11 years to the day from the GWB NWO speech). I’ve even found a connection drawing from the manhattan project and atom bomb to 9/11. We see “77” all over the place. Bochscar 77 was the plane that delivered the other drop on Japan.
77 was the number JD Salinger wore in WW2. Interstate 77 was where some of the mothman stuff was seen. Even mainstream reports of the mysterious “Pentagon Doomsday plane” had a call sign of “VENUS 77”, which Bain mentions in his book. All syncs perhaps, but just food for thought.
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Aw yeah the Dark Knight bank opening. I love that analogy. Well an interesting point, which seems basic, that I rarely if ever saw people discuss online was
the basic idea of origin.
Something I want to touch upon is the notion of a germ idea. As if infecting multiple parties without them knowing each other or consent. Pawns in a meta play.
As I was mentioning in 2007, all the data didnt point to any one specific cultprit. Intentional confusion, Babel-esque.
People throw these term around like “100% proven!” and “orchestrated by”, but when it comes to sept 11 noone can even come up with a framework for a big bang moment. Because, in the decade I had been researching, the idea for 9/11 ultimately still seems to draw right back to Ramzi Yousef and his laptop in the Philippines, and more accurately before that…the El Nossair killing of Rabi Meir Kahane as directed by Ali Mohamed in November 1990. But even then, we have evidence that “9/11” as a theme had been slowly being woven onto all of our collective
subconscious, as if 9/11 was always going to happen, or has happened before. The towers almost seemingly built for such a purpose.
That 1989-1993 “WTC 1993” plot era, from the time police film Ali Mohamed training four of the future WTC 93 bombers in Jersey circa 89 to the Kahane assassination in 90 to the WTC / Bridge and Tunnel plot is really important. And not even completely going by Peter Lance’s important work. At the center of all that seems to be the 1989 Mujahadeen / Islamic Egyptian Jihad(AKA marriage that chimera’d as “al Qaeda”) satellite spun “Al Kifah Refugee” in Brooklyn with Whadid el Hague (later going to Sudan in 1991 with bin Laden and al Zawahiri) People will mention Emad Salem as some sort of catalyst but I think it was way beyond that, and even outside of any sort of Fed control. Because what you have with “Al Kifah Refugee Center”, would splinter onto Boston… which gets rolled up in 1994 into “Care International”, BMI Real Estate and later Bannon Technologies, Logan Furniture, and the whole Quincy / Braintree Mass. nexus. I remember a mainstream article where before 9/11 Aaifa Siddiqui was literally receiving checks from Saudi government for Care, which had rolled al Kifah’s Boston center into its fold. Centering this is of course Yasin al-Qadi, with many powerful connections in both the Arab Golden Chain and the western elite structure. Boston is also home to the last mystery of Atta, being Logan airport after his mysterious puddlejump from Portland Maine. So on a domestic map, we definitely have a line drawing from San Diego, to Falls Church/other areas of Virginia to Floria, to Oklahoma up to Massachusetts and right into Jersey and NYC. I remember reading that Philip Marshall before the horrible event that took the life of himself and his family, that he was really digging deep into what Atta was doing in Las Vegas.
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damn, he pretty much nails all the points I made in a 2007 post on RI re: 911 as a ritual
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZpAu32CH9mY (Preview)
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9/11 AS MASS RITUAL – S.K. Bain
Sagantool
Author and researcher S.K. Bain provides some amazing occult insights into the events surrounding the September 11th event. In this shocking exposé, investigative researcher and author S. K. Bain explores the inconsistencies, coincidences, and historical precedents of the events of September 11, 2001, and reconstructs an occult-driven script for a Global Luciferian MegaRitual. Bain argues forcefully that the framework for the entire event was a psychological warfare campaign built upon a deadly foundation of black magick and high technology. The book details a view of the sinister nature of the defining event of the 21st century and opens a window into the vast scope of the machinery of oppression that the author asserts has been constructed around us. The Most Dangerous Book in the World http://www.amazon.com/The-Most-Dangerous-Book-World/dp/1937584178/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1347634041&sr=8-1&keywords=the+most+dangerous+book+in+the+world
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btw have you seen this short about 9/11 and the film 2001?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZSm9m_C8Mbw (Preview)
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INSIDE JOB – SYNCHRONICITY 9/11
NosisTV
Short interview with Jake Kotze of The Blob. He is talking about synchronicity and 9/11 as an opener to the stargate of cosmic consciousness.
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9/11 & JFK Finally Solved(Thanks to The Dark Knight)
http://www.rigorousintuition.ca/board2/viewtopic.php?p=462754
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haha, wow I can’t believe I wrote all that. Damn, I shoulda hooked up with that Ellison dude who made Core Of Corruption. It’s funny as I haven’t done hardly any research on 9/11 in the last few years, least no since the “bin Laden raid”. Tho I do come across new stuff here and there.
Really wish I could find that news article about Mohammed Atta writing the word “ROOM” with two snakes intertwining a sword. I don’t think it was on the “left behind”
Portland Maine luggage or his will, but another testament he wrote. The footage of a smiling Atta allegedly from Jan 2000 was always a trip. Really surprised no mainstream investigator was interested in Atta being a cipher. Anyways thanks for the blast from the past! Again forgot I had written all that. Interesting enough, a full length book by a respectable writer on the 9/11 occult connection was released, co-authored by “Sinister Forces” Peter Levenda. Havent read it, but SK Bain’s credits are quite interesting. I’ve heard the book really ‘goes there’. Tho I feel like Ive given up my overall para-political research side for the most part.
In a way I’ve come to find the non whodunnit threads (as) interesting. Such as the falling man or the Indian woman who went missing and presumed to have been in the towers but may not have been. Also the documentary “Man On Wire”, which to me shows the towers have long held a sort of mystical determination for the willing adepts of impossible challenges.
Anyways, look forward to the interview. Hit me up with any other material ya want me to cover or I may have forgotten. I gotta relisten to Indira Singh’s infamous
2005 radio interview re: the Ptech octopus
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Well now you got me thinking. I’ve exhaustively, to an embarrassing point yammed on and on about “9/11”. In particular, these sockets of intrigue where you have all these convergences.
Zacarias Moussaoui’s laptop, which had both things on there given to him by Nick Berg and Paul Wellstone’s doomed flight co-pilot (Michael Guess) Moussaoui at the time had been roommate
at the Oklahoma University campus apartments with Mujahid Manepta (AKA Melvin Lattimore), a man whose credit card was said to have been used in The World Trade Center 1993 plot and who himself had been seen hanging with Timothy Mcveigh in 1995. Then in August 2001 Moussaoui was seen with Mohammed Atta at the same Dreamland motel both Mcveigh and Lattimore were seen staying at.
Two of th eparticipants of the infamous “B Thing” art student stunt inside the world trade center in 2000 ended up being with the Israeli spies living next door to several of the hijackers in Hollywood Florida and next door to the Infocom Hezbollah funding front in Dallas Texas. Most strangely of all these, is how the star of the real life Army Psi Remote Viewing/Men Who Stare At Goats program(Bert Rodriguez, who was described as “pure occult”) trained Flight 93 hijacker Ziad Jarrah in combat training during the early months of 2001 in Florida. A year earlier the man who rented the Heaven’s Gate UFO death cult(Sam Koutchesfahani) their mansion in San Diego California(spurred on by a remote viewer for the FBI claiming she saw a UFO in the Hale Bopp comet on the Art Bell show) was seen with his FBI informant pal Abdusattar Sheikh with hijackers Nawaf al Hazmi and Khalid al Midhar, according to the 9/11 commission.
Now all this I admit could just be the weird nature of the universe, akin to what you mentioned regarding Vallee’s thoughts… putting a whole other spin on what we think of as meta-data, evidence, etc.
-=-=-=-=-
Deeper Mystery Of Anthrax 2001
by 8bitagent » 09 Aug 2013 08:31
http://www.rigorousintuition.ca/board2/viewtopic.php?f=8&t=36961
I know the Anthrax letters events have been examined ad nauseum, as well as a pretty good recent PBS documentary. But I’ve noticed that there is this whole other
narrative that dovetail with the event.
1. In June 2001, 9/11 hijackers Ahmed al-Haznawit and Ziad Jiad go to a Fort Lauderdale hospital with mysterious lesions. al Haznawit claims he believes he got it from “bumping into a suitcase”.
A doctor became convinced it was some sort of form of cutaneous anthrax
http://archives.cnn.com/2002/US/03/23/anthrax/
On June 25, 2001, al-Haznawi was treated for a lesion on his left leg at the hospital, the source said. He came to the emergency room with another September 11 hijacker, Ziad Jarrah.
Al-Haznawi told a doctor that the wound had not healed after he bumped into a suitcase a couple of months before. The doctor cleaned the wound, gave him a prescription for antibiotics and sent him on his way, the source said.
After the September 11 attacks, FBI agents found evidence in one of the hijackers’ homes that led them to question the emergency room physician, Dr. Christos Tsonas. Tsonas remembered treating al-Haznawi.
When the doctor was questioned in October, he told authorities that he believed the wound was “consistent with anthrax.”
The first indications of anthrax appeared at the offices of a Miami tabloid newspaper, where photo editor Robert Stevens died on October 5 and colleague Ernesto Blanco was hospitalized with inhalation anthrax. A third employee of American Media International contracted cutaneous anthrax.
2. The first known victim of the anthrax letters was photo editor Bob Stevens, from an anthrax letter mailed to The Sun tabloid at American Media Inc in Boca Raton florida. The editor is Michael Irish. His wife is a real estate agent named Gloria Irish who rented two different apartments to some of the 9/11 hijackers in the months leading up to the sept 11th attacks. A number of the other 19 hijackers were believed to have stayed or visited these two residences. Michael Irish had been at the same flight school as al Shehi and Atta in 2000.
http://www.sptimes.com/News/101501/Worl … to_t.shtml
http://archives.cnn.com/2001/HEALTH/con … hijackers/
A letter addressed to Jennifer Lopez containing a Star of David and a bluish powder arrived in the Sun’s mailroom in the American Media headquarters. Several people handled the letter, and Stevens sniffed some of the powder.
In May 2002, Inglesby released a memo on the infection, which was based on a undocumented diagnosis by Dr. Tsonas, Holy Cross Hospital in Fort Lauderdale. In October 2001, the FBI showed up at Tsonas with some photographs and a prescription of an antibiotic, they claimed, it was traced back to him. Tsonas then identified Ahmed Alhaznawi (who officially died on Flight 93), but denied this later. As reported, Alhaznawi and other hijackers lived and attended a flight school near the Boca Raton headquarters of American Media Inc., where the first anthrax case surfaced. Alhazmi and Siad Jarrah (who still received a FAA newsletter in 2002, according to the landlord, Charles Lisa) lived in the same apartment together.
4. Further, a pharmacist in Delray Beach, Florida, stated he had told the F.B.I. that two of the 9/11 hijackers, Mohamed Atta and Marwan al-Shehhi, entered the pharmacy seeking medicine to treat irritations on Mr. Atta’s hands.[161]
If the 9/11 hijackers were involved in the anthrax attacks they would probably have needed an accomplice to mail the tainted letters since the four recovered anthrax letters were postmarked on September 18 and October 9.[161]
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Ste … to_anthrax
5. Early September: “Some White House personnel” are given ciprofloxacin, the antibiotic of choice for anthrax, for undisclosed reasons.[3]
September 11: Staff accompanying Vice President Cheney to Camp David following the World Trade Center attacks are dispensed ciprofloxacin by the White House Medical Unit as “a precaution”.[3]
“Soon after September 11”, Washington Post columnist Richard Cohen is advised “in a roundabout way from a high government official” to acquire ciprofloxacin.[4]
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Ste … recautions
6. The anthrax investigation (Amerithrax) has been a frustrating one for the FBI and Postal Inspectors. Part of the frustration lies in the differences between the Florida letter and the letters mailed in New Jersey to addresses in Washington and New York. When one looks at the New Jersey aspect of the investigation alone, it appears that the leading suspect would be a “government insider”. But when investigators try to tie it into the Florida case the evidence just doesn’t meld. The same goes for the Florida aspect when investigators try to tie it into the New Jersey mailings.
http://www.postalmag.com/scenario.htm
7. The Code and words
YOU CANNOT STOP US
WE HAVE THIS ANTHRAX
YOU DIE NOW
ARE YOU AFRAID?
DEATH TO AMERICA.
DEATH TO ISRAEL.
ALLAH IS GREAT THIS IS NEXT
TAKE PENACILIN NOW
DEATH TO AMERICA
DEATH TO ISRAEL
ALLAH IS GREAT
According to the FBI Summary Report issued on February 19, 2010, following the search of Ivins’ home, cars, and office on November 1, 2007, investigators began examining his trash.[33] A week later, just after 1 a.m. on the morning of November 8, Ivins was observed throwing away “a copy of a book entitled Gödel, Escher, Bach: An Eternal Golden Braid, published by Douglas Hofstadter in 1979” and “a 1992 issue of American Scientist Journal which contained an article entitled ‘The Linguistics of DNA,’ and discussed, among other things, codons and hidden messages”.[34]
The book Gödel, Escher, Bach contains a lengthy description of the encoding/decoding procedures, including an illustration of hiding a message within a message by bolding certain characters.[35] According to the FBI Summary Report, “[w]hen they lifted out just the bolded letters, investigators got TTT AAT TAT – an apparent hidden message”. The 3-letter groups are codons, “meaning that each sequence of three nucleic acids will code for a specific amino acid”.[36]
TTT = Phenylalanine (single-letter designator F)
AAT = Asparagine (single-letter designator N)
TAT = Tyrosine (single-letter designator Y)
The FBI Summary Report proceeds to say: “From this analysis, two possible hidden meanings emerged: (1) ‘FNY’ – a verbal assault on New York, and (2) PAT – the nickname of [Dr. Ivins’] Former Colleague #2.” Ivins was known to have a dislike for New York City, and four of the media letters had been sent to New York.[37] The report states that it “was obviously impossible for the Task Force to determine with certainty that either of these two translations was correct”, however, “the key point to the investigative analysis is that there is a hidden message, not so much what that message is.”[38] Ivins showed a fascination with codes and also had an interest in secrets |
was when she met her husband, Ryan Smith. After modifying her first vehicle to the point that it was no longer practical as a daily driver, she decided that it was time for something different. Ryan encouraged her to look for her dream car, a Subaru WRX wagon, rather than settle for a car that she would grow tired of. Taking his advice, she purchased this clean 2004 Subaru WRX in 2007. It wasn’t until 2008, after joining multiple Subaru forums that she started to modify the car and bring it out to local events.
Her first modification was simple–a full 3” turbo back exhaust system that she received as a birthday gift from Ryan. Of all of the mods on the car, Katie says that it’s still her favorite.
“It’s the one mod that started my passion for modifying and everything else came after. Plus, the car wouldn’t have its name without it. Shortly after installing the exhaust my best friend’s car crazy son started referring to it as Rumble Wagon. The name stuck and I’ve been calling it that ever since.”
With the exception of the tune, the clear bra, and the alignment, Katie and Ryan have installed all of the modifications themselves.
“Ryan was there to help with every part of the build. If he didn’t know how to do something, he would research how to do it and we would tackle it together,” Katie explains. Anyone familiar with Subarus knows that red WRX wagons are somewhat rare. To make the car stand out even more, Katie installed a front bumper, lip, fenders and liners from a sedan. During this conversion she also replaced the stock hood scoop with one from a STi to improve the already aggressive look. To finish off the front of the car, she added STi splitters and JDM multi-coat fog lights.
For engine mods, Katie decided to upgrade to a VF39 turbocharger, cold air intake and turbo inlet pipe. She also added a STi top mount intercooler and 565cc injectors. Once these and the other supporting fuel system mods were added, the car was Pro Tuned by Dom at Maxwell Power Services using the previously installed Cobb Accessport V2. The car has been lowered on a set of BC Racing BR coilovers using an Umbrella Auto Design Variable Ride Height (VRH) system with Swift springs. The VRH system is essentially a hybrid of an air ride and coilover suspension. An air-powered piston on top of each spring compresses it to raise the car and releases it to lower it. This setup allows her to slam the car at a show and then drive it home at a reasonable height–all without sacrificing performance.
“If I had to describe my car with one word it would be “versatile”. It really is the best of both worlds. It’s a show winner but can still hang on the track,” Katie says.
Even though Katie just started tracking the car at local autocross events, the cage has been in the car since last year. The decision to put a cage in started with Ryan’s desire to showcase his abilities as a fabricator. Ryan had experience fabricating tube frame chassis for buggies and knew that he was capable of building a custom cage for the car. He built the cage to meet Katie’s needs but made sure to design it so that it would be easy to modify in the future to meet NASA racing requirements. To finish off the race spec interior, Katie installed Recaro SRD seats with custom British Racing Green Willans 4 point harnesses.
For track days, Katie runs a set of gold 17×8” Enkei RPF1 wheels with 245/40R17 Dunlop Direzza ZII tires (not shown) and this is what she plans on running for the IMSCC. She recently replaced the stock brakes with a StopTech big brake kit that includes two piece slotted rotors that measure 332mm in the front and 328mm in the rear.
Katie’s future plans for the car are to continue to make it even more trackworthy with suspension and engine upgrades. She also wants to improve the interior for the show season that is about to start.
When asked why she thinks she will do well in the IMSCC, Katie responded with:
“My car is extremely well-rounded. I’ve been meticulous in the whole build and tried to balance everything while keeping the car clean and classy. This should help me for the show, fabrication and build portion. In my novice year in autocross I’ve been kicking butt so I think I’ll have a little bit of an edge there as well. I love being competitive, so while the car may be outclassed by some of the others, I’ll put my all into the competition and have a great time.”
Katie would like to thank the following people for helping her build Rumble Wagon:
Ryan Smith (her husband) – for being the biggest support and wealth of knowledge on the build, not to mention teaching her everything as they went
Dom (Maxwell Power Services) – for the great tune on the car
IAG Performance (Sponsor) – for being her first and only sponsor of the car and for always taking care of her as a customer
Check out Katie’s page on Facebook dedicated to the car: Rumble Wagon Facebook Page
Click here to see the rest of the IMSCC competitors
Modifications:
Exterior:
OEM sedan front bumper, fenders, and liners
OEM STi splitters
OEM STi hood scoop
JDM multi-coat fog lights
Front lip
Full front-end clear bra by Guardline
Painted OEM side skirts
Roof-rail deletes
Rally Armor UR mud flaps
Blacked out & cleared headlights w/6000k HIDs
Hella Supertones painted gold
Rear windshield wiper delete
Debadged trunk
IAG billet washer fluid cap
IAG billet brake fluid cap
IAG billet radiator reservoir cap
IAG billet oil cap
IAG radiator stays
Prosport hood dampers
Beatrush pulley cover and radiator cooling panel
Mishimoto carbon fiber radiator cap
Interior:
3/4 Cage – 1.5”.095w Tube with 1.75”.120w main hoop – Clear UV protection film
Recaro SRD seats
Speedware Motorsports seat brackets
Willans 4 point harnesses in custom British Racing Green
Pioneer touch screen iPod/DVD Player
Polk speakers & Rockford Fosgate subwoofer
Black suede headliner and custom dyed rear carpeting
Dynamat lined trunk, hatch & quarter panels
Red JDM hazard button
STi Ti shift knob
Performance:
Cobb AP v2 – Maxwell Power – Pro Tune by Dom
VF39 Turbo – Ceramic coated hot-side w/Cobb heat shield
Turbo inlet
Cold air intake
Powder coated red intake manifold
IAG Billet TGV delete w/8mm phenolic spacers
08 STi TMIC w/IAT sensor relocate
Perrin Y-Pipe
Perrin boost controllers
565cc fuel injectors
Walbro fuel pump
Ceramic coated exhaust manifold
Perrin up-pipe (ceramic coated – catless)
Helix downpipe (ceramic coated – catless)
Blitz Nur-Spec 3″ exhaust – catless
NGK BKR7EIX Iridium plugs – one step cooler
Mishimoto red silicone radiator hoses
IAG fuel rails
Optima Redtop battery w/SPT battery tie down
Suspension/Brakes/Wheels/Tires:
Gold 17×8 +45 Enkei RPF1 (not pictured but will be running for the IMSCC)
225/40R17 Dunlop Direzza ZII tires
BC Racing BR Coilovers with Variable Ride Height system by Umbrella Auto Design
Swift springs
STi lower control arms
Whiteline control arm bushings
Whiteline steering bushings
Cusco front strut bar
AD Motorsports 25mm front sway bar
Whiteline 25mm rear sway bar
StopTech Big Brake kit w/ 332mm front and 328mm rear zinc plated slotted rotors
Steel-braided brake lines with Motul RBF600 Fluid
Kartboy front endlinks
Kartboy rear endlinks
ARP extended studs
Special Thanks to Our IMSCC Sponsor:
If your company is interested in sponsoring the IMSCC, please email info@importmeet.com for more information.Two are better than one. Lenovo's business newcomer features two batteries rather than one. That enables a battery life that makes the contenders green with envy in view of its powerful hardware. An LTE modem ensures the required flexibility, data is protected extensively, and the input devices are again close to perfect. All the more aggravating that it was not enough for an IPS screen.
While choosing the comparison laptops for this test, we primarily made sure that they aim at the same target group, have the same size, and they also feature a Full HD screen. Among others, the following laptops fulfill these specifications: Toshiba Tecra Z50 A-12K, Dell Latitude E5550, and HP EliteBook 850 G1.
As a rule, business users prefer highly portable, robust laptops with good input devices, the appropriate security and connectivity configuration, and long battery runtimes. Lenovo's T lineup has stood for all these qualities for years, and it now gains a family member dubbed ThinkPad T550. The buyer gets a swift i7 dual-core, 8 GB of memory, a 256 GB SSD and Full HD screen, which is, unfortunately, only based on TN technology, for a steep price of approximately 1800 Euros (~$1888). The security package is to completely satisfy all needs, and the T550 is also prepared for administration in corporate networks. An LTE module with GPS ensures wide-ranging independence from Wi-Fi nets that are not available everywhere. An overview of the different T550 versions can be found here, starting on page 82.
The sandstone-like looks of the display back's soft-touch surface is non-slip, somewhat susceptible to fingerprints, and it is not very easy to clean. The upper side of the base is easier to clean; its lightly roughened plastic also makes a high-quality impression. The base could be warped slightly with a lot of effort and only produced a very quiet crackling noise. The metal hinges are no strangers, but they are pulled a bit too tight here, making it necessary to hold down the base when opening it. However, the laptop barely wobbles when the laptop is moved abruptly. The build is impeccable and justifies the price. According to the manufacturer, the laptop has successfully passed various military tests regarding environmental influences, such as high and low temperatures, humidity, dust, and vibrations.
ThinkPad-typical forms, design elements and materials ensure that the T550 is immediately recognized as a member of Lenovo's business family despite its reworked casing. Fiberglass reinforced plastic (FRP), which is both light and unbreakable, ensures a low weight of just 2.1 kg in conjunction with the necessary rigidness for on-the-move. The tester also found that the fairly slim ThinkPad with a height of 23 mm felt light in relation to its size subjectively.
Lenovo also installs an obsolete VGA port in the T550 making it possible, for example, to connect old projectors in conference rooms. The mini-DisplayPort points to the future and can be turned into an HDMI-out via an adapter sold for approximately 10 Euros (~$10) in retail. Lenovo completely relies on the USB 3.0 standard and provides three of these ports distributed over both sides. A Gigabit Ethernet port is available for stationary use, and a docking port for the ThinkPad Pro Dock with many additional interfaces is on the underside. Although the ports are not positioned ideally, i.e. at the very rear, they are at least centered.
Communication
The business user is only really mobile and independent with a laptop that has a wireless modem. The one in the T550 supports the high-speed LTE and GPS in addition to UMTS. LTE of the tester's micro-SIM is limited to 7.2 Mbps, but the speed was even surpassed slightly despite the mediocre reception. Of course, Wi-Fi is also installed in the form of Intel's Dual-Band Wireless-AC 7265 top module, which calls itself "Gigabit WLAN" and supports the less frequented 5 GHz band. Since the antenna obviously also plays a role, the ThinkPad T550 excelled with an above average reception performance in the tester's personal test setup where architectural obstructions were gradually added while increasing the distance to the router. The transmission rate decreased later and not as evidently in the majority of other previously tested laptops.
Security
In addition to the Kensington lock found in virtually every laptop, Lenovo's ThinkPad T550 provides an extensive security configuration, including an SSD that can be encrypted via hardware, system and BIOS passwords, a SmartCard reader, and a fingerprint scanner. BitLocker is only available under Windows 8.1. A Trusted Platform Module (TPM) in the TCG 1.2 standard is also installed. It is possible to remotely locate the device or delete data if it has been stolen or left in an airport lobby via Intel's Anti-Theft. However, a contract involving costs is needed. The integrated SmartCard reader also serves secure authentication. We compiled further information about the listed security features here.
Accessories
Besides the power supply, a leaflet with safety, warranty and setup information is in the box. Another sheet reveals that media for installing the licensed Windows 8 Pro has to be ordered from Lenovo and might involve shipping expenses. That is weak in view of the laptop's steep price.
Maintenance
The battery is easy to remove, and that is the only maintenance option. Disassembling the device is the only way to access the innards, and that did not come into question for our shop model. Non-savvy users will likely have difficulties since there is no base plate and the tray is pulled up to the base's upper side. Positive: Lenovo at least provides detailed instructions. However, business users will not tamper with their work device very often.
Warranty
The demanding business customer expects generous warranty conditions, which the manufacturer also delivers with a three-year on-site service in Germany and Austria. The laptop can be registered on Lenovo's website, and different warranty and service upgrades are offered for an extra charge. They are to keep downtime periods short.Stock Market Crash 2018 (And Beyond) Will Only Occur When Recession Is Imminent
Will the stock market crash in 2018? Investors have been asking the same question for the last five years. Each time, the answer was a resounding “No.” So could 2018 be the year when the dam finally breaks? Many bears would settle for a leak instead of a torrent.
The relentless stock market rally has defied all logic. Corporate earnings growth has been essentially flat since 2013, yet the market keeps rallying. But instead of moving up with conviction, it’s mostly been melting forward. This has led to one-sided trade, with the bulls herded to one side.
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The merciless melt-up in stocks is leading to an ultimate paradox for investors. Do investors buy-in at nosebleed levels, or wait for pullbacks to add positions? After all, if the question is when the next stock market crash will happen, nobody wants to be a top-tick bad holder.
The answer to this question, for now, is to dive in head-first.
Inflows into exchange-traded funds (ETFs) have remained incredibly strong this year. Through the first seven months of 2017, $272.0 billion has flowed into the stock markets via ETFs. That’s almost matched the 2016 record inflows total of $287.0 billion. If stock investors are worried about chasing overvalued stocks, they aren’t showing it. (Source: “ETF assets top $3 trillion after huge July inflows,” CNBC, July 31, 2017.)
But there’s danger with investors chasing equities in lieu of any half-decent correction. Some analysts are worried about a one-sided market. This occurs when everyone is investing in the same direction, leading to harrowing sell-offs once investors sell at the same time. So far, any real damage has been confined to a day or two. But this won’t last forever. Investors conditioned to “buy the dip” will be in for a rude awakening soon.
How strong has the market melt-up been? Consider that it’s been 18 months since the market has had a “small” five-percent stock market correction (June 2016 Brexit sell-off). Furthermore, the S&P 500 hasn’t corrected even three percent in over 13 months, the longest streak since 1994. It’s absolutely mind-blowing when you consider all the macro risk, Trump, terrorism… you name it.
Even market veterans are perplexed by the market action.
50-year NYSE Floor Manager Art Cashin is having trouble explaining things. Asked to explain how U.S. stocks have continued to outperform while the 10-year Treasury yields have remained sub-2.5%, Cashin acknowledged that he’s never seen anything like today’s market. That’s telling, considering that Cashin started his career in the 1960s. “I’ve been doing this for over 50 years and I’ve never seen anything like it so it is rather odd.” (Source: “Art Cashin: “I’ve Never Seen Anything Like Today’s Market Before”,” Zero Hedge, October 2, 2017.)
Cashin, specifically, was referencing stocks’ abnormal relationship with low yields. Low yields imply tepid growth and low inflation, which historically is the opposite of what should happen during a rip-roaring rally. That in itself should be an ominous sign. As is the yield curve, which has recently crashed to 10-year lows. (Source: “Yield Curve Flashes Recession Warning In Collapse To 10 Year Lows,” Zero Hedge, September 21, 2017.)
But he might have well been speaking for the entire market ecosystem, which is totally disregarding any traditional key economic indicator followed by investors. Specifically valuation, which, by any standard, is inflated beyond reason.
Will the Current Stock Market Rally Continue in 2018?
By now, it’s common knowledge that the world stock indices have been driven almost exclusively by central bank (CB) liquidity. Not just in America, but Asia, Europe, Japan…everywhere. This is no accident. The world’s CBs are engaging in coordinated loose money policy; much of it conducted through direct bond purchases to suppress interest rates.
Another preferred method by the CBs is purchasing financial assets outright.
The Swiss National Bank currently owns over 2,500 different equity positions. Combined, their stock market portfolio is worth over $90.0 billion. If it were a hedge fund, it would be one of the larger ones around.
SWISS NATIONAL BANK – Top 10 Holding (Latest Filing)
Company Class Value of Shares ($1,000s) ▼ Change in Value ($1,000s) Change (%) Shares Held APPLE INC COM 3,199,184 45,962 1.46 19,169,416 MICROSOFT CORP COM 2,249,617 66,502 3.05 27,045,170 AMAZON COM INC COM 1,635,478 55,957 3.54 1,481,841 FACEBOOK INC CL A 1,600,102 56,917 3.69 8,760,000 JOHNSON & JOHNSON COM 1,503,170 38,886 2.66 10,738,464 EXXON MOBIL CORP COM 1,343,986 38,689 2.96 16,024,636 ALPHABET INC CAP STK CL C 1,170,061 41,533 3.68 1,140,966 ALPHABET INC CAP STK CL A 1,150,081 37,846 3.40 1,103,089 PROCTER AND GAMBLE CO COM 890,873 24,772 2.86 10,252,888 AT&T INC COM 847,529 23,257 2.82 25,261,658
(Source: “Swiss National Bank Institutional Portfolio,” NASDAQ, June 30, 2017.)
In years past, central banks left the markets alone (unless the markets were crashing). As we can see, that’s not the case anymore. The combination bond re-investments being plowed back into the markets, direct asset purchases, and low borrowing costs have directly caused the bull market conditions today. Anyone trying to swim against the liquidity tide by shorting the market has been eviscerated.
With all that said, will there be a stock market collapse 2018? After all, it’s about looking forward—not backward. Peering into my crystal ball, I see signs that the current market order is coming to an end.
Why? Because CB liquidity is finally about to dry up. The same forces driving everything sky-high over the past several years are coming to an end. Worse than that, they may actually work against the market. There is no free lunch in economics.
The Fed and ECB are about to halt bond purchases and allow bonds to mature in their existing portfolios. This is the so-called “quantitative tightening” program some people may have heard about.
In America, the liquidity drain is set to peak at around $50.0 billion/month by late spring 2018. That’s a lot of potential liquidity not entering the markets. The Fed has been busy telling us this “normalization” of their balance sheet will be like “watching paint dry.” But it’s not true. A very expensive stock market needs all the liquidity it can muster to keep stocks grinding higher. It’s not Joe Sixpack buying Amazon shares at $1,090 apiece. (Source: “Shrinking Balance Sheet Won’t Be Like ‘Watching Paint Dry,’ Says JP Morgan,” Barron’s, June 19, 2017.)
What happens after the program kicks in is anyone’s guess. But there’s no question that if the market is to continue higher or avoid hardship, it must rely on its own devices.
Are you willing to take that bet?
Are We Heading to Another Stock Market Crash?
Several stock market crash indicators point in that direction. I’m going to focus on one powerful one—the rapidly inverting yield curve.
There’s a reason why the U.S. Treasury Yield Curve is followed so closely by market analysts. It’s historically one of the best market indicators for predicting U.S. recession. It’s accurately called the last seven recessions without producing a false positive.
The most common spreads are between two-year and 10-year; five-year and 30-year. When the shorter duration bonds yield more than the longer bonds, the yield curve becomes inverted. That’s a powerful sign that economic growth (and future expectation of growth plus inflation) is weakening.
The reason for the yield curve’s amazing predictive power is rooted in sound business principles. Why would banks lend out money longer term when they could earn more interest income lending short term? Longer-term lending has a greater risk of default and other disadvantages. Banks become more choosy about the money they shell out for big capital projects when the yield curve flattens out, choking out funding for big capital projects. This affect jobs, the velocity of money, and GDP.
So what’s the yield curve doing now? Despite the fact the economy has grown over three percent for two consecutive quarters, the yield curve is now trading at 10-year lows. Not since just before the Great Recession have we seen 2/10 and 5/30 spreads so low. (Source: “US yield curve flattens to 10-year record,” Financial Times, November 1, 2017.)
The 2/10-year curve (above) isn’t flat yet, but it’s narrowing fast. It suggests the bond market doesn’t like the economic growth picture being painted by the financial media.
Who are you going to believe? More poignantly, does anyone think the market can continue to melt-up if growth falters and the Fed takes away the punch bowl? The answer is self-evident.
Causes & Effects of the Stock Market Crash of 2018
The next Wall Street crash will be brought about by a recession. When corporate earnings collapse, nothing will be able to stop the torrent of selling from one-sided trade from an expensive market. The market trades at a CAPE ratio of about 31 right now. In a recession-induced earnings collapse, the CAPE could easily trade north of 100 if stock prices don’t decline. That’s not happening. Even in the Tech Bubble—the most expensive market in history—the CAPE topped out at around 50.
So what will be the recession trigger? The inability to wring more “consumerism” out of a deeply indebted population. The substitution of income and savings for low-cost debt works out until saturation takes place. After that happens, nothing can stop the inevitable.
When people and corporations run out of the ability to borrow, the system must clear in order for borrowing capacity to return. But the problem is, a massive amount of deleveraging will need to happen to reach that point. Literally, decades of ultra-low rates and stimulus have pushed the credit boom to unimaginable levels.
It’s gotten so bad that the current economy needs roughly $3.00 of new debt to create $1.00 of real, inflation-adjusted, economic growth. Some analysts have suggested about $35.0 trillion of total credit market debt needs to be cleared before the problem will alleviate. The last time deleveraging on that scale occurred was during the Great Depression. (Source: “How Big Of A “Deleveraging” Are We Talking About?,” Zero Hedge, July 25, 2017.)
The returns from the liquidity bubble keep diminishing over time. The check is almost due.
Stock Market Crash Predictions for 2018
Needless to say, I’m quite pessimistic about the stock market’s chances going forward. I believe slower-trend growth will be evident by the back half of 2018, and the CB liquidity drain will weigh on stocks. Shrinking liquidity and slowing growth is a bad recipe for keeping expensive stock prices elevated.
The big question on my mind (besides timing) is whether the eventual sell-off will be orderly or chaotic. With the proliferation of top-heavy ETFs, passive index investors and record margin debt, it’s hard to envision anything orderly about it.
Perhaps central banks will find a way to cushion the blow. But perhaps a perfect storm of market turmoil is brewing. Nobody thinks it can happen in this environment; most can’t even remember the last time it did. And that’s exactly why a bloodbath is a distinct possibility. If the S&P 500 can hold 2,150 in a controlled demolition, I would consider this a major win. Just enough to let some air out without wrecking portfolios for the next 10 years.
Welcome to this grand experiment in controlled “marketomics.” We hope it’s different this time.Hiroshima Carp star Takahiro Arai had two hits on Sunday, leaving him with 1,999 for his career. Recently, each base knock by Arai has been met with an ever-growing wave of jubilation from fans, as he draws closer to the 2,000-hit threshold only 46 others (solely in NPB) have crossed.
At this point for Arai, 39, it’s simply a matter of when he’ll get the milestone hit, which member of the Meikyukai will present him with the customary bouquet of flowers and what the commemorative T-shirts will look like.
Things are not so simple for longtime Chiba Lotte Marines player Kazuya Fukuura.
Like Arai, the 40-year-old Fukuura entered the season with his 2,000th hit a possibility. The Marines even created a “Fuku-Meter” to count down to the occasion. But unlike Arai, Fukuura, who is sitting at 1,912 hits, isn’t playing every day. He’s not even on the top team currently, toiling away with the Marines’ farm team.
Fukuura still has some productivity left in him, perhaps even enough to get to 2,000 hits, but a lack of playing time may trip him up in the end. Fukuura only had 92 at-bats last year and hasn’t cracked 200 since 2011.
He’s approaching 2,000 at a snail’s pace, and while there is still a chance he hits the mark (this year or in the future), the odds he runs out of time are just as high, if not slightly better, based solely on his usage.
Fukuura is 52nd on the career hits list and third among active players behind Kazuo Matsui, who has 2,044 (2,659 counting his MLB hits), and Arai.
He’s been a Lotte staple since being taken in the seventh round of the 1993 draft. A three-time All-Star and a former batting champion, Fukuura saw regular playing time during the team’s Japan Series-winning campaigns in 2005 and 2010. In his later years, Fukuura has been a mentor for many on the team.
“He was an amazing first baseman, he saved me at first base a lot of times,” said Yomiuri Giants infielder Luis Cruz, who played second base for the Marines in 2014 and 2015. “He’s such a professional hitter. Every time he pinch-hit for us, he knew what he wanted to do, and that’s the type of player you want.”
Fukuura, who has yet to make an ichi-gun appearance this year, has eight hits in 26 at-bats on the farm.
He needs 88 top-team hits to reach the promised land. The last time he had that many hits in a single year was in 2010, when he played in 116 games.
Assuming Arai reaches the goal in short order, that would leave eight players who surpassed 1,900 hits but couldn’t (or have yet to) reach 2,000.
Tokuji Iida, who spent 17 seasons with the Nankai Hawks and Kokutetsu Swallows, came closest out of that group, ending his career (1947-1963) with 1,978 hits. Shoichi Busujima, who played for the Toei Flyers from 1954-1971, also came close with 1,977, while Harutoshi Kodama retired with 1,963 after playing from 1954-1969, for the Kintetsu Buffaloes (who went through three name changes during his tenure) and Hanshin Tigers.
More recently, Yoshitomo Tani, who like Fukuura wasn’t a superstar but was a solid, steady contributor for a number of years, was cruising toward the goal at a moderate pace before his playing time dipped drastically in his later years. He retired in 2015 with 1,928 hits.
The 2,000-hit mark becomes a harder target for Fukuura to reach with each passing day, mostly because, like Tani, his chances might be too few and far between.
Arai, and Carp fans, will get to bask in glory soon, perhaps on Tuesday. As Arai’s race comes to an end, Lotte fans may be wondering if one of their favorite sons will have enough time to also make it across the finish line.I usually stretch a Tinder chat over days or even weeks, warily circling a guy to make sure he seems like a decent human. But on that sticky summer night, Bob* put me at ease right away. He was in an open relationship, just like me. He talked frankly and respectfully about sex. He said he was a “giver.” He agreed on “no sexpectations” when we made plans for a last-minute date. I can’t say for sure because he would later unmatch me, but I think his Tinder profile boasted that he was a feminist.
Once at the bar, I couldn’t tell if I was attracted, but we had a pleasant time, anyway. Bob seemed adventurous, smart, fun, and horny. He told me he was an “erotic massage therapist,” working with sexual trauma victims and teaching them how to orgasm again. He touched my leg almost immediately, then said, “Let me know if this is too much.” After an hour or two, I decided we would have a light hookup to see if there was any physical spark. I went back to his place around the corner from the bar, after clearly announcing my boundaries. “Just a makeout,” I insisted. He said that was fine.
After a few minutes in his bedroom, it was clear it was not fine. We started kissing and I felt mildly turned on. Then I didn’t. I told Bob I had to go, but he pressed. Coquettishly, quietly, I said, “Stop.” He pressed more. Then I said, “No, really, stop.” When I faced away from him to jiggle my bra back in place, he came up behind me and tried yet again. At one point, he pushed me onto his bed and said, “Wait a minute, I still haven’t made you come.”
Eventually, I was firm—“I REALLY have to go!”—and made my way to the door, although I kissed him goodnight rather than leaving in a huff. “Next time,” I assured him. As soon as I was on the street, I cried confused tears, surprised at myself for letting my guard down so quickly and then not even acting angry. Did that scenario really just happen between two Brooklyn feminists?
🐍🍆🐍
Tinder Bob is a cinematic example of an infuriating phenomenon: the woke misogynist. The woke misogynist is a guy who talks a big game about gender equality and consent, uses vocabulary like “triggering” without rolling his eyes, wears a pussy hat to the Women’s March, prefers to fuck feminists and may freely call himself one, too—then turns around and harasses you, assaults you, or belittles you. Perhaps his behavior throws you off because, unlike the whimpster or emosogynist of the aughts, he’s confident in himself and his pro-woman bonafides. Or because he apologizes nicely and indulges you in a thoughtful conversation after the offending incident. Or, most likely, because his misogyny is more ambiguous and subtle than that of, say, Bill Cosby or Roger Ailes or Donald Trump.
The woke misogynist is also harder to pin down than the garden-variety progressive man who just happens to have a blind spot when it comes to women. These “Ninos”—named after Elena Ferrante’s charming, philandering intellectual, Nino Sarratore—have always existed. During the Sixties, it was perfectly commonplace for anti-war activists and civil rights leaders to ridicule or ignore women’s liberation; unapologetic movement sexism was part of what led to Second Wave feminism in the first place.
This pattern was hypocritical in a grander sense, in that someone purporting to be for human rights shouldn’t go around abusing or dismissing women. But unlike the woke misogynist, these men’s bigotry was unflinching, their hostility blatant. Woody Allen and Stokely Carmichael and Norman Mailer may have been pillars of the left, but they certainly never claimed to be feminists.
Being a male feminist is admirable. Being a male feminist can even get you laid.
Now that feminism has become more fashionable, it’s harder to tell who our true allies are. Self-proclaimed male feminists are everywhere, from dating apps to Silicon Valley to Hollywood. Many men now want to be equal partners and parents. They believe a woman should be president and they follow Kamala Harris on Twitter. They would never dream of saying indisputably sexist things in public. Many male feminists are genuine, even if they’re not perfect. They will try and sometimes fail on their way to enlightenment. We care about the men in our lives, so we are happy to explain what they’ve done wrong. We will gently chide our guy friends for objectifying their female lovers or about how their favorite films don’t pass the Bechdel test.
And they’ll usually listen, because being a male feminist is admirable. Being a male feminist can even get you laid.
🐍🍆🐍
When I put out a call for “woke misogynist” stories, I received tales of behavior all across the spectrum: The college guy who bought his girlfriend feminist zines and also slapped her so hard she reeled backwards. The boss who was an enemy of the patriarchy on the internet but regularly intimidated and talked down to his female employees. The outspoken women’s rights advocate who went out of his way to call Kellyanne Conway ugly.
Women recalled chronic patronizing, compulsive manterrupting, and classic sexism excused with self-awareness (“I know this is super-sleazy of me, but…”). Riot Grrrl icon Kathleen Hanna, who skewered her woke misogynist fans last year in her song “Mr. So and So,” told me she “was raped in college by a guy who’d read more feminist books than [she] had.”
Since woke misogyny can come with a hefty dose of gaslighting, it’s difficult to tell whether it’s calculated or not.
I heard countless versions of my awful Tinder date: a supposedly feminist guy who bent or broke the rules of consent in some uncanny, unsettling, unconventional way. The worst thing about this phenomenon, one woman remarked, is that it’s often “a general feeling, not necessarily a momentous incident. And that makes it feel less real.”
Since woke misogyny can come with a hefty dose of gaslighting, it’s difficult to tell whether it’s calculated or not. One thirtysomething woman I’ll call Clara recounted a story of how a man had impressed her on a date by pointing out that the social life of their mutual circle of friends involved dudes playing in bands…and their girlfriends watching them. “We talked about how ironic it was that this ostensibly progressive group of guys had built this sexist scene around themselves,” she recalled. “It kind of sealed the deal—I liked this guy.”
When he sexually assaulted her one drunken night, Clara found herself paralyzed the next morning. “Everything he’d said before seemed like a trick to get me in bed,” she said, “and also just left me really confused after the fact—had things really gone down like that? He seemed like a really nice guy.”
Nice. Reasonable. The kind of man you could confront with the very behavior he claims to denounce. And when those confrontations actually happen with a woke misogynist, it can be the biggest mindfuck of all.
🐍🍆🐍
When I got home from the date with Bob, I noticed he had texted me: “Home safe?” Embarrassed by my concili |
and restitution and have no pending adjudication.
Once a petitioner has met the expungment guidelines, they must pay a $250 surcharge, which is a $100 increase that may be waived by the judge if the petitioner is indigent.
“Employers need to be aware of the change in the law and not only what that may mean in terms of future applicants, but the fact it would likely mean there might be more people in the job market,” Lilly said.
The bill goes into effect January 1, 2018.
———
©2016 the St. Joseph News-Press (St. Joseph, Mo.)
Visit the St. Joseph News-Press (St. Joseph, Mo.) at www.newspressnow.com/index.html
Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.It seemed to come out of nowhere. In the midst of a tight South Carolina girls soccer match between two area rivals, a player fell after a seemingly innocuous foul. While most anticipated that she would calmly restart play, what she did instead has sparked a criminal investigation.
The player who is now the subject of local law enforcement is Lewisville (S.C.) High senior Annette McCullough, who brutally attacked an unnamed Chester (S.C.) High opponent during a Monday match. While there is no video showcasing prior incidents between the two players, McCullough reacted viciously to a small trip that sent her tumbling to the ground.
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The attack, which you can see above, featured hair pulling, punches being rained down on the Chester player -- Carolinas CBS affiliate WBTV counted 11 different punches -- and a frantic attempt to halt the attack before it reached even more dangerous levels.
Fittingly, McCullough was immediately sent off with a red card, escorted away from the field with the aid of an assistant referee. Shortly thereafter Chester County deputies were called to the scene and McCullough -- who is 18 years old -- was charged with simple assault.
[More: President Obama opens up about coaching role on daughter's hoops team]
Alan Parker, the referee of the match, made perfectly clear that this incident invoked a sense of violence that made it much more troubling than other girls soccer skirmishes.
"Some incidental contact ended in one girl going down and she just got up and started pummeling," Parker told WBTV. "It's unfortunate, it really is. Contact is a part of soccer, but when you retaliate like that, obviously, there is no place in the game for that.
Story continues
"Occasionally you have players that go at it, on the field together, but in this case it was just one girl pummeling the other girl. And she didn't stop which is even more egregious."
It's hard to watch the incident without thinking back to New Mexico defender Elizabeth Lambert, whose hair pulling and general dirty play in a game against BYU received massive Internet attention and eventually landed her a lengthy suspension. One could argue that Lambert's fouls may have been worse because she was more level-headed when committing them, but they certainly weren't as violent as McCullough's attack.
Now the senior is likely to receive a significant penalty -- the mother of the victim insisted that she will push to have McCullough prosecuted to the fullest possible extent and be banned from any further soccer action -- and doesn't appear to be receiving any support from her school, either.
"I know it will not be tolerated on this team and here in Lewisville," Lewisville assistant girls soccer coach Paul Atkerson told WBTV. "This is something that should not have happened, it should not have happened at all."
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• Finance: Frank McCourt exits baseball as its most successful owner everCLOSE Capt. Darin Southworth talks about a possible shooting Tuesday in the south side of Lansing. Matthew Dae Smith/For the Lansing State Journal
Buy Photo People leave a funeral past police near the scene of a shooting near Tisdale Avenue and South Pennsylvania Avenue Tuesday afternoon, June 7, 2016. According to LPD, the shooting happened just prior to the funeral for Akive Ahmad TyJuan Edwards, who died May 28 of gunshot injuries in Jackson. (Photo: MATTHEW DAE SMITH | for the Lansing State Journal)Buy Photo
LANSING - Violence erupted near a south Lansing church on Tuesday as friends and family gathered at a funeral for a Lansing native who was gunned down in Jackson 10 days earlier.
Gunshots sounded outside Solid Rock Baptist Church on South Pennsylvania Avenue as the service for Akive Ahmad Ty'Juan Edwards was beginning around noon. Lansing police said they believe the shooting was related to the funeral.
No injuries were reported in the incident, although the gunfire may have damaged a silver sport-utility vehicle found several blocks from the church, police indicated.
On Tuesday afternoon, investigators had identified two possible suspects and two vehicles possibly involved in the incident and were working with Jackson police on the investigation, Lansing Capt. Darin Southworth said He did not release descriptions of the suspects or vehicles.
Edwards, also known as "Booker," died May 28 at a hospital after being shot in the backyard of a residence in the 1100 block of South Milwaukee Street in Jackson, said Deputy Chief Elmer Hitt, of the Jackson Police Department.
Edwards was found by Jackson police in a vehicle that crashed into a house a few blocks away. Hitt said police believe he was trying to drive to the hospital.
The shooting occurred around 3:20 a.m., he said, and there was a gathering of people at the house where police believe Edwards was shot. No arrests or warrants have been issued, Hitt said. He didn't release a motive for Edwards' shooting.
Lansing police had a patrol car near the church moments before Tuesday's shooting, but officers had left the car to go get another patrol vehicle and did not witness the shooting, Southworth said.
Shanon Hooks, 49, who lives across the street from the church, said he was awoken by nine gunshots in two volleys of gunfire.
Police closed one lane of Pennsylvania Avenue near the church and searched the street and yards on both sides of the road for evidence.
A silver SUV with a shattered rear window was located on Riley Street, several blocks north of the church. Southworth said that vehicle was being treated as part of the incident at the church.
As Edwards’ funeral ended about 1:30 p.m., dozens of people gathered in front of the church, and a brief scuffle appeared to break out before police instructed about a dozen congregants to leave the scene. Within minutes, the funeral procession departed with a police escort and made its way to Evergreen Cemetery for Edwards’ burial.
A phone message left with the church seeking comment was not returned.
CLOSE Scene of possible shooting in Lansing's south side on Tuesday. Ken Palmer/Lansing State Journal
Ken Palmer and Matt Mencarini contributed to this report.
Read or Share this story: http://on.lsj.com/1t5FyQLA US town has rejected a proposal for a solar farm following public concerns.
Members of the public in Woodland, North Carolina, expressed their fear and mistrust at the proposal to allow Strata Solar Company to build a solar farm off Highway 258.
During the Woodland Town Council meeting, one local man, Bobby Mann, said solar farms would suck up all the energy from the sun and businesses would not go to Woodland, the Roanoke-Chowan News Herald reported.
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.
Jane Mann, a retired science teacher, said she was concerned the panels would prevent plants in the area from photosynthesizing, stopping them from growing.
Ms Mann said she had seen areas near solar panels where plants are brown and dead because they did not get enough sunlight.
She also questioned the high number of cancer deaths in the area, saying no one could tell her solar panels didn't cause cancer.
The area around Woodland is a popular choice because it has an electrical substation allowing the panels to be hooked up to the national grid.
A spokesperson for Strata told the meeting: "There are no negative impacts. A solar farm is a wonderful use for a property like this."
They added: "The panels don't draw additional sunlight."
The council voted three to one against rezoning the land and later voted for a moratorium on future solar farms. Among the reasons they gave were that a growing solar industry would harm the economy and reduce the value of homes in the area.
Shape Created with Sketch. Solar panels around the world Show all 11 left Created with Sketch. right Created with Sketch. Shape Created with Sketch. Solar panels around the world 1/11 China Photovoltaic solar panels on the roof of the Chint Group office building in Hangzhou, Zhejiang Province, China Rex Features 2/11 France On 13 October 2011 France launched its largest-ever solar energy farm, with an array of panels spread over about 200 hectares (500 acres) in the mountainous southern Alpes-de-Haute-Provence region in Les Mees. With a production capacity of 90 megawatts, the vast photovoltaic park features nearly 113,000 solar panels and was built at a cost of 110 million euros ($137 million) AFP 3/11 United States Solar Panels, Photovoltaic array at the University of New Mexico, Taos campus, USA Rex Features 4/11 China Large solar panels are seen in a solar power plant in Hami, northwest China's Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous region AFP 5/11 France Some of the panels of France's biggest photovoltaic power station in Bordeaux. This station, with its 60.000 panels set on the parking of the Bordeaux-Lac international fair was launched in May 2012 AFP 6/11 France Built on a former NATO base, this is one of the most important photovoltaic plant in France, located at Crucey near Chartres. It was developed by electricity provider EDF (Electricite de France) AFP 7/11 UK The project manager from solar century walks between lines of solar panels erected at Weighbridge, Wheal Jane, Baldhu near Truro, England. Launched in 2011, this was the first solar farm in the South West and biggest in the UK Getty Images 8/11 China A worker climbs over a solar panel at a solar factory in Longyou county, Zhejiang province Reuters 9/11 Germany Workers install solar panels containing photovoltaic cells at the new Solarpark Eggersdorf solar park in 2012 near Muencheberg, Germany. The park, which was being built by German solar energy operator juwi Solar GmbH and contains 85,000 solar modules and is one of many similar projects in eastern Germany Getty Images 10/11 UK In 2010 homeowners had solar panels installed this month as growing numbers of people and companies look to cash in on the Government's renewable energy scheme PA 11/11 United States In 2009 a solar panel system was installed on the roof of a business building in Gainesville, Florida. Gainesville became the first city in the nation to have a solar feed-in tariff ordinance which meant owners of new solar photovoltaic systems were eligible to receive 32 cents per kilowatt hour of electricity produced by the system over the next 20 years Getty Images 1/11 China Photovoltaic solar panels on the roof of the Chint Group office building in Hangzhou, Zhejiang Province, China Rex Features 2/11 France On 13 October 2011 France launched its largest-ever solar energy farm, with an array of panels spread over about 200 hectares (500 acres) in the mountainous southern Alpes-de-Haute-Provence region in Les Mees. With a production capacity of 90 megawatts, the vast photovoltaic park features nearly 113,000 solar panels and was built at a cost of 110 million euros ($137 million) AFP 3/11 United States Solar Panels, Photovoltaic array at the University of New Mexico, Taos campus, USA Rex Features 4/11 China Large solar panels are seen in a solar power plant in Hami, northwest China's Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous region AFP 5/11 France Some of the panels of France's biggest photovoltaic power station in Bordeaux. This station, with its 60.000 panels set on the parking of the Bordeaux-Lac international fair was launched in May 2012 AFP 6/11 France Built on a former NATO base, this is one of the most important photovoltaic plant in France, located at Crucey near Chartres. It was developed by electricity provider EDF (Electricite de France) AFP 7/11 UK The project manager from solar century walks between lines of solar panels erected at Weighbridge, Wheal Jane, Baldhu near Truro, England. Launched in 2011, this was the first solar farm in the South West and biggest in the UK Getty Images 8/11 China A worker climbs over a solar panel at a solar factory in Longyou county, Zhejiang province Reuters 9/11 Germany Workers install solar panels containing photovoltaic cells at the new Solarpark Eggersdorf solar park in 2012 near Muencheberg, Germany. The park, which was being built by German solar energy operator juwi Solar GmbH and contains 85,000 solar modules and is one of many similar projects in eastern Germany Getty Images 10/11 UK In 2010 homeowners had solar panels installed this month as growing numbers of people and companies look to cash in on the Government's renewable energy scheme PA 11/11 United States In 2009 a solar panel system was installed on the roof of a business building in Gainesville, Florida. Gainesville became the first city in the nation to have a solar feed-in tariff ordinance which meant owners of new solar photovoltaic systems were eligible to receive 32 cents per kilowatt hour of electricity produced by the system over the next 20 years Getty Images
Speaking after the COP-21 summit on climate change in Paris pledged to limit global warming below the threshold of 2°c, Pope Francis said the plan will require "a concerted and generous commitment" from everyone.
Experts said a move towards renewable power, with investment in wind and solar energy, will be required to cut down on emissions.
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Subscribe nowCheck post 2 for all winners names
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It really tears me apart to do this, some of these boards I have searched high and low since I joined GH to get. Real life calls now and I can't turn my back on it and some of these will have to go. I know these are just keyboards and keycaps but they brought a smile to me over the years I was here. I know its stupid haha but that's how I feel. Though here is something that i value more then these materialistic things. When I had to sell off some stuff for my car i felt there was an attachment issue when i got rid of my keyboard items, this time there isn't any of that. I don't mean to sucker you people in to bid on my items here but it would really help, some of these items are rare and i really do cherish them so please do take care of them.All items will be shipped from Canada, buyer will pay for shipping, for high priced items tracking is a must unless payment is made by gift via PayPal, as someone has pulled a fast one on me before and I really don't have time for this.Please also note, international shipping outside of NA is expensive for some of these boards because they are frigging heavy, especially to the Asia area, I ate $70 of someone`s shipping price last timeKeyboards will all have a price to it, if you wish to bid by all means but the first person to message me for the BIN takes itI might add on BIN prices to some of the CC's haven't made a solid decision on that yetBids are done in a $5 incrementALL PRICES ARE IN USDEnd date Aug 21st 2013 1am EST I know its not a lot of time but thats all the time I have with collecting payments and transferring it to my bank that is what I can deal withKMAC II vintage browns full tuned w/ rare vintage dye sub/double shot set + original vintage RGB dyesubs + tanslucent green brobot-If you pay the BIN price if you want you can purchase the ISO dyesub set i used to finished off the missing keys to make it full dyesubs as well as the brushed titanium space bar for $150 more basically what you see in the pictureBlack Pla Poker 55g vintage browns full tuned w/ 38GT w/ DSA retro set-Comes with a few of the extra sets too.LZSE vintage blacks 55g full tuned w/ Orignative Olivetti Keycap set **Salute not included-This is a rare powder coat version, as you can see from the pictures part of the powder coat got scratched off but the actual aluminum is fine, so you can sandblast it all off and re anodize it however you want toThis next part I think is the hardest, yes I know its plastic to most of you but I really enjoyed collecting them over the time I've been here, I made lots of friends through trading and chatting about it. I'm really sorry to do this CC.The following are all MX CC's0. Salute Tri -1A. Tanslucent Ice Blue -1B. Candy Corn Skull -1C. OG Tri -1D. Jack o' Lantern -1E. Mr Friday -1F. Metalic Blue (it shines!) -1G. 3D -1H. 3D -1I. Yolk Yellow -1J. Dark yolk yellow? -1K. Guac/alvacardo green -1L. Tickle me Pink -1M. Army/Machine Green -1N. EK Grey -1O. Midnight Blue -1P. Hack Orange -1Q. 420 sticky icky icky Toasted Black/Green/White-1R. 420 sticky icky icky Toasted Green/Red/Yellow -1S. 420 sticky icky O'Natural Yellow/Red -1T. 420 sticky icky O'Natural Black/Pink -2A. EK Red F2 -2B. EK Blue F2 -2C. Dark Lord -3A. Mint green WASD -3B. Candy corn Arrows -4A. Translucent Pink -4B. Translucent Violet -Wales internationals Jamie Roberts and Dan Lydiate are poised to join England flanker Steffon Armitage in returning from France, according to reports across the channel.
While Toulon’s Armitage would join Bath without Rugby Football Union financial input, L'Equipe claims the Welsh Rugby Union has contacted Racing Metro with the view to buying the duo out of their contracts and returning them to the regions. The duo are expected to sign dual-contracts - deals joint-funded by the WRU and the regions.
If the deals occur, they are likely to go through this week as the regions will want the players in place for the European Rugby Champions Cup which starts on Friday. In L'Equipe, Racing Metro coach Laurent Labit is quoted as saying Roberts and Lydiate "never really performed since their arrival".
Roberts left the Cardiff Blues to sign for Metro in 2013 while Lydiate joined the Top 14 club from the Dragons the same year.In another “it’s actually happening” moment with the hyperloop today, we get an updated look at what is probably the most advanced hyperloop system developed so far. We saw SpaceX’s test track earlier this year, but the mile-long tube that the rocket company built is only meant for testing propulsion systems and it isn’t full-scale.
Hyperloop One’s track in Nevada is the first that could support a full-scale pod to carry people and cargo. The company released the first pictures of their progress since installing the first tube last November.
Rob Lloyd, CEO of Hyperloop One, is in Dubai today for the Middle East Rail conference. The company has seen strong interest in the region and announced a deal last year to bring the first hyperloop network to Dubai.
For the occasion, the CEO unveiled the first image of what they are calling the “DevLoop” – a hyperloop test track.
The final version is supposed to be 1-mile-long, but it currently stretches on 500 meters in the Nevada desert. The tube measures 3.3 meters in diameter and the entire Hyperloop test structure weighs over one million kilograms.
The images are really impressive:
The system should be put into use in the coming months for the first full system test of a hyperloop.
Josh Giegel, President of Engineering and Co-founder of Hyperloop One, was at the site in Nevada during Lloyd’s presentation, but he joined via video conference:
“I am so excited to be able to share images of DevLoop at Middle East Rail and update the world on our progress. Our team of more than 150 engineers, technicians and fabricators have been transforming what was, just over five months ago, a barren stretch of desert, into a hive of activity and now home to the world’s first full-scale Hyperloop test site. We have come so far in such a short space of time, and our team of over 240 employees are working tirelessly to eliminate the barriers of distance and time and reinvent transportation.”
While there’s still a long way to go before we can witness an actual commercial application of a hyperloop system, whether for cargo or passengers, we are definitely witnessing progress here.
Here’s a quick video:Directed by Alex Fegan (The Irish Pub), OLDER THAN IRELAND is a landmark documentary that tells the story of a hundred years of a life as seen through the eyes of thirty Irish men and women aged 100 or over. Often funny and at times poignant, the film explores each centenarian's journey, from their birth at the dawn of Irish independence to their life as a centenarian in modern day Ireland. Reflecting on such key events as the day they got their first pair of shoes, the thrill of their first kiss, from the magic of their wedding day to the tragic loss of their loved ones, these centenarians have lived through it all. Having witnessed a century of immense social, political and technological change each centenarian has a unique perspective on life and its true meaning. From the oldest Irish person ever on record, 113-year-old Kathleen Snavely to Ireland's oldest man, 108-year-old Luke Dolan we meet a colourful cast of characters, from all walks of life, from the four corners of Ireland....TRENTON — For four decades, David Samson has quietly prospered at the nexus of New Jersey’s powerful legal and political worlds as his clout and connections have enriched his law firm, Wolff & Samson.
The firm, one of New Jersey’s largest, has cashed in on state contracts, winning more than $8.4 million in work in the two years after Gov. Chris Christie appointed Samson to the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, a Star-Ledger review of records shows.
Friends and political insiders say that as an attorney, Samson, who is the Port Authority’s chairman, has a reputation for delivering what his clients want with some subtlety. That’s why they were surprised to learn of his alleged roles in the two controversies plaguing the Christie administration.
"Dave has good judgment. Even if he were inclined to do that kind of thing, he has good judgment," said Paul Rowe, chairman of the law firm Greenbaum, Rowe, Smith & Davis and a longtime friend. "That’s the kind of thing Dave doesn’t do."
Samson is one of 18 people under subpoena from a state legislative committee to produce documents — due Monday — related to the September closure of lanes to the George Washington Bridge. In a previously released email, Samson said Port Authority Executive Director Patrick Foye was "playing in traffic, made a big mistake" after the lane closures were reported in the press.
And it’s Samson’s firm that represented a developer, the Rockefeller Group, that wanted to build in Hoboken — the city that Mayor Dawn Zimmer says was denied Hurricane Sandy relief aid because she wouldn’t support the real estate deal.
Samson, 74, who would not comment for this report, hired two high-powered law firms in the wake of the controversies, which could stop Christie’s presidential bid before it starts. He personally retained the Newark law firm led by Angelo Genova, as well as the firm of former U.S. Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff.
Samson became chairman of the Port Authority in early 2011. His firm made $8.4 million from its contract work with the state and authorities that year and in 2012, according to the state Election Law Enforcement Commission. Figures for 2013 are not yet available.
In the two-year period, the firm got lots of work from agencies controlled by Christie: the New Jersey Economic Development Authority ($1.15 million), NJ Transit ($1.4 million), the Turnpike Authority ($2.67 million) and the South Jersey Transportation Authority ($113,700). And Wolff & Samson got more than $1 million in work from the state attorney general and the state Treasury Department.
The added legal work came as Jeffrey Chiesa was attorney general. He had worked for Wolff & Samson and Christie’s U.S. Attorney’s Office before his stint in state government. Samson, who was attorney general from 2002 to 2003, led Christie’s 2009 transition team with Chiesa.
Another area where the law firm has prospered is in its lobbying work. In 2009 and 2010, the firm earned less than $400,000 from its lobbying efforts, according to ELEC records. But in 2011, the number shot up to $1.2 million, and in 2012, $1.1 million.
Wolff & Samson — partnering with Rothstein Kass — is also one of more than 30 firms approved to monitor Hurricane Sandy recovery and rebuilding grants. So far, Wolff & Samson hasn’t been awarded any contracts through the program, said Lisa Ryan, a spokeswoman for the Department of Community Affairs on Sandy recovery.
Samson’s supporters say all this shows he’s good at what he does.
Ralph Izzo, PSE&G chairman and CEO, said the utility giant retained Samson’s firm for help on permitting related to transmission and regulation.
Izzo bristled at the suggestion that the company was buying access. "The access doesn’t matter much. … Most doors I knock on open," he said, adding that Samson’s "reputation and credibility" does matter.
He said the two hit it off personally, talking over dinner every few months about their mutual love for the Yankees, and Samson’s wife’s and Izzo’s daughter’s affinity for horses.
Izzo said he empathized with Samson’s frustration as an unpaid board chair whose authority was being challenged by Foye, the executive director and an appointee of New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo.
"The empathy I felt was there’s often a misunderstanding around the role of the chair of a board and it’s governance responsibility and the role and responsibility of a management team that’s operating as complex an entity as the Port Authority," he said.
Samson engenders similar loyalty from Rowe, who has taken his friend on four of his annual trips to Hungary.
"Some people, you turn around, they cut your heart out. He’s not like that," Rowe said. "He’s not a pussycat, but he’s not like that."
Not everyone agrees.
That few people were willing to go on the record about Samson speaks to the power he wields, even as U.S. Attorney Paul Fishman reviews Bridgegate and interviews Hoboken officials.
But some contend his reputation as a statesman and a gentleman is a veneer, saying Samson has managed to be centrally involved without being the center of attention.
Born in Newark, Samson went to Hillside High School and Rutgers University, where he graduated in 1961 with a commission in the Army Reserve Officer Training Corps. It was not until his active duty tour — six months that were extended to a year because of tensions in Berlin — that he settled on a career in law, he told The Star-Ledger in 2002.
Wolff & Samson, the Roseland firm that Samson co-founded with Joel Wolff in 1972, now has 120 lawyers.
Former Democratic Gov. James McGreevey, who appointed Samson attorney general, said has had "a long history of stellar public service with both Republican and Democratic governors."
Samson and Christie jointly received a death threat from the Latin Kings in 2003. Samson was attorney general, and Christie was in his seven-year stint as U.S. attorney.
"That brings you together," Christie deadpanned in 2010 when announcing Samson was his pick to lead the Port Authority. "They threatened to kill both of us together, which was exciting."
Weeks before Samson was confirmed, the bistate agency in December 2010 chose the Trenton-based planning and design firm Clarke Caton Hintz to study a redevelopment zone in Hoboken.
The Port Authority said the firm beat out three other firms, which the agency declined to name, because it "scored the highest due to having the most experienced staff assigned to the project and the most relevant and recent experience with redevelopment/rehabilitation plans."
Zimmer has said she was baffled when the study, which cost $51,443, recommended developing three blocks of the 19-block area, which was owned by the Rockefeller Group, a client of Wolff & Samson. Zimmer says then-DCA Commissioner Lori Grifa helped line up the grant, and pressured the mayor to support the development plan when she left state government to work for Wolff & Samson. Grifa declined comment.
As the state Legislature presses on with its investigation, Senate President Steve Sweeney (D-Gloucester) said Samson’s connections to the controversies raise questions about his judgment.
"When you get a guy like David Samson who is a former attorney general, that understands law, it’s pretty common sense — you step away from those things from one reason — if you are representing someone there is a direct financial benefit," Sweeney said. "There is supposed to be a level of professional integrity. I know it’s New Jersey, but I still believe in that."
Staff writers Susan K. Livio, Ryan Hutchins and Steve Strunsky contributed to this report.SoftBank CEO and Sprint Chairman Masayoshi Son once again asserted his support for the U.S. operator, saying the carrier “will be the most dramatic large-scale turnaround” in U.S. history.
SoftBank spent more than $20 billion to acquire controlling interest in Sprint in 2012, and the company had initially hoped to acquire T-Mobile as well and merge the carriers to take on Verizon and AT&T, Son said during a conference call Monday discussing SoftBank’s quarterly earnings. That effort was dropped when U.S. regulators indicated they were opposed to a merger, but Son said Sprint is no longer the financial sinkhole it once was.
“For the past three years, Sprint has been a drag on our consolidated basis and was the biggest reason our debt increased,” Son said, according to a Seeking Alpha transcript. “Originally Sprint and T-Mobile, we were going to acquire them both, merge them and have a company that was equal to AT&T and Verizon…. That was our basic strategy. But because of the rejection by the U.S. government, our basic strategy did not work out. But as a result, we had difficulty (with Sprint), but we made a steady effort. And as a result, the net loss stopped…. So now we are seeing a steady increase in the number of subscribers.”
Indeed, Sprint’s customer base has grown significantly in 2016 thanks primarily to aggressive promotions such as its offer to halve the monthly bills of customers who switch from its rivals. The operator saw 347,000 net postpaid phone additions during the most recent quarter, well outpacing the 275,000 predicted by Wells Fargo Securities.
And Sprint has slowly shored up its finances as it has grown its customer base, Son said. The operator has cut costs across the board over the last year, and has noticeably reduced its network capex as it turns to small cells to densify its network.
“As a result, Sprint’s free cash flow has made a turnaround. Until now it was hundreds of billions of yen of loss every year,” Son said. “So cost is reduced. Fixed cost is reduced, capex is reduced significantly.”
Analysts have questioned whether Sprint can continue to be competitive as it cuts back its network investment, however. The operator raised eyebrows earlier this year when it lowered its capex guidance from $4.5 billion to $3 billion; it spent only $470 million in capex during the latest quarter.
“Though the company once again did not provide incremental specifics on its network strategy, management did note that it had been able to re-invigorate SoftBank Japan’s network vs. its peers, all while on a lower capital expenditure budget. Mr. Son seemed to endorse the fact that he believes the same results can be achieved in the U.S.,” Barclays analyst Amir Rozwadowski said in a research note addressing Son’s remarks. SoftBank “doesn't see the need to alter the strategy at Sprint, noting that it remains on track with both network improvement plans and cost reduction efforts. In both areas SoftBank believes there is further room for improvement…. However, questions on its ability to surpass peers on network quality -- a clear goal of its parent company -- on comparatively lower capex are likely to remain in place for now."Media playback is not supported on this device Man Utd let in dreadful goals - Moyes
Manchester United boss David Moyes says the club are "rebuilding" after a 2-0 Premier League defeat by Everton.
United's 11th Premier League defeat of the campaign means it is mathematically impossible for them to qualify for next season's Champions League.
Last season's champions are seventh in the table with four games left.
"I think that everybody knows we are on track to make changes and do some different things. We are rebuilding," said Moyes.
"I understand it has not been good, I recognise it has not been good and it needs to be better."
The defeat marked a disappointing return to Goodison Park for Moyes - who spent 11 years at Everton's manager.
He was given a mixed reception by the Everton fans.
"I did not enjoy the result, that's for sure," Moyes told BBC Radio 5 live.
Double trouble This season is the first in which both Liverpool and Everton have done the double over Manchester United
"I've got to say I was so focused on my own job that I did not take anything in. I couldn't tell you if it was a good one (reception) or a bad one."
Moyes was pleased with elements of his side's performance.
"We certainly didn't deserve to go into the break 2-0 down," he said.
"We gave away two terrible goals but prior to that we passed the ball brilliantly well.
"What we couldn't do is make enough chances but we had a great control and we got done by two stupid decisions.
"We didn't have a final through pass at times. That was the disappointing part - that we just couldn't do that in the final third, but I couldn't fault how we played because we kept the ball incredibly well."
Moyes praised his former side, adding: "Credit to Everton - they defended deep and they hit us on the counter attack."After months of rumors and speculation, Microsoft's next-generation console is finally here. During a special event at the company's Redmond headquarters today, Microsoft is unveiling Xbox One. Describing it as an all-in-one console, Microsoft's Don Mattrick unveiled the new shaped Xbox controller alongside Xbox hardware that closely resembles a set-top box.
On the hardware side, Microsoft has included 8GB of RAM, a single custom 40-nanometer system-on-chip with an 8-core CPU and GPU, and a custom 500GB HDD. The system-on-chip is made by AMD and Microsoft designed its own HDD in-house. Microsoft claims a combination of three operating systems power the One with the kernel of Windows. The system also utilizes a Blu-ray drive, USB 3.0, and built-in 802.11n Wi-Fi for gaming and entertainment. Microsoft also has new Kinect to share, and it includes a 1080p wide-angle camera that's designed to read your heartbeat while you exercise. Microsoft's new Xbox controller includes 40 design changes and impulse triggers that let you feel the feedback directly in the triggers themselves. The controller and Kinect work together to recognize a player, allowing gamers to raise a controller and cause actions in games, and more.
"Xbox on"
"Xbox on" turns on the hardware to power up an instant-on system with a new Home dashboard that is near-identical to Microsoft's Windows 8 operating system. Voice commands let you navigate the system, with options to control live TV. A new Instant Switching feature lets you move between applications and live TV streams instantly. Content can |
of Ireland with keen competition between clubs for the best young players and the compensation payments they can attract if they move to big English clubs.
Talks about the situation were continuing last night but the proposed doubling of the distance over which clubs can cast their net for young talent to 100km would represent a significant victory for the DDSL and its affiliates if it is passed.
Airtricity League leaders St Patrick’s Athletic, meanwhile, agreed contract terminations with a number of fringe squad players yesterday prior to leaving Dublin for Luton, the first leg of their journey to Lithuania for tomorrow night’s Europa League tie against Zalgiris.
Striker Conor Murphy, winger Jordan Keegan and teenage midfielder Marco Chindea have joined Bohemians, Dundalk and Waterford United respectively after parting company with the Inchicore outfit.
Dundalk have also signed Francis McCaffrey, a Belfast-born midfielder who was recently released by Hull City.
But the most prominent switch on what was a busy second day of the league’s summer transfer window was Ciarán Kilduff’s loan move from Shamrock Rovers to Cork City until the end of the season.BEIJING (Reuters) - A student leader of China’s 1989 pro-democracy movement who has long lived in the United States went on trial in China on Thursday, a day after U.S. President Barack Obama finished a visit that raised human rights.
Zhou Yongjun faces fraud charges at the trial in Shehong County in southwest Sichuan province, his lawyer and a long-time girlfriend told Reuters.
Zhou was a leader of the Beijing Students’ Autonomous Union in the 1989 protests that ended in a bloody army-led crackdown in the streets around Beijing’s Tiananmen Square. He later obtained a green card from the United States, giving him residential rights, but not full citizenship.
“I know from the lawyers that he’s on trial today, but the whole process has been kept secret,” Zhang Yuewei, Zhou’s girlfriend, said from Los Angeles where she lives. She said Zhou’s immediate family had also told her of the trial.
Zhou, 42, faces charges of financial fraud involving a bank in Hong Kong, but Zhang and other supporters say the charges were a pretext to punish him for his years of rights activism.
He was handed to Chinese police by authorities in Hong Kong, leading to his detention for nearly a year, Zhang and Hong Kong rights activists said last month.
Lacking a valid Chinese passport, Zhou traveled to Hong Kong with the intention of visiting relatives in China on a Malaysian national’s passport in September last year.
“Holding the trial at this time was to show the U.S. President,” Zhang said in a separate email. “The Chinese government maybe believes that it has the power and cash to go up against the United States and international society.”
Zhou vigorously denied the charges, said his lawyer, Chen Zerui.
“Of course, he pleaded innocent and spoke out to the court in his own defense,” Chen said of Zhou, speaking by phone. “He believes the whole case is without any foundation.”
In his public comments throughout his four-day visit to China, Obama raised general hopes for broader human rights in Communist Party-ruled China, but avoided raising specific cases. It was unclear, however, whether he raised such cases in his closed-door meetings with China’s leaders.
But China’s ruling Communist Party appears in no mood to make concessions to dissidents and human rights critics, even with pressure from the West.
In a separate development, officials in Sichuan province told the family of dissident Huang Qi — an activist tried on charges of illegally holding state secrets — that his verdict will be announced on Monday, his wife Zeng Li told Reuters.
Because Zhou is not a U.S. citizen, Washington has scant formal power to intervene, and Chinese authorities have no obligations to tell the United States of any developments.
The court did not give a verdict on Thursday. If found guilty, Zhou could face a sentence of up to 10 years or longer in jail, said Chen.
China’s courts come under Communist Party control and rarely find defendants innocent.Chasing Mavericks
Release Date: October 26, 2012
Directors: Michael Apted, Curtis Hanson
Stars: Jonny Weston, Gerard Butler, Elisabeth Shue
Runtime: 120 min
Tagline: Legends Start Somewhere
Chasing Mavericks brings the audience knowledge of the life story of Jay Moriarity. The year is 1994, and the location is Santa Cruz, California. 15-year old Jay Moriarity has always loved surfing, and has idolized local legend Frosty Hesson since childhood. When Jay hitches a ride on the roof of Frosty’s van, he finds out that the myth of the Mavericks surf break, one of the biggest waves on Earth, is very real. He gets it in his aspiring stubborn head that he must ride this wave, and Frosty offers to teach him to survive it.
A lot of the content in C.M., is material that you’ve probably seen about ten times before, and the story feels simply between average and a bit above average. It’s just that unfortunately average true underdog story, who just wants to beat the odds and come out a winner, with just a little determination and heart. Despite its average story, it still does offer an enjoyable experience and a story that someone could easily like a lot, or even love.
The true story is pretty nice, and it’s all about following one’s dreams and just aspire to become something, or some such bogus bullsh*t. If you do know Jay’s story and everything before you see it, it isn’t necesssary to check this one out. Unless you’re really curious, but if you know beforehand, it may not be as enjoyable. It also might be a rewarding experience for you if you went in knowing as little about his story as possible, and go in without many expectations at all. It’s just some really nice scenery and a fairly average tale.
Jay knows what it is like to be independent, as he has grown up (for the most part) without his father, and his mother works a lot. He finds a fatherly figure within Frosty, and it really is nice to watch their relationship grow over the course of the feature. Jay also learns great lessons of how to observe, and lessons of fear from Frosty. The chemistry created between the two is great. Also, the chemistry created between Jay and Kim is too, great. At times, the relationship between Jay and his best friend Blond, feels, oddly enough, awkward.
The beginning with Jay younger and Kim younger and Frosty younger, almost makes it feel like a whole different plot. That goes on for about fifteen minutes, but then it jumps ahead seven years to 1994, where the majority of the film is set. I didn’t like how that was done.
The acting is good, and the main performers bring good chops to the table. I haven’t seen a lot of Jonny Weston or Leven Rambin. Well, I’ve seen Rambin in her small role in The Hunger Games, but that’s about it. There is also some incredible scenery and fine cinematography offered.
As far as surfing films go, this one was great. I’ve never been a huge fan of surfing, but I did enjoy this more than Soul Surfer. In that one, they really just chewed (really feasted) the scenery. Speaking of S.S., the success of that probably inspired Fox to make a surfing flick, for young Moriarity, for the 2012 Fall season.
The great thing about Jay and Frosty’s relationship is that it doesn’t feel like a teacher-student relationship, but a true friendship.
The climactic surf sequence is fairly quickly paced, but others just drag on; and at times the relationships that build on the land are greater than those draining surf sequences.
SMALL SPOILER ALERT.
This isn’t a large spoiler because it doesn’t spoil a key element of the film, so read with much risk.
Somehow, the fact that the Mavericks is real is leaked, and citizens around the area come, right during the final surf sequence when Jay wants to ride the huge wave that’s coming. Some watch, and some amateur surfers want to try out the waves. Even some boats go out. For me, I hate how the filmmakers execute this. It really takes a number on my attention, because Jay is supposed to be the focal point, but at times I’m really distracted by all those boats in the water. It’s mostly bothersome to me because the filmmakers really don’t have to follow the story to the letter. They should have just left out the boats, then I’d be content.
END OF SMALL SPOILER ALERT.
There isn’t a lot of humour offered, but the few jokes are pretty funny. There’s some poignancy here and there, but most of it can be pretty inspiring.
Gerard Butler (he also is Executive Producer), Jonny Weston, Elisabeth Shue, Abigail Spencer, Leven Rambin, Devin Crittenden and Taylor Handley star.
Sometimes, Chasing Mavericks feels just a bit too average. There’s some nice humour, cinematography, and great scenery. Sometimes some scenes drag on, but the better scenes certainly outweigh those poor ones. It’s worth checking out if you want to check out a nice inspirational story, but that’s about the only big thing that makes C.M. stand out so vibrantly.
70/100
AdvertisementsAuthorities in Oromia, Ethiopia’s largest state, have infuriated language experts and Oromo nationalists with their decision to re-arrange the order of the alphabet of the region’s language, Afan Oromo.
In multilingual and multiethnic Ethiopia, orthographic choices are complex linguistic and political decisions that have great socio-political consequences.
Among Ethiopia’s written languages, most write their language in either the Ge’ez or Ethiopic alphabet, known as “Fidel,” or the Roman alphabet. Afan Oromo officially adopted the Roman alphabet — in its usual order of ABCD and so on — after the current government come to power in 1991.
However, more than a quarter century later, the regional educational authorities of Oromia announced they were reshuffling the “Qubee Afan Oromo” (as the alphabet is called). The first seven letters are:
L
A
G
I
M
Aa
S
Justifying the change, authorities blamed the old alphabet order as the reason why reading skills among primary school children in Oromia remain poor. They even cited a research to back up their claim.
There is, however, a problem with their argument. It was based on a misrepresentation of the findings of the research. In fact, the research, which was funded by US Agency for International Development (USAID) in 2010, revealed a broader problem of reading skills not only among Afan Oromo-speaking primary school students, but also students whose mother tongue was Amharic, Hararigna, Sidaamu Afoo, Somali and Tigrinya.
In the study, pedagogic and logistical difficulties were identified as factors for poor reading skills in Ethiopia’s six major regions. However, the order of alphabet was not cited as a factor for the dismal reality. In a post on the citizen journalism site OPride.com, one blogger agreed with the findings of the research but questioned the connection it had to the alphabet order, writing:
There is little disagreement on the core problem here: The education quality crisis in Ethiopia needs fixing. …. The disagreement here though is on the proposed solutions. This is underscored by a key question that everyone is asking: JUST HOW DOES REORDERING THE AFAAN OROMO ALPHABET IMPROVE READING AND LEARNING OUTCOMES?
‘Yet another fraud perpetrated on the Oromo people’
The change actually took effect in 2016 and school textbooks already reflect the reshuffling, but it was done so quietly. So much so that the news of the letter order change only made it into Ethiopia’s political news cycle after government affiliate Oromia Broadcasting Service reported about it. Over last two years, a series of political events with far-reaching repercussions such as protests and internet outages has dominated the country's news cycle.
As soon as the change was reported, concerned Oromo intellectuals started raising questions.
For them, this is the latest attempt in a series of steps intended to diminish the cultural rights of the Oromo people, who have historically been marginalized in Ethiopia. On Facebook Awol Kassim Allo, wrote:
The casual change/disfiguring of the Alphabet of a language spoken by more than 40 million people without any debate and discussion is appalling. The excuse given to justify it – improving the ability of children to read at early stages of instruction – is lame and cannot stuck up to scrutiny. …This is yet another fraud perpetrated on the Oromo people and it must be rejected.
The circumstance of the change also stoked another fear: that the decision to alter the order of the letters might be a plot by people who were disgruntled when the Oromos opted to adopt the Roman alphabet over the Ge’ez alphabet in 1991.
What's up with this ‘new Qubee’ thing? Are they really planning to change this swift? A generation would relearn the newly introduced Qubee? — Zelalem Kibret (@zelalemkibret) June 4, 2017
Prior to 1991, Afan Oromo was written in different alphabets. The first Oromo Bible was printed in Ge’ez letters in the 19th century. During the reign of emperor Haile Selassie (1930-1974), Afan Oromo was not a written language.
When Ethiopia’s military regime came to power in 1974, it decreed that all Ethiopian languages must be written exclusively in Ge’ez alphabet— a draconian policy intended to promote unity among Ethiopia’s diverse ethnic groups.
Parallel to the Ge’ez letters, however, Oromo language experts and Oromo nationalists were also using the Roman alphabet. Paul Baxter, a social anthropologist, wrote that the Roman alphabet was used to transcribe the Afan Oromo language among Kenyan Oromos in the 1940s.
Proponents of the Ge’ez alphabet believe that Ge’ez signifies the rich liturgic and literary tradition of Ethiopia. For them, preserving Ge’ez in the age of the Roman alphabet's domination is a sign of resistance to cultural globalization and a symbol of identity. Responding to Awol Kassim Allo’s post on Facebook, Abeba Teshale wrote:
Simple, structured, logical, Ethiopian, African, Amharic/Tigregna alphabet is there for any one interested to adopt. 26 vs 338 syllables! There is an alphabet for each sound and for the ones that don't have one, we could crate a symbole. Just a thought
For many Oromos, though, adopting the Roman alphabet is a matter of selecting an alphabet that best fits the Afan Oromo sound system.
According to academic Teferi Degeneh Bijiga, who wrote his doctoral dissertation on the topic of Afan Oromo writing system, complex historical, cultural and linguistic forces were at play when Oromo intellectuals decided to adopt the Roman alphabet in 1991.
Over the next few weeks, this issue will be front and center in Ethiopian politics, where the Ethiopian government is operating under a state of emergency because of the protests that began over land use as well as political and economic marginalization in Oromia in November 2015.We understand your desire for property details. We desire them, too, and continue to actively seek them out. We have simply come to comprehend that the property owners or management companies often need to consult their architect or another party to provide accurate information. As you are finalizing your RFPs, please keep the below sentiment in mind, which can be found in the ‘Most Asked Questions’ section on the website
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Thanks for your patience and happy RFPing!9/11 Hijackers Passports were Issued by CIA - US Consulate Whistleblower
Remember the name Mike Springmann. This one won't be going away any time soon.
(SACRAMENTO, CA) - A man who spent two decades as a high level State Department official, at one time in charge of issuing visas out of Saudi Arabia, Mike Springmann, has been trying to tell people the most important news about a direct connection between the CIA and 9/11 for more than a decade.
As you will note in this review and the video below, recorded at the National Press Club on 10 June 2002 in Washington DC, (Nobody can say the major press was not exposed to this information) this extremely credible eyewitness has been stonewalled by the government and major media for a long time, even as they reported the lax security conditions that allowed those men now associated with the 9/11 attacks to enter the U.S.
15 of the 19 did not qualify for a visa, yet they were granted one anyway.
10 of the individuals entered through the very agency Mr. Springmann once headed and then spent so much energy trying to expose.
Springmann went public (after internal efforts failed) to expose the State Dept/CIA conduiting terrorists into the USA. It occurs to me that there probably really will be a reinvestigation of 911 and that those involved could actually be taken to trial and brought to justice. I can feel my country beginning to implode because when the you know what really hits the fan, I do not think that the world will forgive us.
He wasn't small change in the State Dept.
Springman formerly headed the American visa bureau in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia. The BBC quotes Springmann talking about the frustrations he encountered while trying to keep the visa issuance above the board:
"In Saudi Arabia I was repeatedly ordered by high level State Dept officials to issue visas to unqualified applicants. These were, essentially, people who had no ties either to Saudi Arabia or to their own country. I complained bitterly at the time there. I returned to the US, I complained to the State Dept here, to the General Accounting Office, to the Bureau of Diplomatic Security and to the Inspector General's office. I was met with silence."
- BBC News Source: "former head of the American visa bureau in Jeddah is Michael Springman".
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/events/newsnight/1645527.stm
This program of issuing illegal visas began during the Afghan civil war in the late 1980's, Springmann explains. The CIA was bringing Mujaheddin warriors back to the U.S. and training them in tactics to defeat the Soviets. For the purposes of military training, the U.S. government granted visas that never would normally have been issued.
The practice would have set the stage well for an inside 9/11 event. I think it is fair to conclude that people are increasingly realizing for myriad reasons, that the government version of this story is extremely and utterly impossible to even begin to believe. That is for those blinded not by nationalism, but science.
From History Commons...
September 1987-March 1989: Head US Consular Official Claims He’s Told to Issue Visas to Unqualified Applicants
Michael Springmann, head US consular official in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, later claims that during this period he is “repeatedly ordered… to issue [more than 100] visas to unqualified applicants.” He turns them down, but is repeatedly overruled by superiors. [BBC, 11/6/2001; St. Petersburg Times, 11/25/2001]
In one case, two Pakistanis apply for visas to attend a trade show in the US, but they are unable to name the trade show or city in which it will be held. When Springmann denies them a visa, he gets “an almost immediate call from a CIA case officer, hidden in the commercial section [of the consulate], that I should reverse myself and grant these guys a visa.” Springmann refuses, but the decision is reversed by the chief of the consular section. Springmann realizes that even the ambassador, Walter Cutler, is aware of the situation, which becomes “more brazen and blatant” as time goes on. On one occasion Springmann is even told, “If you want a job in the State Department in future, you will change your mind.” [CBC Radio One, 7/3/2002; Trento, 2005, pp. 344-6]
Springmann loudly complains to numerous government offices, but no action is taken. He is fired and his files on these applicants are destroyed. He later learns that recruits from many countries fighting for bin Laden against Russia in Afghanistan were funneled through the Jeddah office to get visas to come to the US, where the recruits would travel to train for the Afghan war. According to Springmann, the Jeddah consulate was run by the CIA and staffed almost entirely by intelligence agents. This visa system may have continued at least through 9/11, and 11 of the 19 9/11 hijackers received their visas through Jeddah (see November 2, 1997-June 20, 2001), possibly as part of this program (see October 9, 2002 and October 21, 2002). [BBC, 11/6/2001; St. Petersburg Times, 11/25/2001; CBC Radio One, 7/3/2002; Associated Press, 7/17/2002 ; Fox News, 7/18/2002]
Directly from Mr. Springmann The CIA’s Consulate General in Jeddah Before leaving Washington, I had met with the then-US ambassador to Saudi Arabia, Walter Cutler, who spent nearly 45 minutes telling me about all the problems my predecessor had caused him in refusing visas to various applicants. An administrative official in the Near East Bureau, Ellen Goff, also mentioned that there were odd issues involving visas at Jeddah. However, the State Department Desk Officer for Saudi Arabia, in response to my query about these strange statements, said he had no idea of what they were talking about, opining only that Cutler himself was a peculiar duck. Upon arrival in Jeddah in September 1987, I learned the truth about the situation – very quickly and very unpleasantly. I was bombarded with demands (not requests) by the American Consul General (Jay Philip Freres), the Political Officer and his successor, a Commercial Officer and the head of the Political/Economic Section, to issue visas to people who had no ties (either to Saudi Arabia or to their own country) strong enough to cause them to return to Jeddah or their homeland once they had arrived in America. When I refused them, because the US Immigration and Nationality Act and the State Department’s own regulations clearly stated that a visa applicant is an intending immigrant unless and until he can prove otherwise, I was repeatedly overruled by the chief of the Consular Section, Justice Stevens. Sometimes, in the face of very real and very vocal threats against me, I issued the visas with a notation on the application form as to why I had refused it and that I had reversed myself only upon direct order of the head of the consulate, Jay Philip Freres. Things got so bad that, on Freres’ order, I wasn’t allowed to issue any visas unless the CIA Base Chief had approved them. As an example of what I had to deal with, the following is but one instance: Two Pakistanis came to me, seeking a visa to attend a US automotive parts trade show. They could not name the trade show or the city in which it would be held. I then refused the visa. A CIA Case Officer who worked in the Commercial Section called me within a few minutes, demanding that I give them visas. However, he could not provide me with any reason why I should overturn my decision. So I didn’t. But, within the hour, he had contacted Justice Stevens, chief of the Consular Section and had reversed my refusal. Whistle-Blowing Does Not Advance Careers I protested this state of affairs to Stevens, to Freres, to Stephanie Smith, Counselor for Consular Affairs at the Embassy in Riyadh, and, on the advice of Smith, to the Bureau of Consular Affairs at the State Department in Washington, DC. I also questioned Jean Bradford, head of the Consular Section’s other office, Citizens’ Services, about this. She told me that Jay Freres “just liked giving candy to babies”. I also discussed this with the part-time consular officer assigned to my section, who professed dislike of the practice. (But then, he frequently issued visas to his own contacts, often saying “Mike, let me handle this next guy in line, he’s one of mine.”) Mirabile dictu [2], upon my return to Washington, DC in 1991, I was fired. And the file I had maintained on the questionable visa candidates was shredded after my departure from Jeddah. The Truth Does Not Set You Free In DC, which I call the State of Confusion, I went to the US House of Representatives’ Committee on International Relations to protest both the visa issue and the CIA’s direct involvement in the visa process. There all I got was: “What’s the matter, don’t you think we need the CIA?” for a response. I also contacted GAO (then, the General Accounting Office, now, the Government Accountability Office), Congress’ investigative arm and watchdog over the Executive Branch. There was absolutely no interest in what went on at Jeddah (including the disappearance of roughly $1 million annually in funds derived from Consulate liquor sales to hundreds of Saudi and other Muslims, as well as to expatriates of all nationalities). I then contacted the FBI and the Justice Department’s Office of Professional Responsibility, charging that US laws were being violated by US government employees and that I thought these people had been taking bribes for issuing visas to their contacts. Indeed, I had been told by one fellow that the price of a visa at the Jeddah consulate was the equivalent of $2,500. There was absolutely no interest in or any follow-up on this. Next, I went to the State Department’s Bureau of Diplomatic Security and its allegedly-independent Inspector General. I provided a lengthy statement, itemizing the issues and laws violated. I asked that the State Department investigate the abuse of the visa process, the questionable liquor sales, and, in one egregious incident, the Jeddah consulate’s attack on an American businessman who had questioned the money flow from the liquor sales (which had gotten him fired). The response was that, since I had a personality conflict with Jay Freres, there was nothing to investigate.
- visasforterrorists.blogspot.com
As referenced above, thirteen of the 15 Saudi hijackers were issued visas to the United States, 10 of them at the US Consulate in Jeddah, according to US officials. You can read more here:
http://www.boston.com/news/packages/underattack/news/driving_a_wedge/part1.shtml
To make matters even worse, it is reported by Guardian UK, there are solid accounts of U.S. officials being told to 'back off' on Saudis and Bin Laden before September 11th. There is no question that former U.S. President Bill Clinton viewed bin Laden as a serious terrorist and had invested much of the country's time and energy trying to kill him. All of the accumulated data on Osama bin Laden was dismissed by the incoming George W. Bush administration.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2001/nov/07/afghanistan.september11
CBC News transcript- Michael Springman
"...this operation in Jeddah was so peculiar, so strange, and it went against anything I had ever seen or heard in my 20 years in government, that I thought that what these people were telling me about CIA involvement with Osama, and with Afghanistan had to be true because nothing else would fit. By the attempts to cover me up and shut me down, this convinced me more and more that this was not a pipe-dream, this was not a machination, this was not a conspiracy theory."
http://www.btinternet.com/~nlpwessex/Documents/springmaninterview.htm
I have tried to interject as little as possible in this review and just bring readers the information that is already available. For my part, I did go to the place in Afghanistan where bin Laden trained his forces while fighting the Russians in the 80's. Based on everything I know and have observed personally and through discussions and interviews with key people and via just plain logic, none of this Osama bin Laden 9/11 scenario made sense. I knew the second officials supposedly found terrorist's passports on the ground in New York. I know it was enough, with the mainstream media's help, to convince Americans at large, but I truly think it is changing and that a new day is dawning. It isn't just another brick in the wall, as shameful as it all is, we have to do what is correct and remain vigilant and continue revealing this vital information to the public.
Here are more incredible resources on this story from the YouTube page:
BBC News: Michael Springman
In Saudi Arabia I was repeatedly ordered by high level State Dept officials to issue visas to unqualified applicants. These were, essentially, people who had no ties either to Saudi Arabia or to their own country. I complained bitterly at the time there. I returned to the US, I complained to the State Dept here, to the General Accounting Office, to the Bureau of Diplomatic Security and to the Inspector General's office. I was met with silence.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/events/newsnight/1645527.stm
Michael Springman Tv 1/4:
CIA Ordered Visas For 15 of The 19 9/11 Hijackers in Jeddah
Video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LmjAg_-Vi9Y
9/11 Citizens' Commission - Michael Springman
Video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KSebMjd50u0
Israeli security issued urgent warning to CIA of large-scale terror attacks
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/northamerica/usa/1340698/Israeli-se...
15 Hijackers Obtained Visas in Saudi Arabia
http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn?pagename=article&node=&conte...
C.I.A. Was Tracking Hijacker Months Earlier Than It Had Said
http://www.nytimes.com/2002/06/03/us/cia-was-tracking-hijacker-months-earlier...
Hijackers 'trailed by CIA before attacks'
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2002/jun/03/usa.september11
C.I.A. Was Tracking Hijacker Months Earlier Than It Had Said
http://www.nytimes.com/2002/06/03/us/cia-was-tracking-hijacker-months-earlier...
CIA Didn't Share Info About 9/11 Hijackers
abc news: http://abcnews.go.com/WNT/story?id=129563&page=1#.Tv5tFdWwVM0
Hijackers Lived With FBI Informant
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2002/09/09/attack/main521223.shtml
Sept 9 2001: Bin Laden/Afgan War Plan was on Bush's desk
cbs news: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=19tnCIBJtJQ
Hijack'suspects' alive and well
BBC news: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/1559151.stm
abc news: The political journal National Review obtained the visa applications for 15 of the 19 hijackers — and evidence that all of them should have been denied entry to the country.
http://abcnews.go.com/WNT/story?id=130051&page=1#.Tv59NNWwVM0
CNN: Six months after Sept. 11, hijackers' visa approval letters received http://articles.cnn.com/2002-03-12/us/inv.flight.school.visas_1_huffman-aviat...
Washington Post: Hijackers Got Visas With Little Scrutiny
http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn?pagename=article&node=&conte...
9/11 commission report: 4 of the hijackers passports were found on 9/11
http://www.9-11commission.gov/staff_statements/staff_statement_1.pdf
great sources:
http://visasforterrorists.blogspot.com/
Khalid Sheikh Mohammed secured a visa in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia
http://articles.cnn.com/2004-08-22/politics/911.commission_1_final-report-hij...
When Springmann denies a visa, he gets "an almost immediate call from a CIA case officer, hidden in the commercial section [of the consulate], that I should reverse myself and grant these guys a visa."
Source: CBC Archive
http://www.btinternet.com/~nlpWESSEX/Documents/springmaninterview.htm
Video Source/Credit: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zgYFo79q1Ek
Tim King's reports about bin Laden on Salem-News.com
Jul-19-2012 Former CIA Agent Publicly States: Osama bin Laden Died Five Years Ago - Tim King Salem-News.com
Jun-19-2012 Bombshell: Newly Released CIA Documents Prove Bush Could have Killed Bin Laden; Prevented 911 - Tim King Salem-News.com
May-07-2012 Abandoning Afghanistan, Great Job America - Political Perspective by Tim King Salem-News.com
Jan-11-2012 Death Drones from Hell, Coming to a Nightmare Near You - Tim King Salem-News.com
Sep-08-2011 Ahmad Massoud: the Lion in the Path of Understanding 9/11 - Tim King Salem-News.com
Sep-03-2011: Gearing Up for 911 - Tim King Salem-News.com
May-06-2011 'Lion Sheik' bin Laden and the Confused American Public - Tim King Salem-News.com
May-01-2011 Osama Bin Laden's Death Claimed, But How Does One Kill a Corpse? - Tim King Salem-News.com
Jan-21-2011 Terrorism by the Numbers - Tim King Salem-News.com
Aug-01-2010: Great American Heroes: Ho Chi Minh, Saddam Hussein and Osama bin Laden - Tim King Salem-News.com
Jun-18-2010 A Colorado Ex-Con's Quest to Kill bin Laden - Tim King Salem-News.com
Dec-03-2009 Afghanistan and Obama's Point of No Return - Tim King Salem-News.com
Sep-11-2007 Afghanistan: Is Osama bin Laden Alive and Well? (VIDEO) - Tim King Salem-News.com
Tim King: Salem-News.com Editor and Writer
Tim King has more than twenty years of experience on the west coast as a television news producer, photojournalist, reporter and assignment editor. Tim is Salem-News.com's Executive News Editor. His background includes covering the war in Afghanistan in 2006 and 2007, and reporting from the Iraq war in 2008. Tim is a former U.S. Marine who follows stories of Marines and Marine Veterans; he's covered British Royal Marines and in Iraq, Tim embedded with the same unit he served with in the 1980's.
Tim holds awards for reporting, photography, writing and editing from traditional mainstream news agencies like The Associated Press and Electronic Media Association; he also holds awards from the National Coalition of Motorcyclists, the Oregon Confederation of Motorcycle Clubs; and was presented with a 'Good Neighbor Award' for his reporting, by the The Red Cross.
Tim's years as a Human Rights reporter have taken on many dimensions; he has rallied for a long list of cultures and populations and continues to every day, with a strong and direct concentration on the 2009 Genocide of Tamil Hindus and Christians in Sri Lanka. As a result of his long list of reports exposing war crimes against Tamil people, Tim was invited to be the keynote speaker at the FeTNA (Federation of Tamil Sangams of North America) Conference in Baltimore, in July 2012. This is the largest annual gathering of North American Tamils; Tim addressed more than 3000 people and was presented with a traditional Sri Lanka ‘blessed garland’ and a shawl as per the tradition and custom of Tamil Nadu
In a personal capacity, Tim has written 2,026 articles as of March 2012 for Salem-News.com since the new format designed by Matt Lintz was launched in December, 2005. Serving readers with news from all over the globe, Tim's life is literally encircled by the endless news flow published by Salem-News.com, where more than 100 writers contribute stories from 23+ countries and regions.
Tim specializes in writing about political and military developments worldwide; and maintains that the label 'terrorist' is ill placed in many cases; specifically with the LTTE Tamil Tigers in Sri Lanka, where it was used as an excuse to slaughter people by the tense of thousands; and in Gaza, where a trapped population lives at the mercy of Israel's destructive military war crime grinder. At the center of all of this, Tim pays extremely close attention to the safety and welfare of journalists worldwide. You can write to Tim at this address: tim@salem-news.com. Visit Tim's Facebook page (facebook.com/TimKing.Reporter)Law enforcement officers find a 'child beggar' on a subway train in Beijing. [Photo: Beijing Youth Daily]
Children have been used by their parents to gain sympathy and cash on subway trains in Beijing during their school holidays.
More than 20 'child beggars' have been found asking for money in different metro stations in Beijing by law-enforcement teams during the last two months.
Most of them |
however, varies depending on the dog’s weight. Bigger dogs tend to have shorter lives, and thus age faster in dog years, while smaller dogs live longer, and thus age slower in dog years. (This discrepancy is due in part to the fact that big dogs are more likely to have debilitating arthritis and stomach problems.) The life expectancy of a Great Dane, for example, is just eight years, so a 4-year-old Great Dane is already a whopping 35. That said, calculating dog years is far from an exact science, as evidenced by the fact that the AVMA’s calculator lumps all dogs more than 90 pounds—including 200-pound St. Bernards—into one category.
The formula has also changed over time, along with human and doggie life spans. Life expectancy for humans born in 1901 was 49 years. Now it’s 77. Dogs also live longer than they used to. In 1987, 32 percent of dogs lived past six years. Now about 44 percent do.
Researchers have long been intrigued by the ratio between human and canine life spans. In 1268, an inscription was etched into the floor of Westminster Abbey calculating the date of Judgment Day using the life spans of God’s creations, including the dog’s, which was considered to be nine years, and a person’s, which they said was 81 years. Eighteenth-century naturalist Georges Buffon noted that dogs lived roughly 10 to 12 years, compared with the human life span of 90 to 100 years.
It wasn’t until the 20th century that the phrase “dog years” started to appear. It’s unclear who coined it, but it was current by the 1960s, when some math textbooks had students calculate their age “in dog years.” In the 1970s, Alpo commercials featuring actor Lorne Green popularized the seven-to-one conversion: “Duchess is 13. That’s like 91 to you and me.”
The phrase “dog years” should not be confused with “dog days,” which originated in ancient times as a reference to the period in summer when the star Sirius—or the “Dog Star”—once rose with the sun. It is also distinct from the phrase “a dog’s years,” which means a very long time.
Got a question about today’s news? Ask the Explainer.
Explainer thanks Bonnie Beaver of Texas A&M, Sharon Granskog of the American Veterinary Medical Association, and Lisa Peterson of the American Kennel Club.That headline is about as polite as I could make it. My cousin in New York was a bit more candid on my Facebook page:
A couple of weeks ago I made a [Facebook] comment on a friend’s post, equating Cain to Steppin Fetchit. I was told it was out of line to call him that. Every story I see about Cain proves that I was right in line.
A NYT piece, “Behind Cain’s Humor, a Question of Seriousness,” pretty delicately addresses one of the major issues I have with Cain’s approach to his burgeoning white constituency. While people may dismiss Mr. Cain’s candidacy, there’s more going on politically than meets the eye. Mr. Godfather Pizza is hardly part of the working class, but the down-home show he puts on in public, to be charitable, is offensive (my emphasis):
[W]hile his casual style of racially inflected humor works to ingratiate him with mostly white audiences at campaign rallies, it has angered some black critics, who believe he uses age-old stereotypes.
He has no qualms, for instance, about playing off black clichés: should he become president, his Secret Service codename should be “Cornbread,” he wrote in his memoir, “This is Herman Cain! My Journey to the White House.” Mr. Cain’s traveling aide, Nathan Naidu, already refers to him as Cornbread on the internal campaign schedule. (Why? Mr. Cain says he just loves cornbread.)
Those kinds of comments have drawn criticism from the likes of academics like Cornel West and entertainers like Harry Belafonte, who called Mr. Cain “a bad apple.”
Of particular concern, some say, is how he seems to make a parody of black vernacular and culture.
“It makes the hair on my neck stand up,” said Ulli K. Ryder, a visiting scholar at the Center for the Study of Race and Ethnicity in America at Brown University. “The larger issue that a lot of people have, and I certainly have, is that he uses a certain kind of minstrelsy to play to white audiences. Referencing negative stereotypes in order to get heard to a white audience in the 21st century is really a problem.”
I’m waiting for the fried chicken, watermelon references and a tap-dance performance by Mr. Cain. I need not remind my gentle readers that our country still has a serious problem with race, particularly when it comes to discussing it openly and honestly.
Take “shucky ducky.”
“It’s a nonsensical thing, down-home Southern black vernacular,” Ms. Ryder said. “It’s coded as a black vernacular and it’s uneducated black vernacular, so I find it really interesting that he would reference that, seeing as he is not that.”
Exactly — Cain’s “Non-threatening, down-home Negro” act is to make socially conservative white voters feel more comfortable voting for him, I get it – everyone does, but says little about it. The fact that in the 2011 GOP a black man has to pander in a way that harkens back to “the good old days” of slavery, sharecropping and Jim Crow is sad.
What’s even more appalling (or hilarious, based on your POV) is Cain doesn’t think the President is “authentically black” either, saying he’s “never been a part of the black experience in America.” However, in terms of appropriating a notion of “black culture” (as if it is monolithic), Obama isn’t off the hook either. When he puts on his faux pastor persona in front of black church groups and the Congressional Black Caucus, trying to speechify, it’s equally offensive.
Perhaps there is progress in the the GOP, since Georgia native Cain said the other day “I like my guns and Bible. Ain’t gonna give ’em up!” A black man in 2011 can own and use a gun. In related Cain news, it’s nice to see that he likes rubbing shoulders with stone-cold bigots:
It was great meeting with Sheriff Joe Arpaio today in Arizona!
Given his joke about the electrified fence on the Mexico border, this is no surprise. When Cain went on Piers Morgan’s show, he alluded to a weird, quasi-pro take on abortion rights (that won’t sit well with his target audience), and said this about homosexuality.
Morgan and Cain also had a spirited exchange about homosexuality in which Cain said, “I think it’s a sin because of my biblical beliefs,” and said he believed sexual orientation is a choice. Incredulous, Morgan asked, “You genuinely believe millions of Americans wake up in their late teens, normally, and go, ‘You know what? I quite fancy being a homosexual?’ You don’t believe that, do you?”
“Piers,” Cain responded, “you haven’t given me any evidence to consider otherwise.”
I’m pretty sure that this view is in alignment with some of The GOP Base, but Cain’s retro view isn’t held by most of America at this point. Bonus points for clinging to that ridiculous POV.
But back to race. I’ll never understand Herman Cain and his relationship to the GOP establishment; like former puppet Michael Steele, they don’t see (or don’t care) how rancid race-based politics in the Republican party has become. It’s been quite bold since the election of Barack Obama. My long view is that we do need more minorities (and LGBTs) in the GOP because without decent representation, there’s no incentive for the GOP to woo those demographics, which are currently beholden to the Democratic Party. That said, the Republican leadership has made its bed with the fundamentalists and nativist know-nothings, making Cain and other black Republicans curious cases that border on self-loathing.
Does Mr. Cain not have a problem with what is going on in South Carolina as its Voter ID law hitting black precincts hard? There’s no tap dancing around this:
[N]early half the voters who cast ballots at a historically black college in Columbia lack state-issued photo identification and could face problems voting in next year’s presidential election, according to the analysis of precinct-level data provided by the state Election Commission.
The U.S. Justice Department has been reviewing the law for months under the federal Voting Rights Act. South Carolina’s photo identification law requires people to show a South Carolina driver’s license or identification card, a military ID or passport when they vote. Without those forms of identification, they can still cast a provisional ballot or vote absentee.
The analysis shows that among the state’s 2,134 precincts there are 10 precincts where nearly all of the law’s affect falls on nonwhite voters who don’t have a state-issued driver’s license or ID card, a total of 1,977 voters.
…State Democratic Party Chairman Dick Harpootlian said numbers show how bad the law is.“This is electoral genocide,” Harpootlian said. “This is disenfranchising huge groups of people who don’t have the money to go get an ID card.”
The response from South Carolina Republicans? Take Wesley Donehue, Political Strategist for the South Carolina Senate Republican Caucus, who said “Nice! @jimdavenport_ap proves EXACTLY why we need Voter ID in SC.http://bit.ly/opHq0l.”
As South Carolina is a critical state in the GOP primary trail, surely Herman Cain needs to be asked about Voter ID and its impact on poor people of color, particularly since he brings up his own early life in poverty on the campaign trail. Will the mainstream media do more than laugh and dismiss the Cain Minstrel Show antics and challenge him on issues like this?Tons of new progress reports from our various team members on our quest to beat Fallout 4 to release!
Posted by Thaiauxn on Aug 16th, 2015
Oh, lordy yes! We have a ton of great new updates for ya'll t'day. We have the new Faction Armours from Tau34RUS and I rigged by Dragbody, new wasteland flora from Vurts, new scripts ready to play from Seddon and RickerHK, and we are joined now by NafNaf1995 as a level artist on the project. We also have new art from EddibleGrenade and Weijisen. Not to mention, RJHelms from Beyond Boulder Dome is going to join us as soon as he gets re-adjusted to the antique GECK!
First up in news this month: I took a break from my job! For the next 3 months I will be off assignment and working exclusively on Fallout: Project Brazil, basically from 08:00 to 20:00 every day.
It's a crazy schedule and I'm sure my ass will be very numb by the end. I've got to finish some large 3d jobs, balance all the NPCs for combat and navmesh, then also record, cut, and edit new voice acting from almost 24 actors. So I will be very busy leading up to release. I might die. Send whiskey to my funeral.
This is not Skyrim in Fallout! It's... much more sophisticated!
Generic Vanilla Man Starring as Vault Viking!
I've been working with Seddon and RickerHK to renovate all of our NPCs and distribute their new gear and race appearances to levelled lists. This will help us give the Raider Tribe cultures their own visibly unique feeling, so you won't just be fighting or allies with faceless mooks, unlike the NCR. The NCR are borrowing from Dargbody's trooper Overhaul to give them some new gear, but they are very much white bread on rice. Which is okay, because that's kind of their entire life philosophy.
Tribal Super Mutants!
Shi armour!
Hero characters Kieva Nanjima and Jarl Coriolis in our test chamber.
Fully modular atomic pumps with rotating sales numbers and detachable hose!
Vault-Tec Doodads!
EddibleGrenade12 on the Nexus made some really incredible Nuka machine meshes from fallout 4 and uploaded them to the site for you to play with! I spotted those looking for a modders resource to save me time making a new Gas Pump, and decided to invite him to work with us. These new Vault resources are taken from Adam Adamowicz's concept art for Fallout 3.
Since the first gas pump, we've fallen into a cool rhythm where he sends me a mesh UVed and textured, and I do a quick retex to fit our theme and add collision geometry, then add them to the GECK via nifscope. We'll release these separately from FPB too, so you can use them in your own mods. Weijisen is also making destructible version of these assets, so as you shoot them they'll decay along various stages before finally exploding.
Flora Overhaul Test Cell!
If you still recognize this road underneath the new assets, you my friend, are an addict. Seek help.
We also have Vurt's Flora Overhaul resources integrated into our files! We've used several of his incredible tree resources, but you'll have to download VFO if you want to use them in New Vegas, which we've left completely untouched so it won't disturb any of your mods over there. For our purposes you'll only need our file to get the full FPB experience.
We're transforming our forest from the burnt toast on brown look to "The Blood Woods," where crimson leaves slowly fall to the ground and the sap drips like a wounded beast.
Sounds like a far more interesting environment to explore, right? It's also a science lesson hidden in there, as Chlorophyll when bombarded with Gamma Rays turns a rust red colour. Just like the Red Forest of Chernobyl. They at first turned red, then faded to ginger brown under the bleaching effects of the sun. But that's not as exciting so we're leaving them red. I blame FEV. GHOUL TREES. Super Mutant Ghoul Trees.
I still need to make red grass textures and meshes to really sell the look. The above are just a very quick test of the new assets as they're going in and substituting old vanilla meshes. It'll look much more rich and natural after we get tonight's file merger done and we have more time to work them into the land.
At this point, if you played the 1.3.1 version of Project Brazil and felt disappointed by that 2 year old WIP -- yeah, I was too. I HATED it. Now at the very least the world will be totally transformed and virtually unrecognisable from that shite old version, so you can mend that broken heart. :)
So far he's helped transform Union City into a place worth exploring, boosted the exterior of fort Daggerpoint, and established a new route to escape the Raiders if you get caught and want to bail on that storyline early on at Athens-Tec mine. That, along with several other changes to the wastes. Together we'll be using the new Vurts resources to redo the forest area that is currently quite shite and give you a much more pleasant experience on your way out into the deserts that I've previously renovated in our last news post.
Nuevo Union City!
Pictured: Clearly not a Star Destroyer.
Pictured: Clearly not a Star Destroyer.
Athens-Tec Mine has been renovated to use nearly 130 fewer assets, freeing up several megabytes of ram and hopefully preventing crashes in a very heavy scene. If you compare this area with Megaton in Fallout 3, the home of the Raider Alliance is 5x the size and contains 3x the NPCs. It also sprawls over several kilometres beyond the mine, and is deep in Raider territory. Naf really saved us with his renovations, since most of those old placements hadn't been touched since we ported from fallout 3 a looong time ago.
Speaking of Athens-Tec, Seddon has just finished up his quests that start the major Raider branch of our story in this area, titled "Hell's Gate."
Between Rick and Seddon we're currently waging war on Main Quest 02 on both the Raider and NCR side of the parallel plot line, which already has a ton of progress already cemented in and ready to play. Those events just need to be stitched together along the main narrative arc, which is what we'll be doing through the end of August.
Last up on our list is my work in Vault 18.
Not only have I completely remade the ancient Fallout 3 Vault Textures, I've upgraded them from 512 to 2048 resolution. Most re-textures just enlarge the existing materials and toss a sharpen filter over it with some top coat details. I actually went back and sculpted brand new normals and masks, completely redoing the texture from scratch to look the same, but have a radically higher resolution and quality of art. That is too much to use in New Vegas, but on, say, Fallout 4, these new PBR textures would fit in seamlessly, and they'd be legal to use because they are fully new assets.
That process has taken several of the last few months as I toil over the master work of completely rebuilding all of Vault 18 from the ground up.
The above is a screen-shot of my 3dsmax progress from last week. I'll keep this one close to the chest until we are officially ready to release sometime before Fallout 4 does.
That's right. All of Vault 18 is getting a makeover. No more slowdowns in the Atrium, no more getting lost and wandering identical corridors looking fr a quest marker hidden a level above or below you. No, this is a whole new level. No vanilla assets required.
The scripts, the story, and the content will be identical if you played 1.3.1, with the addition of only 1 new NPC and some remastered voice files. But the level layout is completely new and worth exploring again, even if you played 1.3.1 six times.
Also, if you happen across a magazine article, like our fan Rasta did in the Czech Republic, go ahead and post it to our facebook! We keep showing up in the Gaming News and nobody tells us before I get a google alert. :p
You can read more about our progress on the Design Documents Found Here. In the mean time, you can keep track of us on ModDB, Fallout Nexus, or Facebook. We've got a thriving online community centred around each one.
Cheers
Brandan Lee
Project LeaderDETROIT – One play doesn’t break a season is what Lowell football coach Noel Dean pointed out after Friday afternoon’s 40-38 heartbreaking loss to Detroit Martin Luther King in the Division 2 state championship game.
The Crusaders drove 97 yards in the game’s final 37 seconds, all without the benefit of a timeout, to score the game’s winning touchdown as time expired.
Armani Posey threw a 40-yard touchdown pass to Donnie Corley on the game’s final play to give King its second state championship and first since 2007.
“People are going to talk about how that game ended, but my goodness, how many of you had us going to the last play with the ball on the 40?” Dean said. “Seriously, raise your hand if you had us. That’s how I feel about it. I felt like our kids put themselves in a position where maybe they failed on the last play, but I don’t think anyone in this room had them getting to the last play.
“People were making jokes about my team the whole week. I’m proud of our kids. They came out with a chip on their shoulder and they played hard.”
Lowell (12-2) had King (14-0) down big in the game on three different occasions, including 17-0 and 24-7 in the second quarter and 31-13 in the third. But Posey brought the Crusaders back, completing 19-of-27 passes for 383 yards, and his strike to Corley in the left corner of the end zone was his fifth touchdown pass of the game.
Corley, a 6-foot-2, 180-pound senior wide receiver who has received numerous Division 1 offers, including Michigan, Michigan State, Ohio State, was able to outjump Lowell defensive back Gabe Steed for the touchdown. It marked the first time since 1986 that a state championship game was decided on the final play – Detroit Catholic Central beat Muskegon Catholic Central 18-14.
Steed, who also plays wide receiver and punts, had just backed King up deep in its own territory when he dropped a punt at the King 5. King committed a penalty, which pushed the Crusaders back even further. Steed had good position on Corley, but Corley was able to haul down the pass.
“He is a good receiver, and that was a great play by him,” said Steed, who also had a reception for 36 yards.
Lowell was trying to capture its fourth state championship since 2002, and the Red Arrows were in charge early, scoring on all four of their first-half possessions to claim a 24-13 halftime lead. Lowell rolled up 400 yards of offense, compared to 436 for King.
Red Arrows quarterback Ryan Stevens completed 6-of-9 passes for 186 yards, and he scored on touchdown runs of 4 and 2-yards. Max Dean, Lowell’s senior running back/linebacker, added 99 yards rushing on 22 carries. Dean rushed for touchdowns of 1, 3 and 4 yards.
But King, ranked No. 1 in the state in Division 2, kept battling back. The Crusaders committed 15 penalties for 73 yards compared to three for 35 for Lowell. However, the Crusaders scored touchdowns on all four second-half drives. The final one went 97 yards in seven plays.
“I thought our kids battled,” Dean said. “Any time you are competing against 15 kids who have already been offered scholarships to other colleges and you have 1.5, you are kind of nervous coming into the game. But I thought our kids competed well and intelligently on offense. Defensively, we played very, very well. At times, athleticism took over, and it was hard on these kids, but they still battled.
“I thought when we punted the ball down to the 5. I thought that would be a pretty good spot to be in. But credit them. They made the plays at the end. They have an excellent program with great kids and great coaching. It’s hard to overcome all of that.”
The loss was the first for Lowell since the Red Arrows lost to Walled Lake Western 42-40 in their season opener. Lowell avenged that loss in last Saturday’s state semifinals to advance to its first state title game since 2011.
“Lowell kids are tough kids, and they battle and they fight, and they are not afraid of challenges,” Dean said. “I said to them in the locker room just now that I’m proud of them. I’m the luckiest guy in the world. It’s a great town with great kids and great families.”When they were gathering the original source materials for their new restoration of A Hard Day’s Night, the experts at the Criterion Collection—the famed home video label that gathers some of cinema's best films and releases them in editions of the highest possibly quality—had a big problem. “The first and last reels of the negative were missing,” Criterion President Peter Becker tells us when we meet at the company's New York City offices. “I don’t know why exactly or when they disappeared, but they have been missing for a period of time, and we were unable to turn those up.”
But they didn’t panic: The film reels the company did have were completely intact, without any glaring defects that would make it impossible to keep the film from looking—and, of course, sounding—as good as it did when it premiered at London’s Palladium Theater on July 6, 1964. To replace the missing reels, they used duplicate negatives from other source prints, and with all the materials in place, the restoration began.
The year-and-a-half-long restoration process culminates in both a recently-released dual format Blu-ray and DVD edition and a nationwide theatrical release this weekend by Janus Films (Criterion's theatrical distribution wing) to commemorate the film’s 50th anniversary. Audiences will now get to enjoy the movie—a somewhat exaggerated, semi-autobiographical musical-comedy that features some of the Fab Four’s biggest hits—at home or on the big screen. Here's how Criterion restored the classic film.
A Restoration Revolution
This isn't the first time Criterion has released A Hard Day's Night: In 1987, the company released the movie as a laserdisc (and also, curiously, as a CD-ROM under a now-defunct offshoot called The Voyager Company). But Becker and others at Criterion thought they could do better, and when the rights to the film—formerly held by Miramax—expired a year and a half ago, they jumped at the possibility of bringing the film out of obsolete formats and giving it the so-called updated Criterion treatment, and quickly acquired the rights.
At Criterion, each restoration begins with a single in-house producer who individually oversees the step-by-step process of all the departments—including the in-house restoration team or the design team—who are working on the project simultaneously. “I think the reason we work the way that we do is that, over the course of working on [films], you get to know [a producer’s] certain areas of expertise,” says Becker. This helps the company decide who will oversee new projects, either in a hands-on capacity or simply serving as an expert who can provide guidance. “So, for example, we’ll have a producer who is the steward for Fellini’s legacy”—the Italian director behind such classics as 8½ and Amarcord—“[and] they may not necessarily be the producer of all the Fellini editions that we do, but effectively, they become the steward of those editions.”
The perfect steward for A Hard Day’s Night was longtime Criterion producer Kim Hendrickson, who had previously worked on similar music-related releases, including the Maysles Brothers and Charlotte Zwerin’s Rolling Stones documentary Gimme Shelter and D.A. Pennebaker’s Monterey Pop. She also happens to be a huge fan of Richard Lester, the director of A Hard Day’s Night. “You can sort of feel, internally, what sorts of projects will gravitate towards which producers,” Becker says, “and this one clearly landed there right at the outset.”
In approaching any film restoration, the company abides by a set of principles that favors the integrity of the physical film itself over imposing their mark on it. “Our particular philosophy has been to use a light hand to try to retain the look and feel of film, and I think that’s what has happened here,” Becker says, “which is to say to honor the [film] grain, and to be sensitive to what makes a film image alive.”
In the case of A Hard Day's Night, the company's plan was to digitally scan the original source materials into 4K—giving the film a high definition resolution of four thousand pixels—at their in-house lab. But instead of using their countless digital restoration tools to over-stabilize, over-saturate, or clean the 24-frames-per-second images completely to make the movie totally digitally pristine, the Criterion team used the less-is-more mantra when necessary.
To show that technique in action, Becker takes me deep into the offices—through hallways peppered with posters of the company's releases—into the restoration editing bays, a series of darkened rooms impressively stacked with every possible restoration tool imaginable. The team is working on restoring a documentary in which one frame of a scene had misplaced film sprocket holes through the middle of the image. This effectively put a huge hole in the middle of a person’s face in that frame. Members of the restoration team were exploring using adjacent frame restoration techniques to fix it, examining single frames before and after the marred frame to see if they could cut and paste a portion from a clean frame over the damaged area. (The same strategy might also be used for more common defects, like dirt or scratches on the image from frame to frame.) The idea isn't to completely change the image, but to reestablish it. That the film they're working has a run time of about 50 minutes makes me marvel at how patient they need to be when working on films double or triple that length.
“Our principle is always: Do no harm. We would much rather see original damage than see evidence of our fixes,” Becker says. “If we can make a fix without leaving a trace, then by all means, [we'll] go ahead and make the fix. But if you’re going to leave a trace of your fix, I would much rather see the original damage.” This allows the restored version of A Hard Day's Night to resemble the tangible quality of the film as if people were seeing it on the big screen in 1964, but still gives the team enough space to fix common physical defects like film warping or torn frames from the celluloid that was passed on to the scanned image.
It Really Rocks
Restoration doesn't stop at cleaning up the film. Criterion also has to consider sound—and it's especially crucial for a music-related flick like A Hard Day's Night. They commissioned an all-new 5.1 stereo mix of the soundtrack that will appear on both the dual format release and in the theatrical release, remixed and remastered by music producer Giles Martin—son of longtime Beatles producer George Martin.
The original music materials for A Hard Day’s Night were well-preserved, sitting virtually untouched in the vaults of the famed Abbey Road Studios. But Martin—who calls from Abbey Road Studios, where the main audio remastering was done—says he found restoring the film’s sound effects to be the most difficult. “We had to go and find them at a few places in LA, some at Twickenham Studios [in London], and it was all separate reels,” he says. This forced his team to marry the virtually unspoiled audio quality of the music with the patched together examples of original effects material.
Among the many specific changes he made, Martin found and reinstated the original sound effect of subtle train background noise during the performance of “I Should Have Known Better” which, for some reason, had been cut out of the audio source he was working with. He also added a faint feedback sound effect when George Harrison mistakenly knocks over his amp during the performance of “If I Fell.”
Much like Criterion’s delicate approach to restoring the picture image, Martin had to strike a balance to complement the whole. “Once we’ve amassed all the separate sources, then we start thinking about how we’re going to approach it,” he says. “We try and clean it, but not varnish it. The whole idea is to make the film punch out of the speakers, and sound good out of the speakers, and sound immediate.” But the sound itself was never meant to be intrusive. Instead, the team took a cue from director Richard Lester’s original approach: that the music should always emerge organically from the film—even if musical instruments magically appear out of nowhere, as they do for the “I Should Have Known Better” performance—instead of being lazily laid over the top of it.
According to Martin, the song they most improved on was “Can’t Buy Me Love." To Martin, the previous versions of the song—and even parts of the original mix—sounded relatively flat. He intensified the audio quality of the song to suit the 5.1 surround mix. Now, Martin says, “It just bursts with energy. It really rocks.”
The new 5.1 audio-track creates a better spatial sense of the music and the environment of the film instead of playing with surround sound tricks. Yet another other audio track for the dual format release, directly coordinated and mixed by Criterion’s audio supervisor Ryan Hullings, will be included, because it’s how the original would have sounded—and is still Lester’s preferred audio track.
Some Esteemed Collaborators
In putting the complete package together, Hendrickson and the Criterion team wanted to create extensive supplemental material that reflected the spontaneous and celebrated nature of The Beatles’ first foray into movies. So the company called on countless Beatles-related outlets, including Mark Lewisohn—the world’s leading Beatles historian who was interviewed for the extras—as well as Apple Corps, director Richard Lester, and even the remaining Beatles themselves.
The potentially daunting task of representing The Beatles’ legacy, as well as the notoriously image-sensitive Apple Corps, didn’t phase the people at Criterion. “I think [they] were generally thrilled by the stuff we were finding, by the quality of the material that was getting produced around [the movie], and by the quality of the restoration that was being made,” Becker says. “It was a whole team who came together to really make something. We wanted them happy, they knew we wanted them happy, and from the very beginning we invited their input. They have been just amazingly supportive.”
Becker points to the process of creating the final poster art for the new release as an example of that support. Chosen from over 65 different variations of a theme from three different artists, the poster was created by designer Rodrigo Corral, and is noticeably different from any previous A Hard Day’s Night designs, including the famous credit-sequence photos that make up the original LP cover. Becker and Criterion didn’t want to retread over something that was so iconic. “We really felt it was important for this release to have a look,” he says. “We didn’t want to just be bringing back a ‘Hey, look at this old album’ mentality. Yes, there is a nostalgia factor, and yes, it’s a great piece of design—but it didn’t feel to us that’s where we wanted to land. I think the idea was always that we wanted to make something that was ours, and it’s very hard to design for something that already has its own iconic presence.”
The final, minimalist design, which perfectly captures the manic spontaneity of the film, was the only design the team presented to Apple Corps, and they gave it their stamp of approval.
Celebrating a Moment
Surely something as important as The Beatles’ first movie couldn’t just be contained in a DVD and a Blu-ray. “What do you do for the 50th anniversary for something that is so culturally significant on a global basis?” Becker says. “I think the answer, as always, goes back to the way that we think that movies are meant to be seen, which is in a theater with as many strangers as possible, all coming together for a really fantastic theatrical experience.”
Janus Films, the theatrical distribution branch of Criterion, has always released restored and art-house films into theaters, but mostly on a small scale. It wasn’t until their theatrical run of last year’s The Great Beauty—which later won the Oscar for Best Foreign Language film—that they began to think much bigger and more spontaneously.
Usually, Criterion sends out a limited number of 35mm prints or DCP (digital cinema package) bookings to a few theaters to play out over a long period of time. But the success of The Great Beauty meant that the film quickly expanded to nearly 100 theaters nationwide—new territory for Janus and Criterion. This realization that they could reach a large number of theaters, coupled with the immense popularity of The Beatles, made them push to release A Hard Day's Night theatrically on the combination anniversary/holiday weekend. The company had originally aimed to get the restoration into 50 theaters, but it will now be playing in over 115 in North America—and that number continues to expand.
To Becker, the film has always been the ultimate trans-generational feel-good experience, which he says has something to do with The Beatles themselves. “There’s something about the feeling of infinite possibility [in the film] that lends to this kind of feeling,” he says. He hopes to see families and people of all ages coming together to celebrate the film—and the moment it represented. “The music is familiar and the ebullience of the moviemaking is infectious," he says, "and it is one of those cases where there are people who are currently in their 60s, 70s, and even 80s, who were in their teens, 20s, and 30s when The Beatles took the world by storm.” In a sea of forgettable summer movies, A Hard Day’s Night offers a timeless ode to freedom and fun—a cinematic surge of energy, creativity, and great music—that's missing from blockbuster films today. Criterion’s restoration looks and sounds gorgeous, and the July 4th weekend is the perfect time to experience it for the first time—or the one hundredth.
“They absolutely remember what that was like, and they absolutely love returning to those moments,” Becker says, “How often are those moments still relevant for the 6, 7, and 8 year olds, or the 15 to 20 years olds of today?”
All photos courtesy of Bruce and Martha Karsh.Welcome!
OpenRefine (formerly Google Refine) is a powerful tool for working with messy data: cleaning it; transforming it from one format into another; and extending it with web services and external data.
OpenRefine is available in English, Chinese, Spanish, French, Russian, Portuguese (Brazil), German, Japanese, Italian, Hungarian, Hebrew, Filipino, Cebuano, Tagalog
OpenRefine is supported by Google News Initiative
Introduction to OpenRefine
1. Explore Data
OpenRefine is supported by:
OpenRefine can help you explore large data sets with ease. You can find out more about this functionality by watching the video below and going through these articles
2. Clean and Transform Data
3. Reconcile and Match Data
OpenRefine can be used to link and extend your dataset with various webservices. Some services also allow OpenRefine to upload your cleaned data to a central database, such as Wikidata.. A growing list of extensions and plugins is available on the wiki.Suicide and self-harm is the leading cause of death for indigenous Canadians up to the age of 44. Selena Randhawa talks to young First Nations people about the shocking deprivation and deep despair that lie behind this epidemic
“... And I hope that we will not have to bury one more innocent child – the future of our communities and the future of our nation.”
Sheila North Wilson, grand chief and representative of more than 75,000 indigenous people living across northern Canada, was in Ottawa last February to discuss the many issues plaguing First Nations communities. The memory of the conference speech she made there is now etched on her mind.
“Throughout the speech, my phone wouldn’t stop buzzing,” she recalls. “I didn’t think |
credentials to interact with the sqlalchemy database. Note that, creating an engine does not connect to the database instantly. This process is postponed to when it's needed (like when we submit a query, or when create/update a row in a table).
Since SQLAlchemy relies on the DBAPI specification to interact with databases, the most common database management systems available are supported. PostgreSQL, MySQL, Oracle, Microsoft SQL Server, and SQLite are all examples of engines that we can use alongside with SQLAlchemy. To learn more about the options available to create SQLAlchemy engines, take a look at the official documentation.
SQLAlchemy Connection Pools
Connection pooling is one of the most traditional implementations of the object pool pattern. Object pools are used as caches of pre-initialized objects ready to use. That is, instead of spending time to create objects that are frequently needed (like connections to databases) the program fetches an existing object from the pool, uses it as desired, and puts back when done.
The main reason why programs take advantage of this design pattern is to improve performance. In the case of database connections, opening and maintaining new ones is expensive, time-consuming, and wastes resources. Besides that, this pattern allows easier management of the number of connections that an application might use simultaneously.
There are various implementations of the connection pool pattern available on SQLAlchemy. For example, creating an Engine through the create_engine() function usually generates a QueuePool. This kind of pool comes configured with some reasonable defaults, like a maximum pool size of 5 connections.
As usual production-ready programs need to override these defaults (to fine-tune pools to their needs), most of the different implementations of connection pools provide a similar set of configuration options. The following list shows the most common options with their descriptions:
pool_size : Sets the number of connections that the pool will handle.
: Sets the number of connections that the pool will handle. max_overflow : Specifies how many exceeding connections (relative to pool_size ) the pool supports.
: Specifies how many exceeding connections (relative to ) the pool supports. pool_recycle : Configures the maximum age (in seconds) of connections in the pool.
: Configures the maximum age (in seconds) of connections in the pool. pool_timeout : Identifies how many seconds the program will wait before giving up on getting a connection from the pool.
To learn more about connection pools on SQLAlchemy, check out the official documentation.
SQLAlchemy Dialects
As SQLAlchemy is a facade that enables Python developers to create applications that communicate to different database engines through the same API, we need to make use of Dialects. Most of the popular relational databases available out there adhere to the SQL (Structured Query Language) standard, but they also introduce proprietary variations. These variations are the solely responsible for the existence of dialects.
For example, let's say that we want to fetch the first ten rows of a table called people. If our data was being held by a Microsoft SQL Server database engine, SQLAlchemy would need to issue the following query:
SELECT TOP 10 * FROM people;
But, if our data was persisted on MySQL instance, then SQLAlchemy would need to issue:
SELECT * FROM people LIMIT 10;
Therefore, to know precisely what query to issue, SQLAlchemy needs to be aware of the type of the database that it is dealing with. This is exactly what Dialects do. They make SQLAlchemy aware of the dialect it needs to talk.
On its core, SQLAlchemy includes the following list of dialects:
Dialects for other database engines, like Amazon Redshift, are supported as external projects but can be easily installed. Check out the official documentation on SQLAlchemy Dialects to learn more.
SQLAlchemy ORM
ORM, which stands for Object Relational Mapper, is the specialization of the Data Mapper design pattern that addresses relational databases like MySQL, Oracle, and PostgreSQL. As explained by Martin Fowler in the article, Mappers are responsible for moving data between objects and a database while keeping them independent of each other. As object-oriented programming languages and relational databases structure data on different ways, we need specific code to translate from one schema to the other.
For example, in a programming language like Python, we can create a Product class and an Order class to relate as many instances as needed from one class to another (i.e. Product can contain a list of instances of Order and vice-versa). Though, on relational databases, we need three entities (tables), one to persist products, another one to persist orders, and a third one to relate (through foreign key) products and orders.
As we will see in the following sections, SQLAlchemy ORM is an excellent Data Mapper solution to translate Python classes into/from tables and to move data between instances of these classes and rows of these tables.
SQLAlchemy Data Types
While using SQLAlchemy, we can rest assured that we will get support for the most common data types found in relational databases. For example, booleans, dates, times, strings, and numeric values are a just a subset of the types that SQLAlchemy provides abstractions for. Besides these basic types, SQLAlchemy includes support for a few vendor-specific types (like JSON) and also allows developers to create custom types and redefine existing ones.
To understand how we use SQLAlchemy data types to map properties of Python classes into columns on a relation database table, let's analyze the following example:
class Product(Base): __tablename__ = 'products' id=Column(Integer, primary_key=True) title=Column('title', String(32)) in_stock=Column('in_stock', Boolean) quantity=Column('quantity', Integer) price=Column('price', Numeric)
In the code snippet above, we are defining a class called Product that has six properties. Let's take a look at what these properties do:
The __tablename__ property tells SQLAlchemy that rows of the products table must be mapped to this class.
property tells SQLAlchemy that rows of the table must be mapped to this class. The id property identifies that this is the primary_key in the table and that its type is Integer.
property identifies that this is the in the table and that its type is. The title property indicates that a column in the table has the same name of the property and that its type is String.
property indicates that a column in the table has the same name of the property and that its type is. The in_stock property indicates that a column in the table has the same name of the property and that its type is Boolean.
property indicates that a column in the table has the same name of the property and that its type is. The quantity property indicates that a column in the table has the same name of the property and that its type is Integer.
property indicates that a column in the table has the same name of the property and that its type is. The price property indicates that a column in the table has the same name of the property and that its type is Numeric.
Seasoned developers will notice that (usually) relational databases do not have data types with these exact names. SQLAlchemy uses these types as generic representations to what databases support and use the dialect configured to understand what types they translate to. For example, on a PostgreSQL database, the title would be mapped to a varchar column.
SQLAlchemy Relationship Patterns
Now that we know what ORM is and have look into data types, let's learn how to use SQLAlchemy to map relationships between classes to relationships between tables. SQLAlchemy supports four types of relationships: One To Many, Many To One, One To One, and Many To Many.
Note that this section will be an overview of all these types, but in the SQLAlchemy ORM in Practice action we will do a hands-on to practice mapping classes into tables and to learn how to insert, extract, and remove data from these tables.
The first type, One To Many, is used to mark that an instance of a class can be associated with many instances of another class. For example, on a blog engine, an instance of the Article class could be associated with many instances of the Comment class. In this case, we would map the mentioned classes and its relation as follows:
class Article(Base): __tablename__ = 'articles' id = Column(Integer, primary_key=True) comments = relationship("Comment") class Comment(Base): __tablename__ = 'comments' id = Column(Integer, primary_key=True) article_id = Column(Integer, ForeignKey('articles.id'))
The second type, Many To One, refers to the same relationship described above but from the other perspective. To give a different example, let's say that we want to map the relationship between instances of Tire to an instance of a Car. As many tires belong to one car and this car contains many tires, we would map this relation as follows:
class Tire(Base): __tablename__ = 'tires' id = Column(Integer, primary_key=True) car_id = Column(Integer, ForeignKey('cars.id')) car = relationship("Car") class Car(Base): __tablename__ = 'cars' id = Column(Integer, primary_key=True)
The third type, One To One, refers to relationships where an instance of a particular class may only be associated with one instance of another class, and vice versa. As an example, consider the relationship between a Person and a MobilePhone. Usually, one person possesses one mobile phone and this mobile phone belongs to this person only. To map this relationship on SQLAlchemy, we would create the following code:
class Person(Base): __tablename__ = 'people' id = Column(Integer, primary_key=True) mobile_phone = relationship("MobilePhone", uselist=False, back_populates="person") class MobilePhone(Base): __tablename__ ='mobile_phones' id = Column(Integer, primary_key=True) person_id = Column(Integer, ForeignKey('people.id')) person = relationship("Person", back_populates="mobile_phone")
In this example, we pass two extra parameters to the relationship function. The first one, uselist=False, makes SQLAlchemy understand that mobile_phone will hold only a single instance and not an array (multiple) of instances. The second one, back_populates, instructs SQLAlchemy to populate the other side of the mapping. The official Relationships API documentation provides a complete explanation of these parameters and also covers other parameters not mentioned here.
The last type supported by SQLAlchemy, Many To Many, is used when instances of a particular class can have zero or more associations to instances of another class. For example, let's say that we are mapping the relationship of instances of Student and instances of Class in a system that manages a school. As many students can participate in many classes, we would map the relationship as follows:
students_classes_association = Table('students_classes', Base.metadata, Column('student_id', Integer, ForeignKey('students.id')), Column('class_id', Integer, ForeignKey('classes.id')) ) class Student(Base): __tablename__ ='students' id = Column(Integer, primary_key=True) classes = relationship("Class", secondary=students_classes_association) class Class(Base): __tablename__ = 'classes' id = Column(Integer, primary_key=True)
In this case, we had to create a helper table to persist the association between instances of Student and instances of Class, as this wouldn't be possible without an extra table. Note that, to make SQLAlchemy aware of the helper table, we passed it in the secondary parameter of the relationship function.
The above code snippets show just a subset of the mapping options supported by SQLAlchemy. In the following sections, we are going to take a more in-depth look into each one of the available relationship patterns. Besides that, the official documentation is a great reference to learn more about relationship patterns on SQLAlchemy.
SQLAlchemy ORM Cascade
Whenever rows in a particular table are updated or deleted, rows in other tables might need to suffer changes as well. These changes can be simple updates, which are called cascade updates, or full deletes, known as cascade deletes. For example, let's say that we have a table called shopping_carts, a table called products, and a third one called shopping_carts_products that connects the first two tables. If, for some reason, we need to delete rows from shopping_carts we will need to delete the related rows from shopping_carts_products as well. Otherwise we will end up with a lot of garbage and unfulfilled references in our database.
To make this kind of operation easy to maintain, SQLAlchemy ORM enables developers to map cascade behavior when using relationship() constructs. Like that, when operations are performed on parent objects, child objects get updated/deleted as well. The following list provides a brief explanation of the most used cascade strategies on SQLAlchemy ORM:
save-update : Indicates that when a parent object is saved/updated, child objects are saved/updated as well.
: Indicates that when a parent object is saved/updated, child objects are saved/updated as well. delete : Indicates that when a parent object is deleted, children of this object will be deleted as well.
: Indicates that when a parent object is deleted, children of this object will be deleted as well. delete-orphan : Indicates that when a child object loses reference to a parent, it will get deleted.
: Indicates that when a child object loses reference to a parent, it will get deleted. merge : Indicates that merge() operations propagate from parent to children.
If more information about this feature is needed, the SQLAlchemy documentation provides an excellent chapter about Cascades.
SQLAlchemy Sessions
Sessions, on SQLAlchemy ORM, are the implementation of the Unit of Work design pattern. As explained by Martin Fowler, a Unit of Work is used to maintain a list of objects affected by a business transaction and to coordinate the writing out of these changes. This means that all modifications tracked by Sessions (Units of Works) will be applied to the underlying database together, or none of them will. In other words, Sessions are used to guarantee the database consistency.
The official SQLAlchemy ORM documentation about Sessions gives a great explanation how changes are tracked, how to get sessions, and how to create ad-hoc sessions. However, in this article, we will use the most basic form of session creation:
from sqlalchemy import create_engine from sqlalchemy.orm import sessionmaker # create an engine engine = create_engine('postgresql://usr:pass@localhost:5432/sqlalchemy') # create a configured "Session" class Session = sessionmaker(bind=engine) # create a Session session = Session()
As we can see from the code snippet above, we only need one step to get sessions. We need to create a session factory that is bound to the SQLAlchemy engine. After that, we can just issue calls to this session factory to get our sessions.
SQLAlchemy in Practice
Now that we got a better understanding of the most important pieces of SQLAlchemy, it's time to start practicing it. In the following sections, we will create a small project based on pipenv —a Python dependency manager—and add some classes to it. Then we will map these classes to tables persisted to a PostgreSQL database and learn how to query data.
Starting the Tutorial Project
To create our tutorial project, we have to have Python installed on our machine and pipenv installed as a global Python package. The following commands will install pipenv and set up the project. These commands are dependent on Python, so be sure to have it installed before proceeding:
# install pipenv globally pip install pipenv # create a new directory for our project mkdir sqlalchemy-tutorial # change working directory to it cd sqlalchemy-tutorial # create a Python 3 project pipenv --three
Running PostgreSQL
To be able to practice our new skills and to learn how to query data on SQLAlchemy, we will need a database to support our examples. As already mentioned, SQLAlchemy provides support for many different databases engines, but the instructions that follow will focus on PostgreSQL. There are many ways to get an instance of PostgreSQL. One of them is to use some cloud provider like Heroku or ElephantSQL (both of them have free tiers). Another possibility is to install PostgreSQL locally on our current environment. A third option is to run a PostgreSQL instance inside a Docker container.
The third option is probably the best choice because it has the performance of an instance running locally, it's free forever, and because it's easy to create and destroy Docker instances. The only (small) disadvantage is that we need to install Docker locally.
After having Docker installed, we can create and destroy dockerized PostgreSQL instances with the following commands:
# create a PostgreSQL instance docker run --name sqlalchemy-orm-psql \ -e POSTGRES_PASSWORD=pass \ -e POSTGRES_USER=usr \ -e POSTGRES_DB=sqlalchemy \ -p 5432:5432 \ -d postgres # stop instance docker stop sqlalchemy-orm-psql # destroy instance docker rm sqlalchemy-orm-psql
The first command, the one that creates the PostgreSQL instance, contains a few parameters that are worth inspecting:
--name : Defines the name of the Docker instance.
: Defines the name of the Docker instance. -e POSTGRES_PASSWORD : Defines the password to connect to PostgreSQL.
: Defines the password to connect to PostgreSQL. -e POSTGRES_USER : Defines the user to connect to PostgreSQL.
: Defines the user to connect to PostgreSQL. -e POSTGRES_DB : Defines the main (and only) database available in the PostgreSQL instance.
: Defines the main (and only) database available in the PostgreSQL instance. -p 5432:5432 : Defines that the local 5432 port will tunnel connections to the same port in the Docker instance.
: Defines that the local port will tunnel connections to the same port in the Docker instance. -d postgres : Defines that this Docker instance will be created based on the official PostgreSQL repository.
Installing SQLAlchemy Dependencies
In this tutorial, we will need to install only two packages: sqlalchemy and psycopg2. The first dependency refers to SQLAlchemy itself and the second one, psycopg2, is the PostgreSQL driver that SQLAlchemy will use to communicate with the database. To install these dependencies, we will use pipenv as shown:
# install sqlalchemy and psycopg2 pipenv install sqlalchemy psycopg2
This command will download both libraries and make them available in our Python virtual environment. Note that to run the scripts that we are going to create, we first need to spawn the virtual environment shell. That is, before executing python somescript.py, we need to execute pipenv shell. Otherwise, Python won't be able to find the installed dependencies, as they are just available in our new virtual environment.
Mapping Classes with SQLAlchemy
After starting the dockerized PostgreSQL instance and installing the Python dependencies, we can begin to map Python classes to database tables. In this tutorial, we will map four simple classes that represent movies, actors, stuntmen, and contact details. The following diagram illustrates these entities' characteristics and their relations.
To start, we will create a file called base.py in the main directory of our project and add the following code to it:
# coding=utf-8 from sqlalchemy import create_engine from sqlalchemy.ext.declarative import declarative_base from sqlalchemy.orm import sessionmaker engine = create_engine('postgresql://usr:pass@localhost:5432/sqlalchemy') Session = sessionmaker(bind=engine) Base = declarative_base()
This code creates:
a SQLAlchemy Engine that will interact with our dockerized PostgreSQL database,
a SQLAlchemy ORM session factory bound to this engine,
and a base class for our classes definitions.
Now let's create and map the Movie class. To do this, let's create a new file called movie.py and add the following code to it:
# coding=utf-8 from sqlalchemy import Column, String, Integer, Date from base import Base class Movie(Base): __tablename__ ='movies' id = Column(Integer, primary_key=True) title = Column(String) release_date = Column(Date) def __init__(self, title, release_date): self.title = title self.release_date = release_date
The definition of this class and its mapping characteristics is quite simple. We start by making this class extend the Base class defined in the base.py module and then we add four properties to it:
A __tablename__ to indicate what is the name of the table that will support this class. An id to represent the primary key in the table. A title of type String. A release_date of type Date.
The next class that we will create and map is the Actor class. Let's create a file called actor.py and add the following code to it:
# coding=utf-8 from sqlalchemy import Column, String, Integer, Date from base import Base class Actor(Base): __tablename__ = 'actors' id = Column(Integer, primary_key=True) name = Column(String) birthday = Column(Date) def __init__(self, name, birthday): self.name = name self.birthday = birthday
The definition of this class is pretty similar to the previous one. The differences are that the Actor has a name instead of a title, a birthday instead of a release_date, and that it points to a table called actors instead of movies.
As many movies can have many actors and vice-versa, we will need to create a Many To Many relationship between these two classes. Let's create this relationship by updating the movie.py file as follows:
# coding=utf-8 from sqlalchemy import Column, String, Integer, Date, Table, ForeignKey from sqlalchemy.orm import relationship from base import Base movies_actors_association = Table('movies_actors', Base.metadata, Column('movie_id', Integer, ForeignKey('movies.id')), Column('actor_id', Integer, ForeignKey('actors.id')) ) class Movie(Base): __tablename__ ='movies' id = Column(Integer, primary_key=True) title = Column(String) release_date = Column(Date) actors = relationship("Actor", secondary=movies_actors_association) def __init__(self, title, release_date): self.title = title self.release_date = release_date
The difference between this version and the previous one is that:
we imported three new entities: Table, ForeignKey, and relationship ;
,, and ; we created a movies_actors_association table that connects rows of actors and rows of movies ;
table that connects rows of and rows of ; and we added the actors property to Movie and configured the movies_actors_association as the intermediary table.
The next class that we will create is Stuntman. In our tutorial, a particular Actor will have only one Stuntman and this Stuntman will work only with this Actor. This means that we need to create the Stuntman class and a One To One relationship between these classes. To accomplish that, let's create a file called stuntman.py and add the following code to it:
# coding=utf-8 from sqlalchemy import Column, String, Integer, Boolean, ForeignKey from sqlalchemy.orm import relationship, backref from base import Base class Stuntman(Base): __tablename__ ='stuntmen' id = Column(Integer, primary_key=True) name = Column(String) active = Column(Boolean) actor_id = Column(Integer, ForeignKey('actors.id')) actor = relationship("Actor", backref=backref("stuntman", uselist=False)) def __init__(self, name, active, actor): self.name = name self.active = active self.actor = actor
In this class, we have defined that the actor property references an instance of Actor and that this actor will get a property called stuntman that is not a list ( uselist=False ). That is, whenever we load an instance of Stuntman, SQLAlchemy will also load and populate the Actor associated with this stuntman.
The fourth and final class that we will map in our tutorial is ContactDetails. Instances of this class will hold a phone_number and an address of a particular Actor, and one Actor will be able to have many ContactDetails associated. Therefore, we will need to use the Many To One relationship pattern to map this association. To create this class and this association, let's create a file called contact_details.py and add the following source code to it:
# coding=utf-8 from sqlalchemy import Column, String, Integer, ForeignKey from sqlalchemy.orm import relationship from base import Base class ContactDetails(Base): __tablename__ = 'contact_details' id = Column(Integer, primary_key=True) phone_number = Column(String) address = Column(String) actor_id = Column(Integer, ForeignKey('actors.id')) actor = relationship("Actor", backref="contact_details") def __init__(self, phone_number, address, actor): self.phone_number = phone_number self.address = address self.actor = actor
As we can see, creating a Many To One association is kinda similar to creating a One To One association. The difference is that in the latter we instructed SQLAlchemy not to use lists. This instruction ends up restricting the association to a single instance instead of a list of instances.
Persisting Data with SQLAlchemy ORM
Now that we have created our classes, let's create a file called inserts.py and generate some instances of these classes to persist to the database. In this file, let's add the following code:
# coding=utf-8 # 1 - imports from datetime import date from actor import Actor from base import Session, engine, Base from contact_details import ContactDetails from movie import Movie from stuntman import Stuntman # 2 - generate database schema Base.metadata.create_all(engine) # 3 - create a new session session = Session() # 4 - create movies bourne_identity = Movie("The Bourne Identity", date(2002, 10, 11)) furious_7 = Movie("Furious 7", date(2015, 4, 2)) pain_and_gain = Movie("Pain & Gain", date(2013, 8, 23)) # 5 - creates actors matt_damon = Actor("Matt Damon", date(1970, 10, 8)) dwayne_johnson = Actor("Dwayne Johnson", date(1972, 5, 2)) mark_wahlberg = Actor("Mark Wahlberg", date(1971, 6, 5)) # 6 - add actors to movies bourne_identity.actors = [matt_damon] furious_7.actors = [dwayne_johnson] pain_and_gain.actors = [dwayne_johnson, mark_wahlberg] # 7 - add contact details to actors matt_contact = ContactDetails("415 555 2671", "Burbank, CA", matt_damon) dwayne_contact = ContactDetails("423 555 5623", "Glendale, CA", dwayne_johnson) dwayne_contact_2 = ContactDetails("421 444 2323", "West Hollywood, CA", dwayne_johnson) mark_contact = ContactDetails("421 333 9428", "Glendale, CA", mark_wahlberg) # 8 - create stuntmen matt_stuntman = Stuntman("John Doe", True, matt_damon) dwayne_stuntman = Stuntman("John Roe", True, dwayne_johnson) mark_stuntman = Stuntman("Richard Roe", True, mark_wahlberg) # 9 - persists data session.add(bourne_identity) session.add(furious_7) session.add(pain_and_gain) session.add(matt_contact) session.add(dwayne_contact) session.add(dwayne_contact_2) session.add(mark_contact) session.add(matt_stuntman) session.add(dwayne_stuntman) session.add(mark_stuntman) # 10 - commit and close session session.commit() session.close()
This code is split into 10 sections. Let's inspect them:
The first section imports the classes that we created, the SQLAlchemy engine, the Base class, the session factory, and date from the datetime module. The second section instructs SQLAlchemy to generate the database schema. This generation occurs based on the declarations that we made while creating the four main classes that compose our tutorial. The third section extracts a new session from the session factory. The fourth section creates three instances of the Movie class. The fifth section creates three instances of the Actor class. The sixth section adds actors to movies. Note that the Pain & Gain movie references two actors: Dwayne Johnson and Mark Wahlberg. The seventh section creates instances of the ContactDetails class and defines what actors these instances are associated to. The eighth section defines three stuntmen and also defines what actors these stuntmen are associated to. The ninth section uses the current session to save the movies, actors, contact details, and stuntmen created. Note that we haven't explicitly saved actors. This is not needed because SQLAlchemy, by default, uses the save-update cascade strategy. The tenth section commits the current session to the database and closes it.
To run this Python script, we can simply issue the python inserts.py command (let's not forget to run pipenv shell first) in the main directory of our database. Running it will create five tables in the PostgreSQL database and populate these tables with the data that we created. In the next section, we will learn how to query these tables.
Querying Data with SQLAlchemy ORM
As we will see, querying data with SQLAlchemy ORM is quite simple. This library provides an intuitive, fluent API that enables developers to write queries that are easy to read and to maintain. On SQLAlchemy ORM, all queries start with a Query Object that is extracted from the current session and that is associated with a particular mapped class. To see this API in action, let's create a file called queries.py and add to it the following source code:
# coding=utf-8 # 1 - imports from actor import Actor from base import Session from contact_details import ContactDetails from movie import Movie # 2 - extract a session session = Session() # 3 - extract all movies movies = session.query(Movie).all() # 4 - print movies' details print('
### All movies:') for movie in movies: print(f'{movie.title} was released on {movie.release_date}') print('')
The code snippet above—that can be run with python queries.py,—shows how easy it is to use SQLAlchemy ORM to query data. To retrieve all movies from the database, we just needed to fetch a session from the session factory, use it to get a query associated with Movie, and then call the all() function on this query object. The Query API provides dozens of useful functions like all(). In the following list, we can see a brief explanation about the most important ones:
count() : Returns the total number of rows of a query.
: Returns the total number of rows of a query. filter() : Filters the query by applying a criteria.
: Filters the query by applying a criteria. delete() : Removes from the database the rows matched by a query.
: Removes from the database the rows matched by a query. distinct() : Applies a distinct statement to a query.
: Applies a distinct statement to a query. exists() : Adds an exists operator to a subquery.
: Adds an exists operator to a subquery. first() : Returns the first row in a query.
: Returns the first row in a query. get() : Returns the row referenced by the primary key parameter passed as argument.
: Returns the row referenced by the primary key parameter passed as argument. join() : Creates a SQL join in a query.
: Creates a SQL join in a query. limit() : Limits the number of rows returned by a query.
: Limits the number of rows returned by a query. order_by() : Sets an order in the rows returned by a query.
To explore the usage of some of these functions, let's append the following code to the queries.py script:
# 1 - imports from datetime import date # other imports and sections... # 5 - get movies after 15-01-01 movies = session.query(Movie) \.filter(Movie.release_date > date(2015, 1, 1)) \.all() print('### Recent movies:') for movie in movies: print(f'{movie.title} was released after 2015') print('') # 6 - movies that Dwayne Johnson participated the_rock_movies = session.query(Movie) \.join(Actor, Movie.actors) \.filter(Actor.name == 'Dwayne Johnson') \.all() print('### Dwayne Johnson movies:') for movie in the_rock_movies: print(f'The Rock starred in {movie.title}') print('') # 7 - get actors that have house in Glendale glendale_stars = session.query(Actor) \.join(ContactDetails) \.filter(ContactDetails.address.ilike('%glendale%')) \.all() print('### Actors that live in Glendale:') for actor in glendale_stars: print(f'{actor.name} has a house in Glendale') print('')
The fifth section of the updated script uses the filter() function to fetch only movies that were released after January the first, 2015. The sixth section shows how to use join() to fetch instances of Movie that the Actor Dwayne Johnson participated in. The seventh and last section, shows the usage of join() and ilike() functions to retrieve actors that have houses in Glendale.
Running the new version of the script ( python queries.py ) now will result in the following output:
### All movies: The Bourne Identity was released on 2002-10-11 Furious 7 was released on 2015-04-02 No Pain No Gain was released on 2013-08-23 ### Recent movies: Furious 7 was released after 2015 ### Dwayne Johnson movies: The Rock starred in No Pain No Gain The Rock starred in Furious 7 ### Actors that live in Glendale: Dwayne Johnson has a house in Glendale Mark Wahlberg has a house in Glendale
As we can see, using the API is straightforward and generates a code that is readable. To see other functions supported by the Query API, and their description, take a look at the official documentation.
Securing Python APIs with Auth0
Securing Python APIs with Auth0 is very easy and brings a lot of great features to the table. With Auth0, we only have to write a few lines of code to get:
For example, to secure Python APIs written with Flask, we can simply create a requires_auth decorator:
# Format error response and append status code def get_token_auth_header(): """Obtains the access token from the Authorization Header """ auth = request.headers.get("Authorization", None) if not auth: raise AuthError({"code": "authorization_header_missing", "description": "Authorization header is expected"}, 401) parts = auth.split() if parts[0].lower()!= "bearer": raise AuthError({"code": "invalid_header", "description": "Authorization header must start with" " Bearer"}, 401) elif len(parts) == 1: raise AuthError({"code": "invalid_header", "description": "Token not found"}, 401) elif len(parts) > 2: raise AuthError({"code": "invalid_header", "description": "Authorization header must be" " Bearer token"}, 401) token = parts[1] return token def requires_auth(f): """Determines if the access token is valid """ @wraps(f) def decorated(*args, **kwargs): token = get_token_auth_header() jsonurl = urlopen("https://"+AUTH0_DOMAIN+"/.well-known/jwks.json") jwks = json.loads(jsonurl.read()) unverified_header = jwt.get_unverified_header(token) rsa_key = {} for key in jwks["keys"]: if key["kid"] == unverified_header["kid"]: rsa_key = { "kty": key["kty"], "kid": key["kid"], "use": key["use"], "n": key["n"], "e": key["e"] } if rsa_key: try: payload = jwt.decode( token, rsa_key, algorithms=ALGORITHMS, audience=API_AUDIENCE, issuer="https://"+AUTH0_DOMAIN+"/" ) except jwt.ExpiredSignatureError: raise AuthError({"code": "token_expired", "description": "token is expired"}, 401) except jwt.JWTClaimsError: raise AuthError({"code": "invalid_claims", "description": "incorrect claims," "please check the audience and issuer"}, 401) except Exception: raise AuthError({"code": "invalid_header", "description": "Unable to parse authentication" " token."}, 400) _app_ctx_stack.top.current_user = payload return f(*args, **kwargs) raise AuthError({"code": "invalid_header", "description": "Unable to find appropriate key"}, 400) return decorated
Then use it in our endpoints:
# Controllers API # This doesn't need authentication @app.route("/ping") @cross_origin(headers=['Content-Type', 'Authorization']) def ping(): return "All good. You don't need to be authenticated to call this" # This does need authentication @app.route("/secured/ping") @cross_origin(headers=['Content-Type', 'Authorization']) @requires_auth def secured_ping(): return "All good. You only get this message if you're authenticated"
To learn more about securing Python APIs with Auth0, take a look at this tutorial. Alongside with tutorials for backend technologies (like Python, Java, and PHP), the Auth0 Docs webpage also provides tutorials for Mobile/Native apps and Single-Page applications.
Next Steps
We have covered a lot of ground in this article. We've learned about basic SQLAlchemy concepts like Engines, Connection Pools, and Dialects. After that, we've learned about how SQLAlchemy addresses ORM topics like Relationship Patterns, Cascade strategies, and the Query API. In the end, we applied this knowledge in a small exercise. In summary, we had the chance to learn and practice the most important pieces of SQLAlchemy and SQLAlchemy ORM. In the next article, we are going to use these new skills to implement RESTful APIs with Flask—the Python microframework for the web. Stay tuned!NeoIllusions Profile Joined December 2002 United States 15606 Posts Last Edited: 2013-02-22 16:45:31 February 22 2013 13:58 GMT #1
NAME OF ARTICLE Table of Contents
Bringing Down the Throne
With Overwhelming Force
Wards in the Brush
Check out the LCS schedule and matchups at
Check out the LCS schedule and matchups at lolesports.com
To Stand Above All...
Another week of the EU LCS has come and gone and we now have a distinct leader of the pack and a clear straggler. Evil Geniuses finished Week 2 unscathed with victories over DragonBorns, GIANTS! Gaming, and SK Gaming to take a commanding lead going forward. On the opposite end of the spectrum, Copenhagen Wolves dropped further down with three more losses to finish at a disappointing 0–5. In between it all, we got to see against All authority and DragonBorns' debuts in the LCS. Unlike their North American counterparts, a debut team earned a victory this week in the EU LCS as DragonBorns upset the favored SK Gaming. This week was Fnatic's time for rest and practice and it will be interesting to see how they will adapt to this week's matches as well as what tactics they have mastered as we move on to Week 3. Another week of the EU LCS has come and gone and we now have a distinct leader of the pack and a clear straggler. Evil Geniuses finished Week 2 unscathed with victories over DragonBorns, GIANTS! Gaming, and SK Gaming to take a commanding lead going forward. On the opposite end of the spectrum, Copenhagen Wolves dropped further down with three more losses to finish at a disappointing 0–5. In between it all, we got to see against All authority and DragonBorns' debuts in the LCS. Unlike their North American counterparts, a debut team earned a victory this week in the EU LCS as DragonBorns upset the favored SK Gaming. This week was Fnatic's time for rest and practice and it will be |
Bowl-worthy or have holes.
The problems have been on defense. Once again, coach Bill Belichick can use the regular season to tinker with the defense and let the playoffs determine if those experiments were successful. Bovada established the Patriots at 15-2.
3. Green Bay Packers: Once again, the Packers will be the favorites to win the NFC North, particularly with the coaching change in Chicago. The baffling part about this team is why it has fallen short in the playoffs the past two seasons. This year, defensive coordinator Dom Capers didn't have the right plan to handle the 49ers' read-option and Colin Kaepernick.
The Packers have drafted well to help out the defense, but reinforcements are needed. It also will be interesting to see if the offense will drop, with the expected loss of Greg Jennings to free agency and Donald Driver's retirement. The Packers also have to determine if they want to keep tight end Jermichael Finley, who is being paid as a franchise-caliber tight end but not playing at that level. Bovada has Green Bay at 10-1.
The emergence of Russell Wilson has the Seahawks in position to thrive in 2013. Joe Nicholson/USA TODAY Sports
4. Seattle Seahawks: Thanks to the drafting of Russell Wilson at quarterback and how coach Pete Carroll rebuilt the defense, the Seahawks are ready to challenge the 49ers -- who have owned the NFC West the past two seasons -- for the division title.
Now, the Seahawks are ready. The schedule betrayed them in 2012 and cost them a chance to win the division. The NFL gave the Seahawks three division road games early in the season. Wilson, a rookie who took only a third of the snaps in the preseason, wasn't able to pull those early games into victories. As a result, the Seahawks started the season in an 0-3 hole in the NFC West.
They scrambled to finish the season within a half-game of the 49ers. In 2013, you figure the Seahawks will get a fairer distribution of NFC West games and have a better chance of going 4-2 or 5-1 in the division. The Seattle-San Francisco rivalry is growing. Bovada has the Seahawks as the No. 6 favorite at 12-1.
5. Atlanta Falcons: Now that the Falcons have won a playoff game for the first time under coach Mike Smith and and QB Matt Ryan, maybe they can take that next step and get to a Super Bowl.
It won't be easy. Sean Payton is back in charge of the New Orleans Saints after a one-year suspension. They should be playoff-bound. Plus, the Falcons won't have the benefit of having the league's easiest schedule, as they did in 2012. The Falcons play a.504 schedule in 2013, which should put them in position to win 10 or 11 games.
Maybe the loss in the NFC Championship Game will toughen the Falcons. They haven't taken advantage of two top seeds in the past three years. It's not out of the question for the Saints to win the division and the Falcons to make it as a wild card. As we've seen from the Giants, Ravens, Packers, Steelers and others, Super Bowls can be won the tough way as wild cards. The Falcons have to find a way to do that, which they can. Bovada has them at 18-1."The Mets have this prospect," my college roommate began, "he's only in A-ball, but he gets on base and hits for power with speed. But the weird part has been how much better he's played on the road. The team eventually realized that at home he was working out too much and constantly taking extra batting practice. It tired him out. They actually had to tell him to stop working so hard."
"Wow, I've never heard of that before," my eyes widened. I'd been let down by many Mets prospects over the years, but was still easily excited.
"And he's from Norfolk. So he grew up a Mets fan."
I don't remember the rest of that conversation, but I remember the first time I ever heard about David Wright.
Ten years later, Wright is almost certainly the best everyday player in Mets franchise history, and by the time his current contract expires, like Secretariat at the Belmont, no one else will even be in the frame. For a franchise that has played more than 50 seasons, he already leads comfortably in many career counting statistics, is among the leaders in many rate stats, and his individual seasons pepper the top ten lists of the Mets' very best.
Yet somehow his talent may still be under-appreciated by more than the "TRAID David Wrongz" crowd, who we love to hate around here, and Mike Francesca, who pointedly refers to him as "very good" but never "great." While Wright has long been a fan favorite, many don’t realize how good he really is. On Baseball Reference's interactive Fan EloRater he usually sits between 260 and 270 on the list of best position players, among the likes of Paul O'Neil, Dave Concepcion, and Bobby Murcer. That's about 200 spots behind Miguel Cabrera who, in 250 more games, has accumulated just seven additional Wins Above Replacement.
Even in the hype machine of New York, it seems necessary to remind ourselves to appreciate Wright's game and achievements while he is in the prime of his career. There are a number of factors conspiring against him: the many bad teams he's played on, the dip in his performance from 2009-11, and the constant disappointment and controversy that have dogged the Mets organization from Madoff to Bernazard to Bay.
I remember the first time I ever saw David Wright play. After spring semester my junior year, I drove to meet some friends at SUNY Binghamton for the school's annual bar crawl. The next morning, in 95-degree heat, I dragged them to a B-Mets game intent on seeing Wright before he arrived in Queens. He didn't disappoint, with a couple of hard hits including a line drive that nearly put a hole in the center-field wall. It was obvious that at 21 he had no business in Double-A. He would slug.525 in half a season in the majors later that year.
At present, Mets fans are rightfully enthralled by the boundlessness of Matt Harvey, but there is another reason to watch this team: the steady superstar who is etching his name among the game's all-time best. Wright is off to a great start this season, and his skills figure to age well. If they do, when he retires he will likely rate between the fourth- and eighth-best third baseman in the history of the game.
At this stage in his career, Wright's WAR fits well alongside the position's all-time greats, including Chipper Jones, Brooks Robinson, Wade Boggs, and others. He has a career 136 OPS+ that's better than Hall-of-Famers Boggs (131), Ron Santo (125), and Paul Molitor (122). Advanced metrics judge him well on the bases, and he is a strong bet to join the 300 HR/ 300 SB club, with a career a steal rate currently equal to Jackie Robinson and Willie Mays. He is steady with the glove, and although advanced defensive metrics don't love him, he has a flair for the spectacular play, with a couple of Gold Gloves to show for it.
David Wright's career wasn't supposed to turn out this way, of course. In 2006 the Mets seemed poised to build a dynasty and Wright and Jose Reyes seemed poised to take over the city like Doc and Darryl before them. It seemed Wright would be a pivotal cog on a perennial playoff team. But in a weird way, the Mets' terrible downturn has made him something much more. For years he's been one of the best things about going to a Mets game, a source of pride for fans to the outside world, always playing hard, always saying the right things, always active for good causes, and always producing on the field. Wright's status as face of the franchise even seemed to overshadow his play as one of the best in the game.
Meanwhile there must have been moments when he wanted to turn his back on the Mets and go to a city where he could mean a little less to a much better team. But his sticking it out ought to create a bond between player and fan base far deeper than even a championship season could provide.
That bond was evident just this week.
"As soon as that ball went up, the first thing I thought about was Luis Castillo," Wright said of the pop up that ended Monday night's game against the Yankees. As that ball popped up, we were all thinking of four years earlier when Castillo cost us a game in the most frustrating way imaginable. You, me, David Wright.
But as nervous as Mets fans were when the ball went up, watching it come down was different. Because then we remembered who was under it.Representational image
The government on Tuesday released draft guidelines for gold monetisation scheme in a bid to mobilise the precious metal held by households and institutions, Press Trust of India reported. The gold scheme will be exempted from capital gain tax, and income tax, as per the guidelines.The minimum amount that an individual can deposit under gold monetisation scheme has been proposed at 30 gm. The interest rate would be decided by banks, according to the draft guidelines.An estimated 20,000 tonnes of gold, worth over Rs. 60 lakh crore, is held in the country. Banks and other agencies would also be able to monetise the gold deposits.Finance Minister Arun Jaitley in his first full-year Budget earlier this year had announced the gold monetisation scheme, aimed at helping investors earn interest on the gold they own.(With PTI inputs)John Spinello, who created what would become Operation, the classic board game that allows players to test their fine motor skills using a tweezer, is now in need of a real operation that he apparently cannot afford.
Spinello – who sold his game for $500 in the 1960s to a toy company that would then license it to game giant Milton Bradley – reportedly needs $25,000 in oral surgery.
Spinello’s friends, toy designers Tim Walsh and Peggy Brown, have started a fund on CrowdRise.com to raise the money. As of Tuesday night, people had donated more than $8,000.
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Spinello has had “a good life, but has admitted to us that he is struggling to pay his bills and is in need of a medical procedure without sufficient insurance coverage,” according to a letter from that Brown and Walsh posted on the website ILoveOperation.com.
"I had fun playing this game when I was little and I think I owe this man for the happy memories," one fan wrote.
"Thank you for the years of fun," wrote another.
At ILoveOperation.com, people may send a $3 “thank you” gift to Spinello. They may also purchase for $50 copies of the game signed by Spinello.
"People are still enjoying it and we enjoy being there and showing them the game and watching them play it," Spinello told ABC News of Operation's lasting popularity.
Walsh and Brown have invited members of the public to show their appreciation for the game’s creator by writing him “Dear John” letters at ILoveOperation.com. Several people have already written to Spinello to wish him luck on the surgery and tell him they will be donating to the effort.
In Operation, players carefully guide a tweezer through body of a “patient” to remove his illnesses. If their tweezer motions aren’t precise and they go out of bounds they could set off the dreaded buzzer.
In an interview with HuffPost Weird News, Spinello said he wasn’t bitter about the situation.
"Look, everyone needs medical care," Spinello told HuffPost Weird News. "I prefer not to dwell on that aspect and focus more on the joy that the game has brought to so many over the years."
He told HuffPost that he developed the game while he was an industrial design student at the University of Illinois. He said he received an “A” for the project, adding that his creation also impressed a top game designer, who offered him $500 and the promise of a job for the rights to it.
He eventually got the money but not the job, he told HuffPost.Angel Di Maria is desperate to banish the memories of his one-season stay at Manchester United and described his spell in the Premier League as a "sad experience".
The Argentina international arrived at Old Trafford among much fanfare from Real Madrid in August 2014, but the forward managed just three goals in 27 Premier League appearances having struggled to adapt to the English game.
Di Maria subsequently cut short his stay in Manchester and joined Paris Saint-Germain at the start of the season where he has become a key figure for the Ligue 1 champions.
The 27-year-old says he could have moved to the French capital earlier in his career and is loving life at the Parc des Princes.
"My time at Manchester was a sad experience," Di Maria told L'Equipe.
"Things did not go as I hoped. I was disappointed and that did not help me get over my struggles.
"To be honest, I don't even remember everything that happened and I do not want to remember it.
"I am happy at PSG and that is what matters most. I had the chance to join PSG on more than one occasion, but it never happened.
"It did not happen in 2014 due to financial reasons. It could very well have happened, but things dragged on and I feared it would not go through. So I decided to walk another path and joined Manchester United.
"But I have always had the beautiful prospect of coming here."
PSG are well on their way to retaining the domestic title having amassed a huge 24-point lead over second-placed Monaco, but Di Maria has laughed off claims Ligue 1 is a one-horse race.
"The game in England is very physical. The intensity is crazy, loads of duels and anything can happen until the final whistle. But it's similar in France," he added.
"A lot of people say Ligue 1 is not of a high quality, but this is not an easy league.
"Barcelona and Real Madrid regularly win by four goals in La Liga, but that's quite rare in Ligue 1. Even the teams lower in the table can cause you problems."Oct 25 2017
A surprising amount of people want to be in North Korea
While the president of the United States and the leader of North Korea were/are currently beefing on Twitter about who should destroy the world first, North Korea was also causing me some personal frustration on data quality.
The issue lies with “GeoIP” (or more widely speaking a database that contains the geographical mapping between IP addresses and locations on the planet).
If you run services with Internet traffic from a variety of users you may find sometimes the GeoIP information actually isn’t that great, especially if you’re dealing with IPv6 because most of this information has not been filled in yet.
However after a bit investigation I found that there were a set of of geoip errors that were unusual in that they didn’t actually appear to be an issue of data quality. More an issue of people maliciously inserting fake data into the database in order to appear to websites as if they were elsewhere.
The initial discovery came as a pure curiosity search. North Korea’s Internet recently got another upstream (through Russia’s TTK):
This extra upstream makes a massive difference with latency for EU traffic to North Korea.
Above are two ISP’s in the UK: Virgin takes the slower US -> China -> DPRK Route, while Sky takes the RU -> DPRK route!
A whole 108ms faster!
Down a GeoIP adventure
So the question I had was “How much traffic do I even get from North Korea anyway?” The answer surprised me when the little amount of my North Korean traffic wasn’t from the only ISP in North Korea but in fact Avast. The anti virus company.
An example lookup on one of the IPs shows it being located in Manp’o, Chagang-do.
A border city between China and North Korea.
Photo by George Wenn (Link | Archive 1 | Archive 2)
However this location assessment doesn’t align with logic, traceroute hop names or the bounding limits of the speed of light:
ben@gb:~$ mtr -rwc 5 -o "B " -f 3 5.62.61.65 Start: Sun Oct 15 22:30:19 2017 HOST: gb Best 3.|-- 185.84.16.242 0.8 4.|-- 185.84.16.241 1.2 5.|-- ae-6.r00.londen10.uk.bb.gin.ntt.net 1.1 6.|-- ae-0.level3.londen10.uk.bb.gin.ntt.net 1.1 7.|--??? 0.0 8.|--??? 0.0 9.|-- AVAST-SOFTW.bear1.Prague1.Level3.net 34.8 10.|-- r-227-076-074-195.avast.com 38.3 11.|-- r-65-61-62-5.ff.avast.com 34.7
Thankfully MaxMind does provide a CSV version of their database which means that you can grep through to find all the other offenders who fraudulently locate themselves in North Korea:
$ cat GeoLite2-City-Locations-en.csv | grep 'Asia,KP' 1871859,en,AS,Asia,KP,"North Korea",01,Pyongyang,,,Pyongyang,,Asia/Pyongyang 1873107,en,AS,Asia,KP,"North Korea",,,,,,,Asia/Pyongyang 2042893,en,AS,Asia,KP,"North Korea",04,Chagang-do,,,Manp'o,,Asia/Pyongyang
$ cat GeoLite2-City-Blocks-IPv4.csv | grep '1871859' 31.220.29.128/27,1871859,2921044,,0,0,,39.0194,125.7547,200 46.36.203.81/32,1871859,3164670,,0,0,,39.0194,125.7547,50 46.36.203.82/31,1871859,3164670,,0,0,,39.0194,125.7547,50 185.56.163.144/28,1871859,1873107,,0,0,,39.0194,125.7547,200 $ cat GeoLite2-City-Blocks-IPv4.csv | grep '1873107' 5.62.56.160/30,1873107,1873107,,0,0,,40.0000,127.0000,1000 5.62.61.64/30,2042893,1873107,,0,0,,41.1544,126.2894,100 57.73.224.0/19,1873107,3017382,,0,0,,40.0000,127.0000,100 175.45.176.0/22,1873107,1873107,,0,0,,40.0000,127.0000,50 185.56.163.144/28,1871859,1873107,,0,0,,39.0194,125.7547,200 210.52.109.0/24,1873107,1814991,,0,0,,40.0000,127.0000,50 $ cat GeoLite2-City-Blocks-IPv4.csv | grep '2042893' 5.62.61.64/30,2042893,1873107,,0,0,,41.1544,126.2894,100 45.42.151.0/24,2042893,6252001,,0,0,,41.1544,126.2894,1000 172.97.82.128/25,2042893,6252001,,0,0,,41.1544,126.2894,1000
The only genuine entry here is this one:
175.45.176.0/22,1873107,1873107,,0,0,,40.0000,127.0000,50
Avast isn’t the only one in this list. NFOrce customers, “Roya Hosting” and others have also done this.
I submitted whois inaccuracy complaints and maxmind corrections to each fake one.
Avast has not just limited themselves to North Korea, they have set IP ranges to be all over the world for their VPN service:
This is nothing short of insanity driving for anyone who uses GeoIP to compile statistics, and depending on the VPN offering it is fraudulent advertising.
One of the motivations for faking your location in your whois and thus GeoIP is that if you are torrenting you will get less DMCA emails, since a lot of the copyright enforcement bots will check GeoIP to see “if it’s worth it” to send a abuse email.
That time the DPRK had IPv6
Bad actors abusing BGP is nothing new, we have seen them come up with increasing frequency for things like:
However one day I was burning time and searching through bgp.he.net and found that North Korea had suddenly got IPv6!
But actually that IPv6 didn’t make sense, it turned out that it was upstreamed by a suspicious ISP:
Looking at RIPE Stat and the IPv6 prefix announced it is clear that for a short amount of time, the network operator spoofed his way to make it look like his prefix was being announced by the only ISP in North Korea:
Assuming everything in the world was done correctly, this would not be a problem. The prefix announcement would be filtered by the upstream network of the offender, but this time it did not. Hurricane Electric accepted the bad announcement and relayed it to peers:
The interesting part of this is that the ISP put China Unicom’s AS in front. This made the whole attempt look a lot more legitimate. I then looked to who else might be doing this and found a company called “Crowd Control” (Archive 1 | Archive 2).
Their site implies they are a new security startup, if we look at their routes and also find fake inserted China AS numbers in their AS Path:
Once again, Hurricane Electric are accepting this and sending it to their peers, giving that HE are a Tier 1 (if you ignore Cogent, who also isn’t really even Tier 1) it’s pretty bad that this fake information wasn’t filtered out in BGP configuration.
The silly part of this is that it’s pointless. It only serves to make it seem like these ISPs peer with China Telecom and other major providers:
But it’s easy to spot the implausible routing in another tab:
The root of these issues appear to be that Hurricane Electric’s tunnel broker BGP tunnels do not check the AS Path, but only the IP Range. This is problematic since it allows clearly fake paths to be advertised.
And what for? Just to fraud some people that they have connections with some well known ISPs? Or to sell VPN Services?
Amusingly some of those ISPs they are putting on their AS path don’t even have IPv6.The son of a New Jersey truck stop operator, Frank is a graduate of Harvard College and Harvard Law. Between the upbringing in Jersey and the ivory towers of Cambridge, Frank developed a smarter-than-thou attitude and a liberal outlook that led to a life in politics. He served as a member of the Massachusetts House and then was elected to the US House from his Newton district in 1980.
Representative Peter King, a conservative New York Republican who serves on the House Financial Services Committee with Frank, said “some Republicans are going to say good riddance.’’ But others, King said, “will say he was always a very worthy adversary. And he made you earn your money. If you’re going to get up on the House floor and debate Barney, you better know what you’re talking about.’’
“He’s a force of nature and he cannot be replaced, irrespective of party,’’ said William Delahunt, a former representative who has known Frank since they served together in the Massachusetts Legislature in 1973. “He will be hugely missed,’’ said Senator John Kerry, the Massachusetts Democrat.
That made him a prominent enemy of conservatives, who used Frank as a foil to rally their troops and raise money to defeat Democrats.
And, unlike so many other politicians in a city that relies on message control, he has done it not by press release or through a spokesman or even through Twitter. Instead, with his patented put-down, his trademark sardonic analysis, or just plain bluster, the man often referred to as “the mouth that roared’’ could be counted on by television hosts to fire away on behalf of the liberal agenda.
He also fought aggressively for gay rights and championed repeal of the ban on homosexuals openly serving in the military.
His impact on debate and policy has been among the most significant of any recent House member outside the speaker’s office. In his powerful position as House Financial Services Committee chairman, Frank was a crucial backer of the bank bailout of 2008, and, with former senator Christopher Dodd of Connecticut, engineered the overhaul of Wall Street regulations, a measure designed to reduce the likelihood of another meltdown.
Love him or hate him, call him brilliant or - like O’Reilly and other conservatives - accuse him of precipitating the nation’s financial meltdown with his advocacy for more lenient mortgage lending standards, Frank has for his 31 years in Washington been impossible to ignore.
“You don’t listen at all, or maybe you are listening or you’re too dumb to understand,’’ Frank, the liberal icon, lectured to Fox News’s conservative talk show host, Bill O’Reilly.
WASHINGTON - It was a classic Barney Frank moment, filled with anger, pride, bluster, outrage, and confrontation. And it was on live television.
In 1987, Frank said for the first time publicly, in an interview with the Globe, that he was gay and pronounced it irrelevant to his job. “So what?’’ he said.
Eventually, however, Frank’s private life became very public. He had previously hired a male prostitute and used personal funds to pay him as an aide. When it was reported in 1989 that the man had run a prostitution ring from Frank’s Washington home years earlier, the lawmaker’s actions came under investigation.
Frank had denied he knew the man was running a prostitution ring. The House eventually voted 408-18 to reprimand Frank for using his congressional office to fix 33 of the man’s parking tickets. Frank was reelected in 1990 with 66 percent of the vote.
He had survived being written off by some as politically dead and rejected the advice of an editorial by the Globe calling for his resignation.
Despite the scandal, Frank did not step back from advocating for gay rights.
“He really showed that this was something that was possible, that you could make a difference and be yourself,’’ said Christine Quinn, the first openly gay City Council speaker in New York City who has cited Frank’s career as an inspiration. “He’s really a hero to all of us.’’
Frank became more outspoken than ever. Perhaps his most famous one-liner was his rebuke of conservative opponents of abortion rights. He said their concern for life “begins with conception and ends with birth.’’
Although hailed by supporters and pilloried by foes for his liberal stances, Frank was known for his ability to work with Republicans on certain issues. In fact, Frank found an unlikely ally in Senator Scott Brown, the Massachusetts Republican who convinced him to add a provision in the Dodd-Frank bill that would exempt some insurance and mutual fund companies from certain regulations. Brown then cast a critical vote needed to break the GOP filibuster against the bill.
The Dodd-Frank law was in response to the credit meltdown of 2008, a financial calamity caused largely by problems in the housing market that were greatly amplified by the financial industry’s buying and selling of bundles of loans. For years, Frank had worked enthusiastically to help lower-income people get home mortgages with the help of the quasi-government agencies, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.
As early as 2003, Frank and other members of the Financial Services Committee had received reports from the director of the federal office responsible for overseeing Fannie and Freddie questioning their solvency, given their expanding portfolios and increasing reliance on risky investments.
But Frank continued to defend the lenders. He did not take action to rein them in until he became chair of the committee in January 2007. By the time he passed a bill out of committee requiring tighter restrictions on Fannie and Freddie, it was too late - the lenders had gobbled up risky mortgages and were headed for failure amid the foreclosure crisis.
Last fall, in an interview with the Globe, Frank acknowledged that he had seen the problems with Fannie and Freddie too late. He said he had been wearing ideological blinders; he had worried that Republicans were going after Fannie and Freddie for their own ideological reasons and would curtail the lenders’ mission of providing affordable housing.
“I was late in seeing it, no question,’’ Frank said about the lenders’ descent into insolvency. It was this episode that caused conservatives, including Fox’s O’Reilly, to castigate Frank. Frank responded that Republicans controlled Congress for much of the time and shared the blame.
Then, in a presidential debate this year, Frank’s longtime nemesis, the former speaker of the House, Newt Gingrich, said Frank should be jailed for his role in the housing mess. When it was later reported that Gingrich had taken at least $1.6 million in fees from Freddie Mac, Frank took to the airwaves and assailed Gingrich as “a man with no ethical core whatsoever.’’
Whether in his final days in Congress or in retirement, a friend said, Frank will continue to defend his financial industry regulations against repeal attempts from the GOP.
Michael Kranish can be reached at kranish@globe.com. Tracy Jan can be reached at tjan@globe.com. Donovan Slack of the Globe Washington Bureau contributed to this report.
© Copyright 2011 Globe Newspaper Company.Have you put your vote in for BIGBANG yet?
For the past three decades or so, the Nickelodeon Kids' Choice Awards have been one of the entertainment industry's most well known events, primarily due to the abundance of green slime and how fans vote on the final winners. For this year's Kids' Choice Awards, it appears that the voting may have just gotten a bit more difficult because one of K-pop's most popular groups have thrown their hat into the ring.
The "Favourite Global Music Star" category is shaping up to be a fiercely fought affair because BIGBANG have been nominated alongside other big worldwide stars like Bruno Mars, 5 Seconds of Summer, Little Mix, Zara Larsson, and Shakira. Needless to say, the competition is going to be quite tough for this category!
A big congrats is in order to BIGBANG for getting a KCA nomination!
The voting for the Kids' Choice Awards are open until early March, with the ceremony taking place on March 11. If you haven't done so yet, be sure to get your vote in for BIGBANG right here.
Hear us on SBS PopAsia Digital Radio
Listen in 24/7 on Digital Radio, by downloading our free mobile app or by streaming live here on our website.
Download the app here:It turns out that they were wrong on almost all counts. Over half the electorate voted Tory, Ukip or for Northern Irish unionist parties in the 2015 general election; 52 per cent backed Brexit in June. The electorate is sick of the EU and global institutions; it wants more democratic control, including over immigration.
The establishment, including celebrities and entertainers, no longer sways voters; and attempts to demonise Eurosceptics as little Englanders, racists or bigots backfired spectacularly. The backlash against the elites, now associated with the liberal Left, was spectacular.
A recent paper from the Social Market Foundation found that Britain’s two largest political tribes, who make up around half of the electorate and which it dubbed “Our Britain” and “Common Sense”, hold a range of what it described as “traditionally Right-wing views”.
On top of that, 7 per cent is free-market libertarian. Pure Left-liberals make up just 11 per cent of the electorate. Of course, there is a “progressive majority” on a few subjects – sadly, they include banning zero-hour contracts and renationalising trains – but these are secondary issues.
The reality is that the centre Left destroyed itself with Iraq, the financial crisis and then – for its Lib Dem component – when it backed tuition fees and went into coalition with the Tories. The only surprise is that it survived for so long.
Given all that, what can moderate Left-wingers actually do now? They certainly cannot do business with Jeremy Corbyn. Corbyn is a hard-Left republican who believes in total state control, socialism, punitive taxation, a rejection of international organisations such as the EU for being too pro-capitalist, and radical anti-militarism.
His party is riddled with anti-Semitism and anti-Americanism; his Marxist view of international affairs means that he is soft on extremist groups. It’s a despicable brew that would destroy Britain and wreak havoc globally were it ever implemented.Image caption Tests showed small microcapsules filled with liquid metal healed fractures in a gold circuit restoring conductivity
Self-repairing electronic chips are one step closer, according to a team of US researchers.
The group has created a circuit that heals itself when cracked thanks to the release of liquid metal which restores conductivity.
The process takes less than an eye blink to bring the circuit back to use.
The researchers said that their work could eventually lead to longer-lasting gadgets as well as solving one of the big problems of interplanetary travel.
The work was carried out by a team of scientists and engineers atthe University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaignand is published in the journal Advanced Materials.
The process works by exploiting the stress that causes the initial damage in the chips to break open tiny reservoirs of a healing material that fills in the resulting gaps, restoring electrical flow.
Cracked circuits
To test their theory the team patterned lines of gold onto glass to form a circuit.
They then either placed microcapsules 0.01mm wide directly onto the lines or added a thin laminate into which they embedded larger 0.2mm microcapsules.
In both cases the microcapsules contained eutectic gallium-indium - a metallic material chosen for its high conductivity and low melting point.
This device was then sandwiched between another layer of glass and acrylic and connected to electricity.
The researchers then bent the circuit until it cracked causing the monitored voltage to fall to zero.
They said the ruptured microcapsules then healed most of the test circuits within one millisecond and restored nearly all of the measured voltage.
The smaller capsules healed the device every time but were a little less conductive than the larger ones which had a slightly lower success rate. The team suggested that a mix of differently sized capsules would therefore give the best result.
The devices were then monitored for four months during which time the researchers said there was no loss of conductivity.
Safe space travel
The leader of the group said the theory could prove a boon to the space industry.
"The only avenue one has right now is to simply remove that circuitry when it fails and replace it- there is no way to manually go in and fix something like this," aerospace engineering professor Scott White told the BBC.
Image caption The research team hope to adapt the process to create longer lasting rechargeable batteries
"I think the real application area that you'll see for something like this is in electronics which are incredibly difficult to repair or replace - think about satellites or interplanetary travel where it's physically impossible to swap out something."
The research is an offshoot of the university's research into extending the lifetime of rechargeable batteries.
The reason current systems fail after repeated use is often because microdamage inside the devices has disrupted the conductive flow of electrons from one end of the batteries to the other.
The team said that if they could solve the problem electric car batteries might last years longer than they do at present, making the vehicles much cheaper to maintain.
Greener gadgets
The group also claimed that the technique had the potential to offer more sustainable consumer electronic devices.
Professor White gave the example of mobile phone buttons that stopped working if repeated use had caused cracks in the circuitry below. He said self-healing systems would extend handsets' lifespans.
When asked whether profit-driven electronics makers would want this he replied: "I believe any company would want to provide their customer with the best performing product and if they don't, then other companies will step into the market to provide it.
"Basically what you see is that electronics are cycled now to give you added functionality.
"Maybe the way to do this is not to physically build new circuits and packages every time, but let's have longer lasting ones.
"Then the redesigns can be more software based or functionality driven, saving us from using up our precious resources by building millions of cellphones every year."You’ve been more outspoken on social issues than any other CEO of a company your size. Do you think companies have a responsibility to publicly take on such issues as civil rights and climate change?
I think everybody has to make their own decision about it. Maybe there are compelling reasons why some people want to be silent. I think for us, though — for a company that’s all about empowering people through our products, and being a collection of people whose goal in life is to change the world for the better — it doesn’t sit right with me that you have that kind of focus, but you’re not making sure your carbon footprint isn’t poisoning the place. Or that you’re not evangelizing moving human rights forward. I think every generation has the responsibility to enlarge the meaning of human rights.
I do view that a CEO today of Apple should participate in the national discussion on these type of issues.
Who were you thinking about when you decided to write the op-ed where you publicly came out as gay?
I was thinking about kids. I was getting notes from kids who knew I was gay, or assumed I was, because of something they had read on the Web. And they were kids who were distraught. Some had been pushed out by their families. They thought they couldn’t achieve anything. They couldn’t do anything. They were seeing the national discourse around it and feeling isolated and depressed. And I just thought — I’ve got to do something.
And you speaking out would do what?
I thought it would minimally say you can do pretty good in this world and be gay. That it’s not a limiter. It’s okay to be. That it’s okay to be honest about it. I figured if I could |
’s office will send a report to the Oklahoma Supreme Court, which will then determine if the signatures are sufficient for the proposal to be placed on the ballot.
Oklahoma Attorney General Scott Pruitt will then have five days to review the ballot title before the public can challenge the signatures or ballot title.
When it has cleared those hurdles, it can then qualify to be placed on the ballot.The president’s budget also takes aim at Medicaid, the insurance program for low-income people. He would pare $1.2 billion from it next year and nearly $14 billion over five years.
Those figures do not include tens of billions of dollars that Mr. Bush wants to save through new regulations. Such rules are not subject to approval by Congress, but could be revised by a future administration.
Congressional Democrats often pronounce Mr. Bush’s budget dead on arrival, and they have no reason to make unpopular cuts in this election year.
But lawmakers say they feel obliged to pass a Medicare bill in the first half of this year, to spare doctors from a 10 percent cut in Medicare fees that would otherwise take effect on July 1. Lawmakers say that bill could easily become a vehicle for other changes in Medicare and Medicaid.
Most of the Medicare savings in the budget would be achieved by reducing the annual update in federal payments to hospitals, nursing homes, hospices, ambulances and home care agencies.
The budget would not touch payments to insurance companies for private Medicare Advantage plans, even though many Democrats and independent experts say those plans are overpaid.
In the next five years, the largest amount of Medicare savings, by far, would come from hospitals: $15 billion from an across-the-board reduction in the annual updates for inpatient care; $25 billion from special payments to hospitals serving large numbers of poor people; and $20 billion from capital payments for the construction of hospital buildings and the purchase of equipment.
Advertisement Continue reading the main story
In addition, the president’s budget would reduce special Medicare payments to teaching hospitals, including many in the New York area, by $23 billion over the next five years.
To justify prior budget proposals, the White House has often cited the work of an independent federal panel, the Medicare Payment Advisory Commission. The panel voted this month to recommend that Medicare payments to hospitals be increased about 3 percent in 2009, to reflect the expected increase in the cost of goods and services hospitals use. Under the president’s budget, Medicare payments would not keep pace with those costs in 2009 or any subsequent year.
The advisory panel found that the special Medicare payments to teaching hospitals were excessive, as the White House contends. But it recommended a much more modest cutback than Mr. Bush will propose.
Kenneth E. Raske, president of the Greater New York Hospital Association, said the president’s proposals showed “great insensitivity to teaching hospitals” across the country. The proposals “would undermine our ability to train young doctors at a time when the nation is facing a shortage of doctors,” Mr. Raske said.
Under the president’s budget, Medicare payment rates for nursing homes would be frozen in 2009, and payment rates for home health agencies would be frozen at current levels through 2013.
William A. Dombi, vice president of the National Association for Home Care and Hospice, a trade group, said the proposal could affect many of the three million Medicare beneficiaries who receive home health services each year.
“Under the proposal,” Mr. Dombi said, “75 percent to 80 percent of home health agencies would be doomed. They would not be able to meet payroll. They would not be able to operate.”
Within 15 days of sending his budget to Congress, Mr. Bush is supposed to submit legislation to strengthen the financial condition of Medicare and to reduce its reliance on general revenues, which include income taxes. The 2003 Medicare law established special procedures to ensure that Congress would consider such legislation.
House Democrats want to eliminate this requirement, saying it is a Republican device to undermine Medicare’s status as an entitlement.(Reuters) - The U.S. judiciary is the only branch of our government that frequently restricts its own power. The constitutional system of checks and balances requires the courts to decide when Congress or the president is overreaching. But no one tells the justices of the U.S. Supreme Court, who are appointed for life, that they’re exceeding their constitutional power (except other justices). The system depends on judges acting judiciously.
The Trump administration believes the system failed on Friday, when U.S. District Judge James Robart of Seattle granted a motion by the states of Washington and Minnesota to suspend enforcement of the president’s week-old travel, immigration and refugee policy. The Justice Department’s appeal at the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals to stay Judge Robart’s order is, fundamentally, a call on federal courts to limit their own authority to review the president’s power to decide who comes into and goes out of this country.
The government’s brief, as I’ll explain, contends the Supreme Court has already conceded its restricted power in opinions that say courts must defer to the president as long as the government offers a legitimate rationale for its immigration decisions. Beyond that, the Trump Justice Department said, judges are intruding on terrain the U.S. Constitution and Congress have reserved for the president, meddling in policy they have no right to control.
Washington and Minnesota responded late Sunday night courts “have both the right and the duty” to examine the motives behind an unprecedented immigration and refugee policy that flouts the Constitution and a Congressional directive against nationality-based discrimination.
The 9th Circuit can decide the case on any number of technicalities – ranging from its jurisdiction to hear the appeal to the standing of Washington and Minnesota to bring claims on behalf of their residents - without reaching the essential question of the scope of court authority to review the president’s immigration policies. But the issue won’t go away with this case. The Trump administration intends to pursue aggressive immigration policies. Judges need to know how closely they can scrutinize the administration’s actions.
President Trump made clear his own view of the appropriate balance of power in a series of Twitter posts this weekend. Deriding Judge Robart – who was appointed by President George W. Bush and confirmed unanimously by the U.S. Senate - as a “so-called judge,” Trump tweeted, “What is our country coming to when a judge can halt a Homeland Security travel ban and anyone, even with bad intentions, can come into U.S.?”
On Sunday, the president once again questioned federal court interference with his national security policy. “Just cannot believe a judge would put our country in such peril,” he tweeted. “If something happens blame him and court system. People pouring in. Bad!”
The president’s comments seem to me to be gratuitously disdainful of Judge Robart’s authority, but his tweets distill the arguments his Justice Department has been making all week in the Washington and Minnesota AG case. The government has warned against “judicial second-guessing” of the president’s discretion in matters of national security, which, it said, Congress codified in immigration law provisions guaranteeing the executive branch’s power to suspend admission to the U.S. when the safety of the nation is at stake.
In the brief filed Saturday, the Justice Department added the argument that judges don’t have access to all of the classified information the president sees, so “courts are particularly ill-equipped to second-guess the president’s prospective judgment about future risks.” According to the Justice Department, judges are committing irreparable harm to constitutional separation-of-powers doctrine when they intrude “on the political branches’ exclusive authority over the admission of aliens.”
To back those arguments, the government cites two Supreme Court opinions, Kleindienst v. Mandel from 1972 and Kerry v. Din from 2015. Both cases were brought by U.S. citizens suing over State Department decisions not to issue visas to particular foreign nationals. In Kleindienst, American professors claimed the government was violating their First Amendment rights by refusing entry to a radical Belgian journalist; in Kerry, a woman married to a former Taliban member asserted the government was obliged to explain its refusal to grant her husband a visa.
In both cases, the Supreme Court said that when the government has a “facially legitimate and bona fide” reason to deny a visa, courts should not probe the executive branch’s exercise of its discretion. “This reasoning has particular force in the area of national security, for which Congress has provided specific statutory directions pertaining to visa applications by noncitizens who seek entry to this country,” wrote Justice Anthony Kennedy in a concurrence in the Kerry case.
The Justice Department’s position is not unreasonable. Boston federal district judge Nathaniel Gorton, who declined on Friday to extend a temporary restraining order barring enforcement of the Trump policies, agreed with the government’s restricted view of court oversight of immigration policy. (And was hailed in a yet another tweet from President Trump over the weekend.) “The president has exercised his broad authority … to suspend entry of certain aliens purportedly in order to ensure that resources are available to review screening procedures and that adequate standards are in place to protect against terrorist attacks,” Gorton wrote, citing Kleindienst among other cases.
But as Washington and Minnesota explained Sunday night in their 9th Circuit response to the Justice Department, the Supreme Court doesn’t always give the executive branch a free pass when it comes to national security. Most notably, in a series of decisions in the early 2000s, the justices granted constitutional rights to detainees held at Guantanamo Bay, over ardent opposition from the George W. Bush administration. “Courts routinely review executive decisions with far greater security implications” than the Trump administration immigration policy, the states’ brief said.
Moreover, according to Washington and Minnesota, Justice Kennedy’s concurrence in the 2015 Kerry case specifically said that courts can consider the executive branch’s motives if there is sufficient evidence the government acted in bad faith. The states, as you know, contend the Trump administration policy, which bars entry from seven Muslim-majority countries, is a de facto ban on Muslims, in violation of the First Amendment’s Establishment Clause.
What is the proper standard for evaluating a sweeping immigration order that categorically bars all travelers from seven countries, albeit temporarily? Like so much else about the Trump administration, that’s hard to predict.Mercedes are considering disciplinary action – which could mean a fine or even suspension – against Lewis Hamilton after the three‑times world champion twice flouted instructions as his team-mate, Nico Rosberg, won his maiden Formula One world championship on Sunday.
Hamilton won the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix, his 10th win of the season against Rosberg’s nine and his fourth successive victory. But it was not enough to prevent the second-placed Rosberg winning the title by five points.
Nico Rosberg grinds out first F1 driver’s title to put Lewis Hamilton in shade | Paul Weaver Read more
Mercedes were angered by Hamilton’s refusal to respond to team orders to drive faster as he backed Rosberg into the drivers behind him, Sebastian Vettel and Max Verstappen; fourth place for Rosberg would have made Hamilton champion for the third year in a row.
Toto Wolff, the Mercedes head of motorsport, said: “Undermining a structure in public means you are putting yourself before the team. It is very simple. Anarchy does not work in any team and in any company.”
Wolff said he had not yet decided whether to crack down on a driver who has had 32 of his 53 race wins with the Silver Arrows since joining from McLaren in 2013. “The other half of me says it was Lewis’s only chance of winning the championship at the stage and maybe you cannot demand a racing driver that is one of the best, if not the best out there, to comply in a situation where his instincts cannot make him comply.
“It is about finding a solution as to how to solve that in the future because a precedent has been set. Let me sleep overnight and come up with a solution.”
When pressed again about what he would be doing about Hamilton, he thought for a while before adding: “We need to look at the overall situation and ask what does it mean. Everything is possible from ‘let’s change the rules next year because it does not work in those critical races and maybe we want to give them more freedom.’ Or we could have the more harsh side, that we feel the values were not respected. I am not sure yet where my finger is going to point or the needle is going to go.”
Wolff made it clear Mercedes were happy to let the two drivers race unless it compromised “our No1 objective of winning the race”.
Wolff said the team had calculated the Ferrari driver Vettel, shod with fresher rubber, had a chance of passing Germany’s Rosberg and Hamilton and stealing victory for the Scuderia.
The British driver said: “I did nothing dangerous so I don’t feel I did anything unfair. We were fighting for the world championship. I was leading. I control the pace. That’s the rules.
“I don’t know why they didn’t just let us race. There was never a moment I felt I was going to lose the race but it is quite clear, their thought process.”
Rosberg said: “You can understand the team’s perspective and you can enjoy Lewis’s perspective, There were many moments that were not enjoyable.”
The frosty atmosphere between the Mercedes drivers was evident before the podium ceremony. Rosberg hoisted the sport’s commercial supremo, Bernie Ecclestone, into the air but ignored Hamilton. The handshakes and congratulations eventually came on the podium.
Hamilton was supported by Wolff’s opposite number at Red Bull, Christian Horner, who had cheekily suggested a few days earlier that the Mercedes driver should employ the strategy. Horner said: “I wouldn’t have expected him to do anything different. He played completely within the rules.
Nico Rosberg says Abu Dhabi GP was ‘definitely not the most enjoyable’ Read more
“Winning the race wasn’t going to be enough for him today, he needed cars between him and, if he’d charged off into the distance, he wouldn’t have created that possibility. So he won the race as slowly as he could. It’s like in a football game where the team might protect from the opposition by kicking the ball around and not enabling the opposition to get hold of the it. I didn’t see that he did anything wrong today.”
Horner, whose Red Bull dominated Formula One before the rise of Mercedes in 2014, added: “We know that Toto likes to control most things in the paddock, including other teams’ drivers. I understand that Toto has suggested that Lewis followed my instruction rather than his, and he should come and drive for Red Bull.
“Congratulations to Nico. He’s driven a great season and is a very worthy world champion. But it was naive to think there would be any different approach to this race with what’s at stake. Lewis drove a tactical race. He didn’t do anything dirty. He didn’t do anything against the rules. I think it would be unfair to criticise him for the way that he drove.”
However, Hamilton came under more fire after the post race press conference when he appeared churlish in defeat, prompting Vettel to praise his fellow German as a “worthy champion”.If gaming can sometimes seem like a solitary experience, Spela Modigt // Play Bravely shows what happens when a group of players finds the chemistry and will to succeed as a unit. The new documentary follows professional Counter-Strike: GO player Jonatan "Devilwalk" Lundberg and his Fnatic team as it attempts to win the Dreamhack Winter 2013 tournament.
A support player in the Fnatic Counter-Strike squad, Lundberg likens himself to a psychologist or "shrink," as he puts it, in that a big part of achieving any goal is keeping people together and focused on a single objective.
"We are a team that doesn't really change," Lundberg says in the film. "We've had the same core players since the start of the year and that's really, really unique. People quit, people change lineups because they get in fights, can't resolve their issues. So they just start over, which is the wrong way to go I think."
As well as offering polished insight into some of the personalities behind a top eSports team, director Zacharias Dyrborg's film features some great play-by-play action of competitive Counter-Strike and works to explain the mindset of the Fnatic team before and after each match. For me, it showed that while skill will almost always show itself in highly stressful situations, success can also depend just as much on understanding how to take advantage of the emotional side of competition.“Nothing is more indicative of white supremacy than the fact that the phrase “Black Lives Matter” is controversial,” opines regular CNN guest Marc Lamont Hill. The obvious response to this is that the group wasn”t particularly controversial until they started demanding “dead cops…now“ and, soon after, got plenty. Last weekend, the allegedly uncontroversial #BlackLivesMatter doubled down with “Pigs in a blanket, fry “em like bacon“ a couple of days before a manhunt began for the murder of a Chicago cop.
Black Lives Matter isn”t about defending a group of innocent people of color. It’s a hate group that incites murder, and it’s successful because its view of society explains black failure. The black-failure/white-guilt paradigm is the gasoline that fuels the #BlackLivesMatter machine. Instead of blacks taking responsibility for their actions, we pretend they”re doing badly because we keep ruining their lives. This is more about Black Lies Matter than anything else, and the trouble with lies is you need to weave in more and more as the web gets more tangled. The “dead cops” chant has been explained away as a fringe group. The “pigs in a blanket” chant was a “playful“ joke. Cops who die in the line of duty chose that line of work. When the millions of black-on-black murders come up, we”re told this handful of police-brutality cases is more important because we”re supposed to trust cops. When confronted with the fact that Mike Brown didn”t have his hands up, we”re told it’s a springboard that showcases real police brutality (I heard the same excuses for Tawana Brawley). If they don”t have a way around the facts, they scream racism. If it’s a black guy telling the truth, they”ll call him an Uncle Tom who is “whitesplaining” (a dis that Hill appears to find amusing).
“If the machine doesn”t take black-failure/white-guilt gas, it doesn”t run.”
Most of us realize that the very core of this movement is built on fabrications. Trayvon Martin was not hunted down in the street and shot like a dawg. He was a thug and an asshole who came from a long line of thug assholes and when someone dared to question him, he attacked. Mike Brown was exactly the same. He challenged a cop and lunged for Darren Wilson’s gun and the officer stopped him with deadly force. Daniel Pantaleo could have done a better job with Eric Garner. If it was the beat-cop days, he and Eric Garner may have had a fistfight or at least waited for more cops to come in and start Tasing. However, you can”t just demand that law enforcement “ends today” because you want to do something illegal. That’s the deal. These three are the best victims you could come up with?
Police make about 12 million arrests a year. This year alone we had: Officer Walter Scott shoot a black man in the back, Sandra Bland die in police custody after being arrested for a traffic stop, a teenager shot dead during the Ferguson protests, and Cleveland cops shoot a kid with a toy gun. Unfortunately for the narrative, Scott was charged with murder, Bland had a history of suicidal behavior, the Ferguson teen was trying to kill cops, and the police asked that kid many times to drop his weapon.
So the Bad Cop story clings to the triumphant triumvirate and millions of people think cops are the problem. It’s not shattered black families leaving mothers with two dead sons killed on the same block. It’s not the kids those dead sons were running around with. It’s the “systemic” racism that floats out of white people and into the hood like a noxious fart.
In the late “80s, many blacks still called this violence “Self Destruction.” They started a Stop the Violence campaign where rappers such as Chuck D demanded we “Keep ourselves in check.” Today, the solution is “Oink Oink Bang Bang.” Actually, it’s worse than that. The Black Panthers have extended this call to “Kill [all] white people,” and judging by recent crime stats, it’s working. On Monday, we learned of a black teen who stabbed a mentally disabled white man to death. That same day, we learned of three more black teens arrested for shooting a white father to death during a robbery. Also that same day, it was reported that a black cook stabbed a white man speaking Portuguese because he thought the victim was disrespecting him (it’s amazing how often that motive comes up). The day before, it came out that a black man had stabbed and sexually assaulted a white woman during a home invasion. Also on Sunday, it was announced that Philadelphia officer Marc Hanly would be returning from the hospital after a black man shot him in the chest. That’s just two days in America, and there are no parades or even hashtags for these victims. If the machine doesn”t take black-failure/white-guilt gas, it doesn”t run.
Just for fun, let’s pretend the stories behind the three wise black men were true. Trayvon was just a cute kid trying to get a soda while some redneck blurted out, “Not in my neighborhood” and blew his head off. Let’s imagine Mike Brown was shot after a cop said to his partner, “Check this out.” And finally, let’s assume cops strangled Eric Garner to death because he sells cigarettes. That’s three.
Pay to Play - Put your money where your mouth is and subscribe for an ad-free experience and to join the world famous Takimag comment board.Cal State San Marcos will unveil research this week that examines the feasibility of building an international airport on Camp Pendleton, when Lindbergh Field reaches capacity in 2035. The study will be released this week.
Cal State San Marcos will unveil research this week that examines the feasibility of building a new international airport on the Camp Pendleton Marine base.
Glen Brodowsky, a marketing professor at Cal State San Marcos, said three study projects have looked at airport options for the region and the latest one explores the economic impact of a new international airport on Camp Pendleton.
“In no way does this replace, but rather augments the air travel opportunities in the region,” he said. “So they have direct flights to Asia, Latin America and Europe, in addition to wonderful connections within the U.S. from Lindbergh Field.”
Lindbergh Field is projected to reach capacity around 2035 – 20 years from now.
In 2013, 96 percent of flights out of Lindbergh were domestic flights, according to the study.
Well-know San Diego businessmen and philanthropists Irwin Jacobs and Malin Burnham support the research.
Burnham said he has been interested in this idea for years, and had asked consultants in 1999 to confirm that the plan is feasible.
“We can — number one — accomplish San Diego’s future growth and air service needs with a site at Camp Pendleton,” he said. “We can also do the same for the Orange County residents and Riverside County residents. This would be a wonderful asset for all of Southern California for international flights, not just for San Diego.”
The site would be just north of Oceanside, with access and parking proposed off state Route 76.
Camp Pendleton has 125,000 acres. Since some of them are reserved for roaming bison, the military should be able to make five percent of the base available for the benefit of its neighboring civilian community, Burnham said.
The Cal State San Marcos research points out that the new half-billion dollar military hospital on Camp Pendleton would be directly west of the proposed dual runways.
San Marcos MBA students will present their findings at 7 p.m. Wednesday at Markstein Hall, room 125, at Cal State San Marcos.
CORRECTION: This story has been updated to remove incorrect information in a quote by businessman Malin Burnham about the 2006 ballot initiative to place an international airport on Marine Corps Air Station Miramar. He said that proposal called for turning over the base for civilian use. The proposal called for a joint-use facility.
To view PDF documents, Download Acrobat Reader.First we had the the professional corporate climate-change deniers snorting at the idea that global warming might have played a role in this week's devastating tornadoes in the South.
Now we have religious-right climate-change deniers claiming that they know what did cause those tornadoes: in fact, the storms were a product of God's wrath and an expression of his judgment.
This time it's Dr. Calvin Beisner, voicing his views on the radio show of the American Family Association's Bryan Fischer, via RightWingWatch:
BEISNER: What this tells me, Bryan, is that we need to recognize that natural disasters like this are like distant early-warning signals. There is judgment to come. We are all sinners. None of us, none of us is righteous enough to say, 'Oh, I wouldn't deserve it if that happened to me.'
I'm sure folks in Alabama and Georgia will be pleased to hear that God singled them out for judgment -- especially ahead of such godless places as Hollywood -- just to prove that it can happen to good people too.
And why are we getting God's wrath? you ask. Well, Pat Robertson has the answer -- it's because we've become a modern-day "Sodom and Gomorrah":
Robertson: And I believe that the anointing of the Lord has been here to fulfill the desire of those early settlers, to take the gospel from America throughout the world, and that’s what we’ve been here to do. But let me tell you, ladies and gentlemen, it doesn’t take a great scholar to tell you the United States has lost its moorings. When you think that courts have denied children the right to pray in schools, that there’s a vendetta against religious belief, that now homosexuality has been made a constitutional right, that abortion has been made a constitutional right, the courts and judges have trampled on the early origins of our nation, they have distorted the meaning of the First Amendment. It’s all been done, and we’ve let it happen. But I was reading today about a place called Sodom and Gomorrah, and a man named Abraham stood before God, and he says, “God, there’re righteous people in that city, would you kill them along with the wicked, must not the judge of all the earth do right?” And God finally promised, “If I can find ten righteous in that city, I will spare it,” just ten. Well the time came he could only find six, so they destroyed Sodom and Gomorra. But there’re many righteous here in America, and we need to band together and pray that God Almighty will spare this great land and reestablish in our hearts the vision of the pioneers.
Well, considering that the storms struck hardest in states represented by some of the most hardcore global-warming denialists, maybe they're onto something with this whole "God's retribution" bit. Though not for the reasons they presume.Roger Stone will testify before the House Intelligence Committee next month as part of the probe into Russian interference in the 2016 election, his lawyer told Politico Tuesday.
Stone, a former Trump campaign adviser and frequent defender of the president, will appear in a closed hearing on July 24 but is requesting a public hearing to address contacts he had with Russian hackers and WikiLeaks, Politico reported.
Stone’s lawyer, Robert Buschel, said the House committee told him “they’re done with public” hearings.
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Stone told Politico in an email that he wanted an open hearing to testify against statements made by Hillary Clinton Hillary Diane Rodham ClintonSanders: 'I fully expect' fair treatment by DNC in 2020 after 'not quite even handed' 2016 primary Sanders: 'Damn right' I'll make the large corporations pay 'fair share of taxes' Former Sanders campaign spokesman: Clinton staff are 'biggest a--holes in American politics' MORE campaign chairman John Podesta. Podesta testified before the committee on Tuesday.
“With John Podesta appearing before the committee I do feel it is essential that I have the opportunity to rebut his serial lies,” Stone said in an email to Politico. “I may not be able to sue a member of Congress but I sure as hell can sue the f--- out of Podesta. The claim that I had knowledge of the hacking of his email by WikiLeaks in advance is a demonstrable lie.”
Stone admitted in March that he had briefly spoken to the hacker who leaked emails from the Democratic National Committee (DNC).Yes, of course he is
In one of the most unexpected political developments of the year so far, East 17's Brian Harvey has been revealed to be carrying out his own enquiry into historic child sex abuse claims.
The baked potato-loving 'Stay Another Day' star was this week invited to the House of Commons by Labour MP Simon Danczuk - who is compiling information on historic child sex abuse claims across all sectors after reports spread about a ring of paedophiles within Westminster.
Important meeting with Brian Harvey (formerly of East17!) yesterday - appreciate his help. pic.twitter.com/nl12qeQ20X — Simon Danczuk (@SimonDanczuk) January 8, 2015
“It’s the first time I’ve met him. He came across to me as a really thoughtful person," Mr Danczuk told Buzzfeed. "The reason we were meeting up is to discuss some work he’s done around child sex abuse. He was sharing the information that he had gathered.
“He feels quite passionately about protecting children and really wants to make a contribution. We know that showbusiness is an industry that’s had a number of abusers within it.
Mr Danczuk added: “He’s providing a number of leads that I’m keen to follow up and that’s exactly what I’ll do. I’m pleased he’s done the work he’s done. We had a good chat. I’d be happy and keen to meet him again.”
Back in October, Brian Harvey made headlines when he stormed Downing Street yesterday demanding to see the Prime Minister. The East 17 singer, turned up at No.10 with a white ring binder in his hand, where he was stopped by a policeman. According to Twitter user Dai Hillson: "He was shouting that the binder [that he was carrying] was 'evidence' of how much money the [government] had stolen from him".
Today further images have emerged of Harvey clutching his folder, with messages that say #watchthisspace.
Trudi Lyons, who took the above photo, told London24: “It’s not a joke, this is such a serious matter that needs sorting. #truth”.
Harvey along with East 17 is responsible for the sale of 18 million records across Europe, but is also quite famous for an incident in 2005 when he ran himself over and blamed it on too many jacket potatoes.IND-DEN grades: Broncos OLB Von Miller earns game's top grade in win
By John Kosko • Sep 19, 2016
Denver Broncos 34, Indianapolis Colts 20
Here are the biggest takeaways and highest-graded players from the Broncos’ home win over the Colts.
Quarterback grade: Trevor Siemian, 49.5
Trevor Siemian impressive against Colts’ blitz
The Broncos’ offensive game plan against the Colts was similar to the one they used against the Panthers on opening night: run outside zone and have QB Trevor Siemian get the ball into the hands of WRs Emmanuel Sanders and Demaryius Thomas on underneath passes. Siemian attempted just two passes that traveled more than 20 yards in the air (both incomplete) and did a nice job avoiding mistakes, outside of an intercepted screen pass to Darius Butler in the second quarter that almost certainly would have been returned for a touchdown, had Butler not injured his hamstring during the return. The Colts blitzed Siemian on nearly half of his dropbacks (17 of 36), and Siemian was able to make them pay, finishing 11-for-16 for 175 yards and a 104.9 QB rating.
Top offensive grades
C Matt Paradis, 85.8
LG Max Garcia, 81.2
TE Virgil Green, 80.2
LT Russell Okung, 79.6
FB Andy Janovich, 77.4
Impressive outing from Broncos’ offensive line
Denver’s offensive line was outstanding throughout the game, allowing running backs C.J. Anderson and Devontae Booker to produce consistent gains on the ground, and giving QB Trevor Siemian a clean pocket to work from. Through two games, C Matt Paradis PFF’s our highest-graded center in the NFL (excluding PHI-CHI). Paradis has yet to allow a pressure this season, and owns the best run-blocking grade of any NFL center by a wide margin. LT Russell Okung was also excellent, earning an 84.5 run-blocking grade. RT Darrion Weems struggled after replacing the injured starter Donald Stephenson at right tackle, finishing with a team-worst 41.6 overall grade and earning negative marks in both run blocking and pass protection.
Top defensive grades
OLB Von Miller, 88.2
S T.J Ward, 83.5
DE Derek Wolfe, 79.8
CB Bradley Roby, 78.7
DE Jared Crick, 78.3
Von Miller posts career-high four sacks
The offseason holdout doesn’t seem to have affected the reigning Super Bowl MVP’s performance, as OLB Von Miller made mincemeat of the Colts’ offensive line, logging four sacks, an additional three QB hurries, and a batted pass. Miller didn’t make much of an impact in the run game, but he provided the play of the afternoon with his strip sack of Andrew Luck that sealed the game for the Broncos. With a pass-rushing productivity mark of 17.0, Miller is converting a ridiculous 55.6 percent of his pressures into sacks this season, as he now has five sacks and four hurries through two games.
Quarterback grade: Andrew Luck, 61.1
Constant pressure gets to Andrew Luck
We may not see a better quarterback performance than what QB Andrew Luck put on display in Week 1 versus Detroit, but unfortunately for the Colts, the former Stanford Cardinal couldn’t muster much of anything against the defending Super Bowl champions. Pressured on 55.6 percent of his dropbacks, Luck completed just 40 percent of his passes, finishing with a passer rating of 49.6 when under duress. When delivering the ball under 2.5 seconds, Luck completed 73.3 percent of his passes with a passer rating of 111.0, but when holding on the ball beyond then, he was at 40 percent completion and a passer rating of 36.3.
Top offensive grades
C Ryan Kelly, 78.9
LG Jack Mewhort, 76.7
TE Jack Doyle, 66.7
RT Joe Reitz, 64.9
WR Phillip Dorsett, 64.8
Not a complete disaster on the offensive line
As much pressure as Luck faced, it wasn’t due to every member of the unit giving up sacks and pressure. Rookie center Ryan Kelly held his own, surrendering just one hurry while performing well in the run game. LG Jack Mewhort allowed just two hurries and helped pave a few running lanes, as well. Had Indianapolis wanted to devise a game plan that utilized the running game more, the offensive line would have looked better, as every player of the O-line unit besides LT Anthony Castanzo graded very well as a run blocker. Alas, the Colts called just 20 run plays and 53 pass plays.
Top defensive grades
LB D’Qwell Jackson, 85.0
S Clayton Geathers, 76.2
CB Darius Butler, 75.8
OLB Robert Mathis, 75.3
S Mike Adams, 74.9
D’Qwell Jackson, Robert Mathis provide bright spots in otherwise poor defensive performance
The Colts’ defense was ineffective in every facet of the game, earning negative grades in pass rushing, run defense, and pass coverage as a team. Starters Kendall Langford, David Parry, and Eric Walden each had more than 20 pass rush attempts without recording a single pressure. Starting ILB Sio Moore attempted 10 tackles, and whiffed on five of them. Eight Indianapolis defenders earned run-defense grades lower than 50.0, as the Colts were unable to slow down the Broncos’ rushing attack. OLB Robert Mathis (six pressures) and ILB D’Qwell Jackson (84.0 coverage grade, 77.2 run-defense grade) were the lone bright spots on an Indy defense that looks like one of the worst in the NFL.
PFF Game-Ball Winner: Broncos OLB Von Miller
Get access to grades for every player, complete with positional rankings, in our Player Grades tool.AUSTIN/DALLAS, Texas (Reuters) - Women seeking to terminate their pregnancies were turned away at clinics across Texas on Friday, providers said, after strict new regulations for physicians who perform abortions prompted a dozen facilities to stop offering them.
Texas Lieutenant Governor David Dewhurst strikes the gavel after the Senate passed legislation restricting abortion rights in Austin, Texas, July 12, 2013. REUTERS/Mike Stone
Facilities that continue to perform abortions were flooded with calls from women trying to find alternatives, clinic officials said.
“They’re calling from all over - Fort Worth, West Texas, all over Dallas, Oklahoma, everywhere,” said Betty Pettigrew, director at Routh Street Women’s Clinic in downtown Dallas, which has offered abortion services since 1978.
Offices were inundated with calls after a federal appeals court ruled on Thursday that a provision of a new Texas law that requires all doctors performing abortions to have an agreement with a local hospital to admit patients could go into immediate effect.
The provision was part of a sweeping anti-abortion law, passed in July by the Republican-led Texas Legislature, that also requires abortion clinics to meet heightened building standards, bans abortion after 20 weeks and requires strict adherence to federal guidelines in prescribing |
come in from outlying areas. Vanuatu has a population of about 267,000, spread over 83 islands, with some 47,000 people living in Port Vila.
“We anticipate that there will be higher numbers [of casualties] on remote islands, because they have less sophisticated shelter,” said Oxfam’s Vanuatu director, Colin Collett van Rooyen. “But we have no indication of what’s happening there because we have no communications to the islands … there has been significant destruction of homes in some areas. We have no power or running water and are still not able to move around freely,” he added. “The scale of this disaster is unprecedented in this country, and the people of Vanuatu are going to need a lot of help to rebuild their homes and their lives.”
David Cameron (@David_Cameron) My thoughts are with those affected by #CyclonePam. We have offered immediate support to Vanuatu. http://t.co/XlVG5BwE83
Vanuatu’s president, Baldwin Lonsdale, who had been attending a conference on disaster risk in Japan, issued an emotional appeal for aid. “I stand to appeal on behalf of the government and the people of Vanuatu that the global community give a lending hand in responding to these very current calamities that have struck us,” he said.
The island nation, which lies about a quarter of the way from Australia to Hawaii, has repeatedly warned that it is suffering devastating effects from climate change as its coastal areas are washed away, forcing people to resettle on higher ground. Port Vila is considered to be the city most exposed to natural disasters in the world: as well as cyclones, it faces risks of earthquakes, tsunamis and floods.
Weather forecasters said cyclone Pam had started to weaken as it moved away from Vanuatu and would pass between Fiji and New Caledonia before brushing the North Island of New Zealand.
Facebook Twitter Pinterest In this image provided by Unicef Pacific, people walk past debris is scattered on a street in Port Vila. Photograph: AP
A UN report this week found that economic losses over the past 45 years in the Asia Pacific from natural disasters totalled $1.15tn, with a loss of more than two million lives. Vanuatu was the country most at risk in the world from natural disasters, ahead of Tonga, the Philippines, Japan and Costa Rica, the document said.For Abdul Hakim, who has always heard his son call him abba jaan, the word came as a shock.
His son Hafesuddin (22), one of the missing men from Kerala and now suspected to be a part of ISIS network, called Hakim a 'kafir' - a person who rejects or disbelieves in God.
"My own son called me a kafir. Radicalism changed my son completely," said Hakim, trying to control his emotions as the love for his son was overwhelmed by anger at what he has done.
With the news of missing youths from Kerala hitting the headlines, Hakim is a worried man.
He wondered where he went wrong in raising Hafesuddin, that he one day texted him, "I am now get the jannat (heaven), here no tax, no Sharia law, nobody here catching me, very good place".
Speaking to CNN-News18, an anguished Hakim, said, "If he does not like India, if he acted against the country, I don't want to see him, even though he is my son.I don't even want to see his body."
Saying he has no clue how his son got radicalied, Hakim added. "I am an Indian, don't even wish to see my son's corpse ever."
On July 28, Hafesuddin left home to study the Quran in Calicut but two days later he said he was travelling to Sri Lanka for further studies.
A day before Eid, when his family members were waiting for him to return, they got a text message which read, "He is going to heaven with a cause."
"He didn't say anything about his location. He said that he wanted to teach the Quran," Hafesuddin's father said.
When asked did he notice any changes in Hafesuddin, he said, "Two years ago he started growing his beard. He told me that he want an Islamic state."
Hakim could never figure out what what overcame his son. "He does not like me anymore. I don't know why he doesn't like me anyomre, " he said.Share. "It's been a really great ride." "It's been a really great ride."
Executive vice president of EA Mobile Frank Gibeau is leaving EA after 23 years, the company announced today.
According to an SEC filing, Gibeau "has chosen to transition on from the company," and his last day was yesterday, May 18 –– as of now, he no longer shows up on EA's Executives page. Before his most recent position at EA Mobile, Gibeau was president of EA Labels, as well as director of marketing and president of EA Games.
"I can confirm that Frank Gibeau has chosen to transition on from Electronic Arts," an EA spokesperson told IGN. "Throughout a more than 20-year career, Frank’s made many significant contributions to the company, our people and our games. Most recently, he’s worked to strengthen EA Mobile by building a great team. We thank Frank for his achievements at EA, and we wish him all the best in his next chapter."
Exit Theatre Mode
Despite its strong following during the 2015 fiscal year, with a Q4 total of 165 million active monthly users, EA Mobile experienced layoffs earlier this year. According to EA, however, only a small number of employees were impacted, and mobile remains a core element of the publisher's business.
“It’s been a really great ride, the best job ever, jam-packed with incredible life experiences and filled with many great friends," Gibeau said in a statement shared with IGN. "After an incredible 20-year career, I've accomplished all that I could have imagined and more. I’m very proud of all the great games that I had a chance to work on. I thank EA for the opportunity and wish them the very best. I am excited to explore my next challenge.”
Following Gibeau's departure, EA CEO Andrew Wilson said the mobile division will report to him while the publisher figures out longterm plans.
Mike Mahardy is a journalist based in New York. You can follow him on Twitter at @mmahardy, where he rants about Wes Anderson films and the NY Yankees.Get the biggest daily news stories by email Subscribe Thank you for subscribing We have more newsletters Show me See our privacy notice Could not subscribe, try again later Invalid Email
A senior businesswoman was told by her IT firm boss that she looked like a "seductive dancer from Indian mythology" who "had the curves of a Russian body and big breasts", a tribunal was told.
Shreya Ukil claimed she was pressurised into having a sexual relationship by Manoj Punja, a senior colleague at the IT and outsourcing firm Wipro, before being forced out and sacked after the company refused her resignation.
Ms Ukil, 40, from Kensington, west London, said she was "belittled", bullied, sexually hounded and harassed at the company, where she said there was a "deeply predatory, misogynistic culture".
Wipro, an IT partner of Chelsea football club and which has offices in London and Bangalore, India, fostered an atmosphere which "requires women to be subservient" Ms Ukil said.
In a witness statement to the Central London Employment Tribunal she said had suffered because she is "a woman, an Indian woman and one who submitted to the advances of a senior, powerful man in the company with friends at the top", and that she was singled out because she "dared to complain that she had been the victim of discrimination, intimidation and harassment".
Ms Ukil is bringing a case against Wipro for sex and race discrimination, victimisation, sexual harassment, unfair dismissal and wrongful dismissal.I recently posted about the unfortunate failure to examine data properly which contributed to the disastrous loss of life with space shuttle mission 51-L (the Challenger disaster). One of the members of the commission which investigated the disaster was physicist Richard Feynman.
In one of his biographies he tells an interesting story. My memory is imperfect, but it goes something like this. At one point he was meeting with a NASA manager and some engineers. He asked them point-blank, what’s the probability of mission success for a launch? The manager replied something like “certainty.” Feynman protested that no it wasn’t. The probability of success is 1 minus epsilon. What’s epsilon?
He even let them submit their estimates by “secret ballot,” writing them on a slip of paper, but it was immediately obvious whose guess was whose. The engineers gave failure probabilities around 1 out of 100, or even as optimistic as 1 out of 400, but the manager’s estimated failure probability was 1 out of 100,000.
1 out of 100,000! At those odds, you could launch a shuttle every day for 300 years and expect only one mission failure. Feynman’s wasn’t the only bullshit meter flashing red.
He also tells of an interesting discussion with the range safety officer, who had to decide whether or not to include a self-destruct mechanism. About 1 out of 25 solid-rocket launches had failed, but the shuttle was better-than-average rocket technology so he estimated the chance of catastrophic failure at about 1 out of 100, optimistically, which would indeed require the inclusion of a self-destruct mechanism. Management balked at this figure — so the range safety officer altered his estimate to conform with management wishes, then attached a self-destruct mechanism anyway.
We’re seeing the same exact thing happen with the global warming “debate.” Fossil-fuel shills, conservative politicians and pundits, and misguided and ill-informed bloggers are telling us “No problem, don’t do anything. Keep burning fossil fuels, impose no restrictions, no costs. Drill baby drill!”
My bullshit meter is flashing red.
So here’s your chance to answer the question: What’s epsilon?
I moderate this blog with a heavy hand, but for this post I’ll allow anyone to submit an estimate. That does not mean you get to proselytize. Don’t give us your reasons for thinking climate sensitivity estimates are too high, or it’s all the sun, or it’s galactic cosmic rays or sheep albedo, or launch into a diatribe about emails from the climate research unit — attempts to argue why are not the point of this post, and indulging in same will get you sent to the trash-bin. The prohibition against proselytizing goes both ways — don’t give us your reasons for insisting climate sensitivity is high, or it’s not the sun or cosmic rays, or a diatribe about the character assassination of honest climate scientists.
Just give a number. You don’t even have to sign your name (feel free to do so if you wish) — just a number on a virtual “slip of paper.” Have the courage to put your opinion on the record, say outright, what’s your estimate?
What’s the chance that if we continue with business-as-usual, man-made global warming will lead to disastrous climate change? It isn’t zero. It isn’t one. What is epsilon?
I’ll start. 95%.
AdvertisementsThe turning point came when a lesbian fought with officers as she was pushed into a patrol car. The crowd rushed the officers, who retreated into the club. Several people ripped out a parking meter and used it as a battering ram; others tried to set fire to the club. It took police reinforcements an hour and a half to clear the street.
Photo
It was the start of several nights of rioting, during which the police used force to disperse crowds that sometimes numbered in the thousands. Fewer than three dozen protesters were arrested, but hundreds were detained and released.
“The Stonewall uprising is the signal event in American gay and lesbian civil rights history because it transformed a small movement that existed prior to that night into a mass movement,” David Carter, author of “Stonewall: The Riots That Sparked the Gay Revolution” (2004), said in an interview. “It is to the gay movement what the fall of the Bastille is to the unleashing of the French Revolution.”
In 2004, Inspector Pine spoke during a discussion of the Stonewall uprising at the New-York Historical Society. At the time of the raid, he said, the police “certainly were prejudiced” against gays, “but had no idea about what gay people were about.”
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The department regularly raided gay clubs for two reasons, he said. First, he insisted, many clubs were controlled by organized crime; second, arresting gay people was a way for officers to improve their arrest numbers. “They were easy arrests,” he said. “They never gave you any trouble” — at least until that night.
When someone in the audience said Inspector Pine should apologize for the raid, he did.
“There’s been a stereotype that Seymour Pine was a homophobe,” Mr. Carter said. “He had some of the typical hang-ups and preconceived ideas of the time, but I think he was strictly following orders, not personal prejudice against gay people.”
Seymour Pine was born in Manhattan on July 21, 1919, one of four children of Nathan and Anne Pine. Besides his son Daniel, he is survived by another son, Charles; a brother, Arnold; a sister, Connie Katz; and seven grandchildren. His wife of 45 years, the former Judith Handler, died in 1987.
Soon after graduating from Brooklyn College in 1941, he joined the police force, but within months he was serving in the Army, first in Africa and later in Europe. He returned to the department after the war, rising to deputy inspector in the late 1960s. He retired in 1976.
“He once told me,” Mr. Carter said, “ ‘If what I did helped gay people, then I’m glad.’ ”PHOTO: The mudslide behind the University of Minnesota hospital complex in Minneapolis is part of the aftermath of June's flash-flooding. Natural disasters are among the only 'negatives' in Minnesota's recent ranking as one of the safest places to live. Photo credit: August Schwerdfeger/Flickr
ST. PAUL, Minn. - When compared to the rest of the nation, Minnesota is one of the safest places to call home.
<>a href="http://wallethub.com/edu/2014s-safest-states-to-live-in/4566/" target="parent">A ranking of the "safest states" by WalletHub has Minnesota ranked third, using measures such as home and community stability and workplace and driving safety. Also taken into account was financial safety, which chief executive Odysseas Papadimitriou said has become increasingly important in recent years.
"If you do not have any savings," he said, "then you are just one emergency away from starting to default, getting late fees, interest rates skyrocketing, and getting into a vicious cycle of financial destruction."
Another category examined was natural disasters, and that was where Minnesota had its poorest showing in the report, evidenced in part by the widespread flooding that continues to affect communities across the state. Papadimitriou said natural disasters are a growing concern, nationwide.
"It's interesting," he said. "In some places you see, on a regular basis, a tornado passing through and just leveling homes in that area. and it's not something that happens once, every seven to 10 years. It's almost on an annual basis."
Papadimitriou said the safest state in which to live is Massachusetts, and at the bottom of the rankings is Nevada.
The report is online at wallethub.com.
John Michaelson, Public News Service - MNAussie shooting for sixth Olympics
Updated
Sorry, this video has expired Video: Double hopes for London Olympics (7pm TV News SA)
Russell Mark has seen it all and wants more.
The 46-year-old, five-time Olympian is aiming to make a sixth appearance in shooting at the London Games.
Mark's performances in the past six months have just about guaranteed him the one place available in the double trap competition. He is confident of his position and that has allowed him to plan carefully.
"I'm not going to the Olympics to collect pins, I'm there to try and win it and the process really has started now," he said.
"Every event that I am shooting in now is really based on July this year. It's not really a process of making the team, I'm thinking of the big picture."
And the bigger picture includes a better gun.
"It's an $11,000 gun so it's not just something you walk in and buy at a typical gun shop," Mark enthused. "It's the newest piece of the latest technology in the world and I think it will be an advantage."
Sporting a wide grin ahead of a competition in Adelaide, Mark even compared the shotgun with the technology that allowed Australian II to wrest the America's Cup from the United States in 1983.
"It's a little bit like the winged keel," he said.
"They've got something different with this gun and the people that have got them now and there's only a handful in the world - everyone is having great results.
"I think that will be the difference between me being a competitor and maybe a medallist."
His road to what he hopes will be gold in London will take him through competitions in the United States and Europe. The 1996 gold medallist has targeted a World Cup competition in Tuscon, Arizona, in March for the changeover to the new gun.
"I've got five months and that'll be enough," Mark said. "I probably only need five weeks to get used to it."
High profile
He also may have to get used to a higher profile at the Olympics. After appearances in the Games of 1988, 1992, 1996, 2000 and 2004, Mark will no doubt be one of the athletes in contention to be the flag bearer for Australia.
Mark, born in Ballarat and now from Geelong, has a simple theory on that speculation.
"I get that thrown at me a lot but there's this cyclist Cadel someone I think that's probably favourite to be the flag bearer and you know, how could you argue with that," said Mark in reference to the 2011 Tour de France winner Cadel Evans, as he laughed off the idea a shooter would lead out the Australian team.
His priority is making sure he does everything possible to be ready for London and second on his wish list is the hope that his wife Lauryn will be there, not as a spectator but as a competitor as well.
"I often watch her shoot and I feel more nervous watching her shoot because I've got no control over what she does," Mark said.
Lauryn Mark is gunning for a second Olympics appearance in skeet shooting.
"She's just in front at the moment so her's will go down to the wire but to have her there will be a big support for me," he said.
"It's always an advantage to have family there and to have them on the inside of the fence instead of the grandstand will help me and I'm sure it will help her."
Double gold. Surely then Mark would have it all.
Topics: shooting, olympics-summer, sport, other-sports, human-interest, sa, vic, australia, adelaide-5000, geelong-3220, ballarat-3350
First postedAs orangutans are added to a list of the world’s 25 most endangered primates, we are discovering that these great apes are more like humans than we supposed
Tuesday is International Orangutan Day. This year it follows hot on the heels of exciting genetic results from Sumatra made public at the International Primatological Society’s biannual conference on Sunday which suggest the discovery of a new species of the ape.
Dr Michael Krützen of Zurich University studied the most southern population, known as the Batang Toru orangutans, in the Tapanuli region of northern Sumatra. “From a genetics point of view we were taken by surprise to see these stark differences compared to other Sumatran orangutan populations further north,” he said. “Our findings highlight the urgent need for special conservation status for the Batang Toru forests.”
Indonesia is home to 59 species of primate and 35 of these are found only in Indonesia. But today around 70% of Indonesia’s primate species are threatened with extinction. The majority of orangutans live in the protected Leuser Ecosystem but the local Aceh government plans to develop the area, which is reportedly rich in minerals.
Dr Ian Singleton, conservation director of the Orangutan Project, said: “We are extremely concerned about this situation. With these new developments it seems crystal clear the Aceh government deliberately intends to open up and destroy huge tracts of the Leuser Ecosystem. This will be disastrous for Sumatra’s orangutans and also Sumatra’s other iconic megafauna, the Sumatran rhino, elephant and tiger.”
Orangutans have been studied for two hundred years and in 1837 were the first great ape species to be displayed at London Zoo. Charles Darwin’s observations of Jenny, the zoo’s first captive orangutan, led him to write in The Descent of Man: “Let man visit Ouranoutang in domestication, hear expressive whine, see its intelligence, as if it understands every word said, see its affection to those it knew, see its passion and rage, sulkiness and very actions of despair; and then let him boast of his proud pre-eminence.”
Due to their gentle nature, orangutans were Hollywood’s favourite ape. But after years of animal cruelty, during which movies such as Every Which Way But Loose were made, the genre thankfully came to an end. Orangutan experts are pleased by motion-capture performances, such as Karin Konoval’s portrayal of Maurice the new Planet of the Apes movies. Konoval modelled her performance on Towan, the oldest captive male orangutan in the US and a resident of Woodland Park Zoo. Primate expert Frans de Waal said her performance was “superb”.
Today’s zoological collections of orangutans, such as that at Chester Zoo in the UK, provide breeding programmes, conservation initiatives and captive groups for study.
Despite their declining population, field research on the Bornean (Pongo pygmaeus) and the Sumatran (Pongo abelii) orangutans still yield fascinating data. It has recently been discovered that wild orangutans can make plans for the future. Adult cheek-padded Sumatran males make a final “long call”, before bed. Remarkably, these vocalisations broadcast important information across several kilometres of rainforest, including his intended direction of travel the following day, up until 4pm in the afternoon. Females need to be aware of this this as it allows those sexually receptive to seek him out, confirming females prefer the locally dominant male (who tends not to rape).
Because flanged (dominant) males will fight other males, sexually unreceptive females will also follow him to receive his protection from unflanged males who are likely to harass and rape unreceptive females. The study confirms that forward thinking is adaptive in both sexes and not unique to humans, as previously thought.
As part of the Tuanan Orangutan Research Project, Dr Brigitte Spillmann established that long calls can be used by listening orangutans to differentiate between males. Spillmann also found that the males’ long calls change according to the context. For example, one male might show off by noisily “snag crashing” (pushing over a dead tree) and another male will respond with a distinct long call.
Orangutans diverged from the lineage leading to humans, gorillas, chimps and bonobos 10m years ago. They are the only Asian great ape and the only non-human ape with a fossil record. From it we know that archaic orangutans had bigger heads and far bigger teeth. The fossil record also suggests that 5m years ago orangutans spent more time on the ground and used more complex tools. It is thought that living in trees limits the tool use of modern orangutans.
“Orangutans are not more intelligent than chimps or bonobos in all domains, but they do have greater technical intelligence,” said Karin Isler of the University of Zurich.
Orangutans males are three times the size of females. They also exhibit other ancestral great ape traits, including rape, a lack of infanticide, extended lifespan (wild orangutans can live 50 years), and prolonged sexual intercourse. Orangutans and humans are more like each other than other apes in their prolonged, flexible and varied copulation postures. Analysis of the genes for proteins in seminal fluid, associated with sperm competition in apes, have revealed that they are inactive in orangutans. This suggests that their mating system (involving protracted mating with a single dominant male) did not alter after separating from the great ape common ancestor. Humans’ prolonged intercourse may also date back many millions of years.
It has been claimed that orangutan wrists are evolving a ball and socket joint, which will give them greater flexibility in the trees than they already possess and contribute to further divergence from other apes. But with habitat loss their greatest enemy, safety may no longer be found high in the canopy. The uniquely human adaptations of long muscular legs, arched feet and Achilles tendons – enabling running on the ground – might help them more in the long term.
Female orangutans do not breed until 15 years of age, they have one baby at a time and six to eight years can pass before their next offspring. Combined with habitat loss, this makes the orangutan vulnerable to extinction.
At the October 2014 Convention on Biodiversity the Sumatran orangutan will be included in the list of the world’s top 25 most endangered primates.
The orangutan is the only great ape with an annual international day, so on Tuesday tweet your positivity, stop buying palm oil products (a crop that encroaches on their habitats in Sumatra and Borneo) and spend the day bigging up your endangered red-haired relative – and the new Sumatran species – while you still have the opportunity to do so.
You can virtually visit the Sumatran orangutans and the disappearing Tripa peat swamp at www.vEcotourism.org. Click ‘Take a tour’Four Days in London: Ticket to Tokyo Part 1
Christopher Round Blocked Unblock Follow Following Mar 26, 2017
A memoir about trying to find a way to the Olympics, and finding something else instead. This takes place in January 2010. Part 2 can be found here.
The snow was continued to fall as my mother’s Subaru traveled the familiar path down route 125. We were passing through Harold Parker and I was conflicted. I stared out the window, with neither of us really talking. In this moment I wasn’t much for small talk. On the one hand it was 4 AM and on the other a lifelong dream was about to be fulfilled. We were on our way to the airport where I would depart for Japan to train judo at Tsukuba University. It hadn’t fully dawned on me yet but I was leaving the thing that felt most comfortable to me, the New England winter, for an unknown. Meanwhile my mother, a skilled veteran of New England winters, was trying to make sure we didn’t crash during a blizzard. When we got to the airport I gave my mother a final hug goodbye I left for what would be up to that point the longest time I will have spent away from my New England home.
In what will only come as a surprise to someone who has not set foot inside my car, I have never been an organized person in my private life. I think what allows me today to provide the facade of one is the combination of Google drive, Siri, and a phobia of being handed an irreplaceable document in a form not generated by 1s and 0s. Despite months of preparation, this personality trait was on full display upon reaching the airport.
Considering the last time I went to the airport I showed up at the wrong airline and thus the wrong terminal I was thankful there were no issues with the boarding passes. (Despite their patriotic names it is always useful to remember that American Airlines and United Airlines are in fact, different airlines). Having bought my tickets in September I didn’t expect there to be. I could not say the same for my luggage however.
“If you bring these bags we will have to charge you an additional two hundred dollars,” said the woman at the flight desk.
It turns out that two bags full of judo uniforms and a dozen books on the history of Ireland and World War 1 are not exactly light. I began a game of musical chairs with my luggage. As I fiddled around with the contents of my carry on bag to fit more stuff, I began to curse the professors of the two online history classes I was taking that semester. The thought crossed my brain as I attempted to cram “A Secret History of the IRA” into my backpack that I was thankful no one in the TSA would be professionally interested in someone carrying a book about a somewhat defunct Irish terrorist group. As I gave back the backs, now the proper weight so as to avoid the insane baggage fee, I realized I didn’t see a single laptop cord.
“No worries, I’m sure I can buy a cord for an apple laptop in Tokyo if need be.” I thought. I had made sure to verify with my local apple store that there was in fact, an apple store in Tokyo I could use should something come up. When I got to my gate I verified my laptop still had a full charge.
I was there a solid two hours before my flight and went about charging my phone and downloading audio books. My first flight would bring me to JFK, where I would then depart to Narita airport, just outside of Tokyo. As I finished downloading “Blink”, part of a long reading list given to me by a coach, I check the time. It was 45 minutes to take off and didn’t have our plane at the gate. Despite debacles I described earlier, I am a veteran air traveler and knew this wasn’t a great sign.
Another 25 minutes goes by and the plane is nowhere to be found, and suddenly people are getting nervous. It turned out a solid number of us were bound for Japan. A woman next to me confided she had a first class ticket on All Japan Airlines and was freaking out. I had ignorantly bought my ticket on American Airlines, unaware of how amazing international Asian airlines were. The ability to press a button and be presented with a free glass of cognac and a chicken sandwich while still flying coach was a luxury I’d enjoy much later.
Sure enough by the time plane was supposed to leave, there was still no plane at the gate. The snow which had several hours ago represented comfort had turned into a bitter enemy. Here I was, with this trip I had dreamed of even before I started judo, and my plane gets a snow day.
When the plane finally arrived and I’m summoned to the front. “So here is the deal, when this plane lands your next plane will be boarding. When you get off your next plane, you are going to go as quickly as you possibly can to gate 70. You’ll have ten minutes.”
I boarded the plane, and spent the next hour reading, getting ready for the sprint that awaited me on the other side of the next gate.On a recent day, the feed of a Tumblr blog called Black Culture featured a drawing of Lupita Nyong’o, a video of a protest at William Paterson University and a text that read, “black lives > white feelings.” The blog FreeQuency Frequently Writes posted a Tweet from Solange Knowles decrying depictions of outspoken women, while another called Soul Revision turned up a post with the hashtags #SeasonOfInconvenience and #BlackLivesMatter.
As protests sparked by a grand jury’s decision not to indict Darren Wilson began spreading nationwide, furor was also growing in cyberspace, in the social-justice halls of Tumblr, a social-blogging platform dominated by users in their teens, 20s and early 30s. Their feeds were vivid mash-ups of articles, GIFs, cleverly labeled images, court documents, smartphone videos, stickers and cartoons, and their posts contained news about Ferguson, along with tidbits about identity, inequality, police abuse, racism, body shaming and more.
“A lot of millennials have been discouraged for a long time,” said Zellie Thomas, 30, creator of Black Culture. “Now, with social media, they feel empowered, like people are hearing their voice. And Tumblr is a great platform for all types of media.”
There are more than 215 million blogs on Tumblr and, according to comScore, an analytics company, 50 percent of Tumblr users are from 15 to 34 years old. The company’s internal surveys show that 64 percent of users say that they care about social causes and look into them on Tumblr. These numbers suggest that millennials, who have long been pigeonholed as an apathetic bunch, have a strong interest in social issues — it’s just hidden from the eyes of their elders.Surprisingly, I don’t have any backups of my stuff. Apart from my Microserver Gen8 FreeNAS replication project which was necessary for my photos and personal media I don’t have any backups of my VM hosts, laptops or machines I use everyday which is very, very bad. A lot of my stuff is stored on RAID or RAID-like systems which I know aren’t by any means secure, but it’s kept me going and the sheer thought of having to invest in another storage system to store things that are already on storage servers makes my stomach sink a little; I’m only (currently) 20, and have just started my career so I don’t really have the money to keep spending on hardware unfortunately.
Apart from exceptions of course.. Recently; when I did a Windows 10 upgrade on my main gaming/editing rig I realised how useful it would be to have a backup of all my stuff instead of shuffling terabytes of data around in preparation for a fresh install, so I decided to start investigating how I can achieve a full, not half baked backup solution that I could deploy to solve my issues.
Now, before we begin, I must preface that this is a rather long post with information that goes nowhere as I chop and change a lot, but I like to show my mistakes and what I did/didn’t do, it’s all part of a process and it helps everyone to learn so if you’re looking to read something that is concise with its methodology and execution, please read elsewhere.
Aims:
There are specific targets I want to achieve with this project.
Deduplication. I want whatever I end up with to be able to support/handle block level deduplication on a file system level, Backup & Replication does to dedup but dedup will be useful for things other than backups.
Speed. This thing has to be able to do gigabit speeds and when I decide to go faster the only thing keeping me back should be the disks.
Redundancy. This will be my storing full backups of the machines under MuffNet and the data stores currently on MUFFSTORE02 will be moved here, ideally I will want data mirrored on this machine.
Power. When idling I want this to be as power efficient as possible, either equalling or pulling less power than my ReadyNAS.
Reliance. As previously stated this will be housing full backups of all my machines so the machine itself has to last and compose of parts that won’t break, I don’t want something hobbled together only to have to throw more money at it in a year’s time due to failures.
Encryption. As this will have full backups of my machines the OS/FS needs to have the ability to encrypt this data without performance impact.
Backup over VPN. This has nothing to do with this build on a hardware level and everything to do with my network and backup solution/implementation; but when this is done I want machines located offsite at my mother’s house to backup to this machine.
Silence! Within reason, this machine should be quiet. I don’t want my living room sounding like an airport as there is already a very audible hum in there.
Plan 1
I have a lot of spare drives, a lot of these are 2.5 SAS drives that I have amassed. These drives seemed perfect for a new file server, I didn’t need to spend any money on drives and they’ll give me the performance I need. So with this in mind, how the fuck do I get a decent amount of 2.5 drives into a rack mount chassis? It looked as if I had 3 options here, which wouldn’t break the bank.
HP ProLiant SE326M1
HP ProLiant DL380 G7 – 20 bay SFF version
Dell C2100
These all have at least 20 SFF bays for me to play with. The SE326M1 seemed like the best option but it’s loud, old and I was reading online about people who were having trouble with the backplane and warning people to stay away.
The DL380 was a good option but it came with a price. Here in the UK I could not for the life of me find the 20 bay version for under £500 which was a bit of a bummer and, also, it was going to be rather loud and power hungry too.
I could mod these to be a bit more quiet but I started to wonder if this was more hassle than it was actually worth.
Then I stumbled upon the Dell C2100 which seemed perfect. £300, 25 SFF slots and it looked highly moddable. I put an offer for one for £200 without any memory or CPU and it got accepted. I also bought 12 caddies that the internet told me would work with it, they didn’t, but more on that in a second.
When the thing came it was broken, one of the ears had come off, the metal was in bad shape and overall seemed a bit cheap, but I wasn’t too |
Thirvayn, Tilvur, Tistar, Tobor, Trandel, Tunel, Tyravel, Uleni, Ulessen, Ulom, Ulvel, Ulver, Urns, Urvon, Urvyn, Uvalas, Uvalen, Uvalor, Uvani, Uvaram, Uveleth, Uvulas, Vadryon, Valaai, Valas, Valen, Valno, Valor, Vando, Vandram, Varo, Vavas, Vavyn, Vedaren, Vedralu, Vedrano, Velendas, Velni, Veloren, Veloth (tomb), Velothren, Velothril, Veralor, Verelas, Verendas, Veri, Verilnith, Verothan, Viake, Vian, Vibato, Vidron, Vilas, Vinden, Volos
0x (tomb only): Alas, Aran, Arys, Beran, Dareleth, Dulo, Fadathram, Favel, Gimothran, Helan, Hlervi, Llando, Marvani, Raviro, Redoran, Rethandus, Salothan, Salothran, Salvel, Samarys, Sandas, Telvayn, Tharys, Vandus, Verelnim
Oblivion [ edit ]
5x: Dalvilu (1, 2, 3, 4, 5)
3x: Arano (1, 2, 3), Serethi (1, 2, 3)
2x: Aren (1, 2), Athram (1, 2), Drad (1, 2), Dreth (1, 2), Indarys (1, 2), Lythandas (1, 2), Norvalo (1, 2), Othran (1, 2)
1x: Adas, Adus, Alor, Andaren, Areleth, Arenim, Daren, Devani, Dolovas, Douar, Dralas, Dran, Drarara, Dreleth, Drothan, Fandas, Faram, Farano, Gatharian, Girith, Helas, Henim, Hlaalu, Hlaren, Hlavel, Hlervu, Kren, Lerano, Llaram, Llethro, Lonavo, Malvulis, Maryon, Morvayn, Nedaren, Nethan, Nyrandil, Omellian, Orethi, Oreyn, Othrelas, Ralvas, Ralvel, Ravel, Relas, Romalen, Romayn, Sarandas, Savel, Selas, Selvani, Selvilo, Sendas, Senim, Seran, Seringi, Thelas, Thelis, Theran, Ules, Ulven, Uvani, Uvenim, Vamori, Verenim, Verethi
Skyrim [ edit ]
4x: Sadri (1, 2, 3, 4)
3x: Atheron (1, 2, 3), Severin (1, 2, 3)
2x: Alor (1, 2), Arano (1, 2), Dreth (1, 2), Gatharian (1, 2), Hlaalu (1, 2), Ienth (1, 2), Llanith (1, 2), Rendas (1, 2), Sarethi (1, 2), Seloth (1, 2), Ulen (1, 2)
1x: Aravel, Aren, Balu, Dral, Dran, Drel, Drenim, Duleri, Eldri, Elenil, Fathryon, Giryon, Hlervu, Idren, Ienith, Imyan, Llervu, Maren, Marethi, Maryon, Mavani, Morvayn, Mothren, Nasyal, Nelas, Neloren, Nethri, Omoran, Othreloth, Relvi, Rendar, Romoran, Sarothril, Sarvani, Sedarys, Selvayn, Sero, Telendas, Valen, Varen, Veleth, Velothi, Veran, Veren, Verethi
† The Severin name is a cover. At least one member is actually from House Ulen. The identities of the other two are never revealed, so it is unknown if they are actually related to him or merely allies.
Online [ edit ]
Names in bold also have Ancestral Tombs located on Vvardenfell.
31x: Hlaalu (1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31)
16x: Redoran (1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16)
10x: Telvanni (1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10)
9x: Dren (1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9)
8x: Areloth (1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8), Dres (1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9)
7x: Andas (1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, tomb), Indoril (1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7), Marys (1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7), Sadri (1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7)
6x: Athren (1, 2, 3, 4, 5), Beleth (1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6), Drim (1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6), Falas (1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6), Faryon (1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6), Girvu (1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6), Hlan (1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6), Rethan (1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6)
5x: Adrys (1, 2, 3, 4, 5), Alor (1, 2, 3, 4), Andalen (1, 2, 3, 4, 5), Arobar (1, 2, 3, 4, 5), Avani (1, 2, 3, 4, 5), Darano (1, 2, 3, 4, 5), Elarven (1, 2, 3, 4, 5), Girith (1, 2, 3, 4, 5), Hlen (1, 2, 3, 4, 5), Hlor (1, 2, 3, 4, 5), Imayn (1, 2, 3, 4, 5), Maren (1, 2, 3, 4, 5, tomb), Othrys (1, 2, 3, 4, 5), Sedas (1, 2, 3, 4, 5), Selvayn (1, 2, 3, 4, 5), Tenim (1, 2, 3, 4, 5)
4x: Alan (1, 2, 3, 4), Andalas (1, 2, 3, 4), Areleth (1, 2, 3, 4), Arenim (1, 2, 3, 4, tomb), Arethi (1, 2, 3, 4), Arthalen (1, 2, 3, 4), Arvel (1, 2, 3, 4), Berendas (1, 2, 3, 4), Delms (1, 2, 3, 4), Dalen (1, 2, 3, 4), Delvi (1, 2, 3, 4), Denelu (1, 2, 3, 4), Dorvayn (1, 2, 3, 4), Dralen (1, 2, 3, 4), Dreloth (1, 2, 3, 4, tomb), Drenim (1, 2, 3, 4), Dreth (1, 2, 3, 4), Droth (1, 2, 3, 4), Faren (1, 2, 3, 4), Fendyn (1, 2, 3, 4), Gilvilo (1, 2, 3, 4), Girano (1, 2, 3, 4), Hlaren (1, 2, 3, 4), Lerano (1, 2, 3, 4), Llaren (1, 2, 3, 4), Mavani (1, 2, 3, 4), Morvayn (1, 2, 3, 4), Nelvani (1, 2, 3, 4), Oran (1, 2, 3, 4), Releth (1, 2, 3, 4, tomb), Rendo (1, 2, 3, 4), Renim (1, 2, 3, 4), Salen (1, 2, 3, 4), Selvilo (1, 2, 3, 4), Teryon (1, 2, 3, 4), Uveleth (1, 2, 3, 4), Vanos (1, 2, 3, 4), Varam (1, 2, 3, 4), Vidron (1, 2, 3, 4)
3x: Andavel (1, 2, 3), Andoren (1, 2, 3), Andrano (1, 2, 3, tomb), Andrethi (1, 2, 3), Aralas (1, 2, 3), Aram (1, 2, 3), Arano (1, 2, 3, tomb), Aryon (1, 2, 3), Arys (1, 2, 3), Bandas (1, 2, 3), Balen (1, 2, 3), Barys (1, 2, 3), Belan (1, 2, 3), Betharvel (1, 2, 3), Dalothran (1, 2, 3), Davel (1, 2, 3), Dothan (1, 2, 3), Dral (1, 2, 3), Drarara (1, 2, 3), Dravel (1, 2, 3), Drimas (1, 2, 3), Drivam (1, 2, 3), Falen (1, 2, 3), Fanim (1, 2, 3), Flan (1, 2, 3), Galen (1, 2, 3), Gilenim (1, 2, 3), Githalvel (1, 2, 3), Herano (1, 2, 3), Heryon (1, 2, 3), Hleran (1, 2, 3, tomb), Hloril (1, 2, 3), Indalor (1, 2, 3), Indavel (1, 2, 3), Indoren (1, 2, 3), Indrano (1, 2, 3), Llandu (1, 2, 3), Marethi (1, 2, 3), Nirith (1, 2, 3), Omayn (1, 2, 3), Orethi (1, 2, 3), Othran (1, 2, 3), Othrelas (1, 2, 3, tomb), Ralaal (1, 2, 3), Randoro (1, 2, 3), Relvi (1, 2, 3), Retheran (1, 2, 3), Romori (1, 2, 3), Rothalen (1, 2, 3), Rothan (1, 2, 3), Sarandas (1, 2, 3), Sarano (1, 2, 3, tomb), Savani (1, 2, 3), Seleth (1, 2, 3), Selobar (1, 2, 3), Sethri (1, 2, 3), Tharam (1, 2, 3), Theran (1, 2, 3), Thimalvel (1, 2, 3), Tobor (1, 2, 3), Trandel (1, 2, 3), Uvaril (1, 2, 3), Vadryon (1, 2, 3), Varo (1, 2, 3), Velendas (1, 2, 3), Verethi (1, 2, 3)
2x: Adren (1, 2), Alen (1, 2), Alvor (1, 2), Andaren (1, 2), Andoril (1, 2), Andrilo (1, 2), Androm (1, 2), Andromo (1, 2), Aralen (1, 2), Aralor (1, 2), Aravel (1, 2), Arethan (1, 2), Arothan (1, 2), Arovyn (1, 2), Athin (1, 2), Avani (1, 2), Baro (1, 2), Belavel (1, 2), Belvayn (1, 2), Benethran (1, 2), Beni (1, 2), Bereloth (1, 2), Berothran (1, 2), Beryon (1, 2), Bethendas (1, 2), Dalas (1, 2), Damori (1, 2), Daram (1, 2), Daren (1, 2), Darenim (1, 2), Darethran (1, 2), Darothren (1, 2), Darvel (1, 2), Daveleth (1, 2), Davus (1, 2), Devani (1, 2), Dobar (1, 2), Dran (1, 2), Drelas (1, 2), Dreleth (1, 2), Drethan (1, 2), Drivam (1, 2), Drom (1, 2), Drothan (1, 2), Duleri (1, 2), Eldri (1, 2), Fadas (1, 2), Falavel (1, 2), Falvani (1, 2), Falvel (1, 2), Fandas (1, 2), Faralen (1, 2), Farelas (1, 2), Fathryon (1, 2), Gilaram (1, 2), Ginith (1, 2, tomb), Githrano (1, 2), Helan (1, 2, tomb), Henim (1, 2), Heran (1, 2, tomb), Hereloth (1, 2), Herendas (1, 2), Herethi (1, 2), Hlas (1, 2), Hledas (1, 2), Hloran (1, 2), Indaram (1, 2), Indaren (1, 2), Inlador (1, 2), Irano (1, 2), Lenith (1, 2), Llarys (1, 2), Lledas (1, 2), Llervu (1, 2), Malas (1, 2), Manothrel (1, 2), Mareloth (1, 2), Merobar (1, 2), Merys (1, 2), Moryon (1, 2), Mothran (1, 2), Naros (1, 2), Nelenim (1, 2), Nerano (1, 2, tomb), Nerethi (1, 2), Nilem (1, 2), Nithryon (1, 2), Nolar (1, 2), Noramil (1, 2), Nyrandil (1, 2), Omalas (1, 2), Omalor (1, 2), Omani (1, 2), Omobar (1, 2), Omoril (1, 2), Othan (1, 2), Othralas (1, 2), Othrenim (1, 2), Radus (1, 2), Ralas (1, 2), Ramori (1, 2), Ramothran (1, 2), Redoril (1, 2), Relenim (1, 2), Rethelas (1, 2), Rethul (1, 2), Rii (1, 2), Romalen (1, 2), Romavel (1, 2), Romothren (1, 2), Rothrano (1, 2), Sadalvel (1, 2), Sadus (1, 2), Salvani (1, 2), Salvi (1, 2), Saram (1, 2), Saren (1, 2), Sarethi (1, 2), Sarothran (1, 2), Sarvani (1, 2), Sarys (1, 2, tomb), Sedrethi (1, 2), Selandas (1, 2), Selaro (1, 2), Seloth (1, 2), Sendu (1, 2), Senim (1, 2), Serano (1, 2, tomb), Serethran (1, 2), Seri (1, 2), Severin (1, 2), Svadstar (1, 2), Svel (1, 2), Tedas (1, 2), Telas (1, 2), Telleno (1, 2), Tharys (1, 2, tomb), Thelas (1, 2, tomb), Thenim (1, 2), Thervayn (1, 2), Thirandus (1, 2), Thirano (1, 2), Tistar (1, 2), Uleni (1, 2), Urvon (1, 2), Uvani (1, 2), Uvayn (1, 2), Uveran (1, 2, tomb), Varyon (1, 2), Vavas (1, 2), Veleth (1, 2), Velni (1, 2), Verano (1, 2), Verobar (1, 2), Vilas (1, 2), Virian (1, 2), Vox (1, 2)
1x: Adlaron, Adrano, Alam, Alar, Alari, Alas, Alasien, Althranis, Amurith, Andalor, Andarys, Andral, Andrani, Andules, Apo, Aradil, Aram, Arelas, Aren, Arendis, Aron, Arona, Arvu, Athram, Avayn, Avel, Bail, Baldan, Balu, Balvel, Bandu, Baren, Barus, Baryon, Bavani, Bedas, Belaal, Beldros, Beleram, Beleran, Beloren, Bels, Belvilo, Bemis, Beran (tomb), Berathi, Berendus, Berer, Berethi, Bethalas, Bethrano, Bethrimo, Brenos, Brilyn, Dalo, Dals, Dalvel, Dalvilu, Daral, Dareel, Darethi, Darithran, Darothril, Daryon, Davor, Dawari, Delenu, Demnevanni, Deras, Derith, Diina, Dolovas, Doran, Doronil, Drad, Drados, Dralas, Drals, Drathen, Dredil, Drel, Drelen, Drenduf, Driler, Drin, Drinith (tomb), Drothas, Drothro, Dulni, Dulo (tomb), Elval, Enakenar, Ertis, Esen, Evosa, Fadras, Falaal, Falandas, Falos, Farandas, Farano, Fareloth, Farr, Favel (tomb), Faveran, Fedos, Felder, Fels, Fenrila, Firuth, Furari, Fyr, Gals, Garil, Gathram, Gavos, Gethanol, Gilvani, Gilvayn, Gilveni, Gimalvel, Gimothran, Giravel, Giralvel, Girethi, Giryon, Githendas, Githirith, Givyn, Golathyn, Goran, Gothren, Guls, Hedoren, Hedran, Heladren, Helas, Helbathil, Heleran, Helothran, Heredon, Hlaalo, Hlandu, Hlaran, Hlarar, Hlarys, Hler, Hlervu (tomb), Ienith, Ildram, Illoro, Ilnith, Imyam, Indarys, Indothan, Inladori, Irethi, Jaxilsu, Kren, Lathdar, Lathoril, Ledd, Lem, Lirvu, Lladri, Llandresil, Llanith, Llarvys, Llenim, Lleran (tomb), Llervi, Lleryn, Llethan, Lliran, Lloran, Lloryn, Llothan, Llothas, Lonavo, Madalas, Madryon, Malena, Maleran, Maloren, Malrom, Manel, Maralvel, Marano, Marvos, Maryon, Mathendis, Menas, Mencele, Mevel, Mirel, Mobaner, Moorsmith, Moren, Mothril, Nadus, Naram, Nedaren, Nelas, Neleth, Neloren, Nelvanni, Nelvayn, Nerandas, Nerendas, Nerothan, Nervion, Nethalen, Nethan, Nethri, Nilvon, Nirvayn, Nox, Ofemalen, Oldrethi, Oloth, Omalen, Omarys, Omavel, Omellian, Omoren, Ondyn, Onthim, Orain, Orelu, Oren, Orenim, Oril, Orn, Orthil, Otheri, Othral, Othralor, Othreloth, Othren, Othril, Radarys, Radas, Radathren, Raledran, Ralen, Ralethran, Raloran, Ralren, Ralvani, Ralvas, Ralvel, Ramarys, Ramoran, Randaro, Randas (tomb), Raram, Rathri, Rathryon, Raviro (tomb), Rayveth, Redas (tomb), Redothan, Relavel, Reledran, Reloren, Relthren, Relvani, Rendas, Reni, Renimus, Resvalyn, Rethandus (tomb), Rindo, Rindu, Rinith, Rithari, Rivul, Romari, Romoran, Romoren, Rondas, Ronen, Rothandus, Rotheran, Rurvyn, Ryon, Sadas, Sadralo, Sadrano, Sadreno, Sadris, Sadryon (tomb), Sadyron, Salaren, Salas, Salavel, Salenim, Salor, Salothan (tomb), Salvilo, Samori, Sandras, Sareloth, Sarinith, Sarothril, Sarvayn, Savil, Saryoni, Sasamsi, Savel, Sedarys, Sedri, Selarys, Selas, Selos, Sendas, Sendrul, Senoril, Seralas, Seran (tomb), Serelnim, Sero, Seruli, Seryiil, Shandasi, Sildreth, Skaliz, Suth, Talnarith, Tedala, Teddalennu, Telem, Telendas, Telvayn tomb, Teran, Terandas, Terano, Terendas, Teri, Thadus, Thando, Thanlen, Tharen, Tharvi, Tharyon, Theloth, Thendas, Thendur, Thindo, Thirvayn, Ules, Ulessen, Ulvel, Ulven, Urano, Urvyn, Uvalas, Uvandrys, Uvaram, Uvenim, Valas, Valen, Valos, Valyn, Vando, Vandril, Varyoni, Vashi, Vavyn, Vedralu, Vedran, Velador, Velar, Ven, Vendil, Vendu, Venim (tomb), Veralas, Veralor, Veren, Verendas, Verenim, Veri, Vildan, Viri, Virith, Vlaren, Volek, Volos, Voren, Voung, Vules, Yahaz
0x (tomb only): Aran, Hlervi, Ieneth, Llando, Norvayn, Salothran, Sethan, Velas, Veloth, Verelnim
Legends [ edit ]
R'enar
Out-of-Game Books [ edit ]
3x: Sathil
1x: Drethan, Indarys, Indoril, Llenim, Ramoran, Rendo, Valos, Vox
Lore [ edit ]
Akin, Dran, Llaren, Llarys, Llervu, Omathan, Ra'athim, Relethyl, Rolovo, Sarvani, Telleno, Vess
Dunmer Ashlander Names [ edit ]
These are the names of the Ashlanders, traditional Dunmer inhabitants of Vvardenfell.
Male Ashlander Names [ edit ]
Morrowind [ edit ]
3x: Mausur (1, 2, 3)
2x: Ainab (1, 2), Maeonius (1, 2), Manat (1, 2), Missun (1, 2), Mubdan (1, 2), Odairan (1, 2), Zallit (1, 2)
1x: Ababael, Abassel, Abibaal, Abishpulu, Adairan, Adaishah, Addammus, Addarnat, Adibael, Ahasour, Ahaz, Ainab, Ainat, Anasour, Anit, Asha-Ammu, Ashibaal, Ashu-Ahhe, Ashuma-Nud, Ashur-Dan, Assaba-Bentus, Assallit, Assamanut, Assamma-Idan, Assantus, Assatlit, Assemmus, Assurdan, Balur, Beden, Conoon, Dakin, Dralas, Dun-Ilu, Dunsalipal, Dutadalk, Elibael, Emul-Ran, Erur-Dan, Esar-Don, Esib-Nummu, Hainab, Hairan, Han-Ammu, Hannat, Hassour, Hemus, Hentus, Hibaddar, Hinammu, Hirarend, Ibarnadad, Ibasour, Ilasour, Kanat, Kanit, Kanud, Kashtes, Kaushad, Kausi, Kind, Kitbael, Kummi-Namus, Kund, Lassour, Mabarrabael, Maesat, Mal, Malay, Mansilamat, Massarapal, Massour, Mibdinahaz, Minassour, Minisun, Minnibi, Musan, Mut, Nind, Ninimilk, Ninirrasour, Nirait, Nund, Odaishah, Ohibaal, Patababi, Patus, Pilun, Punibi, Ranabi, Sakin, Sakulerib, Sal, Salattanat, Salay, Salmat, Salmus, Sannit, Sargon, Seldus, Selk, Selkirnemus, Shabinbael, Shanat, Shanit, Shannat, Shanud, Shargon, Shilipuran, Shimsun, Shin, Shipal, Shirerib, Shullay, Subenend, Sul-Matuul, Talkin, Teshmus, Tibdan, Tinti, Tis, Truan, Tubilalk, Tussurradad, Ulabael, Ulath-Pal, Yahaz, Yakin, Yakum, Yan, Yanit, Yantus, Yapal, Yassour, Yeherradad, Yen, Yenammu, Zabamund, Zabarbael, Zainat, Zairan, Zalabelk, Zalit, Zallay, Zanat, Zanmulk, Zebba, Zebdusipal, Zelaku, Zelay, Zenabi, Zennammu
Online [ edit ]
Ashu-awa, Ashulerib, Azshalku, Broder, Chodala, Daynnill-Adran, Draitsuul, Dredase-Hlarar, Druvvanno, Emah-Ral, Enasourr, Ervas, Galsar, Galam, Ginasa, Harrinat, Ibaal, Kaid-Arbul, Madach, Manaad, Nakan-Obar, Salamat, Salattinti, Serannipu, Sorim-Nakar, Sul-Ammu, Sul-Bareth, Taba-Dan, Trehaddu, Udami, Ulath-Puas, Unamaeth, Urlvvannu, Vasamannu, Zabamib, Zanammu, Zanummu-Dan, Ziddak
Out-of-Game Books [ edit ]
Thanethen
Female Ashlander Names [ edit ]
Morrowind [ edit ]
3x: Mamaea (1, 2, 3)
2x: Manirai (1, 2), Manu (1, 2), Nummu (1, 2), Shara (1, 2), Zebba (1, 2)
1x: Addut-Lamanu, Adusamsi, Ahanabi, Ansu, Antu, Ashamanu, Asharapli, Ashumanu, Assamanu, Assi, Assimusa, Assirari, Assumanu, Benudni, Berapli, Dissu, Elitlaya, Elumabi, Hainab, Hairan, Hanarai, Hannabi, Hansi, Hinummu, Ibanammu, Kammu, Kausha, Kummu, Kurapli, Kushishi, Lanabi, Maela, Maeli, Mamusa, Manabi, Man-Ilu, Mi-Ilu, Midnabi, Milynea, Mimanu, Minabibi, Missamsi, Munbebi, Musa, Nammu, Nibani, Nirai, Peakstar, Pilu, Raishi, Rasamsi, Rawia, Sakiran, Samsi, Santinti, Seba, Sen, Senipu, Shali, Shallath-Piremus, Shinammu, Shishi, Shulki, Shullay, Sinnammu, Sonummu, Tashpi, Tissamsi, Tunipy, Tussi, Ulibabi, Ulisamsi, Urshamusa, Vabbar, Yan-Ahhe, Yanabani, Yanibi, Yenabi, Zaba, Zabi, Zanummu, Zennammu, Zula
Online [ edit ]
Ahnat-Suna, Alaburani, Alivusa, Arith-Enle, Asani, Ashur-Dissini, Babaeli, Berrammai, Bodani, Brevasu, Dovrosi, Dreyla, Dummu, Dutadael, Fonas, Hedranna, Kuamta, Hlandria, Ienas, Iru-Ahan, Issayarul, Khamishi, Kinhassur, Ledda, Malinu, Marinisuu, Minbid-Dal, Munabi, Nabari, Nainab, Numani-Rasi, Orilu, Risannu, Sahnivaran, Salitummai, Seryn, Shaali, Sharipu, Shuldrashi, Tirinaat, Ulath-Timmu, Ulynapli, Yanabi-Asa, Yaras-Tul, Yenmmend, Yus-Zashten, Zenammi, Zanumund
Ashlander Family Names [ edit ]
Morrowind [ edit ]
3x: Vabdas (1, 2, 3)
2x: Almu (1, 2), Man-llu (1, 2), Mantiti (1, 2), Yahaz (1, 2), Zainsubani (1, 2), Zama-Rasour (1, 2)
1x: Ababael, Abalkala, Abelmawia, Addarari, Addaribantes, Addinibi, Addunipu, Adidshina, Adur-Dan, Ahalkalun, Ahanidiran, Akin, Anurnudai, Ashalkimallit, Ashananapal, Ashapaladdon, Asharapli, Ashar-Dad, Ashar-Don, Asharnalit, Ashibael, Ashi-Iddan, Ashirbibi, Ashishpalirdan, Ashumallit, Ashummi-Ammus, Ashunbabi, Ashun-Idantus, Ashurnasaddas, Ashushshirari, Assalatammis, Assannabalit, Assantinalit, Assaplit, Assarbeberib, Assardarainat, Assardidairan, Assarnibani, Assarnuridan, Assarrapanat, Assarrimisun, Assattadaishah, Assebiriddan, Assemmus, Asserbassalit, Asserrumusa, Assillariran, Assinabi, Assintashiran, Assirnarari, Assonirishpal, Assudiraplit, Assudnilamat, Assullinbanud, Assumanallit, Assunbahanammu, Assunudadnud, Assurnarairan, Assurnipilu, Assurnumanit, Assurnumausur, Assutladainab, Assutlanipal, Atinsabia, Bael, Benamamat, Chodala, Darirnaddunumm, Dinadad, Dudnebisun, Dun-Ahhe, Dunsamsi, Elarrapal, Enturnabaelul, Eraishah, Eramarellaku, Erarbadon, Erushara, Esatliballit, Esurarnat, Esurnadarpal, Giladren, Gilu, Hainnabibi, Hainterari, Hairshashishi, Hairshumusa, Hansar, Ilabael, Ilath-Pal, Ilurnubishpal, Kaushad, Kaushmaman |
believe that greater responsiveness by this council would have saved hundreds of thousands of lives," Ms Pillay told the 15-member body during her final briefing after six years as the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights.
She said crises in Syria, Afghanistan, Central African Republic, Democratic Republic of Congo, Iraq, Libya, Mali, Gaza, Somalia, South Sudan, Sudan and Ukraine "hammer home" the international community's failure to prevent conflict.
"None of these crises erupted without warning. They built up over years - and sometimes decades - of human rights grievances," said Ms Pillay, a South African jurist.
She suggested the Security Council come up with possible new responses to rights violations, such as deploying rapid, flexible and resource-efficient human rights monitoring missions that would be limited in time and scope.
Her successor, Jordan's Prince Zeid Ra'ad Zeid al-Hussein, who will start his four-year appointment next month, could also informally brief the Security Council once a month in a bid to strengthen early warnings of potential crises, she said.
Ms Pillay also recommended building on the UN Arms Trade Treaty, which aims to regulate the $85bn arms industry and keep weapons out of the hands of rights abusers and criminals.
"States parties could agree that where there are concerns about human rights in states that purchase arms, one condition of sale would be that they accept a small human rights monitoring team," she said.
The treaty is due to enter into force once 50 countries have presented proof of ratification to the United Nations.
At least 44 countries have so far ratified the treaty.
United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said that even modest, early UN action could be important when it had full support from the Security Council.
"However, when there is limited consensus - when our actions come late and address only the lowest common denominator - the consequences can be measured in terrible loss of life, grave human suffering and tremendous loss of credibility for this council and our institution," Mr Ban told the council.
Russia's UN Ambassador Vitaly Churkin said that states have the main responsibility for conflict prevention, warning that any international assistance should be done with the consent of the host country and not imposed.
"Unfortunately in the UN Security Council we have often heard proposals that border on the management of internal affairs of states or even interference into their constitutional procedures," he said.
British UN Ambassador Mark Lyall Grant, president of the council for August, said the body needed "to switch from a culture of reaction to a mindset of conflict prevention."
The council unanimously adopted a resolution expressing determination to prevent armed conflict as part of its primary responsibility to maintain international peace and security.The New York Islanders announced today that Jesse Joensuu has agreed to terms on a one-year deal.
The Finnish forward played last season in the Swedish Elite League with HV71 Jonkoping. In 50 games, Joensuu scored 29 points (13 goals and 16 assists).
Prior to last season in Europe, Joensuu spent four seasons playing in North America within the Islanders organization. With the Islanders, the 6’4”, 207-pound winger accumulated eight goals and five assists in 60 career games. With the Islanders American Hockey League affiliate, the Bridgeport Sound Tigers, Joensuu scored a total of 42 goals and 69 assists for 111 points in 177 games.
Joensuu has played for Team Finland at the last two IIHF World Championships. This past tournament, he scored five points (two goals and three assists) in nine games. In 2011, Joensuu was a member of Team Finland’s gold medal winning team48 Condivisioni Facebook Whatsapp Telegram Flipboard Twitter Pinterest Linkedin
Spark è un minidrone DJI dal peso di soli 300 grammi e può essere controllato con i gesti della mano. Progettato per essere usato come accessorio fotografico e video, il dispositivo è dotato di una fotocamera con sensore CMOS 1/2,3 pollici e 12 megapixel. In aggiunta, la registrazione video è HD stabilizzata a 1080 pixel.
Il drone consente diverse tipologie “volo intelligente“, riconosce viso di chi lo sta utilizzando e pilotando, oltre a poter essere controllato da gesti. La sua natura consente all’utente di utilizzare il drone per scattare selfie per poi richiamarlo indietro con un gesto. In sostanza, per “comandarlo” occorre semplicemente stare fermi per non farlo volare o muoversi per guidarlo e farlo tornare al palmo della mano. Tutto senza toccare alcun telecomando.
“Il controllo di una macchina fotografica applicata su un drone solo con i movimenti delle mani è un passo da gigante per raggiungere l’obiettivo di una tecnologia aerea quanto più naturale possibile, lasciandola entrare nella vita quotidiana delle persone, al lavoro, in viaggio o nei momenti di svago con gli amici e la famiglia“, ha spiegato Paul Pan, senior director dei prodotti DJI.
Ovviamente, il drone può anche essere azionato da un comando a distanza tramite smartphone e utilizzando gli occhiali per la realtà virtuale della stessa azienda.
Spark ha diverse funzioni di volo autonomo. E, tra queste, anche la modalità “Sport”, la cui funzione è seguire un bersaglio ad un massimo di 50 chilometri all’ora.
Il drone ha un’autonomia di volo di 16 minuti, è dotato di sensori GPS e per l’identificazione degli ostacoli: questo gli permette di tornare sul proprio punto di origine. In aggiunta, è possibile avere lo streaming di video HD fino a 2 chilometri di distanza.Image caption Puerto Vallarta draws many US visitors - some of whom stay for longer than they should
The issue of undocumented Mexican migrants in America is widely reported. But what about the thousands of Americans living illegally south of the border? Mexico Direct looks at why they come, and why Mexicans aren't yet making an issue about it.
When Jessica departed the US early in 2011, she left a country where illegal immigration is rarely off the political agenda.
Little did she imagine she herself would become an 'alien' - in Mexico.
She came to Puerto Vallarta, a tourist resort on the Pacific coast, to work legally for a Mexican company. She took a second job to earn extra money, first in an internet cafe and then a restaurant.
Fines for overstayers
But her employers - also Americans - never filled in the paperwork to make her second job legal.
"I insisted, but they told me it wasn't necessary, that they would pay me in cash every night and it was fine," she tells the BBC.
"It was clearly illegal for me to work there, but I did not take the authorities in Mexico seriously. My employers then found themselves in legal trouble and I feared I could face deportation, so I quit."
Last year about 1,000 US citizens were questioned over irregularities in their immigration status, according to Mexican authorities. They face a modest fine - up to $50 - if officials find them working without a permit or living in Mexico without proper documents.
Those who lose their visas or are asked to leave the country and then discovered to be overstaying are fined up to $400.
But the National Migration Institute in Mexico has no idea just how many Americans are living or working illegally in Mexico.
There are no advocacy groups defending American aliens in Mexico. Mexican politicians haven't raised it as a major issue - a far cry from the controversy around illegal migration on the other side of the border.
With thousands of people from Central America crossing into Mexico illegally every year, and the threat from drug gangs and human traffickers on their way to the US, the presence of undocumented Americans is considered little more than a minor issue for Mexico's immigration services.
No one really knows how many of them there are in Mexico. Monica Mora, National Institute of Anthropology and History
Some are Americans tourists who decide to extend their stay in Mexico without notifying the authorities, or students who wish to earn extra money teaching English in Mexico City. Others just fall in love with the Latin American lifestyle.
"No one really knows how many of them there are in Mexico. They are usually people who live for a while in Mexico and then return home. They do not stay indefinitely," says Monica Mora, an expert on American migration in Mexico.
"Nowadays most Americans live legally in Mexico, working as employees of multinational companies for a couple of years here, but also retirees and students," says Mrs Mora, who is a researcher at the National Institute of Anthropology and History.
Constant flow
According to the last Mexican census (2010), more than 738,000 people born in the United States now live in Mexico.
Some 60,000 of them are living in the country indefinitely, mostly in Baja California in the northwest of the country and in Mexico City.
The rest are temporary visitors and legal employees of international companies.
Image caption Most American visitors stay within the rules - but officials say thousands overstay
Tropical weather, the cheaper cost of living and an exotic atmosphere a few hours from home have drawn curious Americans to Mexico since World War II.
They are now the largest foreign group in Mexico, according to official records.
Elaine Levin, an expert on international migration, was one of thousands of Americans who emigrated to Mexico 40 years ago.
She came legally and now has Mexican nationality. She says the comfortable life of Americans in Mexico contrasts with the persecution and harsh immigration legislation Mexicans have to face in the US.
Retirees' favourite
"There havn't been any integration issues here because this has always been part of Mexico's history. Even the ancestors of a candidate for the 2012 Republican Party presidential nomination, Mitt Romney, came to Mexico as immigrants," she tells the BBC.
After my experience here I have come to support more illegal immigration Jenny, American overstayer
"In fact, Mexico treats 'gringos' much better that the US does Mexicans," Mrs Levin says.
There is little public debate about the issue - many Mexicans would be surprised that an American would want to come here and live illegally.
The coasts of the Baja California peninsula, the idyllic town of San Miguel de Allende in central Mexico, and villages around Lake Chapala (by the Pacific coast) are favourite spots for retired Americans who come to spend their last years - and their life savings - in Mexico.
"It's still to be seen whether the news reports about the drug violence from American networks will have an effect on this," Mrs Levin says.
"Some people might think twice before going to some areas, but that hasn't happened yet," she adds.
Even though US tourist numbers dropped 6% last year, towns like San Miguel de Allende are still full of American-run businesses and home owners from the US.
Image caption Warm weather and an exotic lifestyle tempt some Americans south of the border
Some Americans in Mexico are beginning to see a different side of the immigration debate.
"I used to live in a large Mexican community, in Chicago. I always knew some of them were illegal and wondered how they could get away with it," Jessica says.
She's now legally entitled to stay in the country and is living in Mexico City.
"After my experience here I have come to support more illegal immigration. At the end of the day I would imagine most illegals have good intentions, working to support their family, wanting a new life," she says.
"I don't think we should make it so hard for people to get that. Isn't that what America is all about anyway, freedom?"
More from Mexico DirectCalled to the trophy room at Milan's old offices on Via Turati, Massimiliano Allegri and Pippo Inzaghi were asked to explain themselves before the club's official TV channel. The night before, reports had emerged and been confirmed that they had clashed at Vismara, the training ground where Milan's youth teams are based. Brought together the morning after, the pair looked like a couple of kids who were being made to put their differences aside and shake hands by their parents.
Allegri shrugged, smiling the smile of someone about to downplay what had gone down. "Nothing happened," he insisted. "I don't have any problem with Pippo. The exchange lasted no more than a minute. There was no offence shown nor any insults as has been written and said."
Inzaghi apologised that it had happened in front of the under-16s he was coaching. "We're Milan," he said. "We all want the best for Milan. Instead of being here describing things which effectively didn't happen we should be giving Milan a hand. I'm very sorry."
For Inzaghi, being dignified about the whole affair and upholding the club's honor came before everything. Even then he spoke like the first-team trainer. And perhaps that was the cause of the argument in the first place. Did Allegri already feel threatened, insecure? No longer able to lean on stars like Zlatan Ibrahimovic and Thiago Silva and veterans like Alessandro Nesta and Clarence Seedorf, he had suffered defeat in two of his opening three games in Serie A that season and been held to a stalemate by Anderlecht at San Siro in the Champions League.
Allegri felt Inzaghi aspired to be in his position. He knew he was being groomed for it. "You want my job?" Allegri asked him in La Gazzetta dello Sport's version of events. "Sure, I'll take your job and do better at it, too" was Inzaghi's supposed reply. This all took place two years ago. Inzaghi was 39. He had wished to continue playing. His strict diet of bresaola (air-dried salted beef) and Plasmon (baby food), and his workaholic training regimen meant Inzaghi could have carried on. But not at Milan.
Allegri had marginalised him as he had done a number of the other veterans from the club's last Champions League-winning team in 2007. He didn't do it out of spite. Inzaghi was returning from a serious knee injury. The time had come for a transition from one generation to another, and the hierarchy wished to slash the wage bill. But his decision not to include Inzaghi in his Champions League squad in the striker's final season rankled.
As with Milan and his mentor Carlo Ancelotti, so much of his reputation in the game was built on performances in that tournament. Seven short of the record, he wanted a chance to reach and go past Raul as the all-time top scorer in UEFA's club competitions. Allegri denied him it. Parma presented Inzaghi with the opportunity to return to the team with whom he struck his first Serie A goal. But his brother Simone had some advice for him.
"I knew he wanted to play another year, and he probably would have scored another 10 goals, but it wouldn't have changed anything. For this reason I advised him to accept Milan's proposal [to coach in their youth sector like Simone did with Lazio]. The feeling you get coaching kids is indescribable."
Pippo listened and began his new career. Since then he has bruciato le tappe, as they say in Italy -- come a long way in a short space of time. After the under-16s and the senior youth team with whom he led Milan to their first Viareggio trophy in a decade, Inzaghi is already preparing to face Allegri in Serie A.
There's an undercurrent of tension before Saturday's meeting at San Siro. Their past is only partly behind it. There's the return of Allegri as coach of rivals Juventus to the place he worked for three-and-a-half years and the curiosity surrounding Inzaghi's first real test coming against the club for whom he was never the main man, either starting on the bench or with the knowledge that he would be substituted. "So Mister, when are you taking me off?" he'd ask. "What minute?"
- Serie A stadiums just 55% full
- Milan's Lopez out at least two weeks
- Inzaghi: Juve out of our reach
Second fiddle to Alessandro Del Piero, in sporting terms Inzaghi felt a competitive jealousy. He'd have to make his legend elsewhere.
"Pippo made the dressing room laugh with his jokes but often made it angry with the goals he'd miss that looked certain to be scored," Juventus' former general manager Luciano Moggi recalled in his book. "And there were the moments in which he forgot that you play football with 11 men and would keep the ball too long. For this reason he got on little with Del Piero."
Reacting to Inzaghi's appointment as coach of Milan, his former teammate Antonio Conte said: "I had the pleasure of playing with Pippo but he also had the pleasure of playing with me. I ran for him and he scored... It's not simple. Being a player is one thing, being a coach is another."
And yet what Conte will understand is that, as was the case with his experience in the dugout at Juventus and Diego Simeone's at Atletico Madrid, there's a synergy between Inzaghi and Milan. Fans believe there's one of them on the bench, which in turn generates enthusiasm and can create an X factor. Like Conte and Simeone's, the impression with Inzaghi is that he totally gets what his club is about and is able to transmit it to the players.
That was never true of Allegri. Owner Silvio Berlusconi once said he had the physique du role and the look to be coach of Milan. But as the club's chief executive Adriano Galliani, his greatest defender, would acknowledge and confide to Alberto Costa of Il Corriere della Sera, he didn't have the "culture."
Inzaghi does. You only have to read the open letter he wrote to Milan supporters on his retirement. "Everything that you're about to read is secondary to this," Inzaghi explained. "The first and foremost thing that I want you all to know is I played and won for 'us'. Playing and winning without sharing the emotion is nothing, but you and me -- us -- we did it all together. We hoped, suffered, celebrated and rejoiced. We lifted cups and won titles together in our hearts. We have always been on the same wavelength. And no one can ever take that away from us."
Pippo Inzaghi ultimately did take Massimiliano Allegri's place in the Milan dugout, and the Rossoneri have united under his leadership.
The turbulence of Clarence Seedorf's short-lived spell in charge has been replaced by the togetherness and unity of intents imposed by Inzaghi. Everyone is pulling in the same direction. The spirit was evident in Sunday's 5-4 win against Parma, and in particular the rush to celebrate with the manager after the opening goal. Inzaghi's philosophy is his personification. As a player he recognised he wasn't the most technically gifted. This Milan isn't either. He had to work harder to be successful. This Milan does, too. He acknowledged his limits and rather than operate within them, tried to push them. Ditto for Milan.
"If we lose a game it will be because our opponent played better than us, not because they gave more on the pitch," Inzaghi said. Milan have maximum points from their opening two games. The last time that happened was eight years ago when they also beat Lazio and Parma. They haven't started a season this prolific, scoring eight goals, since 1963 even though they haven't played an orthodox or nominal striker. So far they have been greater than the sum of their parts and that's because they have an identity and a game plan. Milan get men behind the ball and when they win it back, they play it out wide, stretch the play and look to get midfield runners into the box. It's nothing sophisticated but it is effective -- just like Inzaghi.
Milan don't look like a contender (yet) but they do at least look like a competitive team again. Many don't see them going far should their defending continue to be shambolic. But as Daniele Bonera has noted, individual errors and changing game-states are to blame rather than the defence as a whole. Lazio's goal was an own goal, and while Parma exploited a familiar weakness (headers from set pieces), they only really got back into the game after Bonera was sent off. When Parma's Felipe followed, any structure or balance to the match was lost and it became a free-for-all.
The team's composure and game management needs working on. Against Lazio once they got a two-goal cushion they didn't know whether to defend it or push for another. Against Parma they twice conceded shortly after scoring. Absent from Europe, a pain that drives a club that is defined by success in it, Inzaghi will have time to correct those issues in training through the week. It's a shame there was so much collateral damage in Sunday's victory. Goalkeeper Diego Lopez tweaked a muscle. So did Alex, while his centre-back partner Bonera will be suspended for Juventus' visit. Stephan El Shaarawy should be back, but Milan do appear stretched.
Utterly dominant in all their outings thus far, the champions are understandable favourites even if they have injuries of their own and might be a little jaded from their Champions League commitments in midweek. Let's not forget they finished 45 points ahead of Milan last season. But as Moggi famously once said of Inzaghi, "He isn't afraid of anyone: the bigger the opponent, the more he lifted his game." It'll be up to his Milan players to do the same on Saturday.
James covers the Italian Serie A and European football for ESPN FC Follow him on Twitter @JamesHorncastle.The Microsoft Store's new "Scroogled" section includes eight products that'll make you blush on Microsoft's behalf. There's a t-shirt that shows a Chrome logo in a trench coat and another that casts it as a scary spider. There's a hat that says "Scroogled" and a mug, again with the Chrome logo, that say "Keep calm while we steal your data." The mug, in fact, is sold out–John Gruber says he's hearing the products are proving popular with Google employees.
>At best, it's a distraction. At worst, it reeks of desperation.
Microsoft's intermittently been trying to make "Scroogled" a thing since late last year, when it started leaking ads focusing on Gmail and its system of serving ads based on keywords in your emails. It's worth noting that all of this silliness started shortly after Microsoft hired Mark Penn, a notoriously pugnacious political strategist who worked for both Bill and Hillary Clinton.
Penn was the chief strategist during Clinton's disastrous bid for the Presidency in 2008, a campaign renowned for its internal turmoil–much of it centered around Penn. His attack-first plan for Microsoft doesn't seem much different than the one he had for Hillary Clinton. As reported in the Atlantic's post-mortem of the 2008 Democratic primary, this was the guy urging that she target Obama's 'lack of American roots.'
It all comes across as pathetic on Microsoft's part. Brands are supposed to have personalities, but they're not supposed to be petty. Microsoft may not be the goliath it once was—especially when the adversary you're talking about is Google—but pushing out a raft of gag products that fall short of actually being funny is beneath them. At best, it's a distraction from what the company should be doing—working on good software, services, and hardware products. At worst, it reeks of desperation.
It also seems half-hearted. The Scroogled products are definitely an official Microsoft offering, but they're not featured prominently anywhere else on the website. In fact, I couldn't even find a way to find the Scroogled section without plugging in the URL to access it directly. That, in a way, makes it even more disagreeable–an insult muttered instead of shouted. (Last night, savvy tech observer Ben Thompson tweeted "I don’t know a single MSFT employee who isn’t mortified by the whole Scroogled campaign.")
//www.youtube.com/embed/-Cr6AgUo764
The fact that Google sucks up all the user data it can find is no great secret–that's the price you pay for the company's free software and services. And it is indeed a troubling aspect of a company that's increasingly at the center of our digital lives, especially in light of the tech industry's coziness with agencies like the NSA. If you were running a political campaign against Google, you'd definitely want to exploit that angle. In politics, you have to make it personal.
But webmail and consumer electronics are not a political campaign. Some cheeky leaked videos are one thing. Setting up shop with tacky attack products is another. This type of mudslinging may work in politics, but it's embarrassing when deployed as corporate branding.
Images: Microsoft.com© US Air Force/Staff Sgt. Shawn Nickel
© US Air Force/2nd Lt. Darren Domingo
In a large, tin-roofed warehouse near Colorado's Rocky Mountains, members of a team of modern space warriors spend their days hatching plots to defeat the US military in extraterrestrial combat.They're called Space Aggressors.Their job is to act like the enemy during mock space battles to help US units prepare for a"We play the bad guys," said Captain Christopher Barnes, chief of training for the 26th Space Aggressor Squadron. "Our job is to not only understand the different types of threats and potential enemies, but also to be able to portray them and replicate them for the good guys, our Air Force."The 26th and 527th Space Aggressor Squadrons are headquartered in a two-story warehouse at Colorado's Schriever Air Force Base, stocked with advanced radio and satellite equipment and nicknamed "the barn." Behind the building, antenna dishes trace the sky.While attacks by the Space Aggressors are simulated, senior USAmerica relies heavily on space assets to project force around the globe, from launching missiles to directing warships across the seas. Indeed, the Global Positioning System, or GPS, is actually a group of 31 high-orbiting satellites owned by the US government and operated by the US Air Force.Some worry that disrupting America's vast network of satellites and ground-based systems could send US forces back to an antiquated era of targeting, communications, and navigation systems — deeply undercutting battlefield superiority.This spring, rhetoric from US military officials about the need to bolster American defensive position, and even offensive capabilities, in space has ratcheted up amid concern that Russia and China are rapidly developing anti-satellite weapons."While we're not at war in space, I don't think we could say we're exactly at peace, either," Vice Admiral Charles Richard, Deputy Commander of U.S. Strategic Command, known as Stratcom, told a conference in Washington DC in March. "We must prepare for a conflict that extends into space."In his remarks, Vice Admiral Richard pointed to press reports that "China is developing an arsenal of lasers, electro-magnetic rail guns, and high-powered microwave weapons to neutralize America's intelligence, communications, and navigation satellites."In April, Stratcom Commander General John Hyten told a Senate committee hearing that in addition to bolstering defenses, "we have to build an offensive capability to challenge their capabilities in space as well."In that hearing, Senator Ted Cruz (R-TX) asked General Hyten to assess the threat to America's space assets from countries like Russia and China."It is significant and it is growing," Hyten replied. "You have to ask yourself why we have adversaries that are building weapons in space, weapons that can deploy into space, weapons that can jam our satellites, weapons that can jam GPS. Why are they building that entire infrastructure? It is not because they are interested in the peaceful use of outer space. It is because they are looking to threaten the United States."The Space Aggressors aim to simulate attacks a real adversary might use, so US forces can practice overcoming them."We study threats to the space realm, either coming from space or based on land," said Captain Barnes. "If we can't directly replicate them with hardware, then we figure out if there's a software solution or some way we can train people to the point where they can fight through them, if they have to, in a conflict."One tactic Space Aggressors are known to employ is called "brute force jamming," which involves sending powerful signals over satellite networks to garble the original message.Many details of their operations, however, remain secret."Some people think space is an Achilles heel for the US, and that if we were to lose our capabilities in space, we may not be able to fight through," said the Space Aggressors' Captain Barnes. "But the better we can train folks, the better they're going to be able to go out there and prove that despite one or another asset falling away, our guys on the ground, jointly, can still fight through and win the day."In addition to wargaming in a contested space environment, US troops are also training to fight without access to space — in case one day they have to.Six years ago, the Air Force held a study called "A Day Without Space" at the Nellis Air Force Base in southern Nevada that sought to replicate what would happen if American forces were deprived of satellite communications and global positioning data."It was not good," General Hyten told the Senate. "We were not ready to do that."Following the study, the military "relearned" techniques for fighting without access to GPS or satellites — using alternate tools like "inertial navigation systems," which don't need orbiting reference points, and even compasses and maps, Hyten said.The Department of Defense has spent at least $22 billion in recent years "to defend and improve the resiliency of our assets in space and put potential adversary space systems at risk," former US Secretary of Defense Ash Carter wrote in a memo to President Barack Obama prior to the end of the administration's term.In April, the Air Force announced it would create a new position for a three-star general to serve as advisor to the Air Force Secretary and Joint Chiefs of Staff on space issues — effectively, a space war czar.In the same month, the Pentagon gave the Joint Interagency Combined Space Operations Center, which went by the confusing handle JICSpOC, a shorter and more descriptive title: the National Space Defense Center.The military also announced a new initiative aimed at deepening defense partnerships in space with US allies known as the Multinational Space Collaboration effort.That new measure will "explore methods for increased sharing, cooperation, and collaboration to preserve the safety of spaceflight, and enhance mutual security," Stratcom said in a statement in April.The first foreign liaison officer, from Germany, is expected to join the initiative at the Vandenberg Air Force Base in California this summer.Meanwhile, back in Colorado, the Space Aggressors continue to wage simulated space war to help US troops prepare for a real one."I want them to be able to fight through the environment," said Captain Barnes. "The hardest part of doing this job is that you don't really want to win."Sons of ‘The Beach’
Travel Books: What do "The Beach," "Are You Experienced?" and other travel novels say about us? Rolf Potts and Kristin Van Tassel explore backpacker fiction.
When “The Beach” hit American cinemas just over 10 years ago, most of the hype surrounding the movie centered on its star, Leonard DiCaprio, and its director, Danny Boyle. Scant media attention was given to the movie’s core themes, which drew on Alex Garland’s 1996 novel of the same name about a community of Western backpackers veering its way into self-destruction on an anonymous Thai island.
Some critics compared the macabre adventure tale to earlier works like William Golding’s “Lord of the Flies” or Joseph Conrad’s “Heart of Darkness,” but few pondered how the story reflected the globalization-tinged insecurities of the age in which it was written. In fact, the most intriguing theme of “The Beach” was not the moral degeneration of the backpackers’ island “paradise,” but the insipid consumerist fantasies that inspired how that paradise should look in the first place. In trying to create the real-world equivalent of a tourist brochure (and in succumbing to the petty social-status rivalries of home), Garland’s characters became an ironic extension of the mass culture they’d tried to escape.
To better understand how “The Beach” reflected the anxieties of its age, it’s worth looking at similarly themed pop-novels written between the fall of the Berlin Wall and the fall of New York’s Twin Towers. We find a spate of British-authored pulp fiction about self-absorbed 20-somethings trying (and failing) to use travel in Asia as an escape from the superficial, directionless, consumerist lives they lead back home.
William Sutcliffe’s Are You Experienced? (1997), for example, is a madcap satire about a misanthropic young traveler’s misadventures in India. Simon Lewis’s Go (1999) reads like a gangster-chic potboiler, its misfit protagonists traveling to places like Hong Kong and Goa. Emily Barr’s Backpack (2001) blends serial-killer intrigue with chick-lit romance along the Southeast Asian backpacker trail. John Harris’s “The Backpacker” (2001) follows two Brits and an American on a gritty, laddish adventure through various corners of the Orient. Katy Gardner’s Losing Gemma (2002) is a coming-of-age friendship drama and murder-mystery set in India.
Though all these novels’ characters seek escape from the “regimented, mundane, nine-to-five life” bemoaned by Harris’s protagonist John, the fictionalized backpackers ultimately function as ironic agents of mass culture. In the process, their actions hint at the dull inevitability of consumer culture, as well as latent anxieties about the uncertainty of status and authenticity in an increasingly globalized world. Faraway places and their cultural differences, these novels suggest, could no longer be actively experienced; they could only be passively consumed.
Contemporary sociological and anthropological tourist-behavior studies underscore how these backpacker protagonists are influenced less by their exotic surroundings than the social dynamics of home. In a 2002 study of independent travel communities for the journal Ethnography and Social Anthropology, tourist scholar Christina Anderskov identifies independence, frugality, and acceptance of the locals as central tenets of backpacker culture. But as novels like The Beach illustrate, these values are largely a self-directed rhetoric within the insular confines of indie-travel social circles. As Anderskov acknowledges, backpackers seek each other out, and the travel communities themselves—not the host cultures—ultimately become the focus of travel. Instead of looking for nuances and complexities within the host culture, independent travelers frequently cling to signs of subcultural authenticity in each other.
Researchers have noted, for example, that within backpacker enclaves there is a clear hierarchy based on shorthand status cues curiously similar to those of home. Whereas back home income and influence might lend to status, backpackers fixate upon travel experience and fashion. Anderskov’s research subjects assert that “real backpackers” travel at least three months, and they demonstrate their credibility through their clothing, spending, and storytelling. Backpacker novels confirm this ideology, frequently using such markers to communicate experience and travel savvy.
In Gardner’s “Losing Gemma,” for example, readers learn immediately upon meeting Coral that the character’s “scuffed canvas carry-all” and well-worn clothing (a “dark red sarong, tied loosely around her concave stomach, a droopy cheesecloth top, and leather flip-flops”) advertise her two years of travel experience. Through these grungy fashion details, she is identified as “a true traveler, her soft Western edges eroded by months or even years of vivid Third World Experience.” Before long, Coral rescues the passports and money carelessly lost by two travel neophytes, Gemma and Esther, and recommends they deliberately roughen their bags in order to boost their street cred.
In addition to such strict adherence to anti-fashions, all the novels depict disheveled backpackers earning rite-of-passage by enduring the workaday hardships that come with independent travel in the developing world. When Sutcliffe’s Dave suffers a bout of diarrhea, he notes that, “crapping your pants... is a dire and miserable experience; but having crapped your pants—I mean, that’s a pretty good conversational party piece.” Over time, status within the community’s hierarchy hinges on the accumulation of such difficult travel experiences, which travelers collect and trade like blue-chip stock portfolios.
Accordingly, upon meeting “older” Australian travelers in their 20s, Sutcliffe’s Dave admits, “I felt I couldn’t really talk about what I’d done, because they’d all been on the road for months and had amazing stories I couldn’t possibly compete with—about how they’d got lost in the Thai jungle with heroin smugglers, had fought off kitten-sized cockroaches in an Indonesian prison, or had done the entire Everest trek dressed in flip-flops and a Bondai Beach T-shirt.” Anderskov adds that this kind of social hierarchy is “situational and floating”—it depends on whom the backpacker is socializing with. As a result, it is possible for the initially clueless protagonists in the novels by Sutcliffe, Gardner, and Barr to accumulate status over time, with each of them near the end of their stories encountering “fresh-faced scared bunnies” who remind them of their previous, less experienced selves and confirm their advanced clout within the independent travel community. In this way, a typical story arc of the backpacker novel focuses not on a deepened understanding of local cultures, but on gaining social standing within travel communities that aren’t all that demographically distinct from cliquish subcultures back home.
In this vein, Anders Sorensen argues in a 2003 Annuals of Tourism Research article that social exchanges operate not simply as hierarchical “challenges” in the community, but also as the “social glue” of what is, ultimately, an insular community. Although independent travelers rhetorically “position themselves in opposition to conventional tourists,” research suggests and the novels reinforce that “interactions” with the native peoples is defined loosely—with observation counting as interaction—and the majority of encounters revolving around monetary exchanges. Overwhelmingly, this is the case in the backpacker novels. With the exception of Harris’s characters, who spend two-thirds of their time in Asian brothels, the young travelers go out of their way to keep local contact brief and simple.
Hence, a curious paradox emerges wherein native knowledge and practices contribute to backpacker status |
Madden NFL 18 update 1.06 is now available for download. According to the Madden NFL 18 patch notes, the Madden NFL 18 1.06 update has added support for Xbox One X which will deliver 4K Ultra HD football Xbox gaming experience for the first time ever.
In addition, the new title update includes fixes and improvements. The issues around users losing control for a short time during the camera flip on turnovers is now fixed.
Madden NFL 18 1.06 update Enhancements for Xbox One X:
Upgraded Resolution from 1080p to 4K Ultra HD: Providing players with the highest fidelity visuals in Madden NFL experience ever, delivering hyper-realistic gameplay to your fingertips
Providing players with the highest fidelity visuals in Madden NFL experience ever, delivering hyper-realistic gameplay to your fingertips Gameplay Runs at a Consistent 60 frames per second (fps): Delivers seamless transitions and improved gameplay performance between each down
Delivers seamless transitions and improved gameplay performance between each down Character Level of Detail: Vibrant, detailed athlete visuals bringing your favorite NFL stars to life!
Madden NFL 18 update 1.06 Patch Notes
Top Updates
Pass Accuracy tuning
Addressed MUT squads improper XP awards
Tuning to balance Coach Adjustments
Replaced the “Bluff Blitz” hot route with “Hard Flat” for Inside linebackers
According to the Madden NFL 18 patch notes, the Madden NFL 18 1.06 update has addressed issues around users losing control for a short time during the camera flip on turnovers
Full Change List
Franchise Updated NFL records for Offline (already available in Cloud) Madden NFL 18 1.06 addressed issue displaying certain menus in 4K Addressed issue around Injured Players not showing up as being on the IR when starting a franchise via Play Now Live Made stability improvements
Gameplay Tuned to increase pass accuracy when throwing in a clean pocket with feet set in Competitive Game Style Tuned to decrease pass accuracy when throwing across the QB’s body at drastic angles and making back-foot throws Madden NFL 18 version 1.06 tuned to decrease defensive penalty for using the Pass Commit adjustment vs. running plays in all Game Styles Added logic for Conservative Ball Carrier Coaching Adjustment – now there’s a very low chance for defender fakeouts when this adjustment is active Tuned to increase frequency of holding penalties when the Aggressive Blocking Coaching Adjustment is active Madden NFL 18 update 1.06 tuned to increase frequency of offsides penalties when the Aggressive Pass Rush Coaching Adjustment is active Addressed issues resulting in catches being knocked out by minimal defensive contact Madden NFL 18 version 1.06 addressed issues around users losing control for a short time during the camera flip on turnovers Addressed online grieving exploits around spamming the Fake Snap mechanic to stop the clock and defenders intentionally Encroaching to keep the clock running According to the Madden NFL 18 patch notes, the Madden NFL 18 1.06 update has addressed issue resulting in incorrect field position after a touchback occurs on a missed field goal Madden NFL 18 1.06 fixed issue where kick return player would get stuck in a strafe assignment after colliding with a teammate Tuned to ensure plays populate in the Run/Pass Counter filter of the Play Call menu Added Skills Trainer Gauntlet stability improvements Madden NFL 18 1.06 added a controller-rumble prompt in MUT Squads to notify user-controlled receivers when the ball is snapped Tuned to address inability to move outside linebacker when showing blitz in the Dollar formation
MUT Squads According to the Madden NFL 18 patch notes, the Madden NFL 18 1.06 update has addressed issues around incorrect XP awards
Visual Addressed rare issue around Field Goal net enlarging after missing a field goal.
Check your game update and download latest Madden NFL 18 update 1.06 on PS4 and Xbox One.The season 4 premiere of The Walking Dead featured one of the most epic action scenes in the show’s history, with the survivors encountering death from above as a supermarket roof caved in, sending zombies — and a helicopter — down upon our unlucky survivors. “It seemed like that episode was too big to get,” said Norman Reedus when he stopped by the Entertainment Weekly Radio (SiriusXM, channel 105) studios to chat about all things Walking Dead. “We went large with the first one.” But if you thought that was intense, Reedus says to just wait. “This season is crazy,” says the man who plays Daryl Dixon. “It’s by far our best season, and the writing is just phenomenal.”
Now you can hear the entire interview with Reedus right here on the InsideTV Podcast. Listen in as Norman talks about the evolution of Daryl Dixon, and why he now in season 4 has turned into “a reluctant leader.” There’s also plenty of chatter about Norman’s relationship with his costars and fans. Find out why Norman “started licking people on set,” and how Andrew Lincoln is “like my BFF.” Norman also gives his side of the story as to his hotel pranking of the man who plays Rick Grimes, and explains why everyone keeps coming up to him and requesting he give them the finger. It’s an in-depth interview with the fan favorite.
But that’s not all, Walking Dead fans. We also spoke with Andrew Lincoln himself, and the star promises that, “something terrible happens within this story arc that divides the group irrevocably.” He also teases about HUGE things to come in episode 8 and discusses what makes this season of the zombie drama different.
And we’re still not done. Walking Dead exec producer Greg Nicotero breaks down the premiere episode (which he also directed). The monster makeup guru also talks about handling 150 zombies on set and tells us some other ideas that never quite made it into his recent Walking Dead webisodes.
It’s a Walking Dead explosion of epic proportions as we have Norman Reedus, Andrew Lincoln, and Greg Nicotero — all on the same podcast! And for you non-Walking Dead fans, we also have the recently eliminated Survivor: Blood vs Water contestant Candice Cody, who talks all about her feud with Brad Culpepper and whether being a last minute replacement hurt her chances in the game.
It is a can’t-miss podcast and you can click on the audio player icon below to enjoy the whole thing for yourself. You can also download the entire podcast right here. Or, since we’re on iTunes, you can subscribe for free and take the podcast with you. No iTunes? No problem. To send a question to the InsideTV Podcast team, follow us on Twitter @InsideTVPodcast. And to hear more interviews and television discussion and debate, check out Entertainment Weekly Radio channel 105 on SiriusXM.The eight-foot-and-a-half-foot-long wooden propeller has something Hall of Fame officials say no other airplane artifact is known to have: The signature of Orville Wright, who with his brother Wilbur invented the first practical airplane.
Ron Kaplan, Enshrinement and Outreach Director of the National Aviation Hall of Fame, points out the signature of Orville Wright on an original Wright propeller. The propeller, which is now owned by the NAHF, was given to a Wright Factory employee when the factory was closed in 1920. An NAHF trustee purchased the propeller at auction in 2004 and gifted it to the NAHF. TY GREENLEES / STAFF Photo: Staff Writer
In 2013, a Texas aviation history authority appraised the propeller believed to have flown on a Wright brothers-built float plane, for $275,000.
But because it is the only one of its kind, Hall of Fame officials say it could actually be worth much more.
“People are saying this is worth seven figures, easy,” said NAHF President and Vice Chairman Michael J. Quiello.
The long-hidden propeller was thrust into the spotlight this month when U.S. Rep. Mike Turner, R-Dayton, called on the Hall of Fame Board of Trustees to “cease and desist” any talk of selling the artifacts to raise money.
Quiello said any talk of selling the artifact was set aside more than two years ago. He added Turner’s call to “cease and desist” has had no impact on the Hall of Fame.
Orville Wright signed the vintage 1915 spruce propeller in November 1944. As the story goes, the Rev. Richard Willhelm Jr., and his brother, Joe, received the propeller from their father and took it to Orville Wright at his Oakwood mansion on Hawthorne Hill to be signed, an appraisal history says.
The signature of Orville Wright on an original Wright propeller. The propeller, which is now owned by the National Aviation Hall of Fame, was given to a Wright Factory employee when the factory was closed in 1920. An NAHF trustee purchased the propeller at auction in 2004 and gifted it to the NAHF. TY GREENLEES / STAFF Photo: Staff Writer
In 2004, the propeller was donated to the Hall of Fame after a former trustee purchased at his own expense for $37,000, according to the NAHF and appraisal information.
When in recent years NAHF trustees discovered the historic propeller in the nonprofit’s collection, the board had its value appraised.
“The board now realizes we have something that is not only an artifact, it’s a national treasure and this should not be sold to a highest bidder to be placed in somebody’s office, or placed in somebody’s bar, or sold to a foreign businessman so he can put it on his wall someplace,” he said. “This belongs literally to the people of the United States and anybody interested in aviation.”
It would have costs tens of thousands of dollars to conserve the artifact for public display, which didn’t fit in with a business strategy targeting a $5 million fundraising goal and future plans to upgrade the Learning Center with more interactive exhibits geared toward younger visitors at the National Aviation Hall of Fame, he said. The Hall of Fame is inside the National Museum of the U.S. Air Force at Wright-Patterson.
.@RepMikeTurner want to pull congressional charter for National Aviation Hall of Fame https://t.co/ECaiGb8XWQ pic.twitter.com/SutsQ8hILF — Ohio_Politics (@Ohio_Politics) February 15, 2017
Quiello said the NAHF trustees had pondered selling the artifact for display at the Wright brothers airplane factory — site of an intended future multi-million dollar renovation project in Dayton — or to a place like the Smithsonian’s National Air and Space Museum in Washington, D.C., as the best use of the artifact.
”We do feel like we have an obligation to the aviation community to keep this in the United States in the place where it would get the most exposure and that we believe should either be in Dayton at a … National Park Service site or it should be at the Smithsonian,” he said.
National Aviation Heritage Alliance Executive Director Tony Sculimbrene, a key leader in the planned future redevelopment of the Wright factory at West Third Street near Abbey Avenue in Dayton, said officials affiliated with the project determined the appraisal value of the propeller “was probably too high.”
Evaluating “one-of-a-kind artifacts is difficult to do and really the way that you determine the price of an historic artifact like that is to put it up for sale and they (the NAHF) did not want to do that,” he said Wednesday.
Also, he said, talk of displaying the propeller at the factory, which remains a years-long work in progress, was premature. “It became obvious to me we weren’t going to have it the factory to display anytime soon,” Sculimbrene said.
Timothy Gaffney, a NAHA spokesman who has authored a book about the Wright brothers factory, added: “We weren’t in a position to do anything at that time but it wold be wonderful” to have the propeller displayed at the factory.
COMPLETE COVERAGE
Our military affairs reporter Barrie Barber continues to follow this developing story. Follow him on Twitter at @BarrieBarber for the latest news. Here’s a look at his coverage in recent months:
Feb 14: Lawyer: Congressman Turner has no oversight over Aviation Hall of Fame
Feb 13: Official says Aviation Halls’ reputation hurt by Turner probe
Feb 6: Hall of Fame asks Turner for an apology
Feb 1: Congressman Turner to Aviation Hall: ‘Cease’ talk of selling artifacts
Jan 25: Turner launches investigation into National Aviation Hall of Fame
Dec 15: Aviation Hall of Fame ceremony moving to Texas from Dayton
Nov 16: Dayton could lose Aviation Hall of FameSonam Kapoor is shooting for her new film Padman. (Image courtesy: Sonam Kapoor)
Highlights 'Grandmother asking do not go to the temple' when on period, said Sonam "As city girls we get to hear all of that," she added "Hust imagine what girls in smaller villages are going through," she said
Actress Sonam Kapoor says she was'shocked' by the ignorance and taboos that still cloak the subject of menstrual hygiene, revealing that prohibitions were applied within her own family as well. S onam's work-in-progress film Padman tells the story of A Murugunantham, inventor of a machine that would cheaply manufacture sanitary napkins. Not everyone would consider this film-worthy, Sonam told news agency PTI, adding that urban women are more open to publicly discussing menstruation. "Menstrual hygiene is an issue, which not many people would think can be a good subject for a film. For city girls it is normal, but when we were shooting in Maheshwar and around, the ignorance I saw was shocking," Sonam said, reports PTI.The actress drew on her own experience of being told to stay out of certain places while on her period. "Even with us, we remember our grandmother asking do not go to the temple, or in the kitchen or don't go close to the pickles. As city girls we get to hear all of that so just imagine what girls in smaller villages are going through," Sonam Kapoor told PTI.This sort of "backward thinking" is the focus of which co-stars Akshay Kumar and Radhika Apte. It features a special appearance by Amitabh Bachchan and is expected in theatres on January 26. The film is written and produced by Akshay's wife Twinkle Khanna and directed by R Balki.Sonam Kapoor says films and marquee names help highlight social themes. "Cinema is the largest medium. It reaches out to a larger audience. Especially, if you have mainstream stars attached to such films, it works. For a film likeor, if they have big names attached to them, and the issues are pertinent, it makes a big difference," she told PTI.PTI said it spoke to Sonam Kapoor on the sidelines of the Blenders Pride Fashion Tour, where she walked the ramp for designer Tarun Tahiliani. (With inputs from PTI)Sir Alex Ferguson is to make a personal plea to Manchester United's supporters to put an end to the sick chants that are aimed at Arsène Wenger whenever Arsenal visit Old Trafford.
United are so embarrassed by the nature of the songs Ferguson has decided to take the matter into his own hands to back the man he used to regard as a sworn enemy. The two managers share a cordial relationship these days and Ferguson believes the abuse the Frenchman has suffered at Old Trafford over the years goes beyond any legitimate form of terrace humour.
Ferguson will write about the subject in his programme notes for Arsenal's visit on Monday night, imploring fans not to let down the club and pointing out that they should be backing their own team rather than abusing the opposition manager. He will also appeal for an end to the offensive chants during television and radio interviews before the game between the Premier League's top two teams.
The hope at Old Trafford is that Ferguson's voice is powerful enough to help prevent a repeat of previous matches when Wenger has been routinely subjected to songs such as "sit down you paedophile".
Wenger has suffered the same abuse at other grounds but there is a sense it is even worse at Old Trafford than when Arsenal play at White Hart Lane, the home of their arch-rivals Tottenham Hotspur. It was particularly noticeable when he was banished from the dug-out in Arsenal's 2-1 defeat at Old Trafford last season, leading to a complaint from an Arsenal supporters' website and a pledge from United's chief executive, David Gill, that he would bring it up with the club's official fans' forum.
The initial plan was for Ferguson to write an open letter to the club's supporters and send it to the local press as well as the United fanzines and websites. That has not materialised but the United manager is collaborating with the club's publicity department about the best way of getting the message heard while, behind the scenes, other plans are being put in place in case the songs persist.
Stewards will be instructed to take strong action with any supporters who are seen singing offensive chants. The club hope that ejecting fans and confiscating season tickets will spread the message that it will no longer be tolerated.
A United spokesman said: "We have gone on the record several times about this disgusting chant. We don't condone it and have appealed to fans several times in the past but to no avail. There are many chants that opposing fans find objectionable and this is certainly one to which all decent supporters should object.
"We will take strong action against people who chant in that way. Season tickets will be revoked and we will remove people from the ground for it."
Ferguson condemned the nature of the Wenger chants even when their relationship was at its lowest, describing them as "ridiculous" and stating that "the police should be doing more". When he was last asked about it publicly he said: "Manchester United and its supporters should know very well the chants that have been levelled at us over the years – ie songs about Munich [the 1958 air disaster] – and understand the sensitivity that is felt. I don't agree with it at all. There's enough to think about and admire in the game without resorting to denigrating people."
Andrew Mangan, of the Arseblog website, last night praised Ferguson's efforts, but expressed misgivings about whether it would work.
"I think it's very welcome but I wouldn't be too confident it will stop. I think it's been sung so long and so often at Old Trafford that people have become desensitised to it. It's just another song, so they don't think about what it means. When you see kids eagerly joining in a song, alongside parents who have brought them to the game, about someone being a paedophile then there's something really wrong.
He added: "It'd be great if United fans didn't sing it anymore and, given the trophy count over the last few seasons, it's not as if they'd be short of material for a replacement song."
Patrice Evra's agent, Frederico Pastorello, has said the player will speak to United about a new contract at the end of the season. Evra's current deal runs out in 2012 and United are keen to keep the Frenchman.
"Things are going great with United and Sir Alex," Pastorello said. "We don't want to speak about the future right now, as we are in the middle of the season, but we will talk in the summer."Silibil N' Brains are a Scottish hip-hop duo consisting of Gavin Bain and Billy Boyd. They are best known for masquerading as American rappers from California to secure a record deal, [1] a story which formed the basis of Bain's 2010 memoir California Schemin' (later reprinted as Straight Outta Scotland ) and was adapted into the documentary film The Great Hip Hop Hoax. [2]
In the early 2000s, Bain and Boyd were working together in Scotland, but found that the idea of Scottish rap was not taken seriously in London. After being dismissed as "rapping Proclaimers" during auditions because of their accents,[1][2][3][4][5] they decided to take on American identities, pretending to be from San Jacinto in California. They created the personas of Silibil (Boyd, a play on "silly Bill" and "syllable") and Brains (Bain).
Under their new identity, they were more successful getting attention in London. They moved to the city and secured live work. They rapidly got management with Jonathan Shalit and later a record deal with Sony Music UK for two singles and an album. The pair worked on recording material and continued to perform live, including opening for D12, and appearing on MTV. Their Scottish identity was known only to a small circle.[6]
However, Sony's merger and subsequent job losses left them without supporters in the record company and their planned first single was delayed for at least 6 months as the label focused on other acts. Boyd had got married and his wife, still in Scotland, was expecting a child. With work having dried up, he left the group, moving back to Scotland, and getting work in the oil industry.[6]
Bain continued performing as Brains on a smaller scale. He subsequently came out and revealed the hoax.[6]
The duo subsequently reunited and released an EP in October 2013 called Dirty Rotten Scoundrels.[7][8][9]Youth Lagoon's first two albums felt introspective at the time: Trevor Powers mused about the posters in his childhood bedroom, his first "it's not you, it's me," and driving his parents' car in a meek mewl that come off as conversational rather than performative. He favored post-production tricks that made him either sound trapped in a well or a bouncy castle, but he always sounded alone, and the music bore none of the visceral signifiers of rock. But he'd likely call his previous work "insular" now, created at a point when he was lucky enough to talk about love, death, and the societal contract as abstractions and avoid dealing with the real shit going on inside of him. After the release of Wondrous Bughouse, Powers cancelled a run of tour dates after the drowning of a close friend. Up to this point, Powers already seemed like a guy who'd bruise from a stiff wind; Savage Hills Ballroom has him feeling everything with even greater sensitivity.
This is first time we can hear what Powers actually sounds like—the piercing clarity of Savage Hills Ballroom has to be a reaction to the muffled bedroom ambience and warped kaleidoscopism that respectively defined The Year of Hibernation and Wondrous Bughouse. And the most immediate revelation is just how aggressive his vocals are. When clouded by reverb and dozens of flange effects, Powers resembled bemused warblers like Dean Wareham and Wayne Coyne. "Officer Telephone" and "The Knower" present Youth Lagoon as a freak-folk torchbearer gone digital, Powers adopting the keening, incantatory tones of Joanna Newsom or Devendra Banhart (and even a melodic glimpse of Tori Amos' "Crucify" on "Free Me"), though without the same kind of supernatural presence.
Powers still sounds barely a third of his 26 years ("we're all babies born too soon," he yelps), but it works in the context of his angriest music, since most toddlers don't know much about restraint either when they first discover the world pushing back against them. With the assistance of Ali Chant, who worked on Perfume Genius' similarly glammed-up and streamlined third album Too Bright, Powers equips himself with the instruments of war—Savage Hills Ballroom is full of layered drums, atonal noise, and horn sections used for both melodic counterpoint and blunt force. Even when the loping keyboards of "Highway Patrol Stun Gun" and "Rotten Human" recall Powers' standard operating procedure, the songs are kinetic, obsessed with forward motion and melodic precision—aspects that are completely new to Youth Lagoon.
Savage Hills Ballroom is also the first time we can hear what Powers actually has to say, and that's by far the greatest risk on a record that's already attempting to redefine Youth Lagoon. Powers shows an admirable willingness to engage with broader societal issues, though the accusatory tone of "Rotten Human", "The Knower", and "Again" open him up to scrutiny the often banal commentary can't withstand: "the clones, they've always said to stay in line," "so we take a pill and trust the doctor's lie," "television soundtrack drones," using "computer" as a verb. "Through aisles of cans you walk/ 'Cause you'd rather spend than grow a crop," he spits on "Again"; there's a possibility he's critiquing his own obsessive habits here, but he eventually shifts to the plural first person and becomes the guy on your Facebook feed posting #hottakes about GMOs.
While Savage Hills Ballroom awkwardly stretches to make universal points from Powers' personal distaste, his personal heartache results in the most truly resonant moments. Tucked within the civic-minded back half, the exceptional "Kerry" is a dramatic elegy to Powers' uncle, holed up in Vegas, on the run from the law and addicted to crack cocaine. Meanwhile, "Officer Telephone" finds Powers in a heightened sense of shock while mourning, the "terrible tone" of ambulance sirens reminding him of a time when they were too late to help. Both of these songs match the devastating emotional impact of "July" and "Dropla" while accessing a darkness he couldn't address directly on The Year of Hibernation or Wondrous Bughouse ("I've felt heaviness creep since I turned 8 years old"). Regardless of the subject matter or the production or the arrangements, the most truly self-searching Youth Lagoon album has Powers realizing he perhaps knew his position of strength all along—the inner child set adrift in the adult world, left to figure it out on his own.SOC TRANG, Vietnam — When the rice shoots began to wither on Lam Thi Loi’s farm in the heart of the Mekong Delta, a usually verdant region of Vietnam, she faced a hard choice: Let them die in the parched earth, or pump salty water from the river to give them a chance.
Like many seasoned farmers here, she risked the saline water. The crop perished within days.
The Mekong Delta, Vietnam’s premier rice growing region, is suffering its worst drought since French colonial administrators began recording statistics in 1926. Giant cracks, some a foot deep, gouge the hard earth; brown stalks of dead rice litter the fields; and the dryness is so severe even the pests lie shriveled on the ground.
“I’ve been planting rice since I was 13, and I have never seen anything like this,” Ms. Loi, 38, said as she sat in her neat living room. “In February I got one bag of rice. Last year we harvested 1.4 tons.”WARNING: The video above may be too graphic for some viewers. Watch with discretion. The shooting takes place at 1:55.
CINCINNATI - UC police officer Ray Tensing's body camera video shows that he committed "without question, a murder" when he shot and killed an unarmed black motorist at a traffic stop, prosecutor Joe Deters said Wednesday.
Deters said the video refutes Tensing's claim that 43-year-old Sam DuBose pulled away from the stop and dragged Tensing with his car July 19 in Mount Auburn. Instead, it shows Tensing reaching through the driver's window and shooting DuBose - point-blank - in the head.
The shocking video shows Tensing standing outside the driver's door with DuBose at the wheel. The two men talk calmly and politely for about one minute and 50 seconds. But in the next five seconds, the encounter turns deadly.
WATCH Jason Law's report here and read dialogue between Tensing and DuBose below:
Tensing repeatedy asks DuBose to produce a driver's license. DuBose says he has a license but he doesn't have it with him, and he apologizes.
"I just don't. I'm sorry. I'm just going to go in my house," DuBose says, with his car facing south on Rice Street in Mount Auburn. "OK. Where do you stay at? Down here?" Tensing asks. DuBose: "Right around the corner." Tensing: "OK, until I can figure out if you have a license or not, go ahead and take your seat belt off for me." Tensing pulls the door latch and opens the door a few inches. DuBose pulls it closed with his left hand and uses his right hand to reach for the car key in the ignition. "I didn't even do nothing," DuBose says. "Go ahead and take your seat belt off," Tensing says again. DuBose turns the key to start the car and revs the engine, but the car doesn't move. Tensing reaches in the window with his left hand and appears to grab DuBose's shoulder strap. He pulls his gun with this right hand, shouts, "Stop! Stop!" and shoots DuBose. The car jumps forward and rolls down the street about 100 yards until it runs off the road and stops - engine still running. Tensing and another officer run after the car. The other officer yells to Tensing, "Did you hit him?" Tensing yells back, "I don't know. I might have." With guns drawn, the two officers reach the car together and find DuBose slumped back in the driver's seat. Tensing reaches through the window with his left hand and turns the key to stop the engine. Out of breath, Tensing says: "I thought he was going to run me over."
Showing the video publicly for the first time, Deters called it an "asinine, senseless shooting" and announced that a grand jury had indicted Tensing for murder and involuntary manslaughter. Tensing turned himself in and UC fired him after the indictment.
RELATED: Murder conviction is likely, attorneys say.
DuBose did "nothing violent" toward Tensing, Deters said, adding that the video shows Tensing falling because he had just shot DuBose.
"I think he (Tensing) lost his temper because Mr. DuBose would not get out of his car. He wasn't dragged. When you see it, you will not believe how quickly he pulled his gun and shot him in the head," Deters said at a 1 p.m. news conference.
"He was simply, slowly rolling away. That's it," Deters said.
"It was senseless. It didn't have to happen," Deters said, adding that Tensing should have never stopped DuBose for not having a front license plate.
"It was a chicken-crap stop," Deters said.
READ the complete dialogue between Tensing and DuBose during the traffic stop.
According to the police incident report, Tensing said DuBose was dragging him with his car and Tensing feared he would be run over when he fired a single shot that killed DuBose. On the body cam video, you can hear Tensing tell other officers about a dozen times that DuBose was dragging him. Here's a sampling:
Tensing: “I thought he was going to run me over.” Other officer: “You OK?” Tensing: "I’m good.” Later, Tensing speaks to the dispatcher: “Thirty-three, I’m not injured. I almost got ran over by the car. He took off on me. I discharged one round. Struck the male in the head.” More Tensing on the video: “I just got tangled in the car. I thought I was going to get run over.” "He just took off on me, man. I thought he was going to run me over.” “I think I’m OK. He was just dragging me. I thought I was going to get ran over. I was trying to stop him.” “Ugh, I thought he was going to run me over. He was dragging me…Yeah, he took off on me. My hand was caught inside.” “God, he was dragging me man … I’m good. I just got my hand and my arm caught inside.” “I think I’m good [no injuries]. I missed his tires, luckily. I was just getting [dragged] by him.”
When other UC officers, Cincinnati police and EMT arrived, Tensing repeated his claims over and over. Tensing complained of pain in his left arm and knee and a fellow officer drove him to the UC Medical Center to be examined.
At his news conference, Deters said he feels sorry for DuBose's family and he showed them the video first. WCPO's Ally Kraemer reported that DuBose's family arrived at the prosecutor's office at noon and and left shortly before the news conference.
"I trust God, and I knew it was going to be all right," Andrea DuBose said after watching her son's death on video. "I just thank God that everything is being revealed."
"We knew the video was going to vindicate our brother," said Terina DuBose Allen, DuBose's sister. "He didn't have a gun. He didn't do anything to that officer. No one deserves this. So I'm angry. But I'm as pleased as I can be that we're actually going to get some kind of justice for Sam."
Family and supporters had disputed the police report and had demanded to see Tensing's video. WCPO and other media outlets sued Deters to release the video, but Deters had refused, saying the video could taint the ongoing investigation.
Dreading what it might show, the community had braced itself for the video's release, especially after statements by two men who had seen it.
"It's not good, " Police Chief Jeffrey Blackwell declared Monday. On Tuesday, Tensing's attorney, Stew Mathews, said he expected an indictment based on his viewing
All along, Deters said he would release the video after the grand jury saw it and decided whether or not to indict Tensing.
Deters said Wednesday that the body camera video made all the difference in getting the indictment.The past two weeks have been tense on the political front, eclipsing some brutal news on the economics side that point to a depressing humanitarian outlook for the coming months.
The most worrisome news is the drop in PDVSA’s oil output. Figures reported by PDVSA to OPEC, as well as OPEC’s own estimates, and those by IPD Latin America, point to a drop of between 5% and 7% in oil output.
That would put Venezuela’s oil output at around 2.5 million barrels per day. In 1998 it had reached 3.5 million, and even under chavismo, in 2005, it was 3.3 million.
That puts the only piece of good news – the increase in the price of the Venezuelan oil export basket to $35 – in a different light.
If PDVSA had kept output at the same levels as 2015, that increase would have meant an improvement of close to $6 billion in the country’s finances, compared with oil prices in January. Thanks to the drop in output, the improvement would be of around $4 billion.
Two billion lost, when every dollar counts.
To make up for those lost billions, and all the other billions still left to find over the course of this year, we’re going to have to tighten our belts a lot more.
That’s what the Vice-President for Economic Affairs, Miguel Perez Abad, implied last week when he announced what amounts to the carpet bombing of Venezuelans’ living standards.
He said imports were on track to close the year at USD 20 billion, a 46% cut from 2015; but that they would aim to cut even more, to hopefully USD 15 million, a 60% cut.
Yes, he really said “hopefully”, like it would be something to be happy about.
Three months ago, I wrote about how our dependence on imported food could mean food shortages would increase dramatically this year. I thought total imports would be cut to around USD 27 billion; any more than that was unthinkable for humanitarian reasons.
How naïve of me.
The last time Venezuelan imports were lower than what Pérez Abad is now “hoping for” was 2002 and 2003, the years of the PDVSA strike and the coup. Before that, you have to go back 17 years, to 1999. Back when there were 6 million fewer people, back before Chávez’s expropriations, back before exchange and price controls had decimated our capacity to produce… anything.
It’s like we’re already under an IMF program, just one without the billions in loans to ease the pain.
See, when the IMF lends money, its primary objective is to get that money back, on time and in full. They are loaning money from other countries, and those countries don’t want to see it squandered. So their policy demands are geared towards repayment, not economic growth.
Imagine you go to a bank and ask for a loan. The bank says they can loan you some money, but since they want to be sure you’re going to pay them back, they have a few conditions: cancel your cable TV and mobile phone; sell your TV, car and jewelry; no more cinema, bars or restaurants; find a better paying job and destroy your credit cards. If you don’t agree, well, the door is right there.
That’s what the IMF does: they want countries to cut expenses and increase revenues, fast, to make sure they can repay the loans. The “get the money back” imperative is why the IMF is so reluctant to lend fresh money to Greece: they believe it’s impossible for Greece to repay it unless they get massive debt relief and decades of moratoriums, no matter how many other reforms they enact.
Those IMF prescriptions are recessionary, and usually undertaken by countries already in a recession. That’s what made the IMF’s name so toxic in leftist circles in the region.
This is where things get weird, though: the Venezuelan government is thinking like the IMF. They only seem worried about debt repayment, cutting expenses left and right (besides imports, government spending in real terms has dropped significantly), selling assets and increasing taxes. And in doing so, it’s deepening the already catastrophic recession.
They want to avoid a default in October, at any cost, including humanitarian costs.
The difference is that the Venezuelan government is doing so without the mountains of cash the IMF could bring in to help pay old debts, avoid a costly and chaotic default, and soften the blow to society. And they’re doing so without the credibility boost you get from having the IMF rubberstamp your plans, which can improve your chances of restructuring foreign debt.
Needless to say, the government is also forgoing other parts of an IMF program, like lifting price and exchange controls.
It’s like they |
where our offense was smoking hot and our defense somehow caught every interception.
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David:
Sean Payton's head is a very strange shape and too small for his body. He has the head shape of a person who snorts Vicodin and has sex with random skanks. The Saint's alleged league-best fan base is entirely a post-Katrina development. The upper deck of the Superdome was entirely empty for the 10 years before Katrina. The Saints used to struggle to sell out playoff games. Tom Benson is by far the richest man in Louisiana, threatened to move the team multiple times, and yet the state falls over itself to give him free stuff as opposed to mitigating some of the most desperate poverty in the country. Drew Brees is a very greedy man. He's basically one of those crazy people who thinks Jesus wants us to make as much money as possible and produce as many kids as possible. He makes $20 million dollars a year sees it necessary to degrade himself in Pepsi commercials with One Direction.
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Chris:
Drew Brees is getting older and less grittier. Threw some very un-Brees like picks late last year. He won't be dead by Week Three like Locker or Romo, but everyone has this team figured out offensively. Another year of Wolfman Rob and his chinese takeout menu defense, another year of Arena League scores. Wet, 1 ply, hotel room toilet paper can stop more shit than the Saints. Personal anecdote: When the Saints had to play the Falcons in San Antonio after Katrina, Tom Benson came zipping through the parking lot while we were tailgating like Douglas Fucking MacArthur. The Saints were a heartbeat away from relocating permanently to the Home Depot pop up barn known as the Alamodome. Good luck with that, Raiders!!
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Jeff:
The conspiracy crowd is still going to have legs this year. The same crowd who blamed every loss in the bounty suspension season on the NFL. And did the same last year as well. Why? Because people are actually pissed down here that New Orleans got passed up for hosting the Super Bowl for Minneapolis. It had to be a conspiracy, not the fact that the lights went out at the Superdome. JUST THINK A THA TAX REVNU WE HAD GOTTEN YAYAYAYAYA. Goodell is always going to be some shifty character to the crowd down here. The Saints will never lose on their own merits. Get ready for it. Every Drew Brees interception is going to be an Illuminati-inspired event caused by chemtrails somehow penetrating the roof of our domed stadium. Or GMO food. Or Katrina. Again. But every time Drew Brees throws a touchdown, a rebuilt house gets its siding.
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Dan:
Our fan base is made up of drunk Boudreaux's and the Thibodeaux's arguing over whose maw maw makes the best gumbo and douchebag "artists" who take themselves wayyy to seriously. Our coach is buddies with Kenny Chesney. Most Saints fans are LSU fans (because, you know, LSU fans). Our mascot is a dog and some type of gremlin that has a gigantic ass attached to the front of his face.
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Patrick:
Just go to a game, the dome is full of south Louisiana mouth breathers who have two articles of clothing, an LSU jersey and a Saints jersey. Some even have a bastardized version with a fleur de lis in LSU colors. They started drinking Saturday morning before the LSU game and have a BAC of.999 by the time the Saints kick off because "we party in Norlens".
David:
If you think the Ray Rice suspension was light, just remember Goodell did absolutely nothing when Marshawn Lynch did the same thing to the entire Saints defense in the 2011 Wild Card game.
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Sean:
1) Our fan base can't seem to grasp the concept that Goodell really suspended our coach because Payton was an unrelenting, arrogant prick towards him for two years after winning the Super Bowl. Instead, the fans really believe that Goodell has some unquenchable lust for fucking the wet, dirty asshole that is the city of New Orleans. 2) It's basically impossible to have a coherent discussion with another Saints fan since every topic somehow drifts to either drunken optimism or shifty-eyed paranoia about Goodell that would make a Sandy Hook truther sound like Neil deGrasse Tyson. 3) We got clocked by Seattle twice last year because our receivers are fucking pussies. So we get rid of Sproles and replace him with the 5'8" Brandin Cooks. Yeah, that'll fucking work.
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James:
Fuck Gregg Williams.
Jared:
WE CAN'T WIN A GAME PLAYED OUTSIDE.
Roger:
"I'm supposed to talk shit about the Saints?! No way! We (I say 'we' because I helped rebuild the city after Hurricane Katrina just like those heroes) have the best quarterback and tight end to ever play the game! And Rob Ryan made our defense the best ever! There's no way that the Saints win less than 15 games in the regular season!" -That one guy from New Orleans that now lives in your city, has fleur de lis on everything he owns and never shuts up about XLIV.
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Anon:
One of the biggest dilemmas I have as a Saints fan is reconciling the fact that I love Sean Payton to the point that I'd fight a dragon with my bare hands for him with the fact that he is, well, a big ole douche. Anyone (who's not a douche) who's seen him out and about around town knows this. I'm talking full douche here — Affliction shirts, jeans with those thick-ass threads (True Religion and whatnot), spiky gelled hair, fake tan. Basically he's the kind of guy you always see boarding a flight to Vegas. And if that weren't all enough, he's also a rabid Crossfit bro. Toss in an extreme cockiness that borders on a God complex and, well, we're talking about a rather substantial bag of douche here. I also have it on good account that he loves to fill text messages with emoji. I have a hard time respecting any grown man who uses any emoji beyond your basic smiley face and frowny face.
Z:
My mother-in-law loves the Saints. So much so that whenever ANY play is run by the Saints against my team (even a rush for no gain), I receive a text message saying "Wooooo WHO DAT". Horrible. Also, fuck Harrah's.
DL:
Because "next season Mark Ingram will really step up and take our running game to the next level!" is something we've heard every year since we burned two draft picks on him. Next season has not come yet, and it never will. By comparison, Ingram makes Trent Richardson look like Barry Sanders.
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Seth:
I'm a New Orleans transplant who until recently worked at a bar in the city. Every Sunday, employees would wear Saints jerseys. Since I collect throwbacks, I decided to buy an Archie Manning jersey to wear to work. Hey, everyone down here claims to be "a lifelong Saints fan," so surely they'd appreciate the organization's first quarterback/one of only four retired numbers in team history, right? To date, maybe three people I've interacted with while wearing it didn't bother asking me outright whose jersey it was. One of them was Archie Manning himself. He was literally shoved out of the way by some mouth-breathing hick in a Drew Brees jersey who asked me where I got "dat custom jersah wid yo name awn da back." That was almost as sad as the time this exceptionally trashy group of Metairie people - yes, even trashy for Metairie's non-existent standards - wanted to know why I'd be wearing an Eli ManningSaints jersey, before explaining to each other that the Saints drafted Eli Manning, but traded him for Drew Brees and a first round pick "and dey used dat first-rounda ta draft Reggeh Bush da yeah dey won da Supa Bowwwwwwwwl." Cowboys fans may be fair-weathered scumbags, but at least they'd recognize a Roger Staubach jersey if they saw it in public. Then again, so would the "lifelong Saints fans," since most of them cheered for the Cowboys until Katrina.
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JP:
The Ricky Williams trade was like the NINETEENTH-STUPIDEST THING the Saintshave done in the first round of the NFL draft. And if you think I'm exaggerating, here is a sample of the other things they have done: 1. Drafted KICKER Russel Erxleben in the first round in 1979. And it's not that he's a kicker. It's that he's one of the worst kickers in nfl history. 2. Traded a first round pick for a washed-up Earl Campbell. 3. Traded a first round pick for a washed-up Richard Todd. 4. Traded a first round pick for a washed-up Jim Taylor. 5. Traded the first overall pick in the 1967 draft AND Bill Curry for Gary Cuozzo and Buford Allison. The Colts took Bubba Smith. 6. Selected Les Kelley with their first ever first round draft pick. He lasted three seasons. 7. Passed on Eddie George and took Alex Molden in 1996. The best RB on the Saints roster at the time was Mario Bates. 8. Traded two first round picks in 2006 to move up to #6 overall and picked Johnathan Sullivan, who ate his way out of the NFL in three years. 9. Selected Royce Smith 7th overall in 1972. 13 career starts for the Saints. 10. Traded the second overall pick in the 1973 draft to the Colts for Billy Newsome. 11. Selected Lindsay Scott 13th overall in 1982. 69 career receptions, one career touchdown. 12. Selected Larry Burton 7th overall in 1975. 44 career receptions. 13. 5 picks later in the 1975 draft, selected Kurt Schumacher. 17 career starts. 14. Selected Rick Middleton 13th overall in 1974. His Ohio State teammate and fellow linebacker, Randy Gradishar, was the selected with the next pick. 15. Selected Alvin Toles in the first round in 1985. 17 career starts. 16. Selected Vaughn Dunbar in the first round in 1992. 935 career rushing yards. 17. Selected Shawn Knight in the first round of the 1987 drafted. Traded for spare parts one year later. 18. Traded a first, second and third round pick to Dallas for Steve Walsh. Dallas selected Erik Williams with one of those picks.
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AFC South: Titans | Jaguars | Texans | Colts
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NFC South: Falcons | Buccaneers | Panthers | Saints
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Wanna be part of the Deadspin NFL previews? It's simple. Just email me and give me ample evidence of why your team sucks: personal anecdotes, encounters with fans, etc. I'll throw any good material into the post and give you proper credit. Next team up: THE CHARGERS.Strand Cap-toe Oxford is rated 4.6 out of 5 by 896.
Rated 5 out of 5 by Erik_M from Great business and casual shoe This is my second pair of EA shoes I bought. Like the Fifth Avenue I bought them in NY, but these in Walnut. As the Fifth Avenues, they are perfect to wear, look stunning and are extremely comfortable. I most of the time wear them with blue Jeans and they are my go to shoes when I am not 100% sure if I should go formal or casual.
Rated 5 out of 5 by GeoffJ from Walnut Strand Cap-Toe Oxford I purchased the Strand in walnut and absolutely love the color. They fitted me perfectly for my size 11 feet. Very comfortable. No sign of defects or damaged.
Rated 5 out of 5 by AMB1 from Strand Shell Cordovan Review I love this shoe! The shell cordovan (Brown) is great shade and fits TTS!George Petrolekas is a fellow with the Canadian Global Affairs Institute. He has served in Bosnia and Afghanistan and has been an adviser to senior NATO commanders.
Federal party leaders have outlined actions for their first days in power. Many deal with international trade and defence relationships which will be tested in earnest in the first three months of power.
Any victor in a minority Parliament will be dependent on another party to secure the confidence of the House. To achieve this, accords reached by necessity may very well affect how domestic politics play out on the international stage.
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Will parliamentary support be contingent on renegotiating the Trans-Pacific Partnership, protecting supply management or a promise to withdraw from the military aspects of the anti-Islamic State coalition?
A new government will be negotiating these policies, while trying to form government and being briefed by the civil service.
Unlike the United States, which has a transition period before the inauguration of a new president, in Canada convention is that transfer of power occurs within days or a week or two, meaning a new government may not be sworn in, let alone begin to briefed by the public service, until the first week of November.
All parties have an idea of who would occupy key portfolios but won't know who survived the election until Oct 20. Ministers will lose, star candidates may not be elected and the cabinet must be balanced by regional and gender representation.
Ministerial policy advisers must be named and an entirely new Prime Minister's Office staffed, which will have to refine policy while discovering how government works.
Yet the prime minister-designate will have to attend three major international conferences in the first six weeks of power while the government is set.
The week of Nov. 7 is the G20 meeting in Turkey, which will undoubtably be influenced by the recent terror attack in Ankara, and where Islamist financing is on the agenda. Undoubtably, the refugee crisis will also be discussed. It will be the first major international conference since the Russian incursion in Syria – what is discussed off the agenda will be as important as what is on the agenda.
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Key allies, and even antagonists, will ask for bilateral meetings to gauge the new Prime Minister's character, or to divine what policy promises truly mean, e.g., what does quitting the military campaign against IS truly mean – certainly the U.S. would want to discuss this.
The APEC conference in Manila follows a week later on Pacific economic and energy issues. Many of the TPP partner nations are members and would wish to know if the accord is threatened and where initiatives like the Northern Gateway pipeline stand. Chinese actions in the South China Sea will form a backdrop, especially as the U.S. and China have been exchanging pointed barbs on freedom of navigation lately, and the TPP is seen by some as an economic containment of China. Subjects that the Prime Minister will have little time to prepare for. If Canadian hostages are still being held by terrorists in the Philippines, this would introduce another dimension for the PM.
A week after APEC is the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting in Malta on Nov. 27-29. With the Queen attending this meeting, Canada would be hard-pressed to pass, having skipped the last one in Sri Lanka. Commonwealth meetings are generally not weighty, but commitments to increasing foreign aid and reverting to peacekeeping will certainly be tested, given the number of African nations present.
Immediately thereafter will be the COP 21 conference in Paris (the UN conference on climate change). Climate change, greenhouse-gas emissions, the proposed transformation from a carbon economy have been key issues for both opposition parties – to change what they've called "Canada's perception as a laggard." The public service will have had little time to convert promises to potential policy, so COP 21 promises to be a platform of Canadian intent as opposed to binding commitments.
This bring us to the second week of December. It might be possible for a Speech from the Throne to occur before the traditional parliamentary break in mid-December, but in all likelihood Canadians won't see the specifics of what any new government will wish to accomplish, and a budget date, until mid-January, only then knowing whether we'll have a winter election or not.
Such is the reality of governing.Letter from Addison Everett
The following is an extract from Letter of Addison Everett to Oliver B. Huntington, February 17, 1881, Young Woman's Journal, II (November, 1890), pp. 76-77; as reprinted in They Knew The Prophet, p. 14, by Hyrum Andrus and Helen Mae Andrus.
In a conversation I heard between Joseph and Hyrum Smith, Oliver Cowdery was spoken of. Joseph said, "Poor boy!"
He then said that at Colesville, New York, in 1829, he and Oliver were under arrest on a charge of deceiving the people. When they were at the justice's house for trial in the evening, all were waiting for Mr. Reid, Joseph's lawyer. While waiting, the justice asked Joseph some questions, among which was this: "What was the first miracle Jesus performed?"
Joseph replied, "He made this world, and what followed we are not told."
Mr. Reid came in and said he wanted to speak to his clients in private and that the law allowed him that privilege, he believed. The judge pointed to a door to a room in the back part of the house and told them to step in there. As soon as they got into the room, the lawyer said there was a mob outside in front of the house. "If they get hold of you they will perhaps do you bodily injury; and I think the best way for you to get out of this is to get right out there," pointing to the window and hoisting it.
They got into the woods in going a few rods from the house. It was night and they traveled through brush and water and mud, fell over logs, etc., until Oliver was exhausted. Then Joseph helped him along through the mud and water, almost carrying him.
They traveled all night, and just at the break of day Oliver gave out entirely and exclaimed, "Oh, Lord! Brother Joseph, how long have we got to endure this thing?"
They sat down on a log to rest, and Joseph said that at that very time Peter, James and John came to them and ordained them to the apostleship.
They had sixteen or seventeen miles to go to get back to Mr. Hale's, his father-in-law's, but Oliver did not complain any more of fatigue.
Print EmailJeff Gordon is no doubt a first-ballot hall of famer. He ranks third in all-time wins with 92 and off the track has done everything from hosting “Saturday Night Live” to spearheading the raising of money for a pediatric cancer center in Rwanda.
So when will he be inducted into the NASCAR Hall of Fame? It will be 2020 at the earliest and 2023 at the latest.
MORE: Drivers react to Gordon decision | Why souvenir haulers are going away | Vickers update
Gordon announced Thursday that 2015 will be his final full Cup season. NASCAR rules require a driver to be retired for three full years to be eligible for nomination the following year.
PHOTOS: Jeff Gordon through the years |
That means if Gordon does not race after 2015 (he has left the door open to run select races), he would be on the ballot in 2019 for the 2020 induction class.
If he decides to race in any NASCAR series in 2016, he gets on the ballot in 2020 for the 2021 induction class. If he continues to race in 2017, it’s the 2022 induction class and if he races in 2018, it’s the 2023 induction class.
But here’s the kicker. Any driver who competes for 30 years is automatically eligible to be on the ballot the following year. Because Gordon’s first NASCAR race was a Busch Series event in 1990, he hits the 30-year mark in 2019. That puts him on the 2020 ballot for the 2021 induction class.Now playing: Watch this: 5 ways to use your Wi-Fi-only iPad while traveling
Whether traveling for work or pleasure, the iPad is a perfect travel companion. It's lighter and runs longer than a laptop and springs to life instantly. Plus, its screen is large enough to get work done or enjoy TV shows or movies while in transit.
If you have a Wi-Fi-only iPad (or are traveling abroad with a cellular iPad and don't want to return to find hefty international data roaming charges tacked onto your next bill), here are five tips for making the most of your travels with an iPad.
1. Download music and movies before you leave
Don't run the risk of getting stuck on a Wi-Fi-less plane. For such flights and long car trips, you are going to want to download any shows or movies you want to watch before you leave.
At long last, you can now download Netflix shows and movies. Amazon Video lets Prime members download select titles to Fire phones and tablets along with Android and iOS devices, and YouTube lets YouTube Red subscribers download videos for offline viewing. You can also purchase and download movies and shows from iTunes to view offline.
Matt Elliott/CNET
Video files can be large and can take a while to download, so be sure you leave yourself enough time to complete the download; this is something to do the night before you leave and not something to do as you are walking out the door.
Because video files can be large, you may also need to remove some apps or delete or offload some photos and videos to make room for your in-flight entertainment.
2. Make Google Maps available offline
If you plan to use your iPad as a city guide, you can download areas of Google Maps to view offline. Here's how:
Search for a city in Google Map, tap the triple-dot button and then tap Download offline area.
and then tap. Pan and zoom on the map to get the area and level of detail you want.
Tap Download in the lower-right corner, give the map a name and tap Save.
Matt Elliott/CNET
To view your saved offline maps, tap the hamburger button in the upper-left corner of Google Maps, tap Offline areas and then tap on one of your saved maps.
Likewise, business travelers may want to make files available offline in Google Drive. To do so, tap the triple-dot button to the right of a file in Google Drive and tap Keep offline. Your offline docs can then be found by tapping the hamburger button in the upper-left corner of Google Drive and tapping Offline from the menu.
If you have a paid Dropbox plan, then you can download entire Dropbox folders in addition to files.
3. Turn off Wi-Fi when you aren't using it
The iPad boasts good battery life but constantly searching for a Wi-Fi signal can needlessly drain battery resources. Swipe up from the bottom edge and turn off Wi-Fi from the Control Center before you toss your iPad in your backpack or purse and head out on the town.
4. Take security precautions
It won't help you locate your iPad if it's offline, but it's still a good idea to turn on Find My iPad because it lets you enable Lost Mode to lock your missing tablet. Lost Mode will be turned on the next time your iPad is online. It remotely locks your iPad and displays a message on the lock screen with your phone number. It also disables Apple Pay.
To turn on Find my iPad, go to Settings > iCloud > Find My iPad and turn the toggle switch on for Find My iPad.
Screenshot by Matt Elliott/CNET
Also, in order to protect a missing iPad before Lost Mode can be turned on, give it a passcode while you are traveling. Go to Settings > Passcode and enter a passcode.
5. Accessorize: Case, keyboard and splitter
Protect your iPad from the bumps and bruises of being on the road by outfitting it with a tough case. That means leaving Apple's Smart Cover at home and getting a case that protects both the front and back of your iPad.
If you plan to get some work done on your iPad during your travels, get a Bluetooth keyboard so you aren't forced to type for long stretches on the iPad's onscreen keyboard. Or combine the previous two tips and get a keyboard case for your iPad.
Lastly, a tip for parents traveling with two kids and one iPad: get a headphone splitter and thank me later.
Editors' note, December 8, 2016: This story was originally published on June 11, 2016. It has been updated with new information, including Netflix's support for offline viewing and Drobox's support for folder downloads.The best glass for whiskey is the glass in your hand. Pour some whiskey in it and drink! But if you’re serious about tasting and want to experience all of the subtlety that high end whiskeys have to offer, it might be worth getting a fancy whiskey glass or two.
When I first started drinking higher-end whiskeys, I looked around, and found the Glencairn glass. It seemed to be the one all of the serious grown-up whiskey drinkers were using on video reviews. It was well-reviewed on Amazon. So I got myself a pair of them.
And for the most part, I liked it. It definitely brought out more complexity, but I have to admit, I haven’t been 100 percent satisfied. My main issue with the Glencairn glass is that when the whiskey is first poured, the nose is often overwhelmed by alcohol fume. Something about the shape of the glass, the very thing that concentrates aromas, also concentrates the boozy nose burn.
That dissipates after ten minutes or so, but when I pour a glass of whiskey, I don’t want to be waiting around for ten minutes! I have many virtues, but patience is not among them. I want drinkie in my mouth now!
Also, I find that I bump my nose on it when I drink. The opening is quite small, and my nose isn’t. It’s a great glass, but there is some room for improvement.
So let’s see if we can find a better glass, shall we?
Here are the contenders (pictured left to right):
The Glencairn glass
Generally considered the glass of choice by whiskey aficionados. It is quite small and narrow, with a special shape to concentrate the complex bouquets of fine whisky.
Cost: a little under $10 per glass. Can be purchased singly or in sets.
The Glencairn Canadian Whisky glass
A larger glass with a wider opening, but similar in shape to the original Glencairn glass. Appropriate for drinking whisky neat, on the rocks, or in cocktails. Not that I will ever make cocktails in it, of course, but apparently I could. I had high hopes for this glass, hoping it would concentrate aromas without burning my nose off when I was too impatient to wait for my booze. Which is, um, always.
Cost: a little under $10 per glass. Can be purchased singly or in sets.
A red wine glass
At the Iron Bridge Wine Company bourbon tasting, all of the bourbons were served in wine glasses. And you know, it was fine. And most of you have wine glasses in your house already, so maybe you don’t need to buy glassware. Let’s find out.
Now, a white wine glass might be a slightly better shape, but I had broken all of those, so we only have red wine glasses left in the house. My red wine glasses are quite large, the better to contain massive and unreasonable pours of wine so I can stay under my so-called “two-drink limit.” I could probably fit an entire bottle of wine into those two pours. Not that I do. But I could.
My red wine glasses are shaped very much like a brandy snifter, which I am not testing in this comparison. But I have often had whiskey served to me in snifters at bars, so this glass can stand in for that as well.
Cost: Varies, but you probably have them in your cabinet already, so free!
Spiegelau stemmed pilsner (tulip) beer glass
If you’re a beer geek as well as a whiskey geek, maybe you already have these (or similar) in your cabinet. This is the tulip glass preferred by my beer-geekiest friend. This tulip beer glass has the right kind of shape to concentrate aromas, but has a wider opening more similar to the Glencairn Canadian Whisky glass. Plus it’s pretty, with a stem.
Cost: $10-15 per glass. Can be purchased in sets of 2 or more.
The rocks/lowball glass that is already in your cabinet
For comparison purposes, I also included the basic rocks glass that I drank whiskey out of before I got all snooty about it. I like this glass because it’s pretty and heavy. It’s what I routinely drank from, and the first glass I give out now when I run out of Glencairn glasses. So, does it really matter? Could I have not bothered buying any new glassware at all? Let’s see.
Cost: free
Red plastic party cup
So let’s say you’re at a party and you’re drinking whiskey, and they have red plastic party cups out. Is it worth being the douchebag who dirties a glass from the host’s cabinet, or can you just use the plastic cup?
Cost: your dignity
I compared the glasses twice, once with Scotch and once with bourbon. For the Scotch comparison, I used the Balvenie 12 year DoubleWood. For bourbon, I used Col. E.H. Taylor Single Barrel.
Scotch: initial impression
Upon first pouring the Scotch, I cavalierly stuck my nose into the glasses to see what happened.
The Glencairn glass was surprisingly smooth. No booze burn in my nose and a very strong and complex bouquet immediately. Wow. This one is going to be tough to beat. The Glencairn Canadian Whisky glass had a weaker concentration in the nose, but still quite nice. The wine glass was even weaker still, and had some burning alcohol fume. The tulip glass had a nice strong concentration of aromas, but also a very strong nose burn.
In the rocks/lowball glass, the smell of the whiskey was negligible. I went back to the Glencairn and others to see if I had just burned my receptors out, but no. They were still lovely. But in the rocks glass, pretty much no nose to speak of. The plastic party cup had a similar effect. Nothing to smell here. Move along.
Scotch: ten minutes later
After ten minutes, giving the whisky a chance to settle down, I smelled them all again.
The Glencairn glass still smelled lovely. The smells had blended more and become more integrated, but were still quite strong. Similarly, the Glencairn Canadian Whisky glass had also toned down. It was mellow enough after ten minutes that it became difficult to pick out individual notes in the nose.
The wine glass benefited considerably from the ten minute rest. The smell wasn’t as strong or luscious as the Glencairn glass, but was quite good. There was still a bit of alcohol fume, but not too extreme.
The tulip glass was amazing. As good as the Glencairn. The alcohol fume was completely gone.
Something odd happened in the rocks glass and party cup. The sweet notes in the Balvenie, in particular honey, came forward in the nose, while the peat retreated. If someone had handed me the Glencairn and the rocks glass, I would have said they were completely different Scotches. In fact, I might have said the rocks glass contained a bourbon. It was very strange.
Scotch: let’s drink
Let’s stop sniffing glasses and get some booze in the pie hole, shall we?
The differences between glasses were less pronounced when drinking than they were when sniffing, although the enhanced sweetness in the rocks glass and plastic cup were also present when tasting.
The tulip glass was the standout. I felt that my nose was deep in the glass by the time the Scotch hit my lips, and the particular shape worked perfectly to create a beautiful smell-taste experience.
My nose was also deep in the wine and Glencairn Canadian Whisky glasses, but they didn’t have the same heady effect as the tulip.
Scotch: summary
If you’re willing to wait for the alcohol fume to dissipate, go for the tulip glass. If not, the Glencairn glass was a close second. Although I will say that I was surprised that the Glencairn didn’t produce a nose burn with the Balvenie. It often does for me with other whiskeys. The red wine glass was acceptable, and better than the rocks glass.
The Glencairn Canadian Whisky glass was also good, but if you’re going to be buying a new glass, buy the tulip instead. If you’re at a party, the plastic cup is not substantially different from a rocks/lowball glass, but if you can get your hands on a wine glass, do that.
Bourbon: initial impression
Moving on to bourbon, the initial nosing of the Glencairn glass revealed the familiar nose burn. It wasn’t uncomfortable, but the alcohol fume was strong enough that picking other elements from the nose was difficult.
The Glencairn Canadian Whisky glass fared better. No alcohol fume, and a nice bouquet with individual scents distinguishable. The wine glass on the other hand was all booze burn. It hurt to put my nose in there.
The tulip glass had a bit of fume, but less than the Glencairn. The nose showed good complexity, better than the Glencairn Canadian Whisky glass.
And similar to the Scotch, both rocks glass and party cup had almost no smell immediately after pouring.
Bourbon: ten minutes later
Consistent with my previous experience, ten minutes in the glass was enough to dissipate the alcohol fume in the Glencairn glass, leaving great complexity and depth behind. The Glencairn Canadian Whisky glass didn’t change much in the ten minute rest period. It was still good, but hadn’t really improved.
The red wine glass developed beautifully in ten minutes. The sweet apricot and tropical fruit smells in particular came forward very strongly. I could have left my face in there all day. Very nice.
The tulip glass was also very good, but very different. More oak and nutty notes came forward. Some alcohol fume remained even after ten minutes.
And as before, the rocks glass and plastic cup enhanced the sweeter aromas of fruit and honey, while dropping the ball on the wood and earthier notes.
Bourbon: Can I please stop sniffing glasses and just drink now?
OK, first let me start by saying that I love this bourbon. Have I mentioned that I love this bourbon? Sniffing it, waiting, sniffing again… that was hard. The first sip after all of that teasing was quite delightful.
The Glencairn glass was beautiful with this bourbon. Once the fume subsides, it’s hard to beat. The Glencairn Canadian Whisky glass was also very good. The fruitiness I noticed from the wine glass was also present when drinking, and was extremely enjoyable.
The fume in the tulip glass, while not overwhelming, was still off-putting once I really got my face in there to drink it. The very thing that made the tulip magical for the Scotch seems to be the same thing that burns the nose if the fumes aren’t gone. It was strong enough that my breath caught and I didn’t even take the sip the first time. After another 5-10 minutes, it had dissipated, and was delightful. But that’s a prohibitively long time to wait to drink your hooch.
Again, the rocks glass and party cup pushed the sweetness while reducing complexity. It wasn’t unpleasant, but felt a bit like a waste of amazing bourbon.
Bourbon: summary
The Glencairn glass and red wine glass were the winners here, but both required time to let the booze fume settle down. The tulip glass was also very good, but required an even longer time to relax. If you want to drink right away, the Glencairn Canadian Whisky glass was a good compromise.
Final thoughts
OK, I guess all of the experts were right. The Glencairn glass really is probably the best all around glass out there. But you have to be patient if your whiskey is producing an alcohol fume. Grrrr. I hate waiting. And I still don’t like how it bumps my nose when I drink.
On the up-side, a shot looks right in the Glencairn glass, whereas it looks pretty meager in most of the other glasses. I think maybe the Glencairn glass slows down my consumption, which is probably a good thing.
The Glencairn Canadian Whisky glass was a bit of a disappointment. It was fine, and better than a rocks/lowball glass, but it didn’t concentrate the aromas the way I wanted it to. That said, if you want to start drinking immediately after pouring, it was the best of the non-fume-concentrating options.
The wine glass was a pleasant surprise. Not bad at all. If you don’t want to buy new whiskey glasses, use a nice big rounded wine glass. You won’t be missing much and will have some extra money to buy more whiskey.
The tulip glass was a revelation with Scotch. I had borrowed my friend’s glass for this little experiment, but will definitely be buying some for myself. And bonus, they work for snooty beer too! You can be all kinds of snooty!
The biggest thing I learned was this: Don’t drink whiskey neat out of a rocks/lowball glass! I was shocked at how little I could perceive from it compared to the other glasses. If you don’t want special whiskey glasses, use a wine glass. Don’t use a lowball or rocks glass. When I’m at someone else’s house, I habitually pull out one of those for my whiskey. No more. Wine glass from now on.
And finally, the biggest issue with the party cup was the fact that it was opaque. Once my face was up in there blocking the light, I couldn’t see the whiskey traveling to my mouth, so I wound up taking bigger sips. And yeah, it didn’t feel nice on my lips. That too. But it doesn’t make a noticeable difference in terms of smell or taste compared to a rocks glass.
So you’ll take bigger sips, and get drunk faster, which is not |
prison gang in southern California and has since spread to all parts of the United States. The gang is reported to be involved in drug trafficking, ripping off other gangs’ drug shipments, prostitution, robberies, murders, debt collection, and extortion.
The gang member was identified by officials only as as a 25-year-old Mexican national. He was placed in custody pending prosecution for felony re-entry after removal.
“Our Border Patrol Agents do a great job of enforcing immigration laws, but they also excel in ensuring that our communities are safe from these types of criminals,” Chief Patrol Agent Rodney S. Scott said in a written statement.
Bob Price serves as associate editor and senior political news contributor for Breitbart Texas. He is a founding member of the Breitbart Texas team. Follow him on Twitter @BobPriceBBTX.Today on “Breitbart News Daily,” Penny Nance of the right-wing group Concerned Women for America told activists to prepare for “the fight of our lives” over the nomination of Judge Merrick Garland to the Supreme Court.
Nance said that President Obama is “out of control” and urged conservatives to support the Senate Republicans’ refusal to even grant a hearing to his nominee. “It is going to be a blood match,” she said. “It is going to be a cage match…. This is the most important battle of our lives.”
“I’ve never said that before,” she said. “What hangs in the balance is any issue any one of your listeners care about.” Nance said that with Garland on the bench, laws curbing abortion access will fall because jurists like Garland will “legislate from the bench.”
“The key to this is Chuck Grassley and Sen. McConnell,” she said, referring to the Judiciary Committee chairman and the majority leader. “Let them feel the love. They are standing firm. I have spoken personally and met with Chuck Grassley. I have prayed with him. I have talked with him about this. He has assured me that he is on point on this. [Unintelligible] He 100 percent agrees with everything I’m saying. What’s coming at him, even in all the years he’s been at this, I don’t know he’s ready for.”
She added: “In over 80 years, there hasn’t been a Supreme Court nominee confirmed in the last year of a president’s administration. We’re not going to change that now just because the Democrats want their way.” Nance’s claim is flat-out false, as the Senate confirmed a Supreme Court nominee in the last year of President Reagan’s term in 1988.Media playback is unsupported on your device Media caption Rebecca Morelle goes searching for starfish with the Scottish Association for Marine Science's Dr David Hughes
Lurking in the seas of Scotland is an unlikely candidate for a medical breakthrough.
But scientists believe the starfish could hold the key to finding a new treatment for inflammatory conditions such as asthma, hay fever and arthritis.
The species they are interested in is the spiny starfish (Marthasterias glacialis), and in particular the slimy goo that covers its body.
The team says that chemicals in this coating could inspire new medicines.
Image caption The spiny starfish can be found on the west coast of Scotland
While most man-made structures that are placed in the water rapidly get caked with a mixture of marine life, starfish manage to keep their surface clear.
Dr Charlie Bavington, from GlycoMar, a marine biotechnology company based at the Scottish Association for Marine Science in Oban, explained: "Starfish live in the sea, and are bathed in a solution of bacteria, larvae, viruses and all sorts of things that are looking for somewhere to live.
"But starfish are better than Teflon: they have a very efficient anti-fouling surface that prevents things from sticking."
And it is this non-stick property that has grabbed medical scientists' attention, particularly in the field of inflammation.
Sticky problem
Inflammation is the body's natural response to an injury or infection, but inflammatory conditions are caused when the immune system begins to rage out of control.
White blood cells, which normally flow easily through our blood vessels, begin to build up and stick to the blood vessel wall, and this can cause tissue damage.
Media playback is unsupported on your device Media caption Dr Charlie Bavington shows how starfish slime is produced
The idea is that a treatment based on starfish slime could effectively coat our blood vessels in the same way the goo covers the marine creature, and prevent this problem.
Dr Bavington said: "It is a very similar situation to something sticking to a starfish in the sea.
"These cells have to stick from a flowing medium to a blood vessel wall, so we thought we could learn something from how starfish prevent this so we could find a way to prevent this in humans."
While many inflammatory conditions can be effectively treated, for example with steroids, these drugs can often cause unwanted side effects.
We are learning all the time from nature about how to find new medicines Professor Clive Page, KCL
But scientists at King's College London (KCL) think starfish could offer a better solution, and they have been analysing the chemicals in the creature's non-stick slime.
Clive Page, professor of pharmacology at KCL, said: "The starfish have effectively done a lot of the hard work for us.
"Normally when you are trying to find a new drug to go after a particular target in human beings, you have to screen hundreds of molecules to find something that will give you a lead.
"The starfish is effectively providing us with something that is giving is different leads: it has had billions of years in evolution to come up with molecules that do specific things."
Having identified promising compounds, the team is now working on creating their own versions of them in the laboratory. They want to create a treatment that is inspired by starfish goo rather than one that is made from it.
Professor Page said: "Conceptually we know this is the right approach.
"It's not going to happen tomorrow afternoon, but we are learning all the time from nature about how to find new medicines."
Underwater pharmacy
While the starfish-based cure might be some years off, the race to explore the oceans for its medical potential is only just beginning.
Image caption Starfish could be one of many marine creatures to inspire new medicines
A sea snail has already formed the basis of a new painkiller, and scientists are starting to look at a whole range of marine life, from sea cucumbers to seaweed.
Dr David Hughes, an ecologist from the Scottish Association for Marine Science, explained: "Some of the most widespread, widely used medicines come from nature.
"Penicillin is a mould that grows on bread, aspirin comes from willow trees, so it's not too surprising turning to nature to find useful drugs. But we've only very recently begun to look to the sea for a useful source of medicines."
And with the oceans covering nearly three quarters of the Earth's surface, scientists have likened the deep to an untapped underwater pharmacy.
Dr Hughes told the BBC: "There is such a huge diversity of animals and plants living in the oceans and very few of them have been tested and investigated in any way.
"We know marine animals and plants produce a huge range of compounds, sometimes very different compounds from those produced by animals and plants on land.
"So many might have useful properties that could be brought into medicine and other medicinal applications."111 Condivisioni Facebook Whatsapp Telegram Flipboard Twitter Pinterest Linkedin
Dal 2012, il rover Curiosity della NASA ha lavorato su Marte per la raccolta di informazioni il cui obiettivo era quello di determinare se la vita sia mai esistita sul pianeta, determinare le caratteristiche del suo clima e analizzarne la geologia. I risultati dello studio sono stati pubblicati sulla rivista Science.
Dopo aver studiato i dati raccolti da Curiosity dal cratere Gale nel corso degli ultimi 3 anni, e le sequenze sedimentarie di quello che fu un antico lago, gli scienziati hanno concluso che Marte ha ospitato un ambiente abitabile da in un periodo tra i 3.8 e i 3.1 milioni di anni fa. I ricercatori sostengono inoltre che più di 700 mila anni fa, il pianeta ha predisposto “tutte le condizioni fisiche, chimiche ed energetiche necessarie” per sostenere la vita. Inoltre, la conferma della presenza di acqua potrebbe significare che c’è stata – o c’è ancora? – vita su Marte nei minerali che possono disciogliersi in acqua per generare il fosforo, elemento essenziale appunto per la vita sulla Terra.
Vicino alla superficie del cratere è stata osservata la presenza di agenti e rocce formate da grossi granuli densi e ossidanti, mentre gli strati più profondi sono formati da sostanze più fini. Questo tipo di stratificazione dimostra che Marte ha sperimentato il cambiamento climatico. Uno degli autori dello studio, Joel Hurowitz, sostiene che il clima del pianeta rosso era più simile a quella del nostro pianeta in questo momento rispetto ad altre ere successive, ma osserva che è difficile determinare esattamente le condizioni meteorologiche precedenti. “Se guardiamo la stessa chimica delle rocce terrestri, potremmo probabilmente dire che forse alcune rocce si trovavano in una posizione simile a una zona del ghiacciaio, mentre in un’altra era in un clima temperato“, ha spiegato ancora Hurowitz.WORDS
EDM has turned dance music into a shipwreck of a pop fart and people are scared to experiment
We last caught up with Aleks Vinter last August. Back then he was still wearing his Savant suit but trying on Blanco shades. Now he’s fully garbed up in his Blanco threads and is ready to drop a trio of full-on EPs.
Forget what you know about Savant and listen afresh: Fusing dancehall, Latin and reggaeton with his full spectrum electro dynamics, Aleks’s original plan was to ‘make something more accessible’ than he’s done before. Unsurprisingly, the end result is a lot more unique than he wanted it to be and a steep learning curve for the Norwegian-in-LA.
The first EP drops tomorrow Friday November 6. Here’s the first full flavoured taste from it: Carpe Diem featuring Turbulence.
Read on to find out more about Blanco and Aleks’s forthcoming Savant projects and hear the Dyland-fronted Camarilla.
https://soundcloud.com/trapmusic/blanco-carpe-diem-ft-turbulence-premiere
We need to talk about Blanco… Again.
We do. I’ve got at least three EPs. The first two I’ll self-release then we’ll see what happens with them before we think about releasing the third one. It’s been a really interesting project because I’ve got a lot of featured artists, which is something I’ve never done before. I was thinking ‘how do you start something fresh and new?’ The answer: work with people who have been around, are great at what they do and are really proud of the project themselves so they want to shout about it too. So when it drops there are people who are keen to listen to it as well as my own fanbase…
Collaborating on this level is kind of new territory for you…
Yeah definitely, it’s been a cool challenge. I’ve always worked on my own and done my own thing. I’ve never felt part of a label. All these big labels have a click and I’ve never experienced that.
You say click, I’m sure they’d say ‘community’ or ‘family’…
Exactly! And when you become part of it you follow their procedure or their rules or their sound… And that’s not me. Even if I wanted to work with these labels, I doubt they’d want to work with me, they don’t know me or what I do. I still feel, even after all these years, like I’m coming out of the blue with this shit. Which is especially weird because Blanco is meant to be more accessible to people!
There’s a lot going on in the music… So many ideas in each track. They sit in their own universe.
They do. I think that’s one problem; trying to shake off the little sounds and signatures and ideas I’ve had for all these years. I can’t avoid them! At first I thought I wanted to make something minimal. But fuck that! Anyone can put a kick and snare together. A monkey can! So I’ve gone the other way and gone totally bombastic and wall-of-soundy. It’s totally unlike anything labels are looking for at the moment.
Fitting in is boring. And the comments on Carpe Diem are very positive…
Yeah totally, that surprised me actually. Putting it on a trap channel was a bit of a gamble because it’s not fucking trap! But people have been very open-minded about it. I thought it would be like ‘ooh boo! Stop doing this bullshit!’ Which is cool because people usually fear change…
They do…
Nobody can see what’s in your head when you say you’re going to try something new, they can’t picture it, so they get scared. What I’ve found now is that you talk about your plans or just play a little clip then people don’t get it. You’ve just got to go ahead and make it and then go ‘okay, what do you think?’
How about getting vocalists who’ve never heard of you before involved? Have they feared change?
Not at all. They’ve taken some time to get on board but it’s been great. These guys are proper dancehall and reggae artists, they’re a whole world away from American music industry EDM types. What takes a month or so over here takes way longer over there. We’ve been waiting for emails and calls for ages.
Like ‘who the fuck is this scrawny white Norwegian dude?’
Ha! There hasn’t been as much of that as I thought. These guys are all listening to electronic music because it’s an exciting scene and they’re watching how it all works over here. They’re certainly not like ‘who are you?’ But they are super busy and want to make sure they’re making the right decisions. You get the different kinds of artists – the guys who do it as a job and will sing because they’re getting paid, straight up. Then there are the artist types who want to know themes and inspirations so it all fits in perfectly. Loads of styles of working and ideas. It’s been enlightening. Have you actually heard it?
Of course. Camarilla and Dios are my favourites so far…
You picked the heaviest ones! What’s been crazy about the whole project – especially those tracks – is making something massive and heavy and big sounding but having space for the vocals. They have to have their space and it’s been challenging to make that space.
https://soundcloud.com/aleksander-vinter/blanco-camarilla-ft-dyland/s-yRRjd
I know you’re also working on Vex and the orchestral project too… Have you learnt anything from Blanco that you’ll apply in those projects?
What I’ve learnt, just in general, is to make sure the next project is on the horizon at all times. So if people don’t like Blanco then they might like Vex and if they don’t like that then they’ll like the next thing. It stops the fans from panicking and it stops me from panicking too. The EDM trip has changed everything in this sense. There is much more emphasis on making hits and lots more kids coming through wanting to be the next big thing and be a superstar. EDM has turned dance music into a shipwreck of a pop fart and people are scared to experiment… Which bleeds into the underground mentality.
You’re not scared to experiment though, right?
Not at all. Right now, believe it or not, I am trying to simplify things. Savant is always trying to do too much to change things; he’s the guy trying to put his fingers in all the leaking holes in electronic music. He wanted to fuck with arrangement, sound design, repetition, album arrangements, how to view EDM. He’s never been pragmatic and actually really focus on one thing; what works on the dancefloor. Savant wanted to compose something creative and weird and futuristic and if you dance to it, great.
But Blanco? He has more of a formula and I’ve tried to tone down the craziness. I grew up hearing reggaeton and dancehall and always thought it was badass but never dreamt I’d be able to work with these guys… Working with them has been amazing and it’s opened my eyes to working with more vocalists. Now I’m addicted and I want more. Know any good Japanese girl rappers?
Not off the top of my head…
They’re fucking hard to find man, trust me. But Blanco has given me a wider perspective of vocalists from around the world! I love the fusion of languages and cultures and styles. I always have anyway, but Blanco has emphasised my utopian music dreams even more; the best of all the cultures of music and sounds. I’m putting my finger on a map and pointing to different places that are really fucking exciting musically… Then make it in a way that it reaches a lot of people.
You’ve got a lot of travel ahead of you then…
Yeah we have! These EPs are a calling card for what I want to do – I want to find international sounds and celebrate them, learn from them and bring them back to electronic music. It’s all very different to sitting on your own trying to work out crazy ideas in isolation.
Awesome… How about Vex, though?
Well this is an interesting one. Like Invasion, it started off as fun then became something serious. Everything has to start this way – you have to work on something until it proves its existence. You do it to fill a missing peice in your own – and hopefully other people’s – life. Vex could upset the apple cart in a big way; it’s nothing like you’ve heard from me before. It’s diary music, it’s a bit like Sam Smith, it’s very honest and crying. It’s flat and understandable, it’s stripped down pop music but done in a Savanty way.
Woah…
It’s a bit like Protos was rock-inspired but this is more pop. It has less 80s cheese and more modern touches. Some strings here, some acoustic bits there. The vocals are a lot more honest or raw than I’ve done before. I’ve tried to sing in way that grabs your attention so you don’t have time to say ‘this sucks man, this beat is shit, where’s the drop?’ It’s a bit pink, I guess, not like the big Tetris blocks of music I usually do. I’m trying to touch your soul a bit more… I’ve never done that type of music – that lying on the couch and trying to figure out what the world is about thing – and maybe this will make you feel that way?[Ufw's Easy]00:00:220 (1,2) - This isn't wrong but when I hear cutesy animu tv size I think lots of blankets and lots of curves especially for the easy/normals so maybe make these curvy mirror sliders :300:16:337 (3) - Might be a bit of a polarity issue but probably not that hard. Still I think this slilder should also be curvy and not just cuz it's a TV size :v I mean cuz it would compliment the pitch in the instruments going up a bit.00:39:396 - Definitely have a note here. Should not be ignored even if this was an easy. Very strong sound.00:39:749 (1,2) - I think it would also be nice to make these 2 sliders more shapely especially because this leads into the chorus so it would be nice :300:42:219 - I feel there could also be a note here cuz the vocals say pewpew? or something like that? idk but it would be nicer.00:45:396 (1,2) - Considering this easy dosen't have that much emphasis on the drums but instead on the vocals it would make more sense to just make the slider start at 1 instead.00:51:043 (1,2) - Same for this one.01:01:984 - Definitely a note here. Compliments vocals and drums.01:07:984 (1,2) - Same comment about the long slider. You can argue well the other vocal starts singing here but if that was the case then this wouldn't be a long slider it would also be mapped to the other vocals so please consider this highly.01:13:631 (1,2) - ^ Also add a note on 01:16:102 - Since in all the previous sections you had 1/1 sliders there but you have anote here might as well have a note on 01:16:102 - or also make this a 1/1 slider like the rest.01:20:572 (2,3) - This is already kind of a polarity issue. Kinda hard to explain this one. 2 is fine but I think 3 should be a 1/1 slider instead starting at 01:21:749 - Just because having 2 off sliders that start on a 1/3 tick is weird. It also follows the bigger drum sounds :3[Gaia's Normal]AR7 WTF??? lol change to 5. Raise OD to 5 too maybe but 4 is ok too. Seriously though that AR....Hitsounds are somewhat inconsistent. Like 00:06:572 (2) - In this section you map the sliders with custom clap but in this section 00:17:867 (2) - you use whistles. Also random drum at 00:05:867 (1) - but whistle at 00:11:514 (1) - Consider revising the hitsounds to be more consistent especially in the similar sections.00:16:455 (4,5) - 4 could be another swing slider to go with the instruments imo like this. I don't think this will be too hard for a normal because it feels very expected especially with this kind of rhythm. Or you can also try this too.00:59:514 (1,2,3,4,5) - This has the emphasis in the wrong area imo. The emphasis should be on these white ticks 00:59:514 - 01:00:219 - 01:00:572 - 01:01:278 - 01:01:631 - Since it's the stronger odd-number imo. I suppose you can say the finish clap is stronger but even so the pattern is still pretty weak in comparison mostly because it ends on 01:01:984 (5) - which is a note and not a slider. It's hard to explain this too xD but musically you have the sliders prioritizing the downbeat (4) over the main beat in the measure (1). Anyway the suggestion would be start with the sliders like this [Mochi's Hard]Lower HP to 5 to be even with the rest of the spread.00:02:219 (4,5,6) - This doesn't flow as well as it looks like it would for this diff. It's best to stick to DS 1.2x for shorter spacing like 1/3 or 1/4.00:07:984 (5) - Could be a 2/3 slider to compliment the vocals saying "a-ru"00:10:337 - Also feel a note should be here too.00:11:396 - Same with here to emphasize the little wood clappy thing00:23:867 (3,4) - I think this pattern plays a bit better and emphasizes the finishes more.00:31:984 (2,3,4) - This might be confusing especially after this 00:29:749 (3,4) - which maybe it's not stacked but the rhythm is similar still so players might expect to do the same thing. I would suggest this pattern to avoid such confusion. Note: I did also change 5 to assist with polarity but I really think this pattern works well :301:03:631 - There's a lot of emphasis here but it's a slider endConsider revising this combo.01:04:455 (1,2) - Could probably be a bit curvier and avoid the overlap but it's no big deal.01:21:043 (2,3) - Same comment about the finish on 2 slider end. You can try this pattern which sounds better too imo :3[Litoluna's Hard]Raise HP to 5.5. After all this is harder than the other hard which has higher HP than this00:00:220 (1,2) - Compared to the rest of the map this is very empty00:22:102 (1) - use normal sample for the rest of the slider too. Sounds nicer :300:40:455 (5,6) - I think this would sound better and play better mapped to the swing rhythm No real issues.[Insane]I think AR8 or up to AR8.3 would work better here. It's almost like a harder hard anyway :v Also it would make the spread a bit more even in terms of AR00:40:455 (3,4) - Eh...I think this would be better as a rounder shape. Or maybe a nicer pattern to emphasize the trumpet or whatever that instrument is with a hold like this 2nd part. Could look nicer but just as an example.01:17:514 (4,1) - Also don't like this shape but I feel that instead of having 2 slider this pattern might be better to emphasize the swing pattern more.[Crystal's Insane]00:10:808 (1,2) - This kinda looks liek 00:10:102 (1,2) - except it has a note at 00:09:984 - so the jump distance is not the same. Would recommend moving this combo down a bit more so it doesn't confuse player and they jump too early.00:12:925 (1) - Remove clap from head. You already have it at 00:12:808 (6) -00:29:867 (1,2,3,4) - Should stack 1 over 00:29:161 (2) - like you did with the other one. OR you can also leave it like that and start 1 at 00:29:749 - instead. Also regarding 3 and 4 you should change these to notes instead. Would be pretty fun to play.[wkyik's Thing]00:04:455 (3,5) - Would be nice if these two were mirrors of each other and maybe like little versions of 00:03:749 (2) - like the shape.00:26:925 (1,2) - I think it would be better like this maybe not exactly like that but basically for 2 to stack over 00:27:749 (1) - it would have a nice effect.No real issues.Overall the harder diffs look good just the easier ones could use a bit of cleanup and it's good to go. Also idk if you collabed in any easier diff but if not you'd need to make at least one more easier diff for ranking.The Spark of Genius Series highlights a unique feature of startups and is made possible by Microsoft BizSpark. If you would like to have your startup considered for inclusion, please see the details here.
Name: JumpScan
Quick Pitch: JumpScan provides a custom "all-in-one" QR code to link your physical and digital world.
Genius Idea: QR codes have been all the rage this year for big brands, and now ordinary consumers and small businesses can get in on the fun, too. JumpScan lets users create customized QR codes that combine all your contact information, including social media profiles, for on-the-go sharing.
Think of it as a QR-powered iteration of Flavors.me or About.me especially intended for mobile phones.
It's also a lot like a next-gen version of Contxts and similar services, but it uses your phone's camera instead of SMS for a smoother experience with fewer actions between meeting and contacting a person.
As a user, when you sign up for a JumpScan account, you'll get to create a mobile landing page by entering your contact information. You can add your e-mail address, phone number, Facebook profile, Twitter and Flickr feeds and more.
Once you generate your own code, anyone with a smartphone can snap a picture of the image to be automatically redirected to your own JumpScan page.
We can see this going over really well on the business cards of the digerati, making the rounds at social media meetups and large conferences.
The startup is also pitching its codes as a great option for SMB advertising.
Here's a quick demo video showing how the app works:
Jumpscan was founded in 2010 and recently scored some funding from an economic development agency in North Carolina.
What do you think of JumpScan so far? Would you use the QR codes from this company for maintaining and sharing your contact info?
Image courtesy of Flickr, mattedgar.
Sponsored by Microsoft BizSpark
BizSpark is a startup program that gives you three-year access to the latest Microsoft development tools, as well as connecting you to a nationwide network of investors and incubators. There are no upfront costs, so if your business is privately owned, less than three years old, and generates less than U.S.$1 million in annual revenue, you can sign up today.Greenland kids. Photo from http://www.galenfrysinger.com/greenland.htm
By Ray Bell
December 1, 2008 -- Bella Caledonia -- One of Scotland’s largest neighbours has just voted for independence. I don’t mean England, or Ireland, or Scandinavia, but a country which is bigger than all of these combined. And I use the term “neighbour” loosely, because it is a good few hundred miles across the Atlantic from us, and very few readers will have ever been there.
Greenlanders voted by 3-1 for almost total independence in late November 2008. I say “almost”, because while they don’t get control of defence or foreign policy, they get control of just about everything else. 32 areas of government will be handed over to them. Every political party, but one, in Greenland backed the “yes” vote. Who couldn’t sympathise with this statement that senior politician Hans Jakob Helms made?
“Home rule was a compromise, it’s a simple fact that home rule has reached its limit and there’s a need for more room for self-government.”
Applied to Scotland, it appears that even the majority of Unionists support this position. The result makes Greenlandic independence pretty much inevitable.
Greenland’s road to independence is a bizarre one. A colony of Denmark for 300 years, its population is tiny – a mere 57,000 (less than Guernsey), but if it gains full independence, it will be the 13th largest state in the world. Eighty per cent of the place is covered in ice, and there is no road network to speak of. People get around by boats or planes. There are about a dozen settlements, mostly tiny, scattered around the island. Traditionally, some of them have had almost nothing to do with one another, just because of the sheer distances involved. It is the largest island in the world – if you don’t count Australia – at eight times the size of Great Britain. At one end, it is near the North Pole, and at the other, the same latitude as parts of Shetland – there are even some trees there. Technically part of North America, its size and remoteness, makes it almost a continent in its own right.
Eighty per cent of the people who live in Greenland are Inuit, only 12% are Danes. Under the terms of the referendum, Greenlandic will replace Danish as the language of government. The native Greenlanders are an obviously non-European people, still tribal to an extent, and mainly nomadic in the recent past. The native Greenlanders have massive social problems including a degree of permanent unemployment, bad diet, alcoholism, drug abuse and even AIDS. The suicide rate is also extremely high. While the traditional Inuit lifestyle was a difficult and harsh one, the modern disillusionment and substance abuse are classic results of colonialism, and can be found in places such as widely separated as Peru and Tibet, as well as parts of Australia and the USA. By voting “yes”, the Greenlanders have displayed the maturity and self-confidence that they require for a happier future. Greenlandic is now the only official language – even though it has fewer speakers than Scottish Gaelic.
However, Greenland already has some serious problems which are global in nature. One of these is climate change, something impossible to deal with at a purely local level. Greenland features prominently in Al Gore’s documentary, An Inconvenient Truth, with good reason. If its ice cap melts, the sea level may rise by twenty five feet everywhere, drowning whole cities and nations. Another theory claims that if it melts, then the Gulf Stream will be set into reverse, and Europe will experience another ice age. Neither of these are theories that I’d like to see proven. Further oil drilling and mining will provide jobs and money for the Greenlandic economy, but they also threaten the hunting and fishing many Inuit still rely on, and poison the island’s fragile environment permanently. Greenland’s economy is much less diversified than Scotland’s, and subsidised to the tune of £400 million by Denmark, but the alternatives may prove simply too costly.
If it is not careful, Greenland also risks replacing Denmark with the USA. The island played a surprisingly strategic role in both WW2 and the Cold War. The Americans unsuccessfully tried to buy Greenland off the Danes for $100,000,000. In 1953, the Danes allowed them to set up the Thule base in the far north of the island. It was the most northerly US base anywhere, and allowed the US to monitor Soviet activity in the Arctic. With shades of Britain’s Diego Garcia – in 1999, the Danish High Court ruled that the base was on Inuit land, and that the inhabitants had been illegally evicted. Shortly after this ruling, it also emerged that a B52 had crashed near there in 1968. It had been carrying H-bombs, and an estimated 1700 people were exposed to radiation. The base is still there. Some people argue that an independent Greenland would be unable to defend itself, but its relationship with the USA is going to be one sided from the outset.
But what Greenland has done is brave, and we should respect them for it. As one Welsh blog puts it:
Now, if Greenland, a nation of 57,000 people, speaking what many of our fellow-country men would probably call ‘a silly language which nobody speaks’, has the confidence to have more power, what the hell is stopping Wales?
When it comes to self-determination, the Nordic countries have a much better record than most. I suspect there are several reasons for this, one of them being that it is much easier for the likes of Greenland to deal with a nation of several million, than one of tens or hundreds of millions. Second, the remoteness of many parts of the Nordic countries meant that it was more practical for a number of decisions to be taken locally to begin with. Denmark’s other colonies, such as the now independent Norway and Iceland, or the nearly independent Faroe Islands, all neighbours of Scotland, have been given much fairer hearings by Copenhagen, than they would have done from London. For example, since WWII, the population of the Faroe Islands has doubled, while that of the Shetland Islands has halved. It’s worth remembering that Greenland got its parliament in 1979, the very year that Scotland’s own vote for an assembly was sabotaged. Since then, Greenland has never looked back. Scotland, on the other hand, is only just getting over that defeat.
A short history of Greenland
The first people arrived in Greenland over 4000 years ago, although it has not been continuously inhabited since then. It is thought that the ancestors of the Inuit arrived in about 1200.
Southern Greenland’s European connection goes as far back as 980, when it was discovered and settled by the Norse. Their numbers were never particularly great. By the 15th century, Greenland’s white population appears to have died out, due to worsening climate, unsuitable farming methods which eroded the thin soil, and conflict with Inuit who came in from the north. They did not leave much of a legacy, other than a few ruins, and a mere 5% of Greenlandic DNA.
The Europeans returned in the early 18th century with disastrous consequences. The missionary Hans Egede heard stories in Norway of the Norse settlement in Greenland, and decided to find out whether it still existed. He established Godthåb (Nuuk), the capital, and set about converting the natives and wrote down their language for the first time. He also translated the Bible – an incredible feat as Greenlandic lacked words for “bread”, “sheep”, “wine” and other important Christian imagery: his version of the Lord’s Prayer includes the surreal line: “Give us today our harbour seal.”
Within a few years, a smallpox epidemic had wiped out large numbers of Inuit, and their shamans were being tried for witchcraft. The Europeans’ intensive hunting, fishing and whaling made it harder for the Inuit to obtain food, and some of them were also abducted or raped by sailors. By the end of the 18th century, Greenland was an official Danish colony.
During the 19th century, the first newspaper in Greenlandic appeared, and the first district assemblies. In 1911, two regional assemblies were established, one for the north and one for the south. It was not until 1951 that they were merged. These assemblies were not a form of home rule – they were more like local councils, and all their business was conducted in Danish.
In the late 19th century, a Greenlander actually reached Scotland by kayak after being blown off course. He died soon afterwards, but his boat can still be seen in a museum.
In the early 20th century, the USA and Canada claimed parts of Greenland. In 1946, the USA attempted to buy all of it from Denmark, but the Danes refused. In the 1930s, Norway laid claim to a section of east Greenland, but the Permanent Court of International Justice ruled in Denmark’s favour. In 1951, Denmark and the US signed a |
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The sheer amount of samples being collected is outpacing the number of experts who can accurately record them, according to researchers at the University of Oxford and the Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh.
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They examined 4,500 specimens of the African ginger genus Aframomum, from 40 collections in 21 countries, using a monographic study completed last year as a reference.
“The team were surprised to find that prior to this monograph at least 58% of specimens were either misidentified, given an outdated or redundant name, or only identified to the genus or family,” according to the research, published in Current Biology Magazine.
“As few plant groups have been recently monographed, the team suggests that a similar percentage of wrong names might be expected in many other groups,” it adds.
Researchers also discovered that two specimens from the same plant are often recorded differently. An analysis of 21,075 samples of Dipterocarpaceae, a family of rainforest trees from Asia, found that a third (29 per cent) had different names in different collections.
Mistakes were also found within records kept online. An examination of 560 names associated with 49,500 specimens of Ipomoea – a genus which includes the sweet potato – revealed four out of ten were recorded as outdated synonyms rather than the current name. And around one in seven of the names were unrecognisable or wrong.
Mistaken identity is widespread in tropical plant collections, according to the study. “This finding has serious implications for the uncritical use of specimen data from natural history collections,” it warns.
There have been not enough revisions of the information which is available, which means “many specimens remain wrongly named, unrecognised and/or not determined for decades.”
Researchers from the University of Oxford and Royal Botanical Garden Edinburgh discovered that a species of African ginger was called the wrong name for more than half a century. Recorded as Aframomum alboviolaceum by scientists in 1945, researchers last year correctly identified it as Aframomum lutarium. And a new species discovered this year, Ipomoea lactifera, which is a wild relative of the sweet potato, had been previously incorrectly labelled in collections as a different species, Ipomoea umbraticola. In another case, researchers found a specimen of Ipomoea lactifera which did not even have a name recorded to it....
The world’s collections of tropical plant specimens have more than doubled in the last 45 years. And the “rate of increase in natural history collections across the world has greatly outpaced the ability to process, evaluate and name them correctly.”
The problem is not confined to tropical plants. “We assume that the pattern we document for flowering plants in this paper is also true and possibly worse for insects, given that the number of described insects is three times that of flowering plants.”
In some cases, personal differences between academics may have been at fault, according to researcher Zoe Goodwin, from the University of Oxford’s department of plant sciences. “There were a couple of specimens where you could see that two botanists clearly did not get on and over a period of a few months they angrily changed the names back and forth, and it looked like it was a bit personal between them,” she said. This is just one example of a wider problem. “We think a conservative estimate is that up to half the world’s natural history specimens could be incorrectly named,” commented Ms Goodwin.
Another of the researchers, Dr Robert Scotland, reader in systematic botany at the University of Oxford, warned: “Without accurate names on specimens, the records held in collections around the world would make no sense, as they don’t correspond to the reality outside.”
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Subscribe nowAs a professional matchmaker with an office in New York City, many of my clients are very successful, high profile Wall Street men.
I have spent the better part of 12 years learning all of their habits, their likes and dislikes when it comes to dating, women and relationships and what they want specifically from me, when I am matching them with women.
Hence, I know, better than anyone, what makes Wall Street men tick.
Here are a few tips for the women out there who are dating or would like to be dating a man on Wall Street:
1. Be prepared to charm him out of talking about work when he first arrives to the date. Unfortunately, a lot of guys on Wall Street have a hard time leaving work at the office; it’s your job to get his mind on you and off the S & P.
2. Learn a little something about the financial markets and notice if something huge happens on a given day, negative or positive. Things like the fact that Facebook is going public is not just financial news, it’s world news and you don’t want to seem clueless if you completely missed something like that. You don’t have to become an expert but at least if you know something you can participate in a conversation with your guy. Additionally, you need to be prepared that the volatility of the markets might make your guy’s mood unpredictable, especially on a day that his personal portfolio went down dramatically.
3. While a Wall Street man tends to like a little bit of a challenge when it comes to dating, he still likes things to be convenient and easy for him. A lot of women think that if they play hard to get, they will land a Wall Street man. This is NOT the case. Yes, you should be confident and avoid being a pushover but, at the same time, you shouldn’t be difficult. You need to be accommodating or his schedule and time constraints or he will get frustrated and find another woman.
4. Tell stories that are short and sweet because the mind of a Wall Street man is always moving so rapidly and focusing on so many different things that his attention span for social stories is very short; don’t be insulted by this, just tell your stories in a way that he can listen. Save your long, draw-out stories for chit-chatting with your girlfriends.
5. Be sexy. Wall Street men tend to like women who are attractive and that other men notice when they walk in the room. This does not mean that you should look sleazy or inappropriate, this just means that you should bring your “A game” when you go out with him, whatever that is. Every man is attracted to a different look and a different type of woman so if he’s interested in you, he’s attracted to you but you need to maintain his interest by continuing to look your best.
6. Don’t get upset if he checks his BlackBerry or takes a call during a date; this is very common of a Wall Street man and has nothing to do with whether or not he likes you. The advice that I give Wall Street men about their need to bring business onto the date is that they should forewarn you when they first sit down that a call or a message is coming and apologize in advance. Albeit the fact that this would be an easy thing to do, they won’t always remember to do it, so don’t get offended.
7. Don’t get upset if your Wall Street guy isn’t as romantic as you would like him to be. Men, by nature are never as romantic as women want them to be, but Wall Street men especially are very business-like and think practically not romantically. If you want him to be more romantic, you are probably going to have to lead the way, and teach him what you want.
8. Wall Street men tend to be attracted to women who are in industries other than Wall Street. This does not mean that if you work on Wall Street, you won’t end up with a Wall Street man, however his eye tends to be looking towards non-Wall Street women. Hence, if you are a Wall Street woman and you are interested in dating a Wall Street man, you need to make sure that you let him and others see that you are not all business all the time, that you have a soft, feminine, family-oriented and fun side when you are not in the office.
9. When it comes to getting you a gift, a lot of Wall Street men are all about extravagance over thoughtfulness. If you are a decadent woman, this will work well for you, but if you are a woman who prefers a man to be thoughtful over spending lavishly on something you don’t really want, you might be disappointed. This does not mean that a Wall Street man can’t be thoughtful, many are. However, a lot of Wall Street men are so busy making lots of money, that when they think to buy you something, they don’t care about the cost as long as it’s easy to get for you.
10. Don’t get upset if your plans get scheduled by his assistant. Even though, it is dating 101 for a man to pick up the phone and call you for a date or in this day and age to text you for one, many Wall Street men are so reliant on their assistants that they prefer to have you on their schedule just like a business meeting. Do not take offense to this; this does not mean that he likes you all the less, it just means that he likes to be organized and efficient and his assistant helps him accomplish this.
________________________
Samantha Daniels owns a bicoastal matchmaking service called Samantha's Table. She is ivy league educated and a former divorce attorney by trade. She is frequently relied upon dating, relationship and romance expert, and is seen regularly on television, in national newspapers and magazines and on radio. She has been a national spokesperson for a number of consumer brands including Crest, Oral B and Febreze. She was also the inspiration for and a producer on the NBC/Darren Star dramedy, Miss Match starring Alicia Silverstone, the show was based on her life story. She is the author of the book, Matchbook: The Diary of a Modern-Day Matchmaker (Simon & Schuster).Not their President!Alec Baldwin, Mark Ruffalo, and Michael Moore are just some of the famous faces that will be protesting outside Trump Tower on the night before Inauguration Day, the famous filmmaker tweeted."Mark Ruffalo, Alec Baldwin & myself will be holding a massive rally in NYC in front of Trump International Hotel this Thursday, 6 pm! Come!” Moore wrote to his social media followers.The 30 Rock actor has been skewering the incoming POTUS on Saturday Night Live! lately, but he has no plans on stopping or making Trump's life any easier. "If Trump believes that criticism of, opposition to, distaste for his election will eventually subside, he is mistaken. It’s just starting," he wrote on Twitter earlier this week.Ruffalo couldn't agree more!"We are sending a message to Washington that we will fight, at every step, discrimination and harmful policies, today, tomorrow and every day," he told NBC News Sunday, adding that, "we are coming together to stand up for one another, as we will do every day, to protect the values we hold dear."It's certainly been a rocky road to the White House!Buy Photo Chef Kahlil Floyd, co-owner of the Plum Pit food truck, serves customers. Plum Pit is one of nine trucks competing this weekend in Smyrna. (Photo: SUCHAT PEDERSON/THE NEWS JOURNAL)Buy Photo
Is it a food fight if no one throws anything?
One of Delaware's hottest food trends -- the roaming food trucks bringing an array of delicacies to spots big and small -- is headed to Smyrna this weekend for the state's first-ever food truck competition at a brewery.
Armed with mobile menus on four wheels, nine food trucks representing all three counties will duke it out (gastronomically speaking) at the debut of Blue Earl Brewing Company's Food Truck Throwdown on Saturday from noon to 9 p.m.
While the competitions are not new -- Marydel's Harvest Ridge Winery hosted a large-scale event in March featuring nearly 25 trucks -- surprisingly, they have not landed at one of the state's growing number of breweries until now.
Even though food trucks and breweries are both hot trends and often team up, this is the first event of its kind. And judging on Facebook interest, it might be a hit already.
With free admission and three bands playing outdoors (party band Best Kept Secret, Dover indie blues/soul act Hoochi Coochi and York, Pennsylvania-based blues rockers Buzzard Luck), Blue Earl founder Ron Price has watched as online interest in the Food Truck Throwdown has outstripped any previous event by nearly three times.
Buy Photo Bill Fasano (facing camera) chats at the bar of the Blue Earl Brewing Company in Smyrna Thursday. Bill Fasano (facing camera) chats at the bar of the Blue Earl Brewing Co. in 2015. The brewery's live music will move from its large indoor stage to the outdoors on Saturday. (Photo: WILLIAM BRETZGER/THE NEWS JOURNA, WILLIAM BRETZGER/THE NEWS JOURNAL)
Perhaps the forecast of partly cloudy with a comfortable high of 81 has something to do with it as well.
"We've had 1,700 people say they're interested in coming. It's kind of scary, too. If they all show up, I'm not sure where they're all going to park," Price jokes, perhaps a little nervously.
With food trucks becoming a regular part of the state's festival scene, along with slinging lunches and dinners everywhere from upstate office parks and museums to downstate breweries and churches, expect to see more and more food truck-themed events coming down the pike.
Since mid-2015, the number of mobile food operations in Delaware has grown by 33 percent with a total of 197 currently approved by the Delaware Health and Social Services Division of Public Health.
There are 127 in New Castle County, 26 in Kent County and 44 in Sussex County, which includes everything from food trucks and hot dog carts to water ice and coffee trucks.
The Food Truck Throwdown is a perfect gig for Danielle "Brown Sugar" Johnson, Hoochi Coochi's scene-stealing and seemingly spring-loaded frontwoman. She loves to nosh on goodies from food trucks during her band's festival gigs, even striking up casual friendships with some truck owners since they are so ubiquitous at her outdoor concerts.
Buy Photo Dover blues/soul four-piece Hoochi Coochi, led by singer Danielle Johnson, will perform at Blue Earl's Food Truck Throwdown Saturday. (Photo: Joe Hoddinott/The News Journal)
"Back in the day, you just had vendors with junk food. Now you can get health food and all sorts of stuff," Johnson says. "And whenever we play a show like that, I'll look up what food trucks will be there and put them on the flyer. They are a small business, too."
And they are also part of the draw for some music fans, enticed by the diversity of homemade meals available from these commuting cooks. At Saturday's event alone, everything from lamb kebabs and braised short rib grilled cheese to risotto crab balls and sugar-covered peach tart dessert egg rolls will be up for grabs.
If Johnson sees the popular Wilmington-based Mojo Loco truck at an event, you'll probably see her there eating chef Steve Ruiz's pork tacos, her current obsession.
In addition to Mojo Loco and its aforementioned tacos, the following food trucks will be at Blue Earl to battle it out: Crave Eatery, Delicious Craving, Grub Burger, Nothing Better, Plum Pit, Rebel Cove, Thyme to Eat and Truck It.
Each attendee will receive a ballot to vote for the food truck of their choice. At the end of the day, the winning food truck will receive the Blue Earl People's Choice Award. A separate panel of foodies will judge signature dishes from each food truck with the Blue Earl Cup going to the winner.
All minors at the dog-friendly food 'n' brew event must be accompanied by an adult. A portion of proceeds will benefit the Food Bank of Delaware and a 50/50 raffle will be held for Citizens' Hose Company No. 1 of Smyrna.
Among the items offered Saturday by the Georgetown-based Nothing Better food truck: peach tart dessert egg rolls with mascarpone cheese, peaches, raspberry sauce and powdered sugar. (Photo: Courtesy of Nothing Better)
Blue Earl will also unveil its newest beer: How Sweet It Is, a pineapple orange IPA.
The reason behind the romance between breweries and food trucks isn't hard to crack.
"Breweries, wineries and distilleries have been partnering, collaborating and conspiring with these food trucks because most of these alcohol-producers don't have kitchens," says Price, whose brewery hosts food trucks 14 nights a month, and serves only pretzels, Chex Mix or Pepperidge Farm Goldfish when the trucks aren't around. "It really is a perfect marriage."
It was about three years ago when Mojo Loco's Ruiz decided that he was ready to work for himself after spending more than 25 years working for others as a chef everywhere from the Starwood Hotels group to Wilmington's Deep Blue.
"I was tired of working for the man, per se," he says.
The move was fraught with risk, even as interest in food trucks skyrocketed. Each event can be a gamble in terms of crowds, plus the amount of work needed to run his own business, which is basically a mobile restaurant, is considerable.
But it's paid off so far, even though people on summer vacations and July's stretch of extreme heat slowed sales a bit recently.
For example, his Wednesdays in Wilmington's Rodney Square for its weekly Downtown Farmers Market has grown from about 100 sales a day several years ago to about 200 sales in just 1-1/2 hours this year.
"Keeping your overhead low is the name of the game -- that's how we survive," says Ruiz, a Dover native living in North Wilmington. "It's grown so quickly, we're always going."
Contact Ryan Cormier of The News Journal at rcormier@delawareonline.com or (302) 324-2863. Follow him on Facebook (@ryancormier), Twitter (@ryancormier) and Instagram (@ryancormier).
IF YOU GO
What: Blue Earl's Food Truck Throwdown
When: Saturday, noon to 9 p.m.
Where: 210 Artisan Drive, Smyrna
Admission: Free
Food trucks: Crave Eatery, Delicious Craving, Grub Burger, Mojo Loco, Nothing Better, Plum Pit, Rebel Cove, Thyme to Eat, Truck It
Bands: Best Kept Secret (6 p.m.), Hoochi Coochi (4 p.m.) and Buzzard Luck (2 p.m.)
Information: facebook.com/blueearlbrewing
WHAT'S COOKIN'?
Here is a look at some of the snacks and meals that will be served up Saturday in Smyrna:
Crave Eatery: Grilled shrimp tacos, rib eye steak tacos, chicken salad-stuffed avocados and diablo cheesesteaks.
Delicious Craving: Lechón with a sweet lemon vinaigrette, lamb döner kebab, tandoori chicken kebabs, seasoned crispy fries with feta cheese, risotto crab balls with kimchi aioli and wings (holy honey sriracha, bourbon, sweet chili, mango habanero and lemon).
Mojo Loco: Pork tacos, Asian shrimp tacos and falafel along with short rib grilled cheese (braised short rib, caramelized onions and Vermont cheddar cheese on thick Texas toast) and an ahi tuna burger (ahi burger with unagi sauce, baby arugula and pickled vegetables served on a brioche roll).
Nothing Better: Cheesesteak egg rolls with horseradish sauce, pulled pork tacos and
peach tart dessert egg rolls with mascarpone cheese, peaches, raspberry sauce and powdered sugar.
Plum Pit Food Truck: Beef, jerk chicken and cheesesteak empanadas, along with sandwiches such as "The Mutha Clucka" (smoked chicken, jerk sauce) and "The Little Chris" (chicken fingers topped with barbecue sauce, bacon and homemade macaroni and cheese).
Rebel Cove: Cheesesteaks, along with sandwiches such as "The Grass Skirt" (Hawaiian slow-smoked pulled pork with Teriyaki style barbecue sauce, provolone, pineapple and green onion) and "The Chesapeake" (grilled crab and sausage sub with sauteed spinach).
Thyme to Eat: Burrito paninis, along with sandwiches such as a Tuscan with grilled chicken, mozzarella, roasted peppers and pesto and buffalo chicken with chicken tenders in buffalo sauce with cheese and tater tots.
Truck It: Pulled pig (a slow-cooked, citrus-infused pork shoulder served with yogurt slaw and 'Truck It' sauce), Mama's Ballzie grilled cheese (a six cheese blend blend with meatballs and sweet hot marinara sauce served on a garlic-seasoned bun with a cheese ring around it) and One Hot Chick (a non-fried buffalo chicken sandwich with the chicken cooked in cilantro, jalapeño and other spices and flashed in hot sauce).
DELAWARE'S MOBILE FOOD UNITS
How many food trucks are there in the state these days? The short answer is a lot. Currently there are 197: 127 in New Castle County, 44 in Sussex County and 26 in Kent County.
Read or Share this story: https://www.delawareonline.com/story/entertainment/2017/08/02/food-fight-brewing-smyrnas-blue-earl/528595001/An Eritrean national shot by an Israeli security guard after he was surrounded by a frenzied mob of Israelis in a Beersheva bus station in southern Israel Sunday night died today of wounds sustained during the assault. A video circulating on social media shows the man, Haftom Zarhum, 29, lying on the floor in a pool of blood after the shooting. While security officials attempted to stave off the crowd, one Israeli threw a bench at Zarhum, others kicked him.
Zarhum was attacked when traveling to his home in a community near the border of Gaza, moments after a Bedouin man stabbed an Israeli police officer inside the same bus station. The Bedouin man, identified by local media as Mohanned al-Akrabi, 21, from the town of Hura, then grabbed the injured officer’s weapon and fired several rounds as he attempted to exit the bus station, killing one and injuring 11.
Israeli police shot and killed al-Akrabi.
“We are really sad and we cannot condemn anyone at this stage until we see the result of the investigation,” said Mutasim Ali, an asylum seeker from Sudan and the executive director of the Tel Aviv-based African Refugee Development Center. “The one thing that we ask the government in particular is, the police and the security authorities, is to have more training to identify the suspects to not have anything like this happen again.”
Zahrum was living in Israel where he was seeking asylum. Monday morning, hundreds of African asylum seekers held a memorial in his honor at Holot prison, a desert detention facility where Israel holds nearly 600 Africans seeking refugee status in Israel.Frederick Law Olmsted: Plans and Views of Public Parks
edited by charles e. beveridge, lauren meier, and irene mills
johns hopkins, 448 pages, $74.95
The achievement of Frederick Law Olmsted is so stupendous that one cannot stand far enough back to take it all in. First there are the parks—Manhattan’s Central Park, Brooklyn’s Prospect Park, Boston’s “Emerald Necklace,” Chicago’s Jackson Park, Montreal’s Mount Royal, to name only the most prominent. These have indelibly shaped our notion of what a city park is—an ensemble of meadows, trees, and water arranged for the purposes of recreation, aesthetic pleasure, and public health.
But Olmsted also gave us Riverside, Illinois, the prototype for that other familiar object of the American landscape, the planned community. As the writer of the study that created Yosemite National Park, he can be regarded as the spiritual founder for the national park system. In the end, Olmsted defies criticism. How can one evaluate a landscape architect whose greatest achievement was to create the profession of landscape architecture itself?
The material for a comprehensive evaluation is now at hand. Beginning in 1977, the Frederick Law Olmsted Papers Project has published eleven volumes of his copious writings; the final two volumes are to present the visual material. The first of these has now appeared, Frederick Law Olmsted: Plans and Views of Public Parks, which reproduces the plans, sketches, and photographs of thirty-one of his most important projects. Here is as attractive a graphic record of his achievement as we are likely to get.
Olmsted was thirty-six when his plan for Central Park was accepted, and he had no formal training in landscape architecture. Nor had anyone else, for at that time, parks were laid out by architects, gardeners, or surveyors. Up to that point, he had led a highly erratic life, filled with false starts and brave experiments that make for fascinating biography. Fortunately, there are two very good ones, one by Laura Wood Roper (1973) and another by Witold Rybczynski (1999), and they demonstrate that one cannot make sense of the second half of Olmsted’s life without understanding the first.
Olmsted was born in 1822 to a prosperous family of fabric merchants in Hartford, Connecticut. He and his brother were both groomed for Yale, but at the age of fourteen, he injured his eyes in a freakish case of sumac poisoning, “making me for some time partially blind... and the oculists advised that I should be kept from study.” There is something poetic in his lifelong work with nature being determined by this first unhappy encounter. This one fact, though, was not enough to close off the possibility of formal studies. Other factors were evidently at play, including a certain stubborn restlessness. For a time he was a clerk but decided he did not like the indoor work. He then enrolled as a common seaman and undertook a year-long voyage to China in 1843. A stint at Yale as a “special student” lasted only a semester. Finally, in 1848, Olmsted’s father helped him buy 125 acres on the south shore of Staten Island, where he was to establish himself as a “scientific farmer.”
Even here Olmsted could not sit still. In 1850 he set off with his brother and a friend on a six-month walking tour of England, planning to live on 75 cents per day. He did not intend to write a book about it, but as it happened, the publisher George P. Putnam (whose wife was a cousin of the Olmsteds) was then introducing the paperback book and thought that Olmsted’s trip would be an ideal subject for one of these novel volumes. The result was Walks and Talks of an American Farmer in England (1852), a charming and thoroughly unsystematic distillation of extracts culled from Olmsted’s pocket diary and family letters. With his knowledge of agriculture, he was a perceptive observer (who correctly foresaw that cheap American wheat would soon devastate the English rural economy). But his interests were omnivorous, and he had keen powers of observation, including a stenographer’s gift for transcribing amusing conversations verbatim.
The book brought Olmsted literary celebrity and a more ambitious writing project. Early in 1852, Uncle Tom’s Cabin appeared and instantly became the subject of acrimonious national debate, much of it partisan and ill-informed. The newly founded New-York Daily Times (as it was then called) seized the opportunity to send him on a fact-finding tour of the American South, with a strict injunction to report only what he personally saw and experienced. Or, as Olmsted put it, to deliver “matter of fact... after the deluge of spoony fancy pictures now at its height.” He set out in December of that year and spent the next four months traveling through Virginia, Georgia, Alabama, Mississippi, and Louisiana, mostly on foot; two further journeys took him as far as Texas. He was still traveling when the first of his dispatches appeared in the paper, and to protect his anonymity, they were signed simply “Yeoman.”
Olmsted’s letters were later edited to form three books, A Journey in the Seaboard Slave States (1856), A Journey Through Texas (1857), and A Journey in the Back Country in the Winter of 1853-4 (1860). Olmsted later revised and abridged them as The Cotton Kingdom, which appeared in 1861 and remains in print. It still makes for remarkable reading. One has the sense that he found the American South a far more alien and unfamiliar place than England. The ostensible framework for his journey was the economics of slave agriculture, and at every stop, he gathered exhaustive statistics: the cost of slaves and their care and feeding; the cost of land and its cultivation; annual productivity and profit. He did not generalize, distinguishing carefully between the raising of cotton, tobacco, and sugar. This was the sort of hard factual information that the “scientific farmer” was ideally equipped to analyze. But as it happened, he did much more.
Olmsted was morally opposed to slavery but did not believe it to be, as his biographer Laura Roper observed, “uniquely evil.” He had considerable experience with other kinds of forced servitude, from the life of Irish tenant farmers to that of a merchant sailor (on the sea he had witnessed floggings of the most savage sort). And so his writings on the South had the distinction of being moral without being polemical. He did not set out to gather only the data that discredited slavery. He paid attention to matters of diet and living conditions, working hours and family life, education and punishment, providing exact figures whenever possible (for example, that Louisiana was the only state that legally required slaves to receive meat with their meals, four pounds per week). He spoke to individual plantation owners and poor white farmers, slaves and free blacks, transcribing their accounts immediately after the interviews.
It is remarkable how little specific spoken dialogue we have from the antebellum South, and one is struck again and again by the vivid immediacy of Olmsted’s interlocutors, such as the Louisiana planter who told him about the “universal” practice of slave-owners forcing themselves upon their female slaves:
There is not a likely looking black girl in this State that is not the concubine of a white man. There is not an old plantation in which the grandchildren of the owner are not whipped in the field by his overseer.
With The Cotton Kingdom, Olmsted emerged as a thinker of great synthetic power, able to organize a great deal of information into a coherent whole. He offered a kind of Tocquevillian sweep of a complete economic, cultural, and social order that would disappear in just a decade. There is nothing like it in the literature of the American South. Had he remained a journalist, he would have been one of the great commentators on American life. Instead, in 1857, in a decision that remains inexplicable, he applied for the position of superintendent of Central Park. Recognizing that his résumé was highly erratic, he looked to find a common thread and decided that he was an expert in “Economy in the application of agricultural labor.”
Central Park had already been surveyed and provisionally laid out, but with unhappy results. Clusters of trees alternated with open meadows without unity or coherence. Straight streets cut directly through the park, inflicting the city grid on what should have been rolling natural scenery. The few paths that did curve and meander did so halfheartedly, like someone trying unsuccessfully to relax from attention. But worst of all, the park terminated abruptly at the edges, without any attempt to screen the city by a veil of trees. It was the work of a West Point–trained military engineer, and it looked it.
Lobbying discreetly, Olmsted was able to arrange for a competition for a new design that would remedy the failings of the first. Competitors were given a long list of requirements to be squeezed into the park’s 778 acres: a five-mile carriage drive “wide enough to admit of its being used by a large number and variety of vehicles at the same time”; a second and separate drive “more secluded in its character”; fifty acres of level ground to be reserved for “military exercises.” The views were also to be taken into account, and from the higher ground, there were to be platforms for seeing the Hudson and the East rivers, the public buildings on the islands, and the distant Palisades—“in short, a complete panorama of New York City and its suburbs.”
One particularly vexing condition required “transverse roads at convenient distances.” Carried out literally, this requirement would have sliced the park into so many discrete episodes interrupted at intervals by busy cross streets. But there was no way around it: A fire truck, for example, needed to be able to cut directly across the half-mile park instead of driving two and a half miles to go around it. Such was the program that Olmsted set out to tackle in the final months of 1857.
Olmsted was supremely qualified for the competition but for one glaring deficiency, his absolute lack of any artistic experience. What he needed was a collaborator who would remedy this weakness without challenging his considerable strengths. It was a stroke of great good luck that just the right man appeared at this moment. This was Calvert Vaux, an English-born and London-trained architect who happened to be a superb watercolorist. Vaux would prepare all the technical drawings needed to depict the park precisely and the ravishing sketches that would help sell it. He would also design all its many incidental structures. This was a role that Vaux understood quite well. He had performed the very same service for Andrew Jackson Downing, America’s first great landscape designer, who had recruited him from London in 1851.
Downing and Vaux had designed a monumental park for the Mall in Washington, D.C., that was in many respects a dress rehearsal for Central Park. Here, too, a rectangular parcel of real estate in a city of exquisitely formal geometry was to be transformed into something resembling natural scenery. Under the circumstances, Downing and Vaux performed brilliantly. They first wrapped the periphery with a mantle of trees to screen out the city and then variegated the interior to show a lively assortment of different kinds of landscape: pastoral meadows, picturesque woods, gardenesque plantings, and even a formal parade ground. Between the Mall and the White House was to be a stately triumphal arch, designed by Vaux. But try as he might, Downing could not master the four broad transverse roads that sliced the Mall into fragments. The best he could do was to run gentle serpentine drives at right angles to these roads, crossing them occasionally with bridges. Nonetheless, it was a thrilling proposal, and it is curious to think that if Downing had not died in 1852 in a steamship explosion, Washington would have had at its heart something more akin to Central Park than the chilly monumental axis that is the National Mall.
O
lmsted and Vaux spent five months making their competition entry and the colossal drawings that were needed (the competition terms specified a scale of one hundred feet to the inch, which meant drawings over ten feet long). The first thing one notices about their design is that, despite its many intricacies and incidents, it is an imaginative whole. The controlling idea was that as soon as one entered the park, one was to forget the city. No elaborate formal gateways would tie the park to the surrounding city, nor would there be anything else that recalled the relentless gridded geometry of the New York street plan. Instead, the drives that led into the park curved at once to the side so that visitors quickly lost sight of the city. Even the park’s one formal feature, the quarter-mile-long mall that leads to Bethesda Terrace, was deliberately skewed at an angle so that it would not reprise the city grid.
But the most brilliant innovation, which of all the competitors only Olmsted and Vaux devised, was the treatment of the transverse roads. Surely recalling the subdivided Washington plan, they rejected a park subdivided “into five separate and distinct sections, only connected here and there by roads crossing them.” They submerged the four transverse roadbeds out of sight and masked them behind seven-foot embankments; carriage drives and footpaths carried over them on rustic stone bridges. Although the park was, physically speaking, broken into five separate sections, its visual sense was that of continuous and |
gone as quickly as it arrived and new arrivals to the airfield strapped themselves in to make the most of what daylight was left.CLOSE An overview of what the newest brewpub will bring to town. By Alexander Alusheff.
Buy Photo A man walks past construction of Arcadia Ales & Smokehouse on March 23, 2017, near the corner of Fairview and Michigan Avenue in Lansing. The brewery will be completed this summer. (Photo: Julia Nagy/Lansing State Journal)Buy Photo
LANSING – Arcadia Ales & Smokehouse is expected to open on Lansing’s east side by late summer.
The 10,000-square-foot brewery was originally projected to open in the fall of 2016. The project was then pushed back to spring due to a delay in the permitting process. It was further delayed in order to pursue a liquor license to serve cocktails and wine, said developer Kris Elliott, of Urban Feast, in an email. The brewpub, located at 2101 E. Michigan Ave., is still under construction.
Elliott, who owns Troppo and Tavern & Tap, obtained the licensing from Arcadia Brewing Co. to bring the brewpub to Lansing. The Lansing location will serve Arcadia brands and brew six beers on-site too. It will serve smoked meats and wood-fired pizzas.
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“We believe that when complete it will feel as if it’s always been there,” he wrote. “Arcadia will be as much about the food as the beverages.”
When Arcadia opens, it will be the 12th brewery in the Lansing region, and the first time a major Michigan brewery has had a presence in the area since Michigan Brewing Co. closed in 2012. Arcadia opened in 1996. Today, it is the 10th largest brewer in the state in terms of beer sales.
Alexander Alusheff is a reporter at the Lansing State Journal. Contact him at (517) 388-5973 or aalusheff@lsj.com. Follow him on Twitter @alexalusheff.
Read or Share this story: http://on.lsj.com/2oR4q1gThese will be followed by:
Guitar Hero IX: Rock Bottom
Guitar Hero X: Break Up/Rehab
Guitar Hero XI: Behind the Music
Guitar Hero XII: Middle Aged Reunion Tour
Much like every other video game franchise that I have ever found the least bit enjoyable, the Guitar Hero franchise subscribes to the philosophy of “Improvement through Complication” (see all Tony Hawk games after THPS 2 for prime examples) which typically sucks all the fun out of the game and replaces it with more buttons, inane objectives, less enjoyable gameplay and ridiculous difficulty.
So far they have confirmed the additional buttons and drums, not to mention a higher price tag than Rock Band. Time will tell if the game requires you replay every song using a formula based on the Fibonacci Sequence, or to inseminate a wolverine before you can move on.
Does this feel like a “me too!” to anyone else? I will admit that I found the Rock Band Drums to be nearly unplayable. For anyone that actually plays drums, nothing can untrain your brain that toms and cymbals should not occupy the same space on the kit. It should also be noted that I was never able to fully enjoy Rock Band due to lack of convicing lighting and smoke effects. What kind of amatuer hour bullshit were they trying to pull.
While you’re waiting for either Rock Band or Guitar Hero to come out with a giant inflatable pig peripheral, check out this steaming turd of a video.The CoCoRaHS WxTalk Webinar Bi-Monthly Series
In December 2011 CoCoRaHS kicked off a new and exciting monthly Webinar series called CoCoRaHS WxTalk (wx is shorthand for weather). CoCoRaHS WxTalk consists of a series of monthly one-hour interactive Webinars featuring engaging experts in the fields of atmospheric science, climatology and other pertinent disciplines. These easy to follow presentations are live and approximately sixty minutes long. The audience is given the chance to submit questions which the experts answer live on the air.
Topics have included: Snow, Satellites, Hurricanes, Lightning, Clouds, Tornadoes, Flash Floods, Fire Weather, Weather History, Radar and How to become a Meteorologist, just to name a few.
There are many exciting Webinars on the agenda in the months ahead, so please tell your friends to join us. All WxTalk Webinars are free and most are recorded for later viewing.
*Although headphones are a good way of listening to the Webinars, only a set of speakers is required to hear the Webinar. The audience will be muted so there is no need for a microphone. All incoming correspondence during the Webinar should be in typed form.
Upcoming WxTalk Webinars:
Thursday, March 21, 2019 - 1:00PM EDT
Into the wind…Oh, the places mobile radars will go!
Karen Kosiba
Center for Severe Weather Research
Boulder, CO
The Doppler on Wheels (DOW) mobile radars have been used, often in tandem with other instrumentation, to study tornado formation and structure, the boundary layer of landfalling hurricanes, the internal structure of lake effect snow bands, the gust front structure of potentially severe-wind producing MCSs, and other mesoscale phenomena. Some key findings include the existence of rear-flank downdraft surges, which may impact tornadogenesis, the existence of strong winds in tornadoes very close to the surface, small scale structures that may impact energy distribution and wind speeds in the near surface hurricane boundary layer, and the existence of misovortices in intense lake-effect snow bands. As part of this webinar, Karen will share with you the adventures (and misadventures!) of learning about tornadoes, hurricanes, winter storms, and other high impact weather from over a decade of field work...and discuss what projects are on the horizon.
REGISTER
Previous CoCoRaHS WxTalk Webinars
(click on a link below to view a previous WxTalk Webinar)
SEASON ONE -- Webinars 2011 - 2012
SEASON TWO -- Webinars 2013
SEASON THREE -- Webinars 2014
SEASON FOUR -- Webinars 2015
SEASON FIVE -- Webinars 2016
SEASON SIX -- Webinars 2017
SEASON SEVEN -- Webinars 2018
Webinar #61 - January 2018
Storm Surge, Run From the Water,
Hide from the Wind
Jamie Rhome
NOAA/National Hurricane Center
Miami, FL
Webinar #62 - September 2018
Graupel and Hail -- What they are, how they form, and how they fall
Andy Heymsfield
NCAR
Boulder, CO
Webinar #63 - November 2018
The National Weather Service: Building a Weather Ready Nation
Paul Schlatter
NWS
Boulder, CO
SEASON EIGHT -- Webinars 2019Introduction
For Veterans Day, we decided to create a visualization recognizing our nations more than 18 million veterans. Using American Community Survey data we created this age distribution of those that have served in the armed forces. You can also isolate the group by period of service to see how many served in each time period.
Visualization
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Mobile Users: If you are having issues using the interactive version of this visualization, you can find a static version of it here.
Data Notes
The data for this visualization comes from the American Community Survey which is completed by the US Census Bureau. I used the 2015 One Year Estimates Public Use Microdata Sample, which can be found on the ACS Website. This visualization uses Tableau to show the age of America’s veterans.The command pattern is a behavioral design pattern in which an object is used to represent and encapsulate all the information needed to call a method at a later time.
I adore this pattern. If this pattern had a paypal account, I would donate it money on a regular basis.
In general, the notion of encapsulating the method call into an object (like the functor sin C++) is an incredibly powerful idea, because is separate the idea of selecting what to invoke and when to invoke it. Commands are used pretty much every where, WPF is probably the most obvious place, because it actually have the notion of Command as a base class that you are supposed to be using.
Other variations, like encapsulating a bunch of code to be executed later (job / task), or just being able to isolate a complex behavior into its own object, is also very useful. I base quite a lot of my architectural advice on the notion that you can decompose a system to a series of commands that you can compose and shuffle at will.
Recommendation: Use it. Often. In fact, if you go so far as to say that the only reason we have classes is to have a nice vehicle for creating commands, you wouldn’t be going far enough.
Okay, I am kidding, but I really like this pattern, and it is a useful one quite often. The thing that you want to watch for are commands that are too granular. IncrementAgeCommand that is basically wrapping Age++ is probably too much, for example. Commands are supposed to be doing something meaningful from the scope of the entire application.Assange writes: "We call on the Obama administration to appoint a Special Prosecutor to investigate the extent of the NSA's criminal activity against the media including WikiLeaks and its extended network."
(illustration: WikiLeaks)
Appoint a Special Prosecutor to Investigate the NSA
By Julian Assange, WikiLeaks
ulian Assange calls for the appointment of a Special Prosecutor to investigate the NSA, after documents show US spying on WikiLeaks and its supporters.
Today, documents were published from the national security whistleblower Edward Snowden, detailing US and UK spying efforts against the publishing organization WikiLeaks. One document shows that as far back as 2010 the US National Security Agency added WikiLeaks publisher Julian Assange to a "MANHUNTING" target list, together with suspected members of al-Qaeda. Another shows that the NSA wanted to designate WikiLeaks as a "malicious foreign actor" in order to expand the NSA's ability to target WikiLeaks staff, associates and supporters. And a third document, from 2012, demonstrates that the NSA's UK partner GCHQ also spied on WikiLeaks and its readers.
In response to these revelations WikiLeaks Editor Julian Assange has released the following statement:
'WikiLeaks strongly condemns the reckless and unlawful behavior of the National Security Agency. We call on the Obama administration to appoint a Special Prosecutor to investigate the extent of the NSA's criminal activity against the media including WikiLeaks and its extended network.
News that the NSA planned these operations at the level of its Office of the General Counsel is especially troubling. No less concerning are revelations that the US government deployed "elements of state power" to pressure European nations into abusing their own legal systems; and that the British spy agency GCHQ is engaged in extensive hostile monitoring of a popular publisher's website and its readers.
The NSA and its UK accomplices show no respect for the rule of law. But there is a cost to conducting illicit actions against a media organization. We have already filed criminal cases against the FBI and US military in multiple European jurisdictions. The FBI's paid informant, who attempted to sell information about me and my staff to the FBI, was imprisoned earlier this year.
No entity, including the NSA, should be permitted to act against journalists with impunity. We have instructed our General Counsel Judge Baltasar Garzón to prepare the appropriate response. The investigations into attempts to interfere with the work of WikiLeaks will go wherever they need to go. Make no mistake: those responsible will be held to account and brought to justice.'
The disclosures come after yesterday's release of two new documents from the long-running US Grand Jury against WikiLeaks. As of November 2013 the United States Department of Justice has stated that the investigation continues.Why Sourdough?
How Does It Work?
What You Need
Catching Sourdough
Bubbly Sourdough
Taking Care of Sourdough
Zen And The Art Of Sourdough
Recipes
Links
(last updated august 2017. public domain, anti-copyright)
Commercial "baking" yeast is a single kind of organism that belches a lot of gas really fast and transforms grain into something that's even less good for you. Sourdough is two organisms, wild yeast and bacteria, in symbiosis. Together they transform the grain to make it more healthful, more digestible, and also resistant to getting moldy or stale. Many people with wheat allergies or "yeast" allergies have no problem eating real sourdough. And it's free!With sourdough, you are keeping and feeding a population of friendly yeast and bacteria, called a "culture", or a "starter". The population rises and falls, depending on where you keep it and what you feed it. When you make a loaf of bread, you are carefully managing a population explosion. The sour flavor comes from acids made by the yeast and bacteria, and when it gets really strong, that does not mean the sourdough is strongly active, but that it is depleted, that the population has already eaten its food and collapsed.. Most grains will work, though only wheat has enough gluten to hold together big air bubbles and make a fluffy loaf. White flour has the same effect on sourdough that it has on you: it appears to work, but it's missing important nutrients, and over the long term it leads to poor health. I use a mix of home-ground whole wheat flour and white flour.. The more filtered, the better. At the very least it needs the chlorine taken out, which you can do just by setting it in an open container for a day or so.to keep your sourdough in. The wider the mouth, the better. Glass is ideal for sourdough. Pottery is good too, and probably wood. Plastic is bad and metal is the worst for sourdough because it reacts with the acids. Stainless steel might be okay for bowls and it's fine for utensils., depending on what you're making.Anor at least a stove.Some people have sourdough cultures that are more than 100 years old -- that is, they have been separated from nature for more than 100 years. I wonder how the yeast and bacteria have changed in that time, whether they're getting domesticated, losing their edge. So I like to catch a fresh culture at least once a year. People ask me for starter as if it's something precious that they couldn't get any other way, but catching sourdough is easy, easy, easy! Books make it sound like it's difficult and complicated and takes a long time. Using the following system, I have never once failed, and it usually takes less than three days.Mix equal volumes of good flour and good water, and set it in a glass jar in a warm place. Some people say to keep the lid off so yeast falls into it from the air, but evidence suggests that the yeast is already in the flour, so I just put the lid on loosely so it can breathe. A loose lid is easier than cheesecloth and works just as well. If you do keep the lid off, put it on a high shelf where less bad stuff will fall into it.What you've got now is a race between good and bad microcritters to take over your jar of food. If the sourdough wins, it will smell sour, probably with a layer of brown liquid on top, but not moldy or rotten. If it gets moldy or rotten, it's almost certainly because you're using low quality flour or water. If it doesn't do anything, it's probably because of irradiated flour, chlorinated water, or a location that's too cold. Rye flour is said to work better for starting the yeast, and then you can switch to a different flour if you want. Another trick is to put it in a warm place, but not above body temperature. Another trick (don't tell anyone) is to add a tiny bit of your saliva.I'm told that you can catch different strains of wild yeast and bacteria that behave differently, but I've done it many times and never noticed a difference. If you add commercial yeast, you'll just get a culture that's dominated by commercial yeast and not sourdough yeast. I've heard that you get something good if you use the white mold that grows on grapes.So: flour, water, jar, wait a couple days, it turns sour. By the time you're sure that your jar has been taken over by the good stuff, it will be much too depleted to use. So you need to dump out almost all of it, and add fresh flour and water, again in roughly equal amounts, and stir it well. Then it will rise, and be good enough to use, but still not as good as it will be after one or two more cycles (see below).After you've caught the right yeast and bacteria, you want your jar of flour/water to get bubbly and increase at least 50% in volume. If it doesn't bubble, smell it. If it smells like nothing, or like flour, it needs more time and warmth. If it smells really sour, but isn't bubbling well, refresh it again: throw out all but a little bit and add more flour and water.What you're aiming for is a jar of what I call peak sourdough. When sourdough is at its peak, it has risen to maximum volume, it's full of living yeast, it's thick enough to hold air bubbles, and it's not yet very sour. That's when it's perfect for eating, or for going to the next step if you're making bread. When it passes its peak, it falls in volume, the bubbles go out, the yeast population crashes, and it gets too sour -- too much acid and not enough sugar.Past-peak sourdough is great in a pie crust or anything leavened with baking powder, but it's difficult to use it for bread. You have to add a lot of flour and water (compared to the quantity of sourdough) to dilute the acid, and then wait longer for the next rise. Do not mistake sourness for rising power! The surest way to get your bread to rise is to build up to it, like a motorcycle jump, with good bubbly rising at every step.It's not as hard as a baby, or even a dog, but it requires much more attention than a plant. It's a bunch of tiny living animals that need frequent food. If you neglect them, they'll eat up all the food and die down to almost nothing, and possibly other organisms will take over. But the nice thing is, they do everything slower at lower temperatures. Unless you're eating sourdough at every meal, or your kitchen is cold, you'll need to keep it in a refrigerator.To feed it, remove almost all your sourdough (ideally you will eat it) and add more flour and water to what's left in the jar. Some people say to remove only half but this not only gives you less sourdough to eat, it leaves an overly sour acid bath for the next batch. You can remove 99.99% and your sourdough will still be alive -- it will just take a long time to build its population back. I remove about 90% -- I just dump it out and leave in whatever clings to the sides of the jar.When you add the flour and water, you'll have to learn through practice how thick to make it, depending on your flour. Some flour gets thicker after it soaks in water, so you have to start it runnier, and some flour gets runnier so you start it thicker. When it's done, if you need a spoon to get it out, it's too thick. If you're getting a layer of water, it's too thin. Also, as you'll quickly find out, you should only fill the jar about two thirds full, to give it room so it doesn't explode or run out everywhere. I always add the water first, and shake up the jar to evenly distribute the dregs of living sourdough, and then add the flour. And if I'm making bread that's part whole wheat and part white, I add the whole wheat now so it can benefit from longer soaking.It will often happen that you don't use your sourdough in time and it gets flat. The only thing to do is "reset" it: save a little bit, feed it fresh flour and water, and throw the rest out, or use it in something other than bread. You can save sourdough that has been neglected for a long time. Even if it's turned black on top and smells totally nasty, there's probably still some living yeast in there. Take a bit out and feed it fresh flour and water, and see what you get. And if it's dead, just catch a new one.Sourdough exercises your foresight and awareness. For example, at noon, I anticipate that I will make a waffle at 10PM, and I know that I used and fed the sourdough last night and put it straight in the fridge, so it's nowhere near ready. If it's a hot summer day, I should wait until about 6PM to take it out, but if it's cold I need to take it out now to give it all day to get to its peak. If I need it fast, I'll put the jar in some warm water. Another trick is to leave it out, bring it close to its peak, and then (if you remember) put it back in the fridge, where it will remain ready to use for maybe a day -- if you remember! What I'm getting at is, you have to devote a permanent bit of attention to where your sourdough is in its life cycle, kind of like one of the programs that runs in the background on your computer.I just take sourdough that's right at its peak, and pour it straight on a hot oiled pan or waffle iron. That's it! If you want to mix in other ingredients, or if you stir it at all, you will pop the bubbles and you'll have to stir in some baking powder to get it to rise enough. A waffle, because of the greater surface area, is more forgiving than a pancake. Even when I do it perfectly, my pancakes are a little gummy, but imperfect sourdough can still make excellent waffles. You'll be surprised how good it tastes with nothing but flour, water, and friendly microbes. Put on some pasture-raised butter and real maple syrup, and you've still spent less money than with white-flour white-sugar aluminum-baking-powder hydrogenated-oil restaurant pancakes. Almost any kind of flour will work.These are the next easiest thing. You still don't even need a bowl. Clear a space on the countertop or a big cutting board, pour some flour down, pour some sourdough on top of it, mix it with your fingers, fold it over a few times, add some more flour, and roll it out with a rolling pin or wine bottle. It will take some practice to get the proportions right and keep it from sticking. The more gluten is in your flour, the easier it is. With anything but wheat, you'll have to settle for very small tortillas.If you want a light, flaky crust, forget sourdough, and see my recipes here. A whole grain sourdough crust will not have light texture, but it will have more interesting flavor and be better for you. I recommend a mix of white flour and whole wheat pastry flour. Whole wheat bread flour is slightly easier to work with but the crust will be brick-like, and non-wheat is so fragile and sticky that I wouldn't even try to roll it out, but just press it into the pan.In a bowl, cut some butter into some flour. You can use your fingers, a pastry blender tool, or my new favorite method is to use frozen butter and a cheese grater. Most recipes call for a whole stick or more, but if I'm eating lots of pie, I might use as little as half a stick. For vegans, I recommend palm or coconut oil, or no-trans-fat margarine, which is common now. Liquid oil works too, but you'll probably have to roll the crust out between sheets of waxed paper. Just dump the oil in at the same time as the sourdough. I recommend extra virgin olive or sesame. Canola is not terrible, but its healthful reputation is pure marketing.Now add the sourdough. Two cups (16oz, half a liter) of bubbly sourdough should be enough for a two-crust pie, or more than enough for a single crust. Mix it in with the flour, don't work the dough too much, get it firm but pliable, and roll it out with more flour. Pie crust is not easy! For a lot more info, check out my pie crust page.In a bowl, cut butter or other solid oil into flour, then mix in some baking powder, and then dump in the sourdough. If you're using liquid oil, mix the flour and baking powder and then add the oil with the sourdough. It's basically like a pie crust, except you need baking powder to make the biscuits rise. For a 16 oz jar of sourdough, I'll use one or two teaspoons of baking powder. Have your oven already heated and your pan already oiled, and when you add the liquid stuff to the dry stuff, mix it quickly and gently, fold it over a couple times, and form the biscuits. I either make a fat disc and cut it into six wedges, or if the dough is too sticky, I just drop six gobs of it in the pan. Bake it at 350-375 F for 20-30 minutes.can be made by varying the biscuit recipe. For example, to make scones, add sweetener. For blueberry muffins, add sweetener and blueberries and cook them in a muffin pan. For banana bread, add some mashed up bananas and maybe walnuts, and make one big thing instead of several little ones. For most of this stuff I'd increase the baking powder to a tablespoon -- it's full of sodium but it's your insurance against the bread coming out wet and gummy.I use a blend of home-ground whole red wheat and white flour. As you move into whole grains and low-gluten grains, your bread gets healthier, but it gets harder to knead, harder to raise, denser, and more prone to being gummy.For bread, you have to manage two, maybe three yeast population blooms in sequence. The first one is just getting your working jar of sourdough bubbly. The optional second one is called the "sponge" -- basically you're making a larger quantity of peak sourdough.In a big glass bowl, mix some sourdough (called "starter" in this context) with a lot of flour and water. There are different ideas about how thick it should be, but probably about the same as the starter. Then the trick is timing -- knowing/controlling/detecting how long it takes to build a large and still growing yeast population. If you start with a lot of sourdough already at its peak, and the room is warm, it might take only a couple of hours. If you want to stretch it out longer (for example overnight), use a smaller amount of starter, or put it in a cooler place.It's not easy to tell when a sponge is done. If it's thin, it won't rise much. The purpose of the sponge is not to make air, but to grow a higher yeast population, and also to give it more time to transform the flour. The best way to measure your sponge is by smelling and tasting it. It should be yeasty and just a little sour. Then you want to take that population momentum and throw it into the next rising: add a lot more flour to the sponge, but no more water, knead it into a loaf, raise it for several hours, and bake it. With commercial yeast you usually punch down the loaf and let it rise a second time, but it's difficult to get an extra rise out of sourdough.If I'm making only one loaf I don't use a sponge. I just take my jar out of the fridge at night, add water, fresh-ground whole wheat flour, and a little white flour, and set it out overnight. In the morning I spread a bunch of white flour with salt on the counter, dump the jar on, knead it, raise it, and bake it. A recent trend is to make wet dough that's not kneaded at all. This only works with all white flour! The more whole grain flour is in your mix, the more important it is to knead it, and the more risky it is to make it wet. Wet dough rises faster and has softer texture, but it might collapse or be gummy. Overly dry dough won't collapse but its texture will be dense and powdery.There are different kneading techniques, but the only important thing is that you repeatedly fold the dough over on itself. The dough will probably get sticky and you'll have to add more flour. As a beginner, I used to do this for half an hour thinking this must be the last time I'll have to add flour, but it kept getting sticky again. Now I'm more aggressive about adding it at the beginning. You're aiming for dough that is silky-smooth and elastic, but not so dense that it's hard to work with. White flour and gluten make this easier.At this stage you can also add other ingredients. Salt is not necessary, but almost everyone adds it for flavor. You can also add sweetener, oil, herbs, or other kinds of food. It will take some research and experimentation to find out what effect these will have on the rising and the final texture of the bread.When my dough is ready to rise, I put it in an oiled and floured loaf-shaped bread pan. If it's dense, you can put it on a flat baking pan where it will form a nice round loaf without spreading out too much. If you're really good, you can raise it and then transfer it to a hot baking brick without collapsing it.In any case, before baking it, you have to know how long to raise it. Once again you're looking for the point where the yeast has eaten its food and transformed the dough and made lots of bubbles, but it hasn't started declining, which will make the loaf collapse because the air bubbles are no longer being filled. Six hours is typical, but it could take anywhere from 2-24 hours, depending on the temperature, the starting yeast population, and the density of the loaf. This is the hardest step for beginners. I would say, watch the bread and try to guess when it's risen about as much as it will rise. White bread might double in volume but whole wheat probably won't increase more than 50 percent.Now you put it in a hot oven, where ideally the warmth will give the yeast one final push of growth, and then the heat will expand the air bubbles and fix them in place in a not-too-dense loaf. I like to start at 425F, then turn it down to 400 and bake about 30 minutes. Professional bakers go much hotter and also use steam. The test for doneness is to take the loaf out and tap the bottom. It should sound hollow. Happy eating!The nice thing about pizza dough is it's so flat that there's no danger of it collapsing, so you can get away with a wetter dough. Otherwise it's just like regular bread. I put some olive oil in the mix, shape it and raise it in the pizza pan I'm going to cook it in, and when it's ready, just put the toppings on and bake it. A layer of coconut oil and a dusting of flour underneath the dough will help keep it from sticking.Make a large batch of bread dough (as above, wet dough is OK), and then instead of shaping it into a loaf, roll it out in a big square, maybe 8 inches by 24 inches (20x60 cm). A great trick is to use cinnamon instead of flour to roll it out. Then spread sweetener, nuts, raisins, whatever, making sure to go all the way to the edges, and roll it up from short edge to short edge, so you get a short thick cylinder. Cut it into about six pieces, and arrange them in a pan with high edges and just a little extra room, so when they rise they will fill the pan. Rise and bake.You can also form bread dough into round flat shapes and fry them! So if you're squatting, camping, or living in your car, and you have a stove but no oven, you can still have homemade bread.An extensive Sourdough FAQ Naturally Leavened Sourdough Bread and Naturally Leavened Bread cover the health benefits of sourdough over commercially yeasted bread. Against the Grain is about all the ways that wheat has been corrupted in the industrial age, and how it can be made more healthful through sprouting or souring.A page on the advantages of fresh stone-ground flour, with a small section on sourdough.And here's a more general piece I wrote on How To Eat BetterWhich is your ideal wheel size?
52mm or below 52mm - 55mm 55mm or up Whatever you got, man. Just picture me rollin'
When you whine about how skating was better 'back in the day' you're referring to:
1980s 1990- 1995 1995-2000 2000 - 2005 2005 - present No complaints. These are the days, and they always have been
What is this flip trick?
360 kickflip Switch frontside heelflip Switch 360 kickflip Inward Excalibur to fakie
NBD means:
Never Been Done Nacho Burrito Demento Nauseating Bowel Disorder Nice Buckle, Dennis!
In my opinion, skulls...
Look cool with gold teeth and a flat-brimmed hat Should definitely have maggots crawling out of their eye sockets Are awesome when they're on top of a sexy lady's body Skulls? What is this, the '80s?
Have you ever written an angry online comment?
Yes No I don't know how to write What's it to you, Dicknose?
Do you watch skate videos on a smart phone?
Every day A few times a week A few times a month Nah, that is an insultingly inadequate format to properly display the amount of work put into skating, filming, and editing
What's the biggest frontside grind you've ever done on transition? (And don't lie!)
Under 4 feet 4 - 8 feet 8 feet and above I ain't no bowl troll
Have you ever had someone yell 'Skate or Die!' in your direction, most likely out of a passing pick-up truck?
Yes No
My dream spot is a...
Marble street plaza 12-stair rail with a perfect run-up Backyard plywood vert ramp Drained pool Crusty ditch Anything with the bros
A 'hardflip' is a...
Heelflip backside shove-it Kickflip frontside shove-it Heelflip frontside shove-it Some bullshit
Who has the best frontside indy air?
Raven Tershy Hosoi Cab Grant Taylor Danny Way I ain't falling for that one!
When's the last time you watched a skate video on a VCR?
Within the past year 2 -5 years 5 years or more I have no idea what the hell you're talking about
Have you ever done a flip trick out of a manual?
Yes No No flips, but I did a shove-it out of a manual...once I've never done a flip trick nor a manual
Favorite Skate Tunes
Odd Future Bad Shit! Tommy Guerrero GG Allin Nickelback None of the above
SubmitNorman Borlaug Biographical
A central figure in the “green revolution”, Norman Ernest Borlaug (born March 25, 1914) was born on a farm near Cresco, Iowa, to Henry and Clara Borlaug. For the past twenty-seven years he has collaborated with Mexican scientists on problems of wheat improvement; for the last ten or so of those years he has also collaborated with scientists from other parts of the world, especially from India and Pakistan, in adapting the new wheats to new lands and in gaining acceptance for their production. An eclectic, pragmatic, goal-oriented scientist, he accepts and discards methods or results in a constant search for more fruitful and effective ones, while at the same time avoiding the pursuit of what he calls “academic butterflies”. A vigorous man who can perform prodigies of manual labor in the fields, he brings to his work the body and competitive spirit of the trained athlete, which indeed he was in his high school and college days.
After completing his primary and secondary education in Cresco, Borlaug enrolled in the University of Minnesota where he studied forestry. Immediately before and immediately after receiving his Bachelor of Science degree in 1937, he worked for the U.S. Forestry Service at stations in Massachusetts and Idaho. Returning to the University of Minnesota to study plant pathology, he received the master’s degree in 1939 and the doctorate in 1942.
From 1942 to 1944, he was a microbiologist on the staff of the du Pont de Nemours Foundation where he was in charge of research on industrial and agricultural bactericides, fungicides, and preservatives.
In 1944 he accepted an appointment as geneticist and plant pathologist assigned the task of organizing and directing the Cooperative Wheat Research and Production Program in Mexico. This program, a joint undertaking by the Mexican government and the Rockefeller Foundation, involved scientific research in genetics, plant breeding, plant pathology, entomology, agronomy, soil science, and cereal technology. Within twenty years he was spectacularly successful in finding a high-yielding short-strawed, disease-resistant wheat.
To his scientific goal he soon added that of the practical humanitarian: arranging to put the new cereal strains into extensive production in order to feed the hungry people of the world – and thus providing, as he says, “a temporary success in man’s war against hunger and deprivation,” a breathing space in which to deal with the “Population Monster” and the subsequent environmental and social ills that too often lead to conflict between men and between nations. Statistics on the vast acreage planted with the new wheat and on the revolutionary yields harvested in Mexico, India, and Pakistan are given in the presentation speech by Mrs. Lionaes and in the Nobel lecture by Dr. Borlaug. Well advanced, also, is the use of the new wheat in six Latin American countries, six in the Near and Middle East, several in Africa.
When the Rockefeller and Ford Foundations in cooperation with the Mexican government established the International |
argue the point – simply give me a couple of books, and a day or two of your time, and that’s really all that’s needed to teach you the essentials of investing. Seriously..!
While that crash-course would certainly provide a good foundation, it’s ultimately irrelevant – as I guarantee you it could take a lifetime (or never) to become a great investor. Gulp… So, is there anything to help with/change that? Actually, yes – c’mon, you know my answer:
Read, read, read & then read some more (’til…Exotic animals housed at mall are being evicted An Iowa mall told an animal exhibit that it needed to move in August and now the deadline has arrived. Share Shares Copy Link Copy
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WEBVTT The exotic animals housed at the Academy of Wildlife Education are being evicted from Merle Hay Mall! KCCI's Shaina Humphries explains, the race is on to find them a new home. BEHIND THIS BLACK CURTAIN & CLOSED SIGN IN THE MERLE HAY MALL... ARE DOZENS OF ANIMALS, INCLUDING BEARS, COUGARS AND WOLVES--WHO NEED A NEW HOME. <We are tasked with basically evicting the owner or occupant of that business. THE EVICTION SHOULD COME AS NO SURPRISE TO OWNER, RON DEARMOND. HE DIDN'T RETURN OUR PHONE CALLS TODAY, BUT WE SPOKE WITH HIM BACK IN AUGUST, WHEN HE WAS FIRST INFORMED THAT HIS LEASE IN THE MALL WOULD NOT BE RENEWED. <Well I think you're dealing in hypotheticals right now because we don't have any plans on shutting down before the new facilities are ready to move the animals into.> HE TOLD US ABOUT PLANS FOR A 20- MILLION-DOLLAR WILDLIFE PARK IN ALTOONA, BUT HE WAS FAR FROM RAISING ENOUGH MONEY TO BUILD IT THEN, AND IS STILL NOWHERE NEAR THAT GOAL NOW. <It sounds like a grand project, that's obviously going to take some time Time which I don't believe he's going to have. <The sheriff's office is now working with the ARL and the Blank Park Zoo to figure out a way to safely transport the animals to a temporary home.> A PERMANENT HOME, IS ALREADY AVAILABLE, THANKS TO RITA MASON. SHE FOUNDED THE CAMPAIGN, "STOP THE ZOO AT MERLE HAY MALL", AND TOOK MATTERS INTO HER OWN HANDS, LINING UP A HOME FOR THE ANIMALS, WHICH SHE SAYS IS APPROPRIATE AND HUMANE, UNLIKE A SHOPPING MALL. <The sanctuary that I offered up to Ron and the mall, the Wildlife Animal Sanctuary in Kingsburg, Colorado, they told me that the mall has been in touch with them.> BUT LEGALLY, THE ANIMALS STILL BELONG TO DEARMOND, UNLESS THE COURT GRANTS THE MALL CUSTODY, TO MOVE THEM. THE EVICTION WILL TAKE PLACE BY JANUARY 9TH. SHAINA HUMPHRIES, KCCIOur Kickstarter campaign is over, but you can still get involved with supporting Ghost. Head over to http://tryghost.org for more information.
What People Are Saying About Ghost
Forbes - "If Mr. O’Nolan and Ghost deliver on their big idea that is now a funded project, content innovation may return to the forefront of disruptive conversation."
Wired - "Ghost aims to reboot blogging... a combination of user-focused design, open-source code & non-profit company"
TechCrunch - "Ghost will take your boring blog to the next astral plane... it looks so darn beautiful."
Mashable - "Is This Kickstarter Project the Future of Blogging?"
ProBlogger - "a simply, elegantly designed and useful interface... I’m really excited to see this developed"
Ignite100, Europe's £1 million startup accelerator programme - "Awesome work."
AGBeat - "first exciting thing to happen to blogging in years"
What do You Have to Say About The World?
Ghost is a platform dedicated to one thing: Publishing. It's beautifully designed, completely customiseable and completely Open Source. Ghost allows you to write and publish your own blog, giving you the tools to make it easy and even (gasp) fun to do. It's simple, elegant, and designed so that you can spend less time messing with making your blog work - and more time blogging.
Writing for The Web. Done Right.
Ghost has a smart writing screen. Markdown on the left, and a live preview on the right. Write down your ideas and format them on the fly, never pausing to click on endless formatting buttons, never having to write long/painful HTML to express your ideas. You can even theme the preview pane to match your blog's formatting exactly.
A Dashboard That Makes Sense
Ghost grabs all the important data about your blog and pulls it into one place, so you can see it all together. No more clicking through tens of browser tabs to view your traffic, social media subscriptions, content performance or news feeds. Drag and drop the widgets most important to you into your own custom dashboard, and stay on top of your blog's performance.
Simple Content Management
Ghost does something ridiculously simple when it comes to your content. It lets you browse and preview you all your stuff within a single view, just like you're already used to with your email. Save time, save energy, browse and manage your content without over-click syndrome.
Ready for Sharing and Search
Ghost comes ready to connect to your social media services right out of the box. No endless plugins required to do stuff that everyone with a blog wants to do. Connect your blog to publish to your Twitter and Facebook accounts, rank properly in search engines, and much more.
Customise it Completely
Ghost is Open Source, and it's all yours. You can write themes for it so your blog can have its own design. You can write plugins for it to add your own functionality. You can host it on your laptop, or you can host it on a public server. The code is open, and so is the MIT license. No restrictions.
We're incredibly proud to announce that WooThemes have backed us at the partner level and will be creating themes for Ghost.
"WooThemes wanted to support Ghost and see it become a reality, because we want our users to experience the same awesomeness. As such, we'll be working closely with the Ghost team to get some of our themes Ghost-ready" - Adii Pienaar
Not Just for Solo Bloggers
The first version of Ghost is focused on small blogs, but Ghost was born out of many frustrations. One of those was managing online newsrooms. Want to build the next Mashable? We're building Ghost to scale with features that allow news sites and magazines to manage editors and authors and content in a way that makes sense.
Mobile Friendly
Inspiration can strike anywhere, not just when you're sitting behind a computer. So, Ghost works where you work. Ghost is a fully responsive web application that works on all devices. Not just moderating comments or token functionality. The whole thing.
Made for Love, not for Profit
Ghost is a non-profit project. If successfully funded, Ghost will be legally registered as a not-for-profit organisation. Why should you care? It means that no one owns shares of monetary value in the project. We're building Ghost because we want online publishing to be better. We want to make decisions focused on that goal, not on building a startup that we can sell to Facebook for $1billion.
Being a non-profit means that any money Ghost makes can only ever be used to re-invest in making Ghost better. Not making shareholders rich.
Use Ghost in The Cloud + Help us Grow
This Kickstarter project is all about building Ghost v1.0 and delivering it to our backers - but we don't just want to stop there. The majority of the problems which exist with self-hosted blogs, exist due to complications with hosting. That's something we want to solve.
We're setting up world-class hosted platform that allows you to set up a new Ghost blog in just a couple of clicks
You'll need hosting for your blog no matter what, but our service will be the most powerful way of running Ghost - and the easiest to get started with. You'll have the full Ghost software with all bells, whistles, themes, plugins, and some extras that are only available with us (like automatic updates and backups).
What's more by choosing to run your blog through our hosted platform, you'll be investing in the future of the software.
Every penny we make from our hosted customers will be re-invested to make Ghost better and grow the platform.
The sad thing about Open Source software projects funded on Kickstarter is that they usually have an initial flurry of activity when they launch, and then they slowly but surely die off when the money runs out because they have no business model to keep going. We want to build Ghost to be a self-sustaining open source project.
Users hosting with us = revenue = development = better software = more users = more revenue = more development = well... you get the idea.
How Does it Work?
We're incredibly excited about creating the first fully-featured blogging platform in the world that's built entirely with JavaScript.
Ghost is a Node.js application powered by the Express framework. Ghost ships with SQLite, which means it can run pretty much anywhere - however everything is connected through JugglingDB ORM, adding future support for many other database formats.
Ghost will be available via NPM, making it extremely simple (and fast!) to install on all major environments.
Ghost theming is done with Handlebars, which keeps our business and view logic separated. Mmmm semantic + sexy. If you know how to write WordPress themes, you'll be writing Ghost themes in under 5 minutes. Here's an example.
Of course there's also support for customising and extending your blog with additional functionality via plugins with helpers and data filters built right into Ghost. We'll also be supporting full international translations from the word go using Node Polyglot.js.
Finally, Ghost is being released under the MIT License. It's pretty much the most free Open Source license out there. It means you can do whatever you want with Ghost, and you can choose whatever license you want when you build something with Ghost. Want to release a GPL Ghost theme? That's fine. Want to release an MIT theme? That's fine too.
Where We Are Now
We've been slowly working on Ghost since I posted up the idea in November. As you can see from the video, we have a real working prototype - but there's still a lot to do.
With your support we can work hard to finish the first complete release of Ghost and get it out into the world. Your backing will help fund:
Development time. We want to work on Ghost and nothing but Ghost in 2013. We want to ship the first public version of Ghost by the end of the summer.
Legal stuff. We need to do a couple of important things like register trademarks, and register properly as a non-profit organisation.
Infrastructure. We've got tons of work to do to complete the Ghost community website and platform to allow us to properly support users, provide hosting, and be the home of Ghost. We want to complete this by the end of the year.
The People Behind Ghost
My name is John O'Nolan. I've been building websites (but mainly blogs) with WordPress since 2005, a year after it was launched. From 2009-2011 I worked as the Deputy Head of the WordPress UI Group, where I helped to design and develop the WordPress user interface - and spoke at conferences all over the world about designing WordPress. I've designed, built, and worked on blogs for companies including Microsoft, Ubisoft, Nokia, Virgin Atlantic Airways, easyJet, MTV, Travelllll.com, Tourism Australia, Tourism Spain, WooThemes, W3 Edge and many others.
My main partner in crime, Hannah Wolfe, is a Senior Developer at Moo.com where she is currently working with a small team focused on a little site called Flavors.me. Hannah has been developing WordPress sites for over 7 years and prior to MOO - worked as a developer for a web agency, building websites (and blogs) for large household names in the UK.
Equally, this first prototype of Ghost would not have been possible without the generous contributions of many other people:Photo illustration by Slate. Image via Ridofranz/iStock.
More than three-quarters of American adults own a smartphone, and on average, they spend about two hours each day on it. In fact, it’s estimated that we touch our phones between 200 and 300 times a day—for many of us, far more often than we touch our partners.
That means that when we’re on our phones, we aren’t just killing time or keeping in touch. We’re “sensorizing” the world in ways that we may not yet fully comprehend.
There are now networked cameras and microphones everywhere—there are more than 1 billion smartphones out there, each presumably equipped with a camera. Most of the photos shared online are taken with a phone, with about 1 billion photos uploaded each day to Facebook alone, according to my calculations.
Even if you do not tag the people in an image, photo recognition systems can do so. Facebook’s DeepFace algorithm can match a face to one that has appeared in previously uploaded images, including photos taken in dramatically different lighting and from dramatically different points of view. Using identified profile photos and tagged photos and social-graph relationships, a very probable name can be attached to the face.
All of this might seem innocuous, but these photos of our friends and family and surroundings reveal a great deal. The issue has heightened significance with the publication, in February, of a paper from the Google Brain team. They’ve developed an impressive new method for extrapolating a high-resolution image from a pixelated or very low-resolution photograph—what they call “super resolution.”
To start, most people activate the GPS on their phones in order to get directions. By default, the metadata associated with a photo taken on a phone with GPS enabled includes the longitude and latitude where the photo was taken. While it is possible to delete these data from your own photos, you can’t control the metadata of images taken by others.
Geolocation metadata are not the only means for pinpointing your location, however. A well-known landmark in the background, a street sign, or a restaurant’s menu can give away your location. The length of the shadows on the ground provides the approximate time of day. It doesn’t take a human to make these observations; photo recognition systems can do it. Algorithms are even being trained on video taken from low-resolution surveillance and mobile cameras to identify individuals—and not by their face. A person pounding the pavement of a city street can be identified and tracked block-to-block by the unique characteristics of her gait.
Photo-recognition systems can also be used to interpret the environment in which a photo was taken. Several years ago, a small tech company called Jetpac identified and categorized the content of 150 million photos posted publicly on Instagram to build a directory of businesses searchable by their characteristics. If the photos taken at a restaurant showed a lot of mouths wearing lipstick, Jetpac’s app would tag the spot as “dressy.” If most of the faces in a photo of a bar were male, it would tag the spot as a gay bar. (Jetpac was acquired by Google in 2014.)
Many of the Instagram photos that Jetpac was analyzing had geolocation data attached to them. By combining its photo recognition results and tags with location IDs, Jetpac realized it could create a listing of gay hangouts in Tehran. Would sharing such a directory be a service or a disservice to Jetpac’s users? It might be a welcome development to an Iranian who didn’t want to risk coming out to the wrong person by asking either friends or strangers. But the consequences could be terrible for the gay community if the list of bars or users accessing the list got into the hands of the mullahs. If Jetpac was able to develop this refining capability, what’s to stop another company or government from doing the same?
Algorithms can also identify the emotion you’re feeling in a photo or video. Decades ago, Paul Ekman, professor emeritus at the University of California–San Francisco, observed that people around the world made distinct facial expressions, some of them lasting less than a second, in response to specific emotionally charged situations. More recently, Ekman served as an adviser to a San Diego company called Emotient, a company acquired by Apple in 2016 that developed software to identify emotional sentiments from camera feeds in real time. With a single high-resolution camera, Emotient’s algorithms can simultaneously “read” the emotional microexpressions on the faces of 400 people gathered in an area—say, a lecture hall or shopping mall. Emotient is working on adapting its algorithms for use in hospitals to detect pain on patients’ faces.
Researchers at Oxford University and the University of Edinburgh’s Medical Research Council Institute of Genetics and Molecular Medicine have developed a phone app that can be used to analyze photos against a database of rare genetic conditions, helping patients discover undiagnosed health conditions—including Fragile X syndrome, a learning disability affecting 1 in 4,000 boys and 1 in 6,000 girls that is associated with large ears and a long face.
The app Im2Calories, developed by research scientist Kevin Murphy’s group at Google, turns food photos into a food diary and calorie count, so that all those photos of you enjoying a meal with friends could add up to an assessment of your future health.
And this past January researchers at Japan’s National Institute of Informatics announced that they had copied a person’s fingerprint by taking a photo with a standard digital camera from nearly 10 feet away. The team was able to replicate the arches, loops, and whorls of skin on the finger pads well enough to unlock an identity authentication system. The researchers suggested that in two years’ time, people will be able to affix films containing titanium oxide to their finger pads to guard themselves from identity theft.
These are just a few examples of the research projects that are gleaning unexpected insights from the images and videos people post online without a second thought. Many of the algorithms being developed will improve our lives—helping us to make better decisions about our personal relationships, work lives, and health by alerting us to signals we are not yet aware of. The problem comes when others have access to this data, too, and make decisions about us based on them, potentially without our knowledge.
Taking a photo or video in public isn’t illegal, nor is taking one with a person’s permission. It’s also not illegal to upload the file or store it in the cloud. Applying optical character recognition, facial recognition, or a super-resolution algorithm isn’t illegal, either. There’s simply no place for us to hide anymore.
For the past 100 years, we’ve depended on the “right to privacy” to protect us from the threats of unwanted attention. The case for a right to privacy was first made back in 1890, when former law firm partners Samuel Warren and Louis Brandeis railed in the Harvard Law Review against increasing intrusions into people’s lives. The offenders? “Recent inventions and business methods”—including photographs and circulation-hungry newspapers trading in gossip. As with many inventions, the right to privacy was devised to solve a personal problem: Warren and his family had recently been the victims of unflattering and unwanted sketches in the society columns. They clearly didn’t live at a time when 1 billion photos a day were being posted on Facebook.
The right to privacy was a great idea, but it was an idea of its time, when data were scarce, communities were localized, and communicating was costly. Life is different now. We aren’t going to be able to stop everyone from uploading photos and videos: Indeed, few of us would want to, as doing so would terribly constrain personal expression and social interaction. Instead, we need to start thinking about how these images of us might be used to make decisions about us—and focus on protections against discrimination rather than restrictions against collection.
Unfortunately, current U.S. data-use laws are a patchwork of feeble protections determined sector by sector. Most of the laws—including the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act, whereby you must authorize the sharing of health data with your insurer, and the Fair Credit Reporting Act, which lets you see your credit report—provide you with a small amount of access or control over data about you. Withholding this data isn’t really an option. Most recent legislative attempts to protect data have been aimed at requiring to notify people when there’s been a security breach and holding companies to account for the financial consequences of any breaches. These are all worthy goals, but they are woefully inadequate for the sensorized age of social data.
It’s unlikely that Congress will pass laws with more robust protections around the use of image data. But we can demand that companies be more transparent about the algorithms that they use to identify images of us and what might be learned about us, pixel by pixel.
This article is part of Future Tense, a collaboration among Arizona State University, New America, and Slate. Future Tense explores the ways emerging technologies affect society, policy, and culture. To read more, follow us on Twitter and sign up for our weekly newsletter.Trump can't even feign sympathy for hurricane victims without lying.
Hurricane Harvey was the first test of how Donald Trump would handle a domestic crisis — and he failed that test miserably.
On Tuesday, Trump traveled to Corpus Christi, Texas, to be briefed on the response to the storm, which destroyed an estimated 30,000 to 40,000 homes in the Houston area alone. With the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) expecting to see as many as 450,000 people register as disaster victims, the impact of Harvey could end up being greater than Hurricane Katrina.
However, during his visit to the area, Trump was apparently more concerned with seeing large crowds at his speech than seeing the impact of the disaster or assessing the need for help.
“With Houston still inundated, Trump kept away from the heart of the disaster zone,” Dallas News reported. “Even a few miles from Corpus, he would have encountered homes destroyed by flooding. But with first lady Melania Trump and an entourage of cabinet members in tow, he kept his distance.”
According to Dallas News, Trump didn’t even visit a hurricane shelter or have any interactions with anyone who lost a home or was otherwise affected by the storm.
So when Trump tweeted out a statement about “witnessing first hand the horror & devastation caused by Hurricane Harvey,” reporters from the area were baffled — and it didn’t take long for Trump to get called out for lying about his visit.
“Our reporting does not match claim that POTUS witnessed any horror of devastation first hand,” tweeted Todd Gillman, Washington bureau chief for Dallas News.
Trump hasn’t addressed the issue or given any explanation for why he would lie about his brief visit to Texas.
In the past, Trump has viciously attacked others for making similarly misleading claims. Most memorably, Trump and his supporters mercilessly went after former NBC Nightly News anchor Brian Williams after a 2015 segment in which the reporter misrepresented events that happened during his 2003 Iraq War coverage.
On Tuesday night, Trump ally and Fox News host Sean Hannity ripped the media for their coverage of Hurricane Harvey, invoking Williams’ name in his rant.
“Would you like to get lectured by ‘Lyin Brian’ Williams about dead bodies floating outside of the Ritz where there’s no water?” Hannity raged. “We’re going to get lectures from him … about honesty?”
We’ll be eagerly awaiting Hannity’s rant about Trump’s own dishonest statement about what he “witnessed” in Texas.More than five years after the largest mass arrests in Canadian peacetime history, the senior officer who twice issued the highly controversial order to “kettle” people during the the G20 summit was found guilty of three charges at a police disciplinary tribunal Tuesday.
For the hundreds of protesters and bystanders boxed in, arrested and detained during Toronto’s notorious G20 summit, it is a taste of justice at last.
Hamilton found Fenton not guilty of two other misconduct charges in connection to hundreds of detentions at the makeshift “prisoner processing centre.”
“This decision to order mass arrests demonstrated a lack of understanding of the right to protest,” said retired judge John Hamilton, who was tapped by former chief Bill Blair to oversee the hearing.
Supt. David (Mark) Fenton was convicted on two counts of unlawful arrest and one count of discreditable conduct relating to two incidents of “kettling” — including the hours-long containment of hundreds during a torrential downpour.
Civil rights groups have long been calling for consequences for senior officers who ordered the indiscriminate arrest then detainment of a total of 1,100 people over the entire weekend.
“He deeply regrets that some of those decisions led to the arrest of people who were not involved in the violence and that some people were held in the rain for hours,” lawyer Peter Brauti said in a statement. “He would like to personally apologize to all those innocent parties that were negatively affected.”
Fenton said nothing following the brief judgment at Toronto police headquarters, held inside an auditorium packed with police colleagues and upper command officers. Through his lawyer, Fenton — who had pleaded not guilty to the charges — issued an apology shortly after the tribunal decision came down.
The senior officer, who held the reins at the G20 command centre, had no reasonable grounds to call for the mass arrest during two police blockades, one outside an Esplanade hotel, the other at Queen St. W. and Spadina Ave., Hamilton ruled.
Fenton is the only upper command officer charged under the province’s Police Act for his actions during the summit and one of only a handful of cops to ever see any consequence from the events of that June 2010 weekend.
“At least somebody, Supt. Fenton, has been held to account. Unfortunately, not everybody has been.”
“You don’t do that in this country. This is not a police state, this is Canada,” said Paul Cavalluzzo, a lawyer for some of the “kettling” complainants and the Canadian Civil Liberties Association.
Adrienne Lei, who represented complainants kettled at Queen and Spadina, called the decision “an important recognition that the police disgraced themselves at the G20” — but she is disappointed in the timing.
“It’s a joke that this is the fifth-year anniversary, and we’re finally getting a decision,” she said.
In his ruling, Hamilton was sympathetic to the situation Fenton “inherited:” unprecedented levels of property damage and protesters he dubbed “hooligans,” who smashed windows and lighted police cruisers ablaze earlier that weekend. Upper command had not been adequately prepared for the G20, and as a result officers on the ground were caught “flat-footed,” Hamilton said.
Fenton, with his extensive policing experience and an “unblemished” career, took his role as G20 commander seriously, Hamilton noted. The officer had testified during the hearing that the chaos of the G20 reminded him of violence in his native Northern Ireland, calling the protesters “terrorists.”
But Hamilton found Fenton’s solution to the chaos — the decision to box in protesters, which Fenton testified he made on the fly — was too extreme.
“His use of power was not rationally connected to the purported risk to be managed,” the retired judge said, finding Fenton guilty of one count of unlawful arrest for each kettling incident.
Hamilton also found Fenton guilty of discreditable conduct for keeping hundreds boxed in at Queen and Spadina during a thunderstorm. When the weather “turned ugly,” Fenton had the responsibility to ensure that prisoners had adequate protection from the elements, Hamilton ruled.
The two charges Fenton was exonerated of relate to the detention of prisoners and the G20’s processing centre. Hamilton ruled that another commander of equal rank was responsible for the “unduly harsh” detentions at the processing centre and that Fenton cannot be held responsible.
“I find that there is not clear and convincing evidence that Supt. Fenton was guilty of misconduct by failing to monitor the detentions of all complainants at the (prisoner processing centre).”
The sentencing hearing is set to begin Dec. 21. Under the Police Services Act, the consequence of Fenton’s convictions could range from reprimand to dismissal.
Asked if he was concerned that Fenton, who has nearly 27 years on the force, could choose to retire before being sentenced, Cavalluzzo said “it would make the situation more absurd than it already is.”
“People should be held to account. The chief of police at the time (Blair) is running now for federal parliament for the Liberals. The Prime Minister is on the hustings trying to get re-elected. Why aren’t people concerned about the fact that so many Canadians peacefully protesting were arrested? That to me is just intolerable.”
Fenton’s legal team was disappointed with the result, but respects Hamilton’s ruling “and the process that allowed all of the complainants the opportunity to participate,” Brauti said.
“Supt. Fenton had a very difficult job during the G20 trying to control unprecedented violence and property damage that was occurring in the city of Toronto. He had to make quick decisions and judgment calls to protect the city.”
For Shervin Akhavi, who was kettled at Queen and Spadina, Hamilton’s ruling was both satisfactory and insufficient. He is pleased to see Fenton found guilty, but disappointed no one other than him has been held accountable.
Nonethless, after threatening for years to take down his framed copy of the Charter of Rights and Freedoms if Fenton was not found guilty, Akhavi says his shaken faith in Canada has been restored.
“It’s staying up,” he said.
-
THE CHARGES
Here’s how Fenton’s charges broke down:
Guilty: Two counts of unlawful or unnecessary arrests
Former Superior Court judge John Hamilton, who oversaw the hearing, found Fenton did not have reasonable grounds to order the mass arrest and detention of protesters at each of the “kettling” incidents.
He also ruled that Fenton did not give the officers on the ground the ability to decide who was to be arrested.
“There was evidence before this tribunal suggesting that Supt. Fenton expected that bystanders would not be arrested at either location. Had bystanders been excluded from the containment, and not subject to arrest, that still would have left legitimate protesters. They had the right not to be subject to arrest for making noise, chanting and sitting in the public street.”
Guilty: discreditable conduct
Fenton was charged with discreditable conduct for keeping protesters and bystanders in the Queen St. W. and Spadina Ave. kettle “notwithstanding the onset of sustained, severe and inclement weather…”
Hamilton agreed, saying Fenton should have taken action to ensure the health and wellbeing of those being detained outside.
“When the weather turned ugly, there was a responsibility on the part of Supt. Fenton and others to ensure that prisoners had adequate protection from the elements.”
Not guilty: discreditable conduct and one count of unlawful or unnecessary arrest
Fenton was charged with discreditable conduct and unlawful arrest in connection with the “kettlings” on the Esplanade. The allegations included that Fenton “failed to monitor the status of the detentions … (and) in doing so, (Fenton) caused those so arrested to be arbitrarily and unlawfully detained…”
Hamilton agreed that the detentions at the G20’s so-called “Prisoner Processing Centre” (PPC) were “unduly harsh” and that the cells were “cage-like.”
But the retired judge ruled that another commander, of equal rank to Fenton, was responsible for the processing centre, meaning Fenton “cannot be held responsible for the happenings at the PPC.”
“I find that there is not clear and convincing evidence that Supt. Fenton was guilty of misconduct by failing to monitor the detentions of all complainants at the PPC.”Copyright by KRQE - All rights reserved New Mexico State center Tshilidzi Nephawe, left, drives around Kansas forward Landen Lucas during the first half of an NCAA tournament college basketball game in the Round of 64, Friday, March 20, 2015, in Omaha, Neb. (AP Photo/Charlie Neibergall)
Copyright by KRQE - All rights reserved New Mexico State center Tshilidzi Nephawe, left, drives around Kansas forward Landen Lucas during the first half of an NCAA tournament college basketball game in the Round of 64, Friday, March 20, 2015, in Omaha, Neb. (AP Photo/Charlie Neibergall)
DAVE SKRETTA, AP Sports Writer - OMAHA, Neb. (AP) - Second-seeded Kansas did its best to restore some luster to the Big 12.
Well, at least scrub away some of the tarnish.
Frank Mason III scored 17 points to lead a balanced attack, and the Jayhawks rolled to a 75-56 victory over No. 15 seed New Mexico State on Friday, giving their beleaguered conference its first NCAA Tournament victory in four tries this March.
Perry Ellis added nine points for the Jayhawks (27-8), who did their part in setting up a tantalizing matchup with seventh-seeded Wichita State in the Midwest Region's round of 32.
The Shockers played No. 10 seed Indiana in their opening game later Friday.
DK Eldridge had 11 points and Remi Barry and Tshilidzi Nephawa scored 10 each for the Aggies (23-11), who had won 13 straight while sweeping the Western Athletic Conference regular-season and tournament titles.
Aggies fall to Kansas 75 to 56. - Van Tate (@krqesports) March 20, 2015
By the way, this is the first time in 24 games that @NMStateAggies has allowed 70 points in a game. Still playing hard #AggieUp - NM State Aggies (@NMStateAggies) March 20, 2015
Aggies trail Kansas 70 to 51 with 2:48 left in the game. - Van Tate (@krqesports) March 20, 2015
Getting unwatchable. - Van Tate (@krqesports) March 20, 2015
Aggies will lose for sure if they keep giving up wide open 3's. - Van Tate (@krqesports) March 20, 2015
Big 7 foot 3 Tanveer Bhullar comes in with two straight buckets for Aggies. They trail 49 to 36. - Van Tate (@krqesports) March 20, 2015
Siakum nice block for the Aggies. They trail Kansas 44 to 30 in the second half. - Van Tate (@krqesports) March 20, 2015(Frogtravel/Dreamstime)
Last year, a faction of the feminist Left discovered that it was being oppressed by the absence of a woman on at least one piece of America’s paper currency. After much baying from activists, Treasury Secretary Jack Lew has struck upon a reasonable compromise. Lew announced on Wednesday that the place of Alexander Hamilton, currently experiencing a historical renascence, on the $10 bill is safe. Instead, Harriet Tubman, the great abolitionist, will replace Andrew Jackson on the front of the $20 bill, and the seventh president will be moved to the back.
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Tubman is an admirable choice. Not only was she a courageous chaperone along the Underground Railroad, responsible for escorting more than 300 slaves to freedom; she was also a scout and spy for the Union Army, the first woman in American history to lead a military raid (against Combahee Ferry, in South Carolina, where she helped liberate more than 700 slaves), a Republican, a devout Christian, and a staunch defender of the right to bear arms.
Andrew Jackson, for his part, was a giant of American history, and the animating spirit of the Democratic party. But moods change, and in the current public consciousness, Jackson’s considerable flaws have come to outweigh his also considerable merits. If there is a reason to remove Jackson from the currency, perhaps it should simply be that he hated paper money.
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RELATED: What They Didn’t Teach You in School about Harriet Tubman
Meanwhile, Lew’s compromise leaves Alexander Hamilton on the $10 bill. And as long as great Americans adorn our currency, it would be difficult to think of a person more deserving than Hamilton, who not only was one of the original American rags-to-riches stories but was also, as the first secretary of the Treasury, responsible for establishing the national financial structure that facilitated the greatest engine of prosperity in human history: the American economy. If Hamilton does not deserve a place on our money, who does?
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#share#Unfortunately, though, this whole episode has been a product less of considered opinions than of ideological whims. Hamilton became a target not out of any principled opposition, but because feminists decided that it was time for our currency to boast “a woman,” and the $10 bill was next due to be redesigned, in 2019. (Incidentally, Hamilton also was saved by timing: the fortuitous opening of a hit Broadway musical about his life.) The notes and coins of our currency are not national monuments — they are periodically redesigned to reflect shifts in national values, and the American public clearly wants currency that showcases a more diverse array of Americans who have contributed to the ongoing work of winning liberty and justice for all — but decisions about who adorns our currency shouldn’t be made to accommodate momentary fancies.
This whole episode has been a product less of considered opinions than of ideological whims.
Resisting that temptation will be harder, given the slate of changes the Treasury Department is planning beyond the $20 bill. According to Lew, the $10 bill will be redesigned to display on its back, instead of the Treasury building, portraits of leaders of the women’s-suffrage movement. And the back of the $5 bill will be refashioned to include images of Martin Luther King Jr., Eleanor Roosevelt, and opera singer–cum–civil-rights activist Marian Anderson.
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Each of those persons made valuable contributions to the American way of life. But printing a Who’s Who volume on the currency is sure to prompt calls to include a representative from this cause and that one. After all, why not Cesar Chavez? Why not Harvey Milk? And it prompts straightforward aesthetic concerns: Who wants a dollar bill that looks like a photo album?
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This contretemps highlights, once again, the extent to which the histories of particular groups and interests are now so often preferred to a larger, unifying American history. The current administration may have satisfied progressive demands momentarily. But we’ll be fighting this battle again, soon enough. You can put money on it.Iran playing dangerous double game in Syria
Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, talks to Vice-President Mohammad Reza Rahimi, not pictured |
of the team, advising ArchCo on local issues.
Anita Vining, president of the San Marco Merchants Association. and a Realtor with Berkshire Hathaway Home Services, said Tuesday that she'll be excited to see work finally begin.
"It's an empty parking lot that's absolutely valuable dirt," she said. "The grocery store will be convenient for residents of San Marco, the Southbank and even further south."
She also said she thought there was room for the new apartments.
"Speaking from a real estate viewpoint," she said, "we definitely need them. I own a condo in San Marco Place, the tower, and it's never been empty. Anytime someone moves out, there's someone to move it.
"Right now, there's nothing available in the building. Look at all those small multi-familiy buildings on San Marco Boulevard. You rarely see a 'for rent' sign out there."
Roger Bull: (904) 359-4296GREEN BAY, Wis. -- The Green Bay Packers drafted defensive players with each of their first four picks this year. By the fifth practice of training camp, there was only one left.
Kevin King, their top overall pick, joined third-round pick Montravius Adams and fourth-rounder Vince Biegel on what is actually a short list of injured players. It's just that the rookie class has been hit hard.
King sustained a shoulder injury, and although he attended practice on Tuesday, he did not participate. He also did not appear to have his shoulder wrapped in any kind of brace, but he was not available for comment after practice.
Kevin King was sidelined Tuesday with a shoulder injury. Larry Radloff/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images
The 33rd overall pick in the draft had spent the previous three practices working extensively with the No. 1 defense -- a sign that coach Mike McCarthy and defensive coordinator Dom Capers were preparing the 6-foot-3 cornerback to be an opening-day starter on a defense badly in need of improvement against the pass, where it ranked 31st in the NFL last season.
Without King, Quinten Rollins teamed with Davon House as the two cornerbacks in the base defense during Tuesday's practice, while Damarious Randall manned the slot position.
On the same day, McCarthy said Adams underwent surgery on his foot injury. The defensive tackle dropped out after the second practice and never worked in pads. The timeline for Adams' return remains "multiple weeks," McCarthy said.
Biegel, who had foot surgery in May, remains on the physically unable to perform list. He cannot practice until he's activated, but he has begun to at least go through some of the early practice jog-through periods.
Of the Packers' top four draft picks, only second-round pick Josh Jones practiced on Tuesday. The safety-linebacker hybrid has been one of the most impressive players in camp so far. Other than the three sidelined draft picks, only two other players have been out: cornerbacks Demetri Goodson (knee) and Herb Waters (shoulder).This a detailed practical guide about how to control RGB LED connected to Arduino using an Android app. Discover how to integrate Arduino and Android and how to develop an Android app that exchanges data with Arduino
This Arduino tutorial describes how to integrate Arduino and Android to control RGB LED. The target of this Arduino project is describing how to build a DIY IoT RGB LED controlled by a smartphone. This is an interesting topic because it mixes two ecosystems together and you can apply this Arduino IoT project in different scenarios. First of all, this project teaches how to integrate Arduino and Android so that they exchange data. Even if this tutorial describes how to control LEDs connected to Arduino using an Android App, you can apply it for different scenarios where it is necessary to control other kinds of peripherals (as motors, servo and so on). Even if this Arduino project can be considered an IoT project tutorial for beginners it has several applications.
I’m sure, you have seen RGB strip LEDs controlled by an Android app, well using this tutorial and connecting to Arduino a LED strips instead of a single RGB Led we can obtain the same result.
In more details, what we want to obtain building this Arduino IoT project, is developing an Android app that controls the LEDs connected to Arduino changing their color. The Android app acts as front-end, using this app an user can select the LEDs color as it happens in the commercial applications.
To make things working there are several steps:
Creating an Android app so that we can select the color we want. Sending data to Arduino. The data is built by the three color values (Red, Green, Blue). Developing an Arduino app that accepts connections from the Android app and controls the RGB Led controller
First of all, if you are new to the Internet of things project, you should read Internet of things project with Arduino and Android, so that you get introduced to IoT projects.
The final result is shown in the video below:
Control LED project overview: Integrating Arduino and Android
Before digging into the project details, it is useful to have an overview of this Arduino IoT project:
In the picture below, the Android app connects using HTTP connection to the Arduino device that controls the Led.
In a previous post we talked about how to turn on and off a led connected to Arduino using Android app, now it is time to make things a little more complex.
To build this project, we need:
Android side:
Colour picker View
Http client that sends data
Arduino side:
HTTP server to get data
Simple JSON parser
RGB led handler
Now we know what to do let’s start.
Android app with a color picker to select the RGB LED color
To control RGB LED, the first step is creating an Android color picker UI so that the user can pick the color to turn on the Arduino led (RGB). Let us start with the final Android UI result:
To create this interface we used an interesting open source project called Color Picker. This component is very easy to use.
Want to use your Arduino in an IoT project? Read how to develop an IoT project with Arduino in 3 steps.
At the first step, we create the main layout based on Android Floating Action Button:
<RelativeLayout xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android" xmlns:app="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res-auto" xmlns:tools="http://schemas.android.com/tools" android:layout_width="match_parent" android:layout_height="match_parent" android:paddingBottom="@dimen/activity_vertical_margin" android:paddingLeft="@dimen/activity_horizontal_margin" android:paddingRight="@dimen/activity_horizontal_margin" android:paddingTop="@dimen/activity_vertical_margin" app:layout_behavior="@string/appbar_scrolling_view_behavior" tools:context="com.survivingwithandroid.rgbcontroller.MainActivity" tools:showIn="@layout/activity_main"> <TextView android:layout_width="wrap_content" android:layout_height="wrap_content" android:text="Control Arduino RGB Led" android:layout_centerInParent="true" android:textSize="25sp"/> <TextView android:layout_width="wrap_content" android:layout_height="wrap_content" android:layout_alignParentBottom="true" android:layout_alignParentLeft="true" android:layout_marginLeft="5dp" android:id="@+id/msg"/> </RelativeLayout>
As a result, when the user presses the FAB the app has to show the Color picker dialog:
@Override protected void onCreate(Bundle savedInstanceState) { super.onCreate(savedInstanceState); setContentView(R.layout.activity_main); Toolbar toolbar = (Toolbar) findViewById(R.id.toolbar); setSupportActionBar(toolbar);...... FloatingActionButton fab = (FloatingActionButton) findViewById(R.id.fab); fab.setOnClickListener(new View.OnClickListener() { @Override public void onClick(View view) { // Handle FAB click event } } }
It is time to show the Color picker dialog that will control RGB led in the onClick method:
ColorPickerDialogBuilder.with(MainActivity.this).setTitle("Choose RGB color").initialColor(Color.WHITE).wheelType(ColorPickerView.WHEEL_TYPE.FLOWER).lightnessSliderOnly().density(12).setOnColorSelectedListener(new OnColorSelectedListener() { @Override public void onColorSelected(int selectedColor) { // Nothing to do... } }).setPositiveButton("ok", new ColorPickerClickListener() { @Override public void onClick(DialogInterface dialog, int selectedColor, Integer[] allColors) { int r = (selectedColor >> 16) & 0xFF; int g = (selectedColor >> 8) & 0xFF; int b = (selectedColor >> 0) & 0xFF; Log.d("RGB", "R [" + r + "] - G [" + g + "] - B [" + b + "]"); sendColor(r,g,b); } }).setNegativeButton("cancel", new DialogInterface.OnClickListener() { @Override public void onClick(DialogInterface dialog, int which) { } }).build().show();
As you can see this component is very simple to use, when the user clicks OK button the app extracts the Red, Green and Blue component and sends it to Arduino.
Android HTTP client to send data to Arduino
To send data to Arduino from the Android app, it is necessary to create a simple HTTP client that sends Red, Green and Blue component as JSON string.
Arduino will use this information to control RGB LED. The Android HTTP client is very simple and it is based on OkHttp.
private void sendColor(int r, int g, int b) { Log.d("RGB", "Sending data to Arduino...."); Request req = new Request.Builder().url(URL).post( RequestBody.create(JSON, createJSON(r,g,b)) ).build(); tv.setText("Sending data to Arduino..."); client.newCall(req).enqueue( new Callback() { @Override public void onFailure(Call call, IOException e) { // Handle call failure } @Override public void onResponse(Call call, Response response) throws IOException { // OK Response...inform the user } }); }
where createJSON method is very simple:
private String createJSON(int r, int g, int b) { return "{\"color\": [" + r + "," + g + "," + b + "]}"; }
..it returns the three colors values. The Android app is completed, as you can see with a few lines of code we created a nice Android app that will control RGB LED connected to Arduino.
How to connect and control RGB LEDs connected to Arduino: circuit
Now the Android client side is ready, therefore it is time to build the Arduino sketch so that it is possible to control LEDs connected to Arduino. This tutorial uses common anode RGB LED, that means the Vcc is connected to the anode. If you use a common cathode led the cathode must be connected to the ground. The Arduino sketch is shown below:
The three led pins are connected to Arduino PWM using a 300-ohm resistance.
That’s all, the “hardware” part is ready to be used. If you want to test the Arduino LED to know if everything works correctly you can write a simple sketch to check if the Arduino RGB is working properly. In the diagram above, the ethernet shield is not shown to simplify the diagram. Of course, to connect Arduino to Internet is necessary to have an ethernet shield or a WI-FI shield. This tutorial uses the ethernet shield. You can extend this project controlling a LEDs strip.
Arduino HTTP Server
In addition to the “hardware” part, Arduino has to accept HTTP connection because the Android client sends data (the RGB values) using HTTP. Therefore, it is necessary to build a simple HTTP server that parses the incoming requests and extracts the values. In the setup method of the sketch, we initialize the Arduino PINs to control the RGB LED and the ethernet IP.
void setup() { // put your setup code here, to run once: Serial.begin(9600); // Pin mode pinMode(redPin, OUTPUT); pinMode(bluePin, OUTPUT); pinMode(greenPin, OUTPUT); Serial.print("Ready..."); // Ethernet.begin(mac, ip); server.begin(); Serial.println("Begin..."); }
Finally, it is time to accept incoming requests and parse them.
Accept HTTP request and Parse the JSON message using Arduino
To parse the HTTP request and extract data, we can use this piece of code:
void loop() { EthernetClient client = server.available(); // Is there a client (Our Android smartphone) if (client) { // Let's start reading boolean isLastLine = true; boolean isBody = false; header = ""; reqData = ""; int contentLen = 0; Serial.print("Client connected!"); while (client.connected()) { if (client.available()) { // Read data char c = client.read(); if (contentSize == contentLen) { Serial.println("Body ["+reqData+"]"); // Extract the JSON string like [r,g,b] int pos1 = reqData.indexOf("["); int pos2 = reqData.lastIndexOf("]"); // Parse the string looking for, String colors = reqData.substring(pos1 + 1, pos2); Serial.println("Colors ["+colors+"]"); int idx1 = colors.indexOf(','); int idx2 = colors.indexOf(',', idx1+1); int idx3 = colors.indexOf(',', idx2+1); String sRed = colors.substring(0, idx1); String sGreen = colors.substring(idx1 + 1, idx2); String sBlue = colors.substring(idx2 + 1, idx3); // Convert the Red, Green and Blue string values to int int red = sRed.toInt(); int green = sGreen.toInt(); int blue = sBlue.toInt(); // Set the RGB led color according to the values sent by the Android client setColor(red, green,blue); // Create the response to client client.println("HTTP/1.1 200 OK"); client.println("Content-Type: text/html"); client.println("Connection: close"); client.println(); // send web page client.println(""); client.println(""); delay(1); break; } if (c == '
' && isLastLine) { isBody = true; int pos = header.indexOf(CONTENT_LENGTH_TXT); String tmp = header.substring(pos, header.length()); //Serial.println("Tmp ["+tmp+"]"); int pos1 = tmp.indexOf("\r
"); String size = tmp.substring(CONTENT_LENGTH_TXT.length(), pos1); Serial.println("Size ["+size+"]"); contentSize = size.toInt(); } if (isBody) { reqData += c; contentLen++; } else { header += c; } if (c == '
' ) { isLastLine = true; } else if (c!= '\r' ) { isLastLine = false; } } } // Close connection Serial.println("Stop.."); client.stop(); } }
The source code seems to be complex but it is very simple if you look at it carefully. It is always an HTTP Arduino server.
The last part is setting the Arduino led color:
void setColor(int red, int green, int blue) { #ifdef COMMON_ANODE red = 255 - red; green = 255 - green; blue = 255 - blue; #endif analogWrite(redPin, red); analogWrite(bluePin, green); analogWrite(greenPin, blue); }
Notice that if we use a common anode, we have to invert the values.
Conclusion
At the end of this post, you know how to send data from Android app to Arduino and how to control LED lights connected to Arduino remotely from an Android app. In other words, Android app remotely controls the Arduino board that in turn is the Arduino led controller. There are other ways to exchange data with Arduino: one method is based on Arduino Rest API. This project is useful because it teaches how to exchange data between Arduino and Android app. In this scenario, the Android app controls an RGB Led connected to Arduino, anyway this project can be further extended and it is possible to control other kinds of peripherals. Once you know how to control a simple RGB LED from Android you can further extend the project implementing a DIY cloud lamp that can be controlled using your smartphone.August marked the 16th consecutive month to hit a record for gun sales, according to data released by the FBI.
A total of 1,853,815 individual background checks were processed through the agency's National Instant Criminal Background Check System for the month. That was a slight increase over the previous record of 1,745,410 set in August 2015, and brought this year's total to a whopping 17,880,475.
Related Story: http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/article/2589978
A year-over-year record has been set every month since May 2015. A record 23,141,970 Americans sought to purchase guns last year, though 2016 is on track to smash that previous high. Gun sales tend to see an uptick during the holiday season, thanks mainly to gift-giving. The most firearm-friendly month on record is December 2015, when 3,314,594 applied to lock and load.
The number of checks run through the FBI's NICS system is an indicator of how many guns are sold, though the correlation isn't precise. Licensed dealers are required to run a check in the database every time they make a sale. Sales have surged in the wake of ammunition shortages and fears that the Obama administration may seek to restrict Second Amendment rights in the president's waning days in office.
Buyers have mainly been seeking firearms for self-defense and hunting, according to an industry leader. "Sales of handguns and AR's have been very strong for the past two months. Hunting rifles have been about average for this time of year," Scott Blick, a managing partner at Ammunition Depot, told the Washington Examiner. "Ammunition sales are definitely following that pattern with sales of 9mm ammo and.223 ammo being extremely strong."
A study released this year by the National Shooting Sports Foundation revealed that thousands of new jobs have been created by the gun industry since 2008. A 73 percent increase in jobs brought the total number to 287,986 at the close of 2015, and the industry accounted for a little more than $49 billion in economic activity.President Trump said Tuesday he wants to sign a tax overhaul by Christmas, setting an aggressive timetable for Congress to deliver his first major legislative victory.
“I want the House to pass a bill by Thanksgiving. I want all the people standing by my side when we sign by Christmas, hopefully before Christmas,” Trump said during a meeting with industry leaders at the White House held one day before the House bill is expected to be released.
He vowed the signing ceremony will “be the biggest tax event in the history of our country.”
House Republicans have plotted a speedy course for their legislation, with a committee markup planned for Nov. 6. Their goal is to complete work on the legislation by Thanksgiving.
Senate Republicans have also discussed getting the bill passed by the end of November, though Trump's timeline hints at a slightly longer time frame.
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There are a series of challenges to that plan, from worries about how tax reform might increase the deficit to battles over specific tax provisions, including possible changes to the tax status of 401(k) plans and the deduction of state and local taxes.
Another issue is the special counsel probe of Russia's election meddling, which is hanging over the administration's head. On Monday, special counsel Robert Mueller brought charges against two of Trump's former campaign aides and unveiled a guilty plea by another.
The president, who has not shied away from tweeting about the indictments, did not respond to a reporter who asked if he plans to pardon former campaign chairman Paul Manafort, one of two people indicted on Monday.
Mueller’s charges shook Washington and threatened to throw a wrench into congressional Republicans’ plan to unveil their full tax proposal on Wednesday.
After the failure to repeal ObamaCare, tax reform is seen as the last, best hope for Trump to score a big legislative win for next year’s midterm elections.
But many specifics of the plan remain unknown and haggling over them could prove to be an obstacle to passing it through Congress.
House tax writers are reportedly considering gradually phasing in Trump and GOP leaders’ plan to cut the corporate tax rate to 20 percent. The president indicated he opposes such language.
“We’re not looking for that. Hopefully not,” he told reporters.
Trump has inserted himself into the bill-drafting process multiple times, including in debates over a now-scrapped border adjustment tax and changes to 401(k) retirement accounts.
Many Republicans acknowledge the president wants to fight for his priorities, but say such interventions hurt the effort to craft legislation.
Republicans might also be hampered by the president traveling in Asia for nearly two weeks shortly after the tax plan rollout, leaving him unable to tout the proposal from home.
But the president is asking Cabinet members and top advisers, including Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin Steven Terner MnuchinTreasury announces new Venezuela sanctions Trump trade chief changes terminology after president contradicts him Trump considering meeting with China's Xi next month to finish trade deal MORE and National Economic Council Director Gary Cohn, to stay behind in the U.S. while he is in Asia to sell the tax plan.
Vice President Pence is expected to participate in the effort as well.
The officials are expected to target states where vulnerable Democrats are running for reelection next year. Trump expressed confidence he could win their votes, despite their criticism that the plan is a "giveaway to the wealthy.”
“It doesn’t work and they know that,” Trump said of his opponents. “In fact, I think we’ll have some Democrats joining us and voting [with] us.”JR Smith claims his Twitter account was hacked, but agrees with the sentiment expressed
Published 5:18 PM, June 08, 2017
MANILA, Philippines - Just a few minutes after his team Cleveland Cavaliers’ heartbreaking Game 3 loss against the Golden State Warriors, J.R. Smith appeared to have shared a bold prediction to his thousands of followers on Twitter: ‘Cavs in 7.’
The tweet was deleted shortly after, but did not go unnoticed by hoops fans around the globe.
Smith, however, denied posting such tweet, saying that his account had been hacked.
"I got out of the shower and my phone was buzzing. I did not tweet that,” Smith told Cleveland.com after the post-game interviews.
“I’m smarter than that,” he added.
(READ: The Durant Dynasty is coming, and it’s ugly)
The now 15-0 playoffs Warriors rattled off 11 unanswered points down the stretch to steal Game 3, 118-113, against the defending champs.
No NBA team has managed to come out from a 0-3 hole in Finals history, but Smith would like to believe the message the alleged hacked tweet sent out.
"I do believe," shared the 31-year-old guard. "But I didn't tweet that. I would be much smarter than that to tweet that at literally 12:04, right after the game." – Rappler.comMore takers for one-way trip to Mars than for Obamacare, and one state spending $12,000 so far to attract each new insurance customer: Is this the worst launch ever?
'Mars One' colony project has 200,000 commitments from would-be space cadets, outpacing Americans' interest in Affordable Care Act participation
Vermont has enrolled just 712 people after spending $9 million on outreach, advertising and other PR ventures
One MSNBC host best known for explaining away a series of racy 'naughty Santa' photos now says it's her past work for the company behind the Obamacare website that she finds embarrassing
HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius made time for a Comedy Central interview but won't accept an invitation to testify before Congress
Healthcare.gov was tested just 1 week before its launch date, after the Obama administration spent $394 MILLION building it and other Obamacare websites
The top contractor has been paid more than $200 million despite being fired by a Canadian province for botching its medical records database
House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi is certain the Obamacare website's tech problems won't affect the sustainability of the Affordable Care Act, but very few in Washington are stepping up to second her motion
A startup venture recruiting people for a one-way, 43 million mile trip to live on Mars has generated more signatures than all the Obamacare health insurance plans combined.
Just 712 people in Vermont have enrolled in the state's new health insurance exchange, despite $9 million in outreach, advertising and other PR expenses paid for by the federal government.
The entire state of Alaska has yet to register a single person, according to Sen. Lisa Murkowski.
('Juneau how many people have signed up?' asks one cheeky blogger. 'Hint: It's a round number!')
A CNN medical correspondent has found that the online Obamacare system, which was reportedly first tested just days before its Oct. 1 launch, is now spontaneously deleting some Americans' passwords.
The website itself, according to The Weekly Standard, includes pilfered source code but excludes a required copyright notice required by its author.
With $394 million in contracts in the rear-view mirror, the Obama administration has an online white elephant on its hands that hasn't worked as advertised.
Krystal Ball, an MSNBC commentator best known for a series of racy 'naughty Santa' photos that circled the Internet in 2010, confessed on Thursday that she was 'embarrassed to admit' she once worked for the company that created the federal government's Obamacare website.
Is the Affordable Care Act officially the most dysfunctional and disaster-prone launch in history?
Congress, which suddenly has time on its hands after weeks of shutdown and debt-Armageddon liars poker, is about to ask some tough questions.
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Want to go to Mars? More than 200,000 people have committed to blasting off and leaving Earth behind -- a larger number than have been willing to roll the dice on Obamacare
Welcome to the disaster: Healthcare.gov is more than three years and $394 million in the making, but few Americans have been able to make it function, leaving a trail of discouraged consumers in its wake
Twitter erupted Thursday with jokes about a launch of a different kind, the Mars One colony project that has attracted 202,586 applications from people eager to depart Earth for the red planet at the first opportunity.
And in the blue corner sits Obamacare, the much-ballyhooed health-care-for-all project whose official numbers are a closely guarded state secret. But unofficial numbers from firms that track the data independently suggest that the nationwide total is somewhere south of the Mars colony's successes.
The online analytics firm Compete.com released an analysis this week that determined just 36,000 people registered for Obamacare through the federal government's Healthcare.gov website during its first week of operation. (Sources inside the Department of Health and Human Services put that number at 51,000 when they spoke with MailOnline.)
And the 14 states that run their own enrollment websites – 15 if the District of Columbia is included – are slowly adding their own figures to the total.
The Advisory Board Company, a consultancy whose influential Daily Briefing has provided day-to-day totals, puts that number at 42,000 – although critics point out that it's incomplete. Only a few states have published their own totals, and most of those announcements have been full of qualifications and caveats.
The Associated Press learned Wednesday that HHS anticipated signing up 500,000 Americans per month, beginning in October, although the agency has denied that project, articulated in a departmental memorandum, was a hard target.
President Obama is 'not happy' with the rollout, White House Press Secretary Jay Carney said Thursday in what might be the understatement of the week
Vermont's health insurance exchange has corralled just 712 new customers, despite $9 million in PR and outreach expenses designed to attract taxpayers to the new system
Maryland, for instance, a state of 5.88 million people, had processed 1,121 applications as of Oct. 11. Minnesota's program claims to represent 11,684 people, but that's only after factoring in'family members, children and other dependents' of the actual applicants.
New York (100,000), Washington (25,000) and Kentucky (13,000) have reported their numbers in a similar fashion, announcing how many people will benefit from newly contracted coverage instead of how many completed applications have been filed. Families of four, for instance, would inflate those numbers by 400 per cent.
Still-larger states like California are not publishing definitive numbers at all, instead tweeting web-traffic totals and the number of applications its residents have'started.'
Vermont, with 712 successful Obamacare enrollees as of Thursday, according to WCAX-TV, has another problem to contend with: Its website can accept applications, but it's not capable of collecting any payments.
Gov. Peter Shumlin, the Vermont Health Connect program's biggest cheerleader, hasn't addressed the possibility that even those few Vermonters will change their minds when the bill comes due.
Slow-walking: President Obama hasn't mentioned his signature legislative achievement since the debt-limit debate reached its crescendo, preferring to look forward to immigration and farm-bill fights instead
Vermont Gov. Peter Shumlin is one of several Democratic pols who were ubiquitous in the run-up to the Obamacare launch date, but hard to find in public since the disappointing numbers started to trickle in
An embarrassed Krystal Ball made an on-air 'confession' Thursday on MSNBC, saying that she had worked for CGI Federal, the main contractor behind Obamacare's troubled main website
With the Obama administration cowering and late-night talk show hosts doing a brisk business in Obamacare jokes ('Today Obama changed his slogan from "Yes we can" to "Perhaps we could try. Can't promise anything,"' said Jay Leno), the White House is saying only that the president is 'not happy.'
And Congress, fresh from its epic debt-limit standoff, has begun to engage.
House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi said Thursday that even if the Obamacare insurance exchanges' enrollment mechanisms continue to be failure-prone through the holidays, the program itself must be allowed to continue without delays.
'No, no – It has nothing to do with the programmatic part. It's about technology,' she insisted when asked about the impact of non-functioning websites and frustrated consumers on the public-policy part of Obamacare. The part that won and lost hundreds of elections.
But it's the technology that is making headlines now, including one at The Washington Examiner that screamed about the Department of Health and Human Services failing to road-test Healthcare.gov 'until a week before launch.'
HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius made time for Jon Stewart on Teh Daily Show, but his pointed barbs have her scrambling to avoid testifyign before Congress about the disastrous Obamacare website
'Normally a system this size would need 4-6 months of testing and performance tuning, not 4-6 days,' a source on the inside of the project said. 'The actual system requirements for Oct. 1 were changing up until the week before.'
And a former employee of CGI Federal, the company behind the website – the same firm that now has former employee and MSNBC pundit Krystal Ball 'embarrassed' – said'requirements came late' from the bureaucrats who 'dictated the design, especially the sign-up-before-viewing-plans, and there was absolutely not enough time for testing.'
CGI's parent company was shown the door by health officials in Ontario in September 2012, after it missed deadlines in three straight years related to the province’s online medical registry.
but The Obama administration had already awarded the firm a $93.7 million contract in late 2011 to complete work on Healthcare.gov. And two years later, Reuters reports, the value of that contract has grown to almost $292 million, nearly $200 million of which has already been paid.
All told, according to a Government Accountability Office report published in June, the administration doled out $394 million to dozens of companies for work related to setting up the health care exchanges nationwide.
The House Energy and Commerce Committee will likely dig into the administration's high-tech bungling on October 24, when it convenes a hearing on the website implementation that bears the ominous title, 'Unprepared or Incompetent?'
Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius, who said Monday on The Daily Show that she's unaware of how many Americans have enrolled in Obamacare, has told the committee that she won't testify.
' Secretary Sebelius had time for Jon Stewart, and we expect her to have time for Congress,' countered committee chairman Rep. Fred Upton, a Michigan Republican, in a statement on Thursday.
'Either the administration was not ready for launch, or it was not up to the job,' Upton said. 'The president and top officials were quick to boast the number of visitors to HealthCare.gov, but they have since gone silent, refusing to disclose even basic enrollment figures.'
'The rollout has been a complete mess, beyond the worst case scenario, and yet those administration officials responsible have indicated they will not be available to testify next week. This is wholly unacceptable.'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
Two men were arrested at Creamfields after police found more than 100 ecstasy tablets hidden in shampoo bottles.
This picture shows officers uncovering the haul of tablets hidden with bottles of Head & Shoulders at the Daresbury site.
Cheshire police posted about the seizures on the force’s Facebook account at 10.30pm last night – with the drugs stash apparently found during a search at the VIP entrance.
The UK’s biggest dance festival got underway last night in Daresbury, near Warrington, with gates officially opening at 12pm on Friday afternoon.
More than 70,000 people are expected to attend across the three-days with The Chemical Brothers, Tiesto, Fatboy Slim and Pete Tong headlining over the bank holiday.
Ahead of the festival, Cheshire police had warned there would be tight security in place, with those attending subject to ‘stringent security checks’ as they enter – including body searches and sniffer dogs.
Anyone who refuses to be searched were told they would be denied entry into the event while amnesty bins for drugs and weapons are available.
Ahead of the festival, Inspector Stewart Sheer, of Cheshire police, had said: “Festival-goers are reminded that security will be tight at the event.
“Security measures will be in place and it is important that those attending are aware of these.
“Drug use will not be tolerated and positive action will be taken by police.
“Searches are a condition of entry and drugs dogs will be used at the entrances to the site.
“Surrender bins will be provided at the entrances for festival goers to place any drugs or weapons into.
“Anyone found with drugs or weapons, having not placed them into the bins, will be dealt with by police.
“I would advise anyone considering bringing any such items to not bring them in the first place.”Several top Democrats - and at least one Republican - criticized President Trump for firing FBI Director James Comey.
Senator Bob Casey Jr. (D-Pennsylvania) compared Trump to President Richard Nixon in the way he terminated Comey in the midst of an investigation into Russian collusion.
"This is Nixonian. Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein must immediately appoint a special counsel to continue the Trump/Russia investigation... This investigation must be independent and thorough in order to uphold our nation’s system of justice," Casey said in a statement.
This is Nixonian. Deputy AG Rod Rosenstein must immediately appoint a special prosecutor to continue the Trump/Russia investigation. — Senator Bob Casey (@SenBobCasey) May 9, 2017
Former 2016 vice presidential candidate Sen. Tim Kaine (D-Virginia) echoed Casey, firing off a series of tweets accusing Trump of firing Comey as a way to interfere in any investigation the FBI was conducting on his alleged Russian ties.
Krauthammer: 'Implausible' That Comey Was Fired Over Clinton Comments Last Year
Williams: Firing Comey 'Important Way of FBI Regaining Credibility'
Schweizer to ObamaCare Architect: 'If You Lose Bill Clinton, The War Is Lost'
Trump firing Comey shows how frightened the Admin is over Russia investigation — Senator Tim Kaine (@timkaine) May 9, 2017
Comey firing recommended by Sessions. I thought he had recused himself from Russia investigation! — Senator Tim Kaine (@timkaine) May 9, 2017
Comey firing part of a growing pattern by White House to cover-up the truth — Senator Tim Kaine (@timkaine) May 9, 2017
House Democratic Caucus Chairman Joseph Crowley (D-New York) called Trump's decision "extremely troubling."
"President Trump fired the man investigating him and his cohorts. I strongly support calls for the appointment of a special prosecutor," Crowley said.
Senator Chris Van Hollen of Maryland jabbed Trump over his reality show punchline, "You're Fired," saying that it "doesn't work" in politics.
The "you're fired" approach doesn’t work when you're President. @POTUS you're creating a crisis of confidence in our Justice Department. — Chris Van Hollen (@ChrisVanHollen) May 9, 2017
Congressman Carlos Curbelo, a Republican from South Florida, also questioned why Comey was fired:
Today’s extraordinary decision raises many questions all of which must be answered. My full statement here: https://t.co/smW3NE7JF8 https://t.co/YlUIH1VnxL — Rep. Carlos Curbelo (@RepCurbelo) May 10, 2017
Libertarian-leaning Rep. Justin Amash (R-Illinois) said he is studying whether it would be appropriate to call for an independent investigation into Russia's actions during the election, since Comey is no longer at his post.
My staff and I are reviewing legislation to establish an independent commission on Russia. The second paragraph of this letter is bizarre. https://t.co/wXeDtVIQiP — Justin Amash (@justinamash) May 9, 2017
Senator Richard Burr (R-North Carolina), the chairman of the intelligence committee, criticized Trump's firing of Comey:
New York's junior senator Kirsten Gillibrand also pointed to recent accusations of Russian collusion in her criticism of Comey's dismissal:
No more excuses: We need an independent special prosecutor to investigate the Trump Administration’s ties to Russia. — Kirsten Gillibrand (@SenGillibrand) May 9, 2017
Senate Minority Whip Richard Durbin (D-Illinois) released a lengthy statement on the matter:
My statement on the removal of @FBI Director James Comey pic.twitter.com/w8BpVateeq — Senator Dick Durbin (@SenatorDurbin) May 9, 2017
Senator Edward Markey (D-Massachusetts) said Comey's firing reminded him of the "Saturday Night Massacre" in the 1970s, when Nixon fired an independent prosecutor and accepted the resignation of a number of DOJ officials in the midst of the Watergate affair.
“President Trump’s firing of Director Comey sets a deeply alarming precedent as multiple investigations into possible Trump campaign or administration collusion with Russia remain ongoing, including an FBI investigation. This episode is disturbingly reminiscent of the Saturday Night Massacre during the Watergate scandal and the national turmoil that it caused. We are careening ever closer to a Constitutional crisis, and this development only underscores why we must appoint a special prosecutor to fully investigate any dealings the Trump campaign or administration had with Russia.”
House |
, and they can use them strictly for rescue operations alone. The FAA has also stipulated how fast the drones are allowed to go (no more than 100 miles per hour) and how high up they can fly (no more than 400 feet). Also, Down East is only allowed to deploy the drones during the daytime and under visual meteorological conditions (in other words, if you can’t fly a plane, you can’t fly a drone).
Regardless of these limitations, Richard Bowie is excited for the drones’ promise — as he tells Gagnon, “the great thing is it will save lives.”
h/t Bangor Daily NewsGo to Table of Contents of the analysis (which has also a statement on purpose and manner of analysis and a disclaimer as to caveat emptor and my knowing anything authoritatively, which I do not, but I do try to not know earnestly, with some discretion, and considerable thought).
The most important thing which must be kept in mind with Kubrick's films is there is the surface or principle story and then the internal or sub-story. In many of his films, if we're really paying attention, set elements pretty much immediately destroy the surface naturalism. One may not notice this destruction the first, second or third time one watches the film. Through constructive disorientation and disconnectedness, and sleight of hand as to where our eye focuses, Kubrick, the magician, intentionally obfuscates these elements that destroy the overt and naturalistic story line. The surface story lines are the principle ones, and this is maintained and supported by the intentional obfuscation of the deconstructive elements which keep them sub rosa. At the same time, these deconstructive elements are plainly there, alongside his tremendous effort to make things look real and believable, and once we bypass the disorientation and his purposeful refocusing they become a puzzle, annihilating the sense of reality. This destruction of the film's naturalistic story line is difficult enough to conceive of and accept that most people stop at this point and decide these puzzling aspects of Kubrick's films are errors when they are not. They are part of the art of a director cleverly designing the overt story line to be unimpeded by an internal story that tears it apart. Indeed, the sub rosa elements of the internal story may be discreet but they are enough in evidence to complicate the surface story with an aura of attractive, indefinable mystery, which is one of the reasons viewers return to Kubrick again and again. To work with the "reason" and "why of the internal story line is to try to settle into Kubrick's sensibility, examining how these internal stories form a dialogue in his oeuvre with repeating themes and ideas, elaborated upon from film to film. The internal stories haven't a "plot"; they aren't that kind of story. Instead, you have to be willing to deal with comprehending the themes and ideas represented in them as instead ultimately forming a different terrain for the setting of the surface story, guiding and interacting with the overt story and giving it a new form.
I thought I would do a post devoted to this question and augment what it is we're seeing emerge from the elevator in the flood of blood.
Augmented, and even unaugmented, that what emerges from the elevator is mechanical is very easy to see. I've stated in my analysis that I remember years ago reading about this, long before the internet, but I can't recollect what the publication was. The explanation was this device was rigged for opening the elevator door. The device, which reminds of amped up salad tongs with inverted claws as it parts, the elevator door opening, also appears to function as a means of aiding the flow of "blood" so that it explodes from the top of the elevator rather than just pouring down to the bottom of the shaft and out. Instead, the blood shoots down over the device and the device even plumps the appearance of the stream of blood as it flows over it. The device may also help channel the flow of blood left and right, and it seems as it moves forward the device assists in the great splash against the walls, but I'm not altogether certain there wasn't also blood flung into the mix from either side of the cross hall. Until an engineer tells me, "That's a damn bizarre way of doing that", I'm going to assume the primary reason for this contraption is mechanical.
Still, even on the big screen, in a first time viewing, the majority of people aren't going to ever notice these large mechanical tongs thrusting forward, out of the elevator.
Though the device may have been essential machinery, this doesn't mean that there might not be a secondary explanation that would contribute to Kubrick's lack of worry (it would seem) over its ultimate exposure, because even with the initial release of the film, when you could only view the film on the screen in a theater and couldn't pause and rewind from your seat, there were some people who did notice. I was one of them. "What is that metal thing?" And you went back to snacking on your popcorn but you remembered. It's not as though that big hunk of metal tried very hard to hide itself. Later I'd read that though the device could be seen, it simply cost too much money to shoot the scene over again and things remained as they were.
Maybe that's exactly the way it was. Though it seems there would have been some initial tests done and I do wonder why no one had thought, "That's a fairly bright and shiny piece of equipment. Maybe we should paint it a dark matte red, the color of the blood?"
In the Tuesday section of my analysis of the film I make note of a couple of other mechanical oddities of which we get a glimpse as Danny makes his way around the Room 237 floor. There appears in a stairwell, hanging down from the upper floor, a plastic sheet...
...which has an internal segment that moves back and forth, kind of like a bell's clapper, rather mimicking Wendy's circular motion in opening the can of fruit cocktail at the beginning of the section.
And we have the door open to Room 236.
That it is open is clearly seen in this augmented screen grab.
An interesting thing about the bloody elevator scene is when Wendy first sees the elevator its doors are positioned to open from the screen right as with the other elevators we've viewed. I've written a little previously on her view of it but in that post I was concentrating on the "where" of the hall, which I think is an in-between-the-folds kind of hall that's behind the office.
The elevator doors then reverse, just as they are reversed in Danny's vision--for this is Danny's vision that Wendy is viewing, we have the same splatter effects, the blood hits the ash/trash container centered between the elevator doors in the exact fashion in both scenes. As you can see the floor indicators above the doors are not reversed, nor is the rest of the hall, only the red doors of the elevator.
With Wendy's view of the bloody elevator, we have a closer shot of it and again we can see the mechanical claw or arm that emerges from the "shaft".
My most basic thought on this class of disruption of the fantasy of the movie, where we have a seeming break in the fabric with the exposure of the staging beyond, is it's simply something that should have remained concealed.
But intention does seem to be communicated in the plastic sheeting with the center portion independently moving in a way that recalls Wendy opening the can of fruit cocktail just before. If not for that moving center portion, it could be just a simple plastic sheet accidentally left hanging down from the above floor in plain view (though it seems unlikely that Kubrick, famed for taking numerous shots of a scene, would have allowed such a gaffe).
Intention does seem to be communicated with the open door opposite room 237. When Danny rides past it he lowers his head, so our attention is on his lowered head, and then he looks back at room 237. Only when past the open door does he hold his head in the same attitude as when earlier cycling around. Kubrick even further projects a possible meaning into the open door of room 236 by having, in Eyes Wide Shut Bill's adventure before the Verona Restaurant (address 237, where he has his stand-off with the bald man) followed up with 236 appearing as appearing to be the address of the hospital where he will view the body of Amanda in the morgue. As Bill enters the hospital, we see outside "236" isolated on a wall, a number that is Kubrick's doing as the real life address of the hospital is 369 Fulham Road.
If the plastic sheeting and the open door appear to have intention, then what of this mechanical arm thrusting through as the elevator door opens? For those who think human error is the explanation, it's the combination of Kubrick's fastidious and obsessive attention to detail, and a seeming gaffe often being coupled with other peculiarities, that makes one wonder if the arm's being seen is perhaps purposeful. But our viewing this mechanical arm may very well have to do with not having money to spend on redoing the scene. Or maybe not. Maybe there's some other reason.
Return to Table of Contents for "The Shining" analysis
Link to the main Kubrick page for all the analysesNHL goaltenders may look a lot smaller beginning next season.
Goalies across the league will be required to wear equipment better suited to their body size when the 2016-17 season begins or face suspension. A presentation of the new initiative, led by the NHL's Kay Whitmore, was delivered Tuesday at the annual GM meetings.
Reductions will be made to the pants and upper body of the equipment, thus cutting down on unnecessary "fat" which didn't serve to protect goaltenders, only help some gain an unfair advantage.
"If it takes a little more skill to play the position so be it," Whitmore said. "Does this make scoring go up? I don't know. That's to be seen and that's not the reason why we did it. This was [done] because we felt there was inequities within the goalies themselves and the best goalies have come out and said that. And that's what's driving the bus here."
Some of the league's top goaltenders pushed for the change, including the Devils' Cory Schneider and Capitals' Braden Holtby. They, among others, would like the goaltending position to be more about skill and less about the puck simply caroming off enormous equipment.
"The best goalies in the league don't want big stuff," Whitmore said. "They actually want to put this to bed forever and say 'We're great no matter what we wear."'
Goalies will face a two-game suspension for non-compliance, a rule that's already in effect, but one that will be enforced more rigidly next season. Colin Campbell, the NHL's executive vice president and director of hockey operations, said there was too much grey area previously to enforce the rule effectively.
Informed of the changes, general managers wanted confirmation that offenders would indeed be punished to which Campbell replied, "When your goaltender gets suspended don't fight it'."
'None of us should be crying about it'
"If you cheat, you pay the price," Montreal general manager Marc Bergervin said. "If we all agree now, all 30 of us, and it happens in October none of us should be crying about it, if you live by the rules you should be fine."
It will be Whitmore's duty to enforce that reductions in equipment are maintained, a process he said has yet to be fully scoped out. He said officating crews might be involved in enforcement.
Goaltending equipment has mostly grown over the past two decades, from a point when goaltenders looked like thin rails between the pipes to now, where they almost resemble football linebackers.
In recent years the league demanded shorter leg pads, but those reductions are likely to pale in comparison to the new changes, especially in the reduction of upper body equipment. More padding saw some goaltenders lean less on skill and more on simply blocking the puck.
"It's something that's been going on for a long time and it's not an easy topic because the goaltending equipment is so vague in every area," Campbell said.
Co-operation between the league and NHL Players' Association helped spur the changes, as did the support and involvement of equipment manufacturers. Whitmore said the manufacturers previously didn't make enough sizes to fit the ranging height and weight of goaltenders.
Whether the changes lead to more scoring remains to be seen. Scoring has been declining for years as the league searches for answers. Among the ideas bounced around Tuesday was a potential (though unlikely) rule that would see short-handed teams unable to ice the puck.
While uncertain of the effect the changes would have on scoring and goaltenders, Whitmore said the changes were driven by their involvement. Schneider, Holtby and the Wild's Devan Dubnyk, among others, wanted a more level playing field within their ranks.
"They want to look at the other end of the rink and feel that the guy down there looks appropriate for his size," Whitmore said. "So if a guy's 6-4, 250 he should look that big.
"You don't want the puck just hitting guys," he added. "And I think that the goalies themselves felt that there should be a bigger gap between the greatest goalies in the league and the other guys."
The new equipment is expected to be made available to goaltenders this summer, giving them an opportunity to test it out before the start of the 2016-17 regular season. It's possible the new equipment makes its first competitive appearance at the upcoming World Cup in Toronto.
Rule on head hits paying off
NHL general managers say a rule designed to curtail hits to the head is working as intended.
The NHL implemented rule 48, which penalized illegal checks to the head, nearly five years ago. It was added to curtail a then-rising tide of dangerous hits, particularly from the blind side, amid a sporting climate that has become increasingly sensitive to concussions.
On Tuesday, the league's general managers sought to address whether the rule was working effectively or needed tweaks. They ultimately deemed it an effective addition to the game.
"The consensus for our group was we're comfortable with the way the rule is and not looking to make any changes," Tampa Bay Lightning GM Steve Yzerman said.
General managers watched video of various incidents of the rule's enforcement and were satisfied with the manner in which it was being called. They also addressed the effectiveness of the boarding penalty.I just got a huge access to information package from the Federal government.
It's a running tally of Trudeau's expensive groceries while Canadians clip coupons and get accused of tax evasion by Trudeau and his trust fund finance minister, Bill Morneau.
A few bills really stuck out for me. There was an expensive trip to the Nespresso boutique and multiple purchases at different health food stores, totalling hundreds of dollars.
Then, I found what looks like nearly $300 spent on bottled water, in just one month.
I remember when Trudeau was very much against bottled water. He even co-authored an op-ed in the Toronto Star titled, "The Case Against Bottled Water”:
"Responding to these problems, governments, universities, schools, companies and restaurants around the country have stopped buying and selling bottled water. They are thinking before they drink. You can too."
More of the same "live as I say, not as I do" attitude from Canada's ruling party.Anonymous & Lulz Security Statement AnonymousIRC Jul 21st, 2011 509,179 Never 509,179Never
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rawdownloadcloneembedreportprint text 2.60 KB Hello thar FBI and international law authorities, We recently stumbled across the following article with amazement and a certain amount of amusement: http://www.npr.org/2011/07/20/138555799/fbi-arrests-alleged-anonymous-hackers The statements made by deputy assistant FBI director Steve Chabinsky in this article clearly seem to be directed at Anonymous and Lulz Security, and we are happy to provide you with a response. You state: "We want to send a message that chaos on the Internet is unacceptable, [even if] hackers can be believed to have social causes, it's entirely unacceptable to break into websites and commit unlawful acts." Now let us be clear here, Mr. Chabinsky, while we understand that you and your colleagues may find breaking into websites unacceptable, let us tell you what WE find unacceptable: * Governments lying to their citizens and inducing fear and terror to keep them in control by dismantling their freedom piece by piece. * Corporations aiding and conspiring with said governments while taking advantage at the same time by collecting billions of funds for federal contracts we all know they can't fulfil. * Lobby conglomerates who only follow their agenda to push the profits higher, while at the same time being deeply involved in governments around the world with the only goal to infiltrate and corrupt them enough so the status quo will never change. These governments and corporations are our enemy. And we will continue to fight them, with all methods we have at our disposal, and that certainly includes breaking into their websites and exposing their lies. We are not scared any more. Your threats to arrest us are meaningless to us as you cannot arrest an idea. Any attempt to do so will make your citizens more angry until they will roar in one gigantic choir. It is our mission to help these people and there is nothing - absolutely nothing - you can possibly to do make us stop. "The Internet has become so important to so many people that we have to ensure that the World Wide Web does not become the Wild Wild West." Let me ask you, good sir, when was the Internet not the Wild Wild West? Do you really believe you were in control of it at any point? You were not. That does not mean that everyone behaves like an outlaw. You see, most people do not behave like bandits if they have no reason to. We become bandits on the Internet because you have forced our hand. The Anonymous bitchslap rings through your ears like hacktivism movements of the 90s. We're back - and we're not going anywhere. Expect us.
RAW Paste Data
Hello thar FBI and international law authorities, We recently stumbled across the following article with amazement and a certain amount of amusement: http://www.npr.org/2011/07/20/138555799/fbi-arrests-alleged-anonymous-hackers The statements made by deputy assistant FBI director Steve Chabinsky in this article clearly seem to be directed at Anonymous and Lulz Security, and we are happy to provide you with a response. You state: "We want to send a message that chaos on the Internet is unacceptable, [even if] hackers can be believed to have social causes, it's entirely unacceptable to break into websites and commit unlawful acts." Now let us be clear here, Mr. Chabinsky, while we understand that you and your colleagues may find breaking into websites unacceptable, let us tell you what WE find unacceptable: * Governments lying to their citizens and inducing fear and terror to keep them in control by dismantling their freedom piece by piece. * Corporations aiding and conspiring with said governments while taking advantage at the same time by collecting billions of funds for federal contracts we all know they can't fulfil. * Lobby conglomerates who only follow their agenda to push the profits higher, while at the same time being deeply involved in governments around the world with the only goal to infiltrate and corrupt them enough so the status quo will never change. These governments and corporations are our enemy. And we will continue to fight them, with all methods we have at our disposal, and that certainly includes breaking into their websites and exposing their lies. We are not scared any more. Your threats to arrest us are meaningless to us as you cannot arrest an idea. Any attempt to do so will make your citizens more angry until they will roar in one gigantic choir. It is our mission to help these people and there is nothing - absolutely nothing - you can possibly to do make us stop. "The Internet has become so important to so many people that we have to ensure that the World Wide Web does not become the Wild Wild West." Let me ask you, good sir, when was the Internet not the Wild Wild West? Do you really believe you were in control of it at any point? You were not. That does not mean that everyone behaves like an outlaw. You see, most people do not behave like bandits if they have no reason to. We become bandits on the Internet because you have forced our hand. The Anonymous bitchslap rings through your ears like hacktivism movements of the 90s. We're back - and we're not going anywhere. Expect us.(CNN) -- For three decades, Mike and Sue Sibson expected the normal ups and downs that come with working a South Dakota farm and raising two kids. But when circumstances forced the Sibsons to let an oil pipeline bisect their property in 2009, it darkened their view of the American dream.
"I don't feel as free as I used to be," says Mike Sibson. "I don't trust anybody anymore."
In 2006, oil pipeline operators knocked on the Sibsons' door and began talks aimed at burying a 1.25-mile long, 30-inch wide steel pipeline four feet under the middle of their Miner County farm. The Sibsons said they didn't want it, but the pipeline operator, TransCanada, claimed eminent domain. That left the Sibsons and many of the neighbors with little choice but to allow construction.
Although TransCanada paid the Sibsons an undisclosed sum in a sealed settlement to use the land, "It's really not about the money," said Mike Sibson. "It's actually about how they can come in and take your land and do whatever the heck they want with it."
Ever since, the Sibsons say they've worried about leaks from the underground river of crude flowing about a quarter mile from their farmhouse. The pipeline, say company officials, is outfitted with a constantly monitored safety system featuring state-of-the-art technology and an emergency response plan.
"We raise cattle on grass," said Sue Sibson. "Our livelihood is that grass out there, and if that gets ruined, we're out of business."
Some experts fear two issues that were blamed for the Gulf tragedy -- spotty government oversight and emergency response -- could result in a disastrous spill somewhere along America's approximately 170,000 miles of oil pipelines.
In May and then again in June, TransCanada reported small oil leaks at two pumping stations near the Sibson farm -- one less than two miles up the pipeline. Mike Sibson complains that TransCanada should have alerted his family about the incidents. "I might be the first one to spot a leak because I can't depend on them to get the job done."
"No sense in alarming them," said TransCanada Vice President Robert Jones. "There was no concern with regard to the environment or public safety with these very, very small, isolated incidents."
Significant hazardous oil pipeline spills spiked during the past 20 years at 176 in 1994 and dipped to their lowest level -- 99 -- last year, according to federal statistics.
The Gulf disaster and then Michigan's 800,000-gallon pipeline oil spill in July has put the pipeline industry under a microscope and placed more pressure on TransCanada during a critical time.
The Calgary-based company is seeking U.S. permission to build a new oil pipeline stretching from Alberta, Canada, to refineries on the Texas Gulf Coast more than 1,600 miles to the south.
The project is billed as an "energy security" project aimed at reducing U.S. dependence on Mideast crude. Environmental groups have mounted a campaign against the project, which TransCanada has named Keystone XL.
Oil pumped through Keystone XL would come from Canada's fuel-rich sand, which produces what the Natural Resources Defense Council calls "some of the dirtiest, most destructive oil on the face of the Earth." They say processing the fuel involves strip mining valuable forests and burning it yields more pollution than other kinds of oil.
The Environmental Protection Agency is recommending that the State Department, which will ultimately approve or deny the project, assess the implications of committing to a "relatively high carbon source of oil."
Also, the NRDC warns that the pipeline would threaten one of America's largest underground sources of fresh water, the 175,000-square-mile High Plains Aquifer. It provides water to 1.9 million people and irrigation for thousands of square miles of farmland throughout eight states.
"If there was to be a spill that would contaminate that aquifer, we would be looking at a disaster in terms of livelihoods and ecosystems of the magnitude of the Gulf oil spill," said the NRDC's Susan Casey-Lefkowitz.
The aquifer runs under portions of Nebraska's geologically unique grassy dunes known as Sand Hills, where many bird species rest during migration.
"I would worry about an oil spill in the Sand Hills more than any other area I can think of," said John Gates, an Oxford-trained professor of hydrology at the University of Nebraska.
"The ground is sandy and steep. In a worst-case scenario, oil could easily move from the surface through the sand to the aquifer."
TransCanada is very confident, said Jones, that its safety systems will protect the region's natural resources from the flow of oil.
"We have measures in both design and operations to ensure protection of the aquifer," he said.
Much of the technology protecting the pipeline would be centered at TransCanada's Calgary communications hub, using satellites and land-based backup communication lines to remotely monitor pipeline valves and pumping stations for possible spills, said Jones.
Every five seconds, remote sensors along the pipeline will transmit data via the satellite and land lines measuring conditions inside the pipe, including pressure, temperature and oil-flow speed. Computers are programmed to automatically shut down the pipeline when the data indicates trouble. The system is manned 24/7/365 by operators who can view the entire pipeline network or a single valve or pipe, Jones said.
"The time in which we can isolate those valves from this control center takes about three minutes," Jones said. "Then immediately the operation control center dispatches emergency response personnel to the scene."
Typically a first responder would confirm the spill and assesses whether local emergency officials should secure the scene for public safety, said Jones. The oil is then isolated, cleaned up and any affected soil is remediated. Officials also notify regulators, per federal safety mandates.
But problems with newer pipelines might not pose the largest concern among industry leaders. A bigger threat may be aging pipelines.
Leading industry analyst Richard Kuprewicz of Accufacts Inc. urged Congress in July to strengthen laws regarding pipeline repairs. He specifically cited corrosion of the pipe material, "because corrosion right now is the leading cause of failure for liquid pipelines in the U.S.," Kuprewicz told CNN.
Nationwide, some pipeline operators are "disregarding some of the more practical things they need to be doing... like corrosion monitoring."
Kuprewicz wants the law to require operators to disclose more details about their pipeline repairs, answering questions that would help regulators track and predict pipe failures.
Was the pipe repair related to corrosion? Was it related to third-party damage? Was it related to the material of the pipe?
This information, if reported by operators, might help the entire industry sidestep disaster, suggested Kuprewicz.
How worried should Americans be about these aging pipelines -- some of them hidden right under our feet? "I wouldn't say we're in a total state of chaos," he said. "But we are getting concerned."
None of the assurances from TransCanada or the prospect of improved safety rules changes Mike Sibson's view on the pipeline that cuts through the heart of his farm.
It likely will remain buried there for generations.
"We've done good through the years and we're quite successful -- but here's one thing that could take me out," he said. "And there's not a thing I can do about it."Captured: Construction worker rescues drowning woman BelfastTelegraph.co.uk This is the dramatic moment when a construction worker suspended from a crane pulls a drowning woman to safety from the raging waters at the foot of a dam. https://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/news/world-news/captured-construction-worker-rescues-drowning-woman-28485258.html https://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/migration_catalog/article25650537.ece/1fe4c/AUTOCROP/h342/rescue1
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This is the dramatic moment when a construction worker suspended from a crane pulls a drowning woman to safety from the raging waters at the foot of a dam.
She had fallen into the Des Moines river in Iowa when the boat she was crewing with her husband capsized.
Kept afloat by her life jacket, she spent nearly 30 minutes fighting the torrent until a group of building workers spotted her.
One, Jason Oglesbee, was lowered in a makeshift harness suspended from a crane and managed to grab the unnamed woman.
The crane driver was then able to drag the pair to calmer water where a rescue boat was waiting to take her on board.
Her husband was dead when he was pulled from the water.
>>Click on the image to the right to launch gallery
Belfast TelegraphEver since the PS2 roundly crushed the GameCube, Nintendo has thought differently with its consoles – first with the Wii, then the Wii U, and now with the Switch.
Time will tell whether Ninty's latest console replicates the massive success of the Wii, or ends up more like the perpetually underwhelming Wii U, but one thing is for sure: this isn't just another familiar console. Sure, it'll plug into your TV and play Mario and Zelda in HD, but you can also undock the tablet-like device and take it anywhere you please like a proper handheld.
It's a two-in-one, then. But if you've already bought the PlayStation 4 or Xbox One, do you really need two recent consoles? Here's a look at what the Switch offers that players can't get with their current-gen consoles, as well as a few reasons why you might be better off sticking with what you already have.The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) has directed its volunteers in Gujarat to campaign against the ruling BJP, even in the seats the party is not contesting, its leaders said on Saturday.
Last year, the party decided to contest the assembly elections in Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s home state as the principal challenger to the ruling party like it did in Punjab. It had expected that a good showing in Gujarat would catapult it to the national political arena. But the losses earlier this year in the Delhi municipal polls and Goa assembly elections forced AAP to abandon its plan and focus on governing Delhi.
“These six months could have made a lot of difference to our numbers,” senior AAP leader and state in charge Gopal Rai said, referring to the period between the party abandoning the Gujarat plan and then announcing in September that it would contest the polls, but on a few seats. “We will campaign against the BJP everywhere. There is strong anti-incumbency against the ruling party at the grassroots level,” Rai said.
The AAP, which has adopted a wait and watch strategy in Gujarat, has only declared 11 candidates so far for the election. With just 10 days left for the nominations for the first phase to close, the party is still keeping its cards close to its chest. A party leader confirmed that the AAP will contest under 50 seats in the 182 member assembly, while others said the political affairs committee, the highest decision-making body, had not decided on the final count yet.
Read more: AAP’s limited foray into Gujarat is a sign it is maturing
First Published: Nov 12, 2017 23:03 ISTHome » Volcanoes » Novarupta Novarupta
The Most Powerful Volcanic Eruption of the 20th Century
June 6th, 1912 The morning of June 6th arrived on the Alaska peninsula to find the area which is now Katmai National Monument being shaken by numerous strong, shallow earthquakes. The most powerful volcanic eruption of the 20th Century was about to begin – but very few people knew about it. The Alaska peninsula has a low population density today, but in 1912 it was even lower. Beyond the land shaken by the earthquake activity, the beginnings of this event were almost unnoticed. People in Juneau, Alaska, about 750 miles from the volcano, heard the sound of the blast – over one hour after it occurred.
Forty years after the eruption, investigators finally realized that Novarupta - and not Katmai - was the source of the tremendous blast.
Volcanic Monitoring - 1912 vs. Today Today the stirring of an important volcano draws enormous global attention. Weeks or even months before most large eruptions, a buzz circulates through an electronically connected community of volcano scientists as clusters of small earthquakes are detected by a global array of seismographs. Many scientists working at diverse global locations interpret this data and begin to collaborate about an awakening volcano and the eruption that might follow. Reports are posted on the internet, and news stories communicate the volcano's activity to millions of people. Often it is a false alarm – the volcano is simply stirring. If the earthquakes strengthen and begin moving upwards, many of these scientists will travel to the area of potential eruption to make observations and set up a local network of data-gathering instruments. However, in 1912, Alaska was not a U.S. state, very few scientists were supported to do volcanic studies, and a worldwide network of seismic monitoring was not in place. Scientists were just starting to understand the mechanics of volcanic eruptions.
Novarupta Volcano Erupts! On June 6th, 1912, a tremendous blast sent a large cloud of ash skyward, and the eruption of the century was underway. People in Juneau, Alaska, about 750 miles from the volcano, heard the sound of the blast – over one hour after it occurred. For the next 60 hours, the eruption sent tall dark columns of tephra and gas high into the atmosphere. By the time the eruption ended the surrounding land was devastated, and about 30 cubic kilometers of ejecta blanketed the entire region. This is more ejecta than all of the other historic Alaska eruptions combined. It was also thirty times more than the 1980 eruption of Mount St. Helens, and three times more than the 1991 eruption of Mount Pinatubo, the second-largest in the 20th Century.
Impact of the Eruption The inhabitants of Kodiak, Alaska, on Kodiak Island, about 100 miles away, were among the first people to realize the severity of this eruption. The noise from the blast would have commanded their attention, and the visual impact of seeing an ash cloud rise quickly to an elevation of 20 miles then drift towards them would have been terrifying. Within just a few hours after the eruption, a thick blanket of ash began falling upon the town - and ash continued falling for the next three days, covering the town up to one foot deep. The residents of Kodiak were forced to take shelter indoors. Many buildings collapsed from the weight of heavy ash on their roofs. Outside, the ash made breathing difficult, stuck to moist eyes, and completely blocked the light of the sun at midday. Any animal or person who was caught outside probably died from suffocation, blindness, or an inability to find food and water.
Pyroclastic Flow Back on the peninsula, heavy pyroclastic flows swept over 20 kilometers down the valley of Knife Creek and the upper Ukak River. (A pyroclastic flow is a mixture of superheated gas, dust, and ash that is heavier than the surrounding air and flows down the flank of the volcano with great speed and force.) These flows completely filled the valley of Knife Creek with ash, converting it from a V-shaped valley into a broad flat plain. By the time the eruption was over, the world’s most extensive historic ignimbrite (solidified pyroclastic flow deposit) would be formed. It covered a surface area of over 120 square kilometers to depths of over 200 meters thick near its source. (The accompanying satellite image shows the original geographic extent of pyroclastic flow deposits as a yellow line.)
Volcanic Ash Immediately after the June 6th blast, an ash cloud rose to an elevation of about 20 miles. It was then carried by the wind to the east, dropping ash as it moved. The ash deposits were thickest near the source of the eruption and decreased in thickness downwind. (The satellite image above has red contour lines showing the thickness of the ash deposits in the area of the eruption. Measurable thickness of ash fell hundreds of miles beyond the one-meter contour line.) When the eruption stopped on June 9th, the ash cloud had spread across southern Alaska, most of western Canada and several U.S. states. Winds then carried it across North America. It reached Africa on June 17th. Although the eruption had these far-reaching effects, most people outside of Alaska did not know that a volcano had erupted. More surprising is that no one knew for sure which of the many volcanoes on the Alaska peninsula was responsible. Most assumed that Mount Katmai had erupted, but they were wrong.
Valley of Ten Thousand Smokes After the eruption, the National Geographic Society began sending expeditions to Alaska to survey the results of the eruption and to inventory the volcanoes of the Alaskan peninsula. Robert Griggs led four of these expeditions. During his 1916 expedition, Griggs and three others traveled inland to the eruption area. What they found exceeded their imagination. First, the valley of Knife Creek was now barren, level, and filled with a loose, sandy ash which was still hot at depth. Thousands of jets of steam were roaring from the ground. Griggs was so impressed that he called it the “Valley of 10,000 Smokes”. James Hine, a zoologist on the expedition, described the location: “Having reached the summit of Katmai Pass, the Valley of Ten Thousand Smokes spreads out before one with no part of the view obstructed. My first thought was: We have reached the modern inferno. I was horrified, and yet, curiosity to see all at close range captivated me. Although sure that at almost every step I would sink beneath the earth's crust into a chasm intensely hot, I pushed on as soon as I found myself safely over a particularly dangerous-appearing area. I didn't like it, and yet I did.”
Katmai Caldera & Novarupta Dome During the eruption a large amount of magma was drained from magma chambers below. The result was a removal of support from beneath Mount Katmai, which is six miles from Novarupta. The top several hundred feet of Katmai - about one cubic mile of material - collapsed into a magma chamber below. This collapse produced a crater about two miles in diameter and over 800 feet deep. Early investigators assumed that Katmai was responsible for the eruption. This assumption was based upon Katmai being near the center of the impact area, Katmai was visibly reduced |
have suggested a wide range of strategies aimed at preventing or eliminating women's experience of work stress. The suggestions range from individually focused actions to broad based organizational policy changes (Freedman & Phillips, 1988; Nelson & Hitt, 1992). These include the following: Promote equity in pay and benefits for women. Promote benefit programs of special interest to women. Eliminate occupational segregation. Produce a bias-free job evaluation program. Provide equal starting salaries for jobs of equal value. Support educational opportunities for women. Educate men regarding importance of sharing responsibilities outside of work. Provide parental leave, day care, and alternative work scheduling as resources for preventing stress. Provide more job flexibility for women and men to better manage work home conflicts. Promote childcare and eldercare options in the community or the organization. Support programs to educate and develop skills among women for managing and controlling organizational politics. CONCLUSION In recent years much has been learned about the unique stressors which employed women experience, as well as some of the health-related outcomes resulting from these stressors. Policies and programs need to be developed that are preventive in focus in order for women to maximize their career potential, and for organizations to benefit from the rich resources that women bring to the work force. REFERENCES Freedman, S. M., & Phillips, J. S. (1988). "The Changing Nature of Research on Women at Work." Journal of Management, 14, 231-251. Friedman, D. E. (1988). "Why the Glass Ceiling?" Across the Board, 7, 33-37. Haynes, S. G., & Feinleib, M. (1980). "Women, Work, and Coronary Heart Disease: Prospective Findings from the Framingham Heart Study." American Journal of Public Health, 70, 133-141. Hitt, M. A., & Barr, S. H. (1989). "Managerial Selection Decision Models: Examination of Configural Cue Processing." Journal of Applied Psychology, 74, 53-61. Long, B. C., & Kahn, S. E. (Eds.). (1993). "Women, Work, and Coping: A Multidisciplinary Approach to Workplace Stress." Montreal: McGill-Queen's University Press. Nelson, D. L., & Hitt, M. A. (1992). "Employed Women and Stress: Implications for Enhancing Women's Mental Health in the Workplace." In J. C. Quick, L. R. Murphy, J. J. Hurrell, Jr. (Eds.), Stress and Well-Being at Work: Assessments and Interventions for Occupational Mental Health (pp. 164-177). Washington, DC: American Psychological Association. Repetti, R. L., Matthews, K. A., & Waldron, I. (1989). "Employment and Women's Health: Effects of Paid Employment on Women's Mental and Physical Health." American Psychologist, 44, 1394-1401. Statistics Canada. (1990). Women in Canada: A Statistical Report (2nd Ed.). Ottawa, ON: Ministry of Supply and Service.They say the greatest improvement most teams show is between their first and second game. On Saturday, Tennessee didn’t look like most teams. The Vols didn’t play awful, but they didn’t play like a team that had improved from the week prior, either, or at least so I thought as I left a sun-drenched Neyland Stadium after Tennessee’s 34-19 win over Arkansas State. A global takeaway that was the sum of all the things that stood out from the seats.
Here are 10 such things in no particular order:
1. Special Teams Not So Special
No one said the special teams unit played flawlessly against Utah State, but few were as hard on them as Butch Jones. If he was hoping to light a fire under them, the matches were wet. A penalty on the opening kickoff relegated the Vols to poor field position, then a subpar punt after the ensuing three-and-out set the Red Wolves up in plus territory and led to their first score.
Cam Sutton was un-Cam like (in special teams, at least), failing to get to one punt that rolled inside the 15, bobbling another and stopping the collective heart of Neyland stadium when diving to field another.
Zone not found or deactivated.Zone id : 5
Arkansas torched UT on a fake punt deep in its own territory which led to yet another Arkansas State touchdown. And I’ve not yet seen a replay, but let’s just say UT seemed lucky to recover the Red Wolves’ onside kick. After a review, the play stood as called, but was not confirmed.
2. Curt Maggitt
Like many, I was surprised to Curt Maggitt didn’t play more snaps against Utah State. Yesterday he seemed to be out there a more, often at the end. The good news is he played fairly well. The bad news is he seems to have lost a step, and I don’t think it’s on account of the injury. ASU quarterback Fredi Knighten can fly, so he’s going to make his fair share of folks look slow, but Maggitt looked as if he lacked enough agility to even begin to thinking about closing the angle, which made me wonder if he’d bulked up too much in anticipation of playing up front more this season. He doesn’t look as fast as I remember. Or as fast as people have told me he looked in practice last year. Not reading too much into it either way, but definitely something that stood out a time or two.
3. Third Down for What Update
Well? Did you notice? They didn’t play Third Down for What every single third down. Which is fantastic. Because I like that whole deal. Very infectious. It allows me to channel my inner Lil Jon. Plus, it justifies my gameday sizzurp consumption, which, incidentally, is significant.
My only thing with Third Down for What is that I don’t want it driven in the ground. And yesterday, it wasn’t.
But if I’m nitpicking, sometimes they played it when they could have gone without it, while other times they didn’t play it on a down that SCREAMED for it. Example: ASU faced a third and five at their own ten yard line with nine minutes to play in a two-score game. That’s a Third Down for What situation! Yet, no Third Down for What came. But that was okay because the Vols still held, a fact that compels me to share this (oddball) stat:
ASU’s third down conversion rate when Third Down for What was playing? 4-11.
ASU’s third down conversion rate when Third Down for What wasn’t playing? 0-6.
Bottom line: I’m pro Third Down for What, but I look forward to it getting dialed in a bit.
4. The Future of UT Football?
Tennessee’s first two touchdown drives were things of beauty. The second featured one of the best ball’s I’ve ever seen Worley throw. It was the first play of the second quarter, a little out route to Josh Smith on the west sideline that dropped in there perfectly and went for 21 yards. Both drives were well-paced, well-balanced attacks which struck me as the type of offense Butch Jones wants to have on Rocky Top for years and years to come. We may well have been watching the future of Tennessee football.
5. Throw to set up the Run
The million dollar question coming in was would the Volunteers’ running attack show signs of improvement. The answer was yes. But only moderate. Interesting Jalen Hurd got 10 more carries than Marlin Lane did despite averaging fewer yards per carry (3.6 vs 4.2). Neither cracked 100 yards, but both had their moments, each more than serviceable. Still, as currently operating, this is not a team that’s going to run to set up the throw. It has to throw to set up the run. The Vols have been able to do that so far, but things get a whole lot tougher next week in Norman.
6. Battle of Attrition
I was taken in the first half by how many times an ASU player went down, each occasion feeling as if the Vols had dodged a bullet. Because if UT is to have any chance of pulling off an upset in Norman, it was imperative the Vols escape Arkansas State as healthy as possible.
Jinx.
Von going down was like a kick in the gut. Same with Ethan Wolf. Wolf led the team in receptions with five and Pearson was tied for second with four. Von also had the longest catch of the game, a 56-yarder from Worley on the first UT scoring drive of the game.
Here’s hoping both those boys are good to go sooner than later.
7. Get Your Freak On Josh
Josh Smith is one of my favorite Vols. He’s done something to make me go “WOW” two games in a row now. Last week, it was his streaking act down the sidelines which conjured up images of Eugene. (The only images from Eugene worth remembering.) On Saturday it was the high-hurdle maneuver over a hapless ASU DB. Nasty. He gets my second one of the year.
Playa please.
8. Marquez North
Speaking of playas, Marquez sure is one. If the ball’s thrown up top his way and is even remotely catchable, you can rest assured these three things will happen.
1. North will rise well above the defender (who will usually be draped all over him).
2. He will make an aggressive play on the ball and pluck it out of the air with strong hands.
3. He will come down with it.
Which explains the confidence I felt the second before both his touchdown grabs.
9. A Tale of Two Halves
Justin Worley was again solid, but he didn’t close as strong as he opened. Worley was 17-24 in the first half, then just 5-14 in the second half with a fumble (he recovered) and a pick. While he overthrew a lot against Utah State, he under-threw a few against yesterday, a couple of times to North and once to Josh Malone (who was interfered with, but I digress). He also overthrew Pig Howard twice in rapid succession, both times forcing Pig just out of bounds. Back-foot throws he sailed, plain and simple.
Even so, for the second straight week, his command of the offense stood out, the indecision seemingly gone. And just as he did last week, he tucked it upon occasion to keep ASU honest, rumbling, stumbling as only he can, once all the way to the checkerboards.
In two games, Worley has thrown five touchdowns, rushed for another and compiled over 500 yards in the air. How can you not be happy about that?
10. The Defense
The defense has a big three — Cam Sutton, A.J Johnson and Jalen Reeves-Maybin. Cam pretty much shuts down one entire side of the field. I can’t remember a single time he got burned, only a catch or two underneath for modest gains. And remember the first play from scrimmage? When the Red Wolves tried to run wide only to have Cam fight off a block and make the play before the runner could hit the corner? Pass, run, it doesn’t matter. Cam’s down.
A.J. is making more tackles closer to the line of scrimmage than he’s done in his entire UT career. And Jalen Reeves-Maybin continues to serve notice that the linebacker position suits him just fine. He was in on six tackles, two of them for a loss.
TK Jr. looked at home out there, especially when he showed explosive closing speed in breaking up the long pass attempt toward the north end zone.
All that said, the defensive line didn’t pop like it did in week one. Maybe it was because after that performance, they weren’t exactly going to catch anyone off guard. Another factor had to be an Arkansas State offensive line that looked faster and more physical than Utah State’s. Plus, it’s not like they could pin their ears back with Knighten like they could against a hobbled Chuckie Keeton.
But next week they’re going to face real size and speed in the Oklahoma Sooners. And if the Vols are to have a chance, then they’re going to have to play better in virtually every facet of the game.
Can they do it? We’ll see. But one thing’s for certain.
Even if they didn’t play nearly as well as they could have yesterday, Tennessee is still bringing a far better team to Norman than they did to Eugene.Angels reliever Robert Coello throws a style of forkball unlike any most baseball fans have ever seen. Even catcher Chris Iannetta seemed baffled by it a couple weeks ago:
Take a closer look at the pitch, and how badly it crosses up Iannetta.
That sure looks like a strike, for what it’s worth, but Iannetta’s inability to handle it likely biased the umpire against Coello.
From the center-field camera, there’s nothing terribly exceptional about how Coello’s pitch appears to move. But from the batter’s box, it looks like a knuckleball — wobbling in flight with almost no spin whatsoever.
Here’s a closer look at Coello’s grip. ENHANCE:
Over at Baseball Nation, Rob Neyer has more:
This, my friends, is the original forkball. The forkball we know — a slightly slower split-finger fastball, but still with quite a lot of spin — is not the original forkball. The forkball we know was invented … well, I’ve never been able to figure out exactly when. A few years ago, Bill James and I wrote a book about pitchers. It didn’t sell a million copies, but my mom said she liked it. Anyway, we did an immense amount of research on the forkball, and ultimately I was able to track down a Tacoma Tigers pitcher named Bert Hall, who unveiled an interesting delivery on the 18th of September, 1908. From the next day’s Seattle Times:
The Seattle sluggers could not have hit young Burt Hall yesterday with a canoe paddle. The young fellow simply put the ball between his first two fingers, drew back his arm and let fly. The result was a lot of wiggles on the ball that had the local help completely mystified, and when they hit the ball at all they were so surprised that they sometimes forgot to run.
Greg Cadaret, a left-hander who pitched for eight different teams in the 1980s and 1990s, seems less impressed:
@CSNBaggs @JeffPassan it's a forkball. I threw it, Tim Leary, Melido Perez etc. most put slight rotation to have an idea where it goes. — Greg Cadaret (@cads32) May 29, 2013
But if Cadaret (and Leary and Perez, for that matter) threw a forkball with some spin on it, then it’s hardly the same pitch Coello’s throwing, no?
Regardless, something seems to be working for Coello so far in 2013. After entering the season with a career 9.00 ERA over 12 innings, the 28-year-old righty has allowed just one run in 10 1/3 innings this season, with 18 strikeouts against only one walk.We’re back with another giveaway and this time we have a whole load of beta keys to dish out for next beta test of Black Desert Online which starts this week.
This second closed Black Desert Online beta session runs from 18 February at 8AM UTC until 22 February so if you missed the last one this is an ideal opportunity to test one of the most talked about MMORPGs.
To claim a key simply carry out one of the actions below then follow these instructions. There’s a limited amount so be quick!
Go to www.blackdesertonline.com create an account
Once logged in, insert your code in the “Register Your Key” box.
The game is available to download from 16 February via your profile page at https://www.blackdesertonline.com/myinfo/
Daum are looking for feedback so help them out and provide it in their forums.
Good luck everyone!
Claim a key
[ibg]Black Desert[/ibg]Tom Perez Thomas Edward PerezClinton’s top five vice presidential picks Government social programs: Triumph of hope over evidence Labor’s 'wasteful spending and mismanagement” at Workers’ Comp MORE, the chairman of the Democratic National Committee (DNC), is pledging to make the party's primary process fairer and more transparent in the wake of the deeply divisive 2016 nominating contest between Hillary Clinton Hillary Diane Rodham ClintonREAD: Cohen testimony alleges Trump knew Stone talked with WikiLeaks about DNC emails County GOP in Minnesota shares image comparing Sanders to Hitler Holder: 'Time to make the Electoral College a vestige of the past' MORE and Sen. Bernie Sanders Bernard (Bernie) SandersSenate Dems seek to turn tables on GOP in climate change fight Bernie Sanders Town Hall finishes third in cable news race, draws 1.4 million viewers Woman to undecided Biden: 'Just say yes' to 2020 bid MORE (I-Vt.).
In an interview with radio host John Catsimatidis, Perez acknowledged that last year's Democratic primaries left many voters skeptical of the party's intentions, and vowed to make up for that in future contests.
"It's clear to me that the DNC has to do a better job of ensuring that the Democratic primary process is fair to everybody," said Perez, who took over the DNC earlier this year as the party sought to regroup from Clinton's 2016 election loss.
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"And by everybody I mean not just the candidates, but the voters feel like the party is transparent and the party is giving an opportunity to everyone and the party is making sure that everybody who is able to vote can get out there."
"I know that we have to do a better job as the Democratic Party in making sure that the process is fair," he added.
One of the steps he said the DNC would take to assure voters that the primary process is fair is to set the party's debate schedule before all the candidates have announced their bids, as previously reported by The Hill.
"Last time around there was a very strong sense that the primary debate schedule was set up in a way as to help one candidate over another," he said. "And we're not going to have that happen."
Perez also said that the party's success in future races will depend on its ability to build its own infrastructure. That includes its use of technology and organizing efforts. Last year, he said, the DNC had allowed its "basic infrastructure to degrade."
Perez's comments come days after Democratic candidates swept state and local elections across Virginia, New Jersey and New York, among other states. The wins, widely seen as a reaction to President Trump's deep unpopularity, have been touted by the Democratic Party as a bellwether of success in the 2018 midterm elections.File photo of British Airways flight.
A "military strength" laser caused significant damage to the eye of a British Airways co-pilot when it was shone into his cockpit as the plane was landing, a trade union said Monday.The unnamed victim was taken to hospital in Sheffield, northern England, following the incident at London's Heathrow Airport in the spring and has not returned to work since."His retina was burnt on one of his eyes," said Jim McAuslan, general secretary of the British Airline Pilots Association, adding that he assumed the laser was "military strength" due to the damage it caused."When there's something like this, that's damaged a man's retina, that starts to worry us."The identity of the victim has been withheld due to an ongoing employment tribunal.The pilots' association says the number of laser attacks against pilots is increasing as laser pens, typically used during presentations, become more widespread and powerful.Russia denies interference in Malta's affairs
Embassy calls it 'fake information'
Russia has strongly denied any involvement in the Maltese general election or the Egrant company claims.
In a statement this afternoon, the Russia Embassy said it "categorically rejects" the allegations, saying they were "absolutely unfounded and untrue."
"Russia has never interfered into Malta's domestic affairs and has no intention to do so in the future. All questions regarding these allegations should be addressed to the so-called'security services of allied countries' that spread this fake information" the embassy said.
The link was raised after a report published on Intelligence Online which said that the UK's MI6 and the US CIA were concerned about "possible interference" in Malta's election process.
Prime Minister Joseph Muscat said that allied security services had warned their Maltese counterparts to expect retaliation for Malta's decision to refuse to refuel Russian warships heading to Syria back in October 2016, as well as the government's push during its EU Council presidency to accelerate the visa waiver programme for Ukraine.
Nationalist Party leader Simon Busuttil dismissed the claims as "totally ridiculous and absurd," saying the Prime Minister had "lost the plot".Jun 27, 2014; Philadelphia, PA, USA; A general view of the complete draft board after the completion of the first round of the 2014 NHL Draft at Wells Fargo Center. Mandatory Credit: Bill Streicher-USA TODAY Sports
The 2015 NHL Draft may be two months away and the St. Louis Blues staring down the stretch at the postseason but it’s never too early to look at the possibilities the Draft brings. Where will the Blues deepen their talent pool in preparation for summer signings and contract renewals, or non-renewals, as the case may be? We’ll take a look in our 2015 NHL Mock Draft over the next few days.
2014 NHL Draft: Round One
Last year the Blues used their first-round pick on Robert Fabbri, a great two-way center who is often compared to Martin St. Louis in both his small stature and his lack of fear in going to the corners to fight for the puck. With appropriate development over the next few years, Fabbri will likely join the Blues at a critical juncture when Backes will be aging out of the 1C role he currently fills and Lehtera — or the 2C who takes Lehtera’s place, if his current two-year contract isn’t renewed — moves up.
Fabbri decided to continue his development in the OHL with the Guelph Storm for the season after he was drafted last June.
Fabbri is developing into a strong player who could be an asset for the Blues, but we are talking at least two or three years in the future. The most most recent of St. Louis’ draft picks who have ended up on the team is Dimitrij Jaskin, who has spent most of the year in St. Louis instead of with their AHL affiliate, the Chicago Wolves. Jaskin was drafted in 2011 and developed in the AHL on a pretty typical three-year curve.
Going into the Draft we know the St. Louis Blues traded away a first-round pick back in 2014, essentially putting the Blues on the outs in the first round.
The Buffalo Sabres took said pick alongside Halak, Stewart, Carrier, and a conditional 2014 first-round pick just before the 2014 trade deadline in return for Miller, Ott, and conditional second- and third-round picks in the 2014 NHL Draft.
However there are a number of teams who have multiple first-round picks who may be willing to give one up in exchange for a player who is enticing enough, i.e. fills an immediate need, or is a strong enough trading piece that they could get someone they really want.
The Buffalo Sabres..or the Winnipeg Jets?
While the Sabres originally got the first-round pick from the Blues and are likely looking forward to spending it, considering that they are one of the two contenders most likely to get the first or second draw in the first round, giving the team with the fewest points a 20% chance to win the first pick, the team with the second-fewest points 13.5%, the third-fewest with 11.5% and so on and so on.
The Sabres’ weakness however may be the fact that they are in a rebuild. If the Blues can offer a tantalizing-enough option, giving Buffalo GM Tim Murray the option of Mr. Right right now, Buffalo could theoretically hand that first-round pick right back to St. Louis.
If that happens, St. Louis GM Doug Armstrong would likely have to give up a pretty hefty sum for the extra pick; given the Sabres’ position points-wise in the league their picks will be early in the first round. That would mean trading a strong points-producing player like Schwartz or a class-A defender such as Pietrangelo while retaining some of their salary. Murray would be foolish to look for less in return for a high first-round pick.
In that case, the Blues are likely to look to the Winnipeg Jets instead for a first-round pick.
First-round picks are in high demand, with a number of teams (NYR, CHI, LAK, NYI) having traded them for a guaranteed-good, already developed player. And Arizona, Carolina, Philadelphia, Toronto, Buffalo, Winnipeg and Edmonton all took advantage of that shortsighted view, each of them with two picks in the first round. This not only gives them trading power during the draft itself, but the opportunity to set a strong rebuild in motion over the course of one day.
Of those seven teams, only Winnipeg is in a strong enough position that they might be persuaded to give up a first-round for a pair of second-round picks, which would likely be more acceptable to St. Louis than losing a high-producing player off the roster.
And so assuming that the Blues are able to make a trade that Winnipeg finds satisfying, the Blues would do well to draft left winger Jordan Greenway. Greenway is what he himself has termed a “power forward,” using his size to his advantage and playing a very physical game. He’s also no stranger to scoring goals, as he put up 126 total points over 60 games during only his second year at Shattuck St. Mary’s. NHL.com’s Mike G. Morreale wrote about Greenway earlier this season in the below-quoted article, interviewing Greenway, his coaches, and examining his overall record.
“He doesn’t have any idea how big, strong and athletic he is,” USNTDP U-18 coach Don Granato said. “It’ll be a process for him but that’s what you drool over. He’s got athletic ability, size and strength, and his potential is really high.”
He’s cooled off a bit over the past two years, likely due to dividing his time between the USHL and the USDP. In the same article however Director of NHL Scouting Dan Marr attributed the downward trend in points to Greenway’s age and teenage maturity.
“He’s been pegged as an A candidate, and as I’ve told him he can’t be playing any B-rated games,” Marr said. “The knock on him is that he has the A-rated talent but at times plays like a B player, and he can’t do that. He needs to consistently bring that A game to the table and he’s done that this year.” Marr said Greenway needs to take advantage of his physical attributes and exhibit good puck protection and good cycling while being hard to check and winning 1-on-1 battles. “He needs to play that game,” Marr said. “It’s not that he’s shy to get involved, but as soon as he treats hockey like it’s going to be his job, his occupation, then the sky could be the limit for him.”
Greenway plans on attending Boston University and wouldn’t join either the Wolves or the Blues right away, giving the Blues time to outlast Steen’s overly-ample contract which will be up in 2018. He’d be an ideal candidate for the cap-burdened Blues as his time at B.U. would take care of at least some of his player development.Cuba is known for exporting cigars, but it might soon be known for exporting a lung cancer vaccine researchers say can turn advanced lung cancer into a manageable chronic illness.
From the island nation known for the quality of its cigars comes some pretty big news today: Xinhua reports that Cuban medical authorities have released the first therapeutic vaccine for lung cancer. CimaVax-EGF is the result of a 25-year research project at Havana's Center for Molecular Immunology, and it could make a life or death difference for those facing late-stage lung cancers, researchers there say.
CimaVax-EGF isn't a vaccine in the preventative sense--that is, it doesn't prevent lung cancer from taking hold in new patients. It's based on a protein related to uncontrolled cell proliferation--that is, it doesn't prevent cancer from existing in the first place but attacks the mechanism by which it does harm.
As such it can turn aggressive later-stage lung cancer into a manageable chronic disease by creating antibodies that do battle with the proteins that cause uncontrolled cell proliferation, researchers say. Chemotherapy and radiotherapy are still recommended as a primary means of destroying cancerous tissue, but for those showing no improvement the new vaccine could be a literal lifesaver.
The vaccine has already been tested in 1,000 patients in Cuba and is being distributed at hospitals there free of charge. That's a big deal for a country where smoking is part of the national culture and a leading cause of death. If it proves as successful as researchers say it is, it should give those suffering from lung cancer reason to celebrate--just not with a Cohiba.
XinhuaTVLine Interview
Well, there had been various calls and various suggestions, the showrunners had spoken to me a couple of times about the possibility of coming back….. I think I first heard through Iain. I think he texted me probably when he wasn’t meant to. He told me what they were planning, and it was very nice to get the opportunity to get a whole episode of me and Iain. We had a lot of fun and were really looking forward to it.[Laughs] Thankfully, Hunter has been absent so he was as much in the dark as I was! I didn’t have to do too much catching up. I got the basics and then just ran with it.The thing is, because they do such an amazing job of building sets, you’re used to things constantly changing. But seeing what was the [S.H.I.E.L.D.] base transformed into another sort of place is kind of weirdly family but very different at the same time.Well, he’s been up his usual tricks, doing some mercenary work and bickering with Bobbi. He doesn’t necessarily have access to all the bells-and-whistles and gadgetry that S.H.I.E.L.D. did, so he has to use his charm and his wit to break down doors, and call in a few favors from his dodgy friends — who at times are quite unreliable!Climate activists on Wednesday delivered more than 90,000 petitions to the Democratic National Committee (DNC) demanding that the party's 2016 platform include a nationwide ban on fracking.
As the DNC convened in Washington, D.C. for its open forum on shaping the platform, activists with Food & Water Watch, 350.org, Honor the Earth, and other groups handed over the appeals and said officials must acknowledge the harm that fracking has caused the environment.
"The Democratic Party has been complicit in the U.S. fracking boom which is poisoning communities and our climate," said Emily Wurth, water program director at Food & Water Watch. "Any serious plan to combat climate change must include a ban on fracking, and as the committee develops the platform, they should heed the calls of the growing movement to ban fracking and keep fossil fuels in the ground."
The groups noted that more than 137,000 fracking wells have been opened in the U.S. since 2005 as part of President Barack Obama's "all-of-the-above" energy policy that included promoting the use of natural gas. By contrast, the 2016 presidential election has seen candidates backing away from the fossil fuel industry, with Bernie Sanders standing out for his support of a nationwide ban on fracking.
And as Environmental Action policy director Anthony Rogers-Wright explained, the majority of people that now find themselves in proximity of a fracking well are in communities of color—who largely vote Democratic.
"This is the face of fracking in America: Latino, Native, African American and other communities are disproportionately impacted by the toxic effects of fracking and its infrastructure," Rogers-Wright said. "It's time for the DNC, a political party that is totally dependent on the participation of People of Color, to show that our health is as important as our votes. Including a fracking ban in the party platform is an essential step to demonstrate this."
That call echoes at the local level, such as in Texas, where the state Democratic party's convention is scheduled for next week in San Antonio. To that end, the Austin American-Statesman reports, a longtime Texas environmental activist is getting ready to stage a "guerrilla maneuver" on the floor of convention.
The Statesman's Asher Price writes:
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Jere Locke, who runs the nonprofit Texas Drought Project and has long been involved in environmental matters in Central Texas, has recruited volunteers to gather thousands of signatures during the convention, to be held June 17-18, in a bid to force stronger language [on fracking] onto the party’s platform. [....] The platform calls for a “verifiable and thorough review of the deleterious effects of hydraulic fracturing” — but Locke says that needs updating because deleterious effects have been documented.
Locke said he wanted an outright ban on new fracking projects. As the Statesman notes, Democrats hold no statewide elected offices in Texas, so the platform "is also meant to serve as a sort of blueprint back to victory."
"We're going to take it to the floor," he told the Statesman. "We're interested in winning, but also in educating people."
The Texas demonstration will precede plans by national activists to stage a massive rally the day before the DNC's convention in Philadelphia next month. Thousands are expected to gather for the March for a Clean Energy Revolution, which will demand a ban on fracking, keeping all fossil fuels in the ground, and a transition to renewable energy, organizers said. The march has been endorsed by more than 400 organizations.
"It's well past time for elected officials to defend our collective futures, end their support of fossil fuels, and move into the clean energy era," said Tara Houska, national campaigns director at Honor the Earth.
A recent Gallup poll found that the majority of Americans are opposed to fracking for the first time, with more and more communities continuing to ban the controversial gas extraction technique.
"History will not be kind to those who insist on continued burning of fossil fuels long after the science of climate change was crystal clear," said Ben Wikler, Washington director for MoveOn.org, one of the groups that delivered petitions to the DNC on Wednesday. "The Democratic Party Platform Committee should echo the voices of grassroots activists and the public at large and state unequivocally that fracking has no place in our clean-energy future.""The country's Prime Minister cannot give a reply to this. Anyway, he is silent. If nobody speaks at all, then what reply can you get from such a person?" quipped a sarcastic Narendra Modi, taking one of his trademark potshots at "Maun Mohan Singh" as he campaigned in Himachal Pradesh back in October. During the same speech, he also took a swipe Robert Vadra's dubious land deals: "Now, I am a happy person. Who have I to loot for? I don't even have a son-in-law. My dear brothers, you should also be careful of sons-in-law. The entire institution of sons-in-law will soon be blacklisted."
Six months later, Modi is the one who is conspicuously silent, refusing to comment on another famous son-in-law in legal trouble. There has been not one peep from BJP's leading prime ministerial candidate on the biggest cricketing scandal in the nation. His position as the head of the Gujarat Cricket Association and member of the BCCI board makes his maun vrat all the more inexplicable -- and potentially damaging.
Earlier this week, writing in The Mint, G Sampath argued that the Congress party was botching a valuable opportunity for political mileage:
Of course, Srinivasan’s main political patron is a Congressman, Shukla, who is also the IPL chairman. But Shukla is nowhere near as high in the Congress hierarchy as Modi or Jaitely are in the BJP. While Jaitley is widely acknowledged as a strategic lynchpin of the BJP, Modi is a potential prime ministerial candidate. Shukla is not a Manmohan Singh or a P. Chidambaram or even a Jairam Ramesh. If the Congress takes a stand on the ongoing spot-fixing scam and asks Shukla to resign on moral grounds, it can score some precious brownie points by asking what two of the BJP’s senior-most leaders are doing in what is arguably the country’s most controversial sports body, and why neither of them has taken a public stand on Srinivasan’s insistence on continuing as BCCI president.
Congress honchos, however belatedly, seem to have reached the same conclusion. Over the past few days, there have been a flurry of anti-Srinivasan statements issued by its leaders, demanding his head. The Telegraph attributes this change of heart to Rahul Gandhi himself:
Rahul Gandhi took the initiative to control the damage, telling the younger ministers that such scandals cast the government of the day in negative light and any impression about a Congress role in saving the guilty should be fought with full force. Rahul’s intervention resulted in two quick responses that succeeded in insulating the Congress from other politicians who were seen to be supporting or were silent in the ugly controversy surrounding fixing in cricket. Jyotiraditya Scindia, the president of Madhya Pradesh Cricket Association and Union power minister, was the first to ask for Srinivasan’s ouster. Sports minister Jitendra Singh took the exceptional step of asking for the resignation of the head of a non-government body. Both Scindia and Singh are very close to Rahul.
All this talk of Rahul taking on the BCCI reads suspiciously as usual PR hype. But it doesn't help Modi's situation, and underlines his continuing silence, more so when his own party member Kirti Azad offers up quotes like these: “Why are the people who sit in Parliament and State Assemblies and [who] demand resignations from corrupt members, even from the Prime Minister, silent now?”
Why indeed? Azad tried to walk back his comments with a lame excuse that just made Modi look worse: "Narendra Modi doesn't participate actively in BCCI as far as I know, don't think that taking his name is |
her, and Shadde Badir—all of whom were blind from birth—managed to set up an extensive phone and computer fraud scheme in Israel in the 1990s using social engineering, voice impersonation, and Braille-display computers.[27]
Law [ edit ]
In common law, pretexting is an invasion of privacy tort of appropriation.[28]
Pretexting of telephone records [ edit ]
In December 2006, United States Congress approved a Senate sponsored bill making the pretexting of telephone records a federal felony with fines of up to $250,000 and ten years in prison for individuals (or fines of up to $500,000 for companies). It was signed by President George W. Bush on 12 January 2007.[29]
Federal legislation [ edit ]
The 1999 "GLBA" is a U.S. Federal law that specifically addresses pretexting of banking records as an illegal act punishable under federal statutes. When a business entity such as a private investigator, SIU insurance investigator, or an adjuster conducts any type of deception, it falls under the authority of the Federal Trade Commission (FTC). This federal agency has the obligation and authority to ensure that consumers are not subjected to any unfair or deceptive business practices. US Federal Trade Commission Act, Section 5 of the FTCA states, in part: "Whenever the Commission shall have reason to believe that any such person, partnership, or corporation has been or is using any unfair method of competition or unfair or deceptive act or practice in or affecting commerce, and if it shall appear to the Commission that a proceeding by it in respect thereof would be to the interest of the public, it shall issue and serve upon such person, partnership, or corporation a complaint stating its charges in that respect."
The statute states that when someone obtains any personal, non-public information from a financial institution or the consumer, their action is subject to the statute. It relates to the consumer's relationship with the financial institution. For example, a pretexter using false pretenses either to get a consumer's address from the consumer's bank, or to get a consumer to disclose the name of their bank, would be covered. The determining principle is that pretexting only occurs when information is obtained through false pretenses.
While the sale of cell telephone records has gained significant media attention, and telecommunications records are the focus of the two bills currently before the United States Senate, many other types of private records are being bought and sold in the public market. Alongside many advertisements for cell phone records, wireline records and the records associated with calling cards are advertised. As individuals shift to VoIP telephones, it is safe to assume that those records will be offered for sale as well. Currently, it is legal to sell telephone records, but illegal to obtain them.[30]
1st Source Information Specialists [ edit ]
U.S. Rep. Fred Upton (R-Kalamazoo, Michigan), chairman of the Energy and Commerce Subcommittee on Telecommunications and the Internet, expressed concern over the easy access to personal mobile phone records on the Internet during a House Energy & Commerce Committee hearing on "Phone Records For Sale: Why Aren't Phone Records Safe From Pretexting?" Illinois became the first state to sue an online records broker when Attorney General Lisa Madigan sued 1st Source Information Specialists, Inc. A spokeswoman for Madigan's office said. The Florida-based company operates several Web sites that sell mobile telephone records, according to a copy of the suit. The attorneys general of Florida and Missouri quickly followed Madigan's lead, filing suits respectively, against 1st Source Information Specialists and, in Missouri's case, one other records broker – First Data Solutions, Inc.
Several wireless providers, including T-Mobile, Verizon, and Cingular filed earlier lawsuits against records brokers, with Cingular winning an injunction against First Data Solutions and 1st Source Information Specialists. U.S. Senator Charles Schumer (D-New York) introduced legislation in February 2006 aimed at curbing the practice. The Consumer Telephone Records Protection Act of 2006 would create felony criminal penalties for stealing and selling the records of mobile phone, landline, and Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) subscribers.
HP [ edit ]
Patricia Dunn, former chairwoman of Hewlett Packard, reported that the HP board hired a private investigation company to delve into who was responsible for leaks within the board. Dunn acknowledged that the company used the practice of pretexting to solicit the telephone records of board members and journalists. Chairman Dunn later apologized for this act and offered to step down from the board if it was desired by board members.[31] Unlike Federal law, California law specifically forbids such pretexting. The four felony charges brought on Dunn were dismissed.[32]
In popular culture [ edit ]
See also [ edit ]
References [ edit ]Credit: Georgette Douwma/Getty Images A new study says sunscreen may be damaging the planet's coral reefs.
Just two weeks ago, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) raised the alarm about the terrible plight facing the Earth’s coral reefs. For the third time in history, the world is in the midst of a global coral bleaching event, the agency said.
"We are losing huge areas of coral across the U.S., as well as internationally," said Mark Eakin, NOAA’s Coral Reef Watch coordinator, citing climate change and events like the current El Niño as primary reasons for the mass die-off.
A new study published this week is bringing even more bad news about the world’s dying corals. According to researchers, there may be another, oft-overlooked threat to reefs worldwide: sunscreen.
Scientists who conducted their research in Hawaii and the U.S. Virgin Islands found that the chemical oxybenzone -- used in more than 3,500 sunscreen products worldwide, including those by popular brands such as Coppertone, L’Oreal and Banana Boat -- was extremely harmful to fragile coral reefs.
"The chemical not only kills the coral, it causes DNA damage in adults and deforms the DNA in coral in the larval stage, making it unlikely they can develop properly," a news release reported.
The researchers said even a tiny amount of oxybenzone-containing sunscreen can damage corals. As The Washington Post noted, "the equivalent of a drop of water in a half-dozen Olympic-sized swimming pools" was sufficient to cause harm.
Every year, approximately 14,000 tons of sunscreen ends up in coral reefs worldwide.
"The use of oxybenzone-containing products needs to be seriously deliberated in islands and areas where coral reef conservation is a critical issue," said lead researcher Craig Downs. "We have lost at least 80 percent of the coral reefs in the Caribbean. Any small effort to reduce oxybenzone pollution could mean that a coral reef survives a long, hot summer, or that a degraded area recovers."
But keeping sunscreen away from reef systems will be no easy feat.
The product, which can protect wearers from the ill effects of sun exposure, including skin cancer and burns, is used widely, and researchers say that the contamination of reefs isn’t just caused by beach-goers who swim in waters near corals but by everyone who wears sunscreen in their day-to-day lives.
"The most direct evidence [of damage] we have is from beaches with a large amount of people in the water," John Fauth, one of the study's co-authors and an associate professor of biology at the University of Central Florida, told the Post. "But another way is through the wastewater streams. People come inside and step into the shower. People forget it goes somewhere."
However, steps can be taken to prevent the contamination of reefs with sunscreen products.
The U.S. National Park Service recommends using "reef-friendly" sunscreen made with titanium oxide or zinc oxide, instead of oxybenzone. (The Environmental Working Group lists some examples on its website.)
When frolicking on the beach, rash guards, scuba suits and hats are other environmentally-friendly ways to protect oneself from the sun.
Some tourist destinations have even instituted no sunscreen rules to protect their reefs, NPR reported. In Akumal, Mexico, for instance, an area known for its sea turtles and corals, visitors are urged to apply eco-friendly sunscreen (or none at all) so as to not disturb the marine life.
Credit: Getty Images Bleached branching coral in the Maldives. According to the NOAA, the world is currently in the midst of a global coral bleaching event.
Coral reefs aren't just underwater eye candy. They are "some of the most diverse and valuable ecosystems on Earth," NOAA said. Reefs are crucial to the well-being of other marine life, and they protect miles and miles of coastline from storm surge.
The biodiversity of reefs is also "considered key to finding new medicines for the 21st century," NOAA said. "Many drugs are now being developed from coral reef animals and plants as possible cures for cancer, arthritis, human bacterial infections, viruses and other diseases."
In addition, coral reefs provide economic and environmental services to millions of people through industries like fishing and tourism. The commercial value of U.S. fisheries from reefs is reportedly over $100 million.
Click here to see enlarged image.More than 42 million calls to Centrelink receive engaged signal, Senate estimates hears
Updated
If you've tried to call Centrelink this year only to encounter a busy signal, you're definitely not alone.
In the first 10 months of this financial year, just over 42 million calls to the Government agency received an engaged signal, according to evidence presented to a Senate estimates hearing.
That compares to almost 29 million in the 2015-16 financial year, and 22 million the year before that.
Greens Senator Rachel Siewert said it shows the Centrelink system is "broken".
"This is an astronomical number representing Australians trying to access supports, adjust their payments, seek information or update their earnings," she told the ABC.
"That is a lot of frustrated people who may be exasperated and struggling."
The Department of Human Services said many people are still using mobile phone apps that allow them to redial "every couple of seconds" if they get an engaged signal.
Chief information officer Gary Sterrenberg said they were trying to work out how many people are constantly calling.
"The analysis we've asked our provider to do is to strip out those that try less than a number of times per segment of time, because obviously it's reasonable for them within a minute or two to try again, but it's actually not reasonable for them to try a thousand times a day, you know," he said.
Senator Siewert said she understood how that could be frustrating.
"But I can also see how people that are trying to get through to you would find that frustrating," she said.
The department's secretary, Kathryn Campbell, said they were "constantly looking" for ways to meet people's needs without them having to "try a thousand times".
Labor questions decision to contract 250 extra staff
The Government also intends to contract an extra 250 call centre staff to help manage the high number of calls.
But Labor senator Murray Watt questioned how much of a difference they would be able to make.
"Employing those 250 people, we work out, would require [them] to take 460 calls each day, every day of the year just to answer those missed calls," she said.
But Ms Campbell defended the approach, telling the committee the contract staff would be able to take some of the more simple calls.
"Hopefully if they were ringing — for example, 20 times a day — if we're able to take them on the first occasion, that would mean the other 19 calls wouldn't occur," she said.
Call wait times up to 38 minutes
Even if you manage to get through to Centrelink, you are still likely to face a wait before your call is answered.
The department also set out the average time callers have to wait across Centrelink's main phone lines.
For the financial year to the end of April they were:
Services Call wait time Disabilities, sickness and carers 28 minutes Unemployment services 30 minutes Families and parenting 16 minutes Older Australians 18 minutes Youth and Students 30 minutes Participation 38 minutes Other (including income management, emergency management, the MyGov website, Australian victims of terrorism) 8 minutes
Topics: government-and-politics, welfare, federal-government, community-and-society, australia
First postedLOS ANGELES, July 30 (UPI) -- Celebrities and political figures like Jay Leno and Jesse Jackson joined a hunger strike to call for an end to California's use of isolation in prisons.
Gloria Steinem and Bonnie Raitt also joined the hunger strike and sent to Gov. Jerry Brown Monday a letter, which calls the isolation units an "extension of the same inhumanity practiced at Abu Ghraib and Guantanamo Bay."
A demonstration at the Capitol was arranged for Tuesday by the National Religion Campaign Against Torture, the Los Angeles Times reported Monday.
Other notables who included their signatures on the letter to Brown included political critic Noam Chomsky, Buddhist scholar Robert Thurman and actor Peter Coyote, the Times said.
More than 630 inmates are participating in the hunger strike in nine California state prisons. The protest, which began July 8, is aimed at putting a five-year limit on how long inmates are held in isolation.GOP
Which pundits relying on polls predicted the election results accurately? Which pundits were idiotic and why it’s important to know who they are?The winner is New York Times pundit, Nate Silver. He predicted the presidential race outcomes in every state plus the District of Columbia — a perfect 51/51 score. Who were the idiots that blew it and what do they have in common?Karl Rove had Romney winning Ohio, Iowa, Virginia, Colorado, and Florida and the Electoral College, 285, Obama 253.George Will, The Washington Post: Romney 321, Obama 217.Jay Cost, Weekly Standard: Romney victory.Michael Barone, The Examiner: Romney 315, Obama 223.Dick Morris, Fox News: Romney 325, Obama 213.Bill Bennett had Romney with 305 electoral votes.They are all Republicans who show up on Fox News. Living in their illusory bubble, they made up evidence for awin instead of relying on the best science. Remember this when evaluating all statements by Fox News commentators.
It’s not a big problem for the country when the Fox News Republicans reject arithmetic and science regarding the election results. It’s huge danger to our political dialogue when it comes to issues like Global Warming and other policy debates. When Fox News, the voice of the GOP, rejects arithmetic and science to lure people into cock-and-bull stories about extreme weather that impacts on our children's lives and the future of humanity, it’s a problem.
Global Warming is a factory of Frankenstorms, hunger, nations under water, people threatened by dwindling resources. Fox News says Global Warming is a fabrication by Al Gore and 99% of the scientists who study it. Of course, Fox News also told us to trust them that Mitt Romney would win big. For those who watch Fox, remember that old saying: foor me once shame on you; fool me twice, shame on me.The 2016-17 NBA season is almost here … and upon last check, they are still going to allow the Washington Wizards to participate. So the TAI crew is firing up the pixel makers and churning out player previews, or rather, “Wizards Player Haters’ Previews” — which is not to say that we are hating on the players or the game, but that this season’s version of the Wizards is ready to hate on all those who stand in their way. First up: Kelly Oubre, via Adam Rubin (@LedellsPlace).
The human condition is plagued by existential questions: What is the meaning of life? What is our purpose on earth? Does any of this really matter?
This off-season you can add one more to the list: Who, exactly, is Kelly Oubre, Jr.?
Is he the small forward of the future? Is he better than Otto Porter right now? Is he the NBA’s next sex symbol?
https://twitter.com/WizardsSpain/status/784725829574094848
We still do not know what Oubre has to offer because he spent (almost) his entire rookie season in Randy Wittman’s doghouse. It’s a cruel, lonely fate that befell Trevor Booker and Kevin Seraphin before him.
There has been much ado about Oubre’s breakout this preseason, as if Kelly has morphed into a brand new player, but there were already glimpses of his potential last year. During a nine-game stretch beginning in mid-December, Oubre played over 20 minutes in eight games and started five of them. Aside from a tendency to pick up unnecessary fouls, he played pretty well. Most notably, he hit 12 of 22 3-pointers (54.5%). By comparison, he is shooting 5-for-14 (35.7%) from long-range during his supposed breakout preseason.
Kind of makes you wonder where Oubre would be today if he was given a shot last season like his fellow rookie Josh Richardson in Miami. But the past is the past. No need to dwell on the Wittman era.
The important question is what Oubre offers this year’s Wizards. One thing seems certain: Kelly will have a significant spot in the rotation. Scott Brooks raised eyebrows at the start of training camp when he said Otto Porter and Oubre would compete for the starting small forward spot. This was likely just coach-speak, letting his new players know that minutes must be earned under the new regime.
Thing is, Otto has already established himself as a dependable running mate with the starters. The Toronto and Atlanta 2015 playoff series alone should establish Otto as the presumptive starter, let alone his solid play after the All-Star break last season.
Oubre is more of a wildcard. He brings athleticism and aggression on the offensive end that Otto painfully lacks, but he also tends to gamble too much on defense and forces way too many ill-advised shots in traffic.
For readers with the TV viewing habits of a teenage girl, Otto is the Dawson to Oubre’s Pacey. While Joey may prefer the bad boy, NBA coaches usually settle for the safe pick. Expect Porter to be in the starting lineup for the foreseeable future.
So, here’s what to expect from Kelly…
The Good
Assault on the Rim.
Kelly attacks the paint with abandon. Whereas Otto pumps and twists and turns and throws up weak shots at the rim, Oubre tries to run through defenders. While his killer instinct sometimes leads him into triple teams, it also gets him to the free throw line. That is a skill the Wizards sorely lack. Every team needs at least one wing player who prefers to challenge interior defenders rather than settle for jumpers. Porter, Marcus Thornton, Jarell Eddie—even Beal most of the time—prefer to do their damage via jumpers. Oubre is the designated slasher on the team.
Outside shooting.
The sample size is limited, but Oubre appears to be at least a league average 3-point shooter. And he does not lack for confidence. Those two traits alone make him an asset on this Wizards team. John Wall has a knack for turning average shooters into well-paid ones. With Tomas Satoransky, a non-shooter, poised to play substantial minutes at point guard and shooting guard, it is especially important for Oubre to be able to space the floor with the second unit.
Quick Hands and Long Arms.
Oubre has the tools to be an elite defender. In his rookie season, those tools got him into a lot of foul trouble, as he reached for steals instead of staying in front of his man and too often slapped shooter after shooter on the wrist after the ball was released. After a home game against the Sacramento Kings last season, fellow Kansas University alum Ben McLemore said that Oubre just needs time to adjust to the speed and officiating of the NBA game.
He appears to have learned his lesson. Oubre has cut his fouls down to 2.2 per game during the preseason while still swiping 1.8 steals per game. When he is locked in defensively, his 7-foot-2 wingspan can be suffocating. However, he is not always locked in…
The Bad
The Gambler.
Scott Brooks’ quote after Washington’s home preseason opener versus Miami bears repeating:
“He has the length and athleticism and he does gamble at times but he just has to continue focus on being solid. It’s hard to shoot over him, his arms go forever. He has to be able to focus in on that because when he gambles everybody else has to recover for him.”
The last sentence is the key. If there is one thing that will keep Oubre off the court this season it is defensive lapses. With Ian Mahinmi missing the first month of the season, Washington does not have a rim protector on the roster. All those gambles will lead to easy baskets if Oubre guesses wrong.
Tunnel Vision.
For all the talk of Kelly’s improvement, there is one negative trait he has not shaken: straight line drives into the heart of the defense. Oubre has a tendency to put his head down and charge at the rim, regardless of who may be in his path.
Oubre gets sandwiched then body-slammed WWE-style. Wittman would have benched him for 5 games for this sequence. pic.twitter.com/iyFEWYbPr5 — Ledell's Place (@LedellsPlace) October 5, 2016
Such drives could be excused last season when he had limited time on the court and every possession must have felt like his only chance to take a shot. They could also be excused in this year’s summer league when Oubre was the centerpiece of the offense and had the greenest light imaginable. But Oubre is still putting his head down and getting into trouble once or twice a game this preseason. It’s not a big deal and it’s something that a coach who prides himself on developing young players can easily fix.
The Shorts
Kelly takes his fashion cues from early-’80s Jack Tripper.Fire Emblem Fates’ Bisexual Characters Are Shara And Zero
By Robert Ward. July 1, 2015. 12:33pm
Zero’s Courtship Scene w/ Male Avatar
Earlier this month, Nintendo revealed that players could marry one of two characters of the same gender in Fire Emblem: Fates. If the player chooses Birthright and has a female avatar, they will be able to marry Shara. If the player chooses Conquest and has a male avatar, they will be able to marry Zero. Both characters will be available in a third DLC episode as well.
Shara is actually the child of Tsukuyomi, a unit that joins the player in Chapter 8 of Birthright. Shara is a peculiar character, comparable to Tharja from Fire Emblem: Awakening in her bluntness, and goes so far as to stalk those she believes may be compatible with her.
Zero, on the other hand, is not the child of another unit. A former thief, Zero is known for his sadistic nature and enjoys watching people suffer. Both characters are bisexual, and can still marry units of the opposite gender.
Fire Emblem: Fates will be released in the United States and Europe sometime in 2016.Tyler Malinky of Lowbrow Customs has a stellar reputation for building stylish old-school Triumph customs. He’s also one of the few people still around who can virtually engineer and build a bike from scratch.
This is one of those bikes, a twin-engined 1955 Triumph called Double Vision, which Malinky has just piloted to a land speed record at Bonneville. He built the 200 kph machine in his home garage using a Lincoln Electric Precision TIG 185 welder, a belt sander and a clapped-out 1950s Atlas Craftsman lathe.
“I’ve always admired the dual-engined Triumph drag bikes of the past,” says Malinky. “So late last fall I decided to build one.” Deep thinking ensued. Malinky completed the frame quickly, but then spent six months visualizing the drive train and the general build. After the vision snapped into focus, he set to work.
For ten weeks the Triumph consumed his life. “It pushed my fabrication and machining abilities to the limit,” he says. “I learned so much during this build. Many dual-engined bikes were built with very limited resources and equipment back in the day, so why couldn’t I do the same?” The raw materials were simple: a few lengths of tubing, some steel and aluminum sheet, and some scavenged swap meet crankcases.
Malinky raced Double Vision in the 1350 c.c. A-VF (special construction, pre-1955 fuel) class at Bonneville Speed Week, and lifted the record to just over 128mph. Despite being plagued by teething issues and clutch slip throughout the week, the bike he built with his own bare hands carried him into the record books.
Now that’s what you call ‘garage built’.
Images © Jon Glover. Bookmark the Lowbrow Customs website and follow their news on the Lowbrow Facebook page.Close the doors, cover the windows, seal any cracks — the room is now pitch black. You can’t see anything…or can you?
New research from psychological scientists at the University of Rochester, Vanderbilt University, and Seoul National University in South Korea suggests that body movements, like waving your hand, can trigger visual sensations, even in the absence of visual information. That is, we may be able to “see” without actually seeing.
To conduct the study, the researchers recruited participants with and without synesthesia, a condition in which a stimulus generates an automatic response in more than one sensory system. People with grapheme-color synesthesia, for example, see certain colors when they read letters and numbers.
The participants sat in a dark room, while the researchers waved three different things in front of their faces — the participant’s own hand, an arm-shaped piece of cardboard, or the experimenter’s hand. Overall, synesthetes experienced stronger visual sensations in response to the movement than nonsynesthetes. And the perceived vividness of these sensations predicted how well participants’ eye movements tracked the self-generated hand movements in the dark.
These findings suggest that self-generated limb movements produce visual sensations that may function just like those typically derived from information that comes in through the retina.
According to the researchers, the findings show that the brain relies so heavily on prior experience that it can sometimes perceive things in the complete absence of the primary sensory input.
“My audition, my touch system, my visual system are all looking at the same world, says study coauthor Duje Tadin of the University of Rochester, “so it makes sense they are sort of working together to give me the best perception that I can get.”
Dieter, K.C., Hu, B., Knill, D.C., Blake, R., & Tadin, D. (2013). Kinesthesis can make an invisible hand visible. Psychological Science. DOI: 10.1177/0956797613497968Press Release
Comscore Reports February 2012 U.S. Mobile Subscriber Market Share
Android Captures Majority Share of U.S. Smartphone Market
RESTON, VA, April 3, 2012 – Comscore, Inc. (NASDAQ: SCOR), a leader in measuring the digital world, today released data from the Comscore MobiLens service, reporting key trends in the U.S. mobile phone industry during the three month average period ending February 2012. The study surveyed more than 30,000 U.S. mobile subscribers and found Samsung to be the top handset manufacturer overall with 25.6 percent market share. Google Android continued to grow its share in the U.S. smartphone market, crossing the 50-percent threshold in February to capture a majority share for the first time in its history.
OEM Market Share
For the three-month average period ending in February, 234 million Americans age 13 and older used mobile devices. Device manufacturer Samsung ranked as the top OEM with 25.6 percent of U.S. mobile subscribers, followed by LG with 19.4 percent share. Apple captured the #3 ranking in February with 13.5 percent of mobile subscribers (up 2.3 percentage points), followed by Motorola at 12.8 percent. HTC moved into the #5 position in February at 6.3 percent (up 0.4 percentage points).
Top Mobile OEMs
3 Month Avg. Ending Feb. 2012 vs. 3 Month Avg. Ending Nov. 2011
Total U.S. Mobile Subscribers (Smartphone & Non-Smartphone) Ages 13+
Source: Comscore MobiLens Share (%) of Mobile Subscribers Nov-11 Feb-12 Point Change Total Mobile Subscribers 100.0% 100.0% N/A Samsung 25.6% 25.6% 0.0 LG 20.5% 19.4% -1.1 Apple 11.2% 13.5% 2.3 Motorola 13.7% 12.8% -0.9 HTC 5.9% 6.3% 0.4
Smartphone Platform Market Share
More than 104 million people in the U.S. owned smartphones during the three months ending in February, up 14 percent versus November. Google Android’s share of the smartphone market eclipsed 50 percent in February, an increase of 17 percentage points since February 2011. Apple ranked second with 30.2 percent of the smartphone market (up 5 percentage points versus year ago), followed by RIM at 13.4 percent, Microsoft at 3.9 percent and Symbian at 1.5 percent.
Top Smartphone Platforms
3 Month Avg. Ending Feb. 2012 vs. 3 Month Avg. Ending Nov. 2011
Total U.S. Smartphone Subscribers Ages 13+
Source: Comscore MobiLens Share (%) of Smartphone Subscribers Nov-11 Feb-12 Point Change Total Smartphone Subscribers 100.0% 100.0% N/A Google 46.9% 50.1% 3.2 Apple 28.7% 30.2% 1.5 RIM 16.6% 13.4% -3.2 Microsoft 5.2% 3.9% -1.3 Symbian 1.5% 1.5% 0.0
Mobile Content Usage
In February, 74.8 percent of U.S. mobile subscribers used text messaging on their mobile device, up 2.2 percentage points. Downloaded applications were used by 49.5 percent of subscribers (up 4.6 percentage points), while browsers were used by 49.2 percent (up 4.8 percentage points). Accessing of social networking sites or blogs increased 3.1 percentage points to 36.1 percent of mobile subscribers. Game-playing was done by 32.3 percent of the mobile audience (up 2.6 percentage points), while 24.8 percent listened to music on their phones (up 3.1 percentage points).
Mobile Content Usage
3 Month Avg. Ending Feb. 2012 vs. 3 Month Avg. Ending Nov. 2011
Total U.S. Mobile Subscribers (Smartphone & Non-Smartphone) Ages 13+
Source: Comscore MobiLens Share (%) of Mobile Subscribers Nov-11 Feb-12 Point Change Total Mobile Subscribers 100.0% 100.0% N/A Sent text message to another phone 72.6% 74.8% 2.2 Used downloaded apps 44.9% 49.5% 4.6 Used browser 44.4% 49.2% 4.8 Accessed social networking site or blog 33.0% 36.1% 3.1 Played Games 29.7% 32.3% 2.6 Listened to music on mobile phone 21.7% 24.8% 3.1
About MobiLens
MobiLens data is derived from an intelligent online survey of a nationally representative sample of mobile subscribers age 13 and older. Data on mobile phone usage refers to a respondent’s primary mobile phone and does not include data related to a respondent’s secondary device.
About Comscore
Comscore, Inc. (NASDAQ: SCOR) is a global leader in measuring the digital world and preferred source of digital business analytics. For more information, please visit www.comscore.com/companyinfo.Again two weeks have past and again it’s time for yet another Blocktix Development Update. Our development team has been busy integrating the My Events page with the blockchain and several further updates to the development side. However we also have some more news before we delve further into the technical side of things.
Exchange Listing
Over the past two weeks our community expressed their wishes of getting added to the Cryptopia Exchange. We are happy to announce we’ve been able to get listed here as per the 10th of October; adding, amongst a Litecoin and Doge pairing, a Bitcoin pairing to Blocktix. You can find the listing over here:
CryptoTopia TIX-BTC
Moving to Discord
Over the past weeks we’ve been looking at different solutions for our current Slack channel. However Slack is a great team chat software we feel it isn’t suited for a crypto-community anymore. Scam and phishing attempts have been a daily nuisance with reaching over 50,000 direct messages a week from scammers on the Blocktix Slack channel. Even working with CAPTCHA on the signup page didn’t do much to keep scammers at bay.
That why, starting this week, we will be moving to Discord, effectively closing down the Slack during the remainder of October. Discord has a lot more options regarding permissions for the Blocktix community itself and users can also easily manage their private messages, making it a lot harder for scam attempts. Join our Discord Channel today!
Development of Blocktix
We’ve been quite busy again over the past two weeks, making good progress on the development process. We are now at a stage where we have started integrating the My Events page with the blockchain. The state service which is capable of determining the difference between data that has already been Published or Mined on the Ethereum Blockchain, and data that’s still pending (or Pending transactions) has been written now.
The IPFS integration has been completed now, as well as storing the hashes in the contracts, and we implemented a transaction queue to keep track of changes that need to be published on events, such as ticketing, information changes, image changes, etc.
A lot of work has gone into the the Ticket Verification and Ticket Redemption parts of Blocktix, where we are far enough along now that we need to catch up on the User Interface for it. The event backing implementation is done, where we allow a single backer to back an event.
We also completed the fund withdrawal on the Event, so once an Event has ended, the promoter will have the ability to Withdraw funds from the Event contract.
Lastly we have been working on the different roles the Event will allow for. This means you can add admins to the Event that will be able to add ticket types, and make changes to the events, as well as introducing the Ticketer role.
The ticketer role will allow ticketers to redeem the Ticket, which has to first be signed by the Account that is currently holding the ticket. The contract will verify that the ticket has been signed by the correct account, and the ticket will be redeemed at this stage.
In Conclusion
In the past two weeks we’ve tackled several hurdles on the development side of things. The groundwork is now mostly finished and we’ll be ramping development up even further.
We’re now starting to close in on a testnet version of Blocktix, where we will have more news on this in the next update.
For those wondering what is happening with the Website update: It’s coming soon; just some last coding and making sure all works as intended and we’ll release it to the public.Greg Jones is the artist behind the enigmatic G JONES moniker-a California native who cut his teeth in the underground bass music scene in Santa Cruz and the Bay Area in the early 10's. A lauded master of electronic music production and highly sought after performer, G Jones is a frequent collaborator of legendary artists including Bassnectar, Eprom and DJ Shadow, who called Jones "the most gifted Ableton beatmaker I've ever seen." His recent track "In Your Head" was added to the Bass Arcade Spotify playlist which accumulated more than 320K followers within a day of being created and published. Rolling Stone touted him a "studio wizard." Billboard Magazine had this to say about his album's first single, "understanding the possibility": "That's what listening to G Jones will do. It's a mental minefield of sudden drops and stutters, bass lines that open holes under your feet and send you shooting sideways to some warped mystery land."I have what might appear to be a peculiar obsession with money as the cause of recessions, and monetary policy as the cure.
[This is very long, and covers a lot of old ground for me, as well as some new. It was supposed to be a belated reply to Brad DeLong's post. But my thoughts wandered. (By the way, for some reason I never remember being annoyed at Simon Wren-Lewis, even when I disagree with him; but I do get very annoyed and frustrated when monetary policy does not do what I think it can do and is supposed to do.)]
1. Coordination.
The central problem in economics is the problem of coordination. How the hell is it possible, for decentralised decisionmakers, each acting only in his own interest with only his own local knowledge, to generate a result that isn't always just a total mess? How does anything ever get produced and consumed at all? Hayek's famous essay is the best on this.
The answer we normally give is "market prices". That answer is right, but it is only half right. The correct answer is: "market prices and money". (It's funny that Hayek doesn't mention money in that essay, because I don't think he would disagree with me.)
Suppose we had market prices and a barter economy. With n goods there would be n(n-1)=n2-n markets, and so n2-n market prices. One market and one price for each possible pair of goods. Even for a very simple economy, with only 100 different goods, there would be 9,900 different markets and 9,900 different prices. Hayek's user of tin would need to know not just one price of tin: he would need to know 99 different prices of tin. And in order to know which of those 99 prices was the cheapest price of tin, he would need to know all 9,900 prices. It would take an army of arbitrageurs to keep all the cross-prices in line. And those arbitrageurs would need to be experts in all the goods they traded, so when they sell tin for apples, and apples for bananas, and bananas for tin, they didn't get stuck with a lemon somewhere |
9th bears repeating; “Ideally, we’d have a culture of explaining to people how this is harmful, and then proceeding to take action against them or their recording devices if necessary. We should note, however, that several independent media initiatives who regularly film at demos appear to have solid practices of not recording or publishing incriminating video.” We would add that regardless of editing practices, filming should be not considered acceptable in the first fifteen minutes of a demonstration (while everyone is masking up), as it feeds police valuable evidence.
Our position weakened each time we let the police dictate our route by blocking off two out of four directions in an intersection, but there was no major effort by any part of the demo to either bring the crowd to a stop and confront the police lines in hope of punching through, or reverse course (like on December 9 when a quick, well-executed reversal allowed us to evade police control). In the past, we’ve been guilty of expecting such decision-making to come from presumed organizers at the front of the demo, but there is also a strong night-demo culture of autonomous groups proposing plans that get put into action if enough people are into them. In the absence of this autonomous intelligence and with the front of the demo proceeding at full speed past police lines, each block we passed felt like we were sinking deeper into a police trap. Historically, through a variety of methods, we ended mass kettling as well as the flanking sidewalk cops; our most urgent tactical need right now is probably to make it impossible for the police to decide the route of the demo by cordoning off streets at their leisure.
The cohesiveness of the bloc and its resulting capacity for coordination also left something to be desired. Dozens of people were in full bloc, with perhaps fifty more at least wearing masks, but we were often scattered throughout the crowd. On the 18th, the lack of cohesion made informal, real-time coordination between affinity groups more difficult, and the bloc’s actions largely failed to build on one another and create a whole greater than the sum of its parts. For instance, on several occasions cop lines were met with a volley of only two to three rocks – not enough to break the resolve of a cop in full riot gear. A barrage of thirty rocks, on the other hand, could realistically cause them to retreat or take cover, potentially opening up space for the demo to break away into more favorable terrain. The bloc being able to recognize itself as a cohesive unit and act as one could enable this type of coordination.
We continue to need better ways of dealing with tear gas, which for the third night demo in a row succeeded in dispersing the crowd.
We are thrilled that we can have combative anarchist demonstrations that don’t need to piggyback on student mobilizations and which can exist outside the scheduled times for street fighting, such as March 15th and May Day. When combative demos only occur in the course of reformist mass struggles they are framed as useful only insofar as riots strengthen our rapport of force with the State, increasing the likelihood of the State meeting the movement’s demands (against austerity, police violence, etc). Combative demonstrations without demands put an anarchist analysis of power into practice: by refusing to frame our struggles in terms of demands, we refuse the crumbs which the State offers us, we refuse their attempts to reassert control and legitimacy, and we learn to create our own power, which is much harder for them to take away. To develop our power, to develop an autonomous anarchist struggle in this city and to undertake conflict with authority outside of predesignated timelines, narratives and terrains – these are worthy goals in and of themselves.
The frequent manif-actions during the strike habituated us to demo-actions of a few hundred people making blockades and occupations possible. Combative demonstrations open up a new possibility of direct action with the capacity to directly strike urban targets otherwise difficult to attack (transportation infrastructure, police stations, etc…) or to defend liberated territories (ZAD, squats, etc…). Developing a habit of calling for demonstrations like those in the last weeks allows anarchists to have autonomy from reformist social movements. It is necessary to call these demos to punctuate daily life with this destructive rage, whether it be to give force to anarchist events, or in direct response to attacks on our struggles.
Further resources countering the agent provocateur narrative:
In defense of the Black Bloc: disproving the accusations against those who wear masksThis Is What Conservative Media Think A Transgender Woman Looks Like August 19, 2013 9:21 AM EDT ››› Blog ›››››› CARLOS MAZA
If there's any doubt how clueless conservative media figures are when it comes to transgender issues, the recent freak out over California's new student non-discrimination law should put it to rest. For the past several weeks, conservative media outlets have been stoking fears about a new California law that will allow transgender students to have access to school facilities and sports teams that match their gender identity. The law has drawn criticism from outlets like Fox News, which warns that the law will allow boys to sneak into girls' bathrooms and engage in inappropriate behavior. Case in point: Media Research Center Content Specialist Dan Joseph, who on August 15 released a video in which he poses as a transgender female and asks a woman if she would be comfortable with him using the same restroom as her: JOSEPH: Excuse me. Are you going into the locker room? WOMAN: Yes. JOSEPH: My name is Dan. I'm a transgender. So that means I have the man parts but inside I feel more like a woman. I was just wondering, is it okay if I go in there with you in there and change and shower and stuff? Just because I don't really feel, like, comfortable in the men's area. It's just weird. Is that okay with you? Other than attempting to feminize his voice, Joseph doesn't present himself in any way as a female in the clip. He is wearing men's clothing, has a full goatee, and goes by his male name, "Dan." His impersonation is a perfect example of everything that's wrong with how conservative media imagine transgender people.
Unlike Joseph's character, most people who are actually transgender make efforts to present and appear in a way that matches their gender identity. Transgender women don't typically walk around in men's clothing will full faces of facial hair. They don't typically refer to themselves as "a transgender." And they certainly don't stand outside of women's restrooms announcing themselves and asking passerbys for permission to "go in there... and change and shower and stuff."
For most transgender people, being outed in public - and especially in bathroom settings - can frequently result in harassment, discrimination, and even violence. Being identified as transgender can invite intense transphobic mistreatment, which is why "passing" - being regarded as a member of the sex that matches your gender identity - can be so important for many transgender people.
But Joseph's goal isn't to accurately depict a transgender person; It's to gin up the myth that heterosexual men will claim to be transgender in order to sneak into women's bathrooms. As he states earlier in the video:
JOSEPH: You mean like a guy who just wants to see some naked chicks going, "oh I'm transgendered, I need to go to the girls' locker room." I mean, that's what I would do.
He's not alone, either. Fox News' Bill O'Reilly and Greg Gutfeld have both claimed that they would pretend to be transgender to sneak into women's restrooms and locker rooms.
Right-wing media outlets have a long history of promoting "bathroom panic" myths about transgender people, but they've never made any sense, nor have they been supported by any hard evidence.
That's because straight, cisgender men - and especially boys - just aren't that interested in dressing like women, identifying as women, and presenting themselves as women over a long period of time just to sneak a peek into a women's locker room. And if a man really is that dead set on getting into a women's locker room, a lack of protections for transgender people probably isn't going to hold him back.
Which is exactly why people like Joseph, O'Reilly, and Gutfeld have to claim that they personally would be the ones who pretend to be transgender to sneak into women's facilities.
There are no real world examples to support their horror story. They have to become the horror story in order to prove its credibility.× Disneyland Prices Increase; Single-Day Tickets for Attendees Over 10 Now $99
Park goers over the age of 10 hoping to visit Disneyland will be paying ticket prices just shy of $100 after the “happiest place on Earth” raised its fees Sunday.
The price increase was part of an across-the-board raise in costs for attendees at Anaheim’s Disneyland Resort and Walt Disney World in Florida.
Adult ticket prices rose from $96 to $99, and tickets for children ages 3 to 9 went from $90 to $93.
A one-day park hopper add-on now costs $56, compared to the previous $54. And premium annual passes with parking and no blackout dates jumped about 11 percent, from $699 to 779.
Single-day Disneyland tickets have increased by more than 140 percent since 2000, the Orange County Register reported, listing the cost in 2000 as $41 dollars before increasing to $43 that same year.
Since then, prices have increased annually by $2 to $7, the Register reported. There have been multiple increases of $2 to $4 within a single year.
A Disneyland spokeswoman said park goers should remember the theme parks provide a unique experience.
“A day at a Disney Park is unlike any other in the world, and there is strong demand for our attractions and entertainment,” Betsy Sanchez with Disneyland’s media relations department said in an email statement. “We continually add new experiences, and many of our guests select multiday tickets or annual passes, which provide a great value and additional savings.”
At Florida’s Walt Disney World, single-day tickets rose above $100 for the first time, increasing from $99 to $105.Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull held an hour-long meeting with Gautam Adani. Credit:Ben Rushton In 2010 the Adani Group acquired the rights to develop the Carmichael coal mine in Galilee Basin of Queensland and a rail link with Abbot Point Port to ship the coal. The project has been opposed by green groups. Legal battles In August Adani's federal environmental approval was set aside after a Federal Court challenge successfully showed the government failed to consider the impact of the project on two vulnerable species.
Environment Minister Greg Hunt re-approved the project in October, but a fresh Federal Court challenge has been launched by the Australian Conservation Foundation. Former prime minister Tony Abbott with mining magnate Gautum Adani. Credit:Andrew Meares "They are finding some technicality to seek review; that anyone can do. Some technical mistake here and there and they go to court. That will not help the larger interest," Mr Adani said in an interview in Thiruvananthapuram on December 5. Mr Adani said the project was "very important" from the point of view of both India and Australia. "It's the world's largest coal reserve which will support a minimum 100 million people to have electricity and light and for 100 years," he said.
"Ultimately, a decision lies with the politicians. They have to go Parliament for enacting a special law which says that once government gives approval, no one can challenge it. That is what our request is to the Australian government. You come up with a special legislation which they have done in the past also. Now it is enough. They cannot continue to challenge the project. Gautum Adani "The challenge we are facing in Australia right now is [that] on the one side government is giving all approvals and on the other side, environment activists groups are seeking judicial review and that derails the whole project." Mr Adani said ongoing court cases were hurting Adani's ability to raise money. "Even though there is no stay, because of the judicial review, no lender will finance the project. They do not know what will be the outcome," he said.
No comment Fairfax Media put questions to Mr Turnbull's office on Tuesday about his meeting with Mr Adani. The Prime Minister's office refused to comment on what was discussed at the meeting, or to give a response to Mr Adani's proposal, which is similar to the so-called "lawfare" amendments proposed under former prime minister Tony Abbott. A spokesman for Mr Turnbull confirmed the pair had met last week. Greens Deputy Leader Larissa Waters said it was "clear that this massive foreign mining company is getting very special treatment by the Turnbull government".
"Where are the opportunities for renewable energy companies to sit one-on-one with the PM for an hour?" she said. "The economic reality that coal is dead couldn't be made clearer than through the Adani company's admission that it can't get any finance for the Carmichael project." An Adani spokesman said the company had publicly stated for some time that certainty on government approvals was necessary for the project to proceed. "Clearly, this proposition applies to certainty for finance. This isn't new - Adani has been saying this since earlier this year," he said. "Challenges to detailed, thorough, independent, science-based approvals that commence immediately after earlier challenges conclude on similar fact situations plainly aren't about a respect for process - they are about ideological opposition to mining projects more broadly."
A spokeswoman for Mr Hunt said the government still planned to pursue amendments to Australia's environment laws that would restrict the ability for green and community groups to object to major developments. "Australia has very strong environmental laws which apply to everyone, and the government will not diminish any environmental protections or the penalties for breaking them," she said. "The government has sought to ensure that American style serial litigation is not adopted in Australia, and that once the stringent environmental requirements are met, projects should not be subject to continuing stalling litigation. "The proposed legislative amendments, which are not project specific, are currently before the Senate and won't be considered until the Parliament resumes next year." Cross benchers, Labor and the Greens have previously indicated they would block the amendments.
'Unbankable' project The project has been the subject of sustained debate with the Queensland Treasury describing the project as unbankable. In August, the Commonwealth Bank's role as a financial adviser to the project ended. Several banks have also ruled out lending to the project. The controversy has delayed the project by a year and a half, over which time the price of coal has slumped drastically and other mines on the east coast are being closed or facing production cuts. with BloombergThis article is over 4 years old
Successful Greens candidate Ellen Sandell says the DLP and Shooters and Fishers party had clearly benefited from preference deals
Incoming premier Daniel Andrews will have only himself to blame if he finds himself working with a chaotic parliament as a result of preference deals, the Greens’ Ellen Sandell said following her historic election victory in Melbourne.
The first Greens representative to sit in the legislative assembly, Sandell said the Democratic Labour party (DLP) and the Shooters and Fishers party had clearly benefited from the preferences directed their way from Labor.
The Shooters look set to win upper house seats in Eastern Victoria, Western Victoria and Northern Victoria, while the DLP should win a seat in the Western Metropolitan region.
DLP candidate for the region, Mark Farrell, is a pro-life candidate whose priority is to scrap laws requiring doctors who object abortions to refer patients to a doctor who will perform the procedure.
“Daniel Andrews has made his own bed on this,” Sandell told reporters Sunday.
“He’s the one who has preferenced people like the DLP and the Country Alliance, who could have a couple of seats in the upper house. So if there is chaos in parliament, it is Daniel Andrews fault and his inability to work with the Greens and not wanting to preference the Greens.
“We could have had a real stable, progressive majority and any chaos must be attributed to his preferencing.”
Shooters chairman, Jeff Bourman, said the party was excited by the results so far.
“The Victorian Shooters and Fishers party are encouraged by the support we have received from around the state, and while we’re very excited by the results we must now allow the vote counting to continue,” he said.
“This is going to be very close, and the outcome may not be determined for many days.”
Both Sandell and Victorian Greens leader, Greg Barber, said environmental and transport issues would be non-negotiable priorities for their party.
“Labor’s commitment to scrapping the East West Link toll road is shaky, but the Greens won’t relent until we get the Doncaster rail alternative moving,” Barber said.
“We don’t want to be fighting the toll road again in a few years time. ”
Sandell said a vote for the Greens meant a vote for a 21st century public transport network and action on climate change, which “Labor hasn’t been talking about during this election”.
She said she was hopeful she would not be alone in the lower house and that the final vote count would see the Greens winning a couple of extra seats in Richmond, Prahran and possibly even Brunswick, which Tim Read is on the brink of taking from Labor’s Jane Garrett.
It looks like that Prahran will end up going to a full recount.
“We ran an incredible grassroots campaign in Prahran and now its on knife-edge,” Barber said.
In the upper house, the party looks set to hold five seats.
“We’re pleased to have increased our numbers in the upper house and will be working with all parties to make sure we bring transparency to government and make sure we no longer have decisions made behind closed doors,” Barber said.
“Having sent a clear message they don’t want the old parties in control, the voters will be watching the opposition’s conduct carefully. ”Ukraine has warned that Russia could use a controversial aid delivery as a pretext for invasion, amid growing tension and uncertainty over the fate of a convoy of almost 300 military trucks dispatched by Moscow.
The trucks were believed to be parked last night at an air force base in the Russian city of Voronezh, while Kiev, Moscow, western capitals and international organisations ranging from Nato to the Red Cross weighed in on what should happen next.
Russia says the lorries contain only food, water, medical supplies and electricity generators that are urgently needed in Ukraine’s eastern Luhansk and Donetsk regions, where more than 2,000 people have died and hundreds of thousands been displaced in fighting between pro-Moscow rebels and government forces.
Ukraine and its western allies fear deception on the part of Russia, which they accuse of funnelling fighters and weapons to rebels whom they believe shot down a Malaysian airliner last month, killing all 298 people on board.
Russian foreign minister Sergei Lavrov claimed on Tuesday evening that Kiev had agreed to allow the convoy of 287 military trucks – hastily painted white – to enter Ukraine with local number plates and representatives of the government, the Red Cross and the Organisation for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) on board if requested.
Rejected
“First they provided tanks, Grad missiles, terrorists and bandits who shot at Ukrainians, and then they provide water and salt … Russian cynicism knows no bounds,” said prime minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk.
“Ukraine can only accept humanitarian aid within the framework of international law and only from the Red Cross,” he explained, before adding: “It would have been better for the Russians to send those 300 trucks empty and take back their bandits – then there’d be no need for humanitarian aid.”
Other officials said emphatically that the trucks would not enter Ukraine as planned through government-controlled Kharkiv region, prompting suggestions that the convoy could cross further east, where rebels control stretches of the border; Izvarino, in Luhansk province, is one potential entry point.
The Red Cross said it needed clear security guarantees and more information about the contents of the trucks and the route they were taking.
Russia is determined to deliver the aid, and its foreign ministry rejected as “absurd” suggestions “that the humanitarian convoy to help the civilian population of southeast Ukraine could be used as a pretext for Russian ‘military intervention’.”
Moscow’s open hostility to Kiev’s new pro-western leaders and support for rebels in the east have destroyed millions of Ukrainians’ trust in Russia, however.
They fear the military convoy may contain weapons for the rebels, or could come under an attack – staged or otherwise – which would provide Russian president Vladimir Putin with a pretext to flood Ukraine with “peacekeeping” forces.
Svyatoslav Tsegolko, a spokesman for Ukrainian president Petro Poroshenko, said yesterday that Ukraine’s leaders had decided to accept the aid “to avoid a full-scale invasion from Russia”.
He said he saw three ways the stand-off over the convoy could develop.
“The first scenario is invasion of Ukrainian territory on the pretext of delivering humanitarian aid; the second is a provocation with the cargo in Kharkiv region, with a high probability of aggression from the Russian side.”
“The third scenario is that aid for Luhansk passes through the border crossing nearest the city. Our customs and border guards, with OSCE representatives, check the cargo on the border. Then it moves through territory controlled by the militants, and when it reaches Luhansk the aid will be distributed by the Red Cross.”For years, German politicians and pundits have been taking the moral high ground over the activities of the American private security contractor Blackwater, now known as Xe Services, in places such as Iraq. "The US government has allowed private security firms to develop into an omnipresent, uncontrollable apparatus in the war zones of this world," wrote one German newspaper back in 2007.
That moral outrage is now looking distinctly shabby in the light of revelations that a German security company is planning to supply mercenaries to a Somali warlord. On Monday, Thomas Kaltegärtner, CEO of Asgaard German Security Group, confirmed a report by the German public broadcaster ARD that his company plans to send former German soldiers to Somalia.
In a December 2009 press release, Asgaard announced it had signed an "exclusive agreement on security services" with Abdinur Ahmed Darman. Darman, a Somali warlord who styles himself as the country's president, does not recognize the legitimacy of the United Nations-backed transitional government of Somali President Sheikh Sharif Sheikh Ahmed. The agreement, the company said, would cover "all necessary measures to reintroduce security and peace to Somalia." The country has not had a functioning central government since 1991.
According to Kaltegärtner, himself a former Bundeswehr soldier, Asgaard employees would provide security for Darman and train police and military forces. He stressed, however, that combat operations were not planned. He said that over 100 mercenaries could be involved in operations. Although negotiations were not yet complete, it was possible that Asgaard employees would be operating in Somalia in the near future, Kaltegärtner told Berlin's Tagesspiegel newspaper. Kaltegärtner also told the newspaper that his company employed former members of the German army's special forces, the KSK, and Germany's elite GSG-9 police force.
Privatizing State Violence
Several German politicians have reacted angrily to the news that former soldiers could soon be in action on the Horn of Africa. "In my opinion, this is not acceptable," Rainer Arnold, the defense expert of the center-left Social Democrats, told the Tuesday edition of the Frankfurter Rundschau newspaper. He called for new legislation to "clearly limit" such operations, adding: "One cannot privatize state violence."
Speaking to the same newspaper, Green Party politician Omid Nouripour accused the German government of not doing enough in the past to regulate private security firms. Paul Schäfer of the far-left Left Party and Rainer Stinner of the liberal Free Democratic Party, which governs in coalition with Merkel's conservatives, also criticized the deal, with Schäfer talking of a "shadow foreign policy."
Observers warn that German employees of the firm could be killed or targeted for kidnapping in Somalia. The Islamist Al-Shabab militia, which controls several regions of the country and parts of the capital Mogadishu, has allied itself with Al-Qaida, which wants Germany to withdraw its troops from Afghanistan. The Islamist groups would be pleased to get their hands on German hostages, experts say.
"If a German firm were to train and support a Somali militia, that would certainly go against Germany's interests," said Annette Weber from the German Institute for International and Security Affairs (SWP) in remarks to ARD. The German Foreign Ministry and Defense Ministry now want to look into what Asgaard is planning to do in Somalia, according to the Süddeutsche Zeitung.
The company itself tried to play down the significance of the operation. "We want to work closely together with the German government and will in no way act against its interests," Asgaard said in a statement published on its website on Sunday. "There are currently no German citizens working on behalf of Asgaard in Somalia." The company stressed that it would only begin its operations in Somalia once Darman "once again assumes control of state affairs with the approval of the UN."Introduction
Specifications
Color Black or White Drive Bays 3 EXTERNAL 5.25" DRIVE BAYS 8 INTERNAL 3.5"/2.5" SlotsScrewless Rail Design Form Factor ATX, Micro ATX, Mini-ITX Expansion Slots 7 standard slots Case Fans FRONT: 2 X 120mm (included)REAR: 1 X 120mm (included) Dimensions (W x H x D) 215 x 466 x 520 mm Weight 8.9 kg Switches Power, Reset Front Access 1 x HD Audio/Mic, 3 x USB 2.0, 1 x eSATA, 1 x USB 3.0
I would like to thank CaseKing.de for supplying the review samples.CaseKing is one of the few companies out there, which will not just sell anything. They only offer hardware that performs well and is of high quality. The shop offers quite a few exclusive parts and devices from all around the world and it is also the official distributor for a long list of well known manufacturers. Their assortment has grown greatly in recent years, while great service and support is still a very important part of the shop philosophy. The website may be in German, but due to great demand, an English version is in the works. We received continous support from CaseKing and they were kind enough to send us the latest from NZXT: the H2 chassis in black.The NZXT H2 will be available in two different colors: white with a silver front and black on black.The video will start in 8 Cancel
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Romelu Lukaku has named the three strikers Belgium boss Roberto Martinez told him to watch in order to improve his game at Everton.
The 24-year-old had been in red hot form for Manchester United - following his £75million move from Merseyside - as the new season got under way.
But Lukaku suffered something of a goal drought prior to netting twice in Belgium's 3-3 draw with Mexico in an international friendly.
(Image: AFP)
Martinez will be hoping his star striker is full of confidence going into the 2018 World Cup in Russia.
And it seems Lukaku, who was told to study the games of Hugo Sanchez, Edinson Cavani and Javier Hernandez while at Everton, is still doing all he can to better his performances.
(Image: Getty Images Europe)
"I've improved my movement, especially in the box," Lukaku told Belgian publication DH.
"Two years ago, at Everton, Roberto Martinez made me watch videos of my own movement, but also those of other strikers like Hugo Sanchez, Edinson Cavani and Chicharito.
(Image: REUTERS)
"You need to sit down and watch the Uruguayan's movement inside the box. It's incredible. On top of that, I worked three times a week on my runs inside the box with my coaches."
Manchester United will take on Newcastle at the weekend where Jose Mourinho will be hoping Lukaku can get back to goal-scoring ways.WASHINGTON -- Congress told states in February that they could make unemployed people pass drug tests in order to qualify for benefits. Arizona lawmakers are the first to consider jobless drug testing since then, with a bill that passed the State Senate last week. But the U.S. Labor Department has a message for the state: You're doing it wrong.
And if they follow through with the drug testing proposal as is, Arizona businesses could be in for a major tax hike.
Here's why: If a state's unemployment laws do not gel with federal unemployment laws, then the federal government won't send administrative funding for the state's unemployment insurance programs, and state businesses can lose out out on federal unemployment tax credits.
In every state, employers receive a tax credit that limits their obligations under the Federal Unemployment Tax Act. In Arizona, the credit reduces business' obligations tenfold, from 6 percent to 0.6 percent of the first $7,000 in wages paid to each employee every year.
According to Maurice Emsellem, policy co-director of the National Employment Law Project, if Arizona loses the credit, the average business would go from paying $48 per worker each year to $480 per worker. It's such an extreme scenario that it's never happened before, Emsellem said.
The Arizona drug testing bill, introduced by Sen. Steve Smith (R-Maricopa), would require unemployed people who want benefits to pay for their own drug tests. If their results are positive, they'll be ineligible for benefits. But federal law does not allow states to deny benefits for any reason unrelated to the circumstances of a person's job loss, unless there's fraud or a person is making money from another job.
In a letter dated Feb. 28, the U.S. Department of Labor notified the Arizona Department of Economic Security that Smith's bill would not fly. "Requiring an individual to agree to submit to a drug test as a condition of initial eligibility for UC [unemployment compensation] is not permitted because it is unrelated to the fact or cause of the individual's unemployment," the letter said. The Arizona State Senate approved Smith's bill anyway.
Congress passed a law in February allowing states to drug test unemployment claimants pursuing new jobs in occupations that regularly conduct drug testing, as determined by the Labor Department. Even though the department has not issued rules on what occupations regularly require testing, the Feb. 28 letter notes that Smith's bill makes no effort to comply with the new law.
Smith, for his part, said he took encouragement from what Congress did, even though he would have introduced his bill anyway. And he said he didn't care if it triggered a lawsuit on constitutional grounds, as it almost certainly would. "Well, Arizona's no stranger to lawsuits," Smith told HuffPost. "We've got everybody from the president on down suing us."
Smith's office did not respond to requests for comment about his bill's conformity to federal law.
If the state legislature follows through with Smith's measure, come October, the federal Labor Department could not certify the state's unemployment law. The state would be able to prevent the loss of funding and tax credits during a judicial appeals process, but Emsellem of the National Employment Law Project said an appeal would only delay the inevitable, and businesses would eventually have to pay back taxes starting from October.
"They got no case if they appeal," Emsellem said.
Democrats in the Arizona House of Representatives said it's unlikely the bill will pass the House.
“We’ve looked at this legislation. It appears that it is not compliant with federal law and it isn’t getting a lot of traction here," House Minority Leader Chad Campbell said in a statement to HuffPost. "Frankly, bills like this are a waste of time and we would rather focus on creating jobs so we can get people off of unemployment for good."It seems that the State of Wisconsin has developed a work-around for the abortion problem. That “problem,” being that abortion is a legal and sometimes medically-necessary procedure, and Wisconsin Republicans would prefer to just pretend that it just isn’t. The solution? The Wisconsin state legislature came up with a bill that would block faculty at University of Wisconsin-Madison from teaching OB-GYN residents how to perform abortions. Sure, just make the doctors learn less. That’ll bring everyone around to the pro-life side of things.
Complex as the whole topic of abortion can often be, this utter idiocy of this bill is actually quite simple. It irresponsibly stops doctors from learning to perform abortions without giving any actual thought to the practical consequences. AB206 (full text available here) provides the following:
“This bill prohibits an employee of the University of Wisconsin System or the University of Wisconsin Hospitals and Clinics Authority from, while in the scope of his or her employment, performing or assisting in the performance of an abortion; performing services at a private entity, other than a hospital, where abortions are performed; or training or receiving training in performing abortions, unless the training occurs at a hospital.”
The bill is willfully blind on an important fact about abortions: all OB-GYN training programs must include abortions in their curriculum in order to be accredited by the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education. Wisconsin’s law prohibiting public funding of elective abortions is already a stressor for its medical community; medical students at the UW School of Medicine and Public Health, Aurora Health Care and the Medical College of Wisconsin are currently forced to access their training through an agreement with Planned Parenthood of Wisconsin. If AB206 becomes law, OB-GYN residents would then have to change schools entirely if they wanted to actually become certified physicians in their field. In other words, the Wisconsin legislature is totally fine with relegating its medical community to some two-bit backwater practice, as long as it means its politicians can win votes by pretending that Roe v. Wade never happened. Brain drain indeed.
Adopting laws that prevent doctors from learning to properly practice medicine is a bad idea in any area – but it’s especially bad in Wisconsin. There is already a shortage of OB-GYNs in the state, which is why the University of Wisconsin-Madison Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology recently began a rural residency training track, in which it developed strategic partnerships with rural hospitals to better the medical care for rural women.
Not only would AB206 make healthcare worse for those rural women in a general way (after all, the best and brightest doctors aren’t about to start enrolling in unaccredited residency programs), but it specifically sacrifices health of those women who will require abortion as a life-saving measure. While politicians are always quick to qualify their anti-abortion positions, “except when abortion is necessary to protect the life of the mother,” those like Rep. Andre Jacque (R-De Pere), the author of AB206, are far from committed to their talking points. Abortions necessary to save a woman’s life are a real thing, even if they do amount to a small percentage of abortions overall, but the Wisconsin legislature is poised to sacrifice the lives of those patients by refusing to properly train its doctors.
The American Congress of Obstetricians and Gynecologists (ACOG) issued the following statement about AB206:
“Wisconsin women will suffer if this bill passes. Abortion training is required for safe patient care, management of complications of pregnancy and abortion, and to reduce maternal morbidity and mortality. Maternal mortality in the US is rising and is the worst in the developed world. Legislative interference will close the OB/GYN residency program at the University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health reducing the number of practicing OB/GYNs in Wisconsin.”
If AB206 passes, we’ll have to wait and see what comes next. Perhaps Wisconsin will also stop teaching Roe v. Wade in its law schools so that its attorneys can no longer fight for their clients’ rights or demand legislation that comports with the constitution.
[image via shutterstock]
This is an opinion piece. The views expressed in this article are those of just the author.The Trudeau government's influential team of economic advisers unveiled a batch of growth-lifting recommendations Thursday that focused on immigration, infrastructure and investment strategies.
The objective, the experts say, is to double Canada's projected growth trajectory and add an eye-popping $15,000 to the annual incomes of Canadian households by 2030.
The suggestions comprise a first tranche of ideas from the group of external experts who have been enlisted by Finance Minister Bill Morneau to help Ottawa find ways to resuscitate Canada's lacklustre economy.
The recommendations zeroed in on three areas: productivity-boosting infrastructure, attracting more foreign investment and opening Canada's doors wider to a larger number of talented immigrants.
"Now is the time where we have to take very bold actions," council chair Dominic Barton, who is global managing director of consulting giant McKinsey & Co., told a news conference in Ottawa.
"(The suggestions) may not be new, these have been talked about before — but they haven't been done. And so what we're keen to do is to jolt it."
The group called on Ottawa to deliver more than $200 billion worth of infrastructure projects over the next decade using as few taxpayer dollars as possible.
To get there, the council suggests the government create an independent infrastructure bank designed to seek out private capital by offering investors steady returns through user fees from projects like toll highways, bridges and airports.
"Canada should leverage the trillions in institutional capital waiting on the sidelines and focus this investment productively," the council wrote in a report released Thursday.
Boosting immigration to 450,000
The group also called on Ottawa to create an agency with a mandate to increase foreign direct investment into Canada that it believes could triple investment and add $43 billion to the gross domestic product in only a few years.
"These actions would bring much-needed coherence to what is currently a disjointed approach to foreign investment," the report said.
It also recommended that the federal government ramp up permanent immigration to 450,000 people a year over the next five years — with a focus on top business talent and international students.
The chair of the government's Advisory Panel on Economic Growth, Dominic Barton, discusses his recommendations to help boost the economy 11:09
"An increased immigrant population has positive implications for business and job creation for Canadians through entrepreneurship and innovation, international trade and if done right, can raise living standards for all Canadians," the document said.
But Immigration Minister John McCallum, who was briefed on the recommendation, has already described that kind of a spike in immigration levels as overly ambitious.
"I think there are many arguments for more immigrants — we have an aging population, we have labour shortages, but there are also constraints. It costs a lot of money," McCallum said Thursday.
"But we also have to consider the cost and the speed with which we can integrate them."
Morneau's council
Morneau assembled the external, 14-member council earlier this year to help the government build a plan to help Canada break out of its slow-growth rut.
The finance minister said the ideas are recommendations only at this point, and that the government will decide whether elements of them will be implemented.
"I think they're all ideas that are going to be extremely helpful for us as |
the server must close the channel and a new one must be built from scratch.
API design
Bitcoinj provides a series of objects that implement the client and server parts of the above arrangement. The wire protocol uses TCP to send uint-length-prefixed protocol buffers, but the system is designed to be embeddable so you can easily bind micropayments into other protocols, like HTTP or XMPP.
At the heart of the API are two state objects, PaymentChannelClientState and PaymentChannelServerState. These classes operate independently of any particular network protocol and provide a state machine in which you’re responsible for providing and retrieving the correct objects at the right times. For example, when calling the incrementPaymentBy method, what you get back is a byte array containing a signature, but the state objects won’t do any transmission of that data for you. Normally though you want to serialize these state machine transitions into byte arrays, ready for network transmission. Also, you want to persist that state machine to disk such that you can resume micropayments across application restarts or network connectivity interruptions. This is implemented by PaymentChannelClient and PaymentChannelServer. These objects take the basic channel parameters and an object that implements a client/server specific interface. They construct the state machines, serialize the transitions to protocol buffer based messages, and use a wallet extension (see third point) to ensure data on the channel is stored inside the wallet file. They also do error checking of the protocol to ensure a malicious client or server can’t do anything strange. The protocol requires certain actions to be taken at certain times, where time is defined by the time fields in the block chain. The StoredPaymentChannel{Client/Server}States act as wallet extensions and watch the block chain to take the right actions at the right times. That means if you drive the state machine classes directly, refund transactions won’t be broadcast at the right time for you and you’ll have to implement that logic yourself. Although getting/providing protocol buffers is a big step up over raw Java objects, it’s still not quite enough as we have to handle reading and writing them to the network. Often the micropayment protocol will be embedded inside another protocol. But if you want it to run standalone (e.g. for testing), we provide the PaymentChannelClientConnection and PaymentChannelServerListener classes. They take host/port pairs and the channel parameters then construct and glue together the rest of the objects. They delegate the actual network handling code to a separate package (org.bitcoinj.protocols.niowrapper) which simply reads/writes length prefixed protocol buffers over a TCP connection.
Although this may seem like a lot of objects, the abstractions have a purpose. Imagine building a protocol that lets you pay for not seeing display ads on the web by making private micropayments to ad networks at the time the ad is going to be served. A separate TCP connection is probably not the right tool to be used here. Instead it would make more sense to extend HTTP with some special headers and link the browser to your wallet app, so the micropayments protocol flows over those inline HTTP headers. In that case you’d want to use the state machine and possibly protobuf serialization, but the network code itself might not be that useful. Going even further, if you’re embedding the protocol into something that already has its own serialization mechanism you might want to reuse the core state machines but avoid protocol buffers entirely. All these use cases are possible.
Tutorial
Server
Let’s take a walk through the toy server included in the examples package.
public void run () throws Exception { NetworkParameters params = TestNet3Params. get (); // Bring up all the objects we need, create/load a wallet, sync the chain, etc. We override WalletAppKit so we // can customize it by adding the extension objects - we have to do this before the wallet file is loaded so // the plugin that knows how to parse all the additional data is present during the load. appKit = new WalletAppKit ( params, new File ( "." ), "payment_channel_example_server" ) { @Override protected void addWalletExtensions () { // The StoredPaymentChannelServerStates persists channels so we can resume them // after a restart. storedStates = new StoredPaymentChannelServerStates ( wallet (), peerGroup ()); wallet (). addExtension ( storedStates ); } }; appKit. startAndWait (); // We provide a peer group, a wallet, a timeout in seconds, the amount we require to start a channel and // an implementation of HandlerFactory, which we just implement ourselves. new PaymentChannelServerListener ( appKit. peerGroup (), appKit. wallet (), 15, Utils. COIN, this ). bindAndStart ( 4242 ); }
Here is the core of a normal, plain old bitcoinj app. We select our network parameters, the testnet in this case, and then construct a WalletAppKit which gives us everything we need to do business with Bitcoin. The only unusual thing here is that we subclass the app kit and override one of its methods, addWalletExtensions.
Wallet extensions are a plugin mechanism that lets you persist arbitrary data inside a bitcoinj wallet file (which is basically a large protocol buffer). They are Java objects implementing a specific interface and the payment channels code provides an extension so channel state can be saved automatically. The extension object has to be added to the wallet object before it’s loaded from disk however, to ensure that the saved extension data is deserialized correctly. We do that here by using a hook that WalletAppKit provides for us. All apps that use micropayment channels need to do this.
It’s important to note that the wallet extension takes a PeerGroup as an argument. The reason is so that as a channel approaches its expiry time, the server knows to close it and broadcast the final state before the client has a chance to use its refund transaction. If the server is only running intermittently then it’s possible for it to lose all the money that was accumulated so far, so if your server is transient make sure the operating system wakes it up at the right times!
Once we have brought up our connections to the Bitcoin network and synced the chain, we bind and start the server object. We give a timeout that is used for network communications (this is distinct from the max lifetime of the channel, which is currently hard coded). It is given “this” as a parameter - the reason is that the PaymentChannelServerListener class will call us back when a new inbound connection is made. We’re expected to return from that global callback an object that will receive callbacks for that specific connection. So let’s do that.
@Override public ServerConnectionEventHandler onNewConnection ( final SocketAddress clientAddress ) { // Each connection needs a handler which is informed when that payment channel gets adjusted. Here we just log // things. In a real app this object would be connected to some business logic. return new ServerConnectionEventHandler () { @Override public void channelOpen ( Sha256Hash channelId ) { log. info ( "Channel open for {}: {}.", clientAddress, channelId ); // Try to get the state object from the stored state set in our wallet PaymentChannelServerState state = null ; try { state = storedStates. getChannel ( channelId ). getState ( appKit. wallet (), appKit. peerGroup ()); } catch ( VerificationException e ) { // This indicates corrupted data, and since the channel was just opened, cannot happen throw new RuntimeException ( e ); } log. info ( " with a maximum value of {}, expiring at UNIX timestamp {}.", // The channel's maximum value is the value of the multisig contract which locks in some // amount of money to the channel state. getMultisigContract (). getOutput ( 0 ). getValue (), // The channel expires at some offset from when the client's refund transaction becomes // spendable. state. getRefundTransactionUnlockTime () + StoredPaymentChannelServerStates. CHANNEL_EXPIRE_OFFSET ); } @Override public void paymentIncrease ( Coin by, Coin to ) { log. info ( "Client {} paid increased payment by {} for a total of " + to. toString (), clientAddress, by ); } @Override public void channelClosed ( PaymentChannelCloseException. CloseReason reason ) { log. info ( "Client {} closed channel for reason {}", clientAddress, reason ); } }; }
The interface is simple - we’re informed when a channel is successfully opened, along with a “channel ID” which identifies it in a way independent of the network layer. Once we have the channelId, we can query the wallet extension that we created earlier to get the canonical state object, which we can get more detailed information about the channel from. For most use cases, this is likely not necessary, as the wallet extension deals with channel expiration for you and channel maximum value is not a particularly useful statistic (a minimum is already specified in the server listener constructor, which most clients will default to).
After the channelOpen callback, we’re told when we received a new payment, and, finally we’re told when the channel is closed, and why.
Client
On the client side, the first part looks much the same, except in the wallet we add a StoredPaymentChannelClientStates - note Client instead of Server.
Next up, we pick some channel parameters and then try to construct a PaymentChannelClientConnection object. This might resume a previous payment channel if we have one available with the same channel ID. The channel ID is just an opaque string that is sent as a hash to the server. In this case we set it to be the hostname, so talking to the same server will always use the same channel even if both sides are restarted or their IP address changes.
We then start a loop where we try and construct the channel, but if we don’t have enough money in our wallet yet we wait until we do and then try again.
// Create the object which manages the payment channels protocol, client side. Tell it where the server to // connect to is, along with some reasonable network timeouts, the wallet and our temporary key. We also have // to pick an amount of value to lock up for the duration of the channel. // // Note that this may or may not actually construct a new channel. If an existing unclosed channel is found in // the wallet, then it'll re-use that one instead. final int timeoutSecs = 15 ; final InetSocketAddress server = new InetSocketAddress ( host, 4242 ); PaymentChannelClientConnection client = null ; while ( client == null ) { try { final String channelID = host ; client = new PaymentChannelClientConnection ( server, timeoutSecs, appKit. wallet (), myKey, maxAcceptableRequestedAmount, channelID ); } catch ( ValueOutOfRangeException e ) { // We don't have enough money in our wallet yet. Wait and try again. waitForSufficientBalance ( maxAcceptableRequestedAmount ); } }
The waitForSufficientBalance method is simple and not specific to micropayments, but we include it here for completeness:
private void waitForSufficientBalance ( Coin amount ) { // Not enough money in the wallet. Coin amountPlusFee = amount. add ( SendRequest. DEFAULT_FEE_PER_KB ); ListenableFuture < Coin > balanceFuture = appKit. wallet (). getBalanceFuture ( amountPlusFee, Wallet. BalanceType. AVAILABLE ); if (! balanceFuture. isDone ()) { System. out. println ( "Please send " + amountPlusFee. toFriendlyString () + " BTC to " + myKey. toAddress ( params )); Futures. getUnchecked ( balanceFuture ); // Wait. } }
Once we have a successfully constructed PaymentChannelClientConnection we wait for it to newly open (or resume):
// Opening the channel requires talking to the server, so it's asynchronous. Futures. addCallback ( client. getChannelOpenFuture (), new FutureCallback < PaymentChannelClientConnection >() { @Override public void onSuccess ( PaymentChannelClientConnection client ) {.... } @Override public void onFailure ( Throwable throwable ) {.... } }
Because it involves some network chatter, this process is asynchronous and we get back a future that let’s us know when it’s done or failed. We can of course chain these futures together with others and do all the usual operations on them.
In our onSuccess method we have this:
// Success! We should be able to try making micropayments now. Try doing it 10 times. for ( int i = 0 ; i < 10 ; i ++) { try { client. incrementPayment ( Utils. CENT ); } catch ( ValueOutOfRangeException e ) { log. error ( "Failed to increment payment by a CENT, remaining value is {}", client. state (). getValueRefunded ()); System. exit (- 3 ); } log. info ( "Successfully sent payment of one CENT, total remaining on channel is now {}", client. state (). getValueRefunded ()); Uninterruptibles. sleepUninterruptibly ( 500, MILLISECONDS ); } // Now tell the server we're done so they should broadcast the final transaction and refund us what's // left. If we never do this then eventually the server will time out and do it anyway and if the // server goes away for longer, then eventually WE will time out and the refund tx will get broadcast // by ourselves. log. info ( "Closing channel!" ); client. close ();
So we send 1 bitcent every half a second, and then when we’re done we close the channel.
Choosing channel parameters
To build a payment channel you have to choose a few parameters, notably, how much money you should lock up. Note that on the client side you specify a maximum, and then the server requests the actual amount it is willing to accept in a single channel, so there’s no guarantee the total amount the client side specifies will end up in a multi-signature contract. There’s no hard and fast rule around what to pick here, it depends on what your app’s users are willing to tolerate.
Note that the expiry period for channels is currently unconfigurable - it’s always a day.
Alternatives
There is also an idea called Lightning Network, based on more modern, bidirectional payment channels.Rev. Samuel Rodriguez, president of the National Hispanic Christian Leadership Conference speaks during the annual Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. holiday commemorative service at the Ebenezer Baptist Church, Monday, Jan. 21, 2013, in Atlanta. The speech marks the first time a Latino leader has served as the keynote speaker for the commemorative service on the King holiday. (AP Photo/David Goldman)
NEW YORK (RNS) A group of Christian leaders has set up a new campaign to emphasize that all people — gay, liberal, undocumented or otherwise — reflect the image of God.
Six Christian leaders, including Focus on the Family President Jim Daly, “Touched by an Angel” star Roma Downey and her producer husband Mark Burnett, have created a coalition called “Imago Dei,” Latin for “image of God,” to encourage people to treat each other with respect.
“If we had the image of God in mind for every human being, we could change the world,” said the Rev. Samuel Rodriguez, president of the National Hispanic Christian Leadership Conference, who is leading the cause. “I want Christians to not be known for what we oppose but for what we propose.”
The campaign, also joined by Liberty Law School Dean Mat Staver and Life Today’s James Robison, is intended to include all human beings, but it offers specific examples.
“For the image of God exists in all human beings: black and white; rich and poor; straight and gay; conservative and liberal; victim and perpetrator; citizen and undocumented; believer and unbeliever,” the campaign states.
Rodriguez said it’s not intended to target a specific group or issue, even as the campaign has raised eyebrows for attracting the support of conservative leaders who have vocally opposed gay rights in recent years.
“We intentionally listed groups to capture the idea that there’s no exception to the rule. Our emphasis is not LGBT or political ideology or color of skin,” he said. “It’s not germane as to whether or not people can change sexuality or not. It’s not about condoning a lifestyle, political ideology, worldview.”
Rodriguez said he got the idea for the campaign when he was at a restaurant with his family in Sacramento, Calif., and saw girls as young as 12 and 13 who he believed were involved in sex trafficking.
“I looked at my wife and said, ‘That girl has the image of God,’” he said, before launching a sex trafficking ministry in his church and eventually in NHCLC.
The biblical emphasis of Imago Dei stems from Genesis, where God said he would make mankind in his own image. Evangelicals have signed similar kinds of statements in the past, but this campaign is more focused and simple, said Glenn Stanton of Focus on the Family.
“If someone says something out of line, someone else can say, ‘Hey remember this, how you signed it?’” Stanton said. “Each one of us are image bearers in the sense that each one of us bear the image of God that others don’t.”
Rodriguez and Daly were included in a movement of religious leaders that created the Manhattan Declaration, a 2009 manifesto that emphasized protecting religious liberty and resisting abortion and gay marriage. The document included a section on the idea that humans bear the image of God.
“We shouldn’t forget that the doctrine of Imago Dei necessarily leads to other commitments, especially as it relates to life, marriage and religious freedom,” said Eric Teetsel, director of the Manhattan Declaration. “Christians have been emphasizing the Imago Dei for a long time. It’s often fallen on deaf ears. If this movement causes people to hear it for the first time, that’s a wonderful thing.”Garena Star League 2013 Participants announced
In one week Bangkok, Thailand will host the "Asian DreamHoN" tournament with the best Heroes of Newerth teams from around globe. Now the entire list of teams from Thailand, NA/EU, Malaysia, China, Russia and Vietnam.
GSL 13 Participants
Disco Oh Yeah qmq Eiieiz
Kimochi Xunwu Team Work
Khun Seuk Sadood Ruk Perfect XXX
Shooter eSports Orange eSports
siMZ Invasion eSports
Cyber Zone SSOP
Thailand Kai Gor Dai iMpunity
MiTH.OHP nxL Focus eSports
Neolution eSports.MRR FriendsForever
Yamaha.s2y Cats Gaming
Paroma Stay Green
Raider by EMP Trademark eSports
Sören “Fantasy44” V. [b]Favorite Teams in HoN:[/b] [f]Malaysia[/f]Orange eSports
[f]Thailand[/f] Turtle Master
[f]Indonesia[/f] Insidious eSports [f]United States[/f] stayGreen
[f]Europe[/f] Internet Gangsters
[f]Sweden[/f] Lions eSports
As a international observer the names of most of the participants don't ring a bell. From the 15 Thai teams only Neolution eSports.MRR has gained notoriety through their good performance at DreamHack Winter 2012. They came in as a clear wildcarder without anyone having intel on them, but they proved to be a strong team to beat. As a matter of fact the team placed third in the strong Group B with competition like Trademark eSports, Tt eSports, QsQ and vTi.Dynasty. They recorded a clean victory over vTi and secured ties against Trademark eSports and QsQ, only losing a total of one group stage match. Now they will get another shot at proving themselves when the international competition with Trademark eSports and Stay Green comes to their home turf.Alongside MRR teams like MiTH and Kimochi might be familiar names to the international scene from past tournaments. MiTH is a respected multi-gaming organization originating from Thailand, while Kimochi was one of the exhibition partners for the big Smackdown Challenge between iMpunity and Zenith back in the Summer of 2012.The rest of the squads has not played on international turf or against teams of a wider popularity. The only sneak peak that the scene in North America and Europe already got at them, was through the outstanding trailer that Garena released earlier this week.The same unknown attribute applies to the Chinese competitors from SSOP. The Chinese scene will make their debut in this tournament and might be able to catch some people by surprise. Complementing the SEA portion of the tournament are the two Malaysian teams with the powerhouse Orange eSports and the new team of community icon PixieBaby - Invasion Gaming. Alongside them FriendsForever from Vietnam and the Indonesian team of nxL Focus eSports and the Singaporean squad from iMpunity will attent. All those teams have gained some attention with their appearance in the Smackdown Challenge as well.In addition to that the Russian powerhouse Cats Gaming will join the tournament, but without their long-time player GuessWho, who is not going to make the trip to the capital of Thailand. His replacement will be Quaix, the same replacement that had made the trip to Jönköping, Sweden to attend the DreamHack Winter in place of GuessWho.The tournament will officially start on March, 30th with the Group Stage. After that the entire Playoffs will be played on March, 31st with a Best of One mode until the Lower Bracket Finals and the Upper Bracket Finals. Those matches will be played in the Best of Three format, the Grand Final will feature a Best of Five setting.Coverage from the event will be supplied by several streaming outlets. Honcast will be at the venue and most likely cover the two international teams in their quest to conquer the SEA fortress. A Thailand announcer team, a Russian caster team and a Chinese casting team is also expected.GosuGamers will have a Coverage Hub available for the event with all streams and up to the minute results from the mega event on Asian soil.Information from officialsInside the box, the Microsoft Band 2 comes with a USB charging cable. To charge the Microsoft Band 2, plug the USB end of the cable into a powered USB port (USB 2.0 or greater) and connect the magnetic charging connector on the USB charging cable to the charging port on the clasp of your Band. The battery on the Microsoft Band 2 can reach 80 percent after charging for just 20 minutes. Finding powered USB ports isn't hard. You can connect the USB end of the charging cable to a USB port on your laptop or your phone's AC adapter. If I need to charge at the office, I connect my Microsoft Band 2's charging cable to the Anker PowerPort 6 USB Charging Hub.
How to check the Microsoft Band 2 battery status There are several ways to check the battery status on your Microsoft Band 2. From your band, swipe right from the Me tile. You'll see the battery indicator on the lower left corner. You can also see it on your phone from the Microsoft Health app. From the hamburger menu on the top left corner, select My Microsoft Band. The battery indicator is shown on top of the page. If you want to see the battery percentage on the Microsoft Band 2, connect it to the charger and press the power button. You'll see the percentage of remaining battery power along with the time and date against a dark background.KILLERFISH's matches will no longer appear on CSGOLounge following suspicious betting activity in the German team's matches.
According to Robert "ML" Yakubovski, who acts as a spokesperson for CSGOLounge, red flags were raised after "suspicious betting patterns" were discovered in a series of matches involving KILLERFISH.
This is not the first time that the former WinneR team are involved in a betting scandal: back in February, Robin "r0bs3n" Stephan's side were disqualified from ESL One Katowice due to a suspected involvement in a match-fixing case that Valve is still investigating.
r0bs3n's team involved in controversy once again
Later on, the German team signed for KILLERFISH and finished runners-up to mousesports at the ESL Spring Championship finals, which took place in Duisburg last month.
Recently we've been tracking the betting patterns behind all matches Killer Fish are involved in. What we found was very suspicious activity, with over 100 accounts max betting either for or against them - and winning the bet with 100% accuracy. These betting accounts were all on the same i.p. and seems very suspicious to us - so much so, that we feel uncomfortable hosting any of Killer Fish's games going forward.
We hope you understand our decision to protect the CS:GO scene and the integrity of CSGOLounge.
"Recently we've been tracking the betting patterns behind all matches Killer Fish are involved in," CSGOLounge said in a statement. "What we found was very suspicious activity, with over 100 accounts max betting either for or against them - and winning the bet with 100% accuracy. "These betting accounts were all on the same i.p. and seems very suspicious to us - so much so, that we feel uncomfortable hosting any of Killer Fish's games going forward. "We hope you understand our decision to protect the CS:GO scene and the integrity of CSGOLounge."
KILLERFISH are currently taking part in Acer Predator Masters, which is where some of this suspicious betting activity is believed to have happened.Organizers protest on Lake Shore Drive near NFL Draft Town. View Full Caption DNAinfo/Evan F. Moore
CHICAGO — Organizers from Black Lives Matter: Chicago, Assata's Daughters and Fearless Leading by the Youth shut down part of Lake Shore Drive and disrupted NFL Draft Town Saturday to demand the firing of Chicago Police detective Dante Servin and urge permanent funding to Chicago State University.
Servin was found not guilty on manslaughter charges in the 2012 shooting death of Rekia Boyd.
"Our continued resistance serves as the penalty for destroying Black Lives. There will be no uninterrupted NFL Draft Town when Black women die without justice," organizers said in a statement Saturday. The group also called out Mayor Emanuel and the city council for "cutting a $302,000 deal for an event worth $3.2 million at the same time that we cannot afford to fund Black education."
Chicago Police removed chains that linked individuals blocking the street and detained protestors.
Per @AssataDaughters, 17 women were arrested by CPD. #NFLDraft2016 — Evan F. Moore (@evanFmoore) April 30, 2016
The police arrested 17 women who were blocking traffic in the middle of Lake Shore Drive.
Assata's Daughters co-founder Page May, who made headlines earlier this month for her speech at a Chicago Teachers Union rally, was one of the protesters arrested.
Activist Monica Trinidad said Saturday's protest took place to put a spotlight on the city’s problems.
“We know that the Chicago Police Department spends $4 million a day, and we think that is outrageous. We are hear to say ‘Remember Rekia [Boyd],’ and Dante Servin needs to be fired without a pension," Trinidad said.
“Tweak,” an activist with The Collective echoed Trinidad’s sentiments.
“All of the money invested in the Chicago Police Department on a daily basis can be used to save Chicago State University,” Tweak said. “This is why 17 fierce, courageous, queer women came out in the rain to show how important this is. Chicago’s priorities are f--cked up. They only care about the [NFL] draft. We don’t care about that."
A woman taking in the sights who did not want to be named, told DNAinfo that protesters and police ought hear each other's concerns.
“The media is making too much of this. Protesters have their concerns and so do the police,” the woman said. “Both groups should come together to hear each other out.”
Organizers rallied outside Mayor Rahm Emanuel's City Hall office last week with similar demands and received support from activists in New York City.
By 1 p.m. traffic had been restored on Lake Shore Drive.
For more neighborhood news, listen to DNAinfo Radio here:Making new additions to your family can be stressful, but when information from doctors and ultrasounds prove to be incorrect, it can really turn this next chapter in your life upside down.
When Romy the Irish Setter went into labor, her excited owners expected to have their hands full.
After an exhausting 10 hours of labor, owners Natasha White and Alicia Copping were shocked at the litter their 3-year-old dog produced.
Natasha a trained veterinarian, performed the ultrasound and with Alicia by her side. The 2 spotted 9 puppies nestled together in their mother's womb.
Since 9 puppies is the typical size of a litter for an Irish Setter, neither of the woman thought there was anything unique about this pregnancy.
Finally, when the labor began, this first-time mom had her 2 owners by her side making her as comfortable as they could.
After the first 9 puppies were born, they thought they were done, but what happened next had them stunned.Getty Images
RIO DE JANEIRO – This is Ibtihaj Muhammad.
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“Being an American. Being an African-American. Being Muslim. Being a woman. These are things I can’t change, and that I wouldn’t change for anything,” she said.
What she wants to change, as the first American athlete to compete in the Olympics wearing a hijab, is the conversation about Muslims.
She wants to change the way they’re perceived, misconceived and threatened by increasingly hateful rhetoric in the United States. She has to, she says, because no American should live in fear in their own county, just because of who they are or what they wear.
This is Ibtihaj Muhammad: an Olympic athlete who gets stalked like a criminal in New York City because she has a traditional Muslim head wrap.
“[I feel unsafe] all the time. I had someone follow me home from practice, trying to report me to the police. And that was right on 28th and 7th in New York City,” she said. “I’m very vocal about these things, especially on social media. Because I want people to know that I’m not an anomaly. I’m not special in any way. I’m a woman who wears hijab. These are my experiences.”
This is Ibtihaj Muhammad: a 30-year-old sabre fencer from Maplewood, New Jersey, who knows her responsibilities as an Olympian extend well beyond the arena in Rio this month.
“I’m hoping just my presence on Team USA changes perceptions people have about the Muslim community. A lot of people have misconceptions about who Muslims are – and what a Muslim woman even looks like. Who I am challenges and shatters those stereotypes,” she said.
Story continues
“Our conversation about the Muslim community has to change. It’s a slippery slope when you use hateful rhetoric. When you openly use bigoted comments against a group of people, and encourage violence. I hope it changes. I hope it changes fast.”
Getty Images
Muhammad’s path to Rio was unusual and exceptional, both as an athlete and as a role model.
Many fencers are products of a system that identifies them in their early teens and trains them for the next 15 years. But she took up the sport as a 17 year old, and didn’t have her first international competition until she was 23.
“My friends told me not to fence, because only dorks fence,” she said.
But Muhammad saw a sport whose elegance fascinated her and whose uniforms adhered to the rules of her faith, which was something she was searching for. Her arms and legs are covered. Her hijab is worn under a mask.
“It allowed me to be who I am,” she said. “People didn’t look at me as a minority or as a woman. It was simply for my skills-set. Once you put on your uniform, you can’t see who’s behind the mask. That’s what I’ve always appreciated about this sport.”
But even in a sport whose athletes exist in faceless anonymity, Muhammad met friction.
“Very early on in my sport, I remember being told that I didn’t belong because I was African-American or there were things I couldn’t do because I’m a Muslim,” she said.
She overcame those impediments to thrive in her sport. But she knows many, many other minority athletes simply quit instead.
“I know not everybody has the same strength. They can be deterred by comments when they’re younger. So I hope just being vocal about these obstacles, and why they’re wrong, I can inspire the younger generation in face of these comments and misconceptions,” she said. “It’s something we can all relate to: Getting picked on, getting bullied.”
Her history-making appearance at the Rio Games has offered Muhammad a platform for her voice. She was on a panel at SXSW. She’s had gallons of magazine ink dedicated to her. She appeared on ESPN’s “E:60,” which did a 12-minute biographical segment on her:
She’s appeared on “Ellen,” fencing a staff member and trying her best not to fan-girl out:
So what was the bigger thrill? Meeting Ellen, or meeting the President?
“That’s a tough one. I feel like I need to be politically correct,” said Muhammad, with a laugh, having met Barack Obama twice in the last four years. “It was an honor to meet both of them, obviously.”
Her media appearances have been a boost to her fashion line called Louella, that makes clothes that adhere to the traditions of Muslim and some Jewish women. “There was a void in the Muslim community for modest clothing that was affordable and fashionable. You can find them sometimes in the States, but they’re not always cute,” she said.
Her celebrity extended to the early part of the Rio Olympics, where there was serious debate about whether Muhammad, a first-time Olympian, should have been the U.S. flag-bearer in the Opening Ceremonies, an honor that eventually went to swimmer Michael Phelps.
“Honestly, it was an honor to be in the conversation. To have my name in the mix is very telling about our team, and who we are,” she said.
She said she didn’t expect the media swarm that occurred before the Rio Games, but isn’t uncomfortable with the idea that her role model status has outshone her status as a competitor now that she’s arrived in Brazil.
“This whole journey has been a blessing. You have to use your moment to help the people around you,” she said.
Especially in the face of such opposition.
Getty Images
A reporter asks Ibtihaj Muhammad about Donald Trump, the Republican presidential nominee who has made a ban on all Muslim immigrants a centerpiece of his campaign.
“Who?” she responds.
“Donald Trump,” he repeats it, assuming she hadn’t heard him.
“Sorry, what did you say?”
“Trump. Donald Trump,” he shouts.
“Who?” she says again, committing to the bit.
“Nah, I’m kidding,” she finally says, laughing and moving on to the next question without comment.
While she isn’t addressing Trump by name in Rio, Muhammad talks at length about the rhetoric found in his speeches and at his rallies. As a Muslim-American athlete, that means hearing from young women she’s empowered by her existence and the anonymous hordes of men who are disgusted by it.
“That’s the gift and the curse of social media: You hear from young women all the time, but you also hear from the haters,” she said. “But I want people to know that as hard as they’ve been on me, they don’t even come close to what we saw in the shooting in North Carolina or the rhetoric around the Khan family at the DNC.
“It’s ridiculous. We, as a country, have to change, and I feel like this is a moment.”
Muhammad is part of that moment. Whether she wins, whether she loses, her presence on Team USA in Rio has shattered expectations, rewritten labels and inspired countless young athletes.
“It’s really simple: All I have to do is stand on the strip, wear my hijab and that’s a part of who I am,” she said. “But obviously, I hope a medal comes along with that.”
This is Ibtihaj Muhammad.
An American Olympian.
—
Greg Wyshynski is a writer for Yahoo Sports. Contact him at puckdaddyblog@yahoo.com or find him on Twitter. His book, TAKE YOUR EYE OFF THE PUCK, is available on Amazon and wherever books are sold.Hundreds of people are sharing an online list of 26 reasons why you should never, ever visit Mahone Bay.
Reasons not to visit the historic town on Nova Scotia's South Shore include "it's a pretty average place," "with pretty average views," and an "awful work/life balance."
But the list is meant to lure tourists, not to turn them away from the picturesque seaside community.
"It's a similar kind of thing that [you] use when you're trying to feed a toddler and you say, 'Don't eat this food it's disgusting,' and they immediately open their mouth," said Kara Turner, a social media volunteer for the town.
Mahone Bay's famous churches bathe in the sunlight. (Submitted by Christian Herridge)
Turner moved to Mahone Bay with her family about five years ago from Calgary. She came up with the tongue-in-cheek list of reasons why not to visit Mahone Bay.
Under the reasons why not to come she posted photographs that include stunning views of the town, such as an image of the iconic three churches.
30,000 people reached in 24 hours
After the list went online earlier this week, it reached 30,000 people in less than 24 hours on Facebook. It's now been shared more than 800 times.
"We've never had more than 10 shares, I don't think, on anything we've ever posted on the Mahone Bay Facebook page," Turner said. "For us, a tiny little town of 900 people, that's pretty special."
She said she hopes it draws more visitors to the town.
"I love living here and think everyone should come.NEW BRUNSWICK -- Rutgers University's New Brunswick campus has been added to the list of the highest tuitions among four-year public schools in America, according to data from the U.S. Department of Education.
The department's College Affordability and Transparency Center last week updated its lists of the highest- and lowest-priced public and private colleges based on data from fall 2013. The annual lists, which look at the cost of nearly 4,300 institutions, are required by Congress as part of the Higher Education Opportunity Act of 2008.
The most-expensive tuition list includes 34 public colleges and universities that make up the highest five percent of tuition rates in America. Rutgers-New Brunswick, with a tuition of $13,499, ranked 31st.
The New Jersey Institute of Technology and The College of New Jersey, mainstays on the list, appeared again. NJIT ($15,218) ranked seventh and TCNJ ($14,730) eleventh. The figures do not include room, board, books and other costs.
U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan has called the list a good resource for families. But schools on the highest tuition and highest net price list have complained that listing tuition and costs doesn't give a full picture of a school.
The New Jersey Institute of Technology, for example, has cited its high-technology facilities |
of the photos that had been provided to the magazine. The Navy arrested Morison, even as he continued to deny he had stolen the photos. But when investigators searched his apartment, they found two secret intelligence reports on the Severomorsk explosion in an envelope marked for Jane’s.
The weakest part of the government’s case against Morison asserted that the satellite photos of the new aircraft carrier harmed national security. The Soviets already knew about the KH-11 satellite and its capabilities: a former CIA employee had sold them the satellite manual a few years before. A retired CIA officer who had been in charge of developing the satellite testified in Morison’s defense that the risk of damage stemming from publication of the satellite photos was “zero.”
Morison’s defense portrayed him as a whistleblower who, according to his lawyer, wanted “to let people know what the other side was doing.” Until Morison mailed the photos to Jane’s, few people outside the government knew how far along the Soviets were in building their first nuclear-powered carrier—“a quantum leap in sea power,” Morison’s lawyers said. Since Morison was not engaged in espionage on behalf of a foreign power, his intentions were supposed to be irrelevant to the judgment about his guilt or innocence. But from the defense’s viewpoint, his motivation—to expand public knowledge—reinforced the value of his leak. That principle, the defense argued, was a primary reason Morison should be found not guilty.
The government also understood that Morison’s motivation was irrelevant but framed the case in terms of politics rather than principle and had no trouble portraying Morison as a profiteer: he was not paid for the photographs, but he had been for his other Jane’s work, so the government said he had provided the photos to score a job at Jane’s.
Morison was convicted in 1985 on four counts, two of theft and two of espionage—unauthorized transmittal of secret photographs to “one not entitled to receive them” and receiving and keeping unauthorized secret intelligence reports. He served eight months of a two-year term in federal prison and received a pardon from President Clinton in 2001. He was the first and only person so far convicted under the Espionage Act for disclosing documents or information to the press.
The trial judge wrote, unconvincingly: “While it is, of course, impossible to determine exactly what Congress meant when it passed the statute, it is more likely that the type of activity that defendant allegedly engaged in was meant to be covered. Congress could very easily have meant, when it used the word ‘spy,’ one who used his position and classified security clearance to obtain information to which he would not otherwise be entitled and release it to the world.”
In 1988, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit, by a vote of 3-0, affirmed the conviction and the power of the government to prosecute leaks to the press. It upheld the finding that the Espionage Act allowed for prosecution of any unauthorized person who receives secret information about the national defense, not just a classic spy. The court made concrete Justice White’s interpretation. The government did not argue this point in the case, and the court did not say so directly in its decision, but the distance seemed razor thin between the conviction for disclosing a secret to the press and a possible future conviction of a media outlet for publishing a similar secret. The Supreme Court chose not to review the case. The Morison ruling stands as “good” precedent.
Kathleen Buck, general counsel of the Defense Department during the Reagan administration, anticipated that outcome in 1985 at an American Bar Association meeting: “With respect to the leaking of classified information, in my opinion this is a serious threat to national security. The fact that such information is printed in a newspaper or handed directly to our enemies in exchange for money really makes no difference in terms of consequences.”
The main problem with Buck’s view is that it ignores a fundamental truth about how leaks work. The kind of disclosure Morison made—maddening to officials who work in national security, but not harmful—happens all the time. A particularly enlightening piece of writing on the nature of leaks came out of the Pentagon Papers case. As the Times prepared to square off against the government in the courtroom, Max Frankel realized that only he and James Greenfield, then the paper’s foreign editor, “knew how casually the government wielded its top secret stamps” and “what a lively commerce in such secrets occurred in Washington every day.”
Frankel wrote a memo for the lawyers representing the newspaper about the role of leaks in American governance and press coverage of it. The legal team submitted it as an affidavit for Judge Gurfein, attaching 75 examples of routine publication in newspapers of military and diplomatic secrets. The heart of the affidavit, titled “ ‘Secrecy’ in Washington,” explained:
The Government’s unprecedented challenge to The Times in the case of the Pentagon papers, I am convinced, cannot be understood, or decided, without an appreciation of the manner in which a small and specialized corps of reporters and a few hundred American officials regularly make use of so-called classified, secret, and top secret information and documentation. It is a cooperative, competitive, antagonistic and arcane relationship. I have learned, over the years, that it mystifies even experienced government professionals in many fields, including those with Government experience, and including the most astute politicians and attorneys.
Without the use of “secrets” that I shall attempt to explain in this affidavit, there could be no adequate diplomatic, military and political reporting of the kind our people take for granted, either abroad or in Washington and there could be no mature system of communication between the Government and the people. That is one reason why the sudden complaint by one party to these regular dealings strikes us as monstrous and hypocritical—unless it is essentially perfunctory, for the purpose of retaining some discipline over the Federal bureaucracy.
I know how strange all this must sound. We have been taught, particularly in the past generation of spy scares and Cold War, to think of secrets as secrets—varying in their “sensitivity” but uniformly essential to the private conduct of diplomatic and military affairs and somehow detrimental to the national interest if prematurely disclosed. By the standards of official Washington—Government and press alike—this is an antiquated, quaint and romantic view. For practically everything that our Government does, plans, thinks, hears and contemplates in the realms of foreign policy is stamped and treated as secret—and then unraveled by that same Government, by the Congress and by the press in one continuing round of professional and social contacts and cooperative and competitive exchanges of information.
Frankel explained that the government was the press’s “regular partner in the informal but customary traffic in secret information, without even the pretense of legal or formal declassification.” Officials and those who left government regularly engaged in “a kind of ad hoc, de facto declassification” to “promote a political, personal, bureaucratic or even commercial interest.” They traded with the Congress and the press, with foreign governments and with other American officials. The government and its officials routinely misused the classification of information, by imposing secrecy where it was not justified or by retaining it long after release was warranted.
Frankel emphasized that there was a “need for some secrecy in foreign and military affairs” to protect the nation from enemies and serve allies. He wrote, “Virtually every mature reporter respects that necessity and protects secrets and confidences that plainly serve it.” The Times showed its respect by spending almost three months reviewing the Pentagon Papers before it published them, assuring itself that they would cause no immediate harm if it did.
In a forthcoming issue of Harvard Law Review, Columbia Law School’s David Pozen updates and fills out Frankel’s view in “The Leaky Leviathan: Why the Government Condemns and Condones Unlawful Disclosures of Information.” In “a polity saturated with, vexed by, and dependent on leaks,” Pozen writes, the government has long chosen not to vigorously enforce the laws against leaking. Its public emphasis is on “vilifying leakers,” but in private, the government’s practice is largely to maintain “a permissive culture” of disclosures.
In the current leak-obsessed climate, journalism has rightly focused on the Obama administration’s keen pursuit of leakers. When the administration arrived in 2009, the Times’s Sharon LaFraniere reported, it learned that over the previous four years, the Justice Department had been alerted to about 153 leaks. Yet none had led to an indictment. The Obama team stepped up the hunt for leakers, even putting aside longtime Justice Department guidelines that restrict prosecutors from inspecting the telephone records of journalists.
The administration has prosecuted seven leakers so far, not including Edward Snowden, who has been charged with espionage and other crimes but has not been indicted while he remains beyond the reach of American law. That compares with six in all previous administrations combined. Yet, against the tens of thousands of leaks likely made just in the last generation, 13 add up to a tiny fraction.
What Frankel called the “cooperative, competitive, antagonistic and arcane relationship” between leakers and the press continues. Snowden was part of it: he provided The Washington Post with 41 PowerPoint slides about a classified surveillance program; the paper then “sought the views of government officials about the potential harm to national security prior to publication and decided to reproduce only four of the 41 slides,” the Post reported.
During his negotiations with the Post over how much of what he planned to leak the paper would publish, the Post reported, Snowden “said he did not intend to
release a pile of unedited documents upon the world. ‘I don’t desire to enable the Bradley Manning argument that these were released recklessly and unreviewed,’ he said.”
That was the argument made against U.S. Army Private Bradley Manning in 2010, when he provided about 700,000 documents to WikiLeaks, the most extensive leak of classified information in American history, including diplomatic cables, videos of airstrikes in which civilians were killed, and incident reports from the Iraq and Afghanistan wars.
Manning’s court-martial this summer ended with his conviction on six counts under the Espionage Act and of other charges, carrying a sentence of 35 years in prison and a dishonorable discharge. It was striking, then, that the headline on the Times front page was not about the government’s victory but the defeat of its most extreme charge: “Manning Is Acquitted of Aiding the Enemy.”
Article 104 of the Uniform Code of Military Justice, about “aiding the enemy,” applies to anyone who “knowingly harbors or protects or gives intelligence to, or communicates or corresponds with or holds any intercourse with the enemy, either directly or indirectly.” The government argued that Manning provided intelligence indirectly, through WikiLeaks—and that, as an Army prosecutor said in a hearing during the case, the government would have brought the same charge against him if he had leaked directly to the Times. Manning was acquitted for lack of evidence to support the charge.
But to the distress of journalists who cover the government, the judge ruled that the charge itself was fair game—that when Manning released a mass of unsorted secret documents to WikiLeaks and it provided them to the Times and other news outlets, he gave them to enemies like al-Qaeda, committing an offense punishable by the death penalty.
The charge of aiding and abetting, which David Gregory raised on Meet the Press, was a potent symbol of the Espionage Act’s loaded gun, cocked and aimed in the Morison case. In another current leak prosecution under the act, against former CIA agent Jeffrey Sterling, who is accused of sharing classified information with Times reporter James Risen, the government has argued that leaks to the press are “more pernicious” than espionage on behalf of a single foreign enemy because every enemy benefits from them.
Jane E. Kirtley, a professor of media ethics and law at the University of Minnesota and a former head of the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press in Washington, D.C., sees the aggressiveness of the Obama administration as part of a long, persistent effort by the executive branch to make it possible to prosecute the press for receiving or publishing leaks. This, despite Edgar and Schmidt’s finding that the history of the Espionage Act had historically excluded prosecution for “well-meaning publication” of classified information, no matter its effect on national security.
Charitably, Justice White’s view of the Espionage Act can be understood as a reminder that the press is not an impartial judge and that while the First Amendment’s protection of its freedom affords extraordinary latitude, the press must be subject to legal restraints, even when it comes to exposing breakdowns in the workings of democracy. Such a view is even more compelling in the age of WikiLeaks, when it is no longer necessary for a leaker to rely on old media to publish revelations about secret programs. One person can make a massive instant disclosure of official secrets with the push of a button, potentially doing serious damage to American intelligence and national security.
But what happens when the underlying law used to punish these kinds of disclosures has been twisted into something it was not meant to be and should not be? When each of the primary institutions of democracy, which should help fix it, cannot be counted on to do what’s right? The rule of law then seems like a rule of power, and the government seems more concerned about maintaining control than doing justice.
Edward Snowden may turn out to be a spy, but more likely the leaks he made were at once “well-meaning” and illegal. If so, the government’s prosecution of him would be far more legitimate if it came under a law other than the Espionage Act and did not leave open the possibility that the Guardian’s and the Post’s publication of his leaks could be equated with spying.
In addition to a woeful Congress, the country now has an overempowered executive branch seemingly convinced it must use every tool at its disposal to thwart terrorism. Its unbending position has been that the Espionage Act covers a broad range of conduct by officials and others, and does not require the government to prove that a leaker intended to harm the nation or that publication of a leak caused any harm.
Political life in post-9/11 America has been marked by public acquiescence to executive supremacy and capitulation to secrecy. Since the Snowden leak, our democracy feels more vital thanks to all the people, including many in Congress, who have raised probing questions about the NSA’s sweeping collection of communications data.
As Justice Hugo Black wrote in a concurring opinion in the Pentagon Papers case, the First Amendment gave robust protection to the press so that “it could bare the secrets of government and inform the people.” Without the Snowden leaks and the press’s willingness to publish them, Americans would still be in the dark about the extent of the NSA’s domestic surveillance programs. Secrecy is often necessary to protect national security, but it can just as easily be used as a convenient veil for the autocratic assertion of power and, as the courts may find about parts of the surveillance programs, for illegality. Do we really trust the government to know when that veil of secrecy should be lifted?The two most powerful technologies of the 20th century—the nuclear bomb and the computer—were invented at the same time and by the same group of young people. But while the history of the Manhattan Project has been well told, the origin of the computer is relatively unknown. In his new book, Turing's Cathedral, historian George Dyson, who grew up among these proto- hackers in Princeton, New Jersey, tells the story of how Alan Turing, John von Neumann, and a small band of other geniuses not only built the computer but foresaw the world it would create. Dyson talked to Wired about the big bang of the digital universe.
Wired: Because your father, Freeman Dyson, worked at the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton, you grew up around folks who were building one of the first computers. Was that cool?
George Dyson: The institute was a pretty boring place, full of theoreticians writing papers. But in a building far away from everyone else, some engineers were building a computer, one of the first to have a fully electronic random-access memory. For a kid in the 1950s, it was the most exciting thing around. I mean, they called it the MANIAC! The computer building was off-limits to children, but Julian Bigelow, the chief engineer, stored a lot of surplus electronic equipment in a barn, and I grew up playing there and taking things apart.
Wired: Did that experience influence how you thought about computers later?
Dyson: Yes. I tried to get as far away from them as possible.
Wired: Why?
Dyson: Computers were going to take over the world. So I left high school in the 1960s to live on the islands of British Columbia. I worked on boats and built a house 95 feet up in a Douglas fir tree. I wasn't antitechnology; I loved chain saws and tools and diesel engines. But I wanted to keep my distance from computers.
Wired: What changed your mind?
Dyson: If you spend time alone in the wilderness, you get very attuned to living things. I learned to spot the trails left by life. When I looked at the digital universe, I saw the tracks of organisms coming to life. I eventually came out of the Canadian rain forest to study this stuff because it was as wild as anything in the woods.
Wired: You write about "digital organisms." Is this what you mean?
Dyson: Digital organisms, while not necessarily any more alive than a phone book, are strings of code that replicate and evolve over time. Digital codes are strings of binary digits—bits. A Pixar movie is just a very large number, sitting idle on a disc, while Microsoft Windows is an even larger number, replicated across hundreds of millions of computers and constantly in use. Google is a fantastically large number, so large it is almost beyond comprehension, distributed and replicated across all kinds of hosts. When you click on a link, you are replicating the string of code that it links to. Replication of code sequences isn't life, any more than replication of nucleotide sequences is, but we know that it sometimes leads to life.
Dyson: What other kinds of digital organisms can we see?
Wired: Besides obvious ones like computer viruses, we have large, slow-moving megafauna like operating systems and now millions of fast-moving apps, almost like microbes. Recently we've seen enormous conglomerations of code creeping up on us, these giant, multicellular, metazoan-level code-organisms like Facebook or Amazon. All these species form a digital universe.
Dyson: Are we in that digital universe right now, as we talk on the phone?
Wired: Sure. You're recording this conversation on a digital recorder—into an empty matrix of addresses on a chip that is being filled up at 44 kilobytes per second. That address space full of numbers is the digital universe.
Wired: But haven't we written down numbers for centuries?
Dyson: Yes, we had clay tablets, counting pebbles, the abacus, ledgers, and punch cards. Writing and retrieving numbers isn't new. But the computer accelerated information processing to the speed of light. That velocity fundamentally changed everything.
Wired: So how did this parallel light-speed universe begin?
Dyson This vast digital world, where we can get almost anything anytime, goes back to the very first address memory in the MANIAC. Its dimensions were only 32 x 32 x 40 bits. That's 5 kilobytes, or room to record about a fraction of a second of this conversation!
Wired: And how fast is this universe expanding?
Dyson: Like our own universe at the beginning, it's more exploding than expanding. We're all so immersed in it that it's hard to perceive. Last time I checked, the digital universe was expanding at the rate of 5 trillion bits per second in storage and 2 trillion transistors per second on the processing side.
Photo: Joe Pugliese
Wired: How did the MANIAC project get started?
Dyson: The von Neumann project was funded to do H-bomb calculations. It was a deal with the devil: If they designed this ultimate weapon, they could have this fantastic machine.
Wired: So the creation of digital life was rooted in death?
Dyson: In some creation myths, life arises out of the earth; in others, life falls out of the sky. The creation myth of the digital universe entails both metaphors. The hardware came out of the mud of World War II, and the code fell out of abstract mathematical concepts. Computation needs both physical stuff and a logical soul to bring it to life. These were young kids who had just come through World War II, who could repair the electronics on airplanes and get them flying the same day, and von Neumann put them together with mathematical logicians who could imagine a universe created entirely out of 0s and 1s.
Wired: Who were some of the heroes in this creation myth?
Dyson: Alan Turing was the logician with the original idea. Julian Bigelow was the engineer who built the actual machine, and biologist Nils Barricelli saw where it was all going. Johnny von Neumann had the government money and confidence to make it happen, and his wife, Klari von Neumann, wrote the code.
Wired: What was Turing's vision?
Dyson: Turing, as a 23-year-old graduate student, derived the principles of modern computation more or less by accident—as a byproduct of his interest in something called the Entscheidungsproblem, or Decision Problem. It can be stated as: Is there a formula or mechanical process that can decide whether a string of symbols is logically provable or not? Turing's answer was no. He restated the answer in computational terms by showing that there's no systematic way to tell in advance what a given code is going to do. You can't predict how software will behave by inspecting it. The only way you can tell is to actually run it. And this fundamental unpredictability means you can never have a complete digital dictatorship with one government or company controlling our digital lives—not because of politics but because of mathematics. There will always be codes that do unpredictable things. This is why the digital universe will never be a national park; it will always be an undomesticated, unpredictable wilderness. And that should be reassuring to us.
Wired: Where did the idea of the address matrix come from?
Dyson: Turing gave us a one-dimensional model, a linear sequence on an unlimited tape. John von Neumann and colleagues, starting in 1945, gave us a two-dimensional implementation—the address matrix, which stored strings of bits at randomly accessible coordinates as if they were locations on a chessboard—a design that underlies all computers today. In von Neumann's scheme, you used 10 bits to specify an address and 10 bits to specify an instruction for what to do at that address. Each address stored 40 bits, which might be data or further instructions. So when you put 20 bits into the matrix you would get at least 40 bits back. The moment the electricity was turned on for the first time in the summer of 1951, computers started generating new numbers, and those numbers generated more numbers, and the cycle hasn't stopped since.
Wired: Were there alternative schemes in the beginning?
Dyson: Yes, there were many alternatives. Von Neumann's architecture just happened to have a head start. And it turns out he was consulting for IBM, so all these ideas were being mainlined right into IBM headquarters, without any patent restrictions.
Wired: Did they envision what their creation would eventually become?
Dyson: They would have completely understood what is going on today in computers. But they would have been utterly amazed 60 years later to see that everything is still running exactly as they left it in 1952! They all thought their design would last a year or two, and then a better one would come along.
Wired: Could their design still be replaced?
Dyson: Probably not at the fundamental, cellular level. The microprocessor is just so cheap, powerful, and effectively self-replicating that it is unlikely to be replaced—though it may become the substrate for something else.
Wired: What were these guys like?
Dyson: They were hackers. They were young men and women, mostly in their twenties. The ones in their thirties were considered old. They did all the things hackers do: working all night, living for their code, arguing over whether a problem was due to software or hardware. They kept logbooks where they left notes telling the next shift what they had done, and they filled them with dark nerd humor, the same sort of sarcastic jokes you find on email and comment threads today. Von Neumann was warned by the director that his "computer people" were consuming too much sugar—when sugar was still rationed. And they were fast. They completed the entire project in less time than it took me to write about it!
Wired: In your story you give the engineers as much credit as the theoretical geniuses.
Dyson: They were trying to build this machine in a place—a former farm on the outskirts of Princeton—that didn't have any workshops or engineering facilities. They had to build their own electric power supplies and do their own wiring. Right after World War II, everything was rationed, including lumber, so they bought unrationed firewood to use as lumber. They were just making the whole thing up as they went along.
Wired: Other than bombs, what did they use the MANIAC for?
Dyson: They were gung ho on numerical weather prediction, and they made amazingly good progress in the first few years. Remember, all they had was 5 kilobytes of memory, running at a speed of 8 kilocycles. Yet by 1954 they were predicting weather for the northern hemisphere.
Wired: What were they wrong about?
Dyson: In 1948, von Neumann gave a speech on the future of computing in which he said that the proper order of magnitude for a computing machine seemed to be about 10,000 switches. He was way wrong. Your laptop has billions of switches.
Wired: What did they get right?
Dyson: Vacuum tubes in the early machines had an extremely high failure rate, and von Neumann and Turing both spent a lot of time thinking about how to tolerate or even take advantage of that. If you had unreliable tubes, you couldn't be sure you had the correct answer, so you had to run a problem at least twice to make sure you got the same result. Turing and von Neumann both believed the future belonged to nondeterministic computation and statistical, probabilistic codes. We've seen some success recently in using that kind of computation on very hard problems like language translation and facial recognition. We are now finally getting back to what was envisioned at the beginning.
Wired: Did you discover anything in your research that surprised you?
Dyson: I was surprised by the close calls between failure and success. The ENIAC was the American wartime computer project built to calculate ballistic trajectories. The two main guys who invented and built the original ENIAC, Presper Eckert and John Mauchly, formed their own company to build and sell computers. They were doing quite well and then mysteriously had their security clearance revoked, which cost them their government contracts and put them out of business—to the great benefit, eventually, of IBM. Success in technology was as unpredictable at the beginning as it is today.
Wired: Did they see computation in the quasi-biological ways you do?
Dyson: The moment von Neumann got the computing machine running, Nils Barricelli showed up, trying to evolve self-replicating, crossbreeding digital organisms. He encouraged strings of code to replicate with small variations to compete in solving a problem or a simple game. The winning code gained computing resources. Like biological life, no one designed them. Fifty years later, I went back to the basement storeroom where the project was started, which at the time was the institute's main network server room. One of the servers was working full-time to keep out all the self-replicating computer viruses trying to get in. Barricelli's vision had come true!
Wired: Did they have any concerns about what they were creating?
Dyson: Shortly before Barricelli's experiments, mathematician Stan Ulam asked von Neumann if they should be worried about using the term organism to refer to code. Von Neumann didn't shy away from hydrogen bombs and end-of-the-world weapons, but he was hesitant about "creating life" and other Frankenstein stuff.
Wired: Where is this digital universe headed?
Dyson: We have created this expanding computational universe, and it's open to the evolution of all kinds of things. It's cycling faster and faster, and it's way, way, way more than doubling in scale every year. Even with the help of Google and YouTube and Facebook, we can't consume it all. And we aren't really aware what this vast space is filling up with. From the human perspective, computers are idle 99 percent of the time, just waiting for the next instruction. While they're waiting for us to come up with instructions, more and more computation is happening without us, as computers write instructions for each other. And as Turing showed mathematically, this space can't be supervised. As the digital universe expands, so does this wild, undomesticated side.
Wired: If this is true, what's the takeaway?
Dyson: Hire biologists! It doesn't make sense for a high tech company to have 3,000 software engineers but no biologists.
Wired: One last question: What do you mean by "Turing's cathedral"?
Dyson: In Turing's 1950 paper, "Computing Machinery and Intelligence," he argued that when we build intelligent machines, we will not be creating souls but building the mansions for the souls that God creates. When I first visited Google, right about the time it went public, I walked around and saw what they were doing and realized they were building a very large distributed AI, much as Turing had predicted. And I thought, my God, this is not Turing's mansion—this is Turing's cathedral. Cathedrals were built over hundreds of years by thousands of nameless people, each one carving a little corner somewhere or adding one little stone. That's how I feel about the whole computational universe. Everybody is putting these small stones in place, incrementally creating this cathedral that no one could even imagine doing on their own.
Senior maverick Kevin Kelly (
kk@kk.org) interviewed James Gleick, author of The Information, in issue 19.03.In an unprecedented movie, three officials for the Federal Trade Commission penned an open letter sharply criticizing anti-Tesla legislation in several states. While the opinions expressed are their own, and not that of the FTC, it puts additional pressure on dealership lobbyists looking to prevent Tesla’s direct sales model from spreading.
Published on the FTC’s “Competition Matters” blog, Andy Gavil, Debbie Feinstein, and Marty Gaynor co-authored this open letter which scathingly calls out dealership lobbyists for defending protectionist laws in places like New Jersey. The whole thing is well worth reading, though I picked out some choice quotes that put the ridiculousness of the dealer lobbyists’ efforts in perspective.
“Out of 15 million cars sold in the U.S. in 2013, Tesla accounted for a little over 22,000. This hardly presents a serious competitive threat to established dealers.”
But wait, there’s more!
“Dealers contend that it is important for regulators to prevent abuses of local dealers. This rationale appears unsupported, however, with respect to blanket prohibitions of direct sales by manufacturers. And, in any event, it has no relevance to companies like Tesla. It has never had any independent dealers and reportedly does not want them.”
And most damning of all…
“We hope lawmakers will recognize efforts by auto dealers and others to bar new sources of competition for what they are—expressions of a lack of confidence in the competitive process that can only make consumers worse off.”
Yup, that pretty much sums it up.
Source: FTC Competition MattersTeri McCall and her husband Jack used RoundUp weed killer to grow avocados on their 22-acre family farm in Cambria, California.
"My husband used it for decades on our farm, spraying the weeds. He thought it was safe, and he didn't use any other chemical because he didn't believe in using chemicals because he didn't want to pollute," McCall said.
But just after their 40th wedding anniversary McCall's husband Jack lost a brutal battle with non-Hodgkin's lymphoma cancer, which McCall blames on glyphosate. The family dog that followed Jack around the farm had died of the same disease only five years earlier. McCall said their misfortune was taking Monsanto's word that exposure to the chemical wasn't a health risk.
The widow has come to Brussels to convince the European Union not to make the same mistake as the US had in authorizing the most widely used weed killer.
"I believe that Europeans need to be warned — they are my fellow human beings," McCall said.
The European Commission has proposed renewing the glyphosate licenses for another 10 years on the grounds that a study from the EU food safety agency (ESFA) has deemed glyphosate not to cause cancer.
Teri McCall came to Brussels to urge the EU not to renew the license for glyphosate
European farmers union Copa-Cogeca President Joachim Rukwied supports that position. A ban on glyphosate threatens the EU's agricultural competitiveness and food security, he said. Rukwied maintains a ban should not be considered until there is concrete scientific evidence linking glyphosate to cancer.
Read more: Debate over glyphosate rages in South Africa
"We are living in Europe and we have well-recognized agencies and they support the renewal [of the license]. They are working to very high standards, and we believe in them and their statement," Rukwied said.
'Playbook from Big Tobacco'
But lawyer Brent Wisner questions the credibility of the EFSA study. He represents McCall and 500 other plaintiffs affected by cancer in a US lawsuit against pesticide-maker Monsanto.
Wisner says the corporation deliberately hid evidence about the safety of glyphosate and tried to influence the outcome of scientific study.
"Forty years ago we were seeing studies that smoking tobacco was good for you. Big Tobacco did that for years, they fought scientists. Monsanto has taken that playbook right from the tobacco industry, both in the context of manipulating science but also in the context of litigation," Wisner said.
RoundUp is used around the world to kill weeds
Monsanto's lobbying practices have also become a concern for the European Parliament. They have been banned from meeting members of parliament (MEP) and attending parliamentary inquiries after the chemical company refused to attend hearings into allegations they interfered with safety studies.
"In fact Monsanto organized the whole scientific evidence in such a way that there was a real manipulation of facts. They have rewritten scientific reports citing authors who didn't write the reports themselves, that were in fact written by Monsanto people," says Barth Staes, a Belgian Green Party MEP.
Read more: Was Monsanto involved in EU glyphosate study?
Public opinion for glyphosate ban
Teri McCall says a 2015 IARC / WHO study that reported glyphosate is "probably" carcinogenic is just one piece of concerning evidence and more has yet to be revealed. She is urging the EU to delay the license renewal of glyphosate until an unbiased independent study can be done.
"Is it worth your life — or the lives of your family members?" McCall asked.
According to an April 2016 YouGov poll, two-thirds of Europeans support a ban on glyphosate.
For Monsanto a lot is at stake. If the use of glyphosate is prohibited in the EU the company could lose a big market share of the agricultural chemicals sold in the bloc.Arthur Eiss is a relative newcomer to Schenectady, but he says he's looking forward to making the Electric City his home for a while and wants to be a good citizen of his new community.
That's why, after he learned his barking dog was violating city ordinances and he was perturbed by rowdy neighbors outside the Fifth Avenue house he bought last year, he decided to get himself up-to-speed on city laws.
"I thought I'd like to educate myself," he said.
He's been amazed by how difficult that has turned out to be.
Eiss dropped by City Hall a couple of weeks ago and asked for a copy of the city code, a two-part document that includes the City Charter and the administrative code, a full set of local ordinances governing everything from building inspections to waste disposal.
Because it's voluminous — the paper version fills two thick, black, 3-ring binders, says Corporation Counsel L. John Van Norden — Eiss asked for it in electronic format, probably a disk.
At the standard copying fee of 25 cents per page, the full paper version would have been costly, not to mention cumbersome. And since he wanted a comprehensive copy for review and general reference, Eiss said he didn't want to ask only for individual sections that he knew would be of interest.
"I'd like to know about the codes I don't know about and the codes I don't even know that I don't know about," he explained when we talked at his home on Wednesday.
At the request of staffers at City Hall, Eiss filled out a form, which he later learned was a formal request for records access under New York's Freedom of Information Law. A week later, he received a response saying his request was denied.
The reason: "Materials requested are protected by copyright and release of materials is through exclusive license only."
That was a new one on me. I've filed my share of FOIL requests over the years and had a few of them denied, at least initially. The idea that public records, especially records documenting local laws, could be copyrighted and, thus, unavailable to a city resident just seemed unbelievable.
There must have been some mistake, right?
No, Van Norden told me, that's the city's position — though he stressed that it's a temporary situation.
Schenectady's code hasn't been reviewed, updated and "recodified" in more than 20 years, and the format leaves a lot to be desired in user-friendliness, Van Norden said.
That's why the city has contracted with a national company called General Code for about $20,000 to create a comprehensive, searchable electronic version of the code that eventually will be posted on the Web and available to all.
City employees have access to the current electronic version through General Code, but "that is strictly proprietary and copyrighted," Van Norden said. "They own the electronic code and we use it under an electronic licensing agreement."
Even if a copy of the code were provided to Eiss, he said, it would quickly be outdated. "I have council members asking me for new and interesting legislation all the time," he noted.
After hearing Van Norden's explanation, I don't think the city's denial of Eiss's request is as obstructionist |
to erase after seven days passenger information “that is confirmed to not be linked with terrorism.” Initially, the U.S. also wanted passenger information for domestic Canadian flights that crossed U.S. airspace.
Again, why are they keeping the information for seven days? If the passengers do not pose a threat, then there is no reason to keep the information longer than the flight time. Once the flight has landed, the USA doesn’t need the information. Given the fact that many databases are regularly backed up, you can be sure that your information will never truly be “erased.”
While it’s good that Canada said they couldn’t have access to passenger information for domestic Canadian flights, it takes a huge set of balls to even ask for it. This is the position America is taking and they are seeing just how far they can push the security theater envelope into getting the private data of a country.
If every country that the United States asks for this information would just send a resounding NO, then we wouldn’t even be in this position. The fact that anyone says yes or considers saying yes tells the United States that they have all the power and can run roughshod over other countries’ laws.
This is yet another case of enacting useless laws that don’t protect sovereignty or privacy. If it was so prudent for Canada to have such a law, why has the Harper government introduced it nine years after 9/11? If Canada and her flights over the USA were truly a danger to America, we would have known by now.
America is a vast and beautiful country. Her people are open and welcoming. It’s a shame that it’s run by ugly, cynical, untrustworthy people.As construction at Greenville-Spartanburg Airport continues, so do the improvements to the GSP travelers’ experience. We are excited to announce that R.J. Rockers will soon be landing at GSP! RJ Rockers will be bringing local beverages and food to passengers inside the terminal.
RJ Rockers is a Spartanburg-based microbrewery that began in 1997. Since then, Mark Johnsen, head brewer, founder, and owner, has been focused on providing the Upstate and surrounding area with the perfect handcrafted beer – “Every beer. Every drop. Every time.” RJ Rockers is committed to bringing quality beer through dedication and passion. They are excited about sharing their love for beer and food with GSP travelers.
By including Thomas Creek Grill and RJ Rockers both hometown brewers in the lineup of new vendors, Greenville-Spartanburg International Airport proves it is truly a product of local talent.
More details about the opening of RJ Rockers will be released soon, stay tuned for more details about this and other upcoming additions to Greenville-Spartanburg International Airport!
– The TerminalAuthored by Mike Krieger via Liberty Blitzkrieg blog,
This is not the sort of thing you see in a confident, brave, and civilized nation, it’s the sort of stuff you’d expect to see toward the end. It’s the stuff of craven war-mongers, of dishonest cowards, of a totally deranged and very dangerous media. The signs are everywhere; imperial decline is set to accelerate rapidly in the coming years. – From the April post: Prepare for Impact – This is the Beginning of the End for U.S. Empire
Fake news, propaganda and garbage information is everywhere and I’m not going to pretend otherwise. That being said, the key thing to understand is fake news from obscure websites you’ve never heard of is not what represents the real, global danger of rampant dishonest information. The real danger of fake news is the stuff that’s consistently being vomited onto the pages of “respectable,” billionaire-owned corporate media.
Obscure blogs and independent thinkers such as myself aren’t influencing foreign policy, domestic policy or anything that really matters (look around you). While alternative media did indeed play a monumental role in the election of Donald Trump, how much really changed when it comes to the true power centers?
Not much, not much at all. Goldman Sachs and Wall Street are more in control than ever before, and neocons and other assorted interventionists seem to be running foreign policy.
All of this reminds me of the famous saying, “if voting made any difference, they’d make it illegal.” Indeed, the time has come for all of us to own up to the very real and present danger of corporate media, which seemingly exists to provide public relations for oligarchs and the foreign policy establishment. Not that this should be surprising, you’d have to be the most naive creature on earth to think newspapers owned by billionaires are going to tell the public the truth. Indeed, I made the following observation earlier today on Twitter.
If you don't think it's bizarre that all the "respectable" newspapers are constantly pushing for more war, I don't know what to tell you. — Michael Krieger (@LibertyBlitz) June 27, 2017
Truth be told, it’s way beyond bizarre, it’s downright terrifying. Note that most major newspapers could barely catch their breath from demonizing Trump during his first three months, yet suddenly saw him as a heroic figure as soon as he lobbed a few bombs at Assad. This is like giving a puppy a treat for peeing on a wee wee pad. The corporate press is literally training Trump to wage as much imperial war as possible. It’s crucial to understand that Trump, or any other administration really, can only do so much on the interventionist war front as the corporate press permits and pushes. Unfortunately, the corporate press is always pushing for war.
When was the last time The New York Times came out strongly against a foreign policy establishment war? — Michael Krieger (@LibertyBlitz) June 27, 2017
Today provided yet another example of how the “respectable” oligarch-owned press unquestionably repeats government propaganda when it comes to foreign policy. Two days after Seymour Hersh blew a hole in the fairytale account of Assad using chemical weapons in April, and merely a few hours after Sean Spicer started conditioning the public for more war with evidence-free claims that another chemical attack was imminent, here’s how the New York Times covered the April attack.
Naturally, you have the photo of the hurt child to pull at your heartstrings underneath which is written, “after a nerve agent was used in an attack in April.” Of course, there is no proof that a nerve agent was used in the attack; in fact, there seems to be increasing proof that there wasn’t. Yet, that doesn’t stop The New York Times from doing it again and again later in the piece.
WASHINGTON — American officials have seen chemical weapons activity at a Syrian air base that was used in the spring nerve gas attack on rebel-held territory, the Defense Department said on Tuesday, scrambling to explain what prompted a White House statement a day earlier that Syria would “pay a heavy price” if it carried out another one. Capt. Jeff Davis, a Pentagon spokesman, told reporters that what looked like active preparations for a chemical attack were seen at Al Shayrat airfield, which was struck in April by American cruise missiles two days after the Syrian government dropped bombs loaded with toxic chemicals in northern Syria. Another Defense Department official said that an aircraft shelter at Al Shayrat that had been hit by an American Tomahawk missile was being used for the preparation. The United States and other world powers have accused Mr. Assad’s forces of repeatedly using chemical weapons to subdue rebels seeking to topple his government. Chemical attacks killed more than 1,000 people near Damascus in 2013 and dozens more in northern Syria in April of this year.
The paper consistently states non-facts as facts in order to push a particular narrative. Meanwhile, here’s some of what Seymour Hersh reported in German newspaper Die Welt over the weekend:
The available intelligence made clear that the Syrians had targeted a jihadist meeting site on April 4 using a Russian-supplied guided bomb equipped with conventional explosives. Details of the attack, including information on its so-called high-value targets, had been provided by the Russians days in advance to American and allied military officials in Doha, whose mission is to coordinate all U.S., allied, Syrian and Russian Air Force operations in the region. Some American military and intelligence officials were especially distressed by the president’s determination to ignore the evidence. “None of this makes any sense,” one officer told colleagues upon learning of the decision to bomb. “We KNOW that there was no chemical attack … the Russians are furious. Claiming we have the real intel and know the truth … I guess it didn’t matter whether we elected Clinton or Trump.” The Execute Order governing U.S. military operations in theater, which was issued by the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, provide instructions that demarcate the relationship between the American and Russian forces operating in Syria. “It’s like an ops order – ‘Here’s what you are authorized to do,’” the adviser said. “We do not share operational control with the Russians. We don’t do combined operations with them, or activities directly in support of one of their operations. But coordination is permitted. We keep each other apprised of what’s happening and within this package is the mutual exchange of intelligence. If we get a hot tip that could help the Russians do their mission, that’s coordination; and the Russians do the same for us. When we get a hot tip about a command and control facility,” the adviser added, referring to the target in Khan Sheikhoun, “we do what we can to help them act on it.” “This was not a chemical weapons strike,” the adviser said. “That’s a fairy tale. If so, everyone involved in transferring, loading and arming the weapon – you’ve got to make it appear like a regular 500-pound conventional bomb – would be wearing Hazmat protective clothing in case of a leak. There would be very little chance of survival without such gear. Military grade sarin includes additives designed to increase toxicity and lethality. Every batch that comes out is maximized for death. That is why it is made. It is odorless and invisible and death can come within a minute. No cloud. Why produce a weapon that people can run away from?” The target was struck at 6:55 a.m. on April 4, just before midnight in Washington. A Bomb Damage Assessment (BDA) by the U.S. military later determined that the heat and force of the 500-pound Syrian bomb triggered a series of secondary explosions that could have generated a huge toxic cloud that began to spread over the town, formed by the release of the fertilizers, disinfectants and other goods stored in the basement, its effect magnified by the dense morning air, which trapped the fumes close to the ground. According to intelligence estimates, the senior adviser said, the strike itself killed up to four jihadist leaders, and an unknown number of drivers and security aides. There is no confirmed count of the number of civilians killed by the poisonous gases that were released by the secondary explosions, although opposition activists reported that there were more than 80 dead, and outlets such as CNN have put the figure as high as 92. A team from Médecins Sans Frontières, treating victims from Khan Sheikhoun at a clinic 60 miles to the north, reported that “eight patients showed symptoms – including constricted pupils, muscle spasms and involuntary defecation – which are consistent with exposure to a neurotoxic agent such as sarin gas or similar compounds.” MSF also visited other hospitals that had received victims and found that patients there “smelled of bleach, suggesting that they had been exposed to chlorine.” In other words, evidence suggested that there was more than one chemical responsible for the symptoms observed, which would not have been the case if the Syrian Air Force – as opposition activists insisted – had dropped a sarin bomb, which has no percussive or ignition power to trigger secondary explosions. The range of symptoms is, however, consistent with the release of a mixture of chemicals, including chlorine and the organophosphates used in many fertilizers, which can cause neurotoxic effects similar to those of sarin.
Given the reporting of a journalist with decades of history calling out government b.s., you’d think the New York Times would at least mention Hersh’s reporting in their article. Nope, not a peep.
The Atlantic does a similar thing. Here are a few excerpts from its Syria piece this morning. Let’s start with the title.
“Another” chemical attack. Meanwhile, it looks like the last one never even happened, yet does The Atlantic mention the report authored by Sy Hersh two days earlier? Of course not, but it does continue to repeat the fake news claim of an April chemical weapons attack over and over.
White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer released a statement Monday night accusing the Syrian government of potentially engaging in preparations for another chemical weapons attack. While the statement offered minimal details, it argued that a future attack “would likely result in the mass murder of civilians, including innocent children.” On April 4, a government-led chemical attack in Syria’s northwestern Idlib province resulted in the deaths of more than 80 civilians. According to Spicer, the Syrian government’s latest preparations closely resemble those carried out prior to April 4.
Never let the truth get in the way of a good story.
If indeed enacted, a new chemical weapons attack could have reverberating consequences throughout the international community. In response to April’s attack, the U.S. launched 59 tomahawk missiles at a Syrian air base—the nation’s first military operation against an Arab government since President Obama’s intervention in Libya in 2011. At the time, the administration referred to the strike as a “one-off” occurrence intended to deter future chemical attacks. But, in the wake of the operation, administration officials reported that President Trump had been deeply troubled by graphic images of Syrian children struggling to breathe. “No child of God should ever suffer such horror,” Trump said while announcing the strike.
“The nation’s first military operation against an Arab government since President Obama’s intervention in Libya in 2011.”
Since that went so well, we may as well do it again.
Meanwhile, do you know anything about David G. Bradley, the man who owns Atlantic Media? I didn’t think so. Here’s a brief snippet mentioning him from a 2010 Daily Beast article about D.C. “richest power players.”
Far more visible is well-heeled entrepreneur and Atlantic Media publisher David G. Bradley, who owns The National Journal, The Atlantic, and Hotline. In 1979, a 26-year-old Bradley founded the Research Council of Washington. Over the years he zeroed in on health care and finance, and in 1997 he sold the company for more than $300 million. He is known for hosting monthly ultra-exclusive off-the-record dinners—a Valhalla of insiders, top journalists, foreign leaders, and White House officials—in his glass-enclosed office at the Watergate. “It’s a joy for me,” Bradley has said. “I launched it for the romance of it. It’s more book club than it is clubhouse.”
I’ll let you make your own determination as to whether or not this sort of thing is likely to lead to hard-hitting, power challenging journalism. Sounds like a bunch of elitists stroking each other to me.
Which brings me to the main point. The major newspapers do not hold power to account. They aren’t working for the public interest, and you can see the results all around us. With government, corporate oligarchs and the media entirely aligned against the best interests of the population at large, the situation looks very bleak. The imperial train wreck appears unstoppable.GST Council on Friday decided +
the council, in its 23rd meet +
GUWAHATI: Theto reduce tax rate on a wide range of mass use items — from chewing gums to detergents — to 18 per cent from current 28 per cent, Bihar deputy chief minister Sushil Kumar Modi said.The all-powerful council pruned the list of items attracting the top 28 per cent tax rate to just 50 from 227 previously, Modi told reporters here. In effect,today, cut rates on 178 goods.Facing intense heat from opposition-ruled states over keeping mass used goods in the 28 per cent bracket which was meant for luxury and de-merit goods, the Council pruned the list to 50 as against 62 that was recommended by its fitment committee.The Goods and Services Tax ( GST ), implemented from July 1, has five tax slabs of 0 per cent, 5 per cent, 12 per cent, 18 per cent and 28 per cent."There were 227 items in the 28 per cent slab. The fitment committee had recommended that it should be pruned to 62 items. But the GST Council has further pruned 12 more items," Modi said.He said all types of chewing gum, chocolates, preparation for facial make-up, shaving and after-shave items, shampoo deodorants, washing powder detergent and granite and marble will attract lower 18 per cent tax rate.Meanwhile, finance minister Arun Jaitley said that a uniform 5% rate will be levied on all AC and non-AC restaurants, and added that the eateries will not get input tax credit."Restaurants in starred-hotels that charge Rs 7,500 or more per day room tariff will be levied 18 per cent GST but input tax credit is allowed for them. Those restaurants in hotels charging less than Rs 7,500 room tariff will charge 5 per cent GST but will not get tax credit," Jaitley said."There was unanimity that in 28 per cent category there should be only sin and demerit goods.So, today the GST Council took a historic decision, that in the 28 per cent slab there will be only 50 items and the remaining items have been brought down to 18 per cent," he said.The council is also expected to roll out a number of changes in rules to ease the process of filing taxes and smoothen compliance issues.Paints and cement have been retained in the 28 per cent tax bracket, he said. "Luxury goods like washing machines and air conditioners have been retained at 28 per cent," he added.The decision taken by the GST Council will have a revenue implication of Rs 20,000 crore annually."There is consensus that slowly 28 per cent slab should be brought to 18 per cent. But it will take some time because it has a big revenue implication," he said.Modi said that it was important the system under GST regime stabilizes as only four months were remaining for the close of the current financial year.Exceptions suck. When you are getting started on a project there is nothing worse than clicking that button, hitting enter, and then watching your software fall flat on its face. It might sound odd - then - if I were to say, more errors in your life could be a good thing.
For the past few months I’ve been working with new programmers at the University of Texas and through Rails Girls. It’s humbling to say the least, to watch a new user fumble around with Ruby and Rails. They run into problems you’ve either long forgotten about, or are so used to, you’re numb to them. After having to tell the 15th-thousand student to migrate their database to get rid of a method_missing error I thought to myself “there has to be a better way”. Essentially our system knows exactly what the problem is, it knows that you’ve got pending migrations so how can we let a programming language talk to its users? It would be so simple if Rails could just jump out, call us on the phone and tell us to “migrate our database to fix this error”, but sadly VOIP and speech generation aren’t standard libraries (yet). Since that option is out the door, how can we talk to programmers new and old alike and tell them this important message. It’s pretty simple, we just raise a little hell.
Previously if you added an admin column to your user table via a migration and forgot to run it then refreshed a page you would still get an error, but the error message was misleading at best:
"NoMethodError: undefined method `admin?' for #<User:0x007ff1d4bfa018>""
It tells us that there is an issue with User, but doesn’t give us any clues why exactly that method is undefined. With my patch a middleware checks for pending migrations in development mode and we can raise a much more useful error:
"Migrations are pending run 'bundle exec rake db:migrate RAILS_ENV=development' to resolve the issue"
Now when I get this error I don’t cringe or rage post on stack overflow, I take delight knowing that the framework I’m using is gently coaxing me back in between the lines.
I’ll give you another example, what do you think about this error:
"undefined method `model_name' for NilClass:Class"
Not very helpful. Turns out that’s the error you get when you accidentally pass a nil object to a form_for:
<%= form_for @user do |f| %> #...
I’ve seen that error so many times, I can spot it from across the room. The thing that gets me is that Rails knows you’re getting into an exceptional situation as soon as you pass in a nill or empty object into form_for but it wasn’t checking, instead it just passed whatever bad arguments you passed in around until something errored out somewhere in the call stack. So now we’ve got a bad error message and a stack trace that leads us down a rabbit hole, can we fix it? Sure, a simple object.blank? check and we can raise a meaningful error message:
raise "First argument in form cannot contain nil or be empty" if object.blank?
So now you know that the error came from form_for as a result of passing in nil or an empty array. All that is left is for you to fix it.
I was first introduced to this style of raising early errors after attending a Avdi’s talk about Confident Ruby at RailsConf 2011. If you weren’t fortunate enough to attend one of his talks you can still read his ebook.
Raising early errors with good messages can help immensely, but we can do more. If every time you get a routing error, you have to run $ rake routes why not put rake routes in your error page. If leaving out arguments causes an error, tell the programmer exactly what they are missing. Even for common sense debugging tips, it can still never hurt to remind someone to check the logs.
These days a heavy emphasis is placed on good documentation as it should be, but docs are only good when you’re looking at them. By writing better errors we are creating living documentation that comes to you exactly when you need it the most. Good error messages are like lessons learned scaled out to thousands of developers.
Next time you find yourself confused when you’re programming, write down any error messages you get. Keep it in evernote or a text file, and when you figured out what went wrong and how to fix it, ask yourself if there was a better way to experience that error. Did Rails have enough information to know what you did wrong? If not, why? If so, why didn’t you get a better error message? Don’t just sit back, relax and let errors pass you bye, go out there - get mad - write code - raise “hell”.
Richard works for Heroku on the Ruby Team and teaches rails classes at the University of Texas. If you like errors as much as he does, chat him up on the twitters @schneems. These error messages and more are available starting with Rails 4.It is unlikely that any any proof of work system will thwart implementation in an ASIC. Very complex designs, ranging from radios, satellite positioning systems, to inpertreters of the Forth programming language have all been implemented in ASICs. In the past I have proposed using a modification of boolean SAT problems, knowing that there are many potential algorithmic refinements to that problem that could routinely make CPU mining competitive with ASIC mining. Sadly, the protocol proves to have extreme variance in mining time which I regard as unacceptable for the 12 second target mining time.
Rather than try to thwart ASIC implementation, it should be accepted that it is inevitable. As designers, we should hope for the best plan for the worst.
A proof of work mechanism designed to incorporate calculations carried out on the EVM would give an ASIC designer little recourse other than to implement a custom CPU designed to run the EVM instruction set natively (and potentially interact with the distributed database). Ethereum CPUs would naturally out-perform x86 CPU based miners, which are effectively forced to emulate a native EVM.
If Ethereum was later to migrate to a Proof of Stake protocol, then custom CPUs used for mining could be repurposed for contract-code evaluation. This, in my opinion, would be more economically productive use of their computational resources.
To this end, below I sketch a port of the Random Circuit protocol to the EVM. Proof of work consists of:
A nonce
An algorithmically defined, compiled EVM program
The output of the program, which should report gas used (a non-zero value)
Work is verified by running the EVM program, and verifying that the output is correct and non-zeroFord India today reported a 46.96 percent jump in total sales to 26,075 units in July this year. The company had sold 17,742 units in the same month of last year, Ford India said in a statement. Domestic sales were up 18.96 percent to 8,418 units last month as against 7,076 units in July last year, it said.
Exports during the month grew by 65.54 percent to 17,657 units as compared to 10,666 units in July 2016, it added. “Despite the administrative challenges associated with the introduction of GST in July, Ford continues to grow faster than the industry,” Ford India President and Managing Director Anurag Mehrotra said.
Going ahead there will be short-term administrative headwinds associated with GST and rising input costs, he said.
“We believe a good monsoon, conductive financing rates and consumer confidence during the festival season will provide the impetus for the industry,” Mehrotra said. The company also announced the elevation of Vinay Raina as the new executive director of Marketing, Sales & Service. ALSO READ: Top 5 affordable cars with touchsceen infotainment system in India
Besides, Lakshmi Ramkumar, in charge of dealer development, replaces Raina as the new vice-president, sales at Ford India, Ford India said.A new catalog of human genes reveals that people have many different ways to build proteins. This listing of options can help doctors sort through mutations to learn which ones cause genetic diseases — and which ones don’t.
An international group of researchers banded together to compile the catalog, an inventory of the exome — the small portion of the human genome that produces proteins — of 60,706 adults from different populations around the world. Researchers in the Exome Aggregation Consortium, known as ExAC, report the findings online October 30 at bioRxiv.org.
“This is one of the most useful resources ever created for medical testing for genetic disorders,” says Heidi Rehm, a clinical lab director at Harvard Medical School who is not a member of the consortium.
A journal reviewing the work for publication prohibits the ExAC researchers from speaking withBy Steve DelVecchio
New England Patriots tight end Rob Gronkowski made an appearance on the season premiere of “Jim Rome on Showtime” this week, and America’s favorite party animal did not disappoint.
For starters, Gronk described his ideal wife by keeping things simple — he wants her to cook, clean, be beautiful and somehow make a lot of cash while staying at home. Rome also got Gronkowski to reveal a little of what goes on inside the huddle. Our favorite was what Tom Brady supposedly says after Gronk catches a touchdown pass.
At first, Gronk told Rome that Brady is “just fired up” when he gets in the big tight end’s face and says stuff like, “Hell yeah!” Rome knew there had to be more, so Gronk finally gave in.
“OK … it’s more like “Hell yeah motherf—er!. I knew it! I knew you could to it!” Gronkowski admitted, per Will Brinson of CBSSports.com. “You’re gonna get some b---hes after the game now!
“That’s what he says.”
Tom Brady dropping F-bombs and talking about getting tail?! Say it ain’t so! If we didn’t hear pretty boy Tom swear during a press conference last season or watch him go F-bomb crazy on the sideline during a loss, we would find that more difficult to believe.
As expected, Gronk said plenty of other hilarious stuff during his chat with Rome. You can read some of it here.There may be a whole new school schedule this fall for the Delaware City School District's 2014-2015 school year.
There may be a whole new school schedule this fall for the Delaware City School District's 2014-2015 school year.
Multiple contributing factors are leading district officials to consider the schedule changes, with the main one being construction of Dempsey Middle School set to begin this summer.
According to Jason Sherman, director of facilities and transportation, officials want to start the process of implementing these changes now in order to get feedback from parents, teachers and community members.
Currently, the district has two tiers of bus transportation and school start times, but officials want to change it to a three-tiered system.
Proposed changes
CURRENT SCHEDULE
Tier 1 (32 buses)
Hayes High School, 7:25 a.m. to 2:30 p.m.
Dempsey Middle School, 7:35 a.m. to 2:30 p.m.
Tier 2 (30 buses)
Willis Intermediate School, 8:30 a.m. to 3:15 p.m.
Elementary schools, 8:45 a.m. to 3 p.m.
NEW SCHEDULE
Tier 1 (18 buses)
Hayes High School, 7:25 a.m. to 2:30 p.m.
Tier 2 (30 buses)
Elementary schools, 8:20 a.m. to 3:05 p.m.
Willis Intermediate School, 8:30 a.m. to 3:20 p.m.
Tier 3 (18 buses)
Dempsey Middle School, 9:05 a.m. to 4 p.m.
Sherman said that due to the construction, there won't be enough space to move the amount of buses needed through Dempsey and the high school.
"This will decrease the amount of buses on the road at a given time, which will alleviate some of the traffic congestion." he said.
"Instead of 32 buses doing loop-the-loops through the high school and middle school, we'll have 18 at the high school earlier in the morning, and 18 later in the morning."
Sherman said that having the elementary school busing in the middle, which includes the largest number of buses, will provide more leeway at both ends of the schedule.
Sherman also said officials chose to split up the Hayes and Dempsey bus transfers to avoid having middle school students riding with high school students, which has been presenting some discipline issues.
The district chose not to move the high school schedule, because of the number of programs, after school activities and jobs that the students participate in.
There are many other factors the district has to consider, such as the fact that the elementary school day is increasing by 30 minutes and administrators will need to make sure all teacher contracts can accommodate that change.
If the schedule changes are implemented, there will be fewer buses needed for each tier, which will mean there will be more buses available for field trips and substitutes for main drivers if needed.
Additionally, with Willis Intermediate School being eliminated in the coming years, a change to the busing schedule would be required at that time as well.
One problem Sherman foresees: Families who rely on their middle school students to watch their elementary school siblings after school. Those families will need to make other arrangements, because Dempsey will get out an hour after the elementary schools.
"We know this can cause some problems for families. Although we can't accommodate everyone's wishes... we're going to do the best we can," he said.
Sherman said the end result of the new schedule should be safe and efficient transportation with minimal disruption to the community.IAS and IPS officers will now need to take prior permission from the Union government before accepting gifts, including free transportation, boarding and lodging, worth more than Rs 5,000.
According to the recently amended all- services rules, they also need to inform the government if they accept gifts of over Rs 25,000 from their relatives or friends.
No member of the service shall accept any gift without the sanction of the government if the value of the same exceeds Rs 5,000, the new rules say.
They may accept gifts from near relatives or personal friends with whom they have no official dealings on occasions such as weddings, anniversaries, funerals and religious functions when the making of gifts is in conformity with the prevailing religious and social practice but they have to make a report to the government if the value of such a gift exceeds Rs 25,000, the rules state.
Free transportation, free boarding and lodging and any other service or pecuniary advantage when provided by a person other than a near relative or personal friend having no official dealing with the member of the service will be construed as a gift, as per the definition in the existing rules.
However, the rules state that gifts does not include casual meals, casual lift or other social hospitality.
Officers shall avoid accepting lavish hospitality or frequent hospitality from persons having official dealings with them or from commercial firms or other organisations, the rules say.
The Department of Personnel and Training (DoPT) has notified the All- Services (Conduct) Amendment Rules, 2015.
Earlier, IAS, IPS and IFoS officers were needed to take prior government sanction before accepting gifts if their value exceeded Rs 1,000, he said.
"(Also), they were to inform government after receiving gifts from near relatives, friends, or on occasions such as wedding, anniversaries, funerals and religious functions if their value exceeded Rs 5,000," the official added.
Indian Administrative Service (IAS), Indian Police Service (IPS) and Indian Forest Service (IFoS) are the three all- services.
"The rules have been amended and the ministries concerned have been told to bring them to the notice of all IAS, IPS and IFoS officers," a DoPT official said. The monetary limits have been revised through the new rules.
There are about 4,802 IAS, 3,798 IPS and 2,668 IFoS officers serving in the country.Get the biggest Liverpool FC stories by email Subscribe Thank you for subscribing We have more newsletters Show me See our privacy notice Could not subscribe, try again later Invalid Email
Jordon Ibe has drafted in none other than the legendary Kenny Dalglish to help him take his game to the next level.
The Liverpool FC generations crossed at the club’s Kirkby Academy after the 19-year-old – who should currently be on holiday – asked the club’s Academy director Alex Inglethorpe to help arrange some extra sessions to work on his finishing.
One chance conversation between Dalglish and Inglethorpe later led to the extra training session as Dalglish got straight off a plane today to help out the promising young winger.
Inglethorpe told the ECHO: “Kenny Dalglish came in this morning and worked with Jordon Ibe and myself on a little bit of finishing. Kenny literally just got off a plane and came straight here.
“This is driven by Jordon. He’s the one who wanted to come in and do a bit more. He’s the one who wanted to work on a few things.
“It’s incredible really. By chance I was just speaking to Kenny about something else. He landed at the airport at 10am and he was in here at 10.30am with his kit on and the boots on.
“He was working with Jordon, passing some fantastic pieces of advice as you’d expect. There were four or five of the U16s as well. What a day for an U16 – working with Kenny Dalglish, Jordon Ibe, on a beautiful sunny day, doing some good work.”
It was a breakthrough year for Ibe in the Liverpool first team after being recalled from a productive spell on loan at Derby. His 14 appearances would have been many more except for a knee injury against Besiktas which broke his momentum.
But Inglethorpe said the player himself – who recently signed a new long-term deal at Anfield – knows there is still lots of improvement to find.
“He’s looking to add to his game for sure, it’s very much driven by him, he’s turned up the last three or four days and I’d anticipate we’ll work again. He’s actually on his holidays but he wants to improve and get a bit better.
“He’s a really good lad and I think he recognises this is the beginning of his journey and he’s far from being complete. He’s still got a lot to do and a lot to work on, and it’s nice to know he sees that himself.
“It’s great to have a player who drives his own development.”
Ibe later shared a pic of himself with Dalglish in the Kirkby sunshine and told his followers: "Good session, improving during the off season with Alex Inglethorpe and the legend himself Kenny Dalglish."by: Wesley Silveria AKA Iron Addict
Bodybuilders that take the time to see how many conventional powerlifters and “in the know” trainees cycle their training intensity often end up very confused about all the workouts that appear to be total wastes of time. After all, intensity cycling requires that many weeks be spent doing workouts at low intensity or volume levels. This leaves the uninitiated to believe that little is being accomplished—and they would be WRONG!!!
Before delving too deeply into the subject I will go over a couple of things that may already be on the minds of those reading this. And from experience these things are:
What exactly is intensity/load cycling?
Is it really needed?
How is it performed?
Intensity/load cycling is the use of various methods performed to modulate loading parameters in order to ensure CNS and overall metabolic overtraining does not occur, and to provide a “springboard” to additional size and strength gains. By allowing yourself periods with less than “all out” workloads you give the body time to recuperate from periods of extreme training stress while building momentum to reach and then beat all previous records.
Is intensity/load cycling really necessary? Depends who you talk to and what their training consists of. If you ALWAYS train within your ability to recover between sessions the answer is no. However few do this, and many find gains come most freely when they push the limits of their recovery ability. So yes, it is needed by many if not most trainees. It really is as simple as this; your body will not tolerate all-out high intensity or high volume training for long periods of time WHILE remaining progressive with size and strength gains. Something has to give, and most people will do well to plan the “give” time to be a part of their short |
election.
It was also the same day some Democratic lawmakers called for impeachment of the president.
“The president formed a very unique bond with the American people in the campaign as he understands better than anyone their economic struggles and concerns about the future for their children and grandchildren,” Mr. Glassner said. “I know the president deeply appreciates their support of him as he continues to fight the mainstream media and the establishment forces working together against him in Washington.”
The special counsel probe capped two weeks of increasing criticism of Mr. Trump, mostly from Democrats, following his firing of FBI Director James B. Comey.
The FBI has been investigating the Russia allegations since last summer. Officials repeatedly have said that no evidence so far has been found to support the Democrats’ accusations.
Copyright © 2019 The Washington Times, LLC. Click here for reprint permission.2018 All-New GMC Terrain SLT (Left) and Denali (Right) (Photo: GMC)
GMC showed the redesigned 2018 Terrain SUV tonight at the Museum of Contemporary Art Detroit, updating its appearance both inside and out for the first time since it was introduced in 2009.
A clear evolution in the direction of a more car-like crossover look, the new Terrain boasts sharper and more sculpted elements such as the grille and lighting features. Its shape is more aerodynamic than the current model. It was refined in a wind tunnel so its shape cuts through the air with optimal efficiency and less noise.
“It is a striking design with functional beauty,” said Helen Emsley, GMC executive design director. “There’s confidence and optimism in its stance, with exceptional attention to detail.”
There will be three turbocharged engine choices, including a new turbo-diesel. Two new efficiency-enhancing nine-speed automatic transmissions are matched with the gas engines — a first application for the GMC lineup.
The 2018 Terrain goes on sale this summer in SL, SLE, SLT and the upmarket Denali models. Denali trim levels are available on all GMC models and account for about 25% of the brand's U.S. sales of 546,628 vehicles in 2016.
“GMC’s strong growth over the past decade is due in large part to Terrain,” said Duncan Aldred, vice president of global GMC sales and marketing. “The all-new Terrain builds on that success, leveraging GMC’s proven premium SUV experience to shake up the largest vehicle segment, with a strong blend of design, functionality and engineering excellence.”
Terrain Denali will feature a satin chrome grille along with body-color fascias, plus chrome roof rails, door handles, side mirror caps and body-side molding. LED headlamps and 19-inch aluminum wheels are standard on Denali.
The three available turbocharged engines are a new 1.5-liter and a 2-liter turbo gas engines and a 1.5-liter turbo-diesel. The gas engines are matched with two unique new nine-speed automatic transmissions. The 2.-liter turbo engine offers stronger acceleration and a higher degree of performance than its 1.5-liter counterpart.
GMC’s new electronic precision shift enables more storage room in the center console by replacing the conventional transmission shifter with electronically controlled gear selection controlled with intuitive push buttons and pull triggers.
The Terrain comes with a standard driver-controlled traction select system, which has choices for different driving conditions. The throttle responses are optimized for the selected driving mode. All-wheel drive models include a front-wheel drive mode to minimize drag and optimize fuel economy.
New and upgraded safety technologies include:
Surround vision
Forward collision alert with a following distance indicator
Low-speed forward automatic braking
Lane keep assist with lane departure warning
Lane change alert with side blind zone alert
Rear cross traffic alert
New safety alert seat
Two other available features are rear seat reminder to minimize risk of leaving children and pets in the back seat and teen driver, which allows parents to set controls and review an in-vehicle report card to encourage better driving habits.
Contact Greg Gardner: 313-222-8762 or ggardner@freepress.com. Follow him on Twitter @GregGardner12
Read or Share this story: http://on.freep.com/2i7UFqSFrederic Legrand - COMEO / Shutterstock.com
Recently, Oculus, a company Facebook acquired for $2 billion almost three years ago, has turned out to be more trouble than it’s worth. Oculus lost a major lawsuit worth half a billion dollars to video game publisher ZeniMax, owner of Fallout and Skyrim developer Bethesda Softworks, with the court ruling that Oculus had used copyrighted ZeniMax technology without permission, holding the company and its founders liable. And now ZeniMax is moving to shut Oculus down completely.
According to Reuters, ZeniMax is seeking an injunction on sales of any product that uses their technology, which has been widely distributed to developers working on games for Oculus products, notably the Oculus Rift. If granted, it would likely limit what games are available for the Rift to a tiny handful, already a problem for a company with product sales lagging in its market.
This in turn raises the question of whether Oculus can stay afloat. The $500 million judgement was against both the company and its founders, including Palmer Luckey, and currently they’re appealing the verdict. It’s widely believed ZeniMax is trying to force a settlement and end the appeal process early. Either way, it seems unlikely that the saga of Facebook’s increasingly ill-fated foray into VR is over just yet.
(via Reuters)TROY -- RPI hockey standout Jerry D'Amigo has decided to leave school to chase his dream of playing in the National Hockey League.
D'Amigo, a forward, signed a three-year entry-level contract with the Toronto Maple Leafs, who took him in the sixth round of the 2009 entry-level draft. Terms of the contract were not disclosed.
By signing with a pro team, D'Amigo, 19, forfeits the final three years of his eligibility.
"This is an opportunity I just could not pass on and I am thankful the people in Toronto believe in me," D'Amigo said.
Unlike some pro sports like baseball or football, NHL teams retain the rights to unsigned college prospects until they leave school. RPI coach Seth Appert was with D'Amigo at the NHL draft in Montreal last year and said his then new recruit was disappointed at being taken 158th overall. D'Amigo was hoping to go as high as the second or third round.
His NHL aspirations began to grow after scoring 10 goals with 24 assists in 35 games as a freshman and was later named ECAC Rookie of the Year. In January he scored a team-high six goals for the United States which won gold at the World Junior Ice Hockey Championships. After a superb showing at the Maple Leafs prospect camp this summer, D'Amigo decided to leave school after consulting with his family, Appert and the Leafs.
"Most 19-year-olds are one-dimensional, but Jerry is a complete player. He's very physical," said Appert. "He could be a good third-line penalty-killer initially, but I think he will be more than that eventually."
Brian Pothier was the last RPI alumn to play in the NHL. Pothier played for the Carolina Hurricanes last season, but signed with a team Switzerland this offseason. Eighteen players from RPI have played in the NHL, according to RPI spokesman Kevin Beattie.A view of the outside of a Price Chopper on Thursday, Nov. 13, 2014, in Wilton, N.Y. This store is one of the first to become the chain's new Market 32 store. (Paul Buckowski / Times Union) A view of the outside of a Price Chopper on Thursday, Nov. 13, 2014, in Wilton, N.Y. This store is one of the first to become the chain's new Market 32 store. (Paul Buckowski / Times Union) Photo: Paul Buckowski Buy photo Photo: Paul Buckowski Image 1 of / 19 Caption Close From Price Chopper to Market 32: Changing names a bold, rare move for retailers 1 / 19 Back to Gallery
What's in a name?
A history, a goal, a message. For a store, a name is supposed to give you a reason to go there, to distinguish the owner's shop from the competition.
A name, once given, is not easily abandoned, so the news last week that the Golub Corp. would transition from the Price Chopper name it has used for more than 40 years to the new Market 32 surprised many observers.
"Nobody changes a name lightly because there is a lot involved," said Helen Keyes, founder and chief officer of Blue Ink Co. and Design in New York, a corporate branding expert. "I would think they did some very good research into the existing name."
Keyes has worked with clients such as Citigroup, Johnson & Johnson, Travelers, T-Mobile, Colgate-Palmolive, Georgia Pacific and HSBC.
"Price Chopper" carries with it the image of a discount store, she said. With the company planning a $300 million upgrade of its stores over the next five years, Keyes said, it clearly wanted to change its image.
"Some businesses outgrow the names that they have," she said. "Price Chopper is a descriptive name, a place you would expect to go for a discount."
With the opening of the Market Bistro in Latham, she said, the supermarket chain clearly wants to reinvent itself as a place to go for an assortment of ready-to-eat foods and dining. The old name doesn't convey that image, Keyes said.
While the new name may sound generic, she said, there are not a lot of available options a supermarket can trademark. She said the use of the numeral '32' ties into the firm's history, and the initial plans to include the words "by Price Chopper" in the name will help transition consumers.
Rob Frankel, another branding expert, had a much different and far harsher reaction. Among his clients have been Honda, Mazda, Disney, Fox Video, Nissan, Clairol, Sea World, Sunkist, Burger King, SEGA, Panasonic, RE/MAX, Marriott, Sony and Nintendo.
Keeping the same name for 40 years builds a trust and loyalty with customers, he said, and changing it can cause them to lose that sense of connection.
"Generations of shoppers don't like to be told it's now something else," he said.
Frankel was unimpressed by the decision to keep "by Price Chopper" on the logo.
"It's a great way to ensure the failure of the new brand. It's like someone calling you up every day and telling you how good you used to be," he said. "If you're going to do a brand change, you close the lights out on Price Chopper on Friday and open as Market 32 on Monday."
Unlike Keyes, Frankel didn't much care for the use of the number 32.
"Who cares? This is some data that means nothing to anybody," he said. "A name is supposed to convey the brand strategy: We are called this because we mean this. Everything you have here has no immediate rhyme or reason. When you look at this thing, you don't know what to think. If you have to tell them why it's 32, it doesn't matter to them. That's what the brand is for. It's not for the CEO. It's for the guy who shops there. If I tell you 'Go to Price Chopper,' the name tells you what to expect, that these guys concentrate on low pricing. If I tell you 'Go to Market 32,' what does that tell you?"
Price Chopper officials have said they did not originally set out to change the name, but the determination was made as they planned a chainwide reimagining of its stores.
The Schenectady-based grocery chain says it will take eight or nine years before every store's name has been altered. Only the Market Bistro store is expected to keep its name.
During a live Facebook chat with customers Friday that drew more than 400 responses, CEO Jerry Golub said the chain's earlier name, Central Market, was not available to reclaim. That name is now a trademark of San Antonio-based H-E-B, which opened its first Central Market in Austin, Texas, in 1994.
The name Market 32 is already claimed on Twitter by a farmers market in San Diego that is now closed, though there is only one tweet sent in 2009.
The Capital Region has seen a supermarket successfully transition from one name to another. Hannaford changed the name of its New York stores from Shop 'n Save in 1997. More than a year earlier, it had started to use the Hannaford name on its store brands. At the time of the switch, a store spokeswoman said the merchandise branded with the Hannaford name had sold better over the prior 18 months than items labeled with the Shop 'n Save name.
"In calling our stores 'Hannaford' we re-emphasized our roots," store spokesman Eric Blom said this week in an emailed response to questions. "Our company began as a fresh fruit and vegetable cart run by Arthur Hannaford on the Portland, Maine, waterfront in 1883. For many years prior to calling our stores "Shop 'n Save," they were 'Hannaford Bros.' stores. The Hannaford name allowed us to emphasize the full range of who we are as a company so that customers could understand us in a deeper, richer way. We have always been — and remain — committed to offering our customers low prices every day, but'saving' money is only part of what makes us special. As 'Hannaford Supermarkets,' we could also emphasize our focus on high-quality fresh food – especially produce, meat and seafood. We could talk more about how we work hard to make shopping easy and convenient for customers. We could engage with our customers better around supporting community organizations, pursuing environmental goals, promoting healthy choices and supporting local agriculture and food producers."
Though Price Chopper might not like the comparison to a competitor, its arguments for the switch are similar.
In the Facebook chat, Golub repeatedly responded to complaints about the new name. One answer was particularly spirited.
"It's interesting to me that so many people have expressed negative opinions about the name... it's boring, not memorable, the "32" makes no sense, etc.," he wrote. "Price Chopper is a very descriptive name – the name by itself creates expectations. Market 32 is not descriptive by design. We want it to be able to evolve with our company over time."
He asked if the customer would have liked the name "Google" if they had heard it 15 years ago.
"And now it's a verb!" Golub wrote. "We don't expect to become nearly as prominent as Google, but the point is that a name is what you make it!"
tobrien@timesunion.com • 518-454-5092 • @timobrientu“Saturday Night Live” spoofed the final presidential debate of 2016 in the opening of its latest show.
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“Welcome to the third and final presidential debate,” Tom Hanks, playing moderator Chris Wallace, said. “Tonight, it’s going to be a lot like the third ‘Lord of the Rings’ movie. You don’t really want to watch, but, hey, you’ve come this far.”
“Let’s talk immigration. Mr. Trump, why are your immigration policies better than Secretary Clinton’s?” Hanks asked Alec Baldwin, playing GOP nominee Donald Trump Donald John TrumpHouse committee believes it has evidence Trump requested putting ally in charge of Cohen probe: report Vietnamese airline takes steps to open flights to US on sidelines of Trump-Kim summit Manafort's attorneys say he should get less than 10 years in prison MORE.
“Because she wants open borders, and that is crazy. I mean, people are just pouring into this country from Mexico. And a lot of them are very bad hombres,” Baldwin responded.
“Oh, uh — bingo!” Kate McKinnon, as Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton Hillary Diane Rodham ClintonSanders: 'I fully expect' fair treatment by DNC in 2020 after 'not quite even handed' 2016 primary Sanders: 'Damn right' I'll make the large corporations pay 'fair share of taxes' Former Sanders campaign spokesman: Clinton staff are 'biggest a--holes in American politics' MORE, responds, pulling out an oversized “Trump Bingo” card.
“I got bingo!” she says, listing off boxes in a diagonal row that read “Bad hombres,” “Rapists, “Miss Piggy,” “They’re all living in hell” and “If she wasn’t my daughter.”
You can watch the entire skit in the video player above.Gravity Rush 2 Japanese release date to be announced on July 19
Sony Interactive Entertainment Japan Asia plans presentation event.
Sony Interactive Entertainment Japan Asia will announce the Japanese release date for Gravity Rush 2 during a presentation event on July 19, the company announced.
The event will be held at Ebisu Act Square on July 19 from 14:30 to 15:30 JST, and feature Sony Interactive Entertainment Japan Asia Atsushi Morita, Gravity Rush series director Keiichiro Toyama, and Gravity Rush series composer Kohei Tanaka.
In addition to the release date, the event will also share details about the Gravity Rush special animation project, feature a Kohei Tanaka mini-concert, allow attendees to play Gravity Rush 2 for the first time in Japan, and provide an update on the game’s promotional activities from hereon. Attendees will also take home Gravity Rush 2-branded “Gravity Drops” candy.
Gravity Rush 2 is due out for PlayStation 4 in North America, Europe, and Japan in 2016.iPhone 5 set for quad-core A6 chip
At some point in the year 2012, Apple is getting set to release a brand new iPhone, or that’s what the rumor mill would have you believe, this time packed with a massive quad-core A6 chip. This time of year is always going to see its fair share of iPhone rumors, or it certainly will if DigiTimes, the source for this current tip, has anything to say about it. With leaks of information that are sometimes right on the money as far as Apple factory parts news goes, it’s always interesting to hear what this often China-based news source has to say.
What this particular update includes is a new bit of processor architecture which would represent a next generation of chips for the Apple smartphone (and perhaps iPad) device line. The iPhone 4S was the last smartphone to get a big chip upgrade with the Apple A5, that being a dual-core 800Mhz processor with immense power for games, graphics, and photo and video processing. The iPad 3rd generation release had a slightly upgraded chip as well, the dual-core A5X with improvements for the Retina quality display the newest iPad came with standard.
It’s not out of the question that Apple would amp up the power of their architecture under the hood to four cores, but there is a question of necessity. While the quad-core craze was started by NVIDIA with their Tegra 3 processor for mobile devices, the Qualcomm Snapdragon S4 dual-core chip has been more than just a sideline competitor for the game-ready Tegra gear.
As far as brand power goes, Apple has been more than ready to turn a dual-core processor into a quad-core with a simple twisting of words – you’ll find the advertising for the A5X chip to be focusing on the graphics processing units instead of the CPU components, while the Tegra 3’s quad-core refers to the fact that there are four CPU cores, not GPUs.
So stay tuned, folks, as the next iPhone – perhaps the iPhone 5 – gets closer and closer to reality. Check the timeline below for further leaks, tips, and rumors galore!
[iPhone 5 concept render by Fusechicken]Brexit has now happened. Yet Brexit, in any meaningful way, is unlikely ever to happen.
As a legal act, Britain's divorce from its 27 neighbours and key trading partners is now under way. On Wednesday, Prime Minister Theresa May served notice of separation from the European Union.
As a practical outcome, however, Brexit will be very unlikely to deliver any of the things its supporters believed they had voted for.
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Of the 17 million Britons who voted to advise their government to leave Europe in last year's referendum, the largest group told pollsters that they did so primarily because they wanted less immigration from Europe. (Leaving the EU would not affect refugee flows or immigration from Britain's former colonies.) Smaller groups said they wanted less trade with Europe, an end to European regulations and an end to payment of dues to Brussels; many said all four.
The Brexit ahead: A guide to the issues and people involved
Even if Ms. May's pro-Brexit government stays intact through the two years of exit negotiations, the real meaning of Brexit will not be defined until Britain negotiates and signs a post-Brexit agreement with its neighbours. This will take years (the Canada-EU trade deal took more than a decade and is still not ratified): Angela Merkel, the German Chancellor, made it very clear that Britain may not begin negotiating its future relationship until exit negotiations are finished in 2019. And the proposed resolution the European Parliament will vote on next week forbids Britain from negotiating free trade with any non-EU countries until it has left the union two years from now (or else it will lose its right to negotiate a deal with Europe).
Britain will be negotiating from a position of weakness: As the EU Parliament makes clear in its resolution, any deal will require the unanimous approval of all 27 member-country legislatures plus a majority vote in the EU parliament. A few of those countries rely heavily on trade with Britain. Most do not, and all want to set a harsh example to discourage future departures.
There is a vaguely articulated belief among ardent Brexit proponents that Britain might be able to maintain and even expand its economy without EU trade, by building trade relations with China, Canada, the United States and other advanced countries.
That belief was acknowledged by Theresa May when she declared, in her speech to parliament Wednesday, that post-Brexit Britain would be a "great, global trading nation."
It could not. A study this month by the Centre for Cities found that 61 of Britain's 62 largest cities rely on the EU more than any other market for their employment and earnings; even the least EU-dependent cities sell more than a quarter of their exports to Europe.
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The EU accounts for 46 per cent of Britain's non-agricultural exports. Canada, China, India, Mexico, Singapore and South Korea together make up only 10 per cent. They're valuable, but no replacement.
Britain is also home to hundreds of factories owned by Asian firms choosing to manufacture cars, electronics and appliances in Britain so they can have access to the 500 million consumers of Europe without paying steep (typically 15 per cent) import tariffs. These factories, such as the sprawling Nissan car plant in Sunderland, are among the country's largest employers. Without free trade with the EU, they would have no reason to remain located in Britain. Nor, for that matter, would many British manufacturers.
So Britain will have no choice but to negotiate a post-Brexit free-trade deal with the EU (individual EU member countries have no trade-negotiating authority). And the EU will insist that access to its markets will only be granted in combination with its other core values of free movement and regulatory compliance.
After years of negotiations, post-Brexit Britain will hope to end up like Norway, an economically successful country that's not part of the EU. Norway's financial success depends on its access to the EU's common market. And in exchange for that access, Norway must allow free movement of EU citizens across its borders; Norway must comply with all EU business laws and regulations; and Norway must pay substantial dues to the EU (without having any influence over its rules).
That, in the end, is what Brexit will most likely look like. Whether Britons will be willing to call it Brexit is another question.Russia does not accept a North Korea that possesses nuclear weapons, Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said.
Lavrov added that there was an overwhelming amount of belligerent rhetoric on North Korea’s nuclear and rocket programs from Washington and Pyongyang, and that Russia hopes that ultimately common sense will prevail.
“Russia together with China developed a very smart plan which proposes ‘double freezing’: Kim Jong-un should freeze nuclear tests and stop launching any types of ballistic missiles, while US and South Korea should freeze large-scale drills which are used as a pretext for the North’s tests,” Lavrov said.
Lavrov noted that North Korea had once signed the Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) but then withdrew from it.
Read more
“Now [North Korea] claims that it has legal rights to make nuclear weapons and has already [done so],” he said. “But you know our position: we don’t accept the fact that North Korea could possess nuclear weapons.”
Both Russia and China have a “range of proposals” aimed at preventing what could become “one of the deepest conflicts” and a “crisis with a big number of casualties.”
Meanwhile, on Friday, the UN special rapporteur for human rights in North Korea expressed concern over foreign detainees in the country.
"I am concerned by reports that detainees are not receiving due legal process and are being held in inhumane conditions," Tomas Ojea Quintana said in a statement.
According to the Russian foreign minister, there is the strong risk that Washington and Pyongyang could engage in military conflict.
“There are direct threats of deploying [military] power,” he stated.
READ MORE: Trump: Military solutions ‘locked & loaded’ against North Korea
"The side that is stronger and cleverer" should take the first step to defuse tensions, he said speaking live on state television.
A similar position was voiced earlier on Friday by German Chancellor Angela Merkel, who said Berlin would support “any non-military solutions” regarding North Korea but deemed an escalation of rhetoric “the wrong answer.”
“I don't see a military solution to this conflict,” Merkel told reporters in Berlin. “I see the need for enduring work at the UN Security Council... as well as tight cooperation between the countries involved, especially the US and China.”Israeli high-tech workers. The program has received lots of help from the government.
The technology incubator project is a government program 23 years old. In the old days the goal was clear: to provide funding for young, inexperienced entrepreneurs having a hard time raising funds to turn their ideas into businesses.
The state took on most of the risk and funded 85% of the investment in startups requiring heavy spending on research and development. The rest of the financing came from private groups that won the concession to operate and manage the incubators.
Even today, long after the Startup Nation matured, the government provides entrepreneurs with around 160 million shekels ($46 million) a year through the program.
On Monday, the Economy Ministry’s Chief Scientist’s Office announced the winners of the tenders to run two new technology incubators. Strauss Group will develop a food technology incubator in Ashkelon, to be called Food-Tech Hub, while Teva Pharmaceutical Industries and Dutch company Philips will specialize in pharmaceuticals and medical devices. Their outfit will be called Inspire Healthcare Innovations.
No one was chosen to operate the third planned incubator in the Golan Heights, for which a tender will be issued in six months.
Unlike during the previous tender process two years ago, people in the high-tech sector are asking whether technology incubators remain relevant when it’s easier than ever for startups to raise money. Do startups in the mobile phone and Internet industries need government help at all to raise seed funding? Do the large companies that run incubators really invest the public’s money efficiently and in a way that meets the incubator program’s goals?
Run by the Chief Scientist’s Office, the network of state-supported incubators was meant to turn technology developed at research institutions into commercial products, while creating a culture of technological entrepreneurship and investment opportunities for venture capital. It would also develop a high-tech industry in the country’s outskirts.
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Another goal was to coax venture capital funds into investing in the riskiest, earliest-stage startups. By the end of 2013, the program had helped launch more than 1,800 companies with $730 million of government money. The incubator portfolio companies raised another $4 billion from the private sector, including so-called angel investors and venture capital funds.
In other words, for every dollar the government put in, private investors put in $5, with most of this raised after the companies left the incubators. In fact, about half the companies that completed the incubator period raised at least $500,000 within a year.
Yossi Smoler, the previous head of the incubator program, overhauled the program to let large corporations manage incubators, too. The assumption was that they could add value, not just inject money. In the previous tender, multinationals such as Johnson & Johnson and Nielsen won, as did Israeli defense contractor Elbit Systems.
In addition, Smoler and Economy Ministry officials concluded that they didn’t have to work in hot areas such as the Internet and mobile applications. For the incubator, they focused on areas such as life sciences and medical devices, where funding is more difficult to obtain.
Long development cycles
Smoler’s decision has proved correct. Since the incubator program was privatized in 2002, 836 companies have taken part, half in the life sciences. These companies raised a combined $1.5 billion, compared with $580 million for information technology and communications startups.
In the past five years, some 70% of Israeli startups in the life sciences have been part of the incubator program at some stage. Today half are in the life sciences, where incubators have become a critical resource in an industry characterized by long development cycles, heavy capital spending and high risk.
For more traditional high-tech startups in areas such as the Internet and mobile applications, there are many other routes besides incubators. These companies usually need much less funding because they rely on open-source code and use cloud computing resources at the outset.
There are no less than 40 programs in Israel that call themselves accelerators for such startups; the young companies are assigned mentors and support depending on their products. Many are under the auspices of big companies such as Microsoft, IBM, AOL and Citigroup.
Another incubator success has been Trendlines Medical, an incubator based in Misgav in the Galilee that was named the outstanding incubator of 2013. The Trendlines Group, which operates the incubator, said last week it had filed a prospectus for an initial public offering; the shares will trade on the Toronto Stock Exchange.
The recent changes in the incubator program were designed to bring in operators with deep pockets who could help firms find funding in the future or a buyer, but critics complain about the policy for choosing incubator operators and the quality of the companies they have taken on.
The program still suffers the reputation of a refuge for lesser-quality startups. Many suffer from what the industry calls Death Valley — an inability to raise capital after leaving the incubator. According to one startup investor, it’s an open secret that investors shun incubator startups because they use their capital poorly.
According to the investor, another problem is that when incubator startups try to raise funds after leaving the incubator, the founders and early investors find their holdings severely diluted.
In addition, the government lets incubators take too large a percentage of startups’ shares, often between 30% to 50%, says the investor. In most cases they take the maximum. All this dampens an entrepreneur’s incentive to make a company a success, he says.
Critics say another problem is that life for incubator operators is too comfortable. They put up very little of their own money and the government takes most of the risk, making the upside sizable. It’s no wonder so many big companies and wealthy investors want in. There’s a suspicion that big companies use the incubators as an R&D arm at the public’s expense.The violence seen at recent Donald Trump rallies largely can be blamed on the Republican presidential candidate himself, Hillary Clinton charged Sunday, saying Mr. Trump created an environment in which unrest can thrive.
Speaking on CNN’s “State of the Union,” Mrs. Clinton unequivocally condemned all violence, but said Mr. Trump deserves the lion’s share of the blame and that anti-Trump demonstrators are merely responding in kind.
“I just want it to end. The police have a hard enough job making sure we’re able to gather and talk bout the issues facing our country,” Mrs. Clinton said. “And Trump has lowered the bar, and now is it a surprise that people who don’t like him are stepping over that low bar? I don’t think it is. He needs to condemn all violence by everyone. I already have, I will continue to do so.”
The anti-Trump violence, Mrs. Clinton suggested, is the natural backlash of Mr. Trump’s own comments. The billionaire reality TV star has, for example, said that he would pay the legal fees of supporters who beat up anti-Trump demonstrators and said that, in the good old days, hecklers would be taken out on stretchers.
He also once said of a protester, “I’d like to punch him in the face.”
As for the latest round of violence, Mr. Trump blamed it on Democrats, specifically supporters of Sen. Bernard Sanders.
“The people that are causing the problem, they’re not my people. They’re people that are outside. They’re thugs and they’re agitators,” he said Sunday. “They’re bad people. I think they’re sent by the Democrats. They have the Bernie signs.”
For his part, Mr. Sanders also condemned the violence.
“I condemn it, absolutely,” he told CNN Sunday morning. “I want to make it clear that any person who is a Bernie Sanders supporter — please do not, in any way, shape or form, engage in violence. That is not what this campaign is abut.”
Copyright © 2019 The Washington Times, LLC. Click here for reprint permission.On the night of October 29, 1964, two self-styled Miami beach boys crept onto the grounds of New York City’s American Museum of Natural History while a lookout drove a white Cadillac around the museum’s block of Manhattan. The beach boys were talented, brazen and sure-footed. After scaling a fence to the museum’s courtyard, they scrambled up a fire escape to secure a rope to a pillar just above the fourth-floor windows of the J.P. Morgan Hall of Gems and Minerals. Clinging to the rope, one of them swung to an open window and used his feet to lower the sash. They were in.
Related Content Surreal Photos Reveal the Otherworldly Insides of Gemstones
Allan Dale Kuhn and Jack Roland Murphy used a glasscutter and duct tape to breach three display cases, and then a squeegee to gather 24 gems. Their haul included the milky-blue Star of India (the world's biggest sapphire, weighing 563.35 carats); the orchid-red DeLong Star Ruby (100.32 carats, and considered the world’s most perfect), and the purplish-blue Midnight Star (the largest black sapphire, at 116 carats). Fearing they’d tripped a silent alarm, the pair retraced their steps to the street and caught separate getaway cabs. “For us, it wasn’t anything,” recalled Murphy, who was better known as Murf the Surf. “We just swung in there and took the stuff.”
***
The mid-1960s were salad days for jewel thievery. In 1963, when a U.S. gem heist occurred on average every 32 seconds, crooks stole $41 million worth of insured precious and semiprecious stones Cash aside, diamonds were the anonymous currency of a thriving seller’s market. An estimated 3.5 million diamonds of one-third of a carat or more were being sold annually in the United States—but that was well short of demand. Abroad, jet-set Europeans, Arabs and Asians knew that jewels held their value in uncertain times. To grease the gears of this emerging global economy, many seemingly legitimate jewel merchants did double-duty as fences. They asked no untidy questions; routinely melted down precious-metal settings into salable ingots; cut conspicuous gems (or “went going on the break”) to erase their identity, and then blithely intermixed stolen and honest merchandise.
The best jewel thieves were aristocrats atop a three-tiered class structure. At its bottom was an army of lowly criminals who committed perhaps 80 percent of all jewel thefts, but did so in crude, often clueless ways. Sandwiched between were about 4,000 skilled professionals who, like the aristocrats, left unwanted items untouched and promptly disposed of their booty. Kuhn, Murphy and their Cadillac-driving lookout, Roger Frederick Clark, probably aspired to this middle class. But they were young—Kuhn was 26, Murphy 27 and Clark 29—and they liked living large. They courted betrayal.
***
James A. Oliver, the director of the American Museum of Natural History, was having a tooth pulled when the heist was first discovered. That afternoon, answering press questions about his institution’s more painful and costly extractions, Oliver conceded that security was “not good.” Other officials elaborated: Batteries in the display-case burglar alarm had been dead for months—a surprise to geology curator Brian H. Mason, who routinely deactivated the system to access the gems. The tops of all the gem hall’s 19 exterior windows were left open two inches overnight for ventilation, and none had burglar alarms. After years when nothing untoward happened, even the precaution of locking a security guard into the gem room overnight had lapsed.
Museum bookkeepers valued the stolen jewels at $410,000 (about $3 million today.) Historically speaking they were priceless, but because premiums were prohibitive, none were insured. Even as burglary detectives from New York’s 20th Squad dusted for prints (they found none), museum executives shuttered the barn. The J.P. Morgan Hall of Gems and Minerals was immediately closed to visitors and “Know Your Precious Gems,” a popular adult-education course, was postponed indefinitely.
***
Authorities believed they were pursuing amateurs who had taken big and prominently displayed stones while ignoring more easily disposable clear gems. Going on the break with these famous nuggets would involve considerable waste and, therefore, little recompense from fences.
Not so, according to Maurice Nadjari, then the assistant district attorney in charge of the case. “They knew what they wanted and took it,” Nadjari said in a recent phone interview. Kuhn, Nadj |
. The next day, the House of Representatives took up and passed H.R. 7 to permanently prohibit the use of federal funds to pay for abortions, as well as to prohibit federal medical facilities and health professionals from providing abortion services. “I proudly sponsored and voted for this important bill to clearly stand for the dignity and value of all human life, both the born and the unborn,” said Murphy. “Passage of H.R. 7 in the wake of the President’s executive action gives me great hope we will once again be a nation committed to honoring life and ensuring American taxpayer dollars are never spent to end a life before it even begins.”
Since then, Murphy's office hasn't sent a tweet or a news release mentioning abortion — even though the House is taking up a 20-week abortion ban... today.
If there's any consolation for Murphy, it's that he wouldn't be the only House Republican to be pro-choice for himself and pro-life for everyone else. Rep. Scott DesJarlais (R-Tenn.) remains in Congress four years after it was revealed that he had asked both his ex-wife and reportedly a mistress to obtain abortions.Anti-Catholic laws in Ireland
'Penal Laws' redirects here. For the English equivalent, see Penal law (British)
In the island of Ireland, Penal Laws (Irish: Na Péindlíthe) were a series of laws imposed in an attempt to force Irish Roman Catholics and Protestant dissenters (such as local Presbyterians) to accept the reformed denomination as defined by the English state established Anglican Church and practised[1] by members of the Irish state established Church of Ireland.[2] All remaining penal laws were finally repealed by the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland by the Government of Ireland Act 1920.
Stuart and Cromwellian rule [ edit ]
The Penal Laws were, according to Edmund Burke "a machine of wise and elaborate contrivance, as well fitted for the oppression, impoverishment and degradation of a people, and the debasement in them of human nature itself, as ever proceeded from the perverted ingenuity of man."[3] Burke long counseled kinder relations by London with its American and Irish cousins, fearing that the punitive spirit fostered by the British was destroying English character, and would spur violent revolt.
Initially, the dual monarchs of England and Ireland were cautious about applying the Penal Laws to Ireland because they needed the support of the Catholic upper classes to put down the Gaelic Irish rebellion in the Nine Years War (1594–1603). In addition, a significant section of the Catholic aristocracy was composed of Old English, who had traditionally been loyal to English rule in Ireland. However, the ascent of James VI of Scotland to both the English and Irish thrones as James I in 1603 and the eventual victory in the Nine Years War saw a series of coercive new laws put into force. In 1605 the 'Gunpowder Plot' was planned by a group of English Catholics, who were disappointed in their hopes that James would relieve laws against Catholics. This provided a further impetus and justification for restrictive laws on Catholics in Ireland, Scotland and England. In 1607 the Flight of the Earls seeking Catholic help in Europe for a further revolt set the scene for a wholesale Plantation of Ulster by the Lowland Scots and Northern English.
From 1607, Catholics were barred from holding public office or serving in the Irish Army. This meant that the Irish Privy Council and the Lords Justice who, along with the Lord Deputy of Ireland, constituted the government of the country, would in future be Anglicans. In 1613, the constituencies of the Irish House of Commons were altered to give plantation settlers a majority. In addition, Catholics in all three Kingdoms had to pay'recusant fines' for non-attendance at Anglican services. Catholic churches were transferred to the Anglican Church of Ireland. Catholic services, however, were generally tacitly tolerated as long as they were conducted in private. Catholic priests were also tolerated, but bishops were forced to operate clandestinely. In 1634 the issue of the "Graces" arose; generous taxation for Charles I (whose Queen Henrietta Maria was Catholic) was supported by Irish Catholic landlords on the understanding that the laws would be reformed, but once the tax was passed, Charles' viceroy refused two of the 51 Graces, and subsequent bills were blocked by the Catholic majority in the Irish House of Lords.
Catholic resentment was a factor in starting the Irish Rebellion of 1641 and the establishment of Confederate Ireland from 1642 with Papal support, that was eventually put down in the Cromwellian conquest of Ireland in 1649–53. After the Act of Settlement in 1652, Catholics were barred from membership in the Irish Parliament, and the major landholders had most of their lands confiscated under the Adventurers Act. They were also banned from living in towns for a short period. Catholic clergy were expelled from the country and were liable to instant execution when found. Many recusants had to worship in secret at gathering places (such as Mass rocks) in the countryside. In 1666 forty nine Catholics from hiding places in the woods in county Roscommon signed a letter in support of the Pope and protesting the loss of their 'due liberties'.[n 1] Seventeen Catholic martyrs from this period were beatified in 1992.
Much of this legislation was rescinded after the Restoration in Ireland by Charles II (1660–1685), under the Declaration of Breda in 1660, in terms of worship and property-owning, but also the first Test Act became law from 1673. Louis XIV of France increased Protestant paranoia in Europe when he expelled the Huguenots from France in 1685. Following the flight from England to Ireland by James II caused by the English Glorious Revolution in 1688, the decisions of the Catholic-majority Patriot Parliament of 1688–9 in Dublin included a complete repeal of the 1650s land settlements.[6] These were reversed after the largely Roman Catholic Jacobites that sided with King James then lost the Williamite war in Ireland in 1689–91. His opponents William III and Mary II were grandchildren of King Charles I, and so the war ultimately decided whether Catholic or Protestant Stuarts would reign.
The war ended with the Treaty of Limerick agreed by Sarsfield and Ginkel in October 1691. This provided in article 1 that:
The Roman Catholics of this kingdom shall enjoy such privileges in the exercise of their religion as are consistent with the laws of Ireland, or as they did enjoy in the reign of king Charles the second: and their majesties, as soon as their affairs will permit them to summon a parliament in this kingdom, will endeavour to procure the said Roman Catholics such farther security in that particular, as may preserve them from any disturbance upon the account of their said religion.[7]
The quid pro quo to attain these privileges involved swearing an oath of loyalty to William and Mary. Many Catholics found this oath repugnant when the Papacy started to support the Jacobites in 1693. A small number of Catholic landlords had sworn this loyalty oath in 1691–3 and their families remained protected. Previous Jacobite garrison surrenders, particularly the agreement at Galway earlier in 1691, specifically provided that the Catholic gentry of counties Galway and Mayo were protected from the property restrictions, though they would be excluded from direct involvement in politics.
Articles 2 and 9 required that:
2..... provided also, that no person whatsoever shall have or enjoy the benefit of this article, that shall neglect or refuse to take the oath of allegiance, made by act of parliament in England, in the first year of the reign of their present majesties, when thereunto required.
9. The oath to be administered to such Roman Catholics as submit to their majesties' government, shall be the oath abovesaid and no other.[7]
At the European level, this war was a part of the War of the Grand Alliance, in which the Holy See supported William III's alliance against France, and on the news of the Battle of the Boyne a Te Deum was sung in thanksgiving at the Vatican. But from 1693 the Papacy changed its policy and supported James against William, and William's policy also moved from a degree of toleration for Catholics to greater hostility. By then, King James was based in France at Saint Germain, and was supported politically and financially by Louis XIV, the long-standing enemy of William and Mary. Religion eventually became an issue in defining a notable family's loyalty to the crown.
Ascendancy rule 1691–1778 [ edit ]
With the defeat of Catholic attempts to regain power and lands in Ireland, a ruling class which became known later as the "Protestant Ascendancy" sought to ensure dominance with the passing of a number of laws to restrict the religious, political and economic activities of Catholics and Dissenters. Harsher laws were introduced for political reasons during the long War of the Spanish Succession that ended in 1714. The son of James II, the "Old Pretender", was recognised by the Holy See as the legitimate King of Great Britain and Ireland until his death in 1766, and Catholics were obliged to support him. He also approved the appointments of all the Irish Catholic hierarchy, who were drawn from his most fervent supporters. These aspects provided the political basis for the new laws passed for several decades after 1695. Interdicts faced by Catholics and Dissenters under the Penal Laws were:
Exclusion of Catholics from most public offices (since 1607), Presbyterians were also barred from public office from 1707.
Ban on intermarriage with Protestants; repealed 1778
Presbyterian marriages were not legally recognised by the state
Catholics barred from holding firearms or serving in the armed forces (rescinded by Militia Act of 1793)
Bar from membership in either the Parliament of Ireland or the Parliament of England from 1652; rescinded 1662–1691; renewed 1691–1829, applying to the successive parliaments of England (to 1707), Great Britain (1707 to 1800), and the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland (1800 to 1829).
Disenfranchising Act 1728, exclusion from voting until 1793;
Exclusion from the legal professions and the judiciary; repealed (respectively) 1793 and 1829.
Education Act 1695 – ban on foreign education; repealed 1782.
Bar to Catholics and Protestant Dissenters entering Trinity College Dublin; repealed 1793.
On a death by a Catholic, his legatee could benefit by conversion to the Church of Ireland;
Popery Act – Catholic inheritances of land were to be equally subdivided between all an owner's sons with the exception that if the eldest son and heir converted to Protestantism that he would become the one and only tenant of estate and portions for other children not to exceed one third of the estate. This "Gavelkind" system had previously been abolished by 1600.
Ban on converting from Protestantism to Roman Catholicism on pain of Praemunire: forfeiting all property estates and legacy to the monarch of the time and remaining in prison at the monarch's pleasure. In addition, forfeiting the monarch's protection. No injury however atrocious could have any action brought against it or any reparation for such.
Ban on Catholics buying land under a lease of more than 31 years; repealed 1778.
Ban on custody of orphans being granted to Catholics on pain of 500 pounds that was to be donated to the Blue Coat hospital in Dublin.
Ban on Catholics inheriting Protestant land
Prohibition on Catholics owning a horse valued at over £5 (to keep horses suitable for military activity out of the majority's hands)
Roman Catholic lay priests had to register to preach under the Registration Act 1704, but seminary priests and Bishops were not able to do so until 1778
When allowed, new Catholic churches were to be built from wood, not stone, and away from main roads.
'No person of the popish religion shall publicly or in private houses teach school, or instruct youth in learning within this realm' upon pain of twenty pounds fine and three months in prison for every such offence. Repealed in 1782. [8]
Any and all rewards not paid by the crown for alerting authorities of offences to be levied upon the Catholic populace within parish and county.
Historians disagree on how rigorously these laws were enforced. The consensus view is that enforcement depended on the attitudes of local magistrates bringing or hearing particular cases; some of whom were rigorous, others more liberal.
The Catholic Committees [ edit ]
From 1758, before the death of James III, ad-hoc groups of the remaining Catholic nobility and merchants worked towards repeal of the penal laws and an accommodation within the Hanoverian system. These were based locally on county lines. An earlier attempt in 1727 had met with strong opposition from the Jacobite movement, which resisted any negotiations with the Hanoverians, being usurpers.[9] By 1760 eminent Catholics such as Lord Trimlestown, Lord Kenmare and Charles O'Conor of Belanagare persuaded the more liberal Protestants that they presented no political threat, and that reforms must follow. Events abroad in the 1760s, such as the outcome of the Seven Years war, the death of the Old Pretender (1766), the emerging "Age of Enlightenment", and the Suppression of the Society of Jesus by Europe's Catholic monarchs, all seemed to confirm their position. The committees' work was supported in London by Edmund Burke, who had drafted a speech on reform given in 1762, and "in 1764 he had prepared a long draft paper on the penal laws" that was not published, but was influential and widely circulated at Westminster.[10]
Gradual reform and emancipation 1778–1869 [ edit ]
On the death of the "Old Pretender" in January 1766 the Holy See recognised the Hanoverian dynasty as legitimate, and so the main political basis for the laws was removed and the slow process of Catholic Emancipation began, with the repeal of some of the Penal Laws by the Catholic Relief Acts of 1771, 1778[11] and 1793.[12] However, the long drawn-out pace of reform ensured that the question of religious discrimination dominated Irish life and was a constant source of division. In a show of goodwill, John Carpenter, titular Archbishop of Dublin, technically still an illegal position, was invited to join the Royal Dublin Society in 1773.[13]
Visitors from abroad such as Arthur Young in the late 1770s also deplored the Penal laws as being contrary to the spirit of the Age of Enlightenment, and illogical as they were unenforced. In his Tour in Ireland (1780), that was sponsored by many landlords, Young mentioned the laws twice:
.. the cruel laws against the Roman Catholics of this country, remain the marks of illiberal barbarism. Why should not the industrious man have a spur to his industry, whatever be his religion..?[14]
Talking with Chief Baron Foster, Young commented:
In conversation on the Popery laws, I expressed my surprise at their severity; he said they were severe in the letter, but never executed... His Lordship did justice to the merits of the Roman Catholics, by observing that they were in general a very sober, honest and industrious people. This.. brought to my mind an admirable expression of Mr Burke's in the English House of Commons: Connivance is the relaxation of slavery, not the definition of Liberty.[15]
An Irish Act of 1774 allowed any subject of George III "of whatever persuasion to testify their allegiance to him".[16] The Quebec Act of 1774 was an encouragement outside Ireland, with the London parliament restoring religious rights in the main part of Canada, followed in Britain and Ireland by the Catholic Relief Act 1778. Carlow College was established in 1782.
From 1782 reformist Irish Protestant politicians like Henry Grattan, JP Curran, William Ponsonby and Frederick Hervey, 4th Earl of Bristol (a Protestant bishop), added their voices in support. In the English House of Commons Edmund Burke also helped, but was faced with anti-Catholic sentiment which exploded in the Gordon Riots of 1780. Another reform Act of 1782 sponsored by Luke Gardiner removed the remaining limits on Catholics buying land and some petty restrictions such as owning a horse worth less than £5.[17]
In 1792 William FitzGerald, 2nd Duke of Leinster, the eldest brother of Lord Edward Fitzgerald, founded the 'Association of the friends of liberty' whose program sought Catholic members in the Irish House of Commons. They could not persuade most Protestant MPs to effect a bigger change than the Relief Act of 1793, where Catholics were now allowed to buy freehold land, to become grand jurors and barristers, to study at Trinity College Dublin, and to vote if they held property with a rental value of at least £2 a year (the so-called "Forty-shilling freeholders"). A majority of Irish MPs were still reluctant to reform, and the Irish 1793 Act had to be encouraged by the British government that had already passed the Roman Catholic Relief Act 1791.[18]
Opposition to Catholic Relief ensured that when relief was granted it was often accompanied by what were seen to be unpleasant concessions to the system. Relief in 1793 was accompanied by a widely unpopular Militia Act which removed the ban on Catholics holding firearms to allow for their conscription into the militia, but not their admittance into the officer ranks. However, wealthier Catholics did not oppose this as it was further proof of their gradual inclusion into the establishment. An example was Daniel O'Connell who briefly joined the militia unit formed at the King's Inns in the late 1790s. Pitt also encouraged a short-lived Catholic Irish Brigade.
France declared war on Britain and Ireland in February 1793 and the war took priority over further reliefs. The French government opposed the Holy See from 1790. Irish Catholic priests were trained in France, Belgium, and Spain, so the Prime Minister Pitt funded the establishment of St. Patrick's seminary in Maynooth in 1795. The French republican policies of "Dechristianization" in 1790–1801 were often similar to Cromwell's anti-Catholic policies in Ireland in the 1650s. The Presbyterian Church was granted the Regium Donum. In 1795 the new viceroy the earl of Fitzwilliam proposed full political emancipation, as suggested by Grattan, and a prelude to proposals for Parliamentary union. He was removed within weeks by the conservatives in the Irish administration.
Many reformers despaired of peaceful change, particularly in the lack of Tithe reform, and this led on to instances of Catholic support for the abortive 1798 rebellion. During the rebellion the Irish Catholic bishops supported the government line. The subsequent passing of the Act of Union of 1801 was intended to include Catholic Emancipation, as power was moved from the hands of the Protestant Ascendancy to the London Parliament. This was agreed by most of the British Cabinet, including William Pitt, and they resigned when it was not effected. The personal opposition of George III ensured that no change would be forthcoming during his reign.
Emancipation [ edit ]
The political argument for emancipation to allow Catholic MPs to sit in parliament continued after the 1801 Act of Union, supported by liberal MPs such as Henry Grattan. Division arose over the "veto", the issue whether the government could, or could not, veto the appointment of a bishop where he was approved by the Pope. In May 1823, Daniel O'Connell launched the Catholic Association and campaigned for Catholic emancipation which was largely achieved in the Act of 1829, primarily benefitting the middle classes.[19] While this was seen as a late and overdue reform by Irish Catholics, Irish Dissenters had only just achieved the same status following the 1828 Test Act, Irish Jewish MPs were barred until 1858 and atheists until 1886.
The Act also allowed for Catholic judges and senior civil servants and state officials to be appointed. As with the election of MPs, those who benefitted were the better educated and richer Catholics. The same class took advantage of the reform of town and city corporations in the Act of 1840 and took part in local government. But for the majority of Irish Catholics living in the countryside, the cost of the tithing system had always been the main cause of complaint.
Tithe reform [ edit ]
The obligation by Catholics and other religious groups to pay tithes to the Protestant Church remained until its disestablishment by the Irish Church Act 1869 and Catholic Emancipation was quickly followed by a period of violent resistance known as the Tithe War. From 1840 tithes were no longer payable by tenants but by their landlords, who were allowed to increase rents to make up the difference. The Catholic Church became resurgent from the 1840s, uniting with the Protestant churches to oppose the integration of students of differing religion in the new primary or 'National' schools, and in the 1850s a debate arose over whether some proposed universities should be mixed or just for Catholics.
Government of Ireland Act 1920 [ edit ]
Section 5(2) of the Government of Ireland Act 1920 stated:
Any existing enactment by which any penalty, disadvantage, or disability is imposed on account of religious belief or on a member of any religious order as such shall... cease to have effect in Ireland.
This did not affect the Act of Settlement 1701, which prohibited Catholics and those married to Catholics from succeeding to the throne; these were later repealed by the Succession to the Crown Act 2013 (between 1920 and 2013 there was no Catholic heir to the throne).
As a result of Sections 5(2) and 37(1) of the 1920 act, Roman Catholics once again became eligible to occupy the office of Lord Lieutenant of Ireland, the British monarch's representative in Ireland. Within months of this legislation passing, Viscount FitzAlan of Derwent became in April 1921 the first Roman Catholic Lord Lieutenant of Ireland since the penal laws forbade such appointments in 1685. Because of the establishment of the Irish Free State in 1922 and the altered constitutional relationship between Ireland and the United Kingdom, FitzAlan was also the last Lord Lieutenant of Ireland.
Mentioned into the 20th century [ edit ]
The memory of the Penal laws remained as a strongly resonant cultural element in Irish Catholicism long after their reform, and they were seen as a social and legal nadir from which the bulk of the Irish population had eventually escaped.
In May 1920, Seán T. O'Kelly sent a memorandum to Pope Benedict XV which included:
The position of Irish Catholics is a cruel one. We are enslaved by a Protestant power. The penal laws against our religion are not yet abolished in full. The injurious social and economic results of these anti-Catholic laws will not be overcome for generations. To the present day we suffer political injury inside and outside of Ireland, simply and solely because we are practising Catholics. Sons of martyrs, we are known in every Masonic lodge and every anti-Catholic country as 'Papists', and par-excellence, the most devoted of all the children of the Holy See.[20]
In 1971, responding to news of an importation of contraceptive devices from Northern Ireland that could not be sold in the Republic, Thomas Ryan, Bishop of Clonfert, said that "never before, and certainly not since penal times was the Catholic heritage of Ireland subjected to so many insidious onslaughts on the pretext of conscience, civil rights and women's liberation."[21]
References [ edit ]
Notes [ edit ]
^ gaol. Another example from 1713 is the elderly Father Connor Reynolds "of Jamestown" in the county of Leitrim exiled in Spain since 1681, found hiding in a trunk on a fishing boat arriving at Dungarvan port and imprisoned at Waterford
Primary sources [ edit ]Stocks:
Leading microinverter manufacturer Enphase Energy said it would aggressively lower pricing to retain market share as competition intensifies across its key markets such as the US and revenue growth stalls.
Enphase reported third quarter 2015 revenue of US$102.9 million, an increase of 4% compared to the prior year period and only an increase of 1%, compared to the previous quarter.
The company has dominated the US solar microinverter market, due to its first-mover advantage, but the US downstream market is currently booming although this is not reflected in its stalling sales growth.
GTM Research has forecast that the US residential market is expected to grow by around 50% growth in 2015, while the overall US end market demand is expected to hit a record 7.7GW in 2015, up 24% from 2014.
With sales stalling due to increased competition and the loss of its largest US-based customer, Vivint Solar to rival Solaredge, Enphase guided fourth quarter sales of US$62 million to US$70 million, despite financial analysts' average expectations of sales in the US$122 million range for the quarter, given the growth in the US market.
To combat competition and inventory build, Enphase said that it was lowering microinverter prices significantly, hitting gross margins.
In its third quarter earnings call, Paul Nahi, president and CEO of Enphase said: “The second half of 2015 is turning out to be more challenging than expected. Pricing pressure on US business continues to increase. Forex is putting pressure on our international business margin and pricing and a share loss of our largest customer continues to affect our year-over-year growth. To accelerate the expansion of our business, we've adopted a more aggressive pricing strategy. Until recently, we've been able to outpace price reduction with cost reduction. With our new strategy, it will be more difficult to keep pace with cost reductions. As a result, we expect our gross margin to drop to the mid-20s.”
The company actually guided gross margins would be in the range of 23% to 26%, down from 30.9% in the third quarter of 2015.
Nahi also noted that ASPs have declined 18% to 20% in the last 12-months and could exceeded that rates of decline in 2016.
The pricing and margin squeeze would result in the company drawing down US$17 million on an existing bank credit facility as it did not expect to generate positive cash flow from operations in the fourth quarter of 2015 and incurred a US$6.0 million cash burn from operations during the third quarter.
Enphase shipped a total of 219MW (AC) of microinverters in third quarter of 2015, up 28% on a year-over-year and 12% sequentially, equivalent to approximately 950,000 units.As part of their massive refresh of about 60 of their classic comic book titles, Marvel is reworking classic hip-hop album covers with some of their most well known heroes. The FADER is premiering four of these new covers today, which include Spider-Man's colliding with Lil Wayne's Tha Carter IV and Guardians Of The Galaxy's Drax as Kid Cudi from Man on the Moon II.
Axel Alonso, the Editor in Chief of Marvel Comics, explains that the fusion of hip-hop and Marvel comics makes sense because both are "really big, powerful threads of pop culture" and that they both are rooted in the art of sampling and remixing. Over his career he's seen rappers like members of the Wu-Tang Clan and Killer Mike give shoutouts to their favorite superheroes, while watching artists create their work while listening to beats.
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"As Editor in Chief, I take the long view on this campaign," he told The FADER. "We have amazing stuff coming out this year until at least February. And this campaign reflects a lot of the diversity of our lineup—characters, creators, and writers. This is the head of spear. My hope is that this is being embraced by hip hop."
All four artists whose work we are premiering today are non-white and three of them have never worked for Marvel before. Alonso said that opening up Marvel to new artists has been one of the greatest parts of this new collection of variant covers.
Check out the images below:Kids' Grades Can Suffer When Mom Or Dad Is Depressed
Enlarge this image Mary McLain for NPR Mary McLain for NPR
When parents suffer depression, there can be a ripple effect on children. Kids may become anxious, even sad. There may be behavior problems. Health may suffer.
Recently, a large Swedish study showed that grades may decline, too, when a parent is depressed.
Using data from 1984 to 1994, researchers from Philadelphia's Dornsife School of Public Health, at Drexel University, measured school grades for more than 1.1 million children in Sweden and compared them with their parents' mental health status. The study was published in a February issue of JAMA Psychiatry.
At age 16, children of mothers who had experienced depression scored about 4.5 percentage points lower in their school grades than children of nondepressed mothers. Similarly, 16-year-olds with fathers who had experienced depression scored about 4 percentage points lower.
Even though 4 or 4.5 points may not sound like much, it "can mean a lot for a student," says Drexel epidemiologist Felice Le-Scherban. It may be the difference between an A grade or a B — or between a D and a C — and small grade differences can add up, sometimes shaping a decision about whether to stay in school or quit.
The quantity and quality of education can make a difference well beyond school years, says Le-Scherban. It's one of the "strongest predictors of health and life expectancy that we have," she says.
Studies show that better-educated individuals are less likely to smoke cigarettes, drink alcohol or be obese than those who don't finish high school or college. They tend to have a lower risk of heart disease and diabetes.
There are a number of reasons why depressed parents can have a difficult time nurturing their children, says epidemiologist Myrna Weissman, of Columbia University Medical Center in New York.
"Just think about the symptoms of depression — the feelings of hopelessness, helplessness, loss of energy, interest in things that usually give you pleasure," she says. "And think about having those symptoms and trying to take care of children."
The needs and demands of children can be overwhelming even for mentally healthy parents, much less those struggling to cope with depression.
"A parent who's depressed may not arrange an appointment with a teacher; may not have time to go; may not listen to the child; and may not find some solution to problems so that it lingers," says Weissman.
But, there is a silver lining: Depression is extremely treatable. Weissman has done numerous studies, including one that focused on depressed mothers. "We showed that at the end of three months, if mom got better, the children got better," she says.
The women who recovered from depression got interested in their children once again and were more loving and able to show it. Weissman says she heard from children themselves that their mom "just loves me more and listens to me."
She and others have found that psychotherapy or medication alone or a combination of the two can be effective treatments, she says.
Unfortunately, clinical depression is common, and a large number of adults can be expected to suffer a serious episode at some point in their lives. But even if you've inherited a propensity to depression, Weissman says, you can get diagnosed and treated as soon as possible, to good effect.Jennifer Cody Epstein says it was a mistake to question freedom of speech honour, and that magazine’s articles ‘sprang from satire, not hate’
The American novelist Jennifer Cody Epstein has said that she “fundamentally misunderstood Charlie Hebdo’s mission and content” when she put her name to a letter condemning PEN’s decision to honour the magazine with an award.
Epstein was one of more than 200 writers who signed a letter disassociating themselves from PEN American Center’s choice of the French satirical magazine, where 12 people were killed by gunmen in January, as winner of its “Freedom of Expression Courage award” last month. The writers, who also included Peter Carey and Michael Ondaatje, argued in their letter that the choice of winner was “not simply conveying support for freedom of expression, but also valorising … material that intensifies the anti-Islamic, anti-Maghreb, anti-Arab sentiments already prevalent in the western world”.
But in a move praised by The Satanic Verses novelist Salman Rushdie, who has thrown his weight behind PEN and Charlie Hebdo since the start of the controversy, Epstein has asked for her name to be removed from the petition.
“The 1st protester to admit she was completely wrong,” tweeted Rushdie on Sunday. “Respect to Jennifer Cody Epstein for doing the honourable thing & admitting she made a mistake about #CharlieHebdo. Will others follow her?”
Salman Rushdie (@SalmanRushdie) The 1st protester to admit she was completely wrong: Jennifer Cody Epstein's letter to the anti-Charlie Hebdo faction http://t.co/jvI4UQoGD2
In a letter to her fellow signatories published in full by the writer Ophelia Benson on Free Thought Blogs, Epstein wrote that she was “misinformed and (quite frankly) wrong” when she made her decision to add her name to the list.
She now believes that Charlie Hebdo’s “controversial images – while arguably tasteless, offensive and not even particularly well-drawn – sprang from satire, not hate”.
“It is a profound and crucial difference: if one is to argue for freedom of speech there can be no caveats, no asterisks, no fine print qualifying that ‘freedom’ only applies to expression we don’t consider too upsetting, or doesn’t enrage right-wing fundamentalists with guns,” her letter reads.
She adds that she was “also under the misassumption that Hebdo disproportionately lampooned Islam”, and points to an article by Michael Moynihan in the Daily Beast, in which he highlights the fact that Charlie Hebdo has had more anti-Christian covers – 21 – than anti-Islam – seven – in the last 10 years.
“As a writer whose work is largely predicated on diligent and careful research, I am reluctant to admit that in this case, I didn’t do enough of it before sending my name out into the Cloud,” writes Epstein. “Unfortunately, though, that is the conclusion to which I’ve been forced to come, and I thought it best to acknowledge it publicly and head-on rather than disingenuously pretending otherwise.”
Last month, Charlie Hebdo’s editor-in-chief Gerard Biard accepted the PEN award to a standing ovation at a gala in New York. “Tonight’s award reflects [Charlie Hebdo’s] refusal to accept the curtailment of speech through violence,” said PEN president Andrew Solomon at the event. “We defend free speech above its content. Muteness is more toxic than speech. Silence equals death.”NOTE: if you are unable to see the Mathematica models below, you can download the free Wolfram CDF player and you may also need this plug-in.
You can also download the complete Mathematica CDF file here.
In this post I want to explore aspects of scalping, a type of strategy widely utilized by high frequency trading firms.
I will define a scalping strategy as one in which we seek to take small profits by posting limit orders on alternate side of the book. Scalping, as I define it, is a strategy rather like market making, except that we “lean” on one side of the book. So, at any given time, we may have a long bias and so look to enter with a limit buy order. If this is filled, we will then look to exit with a subsequent limit sell order, taking a profit of a few ticks. Conversely, we may enter with a limit sell order and look to exit with a limit buy order.
The strategy relies on two critical factors:
(i) the alpha signal which tells us from moment to moment whether we should prefer to be long or short
(ii) the execution strategy, or “trade expression”
In this article I want to focus on the latter, making the assumption that we have some kind of alpha generation model already in place (more about this in later posts).
There are several means that a trader can use to enter a position. The simplest approach, the one we will be considering here, is simply to place a single limit order at or just outside the inside bid/ask prices – so in other words we will be looking to buy on the bid and sell on the ask (and hoping to earn the bid-ask spread, at least).
One of the problems with this approach is that it is highly latency sensitive. Limit orders join the limit order book at the back of the queue and slowly works their way towards the front, as earlier orders get filled. Buy the time the market gets around to your limit buy order, there may be no more sellers at that price. In that case the market trades away, a higher bid comes in and supersedes your order, and you don’t get filled. Conversely, yours may be one of the last orders to get filled, after which the market trades down to a lower bid and your position is immediately under water.
This simplistic model explains why latency is such a concern – you want to get as near to the front of the queue as you can, as quickly as possible. You do this by minimizing the time it takes to issue and order and get it into the limit order book. That entails both hardware (co-located servers, fiber-optic connections) and software optimization and typically also involves the use of Immediate or Cancel (IOC) orders. The use of IOC orders by HFT firms to gain order priority is highly controversial and is seen as gaming the system by traditional investors, who may end up paying higher prices as a result.
Another approach is to layer limit orders at price points up and down the order book, establishing priority long before the market trades there. Order layering is a highly complex execution strategy that brings addition complications.
Let’s confine ourselves to considering the single limit order, the type of order available to any trader using a standard retail platform.
As I have explained, we are assuming here that, at any point in time, you know whether you prefer to be long or short, and therefore whether you want to place a bid or an offer. The issue is, at what price do you place your order, and what do you do about limiting your risk? In other words, we are discussing profit targets and stop losses, which, of course, are all about risk and return.
Risk and Return in Scalping
Lets start by considering risk. The biggest risk to a scalper is that, once filled, the market goes against his position until |
Society, under the title of Prymer, or Lay Folks' Prayer Book.6 The Prymer contained those forms of prayer which, having been accretions added to the Divine Office for those obliged to the recitation of it, passed into popular devotions of the laity in substitution for the longer canonical hours which they had ceased to attend. The normal contents of the medieval Prymer were: the Hours of the Blessed Virgin Mary, the seven penitential psalms, the fifteen gradual psalms, the litany of the Saints, the office for the dead, and the "commendations," which mean Psalm 118, divided into twenty-two sections, and Psalm 138, concluding with a prayer for the faithful departed.
While there are minor variations in the English primer between the more prevalent usage of Sarum and those of York, Durham, and Hereford, the structure of the hours of our Lady was substantially identical in all the extant texts of her office. Matins has the opening verses, the Venite exultemus, the hymn Quem terra, the three psalms at present found appointed to be said on Sundays, Mondays, and Thursdays (Nos. 8, 18, and 23), each with its "Glorie be to the fadir," three lessons, shorter than and different from the present ones, each with a brief responsory following it, and the Te Deum at the end. The office of Lauds is like today's with the same psalms and the Benedicite canticle, but Psalm 66 is added to Psalm 62 and Psalms 149 and 150 are appended to 148, making eight in all, including the canticle, instead of the five as we have them. There follow the little chapter, the hymn O gloriosa, the Benedictus, its antiphon and a V. and R., the prayer Concede, and then, in place of our suffrage of the saints, a series of three prayers, each with an antiphon and a V. and R. At the end of Lauds and of each of the succeeding hours, there is a proper antiphon of the Passion, to which reference will be made later. Prime, Tierce, Sext, and None show an identical structure with the opening verses, the hymn, three psalms, an antiphon, the little chapter, a V. and R., the prayer, in each instance the familiar Concede nos, and the concluding commemoration of the Passion, the antiphon varying for each hour. Instead of our repeated hymn Memento rerum Conditor, the medieval day hours had the Veni Creator, "Come holi goost." Vespers of the medieval little office had five psalms, but they were, with the exception of the Laetatus sum, different from the present ones, being in succession psalms 121, 122, 123, 124, and 125. The antiphon, the little chapter, and the hymn followed. The last named was, as now, the Ave maris stella. This had its V. and R., which introduced the Magnificat and its concluding antiphon, which was Sancta Maria succurre miseris. The oration Concede followed and the hour concluded with another antiphon of the Passion with its V. and R. and oration. Compline began as does ours, but had four psalms (Nos. 12, 42, 128, and 130) instead of the three which are now said. Then came the concluding antiphon, the little chapter, and the hymn. A hymn Virgo singularis was found in place of our Memento rerum Conditor, which we repeat from the day hours. The V. and R. following the hymn are succeeded by the Nunc dimittis, an antiphon, another V. and R. and the prayer, Gratiam tuam, which with us is said as the oration after the Alma Redemptoris Mater of Advent. Compline concluded with the usual commemoration of the Passion, similar to that found at the end of the other hours. Only two, instead of our four, anthems of the Blessed Virgin, appear after Compline of the medieval Prymer. These are the Salve Regina and the Ave Regina coelorum. The De profundis, omitted from the series of psalms at Compline, comes at the conclusion of the office with a number of versicles and responses and a final prayer for the faithful departed.
In explanation of the commemoration of the Passion at the end of each hour of the medieval form of the little office, let us state that it consisted of an antiphon, which varied in each instance, followed by identical verses and responses and an unvarying oration. The changing antiphon of the Passion was accommodated to suit the traditional hour of different phases of our Lord's sufferings and death. His taking by the soldiers formed the subject of the antiphon at Lauds. Prime commemorated His appearance before Pilate, Tierce the crowning with thorns and the carrying of the cross, Sext His nailing to the cross and the offering of "galle," and None recalled His death and the piercing with the "spere." The Vesper antiphon remembered the taking down from the cross and that of Compline the entombment in the sepulchre. This commemoration of the Passion was most probably the surviving remnant of "the hours of the Passion," another medieval accretion of the Divine Office.
According to Fr. Herbert Thurston, S.J.,7 the origin of the word "Primer," applied to a prayer book for the laity in the later middle ages, is connected with the primer for children. We still speak, or we used to do so until recent years, of a primer, meaning a first reading book for children. In medieval times instruction in reading was given to children with the more or less definite idea that the child would become a cleric, hence along with the alphabet, he learned the Pater and Ave and gradually, as he advanced in his studies, the psalms which a cleric should know by heart. A sixteenth century Primarium pro pueris contained the Little Office of our Lady and other prayers. Fr. Thurston has no doubt that the prymer, spoken of in Chaucer's "Prioress's Tale," from which "this litel child" learned "as he sat in the scole" was a religious manual similar to that which we have just described. Attention is also called to the definition of the word "primer" as late as Dr. Johnson's Dictionary (1773) where it is identified with "a small prayer book in which children are taught to read." Medieval primers, with the office of our Lady and that for the dead, usually known as Horae in Latin editions, were common not only in the days of manuscript but there were many printed copies after the invention of movable type. Some of these books were elaborately illuminated with pictures, which often seem very quaint today, especially the more macabre ones found along with the hours of the office for the dead.
A comparison between the text of our little office and that found in extant copies of medieval books of hours shows an identity, save in unimportant details, such as appear in some of the hymns and orations and, less frequently, in the selection of psalms. The most striking difference is the complement to each hour in the form of a commemoration of the Passion varied through the day to correspond to the stages of the sad events of the last hours of our Lord's life on earth. The Regina coeli and the Alma Redemptoris Mater are lacking in the anthems terminating the little office at the end of Compline, though both date from periods antecedent to the general use of the Prymer. Perhaps the basis of the explanation of this omission is that it was not till the sixteenth century that the four anthems of our Lady at the end of the canonical hours became a universal substitute for the office of the Blessed Virgin when this began to be no longer daily appended to the choral service of the Breviary.
The Little Office of our Lady, as it was originally and as we have it today, is constructed on the general pattern of the Divine Office. Lauds and Vespers are, apart from several variations in detail, duplicates of these same hours in the common office of the Blessed Virgin of the Breviary. Matins is divided into three nocturns, each consisting of three psalms and three lessons, but only one nocturn is recited each day. Prime resembles that of the long office but lacks the chapter section which is the second part of that hour in the Breviary. The other day hours are of the familiar structure of a hymn, three psalms, a little chapter, a short responsory, and an oration. Compline has none of the features, which distinguish that hour as a form of night prayer in the Divine Office, consisting merely of three psalms, a hymn, a little chapter, the Nunc dimittis, and an oration. The office concludes with one of the four anthems of the Blessed Virgin, the same as are said at the end of the long office.
The little office shows slight variation in its recitation throughout the year. There are, however, some changes, chiefly in the antiphons, outside of Matins, and in the three lessons of the single nocturn, which justify the distinction into three offices proper to as many seasons of the year. These three are: the first, from the Purification to Advent; the second, for the time of Advent; the third from the first Vespers of Christmas until the Purification, inclusive. It is strange that the little office has no special form, with multiplied Alleluias, for the season of Easter. The Te Deum terminates Matins throughout the year, except during Advent and Lent, when its place is taken by a third responsory after the final lesson. A commemoration of the saints, with a variant for the season of Advent, structurally resembling the suffragium of the canonical hours, is appended to the oration at Lauds and Vespers. We find nothing in the nature of the Preces of the Divine Office. The absolution and the blessings before the lessons of Matins are the ones which are familiar to all clergy in major orders as they are identical with those recited in the Officium S. Mariae in Sabbato of the long office.
The text of the Little Office shows an a propos which is the resultant of the pious tradition of centuries. The psalms are some Messianic and some in praise of the Jerusalem of which Mary is the glory while others apply to Mary the glories of Sion, the Lord's dwelling-place, or give thanks to God for the benefits conferred on mankind in the person of Mary. Psalm 23, Domini est terra, has its fulfillment in her who became the sanctuary of God. Psalm 44, Eructavit cor meum, a marriage hymn celebrating the union of the Messias and His Church, is well applied to Mary, the spouse of the Holy Spirit. Psalm 86, Fundamenta ejus, singing of Sion, the mother of all nations, well becomes her who was given, through St. John, to be the mother of us all. Psalm 121, Laetatus sum, which invites us to rejoice in the Holy City which is the home of the Lord, is appropriately sung of Mary, who became the actual dwelling-place of the Son of God. And similar examples may be found in the other psalms selected for the office in honor of our Lady.
Passing outside the psalter, the lessons of Matins are from Ecclesiasticus, whose words are most appropriately said of Mary, who in the eternal designs of God was chosen to be the mother of the Word-made-flesh. So she was cultivated as the cedar and the cypress, as the palm-tree and the olive-tree, as the balsam and the myrrh. During Advent, we read as lessons, from the first chapter of St. Luke, the story of the archangel who came with his momentous message to the humble virgin of Nazareth. The little chapters, Scriptural throughout the office, picture Mary as the subject of praise of the daughters of Sion and the queens, or repeat the prophecy of Isaias concerning the flower of Jesse upon whom the Spirit of God would rest. They bid us admire her who comes like the dawn, fair as the moon, bright as the sun, who is "the mother of fair love and of fear and of knowledge and of holy hope."
The antiphons, which introduce and follow the psalms, reiterate the praise of Mary, some repeating verses of the psalms themselves, some echoing texts of the Gospel, and others resounding age-old expressions of the glories of our Lady. Of this third class we have the Gaude Maria Virgo cunctas haereses sola intermisti in universo mundo and the dignare me laudare te, etc., together with the very familiar Sub tuum praesidium. What is said of the antiphons may be predicated of the versicles and responses, of which some are Scriptural, like the oft-said Diffusa est gratia in labiis tuis (Psalm 44), and several, traditional, like the Post partum, Virgo, inviolate permansisti. The hymns of the Little Office are largely the same examples of Marian poetry which brighten the hours of the Divine Office on feasts of our Lady. We have Quem terra, pontus, sidera, ascribed to Fortunatus, which appears in Matins. Lauds gives us O gloriosa Virginum, the second part of the same hymn. Memento rerum Conditor, the hymn repeated in the four day hours and found again in Compline, is not sung in the Divine Office but is peculiar to this short one. The hymn of Vespers, common to this hour both in the Breviary office and in the little office, is the famous Ave maris stella, of medieval composition but not to be credited to St. Bernard nor to Venantius Fortunatus.8
The orations, recited near the conclusion of each hour, are all favorite liturgical prayers, found elsewhere, in honor of the Blessed Virgin Mary. Deus qui de beatae is familiar as a commemoration de tempore in the Missal and as the oration of the Officium S. Mariae in Sabbato during the period before Feb. 2. Deus qui salutis aeternae is equally familiar as a seasonal commemoratio communis at Mass as well as being the oration after the Alma Redemptoris Mater, from Christmas to the Purification. Concede nos famulos tuos, of Vespers of the Little Office, is the oration for feasts of our Lady in the greater office, when the prayer is from the Common. Three other orations, recited in the little office, belong in the category of well-known prayers: Deus qui virginalem aulam, Concede misericors Deus, and Famulorum tuorum. The very brief Beatae et gloriosae, assigned to Compline during the greater part of the year, is proper to the little office.
Of the four concluding anthems of the Blessed Virgin, which this office has in common with the long office, little need be said here. The Ave Regina and the Alma Redemptoris are of unknown origin but both were popular during the later middle ages. The last named is referred to by Chaucer in his "Prioress's Tale," in the passage quoted before in this article where the "litel childe" is sitting in the "scole with his prymer." The Regina coeli may date from the tenth century but the legend ascribing it to St. Gregory the Great, who heard the opening lines from angels, must be considered apocryphal. The Salve Regina, however, is definitely assigned to Hermann Contract (1054), a monk of Reichenau.9 We have already noted that in the medieval Prymer, the little office knows only two of these terminal anthems, the Salve Regina and the Alma Redemptoris.
Lacking the variety of the canonical hours of the Breviary, this short office of our Lady is adapted for the use of the laity by its more simple structure and the absence of the many complexities which arise in the Divine Office because of the constant conflict between the calendar of fixed feasts and that of the movable ones. The objection of repetitiousness may validly be urged against its daily recitation but this same objection has still greater force against the Litany of Loreto and, even more cogently, the rosary; yet both these devotions maintain their hold on the piety of Catholics. Midway between the difficultly-ordered hours of the Breviary and the easily-learned prayers and mysteries of the rosary stands this centuries-old office of our Lady, for clerics and lay-folk alike, a treasured expression of the praises of Mary, in fulfillment of the oft-repeated versicle and response: Dignare me laudare to Virgo sacrata...
End Notes
Cf. Wm. Bonniwell O.P., A History of the Dominican Liturgy, p. 349. Cf. Batiffol, History of the Roman Breviary, p. 147. Cf. ibid., p. 147 n. Cf. ibid., p. 170 n. Cf. Raccolta, n. 289. Early English Text Society, Nos. 105, 109 (London, 1895 and 1897). Cf. art. "Primer," Catholic Encyclopaedia, XI. Cf. art. "Ave Maris Stella," Catholic Encyclopaedia, II. Cf. Batiffol, op. cit., p. 172, n.
© The Catholic University of America Press
This item 9072 digitally provided courtesy of CatholicCulture.orgby BRIAN NADIG
The city Department of Business Affairs and Consumer Protection recently issued cease and desist orders against social club operators in Jefferson Park and Belmont Heights.
A social club opened last summer at 4801 N. Milwaukee Ave., the former site of a Moroccan restaurant. In August, a sign was posted stating that the Sahara restaurant would be opening there, but it never did, and the club reportedly continued to operate.
Renovations were made inside the building, and card-playing tables and ashtrays could be seen inside the club. Officers issued citations to the club last year, according to 16th (Jefferson Park) District police, but details of the citations were not available.
Last month officers broke up a party at the club in response to a complaint, police said. No arrests were reported, but officers issued citations for not having tavern and public place of amusement licenses, and a subsequent cease and desist order was issued, said department spokeswoman Mika Stambaugh.
Citations also were issued in response to reports of rats behind the club, said Alderman John Arena’s chief of staff Owen Brugh. A pile of frozen trash, including food and liquor bottles, was found behind the building, he said.
The site’s B1-2 zoning does not allow for private clubs.
The Lawrence-Milwaukee business district has been plagued with unlicensed clubs in the past 5 years, and in one instance a suspected drug dealer was shot shortly after he left the club which he had been operating at the intersection, according to police.
Meanwhile, a cease and desist order recently was issued for the Hideout Social Club at 3205-07 N. Opal Ave., said alderman Timothy Cullerton (38th). Cullerton is downzoning the property from B1-1, which permits retail uses, to RT4, which is intended for multi-family residential use and which is the zoning for neighboring properties on the block.
Cullerton said that he hopes the rezoning would “flush out” the property’s owner so that he can meet with him. Officers recently issued citations, including operating without a liquor license, after officers saw 25 people leave the club and board a bus, Cullerton said.
Residents have complained about “people, some with children in tow, going in and out of the club all hours of the day and night,” Cullerton said. There also were reports of individuals who were seen trying to break into parked cars near the club, he said.Story highlights Many leading Republicans have rescinded their support for their party's nominee
"He's in the race to win and he's going to win," Giuliani said outside Trump Tower
Washington (CNN) — Former New York City mayor and top Donald Trump adviser Rudy Giuliani on Saturday criticized Republicans who backed away from Donald Trump.
The GOP nominee's support in his own party began to evaporate in the wake of lewd, sexually aggressive comments he made in 2005 that surfaced Friday.
"They largely didn't support him in the first place, so it is not so much of a surprise," Giuliani said outside Trump Tower in Manhattan. "You look at it, they were all Republicans who all opposed him and didn't support him in the past and this is basically the insiders against the outsiders anyway."
Giuliani has played a large role in helping prepare Trump for Sunday's debate in St. Louis and was at Trump Tower advising him.
Since the 2005 audio surfaced, many leading Republicans have rescinded their support for their party's nominee, with some calling for him to leave the race entirely.
Read MoreAurora police Officer Paul Jerothe, who was honored for his heroics during the theater shooting three years ago, will face a grand jury after he shot and killed an unarmed man in March. Jefferson County District Attorney Peter Weir announced Tuesday that he will take the rare step of presenting an officer shooting case to a grand jury.
On March 6, Jerothe shot 37-year-old Naeschylus Carter Vinzant, a career criminal who had absconded from his state parole on March 2. A grand jury could decide to file murder charges, exonerate Jerothe or decide on other charges in between.
Weir said the investigation, which has taken more than three months, has been extensive with “many, many witnesses,” and those interviews had generated facts and physical evidence. He said a grand jury, comprising Arapahoe County residents, would be thorough, impartial and independent.
“It’s important to me we do whatever we can to enhance confidence in the justice system,” Weir said.
Aurora Police Chief Nick Metz said he had expected a grand jury would be convened and that it, “in a lot of ways, is probably a good” decision.
“It allows the people of Aurora and Arapahoe County to weigh in on the decision,” said Metz, who was in his first week on the job when the fatal shooting happened.
The Aurora Police Department and attorneys representing Vinzant’s family released a joint statement, saying they supported Weir’s decision to take the case to a grand jury.
“We trust that the grand jury investigation will be a truth-seeking exercise that will reveal all information surrounding Mr. Carter’s death,” the statement said, referring to the victim by the name his family uses.
They acknowledged that a joint statement “may be unusual,” but said it “is an unprecedented situation.”
The statement also asked the community to be patient and respect the process. Both want peace in the community, the statement said.
The grand jury is expected to start in early July, and there is no timeline for how long it will take jurors to consider the case and decide if criminal charges are warranted.
“I don’t think it comes as a surprise to anyone that the grand jury is going to be empaneled,” said Jerothe’s attorney, Marc Colin. “I think it was anticipated given the circumstances.”
Jerothe, who first was placed on administrative leave, remains on desk duty pending the investigation.
A medic on the SWAT team, Jerothe was named in 2013 tactical EMS officer of the year by the National Tactical Officers Association for his handling of casualties during the July 2012 theater shooting.
Bob LeGare, chairman of the Aurora Public Safety Committee, called the decision “an appropriate thing to do” if the district attorney was unsure of what the decision should be.
“If the Jeffco DA had concluded this was a slam dunk the officer should not be charged, the DA would have said that,” said LeGare, who has no knowledge of what Weir may or may not have found in his investigation. “There must be something there to make the DA hesitant to exonerate the officer.”
The shooting stirred protests in Aurora, not only because it was a case of a white officer killing an unarmed black man but also because of the way the investigation was handled. Police shootings have generated protests across the country during the past year.
Jerothe was allowed to “decompress” for nearly a week after the March shooting before sitting with investigators for an interview. The department also pledged transparency in the case but little information has been released.
Vinzant’s family, along with angry residents, rallied outside the Aurora Municipal Center after the shooting. State Rep. Rhonda Fields, D-Aurora, also publicly questioned the department’s handling of the case.
It is not known what happened when Jerothe encountered Vinzant, who on March 2 had removed a state Department of Corrections ankle monitor. About 30 police officers responded to the scene on East 12th Avenue.
Arapahoe County District Attorney George Brauchler, who normally investigates Aurora police shootings, handed the case to the Jefferson County district attorney because of a conflict of interest.
Brauchler currently is prosecuting James Holmes in the Aurora theater shooting trial.
The grand jury will be convened in Arapahoe County because that is where the shooting happened. All proceedings will be confidential.
Weir and his staff will present physical evidence to the grand jury and call witnesses to testify. The grand jurors will be instructed on their options for criminal charges.
Colorado police officers rarely are charged for on-duty shootings.
Michelle Yi, a spokeswoman for the 18th Judicial District Attorney, said no one in the office could remember an Arapahoe County law enforcement officer being taken before a grand jury.
Last year, former Rocky Ford police officer James Ashby became the first Colorado cop in more than 20 years to be charged with murder in connection with an on-duty shooting death.
Ashby was charged with second-degree murder by the Colorado Bureau of Investigation after he killed Jack Jacquez Jr. in October.
Metz said he hoped the community would be patient and let the process play out.
“We understand there is frustration,” he said. “People don’t have all the information they want right now, but it will come out in time. I have assured many community leaders.”
Noelle Phillips: 303-954-1661, nphillips@denverpost.com or twitter.com/Noelle_PhillipsAlready bigger than many sovereign currencies, Bitcoin has broken the $1 billion in value mark this week. In the wake of continuing economic crises and liquidity shortages, this new virtual currency is poised to challenge the euro and US dollar.
By not being tied to any particular financial institution and independent from world governments, Bitcoin will become a safe haven for anyone trying to save their money from the crippled international banking system, claimed Max Keiser, the host of RT's Keiser Report.
“It is inevitable that Bitcoin will become a multi-trillion dollar enterprise because every other currency in the world is tied to dying central banks that are encumbered with impossible-to-pay debts and bankrupt counter-party risks,” Keiser said.
Crypto-currency
Bitcoin emerged in 2009 amid the global financial meltdown. The digital currency was created by someone who identified himself as Satoshi Nakamoto. It is based on open-source software, and uses peer-to-peer connections for monetary transactions to avoid centralized authorities.
Bitcoin aims to provide safe and secure exchange by verifying transactions with encryption that is used in military and government applications. And unlike bank services, the Bitcoin network is free, except for a voluntary to speed up transaction processing.
Bitcoins can be bought for other currencies, virtual or real, and are accepted as payment for goods or services. They can also be won through gambling, received as gifts or donations, or simply'mining' – the process by which new bitcoins are introduced into the system. Bitcoins (BTC) are bought and sold for other currencies at online exchanges. The Japan-based Mt. Gox is the largest of its kind, where BTC have recently traded at an average exchange rate of $90 per bitcoin.
Issuance of the currency is completely automated, with 25 new bitcoins generated every 10 minutes; inflation is set to be halved every four years, until a total of 21 million bitcoins is reached. In theory, the currency would not lose its purchasing power unless individuals and businesses refused to use bitcoins.
With numerous financial companies already exchanging bitcoins into any of the world’s currencies, the founder of the Swedish Pirate Party, Rick Falkvinge, estimated that Bitcoin could capture between 1 and 10 percent of the global foreign exchange market. This implies that the price of each and every bitcoin would rise to between $100,000 and $1 million, Max Keiser explained.
“I have stated that myself,” Keiser said. “I think bitcoin's price will reach $200,000 per bitcoin before Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway's stock.”
Ten years ago, few predicted that Facebook would have more than 1 billion users worldwide/ By the same token, few today imagine bitcoin could take on the G20 nations, but Keiser believes this may soon take place: “Bitcoin's valuation, already bigger than many sovereign currencies, will challenge the most-traded currencies today, including the US dollar, the euro, the yen and the renminbi.”
Regulatory hand reaches out
Because the virtual currency bypasses authorities and cannot be taxed unless the person deliberately reveals his transactions, the US government and the Treasury Department are seeking to enact stricter regulations and new money-laundering rules.
Bitcoins are vulnerable to being stolen by hackers, thieves and fraudsters, though the Bitcoin community has made efforts to curb such crimes.
The largest Bitcoin scam reportedly ran in 2012, and was structured like a classic Ponzi scheme. Investors lost at least 200,000 BTC worth $2.2 million at the time, according to the Bitcoin Forums. The high estimate puts the number at 500,000 BTC, or 5 percent of the total number of bitcoins in circulation at the time. The largest Bitcoin hacking heist, in March 2012, robbed the victims of 46,653 BTC ($230,468). The perpetrators exploited a vulnerability in the customer service of Bitcoinica exchange to get access to users' wallets. Satoshi Nakamoto, who created Bitcoin in 2009, left the system to develop on its own in 2011; his true identity was never revealed. One popular theory among Russian bloggers speculates that Nakamoto is Grigory Perelman, a reclusive Russian mathematician famous for solving the Poincaré conjecture and receiving the Fields Medal – the 'Nobel prize of math,' – for the achievement.
It is difficult to predict this new policy would play out: Patrick Murck, a legal counsel for the Bitcoin Foundation, a trade group promoting industry standards, said the framework “would be infeasible for many, if not most, members of the Bitcoin community to comply with.”
Keiser believes that Bitcoin users and the currency itself have little to worry about, unlike most of Internet startups feeling themselves suddenly vulnerable to government oversight. Bitcoins are not issued by a central body, and rely on a network of verification nodes to regulate transactions; in the future, Bitcoin users may achieve enough political clout to defend itself in traditional arenas.
“As Bitcoin's price increases, the new Bitcoin millionaires and billionaires will use their economic clout to rewrite laws in favor of Bitcoin, the same way banks like JP Morgan or Goldman Sachs lobby government to write laws that favor them,” he explained.
Web 3.0?
Bitcoin could also offer relief to debt-stricken countries such as Cyprus. “Cyprus was Bitcoin's 'come to Jesus' moment and it's fitting it happened around the Easter Holiday,” Keiser said.“For millions of people around the world who have been victimized by banksters and their corrupt politician friends, the light bulb went off and they suddenly realized they could save their wealth by parking it in Bitcoin and no government or bankster could stop them.”
After the initial rush of interest in the Internet in the mid-1990s, and the follow-up boom of Web 2.0 and the growth of social networking, Bitcoin is the third and “perhaps the most disruptive wave of all,” Keiser said.
“This is Web 3.0,” he said. “For me it's extremely exciting since I pioneered the idea of virtual currencies back in the mid 1990s and have four US patents in my name covering virtual trading and virtual currencies. Most people I talked to back then about these ideas and the possibility that something like Bitcoin could exist didn't think it was possible. They were wrong.”Facebook chief executive Mark Zuckerberg wants to connect the world. (Lluis Gene/AFP/Getty Images)
Facebook has been in talks for months with U.S. government officials and wireless carriers with an eye toward unveiling an American version of an app that has caused controversy abroad, according to multiple people familiar with the matter.
The social media giant is trying to determine how to roll out its program, known as Free Basics, in the United States without triggering the regulatory scrutiny that effectively killed a version of the app in India earlier this year. If Facebook succeeds with its U.S. agenda for Free Basics — which has not been previously reported — it would mark a major victory for the company as it seeks to connect millions more to the Web, and to its own platform.
Prime Minister of India Narendra Modi met with Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg in New Delhi Friday. The two discussed using Facebook as a tool to engage a wider audience in "the service of humanity." (YouTube: Narendra Modi)
The U.S. version of Free Basics would target low-income and rural Americans who cannot afford reliable, high-speed Internet at home or on smartphones. The app does not directly pay for users' mobile data. Rather, it allows users to stretch their data plans by offering, in partnership with wireless carriers, free Internet access to resources such as online news, health information and job leads.
Exactly what specific services would be offered in the U.S. app has not been determined. But the idea to bring Free Basics to the United States is likely to rekindle a long-running debate about the future of the Internet. On one side are those who view services such as Facebook's as a critical tool in connecting underserved populations to the Internet, in some cases for the first time. On the other side are those who argue that exempting services from data caps creates a multitiered playing field that favors businesses with the expertise and budgets to participate in such programs.
The fight over this tactic, known as “zero-rating,” has largely taken place overseas where local start-ups are mixing with globally established firms in still-nascent Internet economies. But a U.S. launch of Free Basics would bring the discussion to American shores in a major way.
Since at least the spring, Facebook has been trying to persuade numerous small and rural cellular service providers to support Free Basics, which is already available in 49 countries, and waive any data charges the app may incur. It has also floated the idea to White House officials involved with President Obama's technology agenda.
“While we have nothing to announce,” the company said in a statement, “Facebook’s mission is to connect the world and we’re always exploring ways to do that, including in the United States.”
The effort to offer a U.S.-based version of Free Basics is moving forward in fits and starts, said the people, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because the effort has not been publicly revealed.
In particular, the company wants to ensure that Free Basics will be viewed favorably by the U.S. government before it launches, thus avoiding a costly repeat of its experience in India.
Regulators there banned the app in February after consumer advocates argued Facebook was handpicking the services users could see and access on Free Basics, potentially disadvantaging any competing companies and nonprofit groups that were left out of the program.
In the wake of the uproar, Facebook updated its approach to Free Basics. It currently allows any third-party organization to offer its services as part of the program, provided that the organization's developers abide by terms that, for example, prohibit the use of high-definition images or video that could consume a great deal of mobile data.
U.S. Internet advocates have called on the Federal Communications Commission to regulate zero-rating under its net neutrality rules. The practice, they argue, risks tilting the online marketplace to benefit large, established firms, or the corporate partners of those firms.
“Zero-rating is pernicious, unfair and unnecessary,” said Susan Crawford, a law professor at Harvard who has advocated for strong regulation of the broadband industry. Permitting the practice would simply enable “the gameplaying of companies who have a strong interest in maintaining the status quo.”
The agency has not decided whether to take action. Earlier this year, FCC officials met with Internet providers including Comcast, T-Mobile and Verizon to study the issue. The agency's chairman, Tom Wheeler, told reporters last month that he is still “trying to make sure we understand” the full implications of the practice, despite months of deliberation.
“Things move at the pace that is appropriate,” he said. “I think we're doing a good job.”
Facebook has not attempted to strike a deal with national wireless carriers such as T-Mobile or AT&T, said the people familiar with the matter, over concerns that regulators may perceive the move as anti-competitive. Instead, it has pursued relationships with lesser-known carriers.
While Free Basics may give these wireless companies a new way to reach consumers, some analysts say Facebook's pitch could give those businesses pause. FCC scrutiny over zero-rating could raise legal and regulatory costs for these carriers as they seek to explain their role in the program in Washington, said Craig Moffett, a telecom analyst at MoffettNathanson. He added that carriers mulling a relationship with Facebook must also consider how the terms of that relationship might change in the future.
“There's a bigger question of opening a Pandora's box,” Moffett said. “You'd have to be concerned that Facebook might ultimately usurp the customer relationship and, at renewal time, demand to be paid rather than just carried [by the wireless company]."
Still, other policy advocates say that Free Basics could help close a persistent economic divide in the United States when it comes to connectivity. By making it easier for underserved populations to access civic and social services online, more Americans could join the ranks of those who benefit from high-speed Internet, said Nicol Turner-Lee, a vice president at the Multicultural Media, Telecom and Internet Council.
“It wouldn't be a bad idea to bring that here, because we face |
astrous" consequences, said Cuddihy. The tax is hitting profits by equaling about 5 percent of the cost of the average ton of cement, he said. Similarly, Paul Landry of the British Columbia Trucking Association said the tax could be problematic for truck drivers if it increased significantly.
For this reason, some of the heaviest greenhouse gas emitters in British Columbia are quibbling with the how the carbon-tax revenue is recycled. Instead of the money going for tax cuts to every business, from restaurants to toy stores, more of the cash should go to help carbon-intensive companies improve efficiency, said Landry.
For his industry, that could mean more funds being used to help truck drivers buy anti-idling equipment, he said. The technology to reduce emissions is there, but the industry could use a financial boost to get it installed on a widespread basis, he said.
"Why not do that if the goal is to reduce emissions?" he said. Others say, though, that all of the proceeds need to go back to the public and business community, as they are currently doing, to avoid a "tax grab."
Heavy emitters "need to make a case that giving them money and thus having a lower rate of economic growth and less income and jobs for everyone else is a good idea. Seems a bit self-serving and counterproductive, doesn't it?" said Jaccard about the idea of helping energy-intensive businesses buy equipment to lower emissions.
Taxes push energy-saving decisions
There also are concerns about individual energy consumers like Hunter and about the impoverished. According to the Pembina Institute, an environmental think tank, tax credits funded by the carbon levy will not provide adequate protection for low-income families as of this year. There should be increasing funds for the poor if the tax increases over time, the group said.
There is a two-year lag in emissions reporting data, meaning that definitive information about 2009's greenhouse gas output still is not available. The overlap of the global recession during that time frame could make it difficult to tie any emission numbers to the tax. Yet there is anecdotal evidence that the still-low tax is working at the margins to cut greenhouse gas emissions, said Matt Horne of the Pembina Institute.
The University of Northern British Columbia, for example, said the fee played a significant role in the university's deciding to purchase biomass systems for heating, according to university official Robert van Adrichem. His school pays C$100,000 a year on the tax, creating an obvious incentive to try and cut emissions to avoid it, he said.
"I'd rather use that money to hire teachers," he said.
Similarly, Nancy Knight at the University of British Columbia said the tax helped the school decide to build to build a new C$85 million heating system that will use 20 percent less energy and save thousands of dollars from the tax.
Cuddihy of the Cement Association said his industry's complaints about the levy led to the British Columbian government's switching to portland limestone cement in its building codes. That type of cement is about 10 percent less carbon-intensive to produce, he said.
An increase after 2012 is not part of official regulations, and the province on Feb. 26 elected a new premier, Christy Clark, who has not stated her intent on the issue. The tax needs to rise to C$200 a ton for British Columbia to meet its emission reduction targets by 2020, according to the Pembina Institute.
Still, many in British Columbia doubt that Clark will have the political will to raise the tax. British Columbia intended to tie its policy to something similar in the United States, said Jaccard.
With climate legislation dead on Capitol Hill, gas prices surging and the tea party movement wielding influence in Congress, there may be little appetite for climate incentives moving in the United States in the near future.
Could the budget-strapped U.S. follow British Columbia's example?
This could be exacerbated by the United States' dependence on coal, which fires almost half of U.S. electricity and covers two dozen U.S. states. Hydropower -- which is British Columbia's electric lifeblood -- is a relatively small player in the United States, firing about 7 percent of electricity. Jaccard said that a third of revenue raised by any hypothetical carbon tax in the United States would have to be used to help the coal industry transition to a cleaner economy.
Yet there are some who think that, given the nation's budget problems, the idea of a U.S. carbon tax may not be far-fetched in the future. The idea has been tried in some U.S. localities, such as Boulder, Colo. It was also considered by some members of Congress in 2008, although cap and trade became the prevailing idea via a bill that passed the House but stalled in the Senate.
Paul Bledsoe, a senior adviser at the Bipartisan Policy Center, said that an energy tax is one of the few options for new sources of revenue if the federal government eventually takes a serious look at tax reform in conjunction with deficit reduction. One of the goals of reform would be to reduce taxes for corporations and individuals, which is something a carbon or energy tax could finance.
"The enormous political appeal of cutting corporate and individual tax rates as part of debt reduction has the potential to more than offset the political push back on a consumption tax, at the right moment," he said.
In November of last year, a Bipartisan Policy Center task force chaired by former Sen. Pete Domenici (R-N.M.) and ex-Clinton administration official Alice Rivlin released a plan (pdf) on how to reduce the national debt. It did not endorse a carbon tax, but said many task force members thought the idea warranted further consideration as a debt-reduction tool.
Barry Rabe, a public policy professor at the University of Michigan, made a parallel argument about states or localities. The idea could become more appealing, Rabe said, if it were sold as a source of new funds for cash-strapped states without the word "carbon" tied to it. A similar thing happened to tobacco, he said, which was once considered a taboo taxing item but increasingly offered new sources of revenue and a means to cut other taxes, amid shifting cultural winds against cigarettes.
"A huge question we are facing is how to deal with budget problems," Rabe said. "Where are states going to get money? They don't have many choices, and carbon is one place to look."
Copyright 2011 E&E Publishing. All Rights Reserved.Master List of TV Subreddits -- The topmost active TV series subreddits
This wiki contains lists of all the 759 known national non-news TV-related subreddits. This page lists the 131 most active ones out of those 759 known TV subreddits using data from stattit. Surprisingly, size is not everything: the largest subreddits are not necessarily the most active. Also, the fact that whether the show is still on-air is also moot for activeness.
Use the links on the left to locate other lists if the show you are looking for is not active enough to show up here. If it's not a show, you may be able to find it in the "Other TV-related Subreddits" page.
Please note that these are TV-related subreddits, they are not necessarily dedicated to TV.Private community
The central part of the "Tama-Re" village, as seen from the air. Photograph by Kenneth C. Budd
The Tama-Re village in Putnam County, Georgia (a.k.a. "Kodesh", "Wahannee", "The Golden City", "Al Tamaha") was an Egyptian-themed set of buildings and monuments established in 1993 on 476 acres near Eatonton by the Nuwaubian Nation. This was a religious movement that had a variety of esoteric beliefs and was led by Dwight D. York. Many of the African Americans in the community had resettled here from Brooklyn, New York, where the movement had developed since about 1970.
York was prosecuted for child molestation, racketeering and financial charges; convicted in 2004, he was sentenced to 135 years in prison. As part of the verdict, the Tama-Re complex was sold under government forfeiture in 2005. The structures were mostly demolished, and the site cleared by the sheriff's department to prepare it for sale.
History [ edit ]
On January 15, 1993, Dwight York, longtime leader of a Muslim-related religious community in Brooklyn, New York, bought the property of 476 acres on 404 Shady Dale Road for $975,000. His followers began moving in from their former headquarters in Sullivan County, New York (some had moved there in the late 1980s) and Brooklyn.
After the move, York declared affiliation with the Yamasee indigenous people, as well as a variety of Egyptian and esoteric themes, claiming that the community was descended from ancient migrants to the Americas from Egypt. York said[citation needed][year needed]
In 1997 and 1998, Victor Greig acted as York's representative in building and zoning matters as the community developed Tama-Re. He was cited by Putnam County Sheriff Howard Sills for building without a permit and for illegally operating a nightclub in a warehouse, which was not zoned for that use. Greig was fined $45,750 in April 1998 and appealed. His fine was reduced to $2,500, but the conviction was upheld.
The organization began to hold festivals on the property, with one netting about $500,000 in cash, according to an FBI agent's testimony.[1]
In 1999, a lawsuit was filed attempting to enforce county zoning restrictions and prevent the Nuwaubians from using the property for anything other than residential and agricultural purposes. This led to a drawn-out, bitter tug of war between the Nuwaubians and the county authorities. At the annual week-long celebration "Savior's Day" (i.e. York's birthday) in June 1999, the county padlocked the nightclub warehouse.
In 2000, a security/paramilitary group called the Royal Guard Of Amen-Ra, Inc., owned by actor Wesley Snipes's Amen Ra Films, filed BATF papers to set up a security training center next to the Tama-Re compound.[2] The Nuwaubians claimed Snipes as one of their own, though a spokeswoman for Snipes denied any connection.
New York Press in November 2000 described the constructions completed in the compound:
Not long after you're pretty sure you've gone too far, roll up and over one last hill and the pyramids are right there. There's a black one and a gold one, and a brown-faced sphinx facing the road, and a tall obelisk, and an arch-shaped gate decorated with ankhs and other hieroglyphs, through which runs a road lined with statues of mostly animal-headed deities, all brightly painted in primary colors. Farther back, up on the rise, is a recognizable one, Isis, with ebony skin and her winged arms spread. No level of expectation can dilute the surprise–you can't believe what you're seeing. Tama-Re, Egypt of the West, has that Magic Kingdom quality.[2]
In 2001, the Religious Movements Homepage Project at the University of Virginia reported on Tama-Re:
Armed guards stand at the entrance to Tama-Re. Approximately 100 Nuwaubians live within 15 double-wide trailers within this complex. There are approximately another 400 more Nuwaubians within Putnam County (population 14,000). At this current complex the Nuwaubians have constructed an Egyptian-style village with two pyramids, obelisks, and statues of Egyptian leaders. The two pyramids are distinct in appearance and in usage. There is a gold pyramid that serves as a trade center. Within this pyramid one can find a bookstore and a clothing store. The other pyramid is painted black with colorful Egyptian symbols painted on the outside. This structure serves as a church. Within the church, loudspeakers play Egyptian chants 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.[3]
In March 2002, the Nuwaubians finally submitted a permit application for the nightclub, now called a "fellowship hall", allowing them to use the building for the first time since it was padlocked. On 8 May 2002, the compound was raided by the FBI, ATF, and related forces from local, state, and federal departments. No shots were fired during the raid, although tear gas was used by FBI agents. Based on a lengthy investigation, authorities arrested York on charges of racketeering and child molestation, including transporting children across state lines for the purpose of sexual exploitation.
After York was convicted and sentenced for these charges, in June 2005, the property was sold under government forfeiture by the U.S. Marshals Service for USD 1.1 million.[4] About half of this money went to the Putnam County Sheriff's Department, while most of the rest was split between the FBI and IRS.[5]
On 9 June 2005 workers began demolishing the Egyptian-styled façades. Putnam County Sheriff Howard Sills started the demolition by tearing down the front arch with a front-end loader. The land has since been entirely cleared of all Nuwaubian structures and the property was sold to a developer, who has since built a log style hunting lodge on the property.[6] The property is owned by White Oak Plantation as of 2012.[7]
References [ edit ]
Coordinates:The racial polarization of the recent elections—where the large majority of whites voted for Republicans, and majority of minorities voted for Democrats—could continue for decades. Photo by Carlos Barria/Reuters
Does a dramatic change in your social environment make you more conservative, and if so, what kind of change would it take?
Working at Northwestern University, psychologists Maureen Craig and Jennifer Richeson apply that question to demographic change, and, in particular, to white Americans vis-a-vis the prospect of a United States where the majority of Americans are drawn from today’s minorities. Does a threat to one’s status as the demographic “in-group” increase political conservatism? The answer, in short, is yes.
Using a nationally representative survey of self-identified politically “independent” whites, Craig and Richeson conducted three experiments. In the first, they asked respondents about the racial shift in California—if they had heard the state had become majority-minority. What they found was a significant shift toward Republican identification, which increased for those who lived closest to the West Coast.
In the second experiment, they focused on the overall U.S. shift with census projections of the national population. Again, they found that white Americans became more conservative—and more likely to endorse conservative policies—when they were aware of demographic changes that put them in the minority.
The final experiment—where questions were further refined and targeted—saw similar results. As Craig and Richeson write, “Perceived group-status threat, triggered by exposure to majority-minority shift, increases Whites’ endorsement of conservative political ideology and policy positions.” What’s more, this held true even after they told respondents “whites are likely to remain at the top of the future racial hierarchy.”
The study is fascinating, and the empirical data is worthwhile. But if you’re familiar with our history or politics, it shouldn’t come as a surprise.
Last year, for example, Democracy Corps, a Democratic polling firm, did a series of focus groups with conservative Evangelicals, Tea Party voters, and moderate Republicans. The goal was to “understand the government shutdown and crisis in Washington” and try to “get inside the base of the Republican Party.” To that end, pollsters would sit down with various kinds of Republicans and figure out their concerns and fears.
Near the top of the list, they found, was a deep consciousness of being “white in a country with growing minorities.” One participant described his town as such:
Everybody is white. Everybody is middle class, whether or not they really are. Everybody looks that way. Everybody goes to the same pool. Everybody goes—there’s one library, one post office. Very homogenous.
For most of their lives, these people could ignore the country’s demographic change. But the election of President Obama was a clear sign that things were different.
The result was fear and anxiety. A fear, for instance, that comprehensive immigration reform would begin a tidal wave of dependency, as Democrats won their votes with the allure of government programs such as Obamacare. “Every minority group wants to say they have the right to something, and they don’t,” said one Tea Party participant. “There’s so much of the electorate in those groups that Democrats are going to take every time because they’ve been on the rolls of the government their entire lives. They don’t know better,” said another.
It’s this type of conservative feeling that drove support for the suicidal obstructionism of Texas Sen. Ted Cruz and his House Republican acolytes. Conservatives may never win the war against government spending, the argument went, but they could gum up the works as much as possible.
As a political strategy, it didn’t make sense—if not for the initial failure of healthcare.gov, it would have tanked the GOP’s standing—but it fits perfectly with the results of the Northwestern study. Resigned to the majority-minority future, these voters rejected compromise and doubled down on their conservatism.
Of course, the single best (and most extreme) example of this demographic fear comes from our history of slavery and apartheid. More than almost anything else, it animated the antebellum South. In the Alabama and Mississippi of the early 19th century, for instance, whites were the minority, outnumbered by a large—and growing—population of slaves. The result was paranoia. Obsessed with the prospect of slave revolts—and terrified by the example of Haiti—whites worked to eliminate the threat of rebellion with slave patrols and draconian laws forbidding the distribution of learning or literature to enslaved blacks.
In the Reconstruction era, fear of black dominance—Southern Democrats riled crowds with charges of “black supremacy”—drove race riots, anti-black terrorism, and the successful violence of the “Redeemers,” former Confederates who sought a return to black peonage. In an echo of the past, “Redemption” was often bloodiest in places where blacks were a majority of the electorate. In 1872, whites armed with rifles and a small cannon overpowered blacks as they defended Colfax, the seat of Grant Parish, La. In the aftermath, some 50 blacks were slaughtered by the vengeful white mob that ignored their surrender.
This dynamic carried into the Jim Crow era, where the lynching epidemic was most virulent in places like Alabama, Mississippi, Georgia, and the Florida panhandle. Indeed, as Douglas Blackmon details in his book Slavery by Another Name, this area was ground zero for the “convict leasing” system that forced bondage on tens of thousands of black Americans, and killed many others. Not incidentally, it was also a key “feeder” for the Great Migration of blacks to the North, as explained by Isabel Wilkerson in The Warmth of the Other Suns.
None of this is to say that we’re on our way to a world of racial violence and strife. These are examples to illustrate the broader phenomenon at its worst.
To return to the research on white fear and demographic change, there’s no guarantee that the United States becomes a majority-minority country. As I’ve written before, one possible path for some Latino and Asian immigrants—especially those with upward mobility—is that they “become white” like their European immigrant forebears.
But even if there’s no minority-majority it’s still true that the United States is becoming browner, with whites making up a declining share of the population. And if this Northwestern study is any indication, that could lead to a stronger, deeper conservatism among white Americans. The racial polarization of the 2012 election—where the large majority of whites voted for Republicans, while the overwhelming majority of minorities voted for Democrats—could continue for decades.
That would be great for Democratic partisans excited at the prospect of winning national elections in perpetuity, but terrible for our democracy, which is still adjusting to our new multiracial reality, where minority groups are equal partners in political life. To accomplish anything—to the meet the challenges of our present and future—we’ll need a measure of civic solidarity, a common belief that we’re all Americans, with legitimate claims on the bounty of the country.
With extreme racial polarization—and not the routine identity politics of the present—this goes out the window. We would fracture like the Seven Kingdoms, with a politics governed by mutual suspicion. And you don’t have to imagine this future. You can see it right now, in the Deep South, where our history weighs heaviest. In Mississippi, Louisiana, and Alabama, elections are polarized by race: Whites vote one way, blacks the other. The result is constant acrimony, huge disinvestment in public goods like education and health, and a political culture where the central question isn’t “how can we help each other” but “how can I stop them from taking what I have.”
It’s destructive, dangerous, and—as far as America’s future goes—more likely than you think.The Foundation Assisting Seniors co-founder Favil West, 80, shows the warehouse that stores medical equipment, which is available for use by any senior across the Las Vegas Valley. (Diego Mendoza-Moyers/View) @dmendozamoyers
West stands underneath the shelves of medical equipment stored in the foundation's warehouse at 2460 Hampton Road in Sun City Anthem. (Diego Mendoza-Moyers/View) @dmendozamoyers
Following a cancer diagnosis in March, Sun City Anthem resident Michele Jim spent two weeks in a hospital receiving treatment. Upon her release, she could barely walk, she said.
To continue her life at home, she would need a wheelchair, a walker, a shower bench and an electric hospital bed.
“There’s no place really to rent that stuff either,” Jim said. “We found that out.”
That’s when a friend of hers called The Foundation Assisting Seniors, a nonprofit in Sun City Anthem. Co-founded by Favil West and Chuck Davis in 2002, the organization provides medical equipment, basic home maintenance, transportation and other services for seniors at no cost.
When Jim left the hospital in early April, every piece of medical equipment she needed had been delivered to her home by volunteers from the foundation, she said.
“I’m here, seven months later, and I’m alive and I’m well,” she said. “Thank goodness for the foundation. I didn’t have to scurry and buy a couple thousand dollars worth of equipment. The bed alone would have been that much.”
West said he founded the organization after seeing his parents struggle in their old age. If they fell or if there was a medical emergency, “there was no wheelchairs, there were no walkers, none of this durable medical equipment,” West said.
“We formed the foundation, and we found out then that our parents were just a small, small amount of seniors that need help,” West said.
Anyone 50 or older is eligible for the foundation’s services. In addition to providing medical equipment, volunteers can perform basic tasks at a client’s home, like changing a light bulb.
The foundation’s HowRU program can call clients at any time of day they choose to make sure they are OK. If a client doesn’t answer the call, a second call is made 15 minutes later. If that call isn’t answered, two emergency contacts will be notified. The program will be ready by Jan. 1, West said, and will have a feature to remind subscribers to take their medication.
“So many of us have trouble remembering what our names are,” West, 80, joked. “There’s a lot of times when we’ll forget to take medication.”
The foundation has over 200 volunteers, according to spokeswoman Shayna Moreno, and performs 20,000-30,000 “assists” annually. Assists can be acts like a home maintenance call or a donation to a client, West said.
Most of the group’s funding comes from donations or fundraising events like golf tournaments and basket raffles, Moreno said.
As West explained the foundation’s background and services, a woman brought her mother into the small office. Within 15 minutes, her mother left with a walker from the foundation. West described the encounter as “the beginning and the end of our service.”
“We’re not the equipment police,” said Lynda Paret, who organizes disbursement of medical equipment. “You let me know when you’re done with it. I’ll put it down for a certain period of time that we agree on. If you return it earlier, fine; if you need to extend it, fine.”
West said the best way for people to learn about services is to call the foundation or visit its website.
”Anybody that is a senior and needs our help, regardless of what they make, regardless of where they came, regardless of where they live, we’re going to try care of them as best we can,” West said.
Contact Diego Mendoza-Moyers at dmendozamoyers@viewnews.com or call 702-383-0496. Follow @dmendozamoyers on Twitter.@upurtweet New linux client out now! — Desura (@Desura) December 30, 2014
Finally, Desura has a new client available for Linux. Bad Juju Games haven't officially announced it anywhere on Desura yet, but it is available to download.It has been open sourced again thanks to Bad Juju Games who moved it to the GPL3 license, and removed the need to sign a contributor agreement, but the Desura name and logo are still subject to certain terms (fair enough).I received word via twitter that it was out:After a bit of searching, I managed to turn up the download links:64bit: http://www.desura.com /desura-x86_64.tar.gzAlthough, a user in our IRC noted the md5 checksum is the same as an old download, they are the correct links. It seems the 32bit version has not yet been updated, so we have removed the link.It is still a bit buggy though, and my testing showed issues like the installer getting stuck in a loop downloading and installing over and over again. The login window also cuts off the social buttons, but it should work better than the original Desura client, and Desurium is no longer being worked on, so this is it now.Other issues I encountered are the same as last time, the client dies on its own and sometimes won't load up unless you try to launch a few times after it dies.There also seems to be no tray icon on Cinnamon.They will continue to work on it of course, so we should expect gradual bug fixes to filter in. You can submit bug reports to their official github How do you lot feel about this? This makes me very happy, and I can't wait to see some bug fixes and new features come in.Police said a homeowner held a burglar face down on the ground at gunpoint until officers arrived.
Michael Dewayne Barbee, 30, of 3000 Old Highway 58, Georgetown, Tn., is charged with burglary of an auto, aggravated assault, theft of property over $1,000, possession of burglary tools, and unlawfully carrying a weapon.
It was found that Barbee was armed with a set of brass knuckles.
In the incident around 3 a.m. on Monday at a residence on Birchwood Pike, Chris Barnard said he got up to see what was going on after hearing someone "softly" knock on the door.
He spotted a white male walking to a truck at the bottom of the driveway. He said by the time he got on his pants that the man was making his way back to the house and was rummaging through his girl friend's pickup truck.
He said, as he walked outside, the intruder was opening the door to the pickup.
The resident said when the thief started to run, he got in line with him. He said he then saw that he had something in his hand so he fired a shot into the ground.
He then ordered the man to hit the ground and he complied. It was then he noticed the brass knuckles.
Police said the couple still had Barbee on the ground when they arrived.Pictured: One of the worst escape attempts EVER as robbers handcuffed together run straight into lamp-post
It was less than a Great Escape.
Two New Zealand prisoners who were handcuffed together as they fled a courthouse foiled their own getaway when they ran to opposite sides of a lamp-post, slammed into each other and fell to the ground.
Jailers nabbed them as they struggled to their feet.
D'oh! Clockwise from top left: The pair of robbers, handcuffed together, charge towards freedom - but foil their own attempt by charging straight into the post
Click here to see video of the dreadful escape attempt
Their escapade on Wednesday was captured by a CCTV camera at Hastings District Court on New Zealand's North Island. The footage shows the two men trying to make a break for it - but apparently forgetting they were joined at the wrist.
Hastings police Senior Sgt. Dave Greig said one inmate, Regan Reti, 20, had just been sent to prison for more than two years after being convicted of assault.
The other inmate, Tiranara White, 21, was in custody for allegedly stealing a car and violating parole.
'As they were being led from the Hastings police cells... they made a bolt for freedom,' Greig said today.
Bundled: Police and medical support catch soon catch up with the hapless robbers at the lamppost
"They fell over and they were sprayed with pepper spray. But they got up and ran out of the court onto the street, across the road to a car park," he said.
'That's where they met the pole - it was all over, rover.'
The pair were back in court today, facing fresh charges of escaping from custody.
Police said Reti, who pleaded guilty to the charge, had a month added to his prison term. White did not enter a plea. He will remain in police custody while a psychiatric evaluation is carried out.
Grainy footage of the escapade shown on TV One News was billed as 'one of the worst escape attempts ever seen.'NEW YORK (MainStreet) -- Is retirement overrated? That question was posed on Quora, and the successful retirees who responded enthusiastically said "no."
“No. It is under-rated,” said a respondent identified as Jim Scoggins. “Retirement is about total freedom. Unless a person has no imagination, hobbies, outside interests, [or] ability to have fun.”
A “retired and working on my tan” commenter going by the name of Debra King agreed.
“I'm sitting on my porch right now with an iced tea, an early fall breeze rustling the trees, and browsing on my iPad," she wrote. "Life is good. If I was still working, right now I would be ending a long weekly conference call and walking toward the bus stop to begin [an] hour long commute home. Retirement is the best.”
But a dash of reality was added to the conversation by author and social psychologist Richard Steiner. “Retirement can be the best years of the rest of your lives or it can become a time of sadness and depression," he said. "It's up to you.”
A few years back, John Shoven, an economist at Stanford who specializes in public finance and matters related to Social Security, pension plans and investments, flatly told Forbes retirement isn't all it's cracked up to be.
“Retirement is overrated," he said. "We like to think there’s fishing on the lake and exotic travel. But most people are barely getting by during those years, and they resent the feeling of being put out to pasture.”With Windows 8 we set out to enable all applications to have the beautiful and high-performance graphics enabled by modern graphics hardware. This work builds on the well-established foundations of DirectX graphics, which have been providing an increasing breadth of APIs and capabilities. In Windows 7, we expanded the capabilities of DirectX to provide a common hardware-accelerated graphics platform for a broader range of applications. Whereas previously, DirectX mainly provided 3-D graphics, we added functionality for what we call “mainstream” graphics. Mainstream uses center on the typical desktop applications most people find themselves using every day, including web browsers, email, calendars, and productivity applications. Windows 7 added two new components to DirectX: Direct2D for two-dimensional graphics (shapes, bitmaps, etc.) and DirectWrite for handling text. Both of these additions not only focused on performance but also on delivering high-quality 2-D rendering. With these additions, DirectX became a hardware-accelerated graphics platform for all types of applications. Indeed, we showed what a typical application could achieve by using DirectX when Internet Explorer 9 brought hardware-accelerated graphics to the web. WinRT bring these capabilities to the full range of new Windows 8 applications. In this post, authored by Rob Copeland the group program manager on our Graphics team, we look at the details behind the scenes in enabling this new class of graphical application. --Steven
In computer graphics, high performance is a guiding principle. In the early days of personal computing, discrete, add-on graphics cards were mostly focused on specialized applications such as CAD/CAM and gaming. Even early on, there was a view that all of this graphics horsepower could be used for more: notably a better user interface and experience. One of the first graphics cards for a PC was called a “Windows Accelerator” from S3 Graphics, which focused on the user experience by moving windows around the screen faster. As graphics hardware evolved, so, too, did the methods that developers use to interact with that hardware.
DirectX is the part of Windows that provides a common application programming interface, or API, that allows developers to use the graphics hardware in the PC to draw text, shapes, and three-dimensional scenes, and display them on the screen. DirectX has also evolved over time in both capabilities and performance characteristics. In the early years, DirectX was focused mainly on games. As applications evolved to provide richer and more graphically-intense user experiences, many of them started to use DirectX as a way to get better performance and richer visuals.
Enter Windows 8
When we started to plan the work we’d undertake for graphics in Windows 8, we knew that we would be creating a new, visually rich way for users to interact with apps and with Windows itself. We also knew that we’d be building a new platform for creating Metro style apps, and that we’d be targeting a more diverse set of hardware than ever before. While we had a great graphics platform to start with, there was more work to do in order to support those efforts. We came up with four main goals:
Ensure that all Metro style experiences are rendered smoothly and quickly. Provide a hardware-accelerated platform for all Metro style apps. Add new capabilities to DirectX to enable stunning visual experiences. Support the widest diversity of graphics hardware ever.
While each of these focus on different aspects of building Windows 8, they all depend on great performance and capabilities from the graphics platform.
Planning for performance
Graphics performance on Windows depends on both the operating system and the hardware system, comprised of the CPU, the GPU (graphics processing unit), and the associated display driver. To ensure that we could deliver a great experience for new Metro style apps, we needed to make sure that both the software platform and the hardware system would deliver great performance.
In the past we’ve used many different benchmarks and apps to measure the performance of DirectX. These have been largely focused on 3D games. While games are still very important, we knew that many of these existing ways to measure graphics performance did not tell us everything we needed to know for graphics-intensive, 2D, mainstream apps.
So we created new scenario-focused tests and metrics to track our progress. The metrics we use are as follows:
1. Frame rate
We express frame rate in frames per second (FPS). This metric is widely reported for gaming benchmarks, and is equally important for video content and other apps. When something is animating on the screen, a rate of 60 FPS makes the animation appear smooth. We target that rate because most computer screens refresh at 60 hertz. With that frame rate, Windows can provide very smooth animations with “stick to your finger” touch interactions.
2. Glitch count
While frame rate is an important metric, it doesn't tell the whole story. For example, running a benchmark for 10 minutes and getting 60 FPS on average sounds perfect. But, it doesn’t tell us how low the frame rate might have dropped during the test. For example, if the frame rate dips down to 10 FPS momentarily during demanding parts, the animations will stutter. The glitch count metric looks for the total number of times that rendering took more than 1/60 of a second, thus resulting in a reduced frame rate. It also looks at the number of concurrent frames missed. The goal here is to have no missed frames during animations.
3. Time to first frame
Most people expect their apps to launch quickly, so initializing DirectX needs to be fast. “Time to first frame” tells us how much time it takes from the moment you tap or click to launch an app until you see the first frame of the app on the screen. To measure this, we created simple apps to help analyze and optimize the graphics system for the time it takes to initialize a graphics device, allocate the required memory, and so on. This helps us ensure that the work to set up DirectX takes very little time.
4. Memory utilization
The more memory our graphics components use, the less memory is available for apps. By ensuring that most of the system’s memory is available for apps, you get the best app performance, and more apps can run at the same time. Apps use a mix of system memory and GPU memory. GPU memory is mostly used for rendering operations such as drawing images, geometric shapes, and text. Additionally there are graphics operations that use the CPU and therefore use system memory.
In order to characterize memory utilization, we measure the memory used by the system for the following scenarios:
The app is idle. That is, it is not doing any work and is not rendering or displaying new information to the screen.
The app is displaying information to the screen. This represents the base memory cost of a simple drawing.
Texture creation. This represents the memory used for creating a large number of image objects on the GPU.
Vertex buffer creation. This represents the memory overhead of creating geometric shapes.
GPU data upload. This measures memory overhead involved in uploading data to the GPU.
Measuring memory usage across many types of apps and these various scenarios has helped us further optimize DirectX and the display drivers.
5. CPU utilization
Most graphics operations utilize the CPU in addition to the GPU. For example, when an app is figuring out what it’s going to draw, it typically does these calculations on the CPU. CPU utilization is important to understand because the higher the percentage of the CPU used by a task, the fewer cycles the CPU can devote to other tasks. For good graphics performance and overall |
just yet. This group earned a benefit of considerable doubt through the five-game win streak that was halted on Sunday.
However, a ship that has sailed mostly straight through injury after injury to key members of the crew continues to leak, especially on defense, even as it faces rougher seas.
Sunday’s 23-20 loss to the Kansas City Chiefs, which halted the Chargers’ winning streak at five games, is to be followed by a game Thursday at the division-leading and thrice-defending AFC West champion Denver Broncos.
And Peyton Manning, he’ll take every bit of the three-and-a-half downs the Chargers gave the Chiefs on Sunday. The Broncos receivers almost certainly will not drop the passes that clanged off the hands of receivers from Kansas City. Any decent team will make you pay for bonus yards given via stupid penalties and missed tackles.
“You have to play good to beat a good team,” Chargers safety Eric Weddle said. “... We didn’t play well as a defense.”
To turn it around in four days will be more difficult to do than the Chargers made it sound Sunday, especially given the health of cornerbacks Brandon Flowers and Jason Verrett. Those are the two players who have made the biggest difference in the Chargers’ improved secondary. Word was Sunday that Verrett is expected to miss a second straight game with the shoulder injury that kept him out against the Chiefs, and Flowers left Sunday’s game in the second quarter with a concussion that would seem to require an extraordinary recovery for him to be cleared for contact by Thursday.
Kevin Acee and Michael Gehlken break down the Chargers loss to the Chiefs. Kevin Acee and Michael Gehlken break down the Chargers loss to the Chiefs. SEE MORE VIDEOS
But the “Next Man Up” mantra that has characterized the Chargers’ blazing start to this season was uttered less confidently on Sunday afternoon. There was not the assured, almost brazen declarations buoyed by another sub having gone all stellar. Instead, there was resignation.
And vows to regroup.
“We just keep going and going and going,” said linebacker Reggie Walker. “Yeah, we lost. But everyone in this locker room knows we have something special, and we have to keep fighting and clawing to make sure we do something with this season.”
In the aftermath of a loss, those words were maybe more resonant. Or maybe desperate. Or maybe a combination of both that adds up to absolute truth.
As badly as you want to believe this bunch will persevere, you must acknowledge that mistakes are more plentiful when the players on the field for the majority of plays are guys you appreciate but wouldn’t overpay for their replica jersey.
Among the Chargers whose jerseys were seen in the stands but not on the field: Melvin Ingram, Manti Te’o, Jerry Attaouchu and Verrett.
Depth is one thing. Plumbing the depths is another.
Dwight Freeney was on the field, but it is increasingly clear he’s flagging under a too-heavy workload. Donald Butler is either injured this season or had us all fooled for the previous three. Cordarro Law was active after missing the previous week with an ankle injury but did not play Sunday. In on series in the third quarter, Kavell Conner, Corey Liuget and Marcus Gilchrist all went down. All three returned, but the reality is the Chargers defense was gashed and gassed.
It’s not that the Chargers defense didn’t make any plays on Sunday. They put the Chiefs in several bad situations. It’s that they made so few when it mattered most, when they should have, when the job was all but done.
On the Chiefs’ drive to a field goal that would give them a second-quarter lead, they converted third-and-15 and then got another set of downs after an incompletion on third-and-11 because Walker hit quarterback Alex Smith well after the pass was thrown.
“That was the stupidest play I ever did,” Walker said. “... I blew it.”
He wasn’t alone. The Chiefs would convert seven of their first 12 third down tries en route to being on the field for 39 of the game’s 60 minutes. But it wasn’t just that third down. In holding the ball almost 14/15ths of the third quarter, the Chiefs broke plenty of tackles on first and second down too.
You must consider that excellence is most often achieved by excellent players, that a team makes big stops when its players trust each other, when each man is where he is supposed to be and knows his teammates will be in the right places as well.
We can talk about missed tackles Sunday. The Chargers certainly were. But those, too, are often the product of trying to hard, of bad angles and overrunning, not being disciplined.
The Chargers had managed so well through so many injuries.
Perhaps Sunday was simply the setback the Chargers insisted it was. That’s the most optimistic assessment.
But now, with a lot to clean up and little time and an ever-decreasing personnel pool do it, reality could be they’re looking to survive until they get more better players back on the field and the next men can be down.
San Diego Chargers 20, Kansas City Chiefs 23
10/19/2014 at Qualcomm StadiumBob Jones University (BJU) is a private, non-denominational Evangelical university in Greenville, South Carolina, known for its conservative cultural and religious positions.[5] The college, with approximately 2,500 students, is accredited by the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools Commission on Colleges (SACSCOC) and the Transnational Association of Christian Colleges and Schools. The university's athletic teams, the Bruins, compete in Division II of the National Christian College Athletic Association (NCCAA). In 2008, the university estimated the number of its graduates at 35,000; in 2017, 40,184.[6]
History [ edit ]
During the Fundamentalist-Modernist controversy of the 1920s, Christian evangelist Bob Jones, Sr. grew increasingly concerned about the secularization of higher education and the influence of religious liberalism in denominational colleges. Children of church members were attending college, only to reject the faith of their parents. Jones later recalled that in 1924, his friend William Jennings Bryan had leaned over to him at a Bible conference service in Winona Lake, Indiana, and said, "If schools and colleges do not quit teaching evolution as a fact, we are going to become a nation of atheists."[7] While he himself was not a college graduate, Jones grew determined to found a college, and on September 12, 1927, he opened Bob Jones College in Panama City, Florida, with 88 students. Jones said that although he had been averse to naming the school after himself, his friends overcame his reluctance "with the argument that the school would be called by that name because of my connection with it, and to attempt to give it any other name would confuse the people".[8]
Bob Jones took no salary from the college and helped support the school with personal savings and income from his evangelistic campaigns. Both time and place were inauspicious. The Florida land boom had peaked in 1925, and a hurricane in September 1926 further reduced land values. The Great Depression followed hard on its heels. Bob Jones College barely survived bankruptcy and its move to Cleveland, Tennessee in 1933. In the same year, the college also ended participation in intercollegiate sports. Nevertheless, Jones's move to Cleveland proved extraordinarily advantageous. Bankrupt at the nadir of the Depression, without a home, and with barely enough money to move its library and office furniture, the college became in thirteen years the largest liberal arts college in Tennessee. With the enactment of the GI Bill at the end of World War II, the need for campus expansion to accommodate increased enrollment led to a relocation to South Carolina.[9][10]
Though he had served as Acting President as early as 1934, Jones' son, Bob Jones, Jr. officially became the school's second president in 1947 just before the college moved to Greenville, South Carolina, and became Bob Jones University.[11] In Greenville, the university more than doubled in size within two years and started its own radio station, film department, and art gallery—the latter of which eventually became one of the largest collections of religious art in the Western Hemisphere.[12]
During the late 1950s, BJU and alumnus Billy Graham, who had attended Bob Jones College for one semester and received an honorary degree from the university in 1948,[13] engaged in a controversy about the propriety of theological conservatives cooperating with theological liberals to support evangelistic campaigns, a controversy that widened an already growing rift between separatist fundamentalists and other evangelicals.[14] Negative publicity caused by the dispute precipitated a decline in BJU enrollment of about 10% in the years 1956–59, and seven members of the university board (of about a hundred) also resigned in support of Graham, including Graham himself and two of his staff members.[15] When, in 1966, Graham held his only American campaign in Greenville,[16] the university forbade any BJU dormitory student from attending under penalty of expulsion.[17] Enrollment quickly rebounded, and by 1970, there were 3,300 students, approximately 60% more than in 1958.
In 1971, Bob Jones III became president at age 32, though his father, with the title of Chancellor, continued to exercise considerable administrative authority into the late 1990s.[18] At the 2005 commencement, Stephen Jones was installed as the fourth president, and Bob Jones III assumed the title of chancellor.[19] Stephen Jones resigned in 2014 for health reasons, and Steve Pettit was named president, the first unrelated to the Jones family.[20]
In December 2011, in response to accusations of mishandling of student reports of sexual abuse (most of which had occurred in their home churches when the students were minors) and a concurrent reporting issue at a church pastored by a university board member,[21] the BJU board of trustees hired an independent ombudsman, GRACE (Godly Response to Abuse in the Christian Environment), to investigate.[22] Released in December 2014, the GRACE report suggested that BJU had discouraged students from reporting past sexual abuse, and though the University declined to implement many of the report's recommendations, President Steve Pettit formally apologized "to those who felt they did not receive from us genuine love, compassion, understanding, and support after suffering sexual abuse or assault".[22][23][24][25]
In 2011, the university became a member of the Transnational Association of Christian Colleges and Schools (TRACS) and reinstated intercollegiate athletics.[26] In March 2017 the university regained its federal tax exemption after a complicated restructuring divided the organization into for-profit and non-profit entities,[27] and in June it was granted accreditation by the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools.[28]
Academics [ edit ]
The university consists of seven colleges and schools that offer more than 60 undergraduate majors, including fourteen associate degree programs.[29] Given that BJU's faculty is untenured, most University employees consider their positions as much ministries as jobs.[30] It is common for retiring professors to have served the university for thirty, forty, and even occasionally, fifty years, a circumstance that has contributed to the stability and conservatism of an institution of higher learning that has virtually no endowment and at which faculty salaries are "sacrificial".[31][32]
Religious education [ edit ]
School of Religion [ edit ]
The School of Religion includes majors for both men and women, although only men train as ministerial students.[33] Many of these students go on to a seminary after completing their undergraduate degree. Others take ministry positions straight from college, and rising juniors participate in a church internship program to prepare them for the pastoral ministry. In 1995 there were 1,290 BJU graduates serving as senior or associate pastors in churches across the United States.[34] In 2017 more than 100 pastors in the Upstate alone were BJU graduates.[35]
The seminary building at Bob Jones University
Position on the King James Version of the Bible [ edit ]
The university requires use of the King James Version (KJV) of the Bible in its services and classrooms, but it does not hold that the KJV is the only acceptable English translation or that it has the same authority as the original Hebrew and Greek manuscripts.[36] The King-James-Only Movement—or more correctly, movements, since it has many variations—became a divisive force in fundamentalism only as conservative modern Bible translations, such as the New American Standard Bible (NASB) and the New International Version (NIV), began to appear in the 1970s. BJU has taken the position that orthodox Christians of the late 19th and early 20th centuries (including fundamentalists) agreed that while the KJV was a substantially accurate translation, only the original manuscripts of the Bible written in Hebrew and Greek were infallible and inerrant.[37] Bob Jones, Jr. called the KJV-only position a "heresy" and "in a very definite sense, a blasphemy".[38]
Fine arts [ edit ]
The Division of Fine Arts has the largest faculty of the university's six undergraduate schools.[39] Each year the university presents an opera in the spring semester and Shakespearean plays in both the fall and spring semesters.[40] A service called "Vespers", presented occasionally throughout the school year, combines music, speech, and drama.[41] The Division of Fine Arts includes an RTV department with a campus radio and television station, WBJU. More than a hundred concerts, recitals, and laboratory theater productions are also presented annually.[42]
Each fall, as a recruiting tool, the university sponsors a "High School Festival" in which students compete in music, art, and speech (including preaching) contests with their peers from around the country.[43] In the spring, a similar competition sponsored by the American Association of Christian Schools, and hosted by BJU since 1977, brings thousands of national finalists to the university from around the country. In 2005, 120 of the finalists from previous years returned to BJU as freshmen.[44]
Science [ edit ]
Howell Memorial Science Building
Bob Jones University supports young-earth creationism,[45] all their biology faculty are young Earth creationists[46] and the university rejects evolution, calling it "at best an unsupportable and unworkable hypothesis".[47]
The school offers undergraduate majors in biology (zoo and wildlife, and cell biology[48]), premed/predent, chemistry, engineering, and physics and also offers courses in astronomy. Between 80% and 100% of the pre-med graduates are accepted to medical school every year.[49] The Department of Biology hosts two research programs on campus, one in cancer research, the other in animal behavior.[50] In 2008 no member of the BJU science faculty held a degree in geology,[51] and the university offered only one introductory course in the subject.[52] Although ten of the sixteen members of the science faculty have undergraduate degrees from BJU, all earned their doctorates from accredited, non-religious institutions of higher learning.[51]
The university's nursing major is approved by the South Carolina State Board of Nursing, and a BJU graduate with a BSN is eligible to take the National Council Licensure Examination to become a registered nurse.[52] The BJU engineering program was accredited by the Accreditation Board for Engineering and Technology (ABET).[53]
Accreditation and rankings [ edit ]
Bob Jones, Sr. was leery of academic accreditation almost from the founding of the college, and by the early 1930s, he had publicly stated his opposition to holding regional accreditation.[54] Jones and the college were criticized for this stance, and academic recognition, as well as student and faculty recruitment, were hindered.[55]
In 1944, Jones wrote to John Walvoord of Dallas Theological Seminary that while the university had "no objection to educational work highly standardized…. We, however, cannot conscientiously let some group of educational experts or some committee of experts who may have a behavioristic or atheistic slant on education control or even influence the administrative policies of our college."[56] Five years later, Jones reflected that "it cost us something to stay out of an association, but we stayed out. We have lived up to our convictions."[57] In any case, lack of accreditation seems to have made little difference during the post-war period, when the university more than doubled in size.[55]
Because graduates did not have the benefit of accredited degrees, the faculty felt an increased responsibility to prepare their students.[58] Early in the history of the college, there had been some hesitancy on the part of other institutions to accept BJU credits at face value, but by the 1960s, BJU alumni were being accepted by most of the major graduate and professional schools in the United States.[59] Undoubtedly helpful was that some of the university's strongest programs were in the areas of music, speech, and art, disciplines in which ability could be measured by audition or portfolio rather than through paper qualifications.[60]
Nevertheless, by the early 2000s, the university quietly reexamined its position on accreditation as degree mills proliferated and some government agencies, such as local police departments, began excluding BJU graduates on the grounds that the university did not appear on appropriate federal lists.[60] In 2004, the university began the process of joining the Transnational Association of Christian Colleges and Schools. Candidate status—effectively, accreditation—was obtained in April 2005, and full membership in the Association was conferred in November 2006.[61] In December 2011, BJU announced its intention to apply for regional accreditation with the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools (SACSCOC), and it received that accreditation in 2017.[62]
In 2014, the Educate to Career College Ranking Index listed BJU as 15th in the nation by economic value.[63] [64] In 2017, Schools.com rated BJU as #2 in Best Four-Year College in South Carolina; Niche.com rated it #3 Best Private College in South Carolina; and Christian University Online rated it #3 Most Affordable Christian College in the U.S.[65] In 2017, US News ranked BJU as #61 (tie) in Regional Universities South and #7 in Best Value Schools.[66]
Race and politics [ edit ]
Racial policies [ edit ]
Although BJU had admitted Asians and other ethnic groups from its inception, it did not enroll Africans or African-American students until 1971. From 1971 to 1975, BJU admitted only married blacks, although the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) had already determined in 1970 that "private schools with racially discriminatory admissions policies" were not entitled to federal tax exemption. In 1975, the University Board of Trustees authorized a change in policy to admit black students, a move that occurred shortly before the announcement of the Supreme Court decision in Runyon v. McCrary (427 U.S. 160 [1976]), which prohibited racial exclusion in private schools.[67] However, in May of that year, BJU expanded rules against interracial dating and marriage.[68]
In 1976, the Internal Revenue Service revoked the university's tax exemption retroactively to December 1, 1970, on grounds that it was practicing racial discrimination.[69] The case eventually was heard by the U.S. Supreme Court in 1982. After BJU lost the decision in Bob Jones University v. United States (461 U.S. 574)[1983], the university chose to maintain its interracial dating policy and pay a million dollars in back taxes. The year following the Court decision, contributions to the university declined by 13 percent.[70] In 2000, following a media uproar prompted by the visit of presidential candidate George W. Bush to the university, Bob Jones III dropped the university's interracial dating rule, announcing the change on CNN's Larry King Live.[71] In the same year, Bob Jones III drew criticism when he reposted a letter on the university's web page referring to Mormons and Roman Catholics as being members of "cults which call themselves Christian".[72]
In 2005, Stephen Jones, great-grandson of the founder, became BJU's president on the same day that he received his Ph.D. from the school. Bob Jones III then took the title Chancellor. In 2008, the university declared itself "profoundly sorry" for having allowed "institutional policies to remain in place that were racially hurtful".[73] That year BJU enrolled students from fifty states and nearly fifty countries, representing diverse ethnicities and cultures, and the BJU administration declared itself "committed to maintaining on the campus the racial and cultural diversity and harmony characteristic of the true Church of Jesus Christ throughout the world".[74]
In his first meeting with the University cabinet in 2014, the fifth president Steve Pettit said he believed it was appropriate for BJU to regain its tax-exempt status because BJU no longer held its earlier positions about race. "The Bible is clear," said Pettit, "We are made of one blood." By February 17, 2017, the IRS website had listed the university as a 501(c)(3) organization,[75] and by May of the same year, BJU had forged a working relationship with Greenville's Phillis Wheatley Center.[76] In 2017, 9% of the student body was "from the American minority population".[77]
Political involvement [ edit ]
As a twelve-year-old, Bob Jones, Sr. made a twenty-minute speech in defense of the Populist Party. Jones was a friend and admirer of William Jennings Bryan but also campaigned throughout the South for Herbert Hoover (and against Al Smith) during the 1928 presidential election. Even the authorized history of BJU notes that both Bob Jones, Sr. and Bob Jones, Jr. “played political hardball” when dealing with the three municipalities in which the school was successively located. For instance, in 1962, Bob Jones, Sr. warned the Greenville City Council that he had “four hundred votes in his pocket and in any election he would have control over who would be elected.” [78]
Bob Jones, Sr.'s April 17, 1960, Easter Sunday sermon, broadcast on the radio, entitled "Is Segregation Scriptural?" served as the University position paper on race in the 60s, 70s and 80s. The transcript was sent in pamphlet form in fund-raising letters and sold in the university bookstore. In the sermon, Jones states "If you are against segregation and against racial separation, then you are against God Almighty." The school began a long history of supporting politicians who were considered aligned with racial segregation.[79][80][81]
Republican party ties [ edit ]
From nearly the inception of Bob Jones College, a majority of students and faculty were from the northern United States, where there was a larger ratio of Republicans to Democrats than in the South (which was solidly Democratic). Therefore, almost from its founding year, BJU had a larger portion of Republicans than the surrounding community.[82] After South Carolina Senator Strom Thurmond switched his allegiance to the Republican Party in 1964, BJU faculty members became increasingly influential in the new state Republican party, and BJU alumni were elected to local political and party offices. In 1976, candidates supported by BJU faculty and alumni captured the local Republican party with unfortunate short-term political consequences, but by 1980 the religious right and the "country club" Republicans had joined forces.[83] From then on, most Republican candidates for local and statewide offices sought the endorsement of Bob Jones III and greeted faculty/staff voters at the University Dining Common.[84]
National Republicans soon followed. Ronald Reagan spoke at the school in 1980, although the Joneses supported his opponent, John Connally, in the South Carolina primary.[85] Later, Bob Jones III denounced Reagan as "a traitor to God's people" for choosing George H. W. Bush—whom Jones called a "devil"—as his vice president. Even later, Jones III shook Bush's hand and thanked him for being a good president.[86] In the 1990s, other Republicans such as Dan Quayle, Pat Buchanan, Phil Gramm, Bob Dole, and Alan Keyes also spoke at BJU.[87] Democrats were rarely invited to speak at the university, in part because they took political and social positions (especially support for abortion rights) opposed by the Religious Right.[88]
2000 election [ edit ]
On February 2, 2000, George W. Bush, as candidate for President, spoke during school's chapel hour.[89] Bush gave a standard stump speech making no specific reference to the university. His political opponents quickly noted his non-mention of the university's ban on interracial dating. During the Michigan primary, Bush was also criticized for not stating his opposition to the university's anti-Catholicism. (The John McCain campaign targeted Roman Catholics with a "Catholic Voter Alert", phone calls reminding voters of Bush's visit to BJU.)[90] Bush denied that he either knew of or approved what he regarded as BJU's intolerant policies. On February 26, Bush issued a formal letter of apology to Cardinal John Joseph O'Connor of New York for failing to denounce Bob Jones University's history of anti-Catholic statements. At a news conference following the letter's release, Bush said, "I make no excuses. I had an opportunity and I missed it. I regret that....I wish I had gotten up then and seized the moment to set a tone, a tone that I had set in Texas, a positive and inclusive tone."[89] Also during the 2000 Republican primary campaign in South Carolina, Richard Hand, a BJU professor, spread a false e-mail rumor that John McCain had fathered an illegitimate child. (The McCains have an adopted daughter from Bangladesh, and later push polling also implied that the child was biracial.)[91]
Withdrawal from politics [ edit ]
Although the March 2007 issue of Foreign Policy listed BJU as one of "The World's Most Controversial Religious Sites" because of its past influence on American politics,[92] BJU has seen little political controversy since Stephen Jones became president. When asked by a Newsweek reporter if he wished to play a political role, Stephen Jones replied, "It would not be my choice." Further, when asked if he felt ideologically closer to his father's engagement with politics or to other evangelicals who have tried to avoid civic involvement, he answered, "The gospel is for individuals. The main message we have is to individuals. We’re not here to save the culture." [93] In a 2005 Washington Post interview, Jones dodged political questions and even admitted that he was embarrassed by "some of the more vitriolic comments" made by his predecessors. "I don't want to get specific," he said, "But there were things said back then that I wouldn't say today."[94] In October 2007 when Bob Jones III, as "a private citizen," endorsed Mitt Romney for the Republican nomination for president, Stephen Jones made it clear that he wished "to stay out of politics" and that neither he nor the university had endorsed anyone.[95] Despite a hotly contested South Carolina primary, none of the candidates appeared on the platform of BJU's Founders' Memorial Amphitorium during the 2008 election cycle.[96] In April 2008 Stephen Jones told a reporter, "I don't think I have a political bone in my body."[97]
Renewed political engagement [ edit ]
In 2015 BJU reemerged as campaign stop of significance for conservative Republicans. Ben Carson and Ted Cruz held large on-campus rallies on two successive days in November; and BJU president Steve Pettit met with Marco Rubio, Rick Perry, Mike Huckabee, and Scott Walker. Jeb Bush, Carson, Cruz, and Rubio also appeared at a 2016 Republican presidential forum at BJU. Chip Felkel, a Greenville Republican consultant, noted that some of the candidates closely identified "with the folks at Bob Jones. So it makes sense for them to want to be there." Nevertheless, unlike BJU's earlier periods of political involvement, Pettit did not endorse a candidate.[98]
According to Furman University political science professor Jim Guth, because Greenville has grown so much recently, it is unlikely BJU will ever again have the same political influence it had between the 1960s and the 1980s. Nevertheless, about a quarter of all BJU graduates continue to live in the Upstate, and as long-time mayor Knox White has said, "The alumni have had a big impact on every profession and walk of life in Greenville."[99]
Campus [ edit ]
The university occupies 205 acres at the eastern city limit of Greenville. The institution moved into its initial 25 buildings during the 1947–48 school year, and later buildings were also faced with the light yellow brick chosen for the originals.[100]
Museum and gallery [ edit ]
Bob Jones, Jr. was a connoisseur of European art and began collecting after World War II on about $30,000 a year authorized by the University Board of Directors.[101] Jones first concentrated on the Italian Baroque, a style then out of favor and relatively inexpensive in the years immediately following the war.[101] Fifty years after the opening of the gallery, the BJU collection included more than 400 European paintings from the 14th to through the 19th centuries (mostly pre-19th century), period furniture, and a notable collection of Russian icons.[102] The museum also includes a variety of Holy Land antiquities collected in the early 20th century by missionaries Frank and Barbara Bowen.[102] Not surprisingly, the gallery is especially strong in Baroque paintings and includes notable works by Rubens, Tintoretto, Veronese, Cranach, Gerard David, Murillo, Mattia Preti, Ribera, van Dyck, and Gustave Doré.[102] Included in the Museum & Gallery collection are seven very large canvases, part of a series by Benjamin West painted for George III, called "The Progress of Revealed Religion", which are displayed in the War Memorial Chapel.[103] (Baroque art was created during—and often for—the Counter-Reformation and so, ironically, BJU has been criticized by some other fundamentalists for promoting "false Catholic doctrine" through its art gallery.)[104]
After the death of Bob Jones, Jr., Erin Jones, the wife of BJU president Stephen Jones, became director. According to David Steel, curator of European art at the North Carolina Museum of Art, Erin Jones "brought that museum into the modern era", employing "a top-notch curator, John Nolan", and following "best practices in conservation and restoration". The museum now regularly cooperates with other institutions, lending works for outside shows such as a Rembrandt exhibit in 2011.[105]
Each Easter season, the university and the Museum & Gallery present the Living Gallery, a series of tableaux vivants recreating noted works of religious art using live models disguised as part of two-dimensional paintings.[106]
In 2008, the BJU Museum & Gallery opened a satellite location, the Museum & Gallery at Heritage Green near downtown Greenville, which featured rotating exhibitions from the main museum as well as interactive children's activities.[107] In February 2017, the Museum & Gallery closed both locations permanently. In 2018, the museum announced that a new home would be built at a yet undetermined located off the BJU campus.[108][109]
Library [ edit ]
Jerusalem Chamber, Mack Library, containing a collection of rare Bibles
The 90,000-square-foot (8,400 m2) Mack Library (named for John Sephus Mack) holds a collection of more than 300,000 books and includes seating for 1,200 as well as a computer lab and a computer classroom.[110] (Its ancillary, a music library, is included in the Gustafson Fine Arts Center.) Mack Library's Special Collections includes an American Hymnody Collection of about 700 titles.[111] The "Jerusalem Chamber" is a replica of the room in Westminster Abbey in which work on the King James Version of the Bible was conducted, and it displays a collection of rare Bibles.[112] An adjoining Memorabilia Room commemorates the life of Bob Jones, Sr. and the history of the University.[113]
The library's Fundamentalism File collects periodical articles and ephemera about social and religious matters of interest to evangelicals and fundamentalists.[114] The university Archives holds copies of all university publications, oral histories of faculty and staff members, surviving remnants of university correspondence, and pictures and artifacts related to the Jones family and the history of the university.[115]
Ancillary ministries [ edit ]
Unusual Films [ edit ]
Both Bob Jones, Sr. and Bob Jones, Jr. believed that film could be an excellent medium for mass evangelism, and in 1950, the university established Unusual Films within the School of Fine Arts.[116] (The studio name derives from a former BJU promotional slogan, "The World's Most Unusual University".)[117] Bob Jones, Jr. selected a speech teacher, Katherine Stenholm, as the first director. Although she had no experience in cinema, she took summer courses at the University of Southern California and received personal instruction from Hollywood specialists, such as Rudolph Sternad.[118]
Unusual Films has produced seven feature-length films, each with an evangelistic emphasis: Wine of Morning, Red Runs the River, Flame in the Wind, Sheffey, Beyond the Night, The Printing, and Milltown Pride.[119] Wine of Morning (1955), based on a novel by Bob Jones, Jr., represented the United States at the Cannes Film Festival.[120] The first four films are historical dramas set, respectively, in the time of Christ, the U.S. Civil War, 16th-century Spain, and the late 19th-century South—the latter a fictionalized treatment of the life of Methodist evangelist, Robert Sayers Sheffey. Beyond the Night closely follows an actual 20th-century missionary saga in Central Africa, and The Printing uses composite characters to portray the persecution of believers in the former Soviet Union. According to The Dove Foundation, The Printing "no doubt will urge Christian believers everywhere to appreciate the freedoms they enjoy. It is inspiring!" [121] In 1999, Unusual Films began producing feature films for children, including The Treasure Map,[122] Project Dinosaur,[123] and Appalachian Trial.[124] They also released a short animated film for children, The Golden Rom.[125] Unusual Films returned to their customary format in 2011 with their release of Milltown Pride, a historical film set in 1920s upstate South Carolina.[126]
Unusual Films also maintains a student film production program. The Cinema Production program is designed to give professional training in all facets of motion picture production. This training combines classroom instruction with hands-on experience in a variety of areas including directing, editing, and cinematography. Before graduation, seniors produce their own high-definition short film which they write, direct, and edit.[127]
BJU Press [ edit ]
BJU Press originated from the need for textbooks for the burgeoning Christian school movement,[128] and today it is the largest book publisher in South Carolina.[129] The press publishes a full range of K–12 textbooks. More than a million pre-college students around the world use BJU textbooks, and the press has about 2,500 titles in print.
BJU Press also offers distance learning courses online, via DVD, and via hard drive.[130] Another ancillary, the Academy of Home Education, is a "service organization for homeschooling families" that maintains student records, administers achievement testing, and issues high school diplomas. The press sold its music division, SoundForth, to Lorenz Publishing on October 1, 2012.[131]
Pre-college programs [ edit ]
The university operates Bob Jones Academy, which enrolls students from preschool through 12th grade.[132] With about 1500 students, it is the largest K–12 private school in the Carolinas and one of the largest in the Southeast.[133]
Student life [ edit ]
Religious atmosphere [ edit ]
"I believe in the inspiration of the Bible (both the Old and the New Testaments); the creation of man by the direct act of God; the incarnation and virgin birth of our Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ; His identification as the Son of God; His vicarious atonement for the sins of mankind by the shedding of His blood on the cross; the resurrection of His body from the tomb; His power to save men from sin; the new birth through the regeneration by the Holy Spirit; and the gift of eternal life by the grace of God." — BJU Creed
Religion is a major aspect of life and curriculum at BJU. The BJU Creed, written in 1927 by journalist and prohibitionist Sam Small, is recited by students and faculty four days a week at chapel services.[134]
The university also encourages church planting in areas of the United States "in great need of fundamental churches", and it has provided financial and logistical assistance to ministerial graduates in starting more than a hundred new churches.[135] Bob Jones III has also encouraged non-ministerial students to put their career plans on hold for two or three years to provide lay leadership for small churches.[136] Students of various majors participate in Missions Advance (formerly Mission Prayer Band), an organization that prays for missionaries and attempts to stimulate campus interest in world evangelism.[137] During summers and Christmas breaks, about 150 students participate in teams that use their musical, language, trade, and aviation skills to promote Christian missions around the world.[42] Although a separate nonprofit corporation, Gospel Fellowship Association, an organization founded by Bob Jones Sr. and associated with BJU, is one of the largest fundamentalist mission boards in the country.[138] Through its "Timothy Fund", the university also sponsors international students who are training for the ministry.[139]
The university requires use of the King James Version (KJV) of the Bible in its services and classrooms, but it does not hold that the KJV is the only acceptable English translation or that it has the same authority as the original Hebrew and Greek manuscripts.[36] The university's position has been criticized by some other fundamentalists, including fellow conservative university Pensacola Christian College, which in 1998 produced a widely distributed videotape which argued that this "defiling leaven in fundamentalism" was passed from the 19th-century Princeton theologian Benjamin B. Warfield (1851–1921) through Charles Brokenshire (1885–1954) to current BJU faculty members and graduates.[140][141]
Rules of conduct [ edit ]
Strict rules govern student life at BJU.[142] Some of these are based directly on the university's interpretation of the Bible. For instance, the 2015–16 Student Handbook states, "Students are to avoid any types of entertainment that could |
402–415 [96] 33 August 20, 2018 2 416–430 [97] 34 November 19, 2018 2 431–444 [98] 35 February 11, 2019 2 445–458 [99]
Series sets [ edit ]
Volume Date Discs Episodes Ref. 1 March 7, 2011 8 1–52 [100] 2 June 4, 2012 8 53–100 [101] 3 June 3, 2013 8 101–153 [102] 4 February 10, 2014 8 154–192 [103] 5 April 13, 2015 8 193–244 [104] 6 April 4, 2016 8 245–296 [105] 7 September 4, 2017 8 297–348 [106] 8 April 23, 2018 8 349–401 [107] 9 March 25, 2019 8 402–458 [108]
Region 3 (Japan) [ edit ]
Kazekage Rescue[109] Volume Date Discs Episodes Ref. 1 August 1, 2007 1 1–4 [110] 2 September 5, 2007 1 5–8 [110] 3 October 3, 2007 1 9–12 [110] 4 November 7, 2007 1 13–16 [110] 5 December 5, 2007 1 17–20 [110] 6 January 1, 2008 1 21–24 [110] 7 February 6, 2008 1 25–28 [110] 8 March 5, 2008 1 29–32 [110]
Long-Awaited Reunion[111] Volume Date Discs Episodes Ref. 1 April 2, 2008 1 33–36 [112] 2 May 9, 2008 1 37–40 [112] 3 June 4, 2008 1 41–44 [112] 4 July 2, 2008 1 45–48 [112] 5 August 6, 2008 1 49–53 [112]
Twelve Guardian Ninja[113] Volume Date Discs Episodes Ref. 1 September 3, 2008 1 54–57 [114] 2 October 1, 2008 1 58–61 [114] 3 November 5, 2008 1 62–66 [114] 4 December 3, 2008 1 67–71 [114]
Immortal Devastators – Hidan and Kakuzu[115] Volume Date Discs Episodes Ref. 1 January 14, 2009 1 72–75 [116] 2 February 4, 2009 1 76–79 [116] 3 March 4, 2009 1 80–83 [116] 4 May 13, 2009 1 84–88 [116]
The Three-Tailed Demon Turtle[117] Volume Date Discs Episodes Ref. 1 June 3, 2009 1 89–92 [118] 2 July 1, 2009 1 93–96 [118] 3 August 5, 2009 1 97–100 [118] 4 September 2, 2009 1 101–104 [118] 5 October 7, 2009 1 105–108 [118] 6 November 4, 2009 1 109–112 [118]
Kakashi Chronicles ~Boys' Life on the Battlefield~ Volume Date Discs Episodes Ref. 1 December 16, 2009 1 119–120 [119]
Master's Prophecy and Vengeance[120] Volume Date Discs Episodes Ref. 1 January 13, 2010 1 113–116 [121] 2 February 3, 2010 1 117–118, 121–122 [121] 3 March 3, 2010 1 123–126 [121] 4 April 7, 2010 1 127–130 [121] 5 May 12, 2010 1 131–134 [121] 6 June 2, 2010 1 135–138 [121] 7 July 7, 2010 1 139–143 [121]
The Six-Tailed Demon Slug[122] Volume Date Discs[123] Episodes[123] Ref. 1 August 4, 2010 1 144–147 [124] 2 September 1, 2010 1 148–151 [124]
Two Saviors[125] Volume Date Discs Episodes Ref. 1 October 6, 2010 1 152–155 [126] 2 November 3, 2010 1 156–159 [126] 3 December 1, 2010 1 160–163 [126] 4 January 12, 2011 1 164–167 [126] 5 February 2, 2011 1 168–169, 172–173 [126] 6 March 2, 2011 1 174–175, 170–171 [126]
Past Arc ~The Locus of Konoha~[127] Volume Date Discs Episodes Ref. 1 April 6, 2011 1 176–179 [128] 2 May 11, 2011 1 180–183 [128] 3 June 1, 2011 1 184–186, 189 [128] 4 July 6, 2011 1 190–193 [128] 5 August 3, 2011 1 194–196, 187-188 [128]
Gathering of the Five Kage Volume Date Discs Episodes Ref. 1 September 7, 2011 1 197–200 [129] 2 October 5, 2011 1 201–204 [129] 3 November 2, 2011 1 205–208 [129] 4 December 7, 2011 1 209–212 [129] 5 January 11, 2012 1 213–216 [129] 6 February 1, 2012 1 217–221 [129]
Paradise on the Ship Volume Date Discs Episodes Ref. 1 March 7, 2012 1 222–225 [130] 2 April 4, 2012 1 226–229 [130] 3 May 2, 2012 1 230–233 [130] 4 June 6, 2012 1 234–237 [130] 5 July 4, 2012 1 238–242 [130]
Special Edition ~The Birth of Naruto~ Volume Date Discs Episodes Ref. 1 August 1, 2012 1 248–249 [131]
Special Edition ~The Fated Pair~ Volume Date Discs Episodes Ref. 1 September 5, 2012 1 257–260 [131]
Nine-tailed Fox Taming and Karmic Encounters Volume Date Discs Episodes Ref. 1 October 3, 2012 1 243–247 [132] 2 November 7, 2012 1 250–253 [132] 3 December 5, 2012 1 254–256, 261 [132] 4 January 9, 2013 1 262–265 [132] 5 February 6, 2013 1 266–270 [132] 6 March 6, 2013 1 271–275 [132]
The Seven Shinobi Swordsmen Volume Date Discs Episodes Ref. 1 April 3, 2013 1 276–280 [133] 2 May 1, 2013 1 281–284 [133] 3 June 5, 2013 1 285–289 [133]
Special Edition 【Power-Chikara-】 Volume Date Discs Episodes Ref. Black July 3, 2013 1 290–292 [134] White August 7, 2013 1 293–295 [134]
The Fourth Great Ninja War - Assailants From Afar Volume Date Discs Episodes Ref. 1 September 4, 2013 1 296–299 [135] 2 October 2, 2013 1 300–303 [135] 3 November 6, 2013 1 304–307 [135] 4 December 4, 2013 1 308–311 [135] 5 January 8, 2014 1 312–315 [135] 6 February 5, 2014 1 316–320 [135]
The Fourth Great Ninja War - Sasuke & Itachi Volume Date Discs Episodes Ref. 1 March 4, 2014 1 321–324 [136] 2 April 2, 2014 1 325–328 [136] 3 May 7, 2014 1 329–332 [136] 4 July 2, 2014 1 333–336 [136] 5 July 2, 2014 1 337–340 [136] 6 August 6, 2014 1 341–344 [136] 7 September 3, 2014 1 345–348 [136]
Kakashi: Shadow of the ANBU Black Ops Volume Date Discs Episodes Ref. 1 October 1, 2014 1 349–352 [137] 2 November 5, 2014 1 353–356 [137] 3 December 3, 2014 1 357–361 [137]
The Fourth Great Ninja War - The Return of Squad Seven Volume Date Discs Episodes Ref. 1 January 7, 2015 1 362–365 [138] 2 February 4, 2015 1 366–369 [138] 3 March 4, 2015 1 370–372, 376–377 [138]
The Fourth Great Ninja War - Obito Uchiha Volume Date Discs Episodes Ref. 1 April 1, 2015 1 373–375, 378 [139] 2 May 13, 2015 1 379–382 [139] 3 June 3, 2015 1 383–386 [139] 4 July 1, 2015 1 387–390 [139] 5 August 5, 2015 1 391–393 [139]
In Naruto's Footsteps - The Path Traveled- Volume Date Discs Episodes Ref. 1 September 2, 2015 1 394–397 [140] 2 October 7, 2015 1 398–401 [141] 3 November 4, 2015 1 402–405 [142] 4 December 2, 2015 1 406–409 [143] 5 January 6, 2016 1 410–413 [144]
Infinite Tsukuyomi: The Invocation Volume Date Discs Episodes Ref. 1 February 3, 2016 1 414–417 [145] 2 March 2, 2016 1 418–421 [146] 3 April 6, 2016 1 422–426 [147] 4 May 11, 2016 1 427–431 [148]
Jiraiya Shinobi Handbook: The Tale of Naruto the Hero Volume Date Discs Episodes Ref. 1 June 8, 2016 1 432–435 [149] 2 July 6, 2016 1 436–439 [150] 3 August 3, 2016 1 440–443 [151] 4 September 7, 2016 1 444–447 [152] 5 October 5, 2016 1 448–450 [153]
Itachi's Story ~ Light and Darkness Volume Date Discs Episodes Ref. 1 November 2, 2016 1 451–454 [154] 2 December 7, 2016 1 455–458 [155]
The Origins of Ninshu ~ The Two Souls, Indra and Ashura Volume Date Discs Episodes Ref. 1 January 11, 2017 1 459–462 [156] 2 February 8, 2017 1 463–466 [157] 3 March 1, 2017 1 467–469 [158]
The Chapter of Naruto and Sasuke Volume Date Discs Episodes Ref. 1 April 5, 2017 1 470–473 [159] 2 May 10, 2017 1 474–477 [160] 3 June 7, 2017 1 478–479 [161]
Nostalgic Days Volume Date Discs Episodes Ref. 1 July 5, 2017 1 480–483 [162]
Sasuke Shinden Volume Date Discs Episodes Ref. 1 August 2, 2017 1 484–488 [163]
Shikamaru's Story: Secret Clouds in the Silence of the Dark Volume Date Discs Episodes Ref. 1 September 6, 2017 1 489–493 [164]
Konoha's Story: Marriage Ceremony Day Volume Date Discs Episodes Ref. 1 October 4, 2017 1 494–496 [165] 2 November 1, 2017 1 497–500 [166]
Region 4 (Australia/NZ) [ edit ]
Collection Date Discs Episodes Ref. 1 March 17, 2010 2 1–13 [167] 2 June 16, 2010 2 14–26 [168] 3 September 1, 2010 2 27–39 [169] 4 November 3, 2010 2 40–52 [170] 5 February 16, 2011 2 53–65 [171] 6 July 20, 2011 2 66–77 [172] 7 November 16, 2011 2 78–88 [173] 8 February 15, 2012 2 89–100 [174] 9 May 23, 2012 2 101–112 [175] 10 July 4, 2012 2 113–126 [176] 11 October 24, 2012 2 127–140 [177] 12 January 9, 2013 2 141–153 [178] 13 March 20, 2013 2 154–166 [179] 14 June 19, 2013 2 167–179 [180] 15 October 16, 2013 2 180–192 [181] 16 February 19, 2014 2 193–205 [182] 17 March 19, 2014 2 206–218 [183] 18 June 18, 2014 2 219–231 [184] 19 August 20, 2014 2 232–244 [185] 20 January 7, 2015 2 245–257 [186] 21 March 11, 2015 2 258–270 [187] 22 June 10, 2015 2 271–283 [188] 23 September 16, 2015 2 284–296 [189] 24 January 13, 2016 2 297–309 [190] 25 April 6, 2016 2 310–322 [191] 26 September 7, 2016 2 323–335 [192] 27 October 5, 2016 2 336–348 [193] 28 December 7, 2016 2 349–361 [194] 29 March 8, 2017 2 362–374 [195] 30 June 7, 2017 2 375–387 [196] 31 September 6, 2017 2 388–401 [197]
Hokage Box Sets [ edit ]
Box Set Date Discs Episodes Ref. 1 May 25, 2017 16 1–100 [198] 2 May 25, 2017 16 101–205 [199]
Notes [ edit ]
References [ edit ]I recently got to sit down with the new Executive Producer of Star Trek Online, Stephen D’Angelo. I checked his Trekkie credentials, asked him about his future hopes for Star Trek Online and got information on things to come.
Maressa: First, congratulations from all of us at MMOGames on the new job as Executive Producer. How are you finding the new desk?
D’Angelo: The Executive Producer job is a challenging one, but it’s also very rewarding. I get to work with a fantastic team, contribute to the Star Trek universe, and work to make STO an even better game.
Maressa: I know the fans are eager to get to know you a little. So what better way to do that then talk about a shared interest. What would you say is your favorite Star Trek episode ever? How about your favorite Star Trek movie?
D’Angelo: I know this episode doesn’t hit everyone’s sweet spot, but my favorite is “The Inner Light”, where Jean-Luc Picard experiences a lifetime on a world that preserved their heritage by sharing a virtual experience. I love a well told story. Of the movies, The Wrath of Khan is my choice.
Maressa: What is one thing you’d really like to accomplish in your new position?
D’Angelo: I really have two big things I want to accomplish. First, I want to work to improve the parts of the game that are not up to par. This means fixing bugs and polishing, replacing, or removing things that don’t work as well as we’d like. Second, I want to push the game forward in a real way. I’m working with the dev team on plans here, and we should have something to share in March about big things coming this year.
Maressa: It has been announced that Tim Russ will be joining the Star Trek Online family along with Denise Crosby, Leonard Nemoy, and Michael Dorn who came before. Are there any other Star Trek actors lined up for future work? And who would you enjoy seeing added to STO with their actor in the future?
D’Angelo: We’re actively working to recruit more voice talent to bring their iconic Star Trek characters to the game, but we don’t have anyone new confirmed at this time. Who would I like to see join the game’s cast? Just about every memorable character that’s appeared in the show, from minor parts to the main cast. I’m a Star Trek geek and it’s always fun to bring even a small piece of the show to life in the game.
Maressa: You mentioned in your recent dev blog that hourly events are soon to be a thing of the past. Will there be any new events when they get moved to the weekend long events?
D’Angelo: Absolutely. We are looking to use the weekend events not just for extra marks or Dilithium. I want to see some fun things to spice up the game, like perhaps a shuttle play weekend, where players can gain extra rewards and have fun in small craft.
Maressa: A lot of people are very excited for the Undine changes. Are there going to be any others like them coming in the near(ish) future?
D’Angelo: We have a little more work on the Undine coming in Season 9, but otherwise we’ll be focused hard on content and story for that release.
Maressa: Season 8.5 is bringing with it an updated experience to some of the earlier Federation episodes. But most players have already been through these. Why should veteran players go back and re-experience this content?
D’Angelo: The main draw of Star Trek Online is the story, and if you love the story it will be worth your while to go play the episodes again. But the main reason we chose to rework the tutorial in Season 8 and these episodes in Season 8.5 is to give new players a better view of what the veteran players have been getting at the end game. STO has improved a lot since launch, and I feel that the experience should be more even throughout the game.
Maressa: There has been some mention from fans that the Foundry in Neverwinter seems to be slightly more advanced than the one in Star Trek Online. Is this true and are there any plans to give the STO Foundry a boost?
D’Angelo: Foundry in Neverwinter was nearly a complete rewrite based on what we learned in Star Trek Online, so it has many new things, but also has many elements missing. We would love to bring over all the changes, but it would be a project nearly as large as the original Foundry project for STO to do so. As a result, we are instead picking key features that players like in Neverwinter and are working to bring them over to STO one at a time.
Maressa: 2014 is well underway, are there any exciting things coming up that you can talk about?
D’Angelo: Once the anniversary celebration is over, we’ve got an entirely new event along the lines of the Crystalline Entity event. We’ve been playtesting it in the studio and it’s a ton of fun. We won’t be sharing details until the end of February.
I hope to see you, and your readers, in game next week to celebrate 4 years of Star Trek Online.
I’d like to thank the new Captain of STO for taking the time to answer these questions. With 4th anniversary events coming up, revamped content, and other new events on the way now is the best time to be a Star Trek Online player.
Related: AnniversaryHow divisive was the debate over Medicaid expansion in Missouri this year?
Just ask Debbie Cole, a 51-year-old mother of four who lives in Butler, Mo., and signed a petition asking state legislators to extend Medicaid to cover more low-income residents.
“We all live different lives, and some people out there may be working two or three jobs and have no insurance, and they need it to survive,” she says.
About a month after signing the petition, Cole got a letter from her state senator, Republican Ed Emery of Lamar.
The letter explained that Emery was concerned expansion would limit individual choice in healthcare. It also mentioned Medicaid expansion in Oregon, where one study showed the newly-insured failed to achieve significantly improved health outcomes on four measures compared to the uninsured.
Emery encouraged Cole to study expansion further and, before signing off, offered one more thought.
“We live in a nation and an era that facilitates physical moves between states. Individuals and families are free to consider moving to states with differing and even contrasting government policies,” he wrote.
Cole was not pleased.
“Sincerely, I was surprised, the way it was worded,” she says. “It sounded like I was ignorant, and I could move out of the state of Missouri.”
Emery says Cole misunderstood him.
“I don’t think there was anything in there suggesting anybody should move,” Emery said in a recent phone interview with KCUR.
He says he received a package of form letters asking for expansion and he responded to each one.
The letter, he says, simply pointed out that “we’re free to move from state to state if a state has policies that we like versus policies that we don’t.”
Cole, who still hopes Medicaid eligibility will be expanded, says she’s staying put.
For details on the last-minute Medicaid expansion compromise that failed to overcome House resistance, see the accompanying story on out website.
Read the full text of Senator Emery's letter:
Dear Debbie,
I received your form letter about Medicaid expansion. Thank you for contacting my office. Although it is seldom possible to please every constituent, it is valuable to know what my constituents are thinking. I will not support Medicaid expansion in Missouri for several reasons. First, it does not deliver on its promises: The Oregon Medicaid experiment confirms what common sense would conclude – neither access nor health outcomes are improved.
Secondly, it has a significant negative impact on choice. Medicaid expansion represents contraction of choice. The state, not the individual, decides what treatments can be provided and by whom. Individual liberty is important to me, and I understand my oath of office as a commitment to defend it.
There are additional reasons why Medicaid expansion is wrong for Missouri that you may discover with further study. They will also become more obvious as those states who have taken that course will begin to experience the consequences. Nevertheless, an invaluable aspect of our federation of states is that each state is like a laboratory for government policies. We live in a nation and an era that facilitates physical moves between states. Individuals and families are free to consider moving to states with differing and even contrasting government policies. That is the beauty of federalism.
Thank you for your input and for allowing me to explain my position.
Sincerely,
Ed EmeryConsidering that performing a moderator analysis is generally not advisable with less than 10 studies, 53 we performed a moderator analysis for the whole sample of studies, rather than separately for the affective domain. The following moderators were initially included in single-predictor models: publication year, child age at assessment, outcome domain and diet category. Instrument category was originally considered, but only questionnaires were used in the studies within the affective domain and this was therefore deemed unnecessary. Child age at assessment explained none of the heterogeneity and were excluded from further analysis. Separately, outcome domain, publication year and diet category accounted for some of the heterogeneity present, and when included together in a moderator analysis they explained approximately 30% of the heterogeneity (p=0.0471). However, there was still a significant degree of heterogeneity present (p<0.0001), indicating that other moderators not considered in the model were influencing the outcome effect sizes.
The imputed effect sizes (open circles) are all smaller than the summary effect size, and the trim and fill analyses suggest that the adjusted overall summary effect size would be 0.075 (cf, table 3 ). It is still significant (p<0.0001), but smaller than the originally calculated summary effect size (g=0.112). Additionally, even with the imputed effect sizes, there are still significant levels of heterogeneity present, which indicate that other factors than publication bias are contributing to the observed heterogeneity. Table 3 also shows that only the studies in the affective domain appear to be afflicted by publication bias, as the summary effect size for the cognitive domain remains unchanged with the trim and fill analysis. The results from regression-based adjustment for publication bias are consistent with the trim and fill analysis in that they show a similar overall effect size, a clear association in the cognitive domain and a noticeably weaker association in the affective domain.
If no publication bias was present, approximately 95% of the points for the original effect sizes should be located within the white funnel area 25 and should be roughly distributed evenly to the left and to the right of the vertical line illustrating the overall summary effect size. Because this is not the case, a trim and fill analysis was performed and the results are displayed in figure 4. §
As can be seen from the Q and I 2 statistics in table 3, there is a significant degree of heterogeneity present for the overall summary effect size, indicating a systematic difference in effect sizes between the studies. As possible sources of this heterogeneity, we investigated publication bias and performed a moderator analysis on all included studies.
Three separate REMs were fit: one across all studies to yield an overall summary effect size, one for the cognitive domain and one for the affective domain. Table 3 provides a summary of the three REMs, including test results for heterogeneity (Q-statistics and I 2 -statistics). For the original REM the effect sizes are typically larger for the cognitive domain (g=0.14), compared with the affective domain (g=0.093), while the summary effect size across both domains is g=0.112.
For the two REMs investigating for publication bias (trim and fill and with SE as moderator) the adjusted SEs based on the above formulae was used. For the original REM we used the reported effect sizes and corresponding adjusted variance as a basis for the calculations and obtained robust SEs 56 using Metafor’s ‘robust’ function. We chose this robust estimator function as it is appropriate to use for models with unspecified heteroscedasticity, 23 which is the case with all studies reporting multiple effect sizes that are included in this meta-analysis.
We used a weighting scheme and calculated robust SEs to account for these sources of dependencies. 56 Weights were adjusted for studies that contribute multiple effect sizes by recalculating them such that the sum of the weights of all effect sizes from a study reflect the sample size of that study. When using the Metafor package which calculates weights from effect size variances or SEs, this can be achieved by calculating effect size variances with adjusted N. In particular, we adjusted N for study i such that: Here, k is the number of effect sizes from a study sample (eg, ALSPAC) and N j are the sample sizes for the different effect sizes. When estimating average effect sizes for specific domains, this approach corrects for multiple effect sizes for one domain coming from one study sample. When estimating the overall effect size this approach corrects for multiple contributions of effect sizes from one or more domains from one study sample. Hence, one study could be allocated different weights, depending on the meta-analytic model. Optimally, the calculation of overall effect sizes would also account for the covariance between effects in different domains; however, the reviewed articles did not provide this information. The employed weighting scheme implies an assumed correlation of ρ=0.5.
There are several sources of effect size dependencies within our sample of studies. First, some of the included studies use subpopulations of the same cohort sample, while using different outcome measures at different time points: Four of the studies 30 31 34 39 were based on subsamples of the ALSPAC cohort, and two studies 37 47 were based on subsamples from the Project Viva cohort. Second, some of the studies included in this meta-analysis 33–35 40 report multiple effect sizes.
The 18 studies included in the final meta-analysis comprised a total of 63 861 ‡ participants and 26 separate effect sizes divided into four different cognitive or affective dimensions. These effect sizes with corresponding CIs are depicted in the forest plot in figure 2. § The size of each square reflects the precision of the effect size estimate by means of the weight that is assigned to each respective study when the summary effect size is computed. A larger square equals larger weight assigned to that study.
Application of these rules resulted in a total of 26 separate effect sizes. Only the fully adjusted effect sizes from each study were chosen. We initially considered including the corresponding unadjusted effect sizes for each study, however only four studies provided this information, 33 35 41 42 and the studies that reported minimally adjusted results adjusted for different variables.
For reported effect sizes where corresponding outcome dimensions were unclear (eg, based on inadequate reporting of instrument properties) and not resolved with discussion among the reviewers, these effect sizes were excluded. This occurred for three separate instruments, each from different studies. 43 44 46
For studies that report more than one effect size relevant for inclusion in one domain based on the same type of instrument, the average weighted effect size across those reported were included after Hedges g had been calculated.
If effect sizes were reported for all types of fish as well as oily fish, only all types of fish were included in the final analysis, as to make the exposure definition as homogenous as possible.
For fish/seafood intake, if more than two intake groups had been defined, we only included the group which best corresponded to what is considered a healthy diet by the national health authorities, which is 2–3 servings per week for total fish intake, where about half should be fatty fish. 11
After Hedges’ g had been calculated, the effect sizes were further summarised as many studies reported several effect sizes for the same exposure–outcome combination. Preferably, only one effect size per study should be retained; 22 however, this was considered inapplicable, due to the large variations in neurodevelopmental outcomes assessed in the different studies. After careful consideration, four outcome dimensions (externalising, internalising, socioemotional, cognitive) covering the affective and general cognitive domains were chosen. Selection of the outcome measures into each respective domain was based on (1) a thorough review of the properties of each instrument with regard to what area of development the instrument is aimed at measuring based on the manual for each instrument and (2) research indicating that language, cognition and executive functions are more strongly correlated with each other than with affective functioning. 54 55
Some studies did not report all the required information to calculate Hedges’ g in the compute.es package. For the studies reporting OR, where group sample sizes were not reported, the method for converting OR to Cohens’ d proposed by Chinn 49 was used. For mean difference in standardised test score, Hedges’ g was calculated using SD and mean difference. For regression coefficient (β), Hedges’ g was calculated using p-value, SE and z-statistics. For Cohens’ d, Hedges’ g was calculated using the formula proposed by Lakens. 50 For studies lacking p value, CIs, SDs or SEs, the required inferential statistics were calculated in advance of the final effect size estimation by using appropriate formulas. 51–53
None of the included studies reported Hedges’ g as their effect size. The compute.es package 48 was used to calculate Hedges’ g for the studies reporting the following: (1) For OR, Hedges’ g was calculated using the ‘lores’ function (based on log of OR and its corresponding variance), (2) for p values (with information of group sample sizes), Hedges’ g was calculated using the ‘pes’ function and (3) for correlation coefficient (r), Hedges’ g was calculated using the ‘res’ function.
Each study was evaluated with the NOS checklist; please see online supplementary table 3 for individual study scoring information. Of the 18 included studies, nine were rated as of ‘fair’ quality and nine as of ‘poor’ quality. No study received the rating ‘good’ because none of the studies that used high-quality measurements also adequately dealt with self-selection into studies and selective dropout of participants. All ‘poor’ ratings were due to insufficiencies in the ‘Outcome’ dimension of the NOS in studies that measured outcomes through self-reports (independent blind assessments or record linkage is preferred by the NOS) and that additionally did not account for selective dropout between exposure and outcome assessments.
Overall, the studies controlled for a number of different factors are depicted in online supplementary table 2. Studies varied greatly in which confounders they included in the analysis, with SES being the only confounder considered by all studies.
Table 2 summarises the wide range of different neuropsychological instruments that were used across the studies to assess cognitive and behavioural functions. A total of 18 original instruments were used in addition to one self-developed instrument, comprising both questionnaires and neuropsychological tests.
Eleven studies used maternal fish intake as exposure, 31–34 36–38 41 42 46 47 where the studies categorised fish intake into groups based on meals/portions or grams eaten per day or week. The remaining three studies used Ω-6/Ω-3 fatty acid ratio, 43 saturated fat intake 45 and fruit intake 44 as their exposure variable. All studies were published in the period from 2004 to 2016, with study populations ranging from 48 to 23 020 mother-child pairs ( table 1 ).
Four studies used maternal dietary patterns as exposure variables, 30 35 39 40 either defined by the use of principal component analysis or confirmatory factor analysis. In three studies, 30 35 40 two distinct dietary patterns were identified: one ‘healthy’ and one ‘unhealthy’, while only an unhealthy dietary pattern was defined in the fourth. 39 The healthy dietary patterns were generally characterised by higher intakes of vegetables, fish, legumes, wholegrains and vegetable oils, while the unhealthy dietary patterns consisted of higher intakes of processed foods (fried foods, French fries, meats) confectionary foods (cakes, candy, sugary drinks), refined cereals and salty snacks.
All studies collected information on maternal dietary intake with the use of a food frequency questionnaire (FFQ), either self-administered or by a trained interviewer, with some using validated FFQs; and/or a food-diary. Data obtained with these instruments were used as the basis for the definition of dietary patterns, estimation of fish/seafood intake, fruit intake, saturated fat intake and estimation of Ω-6/Ω-3 fatty acid ratio based on intake.
All included studies were observational in nature and based on a prospective cohort design or case-control design, with baseline measures of maternal dietary intake during pregnancy and subsequent measurement of child cognitive or affective functioning, at one or more time points.
Discussion
The aim of this meta-analysis was to systematically review and summarise the currently existing literature about the association between maternal diet quality and different child neurodevelopmental outcomes. When dietary exposures believed to be appropriate proxies for maternal diet quality were included, a total of 18 studies comprising 63 861 participants were found relevant for inclusion in this meta-analysis.
The meta-analysis showed that a better maternal diet quality had a small, statistically significant association with child neurodevelopment. The summary effect size for the cognitive domain was larger than the overall summary effect size, with no significant presence of heterogeneity. This positive association with cognitive outcomes is in line with findings from a |
refugee."
A large part of her campaign is not only encouraging people to do what they can to help, but also urging them to talk about the good that they do, instead of remaining anonymous or worrying about coming across as boasting or self-indulgent.
"I think part of the great thing about being an influencer is that you can have a message and spread it to a lot of people. And the cool thing about being alive these days is that everyone is an influencer because everyone has a following. If you tweet something and you have 85 people, that's 85 more people that know about something that you've contributed to that maybe they didn't know about before."
Visit CantDoNothing.org to find out how you can help, whether it's donating money, signing on with volunteer groups or simply spreading the word online with the #CantDoNothing hashtag.August 28, 2012 21:25 IST
There's so much internet censorship in India now that it is surprising that instead of outrage you find the Indian media actually building the case for censorship, writes Shivam Vij
H undreds of web pages now stand blocked in India, the government has openly been appealing to internet companies to pre- or post-screen content and remove what the government wants it to remove. One Google Transparency Report after another has been revealing how the number one target of the government is criticism of politicians and government. Just imagine what would the Indian media's response to such censorship have been like had it been hundreds of books or articles we were talking about? Instead of asking Facebook to 'pre-screen' our posts, had Kapil Sibal been asking for someone to pre-screen articles in the newspapers, would it not be like the Emergency of 1975?
Okay, point taken. Let us not trivialise the Emergency, which entailed jailing of dissidents and forced sterilisation and so on. But still, there's so much internet censorship in India now that it is surprising that instead of outrage you find the Indian media actually building the case for censorship. What about hate speech, they ask. What about the trolls, why is there so much abuse on the internet?
In the latest round of censorship the victims include mainstream media outlets -- Firstpost.com, Al Jazeera, the Times of India, the Telegraph of the UK and ABC of Australia. And yet, all we are asking is: why do the trolls troll so much? I reliably know that the government also tries to have removed from the internet TV news videos, and they have also been pressing mainstream media outlets like the Times of India to do something about their comments section. The exasperated refrain, "Anyone can say anything on the internet!" is heard from politicians and journalists alike. What gives?
The Indian media favours internet censorship because it has been at the receiving end of the internet for a long time, and now that politicians have begun to face the heat, they're only too happy to say, "Yes! Go for them trolls!"
The over-use of the word 'Hate' suggest that there is all that to the issue. But hate can be subjective. Arnab Goswami will say the criticism of his style of news presenting is Hate, and may be there are people out there who Hate him for his style, but is expressing such hatred illegal? Is it violative of the law, of the Constitution of India? Does it cross the limits set out in the "reasonable restrictions" laid out in Article 19 (2) -- which was, ironically, India's First Amendment?
If yes, then why are we not seeing FIRs and police complaints and court cases? If I distribute a pamphlet that incites violence against someone, or tries to provoke a communal riot, the government will take action against me under the law. There will be IPC and CrPC and I will get to hire a lawyer and defend myself. But on the internet the government's response is to deal with ISPs and internet companies, bypassing the safeguards for citizens laid out by the Constitution.
How does the Indian media respond to such grave violation of fundamental rights? By asking why there are no laws to regulate the internet, such as the laws to regulate print and TV news! That is a gross lie the Indian media has been turning into perceived truth by repeating it ad nauseum. In truth, there is more regulation of the internet than of newspapers or news channels. Apart from IPC and CrPC there is the IT Act and the IT Rules. By contrast, how often has the Broadcast Code been implemented? Why is TV news reluctant to allow government regulation, and instead setting up show-piece self-regulation bodies? Why are they so upset about Justice Katju's suggestion that news TV should come under the Press Council of India's ambit? Is there a single editor in favour of giving more teeth to the Press Council of India?
O f course, social media is not a news organisation. Comparing the act of millions of individuals tweeting, well, whatever they like, to professional news work, is comparing apples and oranges. The Delhi editors understand as much. But even if we were to compare apples and oranges the hypocrisy of the Delhi Editorial Elite apparent in their resisting "regulation" for themselves but asking for "regulation" of the internet.
In this us-and-them binary that the Delhi Editorial Elite build, they are being way too generous to themselves. We didn't need Radia tapes to know how Responsible and Honest and Independent the Indian media is. But when two magazines did a story on the Radia tapes -- after months of the entire Delhi Editorial Elite knowing of their existence -- the Delhi media initially chose silence. But the barrage of criticism online forced the media to stop pretending those tapes have no 'news value'.
With such power of social media, why do we expect big media to be outraged about internet censorship? The media is on the same side as politicians on this issue!
This has a long history. When I discovered blogging in 2003, Indian media-bashing was already the in-thing. Amazingly, most of it came from journalists who took to blogging. To wash everybody's dirty linen in public there is the media, but who will be the media's media? Sevanti Ninan's excellent website, The Hoot, may have been web 1.0 -- run a bit like a mainstream, editor-driven outlet -- but it is to be noted that the chosen medium was the internet, popularly described in those days as "new media", because old media did not feel the need to write about its own.
Then came the others -- Pradyuman Maheshwari's Mediaah! which faced legal notices from the Times of India group, was a 'newsletter' on a blog. But media blogging soon spread like wild-fire. It was not only that blogs dedicated to media criticism came up -- such as Desi Media Bitch -- but everyone was complaining about the media on whatever blog they had. Apart from general criticism of what the media is ignoring or over-playing and how the Times of India is dumbing down news, there were very many specific instances of bloggers exposing plagiarism by well-known journalists, especially film reviewers of major papers. A 'Google bomb' was created for the Times of India such that if you googled for Times of India it asked you, 'Did you mean the Slimes of India?' One of the best media blogs, called Presstalk: Don't Trust the Indian Media, was run anonymous by someone who was obviously an insider. Sooner or later everyone got to know it was run by the business journalist Kushan Mitra.
Born in 2005 was a blog called War for News which promised to track the proliferation of English news channels as they go on an unprecedented TRP race. War for News was an anonymous blog whose criticism was often personal enough to point out incorrect pronunciation of this or that word by this or that reporter. It would also publish the internal memos of channels -- which can't be objected to by a media whose scoops depend on making public inside information about others. But War for News was a free speech fundamentalist, refusing to moderate comments. So the comments section would be full of scandalous stuff, sometimes making remarks against women journalists that were sexual in nature.
One day, War for News stopped blogging and some days later deleted the entire archive. The Delhi journo gossips soon had the behind-the-scenes story: a TV channel had put four of its IT guys on the full time job of cracking the identity of Mr 'War for News'. They found out the IP address from which posts were being made and then managed to persuade the ISP to reveal the name of the customer whom this IP address was allotted to. It turned out to be a print journalist. His editor was called up and the rest is unrecorded history.
This wasn't all. The media was to taste the power of the internet when 26/11 happened. The media erred in live broadcast of on-the-ground images, inadvertently helping the terrorists. Moreover, many viewers did not like the hyperventilating tone of the coverage, and singled out Barkha Dutt of NDTV. News TV has till date not acknowledged that there was any problem with its 26/11 coverage, leave alone say sorry. On her part, Barkha Dutt realised social media is here to stay and decided on a policy of engagement. She is the most active celebrity journalist on Twitter.
But she isn't alone. Unlike the blogging days, the media was forced to shed its contempt of the masses on the internet and joined Facebook and Twitter in droves. In fact, social media presence to promote their show is now a job requirement in most TV news channels. Every print publication is promoting itself in social media. They took some time to adapt. For instance, when one journalist had newly joined Twitter he tweeted about how the drama over the 'hijack' of a Rajdhani train by Maoists made for exciting 24x7 network television. Many replied him that it was perhaps inappropriate to describe as exciting some tense hours for hundreds of train passengers. The journalist apologised, a rare such apology. When journalists complain of online 'hate', they are responding to stuff like this as much as the aggressive political trolling they face on account of political differences.
While bloggers were earlier sought to be co-opted as "citizen journalists", how do we describe the enthusiastic use of social media by the mainstream media? Are these journalists now journalist citizens?
At a social media conference in Jaipur some weeks ago, I asked Mid-Day editor Sachin Kalbag if journalists still have contempt for social media. They do, he said, and as an example he told me how his journalist friends advise him not to reply to common people on Twitter. It reduces his stature, they said. I thought the business of media was all about people and connecting with people. In truth, journalists have been used to thinking of themselves as representing the people. The angst of journalists born before the internet age is like that of Rajputs in Rajasthan who rue that whilst they were the ruling elite of their land once upon a time, their stature and respect has diminished.
S ocial media made journalists realise they are citizens first and journalists second. That they aren't god's gift to humanity; that they are not above criticism and questioning. Gone are the days they could forgive each other their mistakes over a drink in the press club. The people have found a voice. They are no longer a helpless, captive audience who can be fed what a few editors like. Their chai shop banter has gained the power of the written word. Yesterday's oral is today's online.
This leads, obviously, also to the people being political online, of furthering their ideologies and agendas. I do not like what right-wingers say and do on the internet but I am happy that they get an outlet on the internet. The right-wingers will call a centrist media names. They will abuse anyone who questions the Gujarat violence of 2002. They will say Islamophobic things. But if the vernacular papers that incited violence during the Ram Janambhoomi movement in 1992 and in Gujarat in 2002 have not faced any "regulation", why is the right-wing bogey being used to "regulate" the internet? There are right-wingers on the net because there are right-wingers in the country at large. There is hate on the net because there is hate in society.
Journalists who summarily accuse social media of defamation should, one, file court cases to prove the charge of defamation and two, look up the Press Council of India's statistics to see what is the biggest problem complainants have with our newspapers. It's alleged defamation. Even if there is real defamation on the internet, anyone has an equal opportunity to defend yourself, to disprove the charges, to clear your name. You can make a Twitter handle as easily as I can. But what about the defamation that the mainstream media indulges in? A citizen has to do the rounds of the courts to clear his name.
A typical response of TV journalists to the growing criticism of TV news over the years, on the internet and otherwise, was that if you hate TV news why do you watch it? So when one such journalist was complaining about Twitter being full of hate -- ironically on Twitter -- I suggested that she should take the advice she gives about those who dislike TV news. Just as she advises them to not watch TV news, why does she stop using Twitter? A journalist with right-wing leanings agreed with me and she replied sarcastically that the far-left and the far-right were agreeing! The self-appointed centrist (far-centrist?) stopped calling me on her shows. Doesn't matter. My voice doesn't depend on her.
A magazine reporter emails me to ask,'In a democratic country committed to free speech, do you see the need for a non-partisan ombudsman to monitor Twitter, blogs, websites, social media, rather in the way of an independent press commission?' Could it be that he and his magazine are toeing the government line on internet "regulation" because his magazine has faced criticism online for various things, from left and right alike?
No one should expect big media to acknowledge that it has a vested interest in the internet censorship debate. And that's precisely why citizen non-journalists should tweet and Facebook even more to show truth to power.[Note: Social counts reset to 0 on this post.] Let's say you are 15 years old, or 13, or 11, and for some reason--a reason over which you have no control--you have been singled out by your schoolmates as an object for scorn and. Every day at school, for you, is another day in hell. You are called "whore," "bitch," "slut;" or "fag," "pussy," "scum;" or worse. People deliberately bump into you and knock your books out of your hands in the hallway. Nobody sits with you at lunch, or, if they do, those people are harassed until they stop sitting with you. These bullies are not the brutish looking comic-strip bullies, whom nobody likes and who steal other kids' lunch money. No, these bullies are among the popular kids--the athletes, cheerleaders, preppies. They are popular not just with most of the other kids but also with the teachers, school administrators, and adults in the larger community.
The law requires that you attend school, regardless of how you feel about it and how you are treated. You are not one of the privileged minority whose have the means to send them to a private alternative school or to convince the school board that they can educate them adequately at home. You have no.
What do you do? If you are like most of the hundreds of thousands of picked-on kids who suffer like this every day you somehow suck it up. You harden yourself and somehow survive it. You may be the only person who will ever know the full extent of your suffering. You may think about killing yourself; you may even some violent against the whole school, as the whole school seems to be your enemy. If you are like most kids such thoughts remain in the realm of fantasy. But every once in a while, in a particularly vulnerable person, the despair or or both erupt into violence, either against the self or against the whole school, and only then does school become an issue to the larger community.
Here's how Helen Smith, in her book The Scarred Heart, tells one such story, that of the of 13-year-old April Michelle Himes of Richland, Washington: "Kids at school called her fat, threw things at her and pushed her around. They ridiculed her with rumors that she stuffed tissues in her bra. She attempted suicide and her parents admitted her to an inpatient mental hospital program and sought counseling but said it didn't help. After missing fifty-three out of the required one hundred and eighty days of school, she was told that she would have to return to school or appear before a truancy board which could then send her to a juvenile detention center. She decided the better alternative was to go into her bedroom and hang herself with a belt.... In times past, she could have just dropped out of school, but now kids like her are trapped by compulsory."
In my home state of Massachusetts we've been hearing a lot recently about school bullying and suicide. A year ago, headlines were made when 11-year-old Charles Joseph Walker-Hoover hanged himself rather than face another day of bullying at the supposedly "good" charter school he attended in Springfield. Then, in January of this year, Phoebe Prince, a 15-year-old immigrant from Ireland, hanged herself after months of bullying by students at the public school she attended in the affluent community of South Hadley.
The outrage that followed Prince's suicide, coming so soon after Walker-Hoover's, forced the hands of the Massachusetts legislature. Just last week they passed, unanimously, an anti-bullying bill that was then immediately signed into law by the governor. The whole state felt that something had to be done, so that Charles's and Phoebe's deaths would not have been in vain. So they created a law.
I'm not surprised by the legislators' unanimous votes for this bill, nor by the governor's well-publicized signing of it. Given the emotional climate, they probably saw no other choice. Anyone who voted against it would have been seen as unsympathetic to the grieving parents and as soft on bullying. But this new law is not going to solve the bullying problem, and it will almost certainly create legal and bureaucratic nightmares.
Why Anti-Bullying Legislation Will Not Solve the Bullying Problem
The new anti-bullying law requires that every school employee--including cafeteria workers, janitors, and bus drivers as well as teachers and administrators--report any bullying incident that they see to the principal, who is then required to investigate the incident and take appropriate disciplinary action. In addition, the law requires that every student in Massachusetts, from kindergarten through 12th grade, in every school, participate every year in an "anti-bullying curriculum." On the surface, these may look like good things, but you don't have to scratch very deeply to see the problems.
The first problem with the reporting requirement is that very often--maybe most often--the staff member will have no way to know whether a particular act represents good-natured teasing or real bullying. This is especially true in large schools, where individual staff members don't know everyone. Teasing among is a normal, healthy part of, especially for boys. The best of friends may repeatedly call one another names that sound horrid to outsiders. For many boys, this is their way of hugging.
A cafeteria worker hears a kid calling another kid "loser" a couple of times and then, by law, has to report it and the principal has to investigate it. This is going to keep the principal very busy and will cause a lot of perfectly good, normal, compassionate kids to get into trouble. It'll be like the no tolerance policy on weapons, which has led kids to get suspended for such infractions as bringing a nail clipper to school; or like the no-tolerance policy on sexual harassment, which caused a third-grade boy to be suspended for kissing a little girl on the cheek. Civil liberties lawyers in Massachusetts are already saying that the new law is likely to run afoul of free speech rights. It will be one more form of top-down control over the behavior of kids in school; one more requirement that makes school feel even more restrictive and prison-like than it already does.
Another problem with the reporting requirement is that it will lead the bullies to hide their bullying from adults even more effectively than they already do. The modern-day bullies that have driven kids to suicide are, by all reports, already very good at hiding their transgressions and looking innocent to adults. This is why teachers and principals so often fail to believe the victims, or the victims' parents, when they are told about harassment. They don't see it. In their view the accused are among the best kids in the school, so they jump to the conclusion that the complaint must represent a psychological problem on the part of the complainer, and then they recommend. The new law is not going to solve this problem. It's still going to be one kid's word against the words of a whole group of other kids; and the latter will often be the smoother talkers.
A third problem with the reporting requirement is that it will cause the "us versus them" gulf between students and staff at schools to become even wider than it is today. Kids will feel that they have to behave even more differently when a staff member is around than is already the case. Because staff members must bring them up for even minor infractions of the new speech code, staff will appear even more than now to be the enemy. So, students' reports to teachers and principals about harrassments will be seen as tattling to the enemy, even more so than it already is; and students who have the gall to make such reports will be singled out for further abuse, even more than they already are.
What about the other part of the law, the part that requires students to participate every year in an anti-bullying curriculum? A new course, a new curriculum, a new set of tests--these have become the knee-jerk reactions of our culture to every problem that we perceive among kids (see my post of Oct. 8, 2008, for another example of this reaction). In fact, many anti-bullying school programs and courses have been tried over the past twenty years, in other countries as well as in the United States, and many outcome studies have been conducted to see if they work. So far, no program has proven itself to be very effective.
Two major reviews of such outcome research have been published, and both concluded that there is little if any evidence that any of the programs tried so far produce meaningful positive gains [1]. At best, such programs may produce slight decreases in bullying, and at worst they may produce slight increases in bullying. The same has been found for top-down programs aimed at modifying other aspects of adolescents' behavior. For example, the much-touted D.A.R.E. program designed to make kids immune to the temptations of has been shown time and again to be ineffective, and three years ago it was included, in an article published by the American Psychological Society, in a list of interventions that are more likely to cause harm than good.[2]
The Root Cause of School Bullying
Bullying occurs regularly when people who have no political power and are ruled in top-down fashion by others are required by law or economic necessity to remain in that setting. It occurs regularly, for example, in prisons. Those who are bullied can't escape, and they have no legislative or judicial power to confront the bullies. They may report bullying to the prison guards and warden, but the guards and warden may not know whom to believe and may have greater vested interest in hiding bullying than in publicizing it and dealing with it openly. Recently I read the acclaimed book by Chen Guidi and Wu Chuntau, Will the Boat Sink the Water?, about peasant life in modern day China. The peasants are not allowed to move off the land and they are governed, top down, by petty bureaucrats. The peasants have no political power and no due process of law, and so the bullies, who can best intimidate others, rise to the top. Should we be surprised to discover that at least some of our schoolchildren respond to forced confinement and dictatorial governance in the same manner as prisoners and Chinese peasants?
In our culture's fondest image of schools, the teachers and principals are infinitely kind, nurturing, and adults who know what's best for kids and can solve their problems. But really, of course, teachers and principals are human beings, with all the foibles of human beings everywhere. Most are indeed kind people, but they are far from all knowing or all wise; and nobody, truly nobody, is above self-interest. As a nation we decided long ago that there is no such thing as a benign dictatorship. To have a society the people who are governed must do the governing. That's our foundational principle as a nation, and if our children are to be educated for democracy, wouldn't it be nice if our schools, where children spend so much of their lives, were living embodiments of democracy?
There is only one way to get rid of the bullying and the general sense of unfairness that pervades our schools, and that is to restructure radically the way the schools are governed. If our children are required to be in school, then they must be granted a real voice in the way the school is run. If they are not granted such a voice, then school is prison and we can expect students to react in many of the same ways that prisoners everywhere react.
I've been involved for many years with a school where the students and staff together, on a one-person-one-vote basis, make all of the school rules and where the rules are enforced through a judicial system in which students of all ages serve as jurors. This school, like any other, has students who are potential bullies (for who is not potentially a bully?), but its democratic governance is remarkably effective at nipping incipient bullying before it becomes hurtful.
Because the students have power, they feel ownership of the school and have a vested interest in keeping it peaceful. Their legal power promotes an attitude of responsibility, which leads them to use not just the schools' legislative and judicial systems but also the full force of peer pressure and friendly to promote peace and justice. There is no "us versus them" distinction between staff and students at this school. They work together to create a community in which people can feel free and unafraid. I'm not talking about a fantasy school. I'm talking about a real school that has existed for over 40 years and has been replicated many times throughout the world.
I'll say more about all this in my next post, where I'll present the tried and true formula for creating a school that truly is a moral community.
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See new book, Free to Learn
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NOTES
[1] K. W. Merrell et al. (2008), How effective are school bullying intervention programs? A meta-analysis of intervention research. School Psychology Quarterly, 23, 26-42; and J. D. Smith et al. (2004), The effectiveness of whole-school antibullying programs: A synthesis of evaluation research. School Psychology Review, 33, 547-560.
[2] Lilienfeld, S. O. (2007). Psychological treatments that cause harm. Perspectives on Psychological Science, 2, 53-70.[center]
War. War never changes.In the year 2277, we made our presence known to the citizens of D.C.; the Capital of our once beautiful country lay in ashes,lead to ruination at the hands of the common rabble. Under the orders of President John Henry Eden, we sought to bring order to the wasteland, by force, if necessary. Our vertibirds took ownership of the sky, the ground trembled beneath our mechanized boots.The Black Devil pushed raiders and mutants alike into hiding, a lethal force under the command of our officers.The loss of our president was tragic, the loss of the purifier even more so, yet we push forward. Under the order of Colonel Augustus Autumn, we retreated, rallying at Adams Airforce Base. The Brotherhood is coming, and I will die for my country; but the ground will run crimson with the blood of treasonous scum. Let them come, let them burn, may they understand the fury of the Enclave, we will cleanse the ruins of our beautiful home with the heat of Hellfire.One Enclave, One America. - PFC Daniel Donnehue https://discord.gg/M6jPuC6 Installation of this module is simple, regardless of platform. Simply navigate to the files section of this page and download the latestarchive. You'll need winrar, 7zip, or other archive unzipper of your choice. Extract the contents of the archive to your Fallout 4 data folder, enable the module in your mod manager of choice, and start the game!Here at Road to Liberty, we take testing seriously. We have a dedicated channel for quality assurance, to ensure a smooth integration into your game; however, we cannot guarantee compatibility with all other modules for Fallout: 4. We have not discovered any major conflicts with any of our testers extensive load orders, but we ask that you do load this module after any others that modify Power Armor.Bethesda Game Studios-For the furthered development and care offered to the Fallout franchise and its fanbase.Unoctium-Principle programmer and Creative DirectorDogtoothCG-Principle Artist and World BuilderRoyBatty, Hopper31, StealthsuitMKII, Branabus, Vicyorus, TheNissonian, Tgspy, and others for providing invaluable feedback during out Quality Assurance phaseColdfire Design by StealthSuitMkIIBrimstone Design by BranabusThe Nexus, Twitter, and other Fallout communities that have waited so patiently for our releases.This weekend I was flicking through the Lad Bible or something, and came across the above photo. Couldn’t work out if it was legit or not! Anyways, we posted it up on Facebook and it went crazy, well over 13k likes, 500 comments and almost 800 shares.
The plot thickens..
Because the photo got so much traction, it wasn’t long before info started surfacing on this character, along with more photos. This one is from Ant Burns.
Turns out this guy is Midlands based, hacked off his forks and uses this bike as a mode of transport!
Video emerges…
Then, in a random twist of fate a BMXer called Jonathan Marrion (above) who only last week won a Premium frame on our Facebook page, sends in video footage of No Forks Guy!
Not only does he use this set up as a mode of transport, he’s slinging the bars and everything! If you see him in or around Birmingham give this guy a shout, what a legend. Any more info, please send it in….STOCKHOLM (Reuters) - A copyright test case involving one of the world’s biggest free file-sharing websites that could help music and film companies recoup millions of dollars in lost revenues started on Monday in Stockholm.
Pirate Bay co-founders Gottfrid Svartholm (L) and Peter Sunde arrive for their trial at Stockholm's city court February 16, 2009. Pirate Bay co-founders Svartholm, Sunde, Fredrik Neij and Carl Lundstrom were charged by a Swedish prosecutor with conspiracy to break copyright law and being an accessory. REUTERS/Bertil Ericson/Scanpix Sweden NO COMMERCIAL SALES. NO COMMERCIAL OR BOOK SALES. SWEDEN OUT. NO COMMERCIAL OR EDITORIAL SALES IN SWEDEN.
Four men linked to The Pirate Bay were charged early last year by a Swedish prosecutor with conspiracy to break copyright law and related offences.
Companies including Warner Bros., MGM, Columbia Pictures, 20th Century Fox Films, Sony BMG, Universal and EMI are also asking for damages of more than 100 million crowns ($12 million) to cover lost revenues.
Sites like The Pirate Bay allow people to download songs, movies and computer games without paying and the trial is being closely watched to see to what extent the entertainment industry can protect copyright against Internet users.
“This is not a political trial, it’s not about shutting down a people’s library and it’s not a trial that wants to prohibit file sharing as a technique,” said Monique Wadsted, a lawyer representing Warner Brothers, Columbia, MGM and other major media and computer games companies.
“It’s a trial regarding four individuals that have conducted a big commercial business making money out of others file sharing... copyright protected works.”
The accused — Peter Sunde, Gottfrid Svartholm Warg, Fredrik Neij and Carl Lundstrom — denied the charges.
The group that controls The Pirate Bay, launched in 2003, says that since no copyrighted material is stored on its servers and no exchange of files actually takes place there, they cannot be held responsible for what material is being exchanged.
The prosecution says that by financing, programing and administering the site, the four men promoted the infringement of property rights by the site’s users.
The trial could last as long as three weeks and the four accused face up to two years in jail if convicted.To my shock and dismay a small group of unelected peers are trying to shoehorn the Communications Data Bill (known as the Snooper’s Charter) into the Counter Terrorism and Security Bill as an amendment. This is a bad idea, and also an abuse of process. It would mean that neither the Lords nor the Commons would get a proper chance to discuss the details of what is a massive infringement of people’s privacy.
I served on the Joint Committee Nick insisted on, and we spent a year scrutinising it – and tearing it to shreds. Yes, we need the intelligence services to be able to do their job, but in the words we agreed unanimously “the draft Bill pays insufficient attention to the duty to respect the right to privacy, and goes much further than it need or should”.
That’s why we blocked the Theresa May’s plans to bring forward the Communications Data Bill. I am extremely proud we did. It is a fundamental liberal principle that there needs to be very good reason to infringe on someone’s privacy, not just the convenience of the security services.
And it’s not even clear how much any of the proposals will help! The benefits were described by our committee as ‘fanciful and misleading’. Advances in technology mean there is much more information about all of us than ever before. The haystack is getting bigger and bigger – and the bigger it gets, the more difficult it is to find the needles. We need better ways to identify the needles, not ways of collecting more hay.
Then there’s the cost. By the Home Office’s own count, it would add up to £1.8 billion. This is a huge amount of money, and I’m sure that we could find better ways of making ourselves safe with that money than monitoring everything we do online.
Crucially, something as massive as the Snoopers’ Charter shouldn’t be tagged onto the end of a Government Bill. We’ve secured a full review, and there is a process for thinking about this carefully by 2016, leading to a separate piece of legislation that can be considered properly in detail on its merits. Short circuiting this is cheating the system.
This amendment needs to be stopped. I know Lib Dem colleagues, with one disappointing exception, will be robust on this. Will Labour and the Tories? I do hope so, but given last time this subject came up in the Commons, Labour’s Yvette Cooper criticised Theresa May for not having brought the Communications Data Bill forward. It’s clear they both want to go further and be more authoritarian, but let’s hope the peers on both side see sense and stop it. For policy reasons and for process reasons, it must not pass.”
* Julian Huppert was the Liberal Democrat MP for Cambridge from 2010-15Beijing Capital Interational Airport terminal three, without a trace of the bomb set off by Ji Zhongxing. Photo via Flickr user thewamphyri.
The day before Ji Zhongxing detonated a homemade explosive in terminal three of Beijing Capital International Airport, I left on a trip to Hong Kong. That morning, the gleaming airport thrummed with efficiency, and it was difficult to imagine that the country which had built this—at the time the largest terminal in the world—had also neglected thousands of its own citizens.
Ji Zhongxing was one of those neglected.
A Shandong native, Ji was operating a motorcycle taxi in the factory city of Dongguan, Guangdong Province when he was beaten by local police and left paralyzed from the waist down. This was 2005.
In 2007, Ji sued the Dongguan government for 338,267 yuan ($55,168) in compensation for medical expenses and unemployment, but lost due to lack of evidence. Dongguan's public security bureau claimed that Ji collided with a policeman and paralyzed himself while falling, which, you know, happens. Ji appealed the next year to no avail.
In 2009, Ji went to Beijing to petition the central government, a common process known as shangfang. There, the Commission of Politics and Law of the CPC Central Committee overturned the previous verdicts and required Dongguan's local police to pay Ji 100,000 yuan ($16, 309), provided he stopped petitioning.
The fact that Ji received money at all makes him luckier than many. Local governments, for fear of being punished, have been known to intercept, detain, or harass people from their districts who try to petition the central government.
Cut to July 20, 2013.
Witnesses outside the international arrivals area of terminal three spot a man in a wheelchair handing out leaflets regarding his grievances. Airport security officers approach and ask him to stop. The man, now shouting, holds up a bag of powder and cautions people to move away before detonating it in his hand.
THE REACTION
Sadly, Ji is not alone, neither in his experiences nor his decision to make a public spectacle. Desperate men who turn to violence after failing to find redress are a growing phenomenon.
Last month, a disgruntled street vendor in Xiamen set a bus on fire and killed 47 people, including himself. On his blog he wrote that he had been bullied by chengguan, China's reviled urban management officers.
(Chengguan have been in the news recently for beating a watermelon vendor to death in Hunan.)
Last year in Fuzhou, Jiangxi Province, another disgruntled local who claimed his house had been forcibly demolished and spent a decade seeking compensation set off three car bombs outside three government buildings, killing himself and two others.
But what's surprising about Ji's case is not that it ended in extremism, but that the public's response has been largely sympathetic. Short of being appalled or terrified, many see Ji as the victim of a corrupt and unjust society.
On Weibo, users focused on the fact that Ji had only hurt himself and had warned others before detonating the bomb. A professor at the University of Science and Technology in Beijing went so far as to call Ji a "right |
," said Gayle Duteil, the president of the British Columbia Nurses' Union. "That's the gist of our preparation."
The nursing leaders said personal protective equipment for nurses was in some cases ill-fitting or inadequate; that most nurses were not being drilled on how to take the equipment on and off; and that the Ebola education their workers had received was far from sufficient.
Perry Kendall, the provincial health officer for B.C., was sympathetic to the concerns of front-line workers: "I think health-care workers across North America … were surprised and worried about the transmission in Texas in a North American hospital with all the latest equipment," he said.
Dr. Kendall participated in a teleconference Tuesday with Gregory Taylor, Canada's chief public health officer, and other top public-health officials from across the country, aimed at ensuring Canada is prepared if an Ebola patient turns up here.
The group has been holding weekly teleconferences on Ebola since August. On Tuesday, the health officers reaffirmed their current guidelines for the types of personal protective equipment health-care workers must wear while treating Ebola patients and committed to redoubling their efforts to train nurses and others to don and doff it safely, Dr. Kendall told reporters at a news conference.
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"I think that you can never be too prepared," he said. "So as a result of the call today, across the country, we're going to be putting more efforts into making quite sure that the front-line health-care workers … are confident and competent and that we know we will have those procedures in place."
The Public Health Agency of Canada (PHAC) continues to stress that the likelihood of Ebola reaching Canada is "very low," and that Ebola is neither airborne nor easy to catch.
The letter from the CFNU, an umbrella organization for Canadian nursing unions, was based in part on information provided by the Ontario Nurses' Association, which declined to reveal where the shortcomings were uncovered, except to say the province's ministry of labour had in some cases written orders telling the hospitals to shape up.
"My concern is that I do not want to highlight any area of the province that's going to put fear in our patients," said Linda Haslam-Stroud, the president of the ONA.
"We are working with those employers, the government and our joint health and safety committees to ensure that they become Ebola ready. They should be now, but they're not fully Ebola ready as we speak."
The president of the CFNU, meanwhile, said Canada has come along way since the SARS crisis in terms of its preparation for infectious diseases. Her letter called on PHAC to convene a meeting with stakeholders, including nurses, to discuss emergency preparedness.
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"The good news is the Public Health Agency of Canada is reacting quickly," said Linda Silas Tuesday. "They will be calling a meeting of nurses and health-care workers to make sure we're all on the same page."LIVERMORE — Fed up with delays, the City Council on Monday backed a proposal to take away control from BART directors for building an extension to Livermore.
Related Articles Livermore: City Council to discuss BART extension
California Legislature passes 12-cent gas tax hike
New Dublin BART parking garage put on hold “There is no leverage that we have on the BART board,” said Councilman Bob Woerner. “They allow strikes, they’re the highest paid, have terrible service, incredible reliability issues, they can’t keep the escalators clean … they’re not particularly good, and they don’t care.”
Woerner, along with other council members and Michael Tree, executive director of the Livermore Amador Valley Transit Authority, said it seems no BART board directors support a BART-to-Livermore concept, with the exception of Director John McPartland, who represents the city.
“It’s the moment to take control of a project that’s basically been floundering for 50 years,” Tree said. “It’s been planned to death. This is the moment to stand up and say, ‘We’re gonna get local control and we’re gonna get this project done.'”
Tree said that BART directors “have no intention of bringing BART to Livermore.”
The council supported proposed legislation, Assembly Bill 758, introduced by Assemblywoman Catharine Baker, R- San Ramon, and Assemblywoman Susan Eggman, D-Stockton, to create a new rail authority for the BART-to-Livermore project. The Tri Valley-San Joaquin Valley Regional Rail Authority would plan a regional rail connection between BART, Altamont Corridor Express (ACE) in the Tri-Valley, or a new regional connection between the valley and San Joaquin County, according to a city report.
The bill recommends transferring any funds already dedicated to the Livermore project to the new panel. The bill also states that BART would assume ownership and operations once the extension is built.
BART President Rebecca Saltzman said she found the comments by the council and Tree both “frustrating and surprising.” She said BART is working on an environmental impact report, which would include alternatives and pricing. She said BART needs to be able to work collaboratively on this project with the city.
Saltzman said that BART has been working diligently, and that the EIR is expected to be finalized this year. The Metropolitan Transportation Commission contributed $10.23 million for the EIR and the Alameda County Transportation Commission $1.17 million.
“We are committed to having a transportation solution for Livermore,” she said.
BART and the city agreed to study building a BART station at Isabel Avenue in 2012. She agreed it has taken some years, but the study is moving along.
However, it is not moving along fast enough for the Livermore City Council.
“It’s so urgent that something gets started. … We’ve been talking about this since the 1970s. To a cynic like myself, it doesn’t seem like we are that much closer,” Councilman Bob Coomber said.
Baker said Tuesday that the inspiration for the bill came from seeing a real need to see progress for sending BART deeper into the Tri-Valley.
“I think the consensus is that decades of waiting and paying for a BART system was not acceptable,” she said.
Regarding the council’s comments Monday night toward the board, Baker said she believes they are “a very real reflection of how the Tri-Valley feels about this particular extension.”
The council’s goal Monday night was to offer direction on the proposed legislation, before a regional working group that Livermore is a part of meets this week. That group, the Altamont Regional Rail Working Group, also has been presented with alternatives for the BART-to-Livermore project, including using diesel-powered trains.
The Antioch BART extension project will use the diesel trains, which are about 60 percent cheaper than conventional BART trains.
But in Livermore’s case, adoption of any of these new train alternatives would be inconsistent with the city’s General Plan policy established with the adoption of the “Keep BART on I-580 Initiative.”
The initiative was adopted by the council in 2011 and strengthened language in the General Plan supporting a freeway alignment, instead of an underground station downtown and an above-ground station along Vasco Road.
A BART report from 2010 said the extension from the Dublin/Pleasanton station to Livermore is expected to cost $1.2 billion. However, Livermore Councilman Steve Spedowfski said the Altamont Regional Rail Working Group estimates the extension could cost $800 million.
Last week, legislators passed a $52 billion transportation bill, which included $500 million for projects including an extension of the ACE train to the Central Valley.
In September, the BART-to-Livermore project received $2.26 million from the Metropolitan Transportation Commission.TORONTO — The league’s best record belongs to the Calgary Stampeders.
The Stamps came away with a win over the Hamilton Tiger-Cats in Week 10, extending their winning streak to six and improving their record to 7-1-1. Calgary held off the Ticats’ late-game surge on their way to a 30-24 victory and remain at the top of the Nissan Titan Power Rankings.
The Winnipeg Blue Bombers have moved into the top three after they won their fourth straight contest but will they continue their rise? Meanwhile, the Edmonton Eskimos also moved up after their victory over the Roughriders.
— — — — — —
This Week: 1 | Last Week: 1
Six. Straight. Wins. That’s what the Stampeders have strung together to improve their record to 7-1-1. In Week 9, the Stamps defeated the best team in the West, and last week, they took down arguably the best team in the East in the Ticats. Is there anyone that can stop Bo Levi Mitchell and co.?
This Week: 2 | Last Week: 2
After their disappointing thumping by the Stampeders in Week 9, the Lions responded with a win in Week 10. Travis Lulay made an impact last week, rushing for two touchdowns, and Anthony Allen had 13 carries for 76 yards in the 29-23 victory over the REDBLACKS. With a 4-1 record on the road, the Lions head to Toronto to pay a visit to Ricky Ray and his Argonauts.
This Week: 3 | Last Week: 4
The Bombers have gone streaking. Matt Nichols is proving that putting him into the huddle was the right choice after leading his team to their fourth straight victory. Special teams and defence had themselves a good week with Justin Medlock connecting on all six of his field goals and Maruice Leggett notching a pick-six. Winnipeg now has an opportunity to keep climbing up the West when they take on the struggling Roughriders.
This Week: 4 | Last Week: 3
Penalties will hurt you. And that’s what happened to the Tiger-Cats last week after they accumulated 125 yards of penalties in their loss to the Stampeders. Terrence Toliver had nine receptions for 183 yards and two touchdowns in the loss – the second week in a row the receiver collected 100+ yards. The Ticats will need to be more disciplined when they host the Toronto Argonauts for the final game of Mark’s Labour Day Weekend on Monday.
This Week: 5 | Last Week: 6
There’s another threat in Edmonton and it goes by the name of Shakir Bell. Bell, who was filling in for the injured John White, had himself quite the game last week. He scored his first touchdown of 2016 and collected 138 yards rushing and 32 yards receiving. With Bell, Derel Walker, Adarius Bowman and Mike Reilly, the Esks are looking to challenge the Bombers for the third spot in the West when they visit Calgary this week.
This Week: 6 | Last Week: 5
The REDBLACKS hoped the return of Trevor Harris could help to turn Ottawa back into the team they were earlier in the season. That, however, wasn’t the case. With their loss this week, the REDBLACKS have lost four of their last five and now head to Montreal to take on the division rival Alouettes. Ottawa will need a bounce-back performance this week with Toronto hot on their heels in the East.
This Week: 7 | Last Week: 7
He’s baaaaaack. Ricky Ray will make his return to the gridiron in Week 11 looking to help turn his team around after two losses in a row with Logan Kilgore as the starter. Coming off a bye, the Argos look to make up some ground in the standings as they host two games this week, the first at BMO against the BC Lions and the second against the Tiger-Cats, who they are currently tied with in points, in Hamilton.
This Week: 8 | Last Week: 8
The Alouettes were no match for the Blue Bombers last week as Winnipeg defeated Montreal 32-18. The Winnipeg defence intercepted Kevin Glenn four times in the loss and held the Montreal offence scoreless in the second half of the contest. The Als look to turn things around when they host the REDBLACKS this week.
This Week: 9 | Last Week: 9
The Riders are also streaking – but the wrong way. The Eskimos handed Saskatchewan their fifth straight loss keeping the Riders in the basement of the league at 1-8. Saskatchewan is still searching for their second win of the season heading into a home-and-home with the Winnipeg Blue Bombers.
WEEK-BY-WEEK RANKINGSTurkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan arrives at Istanbul's Ataturk International Airport in a bid to address the nation and reestablish control over the government after a coup attempt was unleashed on the country during his vacation.
An aircraft carrying President Erdogan has landed at Istanbul's Ataturk Airport according to presidential sources. The Turkish leader whose control over the country remains tenuous at this hour will address the nation in an effort to get the people to rise up in an effort to quell an ongoing coup plot.
David Cenciotti (@cencio4) July 16, 2016
During the early hours of the coup President Erdogan addressed the nation via CNN Turk calling into the Western media outlet by FaceTime after military leaders had seized the TRT News station along with the bridges and Ataturk International Airport. At this hour, forces loyal to Erdogan have gained ground against the coup plotters who they accuse of being a handful of Gulenists inside the military although pictures coming in from the region suggest that the attempt to overthrow the government may be more serious.
TRT World (@trtworld) July 16, 2016
A massive blast had been reported near the Ataturk International Airport within minutes of the arrival of President Erdogan. The Turkish leader was seen among a crowd of supporters outside of the airport prior to the explosion. Erdogan planned to address the crowd and reporters quoted the leader saying that an uprising has been attempted against the solidarity and unity of our country and that those responsible will face a "necessary response" regardless of what institution they are a part of.
Soldiers took control of Istanbul's Ataturk International airport on Saturday shortly after President Recep Tayyip Erdogan landed there to condemn what he said was an attempted coup by a faction within in the military. The soldiers who took control of the airport were pro-Erdogan forces according to reports by Anadolu news agency which said that operations at the airport were back to normal and that flights would begin again at 6:00am (0300 GMT).DSC was able to have a one-to-one sit down with the face of NISMO Darren Cox in London today, to ask some burning questions about the LMP1 programme before the team head to La Sarthe for the Test in just over two weeks time.
Overall how do you feel about the whole LMP1 project heading into Le Mans?
“I think anyone who says they are happy in motorsport aren’t pushing hard enough. From where we started from in April last year, we’ve made a huge effort and impact on achieving our objectives. As with any programme, time is at a premium, and of course we want more. The ACO aren’t going to move Le mans to December, there’s another one next year, but we’re all up for competing this time round. We are as prepared as we can be, we are very happy with the people we’ve got, and contrary to rumours, we’ve got great working relationship across all the different functions. We’ve Japanese and UK based engineers working well.
I’ve been trying to think of how difficult this has been. It’s twice as as difficult as Honda entering into F1 for example. They had to produce a good engine, and give it to a team which is well established, with two world champions. They’ve got a bunch of engineers and infrastructure there too. Whereas we’ve had to build an entire programme from scratch in 10 months.
Whatever happens in 2015, the effort that we’ve made from ’15 to ’16 will be massive. We’ve got the main development curve still to come. It will be a learning year, as it was for Porsche last year, and they finished with only one car, which ended up 11th at Le Mans. They learnt a lot last year, and look at them now, they’re some people’s favourites.
We need to follow that trajectory.”
What’s been the biggest challenge so far in the development of the GT-R LM NISMO?
“I think the KERS system; it’s been a massive challenge for us. That’s a challenge which has in effect meant that we’ve got loads of advantages heading into next year. These days the KERS system is so integral to the car that when that’s not working you have to stop everything else. We’ve lost a number of days of testing because the KERS system wasn’t working as it should do.
The reason why we are annoyed about that, is because every time we send the car out it goes faster. We’re not anywhere near the law of diminishing returns in terms of development yet, because we learn so much each time we send the car out. I can only imagine where we’d be if we would have had an extra five days back from November to use again after what we’ve learnt.
Issues with our hybrid system were expected though, because KERS is such an Achilles heel for so many teams in lots of different types of racing. The engine may be in a different place to everyone else, but it’s still a racing car. Our engineers have been there and seen that, tackled problems before. So they’re going to work to fix it.”
So the cars will definitely be running under hybrid power at Le Mans?
“Yes, 100%, there will be hybrid systems running in our cars.”
How about the third car, when is the debut of that going to be?
“The third car will run before Le Mans; it will appear at the Test Day, we will have three cars there.”
What about Marc Gené’s decision to step back for Le Mans, what’s the story behind that?
“It was a joint decision. It was a knock-on effect, because we didn’t do the first two races, our test schedule was disrupted, and because Marc is the busiest out of all of our drivers, he couldn’t get enough time in the car. Between us we decided that because we couldn’t give him extra time behind the wheel, and since we’ve got to ship them to Le Mans for the test so soon, he’ll step back and be in the garage helping our young drivers.
His experience is very important nevertheless, and he’ll be back in the car after Le Mans. It’s a shame but it had to be done.”
So what are your expectations of Mark Shulzhitskiy in replacing him?
“Everyone raved about Jann’s (Mardenborough) performance at Le Mans last year, when actually it was the year before that was the standout. But if you look at Mark’s times behind the wheel against his two teammates last year, his average over 20 laps suggested that it would be more than wise to put him in an LMP1 car – if you were running a junior programme.
I’m someone that, as a racing fan, appreciates other people doing a good job. I think the best thing Porsche have done is put Earl Bamber and Nick Tandy in their third car. Effectively that’s what we have done with Mark, we are confident in him. There’s no ego there, he fits in with the team, he won’t cause any problems. If we say: ‘stay off the curbs’, he’ll stay off the curbs, if we say: ‘go backwards through Mulsanne,’ he’ll do that too!
But in all seriousness, it was a no-brainer. He’s done his rookie laps already, and we’ve got three rookies in our roster. Our rookies have to do 10 laps on test day, so with Mark driving we don’t have four. In a sporting decision, we’ve borrowed an LMP3 car from Ginetta, and all our rookies will complete their required 10 laps in that. It means we can get that out of the way so they don’t have to do track learning in the P1 car.”
What’s your plan for him after Le Mans then, if Gené is back in the car?
“We haven’t made any decisions yet on the racing lineup after Le Mans. We don’t want to put any extra pressure on them, we want them to perform at Le Mans and then see where we are. With Mark it’s the same.
I think our biggest problem by the end of 2016 will be keeping our drivers. I think the group we’ve got is fantastic, we are very happy. But we’ve got so many other types of motorsport which we are involved in; one might do Super GT, one might do GT3, one might do V8 Supercars. That’s our philosophy, we don’t believe in keeping every driver on one track.”
So what is your strategy for the Test Day? What are you expecting?
“We need data. We’ve got no idea for instance, what our tyres are going to do. We need more information, it’s not just about doing a load of laps, we have a split strategy across the three cars. One will be doing setup, one might be doing longer runs to test tyres, one might be doing fuel strategy stuff. Don’t judge us on our pace on the Test Day. We’ll let the track rubber in and see where we are on Saturday afternoon.”
And Le Mans, what’s your hope for the race as we stand now?
“We want laps on the car, with half an eye on 2016. The more laps we get done, the more data we have for next year. We’ve got to make the most of it, and try to make it to the end. We’ll know where we are at the end of our first driver stint, because we’ll have gone through out first fuel and tyre stint. Who knows? Who knows where the others are? We’ve got small tyres on the back, maybe they’ll last a stint, maybe they’ll last nine, who knows? As a fan I’m excited, it’ll be fascinating.”
Will the cars all run in red?
“Watch this space. We don’t want to do what our competitors do, and be rigid with the look of our car. As you’ve seen with the Manchester City livery, we’re open to new things. We’ve also seen so many fan-made designs on the internet that we love, so who knows? It would be good to surprise a fan, and say: ‘that car will be your design.'”
So after Le Mans, what’s your testing programme going to look like, and will we see a different aero package?
“The new aero package is done. Ben (Bowlby) finished and signed it off this morning. Now it goes in production, and we plan to use the third car as a test car going forward; during which, it’ll run some of the systems for 2016. That’s why Marc Gené is involved, he’s one of the best test drivers around.
We hope to also do more work with Michelin to learn more about possible developments on the tyre side. There’s a lot to work on with electronics too. There’s so much to do after Le Mans in terms of testing, with a focus on next year. We didn’t want to overload ourselves at Le Mans this year.”
What are your expectations for the second half of the WEC season then?
‘We just want more data, we want to learn more. I think Fuji will be our best chance for a good result, with that long straight. This car isn’t a Le Mans special, it can get downforce, we will have good showings on other tracks too we hope.”
Stephen KilbeyBitTorrent traffic in North America has dropped for the first time ever according to data published by Canadian broadband management company Sandvine. BitTorrent's share of total Internet traffic during peak hours plummeted 20% over the past half-year, and is now at 7%. In other parts of the world including Europe, bandwidth consumed by BitTorrent continues to grow.
Over the years we have been following various reports on Internet traffic changes, specifically in relation to BitTorrent.
One of the emerging trends is BitTorrent and P2P traffic as a whole losing its share of total Internet traffic, in North America at least. A new report published by Sandvine this morning confirms the downward spiral but also suggests that there is actually less BitTorrent traffic.
Previously BitTorrent only lost some of its share of overall Internet traffic, but now the actual bandwidth consumed by the protocol also appears to be in decline.
Compared to six months ago BitTorrent’s share of all Internet traffic during peak hours in North America dropped by 20% to 7.39%. At the same the average bandwidth consumed by Internet subscribers remained relatively stable at 44.5 gigabyte per month, suggesting that BitTorrent traffic has gone down overall.
This would be the first time in history that the bandwidth consumed by BitTorrent transfers has declined. However, the results should be interpreted with caution as the lack of growth in bandwidth consumption is suspicious, especially when compared to previous years.
The graph below shows the usage for various types of traffic during peak hours, where BitTorrent takes up 36.35% of all upstream bandwidth. Netflix is the absolute king in terms of downstream traffic here, accounting for nearly one-third of all traffic during peak hours.
Impressively, Netflix and YouTube together are good for half of all downstream traffic during peak hours in North America.
op 10 Peak Period Applications (North America, Fixed Access
The Sandvine report further shows that the decline in BitTorrent traffic is limited to North America. In Europe, for example, BitTorrent’s share of total Internet traffic increased over the past half-year, as did the total volume of BitTorrent traffic.
During peak hours nearly half of all upstream traffic (48%) in Europe can now be attributed to BitTorrent. In Asia-Pacific and Latin America, BitTorrent traffic is still on the rise according to Sandvine’s data, with 21% and 11% of total Internet traffic during peak hours.
Assuming that BitTorrent traffic did indeed decline in North America, there are several factors that may explain this finding. It could be that the start of the U.S. Copyright Alert System in February caused people to stop downloading, or download less.
In addition, the increased availability of legal download and streaming options may have steered people away from sharing copyrighted material via BitTorrent.
Time will tell whether the downward trend in North America will continue in the months to come, and how the global differences in BitTorrent usage will develop.Although South Africa avoided a downgrade to non-investment grade, or junk status, in 2016, the country is not yet out of the woods and may be downgraded this year. The reasons for this are ongoing political risk as factional battles in the governing African National Congress intensify, policy inconsistencies and low economic growth.
The effects of a sovereign credit rating downgrade would be significant for all South Africans. It would drive up borrowing costs, which in turn would have a negative impact on the government’s finances. It could also lead to foreigners leaving South Africa’s capital markets as well as driving the rand weaker. And it would in-turn push interest rates up, which would hurt ordinary South Africans.
But there are some possible steps the country can still take to avert a downgrade. These would include underscoring that finance minister Pravin Gordhan is secure in his job, and cutting wasteful expenditure.
A downgrade to junk status is likely to trigger significant capital flight.
South Africa’s public debt stands at 50.1% of the country’s GDP, nearly double what it was in 2006. If the government’s borrowing position is not controlled it runs the risk of running up debts that it can’t service. An over-borrowed government is also perceived to be risky, which increases the cost of additional borrowing because lenders demand a premium. On top of this the country’s fiscus is under pressure from low revenue collection as a result of the slowing economy.
Impact on the markets
A downgrade to junk status is also likely to trigger significant capital flight. This is because sovereign downgrades typically have a direct impact on bonds and other fixed income securities making them less attractive to foreign bond investors. The likely outcome is that they will take their money to markets that offer better returns. This would be bad news for the country as foreign investors hold about 62 billion ($4.5 billion) in government securities.
A downgrade may not affect equity holders to the same extent as bondholders. Of the 472 companies listed on the Johannesburg Securities Exchange, 39 are dual listed. These have primary or secondary listings in South Africa, London and New York. Companies listed abroad will be less vulnerable because most of their earnings are from abroad and in foreign currencies. But companies listed solely in South Africa would be affected by the country’s poor economic performance and a weaker currency. This is likely to drive them to internationalize which would mean a loss to South Africa. In addition, their valuations would be negatively affected by the higher cost of capital.
As the bond market reacts to the sovereign downgrade, the ripple effect would extend to the rand, causing it to weaken against other major currencies. The rand averaged 14 rand/$ at the end of 2016 but a downgrade this year would be likely to push it beyond its low-point of about 16.80/$, possibly beyond the 20 rand/$ level in the medium term). It plunged to this level in December 2015 after president Jacob Zuma announced he was removing then finance minister Nhlanhla Nene.
Ordinary people
According to the World Bank South Africans are the biggest borrowers in the world. The country’s National Credit Regulator Statistics has reported that approximately 20% of consumers are three months in arrears.
South Africans are the biggest borrowers in the world, according to the World Bank.
A downgrade would drive up debt servicing costs. In addition, the fiscus would be under pressure due to higher interest costs on debt repayments coupled with lower economic growth. The government’s response would then be to raise taxes.
The choices would between the politically unpalatable option of raising the value added tax rate, which would hit the rural poor and the lower-middle class urban consumers, or increasing personal taxes on the already over-taxed working middle class. As the recent local government elections have shown this could also have political ramifications for the governing party.
With budget deficits for the past 20 years averaging -3.24%, a rating downgrade would force the government to either embark on injecting new money into the economy or borrowing more. Injecting new money into the economy would fuel inflation and exert pressure on the exchange rate. The central bank would then have to respond by raising interest rates, again hitting consumers.
Further borrowing is also risky as it could lead to a possible debt trap where the government is no longer able to service its debts.
Momentous year
This is a momentous year for the country, with the factional battles and ANC contestation gathering momentum, and for the world with the inauguration of president Donald Trump and uncertainties around post-Brexit trade policies. In such an uncertain environment, South Africa must rectify the four mistakes that have led it to drift to the point of a downgrade.
First, government policy needs to be clear, consistent and growth-oriented. Second, rather than considering further borrowing or increasing taxes, the government must cut non-productive spending and restructure the non-viable state-owned entities (especially those that rely on bailouts or have become too large to manage). Third, the authorities need to ensure that business confidence doesn’t deteriorate further. It can do this by desisting from issuing conflicting political statements which cause investors to panic. And lastly, the presidency must quell the uncertainty around the finance minister’s position.
If South Africa continues to get these wrong, it’s likely that it will be downgraded this year. Since it takes an average of seven years for a country to regain its investment grade, South Africa would be stuck in a middle-income trap until at least 2024. Under this scenario it would be unable to move out of low-level manufacturing, unemployment levels would remain high and the economy would remain stagnant.
Misheck Mutize, Lecturer of Finance and Doctor of Philosophy Candidate, specializing in Finance, University of Cape Town and Sean Gossel, Senior Lecturer, UCT Graduate School of Business, University of Cape Town
This article was originally published on The Conversation. Read the original article.The following is a guest post from Kenneth Kitchell, Professor of Classics, UMASS Amherst.
Dear Mother:
I am very, very nervous. Soon I will have to take a course and an exam in this English I am studying for two years now. I have done well these two years achieving B+ first year and A- second year. But I remain nervous still. This course is called “English Literature.” This is not a bad thing. I wish to read these great writers. I wish to show my family and my teachers that I am a good student. But I fear I will not do well.
I went on the Internet and looked up the books we will read in this course. One book, by Mr. James Fenimore Cooper, is called The Last of the Mohicans. I thought it would be great fun, having battles, adventures, and hunting. But consider the opening of this book:
It was a feature peculiar to the colonial wars of North America, that the toils and dangers of the wilderness were to be encountered before the adverse hosts could meet. A wide and apparently an impervious boundary of forests severed the possessions of the hostile provinces of France and England.
I do not understand. I know the words. I looked each of them up in the dictionary you so kindly sent me. But what were the “colonial wars” and why are the hosts angry? I thought a host was a person who treated you well. Or is it the host upon which another creature lives? “Perhaps,” I thought, “I will do better with the works of Mr. Herman Melville.” We are to read, Moby Dick, a story of hunting whales. I should enjoy this book very well. But see how it begins:
Call me Ishmael. Some years ago – never mind how long precisely – having little or no money in my purse, and nothing particular to interest me on shore, I thought I would sail about a little and see the watery part of the world. It is a way I have of driving off the spleen and regulating the circulation. Whenever I find myself growing grim about the mouth; whenever it is a damp, drizzly November in my soul; whenever I find myself involuntarily pausing before coffin warehouses, and bringing up the rear of every funeral I meet; and especially whenever my hypos get such an upper hand of me, that it requires a strong moral principle to prevent me from deliberately stepping into the street, and methodically knocking people’s hats off – then, I account it high time to get to sea as soon as I can. This is my substitute for pistol and ball. With a philosophical flourish Cato throws himself upon his sword; I quietly take to the ship.
The sentences are so long! And I do not understand why this Ishmael (my own name!) is kicking hats at a funeral with his friend Cato. I do not know, mother, but I am afraid that this English is too hard for me. I may not take this second course. Perhaps Spanish. Those in that class watch Sesame Street and read newspapers. What is your advice, mother?
Your loving son, Ishmael.
The above, as you have probably figured out, is a fictitious letter from a learner of English as a second language. But if we change but a few words here and there, it could easily be a letter (more likely a series of texts) from one of our Latin 3 or 4 students. How many of them have flourished in Latin I and 2 only to bump squarely into the convoluted and difficult (it’s ok, you can admit it) Latin of Vergil and Caesar, the current favorites of the AP? Our modern Ishmael is not of this country and does not understand diction and 200 year old references. Latin 3 and 4 students are not of Rome and deal with references 2,000 years old.
We all know of the success we had saving Latin in the 70s and 80s. We now teach beginning Latin from texts specifically designed to be interesting and to teach in a more natural manner. But upper division Latin was not a full part of this counteroffensive. True, we now consider facing vocabulary and notes a necessity, and this was once not the case. But curricula at the upper division levels, whether they be collegiate or pre-collegiate, remain much as they have been – courses centering on the translation and appreciation of the Latin greats.
This is certainly admirable. These are great authors and should be studied. My concern, however, is that they do not, of necessity, have to be the first thing a student encounters after acquiring the basics of the Latin language. And we are all very aware of the drop in enrollment in most programs between beginning Latin and upper division Latin. There are many factors causing this, but one is the tendency for Latin programs, many of which can only offer one or two upper division courses a semester/year, to move students directly into high level authors. I fear that many students, who would otherwise continue in Latin, do not go on. Like Ishmael, they may have done well and may wish to succeed, but are deterred from continuing by a confluence of difficulty – the move from controlled vocabulary, poetic diction, obscure references, long and subordinated sentences, etc.
I am fully aware of the constraints that exist. Parents demand AP so that their above average children can get into above average schools. The students demand AP courses to add luster to their transcripts. School districts want them so that they look “good” to legislatures and voters. College programs feel the need to prepare their majors for advanced work. But what of the average students and what of filling our upper division Latin courses and keeping our programs robust? The time has come for some honest debate on this issue.
Consider the curricula of modern foreign languages and of ESL programs. Do Spanish 3 students leap into Cervantes? Do ESL students in their third semester read Faulkner? No, they read material appropriate for their current level of language acquisition – short stories, novels, and plays written in ability-appropriate language – things that can be read, not things that have to be deciphered. In case you think this is heresy, note that this has long been called for. The famed Committee of Ten, in 1894, studied high school curricula. Even then, they suggested easier authors for a student’s first encounter with authorial Latin, even suggesting the use of transitional works like Viri Romani prior to taking on authors. The ACL’s 1924 two volume study of Latin pedagogy recommended the same thing. But tradition prevailed.
We should first admit that there is a problem with upper division enrollments. Then we must answer some hard questions |
longer of use?
Don't get me wrong, I actually wanted to stay in Tampa, and I would have done so if things had gone differently. A few things were working against me returning. One of the major issues is that the Bucs unceremoniously fired my head coach, Tony Dungy, that year after we made the playoffs but were eliminated for the second year in the row by the Philadelphia Eagles.
It was bad enough that the team had to put up with a loudmouth in our own ranks who insisted at the end of the regular season that the owners had already reached out to his former head coach and were going to fire Coach Dungy and hire him after the season was over. To have the first part of that scenario actually happen in such a classless fashion (with Coach Dungy finding out he was fired from media reports initially rather than directly from the owners) was a lot to digest.
I was still around the facility before free agency started, and I got to meet our new head coach (who thankfully wasn't the loud mouth's former head coach). He did impress me quite a bit, but it still bothered me how the stuff with Coach Dungy went down. I thought in my head if they would treat the man who turned around the franchise and only had one losing season in six years this way, what in hell would they do with little old me once they thought I was no longer of use to the team? So, I was still a little bitter about the whole situation.
I also came to realize that after I was beaten out in 2000 to start in training camp that the coaching staff only saw me as a backup going forward. This would end up being a huge factor in my decision to leave. At the end of the day, I didn't feel like I would get a genuine opportunity to win a starting job again if I stayed. Or if I did happen to start, they would never pay me like a starter.
Having said all that, after six years I had made Tampa my home. I was comfortable here, and I loved our fans. I felt like if I stayed I would have other job opportunities to work in the media once I was done here. And my family was here. So there were plenty of other reasons to want to stay as well.
The business side
As the opening of free agency crept closer and closer, I was getting more and more freaked out because the Bucs hadn't even made me an offer yet. I had played my best football in 2001 and notched five sacks, which is a pretty good number for a backup. That's why I couldn't understand why they wouldn't at least offer something before I got to the open market. Turns out, they just didn't want to bid against themselves.
With no offer from the team who knew me best after six years of playing for them, I started to panic a little wondering if anybody would want me. Those are the kinds of things that go through your mind when you aren't the big fish who is about to hit the market. When you are heading into free agency as a backup there simply are no guarantees.
I was comforted by the fact that several former assistant coaches who had once worked for the Bucs during my time there had moved on to become head coaches and defensive coordinators for other teams around the league. My hope was that one of them would come calling, and if I had to leave for another team I could at least be coached by someone I knew. Turns out that's exactly what happened.
My first, and what would turn out to be my only, free agent visit was to the New York Jets whose head coach Herm Edwards had been the secondary coach in Tampa with me for several years. I honestly had no idea what to expect before I got off the plane. They hadn't made a contract offer to that point, but it was clear that their interest was legitimate. So I packed my bags and got on a plane hoping that we could hash something out in short order one way or another.
That first night I ate dinner with the defensive coordinator and defensive line coach at a nice steak house and we mostly made small talk. The little bit of football that we did talk was about the role they thought I could fill on the team. It all sounded great to me. They said they had some young guys starting at defensive end, but they were looking for someone to come in and compete for a starting job and push them. That is all I was looking for, an opportunity to start, so I came away very impressed after that conversation.
The next day I met with Coach Edwards and some of the front office people and they expressed their desire to sign me right then and there. They made a very strong offer to my agent. He then called me and walked me through what they had proposed. It was more money than I had dared believe I would be able to sign for and it was going to be a four-year deal which, I thought, showed they were committed to me. I was all ready to shout "YES," but we promised the Bucs that we would give them a chance to match whatever we were offered. So we did.
You're fighting your ass off against your friends for a roster spot
Here is where my belief that they only saw me as a backup came into play. You see, the guy who had beaten me out in 2000 didn't have that great of a year in 2001. He caught a bit of the injury bug, and the team quickly soured on him because they had just given him a big contract. I happened to be in the training room one day before free agency started when that guy came in and confided to someone else that the Bucs had already told him they were going to release him that offseason. I wasn't eavesdropping; he just said it where most of the people standing in that general area could hear him. I also didn't ask him about it because, hell, what would I have said? We were friends, but at the same time every year you're fighting your ass off against your friends for a roster spot. Such is the business side of the NFL.
I just filed this information away in the back of my mind in case it became useful. During contract negotiations certainly seemed like a useful time to me, so I decided to test my theory about the Bucs only seeing me as a backup. They could say they wanted me back, but money talks and bullshit runs a marathon as they say.
The first counter offer from the Bucs was disappointing on the face of it; they were offering me less money than I had made in 2001. Still, I was willing to see if we could find a way to work around that because I really did like being in Tampa and wasn't necessarily gung ho about leaving. So I asked my agent to counter their counter offer by accepting the terms but adding in incentive money if I started X amount of games over the first couple of years of the contract. That would allow the team to pay me like a back up if I never earned a starting position, but would push my compensation up closer to what the Jets were willing to offer if I earned a starting spot. I actually thought it would be an easy compromise that we could quickly agree to and I would be a Buccaneer for the rest of my career if I held up my end of the bargain.
That didn't happen.
Part of the problem is that you have to remember that the Bucs didn't know I was privy to the information about them planning on cutting the guy who had been starting over me the last two seasons. They evidently thought they could offer me a backup contract as a take it-or-leave-it deal because I would be thinking that I was going to be stuck behind the other guy. It was an eye opening experience and one that made my decision relatively easy.
Getty Images
Signing on the dotted line
I was still at the Jets facility when all of this was going on, and I had a plane to catch. However, nobody from their side was trying to rush me into a decision because teams don't like you to leave town without saying yes. They would just let me miss my flight and get me a later one if that meant I would end up signing on the dotted line.
After hearing the Bucs final offer, there was no reason to beat around the bush anymore so I said yes. We signed the paper work and I was on my way back home to Tampa with the kind of contract I never imagined I would ever be offered. Yet, I wasn't all that hyped in the aftermath. I felt like I might have made a mistake by not seeing if there were other teams who might have been a better fit.
The 2002 season was a disaster for me personally. After signing me, the Jets also decided to take a defensive end in the first round that year. Talk about shots fired. I didn't understand the move, but what was done was done. Then I had one injury after another, much like the 1999 season. It was frustrating, but we were making a playoff push so I just tried to get healthy enough to contribute. Unfortunately, by the time I was healthy again, the Jets were ready to start playing their first-round rookie more which meant less time for me. By the end of the season, I wasn't even active for a few games. I was released that next March. I didn't know it at the time, but I would never play another down of football in the NFL.
Something to keep in mind
You couldn't have told me in the Spring of 2001 that I would only play one more season in the league. I was finally healthy and coming off the best year of my career. One bad season was all it took for my stock to plummet to the point where I couldn't even get many workouts to try out for a new team. That's the nightmare scenario for any free agent; that the team they end up signing with turns out to be a bad fit and they're stuck in limbo or, in my case, shown the door for good.
It didn't help my self esteem that my old team, the Buccaneers, went on to win the Super Bowl that same season, 2002. They did it with a guy starting at my position who signed for pretty much the same contract I rejected. They did him almost the same way I imagined they would have done me: refusing to renegotiate his contract after he became a starter and helped them win a ring. I at least felt vindicated about that.
Still, he will always have that ring though. And I won't.
So there you have it: that was what free agency was like for me. It's not a happily-ever-after story, but it is real. And that is something to keep in mind when free agency starts this year. Some of these guys will be home runs for their new teams; some of them will be disappointments. Just understand that nobody will be more disappointed than the players if things don't work out. These decisions to leave one team for another are generally not easy, and are usually a lot more complex than most realize.
Keep that in mind if one of your favorite players ends up elsewhere for the 2014 season.Dave Piantoni, 52, has filed a complaint against the Orange County Transportation Authority after a bus driver denied him service when he did not have special identification for his service dog.
It was just before noon on Sunday when Piantoni, from Santa Ana, got out of church and tried to board bus route 83 at Main and 9th streets.
“When I got on, I swiped my card … the bus driver saw my service animal and he said ‘get off the bus’ because I didn’t have a special ID for the dog,” said Piantoni, who did not want to disclose his disability.
Piantoni said he showed the coach operator a copy of the Americans with Disabilities Act requirements from the Department of Justice to validate his argument that he did not need a “special ID card.” He said he carries the copy at all times, just in case.
The ADA website states: “Although a number of states have programs to certify service animals, you may not insist on proof of state certification before permitting the service animal to accompany the person with a disability.”
According to the website, any service animal that displays vicious behavior toward other guests or customers may be excluded. And, if it’s uncertain that an animal is a service animal, it’s allowed to ask the person if it is a service animal required because of a disability.
In Piantoni’s case, his dog was wearing a vest and a patch labeled ‘service dog’ and was not being threatening, he said.
OCTA spokesman Joel Zlotnik said the transportation agency does follow ADA guidelines and added that the complaint is under investigation.
“He (Piantoni) is correct, a person with a service animal is not required to have identification,” Zlotnik said. “We’re looking into it and if the coach operator is found to have violated ADA standards, disciplinary action will be taken.”
But, Piantoni said: “I don’t want him to lose his job. I just want better training for the drivers.”
Piantoni said it angered him when the bus driver, using a condescending tone, told him he couldn’t get on. He waited 15 minutes for the next bus.
“I could have made more of a scene, but I got off,” he said.
“All I would like is an apology. I would like them to train the bus drivers in the federal regulations and that they go through a sensitivity course in handling disabled or elderly people,” Piantoni added.
Zlotnik said bus drivers get a full eight-hour day of ADA training which includes everything related to the Disabilities Act and how it relates to bus operations and service animals.
“We know that our bus service is very vital in particular to members of the community who have disabilities,” Zlotnik said. “We really take complaints with ADA seriously and work hard to train our employees on the requirements.”
Contact the writer: amolina@ocregister.com or 714-704-3795Scores of investors working together through Ceres and the Interfaith Center on Corporate Responsibility are challenging companies that fund the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC), reminding them that such support backs ALEC's anti-environmental agenda. In response, four corporations have confirmed that they have cut or are cutting ties with ALEC:
GlaxoSmithKline (GSK), a British pharmaceutical company with £26.4 billion in annual revenue;
Brown-Forman, a Louisville, Kentucky alcohol company with $2.8 billion in annual revenue;
Unilever, a food, home, and personal care products corporation based in the Netherlands and the United Kingdom with a combined €51.3 billion in annual revenue;
and ConocoPhillips, a Houston oil company with $58 billion in annual revenue.
In addition, Publix Super Markets announced via social media in response to a customer challenge this week that it "has not been a member of ALEC since 2011."
This brings the tally to at least 49 corporations that have cut ties to ALEC since 2011.
Timothy Smith of Walden Asset Management, who is involved with the shareholder campaigns, told CMD, "ALEC's partnership with the climate-denying Heartland Institute to challenge renewable energy standards at the state level has heightened investor concern and opposition. Shareowner pressure has been one important factor in getting many companies to announce that they cut their ties or clarifying that they had left years ago. The next proxy season is expected to see additional pressure on companies seemingly dedicated to keeping their ALEC support flowing."
GlaxoSmithKline's Involvement with ALEC
GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) CEO Sir Andrew Witty said in a response to a shareholder's question at the company's annual meeting in May that the company had decided to sever its relationship with ALEC. GSK spokesperson Sarah Alspach confirmed to CMD, "We recently conducted an assessment of the policy groups we work with and will fund going forward. After careful consideration, the company will not be renewing its membership of ALEC [sic]."
GSK's ties to ALEC were deep and spanned decades -- since the 1980s, according to Alspach.
GSK's former Vice President of State Government Affairs, John Del Giorno, represented GSK on ALEC's corporate "Private Enterprise" board of directors as of late 2011. When North Carolina State Representative Harold Brubaker, a long-time ALEC member who at the time sat on ALEC's national board as well as the International Relations Task Force, retired in 2012, Del Giorno left his employer of 17 years and joined Brubaker and Associates, Brubaker's new lobby shop.
GSK employees also represented the company as ALEC state corporate co-chairs in New Mexico, New York, and North Carolina as of 2011. Government Relations Director Gaspar Laca had been state co-chair of New Mexico since at least 1999, when the company was called Glaxo Wellcome.
According to Alspach, the company's involvement with ALEC has been primarily focused on "civil justice" legislation and "exchang[ing] views with policy makers" about pharmaceutical research and healthcare reform. GSK had representatives on ALEC's Civil Justice and Health and Human Services Task Forces as of June 2011. Bills approved by this task force undermine the rights of injured Americans (particularly those harmed by pharmaceuticals) and further privatize health care.
In 1993, when the company was called Burroughs Wellcome, it was a member of ALEC's National Task Force on Health Care.
Brown-Forman's Involvement with ALEC
Brown-Forman spokesperson Phil Lynch told CMD that the company "is no longer sponsoring or supporting ALEC," having declined to continue funding ALEC in 2012.
Brown-Forman Vice President of Government Relations and Public Policy Donald McClellan and an administrative assistant represented the company (PDF, p. 28) on ALEC's Tax and Fiscal Policy Task Force as of 2011. Bills approved by this task force rewrite tax code to aid the richest while attempting to shrink government to where it can be "drowned in a bathtub," as Grover Norquist once advocated.
Unilever's Involvement with ALEC
According to a letter from Unilever President Kees Kruythoff to shareholders sent earlier this year, "Unilever is not a member of ALEC following a review undertaken at the end of 2011. We took the decision that ALEC's agenda did not align with our business objectives and values focused on social, economic, and environmental sustainability, and withdrew as a member."
Unilever External Affairs Director Thomas Langan represented the company as the ALEC corporate co-chair of Maryland as of 2011.
ConocoPhillips' Involvement with ALEC
ConocoPhillips spokesperson Daren Beaudo confirmed to CMD that the company is no longer a member of ALEC, did not fund ALEC in 2012, and has no plans to do so in 2013.
ConocoPhillips had been a "Director" level sponsor of ALEC's 2011 annual conference (that sponsorship level was $10,000 in 2010).
Publix's Involvement with ALEC
On June 24, a customer tweeted at Publix, "If u shop at @publix they take your money and give it to ALEC the authors of Stand Your Ground & Voter Suppression Bills. #boycottPUBLUX." The company responded, "Publix has not been a member of ALEC since 2011." Company spokesperson Maria Brous confirmed to CMD that the company had in fact cut ties with ALEC.
In 2011, Publix Director of Government Affairs Michael Mitchell represented the company as a member (PDF, p. 59) of ALEC's Tax and Fiscal Policy Task Force. Bills approved by this task force create tax giveaways to multinational corporations, give tax breaks to the richest, and eviscerate state legislatures' ability to raise revenue through tax increases.
The Rush to Cut Ties to ALEC
Corporations that have publicly cut ties to ALEC since the Center for Media and Democracy launched ALECexposed.org in 2011 and highlighted Coca Cola's role in the group include Coca Cola, Wells Fargo, General Electric, Western Union, Sprint, General Motors, Walgreens, Best Buy, Hewlett-Packard, MillerCoors, John Deere, Dell, Johnson & Johnson, Wal-Mart, Amazon.com, Procter & Gamble, Mars, Wendy's, McDonald's, Kraft Foods, and PepsiCo. The addition of these five companies brings the total to at least 49 corporations. These and six non-profits that have cut ties brings the total number of private-sector ALEC members who have cut ties to at least 55.
At least 74 state legislators have also cut ties with ALEC. In addition, as CMD has reported, 117 ALEC members were voted out of office or left state legislatures in 2011 and 2012.
A diversity of groups have been actively campaigning to pressure corporations to leave ALEC. Public interest groups including CMD, ColorOfChange.org, Progress Now affiliates, Common Cause, People for the American Way, and Greenpeace have urged corporations to stop funding ALEC's extreme agenda, which has included bills to make it harder for Americans to vote and more difficult for workers to organize and negotiate with powerful corporations or the government. These efforts became a feature story for Bill Moyers' special, United States of ALEC, which aired this past weekend on PBS.If much of the United States was transfixed by the Congressional testimony of two of America’s top intelligence officials on allegations of Russian meddling in the U.S. elections, the Kremlin claimed it had better things to do.
“We have many concerns in the Kremlin and following that [debate] isn’t one of them,” said Presidential spokesman Dmitry Peskov.
“New information we’re not hearing and doubtfully will hear,” said Peskov, who went on to compare the hearings to a “broken record” being played ad nauseam. "It’s an internal American issue... our relationship to all this hysteria is well known.”
During testimony before the House Intelligence Committee Monday, FBI Director James Comey confirmed his agency is investigating Russian attempts to interfere in the U.S. election, including whether President Donald Trump's campaign aides criminally colluded with Russian interests to help Trump win.
Nyet, Nyet, and Nyet Again
The Kremlin has been nothing if not consistent in its response to the allegations emanating from Washington. In a word: deny.
There was Vladimir Putin last September insisting that “Russia on a state level has never practiced” cyber intrusions. Putin also insisted the contents of hacked emails were a public service.
There was spokesman Peskov, last October, calling allegations of Russian hacking of Democratic National Committee (DNC) computer infrastructure simply “nonsense.”
And there was Putin, in his annual news conference last December, dismissing allegations Russian hacking tipped the election in Trump’s favor or colluded with Trump campaign officials along the way.
Democrats who accuse Russia of such allegations, said Putin, “are looking for someone outside to blame.” The Russian leader went on to note that Democratic candidates lost big in election contests in the Congress and Senate as well.
“Is that also our work, my work?” asked Putin.
Yahoo
Just last week, the Kremlin was at it again, denying U.S. charges that Russian intelligence agents were involved in the hacking of millions of Yahoo users email accounts.
Spokesman Peskov said Russia had only learned of the indictments of its agents and two other men through the media, and hoped U.S. officials would soon shed light on the charges.
Peskov added that Russia had never been involved in any illegal state-sponsored hacking. "We have said repeatedly that there can be no discussion of any official involvement of any Russian office, including the FSB (Federal Security Service), being involved in any unlawful cyber activities," said Peskov.
Better days gone
Trump’s victory in the November election was heralded by many here as an opportunity, after years of deeply antagonistic relations with the Obama administration, a chance for a Trump White House to cooperate with the Kremlin on a host of issues – including Syria and the fight against terror. Even sanctions relief over Russia’s actions in Ukraine was considered within the realm of possible.
Yet the continued and open-ended investigation into Russian interference in U.S, elections has Russian officials acknowledging the tough road ahead.
"It's doubtful to consider [the hearings] a constructive in the development of joint relations," noted Peskov, speaking Tuesday in Moscow.
Time and again, Russian officials have portrayed the Congressional investigations as attempts by Trump's enemies in Washington to derail the president’s calls for improved U.S.-Russian relations at any cost.
President Trump appeared to acknowledge the potential constraints the election scandal presented to détente with Moscow during his first official news conference last month.
"Probably Putin assumes that he’s not going to be able to make a deal with me because it’s politically not popular for me to make a deal," said Trump.
Kremlin officials appear to agree. They openly quote from President Trump’s own tweets on the matter, calling the continued focus on Russia “paranoia”, and a “witch hunt” reminiscent of the red-baiting McCarthy era during the Cold War.Kick and Fennick was one of the most charming PlayStation Vita exclusives we’ve received in quite some time. Now, a new update is scheduled to release soon that will fix a number of bugs as well as add PlayStation TV support.
Since its launch as a PlayStation Plus game in February, the team at Jaywalkers Interactive have been hard at work on a patch to fix a number of the games bugs as well as add in a few new features.
The full list of patch notes for update 1.01 are:
Fixes:
Resolved some trophies not unlocking.
Resolved crash when loading level.
Resolved game hanging in black screen.
Various bug fixes.
Various level updates and gameplay tweaks based on community feedback.
New Features:
PlayStation TV support.
Controller support for all menus.
Completion time shown during credits.
Restart level from pause screen.
If everything goes according to plan, the update should go live on May 12. While the date isn’t set in stone, as of right now it’s looking like a solid date. Regardless, the update should be coming out soon and will make an already great game even better.
Also be sure to check out our interview with the awesome duo over at Jaywalkers.Anti-Pot Group Compares Marijuana To Orlando Mass Shooting
Anti-marijuana organization, Smart Approaches to Marijuana (SAM), took to Twitter this week to spew some especially crazy anti-pot rhetoric.
The whole thing started when the Oregon chapter of SAM responded to a tweet by Oregon Congressman Earl Blumenauer.
Blumenauer has been a longtime advocate for legalizing cannabis. He helped make recreational weed legal in Oregon. And he was involved in efforts to get veterans better access to medical marijuana.
Not surprisingly, he’s made some enemies in the anti-pot world.
In the wake of the horrific shooting in Orlando last weekend Blumenauer tweeted:
“Words cannot express my sorrow. Disgusted by this horrific act on the LGBT community & cowardice of those who won’t pass sensible gun laws.”
A short time later the Oregon chapter of SAM sent out a reply:
“@repblumenauer you can’t support 1 threat to public health/public safety and then condemn another. You have failed this state.”
SAM’s response implied that the hateful, deadly, and explicitly homophobic harm caused by the gunman in Orlando was more or less the same as the supposed harm caused by cannabis.
As anyone who’s ever actually studied anything about cannabis knows, this is complete bullsh*t.
And Blumenauer called them out:
“Over 32k dead from gun violence each year in US. ZERO dead from marijuana. Your comparison is delusional & shameful.”
Homophobic?
Beyond being entirely ignorant of how not dangerous cannabis is, SAM’s tweet was also violently homophobic.
Omar Mateen’s attack last weekend was specifically targeting the LGBTQ community. He opened fire on a gay nightclub, and his rampage left 49 dead and many more injured.
SAM’s tweets were a feeble attempt to hijack this tragedy. They ignored the very real pain, suffering, and grieving of the entire LGBTQ community and instead used this as an opportunity to go on a rant about cannabis laws.
Simply put, SAM tried to co-opt the tragedy in Orlando. They sought to capitalize on the deaths of 49 people and use it for their purposes.
They completely ignored the fact that this is about homophobic violence and instead tried to steer the conversation in an entirely unrelated direction, all in an attempt to further their political agenda.
Not surprisingly, when people started calling them out for it, they just deleted all their hateful and ignorant tweets.
This entire thing has to be one of the worst examples of the deep-seated ignorance that too often seems to define extremist anti-cannabis groups like SAM.Canadian Volkswagen owners are upset and frustrated, hoping the company will make good on its promise to compensate them for emission-cheating vehicles with a settlement similar to the one reached earlier this summer with U.S. customers.
U.S. owners of roughly half a million TDI diesel vehicles that were made between 2009 and 2014 learned in late June that Volkswagen will either buy back their cars at "fair value," according to U.S. deputy attorney general Sally Yates, or will have the option of having them fixed. Car owners may also receive between $5,000 US and $10,000 US each in additional compensation.
The deal, which includes a $2.7 billion US fine, is worth about $14.7 billion US. The settlement must still be approved in federal court.
After the U.S. settlement was reached, Volkswagen Canada issued a statement to say that the deal would factor into similar negotiations north of the border, but noted that "settlement details coming out of the U.S. court proceeding may not apply to Canada."
The statement said, "Our hope is to provide remedies to Canadians on pace with U.S. customers."
At the time, the company said it expected to have news for Canadian drivers of two-litre TDI vehicles by July 29.
But earlier this week, a spokesman for the company confirmed that Volkswagen Canada filed an update in Ontario Superior Court to say that "discussions are ongoing," and as they continue it will abide by a court order not to divulge information about the talks.
"It remains our primary goal to reach terms that treat our valued Canadian customers fairly," Thomas Tetzlaff told CBC News in an email on Wednesday. "We will share more information as soon as we're able."
Slow progress angers owners
That response incensed Canadian customers, who were hoping for news of a deal last week.
"We heard the [U.S.] court ruling, they are going to buy them out, and then you go to the VW Canada website and they say 'we are continuing talks and what happens in the States isn't necessarily going to happen in Canada,'" Vince Lamanna told CBC News Friday.
"It's just nonsense."
Tetzlaff declined CBC's request for an interview, but said Friday that court dates are scheduled for Oct. 18 and Dec. 19 and 20.
"The parties are aiming to report on the 2.0L TDI issues at this time," Tetzlaff said Friday in an email. "In the event that a settlement agreement in Canada is reached earlier, the parties will advise the court and request an earlier appearance."
'This is absolutely horrible'
Canadian customers were shocked when they heard that vehicles were installed with what are known as "defeat devices" that allow them to pass emissions tests but then spew up to 40 times the allowable level of pollutants in actual road use.
Lamanna has driven diesels for the better part of 30 years, and always looked forward to new models coming to the market. He bought his Jetta in November 2013 and learned of the defeat devices through media reports in September 2015.
"I like the way the car drives, but from an environmental point of view this is absolutely horrible," Lamanna told CBC. "We're not talking a couple of points that we're polluting, we're not talking 10 per cent versus 12 per cent. It's 40 times."
If he had a compensation cheque in his hands from Volkswagen, he'd head straight to a General Motors dealership and buy a Volt, he said.
For now, the Stoney Creek, Ont., resident has no choice but to drive the car, particularly because his commute is about to get longer when his office moves to Oakville, Ont., more than 36 kilometres away.
"I really wish I was in a financial position to drive my car up [to Volkswagen head office], I would sign the ownership and I would leave it at the front desk with my key," he said.
'I'm very angry'
Resident Graeme Young feels much the same as Lamanna.
Young has been driving Volkswagens since 2004. He bought his current vehicle, a 2014 Passat TDI, in August two years ago
When he first heard about the emissions issue, he figured that the company would "sort it out," and was heartened when he heard of potential buybacks south of the border.
Like other VW owners who have written to CBC and are complaining to online forums, he was disappointed to hear the company's statement from late July.
"I'm very angry with them at this point because they are not treating us fairly," Young told CBC. "We've had no real updates whatsoever."
He's already racked up 91,000 kilometres on his car due to a 150-kilometre round-trip journey from his home in Cobourg, Ont., to work in Belleville, and the mileage piles up every day.
He's concerned about what that might mean for a buyback.
"If there's a potential buyback, there will be an adjustment for mileage," Young said. "So the longer Volkswagen waits, the more mileage we have, the more risk of an expensive repair and the less money we'll get from a buyback."
'I believed in this brand'
Alex MacPherson felt duped when he found out the company had installed a cheater system in vehicles such as his Jetta.
"I believed in this brand … I bought this car for a reason. It doesn't feel great as someone who is Earth-conscious to know it is putting out more pollutants than necessary," McPherson told CBC.
He was disappointed that the company has pushed back news of a Canadian deal.
"We can't keep driving these and feel good about ourselves. So something needs to be done and I just want an answer.… It's not about the initial mistake — it's what you do to make things better."
CBC News attempted to speak to general managers of Toronto-area Volkswagen dealers, but those interview requests did not receive immediate responses.
Meanwhile, owners are starting to band together as they wait for news. A Facebook group called Canadian VW TDI Owners popped up this week, and owners are also airing their grievances on a forum called Dieselgate.Xiaomi's onslaught of affordable technology continues. The Chinese company has today launched its new 40-inch Mi TV 2: a powerful smart TV running an Android-based OS that will sell for $320.
Advertisement
The new TV features a 40-inch full HD LED panel by Sharp with 5000:1 contrast ratio, a Cortex-A9 quad-core 1.45GHz CPU, 1.5GB of RAM, 8GB of flash storage and a MIUI TV Android-based OS. In terms of playback, it offers H.265 10-bit hardware decoding, allowing you watch H.265, H.264, MPEG4, and REAL, as well as other mainstream video formats like RM, FLV, MOV, AVI, MKV, TS and MP4. Xiaomiappears to be playing up its gaming credentials, too, and boasts that it measures just 14.5 millimeters front-to-back at its thinnest. It appears to be available with a range of bright rear casings, too, that my help you jolly up your pad.
Perhaps the best part, though, is the price. Xiaomi will be selling the TV fo 2,000 CNY—which is about $320. And while you stand no chance of using a Xaiomi phone in the U.S., there is a glimmer of hope that you may, one day, be able to buy one of these. Xaiomi is to sell its wares in the U.S. this year; it won't sell phones, but it will sell other products. With any luck, this may be one of them. [Xiaomi via Miui]Media playback is unsupported on your device Media caption Speaking after the inquest, Eloise's mother Fiona Parry urged people not to buy diet pills online
A student who took "highly toxic" diet pills bought online sent a text message saying she knew she was going to die, an inquest has heard.
Eloise Aimee Parry, 21, from Shrewsbury, died in hospital on 12 April after becoming unwell.
Police said the tablets were believed to contain dinitrophenol, known as DNP; an industrial chemical.
The inquest in Shrewsbury concluded the death of Ms Parry was as a result of an accidental drugs overdose.
'So scared'
Coroner John Ellery heard she sent a text message apologising to her university lecturer for "being so stupid" about four hours before she died.
In the text message, read to the court by Detective Sergeant Andy Chatting, Miss Parry said: "I screwed up big time. Binged/purged all night and took four pills at 4am.
"I took another four when I woke and I started vomiting soon after. I think I am going to die.
"No one is known to survive if they vomit after taking DNP. I am so scared."
Ms Parry's mother said she knew her daughter was receiving prescription medicine but had not realised she was self-prescribing.
Giving evidence, Fiona Parry said her daughter - known to her family as Ella - had suffered from bulimia.
Image copyright Parry family Image caption Eloise Aimee Parry was not suicidal, her family say
Image copyright Parry family Image caption Her mother has said she had no idea Eloise was taking the pills
The coroner asked her: "Did you consider that Eloise was suicidal?"
Mrs Parry replied: "Personally, no. I did not believe she was suicidal."
A post-mortem report read at the inquest revealed the cause of death as dinitrophenol toxicity.
Mr Ellery said he would be writing to the Government urging a review of the classification of DNP, which is marketed online as a "fat burning" pill.
'Really nasty'
Glyndwr University student Ms Parry initially attended A&E after taking more than the recommended dose of the tablets.
Her mother has previously told the BBC she had "absolutely no idea" her daughter was taking the pills until after she died.
After the hearing, Mrs Parry said her daughter knew of the dangers of DNP but had decided "being slimmer was worth the risk".
She said Eloise had looked at "the pros and cons and made a bad choice" and she urged others not to make |
$20 million for the three days.
“We’d be happy with something in the mid-teens,” Lomis said. “We’re in this for the long run and we feel really confident."* Britain faces tight national election on May 7
* Church of England says has right to express views
* Rounds on all politicians, says ‘new approach’ needed
* Says economic, migration debates divisive
By Andrew Osborn
LONDON, Feb 17 (Reuters) - The Church of England made a rare foray into politics on Tuesday, less than three months before a national election, warning that British democracy was failing and the immigration debate had acquired a racist undercurrent.
Its comments, published in a booklet for Christians, irked some politicians who believe the Church should stay out of politics, and prompted Prime Minister David Cameron to defend his welfare reform programme after bishops raised concerns that some of the language used to advocate it was divisive.
The Church said it had every right to speak out, stressed it wasn’t urging people to support any particular party, and said it wanted to draw attention to Britain’s “almost moribund political culture.”
“Our country is hungry for a new approach to political life that will change the political weather,” it said.
“No such thing is yet on offer for 2015, though this may be an election that sows the seeds from which a new narrative might emerge. Or it may be an election which confirms people in cynicism and despair.”
The election will be held May 7. Cameron’s Conservatives are narrowly behind or level with the opposition Labour Party in most opinion polls.
Some polls suggest large numbers of voters will abandon both in favour of more radical left or right-wing parties such as the Green Party or the anti-EU UK Independence Party.
“Numerous polls show that a majority of people think that it will make no difference whichever party is in power,” the bishops wrote. “Our democracy is failing because successive administrations have done little to address the trends which are most influential in shaping ordinary people’s lives.”
Two of the biggest pre-election issues are Britain’s sizeable budget deficit and immigration. In both debates, the language is dangerously divisive, the bishops said.
“The way we talk about migration, with ethnically identifiable communities being treated as ‘the problem’ has, deliberately or inadvertently, created an ugly undercurrent of racism in every debate about immigration,” they wrote.
On the economics debate, they complained that a narrative describing people living on welfare as “undeserving” deterred people from offering neighbourly help.
Nadine Dorries, a lawmaker from Cameron’s party, accused the Church of having a left-wing bias.
“The Church is always silent when people are seeking its voice, and yet seems to be very keen to dive in on political issues when actually no one is asking it to,” she told BBC radio. (Editing by Larry King)The Gold Line extension to Azusa is set to open on March 5, bringing light rail 11.5 miles deeper into the San Gabriel Valley. However, this is hardly the first time the San Gabriel Valley has seen passenger rail with a history going back decades. The above video isn’t decades old, but certainly serves as nice intro to this post!
The Los Angeles and San Gabriel Valley Railroad was founded in 1883 with the goal of bringing rail to Pasadena from downtown Los Angeles. The line opened in 1885 and in the following years spread east across Foothill Cities. The train followed a route that is still mostly being used by the Gold Line today (the tracks between Pasadena and Arcadia were moved north to the 210 median when the freeway was built).
In 1906, the line was sold to the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway, whose Super Chief train between Chicago and L.A. ran from 1934 until 1971 when the Santa Fe Railroad stopped running passenger trains. Amtrak took over the route but eventually changed both the name (to Southwest Limited) and the route.
Along the Gold Line, three of the old Santa Fe depots remain: in Pasadena (now La Grande Orange and the Luggage Room) and the stations waiting renovation in Monrovia and downtown Azusa. The old Santa Anita Depot was moved south years ago and can be seen along Baldwin Avenue in Arcadia at the Los Angeles County Arboretum.
The freight rail corridor is still used — with freight trains still running east of the MillerCoors brewery in Irwindale. A big part of the Gold Line to Azusa projects involved moving the freight-only track to the south to accommodate the new two new light rail-only tracks.
The western San Gabriel Valley was also heavily served by streetcars. They began running in the late 1800s, first with a horsecar line in Pasadena. Streetcar service between downtown L.A. and Pasadena began in 1895 and Pacific Electric took over service in 1902.
Huntington Boulevard was a major streetcar corridor — that’s why there’s a nice landscaped median today — with a pair of lines branching north to Pasadena and beyond. The streetcars also followed Huntington to the Foothill Cities, with the PE running through Arcadia, Monrovia, Duarte, Azusa and Glendora. The Duarte bike path along Royal Oaks Drive follows a trench that was used by the streetcars.
Streetcar service to the area was discontinued in 1951. There are a ton of pics on the Metro Library’s site thanks to Alan K. Weeks, a retired Metro employee who literally shot thousands of photos of the Los Angeles streetcar scene in the 1940s, ’50s and early ’60s. As he told the Source a couple of years ago, “There was a lot of us who never thought we’d see rail transit in this area again” after the streetcars halted service. “It seemed like everyone wanted a house, two cars in the driveway and a swimming pool.”
Alan remains busy on two fronts: documenting with his camera (now digital) rail’s comeback in the area. Many of Alan’s photos can also be seen on the Metro Transportation Library & Archive’s Flickr page, in particular in the albums dedicated to Pacific Electric (here are three: PE Rail Lines, the PE subway, PE before and after — and there are more).
A Super Chief train crosses the then-new bridge over the eastbound lanes of the new 210 freeway. Pacific Electric Arcadia Station at 1st and St. Joseph in 1951. Photo: Alan K. Weeks. The intersection of 1st and St. Joseph today. Less than 2 streets away is the new Gold Line Arcadia Station. Photo: Alan K. Weeks. A horse drawn streetcar in Pasadena in the 1880s. Santa Fe depot in Monrovia. Photo: Ron Reiring via Flickr. Pacific Electric Monrovia Station at Olive and Myrtle Avenue. The new Gold Line Monrovia Station is located approximately 1 mile south at Myrtle and Duarte. Photo: Alan K. Weeks. Aerial view of the Pasadena train station prior to the Gold Line station at Del Mar and Raymond being built. The Super Chief crosses Colorado Boulevard in Pasadena in 1958. Photo by Photo by Peter Higginbottom. Olive Avenue and Mayflower in Monrovia in Sept. 1951. Photographer: Alan K Weeks.
As for the Super Chief, Amtrak served Pasadena with trains such as the Southwest Chief, Las Vegas Limited, and Desert Wind. In 1994, Amtrak passenger service was discontinued to Pasadena. The Gold Line opened to Pasadena in July, 2003.
Like this: Like Loading...Hundreds of people admitted to the United States as refugees are the subjects of FBI counterterrorism investigations involving ISIS – including some individuals from countries cited on President Trump’s revised travel ban.
Trump’s order, which was announced late Monday morning, temporarily bans travel to those without valid visas from Sudan, Syria, Iran, Libya, Somalia and Yemen.
Nearly a third of the 1,000 FBI domestic terrorism cases – 300 – involve those admitted to the U.S. as refugees, a Department of Homeland Security official said Monday. That number was confirmed later in the day by Attorney General Jeff Sessions during a news conference. Officials said some of those 300 came to “infiltrate” the U.S., while others were radicalized once they were in the country.
"Like every nation, the United States has a right to control who enters our country and to keep out those who would do us harm," Sessions said.
The officials who spoke Monday morning didn’t detail the current immigration status of those 300 people who were subjects of government terror probes, Reuters reported, citing a source.
One official also sought to clarify the apparent conflict with a leaked DHS report that appeared to show no connection between refugees and terrorism. The official said the draft document, which was reported by The Associated Press on Feb. 24, was not complete, had not been vetted through the interagency process and did not reflect classified information.
FBI Director James Comey said in late 2015 that some 900 terror investigations were going on, and probes were active in every state. But Monday's development marked the first official concrete linkage between the refugee program and terrorism.
At the time, Comey indicated the bureau was stretched thin by the sheer volume of investigations.
"If that becomes the new normal," Comey said, "that would be hard to keep up."
Secretary of Homeland Security John Kelly said the travel ban announced Monday was a key to ansuring the refugee program is conducted safely.
"We must undertake a rigorous review of our visa and refugee vetting programs to increase our confidence in the entry decisions we make for visitors and immigrants to the United States," Kelly said. "We cannot risk the prospect of malevolent actors using our immigration system to take American lives."
Several refugees have already participated in mass attacks in recent years motivated by apparent Islamic radicalism.
Somali refugee Abdul Razak Ali Artan rammed his car into a crowd at The Ohio State University in November after posting a message on Facebook warning America not to interfere with Muslim communities. Somali refugee Dahir Adan reportedly yelled “Allahu Akbar” and asked one victim if they were Muslim during a September rampage in which he stabbed and injured nine people at a Minnesota mall. Seddique Mateen, the father of Pulse nightclub shooter Omar Mateen, is an Afghan refugee. Countless other refugees have been convicted of plotting attacks or planning to join ISIS abroad.
Though they didn’t enter the nation as refugees, several other terrorists have benefited from inadequate vetting to come to the U.S.
Tashfeen Malik, who was born in Pakistan, came to the U.S. on a K-1 “fiancée” visa prior to engaging in a deadly shooting spree with husband Syed Rizwan Farook that killed 14 and injured 22 others in December 2015. Dzhokhar and Tamerlan Tsarnaev, the brothers who orchestrated the 2013 Boston Marathon bombing, were born in Kyrgyzstan and entered the U.S. when their family filed for asylum.A Universe Of Cargo Benedict Redgrove
Behold the hollow belly of the largest airplane in the U.S. Air Force. The C-5M Super Galaxy is Lockheed Martin’s latest version of its C-5, first flown in 1968. With that monster cargo bay, longer than the entire distance of the Wright brothers’ first flight, it can carry a 280,000-pound load (equivalent to two 68-ton M1 Abrams tanks) for 2,150 nautical miles, then unload and keep going for 500 more. C-5s have transported everything from a deep-sea rescue submarine to Vietnamese children in 1975’s Operation Babylift.
Cave Of The Winds Benedict Redgrove
The main cargo hold of Boeing’s Dreamlifter is 65,000 cubic feet. Another way to think of it, says Dreamlifter operations expert Dave Beck, is that the hold has enough volume for a 10-lane bowling alley in a three-story building. Beneath that space, and the huge airplane parts it carries, the Dreamlifter has a secondary hold for smaller cargo. But it didn’t start life with this much capacity. Boeing converted each one from a 747-400 jumbo jet, making it taller, wider, and longer than the already massive passenger plane.
The Power Broker Benedict Redgrove
To carry its bulk through the sky, the C-17 relies on four Pratt & Whitney F117 engines to generate 40,400 pounds of thrust. Each 7,100-pound engine, like the one pictured here, stretches nearly the length of a Honda Civic and, at its widest point, measures about 7 feet across. Together, those enormous engines provide enough lift for a C-17 to carry 10 Humvees, three Strykers, or one M1 Abrams battle tank. With a full, lighter load of 102 paratroopers, it could fly all the way from Delaware to Donetsk, Ukraine.
Blimp My Ride Benedict Redgrove
Deserts, jungles, the ocean, and the Arctic are too remote for most vehicles. Oil and mining companies want access to them for their resources, but there’s no cost-effective craft for getting there—yet. Lockheed Martin thinks a helium-filled airship could solve that problem. It built this experimental P-791 to test out technology for the commercial LMH-1 hybrid airship, due for a 2018 delivery. Compared with planes, it will have lower fuel consumption, quieter takeoffs, and greater fuel efficiency per ton of cargo.
Flying Ambulance Benedict Redgrove
The cockpit of the C-17 Globemaster III, the workhorse of the Air Force, holds three crew members: pilot, copilot, and loadmaster. The latter makes sure the cargo and people inside the craft are balanced, which is key to letting a C-17 carry large groups: It can serve as a supersize ambulance, transporting a five-person medical team with up to 34 prone patients and 54 walking ones. Thanks in part to stable transport like this, injured American troops who make it to a field hospital have a 98 percent chance of survival
Rising Inflation Benedict Redgrove
The P-791 sits on four gray “feet”: its air cushion landing system. Inspired by hovercraft, these feet soften the airship’s landings and then, once it’s on the ground, use suction to anchor the craft. Lockheed used the P-791 to test components, like this landing system, that it later incorporated into the design of its LMH-1 airship. Like its sibling, the LMH-1 will take off and land vertically, giving it more flexibility than planes, with more carrying power than cargo helicopters like the U.S. Army’s CH-47 Chinook.
A Plane-Carrying Plane Benedict Redgrove
Boeing owns exactly four of these big boys, which it entrusts with a very special mission: carrying parts of its commercial 787 Dreamliner around the world. The Dreamlifter hinges open to grab its varied payload: It flies to Italy, South Carolina, and Kansas for up to 104-foot-long fuselage sections, to Japan for 96.5-foot-long wings, and to South Carolina and Washington state for final assembly. This method, Boeing says, reduces the time required to ship Dreamliner components overseas from 30 days to one.Project Osanshouo, 2006
Purpose: Due to the mass disappearance of a significant percentage of the native kappa population of the empire, the IJAMEA has deemed it necessary to synthesize replacement yokai in order to maintain the natural order of our aquatic ecosystems and preserve the spiritual integrity of the nation.
The significant goals of Project Osanshouo are as follows:
Determine the effectiveness and efficiency of IJAMEA genetic blending ability.
Explore the possibility of synthetic yokai and kami as alternatives to obstructively opinionated natural entities.
Create a series of potential replacement aquatic beings to fulfill the natural niche of the kappa.
Introduce synthesized beings into the wild and monitor their activities until such an exercise is no longer deemed necessary.
Due to difficulties involved with homeland operations, Project Osanshouo has been delegated to the Qinghai Mainland Division until such a time when successful results can be imported to Japan.
Project Osanshouo is in many ways a spiritual successor to Project Kaeru which, in 1942, attempted domestication of native kappa populations through selective breeding with human and nonhuman stock to create a more docile and pliable population for use in the Youkai Battalion. Such efforts were largely failures, and it was determined that kappa were inherently poorly suited for the war effort. Three outposts continued using kappa as beasts of burden until their disappearance in 1999. Undeveloped and terminated embryos from these experiments were kept on ice at the Etorofu Outpost until their destruction in 1945.
Assets: Due to the scope of this undergoing, numerous material and supernatural assets are required for the project, and include:
Several breeding populations of Cryptobranchidae salamanders.
Upwards of several hundred human volunteers and conscripts.
Funds and materials necessary for establishing laboratory environments for the project.
Several live and preserved kappa specimens for comparative research (sourced from Khyargas Lake).
Any surviving texts of the Hida Mountain People, with specific regard to fleshcrafting magics.
Results: As of 2012, Project Osanshouo is proceeding smoothly, and is estimated to reach an optimal point within 3 years. Preliminary results have been promising. The current working model of organism, named shin-kappa, is a hybridized animal composed largely of Homo sapiens and Andrias davidianus, with several genetic elements transposed from kappa specimens that have proven crucial to long-term survival.
Initial experiments consisted largely of grafting procedures and genetic modification of human stock, Unfortunately, such experiments were frequently failures, as non-negotiable difference between mammalian and amphibian anatomy resulted in weak and sickly beings that were not able to survive for any extended period of time outside a laboratory environment. A number of prototypic entities were released in a natural setting, resulting in the deaths of all but one, who was abducted by an unknown entity and is considered missing in action.
Following the failures of the first round of experimentation, the Qinghai division turned to the use of fleshcrafting ritual in order to more effectively combine disparate organisms. After early attempts resulted in the unintentional deaths of 4 soldiers, 220 salamanders, and the oldest living kappa specimen in IJAMEA possession, such avenues were abandoned. It has been decided that IJAMEA projects should not incorporate such methods until such a time as they can conclusively be deemed safe to use (this prohibition does not apply to emergency situations such as a direct threat on Japan or its people).
The most recent experimentation has returned to a genetic basis. IJAMEA scientists first created a subspecies of Andreas japonicas salamander with heavy incorporations of a significant portion of genetic material, and allowed the subspecies to breed for twelve generations into a stable phenotype. Then, through a controlled reproductive program, small portions of the organism’s DNA were incorporated into in vivo fetal humans at varying stages of development. Best results occurred when this was carried out during the formation of blastocystic structures, which yielded a population of dependably fertile organisms.
The current population of shin-kappa are being raised in captivity, and are expected to reach reproductive maturity within the year. Once conclusive survivability data has been obtained, specimens are to be transferred to Qinghai lake and observed to determine if further engineering is necessary for survival outside of captivity.
Should observations be deemed acceptable, specimens are to be air-lifted from Qinghai to Vladivostok, and then loaded onto a smuggling craft into Hokkaido, from which small breeding populations will be relocated to the historical ranges of the kappa.Following Torontos’ Wild Card-clinching win over the Red Sox at Fenway Park on Sunday, I asked Blue Jays reliever Joe Biagini if he’d just thrown the biggest inning of his life. Before answering, he paused to watch a champagne-soaked teammate traipse across the clubhouse, adorned in only a jockstrap, amid a cacophony of exultations.
“Probably,” mused Biagini. “Yesterday’s, today’s. They just kind of keep getting bigger.”
This one was huge. The 26-year-old rookie right-hander had entered in the eighth inning with the tying run on second base, and Dustin Pedroia —.318/.376/.449 on the season — due up. Two outs were needed to preserve a precious lead. That’s exactly what he got.
Biagini being Biagini — the king of eccentricity — he had a question of his own before I could get him to elaborate on his outing. What was the biggest inning of my own career? I told him that I once struck out the side on nine pitches in a Little League game. He claimed to be impressed.
I pressed on. Given the magnitude of the situation — a postseason berth potentially hanging in the balance — what was his mindset as he strolled in from the bullpen?
“I actually jogged in,” answered Biagini. “The goal is to have it not feel like there’s any more magnitude, or any less magnitude, than any other game. That allows you to focus the best. When you put it in that perspective, and think about the grand scheme of things — think about life and the blessings you’ve been given — it allows you to kind of relax.
“At the end of the day, it’s a game and it’s fun. It’s competitive, so you know it’s not always going to go perfectly. I think that clarity and focus, that simplicity, allows you to take the opportunity you’ve been given and make the most of it without tightening up.”
The confrontation with Pedroia was tense. Biagini ended up retiring the hard-nosed veteran on the ninth pitch of an at-bat that included several two-strike foul balls. A few of them came on aggressive swings. A few came on defensive swings. There was a line drive that hooked foul — not by much — that would have gone into the left-field corner and tied the game.
Pedroia was ultimately retired on a good defensive play by third baseman Josh Donaldson, who backhanded a ball near the bag and made a strong throw that got there in the nick of time. Biagini then fanned Brock Holt to end the inning.
I reminded the righty of his earlier word choice. Was the nail-biting battle with Pedroia “fun”?
“I hope it was,” said Biagini. “It’s hard to have a true awareness of fun when you’re in the middle of it. But if that wasn’t fun, then I don’t know what is going to be fun in this game. I guess the strikeout was pretty fun.
“I try to remind myself of how fun this is. I try to appreciate the fun-ness. I try to appreciate the fact that, if I don’t do well, nobody is going to shoot me. It’s not life or death. It’s just what we’re doing. It’s a game. We’re all trying our best, and I don’t deserve any more, or any less, than the other players on the field. I just try to execute and hope it all works out.”
There is a decent chance Biagini will pitch tonight when the Blue Jays face the Baltimore Orioles in the win-or-go-home Wild Card game. If he does, it will replace Sunday’s as the most important outing of his young career. There will be pressure, but Biagini will be determined to have fun. And regardless of what happens, his life will go on. So will everybody’s. At the end of the day, it’s just a game.Mongolians Scramble For A Share Of Mining Wealth
Hide caption Rich in copper, coal and gold, Mongolia is in the midst of a mineral boom. This marks a major change for a country where two out of every five people herd livestock. Previous Next John W. Poole/NPR
Hide caption Oxidized copper (visible here in one area of Oyu Tolgoi's open-pit mine) gave the mine in the southern Gobi region its name, which means "Turquoise Hill". Previous Next John W. Poole/NPR
Hide caption Oyu Tolgoi offers remarkable opportunities for young Mongolians such as Ooarnkoyar Maikhuu, a 22-year-old single mother who drives a 60-ton dump truck. Previous Next John W. Poole/NPR
Hide caption Trucks haul massive loads of dirt along an Oyu Tolgoi road. Previous Next John W. Poole/NPR
Hide caption A group of Chinese workers takes a smoke break at Oyu Tolgoi. The company has imported thousands of skilled Chinese workers to help finish the mine infrastructure. Previous Next John W. Poole/NPR
Hide caption Tseren-ochir, in his mid-30s, is a mine superintendent at Oyu Tolgoi. He is supervising workers as they dig a nearly 5,000-foot-deep shaft down to the copper ore. Previous Next John W. Poole/NPR
Hide caption At the mine camp, workers relax by playing basketball. Previous Next John W. Poole/NPR
Hide caption Life is hard for the workers, who must spend weeks away from their families and where temperatures drop to 40 below zero in winter and soar to 135 in summer. Previous Next John W. Poole/NPR
Hide caption Mine workers play table tennis inside a Quonset hut. Previous Next John W. Poole/NPR
Hide caption Kitchen workers take a break after the morning rush at the cafeteria, which feeds thousands of workers every day. Previous Next John W. Poole/NPR
Hide caption Some Mongolians who can't find work with the mines are striking out on their own, as has this group of gold prospectors who line a valley in the South Gobi hills. Previous Next John W. Poole/NPR
Hide caption Digging for gold is technically illegal. But many Mongolians do it anyway when they hear of a strike to supplement their incomes. Previous Next John W. Poole/NPR
Hide caption Prospectors typically dig a hole — in this case, 3-to-5-feet deep — to get at the soil. They then sift the soil, using a blower to separate the dust from the gold. Previous Next John W. Poole/NPR
Hide caption A prospector shows off the results of two days of labor — a good-sized palmful of pure gold nuggets. Previous Next John W. Poole/NPR 1 of 14 i View slideshow
Mongolia, the land of Genghis Khan and nomadic herders, is in the midst of a remarkable transition. Rich in coal, gold and copper, this country of fewer than 3 million people in Central Asia is riding a mineral boom that is expected to more than double its GDP within a decade. The rapid changes simultaneously excite and unnerve many Mongolians, who hope mining can help pull many out of poverty, but worry it will ravage the environment and further erode the nation's distinctive, nomadic identity.
Third of four parts
Ooarnkoyar Maikhuu spends 12 hours a day behind the wheel of a 60-ton dump truck hauling dirt from a giant, open-pit mine in the deserts of southern Mongolia. The 22-year-old single mother works at Oyu Tolgoi, which in a few years is expected to become one of the world's largest copper mines.
When she started working in the mine's cafeteria two years ago, Ooarnkoyar — Mongolians go by their first names — earned just $96 a month. Today, as a truck driver, she brings in nearly $1,400 a month, compared to the country's annual per capita GDP of about $2,500.
"I just got a loan on my salary and just bought a little plot of land," says Ooarnkoyar, whose work ensemble includes a white hard hat, gold hoop earrings and sparkly lip gloss. "When my son grows up, I want to move into Ulan Bator [Mongolia's capital] and buy an apartment, and I want my son to go to school there."
Mongolia is in the midst of a mining boom and people like Ooarnkoyar are among the prime beneficiaries. Last year, the country's economy grew by more than 17 percent, nearly twice the pace of its southern neighbor, China.
Oyu Tolgoi is scheduled to produce its first copper ore next month, and as more mines open, they're providing good jobs in the country of nearly 3 million people, where about one-third of them scrape by on $1.25 a day.
Good Training, Tough Conditions
Thousands of young Mongolians have descended on Oyu Tolgoi to improve their lives. Oyu Tolgoi — which means Turquoise Hill in Mongolian and refers to the color of copper when it's exposed to oxygen — is more than 300 miles south of Ulan Bator, but it might as well be in the middle of nowhere.
The mine camp is a self-contained city of about 14,000 people surrounded by the lunar landscape of the Gobi, where the nearest neighbors are mostly camels, goats and sheep. Weather in the area features sandstorms, tornadoes and temperatures that drop to 40 below zero in winter and soar to 135 in the summer.
Enlarge this image toggle caption John W. Poole/NPR John W. Poole/NPR
The camp has two bank branches, a grocery store and a barbershop. In the evenings after work, miners play basketball outside and table tennis inside a Quonset hut.
From 7 to 9 p.m., the camp bar serves beer by the case beneath black lights. The clientele ranges from young Mongolian women just out of college to grizzled, 50-something miners from Australia.
Tseren-ochir, who says he is in his mid-30s, is a mine superintendent. He introduces himself as Augie, because it's easier for the foreigners he works with to pronounce.
He is directing workers to dig a nearly 5,000-feet-deep shaft straight down to reach the copper ore. Augie says Rio Tinto and Ivanhoe Mines, the huge foreign mining companies that are majority owners of Oyu Tolgoi, provide great on-the-job training for Mongolian workers.
Peering into the giant shaft that plunges into the earth, Augie says 18- and 19-year-old men who came to Oyu Tolgoi five or six years ago are now "international miners."
"They can operate the latest technology underground. Those guys are fantastic," Augie says.
People work long stints at Oyu Tolgoi, and Augie is no different. His current rotation is 56 days on site, 14 days back home. He says the hardest part about his work is being away from his young family.
"I've got a 5-month-old baby," he says. "I miss her so much, but there's nothing to do" about it.
Augie makes about $24,000 a year, good money in Mongolia.
Privately, though, Mongolians complain that foreign workers from Canada and Australia with similar skills make at least three times more.
The Unofficial Gold Rush
Mining provides opportunities for Mongolian workers, but it also siphons away talent from other important industries — like tourism.
"We lose at least four people a year," says Batbayar Amgalanbayar, who runs Mongolian Expeditions and Tours in Ulan Bator.
Enlarge this image toggle caption John W. Poole/NPR John W. Poole/NPR
He says mining companies routinely poach his best drivers and translators. Mongolian Expeditions offers everything from horseback-riding trips to winter kite-skiing, but Batbayar says he has already had to turn away business this year because he couldn't staff some trips.
"I had to turn down jeep tours. I had to turn down canoeing tours. I had to turn down trucking tours," he says. "This is something that never happened before."
Workers in the Gobi who can't get hired by mining companies often strike out on their own. Mongolia has an estimated 70,000 illegal gold prospectors.
They're called "ninjas," a name a mining union leader says originates from the fact that they cover their mouths and heads with bandanas. Others say they earned the nickname because they carry mining pans on their backs and resemble TV's Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.
A ninja prospecting camp looks like a scene out of the California Gold Rush, updated for the 21st century. In one ravine deep in the desert, miners park their minivans, SUVs and jeeps along a dry river bed.
After selecting a spot with the help of metal detectors, they dig pits with shovels, pickaxes, jackhammers and power drills. They pour soil through sifters until they find pebble-sized bits of gold or, in some cases, actual nuggets.
"We're finding lots of gold," says Batbildeg, a 30-year-old miner.
Various mining teams display their hauls, pouring small, yellow rocks out of tiny, white pill bottles. They say they can sell an ounce for about $150.
Batbildeg has been mining for two to three years.
"It's quite good. Last year, I made nearly $4,000," he says. "Before that, I used to be a herder. My livestock all died out."
Getting A Piece Of Mining Boom
Another prospector, Batbold Badrakh, hovers over his mine, a 4-foot-deep pit. He served as a soldier in the 1980s when Mongolia was a Soviet satellite, but has struggled since.
"I did look for jobs, but now I'm over 40, no one is going to hire me anyway," says Batbold, who wears a gray cap and has a lined face that looks a decade older than his 42 years.
"I tried with Oyu Tolgoi, but they won't hire me," he says. "First of all, my health is not good enough for them. And I have a family. And I can't leave them for a year."
Batbold can't lift heavy objects because he has a bad back, but he can still manage to run a sifter. That seems to be enough for the three other members of his crew, and it's the only way Batbold can get a small piece of the action that is Mongolia's mining boom.Democrats are ripping first daughter Ivanka Trump's seemingly contradictory decision to support the Trump administration's move to eliminate an Obama-era equal pay rule.
"Remember this? Apparently, neither does Ivanka. Because she just backed the White House's plan to halt President Obama's equal pay rule," the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee (DCCC) tweeted on Thursday, attaching a past tweet from the first daughter in which she affirms her support for equal pay for women.
Remember this? ⬇️ Apparently, neither does Ivanka. Because she just backed the White House's plan to halt President Obama's equal pay rule. https://t.co/MhOdiuIXEd — DCCC (@dccc) August 31, 2017
#EqualPayDay is a reminder that women deserve equal pay for equal work. We must work to close the gender pay gap! https://t.co/CcwsoBXWdF — Ivanka Trump (@IvankaTrump) April 4, 2017
The committee's tweet comes one day after the first daughter voiced her approval of the Trump administration's plan to roll back an Obama-era rule that would have required businesses to disclose how much they pay employees of different genders, races and ethnicities.
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“Ultimately, while I believe the intention was good and agree that pay transparency is important, the proposed policy would not yield the intended results,” the first daughter said in a statement to The Guardian.
“We look forward to continuing to work with EEOC, OMB, Congress and all relevant stakeholders on robust policies aimed at eliminating the gender wage gap," she continued.
Supporters of the Obama administration's proposed rule say the policy would have worked to prevent pay discrimination by making employers with 100 or more employees disclose data on payment to to the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC).By
Few nightmares can be more frightening to conservatives than the image of government agents running amok and seizing citizens’ property without due process. We like to think it can’t happen here.
But it can happen. And it is happening – on a regular basis.
Civil asset seizure without due process is taking place today across America, to the tune of $2.5 billion in assets taken by the government over the past 15 years.
The reason why Republicans haven’t made this legalized smash and grab an election issue is simple – government agents claim they are grabbing the assets of drug dealers. It’s the perfect cover.
Nobody wants to support drug dealers. The problem is, under federal law, government agents get to define who fits under the drug-dealer label. Agents can take first and ask questions later.
Under current rules of asset seizure, federal agents are asked to produce “clear and convincing” evidence that the assets are tied to drugs. But the evidence isn’t necessarily subject to a jury’s verdict. No judicial finding of guilt is required for federal agents to take your house, car and bank accounts.
Due process is short-circuited. Rule of law is deployed at a minimum threshold.
In other words, citizens can only hope the government gets it right when it comes to civil asset seizure. How comforting is that?
A national movement has begun to tighten the rules and bring due process into the practice. Many conservative organizations, including the Institute for Justice, Heritage Foundation and the Koch Institute, support legislation to bring stronger legal protocols to asset seizure.
In California, the State Legislature can introduce some accountability to the free hand created by federal rules on asset seizure.
Senate Bill 443, introduced by State Sen. Holly Mitchell (D-Los Angeles), would require California law enforcement agencies to bring or obtain a criminal conviction before they seize someone’s assets. The proposed legislation has bipartisan support but needs all the help it can get.
The bill would keep asset forfeiture cases in California courts, rather than handing them over to federal jurisdiction. This is important, and it’s why SB 443 is opposed by many local law enforcement agencies.
Under current rules, local agencies can circumvent California law and send seized assets to the feds for “adoption” under loose federal rules. The feds typically take a 20 percent cut for “adopting” the case. SB 443 would end the dubious practice of “adoption.”
And SB 443 would help prevent guiltless spouses from suffering financially when allegations are made against their partners. Under federal law, if you made the mistake of marrying the wrong person, too bad. SB 443 gives protection to innocent spouses.
No doubt, SB 443 raises difficult questions for conservatives. It exposes Republicans to the charge of being soft on crime, to not exerting maximum leverage on drug dealers.
But the bill speaks to larger questions – the rule of law and the reach of the federal government. If we lose sight of |
+ H 2 O ⟶ AmOCl + 2 HCl {\displaystyle {\ce {AmCl3 + H2O -> AmOCl + 2HCl}}}
Chalcogenides and pnictides [ edit ]
The known chalcogenides of americium include the sulfide AmS 2,[71] selenides AmSe 2 and Am 3 Se 4,[71][72] and tellurides Am 2 Te 3 and AmTe 2.[73] The pnictides of americium (243Am) of the AmX type are known for the elements phosphorus, arsenic,[74] antimony and bismuth. They crystallize in the rock-salt lattice.[72]
Silicides and borides [ edit ]
Americium monosilicide (AmSi) and "disilicide" (nominally AmSi x with: 1.87 < x < 2.0) were obtained by reduction of americium(III) fluoride with elementary silicon in vacuum at 1050 °C (AmSi) and 1150−1200 °C (AmSi x ). AmSi is a black solid isomorphic with LaSi, it has an orthorhombic crystal symmetry. AmSi x has a bright silvery lustre and a tetragonal crystal lattice (space group I4 1 /amd), it is isomorphic with PuSi 2 and ThSi 2.[75] Borides of americium include AmB 4 and AmB 6. The tetraboride can be obtained by heating an oxide or halide of americium with magnesium diboride in vacuum or inert atmosphere.[76][77]
Organoamericium compounds [ edit ]
8-C 8 H 8 ) 2 Am] Predicted structure of amerocene [(η-CAm]
Analogous to uranocene, americium forms the organometallic compound amerocene with two cyclooctatetraene ligands, with the chemical formula (η8-C 8 H 8 ) 2 Am.[78] A cyclopentadienyl complex is also known that is likely to be stoichiometrically AmCp 3.[79][80]
Formation of the complexes of the type Am(n-C 3 H 7 -BTP) 3, where BTP stands for 2,6-di(1,2,4-triazin-3-yl)pyridine, in solutions containing n-C 3 H 7 -BTP and Am3+ ions has been confirmed by EXAFS. Some of these BTP-type complexes selectively interact with americium and therefore are useful in its selective separation from lanthanides and another actinides.[81]
Biological aspects [ edit ]
Americium is an artificial element of recent origin, and thus does not have a biological requirement.[82][83] It is harmful to life. It has been proposed to use bacteria for removal of americium and other heavy metals from rivers and streams. Thus, Enterobacteriaceae of the genus Citrobacter precipitate americium ions from aqueous solutions, binding them into a metal-phosphate complex at their cell walls.[84] Several studies have been reported on the biosorption and bioaccumulation of americium by bacteria[85][86] and fungi.[87]
Fission [ edit ]
The isotope 242mAm (half-life 141 years) has the largest cross sections for absorption of thermal neutrons (5,700 barns),[88] that results in a small critical mass for a sustained nuclear chain reaction. The critical mass for a bare 242mAm sphere is about 9–14 kg (the uncertainty results from insufficient knowledge of its material properties). It can be lowered to 3–5 kg with a metal reflector and should become even smaller with a water reflector.[89] Such small critical mass is favorable for portable nuclear weapons, but those based on 242mAm are not known yet, probably because of its scarcity and high price. The critical masses of two other readily available isotopes, 241Am and 243Am, are relatively high – 57.6 to 75.6 kg for 241Am and 209 kg for 243Am.[90] Scarcity and high price yet hinder application of americium as a nuclear fuel in nuclear reactors.[91]
There are proposals of very compact 10-kW high-flux reactors using as little as 20 grams of 242mAm. Such low-power reactors would be relatively safe to use as neutron sources for radiation therapy in hospitals.[92]
Isotopes [ edit ]
About 19 isotopes and 8 nuclear isomers are known for americium. There are two long-lived alpha-emitters; 243Am has a half-life of 7,370 years and is the most stable isotope, and 241Am has a half-life of 432.2 years. The most stable nuclear isomer is 242m1Am; it has a long half-life of 141 years. The half-lives of other isotopes and isomers range from 0.64 microseconds for 245m1Am to 50.8 hours for 240Am. As with most other actinides, the isotopes of americium with odd number of neutrons have relatively high rate of nuclear fission and low critical mass.[13]
Americium-241 decays to 237Np emitting alpha particles of 5 different energies, mostly at 5.486 MeV (85.2%) and 5.443 MeV (12.8%). Because many of the resulting states are metastable, they also emit gamma rays with the discrete energies between 26.3 and 158.5 keV.[93]
Americium-242 is a short-lived isotope with a half-life of 16.02 h.[13] It mostly (82.7%) converts by β-decay to 242Cm, but also by electron capture to 242Pu (17.3%). Both 242Cm and 242Pu transform via nearly the same decay chain through 238Pu down to 234U.
Nearly all (99.541%) of 242m1Am decays by internal conversion to 242Am and the remaining 0.459% by α-decay to 238Np. The latter subsequently decays to 238Pu and then to 234U.[13]
Americium-243 transforms by α-emission into 239Np, which converts by β-decay to 239Pu, and the 239Pu changes into 235U by emitting an α-particle.
Applications [ edit ]
Outside and inside view of an americium-based smoke detector
Ionization-type smoke detector [ edit ]
Americium is used in the most common type of household smoke detector, which uses 241Am in the form of americium dioxide as its source of ionizing radiation.[94] This isotope is preferred over 226Ra because it emits 5 times more alpha particles and relatively little harmful gamma radiation. Element collector Theodore Gray mentions in his book The Elements: A Visual Exploration of Every Known Atom in the Universe:
You might think that a synthetic radioactive element that follows plutonium (94)—and has a significantly shorter half-life—would be some kind of superbomb material, available only to scientists in secret laboratories. Perhaps a mad scientist is studying americium in a lair somewhere, but if you want some yourself you can simply walk into any neighborhood hardware store, supermarket, or Wal-Mart and buy some, no questions asked. The reason is not that americium is fundamentally less dangerous than the elements around it. In fact, the commonly available isotope, 241Am, is significantly more radioactive than weapons-grade plutonium, and at least as toxic. No, the difference is simply that there is a useful application for americium that requires only a very tiny amount, and for which a company was prepared to go through the effort required to carve out and get a regulatory exception.[95]
The amount of americium in a typical new smoke detector is 1 microcurie (37 kBq) or 0.29 microgram. This amount declines slowly as the americium decays into neptunium-237, a different transuranic element with a much longer half-life (about 2.14 million years). With its half-life of 432.2 years, the americium in a smoke detector includes about 3% neptunium after 19 years, and about 5% after 32 years. The radiation passes through an ionization chamber, an air-filled space between two electrodes, and permits a small, constant current between the electrodes. Any smoke that enters the chamber absorbs the alpha particles, which reduces the ionization and affects this current, triggering the alarm. Compared to the alternative optical smoke detector, the ionization smoke detector is cheaper and can detect particles which are too small to produce significant light scattering; however, it is more prone to false alarms.[96][97][98][99]
Radionuclide [ edit ]
As 241Am has a roughly similar half-life to 238Pu (432.2 years vs. 87 years), it has been proposed as an active element of radioisotope thermoelectric generators, for example in spacecraft.[100] Although americium produces less heat and electricity – the power yield is 114.7 mW/g for 241Am and 6.31 mW/g for 243Am[1] (cf. 390 mW/g for 238Pu)[100] – and its radiation poses more threat to humans owing to neutron emission, the European Space Agency is considering using americium for its space probes.[101]
Another proposed space-related application of americium is a fuel for space ships with nuclear propulsion. It relies on the very high rate of nuclear fission of 242mAm, which can be maintained even in a micrometer-thick foil. Small thickness avoids the problem of self-absorption of emitted radiation. This problem is pertinent to uranium or plutonium rods, in which only surface layers provide alpha-particles.[102][103] The fission products of 242mAm can either directly propel the spaceship or they can heat a thrusting gas. They can also transfer their energy to a fluid and generate electricity through a magnetohydrodynamic generator.[104]
One more proposal which utilizes the high nuclear fission rate of 242mAm is a nuclear battery. Its design relies not on the energy of the emitted by americium alpha particles, but on their charge, that is the americium acts as the self-sustaining "cathode". A single 3.2 kg 242mAm charge of such battery could provide about 140 kW of power over a period of 80 days.[105] Even with all the potential benefits, the current applications of 242mAm are as yet hindered by the scarcity and high price of this particular nuclear isomer.[104]
Neutron source [ edit ]
The oxide of 241Am pressed with beryllium is an efficient neutron source. Here americium acts as the alpha source, and beryllium produces neutrons owing to its large cross-section for the (α,n) nuclear reaction:
Am 95 241 ⟶ Np 93 237 + He 2 4 + γ {\displaystyle {\ce {^{241}_{95}Am -> ^{237}_{93}Np + ^{4}_{2}He + \gamma}}}
Be 4 9 + He 2 4 ⟶ C 6 12 + n 0 1 + γ {\displaystyle {\ce {^{9}_{4}Be + ^{4}_{2}He -> ^{12}_{6}C + ^{1}_{0}n + \gamma}}}
The most widespread use of 241AmBe neutron sources is a neutron probe – a device used to measure the quantity of water present in soil, as well as moisture/density for quality control in highway construction. 241Am neutron sources are also used in well logging applications, as well as in neutron radiography, tomography and other radiochemical investigations.[106]
Production of other elements [ edit ]
Americium is a starting material for the production of other transuranic elements and transactinides – for example, 82.7% of 242Am decays to 242Cm and 17.3% to 242Pu. In the nuclear reactor, 242Am is also up-converted by neutron capture to 243Am and 244Am, which transforms by β-decay to 244Cm:
Am 95 243 → ( n, γ ) Am 95 244 → 10.1 h β − Cm 96 244 {\displaystyle {\ce {^{243}_{95}Am ->[{\ce {(n,\gamma)}}] ^{244}_{95}Am ->[\beta^-][10.1 \ {\ce {h}}] ^{244}_{96}Cm}}}
Irradiation of 241Am by 12C or 22Ne ions yields the isotopes 247Es (einsteinium) or 260Db (dubnium), respectively.[106] Furthermore, the element berkelium (243Bk isotope) had been first intentionally produced and identified by bombarding 241Am with alpha particles, in 1949, by the same Berkeley group, using the same 60-inch cyclotron. Similarly, nobelium was produced at the Joint Institute for Nuclear Research, Dubna, Russia, in 1965 in several reactions, one of which included irradiation of 243Am with 15N ions. Besides, one of the synthesis reactions for lawrencium, discovered by scientists at Berkeley and Dubna, included bombardment of 243Am with 18O.[8]
Spectrometer [ edit ]
Americium-241 has been used as a portable source of both gamma rays and alpha particles for a number of medical and industrial uses. The 59.5409 keV gamma ray emissions from 241Am in such sources can be used for indirect analysis of materials in radiography and X-ray fluorescence spectroscopy, as well as for quality control in fixed nuclear density gauges and nuclear densometers. For example, the element has been employed to gauge glass thickness to help create flat glass.[23] Americium-241 is also suitable for calibration of gamma-ray spectrometers in the low-energy range, since its spectrum consists of nearly a single peak and negligible Compton continuum (at least three orders of magnitude lower intensity).[107] Americium-241 gamma rays were also used to provide passive diagnosis of thyroid function. This medical application is however obsolete.
Health concerns [ edit ]
As a highly radioactive element, americium and its compounds must be handled only in an appropriate laboratory under special arrangements. Although most americium isotopes predominantly emit alpha particles which can be blocked by thin layers of common materials, many of the daughter products emit gamma-rays and neutrons which have a long penetration depth.[108]
If consumed, most of the americium is excreted within a few days, with only 0.05% absorbed in the blood, of which roughly 45% goes to the liver and 45% to the bones, and the remaining 10% is excreted. The uptake to the liver depends on the individual and increases with age. In the bones, americium is first deposited over cortical and trabecular surfaces and slowly redistributes over the bone with time. The biological half-life of 241Am is 50 years in the bones and 20 years in the liver, whereas in the gonads (testicles and ovaries) it remains permanently; in all these organs, americium promotes formation of cancer cells as a result of its radioactivity.[18][109][110]
Americium often enters landfills from discarded smoke detectors. The rules associated with the disposal of smoke detectors are relaxed in most jurisdictions. In 1994, 17-year-old David Hahn extracted the americium from about 100 smoke detectors in an attempt to build a breeder nuclear reactor.[111][112][113][114] There have been a few cases of exposure to americium, the worst case being that of chemical operations technician Harold McCluskey, who at the age of 64 was exposed to 500 times the occupational standard for americium-241 as a result of an explosion in his lab. McCluskey died at the age of 75 of unrelated pre-existing disease.[115][116]
See also [ edit ]
Notes [ edit ]
^ The "metastable" state is marked by the letter m.
References [ edit ]
Bibliography [ edit ]The three Democratic lawyers met over dinner in a cavernous hotel in Fort Lauderdale, Fla., picking at seafood as they discussed how to take on President Trump: Eric T. Schneiderman, the attorney general of New York; Josh Shapiro, his counterpart in Pennsylvania; and Xavier Becerra, a former congressman who had been sworn in as attorney general of California only a day earlier.
Unrecognized so far from home, and little known to one another, the men spent a Wednesday evening late in January discussing a range of White House policies that might unsettle their states, including a mass deportation of unauthorized immigrants.
They never anticipated that a live-fire test of their teamwork would come less than 48 hours later.
Mr. Trump’s Jan. 27 decree on immigration, shutting off entry to the United States from seven overwhelmingly Muslim countries and halting refugee admissions, left states and cities scrambling to respond. Amid mounting protests and emotional scenes of disorder at American airports, it offered a galvanizing first challenge for a gang of Democratic attorneys general who have vowed to check the power of the White House.
In interviews, more than a dozen Democratic attorneys general, governors and party operatives detailed a week of frenzied litigation, late-night and early-morning phone calls and text messages, and strategies devised on airplanes and at sporting events. All told, Democrats say, the legal onslaught against Mr. Trump was a crystallizing moment for the party’s attorneys general — and a model for how to stall or unwind the administration policies they find most offensive.Miesha Tate’s Advice to Ronda Rousey: ‘Pick Yourself Up by the Boot Straps’
Newly crowned UFC women’s bantamweight champion Miesha Tate has had a roller coaster ride to the women’s 135-pound title. Despite having lost her Strikeforce belt to Ronda Rousey and being defeated a second time by “Rowdy” in the UFC, Tate sort of relates to Rousey taking her knockout loss to Holly Holm so badly.
After hearing that Rousey momentarily considered taking her own life after losing the title, Tate said she knows what it’s like to be down and out after a loss.
“I felt bad in a way, because I sympathize for [Rousey] in those emotions of feeling so down. I’ve never been to the point where I’ve considered taking my own life over this sport, but I have been down to the point where I felt like my soul was dead. So I can sympathize with that, and I know how hard it is,” Tate said during a recent appearance on The Jim Rome Show.
RELATED > Ronda Rousey Didn’t Watch Miesha Tate Defeat Holly Holm Although Trilogy on Tap
Tate’s been there before. She’s lost two title fights and was passed over by the lower -ranked Holm after being promised a title shot following her win over Jessica Eye.
Tate hopes the loss humbles the former champion and gives her perspective on how her previous opponents felt.
“Now maybe she can understand what’s it’s been like for everyone she’s defeated and just kind of walked over. When you lose, it’s really, really hard. It’s really devastating, and I understand what she’s going through, because I’ve been there before, and we all go through those things in life,” said Tate.
The UFC 193 knockout loss to Holm was the first time Rousey tasted defeat in her mixed martial arts career. Surprisingly, Tate offered advice to her career nemesis. “Cupcake” says Rousey needs to dust herself off and pick up the pieces.
“Those emotions you get when you get down and out and you get knocked down and get kicked while you’re down, you’ve just got to kind of pick yourself up by the boot straps, put one foot in front of the other, and that’s the reason why I’m the world champion today.”
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All trademarks are the property of their respective owners.No one is going to sit here and tell you Ryne Sandberg has been put in the best possible position to succeed. It's clear the Phillies manager has been saddled with a team that has less talent on it than any other since perhaps the 2001 season.
Other than Cole Hamels and Jonathan Papelbon, there really are no All Stars on the roster. The offense, while hot lately, is not teeming with difference-makers. The rotation, after Hamels and Harang, is unreliable. And the bullpen, well, you're never quite sure what you're going to get from them on a nightly basis.
The Phillies are not constructed to be a winning team. It's not surprising they lose more often than they win.
But even acknowledging all that, there is this indisputable truth. On many occasions this season, Ryne Sandberg's questionable managerial decisions has made a bad situation worse.
Sunday's mental meltdown in the seventh inning of the Phils' 4-1 loss to the Washington Nationals was just the latest example. With Denard Span on 3rd, two out, and the Phillies down 2-1, right-handed pitcher Justin De Fratus was on the mound and the hottest hitter in the land, the left-handed hitting Bryce Harper, was due up.
The decision here was a no-brainer. You walk Harper to put runners on 1st and 3rd with two outs so that the right-handed De Fratus can face the right-handed hitting Ryan Zimmerman. Most big league managers know to do this. This should not have been difficult.
Instead, Sandberg decided to bring in struggling left-hander Jake Diekman, he of the 7.63 ERA, to face Harper with 1st base open and two out. Harper promptly hit a single to left scoring Span. Then, to make matters worse, Sandberg left Diekman in to face the right-handed hitting Zimmerman, who doubled off the wall in center to make it 4-1 Nats.
Perhaps the Phillies were never going to score again on Sunday and they were going to lose 2-1 anyway. It's impossible to say Sandberg COST them Sunday's game. But his decisions in that fateful 7th inning certainly helped assure them they wouldn't win it.
But these kinds of decisions are nothing new. Sandberg has made one puzzling decision after another all season long, decisions that have cost the Phils runs and scoring opportunities.
When Freddy Galvis was piling up three-hit games like it was a bodily function, Sandberg continued to bat him 8th in the lineup. He routinely has his relief pitchers throw more than 30 pitches in back-to-back outings (he did that with De Fratus earlier this year) and so far at least three different Phils relievers have outings of more than 50 pitches this season (De Fratus, Diekman and Jeanmar Gomez).
And in one memorable blow-up against Miami this year, he let Ken Giles come out for a second inning after the second-year reliever had worked a long inning the previous inning. The end result, a walk-off win for the Marlins, could be seen coming a mile away.
Look, this isn't mindless nit-picking. Sandberg is trying to build and grow a roster of young players. Burning out the young arms in the 'pen is the last thing you want your manager to do. Not only that, it has also cost them baseball games this season.
And while it has become less of an issue over the last couple weeks, Sandberg's tendency to over-bunt (like having a hitter sacrifice runners over with two on and no out) and rely on "small ball" has rarely worked. For example, in a game against the Braves last month, Cody Asche came to the plate with the game tied at zero in the 8th inning. There were runners on 1st and 3rd with no one out and, at the time, Asche was pretty hot.
For reasons passing understanding, Asche bunted. Utley, the runner on 3rd, wasn't going to score on that bunt, and the only other logical explanation would be that Sandberg wanted Asche to bunt Francoeur over to 2nd to create a 2nd and 3rd and one out situation.
But here's the problem with that line of thinking, as Eric Chesterton so ably pointed out the day after.
While the intentions behind the bunt remain unclear, it is abundantly clear that the call was the wrong one independent of execution. According to data from 1993-2010, there is a 65% chance a run will score in an inning when runners are at first and third and one out. Say Asche didn't intend to score Utley with the bunt, but simply advance Frenchy to second on a sacrifice. In that outcome, which seems the most likely, the Phillies chances of scoring in the inning would drop to 28%.
Sandberg claimed Asche was bunting on his own in that spot, but I'm skeptical of that. Knowing those percentages is the type of thing a Major League manager should know and raise your hand if you think Sandberg is one of them.
We all want a manager that thinks, acts and manages like Joe Maddon of the Cubs. Someone forward thinking, outside the box, who doesn't give outs away and whose players love him. Someone good at developing young players, putting them in a position to succeed.
Someone not like this.
FFS Ryne Sandberg quoting batting average over 9 game sample size as a mark of MLB readiness pic.twitter.com/JBJw5sESGq — Matt Winkelman (@Matt_Winkelman) April 28, 2015
What's even more perplexing is that no one in the dugout seems to be able to stop Sandberg from this madness. His bench coach Larry Bowa, hitting coach Steve Henderson, pitching coach Bob McClure, first base coach Juan Samuel, third base coach Pete Mackanin, none of these guys has been able to tackle Sandberg and stop him, or at least talk him out of some of the things he's done wrong.
Guys, help your boss out.
There are more examples of Sandberg's missteps that I'm forgetting. And to be fair, Sandberg has made some decent calls this year, too.
But the Phillies don't have a lot of talent on the roster, and there's little margin for error on a nightly basis. The team has a manager that is not putting his players in the best positions to succeed, and it seems as though at least once a week, if not more, Sandberg is doing something to hurt the situation, not help it.
Sunday in Washington was just the latest example.The cancellation of the AEC's workplace vote came after the Attorney-General's Department became the latest public service agency to reject a workplace deal under the Coalition's tough bargaining policy. The result comes as the federal workplace authority effectively conceded that any more deals before the election were unlikely, telling agencies to take no "substantial" actions between now and July 2. The Australian Public Service Commission has advised bosses across the bureaucracy that it may not be "appropriate" to ballot their employees during the pre-election caretaker period, effectively drawing to a close a two-year chapter in the bargaining saga. The main public sector union, the CPSU, was scathing in its appraisal of the latest developments on Tuesday, saying the outcome was a "damning reflection" of the Abbott-era industrial relations stance. After two years of workplace strife, only about 20 per cent of the 150,000 Commonwealth bureaucrats have signed up to deals offered under the policy.
Forty-seven deals have been accepted, mostly at small agencies and departments, but substantial workforces at Health, Foreign Affairs,Education and Employment, have voted to accept proposals made under the policy. The Attorney-General's public servants returned a 61 per cent no vote last week in the wake of giant ballots at the Australian Taxation Office and the Defence Department where workers also rejected the deals on offer. The government's last hope for another win for its policy was at the Australian Electoral Commission until the cancellation of the vote. The issue now looks to be placed on ice and revisited under a re-elected Turnbull government, which has tinkered with the policy but shown no inclination to substantially change it, or Labor, which has pledged to rip it up. Public Service Commissioner John Lloyd posted his latest advice on his website on Monday advising departments not to make any substantial moves during caretaker mode and advised against doing anything that may be "politically contentious".
"During the caretaker period, agencies may consider it appropriate to avoid taking significant steps in the bargaining process," the advice states. "This may include holding a ballot, commencing an access period or making a wages offer. "Policy exemptions require ministerial approval and as such cannot be granted during the caretaker period." But the commission says departments are free to continue negotiations and consultations while the election campaign is underway. CPSU national secretary Nadine Flood said the commissioner's advice served as a reminder of the failure of the bargaining policy.
"The APSC advice is another high profile reminder of just how spectacularly the [Tony] Abbott and Turnbull governments have mishandled public service bargaining," the union leader said. "It's a damning reflection on the government that this mess remains unresolved after two years, with 80 per cent of staff still without new agreements." "Clearly it would be inappropriate and counterproductive during this long election campaign for agencies to continue pushing harsh and unreasonable enterprise agreements framed under the Turnbull government's failed public sector bargaining policy. Loading "Enterprise agreement ballots held just before the election campaign formally began have made clear that workers are absolutely determined to fight for a fair deal and thousands of our members have indicated they'll be actively campaigning, including in marginal seats".
Clarification: An earlier version of this article stated that the Department of Agriculture had voted to accept an enterprise agreement. An agreement has been accepted by meat inspectors employed by the Agriculture, while the core department voted three times to reject proposed enterprise agreements.Here’s the scenario. You’re an independent clothing designer, thinking of opening a pop-up shop in Brooklyn. You know you’ve made a number of sales in Brooklyn in the last year, but want to do some quick geographic analysis to get a visual on the neighborhood distribution to help you figure out where you should open up shop.
Our goal: To take a list of customer addresses and create a pie chart illustrating the distribution of neighborhoods.
Prerequisites
Be able to write basic JavaScript
Know what an API is
Have access to a Google or Google Apps account
What you’ll learn in this tutorial
Add a custom function to Google Sheets
Interact with the Google Maps API via Google Apps Script
Use Underscore.js from within Google Apps Script to parse the Maps API response
Let’s get started
We’ll start with a list of addresses. To start, open up this data sample and make a copy.
Our goal is to be able to fill out the Neighborhood column with neighborhoods like “Brooklyn Heights” and “Williamsburg”.
In order to pull this data we will create a custom =NEIGHBORHOOD(address) function which we will be able to use from within a Google Sheets cell.
Add a custom function to Google Sheets
From the list of addresses you just copied, access the Tools menu, then choose Script Editor. You’ll see a pop-up menu with lots of helpful links, but for now, just click Blank Project.
Erase the existing code in the editor. Then add:
function NEIGHBORHOOD ( address ) { return "My Neighborhood" ; }
Any function we create in the editor here will automatically be available to our Google Sheets cells. Save your Script project and give it a name. Then go back to your spreadsheet, and try typing in =NEIGHBORHOOD(). Your cell should calculate even though we didn’t actually provide an address, and return the value “My Neighborhood.”
Unfortunately, you may have noticed that there was no auto-complete text that popped up like there normally is when you start typing a more common formula like VLOOKUP or MAX. We can fix that.
Directly above the function declaration in your Script, add the following JSDoc tag.
/** * Returns the Google Maps political neighborhood for the given address. * * @param {string} address - The input address. * @return The neighborhood (political) for this address, based on the Google Maps API. * @customfunction */
If you’re not familiar with JSDoc, it’s a documentation generator for JavaScript. The code above is just a JavaScript comment, but it follows a specific formatting that JSDoc treats as documentation about the following function. In this case, we’re providing information that will tell users how to use our custom function.
Save your script and give it a name. Then go back and type =NEIGHBORHOOD() into a cell in Google Sheets, and observe the magic.
Get geographic information from the Google Maps API
Google Docs provides a Maps Service that gives us access to lots of methods for interacting with the Google Maps API. The beauty of using this directly from Apps Script is that we don’t have to deal with getting an API key or doing any configuration whatsoever. We’ll run through one of the basic uses of this service to get the neighborhood information.
Replace the contents of the NEIGHBORHOOD function with the below.
function NEIGHBORHOOD ( address ) { var geocoder = Maps. newGeocoder (); var location = geocoder. geocode ( address ). results [ 0 ]; var components = location. address_components ; var indexedComponents = _. indexBy ( components, 'types' ); var component = "neighborhood,political" ; return _. has ( indexedComponents, component )? indexedComponents [ component ]. long_name : "Not Found" }
If you try out this function, it won’t work yet – we need to load the Underscore library, which we’ll do in a moment.
The TL;DR on what we just did with the code above:
Get access to the Geocoder
Geocode the address
Get the address components from the Google Maps results
Turn the array into an indexed object (with Underscore)
Return the neighborhood name, if it exists
Let’s walk through each of these steps to explain what’s going on (and install Underscore in the process).
1. Get access to the Geocoder.
First we get a new instance of a Maps geocoder object, which will let us actually parse an address and get information from it.
var geocoder = Maps. newGeocoder ();
2. Geocode the address.
Then we get an object from the Google Maps API using that geocoder.
var location = geocoder. geocode ( address ). results [ 0 ];
Geocoder.geocode(address) will return an object that is structures as shown below. Inside this object, the results array will contain one more more resulting map objects with information about the address we looked up. If Google Maps returns more than one object in the results array, it’s because there is some ambiguity as to the location the input address refers to.
In general, we will assume that the first element in the results array is the one we want to deal with, so we call.results[0] to narrow down our response.
{ "results" : [ { "formatted_address" : "...", "types" : [...], "geometry" : {...}, "address_components" : [...], "place_id" : "..." },... ], "status" : "OK" }
2. Parse the address_components.
Each element inside the results array has a number of interesting properties. For our analysis, we only need to deal with address_components, which breaks down our address into properties like its neighborhood, zip code, etc.
var components = location. address_components ;
Here’s what address_components looks like when we input the address for Brooklyn Bowl (61 Wythe Ave, Brooklyn, NY 11249).
"address_components" : [ { "types" : [ "street_number" ], "short_name" : "61", "long_name" : "61" }, { "types" : [ "route" ], "short_name" : "Wythe Ave", "long_name" : "Wythe Avenue" }, { "types" : [ "neighborhood", "political" ], "short_name" : "Williamsburg", "long_name" : "Williamsburg" }, { "types" : [ "sublocality_level_1", "sublocality", "political" ], "short_name" : "Brooklyn", "long_name" : "Brooklyn" }, { "types" : [ "administrative_area_level_2", "political" ], "short_name" : "Kings County", "long_name" : "Kings County" }, { "types" : [ "administrative_area_level_1", "political" ], "short_name" : "NY", "long_name" : "New York" }, { "types" : [ "country", "political" ], "short_name" : "US", "long_name" : "United States" }, { "types" : [ "postal_code" ], "short_name" : "11249", "long_name" : "11249" } ]
If you look closely, you’ll notice that this is an array of objects, each of which map to specific types of information. We want to get an object like the one below, but because it lives in an array, we can’t simply look this up by a key. Instead, we would need to loop through every array element until we find the type we’re looking for.
{ "types" : [ "neighborhood", "political" ], "short_name" : "Williamsburg |
noDB in Beijing and Seoul, plus OSCON and MySQL Connect. Those in addition to Percona Live and related events give me a chance to share my own experiences and lessons learned with the community. As I’ve already mentioned it also gives me the chance to learn.
Tom: Thanks very much for speaking with me today, Calvin. I look forward to seeing you in April! And as a small token of my appreciation, here’s a discount code you can share with your friends and colleagues (everyone reading this can take advantage of it, too). Just have them enter “SeeMeSpeak” on the Percona Live 2014 registration page and they’ll automatically save 10 percent.
Calvin: Thanks, Tom. We really appreciate the hard work Percona and the Conference Committee does in terms of organizing these MySQL conferences with all of the excellent sessions. See you in April!
* * *
Update: April 9, 2014
I had the opportunity to interview Calvin last week at Percona Live 2014 about the new WebScaleSQL initiative. WebScaleSQL is a collaboration among engineers from several companies – including Twitter, Google Facebook and LinkedIn – that face similar challenges in running MySQL at scale, and seek greater performance from a database technology tailored for their needs.One of the World Health Organization's (WHO) 2016-2030 program goals is to eliminate malaria transmission in at least 10 countries within the next four years, a prospect the UN health body said Monday was achievable.
"WHO estimates that 21 countries are in a position to achieve this goal, including 6 countries in the African Region, where the burden of the disease is heaviest," the UN's health body said in a statement on Monday marking World Malaria Day.
The African countries where malaria could be eliminated are Algeria, Botswana, Cape Verde, Comoros, South Africa and Swaziland. Since 2000, malaria mortality rates in Africa have fallen by 66 percent.
In Asia, China, Malaysia and South Korea could eliminate malaria by 2020. In Latin America, Costa Rica, Belize, El Salvador, Mexico, Argentina, Paraguay, Ecuador and Suriname could also reach the goal. Other countries include Saudi Arabia, Iran, Oman, Sri Lanka, Bhutan, Timor-Leste and Nepal.
In 2015, WHO declared that Europe, Central Asia and the Caucasus had eradicated malaria.
About 3.2 billion people, or nearly half the world's population, are at risk of contracting malaria. Last year, 214 million new cases of the disease were reported in 95 countries, killing more than 400,000 people. The disease can recur periodically in victims after first exposure.
WHO warned that tools used over the past decades to battle malaria will be more difficult to use to completely eliminate the disease. Among the complications is that some malaria parasites have developed resistance to antimalarial drugs.
Developing a malaria vaccine would be a "game-changer," WHO said on Sunday to mark World Immunization Week. Last year, the European Medicines Agency for the first time made a positive scientific assessment of a malaria vaccine. WHO recommended in January large-scale pilot projects be implemented in Africa with a view towards implementing a possible continent-wide vaccination campaign in the future.In the renewables backlash triggered by South Australia’s recent energy market woes, certain media reports painted farmers, dependent as they are on reliable and affordable power, as some of the nation’s biggest critics of wind and solar proliferation.
But a closer look reveals a very different picture. For many in Australia’s agriculture industry, distributed renewables technologies like solar and storage have come to represent a cheaper, more reliable alternative to the grid, to which many farms are connected via long, expensive and tenuous SWER lines. They are also being seen as a cheaper and cleaner alternative to the diesel fuelled generators many farmers use for either back-up or off-grid power.
On One Step Off The Grid, we’ve seen this story unfolding gradually, in such cases as reported here, here and here. But for Queensland-based solar installer Matthew Beech, the potential for solar to power farming applications like irrigation around the country is huge – and the need, even greater.
Recently, Beech’s company, Atlas Solar, installed a huge solar array (pictured above) to power a water pump system at a cattle farm in northern Queensland – the largest solar powered false bore pump on the east coast of Australia, he says.
As Beech tells it, he went to the property to fit the farmer’s house and workers quarters with solar, but wound up agreeing to quote on a job to install enough solar to pump 1.2 megalitres of water per day from a riverbed, up a 30 metre rise and then 1km to the holding dam.
“I noticed the diesel generator sitting in the dam and said, what’s going on there? And he says, ‘we’ve got to put this bloody thing in the river and it plays up like a two-bob watch.’ And I said why don’t you power it with solar?
“At first we didn’t even know if it could be done,” Beech said. “We knew we could build a solar system to any size… however we had limited knowledge of the pump side, so we engaged the services of CSWS in Toowoomba who had a man on the ground in north Queensland and, from the first site visit, we knew it was possible to build the first megalitre per day false bore pump on (Australia’s) east coast, powered entirely by the sun.”
Beech says that after much careful planning and engineering, the installation took about a week and the solar and pump system was commissioned in early November 2015. The 44kW solar array now gives the owner up to 10 hours of “run time” on clear days and four to five hours on cloudy days.
“It was an amazing feeling when the ABB pump drive was powered up for the first time and beautiful clear water was seen exiting the pipe nearly one kilometre away.
“The look on the owner’s face… he looks back on it now, and he keeps telling me I’ve changed the life of his family.
“We see enormous potential for this type of application,” Beech told One Step in an interview on Tuesday, adding that he is currently in talks with multiple industries, including fish farms, mango farms in northern Queensland, and sugar cane farms.
“I see hundreds of irrigation pumps out there, connected to filthy diesel.
“We firmly believe that the only reasons there hasn’t been more uptake (of solar) … is that it hasn’t been sold very well to the end user.”
Beech says that while solar is now “an old technology,” it is pairing it with newer technologies, such as the smart irrigation pumps used in the north Queensland project, as well as energy management software and new battery storage technologies, that makes using PV on farms such an exciting – and economic – prospect today.
“We’re marrying old technology, which is photovoltaic, to some of the newest pump drives in the market,” he said.
“That pump, the very latest from ABB (a 22kW false bore pump, pictured below)… is smarter than your average bear,” he added, noting that it can detect blockages in the pipes and cycle the water back and forth until the blockage is gone, “all while the owner is on another paddock collecting cattle.”
“If a farmer has a requirement of reliable water supply, there’s no doubt in my mind that the economics of solar would stack up in each case,” Beech said.
“A lot of the applications are going to be vertical bores, or transferring water from one damn to another.
“I can’t think of anything cheaper than filling one hole with water and being able to send it anywhere you like as long as the sun is shining. And with battery packs, you can take that to a 24 hour operation.”
And he says he sees great potential for using stand-alone solar systems to power centre pivot irrigators – the kind you find on farms in some of Australia’s driest and most remote areas.
“(Centre pivot irrigators) are everywhere,” Beech said. “They are just the future of farming… All these farms are sitting on Artesian bores that are the size of Sydney Harbour, but it’s too hard to get out of the ground, because they’ve got to get grid or diesel power (to the source). …But not any more.”
And the numbers are pretty good, too. Although there’s a high up-front cost for the systems – $150,000 in the case of Beech’s cattle farmer – the systems are paying themselves off in as little as four to five years.
“If anyone was interested in doing something like this, all they’d have to do is see it, look at the numbers, and they would do it,” Beech said.
And for the many customers, whose often expensive SWER lines are at the mercy of the elements, including extreme winds, fires and floods, the independence a solar systems provide is also worth its weight in gold.
“It’s like building your own power station,” Beech said. “That’s what the owner of the pump in north Queensland said. He said, ’At least it’s mine. I don’t have have to rely on anyone else.’
“And he said that as we were standing under a brand new power line that Ergon put in for $45,000, and it’s not connected to anything. So it’s an irony, really.”
“These (solar pump systems) can be completely self-sufficient,” Beech added. It’s all in the programming of the pump drive. There’s this little box inside a small shed (pictured right) that is the whole brains of the operation.
“So we can access live data, store data for a week, we can know what’s wrong (systems) and fix them over the internet, before the farmer even knows.”
So what’s stopping farmers from doing this? Aside from a lack of knowledge, its mostly a lack of access to ready funds, says Beech.
“We’ve talked to people like Barnaby Joyce and these guys are all for it, they love the idea, but you can’ get much out of them (in terms of government assistance).
“It’s really up to the owner and the solar company to make it work.”
But, he adds, “the numbers do not lie. Once you’ve got that system paid off, in four to seven years, you’re left with panels that will last 25 years, a pump that will last 10-15 years – I can’t imagine a decent bank manager looking at a project like this and not seeing the returns.”READER COMMENTS ON
"GOP Polling Place Photo ID Restrictions: Keeping Vets (and So Many More) From Voting in America"
(50 Responses so far...)
COMMENT #1 [Permalink]
... Floridiot said on 5/4/2008 @ 2:02 pm PT...
Why does the Supreme Court hate America?
COMMENT #2 [Permalink]
... Floridiot said on 5/4/2008 @ 2:04 pm PT...
Why does Flush Rimbowl hate America?
COMMENT #3 [Permalink]
... Ronald Legro said on 5/4/2008 @ 4:54 pm PT...
I smell class action lawsuit.
COMMENT #4 [Permalink]
... molly said on 5/4/2008 @ 7:36 pm PT...
#3 Can you do that after a supreme court ruling? Alito and all of bush cronies on the supreme court need to be replaced, seriously.
COMMENT #5 [Permalink]
... Linda said on 5/4/2008 @ 7:44 pm PT...
You mentioned Missouri here. In the lead-up to the 2006 midterm election, I recall reading in a blog maintained by Mainstreet Moms a post by a Democratic voter who moved to Mo. from another state (can't remember which) and was hassled by the local ROV when she attempted to register in that state. Whatever official she had to deal with made her run all over the place looking for one piece or another of proof that she was who she is and lived where she said she lived, before letting her register. It was pure harassment, and this voter was afraid to do anything about it for fear of not being allowed to vote.
COMMENT #6 [Permalink]
... Brad Friedman said on 5/4/2008 @ 9:51 pm PT...
Yup. That's Missouri. Thor Hearne Country. (And my old home state.) He's the man behind every Photo ID/Voter Suppression curtain in America. Or, at least the man in front of the other man behind the curtain.
COMMENT #7 [Permalink]
... greg0 said on 5/5/2008 @ 1:07 am PT...
When any official screams at me, "Vere are your papers, old man?", I will gladly show my passport. Because the most important right we now have is the right to obey. The US Constitution and all those ancient 'Liberty, Equality, Fraternity' ideals are quite out of date. Money is the new equalizer and only Big Money gives true liberty.
Just as the courts have ruled money is equivalent to free speech in regard to campaign finance laws, I anticipate new rulings that reconsider poll taxes as not taxes at all, but rather user fees. How else can the idle rich keep the rabble from conducting class warfare at the ballot box?
Democracy is SO dangerous!
COMMENT #8 [Permalink]
... Steve said on 5/5/2008 @ 1:29 am PT...
I really have to wonder about Justice Stevens who voted along with the majority in this decision. What gives? Is this guy getting senile or is he reverting to his conservative roots (I believe he was a Ford appointee)?
COMMENT #9 [Permalink]
... Geri said on 5/5/2008 @ 5:57 am PT...
We need to stop waitng to fix these voting problems. Every election its the same FRAUD. I am fed up.
COMMENT #10 [Permalink]
... Nacho Mamma said on 5/5/2008 @ 7:03 am PT...
It appears to me that if you would do some reseach on your own, you might know that a PHOTO ID is NOT needed to obtain an Indiana birth certificate. The ID documents needed. Here is the research for you: http://www.in.gov/isdh/b...ertifs/faq.htm#VitalFAQ6
COMMENT #11 [Permalink]
... Linda said on 5/5/2008 @ 8:50 am PT...
And along these lines of discussing how much it costs to get these documents... Last summer, my family of three spent a grand total of $260 getting passported-up to travel into and out of Canada. That is NOT chump change to us, since we are ACTUAL members of America's middle class, and not members of that part of the middle class that lives off of $200,000/year (which is, btw, an absurdity, that my family is somehow lumped in with families pulling in that kind of money every year). Additionally, I spent all day long driving to San Francisco, standing in line at the county records office, and then driving back home again, in order to get a certified copy of my daughter's birth certificate (the copy I had paid for and had on hand since her birth, which I had also stood in line for the greater part of a day back in 1995 when she was born not being good enough for the purposes of getting a passport), a certified birth certificate being a requirement for obtaining a passport for her. Fortunately, I had a certified copy of my birth certificate at home, but if I hadn't, that would've been yet another hurdle to jump over, and it would have been a huge hurdle, since I was born in some podunk town in west Georgia so long ago that all records of my era were on microfiche (who remembers THIS method of records storage?!) And my husband, who is even more ancient that I am, fortunately had a passport that had been used within the time frame allowable to be accepted to get another passport, otherwise, that would have been yet another hurdle to leap through. Also, at the post office, they tried to intimidate me into spending an additional $300 or so for "speedy service," telling me that, even with 12 weeks before our trip, I may not get these passports in time to travel. When I told them that was absurd, that even government offices aren't THAT inefficient, I was told that holidays and weekends did not count in the calculations of how long it might take to get my passports (another blatant, patently absurd attempt to get an additional $300 out of me.) I cannot fathom how difficult a similar process might be for people who are disabled, chronically or acutely ill, elderly, impoverished, not savvy in the way you need to be to deal with bureaucracy like this, loaded down with four young kids, or just plain fed up with a system which is all about harassing people, and not helping them. What about people who don't know for sure exactly which county in America stores their birth records and who don't drive and so don't have drivers' licenses? These fascist-loving goons who think all Americans should be suited up with special documentation allowing them to vote should be required to step into someone else's shoes for a project to get this documentation under less-than-ideal circumstances. I deliver food every week to families who can't afford to turn on their heat in the winter months. Where the hell are these people going to find a couple hundred dollars and a driver willing to transport them all over the area to get their required documents?! This is a travesty! People like Thor Hearne should be required to devote their anal tendencies toward more productive, less obstructive projects, like tracking the billions of dollars that are being dumped into the ME right now with so little accountability that many over there are getting their hands on it and using it to relocate themselves to a less violent political environment. And please, spare everyone the ignorant, mal-informed responses that, since it's no big deal for YOU to get "written permission" from the government to vote, it's not a problem. End of current rant.
COMMENT #12 [Permalink]
... Linda said on 5/5/2008 @ 8:55 am PT...
And after all that, I left out an important question to ponder. How long do you think it'll be before we all have to get tatooed? And where on our bodies do you think these tatoos will be placed? And if you somehow can't imagine that we are heading in that direction, then you don't deserve to live in a country that's supposedly all about freedom.
COMMENT #13 [Permalink]
... CharlieL said on 5/5/2008 @ 12:50 pm PT...
Forget a tattoo. The "sign of the beast" will be a broadcast RFID chip implanted at birth. Failure to have a chip when "scanned" will result in instant death, the presumption being that only an ultra-dangerous criminal would not have the chip in place.
COMMENT #14 [Permalink]
... ERW said on 5/5/2008 @ 3:42 pm PT...
This just makes me so damned mad, I'm speechless.
COMMENT #15 [Permalink]
... Tim said on 5/6/2008 @ 12:30 am PT...
I don't understand the hullabaloo over voter ID cards. My mother-in-law is 78, has never driven a car in her life but she has a ID card issued to her by the Texas DOT, which is exactly like a drivers license, except she is not permitted to drive. So instead of going overboard with the court decision it will be in the best interest of democracy if everybody put is some effort to get ID cards for every US citizen.
PS: I am not a Republican.
COMMENT #16 [Permalink]
... lmwilker said on 5/6/2008 @ 6:46 am PT...
I live in Indiana and just voted this morning. It was very intimidating. When I entered the voting site the woman at the table barked, "You must show us an ID" very old school Soviet style. Very un-American. I had voted in the last Indiana election that also required ID and had similar feelings. It's a feeling I get whenver I'm in a WalMart supercenter surrounded by an ocean of cheap, Chinese, crap. The Communists won, comrade.
COMMENT #17 [Permalink]
... Linda said on 5/6/2008 @ 8:35 am PT...
Re "I don't understand the hullabaloo over voter ID cards." Neither do I! Why are we asking citizens to get them? What problem(s) are they solving? These cards, and all the money taxpayers are spending to acquire them, are a result of lobbying by database companies. That, my friends, is where all this information-gathering for "national security" purposes is coming from. It is providing huge income streams for all kinds of businesses, beginning with Oracle and Sun. Instead of wasting money in this way, how about sitting down and developing a comprehensive national secure elections policy, based on true security needs, and not based on providing streams of revenue flowing from taxpayers to private corporations. BTW, my mother's grandparents in Germany and my husband's great-grandparents in Germany had no difficulty whatsoever getting their government-approved documentation from public officials in Germany, either. That, my friends, is NOT an argument for forcing citizens to get all "documented-up."
COMMENT #18 [Permalink]
... Mark Cook said on 5/6/2008 @ 1:28 pm PT...
"He had been to the license branch several times, trying to attain a new photo ID card, and had been denied. In order to get a new photo ID, one must have one form of primary identification: an original birth certificate or naturalization card, a U.S. Veterans Universal Access Identification card, a current military ID card or a valid U.S. passport." This is article is suspect. Mr. Baughman doesn't need a "new photo ID card", all he needs is to renew his driver's license. To do so, he DOES NOT NEED "an original birth certificate or naturalization card, a U.S. Veterans Universal Access Identification card, a current military ID card or a valid U.S. passport." To renew his driver's license, he can use his voter ID card mentioned in the article, and proof of SS number.
COMMENT #19 [Permalink]
... Mark Cook said on 5/6/2008 @ 1:34 pm PT...
Reply to lmwilker, #16. I voted in Indiana today without a problem. Everybody was nice, simply show my ID, sign the book, and tell them what ballot I wanted. I have had more trouble getting a prescription filled than I did voting.
COMMENT #20 [Permalink]
... Agent 99 said on 5/6/2008 @ 1:40 pm PT...
Mark If he can't get his voter's ID without a valid driver's license, and can't get his driver's license renewed without his voter ID or proof of any of those other maybe-impossible-for-him-to-get (whether in time or ever) IDs, HOW THE HELL IS HE GOING TO BE ABLE TO VOTE? There are many Americans who are trapped in a no man's land of this ID bullshit. Everyone isn't like you. Not everyone can get their hands on their birth certificate, or find their Social Security card... or have the ID to get a duplicate.... Many, many, many people are going to have extreme difficulty meeting Indiana's ID requirements. Think about it! You sound like a glib person with enough money to ignore the realities of your fellow citizens.
COMMENT #21 [Permalink]
... Agent 99 said on 5/6/2008 @ 1:48 pm PT...
And, I don't mean to be insulting, but... you should try listening to yourself and comparing it to the way fascists in Germany and Italy were talking back in the 1930s.... If you can't bring yourself to believe the difficulty for people this presents, you could just concentrate on how unAmerican the whole Show Us Your Papers thing is, irrespective of whether it's easy or difficult or impossible to comply.
COMMENT #22 [Permalink]
... Mark Cook said on 5/6/2008 @ 2:26 pm PT...
Agent 99, #20. "If he can't get his voter's ID without a valid driver's license, and can't get his driver's license renewed without his voter ID or proof of any of those other maybe-impossible-for-him-to-get (whether in time or ever) IDs, HOW THE HELL IS HE GOING TO BE ABLE TO VOTE?" If you had actually read the article, you would have known that the had his voter's registration card on hand. "He had with him his expired driver’s license (he rides a bicycle), his Department of Veterans Affairs card (featuring his purple heart endorsement) and, of all things, his voter’s registration card." To renew his driver's license, he don't need any other IDs,"maybe-impossible-for-him-to-get (whether in time or ever) IDs". Clearly, you have let your emotions override you ability to bring a fact based argument to the table.
COMMENT #23 [Permalink]
... Agent 99 said on 5/6/2008 @ 2:31 pm PT...
I'm sorry for being unclear, Mark. I was using the term "he" in the generic sense, not specifically about one person's trouble. I was not paying attention to the nits that started your picking. My concern, right here, is to get you to stop with this voter ID being just fine thing you've got going, and think about how offensive to the Constitution it is.... My comments are DEFINITELY fact-based. I'm not talking about one bicycle rider; I'm talking about America.
COMMENT #24 [Permalink]
... Mark Cook said on 5/6/2008 @ 2:39 pm PT...
Reply to Agent 99, #21. I am use to those who have no clue to making arguments and accusations based on ignorance. "If you can't bring yourself to believe the difficulty for people this presents" you could just concentrate on how unAmerican the whole Show Us Your Papers thing is, irrespective of whether it's easy or difficult or impossible to comply." Give us REAL examples of these "difficulties". And please don't resort to making them up as you did in #20.
COMMENT #25 [Permalink]
... Agent 99 said on 5/6/2008 @ 2:56 pm PT...
Give us REAL examples of these "difficulties". And please don't resort to making them up as you did in #20. Are you ten? I may be vexing you with my imprecision, for which I am sorry, but not sorry enough to bog down my time playing your game of excusing the inexcusable. If you really can't think of it, or of the Constitution, may I suggest night school? You can learn about the founding documents and become socialized enough to someday be able to see for yourself what a problem this law is for many of your fellows... and by "fellows" I mean the rest of the citizens of this country... assuming you even are a citizen.... [Oh, oh, and just to be even clearer, even if all the citizens of Indiana might be able to get this ID without it being so much of a burden as to constitute disenfranchisement, which I'm not saying it is, just saying even if that were true, it isn't true in other states and the Supreme Court's decision does not merely make this Nazism legal for Indiana; it makes it legal all over the country. That is just not okay. Period.]
COMMENT #26 [Permalink]
... Linda said on 5/6/2008 @ 4:36 pm PT...
99, ten-year-olds are not necessarily this clueless. Clearly, Mark is not reading anything that doesn't support his "opinion" that acquiring "permission cards" to vote in many cases constitutes disenfranchisement. If a person doesn't get to vote today in Indiana because of this nonsensical Supreme Court ruling that solves no existing problem, btw, then that person has been, effectively, disenfranchised. Mark, what elections security problem do you think is being solved by these voter ID cards? Just answer the question, w/o clouding the issue by talking about how your grandmother got on her scooter, drove down to the DMV, didn't have to wait at all, and got her permission slip to vote? What elections security problem do you think is being solved by these voter ID cards?
COMMENT #27 [Permalink]
... Agent 99 said on 5/6/2008 @ 4:49 pm PT...
Golly, Linda, "permission cards"! That rocks! Good way to put it to clarify the issue. I'm thinking maybe even "permission slips" might drive it home even more effectively, but I'm not sure if that's the term all over the country for grade schoolers getting parental consent.... It is in California. What do you think?
COMMENT #28 [Permalink]
... Linda said on 5/6/2008 @ 5:11 pm PT...
You betcha! The Republicans are treating our elections like they're a junior high school gym dance, and you have to bring written permission from yo' mama to show to the principal to get in and dance! This is b******t! What problem is being solved by requiring these cards?
COMMENT #29 [Permalink]
... Mark Cook said on 5/6/2008 @ 7:56 pm PT...
Reply to Linda, #26 "permission cards"?? Are you talking about a voter registration card?? Afterall, you can't vote in Indiana unless you register to vote.
COMMENT #30 [Permalink]
... Linda said on 5/6/2008 @ 10:37 pm PT...
Since you can't vote in Indiana now without a voter ID, which gives you permission to vote as you registered with your ROV, then yes, I will call voter ID cards "permission cards/slips." What problem is being solved by requiring that all registered voters carry with them and present to poll workers an ID card before voting?
COMMENT #31 [Permalink]
... Mark Cook said on 5/7/2008 @ 6:28 am PT...
Reply to Linda, #28. In the Indiana lawsuit, the court noted that voter impersonation takes place in this county. The court noted the 2004 Washington State election. This was the elections where the Governor was not elected by the people, but by election fraud, i.e. the 133 margin of victory was overshadowed by 1600 fraudulent ballots cast in the election. "State’s Ex. 3, pp. 4-5, 19 (court findings that in the State of Washington’s 2004 gubernatorial elections more than 1,600 fraudulently cast ballots, including 19 ballots cast by dead voters, six double votes, and 77 votes unaccounted for on the registration rolls)" http://www.insd.uscourts...ov/opinions/ao6340o1.pdf The state of Indiana took a pro-active stance to make sure that this type of voter fraud would not take place in our state.
COMMENT #32 [Permalink]
... Kathy in St. Louis said on 5/7/2008 @ 10:20 am PT...
The repukes have done everything in their power to disenfranchise minorities and poor people. Now they're going after nuns, veterans, and college kids. They are taking us back to the "good old days" when only property owning white men were allowed to vote. Thanks to the black robed ideologues on the Supreme court our liberites are in jeopardy and the Bill of Rights is faltering at the whims of the far right.
COMMENT #33 [Permalink]
... Mark Cook said on 5/8/2008 @ 6:55 am PT...
Reply to Kathy, #33 The nuns in South Bend could have voted by absentee ballot, no ID required. The veteran in this story could have voted absentee, no ID required.
COMMENT #34 [Permalink]
... Brad Friedman said on 5/8/2008 @ 2:43 pm PT...
Mark Cook #31 - Consider this your first warning that posting knowing disinformation will lose your posting privileges here. Under the assumption that you did not know you were posting disinfo, when you described "court findings that in the State of Washington’s 2004 gubernatorial elections more than 1,600 fraudulently cast ballots", I'll help you out. You can read more from the Seatle Times article here, but here's a couple of cogent responses to the bullshit you alleged: Judge John Bridges today upheld the election of Gov. Christine Gregoire, dismissing a Republican lawsuit and so soundly rejecting the party's claims that Dino Rossi said he would not go forward with what had been seen as an inevitable appeal.
...
In a ruling that took nearly one hour to read, Bridges said he saw no evidence of fraud
...
"I think it was a resounding rejection of every one of the Republican claims," said Democratic attorney Jenny Durkan. "They chose the county, they chose the court, they chose the method of proof," meaning the proportional deduction analysis.
...
On the Republicans' fraud charge, the judge repeated the fact that there was no official fraud claim in the case, but then said that in any case, he saw no evidence of fraud.
...
There is no evidence that the problems in King County had anything to do with "intentional misconduct or someone's desire to manipulate the election" or "partisan bias," the phrase Republicans used to allege wrongdoing.
...
Secretary of State Sam Reed, who had been critical of some of the claims of vote fraud made by his fellow Republicans, said he hopes Bridge's ruling, which he called "forthright, practical and clear," will help rebuild voter confidence.
...
Reed criticized the Republican efforts to claim vote fraud without producing convincing evidence. "I think if they were going to allege fraud, they should have done it in the initial filings of the case and I think they should have had proof of fraud, and obviously they didn't do that."
COMMENT #35 [Permalink]
... Brad Friedman said on 5/8/2008 @ 2:47 pm PT...
Constitution-hating Mark Cook #33 said: The nuns in South Bend could have voted by absentee ballot, no ID required. The veteran in this story could have voted absentee, no ID required. Good idea! What say we pass an equally arbitrary and unnecessary law which says that everyone named "Mark Cook" will be forced to vote by a different means than everybody else! Even if those ballots are not counted with the same weight as everyone else's. Sound like "equal protection" to you, genius? (see: U.S. Constitution, 14th Amendment for more details.)
COMMENT #36 [Permalink]
... Linda said on 5/8/2008 @ 3:17 pm PT...
Mark Cook, re "In the Indiana lawsuit, the court noted that voter impersonation takes place in this county." It is not worth engaging with someone who is not taking the time to not be uninformed, let alone actually informed well. The court actually admitted that voter impersonation is mostly nonexistent, and that when it has actually taken place, those instances have been rare, isolated, and of no consequence. That's it. I'm through with you. You are way behind in this game and, instead of spending time typing in your opinions which are based on factual misperceptions, you need to go get better-informed. Adios.
COMMENT #37 [Permalink]
... Linda said on 5/8/2008 @ 3:21 pm PT...
Your ignorance persists. Re "The nuns in South Bend could have voted by absentee ballot, no ID required. The veteran in this story could have voted absentee, no ID required." You conveniently left out that these voters then have a limited time to physically get their asses down to the ROV to prove that they are who they already proved they are when they registered to vote. If they don't do this, their votes are nullified (not tabulated in the final vote count). Are you trying to be ignorant?
COMMENT #38 [Permalink]
... Mark Cook said on 5/8/2008 @ 8:03 pm PT...
Reply to Brad, #34. "Consider this your first warning that posting knowing disinformation..." I am sorry, but repeating the actual court findings is not disinformation, it is called fact. Apparently you do not know the difference. Court's oral decision,
Borders v. King County
June 5, 2005. "Based on the findings, the Court concludes that 1,678 illegal votes were cast in the 2004 general election. This includes felons established by petitioners totaling 754, felons established by intervenors totaling 647, deceased voters totaling 19, double voters totaling 6, provisional ballots in King County totaling 96, provisional ballots in Pierce County totaling 79 and additional votes in Pierce County for which there could not be found a registered voter through crediting, at least, totaling 77. And, therefore, the total is 1,678." http://moritzlaw.osu.edu...cuments/oraldecision.pdf
COMMENT #39 [Permalink]
... Mark Cook said on 5/8/2008 @ 8:30 pm PT...
Reply to Linda, #37 You conveniently left out that these voters then have a limited time to physically get their asses down to the ROV to prove that they are who they already proved they are when they registered to vote. If they don't do this, their votes are nullified (not tabulated in the final vote count). Sorry, but your argument fails because you are trying to apply the provisional ballot laws upon the absentee ballots. IC 3-11-10-1.2 Proof of identification not required Sec. 1.2. An absentee voter is not required to provide proof of identification when: (1) mailing, delivering, or transmitting an absentee ballot under section 1 of this chapter; or (2) voting before an absentee board under section 25 of this chapter. As added by P.L.109-2005, SEC.8. Amended by P.L.103-2005, SEC.10.
COMMENT #40 [Permalink]
... Mark Cook said on 5/8/2008 @ 8:55 pm PT...
Reply to Brad, #35 Good idea! What say we pass an equally arbitrary and unnecessary law which says that everyone named "Mark Cook" will be forced to vote by a different means than everybody else! PLEASE DO SO, I WOULD LOVE IT!!!! The 98 year old nun could have voted from home with an absentee ballot, which is a PAPER BALLOT, and then mailed it in. In 2004, I stood in line |
its entirety to coincide with his 100th day in office two days later. In an interview with The Washington Post on April 27th, he said: “I was all set to terminate. I looked forward to terminating. I was going to do it.” Trump said he reconsidered after speaking with advisers and with the prime minister of Canada and the president of Mexico, saying: “I like them a lot, both of them. We have a very good relationship. And it’s very hard when you have a relationship, it’s very much something that would not be a nice act. It would not be exactly a friendly act.”
White House insiders told the Post that Trump’s stated intention to terminate NAFTA rattled business executives across America, various agricultural groups, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, state governments, members of Congress, as well as Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross, Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue and Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, who all urged the president to back down. The message was that ending NAFTA would impact negatively all U.S. business and could devastate the U.S. agriculture industry.
The only Trump advisers urging him to keep on his course to cancel NAFTA were trade adviser Peter Navarro and chief strategist Stephen K. Bannon, the Post reported, adding that at the same time two cabinet-level Mexican officials contacted their U.S. counterparts to deliver the blunt message that Mexico would not return to the negotiating table with “a gun to its head” if Trump announced his intention to withdraw from NAFTA. Arturo Sarukhan, a former Mexican ambassador to the United States, described Trump’s threat as a “my way or the highway ambush” from the White House.
Mexican Foreign Minister Luis Videgaray went on to say in an April 27th interview on Mexican television that Canada and Mexico had mapped out a joint strategy for dealing with Trump’s threat to withdraw from NAFTA. “We had the same position,” Videgaray said.
So in reality, Trump had already made up his mind to back down even before he spoke with Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and President Enrique Peña Nieto on Wednesday night, April 26th, the Post reported.
The newspaper gave an interesting anecdote to illustrate how Trump’s advisers, starting with his son-in-law Jared Kushner – who had urged him to back away from cancelling NAFTA – have to play up to him to salve his ego. At one point during The Washington Post interview in the Oval Office on April 27th, Trump, who had already backed down on the issue, turned to Kushner and asked: “Was I ready to terminate NAFTA?”
PHOTO: LORI BERKOWITZ / WIKIPEDIA Jared Kushner (above), son-in-law and adviser to President Trump, advised him to back away from cancelling NAFTA.
“Yeah,” Kushner said, before explaining the case he had made to the president: “I said, ‘Look, there’s pluses and minuses to doing it’, and either way he would have ended up in a good place.”
A Canadian Press story published May 8, 2017 in The Toronto Star reported that at 6 p.m. on April 26th Kushner called Katie Telford, Prime Minister Trudeau’s chief of staff, in Ottawa to suggest that it would be good idea for the prime minister to call the president – who was free “right now” – to discuss NAFTA.
The Canadian prime minister followed Kushner’s suggestion and spoke to Trump, as did Mexican president Peña Nieto – although it has not been reported whether Kushner was the White House adviser who triggered the call from the Mexican president. What is known is that Trump spun the calls from the two leaders into what he thought would be a face-saving ploy to explain his change of position about ending NAFTA, saying that Trudeau and Peña Nieto had asked him to back down and that he had acceded to their requests because he likes both men.
Given the mercurial temperament of this president, one wonders how many major changes NAFTA might undergo even if he eventually opts not to pull the plug on the entire agreement. For example, the Trump administration has toyed with the idea of abolishing
NAFTA’s dispute settlement regime (known as NAFTA Chapter 11) – which addresses anti-dumping and countervailing disputes – despite the fact that it seems to have worked in favour of the U.S.
Scott Sinclair of the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives documented the 77 known NAFTA investor-state settlement claims made up to January 1, 2015, which included 35 against Canada, 20 against the U.S. and 22 against Mexico: Canada paid out damages totaling $172 million (Cdn); Mexico paid damages of $204 million (U.S.), while the U.S. had not lost a single NAFTA Chapter 11 case up to that point.
Intellectual property rights are also a continuing priority for America, especially in the realm of pharmaceuticals, as the U.S. has serious concerns regarding certain patent utility requirements that Canada has adopted. Ideally, the U.S. would also like additional co-operation in the fight against counterfeit goods (especially goods shipped from China), as Canadian legislation does not allow for inspection of in-transit goods destined for the U.S. via Canadian ports.
The U.S. may also pursue changes to Canadian personal duty exemptions. For short-term travellers, they are far less generous than those provided to Americans who return from travel in Canada. U.S. retailers have raised concerns on the diminishing effects of spending when on their side of the border. The same goes for personal imports of U.S. wines and spirits, which are subject to high provincial taxes and duties.
On a similar note, given the rise of American e-commerce companies, the U.S. would like to see an increase in Canada’s de minimis threshold (DMT). It is the value below which shipments from abroad are exempt from duties and taxes and customs processes, and it is currently set at a mere $20. As you might imagine, it was set in the pre-digital universe nearly three decades ago. It is also the lowest DMT in the world, as compared to the U.S., which has the highest at $800.
Canada spends a great deal of money and resources to collect the tax and inspect these small parcels at the border – it does not even come close to covering the cost of doing so. A C.D. Howe Institute trade and international policy briefing entitled “Rights of Passage: The Economic Effects of Raising the de minimis Threshold in Canada” (published in June 2016 by Christine McDaniel, Simon Schropp and Olim Latipov), reveals that for the government to collect $39 million in additional revenues on these small value shipments, it comes at a cost of $166 million. Needless to say, this is a money-losing endeavour where both countries could stand to benefit if changes were made.
PHOTO: BOMBARDIER.COM The U.S. is also weary of the support the provincial and federal governments provide to Canada’s aerospace industry – namely Bombardier, whose administrative centre in Dorval, Quebec is pictured above.
The U.S. is also weary of the support the provincial and federal governments provide to Canada’s aerospace industry – namely Bombardier. Whether it be in the form of the direct aid the company has received or whether it is masked under the veil of research and development grants, or the commercial loans the government is providing to potential purchasers of their CSeries aircraft and the additional credits they receive when the aircraft is sold in the U.S. market – the U.S. views these as subsidies working against American-made products. Meanwhile, Canada, in return, would likely solicit the opportunity to participate in U.S. government procurement projects. This would require the relaxation of local content rules, which in most cases preclude Canadian companies from even participating in the bidding process.
Other than the reciprocal requests briefly outlined above, Canada may also want to solidify measures to prevent a great unraveling of the fully integrated auto-manufacturing sector. Canada could also seek an update to the list of professionals who qualify for temporary entry to the U.S., something they were not able to achieve in TPP negotiations. But the biggest ask would be for the U.S. to open up its agricultural sector, namely the sugar industry, which is heavily protected and currently excluded from NAFTA.
Opportunity pipeline
Despite the concessions and the potential downside of reopening negotiations, there is one large potential opportunity for Canada and it comes in the form of the Keystone XL pipeline, as part of Trump’s plan for energy independence.
The Obama administration had originally vetoed the project, but Trump encouraged TransCanada Corp., the Keystone pipeline builder, to reapply for a permit. The project was finally given a presidential approval on March 24, 2017. If completed, the pipeline would be capable of sending up to 830,000 barrels a day from Canada’s Alberta oil sands to America’s refiners on the Gulf Coast. It also has the potential to create thousands of jobs for Canadians, particularly where they are most needed – in Western Canada.
Despite Trump’s blessings, the project still faces numerous hurdles, namely state-level approvals are needed in Nebraska and South Dakota, and there is continued opposition from environmentalists. There’s also the matter of Trump’s pledge for the exclusive use of American steel in its construction, as well as his expressed desire for a piece of the profits. It is now clear that the U.S. steel promise is unlikely to be fulfilled as the pipeline was already under construction and the materials were previously acquired, although this will be a requirement for new projects. As for the profit-sharing, it appears he has also backed away from pervious comments that would have otherwise been a clear violation of our capitalistic system.
With the arrival of the pipeline also comes consequences for the oil market. Keystone may very well impact oil production in the U.S. and, as such, the price of oil. And if oil prices are depressed, that could, in turn, make expensive oil sands projects – whose heavy crude sells at a discount to the light sweet variety – less viable than they already are today.
On the other hand, if only Mexico is hit with a punitive tariff or border tax, its oil exports to the U.S. will also be affected. This is a potential boon for Canadian producers whose oil already sells at a discount to heavy Mexican Maya, simply because it needs to travel thousands of miles by rail or pipeline. An additional 20 percent on Mexican oil, along with the availability of less costly pipeline transportation, could give the oil sands a real comparative advantage.
Broadening Canada’s trade horizons
At the end of the day, regardless of the negotiation struggles or the outcome, America’s general retreat from free trade threatens to disrupt Canada’s attempts to forge trade agreements with other countries. Without the economic heft of the American elephant at the table, our government could struggle to negotiate favorable trade deals.
Realistically, whether we have the weight of the U.S. on our side or not, Canada needs to broaden its trade horizons.
PHOTO: U.S. Department of State U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson meets with Canadian Foreign Minister Chrystia Freeland at the U.S. Department of State in Washington, D.C., on February 8, 2017.
Excluding NAFTA, Canada has 10 free-trade agreements in force, which allow Canadian goods duty-free access to 13 countries. This can be improved upon. Now that TPP has fallen through the cracks, Canada needs to reach out to those countries with which it does not already have a trade deal (five out of the 12 TPP partners). They could also expedite exploratory free trade agreement discussions they plan on having with China. Meanwhile, Canadian companies should be looking at expansion opportunities presented by CETA, the new trade agreement with the European Union.
Why Trump’s plans may not work out
In the meantime, as we await the reality of the Trump presidency to unfold in the coming years, we should recognize that there are a few reasons why the president’s proposed plan to stimulate America’s growth may not materialize.
The first cause for concern is Trump’s fiscal plan, including the significant tax cuts, and a $1 trillion infrastructure program. For one, this does not necessarily jive with the traditionally tight purse strings of the Republican Party. Trump’s proposed tax cuts are twice as steep as those proposed by House Speaker Paul Ryan. According to the Tax Policy Center estimates, the cuts are expected to cost as much as $7 trillion over the next decade (this takes into account the effects of the change in tax on economic growth – i.e. dynamic scoring). This is expected to increase the debt-to-GDP ratio by 26 percentage points to 111% of GDP.
Purse strings aside, there are numerous issues on which Republicans and their new president have opposing views. Not only on traditional matters such as free trade, but also on Trump’s approach to world affairs, such as his open admiration for Russia and Vladimir Putin (an FBI investigation was under way for possible ties). Such contention can be used as leverage in the political process, and Trump currently appears to be burning through his political capital to pass just the first of many expected proposals.
There is also the matter of the $1 trillion in infrastructure spending to improve the country’s roads, bridges, tunnels, airports, schools and hospitals. There is uncertainty over the details, but the general idea is that most of the money spent would not be directly shelled out by the government, but rather would come in the form of tax breaks to firms willing to invest in private infrastructure projects. The tax break is significant, at 82 cents per dollar of invested equity, but the fear is that without government direction it may not result in the intended improvement of the country’s maintenance backlog and instead will be directed towards profit-making projects such as toll bridges.
Monetary policy is another worry, as the dollar tends to rise with interest rates, and given the U.S. dollar’s pivotal nature, a rise will inevitably be accompanied by a host of other challenges, which will be felt around the globe. Although the dollar has been strengthening against a basket of rich-country peers for years, there are many interrelated factors driving the currency, and at this point nearly all are anticipatory.
Because the American dollar reigns supreme as a means of exchange and a store of value, there is a great deal of financing in the currency beyond America’s shores. In fact, there has been a surge in demand as emerging markets have grown richer and hungrier for financing. Those capital inflows then push up local prices and encourage further borrowing.
Of course, when the dollar rises, so does the cost of servicing those debts, which in turn hurts the supply of local credit. It may also send the cycle for these dollar-denominated borrowers into a tailspin of capital outflows, accompanied by a drop in asset prices. Plus, Trump’s protectionist bent is likely to make it even harder for these emerging economies to trade their way out of trouble.
There are also dangers for America in a stronger dollar. The U.S. Federal Reserve is already in the process of raising rates, precisely because the economy is close to full employment and inflation is on the rise. If the dollar continues to strengthen, the trade deficit will widen as imports inevitably become cheaper, while exporters will suffer. Expensive exports may even cost American jobs.
This is exactly Trump’s fear, and what his potential policies are meant to avoid. Should this happen, he may succumb to his protectionist instincts and pull the tariff trigger, setting off the trade war in an attempt to bring trade into balance.
Needless to say, going forward we are facing a lot of unknowns. Could America’s long-term fiscal health be in jeopardy? Will the Fed speed up the pace of the tightening cycle? Has the market moved too quickly in anticipation of policies that may never materialize? Will the Republican Party be able to synthesize their conservative principles with Trump’s world view? Could Trump’s approach to foreign policy, his lack of experience in public office, or his unorthodox views on issues, such as immigration and climate change, damage alliances? What will be the global consequence of the anti-globalization backlash we have now seen in both American and British politics?
The United States and Britain have essentially been the guarantors of international order since the Second World War. In fact, many would argue that their close diplomatic ties and alliances in numerous military and political conflicts not only brought an end to the Cold War, but brought with it growth in world trade and investment flows which increased the standard of living for many around the world. Now that these two countries are on the path to turn inwards, we are also seeing nationalist populism stage a roaring comeback in other countries of importance.
Ultimately, if Trump’s actions result in a trade war, it is unlikely to “Make America Great Again.” It is more likely to make the U.S. and the world – including Canada – a more impoverished, hostile and even unstable place.Less friction, less power, less fuel -- plowshares coated with diamond-like carbon (DLC) slide through the soil like a hot knife through butter. As a result, the tractors pulling them need less power and fuel. In some tests the power required has been reduced by more than 30 percent.
Extremely hard, diamond-like carbon coatings are used to protect hard disks in computers and ensure that sliding bearings remain smooth. In the future they could help farmers to save fuel while plowing and make it easier to till the ground. Farmers in Germany consume nearly a billion liters of fuel every year to work their land. Around 50 per cent of the energy used when plowing or harrowing is lost as a result of friction between the plowshare and the soil. To change this, scientists at the Fraunhofer Institute for Mechanics of Materials IWM in Freiburg and their partners in the RemBob project are working on DLC-coated plowshares. They have already been able to reduce friction by half. The power required by the tractor has also been reduced, by more than 30 per cent in some tests.
For farmers, the smoothly cutting plowshares mean either a time gain because they can use wider equipment or lower costs for fuel, machinery and maintenance. The tractors can be smaller or can operate in partial load, with longer repair and maintenance intervals.
"From the environmental point of view it would be better for the tractors to be smaller," says physicist and trained fruit farmer Martin Hörner from Fraunhofer IWM. They would not only need less fuel but would also be lighter. Lighter machines mean less soil compaction, and the looser the soil, the less power is needed to work it. The quality of the soil would also be better. In highly compacted ground there are hardly any worms and other small creatures which help to turn the soil and enrich it with nutrients. Compacted soils are less able to absorb water and dry out more quickly. "In Germany we are relatively advanced as far as protecting soil resources is concerned, but even in this country more soil is lost by compaction and erosion than is created by natural processes," explains Hörner.
A further advantage of DLC coatings on groundworking equipment is the protection they provide against corrosion and wear. Plowshares have to be hard and sturdy but also resilient, so that they do not break if they hit a rock. High-durability steels are used, but they suffer visibly if they are used for a prolonged length of time in the ground. "A tine on a circular harrow can lose 50 per cent of its mass through wear every season," states Hörner. But soil, sand and stones wear down conventional coatings within a very short time. This is why plowshares have not been coated up to now. DLC coatings, however, can withstand the extreme stresses and strains. The problem is that the tough steel on the groundworking equipment deforms too easily and is therefore unsuitable as a substrate for the much more rigid diamond-like coating -- it would quickly spall. The project partners are therefore testing plowshares made of different materials, including nitriding steel, glass-fiber-reinforced plastic and tungsten carbide, out in the field. The next project goal is to plow at least 20 kilometers of ground before the coating fails. "If we achieve that, the wear-free plowshare will be within touching distance," affirms Hörner.Dear programmers.
I am happy to inform you that, despite the in-progress liquidation of French Universities, OCaml Batteries Included Alpha 3 has landed. Barring any accident, this should be the final Alpha version, with a mostly stable API and module structure. You may now download it from the Forge. A GODI package is also available and a Debian package should follow soon. You may also read the documentation on-line.
So, what’s new with Alpha 3? Plenty of things, as you’ll see.
General
OCaml Batteries Included is now available for both OCaml 3.10 and OCaml 3.11. Using OCaml 3.11 bring several additional features.
Language
A new syntax extension allows merging several modules into one: module List = List include Labels gives name List to a new module containing both List and Labels. This extension should simplify the use of labels, exception-less extensions, etc.
General and extendable data structure comprehension: [? i*i | i <- 1 -- 100 ; i mod 2 = 0] [/sourcecode] produces an enumeration containing all the squares of even numbers between 1 and 100, while [sourcecode language='php'] [? String : c | c <- open Char in 'a' -- 'z'] [/sourcecode] produces string <code>"abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz"</code>. This works just as well with arrays, Unicode strings, Unicode ropes, doubly-linked lists, dynamic arrays, etc.</li> <li>(OCaml 3.11 only) It is now possible to write Unicode strings, Unicode ropes, read-only strings, write-only strings, etc. Similarly, it is now possible to pattern-match against these strings with a natural syntax: # u"This is a Unicode string";; - : Batteries.UTF8.t = u"This is some Unicode string" # ro"This is a read-only string";; - : [`Read] Batteries.String.Cap.t = ro"This is some Unicode string" # r"This is a functional Unicode rope";; - : Batteries.Rope.t = r"This is a functional Unicode rope"
Library
After public consultation (1, 2), the module hierarchy has been completely rewritten into a mostly flat hierarchy, as per common OCaml usage.
New abstract thread-safe modules, to allow extensibility to e.g. coThreads.
Thread-safe version of the I/O library.
Old-style ArrayLabels, ListLabels, etc. have been replaced with Array.Labels, List.Labels, etc.
Plenty of new functions in Enum, Array, Hashtbl, Pervasives, String, Rope, Bingarray, Dllist, DynArray, Arg, Sys.
The File module now permits using temporary files.
New compatibility layer with OCamlNet.
New version of the Unix module, now compatible with I/O.
New module Future.Path for manipulating paths.
New module CharEncoding for transcoding inputs/outputs.
New module Date for manipulating time.
Documentation
The new documentation allows browsing modules by topics. If this is successful, this will be generalized to browsing values, types, etc. by topics.
New documentation generator.
New explanations on a number of subjects.
A number of docfixes.
Bugfixes
A host of bugfixes, in particular wrt Enum.
Toplevel
Loading speed improved.
More robust implementation of the toplevel.
Pretty-printers for UChar, Rope, String.Cap, UTF8.t.
More robust implementation of the help system.
Examples
Beginning of reimplementation of Pleac in idiomatic OCaml Batteries Included.
Opening a web-browser from a program.
Text encoding transcoder.
Solution of the Euler problem.
Build system
It is now possible to configure whether documentation should be generated.
Documentation installation made more robust.
What now?
Well, as any Alpha version, this code needs testing, lots of testing. So please consider using it and posting both feedback, requests for features and bug reports.
Besides testing and fixing bugs, our next few steps consist in
improving the documentation and the on-line help
attempting to decrease the size of binaries produced with Batteries
integrating Delimited Overloading
integrating more network features (OCamlNet)
a preference system
improving configurability of the GODI package.
And progressively moving towards 1.0!
The next release should be Beta 1 and is planned for March.
Have fun!
AdvertisementsBookies stung as ‘classic’ gambling coup pays off BelfastTelegraph.co.uk It was an astonishing gamble that went off like clockwork. https://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/news/bookies-stung-as-classic-gambling-coup-pays-off-28543111.html
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It was an astonishing gamble that went off like clockwork.
A fleet of drivers were deployed to lay bets at more than 100 different bookies in an elaborate betting coup in the Republic that landed up to €200,000 (£165,659).
The masterminds won the six-figure sum by paying a massive team to each back the winning horse with small stakes of €200 (£165) each, at long odds of as much as 14/1.
And last night the Irish Bookmakers Association reluctantly saluted the audacious gamble, admitting: “It's a classic. They did nothing illegal.”
Businessman Douglas Taylor, the joint-owner of the horse at the centre of the plan, is understood to have reaped a share of the rewards.
Mr Taylor is managing director of recruitment company MCR, which is understood to have been involved in bringing together the people power to pull off the plan.
Up to 200 agency workers arrived at betting shops at 6.55pm on Monday evening, when an alarm on a watch sounded the signal to place the bets on D Four Dave.
They were given strict instructions to be at the counter before the alarm went off. They were told to tell staff they would take the odds available, which were as high as 14/1 before later falling to 5/1.
If big money had been laid on the horse earlier in the day then the bookies would immediately have become wary and slashed odds on the horse.
But instead the gamble was landed in style, as drivers were dispatched by to more than 100 bookmakers in counties Dublin and Kildare.
Belfast TelegraphThe factors leading to the current Zika outbreak won't be clear for some time, but environmental health experts say there's a good chance such infectious diseases will become more common as the global climate warms.
Mosquitoes, the blood-sucking insects responsible for transmitting Zika virus in Brazil and more than 20 other countries and territories in the Americas, are responsive to changing weather conditions, and experts warn they may increase in numbers as temperatures rise and as changes in precipitation levels create more standing pools of water -- mosquitoes' favorite breeding ground. More of the insects that host the virus could mean a higher chance of being infected.
It's too soon to say whether the Zika outbreak, which is causing babies to be born with smaller heads and brains that aren't fully developed, is driven by a changing climate. But it's certainly the kind of health consequence scientists have anticipated seeing more of as global temperatures rise.
"If I were a gambler and I wanted to place a wager on the healthiest possible future in terms of these mosquito-transmitted diseases, would that future look more like what we are looking at with climate change -- with warmer temperatures and more intense precipitation -- or a future that looks more like the climate of 1900?" Dr. Aaron Bernstein, the associate director of Harvard's Center for Health and the Global Environment, told The Huffington Post. "I would probably bet on the latter."
There are countless factors that contribute to the rise of an infectious disease like Zika, added Kristie Ebi, an expert on health risks and responses to climate change at the University of Washington. There's a good possibility that a warming planet is one of them.
"This is the kind of thing the field has been saying is likely to occur for the last 20-plus years," she said. It's "very difficult to tease out" whether climate change is driving the disease, she added. "We’ll only figure that out in retrospect, but given the known interactions, is this the kind of thing we’d expect from climate change? Yes."
Part of the uncertainty is a result of mosquitoes having different reactions to different levels of heat. While scientists know the insect thrives in a warmer climate and that prolonged warm seasons will increase its breeding season, temperatures that are too high can kill them off.
"The story is not so simple as 'warmer temperatures are better' or'more rain is better' or'more drought is better,'" Bernstein said.
For instance, researchers have observed rates of malaria, another mosquito-transmitted disease, slowing with higher temperatures. Malaria, Bernstein explained, is not a virus like Zika but a parasite that must first infect a mosquito before it can be transmitted to humans. Higher temperatures, he said, have been shown to drive mosquitoes to reproduce at a faster rate than they drive the parasite to reproduce, therefore decreasing the rate of malaria.
"Whether that plays for Zika, I have no idea, but it just points to the sort of difficulty in really understanding what’s likely," Bernstein explained.
More standing water may be the bigger concern. With climate change comes more intense rain storms, which leave behind pools of water. It also brings more severe drought, which transforms rushing rivers into slow-moving streams and puddles -- all perfect breeding grounds for mosquitoes.
"We’re seeing more droughts and more heavy downpour, and so arguably that’s more conducive [to mosquito reproduction]," Bernstein said.
Climate change isn't the only human activity creating pools of water and interfering with mosquito behavior.
"We know one of the drivers of these outbreaks is urbanization and urbanization patterns," Ebi said. "We're basically shipping the mosquito around the world."
One contributing example she cited was the global used tire trade. Researchers have observed mosquitoes breeding in pools of water that form in tires' hollows while they're sitting outside. When those tires are shipped to another country, they bring along mosquitoes carrying diseases to places where foreign populations may have less immunity to them.
"As you can see, there are a lot of complex interactions," Ebi said.
If anything, adding climate change into that mix destabilizes what is already a global health challenge.
"The last thing we need to do is throw in some uncertainty into that mix," Bernstein said. "It makes it much more difficult to understand where we might direct our prevention measures, and that’s one of the many reasons addressing climate change is so important."The age to legally buy cigarettes in New York City would rise to 21 from 18 under a proposal that officials unveiled on Monday, a measure that would give New York the strictest limits of any major American city.
The proposal would make the age for buying cigarettes and other tobacco products the same as for purchasing liquor, but it would not prohibit people under 21 from possessing or even smoking cigarettes.
It is the latest effort in a persistent campaign to curb smoking that began soon after Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg took office, with bans on smoking in restaurants and bars that expanded more recently to parks, beaches, plazas and other public places.
But this latest proposal, announced by Dr. Thomas A. Farley, the city’s health commissioner, and Christine C. Quinn, the City Council speaker and a mayoral candidate, puts New York squarely into the middle of a debate over the rights and responsibilities of young people, and it drew much skepticism. At 18, New Yorkers are old enough to fight in wars, to drive and to vote, but if the smoking restriction passed they would be prohibited from deciding whether to take the risk of smoking.As my wife and I were on our way to the home improvement store this past weekend, I saw the economic bubble that brought about the current bust illustrated in stark reality. Near our home in Orange County, California, driving on a beautifully-paved, 6-lane street with a landscaped median and surrounded by relatively new housing developments, the conversation went something like this:
HER: Wow, look at this beautiful street! I remember back in the 1980s when this was just a 2-lane dirt road.
ME: That’s right. In fact, I remember driving out here in 1997 or 1998. Even then all this land was nothing but vegetable fields.
HER: It’s amazing how quickly it all developed.
ME: This is a microcosm of the bubble.
HER: What?
[She’s deserves a lot of admiration for not changing the subject at that point.]
ME: This is a microcosm of the economic bubble.
When the Fed artificially lowered interest rates by creating more money out of thin air, it accelerated home buying ahead of what normally would have happened. This area would not have developed as quickly without that acceleration effect. There were people who otherwise would have stayed in their old home and eliminated some spending to save little-by-little for a down-payment. Suddenly they realized that with lower interest rates, they could afford to buy a new house without saving, and they could still buy all the consumer goods they wanted.
Also, because interest rates were low, home builders could borrow money to buy the farmland, bulldozers, and so forth to build all these homes. They hired workers and got the county to build these roads. In just 10 years, they totally developed this area. The problem is that without interference from the Fed, this area shouldn’t have been developed that quickly — there wouldn’t have been that natural demand. In reality, today there would probably be more demand for the vegetables they used to grow on this land than for the homes built on it. Our food prices are higher because we have to compete with other localities for the vegetables grown elsewhere and have them trucked in from greater distances.
Now, because the home purchases were accelerated, the home buyers who would have bought homes in 2009 had already bought a home in 2002 — over-simplifying, but you get the idea. So now all the people who would have bought a house in 2009 have already bought one. They have no savings because they have been paying on a big loan and buying all the consumer goods they wanted. As a result, there’s greatly reduced demand for new houses, and the value of all these homes around us has dropped over 30%.
Given that this 6-lane road has about 3 cars on it as far as the eye can see, the developers were apparently expecting even more development that’s not happening. So they had scaled up way beyond what real demand would support. The developer and construction company go bankrupt because no one is buying new homes and they are paying loans on the idle land and equipment they bought. They have to lay off all their employees, who had bought houses in the meantime and now can’t make their payments. People who are upside-down on their mortgages and can’t pay start to get foreclosed on. When that happens a few at a time, banks can handle it. But when it happens on a bunch of loans at the same time, then banks start to fail, too.
HER: And that’s what’s happening now.
ME: Exactly! Artificially lower interest rates cause future spending to happen now — that’s the boom. But there’s a limit to how long they can keep forcing the future into the present — it creates a big gap at some point, and that’s the bust. What the politicians call “stimulating the economy” always amounts to nothing more than accelerating future economic growth to the present, creating a current boom and a future bust. And of course, things in the economy as a whole move slowly, so these economic cycles are longer than our election cycles. That’s why the politicians have an incentive to do it.
When they force future spending into the present, it’s absolutely inevitable that there will be a bust at some point. That’s what we see here.
It’s a microcosm of the bubble.
HER: Hmm… When you explain it that way, it makes sense to me.
Isn’t she the best?
April 28, 2009
The Best of Myron WeberFAIRFIELD — An 8-year-old Fairfield boy was returned home safely Monday morning after he was missing for more than three hours when the car in which he was sleeping was stolen from in front of his family’s home on the 1000 block of Meadowlark Drive.
The child’s parents, meanwhile, said they are considering a lawsuit against the city for the way they were treated by police.
Brock Guzman, who apparently slept through most of the ordeal, was found in the back seat of the car, which was discovered about 2 miles away on the 400 block of Dahlia Street.
The incident began at about 4:20 a.m. when Paul Guzman was warming up his wife’s car as she prepared to take their sons to Napa, where they attend school. Guzman said he put Brock, who was sleeping, in the back seat and went back in the house.
When his wife went out the door, the car was gone, he said. She called 911, while Guzman jumped in his car to drive around looking for the stolen car, he said.
“You hear it happen to other people, but you never think it’s going to happen to you,” Guzman said. “I know what they’re saying about leaving the kid unattended, but I literally put him in and started warming the car up. My wife was putting her shoes on to walk out and we were in and out in 30 seconds and this guy got the car and drove away.”
Fairfield police responded and began a search of the area, according to department Public Information Officer Kathryn McCormick. Police posted information about the incident on social media, with a description of Brock and details about the silver Toyota that was stolen. An Amber Alert was also issued. Police examined a bicycle that was found in front of the Meadowlark Drive house.
About 20 officers were involved in search, along with a California Highway Patrol helicopter, according to McCormick.
Child found safe
Police announced just after 8 a.m. that the car and Brock had been found on the 400 block of Dahlia Street. Brock was asleep in the back seat, McCormick said. Police took Brock to the department’s Investigations Office to be reunited with his parents.
The family was back home by midday Monday and Brock was doing fine, visiting with family members, according to Guzman. Although Brock got a look at the suspect, Guzman said he was not saying much.
“He got up and looked at the guy,” Guzman said of his son. “The guy said, ‘I didn’t know you were in the car; sorry,’ and pulled over and got out and walked away. My son laid his head back down and went to sleep.”
Suzanne Guzman, the boy’s mother, said the experience was overwhelming and the family is relieved and happy to have the boy home.
“It was amazing. I was just completely overcome with goose-bumps. I just wanted to squeeze him. I probably hurt him a little, but he’s doing well,” Suzanne Guzman said.
A person of interest in this case was booked into Solano County jail on unrelated allegations, police said.
Legal action
While police were continuing their investigation, Guzman said Monday that he was considering legal action against police for their treatment of him and his wife.
Guzman said he was concerned |
Published 7:58 AM, September 24, 2016
MANILA, Philippines – A 6.5-magnitude earthquake jolted Mati City in Davao Oriental past 6 am Saturday, September 24, according to the Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology (Phivolcs).
Intensity 5 was felt in the city, as well as in Davao City.
Meanwhile, the following places also felt the earthquake:
Intensity 4
General Santos City
Alabel, Glan & Malapatan, Sarangani
Polomolok, South Cotabato
Intensity 3
Tupi, South Cotabato
Cagayan De Oro City
Phivolcs said aftershocks are expected after the quake, which was tectonic in origin, hit Mati City at 6:53 am Saturday.
Phivolcs said no damage is expected after the earthquake.
The US Geological Survey placed the earthquake at a lower magnitude of 6.3 which it said centered around 100 kilometers southeast of Davao City, but the Pacific Tsunami Warning Center said there was no tsunami threat from the strong quake. – with a report from Agence-France Presse/Rappler.comAfter the fallout from a CBC report that brought to light a violent "home invasion" by police, the Halifax force is trying to reassure people it dealt with the problem properly.
In 2008, Tyson and Cirbie Bishop, a brother and sister, were holding a Halloween party when police responded to two noise complaints by a neighbour. The evening ended with two officers entering their home illegally and one of the siblings being shocked by a Taser.
"It was a home invasion. They invaded my home," said Tyson Bishop.
The pair filed a complaint with Halifax Regional Police, but an internal review found police did nothing wrong. However, when the siblings appealed to the Nova Scotia Police Review Board, it found Const. Jordan Gilbert used excessive force and abused his authority.
The penalty was a two-week suspension without pay, one year of close supervision and an order to be assessed for anger management.
“Ninety-nine per cent of our police officers do an excellent job every single day, in spite of all the challenging circumstances out there,” said Halifax Regional Police Chief Jean-Michel Blais in an interview with CBC News.
In a statement, Blais added there are "numerous measures in place in Nova Scotia to ensure police accountability to our citizens, including public complaints, internal investigations, civilian oversight and independent investigations and adjudications."
Mayor Mike Savage also backs the work of the police department.
“I don't think there's a pattern here. Every city of any size has some circumstances, but I think most people know that the Halifax police, the people who enforce laws in Halifax, deal with our kids, are real community mentors. I think they do a very good job,” he said.
The Bishops filed a personal injury lawsuit, which is ongoing, but it was later ruled the $66,000 in legal fees they've racked up won't be taken into consideration in any potential award.REBUTTAL BY
Today marks the 70th anniversary of the genocide at Hiroshima, Japan. Since that demonic day, three entire generations of Americans have been fed the conscience-soothing falsehood that the dropping of the Atom Bombs saved lives by shortening the war. It was a "humanitarian" thing, you see? Like everything else about World War II, this too is a big lie. Like FDR before him, Dirty Harry Truman also had no regard for human life. Japan had actually been trying hard, via “neutral” Soviet back channels, to negotiate a surrender with the United States, just not unconditionally as Truman demanded. Little did the Japanese know that the double-dealing Soviet Union was already committed to join the war in East Asia, as part of a dirty deal reached between FDR, Churchill and Stalin during the Yalta Conference of 1945. With much of Japan already in ruins, and with its industrial capacity just about wiped out, Japan would have fallen like a ripe fruit within a matter of weeks. Add in a Soviet entry into the Asian theater and Japan could have capitulated within days! So let's put to rest this rubbish about "the atom bomb was the only way to get Japan to surrender." 1- An unnecessary war, engineered by FDR in the first place, ended with the unnecessary atomic bombings of Japanese civilians. 2- Slimes Headline: Bloody bastard Truman warns of a ‘Rain of Ruin’ if Japan doe not surrender unconditionally. The bombing itself and its protracted radioactive aftermath killed, conservatively, 100-150,000 people in Hiroshima and then an additional 60–80,000 in Nagasaki. Half of the deaths occurred immediately, mostly from direct annihilation or severe burns. Countless more died of cancer in years to come.
Just 3 days after the bombing of Hiroshima, and only hours before the 2nd bombing at Nagasaki, the man that Truman and the U.S. press affectionately referred to as ‘Uncle Joe” broke the Soviet-Japanese Non Aggression Pact of 1941 and declared war upon an already beaten Japan. Thanks Joe; we couldn’t have won it without you! As conspired and agreed upon at "The Big 3" Conference in Yalta (January 1945), Stalin stabbed Japan in the back and brought Communist power to Asia. This totally dispels the LIE that the A-Bomb was necessary to finish off Japan. Facing what Truman calls “a Rain of Ruin”, Japan, like Germany before her, had to make a choice between unrestrained civilian genocide at American and now Soviet hands, or unconditional surrender and occupation. It should be noted that General Douglas Macarthur felt that the atomic bombing was unnecessary, Macarthur later stated, "My staff was unanimous in believing that Japan was on the point of collapse and surrender." Japan surrendered on August 15, ’45. (VJ / Victory in Japan Day) For the Globalists, the atomic bombings will later serve an important strategic purpose. The constant threat of “nuclear war” will, in the coming years, do much to frighten and consolidate the nations of the world into political, economic, and military alliances. The Global fear of “the Bomb” will become very useful for The New World Order.
General Macarthur did not see the need for Truman's monstrous "Rain of Ruin": "My staff was unanimous in believing that Japan was on the point of collapse and surrender."
*
Boobus Americanus 1: Dropping the bomb on Hiroshima was unfortunate, but it saved many American lives. Boobus Americanus 2: Yes. And besides, they started it at Pearl Harbor.
"Only after that Communisst FDR deliberately insstigated the attack! " (School 'em Sugar, school 'em!) READ: THE BAD WAR
COMMENTS / FEEDBACK / INSULTS / KUDOS greattomatobubble2@gmail.com *** IT'S HERE! ***
MIKE KING'S'MAGNUS OPUS'! 2 VOLUMES / 600 TOTAL PAGES / 1400 + IMAGES / FOOTNOTES & BIBLIOGRAPHYSELDOM have Australia’s complex relations with China been more starkly exposed than in the agonies of Sam Dastyari, a prominent opposition MP. Three months ago Mr Dastyari gave a press conference with Huang Xiangmo, the head of Yuhu Group, a subsidiary of a property company linked to China’s government. Contradicting both the government’s line and the policy of his own party (Labor), Mr Dastyari called on Australia to “respect” China’s ill-founded territorial claims in the South China Sea, according to reports in the Chinese press.
Mr Dastyari, it recently emerged, has accepted donations from Yuhu and from the Top Education Institute, a local firm run by a Chinese-Australian with close ties to the governments of both countries. Mr Dastyari used the money to pay for travel and legal advice. Yuhu also gave Mr Dastyari two bottles of Penfolds Grange, Australia’s most expensive wine, worth around A$800 ($600) a bottle. From the G20 summit in China, Malcolm Turnbull, Australia’s prime minister, described Mr Dastyari’s behaviour as “cash for comment”.
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On September 7th Mr Dastyari resigned from a post within the Labor party, but not as an MP. Although he admits that accepting the money was “a big mistake”, he denies any link between the donations and his remarks on the South China Sea. The donations, he points out, had been declared as required and were perfectly legal. Australia’s politicians and political parties, it transpires, took A$5.5m in donations from Chinese-linked firms in the two years through June 2015, including A$500,000 from Yuhu. Many are now calling for donations from foreigners to be banned.
China is Australia’s biggest trading partner, and one of its biggest sources of immigrants. Chinese demand for Australian resources, as well as ever-increasing numbers of Chinese tourists and students, have helped to underpin Australia’s 25 years of unbroken economic growth. But many Australians worry that the pursuit of Chinese business is undermining their country’s independence.
Mr Turnbull seems to agree. In April his government vetoed a bid by Dakang, a Chinese company, for S. Kidman and Co, a vast outback empire of cattle ranches that owns 2.5% of Australia’s agricultural land. Last month it turned down bids by State Grid, a Chinese government-owned company, and Cheung Kong, of Hong Kong, for a 50.4% stake in Ausgrid, an electricity-distribution network in New South Wales, Australia’s most populous state.
Scott Morrison, the treasurer (the most senior finance minister), said both bids were “contrary to the national interest”, without explaining how. Yet British firms own 7% of Australia’s agricultural land, without apparently damaging the national interest. And State Grid already owns stakes in several electricity distributors in other parts of Australia. The rules have not changed since those investments were made but, judging by the uproar about Mr Dastyari, the mood has.
Correction: An earlier version of this story said the Australian government turned down a joint bid by State Grid and Cheung Kong for a stake in Ausgrid. In fact, the two companies made separate bids.On Oct. 26, 1984, 19-year-old John Daniel McCollum shot and killed himself while lying on his bed listening to an Ozzy Osbourne record at his home in Indio, Calif. His parents went on to sue the singer, alleging that the lyrics to Osbourne's song " Suicide Solution " were a " proximate cause " for their son's death.
"[He's] a perfectly normal kid there, who really doesn't show any signs of any depression at all, and happy and all of a sudden, six hours, he's dead. No one [could] explain it, the only thing we know is he was listening to this music," explained McCollum's father, Jack.
According to a police report, the former Black Sabbath star's 1980 solo debut Blizzard of Ozz was found on McCollum's turntable, cued to side one, which concludes with "Suicide Solution." A photo from the scene shows he was still wearing his headphones.
"There's not a day that goes by that I don't think about him," Daniel's mother stated, "and I just kept saying, 'Why? What was the reason? You know, he was fine. And then my daughter, I was talking to her and I said 'Why, why did he kill himself?' And she said, 'It was the music he listened to, Mom.'"
Feeling that the lyrics ( "Made your bed, rest your head / But you lie there and moan / Where to hide? Suicide is the only way out" ) from the song by their child's "idol" pushed him into making this horrible decision, the McCollums sued Osbourne and CBS Records in 1986.
"The boy must have been pretty messed up before he ever heard an Ozzy record," Osbourne solemnly stated in a television interview at the time. "I mean, I can't help that, you know? I feel very sad for the boy, and I felt terribly sad for the parents. As a parent myself, I'd be pretty devastated if something like that happened. And I have thought about this, if the boot was on the other foot, I couldn't blame the artist."
Listen to Ozzy Osbourne's 'Suicide Solution'
Osbourne also insisted that the young man had misinterpreted his song's meaning. "[It's] solution as in liquid, not a way out. The song's about the dangers of alcoholism -- alcohol will kill you just like any other drug will... it's just a terrible case of misinterpretation, as far as I'm concerned."
If successful, the McCollum lawsuit would have had huge consequences not just for Osbourne, but for artists in every conceivable creative medium. The creators of any film, television show, book or piece of music could potentially have been held liable for the actions of those who watched, read or listened to it.
The case was dismissed by the state of California in 1988, with the court declaring that McCollum's suicide was not a forrseeable result of Osbourne's song. The family of another young man, Michael Waller, brought a similar lawsuit against Osbourne that same year, alleging that subliminal messages hidden within 'Suicide Solution' caused their son to kill himself on May 3, 1986. Their case was also unsuccessful.The Amazing Shapes People See in The Clouds
Have you ever looked at a cloud and been convinced it looked exactly like a human face? Or a skateboarder? Or even the “Cloudship” Enterprise? Well, you’re not alone.
The Cloud Appreciation Society – which now boasts 8,000 members – has collected an extraordinary number of pictures of clouds from all around the world in a wide variety of different shapes.
Here, we present some of the most spectacular…
source: here
The number two, picked out in the sky over Stafford
A dog barking, seen above Soldiers Point, Australia
A dragonfly, photographed above Upton, Lincolnshire
A dragon’s head, spotted over Clapham, Yorkshire
The Grim Reaper, lurking over Malaysia
Monkey skiing down a run, spotted over New Zealand
Fusilli pasta, spiralling over Sossuvlei National Park, Namibia
A pig with six legs, ‘walking’ over the Trent at Gainsborough in Lincolnshire
A poodle coming home from the doggy salon, spied over Texas
The Cloudship Enterprise, hovering over Calgary, Canada
A skateboarder doing tricks over Provence, France
A red snapper, ‘swimming’ over Glencoe, Scotland
A loggerhead turtle, floating over Fife, ScotlandA top executive suddenly dropping off the radar would be alarming for any company. But in China, it's become a disturbingly familiar situation.
The latest example is Wu Xiaohui, the chairman of a major insurance company that owns the Waldorf Astoria in New York and recently held talks with the Kushner family over a Manhattan office tower.
He is reported to have been detained by authorities on Friday as part of a government investigation. His company, Anbang Insurance Group, said in a short statement that Wu "cannot perform his duties due to personal reasons."
His abrupt absence follows a string of cases in recent years in which business leaders were unceremoniously yanked from their duties by authorities, leaving employees and shareholders in the dark.
Related: China reportedly detains chief of insurer that held talks with Kushner firm
In 2015, senior executives from dozens of Chinese companies disappeared. Some returned to their posts, others did not.
The driving forces appeared to be President Xi Jinping's crackdown on corruption as well as government investigations into China's stunning stock market crash in the summer of 2015.
Last year was relatively quiet, but a new push now seems to be unfolding ahead of an important meeting of China's political elite in the fall. Earlier this year, the head of the country's stock market watchdog reportedly vowed to capture more tycoons engaged in market manipulation.
Here are three of the most high-profile cases from the past 18 months:
Nabbed from the Four Seasons
Chinese billionaire Xiao Jianhua was seized from his apartment at the Four Seasons hotel in Hong Kong and taken to mainland China in late January, according to a source familiar with the situation.
Xiao controls the Tomorrow Group, a massive holding company with stakes in banks, insurers and property developers.
Days after he went missing, a front page ad published in a Hong Kong newspaper muddied the waters by appearing to deny he had been seized.
The statement, which had Xiao's name printed at the bottom, said that he was "recuperating overseas" and hoped to meet with media once he had recovered.
Nearly five months later, it's unclear what's happened to him.
Related: Chinese billionaire seized from luxury Hong Kong hotel
China's Warren Buffett
Chinese conglomerate Fosun Group's investments include Club Med, Cirque de Soleil and Thomas Cook. Its chairman, Guo Guangchang, has been dubbed the Warren Buffett of China.
But Guo's fame and fortune did not save him from going missing for several days at the end of 2015. Fosun suspended trading of its shares after his sudden disappearance.
When Guo finally resurfaced, the company said in a statement that he had been assisting officials with investigations.
His brief absence didn't derail Fosun's business. The company pulled in $11 billion in revenue last year.
Clothing tycoon
Zhou Chengjian, the billionaire founder of one of China's leading clothing companies, went missing in January last year.
After reports that Zhou had been detained by authorities, his company, Metersbonwe suspended trading of its shares.
The textile tycoon suddenly returned to work 10 days later.
The company gave no details about his disappearance.Black Sails Season 3 might have ended, and Season 4 isn’t airing for a while, but while we wait, we’re not exactly left stranded in the middle of the sea, forced to harpoon sharks just to get nourishment. Season 3 left a treasure trove of clues that point to what lies ahead. From Blackbeard to Long John Silver to the Rackham and Rogers book club, here are our informed predictions for Season 4.
Blackbeard the madman
At the end of the Season 3 finale, Billy’s voiceover gives a rundown of the types of rulers Nassau has seen — madmen, rich men, tyrants, kings. As he talks, the camera pans to Blackbeard, Rackham, Flint, and Silver. It’s curious that Blackbeard is the madman, because we’ve mostly seen him in quietly simmering rage. Even in his duel with Flint, he didn’t do anything that can be considered truly “mad.”
But he was, after all, Charles Vane’s mentor, and madman was pretty much Vane’s middle name. Rising from graves, beheading enemies and leaving a note, swim-boarding ships like a boss, rescuing men he came to kill. Just as that infamous pirate sunglasses picture sums up Jack Rackham in a nutshell, everything about this image encapsulates Vane.
Remember this?
Punk rock necklace for no reason other than “why not?” Check. Crazy face paint? Check. Unlikely location? Check. Zero fucks given? Check.
Everyone loved Charles Vane for different reasons, but let’s face it: We also loved him because he was gloriously nutty. If Blackbeard was his Mr. Miyagi, then it stands to reason we haven’t begun to see how “mad” he can be. Nobody can replace Vane, but now that he’s gone, Black Sails needs a character who brings a sense of chaos and unpredictability.
In the Season 3 finale, Blackbeard assumes Woodes Rogers killed Vane and says, “He thought he could do it and face no consequences. He failed to account for me.” It’s fair to assume these “consequences” will not be a slap on the wrist or even a quick gunshot death. Hell hath no fury like a pseudo-father figure scorned.
Long John Silver, King of Nassau
At the end of Season 3, Billy Bones and his band of merry men build John Silver up as a fearsome pirate whose wrath will turn the tides of leadership in Nassau. He uses his curb-stomp line, “My name is John Silver. And I’ve got a long fucking memory,” as a basis for his nickname — reasoning that Silver will step forward into the place they’ve carved for him when the time comes.
Little does Billy know how comfortable Silver has become in that place. Silver is nothing if not an opportunist, and if someone hands him a throne, there’s no telling what he’ll do with it. It’s hardly a spoiler to say Billy will eventually regret empowering Silver, and we’ll likely begin to see the effects of this in Season 4.
“Blackbeard and Long John Silver are the two most-well known pirates for a reason” showrunner Jonathan Steinberg told Inverse. “We’ll get to see more of that.”
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Anne Bonny, Pirate Queen
Anne Bonny is Black Sails’s most compelling lady. Her Season 2 story with Max was important on a character level, and it wouldn’t have been as dramatically satisfying to see her take charge in the Season 3 finale if we hadn’t seen her fall apart the previous season. That being said, we’ve been waiting to see Anne Bonny as the legendary pirate queen for three seasons, and her actions in the Season 3 finale are an auspicious sign for her story in Season 4.
Spain will be the large-scale enemy
At the beginning of Season 3, Charles Vane said, “What we’re doing here — sitting on English soil with Spain’s gold — demands a response.” We saw the response from England at the end of Season 3, but we have yet to see the response from Spain. And now that Woodes Rogers has failed to return their gold or deliver Rackham, he’s added insult to injury. It’s safe to say Vane and Blackbeard’s dalliance with the Spanish is not an isolated incident.
A Rogers and Rackham rivalry
Woodes Rogers and Jack Rackham’s relationship has been an unexpected delight in Season 3, but now that Rackham escaped and Rogers feels Spain breathing down his neck, he’ll feel pressured to recapture Rackham. To add an extra layer, Rackham wants to kill Eleanor — as he said in the Season 3 finale, “I look forward to settling Charles’s accounts with Ms. Guthrie — while Rogers pledged to defend her against all enemies.
Hopefully the two will have time for more book discussions before this relationship sours for good.
A high body count
Each season of Black Sails has axed more major characters than the last. Season 1 began with Gates, Season 2 saw early graves for Richard Guthrie and Miranda Barlow, and Season 3’s death toll is a whopping 6: Muldoon drowned in episode 2, Dufresne, Mr. Scott, Charles Vane, Hornigold, and the unexpectedly loyal crewman Dobbs.
Season 4 will likely spill more blood and fashion more nooses. Everyone — from the streets of Nassau to Jack to Blackbeard— is calling out for Eleanor’s head. But the creators seem to like her, so her story could go either way. Woodes Rogers seemingly has more time, but the show cut Vane’s short, so history can only predict so far. The major deaths, then, remain up in the air, but if anything is certain, it’s more graves before the end.
Season 4 might be a ways over the horizon still, but Season 3 hardly left us stranded without a map. There’s plenty of food for thought — or at least rum — to tide you over until Season 4.Dr. Vishal Rao, an oncologist and head and neck surgeon at the Bangalore-based HealthCare Global (HCG) Cancer Center, writes about the debate on food safety in India and how it is related to cancer.
A 45-year-old man presented himself to an oncologist with the typical symptoms of stomach cancer. His worst fears came true, the biopsy reports showed positive results.
He led an extremely healthy lifestyle; exercised regularly, maintained a balanced diet and did not have any addictions. Yet, cancer had managed to conquer his system. The distraught man asked the doctor, “Why me?” The visibly uncomfortable doctor was speechless.
Many oncologists go through a similar ordeal almost every day.
Picture for representation only. Source: Flickr
A lot of their patients may have maintained a healthy lifestyle and yet, end up succumbing to cancer. It may not be just tobacco; we have tons of other carcinogens, which have unfortunately entered our diet chart.
Some of the reports on food exports from India show we rank among the top in agri-food rejects to USA & EU as per the UNIDO reports. The key reasons for rejects implicated in the reports were – mycotoxins, microbial contamination, veterinary drug residues, heavy metals, unauthorised food additives, product composition and pesticide residues.
Ever wondered if this was the quality for exports, what could be the standards of internal consumption for us Indians? The Maggi trial that India witnessed recently opened the much-needed debate on food safety, exposing just the tip of the iceberg.
Let’s reflect on a few aspects of such safety issues. Why do we stand where we stand today?
Current status of food quality
“Diet and nutrition are two different aspects of food.” Is the current state of food quality in India a matter of implausible conjecture or a reality yet to dawn in the Indian mindset? Pesticides, preservatives and wasted calories seem to be the trends of the new Indian recipes.
Pesticides:
Recently a patient of mine walked into my outpatient clinic for a follow up visit. He brought with him a basket of fresh fruits as a token of his gratitude. While he handed it to me, he exclaimed, “Doc, these are not the regular ones which I keep for sale, these are ones grow for my own consumption.”
Also read: A Blood Stem Cell Donor Registry Needs Your Help to Save the Lives of Cancer Patients
The larger question – is our farmer well educated about balancing the quantity of pesticides to be used for safe and optimal yield; or does he believe that more is better! (Dilution and mixing of pesticides in regulated quantity is key.)
A growing concern among consumers is the question – do we have too much pesticides in our food? Are these really harmful? Is there a way to prevent this?
I have heard that often export rejects from various countries look at India as a potential market — be it tyres, automobiles or food products. Thanks to poor consumer awareness and implicit trust of the consumer in the manufacturer to abide by ethical practices. This is further compounded by extremely poor vigilance and enforcement by government agencies.
The Endosulfan Tragedy in Kerala has killed over 4,000 people and many have been affected since the 1970’s. Endosulfan is an internationally banned insecticide that was earlier used in cashew plantations to increase the product yield.
The progeny of many of the survivors still suffer from conditions like macrocephaly, intellectual disabilities and cancer. Despite the ban made by UN, Endosulfan is still being used in India. Recent reports in media highlighted traces of endosulfan found in several vegetables. Personal interactions with farmers confirm their use of these banned pesticides owing to a quick, sustained and stable yield.
Yes, pesticide residues in food are a growing concern. It is, however, vital to consume healthy and nutritious food after washing them thoroughly. Avoiding fruits and vegetables in fear of residue pesticides would be more harmful that the consumption of minimal residues themselves in causing cancer. Organic foods from reported and accredited farms may be the way forward and needs encouragement from the agriculture department. Educational programmes for farmers from NGO’s and departments would pave the way in foundation of food safety in farms.
Insecticide act of India 1968 is awaiting amendments. The amended act awaits clearance in Rajya Sabha.
Preservatives:
Traditionally, preservatives were introduced into food products for keeping them safe and edible for long periods. Salt, sugar and vegetable oil are classical examples, which preserve food and provide the body with nutrition when consumed at required amounts (class 1 preservatives).
As technology and research has advanced, we have moved to synthetic preservatives which help store and protect food from spoilage for extremely long periods (class 2 preservatives). While they may protect the food, they’re definitely harming us. Studies suggest that synthetic food preservatives like Sodium benzoate and Sodium nitrite can cause hyper reactivity in children and have been linked to gastric cancer as well. These preservatives are commonly found in cold drinks, processed meat, canned food and most importantly, ready-to-make food products.
Adulterants:
Food colourants are another group of chemicals quintessentially placed in the “cancer causing family.” Natural food colourants like pure beet/ pomegranate juice, carrot juice, spinach powder, parsley juice, turmeric powder, blueberry juice and cocoa powder can be used at home and in industries. Their shelf life may be low but they add nutritive value to the food product as well.
Red 40, Blue 1 and Yellow 5 are common synthetic food colourants used in industries even though they have been proven to cause long-term health problems. Indeed the palak gravy you may be having may be onion based gravy with green colourant.
Also read: This Startup Aims to Train 1 Lakh First Responders for Medical Emergencies in Every Indian City
Adulterants range from chalk powder (common in milk), saw dust (found in chilli powder), non-permitted dyes (common in turmeric powder) to coal tar (found in tea powder). Vegetables like green chillies and green peas are coated with malachite green (highly carcinogenic and are used as dyes to study bacteria) to enhance the colour and fruits like apples are coated with wax give them a glossy finish.
Hygiene:
Street food is a delicacy for the Indian palate. Microorganisms are responsible for more deaths than cancer every year. Typhoid fever, botulism, amoebiasis, etc. are common food and waterborne infections. An unhygienic condition maintained by street vendors and eateries is a key factor behind the spread of these infections. Vehicular emission, carbon dioxide and air pollutants from the roads are also absorbed by these food items. The basic practice of washing one’s hands before touching any food ingredient is unspoken of. H. Pylori is a growing cause of gastric cancers. Can this be a cause of increasing contamination and adulteration?
Degreening Agents:
As our storage methods are not effective enough, fruits and vegetables cannot be stored for a long time. They are harvested when they are raw and treated with de-greening ripening agents like calcium carbide and ethylene. They make the fruits colourful and appealing to the customer. By consuming these fruits, the consumer has unknowingly reduced his/ her life expectancy.
Looking into the current scenario of food safety makes us wonder – how have we reached here and where are we heading?
Picture for representation only. Source: Flickr
Today’s times would be rightly called “instant, unlimited and more” era. Man is in search of instant – coffee, pizza, burger, food and even success instantly. Unlimited food seems to be the most attractive and sought after option to make a dining choice. The more the better is our current attitude. It would not be surprising to witness buy 1 and get 3 free at the current pace and times.
The implicit trust placed by the Indian consumer on manufacturer advertisement and tall claims is appreciable. However, the food industry is rapidly and exponentially growing. We hope to have food that is given instantly, lasts as long as possible and in sufficient quality that satiates the palate. The industry, in an attempt to satisfy the customer, would need to resort to best methods to prolong life, improve revenues and combat competition simultaneously. Would all of these steps be feasible without compromising food safety? Is it not time for the manufacturers to reinstate this trust in the consumer and lay ethical guidelines to protect the consumer?
Food standard and safety act of India is a comprehensive act. The paradox is the regulation and implementation of this act. These bodies have largely remained to provide and regulate license. We have hardly come across brands being suspended owing to poor quality compliance. Would it not be ideal to have monthly checks of 100 random food products, selected from random shops in random areas and scrutinised for food safety? Is it not time for us to amend and strongly enforce Insecticide act of India 1968 to protect our future generations and secure food safety standards?
“Into that heaven of freedom, my Father, let my country awake”
(Written by Dr. Vishal Rao)
You can contact Dr. Vishal Rao here.
Also read: This Indian-Origin Entrepreneur Made It to Forbes 30 Under 30 List of Achievers for an Amazing Reason
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NEW: Click here to get positive news on WhatsApp!It should come as no surprise that Lord Macdonald, the eminent QC and former director of public prosecutions who is reporting on terror laws for the government, is strongly opposed to control orders. Lawyers do not like them. And if, like me, you have represented men trying to challenge their control orders, it is easy to see why: they are like nothing you have experienced in your legal career.
When the case papers reach you, your client has already been placed under the control order and is trying to overturn it. It is a bit like being convicted before you start. He is under house arrest, usually separated from his family, and prevented from using phones, computers or having unapproved visitors.
Although he is accused of terrorism there is no indictment or list of charges. There is only an "assessment" about him made by civil servants and security services officers, which typically tells you little. The detail of the allegations is usually secret. So when you first meet your client you cannot answer even his most basic questions: "What exactly am I supposed to have done?"; "What are my chances of success?"; "When will all this end?".
Shortly after that meeting you are contacted by the "special advocate". He is a lawyer vetted by the Home Office and is appointed to represent your client's interests when the court goes into secret or "closed" session, from which you and your client are excluded. Unfortunately, the rules state that the special advocate is only allowed to talk to you at the early stages, when he also has limited information. As soon as he is told the detail of the allegations contained in the secret evidence, all communication with you or your client must cease. When you can talk to him he cannot help you; and when he can help you, you cannot talk to him.
At the hearing itself, you are allowed to ask questions but it feels pointless because you do not really know the accusations against your client. The MI5 officer, or civil servant, who appears as a witness seems almost unconcerned by your cross-examination. At key points the witness can simply refuse to answer on the basis that the information is secret. There is no more you can do.
After the "open session" you must leave and the "closed session" starts. Whatever they are discussing is a mystery. The real action in the case is going on without you.
Eventually the judgment is given, upholding the control order. But unlike a usual court judgment it is in two parts. The "open judgment" still tells you little about the allegations or why a control order is deemed necessary. All the real answers are contained in the "closed judgment", which you and your client will never see. In this typical case, you realise that the special advocate has obviously done their best, but their job was fundamentally hampered by their inability to discuss the secret allegations with your client. It is not surprising that, over the years, several special advocates have resigned in protest.
The judge also struggles admirably, trying to make an essentially unfair system as fair as he or she possibly could. But the unusual constraints they were under meant that they could not be open, or transparent with you in explaining how he or she reached their decision.
Lord Macdonald, is currently reviewing terrorism laws for the government. It seems he is the latest of many lawyers to disapprove of control orders. Senior judges in the court of appeal, supreme court, and the European court of human rights have stressed how the system undermines fundamental principles: the presumption of innocence, due process, open justice and the rule of law.
But the objection to control orders is not only a point of principle. If the practical rationale for having control orders is that police and prosecutors cannot deal adequately with the threat posed by terrorism, it is worth examining that suggestion carefully. In recent years the success rate in interrupting plots, arresting terrorist suspects and achieving convictions has been high. It might have been even higher if telephone intercept evidence was made admissible.
Of course, prosecuting terrorist cases is rarely easy. But it is precisely when the system is tested that we should be holding tighter to our principles rather than abandoning them. Control orders are anathema to our proud legal tradition. And in the long term, the best way of protecting the public and achieving the right results for a better society is not to undermine our legal system, but to have faith in it.Folders and documents are picrured ahead of a session of the hearing on financial help for Greece and other EU states, on July 5, 2011 in Karlsruhe, southwestern Germany. The country's highest court considered appeals against the government's decision to contribute to rescue funds for debt-laden Greece last year and the European Financial Stability Facility (EFSF) that was established a short time later. AFP PHOTO / ULI DECK GERMANY OUT (Photo credit should read ULI DECK/AFP/Getty Images) Reams of paper have been eliminated in Lenawee County as the prosecutor's office has digitized files. (Source: File Photo)
– An appeals court has followed suit with five other courts across the country by putting an indefinite stay on same-sex marriages in the state.
“The Court of Appeals did stay Judge Friedman’s decision until the entire court rules on the merits of same-sex marriage issue.
“Bottom-line here is that the court of appeals now has stayed Judge Friedman’s decision,” said WWJ’s Legal Analyst Charlie Langton. “Same-sex couples, now, can not get married, they can’t apply |
As it withdrew, Washington deputized its allies -- Germany, Japan, South Korea, Saudi Arabia, and Israel -- to do the same work, but they regularly worked at cross-purposes and in any case held their own national interests above those of Washington.
Meanwhile, U.S. domestic politics remained so polarized and congealed that Congress and the executive branch could not establish a consensus on how to re-energize the economy or reconceive the “national interest.” Up went higher walls to keep out foreigners and foreign products. With the exception of military affairs and immigration control, the government dwindled to the status of caretaker. Then there was the epidemic of assault rifles, armed personal drones, and WBA (weaponized biological agents), all easily downloaded at home on 3-D printers. The state lost its traditionally inviolable monopoly on violence and our society, though many refuse to acknowledge the trend, drifted into a condition closely approximating psychosis. An increasingly embittered and armed white minority seemed determined to adopt a scorched-earth policy rather than leave anything of value to its mixed-race heirs. Today, of course, the country exists in name alone, for the only policies that matter are enacted on a regional basis.
The centrifugal forces first set in motion in 2015 tore apart the great multiethnic nations in a terrifying version of Yugoslavization that spread across the planet. Farseeing pundits had predicted a wave of separatism in the 1990s. They were wrong only in terms of pace. The fissures were slower to appear, but appear they did. In South Asia, separatist movements ate away at both India and Pakistan. In Southeast Asia, Indonesia, Malaysia, and Myanmar fractured along ethnic lines. In Africa, the center could not hold, and things inevitably fell apart -- in the Congo, the Central African Republic, Nigeria, and Chad, among other places.
There was much talk in the early twenty-first century of failed states like Afghanistan, Iraq, Somalia, Yemen, and Haiti. Looking back, it’s now far clearer that, in a certain sense, all states were failing. They had little chance against the governance-eroding winds of globalization from above and the ever-greater upheavals of non-state actors from below.
Perhaps under the best of environmental conditions, these forces would have pushed empires, federations, and trade pacts to the edge but no further. As it happened, however, despite conferences and manifestos and sort-of-binding agreements, the global thermometer continued to rise. The effects of climate change turned out to be the proverbial tipping point. Water shortages intensified conflict throughout China, as did food shortages in Russia. The tropics, the islands, the coastlines: all were vulnerable to the rising waters. And virtually every country entered into a pitched battle over drinking water, clean air, indispensible minerals, and arable land.
All of us have our own personal climate-change disaster stories. For instance, I lost my home in Hurricane Donald, which destroyed so much of Washington, D.C. and its suburbs in 2029. I started all over in Nebraska only to be forced to move again when the Oglala aquifer gave out in 2034, precipitating what we now call the Midwest Megadrought. And like so many others, I lost a loved one only three years ago in that terrible month of superstorms -- 7/47 -- which devastated such a large swath of the planet.
What no one anticipated was the impact climate change would have on nationalism. But how else would people divvy up increasingly precious natural resources? National sentiment proved to be the go-to principle for determining what “our” people deserved and those “others” didn’t. As a result, instead of becoming an atavistic remnant of another age, nationalism has proved to be this century’s most potent ideology. On an increasingly desperate planet, we face not the benevolence or tyranny of one world, but the multiple confusions of many worlds.
All That Was Solid
It was not only the multiethnic nation-state that proved untenable in our century. Everything seemed to be fracturing.
The middle class shattered. The promise of a stable job and income -- the iron rice bowl in the East and the ironclad pension in the West -- disappeared into a maelstrom of inequality in which the super-rich 1% effectively seceded from society while the poorest of the poor had nowhere to turn. Back in 2015, pundits loved to promote new trends like the “sharing economy” of millions of employees turned entrepreneurs or the “long tail” of a splintering consumer market. But the bottom line was grimly straightforward: the forces that could have acted to countervail the fissiparous competition of the market gradually disappeared. Gone was the guiding hand of the government. Gone were the restraining pressures of morality.
Technology certainly played a role in this transformation, first when computers and cell phones untethered individuals from fixed workplaces and then when biochips turned each individual into his or her own “work station.” The application of market principles to every facet of existence whittled away the public sphere in favor of the private one. Such dynamics at the social level also contributed to the great fracturing that took place in the international sphere.
Yes, I can anticipate your criticism. Perhaps it’s true that, in 2050, we are at a nadir of cooperation and some new form of centralization and globalization lies ahead. Clearly, the jihadis, who operate their mini-caliphates around the world, dream of uniting the faithful under a single banner. There are diplomats even today who hope to get all 300-plus members of the United Nations to agree to the sort of institutional reforms that could provide the world with some semblance of global governance. And maybe a brilliant programmer is even now creating a new “killer app” that will put every single person on the same page, literally.
As a geo-paleontologist, I am reluctant to speculate. I focus on the past, on what has actually happened. Anyone can make predictions. But none of these scenarios of future integration seems at all plausible to me. “That’s the way the cookie crumbles,” we used to say when I was a kid. And a cookie can only crumble in one direction.
Still, I would be remiss if I didn’t point out something that many have noted over the years. We have been fragmenting at precisely the time when we should be coming together, for the problems that face the planet cannot be solved by millions of individuals or masses of statelets acting alone. And yet how can we expect, with desperate millions on the move, the rise of pandemics, and the deepening of economic inequality globally, that people can unite against common existential threats? Only today can we all see clearly, as I wrote so many years ago, that the rise of the splinterlands has been humanity’s true tragedy. The inability of cultures to compromise within single states, it seems, anticipated our current moment when multiplying nation-states can’t compromise on a single planet to address our global scourges. The glue that once held us together -- namely, solidarity across religion, ethnicity, and class -- has lost its binding force.
At the beginning of the great unraveling, in 2015, I was still a young man. Like everyone else, I didn’t see this coming. We all lived in a common home, I thought. Some rooms were in terrible disrepair. Those living in the attic were often exposed to the elements. The house as a whole needed better insulation, more efficient appliances, solar panels on the roof, and we had indeed fallen behind on the mortgage payments. But like so many of my peers, I seldom doubted that we could scrape together the funds and the will to make the necessary repairs by asking the richer residents of the house to pay their fair share.
Thirty-five years and endless catastrophes later on a poorer, bleaker, less hospitable planet, it’s clear that we just weren’t paying sufficient attention. Had we been listening, we would have heard the termites. There, in the basement of our common home, they were eating the very foundations out from under us. Suddenly, before we knew quite what was happening, all that was solid had melted into air.
John Feffer is the director of Foreign Policy In Focus at the Institute for Policy Studies, the editor of LobeLog, a TomDispatch regular, and the author of several books, including Crusade 2.0.
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.Teachers need to encourage students to shift to Banks' (2003) social action approach which means that students must engage in problem-solving and critical thinking activities that require them to evaluate and take action on social issues rather than only surface level concepts are being taught but the mainstream curriculum remains the same.
Biracial students should see themselves in the curriculum through famous biracial or multiracial historical individuals, such as George Washington Carver, Frederick Douglass, W. E. B. DeBois, as well as more contemporary ones, such as Bob Marley, Tiger Woods, Colin Powell, Halle Berry, Derek Jeter, Alicia Keys, and Barack Obama. Also, inviting members from the local community into schools to reinforce the presence of biracial role models not only validates racial identity for biracial students, but also helps white and other minority children recognize the growing number of biracial and multiracial people around them. Having real role models is crucial to students' overall success and positive racial identity (Wardle & Cruz-Janzen, 2004).
Finally, teachers should supply their classroom libraries with picture books, adolescent novels, and reference books that focus on biracial children. This requires effort on the teachers' part, due to many schools' and libraries' lack of resources about biracial children.
Three major themes and associated issues emerged from the community dialogues:
1. Communication
2. Assistance to Families
3. Implications of Racial and Cultural Difference
4. Accountability
In general terms, regarding each of the areas, participants expressed
A need to communicate clearly and consistently the school systems mission, programs, progress, opportunities and challenges.
A need for strengthened channels of communication between and among the school staff, parents, and community members
A need for assistance in identifying and accessing available community and governmental supports and resources
A desire for school-based parenting centers, to include parent effectiveness training
A conviction that sensitivity training in racial and cultural difference, be provided to all levels of school personnel as well as to families, would improve relations between the schools, the community and families
Specific issues that I identified from the community meetings are summarized below,
1. Communications
Parents were concerned with both the accuracy and consistency of information they received from school personnel at all levels. For example, how schools operate, the nature of, and access to, special programs and services with which many parents are not familiar, and their rights to information about their children's academic experiences and performance.
A need for the development of common strategies and procedures and common paths of dissemination was expressed often by parents and community leaders alike.
Further examination revealed that the variances and disparities that were so frustrating extended to such areas as commitment of personnel to teaching children, curriculum, textbook adoption, and ways in which parents were (or were not) valued by school personnel.
Non-teaching school personnel should be regarded as valuable community and school resources and they should be encouraged to become familiar to parents and students.
Finally, it was strongly suggested that other organizations in the community be utilized as communications vehicles: churches, civic organizations, etc.
2. Family Assistance.
The schools are seen as institutions within the community that might assist families by compiling listings of resources of support and by making referrals for families in need.
There is a pervasive view among community folks that the system itself has narrowly defined "parental involvement" to mean attendance at parent-teacher conferences and PTA meetings and that only the proscribed activities are valued as evidence of involvement and/or concern. Considerable interest was generated by the distribution of a document that identified many ways of being involved with schools and a child’s education, many of which did not involve coming to the school.
3. Implications of Racial and Cultural Difference
Many people at the meetings spoke about feeling intimidated by school personnel, many of who use educational jargon when speaking with parents. This uncomfortable situation is made worse because most of the circumstances that result in teacher-parent communications are about a child's negative behavior (actual or perceived) that the teacher is reporting. Meeting participants were looking for ways to create a sense within communities that schools are a place from which to seek help and support. Furthermore, and perhaps more importantly, community members were looking for ways in which the school could demonstrate a sense of caring about the children in their charge, and a sense that the system and school personnel were genuinely interested in the children and their lives.
At every meeting without exception, the need for "sensitivity training" was discussed. Dialogue on race, culture, gender, and social class and the effects of each of these areas of difference on the ways teachers and administrators perceive their students and parents was thought to be the starting point for better school and community relationships.
4. Accountability
Teachers, as well as principals, are perceived as not being subject to any accountability. There were complaints that the School Board, administrators and others in charge were the first and last resort for many school related concerns. Teachers were further seen as needing to be committed to the community rather than just to a job. The sense that school personnel were just too busy to be bothered has to be ameliorated in some way.
The sense of "not feeling welcome in the schools" came up so often in these community meetings, and the pervasive feelings of disconnection and alienation suggests that parents and other community members seem to feel that while schools exist in their communities, they are not part of the communities.
One of the consistent themes that emerged from the many meetings that I conducted was the need for all teachers to receive “sensitivity” and skills training in diverse learning styles. Addressing issues of diversity and racial difference in the school system will need to be done carefully, but, I believe, must not be ignored as school systems move to eliminate racial disparities in educational outcomes.KLab America, which is handling the English release of the " Love Live! School Idol Festival" smartphone app, posted a statement on its Facebook page on Saturday regarding the English translation.
Specifically, the statement addressed a complaint by players that KLab America has removed some implications of same-sex relationships between characters from the English translation.
Below is an excerpt from the statement:
We would also like to address one specific concern raised by some gamers, namely that we were engaging in self-censorship by removing or softening some playful same-sex banter from the English version. This absolutely was not our intention. We localized the game based on our interpretation of the original anime contents, but at the same time, we also respect our gamers' interpretations as well. We take To Heart the comments from some of our gamers who felt we were dismissing them in some way by some of our translations. We truly regret any hard feelings that we may have caused. We love our games and our gamers and don't want any of them to change! We'd like to thank all of our gamers for their feedback. Keep it coming!
The full statement can be read here.
Bushiroad and KLab released the rhythm action and adventure game in English on iOS and Android devices under the title "School Idol Festival" in May 2014.
The Love Live! franchise has inspired two television anime series, as well as an upcoming film on June 13. The franchise also includes manga, CDs, books, card games, radio performances, and live events.
[Via Okazu, NerdSpan]IN the comments thread following my article published at On Line Opinion yesterday, someone asked: “Does Jennifer believe that NASA and the UN are faking temperature data?”
I replied: “I don’t believe that NASA and the IPCC are faking the data: I provide compelling evidence to show this. Indeed, they, and the Bureau of Meteorology are remodelling temperature series so that they fit the theory of anthropogenic global warming. In the case of both Amberley and Rutherglen cooling trends have been changed into warming trends without any reasonable justification.”
You can read the article here: http://onlineopinion.com.au/view.asp?article=18459
And I’m republishing it here:
CELEBRITY physicist Brian Cox misled the ABC TV Q&A audience on at least 3 points-of-fact on Monday night. This is typical of the direction that much of science is taking. Richard Horton, the current editor of the medical journal, The Lancet, recently stated that, “The case against science is straightforward: much of the scientific literature, perhaps half, may simply be untrue.”
Firstly, Cox displayed an out-of-date NASA chart of remodelled global temperatures as proof that we have catastrophic climate change caused by industrial pollution. Another panellist on the program, One Nation Senator Malcolm Roberts, tried to raise the issue of cause and effect: querying whether there really was a link between rising temperature and carbon dioxide. This is generally accepted without question. But interestingly – beyond experiments undertaken by a chemist over 100 years ago – there is no real proof only unreliable computer simulation models.
Indeed, in 2006, John Nicol (a former Dean of Science at James Cook University) wrote to Penny Whetton (then meteorologist-in-charge of the climate science stream at CSIRO) asking if she could provide him with copies notes, internal reports, references (“peer reviewed” of course) which would provide details of the physics behind the hypothesis of global warming. She wrote back immediately promising to find some – which he thought was odd since he had assumed her office was stacked-to-the-ceiling with such literature.
Whetton even went to the trouble of contacting other colleagues – one of whom sent Nicol an inconsequential article in a Polish journal. After eighteen months of their exchanging letters and all of her promises to be helpful, all she could finally offer was the “scientific” section of “Climate Change in Australia 2007”. There, to Nicol’s amazement he found nothing apart from the oft quoted: “We believe that most of the increase in global temperatures during the second half of the 20th century was very likely due to increases in the concentration of atmospheric carbon dioxide”.
“Believe”, “most”, and “very likely” are jargon, perhaps meaning “we don’t have a clue”.
The chart Cox held up on Monday night – now all-over-the-internet as proof of global warming – essentially represents a remodelling of observed surface temperature measurements to confirm a belief, that we most likely have catastrophic global warming.
The accurate UAH satellite record shows a spike in temperatures in 1997-1998 associated with the El Nino back then, followed by a long pause of about 17 years, before the recent spike at the end of 2015-beginning of 2016. The recent spike was also caused by an El Nino event. Global-temperatures have been plummeting since March, and are now almost back to pause-levels. Indeed, Roberts was more correct than Cox, when he claimed there had been no warming for about 21 years – despite the rise in atmospheric levels of carbon dioxide.
The second misleading statement from Cox on Monday night concerned the nature of the modern sceptic – often harshly labelled a denier. Cox suggested that sceptics were the type of people that would even deny the moon-landing. In making this claim he was no doubt alluding to research, since discredited, funded by the Australian Research Council, that attempted to draw a link between scepticism of anthropogenic global warming and believing in conspiracies.
In fact, astronaut Harrison Schmitt – who actually stood on the moon, drilled holes, collected moon rocks, and has since returned to Earth – is a well-known sceptic of anthropogenic global warming. In short, Astronaut Harrison knows the moon-landing was real, but does not believe carbon dioxide plays a significant role in causing weather and climate change. In fact, Schmitt has expressed the view – a very similar view to Roberts – that the risks posed by climate change are overrated. Harrison has even suggested that climate change is a tool for people who are trying to increase the size of government – though he does not deny that he has been to the moon and back.
Thirdly, Cox has qualifications in particle physics, yet on Monday night he incorrectly stated that Albert Einstein devised the four-dimensional-space-time continuum. Those with a particular interest in the history of relativity theory know that while Einstein reproduced the Lorenz equations using a different philosophical interpretation, he was not the first to put these equations into the context of the 4-dimensional continuum – that was done by Hermann Minkowski. Minkowski reformulated in four dimensions the then-recent theory of special relativity concluding that time and space should be treated equally. This subsequently gave rise to the concept of events taking place in a unified four-dimensional space-time continuum.
Then again, Cox may not care too much for facts. He is not only a celebrity scientist, but also a rock star. Just the other day I was watching a YouTube video of him playing keyboard as the lead-singer of the band screamed, “We don’t need a reason”.
There was once a clear distinction between science – that was about reason and evidence – and art that could venture into the make-believe including through the re-interpretation of facts. This line is increasingly blurred in climate science where data is now routinely remodeled to make it more consistent with global warming theory.
For example, I’m currently working on a 61-page expose of the situation at Rutherglen. Since November 1912, air temperatures have been measured at an agricultural research station near Rutherglen in northern Victoria, Australia. The data is of high quality, therefore, there is no scientific reason to apply adjustments in order to calculate temperature trends and extremes. Mean annual temperatures oscillate between 15.8°C and 13.4°C. The hottest years are 1914 and 2007; there is no overall warming-trend. The hottest summer was in 1938-1939 when Victoria experienced the Black Friday bushfire disaster. This 1938-39 summer was 3°C hotter than the average-maximum summer temperature at Rutherglen for the entire period: December 1912 to February 2016. Minimum annual temperatures also show significant inter-annual variability.
In short, this temperature data – like most of the series from the 112 locations used to concoct the historical temperature record by the Australian Bureau of Meteorology – does not accord with global warming theory.
So, adjustments are made by the Australian Bureau of Meteorology to these individual series before they are incorporated into the Australian Climate Observations Reference Network – Surface Air Temperature (ACORN-SAT); and also the UK Met Office’s HadCRUT dataset, which informs IPCC deliberations.
The spike in maximum temperatures in 1938-1939 is erroneously identified as a statistical error, and all temperatures before 1938 adjusted down by 0.62°C. The most significant change is to the temperature minima: all values before 1974, and 1966, are adjusted-down by 0.61°C and 0.72°C, respectively. For the year 1913, there is a 1.3°C difference between the annual raw minimum value as measured at Rutherglen and the remodelled value.
The net effect of the remodelling is to create statistically significant warming of 0.7 °C in the ACORN-SAT mean temperature series for Rutherglen: in general agreement with anthropogenic global warming theory.
NASA applies a very similar technique to the thousands of stations used to reproduce the chart that Cox held-up on Monday night during the Q&A program. I discussed these change back in 2014 with Gavin Schmidt, who oversees the production of these charts at NASA. I was specifically complaining about how they remodel the data for Amberley, a military base near where I live in Queensland.
Back in 2014, the un-adjusted mean annual maximum temperatures for Amberley – since recordings were first made in 1941 – showed temperatures trending up from a low of about 25.5°C in 1950 to a peak of almost 28.5°C in 2002. The minimum temperatures – minima are a measure of lowest temperatures – for Amberley showed cooling from about 1970. Of course this does not accord with anthropogenic global warming theory. To quote Karl Braganza from the Bureau as published by that online rag The Conversation, “Patterns of temperature change that are uniquely associated with the enhanced greenhouse effect, and which have been observed in the real world include… Greater warming in winter compared with summer… Greater warming of night time temperatures than daytime temperatures”.
So, the Bureau has “corrected” this inconvenient truth at Amberley by jumping-up the minimum temperatures twice through the homogenisation process: once around 1980 and then around 1996 to achieve a combined temperature increase of over 1.5°C.
This is obviously a very large step-change, remembering that the entire temperature increase associated with global warming over the 20th century is generally considered to be in the order of 0.9°C.
According to various peer-reviewed papers, and technical reports, homogenisation as practiced in climate science is a technique that enables non-climatic factors to be eliminated from temperature series – by making various adjustments.
It is often done when there is a site change (for example from a post office to an airport), or equipment change (from a Glaisher stand to a Stevenson screen). But at Amberley neither of these criteria can be applied. The temperatures have been recorded at the same well-maintained site within the perimeter of the air force base since 1941. Through the homogenisation process the Bureau have changed what was a cooling trend in the minimum temperature of 1.0°C per century, into a warming trend of 2.5°C per century. This has not resulted in some small change to the temperatures as measured at Amberley, but rather a change in the temperature trend from one of cooling to dramatic warming; this is also what was done to the minimum temperature series for Rutherglen – and also without justification.
NASA’s Goddard Institute for Space Studies (GISS) based in New York also applies a jump-up to the Amberley series in 1980, and makes other changes, so that the annual average temperature for Amberley increases from 1941 to 2012 by about 2°C.
The new Director of GISS, Gavin Schmidt, explained to me on Twitter back in 2014 that: “@jennmarohasy There is an inhomogenity detected (~1980) and based on continuity w/nearby stations it is corrected. #notrocketscience”.
When I sought clarification regarding what was meant by “nearby” stations I was provided with a link to a list of 310 localities used by climate scientists at Berkeley when homogenising the Amberley data.
The inclusion of Berkeley scientists was perhaps to make the point that all the key institutions working on temperature series (the Australian Bureau, NASA, and also scientists at Berkeley) appreciated the need to adjust-up the temperatures at Amberley. So, rock star scientists can claim an absolute consensus?
But these 310 “nearby” stations, they stretch to a radius of 974 kilometres and include Frederick Reef in the Coral Sea, Quilpie post office and even Bourke post office. Considering the un-adjusted data for the six nearest stations with long and continuous records (old Brisbane aero, Cape Moreton Lighthouse, Gayndah post office, Bundaberg post office, Miles post office and Yamba pilot station) the Bureau’s jump-up for Amberley creates an increase for the official temperature trend of 0.75°C per century.
Temperatures at old Brisbane aero (the closest of these stations), also shows a long-term cooling trend. Indeed perhaps the cooling at Amberley is real. Why not consider this, particularly in the absence of real physical evidence to the contrary? In the Twitter conversation with Schmidt I suggested it was nonsense to use temperature data from radically different climatic zones to homogenise Amberley, and repeated my original question asking why it was necessary to change the original temperature record in the first place. Schmidt replied, “@jennmarohasy Your question is ill-posed. No-one changed the trend directly. Instead procedures correct for a detected jump around ~1980.”
If Twitter was around at the time George Orwell was writing the dystopian fiction Nineteen Eighty-Four, I wonder whether he might have borrowed some text from Schmidt’s tweets, particularly when words like, “procedures correct” refer to mathematical algorithms reaching out to “nearby” locations that are across the Coral Sea and beyond the Great Dividing Range to change what was a mild cooling-trend, into dramatic warming, for an otherwise perfectly politically-incorrect temperature series.
Horton, the somewhat disillusioned editor of The Lancet, also stated recently that science is, “Afflicted by studies with small sample sizes, tiny effects, invalid exploratory analyses, and flagrant conflicts of interest, together with an obsession for pursuing fashionable trends of dubious importance, science has taken a turn towards darkness.” I would not go that far! I am not sure it has taken a turn for darkness – perhaps just a turn towards the make-believe. Much of climate science, in particular, is now underpinned with a postmodernist epistemology – it is simply suspicious of reason and has an acute sensitivity to the role of ideology in asserting and maintaining particular power-structures including through the homogenisation of historical temperature data.Includes consoles in every room, handhelds in the lobby bar and a comic book library.
As if there isn’t already enough reasons to visit Amsterdam, last weekend saw the opening of its first dedicated hotel for gamers.
The Arcade Hotel sits just far enough away from the cheap madness of Amsterdam’s obvious tourist spots in the up and coming De Pijp area, and it aims to become a welcome retreat for like-minded gamers looking for some familiar RnR after a day exploring the city.
All rooms are kitted out with a retro console and games at no extra cost, and handheld consoles are passed around for multiplayer gaming in the lobby bar.
Also in the lobby are shared games consoles, and a comic book library for those that want to kick back with some classic DC, Dark Horse and indie reading material.
Building on an established family-run hotel business, owner Daniel Salmanovich says he’s “remodelling this hotel into a special place for people who love gaming. I wanted to create a place where travelers and gamers feel like they are staying at a friends home.”
Last weekend’s opening included local gin tasting, street food and an outdoor FIFA tournament. There are plans to build a special gaming room in the hotel within the next couple of years and extend the number of rooms from 36 to 45.
You can find out more about Hotel Arcade on the official site.
Images courtesy of Facebook. Matt Martin stayed as a guest of the Arcade Hotel during the launch weekend.Related News
The Nigerian Air Force said Wednesday that it has struck and destroyed solar panels believed to have been used by Boko Haram for electricity in Sambisa forest.
Dele Alonge, air force spokesperson, said an ongoing air assault against terrorists hit electricity-generating panels within the forest.
He said the attack was carried out during the recent take-over of Gamboru-Ngala by government troops.
Gamboru-Ngala, a major market community in Borno State, was liberated from Boko Haram insurgents by troops of the Nigerian military on Tuesday.
“The most recent success was the attack on BHT [Boko Haram Terrorists] targets in Ngoshe and Pulka by the Alpha Jets providing Close Air Support to own ground forces,” Mr. Alonge said.
He said the attack was aimed at decimating the capability and resolve of the members of the sect.NEW YORK – A generous act offered by a Muslim Uber driver has forced Daniel Green, a New Yorker user of the taxi service, to share the story on the internet to express gratitude and counter increasing anti-Muslim rhetoric on media.
Green, who works at Daniel Green Music, called an Uber driver Ali and asked him to carry him to a store first for the replacement of his equipment and then to his apartment keeping the meter on (for calculation of fare).
To his surprise, the Uber Muslim driver Ali gave him a favor of simply dropping off his equipment to far off place in the city without Daniel bothering for the hassle, saving his return fare and time.
“My driver was a (presumably) Muslim guy named Ali, and after I got in I explained that I would just be dropping something off, and once we got there would he mind waiting, keeping the meter running and then driving me back to my apartment? ” Green wrote on Facebook.
“His response: “Why don’t I just drop it off for you?” Me: “What?” Him: “Yeah, that way it’s easier for you, right?” Me: “Uh, yes. That would be amazing.” I leave the equipment in the car and get back out, still standing on my own block, thinking huh… I hope this works out… I wonder how I could track that stuff down if need be.”
The confused Daniel handed over the equipment but after a scant period of time, he was shocked as he received the response from the store after they received the equipment.
The responsible driver prompted Daniel with receipt of his equipment and Uber receipt.
“Cut to twenty minutes later – he’s driven all the way to the place (faster than the estimated time) and all of a sudden three things happen: 1) I have an email from my cable provider, confirming the return of my items and thanking “me” for stopping by. 2) I get my Uber receipt, showing that the trip cost me less than HALF of what it would have if my driver Ali had just done what I asked him to do. And then 3) I get a text from him, with a picture attached of my cable receipt. Because he didn’t know they would email me, and because he’s apparently the most conscientious person in America,” he wrote.
The impressed Daniel took to Facebook to praise the driver as his generosity saved time and few bucks of Daniel.
“He saved me over twenty bucks (out of his own pocket) and half an hour on my way to work. My wife marveled, “I don’t understand what was in it for him.” I don’t either – but I think I just got a little glimpse into what ACTUALLY makes this country great. #strongertogether #thanksali.”
The post comes at a hard time for Muslims who have been facing increasing hate crimes triggered by hateful rhetoric in presidential campaign.
Earlier in September, a female Muslim tourist was set on fire by attacker in Midtown Manhattan for wearing a hijab and traditional Islamic garments.
In June, Mohamed Rasheed Khan was brutally beaten by three men when riding his bicycle home from evening prayers at his mosque in Jamaica, Queens.
Queens Imam Maulama Akonjee, 55, and his assistant Thara Uddin, 64, were also murdered, leading to an uproar and protest from many New York Muslims.Getty Images stock
In the the story of Walt Disney's “Pinocchio,” the boy puppet's lies are revealed whenever his wooden nose grows. Since then, a “growing nose” has been synonymous with being caught in a fib. It turns out that this idea isn’t too far from the truth.
Researchers at the University of Granada in Spain found that when people lie, their noses and orbital muscles become hot, a condition they call the Pinnochio effect.
Emilio Gómez Milán and Elvira Salazar López have been using thermographic cameras to record people as they discuss subjective experiences, when they perform different dances, and when they become sexually aroused (no surprise that sexual excitement causes additional heat to emanate form the genitals and chest, a little less so for women than men). Thermography detects body temperature; it's the technology that allows night vision to work.
“Our main objective was to look for somatic markers of quale -- feelings, emotions, and subjective experience that cannot be easily verbally explained but only experienced, like love or religious experience or beauty. Is it possible to differentiate [between] a person who every Sunday [says] the Lord’s prayer but in fact is a nonbeliever?” Gómez, an assistant professor of psychology, writes via email.
The researchers asked subjects about subjective experiences—such as whether a piece of art was beautiful or whether they believe in God—while in an fMRI or in front of the tomographic cameras. This allowed Gómez to see what occurred in the brain and what happened to facial temperature when a person described quale. He then compared the data from two imaging machines to see if there was any overlap in brain activity and facial temperature. Other researchers have found that fMRI effectively shows when someone is being less than truthful, such as when a person admits to liking a painting but really does not believe it.
When people fibbed, the temperature in the muscles around the nose and the eyes, heated up while other areas of the face cooled. This corresponds with action in the insular cortex, nestled deep within the cerebral cortex, which controls emotions, our subjective sense of our inner blood, blood pressure during exercise, and perception of pain. Stronger negative or conflicted feelings increase activity in the insular cortex, leading to more heat emanating from the nose and orbital muscles.
Gómez believes that temperature in these regions increase because the activity in the insular cortex prompts a physiological change.
“These two changes (insula activation and temperature changes) are the two sides of the same coin,” he says. Because the insula aids in the regulation of body temperature, it comes as little surprise that body temperature increases during emotional experiences.
More from the Body Odd:
Backward butt implant video shows danger of cheap plastic surgery
Is your partner mad? Body language says more than face
Why talking on your phone can be contagious
Freestyle rappers teach scientists about creativitySingapore Gears towards Protectionism
Singapore is one of the most beautiful countries in the world but it will shift towards protectionism in their trade industries. The Committee on Future Economy was built with the idea of preparing the work community for future challenges and they have done a good job so far. In fact, they would not accept just an average person.
You would have to go through a rigorous process before you would even be considered for a role there.
You may have to be in your best when trying to get in this committee as they take their selection process seriously. It is expected our population would grow in the future and this is something that should be prepared for so it is a good thing this committee exists. They know Singapore is such a small country but in the future, the amount of people living there will definitely double. It might lead to problems such as traffic since cars are so cheap nowadays.
With so many people having cars, it would be easy to get into an accident even if Singapore is known as a country that is pretty much safe. A lot of tourists do go there because of the many sights to |
: After their reign ended, “I Will Always Love You” by Whitney Houston reached the top of the charts two weeks later and broke their record by staying there for 14 weeks. I choose to believe that the group who held the top spot between those songs, The Heights, is absolutely furious about this. (“OF ALL THE DAMN TIMES…” they probably say whenever they get together and get good and drunk.)
I suppose what I’m getting at is this: Boyz II Men, ABC, BBD. The East Coast Family.
Let’s begin.
Boyz II Men, from left to right: Shawn Stockman, Wanya Morris, Michael McCary, and Nathan Morris. We’ll be discussing each of them over the course of the video, as they all have their own little moment in the sun, but I’d like to start with a quick rant about chairs.
Look at the above picture. There are four people in the frame, and not a single one is using his chair as it is designed. I don’t know who decided this or when exactly we stopped doing it, but throughout most of the ’90s, sitting improperly in a chair was shorthand for being very, very cool. The best example of this was in literally every TV show made from 1988-1997, when a character would walk up to someone to have a conversation, grab a chair, spin it around, and plop down in it backwards with his legs spread around the backrest. Once he did that, it was all over. Hell, all you needed to take over a high school in 1995 was a leather jacket, crappy posture, and either a bowl cut or a high fade. Line the ladies up at the door.
It was a simpler time.
The first verse of the song goes to Nathan Morris, who sometimes went by the nickname “Alex Vanderpool,” because you know what maybe you shouldn’t ask questions and just accept that a member of a ’90s R&B group rechristened himself “Alex Vanderpool” and move along with your day. Also, please note the following things:
Jean jacket
Salmon-colored button-up
Salmon-colored button-up that is tucked into black pants
Sunglasses
YES.
NOTE: Big ups to whichever graffiti artist spray-painted what appears to be the word “BRAS” in all caps on that wall back there. I don’t know what his end game was — maybe he just really liked bras, you know? — but I like to think it was some sexually frustrated teenager who didn’t know how else to get out all that bottled up testosterone so he just ran around town tagging every unmarked surface he could find with stuff like “BRAS” and “PANTIES.” Police would call him the Underpants Bandit, I imagine.
Here is what is happening in this shot: Four young men are performing at night in an alley — wearing matching outfits consisting of jeans, shirts and ties, and some sort of windbreakers — as a fire rages in a trash can under a large advertisement for a crappy romantic comedy starring Eddie Murphy.
Taken out of its context as a part of a music video, even a tiny bit, this is very strange.
There are two things you need to know about the next part of the song: 1) It is sung by Wanya Morris, and; 2) When Wanya Morris sings it looks like the act of projecting his voice causes him an immeasurable amount of pain. To illustrate this I have helpfully screencapped an image of him trying to sing despite suffering from what I’m guessing is either an aneurysm or a Grand Mal seizure.
While this is a decent example of Wanya Morris freaking the freak out while singing, it is nowhere near the best (and it’s kind of cheating because he’s acting out the line “pain in my head, oh I’d rather be dead,” but whatever). No, the best example would be in the music video for “On Bended Knee,” where he tosses aside his umbrella and proceeds to act like he is being electrocuted while singing on the street in the middle of a downpour.
Also, at the same time this is happening, there is a huge dude in the background who is playing the tuba while dressed like a ship captain, and that is hilarious. Please see below.
Since “End of the Road” is a song about breaking up, there are a few brief scenes where a couple acts out a split. In this example, a gentleman with fly-as-hell hair attempts to give his girlfriend a rose, which she declines before walking away. He then tosses the rose on the ground.
This might be the saddest scene in music video history*. This guy invited his girlfriend to the park, got all done up, got his hair game looking tighter than a pair of Spanx, and bought a single rose to give to her in an attempt to reconcile their lost love, and he got absolutely hung out to dry. What do you think he did? He definitely cheated on her, right? Had to.
*Second place – The scene in “Unbreak My Heart” where Tyson Beckford dies after flipping his motorcycle and Toni Braxton cries about it in her underpants a lot.
Two things:
This verse is performed by Shawn Stockman (far right), who tosses little “mmms,” and “uhs,” and “mmm-hmmms” after each line like he’s a fiery Baptist preacher. All songs should be sung in this manner.
I must have those sunglasses immediately.
DIRECTOR: [driving home from the office while talking on a giant ’90s car phone] Yeah, I think the video’s good to go. We’ve got a bunch of locations set up: a church, a bridge, an alley… what’s that? What do you mean “something more obvious”? … Well I don’t know where I’m going to find something like that on such short notice. You really need to stop springing this stuff on me at the last minut… No I don’t have an attitude probl… Holdonholdonholdon, you can’t talk to me like that… Oh yeah? That’s it. I’m calling my union represent-
[drives by subway sign that says “END Road Station,” slams brakes]
DIRECTOR: … Never mind. I got it.
Here is another scene where a couple breaks up, this time featuring a woman returning a ring to her beau. Based on nothing but her nose ring and her low-cut, cross-strapped, studded shirt, I’m going to guess she wanted to go out and party all the time but he was always like “HURR DURR LET’S GO TO THE PIER AND FEED THE BIRDS INSTEAD” and she just up and had it one day and screamed “I AM A BUTTERFLY AND I NEED TO FLY” and left him there holding nothing but his ring and some bird seed.
I’ve seen it a million times.
Oh, and while this was happening Boyz II Men was standing behind them dressed up like the R&B Power Rangers. Again, the ’90s were weird.
To: All aspiring R&B groups
From: DG
Re: Important GIF
YO DO THIS SH-T RIGHT HERE. FOR REAL. LOOK AT THE THINGS EACH OF THE DUDES IN BOYZ II MEN ARE DOING IN THIS GIF, ASSIGN ONE OF THEM TO EACH MEMBER OF YOUR GROUP, AND THEN DO THAT SH-T IN YOUR VIDEO.
SERIOUSLY.
After a few verses and runs through the chorus, Boyz II Men turns the song over to Michael McCary (the deep-voiced, cane-wielding gentleman above) to deliver a monologue about still loving a girlfriend who repeatedly cheats on him, and he proceeds to take a stick of dynamite and blow the roof off the place. It is the best part of the song by a mile, and the fact McCary was forced to leave the group in 2003 due to health problems depresses me to no end.
Anyway, I have been through a bad break-up or two in my day, but never one so heart-vaporizing that I called a friend and asked him to come with me to the beach and wail about it directly into the ocean. Sheesh. Someone needs to take my man out for whiskey and steaks and tell him to buck up a little.
Hold on.
So far in this video we’ve seen Boyz II Men perform (a) in an alley next to a trash can fire, (b) on the street with a guitar case full of money in front of them, (c) on an abandoned beach, (d) on a bridge, and (e) inside a church. Are we supposed to believe that they’re, like, homeless? Is that what this video is getting at? That Boyz II Men collectively went through a bad breakup and was so depressed about it that they went into a tailspin and ended up on the street? Because if so…
:(
FUN FACT: If I saw Boyz II Men performing “End of the Road” on the sidewalk in front of a sign that said “END Road Station,” I would empty my entire wallet into their guitar case.
The video for “End of the Road,” in which Boyz II Men’s blue jeans are presented in vivid color within an otherwise black-and-white frame, was released in 1992. Schindler’s List, in which a young girl’s red hat is presented in vivid color within an otherwise black-and-white frame, was released in 1993.
Eat it, Spielberg.
The song concludes with the music fading out and Boyz II Men taking us home a capella while clapping in rhythm on a bridge. As it should.
That brings us to the end of our discussion about the music video for “End of the Road.” Hopefully you won’t become so sad upon finishing it that you drive to the beach with a friend and sing about it to the ocean, but I wouldn’t blame you if you did.
We all grieve in our own way.A war of words broke out today between Avatar director James Cameron and producer Mark Canton over whether Weinstein Co/Dimension’s current version of Piranha 3D is a crapfest. (Cameron was hired and then fired as the director of the original 1981 Piranha Part 2). Here’s what they are saying:
Cameron told VanityFair.com while publicizing his Avatar re-release: “I tend almost never to throw other films under the bus, but [ Piranha 3D ] is exactly an example of what we should not be doing in 3D. Because it just cheapens the medium and reminds you of the bad 3D horror films from the ’70s and ’80s, like Friday The 13th 3D. When movies got to the bottom of the barrel of their creativity and at the last gasp of their financial lifespan, they did a 3-D version to get the last few drops of blood out of the turnip. And that’s now what’s happening now with 3D. It is a renaissance. Right now the biggest and best films are being made in 3D. Martin Scorsese is making a film in 3D [Hugo Cabret]. Disney’s biggest film of the year — Tron: Legacy — is coming out in 3D. So it’s a whole new ballgame.”
Canton issued this rebuttal via Dimension’s PR department: “As a producer in the entertainment industry, Jim Cameron’s comments on VanityFair.com are very disappointing to me and the team that made Piranha 3D. Mr. Cameron, who singles himself out to be a visionary of movie-making, seems to have a small vision regarding any motion pictures that are not his own. It is amazing that in the movie-making process – which is certainly a team sport – that Cameron consistently celebrates himself out as though he is a team of one. His comments are ridiculous, self-serving and insulting to those of us who are not caught up in serving his ego and his rhetoric.
Jim, are you kidding or what? First of all, let’s start by you accepting the fact that you were the original director of Piranha 2 and you were fired. Shame on you for thinking that genre movies and the real maestros like Roger Corman and his collaborators are any less auteur or impactful in the history of cinema than you. Martin Scorcese made Boxcar Bertha at the beginning of his career. And Francis Ford Coppola made Dimentia 13 back in 1963. And those are just a few examples of the talented and successful filmmakers whose roots are in genre films. Who are you to impugn any genre film or its creators?
Having been deeply involved, as either an executive or as a producer, on Tim Burton’s original Batman and the first Men In Black, as well as 300, and now Immortals, one of the things that has been consistent about all of the filmmakers involved in these landscape-changing global films is that, in each and every case, all of the directors were humbled by their predecessors, their colleagues and by their awareness of the great history of film that came before them. The enjoyment and the immersion of an audience in a movie theatre, as they had and will have with the above-mentioned films, and as audiences are experiencing with Piranha 3D now, comes from the originality and the vision of the filmmaker, and not just from the creation of the technology. You as much as anyone certainly knows that there are many pieces to the puzzle. Going to the movies still remains, arguably, amongst the best communal experiences that human beings can share.
My sense is that Mr. Cameron has never seen Piranha 3D… certainly not in a movie theatre with a real audience. Jim, we invite you to take that opportunity and experience the movie in a theatre full of fans – fans for whom this movie was always intended to entertain. Does Mr. Cameron have no idea of the painstaking efforts made by the talented young filmmaker Alex Aja and his team of collaborators? Clearly, and this one is a good bet, he has no clue as to how great and how much of a fun-filled experience the audiences who have seen the film in 3D have enjoyed. Those of us who have tried to stay in touch with the common movie audiences – the ones who really matter, the ones who actually still go to the theatre, put on the glasses, and eat the popcorn – take joy and pride in the fact that movies of all kinds, including Piranha 3D, have a place in filmmaking history – past, present and future. 3D unto itself is not a genre Jim, it is a tool that gives audiences an enhanced experience as they experience all kinds of movies. I believe Mr. Cameron did not see Piranha 3D either with any real audience or not at all. On opening weekend, I was in a Los Angeles theatre with a number of today’s great film makers including JJ Abrams, who actually had nothing short of the fabulous, fun 3D experience that the movie provides. I am fortunate enough to have worked on, and continue to work on, evolutionary movies in all formats from just simple good story telling, which still matters most of all, to CG movies to tent-pole size 3D movies, and genre 3D movies like Piranha 3D. What it comes down to, Jim, is – that like most things in life – size doesn’t really matter. Not everyone has the advantage of having endless amounts of money to play in their sandbox and to take ten years using other people’s money to make and market a film….like you do. Why can’t you just count your blessings?
Why do you have to drop Marty Scorsese’s or Tim Burton’s names, both gentlemen who I have personally worked with, and who have enjoyed great joy and success with movies of all genres and sizes well before the advent of modern 3D? Then as now, they were like kids in a candy store recognizing, far beyond your imagination, the possibilities of storytelling and originality. For the record, before you just totally dismiss Piranha 3D and all, in your opinion, worthless genre movies that actually undoubtedly gave you the ability to start your career, you should know that Piranha 3D had an 82% “fresh” (positive) ratting on Rotten Tomatoes on opening day – a web site that all the studios, filmmakers and the public use as a barometer of what makes a quality film.
We know that Piranha 3D has not achieved a boxoffice that is on the level of many of Mr. Cameron’s successes. To date, Piranha 3D has earned over $30 million around the globe with #1 openings in several countries. And, as the “fresh” rating on Rotten Tomatoes indicates, critics and many, many others have embraced and celebrated Piranha 3D for the fun and entertaining – and even smart – movie-going experience that it is. Let’s just keep this in mind Jim….you did not invent 3D. You were fortunate that others inspired you to take it further. The simple truth is that I had nothing but good things to say about Avatar and my own experience since I actually saw it and didn’t damn someone else’s talent publicly in order to disassociate myself from my origins in the business from which we are all very fortunate. To be honest, I found the 3D in Avatar to be inconsistent and while ground breaking in many respects, sometimes I thought it overwhelmed the storytelling. Technology aside, I wish Avatar had been more original in its storytelling.
We have to inspire, teach and mentor this next generation of filmmakers. It is garbage to suggest that any film or any filmmaker who cannot afford to work to your standards should be dissuaded from following his or her craft by not making 3D movies or not making movies like District 9, for example, which probably cost the amount of Avatar’s craft services budget, but totally rocked it in the movie theatre and in the marketplace. In that case, it was not a 3D movie. But had it been, it certainly would not have been any less original or impactful. The enormous worldwide success of Avatar has been good in all respects for you, your financiers, your distributors and the industry, as well as for the movie going public. Jim, there is a difference between Maestro which is a word that garners respect, and Dictator or Critic which are words better left for others who are not in our mutual boat or on our team. You are one of the best, it is reasonable to think that you should dig deeper and behave like it. Young directors should be inspired by you, not publicly castigated by your mean-spirited and flawed analysis.
While we are all awed by your talents and your box office successes – and I compliment you on all of them – why don’t you rethink how you address films with which you are not involved? You should be taking the high road that is being travelled by so many of your peers, and pulling with them to ensure that we, as an industry, will have a continuum of talented filmmakers that will deliver a myriad of motion pictures both big and small, with 3D or any other technologies yet to come that will entertain audiences throughout the world. That is the challenge that we face. That is the future that we should deliver. Please go see Piranha in a theater near you.”SAN ANTONIO, TX - SEPTEMBER 18: Head Coach Dan Hughes of the San Antonio Stars during his retirement ceremony after the game against the Phoenix Mercury on September 18, 2016 at AT
The news came this week that the Seattle Storm, building around the young core of Breanna Stewart and Jewell Loyd alongside icon Sue Bird, had hired an old hand at the WNBA coaching business to lead them: Dan Hughes.
For Hughes, whose epic career dates back to the earliest days of the league, it was an opportunity to overcome the disappointment he felt when the WNBA lottery balls favored Seattle over San Antonio, where he was the coach and general manager at the time.
Hughes counts working with Moriah Jefferson as a career highlight along with such accomplishments as taking San Antonio to the WNBA Finals and turning the Cleveland Rockers into the league’s elite teams, but the chance to coach Stewart feels like something else altogether.
Hughes discussed an array of topics during this podcast, from whatever happened to his former assistant coach in Cleveland, one Cheryl Reeve, to the offensive and defensive goals he has for a Seattle team he says can be among the league’s best, but will need to prove it.
Hughes also discussed his relationship with Pat Summitt, and the blessing he felt came with Summitt’s approval early on in his own career.
Listen to Hughes talk about all this and much more here:England's Frank Lampard (L) in action against Costa Rica's Cristian Bolanos at the World Cup. Credit:AFP
But like the Spaniard, the England man cannot afford to be out of action for seven or eight months ahead of the start of the American venture - hence the plan to send him to Melbourne to join Villa at Melbourne City and boost the now Manchester City-owned club's status and Australian championship prospects.
When City bought the struggling Melbourne Heart they promised big investment and big name players, but nobody quite imagined that they might parade two men of such stature, both Champions League winners, who had appeared for their country at the World Cup in Brazil.
It might only be on short term contracts and essentially as an extended pre-season for the MLS, but the professionalism and personal pride of both individuals will ensure that they arrive fit and in good shape and perfectly prepared to represent their new club to the best of their abilities.
However, it is to be hoped that Lampard knows a bit more about Melbourne City than Villa. After the Spain v Australia game in Curitiba, the final match in this World Cup for both teams, Villa was brought in to meet the media having been voted man of the match by a global TV audience."Soko Schwarzer Block"
von Katja Thorwarth schließen
Konrad Schäfer, Politiker der hessischen Jungen Union, teilt ein Fahndungsbild der "Soko Schwarzer Block" und kommentiert es sexistisch. Den Shitstorm, der folgt, hat er sich verdient. Ein Kommentar.
Konrad Schäfer, konservativer Christdemokrat der Jungen Union, ist fleißig auf Twitter unterwegs. So dachte er, die umstrittene Öffentlichkeitsfahndung der „Soko Schwarzer Block“ viral unterstützen zu müssen, die die Bilder von möglicherweise an den G20-Randalen in Hamburg beteiligten Personen im Netz veröffentlicht.
Das Bild einer Frau hatte es ihm besonders angetan, das er auf Twitter mit dem Wortlaut teilte: „Gar nicht mal so hässlich für eine Linksextreme. Seltsame Hose aber. #Terrormaus #G20 #Fahndung.“ Oha, die „Terrormaus“ ist also gar nicht mal „so hässlich“ in den Augen des hessischen Jungunionisten, seines Zeichens angehender Jurastudent, der damit in sexistische Niederungen vorgedrungen sein dürfte, die ihm bei seinen Kameraden möglicherweise Punkte bringen. Den Shitstorm auf Twitter hingegen hat er sich redlich verdient.
Da Herr @KonradSchaefer seinen Tweet inzwischen wieder gelöscht hat, möchte ich ihn gern an Persönlichkeitsrechte und Unschuldsvermutung bei verdächtigten Personen erinnern #CDUrensohn pic.twitter.com/uEQuJpW3kJ
— Ole (@strandvej)
18. Dezember 2017
„Gar nicht mal so untypisch für ein verklemmtes Muttersöhnchen, für den selbstbestimmte Frauen eine Bedrohung des verschrobenen patriarchalen Weltbildes darstellen. Willkommen in 2017, Du sexistischer Vollhorst“, schreibt etwa @baboon696969 hier stellvertretend für viele, die insbesondere die Frage stellen, was an Konrad Schäfers Erziehung so alles schief gelaufen sei.
Den Tweet hat er inzwischen gelöscht, doch bleibt bemerkenswert, dass dies nicht im Hinblick auf seinen Sexismus geschah. Er entschuldigt sich vielmehr dafür, „zu Unrecht“ davon ausgegangen zu sein, „dass auch Privatpersonen Fahndungsbilder der Polizei teilen dürfen“. Das ist für einen angehenden Juristen schon eine bemerkenswerte Fehlleistung, dem angehenden Christdemokraten sollte sein Frauenbild deutlich mehr zu denken geben. „Zum Thema Sexismus – klar war die Wortwahl provokant. Ziel war aber niemals, die abgebildete Person herabzuwürdigen, sondern auf Straftaten aufmerksam zu machen“, ergänzt Schäfer, der vielleicht noch lernen muss, wann es besser ist zu schweigen.
Denn niemand wird seiner Deutung folgen, seine Aussage über die Optik einer Frau würde den Sachverhalt einer Straftat kommunizieren, indem man sie als #Terrormaus abwertet und äußerliche Attribute reduziert. Abgesehen davon ist der Frau eine Straftat überhaupt nicht nachgewiesen, weshalb hier eine unzulässige Vorverurteilung vorliegt.
„Als angehender Jurist weder Recht noch Moral kennen. Top Personal bei der JU!“, bringt es @okapiden auf den Punkt. Kann man so stehen lassen.The discovery is believed to be the first of a Nantucket whaler, one of an armada of ships that set sail during the early 19th century when the small Massachusetts island was an international capital of whaling. It was a risky pursuit that led sailors halfway across the world — and sometimes to the bottom of the sea.
“Very little material has been recovered from whale ships that foundered because they generally went down far from shore and in the deepest oceans,” said Ben Simons, chief curator of the Nantucket Historical Association. “We have a lot of logbooks and journals that record disasters at sea, but to be taken to the actual scene of the sunken vessel — that’s really what is so amazing about this.”
The discovery was, in some ways, as fortunate as Pollard was cursed.
The Two Brothers — which was bound for the newly opened Japan Grounds after whalers had fished out the Atlantic and parts of the South Pacific — was long known to have sunk on the night of Feb. 11, 1823, off the French Frigate Shoals.
A shrimp-shaped collection of reefs, the shoals were a notoriously tricky spot. Charts were not particularly reliable in that area, and Pollard was steering the Two Brothers without the aid of stars, since the sky had been overcast.
Several dozen boats are known to have sunk there or in neighboring atolls, all of which are now part of Papahanaumokuakea Marine National Monument, an enormous conservation area that covers nearly 140,000 square miles of ocean west of Hawaii.
In 2008, a team of marine archeologists from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s Office of National Marine Sanctuaries set their sights on investigating several other wrecks, including a British whaling ship called the Gledstanes, which sank in the remote Kure Atoll in 1837, and the Churchill, which went down carrying a load of coconut meat in the French Frigate Shoals in 1917.
With a few spare days left before returning to Honolulu, however, the team decided to poke around a tiny sandbar known as Shark Island.
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Kelly Gleason, the leader of the team, was in the water — crystal-clear shallows about 15 feet deep — when a colleague suddenly signaled that he had seen something.
“All of a sudden,” said Dr. Gleason, a marine archaeologist, “we came across this large anchor.”
The anchor, some 10 feet long, was peacefully resting on the seafloor, and was far too heavy to lift. (The federally protected monument also has strict rules about removal of artifacts.) Anchors, like so many other types of maritime technology, evolved over the years, making them easier to place in a specific time period, and Dr. Gleason was pretty sure the anchor she was seeing was from the early 1800s.
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Divers soon found more debris, including several iron trypots, cauldrons in which blubber was boiled down into oil, the ultimate goal of the lucrative but highly speculative whaling trade. It was a brutal pursuit for both the whales, which were hunted nearly to extinction, and the sailors, who faced years at sea, meager rations and the omnipresent possibility of death.
“Nantucket whaling captains were renowned for being what was called ‘fishy men,’ meaning that they didn’t care what was involved,” said Nathaniel Philbrick, a maritime historian and author of “In the Heart of the Sea,” the acclaimed account of the Essex’s sinking. “They were hard-wired to bring in whales, because whales meant money.”
Pollard, however, was different, “a little more contemplative,” said Mr. Philbrick, despite earning his first helm — the Essex — at the young age of 28.
“He definitely garnered his men’s respect,” Mr. Philbrick said. “But he was twice unlucky.”
And understandably gun-shy. According to an account by Thomas Nickerson, who had been on the Essex — and nearly starved to death at sea after it sank, but still re-upped for another voyage with Pollard — the captain froze on the deck of the Two Brothers after the ship began to sink, and he had to be practically dragged into a smaller whale-chasing boat.
“His reasoning powers had flown,” Nickerson later wrote.
Dr. Gleason says she was impressed that Pollard even went back on a boat at all, considering, you know, the cannibalism of his first trip.
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“You just imagine this man who had the courage to go back out to sea, and to have this happen?” she said. “It’s incredible.”
All told, archaeologists have found about 80 relics from the Two Brothers, including four cast-iron cooking pots, fragments of glass and ceramics, riggings and blubber hooks. Monument officials say they hope to eventually make some of the smaller artifacts part of a permanent exhibit in Hawaii, though larger items will remain in the water of the Shoals.
For his part, Captain Pollard was rescued a day after the Two Brothers sank. He returned to Nantucket, where he settled into a sedate, quiet and decidedly nonseafaring life, though other sailors quietly deemed him a “Jonah,” or star-crossed mariner.
He eventually took a job as the town’s night watchman. In the 1850s, he was visited by a 30-something writer who had just published a novel — “Moby-Dick” — to middling reviews. A former whaler himself, Melville had sought out Pollard and found, according to Mr. Philbrick, a kind of soul mate in the older man.
“Both of them had experienced the ultimate in terms of living,” he said, “and then went on quietly in their lives ignored by everyone.”
Indeed, Melville worked as a customs inspector until several years before his death in 1891. Pollard died — alone but apparently beloved by fellow Nantucketers — in 1870. But while Melville’s reputation soared, few know of Captain Pollard.
Dr. Gleason, for one, hopes that this discovery in the reefs of the Hawaiian islands, a place that could boggle any sailor, today or in 1823, goes a way toward repairing Pollard’s legacy.
“He was up against these incredible odds,” she said. “And it’s an incredibly hazardous place.”Income from online streaming services like Spotify, Pandora and YouTube is growing rapidly, but not enough to lift the music industry into growth over all, the industry’s global trade group reported on Tuesday.
According to an annual sales report from the trade group, the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry, wholesale revenue from recorded music around the world in 2013 fell by 3.9 percent compared with the year before, to $15 billion.
Beneath that number, however, is a complex picture that shows how the recorded music business is trying to reverse its fortunes, which have been slipping since a peak of $27.6 billion in 1999, according to the trade group, which is based in London.
Digital sales last year grew by 4.3 percent around the world, led by a 51 percent increase in revenue from subscription services. Income from these all-you-can-listen outlets, like Spotify, Deezer and Rhapsody, exceeded $1 billion for the first time last year, the federation said. About 28 million people around the world pay for access to them, up from eight million just three years earlier.It’s hard to accurately characterize President Donald Trump’s habit of making consistently false, frequently self-contradictory, often hypocritical, and always flamboyant statements. No word quite captures their all-encompassing magnitude, their frequency, and, often, their sheer pointlessness. “Lies” is always a good place to start, but in Trump’s case it only begins to cover the problem. “Bullshitting” is too cute for the rolling crisis we find ourselves in. “Gaslighting” implies that something strategic is happening, and Trump appears to be working on pure intuition. We don’t have the language to convey how serious the president’s lies—or obfuscations or exaggerations or feints or whatever else you want to call them—are.
Furthermore, we don’t know with any certainty what effect his public statements are having on policy. What does it mean when the president, say, offers a grieving Gold Star family $25,000 but doesn’t pay up? Does it imply that he thinks the military’s survivor benefits program is inadequate, or did he just want to weasel out of an awkward situation? Are his threats to start a nuclear war with North Korea serious, or a bluff? Does he really want to blow up Obamacare, or was that a poor attempt to move complicated legislative processes forward?
Axios’s Mike Allen has taken a stab at diagnosing the problem. Earlier this week, Allen argued that Trump’s inability to tell the truth represented a kind of ontological problem that the media was ill-equipped to handle. In a follow-up post, Allen took this argument in a more interesting direction, arguing that Trump’s brazenly untrue statements represent an “alternate reality” that is separate from the “reality” of policy-making cabinet officials like Secretary of State Rex Tillerson and Secretary of Defense James Mattis.
“It’s a feature, not a bug, of this White House for Trump to say one thing about policy, and for his cabinet or hand-picked officials to say or do the exact opposite,” Allen writes. “This dynamic—like the spreading of fake news or false statements—makes it hard for the media, Republicans, and his cabinet to determine when to take the leader of the free world seriously.... This is not a plot of evil genius to keep friends and foes guessing. It’s the inevitable output of an improvisational president who often says whatever pops into his head.”“We should try avoiding the mistakes we have made,” he said at a news conference alongside Mr. Kerry. “Only the Syrian people are going to decide their own future. That also covers the future of the Syrian president.”
Missing from the talks so far has been the man at the center of the storm: Mr. Assad, whose barrel bombs, chemical weapons and vicious tactics have so embittered a huge segment of his own population that his critics insist he can no longer rule the country. But he reacted to the prospect of a Security Council resolution with sarcasm. “I was packing my luggage; I had to leave,” he told a Dutch television station on Thursday. “Now I can stay.”
The Security Council session followed a meeting in New York earlier in the day of top diplomats from more than a dozen countries with stakes in the conflict. They included the five permanent members of the Council, along with the foreign ministers of Turkey, Iran, Saudi Arabia and the European Union.
The resolution abides by an accord known as the Geneva Communiqué, reached three years ago and considered critical by the Western powers, that proposes a transitional government with full executive powers.
Mr. Kerry told reporters after the Council meeting that steps would have to be taken to form a transitional government within six months. He sharply disputed the notion that the agreement deferred a decision on Mr. Assad’s fate, saying it put a time frame on what needs to happen next. “This is not being kicked down the road; it’s actually being timed out,” he said.
One obstacle to putting a deal in place may be determining which of the disparate rebel groups would participate in the talks scheduled to begin next month, and whether they would agree to come to the table at all without a guarantee of Mr. Assad’s exit. Nor has Mr. Assad said he would participate — though he will be under pressure from Russia and Iran to do so.In a 2006 video demonstrating AWOL (Alcohol Without Liquid), a machine that mixes ethanol with oxygen and delivers the resulting mist through a tube, a British guy sucking on "The Ultimate Party Tool" exclaims, "In 10 years' time, I can see everybody doing this." Although AWOL still has another year to catch on, by now it is fair to say that prediction was overly optimistic. Back then, however, the prospect that inhalation would replace drinking as Americans' favorite way of consuming alcohol terrified legislators so much that they pre-emptively banned AWOL-like devices in at least 22 states. In a story posted today, the Asbury Park Press tries to revive the alcohol inhalation panic by pointing with alarm at the Vaportini, a low-tech but more elegant and much cheaper alternative to AWOL that has been on the market for a few years, and this dude, who demonstrates on YouTube how to get drunk by sucking vapor from a soda bottle containing alcoholic beverages pressurized with a bicycle pump.
The headline on the story: "Smoking Alcohol: The Next Jersey Shore Killer?" At least they used a question mark.
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a bachelor's degree. While that's less than the percentages of college graduates who voted for other Republicans, it's higher than both the overall national rate of college graduates--about 29 percent of the voting-age population--or among white adults, which was about 33 percent.
In other words, if you look closely at who actually voted for Trump, you soon realize that his supporters look a lot more like the middle class than the working class.
THIS ISN'T to discount the working-class support that Trump has, nor to pretend that workers are somehow immune to his appeals. Even in the heyday of New Deal liberalism--when between one-quarter and one-third of workers belonged to unions--about a third of union members voted Republican.
What is certain, however, is that the group that has experienced the greatest downward mobility in the past 40 years is people without four-year college degrees. According to a Pew report, non-college high school graduates are more than twice as likely than in 1971 to be in what Pew defines as "lower-income" households.
These statistics show why Trump's narrative of "American decline"--for which he proposes himself as the solution--can be so seductive: The living standards and working conditions for Americans in the middle of the income ladder have decreased.
At the same time, weakened union and social movement organization has mounted few challenges to the miserable conditions that the working class faces. Just like their middle-class counterparts, the U.S. working class can easily fall into the despair that Trump preys on.
Clinton has chosen to run as the steady custodian of the status quo. She's even made a strategic decision to try to separate Trump from other Republicans and campaign for GOP support.
As a result, we hear very little about the proposals in the supposedly "most progressive Democratic Party platform ever"--while Clinton's advisers wonder why she's not pulling the same levels of support with the "rising American electorate" that Obama did in 2012.
If Trump does end up winning in November, the key reason will be that he won enough votes in crucial states from people who want change of some sort--away from Clinton, a candidate who has been a pillar of the Washington political establishment for almost a quarter century.
Hillary Clinton's whole political career aids and abets Donald Trump's con job that he is an "outsider" who will shake things up and look out for "ordinary Americans."
So if Michael Tomasky's "unthinkable" happens, Hillary Clinton and the Democrats will have no one but themselves to blame.Digital Reality, who Wikipedia assures me is the oldest Hungarian “video game developer company” in existence, has gone and announced SKYDRIFT, a download-only racing game that looks a bit like Crimson Skies crossed with Playstation high-speed headtrip Wipeout. Why do I feel the need to make all these comparisons? I suppose it’s so my brain doesn’t drown in all these games, each of which is secretly as unique and beautiful as a snowflake. Trailer and press release (“spectacular and exotic locations,” “extreme maneuvers,” “aircrafts”!) after the jump.
Missiles! Big rocks! Guitar! Hey, this actually looks quite good.
Gain advantage using 6 different types of offensive and defensive power-ups and survive the infinite variety of extreme maneuvers often dangerously close to the ground.
Admire the amazingly detailed dynamic terrains and incredible vistas, from a desert canyon to a tropical island to arctic glaciers based on the most spectacular and exotic locations all over the planet. The breathtaking landscape includes monumental rocks, volcanic lava flows, scenic rivers and ice fields that provide a memorable experience in incredible graphics rarely seen in digital-only titles.
Unlock all 8 modern, state-of-the-art aircrafts tuned to the max. Personalize them with over 30 unique racing skins from military camouflage war paint for hiding, to the most shiny and colorful ones for domination.LIGO-India is a collaboration between the Laser Interferometer Gravitational-wave Observatory (LIGO) Laboratory (operated by Caltech and MIT) and three Institutes in India – the Raja Ramanna Center for Advanced Technology (Indore), the Institute for Plasma Research (Ahmedabad), and the Inter-University Centre for Astronomy and Astrophysics (Pune). These three institutions bring the complementary skills and resources needed the success of the project.
The scientific goals of the project are in the area of astronomy and fundamental physics. Gravitational waves are predicted as an essential element of Einstein’s Theory of General Relativity. The strongest sources of gravitational waves are among the enigmatic objects in our universe: black holes, neutron stars, supernovae, even the Big Bang. Extracting the information carried by the waves to address questions in both physics and astronomy depends on our ability to identify where the individual sources are on the sky. This requires a network of detectors spread widely over the Earth. LIGO operates two sites in the United States and collaborates with a similar detector in Italy (Virgo). Together they can triangulate sources over part of the sky. LIGO-India will enable scientists to locate sources over the entire sky. The ellipses on the sky maps below show how much more accurately sources can be found with LIGO-India. The dramatic improvement with LIGO-India is the key scientific motivation for this project.
The project will benefit India in other ways as well. The first detection of gravitational waves will be one of the highest profile scientific discoveries of our time. Engaging the Indian scientific community in this quest will raise the visibility and appeal of experimental science in India. The presence of a world-leading facility in India can be used to attract students and inspire them to pursue technical careers. Finally, the physical measurements required for gravitational wave detection are arguably the most precise ever made, and they involve cutting edge technologies that have many non-military applications.
Each side of project makes significant financial and intellectual contributions:
The LIGO Laboratory will provide the hardware for a complete LIGO interferometer, technical data on its design, installation and commissioning, training and assistance with installation and commissioning, and the requirements and designs for the necessary infrastructure (including the vacuum system). The components for the LIGO-India detector have already been fabricated as a part of the Advanced LIGO project, funded by the National Science Foundation.
India will provide the site, the vacuum system and other infrastructure required to house and operate the interferometer, and all labor, materials and supplies for installation, commissioning and operations. Funding for the LIGO-India facilities will come from the Department of Atomic Energy (DAE) and the Department of Science and Technology (DST), with DAE acting as the lead agency.
Once it becomes operational, LIGO-India will be scientifically managed and operated in collaboration with the US LIGO detectors to optimize the scientific return.A Brazilian couple and their five children have lost their legal bid to prevent their deportation from the State.
The man came here lawfully in 2002 on a work permit and remained after it expired. He was joined by his wife in 2003 and later by the couple’s children who were brought into the State by an uncle.
The man worked and paid taxes from 2002. In 2007, his illegal status was discovered when stopped at a routine Garda checkpoint. He continued to work until 2009 when he became unemployed.
Neither he nor any member of the family sought asylum status but they sought leave to remain. After that application was refused, deportation orders were made by the Minister for Justice for the entire family.
On Thursday, the three-judge Court of Appeal dismissed their appeal against the High Court’s rejection of their challenge to those deportation orders.
Article 40.3
The central issue in the appeal concerned the rights of the children. It was argued they had a right under Article 40.3 of the Constitution to a private life within the State, including to remain in the State and establish a life in the community.
Giving the appeal court’s judgment, Ms Justice Mary Finlay Geoghegan said children who are not Irish citizens do not have a constitutionally protected right to live in the State or to participate in community life within the State.
The judge rejected further arguments that, when considering whether to deport a child, the best interests of a child must be the Minister’s primary consideration.
While the applicants relied on the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child as to the proper interpretation of the relevant provisions of the Immigration Act 1999 concerning deportation, the Convention, although ratified by Ireland, has not been implemented by an Act of the Oireachtas and does not form part of Irish domestic law, she said.
The relevant provision of the 1999 Act, Article 3.6, cannot be construed as requiring the best interests of the child be a “primary consideration” in determining whether or not to make a deportation order, the judge ruled.
While the 1999 Act required the Minister to have regard to factors including a person’s age, family circumstances and connection with the State, and certain of those related to the welfare of a child, it was not permissible to construe Article 3.6 as requiring the Minister to consider the child’s best interests as “a primary consideration”.
Reasonable
The Minister’s decision that the deportation did not sufficiently interfere with the right to private life of the applicants to engage the operation of Article 8 of the European Convention on Human Rights, concerning the right to private and family life, was reasonable, she also ruled.
The judge added she did not consider that a recent Supreme Court judgment required the appeal court to reconsider certain issues in this case as the appeal court’s judgment was not inconsistent with the relevant Supreme Court decision.
In that decision, the Supreme Court, while upholding deportation orders made for a Nigerian mother and her eight-year-old Irish-born child, suggested the Minister show “humanity” in considering their position.Signup to receive a daily roundup of the top LGBT+ news stories from around the world
Clinicians need to do more in tackling health concerns for gay and bisexual women, the Lesbian and Gay Foundation has recommended in a new study.
The report, Beyond Babies and Breast Cancer, has been produced following a large-scale review of over 70 pieces of research from Britain and across the globe.
It found that lesbian and bisexual women are more likely to report negative experiences of healthcare than either gay and bisexual men or heterosexual women.
Both lesbian and bisexual women are more likely than heterosexual women to suffer ill health or long-standing health conditions. Bisexual women seem particularly at risk.
The report notes that rates of drinking, smoking and illicit drug use among lesbian and bisexual women are markedly higher than for heterosexual women.
Evidence suggests that lesbians are at a slightly increased risk of breast cancer due to lifestyle factors. Despite this, there is very little information and support aimed at lesbian and bisexual women with cancer.
A significant percentage of women who have sex with women (WSW) that attend GUM clinics receive a diagnosis and WSW who attend GUM clinics are more likely than women who have sex with men to be diagnosed with new or existing sexually transmitted infections (STIs) and with other conditions.
Almost all WSW engage in sexual practices which could result in the transmission of STIs yet most lesbian and bisexual women report that it is difficult to find relevant sexual health information.
The report also notes lesbian and bisexual women are more likely than heterosexual women to suffer mental ill-health, with prevalence particularly high amongst bisexual women.
The report makes five clear over-arching recommendations for healthcare professionals. They include communicating in a non-discriminatory way and making sure sexual orientation is included in monitoring data.
A specific requirement to include lesbian and bisexual women’s needs in mainstream health information services, targeting lesbian and bisexual women with specific health information and developing specialist health and support services is also suggested.RECORDINGS & EVENTS A special eight-page section for readers in the US and Canada talks to… Kimiko Ishizaka The German-Japanese pianist on her Well-Tempered Clavier recording
Prior to recording The Well-Tempered Clavier, Book 1 and, before that, the Goldbergs, you weren’t playing much… I had been a chamber musician with my two brothers in Germany. We had a good career but I felt I needed a new beginning. I wanted to do sports competitively so, when I was 25, I started powerlifting and then weightlifting. I trained a huge amount and came second at the German Nationals. I’m still proud of that. How did you come to start playing again? I kept practising the entire time, even though I didn’t have a lot of public performances, and a true miracle happened: I discovered a new piano technique. In my early 20s, I had very thin arms – I couldn’t get a beautiful sound out of the piano and I got very tired playing, say, two Chopin études in a row. As I got stronger, I found a way of using my shoulders, arms and back to produce the sound. These days, I only use my fingers for support. Around 400 fans contributed to your Goldbergs recording, which you gave away… I was 30 when I discovered Bach through the Goldberg Variations but, although I was playing better than I ever had, I was only playing in very small concerts. I decided that by sharing this music online, for free, people might start hiring me to play on stage again. Some 1000 fans contributed to your Well-Tempered Clavier recording… I’ve raised the bar with everything this time around, so we needed more funding. You can pay for it or not; on Bandcamp, for example, people can listen to it for free but actually it turns out that every fourth or fifth person likes it so much that they pay for it. How did you prepare for this recording? I spent nearly the whole first year approaching the pieces at my desk rather than at the piano. I linked everything back to the theme in the fugue, and then I learned how the fugues were related to the preludes – I believe they always are. The next step was finding a way of doing my articulations so that the link became apparent to the listener. You practise in the dark… I know I listen to myself better. Because of the way I shape the phrases with my arms and shoulders, I get a physical feeling for what I’m doing, and the dark is completely distractionfree for me. I do keep a flashlight next to the piano in case I forget something, though. You omit the sustaining pedal in your Bach… Regardless of how many ‘voices’ there are, each has to have its own articulation. I realised that as soon as I put my foot down, even for a second, I would disturb something that was happening in one of the other voices. So I found a way of playing legato without the pedal. Do you still lift weights? As long as I aim to play the piano at my present level, I will keep training. I have 265lb of weights in my living room, and that’s where I go when I’m done practising for the day.State Department Official Freaks Out That Declassifying CIA Torture Report Might Make The World Angry
from the it's-not-the-declassification... dept
The Senate Intelligence Committee today voted to send a one-sided, partisan report to the CIA and White House for declassification despite warnings from the State Department and our allies indicating that declassification of this report could endanger the lives of American diplomats and citizens overseas and jeopardize U.S. relations with other countries. Therefore, we could not support declassification of this product at this time.
A senior Senate aide told The Daily Beast that the Rubio-Risch statement referred to a June 2013 classified letter to senators signed by Philip Goldberg, who at the time served as the State Department’s top intelligence official. The warning was in reference to the fact that the report contains information about cooperation with foreign intelligence agencies and the existence of still-undisclosed CIA “black site” prisons in foreign countries where abuses may have occurred.
CIA facilities implicated in the report have allegedly been located in Thailand, Poland, Lithuania, and Romania, sparking public debate and resentment against the U.S. government in those countries. But officials and senate aides said the report contains information on several more locations.
Diplomats representing those countries, aware of their vulnerability to exposure, have been quietly meeting with administration officials and lawmakers urging them to protect the secrecy of those intelligence relationships. Many foreign governments are still angry about the disclosures of NSA spying by leaker Edward Snowden.
“I think the only way you excise the demons is you acknowledge, you acknowledge exactly what happened straightforward,” Biden said. “The single best thing that ever happened to Germany were the war crimes tribunals, because it forced Germany to come to its milk about what in fact has happened.”
While the Senate Intelligence Committee voted to declassify its $40 million, 6,300 page report detailing the CIA's torture regime -- including the facts that it went beyond what was authorized, produced no useful intelligence and then the CIA lied about it all -- three members of the Committee voted against it. Senators James Risch, Dan Coats (though, who knows if he had any idea what he was voting on ) and Marco Rubio all voted against declassifying, with Risch and Rubio putting out a statement claiming that the State Department didn't want the report declassified.This raised some eyebrows, since the Obama administration has consistently said it supported declassification, even as the CIA was fighting it. Still, it's rare that the State Department would actively contradict the White House. However, the Daily Beast now has more details on the State Department's desire to block the declassification To be fair, the article notes that the letter from Goldberg wascleared nor reviewed by State Department leadership. Thus, it may be seen less as "the State Department" making these comments, and more as the dude who has to deal with foreign spy agencies for the State Department. But, even so, the letter is ridiculous.There is a semi-legitimate point that the eventual disclosure of what countries helped the CIA torture people will certainly create some troubling diplomatic situations for those countries.. It's because (1) the CIA tortured people and (2) those other countries went along with it. Don't like that that will be disclosed? Then maybe they shouldn't have done it in the first place.The CIA's torture program was a dark moment in American history and we don't get past it by burying it -- and the story of those who helped -- under the rug. It needs to be out in the open. Even Vice President Joe Biden has said exactly that:To argue that the embarrassment of admitting that we partnered up with other countries in conducting illegal torture means we shouldn't reveal the details at all goes against everything that we'reto stand for, in being willing and able to admit our mistakes. It's shameful that anyone at the State Department -- with or without approval from leadership -- would send such a letter, giving cowardly Senators extra cover for not approving the declassification of the report.
Filed Under: cia, dan coats, embarrassment, james risch, marco rubio, philip goldberg, senate, state department, torture, torture reportPosted by KAY WOOD on Jul 4, 2012 in Politics, Religion, Society |
Powerful words for Independence Day
Yesterday I posted about the protests going on at Independence Mall. This is a follow up.
The young man I spoke with at the Veterans for Peace demonstration at Philadelphia’s Independence Mall wore a black bandanna and a baseball cap as he held a sign proclaiming “When Injustice Becomes Law, Resistance Becomes Duty.”
I think he believes it fervently. I was struck with how passionately he spoke. How much he seemed to care for our nation as he answered my questions.
One answer in particular I had to put up today – Independence Day. I asked if he had anything to say to help bring our people together – to start to heal the sharp bitter divisions dividing us today.
He said, “…I am neither liberal or conservative. I think that the partisan turbine that everything is spinning into lately has befuddled everybody’s vision and befuddled their ability to make decisions because they are so concerned about – you know – sticking to their party or sticking to their morals or sticking to their isms or their ists…
“…The best advice I can give to a conservative or a liberal is to put aside all party uh morality or all party – you know – rules and just think about what is truly best for everybody.
It’s no argument that conservatives love the country as much as the liberals do, but if they’re fighting, nothing is happening for the benefit of the country. And the only way this is going to get any better is to solidify and realize that a nation divided upon itself can never fix the wounds that are caused by that division itself…”
OK. Maybe there’s no great political insights here. No deep analysis. But this guy really, really cares about his country and people. He isn’t giving up the fight to make things better. He’s not jut doing a dance for the media.
There’s great hope in this, I think, that there are still citizens out there who aren’t jaundiced and cynical about America. And truly want us to be what our founders wanted us to be when they declared independence.BROOKLYN, MI - Ten days from now, Michigan International Speedway will transform into a grueling, muddy obstacle course.
Michigan's first-ever Spartan Race is slated for Sept. 9-10 at MIS. It's shaping up to be a good one, said Dan Soleau, Spartan Race director of race planning.
Nearly 6,400 people were registered for as of Tuesday, Aug. 29, Soleau said. Registration is available online or at MIS the day of the event.
Spartan Race courses vary depending on where the race is being run, Soleau said.
Generally, participants are tasked with overcoming obstacles like crawling under barbwire, sloshing through muddy water, carrying heavy objects, jumping through fire, climbing up and over walls and more.
Michigan's first Spartan Race brings competitive edge to obstacle course racing The Spartan Race is an individual-focused race that forces participants to crawl under barbwire, slosh through water, carry heavy objects, jump through fire and climb up walls and other obstacles.
MIS offers opportunities for a unique course, Soleau said.
Two different types of adult races are taking place at MIS - the eight-mile "super" and the five-mile "sprint."
Both races are on the "heavier side" when it comes to the number of obstacles on them, Soleau said. The "super" features 28 obstacles. The "sprint" features 23.
Ten of those obstacles are used in both races, Soleau said. These 10 obstacles are in the infield of the racetrack where the start and finish line is located, he said.
The course also utilizes other parts of the racetrack, including the tunnels and grandstands, Soleau said.
A special quarter-mile dash challenge is being done on the racetrack's backstretch, Soleau said. A condensed kids race is also available.
The Spartan Race replaces the Tough Mudder Mud Run, which was at MIS the past four years. This year's Tough Mudder in Michigan was moved to Oxford.
The goal of the Spartan Race is to encourage participants to adopt active lifestyles all year -- not just the day of the race, said Roger Mast, race director.
"The idea is if we can get you off the couch, we're doing our job," Mast said. "We think it's a quickly rewarding endeavor. If we can get you out here, we think we'll keep you coming."He is England's most experienced bowler in the current squad and the second-highest Test wicket-taker in his country's history.
But James Anderson endured a chastening Ashes series down under, taking just 14 wickets as his side were whitewashed 5-0 by Australia.
As part of BBC Radio 5 live's Not Just Cricket programme, the 31-year-old Lancastrian, who has taken 343 wickets in 92 Tests, deconstructed England's humiliating defeat.
Failing to turn the tide
Media playback is not supported on this device England's Ashes humiliation in numbers
The tourists fielded 18 players during the Ashes, a record for England in an away Test series.
Anderson said: "It did keep getting worse. The harder we tried to put things right, the worse things got.
"The team was quite disturbed with Jonathan Trott going home and Graeme Swann retiring, plus we played a different team in each Test. A lot of changes were made.
"The frustrating thing is the effort was there. It felt like the harder we tried, the better Australia got, while we were going in the opposite direction."
'Get ready for a broken arm'
During the first Test, Australia captain Michael Clarke was fined 20% of his match fee after sledging Anderson, who was batting at the time.
"I didn't actually hear it," Anderson said, "but I dish it out so I kind of expect it. There was no more sledging in that series than there has been in previous series I've played in. It's part of the game."
Trott leaves the tour
Jonathan Trott, England's stalwart at number three, left the tour after the first Test because of a long-standing stress-related condition.
Anderson said: "Trotty was a huge loss to us, because he's been such a big part of our success over the last few years. We've relied heavily on him for runs and he delivered, more often than not.
"It did hit us hard when he left, but when something like that happens it puts things into perspective. He's got issues that are bigger than the game and, more than anything, as his mates, we want to see him get the help he needs and get better. The cricket takes a back seat."
Saying so-long to Swann
In the middle of the series, spinner Graeme Swann announced his retirement. He took 255 wickets in 60 Test matches.
"He will be hard to replace," said Anderson. "A lot of the wickets I've taken over the last five or six years have been thanks to Swanny, bowling in tandem with him. Him doing his job at one end has made it a lot easier for guys at the other end. Good luck to anyone who has to try and fill his shoes. He's been brilliant."
England's erratic bowling
Australia's batsmen capitalised on some poor bowling to score 10 centuries to England's one during the series.
Media playback is not supported on this device Swann: I was awful in Australia
Anderson said: "We had plans. We knew the ball wouldn't swing for a huge amount of time. The key to bowling well in Australia is to bowl accurately and to be as patient as you possibly can. That was basically our plan, but we didn't execute it well enough. We bowled well in patches.
"The biggest problem for us was that we were all bowling again after having a 40 or 50-over break. We were still trying to recover from bowling in the first innings.
"Then their batsmen can come out and play freely because they've got a huge lead. There's no pressure on them and you're on a hiding to nothing, really."
Keeping faith with KP
Former England spinner Phil Tufnell was one of several pundits to criticise batsman Kevin Pietersen after the series.
Anderson responded: "KP is an unbelievably talented player. He's at his best when he takes the attack to the opposition.
"This time it didn't come off and it will frustrate some people - it sometimes frustrates us in the dressing room - but when he scores a 150 that wins us the game, then he's the best thing since sliced bread."
Keep calm, carry on with Cook
Media playback is not supported on this device Ashes 2013-14: Alastair Cook says England players have let fans down
Alastair Cook's form was a significant factor in England's struggles, and he was accused of being too conservative as a captain.
"His captaincy's taken a lot of stick, but the players weren't performing," said Anderson. "It's not his fault we lost 5-0.
"What you need as captain, particularly in a big series like that, is for your senior players to stand up and help you out with performances. None of the senior players, none of the players, did that. So it puts the captain in a difficult position when the guys you rely on for wickets and runs are not producing.
"What will be good for him now is getting away, going to his farm. His wife's due to give birth in the next couple of months. Closer to the summer, he can then analyse his batting and his captaincy."
Singing Stokes's praises
The performances of Durham all-rounder Ben Stokes were a rare bright spot for England. He took 15 wickets in the series, one more than Anderson, and scored 279 runs.
Media playback is not supported on this device Lewis 'unsurprised' by Stokes success
Anderson said: "Stokes is an unbelievably talented player. It was not just his talent that was on show in Australia, but also his mental strength and toughness. Getting a century like he did in his second Test at Perth, facing some very hostile bowling... it shows a lot about someone's character.
"He's going to go on to be a huge player for us, with his bowling as well. He's got all the natural skill."
Flowering under Flower again
Despite the defeat, team director Andy Flower wants to stay in charge.
"When Andy took over the team in 2009, we were in a bit of a mess," said Anderson. "In one of his first games, we got bowled out for 51 in Jamaica. He's done an unbelievable job and got us to number one in the world. There's no better person to try and get us out of this trough. It's going to be a big effort from everyone, led by Cookie and Flower.
"It's almost a fresh sheet of paper. We've got an Ashes in 2015, 18 months away. Now's as good a time as any to try and get a solid group of people together to perform in that series."
And Anderson's future...
He says he would love to be a part of the rebuilding process.
"It's my job to look at my performance in the winter," he said. "I know it wasn't good enough. I have to go away and figure out why that was and how I'm going to improve over the next few months.
"The exciting thing is that I can go back to Lancashire - a whole pre-season to look forward to - and just try to take as many wickets as I can."
Listen again to BBC Radio 5 live's Not Just Cricket programme.Brewpubs and microbreweries have a reason to raise their glasses today.
Bipartisan legislation sponsored by Senator Donald Norcross, of Camden, to modernize the state's craft beer industry laws and help grow jobs was signed by Governor Chris Christie.
“For too long our craft brewers have been forced to operate under an antiquated system that hampered their ability to compete with businesses in the region,” said Sen. Norcross. “With this law, we will create a more friendly business environment for New Jersey’s craft brewing industry, giving it the opportunity to expand and thrive. Growing the industry will create new local jobs, increase tourism and help contribute to an overall healthier state economy.”
New Jersey’s craft brewing industry has grown considerably in the last 20 years, but state laws had not been revised to accommodate the business demand, legislators said.
The law (S-641/A-1277) modifies areas of state statute that govern the state’s small breweries. It affects microbreweries (limited license breweries) which produce small batches of beer for sale to retailers and distributors in and out of the state. It also affects brewpubs (restricted license breweries) which brew small batches of beer for sale at adjoining restaurants.
Quite unlike the mega-brewery names on most tap handles throughout the state, craft breweries are defined by their size, brewing no more than 6 million barrels a year. They’re also known for being independent and unique.
Flying Fish in Cherry Hill is one of them. Owner Gene Muller describes the company as “the largest little guy in the state,” at 14,000 barrels a year. By comparison, Budweiser brews more than 100 million barrels a year, producing 12 to 13 million at its Newark site alone.
But the craft brewer’s competition isn’t those big-named breweries. It’s the other craftbrewers throughout the region. Just across state lines, Flying Fish is going pint to pint with breweries such as Yards in Philadelphia and Dogfish Head in Delaware.
When out of state visitors hop off the New Jersey Turnpike and make a detour to visit the brewery in Cherry Hill, Muller said they can only let them leave with two growlers, or the equivalent of two six packs. They’d rather have a case or two to go, Muller said.
The new law changes that.
Muller said he and other brewers had working to get this legislation introduced for the past year and a half.
“The goal was to have a level playing field with the surrounding states,” Muller previously told the Gloucester County Times. “We’re trying to compete with these other states, and its basically like having one hand tied behind our backs.
The law:
Permits brew pubs, to increase their annual production to 10,000 barrels a year, up from 3,000.
Allows brew pubs to distribute their product to liquor stores and restaurants through the wholesale distribution system. Previously, brewpubs could only sell their product in the restaurant immediately adjoining the brewery.
Increases the current cap on the number of brewpubs a company may open in New Jersey, by raising the limit on plenary retail consumption licenses for brewpubs from two to 10.
Permits brewpubs to offer samples of their product on site as well as off site with a permit from the Alcohol Beverage Control director, at places such as fairs or charity events.
Permits microbreweries to sell beer brewed at the licensed location for consumption on premises as part of a brewery tour. Also allows microbreweries to sell a limited amount of beer for off-site consumption.
Allows microbreweries to offer samples of their product both on and off the premises, as currently permitted by the state’s wineries.
The measure passed both houses in June. The law takes effect immediately.At noon today, Donald Trump became the 45th President of the United States. At the same time, the official website of the current president — whitehouse.gov — was turned over to the Trump administration.
Immediately, people noticed that key items — which were already seen as at-risk with the incoming Republican administration — were nowhere to be found on Trump's site. While we should be wary of reading too much into the changes — a website isn't policy, after all — it's instructive to see what's missing. Here are some of the big omissions:
Climate Change
First on the chopping block — references to climate change. Here's what the section looked like under Obama:
That link now redirects to a dead page:
The only passing mention to climate change comes in Trump's new section "An America First Energy Plan," which announces the coming repeal of Obama's Climate Action Plan:
For too long, we’ve been held back by burdensome regulations on our energy industry. President Trump is committed to eliminating harmful and unnecessary policies such as the Climate Action Plan and the Waters of the U.S. rule. Lifting these restrictions will greatly help American workers, increasing wages by more than $30 billion over the next 7 years.
The Affordable Care Act/Healthcare
The web page for the ACA has been similarly memory-holed. Here's what it used to look like:
This is what you get now:
There does not appear to be a healthcare section on Trump's site (although he has touted a replacement plan that guarantees "insurance for everybody"). Searches for "Affordable Care Act" and "healthcare" return no relevant results.
L GBT Rights
A report (archived here) from the Department of Labor entitled "Advancing LGBT Workplace Rights" promptly disappeared from the Department's site after noon:
It’s only been 25 min and the Dept. of Labor’s report on Advancing LGBT Workplace Rights has been taken down. https://t.co/KzBp8VZweD pic.twitter.com/UhnWqWZvPC — Jay Franzone (@JayFranzone) January 20, 2017
It appears other articles tagged as LGBT have also been removed:
@JayFranzone LGBT tagged articles purged. 10 results from 2015 on page 1, not sure how many were there in total. pic.twitter.com/BeZ8YFBa3s — Sean Redlitz (@TheRedlitz) January 20, 2017
Per New York Mag, the LGBT section on WhiteHouse.gov has also been deleted, along with the civil rights section.
We'll update this as more changes come to light. In particular, experts are preparing for scientific data — particular in relation to the climate — to potentially be deleted from the pages of governmental science agencies.
Follow all our inauguration coverage here, and see what the internet is saying about the inauguration here.Please turn on JavaScript. Media requires JavaScript to play. Advertisement
An ancient Roman ruin has been discovered by builders working on the £25.6m redevelopment of the Marlowe Theatre in Canterbury.
The townhouse, thought to date from between the late second and early third Centuries, is believed to have belonged to a wealthy citizen.
Archaeologists found the remains of the building's under-floor heating, leather shoes, seeds and a plate.
Experts will examine the remains before the redevelopment work resumes.
'High quality'
Archaeologist James Holman said: "It's quite unexpected.
"It's very unusual to find buildings of this type in this area of Canterbury, this side of the River Stour.
"It is a very high quality building, it would have had heated floors."
But he added: "A lot of it has been disturbed by earlier buildings, when they built this theatre in the 30s and when it was redeveloped in the 80s.
"A lot of the archaeology has been removed so there isn't enough of it left to preserve it in situ."
In March the owners of the Marlowe Theatre were given permission to build a 1,200-seat auditorium and a second 150-seat performance space on the current site.
The £25.6m redevelopment of the venue has been backed by host of stars from stage, screen and television.
In June Sonia Copeland-Bloom, the mother of actor Orlando Bloom, announced she was selling some of his possessions to raise money for the scheme.
Bloom appeared at the Marlowe Theatre early in his acting career and is now one of its patrons.President Donald Trump speaks as he meets with county sheriffs during a listening session in the White House on Tuesday in Washington. Andrew Harrer - Pool/Getty Images
Scientists are terrified of Donald Trump. The president and his staff, who at times seem ignorant of basic scientific facts, have already made a series of attempts to undermine scientific work. Researchers at several agencies have been censored, silenced, and otherwise intimidated; public documents on climate change have been targeted for deletion; fringe ideas in public |
up a half volley, ended up being hit on his right eye on the rebound. After a see-saw battle the Indo-Canadian pair emerged champions.The UK government has been giving secret support at the very highest levels to Canada's campaign against European penalties on its highly polluting tar sands fuel, the Guardian can reveal.
At the same time, the UK government was being lobbied by Shell and BP, which both have major tar sands projects in Alberta, and opened a new consulate in the province to "support British commercial interests".
At least 15 high-level meetings and frequent communications have taken place since September, with David Cameron discussing the issue with his counterpart Stephen Harper during his visit to Canada, and stating privately that the UK wanted "to work with Canada on finding a way forward", according to documents released under freedom of information laws.
Charles Hendry, the energy minister, later told the Canadian high commissioner: "We would value continued discussion with you on how we can progress discussions in Brussels," with Hendry's official asking the Canadians if they had "any suggestions as to what we might do, given the politics in Brussels".
Canada's vast tar sands – also known as oil sands – are the second largest reserve of carbon in the world after Saudi Arabia, although the energy needed to extract oil from the ground means the process results in far more greenhouse gas emissions than conventional oil drilling, as well as causing the destruction of forests and air and water pollution.
Nasa scientist James Hansen says if the oil sands were exploited as projected it would be "game over for the climate".
The European proposal is to designate transport fuel from tar sands as resulting in 22% more greenhouse gas emissions than that from conventional fuels. This would make suppliers, who have to reduce the emissions from their fuels by 10% by 2020, very reluctant to include it in their fuel mix. It would also set an unwelcome precedent for Canada by officially labelling fuel from tar sands as dirtier.
The UK and Canada's shared opposition to the European plan puts the UK in a minority among EU countries and will be deeply embarrassing as a new round of global negotiations on tackling climate change begins in Durban, South Africa on Monday. Chris Huhne, the energy and climate change secretary, claimed on Thursday that the UK was showing "leadership" in the UN negotiations, while Canada's prime minister has blocked climate laws. The revelations are also the latest blow to Cameron's claim to be the "greenest government ever".
The vote to approve the European fuel quality regulations takes place on Friday. In advance of that, William Hague, the foreign secretary, has also given support to Canada, sending an "immediate action" cable in September to the UK's embassies there asking "to communicate our position and seek Canadian views on what might be acceptable".
However, the Department for Transport, in which the Liberal Democrat minister Norman Baker has responsibility for tar sands issues, has released only two presentations made to it by Shell, both heavily redacted. The DfT rejected requests to release at least six other relevant documents on the grounds of commercial confidentiality and adverse effect on international relations, as did the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills (BIS), where Shell also met ministers.
BP has lobbied ministers, too. Its vice president in Europe, Peter Mather, has been, in his own words, "bending the ear" of Baker. Mather also sent a letter in which he wrote: "The regulatory burden would be considerable at a time when the industry is already creaking under the weight of a heavy regulatory regime."
John Sauven, executive director of Greenpeace UK, said: "The scale of oil industry lobbying exposed in these documents is quite extraordinary. It's especially worrying that Baker held a secret meeting with Shell about this key European vote on tar sands. But worse still, he's now covering up what was discussed."
Colin Baines, toxic fuels campaign manager at the Co-operative, the UK mutual business group which targets tar sands as part of its climate change campaigning, said: "It is very disappointing that the UK government is supporting Canada's efforts and we hope it has a rethink and puts tackling climate change ahead of Canada's trade interests when it comes to vote on the European commission's commonsense proposal."
The documents were obtained by the Co-operative under environmental information regulations, a type of freedom of information law. They include letters to and from ministers, diplomatic correspondence and notes of meetings.
Baker said: "The government is staying true to its aspiration to be the greenest ever by seeking to secure the best deal it can for the environment from the discussions ongoing in the EU about the fuel quality directive.
"We believe that means tackling all highly polluting crudes equally, not simply oil sands from one particular country. These certainly represent a problem, but so do other crudes, and it makes no environmental sense to ignore these.
"This is not about protecting one particular country – we want to deal with all crudes, not just one type, and in a way that is based on robust and objective data, related to their carbon emissions."
Like Baker, Canada also argues in the newly revealed documents that it is unfair to single out one nation and that other types of oil can be as dirty as tar sands.
But Baines says these arguments are "myths", as the European proposal does not name any nation and on average fuel from tar sands is a greater source of carbon by a clear margin, according to a Stanford University study for the European commission.
Furthermore, the European commission proposal allows for changes in the emissions designated for fuel types.
Canadian ministers and diplomats state they support an "overarching ambition" to reduce carbon emissions. But Canada has admitted it will fail to meet its Kyoto protocol target of a 6% cut compared with 1990 levels: in 2009 its emissions were 34% higher.
In September, Lord Sassoon, the UK Treasury minister for commerce, spent two days in Calgary, a few hundred miles from the vast oil sand pits excavated by 1,500-tonne diggers. The International Energy Agency expects production to treble in the next 20 years. Sassoon met politicians and oil executives to discuss boosting trade with the UK and told reporters that Alberta is "one of the main focuses of British business". Alberta's energy minister, Ron Liepert, told Sassoon privately he "was grateful for UK efforts" on the tar sands issue in Europe.
The new British consulate-general in Calgary was announced by Hague on 18 October, the same day as Canadian energy minister Joe Oliver said: "[The British] have been very, very helpful and we're pleased about that. Many European companies are heavily invested in the oil sands and they also would be concerned." The new documents and diplomatic sources suggest the Netherlands, Spain and Poland are among those backing the British-Canadian position.
In London, a senior Canadian diplomat, Sushma Gera, told BIS: "Canada will not hesitate to defend her interests," perhaps via a World Trade Organisation dispute, a possibility also raised by Shell in its presentation to DfT.
Bill McKibben, a leading US environmentalist, who was arrested in August protesting against a major oil sands pipeline called Keystone XL said: "The UK seems to have emerged as Canada's partner in crime, leaning on Brussels to let this crud across the borders. This will be among the biggest single environmental decisions the Cameron government makes."
Greenpeace's Sauven, along with the head of Friends of the Earth, Andy Atkins, and David Nussbaum, leader of WWF-UK, have written to Nick Clegg, deputy prime minister and Lib Dem leader.
The letter says: "We ask you to intervene personally on this, to ensure that your party's green ambitions are more effectively upheld across Whitehall."
• This article was amended on 28 November 2011. The original incorrectly referred to Calgary as the capital of Alberta.Image zoom Courtesy Channing Tatum
Channing Tatum is paying his respects to the family of an Army Green Beret who was killed by an enemy attack in Kabul, Afghanistan, on Saturday.
The Magic Mike XXL star took to Instagram on Monday to mourn the death of First Sergeant Peter Andrew McKenna, 35, who he met while on a USO tour in February.
“I’d like to offer my deepest condolences to the family of First Sergeant Peter Andrew McKenna, a brave soldier we had the honor of meeting in Afghanistan. He tragically lost his life in an attack on one of the bases we visited on @theuso tour back in February,” he posted. “Let’s always remember to thank the men and women who serve this county and so often sacrifice their own lives for ours.”
Tatum and McKenna posed for pictures together when the actor, along with his Magic Mike XXL costar Adam Rodriguez and actor Nick Zano, visited the NATO facility in Kabul as part of their USO tour earlier this year.
Sgt. McKenna, a 17-year Army veteran from Bristol, Rhode Island, was just one of the more than 1,500 troops the stars spent time with while visiting seven army bases and the U.S. Embassy in Afghanistan.
The 7th Special Forces Group, to which McKenna was assigned, reported on Sunday that the Green Beret died Friday in Kabul during an attack on the NATO facility, after being struck by enemy small arms fire, according to the Pentagon.
McKenna had also served in Iraq and been awarded the Bronze Star with V device for heroism in combat operations, as well as the Meritorious Service Medal and the Army Commendation Medal.UN, Myanmar leader hail draft peace deal
Myanmar's president Tuesday hailed a draft national ceasefire with armed rebel groups, described by the UN as a "historic and significant achievement" as the country tries to end decades of civil war.
Reformist leader Thein Sein, who has placed a ceasefire agreement at the heart of efforts to shake off the legacy of military rule, said an end to the fighting was within reach -- even though unrest continues in northern border areas.
"The people need peace, they desire peace and they expect peace," he told representatives of 16 major ethnic minority armed groups at a signing ceremony for the draft in Yangon on Tuesday, adding that a full agreement could be inked in months.
Myanmar President Thein Sein (C) looks on as Aung Min (L), of the Union Peace Working Comittee (UPWC), shakes hands with Naing Han Tha (R), of the Nationwide Ceasefire Coordinating Team (NCCT), in a ceasefire draft agreement in Yangon, March 31, 2015
"After that is signed, the road is open for political dialogue. This action will ensure the peace builders a place in Myanmar's history," he said at the gathering.
His surprise appearance came after a breakthrough in talks was announced on Monday, with representatives from the rebels, army and government agreeing a tentative deal that sets out a framework for a countrywide ceasefire.
But the full agreement can only be officially signed after further consultation and a conference of the ethnic armed groups, for which no date has so far been set.
Negotiators said some of the more contentious points had been excised from the agreement, in a move likely to have enabled the draft to be accepted.
No copies of the draft agreement were immediately made available.
- 'Historic step' -
The UN, which has acted as an observer to months of peace negotiations, said the tentative deal was a "milestone" for the former junta-run nation, which has grappled with some of the world's longest-running civil wars.
"For the government of Myanmar and 16 Ethnic Armed Groups to reach a ceasefire agreement after more than sixty years of conflict is a historic and significant achievement," it said in a statement on behalf of UN Special Adviser Vijay Nambiar.
But the statement added that there remain "many concerns and difficulties" on the ground.
The US Embassy in Yangon said in a statement that a full "nationwide ceasefire agreement would mark a potentially historic step towards achieving peace and national reconciliation".
- Decades of bloodshed -
Myanmar has been racked by unrest since independence from Britain in 1948 as insurgencies flared among minority groups demanding greater autonomy. Conflicts were fuelled in part by tussles over the country's rich natural resources.
Thein Sein's quasi-civilian government, which took power in 2011 after 49 years of army rule, has pushed for a ceasefire with the country's multiple armed groups before campaigning begins for a crucial general election expected in November.
But heavy fighting has continued in Myanmar's northern Kachin and Shan states, overshadowing the peace efforts.
"Fighting happens for many reasons. Both sides need to work together on this," Deputy Army Chief Myint Soe said Tuesday.
But ethnic group negotiators warned that without an agreement on military conduct for both the army and rebel groups, the deal could be short-lived.
"If fighting continues in some areas, the national ceasefire agreement will be meaningless," said Naing Han Tha.
Lengthy negotiations have also stumbled on a range of thorny issues, including lingering distrust of the still powerful army and tussles over the concept of a federal military.
Renewed unrest in the Kokang region of Shan state erupted in February and shook relations with Beijing as tens of thousands fled across the border into China to escape heavy fighting.
Myanmar has reached individual ceasefires with 14 of the 16 major armed ethnic groups.
Deals have so far proved elusive with the Ta'ang National Liberation Army in Shan state, which is fighting alongside the Kokang rebels, as well as the Kachin Independence Army.
The Kokang rebels, who spilt back into Myanmar in February after being driven out by the army in 2009, are not directly involved in the peace talks.
But the ethnic armed group negotiators are pushing for the fighting to be part of future dialogue.
Myanmar soldiers patrol in Laukkai, the main city in the Kokang region of northern Myanmar Shan state, on February 16, 2015
Myanmar's President Thein Sein says "the road is open for political dialogue" ©Mandel Ngan (AFP/File)3rd episode of the second season of Star Trek: The Next Generation
"Elementary, Dear Data" is the third episode of the second season of the American science fiction television series Star Trek: The Next Generation, the 29th episode overall. It was written by Brian Alan Lane and directed by Rob Bowman. It was originally released on December 5, 1988, in broadcast syndication.
Set in the 24th century, the series follows the adventures of the crew of the Federation starship Enterprise. In this episode, a holographic adversary is created on the holodeck of the Enterprise (1701D) when Data and Geordi take some time off to play a Sherlock Holmes game. The plot line from this episode was continued in the sixth season episode "Ship in a Bottle".
In 1989, "Elementary, Dear Data" was Nominated for two Emmy Awards: Outstanding Art Direction for a Series, Richard D. James, Art Director; Jim Mees, Set Decorator and Outstanding Costume Design for a Series, Durinda Wood, Costume Designer; William Ware Theiss, Starfleet Uniforms Creator.[1]
Plot [ edit ]
As the Federation starship Enterprise, under the command of Captain Jean-Luc Picard, waits to rendezvous with the USS Victory, Chief Engineer La Forge and Commander Data go to the Holodeck to recreate a Sherlock Holmes mystery. Data, playing Holmes, has memorized all of the Holmes stories, and recognizes and solves the mystery within minutes. Frustrated, Geordi leaves the holodeck, leaving Data confused. In Ten Forward, Geordi explains that the fun is in solving the unknown; Data does not understand. Overhearing their conversation, Chief Medical Officer Dr. Pulaski asserts that Data is incapable of solving a mystery to which he does not already know the outcome. Data accepts Dr. Pulaski's challenge and invites her to join them on the Holodeck. There, Geordi instructs the computer to create a unique Sherlock Holmes mystery with an adversary who is capable of defeating Data.
In the new program, Dr. Pulaski is kidnapped, and Data investigates. They soon discover that Professor Moriarty is responsible, but when they find him with Pulaski in his hideout, they are shocked when they learn that Moriarty is aware of the Holodeck program being a simulation, and is able to access the Holodeck computer, showing them a sketch of the Enterprise he has drawn based on the computer's description. Data and Geordi leave the Holodeck to alert the Captain, and Geordi realizes that when he asked the computer to create the program he had asked for an adversary who could defeat Data, not Sherlock Holmes; as a result, the computer gave the Holodeck character Professor Moriarty the intelligence and cunning needed to challenge Data, plus the ability to access the ship's computer. When Moriarty gains access to ship stabilizer controls, Data returns to the Holodeck with Captain Picard.
Picard meets Moriarty, who demonstrates that he has evolved beyond his original programming and asks to continue to exist in the real world. Picard tells Moriarty that this would not be possible; instead, he saves the program and tells Moriarty that if they ever discover a way to convert Holodeck matter into a permanent form they will bring him back. Picard discontinues the program and the USS Victory arrives.
LeVar Burton, Diana Muldaur, and Brent Spiner on set
Production [ edit ]
"Elementary, Dear Data" was written by Brian Alan Lane and directed by Rob Bowman.[2]
Story and script [ edit ]
According to Co-executive producer Maurice Hurley, the idea for this episode was inspired by Data's experiences in "The Big Goodbye". Hurley stated, "It wasn't a writer saying, 'Let's do this.' It was one of the people living on the Enterprise."
This episode contains elements from and references to the Sherlock Holmes short stories A Scandal in Bohemia, The Red-Headed League, The Adventure of the Speckled Band, and The Adventure of the Bruce-Partington Plans, as well as the Holmes novel The Valley of Fear. Furthermore, Moriarty's creation being a result of Geordi La Forge requesting an opponent capable of defeating Data references Arthur Conan Doyle's creation of the same character for the short story The Final Problem – specifically, as an opponent capable of defeating Sherlock Holmes who, at the time, Doyle wanted to kill off.
Reportedly, the original ending had Jean-Luc Picard lying to Moriarty, that he could have existed outside the holodeck, the same way the piece of paper on which he drew the Enterprise also stayed intact outside the holodeck. Co-executive producer Maurice Hurley wanted to keep that ending, as it made Picard look clever, but Gene Roddenberry nixed it, saying it made Picard look cruel. Instead, the paper stays intact without any explanation.[3]
Casting [ edit ]
Daniel Davis as James Moriarty. Daniel Davis used an English accent for this role in both episodes; however, he is from Arkansas and speaks with an American accent when not in character. Davis was auditioning for the role of Moriarty alongside another actor in the room Brian Bedford directly in front of director Rob Bowman. Davis said of being in the room with Brian Bedford, "So he’s the standout in my mind, and we were sort of taking bets with each other about which of us would get it. We hadn’t worked together or seen each other in a long time. So it was a very friendly rivalry. Then, when I got it, he was a very good sport and invited me to come to dinner to celebrate that I had gotten the part." [4]
Anne Elizabeth Ramsay as Ensign Clancy. Making her first Star Trek: The Next Generation appearance as Ensign Clancy. The actress reprised the role in “The Emissary,” also in season two. Ramsay went on to a busy career as an actress. She co-starred as Lisa Stemple, the dysfunctional sister of Helen Hunt’s character, in 123 episodes of Mad About You, for which she shared a Screen Actors Guild Award nomination. Ramsay also played a recurring role on Six Feet Under and Dexter.[1]
Reception [ edit ]
In 1989 the episode was nominated for two Emmy awards.[1]
In 2016 The Hollywood Reporter rated "Elementary, Dear Data" the 10th best episode of Star Trek: The Next Generation.[5] They also ranked it as the 26th best of all Star Trek episodes up to 2016.[6] A Den of Geek review gave it a 100% watch rating and remarked it was 'fantastic episode'.[7] In particular they praised concepts explored about computers and artificial intelligence as well as the Data and Geordi character sequences.[8]
The episode's title "Elementary, Dear Data" was noted in Sherlock Holmes and Philosophy: The Footprints of a Gigantic Mind as a play on the Sherlock Holmes phrase "Elementary, my dear Watson".[9]Illustration by Lisa Larson-Walker
Reading the news on your phone should be a glorious experience. You have all the stories in the world to choose from, right there in your pocket. All you need is a good way to figure out which of them are most worth your time.
Good luck with that.
Many have tried over the years to build the ideal news-reading app—one that magically brings together all the stories you’d choose yourself if you had infinite time to browse the Web every day. Some have turned to algorithms, others to human editors. There have been admirable efforts like Flipboard and Prismatic. And there have been less inspiring ones, like Apple’s charmingly anachronistic Newsstand app (R.I.P.). The ones that have come the closest to succeeding are those that set out to do something else entirely. Facebook and Twitter began as ways to keep in touch with friends. Yet they’ve become the de facto newsstands of the mobile age, with Facebook in particular dominating the flow of traffic to news sites across the Web.
Addictive as they are, Facebook and Twitter weren’t built for this role, and it shows: Spend a while perusing your feed, and you’re more likely to come away amused, disgusted, outraged, or annoyed than enlightened or informed. It would seem, then, that the field remains remarkably open, after all these years, for someone to come along and build the clutter-free Netflix-of-news that we’ve all been waiting for. In the process, maybe it could rescue serious, original journalism from the hellish click-chase that social media has wrought upon the media.
If anyone can do it, perhaps Apple can.
Its Apple News app, launched Wednesday with the release of its new mobile operating system, is the latest and perhaps best-funded attempt to deliver readers a selection of stories from around the mediasphere that’s tailored to their specific interests and reading habits. (Disclosure: Slate is one of about 50 publications that signed on with Apple to place their content on Apple News prior to its launch. Many more are lined up to join them in the months to come.)
Like Apple Music before it, Apple News enjoys a distinct advantage over third-party competitors by virtue of coming preinstalled on every iPhone and iPad running iOS 9. Also like Apple Music before it, the app immediately impresses with its appealing interface—and gradually disappoints with its as-yet-unrealized potential.
Open the app, and you’ll be prompted to select some publications and topics you’re interested in. Oblige, and Apple will reward you by populating the default “For You” tab in the app with a cleanly arranged stream of recent stories culled from the outlets you’ve specified.
There are four other tabs—“Favorites,” “Explore,” “Search,” and “Saved”—but “For You” is the default, and its tailored recommendations form the core of the app’s offerings. So if Apple News is to succeed where everyone else has failed, those recommendations had better be good.
They’re not. Not at first, anyway.
Screenshot via Apple
My first batch of personalized picks began promisingly enough, with an attractively illustrated essay by New York’s Jonathan Chait on how the world is finally getting serious about climate change. Presented in a larger format than the other stories in my stream, it appears to have been Apple News’ version of a cover story.
That’s a good idea, if so. An enlarged lead story provides the instant focal point that is a staple of Web and print design but largely absent from social media feeds. But I’ve yet to see another story presented in this format on Apple News, which suggests that this feature may be at least partly a product of human rather than automated curation. Apple has said that both factor into its recommendations, but declined to specify their respective roles.
What came after that lead story was less impressive. Next in my feed was an ESPN news brief about an Atlanta Falcons player getting fined $23,000. For what, I couldn’t say, as the story description cut off and I didn’t take the time to click. I like sports and had selected ESPN among the publishers I’m interested in, but I have no particular interest in the Falcons. Even if I did, this story didn’t feel like the sort of big news or juicy tidbit that a good ranking algorithm would put second in anyone’s feed. Also ranking highly in my Apple News feed, but quite low on my personal priority list, were:
a Vox review of a new NBC show I’d never heard of
a Slate post on the Kardashians and #thighbrow
post on the Kardashians and #thighbrow an Economist infographic on emerging-market vulnerabilities, which didn’t render properly in the app
All of these stories came from publications I’d selected in the Apple News onboarding process. Yet I can’t imagine any of them appearing in my Facebook feed, even though I’ve also followed those outlets on Facebook. It isn’t just that the subject matter doesn’t align with my interests. It’s that they aren’t stories that made a big splash, either on social media or their own publications’ home pages. Yet here they were, among Apple News’ very top recommendations for me. How Apple chose them, I have very little idea. The mechanisms that drive its algorithm are opaque.
It would be a mistake, of course, to write off Apple News based on these first impressions. As I’ve explained in the past, recommendation algorithms rarely work well when you first use them. Rather, they’re designed to throw a bunch of stuff at you and see what sticks. In Apple News’ case, that means looking at which stories you actually read, and which of those you bookmark or mark as a favorite. They then use that feedback, from both you and their broader user base, to continually refine their picks.
Indeed, Apple News’ suggestions have already begun to improve a bit in the 36-plus hours I’ve been using the app. It quickly noticed that I’m likely to read stories about self-driving cars and fed me a bunch more of those. It also noticed that I read a lot from Slate (surprise!) and began bombarding me with the work of my colleagues. It has not yet figured out, however, which sorts of Slate stories I’m mostly likely to be interested in. At this point I’d fare far better simply by opening the Slate app or website, where the top stories have been hand-picked by our sentient human editors. But I wouldn’t be shocked if Apple’s algorithms surpass them soon (sorry, editors!).
Most encouragingly, a few of Apple News’ early picks turned out to be fascinating stories that I would have been unlikely to encounter in my daily rounds of Facebook, Twitter, Techmeme, Reddit, Hacker News, and the New York Times. An NPR feature on the outlook of ordinary residents in the Chinese city of Luliang, a “boomtown gone bust,” taught me about a place and a topic that I wouldn’t have sought out on my own. It also offered a brand of unsensational, on-the-ground reporting and nuanced analysis that is sorely underrepresented on Facebook, Reddit, and the like.
In contrast, I would very likely have seen on Twitter or Prismatic at least one story about an impending collision between supermassive black holes in a distant galaxy. Yet odds are the one I stumbled across would not have been half as thoroughly reported or deftly explained as Dennis Overbye’s stellar New York Times article, which carried the modest headline, “More Evidence for Coming Black Hole Collision.” That’s because, on social media, clickable headlines often trump substantive journalism. (Sometimes, of course, they can go hand in hand, but the New York Times and other old-media stalwarts have yet to master that art.)
By giving weight to a story’s source, as opposed to its “shareability,” Apple News has an opportunity to serve as a sort of corrective to the viral news machine that has lately threatened to reduce online journalism to a manipulative headline-writing contest. It is not alone in this endeavor: Snapchat’s Discover tab and Facebook’s ballyhooed Instant Articles are taking a similar tack, working directly with prestigious publishers to showcase some of their best work in a format that looks pretty and loads instantly within mobile apps that are already widely used. Unlike Facebook’s News Feed algorithms, that’s not a process that can be easily gamed.
These projects, which fall under the jargon-y umbrella of “distributed content,” have provoked handwringing within the media as to the wisdom of publishers allowing tech and social media companies to host their content (and, in most cases, take a cut of their ad revenues). I’ve been among the handwringers, although I’m now more optimistic than most. But at a time when the rise of ad-blockers threatens to puncture online publishers’ business models, distributed content is beginning to look like a lesser evil.
But it isn’t enough for publishers to like Apple News, Snapchat Discover, and Facebook Instant Articles. Readers have to find them compelling too. And the early returns have been mixed. BuzzFeed, for one, is finding Snapchat Discover to be a boon, with more than 20 percent of all its traffic now taking place within the Snapchat app. But after the initial hype, Facebook’s Instant Articles have gone quiet, for reasons that the company has not yet made clear.
In order for Apple News to succeed, it will need to be much more than a fancified RSS feed of stories from each user’s favorite sites. For all its flaws as a news-reading utility, there is a reason people keep opening Facebook’s app every day on their phones and tablets. The social network has devoted enormous effort over the years to figuring out exactly which types of data its algorithm needs, and what weights it ought to assign them, in order to show people the posts they’re most interested in. And that has turned out, in many cases, to be quite different from the sort of content they think they’re interested in.
Apple News holds immediate appeal for newshounds because it promises to restore some human control and judgment to the curation process. In another contrast to Facebook, Apple promises that its app will respect users’ privacy by refining its recommendations based only on their behavior within Apple News, rather than tracking their habits and preferences willy-nilly.
That protective silo is a strong selling point—in theory. But it could also be Apple News’ biggest drawback.
As much as we clamor for a calmer, sleeker news reading experience, it’s not clear that’s what most people really want. That is, they may actually prefer to get their news sprinkled across a social feed, so that it comes packaged with entertainment, interaction, and a soupcon of persona drama. It’s easy to forget that print newspapers, stodgy as their reputation has become, were pioneers in this regard, nestling their investigative journalism alongside gossip columns and funny pages. If Apple news fails to reshape the industry, as similar apps have failed before it, it might not be a failure of execution. It might be that the concept of the ideal news app is fundamentally flawed.
These questions aren’t even worth pondering, of course, if Apple’s product doesn’t quickly get better at learning what people actually want, as opposed to what they say they want. Apple might soon find that there’s a good reason Facebook pays so much attention to clicks, likes, and shares, and why it has gotten so greedy when it comes to data on users’ behavior. It may be that you simply can’t build a compelling recommendation algorithm without it.An Indian Muslim teenager involved in a relationship with an Arab man was kidnapped, raped and murdered in a suspected "honour killing" in London, a court has heard.
The body of Celine Dookhran, 19, was found stuffed in a fridge with her throat slit after a second woman who was also attacked raised the alarm from her hospital bed.
The two women were said to have been bound, gagged and kidnapped by masked men on Wednesday. They were taken to a house in Kingston-upon-Thames, south-west London, where they were both raped and Ms Dookhran was killed.
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Mujahid Arshid, 33, of no fixed address, appeared before Wimbledon Magistrates' Court on Monday charged with the murder, attempted murder, and two counts of rape and kidnap.
He appeared alongside Vincent Tappu, 28, of Acton, west London, who stands charged with kidnapping both women.
Prosecutor Binita Roscoe told the court the teenager was of Indian Muslim heritage and had started a relationship with an Arab Muslim man, The Times reported.
Ms Dookhran's final post on Twitter, on July 11, read: "Alhamdulilah [praise God] for everything that's all I can say."
Her 3,445 tweets also contained posts about make-up, work, looking after her brothers, and fasting during Ramadan.
Both defendants were remanded in custody and will appear at the Old Bailey on August 21.
We’ll tell you what’s true. You can form your own view.
At The Independent, no one tells us what to write. That’s why, in an era of political lies and Brexit bias, more readers are turning to an independent source. Subscribe from just 15p a day for extra exclusives, events and ebooks – all with no ads.
Subscribe nowCopyright by KOIN - All rights reserved Vernon Green, April 12, 2015 (Multnomah County Sheriff's Office)
Copyright by KOIN - All rights reserved Vernon Green, April 12, 2015 (Multnomah County Sheriff's Office)
PORTLAND, Ore. (KOIN 6) – A grand jury this week issued an indictment against a convicted felon of menacing, coercion assault and weapons crimes after he reportedly pistol whipped a taxi driver.
The taxi driver told police when Vernon Green was picked up on Southeast Ankeny on April 12 he started acting aggressively. The cabbie said he asked Green for a deposit before they went any farther, court documents state.
Documents also said when Green got mad, the cabbie opened the door and told him to get out.
Court documents also state:
-- When police arrived at the disturbance on Southeast Ankeny, Green was seen yelling at the taxi driver through the side window, court documents state. A witness told police he had recorded the entire incident after he got into the cab and Green was already inside.
-- "Green started yelling ‘a bunch of racist shi* at (the taxi driver) and then started slapping (the driver) upside the head with his hands,'" the witness said.
The two men got out of the taxi and Green continued to hit the driver. At that point, Green is seen pistol whipping the driver and racking the slide back on the gun.
Green is seen on video pointing the gun at the taxi driver, prosecutors said.
Green, who has previously been convicted of fourth-degree felony assault out of Washington County is scheduled to be arraigned Tuesday morning in Multnomah County Circuit Court.Image caption The NHS spends more than £10m a year on babies born at 23 weeks
Babies born prematurely in the 23rd week of pregnancy exist on the very edge of life. A few go on to become "miracle babies", but most die. The figures are stark, only nine out of 100 will survive, and of that number most are disabled. Is it always right to keep them alive?
"I can't really get my head round how they've managed to keep her alive."
Lucy's daughter Matilda was born four months early at Birmingham Women's Hospital, weighing one pound one ounce.
Within 20 seconds of her birth, her tiny body was placed into a plastic bag to prevent her losing too much heat or moisture.
Find out more 23 Week Babies: The Price of Life is on BBC Two, 9 March 2100 GMT Catch up via iPlayer Your stories
She was carefully transferred into an incubator and hooked up to tubes and gadgets. Cutting-edge technology has been keeping her alive for four weeks.
Had Matilda been born one week earlier at 22 weeks - she would usually have been considered a miscarriage.
Only one out of a hundred babies born at 23 weeks will live a fully able-bodied life One week later at 24 weeks, her chances of survival would be much higher.
Thanks to decades of improving medical science 23 weeks is now considered the "edge of viability". It is one week less than the limit for abortion at 24 weeks.
Senior nurse Katherine Rutherford looked after Matilda immediately after birth - and knows what parents like Lucy go through.
She gave birth prematurely to her daughter Heather, who weighed three pounds having been born at 26 weeks.
In the first few weeks of her life a haemorrhage left Heather permanently quadriplegic.
"I try and explain what the problems are and what the outcomes are liable to be," said Katherine.
"But being a parent you generally hear what you want to hear. You just see a baby in front of you and you want that child to survive."
Heather was born at 26 weeks, which was the very edge of viability in 1990. Now 21, she struggles with her disabilities.
"All I can use of my four limbs is my left arm," said Heather.
Image caption Heather Rutherford has no routine help from the NHS but a local authority provides carers
"Without carers to lift me into my wheelchair, I'm not able to get myself anything to eat."
Carers arrive at Heather's home every morning and hoist her out of bed using special lifting machinery.
"Basically if my mother or the carers don't come, I'm stuck in bed all day," she said.
Heather had a happy childhood but has found the transition into adulthood hard, and has suffered from depression.
"I had six months of counselling. I was crying every single night.
"I just didn't know where to turn. Horrible things were going through my head.
"I just wished I could end my life. There is obviously nothing else for me in my life, so what is the point of carrying on?"
Resuscitating babies at 23 weeks is not universal. In Holland the policy is to not intervene with babies born |
of conflict of interest."If nothing else, there's the embarrassment element," Smith said. "A secretary of state trying to raise campaign money is kind of ugly."Clinton's new job will help her avoid some pitfalls that loom when political access linked to campaign donations. For example, foreign citizens, who might be interested in forging a relationship with an incoming secretary of state, are legally barred from contributing to U.S. political campaigns.Still, Krumholz said, there are plenty of U.S. citizens with strong ties to other countries who would welcome the chance to write Clinton a check."Wealthy people who have family overseas and are tied to issues in the country - human rights issues, for example - have more incentive to give," Krumholz said.Analysts said that fundraising to retire a politician's debt - never easy - is more difficult during the recession. Also, Clinton is trying to pay off debts from the Democratic primaries, where many of her supporters already gave the maximum $2,300 per person. They cannot be solicited again.The large share of her debt owed to Penn, a controversial figure and harsh Obama critic, also complicates matters for Clinton. Many Democrats blamed him for her strategic failings.Clinton also has about $6 million in her Senate re-election account; some of that could be used under strict restrictions to help pay these debts. Under FEC rules, she would need to ask each contributor's permission to move the donation to her debt retirement account - and none could come from people who already contributed the maximum to her presidential bid.John Anslow, 31, goes on the run after a van carrying him from prison to court is ambushed in north Worcestershire
A prisoner charged with murder is on the run after the van carrying him to court was ambushed in north Worcestershire by men wearing balaclavas, police say.
John Anslow, 31, is considered dangerous and members of the public should not approach him, West Mercia police said. He is one of five men charged with the murder of Richard Deakin, who was shot dead in Chasetown, Staffordshire, last year.
Anslow, who was held in HMP Hewell in Redditch, Worcestershire, was among three prisoners being transported to Stafford crown court in a prison transport van run by GEO Amey, a private company.
At about 8.20am, when the van was in Tardebigge, near Bromsgrove, close to the prison, it was ambushed by three men wearing balaclavas, two of whom were carrying sledgehammers, who drove up in a silver Volkswagen Scirocco. They smashed the windscreen and driver's window of the prison van.
"The van driver was punched but no serious injuries were sustained by escort staff," Detective Inspector Jon Marsden of West Mercia police said. "There were two other prisoners in the van at the time, neither of whom were released.
"The Scirocco drove off at speed. The group are believed to have switched to a silver Mercedes car in Stoney Lane, Bromsgrove, soon after."
Marsden added: "Anslow has recently been charged with murder and is considered dangerous. We are working closely with our colleagues from West Midlands and Staffordshire police forces and a large number of officers from all three forces are involved in the search for him. However, we would urge any members of the public who sees him not to approach him directly, but to contact police immediately on 999."
Anslow, from Tipton, was charged on 18 January. He is white, 5ft 10in tall, of medium build, with short straight dark brown hair.
Hewell prison was created in 2008 by the amalgamation of the three former prisons on the same site: Blakenhurst, Brockhill and Hewell Grange. It houses more than 1,400 inmates across three blocks, holding category B, C and D prisoners.
Since it's creation Hewell's main claim to national attention came last year when it emerged that two offenders on day release from the facility were allowed to do painting and decoration in the constituency home of former home secretary Jacqui Smith when they were supposed to be doing community work.Hunger games is an action/love story about a brave young woman that puts her own life at stake to save her sisters. She is forced into an arena with a group of boys and girls between the ages of 12 and 18 and told to fight to the death until there is one child left standing. There are 12 districts from where people are from. One boy and one girl are chosen at random every year as a reminder not to rebel against the government. This masquer is shown all over the cities for everyone to see on large tv screens. The citizens all watch, some in fear for there loved ones lives and some in fear of losing the bet they placed on a certain tribute to be the final one standing.Breaking News Emails Get breaking news alerts and special reports. The news and stories that matter, delivered weekday mornings.
Aug. 2, 2017, 4:21 PM GMT / Updated Aug. 2, 2017, 5:30 PM GMT By Ali Vitali and Benjy Sarlin
WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump announced his support Wednesday for legislation that would cut in half the number of legal immigrants allowed into the United States while moving to a "merit-based" system of entry.
"That is why we are here today: Merit-based," said Trump, who was joined in the White House Roosevelt Room by the bill's Senate sponsors, Tom Cotton, R-Ark., and David Perdue, R-Ga.
The RAISE Act, which Cotton and Perdue introduced in February, would scrap the current lottery system to get into the U.S. and instead institute a points-based system for earning a green card.
Factors that would be taken into account include English language skills, education, high-paying job offers and age. The number of legal immigrants would be reduced by 50 percent over 10 years.
New immigrants would also be prevented from collecting welfare, an issue Trump had spoken to in recent months.
"That's a very big thing. They're not going to come in and just immediately go and collect welfare," Trump said.
The president had promised an Iowa crowd in June that he would soon introduce legislation that would bar legal immigrants to America from receiving welfare benefits for at least five years. At the time, critics said that was already the law of the land, put into place under then-President Bill Clinton.
Republicans across the ideological spectrum on immigration have long talked about retooling the green card system, which is for permanent residents, to focus less on family ties and more on useful skills.
At issue is how many immigrants to let in: Immigration doves argue that it's impossible to meet Trump's goals of higher growth without bringing in more workers, while immigration hawks argue they will drag down wages and fail to assimilate.
Economists broadly agree that immigration boosts the economy overall, including for native-born Americans, but some studies also suggest that new immigrants depress incomes for certain low-skilled workers, especially in existing immigrant communities.
While cracking down on illegal immigration was central to Trump's campaign, his position on legal immigration has been much more ambiguous.
Trump has previously said he wants people to come in on merit, but also rebuffed the idea that he wants to reduce legal immigration.
"No, no, no, we want people coming in legally," he told the Economist in May.
Slashing legal immigration is a key feature of the Cotton-Perdue bill, though many pro-immigration Republicans like Jeb Bush have suggested similar changes without an overall reduction in immigration.
An hour after Trump announced his support for the RAISE Act, one prominent GOP senator, Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., issued a series of tweets criticizing the proposal, deeming it "devastating to SC economy" if it were to become law. Graham was part of the 2013 "Gang of Eight" who sought comprehensive immigration reform.
On the other side of the aisle, DNC Chair Tom Perez called the immigration effort not "just an affront to our values, it's also a threat to our economy" in a statement Wednesday.
Meanwhile, advocates for restricting legal immigration like the Federation for American Immigration Reform (FAIR) released a statement applauding Trump, Cotton and Perdue "for recognizing the current dysfunction of our outdated immigration policies that, unlike the rest of the nation, have been stuck in a time warp for the last 50 years."
Attorney General Jeff Sessions, an immigration hawk himself, said in a statement that the RAISE proposal "will help the Department of Justice perform its duties to uphold our nation's immigration law."
Top Trump advisers, including Sessions and policy aide Stephen Miller, have long championed restrictions on foreign workers and legal immigrants, who, they argue, depress wages.
Trump's prepared speeches and policy papers often reflected their views: His campaign proposed a pause on issuing H-1B worker visas, and Trump pledged in a speech to return overall immigration to "historical norms," which some observers saw as a code for a significant decrease.
But when Trump has given interviews or participated in off-the-cuff forums, he’s sounded much more enthusiastic about immigration and used talking points that sound more reminiscent of pro-business allies who don't want any reduction.
During the campaign, he disavowed his own campaign’s position on H-1B visas in some primary debates, instead saying the U.S. should try to attract more tech workers from abroad, only to return to his hardline positions later.
Trump also defended the use of foreign labor at his resort properties, which have continued to request worker visas since his election. His administration recently raised the number of available visas for seasonal workers by 15,000, which drew negative coverage from conservative outlets like Breitbart.The story of menstruation begins, as the motherly narrator informs us, with the pituitary gland - a gland at the base of the brain that sends hormones throughout the bloodstream that order growth. When a girl reaches an age somewhere between 11 and 17 - the average is 13 - the pituitary gland sends maturing orders to the ovaries, which in turn order the uterus to create a thickened lining, filled with watery fluids and blood. If an egg is fertilized it will remain within that thickened lining for nourishment. But if the egg is not fertilized, the body has no use for the extra nourishment, and it passes out of the body - which is the process called menstruation. The narrator proceeds to disprove taboos against bathing or exercise during menstruation. She advises that girls should keep a calendar that keeps track of the number days between periods. And she notes how good posture, healthy foods and positive attitudes can affect the menstruation cycle. Written by J. SpurlinDiane Bolden of Detroit gazed across the shimmering strait. Behind her was a terrorized republic and in front of her, just a short swim away yet immured in its own precious sovereignty, was a city in a completely different country: Windsor, Ont. Absent a new passport that she said she couldn’t afford, the American could only dream.
“What do you see when you look at Canada?” the retired Target cashier was asked. “Peaceful calmness,” Bolden replied. “I can’t wait to get over there.”
“It is just wonderful over there,” reported a former long-haul truck and bus driver named Dora Robertson, who hailed from a small town in Mississippi before moving up to the Motor City. “In Canada, there’s no harassment. When I won $9,000 on bingo in Windsor, they let me keep all my money. On this side, the IRS knows me!”
The women were standing beneath the Gateway to Freedom, a monument to the Underground Railroad that conveyed thousands of fugitive slaves to Victoria’s enlightened Dominion. For nearly a century and a half, since Confederation and the end of the War Between the States, the international boundary that bisected the Detroit River—and the continent from the Atlantic to Alaska —had been this planet’s nonpareil of pacific coexistence and bountiful trade. But now that comity was being lost in a fog of fear wafting up (or, in Windsor-Detroit’s case, down) from the U.S. side.
“President Barack Obama and Congress should immediately deploy the National Guard and military troops to patrol the U.S. southern border as well as designated spots along the northern border,” declared Dr. Ben Carson, candidate for the Republican nomination for president, in December.
“Canada—land of snowboarding prime ministers and cold-weather sports—is generally not known as a terrorist haven,” snuffed the Washington Post. “The border that terrorists are most likely to cross into the United States is not the one with Mexico, but Canada,” countered the Daily Beast in an article headlined “Canada’s growing jihadi cancer.”
“We need to look closely at our northern border,” argued one member of the House of Representatives in a private conversation with Maclean’s, stroking an old canard. “The 9/11 hijackers came through Canada.”
“So many foolish people that refuse to acknowledge the tremendous danger and uncertainty of certain people coming into U.S.,” tweeted Donald Trump.
“Trump taps into growing support for Fortress America,” reported a respected Washington newspaper, The Hill.
Even before the rampage in Paris, nervous glances were being cast northward from Washington toward the great unguarded—at least in many American minds —frontier. Legislation was introduced in the United States Congress under the sponsorship of members of both the Democratic and Republican parties. It read as follows:
IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES
AN ACT
(a) In General.—Not later than 180 days after the date of the enactment of this Act, the Secretary of Homeland Security shall submit to the appropriate congressional committees a Northern Border threat analysis that includes—
(1) current and potential terrorism and criminal threats posed by individuals and organized groups seeking to—
(A) enter the United States through the Northern Border; or
(B) exploit border vulnerabilities along the Northern Border;
(2) improvements needed at and between ports of entry along the Northern Border to—
(A) prevent terrorists and instruments of terror from entering the United States.
One of the act’s co-sponsors was Sen. Susan Collins, Republican of Maine. One day in December—after the massacre in San Bernardino, Calif. —Maclean’s asked Collins why she deemed it necessary to investigate the Canadian boundary as a potential source of carnage and horror. “Very little of the border we have with Canada is really patrolled,” Collins replied. “It is a vulnerability. A terrorist looking at where our resources are deployed would be much more likely to look at the border with Canada.” The senior senator from the Pine Tree State caught herself in mid-sentence. “Not ‘much more likely,’ ” Collins said. “Just ‘likely.’ But I also don’t want to create a situation where the hundreds of Mainers who cross into Canada every day and the hundreds of Canadians who cross into Maine every day face any obstacles. At one point, when it was being proposed that a passport had to be held, even by every child crossing the border, I kept thinking about my own family. One of my sisters-in-law is Canadian, and she has four children. Were they all going to have to get passports to be able to visit me?”
“Canada is accepting tens of thousands of Syrian refugees,” this reporter noted. “Do you think this is a threat to the security of the United States?”
“It depends on how they are vetted,” the senator responded. “It depends on who they are. At least we know that they are being vetted.”
“Do you trust Canada’s system of vetting refugees?’ Maclean’s asked Sen. Al Franken, Democrat of Minnesota. “I trust our system of vetting refugees,” Franken answered. “If the Canadian system is anything like ours, then I trust it, too.”
“At least when people land at an airport in Canada, there is a process that they go through,” said Sen. John McCain, Republican of Arizona. “If you fly into Guatemala or El Salvador or Honduras or some of these other countries, it’s completely non-existent. In light of San Bernardino, we need to review all of our security policies along both our borders,” McCain continued. “But I want to be very clear that we welcome all the Canadians who spend the winter in Arizona, and when the Coyotes are playing the Edmonton Oilers, they cheer for goddamn Edmonton.”
“We are a country of 330 million people,” New York City Police Department Commissioner William Bratton told Maclean’s in mid-December. “Since 9/11, 45 people have been killed in this country in terrorist acts. If people want to be afraid of something, they should be afraid of shootings, stabbings, ordinary crime. Politicians are stoking fears to new levels. It’s not just Donald Trump—several of the candidates are doing it.”
Republican candidate Chris Christie, governor of New Jersey, heedless of the commissioner’s soothing math, told a town hall last year: “FedEx can tell you where a package is, when it’s on the truck, when it’s at the station, when it’s on the airplane, yet we let people come into this country with visas and we don’t know where they are.”
“People aren’t packages,” noted Theresa Cardinal Brown. Brown is the former director of Canadian affairs at the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS), a former attaché at the U.S. embassy in Ottawa, a scholar at the Bipartisan Policy Center in Washington, and the wife of a guy from Sault Ste. Marie, Ont. “Whenever we are in a period of generalized fear,” she said, “any rational assessment of fear goes out the window and we tend to look at all areas of risk as equal. The border isn’t necessarily the place where we should be looking. A straight line on the map is obvious, but we need to be working inside and around that line.”
“Americans should be concerned because it’s a pretty big border and it’s another vulnerability that we have,” said Matt Mayer, a visiting fellow at the American Enterprise Institute and a former DHS official. “Canada has been subject to Islamist jihadi attacks as well, so they know this is a problem. Canadians should acknowledge that they’ve had an experience with terrorism too, so it is in their interest to be as sure as they can be.”
“Should Canadians be concerned about a terror threat coming up from the United States?” Mayer was asked.
“Fortunately for Canada, America is such a target for Islamist jihadists that they’re probably not going to leave once they get here,” he replied. “There’s probably a bigger criminal network of maple syrup smugglers across the border than terrorists.”
“Your RCMP is very intelligent, savvy and hip,” said Henry Morgenstern, a security consultant based in Miami, the publisher of The Counter Terrorist magazine and the husband of a Canadian whose parents came to Toronto as refugees from Hungary in 1956.
“They’ve been very successful at tailing these people up to this point, but Canada has this culture of a welcoming attitude that makes me feel like a voice from the future. I don’t want to scare them like a canary in a coal mine, but when you see an attack like San Bernardino or the one on the Parliament in Ottawa, that kind of thing can destroy the mind of a country.
“Being an Israeli-American, I don’t know how you deal with a border that size, even technologically,” he adds. “I don’t know where the budget comes from. A terrorist group has a big advantage—they choose the place, time and method, and they have those choices all to themselves.”
Despite Obama’s assertion that “freedom is more powerful than fear,” no public place in America now feels safe, be it from Islamic State-inspired massacre or from a blank-eyed loner with a backpack full of guns. The jihadists may not be able to slaughter everyone, everywhere, but they certainly have proved their ability and desire to kill anyone, anywhere.
“We all have a fear of death,” reasoned Allyson Faith Shortle, an expert in political psychology at the University of Oklahoma. “In certain situations, you are going to think about your own mortality more than others. People act differently in response to fear appeals, but when you add terrorist events on top of that, you get this fear that their American way of life is going to be destroyed. I think there is quite a fear when you’re talking about the Canadian border. There is this idea that terrorists do come through unsuspected channels from Canada and Mexico, and so we see this tendency to want to lock the nation down.”
It was in Oklahoma, of course, where the worst politically motivated domestic attack in U.S. history was committed by a white Christian—the bombing of a federal office building in Oklahoma City in 1995 that killed 168 people, including 19 pre-schoolers.
“That’s just seen as random error,” Shortle said. “That’s just seen as a person who was mentally unstable. It’s different if the person involved is different from ‘us.’ ”
“TURN OFF THE BOAT! COME OUT ON DECK! PUT YOUR HANDS ON THE RAILING AND DON’T MOVE!” the Mountie commanded. Out of the wheelhouse skulked a man and a woman, squealing in protest.
“Vot is dis about?” the female demanded, in a Tina-Fey-in-Muppets–Most–Wanted accent.
“You are under arrest,” the gendarme explicated.
The captain and mate, who were being handcuffed by a joint raiding party of RCMP and U.S. Coast Guard members, were hired actors. Their watercraft was a dry-docked dory at the Federal Law Enforcement Training Center in North Charleston, S.C., a long way from Sarnia or Syria. The border-guarding boarders were candidates for the unique and creative “Shiprider” program that allows officers from the two nations to work together on the same patrol vessels in the rivers, lakes, straits, bays and seaways that divide Fortress America from its friendly neighbour to the north.
This was the real work of border protection, stripped of its Trumpian bombast, its Congressional “oversight” and the fears of citizens staring worriedly at lines on a map. Every day, officials said, Shipriders were seizing ecstasy and cocaine, enforcing maritime regulations and flying the flag of scrutiny over at least a few small sections of the unmilitarized—at least until a Ben Carson presidency—stripe.
In South Carolina, mucky-mucks from both countries were standing about the mock-up’s hull and watching the exercise. One of them was Gaétan Courchesne, chief superintendent of the RCMP for Quebec. “What we need to do is assure that we are vigilant and ready to act,” Courchesne told Maclean’s. “I don’t think we need to go overboard and create chaos.”
“There are a lot of misconceptions about the northern border,” said Joe Banco, the associate chief of the U.S. Border Patrol and a man whose former assignments included scouring the labyrinthine smuggler’s paradise of the Thousand Islands in the St. Lawrence River. “It’s not wide open with free access whether you’re going north or south. You may not see the Border Patrol or the RCMP every hundred yards like you do on the Mexican border, but we are using every technology we have.”
“Should Americans be concerned about the possibility of terrorists coming from Canada?” Banco was asked.
“Americans and Canadians should be concerned about the world we are living in together,” he answered.
“Why not erase the border and be done with all this?” a reporter wondered.
“Look what we’re seeing now in Europe, where borders were eliminated,” Banco answered. “Canada’s a unique country. We’re a unique country. We have to define where one country ends and the other begins.”
The border that ends Canada and begins the United States is 8,891 km long. Some of it is forested vastness, some of it is the Great Lakes, some of it is Arctic wilderness and one fraction of it cuts right through the Haskell Free Library and Opera House, whose stage is in Derby Line, Vt., and whose back rows are in Stanstead, Que.
“As kids growing up here, it was just one great big town,” said John Wilson, who is now the (non-partisan) president of the city council in Newport, Vt., just south of the border. “We would wave to customs officers and just walk through. But after 9/11, everything really tightened up. I guess you can never go back to the past.”
Newport sits at the southern end of Lake Memphremagog, most of which is in Quebec. The publisher of the Newport Daily Express is a man named Ken Wells. “This border right here is one of the least crossed,” Wells said by phone. “A lot of people here think that it’s over-fortified. Traffic is down, but there’s such a paranoia here these days that it’s almost overkill. I don’t know if you can ever have too much law enforcement, but in a place like Derby Line, how many police cruisers do we need? How many Border Patrol officers do we need?”
Half a century ago, John Wilson was working in a tool and die factory that was bisected by the international boundary—not that anyone cared much, back in those days. When the U.S. went to war in Southeast Asia, Wilson remembered, “seven or eight of the boys from the Canadian side all turned in their green cards and went back to Canada. I didn’t, and I was rewarded with a trip to Vietnam.”
Not long ago, Ken Wells’s newspaper reported that “Alarm signals briefly rang out on a quiet, sunny morning in the small village of Derby Line. Two illegal immigrants purportedly crossed the U.S./Canadian border through a clump of trees among the homes that line the border.”
“Rarely happens nowadays,” Ken Wells said.
“When we were young, it was all open, but not anymore,” John Wilson sighed. “They’ve got sensors and stuff all over the woods.”
“I guess all it takes is one person to get through to cross the border and cause havoc,” Wells said. “But every time this happens, that character Donald Trump goes up another few points.”
“The hard part is measuring success,” a man named Gregg Ward was saying. “Is not having a bomb go off a success?”
Ward was sailing aboard the Lac St.-Jean, the barge that serves as a ferry across the Detroit River for wind-power towers, bulk-form whisky carriers, manufactured homes and other cargo too long, wide or flammable to be hauled across the Ambassador Bridge. Ward and his father before him have commanded this one-boat navy since 1990. He laughed and bragged of using “4,000-year-old technology, barging across the river like Cleopatra. If they don’t cross with us,” he said, “they have to drive around the Great Lakes.”
Ward, an American, said he had heard about “threats to the transportation infrastructure,” and on this stretch of the border, the infrastructure was himself, a Canadian deckhand named Doug Pettit, a tugboat captain, and the good ship Lac St.-Jean.
“We live in 2015,” Ward said. “There are a lot of threats to the United States. We’ve been at war with the Middle East for a long time now. It doesn’t mean that they’re necessarily Canadian threats, but we have to maintain a security posture, and this is one of the places to do it.”
“The 9/11 terrorists accomplished what they set out to do,” deckhand Pettit said. “They wanted to make everyone afraid, and they did. Not just in the United States—worldwide. I can understand the need for security, but it can go too far. When there’s commerce, you’ve got to cut a little slack.”
On the Detroit River, in the halls of Congress and from Memphremagog to the Beaufort Sea, the mood for slack was waning at Christmas 2015. Searching for safety in an unsafe time, men and women huddled inside walls of their own minds’ making.
One of those barricades was an invisible line down the middle of a river. On an average day, Pettit crossed it 22 times, under the eagle eyes of Shipriders, helicopters, drones, sensors and more than 300 million worried souls of many citizenships.
On this day, at least, the weather was clear and the river strong, and evil seemed to be at bay.
“Are you a threat?” Pettit was asked. These days, you need to make sure.
“Only to myself,” the seaman replied.Politics
Robert Novak was admitted yesterday to a Boston hospital where he was diagnosed with a brain tumor. In a written statement given to his publisher, Novak said:
“On Sunday, July 27, I was diagnosed with a brain tumor. I have been admitted to Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston, where doctors will soon begin appropriate treatment.
“I will be suspending my journalistic work for an indefinite but, God willing, not too lengthy period.”
Novak is the long-time editor of the influential newsletter, Evans-Novak Political Report, published by Human Events’ parent company, Eagle Publishing. Novak is also a well-known columnist for the Chicago Sun Times and more recently a Fox News Channel contributor. The 77-year-old Novak recently celebrated his 50th year as a Washington-based journalist.
Developing…
Publisher’s Note:
Bob, our thoughts and prayers are with you. Here’s to a speedy recovery!
–Your friends at Human Events and Eagle PublishingANGE Postecoglou believes stripping Adrian Leijer of the Melbourne Victory captaincy will help him become a better player.
The coach confirmed that Leijer wouldn’t lead Victory this season and revealed the player was gutted when informed of the news, but emphasised that the 27-year-old remained central to his plans.
While Leigh Broxham has worn the armband in preseason Mark Milligan is favourite to be appointed after Victory managed to retain him despite interest from Premier League club Crystal Palace.
Leijer has led Victory since the retirement of Kevin Muscat but it coincided with the most turbulent time in the club’s short history playing under four coaches in 31 months.
"He was disappointed, anyone would be. But that’s my call, I need to make decisions and sometimes you need to make decisions that disappoint players but the flip side of that is the way he played against Liverpool and in the friendlies is exactly where I want him to be," Postecoglou said.
"Whenever you have a season like last year where we didn’t reach our target (winning the title) we looked at a whole range of things and one of them was leadership and how we can get better in that role.
"More important is that I really want Ado to play his best football this year and I think he can. I rate him highly, I’ve known him and coached him since he was a teenager.
"He’s had two seasons which have been very tough for him because physically he hasn’t been where he wants to be and as I said to him in preseason I want this year to be the best of his career and to help him do that I don’t want him thinking about anything else other than playing his best.
"He’s always going to be a leader around the club because he’s been there since day one and I think the boys respect him because of that and I don’t think he needs the extra responsibility this year."
Postecoglou said he hadn’t made his mind up yet but with Milligan and Archie Thompson back from Socceroos duty an announcement was imminent.
"I haven’t decided on that yet, we’ve given Leigh the armband and he’s the next most experienced and obviously Millsy comes into the frame," he said.
"I’ll sit down with everyone when they’re in, we haven’t had everyone in for the last few weeks. I’ve got an idea of how I want to frame it and it’ll be a decision that hopefully will help us be a better club and whoever does get the captaincy, helps them be a better player."
Originally published as Milligan favourite to captain VictoryDid Sinosauropteryx have a striped tail and 'bandit mask' across its eyes?
A small feathered dinosaur called Sinosauropteryx sported a stripy tail, "bandit mask" across its eyes and a pale belly to help it blend into the background, according to new research.
dino camouflage key points Key points: Feathered Sinosauropteryx fossils were discovered in China in the mid-1990s
Palaeontologists claim dark feathers suggest signs of striped tail and 'bandit mask'
Others disagree, stating the dark patches could be fossilised evidence of microbial action
Fiann Smithwick from the University of Bristol in the UK and colleagues examined colour patterns left in feathered fossilised specimens to reconstruct the diminutive dinosaur's colour scheme.
The researchers suggest the bird-like dinosaur that lived 130 million years ago had camouflaging patterns in order to escape being eaten.
But other scientists disagree.
Feathered fossil find
Sinosauropteryx was a metre-long carnivorous dinosaur that lived in the Cretaceous period in what is now the Liaoning province in China's northeast.
Its fossilised remains are among a slew of fossils that caused a stir when they were discovered in the 1990s, because they included preserved tissue in the form of early feathers, or protofeathers.
Like the feathers of modern birds, protofeathers contained pigment molecules including melanin — the molecule that darkens human skin, hair and eyes.
Melanin is also remarkably tough and doesn't break down easily.
"The melanin molecule is quite big and complex, and resistant to breaking down."
This toughness is the reason only dark feathers are preserved in the fossil record, Mr Smithwick said.
In a paper published in Current Biology today, Mr Smithwick and his colleagues mapped the dark feathers on three fossilised Sinosauropteryx specimens to reconstruct its patterned protofeather coat.
They concluded that it had a band of brown protofeathers around its eyes, like a blindfold. This, they wrote, could help reduce glare from nearby water.
It also sported a striped tail, perhaps to distract or confuse predators.
Share Reconstructed colour patterns of Sinosauropteryx showing its long stripy tail, countershaded body and bandit mask.
They found dark feathers on the fossilised animals' back but none on the belly. When the animals were alive, the researchers suspected, those patches were covered in pale, melanin-free feathers which degraded after death.
Having a body with a paler belly — a camouflage pattern called countershading — allows animals that live out in the open to blend into the background.
So why brown protofeathers, and not black? Mr Smithwick points to modern animals.
"Ground-dwelling birds and mammals today are brown. The evidence stacks up that [Sinosauropteryx is] brown too."
Could it just be microbes?
However, these findings are not without controversy. And that's because figuring out the colour of extinct animals is not as straightforward as looking at fossilised remains.
Soon after an animal dies, microbes move in to start the decaying process. To further complicate matters, microbes can produce melanin too.
"[The brown areas] could be remnants of microbes associated with the decay of soft tissue," said Steve Salisbury, a palaeontologist from the University of Queensland.
They're the same size and similar shape to melanosomes, the packets that store melanin molecules in cells, he said.
"It's a big jump to say that pigmentation is why those parts are preserved."
Mary Schweitzer, a palaeontologist at North Carolina State University, also has doubts.
There is no evidence in the paper to support the presence of melanin or melanosomes in the fossil, she believes, other than the assumption that melanin is needed for feather preservation.
Also, the lack of preserved feathers on the fossils' underbelly doesn't necessarily mean they were pigment-free, either.
Modern birds sport a wide range of colours and hues but it cannot be assumed that melanin was the only pigment operating during the era of the dinosaurs any more that it is today, Professor Schweitzer said.
Share Fossil specimen of Sinosauropteryx with an interpretive drawing of the bones, stomach contents and darkly pigmented feathers.
Another explanation for the feather-free belly is the decay process, she added.
When an animal dies, the first part to rot is the gut, broken down by its own microbial populations.
This causes parts to explode from the belly, dragging skin and feathers away from the carcass.
The "bandit mask", too, isn't well defined. The smattering of feathers on the fossilised faces could have loosened from the top of the animal's head as its skin degraded.
And if Sinosauropteryx was masked, it doesn't necessarily mean it lived out in the open, near water, Professor Schweitzer said.
"The most iconic of bandit masked creatures, the raccoon, does not inhabit an open habitat. It prefers a deeply forested environment with access to trees."Part of Mao Zedong's land reform during the late phase of the Chinese Civil War[1] and the early People's Republic of China[2] was a campaign of mass killings of landlords[3] in order to redistribute land to the peasant class and landless workers[9] which resulted in millions of deaths.[7][4] Those killed were targeted on the basis of class rather than ethnicity, therefore terming the campaign "genocide" is incorrect and the neologism "classicide" is more accurate.[4] Class-motivated mass killings continued almost throughout the 30 years of social and economic transformation in Maoist China, resulting in the deaths of 90% to 95% of the what used to be 15 million members of the landlord class in China according to Harry Wu.[4]
Classicide [ edit ]
Initial classicide (1947–1951) [ edit ]
1947–1950s killings [ edit ]
The idea of a violent campaign against the landlord class was already drawn up by 1947 by Kang Sheng, an expert on terror tactics.[1] Ren Bishi, a member of the party's Central Committee, likewise stated in a 1948 speech that "30,000,000 landlords and rich peasants would have to be destroyed."[7] Shortly after the founding of the PRC, land reform, according to Mao biographer Philip Short, "lurched violently to the left" with Mao laying down new guidelines for "not correcting excesses prematurely."[2] Beatings, while not officially promoted by the party, were not prohibited either. While landlords had no protection, those branded as "rich peasants" received moderate protections from violence and those on the lower end were fully protected.[10]
Mao in this vein insisted that the people themselves, not the security organs, should become involved in killing landlords who had oppressed them.[2] This was quite different from the Soviet practice, in which the NKVD would arrest counterrevolutionaries and then have them secretly executed and often buried before sunrise. Mao thought that peasants who killed landlords with their bare hands would become permanently linked to the revolutionary process in a way |
bone in one solid piece, so that it looks like a butterfly when opened up. This allows you to wrap the meat around the peppers and onions, which makes wrapping the entire thing more convenient.
Lay the butterflied dove breast open, and in the crevasse place a thin slice of jalapeno and a thin slice of onion. If you don’t like heat at all, you can substitute the jalapeno for a slice of bell pepper. If you are someone that loves to cry and sweat while you eat, you can substitute the jalapeno for something a little spicier, such as a serrano or, if you are really crazy, a little piece of habanero. Fold the breast meat around the pepper and onion, creating a small pouch.
I wrap an entire slice of bacon around each popper. I only do this because the bacon helps to hold the pepper and onion inside while I am moving things around on the grill. As far as flavor, you can do just half a slice and it will still taste amazing, it just might fall apart a bit.
Using two toothpicks, secure the bacon around the popper. You are ready to grill!
I start the poppers on the medium heat area of the grill. Bacon gets very….drippy…on the barbecue grill. As it starts to grill, little drops of fat will fall and hit the coals. This can result in flames, and if the heat is too high the bacon fat sets on fire and burns the dove poppers. The result is a raw dove inside of a blackened bacon crust. Not amazing my friends, not amazing. So, to bar this from happening, I start on the lower heat area. Cook the poppers, turning often, for about seven minutes on the lower heat side of the grill. The bacon should be mostly cooked by that time.
After about seven minutes, move the poppers to the higher heat area of the grill and allow them to finish cooking. I like to let my bacon just start to char and then I know things are ready, which takes about five more minutes. The result is a crispy bacon crust with a soft, perfectly cooked inside. The dove should be cooked to just below well-done, and the pepper and onion should be soft.
Dove poppers are the perfect appetizer to start your barbeque off with, or even better, a great meal option!
Happy Hunting!
Share This:Stellarium, a new planetarium software, enables users to view a realistic image of the night skies. Apparently, Stellarium is more accurate than other similar programs, and since it is an open-source software, can be installed and used for free.
Those who are interested in astronomy as a hobby will probably enjoy the new software, as it offers a wide variety of sky views with an interactive interface. Although more advanced users might require a more sophisticated program, Stellarium is a good option for beginners. Those who have never looked at the sky through a telescope may even find the experience exhilarating.
After downloading a relatively small installation file (about 9MB), users can effortlessly install the program and set up their global location using a virtual atlas or by entering the user’s latitude and longitude. Next, the users can set the level of detail to be displayed, at which point the real advantage of the program is revealed.
Stellarium uses a photo-realistic view, meaning that the display changes as the day goes by; at noon, the user sees a photographed countryside horizon, with blue skies above and the Sun correctly positioned. For instance, when looking to the south at midday, the Sun is situated directly in front of the user. Other optional views include the Cardinal points (North, South, West, East), drawings and names of constellations, and the Azimuthal and Equatorial grids – all of which can be toggled, of course.
A unique option enables toggling an ‘atmosphere’, simulating a gradual darkening of the sky that causes the stars to “come out”. The photo of the horizon, although very impressive, can be removed as well. All these changes are very simple to make and one keystroke can easily change each parameter. Another nice touch is the twinkling of the stars, which can also be set to a desired level.
Various objects displayed on the screen can be found by moving a set of cross hairs over an object and clicking on it. The basic information about the chosen object appears in the top left corner of the screen and includes its name, the Hipparchus catalogue number, the RA, Dec, and magnitude. If you click on a Messier object the M number (the NGC number), the RA, the Dec, and the magnitude are displayed. Unfortunately, the astronomical category of each object is not displayed (cluster, nebula, galaxy, etc).
The realistic skies are rendered in real time using the openGL Protocol. This open-source standard was developed alongside the implementation of GoTo systems, but there is no interface between the program and the collection of GoTo systems on the market. Although some might consider this to be a disadvantage, it definitely does not affect the experience itself, as the high-quality photos seem very realistic.
TFOT recently covered Microsoft’s WorldWide Telescope, which offers similar functions as Stellarium. We have also reported on the detailed worldwide survey of candidate astronomical sites for the thirty-meter telescope. Other related TFOT stories include a report on the 3D photo of Mars’ Hebes Chasma and the IceCube, the largest telescope in the world, which was built under hundreds of feet of Polar ice.Have you ever found yourself frothing at the fingertips while explaining why someone doesn't deserve to use an iPhone because of their deeply flawed sense of aesthetics? Have you been the type to declare that those who don't use Android are cylons who are under mind control from Cupertino? Or are you Peter Bright, turning up your nose at all of us while you wax on about the unappreciated genius of the Windows 7 Phone?
You may think you're defending your favorite platform because it's just that good. But, according to a recently published study out of the University of Illinois, you may instead be defending yourself because you view criticisms of your favorite brand as a threat to your self image. The study, which will be published in the next issue of the Journal of Consumer Psychology, examines the strength of consumer-brand relationships, concluding that those who have more knowledge of and experience with a brand are more personally impacted by incidents of brand "failure."
The researchers performed two experiments, one on a group of 30 women and another on 170 undergraduate students, in order to see whether the subjects' self esteem was tied to the general ratings of various brands. Those who had high self-brand connections (SBC)—that is, those who follow, research, or simply like a certain brand—were the ones whose self esteem suffered the most when their brands didn't do well or were criticized. Those with low SBC remained virtually unaffected on a personal level.
The residual effect of this is that those with high SBCs tend to discount negative news about their favorite brands, and sometimes even ignore it altogether in favor of happier thoughts.
"Consumers are highly resistant to brand failure to the point that they’re willing to rewrite history," business administration professor and researcher Tiffany Barnett White said in a statement. "It not only explains why so many Toyota customers ignored the negative brand information in the aftermath of the highly publicized recalls, it also accounts for why they’re quick to defend the company and why they would want to re-write history in a more positive way."
The paper notes that its conclusions challenge some assumptions from previous literature on brand connections. It had been assumed that brands are treated more like an interpersonal relationship and that brand loyalty is indicative of relationship strength. Instead, the Illinois researchers believe people treat brands as they treat themselves, leading users to feel more affected by brand failure instead of less.
"Because the brand is seen as a part of the self by virtue of being intimately tied to the self, failure on the part of the brand is experienced as a personal failure," reads the paper. "Therefore, in an effort to maintain a positive self-view, high SBC individuals react defensively to brand failure by evaluating the brand favorably despite its poor performance.
Has anyone else already begun to sift through the comments of our platform-specific articles to see who's feeling bad about themselves lately and who's not?
Journal of Consumer Psychology, 2011. DOI: 10.1016/j.jcps.2011.05.005 (About DOIs).Luxury liners are still docking at private beaches near Haiti's devastated earthquake zone for holidaymakers to enjoy the water
Sixty miles from Haiti's devastated earthquake zone, luxury liners dock at private beaches where passengers enjoy jetski rides, parasailing and rum cocktails delivered to their hammocks.
The 4,370-berth Independence of the Seas, owned by Royal Caribbean International, disembarked at the heavily guarded resort of Labadee on the north coast on Friday; a second cruise ship, the 3,100-passenger Navigator of the Seas is due to dock.
The Florida cruise company leases a picturesque wooded peninsula and its five pristine beaches from the government for passengers to "cut loose" with watersports, barbecues, and shopping for trinkets at a craft market before returning on board before dusk. Safety is guaranteed by armed guards at the gate.
The decision to go ahead with the visit has divided passengers. The ships carry some food aid, and the cruise line has pledged to donate all proceeds from the visit to help stricken Haitians. But many passengers will stay aboard when they dock; one said he was "sickened".
"I just can't see myself sunning on the beach, playing in the water, eating a barbecue, and enjoying a cocktail while [in Port-au-Prince] there are tens of thousands of dead people being piled up on the streets, with the survivors stunned and looking for food and water," one passenger wrote on the Cruise Critic internet forum.
"It was hard enough to sit and eat a picnic lunch at Labadee before the quake, knowing how many Haitians were starving," said another. "I can't imagine having to choke down a burger there now.''
Some booked on ships scheduled to stop at Labadee are afraid that desperate people might breach the resort's 12ft high fences to get food and drink, but others seemed determined to enjoy their holiday."I'll be there on Tuesday and I plan on enjoying my zip line excursion as well as the time on the beach," said one.
The company said the question of whether to "deliver a vacation experience so close to the epicentre of an earthquake" had been subject to considerable internal debate before it decided to include Haiti in its itineraries for the coming weeks.
"In the end, Labadee is critical to Haiti's recovery; hundreds of people rely on Labadee for their livelihood," said John Weis, vice-president. "In our conversations with the UN special envoy of the government of Haiti, Leslie Voltaire, he notes that Haiti will benefit from the revenues that are generated from each call …
"We also have tremendous opportunities to use our ships as transport vessels for relief supplies and personnel to Haiti. Simply put, we cannot abandon Haiti now that they need us most."
"Friday's call in Labadee went well," said Royal Caribbean. "Everything was open, as usual. The guests were very happy to hear that 100% of the proceeds from the call at Labadee would be donated to the relief effort."
Forty pallets of rice, beans, powdered milk, water, and canned foods were delivered on Friday, and a further 80 are due and 16 on two subsequent ships. When supplies arrive in Labadee, they are distributed by Food for the Poor, a longtime partner of Royal Caribbean in Haiti.
Royal Caribbean has also pledged $1m to the relief effort and will spend part of that helping 200 Haitian crew members.
The company recently spent $55m updating Labadee. It employs 230 Haitians and the firm estimates 300 more benefit from the market. The development has been regarded as a beacon of private investment in Haiti; Bill Clinton visited in October. Some Haitians have decried the leasing of the peninsula as effective privatisation of part of the republic's coastline.sallydesu Profile Blog Joined November 2010 Canada 165 Posts #1
Tune into the Frag For Mental Health Charity stream on Saturday, Feb. 11th at 8:00PM EST to watch two Canadian pros face off in an epic BO7, casted by none other than one of the most entertaining casting duos LAGTV!
Date: Saturday Feb 11th
Time: 5:00pm PST / 8:00pm EST
All proceeds will be directed to the Canadian Mental Health Association!
Casters: LAGTV
Streams: Frag For Mental Health
Format: Starting Map: ESV Cloud Kingdom
Loser picks next map
Map Pool:
MLG Shattered Temple
MLG Shakuras Plateau
MLG Metalopolis
MLG Tal'Darim Altar
GSL Metropolis
ESV Cloud Kingdom
IPLMap Darkness Falls
GSL Antiga Shipyard
GSL Bel'Shir Beach (Winter)
Entombed Valley
GSL Daybreak
Poll: Who will win?
RGNslush (17)
55%
mTwTT1 (14)
45%
31 total votes (17)55%(14)45%31 total votes Your vote: Who will win? (Vote): mTwTT1
(Vote): RGNslush
Interested in learning more about Frag For Charity events?
Follow our Stream Channel
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Refer to the Frag For Mental Health Qualifer # 2 Thread
HERE
Tune into thestream onatto watch two Canadian pros face off in an epic BO7, casted by none other than one of the most entertaining casting duosSaturday Feb 11th5:00pm PST / 8:00pm ESTStarting Map: ESV Cloud KingdomMLG Shattered TempleMLG Shakuras PlateauMLG MetalopolisMLG Tal'Darim AltarGSL MetropolisESV Cloud KingdomIPLMap Darkness FallsGSL Antiga ShipyardGSL Bel'Shir Beach (Winter)Entombed ValleyGSL DaybreakInterested in learning more aboutevents? CSL LoL Head Administrator
ThatGuy89 Profile Joined February 2011 United Kingdom 1966 Posts #2 slush is awesome and TT1 is.....TT1
slush 4-0 ez
ThE_OsToJiY Profile Blog Joined May 2008 Canada 1167 Posts #3 4-0 slush no questions asked. @ostojiy
TT1 Profile Blog Joined December 2008 Canada 8896 Posts Last Edited: 2012-02-10 21:45:18 #4 i also think slush will 4-0 and im being totally serious, might win a game or two if i get lucky ab = tl(i) + tl(pc), the grand answer to every tl.net debate
Hulavuta Profile Blog Joined December 2011 United States 1252 Posts #5 TT1 will win. Done with Team Liquid for a while. Don't expect to find me here.
PassiveAce Profile Blog Joined February 2011 United States 6426 Posts #6 LOL tt1
im rooting for you <3 7844 | D:8 | Got a distressingly furry buckler
dpL Profile Joined May 2011 Sweden 567 Posts #7 On February 11 2012 06:38 mTwTT1 wrote:
i also think slush will 4-0 and im being totally serious, might win a game or two if i get lucky
Eye of the tiger. Eye of the tiger.
YourMom Profile Joined April 2010 Romania 563 Posts #8 On February 11 2012 06:38 mTwTT1 wrote:
i also think slush will 4-0 and im being totally serious, might win a game or two if i get lucky
That's the spirit of a champion. Great things await you my friend! That's the spirit of a champion. Great things await you my friend! I'm very good at making carriers.
Tivu Profile Joined February 2012 United States 243 Posts #9 Slush will win ez.
keyStorm Profile Joined August 2010 Canada 316 Posts #10 Great initiative
dde Profile Joined November 2010 Canada 750 Posts #11 On February 11 2012 06:38 mTwTT1 wrote:
i also think slush will 4-0 and im being totally serious, might win a game or two if i get lucky
zergs say they have hard time vs protosses pshhhh
you got this! zergs say they have hard time vs protosses pshhhhyou got this! yes
sallydesu Profile Blog Joined November 2010 Canada 165 Posts Last Edited: 2012-02-10 23:31:15 #12 On February 11 2012 07:46 dde wrote:
Show nested quote +
On February 11 2012 06:38 mTwTT1 wrote:
i also think slush will 4-0 and im being totally serious, might win a game or two if i get lucky
zergs say they have hard time vs protosses pshhhh
you got this! zergs say they have hard time vs protosses pshhhhyou got this!
yo DDE go signup with the form so we have your info plzzz
yo DDE go signup with the form so we have your info plzzz On February 11 2012 06:38 mTwTT1 wrote:
i also think slush will 4-0 and im being totally serious, might win a game or two if i get lucky
TT1 HWAITING TT1 HWAITING CSL LoL Head Administrator
sallydesu Profile Blog Joined November 2010 Canada 165 Posts Last Edited: 2012-02-10 23:31:22 #13 edit: double post D: CSL LoL Head Administrator
dde Profile Joined November 2010 Canada 750 Posts Last Edited: 2012-02-11 04:01:18 #14 i alrdy sent info to one of ur admin last week
if u didnt receive it mind if i just pm it to you since i was never able to see that chart you sent me? yes
sallydesu Profile Blog Joined November 2010 Canada 165 Posts #15 On February 11 2012 13:00 dde wrote:
i alrdy sent info to one of ur admin last week
if u didnt receive it mind if i just pm it to you since i was never able to see that chart you sent me?
yeah if you can just pm it to me just so i have it that'd be good lol. team GoSu hwaitinggg! yeah if you can just pm it to me just so i have it that'd be good lol. team GoSu hwaitinggg! CSL LoL Head Administrator
Torte de Lini Profile Blog Joined September 2010 Germany 30667 Posts #16 Slush, facile! Sans probleme pour lui!
Good luck guys!~ https://twitter.com/#!/TorteDeLini (@TorteDeLini)
ROOTslush Profile Joined March 2010 Canada 170 Posts #17 i vote for TT1 to win
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Yaki Profile Joined April 2011 France 4232 Posts #19 I vote for Slush MC ■ MarineKing ■ LosirA ■ To someone who has lost after trying his best, no words from the winner can console him.
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1 2 Next AllA former Catholic priest at Bridgeport’s St. Augustine Cathedral who was recently busted in a nationwide crystal meth ring also liked cross dressing, “bizarre sex toys” and having sex in his rectory with “odd-looking men,” a report said on Thursday.
According to a Wednesday statement from the U.S. Attorney’s Office, Monsignor Kevin Wallin and four other men were indicted in an alleged drug operation that involved sending shipments of methamphetamine from California for sale in Connecticut. Wallin was arrested on January 3 after he allegedly tried to sell drugs to an undercover agent and methamphetamines, drug paraphernalia and drug packaging materials were found in his home.
The indictment said 61-year-old Wallin had sold as much as $9,000 of meth per week.
Diocese Spokesman Brian Wallace told the Connecticut Post that officials began receiving complaints about Wallin’s appearance and erratic behavior in the spring of 2011.
“We approached him and he admitted he was struggling a bit and shortly after that he resigned (July 2011) and the bishop granted him a sabbatical,” Wallace recalled, adding that the priest was later suspended after he failed to show up for follow-up examinations.
“While pastor of St. Augustine’s, sources said he often disappeared for days at a time; and rectory personnel became concerned and notified diocese officials when Wallin, sometimes dressed as a woman, would entertain odd-looking men, some who were also dressed in women’s clothing and engaging in sex acts,” the Connecticut Post reported.
The report said that diocese officials also “found bizarre sex toys in Wallin’s residence.”
After leaving the priesthood, Wallin purchased a North Haven adult film store call Land of Oz. The business, which sold X-rated videos and sex toys, may have been used to launder drug money, investigators said. A September Facebook post said that Land of Oz was holding a “going out of business sale” and “everything must go.”
The former priest faces a maximum of 20 years in jail and up to $6 million in fines.
Watch this video from WPIX, broadcast Jan. 17, 2013.The list of Americans playing overseas who left to join Major League Soccer almost increased by one during the recent transfer window.
Alejandro Bedoya, who played a prominent role with the United States men's national team at the 2014 World Cup and has been a regular starter for Ligue 1 club Nantes, agreed to a contract in principle with the Philadelphia Union, but Nantes pulled out of the deal at the last minute, a source told Yahoo Sports.
The contract would have paid Bedoya close to $1.2 million a year and the transfer fee was north of $1 million for Nantes, according to the source.
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Nantes currently has Bedoya under a long-term contract, but the Union were under the impression that their transfer offer was going to be accepted by the French club when they came to terms with the midfielder.
Bedoya would have joined Jozy Altidore, Michael Bradley, Clint Dempsey and Mix Diskerud in continuing the recent trend of U.S. national teamers leaving Europe for MLS.
Forward Aron Johannsson was offered to several MLS teams, with a Western Conference club among the frontrunners to try and land his services, but the 24-year-old ended up moving from Dutch side AZ Alkmaar to Germany to play for Werder Bremen in the Bundesliga.Map of potential spill trajectory over the next few days: NOAA
It just keeps going and going. New revelations about how little it would have cost to prevent the BP oil spill (only slightly exaggerating, half a million dollars for a part to the oil industry is like a couple nice dinners out to you or me), new worst-case scenarios about how long this could continue on, and (thankfully) some particularly poignant thoughts to counterbalance the mindless damage control by the chattering right wing pundits. Here's some of the best and worst of an increasingly bad situation:BP Left Off A SECOND Emergency Shut Off!
Climate Progress cuts through the reporting of the New York Times to remind us that in addition to the $500,000 acoustic cut-off switch, that could of prevented this all but was left off in an effort to save money, apparently there was another safety measure, allegedly also left off as a cost-saving measure, that could have been employed by BP:
Another worker familiar with the rig told the lawyers that the company had chosen not to install a deep-water valve that would have been placed about 200 feet under the sea floor. Much like blowout preventers, devices that are meant to seal leaks, this valve could have served as a cutoff of last resort in explosions, the lawyers said. "The company took their chances in not having the valve so they could save money," said Mike Papantonio, one of the lawyers representing the shrimpers and fishermen. Mr. Gowers [a BP spokesman] declined to comment on that claim except to say that the investigation was continuing and that it was too early to speculate.
Let that sit for a second. Not one backup safety procedure rejected, but two. Two. And now we have a problem of such proportions that the words epic, tragic, and catastrophic all are inadequate.
No One Honestly Knows How Long It'll Take To Stop the Oil Flow
Then consider the words of James Moore over at Huffington Post. Moore presents a worst-case scenario, gleaned from a leaked memo from NOAA and correlated with the 1979 Ixtoc oil spill, which went for nine months before being capped.
Although BP and Washington are trying very hard to convince the public that everything possible is being done to stem the flow of crude, there is seemingly little that might be accomplished. 5000 feet below the surface of the water with oil blasting out at tens of thousands of PSI, and wreckage from the giant rig scattered about, fixes are not easy to find. The latest plan is for a special funnel to be placed over the spout, which will then force the flow into a pumping channel. But how does a funnel get placed over the top of anything pushing at that kind of pressure? Consider that story to be an unrealistic solution. The Ixtoc disaster, however, is spit in the ocean compared to the British Petroleum apocalypse. Estimates are the current blowout is putting 200,000 gallons or 5000 barrels of crude per day into the waters of the Gulf. Ixtoc's blowout was not capped until two relief wells were drilled and completed at the end of those nine months, and regardless of optimistic scenarios from the federal government or BP, relieving the pressure on the current flow is probably the only way to stop the polluting release of oil. The only way to relieve that pressure is with additional wells. No one is going to honestly say how much time is needed to drill such wells but consider the scope of environmental damage we are confronting if it requires at least as long as Ixtoc. Nine months of 5000 barrels of crude per day ought to turn the Gulf of Mexico into a lifeless spill pond and set toxins on currents that will carry them to deadly business around the globe. NOAA apparently believes the situation is on the verge of getting worse. A leaked memo suggests that the tangle of pipes on the ocean floor are covering and constraining two other release points. Pressure is likely to blow those loose and, according to NOAA, the gusher will increase by "orders of magnitude." In most interpretations, that phrase means a ten-fold rise in the flow, which will replicate the Ixtoc disaster in three days.
What price does the Gulf of Mexico command? Is it the price of all that oil traded on the international market? Is the lost income to fisherman all along the Gulf's shores? Or is it something more? How can numbers on paper, columns on a spreadsheet, profit and loss, commodity, convey this?
Is There No Point At Which Humanity Says, Enough
Which brings me to the question I've been trying to stick in front of people a number of times since the Deepwater Horizon sank and started a river of oil gushing from the floor of the sea. Andrew Sullivan describes it as The Morality of Oil:
These wounds, these temperatures, these destructive weather patterns are symptoms of a planet in distress. At some point, those of us who see our relationship to the natural world as something more than mere economics - as something sacred - need to face up to the fact that our civilization is not taking this sacredness seriously enough. When do we ask ourselves: by what right do humans believe we can despoil the earth for every other species with impunity? By what self-love have we granted ourselves not just dominion over the earth but wanton exploitation of its every treasure? Is there no point at which we can say: this is enough?
Increasingly I'm starting to identify with the doctor in The Bridge on the River Kwai who, upon seeing the senseless carnage at the end of the film can only utter, "Madness... madness."
Like this? Follow me on Twitter and Facebook.
More on BP Oil Spill:
India Establishes National Environmental Tribunal - Should the US Start One Too?
Will The BP Oil Spill Be Our Collective Zen Slap Into Eco-Realization? Let's Hope So
BP Gulf Oil Spill Cheat Sheet: A Timeline of Unfortunate EventsGovernment surveillance of citizens' personal computers is a violation of privacy, Germany's highest court ruled today. Citizens' basic right to privacy is protected by Germany's constitution, the court said, a protection that extends to their stored data. "Collecting such data directly encroaches on a citizens' rights, given that fear of being observed... can prevent unselfconscious personal communication," said Judge Hans-Juergen Papier in the court's opinion.
The case began last year when officials in North Rhine-Westphalia began spying on computer-related activities using trojans and spyware (also known as "policeware"). The government apparently had few problems with this, saying that such activities were important in the fight against terrorism. Interior Minister Wolfgang Schäuble even suggested changing German law to give the government more freedom to use policeware and engage in other PC-related surveillance.
Papier disagreed, saying that the North Rhine-Westphalia law was unconstitutional and that his ruling would set a precedent for the whole country on how to treat individuals' privacy. He did rule, however, that the state could employ some surveillance services under extreme conditions, but doing so would require prior permission from a judge. Such an exception would be made when there is "clear evidence of a concrete threat," similar to what is already required to tap a suspect's phone lines under current German law.
Surprisingly, Schäuble seemed to welcome the judge's opinion, saying that he would refer to the clause allowing surveillance when preparing new legislation. "I hope that the insecurity felt by young people will be tempered by this decision; it shows that our government... protects the people's rights," Schäuble said, according to the Associated Press.
The ruling goes against the example of countries like the US and UK which continue to push for increased surveillance at the expense of privacy. Network security experts, however, warned earlier this month that such wide-scale digital surveillance could actually create new security risks. "The US could build for its opponents something that would be too expensive for them to build for themselves," researchers noted, "a system that lets them see the US's intelligence interests, a system that could tell them how to thwart those interests, and a system that might be turned to intercept the communications of American citizens and institutions.""I never liked it and told Ilya it would be better not to smoke it, it would be better to just smoke weed… But it's cheap, and you can pretty much find spice wherever you spit," said Valera, a friend of Ilya's who attended a traditional vodka-drenched funeral banquet for his departed comrade on a recent Friday.
In recent months, spice has led to the hospitalization of 700 Russians and at least two dozen deaths, leading authorities to begin cracking down on the drug that is fast replacing heroin and the infamous skin-rotting opiate "krokodil" as a public menace.
Ilya is one of a growing number of victims claimed by this seemingly harmless pot substitute that often proves highly addictive. Effects vary widely since the actual chemicals used in spice mixtures change frequently, outpacing lawmakers' attempts to ban them.
This was "spice," a smoking mixture made from spraying marijuana-mimicking designer drugs on innocuous herbs. Two years after the night that Ilya smoked it in a cigarette with friends near Pushkin Square, he died at the age of 35 from an overdose of vodka, heroin, and spice in the apartment he shared with his mother and brother. Ilya's brother, who was smoking spice with him that night, is now in hospital for drug detoxification.
Standing by a bench near Pushkin Square in downtown Moscow, Ilya put a small chunk of a green substance into the end of a cigarette and lit up. What immediately followed was 15 minutes of disorientation and disembodiment, like getting dead drunk and losing control over your speech and movements.
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Standing by a bench near Pushkin Square in downtown Moscow, Ilya put a small chunk of a green substance into the end of a cigarette and lit up. What immediately followed was 15 minutes of disorientation and disembodiment, like getting dead drunk and losing control over your speech and movements.
This was "spice," a smoking mixture made from spraying marijuana-mimicking designer drugs on innocuous herbs. Two years after the night that Ilya smoked it in a cigarette with friends near Pushkin Square, he died at the age of 35 from an overdose of vodka, heroin, and spice in the apartment he shared with his mother and brother. Ilya's brother, who was smoking spice with him that night, is now in hospital for drug detoxification.
Ilya is one of a growing number of victims claimed by this seemingly harmless pot substitute that often proves highly addictive. Effects vary widely since the actual chemicals used in spice mixtures change frequently, outpacing lawmakers' attempts to ban them.
In recent months, spice has led to the hospitalization of 700 Russians and at least two dozen deaths, leading authorities to begin cracking down on the drug that is fast replacing heroin and the infamous skin-rotting opiate "krokodil" as a public menace.
"I never liked it and told Ilya it would be better not to smoke it, it would be better to just smoke weed… But it's cheap, and you can pretty much find spice wherever you spit," said Valera, a friend of Ilya's who attended a traditional vodka-drenched funeral banquet for his departed comrade on a recent Friday.
"You can't get it at kiosks anymore because they've already closed them down, but spice sellers write telephone numbers on the pavement, and everybody in the neighborhood knows each other anyway."
Yevgeny Roizman, is mayor of Russia's fourth-largest city Yekaterinburg and he cofounded the City Without Drugs foundation that has won both praise and notoriety for its harsh methods of treating addicts. He has warned that "heroin in Russia is yesterday's problem" because spice is much more widely used and attracts younger users.
"People don't know what they're smoking and for that reason the results are so bad," Roizman told VICE News. "They bring them into psych wards and they don't know what to do with them… The most common effect is that people go crazy. There are very serious psychological consequences."
UN warns of unprecedented surge in synthetic drug use worldwide. Read more here.
The Yekaterinburg news outlet Znak.com reported that drug overdoses rose there in September, quoting a report from in the regional poisoning center that 20 of the 32 drug users admitted there that month had taken designer drugs often used in spice.
Spice hit the Russian news in late September after at least 150 people were poisoned and four died after smoking it in the Kirov region, including one 15-year-old boy who became ill after smoking the substance on a riverbank, then fell in and drowned. The epidemic soon began to spread, killing six spice smokers in the Siberian city of Surgut, two in the Komi Republic and poisoning many more in these and other regions. A 16-year-old female refugee from war-torn Luhansk in eastern Ukraine died this month after smoking spice in the Krasnodar region in southern Russia.
Russian state television hinted that the drug's distribution was to blame on groups from neighboring Ukraine.
Russian media have reported that spice users often commit suicide and shown footage of crazed people jumping out of windows. "One day I stood up and I understood with absolute clarity that the only way for me to escape from the awful life I was in was to murder both of my children, and then kill myself," one spice addict told the Guardian. "I was crystal clear that this was the only course of action open to me. Luckily, my husband stopped me, and calmed me down. But what about people who don't have that support?"
In October, the director of Russia's Federal Drug Control Service Viktor Ivanov said spice mixtures had poisoned a total of 700 and killed at least two dozen since September 19. These lethal batches of spice contained a new designer drug known as MDMB (N)-Bz-F, which is not on the government's list of banned substances and is therefore not illegal, he added. (The drug is sometimes sold online and can also be obtained in the United States.)
Law enforcement authorities had begun "intensive" operations to find the drug and had detained 20 suspected spice dealers, Ivanov said, but he admitted that the "size of the problem is growing rapidly," with a total of 22 tons of spice confiscated by authorities. He blamed the epidemic on mass smuggling operations by "foreign mafia," as well as the inability of the Russian authorities to keep up with the quickly changing chemical formulas of the designer drugs used in spice.
Russian state television hinted that the drug's distribution was to blame on groups from neighboring Ukraine, where Russian soldiers have been supporting a separatist uprising in the country's east. A segment on the Rossiya-1 news show hosted by Dmitry Kiselyov, the virulently anti-gay and anti-Western television presenter who also heads the Kremlin's international news service Rossiya Segodnya, showed four men it said were Ukrainians who had smuggled spice in Surgut being detained by police. "Three weeks ago they were recruited in Nikolayev. They were offered $3,000 a month to work in Russia," the narrator intones. But the segment said the spice itself was produced in China.
Among the measures Ivanov proposed were new regulations allowing Russia's Federal Drug Control Service to ban for three years new substances it deems to be narcotics, and legislation to this effect has been introduced to parliament. The service has also proposed raising the prison term to eight years for those who sell spice as part of a criminal gang, or who sell spice that results in the death of a user.
Roman Khudyakov, a parliamentary deputy from the nationalist Liberal Democratic Party of Russia, recently proposed that country reintroduces the death penalty specifically for spice dealers.
A recently published video showed drug control service "special forces" in bulletproof vests and helmets staging a dramatic |
who was pregnant with the suspect’s second child at the time of her slaying. Police in San Antonio say Jennifer Delgado was nine months pregnant when on Monday morning she was gunned down by Armando Rodrigo Garcia-Ramires, 35, who then tried to take his own life. Investigators say the victim already had a one-year-old son with Garcia-Ramirez, who at one time had been her stepfather. The suspect had been released on bond from the custody of the US Immigration and Customs Enforcement last May. Records reviewed by the Houston Chronicle indicate that Armando Garcia-Ramires, a native of Mexico, was first picked up by ICE agents in January 2011 through the criminal alien program of San Antonio, and he was released on bond less than a month later.
Notice the part where he already had a one-year-old son with the girl he murdered? Subtract one year and nine months from 15. Yes, he impregnated his STEPDAUGHTER when she was 13 years old.
So not only was Armando illegal and a murderer, he was also a daughter-doing pedophile. I guess this guy was going for some kind of record.
But the worst part of all this? ICE had this guy in their paws years ago. Meaning with proper vetting, the entire thing could have possibly been avoided…
While leftists fawn over open borders, they ignore the truckloads of stories like this. It’s becoming a pattern. Clearly illegals aren’t all too concerned with silly things like following the law (or not murdering people), in case the term for them doesn’t make that obvious enough. While some “undocumented citizens” may be coming here to open a taco truck and take care of their abuela, others are big, murderous pieces of doggy-doo. Yet we’ve heard nary a peep from the left on this. I’m sure you can guess why (see New Report: Hillary Gained Hundreds of THOUSANDS of Votes. From ‘Non Citizens’…).
The wall can’t come soon enough…
NOT SUBSCRIBED TO THE PODCAST? FIX THAT! IT’S COMPLETELY FREE ON BOTH ITUNES HERE AND SOUNDCLOUD HERE.New research suggests that dodos, the plump, flightless birds that went extinct in the 17th century, might not deserve their longtime association with stupidity.
The volcanic island of Mauritius, located in the Indian Ocean about 500 miles east of Madagascar, remained uninhabited (by humans, at least) until 1598, when Dutch explorers took possession of it. Long before that, however, the island was the only known habitat of the large, flightless birds known as dodo birds (Raphus cucullatus). Having never seen humans before, the dodos on Mauritius showed no fear of the newly arrived sailors, and were easily hunted or herded onto ships and used as a readily available food source. By 1662, the dodo bird was extinct.
Skeleton cast and model of dodo at the Oxford University Museum of Natural History, based on modern research. (Credit: Oxford University Museum of Natural History)
Scientists don’t know that much about the dodo’s biology, as specimens of the long-extinct bird are rare. It was the sad truth of their all-too-quick extinction that most likely fueled the popular stereotype of dodos as stupid creatures—bumbling, overweight birds that couldn’t even fly. The new study, published this week in the Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society, suggests that this characterization may be unfair, and that dodos might actually have been reasonably intelligent.
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The study’s lead author is Eugenia Gold, a research associate and recent graduate of the American Museum of Natural History’s Richard Gilder Graduate School, and an instructor in the Department of Anatomical Sciences at Stony Brook University. Gold’s team used high-resolution computed tomography (CT) scanning to examine the well-preserved skull of a dodo bird in the collections of the Natural History Museum in London. The researchers then used the scans to build virtual brain endocasts, which allowed them to determine overall brain size as well as the size of various structures within.
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Scientists have determined through DNA analysis that the dodo belongs in the dove and pigeon family, and Gold’s team also used CT scanning on the skulls of seven species of pigeon. These included Columba livia, the common pigeon most of us encounter every day on city streets, as well as more exotic species. Also for purposes of comparison, Natural History Museum of Denmark and the National Museum of Scotland sent Gold an endocast for the dodo’s closest relative, the island-dwelling bird Rodrigues solitaire (Pezophaps solitaria), which was recently driven into extinction by human activity.
The dodo presenting Alice with a thimble from the 1st edition of Alice in Wonderland. (Credit: Hulton Archive/Getty Images)
When comparing the size of the birds’ brains with their body sizes, the researchers found the dodo’s brain to be comparable in size to that of a modern pigeon, and right in line with its body size. As Gold told Phys.org: “It’s not impressively large or impressively small—it’s exactly the size you would predict it to be for its body size. So if you take brain size as a proxy for intelligence, dodos probably had a similar intelligence level to pigeons. Of course, there’s more to intelligence than just overall brain size, but this gives us a basic measure.”
In addition to a nicely proportionate overall brain size, the researchers also found that both the dodo and the solitaire had a large, differentiated olfactory bulb. In general, birds depend on sight much more than smell, and tend to have larger optic lobes than olfactory lobes. But the new findings suggest that because dodos and solitaires were closer to the ground, they probably relied more on their sense of smell to find their food. Scientists think dodos dined on fruit, in addition to small land vertebrates and marine animals such as shellfish.
This fruit-based island diet may have been one of the things that indirectly led to the dodo bird’s eventual extinction. It’s widely believed that the dodo originally migrated to Mauritius by flight, but adapted over millions of years to its isolated island way of life, with its lack of predators and large quantity of fruit located on or close to the ground. Flightlessness and gigantism were two of the traits they adapted. With no experience of humans, the dodo didn’t show any fear of the Dutch sailors when they arrived, making them an easy target. In addition to acting as predators themselves, the Dutch also introduced non-native animals such as dogs, pigs and rats to the island, all of which helped spell disaster for the dodo bird.Desperation does not look good on Bernie Sanders. First, he misleads his supporters, saying Hillary called him “unqualified” to be president. She did not. She simply suggested he was unprepared because of his disastrous New York Daily News interview. He followed that deception by saying Hillary Clinton, one of the most qualified candidates in history, isn’t qualified to be president.
Hillary Clinton did not say Bernie Sanders was 'not qualified.' But he has now – absurdly – said it about her. This is a new low. — Brian Fallon (@brianefallon) April 7, 2016
Bernie should apologize to Hillary and to American voters for his words. They are embarrassing — and a gift to the GOP.
Is this all about winning for him at this point? Seems to be.
And CNN’s Don Lemon and Brianna Keilar should retract their statements that Hillary said Bernie is unqualified. It is irresponsible journalism.
The Hill:
Clinton also repeatedly dodged in her “Morning Joe” interview Wednesday when pressed by host Joe Scarborough to say whether she thought Sanders was qualified to be president.
Watch the CNN segment with Bernie’s reprehensible remarks:
And here’s Rachel Maddow explaining what Hillary said and how Bernie took it to an entirely different place:
UPDATE: Response from Brianna Keilar.
(AP Photo/Patrick Semansky)A federal lawsuit was filed Tuesday against an Eastern Shore school system on behalf of a 14-year-old transgender boy who wants to use the locker rooms consistent with his gender identity.
FreeState Justice has filed a federal lawsuit against Talbot County, saying that it is violating Title lX, the equal protection clause of the U.S. Constitution.
The boy, who was not identified in the lawsuit, will be a ninth grader at St. Michaels Middle-High School, and wants to try out for soccer in August, according to Jer Welter, FreeState Justice's deputy director and managing attorney.
During last school year, the boy used a gender neutral restroom far from the gym and his classrooms, Welter said. "This has been a problem. It is stigmatizing for him. It marks him as different from the other students," Welter said.
In other ways, the school has been accommodating, Welter said. During seventh grade, as he transitioned, the school used the correct pronoun to refer to him, and allowed him to use his chosen name. Students at the school have been generally supportive as well, he said.
After a ruling by U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit gave a transgender boy in Virginia the right to use a restroom, Talbot County allowed the St. Michaels student to use the boys' restroom, but said the ruling did not apply to locker rooms.
The U.S. Department of Education also gave guidance to school systems in May saying they must allow transgender students to use the facilities consistent with their gender identity.
The Talbot County Board of Education's attorney was not available for comment.
FreeState Justice is a social justice organization, formed through the recent merger of Maryland LGBTQ advocacy organizations FreeState Legal and Equality Maryland.
liz.bowie@baltsun.comEvery morning, my automatic alarm clock fills the air with a terribly annoying sound. I stumble into the kitchen to turn on the automatic kettle as I listen to my automatic bible. Then I brush my teeth with my automatic toothbrush before grudgingly grabbing my work clothes from the automatic dryer. I walk outside, press my automatic remote control, and obtain instant access to my automatic car. At the office, I breeze through the automatic doors just in time to catch the automatic elevator to my automated workspace on the second floor.
After work, I drive back home in my automatic car. Make dinner with my automatic rice cooker. Do the dishes in my automatic dishwasher and load some laundry into my automatic washing machine. I fiddle with a few other things around the house and finally retire for the night…in my automatic bed.
I followed this regimen religiously with only a few variations from day to day. My guess is that your routine and mine bear many similarities.
Great Right? Wait Until You Hear the Rest…
One day, I noticed a serious glitch in the system—my mind. My thought patterns were changing.
In the process of automating everything, I seemed to have lost control over my thoughts. In a sense, my thoughts had become…well…automatic. I didn’t need to try to think bad things—they just seemed to gush into my subconscious. My mind was like a PC and my thoughts had become internet viruses. It was terrifying.
After weeks of frustration, I finally realized something. The more I could automate, the less I needed to observe. The less I needed to observe, the less I needed to think. The less I needed to think, the less control I had over my thoughts.
After all, why think through a problem when the answers are just a Google search away?
I did many things to regain control of my mind. If you consistently find yourself struggling with unhealthy thoughts, start with this list.
When you listen to audiobooks or talk shows, argue with the speaker in your mind. Always exercise your freedom to think differently from everyone else. Do not accept every deep and insightful idea right away. Ruminate on it. Think about it from several different angles. Analyze it with intensity before accepting (or rejecting) it. Engage in serious conversations…even with strangers. The weather is tired of being talked about. Talk about world events, money, and social issues instead. Engage in serious conversation. Don’t be afraid of sounding intelligent. Ask yourself tough questions. Why are you working at that job? Why are you really dating that person? Are you truly fulfilled? Answer the tough questions you ask yourself. Thou art not a robot. Don’t go through life on someone else’s schedule. Think through your problems. Approach problems with creativity. Google searches shrink the size of your brain. Seriously they do. Think through other people’s problems. Be the go-to person when a problem needs to be solved. The more you think, the more you grow. When you have a brain fart, don’t just roll over and die. Force your brain to think deeply until you remember the information that is escaping your memory. Give yourself at least 5-10 minutes before you give up. Use the stairs occasionally. Wash a few clothes by hand. Do the dishes manually. Take the time to appreciate the moment and engage in some of the mundane aspects of life. Slow down…notice that you’re alive…and smile
Does this take some effort? Yes, it does.
Is this stuff difficult? No, it is not.
Don’t procrastinate. Don’t wait until tomorrow. Each day is a precious gift. Don’t let negativity ruin that gift. Post a comment below, print off this list and start today!
Photo by Bhumika.BThe Drexel University professor who tweeted that “all I want for Christmas is white genocide” is now encouraging Philadelphians to shut down Charles Murray’s next lecture.
[RELATED: Drexel prof claims white genocide tweet was merely satire]
“The theories put forward by Charles Murray…are violent theories that encourage violent harassment and action.”
“Philly! white supremacist ideologue @charlesmurray will be speaking @VillanovaU on Thursday,” Prof. George Ciccariello-Maher tweeted Tuesday night, adding, “please do what you can to make this impossible!”
Murray was invited to Villanova University by the Ryan Center, which is concerned with promoting civil, economic, and financial liberty; federalism; and the American Constitution.
Professor Ciccariello-Maher defended his tweet to Campus Reform, calling Murray a “pseudoscientific racist” and arguing that Murray has “no place on a college campus” and that “no one is required to respect his views.”
[RELATED: Angry mob turns on liberal prof for defending Charles Murray]
“I expect many students and others will use their own free speech to make this perfectly clear on Thursday,” he noted. “Nowhere [in the First Amendment] does it say that speech cannot be loud and unruly.”
Further, when asked if he condoned violence as a form of free speech, as has been seen at recent lectures given by conservative speakers, Ciccariello-Maher seemed to justify it.
“The theories put forward by Charles Murray…are violent theories that encourage violent harassment and action,” he responded. “I think those deemed unfit by Murray—people of color and women in particular—are under no obligation to be polite about it. Charles Murray is not a victim.”
Professor Ciccariello-Maher did not respond to a follow-up question on whether he has actually read any of Murray’s books.
Murray’s lecture exploring "What Does Trumpism Mean for Liberty in the Long Run?" is being co-sponsored by the Villanova Economics department. The event will be open to current students, but a limited number of tickets are available to the public with an RSVP.
UPDATE: Ciccariello-Maher also caused a stir with a tweet he sent several days earlier disparaging the military after someone gave up their first class seat in gratitude to a uniformed soldier.
"Some guy gave up his first class seat for a uniformed soldier," the professor observed. "People are thanking him. I'm trying not to vomit or yell about Mosul."
Follow the author of this article on Twitter: @Toni_Airaksinenad Halabi, 19, who killed two men in Jerusalem on October 3, an official from the ruling Palestinian Fatah party said he “salutes the soul of [the] martyr who detonated the Jerusalem Intifada” and declared
Jamal Muhaisen, a member of Fatah’s Central Committee, participated in the rally that the Palestinian Ma’an news agency dubbed “a national wedding,” in reference to the Islamic tenet that 72 virgins will wed martyrs in heaven.”It is the right of our young men to cause Israeli women to cry like our women are crying, even though our women make sounds of joy after their sons’ and husbands’ deaths as Martyrs,” said Muhaisen. Halabi has gained particular eminence in Palestinian society for being the first to carry out a successful stabbing attack, now lauded as the catalyst for a string of copycat stabbings in the month and a half that followed.
Halabi, who stabbed Rabbi Nehemiah Lavi and Aharon Bennett to death while they were walking with their wives and a 2-year-old child in the Old City of Jerusalem, was shot dead by Israeli police.
PLO Central Committee Member and Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine (DFLP) member Omar Shehadeh said at the rally that Halabi “represents an example and role model for generations of young.” PLO Executive Committee member and Deputy Secretary-General of the DFLP Qais Abd Al-Karim called the terrorist a “hero,” and expressed his “pride” at Halabi’s loyalty to the cause.
The Palestinian Authority also erected a memorial in honor of the terrorist next to his home. During the inauguration of the edifice – which displays Halabi’s name under his image, along with a map of “Greater Palestine”A white woman was filmed last week throwing her drink on two black men who were reportedly kneeling during the national anthem. The incident occurred during a pre-season L.A. Lakers game and was caught on camera by the attacker’s friend.
"This is for the national anthem, you pieces of shit," the woman yelled as she tossed her drink.
Shortly after the clip made its way onto the internet, the attacker and her friend were identified as California Baptist University students Haley Perea and Savannah Sugg.
Savannah Sugg & Haley Perea. Cal Baptist. If you see this 2 girls, make sure to throw them a drink or whatever you have in your hand. pic.twitter.com/5uo38ymuth — Popeye (@JBurgos117) October 7, 2017
According to the Root, Sugg filmed the attack and later posted it on social media with the caption: "'Take a kneel [sic] for the land of the slaves.' Disrespect our flag and our country and that’s how we’ll react." As expected, the video went viral and resulted in some serious backlash. Sugg and Perea have since deleted all their social media accounts, presumably to avoid the onslaught of negative attention.
Many people have also reached out to Cal Baptist University, urging the "Christ-centered" institution to take action against the women.
@calbaptist It is your responsibility to publicly condemn the actions of students Haley Perea and Savannah Sugg. — Maya (@dearmaya) October 6, 2017
@calbaptist Haley Perea & Savannah Sugg publicized own racist crime. You have an Honor Code -- do you have honor? Do not downplay this. — Prancine (@Prancine101) October 7, 2017
2 @calbaptist students pour drinks and racial slurs over 2 siting during anthem
Some things haven’t changed
video: https://t.co/mfzF91KeNb pic.twitter.com/SDoaClGQQi — alex medina (@mrmedina) October 7, 2017
The school issued the following statement:
On Wednesday, October 4, 2017, an incident occurred at a pre-season NBA basketball game at the Ontario Citizens Business Bank Arena. While this was not an event affiliated with California Baptist University, two current CBU students were involved. On Thursday morning, October 5, 2017, CBU learned of this incident and initiated an investigation and plans to take appropriate action. CBU does not condone or support the behavior depicted in the recording of the incident. CBU takes this matter very seriously and is cooperating with law enforcement and arena management.
A source told the Tab that the two black men are planning to press charges against Sugg and Perea.
"I was not there but my friends came over right after the incident," Tony Messina, a student at a community college in Riverside, said. "They didn't stand during the national anthem, and during the fourth quarter is when the girls threw the beer on them. They tried to chase after them to make sure they were caught, but a little bit later they were assaulted by this other white guy. I guess the girl went up to the students and so he came up to my friend. He ended up putting up my hand around my black friend's neck, and said: 'boy, you need to be put in your place.' The police came, and after two minutes of questioning, they let that guy go. They were upset, they were bewildered. They couldn't believe what happened to them. They really did nothing wrong. Those girls can't just get away with this, or they'll keep thinking it's OK."
To absolutely no one’s surprise, Sugg and Perea are reportedly Donald Trump supporters. The Tab also pointed out Perea had a habit of using the N-word on social media, posting messages like "Too many niggas here. Not about that" and "I love calling my roommate 'nigga.' She freaks out everytime."Posted by
Aaron Nielsen,
November 8, 2013 Email
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With all three Canadian MLS teams finishing off disappointing 2013 seasons, albeit in different ways, questions about coaching has been a topic of debate at all three clubs. It brings up an interesting question in terms of how much impact the manager has on the success of the soccer club and if a club, instead of paying money for a high priced designated player, used the money to hire a manager from the highest level of the game, would it be better value for money? This idea would go against my general view of MLS knowing the most successful managers like Bruce Arena and Sigi Schmid have deep roots in American Soccer, including coaching at the college level. I also wrote in my last college article the potential of the college coach in MLS and named five worthy individuals who I feel could be successful in the league. Most recently, as part of my ongoing work with global soccer and statistics, I was tabulating the final 2013 statistics for the Chinese Super League. This league could be seen as an even more extreme example of MLS, where the clubs have attendances of 30,000 a game, large sums of money to spend but the result has been a much weaker local domestic product and player development system that arguably has the current China National Team in a worse off position in terms of talent than the Canadian National team. Like Canada, despite the addition of a viable league, the Chinese National team failed to make it out of the 2nd Group of qualifying for the 2014 World Cup and the current National team only has one player currently playing at a high level of competition. Chen Zhizhao, who is playing with Corinthians in Brazil, and this is despite the China Super League existing for over ten years employing over 800 Chines-born players. The Chinese Super League doesn't have a salary cap (MLS and Australia A-League are only leagues who do) and instead the league plays by traditional FIFA rules and restricts each club to just four internationals. Despite the lack of internationals, 18% compared to MLS 48%, the Chinese Super League has spent more freely than the MLS in recruiting players and paying transfers fees. They also seem to have larger network in terms of scouting and bringing players in from around the World. A few known names who play in the Chinese Super League include Fredy Kanouté, Yakubu Aiyegbeni, Seydou Keita, Fábio Rochemback, Darío Conca, as well upcoming South American prospects who are worth millions of dollars in the transfer market, including Elkeson and Giovanni Moreno. Moreno plays for Shanghai Shenhua, who last season became known for having Didier Drogba and Nicolas Anelka, and then paying another $10 Million for Moreno's services, although by seasons end in 2012, the club only finished 9th. Many teams in the Chinese Super League have a strong handle on foreign imports, and club budgets are much higher than MLS. However, a stars name or performance doesn't seem to effect the position of the teams as one might predict, even though the domestic players seem evenly spread out from club to club. Interestingly enough, over the past couple seasons one team has dominated: Guangzhou Evergrande. This season Guangzhou are also playing in the AFC Champions League finals, beating high profile and much better known Asian clubs from Japan, South Korea and Saudi Arabia in the process. The most probabable reason for their success has been the coach, Marcello Lippi. The former Juventus and Italian World Cup winning coach, Lippi joined the South China club in May of last season and since then he has a record 46 wins, 13 draws and five losses. MLS, especially during its early history, did sign known managers such as Brazilian's Carlos Parreira and Ivo Wortmann, as well as Carlos Queiroz and most recently the failed experiment of “Sexy Football” with the LA Galaxy hiring of Ruud Gullit, and even the PG version of Aaron Winter in Toronto. The issues were noticeable in terms of not understanding the talent, expecting too much, and like every DP criticism - just here for the money. The league and teams were also to blame for not giving the manager free reign and not allowing the manager to create a culture, and instead in many cases were in conflict with other members of management at the club. Furthermore, these managers at the time were not "DP" quality and didn't have the track record of a Marcello Lippi, who is a manager who expects to win and throughout his career has only done that. The reality is that in many ways the modern manager has overshadowed the player in terms of success and the beautiful game. In the history of MLS no teams has come close in matching Alex Ferguson's example of long term success or Jose Mourinho's incredible streaks of multiple seasons not losing at home. Outside of England, managers such as Pep Guardiola and Jurgen Klopp are as known and as famous as the players they manage. What the current world of soccer has shown us, is that with unlimited resources players come and go but it's the managers who create the identity for the club. This is also true in MLS where the most consistent clubs have been managed by the most high profile managers Bruce Arena, Sigi Schmid or Dominic Kinnear, while up and coming teams such as Real Salt Lake and Portland are more known for their managers than their players. So if I was the Vancouver Whitecaps I would explore bringing in a Guus Hiddink, Ottmar Hitzfeld, or if he needs to be English a Bob Bradley, Ian Holloway or Tony Pulis, or who knows perhaps Marcello Lippi might be looking for a new challenge and I would much rather see him demonstrate his skills in MLS than the large list of designated players currently being considered. The reality is, an individual players performance is not accountable for the success of a team on the field. That is the role of club development and most importantly in the sport of soccer, the manager. In a league and a country that is still learning the game, trying to develop players, understand tactics and how to win on the big stage, I feel a manager who has succeeded at the highest level of the game might be the best value for the clubs players, fans and winning as well. Aaron Nielsen has worked within the soccer/sports industry for over 15 years. His statistical analysis brings the beautiful game in a whole new light. The detailed player data and prospect lists he produces are used by many scouts, agents, and football insiders around the world.You can find updating stats regularly at ENBSports.The race to become the first manufacturer to launch a completely bezeless device has officially ended, and the unexpected winner is Sharp. In a way, this probably should’ve been expected, seeing as Sharp were the ones who really kicked off the trend with the stunning Sharp Aquos Crystal years ago.
The brand new bezeless devices are the Sharp FS8016 and FS8010, two identical devices with different processors. Where the FS8016 features a Snapdragon 660 processor, the FS8010 will have a Snapdragon 330. They will come in two variants of 4GB and 6GB RAM, both paired with 64GB internal memory.
Both models will feature a 5.5-inch display with a resolution of 2048 x 1080p and really high screen to body ratios. Both devices will come with dual 12MP rear cameras and an 8MP shooter. As for the preloaded software, both devices will come running on Android 7.1.1. We’ll be able to find out more at the official launch on the 17th of July.
This is quite the impressive feat for Sharp, though they’ve been pulling this stuff for quite a while now. These devices are still clearly mid-range devices though, which means any plucky company can still claim the spot of first high-end bezeless device.Works Partnership's house on 53rd Avenue (photo by Joshua Jay Elliot)
BY BRIAN LIBBY
Condos in North and Southeast Portland. A prototype house in Northeast. A passive house in Southwest. Three midcentury gems in the West Hills and Beaverton. Even the scene of a Portlandia episode. This year's second annual Modern Home Tour seeks to offer a little bit of everything modern from the mid-20th Century to today.
Curated by Portland Architecture and scheduled for Saturday, March 9 from 11-5, the 2013 Modern Home Tour features a cross section of designers past and present, from acclaimed and award-winning firms of today such as Works Partnership, Holst, Departure Design, Edgar Papazian and William Kaven to earlier generation designers and builders such as Richard Campbell, Robert Rummer and John Dukehart.
Take Works Partnership's house on NE 53rd Avenue, an excersise in protyping over prefabrication.
"We, as a profession, speak romantically about prefabrication and mass production as a way to bring thoughtful design to mainstream homebuyers," the architects write. "We hope for tight construction costs of $150/sf and 'fast' schedules of 6 months. We are a little lost. The American mass housing industry’s bottom line is closer to $60-75/sf and houses are completed in 40-75 days out in the converted farmland of exurbia. Using the building blocks of the typical American house we asked not only what types of spaces they could contain, but what types of spaces could they create; a change not so much in architectural configuration, but a change in lifestyle. We wanted to return to utilitarian simplicity and a model of living large in a smaller home." The 3 bedroom, 2.5-bath home is oriented around a courtyard and designed around an existing mature cedar tree, with a one-bedroom accessory dwelling unit in back.
Architect Edgar Papazian's home in Southeast Portland was made famous last year when it appeared in a Portlandia episode. But it was distinctive long before that.
Eyebrow House (photos by Brian Libby)
Papazian, who previously worked for prestigious firms like Polshek Partnership and SANAA, expanded a modest existing cottage on a low-budget with inexpensive materials like corrugated metal as well as an eye for curves and uncommon material juxtapositions. When I first visited the house in 2010, it seemed to be an odd marriage of house and Quanset hut. But the more I explored it, the more I came to love what Papazian had done.
The North House by William Kaven Architecture and the Clinton Condominiums by Holst Architecture both represent the multi-family housing boom of the 2000s as it came to Portland's historic neighborhoods. Each, at the time of its construction, met opposition from neighbors who decried the incompatability of the contemporary architecture with the existing fabric of homes. But I'd argue that each over the years has come to fit well into its neighborhood.
Above: North House (photo by Daniel Kaven), below: Clinton Condos (photo by Brian Libby)
The North House fits three condos discreetly onto its site so as not to tower over existing houses, and inside the views are bright and airy. The Clinton has become a center of its neighborhood, with floor-to-ceiling glass and mahogany on the ground floor giving way to a gritty facade of weathered steel.
Built in 1966, the three-bedroom house by Richard Campbell is a delightful fusion of wood and open space. With oak floors and cedar ceilings under a soaring split roof, the home is a quintessential example of the Northwest Modern style that proliferated here from the 1930s-60s. Campbell, one of the co-founders of the firm now known as YGH Architecture, won awards from both the American Institute of Architects and Sunset magazine for his design.
Richard Campbell House (photos courtesy Michael Cogliantry)
Like the Eichler builder homes of California that inspired them, the midcentury Rummer Homes scattered across the Portland metro area are highly coveted, thanks to their open floor plans and bounty of natural light - not to mention a certain Brady Bunch meets Richard Neutra retro feel.
This original Rummer home was built in 1966 and is one of only two known homes with this floor plan. It went through a complete remodel in 2009 with an eye to maintaining the mid-century appeal while updating the mechanicals, kitchen, and bathrooms. Jeffrey Wiseman, homeowner and proprieter of Rose City Modern, has decorated the home with mid-century furniture and accent pieces from his own antique store as well as others around Portland.
Rummer House on Bonnie Brae Street in Beaverton (photo courtesy Marisa Swenson)
Patrick O’Neill and Jayne Cronlund O’Neill purchased the home tour home on SW Beaverton Avenue in the Council Crest neighborhood in 2004. The house, originally designed by John Dukehart for his parents as a place to retire, was still in its original condition with no major remodels. Both Patrick and Jayne saw a great potential restoration/renovation opportunity.
O'Neill, founder of Greenline Fine Woodworking, developed potential restoration/renovation concepts over the next 8 years while living in the house. As part of the design development process, the O’Neill’s commissioned Japanese Garden master Hoichi Kurisu, to design the gardens. With the garden plan complete (though not constructed), Patrick was able to fully design the interior renovations.
O'Neill residence (images courtesy Patrick O'Neill)
Portland's Departure Design is the sole firm with two houses on the tour. Their Full Plane Passive House has quietly reached the ranks of Portland’s most sustainable residences, pursuing both Passive House and the Living Building Challenge standards. To meet net-zero water goals, composting toilets, stormwater catchment, and greywater reuse are incorporated. PassiveHouse technologies and photovoltaics help the Full Plane PassiveHouse surpass net-zero energy requirements, moving towards net-positive energy.
Full Plane Passive House (photos by Mitchell Snyder Photography)
Departure's other project features a unique program including a simple one-bedroom, 1,400 square foot home with an open studio for music, painting, and videography. The straightforward design balances simplicity and restraint. Irregular but beautiful natural materials, like the salvaged fir siding from the Oregon State Mental Hospital, are set against playful colors and forms, like the bright yellow spiral stair.
Departure's Ivon Street residence (photos by Mitchell Snyder Photography)
Spring and fall are often loaded with home tours. Besides this tour, for example, the Historic Preservation League is producing a tour of historic midcentury-modern Saul Zaik homes happening on May 11. The Architectural Heritage Center is offering a "Kitchen Revival Tour" on April 13. But regardless of one's tour preferences, the return of sunny weather is a chance for Oregonians to check out what their neighbors have been up to, and how modern architecture continues to inspire across generations.
AdvertisementsThe original Bucktown restaurant hasn't opened yet, but Jeff Mauro and Co. already plan to open a second Pork & Mindy's in the spring. A spokeswoman confirmed that Mauro, the Food Network "Sandwich King" star, will open another sandwich spot at 4359 W. Irving Park Road inside the Get a Grip cycles shop which is also owned by Mauro and business partner Kevin Corsello.
Some Facebook sleuthing by the Old Irving Park Association first made the connection, despite the typo with Corsello's name. The sandwich shop's menu doesn't really focus on pork, as selections also include chicken and waffle, a veggie-friendly smoked mozzarella, lamb and chuck roast. But true to the name there's still hickory-smoked pork shoulder and pig candy. Check out the full menu here. No one involved will confirm if more locations are planned for the future.
Come back for more details on when the Bucktown spot will open, as it could do so before the end of the year.
UPDATE: A rep now says the Bucktown location should open in early January.As catastrophic flooding and persistent downpours ravaged Texas on Sunday in the wake of Hurricane Harvey, volunteers from the Chicago region mobilized to help.
Volunteers from northern Illinois are part of the developing American Red Cross relief effort to provide shelter and food to residents affected by the storm's destruction. About 10 Illinois volunteers have so far been deployed to provide assistance in the Houston area and the Texas coast. But with downtown Houston and many of the surrounding roads under water, it is unclear when emergency responders from across the country will be able to access the region.
The director of the Illinois Emergency Management Agency, James Joseph, has been in contact with his counterpart in Texas, a spokeswoman, Patti Thompson, said. Illinois also is monitoring Texas's requests for assistance and its specific needs so regional emergency personnel can effectively assist.
At least five people have been killed and more than a dozen injured amid the ongoing disaster. The National Weather Service projected rainfall from the storm could reach 50 inches in some areas, and in tweets called the storm and the scope of its damage "unprecedented," "life-threatening" and "beyond anything experienced."
Photos on social media show several feet of flood waters swallowing up large swaths of the city, including major expressways and intersections. |
fatal to his own political future.Post by DD Stanislaw » Monday 30 May 2011, 10:22
A "Children's Day", as an event, is celebrated on various days in many places around the world, in particular to honor children. Major global variants include an International Children's Day on June 1 as adopted in the former Communist bloc, and a Universal Children's Day on November 20, by United Nations recommendation. Children's Day is often celebrated on other days as well.
In Poland, Children's Day (Dzień Dziecka) is celebrated on June 1. The International Children's Day was introduced in Poland in 1952. It coincides with the beginning of summer and it is usually treated as a holiday, as it takes place near the end of the school year. Schools usually organize special activities for the day of the celebration, and the first week of June is a time of festivities organized in parks and entertainment centers for children. Parents usually buy small gifts for their children.
Since we celebrate it in Poland on June 1, we will make up to 40% 2-day discount for all our products in some stores - for the 31st May and 1st June.At this years Citrix Summit, Citrix announced that the next release of XenServer 7.1 will be made generally available later in Q1.
This latest XenServer 7.1 release introduces new industry-unique features, and with tighter Citrix XenApp/XenDesktop alignment, it sets itself apart from every other hypervisor platform. From simpler deployment options to the easiest and most flexible hypervisor management and support capabilities, XenServer 7.1 represents the best hypervisor choice for XenApp and XenDesktop deployments.
XenServer gets 10 years support!
For the first time, XenServer is a long-term support release (LTSR), and is the only hypervisor to offer the option of a full 10 years of support, with its product lifecycle dates fully aligned with XenApp/XenDeskop. A full Citrix stack simplifies customer infrastructure maintenance with a single end-of-maintenance, end-of-life date.
Integrated image provisioning
Provisioning Services’ image management and deployment is hugely popular with enterprises for application and desktop virtualization, and in XenServer 7.1 it has been more deeply integrated than ever before. The introduction of PVS-Accelerator, a unique host-level cache, results in up to 98% lower network bandwidth requirements per XenServer host, and with a huge improvement in VM boot up times.
Existing PVS customers will be pleased to hear that this integration not only comes at no additional cost, but it has the added benefit of simplifying the PVS architecture, and potentially reducing the number of PVS servers required to simultaneously boot the same number of desktops.
Live patching
Minimizing infrastructure outages is always key for major cloud and large enterprise customers managing infrastructure at scale, however there are often planned outages that require the need to shut down VMs, or migrate them to other infrastructure hosts.
XenServer 7.1 introduces an industry-first live patching capability, enabling IT admins to update their XenServer hypervisors without the need for any VM migrations or shutdowns. This unique capability radically reduces the impact of infrastructure maintenance.
Avoiding the vTax with Hyper-Converged Infrastructure (HCI)
Citrix and Nutanix recently announced XenServer support for Nutanix’s Enterprise Cloud HCI appliances, the use of which entitles Nutanix customers free access to XenServer’s advanced features for Citrix XenApp or XenDesktop use cases. Features include PVS integration, Direct Inspect security APIs, live patching and NVIDIA GRID vGPU for enhanced graphics to name a few.Chile promotes nudism-naturism tourism; holds regional conference in 2012
15th Monday, November 2010 - 19:05 UTC Full article
The nudism and naturism movement in Chile will soon be in the international spotlight, as the country was recently named headquarters for the Latin American Nudism-Naturism Conference, scheduled for March 2012.
“This nomination allows us to promote Chile as a destination for the tourism business, just as we have focused campaigns in Latin America and Europe,” said Carolina Bugmann, head of the Chile Convention Bureau, which is part of the private business Turismo Chile.
Over 5,000 people have registered with Chile’s Nudism-Naturism Association, headquartered in the Luna beach area near Valparaíso.
“The development of international tourism meetings also brings other benefits, as promotional efforts have a multiplying effect and generate jobs and businesses, on top of additional spending by tourists,” Bugmann said.
The Latin American Nudism-Naturism Conference will feature various trekking and hiking competitions, in addition to more typically passive activities like beach-going. Organizers are currently looking to attract businesses to sponsor the event.
“We have a lot of work to do for the summit, because we’re interested in every type of request so that Chile remains on a good foot,” explained René Rojas, who has been president of the Chilean Nudism-Naturism Association for the last 12 years.
According to Rojas there is no single type of person who is interested in the nudism and naturism movement. Professionals and large families alike are equally prone to participation, but what counts most is a desire to connect more closely with nature.
By Alison Silveira – Santiago TimesBrendan Gaunce checks in at sixth in our prospect rankings. The former centre turned winger has parlayed his success at a new position into one of his highest rankings yet.
Gaunce, 22, just had his single most productive season in the AHL, reaching new heights offensively. Though Gaunce tallied a respectable 29 points in 74 games as a rookie, that production pales in comparison to last year’s 38 points in 46 games — especially when one considers the difficult circumstances, including a revolving door of linemates and intermittent trips to the NHL.
Those 46 points were good for third on the Comets, tied with Alexandre Grenier and Carter Bancks. If Gaunce were to play more games with the Comets, it’s entirely likely that he leads the team in scoring last season. Perhaps more impressive though is Gaunce’s gaudy 60% Goals For rate with the Comets; that mark would be impressive at any level.
Gaunce, a versatile forward, is best known for his defensive play, which could be a deciding factor in his team-leading estimated time on ice, at just over 20 minutes per game. Strong defensive play is nothing new for Gaunce, though. His newfound ability to hit the scoresheet regularly at the professional level is surely what caught the Canucks eye and earned him an extended look at the end of last season.
That wasn’t Gaunce’s first cup of coffee with the Canucks, though. He appeared in two games with the big club in October, when he recorded his first career goal. It wasn’t until March 18th that Gaunce got his next call-up, though he remained with the club for the remainder of the season. Playing primarily in a fourth line role, Gaunce fared well maintaining respectable scoring chance and shot attempt rates.
The challenge for Gaunce this upcoming season will be finding a way to build upon the offensive progress he made last year in Utica. He’s entering the stage of his career where he needs to prove he can contribute at the NHL level. Heading into training camp, the 2012 first round pick is going to be battling Jake Virtanen, Alexandre Grenier and other forwards for a roster spot.
Based on Gaunce’s play last season with Utica and his cup of coffee with the Canucks, it wouldn’t be a surprise to see Gaunce start the year with the Canucks as their 13th forward. Should he find himself with the big club, Gaunce is going to need to make the most of his minutes, as he’ll likely be rotating in and out of the Canucks’ bottom six.
If Gaunce does find himself in the AHL, he will likely be one of their most relied upon forwards in all situations. This would allow him to tune up both his offensive and defensive game, as well as continue to show that he can sustain his scoring rates from last year. He will also likely be at the top of the recall list because he is waiver exempt still and has experience in Willie Desjardins’ systems.
When looking at Gaunce’s statistically comparable players through pGPS, 57 of 124 players went on to have successful NHL careers. Of his successful comparables, the average result was that of a third line forward which is really good for Gaunce. His likeliness of succeeding in the NHL will come down to his ability to translate his recent AHL scoring success to the next level. If Gaunce can do that, him becoming a third liner is a reasonable expectation. If he struggles to score at the NHL level, Gaunce could still make it as a fourth-line forward due to his defensive abilities. He also has the benefit of being a former centre, which can provide some backup depth for the Canucks should one of their centres get hurt.
Gaunce is on the cusp of being an everyday NHL forward. In his limited time at the NHL level, it looked like he could hold his own. Based on his stint in the NHL and his success at the AHL level, there is enough evidence to believe that Gaunce can handle an increased role at the NHL level and that he will hit the scoresheet more as a result. Regardless of where Gaunce starts the season, it is very likely that he will be in a Canucks uniform at some point in the 2016/17 season.
While he will have to prove that last year’s AHL success was not just a one-off, there are a lot of reasons to be hopeful for Gaunce’s ability to become an NHLer moving forward.How to beat/farm Roaring Rex Raptor Lvl 40 Duel Links Rex event, Roaring Rex Lvl 40, decks, farming. Duel Links Breaking News Tyranno unlock event is coming today! update 11/09/2017
Here are some decks to farm Roaring Rex Lvl 40. We will update this page daily in the duration of Roaring Rex event! In-depth guides for those decks will be added as well.
Cerberus
Score 6,000 - 7,000 Skill Draw Sense: LIGHT Essential cards
Example deck
Unhappy Girl (7k - 8k)
Use the combo of Unhappy Girl + Holy Guard to lockdown Rex! For in-depth guide and Piranha version of the deck, check the link.
Score 7,000 - 8,000 Skill Holy Guard Essential cards The Unhappy Girl
Example deck
Video
Note: In the video, I forgot to add Blue-Eyes Ult Dragon to the deck so I couldn't achieve Over 9999 Damage.
Labyrinth Builder (7k - 8k)
Use Labyrinth Wall to stall until the final turn, like every other Lab Builder deck. Add spell and trap cards that can immediately destroy Solidarity as soon as it is activated.
Example deck
Video
Elements Unite (7-8k)
Like Lab Builder deck, special summon Gate Guardian with Paradox Bros' skill and stall turs till the end of a duel.
Example deck
Deck
Roaring Rex Lvl 40
Rewards
Comments
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echos echos Thanks rex lvl 30 Reply
Komoney Komoney Waiting for the new event... Reply << Anonymous(Komoney) Anonymous Reply Anonymous I would love to have one of your Destroyarsaurus. Only finished with 2 of them.
Anonymous Anonymous Duel links is slowly dieing in is own way Reply << Anonymous Anonymous Reply Anonymous and so are you, we all are << Anonymous dying not dieing Reply dying not dieing we all are, some eat too many fried chicken, some overwork, some smoke too much, we are all """""dying""""""" in our own way
goku12 goku12 ugh fck. 8000+ assessment everytime over 30 lvl40 Rex, I only had 3 or 4 lvl 30. and no destroyersaurus. just 5 fcking Jurassic world. anybody else stuck with this problem? Reply << Anonymous(goku12) Anonymous Reply Anonymous nope. 3 of each
Anonymous Anonymous The drop rate for Destroyarsaurus is ridiculous. If there is a way to trade I just need 1 more before the event is over. Reply
Anonymous Anonymous should keep this event for another week while the new event is out. Lots of people here have the same problem as I in this conquest to 3 Destroyer saurus'. Reply
Arkana Lv50 Arkana Lv50 -.- Reply << Anonymous(Arkana Lv50) Anonymous Reply Anonymous Prismatic, what are you complaining now? << Anonymous Anonymous Reply Anonymous he's complaining cuz it's not for destroyer sarus. i would complain too
MightySal MightySal 8-9k every single game and i farmed him like over 30 times and 0 Destroyasoausrteolsk....... this is horrible Konami, horrible. i wont pay shit for this game anymore. assholes. Reply << Anonymous(MightySal) Anonymous Reply Anonymous Exactly the same here!! Take a look!! << Anonymous Anonymous Reply Anonymous.... This was me during the Joey event (0 Red Eyes Spirit) and Mokuba (0 Kidmodo and 0 Fire/Ice Dragon) << Anonymous(Anonymous) Anonymous Reply Anonymous Same here for Joey and Mokuba... Trash drop rate << Anonymous I'm triggered too Reply I'm triggered too That picture is close to mine.
Except I got 1 Destroyer saurus
0 hunting instinct
9 jurassic world
86 dark bird shit
goku12 goku12 trap jammer or ultimate providence always worked against jurassic impact. but mf not dropping destroyersaurus. only 4 jurrasic world like wtf komoney Reply
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INDIANAPOLIS – After five years of threats, stalking, and harassment, a woman in North Carolina is facing federal charges. She’s accused of stalking and threatening an Indiana woman for years.
Shamonique Ferguson, 21, is accused of engaging in a pattern of internet threats. The complaint charges Ferguson with extortionate communication, mail threats, and interstate stalking between December of 2016 and April of 2017. The threats involved an Indiana family, three Indiana University campuses, Ivy Tech, and a business in Fishers.
It all began when the victim received a Facebook friend request back in 2012. At the time, the victim was just 13-years-old.
That simple friend request quickly took a nasty turn when she began receiving threats after a fight on Facebook that quickly escalated into Twitter messages and phone calls.
The victim cut off communication and changed her phone number, but it didn’t stop there.
The harassment picked back up in December 2016. According to court documents, Ferguson began sending death threats through the mail. She threatened to send a pipe bomb to the victim’s residence and to commit violent acts at the victim’s place of employment, a family entertainment center in Fishers.
She also mailed various items to the victim and her family, including an item that contained bodily waste and threats to kill the victim.
Court docs show she Ferguson also called in threats to Ivy Tech and Indiana University campuses in Bloomington, Kokomo, and Fort Wayne. She accused the victim of wanting to blow up the school and kill everyone.
Investigators say Ferguson also made more than two dozen false emergency calls to Hamilton County dispatchers making claims of “medical emergencies, a fire and even reports of sexual and animal abuse” at her home.
Ferguson even called the national human trafficking hotline, claiming the victim was being trafficked by her father.
In an interview, Ferguson told investigators she believed the victim was making false reports about her online, saying, “That’s why I attacked her.”
Ferguson faces up to 15 years in federal prison if she is convicted. She’ll be in court in North Carolina tomorrow.Pretend you just bought a major league team, and that almost all of your players are close to replacement level. Let's call this team the "Philadelphia Phoals." It's the beginning of the offseason, and while this team has a couple of good players, your first step is to trade them all immediately for shiny prospects. Your next step is to sit back and watch the team lose, over and over again.
Unless...
Warning: This is a remarkably stupid exercise. Oh, there's a possibility it's the new Moneyball and I'm a hot-dang genius, but this is probably a thought exercise that's going to end with you closing the tab and never, ever, ever reading one of my articles again. I'm okay with that. I make sacrifices for my art.
Recently, someone who subscribes to my brand on Twitter.com told me of a dream he had, a dream that involves an entire team of grossly overpaid players. It was an amusing thought... unless it was a strategy.
See, most of these players could be traded if their old team would pay part of their salary. Their old teams would pick up a substantial chunk of their salary, and some of them might pick up the player's entire salary. They would do that even if the player in question is fifth on the all-time home run leaderboard, to pick one completely random scenario.
What kind of team could you build from the worst contracts in baseball? How much would you have to pay them, and how well would they produce?
We'll do this the old-fashioned way: by guessing and making stuff up.
First baseman - Ryan Howard
But he's already on the Phoals, you cry! Shhhhhhhhhh. Pretend you couldn't crack the code of this expansion team's name, and that you're in charge of a team without any of these players already. We're picking Howard over Pujols because we absolutely know that Howard would be available, and even if the Angels would pick up half of Pujols' deal, it would still be an insanely long and expensive deal.
How much would he cost if his old team picked up some of his salary?
We know that. Two years, $10 million.
Second baseman - Brandon Phillips
He's still worth about two wins per season, as I'm sure he already knows, but he's due $39 million over the next three years, and the Reds would love to be free of that obligation before their best pitcher goes on the open market.
How much would he cost if his old team picked up some of his salary?
If the Reds could save $19 million in exchange for a prospect or two, it would be reasonable to assume they would consider it. This puts him at three years, $20 million.
Shortstop - Elvis Andrus
This is one of a couple big-ticket items, as the Rangers might eat some of the huge contract, but not most of it. He's owed $118 million over the next eight years, but the Rangers wouldn't give him away until it was clear that last year's defensive shortcomings were a blip, not a trend.
How much would he cost if his old team picked up some of his salary?
Wild guess -- wilder than the others, even -- but we'll settle at an average of $12.25 million per season, or $98 million.
Third base - Alex R
How much would he cost if his old team picked up some of his salary?
His old team would pay almost his entire salary, and they've already accepted, no backsies.
Stop that.
Sorry.
Third base - Alex Rodriguez
He's owed $63 million over the next three years with the potential to earn $30 million in marketing bonuses for reaching home run milestones. And, hey, that money will just come right back to the team if they market him correctly!
How much would he cost if his old team picked up some of his salary?
It's such a weird contract. But I'll guess $51 million, with some concessions made if any of those marketing milestones are reached. You know, 3,000 hits is just around the corner!
Catcher - Brian McCann
Normally, I would have started this list with catcher. It would have been a natural way to structure the article. However, catcher is the most problematic position, and it would have been silly to lead the article off with "I don't think the Yankees are really itching to get rid of him, but pretend..." So I cheated. I hope this doesn't break some sort of unwritten rule.
I don't think the Yankees are really itching to get rid of McCann, but pretend they are. By June, they might be. The Yankees need every last overpaid veteran they have, considering their organizational plan is to keep acting like a win-now team until it's clearly unsustainable. Until it's obvious that they're trying to hotwire a corpse and call it a Lamborghini, they'll keep building a roster like the GM is an exceptionally wealthy MacGyver.
How much would he cost if his old team picked up some of his salary?
A lot less if he has another down year. For now, we'll guess $14 million per season if a C-prospect goes the other way. Again, this is the bizarro offseason, so this deal would give the Yankees more money to spend on free agents. It's not just going to Hank's slush fund.
You can probably replace McCann with Jeff Mathis or something, and use the savings to swap Ryan Howard out for Prince Fielder, who still has a chance to hit. So many options!
LF/CF - Carl Crawford, Andre Ethier
Package deal! If a GM calls up the Dodgers on November 1 and says, "We're interested in Carl Crawford and Andre Ethier, both. How much of their salary would we need to be responsible for?" the person taking the call would do that frantic EVERYBODY GET IN HERE move that people on the phone do (think cops getting a call from the killer). If you call them now, they wouldn't be as interested, at least in parting with Crawford. He's a part of their plans, and there aren't a lot of ways to spend the money at this very second.
Instead, pretend it's November 1. The Dodgers are very, very interested in having you pay for these players, even if it's just a portion.
How much would he cost if his old team picked up some of his salary?
Crawford is a oft-injured two-win player, and he's owed $64 million over the next three years. Let's say the Dodgers pick up $30 million.
Ethier is owed $56 million over the next three years, so let's pretend the Dodgers absorb the same amount of salary. He isn't much of a center fielder, but he didn't embarrass himself last year. "We probably won't embarrass ourselves," is the Phoals' motto this year! What a coincidence.
RF - Shin-Soo Choo
Still angling for that first All-Star team. Still with six years and $116 million left on his deal. This might be #1 on the list of deals teams would control-z, and it just started. But it's not like the Rangers would just pay $100 million of it after his lousy season, just to save $16 million. There's value in seeing if he can rebound. Then, if the Rangers aren't contending, at least he would be more attractive to teams.
How much would he cost if his old team picked up some of his salary?
You want Choo? It's not like he's going to be major-league-minimum cheap. If he were on the market after last season, I could still see him getting $60 million on the market, just in case. Think of the Chase Headley deal, which is one that still holds out a little hope for a renaissance. I'll guess the Rangers eat $40 million, which puts him at six years, $76 million. Still steep. Not that steep, though.
SP - Justin Verlander
Ah, the difficulty of doing this with franchise heroes. How badly do the Tigers really want out from this deal? How much would it be worth it for them to be the team that enjoys his comeback season? Doesn't he have 17 different password-protected no-trade clauses in a deal this size? Don't worry! Everyone wants to play for the Phoals! The Tigers are interested, if only because they want to keep David Price. Verlander is interested, if only because he wants a change of scenery. You've suspended your disbelief this far, so...
Let's see, he's owed...
/takes sip of coffee
... hold on, let me find it...
/takes really big sip of coffee
... almost there...
/I mean, really packs the coffee in there, cheeks bulging and everything
$140 million over five years!
/calmly swallows coffee
That's a lot of money! That contract looks really, really bad! Oh, my stars, I hadn't noticed the precipitous drop in strikeouts, either.
How much would he cost if his old team picked up some of his salary?
Maybe the toughest one to gauge. The Tigers probably don't want to just shoot him into the sun, and they're keen on watching Verlander succeed again. On the other hand, if he were on the open market, I'm not sure he would come close to nine figures. He probably wouldn't go for much more than a year just over eight figures, trying to get on the market quickly. Unless he's from the Phil Hughes school of risk aversion, it's impossible to guess at the long-term deal Verlander would sign after last season.
Guess that it would be worth $40 million for the Tigers to avoid being on the hook for five years, then. The $100 million they save could go straight to Price. You're paying that $100 million now.
SP - C.J. Wilson
His deal isn't that absurd, not for a rich, win-now team. He's owed $38 million for the next two years, and the Angels would probably pay that tax for a chance at an above-average pitcher.
How much would he cost if his old team picked up some of his salary?
They'll eat $4 million, but they're not running a charity, here.
SP - Ricky Nolasco
HARD TO BELIEVE THIS DEAL ISN'T WORKING OUT, BUT THAT'S BASEBALL FOR YOU, ONE WORD, YOUNEVERKNOW.
How much would he cost if his old team picked up some of his salary?
He still has three years, $37 million to go. I'll guess that the Twins would pay at least $12 million at the beginning of the offseason to free up the rest.
SP - Ubaldo Jimenez
At least this one made a little sense when the Orioles offered it. They were supposed to contend, after all, and they did. They just did it without the help of this guy, and it's one of the reasons they sat this past offseason out.
How much would he cost if his old team picked up some of his salary?
He's basically free to a good home. Three years, $35 million would be three years, $15 million.
SP - Edwin Jackson
Lotta choices for this last spot. There's Tim Lincecum and CC Sabathia, but I think their teams have an attachment to them, or at least an attachment to their best-case scenarios. Before Dan Haren was sent to Miami with his salary taped to his back, he would have been a fine choice. Instead, we'll go with Jackson because the Phoals aren't made of money, and we're spending a lot on Andrus and Verlander and oh my goodness this team is going to lose 100 games anyway.
How much would he cost if his old team picked up some of his salary?
Boy, it sure seemed like a sensible deal at the time, and two years, $26 million isn't a roster-crippling sum, even now. The Cubs would pick up $16 million in our game, which leaves Jackson on the equivalent of a two-year, $10 million deal. The Ryan Howard, they call it.
Roster, with cost to new team in 2015
C - Brian McCann, $14 million
1B - Ryan Howard, $5 million
2B - Brandon Phillips, $6.7 million
SS - Elvis Andrus, $12.25 million
3B - Alex Rodriguez, $4 million
LF - Carl Crawford, $11.3 million
CF - Andre Ethier, $8.7 million
RF - Shin-Soo Choo, $12.7 million
SP - Justin Verlander, $20 million
SP - C.J. Wilson, $17 million
SP - Ricky Nolasco, $8.7 million
SP - Ubaldo Jimenez, $5 million
SP - Edwin Jackson, $5 million
Total: $130.35 million.
Say, not bad for a team that combines for 46 All-Star appearances. You'll have a little wiggle room to build your bullpen and bench, too. You'll have faces to put on the billboard outside Phoals Phield, and you're excited for the upcoming season!
But, uh, how awful/respectable would this team be? For that, we'll use Baseball Prospectus's PECOTA projections, add up the WARP, and see if they come close to the totals of anyone considered a contender.
AVG OBP SLG HR WARP Brian McCann.244.319.428 24 2.5 Ryan Howard.234.312.415 19 0.4 Brandon Phillips.258.305.336 10 1.6 Elvis Andrus.269.324.337 2 2.3 Alex Rodriguez.247.324.409 10 0.8 Carl Crawford.269.307.404 8 1.9 Andre Ethier.264.335.414 8 0.9 Shin-Soo Choo.264.366.405 14 2.7
That adds up to 13.1 WARP. Now for the pitchers.
IP ERA K BB WARP Justin Verlander 217 3.30 203 63 3.4 C.J. Wilson 174 3.64 153 70 1.3 Ricky Nolasco 174 4.94 122 38 -0.5 Ubaldo Jimenez 110 3.78 106 51 0.8 Edwin Jackson 120 4.14 102 40 -0.2
That's a total of 4.8 WARP. I will take the over on some of those (Brandon Phillips) and the under on more than a couple (Justin Verlander), but we'll just add them all up like we don't notice. It's not like we've been following the scientific method to this point, so drink up.
Let's start by comparing that WARP with the projected WARP for some of the worst lineups in the game. First, the Phillies:
Phillies 2015 lineup, projected WARP: 11.4
And the Braves:
Braves 2015 lineup, projected WARP: 11.3
Got a win or two on both of those suckers. But what about an iffy lineup, not an obviously wretched one?
Royals 2015 lineup, projected WARP (no DH): 15.2
Scores of millions don't exactly buy you the kind of thunder you might get with the Royals. So we have to turn to the pitching. What sort of production might you get from the worst projected rotations around the league? First up, the Rockies:
Rockies 2015 rotation, projected WARP: -1.1
Good gravy. The Diamondbacks?
Diamondbacks 2015 rotation, projected WARP: 2.2
Get those Royals back in here.
Royals 2015 rotation, projected WARP: 0.0
What about prognosticator favorites, the Red Sox?
Red Sox 2015 rotation, projected WARP: 1.5
The Mariners?
Mariners 2015 rotation, projected WARP: 6.6
Finally, one that trumps the all-bad-contract team. The caveats are obvious: Verlander is carrying a lot of the weight, even though a) the Tigers wouldn't trade him at a steep discount and b) he just might not be that good again. Replace him with, I don't know, Dan Haren, and you have a realistic rotation that's a lot closer to the Diamondbacks and Royals.
Still, you've spent $130 million on your team, and you have a bunch of familiar faces. You also have a team that's good for 90 to 100 losses. Oh, and some of those contracts are really, really lengthy. Choo might help you with this experiment in 2015, but he'll be murder in 2020, which is why the Rangers were willing to absorb money in the first place.
I should point out that you bought the Phoals with money that you've inherited. You don't know how to relate to people, especially the poor ones, and your temper is legendary. You embarked on this strategy because you don't understand baseball, and you wanted a collection of All-Stars to announce your alpha-male ownerness. You should probably not have anything to do with baseball operations, but it's too late, and everyone is laughing at you.
It would be fun to watch, though. And the poker games in the clubhouse would have some seriously high stakes. Clubbies would get nice tips. There are benefits to this approach. Winning baseball games isn't one of them. We tried. But at least we made 10 teams very, very happy along the way.Amazon updated its Cloud Drive Photos app for iOS today with a few nice new features for viewing and managing photos and video stored in the app.
The app, which offers 5GB of storage free and automatically backs up photo and video from your iOS device, now includes a revamped album view with large cover photos in addition to other new photo management features. You’ll also now see your photo as its being uploaded within the progress indicator as well as dates when transitioning between months and years while viewing photos: Swiping through photos in the single photo view now lets you know when you transition between months or years.
Lastly, Amazon notes the app now includes a filter to sort photos by newest or oldest first.
The updated Amazon Cloud Drive Photos app is available now on the App Store.
What’s New in Version 3.1.0
– New Album View: Quickly scroll through your albums with large, beautiful cover photos for each of them – Upload Progress: See your photos as their being uploaded to the cloud – Know when your photos were taken: Swiping through photos in the single photo view now lets you know when you transition between months or years – Sort your Photos: Choose to see your photos newest first or oldest first – Bug and Crash FixesThis week, rising star Roger Tuivasa-Sheck accepted an offer to join the New Zealand Warriors for the next three seasons on a reported contract value averaging more than $850,000 a year. Now, from personal experience I know media reports of contract values can be somewhat overstated. However, there is no doubt it's a very lucrative deal that's seen this young man leave the Roosters to take up an opportunity with a rival team. Right from the outset, let me state that I am a huge fan of this young man. I have watched his progress through the Roosters development system ever since he was first recruited to the club for season 2012. I firmly believe that over the next four to five seasons he could develop into one of the NRL's real stars. However, while it's a very real possibility the day may come where Tuivasa-Sheck is worth more than 15 per cent of a club's salary cap in a 25-man roster, it is a huge leap of faith, if not a downright gamble, to invest such money in a player before his potential is actually realised. It may prove to be money well spent and a great investment in the club's future, but what effect does such a purchase do to the overall player market? What effect will it have on current Warriors players who read the reports of their new high-priced recruit?
If Tuivasa-Sheck is worth $850,000 a season, what does that make a Johnathan Thurston, Greg Inglis, Billy Slater, Cameron Smith worth? Shaun Johnson (Warriors), Ben Hunt (Broncos), and Adam Reynolds (Rabbitohs), to name a few, are young players starting to prove themselves as footballers who can influence results and consistently win games. If you are going to spend 15 per cent of your fixed wage pool on one player, then it stands to reason that player should be playing in a position of influence, have a proven record in regularly deciding the results of games, making those players around him better players, and adding a commercial value to your organisation through his profile and popularity. The Gold Coast Titans and Parramatta clubs recently decided that Manly playmakers Daly Cherry-Evans and Kieran Foran were each worth more than 20 per cent of their respective salary caps. Having played in, and won, grand finals, and successful State of Origin and Test football teams, it can be argued these two lads have met the criteria and on proven ability can give these organisations a return on their huge investments.
But can the same be said for Tuivasa-Sheck at this stage? He has played a handful of games in the top grade in the fullback position. His Roosters are sitting mid-table with three wins and three losses to start the new season. Is the new deal a reward for proven performance, or a punt on potential? Is that how rosters should be developed? As I said, the day may well come where he is dominating the competition and winning the Warriors their much-desired NRL premierships. But if we start paying 21-year-old footballers, with only a handful of matches in their current playing position on their resume $850,000 a season on potential, based purely on what we think MIGHT happen, where does that leave us with the other 24 players who make up a roster? This signing has the potential to completely throw the player market into meltdown. What do the big blokes up front who command respect for the team, make the hard yards and make space for the playmakers in which to operate now think about their value to the team? What about the players who go out week |
, and actually I have done a lot of research on wedding etiquette, a step in the process the two of you clearly skipped over (clearly displayed by Laura chewing gum, like a cow does hay, while walking down the aisle). Here is some help for you..just a heads up for the future. The Bride's Etiquette Guide: Etiquette Made Easy, Second Edition. Here is the link. Too bad you didn't read this, or any other etiquette guide prior to your "big day". In respect to this particular topic, I would turn your attention to pages 147-149. I am sure you will not bother to follow this link, so I will fill you in. Not only is it wrong to have an expectation of any sort of gift, it is the ultimate insult to your family and friends to mention a gift of monetary value at all, let alone be so boorish to message someone with your disappointment in said gift. Also, you should never host a party that you cannot afford, or expect your guests to pay for it. On that note, I seriously doubt that you had an expense of $100/plate. If you did, you were taken for a ride. In retrospect, this is the exact style of behavior I should have expected from the two of you, when you used the gift card donated to your doe and doe for a personal date night, then had the gall to ask your server for the "friends and family discount". I'm sure that one, or the two of you will mature, and grow into adults who will take a different, more respectful, LOVE based approach when you invite guests to your next wedding.
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NEWLYWEDS:
Again... Out of 210 people at a wedding... The only I gift I got from all was yours... And fluffy whip and sour patch kids. Your Facebook message had nothing to do with the gift. Weddings are to make money for your future.. Not to pay for peoples meals. Do more research. People haven't gave gifts since like 50 years ago! You ate steak, chicken, booze, and a beautiful venue. To be exact the plates were $97 a person... But thanks again for the $30 gift basket my wife can't even eat. If anything you should be embarrassed for being so cheap and embarrassing yourself walking in with a gift basket probably re gifted cheap ass. Again.. Out of 210 people, you were the talk and laugh of the whole wedding!!!! Worst gift ever story Is being passed along to everyone!! How about you tell people what you gave as a 2 person gift to a wedding and see what normal functioning people say about it!! Do a survey with people u know... And tell me what 100% of them tell you!! Wake up dude
GIFT BASKET DUDE:
It's obvious you have the etiquette of a twig, I couldn't care less of what you think about the gift you received, "normal" people would welcome anything given, you wanna have a party, you pay for it, DON'T expect me to, I don't care what you or anybody thinks, you should just be happy your sham of a marriage is legal dude!
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NEWLYWEDS:
Lol. Your an idiot. Go research more on life You should have been cut from the list.. I knew we were gunna get a bag of peanuts.. I was right
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GIFT BAG DUDE:
Never argue with an idiot. They will bring you down to their level and beat you with experience. - George Carlon. You just proved this to be true.
[Ed: Carlin rolls over in grave.]
NEWLYWEDS:
Thanks for the fluffy whip :). Have a good day
Well, at least it ended on a bright note??
And with that, I'm never going to a fucking wedding ever the fuck again.Hamid Mir leans back in his office chair, staring at his moblie phone. "Afraid? Am I afraid?" he asks. He shakes his head back and forth. "It would be a lie to say no." Since nearly midnight on Tuesday evening, his life has been turned upside down. His Blackberry rings, indicating he has received a text message. It reads, in broken English:
"I have not seen a real bastard than you. I wish somebody comes and strip you naked. I hope some Army man has not done real dirty with your dear ones."
Mir, 45, is one of Pakistan's most famous journalists. He hosts the daily talk show "Capital Talk" in Islamabad, interviewing public figures. He is the face of private broadcaster Geo TV. His business card reads "Executive Editor." He has been threatened often. After he wrote about corrupt politicians some time ago, then military dictator Pervez Musharraf banned him from broadcasting.
Some say Mir sympathizes with the Taliban, while others believe he is a CIA agent, an Israeli spy or that he supports India. He laughs. "When one is criticized from all sides, it only shows that one is only required to be objective and truthful."
Threat From Within
But in Pakistan, the truth is risky. More journalists died there this year than in any other country. The organization Reporters Without Borders states that 10 journalists were killed in the country in 2011, out of a total of 66 worldwide. For the second year in a row, they named Pakistan the most dangerous country in the world for journalists.
"In recent years colleagues were mainly the victims of terror attacks by separatist groups or radical parties," Mir says. "Or they died rushing to the scene of an attack when further bombs exploded."
Over the last year, however, the source of threats has altered dramatically. "The main enemy now is the state, the army, the intelligence agency," Mir says.
On Mir's Dec. 14 show, he discussed the question of whether General Ahmed Shuja Pasha, the head of Pakistan's ISI intelligence agency, traveled to various Gulf states to gather support for a coup back home after a United States operation in the northern city of Abbottabad ended with the killing of Osama bin Laden. The rumor began with a blog post by journalist Omar Waraich, who writes for British daily The Independent. In the posting, Waraich quotes Pakistani-born American businessman Mansoor Ijaz, who claims to have received corresponding information from a member of the US secret service.
The affair in which Ijaz is wrapped up has rocked Pakistan. Details include reports that the country's former ambassador to the US, Hassain Haqqani, used a memo to Ijaz to request that US forces protect President Asif Ali Zardari from a military coup and limit the power of Pakistan's generals. The military was outraged, Haqqani lost his post, and the fallout between Zardari's civil government and the military has been palpable.
'Living Dangerously'
Mir's show about the intelligence service boss has been rebroadcasted a number of times on Geo TV. On Dec. 19 a petition was registered at the country's highest court for the removal of General Pasha from his post on suspicion he was planning a coup. The next day Mir received the threatening text message.
The Pakistani military and the ISI are powerful institutions in the country. Army leader General Ashfaq Parvez Kayani and ISI leader Pasha have been regularly listed by Western magazines as being among the world's most influential people. Though he was democratically elected, President Zardari is said to be at the mercy of Kayani and Pasha.
"Those who dare to criticize the military are living dangerously," Mir says. He has done so often, not allowing himself to be intimidated. "But this text message still unsettles me," he adds. He published both the message and the telephone number from where it was sent in an effort to protect himself.
One building away, in the capital bureau of the daily The News, Umar Cheema is sitting in the basement. Under a flourescent lighting, he and the paper's investigative reporting team are researching delicate stories on corruption and military interference in politics. The 35-year-old just published an article alleging that Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani paid less than the equivalent of 60 ($78) in income taxes this year. Stories like that create powerful enemies.
Blossoming Media Industry
But journalists in Pakistan yearn for such scoops, and over the last decade, the media landscape has grown into a large and colorful carnival of sorts. Every few months a fresh newspaper is founded, meanwhile some 90 broadcasters now exist, among them 30 news stations.
Cheema is one of Pakistan's outstanding journalists. Although he has received offers for fellowships in the US, he sees his future in Pakistan. "We can achieve so much here," he says. "I don't believe that the military in this country will stage another coup. The last time was in 1998, when there was no media world in Pakistan." Still, Cheema, like Mir, sees the biggest threat to journalists as the military and intelligence service, not terrorism. His opinion is informed by personal experience.
On Sept. 4, 2010, Cheema was in a cafe with friends at 3 a.m. It was Ramadan, when believers fast during the day, making late nights the best time to meet friends for a meal. On his way home two cars overtook him. "Men in police uniforms got out and accused me of running over a man and causing fatal injuries," he said. To save himself any trouble from the not particularly friendly men, Cheema agreed to get in one of their vehicles, thinking everything would be cleared up at the station.
But he had hardly entered the car before they bound his hands and feet and then blindfolded him. Cheema believes they drove him somewhere in Islamabad or the neighboring city of Rawalpindi. There he experienced what Mir is now being threatened with. "A man told me that I had written bad reports and must now pay the consequences. They tore my shirt from my body and took my pants off. Then I was forced to lay on my belly on the floor."
Five men beat him for a half hour using slats of wood and leather straps. "They forced me to assume different positions, they took photos and humiliated me. In the end, they also shaved my head and eyebrows." They then bundled him back in the car and drove him for around two hours. "They tied a cloth around my head and I couldn't see anything," Cheema recalls. "Then they threw me out of the car in the Chakwal District around 150 kilometers south of Islamabad." They also took care to ensure that Cheema arrived back in Islamabad in one piece so that he could share the news of the lesson he was supposed to have been taught. Someone had placed his car at the location with a full tank of gas. The person also placed 100 rupees (80 euro cents) in his hand for the highway toll he would need to get back home.
Cheema was lucky -- he survived the seven-hour ordeal with his kidnappers. "It is very clear the ISI was behind it," he says. "They made clear that they were unhappy about my reporting." But it hadn't occurred to him that he might be the target of violence. "I never received any SMS like the one Hamid Mir got. But acquaintances repeatedly informed me that the ISI wasn't happy."
Journalist Killed and Found in a Canal
Syed Saleem Shahzad wasn't so lucky. The 40-year-old was also kidnapped in Islamabad at the end of May. He was subsequently tortured and later found dead in a canal. He had also reported critically on the military, writing about ties between Pakistani naval officers and the al-Qaida terrorist network.
"We know that ISI was behind his murder," says Hamid Mir.
"Who else could it have been?" asks Umar Cheema.
US government sources also claim there is evidence that the ISI ordered the killing.
"That's nonsense," says one high-ranking ISI official, speaking on the condition of anonymity. What evidence is there that we had anything to do with that? The fact is that, by now, people try to blame the ISI for everything that is wrong in the world. But we're actually an honourable institution."
The journalists themselves don't have any evidence to back their claims. "Otherwise I would have sued them already," says Umar Cheema. "But," he adds, "Saleem Shahzad was also directly warned by the ISI. He died a short time later."
Hamid Mir has officially sought to have the mobile telephone number from which the text message threat was sent to him investigated. But only the military has access to the data from telecommunications companies in Pakistan. So far he hasn't obtained any information, and Mir doesn't believe he will in the future, either.Dutch Foreign Minister Bert Koenders | Kena Betancur/AFP via Getty Images EU foreign ministers to London: We won’t wait for you U.K. Conservatives want a new leader to begin Brexit negotiations, but the other countries want to get on with it.
LUXEMBOURG — European Union foreign affairs ministers on Friday sent a stark message to the British government: We can't wait until October to begin divorce proceedings.
When David Cameron announced Friday morning that he was stepping down in the wake of the Brexit result, he said the decision on when to trigger Article 50 of the Lisbon Treaty — which starts the clock on talks to leave the bloc — should fall to his successor, to be in place by October. But EU ministers don't want to wait that long.
"The biggest issue to be discussed now is when the process of actual British disconnection from the European Union starts and the overwhelming feeling among the member states is that we simply cannot wait until the Conservative Party finds a new leader," Slovak Foreign Minister Miroslav Lajčák told journalists in Luxembourg.
“It was very clear from all sides that we should not stay in a vacuum,” Dutch Foreign Minister Bert Koenders said. ”You cannot have your cake and eat it.”
When asked how they will put pressure on the U.K. to speed up the decision, ministers replied that it is up to the British government to push the button on Article 50.
However, diplomats said decisions should be made with or without the Brits.
“Look, how many times has [European Council President] Donald Tusk repeated in his statement that now we are 27?” one EU diplomat said.
Meetings of the 27 have already been planned. On Sunday, representatives of the member countries — so-called sherpas — will meet to discuss the way ahead. On Monday, Tusk will meet French President François Hollande in Paris and German Chancellor Angela Merkel in Berlin before seeing Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte, whose country holds the rotating presidency of the Council, and the Czech Republic's Bohuslav Sobotka in Brussels.
Merkel will also meet with Hollande and Italy’s Matteo Renzi to prepare for a European leaders' summit on Tuesday and Wednesday, a diplomat said.
In a letter to EU leaders sent Friday evening, Tusk outlined the program for the summit: On Tuesday, Cameron will explain to EU leaders over dinner what happened in the vote, and on Wednesday the 27 other leaders will meet informally to discuss the political and practical implications of Brexit.
"First of all, we will discuss the so called 'divorce process' as described" in Article 50, Tusk wrote. "And secondly, we will start a discussion on the future of the European Union with 27 Member States.”
However, whether the European reaction involves setting up a two-speed Europe remains to be seen.
“We must recognize that a generic approach that says that Europe at 27 must push for further integration does not have legs,” Italian Foreign Minister Paolo Gentiloni said. However, he said there could be “an approach where... some countries... have a higher degree of integration."When audiences flock to multiplexes this weekend to see Gareth Edwards’ “Rogue One: A Star Wars Story,” they’re in for a blast from the past.
The film, which takes place just before the events of George Lucas’ 1977 original installment, brings actor Peter Cushing back to cinematic life through the use of state-of-the-art visual effects wizardry to reprise the role of Grand Moff Tarkin. A British actor — Guy Henry, star of BBC series “Holby City” — was employed to portray the character physically on set, while in post-production, his work was replaced with a rather impressive Cushing performance by the artists of Industrial Light & Magic.
It was so impressive, in fact, that Cushing’s former secretary — Joyce Broughton, who oversees his estate and attended the film’s London premiere with her grandchildren — was taken aback emotionally when she saw the creation on screen.
“When you’re with somebody for 35 years, what do you expect?” Broughton says. “I can’t say any more because I get very upset about it. He was the most beautiful man. He had his own private way of living.”
Broughton, who was bequeathed Cushing’s estate when he died without an heir in 1994, was reticent to go into details about the situation due to a confidentiality agreement she signed with Disney and Lucasfilm. But despite the emotions, she said she was dazzled by the experience of the new film.
Related Box Office: ‘Rogue One’ Blasting to $140 Million-Plus Opening Weekend Film Review: ‘Rogue One: A Star Wars Story’
“I have to say, I’m not a ‘Star Wars’ fanatic, but I did think whoever put it together were absolutely fantastic,” she says. “It’s not just a silly sort of thing. It’s really good!”
Cushing’s digital resurrection was first reported in August of 2015. A fleeting image of the eventual Death Star commander is teased in TV spots for the movie.
A Lucasfilm rep tells Variety that the filmmakers will not be discussing the nuts and bolts of what went into the actor’s reprise until January, in order for audiences to see the film and enjoy it without being spoiled by those details. But the implications raised by the bold achievement, and others like it, are another thing entirely — and they’ve been ringing throughout the industry for decades.
Films like “Zelig,” “Dead Men Don’t Wear Plaid,” and “Forrest Gump” traded in re-creating personalities of yesteryear. On the heels of “Gump” in 1995, director Robert Zemeckis resurrected Humphrey Bogart with the help of ILM artists for an episode of HBO’s “Tales From the Crypt.”
Two years later, Fred Astaire’s widow, Robyn, licensed the song-and-dance icon’s image for an infamous Dirt Devil commercial that depicted him dancing with a cordless vacuum cleaner — much to the chagrin of Astaire’s fans and even his daughter, Ava.
More recently, in 2012, hip-hop artist Tupac Shakur was brought back to life via simulated hologram for a performance at the Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival in Indio, Calif. And just last year, Weta effects artists had to manifest much of actor Paul Walker’s performance in “Furious 7” after the actor died midway through production in a fatal car accident.
“We’ve been making photoreal people for quite some time in films,” says Richard W. Taylor II, a Directors Guild member and former vice-chair of the Visual Effects Society (not to be confused with Weta founder Richard Taylor). Taylor handled electronic conceptual design on the original “Tron,” but prior to that, he was involved in creating one of the first computer-generated human characters, for a short film called “Adam Powers, The Juggler.”
“This is when the beginnings of computer simulation were coming in, and already it raised questions such as, ‘Could we get them an agent?'” he quips.
While Taylor was enthusiastic about the “Furious 7” work, he wasn’t particularly impressed with similar efforts to create a more youthful version of Jeff Bridges’ character for “Tron: Legacy.” But he says the tech is advancing at light speed. Reality is approaching the scenario depicted in the sci-fi film “The Congress,” in which Robin Wright plays an actress who retires after signing away her digital likeness for unlimited use by the fictional Miramount Studios.
Taylor’s current project, a new headset-free virtual-reality technology called Eymerce, will allow audiences to interact with life-size, photoreal virtual humans in real time. One of the company’s partners is the “Legends in Concert” celebrity tribute show in Las Vegas, which presently relies on pop-star impersonators who have used plastic surgery to resemble famous musicians. Technology can now take this phenomenon to the next level, whereby a performer who has studied a celebrity’s mannerisms can give the motion-capture performance that drives a convincing computer simulation.
When the issue involves a deceased celebrity, it comes down to what’s called postmortem publicity rights, in which the for-profit use of a celebrity’s name, likeness, image, and so on are decided by his or her heirs.
“There’s a whole new phenomenon where famous actors are getting themselves scanned in order to provide for their family and their family’s trust in perpetuity, so that they can be recreated in films in the future,” Taylor says. “Or as insurance, if they were injured or if anything happened while they were in a production.”
This technology raises all sorts of fascinating questions for the industry: If an actor declines to appear in a sequel or project, can the filmmakers now find a way to include him or her anyway (the way “Dawn of the Planet of the Apes” brought back James Franco by recycling deleted scenes from “Rise of the Planet of the Apes”)? If an actress’ contract protects her from having to shoot a nude scene, could one be created virtually using virtual body doubles?
As for the deceased, California has led the way in protecting the right to control how an actor’s image is used after his or her death. The legislature passed a law in 1984 establishing the postmortem right of publicity and timing them out 50 years after the individual’s death. The law was a response to a court ruling finding that Bela Lugosi’s heirs had no power to prevent the use of his image in Dracula merchandise. At the urging of the Screen Actors Guild, the legislature has since extended the right to 70 years.
“The issue for us is straightforward and clear,” a SAG-AFTRA spokesperson said. “The use of performers’ work in this manner has obvious economic value and should be treated accordingly. This is why we fight around the country, state by state, for strong right of publicity protections for performers. The digital recreation and use of performers in audio-visual works is in the vanguard of our policy efforts to protect performers.”
The protections afforded under California law apply only to those who die in California. In the United Kingdom, where Cushing lived and died, there is no recognized publicity right after death. Even so, Lucasfilm made sure to get the Cushing estate’s permission to use his likeness in “Rogue One,” a Lucasfilm rep said.
Dave McNary and Gene Maddaus contributed to this report.Summary: MIRI’s end-of-year fundraiser is on, and I’ve never been more convinced of what MIRI can offer the world.
Since a team of CFAR alumni banded together to form the Future of Life Institute (FLI), organized an AI safety conference in Puerto Rico in January of this year, co-authored the FLI research priorities proposal, and attracted $10MM of grant funding from Elon Musk, a lot of money has moved under the label “AI Safety” in the past year. Nick Bostrom’s Superintelligence was also a major factor in this amazing success story.
A lot of wonderful work is being done under these grants, including a lot of proposals for solutions to known issues with AI safety, which I find extremely heartening. However, I’m worried that if MIRI doesn’t scale at least somewhat to keep pace with all this funding, it just won’t be spent nearly as well as it would have if MIRI were there to help.
The reason is that, to my eye, almost no one except for MIRI is taking point on formulating neglected sub-problems in AI safety…
Reflections from this year’s NIPS conference
I attended NIPS a couple of weeks ago — the world’s largest machine learning (ML) conference, attended by over 4000 experts in the field — and was super pleased to find a number of reputable ML experts on a panel about AI safety, discussing questions like AI boxing and value-alignment that I’d previously only ever heard discussed in and around MIRI/FHI. And when other ML people there would ask me about my research at MIRI, more than half the time they responded with “Cool, that sounds like it’s going to be really important very soon!”
How awesome is that? As little as two years ago when I’d talk to colleagues in ML about AI safety, they’d often just squint and say things like
(typical pre-2014 response) Won’t superintelligent machines be smart enough to realize that it’s morally wrong to be harmful to humans?
The world had some distance to go before there could be much high-quality discussion about AI safety. I’d known this for a long time, and it’s why I helped co-found the Center for Applied Rationality (CFAR) during my PhD: to bring high-impact people together who cared about the world and wanted to apply highly scrupulous reasoning to figure out what it needed most.
Now, due to the hard work of many CFAR alumni like FLI, and their many colleagues, that plan seems to be working. After Elon Musk, Bill Gates, Stephen Hawking, and Stuart Russell have all publicly agreed in response to Superintelligence and FLI’s research priorities that the problem is important — when I make the exact same arguments about AI safety as I would two years ago, I get responses like
(typical 2015 response) Yeah definitely, AI is going to be a huge deal, and we need more people focussed on making it safe.
I’m super glad this transition has happened. But I’m worried because we had to make it happen. I’m worried that, if MIRI doesn’t scale, too much safety funding will be spent in suboptimal ways that could really harm the field.
You see, when most academics apply for grant funding, they’ve already made up their minds about what they want to research, and are trying to fit their plans to match the description of some grant program. This results in a lot of what people call academic freedom, and I think that freedom is extremely important for humanity to continue exploring a diversity of ideas and potential innovations.
But AI safety is a hard and important problem that needs solving, and it’s not going to be solved by people who don’t actually want to solve it. And if all the rising funding for safety goes to research that was going to happen anyway, AI safety could become a fad that came and went, appearing to have been driven by the natural incentives that turn alarmism into grant funding for existing research, rather than by people who cared deeply and wanted to solve the hardest and most important parts of the safety problem.
Why I like MIRI
It might seem like a strange claim I’m making: that a small non-profit research group like MIRI might have something important to say about how many tens of millions and maybe billions of dollars should be spent on AI safety.
But MIRI’s new research team has really impressed me, enough that I decided to work there. I had lots of other job opportunities, inside and outside academia, and even some to work on AI safety. But the quality of mathematical and technical talent that’s accumulated at MIRI in 2015 is unlike anything I’ve seen anywhere else.
For example, just a few days ago, my colleague Benya Fallenstein initiated a 5-hour meeting with me where we surveyed our current research priorities and re-assessed what problems should be MIRI’s top priority, as a function of how direct and numerous were each problem’s safety applications, and how likely or unlikely each problem was to remain unsolved or neglected by contemporary approaches.
We were soon joined by two other MIRI researchers, Jessica Taylor and Scott Garrabrandt. I didn’t have to bug anyone to actually take the problem seriously and reason backwards from what’s needed instead of rationalizing forward to justify their favorite pet project. No, a group of mathematicians — better mathematicians than me, if I must say so — just spontaneously arranged themselves into a strategic conversation about AI safety research prioritization.
And it didn’t surprise me, because that’s just the sort of determination I expect when I go into work each day. Sometimes we need strategy, and sometimes we need math. Sometimes we need to write, and sometimes we need to talk. It’s all part of the job. The team is really smart, really cares, and unlike a lot of other smart people who care, they’re all working full time on safety. That’s a step that fewer than a dozen people in the world have made at this point.
Why MIRI is still needed
We have to remember that AI safety did not become mainstream by a spontaneous collective awakening. It was through years of effort on the part of MIRI and collaborators at FHI struggling to identify unknown unknowns about how AI might surprise us, and struggling further to learn to explain these ideas in enough technical detail that they might be adopted by mainstream research, which is finally beginning to happen.
But what about the parts we’re wrong about? What about the sub-problems we haven’t identified yet, that might end up neglected in the mainstream the same way the whole problem was neglected 5 years ago? I’m glad the AI/ML community is more aware of these issues now, but I want to make sure MIRI can grow fast enough to keep this growing field on track.
Now, you might think that now that other people are “on the issue”, it’ll work itself out. That might be so.
But just because some of MIRI’s conclusions are now being widely adopted widely doesn’t mean its methodology is. The mental movement
“Someone has pointed out this safety problem to me, let me try to solve it!”
is very different from
“Someone has pointed out this safety solution to me, let me try to see how it’s broken!”
And that second mental movement is the kind that allowed MIRI to notice AI safety problems in the first place. Cybersecurity professionals seem to carry out this movement easily: security expert Bruce Schneier calls it the security mindset. The SANS institute calls it red teaming. Whatever you call it, AI/ML people are still more in maker-mode than breaker-mode, and are not yet, to my eye, identifying any new safety problems.
I do think that different organizations should probably try different approaches to the AI safety problem, rather than perfectly copying MIRI’s approach and research agenda. But I think breaker-mode/security mindset does need to be a part of every approach to AI safety. And if MIRI doesn’t scale up to keep pace with all this new funding, I’m worried that the world is just about to copy-paste MIRI’s best-2014-impression of what’s important in AI safety, and leave behind the self-critical methodology that generated these ideas in the first place… which is a serious pitfall given all the unknown unknowns left in the field.
This year has been awesome. I’m really impressed with mainstream-AI/ML’s reaction to the AI safety problem in 2015, and with so many competent new people beginning to recognize the problem enough to apply for grants to work on it. It even seems likely to me that, within 5 years, some of those same competent people will switch into red team/security/breaker mode and start finding new problems.
But I don’t want to lose 5 years of lead time on these problems because MIRI couldn’t keep scaling. My new fellow researchers there — Benya Fallenstein, Patrick LaVictoire, Jessica Taylor, and Scott Garrabrandt — are all extremely sharp, motivated people, and there are more in the hiring pipeline if we can stay funded.
So, here’s hoping we can make that happen 🙂
https://intelligence.org/2015/12/01/miri-2015-winter-fundraiser/Fans at Boston Calling last September. The festival will relocate to Allston in 2017.
As Boston Calling welcomes music lovers to City Hall Plaza for its biggest and most impressive weekend celebration to date this weekend, it does so for the last time. The music festival, a popular addition to the city’s cultural landscape since its arrival in May 2013, will relocate to Allston in 2017, setting up shop at Harvard University’s athletic complex.
The move, envisioned to bring the festival’s offerings closer to many of its most avid audience members, will allow Crash Line Productions, the organizers of Boston Calling, to expand. Having already introduced a three-stage model this year, the festival is considering an even bigger footprint in Allston. The new grounds, located on North Harvard Street, could host bands too big for City Hall Plaza’s confines, including headliners seen at events like the Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival in California and the Bonnaroo Music and Arts Festival in Tennessee.
“This relocation will allow us to expand the capacity, range, and diversity of the festival’s programming,” Aaron Dessner, Boston Calling’s music curator and a member of the indie-rock band the National, said in a statement.
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Beyond its musical offerings, Boston Calling will mount its first film festival, to be curated by actress, director, and producer Natalie Portman, a Harvard graduate. “I’m excited for Boston Calling to take place at Harvard,” Portman said in a statement. “I’m proud to be curating a new film section for the festival, and feel lucky to celebrate the art form that I love in a place that means so much to me.” Comedy will continue to have a place in the festival, and a visual-art component is being planned.
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In a telephone interview on Friday, Mayor Martin J. Walsh expressed his enthusiasm for the festival and for the relocation, which he said he’d learned about 2½ months ago.
“The crowds at City Hall Plaza have been just incredible, and I think City Hall Plaza probably helped them grow to a point where they needed a new venue,” Walsh said.
That the festival remains within city limits, Walsh acknowledged, enhances Boston’s cultural cachet. “That’s a big statement for our city and the arts,” he said. “We used to be a musical destination for so many bands; I’m not saying it stopped, but the magnitude of it did decrease over the years. I think this allows us the opportunity to kind of recapture that space.”
Even so, the festival’s connection to its hometown has not been without controversy. Federal authorities recently arrested Kenneth Brissette, the city’s director of tourism, sports, and entertainment, for allegedly engaging in “union-related extortion” related to Boston Calling. According to the indictment, Brissette was charged with withholding city permits until Boston Calling hired members of the International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees, Local 11.
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Asked about any connection between that situation and the festival’s move to privately owned space, Walsh denied any linkage emphatically. “This has nothing to do with that,” he said. “I’m certain if you asked Boston Calling, they’ll say the same thing.”
Boston Calling representatives declined to comment on that or any other matter. “We are so grateful to have had the opportunity to call City Hall the festival’s home,” said Brian Appel, cofounder and CEO of Crash Line Productions and Boston Calling, in a statement. “This change of location will allow us to expand and enrich Boston Calling while still keeping it proudly located in Boston.”
Harvard officials declined to address questions about facilities, amenities, or logistics. “We are pleased to provide a venue that allows Boston Calling to expand its creative programming while remaining in the City of Boston,” Tim Williamson, Harvard’s associate director of athletics, offered in a statement.
In preparation for its move, Boston Calling will not present its customary second installment of the festival in September. Instead, Crash Line has partnered with Copenhagen Beer Celebration, a festival established in 2012. The festival’s US debut, planned to take place on City Hall Plaza Sept. 23-24, will include live music by Yo La Tengo, the Barr Brothers, and Lucero.
“We plan to host a fantastic festival on the plaza this weekend,” Appel said in his statement, “and look to continue to produce a range of other events on the plaza for years to come.”
Greg M. Cooper/Harvard University An aerial view of the Harvard athletic complex.
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Steve Smith can be reached at steven.smith@globe.com. Follow him on Twitter @nightafternightBuy Photo Emerson (Photo: Daniel Mears / The Detroit News, File)Buy Photo
Detroit-based Quicken Loans, Inc. has gone on the offensive against the U.S. government, filing a lawsuit seeking to halt an investigation it alleges is attempting to force the mortgage lender to admit to fraud.
Quicken sued the U.S. Department of Justice and Department of Housing and Urban Development late Friday, alleging it is a target of an probe in "which the DOJ is 'investigating' and pressuring large, high-profile lenders into publicly 'admitting' wrongdoing," according to the lawsuit.
Quicken says the government threatened to file a lawsuit unless the company paid damages based on a sampling of its loans backed by the Federal Housing Administration and admit its lending practices were "significantly flawed" and publicly declare it had committed wrongdoing.
Spokepersons for the Justice Department and HUD declined to comment. The lawsuit, filed in U.S. District Court in Detroit says the feds have investigated Quicken for nearly three years, with more than 85,000 documents subpoenaed.
"No threat, including high-profile senseless lawsuits from powerful federal officials, will deter our company and its leadership from doing the right thing, said Bill Emerson, Quicken Loans CEO. "We will stand in defense of our impeccable reputation established by thousands of hard-working ethical team members over our 30-year history."
Quicken said the DOJ inquiry has resulted in the threat of a federal lawsuit based on "faulty analysis of a miniscule number of cherry-picked mortgages" from the nearly 250,000 FHA loans the company has closed since 2007, Quicken said.
Quicken Loans is represented in the suit by Michigan-based Morganroth & Morganroth and Goodwin Procter of Washington, D.C. It is the nation's second largest retail home mortgage lender and largest FHA lender. The company closed $140 billion of mortgage volume across all 50 states in 2013-2014.
Read or Share this story: http://detne.ws/1yM9VOoDefending your loot
Hey, you’re a farmer now, so you need to start thinking like a farmer. Farmers don’t care about losing trophies overnight, we care about losing loot overnight.
Defense is just like attacking in that you want to do everything you can to improve your odds of “ |
proposal.
PRISM is a pool-type, metal-fuelled, small modular sodium fast reactor with a thermal power of 840 MW and an electrical output of 311 MW. GEH is proposing to deploy two PRISM reactors at the Sellafield site in Cumbria where over 100 tons of the UK's plutonium is stored.
"Our extensive expertise in nuclear operations places us in the ideal position to work together with [GEH] in bringing PRISM forward for deployment in the UK," commented Alfio Vidal, Director, Iberdrola Nuclear Generation UK.
"This will not only deliver a viable technology solution for plutonium re-use, it could drive extensive investment in skills and further establish the UK, and West Cumbria, as a global-hub of nuclear expertise,"
GEH has previously signed MOUs with both the University of Manchester and the UK National Nuclear Laboratory (NNL) to study the potential UK deployment of PRISM. Now Iberdrola, which operates seven nuclear power plants in Spain, brings nuclear operations, experience of the UK power sector as well as engineering and project management expertise to the team.
The companies say they will now discuss potential roles and business arrangements in further developing the PRISM proposal.
Photo: PRISM (Source GEH)Elon Musk promises an answer about the Falcon 9 explosion by end of this week on Twitter. He said: "Expect to reach preliminary conclusions regarding last flight by end of week. Will brief key customers & FAA, then post on our website."
Expect to reach preliminary conclusions regarding last flight by end of week. Will brief key customers & FAA, then post on our website.— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) July 6, 2015
The incident is a critical moment in SpaceX history as it could have major implications on future missions. Right now Falcon 9 rocket launches are cancelled until further notice. A week ago, Elon Musk said that the cause of the June 28 rocket explosion is still unknown even after several thousand engineering hours. The last thing he revealed was that the engineers parsing data with a hex editor to recover final milliseconds.
It is natural decision for SpaceX to first inform their key customers on what they found out about the incident. SpaceX needs NASA and their other customers to keep trusting the private space venture.
Space X's Falcon 9 rocket as it lifts off from space launch complex 40 at Cape Canaveral, Florida June 28, 2015. Photo Credit: Getty Images
The Space X Falcon 9 rocket carrying a Dragon cargo spacecraft lifted off from space launch complex 40 at Cape Canaveral, Florida June 28, 2015. The unmanned SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket exploded minutes after liftoff. "The vehicle has broken up," said NASA commentator George Diller, after NASA television broadcast images of the white rocket falling to pieces.
A Russian ISS supply mission succeeded on Sunday keeping the stock situation on the ISS in good shape. The Progress spacecraft docked at the ISS on Sunday.On Saturday, Rep. Maxine Waters (D-CA) vowed to take Housing and Urban Development Secretary Ben Carson’s “ass apart” while speaking at the Essence Festival in New Orleans.
“Ben Carson was appointed to be the HUD secretary,” she reportedly said. “He knows nothing about the mission of HUD. He doesn’t care about people in public housing. He believes that if you are poor, it is your own fault. And he doesn’t know the difference between an immigrant and a slave.”
Waters then promised: “And if he thinks when he comes before my committee where I am the ranking member [of the Financial Services Committee] that I am going to give him a pass… I am going to take his a** apart.”
She also blasted Attorney General Jeff Sessions and Education Secretary Betsy DeVos.
“Jeff Sessions is a racist, he’s a throwback. We know his record, we know the statements that he’s made,” she said. “He really did like the KKK until he learned that they smoke pot.”
Waters said DeVos has “never seen the inside of a classroom” and never “served in education.”
Waters, as Breitbart News reported, also said she has “taken off the gloves” to fight to get President Donald Trump impeached.
“We’re going to lock him up,” she said, before leading the crowd in an “impeach 45” chant.US media reports indicate that there is possibility that US military ships and planes will attempt to enter the 12 nautical miles zone around Chinese reefs near the Nansha Islands.
Such a possibility is the latest, and a particularly dangerous, part of a proto-war, so far an indirect one, being waged by the US government against China.
This proto-war appears to be aimed at intimidating, weakening, and even possibly overturning the Chinese government and social order. It includes attempts to militarily, economically, and informationally encircle and isolate China.
Referred to in US political circles as “the pivot to the Asia-Pacific,” the military wing of this proto-war aimed at encirclement of China is part of the strategic change known as the “Air-Sea Battle Plan.” It involves progressively moving up to 60 percent of US military forces into the Asia-Pacific region, alongside the placement of new and advanced military equipment and new military bases and alliances with countries like the Philippines, South Korea, and Japan.
The economic wing of the proto-war aimed at encircling China is the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP). The TPP is a proposed regional regulatory and investment treaty which would exclude China and which currently involves negotiations between Australia, Brunei, Canada, Chile, Japan, Malaysia, Mexico, New Zealand, Peru, Singapore, the US, and Vietnam.
The informational wing of the proto-war is the constant reiteration of unfounded allegations by political figures, and the US mass media, that there is a “China threat,” despite the fact that the US has about 650 military bases in other countries and wages continual wars, while China has no bases overseas and has not been to war for over three decades.
All of these proto-war measures – military, economic, and informational measures aimed at China – correspond to two doctrines which are highly influential in US foreign policy circles: the “Brzezinski doctrine” and the “Wolfowitz doctrine.”
These doctrines essentially call for the US government to exert every effort to attain complete dominance over the Eurasian continent, a continent on which the currently independent countries of Russia and China occupy central positions.
Adhering to these doctrines, and striving to dominate China and Eurasia through warfare and other means, is playing with fire.
The US government should take warning that tampering with China’s sovereignty is not like invading Iraq or using proxies to destabilize and destroy the previous social order in Libya.
China is a powerful nuclear armed state, supported by the majority of its 1.3 billion people, and has a long history of struggle against imperialist encroachments on its territory and rights.
Shortly after the victory of the revolution in 1949, then Chinese leader Mao Zedong made a speech in which he mirrored the deep anti-imperialist feelings of Chinese people, in which he said: “No imperialists will ever again be allowed to invade our land.”
In the 19th century British armies twice invaded China – and massacred large numbers – for the purpose of forcing the addictive narcotic drug opium on the Chinese people. In the 20th century, as part of WWII, Japan invaded and brutally occupied large parts of China, resulting in the deaths of 20 million Chinese people. None of this is forgotten.
Attempting to renew the old imperialist relationship to China will not work. Surrounding China with military bases, or attempting to assert US military dominance of the South China Sea, will not lead to a good end for the US.
Eric Sommer is a Canadian independent journalist and researcher based in Thailand. [email protected]DETROIT, Mich. — Senior Ryan Furne scored a sudden death shootout goal to lift Michigan Tech over Michigan State in the opening game of 49th Great Lakes Invitational played outdoors at Comerica Park today. The Huskies and Spartans finished 65 minutes of play deadlocked at 2-2, but Tech won the shootout 2-1 to advance to the championship.
The Huskies will now have a chance at their first back-to-back GLI titles since 1979-80.
"It's huge," said head coach Mel Pearson about the chance for another GLI Championship. "Not just for our team, but also for our alumni and fans. We have a great fan base here in southeastern Michigan. I've been involved in the GLI for 33 years, and I've always noticed the fan support Michigan Tech gets."
Sunshine and temperatures in the upper 30s made it a unique setting for the players and fans at Comerica Park, home to Major League Baseball's Detroit Tigers.
Pheonix Copley seemed to have no trouble looking into a setting sun in the opening period and waning daylight in the second. He extended his streak of shutout periods in GLI play to eight by stopping 11 shots in the first 40 minutes today.
Jacob Johnstone staked the Black and Gold to a 1-0 lead midway through the second period as Blake Hietala centered a pass through the crease to Johnstone who buried his shot into a wide open net. It was Johnstone's first goal of the season and Hietala's 10th point of 2013-14.
The Spartans broke up the shutout just 52 seconds into the third period with a power-play tally. A shot by Jake Chelios from the left point rebounded right to the stick of Matt Berry who scored.
Little more than three minutes later, Michigan State had its first lead. Ryan Keller redirected a shot past Copley.
Tech bounced back quickly, however. Team scoring leader Alex Petan added to his total with a drive from the slot after Mike Neville sent it out from behind the net. Petan's 10th goal of the season beat Jake Hildebrand top left corner.
The squads skated through the remaining 11:47 of regulation scoreless despite clean breakaway attempts from Tech's Neville and Chris Leibinger and a Spartan power play.
Neither team created a grade A chance in the five-minute overtime, causing the game to officially end in a tie.
A three-player shootout was used to decide which team advanced to the title game. The shootout was scoreless after two rounds as Tyler Heinonen and Petan were stopped on their chances. Villiam Haag gave MSU a 1-0 lead in the third round, putting pressure on Tanner Kero to keep the game alive. The assistant captain scored with a short shot blocker side to send the shootout to sudden death.
In the fourth round, Copley stopped Brent Darnell and Blake Pietila missed his chance.
Copley came up big again in the fifth round, halting Greg Wolfe and setting up Furne's game winner. The winger pulled the puck to his forehand and found a gap between Hildebrand's toe and the goalpost.
"I watched the previous shooters in the shootout and saw that the goalie came out pretty far," said Furne, playing in his fourth GLI. "I knew I couldn't shoot, so I put a deke on, and it worked out for us."
Tech held a 43-26 advantage in shots on goal including an incredible 20-5 margin in the second period.
Hildebrand stopped 41 shots during game play.
"We didn't score on our best opportunities tonight, and that's plagued us a little bit this year," said Pearson. "But in a setting like this with the ice conditions the way they are, you're not going to get a lot of great goals. You have to get to the net and get a bounce or a break, and we did that."
The official result of a draw moved Michigan Tech's record to 6-9-6. The Huskies have four ties in the last five games.
Michigan Tech will vie for its second consecutive GLI title tomorrow vs. Western Michigan in a rematch of the 2012 championship game.Hello everyone and welcome to the first installment of my weekly column here on Gathering Magic. For those who are unfamiliar with myself — my name is Jeff Hoogland. I am a competitive Magic player who has been writing strategy content and streaming on Twitch for the last few years now. I got into competitive Magic playing on the open series (now the SCG Tour) starting in 2013. I have over a dozen open Top 8s across all three Constructed formats with countless classic and IQ Top 8s past all of those.
Constructed Magic is my passion, and I primarily like to focus on non-rotating formats like Modern and Legacy. These formats with deeper card pools tend to reward players who put in the hours to become familiar with all of the different decks that exist in them. Unlike Standard, which tends to have fewer than a dozen competitive decks at any given point, Modern and Legacy tend to have dozens of decks that are moderately competitive and see regular play.
Today I would like to talk a bit about a deck I have been playing in Modern lately and one that I feel gets a reputation it does not deserve — Tron. Having spent a good deal of time playing Modern and interacting with lots of Modern players I feel like the common mindset is that Tron is an “easy” or “brainless” deck to play. The reason Tron comes off this way to inexperienced players is because it is doing powerful things.
Modern is a format where you are often going to be winning, and losing, some amount of the matches you are going to play during the deck registration portion of your event. What I mean by this is there are a lot of matchups in Modern that are fairly lopsided in one direction or another. A good example of this with Tron is the matchup against fair midrange decks playing Tarmogoyf such as Jund and Abzan. These decks simply do not have the tools to deal with the powerful things Tron is doing most of the time.
That being said — just because some of our matchups are easy does not mean all of them are. Tron is good against midrange decks like Abzan because, at its core, it is really a control deck. Don’t believe me? Let’s take a look at my current Tron list and explain what I mean:
For those who are unfamiliar with this archetype, the basic idea is to assemble these three lands together:
So we can make large amounts of mana in order to play our expensive cards that control the board. We ensure we assemble our three different lands consistently in a few different ways:
Expedition Map and Sylvan Scrying are our most powerful tools for finding whichever Tron piece we are missing, but they are also the least flexible. While Ancient Stirrings can only look at the top five cards of our deck, it also has the ability to find us colorless threats in the late game when we are no longer looking for lands. Chromatic Star and Sphere are not searching in the specific sense, but because they replace themselves with a new card for minimal cost they essentially allow us to play a 52 card main deck.
When we have assembled our lands we use them to cast powerful colorless spells to help control the board:
Karn Liberated is the reason Tron is such a powerful deck. When we are behind on board it is a removal spell that leaves behind a must answer Planeswalker. When we are ahead on board, Karn goes to work attacking our opponent’s lands or hand every single, turn generating card advantage and putting us further ahead.
Every good control deck has a sweeper or two Oblivion Stone and Ugin, the Spirit Dragon are as powerful as sweepers get. Not only do these cards clean up creatures, but they also take care of enchantments, artifacts, and Planeswalkers. They both also give us some control over what exactly they are removing from the table — often acting as one sided board wipes.
While Green based Tron is far from anything “new” in the general sense, it has gotten a few different new tools from recent sets. Specifically these two cards help the deck a good deal:
Historically speaking, Tron has often splashed Red for a secondary color, but with the rise of Death's Shadow and Eldrazi as some of the more popular decks in the format, Lightning Bolt is very poorly positioned. Fatal Push on the other hand kills many of the same things Bolt could, while also being able to kill 1-mana 9/9s and 4-mana 4/4s. Because of the way games with Tron typically play out, we do not lose much value by not being able to use our removal spells as reach.
Collective Brutality is a bigger gain for this archetype than Fatal Push though. Traditionally speaking, Tron has a hard time beating spell based combo decks like Burn, Storm, and Ad Nauseam. Collective Brutality gives us a card that is an ace against Burn, while also being reasonable against other spell based combo decks. Often taking one key card away from these decks is enough time for us to get setup with our powerful Planeswalkers to further disrupt their mana and hand.
Past these two new Black tools we also gain access to some older Black cards that are reasonable:
Devour Flesh is card that can deal with larger threats like Reality Smasher, while also being a powerful hoser card against Death's Shadow since it causes our opponent to gain some life. Devour Flesh is also flexible because we can board it in against aggressive decks like Burn to sacrifice our own creatures to gain some life in a pinch. Thoughtseize is a modern staple for a reason. It provides supplemental discard to the copies of Collective Brutality we are playing to give extra interaction against spell based combo decks.
Another fairly recent addition to the traditional Tron shell is Standard staple Walking Ballista:
Ballista is a flexible card that is good for a variety of reasons. First and foremost — it gives us a repeatable mana sink that can be used over and over again. As the games go long we tend to have a lot of excess mana and Ballista allows us to turn four mana at a time into a faster clock and possibly direct damage. Ballista also gives us additional early plays since we can play it out on the second turn of the game.
Playing the Deck and Common Matchups
The most important thing to keep in mind when playing Tron is that it is one of the most consistent decks in the format. Eight cantrips, Ancient Stirrings, and eight tutors for our lands means that we get to do the same thing almost every game. What this also means is that this deck mulligans really well and we should mulligan often. We are looking for specific cards at the start of every game and we want to mulligan fairly aggressively till we have a good number of them. Do not be afraid to mulligan to five and even four cards looking for hands that assemble our Tron pieces quickly.
Let’s take a look at an example of what I mean by mulliganing aggressively. Consider the following seven card hand:
In most Magic decks this hand seems more than reasonable. We have spells and lands that cast those spells. What we do not have in this hand is Tron pieces though. In fact — assuming we do not draw a Tron piece by the second turn of the game, the earliest this hand is going to assemble our three lands is turn five — which is far too slow in Modern. This hand is an easy mulligan since it does not any Tron pieces in it.
While Modern is a fairly diverse format, there are definitely some decks that are more popular than others. The remaining portion of today’s article will talk about how some of the more common matchups play out with Tron as well as how I tend to sideboard in them.
Robots
We tend to be more of a reactive deck in this matchup. This mean hands with our interactive cards like Fatal Push and Oblivion Stone tend to be better than our more proactive hands that are powering out things like Karn Liberated and Wurmcoil Engine.
In:
Out:
Ugin, the Spirit Dragon is especially awkward against Robots because most of their payoff cards are colorless. Ulamog, the Ceaseless Hunger is interactive, but it is also fairly slow — never being playable before the fourth turn of the game. Wurmcoil is reasonable at closing out games in which we are ahead, but our other threats like World Breaker and Walking Ballista double as reasonable interaction on top of closing games out quickly.
By boarding in a bunch of cheap interaction, we increase our range of keepable hands. In the post board games, we are less likely to want to mulligan aggressively for Tron pieces if we have a reasonable hand that is two or more pieces of castable interaction in it.
Red-Green Titan Shift
This matchup is harder for Tron. Our best tool is a fast Karn Liberated to start taking them off of the mana they are trying to accelerate into. Thankfully, we get a lot of good tools post board in this matchup:
In:
Out:
In addition to having Karn and World Breaker to exile their lands, post board we get discard spells to help break up either their ramp or payoff cards — whichever they have fewer of. We board in cards like Thragtusk and Walking Ballista to give ourselves additional pressure. They tend to have more inevitability than we do, so we need to pressure them while we disrupt them. Devour Flesh may seem like an odd card to board in, but has a few different uses. First and foremost — we can use it to take a Primeval Titan off the table. Past this, we can use it on ourselves to gain a bit of life in response to a potentially lethal Valakut, the Molten Pinnacle trigger.
Grixis Death’s Shadow
The Shadow deck in general relies on tearing it’s opponent’s hand apart, while they still do that in this matchup Tron is especially good at drawing threats after a discard spell since we have so many of them. When we are on the play we can often establish our mana and board before our opponent can disrupt everything we have going on, while on the draw they can often stick a Death's Shadow or a Delve threat before we can put a threat into play. We are the control deck in this matchup — the longer a game goes generally the more favored we are to win it.
In:
2 Thragtusk
2 Devour Flesh
1 Walking Ballista
1 Swamp
Out:
Post board the matchup tends to swing toward whoever sees more board cards — especially if the Shadow player is packing a pile of Ceremonious Rejections. Devour Flesh is our ace in this matchup. Even when it is eating a delve threat, we are still giving our opponent enough life to set their Death's Shadows behind so we have more time to set back up. Ugin is pretty terrible against their Delve threats and World Breaker is often smaller than their 1-mana creature.
Eldrazi Tron
That “other” Tron deck. If our opponent does not have a fast Thought-Knot Seer, we are generally favored in this matchup. We have far more big plays than they do and we tend to have more ways to keep them off of Tron when both of us are executing our primary game plans.
In:
Out:
Relic and Ugin are both fairly useless in this matchup. Thragtusk buffers our life total some and trades with their better threats. Seal of Primordium can kill their utility artifacts like Basilisk Collar, while also taking Chalice of the Void off of the table.
Burn
Sometimes turn three Karn on the play is good enough against Burn, but in reality we want to see a Wurmcoil to win this matchup. Post board we get a lot more tools that are useful:
In:
Out:
We board in ten different ways to gain life. Devour Flesh is once again a removal / gain life split card. Even sacrificing our Wurmcoil to Devour Flesh in response to a Skullcrack is often a reasonable play.
Storm
Similar to the Titan Shift matchup, this matchup is a race where we need to pressure our opponent. Thankfully our main deck copies of Relic of Progenitus are interaction in this matchup that can let us randomly steal Game 1 on occasion.
In:
4 Collective Brutality
1 Thoughtseize
1 Walking Ballista
1 Swamp
Out:
We trim some of our more expensive threats for some discard.
W/U Control
This is one of the few matches where we are not in a hurry to get Tron assembled. Occasionally we play a turn three Karn Liberated and the game quickly ends, but more often than not these games tend to go long because of their Ghost Quarters and Tectonic Edges.
In:
Out:
This is the matchup where we really want our third basic land that is in the sideboard. When we have three lands to fetch up when they are Ghost Quartering us and Path to Exiling our threats we can often build a mana advantage even without assembling Tron. We want to prioritize removing their threats as opposed to protecting our own. Our deck is far more threat dense than theirs so eventually we will run them out of threats as the game goes long. It may seem odd to trim Chromatic Spheres and Relic of Progenitus, but the deck tends to bring in some copies of Stony Silence post board. Trimming some of our artifact cantrips allows us to minimize the impact of Stony Silence when we cannot take it off the table right away.
Wrapping Up
If you enjoy playing control decks, but understand you also need to be doing objectively powerful things in Modern, then Tron is likely the deck for you. I think this Tron variation lines up reasonably against the most popular decks in the format like Grixis Shadow and Eldrazi Tron, while having the tools you need to be competitive against the variety of decks that tend to see play in Modern.
Have a question about Tron that I did not cover in the article above? Let me know in a comment below!
Cheers,
— Jeff HooglandInterview with Steve Klabnik
The Story of Rust
Q: Could you briefly introduce yourself?
Hi there, I’m Steve. waves.
I am a human in a constant state of flux, like many of us. This current iteration of me features:
Lots of GitHub. This says I’ve done over two thousand bits of contribution in the past year.
Lots of Rust.
Lots of Netrunner.
Q: What will your talk be about, exactly? Why this topic?
I’ll be talking about Rust and its journey to 1.0. Rust is a highly anticipated new programming language, and now, around the time it’s finally shipping, is a good chance to get a bit of a retrospective.
Q: What do you hope to accomplish by giving this talk? What do you expect?
I’d love for people to give Rust a try.
Q: In which domains does Rust shine? And what are currently its weak points?
Rust is really great when you can’t afford a garbage collector. It can go just as low as C and C++ can, but is much, much more safe.
Rust’s weakest point is that its domain is difficult, and so the language can be a bit tough to get started with.
Q: Could you give some examples of projects that are developed in Rust?
One great example is Rust itself! The compiler is written in Rust.
Another is Cargo, Rust’s package manager. Its website, Crates.io also uses Rust on the back end.
Skylight is one of the first production users of Rust. Their Ruby gem you install on your site is Rust on the inside.
Servo is a web rendering engine written in Rust.
Q: Is Rust easy to learn? Which programming language background do you recommend for someone who wants to try Rust?
Rust is easy to get started with, but can be a bit confusing depending on your background. Rust blends approaches from many domains, so if you come from C++, the advanced type system stuff might be hard. If you come from Haskell, the low-level stuff may seem strange.
I think anyone coming from a C++ background will find Rust easy to understand. Lots of people from languages like Ruby, Python, and JavaScript are finding that Rust is a good excuse to learn low-level programming, so that’s another way to do it.
Q: Which new features can we expect in Rust this year?
The big one is 1.0. :) Finally, some stability! We don’t have a schedule set in stone for post 1.0, though we have some ideas!
Q: Have you enjoyed previous FOSDEM editions?
This will be my first FOSDEM!Stately British sedan seeking single American V8. Straight from Barn Finds “Dirt Cheap” department is this 1963 Jaguar Mark II sedan. located in Highmore, South Dakota. The asking price is $600. It appears here on craigslist in Bakersfield, California, but I did not find it on any of the Dakota pages. Exactly why that is would probably be one of my first questions for the seller.
This is a rolling body only, currently lacking in the engine and transmission department. Rather than trying to source originals, I would likely look toward the “Street Sleeper Fun” Jaguar we featured a couple of weeks ago, for direction on how to proceed with this one.
The body looks relatively decent, and the photos show a couple of extra panels that are presumably included with the purchase, although no mention is made of the missing grille, bumpers and other miscellaneous trim items. The one interior shot shows front seats in need of some tough love, but all this may be worthwhile if the floors and rockers are solid.
As is unfortunately so common with vehicles in the “Dirt Cheap” category, this one does not include a title, so that too can go on the list of problems to solve if one were to purchase this car.
I’d almost bet we could count on one hand the number of early ’60s Jaguars in South Dakota, and that could be the reason the seller has chosen to list this one elsewhere. The wide open spaces visible in some of the photos make me want to visit the area again. So what do you think? Do you see any possibility in this fine British ride?Hundreds of baby penguins swept from the icy shores of Antarctica and Patagonia are washing up dead on Rio de Janeiro's tropical beaches. More than 400 of the birds have been found dead on the area's beaches in the past two months, and more are being found in a distressed or sickly condition.
While it is common to find a few dozen penguins swept here from the Straits of Magellan by strong currents, there have been more this year than at any time in recent memory. Experts are divided over the possible causes. Thiago Muniz, a veterinarian at the Niteroi zoo, said he believed overfishing has forced the penguins to swim further from shore to find fish to eat, "and that leaves them more vulnerable to getting caught up in the strong ocean currents". Niteroi, the state's biggest zoo, has already received about 100 penguins for treatment this year, many of them drenched in petroleum. The Campos oil field that supplies most of Brazil's oil lies offshore.
But biologist Erli Costa of Federal University suggested weather patterns could be involved. "I don't think the levels of pollution are high enough to affect the birds so quickly. I think we're seeing more young and sick penguins because of global warming, which affects ocean currents and creates more cyclones, making the seas rougher," he said.
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.
Most the penguins found are too young to out-swim the currents they encounter while searching for food. Every year, Brazil airlifts dozens of penguins back to Antarctica or Patagonia.
We’ll tell you what’s true. You can form your own view.
At The Independent, no one tells us what to write. That’s why, in an era of political lies and Brexit bias, more readers are turning to an independent source. Subscribe from just 15p a day for extra exclusives, events and ebooks – all with no ads.
Subscribe nowAustralian resources and agricultural businesses will get more access into Iran after the Coalition said it plans to reopen a trade office there later this year after meetings with Iranian Foreign Minister Javad Zarif in Canberra on Tuesday.
However, signalling the government is yet to seal a deal over Iranian asylum seekers who have not been accepted as refugees in Australia, Dr Zarif said Iran would not force its citizens to return home.
The trade office, which closed in 2010, will be within the Australian Embassy in Tehran and help boost export and investment opportunities for business.
Foreign Minister Javad Zarif said he would not be forcing Iranians who were not accepted as refugees in Australia to return home. Andrew Meares
"Austrade will provide support to Australian businesses immediately from its office in Dubai, and will establish a permanent presence within the Australian Embassy in Tehran from the second half of 2016," a spokesman for Trade Minister Steven Ciobo said.
Mr Ciobo said trade was about $350 million a year under sanctions, and would only rise after the January nuclear deal.Many of you may not have heard of the term behavioral finance, but it is hard to find a point where our minds do not get in the way of our money. It happens all the time. We try to kid ourselves that we are rational human beings who make rational decisions, but history and our stock market has proved us wrong time and time again.
In fact, we let our emotions take hold of us more often than we would like to admit much to the detriment of our finances. Below are three classic examples of behavioral finance and how we behave irrationally with our money and let our minds get in the way and cost us.
We Have an Aversion to Losses Because of Behavioral Finance
When we are investing for our financial goals, whether it is buying a home, retiring early, sending our children to college, or any one of the hundred others, a rational person is supposed to step back and look at the big picture. You are supposed to consider your total investment portfolio, and the goal is to increase your wealth to accomplish these financial goals.
But, far too often, we look at the individual wins and losses. I’m sure that most of the readers can quickly name a stock or mutual fund that has cost them a significant loss over their investing career. Investors have a loss aversion, and we tend to focus on our losses as opposed to the other investments that are in the black.
We would rather avoid a loss altogether than risk it for a chance at gains. Investors often sell winning stock in order to lock in a profit and hold losing stocks as they sink further and further in an effort not to have to actually accept the current loss on paper.
How To Avoid Risk Aversion In Your Life And Investments
If you had the choice of keeping your current job at your current salary or taking a chance on a new venture that has a 50% chance to either double your income or 50% chance of reducing your income by 25% which would you choose?
Let me frame it a slightly different way. Let’s say that you currently make $50,000 at your day job. You could keep working 9-5 and do nothing. Or, you could take a chance with a new venture that has the possibility to either double your income to $100,000 or reduce your income to $37,500. Which would you choose? If you said that you would just stay where you are with your current job and not risk it, you are not alone.
What Is Risk Aversion?
Risk aversion is a phenomenon where a person or an investor is reluctant to accept a loss when there is the possibility to receive a loss. It comes down to what a person perceives as the gain and also the loss. Studies have shown that most people cannot stomach losses.They would rather give up the possibility of gains in order to ensure that they do not suffer a possible loss even if the risk of a loss is less than the chance of the gain.
They would rather give up the possibility of gains in order to ensure that they do not suffer a possible loss even if the risk of a loss is less than the chance of the gain.
Expected Value
So, how do you avoid risk aversion? The best way to avoid risk aversion is to understand expected value. In statistics and probability theory, the expected value is the weighted values of all possible outcomes. So, for example, if a stock valued at $100 per share has a 50% chance of rising to $150 during the course of a year and a 50% chance of dropping in value to $80, then it has an expected value of $115 ($150 x 50% + $80 x 50%) by the end of the year.
So how do we put it all together and what does it all mean to the average person. The one surefire way to have half a chance to avoid risk aversion is to understand it. It is everyone’s natural inclination to want to avoid losses.
No investor wants to lose money, but it is important to understand that many of our fears are not founded in science and actuality. Often the fear of suffering a loss, even a small loss, keeps us from potentially earning significantly more money with other opportunities.
If you’re hesitant about investing, let a robo advisor like Betterment do it for you. You can see my full review of Betterment here.
We Are Overconfident in the Things We Know
Are you a good driver? Progressive Insurance conducted a simple study where they asked a random sample of Americans if they were a good driver. Over 93% felt that they were better than average. This statement alone is impossible. The law of large numbers and a standard distribution of people’s driving skills show that it is extremely unlikely for more than 50% of people to be better than the average.
Are you a good investor? There is a direct correlation between overconfident drivers and overconfident investors. In fact, the correlation is just overconfidence. We are guilty of it with our money just like driving. Those of us who handle our own investments, buy individual stocks and skip the advice of a financial planner think that we can do it better than ourselves.
We Are Biased on What We Know
How do you choose which stocks and mutual funds to purchase shares of? I can rattle off an entire list of stocks that I have invested in over the years, and many of the products those companies make are sitting on my desk and around my office. While Warren Buffett correctly recommends investing in companies that we understand, many of us tend to go one step further and invest in the handful of companies that we know that best. It is a form of availability bias.
We are biased on what we know without having to learn something new. Instead of finding the diamond in the rough stock to invest in that has the possibility to potentially earn more than the average market return, we stick to the few stocks that we know who may or may not have a track record of keeping up with the overall stock market simply because their history and stories are |
Nightcrawler
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Sleepy Hollow
Best Syndicated / Cable Television Series
12 Monkeys
American Horror Story: Freak Show
Continuum
Falling Skies
Salem
The Strain
The Walking Dead
Best Limited Run Television Series
Bates Motel
From Dusk Till Dawn
Game of Thrones
The Last Ship
The Librarians
Outlander
Best Superhero Adaptation Television Series
Agent Carter
Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.
Arrow
Constantine
The Flash
Gotham
Best Youth-Oriented Television Series
The 100
Doctor Who
Pretty Little Liars
Supernatural
Teen Wolf
The Vampire Diaries
Best Actor in a Television Series
Hugh Dancy, Hannibal
Grant Gustin, The Flash
Andrew Lincoln, The Walking Dead
Tobias Menzies, Outlander
Mads Mikkelsen, Hannibal
Noah Wyle, Falling Skies
Best Actress in a Television Series
Hayley Atwell, Agent Carter
Caitronia Balfe, Outlander
Vera Farmiga, Bates Motel
Jessica Lange, American Horror Story: Freak Show
Rachel Nichols, Continuum
Rebecca Romjin, The Librarians
Best Supporting Actor in a Television Series
David Bradley, The Strain
Laurence Fishburne, Hannibal
Sam Heughan, Outlander
Erik Knudsen, Continuum
Norman Reedus, The Walking Dead
Richard Samuel, The Strain
Best Supporting Actress in a Television Series
Emilia Clarke, Game of Thrones
Jenna Coleman, Doctor Who
Caroline Dhavernas, Hannibal
Lexa Doig, Continuum
Emily Kinney, The Walking Dead
Melissa McBride, The Walking Dead
Best Performance by a Younger Actor in a Television Series
Camren Bicondova, Gotham
Maxim Knight, Falling Skies
Tyler Posey, Teen Wolf
Chandler Riggs, The Walking Dead
Holly Taylor, The Americans
Maisie Williams, Game of Thrones
Best Guest Performance in a Television Series
Dominic Cooper, Agent Carter
Neil Patrick Harris, American Horror Story: Freak Show
John Larroquette, The Librarians
Wentworth Miller, The Flash
Michael Pitt, Hannibal
Andrew J. West, The Walking Dead
HOME ENTERTAINMENT
Best DVD/BD Release
Beneath (IFC Film Release)
Blue Ruin
Odd Thomas
Ragnarok
White Bird in a Blizzard
Wolf Creek 2
Best DVD/BD Special Edition Release
Alexander: The Ultimate Cut
The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug Extended Edition
Nightbreed: The Director’s Cut
Once Upon a Time in America: Extended Director’s Cut
Sorcerer
The Texas Chainsaw Massacre: 40th Anniversary Collector’s Edition
Best DVD/BD Television Release
Batman: The Complete Television Series
Hannibal: Season 2
Merlin: The Complete Series
Spartacus: The Complete Series
Star Trek: The Next Generation: Season 7
Twin Peaks: The Entire Mystery
Wizards and Warriors: The Complete Series
Best DVD/BD Collection Release
The Exorcist: The Complete Anthology
Halloween: The Complete Collection
Stanley Kubrick: The Masterpiece Collection
Steven Spielberg Director’s Collection
Toho Godzilla Collection
Universal Classic Monsters: Complete 30 Film Collection
LIVE STAGE PRODUCTION
Best Local Live Stage Production
Damn Yankees (3-D Theatricals)
Ghost Brothers of Darkland County (Saban Theatre)
The Last Confession (Ahmanson Theatre)
Pippin (Segerstrom Center for the Arts)
Ragtime (3-D Theatricals)
Stoneface: The Rise and Fall and Rise of Buster Keaton (Pasadenia Playhouse)
The Wizard of Oz (Segerstrom Center for the Arts)He insists he hacked into the computer networks only to find evidence of extra-terrestrial landings. He is self-taught and worked under the name Solo but managed to cause more than £475,000 ($990,660) in damage to some of the most supposedly secure computers in the US, including those operated by NASA, the Pentagon and several arms of the US military.
The House of Lords was told McKinnon should not be extradited to the US because US prosecutors attempted to intimidate him into co-operating with them. They were told that, if the extradition was allowed to go ahead, he would become a victim of abuse of process. In an interview posted on YouTube, McKinnon insists the only reason he was able to gain computer access to the networks was because they were badly protected by lax security.
In 2005, McKinnon made world headlines when British prosecutors described his hacking exercise as one of the biggest ever military computer breaches. He did the work from a room in his girlfriend's aunt's house in North London. McKinnon was taken into custody when he was discovered in 2002 but was never charged in Britain. Last year, he lost an appeal in the High Court to stop his extradition to the US.
His lawyer, David Pannick, QC, told the House of Lords that McKinnon had been told by US authorities that, unless he agreed to plead guilty to an extradition he would face an even tougher sentence. Reports on the internet have also quoted a US embassy legal official who said New Jersey authorities said they wanted McKinnon to "fry". Mr Pannick told the Lords it had the power to turn down an extradition if it believed there was an abuse of process.
"The US prosecutors sought to impose pressure on the appellant through his legal advisers to consent to extradition and plead guilty," he said. He said one threat had been to treat the case as a terrorism case with a potential 60-year jail term on the cards.
McKinnon was told, on the one hand, that if he co-operated he would receive a jail sentence of between 37 and 46 months with a possible repatriation to Britain after half the time.
"By contrast, the appellant's representatives were told that if the appellant declined to co-operate, this sentence would be in the region of eight to 10 years, possibly longer," Pannick said. The Guardian reported yesterday that a judgment is expected within three weeks.Some controversial monuments in New Orleans are being taken down. FOX's Tonya J. Powers has more:
The first of four prominent Confederate monuments scheduled for removal in New Orleans is now down... Taken away in pieces early this morning.
The Liberty Monument, which commemorates whites who tried to topple a biracial post-civil war government in the city, was removed overnight in an attempt to avoid disruption from supporters who want the monument to stay.
The majority black city council voted in 2015 to approve plans to take the statues down, but legal battles kept it from happening until now.
Some city officials say they've gotten death threats over the matter.
People who want the monuments removed say they are offensive, but others call them part of the city's history and that they should be protected.
Tonya J. Powers, FOX News.
Follow Tonya J. Powers on Twitter: @TonyaJPowersIn a large bowl, combine butter, brown sugar, and honey. Stir until creamy. Beat in the egg and vanilla until smooth.
Sift the dry ingredients over the butter mixture and stir until incorporated.
Turn the dough out onto a lightly floured work surface and knead once or twice. Divide the dough in half. Flatten each half into a 1-inch-thick disk. Wrap and refrigerate for at least 2 hours, or overnight.
Preheat oven to 350°F. Lightly grease two baking sheets.
Roll one piece of the dough ¼-inch thick on wax paper. Cut out shapes and place on the prepared cookie sheets. Repeat for the remaining dough and scraps.
Bake for 14 to 18 minutes, or until golden. Cool briefly on the baking sheets, then transfer to a rack to cool.
Decorate the cookies with frosting (see instructions for making the frosting below). Allow the frosting to dry before stacking cookies.The condition usually does not last long and the level of pain associated with blue balls is usually minor and can be exaggerated. Most men have been socialized to ejaculate when they get an erection during sexual activity. Failure to ejaculate and to feel orgasm often adds frustration and disappointment to the reality of the physical sensation.
Men who believe that they should ejaculate every time they have an erection are likely to exert pressure on their partner to proceed with sex without taking her feelings into consideration.
Some men find that masturbation is a viable solution and are realizing that ejaculation is not a requirement in every sexual situation. This attitude allows both men and their partners to relax more and to learn that pleasure and meaning can exist without having to reach ejaculation and orgasm during every sexual encounter.
Men are not alone in experiencing the discomfort of unrelieved vasocongestion. Women's genitals also become engorged with blood during sexual arousal and, like their male counterparts, women can experience pelvic heaviness and aching if they do not reach orgasm.
Copyright 2002 Sinclair Intimacy Institute
Related ArticlesSecretary of State Hillary Clinton Hillary Diane Rodham ClintonSanders: 'I fully expect' fair treatment by DNC in 2020 after 'not quite even handed' 2016 primary Sanders: 'Damn right' I'll make the large corporations pay 'fair share of taxes' Former Sanders campaign spokesman: Clinton staff are 'biggest a--holes in American politics' MORE is scheduled to visit Congress on Thursday in an attempt to beat back Tea Party pressure to cut foreign aid to Egypt and Libya in the wake of anti-American violence in those countries.
Clinton, Director of National Intelligence James Clapper and Deputy Secretary of Defense Ashton Carter are expected to brief members of the House and Senate on the unrest in the region, which included an attack on the U.S. Consulate in Libya that killed Ambassador Christopher Stevens and three other Americans.
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During the briefing, Clinton is expected to make the case for America’s continued financial support to the region despite the tensions that were exposed during last week’s protests at U.S. embassies.
“We are continuing to work with the Hill on the support that we think is important to support those very forces of moderation, change, democracy, openness in Egypt that are very important for defeating extremism of the kind that we saw,” State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland said earlier this week. “It’s a conversation we obviously have to continue to have, and the secretary will be having it with the Congress as well this week, we expect.”
Conservative Republicans are demanding that the Obama administration rethink its aid to Libya, Egypt and Pakistan, arguing that the countries have not lived up to their commitments as partners of the United States.
Sen. Rand Paul Randal (Rand) Howard PaulThe Hill's Morning Report — Emergency declaration to test GOP loyalty to Trump The Hill's 12:30 Report: Trump escalates fight with NY Times The 10 GOP senators who may break with Trump on emergency MORE (R-Ky.) said in a “Dear Colleague” letter that he would seek to block passage of must-pass spending legislation and prevent the Senate’s adjournment at the end of the week unless the Senate votes on his proposal to cut $4 billion in annual spending on Libya, Egypt and Pakistan. Paul has long sought to punish Pakistan for imprisoning Shakil Afridi, a doctor who helped the CIA locate Osama bin Laden.
Paul urged House members to pass legislation demanding accountability from all three countries.
“If you want to get aid from our country, if you want to be an ally, you have to act like it,” Paul told reporters Wednesday. “Certain behaviors need to be adhered to [if you’re going] to get money from the U.S. government.”
Along those same lines, Sens. Jim DeMint (R-S.C.) and Bob Corker Robert (Bob) Phillips CorkerBrexit and exit: A transatlantic comparison Sasse’s jabs at Trump spark talk of primary challenger RNC votes to give Trump 'undivided support' ahead of 2020 MORE (R-Tenn.) have introduced legislation that would require a report to Congress on the embassy attacks in Libya, Egypt and Yemen. DeMint said the report would help lawmakers decide what countries are deserving of foreign aid.
“What we want to do in our proposed legislation with Bob Corker is get a report of what’s gone on over there so that we can assess our foreign aid and make sure we’re not supporting those who are against us,” DeMint told The Hill.
The senator said he’s being flooded with calls from people who are angry about U.S. support for the Middle East following the American deaths in Benghazi, Libya.
“Frankly, my phone calls from South Carolina and around the country on foreign aid — there have been a lot of them,” DeMint said Wednesday after a hearing on President Obama’s nominee for ambassador to Iraq. “People were frustrated with foreign aid in the first place, and now they feel like we’ve been giving money to a lot of countries that just did not protect us.”
Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman John Kerry John Forbes KerryOvernight Defense: White House eyes budget maneuver to boost defense spending | Trump heads to Hanoi for second summit with Kim | Former national security officials rebuke Trump on emergency declaration 58 ex-national security officials rebuke Trump over emergency declaration Ex-national security officials to issue statement slamming Trump's emergency declaration: WaPo MORE (D-Mass.) won’t allow a vote on the bill, according to DeMint. Kerry said Wednesday that the State Department is putting together an independent board to look into the deadly attack in Benghazi, making the legislation from DeMint and Corker redundant.
The boiling anger at Egypt, meanwhile, was on full display Wednesday in the House, where Majority Leader Eric Cantor Eric Ivan CantorPelosi warns GOP: Next president could declare national emergency on guns Ousted GOP lawmaker David Brat named dean at Liberty University business school Trump, GOP seek to shift blame for shutdown to Pelosi MORE (R-Va.) and House Foreign Affairs Committee Chairwoman Ileana Ros-Lehtinen (R-Fla.) lambasted the Egyptian government during floor speeches before voting on a resolution honoring the four dead Americans.
“American assistance is not an entitlement, and Congress expects Egypt’s new leaders to respect the parameters and conditions of our generous aid,” Cantor warned.
Lawmakers have expressed dismay that it took Egyptian President Mohammed Morsi, the newly elected leader from the Muslim Brotherhood, about 24 hours to criticize a protest at the U.S. Embassy in Cairo. The demonstration culminated in the burning of the American flag on the anniversary of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.
“This cannot happen again,” Ros-Lehtinen said, “and Congress will be closely monitoring the ongoing protests and reassessing our assistance packages and our approaches based on the responses of these governments to assaults on our embassies and our institutions.”
Republicans are split over whether to continue engaging with Islamist governments as the Middle East undergoes a period of change that has toppled authoritarian governments.
Sens. Lindsey Graham Lindsey Olin GrahamHouse to push back at Trump on border Trump pressures GOP senators ahead of emergency declaration vote: 'Be strong and smart' This week: Congress, Trump set for showdown on emergency declaration MORE (R-S.C.) and John McCain John Sidney McCainGOP lobbyists worry Trump lags in K Street fundraising Mark Kelly kicks off Senate bid: ‘A mission to lift up hardworking Arizonans’ Gabbard hits back at Meghan McCain after fight over Assad MORE (R-Ariz.), champions of deeper U.S. involvement in Syria, said they disagreed with their Tea Party colleagues, but understood their frustration.
“That’s the libertarian view and not the dominant conservative Republican view,” Graham said. “I think Sen. McCain and myself speak for the Ronald Reagan tradition of peace through strength. I don’t think it is wise now to gut your military and to disengage from a region that’s going through fundamental change.”
Clinton “needs to talk to Congress, because [the administration] has had such abysmal failures in their entire national security policy,” McCain told The Hill. Lawmakers “are going home and they’re going to hear from their constituents.”
“You just don’t know,” McCain said, what lawmakers will do when they return after meeting with voters who, “understandably, are very unhappy.”a b c d e f g The New York Times Real Estate section, February 1, 1998, accessed September 10, 2006 "If You're Thinking of Living In/North Stamford, Conn.; In a Bustling City, a Rural Haven" an article by Eleanor Charles inReal Estate section, February 1, 1998, accessed September 10, 2006
a b Lee, Natasha, "A reel cowboy: Actor doesn't forget Stamford Roots", article in The Advocate of Stamford, Connecticut, October 22, 2006, page 1, article confirms he was born and grew up in Stamford
^ Costagregni, Susie, "Director grabs a coffee before daughter's wedding" the June 24, 2006 "The Dish with susie" column in The Advocate of Stamford, page A2
^ The Advocate of Houdini: The Man Who Walked Through Walls") Parry, Wynne, "Vaudeville and Beyond: Before the heyday of movies and television, stages offered a cavalcade of acts", article,of Stamford, Connecticut, December 24, 2007, pp 1, A4, Norwalk and Stamford editions (article states: "Houdini wrote in some notes that he spent summers in his 'country home in Stamford, Connecticut', according to the book,")
^ The Advocate of Costagregni, Susie, "Food, wine and star power featured at Darien benefit", headline for "The dish with susie" column inof Stamford, Connecticut, May 6, 2007, page 2
^ The Advocate of Costagregni, Susie, "Mary Tyler Moore focuses on new home", headline for "The dish with susie" column inof Stamford, Connecticut, April 15, 2007, page 2
^ Costagregni, Susie, "Director grabs a coffee before daughter's wedding," "The Dish with susie" column in The Advocate of Stamford, June 24, 2006, page A2
a b Nova, Susan, "Manor is rich with history: Offer has been accepted to buy 5,300-square-foot (490 m2) home", news article in the Real Estate section of The Advocate of Stamford (daily newspaper), Friday, April 20, 2007, pp R1, R4
^ The Advocate of Stamford, Connecticut, March 10, 2007, pages 1, A6 Lockhart, Brian, "Promoter praised for keeping the music playing: Jim Koplik honored as one of state's finest", news article,of Stamford, Connecticut, March 10, 2007, pages 1, A6
^ The Advocate of Stamford, May 15, 2007, p 1, A4, Stamford Edition, picture caption (page 1): "Cyndi Lauper, a Stamford resident, sings the national anthem at the memorial ceremony [...]" Lee, Natasha, "Highest honor: Stamford police remember fallen colleagues", news article inof Stamford, May 15, 2007, p 1, A4, Stamford Edition, picture caption (page 1): "Cyndi Lauper, a Stamford resident, sings the national anthem at the memorial ceremony [...]"The MPAA is urging lawmakers to protect young Americans from the "numerous hazards on pirate sites." The movie industry group believes that young people may not be aware of the risks they face when visiting these sites and hopes that Senators will be able to address this cyber threat appropriately.
One of the rising anti-piracy complaints of entertainment industry companies is how so-called ‘pirate’ sites are funded by advertising, both from legitimate and illegitimate advertisers.
Last month, for example, a report backed by the entertainment industries claimed that 90 percent of the top pirate sites link to malware or other unwanted software. In addition, two-thirds of the websites were said to link to credit card scams.
Helped by these numbers, copyright holders and anti-piracy groups are now framing torrent sites, streaming hubs and cyberlockers as a cyber threat. This presents them with a new angle to urge lawmakers to target these sites and services.
Last week the Senate Homeland Security & Government Affairs Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations organized a hearing on the “hidden hazards” of online adverting. For the MPAA, this offered an ideal opportunity to chime in with their piracy angle.
“As the Senators consider steps to address the safety and security of online advertisements, we hope they will also examine the extensive growth of these hazards on sites that offer infringing movies, television shows and other creative content,” MPAA writes.
The MPAA notes that several recent reports pointed out how these pirate sites are rife with malicious ads and urges lawmakers to take steps to address the issue. Not for Hollywood’s financial benefit, but to protect Americans from malware and scams.
“As the Subcommittee considers steps to address the safety and security of online advertisements, we urge the members to examine these reports and others which detail the numerous hazards on pirate sites,” MPAA notes.
“Unfortunately, these illicit sites continue to attract large numbers of Americans, especially young people who might not be aware of the harms they could easily encounter,” they add.
So there we have it. The MPAA, who are generally speaking not too concerned about the well-being of people who “steal” their work, are now asking Senators to take them under their protection. Apparently, the MPAA don’t want pirates to catch viruses or run into credit card scams.
A humbly presented goal, but of course it’s just another obfuscated attempt to disconnect ‘pirate’ sites from their revenue streams. Considering the recent push against advertising networks, including the London Police pirate site blacklist, this won’t be the last we’ve heard of this.
Photo: Michael TheisSteve Aylett is a criminally underrated author of satirical works across a variety of genres—“criminally” being the operative word as Aylett’s city of Beerlight is a cyberpunk landscape of corrupt and/or useless cops, powerful mobsters, and bizarre private defectives (no, that’s not a typo).
The Beerlight books seem to marry the cyberpunk vision of William Gibson’s Sprawl trilogy or Neal Stephenson’s Snow Crash, William S. Burroughs’ talent for utterly weird but comprehensible description, and the hardboiled stylings of Raymond Chandler or Elmore Leonard. That might make his work sound like pastiche, but the three novels and one-and-a-half short story collections that encompass all of the Beerlight stories are far too inventive and unusual to be anything other than completely unique.
Aylett’s books proceed at breakneck speed; they’re slender titles packed with more originality, insanity, and laughs than most of the larger tomes weighing down your bookshelves. Below you’ll find a rundown of the Beerlight books, including choice quotes and some of the fascinating science fiction concepts that Aylett employs…
They seemed the perfect underworld couple in all but their neglect to get shot repeatedly in slow motion.
The Crime Studio is a collection of short stories, all set in the city of Beerlight. It was the first of the Beerlight books, but it’s not the first one I read. In revisiting the books, I realized that The Crime Studio is almost entirely lacking in the trappings of science fiction. There’s a single mention of a plasma rifle and one character with a predilection for wearing mirrorshades, and that’s about it. If you read The Crime Studio without the context of the other Beerlight books, it could simply be a collection of stories about a town plagued by relentless criminals with over-the-top personalities, the desire to shoot first and ask questions later, and a deficit of intelligence.
Harpoon Specter was a con-man so adept at manipulating reality he could fall out a window and land on the roof—if he could make a few smackers that way.
The Crime Studio isn’t as weird or as dense with ideas as the Beerlight novels, but then, few books are. What The Crime Studio lacks in density and cyberpunk flavor, it makes up for in pure comedy.
Billy’s life of crime had begun in his late teens when he broke a bottle over a guy’s head and was arrested for impersonating a cop.
“Pounce if I’m outta some arbitrary line, Specter, but from what you say this demilout’s runnin’ hogwild over creation with no better motive than a gratuitous and luxurious will to do evil.“
Slaughtermatic opens with Dante Cubit and the Entropy Kid robbing a bank. The vault is fitted with a time lock that, when tampered with, will send the would-be thief twenty minutes into the future where the police are already waiting to arrest them. But Download Jones has given Dante a hack that will instead make the lock send him twenty minutes into the past so he can slip into the vault before the heist has even started.
Fifteen minutes after Dante trips through time, Dante Cubit and the Entropy Kid turn up to rob the bank, and things begin to unravel. Now there are two Dantes in Beerlight—one who is happily losing himself in the multilayered hypertext novel he stole from the bank, the other wandering and wounded, well aware that—as far as the universe is concerned—he’s surplus to requirements.
Harpoon Specter (the con man, turned lawyer) wants to unite the two Dantes, knowing this will lead to an explosive breakdown of space-time. But Tredwell Garneshee (arguably the only good cop in the city, as indicated by how much the corrupt chief of police hates him) is determined to destroy the extra Dante and save Beerlight from the threat of the two men meeting.
That up there is a lot of words for a short summary, and I haven’t even gotten to Chief Henry Blince and his sidekick Benny being trapped in a simulation of Beerlight when they go to arrest Download Jones, or Brute Parker’s attempts to assassinate one of the Dantes, or Dante’s lover Rosa Control and her wetware Squidgun, or any of the other Beerlight residents with their own subplots. Needless to say, for a book weighing in at just 150 pages, there is a lot going on here.
Each character talks like they’re the hero of a cyberpunk neo-noir gangster film, because they kind of are. The dialogue of Slaughtermatic is all twisted catchphrases, philosophical one-liners, and spiteful barbs, with Chief of Police Henry Blince getting most of the best lines:
Running, he thought about bugs and their external skeleton. Charmless but happy. People meanwhile buried their bones as deep inside as was physically possible. What were the creeps trying to hide?
Blince is a sort of genius bigot philosopher. That’s not to say he’s intelligent, but rather his aptitude for bigotry, corruption, and hatred is unsurpassed.
Yet to Blince, the only inherent value in apprehending the real culprit was that he’d be easier to frame.
The city is lousy with incredible feats of sci-fi invention, including a wide selection of unique weapons, like the Eschaton rifle which can manifest a person’s destiny (leading most targets to turn to ash, though occasionally one might ascend to a greater form of existence), the Kafkacell gun that lets the shooter see the point of view of whoever they’re targeting (meant to curb gun violence, it instead improved the aim of self-destructive shooters), and Blince’s demographic gun, which can be set to only target people of certain demographics.
It’s a blisteringly strange SF thriller, a slab of pure mischievous invention, and a scathing commentary on the police and court system, all rolled into one. If you only track down one book after reading this article, make it Slaughtermatic.
“If both the skull and teeth are made of bone, why bother with gums?”
Toxicology isn’t strictly a Beerlight short story collection, with only about half of the stories it contains being set in that insane city. But if you’re any sort of completionist, you’ll need to track this one down, and you’ll be rewarded with a selection of brilliant and succinct Beerlight tales. Where The Crime Studio is big on humor and perhaps lacking in high-concept sci-fi, Toxicology splits the difference, with fewer laughs per page, but with concepts only Aylett could think of.
In one story, Siri Moonmute commits so many crimes instantaneously that she forms a black hole in her apartment. In Tusk, the nephew of a mobster goes on a heist with some of the other mobsters but becomes attached to his elephant mask, refusing to take it off.
In another story, psychologist Dr. Shifa is put on trial for all the assaults committed by his patients, but is eventually saved by his own form of aggression therapy. And in Maryland, Johnny Failsafe realizes that the laws of two different states meet at a precise line at the border where “one barrage of restrictions gave way to another” and he starts selling samples of this border. When a disagreement at the border turns deadly, the corpse becomes a sort of holy relic, fought over by the police, Harpoon Specter, and the church.
Private cloaking systems took off when an inventor found he could go anywhere and be ignored so long as he carried a charity can.
Toxicology is a rich vein of Aylett’s particular brand of bizarre, and continues to reveal the author’s apparent hatred of mimes, chefs, waiters, pasta, and Charlie Chaplin.
“I’d like to thank my mom, my dad, my girlfriend Kitty, my parole officer and all the victims who made this possible. This execution’s for you.”
In Atom, Harry Fiasco is hired to steal Franz Kafka’s cryogenically frozen brain, but when he plans to give the brain to mob boss Eddie Thermidor instead of the original buyer, Taffy Atom is brought in to secure the valuable item. The only problem is, Atom is a “private defective” in the gumshoe modality, who’s too interested in surrealist pranks and pithy one-liners to take any job seriously, no matter how well-paying it may be, and no matter how many people are threatening to kill him.
In Atom, Aylett turns the dial right up on the detective-noir aspect of the Beerlight books. Whilst the other stories may contain mobsters, hitmen, brushes with the law, and intrigue aplenty, Atom delves deep into noir tropes. Atom even opens in the classic fashion—with someone coming into Atom’s poorly-lit office hoping to convince him to take the job. Though, unlike standard detective fare, here the customer is attacked by Jed—Atom’s pet man-faced, sentient, dog-sized piranha.
“Ladies and gentlemen,” said Atom, if you’ll indulge me. I have assigned a musical note to every grade of human lie. Here’s my rendition of the President’s inaugural address.” And he took out a clarinet.
And it only gets stranger from there. There’s Atom’s impossible performance at a mob-run night club, the time bomb that catches Atom’s would-be assassin and forces him to live out the same two hour chunk of time for half a year, and the persistent bestiality rumors following the President in the lead-up to his visit to Beerlight.
Behind the bar hung a photo of Roni Loveless, the boxer who, ordered to throw a fight, burst through an inner struggle to beat not only his opponent but everyone in the arena and its locality in an outward-blooming explosion of violence against suppressive mediocrity.
The book closes in the whodunit tradition, with Atom bringing together all the players to reveal not just how the bizarre case unfolded, but also the insane story they’ll need to tell Chief Blince to keep him off all of their backs.
She slapped me twice. The first slap knocked the cigarette out of my mouth, the second put it back.
Novahead is the final Beerlight book, and it sees Taffy Atom returning to the city after a long hiatus, much like Aylett himself. In Atom’s view, the city has become stale and lifeless, but nevertheless he is dragged into one last case, and it’s a doozy. Various factions in Beerlight are after a teenage boy whose brain has been made into a weapon of mass destruction—all it needs is one original thought to act as the trigger.
[…] and a glass-fronted box on the wall with a sign saying FOR BROKEN GLASS BREAK GLASS.
It trades the third-person perspective-shifting of Slaughtermatic and Atom for a ride right inside Taffy Atom’s head. It makes for a book that isn’t quite as dense as those other two novels, but it’s a necessary shift because so much of Novahead is about Taffy (and, I suppose, Aylett) saying farewell to the city.
Aylett’s predilection for unique firearms is on display again, with some favorites from previous stories making an appearance, as well as a few new ones. This fascination with guns reaches its logical conclusion when a weapon gains sentience—giving |
their partners, a new poll, has found indicating that infidelity is on the rise in France among both sexes.
In figures that could help explain why so many French are unfazed by the dalliances of their president, François Hollande, the Ifop study found that some 55 per cent of French men and 32 per cent of French women admit to cheating on their other halves.
Infidelity has been on the rise since the 1970s, when only around 19 per cent admitted to cheating, according to the study that was carried out for Gleeden, the extramarital dating website.
More than one in three French said they were prepared to cheat on their partners as long as they were sure they would not find out.
François Kraus of Ifop said: "One of the study's key findings is the enduring difference in perception of infidelity among men and women, with the latter much less accepting of dalliances than men." Two out of three French women consider a kiss is a form of cheating, while 57 per cent see sexting as being unfaithful.
The survey came days after revelations that Mr Hollande was having an alleged affair with Julie Gayet, a 41-year old actress, and fascination from abroad at how little the French claimed it interested them.
Francois Hollande and Julie Gayet
The study also found that Left-wing French are more likely to cheat on their partners than those who identify themselves as on the Right.
Despite their apparent difficulty in practicing what they preach, most French people, 68 per cent, believe it is possible to remain faithful to one person for life.
It transpires they are also forgiving, as 63 per cent of French believe they can love someone even if he or she has cheated.
That high score tallies with a Pew Research Center study from 2013, which found that the French were the most forgiving of the 39 countries surveyed.Manchester Law Society has received an ‘overwhelming’ response in the last 48 hours to its plea for pro bono advice and representation for families and seriously injured people following Monday's attack on the Manchester Arena.
The society's chief executive, Fran Eccles-Bech, said more than 100 solicitor firms, law students, barristers and 'bigger' law firms in the north and farther afield have offered to provide free advice to help with legal issues that those affected by the bombing may face.
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Eccles-Bech said the society is working with Manchester police'so that victims can more easily find the help they need'.
The day after the attack, the society said on its website that it was coordinating a 'pro bono advice rota', looking for firms willing to help with Criminal Injuries Compensation Authority claims and inquests.
Areas that may require advice are: administration of estates, property ownership/mortgage; insurance; welfare benefits; family/child custody; death in service/pension; and financial obligations/debt.
The society said: 'It is appreciated that there may come a time when a particular issue, for example a complex contested probate litigation, might need to [be] handled on a non pro bono basis and as such on a conditional fee agreement. However, we do believe that in the early to medium term the approach of member firms should be totally pro bono.'
Eccles-Bech said today: 'I know ours is a small contribution in the face of the enormity of the impact of the attack on so many people's lives, but I hope we can help even a little.'
Greater Manchester Police says 22 people have been confirmed dead in addition to the man believed to have been responsible.Entertainment Weekly is on the scene at ATX in Austin, Texas. Go inside the TV festival with all our coverage, available here.
After eight years, the crew of the Battlestar Galactica is back! At the ATX Television Festival’s main event Saturday night in Austin, Texas, the show’s cast and creator, Ronald D. Moore, reunited at the Paramount Theater for the Entertainment Weekly-sponsored panel.
Joining Moore on stage: Edward James Olmos (William Adama), Mary McDonnell (Laura Roslin), Katee Sackhoff (Kara “Starbuck” Thrace), Tricia Helfer (Number Six), Grace Park (Sharon “Boomer” Valerii, Sharon “Athena” Agathon, Number Eight), James Callis (Gaius Baltar), and Michael Trucco (Sam “Longshot” Anders).
RELATED: Exclusive Portraits From ATX Festival 2017
For those who are unable to make it to ATX, we had a front row seat as EW reporters Natalie Abrams and Nick Maslow live-blogged the event. Read on to find out what went down.
7:20 p.m.: EW’s James Hibberd, who is moderating the panel tonight, has taken the stage.
7:21 p.m.: Ahead of introducing the cast, Hibberd reads a mission statement that Moore wrote ahead of the launch of BSG: “Our goal is nothing less than the reinvention of the science-fiction television series.”
7:22 p.m.: Hibberd introduces Ron D. Moore and Edward James Olmos onto the stage. Before Mary McDonnell comes out, Hibberd jokes, “She’s the president we wish we had.” Katee Sackhoff, James Callis, Tricia Helfer, Grace Park, and Michael Trucco follow.
7:25 p.m.: “They do, I’m not usually invited,” Moore says, joking about the cast hanging out.
7:26 p.m.: Moore was a Star Trek fan growing up, so he watched the original Battlestar Galactica. “It didn’t light the fire in me the way Trek and Star Wars did,” he admits, though Moore notes that he watched every episode of the original series. When Universal was looking for someone to do a reboot of BSG, Moore — who had made a name for himself working on Star Trek: The Next Generation, Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, and Star Trek: Voyager was called. “I wasn’t sure. I had 10 years of Trek and wasn’t sure if I wanted to go back in space again,” Moore says. He went to Blockbuster and got a VHS tape of the original pilot and was struck by the idea of doing the show in that moment of time. When he watched that pilot three months after the Sept. 11 terror attacks, it resonated in a different way. “The story was about the survivors who ran away,” he says. “If you did that show now it was an opportunity to talk about the things that were happening in the world now.”
7:28 p.m.: When Moore was creating the show, the studio was very open to all topics. “I never really had serious arguments about any of the fundamentals of the show,” Moore says of the big ticket items like religion and death. “By and large, on the things that really mattered, they left us alone on all those fronts.”
7:30 p.m.: “This is just a license to kill,” Moore jokes about using the word “frak” instead of “f—” as much as possible. It was actually part of the original series.
7:32 p.m.: Olmos was initially hesitant about signing on to the show — he even said no at first — but what drew him in was the writing. “It was brilliant from the first page,” Olmos says, noting Moore wrote a three-page manifesto before the script even started. “I hadn’t seen anything like this since — not even Blade Runner [in which Olmos costarred] was this well crafted.” Olmos says he believed Moore really would reinvent the journey.
7:33 p.m.: McDonnell admits she never saw the original BSG because she was busy being a stage actress and didn’t have a television set. “I didn’t understand it,” she says. “I just giggled. But then at the same time, I read the script and I fell in love with all of the characters. That was really important to me. I attached to these people in the first read through.” McDonnell said it was also very important to explore a woman coming into power without a support behind her, “as many women my age have experienced.”
7:34 p.m.: Starbuck was originally envisioned as a character in her 30s, but Sackhoff was in her 20s. “Oh my God, I’ve been searching for this for like five years, I get to shoot a gun, my dad would be so proud, I have to do this,” she says, reflecting on her reaction to the role. Sackhoff says she auditioned six or seven times for the part — casting apparently thought she was “too girly.” “I had no idea that it was ever going to be this. I had never seen the original,” she says reveals. Sackhoff and a friend then rented the original and realized that Starbuck was a male character in the original. The actress then went to an internet cafe and logged into a chat group to see how fans would react to that. “I learned in that moment, f— ’em,” she says to huge applause.
7:38 p.m.: Moore says changing Starbuck from male to female was one of his first ideas for the revival after he was stumped on how to make the character different from the original, who would smoke cigars, drink, and gamble. “She has all the same characteristics,” Moore says. “I haven’t seen that character before as a female fighter pilot, and that’s kind of cool.”
7:41 p.m.: Callis brought humor to the role in his audition. “I didn’t mean to — it’s just one of those things that happened,” he jokes. Callis also auditioned several times for the show. “Why didn’t they make it this difficult to become the president?” Callis quips. The actor’s audition scene was from the miniseries, in which he’s caught by Six (Helfer) in bed with another woman. “We broke a lot of ice,” Callis says of having to kiss Helfer on the first day of filming. “I made us kiss,” Helfer says.
7:46 p.m.: Telling the story about their first day shooting, Helfer says she was told to be a little bit animalistic, so they had to practice Baltar undressing Six. “Black plastic underwear, it’s a bit of a handful,” Callis says. They were both nervous, so Helfer says she asked Callis to go downstairs in a basement to practice kissing. “There was the realization that we really trusted each other,” Callis says. “It’s a thing about trust and that’s what helped us and helped us establish the relationship.” He notes it was intimidating and the last thing you want to feel on screen is self-conscious, so he was happy they practiced.
7:50 p.m.: Park says she initially auditioned for Dualla and Starbuck, but landed the role of Boomer and was pissed. “Who the eff is Boomer?” she jokes. Park didn’t initially know that Boomer was actually a Cylon. Trucco also auditioned for a different role: Apollo. He then went in for Anders, who was meant to be short-lived. “The majority of the people f—ing hated my character and I think that fueled Ron. You don’t like Anders? Watch this.” The role suddenly kept growing and Trucco says he became a part of the family. “I’m truly grateful to get to sit here and call myself part of this family,” he says.
7:54 p.m.: Callis recalls Olmos giving him a “So say we all”-esque speech early in the show’s run, stating that BSG would run for five years. “We were really led through example by Eddie and Mary, these two incredible professionals who gave us everything,” Callis says. “That speech at the beginning from Eddie, who is Admiral Adama, was so galvanizing.”
Nick Maslow for EW
7:57 p.m.: “I was in the hospital being told I was dying. I thought it would be a short job,” McDonnell recalls of shooting the miniseries. One of their first big scenes, though, was Adama’s “So say we all” speech. “That was the very first time we were all together,” Olmos says. “It was frightening. It was very intense. What ended up happening is everybody went with it. The speech that Ron wrote was right there. It worked. When we said, ‘So say we all,’ it caught everyone by surprise. No one knew I was going to repeat it. I just wailed on it and everyone was like, ‘Okay, so say we all!’ That did it… We all felt it. That, to me, was probably the most penetrating moment because that set the scene for the next five years.”
8:00 p.m.: McDonnell says one of her favorite moments was Roslin’s “I’m coming for all of you” part. “The reason I loved it was because we finally got to touch on Laura Roslin’s rage,” McDonnell says. “That was liberating.” McDonnell recalls one of her favorite on-set moments: She and Sackhoff could not stop laughing for hours during one of their first scenes together, to the point where she thought they’d get fired. “You notice we didn’t have too many scenes after that,” she says.
8:02 p.m.: Sackhoff says she was told many times she was not right for the part. “There’s a piece of you that goes, ‘Oh my God, I’m not right for this part,'” Sackhoff says, recalling shooting a scene in the Viper where she couldn’t remember her dialogue or what it meant. “We must’ve done it so many times, and I remember thinking to myself, ‘You stupid little girl, you’re going to get fired,'” Sackhoff says. She reveals she put her dialogue up on the screen of the cockpit for the rest of the series to help her because she had trouble with the science talk.
8:05 p.m.: Recalling when she learned that Starbuck was going to die and come back as something else, Sackhoff says she was told she was going to be killed and then brought back but that they had to keep it secret. “Everyone is going to think you’re dead,” the BSG bosses told her, explaining she’d go home and her name would be removed from the credits. Moore admits, “This was one of the stupidest things we’ve never done the entire run of the show.” Sackhoff knew that if she told Olmos, he would tell the entire cast she wasn’t really dead. Moore says they were getting calls from set saying everyone was really upset they were killing off Starbuck. “It just spiraled completely out of control,” Moore says. It was a matter of days before they admitted the truth to the cast.
8:09 p.m.: Jamie Bamber attempts to Skype in during the panel, but the call doesn’t initially connect. McDonnell starts chanting for Bamber, but Olmos takes matters into his own hands by trying to call Bamber on his phone. Moore jokingly starts to read Bamber’s phone number to the crowd.
8:11 p.m.: Bamber finally connects. “I’m in f—ing France,” he says. What’s his favorite moment from the show? “Right now,” Bamber says. “You look great, just smile,” Callis says. He complies. Bamber is drinking a beer.
8:17 p.m.: In response to a fan question, Bamber says the cast would get deeply and emotionally involved in the storylines. But Bamber is speaking very quickly, so Olmos and McDonnell try to get him to slow down. Then he starts speaking French. The Skype session is going to end, so the cast crowds the camera to send their love to Bamber and he blows kisses.
8:18 p.m.: Callis shares a funny story about a time when he was naked that didn’t make the cut. Baltar was being interviewed on the Cylon ship by Six and D’Anna. “When we started filming the scene, what was funny was looking at the boom operator who had basically blindfolded himself so he wouldn’t be traumatized,” Callis jokes.
8:20 p.m.: Helfer says there was a lot of discussion about Six snapping the baby’s neck in the miniseries. “It was important to have that moment because Caprica knew the bombs were about to go off, this baby was going to die shortly, but it was the first time she had actually held a baby,” she says, “and then to make the choice to end its life quickly and painlessly as opposed to suffering hours later, to me that was a very integral moment that showing this other side — this evil side — has some sort of empathy.” Helfer says her sister, who had had a baby two weeks prior, never watched the show after that. “It was a foreshadowing that there was a lot more to the Cylon side than you’re expecting in the beginning,” Helfer adds.
8:22 p.m.: Park’s favorite moment was the scene where Helo shoots Athena. “It is a scene about faith, in a way, and about trust,” Park says. “It was just beautiful to have him carry the rest of the scene.”
8:24 p.m.: Trucco says his favorite scene is where Anders, as part of the resistance, is blowing up cafes. The actor found himself in a parking structure, where Anders is pinned, with Helfer, Park, and Lucy Lawless. EP David Eick visited the set and literally stepped right over him.
8:26 p.m.: Helfer reveals she actually separated a rib during that parking structure scene and had to go to the hospital. Callis says he was also injured during their time on BSG, but had makeup and prosthetics on for a show injury that alarmed nurses when he arrived at the hospital.
8:29 p.m.: Moore admits the line “they have a plan” from the prologue was thrown in without an actual plan for what it could be in the future. “There was no f—ing plan,” Moore says.
8:33 p.m.: When asked who was most like their characters, many of the cast respond: Eddie. “Every single one of us was inside our character and we all let it out,” says Olmos, who praises each of his co-stars. “Everybody owned it. Okay, I played Adama, but basically Jamie Bamber, Apollo, are you kidding me? He was Apollo.” Moore says there’s a melding of the writing and the acting. “The writers start to write toward your cast,” he says. “You start writing to them and what their voices are…. Inevitably there’s this merging of the cast and the character that wasn’t there on the page.”
8:37 p.m.: Moore says if they wrote BSG today, they would pull from the current political climate and aim to be completely serialized, adding that season 1 had some procedural elements. “Serialized TV was really unusual and it was frowned upon,” Moore says, noting how much times have changed.
8:41 p.m.: “Gaius,” Sackhoff jokes when asked who was Starbuck’s true love. “I believe in multiple loves your of your life,” she says. “If you don’t go together, you move on and you find someone else. That’s what love is, allowing someone to grow and leave you. I don’t know.”
8:43 p.m.: “That’s the miracle of editing, my dear,” Moore jokes when asked the work-out plan of Fat Apollo. “I would’ve been happy to keep him as Fat Apollo. I think Jamie felt otherwise.” Sackhoff jokes that was the first time she saw Bamber eat carbs.
8:45 p.m.: When a fan asks Sackhoff, “What do you hear, Starbuck?” the actress responds in kind: “Oh my gosh, people do this all the time and I never answer, but nothing but the rain.”
8:47 p.m.: “I don’t think I’ll ever do another show like this in my lifetime,” Olmos says in response to a fan question.
8:49 p.m.: Moore says in the final years of Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, he was feeling constrained about telling a story about what it meant to be in war, so some of that spilled over to BSG.
8:51 p.m.: A fan notes the infamous line, “All of this has happened before and will happen again.” What lessons can we take from the show that still resonate now? “The idea that humanity could be reduced to 55,000 people all of a sudden and force a collective group of people to see each other as one to me is the thing that continually resonates about the show, because we’re living in a time where the powers that be are trying to create as much different between us as their pocketbooks will allow,” McDonnell says. “We’re unfortunately living on the edge at the moment on the planet, so perhaps we can stop dividing each other and seeing each other as the other, because there’s no difference.”
8:53 p.m.: As the cast stands together on stage, the entire audience also rises as Olmos leads everyone in a trio of chants, “So say we all.” And with that, the Battlestar Galactica reunion has concluded.
Check back for the exclusive People/Entertainment Weekly Network (PEN) special, EW Reunites: The cast of Battlestar Galactica, here or download the free app on your favorite device.In this week’s prospect update, the NCAA tournaments are in full swing and Gennaro continues his goal scoring ways.
CHL
Jansen Harkins and the Cougars traveled down to Washington State for a three-game road trip and came away with a pair of wins. The Cougars only loss was a close 5-4 game in which Winnipeg product and 2017 top draft prospect Cody Glass scored two and added two assists. Harkins assisted in the loss and scored late in a 6-1 win over Tri-City.
Matteo Gennaro scored his 40th goal of the season to start the week off, albeit in a 6-2 loss to the Saskatoon Blades, the team the Hitmen are fighting for the last Wild Card spot. The Hitmen turned it around and have now won three straight; Gennaro scored another two goals and an assist in the wins. The Hitmen now sit three points up on the Blades for the last playoff spot.
Michael Spacek is currently on a six-game point streak (3G, 7A) as the Rebels won two and lost one this week. The Rebels sit third place in the Central Division, but it is by no means a comfortable lead.
Luke Green‘s point totals had quieted down lately after his string of assists when he first joined the Sherbrooke Phoenix. After scoring just two goals the rest of the season, Green has now scored in three of the past four games. Last week, I had indicated Green was likely to see time with the Moose this month. I failed to realize that 16 of the 18 QMJHL teams make the playoffs and that the Phoenix (currently 17th place) are only one point back of three teams ahead of them.
USHL
Mikhail Berdin continues to put up great stats for a team at the bottom of the USHL standings. Berdin stopped 34 of 36 in a shootout loss to Omaha (and stopped 4 of 5 shooters) and stopped 15 of 17 the following night in a 2-1 loss to Cedar Rapids. Berdin ranks 3rd in the league in save percentage.
NCAA
CJ Franklin and Minnesota State needed all three games to decide a winner in the WCHA semifinals. Losing 5-1 in Game One on Friday, Minnesota State shut out the Michigan Tech Huskies 1-0 on Saturday. In the deciding Game Three, Michigan Tech took the lead on a pair of second period goals and never looked back, winning 4-1. The Mavericks end their season with a very respectable 22-13-4 record. Franklin did not record a point, but was strong in the faceoff circle, winning 29 of 49 draws (59%).
Tucker Poolman and the Fighting Hawks beat St. Cloud State in two games to advance to the NCHC Semifinals. Poolman had a pair of assists in Game One in a 5-2 win and his team escaped with a 6-5 OT win in Game Two. North Dakota will play Denver in a one-game playoff at the Target Center in Minneapolis this Friday. Win or lose, they will play on Saturday in either the NCHC Championship game or the Third Place game. The team has also earned a berth in the NCAA Tournament starting at the end of March.
As an extra this week, enjoy all of Tucker’s shifts from his 4-point performance last week!
Erik Foley and the Friars dropped both games to Notre Dame in the Hockey East Quarterfinal. Providence is now playing the waiting game to see if they are selected for a spot in the NCAA Tournament. The selection process has always confused me and I won’t pretend to know how it works. I created a shift by shift look at Foley from his game on February 25th below.
Mason Appleton scored the lone Michigan State goal on Saturday in a 1-1 tie (which they would win in a shootout) with Minnesota. Friday’s game was a 4-0 shutout loss. Appleton had a fantastic nine shots on net in the two games. Michigan State will face Ohio State this Thursday in the Big Ten Tournament at the Joe Louis Arena in Detroit.
Matt Ustaski scored again! Unfortunately for Wisconsin, this was one of only two goals they scored against Ohio State this weekend. Despite the outcomes, Wisconsin will play the winner of Michigan State vs Ohio State on Friday.
Jack Glover was nowhere to be found this weekend, as he was scratched once again. Glover has not played in over a month.
Overseas
Pavel Kraskovsky and Lokomotiv are down 2-1 to CSKA Moscow in the KHL semifinals. Kraskovsky was dreadful in the faceoff circle again (8 for 31, 26%) and had a couple shots on goal. To start the series off on the right foot, Kraskovsky fought CSKA’s Jan Mursak and fared quite well.
Sami Niku had a single secondary assists this week, for the third week in a row. Last night’s games mark the end of the regular season. JYP will take on HPK in the quarterfinals beginning March 22nd.
Jacob Cederholm played three more games on loan to IK Pantern, as they attempt to qualify for SHL play next season. It isn’t looking likely that IK Pantern will qualify, as the team has won just one of the four games played in the Qualification round. Cederholm recorded an assist in the win (2-1 over Almtuna IS) to open the scoring.
AHL
The Manitoba Moose had a tough week, losing all three games played. The positive news from the week is that Brendan Lemieux is slowly increasing his point totals as the season moves along. Just ignore the 28 penalty minutes!
The week began with a close 4-3 loss to the Charlotte Checkers. Lemieux scored his 11th of the season doing what he does best, but the Moose surrender three straight goals to the Checkers and never regained the lead. Eric Comrie was only able to stop 23 of 27 shots.
In the rematch on Friday night, Comrie lasted just 10 minutes (stopping 9 of 12) before he was pulled in favour of Jamie Phillips. Phillips stopped 16 of 17 shots but the damage was already done as the Moose fell 4-1. Kyle Connor scored late in the 1st to instill some hope, but it would be their only goal of the game.
The Moose met up with the Marlies for a Sunday afternoon game, in a wild back-and-forth affair. Nelson Nogier opened the scoring with his second goal of the season and Ryan Olsen scored a dandy for just his fifth of the season. Unfortunately, any goals the Moose scored were seemingly answered immediately by the Marlies.
All stats current as of this morning. Until next time, keep fit and have fun.
Be sure to visit jetsprospects.ca and check out stats and prospect profiles dating back to 2011.[This post is by Chet Haase, an Android engineer who specializes in graphics and animation, and who occasionally posts videos and articles on these topics on his CodeDependent blog at graphics-geek.blogspot.com. — Tim Bray]
In an earlier article, Animation in Honeycomb, I talked about the new property animation system available as of Android 3.0. This new animation system makes it easy to animate any kind of property on any object, including the new properties added to the View class in 3.0. In the 3.1 release, we added a small utility class that makes animating these properties even easier.
First, if you’re not familiar with the new View properties such as alpha and translationX, it might help for you to review the section in that earlier article that discusses these properties entitled, rather cleverly, “View properties”. Go ahead and read that now; I’ll wait.
Okay, ready?
Refresher: Using ObjectAnimator
Using the ObjectAnimator class in 3.0, you could animate one of the View properties with a small bit of code. You create the Animator, set any optional properties such as the duration or repetition attributes, and start it. For example, to fade an object called myView out, you would animate the alpha property like this:
ObjectAnimator.ofFloat(myView, "alpha", 0f).start();
This is obviously not terribly difficult, either to do or to understand. You’re creating and starting an animator with information about the object being animated, the name of the property to be animated, and the value to which it’s animating. Easy stuff.
But it seemed that this could be improved upon. In particular, since the View properties will be very commonly animated, we could make some assumptions and introduce some API that makes animating these properties as simple and readable as possible. At the same time, we wanted to improve some of the performance characteristics of animations on these properties. This last point deserves some explanation, which is what the next paragraph is all about.
There are three aspects of performance that are worth improving about the 3.0 animation model on View properties. One of the elements concerns the mechanism by which we animate properties in a language that has no inherent concept of “properties”. The other performance issues relate to animating multiple properties. When fading out a View, you may only be animating the alpha property. But when a view is being moved on the screen, both the x and y (or translationX and translationY) properties may be animated in parallel. And there may be other situations in which several properties on a view are animated in parallel. There is a certain amount of overhead per property animation that could be combined if we knew that there were several properties being animated.
The Android runtime has no concept of “properties”, so ObjectAnimator uses a technique of turning a String denoting the name of a property into a call to a setter function on the target object. For example, the String “alpha” gets turned into a reference to the setAlpha() method on View. This function is called through either reflection or JNI, mechanisms which work reliably but have some overhead. But for objects and properties that we know, like these properties on View, we should be able to do something better. Given a little API and knowledge about each of the properties being animated, we can simply set the values directly on the object, without the overhead associated with reflection or JNI.
Another piece of overhead is the Animator itself. Although all animations share a single timing mechanism, and thus don’t multiply the overhead of processing timing events, they are separate objects that perform the same tasks for each of their properties. These tasks could be combined if we know ahead of time that we’re running a single animation on several properties. One way to do this in the existing system is to use PropertyValuesHolder. This class allows you to have a single Animator object that animates several properties together and saves on much of the per- Animator overhead. But this approach can lead to more code, complicating what is essentially a simple operation. The new approach allows us to combine several properties under one animation in a much simpler way to write and read.
Finally, each of these properties on View performs several operations to ensure proper invalidation of the object and its parent. For example, translating a View in x invalidates the position that it used to occupy and the position that it now occupies, to ensure that its parent redraws the areas appropriately. Similarly, translating in y invalidates the before and after positions of the view. If these properties are both being animated in parallel, there is duplication of effort since these invalidations could be combined if we had knowledge of the multiple properties being animated. ViewPropertyAnimator takes care of this.
Introducing: ViewPropertyAnimator
ViewPropertyAnimator provides a simple way to animate several properties in parallel, using a single Animator internally. And as it calculates animated values for the properties, it sets them directly on the target View and invalidates that object appropriately, in a much more efficient way than a normal ObjectAnimator could.
Enough chatter: let’s see some code. For the fading-out view example we saw before, you would do the following with ViewPropertyAnimator :
myView.animate().alpha(0);
Nice. It’s short and it’s very readable. And it’s also easy to combine with other property animations. For example, we could move our view in x and y to (500, 500) as follows:
myView.animate().x(500).y(500);
There are a couple of things worth noting about these commands:
animate() : The magic of the system begins with a call to the new method animate() on the View object. This returns an instance of ViewPropertyAnimator, on which other methods are called which set the animation properties.
Auto-start: Note that we didn’t actually start() the animations. In this new API, starting the animations is implicit. As soon as you’re done declaring them, they will all begin. Together. One subtle detail here is that they will actually wait until the next update from the UI toolkit event queue to start; this is the mechanism by which ViewPropertyAnimator collects all declared animations together. As long as you keep declaring animations, it will keep adding them to the list of animations to start on the next frame. As soon as you finish and then relinquish control of the UI thread, the event queue mechanism kicks in and the animations begin.
Fluent: ViewPropertyAnimator has a Fluent interface, which allows you to chain method calls together in a very natural way and issue a multi-property animation command as a single line of code. So all of the calls such as x() and y() return the ViewPropertyAnimator instance, on which you can chain other method calls.
You can see from this example that the code is much simpler and more readable. But where do the performance improvements of ViewPropertyAnimator come in?
Performance Anxiety
One of the performance wins of this new approach exists even in this simple example of animating the alpha property. ViewPropertyAnimator uses no reflection or JNI techniques; for example, the alpha() method in the example operates directly on the underlying "alpha" field of a View, once per animation frame.
The other performance wins of ViewPropertyAnimator come in the ability to combine multiple animations. Let’s take a look at another example for this.
When you move a view on the screen, you might animate both the x and y position of the object. For example, this animation moves myView to x/y values of 50 and 100:
ObjectAnimator animX = ObjectAnimator.ofFloat(myView, "x", 50f); ObjectAnimator animY = ObjectAnimator.ofFloat(myView, "y", 100f); AnimatorSet animSetXY = new AnimatorSet(); animSetXY.playTogether(animX, animY); animSetXY.start();
This code creates two separate animations and plays them together in an AnimatorSet. This means that there is the processing overhead of setting up the AnimatorSet and running two Animator s in parallel to animate these x/y properties. There is an alternative approach using PropertyValuesHolder that you can use to combine multiple properties inside of one single Animator :
PropertyValuesHolder pvhX = PropertyValuesHolder.ofFloat("x", 50f); PropertyValuesHolder pvhY = PropertyValuesHolder.ofFloat("y", 100f); ObjectAnimator.ofPropertyValuesHolder(myView, pvhX, pvyY).start();
This approach avoids the multiple- Animator overhead, and is the right way to do this prior to ViewPropertyAnimator. And the code isn’t too bad. But using ViewPropertyAnimator, it all gets easier:
myView.animate().x(50f).y(100f);
The code, once again, is simpler and more readable. And it has the same single-Animator advantage of the PropertyValuesHolder approach above, since ViewPropertyAnimator runs one single Animator internally to animate all of the properties specified.
But there’s one other benefit of the ViewPropertyAnimator example above that’s not apparent from the code: it saves effort internally as it sets each of these properties. Normally, when the setX() and setY() functions are called on View, there is a certain amount of calculation and invalidation that occurs to ensure that the view hierarchy will redraw the correct region affected by the view that moved. ViewPropertyAnimator performs this calculation once per animation frame, instead of once per property. It sets the underlying x/y properties of View directly and performs the invalidation calculations once for x/y (and any other properties being animated) together, avoiding the per-property overhead necessitated by the ObjectAnimator property approach.
An Example
I finished this article, looked at it... and was bored. Because, frankly, talking about visual effects really begs having some things to look at. The tricky thing is that screenshots don’t really work when you’re talking about animation. (“In this image, you see that the button is moving. Well, not actually moving, but it was when I captured the screenshot. Really.”) So I captured a video of a small demo application that I wrote, and will through the code for the demo here.
Here’s the video. Be sure to turn on your speakers before you start it. The audio is really the best part.
In the video, the buttons on the upper left (“Fade In”, “Fade Out”, etc.) are clicked one after the other, and you can see the effect that those button clicks have on the button at the bottom (“Animating Button”). All of those animations happen thanks to the ViewPropertyAnimator API (of course). I’ll walk through the code for each of the individual animations below.
When |
the time we landed," Bevell said. "We had already talked about it and knew what we were going to do."Michael Vick, who last played in 2015 with the Pittsburgh Steelers, is officially retiring this weekend according to TMZ. Vick is making it official by way of an “official retirement party” at Grooves of Houston on the eve of Super Bowl LI. No word on whether or not a party at a Houston nightclub with Gucci Mane is as official as submitting paperwork, but let’s hope so because we need Tom Brady to go through the same thing when he retires.
It’s a fitting time for Vick to retire with the Atlanta Falcons playing in the Super Bowl. Vick spent 6 years as the present and future of the Falcons before dog fighting landed him in jail and kept him out of the league for two seasons. He then spent 5 years in Philadelphia and a season with the Jets and Steelers.Changes are afoot at Little Creatures, as the move to bring the White Rabbit brand closer to the new East Coast home in Geelong, and the rollout of parochial-Victorian brand Furphy raise some questions about which direction they are heading.
I was a little disappointed when parent company Lion opted to close down the original White Rabbit in Healesville and move it to Geelong (on the same site as Little Creatures). While I didn’t love the White Rabbit beers I always thought the brand was a good fit for Healesville, an area surrounded by food and drink producers that attracts a number of tourists. Putting all their eggs into the basket of Geelong seems a bit odd… but I work in big business so I understand why decisions such as this are made.
Now we see some media around “Furphy”. A beer that’s been around for a short time that looks to be an attempt at a “regional” Victorian brand and an attempt to capture a slice of the entry-level and “approachable”market. The story in Australian Brews News and accompanying quotes from, Little Creatures Head Brewer Warren Pawsey, triggered this piece (it wasn’t the only beer to trigger the piece of course).
From Brews News:
I haven’t heard a bad thing yet about Furphy. People try it and they like it. It’s not got a demographic that locks it in, it’s an everyday beer for everyday people,” he said. “It appeals to most people but I think if someone was really into their IPAs or barrel-aged or sour beers, they’re probably going to find Furphy not too challenging or satisfying.”
The latter quote is one that really doesn’t sit well for me. I do quite like an IPA or a sour beer but I also really enjoy a well made easy drinking beer. The story says this beer is kind of a Kolsch-cum-Australian Pale-sans-yeast-profile (Australia Pale is a style that I’m not sure really exists outside of Coopers, but that’s beside the point). I quite like a Kolsch… so to be told I’m probably not going to find this satisfying is strange and probably an indication they are trying to fit a brief or hit a market share, rather than make a great tasting beer.
“The concept was for a beer that was subtle, more subtle than [Little Creatures] Pale Ale, and would appeal to most people,” he said.
The above is also interesting. If you talk to people deep into the beer game in Australia, LC Pale is pretty much the beer that got them jazzed for good beer. For me it’s the perfect beer to push the LC brand forward but instead it appears the path is towards the middle of the road mass-appeal “craft”. A category that is getting out of control in Australia (Toohey’s Pale, Matilda Bay, James Squire, Cricketers Arms, Sail and Anchor, Steamrail et al). LC is kind of in that space but has always had a bit more cred with the geeks due to the love for the Pale.
It also makes me wonder where their Bright Ale fits into all of this. Bright is a toned down “approachable” beer, good for people who might find the pale a bit too bitter or confronting. Also a beer that has been on the chopping block before as per this blog piece: http://250beers.com/2014/03/06/the-futures-bright/.
You’ll notice the top comment is from me, voicing my concerns about the future decision-making with Lion at the helm. Maybe the future is not as bright as suggested?
Outside of the intended appeal of Furphy, the branding of Furphy really raised my eyebrows.
It’s not branded as a Little Creatures beer, it’s not on the Little Creatures website, but instead has its own site. While there are still mentions of Little Creatures on that site, it’s reasonable to say that it keeps the association at arm’s length, rather than firmly in the bosom.
Instead of Little Creatures branding it is strongly branded and pitched as a Victorian beer, and undoubtedly reminiscent of the Victorian “Big V”.
Even the bottle has an interesting and somewhat unique shape.
You don’t have to look too far to find another beer, aimed at “everyday people” with a prominent V and an unusual bottle shape.
You would be foolish to assume it all coincidence and chances are this was all designed in a boardroom rather than with intent to make a good beer. Which is a bit sad really.
Additionally any push for this is undercutting Little Creatures’ products themselves and splitting their own market, not only away from LC but also Lion stablemate James Squire. I’m sure a lot of market-research went in to it but I’m not sure the result has produced a product with any longevity, whereas both Little Creatures and James Squire have both proven themselves in the market and continue to do so.
The final part worthy of remark from the Brews News piece was this:
“Nick and Howard were very complimentary,” Pawsey said. “They said something like, ‘you’ve done a good job. It wasn’t exactly what we were thinking but you’ve filled out the brief quite well’.”
Nick and Howard being the founders of Little Creatures (no longer involved), with the latter also the founder of the creative agency behind the branding and strategy for Furphy, Braincell.
The first noteable part is the lack of enthusiasm shown in the quote. “Quite Well” and “good job” seem damning with faint praise to me. But you can’t read too much into a second-hand quote. What you could probably read a bit more into, however, is Braincell have since ended their association with Lion and Little Creatures. Announced a day or so before the Brews News story.
So what of White Rabbit moving to Geelong?
I’m sure I’ve seen hints at the intent but they were confirmed by this story in the Geelong Independent (left hand side):
http://issuu.com/starnewsgroup/docs/2015-06-19_gee_421/8
“When operating on the same Geelong site as the Little Creatures Brewery, White Rabbit Brewery will add to the brewery village experience,” the application said. “There will be barrel fermenting, souring and developing of beer styles, using a range of new and old wine and spirit barrels, something we have not yet seen on a large commercial scale in Australia. “The new White Rabbit Brewery will enhance and extend the craft beer village atmosphere of the Swanston St site while driving additional tourism and visitor numbers to Geelong.
Well, that’s pretty clear. It’s exciting (because I’m someone who can’t possibly be excited by a beer for the everyday person of course) and kind of in-line with what Little Creatures were doing at their Great Australasian Beer Spectapular stand which featured a barrel-aged sour ale to be blended with their core range. While it wasn’t the best sour going, it was fun to see sours and blending presented from a large brand. Now it looks as though future beers in that vein will be under the White Rabbit brand.
With all that said, Little Creatures (the brand) isn’t doing nothing. A recent “Shift Brewers” release (brewery only) and their “first ever seasonal” in the form of a re-do of their Small Batch Dreadnaught, now called Return of the Dread show there do appear to be plans… but it all just seems a bit muddled.
I’m sure Lion have a clear strategy and well mapped goals for all three brands but I’m not sure they are clear to consumers and often that is just as bad as having no map at all.Granted we’ve barely made it out of October, HBO has us accustomed to a certain winter premiere schedule, among it the girls of Girls heading back to Brooklyn in January. Now, HBO seems to have shifted its schedule a bit, pushing premieres of Girls Season 5, Scorsese -Jagger rock drama Vinyl, and Mark Duplass ’ Togetherness to February 2016.
Per HBO’s official announcement, the Bobby Cannavale - Olivia Wilde driven Vinyl will bow on February 14 with a two-hour premiere, from 9:00 to 11:00 P.M. The following Sunday on February 21 will join Vinyl with the Season 5 premiere of Girls, and Season 2 premiere of Togetherness.
Thus far, relatively little is known of Girls ’ fifth season, though Hannah, Jessa, Marnie and Shoshanna are expected to pick up with the scant Season 4 timejump that saw Hannah turning down Adam’s renewed interest, and continuing a relationship with Jake Lacy ’s teacher character Fran. Elementary star Lucy Liu has also been seen on set playing a version of herself, acting opposite Adam Driver ’s character.
Previously titled History of Music, Vinyl stems from Rolling Stones frontman Mick Jagger, with Martin Scorsese on board to executive produce. So reads the official logline:
From Martin Scorsese, Mick Jagger and Terence Winter, this new 10-episode drama series is set in 1970s New York. A ride through the sex- and drug-addled music business at the dawn of punk, disco, and hip-hop, the show is seen through the eyes of a record label president, Richie Finestra, played by Bobby Cannavale, who is trying to save his company and his soul without destroying everyone in his path.
The series also stars Ray Romano, Legend of Korra alum P.J. Byrne, Joe Caniano, Andrew “Dice” Clay, Ato Essandoh, Robert Funaro, James Jagger, Game of Thrones breakout Birgitte Sorenson, J.C. Mackenzie, Juno Temple, Max Casella and Jack Quaid.
You can check out the latest trailers for Vinyl below, but which of HBO’s 2016 series has fans the most excited?Downing Street has agreed to a partial climbdown on reforms of trade unions amid warnings that the EU remain campaign needs to keep their members on side for the 23 June referendum.
After a protracted battle over the trade union bill, the government proposed delaying changes to political funding and agreed to a trial of e-voting for strike ballots.
Ministers will still force trade unionists to opt into their organisation’s political fund, rather than subscribing automatically, in a move that Labour has warned could cost the party up to £8m a year.
However, amendments tabled by the government on Tuesday afternoon would mean the changes now come into force after a longer transitional period of 12 months rather than three.
Ministers also agreed to pilot e-voting for strike ballots – a change suggested by the House of Lords.
It comes after a previous climbdown over plans to make all civil servants and staff in the wider public sector who belong to a union switch to direct debits or make other arrangements to pay their fees, rather than having them deducted from their salaries.
The government tabled the changes before the trade union bill returns to the House of Commons on Wednesday and its likely return to the House of Lords next week.
David Cameron’s official spokeswoman left open the possibility that there could be further changes in the coming days, saying the bill was “going through parliament; it is not yet on the statute book”.
Asked if there was truth in the suggestion that No 10 was worried about alienating trade unionists before the EU referendum vote, she said: “What is driving our approach is making a step change forward in balancing the interest of the unions against the majority of people who rely on the services they provide.”
Trade unions have bitterly resisted the reforms, branding them ideological and an assault on fundamental human rights.
Before the concessions were unveiled, Frances O’Grady, the general secretary of the TUC, said she had resented having to fight the battle against the trade union bill at a time when she could be working to convince left-leaning voters that Britain should remain in the EU.
“In a practical way, I have been going up and down the country banging on about the trade union bill, when I would much rather be spending at least some of my time going up and down the country banging on about why a Brexit would be a big gamble on workers’ rights and jobs,” she said.
”I think maybe the penny is starting to drop that in terms of grassroots organising capacity; in terms of having 200,000 workplace representatives who are often opinion leaders in the community, too, that it doesn’t make sense to be hammering us at a time when most people have no idea of why they’ve picked on us in the first place.”
The unions and Labour have not yet responded to whether the concessions go far enough, but Katie Ghose, chief executive of the Electoral Reform Society, said they were much-needed changes.
“The decision to give unions a year to transition towards making members opt in to their political funds is a positive step,” she said. “This 12-month period is a real window of opportunity for all parties to get around the table and sort out our broken party finance system once and for all.
“The public are sick and tired of party funding scandals, so the government and opposition should use this time to thrash out a genuine cross-party deal. A year is a long time in politics; it shouldn’t be beyond the parties to agree on a fair and transparent funding system in that time.”There are something like one million Android phones for every person on the planet right now (plus or minus one). Most of them suck. Many are great. Here's the definitive list that tells you which is which.
Here are the ground rules. Every Android phone available on the websites of the big four US carriers will be ranked. Phones that are only sold refurbished or certified pre-owned will not be ranked. Sorry, Pantech Burst on AT&T, that means you don't make the cut. Other notable phones will be added to the list as seen fit (hello Nexii!). There will be no ties. This is America, where there is one winner and then different degrees of losers.
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1. Nexus 5
The best Android phone you can buy is also the most Android phone you can buy, if that makes any sense. It's everything great about Android in one brawny rectangular prism. It's fast, it's big, it's cheap, and it isn't tied to carriers. You can forget about all those manufacturer skins and bullshit carrier delays once you go Nexus; this phone will always (and only) be what Google wants it to be. It's like moving to a place with impossibly good weather. You'll forget about all the suffering of shoveling snow and the shattered dreams of broken umbrellas with a Nexus 5.
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2. Moto X
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Everything about this phone is good enough and that somehow adds up to pretty damn great. Things that don't look good on paper—a slightly worse screen than the heavyweights, a rubberized soft-touch plastic backing, etc.—somehow don't really subtract from the total experience. What's great is that it's perhaps the best compromise in having a big screen and having a phone that normal humans can hold. Plus, the added software touches are surprisingly good here.
3. HTC One
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It's either the best-looking phone on the planet or tied for that title, depending on when the last time you got your eyes checked. And though it's running up in age a little bit now (six months is a lifetime for Android phones), the camera in the HTC One is still first class. Basically, it's a supermodel that takes better pictures than the photographer taking pictures of her. When you have the HTC One, you will never suffer from phone envy because you know you're always going home with the best looking thing on the planet.
The Second Tier
4. Samsung Galaxy S4
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By most metrics—and geek creepin' eyeballing at bars—it's the most popular Android phone in the world. It really shouldn't be. Buying an S4 is effectively declaring that you don't care about how things look and just bought whatever the guy in the collared shirt at the store told you to buy. But I care about how things work, you say. I care about personality, you say. Nah. You only say you care because you spent money on this piece of plastic. If you spent it on another piece of plastic, you'd be tootin' that one. Here's the deal: the S4 has the cheapest look and feel of any top flight phone. The next one needs to be better for sheep's sake.
5. Droid Maxx
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Your reason: A big ass battery. And that's important because our sucktitude in developing batteries is going to be why we lose an alien space war. Buying a Droid Maxx means you care about the future of humanity. The money you pay for this phone is actually a pledge of support towards the future defense of Earth. Also you can go two days without charging, which is pretty great.
6. Samsung Galaxy Note 3
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Your reason: a big ass screen. If you're into comically big things like Big Gulps, Starbuck Trentas, Super Sizes, Hummers, Shaq, eating competitions and so forth, this is your phone soulmate. Is there some mathematically perfect screen size for normal human hands? Probably! But I bet big ass phone owners don't give a damn as they laugh at your puny ass on their way to grill steaks in Texas.
The Third Tier
7. Sony Xperia Z
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Waterproof is always cool but especially cool when it doesn't scream waterproof with a yellow rubber safety vest and yellow rubber ducky strapped to its body. The Sony Xperia Z looks like what a phone looks like in 2013 and happens to be able to swim. That's good and sadly, too rare.
8. LG G2
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It's a screamer of a phone in that it's ridiculously powerful but also prone to making you scream when you use it. But if you like gardening, you'll like this phone. And if you like hurting yourself, you'll like this phone. Still, with the specs it packs, it's hard to rank it any lower.
LG G2 Review: A Braindead Hercules You could put a helicopter engine on a motorcycle and fill it with rocket fuel, but if you put a… Read more Read
9. HTC One Mini
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A phone that is slightly worse than the HTC One is actually slightly better than most everything else. It's just a good looking phone, man.
Phones You Should Probably Not Buy Unless You're a Fish
10. Samsung Galaxy S4 Active
You've figured us out: we basically blindly support anything waterproof because it's a damn shame that water can still destroy your phone in 2013.
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Phones You Should Probably Not Buy Unless You're a Giant
11. HTC One Max
12. Galaxy Mega
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Just kidding, maybe there is a limit to how big phones should be.
Phones You Should Probably Not Buy Unless You're Goldilocks
13. S4 Mini
A smaller, chintzier version of an already bland phone.
Phones You Should Probably Not Buy Because They're Old
14. Nexus 4
15. Samsung Galaxy S3
16. Samsung Galaxy Note 2
17. Droid DNA
18. LG Optimus G Pro
19. LG Optimus G
If you're using these phones, you're still probably under a contract. That's okay. They're still perfectly serviceable now and better than everything below but that doesn't mean you should buy them anymore. Enjoy the memories.
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Phones You Should Probably Not Buy Unless It'll Save a Life
20. Droid Ultra
21. Droid Mini
22. Moto G
23. Samsung Galaxy S3 Mini
We've just cleared the don't need to exist zone.
Phones That Are Meant to Be Taken As a Joke
24. HTC First
25. LG Lucid 2
26. Droid Razr M
27. Samsung Galaxy S4 Zoom
28. LG Intuition
29. LG Wildfire Amaze S
One of these phones is meant for Facebook-ing, unlike other better phones which can also Facebook. One of these phones has a UI meant for smartphone newbs. One of these phones has two back panels. One of these phones is actually a camera. One of these phones has a stylus you will lose. And one of these phones I completely made up to see if you were still paying attention.
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It's Probably Time To Change Phones
29. HTC Evo 4G LTE
It's kind of like when you see an old actor pop up on TV and get surprised that he's not dead yet. A shitty feeling for a former great but... sorry, it's the truth.
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Survivable 'Budget' Phones
30. Pantech Discover
31. Samsung Galaxy Light
32. Samsung Galaxy Victory 4G LTE
33. Sprint Vital
34. LG Viper 4G LTE
Whoever owns these phones must always be fooled whenever the McRib "is back."
Phones That Exist For People Who Are Outdoors (But Not Homeless)
35. Kyocera Torque
36. Samsung Galaxy Rugby Pro
37. Casio G'Zone Commando 4G LTE
38. Casio G'Zone Commando
39. Kyocera Hydro Elite
40. Kyocera Hydro Edge
For an indoorsman like me, I can respect these rugged phones. They're cool like how Toughbooks are cool, but that doesn't mean you'd want to use them on a regular basis.
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Unsurvivable Budget Phones (Phones for Homeless People)
41. LG Optimus F6
42. LG Optimus F3
43. Pantech Perception
44. LG Optimus Elite
45. ZTE Fury
46. Kyocera Rise
I think you'd be more at peace with your life if you had a flip phone. Or no phone.
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Phones That Exist Because People Miss Their Blackberries
47. Motorola Droid 4
48. Motorola Photon Q 4G
49. LG Mach
50. LG Enact
51. Pantech Marauder
52. Motorola Admiral
53. NEC Terrain
Some of these are the successors to the original Droid that spawned Android. Most of them are just bastard grandsons that shamed the family name. All of them have keyboards for people who like thumb callouses.
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Phones That Exist for Reasons Unbeknownst to Most Humans
54. Alcatel One Touch Fierce
55. Alcatel One Touch Evolve
No idea why Alcatel felt the need to make two. Or even one.
What?
56. myTouch myTouch Q
Explain yourself.
Head over here for our definitive iPhone power rankings.
Every iPhone, Ranked Buying an iPhone is not confusing. You have a 50% shot of getting it right (unlike the 100% success … Read more ReadAlongside Mavis Staples, Arcade Fire have released their track titled “I Give You Power”, giving us an introductory glance as to what the Arcade Fire of 2017 looks (sounds) like. Just before the inauguration of President Trump, the band shared the song with this message alongside it:
“It’s never been more important that we stick together and take care of each other”.
The track certainly distinguishes itself from past projects of Arcade Fire, which have been met with extremely open arms from fans across the globe. We’ll see if the band bursting full of ridiculously talented individuals (like Win Butler, aka DJ Windows 98) can meet our expectation after their 2013 masterpiece Reflektor blew us all away, and then some. News came out earlier this year that the band just finished recording their record, meaning “I Give You Power” might be the start of something bigger. Take a listen to the new stuff for yourself.
All proceeds of “I Give You Power” go to ACLU, American Civil Liberties Union.
Follow us on Twitter for more updates on the music news you (probably) actually care about, @thematmagazine.On Boxing Day, polling giant Ipsos released a year-end poll for Global News surveying Canadian opinion about the monarchy. If you’re a serious monarchist you are of two minds about this sort of thing. You recognize the necessity of occasionally taking the pulse of the institution, just as a human of great age will have their vital signs measured from time to time. You also know that to present the Canadian monarchy to the public as a free choice, a fashion we can discard when it suits us, has the effect of encouraging republican fantasies.
Republicanism is a pathology, a reflection of insecurity and ignorance. In the past it was fostered by newspapermen who had served for a spell in Washington (or Moscow or Tokyo), and who were used to being asked why the hell we have a “foreign” Queen on our money and whatnot. The educations of these men had often involved nothing more than early saturation in great quantities of ink and booze, and many were incapable of a half-decent answer grounded in global history.
So our press elite consisted of men who had suffered chronic humiliation by their big brothers, the Americans. The psychic dissolution of the Empire in the postwar period left us unable to regard Americans the way we once had as a matter of course — as errant, troubled children. Our journalistic teachers thus embraced, as a defence mechanism, the idea that Canada’s thousand-year-old inner constitution was “immature” or less than “adult.”
Canada’s “patriation” of our constitutional statutes in 1982 was supposed to have cured this disorder, but we can see now that it merely treated a symptom. (“Patriation” is an incredibly weird term for removing something from the place whence it originates; even more bizarrely, it is sometimes called “repatriation”, as if the ghost of the thing had lived in Canada all along.)
In the 21
century, when republicans are challenged, they like to pretend that everyone has always regarded Germany or Ireland as supremely stable, outstandingly successful states of the modern age. No infantile desire to be Americans has anything to do with their lust for a President. Perish the thought! One would swear, talking to them, they have never even heard of the United States. (Or of Donald Trump.)
The pathological nature of Canadian republicanism is apparent from the Ipsos poll itself. Respondents were asked to indicate whether they agree or disagree with the statement “When Queen Elizabeth’s reign ends, Canada should end its formal ties to the British monarchy.” Fifty-three percent of the sample agreed; the figure was 73 per cent within Quebec, 46 per cent elsewhere.
But why would the death of the Queen be considered an appropriate moment for constitutional revision? Ipsos’s republican push-pollsters do not even have the guts to say out loud what they are talking about. Even as they contemplate a Canadian republic as something to be perpetrated like a theft, when the right distraction happens along, they instinctively avoid lèse-majesté. They know people like the Queen: their own poll finds that 81 per cent of Canadians think she has done a good job (leaving us to wonder what hallucinated grievances the other 19 per cent might have).
People perhaps like Prince Charles less, but this just goes to show how short-sighted republicans are, to say nothing of the clear possibility that his mother might outlast him. The Prince of Wales, whose constitutional and personal position is innately awkward, is always more controversial than the sovereign. This is a permanent condition of our monarchy, one that it has survived a dozen times over.
It will vaccinate Canadians against creeping, phony Americanism long enough for the monarchy to trundle onward.
The idea that we would steal away from the Royal Family while its back was turned in sorrow is so absurd that I can barely find polite language for it. The death of a Canadian monarch sets an apparatus in motion that will keep Ottawa plenty busy. (The letterheads and signage alone…!) Republican pundits who try to seize the moment will find themselves accused of poor taste and worse judgment. The death of the late Princess of Wales gave us a preview of this mental environment: that of Carrie Fisher, a space-opera princess, has just given us another small taste.
But the republicans will chicken out when the time comes, and, anyway, that is not the really bad news for them. The bad news is that a change of sovereign is followed by a coronation. This will be a generational disaster for the republican impulse — the opposite of an opportunity. The last one, held at the outset of the television age, has lingered as a spectacle in the minds of men and women for more than 60 years. The next one will happen in a world of social media — a world of instantly shared, instantly felt, instantly reacted-to news.
As a collective experience, there is no way to express or define the dimension of this event, except by reference to asteroid impacts or nuclear exchange. It will destroy old records, long presumed untouchable, for world television viewership. If it happens soon enough, it will give a last burst of life to Canadian print newspapers, the way a shot of naloxone turns a junkie’s lips from blue to red. Broadcasters have lived and died in the hope of being masters of ceremonies to a coronation; Peter Mansbridge, I feel safe in assuring you, dreams of it thrice a day. At royalty-obsessed Maclean’s and other magazine titles, it will inspire feelings normally encountered only by men going to war in a sacred cause.
And it will mow down republicans like a harvester. Or, rather, it will cure them of their feelings of psychic inferiority; cure them against their will, and in great numbers. It will vaccinate Canadians against creeping, phony Americanism long enough for the monarchy to trundle onward. Royalty-haters may imagine themselves able to resist. Well, you have probably met some new parents who think they can raise their daughters not to like Disney princesses.
National Post
ccosh@nationalpost.com
Twitter.com/ColbyCoshOttawa will match donations from individual Canadians to help with the devastation caused by Typhoon Haiyan, Canada's International Development Minister says.
Christian Paradis said Sunday that the government will set aside one dollar for the Typhoon Haiyan Relief Fund for every dollar donated by Canadians between Nov. 9 and Dec. 8. The matching fund is in addition to the up to $5-million in disaster relief the government announced on Saturday.
The storm hit the Philippines on Friday, causing a series of landslides and cutting off power to several provinces. Local authorities said on Saturday that the typhoon caused an estimated 10,000 deaths, but communication with the affected areas has been difficult because of a widespread power outage in the region.
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Mr. Paradis said the latest reports indicate that an estimated 9.5 million people have been affected by the typhoon in the Philippines, with more than 600,000 displaced. He added that the Philippine Red Cross has conservatively estimated a death toll of about 1,200 people, but "that number is expected to increase as more affected areas become accessible."
"The destruction from Typhoon Haiyan is alarming," Mr. Paradis said during a conference call with reporters on Sunday, adding that the government is still trying to determine what kind of help is needed. "The situation is evolving rapidly and we are making sure Canada stays on top of it."
Mr. Paradis said the money in the matching fund would be used to support relief efforts in the area. There is no cap on the total amount the federal government will provide, he said, although individual donations will only be matched up to $100,000.
For every dollar donated by individual Canadians to registered Canadian charities, the federal government will set aside one dollar for the typhoon relief fund. The fund will be used to provide help through international and Canadian humanitarian organizations.
A donation can be counted for the matching fund if it is monetary in nature and made to a registered Canadian charity that is receiving donations in response to the typhoon. Donations must also be specifically earmarked for typhoon relief.
The government will continue to monitor the situation in the Philippines and would "stand ready" to provide further aid if it is needed, Mr. Paradis said.
The federal government has set up phone numbers for Canadians looking for information on relatives and friends who may have been caught in the affected areas. They are 1-800-387-3124 or 613-996-8885.
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With a report from The Canadian PressAha -= this is one of my favorite! Number four on the Top Ten Instant Noodles of All Time as reviewed by The Ramen Rater. Thanks go to Greg B. of Marathon, Florida for sending a pack my way!
Here’s the back of the package (click image to enlarge). As you can see by the directions if you cock your head to the right, these noodles are made a little different. You add the noodles to a mere cup of boiling water. Cook them until they suck up all the water, then add the seasoning packet and stir.
First, here’s the noodles. Fried and tasty!
This is the packet whose content get stirred in once the noodles have cooked.
Gotta love that font! Green Laver is in here. This stuff gets sprinkled on top of everything once it’s done. Serious goodness.
The finished product (click image to enlarge). This is the finest of the fine I tell ya! The noodles are good. They’re chewy but not funky. The flavor is sweet and has a slight spiciness to it – not as heat of peppers kind of spice either. Its a lot like yakisoba sauce. The seaweed on top adds just a little bit of extra flavor and adds a nice finish and a colorful oddness. This is great stuff and I truly cannot advise you enough to try it. 5.0 out of 5.0 stars. UPC barcode 076186000189.
[AMAZONPRODUCTS asin=”B000H23ZF8″]
Geez this is old – feels like forever ago…
47.788615 -122.337904Go ahead, nitpick the final possession. Point out that Lance was open. Question Nate McMillan for calling a timeout. Ask why they didn’t run double-stagger screens for Paul George instead of in-bounding the ball to him, and ponder how it is that they weren’t better prepared for the Cavaliers to force the ball out of his hands after the Cavaliers had just shown that they were going to force the ball out of his hands. All are valid gripes, except for the fact that none of that likely would have even mattered if the Pacers hadn’t willfully decided to be gluttons for punishment on the other end of the floor.
Indiana’s defensive execution in the second quarter was the sort of hot mess that hearkened back to the team’s season opener against the Dallas Mavericks. There were moments in that late October match-up when Rodney Stuckey was guarding Dirk Nowitzki and Lavoy Allen was checking J.J. Barea.
Game 1 was no different.
Aaron Brooks got bullied by Kevin Love on the block. Kevin Seraphin got embarrassed by LeBron James on the perimeter. Channing Frye got a wide open dunk when Brooks and C.J. Miles had a miscommunication on a switch, and there was one particularly egregious possession when Thaddeus Young had no idea who he was guarding out of a timeout, which forced Lance Stephenson to have to pick his poison between Kyle Korver and J.R. Smith.
At greater issue, though, was the defensive strategy — and the place of the smaller guards within it — that produced the gaffe factory. Consider this: LeBron James scored a third of his field goals against Jeff Teague.
That can’t happen.
Indiana’s current point guard is not Indiana’s former point guard. This much should be obvious. Where Hill was capable of staying attached to his man’s hip through high ball screens, Teague has a tendency to lag from behind. Due to this well-noted deficiency, the Pacers opted to have him and Paul George switch the lethal Irving-James side pick and roll action. This decision left Teague repeatedly at the mercy of LeBron’s equal parts power and finesse 6-foot-8, 250 pound frame.
Take this possession from early in the third quarter for instance, Teague is left on an island with Cleveland’s genetic freak while he takes four (!!!) power dribbles and swishes the turnaround jumper in the lane.
Here, Kyrie Irving makes the easy lob pass to James on the block. Again, no help is sent.
In their defense, the Pacers face an agonizing decision. They can try to live with Teague’s porous on-ball defense, but then Irving will pick them apart. James will punish them if they continue to switch, but if they double him at least one of either J.R. Smith, Channing Frye, or Richard Jefferson will be open on the perimeter. It’s a lose-lose-lose. But, they have to give up something. Sagging off Jefferson in the right corner, where he shot 38.5 percent during the regular season, is probably the best of several bad options.
Of course, it didn’t particularly help matters that the Pacers were often times indecisive with their switches.
Still, there has to be a better way because it’s debatable whether the impact of the abuse Teague bore from James was limited to the defensive end of the floor. On the afternoon, he was 3-of-10 from the field and only made one field goal inside the paint. It became fairly evident that he was either exhausted or hampered by his ankle more then he let on when he elected not to take Frye off the dribble. If either one of those assumptions is true, then it’s probably not fair to expect him to draw charges against a speeding freight train.
All of which means that Nate McMillan is probably going to need to rethink his starting lineup, again. Replacing Monta Ellis with Stephenson is the obvious choice. Until Glenn Robinson III returns to the rotation, C.J. Miles can’t be in two places at once and his floor spacing is invaluable to a second unit that is finally playing in the black and necessarily has to match Cleveland’s small-ball bench lineups.
Stephenson’s presence gives Paul George someone else similar in size and stature to switch the |
Nation, with Reg One Spot and Arnold Crowchild becoming its founding directors.7
The last proposal on the consultant’s list, the ‘cottage community’ near Bragg Creek, is arguably the most economically successful of the Nations early development plans. However Redwood Meadows, as this residential and golf-course development is known, is located on the reserve’s west side, and is therefore the development least impacted by the Southwest Calgary Ring Road story. Though Redwood Meadows is deserving of its own article delving into its history, I will not be covering that story here, and will instead focus on developments found on the east side of the reserve. Continue reading “The Road to Development, part 1”David Patterson,
Kentucky LP candidate
for U.S. Senate
Another Libertarian is showing impressive poll numbers in a nationally-watched campaign this year, which could determine the balance of power in the U.S. Senate.
Libertarian David Patterson is polling at 7 percent in a match-up with Republican Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell and Democratic challenger Alison Lundergan Grimes, according to a Courier-Journal Bluegrass Poll.
David Patterson, a peace officer in Harrodsburg, is running to end domestic spying, end the failed drug war, dramatically cut back government spending and advance a non-interventionist foreign policy.
Patterson’s petition signatures are due next week to qualify for the November ballot. According to Ken Moellman, Kentucky Libertarian Party state chair, his campaign expects to turn in well more than the required 5,000 certified signatures.
USA Today reports that Jennifer Duffy, a senior editor with the Cook Political Report,, said, “Patterson’s relatively strong performance is similar to phenomena she’s seeing in other states showing voters aren’t happy with Republican or Democratic sources.”
Read the full USA Today article here and a similar story in the National Journal.
See the Bluegrass Poll here.Orchardists and grape growers have backed up Prime Minister John Key's comments on the difficulties of getting beneficiaries into seasonal work.
Photo: RNZ / Claire Eastham-Farrelly
Speaking to Morning Report yesterday, Mr Key defended levels of high immigration, saying many employers could not get New Zealanders to work due to problems with drugs or their work ethic.
He said the New Zealand Seasonal Workers Scheme, which is designed to give unemployed locals a job as opposed to a separate programme which brings in people from the Pacific Islands, had issues with locals who "just can't muster what is required to actually work".
The scheme aims to help unemployed people move to popular growing, including Southland, Nelson and Marlborough, Hawke's Bay and Bay of Plenty.
But fruit growers said they were frustrated by the number of 'no shows' involved in the trial.
Central Otago wine grower James Dicey said he had tried several times to get workers in the trial to pick grapes for him.
"I've tried the scheme and worked hand in glove with Work and Income in the past and the level of suitable candidates who are prepared to turn up on a reliable basis and do an honest day's work is pretty skinny on the ground. The last attempt I made on this, we tried to import some people from Dunedin. We had 1400 people be interviewed and we struggled to fill an eight-seater bus," he said.
Mr Dicey said even before the scheme he tried to get a van full of beneficiaries to do seasonal work for him, but to no avail.
"Usually in a van of 10, if you can fill a van, two people won't turn up to work the first day, another two people will last a couple of hours, the next two people won't turn up the following day, then two of those people will see the harvest out, then when we offer them winter pruning work maybe one or two will do that."
Mr Dicey said trying to get the workers left to do what was necessary to become full time - such as get their restricted licence - was difficult.
"I've offered all sorts of incentives for these two kids that I've got working for me at the moment to try to get them from their learners to their restricted licence, they're not motivated. I've offered them money, I've put things on the table and I don't understand what more I can do with these guys to get them across the line. And it's a constant source of frustration. It's just one illustration of something that makes it very difficult for me to be able to offer full time employment."
Mr Dicey, who was also the president of the Central Otago Wine Growers Association, said it was a common problem in the area, and in other regions.
Ian Palmer, a fruit grower in Nelson, agreed.
"There are people who seem to be unable or unwilling to commit to putting in a decent day in the orchards or in the horticulture sector and that's always a challenge for our sector."Local man and PC gamer Melvin Harris remains in emotional turmoil today as he tries to understand whether he genuinely believes in the existence of a gaming “master race”, or whether he was just being ironic.
Harris, who is “pretty sure” he initially started using the pseudoscientific Nazi term for the supposed racial superiority of the Aryan bloodlines ironically, is now struggling to remember the point at which he crossed the line into blithely repeating it without “remembering to laugh a bit on the inside”.
“At first I was using the term to laugh at the Nazis by comparing my own clearly over-the-top bigotry to theirs! Then I kind of stopped remembering to laugh and was just saying Nazi things without blinking,” said Harris as he stared out a window into the distance.
“You see, the Nazis believed that the Aryan race was innately superior, and I believe that PC gaming is innately superior, so it’s funny because, well, it’s like I’m a Nazi, and I’m… exterminating… the inferior… races,” he finished lamely.
“Hmmm,” he added after a long pause.
Harris explained that the recent appearance of ‘Kekistani’ flags online, which are direct copies of literal Nazi flags, and the vocal racists who fly them, had given him cause to think that maybe they had taken the whole thing a bit too far.
Kekistani supporter Bryan Davidson however rejects those claims, saying that the re-purposed Nazi flag and the alt-right racist talking points it represents are “ironic” and “for the lulz”.
“It’s just funny. We’re being really, really racist in order to make fun of people who are easily offended,” said Davidson. “It doesn’t mean anything. It’s just for the lulz.”
Behind him, Harris lowered his head into his hands and began to weep.Georgia Southern defensive coordinator Lorenzo Costantini isn't letting statistics define success.
And he's not going to let them dictate how he runs his system.
Costantini stood by that system during a pre-spring press conference on Wednesday, a day before the Eagles started spring practice.
It's the same system he and GS head coach Tyson Summers ran when they were at Central Florida. Summers was the defensive coordinator and Costantini the defensive line coach in 2014 when the Knights had the No. 3-ranked defense in the country.
"I believe in the system," Costantini said. "It's the same system; we're not changing it. As long as players play with speed in the system - it doesn't matter what scheme you run, it's the belief in the scheme that makes you win."
Wednesday was the first time Costantini answered questions raised by the performance of Georgia Southern's defensive line last season. The Eagles registered only 11 sacks on the season, which tied for 124th out of 128 FBS teams. With eight players who were juniors or seniors, the defensive line appeared to be one of the Eagles' strongest positions heading into the 2016 season.
But stats don't always tell the whole story, Costantini said.
"I don't base it on that," he said. "The game of football is not a statistical game.
"When Coach Summers and I were at UCF, we were No. 1 in sacks. The next season, we were not, and we won the conference again. I don't like to relate it to what statistics are, but I like to relate it to how hard our kids are playing within the defense."
In addition to calling the plays in 2017, Costantini also takes over coaching the defensive line, which has been his specialty since he started as a graduate assistant at UTEP. Jimmy Lindsey, who coached the Eagles' defensive line last season, left to take the same position at Western Kentucky.
Costantini said he only cares about disrupting the play of the quarterback, not necessarily whether the quarterback gets sacked.
"I like pressure," Costantini said. "Sacks are a bonus. I'd rather have 30 pressures and zero sacks. If I have 30 pressures, then that means there were 30 incomplete passes. We were 12th in the country on third down, so we were getting to the quarterback when we needed to."
Strong out of the gate
One of the new hires made by Summers that seems to be paying early dividends is the addition of strength and conditioning coach Dwayne Chandler, who came to Statesboro after working on the staff at Memphis the past two season. Chandler was also assistant strength and conditioning coach with the Denver Broncos from 2007-2008.
Early spring practices last season were known for going longer than scheduled, and Thursday's spring opener was no exception. Summers said he was impressed with the stamina shown by his players.
"For a first day, I thought they were in really good shape," Summers said on Thursday. "I give a lot of credit to Coach Chandler."
"I love Coach Chandler," added linebacker Chris DeLaRosa. "I think he's a great coach. I think the workouts are tough, but they're fair. Everyone is pushing themselves, and I think we've gotten a lot stronger. I think we're in a lot better shape coming into spring this year."
Working their way back
The Eagles will get back several players who were injured throughout last season or who missed the last few games, but maybe none more missed than Tommy Boynton, who took a medical redshirt because of a concussion he suffered last spring. Boynton looks to be the favorite to replace former All-Sun Belt first team Andy Kwon at center, though it might take some time to make the transition from right tackle, where he started all 13 games during the 2015-2016 season.
Several of Boynton's snaps on Thursday were low and skipped off the turf.
"Tommy's rusty, to say the least," Summers said. "He's out there with the first group today at center. We certainly feel like he's going to give us a great advantage at that position. Obviously, it's not a position he's played a lot at. He's going to have a lot of rust when it comes to snapping the ball."
DeLaRosa, who missed the last five games last season with a high ankle sprain, did not practice Thursday because of a bout with the flu, but the senior said he's ready to go.
"I feel good," he said. "I'm ready for the season, ready to get back out there and hit some people.
"We lost a lot of seniors, so we need to reload. Guys have to grow up fast. I want to establish myself as a leader. We've got a lot of young guys, but they're willing to learn and every single day come out with a great attitude and ready to play."
Summers also said he's looking forward to seeing safety RJ Murray, who became a campus hero with a blocked field goal in the third game of last season against Louisiana-Monroe, back in action.
Senior running back LA Ramsby will miss the spring season after undergoing surgery.ALBANY — An off-duty paramedic and a state trooper helped save a life when they came to the aid of a man having chest pains Wednesday morning, State Police said.
Chelsea Noe said she pulled over on I-787 to help Robert P. Guynup, 70, of Rensselaer who was in distress on the side of the road.
Guynup and his nephew were heading north when his chest pains started. He pulled over to the side of the road and lost consciousness. Noe pulled over and began rendering CPR.
Trooper Ian E. Henry of the Latham Interstate Highway Patrol saw Guynup and used two shocks of his defibrillator to revive Guynup. After more CPR, Guynup began to breathe again.
Albany firefighters and EMS personnel arrived and assumed control of treatment, then took Guynup to Albany Medical Center.Last October, CNN aired an episode of This is Life with Lisa Ling featuring a team of military veterans seeking treatment for posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) using the psychedelic brew ayahuasca. One of those veterans, Ryan LeCompte, launched the non-profit organization Veterans for Entheogenic Therapy and organizes regular trips to Peru. He is currently in his last year of a graduate program at Naropa University in Boulder, Colorado.
Ryan was a featured speaker at the Psymposia conference last weekend at the University of Massachusetts, where he shared his story as a Marine veteran who served for four years before focusing his efforts on helping other veterans that are returning home suffering from PTSD. During his talk, Ryan announced his project as principal investigator for a new observational study titled, “Ayahuasca-assisted Psychotherapy for Chronic, Treatment-resistant PTSD in Combat Veterans.” Like many of the studies looking into the safety and efficacy of psychedelic-assisted therapies, the study is sponsored by the nonprofit education and research organization, Multidisciplinary Association of Psychedelic Studies (MAPS).
Ayahuasca is a brew known to originate in the Amazonian region of South America, containing two key psychoactive compounds that elicit a powerful hours-long journey. It is central to many rituals and rites of passage of indigenous tribes in the jungle. It is illegal in the U.S. except for extremely limited religious purposes. However, it is available to those who have the means to travel outside the U.S. and participate in ceremonies at retreat centers in the jungles of the Amazon. These ceremonies typically last a week, and cost roughly one to three thousand dollars, and an increasing number of veterans and others have gone public with anecdotal accounts of unmatched healing for PTSD, anxiety and other ailments via the shamanic brew.
The U.S. Department of Veterans’ Affairs (VA) estimates that one in six veterans returning from Iraq and Afghanistan suffers from PTSD. Often, veterans and others report that their prescription medications for PTSD either fall short or create unbearably adverse side-effects that make them feel detached and zombie-like. The lack of successful PTSD treatments available, coupled with the skyrocketing rate of suicide amongst veterans (22 commit suicide per day according to VA statistics), have convinced researchers like Ryan and organizations like MAPS that PTSD is a huge burden that is likely to benefit from alternative therapies. Alternative treatments for PTSD are necessary, they argue, not just for veterans but also for others, i.e. victims of trauma and sexual assault, experiencing its debilitating symptoms.
While the study is still in its earliest stages, it will be the first of its kind.
Psymposia – Envisioning a Post Prohibition World
For decades, psychedelic research has been stifled by the lasting legacy of the Controlled Substances Act of 1970. The U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), which formed just a few years later, serves as the enforcer of the prohibitionist law. The agency has successfully limited all scientific investigation into the potential positives of substances like LSD, psilocybin, MDMA and cannabis — all of which are classified as Schedule I, meaning they have no recognized medical use and a high potential for abuse.
However MAPS and a few other research organizations have fought for years to complete studies looking into various psychedelics, and the research results thus far have been overwhelmingly positive.
While the shackles of the drug war are loosening, and in some cases being torn down when it comes to cannabis reform laws, thousands of patients still have no legal access to medicines that could treat illnesses that have not responded to traditional treatment.
An active and burgeoning community of activists, artists, researchers, and patients gather at various conferences where knowledge has been permeating despite the legislative and law enforcement forces that try to smother it. Over 200 people attended the Psymposia conference over the course of this past weekend and 100 or so people tuned into the MAPS-sponsored livestream of the event.
Featuring a “Fresh Voices” section of speakers, the organizers of Psymposia stood out among other psychedelic conferences in their effort to include more members of the African American community and several women speakers, whose absence is noteworthy at many similar events often featuring primarily white men from academia.
Not only did the conference include demographically diverse speakers, but also a wide swath of topics ranging from psychedelic parenting to how sex work intersects with trip guides.
Some of the more well-known speakers included Chris Kilham (who makes frequent appearances on Fox News and The Dr. Oz Show as ‘The Medicine Hunter’), Earth and Fire Erowid (whose contributions to the online library of information on drugs serve as a free resource for anyone with an internet connection), and Dorion Sagan (award winning writer and son of the late Carl Sagan). The conference website will be posting recordings of the conference events for those who were unable to attend.Hide your kids, hide your wife or at least the baby monitor. That's the lesson one Houston couple learned the hard way, when their baby monitor was hacked and used to verbally harass their 2-year-old daughter.
Marc and Lauren Gilbert told ABC News that the voice of a creepy man was coming from the device, which was also equipped with a camera.
According to the report, on Aug. 10, Marc Gilbert heard strange noises in his daughter Allyson's room while she was sleeping. As he and his wife entered, the strange voice began calling the girl an "effing moron," telling her to "wake up you little slut," before shouting expletives at the parents.
"At that point I ran over and disconnected it and tried to figure out what happened," Gilbert told ABC. "[I] couldn't see the guy. All you could do was hear his voice and [that] he was controlling the camera."
Neither the girl, who is deaf, nor the Gilberts' 3-year-old son Ethan, heard the commotion or woke up.
While the police were not involved, Gilbert did call his Internet service provider, who suggested he change the monitor's passwords. Moving forward, it doesn't matter, since Gilbert said he is leaving the gadget permanently unplugged.
The incident shook the family, and surfaced concerns that similar situations had occurred without their knowledge.
"It's quite possible that this had been going on more than one day," Gilbert said. "Security vulnerabilities exist."
Indeed they do: The cyberpunk managed to highjack the monitor, scan the room via the robotic camera eye, and make lewd comments, all from a remote location. But this isn't the first case of "smart home" hacking. Earlier this month, reports surfaced that the Japanese-made Satis smart toilet is susceptible to cyber-attacks via a hard-coded Bluetooth PIN vulnerability.
Apparently anyone within range of the abode can gain access to its control functions, paranormally haunting the toilet's automatic lid, built-in sound module, air purifier, or in-bowl spotlight.Dennis Jett, a professor of international relations at Pennsylvania State University, served as U.S. ambassador to Mozambique and Peru during the 1990s. He is writing a book on American ambassadors.
Thomas Bayard, a former senator and secretary of state, became the first American diplomat to be given the title “ambassador” when he was sent to London in 1893. Since then a few thousand people have had that honor. But only three of them have been openly gay.
That is about to change. Last month, President Obama put forward the names of five openly gay nominees for ambassadorial posts. It’s a remarkable step, though possibly less revolutionary than it appears. For while the nominations reflect the change in public attitudes toward the LGBT community, they also show the importance of domestic political constituencies and the money they raise. And even if the United States is moving forward on gay rights, a large part of the rest of the world lags far behind.
It was only 16 years ago that the first openly gay person was nominated to an ambassadorial posting. President Bill Clinton put forward James Hormel’s name in 1997 for Luxembourg, a country smaller in population than the District of Columbia, and immediately ran into congressional opposition. Several senators firmly opposed Hormel, a prominent philanthropist and grandson of the founder of the meat company that created Spam, because he was gay.
The Senate Foreign Relations Committee approved Hormel’s appointment, but a number of Republican senators, responding to pressure from conservative Christian groups and Catholic organizations, worked to block the nomination. In arguing against Hormel, Sen. Trent Lott of Mississippi labeled homosexuality a sin and compared it to alcoholism and kleptomania. Among the senators opposing Hormel was Chuck Hagel of Nebraska, who said being “openly, aggressively gay” would limit his effectiveness as an ambassador.
When the full Senate failed to act on the nomination, Clinton gave Hormel a recess appointment in 1999. Since then there have been only two other openly gay ambassadors. The first confirmed by the Senate was Michael Guest, a career diplomat, whom George W. Bush named as ambassador to Romania. And Obama chose one openly gay ambassador in his first term, David Huebner, who was sent to New Zealand without any significant Senate opposition.
Last month, however, he nominated five more who now await confirmation: Rufus Gifford for Denmark, John Berry for Australia, James Costos for Spain, James Brewster for the Dominican Republic and Daniel Baer for the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (located in Vienna). All are political appointees, and, as is typical for the 30 percent of ambassadors who are not career diplomats, they’re headed to developed nations or the Caribbean.
Clearly times have changed, and this country has evolved. As a result of the recent Supreme Court decision striking down a key part of the Defense of Marriage Act, federal agencies such as the State Department are quickly expanding benefits to same-sex married couples. A majority of Americans now support allowing same-sex marriage and don’t believe that homosexual relationships between consenting adults are morally wrong. And gays are welcomed in the military, even by Hagel, who apologized for his earlier remarks about Hormel before his recent confirmation hearings to become secretary of defense.
Governments in many other parts of the world are not so enlightened, however. As The Washington Post’s Max Fisher pointed out recently, 76 countries still criminalize homosexuality; five of them allow the death penalty for the offense. In nearly all of Africa and the Middle East, there are harsh legal restrictions against it. And even in parts of the world where it is not considered a crime, strong negative reactions can be provoked.
For instance, the nominee to become ambassador to the Dominican Republic was called “an insult to good Dominican customs” by the Rev. Cristobal Cardozo, leader of the Dominican Evangelical Fraternity. And Cardinal Nicolas de Jesus Lopez scoffed at the nomination, saying that “you can expect anything from the U.S.” Since foreign governments have to officially accept an appointment before the White House announces it, the Dominican government was no doubt aware there might be controversy but still approved the choice.
Sending gay ambassadors to countries where homosexuality is condemned is an issue the State Department will increasingly have to deal with. It is a new variation of an old problem, however. While the State Department reflects the country it represents, it cannot completely ignore the attitudes in a nation to which an ambassador is sent. For many years, it was rare that an African American ambassador was assigned outside Africa or Western Europe because of racial attitudes at home and abroad. And there were no doubt prolonged debates about women serving as ambassadors in the Middle East before the United States sent the first, April Glaspie, to Iraq in 1988.
Diplomats have dealt with the issue of sexual orientation with a version of the military’s “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy. While there have obviously been other gay career ambassadors besides Guest, they have chosen discretion. The topic rarely came up in my nearly three decades as a Foreign Service officer. Everyone knew that public scrutiny came with being nominated for an ambassadorship and that vocal opposition could spring up from any quarter. Given the number of hurdles to overcome to get the title, no one wanted to add one more.
Career Foreign Service officers understood that senators could place a hold on a nomination without identifying themselves or offering a reason. And if opposition emerged, significant support from the White House would be unlikely. The president might expend political capital in a confirmation fight for a political appointee but would be far less inclined to do so in the case of a career officer, where there was less at stake.
Discretion was the watchword for career officers because they knew that being openly gay would limit the countries to which they could be assigned. And until the late 1980s, homosexuality was grounds for denying State Department workers a security clearance, as it was believed that it gave foreign intelligence agents an opportunity for blackmail. (Reagan-era Secretary of State George P. Shultz finally ended the practice.)
Bureaucratic factors also played a part in limiting the number of gay ambassadors. Career officers tend to become ambassadors in the region where they have served the most time. If someone worked mainly in developed countries because of their openness to gays, he or she would find few ambassadorships there; those plum assignments usually go to political appointees.
Another possible reason for the paucity of gay ambassadors has to do with a different State Department tradition: treating a spouse as an unpaid employee. Nearly every career officer who obtains the title first serves as deputy chief of mission in an embassy after being handpicked by the ambassador. At an interview for one such job, I was rejected because I was divorced and had not yet remarried. The ambassador told me flat-out that he was not going to ask his wife to organize all the official entertaining (even though the post was a tropical backwater). While ambassadors today aren’t likely to say something so inappropriate, I suspect such considerations might encourage some of them to pass over single men, including openly gay men, when choosing their deputies.
Obama’s nomination of openly gay ambassadors represents domestic politics of another kind. Costos and Brewster both bundled more than $1 millionfor the president’s reelection campaign, while Gifford served as its finance director. And the selection of those who were not significant donors or fundraisers still represents payback to a key Democratic constituency. The president and Republican nominee Mitt Romney evenly split heterosexual voters in 2012, but Obama won the gay vote 76 percent to 22 percent — an even greater gap than among Latino voters.
Yes, the choice of five openly gay nominees for ambassadorial positions is undoubtedly historic. To what extent it represents a true move toward respect and equality, or more the slicing and dicing of the electorate and a reward to those who helped in the cause of reelection, remains an open question. I hope it is more the former than the latter, especially when there are so many parts of the world that do not seem eager to be so progressive.
Read more from Outlook, friend us on Facebook, and follow us on Twitter.Nick Jonas may have had the intention to withhold from sex until marriage when he was a kid in the Jonas Brothers, but that goal certainly didn't stick.
The 22-year-old singer/actor admitted to Wendy Williams on her Wednesday show that he's not a virgin, despite he and his brothers wearing purity rings at the start of their careers and vowing to not have premarital sex.
"I don't regret it," he says of the sex pledge he took. "I think it was an important part of my childhood and it was that. As I grew up, I sort of figured out what was important to me and my own belief system. We all grow up and we all live life and find out what’s important to us, that’s what happened. I went on that journey myself and I’m now comfortable with who I am and what I believe in and I’m an adult."
When the outspoken host asks him point blank if he's still a virgin, a blushing Nick confesses, "No. As I said, I'm an adult in all ways."
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This sex confession comes after Nick filmed a graphic, NSFW sex scene for his TV show "The Kingdom." "Another little thing is my character has a big storyline revolving around his sexuality," he recently told Andy Cohen on "Watch What Happens Live."
Nick is currently dating Miss Universe Olivia Culpo, and tells Wendy Williams that they're both "enjoying the ride." He also admits that his new song "Jealous" is about the beauty queen. "We went out one night and this guy was looking at her for a little too long," he recalls. "It was uncomfortable. I'm not a jealous person and this was an experience that I was one or two drinks in. I really got into it and then I decided to let me just process this a different way and go into the studio and write this song."
Nick isn't the only JoBro to admit to not keeping his virginity pact. His older brother Joe, 24, confessed to New York Magazine this past December that he had sex at age 20. "I did other stuff before then, but I was sexually active at 20," Joe disclosed. "I'm glad I waited for the right person."Commissioner Eudaly 'eviscerates' local reporter with apparently false claim
The Oregonian responds to Commissioner Chloe Eudaly complaints against local journalists in posts that she thought were private.
Portland journalists, politicians and government insiders were all atwitter over Veterans Day weekend when freelance journalist Mike Bivins posted screen shots of city Commissioner Chloe Eudaly complaining about local journalists and constituents on Facebook.
At least some of the drama — against the backdrop of a story on a significant boost in spending on communications staff in the Bureau of Development Services— played out in full public view on Twitter. Journalists, politicians and others retweeted and responded with their own accusations and assertions of the propriety of the comments or of posting speech Eudaly thought was private. Eudaly even posted on Facebook behind her privacy settings about the Twitter outrage, which was also screen-captured and posted by Bivins.
The commissioner's personal posts — visible to an unknown number of Facebook friends — appeared to include at least one objectively false statement, in addition to her many opinions about several journalists and their work. (The Tribune and some other Portland news organizations were not mentioned in the posts.)
The Poynter Institute Vice President Kelly McBride is a leading authority on media ethics and said this is more than just a spat between a journalist and a politician: "It's a broader story about this particular political figure's ability to be honest. Politicians that can't tell the truth should be held accountable."
McBride further added that she has seen a national uptick in stories of local politicians being sharply critical of the media.
"Anecdotally, …it seems like many local politicians have taken up the strategy of attacking the media," she said. McBride added that it would be logical to attribute the increased incidents to President Donald Trump's frequent and candid criticisms of the media, but stressed that she has no scientific evidence to support that claim.
Eudaly is not a fan of Trump. In one of her Facebook posts Bivins posted, she called him and former Arizona Sheriff Joe Arpaio "trash humans."
Screen shots
Eudaly originally posted the comments so that they are only visible to her friend network.
Bivins, who recently graduated Portland State University and is known in the area for his Twitter coverage of political protests, said he friended Eudaly on Facebook after she followed him on Twitter in February.
"We've never spoken or interacted that I'm aware of," he said. Bivins said he was initially conflicted about whether to post the screen captures, but after visiting her wall and seeing many posts regarding reporters and even some constituents, "I just let my conscience guide me." The thread with about 20 screenshots of various incendiary statements has gotten tens of thousands of views, according to Bivins' Twitter analytics, which he shared with the Tribune.
False claim
It all started on the evening of Nov. 10.
"I click into Facebook and I see this post from Eudaly where she's just eviscerating this Oregonian reporter and I was just like: 'Whoa, this is out of line. This is not acceptable,'" Bivins said.
In Bivins' picture of the post with, at that point, 65 reactions, Eudaly accused The Oregonian's City Hall reporter Jessica Floum of not genuinely wanting to contact her because she reached out "after her deadline, after 5 p.m. at the beginning of a holiday weekend."
Floum said that's not accurate. She talked with BDS Public Information Manager Dave Austin in the morning on Thursday and asked him to let Eudaly know she wanted to talk with her. She provided the Tribune a screenshot that shows she texted the commissioner at 4:05 p.m. that day to follow up. Eudaly responded in the text:
"Yes, Dave let me know about that. (To be honest) it sounds like you have your own slant on it which doesn't make me terribly interested in talking to you about it. How about you email your questions and I'll let you know if it seems worth my while to respond? I'm extremely busy and pretty unimpressed with The Oregonian right now."
Austin defended the commissioner by saying that Floum's report contained major inaccuracies.
There are four corrections at the end of Floum's online story.
"There were some minor errors, which are obviously regrettable," Floum said. "Accuracy is of paramount importance to me and The Oregonian and that's why we issued the corrections."
Floum, a professional reporter since 2014, started at The Oregonian soon after Eudaly was elected to the post last November.
Betsy Hammond is Floum's editor and said she stands by her work "100 percent." Hammond added that accuracy is their top priority and the errors were regrettable.
"Whether those materially affected the lead and the reader takeaway from that article, I think you can see the answer is no," she said.
Eudaly posted on Twitter Nov. 11 that she was still dissatisfied with The Oregonian's correction and reiterated that she was contacted after 5 p.m.
Still missing: We contacted the Commissioner after 5pm, after our deadline, and because she couldn't drop everything to answer questions three other people had already addressed, decided to portray her as dismissive. pic.twitter.com/7GfboFqNVk — Chloe Eudaly (@ChloeEudaly) November 11, 2017
The Tribune contacted Eudaly's Chief of Staff Marshall Runkel on Tuesday, who deferred future comment, but did not respond to further calls and emails requesting comment by 2 p.m. Thursday.
See the entire thread below:
One of my favorite social media hobbies is reading Portland City Council member Chloe Eudaly’s FB posts that rag on local journalists by name — Mike Bivins (@itsmikebivins) November 11, 2017
(UPDATE 11/16/17: Mike Bivins' name was misspelled in a previous version of this article.) A D V E R T I S I N G | Continue reading below
(UPDATE 11/17/17: Marshall Runkel called Friday to explain that he was in a bicycle accident Monday, in urgent care Tuesday morning and "struggling" to keep up with work obligations the rest of the week due to his injuries. He further explained that Eudaly's "after 5 p.m." comment referred to the email that Floum subsequently sent pursuant to her request.
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Visit Us on FacebookJames Martin
Could online privacy one day be a thing of the past as we share more and more details about ourselves through social networks? Vint Cerf certainly believes that privacy will become much harder to ensure.
The father of the Internet spoke Tuesday about online privacy at a US Federal Trade Commission workshop called the "Internet of Things." A series of tweets posted by Adweek reporter Katy Bachman captured some of Cerf's key comments.
Cerf said that "privacy may be an anomaly," warning that "it will be increasingly difficult for us to achieve" it. But at least some of the fault lies with us.
"Most of the experience with privacy is a result of our own behavior," Cerf said. "Our social behavior is quite damaging to privacy. Technology has outraced our social intellect.".
Cerf certainly makes a valid point. We can shake our fists at the Googles and Facebooks of the online world for not giving a damn about our privacy. But those of us who share every personal detail about our lives via Facebook or Twitter must also shoulder some of the blame for the erosion of privacy.
(Via The Register)It was freezing cold and drizzling in Canberra as I waited outside the Australian Institute of Sport residence hall. It’s something like a university college but more empty and austere. I’m waiting for Rochelle Gilmore, the woman behind Wiggle Honda and the High5 Dream Team. She’s in Canberra for her latest project, the Australian women’s European development program.
Gilmore emerges into the mist to greet me, ambassadorial in a suit and heels. I was meeting her to ask about what had revived this development pathway, which had been controversially cut earlier in the year. Partnering with Gilmore has allowed Cycling Australia to resuscitate the program.
Alongside her technical and logistical experience, Gilmore offers know-how in the business of commercialising women’s cycling, attracting financial partners and providing return on that investment. But what was going on at that AIS laboratory was a whole lot more interesting than just that.
I followed Gilmore through the facilities into an enormous laboratory where what seemed like the spin class from hell was in progress. Nine women were in full flight on stationary bikes arranged in a semi circle. Each bike was manned by what looked like a research assistant or an intern and various machines. The women were wearing race numbers. They were red-faced, breathing heavily and dripping with sweat. It looked like training, but they were racing. Their eyes told me that.
“
They put together a program of how they are going to see the physical strengths and weaknesses and together with some psychologists and the special forces agents they’ve got together to work out how they are going to mentally and physically break these girls down and get them to their breaking point, and that’s pretty much what the camp wants to do. It wants |
stockholders of Twitter without any need to change the structure of the compan y."
That last point is an important one — users can already take ownership in Twitter, if they're prepared to go to the effort of buying stock.
This unanimous opposition from the board means the vote is unlikely to pass. And even then, there'd be no guarantee on what the report into the possibility of becoming a co-op would say, or whether the company would follow through with it.
But nonetheless, it's a fascinating look at an alternative structure for a major tech company. These days there's a trend towards consolidation of power and voting rights in founders. Thanks to a radical proposal, Mark Zuckerberg is selling much of his stock in Facebook (to fund his philanthropy) while retaining his voting rights. And when Snapchat parent company Snap went public earlier in 2016, it deprived would-be investors of voting power.
One relatively rare exception is crowd-funding platform Kickstarter, which is a "public benefit corporation" — a status that requires it to "consider the impact of their decisions on society, not only shareholders."Today’s recipe is a vegan version of a well known French dish called “boeuf bourguignon”. Those Beans Bourguignon are not only delicious, but also very practical (it’s a one-pot meal) and healthy. It’s a very classy dish to make if you want to impress your guests!
Music of the (mon)day: Pink Martini – Je Ne Veux Pas Travailler
Ingredients
– 800g of cooked red beans
– 1 onion
– 2 carrots
– 2 sticks of celery
– 7 small potatoes
– 2 tomatoes
– 4 bay leaves
– 4 portebello mushrooms
– 1 clove of garlic
– 1/2 cup of red wine
– 2 tablespoons of soy sauce
– 1 branch of rosemary
– water
– salt
What now?
1) Start cooking the potatoes in a saucepan with water.
2) Wash and peel the mushrooms. Chop the vegetables into bite-sized pieces.
3) Put the vegetables (but the rosemary, the mushrooms and the beans) into a pan with oil and start the heat on medium. Season with a teaspoon of salt, cover and let it cook for about 20 minutes.
4) When the potatoes are al dente, drain their water, add them to the vegetables along with the mushrooms and the rosemary, and cook it 10 more minutes.
5) Pour the soy sauce, the wine and 1/2 cup of water into the pan and cook 10 more minutes.
6) Now it’s time for the beans to go to the pan! Switch the heat to high, and let cook 15 more minutes.Leo Cullen has backed Johnny Sexton to hit the ground running as he makes his return from a seven-week way off when Leinster host Zebre at the RDS tomorrow.
Leo Cullen has backed Johnny Sexton to hit the ground running as he makes his return from a seven-week way off when Leinster host Zebre at the RDS tomorrow.
'There was no talk of surgery' - Leo Cullen backs Johnny Sexton as he makes Leinster return
The out-half hasn’t played since he was forced off injured in Ireland’s defeat to New Zealand in November and having spent several weeks rehabbing his hamstring issues in Santry Sports Clinic, Sexton’s return is timely ahead of the Champions Cup meeting with Montpellier next week.
Sexton training with Leinster last week and did so again this week as he stepped up his recovery process.
Tomorrow’s game will be just the fifth that the 31-year old has played for Leinster this season but Cullen is confident that the time he spent recovering has helped put him in better physical condition.
“His strength has increased during his time on the sideline, so we'll see how he progresses,” Cullen said at the RDS this afternoon.
"He's been good. Obviously we've been updating on a weekly basis. As you well know he's trained the last couple of weeks, he's been involved with the team so he's good to go this weekend.
"It's no different to any other player that is out injured. It's frustrating because players enjoy when they are playing the game.
“That's why, I'm sure, they started playing the game in the first place. We've several other players out injured but he's back now, another opportunity for him to get back playing and put his case for selection for what's ahead.”
Cullen confirmed that surgery was never an option for Sexton and the Leinster coach is hopeful that his injury problems are now finally at an end.
“There was no talk of surgery, no,” Cullen insisted.
“It's just more in terms of movement mechanics, is probably the bigger issue. Certain players are more susceptible to injuries based on the way they move, and a lot of the time he spent in Santry was in terms of trying to tidy up the way he moves, so he's at less risk in the future. We will see how that progresses.
“It's a challenge for lots of players, as Johnny has played a hell of a lot of games over the course of his career. It's a constant challenge for guys always looking to physically get stronger.
“We'll see how he goes, but we're constantly assessing him. He's come through training well and he's trained well over the last couple of weeks. It's a good gradual progression into playing again.
“We manage all the players differently, so that's just not Johnny. There's other players who don't move as well.
“You're managing their training loads in a slightly different way with the understanding that you have to be able to partake in a good chunk of the team activities.
“But all the players are managed on an individual basis in terms of their athletic development programmes they undertake in the gym or on the field.”
Cullen remained coy when asked about Jamie Heaslip’s future. The Ireland No 8 is out of contract at the end of the season and recently said that he was assessing all of his options but Cullen was tight-lipped about the situation.
“Like would be the case with most other players, we don’t usually discuss them in this forum. Things are progressing well with Jamie and I’ll probably leave it at that.”
LEINSTER: (Leinster caps in brackets)
15. Zane Kirchner (77)
14. Adam Byrne (11)
13. Garry Ringrose (32)
12. Robbie Henshaw (6)
11. Rory O'Loughlin (11)
10. Johnny Sexton CAPTAIN (130)
9. Luke McGrath (62)
1. Cian Healy (164)
2. James Tracy (30)
3. Michael Bent (74)
4. Devin Toner (190)
5. Hayden Triggs (21)
6. Dan Leavy (26)
7. Sean O'Brien (108)
8. Jack Conan (39)
16. Sean Cronin (124)
17. Jack McGrath (104)
18. Tadhg Furlong (59)
19. Rhys Ruddock (122)
20. Jamie Heaslip (226)
21. Jamison Gibson-Park (15)
22. Ross Byrne (11)
23. Noel Reid (73)
Online EditorsOutline:
Set of photographs show lions biting at and finally destroying the tyre of a Land Rover while the passengers of the vehicle look on apprehensively.
Brief Analysis:
It is unclear exactly where or by whom the photographs were taken but there is no reason to doubt their authenticity. There have been many verified reports of lions and other big cats chewing at car tyres.
Example:
Subject: Africa is no place for sissies
Detailed Analysis:
This series of photographs is currently circulating via email and is also a popular topic for various blogs and online forums.
Young lionesses stalked several cars in the Krugersdorp Lion Park at the weekend, terrifying the occupants, then attacked one car, chewing the tyres and scratching bodywork.The images depict lions apparently chewing through a tyre of a Land Rover 4WD while the vehicle’s worried passengers watch warily from within.
Although it is so far unclear exactly where or by whom the photographs were taken, there is no reason to doubt their authenticity. There have long been reports of lions and other big cats chewing at car tyres. It has been suggested by experts that lions, being curious animals, may be intrigued by the rubbery smell and warmth of car tyres and therefore exhibit the chewing behaviour.
It seems quite possible that the photographs were snapped at a lion park near Krugersdorp in South Africa which is well known for such tyre chomping incidents. A 2005 report published in the South African news section of News24 notes:
Alwyna Holtzhausen of Centurion told on Monday how the lioness and 10 others in the pride attacked more than one vehicle in the park on Saturday afternoon. Holtzhausen now has a chewed car tyre, a dislodged windscreen wiper and deep scratches on her car’s bumper and paintwork.
Another News24 article published in 2007 indicates that such tyre chewing incidents are not uncommon:
Beeld readers on Thursday told the newspaper about lions at a lion park near Krugersdorp that love to ‘attack’ tourist vehicles and demolish tyres. Gert Moller is one Beeld reader who related his experience with lions at the Rhino and Lion Park at Kromdraai outside the town. A young male lion made a meal of the tyre of another car during his visit. The game warden tried to distract the lion by getting closer in a bakkie, but he ignored him and just kept on chomping on the tyre.
Visitors to the park are handed leaflets advising that the lions sometimes chew tyres and there are also warning signs in place.
A label on the back of the Land Rover indicates that the vehicle was supplied by a dealership located in Potchefstroom, a South African town within easy driving range of the Krugersdorp Lion Park.
The caption that comes with the photographs claims that the lions “chomped through all four tyres and the spare, 3 of them while the vehicle was moving”. While this claim may quite possibly be true – the images show that the lions do bite at the spare tyre and one front tyre – it appears that only one of the vehicle’s tyres, the right rear, has actually been destroyed at the time that the last photograph was snapped.
Regardless of the exact details of the incident, it is easy to see why the hapless inhabitants of the Land Rover look so apprehensive in the photographs. A first hand report from visitors to an unnamed South African lion park tells of a harrowing incident in which several lions attached a Volkswagen beetle and destroyed its tyres. The visitors were effectively trapped in their small vehicle until park attendants finally came to rescue them.
Some commentators have suggested that the Land Rover’s rear tyre may have already been flat before the lions began their rubber chomping. This might explain why the vehicle is apparently stationary despite the “No Stopping” sign clearly visible in the first photograph.
References
Photographs of Lions Chewing Car Tyres was last modified: by
RelatedBest of the Week
Labour wins on immigration
Labour and New Zealand First have a lot of common ground when it comes to immigration. Shane Cowlishaw explores what’s been agreed to and what it might mean for the country.
Throughout the campaign, New Zealand First leader Winston Peters railed against immigration.
He wanted a massive reduction in net migration - from about 73,000 to 10,000 - to stem the tide of people escaping from their “hell hole” to Aotearoa.
“It's not a sign of our staggering success,” he said.
"It's a sign of the lax and loose policies we've employed that's allowed so many people to come here."
The problem was, whenever he was asked how he would make such drastic cuts, there was no detail.
Many business leaders warned that turning off the immigration tap would slow economic growth.
Perhaps because of this, New Zealand First’s leader appears satisfied with a far more moderate immigration policy.
Peters’ demurring to Labour’s more modest immigration policy was done with barely a murmur.
Prime Minister-designate Jacinda Ardern was firm last week in stating Labour would be sticking with its own immigration plan of reducing net migration by 20,000 to 30,000, and repeated it in the announcement of Labour's deal with New Zealand First.
“We had a conversation which demonstrated we shared the concern of exploitation, particularly in our export education sector, the need to strengthen those labour market tests, we’ve referenced that policy in the agreement, and of course that policy came with an estimate of the reduction of net migration would bring so that’s entirely consistent with our policy and nothing in that regard has changed.”
In a rare moment, Peters then accepted that he had not gotten exactly what he wanted, but was not too fussed.
“We’re happy to accept that resolution in the way the Labour party has framed it, and it just so happens there’s an enormous amount of public controversy about those two issues right now carried by you in the media and carried by experts, so maybe it will work out.”
Peters may not have got exactly what he wanted, but immigration numbers are still set to drop.
Labour’s plan
Labour’s pre-election immigration policy was an attempt to find the ‘Goldilocks’ space between New Zealand First’s dramatic cuts and National’s tweaking.
It aimed for a reduction of net migration by 20,000 to 30,000, largely accomplished through a tightening of rules around international students.
The crack-down on low-quality private training institutions that have plagued the industry will continue and visas only issued for courses below a bachelor’s degree which had been assessed as being of high quality.
Currently, students are able to work 20 hours a week while studying, but this would be restricted to those studying at bachelor-level or higher unless the work was an approved part of a course.
Work visas for those who have completed study would also be tougher to get, available only to those who have studied at bachelor level or higher in an attempt to reduce the amount of people using low-value study as a path to residency.
In April the National Government announced its own tweaks aimed at culling low-skilled migrants.
It introduced salary bands for both skilled migrants applying for residency and people applying for a temporary essential skills visa.
The lower band, set at the median income of $48,859, would see those earning less unable to claim points towards residency and only be eligible for a maximum three-year visa, followed by a stand-down of one year outside the country.
The higher threshold of $73,299 would mean anyone earning more was automatically classified as highly skilled.
Rules regarding lower-skilled families were also introduced, meaning partners and children would no longer be able to work and study in New Zealand.
Following strong feedback from industry lobby groups, the Government pumped the brake a few months later, the lower salary band was dropped to $41,538.
While there is room for change in the international education market, Labour is facing a huge task in building 100,000 homes under its KiwiBuild policy and will need workers to do so.
Alongside the usual construction work visas a new KiwiBuild visa will be introduced to allow a skilled tradesperson to be hired on a three-year work visa without meeting the labour market test, as long as an apprentice is hired alongside that worker.
An exception skills visa will also be introduced, allowing people with significant experience or qualifications to bring their families.
What impact will the changes have?
Professor Paul Spoonley of Massey University said the idea of reducing net migration to 10,000 was unworkable.
“I don’t think New Zealand First’s plan was ever explained in sufficient detail and second, I don’t think it would have been workable. It would have been too drastic a handbrake on the New Zealand economy," Spoonley said.
There was room to move in reducing net migration, however, and Labour’s estimate that the changes around international education would remove $250m from the economy was “about right”.
Spoonley said the 1500 KiwiBuild visas seemed light to build 100,000 homes, even when added to current immigration levels.
Local, skilled workers would be needed, but visas could not be created immediately.
“My question is whether 1500 construction workers is going to meet Auckland and Christchurch demand, quite apart from the country’s.”
While the tightening of rules will have some impact on the international education market in New Zealand and on some recruiters overseas, many in the industry were expecting the move.
Terry McGrath, acting-president of the International Education Association, said the National Government had already changed direction and begun focusing on quality over quantity.
Both the outgoing and incoming Education Ministers had signalled this at a recent conference, and weeding out private training institutions that were exploiting students was welcomed.
“It’s not so much a surprise. It’s more a collective sigh of relief that there’s nothing extreme being put forward,” McGrath said.
Many in the industry had become quite concerned about some of the low-level providers alongside the exploitation of students by workers, so it was also welcome to hear that the number of labour inspectors would be increased, he said.
Labour campaigned to double the number of labour inspectors to 110.Profits at the group that operates Griffith College in Dublin last year increased three-fold to €2.5m.
Profits at the group that operates Griffith College in Dublin last year increased three-fold to €2.5m.
Established in 1974, the independently-owned Griffith College operates third level campuses in Dublin, Cork and Limerick.
The college educates more than 7,000 students, from 77 nationalities.
Accounts lodged with the Companies Office by Bellerophon Ltd, trading as Griffith College Dublin, show that the group recorded the sharp rise in profits after booking a €1.75m gain on finance restructuring.
The firm had disclosed in its 2014 accounts that the company's bank borrowings were fully discharged on July 31, 2014.
This followed the group in March 2014 successfully renegotiated a refinancing with Bank of Ireland and Bank of Scotland borrowings of the company itself and in respect of the Griffith Halls of Residence which the company has guaranteed. The company's revenues last year rose by 3pc to €20.67m.
At the end of June 30 last year, the group had shareholder funds totalling €20m. The firm's cash reduced from €2.8m to €2.02m.
Numbers employed by the group increased from 355 to 382 with staff costs increasing from €10.95m to €11.3m.
Numbers engaging in teaching, training and material preparation total 270 while 96 were engaged in clerical and administration with 16 engaged in maintenance, security and cleaning.
The accounts show that the group recorded an 18pc jump in operating profits in 2015 going from €968,359 to €1.14m.
However, net interest payments of €178,820 reduced the group's profits to €964,514.
The business booked the €1.75m gain on its post-tax profits €752,637 to give the €2.5m profit for the year.
Those on the board of directors are listed as President, Prof Diarmuid Hegarty, Reginald Callanan, Pierce Kent, Tomás Mac Eochagáin, Frank Scott Lennon, Ronan Fenelon, Daniel Hegarty and Patrick Sheehan.
Pay for directors last year increased marginally, from €586,962 to €600,776.
That figure was made up of €469,512 in remuneration and €131,264 in pension contributions.
The profit last year takes account of non-cash depreciation and amortisation costs of €680,645.
Indo BusinessThe Spurs, Clippers and Thunder have “fringe” trade interest in Adreian Payne, as Darren Wolfson of 1500 ESPN Twin Cities says in his latest edition of “The Scoop” podcast. The No. 15 pick from the 2014 draft has seen spotty playing time this season but this week returned earlier than planned from a D-League assignment because of injuries to other Minnesota frontcourt players, Wolfson adds. Wolfson casts doubt on the notion of a trade involving Payne before the February 18th deadline, suggesting instead that the idea might resurface in the summer.
Payne, who turns 25 the day after the trade deadline, is making close to $1.939MM this year in the second season of his rookie scale contract. Minnesota picked up its team option of more than $2.022MM for next season. The former Michigan State stalwart enjoyed significant playing time down the stretch last season on a banged-up Timberwolves team, making 22 starts in 29 games and averaging 7.2 points and 5.4 boards in 24.8 minutes per contest. That came after a February 2015 trade in which Minnesota sent a conditional future first-round pick to Atlanta to free Payne from the Hawks, for whom he saw action in only three games.
The Clippers have a hole at power forward with Blake Griffin out, but they reportedly want a small forward, with Rudy Gay among their targets. The Thunder are also apparently focusing on the wing, lending credence to the notion that the interest in Payne is muted. It’s unclear what the Spurs are looking for, though losses to the Warriors and Cavaliers last week exposed San Antonio’s flaws after a sterling 38-6 beginning to the season.For some reason, people simply don’t want to work for Donald Trump, even when otherwise prestigious positions open up. Potential candidates to replace James Comey as F.B.I. director keep removing their names from consideration, perhaps because Trump’s interviews have been so haphazard and distracted. His first pick to serve as national security adviser after the resignation of Mike Flynn turned down the offer because Trump wouldn’t let him bring on his own team, and it took nearly a month for the White House to find a communications director, who then resigned three months later. It’s hard, after all, to find job candidates willing to work long hours for little pay; who are both adequately competent and unswervingly loyal; and who are not scared off by being routinely thrown under the bus even as they face the prospect of crippling legal bills.
If there is one upside to working in the Trump administration, it is that the president’s inability to hire new staffers has also afforded current West Wing residents a peculiar sort of job security. Such is the luck, or perhaps the curse, of Reince Priebus, the long-suffering White House chief of staff who always seems to be one bad headline away from losing his job. As recently as last week, Trump reportedly fretted about firing Priebus, half-joking that he would reassign his chief of staff to serve as ambassador to Greece. Every other week brings some fresh hell for Priebus, from news reports about his potential replacements to whispers in The New York Times and The Washington Post about how Trump likes to mock him. He was rumored to be on his last legs when the House failed to vote on the G.O.P. Obamacare repeal bill—for which Trump blamed Priebus—and again in the wake of Comeygate, as the president reportedly mulled over a staff shake-up. But, as Politico reports today, Priebus seems to have nine lives:
It is the fundamental dichotomy Priebus confronts these days. He is a dead man walking, according to senior White House officials, advisers and others close to the president. Aides have begun speculating about his next job. The Washington Post reported he might be ambassador to Greece. Trump adviser Roger Stone later posted a picture of the country online and labeled it as Priebus’ next destination. Yet he continues to show up for work every day as the chief of staff, even as headlines say he will be fired—if not today, then tomorrow or next week.
The problem, as a friend of the president told the outlet, is that there’s not necessarily anybody lined up to replace him. “It’s basically decided that Reince is gone,” the source told Politico. “It’s just a matter of who replaces him and when.” Speculation has swirled that Trump could tap his chief economic adviser, Gary Cohn, or longtime G.O.P. operative and Trump loyalist David Urban, either of whom might present a more confident alternative to Priebus, whose nervous, “stalking-butler tendency” is reportedly a source of irritation to the president. But it’s not easy to serve as gatekeeper to a president who refuses to be managed or restrained. According to Politico, both Cohn and Urban would almost certainly seek assurances that they would have power to control Trump’s day-to-day agenda, should they actually desire the job.
Priebus is in something of an impossible position. Repeatedly neutered by the president, the lame-duck chief of staff holds little influence over Trump’s unruly West Wing. “You’d think he’d just do the same thing as [Michael] Dubke and see the writing on the wall and leave,” one senior White House aide told Politico, referring to the White House communications director whose resignation became public last week. “It’s gotten embarrassing.” Still, Priebus is apparently going through the motions, hovering over the president, calling meetings, and rushing around “trying to keep tabs on his colleagues.” His colleagues, meanwhile, have reportedly sheathed their daggers, having determined that Priebus is essentially harmless.
Trump may have good reasons for keeping Priebus around, as much as he likes to talk openly about replacing him. With his campaign and associates under investigation by the F.B.I. for alleged collusion with Russia, keeping his longtime aides close may be the best way to keep them quiet—or at least under his control. If Trump fires his chief of staff, he can’t invoke executive privilege, exposing him to further liability should Priebus be asked to testify against him.Cruz mocks Biden, then apologizes The joke had been a winner in the past for the Texas Republican.
Sen. Ted Cruz rapidly apologized Wednesday after making a joke at the expense of Vice President Joe Biden, whose son died during the weekend.
Cruz, speaking in Michigan, trotted out an old line of his: “Joe Biden … You know what the nice thing is? You don’t even need a punch line. I promise you it works. At the next party you’re at, just walk up to someone and say, ‘Vice President Joe Biden,’ and just close your mouth. They will crack up laughing,” according to reports on MLive.com.
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The insult had been a winner in the past for the Texas Republican — Biden jokes are a staple of his standard stump speeches — but this time the joke drew immediate criticism on social media from people who noted that the vice president is grieving for his son Beau, who died of brain cancer on Saturday at the age of 46.
Cruz subsequently issued an apology on Facebook: “It was a mistake to use an old joke about Joe Biden during his time of grief, and I sincerely apologize. The loss of his son is heartbreaking and tragic, and our prayers are very much with the Vice President and his family.”
He also tweeted an apology, which linked to his Facebook page.
Detroit News reporter Chad Livengood tweeted that he questioned Cruz about the joke immediately after the speech and that “the Texas senator turned and walked away.” Livengood described the reaction to Cruz’s joke as “faint laughter.”
The GOP presidential contender was speaking in Howell, Michigan, to approximately 650 people at a gathering of Livingston County Republicans. The event, billed as a Lincoln Day Dinner, featured a VIP reception at $150 per person and $250 per couple.
Saul Anuzis, Cruz’s campaign chair in the state, had tweeted a message: “600+ strong listening to Ted Cruz in Michigan!” Later, Anuzis was quoted by Livengood as saying that the senator meant no disrespect with his stab at humor. “Timing could have been better,” Anuzis said.
Beau Biden is to lie in state Thursday in Dover in his home state of Delaware. His funeral will be Saturday in Wilmington; President Barack Obama will deliver a eulogy.A new report on identity and immigration has found that nearly half of England's population support legal limits on free speech when religion is concerned, and that support for freedom of expression has fallen significantly since 2011.
A poll of 4,015 people conducted by Populus for the Fear and HOPE 2016 report found that only 54% agreed people should be "allowed" to say what they believe about religion. 46% said there "some things" that you should "not be able to say about religion". Participants were asked to signal which of two statements on free speech and religion they agreed with "the most".
In 2011 just 40% agreed that some statements about religion were off-limits, compared with 60% who agreed that "people should be allowed to say what they believe about religion".
The report, on English attitudes towards identity, multiculturalism, religion and immigration, and written by Professor Robert Ford of Manchester University and Nick Lowles of Hope Not Hate, found that the marked increase since 2011 in those who agree that there should be "some things that people should not be able to say about religion" was being driven by the young and those most supportive of multiculturalism.
The research broke society down into different groups depending on their attitude to multiculturalism and diversity. Those who were considered to be "mainstream liberals" were the most likely of all groups to support restrictions on free speech. 58% of this group agreed that "if necessary" people "should be prosecuted" for saying certain things about religion.
The authors of the report found that "support for limiting free speech to respect multicultural sensitivities had grown over the past five years".
Limiting free speech is most popular among "the young" and among those most "confident" with multiculturalism. 58% of under 25s "back similar limits on religion" as exist for policing racial hate.
Stephen Evans, National Secular Society campaigns manager, said the report made for "grim reading".
"This report demonstrates how the concept of offense, and the violence that sometimes accompanies it, has created a chilling effect on freedom of expression in the UK. Whilst bigotry of all kinds should be robustly challenged, now is not the time to start sacrificing fundamental freedoms in order to protect'religious sentiments'. Restricting free speech will do nothing to improve social cohesion – and once satisfied, demands to'respect' religion will only lead to yet further demands.
"Stringent penalties are in place for religiously-aggravated crimes but the law is not there to prevent us from feeling offended. Free speech is the cornerstone of democratic life any new legal restrictions would be counterproductive, only serving to stifle debate and erode hard-won civil liberties."
The report explored attitudes to a wide range of issues related to immigration, identity and social cohesion, and found clear majorities in support of the "close monitoring of faith schools". 71% of England's population support the "close monitoring of faith schools, including Muslim faith schools", and 50% of Muslims polled agreed with the proposition.
Islam was regarded as a uniquely problematic minority faith by many, with 59% believing "Islam poses a serious threat to Western civilisation". 17% of Muslims polled by Populus for the report agreed with this statement.
43% of English respondents said that Muslims were "completely different" to them – and 59% "believe they cause problems in the world". Despite this, the authors note, "concern about problems caused by Muslims and other religious groups is much lower to now than it was in 2011." 78% of English people agreed that "it would be wrong to blame an entire religion for the actions of a few extremists".
The National Secular Society is supporting #Right2Debate, the student campaign to reclaim freedom of speech on campuses.I want to make one thing clear: George Farmer is damned good at Aquascaping. He's probably some sort of visual prodigy, and his tanks are worthy of the many awards he wins every year. Ever wonder what makes his tanks THAT beautiful? Here's are the simple principles that make beautiful planted tanks every time you're ready to build.
There are four principles to Aquascaping. If you make yourself familiar with these four principles, and apply them to your tanks, you'll quickly begin to see those ideas in your head turn into aquascapes that attract attention (we recommend these aquascape tools). Let's start with the most important principle first: the Rule of Thirds. (Don't skip this; it's important so you know how to set up an aquascape.)
The Rule of Thirds: Aquascape Design Layout
The Rule of Thirds has been used since humans first started creating visual objects. For some reason, the human eye is attracted to things that are divided into a grid, and placing things on lines created by this grid nearly always creates a balanced, visually interesting layout. The same is true of Aquascaping.
Let's take a look at a sample layout: which is a great example of how to aquascape!
What's immediately apparent are two things: this guy is good at carpeting plants, and this tank is definitely composed according to the Rule of Thirds.
I've marked two important areas:
1: focal point placement
We'll cover this in-depth later, but I want you to notice the placement of the highest part of the tank: It's placed almost exactly one-third away from the right side. That wasn't an accident. Whether intentional or subconsciously, the aquascaper found that to be a pleasing location for the focal point. Now that you're looking for it, you'll notice it in almost every tank you see.
2: breaking the rules
It's cliché, but it's true: every rule is meant to be broken. However, it's the intentional breaking of it, and in a conscious way, that makes it appealing. If the lesser stone was placed exactly one-third away from the left side, it would make the tank nearly mirrored, and it would look rigid.
Focal Points
Focal points keep your layout from becoming to busy or distracting. In most cases, less is more. In many aquascaping styles, focal points are naturally created by following the style's guidelines. The Iwagumi style, for example, uses multiples of stones placed in a certain pattern, with a central stone being placed on one of the third-lines of the tank. This (by design) creates a focal point according to the Rule of Thirds.
When it comes to your hardscape, when in doubt, don't add, but take away. This ensures that your tank has a striking visual aspect, and guides the viewer's eye across your tank.
Focal points can be created through the effective use of plant selection, by either color, scale, or texture.
Plant Selection
It's important to keep in mind the plant's adult size & coloration. Choose a plant that's appropriately sized for where you're placing it. (We really like this plant pack, it has 25+ stems from 6 species). For example, in most cases, you wouldn't put a stem plant in the foreground, since it's likely to grow so tall that it blocks the view of the tank. You also wouldn't put a low-growing, carpeting plant in the back behind your aquascape. There wouldn't be a point, because it would never be seen.
In most cases, however, focal points are created with one easily-used principle...
Scale
This is what separates the entries from the winners. Proper use of scale in an aquascape is what makes the'magic'. Again, most of us learn better visually, so here's a sample layout:
Once again, you can see the Rule of Thirds is very prevalent in this tank. What's more, you might notice the scale that's present in this aquascape.
1: substrate size
Substrate size can play a huge role in the appearance of your tank. That's why you see almost all professional Aquascapers using the ADA powder type topsoil. (We personally recommend this particular type of substrate). The small granules lend a greater sense of scale between the hardscape, plants, and substrate.
If you have the budget to use powder-type, do so. Just remember: it's a top coat, not a substrate you should be creating depth with.
2: large focal stone(s)
Using larger stones in tanks is a great way to use not just the horizontal space in the aquascape, but also the vertical. That's important, so I'll repeat it:
Using larger stones makes use of the vertical space in your aquascape. These are what we use.
This is the most common problem I see in beginner tanks: they're making relatively good decisions about substrate, plant placement, and fish selection, but their hardscape simply isn't using the full tank. The stones or driftwood aren't large enough to make use of the open space above the substrate, and so everything ends up looking like a low,'squat' layout. If you do need some pointers on driftwood then perhaps our post on the best aquarium driftwood for sale will help you out.
3: smaller accent stones
Beginners almost always forget these stones. While it's sometimes hard to get these from stone purchases (sellers only include the large/medium stones), it's important to incorporate these to create variance in your hardscape.
It's important in hardscapes to think as if it's in nature: large stones aren't by themselves. There's almost always a few smaller stones around it that have either chipped off, or been pushed up next to it. The same should be true of your Aquascape: place smaller stones naturally in the tank to create a natural look.
Contrast
This is a subtle principle, and it's not always found in many of the Aquascaping Tanks you'll find on Aquatic Gardeners. The basic premise of this principle is this:
If everything is emphasized, nothing is emphasized.
Which basically means that if you're putting a ton of variation in your plants, substrates, and hardscapes, it's going to create a busy tank that has too much contrast. However, choose two plants that differ greatly (in color, for example), a one-color substrate, and one stone type—then you'll have the beginnings of a great tank.
The green box
There's a danger with most aquascapes to become what I call the 'green box'. Essentially, your tank has almost no contrast, and so it becomes a 'green box' to most viewers. (A box with some green, underwater plants.)
The easiest way to avoid this is using all the aspects of your tank (the substrate, hardscape, and plants) in such a way as to show differences between your chosen materials. If you have lots of green plants that grow quickly, choose one vivid red plant (Like this Dark Red Ludwigia Plant). that'll be placed next to your focal point.
If you need some fish suggestions, we have put this a post that covers the easiest fish to take care of.
Your Aquascape
Do you have an aquascape that exhibits these principles? If you do, we'd love |
and lungs and legs were the strongest and most efficient they could be? He drew up a model and came to a surprisingly specific number. Given ideal conditions, and the ideal runner, Joyner concluded that the best time in which a marathon could be completed was one hour, 57 minutes, 58 seconds.
How to run a marathon in your mind: 12 tips for winning the mental fight Read more
He wrote up his findings and eventually his paper, peer-reviewed and rubber-stamped, appeared in the Journal of Applied Physiology in 1991. At the time, the world’s fastest marathon was 2:06:50, and the two-hour mark existed only at the far reaches of the imagination: the Narnia of distance running. But Joyner’s paper became the seminal document in the debate. He is now a professor of anaesthesiology and has been working at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota, since 1987, on a wide range of topics, from gene studies to cardiovascular disease; but none of his work has stuck to him as much as his famous 1991 paper.
Why does it matter whether the sub-two-hour marathon is possible? And, if it is possible, what will it mean when the first 1:59:59 marathon is run? At one level, the achievement will signify nothing. The marathon length is a scruffy figure, fixed by the Olympic Committee only in 1921, to match the course of the 1908 London Olympic marathon, which was itself designed to accommodate the peculiar viewing demands of the British royal family. (The royals wished to see the race start underneath a terrace at Windsor Castle, so their children could watch; for their benefit, the race was also stretched at the other end to include a full lap of the old White City stadium.) Why should we care if some extraordinary person can run this arbitrary distance in just over, or just under, two hours?
In Kenya, athletes know each other not just by names but by personal bests: 'He's a two-oh-eight. He's a two-oh-five'
Nobody finds the marathon easy – even professionals, especially professionals. The distance is democratic. It has become an event against which hordes of people – fat people, thin people, people crooked by time and people sprightly as foals, rich people and people in need – test themselves. There are now more than 500 marathons all over the world, and more competitors than at any time in the history of the sport.
The two-hour debate is irresistible. It arises every time a man breaks the marathon world record. In 2003, the Kenyan Paul Tergat crested the tape at the Berlin marathon in 2:04:55. (Before that race, only “world bests” were recognised. Tergat’s time, which crushed Khalid Khannouchi’s 17-month-old world best by 43 seconds, was the first ratified marathon “world record”.) At the post-race press conference, Tergat was asked the question: could someone break the two-hour barrier? “I believe records are set to be broken, and to fall lower is possible,” he said. “But what remains impossible is running a marathon in under two hours.” He smiled, and added: “Maybe time will chide me.”
Facebook Twitter Pinterest Former world record holder Paul Tergat (fourth from left) trains at altitude in the Ngong Hills in Kenya, in 2007. Photograph: John Gichigi/Getty Images
If Tergat was sceptical, you could see why. He was reflecting on the abyss into which he had just pushed his own body in order to run 2:04:55. The prospect of running a whole five minutes faster than this was unfathomable, too much slack for the brain to handle. But nobody was suggesting a 1:59:59 marathon would be reached in one giant leap. Patrick Makau’s 2011 world record, 2:03:38, beat Haile Gebrselassie’s 2:03:59 from 2008 by 21 seconds, which in turn beat Gebrselassie’s previous best from 2007 by 27 seconds, which beat Tergat’s landmark of 2:04:55.
Tim Noakes, one of the world’s leading exercise physiologists, and the author of the influential book Lore Of Running, believes that these incremental advances are connected to how the brains of top athletes communicate with their bodies. “When you start running,” he says, “you know what the world record is, so you don’t have to run 10 minutes faster than the world record. Your whole focus is to run one second faster than the world record. That’s what your brain is keyed in on. And that programming occurs all the time in running and is terribly important.”
The brains of elite athletes are only as obstructive as they are programmed to be – as one recent experiment showed. In 2011, Professor Kevin Thompson of the University of Northumbria assembled a group of enthusiastic bike riders for a laboratory test. These cyclists were placed on stationary bikes in front of screens, hooked up to oxygen monitors, and asked to race a computer-generated cyclist avatar. Each rider had previously set a personal best for a 4,000m time trial on the machine. The avatar they were now racing represented that personal best.
'Records are set to be broken,' Tergat said, 'but what remains impossible is running a marathon in under two hours'
Or so these guinea pig cyclists thought. In fact, Thompson was lying. He had set the avatar to race 2% faster than their personal bests, because he wanted to know if an athlete’s body could be tricked into performing better. It was his belief that even world-class performers, who thought they were regulating their energy output to their absolute maximum, possessed a “reserve” of around 2% that could be tapped into, given the right motivation (or a little deception).
Thompson was right. Almost all the cyclists finished ahead of the avatar.
If the sub-two-hour marathon is reached, it will be in such baby steps – each one taken by a member of the tiny, elite fraternity of athletes with the talent and industry to inch the sport closer to the impossible marathon, world record by world record.
***
Within 5km of the start line in Berlin in 2012, a disaster occurred: the display on the pace car froze. It showed 2:50 per kilometre – a two-hour marathon pace. In fact, the leading runners were clocking nearly three-minute kilometres, which would be good enough only for a 2.06 finish. It was a tiny difference, and Mutai and his fellow runners soon understood the problem, but the elite marathon is a sport of tiny margins. The fastest times are achieved when races are run at an even pace from start to finish, or with a “negative” split, with the second half slightly faster than the first. Start the race too fast and you’ll kill a record attempt stone dead. Start too slow and you’ll have to make up too much ground.
Mutai was now in the second category. He reached halfway in 62:12. By his own recollection, it was only then that he seriously considered the scale of the challenge confronting him. Having run the first half 42 seconds slower than he had hoped, he understood dimly that the sub‑2:03 marathon was gone already. But he still believed he had a shot at Makau’s world record of 2:03:38. In order to break it, he would need to run the second half of the race in 61:26. Only two men in history had run that fast in the second half of a marathon: the Brazilian Ronaldo da Costa, in Berlin, in 2003, after a sluggish first half; and Mutai himself, in Boston, in 2011. The question was: did Mutai have the legs?
In the next 10km, just as the course rose slightly in gradient, he caught fire. At 25km, as planned, two “rabbits” (athletes who for reasons of schedule, finance or talent are paid a few thousand dollars to run a limited section as pacemakers) dropped out, leaving the lead group paced by only one man: Victor Kipchirchir, a training partner of Mutai.
The pace quickened. Jonathan Maiyo felt tight and began to weaken. He was soon dropped from the lead group. Geoffrey Kamworor also failed to respond to the rising pace in his first marathon and lost touch with the leaders shortly afterwards. At 30km, the final rabbit, Kipchirchir, made his scheduled exit.
Now it was only Mutai and his training partner Dennis Kimetto, head to head for the final quarter of the race. As they had done many times together, at an altitude of nearly 9,000ft (2,700m) on the rough hills around their base in the forests of Kenya, they drove each other on. From 30km to 35km, the pair ran a 14:18 split, which is absurdly fast. (A whole marathon run at this pace would finish in two hours and 40 seconds.)
Mutai's heart pistoned at over 160bpm. His lungs bellowed half a gallon with each breath. He took three strides a second
As Mutai led the charge, he dipped his head in trademark fashion and a hint of a snarl appeared at the corner of his mouth – a look he refers to as, “Now, business.” Within his body, there was a tumult of exertion. His heart pistoned at over 160 beats a minute. His lungs bellowed half a gallon with every breath. He took three strides a second. In his cells, the complex process powering his heart and lungs and legs – the burning and resynthesising of adenosine triphosphate – created three times as much heat as energy. And so he was hot, too hot. His body, losing around three litres of sweat an hour, grew slick with moisture. Lactic acid began to singe his muscles. Everything but his conscious mind screamed, “Stop!” And still he ran.
How does it feel to travel so fast, so late in a marathon? Mutai described the sensation as “fighting inside”, as if your body is at war with itself. Another former runner said it is like putting your hand in a bowl of hot water: you have to keep your hand in, while the water just keeps getting hotter and hotter – take your hand out and you lose the race.
Mutai is, of course, accustomed to these sensations. He later told me that he drew strength from the crowds that lined the roads. He could feel that “people love me” and he was determined to repay that affection with a Herculean effort, to consciously override the signals his body was sending him. “I sacrificed myself,” he remembered.
***
There are many observers who look at the times now being run in the marathon with a raised eyebrow. Dope infects almost all professional sports. For every athlete who wishes to ascend to the highest plane of competition under his own steam, there will always be athletes who desire a short cut. Marathon running is no different. (Tom Hicks won the St Louis Olympic marathon jacked up on strychnine and brandy, and it nearly killed him. That was in 1904.)
There was once an Elysian view of the sport of distance running that wilfully exempted east Africans from the temptations of others. Journalists saw the humble manner in which Kenyan and Ethiopian runners lived, and concluded that cheating in such circumstances simply wasn’t possible. This myth has now been exploded. In the past two years, several east African distance runners have tested positive for banned performance-enhancing drugs, including steroids and the hormone erythropoietin, or EPO, which stimulates red blood cell production and the transport of oxygen into the bloodstream.
Facebook Twitter Pinterest Urine samples are tested for EPO or the hormone erythropoietin in a Swiss laboratory. Photograph: Fabrice Coffrini/AP
Some of the busted athletes have been well-known figures, but most have been nobodies. Three years ago, I sat in the twin room of a four-star hotel in which two low-level Kenyan runners were preparing their vests and bibs for the following day’s marathon. They wanted to talk to me about drugs, and spoke on condition of anonymity. Their personal bests were relatively modest in Kenyan terms, and they barely covered their expenses to travel to a race in a bleak European capital with only a few thousand euros in prize money. They talked for a long time as they sat on their beds, with the burble of the television and the sound of rain against the windows in the background.
The two Kenyan runners, whose personal bests were above 2:10, said anything below 2:06 was'suspicious'
The two runners said that, in Kenya, there were “so many bad doctors, you can’t count them”. They described a system whereby these “doctors”, who were mostly quack pharmacists based in the town of Eldoret, would sell an athlete a course of performance-enhancing drugs in exchange for either cash or a share of their winnings. The drug in question, although they didn’t name it explicitly, seemed to be EPO. (They referred often to a drug for “the blood”.) And the relationship between the athlete and the “doctor”, said the two runners, was “24/7”: they were always on hand to provide masking agents, should the testers come calling.
Most of this information was talked about openly enough, especially among European agents and coaches (although before my meeting with the two athletes, I had never heard such a detailed description of the process). Some Kenyan stars also discussed the problem in a roundabout way. In the narratives of many high-profile athletes, doping was seen as something that “lazy” runners did in lieu of training. This was a wilfully wrongheaded view. As the Tour de France scandals showed, drugs are used for precisely the opposite reason: to train and race harder.
The two athletes in the hotel named almost every star in Kenyan marathon running and accused them of doping. The allegations were shocking, though the basis for their specific charges seemed thin. They simply didn’t believe it was possible to run the spectacular times that had now become commonplace on the marathon circuit without illegal assistance. These two runners, who had personal bests above 2:10, said anything below 2:06 for a marathon was “suspicious”.
One of the runners laughed when I expressed surprise. “You think you can run two‑oh-three, only with blood?” he asked. Well, yes, I did think that. I still do.
From a layman’s perspective, it’s not obvious what kind of edge EPO would give a Kenyan who has already spent his whole life running at altitude. The number of red blood cells in his system is already likely to be high, and there is a limit to how many a person can have before he or she is at risk of a heart attack or stroke. (This dangerous abundance of red blood cells is known in medicine as polycythaemia.)
But this apparent common sense is wrong: EPO does help altitude-born-and-raised Kenyans. A recent study by the University of Glasgow conducted tests on a group of Scottish runners, and Kenyan athletes from running country, and found that their performances benefited equally from a course of EPO.
If there were a wonder drug for distance runners, it would be one that aided recovery. Marathoners have always logged extraordinary mileage, and their biggest problem is staying healthy for races. The “high volume, high intensity” philosophy requires a mixture of speedwork sessions lasting an hour or more in order to build resistance to a fast race pace, and long runs at a high tempo. Being able to complete such punishing sessions day after day is the key to staying competitive. So it is in the field of recovery that the marathon is most vulnerable to cheating. In theory, athletes could stop taking illicit substances weeks before a race, and show up to a marathon clean – with hundreds of high-quality, ill-gotten miles in their legs.
Some former runners believe the elite have been doping for years. These views come from surprising places. In 1999, for instance, Mo Farah’s coach, Alberto Salazar – currently under extreme pressure after the BBC and ProPublica linked his athletes to banned substances – gave a presentation to the Duke Conference on Doping in Sport in which he made several fascinating remarks, not least this one: “I believe that it is currently difficult to be among the top five in the world in any of the distance events without using EPO or human growth hormone. While some of the top athletes may be clean, so many athletes are running so fast that their performances are suspect. This is compounded for me by the fact that the times these athletes are running just happen to coincide exactly with what top exercise physiologists have calculated taking EPO would produce.”
In 1999, you could have an argument about who the top five distance runners were, but there was no doubt about the top two: Haile Gebrselassie of Ethiopia and Paul Tergat of Kenya. Was Salazar saying he believed they were dopers? (Salazar told me last year that he no longer stands by the comments he made in 1999, and that he “did not reference the athletes you call out”.)
Facebook Twitter Pinterest In 1999, coach Alberto Salazar (pictured flanked by Galen Rupp and Mo Farah) said he thought it ‘difficult’ to be in the top five for any distance event without using banned substances. Photograph: Michael Steele/Getty Images
Salazar has long been the subject of scrutiny about his methods. In 2013, a Wall Street Journal investigation into his (and his sponsor Nike’s) relationship with a doctor named Jeffrey Brown found that many of Salazar’s athletes had been treated by Brown for a syndrome called “hypothyroidism”. Galen Rupp, Mo Farah’s training partner and 10,000m Olympic silver medallist in 2012, was one such patient. Treating athletes for hypothyroidism is not illegal, and it’s also not clear what kind of benefit it would give an elite runner. (The treatment is a synthetic hormone called levothyroxine – not a banned substance, though it has been suggested it helps with swift weight loss.) But the very fact that so many of Salazar’s charges have been diagnosed with the condition has caused suspicion. After Jos Hermens, who manages many of the best east African runners, watched his athletes being trounced at the 2012 Olympics by Salazar’s, he told a Dutch journalist, “Science has triumphed over nature.”
But what of the supposedly widespread nature of doping in east Africa? Should we consider every fast marathon as suspicious? What counts as suspicious? 2:06? 2:04? 2:02? In 1991, Joyner estimated a physiological ceiling for running a marathon: 1:57:58. So what extra time on top of that should we allow today’s best runners?
For Kenyan runners, most of whom grew up poor, the prize money for one win can change a life
The fastest men fall under the most suspicion, which may not be fair. There is as much motivation for a middling talent to dope as there would be for a supreme one. This is true particularly for Kenyan runners, almost all of whom grew up dirt poor. The prize money for one win, even in a low-grade marathon, can change a life.
Geoffrey Mutai has fallen under more suspicion than most, because he has run fantastic times in an aggressive manner. But in the three years I spent following Mutai, staying in his training camp and watching him at home and at races, he was tested many times for blood and urine. He has never given a positive test, and I had no reason to suspect him of doping.
Troubled by the reputation his country’s runners were attracting, Mutai said he wanted more testing, more often, to prove his innocence. “I am clean,” he told me. “I want all athletes in Kenya to remain clean. Any time, anywhere, I am ready for testing. It gives me pain when people see me run fast and say I have used drugs. If I have used them, then God take everything from me – I cannot enjoy it.”
You can be sure that if and when a man breaks two hours for the marathon, the whiff of disbelief will hang around him every day of his life.
***
At the 35km mark in Berlin, Mutai’s sacrifice appeared to have paid off. Despite the botched beginning, both he and Kimetto were now inside world record pace. All they had to do was hold on. If they ran a 2:56/km pace for the final 7.2km of the race – which seemed, given their earlier pace, possible – the world record would fall to one or the other.
The path that had led Mutai to this position would have broken lesser men. The eldest of 11 children, he had suffered not only deep poverty, but a fractious relationship with his father, periods of insecurity about shelter and food, and a hair-raising brush with the tribal violence that scarred Kenya after the disputed 2007 elections. Before he had become a professional runner, he had worked in back-breaking jobs: smashing rocks in a quarry and cutting down trees. As a pro, he had run 125 miles a week, up and down hills, at altitude.
Now, here he was, at the quickest marathon in the world, with a chance to break the world record. The opportunity might not come around again. The elite marathon is a brutal sport. The best runners compete only twice a year at the full marathon. There are only a handful of courses, and a handful of days, upon which to run fast. This was one of them. He and his training partner, Kimetto, were half an hour from glory.
Facebook Twitter Pinterest The fastest men on Earth: marathon world record holders over the years. Photograph: AFP/Getty Images (4); EPA/Getty Images; Reuters
Perhaps inevitably, they couldn’t do it. The prodigious acceleration just after halfway took its toll, and by 40km, slowing markedly, both athletes were eight seconds outside world record pace, and spent. Mutai’s right hamstring began to tighten. The pain moved to his hip and back. Kimetto – high-shouldered, and seemingly in better shape – ran at his back.
Facing the final 2km, the pair ran into the breeze, rather slowly. They seemed headed for a very fast time, but not a world record. As Mutai and Kimetto ran through the Brandenburg Gate shoulder to shoulder, 400m from the end, the spectators raised their voices in anticipation of a sprint finish.
But the kick never came. In a finale in which a burst from either man would have sealed the race decisively, Kimetto finished the race as he had run most of it: just behind his colleague. Mutai raised his arms weakly as he crossed the line in a time of 2:04:15. Seconds later, the two men shared a limp, exhausted hug.
Why no sprint? There were half a million reasons why. If Kimetto had beaten his training partner, Mutai might have lost the $500,000 World Marathon Majors jackpot he was in line to win after his runs in Boston and New York the previous year. (Kimetto had no chance of winning that money himself, this being his first marathon.) Meanwhile, Kimetto was not just Mutai’s training partner. For the previous few years, like many in the village where he trained, he had been fed and housed by Mutai. If he had sprinted past his boss under the Brandenburg Gate, everyone in that village would have lost. Marathon runners are not just athletes; they are economies.
Any kind of arrangement between the two was vehemently denied by the athletes themselves, while their manager, Gerard Van de Veen, told journalists, “There was no deal.” Mutai told me that he and Kimetto were dog tired: neither man could have done anything more.
Facebook Twitter Pinterest Geoffrey Mutai and Dennis Kimetto cross the line at the 2012 Berlin marathon, during the former’s failed bid to break 2:03. Photograph: Markus Schreiber/AP
Mutai’s finishing time of 2:04:15 was the fastest that anybody ran in 2012. For the second year in a row, he was the quickest marathoner on the planet. These statistics brought him little comfort. He signed autographs and smiled for photographs, but left Berlin with the sense of an opportunity lost, of a tide untaken.
In September 2014, Kimetto returned to Berlin and achieved what Mutai had failed to do: he ran the first 2:02 marathon. Kimetto does not have Mutai’s grace – his stiff-backed style makes him look haughty and a trifle uncomfortable – but his effort was extraordinary, and his finishing time would have been science fiction to runners of the 1990s.
The world record is still two minutes and 57 seconds away from the two-hour mark. What’s 177 seconds? It’s a pop song, a long commercial break. In marathon terms, however, those 177 seconds are a lifetime. A marathon run in two hours dead requires an average of 4:35 per mile, or 2:50 per kilometre – nearly a 3% improvement. In the abstract, this difference seems trifling. In reality, it’s a chasm.
The chasm can be bridged, but it may take a reimagining of the sport to do so. What may need to change is not the shape of the athletes’ bodies, but the shape of races. If you really wanted to see how fast a man could run 26.2 miles, you would take them off the roads and on to a more forgiving surface. You’d allow pacemakers to come in and out of the race, right until the finishing line. You’d make sure the temperature was very cold, to combat the extreme heat that elite marathoners generate, and that the course was flat and entirely sheltered from the wind.
The world record is still 2mins 57 seconds away from the two-hour mark. It seems trifling, but it's a chasm
Several deep thinkers – including Mutai – have already considered what such a race could achieve. It might take a rich man with a flair for publicity (Richard Branson, perhaps) or a shoe company with a motive (Adidas, Nike) to see it happen. But that’s the way to break two hours. “Organise it like that,” Mutai told me, “and people can run crazy times.”
As a species, we are interested in outlandish feats, and our brains cleave to landmarks. The two-hour quest has become the sport’s Everest. Those final 177 seconds will not fall easily. But somewhere there is a runner alive, right now, who has glimpsed the mountain top, and who will set his mind upon its conquest.
• This is an edited extract from Two Hours: The Quest To Run The Impossible Marathon, by Ed Caesar, published next month by Viking at £16.99. To order a copy for £12.99, go to bookshop.theguardian.com, or call 0330 333 6846. (Free UK p&p over £10, online orders only; phone orders £1.99 minimum p&p.)LGBT activists have a new public enemy number 1: Jordan B. Peterson. Peterson is a professor of psychology at the University of Toronto (formerly at Harvard). Peterson insists on choosing his own words (how tyrannical!) and objects to legislation forcing people to refer to LGBT individuals by their chosen pronouns. This is damnable heresy, and activists must denounce him as a "bigot."
"Careless, ideologically-addled legislators are forcing us to use words we did not freely choose," Peterson declared in an op-ed for The Hill. The Canadian professor admitted that there are reasonable restrictions on free speech — like prohibiting yelling "fire!" in a crowded room. "There is, however, a crucial difference between laws that stop people from saying arguably dangerous words and laws that mandate the use of politically-approved words and phrases."
In other words, Peterson objects to any law forcing people to speak in certain ways. This is a more dangerous limit on freedom than prohibiting a few dangerous forms of speech.
Naturally, social justice warriors (SWJs) can't stand for this. Mobs have gathered to protest his arguments for free speech. At a University of Toronto protest earlier this month, SJWs chanted, "Shame! Shame!" as Peterson attempted to speak. A pair of women (or, should I say womyn?) tampered with a speaker to drown out his words. He was swarmed a day later by queer (their word) and transgender people, who attacked him for refusing to refer to a person as "they/them" as "a matter of respect."
Peterson is protesting the Canadian Bill C-16, which on first reading seems reasonable enough. It would amend the Canadian Human Rights Act and the Criminal Code to add "gender identity or expression" to the list of protected classes. So what's the problem? "Discrimination" on the basis of "gender identity or expression" includes "misgendering" people — i.e. referring to them with the "wrong" gender pronoun.
If you want to see what this looks like, the Big Apple provides an example. In May, the New York City Commission on Human Rights declared that refusing to refer to someone by their preferred gender pronoun (from "him and her" to "ze, xe, hir," and many others) is "harassment" and punishable by "civil penalties up to $125,000 for violations, and up to $250,000 for violations that are the result of willful, wanton, or malicious conduct."
HeatStreet published a hilarious video showing just how misunderstood many of the officially protected gender identity terms are (and by extension, how difficult it would be to keep track of everyone's different pronouns). Or, at least, it's hilarious unless you live in the Big Apple and can be fined up to $250,000 for not using one of these words to refer to a particular individual. This is not just arbitrary, it can be quite oppressive.
Next Page: Why the "PC Game" is actually just a bid for power.
That's Peterson's argument. He explains that "gender-neutral" pronouns are just part of the "PC Game." Here's how it works:
First, you identify a domain of human endeavor. It could be the wealth of people within a society. It could be the psychological well-being of individuals within a given organization. It could be the prowess of school children at a particular sport. Second, you note the inevitable continuum of success. Some people are richer or happier than others. Some children are better at playing volleyball. Third, you define those doing comparatively better as oppressors of those doing comparatively worse. Fourth, and finally, you declare solidarity with the latter, and enmity for the former (now all-too-convenient targets for your resentment and hatred).
"You have now established your moral superiority, cost-free, and can trumpet it at will," Peterson concludes. The game is less about achieving justice than creating a position of power, from which you can dictate the actions — and the words — of others.
"We shouldn't reduce complex, uncertain issues to a one-size-fits-all formula," Peterson explains. "Instead, we should think things through carefully, using words of our own choice. It's a free speech issue, in its essence."
Freedom of speech isn't just about being able to say what you think. It is the bedrock of a free society. "Freedom of speech protects our societies from shipwreck on the Scylla of tyranny and the Charybdis of nihilism and despair," Peterson wrote. It enables citizens to come to the basic agreement necessary for civilization.
Contrary to SJW claims, this Canadian professor is not a "bigot" or a "hater." He is trying to safeguard the essential framework of society. "There is nothing in the absence of freedom of speech but tyranny and slavery," he wrote.
Next Page: Why do you have the authority to determine what you say?!
But SJWs refuse to understand this criticism. To them, a refusal to call each special snowflake by his/her/hir/ze's special pronouns is tantamount to abuse. The problem with this should be obvious to linguists. As Peterson declared to one of the mobs, "Pronouns turn out to be very difficult to change — they're a closed linguistic category."
A protester asked Peterson to refer to him (?) as "they/them" as a matter of respect, but "they" is a plural pronoun, not a singular one. If people use it to describe singular individuals who cannot decide what gender they are, the word will lose meaning and be less useful for expressing ideas. Conventions of language exist for a reason — the majority of people are either male or female, and the linguistic pattern fits that.
If transgender people ask to be referred to as the gender with which they identify, that's one thing. It's false to their DNA, but it makes sense to call a biological male who identifies as a woman as "her" out of respect. What does not make sense is to twist the nature of language to refer to someone who identifies as gender anormal as "they." You do not become plural just by rejecting your birth gender.
The scary thing is, SJWs not only request that people conform their language to their feelings — they also support laws which enforce this idea.
When Peterson decided not to refer to a singular, gender confused person as "they," a protester declared, "Why do you have the authority...?" To which the professor responded, "Why do I have the authority to determine what I say?! What kind of question is that?!" What kind of question, indeed.
Watch the videos on the next page.
Peterson has his own YouTube channel, but here are a few videos of his interactions on the University of Toronto campus.David R. Widman, a professor of psychology at Juniata College in Huntingdon, Pa., said in an interview that paper maps, with their foldout pages, offer a better overview of where you are headed than the small screens of smartphones.
He recalled that during a trip his family took from central Pennsylvania to Vermont, the GPS device never made it clear that they would have to cross Lake Champlain. The trip ended up taking 11 hours.
“The GPS is as likely to get you to where you want to go as it is to get you lost,” he said.
Take different routes to the same place
Mr. Citrin said that when traffic is bad, he takes a different route even if it takes longer.
“As my mind begins to understand that option, I increase my awareness of how going in different directions helps me get to where I am going,” he said.
Figure out where north is
Sue Barry, professor emeritus of biological sciences and neuroscience at Mount Holyoke College in South Hadley, Mass., said in an interview that her sense of direction was “really quite pathetic.” She understood what was at her point of origin and what was at her destination, but had no understanding of what was in between or how the two points related to each other.
Her husband, Dan, an engineer, was inspired by a 2007 article in Wired magazine that described the “feelSpace belt,” which was outfitted with a power supply and 13 vibrating pads. A sensor detected Earth’s magnetic field, and whichever pad pointed north would buzz to alert the person wearing the belt.Grey’s Anatomy star Sara Ramirez — whose character mended fences with her ex-wife with an eye toward leaving for New York during Thursday’s season 12 finale – is leaving the show, EW has learned.
At a time when most of the core cast is renegotiating their contracts on the long-running drama, Ramirez announced Thursday that she’s “taking some welcome time off” from playing Dr. Callie Torres. Her deal on the show, which she joined in season 2, ends this month.
“I’m deeply grateful to have spent the last 10 years with my family at Grey’s Anatomy and ABC, but for now I’m taking some welcome time off,” said Ramirez in a statement. “Shonda’s been so incredible to work for, and we will definitely continue our conversations! I send my love to Ellen, the rest of the cast and crew, and I look forward to always being a part of the Shondaland family!”
Creator Shonda Rhimes also released a goodbye note: “Dr. Callie Torres came into our lives dancing it out in her underwear almost a decade ago, and I could not be happier or more proud of her journey. Sara Ramirez’s performance inspired me as well as millions of fans each week. We wish her the best on her well-deserved time off. I will miss Callie tremendously, but am excited for what the future holds for Sara. She will always have a home at Shondaland.”
Ramirez also has the support of her Grey‘s costar Jessica Capshaw (Arizona Robbins), who tweeted about the departure Monday. “Congrats on 10 incredible years! I wish @SaraRamirez the very best & I celebrate what Callie has given to all of us,” she wrote.
Congrats on 10 incredible years! I wish @SaraRamirez the very best & I celebrate what Callie has given to all of us. https://t.co/JAR9VF0uVP — Jessica Capshaw (@JessicaCapshaw) May 23, 2016
In April, Ramirez prompted speculation about her future on ABC’s most-watched drama when she posted a cryptic tweet on her last day on the set. “That’s a wrap for Doctor #CallieTorrries #Season13 #Grey’s Anatomy,” she wrote. “Thank you all for an enriching & unforgettable #rollercoaster ride!”
RELATED: Grey’s Anatomy: 17 of Callie Torres’ Best Moments
The news of her departure comes at time when five of her costars — Ellen Pompeo, Chandra Wilson, Justin Chambers, James Pickens Jr., and Kevin McKidd — are also renegotiating their contracts.
When she first joined the show, Ramirez was introduced as an orthopedic surgeon and initial love interest for George O’Malley (T. R. Knight). Callie went on to explore relationships with women, becoming a beacon of hope for the LGBT community as a bisexual character. Callie eventually had Mark Sloan’s (Eric Dane) baby and married (and then divorced) Arizona (Jessica Capshaw) before dating Penny (Samantha Sloyan), who scored a grant that took her to the East Coast — resulting in an emotional custody battle and subsequent breakup.
During Thursday’s season finale, Arizona saw how much her ex-wife Callie was struggling in the wake of losing both her daughter and her girlfriend, so she offered joint custody and bought her plane tickets to New York. They had done this wrong, Arizona said; both of Sofia’s |
Dustin Phelps changed text:
False Claim #1) Joseph Smith’s Polygamy is “Warren Jeffs territory” Look. Polygamy is a difficult subject for many of us—even if the Prophets of old practiced it too. But what makes it difficult to move forward with faith is the possibility that Joseph introduced polygamy—not because of revelation but out of a desire to satisfy lustful feelings. Some people worry that maybe Joseph practiced polygamy in the same way that Warren Jeffs did: with unrestrained lust and insatiable sexual appetite. This insinuation is common in anti-Mormon literature. And the particular document that we are discussing openly claims that Joseph Smith’s history is “Warren Jeffs territory.” But is that claim at all true?
But what did Jeremy actually write? On page 31 of the CES Letter, we find,
One of the things that really disturbed me in my research was discovering the real origins of polygamy and how Joseph Smith really practiced it. Joseph Smith was married to at least 34 women. Polyandry: Of those 34 women, 11 of them were married women of other living men. Among them being Apostle Orson Hyde who was sent on his mission to dedicate Israel when Joseph secretly married his wife, Marinda Hyde. Church historian Elder Marlin K. Jensen and unofficial apologists like FairMormon do not dispute the polyandry. The Church now admits the polyandry in its October 2014 Plural Marriage in Kirtland and Nauvoo essay. Out of the 34 women, 7 of them were teenage girls as young as 14-years-old. Joseph was 37-years-old when he married 14-year-old Helen Mar Kimball, twenty-three years his junior. Even by 19th century standards, this was shocking. The Church now admits that Joseph Smith married Helen Mar Kimball “several months before her 15th birthday” in its October 2014 Plural Marriage in Kirtland and Nauvoo essay. Among the women was a mother-daughter set and three sister sets. Several of these women included Joseph’s own foster daughters. Some of the marriages to these women included promises by Joseph of eternal life to the girls and their families, threats of loss of salvation, and threats that he (Joseph) was going to be slain by an angel with a drawn sword if the girls didn’t marry him.
Every bit of this is true. So really, what Dustin Phelps has a problem with is Jeremy characterizing what Joseph Smith did as “Warren Jeffs territory”. This is something the individual must decide. But is this a false claim? No. It’s an opinion. The Rolling Stone wrote this about Jeffs:
The ambitious, twisted son of the previous FLDS prophet, Jeffs took control and became obsessed with the idea of “perfect obedience.” He started kicking people out of Short Creek that he deemed sinners: young men who came to be known as Lost Boys, teenage girls he considered too rebellious and men no longer “worthy of priesthood,” reassigning their wives and children to loyalists he felt he could trust. Beginning in 2002, he came under investigation for child rape in Utah. He then began evading authorities while marrying off teenage girls to the sect’s leadership. He also ordered the construction of a new FLDS compound, the Yearning for Zion ranch, in the West Texas desert. In May 2006, he landed on the FBI’s 10 most-wanted list for multiple counts of sexually assaulting minors, and went on the run with his favorite wife, Naomi (code name: 91). With the help of Jessop, who ran the church’s security force – called the God Squad by detractors – Jeffs communicated through coded letters and burner phones and shuttled between the church’s “houses of hiding” scattered throughout the West (in particular, he often visited his favored brides at the compound in Texas). In August 2006, he was arrested during a routine traffic stop on the outskirts of Las Vegas, carrying 16 cellphones, three wigs and $56,000 in cash in the lining of a suitcase.
Joseph Smith declared and had himself ordained a king in Nauvoo. He “married” multiple teenaged girls, some as young as fourteen. He discarded women when being “married” to them was no longer in his best interest after having sex with them. As for “perfect obedience”, this is what Joseph Smith was reported to have said in Kirtland in 1836, that,
After that dedication [of the Kirtland Temple] the Mormons organized what they termed “the school of prophets.” A revelation prior to that time had given Oliver Cowdery the privilege of nominating the twelve apostles of the Church. About the time of this organization there was a good deal of scandal prevalent among a number of the Saints concerning Joseph’s licentious conduct, this more especially among the women. Joseph’s name was then connected with scandalous relations with two or three families. Apparently to counteract this he came out and made a statement in the Temple, before a general congregation that he was authorized by God Almighty to establish His Kingdom — that he was God’s prophet and God’s agent, and that he could do whatever he should choose to do, therefore the Church had NO RIGHT TO CALL INTO QUESTION Anything he did, or to censure him, for the reason that he was responsible to God Almighty only. This promulgation created a great sensation — a schism occurred and a large portion of the first membership, including the best talent of the Church, at once withdrew from it. This was during the summer of 1836. (Benjamin Winchester, Primitive Mormonism, The Salt Lake City Daily Tribune, September 22, 1889).
What Phelps does here can be characterized as the classic “bait and switch”. He claims that this is all about Joseph having “unrestrained lust and insatiable sexual appetite”. Yet, this is not what Jeremy claims at all. The fact is, we do not know how often Joseph had sex with his plural wives. If the testimony of Emily Partridge and Malissa Lott count for anything to Phelps, they claimed that they had sex with Smith on multiple occasions. Malissa Lott testified,
Q. I asked you how many times you had roomed there in that house with Joseph Smith? I do not expect you to answer positively the exact number of times, but I would like to have you tell us the number of times as nearly as you can remember it? A. Well I can’t tell you. I think I have acted the part of a lady in answering your questions as well as I have, and I don’t think you are acting the part of a gentleman in asking me these questions. Q. Well I will ask you the questions over again in this form,—was it more than twice? A. Yes sir.
R. C. Evans, who was in the Presidency of the Reorganized Church interviewed the brother of Joseph F. Smith, (Patriarch John Smith) a nephew of Joseph Smith and while there his wife Helen told him that “Malissa Lott … said Joseph … desired her to have a child by him.”
Lott herself, when questioned about her lack of a pregnancy by Joseph answered it was,
Through no fault of either of us, lack of proper conditions on my part probably, or it might be in the wisdom of the Almighty that we should have none. The Prophet was martyred nine months after our marriage.
Emily Partridge testified,
Q. Did you ever have carnal intercourse with Joseph Smith? A. Yes sir. Q. How many nights? A. I could not tell you. Q. Do you make the declaration that you ever slept with him but one night? A. Yes sir. Q. And that was the only time and place that you ever were in bed with him? A. No sir.
This is only two of Joseph Smith’s wives. Even they were baffled as to why they never got pregnant. To claim that Joseph just never had sex with his wives, or that he chose to “limit such relations” is ridiculous and ignores the actual evidence. According to Emily Partridge, she did not know why she got pregnant by Brigham Young and not by Joseph Smith:
Q. You were married to Brigham Young by the law of proxy? A. Yes sir. Q. And while married to Brigham Young by the law of proxy you had children? A. Yes sir. Q. You had children by Brigham Young? A. Yes sir. Q. Then the law of proxy, -marriage by the law of proxy will raise children, while marriage by the law of the church will not? Is that it? A. I don’t understand your question? Q. My question is this, -that when you were married by the law of proxy you had children? A. Yes sir. Q. And when married under the law of the church you did not raise children? A. I did not have any, but I don’t know that that had any thing to do with it, for I might have had children married that way as well as under any other marriage relation. Q. But you did not have any when you were married to Joseph Smith A. No sir. Q. You did by Brigham Young though when you were married to him by proxy? A. Yes sir, but that did not have any thing to do with it. (395-402)’
Phelps makes the claim that “whatever intimate relations may have occurred—they were pretty close to non-existent,” but has absolutely no evidence to back up that assertion. He links to an article by Brian Hales that is full of his own speculations and apologetic mumbo jumbo. But one thing that is certain and Brian Hales admits this himself in the very article that Phelps links to:
It is impossible to accurately determine how often Joseph Smith spent time with his plural wives, either in conjugal visits or otherwise.
I can go one step further and with absolute confidence say that it is impossible to determine AT ALL, how often Smith spent time with his spiritual wives or had sex with them. Speculating about it is simply ridiculous, but this is what Hales, FAIRMORMON and Dustin Phelps do, because they will not admit that there was no teaching or evidence that anyone who was in a polygamous relationship could not have sex with the woman he was married to. So calling them “non-sexual eternity only sealings” is simply Brian Hales wishful thinking, extremely irresponsible and has no evidentary basis at all, except from late anonymous recollections and notes by Andrew Jenson who lied in his publication The Historical Record when it suited him.
What really surprised me though, was Phelps original statement:
Polygamy is not what really bothers anyone.
Huh? Polygamy doesn’t bother anyone? I beg to differ and most likely, Phelps got some blowback on this because he then changed his blog entry to read:
Look. Polygamy is a difficult subject for many of us—even if the Prophets of old practiced it too.
So which is it? It doesn’t bother anyone including Dustin Phelps? Or it is a difficult subject for many of us (including Phelps). Do you get the feeling that Phelps will just say anything to defend the church? Why then would he flip flop on this? Or is he mentally challenged and can’t make up his mind what he believes? Is this anyone you want helping you in times of crisis? Does he really have any answers and is he qualified to give you the historical truth? He doesn’t seem to know what it is. Do we really need more FAIRMORMON Repackaged? If you are having a crisis of faith, do you really need FAIRMORMON Repackaged? Wouldn’t you rather speak to qualified historians, or your Bishop, or research things for yourself and then make up your mind what to do? This was in fact what Jeremy Runnells was originally trying to do.
Another example that Phelps gives of Jeremy’s “lying” is the following:
3) “there were major [changes to the Book of Mormon that] reflect Joseph’s evolved view of the Godhead.”
Jeremy actually wrote,
The Book of Mormon taught and still teaches a Trinitarian view of the Godhead. Joseph Smith’s early theology also held this view. As part of the over 100,000 changes to the Book of Mormon, there were major changes made to reflect Joseph’s evolved view of the Godhead. (CES, 17)
Talk about context. He doesn’t once cite where he is getting his quotes from in the CES Letter. I find that odd. So how is Jeremy Runnells lying here? This is Dustin Phelps tortured logic:
As part of these changes, Joseph prepared an 1837 edition of the Book of Mormon that fixed some typos and included a few clarifications.
Ok, but they are still CHANGES. So all his blathering about punctuation is just a red herring. But here is what he says about what Jeremy calls “major changes”:
One of those minor adjustments has really excited anti-Mormons over the years. Why? Because if you remove the relevant context and place it in just the right light, it appears much more controversial than it really is. So, here’s the change: There are four places where Joseph Smith added “Son of” to the 1837 edition of the Book of Mormon. These are places where Jesus Christ was initially referred to as “God” or “the Eternal Father” but were adjusted to read “Son of God” and “Son of the Eternal Father.”
Dustin blathers on about verses that do nothing to prove his point and this has been addressed in Jeremy Runnells response to Dustin, found here.
As far as the Trinity in Mormonism, there is some simple evidence to prove that this was taught in the early church. In the same year that Joseph penned his first account of his claimed First Vision (1832), we find this amazing commentary written in the Evening And Morning Star, under the title of ‘The Excellence of Scripture’:
“Through Christ we understand the terms on which God will show favour and grace to the world, and by him we have ground of a PARRESIA access with freedom and boldness unto God. On his account we may hope not only for grace to subdue our sins, resist temptations, conquer the devil and the world; but having ’fought this good fight, and finished our course by patient continuance in well doing, we may justly look for glory, honor, and immortality,’ and that ‘crown of righteousness which is laid up for those who wait in faith,’ holiness, and humility, for the appearance of Christ from heaven. Now what things can there be of greater moment and importance for men to know, or God to reveal, than the nature of God and ourselves the state and condition of our souls, the only way to avoid eternal misery and enjoy everlasting bliss! “The Scriptures discover not only matters of importance, but of the greatest depth and mysteriousness. There are many wonderful things in the law of God, things we may admire, but are never able to comprehend. Such are the eternal purposes and decrees of God, THE DOCTRINE OF THE TRINITY, the incarnation of the Son of God, and the manner of the operation of the Spirit of God upon the souls of men, which are all things of great weight and moment for us to understand and believe that they are, and yet may be unsearchable to our reason, as to the particular manner of them.” (The Evening And Morning Star, Vol. I, INDEPENDENCE, MO. JULY, 1832. No. 2. page 12, emphasis mine)
When one considers the Book of Mormon teaching, and looks at the Lectures on Faith, which were published in the 1835 Doctrine and Covenants and voted on as binding doctrine by the Church, one can see the striking similarities and his change from Monotheism to Modalism. Take this verse from 1st Nephi:
“And he said unto me, Behold, the virgin whom thou seest is the mother of God, after the manner of the flesh.”
Now compare this to Lecture Fifth, from the Lectures on Faith:
“There are two personages who constitute the great, matchless, governing and supreme power overall things…They are the Father and the Son: The Father being a personage of spirit, glory and power: possessing all perfection and fulness: The Son, who was in the bosom of the Father, a personage of tabernacle, made, or fashioned like unto man, or being in the form and likeness of man, or, rather, man was formed after his likeness, and in his image;–he is also the express image and likeness of the personage of the Father: possessing all the fulness of the Father, or, the same fulness with the Father; being begotten of him, and was ordained from before the foundation of the world to be a propitiation for the sins of all those who should believe on his name, and is called the Son because of the flesh.” (Lectures on Faith, 5:2, emphasis mine)
In the questions and answers, at the end of each lecture, we find clarification:
What is the Father?
He is a personage of glory and of power. (5:2.)
What is the Son?
First, he is a personage of tabernacle. (5:2.)…
Why was he called the Son?
Because of the flesh.
Do the Father and the Son possess the same mind?
They do.
What is this mind?
The Holy Spirit.
Thomas G. Alexander, writing for Sunstone in July of 1980 explained that,
“The Lectures on Faith differentiated between the Father and Son somewhat more explicitly, but even they did not define a materialistic, tritheistic Godhead. In announcing the publication of the Doctrine and Covenants which included the Lectures on Faith, the Messenger and Advocate commented editorially that it trusted the volume would give ‘the churches abroad…a perfect understanding of the doctrine believed by this society.’ The Lectures declared that ‘there are two personages who constitute the great matchless, governing and supreme power over all things–by whom all things were created and made.’ They are ‘the Father being a personage of spirit,’ and ‘the Son, who was in the bosom of the Father, a personage of tabernacle, made, or fashioned like unto man, or being in the form and likeness of man, or, rather, man was formed after his likeness, and in his image.’ The ‘Articles and Covenants’ called the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost ‘one God’ rather than the Godhead, a term which Mormons generally use today to separate themselves from trinitarians.” (Sunstone 5:4/26 (Jul 80), emphasis mine)
In his “translation” of the Bible, sometimes called The Inspired Version (completed in 1833), Joseph Smith changed some verses in the New Testament to reflect his early Monotheistic teachings:
KJV: All things are delivered to me of my Father: and no man knoweth who the Son is, but the Father; and who the Father is, but the Son, and he to whom the Son will reveal him.(Luke 10:22) JST: All things are delivered to me of my Father; and no man knoweth that the Son is the Father, and the Father is the Son, but him to whom the Son will reveal it.(Luke 10:22
For a time, it seems, Joseph Smith was a Monotheist, and Mormons agreed with the Christian Trinity doctrine. Monotheism, (identified as the doctrine of the Trinity in light of New Testament revelation) is what is taught in the Bible, the most clearly in Isaiah 44:6-8:
“Thus saith the LORD the King of Israel, and his redeemer, the LORD of hosts; I am the first, and I am the last; and beside me there is no God. Is there a God beside me? yea, there is no God; I know not any.”
For more on Smith’s early teachings on the Godhead, See Ronald V. Huggins article, Joseph Smith’s Modalism: Sabellian Sequentialism or Swedenborgian Expansionism?
Dustin Phelps also claims that Jeremy is “lying” about this:
2) “Many Book of Mormon names and places are strikingly similar to local names and places of the region [where] Joseph Smith lived.”
Dustin claims:
The author of this infamous anti-Mormon document provides a map of the cities and towns where Joseph grew up and then compares them to a proposed map of Book of Mormon geography. He also compares these place names in a table. He argues that the similarities are too powerful to ascribe to mere coincidence. And it’s not just that he’s telling people to think that. The way he constructs the comparisons makes it seem as though that is the natural conclusion. But here’s what countless misled readers do not know: Several of the towns on this author’s list were not even in existence at the printing of the Book of Mormon. Other locations were remote villages hundreds of miles away in places like Canada—hardly the land of Joseph’s youth.[9] Plus, almost half of the names or locations are also found in the Bible—including Biblical names that few are aware of such as Lehi, Boaz, Ramah, and Sidon. But you know what? As ridiculous as this claim may seem, it is also one of the most emotionally impactful parts of the whole document. Why? Because it starts to paint a picture in your mind of how Joseph Smith might have invented the Book of Mormon. The author is trying to achieve the impossible: make a Book of Mormon fraud seem believable.
All of Dustin’s links go to FAIRMORMON. This section is no different. He offers the link as proof for his statement that “several of the towns … were not even in existence at the printing of the Book of Mormon.
At FAIRMORMON, they quibble about where these locations are in the Book of Mormon. Was one north of the other or south of the other, etc. This is irrelevant. What about the names? Let’s take just one example. They write,
Holley points out that the present day city of Angola, New York is a possible match for a Book of Mormon location. He notes the location of the city on “modern maps”. Holley states, The present day city of Angola, New York, is located west of the Genesee (Sidon?) River and south [“in the borders”] of the proposed land of Zarahemla. This is another example of the many actual locations in the Great Lakes area that can be located on modern maps by following geographical information in the Book of Mormon. [4] However, when one looks up the Wikipedia entry for Angola, New York, it becomes evident that the name “Angola” was not established until approximately 1854, twenty-four years after the Book of Mormon was published. Wikipedia notes, The community was previously called “Evans Station.” In 1854 or 1855, a post office was established there, bearing the name Angola. [5]
Actually, FAIRMORMON is wrong. I happen to live in Upstate New York, and I know a little bit more about the history of this area. The Post Office in Angola was there before 1830:
The first town meeting for the town of Collins was held on June 9, 1821, a few weeks after the formation of the county. There was then no post-office in the town, but in 1822 one was established at Taylor’s Hollow, and a mail route opened through Eden to that point. THE OFFICE WAS NAMED ANGOLA and Jacob Taylor was appointed postmaster, a position which he held as late as 1840. This office was subsequently abandoned and the name given to one in the town of Evans. (Our County and It’s People: A Descriptive Wo.rk on Erie County, New York, Volume 1, 348, emphasis mine).
I’ve been to Taylor’s Hollow and Eden many times. Unless one knows the local history, they would not be aware that the Angola Post Office was there in 1822.
What is the Etymology for the word “Angola”?
The name Angola comes from the Portuguese colonial name Reino de Angola (Kingdom of Angola), appearing as early as Dias de Novais’s 1571 charter. The toponym was derived by the Portuguese from the title ngola held by the kings of Ndongo.
How in the world did this word get on to the gold plates in 400 A.D.? It didn’t. It was a Post Office a hundred miles from Smith’s house. And according to the 1826 examination minutes, Joseph Smith claimed to have gone to that area of New York:
Mr. [Joseph] Smith [Jr.] was fully examined by the Court. It elicited little but a history of his life from early boyhood, but this is so unique in character, and so much of a key-note to his subsequent career in the world, I am tempted to give it somewhat in extenso. He said when he was a lad, he heard of a neighboring girl some three miles from him, who could look into a glass and see anything however hidden from others; that he was seized with a strong desire to see her and her glass; that after much effort he induced his parents to let him visit her. He did so, and was permitted to look in the glass, which was placed in a hat to exclude the light. He was greatly surprised to see but one thing, which was a small stone, a great way off. It soon became luminous, and dazzled his eyes, and after a short time it became as intense as the mid-day sun. He said that the stone was under the roots of a tree or shrub as large as his arm, situated about a mile up a small stream that puts in on the South side of Lake Erie, not far from the Now York and Pennsylvania line. He often had an opportunity to look in the glass, and with the same result. The luminous stone alone attracted his attention. This singular circumstance occupied his mind for some years, when he left his father’s house, and with his youthful zeal traveled west in search of this luminous stone. He took a few shillings in money and some provisions with him. He stopped on the road with a farmer, and worked three days, and replenished his means of support. After traveling some one hundred and fifty miles he found himself at the mouth of the creek. He did not have the glass with him, but he knew its exact location. He borrowed an old ax and a hoe, and repaired to the tree. With some labor and exertion he found the stone, carried it to the creek, washed and wiped it dry, sat down on the bank, placed it in his hat, and discovered that time, place and distance were annihilated; that all intervening obstacles were removed, and that he possessed one of the attributes of Deity, an All-Seeing-Eye. He arose with a thankful heart, carried his tools to their owner, turned his feet towards the rising sun, and sought with weary limbs his long deserted home. On the request of the Court, he exhibited the stone. It was about the size of a small hen’s egg, in the shape of a high-instepped shoe. It was composed of layers of different colors passing diagonally through it. It was very hard and smooth, perhaps by being carried in the pocket.” http://richkelsey.org/1826_trial_testimonies.htm
So, what are we to make of this? Did Vernal Holley have a point to make about the Book of Mormon names? Absolutely. But since he is dead, we cannot know where he got his research from, so it is up to others to dig into this and find out, as I did with Angola. Knowing this, is it really so impossible that the Book of Mormon is a fraud? I’ll let you decide, readers.
Dustin then tries to tackle the claimed “First Vision” problems and writes,
False Claim #4: Joseph wrote four contradicting versions of the First Vision This claim is very misleading. Here are the facts: First, as we would expect, Joseph told the story of the 1st vision on multiple occasions. Second, because each account is conveyed to a different audience and for a different purpose, Joseph focuses on different details of the experience in each account. What would really be weird is if he robotically gave the exact same, seemingly rehearsed account, every time he was asked. Instead, every time he tells of the First Vision experience, it is from a new angle, revealing an experience that is panoramic and authentic. Contrary to the author’s assertion, the accounts do not contradict each other—they enrich one another. And they are on display in the Church’s history museum and were published by the Church over 50 years ago (shortly after the History Department discovered them). Click here to study each account for yourself on the Church’s website. And consider the following: Paul and Alma the Younger also retell their transformative spiritual experiences on multiple occasions—to different audiences and with different purposes. Each of their accounts differ on what they emphasize and include new details, but ultimately they in no way contradict each other. Just like with Joseph’s First Vision accounts, each perspective adds rich depth and power to their experiences. And let’s not forget that overtime we all tend to reinterpret and recontextualize our past experiences which may lead us to focus on different themes of the same experience at different times.
This is simply apologetic mumbo-jumbo and does not address the real problems that Jeremy brings up in the CES Letter. I have addressed many of these myself here, in answer to Kevin Christensen’s (another FAIRMORMON apologist) rants against Jeremy.
The other claims that I haven’t addressed here Jeremy has answered well, and I doubt there will be any kind of reasoned, logical response from “Happiness Seekers”.
CONCLUSION
I’ll simply quote what Jeremy wrote to Dustin which seems an apt conclusion to his bizarre rant against “he who must not be named”:
In case you haven’t noticed by now, Dustin skips a lot of things. Dustin ignores a lot of details. Dustin ignores a lot of contradictions. Dustin wants you to look at this tree over there while keeping your eyes and attention away from the forest of problems. Mormon apologists do not want you to see the forest. This is why they hate the CES Letter and me so much. This is why I am now the Mormon “He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named” with a “You-Know-What-Letter”. I show you the entire forest with just 2-hours of reading (what used to take people in the past, weeks and months to accomplish the same thing on their own). Instead of 1-5 problems that they can contain for a member awakening to the LDS Church’s truth crisis, they have to address 80-pages worth of problems they wish you didn’t know about. They want you to stay lost in the trees focusing on one tree at a time within the unreliable and unsupportable lens of “faith.”A 63-year-old man remained jailed on a felony weapons charge after an hours-long standoff with police and a SWAT team that prompted evacuations of several nearby homes Friday evening in Northwest Lubbock.
Billy Bruce French was being held in the Lubbock County Detention Center on a charge of felon in a possession of a firearm following the standoff that ended just before 10:30 p.m. Friday in the 400 block of Juneau Avenue, according to Lubbock police spokeswoman Kasie Whitley.
The standoff came after police responded about 5:45 p.m. to a reported domestic disturbance in the 400 block of Juneau Avenue.
French’s bond was set at $3,000 and additional charges could follow.
Officers found French walking in an alley behind his residence with a handgun in his possession, police said.
"After ignoring officers commands to drop the weapon, French then went back inside the residence, with the handgun still in his possession, prompting officers to believe he was a threat to the public," Whitley said in a statement.
Two other residents who were in the house when French first entered were able to leave shortly after and told police they believed French was suicidal and had access to other weapons in the house, according to police.
"Due to those combining factors, the decision to call out the Lubbock SWAT Team was made shortly after 7 p.m., with members arriving at 7:15 p.m.," Whitley said. "Through the process, due to the concern that French was considered a danger to the public, officers evacuated houses nearby to ensure the public’s safety."
Through the evening, police negotiators worked to ensure a peaceful ending, which came about 10:25 p.m. when French exited the house and surrendered to officers without incident, police said.
"Once French was taken into custody, SWAT members then cleared the residence to ensure the area was safe," Whitley said. "Once that process was complete, residents who were evacuated from their houses, were able to return."
No injuries were reported and the incident remained under investigation Saturday.If you build it, will they come? That is the question that Kevin Harrington's two ventures � Neuron Robotics and Technocopia � raise in my mind.
Neuron Robotics is a for-profit operation at 99 Prescott St. in Worcester, that Mr. Harrington hopes will ultimately sell what he calls "a control system framework." But before reaching that point, Neuron Robotics is making its control software available to potential users for free � otherwise known as "open source."
People who want to test out how well the software works can use it to control three machines that Neuron Robotics is running at its Prescott Street office: a CNC router, which is a computer controlled shaping machine used to make furniture and shape plastic; a laser cutter; and a 3D printer.
The most amazing sounding thing about Neuron Robotics is that its machines are building their replacements. According to Mr. Harrington, "With the exception of its vitamins � [nuts and bolts that Neuron Robotics purchases from other manufacturers] � the CNC router is building all its unique parts; the laser cutter made the 3D printer; and the 3D printer is in the process of replacing itself."
Since they are difficult to customize, Mr. Harrington does not want Neuron Robotics to be a 3D printer manufacturer in the long run, although he is not averse to the idea of selling some of them if someone asked.
He would sell the 3D printers at a very competitive price with a much bigger print area, though. He said, "Neuron Robotics will use crowd-funding platform, Kickstarter, to raise the money to build a $300 3D printer with a print area in the shape of a 16-inch-tall cylinder with an eight inch circumference � a much bigger print area than the typical $300 3D printer, the Printbot Simple, that prints in a four-inch cube."
However, Mr. Harrington ultimately wants the 3D printer to attract people who want to purchase Neuron Robotics' control system framework. And he intends to use a low price to attract customers. As he said, "The 3D printers will supply potential customers with proof that our control framework is effective. Then we will sell our control system framework for $65 � [much less expensive than the competing] stepper motor priced at $240."
At the same time, Mr. Harrington, a WPI graduate, has launched Technocopia, which he describes as a non-profit that will be like a "gym membership for prototyping business ideas that have to be manufactured � instead of coded (like an app)."
As Mr. Harrington said, "Technocopia is hacker space and people can use it for $125 a month. The first 50 people to sign up get a $50 a month discount. For that, they will get access to our hand tools, work stations, and machines. They will be able to build products and sell them in the marketplace. Technocopia will be the place that people come to build the prototype before the business plan and the crowd-funding."
What Mr. Harrington describes is not the typical startup. However, there is precedent for profiting from open source technology. For example, RedHat is a publicly traded company with $1.4 billion in sales, $153 million in profit and a stock market value of $10 billion that started off providing service and support to companies that used Linux, the free operating system software that was available via open source.
Nevertheless, many questions remain about whether Neuron Robotics will be able to generate sufficient revenues to sustain itself. Among these questions: Does Neuron Robotics have sufficient capital to continue its operation? Can it attract enough paying customers to get outside investors interested in funding its growth? Can Neuron Robotics take enough share of a big market opportunity to generate positive cash flow?
If I were an investor in Neuron Robotics, I would be thinking about whether the company has the right team in place. My instinct suggests that Mr. Harrington's mechanical engineering creativity is nearly off the charts. If he could find a partner with similarly outstanding business development and operations management skills, I think Neuron Robotics might discover a business model that would turn it into a growing business.
Peter Cohan of Marlboro heads a management consulting and venture capital firm, and teaches business strategy and entrepreneurship at Babson College. His email address is peter@petercohan.com.Tomgram: Engelhardt, Luck Was a Lady Last Week
Now You See Him, Now You Don’t
Living in a One-Superpower World (or Edward Snowden vs. Robert Seldon Lady)
By Tom Engelhardt
He came and he went: that was the joke that circulated in 1979 when 70-year-old former Vice President Nelson Rockefeller had a heart attack and died in his Manhattan townhouse in the presence of his evening-gown-clad 25-year-old assistant. In a sense, the same might be said of retired CIA operative Robert Seldon Lady.
Recently, Lady proved a one-day wonder. After years in absentia -- poof! -- he reappeared out of nowhere on the border between Panama and Costa Rica, and made the news when Panamanian officials took him into custody on an Interpol warrant. The CIA's station chief in Milan back in 2003, he had achieved brief notoriety for overseeing a la dolce vita version of extraordinary rendition as part of Washington’s Global War on Terror. His colleagues kidnapped Hassan Mustafa Osama Nasr, a radical Muslim cleric and terror suspect, off the streets of Milan, and rendered him via U.S. airbases in Italy and Germany to the torture chambers of Hosni Mubarak’s Egypt. Lady evidently rode shotgun on that transfer.
His Agency associates proved to be the crew that couldn’t spook straight. They left behind such a traceable trail of five-star-hotel and restaurant bills, charges on false credit cards, and unencrypted cell phone calls that the Italian government tracked them down, identified them, and charged 23 of them, Lady included, with kidnapping.
Lady fled Italy, leaving behind a multimillion-dollar villa near Tur |
of a new long-term answer at quarterback, could Carr's younger brother -- Fresno State senior Derek Carr -- be the answer?
One general manager told NFL Media insider Ian Rapoport on Wednesday he believes that Carr could be the first player selected in the 2014 NFL Draft.
Talked to a GM Tuesday who offered this: âNo QB is rising faster than Fresno St.âs Derek Carr.â Then asked: âWhat if Texans have No. 1 pick? â Ian Rapoport (@RapSheet) December 11, 2013
GM believed Carr could go 1. âHeâll blow up at the Combineâ RT @NJBeerNerd: @RapSheet they'll take Bridgewater. Carr not surpassing Teddy. â Ian Rapoport (@RapSheet) December 11, 2013
Teddy Bridgewater of Louisville has long been the presumptive favorite to be the first quarterback off the board since demolishing Florida's talented defense in the 2013 Sugar Bowl.
But concerns will linger about whether Bridgewater's slender frame he's listed at 6-foot-3, 205 pounds), can handle the punishment NFL defenses deliver, in spite of his ability to deliver the miraculous.
From a physical standpoint, Carr (6-3, 218) is more of a finished product with his sturdy frame, top-flight arm strength, and underrated mobility. His production cannot be disputed. He threw for 4,866 yards and 48 touchdowns this season to lead the FBS in both categories while guiding the Bulldogs to an 11-1 record and Mountain West Conference championship. Carr will get one more chance to bolster those credentials in the Las Vegas Bowl on Dec. 21 against a ferocious USC pass rush.
But as Rapoport asked the GM, "What if (the) Texans have (the) No. 1 pick?" Would the organization be able to separate Derek Carr the prospect from David Carr the Houston Texan washout? What about the fans?
They should be able to distinguish between the two. The Texans aren't an expansion franchise anymore, instead possessing a roster with two top receivers in stalwart Andre Johnson and standout rookie DeAndre Hopkins, an offensive line that has actually surrendered fewer sacks than the New England Patriots this season, and a loaded defense anchored by superstar defensive end J.J. Watt.
The Texans have lost their last seven games by a total of 29 points, which reflects specific breakdowns and not a glaring lack of talent like David Carr encountered.
Add Derek Carr to that nucleus and he could easily be the catalyst for an immediate turnaround, similar to what Russell Wilson offered the Seattle Seahawks and Andrew Luck the Indianapolis Colts as rookies last season.
Follow Dan Greenspan on Twitter @DanGreenspan.by
President Barack Obama has agreed to give Israel a record $38 billion in military aid over the next 10 years, cementing his legacy as the strongest financial supporter of Israel ever to occupy the White House. Obama, whom Israeli journalist Gideon Levy calls “the patron of the occupation,” increased the amount of money the U.S. provides Israel each year from $3.1 to $3.8 billion.
Although the corporate media portray the relationship between Obama and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu as chilly, Obama put his money where his heart apparently is with the unprecedented allocation of military assistance to Israel.
Netanyahu, who described the increase in U.S. monetary aid as “unprecedented” and “historic,” characterized it as “the greatest accomplishment since sliced bread,” according to Aaron David Miller, vice president of the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars. “The bond between the United States and Israel is unbreakable,” Obama declared on Sept. 21 as he shook hands on the deal with Netanyahu.
The annual $3.8 billion, more money than the U.S. gives to any other country, will fund the continuing Israeli military occupation of Palestinian lands, now in its fifth decade.
Israel exercises complete control over every aspect of Palestinian life in the West Bank, East Jerusalem and Gaza. That includes borders, airspace, ingress and egress of people and goods, and the seashore and waters off the coast of Gaza. The occupation violates fundamental human rights of the Palestinians.
Two years ago, 60 Israeli youths signed an open letter to Netanyahu announcing their refusal to serve in the Israeli military because of the dehumanization of Palestinians living under occupation. In the occupied Palestinian territories, they wrote, “human rights are violated, and acts defined under international law as war-crimes are perpetuated on a daily basis.” The signatories cited “assassinations (extrajudicial killings), the construction of settlements on occupied lands, administrative detentions, torture, collective punishment and the unequal allocation of resources such as electricity and water.”
Flavia Pansieri, former United Nations deputy high commissioner for human rights, said last yearthat human rights violations “fuel and shape the conflict” in the occupied Palestinian territories, adding, “[h]uman rights violations in the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, are both cause and consequence of the military occupation and ongoing violence, in a bitter cyclical process with wider implications for peace and security in the region.”
Israel took over the West Bank and East Jerusalem by military force in 1967 and has held it under military occupation ever since. U.N. Security Council Resolution 242, passed in 1967, refers to “the inadmissibility of the acquisition of territory by war” and calls for “withdrawal of Israel armed forces from territories occupied in the recent conflict.” Yet Israel continues to occupy the Palestinian territories it acquired in the Six-Day War between Israel and nearby Arab countries that year.
Since 1967, Israel has transferred more than half a million of its own citizens into the Palestinian territories. It persists in building Jewish settlements in the West Bank, which is occupied Palestinian territory.
But a state that is occupying territory that is not its own cannot build settlements on that territory and transfer its own citizens into them. Under Article 8.2(b)(viii) of the International Criminal Court’s Rome Statute, such action constitutes a war crime.
In criticizing Israel’s building of Jewish settlements on Palestinian lands, Secretary of State John Kerry said that since Obama was inaugurated in 2009, the number of Israelis in the West Bank and East Jerusalem has grown by 95,000, including 15,000 during the past year alone. Israel plans to build 2,400 new housing units in the settlements as it demolishes more and more Palestinian homes.
Kerry’s criticism rings hollow as the Obama administration consistently uses its veto in the Security Council to block the Palestinians’ campaign to block illegal Israeli settlements in the West Bank. Obama is reportedly considering a council resolution to set the parameters for an Israeli-Palestinian peace agreement, although the powerful pro-Israel lobby opposes such a move.
As this article is being written, the Women’s Boat to Gaza, with 13 women aboard, is sailing to Gaza to protest Israel’s blockade of what is often called the world’s largest “open-air prison.” In Gaza, 1.8 million people live on a 140-square-mile strip of land. It is one of the most densely populated areas in the world. Gazans cannot enter or leave without Israeli permission. They cannot import or export goods without Israeli permission. They cannot fish in their own waters without Israeli permission.
In July 2014, Israel invaded Gaza and killed 2,251 Palestinians, the majority of them civilians. The number of Palestinians wounded was 11,231, including 3,540 women and 3,436 children. On the Israeli side, six civilians and 67 soldiers were killed and 1,600 were injured. Tens of thousands of Palestinians lost their homes, and the infrastructure was severely damaged. Numerous schools, U.N.-sanctioned places of refuge, hospitals, ambulances and mosques were intentionally targeted by Israel.
Israel used the “Dahiya doctrine” to apply “disproportionate force” and cause “great damage and destruction to civilian property and infrastructure, and suffering to civilian populations,” as defined in the 2009 U.N. Human Rights Council (Goldstone) report. These acts constitute evidence of war crimes under Article 8 (2)(a) of the Rome Statute.
U.S. political leaders and the corporate media portray a false equivalence of firepower between Israelis and Palestinians in Gaza. But Israel’s use of force greatly exceeds that of the Palestinians.
The White House and Congress condemn the rocket fire into Israel by Hamas and the “deliberate targeting of civilians.” But Washington says Israel has a right to defend itself, justifying Israel’s bombing campaign in Gaza and blaming Hamas, while minimizing Israel’s role in creating and escalating the violence.
Israel’s overwhelming use of military force constitutes collective punishment, which is a war crime. The laws of war, also known as international humanitarian law, are primarily found in the Geneva Conventions. Article 33 of the Fourth Geneva Convention, to which Israel is a party, specifically forbids collective punishment. It says, “No protected person [civilian] may be punished for an offense he or she has not personally committed. … Reprisals against protected persons and their property are prohibited.”
The U.N. secretary-general characterized Israel’s blockade of Gaza as “a continuing collective penalty against the population of Gaza.”
“Israel is able to act with utter impunity because of the military, economic and political support it receives from governments around the world,” according to Zaid Shuaibi, a spokesman for the Palestinian BDS (Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions) National Committee. Israel would be unable to carry out its policies of aggression in Gaza without the support of the United States.
Actress Lisa Gay Hamilton, who is on the Women’s Boat to Gaza, wrote, “I’m here because I’m concerned about the effects of war and blockade on the women, as schools, hospitals, and homes have been periodically destroyed and sources of power and water compromised. … I’m here because my president just increased U.S. military aid to Israel from $3.1 to $3.8 billion per year over the next 10 years, with … no mention of the situation in Gaza.”
Fifty-seven percent of Democrats and 40 percent of Republicans think the increase in military aid to Israel is too high.
Hundreds of Israeli officials, intellectuals and artists signed an open letter to Jews worldwide to oppose the occupation. The 470 signatories, including high-ranking officers of the Israel Defense Forces, ambassadors, ministers, high government officials and members of the Knesset, wrote: “The prolonged occupation is inherently oppressive for Palestinians and fuels mutual bloodshed. It undermines the moral and democratic fabric of the state of Israel and hurts its standing in the community of nations.”
In his Sept. 20 farewell speech to the U.N. General Assembly, Obama appeared to oppose Israel’s permanent occupation and settlements, saying, “Surely Israelis and Palestinians will be better off if Palestinians reject incitement and recognize the legitimacy of Israel … (and if) Israel recognizes that it cannot permanently occupy and settle Palestinian land.”
But Obama’s actions speak louder than his words. Although he has the power to condition U.S. aid to Israel on ending the occupation and ceasing construction of Jewish settlements on Palestinian land, Obama has chosen instead to serve as “patron of the occupation.”PlayStation Network Expands Digital Offerings
Video and Game Content for the PSP(R) (PlayStation(R)Portable) and PLAYSTATION(R)3 systems
Sony Computer Entertainment America, Inc. (SCEA) announced today major enhancements to PlayStation®Network, expanding on SCEA’s commitment to give users a comprehensive entertainment experience. The video delivery service for the PSP® (PlayStation® Portable) system launches today in coordination with a new line-up of premier Hollywood, Anime and Sports partners.
In addition, Media Go, a free application that makes it easier to manage digital content including games, photos, videos and music for the PSP system through a PC will also become available. These enhancements give new entertainment possibilities for PSP system owners, providing direct downloadable access to games, demos and trailers, as well as movies and television shows via the PlayStation®Store on PlayStation Network. New game content will also be added to an existing library of more than 200 downloadable games on the PlayStation Store today, including much anticipated titles Fat Princess: Fistful of Cake, Gravity Crash™, Hustle Kings™ and more than 60 PS one® Classics hitting the PlayStation Store by the end of the year.
“PlayStation Network has experienced a high growth year and today we’re excited to add new content partners such as Showtime, G4 & E!, Magnolia Films, and TNA to our family. In addition to extending our content offerings and expanding with new features like Media Go, we continue to bring relevant and compelling content via original games and programming to our users,” said Peter Dille, senior vice president marketing and PlayStation Network, SCEA. “Gamers will be pleased to find new games for all genres and interests with original titles Fat Princess and Gravity Crash, in addition to many PS one Classics such as Final Fantasy VII coming to PlayStation Network this year.”
Video Delivery Service
PSP system users now have direct access to PlayStation Network’s video delivery service, where they can download their favorite movie and television programs and take with them on-the-go. In addition, the video delivery service is announcing content from 16 new premier partners in Hollywood, anime and sports. Hollywood content partners include Showtime Networks Inc., Starz Media, – for Film, TV and Manga Anime, G4 and E!, Summit Entertainment, The Weinstein Company, HDnet and Magnolia Pictures. Anime partners include, Anime Network, Media Blasters, Right Stuf’s Nozomi Entertainment, Starz Media’s Manga Entertainment, Toei Animation, Viz Media and WEP. FUNimation Entertainment will also be a part of a new anime category on the video delivery service. Sports partners include HDNet Fights, UFC, Wrestling from TNA and Video Action Sports.
Premier Hollywood content will include hit films such as Overture Films “Righteous Kill,” Summit Entertainment “Twilight” and The Weinstein Company “Zack & Miri Make a Porno.” PlayStation Store will also feature TV shows such as Showtime Networks Inc.’s “Dexter,” E!’s “The Soup,” G4’s “X-Play” and Starz Media’s “Painkiller Jane.” A new anime channel will also launch in both the TV and film sections of the video store and will feature the best in anime content, including Anime Network’s “Appleseed,” Starz Media Manga Entertainment’s “Dead Space.” Toei Animation’s “Fist of the North Star,” Viz Media’s “Naruto” and WEP’s “Voltron.” Some of the new sports content will include bouts from HDNet Fight’s “Inside MMA,” wrestling from TNA’s “iMPACT!,” UFC PPV events and Video Action Sports’ “That’s It, That’s All.”
With the addition of these new partners, the video delivery service will have nearly 1900 movies and 9400 TV episodes, covering reality, mixed martial arts, sports, anime, manga and animation genres. For one price, PlayStation users can watch standard definition (SD) video content from the comfort of their home television on the PS3 system or at their convenience on-the-go with the PSP system. PlayStation Store offers a combined total of nearly 9,000 hours of video content, with more than 35 % percent of the movies in High Definition. Through the PS3 and PSP systems users can access a unique three-in-one entertainment package unlike any other – the ability to enjoy high-definition Blu-ray movies, groundbreaking games, and downloadable video content from one platform and one service.
With the launch of the video delivery service for the PSP system, Media Manager for PC is being replaced with Media Go. Media Go is a free application that makes it easier and more convenient for consumers to manage their PSP games, photos, videos and music on their PC and provides access to PlayStation Store.
Games
Several PlayStation Network titles for both the PS3 and PSP systems were announced at E3, adding to the robust lineup of over 200 downloadable games available for PlayStation Store. For the PS3 system, Gravity Crash from developer Just Add Water melds a vintage gravity based arcade shooter with High Definition (HD) graphics, and Hustle Kings, from VooFoo Studios, is the PS3 system’s first photorealistic billiards simulator. For the PSP system, Fat Princess: Fistful of Cake brings a fun and strategic medieval battle royale unlike anything seen before on the portable system. In addition, the PlayStation Store will deliver more than 60 PS one Classics by the end of the year and will launch Final Fantasy VII and Medal of Honor on PlayStation Store today.
Starting this fall, many PSP titles that will be launched on UMD will also be offered digitally on PlayStation Store in North America. This will add nearly 300 games from the PSP system’s library available for download through PlayStation Network.
PlayStation Network is built on a legacy of gaming and continues to expand into a premier entertainment platform with innovative and compelling content options for people to enjoy on multiple devices.The all-new original graphic novel from the singer and lyricist of band Art Brut
Written by Eddie Argos—singer and lyricist of critically-acclaimed classic rock band Art Brut—with art by Steven Horry, colors by David Cooper, and lettering by Colin Bell, comes DOUBLE D, an all-new coming-of-age story about a teen who finds power in his shortcomings.
In DOUBLE D (after what is officially The Worst Day Ever) overweight bully magnet Danny Carter discovers he can use his excess body mass to fuel superpowers. Obviously he's going to be a superhero and fight crime, but when you're fifteen years old and you live in the suburbs it's not quite as easy as expected...
This all-new original graphic novel is set to coincide with a recorded soundtrack album, featuring Mark Hefferman and Grant Purser as well as Argos and Horry, and will be released on Post/Pop Records in late November/early December.
“I thought rhyming things was my favourite pastime, turns out I love writing comics just as much! I'm as excited about Double D coming out on Image as I was about “Formed a Band” coming out on Rough Trade,” said Argos. “There are so many great comics on Image that every time I remember a new one I start jumping around the room because now we are label mates.”
Horry added: “Being an Eddie script, Double D is as funny, heartfelt, and true-to-life as the best Art Brut songs. Well, as true to life as a story about a teenager with superpowers can be. And to work with people as talented as Colin Bell and David Cooper has made the whole process an absolute joy. Roll on the next one!”
DOUBLE D OGN (Diamond Code SEP150525) will hit comic book stores on Wednesday, November 11th and book stores on Tuesday, November 24th. The final order cutoff deadline for comic book retailers is Monday, October 19th.Tian Hao, a Chinese hair-stylist, from Xi’an, Shanxi Province, has recently made news headlines with his unique method of cutting hair. With his eyes shut, Tian claims to use Zen meditation to “feel” the aura of his customers’ hair and trim it without chopping bits of scalp.
Until now, I thought using an open flame was the most extreme way of styling hair, but after reading about Tian Hao’s technique, my opinion has changed. This Chinese master keeps his eyes closed while wielding two sharp scissors and unleashes his hair-cutting talents on live subjects who actually pay a fortune for his service. To demonstrate his unusual skill, Tian recently made a demonstration at his salon in Xi’an, where he cut two models’ hair at the same time, without chopping their scalps off. In fact, the beggar-looking hairdresser says he hasn’t had an accident with the scissors yet.
Photo: Europics
But how exactly is Tian Hao able to cut his clients’ hair without even looking at them? He told Chinese reporters it’s all thanks to Zen meditation, which helps him feel the aura of people’s hair, allowing him to cut it just right. Once he’s finished trimming the hair, he uses a vacuum cleaner instead of a blow dryer to style clients’ hairdos. “Not only does it layer the hair perfectly, but is also sucks up all the clippings too,” he says. But, as you can imagine, this kind of unique service doesn’t come cheap. Hao charges 3,900 yuan ($610) for men and 3,600 ($570) yuan for women, and never offers discounts. He says you can get discounts at the supermarket, but if you want his haircut, you have to pay full price. Most other hairdressers in Xi’an feel the price tag for a haircut is outrageous, regardless of how unique the technique is.
Photo: Europics
Would you pay that kind of money for a haircut, or do you think Tian Hao is robbing his clients blind?
Sources: Xi’an City, Austrian TimesAn Uber driver is suspected of raping a woman at an Anaheim motel after giving her a ride from a Fullerton bar, leading authorities to ask for the public’s help in locating other potential victims.
Omar Mahmoud Mousa, 52, of Anaheim is expected to appear in court on April 8 to face felony charges of rape, forcible oral copulation and sexual penetration by foreign object in connection with the Oct. 25 incident, according to the Orange County District Attorney’s Office.
The latest incident comes amid growing national concern over the safety of Uber and other app-based ride-sharing services.
The company in a statement on Thursday said: “Uber has a zero-tolerance policy for violent behavior, and our thoughts are with the victim of this atrocious crime. We immediately blocked this individual’s access to the Uber platform upon learning of this incident and actively assisted law enforcement in their investigation.”
Prosecutors said Mousa was working as a driver for Uber when he picked up a 21-year-old woman and her female friend at their Anaheim motel room and drove them to a bar in Fullerton.
Mousa gave the women his business card and told them to call him directly when they planned to leave, rather than going through Uber, authorities said.
Several hours later, one of the women called Mousa and he gave them a ride back to their motel, helping them into their room, prosecutors said.
Prosecutors said the victim’s friend immediately passed out, and Mousa then placed the victim on the same bed as her friend. The woman was intoxicated, prosecutors said, but told Mousa “no” multiple times as he raped her before she managed to push him away.
The woman contacted the Anaheim Police Department. Charges were filed against Mousa on Jan. 25, but authorities say he was out of the country.
An arrest warrant was issued, and Mousa was taken into custody at Los Angeles International Airport as he returned to the United States on March 7. He was taken to the Orange County Jail on Tuesday.
If convicted, Mousa faces up to 24 years in prison. He is being held in lieu of $100,000 bail.
Orange County court records show no history of felony convictions for Mousa.
The rapidly growing Uber company, based in San Francisco, has faced scrutiny in the wake of recent high-profile incidents.
Last month, Uber driver Jason Dalton was charged with killing six people in a shooting spree in Kalamazoo, Mich. In October, Alejandro Done, a former Uber driver, was sentenced to 10 to 12 years in prison for kidnapping and raping a woman in Massachusetts.
The district attorneys in San Francisco and Los Angeles expanded a consumer-protection lawsuit against Uber last year, claiming the ride-sharing company failed to uncover the criminal records of 25 California drivers, including several registered sex offenders and a convicted murderer. The case is pending.
Uber drivers have been targets as well.
In Newport Beach last year, Uber made headlines when Benjamin Golden, a 32-year-old former executive for Taco Bell, was arrested and charged with misdemeanor assault and battery on allegations of slapping and hitting his Uber driver, Edward Caban, in an incident that was caught on video.
Authorities are asking anyone who might be a victim of Mousa to contact Senior District Attorney Investigator Mark Gutierrez at 714-347-8794.
The Associated Press
contributed to this report.
Contact the writer: kpuente@ocregister.com© Image Source/Corbis
The great white shark—the toothy, aggressive predator known for its “man eater” depiction in Jaws—has long been a source of fascination. But when it comes to musical preferences, great whites are just like the 50 million-plus humans who turned AC/DC’s Back in Black into one of the best selling albums of all time.
They’re fans.
(PHOTOS: A Closer Look at Sharks)
According to Australian news outlet ABC, Matt Waller, a tour operator in Neptune Bay, discovered that great white sharks act more calmly when listening to music by AC/DC, the Aussie heavy-metal band that reached its peak during the 1980s. The two songs favored by the sharks: “You Shook Me All Night Long” and “Back in Black.”
After Waller played the songs using underwater speakers, the sharks became “more investigative, more inquisitive and a lot less aggressive.”
“They actually came past in a couple of occasions when we had the speaker in the water and rubbed their face along the speaker which was really bizarre,” he said.
It all started when Waller met up with some divers on Guadeloupe who played music in the water. Certain songs, they told Waller, seem to change the behavior of the sharks. With his company Adventure Bay Charters, Waller began experimenting with underwater speakers attached to diving cages. AC/DC became a smash hit for the sharks down under. The larger question is, why?
“Sharks don’t have ears, they don’t have long hair, and they don’t head bang past the cage doing the air guitar,” Waller told Australian Geographic. So if the great whites aren’t necessarily rocking out to AC/DC’s greatest hits, what’s the appeal? Waller notes that there is a connection between a song and the frequency and vibration in the water that the sharks enjoy.
Waller is not a shark expert, but this discovery is significant. By using music and not bait to attract sharks during tours, his company is helping cage-diving operations become more eco-conscious and environmentally sustainable.
What other albums will have the great white meandering like a rolling stone through Australia’s serene waves? Waller thinks Zeppelin is the next crowd-pleaser, though his kids are banking on The White Stripes.
(MORE: A Brief History of Shark Week)The Aar Gorge, also spelled Aare Gorge, is a narrow gorge which has been cut through a section of limestone ridge, by the Aar river, close to the town of Meiringen, in Switzerland. The gorge was formed at the end of the last ice age, about 10,000 years ago, when torrential runoff water from melting glaciers eroded a deep, narrow chasm through the limestone hill. Over thousands of years, the Aare’s tumbling waters continued to erode the limestone rock away, further carving out the gorge, and getting a greenish tint in the process. The gorge is about 1,400 meters long, and only a few meters wide at its base but the cliffs climb almost vertically upwards to a height of over 50 meters.
Since 1889 the gorge has been open to the public by a steel walkway built along the bottom of the cliff wall. At times the walkway goes through tunnels cut into the cliff. Before this walkway was built the only way was to go through the dangerous river torrent and many hardy souls actually made this journey. These travellers returned with fables of large snakes and monsters. Since then, the gorge is a popular tourist attraction. Nearby is the famous Reichenbach Falls, where the legendary Sherlock Holmes is supposed to have met his end at the hands of the evil Professor Moriarty.
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Sources: Wikipedia / Gorges-to-visitThe (Nonexistent) Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Consequences of Enthusiastic Consent
Goodness. All you rape apologists really did love the Christmas present Naomi Wolf gave you, didn’t you? When she said putting a penis in a woman while she’s sleeping is a “model sexual negotiation,” and that those of us who insist on making sure everyone in a sexual interaction is participating freely and enthusiastically are “trivializing rape” and “infantilizing women”? Judging by the emails and phone calls you’ve been showering me with, and the lovely tweets you’ve been sharing over at #mooreandme, it sure seems like you think you must’ve been very good boys last year indeed.
But it’s 2011 now, and it’s time to clear a few things up. All this sturm und drang about the women, won’t someone think of the women is so transparent as to be laughable. Those of you espousing this argument tend to fall into three camps:
You like the rapey status quo in which men have free access to women’s bodies and the cops and the courts almost never do a thing about it, and you want to keep it that way;
You’ve been sexually violated in some way but it’s too painful to deal with it, so you’re invested in minimizing it.
You like having access to power, and the dudes in power (even on the left, esp. when it involves a lefty hero) don’t often take rape seriously, so you’re not going to either.
(Two things should be obvious here: 1) I’ve got more sympathy for the middle motive than the other two and 2) these three motives aren’t mutually exclusive.)
There is a fourth camp, though: folks for whom this discussion is new and/or confusing. And it’s for y’all fourth-campers that I’m writing this post, to expose the mythmaking that’s been perpetrated by the folks in the first three.
But first, a brief definition. (Longer one here.) Enthusiastic consent is a principle that says that “no means no” is crucial – if a sexual partner says no, you have to stop – but it’s not enough. In order to ensure consent and prevent sexual violence, everyone, regardless of gender, has to make sure that their partner is enthusiastic about what’s going on.
Enthusiastic consent is an ongoing state, not a yes/no lightswitch. It requires sexual partners to be in ongoing communication with each other. It does not mean that you have to get a signed contract to touch my right breast. It does mean that you have to pay attention to whether or not I’m into it as you move your hand toward my right breast, and that if you can’t tell, you have to ask.
But this very basic and humanistic proposal – that sex should only happen when all participants actually want it to – makes some people very uncomfortable. Which says more about them than it does about enthusiastic consent, of course. Let’s take a look at what they’ve been saying:
Bullshit Consent Myth #1: Enthusiastic consent trivializes rape. I’m not going to go off here on how offensive it is to me to suggest that I would trivialize rape in any way, because I’m pretty sure the folks repeating this empty meme don’t really give a shit about my feelings. Instead, I want to point out how offensive this empty meme is to logic. The whole point of enthusiastic consent is that it prevents rape, and also removes rapists’ excuses so that we can hold them accountable – and that reduces rape for everyone, because the average rapists rapes 6 times.
The heart of this argument is even more offensive, because it sets up a hierarchy of who’s “really raped.” And you know what doesn’t help rape victims at all? Pitting us against each other. Telling the woman who was raped by a friend who used alcohol and coercion that her efforts to seek healing and justice somehow hurts the woman who was raped by a soldier who invaded her village does not in any way halt the use of rape as a weapon of war, or hold those who perpetrate it accountable. Instead, it encourages us to spend our energy fighting each other instead of the actual rapists and the systems that enable them.
Peel away the poutrage of rape apologists and it’s pretty plain that saying that some rapes count and others don’t is what actually trivializes rape. Enthusiastic consent is about making sure those rapes that apologists want to trivialize (which: almost all of them) are taken seriously, not just to give survivors a fair chance at justice, but to REDUCE THE NUMBER OF RAPES going forward.
(A note here on what I like to call the Myth of Misunderstanding: Research shows that most rapists aren’t confused about whether or not they’ve got consent for what they’re doing. They know they don’t. But they use things like alcohol and emotional manipulation to create plausible deniability. So when I say “enthusiastic consent prevents rape,” I mostly mean, it prevents rapists from hiding behind excuses like “I asked her 30 times and she said no, but the 31st time she said nothing” or “I didn’t hear her say no.” But it also is a great tool for those of you who are afraid you can accidentally trip and fall and rape someone. In reality, it’s super easy to not rape someone. Just make sure they’re into what’s happening, and if you can’t tell, ask.)
Bullshit Consent Myth #2: Enthusiastic consent infantilizes women. First off, this assertion is both sexist and heteronormative. Everyone, regardless of gender, has the same obligation to get enthusiastic consent from their partner, regardless of their partner’s gender, so how enthusiastic consent infantilizes women in particular I do not know.
That’s a lie. Of course I know. If you assume that women are always the gatekeepers of “no” and they’re always sleeping with men, who are always pressing them to say “yes,” then enthusiastic consent would impact women differently than men, though it still wouldn’t be infantilizing anyone. But if you’re making those assumptions you’re probably having transactional sex at best and are a rapist at worst, so I’m not sure this little essay is going to help you.
The argument for “infantilizing” is about the word “no” and whether we can expect everyone – or at least all adults — to always say it when they mean it. And you know what? In a perfect world, maybe we could. But we don’t live in that world. We live in a world of context that can make it nigh on impossible for people to say no when they mean no. We live in a world where men are expected to go out and “get some,” while women who are sexual in any way are said to have passively “given it up.” Where women are still regularly taught that the best way to survive a rape is to go along and hope it’s over soon, because if you try to fight back you’ll fail and get more hurt. (The opposite has been shown to be true, btw.) Boys are told from a young age that whatever they do will be excused under the “boys will be boys” mantra, and that “boys will be boys” mentality leads to what I call the “boiling frog” problem of women’s sexual boundaries. I call it that because if you put a frog into a pot of boiling water, it will jump right out, but if you put a frog into a pot of room-temperature water and slowly heat it to a boil, the frog will acclimate as it heats and never jump out, eventually boiling to death. Similarly, when we learn as young girls to tolerate “low-level” boundary violations like the ones we often are forced to suffer in silence at school, at home and on the street – bra-snapping, boob-grabbing, ass pinching, catcalling, dick flashing “all in good fun” relentless violations that adults and authorities routinely ignore – it makes it harder for us to notice when even greater boundaries are being violated, eventually leading to the reality that many women who are raped just freeze and fall silent, because that’s what they’ve been taught to do over and over since day one. You tell me what’s more infantilizing: repeatedly letting boys (and grown men) off the hook for their behavior because “boys will be boys” and we can’t ever expect any differently, or creating a consent standard in which all partners take active responsibility for their partner’s safety, and which acknowledges the truly diseased sexual culture we’re soaking in every day.
Besides which, I fail to see how expecting everyone to ensure that their partner is consenting is infantilizing. If anything, it requires more adult skills than just asking people to back off once they’ve already crossed someone’s line. Which brings me to the next bit of bullshit:
Bullshit Argument #3: Enthusiastic consent ruins sex. Well, yeah, if you’re into having the kind of sex where you don’t give a shit about your partner as long as s/he is “giving it up” to you, and nobody says a word to each other lest they ruin the “mood,” then yeah, enthusiastic consent is going to kill that particular kind of rapey pleasure.
For those of us who prefer our partners to be actually into us in bed, enthusiastic consent is pretty awesome. Being in ongoing communication with your partner while you’re fucking encourages dirty talk, playfulness and connection, and allows those of us who have consciences to let go of worry that we might be crossing a line and just enjoy the sex we’re having.
While we’re on the subject, I have something in specific to say about the radically dumb idea that talking about sex is unsexy. First of all, I suspect many people who believe this have never tried it so, y’know, maybe give it a go? And another subset of folks who believe this have tried it but feel so awkward or uncomfortable being fully-present during a sexual interaction that they can’t tolerate it. To them I would say: if you’re doing something you’re not ready to talk about with the person you’re doing it with, even enough to ask “is this good?” or growl “I really want to do x to you…” and solicit a reaction, you’re probably doing something you’re not ready to do.
But there’s a deeper level at play here: many folks raised female have been taught that we ought not to have sexual desires, and certainly if we have them we shouldn’t talk about them, lest anyone think we’re slutty or something (and we all know what happens to sluts.) And lots of male-type folks are taught that they’re supposed to know what their partner wants without even having to ask, or else they’re not “real men.” So there’s stuff to overcome here, for sure. But I’m here to testify: it’s super-worth overcoming it. Because when you become able to talk about sex while you’re having |
of Consensus Nodes listed here
NEO Smart economy
So from the beginning the author has committed factual errors on what the NEO network is and what it isn’t.
They then states
The whole point of cryptocurrencies is a decentralized validation system where anyone can operate nodes and validate transactions in the network.
I’m not sure what makes him the authority on what a cryptocurrency is and what a cryptocurrency isn’t. The point of NEO is to obtain voting rights and receive GAS that is generated/distributed on the NEO network. The point of GAS is to pay for contracts and transactions on the NEO blockchain.
Furthermore, I believe that distributed systems are bound to become semi-centralized over time. Think about the gold standard of decentralized cryptocurrencies; Bitcoin. People already complain about mining centralization, development centralization, and exchange centralization. If we are to accept that this will be the end result of a blockchain cryptocurrency ecosystem, then there are technical tradeoffs that we can make to achieve things like faster transaction speeds, which is exactly what NEO does. So no, YOU may think that the point of a cryptocurrency, but running a validation node is not the end all of cryptocurrencies. In fact you probably know yourself that the majority of bitcoin users do not run validation nodes.
So while you can make some good points about the centralization of NEO, claiming that using dBFT as a consensus mechanism, which inherently limits the amount of consensus nodes, defeats the purpose of a cryptocurrency is merely an opinion.
NEO’s blockchain disappeared for several hours in October
Valid point. It should have been better communicated to users in the ecosystem. I’ve personally been affected by this lack of communication when RPC end points change without me knowing. However, I’m ok with the network going on standby to reduce the risk of losing half a billion dollars.
The East has almost no interest in NEO - 90% of NEO’s volume comes from the West
Frankly, this point is just stupid. If the protocol is good it will gain adoption based on the technology, not on the trading volume. Using trading volume as a reason to bash a project is shortsighted thinking at best, and at worst….I’ll restrain myself. If the currency has volume and the network is being used, I don’t care if its happening in Antarctica. The whole Ethereum of China thing was never propagated by NEO or CoZ devs anyway, I think anyone that is serious about NEO would be ecstatic if this label was dropped.
NEO is not the Ethereum of China
NEO is NEO which is a beast in its own right
NEO attracts scammy ICOs and dApps
Yes NEO is an open source project, which means that anyone can choose to build on the platform. If amount of scammy ICO’s was somehow a negative indicator of the project than Ethereum should be worth nothing right? I don’t know much about Adex, but as for Aphelion there were plenty of posts about the potential risks of investing in Aphelion, which you even stated yourself in your article. Most people that posted about Aphelion on the NEO subreddit got down voted into oblivion. Whether or not they will be successful remains to be seen. It is not the place of the NEO foundation to comment on projects that they are completely uninvolved in, as this would be unprofessional behavior.
I do not consider an ad hominem attack on an open source project a valid argument.
NEO makes announcements of announcements
Usually not a fan of this, but the NEO foundation is very restrained about what they choose to announce. Whether or not this was a good move or not remains to be seen, depends how juicy the announcement is.
Before I move on to the last point I want to address the obvious conflict of interest in this article.
It’s been stated in their twitter that the author is a holder of QTUM
StoreOfValue Blog on Twitter: “@nondualistic I personally think that $BCH is going to win, but not putting my money in it at these prices. Just sticking w/ ol reliable $ETH and $QTUM.”
and he has previously made articles shitting on NEO
NEO vs QTUM: An Objective Comparison
My response to this is fine, feel free to shit on any currency as you see fit, but at least have the decency to acknowledge you have a financial conflict of interest on the subject matter.
Finally
NEO is a blockchain built purely on promises and rumours. There is no substance.
Really?
I’m collecting GAS every day.
I’m querying RPC nodes every day.
I’m running and maintaining nodes.
I’ve seen contracts deployed by a growing open source community.
And I’ve invoked those smart contracts.
NEO Transactions Per Day (A conservative estimate)
(5 per block) * (20 sec block) = 21600 transactions per day
Everything seems to be working to me.
If you’re a NEO fan, please help show your support by signing this petition.
Petition · Apple: Allow The O3 Wallet Back On the App Store · Change.orgMatthew McConaughey pulled his car over and stopped a bunch of kids from setting a cat on fire in California. He saved the poor cat and gave the kids a verbal lashing:
The 36-year-old was driving past a group of kids in Sherman Oaks, California, and saw they’d doused the poor feline with hairspray and were trying to light it. He screeched to a halt, grabbed the cat and hairspray, yelled at the kids and stormed off to an animal shelter. “He was so angry he went on about it for days afterwards,” says a pal.
As if being hot wasn’t enough, this is not the first time McConaughey has acted the hero. He scared off a coyote from a toddler last year, and once performed mouth-to-mouth resusitation on a woman who had fainted.
McConaughy’s two year relationship with Penelope Cruz may be in trouble. The two are said to have possibly split after spending a good deal of time apart.The International 2012 Retrospective September 7th, 2012 23:08 GMT Text by Heyoka Graphics by Meko The International 2012
Tournaments come and go. Week after week, players of all ages and nationalities come together in online tourneys and LANs. Month after the month, teams play tens of tournaments and output hundreds of games. Over and over again, we watch our favorite players play their signature heroes, and we enjoy every series, every game, every play.
And yet, for even the most ardent fan, the Dota 2 Esports scene is fragmented beyond measure. With so many games going on, only the truly committed will get to watch every one of them, and even if they do, very, very few of them will get to see every game live.
This then, is why The International is important.
While the smaller events keep the Dota 2 scene running throughout the year, once a year we gather together with Valve to celebrate this game at its finest. It's not the $1.6 million prize pool that makes The International great. It's not even the star studded team lineups. It's the fact that for one weekend a year, the community gets to come together for an event that is greater than the sum of its parts.
At Seattle’s Benayora Hall last weekend, we saw history being written. Sixteen teams came together to pit their wits against each other and see who had the most determination, the best practice regimen and the most unshakable will. In doing so they paid homage to the game’s decade long narrative and laid the foundation for a new age of Dota.
The age of Dota 2.
The International is over, but it's not forgotten. Walk with us as we take you through it all over again.
Champion’s Run • Clash of the Titans • All Quiet on the Front
Luna on the Stage • Year of the Dragon Tournaments come and go. Week after week, players of all ages and nationalities come together in online tourneys and LANs. Month after the month, teams play tens of tournaments and output hundreds of games. Over and over again, we watch our favorite players play their signature heroes, and we enjoy every series, every game, every play.And yet, for even the most ardent fan, the Dota 2 Esports scene is fragmented beyond measure. With so many games going on, only the truly committed will get to watch every one of them, and even if they do, very, very few of them will get to see every game live.This then, is whyis important.While the smaller events keep the Dota 2 scene running throughout the year, once a year we gather together with Valve to celebrate this game at its finest. It's not the $1.6 million prize pool that makes The International great. It's not even the star studded team lineups. It's the fact that for one weekend a year, the community gets to come together for an event that is greater than the sum of its parts.At Seattle’s Benayora Hall last weekend, we saw history being written. Sixteen teams came together to pit their wits against each other and see who had the most determination, the best practice regimen and the most unshakable will. In doing so they paid homage to the game’s decade long narrative and laid the foundation for a new age of Dota.The age of Dota 2.The International is over, but it's not forgotten. Walk with us as we take you through it all over again.
Champion’s Run By Heyoka
For the past several weeks, much of the talk surrounding The International revolved around the Chinese. As undisputed kings of the first DotA, expectations remained high that they would reach a similar point of authority sooner or later. Still, after their sometimes rocky online performances this summer, questions remained. With DotA 1 maintaining huge popularity, it was largely unknown just how dedicated these veterans were to learning the ins and outs of a new interface.
much of that was put to rest. Not only did Asia perform better as a whole, LGD and iG put on displays of utter dominance that made fans question how they could lose to anyone. While the normal mainstays of Europe didn't look dead, they seemed shaken, as if they might be out of place. Even so, with coL, EG, and Na`Vi placing into the upper bracket hope remained.
Come the first day of the main event, not much changed. Evil Geniuses and compLexity were sent to the lower bracket, though not without putting up a fight, and Na`Vi was able to defeat DK 2-1 to keep the winners side from being all Chinese. TongFu and EHome stayed alive in the lower portion by defeating Moscow 5 and Mousesports respectively, with an interesting Tiny-Wisp strategy being employed in the latter match.
The trend continued through the second day, as by the end Na`Vi remained the only western team remaining. LGD continued to plow through everyone, building a respectable 18-0 record going into the final day of play. Morphling became the hot topic, when it seemed no one knew what to do with the shape-shifter. Teams faced a difficult decision, as Morphling was the carry of choice but using a ban on him could mean giving Naga Siren to the best farmers around. EG had a particularly disastrous game against TongFu when they let Naga go, not realizing their opponents would also pick up Morphling to compliment the sea witch.
The third day gave us a glimpse into the Dota 2 future and became an all-out East vs West battle, as Na`Vi defended their title against the best China had to offer. After giving LGD their first loss of the tournament, they overcame the giants a second time to knock LGD into the lower half. Even more surprising was just how they did it, instead of opting to block Invoker and Naga with their first pair of bans, they chose Morphling and opted to fight Naga on open ground. Na`Vi showed what has made them champions for the last year and succeeded where other western teams failed, defeating a Naga ultimate set-up at one point in what is sure to be remembered as the moment of the tournament.
LGD’s downfall continued and they saw themselves go from undefeated to out of the tournament when Invictus Gaming beat them 2-1 for an iG-Na`Vi rematch in the finals. Na`Vi this time would surprise again, turning the tables once more when they decided instead of playing against Naga, they would try their hand at it themselves.
Unfortunately for them iG was back and stronger than before, having spent a day analyzing and discussing how to approach their adversaries for the second time. In the end iG prevailed 3-1, and were crowned the grand champions of The International 2012 while a disappointed Na`Vi took the silver.
Full Bracket on Liquipedia For the past several weeks, much of the talk surrounding The International revolved around the Chinese. As undisputed kings of the first DotA, expectations remained high that they would reach a similar point of authority sooner or later. Still, after their sometimes rocky online performances this summer, questions remained. With DotA 1 maintaining huge popularity, it was largely unknown just how dedicated these veterans were to learning the ins and outs of a new interface. After the preliminary games much of that was put to rest. Not only did Asia perform better as a whole, LGD and iG put on displays of utter dominance that made fans question how they could lose to. While the normal mainstays of Europe didn't look dead, they seemed shaken, as if they might be out of place. Even so, with coL, EG, and Na`Vi placing into the upper bracket hope remained.Come the first day of the main event, not much changed. Evil Geniuses and compLexity were sent to the lower bracket, though not without putting up a fight, and Na`Vi was able to defeat DK 2-1 to keep the winners side from being all Chinese. TongFu and EHome stayed alive in the lower portion by defeating Moscow 5 and Mousesports respectively, with an interesting Tiny-Wisp strategy being employed in the latter match.The trend continued through the second day, as by the end Na`Vi remained the only western team remaining. LGD continued to plow through everyone, building a respectable 18-0 record going into the final day of play. Morphling became the hot topic, when it seemed no one knew what to do with the shape-shifter. Teams faced a difficult decision, as Morphling was the carry of choice but using a ban on him could mean giving Naga Siren to the best farmers around. EG had a particularly disastrous game against TongFu when they let Naga go, not realizing their opponents would also pick up Morphling to compliment the sea witch.The third day gave us a glimpse into the Dota 2 future and became an all-out East vs West battle, as Na`Vi defended their title against the best China had to offer. After giving LGD their first loss of the tournament, they overcame the giants a second time to knock LGD into the lower half. Even more surprising was just how they did it, instead of opting to block Invoker and Naga with their first pair of bans, they chose Morphling and opted to fight Naga on open ground. Na`Vi showed what has made them champions for the last year and succeeded where other western teams failed, defeating a Naga ultimate set-up at one point in what is sure to be remembered as the moment of the tournament.LGD’s downfall continued and they saw themselves go from undefeated to out of the tournament when Invictus Gaming beat them 2-1 for an iG-Na`Vi rematch in the finals. Na`Vi this time would surprise again, turning the tables once more when they decided instead of playing against Naga, they would try their hand at it themselves.Unfortunately for them iG was back and stronger than before, having spent a day analyzing and discussing how to approach their adversaries for the second time. In the end iG prevailed 3-1, and were crowned the grand champions of The International 2012 while a disappointed Na`Vi took the silver.
Clash of the Titans By Kupon3ss
The Winner's Bracket
The first game of the fated clash during the winner’s bracket played out with Na`Vi’s last attempt to play a “standard” meta and face the Chinese Juggernaut of iG head-on.
Natus Vincere
+ Show Spoiler [Bans] +
Invictus Gaming
+ Show Spoiler [Bans] +
Na`Vi banned Invoker, Furion, and Dark Seer while iG banned Pudge, Lycanthrope, and Leshrac. The game would go down as one of the most one-sided of the tournament. Having been utterly crushed in every lane, Na`Vi failed to score a single kill in their rather ignoble defeat. A bit of the unease came out of my heart and I assured myself that there would be no possible way that Na`Vi, with the apparent gap in both team coordination and individual skill when compared to iG, would be able to stand up to perhaps the finest team ever assembled in the history of Chinese DotA. 1-0 iG
Na`Vi, lighter in their step than usual, seemed to bound into the booth after the defeat they had suffered at the hands of iG... almost as if a great burden had been lifted. They would throw caution to the wind and allow iG to grab a combination of heroes, which one of the Chinese commentators had previously remarked “the only counter is rage quit.” Before the game began, the casters were already congratulating iG for making it to the winner’s bracket finals. In response, Na`Vi picked what would be a lineup that made the entire Chinese delegation grin as though victory was assured. After all, what kind of ridiculous Juggernaut lineup would even be able to hold a candle to Dark Seer, Naga, and Tide? Ferrari would go so far as to take Puck, a hero that contributed to the seemingly invincible “wombo combo”, but more importantly, to beat Dendi with one of Dendi's own signature heroes.
Natus Vincere
+ Show Spoiler [Bans] +
Invictus Gaming
+ Show Spoiler [Bans] +
The game’s progression was not at all what one would have expected. The Juggernaut-based push composition, while seeming to falter as iG launched their invincible ultimates, would come back with renewed fury. Mid lane had been a draw. Na`Vi's push had been surprisingly effective but not overwhelming. But on top of all of this, iG had the ultimate weapon.
The smoke and engagement from the river looked perfect. Na`Vi had been caught as 5 men in a single screen, and many fans eagerly awaited the 5-0. The inexorable countdown of Naga's Song continued, the harbinger of massacre calling for blood.
One was barely able to note that Zhou’s positioning was off as he huddled around the Enigma when the unthinkable happened. The fight was indeed a 5-0, but not the 5-0 the Chinese fans expected. Surprisingly, I found myself cheering in a moment of utter amazement and confusion, my conception about DotA shattered.
Mechanics Explanation:
In Dota2, when comboed correctly, the Naga Siren Song into Dark Seer Vacuum into Tidehunter Ravage combo does not allow for an enemy to use Black King Bar. Even if an enemy can pull off BKB (meaning that the combination is not perfectly executed), having Naga to the side to simply net the BKB user puts the end to game-changing channeling ultimates. For iG, had Zhou just netted Enigma out of the combo they would have won. Basically, what occurred was a colossal error when Ravage was slightly mistimed and stolen with Naga Siren placed incorrectly, to horrific result.
Xiao8 would simply explain this as: “Zhou was overconfident in ravage hitting and him instagibing Enigma."
The rest of the game was fairly straightforward application of an insurmountable advantage. Down a set of barracks and with the radiant heroes so tanky as to be able to survive a combo even should the perfectly opportunity present itself, iG folded. The crowd cheered as Na`Vi crushed through, surging to a convincing victory. 1-1 Na`Vi
Yet what occurred in the mere minutes between the second and third game was a thing of breathtaking beauty. It was DotA taken beyond the confines of the game itself.
"What you have in skill does not matter if the team is spiritually ready."
- Na`Vi.Puppey
Na`Vi would ban the exact same heroes almost instantly, all whilst smiling and staring down iG across the booths. It was not the heroes they drafted, but the way they did it. Na`Vi again threw Naga-Tide at the feet of iG, reminding the Chinese team of their utter failure the previous game in order to chip away more at the cracks in iG’s seemingly invincible armor. This was Puppey in all his genius, taking the mistake of his enemy and turning it into not only a singular win, but also a crushing blow impacted upon iG’s mental slate, utter shattering their will to fight.
Natus Vincere
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Invictus Gaming
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iG was a lost and broken team, and their draft showed it. Resorting to a Luna lineup that has almost no potential for victory against top-tier teams, they began playing a game whose conclusion was already decided. Ferrari took mid, but there was no sharpness nor flair in his movements as he, still reeling from the blow of the last game, felt the penetrating gaze of Dendi staring him down both across the river and across the stage.
For the second time, Na`Vi crushed a Chinese team before the game even began, and for the second time I left the hall after watching but 3 minutes of a game, unable to bear watching the empty husk of a team before me play against one so full of confidence and life. I’ve often said that it was not truly skill that determined victory among the top teams, but a magic best described as an “aura of majesty." Na`Vi had that in spades against an iG that appeared little more than doomed men, marching numbly and mechanically to their inevitable defeat. 2-1 Na`Vi
I sat numbly through the rest of the night’s games, utterly thankful for the format and schedule of the games. The Na`Vi that had appeared before me was an echo of FTD during 2009, or EHome in ESWC 2010: an invincible team cloaked in the strength of their confidence and momentum, exuding an “aura of majesty” as bright as the sun. I firmly believed that had the finals been the same day, Na`Vi would have been the clear favorites, and history might have looked differently upon this International.
The Finals
The grand final saw a rematch starting fresh, rather than a continuation of iG’s fall. Coming into the grand final, iG had recovered their form. The day had washed away the taste of defeat and left only the lessons, and the trip through the loser’s bracket had reinvigorated the team that was deemed invincible when playing with an advantage. They walked to the stage as a team. Their mission was to clear the wrongs of the previous day and to expunge them utterly. Vengeance was on their minds, and the thought of it in every movement.
Meanwhile Na`Vi approached the stage in the carefree manner they have become known for, their glow of victory slightly dimmed by the hiatus of their day. With boyish confidence they stood in stark contrast to the grim faces of the Chinese men across the stage.
One could feel the chilly killing intent of iG’s first draft of the match. An Ethereal Blade, not manifested in physical form but ever present, lay in the air. Gone was the customary garb of the Chinese team clad in the armor of formational play and armed with the spear of the hard carry. Faith drafted Broodmother, Nightstalker, and Templar Assassin. You could see that Ferrari wanted blood.
Against this was Na`Vi, suddenly taking up the Naga never before used by a western team. Stifled by a draft of their own creation, there was no choice but to try and take up the Chinese Naga style, but a perverted style with one crucial element was missing. Dendi was no longer smiling.
Natus Vincere
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Invictus Gaming
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The well-honed blade cut through the unfamiliar shield as Na`Vi was restrained by an enemy they had not faced before. iG’s play resembled little of the slow methodical destruction they had wreaked in the hours before and spent their cold fury upon Na`Vi. Even when iG's wanton aggression seemed to go awry, the unfamiliarity of the situation at hand caused Na`Vi to slip. With Dendi missing a critical Sonic Wave, XBOCT popped the Song of the Siren. Yet iG would take the scrappy fight, allowing them to begin dismantling the western team. In a scene not unlike the fall of Julius Caesar, Na`Vi was pierced with strike after strike coming from every direction, with the singular shield of the Naga Siren insufficient to ward of the incessant rain of blows save only to block a few. 1-0 iG
The following draft was markedly similar to the previous affair, iG drew the same blade, slightly chipped and stained with blood. Surprisingly, Na`Vi seemed content to take up the Naga that had just failed them. The evolution of this team was astounding. Na`Vi, in the space of mere hours, had come to the inevitable conclusion of the Naga lineup – the fact that it relies on dual cores.
Natus Vincere
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Invictus Gaming
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Dendi on a semi-carry Dragon Knight was a rather strange sight to behold. Yet it made the Naga combination tighten up, with Na`Vi's lineup becoming much more solid and defensive. With a tanky DK in the front line and proper utilization of the Naga's Song of the Siren, Na`Vi executed a one-two punch that defied iG’s relentless aggression. And just like the winner’s semifinals, there was a gap in the quick strikes of iG. They set up a single fight incorrectly, and Na`Vi punished them and took a 15-minute barracks as a result. In this game it seemed as if the roles were reversed, iG looked the CIS or SEA team, endlessly crashing into Na`Vi Chinese-like defensive lines.
This win sent the crowd formed into thunderous roars as Na`Vi had taken the “invincible” combination of the Chinese, defeated it, and had now reversed it as a weapon against its very creator. The ability of a captain to adapt new strategies at such a rapid pace, along with the talent and skill of the players to immediate execute anything Puppey could envision–this is the essence of DotA. 1-1 Navi
Yet iG did not look least bit phased; instead, their assassin’s masks only tightened. They had grown as well, through victories and defeats, triumphs and lessons – this was the ultimate trial by fire of a team whose adaptability and organization was always questioned, but never its talent and potential. iG would be the one to freely give Na`Vi the feared Rubrick, Furion, and Naga, three of the most sought-after heroes. Only when Puppey took the set of the very most “imbalanced” heroes freely did he notice something wrong.
Natus Vincere
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Invictus Gaming
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The requirements of Naga dual core do not allow for the resource allocation of Prophet, and the need to pick a second source of physical damage output collided with the normal placement of Dendi’s solo mid Rubick. Na`Vi was now trapped into Dendi’s sole playable semi-carry, as well as a Furion/Naga combination that had almost no synergy yet still required incredible amounts of farm. iG's trap was completed with the Disruptor pick, a hero that utterly destroyed the power of mobility and rendered each Naga ult as no more than a trap for Na`Vi to walk into. Time after time Na`Vi support would teleport in, ready to strike after the song ended. And ceaselessly, this backup would be sent back home by a quick Glimpse.
Beset on all lanes, cast into a team with no cohesion, and facing a lineup just waiting to Song of the Siren, Na`Vi suffered a taste of their own medicine. This was perhaps the only game of the tournament in which we saw Na`Vi severely outpicked against iG’s ingenious setups and lanes. The feel of Naga ulting and setting up for death, intent on wiping iG's Enigma off the map... to be hit by the power of the Dark Seer Disruptor combination must not have been pleasant. Even the passion of the crowd would wane as they began to boo each time Na`Vi sought to escape with Naga's ultimate. The resounding din contrasted so starkly with the fervor that had existed just moments before. Na`Vi’s movement was reminiscent of the iG of just a day before, a team lost and dejected. 2-1 iG
The tide had turned in iG's favor, and they sought to complete their revenge, to finally right the wrongs of “the accident” and to showcase the invincible weapon of the Chinese metagame in its full glory and majesty. Naga, Dark Seer, and Tidehunter were chosen by iG. Na`Vi once again took the Juggernaut and Rubick that had previously been successful and combined them with Syllabear, perhaps the strongest pushing carry in the game. The stage was set for a repeat of the clash that had so defined the journey of both teams to this grand stage.
Natus Vincere
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Invictus Gaming
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With one pick each left, the lines were drawn. iG entered the battlefield with Keeper of the Light. Puppey responded by bringing Nyx Assassin into play.
This pair of highly unusual and yet completely ingenious heroes is perhaps the highest level of Dota 2, in which opposing captains can pull unique heroes out of the pool to construct an exclusive team at will. Keeper of the Light is a great anti-pusher and completely wrecks offensive trilanes (a given based on Na’Vi’s previous picks). Additionally, he provides the mana to Naga to continuously farm at a hilarious pace with Rip Tide. Yet on the other end, Nyx Assassin sat. With the reworked damage return and stun interruption of Spiked Carapace, Nyx in theory solidly countered Keeper of the Light in lane and later on could facilitate the Ravage steals in addition to synergizing with Leshrac with a reliable stun and high damage output.
This is the vision of the games to come on the grandest stage of Dota 2, a stage in which every single hero was playable and every combination possible, with teams taking anything and everything from the infinite potential of the game to push the boundaries ever further.
In this situation of two gambles, only one paid off. Having learned from the previous Na’Vi games, Tide ravage was stolen only a single time. iG solidly won each lanes, and the invincible weapon of the Chinese metagame crushed all before it. Rubick was hunted down by Tidehunter in fights, Illuminate discharged 500 points of magic damage into each Na`Vi hero, and Puppey's theoretically excellent Nyx Assassin became virtually a non-factor. 3-1 iG
The iG that had appeared before now had become a terrifying force, one that had transcended the defeats and squabbles of the past to combine the inexorable force and methodical aggression of the Chinese metagame, the killer instinct and violent bloodshed of SEA DotA, and now even the versatile adaptability and unquenchable spirit of Na`Vi themselves. To see a team finally reach that pinnacle was a beautiful sight to behold, and perhaps only Na`Vi was capable of giving them that final transcendent push. The 2012 International clashes between iG and Na`Vi will comprise of history-writing matches. Both teams grew and adapted, and both left stronger because of the other's ingenuity.
"那些年欠我的冠军,我会一个个拿回来!"
"Those Championships owed to me throughout the years, I will take them back one by one!"
- iG.Zhou
Na`Vi then performed perhaps the single greatest play of the entire tournament. In a hall shocked by the loss of the (newly adopted) hometown favorites, the crowd looked at the stage with stunned silence. During the award ceremony, the clapping was stifled and forced. Yet Na`Vi embraced defeat with smiles and hugged iG with all the passion they would have displayed in victory. No other team in the world could possibly face such a gauntlet of deadly foes with such nonchalance, and still be standing after defeat, eagerly passing the aegis of champions. Following Na`Vi's stead, the reluctant crowd would eventually cheer, while the memory of 430 would be burned into the minds of every person at the stage of the grandest single tournament in ESPORTS.
The International 2012 comprised many separate story lines. What is written down in history will be the one where iG overcame all to take the championship. Yet another story line will shine just as brightly, that of Na`Vi, their unconquerable spirit, their adaptability in the face of danger, and their heartwarming magnanimity in defeat. The first game of the fated clash during the winner’s bracket played out with Na`Vi’s last attempt to play a “standard” meta and face the Chinese Juggernaut of iG head-on.Na`Vi banned Invoker, Furion, and Dark Seer while iG banned Pudge, Lycanthrope, and Leshrac. The game would go down as one of the most one-sided of the tournament. Having been utterly crushed in every lane, Na`Vi failed to score a single kill in their rather ignoble defeat. A bit of the unease came out of my heart and I assured myself that there would be no possible way that Na`Vi, with the apparent gap in both team coordination and individual skill when compared to iG, would be able to stand up to perhaps the finest team ever assembled in the history of Chinese DotA.Na`Vi, lighter in their step than usual, seemed to bound into the booth after the defeat they had suffered at the hands of iG... almost as if a great burden had been lifted. They would throw caution to the wind and allow iG to grab a combination of heroes, which one of the Chinese commentators had previously remarked “the only counter is rage quit.” Before the game began, the casters were already congratulating iG for making it to the winner’s bracket finals. In response, Na`Vi picked what would be a lineup that made the entire Chinese delegation grin as though victory was assured. After all, what kind of ridiculous Juggernaut lineup would even be able to hold a candle to Dark Seer, Naga, and Tide? Ferrari would go so far as to take Puck, a hero that contributed to the seemingly invincible “wombo combo”, but more importantly, to beat Dendi with one of Dendi's own signature heroes.The game’s progression was not at all what one would have expected. The Juggernaut-based push composition, while seeming to falter as iG launched their invincible ultimates, would come back with renewed fury. Mid lane had been a draw. Na`Vi's push had been surprisingly effective but not overwhelming. But on top of all of this, iG had the ultimate weapon.The smoke and engagement from the river looked perfect. Na`Vi had been caught as 5 men in a single screen, and many fans eagerly awaited the 5-0. The inexorable countdown of Naga's Song continued, the harbinger of massacre calling for blood.One was barely able to note that Zhou’s positioning was off as he huddled around the Enigma when the unthinkable happened. The fight was indeed a 5-0, but not the 5-0 the Chinese fans expected. Surprisingly, I found myself cheering in a moment of utter amazement and confusion, my conception about DotA shattered.The rest of the game was fairly straightforward application of an insurmountable advantage. Down a set of barracks and with the radiant heroes so tanky as to be able to survive a combo even should the perfectly opportunity present itself, iG folded. The crowd cheered as Na`Vi crushed through, surging to a convincing victory.Yet what occurred in the mere minutes between the second and third game was a thing of breathtaking beauty. It was DotA taken beyond the confines of the game itself.Na`Vi would ban the exact same heroes almost instantly, all whilst smiling and staring down iG across the booths. It was not the heroes they drafted, but the way they did it. Na`Vi again threw Naga-Tide at the feet of iG, reminding the Chinese team of their utter failure the previous game in order to chip away more at the cracks in iG’s seemingly invincible armor. This was Puppey in all his genius, taking the mistake of his enemy and turning it into not only a singular win, but also a crushing blow impacted upon iG’s mental slate, utter shattering their will to fight.iG was a lost and broken team, and their draft showed it. Resorting to a Luna lineup that has almost no potential for victory against top-tier teams, they began playing a game whose conclusion was already decided. Ferrari took mid, but there was no sharpness nor flair in his movements as he, still reeling from the blow of the last game, felt the penetrating gaze of Dendi staring him down both across the river and across the stage.For the second time, Na`Vi crushed a Chinese team before the game even began, and for the second time I left the hall after watching but 3 minutes of a game, unable to bear watching the empty husk of a team before me play against one so full of confidence and life. I’ve often said that it was not truly skill that determined victory among the top teams, but a magic best described as an “aura of majesty." Na`Vi had that in spades against an iG that appeared little more than doomed men, marching numbly and mechanically to their inevitable defeat.I sat numbly through the rest of the night’s games, utterly thankful for the format and schedule of the games. The |
HEE: So, I would recommend that people go to a source like Indivisible.org, that really gives excellent calling tools for you to be able to call your senator. Obviously, if you are in the states of Maine, Tennessee, Arizona, Oklahoma, Kansas, Wisconsin or Montana, those are the places where Republicans have been on the fence for various reasons. After the press conference yesterday and the meeting with Donald Trump, a few of them said, “I might be more willing to vote for the bill.” But until they’ve actually done that roll call vote, people should be calling in, including to their Democratic senators, to make the impression very clear on the Hill that the American people are watching, because they know this is unpopular.The size and depth of the ozone hole over Antarctica was not remarkable in 2016. As expected, ozone levels have stabilized, but full recovery is still decades away. What is remarkable is that the same international agreement that successfully put the ozone layer on the road to recovery is now being used to address climate change.
The stratospheric ozone layer protects life on Earth by absorbing ultraviolet light, which damages DNA in plants and animals (including humans) and leads to health issues like skin cancer. Prior to 1979, scientists had never observed ozone concentrations below 220 Dobson Units. But in the early 1980s, through a combination of ground-based and satellite measurements, scientists began to realize that Earth’s natural sunscreen was thinning dramatically over the South Pole. This large, thin spot in the ozone layer each southern spring came to be known as the ozone hole.
The first image shows the Antarctic ozone hole on October 1, 2016, as observed by the Ozone Monitoring Instrument (OMI) on NASA’s Aura satellite. On that day, the ozone layer reached its average annual minimum concentration, which measured 114 Dobson Units. For comparison, the ozone layer in 2015 reached a minimum of 101 Dobson Units. During the 1960s, long before the Antarctic ozone hole occurred, average ozone concentrations above the South Pole ranged from 260 to 320 Dobson Units.
The area of the ozone hole in 2016 peaked on September 28, 2016, at about 23 million square kilometers (8.9 million square miles).
“This year we saw an ozone hole that was just below average size,” said Paul Newman, ozone expert and chief scientist for Earth Science at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center. “What we’re seeing is consistent with our expectation and our understanding of ozone depletion chemistry and stratospheric weather.”
The second image presents an edge-on (limb) view of Earth’s ozone layer. These data were acquired on October 2 by the Ozone Mapping Profiler Suite (OMPS) during a single orbit of the Suomi-NPP satellite. It reveals the density of ozone at various altitudes, with dark orange areas having more ozone and light orange areas having less. Notice that the word hole isn’t literal; ozone is still present over Antarctica, but it is thinner and less dense in some areas.
In 2014, an assessment by 282 scientists from 36 countries found that the ozone layer is on track for recovery within the next few decades. Ozone-depleting chemicals such as chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs)—which were once used for refrigerants, aerosol spray cans, insulation foam, and fire suppression—were phased out years ago. The existing CFCs in the stratosphere will take many years to decay, but if nations continue to follow the guidelines of the Montreal Protocol, global ozone levels should recover to 1980 levels by 2050 and the ozone hole over Antarctica should recover by 2070.
The replacement of CFCs with hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs) during the past decade has saved the ozone layer but created a new problem for climate change. HFCs are potent greenhouse gases, and their use—particularly in refrigeration and air conditioning—has been quickly increasing around the world. The HFC problem was recently on the agenda at a United Nations meeting in Kigali, Rwanda. On October 15, 2016, a new amendment greatly expanded the Montreal Protocol by targeting HFCs, the so-called “grandchildren” of the Montreal Protocol.
“The Montreal Protocol is written so that we can control ozone-depleting substances and their replacements,” said Newman, who participated in the meeting in Kigali. “This agreement is a huge step forward because it is essentially the first real climate mitigation treaty that has bite to it. It has strict obligations for bringing down HFCs, and is forcing scientists and engineers to look for alternatives.”
NASA Earth Observatory images by Jesse Allen, using Suomi NPP OMPS data provided courtesy of Colin Seftor (SSAI) and Aura OMI data provided courtesy of the Aura OMI science team. Suomi NPP is the result of a partnership between NASA, NOAA and the Department of Defense. Caption by Kathryn Hansen, with contributions from Audrey Haar and Rebecca Lindsey.The government has refused to publish its sector-by-sector analyses of the impact of Brexit, arguing that releasing them they would undermine its negotiating position. Molly Scott Cato (MEP for the South West) says businesspeople trying to plan for the future have a right to know what the likely effects of leaving the EU will be.
It was, I thought, a fairly reasonable request, for an MEP representing five million constituents: has the government undertaken studies into the impacts of Brexit, and if so could it provide some key findings? After all, it is part of my elected responsibility to provide my constituents and their families; businesses and public services with information that can help them prepare for what will inevitably be the biggest economic and social transformation this country has seen in my lifetime.
In particular, I wanted to know if any studies have explored issues surrounding the economic impacts of leaving the single market and ending freedom of movement and, as an MEP representing the South West, what impacts are expected on farmers and rural communities.
I was prompted by leaked documents revealing that under such a ‘hard Brexit’ scenario the NHS could be short of 40,000 nurses by 2026 as well as reports that dozens of other impact assessments have been carried out by the Government into its chosen course of leaving not just the EU, but the single market.
The response from government was an acknowledgement that they have indeed “conducted analysis of over 50 sectors” but they failed to inform me which sectors, let alone any findings. The argument against publication is that it would undermine the Government’s ability to negotiate the best deal for Britain. Yet the leaking of the report into the impacts on the NHS has had no discernible effect on the government’s negotiation position. What stands in the way of progress in the Brexit discussions is the government’s own intransigence or lack of clarity over issues such as the ‘divorce settlement’, the Irish border and the rights of EU citizen’s post-Brexit. If ‘take back control’ from ‘Brussels bureaucrats’ means anything, it should mean a new commitment to openness and transparency, with evidence-based decision making, and that evidence being available to the public and their democratic representatives.
But it is a wonder that the government needed to carry out these studies at all. In 2013, the coalition government commissioned the ‘most extensive analysis ever undertaken of the UK’s relationship with the EU’. The ‘Review of the balance of competences’ took 2300 pieces of written evidence – submitted by experts, NGOs, businesses, members of Parliament, the public and other interested parties – and pulled them together into 32 reports. These covered issues such as economic and monetary policy, health, environment and climate change, fundamental rights and education and vocational training and youth.
While the reports provided some useful pointers on areas for reform, such as better EU regulation and the need for more effective implementation and enforcement of existing legislation, the overall conclusion was that membership of the EU was positive for the UK. It also highlighted how successful the UK has often been in shaping the EU’s agenda and legislation.
On the UK’s membership of the single market, the review noted that ‘most studies suggest that the GDP of both the EU and the UK are appreciably greater than they otherwise would be, thanks to economic integration through the Single Market’. It concluded that, ‘integration has brought to the EU, and hence to the UK, in most if not all observers’ opinions, appreciable economic benefits’. These findings are borne out by the responses I have had from businesses who have beaten a path to my door in the past year to explain the disastrous impact on them of the government’s Brexit plans.
I began with a tour of North Devon, where the dominant sectors are agriculture, food and tourism. All three rely heavily on EU labour and have no idea how they could survive without it. For them, freedom of movement is an economic lifeline, not the threat to British jobs portrayed by the tabloid headlines.
Then it was finance and automotive – not two sectors I expected to be championing as a Green MEP. However, both sectors employ thousands in South West England. There are at least 75,000 finance-related jobs and the sector is especially important to Bournemouth, Swindon and Bristol. Their trade body brought them together for a conference in Bristol where we were also joined by Trade Minister Mark Garnier. When I explained about the impact of the withdrawal of the EU banking passport, and the problems with establishing equivalence of regulations to ensure the right to continue selling financial products, faces in the room turned visibly pale.
For the car industry, it’s the plan to leave the customs union that leaves them weak at the knees, as explained to me by Honda’s EU policy representative. It would mean time-consuming checks and paperwork as components were forced to pass across currently open borders.
So still we wait to see what sectors the government has studied, and whether the findings of these studies are in any way different to the extensive analysis carried out in 2013. We must assume they won’t be. In which case, the evidence available, and in the public domain, suggests we are in fact better off inside, rather than outside, the EU.
This post represents the views of the author and not those of the Brexit blog, nor the LSE.
Molly Scott Cato is Green MEP for the South West. She is an economist, member of the Economics and Monetary Committee in the European Parliament and Green Party speaker on Brexit.Rachel Maddow asks Sen. Elizabeth Warren to respond to Clinton loyalist Ed Rendell saying she is not a good choice for vice president because she isn't ready to be commander in chief. Warren appeared on Maddow's MSNBC show to endorse Hillary Clinton for president.
"I know you're not seeking the job and I know you love being a senator. But if you were asked to be Secretary Clinton's running mate, do you believe you could do it?" Maddow asked. "By that I mean, the most important job of being a vice president is to be ready to be president if God forbid something happened to the commander-in-chief."
"Yes, I do," the Massachusetts Senator responded.
Trump responded to Warren: "Pocahontas is at it again! Goofy Elizabeth Warren, one of the least productive U.S. Senators, has a nasty mouth. Hope she is V.P. choice."
Pocahontas is at it again! Goofy Elizabeth Warren, one of the least productive U.S. Senators, has a nasty mouth. Hope she is V.P. choice. — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) June 10, 2016
2004 VIDEO:
Pocahontas describing Crooked Hillary Clinton as a Corporate Donor Puppet. Time for change! #Trump2016 https://t.co/rZ1MqUzpKU — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) June 10, 2016
Friday afternoon Trump tweeted an interview from 2004 where Elizabeth Warren criticized then-Senator Hillary Clinton for influencing her husband, then-President Bill Clinton, to veto a bill addressing corporate bankruptcy and viewing Wall Street as a "constituency."Experts say the GOP's strategy could wind up doing lasting damage to the U.S. economy. Wall Street to GOP: Are you nuts?
Senior Republicans believe they will be on stronger political ground if they allow a relatively clean bill funding the government to reach the president’s desk and instead use the debt-hike battle to gut Obamacare.
That’s a very dubious assumption.
Story Continued Below
Political analysts and market experts say this strategy could wind up doing lasting damage to both the United States economy and the GOP’s national political standing.
The fundamental flaw: There is no scenario under which the GOP is going to achieve its main stated goal, delaying the Affordable Care Act, through a debt limit showdown. The White House and Senate Democrats would never agree to such a demand. And senior administration officials say privately that their public refusal to negotiate over the debt limit is not simply a political ploy they will inevitably have to cast aside. Perhaps aware of the risks, House GOP leadership is now considering postponing a vote on a debt limit that includes an Obamacare delay to see what they can get out of a continuing resolution that funds the government past Sept. 30.
( Also on POLITICO: Liberals take on Wall St. Dems)
A brief shutdown would have some negative economic effects and could create political blowback on the GOP. But it would cause far less long-term damage than a default, which would likely send interest rates sky-rocketing, crush the stock market, devastate business and consumer confidence, and probably send the nation’s economy hurtling back into recession if not depression.
“The economic damage created by a government shutdown doesn’t compare to that of breaching the debt limit,” said Mark Zandi of Moody’s Analytics. “Breaching the limit would be an economic disaster. Perhaps Republicans feel that gives the threat of breaching the limit more leverage. Or perhaps some don’t believe the impact of breaching the limit would be that bad. But to be frank, I’m as perplexed as you are. Fortunately, I’m not asked for advice on political strategy.”
In the best-case scenario, investors would come to believe that “we have totally incompetent politicians who are unwilling to pay the bills when they are due,” said Michael Obuchowski of North Shore Asset Management.
( Also on POLITICO: House GOP may attach Obamacare delay to CR)
White House aides say enshrining the debt limit as a political weapon under which an opposition party can extract major concessions would be a highly corrosive precedent that would make an eventual default a near-certainty when future negotiations fail. White House and Treasury officials say any further negotiations over the debt limit would introduce a level of risk around United States Treasury bonds where none previously existed, ultimately raising borrowing costs for both the government and average citizens for decades to come — if not permanently.
“We can’t do it, not just because of the issues at stake now but for what it would mean generations from now,” one senior administration official said recently.
White House senior adviser Dan Pfeiffer on Thursday described House Republicans as suicide bombers. “What we’re not for is negotiating with people with a bomb strapped to their chest,” Pfeiffer told CNN’s Jake Tapper. “We’re not going to do that.”
( Also on POLITICO: House GOP may delay debt ceiling vote)
Republicans would almost certainly have to either give in on their Obamacare demands — disappointing their most ardent tea party supporters — or be blamed for forcing a historic default or near-default over a quixotic quest to block a duly enacted law.Share. Elsa from OUAT to play a woman on a warpath. Elsa from OUAT to play a woman on a warpath.
Once Upon a Time and Fringe star Georgina Haig has landed a new recurring gig on CBS' Limitless.
Reported by io9, Haig will come on board as "Piper" - a woman who "was once like Brian, naive and sheltered - then she lost everything. Now, self-trained in many forms of combat, she has a mission to stop the man who took it from her - with Brian as either her ally or her enemy."
Haig appeared as Frozen's Elsa on Season 4 of ABC's Once Upon a Time, and previous to that on the final season of FOX's Fringe as Etta Bishop.
Exit Theatre Mode
Matt Fowler is a writer for IGN and a member of the Television Critics Association (TCA). Follow him on Twitter at @TheMattFowler and Facebook at Facebook.com/Showrenity.Mt.Gox was once the preeminentBitcoin exchanges, and as late a the spring of 2013 looked like they would dominate the future ofBitcoin trading. Originating as a trading site for game cards, the exchange soon shifted into trading the new digital money. In 2011, the original owner, JedMcCaleb sold the site to MarkKarpeles and is still active in projects such as Ripple.Starting early 2013, the site started to show signs that it would not be able to scale up its operations to meet the growing popularity ofBitcon. In April 2013 they had to suspend trading to allow the market to cool when trading exceededthe capacity of their trading engines. They then had a bank account seized in the US due to a failure to properly report that they were engaged in money transmission on the bank account application. As a result they were dropped byDwolla, a budget payment processor, freezing them out of the dollar market.At the beginning of 2013 Mt. Gox announced a link up with CoinLab, which would handle their US operations. The deal fell apart with both sides accusing the other of not living up to the agreement. Mt. Gox claimed CoinLab did not become fully compliant with US money transmitter laws as they had promised. In its countersuit, CoinLab claimed that they were unable to make the necessary applications due Mt. Gox’s failure to provide customer information that would have allowed CoinLab to prove to regulators that they were compliant with Know Your Customer laws. In the fall of 2013, Mt. Gox was no longer processing US dollar withdrawals and withdrawals to other currencies were slow due to banking restrictions and manual processing, they claimed. This caused the price of Bitcoin to inflate above other exchanges as investors drove prices up by buying Bitcoin to get them off the exchange. There were great arbitrage opportunities, but these were so difficult to take advantage of that the price remained artificially high for months. In February of 2014, Mt. Gox ceased Bitcoin withdrawals, claiming that a bug had been discovered in the Bitcoin protocol had been discovered. The bug, a real one, was well-known and minor aberration that allowed someone to copy a new, unconfirmed transaction with and give the copy a different identifying tag. If the copy of the transaction was confirmed in the blockchain rather than the original, the person could then go back to the sender and claim it had never been received. If the sender checked only for the tag, and not for the full transaction, they could be fooled into resending the funds, thinking that the transaction had not completed. The Bitcoin community erupted in indignation when Mark Karpeles announced that the exchange was crippled due to this bug. It was a well-known aberration and was slowly being fixed through various technological improvements in wallets and systems. As soon as Mt. Gox made its statements, all the other major exchanges came under attack from persons unknown and many shut down for a few days. All of the exchanges updated their systems and were operational within a week. Although Silk Road 2 was crippled in the attack, as a dark site that was not professionally run, it could not be used as an example of the weakness of the network. Within a few weeks, Mark Karpeles had given up his seat on the board of the Bitcoin Foundation, deleted the Gox twitter account, pulled the Mt. Gox site, and declared bankruptcy. A leaked ‘Crisis’ document that appeared to be one proposal for how to get Gox up and running again claimed that the exchange had been the victim of the theft of more than 744,000 bitcoins that had happened years earlier and remained undiscovered. Karpeles story has not been consistent here, but it seem either that a theft had drained the Gox cold-storage wallets years earlier and never been discovered because they were never checked on, or that the theft had been ongoing for years due to automated systems double paying Bitcoin withdrawals to hackers using transaction malleability. Both of these explanations cannot be true, but if it is one, the other, or something else again, it is clear that Mark Karpeles was wantonly irresponsible in his role as the caretaker of his customer’s investments. There are many claiming that this is an inside heist, as is usual in these cases. But, this does not seem to be the case. Mark Karpeles, as of this writing, is still in Tokyo, working with Japanese authorities, and, according to reports, trying to salvage the company somehow. This does not seem to be realistic, but does seem in keeping with what we have seen from Karpeles, a guy who bought a Magic: The Gathering trading card exchange.The University of Wisconsin-La Crosse is holding an event Wednesday night to help students determine whether their Halloween costumes might be offensive.
The event, which is being hosted by the Department of Ethics and Racial Studies, comes in the wake of an internal report revealing that incidents as innocuous as a Christian student group displaying a crucifix on a poster have been investigated by the school’s “Hate Response Team.”
The event “is a presentation that explores how Halloween costumes may be understood by others as racist.”
[RELATED: Crucifix, Trump chalkings reported as ‘hate incidents’ at UW-L]
Dr. Timothy B. Gongaware, Interim Chair of the Department of Ethics and Racial Studies, told Campus Reform that the event “is a presentation that explores how Halloween costumes may be understood by others as racist,” noting that although there is no standard definition of “racism” set by the university, the information covered in the presentation is drawn from scientific research on what people are likely to perceive as racist.
One of the missions of the University is to foster curiosity, he explained, saying the forum gives people the opportunity to ask questions and explore this topic, if they so desire, but also stressing that it is purely informational and entirely voluntary, and that there will be no university regulations regarding costumes on campus.
“This particular event reflects our university’s stated values of diversity, equity, and inclusion of all people and perspectives by providing the audience with an opportunity to consider the possible effects of actions, or the actions [and] reactions of others,” Gongaware said.
Gongaware conceded that UW-L has not received any complaints regarding Halloween costumes, as far as he knows, but explained that his department decided to organize the event because Halloween costumes have become a contentious issue on college campuses in recent years.
Indeed, many schools have begun undertaking similar “educational” initiatives geared toward dissuading students from donning provocative duds for the holiday.
[RELATED: Wesleyan provides checklist to help students avoid ‘offensive’ Halloween costumes]
The student government at Penn State University, for instance, recently approved a campaign to hang posters on campus and near the university urging students to avoid costumes evoking cultural stereotypes.
An email featuring a similar message was sent out to Yale University students last year, prompting a firestorm on campus when one administrator countered with an email of her own defending the right of students to be “a little bit offensive” in their exercise of free speech, and urging them to handle such issues through dialogue rather than censorship.
Many students reacted to the missive with outrage, even cornering the administrator’s husband on campus to berate him for supporting his wife, and both administrators eventually decided to step down rather than continue facing such hostility.
[RELATED: Yale administrators succumb to anti-speech activists]
Gongaware indicated that UW-L hopes that the event will allow it to avoid the sort of controversy that has plagued other schools
Recently, with the media and with social media, students who wear costumes that others deem offensive have attracted a lot of attention that he does not want on the university or on the students, he said.
“To help those who might want to avoid that kind of attention, they need to know what it is that others are responding to and why,” Gongaware said. “Having that information may help them as they are making their own choices about what costumes they want to wear.”
He noted that some reports have distorted the nature of the event by suggesting that the university will be reviewing students’ Halloween costumes, but insisted that this is not the case, asserting that students will simply be free to ask for an opinion on whether their costume could be deemed offensive.
Even so, Ben Stelter, chair of the UW-L College Republicans chapter, dismissed the costume dialogue as little more than a stunt, predicting that it would have little real impact on race relations on campus.
“This event does nothing to further the dialogue on our campus about issues of race,” Stelter told Campus Reform. “UW-La Crosse should be leading the way by tackling the real issues that have contributed to the growing racial divide in our country. Instead, our campus is choosing to focus on petty things, like Halloween costumes.”
(H/t: Jonathan Turley)
Follow the author of this article on Twitter: @TylerArnold18The Adventuresports Institute sponsors 5 guest speakers each semester representing various outdoor industry leaders and professionals. These events are free and open to the public. Presentations begin at 7:00 PM in Room 1013 of the Center for Adventure and Outdoor Studies. The spring Speaker Series has not been determined yet. We will update the list as it comes to fruition.
Professor and Executive Director, Adventuresports InstituteWest Virginia University 1975, B.S. and M.S. of Science degree in Electrical Engineering;Former American Canoe Association Rafting Instructor Trainer; National Ski Patrol Instructor - Mountain Travel & Rescue, Skiing, and paddle sports; 301-387-3333 Associate Professor, Adventure Sports ProgramJames Madison 1983 Bachelors in Science - Sports Management, Business Minor; West Virginia University 2002 Masters - Recreation Resource Management, Educational PsychologyAmerican Canoe Association - Kayak Instructor Trainer, Paddlesports, Rafting & Swiftwater Rescue; Professional Ski Instructor Association - Telemark & Cross Country Skiing, Programming, LeadershipKayaking, Rafting, Oar Rigging, Sea Kayaking, Swiftwater Rescue, Telemark Skiing, Cross Country Skiing, Low Ropes & Initiatives, Leadership and Group Dynamics, Guiding and Instructing in Adventuresports; 301-387-3327 Assistant Professor, Adventure Sports ProgramUniversity of Maryland 2014, College Park, MD B.S. in Environmental Science and Technology, Concentration in Ecology Technology and Design, Minor in Sustainability Studies; Appalachian State University 2016 M.A. in College Student Development, Concentration in College Outdoor Program AdministrationAmerican Mountain Guide Association - Single Pitch Instructor; American Canoe Association - Whitewater Kayak Instructor, Mountain Biking, Group Facilitation, Program Management, Experiential Education, Outdoor Leadership, International Expedition PlanningBackpacking, Rock Climbing, Leave No Trace, Wilderness Survival, Search & Rescue, Practicum Preparation & Internship, Intro to Adventuresports, Parks & Recreation, Program Planning & Management. 301-387-3324 Administrative AssociateA.A.S., Secretarial Science, Garrett College;Administrative Associate, former Office Manager for the 1989 World Whitewater Championships; 301-387-3330 Rental Center Manager & Transition Age Youth CoordinatorA.A.S., Adventure Sports Management, Garrett College; B.S. Sociology, Shepherd College: M.S., Gerontology, University of North TexasCoordinator of Transition Age Youth Program, Coordinator of ASI Auxiliary, Adjunct Instructor Mt. Biking & Cross Country Skiing 301-387-3323
The Adventuresports Institute of Garrett College is a Permit Holder of the Monongahela National Forest, maintains a Special use Permit with the State of Pennsylvania for instructions on sections of the Youghiogheny River, is a licensed West Virginia Whitewater Outfitter, and enjoys an inter-governmental Agreement with the Maryland Department of Natural Resources for use state lands in Garrett and Allegany counties.
— Garrett College is an equal opportunity provider and employer —It is no secret that craft beer enthusiasts in southwest Florida have spent years languishing in what the industry nicknamed "The Beer Desert,'' a barley-barren and hop-less landscape almost entirely devoid of locally brewed ales and lagers.The Sunshine State ranks 46th in the nation's breweries per capita, according to statistics collected by the National Brewers Association in 2012, and despite the Bay area presence of big-name brewery, Cigar City Brewing Company, and smaller operations such as Tampa Bay Brewing Company and Dunedin Brewery, locally brewed craft options have been historically sparse in St. Petersburg and south of the Skyway Bridge.Times are rapidly changing, however, with the emergence of a handful of new independent breweries that are working toward the common goal of positioning the greater Tampa Bay region as the oasis in Florida's craft beer desert.In the last year alone, taps have begun to flow at no less than nine new brewery operations in St. Petersburg, Bradenton and Sarasota, each of which is carving out its own identity in the Gulf Coast's craft beer industry -- a market which was, until the microbreweries' simultaneous arrival, virtually untapped outside of Tampa. 3 Daughters Brewing and St. Pete Brewing Company each hit the downtown St. Petersburg scene within months of one another. In Sarasota, two brewing companies called Big Top and JDubs Brewing opened their tasting rooms earlier this year. Motorworks Brewing and Darwin's Brewing Company also arrived in 2014 to place Bradenton on the Florida brew map, and the buzz surrounding Little Giant Brewing, a popular Bradenton nanobrewery projected to open its first full-scale brewpub in early 2015, is currently growing to a foamy head. To the north, the Barley Mow Brewery in Largo, Rapp Brewing Company in Pinellas Park and Lakeland's Brew Hub are also relative newcomers to the brewery scene.The microbrewery renaissance that recently introduced five breweries to St. Petersburg is related, in large part, to the recent relaxation of zoning laws that prohibited the production and sale of beer and malt beverages under the same roof in Pinellas County. The changes were initiated by Green Bench founders, Nathan Stonecipher and Steven Duffy, who worked with city zoning and economic development officials to draft "brewer-friendly'' codes that would allow them to open their brewery in a 1920s brick warehouse on First Avenue.Brewer's Tasting Room was the first of the new St. Pete microbreweries to open in January 2013, followed by Cycle Brewing in August 2013, Green Bench and 3 Daughters in September 2013, and St. Petersburg Brewing Company in April of this year. Although the sudden influx of multiple breweries to the same five-mile radius may seem like a recipe for cutthroat competition, the attitude shared among the brewers is one of neighborly camaraderie."I think there are enough people in this area who drink craft beer, or who will eventually begin to drink craft beer, that it's really not a competition -- and in some ways it's even a team effort. There's enough for all us out there, especially since everyone is doing something different. A little bit of everything that's going on is going to drive people downtown,'' says Jon McCracken, owner and brewer of St. Petersburg Brewing Company.Motorworks Brewing Marketing Director Barry Elwonger uses the term "co-optition,'' a neologism coined to describe cooperative competition, to characterize the mindset of the craft brewing industry."Consumers are starting to take notice of what they're drinking. They're getting away from the typical yellow fizzy stuff and beginning to understand the complexities of what beer has to offer. People are also taking a real interest in drinking local,'' Elwonger says. Neighboring Bradenton brewery, Darwin's Brewing Company, is located one half mile away from Motorworks."You'll never hear another brewer talking poorly about his brothers in arms. It comes back around to the fact that we're 10 percent of the market. We need to stick together to make the rest of the market to understand why we're doing this -- for the love of the beer.''This shared ''love of the beer'' has given rise to a more sophisticated culture that is centered on inspiring appreciation, rather than inebriation, among beer consumers at the Tampa Bay area's new breweries -- many of which emphasize a family-friendly environment.Each brewery has its own style and specialty. Cycle Brewing's Doug Dozark is known for his barrel-aged beers and session IPAs. Motorworks, along with St. Petersburg Brewing Company and 3 Daughters, takes a classic approach to its beer recipes, often favoring tradition and balance over experimental flavor wildcards. The brewmasters at Darwin's Brewing Company and Green Bench take the most extreme and eclectic approach to creating beers.Darwin's co-owner and brewmaster, Jorge Rosabal, experiments with unusual South American ingredients such as aji charapita peppers and quinoa to pair his beers with the Peruvian style culinary dishes created by brewery co-Owner and Chef Darwin Santa Maria."Our vision is to place Bradenton on America's beer map; to get this area to a point where we are recognized as a destination for craft beers. Personally, I think one of the most important parts of the craft industry is developing a culture of pairing craft beers with food, so that's where our beers begin,'' Rosabal says.Like Rosabal, Green Bench Brewmaster Khris Johnson sees an opportunity to position Florida's Gulf coast at the center of national attention by pushing one-of-a-kind, daredevil brews. Under Johnson's creative direction, Green Bench Brewing leads the Bay area in outside-the-box, hop-fueled Belgian beers and sours such as the "Jalepeno Goose Joose,'' a hoppy kiwi sour with jalepeno peppers, and the "Surrealist,'' a sour IPA."My goals as a brewer are to make what I love drinking and to bring something to St. Pete that the area has never tasted. We're in this experimental stage, and I want people to be saying, 'What the hell is going on in St. Pete?','' Johnson says."Because Florida is late to the game, we have this mindset of needing to catch up. We're inventing styles and changing peoples' perceptions on beer because we're under that pressure, and we're growing faster, as far as education and community goes, than anywhere else in the country because of it,'' he adds.Although Bay area brewers may not be able to agree on a brewing style -- and for the sake of variety, it's a good thing they can't -- they are unanimous in their confidence that the craft beer revolution has only just begun in Florida, and that the Bay area is poised to lead the way.American craft brewers contributed $33.9 billion to the U.S. economy in 2012, with Florida craft brewers responsible for $876 million of that economic impact. Although National Brewer's Association statistics show a 1.9 percent drop in overall beer sales, nationally, in 2013, craft beer saw a 17.2 percent jump -- and the craft brewery explosion in the Tampa Bay region is a clear indicator of a growing trend throughout the state and across the nation."This is not a trend. We're using the same mindset that other craft brewers across the country have been using for years, but we're all adding our own unique twist,'' says Darwin Santa Maria."Cigar City built a platform for little places like us, like Motorworks, and JDubs and Big Top in Sarasota, and like the guys in St. Pete -- and now we all have our own story to tell. Craft beer is here to stay.''Jessi Smith, a native Floridian, is a freelance writer who lives and works in downtown Sarasota. When she isn't writing about local arts and culture, she can generally be found practicing yoga or drinking craft beers and talking about her magnificent cat. Jessi received her bachelor's degree in art history from Florida International University and, predictably, perpetually smells of patchouli. Comments? Contact 83 Degrees.Campaigning for his father in Montana back in 2008, Rand Paul spoke out against the NAFTA Superhighway, encouraging Congress to stop the mythical project that would connect Mexico, the U.S., and Canada and, critics say, deal a fatal blow to American sovereignty. Long a bugaboo on some segments of the Right, the NAFTA Superhighway does not actually exist.
“It’s gonna go up through Texas, I guess, all the way to Montana,” said Paul, at an event in Bozeman. “So, it’s a real thing, and when you talk about it, the thing you just have to be aware of is that, if you talk about it like it’s a conspiracy, they’ll paint you as a nut.”As was amply documented by The Nation a few years back, “There’s no such thing as a proposed NAFTA Superhighway.” It represents, Newsweek put it, “a strange stew of fact and fiction, fired by paranoia” that was popularized by Jerome Corsi, the man who spearheaded the Swift Boat attacks on John Kerry in 2004.
The NAFTA Superhighway has been a pet issue of Paul’s father, Ron Paul. In a 2006 column, Ron Paul wrote: “Proponents envision a ten-lane colossus the width of several football fields, with freight and rail lines, fiber-optic cable lines, and oil and natural gas pipelines running alongside. … The ultimate goal is not simply a superhighway, but an integrated North American Union – complete with a currency, a cross-national bureaucracy, and virtually borderless travel within the Union.”
In the Montana appearance, Rand Paul echoed his father’s views, referring to the “Amero” (the Euro-style currency of the future North American Union), and saying “I guarantee you it’s one of their long term goals to have one sort of borderless, mass continent.”
He also mentions the Trans-Texas Corridor, which was a real project. But Paul enters myth territory when he says the corridor was “gonna go up through Texas, I guess, all the way to Montana.”
Here’s the video (start at :27). Transcript is below.There is a man at large right now who, according to declassified U.S. government documents, is believed by both the CIA and the FBI to have been involved in bombing a passenger jet.
U.S. investigators traced the planting of the bombs, which killed 78 people, to employees of this man. A CIA document that has been public for some time quotes this man as having declared, a few days before the incident: "We are going to hit an …airliner."
Almost without question, this man qualifies for the treatment that has been meted out to so many other people considered terrorists by the United States — a missile, fired down from a drone, putting an end to his continued defiant existence.
Unfortunately, Luis Posada Carriles lives in Florida at the moment.
The forbearance of U.S. authorities likely has something to do with the fact that the passenger jet was Cuban, it was bombed during the Cold War in 1978, and Carriles was at the time working on and off for the |
det får ham til at skrue yderligere op for ambitionerne.- Det er med garanti ikke den sidste storby, der får en døgnåben Netto. Vi kan se potentialet, men udrulningen skal også ske i et sådan tempo, at vi er 100 procent på plads med bemandingen, siger Claus Sjödin.Rekrutteringen af medarbejdere til natarbejde sker ad frivillighedens vej for eksisterende medarbejdere og ved nyansættelse af medarbejdere, som har erfaring med natarbejde.(AP)
Tom Flores airs one out in the wide open Raiders attack, a hallmark in the former AFL.
Tom Flores is a groundbreaking NFL figure. In 1960, Flores became the first Hispanic quarterback to start as a member of the Oakland Raiders. Two decades later, Flores led the Raiders to a pair of Super Bowl victories (XV, XVIII) as a head coach, becoming the first minority coach to do so.
Surprisingly, Flores remains only Hall of Fame eligible.
(Associated Press)
Flores and cast-off Jim Plunkett brought Super Bowl titles to Oakland and Los Angeles.
Tom Flores replaced Raiders head coach John Madden in 1979. Flores’ personality unlike Madden’s did not fit the traditional Raider mold. Flores was the quiet general in the midst of madmen — his will to win was the one requirement to lead an Al Davis franchise.
Flores was the backup to Len Dawson when the Kansas City Chiefs won the 1969 AFL-NFL World Championship Game (Super Bowl IV). Flores retired as one of only twenty players to play during the entire existence of the AFL.
In Oakland and Los Angeles, he solidified his legacy. The Raiders entered the playoffs as a wild-card in 1980. Oakland eventually marched into Super Bowl XV against a finesse Philadelphia Eagles team favored and deemed better by experts. The Raiders dominated the Eagles 27-10, and Flores won his first Super Bowl as a head coach.
Three years later in Super Bowl XVIII, Flores and the Raiders faced the high-powered offense of the Washington Redskins. Led by Joe Theismann, bruising tailback John Riggins and a talented receiving corp, the Redskins were the most prolific offense in league history. The Raiders, who were now residents of Los Angeles, shut down the Redskins attack with a dogged defensive effort in a stunning 38-9 victory.
At the forefront of the Raiders Super Bowl victories was former No.1 overall pick Jim Plunkett. After failed stints in New England and San Francisco, Plunkett was written off by everyone. This qualified the former Heisman Trophy winner for a job with the Silver and Black. Flores, who was given the opportunity to play in the AFL by Al Davis, reached out to Jim Plunkett. Plunkett is of Native American decent. Neither are in the Hall of Fame despite each having two impactful Super Bowl victories.
Flores career record (97-87) is not as gaudy as Bill Parcells and others, but his playoff winning percentage of 73 percent (8-3 record) is second only to Vince Lombardi (minimum 10 games).
Two Super Bowl victories as an underdog cannot be overlooked.
The Lineup:
Collin Klein is leading the Heisman race (CBS Sports).
Lance Armstrong has been stripped of seven Tour De France titles (Yahoo).
Trent Richardson says rib injury is worse than expected (Pro Football Talk).
Thomas Robinson welcomes Dwight Howard to LA (Dime Magazine).
Dodger Stadium is preferred site for NFL team in LA (Black Sports Online).
Dwight Howard sheds a few in Laker debut (In Flex We Trust).
Indiana Fever win WNBA title (SB Nation).
Osi breaks down RG3 (CBS Sports).
Wes Welker after Pats victory (NFL.com).
The New Yorker endorses President Obama (The New Yorker).
Enjoy today folks.McConnell: Outlook ‘bleak’ for TPP this year
With help from Doug Palmer and Victoria Guida
MCCONNELL: ‘BLEAK’ OUTLOOK FOR TPP THIS YEAR: Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell has all but ruled out the possibility of Congress voting on the Trans-Pacific Partnership this year, but he said the deal could still be modified and put to a vote in 2017 or beyond.
Story Continued Below
“The biggest problem right now is the political environment to pass a trade bill is worse than any time I've been in the Senate because we're right in the middle of this presidential election year, [and] the candidates are all against what the president has negotiated,” the Kentucky Republican said in an interview with Agri-Pulse’s Open Mic.
But McConnell also said he had substantive problems with the agreement, focusing in particular on tobacco and pharmaceutical issues that Republicans have raised. “The good news is the deal does not go away. It's still there. It can be modified,” he said. “Trade promotion authority is for six years, so the next president will still have the authority under which they can negotiate a deal and send it up for an up-or-down vote.”
“So... it looks bleak for this year,” McConnell said, adding he couldn’t make any guarantees about a Senate vote on the trade deal in the lame-duck session, as many supporters are hoping for. It’s understandable that President Barack Obama would want the deal to pass while he’s still in office, “but that's just a matter of bragging rights,” he added.
Turning to Cuba, McConnell said he knows many farmers favor ending the embargo. But he said he was “still not very happy” with Obama’s opening to the island and brushed off any chance of Congress voting to normalize relations with Cuba in 2016. “I don’t think that’s going to happen this year,” the majority leader said. To listen to the full interview, click here.
IT’S THURSDAY, MAY 5, and welcome to Morning Trade, where we suspect some of our dear readers might erroneously raise a margarita later tonight to toast Mexican independence rather than the actual significance of this date, which marks the outnumbered Mexican army’s improbable victory over the better-equipped French at the Battle of Puebla in 1862. Happy Cinco de Mayo! Got any trade news to share? Let us know: vguida@politico.com, dpalmer@politico.com, mkorade@politico.com.
WATCHDOG: KORUS DEFICIT RAISES RED FLAG: Public Citizen's Global Trade Watch says Commerce Department data showing that the trade deficit with South Korea has grown by $16 billion since the deal went into effect in 2012 is a sign of what's to come under the TPP.
“[M]uch of the TPP text was literally cut and pasted from the Korea agreement, so to see what a disaster the Korea deal has been is a stark warning,” the group’s director, Lori Wallach, said in a statement Wednesday after the release of the data. “President Obama has repeatedly asked that the TPP not be judged against his predecessors’ failed trade deals, but now we can see the disastrous results from [his] signature trade package.”
The trade deficit with South Korea has increased more than with any other free trade partner, think tank Third Way found in a recent report. Public Citizen says that a comparison of the periods from April 2011 to March 2012 and April 2015 to March 2016 shows that average monthly exports to South Korea have fallen in 11 of the 15 most commercially important sectors. Those include a nearly 23 percent drop in machinery and an almost 7 percent decrease in electronics, which together make up about 30 percent of all U.S. sales to the country.
Agricultural exports to South Korea have fallen 19 percent, or $1.4 billion, while agricultural imports from the country have grown 34 percent, or $123 million.
ADMIN PAINTS A DIFFERENT PICTURE: But the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative has put forward data that show the deficit could have been larger without the free trade deal. South Korean imports of goods from the U.S. were down by just under 3 percent, according to the country’s statistics, compared to imports from Japan, which were down almost 15 percent; imports from the EU, down 8.4 percent; and imports from Australia, down 19.4 percent, USTR said in a fact sheet earlier this year.
At the same time, the U.S. share of South Korea’s imports has risen from a pre-FTA level of 8.5 percent to slightly over 10 percent in 2015, it added.
The agency also said exports of U.S. goods and services to South Korea overall were up by just over 1 percent between 2014 and 2015, driven by mostly services exports, which increased more than 8 percent.
Commerce Secretary Penny Pritzker also took a positive view of the figures, saying the data indicated “encouraging signs” of improvement for the U.S. trade deficit in the first quarter — and that trade deals like the TPP would further the trend.
“It is critical that this agreement enters into force as quickly as possible so that U.S. exports can continue to drive economic growth and job creation around the country,” Pritzker said in a statement. She added: “Since 2009, U.S. goods exports to FTA partners have grown faster (53 percent) than our exports to the rest of the world (34 percent).”
Read the Commerce Department’s data here: http://1.usa.gov/189Huwp.
THREE AMIGOS SUMMIT DATE SET: President Obama, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and Mexican President Enrique Peña Nieto will meet in Ottawa on June 29 for the North American leaders summit, the White House announced Wednesday.
Obama will address a joint session of the Canadian Parliament, where he likely will urge approval of the TPP, which includes the three NAFTA countries, Japan and eight other countries in the fast-growing Pacific Rim region.
"The summit is further recognition of the value of a more integrated North America to advance the security and prosperity of the continent," the White House said in a statement. "It also highlights the importance of continuing to strengthen the bilateral and trilateral ties between United States, Canada and Mexico.”
PELOSI LEADS DELEGATION ON TPP LATIN AMERICA TRIP: Meanwhile, House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi is with a bipartisan delegation of lawmakers in Chile this morning on the last leg of a trip to three TPP countries in Latin America. The group began Sunday in Mexico, where they met with Peña Nieto and other senior officials to discuss the TPP as well as security, migration and human rights concerns.
“We underscored the economic benefits to both of our countries of an integrated economy in North America and discussed the Mexican government’s recently proposed labor reforms,” Pelosi said in a statement after meeting the president. Later, at a press conference, the California Democrat urged the Mexican people not to worry too much about Trump. “This election will come and go, and so will Donald Trump,” she said.
The group, which met with Peruvian Prime Minister Pedro Cateriano on Wednesday, includes four lawmakers who voted for trade promotion authority: Reps. Richard Hanna (R-N.Y.), Texas Democrats Henry Cuellar and Beto O’Rourke; and Michael Fitzpatrick (R-Pa.). It also includes seven who did not: California Democrats Pelosi, Lucille Roybal-Allar, Linda Sanchez, Peter Aguilar and Norma Torres, and Michelle Lujan-Grisham (D-N.M.) and Ruben Gallego (D-Ariz.). The lawmakers are expected to meet with Chilean President Michelle Bachelet in Santiago.
ARGENTINE AMBASSADOR: MERCOSUR FLAWED: In other Latin American news, Argentina’s ambassador to the United States, Martín Lousteau, was candid about the limitations of the Mercosur agreement between his country, Brazil, Uruguay, Paraguay and Venezuela at this week’s annual Council of the Americas meeting at the State Department.
“I think we put the bar for ourselves too high when we did a customs union,” Lousteau said, referring to the unachieved goal of creating a common market along the lines of the European Union. Argentina’s reform-minded new president, Mauricio Macri, has moved quickly to improve the country’s badly damaged trade reputation, but Lousteau cautioned against expecting big changes within Mercosur too quickly given the political and economic turmoil in Brazil.
“I think it’s very important at this moment that Mercosur remain united,” Lousteau said. Still, “not only in Argentina, but also in Brazil, you start to see signs of more openness in terms of Mercosur finally putting on the proposal to the European Union for a trade agreement. And I hope that the Europeans are as open as we want them to be,” he said, referring to recent activity in long-stalled talks between the EU and Mercosur on a trade pact.
OMBUDSMAN V. OMBUDSMAN: European Ombudsman Emily O’Reilly isn’t resting on the assurances of the European Commission that the newly created watchdog for the U.S.-EU “Privacy Shield” agreement won’t be a toothless position, POLITICO Europe’s Joanna Plucinska writes.
This week, O’Reilly sent a second letter to EU Justice, Consumers and Gender Equality Commissioner Vera Jourová repeating her fears that the Privacy Shield ombudsperson, who is the European citizens’ go-to person for concerns about EU-U.S. data transfers under the agreement, could suffer from conflicts of interest as a member of the U.S. State Department.
“The Decision does not contain any procedural rules aimed at preventing conflicts of interest as regards selecting and appointing the Ombudsperson,” O’Reilly writes. “Given... the Ombudsperson’s obligation to report to the Secretary of State, it could be argued that this does not provide for the necessary distance from the intelligence community that is required for the body to act in an independent manner.”
O’Reilly initially raised concerns about the ombudsperson’s independence in a letter to Jourová on Feb. 22, Plucinska writes. The EU commissioner replied last month that the privacy shield ombudsperson’s role might not fit into a traditional definition of a watchdog, but that Secretary of State John Kerry handpicked Undersecretary of State Catherine Novelli for the job, and that she will be sufficiently independent from the U.S. intelligence community.
INTERNATIONAL OVERNIGHT
Thirteen industry groups representing Amazon, Uber, Apple, Facebook and other major tech companies are urging the next president to support the TPP and make it easier to hire foreign high-tech workers, says Fortune: http://for.tn/24z1kdv.
Google search results for TTIP have overtaken those for TPP, Breitbart reports: http://bit.ly/1UAgIDB.
German Chancellor Angela Merkel says she’ll do everything she can to complete the U.S.-EU trade deal, says Reuters: http://reut.rs/1OeZ9lO.
Still, the majority of Germans oppose TTIP, Deutsche Welle reports: http://bit.ly/1T2Aict.
A New Zealand legislative committee has approved the TPP, Radio New Zealand reports: http://bit.ly/24yWQU8.
Canadian Prime Minister Trudeau is downplaying concerns over the protectionist trade talk in the U.S. presidential campaign, The Toronto Star says: http://on.thestar.com/1rvPgvl.
Global consulting firm A.T. Kearney released its annual Foreign Direct Investment Confidence Index., which ranked the U.S. as the top destination for foreign direct investment for the fourth consecutive year. No. 2 on the list: China: http://bit.ly/1UvN9mP.
Meanwhile, Singapore has been named the 10th best nation for FDI, jumping ahead of economies such as Switzerland and Sweden, Singapore Business Review says: http://bit.ly/26Vmzbw.
Hawaii’s legislature passed a prohibition on the sale of parts and products from 17 endangered species, as well as of ivory; Maui Now reports the ban would be the largest of its kind in the United States if signed by Gov. David Ige: http://bit.ly/1NkiK9s.
ICYMI: The British Parliament’s upper house has released a report saying it could take almost a decade to untangle the United Kingdom from the EU if it votes to leave the bloc June 23: http://bit.ly/23qyxW1.
THAT'S ALL FOR MORNING TRADE! See you again soon! In the meantime, drop the team a line: abehsudi@politico.com and @ABehsudi; vguida@politico.com and @vtg2; dpalmer@politico.com and @tradereporter; mkorade@politico.com and @mjkorade; and jhuffman@politico.com and @JsonHuffman. You can also follow @POLITICOPro and @Morning_Trade.
** A message from The Alliance for American Manufacturing: American manufacturing is booming, outpacing private sector job creation. Factories are looking to hire more than 400,000 workers. The steel industry is adding jobs and making new investments; imports are down and production is up. Congress shouldn’t roll back this progress by weakening trade enforcement. Opening our communities to a flood of imported Chinese steel will undermine our national security and jobs. Learn more here. **About 20 people protested outside of Senator Lindsey Graham's Florence office at the Federal Building on West Evans Street on Monday.
Members of the Florence and Myrtle Beach Tea Parties took part in the demonstration to voice their opposition to Graham voting yes for immigration reform.
"We hope that we will be able in this next election to get enough grass roots support that we can primary Lindsey and send Lindsey back home and let him do what he wants. Or move out to Arizona with John McCain. He fits in quite well with him," said Janet Spencer, Myrtle Beach Carolina Patriots.
"We're tired of him being so wishy washy and him sitting on the fence. He'll do one thing that's good and do about four or five that's displeasing to us. We want a real conservative to represent us," said Charlotte Hendrix, Florence Tea Party Patriots.
Senator Graham's office released a statement to WPDE NewsChannel 15 regarding the protests:
"We have had protestors both in support and opposition to immigration reform. Previously, the evangelical community and conservative religious leaders have held prayer vigils outside our offices encouraging people of faith to support immigration reform. I expect as the process moves forward we will have more people in the community, and across the state, speak out both for and against immigration reform."
"Senator Graham appreciates these individuals, whether in support or opposition, for taking time out of their day to make their voices heard."
Protestors picketed outside of all Graham's offices across the state.
The demonstration was sponsored by Freedom Works.The London Underground is experiencing severe delays this morning due to a number of reported incidents.
Commuters have been affected as several lines have been hit with suspension and delay.
A signal failure at Queensway caused issues on the Central Line, and a further signal failure at Aldgate East is causing disruption on the Circle Line and Hammersmith & City Line.
The Piccadilly Line is affected by an earlier track fault at Northfields.
London Overground services are part suspended due to a signal failure at New Cross.
We will bring you the latest updates and information below.
Keep up to date with the latest news in west London via the free getwestlondon app.
You can even set it to receive push notifications for all the breaking news in your area.
Available to download from the App Store or Google Play for Android now!The Cider Journal has now published 250 separate reviews of ciders produced around the world, making it one of the largest sources of reviews of cider anywhere on the planet.
However, 2015 was particularly exciting as we came across and number of craft ciders that we believed were spectacular and worth a search if they can’t be found near you. Yet, in the interest of space, we have chosen our TOP 10 Ciders of 2015.
In order to break into the Cider Journal top 10, we were looking for a combination of both quality and value. Fortunately, it’s not hard to find value within the craft cider world. The best ciders in the world rarely cost more than $20 and are worth every penny. Finally, I want to thank all the cideries who sent samples to the Cider Journal in 2015. Though we purchase more than half of the ciders we review, the samples are much appreciated.
THE TOP 10 CIDERS OF 2015—IN NO PARTICULAR ORDER:
2012 EZ Orchard Cidre Dry — 5 STARS —$15.00/ 750ml (Oregon)
Kevin Zelinsky is a master of revealing the nature of the apple. This beautiful, perfectly rendered, balanced cider is an example of why he is so looked up to by cidermakers and cider geeks alike.
2014 Eve’s Autumn’s Gold Sparkling Dry Cider —5 STARS— $15.99 / 750ml (New York)
The first of three ciders from Eve’s to make our Top 10 in 2015. The 2014 Autumn’s Gold is perfectly structured and sports an astonishingly vibrant and expressive nose.
2012 Acebal El Carrascu Natural Cider — 4.5 STARS — $11.99 / 700ml. (Astruria, Spain)
One of the best and most complete Spanish ciders we have ever tasted. Great typicity, incredibly refreshing.
2014 Eve’s Cider Albee Hill Dry and Still — 4.5 STARS — $11.99/ 750ml (New York)
One of the most exciting ciders being made today. From a single orchard above the cider and produced with an array of heirloom and traditional cider apples. An opulent and intriguing cider.
2014 Eve’s Cider Beckhorn Hollow Sparkling Dry Cider — 4.5 Stars —$15.99/ 750 (New York)
Great cider, whether sweet or dry, whether sparkling or dry, is defined by a harmony of acid, tannin and alcohol. This cider may be the best balanced we’ve ever tasted.
2014 Finnriver Fire Barrel Cider — 4.5 STARS —$10 / 500ml (Washington)
The boldest cider in our 10 Ten. There is great dedication and history behind this cider.
2014 Shacksbury Classic Craft Cider — 4.5 STARS — $9.00/ 500ml. (Vermont)
This is beautifully make cider that keeps the drinker’s nose dipping into the glass constantly to get another whiff of what are a truly complex mix of a myriad of aromas.
Les Vergers du Cotentin Brut — 4.5 STARS — $13.00 / 750ml. (Paye d’Auge, France)
An incredibly elegant Normandy cider that sports fine balance and expressive flavors.
Stem Ciders Le Chene Barrel Aged Dry Hard Cider — 4.5 STARS — $13.00 / 750ml. (Colorado)
A beautifully crafted dry hard cider from Colorado. It’s clean and interesting and is notable for a great complexity of aromas.
Txopinondo Sagarnoa Cidre — 4.5 STARS — $10.00 / 750ml. — (Basque Region, France)
A Basque-style cider that has an enormous amount of interesting aromas and flavors stuffed into it.Be warned — you may have more potential skin cancers than you think.
Key points: Cancer Council Australia announced changes to its melanoma diagnosis guidelines for doctors
Asked to add the EFG assessment — looking at elevation, firmness and growth
About 30 Australians are diagnosed with the skin cancer every day
Until now, public health messages about skin cancer haven't warned about paler, less obvious lesions.
"Typically, a lot of people assume, wrongly, that melanomas are associated with dark pigmented moles," said Chris McMillan, the CEO of Cancer Council Queensland.
But research has shown that risks missing a significant number of potential lethal melanomas.
"Realistically, we find that 20 per cent of melanomas are pale-coloured lesions," Mr McMillan said.
Detection as easy as ABCD... EFG
Cancer Council Australia this week announced changes to its melanoma diagnosis guidelines for doctors.
The previous guidelines were based on the ABCD method, with doctors assessing asymmetry, border, colour and diameter.
But now they're being asked to also add the EFG assessment — looking at elevation, firmness and growth.
The guideline change means a change in public health messaging.
A 2012 Cancer Council TV advertisement features an animation of a growing black melanoma, but Mr McMillan agrees that could be misleading.
"Those sort of scary images don't have a great effect," he said.
"A slightly tweaked message will be out there."
A near miss
Melbourne woman Rachel Angus had a near miss with a melanoma nine years ago.
She pointed out a pink spot on her leg to her doctor during a routine skin check.
"He had a look at it and said 'oh, it doesn't look like anything at all, but we'll take it off just in case'," she said.
Skin cancer doctor Dr Tony Dicker, was shocked when the biopsy result showed the spot was a melanoma.
"It scares you," he said.
"You suddenly see these spots as doctor and you think, 'wow, I could easily miss this'."
Dr Dicker says the new guidelines are very useful.
"They get you thinking the right way about what you need to consider, which lumps and bumps to be concerned about," he said.
"It helps lead to the right diagnosis."
If it's changing, it needs checking
Australia has the highest incidence of melanoma in the world.
About 30 Australians are diagnosed with the skin cancer every day — and more than 1,000 people die of the disease each year.
There is evidence that decades of public health campaigns, such as Slip Slop Slap, are working.
However, the incidence of melanomas is continuing to rise.
"The reason for that is that there's a very long latency period," the head of research at Cancer Council Queensland, Joanne Aitken, said.
"And it takes decades for a melanoma to develop — decades."
Which makes prevention vital.
"Change is the hallmark of cancer, and it's the hallmark of melanoma," Ms Aitken said.
"So things that are changing are things that people should be having checked."
Ms Angus is living proof of the importance of regular skin checks.
"If I hadn't have gone for the skin check-up, I would have died — that's just the bottom line," she said.Rep. Frank Pallone, Jr. (D-NJ), sounds like he doesn't know how a smartphone works or what the role of Congress is.
The ranking member of the House Energy and Commerce Committee fired off a letter along with two Democratic colleagues demanding Pokémon Go explain what it does about how much data its users use playing the game.
"We are writing to better understand what measures Niantic has undertaken to ensure consumers are informed of Pokémon Go's effect on their mobile data usage," the letter begins, continuing by explaining that the app had been downloaded 7.5 million times in its first week out and earned "an estimated $2.3 million day on the iOS and Android platforms. The reference to revenue is totally gratuitous and unrelated to anything else Pallone brings up. He does not mention that Pokémon Go is a free app or that he has no business getting involved with Pokémon Go and data usage in the first place.
Amazingly, while trying to whip up fears over Pokémon Go and data usage, Pallone cites a Wall Street Journal article titled "Relax, Pokémon Go Isn't Eating Your Data Plan," which reports that according to Verizon the app takes up less than 1 percent of its total data traffic. Pokémon Go, like any sophisticated app, can drain battery life, but it does have a setting for "battery saver." Battery usage is a problem for many smartphone users and one smartphone makers have long been working to improve. Like data usage, battery usage isn't any of Pallone's business either.
It's up to individuals how much they want to consider their data usage when playing Pokémon Go. Most smartphones allow you to check data usage by app—I've used about 300MB of data on Pokémon Go in the last two weeks, hardly my most data-taxing app—and there are even apps to help monitor data usage instead.
But Pallone could relax even if that weren't the case, because issues like data usage on Pokemon Go are outside the purview of Congress. It's notable too that the concept of net neutrality, which Pallone and Democrats tend to support, make it harder for service providers and app operators to minimize the cost of data usage because "net neutrality" doesn't permit treating data spent on Pokémon Go to be treated differently than data used on any other program or internet service. If Pallone is interested in contributing, he could work to roll back net neutrality controls.
Frank Pallone ends with four questions he asks Niantic to answer, none of which it should feel compelled to answer and none of which are intelligent enough to be worth asking. He wants to know whether there are "best practices" Niantic follows to minimize how much data is used (their code is none of Pallone or the government's business), whether it works with carriers to "ensure that consumers are not unexpectedly hit with large overage charges," (this is non-sensical as other apps use even more data), whether it warns consumers about data usage (again, nonsensical given that Pallone has overblown the data impact), and most incredibly, whether it had "any mechanisms in place to make sure consumers are made whole in the event they are hit with an unexpected overage charge resulting from the use of your app." Why would anyone but the user of a phone be responsible for the data they use?
I wouldn't even say Congress has more important things to concern itself about. Even if Congress didn't have anything to concern itself with—no self-created foreign policy, fiscal and other messes to get itself out of—Pokémon Go would still not be something that's appropriate for Congress to concern itself with.
If Frank Pallone has concerns about Pokémon Go, he should free to quit his job in Congress and work on developing an augmented-reality game he thinks is superior. Otherwise he should shut up and not use the pulpit of political office to bully a company that did develop an augmented-reality game it and millions of users enjoy.
Thankfully it's still possible to ignore politicians.Hezbollah is rapidly rearming in preparation for a new conflict with Israel, fearing that Benjamin Netanyahu's government will attack Lebanon again prior to any assault on Iran's nuclear facilities.
Last week, Israeli commandos seized a ship in the Mediterranean loaded with almost 400 tonnes of rockets and small arms – which Israel claimed was being sent from Iran to its Hezbollah allies. In dramatic further evidence of growing tensions, the Observer has learned that Hezbollah fighters have been busy reinforcing fixed defence positions north of the Litani river.
Having lost many of its bunkers in the south, Hezbollah is preparing a new strategy to defend villages there.
Although the organisation denied last week that the weapons were intended for its use, senior commanders have done little to disguise the scale of rearmament. "Sure, we are rearming, we have even said that we have far more rockets and missiles than we did in 2006," said a Hezbollah commander, speaking on condition of anonymity.
The 2006 war between Hezbollah and Israel began after an ill-advised operation by to kidnap two Israeli soldiers, prompting a massive Israeli response that lasted 34 days and killed more than 1,000 people.
"We had to blow up or leave some of our bunkers and fighting positions, but we still have plenty of capabilities in the south. We expect the Israelis to come soon, if not this winter, then they will wait until spring, when the ground isn't too soft for their tanks."
It was expected that the ceasefire would neutralise Hezbollah military efforts along the Lebanon-Israel border, as a newly bolstered United Nations peacekeeping force and the Lebanese army took up positions. Instead, based on dozens of interviews and multiple trips into the country's south, it is clear that Hezbollah believes it would face different challenges.
It has been forced to abandon the line of deeply entrenched static positions on the border with Israel and withdraw most of its men and weaponry to clusters of Shia villages.
"It's clear that Hezbollah no longer controls the border, due to the presence of Unifil [United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon] troops," said Andrew Exum, a military expert on Hezbollah at the Centre for New American Security. "They appear to be hardening the villages for this next round of fighting, while pushing their fixed positions north away from Unifil to protect the approaches to Beirut and the Bekaa Valley."
Israel and the United States have long assumed that any military action against Iran's nuclear programme would draw a muscular response from its close allies in Hezbollah. According to Israeli military and intelligence analysts, any move against Iran would require a move first against Hezbollah's capability to disrupt life in northern Israel with its rockets.
Tel Aviv seems unlikely to commit the same mistakes it did in 2006, when the plan was for air strikes to disrupt and confuse Hezbollah's military command, while minimising the use of ground troops. Israeli military sources have said that they are preparing for a potential new conflict.
Cruising through the serene green wadis that connect south Lebanon to the Litani river to the north, the commander explains what happened at the end of the last war. "We knocked out three of their tanks on the first day, as they tried to enter," he explained at a turn-off by the village of al-Qantara. "But after they entered the wadi, we knew they were going for the river and had to be stopped. So we called out to all the special forces anti-tank teams in the area. And they all swarmed the wadi. Boys would set up and wait for the tanks, fire off their rounds and then pull back. Then they would pull back a kilometre or so down the wadi and wait for them again."
According to Israeli military reports, after the first and last tanks were hit by rocket fire or mines, killing the company commander, the 24 tanks were essentially trapped inside a valley, surrounded on all sides and pinned down by mortars, rockets and mines. Eleven tanks were destroyed and the rest partially damaged and Israel lost at least 12 soldiers.
As unlikely as the Israelis might be to repeat these mistakes, they must figure out how to get their heavy armour past the Hezbollah teams that still lurk in the hills and valleys in the next round of fighting, if and when it comes.The conventional wisdom seems to be that Democrats shouldn’t spike the football or dance in the end zone once they succeed in lifting the debt ceiling and reopening government, because decorum. Or something. It would be bad taste and it might even make Republicans crazier. That’s a real risk. I would have denied that crazier than this was possible a few months ago, but I’ve learned: Never bet against their capacity for crazy.
Still, part of me disagrees with that assessment, strongly. I think Democrats should do whatever is necessary to make clear to Republicans that this was a political disaster for them, and a genuine disaster for the country, and it should never be tried again. If humiliation would do that, I’m all for it.
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On the other hand, it’s a mistake for Democrats, liberals especially, to celebrate this deal – because we can still lose.
Let’s be clear: Republicans got something for their bad behavior: tougher income verification requirements for Affordable Care Act subsidies, and a shorter debt-ceiling hike than Democrats said they wanted. And Republicans gave…nothing. They merely did their jobs and reopened the government and averted a global economic disaster. They put down the gun, and they released the hostage. That’s all.
They’re also getting a promise of formal negotiations over the budget. Now that should happen anyway, so that’s not a big deal. But Democrats have spent the last month on GOP turf: conceding that they must talk about deficit reduction, with pious nods to Saints Simpson and Bowles and now, yuck, Blessed Leon Panetta -- and that they’re open to everything. And most of them mean it.
I just watched Sen. Chuck Schumer tell MSNBC’s Andrea Mitchell that once this deal is out of the way, Congress will resume budget negotiations, and everything, including so-called “entitlements,” must be on the table. House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi was a little bit more balanced, insisting Democrats should only look at entitlement cuts in exchange for more revenues from people who can pay more. “Why should Granny pay the price?” without asking the rich to share the sacrifice, Pelosi asked.
But with all due respect to the once (and perhaps future) speaker, who’s been the toughest Democrat over the last five years: The answer is Granny shouldn’t pay any price. When Social Security needs “fixing,” we should lift the cap on income subject to the payroll tax. The chained CPI is a cut and shouldn’t be a first offer, but a last resort.
Likewise, President Obama took a tax rate hike off the table this month in an interview with CNBC’s John Harwood; Congressional Democratic leaders should put it back on the table immediately.
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I’ve been impressed by the way Pelosi and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid have kept their caucus together. I’ve also liked seeing new life among Congressional progressives. With the quiet backing of Reid in the Senate, they cleared space for the most progressive likely Fed chair pick, Janet Yellen. They need to make sure that any new budget deal doesn’t start with the president’s budget, which concedes too much to the GOP already.
Maybe Democrats, including the president, feel secure that they can nod to the debt-reduction wise men and promise to do the right thing -- which in the real world is the wrong thing -- because it's a deal they'll never have to deliver on: House Republicans won't give up any revenue to get it. Still, I'm tired of Democrats endorsing what are essentially GOP narratives about the way the world works: Deficit reduction is more important than economic growth or income inequality.
Democrats so often snatch defeat from the jaws of victory. It would be a shame if they humbled the GOP this round only to hand them what they want in the next. Everyone’s looking to see whether Republicans learned their lesson from this debacle; we need to make sure Democrats did, too. If they return to their role as “enablers,” in Pelosi’s words, they’re part of the problem.Show full PR text
PALO ALTO, Calif. & SUNNYVALE, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--HP (NYSE: HPQ - News) and Palm, Inc. (NASDAQ: PALM - News) today announced that they have entered into a definitive agreement under which HP |
moment later, the day’s serenity was interrupted by a terrific crash that sounded like an “explosion.” A crowd formed on 33rd Street beneath the building as pedestrians swarmed to see what had happened.
Lying on her back, clutching a strand of pearls at her neck, Evelyn looked to be resting peacefully. Were it not for the fact that she was nestled snugly into the crushed roof of a United Nations Assembly Cadillac, she could even be mistaken for being asleep. But the poor woman, just 23 years old, was dead. A young photography student by the name of Robert C. Wiles happened to be across the street at the time of her demise. Stunned by her beauty, even in death, he snapped a photo of her just 4 minutes after her crash. Almost overnight, she became a pop culture icon: a symbol of tragic beauty.
Evelyn’s sister, Helen, fulfilled the task of identifying her body. Per her wishes, she was cremated and there is no grave dedicated to her. But she lives on through that iconic photo of her final moment. First published in the May, 1947 issue of LIFE Magazine, it has been discussed and reproduced for decades. Even Andy Warhol produced a series of pieces inspired by Robert C. Wiles’ photo of Evelyn.
Evelyn was the 5th suicide or attempt from the Empire State Building within a 3-week period in 1947. In response to her death and its publicity, the building erected a much taller fence to deter would-be jumpers, and they now train security guards to recognize the signs of a potential suicide case attempting to climb the building. Despite everything, more than 30 people have ended their lives in this way since the tower’s construction, including one distraught construction worker.
It seems that Evelyn’s wish for there to be “no remembrance” of her is never to be fulfilled. The romance of her story and her morbid glamor live on in the imaginations of generations who, perhaps, see a little bit of themselves in this tragic bride-to-be.
A note to readers: I have received a number of E-mails questioning the originality of this blog post. I have tried to personally respond to each of my accusers, as I take the idea of “plagiarism” very seriously. I hold a Bachelor’s Degree in History, and I understand fully the need to give credit always where credit is due. That said, this blog is (was) a silly hobby of mine with a readership that barely reached beyond my mother and a few facebook friends. When I originally decided to write about Evelyn McHale in October 2012, I was deeply disappointed to find an almost complete lack of “new” information about her life anywhere on the internet. My main source, The New Yok Times archives, had but one article, dated May 2, 1947, which offered a few quotes, some vague details about her life, and little else. So, like any good 21st-century historian (whose daily readership at the time numbered in the dozens), I turned to Google, where I was disappointed again. Blog post after blog post telling essentially the same story. Evelyn McHale: sixth of seven children, rode the train into Penn Station, left a suicide note, jumped to her death, immortalized by a photograph. Frustrated, I took these loose details, jumbled them together using my own “voice,” and considered the post to be among my weakest. Somewhere along the line, however, the piece was picked up by first one, then several other websites. My blog now receives thousands of hits per day, almost all of which go directly to Evelyn’s story (and, disappointingly, seldom anywhere else on the page – we’re talking 99% of my traffic goes only to Evelyn). I can’t hope to understand why this particular post has taken off with such velocity, but I assure you all that it is perhaps the least-original and least-satisfying of the stories I’ve told through KeithYorkCity (no offense meant to Evelyn – but I like a story where I am able to dig up hitherto undiscovered historical details in my scholarly research). But short of trying to track down her surviving family, I couldn’t imagine a way to add anything “new” to the tale. Plagiarism, however, was never intended, and any similarities to other blogs are genuinely coincidental. The long-and-short of it: I collected what data I could from a variety of online sources, dug up whatever photographs were available to me through Google, cited those where I could, and pieced what I had together into an essay that I wouldn’t be proud to turn in to my High School English teacher, much less to any discerning historical audience as I hope I have attracted here. Please do visit the blog which I am accused of copying. Codex99 is a superior blog to mine in all ways and I tip my hat to its author. I welcome discourse on my blog and its topics, but do wish to put a cap on the plagiarism accusations. Please take time to peruse my blog’s numerous other articles of much greater depth and detail: Evelyn Nesbit, The Grand Central Hotel, Audrey Munson. I thank you all for reading!
AdvertisementsDefence Minister Manohar Parrikar has pushed both IAF and HAL to ensure development of the trainer.
Highlights Indigenous basic trainer aircraft HTT made inaugural flight in Bengaluru Defence Minister Mahonar Parrikar pushed HAL and IAF to develop the plane HTT will be used in first stage training of cadets of all three services
India's indigenous basic trainer aircraft, Hindustan Turbo Trainer-40 (HTT-40), today made its inaugural flight in Bengaluru in the presence of Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar.The two-seater aircraft designed and developed by the Hindustan Aeronautics Limited was flown by Group Captain C Subramaniam and Group Captain Venugopal for about 10 to 15 minutes at the HAL Airport in Bengaluru.Aimed at being used for the first stage training for all flying cadets of the three services, HTT-40 made its maiden flight on May 31.Indian Air Force is expected to procure 70 HTT-40 aircraft.Detailed design phase of HTT-40 was launched in August 2013 with HAL's internal funding and was completed in May 2015. From then, it has taken 12 months to fly the first prototype.While the HTT-40 programme was almost junked during the UPA rule, Mr Parrikar pushed both IAF and HAL to ensure development of the trainer.Complimenting the HTT-40 team for the accomplishment, he said, "when I came here in March 2015 the confidence they had infected me also. They had promised me within one year they will fly the aircraft. I'm happy that they have kept the assurance."According to HAL, the team behind HTT-40 programme is "young" with an average age of 29 when it started. The programme aims to achieve its operational clearance by 2018, and towards this the company will be manufacturing three prototypes and two static-test specimens.Also work has started on the stall and spin tests campaign in order to meet the project timelines.The Defence Minister said, "I request them to bring it still earlier, by the beginning of 2018, so that they can go into serial production in 2018 itself."He said while HAL would supply HTT-40 to defence forces, it would be permitted for certain percentage of export.Stating that HAL has proven track record in the design and development of basic trainer, Chairman T Suvarna Raju said HTT-40 was an example of the company's commitment to indigenously developing trainer aircraft for the armed forces.Responding to a query on the Air Force earlier being "hesitant" about the country-made aircraft, Mr Parrikar said, "the initial issue was the legacy of the past... HHT-40 was never encouraged earlier. Our government, with the initiative of Make in India, provided the support."The Defence Minister added that the IAF has been very positive about this development.Earlier, the IAF had blocked funding for HTT-40 by telling the Defence Ministry that the aircraft would be too expensive, heavy and not able to meet its needs. It had instead backed a Swiss trainer, the Pilatus PC-7 Mark II.Mr Parrikar also said, "though price is not finalised, I can only confirm this that this flight may be 20-25 per cent cheaper than the imports."HAL chairman Raju said the programme has managed to glide through multiple headwinds and emerge successfully.He said till date the aircraft had completed seven flights, and added, "The initial performance assessment has met expectations and further flight testing is under progress."The aircraft on its third flight flew in heavy rains and successfully undertook wet runway landing.Designed to meet the current demands of the Air Force, there was also a provision to include weapons for the trainer aircraft.According to HAL officials, the indigenous content on HTT-40 is close to 80 per cent with about 75-plus systems out of the total 90 on the aircraft sourced from local players and sister divisions of HAL.They said the role of private players and MSMEs had been significant in the production of parts and assembly jigs.Almost 50 per cent of the 4,000-odd components on HTT-40 are manufactured by private players. HTT-40 aircraft weighs about 2,800 kg and has Turbo Prop engine of 950 shp class.Roy Moore Spox: "Poppy, we need to make it clear there's a group of non-accusers."
Roy Moore Spox: "Poppy, we need to make it clear there's a group of non-accusers."pic.twitter.com/zWEXQIExgK — Josh Marshall (@joshtpm) December 5, 2017
A spokeswoman for Alabama Senate candidate Roy Moore defended the Republican against allegations of sexual misconduct by saying “there’s a group of non-accusers,” as well.
Discussing the multiple allegations against Moore, Jane Porter told CNN’s Poppy Harlow “we need to make it clear, there’s a group of non-accusers, that have not accused the judge of anything illegal.”
Porter then tore into Leigh Corfman,who told the Washington Post last month that Moore touched her sexually when she was 14 and he was 32.
“I don’t believe her at all,” Porter said.
Along with Corfman, at least eight other women have accused Moore, a former judge, of sexual harassment and assault. Like Corman, several of the women have said they were teenagers and Moore was in his 30s when he pursued them. Moore has denied all the accusations.
During her CNN appearance, Porter also drew attention to Harlow’s pregnancy as a way to attack ― and misrepresent ― Moore’s opponent in Alabama’s Dec. 12 special election, Democrat Doug Jones.
“Congratulations on your unborn child,” Porter said. “That’s the reason why I came... to speak for Moore, because he will stand for the rights of babies like yours in the womb, where his opponent will support killing them until the moment of birth.” Jones supports abortion rights but also backs restrictions on late-term abortions except in cases of medical emergencies.
Moore has faced calls from some top Republicans to drop out of the race. But as the election nears, some party leaders have quietly walked back their condemnations of him.
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, after last month urging Moore to end his candidacy, said over the weekend it was up to “the people of Alabama” to decide his fate. The Republican National Committee also hasreinstated financial backingfor Moore after withdrawing it when the allegations against him surfaced.
President Donald Trump had been notably absent from those calling on Moore to give up his Senate bid and, after tacitly supporting him in comments late last monthformally endorsedhim on Monday.
Polls have shown a tight race between Moore and Jones, withthe Republican leadingin most of the recent ones.
This story has been updated to include Porter’s comments on abortion.
This article originally appeared on HuffPost.Image copyright Getty Images Image caption Himmler killed himself in May 1945 while in British military detention
Chilling details have emerged about the daily life of Heinrich Himmler, the Nazi SS chief who sent millions of Jews to their deaths in the Holocaust.
The German tabloid Bild is serialising excerpts from Himmler's wartime diaries, recently discovered in Russia.
One day, Himmler wrote, he had a massage before ordering the execution of 10 Poles. And he says he enjoyed a snack at Buchenwald concentration camp.
He also told the SS to train dogs that could "rip people apart" at Auschwitz.
Historians will publish the diaries in a book next year, with background notes.
Himmler was in Adolf Hitler's elite circle, and had the official title "Reichsfuehrer SS". He commanded the death squads who murdered Jews, Poles, Soviet prisoners-of-war, Roma and others categorised as "racially inferior".
The diaries are being studied by the German Historical Institute Moscow. They cover the years 1938, 1943 and 1944 and were found at a Russian defence ministry archive in Podolsk, a town just south of Moscow.
Image copyright Getty Images Image caption Himmler (second from left) regularly toured SS prison camps and mass murder sites
Historians had earlier examined Himmler's diaries from the years 1941, 1942 and 1945 - but they were unaware of the missing ones until recently.
The find is seen as highly significant and has been compared with the diaries of Nazi propagandist Joseph Goebbels.
German researcher Matthias Uhl said he was struck by Himmler's enormous concern for his elite SS, family and friends - while meticulously implementing mass murder.Legendary Hustler publisher Larry Flint penned an open letter published in the Las Vegas Review on Monday, offering “between $50,000 and $1 million” to anyone with proof that an adviser to Republican presidential candidate Dr. Ben Carson is guilty of sexual harassment.
The paid ad describes a lawsuit that’s almost twenty years old, in which Armstrong Williams — a staunchly conservative right wing radio show host — accosted his former personal trainer Stephen Gregory at least 50 times. According to documents, Williams repeatedly “kissed him on the mouth, grabbed his buttocks and genitals and climbed into bed with him on business trips.”
Flynt calls Carson a “hypocrite” for associating with Williams:
“You have linked gays with bestiality and the North American Man/Boy Love Association. You have opposed same-sex marriage, accusing marriage equality advocates of ‘directly attacking the relationship between God and his people.’ Yet, you have partnered with an accused sexual predator.”
Flynt requests that Carson “disavow any and all relations” with Williams or he will pay for “confirmable information” regarding the relationship between Williams and Gregory.
Read the complete letter below:
h/t: Hollywood Reporter
This Story Filed UnderA few months ago, I reached out to Reddit to find friends to go to concerts with (I talked about it in A few months ago, I reached out to Reddit to find friends to go to concerts with (I talked about it in an earlier post ). Because it was so wildly successful, I decided to try again with the broader focus of just finding new friends to do things around the city with. The response was overwhelmingly positive—because as every twenty-something knows, it’s f*cking hard to make friends as an adult—and I ended up forming a group of over 40 people in about two days.
I also got this message (I made the post on the night of “The Big Fight” between McGregor and Mayweather):
Dude: Hi! What neighborhood are you in? I’m 27 [year old] [male] and looking for someone to watch the fight with
Me [coming home from a 10 mile run 30 minutes before the fight and with zero desire to watch two men beat each other up for money]: I’m in Lincoln Park/Lakeview! I’m actually not v good with violence but my boyfriend has been looking for someone to watch with. I can connect you two if you’re in the area!
Dude: Ah, to be honest i was looking for a girl who could develop into a relationship or fun
Me [in my head]: […]
Me: Ahahaha thank you for the honesty. Sorry I can’t be of more help there
Dude: Its okay!
First of all, it’s okay?! Damn right it’s okay. I didn’t put out a post looking for “a relationship or fun.” Well, I guess I did but NOT like that. Now I was curious about this a-hole.
Normally, I do my due diligence before responding to a user. Because Reddit lets you look at a person’s previous posts and comments, you can usually discern who is a creep. This is how I made sure I didn’t room with psychos or assholes when we put out a call for randoms to share our tent at Coachella. For example, one guy who responded to our post for roommates was an active user in weird subreddit, like r/stickingdicksintoshit or r/extremefetish. However, at the time I got this message, I was coming back from a long run with 15 minutes until the start of the fight, so I just hurriedly responded. My b.
Still offended despite the mad endorphins I must have had coursing through my blood, I decided to go peek into his post history. First, I saw Still offended despite the mad endorphins I must have had coursing through my blood, I decided to go peek into his post history. First, I saw r/TheDonald, i.e., the subreddit where all the weird white dudes who wear MAGA hats congregate. Here’s some examples of the content posted there:
Then I saw he’d posted this:
Though I should have known nothing good comes from a Trump supporter claiming something is from “the good old days,” I clicked on the picture anyway.
The letter, written on June 7, 1938, reads:
Dear Miss Ford,
Your letter of recent date has been received in the Inking and Painting Department for reply.
Women do not do any of the creative work in connection with preparing the cartoons for the screen, as that work is performed entirely by young men. For this reason girls are not considered for the training school.
The only work open to women consists of tracing the characters on clear celluloid sheets with India ink and filling in the tracings on the reverse side with paint according to directions.
In order to apply for a position as an “Inker” or “Painter” it is necessary that one appear at the Studio, bringing samples of pen and ink and water color work. It would not be advisable to come to Hollywood with the above specifically in view, as there are really very few openings in comparison with the number of girls who apply.
Yours very truly,
Walt Disney Productions, Ltd.
Having no idea what MGTOW stood for, but now curious due to this outrageously sexist post, I decided to take a peek, despite the fact that Adrivit has continuously warned me about straying into unknown Reddit territory.
Here’s the front page of MGTOW as of September 1, 2017:
MGTOW stands for “Men Going Their Own Way.” By now, you probably have a relative idea about what that means. Their group description reads:
We are men going our own way by forging our own identities and paths to self-defined success; cutting through collective ideas of what a man is.
While they supposedly support free speech, they have some specific limitations:
RULES:
We will allow no:
1. Bullshit
2. Feminist
3. SJW/LGBT Proselytizing
4. White Knighting
5. Hug Boxing
6. Concern Trolling
7. Tone Policing
8. Virtue Signaling
9. Humble Bragging
10. Low Effort
Any violations can result in immediate banishment.
For a forum focused on male identity, “self-defined success,” and determining “what a man is,” MGTOW talks pretty much non-stop about women and how confusing, stupid, and generally terrible they are. In fact, the hottest post is a two-months old one asking the question, “What shocked you most about women?,” which was categorized, by the way, under the subject “Dream-killers”:
Hard for me to argue with that astute observation, considering I am indeed using what little mind I have to be as merciless as possible. Let’s see what the other great philosophers of our time thought:
Pea-sized mind blown.
Aw, BCPrepper, who hurt you?
Yes, sir, we are the sociopaths. And last, but not least, my favorite of the bunch from this master of the metaphor:
Let’s go back to the home page and see what DJ_Lord_Ork couldn’t agree more with, shall we?
How dare he defame Rick and Morty. But wait, there’s so much more these men can’t agree more with, evidenced by the comments on the post:
Right, feminism is the poison that that kills all great civilizations. I think you missed a few history classes there, buddy.
In fact, MGTOW is pretty universally obsessed with feminism:
Yep, totally. Feminists are pathetic. Speaking of pathetic, let’s take a look at all the insightful and fact-based comments:
I wish I had some sort of profound statement to make on all of this, but, honestly, I don’t think it justifies one. This forum, and the similar I wish I had some sort of profound statement to make on all of this, but, honestly, I don’t think it justifies one. This forum, and the similar r/theredpill, are absolutely ridiculous. But the reality is, while some of these guys I’m sure fit the image of a ultra-sexist loser you have in your head, most of them probably blend right in with the people you interact with day by day, just like many of those who were waving tiki torches in Charlottesville.
I’m not convinced there’s any direct way to rid prejudice from the adults who hate others—women, immigrants, Jews, Blacks, Muslims—because they want to put the blame on them for their misfortune, perceived or otherwise. However, I’ve been seriously grappling with the issue expressed, however crudely, in that last “feminists are pathetic” post. While 1) there’s really no proof the f*ck off Nazis sign is directed towards the dude next to her and 2) we fought literally an entire war in the “good old days” to tell the Nazis to f*ck off, I have noticed an increasing concern among even moderate Republicans to speak their views because they are just immediately and forcefully shut down. And I’m not totally sure what to do with this realization…
If I’m being honest, I’ve never been the best listener. On every single report card in elementary school except for one, I got a check mark next to “talks too much in class.” I’m also a vivacious conversationalist, so while I absolutely love open discourse, my style can sometimes scare off less confrontational debaters or make them feel attacked. Business school has made me acutely aware that knowledge is only 10% of the battle…the other 90% is delivery. My relatives reminded me of this on our recent family vacation. Without throwing them under the bus too much, I’ll say this: my family is politically diverse. I didn’t realize how diverse until the recent election, when I was literally shocked, disappointed, and, frankly, hurt to know where some of my relatives’ affiliations lay. It was truly hard for me to understand their perspectives on politics-at-large, Trump, or even more horrifically, Milo Yiannopoulos, and I genuinely felt they were just wrong. This made two-sided debate a challenge, because I felt so strongly that they were just, well, wrong.
Conversely, this is what they felt was a huge issue with “liberals” — that they set the agenda and then, despite claiming to be open-minded, wouldn’t even listen to other’s opinions.
Given, it’s not like we were disagreeing on whether Jews are replacing us, which would be really fucking weird because my dad is Jewish, and in this context, I definitely could have bitten my tongue, heard them out, and then responded calmly with reason and facts. I guess what I’m struggling with is this: what the hell is the “bright line” test, if there even is one, to know when we are right to shut down “free speech.” How do we respect differing opinions enough to not alienate all of those different from us while simultaneously defending those hate speech is directed towards and disputing false “facts”? If you have your own ideas, please share, because I am genuinely unsure and curious.
I’ll end with this:
I was recently listening to a Neil deGrasse Tyson interview in which he said, “If an argument lasts more than five minutes then both sides are wrong. ‘” He added that he thinks this applies 85% of the time. For these social issues, all of which last longer than 5 minutes, does it mean both sides are wrong, either in fact or approach? Or that these issues are not a matter of fact, are not a truth of the universe. If so, what approach do we take at discovering these truths? Economics? What is the factual basis on which we rest our case, or is there none? Do we just trust the gut and morality of the majority? But that also gets hairy.
My point here is that I have no answers, and I’m not sure how to know my truth besides to trust my gut, integrity, and personal values. But isn’t that what “the other side” is doing too? And if so, how do we know/prove we’re in the right so that we can finally win these arguments? Preferably in under 5 minutes.Comics Code Authority: How censorship has affected the history of American comics
The Comics Code Authority (CCA) once ruled the comic book industry so that creators were restricted to follow certain guidelines when it came to writing their work. However, in 2011, the CCA officially went defunct considering comic book publishers were no longer adhering to the guidelines of an outdated comics code. Publishers were given the freedom to create content they desired to make.
Despite it no longer being around, the CCA played an influential role in the early days of the American comic book industry. It is time to go through the history of the CCA in order to see how influential it was during its reign.
Early 20th Century America
During the time of the Great Depression, when the American comic book industry was in its infancy, comic books were gaining notoriety from various parties who felt they were a threat to the youth. Educators objected to the publication of comic books claiming that they negatively impacted students’ education, primarily their reading and literacy skills.
The fear at the time was that children were being exposed to content they should not have been investing time in; parents were scared their children were reading inappropriate material.
Other civic and church parties joined the protest, claiming that comic books were “immoral” due to the content they gave readers, such as nudity and acts of violence. The situation for comics book became wores when mental health experts began to participate in the discussion wanting to see comics banned permanently from distribution. One of these mental health experts was Dr. Fredric Wertham, who advocated for the complete annihilation of comics and the author of Seduction of the Innocent.
Wertham’s argument against comics was that they exposed children to violence and would cause them to desensitize violence itself. His arguments were based on evidence in what was being published in comics themselves. Seduction of the Innocent was thus written to discredit the comic book industry as a whole.
Seduction of the Innocent
Seduction of the Innocent was Wertham’s ultimate attack on the American comic book industry. The book came out in 1954 and detailed how “bad” comics were and how they were detrimentally impacting the youth of that era.
Wertham’s argument against the comic book industry was built on his work in social psychiatry and his perception of how comic books were bad for children. He wanted there to be comic book legislation in order for comic book publishers to be restricted in the work they create; Wertham wanted comic book publishers to follow rules that would inhibit their ability to create “inappropriate” content. He would often present his findings at various events such as legislative hearings in order to make his case.
Eventually, the U.S. Senate Subcommittee on Juvenile Delinquency began an investigation, with hearings being held in April and June of that year where numerous witnesses testified to determine what the intentions of comics were. The investigation called forth many individuals who were working in the comic book industry in order for the court to hear their side of the story in the war between comics and the public. But while Wertham was conducting and showing the public his research, the CCA was forming, an entity consisting of the most prominent figures in the comic book industry to manage what was being published in comic books.
The First Casualty
During the subcommittee’s investigation into comics, several parties in the comic book industry testified to give better insight into their works. One of the people who testified was William Gaines, the publisher of EC Comics.
When Senator Estes Kefauver prompted Gaines during the testimony to offer an opinion on a comic book cover created by artist Johnny Craig featuring a severed head and bloody ax from the Crime SuspenStories series, Gaines said that cover was in “good taste.” Due to Gaines’ testimony, EC Comics shut down.
Because of EC Comics’ unfortunate demise, publishers banded together to form an entity that would help to oversee the comic books being published and called it the Comics Magazine Association of America (CMAA). The association created a regulatory code that highlighted what comic book publishers were and were not allowed to place in their work, which became the CCA.
The 1954 code had a list of rules that comic book publishers were supposed to abide by in order for their works to be approved. Some of the rules included never attacking religion and any indecent exposure of a character(s).
Gaines joined the CMAA after initially being hesitant to join. But Gaines’ tenure with the CMAA was brief, and he resigned in 1955 to start his MAD magazine business, which today is owned by DC Comics. But despite comic book publishers requiring themselves to abide by the CCA, some individuals wanted to defy the code to publish content that talked about real-world problems, with one being Stan Lee.
Stan Lee’s Defiance
Lee, the face of Marvel Comics and the voice of the comic book industry today, was asked to craft a story that touches on the subject of drug abuse. He published the story in Spider-Man, but unlike the majority of comics published in those days, Lee published the story without seeking approval from the CCA.
The story featured Spider-Man’s best friend Harry Osborn struggling with drug addiction and how it negatively impacted him. Lee thought it was a story worthy of publication as it delved into a real-world problem, showing how comic book characters are fictional manifestations of real world people and problems.
But while Lee published his work with Marvel due to his employment with them at the time, underground comics managed to find a way to slip out of the CCA’s radar. These comics bypassed the CCA through direct market distribution.
Due to Lee’s defiance, the CCA updated the code in 1971 to ease the restrictions on what could be published. The changes were the following: less restriction on crime comics and the ban lifted for horror comics.
Eventually, Lee’s defiance of the Code set a precedent for other comic book publishers to follow suit. Publishers realized that through direct market distribution, they could escape the CCA’s clutches.
The code was further updated in 1989 when DC Comics argued that the 1971 code was not needed during the time. The CMAA then drafted two documents based on DC Comics’ demands that then updated the code.
Today’s Comic Book Industry
In the years following the 1989 revision, the CCA slowly faded away. The 1989 code was the first to fade from existence.
Then, in 2001, Marvel Comics withdrew from the code and it and other publishers began to regulate their own comics, with the CCA eventually dying out in 2011. Essentially, the comic book industry no longer kneeled to a high authority. Since 2001, comic book publishers have been able to craft stories and more mature content for an audience consisting of both teens and adults.
These days, comic book publishers have become more liberal with the work they publish. Image Comics’ Spawn can kill people, Marvel Comics’ current Black Panther series uses real-world topics in a fictional setting, and DC Comics’ Midnighter and Apollo are a gay couple.
Publishers now have the ability to create the kind of work they have always wanted to create and do not have to fear any regulations from any code. No longer are they restricted to exclude characteristics that would be deemed “inappropriate.”
Some recommended readings are Spawn, The Private Eye, Scott Snyder and Greg Capullo’s Batman and Rick Remender’s Uncanny X-Force. These books demonstrate that comic book publishers have used their creative freedom to craft stories free from any rextrication and show how the comic book industry has evolved since the CCA faded from existence in the early 2000’s.
What do you think?.ABU DHABI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — Bryson DeChambeau was still in high school when he told his father: “I think I can change the game of golf.”
On Thursday, he was comparing his trailblazing qualities to those of Albert Einstein and George Washington, and calling himself “The Golf Scientist.”
One thing’s for sure about the 22-year-old DeChambeau, he isn’t lacking in confidence.
And he’s got the game to back it up.
DeChambeau shot an 8-under 64 at the Abu Dhabi Championship to take the first-round lead in what might be the strongest field in a European Tour event this year. Not bad for an amateur making only his seventh start in a professional tournament, and his first on the regular European Tour – through an invitation.
Any nerves? Don’t be silly.
“Why be nervous?” said DeChambeau, whose deep tan is explained by his California roots. “There’s no expectations. I’m not worried about anything. If I hit a bad shot I’ve got an opportunity to show my grace and my character. In that situation, there’s no downside to it.”
DeChambeau may just be the most unique, colorful golfer around.
He’s a physics student at Southern Methodist University who has devised his own way of playing golf. It includes modifying all of his irons so they are the same length, lie, angle and bounce – the only difference between them is the loft – and means he can keep the same posture and set-up; hitting two different drives that he has named The Fairway Finder and the Crank Ball; using water and Epsom salts to establish which of his golf balls are slightly flawed so they can be discarded; and adopting a putting routine in which he crouches and extends his putter as if fly-fishing.
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“You look at trends in humanity and people like following the norm,” DeChambeau said, when asked if he is a trailblazer. “You’ve got people out there like Einstein, George Washington – they just stood out and capitalized on their differences and showed the world a little different side.
“I tried (his unique swing) out in 2011 … I hit a striped shot 210 yards right next to the flag and I thought, “This could change golf.”
DeChambeau isn’t just all talk. Last year, he became only the fifth player – after Jack Nicklaus, Phil Mickelson, Tiger Woods and Ryan Moore – to win the NCAA and U.S. Amateur titles in the same season. He made his PGA Tour debut in June that year and finished tied for 45th, and was runner-up in the Australian Masters in November.
He said Thursday that he is not thinking of when to turn professional.
“I never try to set goals. I’m more of a journey man,” said DeChambeau, who wears a Ben Hogan-style flat cap. “I like focusing on the journey process.
“I’m an intern. I’ve learned to believe in myself. That’s the ticket. It happened at the NCAAs and I’m just growing that confidence, that belief each and every single day. Today definitely helped.”
The highlight of his round was a 3-wood from 278 yards that ran through a greenside bunker and rolled up to within 20 feet of the pin on No. 8. He knocked it in for an eagle, and also hit seven birdies around a long, challenging course.
“I’m getting more comfortable out here and getting used to the rhythm of things,” he said. “I only played 18 holes before I played today. Nine holes Monday and nine holes Tuesday and that’s all you need if you understand the golf course – you have contour maps and everything like that it makes it super simple, super smooth to get the golf course figured out.”
It seems DeChambeau has golf figured out, too.Eligibility
June 1, 2018 - May 31, 2019
Eligibility period for Emmy entries (please refer to the "hanging episodes" rule)
All dates below are subject to change.
February
February 14
. Rules and Procedures available at
April
April 3
Deadline to apply for membership to secure member entry fee discount. Application must be completed and paid in order to qualify.
May
May 6, 6:00 PM
Entry deadline for ALL entries that were originally presented 6:00 PM - 2:00 AM,
June 1, 2018 - May 31, 2019 (including hanging episodes)
Upload deadline for all entry materials
May 9
Deadline to apply for membership to guarantee voting eligibility for both rounds of the 71st Emmy competition and for members to apply for hyphenate voting status
May 30
Deadline for former members (whose membership has lapsed within the preceding four years) to reinstate membership and be eligible to vote in both rounds of the 71st Emmy competition
June
June 10
Nomination-round voting begins
June 24, 10:00 PM
Nomination-round voting ends
July
Tuesday, July 16
Nominations announced
Week of July 30
Deadline for errors and omissions to the nominations
August
Week of August 5
Final-round videos available for viewing
August 15
Final-round voting begins
August 29, 10:00 PM
Final-round voting ends
September
Saturday, September 14 |
8; director, federal high-intensity drug-tracking area, Philadelphia, 1998-1999; director, all federal high-intensity drug-trafficking areas, national drug czar’s office, 1999-2003; counterterrorism consultant, 2004-present; president and chief executive officer, Nano Mobile Healthcare Inc., 2014-present; president, MSGI Technology Solutions, Inc. (formerly, MSGI Security Solutions, Inc., Media Services Group), 2004-present; executive director, Scranton Cultural Center, 2011-2013; state executive deputy attorney general in charge of communications, 2013-2014.
Name: John Charles Rafferty Jr.
Party: Republican
Age: 63
Residence: Lower Providence Twp., Montgomery County
Family: Siblings, Mary, Eileen and Michael
Education: Methacton High School, Eagleville, 1971; bachelor’s degree, history/politics, 1975, University of Pittsburgh at Johnstown; master’s degree, history/English, Beaver College, 1984; juris doctor, Temple University School of Law, 1988
Experience: General manager, General Washington Recreation Center, 1976-1986; school director, Methacton School District, 1980-1984; supervisor, Lower Providence Twp., 1986 to 1988; state deputy attorney general, 1988-1991; private practice lawyer, focusing on education, real estate, zoning and business and estates law, 1991 to 2002; member, Montgomery County Board of Assessment Appeals, 1996-2002; state senator, 2002-present.I would like to thank Sébastien Chapuis, Grant de Smidt, Tim Palmer, Priya Ramesh, @chelseayouth and Sam Tighe for their invaluable insight and time with regards to this article (and generally!).
Sébastien Chapuis is an English football television pundit on Canal+ and SFR Sport in France since 2013. He is currently studying to obtain his UEFA A Licence. Seb is the U19s Coach of Poitiers FC and has worked with young players throughout his coaching journey. You can find his full interview here. Seb once also wrote the definitive account of what went wrong for Mourinho and Chelsea in 2015-16 for WAGNH.
Grant de Smidt currently holds a CAF B Licence (Confederation of African Football) and is studying to obtain his UEFA B Licence. He has been a performance analyst at Prozone (STATS) and holds a Level 3 Certification from them. You can find his full interview here.
Tim Palmer is a football coach, writer, analyst and sports scientist. He has previously worked with the Socceroos in an analysis role at Prozone Sports, completed the FFA B Licence and is currently coaching at various youth levels in Australia. You can find his full interview here and you can find Tim’s previous work for WAGNH and SB Nation here.
Sam Tighe is sports journalist who specialises in video and tactical analysis, and a youth football aficionado. You can find his full interview here.
Priya Ramesh is a freelance writer on Dutch football. You can find her full interview here. Priya also contributed to our 2015-16 Season Preview.
@chelseayouth probably needs little introduction at this point.
~~ // A disclaimer: if I had £1 for every negative/sarcastic/apathetic comment I read about academy players or academy football, I could afford to buy Chelsea and play the youngsters every week. If you believe that in fourteen years we have not had a single academy player good enough to play 10 games a season, this article is not for you. Honestly, I get your viewpoint(s), but I am trying to save you some time. //~~
After an unprecedented level of success for England at youth level this summer, Bournemouth’s Aaron Ramsdale said, “we've got so much confidence. Half the team (England U19s) win every season with Chelsea, that massively makes a difference”. Looking at the excellent @CarefreeYouth’s tweet below, almost 25 per cent of England’s players came from Chelsea (or came through at Chelsea) this summer. They were key contributors at every level and as Ramsdale points out, their mentality is something that impacted the entire group. Trevoh Chalobah aptly summed things up on his Instagram, “we are born winners”.
Seeing Chelsea’s U18s completely dismantle Manchester City in the FA Youth Cup Final was eye-opening. They made a City side filled with immense talent look completely ordinary. This was a group of Chelsea players capable of beating their opponents in any fashion: physically dominant, technically brilliant and mentally robust, they are a joy to watch. Chelsea’s academy has been utterly exceptional for the best part of a decade. I would, however, wager that Neil Bath swaps every single academy trophy for just one of this golden crop becoming an established first team player.
Khaldoon al-Mubarak, the Manchester City chairman, recently spoke at length about the end goal of the City academy by condensing the process into a single question: “[…] how are we going to get these young men to be part of our first team?”. I would hope that his question is also something debated amongst the Football Board™ at Chelsea. Tim Palmer points out that while the answer to this question is complicated, it all starts with establishing “what is the club's vision and philosophy to youth development”. This concept underpins absolutely everything in this topic area. Tim states that “there isn't even a one-size-fits-all for individual player development or any particular coaching approach.” Still, our inability to produce a single first team player, post-JT, given the talent passing through the academy is alarming.
In Chelsea’s case, it is probably difficult to have an overarching philosophy that aligns with a set of coaching principles due to the ephemeral nature of the manager. Should the development philosophy, therefore, come from board level and be adhered to by the “head coach”? Chelsea’s vision appears to be a simple one: develop youngsters for profit and reinvest that money into more experienced players for the first team squad. There are people who are fine with that strategy and Chelsea’s recent trophy haul suggests, prima facie, it works. In which case, “we go again”. For many, though, the reduction of supporting Chelsea into an accounting exam is slowly diluting the connection with the club. If there is no emotional attachment to the players, why bother? Maybe I am an idealist, but the prospect of losing players who have been at the club since the age of 8 because we are afraid of playing them is sad.
It is at this point I will defer to Bill Belichick, Head Coach of the New England Patriots. Belichick is arguably the greatest coach of any sport ever. Listening to his assessment of the Patriots as they won Super Bowl after Super Bowl is fascinating. Crucially he contends that the result or outcome does not necessitate that the approach is correct – “playing the best doesn’t mean that you are the best”. Antonio Conte has already suggested much of his squad played well above their level last season. We won the title because “every player gave 120% or 130% in every game”. Chelsea have been phenomenally successful, but the question to ask is whether we could (and perhaps should) have been even more successful? Would a less chaotic approach have delivered more silverware? Would it encourage a manager to develop talent knowing that they would reap the benefit?
I feel strongly about having an academy presence within the first team squad: a view that was cemented after spending time with Lewis Baker earlier this year. He is not alone in feeling a deep connection with the club – a club he (and others) have been at for most of their life. These kids grow up at Chelsea and it becomes part of their identity, helping to shape them as players. Jérémie Boga, for example, has been at Chelsea since 2008. From my experience they want to make it at Chelsea: they understand the need to beat Tottenham, even at youth level. Certainly, I am not suggesting that this affection for the club is purely limited to home-grown talent. We are fortunate to enjoy fantastic relationships with many previous players. However, that is not something I see coursing through the current squad.
Michael Emenalo once stated that “there is a coordinated effort from everybody to want to make this happen. The owner wants it, the first team coach wants it, the academy manager wants it, I want it, the board want it, everybody wants this to happen”. Then why are we purposefully creating a dichotomy? We are concurrently spending an inordinate amount of money on the academy each season, while offering the players who emerge no opportunities within the first team. In a world where Chelsea are happy to buy Romelu Lukaku for £17m and then send him on loan (with no guarantees he will return a Chelsea player despite his goal scoring record), what chance does a home-grown kid have?
“I think it's very easy these days to chastise young talent. Even if they're not you know, washing boots or mopping the dressing room, they still go through a lot at a very young age. Peter McVitie and I were talking about this last December. These kids have been through a lot in their 18 or 19 years. Their lifestyle has had to be almost entirely changed to revolve around football. These kids have had to leave home (at least in NL and the Scandinavian talents too) and live with foster families to play football at the big academies. I just think we need to cut them a bit of slack sometimes”
– Priya Ramesh
Think back to the Alexandre Pato debacle in January 2016. The Brazilian arrived at Chelsea overweight, with very little chance of getting match sharp let alone remaining a Chelsea player the following season. Why could we not have given his opportunities to an academy player? This is not about playing kids for the sake of it, but we spent half a season trying to get Pato fit at the expense of giving someone more deserving an opportunity elsewhere. We can talk about favours to agents and networking, but are we actually seeing anything positive off the back of that? Yes, we are great at selling players, but when it comes to bringing in world class players, where are they?
“But the manager picks the players!” I hear you cry and you are not wrong. The manager head coach is ultimately responsible for team selection and he can elect to either keep Nathan Aké in the side post-Spurs or drop him. No manager has had the guts to reward an academy player for a top performance, and until that changes we may continue to see a perpetual rising of false dawns. It is easy to hide behind the tone and conditions set by the club as a reason no manager wants to risk youth over experience. With the average Premier League managerial tenure sitting at around 475 days (1.3 years), the issue of instability is salient.
Why risk seeing what an Under 21 international can do, when you have a selection of full internationals at your fingertips? If a young player begins to earn trust and build a rapport with an existing manager, all that is thrown away when the coach is inevitably sacked or leaves. Football in the Premier League is becoming more and more about tomorrow and less about next week. Are managers even planning for the long-term anymore, knowing the reality? Why would Conte invest time in developing a young player when he is unlikely to see the benefit in 2-3 years’ time? In most cases we are simply buying more experienced players with slightly more ability than we have available. Ask yourself, is Antonio Rüdiger £30m better than Andreas Christensen?
Since Carlo Ancelotti’s last season (2010-11) Chelsea have had seven different managers take control of a first team match. All of those managers have different playing styles, philosophies and favoured personnel. It also follows that what they may potentially look for in a player differs greatly. Certain managers favour smaller technical players, while others will value physical traits. Unlike Barcelona, who try to appoint managers in line with a stylistic notion, Chelsea’s managerial appointments are diametrically opposed. How do you go from taking the direction of an André Villas-Boas project to returning to José Mourinho in a year? As an academy director, what kind of player are you trying to develop for the first team?
I often hear how academy players “aren’t ready” for first team football. When I asked Grant de Smidt about this he told me: “it depends hugely on playing style. A small player like Josh McEachran was ready at 17 because of the role he was asked to play; he rarely needed to be involved in duels and so forth. But under a different manager, other attributes are valued. For example, Guardiola might have liked Charlie Colkett but Mourinho preferred Loftus-Cheek for his size”. So, a highly touted prospect that has spent years dominating at youth level may not even be afforded a chance because he is not a 6’3” specimen. From an ability perspective, many people will recall McEachran’s debut against Newcastle – he ran the show as a kid and he was ready to feature more often. Yet, he was shoved out the door my Villas-Boas and his career trajectory has been woeful ever since. Had Ancelotti stayed, who knows where he might be right now.
The reality is that many of Chelsea’s kids are ready, but without opportunities they are never going to amount to anything more than training ground bodies. A player’s development curve also looks much different at Chelsea than elsewhere. So, simply stating “players leave and don’t achieve anything” overlooks the fact that they may have made it here. If John Terry came through the Chelsea academy system now, it is unlikely he would get anywhere near the first team. Why? He does not have the athletic traits desired of academy prospects and is not competing with 4-5 peak aged centre backs in the first team. I am not dismissing Terry’s ability, but he himself has said it would be a struggle to breakthrough now. Does he get the regular opportunities to show his otherworldly defensive traits because as a teenager he does not have pace? Terry grew into being a world class defender over time. He was not a world class prospect as a teenager. This is merely to illustrate a point that time and opportunities are the key in determining what we have. I do not want to miss out on another John Terry because a young player is not world class in his first few appearances.
A common theme about readiness when speaking to everyone for this article is the role that the manager plays. Carlo Ancelotti tried (or maybe was forced to by the lack of spending) to give more opportunities to youngsters. We have had 6 managers since Ancelotti: Villas-Boas, Di Matteo, Benítez, Mourinho, Hiddink and Conte. This instability has created a culture that requires the manager to win at all costs now, rather than look at a longer-term philosophy. Ancelotti was sacked for finishing second, while affording youngsters the most chances I can recall. After seeing that, is André Villas-Boas going to focus on cultivating youth or trying to win instantly? This was a manager appointed with trying to move on The Old Guard™ – do you think he cared one iota about the promising teenage midfielder he had in his midst? Even interim managers were brought in with similar tasks in mind. Guus Hiddink, during Chelsea’s most disappointing league campaign in recent memory, continued to play the same appalling players ahead of youngsters when absolutely nothing was at stake.
Returning to Coach Belichick for one moment, his thoughts on implementing a coaching philosophy are very applicable to Chelsea (and football in general): generally believing that it takes four years to fully install a scheme with the right personnel. I always try to look at examples from other sports and I think Belichick is a particularly poignant reference. If it takes 4 years to fully implement a system and have the required personnel, what is someone meant to achieve in less than 18 months? Does the “win-now” culture actually promote this eternal circle of short-term thinking? If no one in the Premier League is really producing players on a consistent basis, is this managerial instability a big part of that?
Below is a transcript from an interview Belichick conducted in 2016. Belichick is known for creating a concept called the “Patriot Way” and those three inimitable words “do your job”. In a sporting culture that is built to create peaks and troughs, Belichick has kept the Patriots around the top of the food chain for nearly two decades. If someone knows about creating a long-term winning culture, it is him. Here he talks about the difficulties teams face when changing coach as well as the time/challenges involved in actually installing a philosophy:
“You have to change the culture. I mean, normally one coach is different from the previous coach. You don’t see a lot of ‘Whoever the first coach is, the second coach is kind of the carbon copy of the first coach,’ or ‘the third coach is kind of a carbon copy of the second coach.’ I mean, you rarely see that. The coach that comes in usually has a different philosophy than the coach that left, so you have to try to implement that philosophy. That means you’re going to turn over a high percentage of the [squad] because the players that the other coach had don’t fit the new philosophy, so a lot of the players are going to have to change in part because of the philosophy and probably in part because of the [system]. I don’t think there is any shortcut to it. I know there are a lot of other people in the league that think there is, that after two weeks all of a sudden everything is going to change dramatically, but I’m not really part of that, I don’t buy into that” – Bill Belichick
Jim Cassell, a former Manchester City Academy Director, said “there is so much pressure at the top, managers want instant results. They don’t have time to work on players and grow them”. The approach taken by most Chelsea managers is aptly summed up in Chris Green’s Every Boy’s Dream: England’s Football Future on the Line “what do you do if you have a problem? Try a raw, young player or bring in an experienced international with maybe 30 caps under his belt that an agent can promise to deliver to your training ground within a week?” Where Chelsea managers have been sacked for finishing second and every trophy matters, is there room to integrate a talented kid?
Even if teams like Real Madrid, Barcelona, and Bayern Munich do import a lot of their star names, they still afford more opportunities to academy graduates than Chelsea while (a) remaining as/more successful than Chelsea and (b) invariably having a better standard of player than Chelsea. If a manager at Real Madrid can give thousands of minutes to graduates (even the less spectacular ones), why is it so hard at Chelsea? Nacho is certainly not a world beater by any stretch of the imagination, yet he can still play 2,301 minutes of La Liga football for Real Madrid. Their culture of sacking managers is similar to ours and they put a similar price on success.
If you were to include teenagers Real Madrid bought for the first team Marco Asensio played 1,077 La Liga Minutes. By comparison Ruben Loftus-Cheek has played 1,200 minutes across all competitions in three seasons. In light of Neil Bath’s comments, Loftus-Cheek’s case is particularly sad. Bath said that “realistically, to break into a first team like ours you need to have played 150 to 200 games at senior level […] if a player goes out at 18 or 19 years old, that means they will be 22 years old before being able to really compete for a regular place in the team”.
Regardless of your opinion on Loftus-Cheek, the club made him their highest paid academy player and equally made a big deal about him being part of the first team squad. Why, then, if Bath’s comments are how Chelsea see the development cycle, has Loftus-Cheek played the equivalent of just 13 games in three seasons? When it was apparent he was not getting enough game time, why did the club not take the decision to loan him out after his first season? Again, this is not about your perception of Loftus-Cheek’s talents, but merely pointing out that the club talk a good game but we rarely see it in action. This is a club who deemed Ryan Bertrand not good enough, to then go and spend nearly £60m finding a replacement. I do not think that Marcos Alonso offers a lot more, if anything, compared with Bertrand. We have spent ~ £60m on left-backs to arrive at a position where we still ended up submitting a £61m bid for Alex Sandro. We could have, theoretically, kept Bertrand and spent that £60m on a top-class winger or midfielder. Or alternatively just spent the £60m on Sandro (or someone of his ability) to start. That should be the modus operandi – act like a big club.
“At Real Madrid, Atlético Madrid, Barcelona and Bayern last season, Messi, Iniesta, Pique, Busquets, Sergi Roberto, Rafinha, Nacho, Carvajal, Lucas Vazquez, Morata, Koke, Gabi, Saúl, Torres, Lucas Hernandez, Alaba, Muller, Hummels and Lahm all played 1000+ league mins for their clubs and are all academy graduates. Many different ages and paths to get there but the unifying factor is that they were all ultimately given the chance. I don't buy that the Premier League is better or more competitive than their leagues, it's that top Premier League teams don't behave like elite clubs, they sign second and third-tier guys instead of elite guys they can then surround with academy players”.
– @chelseayouth
Without delving into the dark spots of the 2015-16 season, Cesc Fàbregas and Nemanja Matić regularly dropped truly mediocre performances; yet, Loftus-Cheek could not get consecutive starts. “But the manager sees him every day in training… / <insert other excuses>” – yes, but he also saw Fàbregas and Matić every match too and still played them. In fact, any senior player can afford to have multiple below par performances and still start regularly. An academy player can have a solid game and not be seen of again. It is the way of the Chelsea world. Chelsea had the perfect opportunity to play Loftus-Cheek through all his growing pains and stamina concerns on a weekly basis and they bottled it for a tenth-place finish. To what end?
People can argue about the relative strength of the Premier League compared to La Liga, but with the Premier League’s declining performances in Europe year-on-year, are we really pulling the “strength” card? Nathaniel Chalobah was not good enough to start a single game when N’Golo Kanté and Nemanja Matić looked tired? Lewis Baker is not good enough to play against Brighton or Huddersfield? Jérémie Boga is not good enough to play at least 1,000 minutes next season? 30 minutes (home/away) against the bottom 10 in the Premier League (600 minutes) + starts against the fourth seed in the Champions League group (180 minutes) + starts in all cup competitions (180 minutes minimum) = almost 1,000 minutes of football (conservatively). Is that so hard to manufacture for a top class youngster? The way some fans talk about academy players is as if we are dropping a Sunday League competition winner into the side and not a top calibre youth international.
Madrid have this excellent way of supplementing their star-studded squad with serious rotational minutes from their graduates. You can look at their relative ages versus Chelsea’s younger core, but equally we were not asking Chalobah to challenge Toni Kroos and Luca Modrić, but two players he is more than capable of deputising for. Chalobah was arguably Chelsea’s most ready academy prospect and he played just 159 minutes of Premier League football. This is not a Chelsea side considered to be a European powerhouse anymore (ranking 13th in UEFA’s coefficient table or 10th by the European Club Association). The Atlético Madrid and Paris Saint-Germain ties should provide some context as to where Chelsea stand. We want to get back to that top level, but it will take time and clever squad management.
To provide the correct perspective, since 2003-04 only four Chelsea Academy players have started three or more Premier League games for the club: John Terry, Robert Huth, Ryan Bertrand and Ruben Loftus-Cheek (huge thanks to @ChelseaChadder for the data). Loftus-Cheek only qualifies if you add in completely meaningless starts. We have to be asking ourselves if we can do better than that? If we can produce impactful squad players versus paying £30m+ for them, why don’t we? We can then invest top dollar into buying elite players and not worry about squad depth as much.
Football continues to hurtle in an increasingly corporate direction. A cash flow arms race, where liquid investable capital remains the end goal. In an era defined by the introduction of Financial Fair Play, the ability to make cash has increasingly pressurised clubs to generate new income streams (as well as maintaining a perpetual flow of existing cash). Is it a coincidence that three of the richest clubs in world football regularly make the semi-finals of the Champions League (Tom Markham’s model should be trusted ahead of pretty much everything)? Or that they can attract (and afford) the best players? In its simplest form football clubs seem to run under one unifying principle: “how much money can we invest in the squad after we’ve paid for everything?!” What separates these clubs from the rest is that they legitimately act like elite clubs. They buy top players and supplement their squad with graduates.
This relentless pursuit of resources, particularly in the Premier League cauldron, means the concept of academy player development has gone out the window for “big clubs”. If you subscribe to the notion that academies exist to produce players for the first team, the footballing world has long since stepped over that marker. You are either good enough now or the loan army awaits. As no Chelsea academy product has made any inroads into the first team since John Terry, we can potentially use another reference point to determine what “good enough” actually means. At Chelsea, only Thibaut Courtois has gone on loan and come back to establish himself as a first team player (I’m aware of the Lukaku/De Bruyne/Bertrand etc. points, but they aren’t here…). If Courtois is the benchmark, his level is a rather ambitious set of criteria to hit for any young player:
Be an integral part of a title winning side in a top European league;
Have significant Champions League experience (preferably final experience);
Be the first-choice player in your position for your respective national team;
Be top 3 in the world in your position.
If that is the baseline for a player to be given a serious chance at Chelsea, then we might as well close the academy doors tomorrow and just focus on buying as many finished articles as possible. There is not an 18-year-old born of this world (my Messi caveat being he is alien) who is instantly going to be at that level. We are talking a true 1%-er. Sébastian Chapuis defines “good enough” as “being physically capable to deal with the intensity of the duels, the rhythm of the game, being able to play even with good players closing you down and delivering”. Adding that “the most important thing is to be consistently good (and deliver) over a string of games”. Without opportunities, most top young players can neither develop this consistency nor adapt to the rhythm of first team football. Not everyone is a Kylian Mbappé or has such a clear pathway to first team football as he did at Monaco.
“If you're a talented, first-team-ready 18-year-old at a club like Chelsea (or Real Madrid etc.) you're in trouble. Good enough to play a role, but not good enough to start? This is a huge problem. Win-now clubs like Chelsea won't risk you - particularly when you need to get back into the Champions League - and you can miss years of development. Ruben Loftus-Cheek says hello.”
-Sam Tighe (Bleacher Report)
You might think that all this is fine given we won the league, but developing young players and winning trophies should not be incongruous. The future of Andreas Christensen, in many respects, is going to be the proof in the Chelsea pudding. Speaking with @chelseayouth he told me that “Christensen establishing himself would definitely class as a success. He signed at 16, came through the academy system, loan system; it would validate the model they put in place and Emenalo would love it”. I do not think anyone doubts the Chelsea board and their ability to generate money from this investment system they have cultivated. However, Christensen offers them the opportunity to prove that the development system is not simply an excellent money-making exercise.
Chelsea have arguably the best academy in world football. They were the first team to retain the Champions League (albeit in the UEFA Youth League format) and likely would have won it again had they been granted access as the holders. The level of talent being produced both individually and as a collective stands up to anything in Europe. Why, then, have Chelsea struggled to convert 5-7 years worth of top European talent into a single first team player? Should it even be seen as an issue when other domestic sides are also struggling?
I was made aware of Norbert Elgert after his effusive praise of Chelsea’s Academy in a UEFA Youth League match in the 2014-15 season. Elgert’s coaching career at Schalke influenced the likes of Julian Draxler, Benedikt Höwedes, Mesut Özil, Manuel Neuer and Leroy Sané to name a few; he is widely considered to be an authoritative figure on youth development within Germany. He spoke after a UEFA Youth League game between Chelsea and Schalke in 2014-15 where Chelsea put on one of the most complete performances you are likely to see: “Chelsea were clearly the better team in every department and my team had no chance […] maybe they are better than the Barcelona team who won the competition last year.” He went even further stating that “I see no player in my 1st XI who has a chance to play in the 1st XI of Chelsea [Academy]”. That Schalke team featured Manchester City’s £50m man Leroy Sané.
Years on from that encounter Leroy Sané has played the equivalent of 69 senior games. In fact, Sané has played more senior minutes for Manchester City in the Premier League alone (1,787 minutes) than the entirety of that Chelsea side has played in three seasons across every competition for Chelsea’s first team. No player can be expected to reach their potential playing such a little amount of football. The question also remains as to whether Sané would even have got a chance at Chelsea. His rapid development came because Schalke afford chances to talented kids.
“A lot of the ‘solutions’ to youth development depend hugely on the club vision and philosophy. To me, the overriding conclusion that comes from academic research is that there is no one-size-fits-all model. There isn't even a one-size-fits-all for individual player development or any particular coaching approach. I think - and I just think, there is nothing to support this beyond my own opinion - that the keys in youth development are flexibility and adaptability. What works for one player won't necessarily work for another.”
– Tim Palmer (Prozone Sports)
Chelsea are not alone in their inability to successfully bridge the gap between the academy and first team. However, not every club has Chelsea’s embarrassment of riches available to them at the academy level. Had any of this Chelsea crop come through at Ajax, Anderlecht, Porto or Schalke et al. we likely would have been competing to buy them at some point. We are talking about players who are consistently among the best and brightest in their respective age groups both domestically and on international duty. Despite all the accolades and envious looks, not a single one has come close to establishing themselves as a genuine first team player. It is not a question of whether they are good enough, statistically speaking one of them should have been by now. If you continue to block pathways into the first team with players who are good, but not spectacular, kids have no chance.
Are they actually ready to make the jump? This is certainly where Sébastien Chapuis has some interesting thoughts. His definition of “ready” brings with it some wider critical thinking: “I believe in the ‘if you’re good enough, you’re old enough’ mantra. Which leads us to define what ‘good’ means? There are different components to it: being physically capable to deal with the intensity of the duels, the rhythm of the game, being able to play even with good players closing you down, and delivering. There are a lot of young players able to deputise for a one-off game (because of injuries, suspensions) (Editorial note - Tomáš Kalas at Liverpool may be a very good example of this). The most important thing is to be able to be consistently good (and deliver) over a string of games”. The issue with this definition, not that I am arguing the content, is that an academy player can have a superb cameo and then never seen again for months. When was the last time an academy product not named John Terry started 10 Premier League games in a row? Or 5?
Seb makes a very good point about the “rhythm” of a football match. It is not something that I have necessarily thought about in great detail, but how often does a youngster join a match and just look out of sorts? This first-team rhythm is something that can be disrupted by a string of lower level loans. Séb states that “experienced players are prepared to be consistent”. By their very nature they are used to the dynamics of senior football. A young player, conversely, is unlikely to be able to jump in and out of a side and still drop 10/10 cameo performances. Seb often views the world through a more realistic prism than most, saying that “football management is incredibly hard for managers. There is no way a competent manager would jeopardise his chances to win more games by playing someone who is not ready, or benching someone good enough”. If this is the reality, it puts the entire question of development into perspective. It is, according to Grant, “so hard for a RLC (or any youth prospect) to develop without minutes, and crucially, to be match fit to actually do well when a chance arises”.
Is the Dominic Solanke situation going to be a watershed moment for Chelsea’s Academy players? Martin Samuel wrote about how Chelsea’s youngsters could be seeking to move away from the club before they sign their “big” second contract: “Chalobah's contract expires next summer. Chelsea say they want to talk about a new one. Yet, to what end? So, they can sell him for top price at some indeterminate point of their choosing?” It is a fair point and one that seeks to treat young players like securities on a financial market. The time value (one for you option traders) attributed to these assets decreases massively if they are not tied to a contract that runs into their mid-20s. Players entering the last year of their contract are either sold cheaply or run down their final year. “Even if he is frozen out this season, what is he actually missing? One start when it no longer matters? A few substitute appearances that lead nowhere?” Chalobah took matters into his own hands; opting to move and play, then stay and bench warm. Solanke gave up a year of his career because he was so adamant that chances were not going to come at Chelsea. If he scores 15 goals for Liverpool next season? Great?
I asked Grant whether training at Chelsea or playing at any level was best for development. His response suggested parallels with Seb’s rhythm idea: “I think @chelseayouth is onto something when he says that players get conditioned to play at a lower level. Bamford has played so much championship football that he became conditioned to that level and couldn’t progress. Equally, I’m certain about the idea that Loftus-Cheek spending 3 seasons as Chelsea’s 19th player is not the way to go. He desperately needs a reality check and actual minutes. I think the same applies in Holland – hard to step up after that”.
So what other approaches are there? Chelsea’s instability at the managerial level makes internal development seemingly impossible. But elsewhere, is it an approach that could work?
“Tottenham do [youth development] completely different under Pochettino. It's been interesting this year to hear him speak a number of times about how players with potential to make the Tottenham first-team squad in the future are deliberately kept in-house so they can train under him and develop to fit the very specific profile of player that the head coach wants. It's a completely different approach. But it's not necessarily better or worse to Chelsea, it's just different. To my mind, both clubs are producing similar level players. They just have different beliefs about the type of player that should be produced, and therefore, the process of developing that player. Pleasingly, the decision-making within each club's youth development program is, as far I can see, consistent according to their own vision.” – Tim Palmer
Palmer’s description of the Tottenham model contrasts entirely with Chelsea’s approach, one that is “geared around developing players to be the best they can be, regardless of what that ‘best’ looks like […] I don't think the club particularly cares what the player looks like and how they play (in the sense they don't mind if they produce a Kanté or a Fàbregas, as long as they develop the player according to their potential)”. It makes sense given that Chelsea do not know whether a powerful box-to-box midfield prototype is required in the first team one season and then the next a cultured passer. A huge element of luck is therefore required at Chelsea – you have to hope to be the right style of player for the right manager at the right time. Does Jérémie Boga get to have his fantastic cameo against Arsenal without a calamitous injury to Pedro?
“I wish clubs took greater care in where they sent players on loan; I wish they actually kept profiles on clubs around the world so they knew who might suit who, and could therefore call at the beginning of the summer and say would you like to take Jake Clarke-Salter for the season? We think he'd suit you perfectly.”
– Sam Tighe (Bleacher Report)
Chelsea’s loan army approach to developing talent is one that attracts the most ire from the outside world. How dare Chelsea stockpile |
Whitaker/File Photo
Proceeds from a sale of Alpargatas, whose shares are up sharply this year, could help pay down the heavy debt load of the owners, who are also involved in a corruption scandal.
Cambuhy Investimentos Ltda and Itaúsa Investimentos SA (ITSA4.SA) are working to iron out terms of a deal by as early as next week, when exclusivity talks expire with Alpargatas’ controlling shareholder J&F Investimentos SA, the first person said.
Itaúsa oversees the fortune of Brazil’s Villela and Setubal families, who control São Paulo-based Itaú Unibanco Holding SA (ITUB4.SA), Latin America’s largest bank by assets. Cambuhy is the family office of Brazil’s billionaire Moreira Salles family, also a major Itaú shareholder.
J&F, which owns 86 percent of Alpargatas and oversees the fortune of the billionaire Batista family, must raise cash to pay a 10.3 billion real leniency fine and refinance looming loan maturities, the people said. J&F’s owners Joesley and Wesley Batista signed a leniency deal in May after admitting to bribing almost 1,900 politicians.
Common shares of São Paulo-based Alpargatas (ALPA3.SA) are up 63 percent this year. The company’s Havaianas flip flops, created in 1962 during Brazil’s Bossa-Nova musical movement, are worn globally by celebrities from Blake Lively to Jennifer Aniston.
Alpargatas, which also manages a wide array of Brazilian fashion brands including beachwear brand Osklen, is the first of J&F’s assets lined up for sale in the wake of the Batista family’s involvement in Brazil’s worst-ever corruption scandal. Reuters reported the Cambuhy-led bid on June 16, which the companies confirmed a week later.
Proceeds from sale of J&F’s stake in Alpargatas will go to repay a 2.7 billion-real acquisition financing loan the Batistas took with state-controlled lender Caixa Econômica Federal, the first person said. The loan is under investigation by Brazil’s audit court TCU for potential irregularities.
J&F, Cambuhy and Itaúsa declined to comment. The people asked not to be identified because talks remain private.
PRESSURE FROM CREDITORS
The pace of talks between J&F and the Cambuhy-Itaúsa group gained steam in recent days. Creditors have been pressuring the Batistas to renegotiate more than 30 billion reais of debt at J&F and JBS SA (JBSS3.SA), the world’s No. 1 meatpacker, which the brothers also control.
If the bid for Alpargatas succeeds, Cambuhy and Itaúsa will split equally the Batistas’ stake, both companies said on June 26.
The Batistas acquired Alpargatas in December 2015 from construction conglomerate Camargo Correa SA [PMORRC.UL], which was ensnared in the same scandal.
J&F’s controlling stakes in dairy producer Fábrica de Produtos Alimentícios Vigor SA and pulpmaker Eldorado Brasil Celulose SA are also on the block and their sale processes advancing, the people said.
The sale of Alpargatas, Vigor and Eldorado could raise 10 billion reais and cut J&F debts by another 10 billion reais, one of the people said. Joesley, the youngest of the Batista siblings and a central figure in the family’s leniency deal, is conducting talks to sell Alpargatas himself, the people added.
($1 = 3.2854 reais)With the latest figures, the attack has become the deadliest coordinated assault since the 2003 invasion by a factor of three. In July about 155 people died in a giant explosion in the northern town of Amerli.
A similar number were killed in a series of bombings and mortar attacks in the Sadr City neighborhood of Baghdad last November, and about 152 died in Tal Afar last month from a double truck bombing.
In the area of last week’s attack, the desert villages dominated by Yazidis — a Kurdish-speaking sect whose faith combines Islamic teachings with other ancient religions — struggled to cope. Residents and officials say a constant flow of burials has filled the streets amid the stench of death arising from mounds of beige brick.
Tecken Kuli Saleem, 39, said she had stayed alive for 12 hours under the rubble, but emerged without her family.
“I was pregnant in my fourth month and lost my baby in the attack,” she said. “I can’t talk much. The criminals killed my family, and I don’t know where my children are, whether they’re dead or alive. They’re missing.”
Many families of the wounded have been so shaken by the attacks that they refused to leave their loved ones in hospitals, ferrying them back to small villages where they hoped for safety in numbers.
At the main hospital in Tal Afar, an official said only 15 wounded people remained on Tuesday. Dr. Kifah Kattu, the director general of the hospital in Sinjar, a few miles north of where the explosions occurred, said all 300 of the hospital’s wounded patients had been taken home or to smaller clinics and aid tents near family homes.
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Every day, he and another hospital official said, doctors and aid workers from the villages visit the hospital to collect supplies for those who have left.
“Doctors were astonished because their relatives insisted on taking them,” Dr. Kattu said. “They thought that Sinjar was too dangerous.”
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Duraid Kashmula, the governor of Mosul, said several regiments of Iraqi soldiers had been deployed to protect the area. Sand barriers have been built around three villages in greater Qahtaniya “to secure the area and prevent any strangers from entering,” he said.
He added that the explosions leveled more than 1,000 houses, most of them made of mud and stone, while another 500 were damaged.
Mr. Khader Rashu, the mayor of Qahtaniya, said little hope of finding any survivors remained. “We are facing some difficulties in removing the debris,” he said, “because there are some concrete blocks that need to be broken up.”
Iraqi officials said no suspects had been arrested. Sunni extremists, who have been warring with Kurds in the northern cities of Mosul and Kirkuk, are believed to be responsible for the attack.
Yazidis may have been targets because of their proximity to Syria’s porous border; for their beliefs (they worship an angel whose name is sometimes translated as Satan in the Koran); or as retribution for an episode in April, when some Yazidis stoned a young Yazidi woman to death for marrying a Sunni.
For now, the Iraqi and international effort remains focused on helping the grieving, the wounded and the destitute. American troops have helped distribute water and other emergency supplies.
Dr. Hakki of the Red Crescent Society said at least three trucks full of aid had come from the Turkish government. At least nine trucks brought supplies from the Red Crescent Society, carrying basic equipment.
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“We supplied tents,” Dr. Hakki said. “We supplied kitchen utensils.”
The society has also provided cash and food. He said the families of the 500 who died had received $100 for each person killed, and six months of food rations. Relatives of the wounded received $50 each and the six months’ worth of meals.
The Iraqi government, meanwhile, has distributed $1,600 payments to more than 300 families of those killed, according to local government officials.
Few residents or local leaders seemed to feel it was enough.
Yazidis from across the north, where the sect is most concentrated, said they feared that their community of several hundred thousand might not recover.
“I’ve lost 32 people from the families of my five brothers and four sisters,” said Rasheed Muhsin Khesru, 59, a Yazidi from Kirkuk.
Others said the attack would only accelerate Iraq’s already dizzying level of violence.
“In a few days, 10,000 of our men will be ready to protect our areas,” said Kheder Aziz, who was sobbing on a street in Kirkuk. “All the Sunni Arab tribes living around us are responsible, either because they helped with the attack or knew what would happen.”May 16 (Reuters) - Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway Inc on Monday revealed a new stake in Apple Inc, in a bet that the stock's price could rebound after iPhone sales fell for the first time.
Berkshire held 9.81 million Apple shares worth $1.07 billion as of March 31, according to a filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission detailing the company's U.S.-listed stock holdings.
It is not clear who made the investment, Buffett or one of his portfolio managers, Todd Combs and Ted Weschler, who each invest about $9 billion.
Buffett has said he typically makes Berkshire's multibillion-dollar investments, while Combs and Weschler make smaller wagers.
The investment in Apple may have been made with money from the sale of AT&T Inc stock.
Berkshire held $1.6 billion of AT&T at year's end but listed no investment in the phone company in Monday's filing.
Apple shares, which were up 1.4 percent in premarket trading at $91.81, are nearly one-third below their record high last April. They are also well below their price level at the end of March.
The Apple stake deepens Berkshire's commitment to the technology sector, which Buffett has long shunned, apart from a big stake in International Business Machines Corp. He has long said he does not understand the tech sector well enough.
On Monday, Buffett confirmed to CNBC that he offered to help Dan Gilbert, the chairman of Quicken Loans and owner of the Cleveland Cavaliers basketball team, finance a bid to acquire Yahoo Inc.
Reuters first reported Buffett's support on Friday.
Last month, billionaire activist investor Carl Icahn revealed that he had sold his entire stake in Apple, citing the risk of China's influence on the stock.
Apple last month reported its first decline in revenue in 13 years, as growing competition hurt iPhone sales.
(Reporting by Jonathan Stempel in New York; Editing by Lisa Von Ahn and Steve Orlofsky)It's been evident for a good long while now that Google's big announcement at I/O 2012 was going to be an Android tablet to do battle with Amazon's Kindle Fire. Whether you were asking anonymous Asus executives, upstream component makers, or Andy Rubin himself, Google's mission over the past few months has been to reassert itself in the tablet marketplace — and the Nexus 7 shows that the strategy chosen for doing so has been to assault the low end of the pricing scale.
If you can't beat the iPad, undercut it
This is an entirely sensible approach for Google to adopt since Android isn't yet competitive with iOS in terms of tablet user experience and application quality, but Amazon clearly beat Google to the $199 punch with its own Kindle Fire — what is Google's trump card here? The answer, as it turns out, is wider distribution. Yes, Google expanded its Play Store to include movie and TV show purchases plus magazines — to better compete with Amazon's enormous content library — but it's the fact that the Nexus 7 will be on sale in Australia, Canada and the UK that truly gives Google the edge.
If there was one consistent reaction to the Kindle Fire's launch from outside the USA, it was a deep sigh of exasperation. In terms of its internet and media consumption habits, the United Kingdom is pretty much the 51st state, but unlike the first 50, it's subject to its own copyright regime and anyone wishing to distribute movies or music needs to sign whole new agreements with content owners. The result is that the rest of the world sits on the sidelines while Americans enjoy the Kindle Fire and other US-only services like Turntable.fm and (until recently) Netflix. It's frustrating for consumers and is creating a bubble of unfulfilled demand.
The rest of the world is crying out for a commodity-priced media consumption tablet, and Google's ready to deliver
In beating Amazon to a broader international rollout with its media tablet, Google is laying an essentially uncontested claim to three important English-speaking markets. Last summer's £89 fire sale of HP TouchPads was greeted with such a ravenous appetite that most stores sold out of the webOS slate within minutes. That suggests there's a price point where buyers are no longer discerning about things like app ecosystems and future support, and simply feel compelled by a well known brand sold at a super low cost. The 8GB Nexus 7 costs double the TouchPad's rock-bottom price in the UK, at £159, but that's still far below any comparable device in the local market. Apple will sell you a second-gen iPad for £329, and you might be able to find a Motorola Xoom 2 Media Edition for around £280, but there's no pesky Kindle Fire to put a crimp in Google's plans.
Not that the Nexus 7 can't stand up against the Fire. Beyond the identical price in the US, the two tablets share a number of basic features and specs: both have 7-inch IPS displays, 8GB of storage on the entry level model, no 3G connectivity options, multi-core processors, and an upgraded UI that emphasizes speed and fluidity. Just like the Fire, the Nexus 7 is being sold with little or no profit margin, aiming to serve as the conduit to its parent company's software and services. The Fire has the Silk cloud-accelerated browser while the Nexus 7 brings Chrome for Android out of beta. The Fire gives you Amazon's Appstore and content library, while the Nexus 7 is "made for Google Play."
Where the Nexus 7 excels is in adding extras like NFC, Bluetooth, and a gyroscope, increasing the RAM to 1GB and screen resolution to 1280 x 800, and significantly upgrading the processing and graphical capabilities with a Tegra 3 system-on-chip. Though Google couldn't resist some specious Tegra 3 mathematics — adding the four processing cores to the 12 in the GPU and declaring it a "16-core machine" (which is, in itself, inaccurate, since there's a fifth low-power core that takes the total to 17) — it's an undeniable achievement to deliver that chip's performance at the $199 / £159 price point.
Zero profit margin, but hardware's not where Google aims to make its money
Amazon won't be standing still, with a Kindle Fire successor rumored to be in the works for this summer, but the Nexus 7 forces it to look outside its home market. The developer ecosystem seeds are already being sown, now it's just a matter of expanding Kindle Fire availability beyond US borders. Either that, or watching the Google juggernaut steam by.
We already knew that Google delayed the Nexus 7 specifically so it could match the Kindle Fire's price, and all indications are that it has the specs and extra features to at least give Amazon's tablet some healthy competition. But it's once you step outside the US, to the green forests of Canada or red deserts of Australia, that you'll really see the potential for Google's new Nexus 7. Those underserved markets have been crying out for their own commodity-priced media tablet and, come this July, Google will deliver it.Now, Arcosanti is experiencing its own version of Cuba’s “special period”: a transitional era of privation and possibility. And the man who would be Raúl Castro in this analogy is the foundation’s new president, Jeff Stein, 60, formerly dean of the Boston Architectural College.
As a resident of Arcosanti in its heyday, “he has all the qualities to be the guardian of the faith,” said Michel Sarda, 69, a foundation trustee and a publisher of Mr. Soleri’s books.
But if Mr. Stein can’t miraculously transform Arcosanti into a dense eco-city for 5,000 residents — and that was always Mr. Soleri’s plan — what should it become instead?
Mr. Sarda speaks enthusiastically about building a retirement tower for golf-shy retirees and the project’s alumni. Mr. Stein’s immediate proposals are more modest: a canopy for the outdoor amphitheater, a renovated commercial bakery, a storage unit for Mr. Soleri’s collection of fantastical architectural models and a half-dozen new apartments.
Whatever Mr. Stein may wish to do, for now it will have to be accomplished with an operating budget of less than $1 million. That annual sum includes payroll, utilities, food, building materials, insurance: everything. It is, by his estimation, about a 10th of what the community needs to build new housing and attract new residents and businesses. That is, to turn a somewhat derelict complex of a dozen-odd concrete structures into something more like a city.
His first job, perhaps, is to become an ambassador: to remind the world that Arcosanti exists as a going concern. Visitors (and some 25,000 stop here each year) often observe that this city of the future seems more like a city of the past. Part Mos Eisley, part Ozymandias. But that description fails to account for the 56 inspired souls who continue to live and work and dream in the Arcosanti that exists today.
One such latter-day disciple is Maureen Connaughton, 37, who until last year was a project manager in Philadelphia for a specialty fabrication company. On a cold Tuesday night in January, Ms. Connaughton was sitting with Mr. Stein and a few dozen of her fellow Arconauts in the dining hall, known as Crafts III in the local dialect, tucking into a community meal of breaded pork chops and fried tofu. They were bundled in sweaters and hats and Carhartt jackets. Mr. Soleri may have shown a genius for passive solar design, but at Arcosanti he didn’t really do central heat.
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If you were an optimist, like Ms. Connaughton, who lives in an apartment beneath the cafe and dining hall, you might note that it’s easy to sleep in the cool Arizona winter. Yes, the building’s aging concrete has a habit of flaking onto your bed. But “what you get in exchange is just so worth it,” she said. “To have this big round window and look out at the canyon.”
At a fall building workshop here in 2010, she discovered how much she liked working with her hands. This is the opposite of the paper shuffling (or, worse, paperless shuffling) that defines the modern office job. Back in Philadelphia, Ms. Connaughton loaded up the car (“I need a lot less stuff than I did before,” she said) and headed west to cast ceramic wind bells.
“I really heard all the good and bad things people say about it being set in the past,” she said of Arcosanti, sipping a $2 glass of wine from the cafe’s tiny liquor cabinet. “And I want to see it set in the present. Because it’s my present.”
DURING Mr. Soleri’s long tenure, Arcosanti evolved into a surprising anachronism: a company town. The product line? Handmade bells and heady theories about imaginary cities, or “arcologies.” Ordinary capitalism — independent businesses and privately held homes — was anathema.
Mr. Soleri never bought into the standard American real estate hustle, Mr. Sarda recalled. “He would say, ‘Developer: it starts with ‘D,’ like ‘devil’ and ‘demon,’ ” Mr. Sarda said. “I cannot say that Paolo is a man of compromise.”
Or as one longtime foundry worker put it, “Who ever tried to build a city by selling art?”
At the most basic level, Mr. Stein seems to share Mr. Soleri’s knack for avoiding personal wealth. “The typical American c.e.o. makes 325 times what the company’s average worker earns,” Mr. Stein said. As the new director, “I’m two times the average salary.” And at Arcosanti, the average salary is minimum wage.
Yet smart young volunteers continue to trek here from faraway places like Australia, South Korea, Mexico, Chile, Italy and Jordan, paying to enroll in the construction workshops. A few of these folks will decide to stay, taking a job on site.
The commute can’t be beat. The Wi-Fi signal is strong. And residents pay just $160 a month for room and board. Yes, the room might be an unheated 8-by-8-foot cube in the psychedelic shantytown known as Construction Camp. But this is part of the experience, or the experiment, or whatever you want to call it.
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“There are intentional communities all over the country,” Mr. Stein said. “This isn’t one of them. It’s almost an accidental community. People were drawn here by Paolo Soleri and the power of his ideas. And by the beauty of the place.”
The architectural intern Youngsoo Kim, 32, followed the beacon of Mr. Soleri’s writing to this sparse outpost from the megalopolis of Seoul.
On a bright Wednesday morning, Mr. Kim and his colleague Yasaman Esmaili were stretching a measuring tape across the curved concrete entryways of the East Crescent. This development (unfinished, of course) includes an outdoor amphitheater, administrative offices, a rec room, a handful of residences, the Soleri archives and the scenic guest quarters called the Sky Suite.
Though the cubes and apses of Arcosanti have been sketched and photographed in countless books and exhibitions, the site and building utilities are more of a mystery. In simpler terms, no one seems to have the foggiest idea where to find a light switch.
Prompted by Mr. Stein, the pair has been trying to remedy this situation, assembling up-to-date building information models. The construction “could have been done much better,” Mr. Kim said. “But it was also meaningful for it to be built by the people who learned the concept.”
The great masses of concrete act as a thermal sink, absorbing heat during the molten days and then radiating warmth at night. But the compound’s heating, windows and insulation — the foundations of most green building — seem to have been an afterthought. Ms. Esmaili, a 26-year-old graduate of the University of Tehran, hopes to study these systems while she waits to hear from Ph.D. programs.
Mr. Soleri originally envisioned a series of greenhouses that would occupy the hill below the complex. Hot air would rise from these conservatories into a complex of tunnels that could heat the East Crescent. At present, two trial greenhouses have been finished. For now, a single volunteer has been charged with growing what she can. For better or worse, the national food-gardening craze seems to have skipped Arcosanti.
Meanwhile, the project has only dabbled in popular technologies like solar panels, rain barrels and composting toilets, off-the-shelf gear that can be applied on a small scale.
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“I should have them,” Mr. Soleri said during a recent visit to the project. Yet for most Americans, he maintained, chasing these technologies can become a game unto itself. “We are passionate collectors of gadgetries,” he said. “We can’t resist.”
Mr. Soleri likes to say that he “is a scatterbrain at this point.” But he still projects a commanding presence. Upon meeting a visitor outside on a frigid morning, he raised his hand and waved it to the side, as if to say, “Kindly step out of my sunlight!”
He seemed more comfortable after an espresso, back in his former apartment, a vaguely austere 700-square-foot studio with a two-burner cooktop and an open shower next to the toilet. The paint and the carpeting, now 30 years old, seem to be original. But then, no one ever accused Mr. Soleri of personal extravagance. As Mr. Kim said, “His humbleness and frugality shocked me.”
For several years, Mr. Soleri has lived in a tumbledown ranch at the nonprofit’s Cosanti campus, on the outskirts of Scottsdale. Though his former apartment now belongs to the new chief, Mr. Stein knocked politely at the front door. He worked alongside Mr. Soleri for eight years, in the 1970s and ’80s. And if he has a skeptical thought about his mentor’s legacy, you won’t hear him voice it in public.
Mr. Soleri, however, will discuss his marvelous, flawed creation with disarming frankness. Has Arcosanti, for instance, lived up to its potential?
“No. Don’t be silly,” he said, and then laughed. “If you become a writer or you become a sculptor or a scientist, most of the time you’re able to generate yourself a means to carry on.” An anti-commercial architect, by contrast, must depend on selling his creation to investors and tycoons.
The upside is that Mr. Soleri’s theories about pollution, waste, energy depletion — all the plagues listed on the poster — have never been more compelling in the marketplace of ideas.
With the interminable recession, Mr. Kim said, “I think there are lots of Americans out there ready to simplify.”
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He has coined his own Soleri-like catchphrase: “the banality of consumption.” And he has advanced Mr. Soleri’s ideas in a compilation, “Lean Linear City: Arterial Arcology,” just out from Cosanti Press. Perhaps, he said, the book will influence the cities rising from bare earth in India and China.
Nadia Begin, 41, an architect and planning coordinator at the project for almost 18 years, seemed to speak for the whole community when she said, “Arcosanti needs to be part of the conversation.”
Yet it’s hard to argue that this skeletal settlement represents the city of tomorrow, said Dennis Frenchman, 63, who has created large-scale developments in South Korea, China and Spain, and is a professor of urban design and planning at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
Mr. Frenchman expressed amazement at the beauty and intricacy of Mr. Soleri’s drawings, and the boldness of his invention. But “I don’t think it’s taken seriously as an urban model,” he said. “It’s really a historical curiosity” — a place whose beautiful handicrafts and Utopian spirit recall a Shaker village. The Shakers, he noted, have their furniture, the Arconauts have their bells.
Arcosanti is like a Shaker village in one other regard: the community has never bloomed with children. At last count, the number was four.
Ms. Begin gave birth to two sons at home, in her arresting apartment above the bronze foundry, where the slanting silt-cast walls create a kind of sunken space capsule with porthole windows and skylights.
But Mr. Soleri, the master of frugality, didn’t design a lot of spacious three-bedroom units. Which explains why Ms. Begin and her husband sleep next to a crib that holds their 4-year-old son.
ARCOSANTI needs children. And new living quarters. And working greenhouses. And people to plant them. Above all, this bulwark against modern capital needs money.
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Just about everyone is hoping that Mr. Stein, with his management experience and professional network, will be able to revitalize Arcosanti. At Taliesin West, another countercultural colony with quirky buildings to maintain and tourists to serve, the succession process has dragged on for more than 50 years, since Frank Lloyd Wright’s death in 1959.
Jeffrey Grip, 64, a management consultant who is the chairman of the Frank Lloyd Wright Foundation board, laid out the options for a place like Arcosanti. “You can become essentially a museum: preserve and display what was created there,” Mr. Grip said. “Or you can become an educational foundation that furthers the works” of a great architect. A third path, he said, is to hope that a new mission will metamorphose in the chrysalis of the magical buildings.
If that future doesn’t materialize, what’s the worst-case scenario for Arcosanti?
“You’re looking at it,” Mr. Stein said.
His quip is less pessimistic than it may seem. Everything here is paid for, he said. “We don’t have a mortgage.” So even in its current state, Arcosanti must be more practical than the 460,000 housing units sitting empty in Arizona, according to recent census data.
Let’s say that the shuttered bakery in the Crafts III building never reopens in a renovated form — one of Mr. Stein’s priorities. Instead, it continues to be a gathering spot where Ms. Connaughton, the ceramist, meets friends after dinner. She likes to bake treats for visitors and tourists: giant sheets of lemon bars and peanut butter cookies.
On a recent night, a half-dozen friends joined her there, clustering around the warmth of the commercial oven. A few students from the Kansas City Art Institute, here for a two-week residency, were finishing sketches they had begun that morning. Their professor, who lived at Arcosanti in the 1970s, recalled bacchanals at the Construction Camp. Something about a nude public bath and an indoor bonfire.
A few decades removed from those madcap days, the youth of Arcosanti have graduated to a never-ending game of Othello. It took this happy crowd two hours to finish a six-pack. Ms. Connaughton spooned out another batch of cookies while Anita Carter, June Cash’s sister, crooned over the boombox. When the evening wound down, home was just downstairs.
For decades now, visitors have asked what it would take to finish Arcosanti. Maybe it’s time for a different question. Why doesn’t everyone choose to live this way?FRAMINGHAM, Mass.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--In its first appearance in the wearables market, Apple finds itself within striking distance of the established market leader, Fitbit. According to the International Data Corporation (IDC) Worldwide Quarterly Wearable Device Tracker, Apple shipped a total of 3.6 million units in the second quarter of 2015 (2Q15), just 0.8 million units behind Fitbit's 4.4 million units. Total shipment volume for the quarter came to 18.1 million units, up 223.2% from the 5.6 million units shipped in 2Q14.
"Anytime Apple enters a new market, not only does it draw attention to itself, but to the market as a whole," noted Ramon Llamas, Research Manager for IDC's Wearables team. "Its participation benefits multiple players and platforms within the wearables ecosystem, and ultimately drives total volumes higher. Apple also forces other vendors – especially those that have been part of this market for multiple quarters – to re-evaluate their products and experiences. Fairly or not, Apple will become the stick against which other wearables are measured, and competing vendors need to stay current or ahead of Apple. Now that Apple is officially a part of the wearables market, everyone will be watching to see what other wearable devices it decides to launch, such as smart glasses or hearables."
Apple's arrival had the greatest impact on the smart wearables category, or those devices capable of running third party applications. "About two of every three smart wearables shipped this quarter was an Apple Watch," said Jitesh Ubrani, Senior Research Aanalyst for IDC Mobile Device Trackers. "Apple has clearly garnered an impressive lead in this space and its dominance is expected to continue. And, although Fitbit outshipped Apple, it's worth noting that Fitbit only sells basic wearables – a category that is expected to lose share over the next few years, leaving Apple poised to become the next market leader for all wearables."
In the short history of the wearable market, a clear divide has formed between smart wearables and basic wearables (devices that do not run third-party applications, and includes most fitness trackers). Price and functionality are the main differences between the two categories, and that gap is expected to widen over time. For vendors focused on basic wearables, the challenge will be to compete with the additional features offered by smart wearables while still turning a profit in the price sensitive basic wearables market.
Vendor Highlights:
Fitbit's 2Q15 results reads as a list of successes: triple-digit year-over-year worldwide volume growth; double-digit year-over-year worldwide revenue and profit growth; expanded partnerships with corporate wellness groups, fashion, and food companies; and increased visibility in the media. Fitbit resonates with customers because it has remained true to its simple value proposition of tracking fitness to encourage healthier lifestyles rather than promising the multi-purpose functionality that most smart watches have sought.
Apple's first appearance in the wearables market finds it in the number 2 position overall, and well within reach of market leader Fitbit. Apple is just getting started with its Watch, having reached just sixteen geographic markets to date and starting agreements with third-party retailers. But what is most important is the continued development of the watchOS platform. At its WWDC in June, Apple announced that the next version of watchOS will allow for native applications, which could have a similar effect that iPhones enjoyed when native apps became available.
Xiaomi made a fairly big splash when it entered the wearables market last year with its Mi Band. Since then its growth has been unstoppable in China as the vendor was quick to introduce rock-bottom prices. Xiaomi recently expanded into markets outside China although its limited distribution channels have been a dampening factor on its growth.
Garmin's laser-like focus on fitness devices for "citizen athletes" (runners, cyclists, and swimmers) has been successful so far, though increasing competition from the likes of Fitbit and Xiaomi has led to a reduction in share. Garmin's new ConnectIQ platform may help alleviate some of the pressure as it attempts to offer access to third party applications, data fields, watch faces, and widgets to further customize its wearable devices.
Samsung narrowly edged out Huawei and Jawbone to remain among the top 5 vendors during the quarter. The company saw sustained success with the popularity of its Gear S and Gear Fit devices, and hinted at a massively redesigned Gear S2 to be announced next month. Given Samsung's history of making its latest wearable devices compatible only with Samsung's top models and nearly exclusive reliance on Tizen, the company has limited its potential reach. Whether that trend continues with the Gear S2 will bear close observation.
Top Five Wearables Vendors, Shipments, Market Share and Year-Over-Year Growth, Q2 2015
(Units in Millions) Vendor 2Q15
Shipment
Volume 2Q15
Market
Share 2Q14
Shipment
Volume 2Q14
Market
Share 2Q15/2Q14
Growth 1. Fitbit 4.4 24.3 % 1.7 30.4 % 158.8 % 2. Apple 3.6 19.9 % 0 0.0 % % 3. Xiaomi 3.1 17.1 % 0 0.0 % % 4. Garmin 0.7 3.9 % 0.5 8.9 % 40.0 % 5. Samsung 0.6 3.3 % 0.8 14.3 % -25.0 % Others 5.7 31.5 % 2.6 46.4 % 119.2 % Total 18.1 100.0 % 5.6 100.0 % 223.2 %
Source: IDC Worldwide Quarterly Wearable Device Tracker, August 27, 2015
Table Notes:
Data is subject to change.
Vendor shipments are branded device shipments and exclude OEM sales for all vendors.
The "Vendor" represents the current parent company (or holding company) for all brands owned and operated as subsidiary.
In addition to the table above, an interactive graphic showing worldwide market share for the top 5 wearables vendors over the previous five quarters is available here. The chart is intended for public use in online news articles and social media. Instructions on how to embed this graphic can be found by viewing this press release on IDC.com.
About IDC Trackers
IDC Tracker products provide accurate and timely market size, vendor share, and forecasts for hundreds of technology markets from more than 100 countries around the globe. Using proprietary tools and research processes, IDC's Trackers are updated on a semiannual, quarterly, and monthly basis. Tracker results are delivered to clients in user-friendly excel deliverables and on-line query tools. The IDC Tracker Charts app allows users to view data charts from the most recent IDC Tracker products on their iPhone and iPad. The IDC Tracker Chart app is also available for Android Phones and Android Tablets.
For more information about IDC's Worldwide Quarterly Wearable Device Tracker, please contact Kathy Nagamine at 650-350-6423 or knagamine@idc.com.
About IDC
International Data Corporation (IDC) is the premier global provider of market intelligence, advisory services, and events for the information technology, telecommunications, and consumer technology markets. With more than 1,100 analysts worldwide, IDC offers global, regional, and local expertise on technology and industry opportunities and trends in over 110 countries. IDC's analysis and insight helps IT professionals, business executives, and the investment community to make fact-based technology decisions and to achieve their key business objectives. Founded in 1964, IDC is a subsidiary of IDG, the world's leading technology media, research, and events company. To learn more about IDC, please visit www.idc.com. Follow IDC on Twitter at @IDC.
All product and company names may be trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective holders.Review: Deadly Premonition The Director's Cut Is A Wonderful Mess By Ryan Winslett Random Article Blend Disclaimer: This review is based on a PlayStation 3 review copy of the game provided by the publisher.
Deadly Premonition: The Director’s Cut for PlayStation 3 is a mess. |
reflect and reaffirm our most basic beliefs that everybody counts and everybody has dignity, now's the time," he said. "It's a good time for all of to us reflect on how we treat each other and to insist on respect and equality for every human being."
Florida Sen. Marco Rubio, a former 2016 GOP presidential candidate, accompanied Obama on his flight to Orlando in a demonstration of the President's interest to "show solidarity," according to the White House. Gov. Rick Scott, a Republican, greeted Obama at airport, as did several other local officials. Obama called the governor Wednesday.
When Obama arrived, Orlando Mayor Buddy Dyer presented him with a black T-shirt emblazoned with a rainbow-colored heart and the words #OrlandoUnited.
Hours later, presumptive Republican nominee Donald Trump said he had watched Obama and criticized him at his rally in Dallas, Texas.
"We have tragedy after tragedy, and it's a tough situation. But he's largely, to a large extent, he's blaming guns," Trump said. "And I'm going to save your Second Amendment, folks."
Photos: Orlando vigil for shooting victims Photos: Orlando vigil for shooting victims People light candles during a vigil one day after a gunman killed 49 people at a gay nightclub, marking the deadliest mass shooting in U.S. history Hide Caption 1 of 7 Photos: Orlando vigil for shooting victims Attendees make signs with messages like "#OrlandoStrong" and "We Stand Together." Hide Caption 2 of 7 Photos: Orlando vigil for shooting victims Mourners embrace at the vigil, which took place in front of the Dr. Phillips Center for the Performing Arts in downtown Orlando. Hide Caption 3 of 7 Photos: Orlando vigil for shooting victims Family and friends of shooting victims Leroy Valentin Fernandez and Xavier Emmanuel Serrano Rosado attend the vigil. They were wearing matching "RIP Eman & Roy" shirts. Learn more about the victims Hide Caption 4 of 7 Photos: Orlando vigil for shooting victims A flower is placed on a long sheet of paper adorned with heartfelt messages. Hide Caption 5 of 7 Photos: Orlando vigil for shooting victims Thousands of people attended Monday night's vigil in Orlando. Hide Caption 6 of 7 Photos: Orlando vigil for shooting victims The crowd holds up candles during a moment of silence for the victims. Hide Caption 7 of 7
Back in Washington, however, lawmakers paused in efforts to pass gun control legislation, something the Obama administration has backed and the President spoke to in the wake of the Orlando shooting.
A senior Democratic aide told CNN that votes will most likely happen next week, and they are looking at two Democratic amendments concerning the terror watch list and background checks as well as two GOP amendments. Republican Sen. John Cornyn of Texas told CNN that the Senate will hold a series of votes on gun amendments Monday.
Hours before Obama's plane touched down in Orlando, Democratic Sen. Chris Murphy ended his high profile, 14-hour filibuster calling for votes on gun control legislation. Republican leaders in Congress have stood by their stance that gun control is not the key to fighting homegrown terror threats, but their party's presumptive presidential nominee Donald Trump tweeted Wednesday that he planned to meet with the NRA to discuss "not allowing people on the terrorist watch list, or the no fly list, to buy guns."
On Thursday, House Speaker Paul Ryan pushed back against the Democrats' efforts on guns, saying of possible changes to the way the terror watch list works that, "if we do this wrong, like the President is proposing, we can actually blow our ongoing terrorist investigations. So, we want to get this right, so that we don't undermine terrorist investigations."
And one senior Republican, Arizona Sen. John McCain, pointed to Middle East policy as opposed to gun control as driving the threat that culminated in the Orlando shooting.
"Barack Obama is directly responsible for it because when he pulled everybody out of Iraq, al Qaeda went to Syria, became ISIS, and ISIS is what it is today thanks to Barack Obama's failures -- utter failures," McCain told reporters on Capitol Hill. "So the responsibility for it lies with President Barack Obama and his failed policies."
McCain said later he "misspoke," using a statement to clarify that it was not the President himself who was "personally responsible," but his "security decisions."Gobi masala recipe or cauliflower masala recipe with step by step photos. Sharing a very delicious and flavorful restaurant style gobi masala recipe.
Cauliflower masala is a very flavorful and tasty gravy or curry, side dish for naan/roti or you can serve it with rice too. This gobi masala recipe is very interesting one, the addition of whole spices, cashew paste and milk with malai makes this gobi masala curry very rich, flavorful and tasty.
We love cauliflower so much and I often try to make different easy cauliflower recipes as side dish, main meal or snacks. Do check gobi korma, cauliflower pulao, gobi manchurian, gobi 65 etc.
To make gobi masala recipe, I have used few baby corn pieces as had them in hand. It is purely optional, you can add capsicum cubes too if you prefer. This gobi masala recipe is an elaborate one, it involves some sauteing and grinding absolutely worth the effort. To add some richness to the gravy I have added malai collected from milk, you can even add fresh cream or unsweetened khoya.
To make this gobi masala recipe vegan skip cream and milk, increase cashews by few numbers.
Here is restaurant style gobi masala recipe or cauliflower masala recipe to serve with rice/roti/naan.
If you are looking for more side dish recipes do check restaurant style peas masala, kadai paneer, sweet corn curry
Gobi masala recipe with step by step photos.
1. Break cauliflower into bite size florets. Bring plenty of water to boil in a pot.Add cauliflower florets along with a pinch of turmeric and salt. Let it boil for 5-7 minutes. Drain and set aside.
2. Heat 2 tablespoons oil in a pan. Add the drained gobi (cauliflower) florets and saute well in medium flame till the gobi florets turn to slight golden color. Remove the cauliflower florets to a plate and set aside.
3. In the same oil add the whole spices (cumin seeds, bay leaf, black and green cardamom, cloves, cinnamon stick) and saute well for 4-6 minutes.
3. Add finely chopped onions and saute well till the color changes slightly.
4. Add minced ginger-garlic and saute well till the raw smell goes off. Add slit green chilies and saute well.
5. Add tomato puree and mix well. Cook for 4-6 minutes.
6. Add chili powder, garam masala powder and coriander powder. Mix well and cook till the tomato puree thickens and leaves out oil.
7. Add cashew paste and malai if adding. Mix well and cook for 3-4 minutes. Add 1/2 cup water,salt to taste and bring the whole curry to a boil.
8. Once the curry has thickened to desired consistency, add the sauteed cauliflower florets and chopped baby corns( if adding).
9. Simmer for 3-4 minutes. Add crushed kasuri methi and mix well. Remove from flame, serve gobi masala hot with rice or roti.
Gobi masala recipe card below:
5 from 1 vote Print Gobi masala recipe |Cauliflower masala recipe Prep Time 30 mins Cook Time 30 mins Total Time 1 hr Gobi masala recipe, very rich and delicious, flavorful side dish with cauliflower! Course: Side Dish Cuisine: Indian Servings : 3 Calories : 324 kcal Author : Harini Ingredients (1 cup=250 ml) 1 medium sized cauliflower head florets separated.
1 medium onion finely chopped
2 big tomatoes pureed
10-12 cashews ground to a fine paste in 1/4cup milk or water
1 teaspoon minced ginger
1 teaspoon minced garlic
1/2 teaspoon chili powder
1/2 teaspoon garam masala powder
1/2 teaspoon coriander powder
2 teaspoons fresh cream or malai optional
salt
2 tablespoons oil
Whole spices:
2-3 cloves
small cinnamon stick
1 black cardamom
2 green cardamom
1/2 teaspoon cumin or fennel seeds
1 bay leaf Instructions Break cauliflower into bite size florets. Bring plenty of water to boil in a pot.Add cauliflower florets along with a pinch of turmeric and salt. Let it boil for 5-7 minutes. Drain and set aside. Heat 2 tablespoons oil in a pan. Add the drained gobi (cauliflower) florets and saute well in medium flame till the gobi florets turn to slight golden color. Remove the cauliflower florets to a plate and set aside. In the same oil add the whole spices (cumin seeds, bay leaf, black and green cardamom, cloves, cinnamon stick) and saute well for 4-6 minutes. Add finely chopped onions and saute well till the color changes slightly. Add minced ginger-garlic and saute well till the raw smell goes off. Add slit green chilies and saute well. Add tomato puree and mix well. Cook for 4-6 minutes. Add chili powder, garam masala powder and coriander powder. Mix well and cook till the tomato puree thickens and leaves out oil. Add cashew paste and malai if adding. Mix well and cook for 3-4 minutes. Add 1/2 cup water,salt to taste and bring the whole curry to a boil. Once the curry has thickened to desired consistency, add the sauteed cauliflower florets and chopped baby corns( if adding). Simmer for 3-4 minutes. Add crushed kasuri methi and mix well. Remove from flame, serve gobi masala hot with rice or roti. Recipe Notes 1. You can saute some finely chopped capsicum along wit onions for more flavor.
2.Do not boil for long time after adding cream
Sharing is caring!With two days to go before he unveils the Government’s Spending Review for 2015‑16, George Osborne has just about finished applying the thumbscrews to the few ministers who were holding out against further cuts to departmental budgets. This, I admit, is an exhausted figure of speech. The Chancellor, as far we know, does not possess a medieval instrument of torture – unless, perhaps, his brief and inadvertent encounter with a dominatrix a few years ago produced something more than scurrilous headlines.
This doesn’t mean, however, that Mr Osborne is not in the pain business. It’s just that there was no need for a bone-crusher as long as Danny Alexander, the Chief Secretary to the Treasury, could be wheeled out to inflict agony on Cabinet colleagues via egregious non-sequiturs, including his recent corker that there was plenty of room for cuts to the Army because it had “more horses than tanks”. Ouch! That hurt.
Tooled up with his claymore of warped logic, the MP for Inverness, Nairn, Badenoch & Strathspey should have little trouble slashing through universities (more pencils than professors) and hospitals (more nappies than nurses).
Much of the “heated debate” that was supposed be occurring between No 11 and government departments was little more than ambitious ministers positioning themselves with voters. The message was “we’re doing our best to protect public services”, while, in truth, saving only the jobs they really care about – their own.
The upshot is that the Chancellor will almost certainly find the extra £11.5 billion of cuts for which he is looking before he addresses an ungrateful nation this week to set out his cunning plans for our money. The outcome, we can be sure, will be dressed up as a triumph of financial discipline. It will be nothing of the sort.
On current form, without a template-shattering change to the collection and disbursement of taxpayers’ treasure, Mr Osborne has no chance whatsoever of balancing the state’s books at any time in the foreseeable future.
The problem is easy to identify but hard to rectify: the relentless growth of social security. When the welfare state was launched, the idea was that government handed out cash to the unfortunate and deserving during hard times. It seemed reasonable, compassionate, even desirable.
We have since discovered, however, that what begins as a discretionary benefit soon becomes a permanent right and the maximum offered is swiftly recast as the minimum acceptable. Rain or shine, the bill just grows and grows. Like Frankenstein’s monster, the experiment has developed a life of its own and, apparently, an irreversible momentum.
At £220 billion a year, social protection, as it is known in the Budget Red Book, now dwarfs all other forms of government spending. Not even the National Health Service (£137 billion), the sacred cow of contemporary British politics, comes close to matching what goes out of the door on welfare, pensions and tax credits.
When the government talks of “ring-fenced” spending, it is referring to health, education and aid. But, in effect, the protective cordon extends well beyond these areas. According to the Office for Budget Responsibility, despite forecasts of higher employment and lower unemployment between now and 2017-18, social security spending – in cash terms – is not coming down. Neither is Britain’s interest bill, as it would be unthinkable to default on our sovereign debt (currently £1.3 trillion and rising).
Add up all the “untouchable” expenditure – social protection (£220 billion), health (£137 billion), education (£97 billion), debt interest (£51 billion) and international aid (£11 billion) – and £516 billion of the Chancellor’s annual outlay of £720 billion is hermetically sealed. Thus, if he is to make a dent in his £108 billion deficit, i.e. the annual difference between tax receipts and state spending, he has only £204 billion to shoot at. This, given the constraints of political realities, is a mathematical impossibility. It simply cannot and will not be done.
Sacking soldiers, mothballing warships and grounding fighter aircraft all save money. But even if George Osborne closed our entire military and left us with nothing more than a peashooter with which to deter our enemies, he would not even halve the deficit, such is the cash-burning capacity of the state’s main spending departments.
So, the Chancellor is in a bind. How does he escape? At this point, you might have thought, all Ed Miliband has to do is sit back and watch Mr Osborne’s reputation for economic competence, such as it is, disappear up his own output gap.
Over the weekend, however, the Labour leader set out his vision for repairing the country’s finances – and, perhaps, gave Mr Osborne a clue about what needs to be done in order to make those pesky numbers add up.
Attempting to draw parallels between his own grand ambitions and the achievements of Clement Attlee’s 1945 Labour government, Mr Miliband said: “Attlee always insisted getting the nation’s finances straight was the priority of any Labour government.”
The trick for Attlee, however, was that in 1948-49, social security accounted for less than 10 per cent of total government spending. If that’s Mr Miliband’s proposed model, bring it on – because today the figure has risen to more than 30 per cent.
And let’s not forget that it was Mr Attlee’s chancellor, Hugh Gaitskell, who broke the ring-fence round the NHS, reintroducing charges for prescription glasses and dentures, even though in those days health spending was also less than 10 per cent of the state’s budget. Today it is nearly 20 per cent.
In light of recent scandals at NHS hospitals in Mid Staffs and Cumbria, and subsequent botched attempts at hiding the truth and protecting the culpable, does the health service still merit an ever-increasing allocation of national resources? Why is more than three times the defence budget of £40 billion, year after year, not enough?
What’s clear is that George Osborne’s chosen path is unsustainable. As protected spending balloons, the squeeze on other departments becomes intolerable. All the while, Britain’s public sector net debt is racing towards 90 per cent of GDP. Research by the Resolution Foundation concludes: “If health, schools and aid spending are again protected, that would imply cumulative cuts to unprotected departments by 2017-18 that begin to look implausible. Defence and the Home Office would be between one third and one half smaller than in 2010-11. The Foreign Office would be two thirds smaller than it was seven years before.”
Something has to give. Even Ed Miliband accepts this, which is why he has started to change the script from Gordon Brown’s mindless and wholly disingenuous incantation of “Tory cuts, Labour investment” to a more nuanced approach. The trouble is, plucking a few quid here and there from rich pensioners’ winter fuel allowances and bus passes adds up to little more than a Treasury rounding error.
The challenge is to provide an acceptable safety net without the cost destroying the state’s long-term viability. It seems unlikely that any of the main parties will be brave enough to address this issue in the 2015 election campaign, either by setting out a raft of tax increases or far-reaching reductions in benefits. But afterwards, it will be unavoidable. Until then, we will be asked to believe in the return of the growth fairy and the magic she brings to dishonest economics.
'Jeff Randall Live’ is broadcast Monday to Thursday at 7pm on Sky NewsMI5, the British intelligence agency, has reportedly warned that foreign agents are attempting to recruit IT corporate employees – even low-level contractors – to gain access to classified data.
In these post-Snowden times, when all electronic information and communication has been proven vulnerable to some form of spying, UK intelligence is warning corporate executives in “high-level conversations” on the importance of boosting their “digital defenses,” the Financial Times reported, quoting anonymous Whitehall officials.
The warning comes as the government works to beef up digital security at important institutions such as “banks, utility companies or energy providers,” some of which remain vulnerable to espionage.
According to the UK’s national security risk assessment, cyber-attacks rank as a “tier 1 threat,” which is defined as an event that is both likely to occur and to have a major impact.
While most businesses and government agencies now understand the importance of protecting their data from external infiltration via the internet, less attention is being given to internal espionage being carried out by their own employees.
“Grooming a source with access to highly sensitive information used to be a process that Cold War spymasters would spend years orchestrating,” the FT said. Today, however, “even the most junior IT employees can be highly coveted intelligence assets thanks to their often wide-ranging network privileges.”
“IT department employees have been recruited to help foreign spies gain sensitive personnel information, steal corporate or national secrets and upload malware to compromise entire networks, security officials believe.”
With the intensification of computer technologies and their applications, it is easy to forget the ‘human side’ of espionage, which did not disappear together with the Cold War.
Indeed, in some cases it resembles the high-octane adventures of a James Bond thriller.
As London-Moscow relations turn chilly over the deteriorating situation in Ukraine, MI5 last month warned British diplomats not to fall victim to so-called “honey traps,” that is, relations with foreign femme fatales who possess the equivalent of a black belt in beauty and the art of seduction.
In 2009, for example, a British diplomat was forced to quit the Foreign Office after he was filmed in the company of two women at a massage parlor in Russia.
However, British spies have also been known to employ a few dastardly tricks of their own in a trade that is nearly as old as soliciting sex.
In 2006, the FSB, Russia’s intelligence service, exposed a high-tech “spy rock” that was positioned alongside a Moscow street that enabled British agents to relay information in a modern version of a “dead-letter drop.”
In any case, governments around the world are now working to protect their secrets like never before.
“Insider threats are the growing challenge,” Paul Stockton, the former US assistant secretary of defense, who is now managing director of risk-management company Sonecon, told the FT. “The threat of espionage did not end with the Cold War.”
Stockton appeared to be specifically addressing the type of threat presented by a relatively low-level security contractor such as Edward Snowden, who last year blew the whistle on the global surveillance work of the National Security Agency (NSA) – even though Snowden acted of his own volition.
“The highest risk employees, they’re not necessarily those at the highest levels of an organization who in the old days would have had access to the very limited number of paper documents that would have been most attractive to a foreign power,” Stockton said. “Rather it is systems administrators and others who hold the keys to the IT kingdom that pose such significant potential threats.”
In July, at the height of the Snowden scandal, an order placed by Russia’s Federal Guard Service (FSO) for 20 typewriters triggered media speculation that the move was in response to the NSA revelations.
However, an FSO source told RT that Russian special services have always used typewriters, saying that it was simply time to replace the old equipment.
“It’s not something unusual...the time came to change them. Everyone has these typewriters – the Emergencies Ministry, Ministry of Defense, every special service has them,” the source said.Without Life-Saving Pact, This Doctor Would Have Been The Patient
As part of a series called "My Big Break," All Things Considered is collecting stories of triumph, big and small. These are the moments when everything seems to click, and people leap forward into their careers.
Dr. Sampson Davis is an emergency medicine physician in his hometown of Newark, N.J. He grew up in a rough neighborhood. As a kid, he excelled in school but didn't always stay out of trouble.
"Just to walk down the street, I would see drug dealers, I would see people stealing cars, I would see prostitution, I would see people using drugs," Davis says. "That was my surrounding."
At 17 years old, Davis and three friends committed a robbery. They called themselves the Robin Hoods of the community, targeting neighborhood drug dealers, stealing their money and giving back to the poor.
"When the robbery took place, we jumped out of the car and walked up to them and patted them down, taking things out of their pocket," he says.
Out of the corner of his eye, Davis noticed a car pull up.
"Within seconds, sirens everywhere, cop cars everywhere," Davis says.
He and his friends were caught and sent to juvenile hall.
"I spent the summer between my junior year and senior year in juvenile detention," he says.
Had he been a few months older, Davis would've had a felony charge and would've been tried as an adult.
"I'm quite certain I would've been given years in jail," he says.
Davis says being locked up was eye-opening.
"In a cold room with a thin sheet, I realized that if I didn't change my life around and stay more on the academics, that I would die on the streets," he says. "And that was my big break."
He returned to school his senior year and made a pact with two of his high school friends: They were going to become doctors.
"We made this promise that we were going to figure it out," he says. "Being the first one in my family to go to college, I didn't know I had to fill out a college application, and I had to take the bus to my own college interview."
They made it to Seton Hall University in New Jersey and went on to medical school.
"Two of us became physicians, one became a dentist," Davis says. "We all are practicing doctors in New Jersey and New York."
Davis returned home to Newark to practice emergency medicine at the same hospital where he was born. It's there that he saw the name of a patient, Don Moses, who was admitted to the ER the previous night.
"I closed my eyes and thought, 'Don Moses, I know a Don Moses,' " Davis says.
Suddenly, it hit him.
"This was the Don Moses I did the robbery with years ago," he says.
Davis sprinted down the hall and began seeing the familiar faces of Moses' family.
"He had been shot multiple times, and he had died," Davis says. "If I had decided to stay down that same road, I would've been dead. I probably would've been lying right next to Don, who lost his life on the streets.
"To be back in Newark as the same physical being but with a different mental perspective, I feel like I went through these things in life, I'd never wish them on anyone, but certainly if I can make it, anyone can make it."The major earthquake that hit Japan today may have just triggered some volcanoes in Russia as well. While reports are still vague on the incident, there is a strong correlation between the two occurrences. In Russia, there are reports that earthquakes where felt during the eruption.
According to dziennik pl world (translated):
In the Russian Far East, there has been a strong volcanic eruption. The air got a great cloud of volcanic dust, which can pose a threat to air traffic in the region.
Local experts warn that, dust can rise up to a height of seven kilometers.
Explosions were accompanied by minor earthquakes. Russian service monitoring the activity of cones, however, ensure that the implemented measures guarantee the safety of residents of neighboring towns.
According to Russian media reports, the first cloud of dust covered the city of Ust-Kamczatsk. Over five thousand people are forced to stay at home. The authorities have recommended the strict ban on opening windows. The population, however, was not evacuated, and experts say that the dust does not constitute a great danger. Despite this, from Thursday, all offices of state institutions and organizations have suspended work – except in cases of emergency. For some time, also closed roads in the region.
While this eruption does not seem to be a significant threat to the people in Russia, the fact that an earthquake in Japan could have triggered a volcano eruption in Russia does have some significance.
Read More: dziennik pl world
Top Japan Nuclear News and Nuclear Politics News (March 15)
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Photo Credit: fridgeirsson via FlickrHealth secretary reacts to physicist’s claim that the Conservatives are trying to implement US-style health insurance system
Jeremy Hunt has accused Stephen Hawking of a “pernicious” lie after the physicist said it seemed the Tories were steering the UK towards a US-style health insurance system.
Hours after the health secretary was criticised for claiming Hawking was wrong in the row about the government’s seven-day NHS plan, he leapt back into the fray with two tweets defending the Conservative party’s record on the health service.
Hunt was responding to criticism from the renowned 75-year-old physicist and author of A Brief History of Time ahead of a speech at the Royal Society of Medicine on Saturday.
In the speech, Hawking will accuse the health secretary of “cherrypicking” favourable evidence while suppressing contradictory research to suit his argument.
In a Guardian opinion piece published on Friday, Hawking also criticised the power of profit-seeking multinationals, which he said had contributed to the inequalities rife in the US healthcare system.
“We see the balance of power in the UK is with private healthcare companies, and the direction of change is towards a US-style insurance system,” he wrote.
Responding to the criticism, Hunt tweeted:
Jeremy Hunt (@Jeremy_Hunt) Most pernicious falsehood from Stephen Hawking is idea govt wants US-style insurance system.Is it 2 much to ask him to look at evidence? 1/2
Jeremy Hunt (@Jeremy_Hunt) NHS under Cons has seen more money,more docs and more nurses than ever in history.Those with private med insurance DOWN 9.4% since 2009! 2/2
Hunt’s outbursts on Saturday afternoon appeared on his Twitter timeline came immediately two more tweets laying into Hawking in which he said: “Stephen Hawking is brilliant physicist but wrong on lack of evidence 4 weekend effect.”
Jeremy Hunt (@Jeremy_Hunt) Stephen Hawking is brilliant physicist but wrong on lack of evidence 4 weekend effect.2015 Fremantle study most comprehensive ever 1/2
Jeremy Hunt (@Jeremy_Hunt) And whatever entrenched opposition,no responsible health sec could ignore it if you want NHS 2 be safest health service in world as I do 2/2
The shadow health minister, Justin Madders, weighed in on the row: “It doesn’t take a genius to work out the Tories are wrecking the NHS.
“Professor Hawking has given us answers to many of the universe’s most challenging questions, and even he can’t work out why Jeremy Hunt is still in his job.”
Jeremy Corbyn, the Labour leader, said Hawking was a “brilliant scientist” with a “brilliant mind” and “brilliant thought process” who should be listened to.
Speaking to broadcasters in north Wales, Corbyn added: “And if Stephen Hawking is saying that our NHS is under threat and in danger and in crisis then I think we need to listen very very carefully with what he has to say. I admire Stephen and I agree absolutely with what he said.”
The former Liberal Democrat leader Tim Farron said: “A renowned scientist such as Stephen Hawking questioning your evidence might normally be cause to think again, but sadly it looks as though Jeremy Hunt has joined the chorus of those who have had enough of experts.
Facebook Twitter Pinterest Stephen Hawking will say that cherrypicking evidence for political ends ‘debases scientific culture’. Photograph: Philip Toscano/PA
“It’s easy to accept evidence when it supports your ideological view of how a service should be provided, but we see this government ignoring the evidence time and time again when it suits them, be it on the NHS, our school system or leaving the single market.”
Social media users, including many doctors and scientists, mocked Hunt for taking on the “world’s most famous scientist”.
Martin McKee, professor of European public health at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, responded directly to Hunt, citing studies and articles that contradicted his argument.
McKee, who said he has been writing on the subject of hospital mortality for 22 years, added: “I’d appeal to those commenting not to personalise this with attacks on Hunt – let’s stick to evidence – it’s strong enough on its own.”
Trisha Greenhalgh, professor of primary care health sciences at Oxford University, said: “Awake to tweet from Jeremy Hunt telling Stephen Hawking he doesn’t know how to interpret evidence. Replies are good.”
In his speech, Hawking will single out Hunt, who claimed that 11,000 patients a year died because of understaffing of hospitals at weekends. He will say that four of the eight studies cited by the health secretary were not peer-reviewed and that he ignored 13 papers that contradicted his statements.
“Speaking as a scientist, cherrypicking evidence is unacceptable. When public figures abuse scientific argument, citing some studies but suppressing others, to justify policies that they want to implement for other reasons, it debases scientific culture,” Hawking will say.
The NHS saved me. As a scientist, I must help to save it | Stephen Hawking Read more
Dr Lauren Gavaghan, a consultant psychiatrist whose speech about the junior doctors dispute on James O’Brien’s LBC radio show last year went viral, told the Guardian that Hunt “purposefully misinterpreted statistics from a faulty paper around NHS weekend deaths, when the authors explicitly said that to use the figures would be ‘rash and misleading’. As a consequence of this, sick people did not seek medical help at weekends.
“Subsequent research has shown his ‘analysis’ to be wrong, yet the harm has unfortunately already been done. For Jeremy Hunt to now have the audacity to dispute Professor Stephen Hawking, arguably the world’s most brilliant mind and a man who has dedicated his life to the complex analysis of data, on the interpretation of these academic papers is quite simply laughable.”
Gavaghan called for Hunt to debate with Hawking on live television. “Given also that Jeremy Hunt enjoys presenting himself as a patient advocate, it would seem that he has an opportunity at humility here, to perhaps learn something from an experienced patient – for Professor Hawking has of course himself been a lifelong patient of the NHS.
“He has much to say about the rapid privatisation of the NHS that is taking place currently, and fears this will lead to an unequal, unfair two-tier health service. I wonder if Jeremy Hunt might take up my offer,” she said.A recent spate of phishing attacks has taken to using the data URI scheme for evil. Supported in most browsers, these special URIs allow the content of a phishing page to be contained entirely within the URI itself, effectively eliminating the need to host the page on a remote web server and adding an additional layer of indirection.
One of these attacks is demonstrated below, where a phishing campaign was used to herd victims to a compromised site in the US, which then redirected them to a Base64-encoded data URI. This particular example impersonates Google Docs in an attempt to steal email addresses and passwords from Yahoo, Gmail, Hotmail, and AOL customers.
All of the attacks use Base64-encoded data URIs, rather than human-readable plain text, making it harder for people, simple firewalls and other content filters to detect the malicious content.
Most phishing sites are hosted on compromised websites, but can also be seen using purpose-bought domain names and bulletproof hosting packages that have been paid for fraudulently. However, fraudsters can take advantage of open redirect vulnerabilities to "host" these malicious data URIs without the need for conventional web hosting.
This situation is ideal for scenarios such as malware delivery and social engineering attacks where no subsequent client-server interaction is required, but phishing sites still need some way of transmitting their victim's credentials to the fraudster. Most phishing attacks that use data URIs resort to the traditional method of transmitting stolen credentials, i.e. POSTing them to a script on a remote web server. However, with no obvious phishing content being hosted on the remote web server, such scripts could be more difficult for third parties to take down; and as long as they remain functional, each one can continue to be used by any number of data URI attacks.
Another interesting example which impersonated an eBay login page is shown below. If a victim is unfortunate enough to fall for this particular phishing attack, his credentials will be transmitted to a PHP script hosted on a compromised web server in Germany.
This demonstrates an interesting deficiency in Google Chrome: If the data URI is longer than 100,000 characters, then none of the Base64-encoded data within the URI will be displayed in the address bar. Rather than truncating the URI, Chrome's address bar will only display the string "data:".
This behaviour could make it more difficult for wary victims to report such attacks. Although the victim is viewing an eBay phishing page, if he tries to copy the URI from the address bar in Chrome, the clipboard will still only contain the string "data:".
The Netcraft Extension provides protection against the redirects used in the phishing attacks above, and Netcraft's open redirect detection service can be used to identify website vulnerabilities which would allow fraudsters to easily redirect victims to similar phishing content.INGREDIENT
Zucchini : 1 (12 oz)
Green onion : 1 stalk
Red pepper : 1/2 piece
Garlic : 2 cloves
Sesame oil : 1 tb
Sesame seed, roasted : 1 ts
Salad oil : 1 tb
METHOD
1. Cut the zucchini lengthwise in half and slice it in the shape of half-moon about 1/4 inch thick.
2. Dip the sliced zucchinis in salt water for about 5 minutes and drain them well.
3. Chop the green onion, crush the garlic finely, and cut the red pepper into large pieces.
4. Heat the salad oil in a pan. Cook the zucchini. Add the green onion and the garlic.
5. When well done, remove them from heat. Add the red pepper and remaining sauce, then mix
them well by hand. Transfer it to a serving plate.
Cooking Time : 20 mins
Total Calories : 240 kcal
Serving Size : 4Stephanie Green was hoping to get up close and personal with her favourite band, but ended up getting all that and more when she was struck by a microphone tossed by the lead singer of Maroon 5 in Toronto on Monday
Adam Levine may have moves like Jagger but he wasn’t as smooth after a brief power outage during the concert at the Air Canada Centre.
“The P.A. system crashed and no one could hear and then all of a sudden he dropped the mic, (and it) flew in my direction,” Green told CityNews exclusively.
Despite the goose egg she is now sporting, Green said she’s just fine after her dream encounter.
“It’s just literally the best day,” Green said. “My dream come true. I never thought in a million years this would happen to me.”
Green and her sister had been waiting months for the concert and even dished out a little extra cash for front row seats. Little did they know what would happen.
“He keeps apologizing,” Green said. “(I said) ‘I love you, I’m happy, I’m OK!'”
“”In my flustered state, I might have thrown my microphone on the ground and then it might have bounced off of the ground, into poor, sweet Stephanie’s face,” Levine said during the concert. “I felt so utterly terribly that I had perhaps wounded this young fan.”
The singer then invited Green to join him on stage.
“I was on stage, back and forth, freaking out,” Green said. “(He) hugged me…grabbed face, held my hands!
After her brush with a little Levine love, Stephanie said she can’t wait for more.
“Once they announce (the next concert), first thing…front row…anything can happen!”
Click here for a fan-shot video of Levine’s apology during the concert.Let's get Ronaldo! Man United start talks with Nike over funding for return of Madrid megastar (and Rooney STAYS, says Fergie)
Sir Alex Ferguson has promised Wayne Rooney will not be sold as Manchester United prepared an attempt to re-sign Cristiano Ronaldo.
United manager Ferguson came out fighting in response to suggestions Rooney, 27, could be on his way out this summer.
Despite interest from Paris Saint-Germain — who believe they have been given encouragement over a £24million deal — Ferguson said: ‘There’s absolutely no issue between Wayne Rooney and me. He will be here next year.’
Scroll down for video
Sensational: Manchester United are preparing a move |
in August 2005.
"All the places in Pakistan where OBL stayed are not fully known," the report says. "But it included FATA [South Waziristan and Bajaur], Peshawar, Swat and Haripur."
It found that he probably crossed into Pakistan from Afghanistan's Tora Bora area, where U.S. forces were hunting him, sometime in 2002. His family moved from Afghanistan's Kandahar to Karachi shortly after the September 11, 2001 attacks.
"They kept a very low profile and lived extremely frugally. They never exposed themselves to public view. They had minimum security," the report says.
"OBL successfully minimized any'signature' of his presence. His minimal support group blended easily with the surrounding community... His wives, children and grandchildren hardly ever emerged from the places where they stayed. No one ever visited them, not even trusted al-Qaeda members."
His wives, in their testimonies, said bin Laden was not fond of personal possessions and had few clothes.
"Before coming to Abbottabad, he had just three pairs of shalwar kameez [traditional dress] for summer, and three pairs for winter," the report says.
"Whenever OBL felt unwell [unofficial U.S. accounts indicate he suffered from Addison's disease], he treated himself with traditional Arab medicine... and whenever he felt sluggish, he would take some chocolate with an apple."Top 5 Tips For Taking Better Travel Photos With Your Phone
When we travel, we always want to capture the special moments that awe us and help us appreciate the world better. Fortunately, it is much easier for us in today’s advanced technological age. Nowadays, you don’t necessarily need to haul around a big DSLR camera to get great photos.Whether you have an iPhone or an Android phone, cell phones have been stepping up their game when it comes to their cameras. We have to admit, we are not the best photographers and do not claim to be experts by any means. We do, however, embrace some simple photography rules that help us to capture those special moments. Here are our top 5 tips for taking better travel photos with your phone.
5. Don’t Use Flash
Flash photography has its place for portrait photos but it should be used sparingly in all other scenarios. Flash should be turned off unless you are taking a photo of a nearby subject in complete darkness. Most smart phones now have good enough camera sensors that can intake a decent amount of light. The problem with taking photos in dimly lit area is that photos can come out blurry. That is because your camera needs a longer time to take in light and any movement of your phone will mess it up. When taking photos in dimly lit areas, try to be as steady as possible. Hold your phone with two hands and bring your elbows closer to your body to reduce shakiness. If still doesn’t produce photos that aren’t blurry, try using a tripod. We always travel with a tripod nowadays.
4. Use Landscape Mode
We like portrait mode but it should be used mainly…for portraits. Landscape mode, meaning holding your phone sideways, always produces more stunning photos especially for…well…landscapes. Now there will always be instances where portrait mode may be better especially for tall subjects like skyscrapers or trees. But if you can, try to move back so that you are able to take the photo in landscape mode. We use portrait mode only in the instances where a landscape photo would not convey the feeling that we want. If you also plan on taking videos on your travels, please please please use landscape mode and not portrait mode! You don’t see Steven Spielberg using portrait mode for his movies!
3. Different Perspectives
Most of us take our photos from eye level. It just comes naturally because that’s how we see the world. Changing your perspective of view often makes helps to create new feelings when looking at things. Instead of taking photos from your eye or chest level, try going lower or higher. You’d be surprised of the type of photos you can get from just this one change. The only perspective that you should be cautionary of is the titled horizon. Tilted horizons if done correctly can be stunning but more often than not, it just creates a dizzying effect for the viewer.
2. Rule of Thirds
The Rule of Thirds is not really a rule but more of a guideline (no pun intended) that you should follow when taking travel photos. The idea is that you separate your photo thirds and place your subject in the intersection of the thirds. There have been studies that show that our eyes tend to gravitate to these intersection areas naturally. We can make photos more impactful and allow the viewers to connect better by following this rule. Most cell phones allow you to turn on the gridlines on your camera. We turn on this setting for all of our phones try to use the Rule of Thirds in all of our travel photos. Using the Rule of Thirds will instantly make your travel photos better. But like all rules, rules are meant to be broken.
1. Having a Subject
It is easy to pull out your phone and snap pictures during you vacation but to really improve your photos, you should ask yourself this question “What am I taking a photo of and why?” Having a subject really enhances your photos by giving your eye something to focus on. A subject doesn’t necessarily have to be a person or an object either. It could be the colors of the sky during a sunset for instance. Before we started asking ourselves this question of what and why, our phone’s camera roll was filled with random photos of streets and fields. While the photos were decent, it was hard to find photos that conveyed an emotion or incited a good memory.
Bonus tip: Framing
Once you’ve mastered some of the tips from our list above, you can work on our next tip which is framing. Framing is a big part of the photo composition process. This tip requires a bit more thought and is powerful once you master it. Framing is the idea using elements in your frame to create another frame. This could be done with a window, doorway, archway, etcetera. A good example is the photo above. This photo was from our trip to Ios, Greece. We used the doorway of our hotel room to create another frame. Using framing, we wanted to invite your attention to patio with the stunning view of the bay. Incorporating framing into your photos can add another level of photography style to your repertoire.
Summary
With the technology in our phones, we can document our travels easier and better than ever. In order for us to take better photos, we have to instill some basic photography principles into our photo taking habits. Hopefully our top 5 tips for taking better travel photos with your phone was helpful in giving you some basic guidelines to follow.
In our opinion, taking photos for the sake of having photos shouldn’t be the focus on your travels. Aim to capture that emotion and feeling of the moment that you’re in. Once you start doing this, you’re photos not only become more beautiful, they become more memorable.
Related Post Best Photo Editing App
Bryan is a travel blogger and one half of Travelling Daze. Bryan loves to blog about trip planning, reward point redemptions, photography, and videography.0 Community leaders call for change at University Prep after brawl involving 30 girls
PITTSBURGH - Extra police were on hand at University Prep High School in Pittsburgh’s Hill District Tuesday, one day after a large fight involving 30 girls sent the school into a lockdown.
The Hill District Education Council Board of Directors and the Hill District Ministers Alliance invited community leaders and parents to a press conference Tuesday afternoon, calling for change at the school.
“Right now, most people consider the name of this school a joke. It is not preparatory for the university as much as it is preparatory for the penitentiary,” Sala Udin, of the Hill District Education Council, said.
During the press conference, the Pittsburgh school board and its superintendent were called out for underfunding and understaffing University Prep.
“There is always blame cast upon bad students, bad homes, bad families. But the issue is it’s a bad system, and unless you address the system, it doesn't matter who you bring in here, there's going to be failure. There's going to be no academic success,” the Rev. Victor Grisby said.
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Pittsburgh Public Schools Superintendent Dr. Linda Lane held her first of many discussions with University Prep staff about safety on Tuesday morning.
“We're going to be talking with our teachers and talking about what else they need from us to support them and the principal as well,” Lane said.
While it was initially thought that Monday’s fight started over a boy, an investigation showed it was an ongoing dispute between students from the city's Garfield and Hill District neighborhoods, district spokesperson Ebony Pugh said.
“I think young people can attend schools with people who live in a different neighborhood. We're not talking about some situation where we can't talk to each other because I live in the Hill and you live in Garfield,” Lane said.
According to Pugh, all the students involved were sent home Monday and will face charges from a magistrate. Additional school and city police were at the high school Tuesday, Pugh confirmed.
School police are reviewing surveillance video to make sure they correctly identified those involved in the fight.
Charmaine Demus was brought to tears Monday when she received a phone call from her panicking 17-year-old daughter.
“My daughter says if she leaves the school right now, they will arrest her,” Demus said.
Demus and dozens of other parents rushed to the school to get their children, but they had to wait for the lockdown to be lifted.
“I was locked in a basement office because there was so much chaos,” said a parent who didn’t want to be identified. “They had Pittsburgh police in riot gear, and this is supposed to be an educational facility.”
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Channel 11 sources said several teachers tried jumping in to stop the fight and some suffered minor injuries. Channel 11’s Rick Earle reported that a school police officer, security guard and a teacher were among those checked out by a doctor for possible injuries.
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Most of those involved suffered minor injuries. One student was taken to the hospital to be treated for an asthma attack.
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Pugh said classes resumed normally as soon as the students who were involved were removed from school property.
Students in grades six through 12 attend the school.
The Bloomfield-Garfield Corporation said having more police is a great first step, but more needs to be done to protect students.
Hours after the fight, the organization sent a letter to Pittsburgh Public Schools, saying there were rising tensions at the school previously.
In October, a student was busted with bags of suspected heroin. In October 2014, there was an arrest after a fight at the school, and in that same month, the principal was hit in the head.
Rick Swartz, the executive director of the Bloomfield-Garfield Corp., said there need to be strategies in place to restore order in the school and talk about its long-term future.
"We're very active and aggressive in not giving up on these kids. If the district brushes this under the rug and says this is a byproduct of a fight, I think that's dismissing in a much too arbitrary manner,” he said.
Swartz told Channel 11 News that his organization is trying figure out if any of the students in Monday’s fight are involved in programs at the Bloomfield-Garfield Corp.
Lane responded to the letter. The district released her response, which reads, in part:A morbidly obese Long Island baby sitter accidentally smothered to death a month-old infant when she collapsed and died on the couch where the child was lying, authorities said yesterday.
Teresa Coffey, who was 5-foot-6 and over 200 pounds, was found on top of little Michael Baldwin III on Thursday at around 9:30 p.m. by the boy’s horrified father, and both were pronounced dead at a hospital near the Greenlawn home.
“The woman was described as extremely heavy,” said Detective Lt. Gerard Pelkofsky. “She was extremely large-breasted... Because of the amount of flesh, it could have caused the baby to suffocate.”
The boy’s dad, Michael Baldwin — a local TV personality — ditched a broadcast when he couldn’t reach the sitter by phone and raced home.
He found Coffey splayed out on the couch and looked all over for his son.
“I searched every room,” Baldwin tearfully recounted yesterday. “I was saying his name, ‘Michael! Michael!’ ”
When his search failed, Baldwin said he returned to the living room, where Coffey, 39, was “slumped on the couch, face down, her knees on the floor... I just had this funny feeling she was on top of him.
“I lifted her and he was underneath. He was lying on his back with his hands folded on his stomach.
“He was blue... I just grabbed him and called his name — I knew he was dead.”
Both were pronounced dead at Huntington Hospital.
Baldwin was taping his own show, “Diverse Long Island,” when the freakish events unfolded.
Suffolk Police Detective Lt. Gerard Pelkofsky said investigators believe the deaths were a “tragic accident” — but were conducting autopsies and toxicology tests.
A bottle of prescription pills was found with Coffey, who was known to have health problems, Baldwin said.
Baldwin said he’d gotten a message three hours earlier from Coffey telling him to call her. She never picked up his return calls, and Baldwin, an anchorman for News 12 on Long Island, finally raced home.
“[Coffey] had been asking forever if she could watch my baby, because she couldn’t have children,” Baldwin said.
“She wanted to have kids so bad. I know she had health issues, but I thought she was OK.”
Baldwin said his wife, Colby, is devastated by the death of their only child.
Coffey, who lived in Port Jefferson Station, was also married.
kieran.crowley@nypost.comThe mayor of Port Hawkesbury says he's disappointed with the unwillingness of neighbouring municipalities to talk about amalgamation.
Billy Joe MacLean said when he proposed looking into the idea during a recent mayors and wardens meeting, he was turned down outright.
Even so, he said it's time rural municipalities such Inverness and Richmond counties consider at least sharing some costs with Port Hawkesbury.
"I just feel that our population is shrinking, our costs are increasing, we'd have better ways of planning, better marketing," he said.
MacLean said he's long been interested in looking into the benefits of cost sharing, and possibly amalgamation. Recently, his council asked him to extend a formal invitation to his counterparts in the area.
Richmond County Warden Victor David will say only that he has to run the proposal by his council.
"There was no yes or no, or throw it in the garbage, on it," he said. "It's 'We'll have a look at it.'"
But MacLean said that's not the impression he got at the mayors and wardens meeting.
"I didn't have an armoured suit on, but maybe I would have needed it," he said, adding any talk of amalgamation was immediately rejected out of hand.
The long-time mayor said with similar conversations being held in other parts of the province, he doesn't understand the reluctance to even discuss it.
"I think we're behind the times," he said. "And the day that you stop talking is the day that you're not really moving your people ahead."
MacLean said there was unanimous support to talk about opportunities for sharing municipal services. He said that could include everything from recreation facilities to garbage removal.
He hopes to arrange the first of those meetings by mid-February.July Morning is a hippie-influenced fest that started in 1972. The name of the event is closely related to Uriah Heep’s hit July Morning which was widely popular in Bulgaria at the time. It’s a unique fest that exists only in this country. Groups of people gather on the eve of July, 1st, usually at the beach, and stay up all night to meet the first Sun rays on the first day of July. They start fires, share drinks and play music while they wait for the sunrise. Although there are a number of versions at to what this tradition signifies, most people consider July Morning a celebration of the new beginning and the freedom of the spirit. It is considered that that the fest started as a subtle act of protest against the communist regime.
Veliko Turnovo University organizes the only July Morning Fest in Veliko Tarnovo for the sixth consecutive year; the place is the square in front of the Rectorate at Sveta Gora Hill. July Morning over the University Fest is a symbol of love, new beginning and faith in better days; it starts tomorrow (1st July) at 5.30 аm. People will meet the first rays of the Sun with Uriah Heep’s hit July Morning and other favourite rock songs.Enlarge Image Tracker Dart Model Truck 219mm Black Product #T-DART-219-B Item is in stock and ready to ship USD$ 26.95 Qty: Description The Tracker Dart model takes it’s design and turn angle from the legendary Tracker’s of the late 1970’s. The Dart is commonly referred to as a medium height truck, in that the hanger allows for more clearance between the deck and wheel, which in turn means less wheel bite. Turning on the Tracker Dart model has been described as more of a surf feel. Stability at high speeds and aerial re-entry is smooth and predictable. Whether you’re skating backyard pools or kick flipping down a triple set, the Tracker Dart model is a predictable, stable truck that you can trust. Our Tracker Dart model is available in 8 sizes: 85mm (Mid-Track), 105mm (Fultrack),129mm, 139mm, 149mm, 161mm(new SixTrack), 184mm and the whopping 219mm. The 161 SixTrack, 184 and 219 are available in polished silver or black. Featuring Superball cushions. sold as single truck Guests who bought this item also bought:THE first roo down is at 8.20pm: a juvenile, one of hundreds feeding at the road's edge.
Read the full adjudication here A complaint to the Australian Press Council about this article was partly upheld.
THE first roo down is at 8.20pm. A juvenile, one of hundreds feeding at the road's edge, successfully does its best to get in front of our four-wheel-drive, despite the driver's efforts to the contrary.
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Doug Jobson, general manager of Macro Meats, the country's biggest kangaroo meat processor and marketer, is a man of bush experience. You can just tell. We stop, he dispatches the injured animal humanely, and we head off again down the long, compacted red-dust ribbon of a road that is taking us to the middle of nowhere. We're looking for a kangaroo shooter.
Kangaroos are wild food; it's surprising how many people actually believe they're farmed. They are shot in their natural habitat, the carcasses bled and eviscerated in the field and stored in isolated chilling rooms before transport south to Adelaide, where Macro typically processes 12,000 carcasses a week.
The vast majority of its processed meat - about 75 per cent - is consumed domestically, and mostly by us after we buy it from supermarkets and restaurants. Pet food is only a byproduct of the processing. We, on the other hand, eat 6450 tonnes of the meat every year, according to Macro boss Ray Borda, also president of the Kangaroo Industry Association. We should eat more.
The middle of nowhere is Mulyungarie, about 75km as the crow flies southwest of Broken Hill, just inside the South Australian border, not too far from the Honeymoon uranium mine. Wake in Fright territory, this is. Desolate is too kind.
A few minutes later, a massive orb of sun finally drops below a monotonous scrub horizon; night doesn't so much fall here... daylight surrenders. Out here, it's just saltbush, the occasional cow, feral goats, underprivileged sheep... and loads of kangaroos.
We leave the relatively civil dirt road for a serious bush track through tough-as-nails scrub. In the distance, there's a campfire. This is one of 140 sites in Australia - all in SA, NSW or Queensland - that Macro's licensed shooters, of which there are about 1800, shoot with the permission of landowners. Beside the campfire stands a nuggety Toyota Land Cruiser with a purpose-built stainless steel platform on the back, the result of years of design refinement for the business of shooting kangaroos and retrieving their carcasses in an ergonomic, hygienic manner. It's no car for the weekend shop.
Also beside the fire, the silhouette of Peter Absalom: second-generation roo shooter, son of the legendary Broken Hill painter, pugilist and television personality Jack Absalom, and a man who claims to have shot 450,000 kangaroos in a career spanning 30 years. He lives a solitary life in a cabin out here for 10-week stretches, travelling vast distances by night shooting roos. Jobson reckons it's made the shooter a millionaire.
"You only go home when you need a haircut," jokes Absalom, whose real home is a hamlet outside Adelaide he calls "as close to the city as I want to get". He is a man truly at home in the bush, alone. Shooting roos.
And there are a lot of kangaroos; estimates suggest anywhere between 35 million and 50 million. The shooting quota hovers at about 10-12 per cent of the total estimated population of all species in any given year. For 2013, that quota was 6,223,658, although nothing like that many were actually shot. Maybe 20 per cent.
We are here to see the modern face of the harvest. World's best practice, if you like, of roo shooting. The hygiene measures, the data logging of carcass temperatures, the HAACP procedures that are part and parcel of how the meat gets to our table. It is, as it should be, a tightly regulated industry; some call it the ultimate free-range harvesting. Wake In Fright it is not. But it is a powerful, primal experience: a man, a serious rifle, a spotlight and an animal's death for our plate.
"This is the best bloody animal industry in the world," says Absalom, 57, a crack marksman who knows exactly what to target: mature, male eastern greys and reds. "And I've worked in a lot of animal industries. They're just sitting there in the wild and, whack. Instant. No stress or watching their mates die, none of that."
Two of us jump on the back of the Toyota, a roof-mounted spotlight scanning the bush like a manic lighthouse, Absalom's eyes remarkably tuned to the quarry. My fellow traveller is James Viles, chef/owner of Biota in Bowral, NSW. Despite a reputation for artistic, progressive food, Viles is deeply interested in where food comes from. He grows Wessex Saddleback pigs on a family farm, serious volumes of herbs and vegetables for his restaurant, and wants to see first-hand how kangaroo meat gets to his kitchen.
We head out into the void of night. How do you know which are females? I ask, naively it would seem. "I could tell a bloody female at 500m at night in a gale," Absalom says. He doesn't waste words.
Minutes later, I believe him. The spotlight stops on an animal perhaps 300m away; the diesel shudders to a halt (vibration is no good for marksmanship); and within five seconds there is a fierce report from the.223 rifle mandated by authorities for shooting kangaroos. There must be ruthless efficiency. A kangaroo must be head shot; if it is not, the animal must be killed, but cannot be harvested. Absalom doesn't waste bullets, either. Five shots means five carcasses are hoisted and bled on the back of the truck before we head back to camp, where they are eviscerated (except for the "pluck" - heart, lungs and liver, for lab inspection) and beheaded. They are then taken to a nearby coolroom and later transported to Adelaide.
That's the nuts and bolts of it. The reality, regardless of your perspective, is confronting. I grew up in the country; shooting animals - yes, kangaroos, occasionally - on farms was part of those adolescent years. I am an advocate for eating kangaroo for a host of reasons, not the least being that it's wild. And wild food is increasingly a luxury for those of us who like to eat well and naturally.
Wild food is real. I live in the country, and grin every time a mature eastern grey wanders into the back yard to graze. I've never seen animals killed in an abattoir, but I've been in one. I've seen what happens next. I don't imagine they are great places for an animal to die.
Roo shooting is different, insists Jobson. "If I had a choice, I'd die like a kangaroo. Done correctly, the taking of kangaroos is the most humane harvest in the world."
Commercial shooters must comply with a national code of practice for the humane shooting of kangaroos and wallabies and the food safety procedures are rigorous. Nevertheless, the matter-of-fact manner with which Absalom deals with a carcass is devoid of emotion and takes some getting used to.
Having shared a beer around the fire, we leave his campsite for the drive back to Broken Hill, dodging roos the entire way. Absalom heads out and shoots until dawn.
Next day, while Absalom sleeps, at the restaurant Eat-ADL in Adelaide we try a variety of different cuts from animals he shot earlier. With good handling, and paddock to plate management, this can be exceptional, versatile meat. Sitting in a smart wine bar, last night seems distant indeed. And it is. Mulyungarie. The middle of nowhere. Kangaroo central.
John Lethlean travelled courtesy of Liquid Ideas. Macro Meats is a client of Liquid Ideas.
NO STRESS IN THE FLESH
WILD-CAUGHT barramundi over farmed stuff. Bunny from the paddock instead of the farmed creature. Wild venison over farmed deer which, unless it's shot in the field, deteriorates considerably under the stress of herding and transport to the abattoir, I'm told.
You get the point. Wild protein is impossible to beat. But, the way I figure it, wild food will increasingly become an almost unaffordable luxury for the next generation.
So here we have a wild food called kangaroo. It's a lean red meat. It comes from a very active herbivore with strong muscles that grazes on natural vegetation. It is slaughtered in the field where it grazes: for the animal, there is almost zero stress to the situation. One minute a (male) kangaroo is grazing in the wild and looking at a spotlight. The next it is dead.
As roo shooter Peter Absalom says, they're not standing around watching their mates die. For a meat eater, this means the flesh is in much better condition: better texture, better flavour.
This is a wild meat in abundance. Not only is this an entirely natural product; it is also very reasonably priced.
So why don't I cook kangaroo more often?
Availability, mainly. Or maybe that's visibility. If it's there, I don't see it. Or think of it.
A few days after getting home from Broken Hill watching Absalom at work, and then Adelaide to see the factory where kangaroo meat is processed, a box arrived with samples to play with. Kangaroo sausages (Kanga Bangers), which are surprisingly delicious, although I'd prefer a thinner case. Various non-marinated cuts (strip loin, steak and fillet which, obviously, don't correlate with beef equivalents) and a few marinated steaks.
What now?
Like any meat cookery, it's a matter of choosing the right cut for the intended application, and on this score we got it about half right.
The steak seemed a worthy candidate for Greek barbecue treatment: olive oil, garlic, dried oregano, lemon juice and rind, salt and pepper.
The key is to get the hot plate really, really hot for the initial searing, and make sure that happens quickly before transferring to finish over charcoal, if you can.
A pun seemed in order: served with a proper Greek salad with barrel-aged feta, this dish was christened the Demis Roo-ssos. I'd do it again. Forever and ever.
Next, a pun-driven decision. We just had to make vindaroo. Like every recipe I've tried from Adelaide chef Ragini Dey's Spice Kitchen this is a cracker. Make a marinade, make a paste, cook the paste, add the meat and its marinade, throw in some tomato and hey presto, Goa meets Gundagai.
But don't use strip loin. Diced roo meat from the leg/rump would be better, but monitor the meat as it cooks, because it can dry out quickly.
A bit like our continent. The figures vary, but one estimate from Monash University suggests it can take up to 50,000 litres of water to produce 1kg of beef.
I don't know how much water kangaroos drink, but I don't think it's much. Do the land a favour; eat kangaroo today.Photo
When older people can no longer remember names at a cocktail party, they tend to think that their brainpower is declining. But a growing number of studies suggest that this assumption is often wrong.
Instead, the research finds, the aging brain is simply taking in more data and trying to sift through a clutter of information, often to its long-term benefit.
The studies are analyzed in a new edition of a neurology book, “Progress in Brain Research.”
Some brains do deteriorate with age. Alzheimer’s disease, for example, strikes 13 percent of Americans 65 and older. But for most aging adults, the authors say, much of what occurs is a gradually widening focus of attention that makes it more difficult to latch onto just one fact, like a name or a telephone number. Although that can be frustrating, it is often useful.
“It may be that distractibility is not, in fact, a bad thing,” said Shelley H. Carson, a psychology researcher at Harvard whose work was cited in the book. “It may increase the amount of information available to the conscious mind.”
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For example, in studies where subjects are asked to read passages that are interrupted with unexpected words or phrases, adults 60 and older work much more slowly than college students. Although the students plow through the texts at a consistent speed regardless of what the out-of-place words mean, older people slow down even more when the words are related to the topic at hand. That indicates that they are not just stumbling over the extra information, but are taking it in and processing it.Imagine a world without SK Telecom T1. Possibly the greatest team of all-time no more, ripped from the history books and forgotten forever. Think of a scenario where SKT bands together their rookie team of five talented players, they play their inaugural season where they eventually lose to the more cohesive MVP Ozone in the semifinals, and the team disbands directly following their defeat.
Faker gets signed by a team in China. Piglet and PoohMandu move over to the newly created Jin Air organization. Impact finds a home in KT Rolster. Bengi, not nearly as strong next to Faker, doesn't join him in China and retires from professional play a few months following. The team that would return their sophomore season with a better head on their shoulders and beat the KT Bullets in the finals of one of the greatest matches in eSports history would never occur. Instead, they would be destroyed before they could mature from talented solo players into a five man unit that would go onto win the world title.
Although you might have never heard their team name or seen them play, the Xenics Storm team from the 2013-2014 Champions winter season is the parallel universe I described above. A team of five players only beginning their careers, three of them are brand new to the professional scene before joining Storm for that Champions season. They were a team without the glitz and glamour of the top teams in the region like SKT's own Faker-led squad or the other long-lasting organizations in Korea.
Xenics Storm's roots in League of Legends actually extend longer than those big teams like SKT T1, the organization playing in the first ever Champions season back in the spring of 2012. Xenics were able to thrive in the early days of professional League in Korea. The gigantic corporations with the deep pockets were still preoccupied with StarCraft by the time Champions launched on Ongamenet. Amassing one of the best teams in the league, Storm tore through the qualifiers against the amateur teams and pushed all the way into the semifinals before losing a nail biting series to MiG Frost (before they were CJ) by 2-3 scoreline.
That would be the highest position Xenics would ever place in Champions. As the game grew in Korea with the fan base expanding daily, the top corporations in the country started to take notice. Samsung, SK Telecom T1, CJ Entus, and other large companies that controlled the booming StarCraft: Brood War scene for over a decade started to see the potential in investing into the game that was taking over the youth of South Korea. Although possessing a few sponsors and having the reputation as a strong team when it came to scouting talent, it made no difference when the money started to come down from the billion dollar businesses.
Up until that the 2013-2014 winter campaign, Xenics was cannon fodder for the rest of the competition. Impact, their prized support in the first season of Champions that helped them grab bronze, left the organization at the start of 2013 to join the SK Telecom T1 that would take over the world by the end of the year. That was the nightmare Xenics had to endure continuously — it didn't matter how well they scouted players or crafted teams. It didn't matter how well one of their teams could preform, or how some unknown kid they found from solo turned out to be a diamond in the rough.
If they found that gleaming diamond in a sea of thousands trying to become a professional, the rest of Korea would notice. When it came down to it, Xenics simply couldn't compete when it came to money, with any player that showed any promise on the team getting whisked away by a team that could offer a better contract. Unless they created a team that could go all the way in a single season and win the championship, there was never a chance they could be the best team in South Korea. If one of their teams made a semifinal and loss, the entire roster would be pillaged by the top organizations and left barren.
The greatest team Xenics would ever assemble began as any other season: after a disappointing summer tournament, the team still couldn't keep everyone together. Daydream, the squad's creative and offensive-minded jungler, was signed by CJ Entus Blaze during the off-season, forcing Xenics to rebuild their team for the umpteenth time. To make things ever harder, Ragan, the team's veteran leader, retired from professional play for his mandatory two years of military service.
Storm watched from home as Faker and SK Telecom T1 won the world championship in Los Angeles, their former support Impact hoisting the Summoner's Cup on a team that could give him a brighter future. As SKT shone brightly in L.A, Xenics worked tirelessly back in Korea, scouring solo queue and the amateur scene to find anyone who could fill the remaining spots on the team before the start of the new split.
When the new roster was finally announced, only two starting players from the previous squad still remained: their star player Coco in the mid lane, and the inconsistent but talented Arrow in the AD role. They were joined by three amateurs who were experiencing their first taste of being a pro-gamer.
Swift, a Lee Sin jungle main from Korean solo queue, praised for his innate technical ability and ability to make flashy plays at the drop of the hat.
Their support Piccaboo, a player who was on the roster of amateur team Chunnam Techno University in the previous season, but didn't see any booth time behind starting player Wolf.
And finally GimGoon, another Challenger player that tried to qualify various times on different amateur teams but never could breakthrough into the premiere league.
In a league that was famous for its rotations, vision control, and stellar teamwork between all five members, the newly formed Xenics Storm scoffed and flicked its wrist at the norm. In a league that was filled with big money and large sponsorships, Storm were the team that didn't care about playing the game the 'correct way' or trying to resemble the other teams in the league. They were a wild bunch, more resembling a Chinese team at that time than one from Korea, always forcing fights and turning every one of their games into a sprawling brawl that littered the map with bodies.
Xenics' first game together as a team came against one of those big clubs, the Jin Air Falcons, a team poised to make another run towards the playoffs. That opening game for Storm set the tone for the next two months — Storm accrued 38 kills against the Falcons in a 43 minute bloodbath, giving up their lives 23 times in the process. The team didn't care about the lane phase or how a team should traditionally play in Korea, Storm started the fighting from the first few minutes of the game and didn't stop until Jin Air were defeated, the team roaming the map and showcasing their individual talents that got them scouted in the first place.
The core of the team was centered around three players: Coco, Swift, and Piccaboo.
Since joining the team at the start of the 2013 year, Coco was the golden boy of the Xenics organization. Even though the Storm team in the summer didn't make the playoffs, Coco was still the silver lining through all their struggles, routinely putting up big numbers and ending games with positive stats in losses. When the team took their sole two wins in his rookie season, he was the key and main player in picking up the victories. His Kassadin became renowned |
although their mechanism of action is not well understood. Here, we show that the synthetic cannabinoid WIN55,212-2 (WIN)-induced apoptosis in colon cancer cell lines is accompanied by endoplasmic reticulum stress induction. The formation of acidic vacuoles and the increase in LC3-II protein indicated the involvement of autophagic process which seemed to play a pro-survival role against the cytotoxic effects of the drug. However, the enhanced lysosomal membrane permeabilization (LMP) blocked the autophagic flux after the formation of autophagosomes as demonstrated by the accumulation of p62 and LC3, two markers of autophagic degradation. Data also provided evidence for a role for nuclear receptor peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor γ (PPARγ) in cannabinoid signalling. PPARγ expression, at both protein and mRNA levels, was significantly down-regulated after WIN treatment and its inhibition, either by specific antagonists or by down-regulation via gene silencing, induced effects on cell viability as well as on ER stress and autophagic markers similar to those obtained in the presence of WIN. Moreover, the observation that the increase in p62 level and the induction of LMP were also modified by PPARγ antagonists seemed to indicate that PPARγ down-regulation was crucial to determinate the block of autophagic flux, thus confirming the critical role of PPARγ in WIN action. In conclusion, at our knowledge, our results are the first to show that the reduction of PPARγ levels contributes to WIN-induced colon carcinoma cell death by blocking the pro-survival autophagic response of cells.Ecuadorian National Elections Are Being Hacked Too
Candidates and journalists have had their social media accounts compromised and their names used to spread rumors against each other
Andrés Delgado-Ron Blocked Unblock Follow Following Jan 17, 2017
Donald Trump might have been the first candidate to troll his way into the presidency of a country, but he is not the only Internet savvy politician out there. In 2008, left-wing candidate Rafael Correa championed YouTube and social media as part of his presidential campaign. With almost 3 million followers, he is one of the most influential Ecuadorians in the tweetosphere.
Rafael Correa’s Twitter Account is handled by the president himself. He often would require their public servants to answer citizens’ requirements by mentioning them on social media
The online strategy of the Ecuadorian Government is relentless and they have managed the generation of trending topics using mainly verified accounts and a broad range of supporters — some of them legitimate and some of them paid. Fighting a war against the “corrupt press,” president Correa has managed to dictate the headlines on several mainstream media and legally prosecute a couple as well.
Online trolls and government-backed hacking had been reported to operate in the country and the current national elections, to be held in May 2017, are already being fought online.
Presidential candidate Dalo Bucarám (329K followers), and vice-presidential candidate Andrés Páez (86K followers) were hacked on January 15th. Their twitter accounts were used to spread a chat allegedly taken from the latter taking about disagreements between the party and talking about a romantic affair. Several other accounts, including those of journalists Carlos Vera (330K followers), Juan Carlos Calderón (19K followers), and National Congresswoman Mae Montaño (12K followers) were pwned as well.
While the hacking was allegedly made under the name of Anonymous, the Ecuadorian version of this online guerrilla has declared that they have nothing to do with attacks. Because it targeted regime opponents, people have started linking these hacks to past reports of surveillance made by the government during elections, seeking to compromise journalists, politicians and civil society actors. It is important to remember that Ecuador was among the countries who purchased spyware provided by Hacking Team and used it for political purposes.
It is unclear whether these hacks are actually sponsored by the Ecuadorian government to support their candidate Lenin Moreno. Truth is the big amount of resources given to SENAIN, the local Intelligence Agency, has failed to prevent these and other digital attacks. If millions are spent in surveillance and penetration technologies, one would at least expect someone to be found guilty after hacking the elections. It might happen or not, but if it does, will it be too late?Last time in Homo Erotica, we shared our fondness for men with bellies. This week we thought we’d talk about our love for older gentlemen.
There’s no shortage of names for attractive guys over 40: DILF, daddy, silver fox, papi. The allure of the older man is hardly new. They tend to be more secure, more laid back, and — let’s be honest — they usually know their way around the bedroom, having had ample time to hone their craft.
With 40 being the new 30, and 50 being the new sexy, it’s no surprise May-December relationships have become such common practice in the gay community, just look at couples like Tom Daley and Dustin Lance Black or Matt Bomer and Simon Halls.
Scroll down to see pictures of foxy older gentlemen, and let us know what you think in the comments section below: Is age just a number?
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Photo credit: RGH6JSinclair Broadcast Group will acquire Tribune Media Company giving the Baltimore-based station group its first properties in the nation’s top 5 markets, including storied stations WGN in Chicago, KTLA in Los Angeles and WPIX in New York. The deal is valued at $3.9 billion, plus $2.7 billion in debt.
When the deal closes Sinclair will own, operate and/or provide services to 233 television stations in 108 markets, though the company will likely have to sell some stations to meet already-relaxed FCC conditions.
Divestitures are almost certain in Seattle-Tacoma (Sinclair owns KOMO-ABC and KUNS-Univision, Tribune owns KCPQ-FOX); and Salt Lake City (Sinclair owns KUTV-CBS and KJZZ, Tribune owns KSTU-Fox), with other markets also getting a close look.
“This is a transformational acquisition for Sinclair that will open up a myriad of opportunities for the company,” commented Chris Ripley, President and CEO of Sinclair. “The Tribune stations are highly complementary to Sinclair’s existing footprint and will create a leading nationwide media platform that includes our country’s largest markets.”
Sinclair has been on a buying spree for years and this deal is its largest. “Television broadcasting is even more relevant today, especially when it comes to serving our local communities,” added David Smith, Executive Chairman of Sinclair.
“We are extremely proud to join Sinclair, and we’re excited that Tribune stockholders and employees will have the opportunity to participate in the long-term growth of the combined company,” said Tribune CEO Peter Kern. Of Tribune’s 42 stations, 14 are FOX affiliates, 12 are CW stations, followed by 6 CBS affiliates, 3 each ABC and MyNetwork, 2 NBC stations, and 2 independents.
Tribune Media was spun off from Tribune in 2014 when the company split its newspaper and broadcasting divisions. The newspaper division renamed itself Tronc last year, meaning the Tribune name as a corporate entity, in use since 1847, will be no more.
WGN reported on the pending deal this morning on its early morning show.
21st Century Fox made a run for Tribune but faced even greater regulatory hurdles because of its ownership of many big market stations.
CommentsDeForest Buckner
Oregon Ducks defensive lineman DeForest Buckner (44) could be a breakout player in 2014 because of his 6-foot-8 size and physical play on the line.
(Thomas Boyd/The Oregonian)
EUGENE -- In the coming days we'll re-examine Oregon football's spring practices and offer answers to a few remaining questions:
What did we learn? What questions still remain? What new questions popped up?
Today: Oregon's defensive line.
What will the identity of Oregon's defensive line be in 2014? It's the question every Duck fan and opposing Pac-12 offensive line coach wants to know after UO was defined by its ill-timed struggles to defend physical running offenses. That scorching spotlight on the line may or may not have always been deserved -- breakdowns at linebacker and in the secondary also contributed in losses to Stanford and Arizona -- but it's the place it ultimately rested most often.
And that scrutiny focused on a line with three senior linemen who recently got jobs in the NFL. Ricky Havili-Heimuli, Wade Keliikipi and Taylor Hart have all departed, leaving new questions to be answered.
So no, though we don't know what will be the story of the line come fall, the defensive line's defining takeaways of spring are -- like 6-foot-8 Arik Armstead -- hard to miss.
They're tall. They're big. They're motivated. And they're still on the lookout for depth.
We confirmed this spring what we expected going in, that Armstead, DeForest Buckner and Alex Balducci will earn the most reps in Oregon's 3-4 scheme. Defensive line coach Ron Aiken spent the spring telling his unit that no one's job was safe but acknowledged it was more of a motivational ploy than a threat to playing time. That's because each of the three has deep experience -- stemming from being forced into action as true freshmen when injuries depleted the Ducks -- and enviable size. Balducci is the shortest at 6-4, and Armstead the "lightest" at 286 pounds.
But size isn't everything at Oregon. In fact, we learned that Aiken spent his spring preaching to his mammoth line the advantages of playing lower to the ground. The results were mixed.
Here's what Aiken said on April 9 about that goal:
"If your pads are down you've got a great chance of everything happening," defensive line coach Ron Aiken said. "If your pads are high you have no chance of nothing to happen right.
"You try to keep your pads lower than your eyes. Some of our guys it's hard to do, but you've still got to work to do it. I haven't seen anybody yet do it consistently."
The questions that remain center on the quality of Oregon's backups and whether players such as converted tight end T.J. Daniel, Sam Kamp, Cody Carriger and more can develop into valuable contributors. Finding an answer is vital in a league whose mix of uptempo offenses and smashmouth running games require a successful team to have more than three or four solid linemen.
Daniel is seen as the wild card in this way. He earned tremendous praise in the winter months for the muscle and weight he added while still retaining some of his speed and in spring practices was cited as a player progressing nicely. Kamp and Carriger were described as players who thrived at being physical while needing to improve technique. Stetzon Bair is an interesting prospect because of his lineage -- his brother, Brandon, is a former UO standout -- and 6-9 frame, but little is known about his readiness to make a play for more reps.
Whether Oregon might add yet another lineman into the mix before fall has been a question since February, when head coach Mark Helfrich said another might be added to the recruiting class. All signs pointed then to Hawaiian Ratu Mafileo, a nephew of former Duck Haloti Ngata, but he's reportedly been trapped in NCAA academic red tape ever since.
Whether he qualifies for school or not, the defensive line figures to be among the most heavily scrutinized positions once again for Oregon.
Previously:
-- Andrew Greif | @andrewgreifWeil was born in Passaic, New Jersey, into an acting family.[5] She was raised in, and continues to practice, Reform Judaism.[6]
Her parents, Lisa and Marc Weil, toured Europe with their comedy troupe, The Madhouse Company of London, with her in tow. Weil had aspirations of becoming an archaeologist in her younger years, because of the Indiana Jones film trilogy and a childhood crush on Harrison Ford.[7] In 1984, at the age of seven, her family settled down in suburban Lansdale, Pennsylvania northwest of Philadelphia, where her parents continue to reside. Weil was a self-avowed average student in high school who focused more on her budding acting career than her studies.[8]
Weil traveled frequently to New York City for professional auditions and acted in productions both off-Broadway and in Philadelphia's theatrical community before pursuing her film and television career. A 1995 graduate of North Penn High School, she graduated in the summer rather than the regular term due to her acting commitments.[9][10]AP Opel's main plant in Rüsselsheim: The company says it needs 3.3 billion in financing.
German carmaker Opel is seeking to become largely independent of its American parent company General Motors. In the future, GM Europe chief Carl-Peter Forster said on Friday after a board meeting at Opel's main plant near Frankfurt, Opel should operate far more independently than it has up until now. At the same time, he warned, Opel must remain part of the GM group of companies.
In recent weeks, Opel and GM Europe have been working together on a plan for the beleaguered German carmaker's future. According to the proposal put forward on Friday, the firm would operate as an "independent business unit," Forster said.
DER SPIEGEL Graphic: GM in Germany and Europe
But as an independent European enterprise, the company still wants to remain under GM's corporate umbrella, he said. This would preserve access to new technologies and also enable Opel to profit from the company's sheer size. The enterprise, he said, would also be open to third-party investors. It would also help it get around prickly issues like the fact that the rights to Opel patents are held by GM.
Forster said Opel would present its plan to the German government on Monday. He cautioned, however, that the company would require "considerable financial means." He said Opel would need a 3.3 billion infusion -- money that could come not just from Berlin, but also the governments of all the countries and states where Opel and its British sister company Vauxhall are produced.
1 Billion in Cost-Cutting
The GM Europe chief said negotiations were continuing over ways to prevent plant closures and layoffs, however, he pointed out that the company needed to take considerable cost-cutting measures of just short of 1 billion.
According to the plan put forward, GM itself would need to provide several billion euros to help rescue its European operations. It calls for GM Europe, of which Opel is the largest operating unit, to receive a cash infusion of 3 billion from the United States, the German news agency DPA reported.
DER SPIEGEL Graphic: GM's 2007 Results
However, industry officials have expressed scepticism over whether GM in Detroit would be able to carry out that kind of investment. The company is currently receiving a bailout from the US government and is threatened with bankruptcy. It's also questionable whether Washington would permit any of the aid money given to GM to be passed on to its European subsidiaries. GM Europe is reportedly seeking credit guarantees and loans from the German government totalling around 3.3 billion.
Regardless of whether the plan is approved or not, workers at Opel are facing deep cuts. As part of the implementation of the rescue package, Forster said, the company's would have to eliminate its excess capacities. He said the company would seek to reach a deal with employee representatives. "We are currently negotiating the issue of ways we can avoid closing plants or laying people off," Forster said. He said it was likely that salaries might have to be cut and that the company might seek "voluntary redundancy packages."
In Hesse, where Opel's main plant is located in the city of Rüsselsheim, Governor Roland Koch of the conservative Christian Democrats said his state was considering providing financial aid to the company. He told a German public radio station it appeared investors might be shy about investing in Opel given the current risks. "We could assume this risk, we have the instruments to do that," he said. "We fundamentally have instruments available with which we can reduce the risk taken by investors."
Koch also said he wouldn't rule out the possibility of a direct investment in Opel. "Ownership by the state in a company is the absolute final means because it raises serious issues, and that's why we should always research other steps first."Tony Marshall/Getty Images
Answers on a postcard for this one, please.
Newcastle United youngster Sammy Ameobi—an enjoyable social media presence, for those who follow him—posted this picture on Instagram (and Twitter) on Sunday afternoon, along with the caption "Me and Paul Dummett #roomie".
Cartoon aficionados will need no reminding that Ameobi is dressed up as Leonardo, leader of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, while Dummett appears to have gone as Craig David from the British television show Bo' Selecta!
Yes, Newcastle's fancy dress-themed Christmas party was taking place on Sunday. Either way, this is one of the greatest selfie faces we've ever seen.
Ameobi added further pictures to his Instagram account, hinting at the full glory of some of the costumes being employed.
Ameobi still wins it for us, though.Share 0 SHARES
The biggest news story of the year so far involves a disgusting display from so-called Irish man Peter O’Riordan, employee of gossip site TMZ.
In a despicable and hated-filled 30 minute speech on the TMZ website, O’Riordan made the callous and repugnant claim that some people in Ireland probably wouldn’t even know who Beyoncé is. O’Riordan was also seen punching a newborn in the face while making a Nazi salute.
The video has been circulated on a number of news and entertainment sites in Ireland with RTÉ interrupting programming with a special piece on O’Riordan, about who he was, how to harm him and where he lived.
Shortly after the news bulletin O’Riordan’s family home was burned to the ground with Gardaí insisting there was no need to investigate or even send the fire brigade.
Ireland, the land of saints and scholars and a place which counts the Daily Mail, Sunday World, Entertainment.ie, The Daily Mirror, Huffington Post, Buzzfeed and Her.ie among its most popular websites, continues to be enraged by what O’Riordan’s comments insinuated.
Taoiseach Enda Kenny, meeting with US President Barack Obama, reassured his counterpart that Ireland knows exactly who the successful singer is and pleaded on knees for forgiveness.
The Taoiseach also made an impromptu announcement that the government would introduce a 30-page informative ‘Beyoncé Booklet’ just in case there was still one Irish person unaware of the singer.
Countless Irish people took to social media to criticise TMZ with witty ripostes and hated-filled insults in equal measure.
“I really, really expected so much more from a website that stalks celebrities and fabricates the vast majority of their stories,” shared angry commenter Conor Drury, “we’re not celebrity obsessed idiots like you Americans,” concluded Drury, careful not to stereotype an entire nation unlike O’Riordan’s vile comments.
“I’m actually surprised by how much that cunt’s comments annoyed me,” shared 91-year-old Irish woman and Beyoncé fan Fidelma Noonan, “I’m quite impressed by the amount of pointless vitriol I’ve mustered over a video on the internet,” she concluded.
It is just now been revealed that the Taoiseach concluded his meeting with President Obama by asking O’Riordan be extradited to Ireland to stand trial and definitely found guilty for his outburst.Max Kellerman sees Cutler as the best remaining option for the Texans, while Stephen A. Smith would only trust the former Bears QB to take out the trash. (0:46)
Jay Cutler's NFL career may be nearing an end as the 33-year-old quarterback is still contemplating retirement after 11 seasons, according to a league source.
With Tony Romo moving to the broadcast booth, attention shifted to Cutler and Colin Kaepernick on the quarterback free-agent market. Some wonder if Kaepernick's off-field gestures have kept teams from pursuing him, but there has been little buzz surrounding Cutler's future.
And that may be because he is ready to call it quits.
The NFL Network reported in February that retirement was one of the options Cutler was considering when it became obvious the Bears were going to release him, which they did in March. Cutler, who turns 34 on April 29, endured a long list of injuries during his eight seasons in Chicago, including a torn labrum that required surgery in December.
He also suffered a concussion in a 2010 game against the New York Giants, when he was sacked a record nine times in the first half. Despite missing the next game because of the concussion, Cutler was sacked 52 times in 2010. Cutler may not have delivered the playoff success Bears fans expected when he was acquired from Denver in 2009 for a hefty price as he led Chicago to just one postseason, but his toughness was beyond reproach. Brian Urlacher once called Cutler one of his toughest teammates.
Cutler doesn't have financial worries after earning $110 million in his career, and his wife, Kristin Cavallari, is a successful TV personality. They have three children. And it's not that Cutler didn't have an opportunity to keep playing. The Jets were believed to be interested, but at this point in his life, Cutler likely wasn't ready to head back to a rebuilding team.
The Houston Texans face the prospect of starting Tom Savage after losing out on Romo and likely will be in the market for a quarterback either through free agency, the draft, or both. Houston, with the NFL's top-ranked defense last season, is a solid quarterback away from Super Bowl contention, making Cutler a logical option. But it's uncertain if there is interest in pursuing Cutler.
ESPN's Jeff Dickerson contributed to this report.Sharjeel Khan was bizarrely kept out of the T20 side for 26 months while Mohammad Hafeez, who has struggled in the format, remained in the side © AFP
Only three times in Pakistan's history have they gone six or more Test series unbeaten: six from 1973 to 1977, ten from 1985 to 1989, and seven from 2010 to 2012. Right now they have been unbeaten for five - both in terms of time and numbers theirs is the longest streak in the world right now. Their coach is the same one who instigated the 2010 to 2012 run: Waqar Younis.
One could argue he doesn't deserve a lot of credit for this, and that Younis Khan's batting, Misbah-ul-Haq's captaincy of spinners, and the rise of a new generation of Test specialists are the reasons behind this success.
But the facts are simple: when Waqar took over in 2010, Pakistan hadn't won a Test series for more than three years; when he took over in 2014, Pakistan hadn't won one in over two years. Within six months of him taking charge, these two streaks began.
But it's also a fact that when Waqar took over in 2014, Pakistan had won four of their previous five bilateral ODI series, and reached the final of the Asia Cup. Since then they have won three out of 11.
It's pretty obvious what Waqar is good at and isn't. There is no World T20 or World Cup for another three years, but Pakistan do have a difficult year of Test cricket ahead. Yet when they next take the field in whites, they will not have Waqar in the dressing room. His contract expires soon and his failures in coloured clothing are likely to prevent a renewal.
The same is likely to be true of the captain. In only three of the last 14 years have Pakistan had a positive win-loss record against the other top eight nations.
Shahid Afridi was given a second chance at the T20 captaincy despite a poor win-loss record © AFP
Quite simply Pakistan have been a below-average ODI team for a decade and a half. Remove the equally declining West Indies from among their list of opponents and there is only one year when Pakistan won more than half their games: 2011. Their success that year was sparked by a change in dressing-room culture, led by Misbah, Afridi and Waqar, and also by the fact that in a post-spot fixing world, they became a spin-dominant side.
Leading the charge was Shahid Afridi himself. From 2007 to 2011 he averaged 29 (with an economy rate of 4.4) in ODIs and 18.8 (6.1) in T20s.
Much like Imran Khan two generations before, the greatest weapon Afridi had was himself as a bowler. Since 2012, though, his numbers are abject - in ODIs, an average of 41.2 (with an economy rate of 4.8) and in T20s 30.7 with 7.0 runs per over. Afridi stagnated, the world caught up, Afridi declined, the world went past; Afridi is Pakistan.
Yet even through his peak he was never a particularly good T20 captain. When he was reappointed to the post in 2014 he owned the only negative record among Pakistani captains till that point. Unsurprisingly, in his second tenure Pakistan lost more than they won again. Afridi was made the T20 captain because he seemed like the sort Pakistan want, even if the numbers pointed to the contrary. As always, the numbers turned out to be right.
Sandwiched in the middle of Afridi's two tenures was Mohammad Hafeez.
Pakistanis of a certain ilk are fond of pointless stats, like the number of Man-of-the-Match awards an individual has won. Based on their logic the three greatest "match-winners" (another term they are fond of abusing) in Pakistan's history are, in descending order: Saeed Anwar, Hafeez and Afridi - for they have the best matches-to-MOTM ratio in the country's ODI history. Bizarrely, the same Pakistanis were the ones who were calling for Hafeez's head when the controversy about Hafeez not wanting to play alongside Mohammad Amir arose.
Pakistan can ill afford to lose Hafeez right now - his record since November 2014 (when he was reported for a suspect action and thus had to become a pure batsman) is terrific: a Test average of 75 and an ODI average in excess of 40. And yet, that has not changed him as a T20 batsman. In 24 of Pakistan's last 29 T20 internationals, he has crossed 30 twice. Perhaps his ODI and Test numbers kept him in the T20 side, or perhaps there was no alternative.
Pakistan picked a battery of pace bowlers for a tournament that has been dominated by spinners © AFP
Hafeez's 24-match run of failure began in 2013 against Sri Lanka in Dubai. In that match, Sharjeel Khan scored 50 off 25 balls but wouldn't play another T20 international for another 26 months. Perhaps there always was an alternative.
There's a trend forming here. Pakistan appointed a T20 captain based on his ODI record from years past; their Test coach will be sacked due to his limited-overs record; they dropped Sharjeel, a T20 specialist, for his ODI record, and kept Hafeez, a long-format specialist, despite his consistent failures in T20 cricket. Pakistan continue to not understand how different formats work. They continue to think cricket is a uniform subject. Pakistan were built to fail in the World T20, and they duly did.
That's just the tip of the iceberg. Pakistan were travelling to India, not Australia as their squad composition - five pacers and no front-line spinner - seemed to suggest. As Afridi's record above shows, he is no longer that front-line spinner. Along with Afridi, Pakistan took Imad Wasim, Mohammad Nawaz and Shoaib Malik as spinners, all three more renowned for their batting than their bowling. Perhaps Nawaz can one day become a front-line spinner, but for that he will have to play in favourable conditions. That too didn't happen.
It's not as if the composition failures were restricted to just the bowling. Pakistan had only two "bangers" - real batsmen with T20 strike rates in excess of 130 (Sharjeel and Afridi); third on that list is Umar Akmal. Afridi decided that he had to bat up the order, because that's what captains are supposed to do apparently. Akmal batted up the order. The result was two failed chases because there was no firepower in the lower order. Why? Because the men playing there were originally supposed to bat in the top five. Pakistan struggled against spin throughout the tournament, and yet their best player of spin, Sarfraz Ahmed, did not play a single ball against slow bowling through the course of the tournament. Leading to the question once again - do Pakistan even understand how to use their resources?
Given that they come from a culture that doesn't give importance to fitness and professionalism, domestic pitches and balls that actively turn batsmen away from learning how to rotate strike, and two decades of underperformance, Pakistan need to punch above their weight to even compete. They are built to fail, and they fail consistently.
But instead of trying to diagnose these problems, what we get - what we always get - is pointless military lingo: factions and traitors, troops and unity, big hearts and bravery. So perhaps it's better to explain their situation in those terms: Pakistan build fighter jets using faulty equipment, and then decide to use these in urban warfare, while their guerrilla fighters are reserved for the trenches. And then they wonder why they have to surrender at the end of every war.
Hassan Cheema is a sports journalist, writer and commentator, and co-hosts the online cricket show Pace is Pace Yaar. @mediagag
© ESPN Sports Media Ltd.PG&E Hard Hat (AFP Photo/Justin Sullivan)
A federal jury has found US energy giant Pacific Gas and Electric Company (PG&E) guilty on six criminal counts, following the deadly explosion of one of its pipelines.
The September 2010 blast killed eight people and destroyed dozens of homes in San Bruno, making it one of the deadliest disasters ever involving an American utility company.
The jury on Tuesday found PG&E guilty of six of 12 charges it faced in the case, including obstruction of justice and violation of the federal Natural Gas Pipeline Safety Act.
The verdict followed a nearly six-week-long trial in San Francisco.
The court imposed a fine of up to $500,000 for each count in the case, which means the company may have to pay up to $3 million.
Prosecutors said in a statement that PG&E kept “inaccurate or incomplete” records on its pipelines, and “willfully failed to identify threats to its larger natural gas pipelines and to take appropriate actions to investigate the seriousness of threats to pipelines when they were identified.”
PG&E also “willfully failed to adequately prioritize as high risk, and properly assess, threatened pipelines after they were over-pressurized,” as required by law.
“PG&E provides gas and electricity to the citizens of Northern California and must adhere to certain safety requirements and financial limitations,” said the chief prosecutor in the case, US Attorney Brian Stretch.
“We hope that the verdict today insures that PG&E’s management will adhere faithfully to this compact in the future,” he said.Story highlights Sen. John McCain insists Sen. Rand Paul is an isolationist
McCain: Paul has been "doing somersaults" after ISIS beheadings of Westerners
Dick Cheney also has been critical of Paul on foreign policy
Paul, a possible 2016 GOP presidential candidate, denies switching foreign policy views
Sen. Rand Paul is trying to shed the perception that he's an isolationist and that he thinks the United States should retreat from intervention in other countries' affairs. But members of his own party are making it hard for the Kentucky Republican to escape that image.
Sen. John McCain, one of the most hawkish members of the Senate, told Fox News host Neil Cavuto on Tuesday night that Paul has "a fundamental lack of understanding of the situation and the threats we face" from ISIS.
Referring to Paul's evolving position on ISIS, McCain said the libertarian-leaning senator "has obviously been doing somersaults" since the Sunni militant group gruesomely killed two American journalists and a British aid worker.
Paul, who is seriously considering a presidential run in 2016, responded to his critics in an interview released Wednesday in The Federalist, telling the conservative Web magazine how "frustrating" these labels are for him.
"I spent the past five years in public life telling everyone that 'hey, I'm not an isolationist'... and when they find out I'm not, they say I've switched positions, because I'm not the position they were saying I was. You know what I mean? So for five years they've been accusing me of being something that I say I'm not."
But McCain apparently doesn't buy this explanation. He said Paul has "dramatically shifted his positions on national security. He said we shouldn't intervene, no matter what, anywhere. And now obviously he wants to take out ISIS."
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"I think it's kind of a desperation kind of trying to find some footing here as he slides down a very steep slope of credibility."
Former Vice President Dick Cheney has also been critical of Paul's foreign policy stance. On ABC's "This Week" in June, Cheney described him as "basically an isolationist. That didn't work in the 1930s; it sure as heck won't work in the aftermath of 9/11."
Facing such vocal opposition in the Republican Party, Paul continues to battle the image of an isolationist with shifting views.
Paul told CBS "This Morning" earlier this week that his perception of ISIS has evolved as world events changed, adding that the killings of Steven Sotloff, James Foley and David Haines "influenced" his position.
But Paul has been noncommittal on what the United States should do except that the Congress Paul has said he doesn't back arming Syrian rebels, a position McCain has supported since Syria's civil war broke out three years ago.But Paul has been noncommittal on what the United States should do except that the Congress should determine the path forward.
In The Federalist interview, Paul didn't deny that he's skeptical of U.S. intervention. "We have to be very wary of intervention and that there are often unintended consequences," he said.
"At the same time, I've also said all along that I'm not for no interventions."
McCain, however, remains skeptical.
When Cavuto asked him if Paul would be a good commander in chief, he replied, "Not on national security. No."Alex
Admiral
Posts: 13214
AdministratorAdmiralPosts: 13214 Starsector 0.8.1a (Released) Patch Notes « on: May 24, 2017, 01:00:05 PM » Blog post/download links here
Changes as of June 06, 2017 (hotfix #3, RC8)
Tweaked bounty level progression
Bugfixing:
Fixed issue with accepting Persean League commission stopping the posting of new bounties
Fixed issue with allies retreating at the start of a battle
Changes as of June 04, 2017 (hotfix #2, RC7)
Misc
Interdiction Pulse no longer used by fleets "maintaining contact" with your fleet
Slightly reduced frequency of hyperspace storms
Thunder: increased turn rate, replaced IR Pulse Laser with Ion Cannon
Bugfixing:
Fixed issue with station modules rendering on the map with the wrong facing for enemy ships
Fixed two mod-related crashes
Fixed issue w/ incorrect salvage when retreating from battle and re-engaging
Fixed issue with AoE explosions damaging ship modules through shields (mainly affected mods)
Changes as of June 03, 2017
Campaign
Fixed fleet overpopulation issue that caused hyperspace to get laggy around the time of the tutorial end (scavenger fleets were hanging out in core area instead of heading out to the fringes)
Guaranteed at least one bounty from commission faction in a relatively timely manner
Damaged REDACTED have a level 10 officer in command instead of not having one at all
Limited occurrence of "Analyze Entity" missions with a target very far from the center of the system
Increased drops from some salvageable entities
Ship AI: reduced confusion of frigate and destroyer-sized ships when dealing with fighters
Centurion: lowered supply cost to 4 (was: 6)
Tempest's Terminator Drone: Reduced shields and flux dissipation (to 200/50, from 1000/200) Increased hull to 800 (was: 150) to roughly compensate Increased replacement time to 30 seconds (was: 20)
Made some improvements to AI ordering a full retreat: When only ships left are faster than player's, out of peak time, have not successfully dealt much damage recently, and don't outnumber the player too much When in a retreat scenario and only ships left are phase ships
Miscellaneous
Windows build ships with both 64-bit and 32-bit Java; installs with proper one based on operating system
Changes as of May 30, 2017
Campaign
Person bounty events: brought back small chance to have pirate bounties at high bounty levels
Added shielded variants of Hound and Cerberus to pirate fleets
Added tooltips explaining cause when "perform salvage" option is disabled
Added sound effect for "pound into scrap |
– and probably in the collections of those who do not claim to be jazz fans.Denisse Rojas arrived in the United States when she was just 10 months old, brought here from Mexico as an undocumented immigrant to find a better life.
This young woman is the human face of a federal program called Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals. This program temporarily halts the threat of deportation for young people who arrived before their 16th birthday and provides them with a work permit and documents needed to enroll in college.
Rojas’ family is similar to many undocumented families. After they arrived in Fremont, her father worked full-time in a restaurant while pursuing his high-school diploma at night. Her mother attended community college part-time for seven years to earn her nursing degree.
Rojas excelled in high school and attended UC Berkeley to study biology. She worked as a waitress and commuted an hour each way to classes because she couldn’t afford to live near campus. After graduation, she volunteered at San Francisco General Hospital.
Rojas dreamed of going to medical school, driven in part by a family member’s early death from cancer. The disease was diagnosed at a late stage because the family’s immigration status made it impossible to afford health insurance.
Today, Rojas is enrolled at the New York’s Icahn School of Medicine at Mt. Sinai where she’s on track to earn her degree in 2019. She intends to specialize in emergency medicine and work in low-income communities to provide health care to families like her own that would otherwise go without necessary treatment.
The deferred action program offers opportunities to many thousands of students like Rojas, young people who have only known the United States as their home. These young people are fiercely patriotic. They are undocumented through no choice of their own. They were educated here, they work here and they contribute to communities across America. They want to feel accepted and integrated into American society.
Around 750,000 young people nationwide have been admitted to the program and 359,000 of these so-called Dreamers — nearly half — live, work and are educated in California. Each participant in the program had to submit an application to the Department of Homeland Security and undergo a vetting process to ensure they were qualified.
But during his campaign, President-elect Donald Trump threatened to immediately rescind the deferred action program. That threat is compounded by the fact that registering for the program meant millions of Dreamers trusted the government with their addresses, family details and other personal information.
The fear that Dreamers and their families can be targeted for deportation by Immigration and Customs Enforcement is real.
My office has received more than 33,000 calls and emails from Californians afraid of how minorities, including Dreamers and undocumented immigrants, will be treated under a Trump administration.
A professor from the University of San Francisco shared that after election day a student sobbed in her arms. A father from Pasadena expressed his fear that his two adoptive sons would be deported. A wife from Forest Lake (Orange County) feared that her husband’s temporary status would be revoked and their family separated.
This is unacceptable and not the America I know.
Upon his election, President-elect Trump said he wants to be the president for all Americans. Unequivocally stating that he will not overturn the deferred action program and target Dreamers like Rojas for deportation would send a strong message that he’s serious about turning the page from the toxic campaign rhetoric to governing the nation.
In the event that President-elect Trump does not change course, Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., has committed to introducing legislation with Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Ill., to extend deferred action status.
I intend to join that effort to protect the more than 350,000 law-abiding young people who are living, working and being educated in the state of California. We have a moral obligation to do all we can to shield them from deportation and keep their families together.
Dianne Feinstein represents California in the U.S. Senate.NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) -- The price of gasoline rose to an all-time high Wednesday, according to the widely followed survey conducted for the motorist group AAA.
The average price of regular rose overnight to $3.246 a gallon, according to AAA's Web site. That's nearly 2 cents higher than the previous record of $3.227, which was first set last May and matched Tuesday.
Regular was $2.953 on average at this time last month and $2.543 a year ago.
Hawaii and California fetched the highest prices at the pump, as consumers had to shell out an average of $3.61 and $3.59 respectively for a gallon of gas. But New Jersey and Missouri drivers found gas prices to be nearly 60 cents a gallon cheaper, paying $3.02 and $3.04 respectively.
When adjusted for inflation, gas prices are still below their peak. The record on that basis was $3.405 and set in March 1981, according to the Energy Information Administration.
The fuel price survey was conducted for AAA by Oil Price Information Service.As previously reported Tuesday (found here) the North American Soccer League broke early Monday with a national TV Deal with One World Sports. A lot of questions were left unanswered after the initial announcement. Complicating matters further, the league’s website made it incredibly vagure what the circumstances of the deal were, as well as the issue of access and the differences between this new deal, and the deal the league currently holds with their other provider, ESPN 3.
NASL works to ease concerns involving One World Sports TV Deal
Late Tuesday, the league issued a follow up press release as well as additional clarifications on the circumstances of the deal:
JP Dellacamera will be a part of the crew that will be broadcasting the first game of the deal, Carolina Railhawks hosting the Fort Lauderdale Strikers.
The first game of the deal, LIVE on One World Sports at 7:30 PM, will be available to everyone for free online at www.OneWorldSports.com
Games may be geographically locked with access online for fans in the cities that are being played. That means, for example, that for the first game marked as being potentially geographically locked, that only viewers in the city of the teams playing in that match will be given access to the feed.
This deal DOES NOT remove the ESPN 3 deal that has been in place since the beginning of the 2015 Spring season. Any games in the middle of the week not chosen for One World Sports will be on ESPN 3 as well as the normal schedule of weekend games that will be on ESPN 3 and the Watch ESPN App. This clears up a lot of the issues fans had yesterday when the news initially broke. The news release from today (seen here) also states that all local TV deals with clubs will still be honored during the middle of the week as well as weekend games.
The local TV deals have been a huge progress for the league. Obviously, the NASL would like to be on national TV every match every week, but that isn’t possible only a few years after being restarted. The ESPN 3 deal gave great value for the local TV deals because commentators as well as the local call letters on ESPN 3 streams were great for business there.
Another issue still remains that non-local supporters won’t be given free access to games which can present a moderately inconvenient nuisance if you are traveling or live outside of the local market for a team. This doesn’t seem to be a major concern for the league, and if you are outside of the geographical location that One World Sports and the league sets (if they do for games marked for geographical lock) than you are more than likely not going to be able to watch the game unless you gain access to the channel through your cable provider.
What is also still left out open is the length of the deal as well as the possibility of NASL moving all games to One World Sports next year full time. In the end though, after more details have been released by the league it seems that this is still a strong move to distance from the mud of Traffic Sports as well as give the fans more ways to view. While many fans argue that One World Sports isn’t a “national” channel, the platform it will be on gives more eyes to TV network execs and the possibility that the league might one day make it onto Fox Sports or ESPN full time is still alive.
You can request that either your cable provider grant you the channel or you can purchase acccess through the One World Sports website here
Below are the Indy Eleven matches that will be on One World Sports. All the others can be found here:It took a stolen truck, a police chase and a smashed gate to get Bruce Stigings to start thinking about security on his southern Alberta farm.
Last September, police stopped a stolen vehicle in the nearby town of Innisfail but the truck took off, with the police in hot pursuit.
Bruce Stigings says he installed security cameras that he can check at any time on his smart phone to help monitor his Alberta farm after noticing more crime in his area. (Colin Hall/CBC)
The chase wound down country roads and through a field next to Stigings's home before finally ending when the stolen truck smashed into his front gate
The impact left Stigings on the hook for thousands of dollars in damage and left an impression on more than just his gate and wallet.
Stigings's rural home has been outfitted with an electric gate and 24-hour security cameras to help the retired farmer monitor his central Alberta farm. (Colin Hall/CBC )
These days, cameras are always watching Stigings' acreage, and the retired farmer can check on his property from anywhere just by swiping a few buttons on his cellphone.
He does it at least two to three times a day, he says.
"As often as I feel I need to, depending on what's going on in the area," he says.
And what's been going on, according to Stigings, is a noticeable increase in crime.
In fact, data from Statistics Canada shows crime is on the rise in many parts of rural Canada, led by a 10 per cent bump in rural Alberta in 2015.
Statistics Canada says that crime in many rural communities climbed in 2015, led by Alberta with a 10 per cent increase. (CBC)
More farmers and ranchers are now looking for ways to protect their property.
Stigings says he spent about $2,000 on a security system that includes cameras and monitors inside and outside his home.
And he says many of his neighbours are considering taking similar steps after their own brushes with criminal activity.
"We have a neighbour that we rent land to and they have been broken into twice in the last two years — had their car stolen, a gun stolen. It is serious when that is happening."
Break-ins, gunfights
Some of those residents end up calling Chris Sobchuk of Allan Leigh Security and Communications in Brandon, Man.
He says an increase in rural crime has meant a boom in his business.
"We do about 12 trade shows a year and I would say that at least 50 per cent is going towards farmyard security, where it used to be three, four, maybe five per cent.
Sobchuk says he hears many stories from customers about everything from break-ins to gunfights on rural properties in Manitoba.
People have been telling me they have been having home invasions — like, they have actually been locked into rooms in their house. - Chris Sobchuk
"They are having fuel stolen. They have ATVs and snow machines. Their shops are being broken into," he says. "People have been telling me they have been having home invasions — like, they have actually been locked into rooms in their house."
Sobchuk believes that the increase in rural crime is due in part to the downturn in the energy sector, which has left thousands of young men in Western Canada out of work.
Chris Sobchuk sells security systems to rural home owners around Brandon, Man. (Gary Solilak/CBC)
One province over, a group representing rural communities is doing more than installing cameras.
At their annual general meeting, members of the Saskatchewan Association of Rural Municipalities, or SARM, voted to push Ottawa to expand the right to defend property in Canada, citing fears over the growing incidence of crime in their communities.
Feeling 'threatened'
SARM president Ray Orb said that the motion passed with more than 90 per cent support.
"Our members are feeling a little bit threatened," he said. "They are worried about their own safety and the safety of their families."
But increasing a landowner's right to defend their property is a touchy subject in Saskatchewan, where a farmer is awaiting trial for the shooting death of a First Nations man on his land.
Gerald Stanley is charged with second-degree murder in the death of Colton Boushie after the 22-year-old drove onto Stanley's farm near Biggar, Sask., last year.
Debate over increasing the ability for property owners to defend their land was front and centre at the Saskatchewan Association of Rural Municipality's AGM. (Chanss Lagaden/CBC)
But Orb says that while his group wants landowners to have more leeway to defend their property, he doesn't want to see more gunplay.
"We are not condoning that ratepayers take action against perpetrators but instead they call the RCMP," he said. "Or if they have a rural crime watch program, that would be their first contact."
Stigings likes the initiative from his neighbours in Saskatchewan and said he would like to have more rights when it comes to defending his rural home from criminals.
"I believe that people should be able to protect their own property," he said. "The laws shouldn't be there to protect the guilty, they should be there to protect the innocent people."
But Stigings adds that what he would really like to see are tougher sentences that keep criminals behind bars longer.Having dominated PC for months it's time to see if PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds can match that success on Xbox One. As the game launches on Microsoft's console we speak to creative director Brendan Greene, and Bluehole CEO/executive producer Chang Han Kim about bringing the PC hit to Xbox One.
OXM: For Xbox owners who somehow haven’t heard of PUBG, what do you think makes it so popular?
Brendan Greene: Well for me it’s a very simple concept: it’s land, loot and survive. There’s not much to it, but what I think separates it from other shooters is that every single round is unique. You never know what you’re going to come across in regards to weapons or items, you never really know where the zone’s going to finish.
OXM: You’ve been testing first-person servers recently – are they coming to Xbox as well?
BG: Hopefully in the future, yeah, but at launch we won’t have them, we’ll only have third-person servers, just because we want to focus on getting the game stable, getting the server system stable. We still want to add first-person servers to the Xbox of course, but right now we kind of want of focus on the build.
OXM: Have you had to make any changes specifically for the fact players will be using Xbox controllers?
BG: The guys have been really great at getting the inventory and weapons systems mapped to the controller, so much so that most people I’ve talked to say it feels really natural, and they’ve done a really good job. Now of course we’ll have to work with the community, and it’s why we’re doing Game Preview, as it allows us to work with real players and get their feedback on how the controls feel.
OXM: PC players get updates all the time. Can Xbox One players expect the same kind of thing?
Chang Han Kim: Yes, we see Xbox Game Preview very much like Early Access on Steam, so we are trying to evolve the game more with the feedback of the users. We want to push out as many updates as we can, but it’s very difficult to do frequent updates when it comes to the console platform, so on this we’re currently consulting with the Xbox team on how to make this happen more quickly.
OXM: Fans are understandably excited about the new maps. Will these be coming to Xbox One as well, around the same time as on PC?
BG: We’re going to be showcasing the new desert map on the PC 1.0 version first, and it will eventually come to the Xbox version but we’ve no timeline as to when that might happen yet.
OXM: What other updates and changes do you have planned for the near future? Is there anything you really want to add?
BG: No, I mean with the PC 1.0 release, we feel that the game is kind of feature complete at that stage – you know, we’ll have the vaulting in (vaulting will also be coming to the Xbox Game Preview version at launch) and we have our 3D replay version that we’re working on. And once that’s added to the system along with real bullet ballistics and penetration, that’s kind of where we see the game being feature complete. After that we’re not going to finish development, we see it as a kind of permanent beta which we’ll also we be improving, tuning and upgrading the game over the coming years.
OXM: Do you have any really cool ideas that you’d like to include further down the road?
BG: Just some really obvious things, like character levelling systems and stuff like that to give a bit more depth to the character system. Apart from that it’s really just that we want to focus on optimising and upgrading the game over the coming years. I always look at it like CS:GO, you know? Dust is on its fourth version, right? So I’m hoping that in the next five to ten years, Erangel will be on its fourth version and we’re constantly going back and improving and updating it.
OXM: One of the things you announced at Gamescom was a loot-box style system for unlocking outfits. There was quite a fan backlash – how did that make you feel?
BG: I honestly feel that having a strong skin economy is really good for the game going forward. These are cosmetic items, it’s an optional system. We really believe that in order to maintain the servers and give ourselves a revenue stream over the coming five to ten years where we plan to support PUBG, we need some kind of ongoing revenue stream. We feel that cosmetic loot boxes are the way to do this.
The full version of this interview originally appeared in Xbox: The Official Magazine. For more great Xbox coverage, you can subscribe here.First published at 11:13 a.m.; updated at 6 p.m.
WASHINGTON — The Pentagon unveiled its fiscal 2017 budget request Tuesday morning, asking Congress for $582.7 billion in military funding.
The Defense Department's request, which includes $523.9 billion in base budget money and $58.8 billion in overseas contingency operations (OCO) funding according to budget documents, represented a tiny 0.4 percent increase from the $580.3 billion total Congress enacted for 2016. However, the base budget figure is $23.9 billion less than the Pentagon planned on having this year when it completed its 2016 budget.
The budget includes $71.8 billion for research and development, a 4 percent uptick from the previous year's enacted $69 billion. The fruits of R&D investment are expected to provide a foundation for the so-called third offset strategy, the Pentagon's plan to produce a battlefield advantage built on cutting-edge technology.
With Defense Secretary Ash Carter traveling in Europe, his deputy Robert Work introduced the budget at the Pentagon Tuesday. He applauded Congress for providing two years of budget certainty through the Bipartisan Budget Act (BBA), a two-year deal that lifts spending levels above sequestration's caps through FY2017.
"The present budget allows us to execute our national military and defense strategies," he said. "However, given the current level of funding, we simply cannot reduce every risk associated with every strategic challenge."
Therefore, it became necessary to prioritize strengthening conventional deterrents against the most advanced potential adversaries and to focus on achieving balance of force structure, modernization and readiness, Work said.
And while the Pentagon is comfortable with its current funding levels, uncertainty still looms as it tries to make long-term plans. Between 2018 and 2021, the final year of sequestration, there is a roughly $100 billion difference between the amount DoD thinks it will need and what is allowable under the spending caps, he said.
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Pentagon comptroller Mike McCord said the BBA provided a budget around $21.8 billion lower than the DoD had projected. OCO funds provided $5 billion of base budget relief, and fuel cost and inflation savings as well as new efficiencies saved another $5.6 billion. The remaining $11.2 billion shortfall was cut from program funding, he said, so the US Army lost nine Apache and 24 Blackhawk helicopters, the Air Force lost five F-35A joint strike fighters, the Navy lost two V-22 Ospreys and added four Landing Craft Air Cushions to the service life extension program, and the US Marine Corps lost 77 Joint Light Tactical Vehicles.
"Modernization took the brunt of the reduction. I would say not in a stupid way, we didn't terminate programs," he said. "We were careful and thoughtful about how we approached this."
As Carter indicated in a Feb. 2 speech previewing the budget, the request reflects the need to address rising great powers Russia and China; growing threats from North Korea; the potentially disruptive influence of Iran in the Middle East; and operations against the Islamic State group in Iraq, Syria and elsewhere.
Including OCO funding, Operation and Maintenance (O&M) funding gained $6.5 billion, from $244.4 billion in 2016 to $250.9 billion in 2017. Procurement dropped by $6.8 billion, from $118.9 billion to $112.1 billion.
Within the OCO funding, which ticked up by $200 million, funding for operations in Afghanistan is down $1.2 billion, from $42.9 billion to $41.7 billion. Anti-Islamic State group efforts received a 50 percent bump, from $5 billion to $7.5 billion. The European Reassurance Initiative, which covers military support for Europe following Russia's invasion of Ukraine, rose from $800 million to $3.4 billion, while the Counterterrorism Partnerships Fund dropped from $1.1 billion to $1 billion.
The figures released Tuesday also map out the Pentagon's expected base budgets through 2021. After 2017's $523.9 billion, there is a jump to $556.7 billion in 2018, followed by more modest increases to $564.8 billion, $570.4 billion and $585.2 billion in subsequent years.
Unlike recent years, when the Pentagon's budget requests soared past the caps established by the Budget Control Act, also known as sequestration, this year's request came under the relative certainty of the BBA, which established spending levels above the caps for FY2016 and FY2017.
While the OCO funding request was relatively flat, there are hints that congressional Republicans and Democrats may differ on the appropriate amount of OCO funding, even with the BBA agreement in place.
House Armed Services Chairman Rep. Mac Thornberry, R-Texas, and other Republicans in Congress have argued the defense budget should be raised at least $15 billion via an increase in OCO funding based on threats facing the US and other developments since the budget deal was struck in 2015.
Other major line items in the budget include $8.1 billion for submarines, $3.4 billion for the and $7 billion for cyber efforts.
Outlook for the Services
Rear Adm. William Lescher, Deputy Assistant Secretary of the Navy for Budget, conducts a briefing about the FY2017 budget at the Pentagon in Arlington, Va., on Tuesday, February 9, 2016. (Mike Morones/Staff)
Rear Adm. William Lescher, Deputy Assistant Secretary of the Navy for Budget speaks Tuesday about the service's budget request at the Pentagon.
Photo Credit: Mike Morones/staff
The Navy Department's top line took a major hit, dropping $7 billion from last year's plan — $152.9 in baseline funding against last year's projection of $159.9 billion. The 3 percent dip below projection is planned to last just this year, rising back to $159.7 billion forecast for 2018.
OCO funding remains steady, $9.5 billion in 2017 against $9.4 billion last year, and includes six aircraft — two F/A-18 Super Hornets and four RQ-21 Blackjack drones for the Marines.
The Navy is asking for seven new ships, essentially down one from last year's plan. The service reduced its ship buy by one Littoral Combat Ship, asking for two ships instead of last year's plan for three or Carter's December direction to buy just one.
The Department is asking for a total of 94 manned and unmanned aircraft, the same number as forecast a year ago. The most significant change is the insertion of 14 F/A-18 Super Hornets planned for 2018, a move directed by Carter that reverses an earlier Navy decision to end procurement of the Boeing-built aircraft.
As expected, the Army's fiscal 2017 budget request of $148 billion pivots the Army to Europe but also sacrifices some modernization efforts, cutting mainly from the aviation procurement account while bolstering vehicle spending. The Army's base budget request is $125 billion with an additional overseas contingency operations account of $23 billion.
As Defense News reported Feb. 6, the service will see a big ramp-up in OCO funding for Europe as part of ERI, the effort to deter Russia's military aggression in Eastern Europe and to bolster allies' defense capabilities. A large chunk of that funding — $2.8 billion — will belong to the Army and will reside in the OCO account. A small amount of funding in the base budget was pushed into OCO for Europe, a defense official told Defense News last week.
In order to preserve readiness and planned end strength, the Army's procurement request in fiscal 2017 of $15.1 billion is $1.3 billion less than what was enacted in fiscal 2016. Within modernization, Army aviation is taking the biggest punch while vehicle procurement is plussed up in the request, according to official documents.
CH-47F Chinooks, AH-64 Apaches and UH-60M Black Hawk procurement were all reduced, but major vehicle programs like the Joint Light Tactical Vehicle and Stryker armored personnel carrier lethality were protected.
The facilities budget continues to be a bill payer for the Army. The service is taking a $294 million cut in facility funding after already taking hits in the last few budget cycles. In fiscal 2014, the Army's total facilities budget was $2.6 billion, and by fiscal 2016 it had fallen to $1.6 billion.
The Air Force is requesting $166.9 billion overall in FY2017, a slight uptick from the $167.9 billion requested in FY2016. Included in that top line is $46.9 billion for operations and maintenance, $22.4 billion for procurement, $19.6 billion for research, development, technology and evaluation, and $12.3 billion for overseas contingency operations.
Officials conduct a briefing about the FY2017 budget at the Pentagon in Arlington, Va., on Tuesday, February 9, 2016. (Mike Morones/Staff)
Air Force Deputy for Budget Carolyn M. Gleason (left) and Air Force Deputy Assistant Secretary for Budget Maj. Gen. James F. Martin Jr. conduct a briefing about the FY2017 budget request Tuesday at the Pentagon.
Photo Credit: Mike Morones/staff
As first reported by Defense News, the Air Force is deferring five F-35As, requesting just 43 in its FY2017 budget submission, down from a planned 48. The delayed F-35A ramp to the ultimate goal of 1,763 aircraft is one of the "tough choices" the Air Force was forced to make in this years budget negotiations, according to documents. The service is partially funding Block 4 software upgrades for the jet and research and development of nuclear weapons capability.
In other delays, the Air Force is also slowing procurement of Lockheed Martin's C-130J Super Hercules transport aircraft, which will eventually replace the aging C-130Hs. The Air Force included 11 C-130s overall in its budget request: three C-130Js (including one through the OCO budget), three HC-130Js and six MC-130Js. However, the Air Force is holding onto its legacy EC-130 Compass Call aircraft, a key component of the fleet's electronic attack capability. Meanwhile, the service requested funding to recapitalize the Compass Call fleet by moving the plane's electronics onto new business jet bodies.
In another expected move, the Air Force is deferring retirement of the A-10 Warthog until 2022, and funding additional contract maintainers. The service will replace the attack plane with F-35s on a squadron-by-squadron basis to ensure commanders have sufficient aircraft to confront the threat. In the meantime, the Air Force has launched a program to upgrade the A-10 to keep it flying well into the next decade, releasing a draft statement of work Feb. 2 for updated wings.
As Defense News previously reported, the Air Force's FY2017 budget request fully funds the Long Range Strike Bomber and the 15-aircraft KC-46 tanker buy. The request additionally includes commitment to moving forward with the Joint Surveillance and Target Attack Radar System recapitalization effort, the Combat Rescue Helicopter, and the recapitalization of Air Force One. JSTARS is expected to reach initial operational capability by 2024, according to the documents.By GottaLaff
As a personal [beneficiary] of Senator Kennedy, I'd like to add a short true story. Back when I was a kid, perhaps 12, my younger brother was diagnosed with a mental disability. The school system would no longer admit my 9 year old brother and he had to be sent to a private institution which was way beyond my parents means.
One Thursday evening the phone rang at dinner time and I was the one who was closest and answered it. To my great surprise, the man on the other end said he was Senator Ted Kennedy and he wanted to speak to my father.
My dad got on the phone. A few minutes later after a one sided conversation by the Senator, my father ended the call with "Thank you so much." Tears ran down my father's face.
The senator had gotten a letter from my mom telling him how awful it was that our state of Massachusetts no longer helped the handicapped. He read the letter and called to say he personally would pay for my brother's stay and education at a private institution.
My brother, and the rest of the family were saved by this great man. He had compassion. He had his demons as well. But for America, he was a hero. With great sorrow I brave his passing. Thank you Senator Ted. For me. My family. For the country.
I still remember my dad with all those tears telling us that our family would be better off because a stranger wanted to be of help. I'll never forget that either. I'm proud to have been a recipient of his great philanthropic efforts.
Oh, and he never asked for anything in return... not a vote, not a payment... just for my brother to have a chance. And he took advantage of that.
One of our readers, David G., is a personal friend and a TPC reader. He left these comments on a post down thread, and I felt compelled to pass them along. David graciously consented:Thank you so, so much for sharing that wonderful, touching moment, David. Special doesn't even begin to describe it, or Senator Kennedy.Newton’s third law states that action–reaction forces involved in an elemental two-body interaction must be equal and opposite: F 1 = −F 2. Combined with the second law of motion, this leads to m 1 a 1 = −m 2 a 2, where m 1,2 represent the masses of these two particles and a 1,2 their respective accelerations. Given that mass is by nature a positive quantity, two classical bodies are expected to accelerate either towards or away from each other, but never in the same direction (Fig. 1a). However, this situation completely changes if hypothetically one of the masses is negative. In fact, in this regime, an intriguing scenario arises whenever m 1 = −m 2 ; under these conditions, two interacting bodies will indefinitely accelerate in the same direction while keeping a constant distance among themselves (Fig. 1a). Interestingly, this possibility was first speculated within the context of diametric drive that could itself provide a possible mechanism for space propulsion1. Of course, given that in classical mechanics the mass of a particle is always positive, no such acceleration behaviour that breaks the action–reaction symmetry has ever been reported.
Figure 1: Diametric drive interaction between two particles, fibre-optic set-up and mesh lattice dispersion (effective mass) diagram. a, Two bodies of positive masses accelerate towards each other in the presence of attractive forces. In contrast, two particles with equal and opposite in sign masses tend to self-accelerate when subject to the same force (schematic illustration). b, Set-up of two time-multiplexed fibre loops with length difference ΔL, connected through a 50/50 coupler. Sequences of light pulses circulating in both loops obey the same dynamics as in a spatial mesh lattice8,10. The nonlinearity in the fibres introduces a nonlinear phase shift on each pulse that is proportional to its peak power. c, Dispersion diagram associated with two oppositely curved bands. The upper (lower) band has a positive (negative) curvature and therefore exhibits a positive (negative) effective photon mass that is inverse to the curvature. The Kerr nonlinearity tends to focus excitations in the upper band whereas the corresponding effects in the lower band are of the defocusing type. Q, wave number; θ, propagation constant. See Supplementary Methods for details. Full size image
Waves on the other hand are free of such limitations. In the case of a free quantum particle governed by the Schrödinger equation, the resulting parabolic dispersion relation between energy and momentum has a positive curvature defined by the particle’s mass. Meanwhile, quasiparticles such as electrons and holes in solid-state crystals, mass–spring systems5 or collective excitations such as Bose–Einstein condensates in lattices6,7 may exhibit a dispersion relation with regions of inverted curvature where the effective mass is negative. Similarly, in photonic guiding structures, the effective photon mass can be positive or negative depending on the sign of the associated group velocity dispersion3,4. In addition, photonic lattices such as waveguide arrays15,16 or mesh lattices8,9,10,11,12 provide a versatile environment to experimentally investigate this class of phenomena, as broad light excitations of these structures are effectively governed by their respective mass that can be either positive or negative (Fig. 1c). The second component needed for realizing a diametric drive is an effective interaction between the two entities involved. Although in general such forces can emerge from a number of physical processes, in optics, this can be achieved only through nonlinear effects. For example in waveguide structures, optical wave packets can interact through third-order Kerr nonlinearity—in direct analogy to point-like scattering in Bose–Einstein condensates6,7,17. In this setting, an effective force is established between two partially overlapping light beams2,18,19. Therefore, nonlinear optical periodic configurations can serve as an ideal platform to observe diametric drive acceleration and to study action–reaction symmetry breaking effects.
Here we experimentally demonstrate such optical self-accelerating bound states in a temporal mesh lattice. A composite beam or a wave packet is formed by a sequence of circulating optical pulses11,12 propagating in two fibre loops connected by a 50/50 coupler10 (Fig. 1b and Supplementary Methods). A length difference ΔL between the two loops essentially creates an effective grid of positions or time slots n that are coupled to their nearest neighbours at every propagation step or loop round-trip s. A light pulse propagating in the short loop takes a shortcut and thus advances by a fixed time amount, moving its time slot to the left from n+1 to n. In contrast, a pulse circulating in the long loop is delayed from n−1 to n. After each round trip s, pulse sequences in both loops are linearly interfered by the matrix of the central 50/50 coupler. In the linear optical regime of low pulse powers, this results in the following system of coupled evolution equations10: Here, u n s and v n s are the pulse amplitudes at the time slot or position n and propagation step s circulating in the short and long loop, respectively. The term φ(n) denotes the external phase shift being imprinted onto the field during each round trip by a phase modulator in the short loop. Similar to cases where a refractive index distribution is present, this phase accumulates during evolution and affects the interference between neighbouring pulses. Hence, φ(n) can be regarded as a position-dependent effective potential.
The required interaction between optical pulses is provided by the Kerr nonlinearity of the optical fibres themselves. The pulse powers needed to induce these nonlinear effects are sustained by employing erbium-doped fibre amplifiers that compensate for round-trip losses.
In our set-up, the resulting nonlinear pulse dynamics are described by14: where the coefficient χ represents the accumulated nonlinearity in each loop (Supplementary Methods).
As previously indicated, the arrangement used here is in every respect equivalent to a periodic mesh lattice and as such it exhibits a band structure8,10. The corresponding dispersion relation is obtained by using discrete Floquet–Bloch modes (u n s,v n s)∼e−iθs/2eiQn/2, in the linear equation (1) (Supplementary Methods). The resulting band structure relates the propagation eigenvalue θ to the Bloch momentum Q by cosθ = (1/2)(cosQ−1). Our system exhibits two symmetric bands with opposite curvatures or group-velocity dispersion—in contact at a zero-dispersion point located at the edge of the Brillouin zone (Fig. 1c). Photons excited in the lower band have a negative effective mass, whereas for those in the upper branch this same quantity is positive.
In our experiments, we use two broad pulse sequences having a Gaussian envelope (Fig. 2a). The phase relation between the two loops is appropriately set by external phase modulation so that the left Gaussian wave packet or beam populates the |
3
Five bodies were found buried in the desert. According to the medical examiner some of them had broken bones that were likely the result of firearms and blunt-force injury. No conclusive evidence of a mass shooting here.
#154 6/22/2013
Another one with incorrect numbers listed. It should be one killed and three wounded.
#164 6/27/2013
One killed and two wounded. Not a mass shooting.
#170 7/2/2013
One killed two wounded, not a mass shooting.
#178 7/6/2013
Three people shot, one person stabbed. Not a mass shooting. Yet another case of reading the title and not the article.
#185 7/10/2013
I have no idea where they got the 12 injured number from. Following the cited links I only see two murders. If I am missing something on this one let me know, otherwise it does not look like a mass shooting.
#194 7/14/2013
Three shot one stabbed, not a mass shooting.
#208 7/28/2013
Two separate incidents that weren’t confirmed to be related, not a mass shooting.
#222 8/11/2013
The suspect killed four people over eleven days. Another one that stretches the definition of mass shooting.
#246 8/28/2013
This one appears to be several separate incidents spread over a week that have all been added together. Stretching, definition, etc.
#258 9/15/2013
Read the article and not just the title ya dingus. Unrelated incidents.
#264 9/17/2013
The three victims - two males, ages 14 and 15, and a 17-year-old girl - were taken to Sparrow Hospital and treated for non-life threatening injuries, Lansing police said during a press conference. A fourth victim came to the hospital with a gunshot wound but it is unclear whether he is connected to the shooting.
#266 9/17/2013
Three people shot, one woman killed after she was ejected from her car. Not a mass shooting.
#279 9/26/2013
Three people shot, one person suffered a cut wound. Not a mass shooting.
#290 10/12/2013
Three people shot, one person struck by a car while fleeing. Not a mass shooting.
#296 10/20/2013
Three people were shot, the shooter was subdued. Not a mass shooting.
#310 10/31/2013
Three people shot, another man crashed his motorcycle trying to leave. Not a mass shooting.
#311 11/2/2013
“It is unknown at this time, since this case is all still under investigation, whether that shooting is related to the shootings on Shelby Avenue or whether the victim who went to Hardin Memorial came from a different shooting altogether,” Shumate said. Insufficient evidence to determine if it was a mass shooting.
#358 12/29/2013
Three people shot one person was run over. Not a mass shooting.
When we look at 2014, we see the same trend of false mass shooting reports.
There were numerous incidents (indicated below by their number in the list) with dead links as citations and one without a citation at all. With how questionable their data is any incidents that cannot be independently verified should be treated with skepticism.
57, 58, 69, 70 (no citation at all, cited link points to a different shooting), 71, 74, 75, 108, 109, 138, 161, 162, 163, 189, 209, 228, 234, 255, 327, 332
I also found more incidents on this list that either had incorrect numbers, weren’t mass shootings at all, or played pretty fast and loose with GrC’s definition of a mass shooting.
#10 1/16/2014
Questionable as a mass shooting, as there were two separate incidents one day apart.
#19 1/28/2014
The number of injured listed (5) is incorrect. One person injured suffered a gunshot wound to the foot, the other four were not shot but injured in the chaos.
#31 2/15/2014
Felton said as of Sunday morning, police are unsure if all five victims are related to the same shooting. Not confirmed as a mass shooting.
#133 6/24/2014
The injury total is incorrect, it should be 4 instead of 7.
#150 7/6/2014
Culpepper said two people are dead and two people are critically injured. It’s not clear if the victims suffered their injuries through the car crash or from the gunfire. Cannot be confirmed as a mass shooting.
#166 7/20/2014
The injuries in this one were from an explosion, not gunfire. No officers were shot. Not a mass shooting.
#223 8/27/2014
The shootings in this one were spread out over a five day period, stretching the definition of a mass shooting.
#231 9/1/2014
A bullet also flew through the window of an unmarked police van in the area, shattering glass onto a detective who was inside at the time, the NYPD said. The detective was taken to the hospital with minor injuries, police said. Three people shot, not a mass shooting.
#264 10/8/2014
Authorities didn’t say how the four were killed. Autopsies being conducted Thursday will determine the cause of death, Soares said. Not confirmed as a mass shooting.
#277 10/22/2014
Three people shot, not a mass shooting.
Not surprising at all, 2015 has even more false reports.
I didn’t find as many issues in 2015 as I did in the previous two years, but it also wasn’t error free. The following shootings, referenced by their number in the list, could not be verfied. Most of the citations pointed to dead links and one did not have a citation at all.
49, 60, 77, 90, 124 (no citation at all, link points to a different shooting), 145, 189, 218, 225, 237
The following incidents either weren’t mass shootings or could not be confirmed to be mass shootings due to lack of information.
#45 3/2/2015
Three men were shot, the rest suffered injuries unrelated to the shooting. Not a mass shooting.
#71 3/29/2015
Three people shot, one person injured but with no bullet wounds. Not a mass shooting.
#111 5/19/2015
This is an interesting one, but definitely not a mass shooting. One person confirmed shot. One cop shot with a stun gun (do stun guns count in mass shootings?). One cop had cuts on his face. One woman with minor injuries (no mention of gunshot wounds).
#125 5/30/2015
Three shot, one ‘taken to the hospital and treated for injuries he sustained in the fight.’ Not a mass shooting.
#195 7/17/2015
This one is a bit of a mess and I’m including it because it isn’t clear at all how many people were actually shot. The article clearly states that two people were shot and another person was beaten and stabbed, but it doesn’t state the nature of the other injuries or the death. This one cannot be confirmed as a mass shooting.
#287 9/26/2015
This one does not appear to be a mass shooting. The suspect shot two men, shot at a women but did not hit her, bludgeoned another man, shot another man who then crashed into a wall, then tried to get into another woman’s car before he was apprehended. All told three people were shot.
And finally some stats. Of the 996 total incidents listed on the mass shooting tracker:
54 could not be verified due to the lack of citations
34 were either not mass shootings or could not be confirmed as mass shootings due to the lack of information
7 stretched the definition of a mass shooting, with one person committing separate shootings anywhere from one day to two weeks apart
4 were mass shootings according to the shooting tracker’s definition but the listed number of victims was incorrect
1 was a ‘mass shooting’ committed with a pellet gun
At this point, it’s no wonder that even Politifact found Mass Shooting Tracker’s findings to be “Half True” at best.
When we hold MST’s reports to the long-time upheld accepted FBI definition of a “mass shooting”, a staggering number, a good majority, of even more events reported can be eliminated even further.
But then again, what else can we really expect from a highly vocal anti-gunner who openly admits that his website is pure propaganda?
So next time someone tries to spread fear mongering and tells you that there have been over 250 mass shootings in 2015 alone, you can tell them to shut the fuck up.
JIM JEFFERIES HAS GOT GUN CONTROL ALL WRONG
I keep seeing post this video as if it is some kind of rational argument for gun control in America and it is pretty pathetic at best.
I shouldn’t even need to give a retort as to why this is wrong almost all the way through, but apparently I do because it keeps getting posted with comments about how iron clad it is and how the pro-gun crowd can’t possibly argue against it.
So, with that being said…
0:11 - “Don’t get excited because the other people have guns!”
Off to a great start.
Right off the bat, Jim suggests that the people in favor of gun control shouldn’t get too openly excited because the rest of the crowd has guns. Ah, the old crazy gun owner narrative. Suggesting that people with guns are short fused and will pull out their big scary death machines and shoot you the moment you disagree with them.
Facts, however, disagree.
In my state of Texas, the numbers have shown that people who carry guns actually contribute to less than 1% (roughly 0.7% to be more exact) than the states overall crime. Not just gun crime, ALL crime.
Other states with legal concealed carry have reflected this as well.
0:30 - I support the 2nd Amendment, BUT…
The old played out “I support the 2nd Amendment, BUT…” argument. It’s like saying, “I’m not racist or anything, BUT [insert extremely racist tirade here]. Anytime I hear someone say something along the lines of “I support your right to own guns, BUT…” I’m almost always certain that that person actually does not support my right to own guns at all. It’s a cop out.
0:45 - Australia
Jim claims that there have been zero massacres since Australia banned guns after the Port Arthur massacre. ZERO. Wow, that is an impressive number indeed.
BUT… Are you sure about that Jim?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monash_University_shooting
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2011_Hectorville_siege
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cairns_child_killings
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Snowtown_murders
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Childers_Palace_Backpackers_Hostel_fire
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quakers_Hill,_New_South_Wales#Nursing_home_fire
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cairns_child_killings
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cairns_child_killings
http://www.news.com.au/national/lockhart-shooting-wagga-wagga-community-reeling-after-hunt-family-tragedy/story-fncynjr2-1227053811861
How the hell did all of these tragedies happen? I thought Australia took all the guns away? I thought massacres don’t happen in other countries? I thought it was impossible to commit a massacre without a gun?
Am I missing something here, Jim?
1:15 - Australia is reasonable because they tried gun control, America is ignorant because they refuse to.
I keep hearing people say that we won’t try gun control simply because gun owners are ignorant and love their guns more than human life.
It’s bullshit.
The fact is, WE HAVE TRIED STRICT NATIONAL GUN CONTROL.
Does the year 1994 or the name Clinton ring a bell to anyone? Anyone?
From 1994 - 2004, there were strict national gun control laws in place in America. They included most of the laws that are being proposed now. An “assault weapons” ban. Magazine capacity limits. All of that.
Guess what?
IT WAS A COMPLETE FAILURE.
2:30 - Self Defense / Protection is not a valid reason to want a gun.
I’ll just drop all of these off. These are perfect examples that I found in less than 30 seconds on Google.
http://www.buckeyefirearms.org/churchgoer-concealed-carry-permit-stops-man-shotgun
http://www.goupstate.com/article/20120325/articles/120329781
http://townhall.com/tipsheet/katiepavlich/2015/06/19/colorado-springs-vs-charleston-the-church-massacre-that-ended-differently-n2014783
http://controversialtimes.com/news/remember-this-sc-concealed-carrier-stops-mass-shooting-during-church-service-zero-casualties/
http://www.breitbart.com/big-government/2015/02/19/researcher-reaffirms-at-least-760000-defensive-gun-uses-a-year/
http://www.cnsnews.com/news/article/cdc-study-use-firearms-self-defense-important-crime-deterrent
http://www.thetruthaboutguns.com/category/defensivegunuseoftheday/
http://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2015/02/defensive-gun-ownership-gary-kleck-response-115082.html#.VYW1BkZRKdE
And the list goes on and on and on… Innocent people use guns every day to defend themselves. Plain and simple.
Fuck off, Jim. What kind of world do you live in that you would need a gun to defend yourself? The real world. It’s an easy answer.
He then goes on to say, “Is that why they’re called ‘assault rifles’?” Well, hoplophobic liberals like to call them that because it’s a buzzword that stirs up an emotional response. I prefer modern sporting rifles.
Tell me, Jim. If you can’t defend yourself with an AR-15, then WHY DOES ALMOST EVERY POLICE FORCE IN AMERICA HAVE ONE?
Furthermore, US Bureau of Justice Statistics show that guns are the safest and most effective means of defense. Using a gun for protection results in fewer injuries to the defender than using any other means of defense and is safer than not resisting at all. The myth that “guns are only used for killing and the myth that “guns are dangerous when used for protection melt when exposed to scientific examination and data. The myths persist because they are repeated so frequently and dogmatically that few think to question the myths by examining the mountains of data available.
2:50 - Having a gun in your house means you are more likely to kill yourself with it because, “sometimes we all get sad.”
Sure, if you’re suicidal.
Gun bans result in lower gun suicide rates, but a compensatory increase in suicide from other accessible and lethal means of suicide (hanging, leaping, auto exhaust, etc.). The net result of gun bans, however, has shown reduction in total suicide rates. People who are intent in killing themselves find the means to do so. Are other means of suicide so much more politically correct that we should focus on measures that decrease gun suicide, but do nothing to reduce total suicide deaths? Seems pretty stupid.
3:15 - “Protection? I had a break-in in Manchester, England where I was tied up. I had my head cut. They threatened to rape my girlfriend. They came in through the window with a machete and a hammer…“
I find it cute that Jim says no one needs a gun to defend themselves and then presents a real world example of why someone would need a gun to defend themselves.
He then says he wasn’t wearing his holster at the time and suggests that you would be crazy to have a gun ready while at home.
It’s called being vigilante, Jim. It is actually very common for most concealed carriers to wear a holster even at home and all the way up until the moment they go to bed. Why? Because shit happens, Jim. But you know that now.
3:50 - “None of you give a shit about home security…”
No? I guess the numerous self defense, home defense, and home security courses that are being taught across the country every day and the fact there is an entire product market geared specifically towards home security just simply don’t exist.
https://www.google.com/?gws_rd=ssl#q=home+security
https://www.google.com/?gws_rd=ssl#q=home+defense+course
I’m starting to think Jim might not have any idea of what he is talking about.
4:15 - Most people breaking in to your house just want your TV
Maybe. Maybe not. I would rather be safe than sorry. What gambles you take with your life is up to you.
I would like to take a moment to remind everyone that home invasions went up in Australia after guns were banned. Maybe because the crooks knew their victims would be unarmed? Nah. Couldn’t have anything to do with that.
4:30 - If you have a gun readily available, you’re irresponsible. If you have it in a safe, it’s useless for protection.
Actually, wrong again Jim.
Not everyone has children. Only my wife and I live in my house. We don’t have children. Our dogs don’t know how to use guns. We both know how to check a gun to see if it’s loaded and we both know that our handguns are loaded at all times. Therefore, it is possible to have a gun readily available and still be responsible.
When we have friends with children over, we unload our handguns, depress the trigger to un-cock, and then keep a loaded magazine in the gun with an empty chamber. We then put our guns in high up places that children cannot get to. A child does not have the strength to rack the slide of a handgun. Without racking the slide, a round cannot be chambered and the trigger cannot be reset. Meaning, there is absolutely no way the gun can be fired. Once again, another example of having a readily available firearm while still doing so responsibly.
But maybe you prefer a safe. Makes your gun useless, right.
Wrong.
There are many handgun safes that can be opened quickly with the swipe of a fingerprint. They keep children away from your gun, can be stored right by your bed, and offer quick access to your gun in a home defense scenario. Many even have mounts so you can lock them to your bed or floor so that they cannot be stolen.
The Liberty HDX-250 Smart Vault is just one example of many.
http://www.cabelas.com/catalog/product.jsp?productId=1929924&type=product&MDK=dynbanP_SL&MDC=cat104369580
6:00 - Teachers cannot be trusted with guns.
Jim, there are already several states in America that allow teachers to concealed carry on school grounds and it’s been working out just fine for them for years now.
https://www.google.com/?gws_rd=ssl#q=teachers+concealed+carry
Furthermore, armed security guards in schools is also already a school. Both my middle school and high school had two each. Worked out just fine.
Jim then asserts than an armed guard will not risk his life to stop a shooting because guards are paid poorly.
Oh. Wait…
https://www.google.com/?gws_rd=ssl#q=school+shooting+stopped+by+armed+guard
Turns out Jim is wrong again.
8:00 - You’re mad at me because I’m making good points.
I think I’ve proven otherwise so far, actually.
9:30 - Let’s shit on the Constitution / You can change the 2nd Amendment.
Holy shit. Jim finally said something true. Color me impressed. With a national 2/3 vote, yes you could change or even get rid of the 2nd Amendment.
Until that happens, you’re not doing anything more than just being a crybaby because you can’t get your way.
10:10 - Prohibition didn’t work.
It’s cute that the first example that Jim provides for changing the Constitution is that we changed it by ending the prohibition of alcohol. Almost as if prohibition DOESN’T FUCKING WORK.
Does anyone see the irony in this? He’s bitching about the prohibition of one item to somehow try to support the prohibition of another item. Cute indeed.
10:30 - GUN OWNERS = SLAVE OWNERS
Ah, the old “gun owners are racist” suggestion.
Oh, Jim. This is just getting sad at this point.
I will say this. It is common knowledge that gun control has deep roots in racism and were originally used to keep free blacks from getting firearms.
But I’m sure Jim doesn’t want to talk about that.
11:30 - The majority of gun owners who are actually responsible SHOULD be punished because of the actions of a few gun owners who are irresponsible.
Fuck you Jim.
While we’re at it, let’s ban alcohol and car keys because some people drive home drunk and kill people. Let’s ban pools because sometimes people drown. Let’s ban food because sometimes people choke and die.
Fuck off with that.
He then goes on to say that he loves doing drugs, but drugs are illegal because some people do stupid things when they are high and they have fucked it up for the majority of people that like drugs.
This is funny comparison to me for two reasons.
One. Although drugs are illegal, Jim doesn’t seem to have any problems getting them illegally. Which leads me to…
Two. Prohibition doesn’t fucking work. When you ban something, it simply creates an illegal black market and makes that item even more dangerous to obtain.
What the fuck makes you think guns are somehow different, Jim?
13:00 - Banning guns will keep guns out of the hands of criminals. It worked in England and Australia.
Yet criminals in England and Australia keep turning up with guns.
Do I really need to say anything more?
Even here in America, places with heavy gun restrictions such as Detroit, Chicago, Los Angeles, Stockton, New York, New Jersey, St. Louis, and on and on and… have heavy gun crime.
If banning guns will keep guns out of the hands of criminals, HOW THE FUCK DO ALL OF THESE CRIMINALS KEEP TURNING UP IN THESE AREAS WITH GUNS???
Maybe it’s not working?
14:15 - American mass shooters can’t get there guns from the black market.
First of all, yes they could have. Secondly, many of their guns were obtained perfectly legally even after jumping through all of the gun control hoops.
Gun control DID. NOT. STOP. THEM.
14:45 - Guns won’t help you if you have to fight against the government.
That’s your opinion. Myself and the founding fathers disagree.
What we do know is that, historically, countries who forced their citizens to hand in their guns found it much easier to turn tyrannical and roll over those same citizens afterwards.
So, in closing Jim…
John Oliver Has Got Gun Control All Wrong As Well…
John Oliver, Australia, and Gun Control
[this segment brought to you by @dickslapthestate]
Before I get into the points brought up in this video, you should probably be aware that the gun ownership rate in Australia is pretty much back at the same rate as it was before the gun ban. We’re about to see an attempt to prove gun control reduced gun crime, yet it somehow failed to actually reduce the number of guns available at the same time. Anyway, on with the show:
1:30 of the video
John Oliver: A conservative prime minister John Howard instituted sweeping gun control following a mass shooting that shocked the nation. So should we be learning from this effective example?
Effective you say? Then why did the violent crime rates in the US decrease while Australia and the UK saw increases?
Why is it that there was no reduction in violent crime immediately following the gun ban/buyback?
A study published in the British Journal of Criminology found that there was no evidence that the NFA [National Firearms Agreement] had any impact on reducing firearm homicide. They did find that it may have helped reduce firearm suicide, but note that societal factors were already reducing suicide rates.
2:24 of the video
PM John Howard: We had a massacre at Port Arthur 17 years ago and there have been none since.
That’s not true. Monash University saw a shooting that left 2 dead and 5 injured. Technically not a mass murder as it takes 4 deaths or more to count as one, but it is a mass shooting. In September of last year a man killed his whole family and himself leaving 5 dead in total.
However focusing on just mass shootings ignores the real issue: mass murder. Just because people aren’t shooting each other doesn’t mean that mass killing has been reduced. These all happened in Australia after the gun ban:
Childer Palace Backpackers Hostel fire (arson; 15 dead)
Churchill Fire (arson; 10 dead)
Lin family muirders (blunt instrument; 5 dead)
Quakers Hill Nursing Home fire (arson; 11 dead)
Cairns child killings (stabbing; 8 dead)
Here are some more examples of mass murder done without guns from around the world:
Bath, Michigan - 45 dead and - 58 injured (bomb)
Oklahoma City, OK - 168 confirmed dead - 680+ injured (bomb)
Daegu, South Korea - 192 Dead and 151 injured (arson)
Denver, CO - 45 Dead - (bomb)
Cologne, Germany - 10 Dead - 25 injured (home-made flamethrower)
Apeldoorn, Netherlands - 8 dead - 10 injured (car)
Jerusalem, Israel - 4 Dead - 30+ injured (bulldozer)
Hebei, China - 17 Dead - 20-30 injured (tractor)
Shijiazhuang, China - 108 Dead - 38 injured (bomb)
New York City, New York - 87 Dead - 6 injured (arson)
Honzhong, China - 9 Dead - 11 injured (knife)
Nanping, China - 8 Dead - 5 Injured (knife)
Tokyo, Japan - 7 Dead - 10 Injured (truck and knife)
Seoul, South Korea - 6 Dead - 7 Injured (arson and knife)
John Oliver: Did gun control actually work?
Phillip Van Cleave: That could be a statistical anomaly!
*laughter from the audience*
Actually, it really was a statistical anomaly. Gun control had nothing to do with the reduction in mass shootings. How do we know? Because we have a great way to test this. Look at New Zealand. New Zealand allows access to guns that Australia banned and they saw similar patterns in their mass shooting rate.
This is what a 2011 study found when assessing the gun control laws and the different between New Zealand and Australia:
Clearly, there remained many unanswered questions about the occurrence of mass shootings in Australia and, indeed, elsewhere. What does seems apparent, however, is that there is little support for the proposition that prohibiting certain types of firearms explains the absence of mass shootings in Australia since 1996.
2:25 of the video
PM John Howard: There were about 13 in the past 18 years.
Somewhat true, but what he doesn’t mention is the fact that six of those shootings were domestically related while four others involved killing of non-family members who were known to the perpetrator.
The way he states it makes it seem like that had a high rate of public shootings, which is simply not true.
3:18 of the video
PM John Howard: The homicide rate involving the use of guns. Has declined significantly.
Right but the total homicide rate in the mid 2000s also went down as a whole, so gun-murders alone going down doesn’t tell the whole picture. If it was just part of the overall crime trend, then the gun ban has nothing to do with the reduction in crime. As I already linked above, you can see that murder as a whole has dropped in Australia, but it didn’t actually start to drop until 2003. That was 7 years after the tightening of gun control and cannot be used to say gun control cause the reduction in crime.
And in any event, we know that the percentage of crime committed with guns was already going down before 1996. The gun laws can’t take credit for something that was already occurring before they were instituted.
3:25 of the video
PM John Howard: The incidence of youth suicide involving guns has declined dramatically.
A 2009 study conducted by the Australian Institute for Suicide Research found:
The observed reduction in firearms suicides was initiated prior to the 1997 introduction of the NFA in Queensland and Australia, with a clear decline observed in Australian figures from 1988. No significant difference was found in the rate pre/post the introduction of the NFA in Queensland; however, a significant difference was found for Australian data, the quality of which is noticeably less satisfactory. […] The implemented restrictions may not be responsible for the observed reductions in firearms suicide. Data suggest that a change in social and cultural attitudes could have contributed to the shift in method preference.
And of course he focused on gun related suicide because he doesn’t want to admit that just banning guns doesn’t actually change total suicide rates:
IMPACT ON SUICIDE RATES:
Suicide is a phenomenon for which at least a very large portion of substitution of method occurs. If a person wants to die and his/her "preferred” means is not available, he/she can quite easily determine another quite satisfactory means. A good thing about means other than guns, when it comes to trying to kill oneself, is that most other means are quieter—so it’s likely your intent won’t be discovered if you are unsuccessful, leaving you free to try again until you are successful. The “success” rate for the average attempt with a gun may be higher than for other means, but a suicidal person can use some of the other means repeatedly until successful.
The gun suicide rate averaged about 3.45/100k from ‘79 to '87, then dropped unevenly at about.158/100k (average) per year from '87 to '96. This ('97 & '98) is where gun controllers would think the suicide rate should drop immediately or start dropping at a higher rate (i.e., higher than.158/100k). Instead, the average drop per year was virtually identical (.156/100k) from '96 to '04.
The truth is that the semi-auto and pump firearms that were the target of the ban/buyback have no more value for suicide than any of the allowed firearms. If one shoots oneself in the head with a rapid fire gun, one does not then take another shot. It takes only one shot to commit suicide. So one should not expect the ban (that hardly reduced the stock of long arms and didn’t reduce the stock of handguns at all) to have had any impact on suicide.
It is also inconceivable that any other part of the new gun restrictions would have a perceptible impact on the gun suicide rate. Attempts to identify people who are likely to try suicide (except for those who have already done so) have been woefully inadequate. And those contemplating suicide are likely to hide weapons rather than surrender them all to their government.
One may wonder (from looking at the graph) if a trend in gun suicide had started from '93 to '96, in which case it could be argued that gun suicide dropped abruptly in '97 and '98, interrupting the trend. It is very possible. The '93-'96 points lie very close to a straight line. Another year or two of data points along the line would have made it quite probably a trend. A trend of only three years cannot be well proven because the possibility of such patterns occurring from chance alone is too great. If '93 to '96 was a trend, the post-'96 trend still appears to be heading towards getting back on the '93 to '96 trend line in a few years. Note too that the values from '01 to '04 look much like a nonlinear trend, largely because of the small departures from the curve.
Unfortunately, we can’t be very certain of conclusions drawn from such short-term trends even if the trends are very smooth. On the other hand, long term trends are not really good bases for detecting a change at a particular point in time if the fact is ignored that there really are many true short-term trends. A long-term trend needs to be stable to be useful. Suicide and crime rate trends result from many things, some consistent over the long term and some only over short terms.
The non-gun suicide rate averaged about 7.859/100k from '79 to '85, then jumped up where it averaged about 10.086/100k from '87 to '94. It increased at a rapid average rate of about.873/100k per year from '93 and '94 to '97, then dropped at a high, consistent rate (.585/100k per year, average) from '98 to '04. Note that the '96 rate was significantly below a trend line through the '93, '94, '95 and '97 points. Remember this when we get into the discussion of assault and robbery rates.
It is noteworthy that the rates for total and non-gun suicides dropped fast and consistently from '98 to '04. There is no way these impacts could relate to firearms. So something else has been actually working and reducing suicide rates. Maybe it was good economy. Maybe Australian governments have actually been doing something worthwhile. Whatever the cause, it had no impact on gun suicide rates, which simply continued to drop at essentially the same rate as between '91 and '97.
So yeah, John Oliver. Woop-de-fucking-do. Come back when you have some real data.
GUN CONTROL, CAKE, AND COMPROMISE:
“But what about those big scary ASSAULT RIFLES??? Surely we need to ban those, RIGHT?”
According to the FBI, about 250 people were murdered with rifles in 2014. Not just those evil “military rifles”. ALL rifles. This means that this includes grandpa’s old hunting rifles as well. On a side note here, it should also be noted that the state with the most rifle murders was California, a state that already has highly restrictive laws when it comes to so called “assault rifles”.
The US population was 317.8 MILLION people at the beginning of 2014, 318.8 MILLION people in June of 2014, and 320.2 MILLION by the end of 2014. If we take the average of these numbers, we get 318.9 MILLION people in 2014.
So 250 rifle murders versus almost 318,900,000 people.
This means that less than 0.0000008% of the people in America are actually killed with so called “military style” rifles.
In 2012, Slate.com crunched numbers from a variety of manufacturers, as well as federal statistics on background checks, and extrapolated that nearly 3.3 MILLION AR-15 rifles were in the country, but that was before calls for renewed bans, which drove sales through the roof.
So we are now years later, the popularity of these so called “military style” rifles has only continued to grow, and gun sales have been through the roof from 2012 to current day, but I digress.
Even if we take a huge stretch and assume that all 250 of those rifle murders were committed with AR-15 rifles and that there were only 3.3 MILLION of these rifles in circulation in 2014, this would still mean that less than 0.00008% of those big scary AR-15 rifles are being used for murder.
And Now, An Insightful Piece from FreedomToons
One of the key quotes:
“When comparing mass shootings in the U.S. and E.U., “[t]he rate at which people were killed was virtually the same: 0.083 per million people in the EU versus 0.089 per million people in the U.S. But the injury rate in the EU was more than twice as high: 0.19 versus 0.087.“
Also:
“Looking only at frequency of attacks — as Obama seems wont to do — while still adjusting for population, the U.S. came in 12th, with 0.078 per million people.”
MASS SHOOTERS ARE DISPROPORTIONALLY ANGRY WHITE GUYS!
(this segment once again brought to you by dickslapthestate)
The information was taken from MotherJones’ database of mass shooters, so accusations of cherry picking or bias can be taken up with them. MotherJones is staunchly anti-gun and that’s why I used their data. They seem to use the definition of “mass shooting” as three or more fatalities.
We can clearly see that whites commit the majority of mass shootings with 59.3% of the instances. Case closed, right? Not so fast. In the United States, the majority of the population is white, so it makes sense that there would be more white shooters. More white people means more white shooters.
Let’s look up the racial makeup of the country as whole and see how it compares to the race of mass shooters:
Let’s just deal with whites, blacks, Hispanics, and Asians.
Whites make up 63.7% of the population and are 59.3% of mass shooters.
of the population and are of mass shooters. Blacks make up 12.2% of the population and are 14.8% of mass shooters.
of the population and are of mass shooters. Hispanics make up 16.4% of the population and are 7.4% of mass shooters.
of the population and are of mass shooters. Asians are 4.7% of the population and are 7.4% of mass shooters.
We can see that whites and blacks commit mass murder at a rate that’s roughly proportional to how we’d expect given the racial demographics of the United States. If anything, whites are slightly underrepresented in mass shootings and blacks slightly over-represented. Asians are way over-represented and Hispanics way underrepresented.
There’s a common misconception that the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is forbidden from studying gun violence. That’s simply not true. A number of murky rules have left the agency unclear as to what it is and isn’t allowed to research when it comes to guns. |
power woman. Enjoli was a perfume with a catchy and cheesy commercial, in which a woman changed from business suit to apron to sexy nightgown while crooning, “I can bring home the bacon, fry it up in a pan, and never, ever let you forget you’re a man.” The actress in the commercial looked well rested. The actual women who attempted this stunt at home were not.
By the ’90s, new advice greeted the college-bound women of Generation X. We could still have it all, just not all at once. But our mothers still worried about women’s professional resolve in the face of motherhood. As a result, the new advice replaced the Feminine Mystique, the old assumption that a woman must fulfill wife and mother duties before all else, with the Career Mystique, the new assumption that we must establish our careers first.
Dutiful and optimistic daughters, we embarked on fabulous careers, which were plentiful and well paid in the late ’90s and early 2000s.
And that’s when we razed the village.
It was a slow burn. Over the next 20 years, the “career first” advice brought fewer children to become older siblings, cousins, aunts, and uncles—essential members of the childcare village of old. Our career pursuits often led us far from family, anyway. The career building single doesn’t need a village. We didn’t need it, and didn’t miss it until we started a family.
We didn’t need the village and didn’t miss it until we started a family. But it was gone.
But it was gone. And it wasn’t just the lack of extended family. We had waited later to have children, and many of our parents simply grew too old to keep up with our toddlers. That old domestic drudgery libel came back to haunt us too. Among the available villagers, some refused to participate in childcare. Grandparents told us they had done their time. Neighborhood teenagers had resumes to build for those careers they would need to establish before marriage and family. Babysitting wasn’t, and still isn’t, accepted entrepreneurial activity. (Although, in urban areas babysitting is very lucrative. So few teens babysit that the willing and experienced can command a high price.)
The village still exists in rarefied places. Expats form villages. They are very hip but hard to join. Churches form villages. They are easy to join but fundamentally un-hip. Moving home is an option, but also un-hip.
The end result is that most parents are on their own. Other mothers are too occupied with their own specific life-balancing problems. Fathers might do more than their grandfathers, but it isn’t nearly enough to replace everyone else. Out of options and frustrated, mothers often hold them in contempt for their failure to achieve precise domestic parity. We exile this final member of the village by micromanagement, mistakingly assuming it is easier to do it all ourselves.
The Motherhood Mystique
With this newest assumption, that we must do it all ourselves, we salted the earth. The village isn’t returning, because we won’t participate in it. We can’t participate in it.
We spent our early adulthood dedicated to our professional life. We were told that it was the measure of our worth. It was our identity. From Betty Friedan’s movement-launching The Feminine Mystique:
But even if a woman does not have to work to eat, she can find identity only in work that is of real value to society—work for which, usually, our society pays.
Freidan was writing as a woman who already gone through early motherhood, someone who was looking for identity in addition to the mother identity she had already established. Her history tempered that “only”. Indeed, our society is paying a price for that work women were supposed to seek outside of the home, though it is hardly the fulfilling and beneficial financial remuneration Friedan hoped it would be.
For the mothers who came after, however, we established our identity as the Second Wavers counseled, only though paid employment. We entered into motherhood completely unprepared for its emotional force. That motherhood commands any portion of our identity stuns us. Mid-career and postpartum, we start questioning all our assumptions and the career plans we built upon them. Now, if we decide to give up work or, in the current idiom, “lean back” from our careers — we must not only justify “wasting” our education and losing a paycheck, but also forge a new identity.
Motherhood has to be worthy of these sacrifices. It must be hard, complicated, consuming, and essential. We must do it all ourselves or hire a nanny that we can control or fire.
We made it so.
We created diet plans, lesson schedules. We did baby sign language and Baby Einstein.
Just like having only a hammer makes every problem look like a nail, trained as professionals, we turned motherhood into a proper job to be done by us or a credentialed nanny under our direction. We created diet plans, lesson schedules. We did baby sign language and Baby Einstein. Housewives, perpetually feeling inadequate thanks to the original libel, responded to the notion that motherhood is just like any other corporate gig with a Martha Stewart offensive of militant domesticity, out-crafting and out-cooking the accountants and nannies. We made sure to place special emphasis on things only an actual mother can do, such as breastfeeding.
The all-consuming Attachment, Tiger and Helicopter styles of parenting became dominant parenting styles. In this “Don’t cry, that’s dehydrating” crucible, we complain about husbands not doing anything right, a state of affairs we might have avoided if we actually let them help. We might beg grandparents to babysit, but then saddle them with so many rules Hollywood made a star power comedy about the habit.
Then we have the structural difficulties. Delaying motherhood limited our fertility window, which led us to the practice of “baby bunching”, having babies fewer than two years apart. It is undoubtedly more work intensive in the early years. Fertility treatments—often we delay motherhood for too long—have brought a rise in the incidence of multiples, also more work intensive. (I had four children in five years, including a set of twins. I have first hand knowledge of which I write.)
Working moms exist in a state of guilt for whatever it is they aren’t doing at any given moment. Stay at home moms pour themselves into their children to justify the worldly accolades they gave up. Mothers are isolated and spent, children are over-managed and smothered. And fathers are an afterthought. They aren’t typically mentioned outside of demands for more domestic help.
Back to Where We Started
And so we have come full circle, right back to insisting that motherhood be the primary definer of women. Last week, Camille Paglia participated in a debate at American University and opened with a speech about sticky gender norms. She offered some of her rogue common sense that so infuriates the feminist intelligentsia:
I consider it completely irresponsible that public schools offer sex education but no systematic guidance to adolescent girls, who should be thinking about how they want to structure their future lives: do they want children, and if so, when that should be scheduled, with the advantages and disadvantages of each option laid out. Because of the stubborn biologic burden of pregnancy and childbirth, these are issues that will always affect women more profoundly than men. Starting a family early has its price for an ambitious young woman, a career hiatus that may be difficult to overcome. On the other hand, the reward of being with one’s children in their formative years, instead of farming out that fleeting and irreplaceable experience to daycare centers or nannies, has an inherent emotional and perhaps spiritual value that has been lamentably ignored by second-wave feminism.
We need to see motherhood as the valid choice it is, not a burden to be managed. We need new advice, a new plan.
The women hampered most by the loss of the village are the women without law degrees or a shot at the corner office
It turns out that Friedan offered a decent overview 50 years ago. She trashed domesticity in the body of The Feminine Mystique, but the Epilogue, A New Life Plan for Women, is more sober. She warned against “one thing at a time compromises” that were not compatible with women’s lives. She advised education first and early long-range planning. But who really read The Feminine Mystique? Feminists ousted Friedan from the head of NOW, ignored her caution not to ape the paths of men, and confidently swapped motherhood first for career first. After a few decades of following this edict, we have leveled the one organic institution that could sustain the professional success we have achieved to this point.
There are two additional insults to injury of note. First, the women hampered most by the loss of the village are the women without law degrees or a shot at the corner office, the ones who find it most difficult to help themselves. The elite woman’s strategy of hiring a village or quitting work is not available to her administrative assistant or housekeeper, who can neither keep pace with the motherhood rat race nor rely upon the nannies or stay at home moms whose time is consumed with the rat race.
Second, the advice that razed the village was originally doled out by women who already had families and lived in the village, then by women who had plentiful careers and could pay to replace the village. Millennial women will have no such advantages.
My peers, the women of Gen X, have the most to answer for. At least when our mothers first gave us the Career Mystique advice around 1990, it was untested. But now we have more than 20 years of data and anecdotes. We have learned much, or at least should have. Yet we continue to peddle the old advice and tell young women not to worry about relationships at all but to engage in what by most accounts is bad sex so as to not get tied down while establishing careers that no longer exist. (Warning: vulgarity in last link.)
This absurd advice betrays a lack of courage. In one of the many and varied twists of feminism, the women of Gen X, the most independent and privileged generation of women in history, are oddly susceptible to mother guilt. They made our career success possible, and if we subvert that success to anything else, then they think we have thanklessly tossed away hard won freedoms they gave to us. As they see it, we owe them. And the payment they seek is that we never question the Career Mystique.
I am not a feminist, not as the label is commonly understood anyway. My mother isn’t either. Despite the many sacrifices she made for me, she has a very different approach to intergenerational debt. I once asked if I could pay her for babysitting. She said no. She told me that I would pay her back when I freely babysat my own grandchildren.
That is the essence of the village. If we want it back, we need to find it wherever it still lives, be it in large families, expat communities, or in churches. We need to find it and use it. And we need to rebuild villages where the old ones once stood.
Follow Leslie Loftis on Twitter.Sam Born (September 10, 1891 – March 23, 1959) was an American businessman, candy-maker and inventor.
Biography [ edit ]
Born to a Jewish family in Vinnytsia, Ukraine, Born, under his original name - Samuel Bernstein - emigrated to the United States in December 1909; he sailed on the S/S Merion from Liverpool, England, to Philadelphia; on the ship's passenger list, his occupation was listed as "candy maker". In 1916, Sam Born was awarded the "key to the city" of San Francisco for inventing a machine that mechanically inserted sticks into lollipops. In 1923 in New York City he founded Just Born company, a candy manufacturer that still manufactures Peeps, Mike and Ike, and Hot Tamales.[1] In 1932, he relocated the firm to Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, from its former Brooklyn location. In March 1959, Samuel H. Born died on board the Cunard liner, Britannic, while it was at sea, having departed from Lisbon, Portugal en route to Southampton, England. He and his wife were on the last lap of a 14,000 mile world cruise, according to his obituary which appeared in The Morning Call, an Allentown, Pennsylvania newspaper, on March 24, 1959.
References [ edit ]TNA Entertainment
Since TNA Impact Wrestling started its run on Pop TV, the direction of the program and the promotion has been very character-driven.
And when you look at the roster, the Decay is one true success stories of this new era. Veteran Abyss and Crazzy Steve found new life, ironic given the name of the group. But the important piece of the puzzle for “The Death Dealers” has been Rosemary.
The Canadian honed her skills over the last eight years on the independent scene before opportunity came knocking.
“I had a lot of experience,” Rosemary said.
“Getting signed with TNA was the next step and something I never expected to happen, but it was really a wonderful surprise and something I saw as a new challenge for my wrestling career. I’ve taken it and ran with it.”
Rosemary persona was a natural transition for the 32-year-old considering she has been playing a dark character as Courtney Rush. Crazzy Steve was someone she knew throughout her career and suggested her name when the initial concept for Decay was formulated. Rosemary describes herself as a character in complete control over herself and her surroundings. The alpha personality knows how to manipulate anyone who comes in contact with her. Rosemary says this is different from Rush, who is a bit more frenzied, maniacally and less in control over herself.
Before pursuing pro wrestling, Rosemary studied film and theater in university and did a few independent films. The first was “Monster Brawl,” which she describes as a wrestling slash Mortal Kombat tournament for horror monsters.
“In that movie was the first time I did something similar to a misfit,” Rosemary explained.
“Then coming into this character after I started doing the character of Courtney, where she is more along the lines of a demonic possession. I called back things I did in that film for that character. Rosemary is more of a schizophrenic psychopath.”
On the surface, with the makeup, red and black color scheme and violently playful nature, many likened her to Harley Quinn. However, Rosemary finds Joker’s right-hand lady too submissive. She draws from other inspirations.
“You have Freddy Krueger, who is so flippant and sarcastic about death and torture. His verbiage is amazing in all his movies. Bellatrix Lestrange of ‘Harry Potter’ has all these mannerisms. Then you have the childlike blood lust that I drew from Claudia in ‘Interview with the Vampire.’”
Rosemary enjoys the collaborative effort in working closely with the writers and creative. She came into the role already knowing it would be a darker character. However, the unique figure got to delve a little deeper in developing signature body language and speech patterns, a certain tone of voice. The time and effort she has put into Rosemary has paid off.
“It’s mind-boggling,” she said.
“Thinking about everything we’ve done so far just in TNA, the impact we’ve made on television and with the fans and the response we’ve gotten. The effect of the group, I look back and think, ‘this is still year one. We still have five months left in the year to cause chaos. What are we going to get into if this is just year one of the group? I think we are just going to tear the place apart.’”
Rosemary isn’t the only new TNA Knockout that has joined the roster this year. Among them is Allie, known outside of Impact Wrestling as Cherry Bomb, is a longtime rival. A bond formed between them, built on mutual respect.
“We’ve beaten the crap out of each other,” Rosemary said.
“It’s awesome to have someone on the same path as me. We really have grown up and bring out the best out of each other when we are in the ring together. We know we don’t have to hold back. We can go out there and beat the crap out of each other and know there is nothing we have to worry about because we know each other so well. It was with her that I started doing the demonic character in Smash Wrestling in Canada.
“It was her who instigated it after feuding with her for six years on the independent scene, she finally took things to another level by having me held down to cut my hair off, humiliated me in front of the crowd. That is what pushed Courtney Rush over the edge. She couldn’t take her bullying anymore and all the mental abuse. An example is she got me fired from a promotion before and things like that. I just couldn’t take it anymore, which is where the origins of the character and the start of my turn to the dark side began.”
Since their debuts, they have been in separate storylines. However, Rosemary isn’t ruling out taking the feud to TNA television.
“That would be amazing,” she said.
“The response we actually got doing it on the independent level. The response we have gotten and just bringing that to Smash. Then with both of us signed has brought more eyes to Smash. It gets them interested in seeing our work outside of TNA. It would be amazing to bring what we have done in Smash to another level and have it on national television. I have no doubt in my mind we will blow it out of the water.”
Rosemary’s work within TNA has largely been outside the ring. She is currently involved in an onscreen, for lack of a better word, romance with Bram.
“The way I approach anything is look over to what is to be done and whatever is being taped. I think how I would approach this and the thought process behind it,” Rosemary said.
“I think how I can make this thing creepy. It’s not weird. I get along well with Bram, who is easy to work with. That is important for something that can be intimate and somewhat exposing. We are both actors and acted in movies before. It’s not like they are bringing in people who have never done any theater or sort of acting work before. So it has been good.”
Rosemary feels a reason the persona has resonated with audiences is the fact she has gone all-in with it. She cites Matt Hardy as an example of someone else who isn’t afraid to swim in the deep end.
“He is on fire. He is my favorite thing on television right now. I find inspiration from him. I loved the ‘Final Deletion.’ What is so great about that whole thing and any over-the-top character is to make it work, you have to stay at it. You have to train the audience to show that this is the character. They aren’t going to get it right away. So the only way to make something like that work is to go balls out.
“You can’t hold yourself back. If you hold yourself back, it doesn’t come across well. You literally have to throw everything out there. If you don’t believe it, they won’t believe it. For me personally, I go out there and as soon as I go out on that stage, I fully believe I hear voices in my head. I’m a schizophrenic sociopath who does not care about people’s life or death, right or wrong. I want to hurt people. I believe that, and I think everyone else believes that too. If there is any self-doubt, it’s so visual on television.”
Rosemary is excited at the landscape of women’s wrestling today and what TNA is doing to feature the Knockouts in prominent positions.
“TNA is really getting back to focusing on the knockouts, when they had the most diverse women’s division,” she said.
“You had ODB, the original Beautiful People, Gail Kim, Hamada and Daffney. Speaking of Daffney, you people out there, don’t call me a Daffney rip-off. She happens to be a very good friend of mine and loves the work I’m doing. Ask her yourself. But the division was so diverse. Now they are really getting back to it and encouraging a lot of people to let their inner-character come out.
“You are seeing it now with Marti, who is getting this fiery, New York Dominican out. Jade is bringing out this gangster side to her. I am obviously ridiculous in my own right. Maria is this delusional character in her own head. Allie is the lapdog who follows the big bulldog. You have Sienna, who is now the bruiser bodyguard. I love it because you have these characters now, and TNA is really encouraging that. We are getting back to it all, when the knockouts were at their peak.”
Watch Impact Wrestling on its new night and time 8 p.m. ET Thursdays on Pop TV.
Follow me on Twitter @smFISHMAN.
Photos Courtesy: TNA EntertainmentEndless Possibilities for the Future of Space Launch
A discussion with:
Salvatore T. "Tory" Bruno
President and CEO
United Launch Alliance
Moderated by:
Steven Grundman
M.A. and George Lund Fellow
Atlantic Council
The Atlantic Council is pleased to announce that Tory Bruno, the recently appointed president and chief executive officer of United Launch Alliance (ULA), will make an Atlantic Council Captains of Industry address on "Endless Possibilities for the Future of Space Launch," beginning at 4:30 p.m. on Thursday, November 13th, at the Atlantic Council's headquarters.
Somewhat unexpectedly, space launch has become one of the most dynamic, talked-about sectors in the aerospace and defense industry. And United Launch Alliance, a joint-venture company of Lockheed Martin and Boeing formed in 2006, is at the center of many of these conversations. Next month, ULA is scheduled to launch NASA's Orion spacecraft on its maiden flight 3,600 miles into space, testing the vehicle's suitability for deep space journeys. Last month, ULA announced the formation of a partnership with the Jeff Bezos-owned venture Blue Origin to develop and test a new rocket engine powered by liquid oxygen and liquefied natural gas. And across the first half of 2014, the US Air Force's acquisition strategy for its Evolved Expendable Launch Vehicle (EELV) program and risk to the long-term supply of RD-180 engines from Russia have churned the competitive landscape and outlook for new opportunities. Tory Bruno has said that he sees endless possibilities for the future of space launch, and he will address and discuss his perspective on these possibilities at this event.
The Atlantic Council Captains of Industry Series is a platform for senior executives in aerospace and defense to address the public interests their companies serve and the public policies that shape these markets. By engaging the perspective of business leaders about issues at the interface of defense ministries and industries, the series is cultivating a constituency for practical solutions to these problems.
November 13, 2014
4:30 p.m. - 5:45 p.m.
Atlantic Council
1030 15th Street NW
12th Floor
West Tower Elevator
Washington, DC
Be sure to follow along with @ACScowcroft and #ACCOI!
BiosHull City were promoted to the Premier League after beating Sheffield Wednesday in the Championship play-off final in May
Premier League B teams and 'non-English' clubs will not be included in plans to reform the structure of the English Football League.
In May, it was revealed that the EFL, formerly known as the Football League before a rebrand this summer, could expand to include a fifth tier by 2019-20, with 100 teams over five divisions.
It is planned that additional clubs would come from the National League.
EFL clubs met to discuss the proposals for the first time on Thursday.
The exclusion from the plans, which will be voted on by all clubs in June 2017, of extra clubs from non-English leagues would appear to remove any prospect of Scottish giants Celtic and Rangers being involved in the EFL in the foreseeable future. Welsh clubs Cardiff and Newport already compete in the EFL.
Meanwhile, the idea to include Premier League B teams in any restructure which formed part of the Football Association commission's four-point plan to boost English football, has also been rejected.
"The logical place for many was to source the additional teams for League Three from the National League," EFL chief executive Shaun Harvey said.
"We will now continue our consultation with the National League with a little more certainty as to what any change could mean for them."
This season, the Checkatrade Trophy has included under-21 teams from Premier League and Championship clubs for the first time on a trial basis, something which the "overwhelming majority of fans" are against, according to the Football Supporters' Federation.
Why change the current system?
In May, the FA said the fixture schedule needed looking at "for the benefit of all" and the main aim of expanding to a five-tier league was to reduce fixture congestion.
The EFL believes the benefits of the possible expansion to five leagues, each consisting of 20 teams, include:
Ensuring more games are played on weekends and Bank Holidays;
Removing fixture congestion and clashes;
Helping EFL clubs make more money;
Keeping the play-off finals on the last weekend of the domestic season.
For the proposal to be approved, they will need the backing of 65 EFL clubs (90%) at next year's annual general meeting.
What does the proposed re-structuring involve?
The proposals are part of the FA's 'Whole Game Solution' and, as well as adding a fifth tier, centre around:
The option of introducing a winter break
Regionalisation of the lower divisions
Changing the number of teams per division
In 2014, an FA commission's review also called for a ban on non-European Union players outside of the top flight and a reduction in non-home-grown players in Premier League squads.
What feedback did clubs give the EFL?
As well as rejecting the idea of including Premier League B teams and extra 'non-English' teams being added, clubs also gave the EFL feedback on the idea of introducing a winter break.
An EFL statement added: "The feedback has confirmed that clubs in League One, Two and the proposed League Three would want to play through a winter break if introduced."
Portsmouth chief executive Mark Catlin told BBC Radio Solent: "A lot of people's views have been taken on board by Shaun Harvey in the consultation. By taking [B teams] off the agenda, the EFL board have given themselves a greater chance of success.
"The other line in the sand as far as we're concerned is taking away our aspiration to compete in the highest possible tier - by cutting the Championship and other divisions from 24 to 20 teams, they're just never going to get our vote on that.
"One of the options that was brought to the table during the meeting was an option for no change at all.
"We like the existing structure, we like having FA Cup ties on weekends and we don't want a winter break or two Scottish clubs introduced."
Analysis
BBC Radio 5 live sports news correspondent Richard Conway
"A radical revamp of the Football League structure was first proposed in May.
"The changes would see the introduction of a new 'League Three', resulting in 100 clubs in total within the professional pyramid.
"The big question for the EFL concerns where these extra clubs will come from?
"Today officials announced they will NOT be drawn from Premier League B teams or from Scotland. And that's significant given the reported interest from Rangers and Celtic in joining up with their southern counterparts.
"It also puts the final nail in the coffin on the B team debate, which first came to prominence in 2014 when Greg Dyke's much criticised commission of inquiry into English football reported its findings.
"It's a move likely to be welcomed by fans - the arrival of under-21 Premier League teams into the Checkatrade Trophy this season has been met with protest and boycotts by supporters.
"Negotiations amongst the existing 72 EFL clubs will now continue, with a planned vote on final proposals expected to be held next summer."
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Subscribe to the BBC Sport newsletter to get our pick of news, features and video sent to your inbox.Why Scott Moreau got kicked out Re: Scott Moreau Banned From Official Wayland IRC Channel
A couple people have said that from the outside, it looks bad that Scott forked Wayland and then got kicked out. They requested somebody post an explanation to this mailing list. I think this is pretty reasonable. I have no authority, and can't speak for anybody but myself, but I saw all of what happened, and I believe I understand it. Most importantly, nobody objected to Scott forking Weston, which I believe would satisfy all his goals. Others have forked it before, and the response was positive. (This included ubuntu's wayland system compositor work, and the ADWC tiling WM type fork: https://launchpad.net/~ubuntu-desktop/+archive/system-compositor http://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=news_item&px=MTA5MTA ) The final problem was that, despite his proclamations that he intended to keep his forks compatible with wayland, he refused to use the existing mechanism to retain protocol compatibility to make the protocol changes he needed, without providing a reason. (Details below.) But I believe that alone would not have gotten him kicked out. The larger problem was his constant abusiveness that we've put up with over the last year. More visible in IRC than on this mailing list. 17:25 <@krh> is there [anybody] in this channel you haven't insulted or bitched at? 17:25 < soreau> krh: Probably not.... (Yes, that's an incomplete quote of his response. I really feel his acknowledgment is important to share, and his backpedaling is not.) 02:22 < Dolomere> If you dont mind, can I ask a question about the whole argument with scott?.... 02:38 < thiago> Dolomere: I asked why he forked the wayland library too 02:38 < thiago> that was a misunderstanding 02:38 < thiago> but he won't go back now 02:39 < thiago> he agrees that it was a mistake to do it, it serves no purpose, and yet he won't back down 02:39 < thiago> he got banned from the IRC channel because he was annoying. That happens all the time to people on IRC. Don't read in to it more than "person was annoying on IRC". 02:39 < airlied> if he just wanted to go play on his own, he could do that, the fact he needs to mail the list and tell everyone with lots of crap about compiz history, means he is just time wasting dramtic artist 02:40 < airlied> he likes seeing his name in phoronix 02:42 < airlied> if he comes back in x months with a working DE that does everything he wants then fair play 03:00 < airlied> what he did wrong was be an arsehole multiple times 03:00 < airlied> when pointed out he was being such, he claimed he has communciation problems and then did it again 03:01 < airlied> http://www.slideshare.net/vishnu/how-to-protect-yourhow-to-protect-your-open-source-project-from-poisonous-people 03:01 < airlied> here's some nice slides 03:02 < airlied> he fell into "Lack of Cooperation" sldie 23 11:38AM < daniels> tgs3: yes, he was persistently abusive to people ('fucking idiot' was thrown around a bit), and also refused to engage with the review process, ignoring all reviews which pointed out problems with his code and refusing to fix them. it wasn't pleasant or fun for anyone else but now we're just trying to move on and do what we're actually here for - which is write code. 11:55AM < jekstrand> tgs: The problem is that Scott's voice of opposition was opposition to code review and thinking through the protocol before committing it to master. 11:55AM < jekstrand> tgs3: Scott specirically didn't care about well thought-out software. 11:56AM < jekstrand> tgs3: Read this if you want more info: http://lists.freedesktop.org/archives/wayland-devel/2013-March/007814.html 12:01PM < daniels> tgs3: he was calling random people 'fucking idiots' for no reason and being generally abusive. ignoring him sends a message that as a community, we think it's great to abuse random people. that's absolutely not on - it's a surefire way to kill your project. 12:07PM <@krh> the fork is fine, the drama around it wasnt 12:38PM < damien_l> fwiw, I'd recommend people to watch http://blip.tv/tech-love-live/osb09-donnie-berkholz-assholes-are-killing-your-project-2464449 This is where Thiago patiently took the time to explain how Scott could make his needed protocol changes without breaking compatibility, and Scott refused without providing a reason. Copy and paste existing protocol stuff from the wayland repo into his weston fork, then edit it there. On 03/25, Scott Moreau wrote: > On Mon, Mar 25, 2013 at 3:08 PM, Thiago Macieira <thiago.macieira at intel.com> wrote: > > What we're asking is that you avoid forking Wayland at all. Don't change the > > library, don't change the default extensions (including wl_shell), don't add > > new default extensions. You said you want to avoid incompatible changes: well, > > avoiding the fork also avoids the temptation. > > > > Try to do your changes in a different extension. Copy the current wl_shell into > > a new one and modify it to your heart's desire. If, at the end of your > > experiment, you conclude that the current wl_shell is flawed by design, then > > Wayland should deprecate it and adopt yours. On the other hand, if we conclude > > that your improvements can be added incrementally, we can simply do exactly > > that. > > This sounds great but this is not the solution I have come up with. > > > I'll ping you on IRC to discuss this. Several people have asked you to do it > > and you have either missed the point or failed to explain to us why the fork > > is necessary. Another recent example of how unpleasant Scott was to work with. I strongly suspect this instance of him getting set +q (quiet), and his banning, have been the only disciplinary type uses of ops in this channel since it was created over two years ago: --- Day changed Wed Mar 20 2013 18:26 < Darxus> soreau: As always, if you'll just tell me exactly what you want changed, I'm happy to change it. Copying and pasting plain text into an email and then editing it to what you would like would probably be great. 18:27 < soreau> I told you, get rid of the +s crap for weston-launch and add the runtime stuff for mplayer 18:27 < soreau> and put mpv on there too, 4 lines http://www.chaosreigns.com/wiki/Wayland_MPV_instructions 18:29 < Darxus> soreau: I can do the +s thing, and the mpv thing. The last time we discussed this I tried to get details on exactly you want changed about mplayer because I've never tried it and would rather not guess. 18:30 < soreau> I gave you the link http://lists.freedesktop.org/archives/wayland-devel/2013-January/006968.html 18:30 < soreau> last time 18:31 < soreau> been telling you little things about the website for months, you just don't have an interest in maintaining it and I can't understand that 18:32 < soreau> every time you act like you can't read or you don't know what I'm talking about, or you want me to write a patch.. for a two second change on a website 18:32 < soreau> I mean wtf 18:33 < Darxus> --- Log opened Fri Feb 22 03:20:10 2013 18:33 < Darxus> 11:47 < soreau> http://lists.freedesktop.org/archives/wayland-devel/2013-January/006968.html 18:33 < Darxus> 11:50 < Darxus> soreau: That is distinctly different from telling me what you would like the contents of http://wayland.freedesktop.org/extr as.html to be. You could copy and paste the current text of the page into an email, edit it to what you want it to be, then email it to me. Do you just want me to add a note that mplayer needs to be run as "./mplayer -vo gl $filename"? I don't know the details of the problem, so I'm hesitant to modify the page based on my guesses. 18:33 < Darxus> And no answer. 18:33 < soreau> See now look! 18:33 < soreau> Instead of making the change you're trying to start shit 18:34 < soreau> JUST FIX IT ALREADY 18:34 < Darxus> I'm asking you the same yes or no question I asked you before. Why can't you just answer me? Because you'd rather continue to complain? 18:34 < soreau> Forget you man and forget your bullshit 18:34 < soreau> I don't have time to hold your hand while you kick scream and cry 18:37 < Darxus> soreau: You realize this kind of behavior is exactly why I have little motivation to cooperate with you, right? I honestly have no idea why you can't just answer the yes or no qestion. I'm not trying to "start shit". I'm trying to do exactly what you want me to do, I'd just like confirmation that my guess is correct first. 18:38 -!- mode/#wayland [+o airlied] by ChanServ 18:41 < soreau> If you cannot read plain english, then I'm sorry but I cannot help you 18:44 < |
Note: Welcome WSJ readers! I see that Josh Mitchell’s recent article, US Student-Loan Forgiveness Program Proves Costly, links to this site claiming that some call the PSLF a “Doctor’s Loophole.” Well, that some includes this guest poster, but not me. I’m getting lots of flack from readers about it, so much so that I may edit the entire article enough to remove the word “loophole” from it entirely.
To be certain, I don’t view the PSLF program as a “doctor’s loophole.” I think anyone who meets the requirements of the program ought to qualify for it, whether they are social workers or doctors. And if Congress feels a need to change the program, they ought to grandfather anyone who has taken out the loans already assuming this program would be in place. Most doctors make less in academic positions, which is the vast majority of those who will be getting forgiveness through the PSLF program. I suspect it will only be a matter of time before non-profit hospitals looking to hire doctors will drop starting salaries for new grads because they know about PSLF. By the way, it is far better for me financially for PSLF to go away. Not only will my taxes be lower, but more of my readers will refinance their loans, a significant source of revenue for this site. But I’ve got thousands of readers who have been counting on PSLF for as much as 8 years now, and I owe this to them as their advocate. Changing the deal now without grandfathering them in would be completely unfair.]
[Original Editor’s Note: This is a guest post from Jan Miller, a student loan consultant and an advertiser on this website. I get at least 2 or 3 emails a week from readers asking me to look into my cloudy crystal ball and tell them whether or not PSLF will be a good idea for them and whether or not it will change before they can take advantage of it. This post helps answer that question. Enjoy!]
As a student loan consultant, I work with borrowers of various different career paths. Some are architects, some are baristas and some are even actors living in Hollywood. One of the biggest groups of borrowers I help are physicians. Because of their high debt amounts, and their participation in Internship and Residency, doctors have some particularly special concerns when it comes to managing their student debt.
One of the most recent concerns that doctors are facing is the effect that Obama’s legislation will have on the so-called “Doctors’ Loophole.” But what exactly is it, and how does it affect a physician?
What is “The Doctors’ Loophole?”
The Doctors’ Loophole refers to a special loophole that exists in the Income Driven Repayment plans, and Forgiveness plans, that the feds perhaps never realized would benefit physicians so significantly.
Back in 2007, when the income driven payment and forgiveness plans were created, they were primarily designed to help those who had low incomes in relation to their total federal student loan debt. Income Based Repayment (IBR) and Pay As You Earn (PAYE) payments will always max out at the standard 10 year payment, no matter how much money the borrower makes. So regardless of how much money a doctor ends up making, they will never have to pay more than what the standard 10-year amount would have required.
As a result, if a borrower’s income is low for a few years of residency (and it usually is), her or his required monthly payment will be nice and low to match it. But if they have a large surge in income once they establish their practice (and doctors usually do), then their required payment will never be higher than the standard required amount.
Interesting loophole indeed. In addition to creating some very favorable conditions for monthly payments, this loophole can also result in large amounts of debt (i.e. hundreds of thousands of dollars) being forgiven for doctors – who may be making hundreds of thousands of dollars a year by the time the loan is forgiven! This unexpected benefit has been a happy boon for many physicians and other healthcare professionals– but there are many people who aren’t too thrilled about it.
[Editor’s Note: I’d prefer the term “may be” to “has been” since no doctor has yet completed 120 qualified monthly payments since 120 months haven’t passed since 2007.]
My Opinion + Recent Legislation
Personally, I have no problem with this beneficent loophole, since it is going to a group of professionals who a) already pay so much money for their education and b) are providing a tremendous public service. However, such a large forgiveness benefit for high income earners has received a lot of criticism as of late, to the degree that it’s likely to be closed when new legislation is passed in some way or another.
Recently, Obama signed an executive action that will allow borrowers in the 15% Income Based Repayment program to take advantage of the 10% Pay As You Earn program, come December 2015. His new budget proposal also directly addresses student loans, so we can expect lots of changes to happen.
Because of all these executive and potential legislative changes, I’ve been receiving questions from my clients, especially those who are healthcare professionals. They’re asking me questions like:
Is the Public Service Forgiveness program too good to be true?
Can I rely on it?
Will it be taken away from me?
And so on.
Interestingly, many doctors have made educational, career, and specific job choices based on their loan forgiveness potential. So, if new legislation breaks the promise of forgiveness, it is going to cause a substantial problem for a large number of people who were counting on this benefit. Might the feds back out on their promise of student loan forgiveness, once they realize that such a controversial loophole exists? Hopefully, they will honor their word and follow their own rules, as they usually do when it comes to federal student loans.
Realistically Optimistic Projections
Although I cannot predict what Congress will do, or what legislation will be passed, I am hopeful that any new changes that limit healthcare professionals to how much they can have forgiven will only apply to “new borrowers” (those who took out loans after the new legislation becomes active). After all, this would fall in line with the way they have always done it.
When the regulations were changed in 1987, those who took out loans before that time period were still subject to the same rules prior to the changes. The same thing happened when they made additional changes in 1993. Additionally, this type of grandfathering can also be seen with the Pay As You Earn (PAYE) program in its present state. For PAYE, newly instituted in 2014, if you have loans older than October 2007, you do not qualify for it. However, new borrowers with original debt after October 2011 do qualify for it.
Closing the Loophole
So, what will happen next? There are many ways to “close” this so called loophole.
They can keep everything as is, but remove the payment cap at the standard repayment, so the payment amount continues to rise with the borrower’s income. Or, they can put a cap on the amount of total debt that can be forgiven. They could also specifically eliminate doctors from the program, or disqualify internships and residency from qualifying PSLF employment.
Even if the loophole is closed, I believe that current borrowers who are participating in the programs now are probably safe and will continue to benefit from the current lower payments and the future forgiveness benefits. However, it’s generally not recommended to base your career choices on forgiveness possibilities. [Easier said than done when you owe $550K and your dream is to be a pediatrician.-ed] Make sure you consider all factors, and speak with a trusted professional about your next best steps.
What do you think? Do you think PSLF will go away for doctors? If so, who do you think might be grandfathered in? How do you envision the loophole closing? How have these concerns affected your career choice and your loan refinancing decisions? Comment below!Quazi Mohammad Rezwanul Ahsan Nafis, a 21-year-old Bangladeshi man in the United States on a student visa and now charged with plotting a bomb attack on the Federal Reserve building in New York City, used Facebook as well as other methods to plan his attack.
Nafis was arrested Wednesday after attempting to detonate what he believed to be a 1,000-pound bomb in a vehicle parked next to his target. However, the explosive device was a fake provided by one of two undercover FBI agents who had been posing as jihadists connected with al-Qaeda.
Law enforcement quickly arrested Nafis and he appeared in court several hours later.
According to court documents, at least some of the early communication between Nafis and an undercover agent happened on Facebook. The online conversations revolved around the legitimacy in Islamic law of conducting jihad against a country entered with a visa:
"During the period between July 6, 2012 and July 8,2012, NAFIS, the CO-CONSPIRATOR and the CHS began to communicate via Facebook, an internet social-media website. During these communications, which were consensually recorded by the CHS, the three discussed certain Islamic legal rulings that advise that it is unlawful for a person who enters a country with a visa to wage jihad there. NAFIS stated that he had conferred with another individual in Bangladesh and was advised that he was not bound by such rulings. Accordingly, NAFIS indicated that he believed that he was free to continue with his plan to conduct a terrorist attack on U.S. soil."
Nafis and undercover agents also spoke on the telephone and communication in other unspecified ways. Nafis first met one of the undercover agents in late July, and that agent posed as Nafis' main assistant until Nafis' attempted attack and arrest on Wednesday.
Image courtesy of iStockphoto, carlballouSpaza shops were looted across Snake Park, Zola and Emdeni in Soweto this week. GREG NICOLSON and BHEKI C. SIMELANE detail how a young man standing outside a store led to residents going on a rampage, the death of a 14-year-old boy, and foreign shop owners fleeing the township, once again raising the spectre of xenophobia.
It started with a nyaope addict at the Waka Waka.
“Shit happened here,” repeats Sphamandla Zwane, 21, manning a fruit stall across from the store in Snake Park.
On Monday, 17:00, an 18-year-old boy leaned against the store’s outside wall. He’s a nyaope addict, everyone says, and many claim he regularly stole from the store. When one of the Somali nationals who works there spotted him he confronted the boy and told him to leave because he was only there to steal.
Zwane points down the road.
There he is, the nyaope boy, shovelling debris into a wheelbarrow. “I hate them [foreign shop owners] because they are killing local businesses, they don’t pay taxes and they don’t hire locals,” says the 18-year-old, who wouldn’t give us his name. His eyes are vacant. A layer of saliva has whitened on the edges of his lips and his hands are dusty from the work. He says it was a case of mistaken identity; there must be another lanky, dark thief in the area.
Threatened, he refused to leave the store. The shop keeper got a panga. “He went crazy,” Zwane remembers of the boy. He searched for stones to throw. The shop keeper called for a colleague.
The colleague brought a gun and threatened to shoot the boy. “Then kill me,” he retorted, still refusing to leave, and began throwing rocks into the store.
Community members gathered to watch. When the second Somali branded a pistol, someone called the police. They wanted them to search the store for weapons. Multiple witnesses told Daily Maverick that while the police were searching, the individual who owns the store, the boss, arrived, entered and left. The police finished searching and didn’t find a gun.
That unleashed xenophobic looting.
Until then it was just a young man on nyaope, a Somali spaza shop, a panga and a gun. But onlookers had seen a firearm and when the police failed to find it, the community thought the cops were protecting the Somali store owners, maybe letting the boss go with the gun, or taking a bribe to ignore the incident. The gist: The foreigners had weapons. The foreigners made threats. The foreigners can subvert justice. And they have the gall to do business here.
The community wouldn’t tolerate it anymore.
The outraged onlookers held a meeting. One source said a leader in the area, the identity of whom is known to Daily Maverick but we won’t publish as we have not been able to independently corroborate the claim, announced, “I do not personally condone xenophobia, but this is absolutely ridiculous.” Something had to be done.
“As the community gathered, it was resolved that we should strike and the first attack was in block four,” says Zwane. They left the police to protect the Waka Waka Supermarket and pounced on the Bafana Shop around the corner. The Pakastani workers were shoved aside while the store was emptied. Nothing was left when the police arrived and the community moved to the next target, Raso Supermarket.
On the corner of 108th and 56th Streets, a woman peels chicken feet. Under rows of power lines, the store faces an open field. On the other side is the community hall. RASO is scrawled large in red paint on a worn white wall. The concrete entrance to the store has been damaged and frames the roller door like demented edges of a serrated bread knife.
Wednesday’s issue of The Star had a descriptive account of what happened when the looters moved to Raso Supermarket. It said the owner, whom we are told is Pakistani, was asleep and thought there were customers wanting to be served. He asked them to return the next day. They tried to break in. “The owner fired a warning shot and they fled. They returned, and continued to try to break in, and that’s when he shot again,” an anonymous resident told the newspaper.
Siphiwe Mahori, 14 years old, had been sent on an errand by his family, but somehow he ended up on the scene with the looters. He was shot in the neck and died within 15 minutes. Lebogang Ncamla, 23, was shot three times in the arm.
“Please help,” were Mahori’s last strained words, bleeding at the entrance to the spaza, according to a resident on the scene.
On the same road as Waka Waka, and next door to the 18-year-old nyaope boy’s home, sits the Mahori family’s RDP. The boy’s father said barely a line before ushering us to a yard with two back rooms: “I’m just disappointed these foreign shop owners are not here to help or be helped, but they are here to ruin our lives.”
Norman Mdingi, 36, a neighbour speaking for the family sits under a tree. “As you can see there is a deafening silence inside the house. Everyone inside is still in pain and in shock,” he says.
“He died in my arms,” Mdingi continues, his palms upwards. Mahori went to Mzoro Primary School, which catered to the boy’s learning disability. He loved bicycles, could fix them “in a whim”, and built his own bike from various parts he could find. He was respectful and had an older sister, younger brother and both parents, who are unemployed, says Mdingi.
In closing, Mdingi pleads, “Please ask the government to help us end this nyaope scourge in the area because nyaope was the cause of it all.”
Photo: Norman Mdingi, 36, a neighbour and family friend of the family of Siphiwe Mahori, the 14-year-old boy killed in the violence, poses with a bicycle, so loved by Siphiwe. (Greg Nicolson)
But nyaope didn’t prompt residents to attack other foreign-owned stores for what happened at Waka Waka Supermarket. The targeted attacks spread to Zola, Protea Glen and Emdeni. Police have arrested a suspect accused of killed 14-year-old Mahori, along with a number of looters and foreign nationals for possessing three unlicensed firearms.
Photo: Johiy Khan, 27, from Bangladesh, stands outside the looted Blue Container Store that he manages. (Greg Nicolson)
Johiy Khan, 27, from Bangladesh, has lived in South Africa since 2006 and has run the Blue Container Shop in Emdeni for four years. A bakkie sits outside his store loaded with refrigerators. Everything else was stolen when about 50 locals smashed a whole in the store’s brick wall with tools like pickaxes.
“The problem with South Africa is that it’s that’s too free. Thugs do as they please. They walk into our shops wielding guns and knives,” he says, before suggesting that the store owners will, of course, retaliate. “We don’t come from the same country as Somalis. We come from Bangladesh, but they are looting us all,” Khan finishes before he leaves in the bakkie with his workers.
Photo: An employee of Emdeni Bazaar, South African-owned and untouched during the looting that targeted foreigners, makes a transaction while neighbouring foreign-owned store manages flee the area. (Greg Nicolson)
Down the road, Joseph Mthethwa, 62, manages the Emdeni Bazaar. The South African and his store weren’t attacked. He says it’s because the looters wouldn’t have been able to find “loopholes”. “Leaders must call us all together and we should all work on the causes of this misunderstanding in our community to avoid future occurrences […] Foreigners make us very unhappy. They have brains, they can do things that we can’t, but they are starving us of business.”
According to Mthethwa, local stores, including those foreign-owned, meet regularly to discuss prices. However, he says the foreigners then change their prices without telling the locals and undercut stores owned by South Africans.
Photo: A worker at the Blue Container Store helps remove what wasn’t stolen. Looters smashed a hole the store’s wall, on the left, to gain entry. (Greg Nicolson)
Such are the complexities of foreigners in the townships. It starts with a nyaope addict at the Waka Waka, a panga and a gun, and ends with a boy dead, stores looted and foreigners escaping with bakkies full of anything left. DM
Main photo: The Raso Supermarket where 14-year-old Siphiwe Mahori was killed while residents looted foreign-owned stores in Snake Park, Soweto. (Greg Nicolson)
Are You A South AfriCAN or a South AfriCAN'T?
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Please or create an account to view the comments. To join the conversation, sign up as a Maverick Insider.The next time you're tempted to praise an idea, a movement, or yet another photo-sharing app as "revolutionary"... remember how actual revolutions usually turn out.
Like everyone else, I was really optimistic at the beginning of the Arab Spring.
Now, Syria's a bloodbath. Egypt's torturing activists. Libya's descended into civil war. The only success story was Tunisia – the country who started the whole Arab Spring – with their new constitution, new elected president, and a commission to address the previous regime's crimes. But even then, Tunisia is now under threat by ISIS, the terrorist group which grew out of the chaos of post-Spring Syria. (and post-US Iraq) (See Amnesty International's great summary of the Arab Spring, country by country, five years later.)
Most revolutions fail. Even when they succeed, they can still fail – like with Egypt's case of “meet the new boss, same as the old boss”. And if homegrown revolutions are bad, implanted revolutions are even worse – like when America tried to “export democracy” to Vietnam and Iraq. Even the most romanticized revolution, the French Revolution, was extremely bloody – not just for aristocrats, for everyone – and accomplished nothing that the nonviolent Enlightenment couldn't. (Outside the scope of this essay, but worth pondering: why did “exporting democracy” fail for Iraq, but worked for post-WWII Japan? Maybe it's because the US not only exported legal institutions, but also exported their markets and culture? Anime: the bedrock of democracy!)
Furthermore, it's not just literal revolutions. Why is it so hard to change complex systems, like – say – reforming the police, addressing climate change, or fixing welfare dependence? (I'll come back to these examples later on)
And finally, if "revolution" doesn't work, what can we do instead to change the world?
This blog post is my attempt to use complex systems theory to sort-of answer those questions. Really, this whole essay is just advice to myself, a starry-eyed idealist who wants real change in the world right now, who's sick of waiting on the politicians, who wants revolution:
Don't.
There's a better way.
It's a Loopy World
First off, why do most revolutions fail? I think it's because people tend to think political power works like this:
And in the case of an actual dictatorship, it's hard not to see it that way – with the dictator at the top of the causal chain, who controls the military, the media, the economy, and everything else:
This worldview assumes linear cause-and-effect, with the dictator/president/elites at the top of it all. In this linear worldview, the solution is obvious: replace the ones on top.
But the first lesson of complex systems theory is that the world is not linear, it's loopy:
Even in a literal dictatorship, the dictator is still at the whim of the rest of the system. If economic sanctions are placed, the dictator can't fund his army. If the people use encrypted text and social media, the dictator loses his image. And as shown by many a military coup, even a dictator can still be at the mercy of his own army.
However, this means that when revolutionaries knock out a dictator, whoever takes his place has to reshape themselves to fit the same constraints of the system... and the new boss ends up looking a lot like the old boss. When you remove one piece from a jigsaw puzzle, any replacement must have the exact same shape.
This loopy cause-and-effect is why, I think, most revolutions fail.
So what then? How does one create lasting change, instead of hot-swapping bosses, politicians, presidents? Well, I already spoiled my answer, since I couldn't resist making it the title of this blog post, but I believe we should strive for...
Evolution, Not Revolution
Biological evolution created all life on earth, constantly adapting everything to their ever-changing environments, and it's been doing this thankless job for over three billion years.
My goodness, it even turned dog-otters into whales:
(In case you're interested, here's how whales actually evolved. Science!)
So instead of revolution, trying to "intelligent design" our way to Utopia, we could learn from evolution, the natural process that made all of us in the first place. And the first lesson from evolution is:
1. Use what's already there.
A whale is not a fish, it's a mammal. But how did evolution turn a furry, four-legged land-mammal into a big, blubbery fish-looking thing?
What evolution did not do is hot-swap the whale's lungs for a fish's gills. We tend to anthropomorphize evolution as an engineer, but evolution's more like your weird cousin who's totally a “DIY expert” and their tools are duct tape and more duct tape. So instead of giving a whale gills, evolution decided to shove its nose-hole to the top of its head. And you know what? It worked.
Maybe that's a lesson for those of us who want to change a complex system: use what's already there.
For example, police reform. Last month, in my post on the psychology of violence, I wrote about the murder of five Dallas police officers. What made this shooting doubly tragic, I think, was that Dallas PD was (and still is) a fantastic role model in how to do community policing right. And yet, I've seen relatively little talk about Dallas PD's kind, community-based policing techniques, before or after the shootings happened.
I sympathize with the Black Lives Matter movement, but I worry it's got the same fatal flaw as Occupy. (Another failed Arab Spring-inspired movement) And that problem is not being pragmatic. What would be pragmatic is to highlight the good policing that's already there, like Dallas PD. (In addition to highlighting abusive police, of course. But that alone won't work, and will make police-community relations worse. You need carrots and sticks.) (For more pragmatism, look at BLM leader DeRay Mckesson's Campaign Zero, with its ten specific, actionable steps to police reform.)
As Arthur Ashe once said, “Start where you are. Use what you have. Do what you can.”
And there's a lot you can do. Which brings me to evolution's next lesson...
2. Every part evolves together.
It's not like a furry land-mammal was walking around one day, when suddenly their nose got shoved to their forehead, and then all their hair fell out, and then their fingers fused into paddles, and then they became big and fat, and then they got dumped into the middle of the Pacific Ocean.
Evolution doesn't work piece-by-piece. Instead, an animal's whole body-system evolves together.
Earlier, I showed how a country's leadership can both constrain and be constrained by other parts of the system. There are many, many parts to the vast interconnected system that is a nation, but for now, I'll focus on just four:
(These four were first categorized by Lawrence Lessig as Law, Norms, Markets, and Architecture, but I've renamed them slightly, for clarity.)
Just like how evolution doesn't change just the nose, you can't change just one part of the system, at least, if you want lasting change.
It may sound overwhelming that you have to change everything, but I think that's a positive! It means that if you're stuck in one area, like Policy, that means you can try pushing other areas, like Technology, Culture, and Economics.
For example, climate change. As auspicious as the Paris agreements were, they're not exactly legally binding, and even if they were, I'm skeptical they'll be enough. For the longest time, I only saw the Policy part of climate change, and it was a bleak, depressing picture.
Which was why I was so inspired when I read Bret Victor's What Can A Technologist Do About Climate Change and Stewart Brand's eco-pragmatist manifesto. Even though Policy seems to be stalled, there's so much that's already been done from the Technology side! Solar and wind, of course, but also nuclear power (it's zero-carbon and safer than coal plants), GMO's (we need drought-resistant crops, yesterday), and even geo-engineering. (which includes everything from the well-duh idea of planting more trees, to the wait-what idea of creating artificial clouds)
There's also innovations on the Economics side, like cap-and-trade, energy democracy, and markets to sell your extra solar power. And there's promising changes on the Culture side, with more and more people adopting "buy local" and minimalism as a lifestyle.
So, no matter where you are in the system – a voter or senator, an inventor or consumer, a buyer or seller, an artist or audience – you can, you must, play a part in changing the world.
But don't let hubris get to your head, because our final lesson from evolution is to...
3. Go slow & steady.
This, above all. We shouldn't be as slow as evolution – taking 50 million years to create a whale – but we should be careful about making large changes to a complex system.
Recently, there was a great episode of 99% Invisible that told the story of what happens if you don't go slow & steady, if you go for revolution over evolution.
In the late 1980's, California tried out a pilot program for a new system of welfare. The goal was to try to reduce “welfare dependence”. Instead of the education-and-training route of existing welfare programs, this program was a lot more straightforward: just get peeps into a job, any job, as soon as possible.
And the pilot program seemed to work! Five years later, those who entered the program had 42% higher job earnings than those in the control groups. And so, in 1996, President Clinton signed a bill redesigning the country's entire welfare system, based upon the just-get-a-job philosophy of that pilot program.
Turns out, that was premature. Although the program's results looked positive after five years, the trends reversed after ten years. Their experiment just happened to take place at a time when low-skill jobs were abundant, but by the 2000's, low-skill jobs became scarce everywhere. Thus, those who went to the traditional education-first welfare programs ended up doing better – in the long term – than those who went to the job-first programs.
To recap, they did a small-scale experiment first. That was good! But then they scaled it up from one county to the entire country. That was not so good. (I feel that foreign aid is hitting this same problem right now. A too-common story now seems to be: they do a Randomized Controlled Trial in a few rural villages, it seems to work, so they scale it up internationally, then it backfires. See this article on international development, especially the part about the worms.)
“Go slow & steady” may sound like a backhanded way to maintain the status quo, but I think it's far from it – slow is sustainable. Promises of a quick-fix revolution just give you a new boss, same as the old boss.
The overarching moral is this: humility.
Humility is the knowledge we don't have that much knowledge. We're all too stupid to completely overhaul a complex political/economic/cultural system. We can't build a world from scratch, so we have to use what's already there. We can't find a silver bullet, so we've got to evolve all the parts simultaneously. We can't let hubris get the better of us, so we should go slow and steady and sustainably.
And, applying humility to myself, I know I'm too stupid to write a blog post that solves the problems experts have been tackling for years. So, if I said something incredibly dumb re: the middle east, police reform, climate change, welfare dependence, or any of the other examples I used – forgive me, because I am that dumb.
But you know who else is dumb? Our totally-a-DIY-expert friend, Evolution. They've been working tirelessly and mindlessly for 3.5 billion years, and somehow, here we all are. So if Evolution's techniques work for them, maybe they could work for us – and we have the advantage of actually being able to reflect, think ahead, and collaborate with one another.
So, cheers. Here's to changing evolving the world.Six rapes were reported to New Orleans police over the past nine days, four of which involved minors, according to NOPD.
A detective from Gainesville, Missouri told NOPD Monday (Nov. 6) that a 21-year-old woman reported she was raped in New Orleans when she was 8 or 9 years old. The detective told police the woman is unsure of the exact date and time of the assault, but she knows it happened in New Orleans, according to a preliminary police report.
The detective told New Orleans police the woman wants to pursue criminal charges against her attacker, who police said she knew as an acquaintance. It was not immediately clear how old the attacker was at the time of the assault.
On Oct. 31, a 16-year-old girl told police she was sexually assaulted in Arabi by three people in March. According to a preliminary police report, the girl said she was at a party in an apartment near General DeGaulle Drive on March 29 when she was sexually assaulted by two strangers and one person she knew.
The police report did not include the attackers' genders or ages.
Last Wednesday, a teacher at a school in the 2000 block of Bienville reported a 13-year-old student told her she had sexual intercourse with a 19-year-old man. The teacher did not know the exact location, date or time of the incident, according to a preliminary police report, but she said the teenagers knew each other.
The Mid-City school teaches kindergarten through 8th grade.
A social service supervisor reported Monday that a 14-year-old girl told her she had been sexually assaulted three separate times. The supervisor said the girl told her about the assaults during a family counseling session and had previously told her mother what happened.
According to the initial police report, the girl and her attacker were "acquaintances." The report did not specify the gender or age of the attacker or when the assaults happened.
A 30-year-old woman told police she was sexually assaulted in a French Quarter hotel by a male acquaintance last Monday. The initial police report said the woman described the attacker as her client.
The woman told police she met the man at his hotel room in the 100 block of Royal Street around 10 a.m. on Monday, Oct. 30. She said while the two were in the hotel room, the man sexually assaulted her.
On Monday, police said a 44-year-old woman reported being raped by a stranger about two months ago in a parking garage near University Medical Center.
The victim said she was leaving the hospital when she was approached by a roughly 25-year-old man, according to a preliminary police report. She said the man "brought her to an area under a nearby interstate overpass," where he sexually assaulted her, the report says. After the attack, the woman said she went back to the hospital and told police what happened.
NOPD spokesman Aaron Looney said Tuesday afternoon no arrests have been made or warrants issued in connection to any of the six assaults.Share. Total operating profit is way up. Total operating profit is way up.
Konami has released its financial results for the fiscal year ending March 31, and its profits have increased over the same period last year.
Konami's total revenue is up to 249.9 billion yen (nearly $2.3 billion), which is up from 218.2 billion yen in financial year 2015. Total profit before tax is up to 23.8 billion yen ($218 million) from 17 billion yen last year.
Exit Theatre Mode
The company's total operating profit for the financial year is sitting at 24.7 billion yen ($226 million), which is a large increase from last year's 15.3 billion yen ($140 million).
Last year Konami announced it would now be focusing on mobile games. This followed such events as the cancellation of Silent Hills and Metal Gear Solid creator Hideo Kojima's reported departure from the company.
Konami highlighted mobile game Jikkyou Pawafuru Puroyakyu, which surpassed 22 million downloads. Sales of Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain were not disclosed.
Despite Konami's troubled year, which included reports of grim work conditions and did indeed end with Kojima leaving and forming a new studio, the company has seen increased revenue and profits. The interesting shift of focus has apparently worked so far.
Matt Porter is a freelance writer based in London. Make sure to visit what he thinks is the best website in the world, but is actually just his Twitter page.Most Caribbean coral reefs will disappear within the next 20 years unless action is taken to protect them, primarily due to the decline of grazers such as sea urchins and parrotfish, a new report has warned.
A comprehensive analysis by 90 experts of more than 35,000 surveys conducted at nearly 100 Caribbean locations since 1970 shows that the region’s corals have declined by more than 50%.
But restoring key fish populations and improving protection from overfishing and pollution could help the reefs recover and make them more resilient to the impacts of climate change, according to the study from the Global Coral Reef Monitoring Network, the International Union for Conservation of Nature and the United Nations Environment Programme.
While climate change and the resulting ocean acidification and coral bleaching does pose a major threat to the region, the report – Status and Trends of Caribbean Coral Reefs: 1970-2012 – found that local pressures such as tourism, overfishing and pollution posed the biggest problems.
And these factors have made the loss of the two main grazer species, the parrotfish and sea urchin, the key driver of coral decline in the Caribbean.
Facebook Twitter Pinterest Stoplight parrotfish ( Sparisoma viride) feeding on coral in Bonaire, Netherlands Antilles. Photograph: Pete Oxford/Corbis
Grazers are important fish in the marine ecosystem as they eat the algae that can smother corals. An unidentified disease led to a mass mortality of the sea urchin in 1983 and overfishing throughout the 20th century has brought the parrotfish population to the brink of extinction in some regions, according to the report.
Reefs where parrotfish are not protected have suffered significant declines, including Jamaica, the entire Florida reef tract from Miami to Key West, and the US Virgin Islands. At the same time, the report showed that some of the healthiest Caribbean coral reefs are those that are home to big populations of grazing parrotfish. These include the US |
, just when the secular elites have decided we must abandon all biological givens for the sake of those who want to self-identify as whatever in tarnation they want, we have the Southern Baptists solemnly denouncing the sins of their great grandfathers. There is a time and place for that (Ps. 78:7-8), of course, but people in the middle of a hot grease fire ought not to be lamenting the cold iron of the frying pan in the cupboard.
Somehow, it seems, Wilson would have us to believe that if you have never acted in the past you should, therefore, never act at all.
Wilson makes use of a housefire analogy in his piece and I’ll borrow it from him now: The argument above proffered by Mr. Wilson works out to “If you didn’t have enough sense to turn off the stove before the grease caught fire you darn well better not try to put out the fire now that you realize the sitting room is going up.”
To say it another way, the burden of argument is on Wilson to demonstrate how a lack of timeliness necessitates never taking appropriate action.
Does the chronological remove diminish the weight of the SBC’s move in encouraging brother to consider if he’s offending his brother with the Confederate flag? Sure.
However, is it better to stay silent on the issue than address it at the earliest point you can? Surely not.
I once heard Doug say from the stage at an Association of Classical Christian Schools annual conference that anything worth doing was worth doing poorly, the idea being that some needs are so pressing that you take whatever shot you can at addressing them. That Southern Baptists have taking this action may very well be poorly done but it was nonetheless worth doing.
Now, as for how Doug manages to conflate the Confederate flag with transgenderism… well, you can explain that to me because those are clearly separate issues (and, on transgenderism, I’m glad the SBC has been so clear on the danger that ideology represents to the individual and broader culture).
Wison carries on,
You can’t really confess the sins of your fathers while stoutly clinging to your own. If Southern Baptists get all their kids out of the government indoctrination centers in the fall of 2016, then they might have something valuable to say about what their fathers should have done back in the day. Until then, excuse me for not getting choked up over meaningless displays.
Here I would harken back to the beginning of this post; it would be exceedingly wonderful if Wilson was working from an understanding of just what Southern Baptists are on the record about in regards to this issue (I respect Wilson and so choose to believe he is merely ignorant as opposed to intentionally engaging in misrepresentation):
Southern Baptist Convention, 2005: “RESOLVED, That we urge Christian parents to fully embrace their responsibility to make prayerful and informed decisions regarding where and how they educate their children, whether they choose public, private, or home schooling, to ensure their physical, moral, emotional, and spiritual well-being, with a goal of raising godly men and women who are thoroughly equipped to live as fully devoted followers of Christ.”
Albert Mohler, Southern Baptist Theological Seminary President, also in 2005:
“I believe that now is the time for responsible Southern Baptists to develop an exit strategy from the public schools. This strategy would affirm the basic and ultimate responsibility of Christian parents to take charge of the education of their own children. The strategy would also affirm the responsibility of churches to equip parents, support families, and offer alternatives. ”
While Wilson’s point on the subject of government education is ultimately a red herring it is nonetheless a red herring in which he demonstrates a stunning lack of knowing what he’s talking about.
…we are talking about Baptists here, and so we should recognize that they are not very good at the semiotics of ritual. They are clueless about where they actually are, and have no real sense of timing. They are buying their first pair of bell bottoms in 1992. They just now purchased their lava lamps. The unbelieving world is running headlong after the gold medal of incoherence, and they are competing with a will. And professing evangelicals are running after them, our plumb little thighs churning. “Wait up, guys!” They have lapped us three times now, but because we are in the same section of the track periodically, we can call it relevance.
To be honest, this one gets under my skin. If you’ve read this far I won’t restate the pointlessness of saying no action is superior to late action.
I would ask Wilson a question: Just how well did the captial R-Reformed tradition understand “where they actually were” on January 5th of 1527 when it stood on the banks of the icy Limmat and drowned Felix Manz for daring to suggest that the word baptism should only refer to converts being immersed and that the church shouldn’t use the state to persecute Christians? Is that an example of an admirable “sense of timing?”
What about when, in 1759, Timothy Dwight and Timothy Edwards, executing the will of Jonathan Edwards “sold, conveyed and in open market delivered two negro slaves, viz.: the one a negro man name Joseph, the other a negro woman named Sue, and is wife to the said Jo, which slaves were lately the proper goods of said Jonathan Edwards.” Or when, earlier, Edwards wrote, “If [the critics of slave owners] continue to cry out against those who keep Negro slaves,” they would show themselves to be hypocrites, because they too benefited from the slave trade. “Let them also fully and thoroughly vindicate themselves and their own practice in partaking of negroes’ slavery,” he charged, “or confess that there is no hurt in partaking in it,” otherwise “let ’em own that their objections are not conscientious.”
Or in when Robert Lewis Dabney, after leaving the seminary’s employment, become first a chaplain and then in 1862, adjutant, or chief of staff, to Confederate general Stonewall Jackson?
Please, for sake of your own glass house tradition, stop casting stones about the Southern Baptist sense of timing.
I point out these historical data points not to attempt a denunciation of the Reformed tradition but to point out that no one is immune to missing the moral issue of their day. To criticize, in such condescending imagery, those who acted but acted too late for maximum impact is something like the pot laughing at the kettle for being so darn ebony.
To conclude, were Southern Baptists late? Sure. However, the PCA is still trying to catch up to Southern Baptists on appropriate responses to past racism. The United Methodist Church lags behind the SBC (first in 1971, for the record, and virtually every year since)in moving away from the pro-abortion sentiment benighting our culture.
Should Southern Baptists scoff at these Johnny-come-lately efforts? Or should we say “Wonderful!” and celebrate the good, whenever it shows up? Wilson is, from a deeply compromised position, scoffing out a “Too little, too late” in a most unhelpful fashion.
Finally, on Wilson’s own final word,
…doing what the liberals demanded fifty years ago should make you wonder what your great grandchildren will be apologizing for fifty years from now.
Interestingly enough, I’ve taken a look at The Amazing Dr. Ransom’s Bestiary of Adorable Fallacies and, as a result, can identify a slippery slope when I see one.
As I’ve said elsewhere, I was saddened to read such a deeply uninformed and unthoughtful piece from a man I hold in high regard. I’m choosing, however, in the name of grace, to file this dark excursus of Wilson’s under No One Gets It Right All the Time.
I’m also thankful for a polity in Southern Baptist life that allows for self-criticism and a chance to do what you can to make it right.
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RedditThe crucial principle when trying to perfect a process like making coffee is to carefully track what you do each time, so you can reproduce it exactly and keep elements from fluctuating unnecessarily while you deliberately change one variable at a time. If you just eyeball how much ground coffee goes into each brew, your road to perfection is going to be a lot steeper.
To that end, invest in equipment that lets you measure as many factors as possible. For brewing coffee, that includes:
A digital scale. Weigh out your ground coffee exactly. You can weigh your water too—if you get used to it, that can be more convenient than a measuring cup. A milliliter of cold water weighs exactly a gram. Some scales, like the Acaia, are designed specifically for coffee brewing. (EDITOR’S NOTE: If you want a general purpose digital scale, the test kitchen recommends OXO.)
A digital thermometer. A couple of degrees of difference in the water that you use for brewing can make dramatic changes to the final brew. Lower temperatures tend to accentuate sour tastes in coffee, and higher temperatures accentuate bitter tastes. The sweet spot is typically around 194-204°F. Some electric kettles, by Pino or Bonavita, will hold water at a temperature of your choice. (EDITOR’S NOTE: The test kitchen recommends this one, from Zojirushi.)
A digital timer. Manual brewing methods benefit from as much precision as you can give at every stage of the process. (EDITOR’S NOTE: America’s Test Kitchen’s winning kitchen timer is an OXO.)
As you start to become even more of an obsessive, I mean connoisseur, you’ll want kits to test the pH and hardness of the water you’re using. And, going even further, there is the coffee refractometer.
This handheld device, a mainstay at serious cafes but not too often seen at home, shines light through a droplet of brewed coffee and measures the angle of refraction as it passes through. Using this info, you can calculate the exact strength of a brew, measured in the Total Dissolved Solids present in the liquid. Being able to precisely measure the strength of each cup is the ultimate tool for fine-tuning, and then getting right every time, your coffee. The coffee refractometer made by VST is designed to be used with that company’s software, which can analyze, calculate, and scale up or down coffee formulas for any purpose.
If your brewing is all you want it to be, and you want to plunge back into the unknown and drink a lot of bad coffee while you patiently strive for a new level of excellence, you might enjoy roasting.
The FreshRoast SR700 is good for us diligent measurers because of its ability to hook to a laptop. At another price tier, so are the Hottop models. But even a $50 stovetop pot with a hand-cranked agitator—designed for popcorn but ideal for coffee, especially since it can hold much more than the FreshRoast—can become a scientific cook’s tool, with a little added technology.
Having a thermocouple thermometer that connects to a computer is a handy device for many kitchen tasks—it lets you watch and log temperatures on your computer. There’s a wide variety on the market: some have a single probe, some accommodate an octopus of probes to monitor the temperatures of many things at once. Some connect via USB, some are wireless.
A page on the Artisan software site lists a number that are explicitly compatible, although that’s not an exhaustive list.
Insert a thermocouple probe so its tip rests among the beans in the roaster, be that the Whirley-Pop or the FreshRoast. A second probe monitoring the air temperature is optional but helpful.
Install Artisan and set it to work with your thermocouple, and you can watch and record every moment of every roast you do, notating when first crack happened, what the beans weighed going in and coming out, and of course watching the rate of rise.
Most important, taste everything, a day or two after roasting, and correlate the variables that changed in each batch with how it tastes. You can use the official cupping protocol of the Specialty Coffee Association of America or an approach better suited to your home and habits, but the road to amazing coffee is the same: measure, record, notate, taste, practice, repeat.
Photography by Kevin White.Oxford BioMedica plc (LON:OXB) insider Lorenzo Tallarigo acquired 383 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, January 24th. The stock was bought at an average cost of GBX 694 ($9.07) per share, with a total value of £2,658.02 ($3,473.17).
Lorenzo Tallarigo also recently made the following trade(s):
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On Friday, November 23rd, Lorenzo Tallarigo purchased 406 shares of Oxford BioMedica stock. The shares were acquired at an average cost of GBX 654 ($8.55) per share, with a total value of £2,655.24 ($3,469.54).
LON:OXB traded down GBX 12.30 ($0.16) during trading hours on Friday, hitting GBX 697.60 ($9.12). The company’s stock had a trading volume of 38,976 shares, compared to its average volume of 6,890,000. Oxford BioMedica plc has a twelve month low of GBX 4.44 ($0.06) and a twelve month high of GBX 13.19 ($0.17).
Separately, Peel Hunt reaffirmed a “buy” rating on shares of Oxford BioMedica in a report on Thursday, November 1st.
WARNING: “Oxford BioMedica plc (LON:OXB) Insider Lorenzo Tallarigo Acquires 383 Shares” was first reported by Modern Readers and is owned by of Modern Readers. If you are accessing this report on another site, it was illegally stolen and reposted in violation of United States and international copyright and trademark legislation. The legal version of this report can be viewed at https://www.modernreaders.com/news/2019/02/17/lorenzo-tallarigo-buys-383-shares-of-oxford-biomedica-plc-oxb-stock.html.
Oxford BioMedica Company Profile
Oxford BioMedica plc, a biopharmaceutical company, engages in the research, development, and bioprocessing of lentiviral vector and cell therapy products for the treatment of various cancers, Parkinson's, central nervous system disorders, and ocular conditions in Europe and internationally. The company operates through Platform and Product segments.
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It’s a somewhat hard to hear over the music, but Dan Green’s viewpoint is that squatting with a belt and/or knee warps are comparing apples to oranges.
He mentions he likes doing beltless squats to 5 and 10 rep maxes but doing so with less weight on the bar.
As a beginner into the sport of powerlifting, I see there is a lot of value in training without a belt. As of this blog post, I’m just beginning to realize how beneficial it is. 4 weeks ago during this workout I got I was doing sets of 6 reps of deadlifts on Candito’s linear progression program with 425lbs and 405lbs. It was a hell of a struggle.
Then 4 weeks later on megaman this workout, I was able to do 2 sets of 6 reps. 445lbs and 455lbs. I actually ended up doing 8 reps of 455, but took some intermittent breaks.
The 445lbs was significantly lighter than expected. Of course, it’s not something that can really be explained well, it’s something you notice in how the bar feels.Updated at 10:46 a.m. ET
Following the attacks in Belgium on Tuesday, Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) renewed his call for the United States to stop accepting refugees from Syria.
“We need to immediately halt the President’s ill-advised plan to bring in tens of thousands of Syrian Muslim refugees. Our vetting programs are woefully insufficient,” Cruz said during a press conference in Washington, D.C.
The Republican presidential candidate said that the U.S. must “implement serious vetting” and should not let anyone into the country unless they can be sure they aren’t “radical Islamic terrorists.”
Cruz also bashed President Obama’s approach to combatting terrorism.
“In the wake of Brussels we don’t need another lecture from President Obama on Islamophobia. We need a commander in chief who does everything necessary to defeat the enemy,” he said.
The Texas senator bashed Obama for being on a trip to Cuba as Belgium deals with deadly attacks and said that the President should be in the United States or on his way to Brussels.
“While our friend and allies are attacked by radical islamic terrorists, President Obama is spending his time going to baseball games with the Castros and standing at a press conference with Raul Castro as a prop while Castro denies there are any political prisoners in Cuba,” Cruz said.
He noted that Obama did not go to Paris following the attacks there, calling it “a visual manifestation of President Obama and Hillary Clinton’s retreat from the world.” Cruz then compared Obama and Clinton’s policies to those proposed by Donald Trump, who on Monday said the U.S. should reevaluate its role in NATO.
“I would note that retreat from the world, the Obama-Clinton retreat from the world, is very much the retreat from the world Donald Trump is advocating. Even Barack Obama hasn’t gone so far as arguing for withdrawal from NATO the way Donald Trump has,” Cruz said on Tuesday.
While discussing U.S. immigration policies, Cruz claimed that one of the San Bernardino shooters publicly discussed jihad on social media, even though the report on the shooter’s social media use was corrected to reflect that she sent private messages.
“I would note, you look at the San Bernardino terrorists. The female terrorist publicly had posted on social media calls to jihad. Yet the Obama administration, in yet another nod to political correctness refused even to look to social media,” Cruz said on Tuesday. “That is an example of the myopia of this administration. And it’s politically driven. It’s not that they cannot see the threats of terrorism, it’s that they have refuse to look at, acknowledge, or name the threats of terrorism because it is inconsistent with their political objectives.”
Cruz also said that the U.S. should take a look at its visa waver program, which provides faster entry to the U.S. to European citizens.
“The attack in Brussels is in many ways the fruit of a failed immigration policy in Europe that has allowed a massive influx of radical Islamic terrorists into Europe. Europe is in the process of allowing policies to fundamentally threaten the safety and security of its citizens. That is a mistake,” he said. “The visa waiver program was designed for a different era when those from Europe were not perceived to be threats.”Manga creator Aya Kanno confirmed on Monday that she will end her Otomen series in the January issue of Hakusensha's Bessatsu Hana to Yume (BetsuHana) magazine on November 26. She added that she does not know yet when the final book volume will be published, but it will probably be next year.
The manga begins with a high school junior named Asuka Masamune: manly boy and judo/karate/kendo master on the outside, lover of caramel macciato, shōjo manga, sweets, and pink things on the inside. Asuka tries to keep his feminine side a secret, but his life changes when he meets Ryō Miyakozuka. Ryō cannot sew or bake a cake to save her life, and she is only attracted to masculine men.
Kanno launched the manga in BetsuHana in 2006, and Hakusensha is publishing the 16th book this month. Viz published the 13th volume in North America earlier this month. The story inspired a 2009 live-action television series with Masaki Okada and Kaho as the main leads.
[Via Manga News]Click to read the article in Turkish / Kurdish
Police have attacked demonstrators rallied in front of Parliament building to protest new constitutional draft upon which the Justice and Development Party (AKP) Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) agreed.
Police attacked the group consisting of Republican People’s Party (CHP) deputies, NGOs, lawyers and citizens with pepper gas.
Erdoğdu: The Parliament is under siege
According to a report by Cumhuriyet newspaper, in his speech issued in front of the Parliament, CHP MP Aykut Erdoğdu said the Parliaments is under siege:
“TBMM (Grand National Assembly of Turkey) is now under siege. It is besieged by our own police.
“We will not let the Republic be destroyed. We will not hand this country to traitors”.
Tanrıkulu: Constitution cannot be made in this climate
Another CHP MP Sezgin Tanrıkulu made a statement via Periscope in front of the Parliament:
“No one has weapons, no one is a suicide bomber here.
“Opinion leaders, bars, engineer chambers known by everyone are here.
“Who will express their opinion if not them? Constitution cannot be made in this climate”.
Some CHP MPs were injured
According to a report by Hürriyet newspaper, CHP MP Necati Yılmaz's denture was broken in the police attack.
It was reported that in addition to Yılmaz, CHP MPs Orhan Sarıbal, Ali Şeker and Şener Saruhan were injured during police attack. (EKN/TK)IBM has always been a pioneer in the world of type. For instance, in 1955 it commissioned Courier–a typeface whose letters and spaces all have fixed widths–which became the official font of screenplays, since writers can be certain that one page equals one minute of screen time. And IBM’s iconic Selectric typewriter, with its interchangeable font balls, liberated typewriter users from the monotony of single typefaces in the 1960s.
But oddly enough, while IBM itself had developed a strong visual brand though its logo, its architecture, and its products, it never had its own bespoke corporate typeface. In the past, the company’s default typeface was Helvetica Neue, “the font of science and the information age, with a precision and objectivity that commands respect,” as its previous style guide states. The revered typeface’s crisp, neutral look communicated a certain sensibility in the 20th century, but for where IBM wanted to go in the 21st century, it had outlived its usefulness.
Last week, the company finally debuted its own typeface: IBM Plex, which is designed to be used almost everywhere letters appear in the IBM universe. Think of it as the company’s “next” Helvetica.
IBM earned its stripes as the maker of physical “business machines”–mainframe computers, laptops, microprocessors, typewriters, and more. More recently, it’s invested billions in Watson, an artificial intelligence platform that it emphasizes is a tool to augment humans. When the company rebranded Watson a few years ago, it explored the idea of a cognitive typeface. Could Watson animate its speech–like humans do naturally–through typography to give it character, personality, and voice? The concept never moved past the idea phase, but it opened up a conversation about why IBM has never developed a custom corporate typeface to do the same.
“When I think about brand building, I always do a little test,” Todd Simmons–IBM’s VP of brand experience and design and a former creative director at Wolff Olins–tells Co.Design. “If you covered up the logo, would you still recognize [the brand] as IBM?” Since Helvetica is also the typeface of countless other brands, it wasn’t doing the heavy lifting it needed. IBM didn’t pass Simmons’s test.
IBM’s executive creative director Mike Abbink drew his inspiration from the company’s modernist roots, but also designed Plex with an eye for where the company is heading in the future. The glyphs riff on the interplay of “engineered” hard edges and “humanist” curves, which is also found in Paul Rand’s iconic eight-bar logo. Abbink and IBM are working closely with the Dutch font foundry Bold Monday to build out the alphabets and symbols.
“The ‘IBMness’ comes through because it’s half man, half machine,” Simmons says of Plex’s design. “It’s the ideology of progress. There’s constant duality. That was a big influence for us.”Republican Presidential Frontrunners Extremely Anti-Environment/Health (Unprecedented)
February 26th, 2016 by Zachary Shahan
In the latest news on this front, the National Environmental Scorecard from the League of Conservation Voters found that presidential nominee contenders Ted Cruz (R-TX) and Marco Rubio (R-FL) voted against environmental protection and improvement 100% of the time. They voted against the environment, and thus public health, not once, not twice, but dozens of times. Any time they got the chance.
Note that this isn’t a big departure from the party as a whole. House Republicans got a score of 3% from the scorecard, while Senate Republicans got a score of 5%.
“These votes include favoring the now-rejected Keystone XL Pipeline, supporting a law that would expedite applications to drill on public lands, and voting for a resolution blocking the Clean Power Plan, among dozens of others,” Climate Progress notes. Going on:
“Rubio and Cruz are well-known climate-deniers. Cruz, chairman of the Senate’s Subcommittee on Space, Science, and Competitiveness, held a hearing to discuss the reality of human-caused climate change in December. “There has been no significant global warming in the past 18 years,” Cruz said then, just a month before the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and NASA announced that 2015 was the hottest year on record globally. Rubio, for his part, said in 2014 that he did not “believe that human activity is causing these dramatic changes to our climate the way these scientists are portraying it.””
Ah, yes, those pesky, deceitful scientists. Everyone knows they’re just pulling our collective leg, right? Politicians who receive millions of dollars from fossil fuel industries and spend their days and nights with lobbyists intent on brainwashing them, on the other hand, have a much more accurate sense of the deep and rigorous science of our climate and why it has been heating up directly in step with CO2 emissions….
What’s the point of science anyway? Why don’t we just let politicians decide why the world works like it does?
Sadly, this Congress is the most anti-environmental Congress in US history. And the presidential debates don’t indicate things will get any better. Donald Trump, the Republican frontrunner, stated last night in the latest Republican presidential primary debate when talking about what cuts he would make to adjust for massive tax cuts: “Environmental protection. We waste all of this money.”
The moderator, by the way, noted that an analysis from the Independent Tax Foundation found that Trump’s tax cuts (which would be larger than Ronald Reagan’s and George W. Bush’s) would cost the country ~$10 trillion, even taking into account projected economic benefits from lower taxes. He also noted that the entire Department of Education (which Trump seems set on defunding as well as the EPA) uses ~$68 billion of federal money and the EPA uses ~$8 billion, together coming to ~$76 billion, nowhere close to the current deficit of ~$544 billion, nor the $10 trillion figure mentioned above (the cost to the country from Trump’s proposed tax cuts). I don’t think there’s any wonder why Trump indicated last week that he loved “the poorly educated.”
Meanwhile, establishment Republicans have been terrified of Trump getting the nomination and possibly becoming president, and express bewilderment about how popular Trump has become in their party. It’s really no surprise to anyone who pays attention, though: Republican congresspeople, Republican presidential candidates, and conservative media have been demonizing Obama and Democrats practically nonstop for the past ~8 years. They’ve fostered more and more hate and frustration for years, and Trump has tapped into that to destroy his opponents in the Republican primary. The voters aren’t particularly interested in policy details, nor how accurate their leaders’ statements are. Republican leaders seem astonished at how much Trump gets away with, but they have fostered this type of involvement from the voters for decades.
Anyone who looks into the effects of Reaganomics and trickle-down economics with an open mind can easily discover that these ideological approaches to the US economy have greatly damaged the middle class and dramatically increased inequality in the country.
Anyone who thinks that defunding the EPA and triggering pollution in US cities like we see in Beijing and New Delhi is a good idea has lost what seem to be any critical thinking skills.
Anyone who thinks that less regulation of Wall Street will not result in another financial crisis, that less regulation of polluters will somehow save the country money, that less funding for education will somehow “make America great again” and not result in a further dumbing down of American understanding of the economy, healthcare, and climate science… well, I’ll be a little disappointed if anyone chimes in with such beliefs.
“Ironically, surveys of Republicans in the general population indicate that majorities actually support environmental protection,” Robert Durant, emeritus professor in the school of public affairs at American University, told Climate Progress.
Interestingly, btw, Bernie Sanders received a score of 100% from the League of Conservation Voters. It’s a similar story with reining in Wall Street and corporate corruption. Bernie is all for it, in unison with the majority of the population, yet faces an uphill battle for the presidency due to the great influence of money in politics.
Images by League of Conservation VotersJustise Winslow didn’t work out for the Miami HEAT. He hadn’t even spoken to Pat Riley until the night of the draft. And the HEAT certainly didn’t expect Winslow to be available with the No. 10 pick, not when Winslow was projected by everyone with an Internet connection to be well off the board by then. Not with the sport well into it’s own Age of Analytics and Winslow slotted in the Top-5 according to a consensus of statistical models.
But someone always slides. And more often than not, that slide works out for everyone involved.
“It reminds me a lot of what happened with Caron Butler,” Pat Riley said. “Obviously, it was somewhat of a surprise, but there were a couple of players that were picked the first six or seven players, maybe there was a surprise with one of them.
“It’s a very positive pick for us. Justise is an incredible, very mature, young (at 19) player. I think anybody who has watched him play can see that he is not only athletic; he is a playmaker and a multi-position player.”
What’s most surprising about the HEAT lucking into Winslow – let’s face it, with as little control as teams have in the draft, this was a blessing from Lady Fortune – isn’t just that he was a highly-rated player, but he’s the type of player who seems to fit perfectly into the modern NBA.
‘It’s a copycat league,’ might be one of the most overused phrases of the offseason, but it’s used for a reason. Whether or not the majority of franchises actually think this way, each season’s championship team tends to wind up as a referendum on the State of the League. If you win, you’re doing something right, and when you’re the last winner standing, you start a trend, or at least the perception of one. Win with size, then teams start chasing giants. Win with shooting and teams begin seeking snipers. It can all feel a little knee-jerky at times, but the league works in cycles.
With the Golden State Warriors winning it all this year, the thinking was that everyone would start chasing speed and shooting. Based on how the draft played out, with guard D’Angelo Russell selected over center Jahlil Okafor, that might have happened.
Look closer at the Warriors, though, and despite all the things that turned them into literal fire and brimstone, they still did two things consistent with most champions from the last decade. They were versatile on offense, and they defended.
“[Justise] can guard all four positions,” Riley said.” You saw something in the Finals this year that was a little different when you had a 6’7” forward [Draymond Green] playing center with four very versatile perimeter players around him.
“Justise is similar to Draymond Green in that way.”
Sure, Golden State took their versatility to an extreme with Green at center in the last three games of the Finals, but they, like so many previous champions, had the players that allowed them to make such drastic adjustments.
Green. Andre Iguodala. Boris Diaw. Kawhi Leonard. LeBron James. Shane Battier. Shawn Marion. Ron Artest. Lamar Odom. Kevin Garnett. James Posey. Every champion of the last eight years – what one could argue as the modern era – has had at least one player who could defend multiple positions, spread the floor and keep the ball moving. Some were All-Stars, some were role players, but they all contributed to winning by unlocking a variety of lineups. Not necessarily small lineups, as the Warriors used, but versatile groupings.
Winslow can be that type of player. He’s smaller than most of the guys on that list, so he might not be slotted in an center any time soon, but the versatility is there to give Miami the best kinds of questions to answer.
So what, specifically, can he do? After all that talk about versatility, it shouldn’t surprise you to hear that Winslow can do a little bit of everything.
“Going into the league, I want to do it all,” Winslow said. “I want to find different ways to score. Whether it’s the deep ball, mid-range game or finishing through contact at the rim. It’s about trying to be the best player I can be, and my vision for that is being a well-rounded guy that can do everything.”
Pace is going to be a significant talking point once we get to training camp this Fall, with Erik Spoelstra on the record saying he wants to up the tempo across the board, and Winslow should be able to help immediately in that area. Not only can he run the floor and finish at the rim, but he can grab a rebound and take the ball coast-to-coast before either scoring or finding a teammate. If the running lane isn’t there, he can still kickstart the break with a long outlet pass. Add a solid euro-step to his game in the paint, and the open floor could become his playground.
That aggressiveness carries over into the half-court, where Winslow has a nose for gaps in the defense he can use to power his way to the rim. Get a switch on a pick-and-roll? Winslow can post-up smaller players and seal them off for a close catch. Put him on the perimeter and he’ll either rack up hockey assists swinging the ball to open shooters, or Miami’s posters, cutters and divers will enjoy his entry passing just as Okafor did at Duke.
He’s not going to run a pick-and-roll quite like a point guard, but given the promise he showed as a passer in the middle of the floor when Duke faced zone defense, there’s a chance for Winslow to become a strong option as a screen-setter. Remember Stephen Curry getting trapped on screens and finding Green in the upper paint for a 4-on-3 possession in just about every game of the Finals? That could be Winslow.
Oh, and he can shoot, too. He might not be the 41.4 percent three-point shooter he was last season – it was a small sample size, he didn’t shoot very well from the free-throw line and he was drastically better on the left side of the floor compared to the right – but there’s no reason to think Winslow can’t be a respectable spot-up shooter, particularly from the corners that Spoelstra’s offense values so heavily.
Winslow does need to work on, apart from the aforementioned free-throws, his shooting off the dribble. In college, you can still force your way to the rim even if your mid-range shot isn’t threatening, but professional defenses could sag off Winslow when he puts the ball on the floor until he proves his shooting ability. He’s a good enough passer to mitigate that somewhat, but no prospect is perfect. There’s always something to improve, and given reports of Winslow’s work ethic, he’s probably trying to improve in this area already.
We can leave further micro-level discussion for another day. This is unique time in the life of any draft pick. They’re new, they’re shiny, and because nobody has even seen them play in Summer League against other potential pros, they’re mysterious. This is the time for dreamers.
And right now, if you’re dreaming of Justise Winslow being a major part of deep playoff runs and making some All-Star teams, don’t let anybody stop you. There’s no reason to dream otherwise.The council introduced a lawn trimming service in 1996 to help elderly and sick council house tenants to maintain their gardens in Wales's rural heartland.
The scheme, which is worth £88 per property, has been running for 15 years.
It had continued unchallenged for years until council chiefs scrutinising departmental spending revisited it.
A spot check in homes in Montgomeryshire, Mid Wales, discovered it had been maintaining lawns it hadn't owned for almost a decade.
Now the cutting itself has been trimmed after Powys council said it couldn't justify the service during an austerity drive and was scrapping its service for 568 homes to save £50,000.
The decision was taken at the end of April, but the details have only just emerged.
Councillor Rosemarie Harris said the authority had been maintaining lawns it didn't need to for years.
Mrs Harris said: "The study has revealed that we are cutting grass at some properties that we no longer own.
"Furthermore, some tenants who have been assessed as requiring this service are no longer resident in the properties.
"But the service has continued to be provided regardless of the current tenant's ability to carry out the works themselves."
One tenant said: "It is a shame - they do a nice job. But having your grass cut is a bit of a luxury for some people who can do it themselves."Since 2 weeks from now, I’m a proud owner of the new Fairphone |
protect our country are very substantial and will not be questioned?” This is more of that kind of attitude. He wants more power — and he wants it quickly. It’s not difficult to connect this to his past admiration for authoritarian leaders, and these comments are likely to give Democrats (and even some in the GOP establishment) plenty of heartburn. This is a demonstrated pattern for him, for all the reasons listed at the top of this post.
Oy. I know journalists (and academics like Timothy Snyder) love this narrative of Trump as authoritarian, but again, look at what he does, not what he says.
If Trump were serious about consolidating his power, he might start by, oh, I don’t know, consolidating his power. Because while Trump talks, this is what he’s doing, or not doing:
The Senate has confirmed 26 of Trump’s picks for his Cabinet and other top posts. But for 530 other vacant senior-level jobs requiring Senate confirmation, the president has advanced just 37 nominees….
That was according to a piece the other day in The Washington Post, the very newspaper Aaron Blake writes for. And this failure to consolidate executive power isn’t just in the agencies and departments Trump wants to gut. This is also in agencies and departments Trump wants to expand and empower. (I won’t even get into all the legislative battles Trump has lost. Some of which Blake has reported on.)
Whatever fantasies Trump may have about the presidency unbound, this man has almost no agenda for consolidating the power of the presidency. It’s a slogan, a rhetoric, a performance, but that’s it.
So for the last time: Look at what Trump does, not what he says.Media playback is unsupported on your device Media caption There were some skirmishes between police and activists, which led to 100 arrests
Tens of thousands of people have rallied in Paris against a new French law allowing same-sex marriage.
Police estimate that up to 150,000 people joined marches that converged on the city centre, but organisers put the figure close to one million.
Clashes erupted after the rally finished between far-right activists and riot police. The authorities said nearly 100 people were arrested.
On Saturday 50 people were detained for blocking the Champs-Elysees.
The same-sex marriage bill, which also legalises gay adoption, was signed into law by President Francois Hollande last week, after months of heated debate.
I am an ass. I voted Hollande Anti-gay protester in Paris
French people have been bitterly divided over the issue. On Tuesday, a far-right historian shot himself dead in Notre Dame cathedral, leaving messages in which he denounced gay marriage.
During Sunday's protests, demonstrators headed in columns from a number of points in Paris to the Invalides complex.
Image caption Clashes broke out after the main demonstration finished
Some marchers drove donkeys, one of which bore a placard which read: "I am an ass. I voted Hollande".
The leader of the UMP conservative opposition party, Jean-Francois Cope, headed one of the processions.
Despite some 4,500 police deployed in Paris, clashes broke out at the end of the day between far-right activists and police, filling the Invalides complex with tear gas.
The interior ministry said 96 people were arrested.
Leading activist Virginie Tellen - better known as Frigide Barjot - earlier in the day greeted protesters arriving to Paris from across France at a Paris train station.
But she did not take part in the march, citing threats from far-right groups.
Image caption Leading activist Virginie Tellene, aka Frigide Barjot, greeted protesters Image caption The demonstrators set off along three routes to the city centre Image caption These demonstrators brought donkeys with them to mock the French president. "I am an ass. I voted for Hollande," the placard reads. Image caption The French capital has seen a string of big rallies against same-sex marriage and adoption this year previous slide next slide
'Playing God'
One UMP member of parliament, Jacques Myard, told BBC News that the law had been passed by the governing party "by force" and his party would review it if re-elected.
Mr Myard told the BBC there was a "huge gap between this government and the citizens" over the marriage issue.
"This is something we cannot accept because of the fate of the children," he said.
"Those people are playing God, because they want to marry, but it won't stop at this stage. Then they will adopt, and then we will have children in families where there is no father or no mother."
The leader of France's far-right National Front, Marine Le Pen, was also among the marchers.
On Saturday evening, a group of protesters chained themselves to metal barriers they had placed in the middle of the Champs-Elysees.
Some released smoke bombs before police moved in and arrested them. Nobody was hurt.
Opposition to gay marriage has become conflated with all sorts of other anti-government grievances coming from the right and the atmosphere in the country is particularly volatile, the BBC's Hugh Schofield says.
France is now the ninth country in Europe, and 14th globally, to legalise gay marriage.No matter where I turn this time of year, I encounter recipes for Chicken and Dumplings that taunt me with their thick, chicken-y goodness. They’re a classic comfort food – right there next to the macaroni and cheese and beef stew – and now I can finally enjoy my own version with all of the hearty flavor and fluffy dumplings, but none of the meat.
This is what I call a “meatless miracle.”
The flavor comes from a hardworking combination of mushrooms, veggies, and fresh herbs. To show the detail, I took these photos before adding on more broth.
I think even chicken lovers could appreciate this version, because really, isn’t Chicken and Dumplings mostly about the dumplings?
We’ve still got a lot of weeks of winter ahead, so make time for this dish! It goes great with sweatpants and reruns of Law & Order. Trust me…
Vegetarian Chicken and Dumplings
Adapted from fresh365
Ingredients
4 tablespoons unsalted butter
1 large onion, diced
6 tablespoons all-purpose flour
6 cups vegetable broth
1/2 cup lowfat milk
2 teaspoons salt
1/2 teaspoon pepper
2 bay leaves
1 teaspoon fresh thyme leaves
3 cups chopped mushrooms (10 oz)
2 cups chopped celery (6 stalks)
1 cup chopped carrots
2 tablespoons minced fresh chives
For the Dumplings
2 cups all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
3/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 cup minced fresh herb (I just used the thyme and chives)
2 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted
3/4 cup lowfat milk
Method
In a large stockpot, melt butter over medium-high heat.
Add onion, and sautee just until it begins to brown.
Vigorously whisk in the flour.
Add the vegetable broth, milk, salt, pepper, bay leaves and thyme.
Bring to a boil, and add mushrooms, celery, carrots, and chives. Reduce heat and simmer for 20 minutes, or until vegetables are tender.
In a large bowl, whisk together flour, baking powder, salt and herbs. Gently add the melted butter and milk, mixing until just barely combined. It’s okay to still see flour!
Drop spoonfuls of batter into the pot. Cover and simmer until the dumplings are cooked, about 15 minutes. They are going to look wet on the outside, so if you aren’t sure, transfer a dumpling to a cutting board and cut into it, but DO NOT lift the lid before the 15 minutes. The trapped steam is what’s cooking those babies!
Click to view and print the recipe for Vegetarian Chicken and Dumplings.Monday, January 11, 2016
TURPAN, CHINA—Live Science reports that a 2,200-year-old prosthetic leg was discovered in a tomb located near the Silk Road in western China. Archaeologists described the leg in the journal Chinese Archaeology as “made of poplar wood; it has seven holes along the two sides with leather tapes for attaching it to the deformed leg. The lower part of the prosthetic leg is rendered into a cylindrical shape, wrapped with a scrapped ox horn and tipped with a horse hoof, which is meant to augment its adhesion and abrasion.” The man who wore the leg was between 50 and 65 years old at the time of death. Wear at the top of the device suggests that it had been used for a long time. Studies of man’s remains, published in Bridging Eurasia and Quaternary International, show that the bones of his left knee had fused together, perhaps due to inflammation in the joint caused by rheumatism or trauma. He had also been buried with ceramic cups and a jar and wooden artifacts. To read about an artificial toe from ancient Egypt, go to "Artifact."There's something in the way they movethese nine curious vehicles would catch the eye of even the most jaded New Yorker. Cruising the boroughs, or sitting stagnant underneath Manhattan, these bizarre cars and trains do all the same things normal cars do, except stranger. From taking you back in time to giving you a paternity test to being perhaps the most pimped out ice-cream truck of all time, these wonderful modes of transportation have made quite the reputation for themselves.
The Freight Cars of Track 61
In the belly of Grand Central Station lies Track 61, a decommissioned freight line converted into President Roosevelt's private entrance to the Waldorf Astoria. Far below where the public is allowed to roam (or can easily wander), today it is kept open in case the president ever needs an escape route.
↑ Lost Horizons Night Market
There's a caravan of rented mover's trucks full of Burning Man-esq Bacchanalia roaming Brooklyn's streets after dark. This secret nocturnal art carnival doesn't publicly announce its whereabouts (their website features a picture of several parked UHauls and the message "The Lost Horizon Night Market does not have a mailing list"), and the last report of its existence happened in a Times piece back in 2011. The mystery makes it all the more strange to come upon on a side street late at night.
↑ Brooklyn's Knife Grinding Trucks
At a time, knife grinding trucks were a common occurrence in city streets. Today, much less so. Dominic Del Re's grinding truck and Bob's grinding service are perhaps the last of their kind, perusing city streets (mainly in Brooklyn, although they've been spotted all around the city), refusing to make appointments but going about their business the old fashioned way.
↑ Who's Your Daddy Paternity Test Truck
Finally, a mobile DNA-testing truck delivering paternity tests in a New York minute. This roving vehicle was created by Health Street, the testing company, and drives around Brooklyn answering the question, "who is your daddy?" Although there's no available schedule for the truck, Health Street also offers scheduled paternity testing at their sedentary office.
↑ Park Slope Ghostbusters Car
A Park Slope mainstay often parked outside the Pavillion Theater, this redone exterminator vehicle has allegedly been roaming Brooklyn since the mid-80s. Some say the owner also owns an ambulance. Upon calling the phone number taped to the back window of the car, seeking further information, a very confused Spanish-speaking woman picked up and promptly hung up. Who ya gonna call?
↑ Ride Or Die Ice Cream Truck
Coated in pink rhinestones with two cartoon drivers pasted to the front windshield, there is a severely pimped out ice cream truck roving Williamsburg. Pictured above parked in front of a local nightclub, the vehicle gave no explanation of its strangeness besides tens of calling cards in its side window picturing a bunny with a pink stripe painted across its face wearing a black t-shirt reading RIDE OR DIE. As it turns out, the truck is the main transport of New York-based dance-punk band HEARTSREVOLUTION. In one interview, band member Ben Pollock said of how fellow band member "Leila had made an ice cream truck, and she asked me to make music for it, so I made eleven songs just to play out of the ice cream truck speaker." Unlike the band's hit Not Hard to Explain, this roving bedazzled oddity merits quite a lot of back story and second looks.
↑ Nostalgia Train
Time traveling on the F line has never been so easy! The Nostalgia Train runs annually during the winter holidays, a full 10 car train, typically on the F track, full of long out of service cars from New York's past. It's a century of underground travel, old advertisements simultaneously selling you World's Fair tickets and warning you of the dangers of communism. It's so many New Yorks crammed into one antiquated train. Dates haven't yet been released for the 2014 nostalgia train rides, but they're usually held in December.
↑ A Mobile Public Trailer Park
Thanks to artist Kim Holleman, there's a public park roaming Brooklyn. A small trailer stuffed with rocks, plants, dirt, and other greenery Brooklynites are hard pressed to find outside of Prospect Park, this installment in Holleman's roving Brooklyn Utopias: Farm City exhibition may just end up in your neighborhood one morning – who knows where it will grow? Most recently it was hosted by the New Museum and will be showing in 2014 in the World Maker Faire at the New York Hall of Science.
↑ The Rent is Too Damn High Car
Failed mayoral and presidential candidate Jimmy McMillan is most memorable for his outrageous facial hair, his catchy theme songs, and his car, which serves as home, office, and campaign. Emblazoned with the motto of his one-man, single-platform party, The Rent Is Too Damn High, this rent-free vehicle has helped McMillan achieve national fame, if not the presidency.
Hannah FrisbergHere’s a look at the Super Bowl prospects of the Chicago Bears, who finished the season 3-13:
Bears Super Bowl barometer: Nowhere close.
Assessing the foundation: A foundation exists. Chicago’s 2016 draft class contains several players who can be identified as future core contributors. At the top of the list is running back Jordan Howard, who set the franchise single-season rookie rushing record with 1,313 yards. Howard’s main drawback is he lacks a second gear, but that can be complemented if the Bears add a speedy, change-of-pace back in the offseason. Last year’s ninth overall pick, outside linebacker Leonard Floyd, finished tied for second on the club with seven sacks. Second-round choice Cody Whitehair looks to be a future Pro Bowler at center or guard. The Bears also were pleased with linebacker Nick Kwiatkoski, who started seven games. Elsewhere, the Bears have faith in numerous other younger players, including nose tackle Eddie Goldman (23), right guard Kyle Long (28), defensive end Akiem Hicks (27), linebacker Danny Trevathan (26) and wide receiver Cameron Meredith (24).
The problem is the Bears face extreme uncertainty at several key positions. Who plays quarterback? Do they keep receiver Alshon Jeffery? Who replaces Jeffery if he departs via free agency? Can anyone in the secondary intercept the football? Can Kevin White or Pernell McPhee stay healthy? The Bears have done a respectable job building a small core, but they are multiple impact players away from being a playoff contender, much less a Super Bowl contender.
The Bears almost assuredly will move on from Jay Cutler going forward. Daniel Bartel/Icon Sportswire
Judging the quarterback: What quarterback? The Bears don’t have one. All signs point toward the Bears trading or releasing veteran Jay Cutler, who led the franchise to one playoff berth in eight years. Moving Cutler opens up $13 million worth of salary cap space. The Bears may attempt to trade for New England’s Jimmy Garoppolo. They also could kick the tires on Tony Romo, who turns 37 years old in April. However, Romo has played only five games since 2014, so age and durability are major concerns.
Expect the Bears to draft a quarterback this year, but there is no guarantee that player will be ready to start in 2017. The Bears -- if they fail to land Garoppolo -- could be looking at a situation where a bridge quarterback plays until the draft pick is ready. Under that scenario, the Bears could re-sign veteran Brian Hoyer, or use Matt Barkley or Connor Shaw. Even Romo fits in that dynamic, but he would cost $14 million in 2017. The other options are much cheaper. There is unfortunately no simple solution for the Bears. They got themselves into this mess by sticking with Cutler for way too long and not drafting a suitable replacement. Things would undoubtedly be better had the Bears allowed Cutler to walk after 2013, instead of signing him to another long-term extension.
Realistic ways the Bears can improve their chances to contend for a Super Bowl:
1. Draft the right quarterback: The 2017 quarterback draft class is supposedly average. But if the next Dak Prescott is out there, the Bears better find him. They are desperate to find a long-term fix. Another solution is trading for Garoppolo if you truly believe he is a franchise-caliber passer.
2. Extend Alshon Jeffery: Sorry, the Bears won’t be better without Jeffery. He turns 27 in February. Is Jeffery perfect? No. But he is light years better than anything else the Bears have at the position. Worst case -- apply the franchise tag again and buy more time.
3. Overhaul the secondary: The Bears need more interceptions from the back end. Chicago’s pass rush (37 sacks) was above average in 2016. But they had only eight interceptions. That’s brutal and has to be addressed if the defense wants to take the next step.This review is for Bandai Premium Fashion’s Gokai Yellow/Luka Millfy official jacket from Gokaiger. It originally retailed for 25,000 yen and was released in 2011.
It comes in one size only, women’s medium. When new, it includes an extra button, a fabric swatch and an exclusive apparel version Gokai Yellow ranger key.
This jacket is 100% wool and is a distinctive mustard color. The braided trim (also wool) is an olive green. Replicas of this jacket often fail to accurate represent the colors, which are very muted on the official. The wool fabric is high quality and thick, but like all wool requires additional care and is dry clean only.
Like other Gokaiger jackets, one of the most distinctive features of this jacket is the official buttons. Each brass button is imprinted with the Gokaiger logo, and this jacket has a total of 10 buttons and (if new) one spare. Aside from Marvelous’ jacket and vest, Luka’s jacket has the most buttons from this series.
One nice touch you often find on Sentai jackets is the special inside tag. This jacket is no exception and the tag commemorates the season as well as the anniversary.
This jacket meets my expectations in every way. In terms of fabric and stitching quality, it exceeds expectations. My only quibble about this jacket is that the design is a bit uninspired: without the special buttons it would be plain. However, we have seen this general jacket design repeated now for a couple Sentai yellows, so maybe it should be better described as classic. Overall, I would recommend this jacket to any fan of Luka or Gokaiger.
RATING Value Detail Quality Very high quality fabric/stitching Sizing True to Size Compared to other Bandai jackets Recommend
This slideshow requires JavaScript.At a warehouse in Bilbao, in northern Spain, a strange robotic ballet is underway.
It is a real challenge to allow different machines to move around autonomously in a given space like this.
These automated forklifts weigh eight tonnes each. They transport heavy loads of soda.
And they are completely unmanned.
“They work with a laser that measures the different distances inside the walls in the warehouse,” says Vittorio Cavirani, an electronic engineer with Elettric80. “These measurements give the robots their spatial position, so the machines are able to move around different paths in a very accurate way, in a range of millimetres.”
It’s a real challenge to allow different machines to move around autonomously in a given space like this. They have to calculate path and speed, and they have to do it in a safe way. Safety is a fundamental issue here.”
Electronic and sensor engineers developed systems that allow robots to understand their surrounding environment so they can follow determined paths -and avoid collisions.
To achieve this, complex and sophisticated devices were installed in the circuit boards.
Cesare Fantuzzi, an electronic engineer with the University of Modena and Reggio Emilia told Euronews: “The main components are different sensors that watch and monitor if there are persons to be avoided around the robot. Then, there is a navigation sensor. We also have two cameras that see in all directions and inside the machine we have the control system. This manages all the movements the machine does and its different paths. It is connected to the central control system via a WIFI signal.”
A key point, scientists say, was to develop an efficient perception. Laser controlled safety scanners and 3D vision systems allow the automated forklifts to see around them, so they can avoid obstacles, guarantee workers’ safety and better manage different trajectories.
According to Sergiu Nedevschi, a computer scientist with Technical University of Cluj-Napoca, “The systems provide descriptions of the environments surrounding the machines. That means detection of the ground floor, detection of the obstacles and tracking of these obstacles in order to detect the motion speed – and finally, classification of the obstacles if they are fixed or moving.”
Before coming up with the existing perception system, the scientists faced a number of difficult challenges.
“One challenge we faced is that light conditions in warehouses are difficult. There are many variables. For camera systems this is a real challenge,” explained Kay Fuerstenberg, an electrical engineer with SICK AG/ Pan Robots project coordinator. “But with laser scanners that are independent from light conditions we’re able to support the camera systems and the results in this case are more reliable. And we can work in a very robust way.”
Researchers are now thinking about the market ahead as a way to assist the competitiveness of the European manufacturing sector.
“A development phase will now follow for one or two years, after which products can be introduced to the market,” Fuerstenberg continued.
A market with a huge potential, researchers conclude, as automated devices nowadays count for only one percent of the total current sales of forklifts worldwide.CTV Vancouver
Homicide investigators have set up a tent outside a Burnaby sushi restaurant after a triple stabbing turned deadly.
Police were called about reports of a stabbing involving multiple victims at Sushi Oyama in the 5100-block of Kingsway around 11:30 p.m. Monday night.
Two men outside the restaurant were seen with stab or slash wounds. One had a large wound on his forearm and the other had wounds to his hands.
Cpl. Daniela Panesar said three men were found suffering stab wounds: Two suffered non-life threatening injuries, while a third died of his injuries, she said. His name has not been released, but police said he was a 38-year-old Burnaby resident.
A suspect was taken into custody after allegedly fleeing to a 7-Eleven across the street. Officers could be seen putting the man's clothes into evidence bags and checking nearby garbage cans for evidence.
Panesar said investigators believe the attack was not targeted, but the public is not at risk.
IHIT Cpl. Megan Foster said the investigation into the connection between suspect and victims is ongoing.
"We understand there was an altercation leading up to the homicide last night and that has eliminated any random component," she said.
On Tuesday morning, forensic investigators and IHIT members, along with Burnaby RCMP, could be seen outside the restaurant.
Anwouar Lehna, who lives nearby, told CTV Morning Live he heard the commotion but wasn't exactly sure what was happening.
"I don't know what to think. I didn't see anything. I just heard some screaming as I was trying to sleep," he said.
With reports from CTV Vancouver's Nafeesa Karim and Shannon PatersonClick to email this to a friend (Opens in new window)
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It looked headed in the right direction, and then all went horribly wrong.
After the historic 7-1 debacle against Germany and the ensuing 3-0 disappointment against the Netherlands that left the Seleção in 4th place at their tournament, Luiz Felipe Scolari has resigned as manager, according to Globosporte as well as Sky Sports’ Paulo Freitas.
The news is somewhat surprising given he was handed the backing of the Brazilian Federation (CBF).
“To me, he stays,” said incoming CBF president Marco Del Polo earlier today. “What happened was a tactical error. That was the problem. But we all make mistakes. It can happen to anyone. The important thing is that he did a good job. The campaign and the preparations were good. A base exists.”
Scolari had earlier put his future in the hands of the CBF, saying before the third-place match, “After it’s over I will submit my report to the Brazilian Football Confederation and they will make a decision.”
Instead, the failure under enormous home pressure led to Scolari ultimately stepping down, taking matters into his own hands.
Many weren’t happy with how Scolari managed his team, with Brazilian journalist Tariq Panja describing his coaching style as “belligerent.”
Scolari had his hands tied when he lost star Neymar and captain Thiago Silva for the match against Germany, but things went worst-case-scenario as the eventual winners poured on the goals before “taking it easy” in the second half.
Freitas also reports the departure of Scolari’s right-hand men, technical director Carlos Alberto Parreira and assistant manager Flavio Murtosa.
Follow @the_bonnfireThe largest beer distributor in Venezuela is beginning to shut down some its breweries, causing widespread frustration in an already resource-strapped country.
Cerveceria Polar, which distributes 80% of Venezuela’s beer, says the lack of barley, hops and other ingredients has forced the shutdown. Other beverages like milk and bottled water have been in short supply for months, but the lack of beer is angering some Venezuelans even more, according to merchants. “People are more freaked out about losing beer than water—it shows how distorted our priorities have become here,” Yefferson Ramirez, a worker at a liquor store, told The Guardian.
Imported and artisanal beers are still readily available, but they cost much more than Polar. Heineken, for instance, can cost five times as much as the country’s most popular beer. The fact that Venezeula is in the midst of a heat wave only makes things worse.
Polar has said that it is awaiting approval from the government to import raw materials to increase beer production, but Venezuelan president Nicolas Maduro hasn’t yet commented on the issue.
[The Guardian]
Contact us at editors@time.com.Most think of Hawaii a small, quiet place with an abundance of beaches and sunshine. Well, that's true, but that's just one of the many facets the Hawaiian Islands have. Hawaii has been associated with power, celebrities and famous people for decades and this trend continues to this day.
The most famous to date is Hawaii-born Steve Case. Founder of America Online and former Chairman of the Board of Time Warner, he was born and raised on Oahu and attended Punahou School. He continues to make Hawaii proud by contributing to the community and investing in the islands.
In the pop music and pop star scene, there is Nicole Scherzinger of Pussycat Dolls fame. Dark, lean and lovely, she was born in Hawaii and is part Hawaiian. She sports a Hawaiian middle name "Elikolani," meaning "heavenly child."
Also from Hawaii is actress Kelly Preston. She was born Kelly Smith and raised and schooled at the prestigious Punahou School on Oahu.
Another popular actress from Hawaii is Bette Midler. Born and raised on Oahu, she attended Radford High School. Midler became a talented actress and singer and has gone on to be one of the most notable talents from Hawaii.
Everyone knows Kelly Hu from her roles in Scorpion King and X-Men. This Hawaiian-blooded actress was born and raised in Honolulu and attended Kamehameha Schools. She won the Miss Teen USA title and has pursued a fertile career in Hollywood that has included commercials, television series and movies.
Tia Carrere of "Dancing With The Stars" was also born in Honolulu and is of Filipino/Chinese descent. She attended Sacred Hearts Academy on Oahu and is known to be the voice of Nani in Lilo and Stitch, Relic Hunter and more.
Matrix fans are familiar with Keanu Reeves, born in Lebanon and raised in Toronto. This superstar has Hawaiian blood running through his veins. Uniquely Hawaiian, Keanu can be translated to "the cool one."
And believe it or not, Nicole Kidman has a state of Hawaii birth certificate. She was born on June 20, 1967.
Danny Lockin played Barnaby, a major character in the 1969 movie Hello, Dolly! with Barbara Streisand and Walter Matthau. He was born on July 13, 1943, on Lanai. He and his parents moved to the continental United States and settled in Omaha, Nebraska, in 1946.
For those famous, who cannot hope to ever be Hawaiian or to be born in Hawaii, many mega stars either are betrothed or buy property in Hawaii for that island connection.
The north shore of Kauai overlooking Anini Beach was the setting for the wedding of the now defunct marriage between Friends star Matt Le Blanc and Melissa McKnight. The setting was tropical and private with lots of celebrities in attendance.
One of the most popular to hold a Hawaii marriage license is Bill Gates. This mega millionaire had spectacular wedding on Lanai. Private jets flew in, helicopters were grounded, gold courses were cordoned off and even a few locals were a bit miffed with the computer royals, who swept in and disrupted their tropical island paradise with their $1 million dollar wedding.
Speaking of royalty, even the queen of daytime television Oprah has managed to buy more than one piece of paradise for that island connection - twice. She purchased a chunk of oceanfront property near Hana several years ago. The property has a red sand beach and a significant Hawaiian spiritual site and lots of lush green landscape. More recently, Oprah purchased 1,000 acres on Maui located high on the slopes of Haleakala. The house is surrounded by cool upland pastures and has a fantastic view of the island's beaches and agricultural fields.
Also crazy about Maui is Britney Spears. Not quite the huge investment Oprah has made, she opted for a Maui vacation home along the waterfront with a pool and an outdoor Jacuzzi.
Sports stars also have Hawaii ties. From golf to sumo, and from football to surfing, Hawaii has its share in the athletic department.
Look to the golf courses for Hawaii's brightest golf star. Michele Wie is making headlines all over and she's still a student at Punahou School. Tall and lean, this fresh Korean-faced superstar is taking the golf world by storm.
Denver Broncos fans are very familiar with Jason Elam. The place kicker was a student at the University of Hawaii Rainbow Warriors football team and had a coconut in his locker at Invesco Field to remind him of his humble beginnings in Hawaii.
Also currently with the Broncos is Ashley Lelie. Star player at the University of Hawaii Warriors football team, this talented wide receiver player was a first round draft pick.
From Waianae on the island of Oahu, Chad Rowan hails one of the most significant Hawaii-born athletes. His sumo wrestling studies started along the west shore of Oahu. Rowan managed to work his way up to the coveted ranking of Yokozuna. He is the first non-Japanese wrestler to achieve such as high ranking.
Surf champion Fred Hemmings was the best in the world in 1968; now he is a state senator for Kailua on the windward side of Oahu.A group of progressive organizations is calling on Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) to boot Joe Manchin from his party leadership position, saying the West Virginia senator's recent record proves he's unfit to be among those spearheading resistance to the Trump administration's right-wing agenda.
Drawing immediate ire from progressive advocacy groups, Manchin, who serves as Senate Democrats' vice chairman of the Policy and Communications Committee, was the only Democrat to join Republicans and vote to confirm former Goldman Sachs partner Steven Mnuchin—dubbed by some the "foreclosure king"—as Treasury Secretary.
His was the only Democratic vote in favor of Jeff Sessions as U.S. attorney general. He also joined just two other Democratic senators—Heidi Heitkamp (N.D.), and Mark Warner (Va.)—to "vote for climate disaster" and confirm former ExxonMobil CEO Rex Tillerson for Secretary of State.
On top of that, CREDO, #AllOfUs, Democracy for America, Other98, and 350 Action said in a statement Thursday, during a closed-door meeting President Donald Trump held with 10 senators this month, "Manchin reportedly remained silent while Trump launched a racist tirade against Sen. Elizabeth Warren." Trump reportedly referred to her several times as Pocahontas.
"Senator Schumer has the responsibility to stand up for progressive values and lead the Trump resistance in the Senate," said CREDO Action senior campaign manager Heidi Hess. "Joe Manchin's constant refusal to stand up against Republicans' racist, sexist, and misogynist agenda disqualifies him from serving as a leader of the resistance party," she said.
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Added 350 Action Executive Director May Boeve: "At a moment when Democratic party should be a firewall against Trump's hateful, climate-wrecking agenda, Manchin has repeatedly thrown his weight behind the Trump administration."
"The stakes are higher than ever before, and progressives deserve elected officials that put us first. Manchin is more loyal to fossil fuel billionaires than he is to the Democratic Party base. It's time for Chuck Schumer to stand with the resistance by dropping Joe Manchin from the Democratic leadership team," Boeve continued.
The groups' demand marks just the latest call for the party not to enable Trump.
On the eve of Election Day, political and economic commentator Robert Reich wrote that, along with the corporate media and the Republican Party, "a third set of Trump enablers is at the helm of the Democratic Party. "
"Senate Dems' response to millions taking to the streets is beyond disappointing," commented Shaunna Thomas, co-founder of the online advocacy group UltraViolet, to Huffington Post last month. "It is outright shameful," she said.
The Associated Press also reports Friday that Manchin is among those Democratic senators facing re-election next year who, like many Republicans, is dodging town hall meetings where he could face "unscripted questions."Sonic 2 HD is an unofficial overhaul of SEGA’s franchise classic for the modern world. It is made for fans, by fans, with no financial gain whatsoever.
From the very beginning of the project, Sonic 2 HD has focused on maintaining the feel that has made Sonic the Hedgehog 2 a classic while using new tools to reimagine the original as it could have been were it made today. The game’s art direction reflects this, but Sonic 2 HD has also given equal attention to unseen essential elements in the physics and audio. The result of this is an unprecedented re-interpretation in high definition graphics, music and gameplay of Sonic 2, which continues to set quality standards to this day.
We firmly believe 2D artwork is the foundation of Sonic’s retro roots. With this in mind, our goal was to produce a similar shading style to the Japanese original concept artwork and set it in motion with hand-drawn animations. Now, 25 years after Sonic 2’s release, Sonic 2 HD can faithfully represent the original’s cast of characters and environments in a world where technology no longer imposes artistic limitations.Feng Li/Getty Images
Jordan Burroughs ravaged the hopes of wrestling and MMA enthusiasts worldwide with less than 140 characters Saturday evening.
After the Bellator 106 main event between Eddie Alvarez and Michael Chandler, Burroughs took to Twitter to comment on his future involvement in the sport of mixed martial arts:
Well, that's straightforward.
Burroughs, the 2012 Olympic gold medalist in freestyle wrestling at 74 kilograms (approximately 163 pounds), was widely considered one of the most promising MMA prospects in the world, but that notion is officially dead.
While his world-class wrestling base would undoubtedly serve him well inside the cage, I personally respect this decision. It takes a certain kind of person to recognize the dangers of MMA and to cast aside a career despite the potential for great success. Burroughs realizes that the sport is not for him, and he made a wise and informed decision to not pursue a career as a mixed martial artist.
The 2008 class of Olympic wrestlers-turned-MMA fighters—Steve Mocco, Daniel Cormier, Henry Cejudo and Ben Askren—is 34-0 in professional action, and there is little doubt that a young, explosive wrestler like Burroughs could find similar success inside the cage.
That said, a phenomenal wrestling base does not guarantee perfection.
Bellator lightweight Bubba Jenkins, a former Division I All-American wrestler, is 4-1 against questionable opposition.
While his wrestling has looked fantastic, he has shown an inability to round out his overall game, a fact that haunted him in his last bout against Larue Burley. After dominating the fight with his grappling, Burley cranked the intensity late in Round 3 with his strikes, and Jenkins could not handle the onslaught due to his novice stand-up skills.
Would Burroughs face a similar fate inside the cage, or would he become a world champion within a few years?
If we can take his word on Twitter, that question will remain unanswered.
Like MMA, heavy metal or life's absurdities? Follow me on Twitter: @HunterAHomistekSavannah, GA –-(Ammoland.com)- 150 years ago hunters and shooters sat around campfires employing the time honored process of casting bullets for use during the next day’s outing.
Fast forward to 2015, that casting process of old has evolved into the PolyCase Ammunition way – a proprietary |
Johnny Damon, giving the Red Sox (with Trot Nixon) one of the game’s best outfields.
In early 2002 a group headed by John Henry purchased the Red Sox, and Duquette was fired soon after. Despite his track record, his reputation with the press and fans had soured. He was blamed for losing Clemens, whose late career resurgence was a constant reminder, and Vaughn. He hired a statistical consultant whose bizarre behavior and public comments did the analytical revolution no good. He was accused of making rapid-fire deals like a Rotisserie League GM, without regard for clubhouse harmony or stability. And his 2001 late season promotion of pitching coach Joe Kerrigan as manager proved to be a disaster for all concerned. Duquette did himself no favors with his shy demeanor, which some considered aloof or arrogant. The new owners decided on a fresh start, letting both Kerrigan and Duquette go.
Duquette next endured his ten years in the wilderness. His name often surfaced when GM openings arose, but he stayed out of the big leagues, opening a sports academy in western Massachusetts and running a couple of summer collegiate teams. Finally, in November 2011 he became the GM of the Baltimore Orioles.
The once-proud Orioles had endured 14 straight losing seasons at the time of Duquette’s hiring but promptly won 93 games and a wild card playoff spot in his first season. This was mostly Andy MacPhail’s team, but Duquette deserves credit for cobbling together a good low-cost pitching staff, acquiring Miguel Gonzalez, Jason Hammel, and Wei-Yin Chen before the season. In 2013 the Orioles, largely unchanged, won 85 games and finished third.
The 2014 Orioles had to endure injuries to Manny Machado and Matt Wieters, and the drug suspension of Chris Davis, but Duquette and manager Buck Showalter brought the team in with 96 wins and a division title before losing the ALCS to the Royals. Key additions to this club included Nelson Cruz (a league-leading 40 home runs), Steve Pearce (an OPS+ of 160 in 93 games) and pitcher Bud Norris (15-8, 3.65). At the trading deadline Duquette picked up reliever Andrew Miller, who posted a 1.35 ERA in 23 games down the stretch. For his efforts, Duquette was named Executive of the Year, 22 years after winning the award with Montreal.
As of this writing there are reports that Duquette could be headed to Toronto to become CEO. If so, this might put an end to an impressive general managerial career, with undeniable success improving three franchises over 14 years.
— Mark
(We invite your comments below.)
To read more about the history of baseball operations and the GM, please buy our new book In Pursuit of Pennants–Baseball Operations from Deadball to Moneyball via the publisher or at your favorite on-line store.
AdvertisementsTurns out that your name is more influential than you think. In a study released back in January (due for publication this August), researchers found that the “speed with which adults acquire items [correlates] to the first letter of their childhood surname.” This means that when it comes to purchasing goods, people with last names that begin with a letter closer to the end of the alphabet tend to acquire items faster than people with last names that begin with a letter closer to the beginning of the alphabet. They call it the “Last Name Effect,” and hypothesize that it is caused by “childhood ordering structure.” In their words, “since those late in the alphabet are typically at the end of lines, they compensate by responding quickly to acquisition opportunities.”
Sounds a bit far-fetched, but the study compliments other research which also illustrates how names unconsciously influence our behavior. A study back in 2002 demonstrates that names “nudge” some major life decisions such as where to live, what profession to work in, and whom to marry. As Jonathan Haidt explains:
People named Dennis or Denise are slightly more likely than people with other names to become dentists. Men named Lawrence and woman named Laurie are more likely to become lawyers. Louis and Louise are more likely to move to Louisiana or St. Louis, and George and Georgina are more likely to move to Georgia… [and] people are slightly more likely to marry people whose names sound like their own, even if the similarity is just sharing a first initial
There is more, another study found that “alphabetic name ordering on multi-authored academic papers… is to the advantage of people whose last name initials are placed early in the alphabet.” This means that if your last name is Anderson, you would have, on average, published more articles and had a more successful career than if your name is Zimmerman.
These findings add to the growing body of literature that continues to demonstrate how our lives are dictated by unconscious influences in both the day-to-day and long-term. They aren’t painting an entirely consistent picture, however. For example, while the “Last Name Effect” seems advantageous to people with last names that start with letters towards the end of the alphabet, the study on academic papers seems advantageous to people with last names that start with letters towards the beginning of the alphabet. In addition, it is not entirely clear what these studies mean; if we are attracted to careers, places, and people who are similar to our names, do we all need to check our ego?
The unconscious influence of names has been well documented at this point – it is nothing new really – but researchers are still trying to figure out what to make of the findings. Any ideas?
Points for best first and last A and Z names. Aziz Ansari?
VAN PRAAG, C., & VAN PRAAG, B. (2008). The Benefits of Being Economics Professor A (rather than Z) Economica, 75 (300), 782-796 DOI: 10.1111/j.1468-0335.2007.00653.x
Pelham, B., Mirenberg, M., & Jones, J. (2002). Why Susie sells seashells by the seashore: Implicit egotism and major life decisions. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 82 (4), 469-487 DOI: 10.1037//0022-3514.82.4.469http://www.smh.com.au/nsw/poppies-not-pokies-will-help-our-veterans-says-rsl-chief-20130423-2icri.html
Image by James Walker
Plutchik’s Flower on Rhia Parker’s website
Image by Daniel Mayne
Lake Isle of Innisfree By W.B. Yeats
I will arise and go now, and go to Innisfree,
And a small cabin build there, of clay and wattles made:
Nine bean-rows will I have there, a hive for the honey-bee,
And live alone in the bee-loud glade.
And I shall have some peace there, for peace comes dropping slow,
Dropping from the veils of the morning to where the cricket sings;
There midnight’s all a glimmer, and noon a purple glow,
And evening full of the linnet’s wings.
I will arise and go now, for always night and day
I hear lake water lapping with low sounds by the shore;
While I stand on the roadway, or on the pavements grey,
I hear it in the deep heart’s core.
(Yeats, 1890)A fiery Hillary Clinton hit back at the latest twist in the FBI email investigation and pumped up her supporters for the final stretch of the campaign before a raucous crowd in Daytona Beach on Saturday.
“It’s not just the fact that my name is on the ballot,” Clinton told a packed house of more than 500 people at the John H. Dickerson Community Center. “Everything we care about is at stake. The American dream itself is at stake.”
The Democratic presidential nominee’s latest trip to the crucial state of Florida was part of a Canvass Kick-Off, in which volunteers who signed up for the campaign would sign up for assignments and be trained in get-out-the-vote operations.
But Clinton turned right to the FBI Director James Comey’s letter to Congress on Friday that the FBI was reportedly investigating the emails of former U.S. Rep. Anthony Weiner and his estranged wife, Clinton aide Huma Abedin, for any connection to Clinton.
Reports from several outlets have indicated, however, that none of the emails came from Clinton or were connected to her private server, for which the FBI had cleared her of wrongdoing in July.
CAPTION Pulse survivor Brandon Wolf calls for gun control bills in Tallahassee Pulse survivor Brandon Wolf calls for gun control bills in Tallahassee CAPTION Former New York mayor Michael Bloomberg answers questions during a media availability about the possibility of his running for president in 2020, after a visit to Orlando Utilities Commission's sustainable energy facility, Friday, February 8, 2018. (Joe Burbank/Orlando Sentinel) Former New York mayor Michael Bloomberg answers questions during a media availability about the possibility of his running for president in 2020, after a visit to Orlando Utilities Commission's sustainable energy facility, Friday, February 8, 2018. (Joe Burbank/Orlando Sentinel)
“Some of you may have heard about a letter written by the FBI director,” Clinton said. “You probably have a few questions about it. It is pretty strange to put something like that out with such little information right before an election. In fact, it’s not just strange, it’s unprecedented and deeply troubling.”
Clinton said that voters “deserve to get the full and complete facts” and called on Comey to “explain everything right away. Put it right out on the table.”
She also criticized her Republican opponent Donald Trump for what she said were “lies” about the situation.
Trump is “doing his best to mislead and discourage the American people,” she said. “I think it’s time for Donald Trump to stop fear mongering. We can’t let him get away with it.”
The standing-room only crowd in the tight space of the gym, which included several hundred in the rafters, roared with approval as Clinton turned to the remaining days of the campaign, saying she was “so motivated, so excited.”
“We can’t let the last ten days be about distraction,” she said. “It’s about what kind of country we want for ourselves and our grandchildren, and who will help take us there as your president.”
She also used a description of the Trump campaign she has used several times, including at debates, that it is “dark and divisive.”
Trump’s strategy, she said, was to depress turnout from women, young people and minorities.
“That goes against everything we stand for,” she said. “And do you know how to stop him? By showing up with the greatest turnout of voters ever. Let’s break every record.”
Talking of a stop at Bethune-Cookman University down the road, where she met with a Methodist minister, Clinton reminisced about her and her mother’s Methodist upbringing.
“My mother taught me to never, ever quit,” she said. “And that means everyone gets knocked out. What matters is whether you get back up.”
“No matter what they throw at us these last days, we’re not going to get knocked down and get knocked off course,” Clinton said. “We know how much this election matters. We know how many people are counting on us.”
An earlier speaker, Daytona Beach Mayor Derrick Henry, told the crowd “We must all work together to stop the unthinkable, the unimaginable, and dare I say it, the unbearable,” Henry said, stressing the importance of Volusia County and the I-4 corridor to the election.
Volusia County Commissioner Joyce Cusack also warned about Trump, talking about how she was denied service at a lunch counter in the county in her youth for being black.
“Trump wants to ‘make America great again,’” Cusack said. “Great for whom? … We are not going back, we’re moving forward.”
“We must vote as if our lives depend on it, because they do,” Cusack said.
Before the event, supporters stretched along Dr. Martin Luther King Boulevard as they waited to enter the center, where Clinton's lectern was set up on a small gym stage alongside stacked boxes marked "Vote", "Together" and "Clinton/Kaine."
"I'm here to support Hillary," said Cindy Bexler of Ormond Beach. "[Donald] Trump scares the hell out of me, that's for sure. With all the hate he's putting out there? That's scary. I'd rather have positivity, hear what we can all do to make things better."
Sybil Lucas of Palm Coast was there with her husband, John, because of "the seriousness of this election, and the importance it will have on our country for many years to come. Hillary is the right person at the right time."
As transplants from New York, Lucas said, "We've seen Trump's act before.... We know who those people are, and know how dangerous it will be if they get free reign in this country."
Canvassers Tom Morlock and Shirley Nester said the news of an FBI investigation into the emails of former U.S. Rep. Anthony Weiner and his wife, Clinton aide Huma Abedin, which later reports indicated didn't involve Clinton's own emails, did not faze them.
"We are here to support her through whatever efforts are made to distract us," Morlock said. "I'm out in the community getting people involved, and also just encouraging them to get out and vote."
"Through thick and thin," Nester added.
At one point though, a man on a motorcycle rode by the crowd of largely middle-aged and senior women and yelled, "You [expletive] whores. You [expletive] whores."
Clinton was scheduled to appear at a get-out-the-vote event in Miami Saturday night.
It was part of a busy week on the campaign in Florida, which saw President Barack Obama campaign for Clinton at UCF and Trump speak at Orlando Sanford International Airport as one of several appearances in the state.Image copyright AP Image caption Anne's body lay in state for several days ahead of Saturday's royal funeral
A royal funeral takes place in central Romania on Saturday for a queen who was never crowned and never served and yet still commands full state honours.
Anne of Romania will be buried at Curtea de Arges. A day of mourning has been declared in both Romania and Moldova, and flags will fly at half-mast. She died in hospital in Switzerland on 1 August, aged 92.
In the past days, President Klaus Iohannis of Romania, Moldova's President Nicolae Timofti, many other statesmen and thousands of well-wishers, have paid their respects, as her coffin lay in state at Peles Castle at Sinaia and at the Royal Palace in Bucharest.
Her husband, former King Michael, now 95, and five daughters survive her. Michael will remain in Switzerland and miss the funeral, due to his frail health.
Why such affection for an uncrowned queen?
Image copyright AP Image caption Anne and Michael married in 1948, a year after Communist authorities forced him to abdicate
It seems hard to believe that democratic Romania is going to so much trouble over a royal family that was only created in 1866, after the end of Ottoman rule, and then forced into exile in 1947.
Anne barely spoke Romanian, preferring her native French, and in a sense could hardly be called a queen, as she married the king after he lost his throne.
The answers lie in the extraordinary popularity of the royal couple among Romanians, and the careful diplomacy of the former king, queen, and their daughters since they were allowed back to Romania.
Although there is little prospect of restoration of the monarchy, polls suggest the royal family is the most trusted institution in Romania.
Anne always looked after her guests. She opened the door of the house when I came to interview her husband at their home in exile near Lake Geneva, Switzerland, in October 2011.
As we spoke, she arranged the tea and biscuits, and corrected her husband when his memory faltered. An earlier guest, Christian Mititelu, then head of the BBC's Romanian Service, remembers her arriving on her bicycle at the royal guest house, to bring fresh croissants in the morning.
Who was Romania's queen?
Image copyright AFP Image caption Anne met her husband in London after the end of World War Two
Princess Anne Antoinette Francoise Charlotte of Bourbon-Parma was born in Paris in 1923, grew up in Denmark and fled to New York when the Nazis occupied her homeland.
She worked as a nurse with the Free French forces in North Africa, Italy and France, then met King Michael at the wedding of Princess Elizabeth and Prince Philip in London in November 1947.
When Michael returned to Romania a month later (against the advice of Winston Churchill) to announce his engagement to her, the Communist authorities forced him to abdicate at gunpoint.
The couple were married in Athens in June 1948 and began a long and happy life in exile together. They were allowed back into Romania only after the fall of communism.
Romania's former king addresses parliament
Romania sells off Ceausescu's communist luxuries
Romania country profile
Will Romania's royal family ever rule again?
In the chaos after the popular revolution of December 1989, even the restoration of the monarchy seemed possible.
Michael tried to visit in 1990, but was expelled by police.
Allowed into the country for three days at Easter 1992, more than a million people turned out to see him. Frightened by such enthusiasm, Socialist President Ion Iliescu banned any further visits.
Later the same year, a meeting of his supporters tried to encourage Michael to reclaim his throne. He listened, but said little.
The next President, Emil Constantinescu (1996-2000), restored their Romanian citizenship, but did little to promote a restoration of the monarchy. Ion Iliescu, back in power from 2000 to 2004, finally allowed the family to live in Romania and reclaim several properties.
Image copyright AP Image caption Crown Princess Margaret will attend Saturday's royal funeral
The royal family divided their time between Romania and Switzerland.
"For twenty-six years, I have worked with my family to restore the Crown to usefulness and relevance in a post-communist society that lacked pride, knowledge of its own identity, and self-respect," Anne and Michael's eldest daughter, Crown Princess Margaret, told an audience at the Romanian Cultural Institute in London last month.
"It is therefore understandable that today, Romanians look to the Crown with respect, admiration and hope."Is it a bird, is it a laptop, is it a desktop? No, it's MSI's GS30...er...entertainment system? At the moment it's just a pre-production sample but the bundled laptop and dock ought to allow bona fide desktop performance via a laptop. On the road, you've got a thin and light notebook and plugged in, at home you've effectively got a full desktop running from the same system.
Sat in that chunky black dock is space for up to a 450W dual-slot desktop graphics card and on top is a x16 PCIe 3.0 connector to plug into the svelte MSI laptop with a locking mechanism to make sure it doesn't fall off. The PCIe connection itself is in the rear of the notebook, set in the hinge of the chassis.
The laptop itself is no shrinking violet either. It's a 13-inch machine, with a quad-core Haswell CPU rocking the top end of Intel's graphics line, the Iris Pro. That means it's got a certain amount of mid-range, mobile gaming performance inside if you want to frag on the go. I t's also got a seriously high-resolution 2560x1440 IPS screen.
It's not quite a seamless experience connecting up; the whole system has to be powered down when you plug it in. I'm sure something unpleasant would happen if you tried to dock right in the middle of a game.
As the GamingDock connects via a full x16 PCIe connection on the rear of the laptop itself, there shouldn't be the sort of performance degradation we've seen in previous attempts at docking desktop graphics with mobile machines. Asus tried and failed to get it's XG Station—a similar PCIe-based GPU dock—off the ground for years. But because it was using an XpressCard connection it only had a PCIe 1.1 x1, giving it a serious performance drop-off for the card it was using.
As well as offering a connection to the GPU the GamingDock also supplies charging power to the laptop, provides a built-in speaker, an extra SATA storage connection and USB ports too. Inside is space for a chunky discrete GPU as well as what looks like a SFX standard power supply.
It's the flexibility that the GS30 offers that is most exciting. "When you really want to game you probably want a big monitor, you want a real keyboard, you want a mouse," said Chris Silva, director of marketing for Intel's Premium Notebooks.
"I think MSI has done a really innovative job of bringing those two together. So now you've got your highly-portable device—and you can do some gaming on it—and then you dock later."
At the moment we're at a stage where most of our PC games are GPU-bound. Being able to simply swap out the discrete GPU in the dock means that when you find you simply need more performance, it's a drop-in upgrade.
The Core i7 CPU inside the GS30 laptop is still going to be capable of supplying enough data to keep any attached GPU running at pretty much top speed for years to come.
At the moment the unit I had a play with at this year's IDF is still just a pre-production sample, but it's looking set to launch at CES in January next year. It'll likely go for the same price as a full desktop, but with more flexibility.
Would you want to swap your desktop machine for this sort of laptop hybrid?A truly event driven web
7 minute read
Ever been to one of those aggregating search sites where the result list is populated in chunks, rather than all at once? Ever wondered how it works? Event driven sites are robust, extendable - and if you’re on a messaging system like RabbitMQ and a.NET client like RawRabbit, it is pretty easy to get started.
Event driven what?
Traditional sites have always been constrained by the limitation of request/respond. Interaction with server side is always initialized from the client. An incoming request is the only way for a back-end to communicate with the client. That communication is also limited by the fact that a response will only be sent to the client that sent the request. These two properties combined makes it impossible for the back-end to reach out to a passive client.
WebSockets was introduced back in 2011 and gave us the possibility for communication initiated at server side. All of a sudden, the server could push messages to a client - or broadcast to many client at the same time. This technology has been revolutionary to sites selling tickets and holding real time auctions.
It also improved the life for those of us not working in these markets. More concretely it gave us the possibility to directly acknowledge an incoming request with a 202 Accepted, process the request in an asynchronous fashion and get back to the caller through web sockets.
What’s wrong with the old ways?
It is nothing wrong with a synchronous handling of http requests.
The problem with processing requests in a blocking way in a message oriented solution is that it forces other parts of the application to act blocking too. Take a look at this request handler in a ApiController
[HttpGet] [Route("api/todos/{id}")] public async Task < IActionResult > GetTodo ( int id ) { // ouch - blocking call! var result = await busClient. RequestAsync < TodoRequest, TodoResponse >( new TodoRequest { Id = id } ); if ( result. Todo == null ) { return NotFound (); } return Ok ( response. Todo ); }
In this example, the incoming request is handled by RawRabbit’s BusClient, that makes an RPC call to some other system that will process the request. However, RequestAsync is a blocking call, demanding the responding service to produce the actual response before continuing. In this example, it would be when a service that consumes the request publishes a response
await busClient. RespondAsync < TodoRequest, TodoResponse >( async req => { var todo = await repo. GetAsync ( req. Id ); return new TodoResponse { Todo = todo }; });
Not really loose coupled
If the application that handles TodoRequests had to communicate with other applications in order to complete the request, it had to do so in a blocking way as well.
The logical code execution becomes sequential, from the controller, to the responding service, and then back to the controller. It’s almost like the code within the message handler could be copied into the controller, right?
When an application relies on blocking calls to other applications, it has formed dependencies to them that is just as strong as if they would have been running in the same process.
An process in application A will fail if it expects a response from application B, that in turn waits for a response application C that is currently unavailable.
Fire and forget, captain
I’ve already hinted about it: there are other options! It takes a leap of faith, since what you are doing is starting a process, and without knowing how it will evolve, you return and say that things are on its way.
[HttpPost] [Route("api/todos")] public async Task < IActionResult > CreateTodo ( Shared. Todo todo ) { await BusClient. PublishAsync ( new CreateTodo { Todo = todo }); return Ok ( new { success = true }); }
Just as before, there is a service that consumes the message. Unlike before, the http response is returned right away, containing only an acknowledgment. This also means that there is no caller waiting for the process to produce its result. Instead the application publishes a new message informing that the todo is created.
await BusClient. SubscribeAsync < CreateTodo >( async msg => { if ( msg. Todo == null ) { return new Nack ( false ); } var created = await repo. AddAsync ( msg. Todo ); await busClient. PublishAsync ( new TodoCreated { Todo = created }); return new Ack (); });
Multiple applications listening in
One of the really powerful concepts with this approach is that the TodoCreated message can be consumed by other applications as well. Say for example that a user has signed up for email updates when a todo is created. That service would listen to that message without being explicitly requested to. If, in a later stage, a service is developed that consumes the message to create elaborate reports, it can be developed an deployed without touching the existing applications.
Getting back to the caller
On of the (potentially many) applications that are interested in the created todo is the web API where it all begun. The browsers needs to be informed that a todo is created. The API holds WebSockets connections to the browsers, something that in the.NET world usually means SignalR. More concretely, the web project registers a subscriber that is invoked when the todo is created. It uses the Connection Manager to get reference to the clients and invoke a callback method on them.
await BusClient. SubscribeAsync < TodoCreated, TodoContext >(( created, context ) => { _connectionMgmt. GetHubContext < TodoHub >(). Clients. All. onTodoCreated ( created. Todo ); return Task. CompletedTask ; });
Sending response to caller only
In the example above, we invoked all connected clients - that is, all browsers on our site. That is actually pretty useful in many cases. Sometimes, however, it makes more sense to only act on the caller. In order to do so, we need to create an identifier for the caller and passed around in the execution.
Deciding on identifier
The identifier should consistent through-out the user’s session and accessible upon every request. I think you’ve guessed it: we’re saving the session id in a cookie.
Setting the cookie value can be done in may places in the application. I tend to write a small OWIN middleware that checks if the cookie is set and if not, just sets it.
Register client in SignalR
Next we need to map the client id to a SignalR connection id. This is done by creating single user groups OnConnected in the Hub.
public override Task OnConnected () { string cookie ; if ( Context. Request. Cookies. TryGetValue ( Constants. SessionCookie, out cookie )) { Groups. Add ( Context. ConnectionId, cookie ); } return base. OnConnected (); }
Create message context with session id
The session id is a prime candidate to be passed in the message context on any outgoing messages from the API. It can be passed explicitly in each message, but I think the code gets cleaner if the message context is registered when registering the client itself.
services. AddRawRabbit ( new RawRabbitOptions { Plugins = p => p. UseHttpContext (). UseMessageContext ( ctx => new TodoContext { Source = ctx. GetHttpContext (). Request. GetDisplayUrl (), ExecutionId = ctx. GetGlobalExecutionId (), SessionId = ctx. GetHttpContext (). Request. Cookies [ Constants. SessionCookie ] }) });
Implicit context forwarding
A neat feature in RawRabbit is the implicit context forwarding, that passes any received context to any outgoing message. It is also a plugin that is available when using the message context enricher.
var busClient = RawRabbitFactory. CreateSingleton ( new RawRabbitOptions { Plugins = p => p. UseContextForwarding (). UseMessageContext < TodoContext >() });
No matter how many services that are involved in the execution of the request, the message context will be passed along as long as context forwarding is used.
Putting it all together
That’s it! Any message from the web API will be published with a message context that contains the session id. The context will be forwarded throughout the execution chain. Once back in the web API, the connection manager can use the session id to find the calling party and invoke client side methods based on that.
await _busClient. SubscribeAsync < TodoCreated, TodoContext >( async ( created, context ) => { _connectionMgmt. GetHubContext < TodoHub >(). Clients // all connected clients. Group ( context. SessionId ) // caller. onTodoCreated ( created. Todo ); });
Try it out yourself
Most of the code examples here comes from a example project at Github. Clone it and play around with it as much as you like.
Happy coding!Garth Ennis and Jacen Burrows' pandemic horror comic Crossed has been in print since 2008, but now Avatar Press is taking the brutal act online with a webcomic sequel. Crossed: Wish You Were Here (not safe for work or anyone with a sensitive stomach) has just debuted, giving all of its gory murder and dolphin rape away for free. Crossed is set in a world where a plague has triggered the apocalypse. But this plague doesn't knock you down with a high fever; instead it tears out people's intestines while molesting your cat. Folks infected with the plague -- known as the Crossed for the cross-shaped rash that breaks out across their faces -- act out their worst impulses. Soon, nearly everyone in the world is either infected or dismembered.Coming on the heels of Avatar's success with Warren Ellis' webcomic Freakangels, it's proof that the publisher has learned what webcomics creators have long known: that giving away free stories is good for business.
Written by Simon Spurrier ( Lobster Random, The Simping Detective ), with art by Javier Barreno ( Crossed: Family Values ), Wish You Were Here follows a small group of uninfected survivors who have established a colony on a small island. Although the colonists have succeeding in setting up houses, raising livestock and growing vegetables, they're constantly fending off the Crossed -- not to mention the ennui of the end of the world.
Wish You Were Here launched March 14 to coincide with the launch of the latest Crossed print series, the biweekly Crossed: Badlands. And it's more than just free entertainment; it's a marketing plan. In fact, on the webcomic's website, Avatar co-founder and creative director Mark Seifert explains that the online presence will keep readers connected with the print comic:
But crossedcomic.com is more than just a weekly webcomic. There's plenty else going on in the world of CROSSED as well, including the just-released CROSSED 3D, the current Crossed: Psychopath, and the original trade paperback - all available from your local comic book retailer. crossedcomic.com will keep you updated on all the latest news, and let you know what's going on with the Crossed in comic shops around the world.
It's a neat idea. Have a story that keeps readers coming back to the site (or subscribing through their RSS readers) and you can put your marketing for other in-universe comics right in front of their eyeballs. In fact, it's precisely what our own Chris Sims suggested Marvel and DC do with their superhero comics. However, Avatar Press is probably more open to this type of audience-building than the Big Two since it's already had a web hit in Warren Ellis and Paul Duffield's Freakangels. In an interview with Bleeding Cool, Spurrier notes that Freakangels'success was an inspiration for this new web series:
The publishing model Warren and Paul used for Freakangels was fabulously successful – free weekly episodes online, accessible to all, which are collected, printed, and shilled-like-crazy every half year or so. Given Avatar's astonishing success with other stories set in the Crossed universe, it made sense to bring the plus-faced bastards and their world into the slot vacated by Whitechapel's wonderful weirdists.
Perhaps, if Wish You Were Here succeeds in translating an online readership into a bigger numbers for Crossed in print, more publishers will follow Avatar's lead and create their own webcomic tie-ins -- even without the blood and guts.Since Microsoft initially showed off its new augmented reality headset HoloLens in January of 2015, the company has been doing an intricate dance of tempering expectations while drumming up developer excitement for the platform. Thanks in part to some cleverly crafted promotional videos, some people have settled on the idea of HoloLens primarily being a tool for the education, industrial engineering, and medical sectors. However, Microsoft recently tossed its new NFL-inspired vision for HoloLens out in the public, and it may be the most involved concept for HoloLens to date.
In a post written by the corporate vice president of Microsoft’s Windows and Devices group, Yusuf Mehdi walks briefly discusses the more practical uses Microsoft’s HoloLens could enable future fans, players, stadium and team owners to experience in the future.
With HoloLens, running Windows 10, your favorite players could be brought to life through high-definition, 3D displays – allowing you to experience the athleticism and skills behind their stats. That game-changing play could pop up as a 3D hologram so you could view the field from all angles, all while your fantasy scores update in real-time, without the need for you to look down at another screen.”
With HoloLens being primarily a visual experience, Mehdi’s post is accompanied by a rather elaborate 2-minute display of what types of experiences developers can create with the headset using the power of Windows 10 and partnerships with the NFL.
Based on the video, Microsoft envisions utilizing the technology behind augmented reality, HoloLens owners can experience extended screen viewing that incorporates real-time stats and stadium-like seating, as well as bringing up 3-dimensional instant replays on any flat surface.
https://youtu.be/oKqzeoMCU0c
While the video shows the use case for fans of watching the NFL, a couple of key takeaways hint towards a potential gaming and social aspect of HoloLens that hasn’t been fully covered yet by the media. Primarily, the idea of multiple people using HoloLens simultaneously in the same environment. Unlike virtual reality which confines the user to traditionally isolated environment, Microsoft’s push into AR allows users to see and interact with the world around them while also engaging in a separate environment, similar to playing video games with friends.
Another item displayed during the video is the use of game-like graphics to display athlete info and stadium specs. It’ll only be a hop-skip-and-a-jump to see these examples incorporated into a newer version of the popular Madden football series.
Microsoft and developers still have a long road ahead of them to make these concepts even remotely realistic, but marketing the HoloLens using the beloved sport of professional American football is an excellent way to get the mass market intrigued in augmented reality.
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Further reading: Augmented RealityManaging how multiple Go services are structured, and more importantly how they share code is difficult and very much a blocker for those moving to the language. I’d like to share some learnings from what the Vidsy engineering team have learnt over the past year.
Package Management
Coming from a Ruby background, the team use Glide for package management. It has a very similar workflow to Ruby’s bundler; add dependencies as a list to a YAML file, and use a CLI to generate a LOCK file.
We do not commit our vendor/ directory to Github. This keeps our Github repositories small in size and concise, and allows Glide to flatten the dependency tree to the vendor/ directory of the top level service.
Shared Packages
A number of the our services utilise the same logic, for example: configuration and SQS polling. We group up shared code into a Go package, and store it in a new Github repository. It can then be consumed by a service from within its glide.yaml file.
The Github repository can be public or private. If set to private, you will need to setup your CI to have SSH access to the repository.
On each commit to master, the package is versioned using a git tag. These can then be used within the glide.yaml file to set what version of the package is needed, instead of relying on an unreadable commit hash.
It is important to note that we aim to have no dependencies within the shared package. Instead these should bubble up to the top level service which is consuming the package. If a dependency is needed for testing, then make use of the testImport functionality within the package’s glide.yaml file.
Local Development
If when developing on a top level service you also need to make changes to a shared package, then use revett/glide-lock. These two bash scripts written by @jbarefoot allow you to link a local dependent package to the service, very similar to how npm link works. Example:
glide-link github.com/vidsy/kmsconfig
Hope this helps. Enjoy! 🎉 // Twitter: @charlierevett
Other PostsStory highlights Mike Riggs: We're jailing people for growing and selling marijuana when many people can grow and sell it legally
He says one-size-fits-all mandatory minimum sentences for drug offenses are arbitrary, harsh, insanely expensive
Mike Riggs is the communications director for Families Against Mandatory Minimums, and a former journalist. The CNN Original Series "High Prof |
a cellular immune system and some preformed non-specific antibody.
The cell-mediated immune system is also a key to rapidly overpowering and removing the measles virus from the body, and quick recovery from measles. The fact is, that measles antibody response is not necessary to survive measles infection, or to develop memory immunity. Agammaglobulinemics have long lasting CMI immunity after recovering from the infection.
If the development of IgG antibody, BEFORE infection, was necessary for recovery, or to survive, no-one would ever recover from anything for which they didn’t have prior immunity or cross protective memory immunity, also called heterologous immunity.
We also quoted Dr. Casadevall’s article which states:
“A paradoxical observation involving AMI [antibody-mediated immunity] is that specific IgG is often made after the host has recovered. In fact, a rise in serum IgG titer is a time-honored method for diagnosing many infectious diseases. This observation begs the question of why IgG is made after recovery from most infectious diseases. Invoking a need to prevent recurrences is a somewhat unsatisfactory answer if the initial innate and cellular response was adequate to clear the first bout of disease.[63]”
Preformed measles IgG antibody, while part of the natural immune response is the LAST thing to happen during recovery. These other aspects of the immune system are not commonly mentioned when vaccination is discussed, because the focus is on a myth that vaccines provide the only reliable and safe method to “become immune”, and because IgG antibody is held up to parents, as the successful measure of immunity in vaccinology.
It is just as well that we are not dependent on antibodies for survival from infection or injury in general, otherwise a lot of nephrology patients would be in serious trouble because of the very high numbers who never make high antibodies after vaccines are given to them. It’s also nice for a nephrologist to be able to reassure patients that their lack of ability to make antibodies isn’t going to be the thing that stops them fighting and surviving acute illness.
This is basic immunology 101, which any parent with common sense can understand.
Nowhere is there an insinuation that antibodies are useless. The implication that Dr. Humphries is saying “antibodies are useless” is another product of “Isabella B’s” fictitiously orientated intellect.
And:
Some antibodies increase the ability of viruses to infect their target cells. This phenomenon is called antibody dependent enhancement (ADE) of infection (p 367).
This may sound alarming but she fails to mention that the “ADE phenomenon” described above is incredibly rare and has only been observed in relation to the particular characteristics of the dengue fever virus and HIV virus. It is not a phenomenon that relates to the viruses we currently vaccinate against — measles, mumps, rubella, chickenpox, rotavirus and influenza.
We could have written so much more about the fascinating topic of ADE, but to keep the book from being an encyclopedia we didn’t.
The purpose of the discussion of ADE was to detail the extraordinary complexity of an immune response and how things may not always turn out as planned.
“Isabella B” apparently completely missed out on the discussion of a well-known and well described phenomenon called “antibody dependent enhancement” as meticulously described in Dissolving Illusions’ measles chapter. Moreover she did not understand the following from page 367 of Dissolving Illusions where ADE was discussed.
“There is no controversy over the fact that the inactivated measles vaccines led to an abnormal immune response and, later, a form of original antigenic sin. Several mechanisms have been proposed over the years.”
Note the description “inactivated measles vaccines” as in the killed measles vaccines that were discussed in detail in the preceding pages. In no way was there an implication that today’s live attenuated measles vaccines cause ADE. Such a conclusion is again, a fantasy of “Isabella B” or a result of her inability to identify adjectives and read clear scientific and historical descriptions.
The fact is— the official documentation of the true impact of ADE was quite poor.
The killed vaccines were used until 1967, and according to Dr Anthony Morris, former FDA vaccine safety scientist, “Literally millions of children were vaccinated with that [inactivated] vaccine.” The official record is that “only” 600,000 to 900,000 children[64] received the killed vaccine. Dr. Cherry noted that many diagnoses of atypical measles were missed by doctors because they didn’t know what it was they were seeing. While many say the problem was only from 1963 to 1967, they are incorrect: Dr. Cherry said in 1980:
“In the years to come, still more cases undoubtedly will occur, and in many the etiology will go unrecognized.”[65]
Dissolving Illusions’ authors in no way meant or implied that antibodies never do any valuable immunologic work. They do. But in the case of the early measles vaccine, that was highly lauded by the vaccine faithful as helpful, the antibodies that the killed vaccine produced, turned out to put the vaccinated at a great disadvantage. This is a little known fact amongst doctors and parents despite it being plastered throughout the measles medical literature.
Dissolving Illusions is a book on the history of disease and vaccination. ADE is an important piece of measles vaccine history.
CLAIM #8: THE MEASLES VACCINE WAS NOT RESPONSIBLE FOR THE DECLINE IN THE DISEASE
The data clearly shows that the introduction of the measles vaccine brought with it a tremendous (98%) drop in measles cases in the United States over the course of a few years.
This data does not sit well with Dr Humphries. She argues that, since vaccination coverage was only 50–60% in 1968, the year the live measles vaccine was introduced, the measles vaccine could not have had any effect.
This is what Dissolving Illusions says:
No epidemiologist worth their degree would argue that the decline in cases was solely due to the vaccines used in the first few years.
But “Isabella B” says that even though measles deaths were extremely rare, measles incidence did have a “massive landslide” after 1963—so the vaccine must be solely responsible. The issue is more complicated than she understands.
First, the data portrayed in the graph that Isabella used in her blog (seen again below) shows that there was a decline in reported measles cases in the USA before the use of any vaccine. We discussed this in more detail above in “claim 1”.
Second, after 1963, you could be infected and clinically symptomatic with a vaccine virus (or a still circulating wild virus) and you would not be counted as having measles because you were vaccinated, just as happens today. There is a case from California where a child was counted as a measles case[66] until she got home to Alaska, whereupon, because of enhanced surveillance, she was diagnosed as having vaccine-strain measles and thus retracted from the measles count. The same occurred in a Canadian baby who was struck from the record after the diagnosis of vaccine-strain clinical measles.[67]
“Isabella B” says:
While it is true that an 80–90% immunization level is needed to maintain the phenomenon of “herd immunity”, it is obvious that even a moderate vaccination uptake would have made a significant dent in the disease’s incidence and transmission rates.
How is it obvious? We have the highest ever pertussis vaccine uptake and supposed herd immunity, and yet the circulating whooping cough infection rates are higher now, than the prevaccine era.
“Isabella B” has fallen behind the news in the fantasy world of assumed community protection vaccination rates for the illusory “measles vaccine induced herd immunity”. The recent level needed to vaccinate is 99%!
“Given the highly contagious nature of measles, vaccination rates of 96% to 99% are necessary to preserve herd immunity and prevent future outbreaks.”[68]
Dr Humphries then offers these alternative theories for the dramatic decline in measles notifications in the 1960s:
a)Doctors changed their diagnostic criteria. In other words, Dr Humphries complains that “there are at least 10 other infections that clinically resemble measles”. Her assertions implies that 1) physicians in the 1960s who were intimately familiar with measles suddenly became incompetent at diagnosing it from one year to the next, and / or 2) all healthcare workers were wrapped up in a global conspiracy to “hide” disease notifications and give the vaccine a semblance of effectiveness where there was none. This theory requires the suspension of disbelief. Since measles is highly contagious, it is unfathomable that all physicians would be careless enough to dismiss genuine measles as “some other rash” merely on the basis of population-wide vaccination rates.
If readers will refer to pages 370 – 373, where the explanation is detailed with references, they will see for themselves, that the above “global conspiracy” allegations are another fictitious figment from the conspiracy addicted imagination of “Isabella B”.
In the post vaccine era, if a vaccinated person contracted measles, they are not counted as a measles case, even if they had a serious case of measles. There was no genotyping of the infected virus, so the case had to be linked to a proven measles case. It is well known and accepted, that the measles vaccine gives a subclinical case of live measles, which results in interruption of wild measles transmission. That’s why we have low levels of wild measles today.
Today, all clinical cases of measles in vaccinated people are genotyped, and if the virus in the infected person is a vaccine virus, that case is struck from the record.
b) Use of gamma globulin (passive antibody) as a treatment for measles to eliminate rashes. This, however, is no longer in use since 1968.
This comment above is totally false. The case of a vaccinated child who tested positive for vaccine-strain measles infection in Canada that Murti wrote up in 2013[69] provides evidence that “Isabella B” is wrong. All 45 susceptible contacts exposed to that child received a vaccine, immune globulin or both. When doctors or health authorities panic, the immune globulin is used today. CDC[70] and other various health providers[71] [72] in the USA have their own guidelines for the use of immunoglobulin for measles.
However, the point made in the measles chapter was that between 1963 – 1968 doctors were supplied with live measles vaccine that caused high numbers of febrile and symptomatic cases. Doctors were so afraid of this vaccine that they usually gave immune globulin simultaneously. Again this is well documented, and the practice did not stop until a well-attenuated vaccine was available years later in 1968.
Photo above courtesy of the College of Physicians of Philadelphia site, history of vaccines.[73]
The whole point in mentioning immune globulin in Dissolving Illusions, is that its use from 1963 to 1968 helped the vaccinated cases appear less sick, even though they had clinical measles, and without injected gamma globulin, would have been quite ill. Thus these modified measles cases were never counted as measles cases, and helped to create the “landslide” decline that “Isabella B” notes in case reports, post-vaccine.
The fact is that true herd immunity that lasts a life time, created by wild measles, was replaced by an infectious virulent injection of laboratory cultured measles virus and the resulting infections were no longer notified as measles.
“Isabella B” says Dissolving Illusions implies the following:
The incidence was already on a decline. Like smallpox, she claims, the disease was “slowly burning out”.
No, on page 374 the question was asked “was the disease slowly burning out?” Measles was described as a mild disease in 1959, in the BMJ. The question is, was it becoming less virulent, so much so that a case might not be recognized?
Our point was, that as the 1959 BMJ article showed, the disease was less problematic on the whole, when it was naturally coursing through society in developed countries, and the focus could have been on developing proper treatment and immune system support rather than a lifetime of vaccines, which is what the public has ended up with today. How often has anyone read or heard the CDC mentioning any other means to support or deal with any disease other than hand washing and vaccines?
I don’t know about you, but this curve definitely does not look like a disease slowing burning out. It looks like a massive landslide:
Once again this “landslide” was not in fact due to a killed measles vaccine and a virulent live vaccine plus immune globulin, which were the only vaccines available until 1968. We describe this above. In the beginning years, this landslide was mostly just reporting artifact.
We need to repeat this important point again. “Isabella B” fails to mention the most important thing: that measles mortality had declined by over 98% in the United States by the time the first vaccine was introduced. Our book is criticized because we talk about death rates more than incidence. But, decline in death rate was, and is, one of the best, and most highly significant markers of overall health improvement. That is why all countries measured their progress by death decline, and increased lifespan.
That is why when doctors get angry because you won’t accept a vaccine, drug, or test, they often say, “But your baby might die!” In 1994 when the UK parents were coerced into a mass vaccination campaign, the threat of death, not encephalopathy or blindness, was used as the main tool to increase compliance. The Bulletin of Medical Ethics August 1995[74] detailed the whole sordid event.
Again, isn’t it fascinating how the “landslide” reduction in the very measure used to scare parents into vaccinating (death), is suddenly now considered insignificant by “Isabella B”? Isn’t it interesting that interventions that so markedly reduced the death rate (hygiene and nutrition) get no credit, unless a pharmaceutical corporation developed it?
Looking at data from pre-vaccine England, the mortality rate had declined by nearly 100%. The medical literature of the time indicates that measles by the 1950s was generally considered a mild disease. By 1962 [75] in the UK, there were 184,895 measles cases and 39 deaths, which = 1 death per 4,740 cases. Yet now, the CDC says that “For every 1,000 children who get measles, one or two will die from it.”? If so, what has gone wrong here?
The USA data for 1962 measles according to CDC[77] is as follows:
“In the decade prior to the licensure of live measles vaccine in 1963, an average of 549,000 measles cases and 495 measles deaths were reported annually. However, almost every American was affected by measles during their lifetime; it is estimated that 3-4 million measles cases occurred each year.”
495 deaths in 4 million = 1 death per 8,080 cases of measles. Again, that’s a far cry from CDC’s current information page stating 2 deaths per 1000 cases.
CLAIM #9: RASHLESS MEASLES LEADS TO DEGENERATIVE DISEASE
Next, Dr Humphries speculates that measles antibodies (derived from vaccines) interfere with a cell-mediated immune responses to the wild virus, leading to chronic measles infection and eventually immune related disorders later on in life:
Acute natural infection and presumably even vaccination during a time when measles-specific antibody is present may induce a longterm suppressive effect on measles immune response. The presence of such antibodies at the time of infection interferes with the cellular immunological response to measles virus, especially with the development of specific cell-mediated immunity […] Intracellular measles virus may then survive the acute infection and later cause diseases which develop in adulthood.(p 383).
Her proof rests on a 1985 Lancer paper entitled “Measles Virus Infection without Rash in Childhood is Related to Disease in Adult Life”. This is a frequently misquoted paper because it is access restricted and has an obscure sounding abstract. After paying the $35.00 to access the full report, I realized that it did not study the effects of measles vaccination at all. It was a historical study done on individuals born in Copenhagen and Gentofte in the pre-vaccination era — specifically 1941 and 1947 onwards. It found that individuals who had contracted the wild form of measles (measured via antibody levels later on in life), without manifesting a rash (roughly 9% of the population), had a higher incidence of degenerative diseases later on in life.
In Dissolving Illusions we discussed a Lancet paper from 1985 by Rønne titled “Measles Virus Infection Without Rash in Childhood is Related to Disease in Adult Life”.[78] It is an interesting read with important implications.
In order to throw off the virus, a brisk cell-mediated immune response is necessary. That immune response is usually visible in the skin in immune competent hosts. The rash is the immune system taking out infected cells. The extreme opposite is the AIDS patient who gets no rash and the diagnosis is not made until autopsy.
Dr Rønne reported cancers and autoimmune diseases in persons who had rashless cases. Specifically, he noted a highly significant association between a negative history of known measles with evidence of prior rashless infection (detected by antibody before and after later re-exposure) and four disease categories: immunoreactive diseases, sebaceous skin diseases, degenerative diseases of bone and cartilage, and tumors.
The study speculates that a reason for the absence of rash may have been treatment of measles with immune serum globulin (which is essentially an injection of passive measles antibodies). The author hypothesizes that an injection of passive antibodies at the time of measles infection may interfere with the body’s full immune response to the virus, leading to latent health problems.
In the end, the study recommends aborting immune serum globulin as a form of measles treatment (which is no longer in use today) and using well-timed measles vaccination to reduce the incidence of degenerative disease:
Dr Humphries completely misrepresents the study. She concludes somewhat simplistically that an “absence of rash” after measles vaccination signifies an “absence of cellular immune responses” to the virus which in turn leads to degenerative disease later on in life.
Dr Rønne said this:
“The association between a negative history of measles, early exposure (possibly injection of ISG [immune serum globulin] after suspected exposure), specific measles antibodies in adulthood, and nonmeasles associated diseases, suggests that the presence of measles virus specific antibodies at the time of infection interferes with the common immunological response to measles virus, especially with the development of specific cell-mediated immunity (and/or other cytotoxic reactions). Intracellular measles virus may then survive the acute infection, and cause diseases which develop in adulthood.”
There it is, in Dr Rønne’s own words. How was the study misrepresented?
Other immunologists since then have agreed that preformed specific antibody actually limits cell-mediated immune responses. The reader must understand that antibody alone without T cell immunity does not happen with normal measles. Normally there would be an infection, a cell mediated immune response, followed by IgG accumulation. This is not to say that preformed antibody does not have immediate protHello! Producer/Director Yoshida here!Since posting on Friday night (well, actually I guess it was Saturday morning), I read over all your feedback!I was thinking to post a tiny bit after tomorrow, but checking today I saw quite a bit of posts, so here is some quick information.(With the premise that EX/RARE will not yield special stats when converted to materia)(In anticipation of this, materia stats are also being adjusted. Currently on the home stretch)The materia craft introduction system will be added as quests.Also, after writing out the full specifications of the system, it definitely seems quite complicated. However, for the actual process of adding a single piece of materia to a single item, while there will be certain requirements of materia effects that can be attached depending on the equipment slot, there is no fear of failure and it will only enhance your equipment, so it’s really not as complicated as it looks.This is essentially the starting line.Once you start to get fixated on stats and begin target and hunt down materia effects, you will need to have a good grasp of the specifics. However, since this is a game it is only natural.I’d like to officially release the stats as much as possible!Since this is content that I would like to update for a long time from here on out, besides for the “forbidden” aspect, it is being created to be as simple as possible.(My explanation was probably bad)I hope you are all in suspense for the materia that can be created in patch 1.19 and enhance yourselves as you like.I shall post again!High speed rail projects in Illinois, California clear hurdles
As part of the stimulus bill, many states applied for funds through a new program designed to support the growth of high speed rail in the US. Many of those applications were submitted prior to the 2010 election which saw a significant shift in governorships in favor of Republican led administrations, several of which returned that money and said no to high speed rail in their states. Since then, fewer projects are going forward, but not necessarily in places people would expect.
After a wave of rejection following the 2010 election, it seemed like most of the rail work in the US would be confined to the Northeast corridor, which is known for its extensive municipal and inter-state rail systems. Many of those systems like the 108 year old New York Subway, readily applied for funding to make much needed upgrades – work that is only expected to kick in to higher gear following Sandy. But, that work may have a chilling effect on the progress of high speed rail in the area given the level of damage sustained and the need for existing service restoration over modernization.
CivSource reported earlier this year on a new study underway in Texas to connect parts of the state with Oklahoma. That project is only in the study phase, but some local observers are hopeful that the busy corridor between both states may see additional service options.
Two states, however, have been making it significant process on establishing high speed rail lines despite much controversy. In Illinois, a large project designed to connect the Chicagoland area with St. Louis, Missouri cleared an important environmental feasibility standard at the end of last week. The environmental impact plan offered up by rail officials received both state and federal approval, clearing the way for track construction. The Amtrak trains being considered for the project can run over 100 miles per hour, shaving significant time off of commutes between the two cities.
The state released its initial plan last year, and was required under federal law to submit an environmental impact statement for all phases of the project. The statements on each phase have been approved. Phase one track sections are expected to be complete by 2015, with the latter phases coming online by 2017. Illinois has received more than $1.4 billion in federal funding to develop high-speed service between Chicago and St. Louis, and the project is expected to create over 6,200 jobs.
“This historic achievement advances the crucial Chicago-St. Louis high-speed rail project while signifying that all environmental impacts and route alternatives have been analyzed to determine the best option,” Governor Quinn said.
California is also working on a project to expand high speed rail in its state and potentially connect disparate local transportation systems in some of its city centers. The $68 billion plan would connect Los Angeles and San Francisco, but has met with stiff opposition from residents between the two cities concerned that rail tracks will now run through their farmlands. Farmers in the area filed a claim in court to stop the track from coming through their land, but a judge ruled on Friday in favor of the state project.
The 800 mile project is one of the most ambitious public works projects undertaken by the state and already had federal approval, it is now likely to move ahead despite continued opposition from local groups.TyLoo and Renegades have been invited to attend the Asia Minor, the event's organisers have revealed.
The news brings the team count up to seven, with the final spot due to be determined by the Chinese online qualifier, scheduled for May 12.
Renegades were in attendance at IEM Sydney, where they finished 6th-7th, with just one victory from four matches.
TyLoo were last seen at the SL i-League StarSeries Season 3 event, which they attended with ViCi member WeiJie "zhokiNg" Zhong as a stand-in for Hansel "BnTeT" Ferdinand due to visa issues. They were eliminated in the Swiss round following defeats to SK Gaming, Gambit and MVP Project.
Renegades are the second Australian team confirmed for the Minor
The Asia Minor will take place in an as-yet undisclosed Chinese city from June 1-4. On top of the $50,000 prize fund, there will be two spots at the offline qualifier for PGL Major Krakow up for grabs.
The team list for the Asia Minor now looks as follows:In preparation for the upcoming matchup between No. 9 Stanford and the Colorado Buffaloes, The Stanford Daily’s Do-Hyoung Park (@dohyoungpark) had a chance to ask a few questions to Justin Guerriero (@TheHungry_Hippo), one of the football writers at CU Independent, about the state of Colorado football and where the program stands heading into Saturday’s matchup.
The Stanford Daily (TSD): A lot of people have been quick to dismiss Colorado as the doormat of the conference over the last several years, but this year, the Buffs have picked up a conference win and have played close games against Oregon, Arizona and UCLA. How much longer will it take for Colorado to climb out of the cellar of the conference?
Justin Guerriero (JG): I predicted at the beginning of the season that the Colorado Buffaloes would have a winning record and make a bowl game. I’m not ashamed of that claim because as you said, this team has proven this year that it can compete in the Pac-12 Conference. The Buffs are just coming up a bit short.
However, I’m convinced that success is right around the bend for the Buffaloes. I could see this team turning things around as soon as next season. Quarterback Sefo Liufau will be a senior, and the seniors that the Buffs will lose after this year, namely offensive lineman Stephane Nembot and receiver Nelson Spruce, should not be losses that would cripple the 2016 team.
In other words, this team has the most depth it’s had in quite some time — hands down the most it’s had since head coach Mike MacIntyre was hired before the 2013 season. I think that the Buffaloes have a lot of young, easily developable talent with a lot of potential for the upcoming seasons.
TSD: How much did it mean to the program to get that first conference win since 2013? I understand Mike MacIntyre was quite emotional after that game, and really, who can blame him?
JG: Since the closing seconds of the Buffaloes’ 17-13 conference win on the road against Oregon State, I’ve been trying to downplay how huge of a victory it was.
Granted, the Buffs won a conference game on the road — a combination that has been extremely elusive for this team in recent seasons. But I was not impressed by Colorado barely squeaking by the worst team in the conference, especially the week after losing 38-31 to the much more talented Arizona Wildcats.
But yes, as the clock ran out in that game, Coach Mac dropped to his knees, overtaken with joy. I understand that. His job has been in jeopardy following some irritating losses this year and it’s no doubt been a tough tenure for him at CU so far. What upset me was that MacIntyre treated the victory as a glorified culmination; in actuality, all the win was, besides a check mark in the win column, was a sloppy, drawn-out win over a bad team. The season’s not over. There’s still a lot of work to do. So I’m definitely happy for Coach MacIntyre, but let’s not get too excited here.
TSD: I mentioned that you played Oregon, Arizona and UCLA close, but those were all games that the Buffs ultimately lost. What’s stopping the team from getting over the hump and picking up those big wins when they matter most?
JG: This is the question that fans, coaches and experts alike have been asking themselves all year: “Why can’t the Buffaloes win?” But boy, have they gotten close. They were tied with Oregon at halftime and led both Arizona and UCLA in the fourth quarter before ultimately collapsing in all three instances.
So what’s the problem, you ask? Most of the Buffs’ losses have fallen within this theme: stupid mistakes (turnovers, penalties, etc.) and the offense’s tendency to stall out in key situations.
The losses to Arizona and UCLA are key examples. In both games, the Buffs’ offense had multiple chances to put much-needed points on the board, but failed. If you give good football programs ample opportunities to win a football game, most likely, they will do it.
I would like to commend Colorado’s defense, however. They have generally played pretty well so far this year, but end up looking like trash on the stat sheets because the high-octane offenses that make up the Pac-12 simply wear them down after four quarters of play. In addition, offensive coordinator Brian Lindgren has recently come under fire for being too conservative and predictable. I think that’s a fair criticism. I’m not excusing individual player mistakes, but I do believe that bad play-calling has been the true bane of this football team’s existence.
TSD: How well has Sefo Liufau progressed in his third season under center in Boulder? Even as a veteran starter, Liufau has seemed to struggle with turnovers — how do you think he’ll match up against a Stanford secondary that plays bend-but-don’t-break but also struggles to get takeaways?
JG: I’ve been generally pleased with the way Liufau has carried himself this year. Turnovers have always plagued his performance as a collegiate quarterback, but this season he’s improved quite a bit.
Last year, aside from leading the conference with 15 interceptions, Liufau’s stats were exemplary. He threw 28 touchdowns, completed 65.3 percent of his passes and accounted for 3,336 yards of total offense. But it’s definitely the interceptions that fans remember most prominently. His turnovers last season always seemed to completely deflate the Buffaloes. I won’t blame Colorado’s two-win 2014 campaign solely on Liufau, but his mistakes certainly contributed.
This year, Liufau has played in a more careful manner. His interceptions have gone down, but at the same time, Liufau has consistently missed opportunities to hit open receivers downfield. Sometimes it seems that he’s chosen the target that he’ll throw to before he even drops back to pass. But I don’t even think that the Stanford defense should be worried about forcing turnovers. The key for the defense will be to pressure Liufau relentlessly. If the Cardinal’s front seven can harass CU’s injury-plagued, revolving door of an offensive line enough, they will crumble and as a result Liufau will be constantly on edge.
I will note that Liufau can be impressive when forced to run, but a constant barrage of blitzes, hurries, knockdowns and sacks will likely disrupt any flow for the Buffaloes’ offense. If the defense can do that, I think turnovers will ensue, but trust me — if the defense can apply consistent pressure on Liufau, Stanford won’t even need the turnovers to win.
TSD: On the other side of the ball, Colorado ranks second-to-last in the conference allowing 5.08 yards per rush to opposing runners. Are the Buffaloes going to be able to stop Christian McCaffrey and the Stanford offense? If so, how will they go about doing that?
JG: In terms of stopping McCaffrey — no. Plain and simple. I don’t think he should have any bit of trouble exceeding his average of almost 133 rushing yards per game. The fact that he averages 6.1 yards per rush speaks for itself, as well. CU’s defense has been notoriously bad against the run this season — opposing teams have averaged just over 200 rushing yards a game against the Buffs’ defenders.
Since Colorado has entered Pac-12 play, the defense’s inability to stop the enemy’s run game has become even more evident. Against Oregon, the Buffs allowed 361 rushing yards. Similar results happened versus Arizona State and Arizona, against whom Colorado surrendered 231 and 291 rushing yards. So trust me, McCaffrey should do just fine.
However, I will say that from a pass defense perspective, the Buffaloes have been better than I expected this season. The defense has forced 10 interceptions so far this season, compared to the 3 interceptions total that the Buffs’ defense had all of last year. In other words, Colorado’s secondary has been a surprising positive so far. Last week against UCLA, the defense broke up a season-high 8 passes.
I think that Stanford quarterback Kevin Hogan is an intimidating opponent; it doesn’t seem like he’s the type to make a lot of stupid mistakes. I think that the Buffaloes’ secondary will, at least in some capacity, contain Hogan and company in terms of the passing game. But let it be known — big plays and a full four quarters of football have consistently overwhelmed this Colorado defense in conference games this year. Stanford should look to continue the trend.
TSD: Liufau and Nelson Spruce are obviously going to be the biggest playmakers on the field for the Buffs when they have the ball, but who else should Stanford fans watch out for that could play a critical role in Saturday’s matchup?
JG: Spruce is no doubt the pride and joy of Colorado’s offense. Last year, while playing for the abysmal 2014 Buffs, Spruce caught 106 passes for 1,198 yards and scored 12 touchdowns. This season, it’s been slower for him — largely because opposing defenses know that Liufau likes to throw to him quite a bit.
But mark my words: Teams who do not give Spruce extra attention pay the price. This year, on top of becoming the Pac-12’s all-time leader in receptions, Spruce is leading the Buffs with 29 catches for 10 yards or more.
Aside from Spruce, this Buffaloes team features an impressive receiving core. Sophomore receiver Shay Fields is another guy to keep an eye on. He leads the team with four receiving touchdowns and is a favorite long-range target of Liufau’s. Stanford should also watch out for tailback Phillip Lindsay. The 5-foot-8, 180-pound sophomore averages 4.79 yards per carry.
He’s a smart, quick force that will disrupt defenses — especially if he gets outside. The bad play-calling that I hinted at earlier applies directly to Lindsay, though. A lot of the plays that he is involved in have made me scratch my head. Stanford should be ready to close holes up the middle, because the Buffs love to run draw plays with Lindsay following the center.
TSD: Vegas has Stanford as 16-point favorites going into the game — how does that sound to you? How do you see the game playing out? What does Colorado need to do to pull off the upset?
JG: Only 16 points?! Thanks, Vegas, we here in Boulder appreciate that generous estimate.
Honestly, I’ve never doubted the Buffaloes’ ability to compete with a team this season. Stanford is the best team that CU has faced so far this year, and the Buffaloes will certainly be tested. What I do doubt is Colorado’s ability to play a full four quarters of smart football against a team like Stanford.
I think that the Buffs will keep it close going into halftime, but ultimately will crumble in familiar fashion and lose. That is exactly what cannot happen if this team wants to even stand a chance against the Cardinal. The Buffs cannot afford to shoot themselves in the foot in any way, shape or form this Saturday, which, knowing them, seems like an unreasonable demand.
I think that penalties, ineffectiveness on offense, and a few big plays for Stanford sprinkled throughout the game will lose the game for the Buffs. I’m thinking the final score will be somewhere in the neighborhood of 45-24 Stanford.
But I specifically said final score for a reason. It’s been such a roller coaster ride this season watching this team play so well for two or three quarters, only to blow it in the end. I think that Colorado’s chances of beating Stanford are slim, but if the score is tied at halftime, I may very well allow myself to get excited. Players and coaches alike are expecting a tough contest, so I’m interested to see what Saturday brings. Hopefully not a blowout.
Contact Do-Hyoung Park at dhpark ‘at’ stanford.edu and Justin Guerriero at justin.guerriero ‘at’ colorado.edu.Big (as in $4 billion big), news broke yesterday that Disney acquired Lucasfilm, including the Star Wars franchise, from its single shareholder, George Lucas. Good for George Lucas. Collecting 4 big ones like that is truly a payoff for a career well done.
So what does the fact that the House of Mouse now owns a story from a long time ago in a galaxy far away mean for open source? In truth, probably not much at this time, but as a geek, how can you not be interested in this story?
Actually there is a potential open source angle that I will cover before I dive in to some of the other stuff. Over the past year or so Disney has shown a benevolent side towards open source, releasing some libraries and software from Disney Animation and Disney-owned Pixar to the open source community.
Part of the treasure trove that Disney bought with its $4 billion is the Industrial Light and Magic and Skywalker Sound divisions of Lucasfilm. Both of these entities have significant IP that could indeed find their way into the open source community in the months and years to come. Let's hope so.
But enough about open source for now. How do you feel about this deal? Do you think George Lucas sold out and we are destined to an everlasting run of ever decreasing quality Star Wars movies? Some of you may think we have been doing that with the release of Episode 1, 2 and 3. Star Wars was pretty family friendly to begin with, so I am not too worried about Disney making it more sappy or vanilla.
Truth be told George Lucas has been sitting on the Star Wars story line for a long time. We know that through the many Star Wars books, the story has been taken in a myriad of directions. It may be good to see some of these story lines brought to the big screen. George can only have an appetite for so much. Disney will |
done no work on future oil supplies, has no plan and barely acknowledges the problem, despite years of campaigning by, among others, the former oil industry geologist-turned solar power entrepreneur Jeremy Leggett, who has written whole books on the subject of "peak oil".
Renewables'revolution'
Taylor says governments must move at lightning pace to reduce energy demand through greater efficiency and go hell for leather for renewable energy sources, although he knows it is probably too late to avoid a huge energy crunch within the next decade or so. That annual $450bn the IEA talks of would buy you a lot of renewables such as wind and solar power if it were not being spent chasing ever-harder-to-find oil and gas.
So what chance is there of the authorities moving quickly? Well, Britain's renewables "revolution", which the government loves to talk of, is simply not going to deliver the goods. In mid-October the Department of Energy and Climate Change closed the consultation on the "feed-in tariff" proposal it has been forced to introduce by backbench MPs. Feed-in tariffs have kickstarted renewables in many countries, especially Germany, by offering consumers a healthy price for electricity they feed into the grid.
The energy department will announce its decisions in about a month but, unsurprisingly, officials are aiming low. They want the tariff to offer returns on investment of 5-8%. That's not enough. The Germans get around 10%.
The MP Alan Simpson, appointed by the climate change secretary Ed Miliband to oversee the tariff's introduction, wanted 12% or more to allow the UK to bring about a renewables revolution. But he has been thwarted by officials. "It's designed to fail," he says.
And people who have already invested, and got one of the handful of grants available in recent years, are likely to be worse off under the tariff. This means that early adopters of these technologies, who put their hands in their pockets to the tune of thousands of pounds, will be penalised. You really couldn't make it up. When the oil supply crunch comes, we are in trouble.
ashley.seager@theguardian.com
theguardian.com/business/economicsIt is the latest twist in a travel trend that industry observers have labelled the "shapecation".
Russian tour operators are reporting a surge of interest in a hitherto little-known archipelago due to its uncanny resemblance to the birthmark of the former USSR leader, Mikhail Gorbachev.
The obscure archipelago, which is known as Durak Aprel, is located off the Siberian coast in the far north-east of the country.
An aerial photograph (see second photo above) highlights the similarity between the group of islands and the brown coloration that marks Mr Gorbachev’s forehead – and that has prompted an influx of visitors to a particularly remote part of the country.
Ollaf Ryodiaps, marketing director for the Moscow-based tour operator Russian Here and There, said the phenomenon came to his attention last year. “The first I knew about it was when someone came in asking if they could get to the birthmark islands,” said the 43 year-old, who holds dual British and Russian nationality. “I didn’t have a clue what they were talking about until they showed me the photos.”
“It was not an easy place to arrange a trip to – the sea crossing is notorious, but it’s actually a wild, starkly beautiful place, and everyone I know who has gone is pleased they have made the effort.”
Mr Ryodiaps said that interest in the trips was initially just from Russians, but that he has taken several inquiries in recent weeks from adventurous western holidaymakers.
Mr Gorbachev, who celebrated his 80th birthday at the Royal Albert Hall earlier this week with a group of high-profile politicians and Hollywood film stars, has usually enjoyed higher levels of popularity in the west than in his home country. The interest in the archipelago suggests that he might now be enjoying something of a renaissance in Russia.
It is the most recent case to emerge in a holiday-making phenomenon that industry experts are now calling “shapecations”.
The first known example of the trend became apparent three years ago, when it was reported that lovers were heading to the heart-shaped Croatian islet of Galesnjak after its distinctive outline was highlighted on Google Earth.Vandar Tokare was a male Jedi Master who was the head of the Jedi Enclave on Dantooine during the Mandalorian Wars and Jedi Civil War, holding a seat on both the Jedi High Council and the Council of the Jedi academy during this time span. He was friends with fellow Council member Vrook Lamar, usually having the last word in their frequent disagreements, most notably on the choice to train Revan once again in the ways of the Jedi after his fall to the dark side of the Force. One of the attendees of the Conclave on Katarr, Tokare was killed during an attack from the Sith Lord Darth Nihilus in which the entire Miraluka colony and many of the survivors of the First Jedi Purge were lost.
Biography
Tokare took Derrica Praji and another person as Jedi Padawans and trained them on Ossus. In 4,225 BBY Tokare and his two apprentices traveled to the world Kaikielius, where they led Galactic Republic troops during the Kaikieli Reconquista, a campaign to retake Kaikielius from criminals. For three months, Tokare led attacks on most criminal-infested cities and was eventually victorious.
Prior to the Mandalorian Wars, Vandar had a conversation with Vrook Lamar concerning the Jedi Exile. She had yet to achieve the title of Jedi Knight, but a Master had already been assigned to her, and her talent with Force bonding had already begun to manifest itself. Master Vrook had low views on anyone who followed Revan, but even before the war, he deemed the Exile a mediocre Jedi, and believed her talent was uncontrolled because of lust for power, and that it would eventually lead her to the dark side. When he caught the Exile in a heated argument with his Padawan, Vrook first asked her Master to lecture her about discipline, without success, then he expected Master Vandar to step in, but he wouldn’t either. Though respecting Lamar’s wisdom, Tokare told him that it was not his concern, and he voiced a divergent opinion on the Exile, whom he saw as a natural leader with a unique strength. This conversation was recorded by a protocol droid serving at the Jedi Enclave. Years later, in 3,951 BBY, for the first time since she went to war, the Exile would return to Dantooine. She met this droid in a battered state, its memory banks corrupted, but after indulging in some maintenance, she found a partially degraded holorecord of Vrook and Vandar speaking about her.
Mandalorian Wars
In the years leading up to the Mandalorian invasion of the Galactic Republic during the Mandalorian Wars, Master Vandar taught many pupils, and by 3,964 BBY he was the leading Master of the Jedi Enclave. Zayne Carrick, who had been a student of his before being apprenticed to Lucien Draay, sought the help of Master Vandar in the wake of the Padawan Massacre of Taris, for which he had been framed. The fugitive Padawan contacted him from The Last Resort and disclosed the details of what occurred in the Jedi Tower when his fellow students Shad Jelavan, Kamlin, Oojoh, and Gharn were all killed during their Knighting ceremony.
Distraught, Vandar asked him how could he have murdered those he grew up with. Zayne tried to explain that he barely escaped the same fate, as he was chased by those he found standing among their corpses with their lightsabers drawn, their own teachers, Jedi Masters Feln, Q’Anilia, Raana Tey, Xamar, and Lucien himself. But Vandar found hard to even contemplate that Lucien, who was the scion of an important family, both in the Republic and in the Jedi Order, could be responsible for such a thing. Instead, he pondered aloud if Zayne himself may have committed the crime, and subconsciously erased it from his mind.
When Zayne called the Enclave, Vandar was in a meeting with fellow Council members Zhar Lestin, Vrook, and Bala Nisi. He asked Zhar about any Jedi Consulars serving on Taris, and was surprised to hear that, save Lucien, all Jedi stationed there were Consulars, which was unusual. Nevertheless, he told Zayne that if he turned himself in, one of those Jedi could probe his mind and help him find the truth. Just as Zayne pointed out that those were the ones trying to kill him, the transmission got cut by Jarael, who struck Zayne from behind and knocked him unconscious.
The Council of Dantooine follows Carrick’s arrival on Taris
A dependable Master
Within weeks since the murders, Zayne decided to turn himself in so as to relieve his new companions of the trouble he had brought upon them. In the Council chamber of the Jedi Enclave, Vandar watched him on a news hologram as he was brought in chains to the Jedi Tower. However, before he could be killed by Lucien, Zayne was rescued by Jarael, and escaped once again. The Masters of Taris were then contacted by the Dantooine Jedi Enclave Council and recalled to Coruscant to explain themselves.As they stood judgment before the High Council, a stern Vrook Lamar would reprimand the five for allowing the deaths of their students, and he would remind them of a recurrent counsel of Vandar’s about being protectors as much as teachers. Master Vandar insted regretted he did not listen to Vrook’s counsel when he expressed disapproval of assigning students to them uneager teachers, feeling now that perhaps that reluctance was, in fact, wisdom.
When Raana Tey hired the Moomo brothers to stalk Zayne’s father, banker Arvan Carrick, Master Vandar welcomed his family to Dantooine for as long as they liked, and let Arvan work for the Jedi Enclave. Dantooine not offering much in the way of financial opportunities, Master Vandar was surprised to hear of his request, which was really to let Zayne’s mind be at peace with the well-being of his loved ones, while he did what he could to clear his name. Arvan justified it with the fact that Zayne always spoke of Vandar as of someone he could trust, and that trust meant a lot in banking.
Chasing Shadows
At some point, Lucien Draay was offered a seat on the Jedi High Council as a result of the influence of his family and the manipulations of his former teacher, the shadow leader of the Jedi Covenant, Haazen. Vrook and Vandar agreed to this, if only to keep a closer look on him and find the truth about the Padawan Massacre. Tokare found his rise to power rather suspicious, and felt someone else was behind it, but he could not tell who or why. Haazen was really safe from Vandar’s grasp in the Living Force, as he relied on a Sith artifact known as the Yoke of Seeming to prevent Jedi from perceiving his intentions.
After the deaths of Feln and Raana Tey, Vandar received a transmission from Shel Jelavan, the sister of one of the victims. He was informed by her of what took place on Jebble when Covenant Shadow Celeste Morne, a rogue Jedi under Lucien’s orders, unleashed a powerful dark side artifact which caused the Rakghoul Plague; and he agreed to meet Shel in a cantina on Coruscant, where he was to ask for “Captain Malak.” The bank Arvan Carrick worked for was co-owned by the Draay Trus a corporation from which half the members of the Jedi High Council received funds for their charitable causes. With his help, Master Vandar discovered that the true extent of their financial power and influence within the Jedi Order was indeed more than enough to make possible the creation of Jedi Shadows. Though being very sceptical on this matter, Master Vrook accompanied him to the meeting, and when Vandar made the name of his contact, they found that Captain Malak was none other than Jedi Knight Alek Squinquargesimus, who had come to Coruscant with Shel on Zayne’s behalf, even though an arrest warrant had been issued on Revanchists, by the Council, on Lucien’s request. Shel told the Masters what happened on Taris, when Raana Tey revealed that the head of the Jedi Covenant was Krynda Draay, a Sage Master, and one of the few remaining heroes of the Great Sith War. However, even when Alek told them that Zayne was bringing a collection of Sith artifacts from a repository on Odryn as evidence to expose the Covenant and clear his name, Master Vrook said that it was not enough to bring the matter before the Council. He and Vandar realized that if they were to accuse Krynda, the Order would be torn apart, as she had been training Jedi for thirty years after the war, without the supervision of the Council, and retained their allegiance. When Zayne landed and gave the signal, they set off to meet him. Just as Master Vandar came to the conclusion that one of the Masters of the Covenant needed to speak up, Xamar stepped forward, ready to confess.
After the events of Vindication, the Council offered to reinstate Zayne into the Order as a Jedi Knight. But Zayne decided he’d rather look out for people who fell beneath the Order’s notice and declined the offer.
Jedi Civil War
During the Jedi Civil War that followed the Mandalorian Wars, Vandar oversaw the training of Revan after he was stripped of his memory by the Jedi Council. He was also the one who assigned Revan and Bastila to hunt down the Star Maps that would lead to the Star Forge.
Having survived Darth Malak‘s attack on Dantooine, Master Vandar participated in the Battle of Rakata Prime, acting as an adviser alongside Admiral Forn Dodonna. After the battle, it was Vandar who proclaimed Revan to be truly redeemed, thus reinstating his former rank of Jedi Knight and also proclaiming him as the “Prodigal Knight.”
Master Vandar celebrates the destruction of the Star Forge.
Death
In 3,952 BBY Jedi Master Atris called a Jedi Conclave under the strict agreement of secrecy on the Mid Rim world of Katarr, where the few Jedi who escaped the First Jedi Purge hoped that in communion with the Force-sensitive Miraluka, they would be able to identify the elusive Sith threat that was ending them. Vandar attended the meeting, not knowing that Atris had secretly leaked knowledge of the gathering in the hopes that the enemy would reveal themselves. Ruled by his hunger, Darth Nihilus was drawn from the Unknown Regions and fed upon all life on the planet, making the Jedi all but extinct. Vandar’s death would be related to the Jedi Exile on Dantooine by his long-time friend Vrook, who had not gone to Katarr, and was still unaware of why or how he had died. The Exile would learn later on how Atris had even felt what could happen, and still not warned the Jedi, choosing instead to stay safely away and watch.
Powers and abilities
Vandar Tokare was a master of the Ataru form of lightsaber combat, and owned two shotos. Like most wielders of the Force, he could perform Mind tricks, but he also possessed many strong Force powers such as Sever Force and Force Suppression. He was also capable of advanced applications of Telekinesis, like levitation, and could wield weapons effectively without his hands.
Aside from Basic, he could also speak Kreva and Draethos language.
This article uses material from the “Vandar Tokare” article on the Star Wars wiki at Wikia and is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike License
(Visited 349 times, 1 visits today)View the photo gallery: Ex-Mayor Filner pleads guilty
Reaction gallery: 'A good day, justice is served'
Former San Diego Mayor Bob Filner’s professional and personal collapse continued on Tuesday as he pleaded guilty to three criminal charges that he grabbed and fondled women during his first and last spring at City Hall.
Filner, 71, pleaded guilty to one felony charge of false imprisonment and two misdemeanor charges of battery at a hearing in San Diego Superior Court.
The former 10-term congressman’s pleas came just one day before a criminal grand jury was set to hear evidence against him. As part of the plea deal with the state Attorney General’s Office, Filner will not face any jail or prison time.
Instead he will be sentenced to three years of probation and will have to seek mental health treatment. He will also have to serve three months of home confinement and will be banned from ever seeking or holding public office again.
According to the terms of his plea deal, Filner will also surrender the portion of his pension earned after March 6, the date of his felony offense. Upon his retirement, his annual city benefit was estimated at $19,000. It’s unclear what the new amount might be.
In a statement read by his lawyer, Jerry Coughlan, after the hearing, Filner wanted to put things behind him and “continue the ongoing rehabilitation he has begun.”
“His conduct, he admitted in court, was inappropriate, over the top and today he admitted it was criminal,” Coughlan said.
Filner again apologized to those he offended in the statement.
Filner was subdued during the hearing in front of Presiding Superior Court Judge Robert Trentacosta, a far cry from his last public appearance when he spoke to the City Council after agreeing to resign his seat. After some conciliatory comments at that time, he spoke bitterly about powerful interests that had driven him from office using a “lynch mob.”
California Attorney General Kamala Harris said in a statement that Filner’s conduct was not just criminal but also “an extreme abuse of power.”
Filner resigned from office on Aug. 30 under a gathering storm of accusations from about 20 women who said that he had groped, grabbed or kissed them, or had made inappropriate, sexually-charged comments to them.
The accusations led to the San Diego Sheriff’s Department opening a special hotline to receive complaints about the mayor. At an afternoon news conference, Sheriff Bill Gore said that ultimately the hotline received more than 200 calls and detectives ended up interviewing 90 people.
Not all the calls were accusations against Filner, he said. He also said that some of the complaints about Filner’s conduct either did not rise to the level of a crime or fell outside the legal deadline for filing charges.
“I think these charges probably fairly accurately represent the type of conduct we were investigating,” he said.
Capt. Duncan Fraser, who supervised the investigation, said that initially two detectives were assigned to the task. Within three weeks that grew to five detectives, all hand-selected from the department.
Two were veteran sex crimes investigators, and one was experienced in domestic violence and sex crimes work, he said.
Filner was charged with three separate incidents, which he admitted one by one:
• On March 6, 2013 he admitted to forcibly restraining a woman identified only as Jane Doe 1 at a fundraising event in San Diego. This is the false imprisonment charge, and Coughlan said after the hearing he believed that it was an instance where Filner deployed the “Filner headlock.” That was a move some women described as draping an arm around their shoulder, pulling them close to him and not letting go.
• On April 6, he kissed a woman without her consent at a “Meet the Mayor” event at City Hall.
• On May 25 at a cleanup event at Fiesta Island, a woman approached him and asked to have a photograph with him. Just before the camera clicked, Filner grabbed the woman’s buttocks.
Supervising Deputy Attorney General Melissa Mandel said that all three women had been contacted about the guilty plea, and agreed with the terms. She said the victims found in the plea agreement “the right balance between justice and closure.”
In addition to wanting to put the matter behind him, looming grand jury proceedings — first reported by U-T Watchdog — had an influence on the final deal, Coughlan said.
“It was important to the Attorney General that it occurs before the grand jury put in time and effort so the state would save money and resources,” Coughlan said.
[Background: The women who accused Filner]
Under state law the false imprisonment charge can be filed as either a felony or misdemeanor, at the discretion of prosecutors. The distinction often depends on how much force is used, said defense lawyer and former District Attorney Paul Pfingst.
The charge can also be reduced to a misdemeanor after 18 months, and ultimately expunged.
A spokesman for Harris declined to comment on what influenced the negotiations behind the deal but said prosecutors had assembled “the strongest case we could possibly present.”
After 20 years in Congress, Filner had come home to become the city’s first Democratic mayor in decades, but served only 9 months before his administration imploded.
Coughlan said that Filner has come to realize the consequences of his conduct.
“I think he is a much more humbled man in my own personal view from the first time I met him early in all this,” Coughlan said. “I think to start out with, this was something he did not realize was as bad as it was perceived by other people.”
Filner’s formal sentencing is set for Dec. 9. He was ordered to go through a booking procedure — involving mug shots and fingerprints — this coming Sunday.
Gloria Allred, attorney for the former communications director suing Filner, told U-T Watchdog by email, “It is long overdue for him to be accountable in both the civil and criminal justice system and today is an important step forward in bringing Bob Filner to justice. His conduct as the mayor of San Diego was reprehensible and justice demands that he be punished for the harm he has caused to countless women who trusted and believed in him.”
City Attorney Jan Goldsmith, who is defending the city and Filner against Allred’s lawsuit, issued a statement saying, “Today’s action underscores the importance of Mr. Filner’s removal from office and will further help our city and the victims put this behind us.”
Separately, the Watchdog has reported, federal agents have made inquiries about Filner’s handling of a Kearny Mesa development by Sunroad Centrum Partners. The developer received a city concession after giving the mayor’s office $100,000 for favorite Filner causes. Any pending investigation of that matter is separate from the Attorney General’s charges regarding Filner’s alleged personal misconduct.
Gore said at the news conference that the hotline is now shut down.
“Our investigation is done,” he said.
View the Video Trent Seibert Reports on Filner's Plea
What is false imprisonment? False imprisonment is the unlawful violation of the personal liberty of another, basically, restraining a person's freedom of movement. Punishment: Such crimes can be punished by a fine of not more than $1,000, or by imprisonment in a county jail for not more than a year, or both. False imprisonment through violence, menace, fraud, or deceit can lead to a prison sentence.
What is battery? A battery is any willful and unlawful use of force or violence upon the person of another, grabbing or striking someone, for example. Punishment: A battery is punishable by a fine not exceeding $2,000, or by a jail sentence of not more than six months, or both.Divine World Botanicals is a Seattle based Responsible Retailer carrying select exotic botanicals and gifts. When it comes to our botanical selection, we ONLY carry products that have been tested and analyzed for alkaloid content and contaminants to make sure that you are purchasing quality products that are clean. We believe very strongly in the botanicals on our list, and expect that you do too. We want you to feel as confident in our products as we do.
Customer service is our signature. We actually started our company because customer service seems to be non-existent in this industry. We view our customers as clients, and want to develop a relationship based on open communication and mutual respect
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If you get voice mail when calling,please leave a message and we will call you backScalia On Constitution and Gays
In an interview, Supreme Court justice Antonin Scalia says the Constitution doesn't promise protections for women and gays.
California Lawyer asked Scalia the following question: "In 1868, when the 39th Congress was debating and ultimately proposing the 14th Amendment, I don't think anybody would have thought that equal protection applied to sex discrimination, or certainly not to sexual orientation. So does that mean that we've gone off in error by applying the 14th Amendment to both?"
The ultraconservative judge replied that the Constitution doesn't require discrimination against minorities, but that it certainly doesn't prohibit it.
"Nobody ever thought that that's what it meant," Scalia said of the 14th Amendment protecting women. "Nobody ever voted for that. If the current society wants to outlaw discrimination by sex, hey we have things called legislatures, and they enact things called laws."
Scalia's responses were met with sharp criticism by some. "In these comments, Justice Scalia says if Congress wants to protect laws that prohibit sex discrimination, that's up to them," Marcia Greenberger, founder of the National Women's Law Center, told The Huffington Post. "But what if they want to pass laws that discriminate?"July 14, 2017
Is Killing "Leaders" Useful Or Not - CentCom Can't Make Up Its Mind
A contrasting juxtaposition in my twitter feed:
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First the U.S. Central Command tweet with this statement by the commander of the U.S. Forces in Afghanistan, General Nicholson:
GENERAL NICHOLSON STATEMENT ON THE KILLING OF THE THIRD ISIS-K EMIR BY U.S. AND AFGHAN FORCES IN THE LAST 12 MONTHS
...
"This operation is another success in our campaign to defeat ISIS-K in Afghanistan in 2017," said Nicholson. "Abu Sayed is the third ISIS-K emir we have killed in the last year and we will continue until they are annihilated. There is no safe haven for ISIS-K in Afghanistan." [bold added]
Then the Micah Zenko tweet with this interview with the commander of U.S. Central Command, General Votel. Votel is the direct superior of the above Nicholson:
Q: ISIS leader Abu Bakr Al-Baghdadi — dead or alive? And does it matter anymore? Votel: [..] I hope that he is (dead), frankly. [..] That said, we've been doing this long enough to know that leaders are killed and we've killed plenty of them. And that there's always somebody who is going to step up into those positions so we shouldn't think that just killing Baghdadi is the key here. He can be replaced. So in that regard, it may not matter as much. [bold added]
Nicholson says he can win the war against XYZ by killing a bunch of successive XYZ "leaders". Votel rightly says that this is clearly not so. During sixteen years of War of Terror and constant killing of various "emirs" special boilerplate statements were prepared for the typical "victory" announcements. Votel seems to have understood that such killings do not matter. His direct subordinate Nicholson did not. Shouldn't they talk to each other about such issues?
But it may well be that Votel would have sounded very different if his troops had killed Baghdadi and not a Russian(!) air strike.
Posted by b on July 14, 2017 at 05:11 PM | Permalink
CommentsWith the death of a 44-year-old male named Angalifu, there are only five northern white rhinos left in the world, according to the San Diego Zoo Safari Park, which tweeted the news along with the above photo on Sunday. He came to California from the Khartoum Zoo in Sudan in August 1990, U-T San Diego reports. He died of old age.
"Angalifu's death is a tremendous loss to all of us," park curator Randy Rieches said in a statement to AP. "Not only because he was well beloved here at the park but also because his death brings this wonderful species one step closer to extinction."
The northern white rhinoceros (Ceratotherium simum cottoni), also known as the square-lipped rhino, once lived throughout parts of Uganda, Chad, Sudan, Central African Republic, and Democratic Republic of the Congo. As the second largest land animal, they can reach nearly two meters (six feet) in height, and the males can weigh up to 3,600 kilograms (almost 8,000 pounds). But their horns are valued for dagger handles and as aphrodisiacs, and poaching gangs have obliterated the species in the last five or so decades.
The remaining five are found at the San Diego Zoo (a female named Nola), Dvur Kralove Zoo in the Czech Republic, and three in a preserve in Kenya, Washington Post reports. The three in Kenya -- a male named Sudan and two females named Najin and Fatu -- were sent to Kenya in hopes that they’d breed in a more natural setting.
Attempts to mate Angalifu with Nola have been unsuccessful, and just last week, preservationists at the Ol Pejeta Conservancy in Kenya said that their one male and two females will not reproduce naturally. "Gauging the estrus cycle of the female is difficult,” Rieches tells the Los Angeles Times. "The rhino is one of the species that we're still working on to perfect artificial insemination." In vitro fertilization might be the only hope to keep the species alive.
Sizeable populations of the southern white rhinoceros (C. s. simum), a conservation success story, can be found in South Africa, with smaller reintroduced populations living throughout the southern half of the continent. One of these females may become a surrogate mother for the northern subspecies.Itai??i??s no secret that Wolfsburg have dropped like a stone since they overachieved in 2009 to triumph in the Bundesliga. When the board was called upon to build on this stepping stone, they failed miserably. The title holders were automatically thrown into the Champions League group stages and the opportunity lay in front of them to steadily grow in stature as a football powerhouse. Ambition and money was not in question, yet ultimately became the problem when both fell prey to mismanagement.
Wolfsburgai??i??s board struggled to pick the right management and coaching structure after Felix Magath headed to Gelsenkirchen with Schalke. That put Wolfsburg on the path to hell: congested squads, no identity on the pitch, inconsistent form, relegation battles and mediocrity have been their story since.
Beginning with Armin Veh: the current manager of Eintracht Frankfurt was a victim of failing to live up to their over-achievement, and Dieter HoeneAY was hired as the general director after Vehai??i??s dismissal. The appointment received good reviews at the time, yet following Lorenz-Guenther KAi??stnerai??i??s impressive spell as the interim manager, they took a huge risk on Steve McClaren in 2010. The incoherent partnership of HoeneAY and McClaren was a disaster and it resulted in even poorer performances, questionable man-management and troubling results.
From title challengers to relegation survivors, the return of Felix Magath was a shock but he was warmly welcomed back after securing Wolfsburgai??i??s Bundesliga status on the final day. Nevertheless, the atmosphere in the dressing room was wrecked beyond repair at that point and Diego wasnai??i??t interested after walking out of the dressing room before the relegation decider at Hoffenheim.
Dieter HoeneAY, whose contract was cancelled before Magathai??i??s arrival, recently claimed it was a panic move and Wolfsburg should have held on to a general director despite Pierre Littbarskiai??i??s unsuccessful attempt as the interim manager.
Wolfsburgai??i??s biggest mistake was giving Magath total responsibility. At the beginning of the 2011/12 season he promised to deliver on the European stage but betrayed a marked preference for quantity over quality in the transfer market. He remained out of touch as the game moved forward, and the board’s patience ran out with him in the following season. In came Klaus Allofs and Wolfsburgai??i??s change of fortunes has been a welcome twist in the tale.
Long-term stability
Klaus Allofsai??i?? arrival as sporting director coincided with Werder Bremenai??i??s decline. Allofs spoke enthusiastically about the long-term project at Wolfsburg. The board were patient and carefully identified a footballing manager to work with Allofs. The former Hannover and current NA?rnberg manager at the time, Dieter Hecking, was appointed and a sense of stability arrived. Six months plus a summer transfer window later, they cleaned up the mess, addressed the problems and formed a team of passionate players.
Allofs essentially began to dispose of the deadwood, and within two transfer windows he brought in players with quality such as Ivan PeriA?iAi??, Daniel Caligiuri, Timm Klose, Max GrA?n and the super signing of Luiz Gustavo which showed real intent of ambition.
Hecking identifies Wolfsburg as an attacking-team capable of pressing high up the pitch and passing the ball forward with high tempo. However, his biggest achievement comes from his coaching and man-management ability to improve individuals.Ai??Vieirinhaai??i??s form has risen so far as to receive call-ups for the Portuguese national team, Ricardo RodrAi??guez is one of the top young full-backs in Europe, and OliAi?? has been firing in the goals. Crucially for the team, Diego, much to Atletico Madridai??i??s credit, has transformed from an individual to a complete attacking-midfielder. More good news came in the form of Maxi Arnold and Robin Knoche, both homegrown players who have now stepped into the first-team.
Wolfsburg have a plan and theyai??i??re acting quickly. After spending their pre-season in Switzerland, the group is now a tight-knit squad and the spine of the team is a combination of youth and experience. All the jigsaw pieces are falling into place.
Realistic goals
Every season for Wolfsburg begins with a forceful sense of optimism and it especially came to the fore where Marcel SchAi??fer said, ai???Wolfsburg must forget about 2009,ai??? and set realistic targets ai??i?? which for Wolfsburg was to compete for Europa League qualification.
After eight games, Wolfsburg has set a pattern of strong home form, while on their travels they have picked up zero points and four red cards. Those numbers have raised questions about Wolfsburgai??i??s disciplinary problems. Considering the red cards, Wolfsburg have remarkably averaged 55% ball-possession after eight games, three of which were against Champions League participating teams, and on average attempted 15 shots on goal per game. Hecking has certainly living up to his style and ideas.
Wolfsburg kids
The Volkswagen-owned club are notoriously known for spending money and paying little attention to developing youth players into stars fit for the first-team. The Allofs and Hecking partnership has seen a balance instilled with Arnold and Knoche as recent examples. They want quality players with value from abroad, but a homegrown spine running the show as the team’s spine.
Approving Sebastian Polterai??i??s departure was questionable but there are plenty of exciting names throughout the youth ranks. Julian Brandt is chased by every big European club, Federico Palacios is averaging 2.28 goals per game at the U19 level, Razak Iddrisu has huge potential, and Tolcay CiAYerci has received plaudits for his role in midfield. The biggest change was giving ValAi??rien IsmaAi??l the Wolfsburg U23 coaching role, and they currently sit top of the league with some remarkable attacking performances.
Apart from Ricardo RodrAi??guez, there are youngsters in Wolfsburgai??i??s squad trying to break in the first-team. Slobodan Medojevic is more than capable, while Tolga CiAYerci was sent out on loan to play regularly, and let’s not forget the hot Belgian prospect Junior Malanda and young Swiss star Nassim Ben Khalifa. Wolfsburg have finally realized they don’t always need to always spend money when they can develop players from the youth.
Conclusion
Allofs and Hecking have already ticked all the boxes in the first phase of the Wolfsburg project and theyai??i??re steering the club forward with steely-eyed intent. The club transfer record was broken for Luiz Gustavo and youth have been integrated with the first-team to an extent unheard of, in the team’s recent past. The next step is to persevere with the project and their targets sensibly, while resisting the urge to panic when results go against them. Only then can Wolfsburg say they’ve put their demons to rest.
Written by @WolfsburgUK
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can be exploited profitably using today’s technology. The other half won’t come so easily. By some estimates, the Earth contains up to eight trillion more barrels of oil, but that oil exists in many forms, some of which, such as shale oil, can be extremely expensive to extract or refine. And as we work our way through the easiest oil, we will also be confronted by increasing external costs—real costs that nonetheless aren’t accounted for at the gas pump. A desperate rush to extract oil from unstable nations can topple regimes, for instance, even as extracting it from environmentally fragile spots can do major harm to the land or the sea.
Which means that we face a series of complex choices, not just about where to extract what kind of oil, but also about when to extract it. Going after everything at once may seem wise, especially to oil entrepreneurs invested in specific resources or policymakers unconcerned about external costs. But as engineers develop new extraction and refinement techniques, oil that is expensive or environmentally harmful now may be cheaper or cleaner in the future. With that in mind, what would happen if we considered how best to extract our two trillion barrels not from the short-term perspective of a politician or a businessman, but from the longer view of a petroleum engineer? Which oil would we save for last, and which would we go for first?
Below is a list of legacy energy forms that are currently being exploited and which provide a far lower capital investment need to generate incremental returns:
Shale
Total reserves: 3 trillion barrels of oil equivalent (BOE)
Given the political anxiety surrounding the prospect of importing oil, U.S. policymakers will be understandably tempted to reach first for the closest, richest oil resource. For many, that would suggest shale oil. The vast deposits located beneath Colorado, Utah and Wyoming alone could generate up to 800 billion barrels of oil. But policymakers should resist that urge.
Oil shale is created when kerogen, the organic precursor to oil and natural gas, accumulates in rock formations without being subjected to enough heat to be completely cooked into oil. Petroleum engineers have long known how to finish the job, by heating the kerogen until it vaporizes, distilling the resulting gas into a synthetic crude, and refining that crude into gasoline or some other fuel. But the process is expensive. The kerogen must either be strip-mined and converted aboveground or cooked, often by electrical heaters, in the ground and then pumped to the surface. Either process pushes production costs up to $90 a barrel. As all crude prices rise, though, the added expense of shale oil may come to seem reasonable--and it is likely to drop in any case if the shale oil industry, now made up of relatively small pilot operations, scales up.
The problem is that the external costs of shale oil are also very high. It is not energy-dense (a ton of rock yields just 30 gallons of pure kerogen), so companies will be removing millions of tons of material from thousands of acres of land, which can introduce dangerous amounts of heavy metals into the water system. The in-ground method, meanwhile, can also contaminate groundwater (although Shell and other companies say this can be prevented by freezing the ground). Both methods are resource-intensive. Producing a barrel of synthetic crude requires as many as three barrels of water, a major constraint in the already parched Western U.S. With in-ground, the kerogen must be kept at temperatures as high as 700°F for more than two years, and aboveground processes use a lot of heat as well. Those demands, coupled with kerogen’s low energy density, yield returns ranging from 10:1 (that is, 10 barrels of output for every one barrel of input) to an abysmal 3:1.
Coal
Total reserves: 1.5 trillion BOE
Coal can also be converted into a synthetic crude, as the German army, desperate for fuel, demonstrated during World War II. The method of transformation is simple: Engineers blast the coal with steam, breaking it into a gas that can then be converted, by the Fischer-Tropsch process, into gasoline and other fuels. Many energy companies are promoting various coal-to-liquid processes (CTL) as a way to replace oil, especially in the U.S. and other coal-rich nations.
The appeal is obvious. At a conversion rate of just under two barrels per ton, the world’s 847 billion tons of recoverable coal theoretically represent roughly 1.5 trillion barrels of synthetic oil, or a substantial piece of the final trillion.
Like shale oil, however, CTL has significant shortcomings. Its energy return is unimpressive; a barrel’s worth of invested energy nets just three to six barrels of CTL. Moreover, coal contains about 20 percent more carbon than oil does, and converting it to liquid raises the ratio even further. CTL fuels have a carbon footprint nearly twice as large as that of conventional oil--1,650 pounds of CO2 per barrel of CTL, versus 947 pounds per barrel of conventional.
Even if producers installed a vast and expensive system to capture and sequester the CO2 produced during the conversion process, says Edward Rubin, a professor of environmental engineering at Carnegie Mellon University, coal production uses so much energy that CO2 emissions from CTL fuels would still be as great as those of conventional oil. At best, making fuel from coal would get us no closer to a more climate-compatible energy system.
All of that aside, even the supply of coal is not infinite. Researchers at the Rand Corporation concluded in 2008 that replacing just 10 percent of U.S. daily transportation fuel with CTL would take 400 million tons of coal annually, which would mean expanding the American coal industry, which is already straining environmental limits, by 40 percent. Although such an undertaking might be politically feasible in China or other nations, Rubin says, “I have a hard time seeing that in this country.”
Heavy Oil
Total reserves: 1 to 2 trillion BOE
Other unconventional resources may, despite having many shortcomings, become somewhat more attractive as new extraction methods come online. One of these is “heavy oil,” which ranges from the molasses-like crude in Venezuela to the bituminous oil sands of Alberta. For decades, oil traders saw heavy oil as inferior to light crude, which is easier to extract and whose smaller-chain molecules are more readily refined. Heavy oil’s bigger molecules, in contrast, were suited mainly to low-profit products, such as ship fuel or asphalt. But new refining techniques are making heavy oil more renderable into gasoline, and new extraction methods are making it easier to get out of the ground.
At a heavy-oil field outside Bakersfield, California, for instance, Chevron deploys computer-guided steam injection to thin the oil sufficiently to pump out. Even more promising are oil-sands operations in Alberta, where companies are now separating the brittle bitumen from sand and clay and cooking it into synthetic crude. At a conversion rate of one barrel for every two tons of sand, Alberta’s oil sands alone may contain up to 315 billion barrels of crude. As refining costs have dropped, output has reached 1.5 mbd and could more than quadruple, to 6.3 mbd, by 2035.
That said, heavy-oil production also has plenty of external costs. As with the kerogen in shale, the bitumen is processed either in-ground or by strip-mining. Both processes consume up to 4.5 barrels of water for every barrel of oil they produce and yield an unimpressive EROEI of about 7:1. And because heavy oils are carbon-rich, the CO2 footprint of crude from bitumen is up to 20 percent higher than that of conventional crude—not as bad as coal, but not exactly friendly to the environment either. Carbon-capture and -sequester techniques can only keep so much of that CO2 out of the atmosphere. Oil-sands operations are sprawling, and as a result, very little of the total CO2 emissions can be captured (one study suggests we might trap just 40 percent by 2030).
If carbon-capture techniques improve, though, heavy oil could make up a substantial share of the final two trillion barrels for a carbon penalty substantially below that of either CTL or shale oil. A further advantage (from the U.S. perspective) is that a lot of heavy oil is located in a politically stable country that’s right next door.
Ultra-Deep Offshore
Total reserves: 0.1 to 0.7 trillion BOE
The “deep” in ultra-deep refers to the depths plumbed by floating oil rigs (typically, anything beyond 5,000 feet). But the more important depth is the distance from the ocean floor to the oil itself. It’s not easy to start an excavation a mile or two underwater, much less one that continues on for several more miles underground (the current record, set in 2009 in the Gulf of Mexico, is nearly seven miles). But an ever-expanding drilling fleet is deploying new techniques in horizontal drilling, sub-sea robotics and “four-dimensional” seismology (which geologists use to track oil and natural-gas deposit conditions in real time) to rapidly expand output. Although fewer than half the world’s ultra-deep provinces have been fully explored, deepwater output in the past decade has more than tripled, to 5 mbd, and it could double again by 2015.
As the Deepwater Horizon disaster made clear last year, though, tapping this resource can involve significant external costs. The pressure in ultra-deep reservoirs can reach up to 2,000 times that at sea level. The oil within can be extremely hot (up to 400°F) and rife with corrosive compounds (including hydrogen sulfide, which when in water can dissolve steel). And the pipes that rise from the seafloor are so long and heavy that the platforms supporting them must be extraordinarily large simply to stay afloat. The biggest discovery in decades, Brazil’s “pre-salt play,” meanwhile, is defended by a 1.5-mile-thick ceiling of salt, which had the beneficial effect of absorbing surrounding heat and keeping the oil from breaking down—but which also, in doing so, congealed the oil into a paraffinic jelly that drillers must now thin with chemicals before they can extract it.
Not surprisingly, ultra-deepwater oil is some of the most expensive in the business. A single drilling platform can cost $600 million or more (especially if the deepwater is in the Arctic, where rigs must be armored to withstand Force-10 winter storms and hull-crushing ice floes), and companies can easily spend $100 million drilling a single ultra-deepwater well. The result of all this effort is a modest EROEI--from 15:1 all the way down to 3:1.
Thus, even as companies scramble to improve safety, most of the research and development in the ultra deep will focus on saving money and energy. Remotely controlled, steerable drill heads, for example, allow companies to drill multiple bores from a single platform (thus lowering costs and the aboveground footprint) and to follow the path of narrow oil seams, greatly increasing oil output. (The record for a horizontal bore, set by Exxon near Russia’s Sakhalin Island, is also about seven miles.) To further cut drilling costs, companies will steadily boost rates of penetration with more-powerful drill motors, drill bits made of ever-harder materials and, eventually, a drilling process that uses no bits at all. Tests at Argonne National Laboratory suggest that high-powered lasers can penetrate rock faster than conventional bits, either by superheating the rock until it shatters or by melting it.
Costs will further recede as companies develop more-accurate “multi-channel” seismic prospecting techniques that will, by combining up to a million seismic signals, help them avoid the ultimate waste of drilling into empty rock. And to better measure the oil reservoirs themselves, companies are creating heat- and pressure-resistant “downhole” sensors (similar to devices NASA developed to monitor rocket engines) that communicate to surface computers via optical fiber.
As the volume of data rises, the industry will also create more-powerful tools to analyze it, from monster compression algorithms (courtesy of Hollywood animators) to entirely new computing architectures. “If we go to a million channels [of seismic data], then we need petaflop computation capability, which we currently do not have,” says Bruce Levell, Shell’s chief scientist for geology. To get that capability, oil firms are working with Intel, IBM and other hardware firms. In the future, Levell says, the oil business “is really going to drive high-performance computing.”
Natural Gas
Total reserves: 1 trillion BOE
Natural gas, or simply “gas” in industry parlance, has long been oil’s biggest potential rival as a transport fuel. Gas is cleaner than oil--it emits fewer particulates and a quarter less carbon for the same amount of energy output--yet today it powers less than 3 percent of the U.S. transportation fleet (mainly in the form of compressed natural gas, or CNG). This proportion is poised to grow, though, in part because the overall supply of gas keeps growing.
With advances in a drilling technique called hydraulic fracturing, or “fracking,” companies can now profitably extract gas from previously hard-to-reach shale formations. Worldwide reserves of shale gas currently stand at 6,662 trillion cubic feet, the energy equivalent of 827 billion barrels of oil. And that doesn’t include the gas that is routinely discovered alongside oil in oil fields and that is sure to be found in some of those yet-to-be-explored deepwater basins.
Gas is so plentiful that, in energy-equivalent terms, its price is a quarter that of oil--a bargain that is already transforming CNG from a niche fuel, used mainly in bus fleets, to a product for general consumption. The Texas refiner Valero, for instance, will soon begin selling CNG at new stations in the U.S.
A gas-powered future could still have some high external costs, though. Fracking can be extremely hazardous to the local environment. The method uses high-pressure fluids to break open deep rock formations in which gas is trapped, and these fluids often contain toxins that might contaminate groundwater supplies. But such risks, which have received substantial media coverage and are now the focus of a new White House panel, may be controllable. Gas deposits are typically thousands of feet belowground, while groundwater tables are much closer to the surface, so most contamination is thought to take place where the rising bore intersects with the water table--a risk that could be minimized by requiring drillers to more carefully seal the walls of the bore.
That said, allocating too much natural gas to transportation might have surprisingly negative consequences. First, it would most likely increase demand for natural gas so much that prices would rise, thereby undermining the current cost advantage. Second, shifting a large volume of gas to the transportation sector would mean pulling that volume away from the power sector, where it is more constructively displacing coal, whose carbon content is far higher than oil’s. But converting specific sectors of the transportation system (delivery fleets, for instance, or buses) could simultaneously cut CO2 emissions and reduce oil demand.
Enhanced Oil Recovery
Total reserves: 0.5 trillion BOE
The resource that comes with the lowest external cost might be the oil we left behind, back when energy was a lot cheaper. Drillers typically end up extracting just a third of the oil in a given field, in part because when they drain reservoirs they also decrease the pressure that pushes oil to the surface, making it more expensive to extract the remaining barrels. In the U.S., abandoned oil fields may still contain a staggering 400 billion barrels of residual oil; worldwide, the figure is probably in the trillions. Extracting all of it is economically impossible, but advances in enhanced oil recovery, or EOR, could boost extraction rates to as high as 70 percent.
EOR could add perhaps half a trillion “new” barrels worldwide. And it could also carry a substantial environmental bonus. One of the most promising EOR methods involves “flooding” oil reservoirs with CO2, which dissolves into the oil, making it both thinner and more voluminous, and thus easier to extract. Once the oil is extracted, the CO2 can be separated, re-injected into the field, and sequestered there permanently. An aggressive strategy in which CO2 is captured from single-point sources (such as power plants or refineries) and pumped into oil fields could increase U.S. oil output by as much as 3.6 mbd while sequestering nearly a billion tons of CO2. And depending on the method, EOR can have an EROEI as high as 20:1.
EOR can’t entirely bridge the gap--but in a perfect world, we would at least begin by tapping those barrels, along with the oil--equivalent barrels of natural gas. That way, we would be using the least damaging resources first and saving the worst barrels for later, when (if all goes well) future engineering innovations will let us extract and consume them more safely and efficiently.
But of course, we don’t live in a perfect world. For now, oil producers will do what they have always done, which is to extract oil as cheaply as they can. And oil consumers will follow suit, buying the cheapest energy they can. We may eventually ask the market to take the true costs of production into account, perhaps by way of a carbon tax or some kind of climate regulation. Or we may not. Energy policy has never been particularly far-sighted. There is little chance that the transition to a clean-energy economy will be entirely clean. It will require trade-offs and compromises, and the cost of those trade-offs and compromises will rise with every year that we wait to get serious about moving away from oil.
One thing is certain: the status quoTM, which is just as entrenched in the legacy financial system as it is in the existing energy paradigm, will do nothing until it is far too late to provide for a contingency plan while it is still feasible and not cost-prohibitive. After all, by the time things get so bad that there is no choice but to move on to something "else" it will be some other, far less entitled, generation's problem.
Source: Popular ScienceTwo themes of my public comments on the sale of Hydro One have been that there is no windfall available from the sale to fund government spending initiatives and that creating a Potemkin windfall will hasten Ontario Electricity Financial Corporation’s (OEFC) collapse into insolvency.
Supporters of the Hydro One sale, including the Globe & Mail editorial board and Ed Clark, have claimed that the Hydro One sale will create a windfall to fund government spending. The government has been silent on explaining the impacts of the sale on OEFC until now.
Postings on this site addressing these twin themes have included this series of media interview, this National Post column coauthored with my friend Mike Hilson, this deputation Hilson and I made to the Ontario legislature Standing Committee on Finance, and this column where I argue that the coming removal of the Debt Reduction Charge is a phony stunt and I anticipate a new transit tax on power to replace it.
Here are some of my Tweets on these twin themes:
Tom Adams @tomadamsenergy 27 Mar 2015
Hey @Bob_Chiarelli, what’s your big plan 4 Debt Reduction Charge payable by commercial consumers? Have you noticed OEFC’s solvency problem? Tom Adams @tomadamsenergy 3 Apr 2015
Hey @Bob_Chiarelli, have you realized yet that even if you repeal s.50.3 of EA, OEFC tanks without H1+Debt Reduction Charge? #nowindfall Tom Adams @tomadamsenergy Sep 25 Toronto, Ontario
Friday aft, dandy Lib time 2 slide out ON Provincial Accounts. Watch 4 OEFC claiming big net income but actually sliding toward insolvency.
Bill 144, an omnibus budget measures act introduced November 18th, contains the first clues so far disclosed as to how the government intends to fill the hole it has created at OEFC with the sale of Hydro One. One section of Bill 144 repeals section 92 (4) of the Electricity Act. That section of the Electricity Act would have redirected the flow of municipal taxes back to municipalities (and away from OEFC) once a portion of OEFC’s liabilities called the Residual Stranded Debt were paid off. What all of this means is that Wynne’s signature initiative to use the proceeds of the sale of Hydro One to build transit is to be achieved in part through the farcical finance of seizing revenue from another level of government. The amount of money is small in the scheme of things but it illustrates the government’s reliance on astrology and unicorn sightings to guide their electricity and transit plans.
The financial flows underpinning Ontario’s electricity system, particularly OEFC, were designed from back in the days of Mike Harris as shell game. The Libs have taken the shell game to ever greater levels of subterfuge. The government uses this shell game to sustain the provincial Auditor General’s continued confusion about the reality of the situation. The Auditor General has been lost in space on the subject of OEFC’s coming insolvency for at least 10 years. The fact that the Auditor General signed off on OEFC’s phony accounts for Fiscal 2014/15 while the Hydro One bank robbery was in progress illustrates the continued inability of the Auditor General to get the jokes.Pros: Nice recreation of sketching tools, compliments from the Miiverse.
Cons: Changing pencils more awkward than in real life, paper stock choices all look basically the same.
Nowadays a drawing program is generally thought of as something where you can make straight lines by setting two points, or copy and repeat an image, or fill an area with color at the click of a button. That’s not what Nintendo’s Art Academy Sketchpad is. Sketchpad patterns itself after the kind of drawing I did in art classes in high school; pencils of various darknesses, a paper tool to smear the graphite, a couple of erasers. This is a true drawing program, and one that lets me see what happens to a promising art student’s skill when he hasn’t drawn in decades.
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Developed by: Headstrong Games
Published by: Nintendo
Genre: Drawing app
For ages: All
Platform: Wii U (eShop)
Release Date: August 9, 2013
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The Basics: Pre-Computer Art Tool Design
Sketchpad is made up of some of the drawing tools of the Art Academy DS games. While these games were focused on teaching drawing, Sketchpad offers no lessons, although it does offer a few photographs you can display on the television while you draw.
You draw, of course, on the gamepad. Sketchpad has three sets of drawing tools; graphite pencils, colored pencils, and pastels. All offer a choice of thickness. You can use all three sets in one drawing, but when you switch from one tool set to another, everything you've drawn so far is made permanent, which is mildly bothersome.
All tool sets also offer access to two different types of eraser (putty or square) and a tortillon, aka blending stump (Art Academy calls it a smudge stick, which is actually a whole other thing).
With these tools, you draw. There is no copy, there is no paste, there is no undo. It’s just like putting pencil to paper, except that if the base of your hand brushes the touch screen you don’t smear your drawing but instead draw lines on it, which is worse.
Comparison: Sketchpad Versus Old-School Pencil and Paper
In some ways, drawing the old fashioned way is better. You can switch tools more quickly, you have more control over the exact thickness of a line and your tortillon picks up graphite in a way that allows you to smudge far more effectively than with Sketchpad. This last was a big issue for me, as back in high school I spent a lot of time smoothing out my pencil marks. Also, in Sketchpad there is nothing onscreen to remind you of your current tool, and at times I would actually forget whether I was holding a pencil or an eraser or a tortillon.
In other ways drawing on the Wii U is a step up. Erasers never get dirty, pencils never need sharpening, and when you’re finished you can upload your drawing to the Miiverse and bask in the approving glow of your fellow artists. I posted a drawing of my girlfriend (which she says makes her look ugly) on the Miiverse just so I could download it to my PC, but by doing so I gained an audience, and I started getting “yeahs” on the sketch, which made me feel better about it. And looking at the other artwork (which heavily draws on game characters and anime, especially from Japan’s Wii U artists), I realized that there is something really compelling about joining a community and exchanging compliments. It makes me want to draw for the first time in a long time
The Verdict: A Must-Have For Sketch Artists
Eventually Nintendo will release a full version of Art Academy which will include lessons, but if you already know how to draw, or think you can figure it out, then for $4 you can get Sketchpad and draw to your heart’s content. Inspired, I plan to continue working on my skills, hoping that maybe, with time, I can once again be the artist I was at 17.
Update: Nintendo has since released their full art app, Art Academy: Home Studio, and has subsequently withdrawn Sketchpad. I haven't tried Home Studio, but if you want to buy it and own Sketchpad you'll get $4 off the $30 price.123 SHARES Facebook Twitter Linkedin Reddit
Dating Lessons is an interactive dating course created by VR developers Cerevrum Inc. and self-styled seduction coach Manish “Magic” Leone. Supposedly tailored for heterosexual men with low self-esteem or shyness with the opposite sex, the dating course offers 11 lessons and 7 practical interactive sessions that promise to “give men tools to enhance their power of attraction and develop behavior patterns to handle stress and anxiety.”
‘Dating Lessons’ Details:
Official Site
Developer: Cerevrum Inc.
Available On: Gear VR, Oculus Home, SteamVR (Vive and Rift)
Reviewed On: Oculus Rift, Gear VR
Release Date: December 17th, 2016
Before diving into the review, I should first start off with an advisory message: I don’t need dating lessons because I’ve been in a stable relationship with my partner for the better part of a decade, so I’m simply not in a position to put seduction extraordinaire Magic Leone’s pick-up artist (PUA) theories and practices to the test. What I am able to do however is show you exactly what sort of content you can expect from Dating Lessons, which hopefully will help you determine if its right for you. As in all reviews, the thoughts that follow are my own.
Secondly, before the review begins, how do you introduce someone who calls themselves Magic? Straight out of the gate, Magic. Anyway, here’s what he has to say about himself on The Gotham Dating Club blog, one of the regular outlets for his articles such as ‘My Power Pose to Show Her You’re a Superior Man’ and ‘How To Project Dominant Body Language The “Right” Way’:
Magic Leone is an unusual dating coach. He came to the U.S. from India after his failed attempt at suicide when he discovered that his fiancé of 7 years was cheating on him. Magic studied the deep emotional and physical needs that fuel women’s sexual desires while counseling them on sexual health. Working with women, Magic developed an understanding of how most women want to be seduced. This knowledge led him to sexual encounters with more than 400 women, and ultimately to marry the woman of his dreams. Magic is known to be a tough coach who runs military-style workshops that force men to evolve overnight, but you may not know that he is actually a softy who craves chocolate 5 times a day. In fact there was a time Magic’s clients brought him chocolate to workshops as part of his compensation, and sometimes even as a form of bribe to make him go easy on them. Magic is also a movie buff. In his spare time (after he is done indulging in women), he secretly works on the screenplay that is his dream project.
According to Magic’s website, with his help you can become “The #1 Choice Of Every Woman. They’ll Choose You Over All Other Men Resulting In Ultimate Power To Have Sex With Any Woman You Choose!”
You can also take solace in the fact that with Magic’s guidance you’ll finally say goodbye to “Feeling Like A Desperate Loser Who Fears Rejection And Does Not Know What To Say To Women. Good Looking Women Will Chase You And Do All The Work – Even Your Female Friends Will Compete To Get In Bed with You!”
Furthermore, Magic promises that anyone can “Attain High Status Among Men And Every Man Would Want To Be Friends With You Hoping To Get A Little Piece of The Action By Getting In Your Good Books!”
That may be illustrative enough for you to understand what sort of person is behind Cerevrum’s Dating Lessons. Now for the proper review.
Gameplay
Dating Lessons is an app that combines 360 video with interactive elements. Video quality is actually quite good. In fact, I wasn’t even aware that I didn’t have positional tracking for the first lesson or two because of how well interactive elements and 2D video was interlaced. Saint Petersburg-based VR studio Cerevrum has also produced a number of educational VR games including Speech Center VR, House of Meditation, and eponymous brain training game Cerevrum, all of which are available on Gear VR.
Lesson topics run the gamut from subjects such as What Triggers Attraction, Eye Contact, Energy, Self Deprecating Humor and also more sexually-charged themes like Body Language, and Touching. Despite this, everything is pretty much PG-13 in Dating Lessons.
In the first lesson What Triggers Attraction, Magic tells us he’s going to teach us the building blocks of getting the girl:
“How do you approach her? What are those kind of things you can say that makes her want to stop and continue the conversation with you? What is it you need to tell her during the interaction so she continues not only to enjoy your interaction, but also feels more and more interest for you, more and more desire for you? And then I’m going to teach you how to position yourself, how to walk up to her, the right tonality, the right body language, how to make eye contact, how to touch her. Basically, these building blocks will teach you every single thing you need to know that next time you see a woman you know exactly how to charm her, you know exactly how to get her so excited that she gets eager, she gets desperate to be with you.”
Then Magic has me set goals, telling me to choose an arbitrary max of 3. He reassures me that this is “even something I do with my very high-end customers when they come to my program.”
This is all well and good, but these goals that I’ve set have zero bearing on how the rest of the course goes, and offer no tailoring to my individual needs as a paying customer who just wants to simultaneously find out how to date multiple women, attract one special woman and get my ex girlfriend back. (I wonder why she left me in the first place?)
Going through all the lessons and interactive interludes takes about 2 hours. Most lessons start out with some common sense tactics that more or less culminate in a generally understood dating maxim: Thou shalt not be an unpleasant weirdo. That includes staring for too long, not smiling enough, talking too quietly, hitting on her while she’s clearly doing something else, initiating an uncomfortable, albeit entirely innocent touch; basically not having a clear grasp on basic social interaction cues.
But then each lesson takes a brief turn for the frighteningly manipulative, leaving me with some serious questions.
Why do I have to drop fake hints that I’m actually constantly talking to models, and “it’s refreshing to finally meet a girl that is so down to earth”? Why do all of my questions directed toward a woman necessarily have to be self-referential and long-winded? Why do I have to pretend I’m so much more important than I really am? I can’t help but think that these tactics aren’t really about breaking the ice, but actually reveal Magic’s true intent of teaching the user to build a quick report based on artifice and deception. He never tells you the advice “talk about your hobby and maybe you’ll find out she likes it too.” It’s always based on a meticulous extraction of data about her that you’re then supposed to leverage so you can build immediate trust.
Here’s a quick bit on how Magic uses self-deprecating humor to his ultimate advantage.
In the interlaced on-location shots, I found Magic at points somewhat unrehearsed, and even at times a bit incoherent, almost as if he was making up his points on the fly. Outdoor scenes sometimes suffer from bad audio due to the constant wind blowing into his lapel mic.
The virtual visual aides presented during the video were helpful in illustrating some of Magic’s more concise points however, and were well used throughout the entire 11 lesson course to good effect.
The 7 interactive modules were at times painfully ineffective, and left me questioning if there was any point at all to the exercise. In a few trials, you’re asked to talk to a prospective woman with the goal of introducing yourself, chatting her up, etc. The problem is the resultant grades given have no basis in reality. As far as I could tell, the only thing measured was the volume of my voice, which I verified by repeating the phrase “turd-flavored soup” in a constantly descending volume. Jessica, my new female prospect from California with a heavy Russian accent, was pleased to meet me even though I kept whispering “hamburger hamburger hamburger.” Who knows, maybe she just likes hamburgers.
I wasn’t expecting to have a realistic conversation with an advanced AI, but I’m not sure how Dating Lessons wants me to practice having a conversation with a cardboard cut-out of a woman either.
Immersion & Comfort
There’s only a single environment in the app, a beach-side bungalow filled with projection screens that Magic pops in and out of for his on-location lessons. There’s not much of reason why this couldn’t be executed on traditional monitors, and I fail to see how virtual reality makes this content any more compelling.
Another annoying bit is the omnipresent gaze reticle. Despite the fact that you only need it for cursory selections and some minor button pushing, it quickly becomes a big distraction personally and I wish it would disappear so I could focus better on the content.
Since the Dating Lessons is entirely based on 360 videos and no positional tracking is afforded to the user regardless of you choice of headset, the same caveats apply as with all non-positionally tracked experiences, i.e. extended use can be mildly uncomfortable and make you feel removed from reality.
Pretty much how I felt through the entirety of Magic’s PUA dating course.Jack Eichel and Noah Hanifin, projected to be among the first names called in the 2015 NHL Draft, will headline the third annual CCM/USA Hockey All-American Prospects Game.
The game assembles the top draft eligible talent from the United States.
“This game has developed into an exciting opportunity for the best players in the United States to showcase their skills on a national stage,” Jim Johannson, USA Hockey’s assistant executive director of hockey operations, said in a release. “Input from the NHL scouting community is that this year’s game will feature the highest level of talent to date for this event. We greatly appreciate the support of the Buffalo Sabres organization, which has proven to be an outstanding partner in this event.”
Among the 24 forwards alongside Eichel will be Kyle Connor. Connor was an All-USHL First Team selection and Eichel was selected to the All-USHL Second Team. He’s 12th in Future Considerations’ preliminary ranking.
Colin White, ranked 5th, will also be in attendance, as will Jordan Greenway (14th), Zach Werenski (16th), Paul Bittner (25th) and Jeremy Bracco (26th).
The game is set for Sept. 25 at First Niagara Center, which serves as the home to the NHL’s Buffalo Sabres.Back in 1995 when grunge was arguably at its height, a Seattle supergroup dropped its first — and what would turn out to be their only — album.
Though it consisted of 75 percent scene luminaries (Alice in Chains vocalist Layne Staley, Pearl Jam guitarist Mike McCready, and Screaming Trees drummer Barrett Martin), Mad Season were actually more of a next-generation blues band.
That album, Above, went gold on the back of the single “River of Deceit,” and was vital to the development of the four musicians in the group (bassist John Baker Saunders rounded out the lineup), all of whom had struggled with substance abuse but managed to clean themselves up. “There was a spiritual elevation that we all felt when we played together,” Martin tells EW. “Part of that was because we were all sober at the time. There was a real heightened awareness in that band. Everything seemed to awaken within us when we played together.”
The group only played a handful of shows, and though they began work on their second album in 1996, Above was Mad Season’s only album. (Saunders passed away in 1999; Staley passed in 2002.) But a handful of recordings from those second sessions have made it onto Above: Deluxe Edition, the new multi-disc package celebrating one of the great all-star acts of the alt-rock ’90s. In addition to a handful of previously unreleased bonus tracks, with vocals provided by Mark Lanegan in place of the late Staley, there is also a live recording of a legendary live performance in Seattle from 1995, as well as a DVD featuring video footage of that show plus a handful of other thrilling live moments.
Martin, who worked with McCready and original Above producer Brett Eliason on the reissue (and also wrote the extensive liner notes), talked to EW about the band’s origins, its legacy, and its unusual chemistry.
Entertainment Weekly: How did Mad Season first come together in 1994?
Barrett Martin: Mike called me and said he wanted to do a side project with this bass player that he had met when he was in rehab, and I said absolutely. I had been on tour for a couple of years with the Screaming Trees, and we were on break. So the three of us got together for the first jam session to work on some new songs. Mike had started to write “River of Deceit,” and Baker had some ideas, and I had some ideas. Then Mike said he wanted to bring in Layne to be the singer, and I was excited because we had done a tour with Alice in Chains in ’93, so Layne and I had become friends. I loved him as a singer and just |
There’s been a lot of rape talk in the news and online recently, which is great, because rape talk is uncomfortable and hits too close to home for a lot of people, myself and the Sheaf obviously included.
There’s a wider and arguably more important discourse here than that which the immediate discussion seems to allow. That immediate discussion being around claims that bodies can terminate pregnancies from legitimate rape, and that there is a distinction between “legitimate” or “forcible” rapes and other rapes.
And the discussion of what’s wrong with those ideas, while generally well-intentioned and useful, has its own set of problems too diverse and difficult to unpack in this space. Sexual assault and rape are not black and white issues, and anyone with an ardently-felt position in that binary is probably, well, wrong.
My point is, bodies do kinda-sorta shut down some unwanted pregnancies. Some, at least. Seminal priming is a valid and useful theory. Sexual science writer Jesse Bering’s article on the theory, “Darwin’s Morning After Pill,” has a great discussion if you’re interested.
I’ve been sexually assaulted. I’ve also been raped. They are fundamentally different. I have not been violently assaulted, which is also different.
Sure, rape is rape is rape. But sexual assault is not acquaintance rape is not violent rape. And penetrative rape is not envelopment, (when a woman rapes a man). They all count, and they all suck.
Women rape men. (Sorry! But really, it happens!) Men rape women. Men rape men and women rape women. The second case is most prevalent outside of prison and is most currently pressing, but acknowledging and validating the range of sexual violence that individuals are exposed to all too regularly is important for creating an intelligent conversation about the most dominant issue. So I don’t want to leave those out.
I’d like to skip over discussion of my experience with rape and sexual assault. I’d also like to skip having any more experiences of that kind. Which is why, even if you’re already bored of hearing about this stuff, maybe you should be paying closer attention. If everyone was paying close attention, maybe we could move past expecting these things to happen. At which point it would make sense not to talk about it.
A big part of the problem, and here I am using myself as a proxy for most women, is that because I’m afraid of being in some way violated, I no longer drink in the company of men without a close friend available for protection. This is true whether at home or in bars.
Because I am female, I am aware that my gender means my appearance is more likely to be noticed than my work. So I work hard to try and make up for it. I expect unwanted ass-grabbing when I go to work at the bar. I brush off cat-calls alone in the street.
Are you female? Do you also do these things, expect these things? Does that seem right? Do you violently disagree with the imperative to protect yourself thus?
Are you male? Are you adamantly not a rapist, not an objectifier of women? Do you consider this whole discussion unfair and presumptuous? Hey, us too.
It’s not good for anyone that assumption of guilt is a reality. You may never have compromised someone’s sense of themselves sexually, but someone very much like you very likely has. We are all on edge because of presumed guilt, and if you are lucky enough to not understand the reality of victims or of victimizers, then it may well be useful to investigate them.
In a perfect reality, adult women would not be like me. They would not be aware of themselves in sexual terms at all times. They would just be ladies who could go home unattended. Or they would be ladies who could get a walk home from a dude and not be worried he’d try “something.” Except those are still pretty scary things to do, because lots of the time it’s fine and a whole lot of the time it really isn’t.
The onus should not be on potential victims to protect themselves. The onus is not solely on potential aggressors to not rape. The imperative is to keep talking about it, to acknowledge what is wrong and to understand how we (even victims) are contributing to the culture.
I am afraid of men because experience has taught me to be so. I protect myself because I have learned how. Those are things I wish weren’t true. But they are, so, I’m just trying to be better.
—
Photo: Morgacito/FlickrSen. Chris Dodd (D-Conn.) will cosponsor Sen. Bernie Sanders' (I-Vt.) amendment to audit the Fed, he said on the Senate floor Thursday afternoon, though with modifications, the details of which are crucial to the weight of the audit.
Sanders had been negotiating a compromise with the Federal Reserve to come to an agreement on how broadly the audit powers would extend, Sen. Bob Corker (R-Tenn.) told reporters.
Corker said he had spoken with Sanders and that the Fed wants to "make sure that the audit is not looking at the open market policy, where you're not looking at how interest rates are set." The White House expressed similar concerns earlier Thursday.
Sanders (I-Vt.) has insisted repeatedly that his amendment makes no attempt to audit monetary policy, but rather is focused on the trillions in lending the Fed has done in the dark.
The goal of the negotiations, said Corker, was to make sure "what you're looking at is the financial transactions.... It's my understanding he's working very closely with the Fed to try to get that part right."
Spokespersons for Sanders and the Fed declined to comment.
Shortly after Corker spoke, Dodd, who had been opposing the amendment, took to the Senate floor.
"He's absolutely correct on the transparency issues," Dodd said, adding that he wanted the audit "done in a way so there is no concern about the independence of the Fed being compromised in any way. He has guaranteed with his language here that that is no longer an issue whatsoever. And I want to thank him for that. It's a great amendment."
Sanders, on the Senate floor, hinted at the agreement. "Would allow the GAO to conduct a top-to-bottom audit of all of the Federal Reserve's emergency lending activities since December 1, 2007. In addition, the modifications require the Fed to put on its Web site all of the recipients of over $2 trillion in emergency assistance since December 1, 2007," Sanders said.
A copy of the modifications was not immediately available.
UPDATE: The modified amendment would allow a broad audit and would require a historic amount of disclosure from the Fed. In some respects, it goes further than the House version backed by Reps. Ron Paul (R-Texas) and Alan Grayson (D-Fla.), in that it requires disclosure of the names of all institutions, foreign and domestic, on the receiving end of Fed money.
"Notwithstanding any other provision of law, the Board of Governors shall publish on its website, not later than December 1, 2010, with respect to all loans and other financial assistance it has provided during the period beginning on December 1, 2007 and ending on the date of enactment of this Act under the Asset-Backed Commercial Paper Money Market Mutual Fund Liquidity Facility, the Term Asset-Backed Securities Loan Facility, the Primary Dealer Credit Facility, the Commercial Paper Funding Facility, the Term Securities Lending Facility, the Term Auction Facility, Maiden Lane, Maiden Lane II, Maiden Lane III, the agency Mortgage-Backed Securities program, foreign currency liquidity swap lines, and any other program created as a result of the third undesignated paragraph of section 13 of the Federal Reserve Act."
The amendment is here. If you spot holes, write me at ryan@huffingtonpost.com.(Reuters) - Astronomers have discovered the largest known structure in the universe - a group of quasars so large it would take 4 billion years to cross it while traveling at speed of light.
The immense scale also challenges Albert Einstein’s Cosmological Principle, the assumption that the universe looks the same from every point of view, researchers said.
The findings by academics from Britain’s University of Central Lancashire were published in the journal Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society and reported on the society’s website on Friday.
Quasars are believed to be the brightest objects in the universe, with light emanating from the nuclei of galaxies from the early days of the universe and visible billions of light-years away.
“Since 1982 it has been known that quasars tend to group together in clumps or ‘structures’ of surprisingly large sizes, forming large quasar groups or LQGs,” the society said.
This newly discovered large quasar group has a dimension of 500 megaparsecs, each megaparsec measuring 3.3 million light-years.
Because the LQG is elongated, its longest dimension is 1,200 megaparsecs, or 4 billion light-years, the society said.
That size is 1,600 times larger than the distance from Earth’s Milky Way to the nearest galaxy, the Andromeda.
“While it is difficult to fathom the scale of this LQG, we can say quite definitely it is the largest structure ever seen in the entire universe,” Roger Clowes, leader of the research team, said in a statement. “This is hugely exciting - not least because it runs counter to our current understanding of the scale of the universe.”
Clowes said the team would continue to investigate the phenomenon with particular interest in the challenge to the Cosmological Principle, which has been widely accepted since Einstein, whose work still forms the basis for much of modern cosmology.UBER has come out fighting after being stripped of its licence - as more than 390,000 fuming customers sign a petition to keep the app alive in London.
Transport for London announced this morning that the company will not be given another private hire operator licence after its current one expires on September 30 over safety fears.
GETTY 14 Uber have 21 days to appeal against the decision
They said Uber in London is "not fit and proper" to hold the licence but the firm is going to appeal the decision and will be able to operate in the capital until the process is over.
If they lose the appeal, Londoners will no longer be able to get an Uber - but the move will be welcomed by black cab drivers who have long campaigned against the private hire company.
Uber has since urged its London users to fight the decision as 40,000 drivers - the equivalent of the population of Dover in Kent - will lose their jobs.
There are currently 3.5 million passengers in London using the app - just under half the population of the capital.
More than 392,000 people have already signed a petition set up by Tom Elvidge, general manager of Uber in London, calling on Mayor of London Sadiq Khan to make a U-turn on the plans.
The company also sent out an email to its London users who are as "astounded" by the decision as Uber are.
Twitter 14 One Twitter user shared an image of Kim Jong-Un hugging an officer and wrote: 'Black cab drivers right now'
Twitter 14 One social media user shared this image of Leonardo DiCaprio crying in the film Romeo and Juliet as they joked about the Uber ban
Twitter 14 Chi Chi joked that the end of Uber also signalled the end of her social life
It said: "By trying to ban the app from the capital, the Mayor and Transport for London have caved in to a small number of people who want to restrict consumer choice.
"Not only will this decision deprive you of the choice of a convenient way of getting about town, it will also put more than 40,000 licensed drivers who rely on our app out of work."
Fuming customers also slammed the move on social media - with some calling on TfL to make the night Tube more frequent instead.
@foodieflo1985 said: "Are TfL going to speed up the night tube now?? How will people get home safely if #uber isn't there?! Black cabs are too expensive".
14 A petition to save Uber has received thousands of signatures
14 Uber has also written to its drivers in London, urging them to sign the petition
@SteveCross91OF wrote: "Monitored journey, License plate, face and name saved, Estimated fair upon arrival but yet this is seen as ‘Unsafe’. Pathetic #Uber".
@NenehTrainer fumed: "If you’re going to end #Uber then make the tubes 24 hour, 7days per week. And black cabs half in price. What a joke of a city. @TfL".
@powell6269 said: "Loosing #Uber makes london more unsafe for young people, especially students who can't afford the ridiculous rates of black cabs."
@Mrkc999 wrote: "Well done @MayorofLondon - Thanks for taking choice away from Londoners and putting thousands of drivers out of a job.#Uber".
Uber users in London also went into a meltdown over the move on social media with a string of memes showing actors crying in various movie scenes.
Twitter 14 People were quick to react to the decision by TfL on social media
Twitter 14 One Twitter user shared an image of Kim Jong-Un hugging an officer and wrote: 'Black cab drivers right now'
Twitter 14 The decision has been slammed by furious Londoners on Twitter
TFL said earlier today Uber's conduct "demonstrates a lack of corporate responsibility on issues which have potential public safety and security implications".
They outlined a number of issues - including the company's approach to reporting serious criminal offences.
Mayor of Sadiq Khan said of the decision not to issue Uber with a licence: "I want London to be at the forefront of innovation and new technology and to be a natural home for exciting new companies that help Londoners by providing a better and more affordable service.
"However, all companies in London must play by the rules and adhere to the high standards we expect - particularly when it comes to the safety of customers. Providing an innovative service must not be at the expense of customer safety and security.
"I fully support TfL's decision - it would be wrong if TfL continued to license Uber if there is any way that this could pose a threat to Londoners' safety and security.
"Any operator of private hire services in London needs to play by the rules."
But Tory MP Chris Philp called it a “shocking misjudgment”.
The Croydon South MP added: “There are issues Uber needs to address but by outright banning them in London it’s going to put 40,000 people out of work and 3.5million Londoners are going to pay higher fares.
“The people most affected are going to be people on low incomes who can afford to take an Uber but can’t afford to a black cab.”
Reuters 14 The move will be welcomed by black cab drivers who have campaigned against the firm
Uber said in a statement they would challenge the decision in court and said the ban shows London "is closed to innovative companies who bring choice to consumers".
They added: "By wanting to ban our app from the capital Transport for London and the Mayor have caved in to a small number of people who want to restrict consumer choice. If this decision stands, it will put more than 40,000 licensed drivers out of work and deprive Londoners of a convenient and affordable form of transport.
"To defend the livelihoods of all those drivers, and the consumer choice of millions of Londoners who use our app, we intend to immediately challenge this in the courts.
UBER - DRIVEN BY CONTROVERSY Ever since it launched in 2009, Uber has had to fight regulatory and legal battles all over the world. By 2015 they had been embroiled in at least 70 different legal challenges. The firm's dramatic growth and comparatively low prices have made them tough competition for traditional cab firms. In London, drivers don't need to pass The Knowledge - a test of the capital's geography which can take black cab drivers years to learn. Other controversies involving Uber involve the safety of passengers, strange routes taken by drivers and the over-charging of customers. In February, it was reported that a man hoping to nip home to Croydon from Brixton ended up travelling via Bristol and was charged £440 by the app. And, it isn't just passengers who have had grievances. In March, Uber boss Travis Kalanick was filmed having an angry row with an Uber driver who moaned to him that the firm was bankrupting him. Then on June 3 it came under fire on social media, with outraged users accusing the company of profiting from the terror attack on London Bridge. The firm, which allows riders to hail cabs with their smartphones, upped journey costs with surge prices around the affected area, where seven were killed and 48 hospitalised by terrorists armed with knives. But Uber has responded insisting that fare surges were stopped as soon as it learned about the terror attack.
"Drivers who use Uber are licensed by Transport for London and have been through the same enhanced DBS background checks as black cab drivers. Our pioneering technology has gone further to enhance safety with every trip tracked and recorded by GPS.
"We have always followed TfL rules on reporting serious incidents and have a dedicated team who work closely with the Metropolitan Police."
Uber is currently under criminal investigation in America over the use of "Greyball", a software tool it used to deny rides to people it suspected were police officers or other authorities.
The company mentioned the tool in their statement - saying "an independent review has found that ‘Greyball’ has never been used or considered in the UK for the purposes cited by TfL".
Uber were backed by David Leam, of London First, which campaigns for business in the capital, who said Londoners will see the decision as "Luddite".
Getty Images - Getty 14 The decision wasn't welcomed by business experts
The Association of Independent Professionals and the Self Employed (IPSE) also slammed the decision as it will put "tens of thousands of hardworking, honest and dedicated self-employed drivers out of work".
Chris Bryce, IPSE CEO said: “TfL’s decision not to renew Uber’s licence is perverse. It is a bad move for London’s travellers and a disaster for people using the app to make a living.
"The vast majority of drivers who use the Uber platform are self-employed individuals who will now struggle to put food on the family table. Many of the drivers are tied in to lease deals on their cars and they will be incurring costs without a way to earn a living.
“This seems like a politically-motivated decision which totally ignores the many thousands of men and women who earn a living through the Uber app, and runs counter to what should be at the heart of Sadiq Khan’s political agenda: ensuring the wellbeing of ordinary hardworking people.
“We call on Sadiq Khan to think again, revoke his support for this decision and intervene to ensure drivers will be able to continue working. The self-employed simply want to earn a living without having to rely on the state.”
Getty Images - Getty 14 Londoners will be able to use the app still until the appeals process is over
The move has been welcomed by those who have campaigned against Uber in London - including the drivers' union GMB.
Maria Ludkin, GMB Legal Director, said: “This historic decision is a victory for GMB’s campaign to ensure drivers are given the rights they are entitled to - and that the public, drivers and passengers are kept safe.
“As a result of sustained pressure from drivers and the public, Uber has suffered yet another defeat - losing its license to operate in London
“No company can be behave like it's above the law, and that includes Uber. No doubt other major cities will be looking at this decision and considering Uber’s future on their own streets.
“This decision vindicates our campaign and should be a wake-up call to a company that has for far too long been in denial."
GETTY 14 Uber has been accused of putting concerns for its reputation over public safety
Steve McNamara, general secretary of the Licensed Taxi Drivers' Association said: "The Mayor has made the right call not to relicense Uber. Since it first came onto our streets Uber has broken the law, exploited its drivers and refused to take responsibility for the safety of passengers.
"We expect Uber will again embark on a spurious legal challenge against the Mayor and TfL, and we will urge the court to uphold this decision. This immoral company has no place on London's streets."
While Shelley Harnett who runs the Save Our Black Taxi Facebook page said: “I feel speechless but want to shout from the roof tops at the same time!!
“This is just THE BEST NEWS!!!
“Have goosebumps and feel very emotional! Be lucky all you Black Cabbies out there! Today is our day!! Sense and justice has for once won!!
“Stronger together."
Alamy 14 Cabbies have long campaigned against Uber in London
Bookies were also quick to react to today's decision - with Ladbrokes giving 3/1 odds TfL will perform a U-turn and allow Uber back on the streets of London.
While William Hill are odds on that TfL will uphold their decision at 4/6 - and 11/10 they reverse it.
Last month Uber was accused by police of allowing a driver who sexually assaulted a passenger to strike again by not reporting the attack - along with other serious crimes.
Inspector Neil Billany of the Metropolitan Police's taxi and private hire team suggested the company was putting concerns for its reputation over public safety.
A string of serious crimes it allegedly failed to report included more sexual assaults and an incident in which a driver produced what was thought to be pepper spray during a road-rage argument.
In June, Uber sacked 20 employees following an investigation into widespread sexual harassment within the company.
The ride-hailing company investigated 215 claims, including sexual harassment and misconduct. As a result, it fired 20 people and reprimanded more than 40 others.
Uber suspended its services in Bulgaria last year after being accused of "unfair trade practices".
It was forced to pull out of Denmark in 2014 and it will soon be completely banned in Italy.REUTERS/Claudio Bresciani/Scanpix Sweden's central bank, the Riksbank, is warning that house prices are rising too quickly, that household debt is far too high, and that low interest rates in the country could cause serious vulnerabilities in the financial system, leading to a crash in asset prices and, potentially, recession.
Basically, things are really bad.
In its latest Financial Stability Report, the Riksbank puts much of the blame for what it calls the "increasing vulnerability" in the Swedish economy at the door of the country's rampant housing market, saying the ever-expanding housing bubble could fuel a recession.
Here's an extract from the report (emphasis ours):
The structure of the Swedish banking system makes it vulnerable to shocks. As previously, the potential causes of such shocks are the high valuations on asset markets, especially the Swedish housing market, and Swedish households' high level of indebtedness. There are also risks associated with international developments. If a shock arises in the household sector, for example due to a global shock leading to a drop in housing prices, this may lead to a fall in consumption. Such a development could not only have major negative consequences for macroeconomic stability, but could also affect financial stability. Historically, sharp falls in asset prices combined with extensive private indebtedness have contributed to deep and long‐term recessions.
The Riksbank goes into much more detail about the crisis, which has helped push up debt massively to the point at which many households now have a household debt-to-income ratio of as much as 700%. Here's the bank again:
Housing prices have been rising rapidly for a long time. The increase has gone hand in hand with ever‐higher indebtedness in the household sector. In Sweden, the total debt‐to‐income ratio, that is, debts in relation to disposable incomes, is currently at about 179 per cent, which is a high level from both a historical and an international perspective. If we just consider the households that have mortgages, the average debt‐to‐income ratio amounts to 317 per cent. The proportion of households with a debt‐to‐income ratio of between 300 and 700 per cent has increased over the last five years and in particular among high‐income households.
And here are the charts showing just how crazy the housing market is and how insanely high household debt is: Sveriges Riksbank
Sveriges Riksbank So why are Swedish house prices speeding higher like a runaway train? Negative interest rates.
Since becoming the first major economy to go below zero percent in early 2015, Sweden has been one of the biggest cheerleaders of negative-interest-rate policies, frequently championing their effectiveness in spurring economic activity and boosting inflation and growth.
While the Riksbank says it has seen some pickup in the economy thanks to negative interest rates — inflation and gross domestic product are on a strong upward trajectory — it is now warning that "a long period of low interest rates can provide participants with the incentive to take ever‐greater risks."
Negative interest rates mean banks are punished for not lending out money; any cash stored with the central bank incurs a fee, rather than earning interest as is normally the case. This leads to poorer decision-making when it comes to lending. Riksbank says: "Prolonged low interest rates can put pressure on banks' profitability and cause them to increase their risk‐taking."
Banks just want to get cash out the door, making it super easy to get a mortgage. Demand is therefore much greater than housing supply in Sweden, driving up prices.
Here's the Riksbank again: "Excessive risk‐taking can make the financial system more vulnerable as it can lead to assets being overvalued and risks being incorrectly priced. Such a situation increases the likelihood of large price falls on the asset markets."
Wednesday's report isn't the first time the Riksbank has argued that Swedish households are in too much debt and warned that the country's housing bubble will most likely come to a sticky end, but it is certainly the loudest it has sounded the alarm.
So it's incredibly odd that the Swedes don't seem to be reacting. The OMXS30, Sweden's main share index, is down 1% on the day, in line with the rest of Europe, and the Swedish krona is off just 0.09% against the euro.
The chiefs of the world's biggest central banks are given to treading incredibly lightly around issues of financial and economic stability, with the likes of Janet Yellen, Mario Draghi, and Mark Carney frequently and very deliberately avoiding the use of any language that could suggest any financial instability or woes.
If one of these bankers were to offer such a stark perspective on the state of an economy as that of the Riksbank, markets would crash instantly. Why traders and investors haven't reacted to the Riksbank's doom-laden Financial Stability Report is unclear. Perhaps it's a case of the boy who cried wolf.
Regardless of the market reaction to the report, Sweden's housing market is fascinating. The bubble has to pop at some point, and when it does things could get very messy, very fast.Guest essay by Eric Worrall
A series of climate lawsuits, which mainly appear to be targeting energy businesses which attempted to appease the green blob, have recently been launched around the world.
According to news.com.au;
New report paves way for individuals to sue companies over climate change
OVER the next few weeks a case will play out that will have executives all over the world very nervous.
Peruvian farmer Saul Luciano Lliuya is suing German energy giant RWE, the self-described “biggest single emitter of CO2” in Europe, for $29,000 over what he claims the company is doing to his hometown.
Lliuya lives near the Andean city of Huaraz, under constant danger from a lake that threatens to flood the town and his house and farm along with it. He has watched the lake grow more than 30 times in volume in the last 40 years as the glacier that feeds it melts, and now wants enough money to engineer a solution.
So far, a letter of complaint to the company has gone unanswered and lawyers claim there is no legal basis for his case. But the farmer, backed by NGO Germanwatch is undeterred, and if successful, the unprecedented case could be the tip of the iceberg.
“It’s sometimes said you can’t do this stuff legally and the reality is that the barriers are political, not legal,” said West Coast Environmental Law Staff Counsel, Andrew Gage.
…
Despite the difficulty, the idea is gaining momentum in the legal space. Earlier this month the Human Rights Commission of the Philippines announced it would investigate whether fossil fuel companies could be held responsible for climate change following a petition brought to them by Greenpeace over the role of the “carbon majors” in global warming. Australian company BHP Billiton ranks number 19 in a list of major emitters topped by Chevron, ExxonMobil and Saudi Aramco, according to the report.
Greenpeace international executive director Kumi Naidoo said he hoped the decision would inspire other human rights commissions to take part, saying: “If I were a CEO of a fossil fuel company, I would be running scared.”
BHP Billiton would not provide comment on the issue. However the company said it strongly supports efforts to reach the two degree global goal including putting a price on carbon. Their recent portfolio analysis into climate change said the company is working with governments and other groups to reduce emissions and provide energy for a developing world.A man walks past the logo of China Precision Machinery Import and Export Corp (CPMIEC) at its headquarters in Beijing September 27, 2013. REUTERS/Kim Kyung-Hoon
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The United States said on Saturday it had expressed serious concerns to Turkey over its decision to co-produce a long-range air and missile defense system with a Chinese firm under U.S. sanctions.
Turkey, a member of the NATO military alliance, announced this week that it had chosen the FD-2000 missile defense system from China Precision Machinery Import and Export Corp, or CPMIEC, over rival systems from Russian, U.S. and European firms.
CPMIEC is under U.S. sanctions for violations of the Iran, North Korea and Syria Nonproliferation Act.
“We have conveyed our serious concerns about the Turkish government’s contract discussions with a U.S.-sanctioned company for a missile defense system that will not be inter-operable with NATO systems or collective defense capabilities,” a State Department spokeswoman said.
“Our discussions on this issue will continue.”
Some Western defense analysts have said they were surprised by Turkey’s decision, having expected the contract to go to Raytheon Co, a U.S. company that builds the Patriot missile, or the Franco/Italian Eurosam SAMP/T.
The United States, Germany and the Netherlands each sent two Patriot batteries and up to 400 soldiers to operate them to southeastern Turkey early this year after Ankara asked NATO for help with air defenses against possible missile attack from Syria.
Turkey has long been the United States’ closest ally in the Middle Eastern region, bordering on the Soviet Union during the Cold War. The U.S. military exercised great influence over a Turkish military that had a strong hand in Turkey’s politics.
Under Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan, elected in 2002, the role of the Turkish military in politics has been curbed. Political and military relations between Ankara and Washington, while still close, play a less central role and that could be reflected in procurement policy.Wexford hurling manager Davy Fitzgerald has been handed a proposed eight-week coaching ban following clashes on the pitch with Tipperary players during Sunday’s league semi-final.
As reported in The Irish Times on Tuesday, the eight-week suspension keeps him off the sideline for Wexford’s opening championship match against one of the Leinster round-robin qualifiers, scheduled for Saturday 27th May and also should they win, the semi-final against provincial champions Kilkenny, scheduled for 10th June.
Fitzgerald has been charged under Rule 7.2 (c) IIa which covers any type of physical interference with an opposing player or team official. If handed down it will suspend him from all coaching duties, including taking training and attending official county functions.
The former Clare manager was seen on the field jostling with Tipperary’s Jason Forde after running on in the aftermath of Tipp’s 18th-minute second goal during the build-up to which Wexford’s James Breen was clearly fouled.
Seen by a wide audience the pitch incursion attracted negative publicity for the GAA and Fitzgerald arguably made matters worse for himself by appearing to suggest that the action was calculated.-- Posted Thursday, 22 January 2009 | Digg This Article | Source: GoldSeek.com
London, England
Thursday, January 22, 2009 --------------------- *** Obama - not much different that Reagan, Clinton or the Bushes American finance: strange and preposterous, but never dull *** A division of delusion, which led to huge bubbles who will suffer most when the bus comes? *** One thing that Team Obama will fight to the death countries around the world play "hot potato" with correction and more! --------------------- We've been on Bubble Watch for the last ten years. Now, we're on Bust Watch Tim Geithner, Obama's choice for Treasury Secretary, may not have seen the bust on Wall Street coming but he promises action on a "dramatic scale" to fix it. That is probably what goosed-up the Dow yesterday - up 279 points. Oil rose to $43. Both gold and the dollar went down. The dollar fell to $1.29 per euro while gold sellers got $5 less per ounce. The price of gold is $850. "The End of the Reagan Era," is how the French newspaper, The Liberation, described the handover of power to Barack Obama's team. The Liberation has it right. What we are witnessing is the end of an era. But it's not exactly the era most people think. The voters made a big symbolic change when they elected Obama. But politically, Obama is not so different from Reagan, Bush I, Clinton or Bush II. A much bigger change has just occurred - and gone almost unnoticed. This one was wrought not by the voters, but by Mr. Market. He has brought an end to the world financial system that arose during the Reagan years. For the last ten years, these Daily Reckonings have been on Bubble Watch watching wondering marveling sometimes appalled sometimes amused what we were watching was the blow up of a crazy system of imperial finance, in which the world's hegemony appeared to live at the expense of its rivals and the imperial citizens - those in the homeland of the United States of America - drove themselves into bankruptcy so competitors could continue to sell their products at a profit. It was strange. It was preposterous. But it wasn't dull. We thought it was coming to an end in 2001 when the bubble in dotcoms blew up. Then, well, you know what happened the feds got to work and pumped up more bubbles. Now, the Bubble Epoque is nearly over. But Mr. Obama is jumping the gun "Starting today, we must pick ourselves up, dust ourselves off and begin again the work of remaking America," he says. Hold on there are some huge busts that have to happen first We're watching for busts in U.S. government debt (U.S. Treasury paper) the dollar and finally, after a big run-up, gold. Then, Americans can rebuild on a more solid foundation. The gist of the world economy for the past quarter century was a division of delusion, which led to huge bubbles. Americans pretended to have good money. Asians pretended to have a good customer. Bankers pretended to have good credits. And Wall Street pretended that toxic assets were good ones. Asians made; Americans took. Asians saved; Americans borrowed. Americans provided the demand. Asians provided the supply. Asians built a real economy, with real money, and real factories and real skills. America's economy was mostly a conceit, in which people became accustomed to a standard of living that very few of them could afford. But now it has come to an end. And whom do you think will suffer most? Our guess: the Chinese! Eighty years ago, America was in China's position. It was the world's young, growing, dynamic economy. Manhattan soared then as Shanghai soars now. But when the collapse came in the '30s, the demand for American goods shriveled. Foreign and domestic purchasers pulled in their belts and cancelled their orders. For a while, America was out of business. It was only at the onset of WWII that the orders started coming in again in massive quantities. This time, it's China that's going out of business. Yes, dear reader, China is going to suffer even more than the United States. At least in the short run. America will lose its position in the world. The dollar will lose its status as the world's reserve currency. Americans will be beaten up - first by deflation, then by inflation. When it is over, they will be poorer, wiser, and probably better people With a little luck and good leadership, maybe they can sink into a graceful post-imperial poverty followed by genuine prosperity. That is the story we'll be covering in The Daily Reckoning going forward. It is the story of BUSTS. Companies will go bust. Governments will go bust (Ireland and Iceland are already effectively broke.) Households will go broke by the millions. And, eventually, even the U.S. government itself will go bust. (A bankruptcy that will most likely be disguised by inflation ) But China! There, the story will be even more dramatic even more dangerous even more explosive! *** "Time to mobilize for all-out war," says a headline in the Financial Times, speaking of saving Britain's banks from themselves. But this could just as well refer to President Obama's attack on the correction. Nobody wants a correction. And Team Obama has pledged to fight it to the death. Which is why we will stick with our "Trade of the Decade." Buy gold on dips; sell stocks on rallies. This trade - announced 9 years ago - has been good to us. Gold has closed every single year ahead of where it started. From under $300 an ounce it went up over $1,000 - briefly. Now, it trades in the $800 range. What do you think, dear reader? Is the gold bull market over? Are the troubles in the world financial system all taken care of? Is it time for another bust in the gold market - the only market (aside from U.S. Treasuries) to resist last year's sell-off? "My one recommendation for the longer term," says Felix Zulauf in Barron's, "is physical gold. Consider the basic set-up: World economies are so weak that we are seeing government stimulation of historic proportions. At first this is deflationary, but it will |
. The policies that would prevent us from channeling resources down the dead ends that lead to recessions—tax code simplification, tax cuts, and overhauling the regulatory system—would be a real change. But bold leadership would be required for huge policy reforms like these to occur. Watching Mr. Obama now extolling the virtues of his "debt to end all debts" in Elkhart, Indiana, I don't see the kind of leadership we need. Instead, I see politics as usual.Every time there’s an article about passion, someone always replies saying they don’t have time to work on hobby projects or even want to work more than 8 hours a day. This has always bugged me because that is not what defines someone as passionate. Passion is about emotion. It means you feel something about the work you’re doing. It means you care about something.
Passion is not a binary thing. Some people have more passion than others. Those people who moonlight for 8 hours on GitHub after work might be more passionate than you, but that doesn’t mean you’re not passionate in your own way. In my opinion, if you read an article related to your career on the topic of passion and you put in the effort to comment on it, you’re already way above average.
A dispassionate person wouldn’t even find the article. But if they did, they wouldn’t care enough to comment on it. They have never contributed to a stack overflow question, read a blog article just to keep up to date, read hacker news, refactored some code because it was the right thing to do, listened to a programming podcast, or any of the countless other things that show they care about the work they’re doing.
You don’t necessarily have to work on a hobby project or put in extra hours. Just care about what you do and the way you do it. You should want to do a good job. You should actively learn how to be better at your career. And you should learn on the job, too (within reason). Depending on what you get out of it, you’re not necessarily slacking. If you could take an hour to learn something on the job and save 8 hours of effort later, it would be irresponsible not to.
Don’t be that guy who is apathetic, who only learns exactly what is required to get by and nothing else. The type that wishes he would never have to learn anything related to his field. Or, worse, thinks he knows enough and has graduated to a point where he can stop learning. That guy is holding everyone back and undoing the effort they put in. Everyone has to clean up after him. He doesn’t care about doing a better job because from his perspective he still has to work 8 hours. As long as you’re not that guy, you’re OK in my book.
Don’t feel guilty for leaving work after 8 hours to hang out with your kids. It’s ok to have a life. Just make sure you’re not going through the motions when you’re at work. You don’t have to work after hours to be passionate.Dive Brief:
E&E News reports President Trump will select Daniel Simmons, former director of the natural resources task force at the American Legislative Exchange Council, to head the U.S. Department of Energy's Office of Energy Efficiency & Renewable Energy (EERE).
ALEC is a corporate-funded conservative group that drafts model bills and policies for its legislative members to take back to their home states. In recent years, it has turned its attention to rolling back energy sector regulations.
The move is another signal from the new White House that Trump will continue to follow through on campaign pledges to undo restrictions and limits on fossil fuel production, while paying less attention to clean energy issues.
Dive Insight:
E&E News reported this week that Simmons, who also formerly worked with the Koch-funded Institute for Energy Research, will be tapped to lead the DOE's renewables and efficiency office. It is a peculiar posting for a man who has opposed clean energy incentives and warned of higher energy prices that can result.
The Washington Post notes that Simmons, at an energy forum last year hosted by Politico, said "I think that everything should be treated equally across the board.... We have to look at the track record of the oil and gas industry [which is] producing low-cost, reliable energy, particularly when the alternative is much, much higher prices.”
However, his stance does not align with moves within the power sector to invest more in renewable energy as solar and wind costs reach grid parity. There is also wide-spread support within the power sector for the wind production tax credit and the solar investment tax credit.
The move appears in line with other postings President Trump has made, including appointing former Oklahoma Attorney General Scott Pruitt to lead the Environmental Protection Agency, a controversial pick given that in his home state he often joined oil and gas companies in challenging federal environmental regulations.
Last week, Trump also nominated David Bernhardt, an industry lobbyist, to serve as deputy secretary at the Department of the Interior. Bernhardt formerly represented oil and gas companies at Brownstein, Hyatt, Farber and Schreck.
“Appointing a lobbyist like Bernhardt shows just how empty Donald Trump’s promise to drain the swamp was,” Brett Hartl, government affairs director at the Center for Biological Diversity, said in a statement. “From Scott Pruitt to Ryan Zinke, and now David Bernhardt, President Trump has assembled the most anti-environmental administration in history.”
While a weekend budget compromise appeared to save significant energy and environmental funding, the Congressional deal cut renewable energy programs at DOE by $808 million compared to the previous Administration’s budget request. And the budget compromise will only last until the end of the fiscal year, which is September. While Democrats can easily claim a victory in this budget fight, next year will likely be an uphill battle as the Trump administration gains more experience and solidify policy directives.Love ’em or hate ’em, Slipknot are back, and they’re not going anywhere anytime soon. Over the weekend, the second annual Knotfest took place in San Bernadino, Calif., marking the first live performance for Slipknot in over a year, as well as the first with the band’s new line-up. The two-night event was live streamed online, which of course means both nights of Slipknot’s performances are available for your viewing pleasure. Watch both after the jump.
It’s clear from these performances the Slipknot have been rearing to start playing live again. In spite of the absence of Paul Gray and Joey Jordison, their energy has not faltered one bit. They played a few songs they haven’t played live in quite some time, including “Three Nil” and “Opium of the People”, and of course, they played several songs from their new album,.5: The Gray Chapter, which sound absolutely fantastic live, especially “Sarcastrophe” and “Custer”. “Custer” is like an updated “Heretic Anthem” for the new age of Slipknot fans, and both the band and crowd went nuts when they played it both nights. The new bassist and new drummer fit in with the band like a glove, and I have to say, if that is indeed Jay Weinberg playing behind the kit, he is absolutely killing it. His energy level is reminiscent of Joey’s in the early days of Slipknot, and frankly, he’s a much tighter live drummer than Joey ever was.
All in all, as a longtime Slipknot fan, it’s really great to see the band back in action after everything they’ve been through over the past five years. Let us know what you thought of their performances in the comments below.
– AL
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Filter: Day: -all- 1 - Thursday, May/1 2 - Friday, May/2 3 - Saturday, May/3 4 - Sunday, May/4 Type: -all- Paper Presentation Workshop Lightning Talk Poster Concert Installation Other Author: -all- Aaron Heller Albert Gräf Ali Ostovar Amos Przekaza Anders Vinjar Andrew Best Andrew McPherson Anthony Di Furia Antonio Goulart Baptiste Caramiaux Barbara Minder Bart Brouns Bent Bisballe Nyeng Bernardo Barros Bjoern Lindig Bojan Gagić Bruno Ruviaro Carr Wilkerson Christian Schörkhuber Clemens von Reusner Daniel Fritzsche Daniel James David Robillard David Wagner Dominique Fober Edward Costello Eric Benjamin Fernando Lopez-Lezcano Filipe Coelho Florian Hartlieb Florian Meier Fons Adriaensen Frank Neumann Funs Seelen Gabriel Nordeborn Gianfranco Ceccolini Giorgio Klauer Götz Dipper Hanspeter Portner Harry van Haaren IOhannes zmölnig Ivica Bukvic Jae Ho Youn Jakub Pišek James Topliss Jan Jacob Hofmann Jason Jones Jean Bresson Jenny Pickett Jeremy Jongepier Jesse Crowley Jochen Arne Otto John ffitch Jon Nordby José Rafael Subía Valdez Juan-Pablo Caceres Julien Ottavi Julius Smith Jure Pohleven Jörn Nettingsmeier Jürgen Reuter Kjetil Matheussen Louigi Verona Louise Harris Ludger Brümmer Luis Fagundes Luis Valdivia Malte Steiner Marc Groenewegen Marco Donnarumma Marco Fink Marije Baalman Markus Demmel Markus Zaunschirm Martin Hünniger Martin Rumori Matthias Kronlachner Matthieu Amiguet Mauricio Dwek Mauricio Valdés Michael Hohendorf Mike Solomon Miller Puckette Miodrag Gladović Myles Borins Mário del Nunzio Neil Funk Patrick Hartono Pieter Suurmond Renick Bell Robin Gareus Romain Michon Romain Papion Rui Nuno Capela Sarah Denoux Sebastian Kraft Steven Yi Stéphane Letz Tim Blechmann Udo Zölzer Urban Schlemmer Victor Lazzarini Victor Zappi Vincent Rateau William Light Winfried Ritsch Wolfgang Spahn Yan Michalevsky Yana Il Yann Orlarey Yen Tzu Chang
Day 1 - Thursday, May/1
Main Track (ZKM_Media Theater)
Miscellaneous
10:00
Conference Welcome
Miscellaneous
10:30
Keynote
Interfaces and Hardware
11:45
A TouchOSC MIDI Bridge for Linux
Mobile applications such as hexler's TouchOSC offer a cheap and convenient alternative to traditional controller hardware for computer music programs. TouchOSC is available for Android and iOS devices and supports both OSC and MIDI, two widespread standards for transmitting control data between computer music applications. On the host side the TouchOSC MIDI Bridge is required for MIDI support, which unfortunately is proprietary software and only available for Mac and Windows systems. This paper presents pd-touchosc, a library of Pd externals which aims to bring most of the functionality of the TouchOSC MIDI Bridge to Linux.
Tools to make Tools
14:00
LV2 Atoms: A Data Model for Real-Time Audio Plugins
This paper introduces the LV2 Atom extension, a simple yet powerful data model designed for advanced control of audio plugins or other real-time applications. At the most basic level, an atom is a standard header followed by a sequence of bytes. A standard type model can be used for representing structured data which is meaningful across projects. Atoms are currently used by several projects for various applications including state persistence, time synchronisation, and network-transparent plugin control. Atoms are intended to form the basis of future standard protocols to increase the power of host:plugin, plugin:plugin, and UI:plugin interfaces.
Tools to make Tools
14:45
Muditulib, a multi-dimensional tuning library
The "Muditulib" library is introduced and explained. Muditulib is mainly a library consisting of a collection of C header files that include functions written for the purpose of tuning tonal music within the diatonic scale. This scale, as well as the library's functions, along with pitch representation systems, will be explained in detail or just shortly with reference to other literature. A music theoretical background is useful, though not necessary. Along with the core of header files an implementation for Pure Data is published. Developers are encouraged to write implementations for other synthesizers, music production platforms or any other link in the chain of tonal music production workflow.
Tools to make Tools
15:30
towards message based audio systems
The deployment of distributed audio systems in the context of computermusic and audio installation is explored here to expand the vision of works on complex dynamic audio networks. The idea of message based audio systems, in contradiction to stream based ones, is investigated showing applications for spatial audio systems and a computermusic ensemble. As a base the usage of audio messages via "open sound Control (OSC) "Audio over OSC" is shown and explored within an implementation using embedded devices and showing interactions with audio combined audio signals as messages on the net.
Interfaces and Hardware
16:30
The JamBerry - A Stand-Alone Device for Networked Music Performance Based on the Raspberry Pi
Today's public Internet availability and capabilities allow manifold applications in the field of multimedia that were not possible a few years ago. One emerging application is the so-called Networked Music Performance, standing for the online, low-latency interaction of musicians. This work proposes a stand-alone device for that specific purpose and is based on a Raspberry Pi running a Linux-based operating system.
Interfaces and Hardware
17:15
Case Study: Building an Out Of The Box Raspberry Pi Modular Synthesizer
The idea is simple and obvious: Take some Raspberry Pi computing units, each as a reusable synthesizer module. Connect them via a network. Connect a notebook or PC to control and monitor them. Start playing on your virtually analog modular synthesizer.
However, is existing Linux audio software sufficiently mature to implement this vision out of the box? We investigate how far we get in building such a synthesizer, what existing software to choose, analyse what limits we hit and what features still need to be implemented to make our vision become reality.
Workshops & Events
Workshop
15:45
DrumGizmo Drumkit Creation Workshop
Workshop
DrumGizmo is an open source drum machine.
In this workshop the participants will be guided through the recording of a drum kit using different artifacts brought to the workshop by the participants.
The recordings will then be processed using the DrumGizmo editor and finally be played live using a midi drumpad setup.
The intention of this workshop is to illustrate to the participants how easy and fun it is to create a drumkit.
It will also be the first time the DrumGizmo editor is showcased in public.
Kubus Concert
20:00
Through the space of crying
Concert
The project is based on the TIN (chemical element) as a conceptual starting material and the analysis of the sound of "tin cry". TIN META-SONIFICATION SYNTH is a software written in SuperCollider based on two sonifications: the first is derived from the physical-chemical characteristics of the TIN, the second on the atomic number and atomic radius. The variation of pressure and temperature controls in real time the values of density, sound velocity, state of matter, boiling point and melting, which controls a first synth.
The atomic radius and atomic number are the basis of an additive synthesis complex, modulated in frequency, amplitude and phase. The generated sound is spatialized in ambisonics first order (ATK Ambisonic-Toolkit), according to the theory of atomic orbitals.
The composition/improvisation derivative, is a journey through the sonic dimensions of the TIN, it
creates a "bond" between the real sound of "tin cry" and an imaginary soundscape.
Kubus Concert
20:00
The Complete Series of Kecapi (2012-2013)
Concert
This is a version of the complete series of Kecapi I, II, III (2012-2013), that I recomposed for Gaudeamus Muziekdag (Gaudeamus Jonge Componistenbal) at Rasa theatre Utrecht 25 jan 2014.
Kecapi are series of electroacoustic composition that was begun since october 2012, and has been developed far into three different version, included complete series that has been finished in january 2014. The Sound Material of Kecapi is basically manipulated recorded sound of Kecapi Instrument that were recorded in Jogjakarta.
Each individual version of kecapi has difference approach, and concept.
Kecapi I was selected to be premiered on Sound Gallery During Wocmat 2012, Taiwan.
Kecapi II was selected to be world premier during WOCMAT 2013 Concert, also selected as Finalist of Taiwan International Electroacoustic Music Award.
Kecapi III was premiered on Behind The Score Concert at Codarts Rotterdam Conservatorium 2013.
Kubus Concert
20:00
Chiral - for Piano & Electronics
Concert
The piece was written for Rei Nakamura, and her project Movement2Sound -Sound2Movement project. It was premiered during the IMATRONIK 2013 festival in the Piano+ Concerts. The piece uses an autonomous Pure Data patch that generates all the electroacoustic sounds. In was composed using the PSClib Pure Data library developed in UNQ-Argentina and many of the community based abstractions and external/libraries.
Kubus Concert
20:00
Cancelled:
Music for Unfinished Body
Concert
If we look at the human body closely, consider its visceral processes of self-regulation and perception, we soon realise that the body is an incomplete object. It is incomplete because it is constantly shifting between one state and the other, attempting as it does routinely, to keep itself intact and make a sense of the surrounding world. From this viewpoint, the human body is unfinished. Always adapting, changing, mutating and evolving. With this work, I wanted to create a musical performance that is, in the same way as the human body, incomplete, unfinished, emergent.
Music for Unfinished Body (Marco Donnarumma, in progress) is a physical performance of emergent music.The player wears two different types of biosensors, over 4 input channels. One pair of sensors capture the muscle acoustic energy using the Xth Sense1, and the register their electrical tension using custom hardware. A dedicated software extracts a set of feature from each of the channels. The features set is a computational model of the high-level characteristics of the player's movement, namely, tension, strength, complexity, and activation. Rather than mapping the set of features to sound control parameters, the feature set is fed to an unsupervised machine learning algorithm. The algorithm does not merely classify the performer's physical gesture, it rather continuously model the variations between one gesture and the other, learning in real time, one gesture after the other. The algorhitm evolves by looking for differences and emeregent behaviours of my muscle tissues. It looks at the unfinished movements and attempts to foresees what the performer will do next. Then, the algorithm creates gesture-to-sound mapping according to the recurrent patterns in the gesture variations, and use that information to modulate a music system based on iterative scanned wave synthesis. One sinewave at a time, the performer is able to build an increasingly complex sonic world which cannot be planned beforehand, but it rather emerges through the entanglement of physicality, effort, musical intention and computational modeling.
Kubus Concert
20:00
Haar
Concert
Decomposing sound into particles, sensitivity and masking effects in auditory perception, friction in bowed instruments are the themes getting intertwined in this composition and signed in the title: Haar, like Pferdehaar, Haarzelle, Alfréd Haar.
The sound actuation model is the bowed instrument's, yet it has been implemented through 50-70 cm long, thick, black human hairs gently rubbed against a moving magnet phono cartridge cantilever. The sonic characterization has been afterwards dramatically emphasized by means of a granular composition environment programmed in sclang. In this implementation, envelope, pitch, spatialization, indexing and further grain controls have been imposed by perceptual feature descriptors extracted by the very same sounds, with the result of an anamorphic and multidimensional micro-editing process.
Kubus Concert
20:00
sys_m1
Concert
sys_m1 is an eight-minute electroacoustic composition realized using systemic, a system I constructed for real-time composition, performance and sound spatialisation controlled via a physics-based visual environment. In systemic, physics-based algorithms govern the behaviour of objects in a visual system, and the movement of those visual objects controls the spatialisation, via vector-based amplitude panning, of corresponding sound objects over an 8-channel circular speaker configuration.
sys_m1 is composed from a number of recordings taken from systemic. The sonic material is a combination of pre-composed sound objects and real-time synthesized sound. By utilizing a physics-based visual system to control the spatialisation of sound, I am effectively removing decision-making from the spatialisation process.
Kubus Concert
20:00
Spaces
Concert
Spaces explores the relation of two different sound objects in three different spaces. The inspiration to this piece stems from the mathematical theory of a "topological space", a structure that allows one to define notions such as connectedness, continuity, inside, outside, openness and closedness. The composition develops a path from the pure abstract space through the inside of an acoustically closed room into an outside scenery.
The composition is written completely in SuperCollider and runs on any up to date computer. It features aleatoric elements, so each performance differs in a subtle way from the other. The overall structure is fixed.
Day 2 - Friday, May/2
Main Track (ZKM_Media Theater)
Live Coding
10:00
Experimenting with a Generalized Rhythmic Density Function for Live Coding
A previously implemented realtime algorithmic composition system with live coding interface had rhythm functions which produced stylistically limited output and lacked flexibility. Through a cleaner separation between the generation of base rhythmic figures and the generation of variations at various rhythmic densities, flexibility was gained. These functions were generalized to make a greater variety of output possible. As examples, L-systems were implemented, as well as the use of ratios for generating variations at different rhythmic densities. This increased flexibility should enable the use of various standard algorithimic composition techniques and the development of new ones.
Live Coding
10:45
Live-Coding-DJing with Mixxx and SuperCollider
This paper describes a suggestion for a modified dance music DJ performance, based on common DJing techniques enriched with live coding moments either along records or unsupported, instead of only reproducing previous-made tracks. That way, all the different possibilities offered by live coding are put together with more commercial tracks, promoting live coding while maintaining the dance music atmosphere and opening more improvisation possibilities for the DJ. It is also an easy and fun way to start learning programming and live coding.
All software involved are open-source and the workflow is based on the author's. The primary intention here is to stimulate DJs to try live coding, at the same time helping promote live coding to audiences other than experimental music enthusiasts.
Lightning Talk
11:30
Cancelled:
Integrated Audio DSP Development With FAUST, JACK, FOSSIL, Octave, MHWaveEdit, (and BASH)
We use FAUST for rapid prototyping DSP routines which are later adopted in VHDL for hardware implementation.
Special focus here is to integrate preset management of the audio plugins with source code management (SCM). This is crucial because often during development certain presets require a corresponding source code version to sound as intended.
We use the FAUST jackgtk architecture to compile a stand alone JACK application which saves the current state as a config file. A console UI then takes care of managing these config files and makes the necessary connections to other applications.
Second, the SCM is integrated in compile scripts and preset management, freeing the developer from typing commit messages and automatically linking the commit to the newly created presets in a comprehensive way in the background.
Last not least analysis and sound testing utilities are knit together with compilation and preset management, including playing back test sounds through the plugin, inspecting the block diagram or samples in text format and viewing impulse- and frequency responses.
Lightning Talk
11:30
DISTRHO Plugin Framework
This presentation gives a brief overview and demonstration about the DISTRHO Plugin framework (DPF).
DPF is designed to make development of new plugins an easy and enjoyable task. It allows developers to create plugins with custom UIs using a simple C++ API. The framework facilitates exporting various different plugin formats (e.g. LV2 and VST) from the same code-base.
Lightning Talk
11:40
Cancelled:
MicroFlo: Visual programming for microcontrollers
When a sound artist wants to create new input devices or interaction, they often reach for their Arduino.
A popular set of tools is Firmata+PureData (or Max MSP), interacting with the microcontroller through visual dataflow programming. This requires a computer to run the custom program, and limits programs to what the Firmata firmware can do.
With MicroFlo one can visually program the microcontroller itself, allowing to make use of the small size, low-power, and real-time functionality of the microcontroller - opening up additional applications.
Lightning Talk
11:40
Audio Signal Visualization and Measurement
The authors offer an introductory walk-through of professional audio signal measurement and visualisation.
The presentation focuses on the SiSco.lv2 (Simple Audio Signal Oscilloscope) and the Meters.lv2 (Audio Level Meters) LV2 plugins, which have been developed since August 2013. The plugin bundle is a super-set, built upon existing tools with added novel GUIs (e.g ebur128, jmeters,..), and features new meter-types and visualisations unprecedented on GNU/Linux (e.g. true-peak, phase-wheel,..). Various meter-types are demonstrated and the motivation for using them explained. The accompanying documentation provides an overview of instrumentation tools and measurement standards in general, emphasising the requirement to provide a reliable and standardised way to measure signals.
The talk is aimed at developers who validate DSP during development, as well as sound-engineers who mix and master according to commercial constraints.
Lightning Talk
11:50
Exploiting Coloured Hearing for Research on Acoustic Perception
Coloured hearing is a form of synaesthesia with co-perception of acoustic stimuli as visual effects. In contrast to acquired or induced synaesthesia, the genuine form is thought to origin very early in life and to not relevantly change over time. Therefore, finding correlations between acoustic stimuli and visual effects with genuine coloured hearing and evaluating their visual significance even on adults gives hints on which acoustic properties have been significant for an individual since early life. With this snapshot of significance taken from many individuals, we hope to better identify the border between congenital perception and perception habits created from cultural influence. Knowledge about this border is essential for composition of contemporary music, as it marks the limit where musical parameters go beyond trainable perception and thus render irrelevant as compositorial means. So far, for a preparatory case study we developed a set of sounds, tested it on a single genuine coloured hearing individual and present first results.
Lightning Talk
12:00
Using KMI's SoftStep Foot Controller with Linux
KMI's SoftStep Foot Controller is a very compact yet incredibly powerful foot controller. Roughly the size and weight of an average USB keyboard, it features 44 pressure sensors grouped in 14 "keys", allowing for new and creative ways to control computer-based live music performances. Unfortunately, to get the full power of the device, you need to use KMI's software which, in addition to being rather unintuitive, is only compatible with Windows and Mac Os.
This lightning talk will present FooCoCo (The Foot Controller Controller), a python/pyo-based project that intends to unleash the full power of the SoftStep (allowing possibly even more than KMI's original software) in a FOSS, Linux-compatible way. The project is in early stages of development and will welcome ideas and contributions!
Lightning Talk
12:10
Meet MOD!
Last year we showed at LAC a working MOD prototype. After an year of further development, the MOD Quadra is stable, has several improvements and is being used by the adventurous musicians that believed the concept enough to spend more than a few bucks to acquire a unit from the first batch. We are grateful to all plugin developers that provided such a diversity and quality of sound processing that made our product possible.
The goal of this lightning talk is to, first, show the latest version. After that, we would like to invite the Linux Audio Community to discuss ways in which our business could support further Free Software plugin development for Linux platform. Investors shine their eyes with the idea of a plugin market place that would allow recurrent revenue from each device sold, and now we're looking for ways to do that while encouraging Free Software models.
Licensing
14:00
Field Report on the OpenAV Release System
This paper discusses the OpenAV release system, a new release system with at its core a balance between release date and financial support. The release system works by creating the software, announcing it, and releasing after a waiting time. If money is donated to the project, the waiting time is reduced, which in turn results in an accelerated release.
This paper details the process of the OpenAV release system, discusses it in relation to other release systems. Finally the author draws on the experience gained by OpenAV Productions.
Audio and Web
14:45
Csound on the web
This paper reports on two approaches to provide a general-purpose audio programming support for web applications based on Csound. It reviews the current state of web audio development, and discusses some previous attempts at this. We then introduce a Javascript version of Csound that has been created using the Emscripten compiler, and discuss its features and limitations. In complement to this, we look at a Native Client implementation of Csound, which is a fully-functional version of Csound running in Chrome and Chromium browsers.
Audio and Web
15:30
BeaqleJS: HTML5 and JavaScript based Framework for the Subjective Evaluation of Audio Quality
Subjective listening tests are an essential tool for the evaluation and comparison of audio processing algorithms. In this paper we introduce BeaqleJS, a framework based on HTML5 and JavaScript to run listening tests in any modern web browser. This makes it easy to distribute the test and to reach a significant amount of participants in combination with simple configuration and good expandability.
Audio and Web
16:30
Providing Music Notation Services over Internet
The GUIDO project gathers a textual format for music representation, a rendering engine operating on this format, and a library providing a high level support for all the services related to the GUIDO format and it's graphic rendering. The project includes now an HTTP server that allows users to access the musical-score-related functions in the API of the GUIDOEngine library via uniform resource identifiers (URIs). This article resumes the core tenants of the REST architecture on which the GUIDO server is based, going on to explain how the server ports a C/C++ API to the web. It concludes with several examples as well as a discussion of how the REST architecture is well suited to a web-API that serves as a wrapper for another API.
Audio and Web
17:15
From Faust to Web Audio: Compiling Faust to JavaScript using Emscripten
The Web Audio API is a platform for doing audio synthesis in the browser. Currently it has a number of natively compiled audio nodes capable of doing advanced synthesis. One of the available nodes the "JavaScriptNode" allows individuals to create their own custom unit generators in pure JavaScript. The Faust project, developed at Grame CNCM, consists of both a language and a compiler and allows individuals to deploy a signal processor to various languages and platforms. This paper examines a technology stack that allows for Faust to be compiled to highly optimized JavaScript unit generators that synthesize sound using the Web Audio API.
Workshops & Events
Workshop
10:00
Groovin' high: Remixing music in full-sphere surround
Workshop
In this 90 minutes workshop, we will take a recent track by Gabbe, look into its composition and production techniques, and then take it to the third dimension using Ambisonics.
After a short introduction to the technical side of with-height surround production, we will focus on its musical application.
Spatialisation is just another production tool which, above all else, must support the song, so the mixing process will begin with an analysis of the musical material.
While we indulge in full 3D playback in this workshop, the spatial ideas and concepts discussed here will be applicable to horizontal surround and good old stereo as well.
We will demonstrate the downwards-compatibility of full-sphere Ambisonics by showing you automated downmixes for 5.1, 4.0 and stereo, and discuss their advantages and limitations.
Our workstation of choice will be Ardour3. Target audience is just about everybody. We will assume basic knowledge about the fundamentals of music production and gracefully sidestep Ambisonic theory.
Workshop
11:30
Workshop on blue-environment for higher order Ambisonic spatialisation and spatial granular synthesis in Csound
Workshop
"Hands on"-workshop on the concept of my environment for score generation and sound production for 3rd order Ambisonic spatialisation using Csound and Blue. This environment makes the production of spatial music finally nearly as easy as conventional stereo production. An overview about its features will be given as well as well as a description how to operate it.
My latest piece is taken as an example to demonstrate, which things can be done with the code and how a piece of higher order Ambisonic music featuring spatial granular synthesis and spatial algorithmic composition becomes possible with this environment.
The participants may bring their own computer with blue and Csound installed to make their own experiences with the code.
The whole environment is arranged as a blue-project, freely available for download.
Workshop
14:00
Exploring the Zirkonium MK2 Toolkit for Sound Spatialization
Workshop
For controlling the ZKM Klangdom the Institute for Music and Acoustics (IMA) is developing the free software Zirkonium for spatial composition. It is designed as a standalone application for Apple OS X and handles multichannel sound files or live audio. In 2012 the IMA started reengineering the system taking into account the experience of the staff and guest composers. The result is a more stringent modular client-server based toolkit which includes a hybrid spatialisation server, a trajectory editor and an application for speaker setup creation as its core components.
In the workshop the participants first will be introduced to the basic features of Zirkonium and exemplary case studies. Afterward the participants can form groups to explore a certain feature of their choice. Conclusively the results and impressions in working with the software will be discussed under the aspect of extending Zirkonium with Linux based modules.
Workshop
14:00
A realtime synthesizer controlled by singing and beatboxing
Workshop
A realtime instrument was implemented in pd-extended that translates singing, beatboxing, and both simultaneous, to a wide range of melodic and percussive synthetic sounds. Analysis, synthesis and processing algorithms where selected and integrated with a focus on expressive and reliable voice-control, with an intuitive correlation between the input and output.
The workshop will be an interactive combination of demo, explanation and brainstorming on future ideas and their implementation. The participants of the workshop decide where the focus will be. An improvised live performance with it will be given on May/3, during the Sound Night, 22:00 on the balcony.
Workshop
15:15
project
Workshop
A workshop on the concepts and makings of project "droning", a long-term ambient project made entirely with GNU/Linux.
Workshop
16:30
OpenAV Workshop
Workshop
Participants of the OpenAV workshop will learn about the set of OpenAV Productions tools. Software used during the workshop will include Luppp, Fabla, Sorcer, ArtyFX, and (at time of writing) unannounced programs.
Lounge Concert
22:00
Cancelled:
G.I.A.S.O - Great International Audio Streaming Orchestra
Concert
An international online orchestra developed by APO33 whose goal is to create a place for networked performance.
"Great International Audio Streaming Orchestra" uses a bidirectional multiplex platform to perform and mix different audio sources via streaming. Over the time of the performance, streams (web-transmission) are re-made in the local space using a system based on mixing multiple audio-streams through a spatial diffusion. GIASO creates a distributed orchestra, where musicians and composers can become virtual entities that emerge from a global community of nodes -- audio explorers and performers' networks.
Lounge Concert
22:00
"Random Noise" - Concert for Sound Column Four Hands
Concert
Two players give a concert in a competitive manner. They put and rearrange colored shapes and symbols on an advertising column that slowly rotates. The surface of the column is scanned, and a computer program renders the shapes and symbols into sound, as they move under a virtual playhead cursor that is projected onto the column.
Since the players compete in uncoordinated fashion rather than cooperate, the overall picture grows wildly. Both players are struggling to dominate the system by putting as much information as possible onto the column. As their competition finally results in big chaos, the overall informational content approaches zero, resulting in random noise.
Lounge Concert
22:00
Vowelscape 1.0
Concert
Vowelscape 1.0 is a collaborative audiovisual performance by Bruno Ruviaro (Santa Clara University) and Carr Wilkerson (CCRMA/Stanford). Strangled robotic voices and flickering letters are some of the building blocks of this study on the poetic resonances of isolated vowels.
Lounge Concert
22:00
Live Performance
Concert
We are two musicians based in Ljubjana working in different projects that involve free software. We recently decided to form a duet; Mauricio Valdés is a professional composer and Jure Pohleven is a PhD biochemist. We are working with free software in order to perform live improvised music. We are starting our project by playing and getting to know more what are the musical ideas of both of us. This is one of the musical outputs we are working on besides some draft ideas about how to join our ideas and link them (biochemistry and music). At the moment we are drawing lines to spread more into the scene of free software with Linux and this conference seems like the right place to go.
Lounge Concert
22:00
Panela de Pressão
Concert
Panela de Pressão is an improvisation over the network with Bruno Ruviaro and Juan-Pablo Caceres. Juan-Pablo will be playing live from Santiago, Chile. The two musicians started playing together in 2004 when they first met in the United States. After a long hiatus, the duo finally resumed playing |
thought to be the right assumption exactly that,” Lynch said. “So now, just like I said earlier with all these rookies, they’ve got to go show that they can do it on the big stage but we feel very positive about Matt Breida and what he brings to the table.”
Niner’s GM John Lynch and head coach Kyle Shanahan keep singing the praises of undrafted rookie Matt Breida. San Francisco awarded Breida’s hard work in camp with a roster spot as the primary backup to starter Carlos Hyde. If you read between the lines of what Lynch and Shanahan have said about Breida thus far, it almost sounds like the coaching staff likes him over Hyde. If you play in a PPR league, NFC, or a +12 team fantasy league; Breida might be a good pickup to stash away. I know I have. He’s going to catch his fair share of balls out of the backfield.
Matt Breida, RB, San Francisco
Week 1: vs. Carolina
Ukeme Eligwe
? INTERCEPTION Ukeme Eligwe got? for that pick! pic.twitter.com/Y2lvyRisqe — Kansas City Chiefs (@Chiefs) September 1, 2017
Ukeme Eligwe had a stellar preseason with the Chiefs. The 5th round pick is already starting on the punt team and might just sneak his way up KC’s depth chart before it’s all said and done.
“I really see a bright future for him. He may not be with me for a long time because he may be on defense because he is that good.” – Dave Toub, special teams coach of the Chiefs
He has raw athleticism that jumps off the screen at you. He finished the preseason on Thursday night against the Titans with six tackles and a pick in the first two defensive series alone. Eligwe is a sideline-to-sideline LB with speed to cover the entire field. It’s only a matter of seasoning at this point before he’s a full-time starter in the league.
Ukeme Eligwe, LB, Kansas City
Week 1: at New England (Thursday Night Football)
JJ Wilcox
After the TJ Ward signing, the #Bucs trade JJ Wilcox (and a 2019 7th) to the #Steelers for a 2018 6th rounder. — Ian Rapoport (@RapSheet) September 3, 2017
Georgia Southern’s longest tenured Eagle in the NFL is safety JJ Wilcox. JJ spent four seasons with the Cowboys before signing a 2-year, $6.25 million deal with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers (featured on HBO’s Hard Knocks). He was part of a cut-day trade that sent him to the Steelers for a 2018 pick. Wilcox is known as a hard-hitting run stopper. He’s trying to prove that he’s a capable pass defender as well. He will likely be the third safety in Pittsburgh (a franchise that loves physical, hard-hitting safeties). Starters Mike Mitchell and Sam Davis have missed time in the preseason with injuries, so it might not be long before we see Wilcox starting.
J.J. Wilcox, S, Pittsburgh Steelers
Week 1: vs. Cleveland
Jerick McKinnon
How do you respond to a 87yd TD? Just ask Jerick McKinnon pic.twitter.com/jw8I03wwiQ — Football Serious (@FootbaIISerious) August 28, 2017
Jerick McKinnon had to fight off challenges from newcomers Dalvin Cook and Latavius Murray this preseason but he survived and made the cut. He’s adding different skill sets to his game now that the running back position is a little more crowded in Minneapolis. That includes returning back kickoffs. He took back a 108-yard kickoff return to the house against Matt Breida’s 49ers, as you see above. He’s been seen taking snaps at slot receiver in training camp as well. The Vikings are trying to make better use of his speed after his yards per carry dipped to 3.4 yards a carry after replacing Adrian Peterson. To be fair it was one of the worst OLs in NFL history.
Jerick McKinnon, RB/KR, Minnesota
Week 1: vs. New Orleans
Edwin Jackson
Not all news has been positive however. Edwin Jackson has been placed on the IR with the Colts with an undisclosed injury. He is out for the year.
Edwin Jackson, LB, Indianapolis
Week 1: at Los Angeles Rams
BJ Johnson III
Injured reserve as well, out for the season.
BJ Johnson III, WR, San Francisco
Week 1: vs. Carolina
Antwione Williams
Perhaps the hardest cut to swallow. The 6-3 245 Williams was a surprise cut by the Lions considering the coaching staff had him penciled in as the starter in OTAs. But it seems that Antwione lost out to a guy Falcons fans will be familiar with: Paul Worrilow.
Ironhead Gallon
Despite leading the team in tackles in the preseason, Deshawntee “Ironhead” Gallon did not make the Arizona Cardinal’s roster and seems to have just missed out on a practice squad spot.
Montay Crockett
Same goes for Montay Crockett, who the Packers liked, but not enough to keep him on the practice squad.
Like this: Like Loading...It is not very often you meet a dessert worthy of carrying delicate Adirondack wild raspberries, but Adirondack Wild Raspberry Double Chocolate Maple Pavlova is up to the task. Like most wild fruit, wild Adirondack raspberries are smaller, sweeter, and more fragile than their domestic relatives. It is easy to overwhelm the berry’s best part–their authentic raspberry flavor–with heavy sweeteners and bold flavors. I was looking for a light, gluten-free, and interesting way to serve wild raspberries when I concocted this recipe.
This delightful treat is a basic meringue spruced up with chocolate and Adirondack maple sugar, topped with maple-sweetened mascarpone cheese that is whipped with heavy cream, and topped with freshly picked wild raspberries and shaved chocolate. A slice of fresh Adirondack Pavlova is the perfect way to prepare for, or refuel after, a long summer day of Adirondack outdoor recreation. Outdoor recreation isn’t a necessary ingredient in this recipe, but it helps alleviate the guilt when you realize you must have another piece of Pavlova.
The original Pavlova was created for the Russian ballerina Anna Pavlova in the 1920s in either New Zealand or Australia; both countries claim credit, as well they should. Unlike traditional meringue, a Pavlova crust is light and crisp on the outside with a moist, soft, almost gooey interior.
The active local food movement in northern New York is a boon to those of us who like to buy local and make yummy desserts like this. The maple syrup and sugar used in this recipe came from my neighbors’ maple syrup operation, and the eggs from our CSA farm share. The star of this show is volunteer food–foraged wild raspberries from my front yard–you don’t get more local than that.
Before we start, a word about working with meringue: it sticks to everything. It is so sticky it is used as glue to hold the parchment paper to the baking sheet in this recipe. This means if you are an uptight fuss-budget, you’ll want to stay away from this recipe. I lean toward the tidy and I had to learn to just let it go when I started baking meringues. The sticky egg-white mixture gets everywhere and makes a mess, but don’t worry, you can clean up to your heart’s content after the Pavlova is in the oven. And whatever you do, do not make a Pavlova with an uptight fuss-budget lurking in your kitchen; they’ll freak out over the mess and take all the fun out of licking the beaters. (What are you doing hanging with an uptight fuss-budget anyway?)
A tip about eggs whites: older is better. Extremely fresh eggs are more difficult to separate and whip. Eggs separate easier when they are cold, but whip better at room temperature. So, separate the eggs right out of the refrigerator and let the whites warm to room temp before you start whipping them. It takes a while for egg whites to reach whipped perfection, so get comfortable and turn your radio or computer up loudly so you can hear over the noise of the mixer.
For the Crust
6 large egg whites
Pinch salt
1-1/2 cups sugar and 1/4 cup maple sugar (see note)
3 tablespoons unsweetened cocoa powder
1 teaspoon red wine vinegar
2 ounces bittersweet chocolate, finely chopped
For the Mascarpone Cream
8 ounces (1 cup) mascarpone cheese, cold
1-1/3 cups heavy whipping cream, cold
2 tablespoons maple syrup, cold
1/4 cup sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
For the Topping
1-1/2 cups (or as many as you pick) fresh wild raspberries
2 ounces bittersweet chocolate, grated or shaved into curls (optional)
Instructions
1. Preheat the oven to 300°F. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper. Using a dark marker, draw a 9-inch diameter circle on the parchment paper by tracing around a 9-inch cake pan or plate. Flip the paper over so your meringue won’t touch the marker.
2. In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the whisk attachment or using a hand mixer, beat the egg whites and salt on medium speed until foamy soft peaks form, about a minute. Increase the speed to medium-high and gradually add the sugars; continue beating until stiff peaks form, 8-9 minutes. The meringue will be glossy.
3. Pass the cocoa powder through a sieve or sifter and add to the meringue. Add the vinegar and chopped chocolate. Using a large rubber spatula, fold the mixture until well combined. It should be a light mocha color with no white or brown streaks.
4. Secure the parchment paper to the baking sheet by adding a dab of meringue under each corner. Mound the meringue onto the parchment inside the circle. Using the spatula or a butter knife, spread the meringue to fill the circle. Even the top and sides just slightly–it shouldn’t be perfectly smooth or overworked.
5. Place in the oven and cook for 1 hour and 15 minutes, or until the meringue is puffed and crisp all over, yet still a bit wobbly underneath if you touch the center. Don’t worry if the top is cracked–that’s normal and gets covered with whipped cream in the end. Turn off the oven, prop the oven door open, and leave the meringue in the oven to cool to room temperature, at least 30 minutes. The meringue won’t collapse as much if it cools gradually.
6. Before serving, carefully peel the meringue off of the parchment paper and place it on a serving platter. In a medium bowl, beat the mascarpone cheese, heavy cream, maple syrup, and vanilla until combined. Gradually add the sugar and continue beating until it holds soft, pillowy peaks. Do not over beat; it should not be too stiff or grainy.
7. Mound the mascarpone cream onto the meringue and gently spread it out about an inch from the edge. Don’t worry if the meringue cracks in the process. Don’t worry at all; it is almost time to eat this taste bomb. Top the Pavlova with the raspberries and sprinkle the shaved chocolate over top. Cut the Pavlova into wedges, wiping the knife in between slices, and serve.
Note: Place regular granulated sugar and the maple sugar in a food processor and process until fine, about 60 seconds. Note: This Pavlova can be made ahead and assembled up to 12 hours ahead of time. Keep in the refrigerator.
Nutrition Information (Read it and weep.)In the eight years between invasion and withdrawal, more than 110,000 people suffered violent deaths as direct result of the Iraq conflict. Some estimates put that number at over a million. Hundreds of thousands of civilians and former combatants also suffered injury during the war, both physical and psychological. When the coalition finally withdrew in 2011, no significant weapons of mass destruction had been located, but Saddam Hussein's regime had been replaced by elected representatives. A mostly Sunni-led insurgency flared up, challenging the new government and security forces. Trillions of dollars were spent and millions of lives were affected, but the Iraqis are still struggling to find their post-war footing as near-constant violence hampers any efforts to move beyond poverty and pain. Ten years later, we look back in a three-part series. Today's entry focuses on the period from 2011 to present-day. This post is part 3 of 3, be sure to see part 1, and part 2.CAMBRIDGE, Massachusetts (Reuters) - Harvard University on Monday reopened four buildings at the heart of its centuries-old campus outside Boston that had been evacuated earlier after the school received an e-mail warning explosives had been planted on the premises.
State and local police respond to reports of explosives at Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts, December 16, 2013. REUTERS/Dominick Reuter
The Ivy League school said on its online alert system that all four buildings - three classroom facilities and a dorm - had reopened following a sweep by local, state and federal law enforcement officials.
“I am relieved to report that no suspicious devices were found,” wrote Katie Lapp, a university executive vice president, in a message to the Harvard community. “At this time, we know of no specific threat to campus and activities are returning to normal.”
The evacuations resulted in the cancellation of final exams for some classes at the Cambridge, Massachusetts, campus.
Institutions across the Boston area have been on an elevated state of alert since the April 15 bombing attack at the Boston Marathon that killed three people and injured 264.
The Harvard campus police, Cambridge Police and Massachusetts State Police, including the bomb squad, responded to the campus, where they set up yellow-taped perimeters around the evacuated buildings and directed students to move away.
During the search, university officials had closed Harvard Yard - the wooded and currently snow-covered historic center of the campus - to outside pedestrians, allowing only people who held Harvard identification to enter.
The school, founded in 1636, has about 21,000 students.
Daniel Banks, an 18-year-old freshman from Marlboro, New Jersey, was about to take a final exam in a government class when he was evacuated from Emerson Hall.
“It was my first final ever at Harvard and within a minute it was canceled,” Banks said. “I never expected anything like this to ever happen at Harvard especially, but I’m glad that nothing real has happened yet.”
It was the latest in a series of security scares at U.S. schools and universities. Three days ago a Colorado high school student intent on confronting a teacher opened fire at his school, severely wounding a classmate before killing himself.
Late last month Yale University in New Haven, Connecticut, placed its campus on lockdown for most of a day after an anonymous caller warned officials that his roommate was headed to the school planning to shoot people. No gunman was found and police now regard the incident as a hoax.
“I’ve been here eight years and we’ve had a couple of one-off incidents, but nothing of this scale,” said Travis Lovett, 33, of Wakefield, Massachusetts, who works at Harvard.Theology, better yet, knowing God, is like observing the sun. You look at it and you go blind; instead, you snatch glimpses and you learn to see everything else in light of the light the sun generates. That is, “… there may be certain things that are themselves too great to understand but that nevertheless enable us to understand lesser things with remarkable clarity” (xiii). Yes, that’s a riff on the famous line by C.S. Lewis, but it is also the theme of a new book by Steven D. Boyer and Christopher A. Hall, called The Mystery of God: Theology for Knowing the Unknowable.
God is a mystery but not the sort of puzzle-like mystery that can be solved. And theology itself challenged to know what is beyond its knowability. “God is not a puzzle, and to relate rightly to him is not to analyze or classify or master, but to worship” (xvi). So the goal of theology “is not merely that we should get our theological formulations right, but also and more significantly that we should get ourselves right; not that we should master theology, but that we should be mastered by the theos whom theology must approach” (xvii).
What are some areas of our faith where “mystery” is the appropriate category?
The goal of theology then is worship.
And mystery maybe should be the first word in any genuine theology, any talk or thought about knowing God. Mystery, to be sure, sometimes means a puzzle to be solved but that won’t satisfy us because we can’t solve the puzzle known as God. The Bible uses the word “mystery” for a secret plan now revealed, and in some ways that’s the heart of the Christian sense of mystery because God has been revealed in Christ. Even here, then, we are driven to the end of our ability to know where mystery — even as revealed in Christ to fallible and finite humans — because quantitatively inexhaustible. There is here a confession of immensity and a magnitude of internal and external complexity beyond our knowing. In this case it is not that we don’t know enough but that there is so much we can’t take it in. What, then, can it mean to say God is “infinite” when it is finite beings making the claim? So there is as well a supra-rational or even nonrational opaqueness about dimension of knowing and worshiping God. There is numinosity about God, a kind of personal engagement wherein we have experienced God but cannot put that experience into words adequately, and even if there is truth here it cuts into the fabric of what it means that God has made the mystery known.
Flatlanders, an image the authors use for us, can only know so much and they attempt from the two-dimensional, finite minds to explain what has more dimensions than their minds have categories for. This dimensional mystery is about unclassifiable superabundance. That is the mystery of God.
This sketch is about five dimensions of the term mystery: investigative, revelational, extensive, facultative and dimensional.
God is reasonable and beyond reason.Winston Peters wants New Zealanders in the regions to benefit more from the wealth they help generate.
Photo: RNZ / Diego Opatowski
About 500 people packed into Palmerston North's Convention Centre yesterday to hear the New Zealand First leader launch his party's regional election campaign.
With the election less than three months away, Mr Peters said it was time the regions got their fair share of GST and royalties from resources.
He wants the regions to get a 25 percent share of the government's royalties from water, oil and mineral extraction and for the GST paid by tourists to be returned to the region in which they spent their money.
Thames Coromandel Mayor Sandra Goudie said Mr Peters was on the money, and getting a slice of tourists' GST would help regions cope with the pressure they put on infrastructure.
"Yeah I'd back that one - it's certainly a timely comment and it's something that local government has been lobbying to get for quite some time in various forms.
"I think it's certainly better than the bed tax that is being proffered by (Auckland Mayor) Phil Goff for Auckland."
Mr Peters said while the regions generated an enormous amount of the country's wealth - they received little in return.
"Now I notice you go down the West Coast no Maseratis there, no BMWs virtually there.
"I go to Thames, where all the extraction of gold happened, I don't see any Maseratis there or any of the flash cars - no - because they've just all been gouged out for central government's advantage."
Ms Goudie said that actually most mining occurred in the neighbouring Hauraki district and they would be excited by Mr Peters 25 percent royalty proposal.
Gisborne's mayor Meng Foon said the GST idea was fantastic.
He said he had a similar proposal that he would be presenting to the Local Government conference next month.
"Tourists that come here the ratepayers still have to pay for their rubbish, the water usage, the use of the roads and other public amenities like toilets."
"So if they spend something in our district it would be good if a proportion of that GST goes to helping the residents pay for that infrastructure and the operation of that infrastructure," Mr Foon said.
But Finance Minister Steven Joyce said Mr Peters' proposals would knock a $1 to $3 billion hole in the government's books.
Mr Joyce said the regions were already getting their fair share.
"Well, the government went and did the exercise and looked at all its expenditure...across all the regions in the country and we found that all the regions got about the same amount of money on a per head basis," Mr Joyce said.
"Except, if anything, the Aucklanders the Wellingtonians and Christchurch people got a bit less and the small regions got more."
Mr Joyce said that was because of the economies of scale.
Mr Peters also said it was wrong that foreign companies could bottle New Zealand water for export for a pitiful token fee while making millions of dollars of profit.
Mr Joyce said the government had set up a technical pricing group to look into the cost of water but that any returns from this activity wouldn't be a significant amount of money.
And New Zealand First will again be championing its student loans write-off scheme at the election. The party proposes that for every year a student stays in the country and works, one year of their debt is written off.Since 1999, I've helped to oversee an investment club – with results, I'm happy to report, that make most mutual funds look inept by comparison. We have beaten most investment professionals, and left diversified portfolios of index funds in the dust.
From 1999 to early 2011, I bought individual stocks for my personal account as well, outperforming the returns of the investment club by a healthy margin.
Yet earlier this year, I sold $700,000 worth of individual stocks to ensure my personal portfolio was 100 per cent in low-cost index funds. Why? It's the realization that a big part of my success was luck. The more I learn about investing, the more I realize how difficult it is to gain a sustainable edge on the market.
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As a stock picker, I used to feel smug. I researched companies more than anyone I knew, ordering at least five (usually 10) years worth of annual reports, and scrutinizing them from back to front (the juicy stuff is always in the back!).
Using Warren Buffett's tenets as a guide, I bought strong businesses with low debt levels, great managers, high returns on capital, predictable business outlooks – and made sure that I always paid a great price.
You might be thinking that I threw in the stock-picking towel after a few of my stocks went south. But that's not the reason.
During research for a book on personal finance, I was struck by how few investors beat the market over a lifetime. History is filled with dozens of "can't miss" fund managers who eventually get spanked by the stock market.
Take Bill Miller. His mutual fund, Legg Mason Value Trust, beat the S&P 500 for 15 straight years, prompting Fortune magazine's Andy Serwer to call Mr. Miller in 2006, "the greatest money manager of our time." But shortly after, Mr. Miller was force-fed large chunks of humble pie, as his coveted fund lost dramatically to the U.S. index.
Even during Mr. Miller's incredible stock market run, my personal returns were outperforming his from 1999 to 2006. And from 2006 to early 2011, my stock holdings continued to beat the market (unlike Mr. Miller's).
Am I that much better than Mr. Miller? I would love to believe it, but in reading interviews with the man, I've been struck by his intelligence. His IQ is off the charts. Plus he has access to more research than I do.
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Before proclaiming myself a financial genius, I decided to look at a bigger picture. I concluded that good fortune had played a large role in my success.
In 2003, I wrote a magazine article, "How To Invest Like Warren Buffett." My picks in that article yielded stellar results – the best being McDonalds, then trading at $11 per share. It's now $85.
But my 2005 follow-up piece recommended stocks like Pier 1 Imports at $18 per share (now $12), The Gap at $21 per share (now $18) and Trex Co. at $35 (now $25). There were a few winners, but coupling the winners with the losers wouldn't have given the article's followers any advantage over the S&P 500 index.
I didn't buy the stinker stocks above, but I easily could have. I thought they were great stocks, at great prices. For whatever reason, I didn't invest in them. If I had, I couldn't brag about my stellar returns.
Then there's a detailed assessment that I did on General Electric in 2002. With a long history of paying dividends, it had tripled its dividend payout in the short period between 1991 and 2002. It was also viewed at the time as an impenetrable blue chip fortress.
At $38 per share it traded at 26 times earnings – too rich for my taste. But the notes that I scribbled in 2002 reveal that I considered it a steal at $22, a price it would reach the following year. If I had paid $22 for GE shares, I would have lost to the market. Today GE trades at $20 per share. What prevented me from buying GE in 2003 at $21 per share? Luck. That's it.
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People who are lucky enough to beat the markets generally have concentrated portfolios. I had roughly a dozen stocks, so a single wrong move could have cost me dearly.
Yes, my investment results have handily beaten the market over the past dozen years. But I choose to look at those results with a broad lens, rather than concluding what I wanted to see with a pair of rose-coloured glasses. Twelve years is a stock market blip. Mountains of evidence describe the futility of trying to beat index funds over a lifetime with actively managed portfolios.
Only a handful of geniuses like Mr. Buffett have ever managed to pull off the feat. I'm definitely not a genius. But I am smart enough to recognize my limitations.
------------------------
Andrew Hallam is a Canadian who teaches English and personal finance at Singapore American School. He is the author of Millionaire Teacher: The Nine Rules of Wealth You Should Have Learned in School. This is the third in a series of columns based on his book.
Special to The Globe and MailThis is part two of the series. In my last post, I introduced the most popular Apps in China. Now this post is for mobile games. The Chinese gamer’s population is huge, every game type imaginable has astronomical number of players. Here I would only focus on a few top genres.
The general situation of the Chinese mobile game market is like this: The hottest and most lucrative genre is MMO-RPG, there are countless big titles; And for other type of games, for example, Match 3, tower defense, card, the No.1 game tend to hold the monopoly position.
MMO-RPG
梦幻西游 (Journey to the West Fantasy) is a National Game, it belongs to an old franchise which enjoys great fan base. 梦幻西游 and many MMO-RPGs of the like bear a few common hallmarks: They are all well founded, with beautiful graphics; The themes are mostly Chinese mythology, Wuxia (Kong Fu master);
And no matter what type of battle system the games adopt: JRPG arena, Diablo style, or 2D scroll action -they all feature the same game mechanisms: upgrading levels, collecting equipments, main line tasks, social and team tasks, which are so dear to Chinese hearts.
梦幻西游 uses JRPG battle style, and streamlined with lots of auto-battle for mobile.
And below are a few more hot MMO-RPGs of this month.
Match-3
开心消消乐（Happy Match）is another National Game, which is able to generate 100M Yuan (15M US dollars) revenue each month. For its making it couldn’t rank among the best Match 3 games in the world, for example Candy Crush series and Cookie Jam. But it provides an excellent example to illustrate how a mobile game could build its success on Tencent’s Wechat/QQ.
In the west, mobile games depends much on Facebook to connect players and turn themselves viral. As I have introduced in my last article, the equivalent platform in China is Wechat/QQ. And any game relies heavily on friends circle must work closely with Tencent, for unlike Facebook, Tencent’s platforms are not opened to developers.
No.2 Match 3 game in China is 宾果消消乐（Colorful Fruit Match）, it lags behind No.1 a lot. And there’s no No.3 in China.
Candy Crush Saga and Cookie Jam had entered China for a while, but couldn’t find them on the lead boards.
Running Games
The most popular 2D running game is Tencent’s 天天酷跑（Everyday Cool Run）. The game play feels good, but the social stuffs and equipment/pet upgrading system make the game quite complicated. A running game is supposed to be simple, you can pick&drop it fairly easy, right?
The two most popular 3D running games are Subway Surf and Temple Run 2. You know they are excellent, for they have fluid control, and they add great contents regularly. There are scores of other Chinese 3D running games, but they find no place in the lead board. For Chinese developers generally are not good at catch the nuanced feeling which is essential to action games.
COC Type
In China, you can imagine there are more imitations, copycats of this type of game than anywhere else. However, Clash of Clans still hold it’s No.1 place in China. And its success had brought Clash Royale tightly follow it on the lead board.
Minecraft
Just like anywhere else in the world, Minecraft seems has invaded the phone/tablet of every kid here. Now they are crazy for the Story Mode.
Collecting Card Games
War Craft franchise has great fan base in China, that no card games could contend with Hearthstone.
And 刀塔传奇（Dot Arena）is a massively successful card game. Unlike Heathstone, you don’t play cards on table, instead fight with a team of heroes by auto-battle. What makes this game famous, perhaps is its developer’s long time lawsuit with Blizzard, over plagiarism of art works.
Deviant Games
These games couldn’t be said massively successful in China, but their developers generally say that they have made unexpected sales record.
Games also Popular
Music, FPS, tower defense, poker
And About Pokemon GO
A few years ago, almost every kid in affluent families would have a Game Boy or GB Color, and Pokemon is must have. You can see what Nintendo had established here, and what if it releases its mobile titles in China.
If Pokemon GO is to land in China, it would have to abandon Google for Chinese map and social media partners. Can’t see what would happen. And I’d rather that it would never enter China, for it would be more stories of Pikachu chasing young man crashed by cars, or Kids fell into ditches.
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I would post regularly--one article every two weeks, about game and art production.1994 EP by GAK
GAK EP by GAK Released June 1994 Genre Electronic music Length 24 : 11 Label Warp
Professional ratings Review scores Source Rating Allmusic [1]
GAK is an EP by Richard D. James (Aphex Twin) released in 1994 under the moniker "GAK". The record is sourced from demos Richard D. James sent to Warp Records in 1990 prior to his signing. The album is rumored[who?] to be an imitation of the classic Warp artist LFO (British band). James recorded the songs possibly around 1989-1990.
GAK 1 Is an example of early techno, mainly structured around a repetitive CR-78 pattern with a piano melody. GAK 2 is similar but has a more ambient techno sound than any other tracks on the E.P. GAK 3, however is a much darker, track with racing synths and a hard 4–4 beat, one of James' attempts to create a more rave type of sound. GAK 4 is a take on house music, rumoured to have been made as a joke, it is regarded by many as the best track on the record due to its happy vibe, and relaxed beat.[citation needed]
This album was released both in CD digital and 12" formats.
Track listing [ edit ]
Original release No. Title Length 1. "GAK 1" 6:36 2. "GAK 2" 6:10 3. "GAK 3" 5:23 4. "GAK 4" 6:02
2017 re-release bonus tracks No. Title Length 5. "gak police er,2" 4:28 6. "gak bass,e, +2" 3:29 7. "gak5 e, +3" 1:37 8. "gak6 e, +3" 5:25 9. "gak 7 e, +3" 6:00PopClips is a music video television program, the direct predecessor of MTV.
Former Monkee Mike Nesmith conceived the first music-video program as a promotional device for Warner Communications' record division. Production began in the spring of 1979 at SamFilm, a sound-stage built and operated in Sand City, California by Sam Harrison, a Monterey Peninsula College instructor with a motion picture background. The series was produced by Jac Holzman.
With an infinity cyclorama as the background, set flats were made from the Styrofoam packing used to ship laserdisc players and 3/4" video decks. The first "VeeJay" was Jeff Michalski. The director was William Dear. Besides Harrison, the production team was made up of Bruce "Buz" Clarke, Keith Cornell, Marybeth Harris, and Leslie Chacon.
The program was broadcast weekly on the youth-oriented cable television channel Nickelodeon in late 1980 and early 1981. The channel's owners at the time, Warner Cable, wanted to buy the name and idea, but instead, according to Dear, "they just watered down the idea and came up with MTV."
PopClips was preceded by the video Elephant Parts (which won the first ever Grammy Award for Music Video),[1] and followed by a second series titled Television Parts, both of which Nesmith hosted and produced.
Early videos broadcast on PopClips [ edit ]
References [ edit ]
^ 0-684-81044-1 The New Rolling Stone Encyclopedia of Rock and Roll (1995) ISBNStory highlights Decision on the verdict against Donald Kagan put off until September 22
Judge in 1999 case has shed doubt on the murder conviction he handed down
He now says he was racially biased against the defendant, prompting review
"It's not fair," says girlfriend of Wavell Wint, who was shot by Kagan during a fight
A New York judge on Thursday postponed a ruling on whether a former judge's self-professed racial bias led him to wrongly convict a man of murder nearly 15 years ago.
The case is being revisited because former New York Supreme Court Judge Frank Barbaro, a longtime champion of civil rights, has since said he believes he denied a fair trial to a white man who claimed he killed a black man in self-defense.
Barbaro now says that in the years after he convicted and sentenced Donald Kagan, his decision began "haunting" him. Testifying during a hearing in December on a motion to set aside the conviction, the former judge said he was convinced at the time that the defendant who stood before him was a racist who wanted to kill a black person.
As a result, Barbaro now says, he ignored evidence that Kagan had acted out of fear and not hatred.
New York City Criminal Court Judge ShawnDya L. Simpson on Thursday continued the case until September 22. Simpson, who presided at the December hearing, already had postponed making a ruling in the case twice this year.
Defendant said he was armed out of fear
In a bench trial in October 1999, Kagan said he was acting in self-defense when he shot Wavell Wint, 23, during a confrontation at a Brooklyn movie theater 11 months before.
Barbaro, who is white, didn't believe Kagan. The judge found him guilty of second-degree murder and criminal possession of a weapon. Kagan was sentenced to 15 years to life in prison, where he remains today.
Barbaro, now 86, said in an exclusive interview with CNN earlier this year, "I couldn't get out of my mind the look on the lawyer's face when I said I found him guilty. And the defendant on the stand, like he was pleading to me, 'It just happened, it just happened,' and that was sort of haunting me."
Kagan testified during the two-day trial in 1999 that he had been afraid of Wint, who was black. He said he came to the theater armed because the neighborhood had a reputation of being unsafe.
Wint, according to the trial record, had been confrontational with a number of people that night before the encounter with Kagan. Wint was not armed.
When their paths eventually crossed, words were exchanged and they scuffled. Wint was shot and killed, and Kagan was charged with murder. Barbaro landed the bench trial.
Barbaro said it may have been his own reputation for fairness that persuaded Kagan to put his fate in the judge's hands and not a jury's.
Barbaro: 'I think I made a mistake'
In his opinion, Barbaro wrote, "The circumstantial evidence convinces the court that when [Kagan], in response to [Wint's] verbal taunts, pulled out his gun for the second and last time, he |
a specialised service should not be granted. SavetheInternet.eu also calls for ISPs to ensure that if the quality of Internet traffic to and from specialised services is improved, that the quality of Internet access for everybody else is not harmed.
Traffic management
ISPs can manage traffic on their networks. This means they can prioritise certain traffic and restrict the speed of others. SavetheInternet.eu's position is that traffic management should be used for a specific purpose, with the least intrusive measures possible, and for limited time when it is genuinely necessary to achieve a legitimate goal. There are also concerns that because ISPs cannot tell what services or applications their customers are using when they use encrypted connections, such data may automatically put in a “slow lane” and that this may disincentivise the use of encryption.
Zero rating
Zero rating is the commercial practice of Internet Service Providers not counting data downloaded from certain applications or services towards a customer's download cap. Although it may appear to save consumers money, the effect of it can be that the ISP becomes a gatekeeper on which services you can use or are incentivised to use. It helps big companies to protect their position in the market and harms their competition. It is common in some parts of the world but we are unable to find examples of it in the UK. The SavetheInternet.eu campaign is calling for BEREC to clearly prohibit zero rating.
There is a comprehensive list of FAQs on these issues on the SavetheInternet.eu website.
Remember you can take part in the consultation through SavetheInternet.eu here before 1pm on Monday 18th July.Coalition for Reforms and Democracy Leader Raila Odinga on Thursday fell down thunderously while addressing a political gathering in the coastal town of Malindi.
The Opposition Leader had gone to the coast to express his solidarity with embattled Mombasa Governor Hassan Joho when the incident occured.
The dais collapsed, swallowing up the former Prime minister, who was at that moment using his famous parables to condemn 'evil forces' targeting members of his coalition.
Just after giving a bible account of how Jesus told off Satan for trying to lure him in the wilderness, the podium came down leaving Odinga and his political team rolling on the ground.
“I was shown the hill where the devil tempted Jesus telling him he would give him all the land if he worshiped him. But Jesus rejected the devil telling him to go away,” Raila said.
On the fateful day, Raila filed a petition at the Malindi High Court over what he termed as continued state harassment and victimization of Opposition politicians at the Coast.
Watch Video:
[video:https://youtu.be/3FmRD0AIqzY]A mosaic of Vladimir Lenin rests on a wall of a former secret Soviet Union radar station named "Skrunda-1," now a ghost town, near Skrunda, Latvia. (Dmitri Beliakov/For The Washington Post)
For years, the team of researchers worked in obscurity, patiently tallying what they say is the economic toll of Latvia’s decades under Soviet rule.
The answer, they decided this spring, is $205 billion. They didn’t expect the firestorm that would come next. The report added ammunition to a raging battle between Russia and the West over history and influence. Russia’s top diplomat said Latvians should be grateful the Kremlin wasn’t more violent when they broke from the Soviet Union in 1991. Then the Russian Foreign Ministry announced a competition to pick who could mock the scholars the best.
The conflict between Russia and the West is being fought not just with tanks and troops stationed on either side of the border, but also with dueling versions of the past. Few places feel it more strongly than Latvia. Leaders have battled with their domestic Russian-speaking population and with the Kremlin about whether their country’s decades-long incorporation into the Soviet Union was voluntary or an occupation. With the Kremlin reaching deep into the pages of history to justify its actions in Crimea, Latvians say the fight over the past has present-day consequences for their security — and they are calling for Western support not just with weaponry but also in the battle of ideas. The concerns have grown even stronger after the British vote to leave the European Union, with the Baltics losing an key ally inside the union.
“There was an ultimatum. We could not resist. We were occupied completely,” said Ruta Pazdere, the leader of the Latvian government-sponsored commission that tallied the costs of the 1940 Soviet takeover of Latvia. She said her group, which has labored for more than a decade, was less interested in monetary compensation from Russia than forcing an honest conversation about the lingering effects of Soviet rule.
“It's not easy to recognize your past. And if you start one lie, they just keep getting bigger and bigger,” Pazdere said.
[One of Russia’s biggest holidays is a WWII anniversary Americans don’t think about]
Russian President Vladimir Putin has used Soviet history to inflame the passions of his voters, turning the May anniversary of the World War II victory into the country’s biggest holiday. Modern-day Russia’s opponents are now often dismissed as “fascists.” There is little tolerance for countries such as Latvia, where for many people, Soviet victory in World War II meant 46 more years of foreign dominion. And since the Kremlin framed the annexation of Crimea from Ukraine as an effort to protect an allegedly embattled ethnic Russian population there, Latvia’s tense relations with its own large Russian population have new security implications.
“These people are deranged beyond help,” Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said of the Latvian study’s authors after the figures were released. Instead of talking about how much the Soviet Union cost Latvia’s economy, he said, the small nation should be more thankful it was allowed to leave in 1991.
“The Soviet Union behaved honorably. No one attempted to keep the Baltic republics by force,” Lavrov told the Swedish Dagens Nyheter newspaper. “Nobody saw or heard any gratitude for this.”
A patriotic painting on a wall of Skrunda-1. (Dmitri Beliakov/For The Washington Post)
The idea that the Baltics were forcibly incorporated into the Soviet Union in 1940 is widely accepted among mainstream Western historians and backed by historical evidence. But little of that is acknowledged by the Kremlin. Instead, Joseph Stalin has been largely rehabilitated in recent years. Nostalgia for the years of Soviet empire pervades many levels of Russian society.
Russian television – a tightly controlled instrument of Kremlin policy – has devoted significant airtime to attempting to discredit Baltic governments. On one program in June on the state-owned Rossiya 1 channel, for instance, the host, Evgeny Popov, said that Eastern European countries’ efforts to break from their Communist past were just part of a covert effort to spread fascism.
NATO, the Western military alliance, has struggled to confront a threat that comes not just from tanks but also from television screens. Western nations plan to send about 1,000 troops to each Baltic nation, plus Poland, at a summit starting Friday. And NATO has supported a Riga-based center largely devoted to combating information warfare from Russia. Separately, Latvia’s state broadcasting agency in April banned one Russian state television channel for six months, saying it was promoting war propaganda and inciting hatred.
“For us, World War II ending didn't bring back our independence. They try to use history as another element to mobilize their society, and as part of their information war,” said Latvian Foreign Minister Edgars Rinkevics.
[In Latvia, fresh fears of aggression as Kremlin warns about Russian minorities]
Latvians say that the lack of historical reckoning is a security risk, as Putin has declared that he will defend all ethnic Russians, no matter where they live. Some historians contrast Russia’s approach to Germany’s far more contrite approach to its Nazi past.
“One of the differences between Germany and Russia is that Germany has admitted that what they did was wrong. Russia has not said what it did was wrong,” said Gunars Nagels, the head of the Museum of the Occupation of Latvia, which seeks to document life under Soviet rule.
An abandoned portrait of Vladimir Lenin lies in a former secret Soviet Union radar station named "Skrunda-1," now a ghost town, near Skrunda, Latvia. (Dmitri Beliakov/For The Washington Post)
Army barrack ruins at Skrunda-1. (Dmitri Beliakov/For The Washington Post)
Ruins of Skrunda-1’s general headquarters. (Dmitri Beliakov/For The Washington Post)
The museum, one of the main historical institutions in Latvia, is sometimes a direct target for aggression. Nagels said his building had to be evacuated on May 9, Russia’s Victory Day, after receiving a bomb threat.
To activists on the other side of the Latvian-Russian divide, however, the Latvian attitudes toward the past are part of a broader campaign to marginalize the Russian-speakers who remain in the country, about a third of Latvia’s 2 million residents. Because Latvian citizenship requires a language test, many of the Russian-speakers are non-citizens. The high point of tensions comes every year on May 9, the celebration of Nazi defeat.
“The answer is always the same: You're serving Putin if you're celebrating,” said Elizabete Krivcova, an ethnic Russian rights campaigner who organized a rally tied to Victory Day this year.
“There is a basic Russophobia,” she said. “It's very similar to undemocratic developments in Russia.”
Krivcova said that many Russian-speakers inside Latvia acknowledge that the Soviet Union took over Latvia at gunpoint — but she said that using the word “occupation,” in many of their minds, leads to being stripped of their rights.
Others are more defiant.
“Soldiers came in and they were greeted with flowers,” said Meyer Deych, 95, who lives in Riga and served in a Latvian volunteers’ division of the Red Army. “We came to our homeland and we stayed here. Is that occupation?”
Meyer Deych, a World War II Soviet veteran, poses for a portrait in his home in Riga, Latvia. (Dmitri Beliakov/For The Washington Post)
He said that Victory Day celebrations were a major part of his calendar.
“I was wounded three times during the war. I'm alive now. I always think that this is my second birthday because I could have been killed,” he said. “These people who are noncitizens are expected to be friends of Latvia. But how can that be when they’re treated this way?”
The competing narratives makes it deeply difficult for Latvia’s political leaders to try to appeal to both sides of the gulf. Those who do are often viewed with suspicion for their motives.
“It’s a huge share of society. You cannot ignore them. You should address these people,” said Nils Usakovs, an ethnic Russian who is a naturalized Latvian citizen and mayor of the capital city of Riga. As the leader of the country’s main ethnic-Russian political party, Usakovs has had success in broadening his appeal at a local level, but he has been shut out of national leadership.
In recent years Usakovs says he has tried to defuse tensions around the Victory Day celebrations, which this year drew 170,000 people, according to city estimates — a turnout on a workday that represents about nine percent of the population.
Ethnic Latvian leaders say that understanding wartime history is the best way to ensure that conflict does not again touch their territory.
“What happened in 2014 brought back the worst memories of what happened in 1940,” said Rinkevics, the foreign minister. “We are seeing a kind of repetition of history.”
Read more:
Baltic countries want a longer NATO commitment to counter Russia
In Latvia, fresh fears of aggression as Kremlin warns about Russian minorities
The drug taken by Maria Sharapova was used by the Soviet Union to help soldiers combat stress
Today's coverage from Post correspondents around the worldThe University of Florida had itself one heck of an offseason with the hiring of head coach Jim McElwain, and the subsequent procurement of offensive coordinator Doug Nussmeier.
From a continuity standpoint, it’s a match made in offensive heaven as both are very similar within their core concepts: set up the vertical game by dictating to the defense out of “12 personnel,” by way of a power-run game, and attack the short-to-intermediate levels with a seemingly endless supply of horizontal approaches.
Wash. Rinse. Repeat.
For the Gator faithful longing for the Fun-and-Gun style of days past, when former head coach Steve Spurrier would make mincemeat out of secondaries with spread-and-fire concepts, you may have to settle for a rapid turnaround by way of balance as both coaches are very even in all facets of their approach.
Whether it’s positioning the quarterback from the Shotgun, Pistol or under center, having receivers line up in spread or reduced splits or having running backs run downhill or laterally from various alignments, we know that offensive weaponry has to be versed in all aspects.
And that’s not accounting for all the things offensive linemen have to know.
Florida players will not only have to be complete players, the scheme, which is balanced to the core, will also force the coaches to be versed in all aspects of technical football.
Both McElwain and Nussmeier are coaches who like to threaten defenses by way of tendency breakers. In doing so, they require a versatile QB who is able to both be a playmaker and a manager of the game.
Requirements also include the ability to navigate the pocket to allow for extended route development and the ability to throw on the run. And since play-action fakes are heavily sprinkled throughout the playbook, many of the back-to-the-defense variety, a signal-caller has to be able to reset and assimilate information at a rapid pace.
The Mac-and-Nuss era may have unearthed its first scheme-specific fit for what they like to do in redshirt freshman Will Grier, and we saw a representation of that in Florida’s annual spring game.
While former Alabama star QB A.J. McCarron is the most known signal-caller the pair has coached, Garrett Grayson, the former Colorado State QB who was coached up by McElwain, may be the best example of what it takes to run the scheme.
The 6’2″, 213-pound Grayson isn’t built like your traditional pocket-passer, unlike the 6’4″, 220-pound McCarron, but his ability to navigate a pocket and throw on the move made him a scheme-specific fit for McElwain’s philosophy.
Coach Mac loves to attack the middle of the field with various route combinations. There’s a great vertical element to his scheme, as well, but threatening the middle of a defense — and the edges via play-action fakes — is his primary forte’.
Here we see what makes McElwain great: his ability to have players implement his detailed teachings of the nuances of quarterbacking.
Grayson displayed excellent technique is his gather phase while looking off a third-level defender and then hitting his primary read in his progression in stride for some good ‘ol yards after the catch.
Too many times QBs are allowed to stare down their primary read as long as a pass is completed, but both Florida offensive coaches are stickler for detail.
It’s no wonder that Grayson is shooting up draft boards behind his polished skill set, and we can already see the fruits of the coaching staff’s labor in the redshirt freshman Grier.
The Gator faithful have been waiting with collective baited breath for the moment the highly-touted QB would make his debut in Orange and Blue. (See what I did there?) It’s been well-documented how Grier threw for an astounding 77 touchdowns in his senior season as a prep in Davidson, NC., while falling just 11 yards short of 5,000 yards, to boot.
The 6’2″, 200-pound Grier came close to breaking records held by former Gator great, and fellow NC native, Chris Leak, who was an intrical part of helping Florida get back on the national scene after a few down seasons in the early part of last decade.
With the offensive coaching combination piloting the skill set of the 20-year old Grier, we will undoubtedly see an offensive resurgence — which will be a departure from the anemic production of the last coaching era.
Here we see the quick game in action with McElwain’s beloved position: the tight end. On a one-read, schemed-up play, Grier shows off some handy footwork in the spacing of his gather phase, and he transferred his weight in the point-and-shoot portion of his drop back.
From there, his over-the-top, compact delivery allowed for a quick, accurate throw for some serious yards after the catch for the “Y” target, DeAndre Goolsby — which is a combo we may should get used to watching out for.
Here’s another example of the nuances Mac and Nuss drill home. On this simple receiver screen, the duo gets split-flow-like action going with Grier looking toward the back-side flat initially.
In doing so, he got the added advantage of less attention and formed blocking; there’s no substitute for mastering the little things.
The aspect of Grier’s game I know the duo has to be excited about the most is his ability to navigate the pocket while throwing on the run.
A few times we saw true mobility in action with Grier sliding up and out of the pocket while still looking downfield to throw (as seen in the above sequence). Incumbent starter Treon Harris is an excellent athlete, but most of the time his mobility has to do with him bolting the pocket to manufacture first downs.
Grier can do both.
He has really good arm strength to go along with the polish he’s acquiring through his top-notch coaching staff.
But it’s his ability to make quick decisions that will help improve an offensive line that has struggled in pass protection. And when you factor in the frequent use of multi-tight end sets, “12” and “13 personnel,” we may see an immediate return on the Gators’ investment on the offensive side of the ball.
We know the rushing attack should be solid, and receiver DeMarcus Robinson is as talented as it gets, so there’s no telling the strides the Gators make may when the fall hits.
I do know that the Mac-and-Nuss era is going to eventually be something to behold.
Is it game day, yet?
Can’t wait!UHIP's projected cost balloons to $492 million Copyright by WPRI - All rights reserved Video
PROVIDENCE, R.I. (WPRI) - The projected cost of Rhode Island's problem-plagued computer system for benefits has grown to nearly half a billion dollars, state officials said Friday.
The state's latest document updating the federal government puts the total cost of the Unified Health Infrastructure Project (UHIP) at $492 million through the 2018-19 federal fiscal year, with $108 million of that amount to be covered by state taxpayers and the rest by the feds. That is a significant increase from the $445 million estimate put forward in August.
UHIP's cost through the close of the 2016-17 federal fiscal year, which ended Sept. 30, remains pegged at $342 million. From there it's expected to hit $408 million in 2017-18 before reaching $492 million in 2018-19.
All the amounts must still be approved by federal regulators, and initial cost estimates for UHIP have sometimes come down in the past.
"It certainly is a significant number, and it's a big system," Courtney Hawkins, director of the R.I. Department of Human Services, told Eyewitness News. "I think it's important for people to know that that dollar amount goes back to 2011."
"It's been a big investment, but we think it's going to drive, ultimately, a better customer experience for people who need benefits and a better experience for our workforce," she said.
Launched in September 2016, UHIP is a complex system that handles eligibility for assistance programs including food stamps, Medicaid and HealthSource RI. But it's suffered a seemingly endless series of technical problems since going live, forcing Gov. Gina Raimondo to apologize and fire multiple senior aides. She's also halted payment to Deloitte, the contractor that built UHIP.
"We are monitoring Deloitte's work closely, and will continue to not pay them until we have the system we envisioned," HealthSource RI spokeswoman Kyrie Perry said Friday. "In addition to Deloitte's credit of $27 million in April, state leadership negotiated a credit from Deloitte of $58.6 million which will provide for maintenance and operations through June of 2018 and will offset additional, unanticipated costs from personnel and contractors related to supporting implementation of the system."
She also said state leaders are "working collaboratively to ensure that every dollar of taxpayers' money invested in this project is closely managed."
Hawkins added that DHS processed 22,000 applications during the month of November. "It's certainly not the system we need in this moment, but I think it's important to realize that it's certainly better than it was," she said.
Before UHIP launched, the Raimondo administration insisted UHIP would pay for itself by June 2018. A Target 12 investigation in September revealed officials were no longer willing to say if the system ever will do so, though Raimondo said at the time it still "has the potential to pay for itself."
Susan Campbell (scampbell@wpri.com) is the Call 12 for Action and Target 12 consumer investigator for WPRI 12 and Fox Providence. Follow her on Twitter and on Facebook.We've just received a fascinating set of photos from a sharp-eyed tipster, who sent along images of what appear to be Motorola's Droid Bionic and, most alluringly, that rumored handset known as the Droid HD (pictured above). This isn't the first time we've seen leaked images of the Bionic in the wild, but these shots are certainly a lot clearer than any others we've come across. Still, there aren't too many surprises here, with the global-capable handset boasting a TI OMAP 4430 1GHz dual-core CPU, 1GB of RAM, 4.5-inch display, an 8 megapixel rear camera, and microUSB / HDMI ports.The real intrigue, however, lies with the Droid HD. Judging from the photos, this device seems to be running Gingerbread, and rocks a 4.5-inch display (presumably with qHD or even 1280x720 resolution, considering the device's name), an 8 megapixel 1080p rear-facing camera, a front-facing shooter and the usual set of microUSB / HDMI ports. There's also a pair of side loading SIM and microSD slots on the left side of the device, a volume rocker and what looks like a power button on the right, a slight bump for the camera pod around back (which sports an LED flash and speaker, as well), along with a large, thin battery that appears to be removable. Perhaps most notable about the HD is its seemingly super thin design -- we're estimating it's between 8.5 and 9mm, which would put it in the same league as Samsung's Galaxy S II, which measures 8.49mm. We'll have to wait for more detailed information on this mystery phone, but you can get a closer look right now in the gallery, below.Myriam Joire contributed to this report.[Thanks, Anonymous]When you’re on the go and your smartphone battery is low, in the not-so-distant future you could charge it simply by plugging it into your shoe.
An innovative energy harvesting and storage technology developed by University of Wisconsin–Madison mechanical engineers could reduce our reliance on the batteries in our mobile devices, ensuring we have power for our devices no matter where we are.
In a paper published Nov. 16, 2015, in the journal Scientific Reports, Tom Krupenkin, a professor of mechanical engineering at UW–Madison, and J. Ashley Taylor, a senior scientist in UW–Madison’s Mechanical Engineering Department, described an energy-harvesting technology that’s particularly well suited for capturing the energy of human motion to power mobile electronic devices.
The technology could enable a footwear-embedded energy harvester that captures energy produced by humans during walking and stores it for later use.
Power-generating shoes could be especially useful for the military, as soldiers currently carry heavy batteries to power their radios, GPS units and night-vision goggles in the field. The advance could provide a source of power to people in remote areas and developing countries that lack adequate electrical power grids.
UW-Madison Mechanical Engineering Associate Professor Tom Krupenkin using the footwear energy harvester to directly power an LED flashlight.
“Human walking carries a lot of energy,” Krupenkin says. “Theoretical estimates show that it can produce up to 10 watts per shoe, and that energy is just wasted as heat. A total of 20 watts from walking is not a small thing, especially compared to the power requirements of the majority of modern mobile devices.”
Krupenkin says tapping into just a small amount of that energy is enough to power a wide range of mobile devices, including smartphones, tablets, laptop computers and flashlights. For example, a typical smartphone requires less than two watts.
However, traditional approaches to energy harvesting and conversion don’t work well for the relatively small displacements and large forces of footfalls, according to the researchers.
“So we’ve been developing new methods of directly converting mechanical motion into electrical energy that are appropriate for this type of application,” Krupenkin says.
The researchers’ new energy-harvesting technology takes advantage of “reverse electrowetting,” a phenomenon that Krupenkin and Taylor pioneered in 2011. With this approach, as a conductive liquid interacts with a nanofilm-coated surface, the mechanical energy is directly converted into electrical energy.
The reverse electrowetting method can generate usable power, but it requires an energy source with a reasonably high frequency — such as a mechanical source that’s vibrating or rotating quickly.
“Yet our environment is full of low-frequency mechanical energy sources such as human and machine motion, and our goal is to be able to draw energy from these types of low-frequency energy sources,” Krupenkin says. “So reverse electrowetting by itself didn’t solve one of the problems we had.”
To overcome this, the researchers developed what they call the “bubbler” method, which they described in their Scientific Reports study. The bubbler method combines reverse electrowetting with bubble growth and collapse.
The researchers’ bubbler device — which contains no moving mechanical parts — consists of two flat plates separated by a small gap filled with a conductive liquid. The bottom plate is covered with tiny holes through which pressurized gas forms bubbles. The bubbles grow until they’re large enough to touch the top plate, which causes the bubble to collapse.
The speedy, repetitive growth and collapse of bubbles pushes the conductive fluid back and forth, generating electrical charge.
“The high frequency that you need for efficient energy conversion isn’t coming from your mechanical energy source but instead, it’s an internal property of this bubbler approach,” Krupenkin says.
The researchers say their bubbler method can potentially generate high power densities — lots of watts relative to surface area in the generator — which enables smaller and lighter energy-harvesting devices that can be coupled to a broad range of energy sources.
The proof-of-concept bubbler device generated around 10 watts per square meter in preliminary experiments, and theoretical estimates show that up to 10 kilowatts per square meter might be possible, according to Krupenkin.
“The bubbler really shines at producing high power densities,” he says. “For this type of mechanical energy harvesting, the bubbler has a promise to achieve by far the highest power density ever demonstrated.”
Krupenkin and Taylor are seeking to partner with industry and commercialize a footwear-embedded energy harvester through their startup company, InStep NanoPower.
Their harvester could directly power various mobile devices through a charging cable, or it could be integrated with a broad range of electronic devices embedded in a shoe, such as a Wi-Fi hot spot that acts as a “middleman” between mobile devices and a wireless network. The latter requires no cables, dramatically cuts the power requirements of wireless mobile devices, and can make a cellphone battery last 10 times longer between charges.
“For a smartphone, just the energy cost of radio-frequency transmission back and forth between the phone and the tower is a tremendous contributor to the total drain of the battery,” Krupenkin says.
Additional authors on the Scientific Reports paper include UW–Madison mechanical engineering graduate students Tsung-Hsing Hsu and Supone Manakasettharn.US President Donald Trump appears to be in big trouble. A memo by former FBI director James Comey exposed by The New York Times shows Trump had asked Comey to end an investigation into former national security adviser Michael Flynn in a meeting on February 14. US mainstream media and the Democratic Party accused Trump of obstruction of justice.
Earlier, US media had reported that Trump leaked highly classified intelligence on the Islamic State to visiting Russian foreign minister Sergey Lavrov, yet Washington failed to share the same information with its allies to protect the source.
As the attacks on Trump ramp up, many are now calling for him to be impeached. According to one poll, 48 percent supported impeachment, while 41 percent opposed. The numbers don't bode well for Trump.
The American elite still refuse to accept Trump after his 100 days in the Oval Office. He is at odds with the mainstream media; insiders have constantly leaked information to the media. Now some commentators have compared the exposure of the Comey memo to the Watergate scandal. As Congress is under Republican control, few believe there will be a move to impeach the president, but these latest revelations will certainly further erode Trump's presidential authority.
At the beginning of the corruption scandal, few believed that South Korean president Park Geun-hye would be impeached either. Could this be a reference for Trump's case? But evidence of Park's illegal activities was solid, while it will be more complicated to make determinations over whether Trump obstructed justice and leaked classified intelligence.
To impeach Trump will need more evidence from further investigation. To completely discredit Trump among voters, the present scandal is not enough as it does not add to the negative image of Trump. Many just think Trump often speaks off the cuff, which ends up in silly blunders.
If there is a major substantive scandal over and above him speaking out of turn then that will be another thing. But this is not the case at the moment.
Every country has its own troubles. The US model represents Western democracy, but it is crumbling, and the resulting social division has become more and more serious. The US Deputy Attorney General Rod J. Rosenstein appointed a special counsel to oversee the investigation into link between Russia and the 2016 US presidential election and related matters on Wednesday. More juicy details will continue to appear and the rifts may become wider. Trump will become one of the most frequently accused Americans.
The US won't be engulfed by chaos if its president is caught in a lawsuit. Someone has pointed out that no matter how chaotic the White House and Capitol Hill are, the overall operation of the US will not be a major problem as long as the enterprises and social organizations in the country are stable. This is seen as an advantage of the American system.
Although American society is relatively stable, the political tumult can't be taken as an advantage of the US system. The fact is that US politics is in trouble, and the benefits brought by its system are being squandered.Do free speech rights extend to veterinarians giving advice over the phone? Photo by simonkr/Thinkstock
For 10 years, Ronald Hines was the Internet’s most generous veterinarian, dispensing email advice to pet owners in far-flung places—including a Scottish missionary in Nigeria and a double amputee in rural New Hampshire. Then the state of Texas shut him down. Texas law, the veterinarian licensing board reminded Hines, requires all vets to perform an in-person physical exam before giving any opinion about an animal and explicitly bars exclusively electronic advice. The board fined Hines and suspended his license. Now Hines is fighting back in court, alleging that the Texas law burdens his First Amendment right to free speech. The 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled against him, but Hines appealed to the Supreme Court, which will soon decide whether to hear his case.
Hines may not know it, but he just lit a match in one of the most explosive jurisprudential tinderboxes of this decade. Does the First Amendment protect medical professionals—vets, doctors, surgeons, psychotherapists—against intrusive regulation of their expression? The case may seem to be about a good-hearted vet and a malicious licensing board. But in deciding the fate of Hines’ professional future, the justices will also be wading into a debate that directly implicates gun rights, abortion, marijuana, and ex-gay conversion therapy.
The state of First Amendment protections for professional speech has long been a constitutional mess. Because of the Supreme Court’s hesitance to address the issue, federal circuit courts have been left free to wander off into their own constitutional pastures. The 3rd Circuit upheld a law barring licensed therapists from practicing ex-gay conversion therapy on minors—but noted that the law survived constitutional scrutiny only because it furthered the important interest of protecting kids from harm. The 9th Circuit upheld a similar ban on conversion therapy on totally different grounds, and it struck down a law barring doctors from recommending medical marijuana to patients. The 5th and 11th circuits upheld the same anti-marijuana law. The 4th Circuit upheld restrictions on fortunetellers’ speech but struck down an abridgement of abortion providers’ free expression. The 8th Circuit struck down restrictions on fortunetellers’ speech but upheld the stringent regulation of abortion doctors’ speech. The 5th Circuit upheld laws restricting tour guides’ expression while the District of Columbia Circuit struck down similar regulations. Meanwhile, the 11th Circuit has strived for consistency at the expense of reason, upholding both a restriction on interior designers’ speech and a law barring pediatricians from teaching parents about gun safety.
Confused? So are the courts, none of which have applied a coherent constitutional principle to these cases with consistency. Some, like the 9th Circuit (sometimes), consider the practice of medicine to be “conduct” and therefore outside the scope of the First Amendment. (That’s true even when that practice consists entirely of speech, as psychotherapy does.) Others, like the 5th Circuit, apply only “rational basis” review, meaning they simply ask whether an occupational regulation of expression is rationally related to a legitimate government interest. (This type of test is typically a rubber stamp on government power.) Finally, the 3rd, 4th, and 11th circuits have (sometimes) applied “intermediate scrutiny,” holding that a restriction on medical speech is valid if it “directly advances the state’s substantial interest” in protecting patients and is “no more extensive than necessary.”
Like most court-watchers, I try to maintain faith in the impartiality of our judiciary, in its ability to resolve ideology-laden conflicts with neutrally applicable rules. But come on: Something’s going on here, and it’s not entirely about the First Amendment. A rule that renders medical marijuana counseling “protected speech” but somehow transmogrifies ex-gay conversion therapy into unprotected “conduct” can’t be logically squared. Ditto a rule that values the (false) speech of fortunetellers more heavily than the (true) speech of abortion providers. Comparing these opinions, it’s difficult to avoid the conclusion that the courts—relatively free from any clear constitutional lodestar—upheld bans on speech they disliked and struck down bans on speech they favored.
Some circuits don’t even try to conceal the policy preferences embedded in their rulings on professional speech regulations. Most memorably, the 11th Circuit’s decision in Wollschlaeger v. Governor of Florida—upholding a law barring doctors from asking parents about firearms in the home—was essentially a paean to gun ownership and a diatribe against (imaginary) liberal doctors foisting their anti-gun agendas on patients. The court fretted about the “highly disparate power balance of the physician-patient relationship,” fearing that a prying doctor could cause “real harm” to a patient by “extracting private information.” In essence, the court found that gun owners have such a strong interest in keeping their gun ownership private that the state can silence doctors who try to protect kids from a known public health risk. This in a state where dozens of children are wounded and killed by guns every year.
For a free speech purist like me, the Wollschlaeger decision was a complete disaster. Forget, for a moment, about the value of protecting kids from guns. What about the value of shielding doctors from ideology-driven, state-imposed gag orders? If the government can truly stifle a doctor’s speech simply because it doesn’t like her message, the First Amendment has been completely defanged.
And yet, the other extreme is just as troubling. When the 9th Circuit labeled ex-gay conversion therapy “conduct” and denied it First Amendment protections, many liberals cheered. But the court’s ruling used the same logic that more conservative circuits have used to uphold laws requiring abortion providers to tell women gruesome, religious, and demonstrably false information about the procedure. If all medical treatment is “conduct”—from psychotherapy to patient counseling to surgery—then doctors surrender their free speech rights at the treatment room door. That would let states commandeer doctors to use as mouthpieces for their own ideology, a true nightmare scenario for the First Amendment.
Ultimately, the best standard to apply to professional speech, and medical speech in particular, is probably the compromise test announced by the 3rd Circuit. Applying “intermediate scrutiny”—the test used to review restrictions on commercial speech—the court found that a restriction on professional speech must “directly advance” a state’s “substantial interest” and be “no more extensive than necessary.” Analyzing an ex-gay conversion therapy ban for minors, the court found that protecting kids from unconscionable abuse is a substantial government interest, and that the law itself was closely tailored to advance that interest.
The Supreme Court declined to review that decision, but the justices now have an opportunity adopt the 3rd Circuit’s standard through Hines’ case. They should take it. A fair application of the rule would give Hines justice, since Texas’ blanket ban on electronic vet advice is absurdly overbroad. It would also create some consistency in the lower courts, aligning the circuits around a single standard … for a few years, at least. (Circuit courts specialize in bending and manipulating constitutional rules until they’re unrecognizable.) A straightforward judgment for Hines could lend coherence to free speech doctrine, even if it probably wouldn’t prevent judges from eventually injecting their partisan preferences anyway. No rule has yet been invented to put a stop to that. |
no weapons, and police claim to have found only drug “residue.”
The toddler and his family, the Phonesavanhs, were staying with their relatives after their house in Wisconsin burned down.
Thonetheva also wasn’t in the home at the time of the raid. According to ABC News, he is the nephew of the couple with whom the Phonesavanh and their son were staying, but had recently been kicked out of the home. He was arrested without incident at a separate location shortly after the raid.
One public official in the area, who asked to remain anonymous, tells me that the raid was conducted over a single meth sale of $50. The sheriff’s department did not return my call asking for confirmation of this. Terrell has told other media outlets that an undercover informant made the buy the day before and witnessed guards at the residence but wasn’t sure whether they were armed. According to Terrell, the informant saw no signs of children. The Phonesavanhs say the signs that a child was staying at the house should have been obvious.
Despite Terrell’s assurances last week to North Access Georgia that DA Rickman had already cleared the officers for last week’s raid, CNN reported yesterday that Rickman is still investigating.
An assistant district attorney told CNN that Thonetheva could actually be charged for the injuries the police inflicted on the toddler.
Assuming that all the above is true, we have police relying only on the word of a confidential informant to conduct a highly volatile predawn raid on a home. How well trained was this informant? How reliable was he or she? Does he or she have a criminal record?
Terrell told Access North Georgia last week, “It’s an accident that we would have avoided if we’d just had any inclination that there had been a child in that house. We had no idea.” But the raid was conducted at 3 a.m. after the morning of the drug buy. How much investigation could the police have done on the residence? Did they do any independent investigation to see whether there might be children and other innocent people in the home, or did they simply rely on the word of an informant?
I’ve written on numerous raids in the past in which police claimed to have made a drug buy at a house, terrified the residents of the building in a subsequent raid, then found no drugs or weapons to show for it. Afterward, police will often claim that drug dealers sometimes use the homes of innocent relatives, friends or even strangers as a front for sales. It seems plausible that the suspected drug dealer was doing that in this case. But if this is a known tactic, shouldn’t it be a possibility that the police eliminate through investigation before they storm the house with guns and flash grenades? Sure, eliminating that possibility might take a bit more time, during which the cops may lose their lead. But is preserving a low-level meth conviction really worth putting the lives of innocent people at risk?
Terrell also told ABC News that the incident is “going to make us double, triple, and quadruple check to know that there aren’t innocent parties in the house. It’s going to make us approach each situation differently.”
I suppose that’s great, for now. But why wouldn’t they have been doing those things all along? If nothing else, you would think the fact that drug cops killed an innocent man five years ago would have prodded the police in this community to be double, triple and quadruple checking before they start charging at people with guns.
I think a little recent Georgia history is also in order. The death of Jonathan Ayers came three years after the death of Kathryn Johnston, a 92-year-old woman shot and killed by an Atlanta narcotics unit after she confronted them with a pistol as they broke into her home. The officers had received a tip from an informant that there were drugs in the house. Rather than thoroughly investigate the tip, they lied on the search warrant affidavit in order to get inside the house as soon as possible, before the drug supply could be moved. As it turns out, Johnston was innocent. The informant had fabricated the tip to get the cops off of his back. A subsequent federal investigation found that the Atlanta Police Department imposed quotas on its drug cops, in part so that the department itself could pad its stats to qualify for federal grants — like the Byrne Grant.
The Johnston raid itself came after the death of Lynette Gale Jackson of Riverdale, Ga., in a drug raid in 2000, and the death of Macon Deputy Joseph Whitehead in a raid earlier the same year. Jackson had pointed a gun at police as the broke into her home. She had the gun because she’d previously been the victim of a home robbery. Whitehead was shot by while raiding an actual drug house, though the men who shot him claimed that they thought they were being robbed by rival drug dealers. A year before Johnston’s death, Stockbridge, Ga., residents Roy and Belinda Baker were startled from their sleep when a raiding police team destroyed the couple’s front door with a battering ram. The Bakers were handcuffed and made to stand on their porch at gunpoint. The cops had mistaken the Bakers’ home for the house next door.
Johnston’s death, however, received a lot of national attention and led to all sorts of promises for reform in Georgia. In the end, very little reform actually took place. And so it was three years later that the Byrne grant-funded Mountain Judicial Circuit Narcotics Criminal Investigation and Suppression Team saw Jonathan Ayers chatting with a woman they were investigating for drug crimes. It turns out that the pastor was ministering to her. Instead of taking the brief amount of time they would have needed to investigate him to learn that fact, they instead followed him to a gas station, then stormed out of an SUV and charged at with their guns. Upon seeing men in street clothes running at him with guns, he understandably tried to flee. They shot and killed him. Ayers’s death wasn’t the result of a no-knock raid. But it was the result of gung-ho drug cops who are more interested in racking up arrests, convictions and seizures than in ensuring the safety and civil liberties of the people they serve.
And there were yet more incidents. Here’s one from the Cato Institute’s map of botched police raids:
On May 11th, 2010, a dozen-strong force of armed local and federal drug agents surrounded a Polk County home, expecting to find several suspected drug dealers. Rather than apprehend their targets, however, they misread the address, stormed the wrong home, and put an elderly woman with a history of heart attacks into intensive care... Suffering from severe chest pains, Ms. Pruett was transported to a local hospital where she was hospitalized in the intensive care unit for congestive heart failure. The department says the home had been under surveillance for two years; in light of the error leading to her mother’s heart failure, Ms. Pruett’s daughter wonders how that could possibly be true. The matter is under investigation.
Here’s one from Gwinnett County, Ga., in 2008, as reported by local TV station WSB:
Gwinnett County police said they accidentally broke down the door to the wrong house before going to the correct house and arresting a man on drug charges. Gwinnett County police investigators intended to execute a no-knock search warrant at a home on Valley Spring Drive in Lawrenceville Wednesday morning. Police said the lead investigator mistakenly pointed out a home to the officers and once officers entered the home they realized they were in the wrong house. The homeowner of the incorrectly targeted house told Channel 2 that having guns pointed at him was something he would never forget. “(They) put my life, daughter’s life, my lady’s life in danger,” said homeowner John Lewis. Lewis said Gwinnett County investigators burst through his front door and ordered him and his girlfriend to the floor at gunpoint. “It’s an experience to have one gun draw on you. It’s something else to have 15, 16 of them,” said Lewis. Lewis said his 3-month-old baby saw the whole thing. “She was the calmest one,” said Lewis.
Two months later, in January 2009, another wrong-door raid in Gwinnett County, as reported by the Atlanta Journal-Constitution:
[Georgia Bureau of Investigation] spokesman John Bankhead said state agents along with Gwinnett and Hall County police narcotics officers had been keeping watch over a drug suspect’s home at 4237 DeJohns Way for about three weeks. Officers thought they saw the suspect enter the duplex around 2 p.m. Tuesday and moved to arrest him, Bankhead said. A no-knock search warrant had already been obtained from a judge — allowing law enforcement to enter the suspect’s home without knocking or announcing their presence — because the duplex was in a known gang area, Bankhead said. However, the agents and officers mistakenly forced entry into a duplex adjacent to the suspect’s home. No one was home at that unit, Bankhead said. The agents also banged on the door of the other unit in the same duplex, startling residents inside. Within minutes, Bankhead said the officers figured out that they were at the wrong building. […] Jainet Rios, 25, a Home Depot supervisor, said she was at work when the officers came to her parents’ home. She said her parents, her two sisters ages 18 and 19, and the 19-year-old’s infant baby were terrified when drug investigators began yelling at them with their guns drawn. She said the incident especially shook up her mother, who suffers from bipolar disorder and was recently released from a psychiatric treatment facility.
In November 2011, there was another fatality. A police team in East Point, Ga., just outside Atlanta, conducted a drug raid against Varick Vaughn and Juan Ballard. Dwight Person, 54, a friend of Vaughn’s and Ballard’s uncle, was visiting and had arrived at the home about 10 minutes before the raid. Shortly after police took down the door, one officer shot Person in the abdomen. She later claimed he had made a threatening gesture. Person died a short time later. Person, a father of two, was unarmed. The police found no drugs or weapons in the home. They did, however, arrest seven people for various code violations and misdemeanors. Media accounts of the shooting point to a subsequent investigation by the Georgia Bureau of Investigation, but I haven’t found any coverage of what became of that investigation.
Last year, Georgia state Rep. Sam Moore (R) introduced a bill to eliminate the use of no-knock raids in Georgia, along with a bill to reform the state’s much-abused loitering law, which critics say is used to harass minorities and the homeless. He was roundly ridiculed, smeared as “anti-cop” and a friend of sexual predators — and that was by his own party. Both bills were pretty much dead upon arrival. Since Johnston’s death, other Georgia legislators have introduced similar bills. They, too, have gone nowhere.
I’d like to think the that a drug raid that sent a toddler into intensive care and a medically induced coma would inspire some reform. But if the death of an innocent 92-year-old woman or an innocent pastor didn’t result in any change in Georgia, or in the Mountain Judicial District in particular, it’s difficult to see why this story will end differently.Mexico's drug wars are infused with systematic torture, enforced disappearances and extrajudicial killings carried out by the police, army and navy, according to an investigation by Human Rights Watch.
The report, Neither Rights Nor Security, says such violations are endemic in the military-led counter-narcotics offensive launched by President Felipe Calderón in December 2006. Around 45,000 people have been killed since the start of the offensive, with the killing primarily driven by escalating turf wars between different cartels, as well as attacks by organised criminals on civilians. Calderón has repeatedly stressed that this reality means the state must go after the criminals with all the force it can muster.
The report by the New York-based human rights group feeds into long-standing claims that the military strategy has been counterproductive.
The report says that the failure to improve investigation of all drug-related killings, and of human rights abuses by the security forces in particular, is fuelling the violence. Data on the number of drug-war related homicide investigations is notoriously opaque, and the report contains evidence of systematic coverups by the authorities in most of the documented cases of human rights abuses.
José Miguel Vivanco, Americas director of Human Rights Watch, said: "Mexico has paid such a high price in terms of the violence and the abuses, with pretty much full impunity as a result of the war on drugs. We don't see a clear understanding by the Mexican officials at the highest level that this has an impact on [the country's] human rights record, as well as weakening its democratic institutions and the rule of law."
The report researched violations by security forces in five Mexican states: Baja California, Chihuahua, Nuevo León, Guerrero and Tabasco.
The 170 documented "credible" cases of torture include techniques such as beatings, asphyxiation with plastic bags and water-boarding, electric shocks, sexual torture and death threats directed at victims and their families.
Rodrigo Ramírez Martínez was arrested by the army just outside Tijuana in Baja California in June 2009, and claims he was tortured over four days before signing a confession for a kidnapping, which he later retracted. Documents show he was actually in detention in the US awaiting deportation when the kidnapping took place. He remains in jail awaiting trial.
The report cites 39 probable disappearances, including the abduction of the owner of a nightclub and five of his employees in Iguala in the state of Guerrero during a raid by the army in March 2010. Relatives sought information, filed complaints, held demonstrations and obtained the promise of investigations. They also reported receiving warnings from officials to tone things down, telephone threats, and being followed by a vehicle that repeated crashed into theirs. They abandoned their search.
The murder of José Humberto Márquez Compeán in Nuevo Leon is among the 24 cases of probable extrajudicial killings cited in the report. Press photographs of his tortured body found in March 2010 matched those of a man filmed by TV cameras being arrested the day before by the navy and municipal police. The navy said that it opened an investigation, but has refused to give more information.
Calderón has either denied the existence of abuse by security forces or claimed it amounts to only isolated incidents that are dealt with swiftly within a context of absolute respect for human rights. He accepts that rampant corruption is a major problem in local level police forces but argues this only makes the federal offensive more necessary.
"To those who say that the government's public security strategy has made things worse" he said during a meeting with victims of the violence last month, "I say that if we had not intervened, a large part of the national territory would probably be dominated by one cartel or another."Last week I logged into my Facebook account to chat with some friends and browse through photos and videos, as any one of Facebook’s fellow 1.32 billion daily users do. But I wasn’t looking at photos on my phone or computer.
A cartoonish avatar hovered to my left. “Where do you want to go?” he asked. “How about scuba diving?” Seconds later, a tiny orb that looked a bit like a virtual snow globe only with an aquatic backdrop inside appeared before me. I grabbed it, brought it as close to my face as I could (so close, in fact, that I accidentally bonked myself). And just like that, my virtual friend and I were deep underwater, encircled by sharks.
Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg hasn’t shied from rhapsodizing virtual reality since the social media behemoth purchased Oculus VR for $2 billion in March 2014. “This is really a new communication platform,” wrote Zuckerberg in his note announcing the acquisition. “By feeling truly present, you can share unbounded spaces and experiences with the people in your life.” But enthusiasm for bleeding-edge tech intended to leap the fence dividing niche curiosity from consumer fixation comes with a price tag. In court testimony earlier this year, Zuckerberg said his company would probably have to invest more than $3 billion in VR over the next decade to get the technology where Facebook wants it to be.
Spaces, Facebook’s social virtual reality app for the Oculus Rift that’s currently in beta, appears to be the culmination of those efforts so far. Although Facebook has supported 360-degree video since late 2015, Spaces feels like the first real effort by Facebook to create an environment built specifically for VR. It’s also an answer to two of the biggest problems facing the VR industry: adoption is slow, and the experience itself is isolating. Facebook wants Spaces to establish that VR isn’t just gamers and tech enthusiasts. “We really want people outside of VR to feel like it’s for them,” says Rachel Franklin, Facebook’s head of social VR who previously worked on The Sims at Electronic Arts.
Facebook is just one of several companies attempting to boost VR adoption by eliminating hurdles. Microsoft, while not as focused on the social aspect of VR, created a revamped version of Windows 10 tooled specifically for virtual and augmented reality. Startup Altspace VR, though recently forced to shutter over financial difficulties, created a virtual social network so popular it inspired a real wedding hosted in VR. Even the creators of Second Life, that practically prehistoric virtual life simulation, are getting in on the action: Linden Lab launched a beta for its new virtual reality world Sansar at the end of July.
Facebook hopes to leverage its massive social leg up to craft the ultimate communal experience in imaginary space. Yes, you can create digital sketches, browse your photos and Timeline, and view 360-degree videos. But the upshot is both subtler and, over time, more powerful: the sense that you’re actually hanging out with close friends and family.
Spaces is meant to be a virtual hangout where you can kick back with up to four friends, each represented by self-created digital avatars. You can also video chat with friends through Facebook Messenger in Spaces, start a Facebook Live broadcast and capture a virtual selfie with a selfie stick. “Everything we do should really be facilitating your interaction with someone else, or enhancing that relationship somehow,” says Franklin.
Facebook
It’s still early days for Spaces; the app, unveiled in April at the company’s F8 conference, is still in beta. And it’s impossible to say whether Facebook can deliver the sort of breakthrough experience VR needs to go wide. Based on my limited time with the app, its most enthralling parts seem less its virtual social interactions than how different Facebook content feels when you’re experiencing it in full wraparound space.
As capturing 360-degree footage increases, and especially as cameras capable of doing so drop in price, I can imagine Spaces becoming a compelling way to relive milestones or experience events people couldn’t in person. Instead of just looking at photos from a friend’s wedding I missed, I could see myself strapping on a headset and watching a 360-degree video from the maid of honor’s perspective. That kind of experience is possible today without Spaces, but Facebook’s scale and reach could so streamline the process that Spaces becomes the premium way to experience and share this kind of virtual reminiscing.
While the content is still the most exciting part, it’s also clear that Facebook is rethinking how interactions should work in a medium that doesn’t rely on swiping, tapping, clicking, or scrolling. Switching between your Timeline, photos and different virtual environments requires a lot of poking buttons and grabbing at virtual objects. When I high-fived my friend’s avatar, an explosion of Facebook’s Reaction symbols emerged from our hands. When I reached for the selfie stick, my avatar knew to smile. Facebook’s Franklin expects these interface tweaks to be an ongoing challenge guided by experimenting. “I think there’s a lot of things we’ve done really well, and there’s a lot where we’re just learning,” she says. “It’s a matter of, what do we stick with because you know it and what do we teach you? And I don’t think we’ve quite found that right balance.”
Facebook
While the avatars in Spaces may not feel as personal as video chatting with someone (it’s not possible to make eye contact or see their true facial expressions) the app does address VR’s isolation problem. As I wrote in my original review of the Rift, it’s an experience that’s difficult to share with those to haven’t tried it themselves. You can smile, laugh and gawk all you want while wearing the Rift, but those signals don’t convey exactly what you’re experiencing. Spaces solves at least part of that problem by making it possible to enjoy the same VR video with any Facebook friend that owns a virtual reality headset.
Improving how realistic Spaces feels will partially involve making the avatars more detailed and broadening the customization options available. I couldn’t, for example, make an avatar that truly looked like me because there was no shade of red that came close to my hair color. Facebook is working on tackling problems like these: The team in charge of designing Spaces’ avatars not only takes into account body language and facial expressions, but also debates what types of accessories and articles of clothing should be available in order to accurately represent everyone. One particular discussion centered on whether or not headdresses should be available for avatars. “One of our team members wears a turban and he said, ‘I can’t feel like myself testing our own product if I can’t make myself. Let’s put this in,’” says Franklin. “And we said absolutely, we need to.”
Headsets like the Rift and HTC Vive have been available for roughly a year and a half, and companies like Facebook and Intel are already thinking about what’s next. Facebook has said it’s working on a new wireless headset that would include all of the necessary tracking components baked in without need for external cameras. Such developments are important for the Spaces team to keep in mind as it continues to develop the app.”It’s more of a conversation right now, and we’re trying to help guide each other when we’re thinking long term,” says Franklin of the relationship her team has with Oculus chief scientist Michael Abrash’s research and development department.
Spaces may not be the most intimate or convenient way to communicate with the people you care about. But it made for a momentous first: When I removed my headwear after the Spaces demo, I was able to look at the person standing next to me and know he had the exact same experience I did. This may explain why Franklin isn’t fretting over the way Spaces’ avatars only look abstractly like the people they represent. “I can see your body language, and I can read that,” she says. “It doesn’t have to be hyper-realistic for it to feel real.”
Contact us at editors@time.com.Adam and Eve: Real or Imaginary by William A. Powell
Commander, Retired, United States Navy
FACT # 1: If Adam and Eve were not the first human beings, the Bible cannot be trusted! Some serious questions are being asked about Adam and Eve. Answers to these questions are far more important than most people imagine!
(1) Were Adam and Eve the first human beings? (2) Did Adam and Eve give birth to the first human babies? (3) Did God inspire every word of the Bible? (4) Is the Bible perfect and without error? (5) Are Adam and Eve only imaginary people, or are they representatives of human beings as evolution teaches? (6) Is what the Bible says about Adam and Eve only myth, folklore, idea, theory, or parable as the liberals teach? (7) What difference does it make whether they were actual historical persons? Why is any one couple so important? (8) Why is it so important to believe Adam and Eve were the first human beings and that they gave birth to the first human babies? Why all of this attention being given to Adam and Eve? (9) Is it possible to believe that Adam and Eve were created as the Bible teaches and also believe they were only representatives of the beginnings of the human race as evolution teaches? (10) Is it possible to believe in creation and evolution both? (11) Is it possible to believe both evolution and the Bible? (12) Is it possible to believe theistic evolution and the Bible? (13) If we believe there are no errors in the Bible, can we be loyal to the Bible and support ministers, teachers, and writers who deny Adam and Eve were the first human beings?
These are the questions brought about by the spread of modern critical thought.
FACT # 2: The Bible is the only reliable source for facts. The first and primary source of information for answers to these questions is the Bible. Consider very specific teachings of the Bible. "So God created man in His own image, in the image of God created He him; male and female created He them" (Gen. 1:27; see also Ge. 2:7,18-23; 3:20-21; 4:1-25; 5:1-5). It is obvious that the Bible teaches a literal creation.
FACT # 3: Adam is mentioned by name 30 times in the Bible. Adam is mentioned by name at least 18 times in the first five chapters of the Bible. He is mentioned in at least four books of the Old Testament. Ge. 2- 4; De. 32:8; 1 Ch. 1:1; and Job 31:33. Adam is mentioned in five books of the New Testament: Lk. 3:38; Ro. 5:14; 1 Co. 15:22; 1 Co. 15:45; 1 Ti. 2:13-14; and Jude 14. The Bible mentions Adam by name at least 30 times in nine different books. Therefore, no one who believes the Bible is infallible can doubt that Adam and Eve were created as the first human beings by a special act of God.
The first five chapters of the Bible give great attention to make it very clear that Adam and Eve were the first human beings and that they gave birth to the first human babies. Thus, if Adam and Eve were not the first human beings, the first five chapters of the Bible cannot be trusted. In fact the Bible would be telling things that were absolutely not true if Adam and Eve were not the first human beings. If you read a secular history book that taught things in the first five chapters that were definitely not true, you would not have any reason to believe the other things that book taught in later chapters.
Evolution denies that Adam and Eve were created by God. There are very few persons other than Adam who are named 30 times in the Bible, yet, evolution teaches mankind descended from some kind of an animal.
FACT # 4: To deny Adam is to deny Jesus Christ. The third chapter of Luke lists the genealogy of Jesus beginning in verse 23. It traces Jesus through history to show that His humanity came from Adam. This genealogy covers 16 verses and goes back to Adam as seen in verse 38: "And Jesus Himself began to be about thirty years of age, being (as was supposed) the Son of Joseph... Noe... Lamech... Mathusala... Enoch... Jared... Maleleel... Cainan... Enos, which was the son of Seth, which was the son of Adam, which was the son of God" (Lk. 3:23-38).
The N.T. speaks of Jesus and Adam in a simple but very significant comparison. "For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive" (1 Co. 15:22). Paul speaks of Adam, the first man, as being given a natural human body, and of Jesus being much more than Adam for He was a life-giving Spirit. "And so it is written, the first man Adam was made a living soul; the last Adam was made a quickening spirit" (1 Co. 15:45).
FACT # 5: The Bible and evolution are in direct contradiction.
The Bible is conclusive. If you believe the Bible you must recognize that Adam and Eve were the first human beings and that they gave birth to the first human babies simply because the Bible clearly and emphatically teaches it. Evolutionists and others who deny parts of the Bible say that Adam was not a real person but simply represents mankind. But Ge. 5:5 says that Adam lived 930 years and then Adam died! If Adam only represented mankind, what happened to mankind after Adam died!
On the other hand, evolution emphatically denies the Bible's teaching about Adam and Eve and their children. Evolutionists have many different theories and some of their theories are very weird. There's only one thing that all evolutionists agree upon and that is that the Bible is absolutely wrong about Adam and Eve and the way they were created, and therefore you cannot trust the Bible. To accept evolution is to deny the Bible.
FACT # 6: Theistic evolution is a biblical impossibility. Some persons today say they believe in theistic evolution. This is the false teaching that God created mankind by some long drawn out process of evolution. In other words--evolution was the method God used to create mankind. The Bible says that God created Adam out of the dust of the earth, and that Eve was created from a rib taken out of Adam's side. The Bible does not say how long it took God to create Adam, but it does not seem that it would take a long time to create him out of the dust of the earth. It is an act of God's creation, not a process of evolution spread out over many thousands or millions of years. The Bible clearly teaches that God, in a brief simple surgical procedure, removed a rib from Adam and created Eve. Surely, this surgical operation did not require many thousands or millions of years. And we know that Eve gave birth to the first human baby. This first mother's name was given "Eve" because she was the mother of all living (Ge. 3:20).
The reason that it is so important to believe that Adam and Eve were the first parents is that the Bible clearly and emphatically teaches it. If you do not believe that, how can you know what else is false in the Bible? Therefore, anyone who cannot believe that Adam and Eve were the first human beings and that they gave birth to the first human babies absolutely denies parts of the Bible. And if there are any errors in the Bible, who will know and how will they know what parts of the Bible are true and what parts are false? Every person who believes in evolution or in theistic evolution denies parts of the the Bible and makes a liar out of God and all those who do believe the Bible.
Theistic evolution is commonly believed among Christian teachers. A large number of ministers and teachers in colleges and seminaries and writers of Christian literature believe in evolution or in theistic evolution and do not believe what the Bible says.
One simple way to help find out if a person believes the Bible is to show him all of these Bible verses about the first family, then ask if he believes in the Bible or in evolution or theistic evolution. Anyone who says that he believes the Bible AND evolution or theistic evolution is either misinformed, uninformed, dishonest, or attempting to conceal his lack of faith in the Bible with some good-sounding phrases.
When you ask your pastor, leader, Bible college or seminary professor, or the person teaching your youth in the church or classroom the first four questions on page one, don't be surprised if they try to evade the question or beat around the bush. If they do not answer these first four questions with a solid "Yes," watch out! Try it. It's amazing the way some people will try to avoid a direct answer to these first four questions. Just one error in the Bible is too many. For, if there is one error, there may be many errors, then who will decide where the errors are?
I made more than 500 dives on my submarine while I was in the Navy, but I'll never forget one dive! No one on that dive will ever forget it! It was December 3, 1945, in the freezing North Atlantic on the USS Pomodon (SS- 486). We had watched and examined as they built the submarine. We especially watched for a leak. The day came for us to "take her down." We went down very slowly, constantly looking for a leak! It was a very tense day, for our lives were at stake. We didn't think there were any leaks, but we could not be sure. We went deeper and stayed longer than any dive I ever made. Finally the Captain made a decision and got the microphone. He said, "This sub is okay; not one leak; let's surface!" I have never known a submarine sailor who would go down on a submarine that had just "one leak." You see, just one leak is too many for a submarine. [And just one error is too many for the Bible, God's holy infallible Word!
[end]November 30, 2014 By James Moore
In the last Episode I talked about JavaScript generators, and how they can make your developer life a little more pleasant.
This week I am giving you a quickstart tutorial on using Koajs the first web framework built from the ground up using generators.
Koajs was built by the developers that created express.js, so they bring a wealth of knowledge and experience to koajs.
I believe we are at the beginning of a huge adoption of koajs in the node community, so if you are just learning node.js, starting a new side project or beginning a greenfield project at work you should seriously consider koajs. It provides a totally refreshing approach to building web applications in node.js.
In this episode I will show you how to install nodejs and create a basic Koajs app as well as create custom middleware.LISLE, Ill. – Angered by Republican U.S. Senate candidate Mark Kirk’s repeated votes against extension of unemployment compensation and jobs creation, protesters crashed a posh Kirk fundraiser here Aug. 26.
Chanting “Hands off Social Security” and “Jobs now!” demonstrators were blocked from entering the swanky affair by startled donors and eventually escorted out.
Rep. Mark Kirk (R-Ill) has voted against working families too many times, and (his election to the US Senate) isn’t going to happen,” said Siobhan Kolar of Chicago Jobs with Justice. “He’s a liar and a flip-flopper and we need to stop him.”
Kirk voted against the $26 billion HR 1586 Education and Medicaid Assistance Act, which among other things saved the jobs of 161,000 teachers including 6 thousand in Illinois alone. The bill saved the jobs of 158,000 other public employees including firefighters and police.
Even with the bill’s passage, 1,700 Chicago public school teachers and another 10,000 statewide will be fired adding to already over crowded classrooms.
Kirk said he voted against the bill to prevent the budget deficit from getting worse. Most progressive economists maintain the deficit will get far worse with higher unemployment and deeper cuts to public services. JWJ, the AFL-CIO and others are calling for a tax on Wall Street speculators to close the deficit and fund jobs creation and public services.
Kirk has also voted against extension of unemployment compensation 6 times for the same reason despite a 12% unemployment rate in Illinois.
“In this economic time the people need a senator who is going to come in and work with the President and Congress to get resources back to communities, creating jobs and rebuilding the economy,” said Rev. Michael Stinson, pastor of the General Assembly and Church of the First Born. “Mark Kirk is out of touch.”
“If the Republicans get control it’s really going to be hard for President Obama to get legislation passed to rebuild this economy,” said Stinson. “They want to go back to doing things like benefiting the upper crust of society and not the average people.”
Protesters were also concerned about where Kirk stands on privatization of Social Security and Medicare and termination of the Children’s Health Insurance Program. According to DeLane Adams, Illinois State Director of Americans United Change, Kirk has been mum for months on where he stands on the detailed GOP privatization proposal put forward by Rep. Paul Ryan (WI).
“There is a serious proposal for privatization from a Congressman who could one day be in a position to advance this Bush-era scheme for making Wall Street bankers richer. We are just hoping to get a straight answer from Rep. Kirk on how he would vote. Right now, we’re left to wonder if Kirk’s silence has anything to do with the more than half a million dollars he has taken from Wall Street interests this year,” he said.
Photo: (John Bachtell/PW)SEOUL (Reuters) - Gasoline and diesel prices surged in North Korea in the weeks after a Chinese state oil company suspended fuel sales to the reclusive state, according to data reviewed by Reuters and an interview with a North Korean defector.
Trucks move across the bridge linking North Korea with the Chinese border city of Dandong in this March 3, 2016 file photo. REUTERS/Megha Rajagopalan
China National Petroleum Corp (CNPC), a state-controlled company, halted diesel and gasoline sales to North Korea “over the last month or two”, amid international pressure on Pyongyang to curb its nuclear and missile programs, Reuters exclusively reported on June 28.
Scrutiny of China’s commercial ties with its isolated neighbor intensified further following North Korea’s first test of an intercontinental ballistic missile two weeks ago.
The price of gasoline sold by private dealers in Pyongyang and the northern border cities of Sinuiju and Hyesan jumped to $2.18 per kg ($2.92 per liter) as of July 5, up 50 percent from $1.46 per kg on June 21, according to Reuters analysis of data collected by the Daily NK website.
Daily NK is run by North Korean defectors who collect prices via phone calls with fuel traders in the North.
Kang Mi-jin, a defector who speaks regularly to market sources inside North Korea and reports commodity prices for Daily NK, said the price spikes in recent weeks were caused initially by the rumors - later confirmed - that China was restricting the flow of oil to North Korea.
North Korea gets most of its fuel from China, with some coming from Russia. A prolonged cut by China would threaten critical supplies of gasoline and diesel and force North Korea to find alternatives sources of refined fuel products.
“After North Korea’s frequent missile tests including its very first ICBM test, the international community has vowed to tighten sanctions and China simply cannot exclude itself from the recent movement, although it probably does not want to indefinitely cut off fuel sales to the North,” Kang said.
Although gasoline prices eased to $2.05 per kg by July 12, they are still more than double from the beginning of the year, when they were averaging just under $1 per kg, the data shows.
Diesel prices rose to $1.45 per kg as of July 12, up 20 percent from three weeks ago. Oil products are sold by weight in North Korea.
Prices stabilized after the sharp spikes through the first week of July, likely because North |
121 feet (37 m) where a brief U-turn was taken before a world record 115-foot (35 m) water chute into a 650,000-gallon "splashdown" lagoon.
On August 13, 2012, Knott's Berry Farm announced that Perilous Plunge would be closing for good on September 3, 2012, in order to make way for a new attraction.[1] The ride has been replaced by three new rides: Coast Rider, Surfside Gliders and Pacific Scrambler, which all opened in 2013.
Records [ edit ]
Perilous Plunge made its debut as the tallest and steepest water-based amusement park attraction in the world. Its drop was 115 feet (35 m). It was the first water-based amusement park ride in the world to utilize an adjustable electromagnetic braking system to control the volume of the splash.
Changes [ edit ]
Perilous Plunge opened with a harbor-themed blue-and-white color scheme and with three 24-passenger boats, with passengers held in place by lap bars and individual seat belts.[2] However, after a September 2001 incident in which a guest fell out of the boat during the descent and was killed, the boats were retrofitted with four-point harnesses. Shortly after the incident the ride received a more vibrant color scheme consisting of a green and blue track with lavender-gray supports. After a period of time, Knott's received two new boats with over-the-shoulder restraints. These new boats were drastically different in design and thus created a much smaller splash than the first set of boats. In addition, newer designs caused problems with the lift chain. Stress fractures appeared in the lift chain shortly after the arrival of the new boats. The ride was shut down, and a new chain was ordered. This time, the lift chain snapped (though the anti-rollback device prevented the boat from reversing down the lift hill). Finally, the problem was diagnosed and a new chain was ordered.
See also [ edit ]
References [ edit ]New ‘Justice League’ Poster Shows Heroes Filling In Gap Left By Superman
Superman has largely been absent from the marketing of Justice League in order to avoid spoiling the circumstances surrounding his eventual, presumed return. But this absence is alluded to in a clever way in a new poster from Fandango, which shows the other members of the Justice League outlining his silhouette.
Fandango has released the following image as an exclusive poster on their website for fans who pre-order their tickets to see Justice League:
I really like that the “silhouette” of Superman is actually a bright light, symbolizing the hope that will return to help save the world in its darkest hour. And that “you can’t save the world alone” tagline has added meaning to it when explicitly paired up with the Man of Steel, as he’ll inevitably return to help the Justice League when they need it the most. But this poster is a clever way of emphasizing Superman’s presence in the film without giving it away.
Justice League unites on November 17, 2017. The superhero epic features a cast that includes Ben Affleck as Bruce Wayne (Batman), Henry Cavill as Kal-El/Clark Kent (Superman), Gal Gadot as Diana Prince (Wonder Woman), Jason Momoa as Orin/Arthur Curry (Aquaman), Ezra Miller as Barry Allen (The Flash), Ray Fisher as Victor Stone (Cyborg), Ciarán Hinds as Steppenwolf, Amy Adams as Lois Lane, Willem Dafoe as Nuidis Vulko, Jesse Eisenberg as Lex Luthor, Jeremy Irons as Alfred Pennyworth, Diane Lane as Martha Kent, Connie Nielsen as Queen Hippolyta, Robin Wright as General Antiope, J. K. Simmons as Commissioner James ‘Jim’ Gordon, Joe Morton as Dr. Silas Stone, Amber Heard as Mera, Julian Lewis Jones as King Atlan, Billy Crudup as Dr. Henry Allen, and Kiersey Clemons as Iris West. Michael McElhatton is also in the movie in an unspecified role.
Source: FandangoIs this the future of travel?
Hyperloop One held the first public demonstration of its propulsion system on Wednesday, with a unmanned sled hitting 116 mph in just 1.1 seconds on a short stretch of track outside of Las Vegas.
Eventually, the company hopes the system will hit speeds of more than 700 mph.
According to The Wall Street Journal, the hyperloop system doesn't have brakes yet, so after the short test, the sled drove into a pool of sand:
Hyperloop One is one of several companies working on transportation technology known as hyperloop, which will feature pods or cars racing through tubes in near-vacuum conditions with little to no air resistance to maximize efficiency and increase speed.
Earlier this week, the company announced that it had raised $80 million in financing and was changing its name from Hyperloop Technologies to Hyperloop One. The company is hoping its system will be operational within five years, transporting passengers between Los Angeles and San Francisco in just 30 minutes, the BBC reported.
“When you think of hyperloop, you think maybe this is gonna happen years from now," CEO Rob Lloyd said in a video released by the company. "It’s gonna happen much quicker than anyone imagines -- and when it does, the world will never be the same."Customers tackled and disarmed a man who tried to hold up a London grocery store Wednesday night — the same man police have also charged with robbing a gas station earlier in the evening.
London police urge the public not to “approach somebody who is in possession of a weapon,” said Const. Sandasha Bough.
The evening started when a man with a handgun demanded, and received, money at a north London gas station about 5:30 p.m.
Then at 7 p.m., a man waving a handgun demanded money from a cashier at a FreshCo grocery store at Commissioners and Wellington roads.
“A number of bystanders assisted in detaining him and were able to remove the weapon” before officers arrived, Bough said.
The gun, it turns out, was a pellet gun, she said. But it’s often impossible to distinguish a real gun from a fake gun and people shouldn’t carry one or try to disarm someone carrying one.
Instead, they should go to a safe place and call 911, she said.
A 44-year-old man has been charged with armed robbery, attempted robbery, using an imitation firearm while committing an offence, carrying a concealed weapon and assault.
No one was injured in the incidents, she said.
dvanbrenk@postmedia.com
twitter.com/DebatLFPressPortal 2 launched yesterday in a whirlwind of critical acclaim, but if you believe some of the fans out there, this game is the worst thing since anthrax was invented.
An army of bitter little fanboys has attacked the game via Metacritic's user reviews, with hundreds of negative summaries complaining about unbelievably inane sh*t. Many of them just seem upset that the game didn't release as early as they wanted it to. Others bitch about the downloadable co-op costume packs that appeared at launch.
Yet more are claiming that the game is overpriced and that the main campaign is only two to four hours long. That last complaint is a straight-up lie, but apparently that doesn't matter if a customer is really pissed off about some inconsequential nonsense.
I'd go so far as to agree that the DLC is silly, but that actually has nothing to do with the game itself, which is one of the best titles I've ever played (review coming soon). The campaign is six to eight hours long, and then there's co-op, which looks to add almost as much playtime.
As far as the ARG not unlocking Portal 2 early? Oh BOO HOO, you entitled, spoiled, pathetic little twats. Nobody promised anything.
I swear, no company gets shat on by its fans more than Valve, and it seems that it's solely due to the fact that Valve actually treats its customers well. Apparently, years of free content, and treating consumers with respect, and actually understanding gamers has the effect of creating some of the most demanding, infantile, greedy little fuckers on the face of the earth.
"It's shorter than some internet flash games i've played, is loaded with day 1 DLC," cries some idiot, "and has a terrible port from consoles. The price is 900% what it should be for what essentially amounts to less effort than most oblivion mods. Sad."
Just for reference, in case any of you are thinking of adding your own reviews:
The game is six to eight hours long, and that's just the single-player mode.
, and that's just the single-player mode. It's not a console port, and claiming that it is makes you sound like a clueless prick.
, and claiming that it is makes you sound like a clueless prick. As expensive as the DLC is, downloadable content has no bearing on the actual content of the game, which is more than worth the price
of the game, which is more than worth the price It's not a "minigame," and you're a moron if you say this.
and you're a moron if you say this. An ARG not unlocking a game two days early has nothing to do with the final product and has no place in a videogame review. Your extraneous butthurt does not make a good game bad.
Of course, the people whining would still buy Portal 3 and everything else Valve puts out without a second thought. No wonder they whine so hard -- it must be difficult being such spineless, dickless chumps.
You are logged out. Login | Sign upChatroulette: Is new teenage website the most disturbing internet craze yet?
When writer OLIVIA LICHTENSTEIN's daughter told her about a 'cool' new teen website, she decided to investigate. What she found was the most worrying internet craze to date.
Late on a weekday afternoon and I'm sitting at my computer. On the screen in front of me are two small boxes - little video streams - one above the other. My face is in the bottom box. The face and bare torso of a man is in the one on top. Let's call him Gerry.
Beside Gerry's face is a box into which we can type, so that we can chat to one another. So he types hello and then asks where I come from. I say hello back and tell him I am from London.
Our exchange has lasted barely seconds, but suddenly another message pops up. He's asking me if I will remove my top so he can see my breasts.
Worried mother: Olivia Lichtenstein was horrified by what daughter Francesca could access online
He is a complete stranger, and one of the many crude and deviant men I have encountered in the past 30 minutes.
I quickly click a button to have him removed from my screen.
This, ladies and gentlemen, is the world of Chatroulette - an internet site that is turning into something of a phenomenon.
It was my 16-year- old daughter who told me about Chatroulette, a 'cool' new site she and her friends recently started using.
It's the fast-growing, latest fad among teenagers - a quick and easy way to communicate online with people from all over the world.
It works literally like roulette. Users log on, press a big button labelled 'Next' and it then randomly connects you to any one of a number of people across the world currently logged on. The gimmick is the fact that all of the users have webcams - so they can'meet' the random strangers.
It was the idea of 17-year-old Russian schoolboy Andrey Ternovskiy. He launched it in November last year and his business quickly grew virally from 50 users to 50,000 in its first month.
One million people now visit it each day. However, what may have started as the innocent game of a Moscow schoolboy has quickly become a potential tailor-made portal for perverts and paedophiles - proving once again that the internet is putting the lives of our vulnerable teenagers in jeopardy.
And believe me, after you've seen it, you'll never complain about your teen's obsession with texting their friends again.
For this, the latest Frankenstein monster spawned by the internet is, as with so much web-based activity, impossible to monitor, restrict or control.
Disturbing: A girl tries out Chatroulette and is linked to a man who immediately starts unzipping his trousers
After my daughter first told me about it a few weeks ago, I decided to investigate the site for myself - and, even for a technophobe like me, the ease with which I was able to access it was terrifying.
It doesn't require you to log in or register (despite the fact that the site states it is for over-16s only) and all you need is a computer with a webcam. It's entirely free and once you've clicked a button to allow the site to access your webcam, your face appears in one of two boxes.
In fact, it's so disturbingly easy that even primary school children, with basic computer skills, could access it.
Once you're plugged in, the site immediately starts searching for a 'partner' and within seconds you find yourself jettisoned into a stranger's bedroom, living room, or, all too often, trousers.
The webpage is unsophisticated and states only the following rules: '16+, clothes, report button.' More often than not, though, as I discovered, 'unclothed' was the order of the day.
And the button which allows you to report unseemly behaviour is all very well, but the perpetrator's punishment is a tame warning and 40 minutes suspension from the site. Hardly a deterrent. During my time on Chatroulette, the users I encountered were men and women from Germany, Holland, Turkey, Spain, America and Britain. To begin, you click a button marked 'New game'.
'After you've seen Chatroulette, you'll never complain about your teen's obsession with texting their friends again'
If you don't like the look of the person you have been connected to, you click a button marked 'Next' and somebody else instantly pops up at random. They can be any age, any sex and hail from Manchester to Moscow - although the site's lingua franca is English.
Many of the people on this site are exhibitionists who are free to display themselves to total strangers. Mostly, the people I chatted to were men. Some of them showed their faces - others angled the computer in such a way as to mask their identities and, all too often, to reveal their genitals.
At least one out of every five of the strangers I was connected to was a man with the camera pointed directly at his private parts. Within the first few seconds of using the site, I was asked:'Do you show boobs?'
This was a man from Ibiza, who had angled the computer in such a way that all I could see was his clothed lap. He could have been anything from 17 to 70.
A man from Germany whose face was masked with a scarf asked if I would like to watch him fondle himself. Another told me in graphic terms what he would like me to do to him.
Apart from a sweet but banal conversation with a Spanish student who wanted to improve his English, and a courteous Turkish architect,
most of the encounters I experienced left me feeling that I had become the unwitting participant in a porn film.
The ability to parachute into the lives of strangers is simultaneously addictive and repellent. Just like pornography, it leaves the user feeling dirty and ashamed.
Most of the people I encountered were foreign - and while their English was often poor, they knew the words required to fulfil one purpose: to persuade young girls and women to undress.
Chatroulette may have been invented by a child, but it's clearly not appropriate for children - and it's anything but a game.
Celebrity fan: Actress Demi Moore has used Chatroulette in the past
But, thanks to celebrity users such as Paris Hilton and Ashton Kutcher, teenagers are flocking to the site.
Indeed, if you swiftly 'next' your way through your matches, you will find that around 50 per cent of users appear to be younger than 20.
The fact that my daughter and her friends are not shocked by the site is shocking in itself - it's a further indication that such aberrant behaviour has been normalised.
'If you don't like something, you just click "next",' my daughter blithely told me. It saddens me that she has grown up in a society that makes it possible for her to be so worldly and resigned at such a young age.
But she is not alone. Even more depressingly, it seems that - thanks to the internet - such sexualised behaviour is pervading all generations.
Just last week, a newspaper column related the story of a woman who had recently gone on a date with an unnamed parliamentary candidate. Their date went well, but - as the source revealed - the very next day she received an email containing a photograph of his genitals.
Shocking enough, but sadly not a unique occurrence. I have a number of middle-aged friends who are newly divorced or still single and navigating the tricky minefield that is internet dating. They have found that conversations online all too quickly turn vulgar. And increasingly pornographic, too.
One told me of a man who, within minutes of meeting online, tried to engage her in dirty talk. Another had an online suitor who bombarded her with a series of naked pictures.
Of course, my friends did not participate. But one short afternoon on Chatroulette and you will find that there are a number of women who will. So what is it that is attracting so many modern men and women to such disturbing exhibitionism?
Dr Taly Weiss is a Jerusalem-based marketing trends researcher with a PhD in Social Psychology.
She says that internet encounters, be they ones such as on Chatroulette or dating sites, or the sending of explicit photos, are about satisfying the feeling of excitement that comes when we are allowed inside private places and invite people into them too.
Chatroulette, in particular, where you are literally live in front of a total stranger, takes this to extremes.
I fear for what is going to happen next. For, when you think back to the creation of mobile phones, what started as a useful way of communicating quickly turned into sexting (sending explicit text messages).
Poll Would you let your teenager use Chatroulette? No Yes Would you let your teenager use Chatroulette? No 7780 votes
Yes 4640 votes Now share your opinion
Now, we face the worrying prospect that a growing number of men find it acceptable to expose themselves to strangers online - and the young girls watching them not only think it's normal, but some even agree to perform sex acts on themselves in return.
Will this soon become the perverted future of courtship?
Just think of the way that Ashley Cole threw away his marriage to Cheryl Cole by texting naked photos of himself to a stranger, before embarking on an alleged affair with her. 17-year-old Ashleigh Hall was raped and murdered by 26-year-old Peter Chapman, a man who had met and groomed her on Facebook.
Let us no longer pretend that this is all a 'bit of fun'. How long will it be before we hear of a similar Chatroulette tragedy?
Sarita Yardi, a PhD candidate at the Georgia Institute of Technology, is studying the role of technology in teenagers' lives.
She says that the idea of showing your face to strangers violates almost all social norms of the offline world.
'If someone walked up to you at a cocktail party, stared at you intensely, then simply walked away, you would feel confused and probably offended,' she says.
She advises parents to think carefully about what material is socially appropriate for their child and to weigh up the risks and rewards. 'It's like an online Lord Of The Flies,' she says.
'There are too many unacceptable cultural and moral boundaries that are crossed - like random and unpredictable exposure to nakedness - for it to persist in its present state. This brings up interesting questions of governance.' Indeed it does.
The startling lack of internet controls has been a cause of anxiety for parents for some time.
While users of other social networking sites are urged to check the identities of those they talk to, Chatroulette aficionados socially enter into conversation with random strangers who remain entirely anonymous.
'The fact that my daughter and her friends are not shocked by the site is shocking in itself'
Our children live in an age where the internet is all that they've ever known and they have access to all manner of images and information that we, as children, were not exposed to.
According to a recent Home Office report on the Sexualisation of Young People, 99 per cent of eight to 17-year-olds have access to the internet and 60 per cent of 12 to 15-year-olds say that they mostly use it on their own.
The study found that 49 per cent of children aged eight to 17 have an online profile on sites such as Bebo, MySpace and Facebook and that girls report being under increasing pressure to display themselves in their underwear online.
Almost half of them say that their parents set no rules for the use of such sites. Chatroulette has taken social networking to the next level and provides a perfect forum for men to prey on vulnerable girls and women.
The images I encountered were shockingly pornographic, and it disturbs me profoundly to think that my 16-year-old has been exposed to them, even if she does have the street smarts to move swiftly on if she encounters anything unseemly.
The site is little more than a haven for exhibitionists and voyeurs.
It's not a game, it's porn, and pornography is addictive, corrosive and promotes unhealthy sexual stereotypes and behaviour for girls and boys. It undermines dignity and respect for others by making sexual intimacy into little more than a spectator sport without love, commitment or responsibility.
Depressingly, the business world has been quick to exploit the opportunities of this viral site, now worth an estimated £30 million, which has spread like bushfire around the world.
Fred Wilson, a New York-based venture capitalist with Union Square Ventures who has invested in dozens of dotcom companies, including Twitter, states on his blog: 'The internet is this huge network with over a billion people worldwide on it.
'Chatroulette feels like a cool way to take a quick trip around that network, meeting people and talking to them.'
But while the site's founder claims he built it so he and his friends could start doing things together online, like watching movies or making things, those aims have quickly been subverted.
And, as I discovered during my short venture into that world, it's yet another example of the pernicious sexual culture that threatens to corrupt the fibre of our children's innocence.An artist's interpretation of the Dream Chaser vehicle after spacecraft separation.
Leading space entrepreneurs said they are ready, willing andable to fill the U.S. spaceflight gap after NASA retires its space shuttlesthis year.
They confidently predicted that commercialspaceships could fly both cargo and humans into low-Earth orbit for lowercost and by about 2014, or at least several years sooner, than NASA's originalplan based on the now-canceled Constellation program.
The space industry executives hailed the Obamaadministration's proposal to devote $6 billion over the next five years towardcommercial spaceflight. It opens the door for potential trips to the moon oncommercial vehicles, they added.
That "historic decision" could create an estimated5,000 jobs in the United States and help NASA avoid paying billions of dollarsto Russia for rides to the space station, said Bretton Alexander, president ofthe Commercial Spaceflight Federation, during a Monday teleconference.
Still, Alexander and others took time to address one of themain doubts in the minds of critics? whether commercial spaceflight canprovide safeaccess to space.
Safety first
Some critics and members of Congress have expressed theirown concerns about the safety of untried commercial spaceflight.
But space industry executives said safety is of the utmostimportance to them.
Elon Musk, founder of the commercial spaceflight ventureSpace Exploration Technologies (SpaceX), likened the issue to how airlinetravelers fly today on Southwest Airlines or Virgin America without a secondthought because safety has become a universal standard for airlines. He andother space entrepreneurs said that they too must hold to the highest safetystandards lest they lose out to competitors.
"Safety-wise, we are the least able to affordmishaps," said Robert Bigelow, head of the Las Vegas, Nev.-based firmBigelow Aerospace, which is building inflatablespace habitats and has already launched two prototypes.
By contrast, he said that NASA's government program has beenable to shrug off disasters more easily throughout its history.
The space industry firms represented in the teleconferencehave all aimed for the highest human safety standards set by NASA or Russia'sSoyuz program? the latter arguably having a better track record than the spaceshuttle, they said. Since shuttle flights began in 1981, NASA has suffered twodisasters that have killed 14 astronauts.
"I think that for people to say that we here in theU.S. have done a great job on safety with the old way is just wrong," saidcomputer game developer and entrepreneur Richard Garriott, who paid $30 millionto fly to the International Space Station aboard a Soyuz as a spacetourist.
That spacecraft, he said, has a "100-folddifference" in its safety record compared to the space shuttle. Garriottis also the son of former NASA astronaut Owen Garriott, who flew on the Skylabspace station and an early space shuttle flight.
SpaceX and its competitors touted that, with appropriatefunding, they could start flying U.S. astronauts into space around 2014. Itwould cost less than NASA pays to fly astronauts aboard Russia's Soyuz craft tothe space station.
NASA currently pays about $51 million a seat to sendastronauts to space on Russian spacecraft. But first the companies want toestablish a safety record with many unmanned launches.
Moon or Mars in the next decade
The space entrepreneurs all painted an optimistic picture ofhow commercial spaceflight could look by the year 2020. They envisioned anumber of companies providing commercial crew transport to low-Earth orbit, anda "really well-used ISS" that is taken advantage of as a governmentlab, according to Musk of SpaceX.
Bigelow noted that his space hotel company plans to pursuean "aggressive schedule" that would launch several private spacestations within the next decade.
But the group also looked forward to commercial spaceflightbeyond the confines of low-Earth orbit.
"By 2020 you'll have seen private citizenscircumnavigate the moon," said Eric Anderson of Space Adventures, the onlycompany currently selling space tourist flights to orbit.
If that still sounds dreamy, consider that Space Adventuresis offering trips around the moon aboard Russian-built Soyuz spacecraft for $100million per ride.
Commercial spaceflight could even realize one of the mostcherished dreams of humans setting foot on another planet, if the spaceindustry drives down costs and boosts innovation hand-in-hand with NASA.
"I'm going to go out on a limb and say that by 2020there will be serious plans to go to Mars with people," Musk said.
Editor's note: This story has been corrected to reflectthat space tourism firm Space Adventures has not yet booked a private moonflight, but is still offering the service to potential customers.The Swiss have held a referendum on a government move to tighten the country's asylum law amid a spike in refugees, with early results and opinion polls suggesting a vote in favour.
Shortly after polling stations closed on Sunday at noon (1000 GMT), nine of Switzerland's 23 cantons had accepted changes made to the asylum law last September, according to results given by public broadcaster RTS. The most recent poll in late May showed 57 percent of Swiss in favour of the tougher asylum rules.
The amendments included removing military desertion from a list of valid grounds for seeking asylum in Switzerland Military desertion had been the grounds for asylum most frequently cited by Eritreans, who accounted for most applications to Switzerland last year. Eritrea imposes unlimited military service, with low wages, on all able-bodied men and women.
The revision, which took effect last September, also removed the possibility - which had been unique in Europe - to apply for asylum from Swiss embassies instead of travelling to Switzerland to do so. Opponents have described the change as "inhumane".
Justice Minister Simonetta Sommaruga insisted the changes were needed and stressed that they have significantly speeded up the application process.
"Leaving people and their families for so long wallowing in uncertainty is unacceptable," she said recently.
Switzerland currently counts 48,000 people in the process of seeking asylum, including 28,631 who arrived in 2012.
The surge, attributed in part to the Arab Spring uprisings, marks the highest number since the Balkans war in 1999, when nearly 48,000 people sought refuge in the country.By the summer of 1609, the Indians were no longer willing to supply the increasing numbers of colonists with food, and by October a full-scale war erupted. Indian warriors sealed off Jamestown Island, trapping hundreds of men, women and children within the palisade of the fort on starvation rations with little hope of relief from outside.
As weeks turned to months and winter set in, the colonists became increasingly desperate. “Now all of us at James Towne,” George Percy, their leader, wrote, were “beginning to feel that sharp prick of hunger” that no one can describe “but he which has tasted the bitterness thereof.”
To satisfy their cruel hunger, some colonists went into the woods in search of snakes and wild roots, where they were killed by the waiting warriors. In desperation, those left behind devoured their horses, dogs, cats, rats and mice, and when these ran out even their boot leather. But worse was to come.
Percy describes what happened, detailing carefully how English society unraveled in the appalling conditions. Driven out of his mind by despair, a colonist named Hugh Price, “in a furious distracted mood did come openly into the marketplace Blaspheming exclaiming and crying out that there was no god. Alleging that if there were a god he would not suffer his creatures whom he had made and framed to endure those miseries.” He, like others, met his end in the woods nearby, slain by Indians who killed as fast outside the fort “as famine and pestilence did within.”
As hunger became etched “ghastly and pale in every face,” Percy recalled, nothing “was spared to maintain Life.” Starving settlers dug up corpses out of graves and ate them. Some colonists, who died in their beds or were killed seeking food beyond the palisade, were taken up and eaten by those who found their bodies. Sometime during the winter, 14-year-old Jane died, was eaten and then discarded in a trash pit.
The famished looked hungrily on those alive who still had some meat on their bones. One settler murdered his pregnant wife “as she slept on his bosom,” then “ripped the child out of her womb and threw it into the River and after chopped the Mother in pieces and salted her for his food,” for which “barbarous” and unnatural act he was tortured to extract a confession and summarily executed.
By the end of the siege, in May 1610, the fort had taken on the appearance of a charnel house. Empty houses had been torn down for firewood, the church was ruined and abandoned, and the remains of bodies and trash lay everywhere. Only 60 of the original 300 settlers were alive, and they were so famished they resembled skeletons.NASHVILLE, Tenn. -- The last two Mondays, Tennessee Titans coach Mike Munchak has declared quarterback Jake Locker out.
He stopped short of that in his news conference the day after a loss in Seattle dropped the Titans to 3-3.
“I think there’s always a chance,” Munchak said of Locker. “I don’t think we’re going to sit here [and say no] like in the first two weeks when we knew he wasn’t allowed to do football activities where you rule him out. We’re not going to rule him out until... Again, it’s a process. The odds aren’t great by any means, but I think as you start to move forward in your rehab you just wait and see how it works out.”
Locker will transition to football activities this week as he continues to recover from a sprained right hip and a sprained right knee suffered Sept. 29 against the New York Jets.
“I think the rest part and the light stuff is over and now he can get more into real football stuff,” Munchak said. “It’s a matter of seeing how quickly he progresses without pain.”
Even so, the most likely scenario is that Ryan Fitzpatrick starts his third consecutive game and the Titans move forward hoping to have Locker back for their Nov. 3 game in St. Louis following the bye week.
“I mean, [Locker’s] got a lot to prove before he could come out and be our quarterback,” Munchak said. “He’d have to come out here and... practice Wednesday, Thursday, and he’d have to be out there.”Shooting at St. Louis business school ST. LOUIS
Police respond to a shooting at the Stevens Institute of Business and Arts, where a student shot and wounded a longtime administrator and himself. Police respond to a shooting at the Stevens Institute of Business and Arts, where a student shot and wounded a longtime administrator and himself. Photo: David Carson, Associated Press Photo: David Carson, Associated Press Image 1 of / 3 Caption Close Shooting at St. Louis business school 1 / 3 Back to Gallery
St. Louis --
A part-time student strode into the office of a longtime administrator at a downtown St. Louis business school Tuesday and shot the man in the chest, creating panic in the school before turning the gun on himself, police said.
Both men were in surgery Tuesday afternoon at Saint Louis University Hospital. Police Chief Sam Dotson said he is optimistic both would survive, but a hospital spokesman declined to discuss their conditions.
Police did not identify either man, but Dotson said the administrator was a longtime employee in his late 40s. He said the suspect had been attending Stevens Institute of Business & Arts off and on for four years and had no history of threats or violence.
Dotson said police arrived to find a "chaotic" scene with many students running out of the five-story historic building in the downtown loft district of St. Louis. About 40 to 50 people were in the building when gunfire broke out, and police evacuated them before starting a floor-by-floor search with tactical teams and dogs.
They found the administrator, who had been shot in his fourth-floor office, near an elevator, Dotson said. Officers found the suspect in a stairwell between the third and fourth floors, he said. Police found a handgun, but a spokeswoman wasn't sure where.
The motive wasn't clear, but Dotson said the shooter apparently sought out the victim.
"This did not appear to be random," Dotson said. "It appeared to be targeted."
The school has about 180 students in programs including business administration, tourism and hospitality, paralegal studies, fashion, and retail and interior design.Bailey (Photo: MCSO)
Another Wichita Falls police officer has been fired after criminal allegations emerged.
The WFPD said Monday afternoon that Brittany Bailey, 30, "is no longer employed by the Wichita Falls Police Department due to Code of Conduct concerns and an off‐duty domestic violence arrest in another jurisdiction."
Records show that Bailey was arrested Friday evening in Nocona on a charge related to assault of a family member. Details of the allegations were not available from court sources on Monday. She has since been released from the Montague County Jail.
"Since the domestic violence alleged offense took place elsewhere, we cannot comment on the circumstances of the criminal investigation," WFPD said in the release.. "The Wichita Falls Police Department holds its employees to a higher standard and does not condone criminal behavior. Such behavior will be promptly addressed by the Chief of Police and the appropriate action will be taken."
Another officer with WFPD was fired this past Wednesday after he was charged with driving while intoxicated in an accident where a motorcyclist was injured.
Officer Albert Feliciano was a probationary officer and had been with the force less than a year.
Read or Share this story: http://wtrne.ws/2jVX6KxSilver bars in wheelchairs, baby stroller seized at border
Three Hong Kong travelers and a mainlander were arrested separately after they were found trying to smuggle 13 silver bars valued at 830,000 yuan (US$125,000) by using wheelchairs and a baby stroller at the Futian immigration and customs checkpoint in Shenzhen, Shenzhen Evening News reports.
At around 7 p.m. on Monday, an electric wheelchair-bound Hong Kong resident was stopped by customs officers during a spot check. The suspect was going to the mainland.
His wheelchair yielded three silver bricks with a combined weight of 44.5 kilograms wrapped with yellow plastic tape inside the battery compartment.
Within an hour, customs officials also stopped two other mainland-bound Hong Kong travelers in electric wheelchairs, and discovered eight silver bars with a combined weight of 122.5 kg inside their wheelchairs.
Separately, a mainlander coming to Hong Kong was found to have hidden two silver bars weighing 31 kg in a baby stroller.
The 13 silver bricks were all labeled “Ag9999” and weighed a total of 198 kg.
Under mainland regulations, precious metals such as gold and silver cannot be imported or exported without a license.
Translation by Chloe Chow
– Contact us at [email protected]
CC/DY/CGHaving stenciled bike lanes on city streets is a good thing. But an occasional stencil doesn’t always protect cyclists or keep cars out of the space, and bike lane fails abound. Ideally, cyclists have a dedicated lane to themselves.
Recently, People for Bikes created an infographic, based on the work of Nathan Wilkes, spelling out all the ways to create protected bike lanes and the costs associated with each one. Both informative and inspirational, the graphic is intended to “quickly get [people] up to speed on the most popular tricks being used by cities around the world to improve bike lanes.”
Want to make some of these happen in your hometown? Start or join a local bike advocacy coalition. Check out the list of US bike organizations here or engage your local transportation authority.
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Top photo: Paul Krueger (CC-BY-2.0). Follow @CatJohnson on TwitterFifty seven poor Muslim families - who were 'converted' to Hinduism by rightwing elements affiliated to the RSS earlier these week - now face grave religious uncertainty. While they have reportedly gone back to performing the namaz, clerics have warned them that they will "never be forgiven by Allah for converting to Hinduism".
While the villagers claim they were unaware that the event they had attended was actually a conversion drive |
Plopping the pacifier out of her mouth, Nora threw it across the room, landing it back in Ren's closet within the box. Hoping to fake sleep, Nora threw the blanket even further over herself, draping it upon her face, and began to pretend to snore.
"Zzzzzz….pancakes…zzzzz….zzzzzz….sloths….." She mumbled, hoping it would fool whichever member of the team were entering. When the door swung open, she was pleasantly surprised to see Ren returning early from training. Throwing the extra blankets off herself, the diapered girl waved at her silent friend, who waved back fondly and pointed at the closet.
"Is it in there?" He mumbled knowingly, getting a nod from Nora. Walking over to his closet, Ren pulled out the box hidden behind his clothes, grabbed the pacifier, and threw it back to Nora, who caught it in her teeth. Smiling, Ren placed the box back behind the closet, then walked silently over to Nora, sitting by her side and stroking her hair.
"Thanks, Ren…" she said past the pacifier, her smile poking out from behind the plastic. Closing her eyes once more, Nora laid her head back down upon her pillow and resumed her de-stressing session.
"You know" came Ren, "you could just tell the rest of the team your secret. I'm sure that no one would judge you for it". Nora shook her head, she had kept this side of herself secret ever since it emerged from everyone except Ren, and she didn't feel ready to expose it to others.
"Trust me when I say this, compared to Jaune and Pyrrha, you are the least kinky. Pyrrha is kinky as hell. You've seen what she's into. The handcuffs, the whip, the collar..." he said, knowing very well that everyone on Team JNPR knew about what Pyrrha was into.
"Yeah, I guess so…" spoke the red-haired girl behind her pacifier, "And Jaune?"
"Who do you think is the one using the handcuffs, whip, and collar on Pyrrha?" Ren asked rhetorically. Nora nodded, mentally taking all the positives and negatives down in her head before coming to her decision.
"Okay, I'll do it tonight" she said proudly to Ren, pacifier keeping her smile relatively hidden. Ren nodded, gave the red-haired a small peck on the forehead, and left the room to return to training. Once again alone, Nora closed her eyes, her mouth wrapped around the pacifier, and laid down for her nap.
Back with Yang and Blake, the two had just arrived at a small baby store in downtown Vale, where they were perusing the aisles, grabbing anything they needed and throwing it into their shopping cart. Diapers, powder, wet wipes, pacifiers, washcloths, anything was fair game for the two. Pulling up to the onesie section, the two girls requested one of the tailors to meet with them.
"Can I help you two fine young ladies?" spoke the old man, his wrinkles curved into a cheeky smile.
"We need two onesies, but we need you to make some...modifications on them…" began Blake, hoping that this man could help them get what they needed.
"Okay, what is it you need to be modified? Waist size? Rear pockets?" He questioned, pulling out a clipboard to take down their specifications.
"Well, you see...we need you to make onesies that would fit people of….adult proportions…." Said Blake. The man gave her a puzzled look, confused as to what they were asking.
"Look" started Yang, "We have these friends who get off on being treated like babies and wearing diapers. We need to get onesies that would fit them. Can you help us or not?" She stated bluntly. Handing the old man specifications, Yang began to converse with him while Blake sat back, face now a dark red with embarrassment. She wished Yang wouldn't be so upfront about it, as she wanted to keep some level of secrecy for the sake of the two girls. Watching as Yang took the lead, Blake smiled, seeing how much Yang really wanted to support Blake's idea. At least someone cares about what I have to say, she thought to herself happily.
"Okay, come back in an hour, and I'll have them ready" said the old man, to which Yang smiled and began to walk away, pushing the cart with one hand, and pulling Blake with the other.
As the two meandered around the store, Blake began to notice how fondly she was enjoying looking through the different diapers. Could she be into that as well, she questioned. Pushing that thought to the back of her mind, the two continued to pick out items for their little babies, until an hour passed, and they returned to the tailor, who was waiting with two massive onesies, one red and one white. Blake was thrilled at the results, and knew these would just absolutely melt Weiss and Ruby into tears of joy! Thanking the tailor, Blake and Yang checked out their supplies, placing them into multiple bags, and began to walk out of the store.
"Hey Yang?" said Blake uncomfortably.
"Yes, Blake?" answered Yang, who was busy looking for her vehicle.
"I just realized….we bought all this stuff…how are we gonna get it home on Bumblebee?" replied the black-haired girl. Suddenly, Yang's face collapsed from one of beaming pride to one of awkward realization.
"Shit" she exclaimed.
Back at the JNPR dorm, Nora was just waking up from her nap, when she received a call on her scroll from Pyrrha. Plopping the pacifier out of her mouth, she answered the call.
"Hey, Pyrrha!" exclaimed the bubbly girl, "What's up?"
"Hey, Nora, you aren't in the dorm right?" asked Pyrrha in a hushed tone.
"Yeah….why?" replied Nora in a questionative manner.
"Well you see….look Nora, you and I are both girls so I'm just going to say it: Jaune and I need that room for...activities...if you catch what I mean…" she whispered.
"Oh, okay, I'll leave" she nodded, knowing exactly what Pyrrha was asking for.
"Thanks, we'll be there in five. I really appreciate it!" said Pyrrha as she signed off. Nora, now off the call, smirked knowingly, that she was going to have very happy roommates tonight, making her diapered reveal all the easier. That's when she thought of an incredibly sneaky idea: to listen in on their love-making. Giggling to herself, Nora placed her homework scroll under her bed, turned it on to transmit, and left. Once in the library, Nora placed her headphones on and listened in on the two.
"Nora?" she heard Pyrrha call, "You in there?" When there was no reply, the two walked in, the door creaking as they entered.
"Sounds like the coast is clear" whispered Jaune, the lust in his voice coming through loud and clear to Nora's ears, "I'm gonna go get the supplies, I want you on the bed on your hands and knees when I return. Is that clear, pet?" He spoke with such authority, an authority that Nora had never heard him use before.
"Yes, master" purred Pyrrha, her arousal dripping from her tone. For the next few minutes, she heard Pyrrha hum and remove her clothes as Jaune prepared in the bathroom. While waiting, Nora started to doze off again, the lack of interesting stimuli literally lulling her to sleep. But within a few minutes, moans were being made into the microphone.
"Oh mister, please no! Don't do this! I'm just a young virgin, too busy with school to focus on her sex life!" she heard Pyrrha call. Roleplaying, thought Nora, check.
"Quiet slut!" came Jaune's voice proudly, "You know you're just a little whore who loves to have cock shoved down her throat! Now take it!" Nora could feel her panties begin to accumulate moisture as this play continued, listening in as she could hear the gagging sounds of Pyrrha choking on Jaune's dick. With each thrust, Nora could hear the sound of Jaune's cock hitting the back of Pyrrha's throat, the guttural cry from Pyrrha being a dead giveaway. When Jaune tired of Pyrrha's throat, Nora listened as he began to lick her pussy, the loud slurps bringing a tingle to her own nether regions.
"For an innocent little virgin, you sure are soaking" spoke Jaune, power oozing from each word "You love this don't you?!" There was a moment of silence, but Nora could guess that Pyrrha was probably nodding vigorously.
"Don't you?!" cried Jaune louder than before, the sound of a whip cracking following shortly after.
"Oh yes! Yes! Oh fuck yes! It feels so good! I want you to make me your little slut! Make me your whore!" she howled in lust, "Fuck me hard! Fill my tight cunt like the cum dumpster I am!" Nora was getting flushed listening to this, she knew Pyrrha was kinky, but not this kinky! A loud wail cried out into Nora's ears, and she knew at that exact moment, Jaune had hilted himself into Pyrrha's quivering pussy. Listening, Nora could make out the slap of skin as the two lovers thrusted against one another, bringing their orgasms closer and closer. Within minutes, Pyrrha was at her edge, and Jaune was right behind her.
"Jaune! Oh fuck, I'm gonna cum! I'm gonna cum! Oh fuck, cum inside your whore! Make me yours!" she cried as Jaune pounded into her harder and harder, until Nora heard their speed start to slow, indicating Jaune came inside her. As Nora began to take her headphones off, she suddenly heard more rustling coming from them.
"We aren't done yet, baby, I think you know what that means…" came Jaune's voice once more.
"No! Not that! Oh please, mister, anything but that! You've already had your way with me, don't humiliate me anymore!" cried Pyrrha, her acting now up to Shakespeare level corniness. As Nora listened in, she heard a crinkle that was unmistakable to her: A diaper.
"Now you listen here slut" spoke Jaune again, a whip crack following for emphasis, "You are going to put on this diaper and you are going to play with yourself in it until it is wet with your piss and cum!" Nora was shocked, could they really be into diapers like she was?! Listening closely, she heard no response from Pyrrha beyond a moan, but continuously heard the crinkle of the diaper, probably the noises of Pyrrha putting it on. Soon, Nora heard the soft sounds of Pyrrha rubbing herself in the diaper, and the quiet moans that the star athlete emitted.
"Oh….oh god….oh it feels so good" she whispered quietly, a small trickle now caught on the microphone. She was really peeing! Nora couldn't believe this, the goodie two-shoes Pyrrha Nikos was a submissive, diaper-loving, rape fantasy having slut! Hearing Pyrrha's moans get louder, Nora's grin only grew as Pyrrha brought herself to orgasm, clearly filling the diaper with her piss and cum as Jaune ordered.
"Now...who owns you?" asked Jaune in his authoritative tone, "And what are you?" Nora's eyebrows raised, anticipating the answer Pyrrha was going to give.
"I am yours" said Pyrrha between breaths, "I am your diaper slut. Your little cum dumpster who should be kept in a diaper to show who owns her." Listening closer, Nora heard small russells as Jaune removed her diaper and threw it out.
"Enjoy that?" asked Jaune proudly.
"Oh yeah" came Pyrrha "Are you sure that Ren won't notice we used those diapers again? That's the sixth time!" Nora's eyes grew massive, could it really be? Could they be using her unused diapers for themselves?! Nora's panties were soaked at this point, and now that the couple was done, she could go back to the room and change. Pulling off her headphones, Nora began to walk back to the room, passing by Velvet and Coco, who were speaking with one another at a nearby table.
"And then she said: Are you sure that Ren won't notice we used those diapers again? That's the sixth time!" spoke Velvet, relaying the information to Coco, who was listening intently.
"Interesting…" replied Coco, "Sometimes those ears of yours really come in handy, Velv. Let's get going, our plans just got much more interesting". Smirking, Coco walked away towards her dorm with Velvet following closely behind.
As Nora walked into her room, she walked past Blake and Yang, who were carrying massive plastic bags full of all the baby supplies they needed.
"I told you it'd work" said Yang snarkily. Blake huffed, but she had to admit, calling in an RPL (rocket propelled locker) to store all their stuff until they returned to Beacon was a clever idea. Kissing Yang on the cheek, Blake walked into the room, bags in hand, and began to look around the room, the interior designer within coming out.
"Yeah, I admit it, you were right, sweetheart. Okay, so let's get to work! Bonzai!" she exclaimed, throwing one arm into the air, her hand clenched into a fist. Yang sighed, smiling. This was going to be a long day.
…
And that's it for this chapter, everyone! Hope you all enjoyed! Thanks to Awesome_Est again for suggesting the Blake and Yang go shopping for baby supplies subplot! Next chapter will be almost entirely ABDL as we see what Blake and Yang have in store for the girls, and we see Nora reveal her secret to Jaune and Pyrrha! Stay tuned!The Detroit Pistons made a run to the playoffs in 2015-16 and look to be an improved team in 2016-17 with the potential to make a push for home court in the playoffs. This might not be the Bad Boys, but it looks like the time is right for the return of Detroit basketball.
Stan Van Gundy’s Detroit project is really starting to take shape. During his first season in charge, the Pistons had their best record since the 2008-09 season. They followed up that performance by jumping over.500 in 2015-16, the first time since the 2007-08 season when Flip Saunders coached the team to the Eastern Conference Finals in the last year of a long run of success in the 2000s.
The Pistons have made moves to improve since Van Gundy took over, adding players like Reggie Jackson and Tobias Harris through trade and re-signing Andre Drummond while allowing Greg Monroe to walk.
The Pistons won 44 games and made the playoffs, but had the misfortune of running into the buzzsaw of LeBron James and the Cleveland Cavaliers in the first round and were the first playoff victim of a Cavs team that made a run all the way to the title in 2016. In 2017, Detroit will be aiming to avoid the same type of first-round matchup, instead gunning for the possibility of securing home court and avoiding a Cleveland rematch for as long as possible.Amazon sisters, this one is for you. Austin’s Alamo Drafthouse announced a women-only screening of “Wonder Woman” at the downtown Ritz theater on June 6.
>> Read more trending news
“The most iconic superheroine in comic book history finally has her own movie, and what better way to celebrate than with an all-female screening?” the screening announcement on the Drafthouse website reads. The one-night-only event is for “Women (and People Who Identify As Women) Only,” and that includes the theater staff. According to the Drafthouse, the venue staff, projectionist and culinary team for the screening will also all be women.
“Apologies, gentlemen, but we’re embracing our girl power and saying ‘No Guys Allowed’ for one special night at the Alamo Ritz. And when we say ‘People Who Identify As Women Only,’ we mean it.”
RELATED READ: Some Austin movie fans’ screams might be in the next ‘Star Wars’
Everyone wasn’t excited about the women-only screening, but the cinema stood by its decision.
“Very tacky Alamo. I'm all for equality and having a screening specifically stating it is not inclusive to everyone, is against equality,” Allan Dale said in a comment on Facebook. “I'm not saying Alamo did this intentionally, but it is still just wrong.”
“This doesn’t have a thing to do with equality,” the cinema replied.
“Does this mean Drafthouse will have a men's only screening of Man of Steel or The Terminator?” Kenny Marshall wrote, to which the cinema succinctly replied, “No!”
Despite some criticism, the screening is now sold out. According to a comment from the Drafthouse on Facebook, more Amazons’ nights out are on the way. A second screening has been added and more may come if they continue to sell out.
Kelcie Willis with the Cox Media Group National Content Desk contributed to this story.Eight French jihadists, including a Muslim convert suspected of involvement in the 2015 Paris attacks, have been captured in Syria by Kurdish fighters.
Thomas Barnouin, 36, described as a "jihadist commander”, was detained near the Iraqi border earlier this month with two other French converts named as Romain Garnier, 33, and Thomas Collange. They were among a group of eight suspected jihadists from France, French radio reported.
Barnouin, who converted to Islam in 2000 and is also known as Abdelhakim, left France for Syria in 2014 after serving a five-year prison sentence for terrorist offences.
He has been linked with Mohamed Merah, who killed seven people including three Jewish children in a shooting spree in the south of France in 2012. He was also close to Fabien Clain, another convert who announced that Isil carried out the Paris attacks, killing 130 people in November 2015, police sources said.
About 1,700 French nationals joined Isil forces in Syria or Iraq, 278 of whom have been killed, according to the French government. Another 302 have returned to France, where most are in custody.Coleraine defender Johnny Black spoke of his shock after he was punched by a Cliftonville supporter following the League Cup semi-final at Solitude.
Black had scored a late winner in extra-time and was about to head into the tunnel when he was struck.
The Coleraine player was left with a swollen lip and bloodied nose as a result of the incident.
"I was just walking down the tunnel and saw somebody coming out the corner of my eye," said Black.
Black added that there was "no place in football for that kind of stuff".
There were also skirmishes between a small number of home supporters and stewards before calm was restored.
Cliftonville Football Club wishes to condemn any persons involved in actions that tarnish our Club Cliftonville FC statement
A Cliftonville statement said the club condemned those involved in the scenes which had "no place at a football game".
"Cliftonville Football Club, with the help of the Irish Football Association and other authorities, will in the coming days look closely at the events that occurred and will take appropriate action in addressing any issues arising from our investigations," added the statement.
"Cliftonville Football Club wishes to condemn any persons involved in actions that tarnish our Club.
"Numerous people work tirelessly for the good of our club as volunteers, both on matchdays and throughout the season, and such incidents are not a just reward for their efforts nor for supporters or indeed players."
Coleraine manager Oran Kearney also condemned the assault on Black but praised the Cliftonville stewards and said no blame could be apportioned to the North Belfast club.
"I was about 20 yards behind and I didn't see it but you can't legislate for things like said," said the Coleraine boss.
When emotions run high at the end of games, you can't legislate for every single person who walks into your ground Coleraine manager Oran Kearney
"It is by no means the fault of Cliftonville.
"That could have happened at our ground. It's as simple as that.
"When emotions run high at the end of games, you can't legislate for every single person who walks into your ground.
"I thought the stewards did a good job trying to get people off the pitch.
"I'm sure the powers that be will look at that and hopefully punish the perpetrator."
There were also skirmishes between a small number of home supporters and stewards before calm was restored.
Gareth Tommons put Coleraine ahead but Martin Donnelly equalised from a penalty before Black's strike.
The defeats brings to an end Cliftonville's run of 14 straight victories.
Coleraine head back to Solitude on Saturday for a Premiership game against the Reds.Do we have free will? It is an age-old question which has attracted the attention of philosophers, theologians, lawyers and political theorists. Now it is attracting the attention of neuroscience, explains Michael S. Gazzaniga, director of the SAGE Center for the Study of the Mind at the University of California, Santa Barbara, and author of the new book, “Who’s In Charge: Free Will and the Science of the Brain.” He spoke with Mind Matters editor Gareth Cook.
Cook: Why did you decide to tackle the question of free will?
Gazzaniga: I think the issue is on every thinking person’s mind. I can remember wondering about it 50 years ago when I was a student at Dartmouth. At that time, the issue was raw and simply stated. Physics and chemistry were king and while all of us were too young to shave, we saw the implications. For me, those were back in the days when I went to Church every Sunday, and sometimes on Monday if I had an exam coming up!
Now, after 50 years of studying the brain, listening to philosophers, and most recently being slowly educated about the law, the issue is back on my front burner. The question of whether we are responsible for our actions -- or robots that respond automatically -- has been around a long time but until recently the great scholars who spoke out on the issue didn’t know modern science with its deep knowledge and implications.
Cook: What makes you think that neuroscience can shed any light on what has long been a philosophical question?
Gazzaniga: Philosophers are the best at articulating the nature of a problem before anybody knows anything empirical. The modern philosophers of mind now seize on neuroscience and cognitive science to help illuminate age old questions and to this day are frequently ahead of the pack. Among other skills, they have time to think! The laboratory scientist is consumed with experimental details, analyzing data, and frequently does not have the time to place a scientific finding into a larger landscape. It is a constant tension.
Having said that, philosophers can’t have all the fun. Faced with the nature of biologic mechanisms morning, noon, and night, neuroscientists can’t help but think about such questions as the nature of “freedom of action in a mechanistic universe” as one great neuroscientist put it years ago. At a minimum, neuroscience directs one’s attention to the question of how does action come about.
Cook: Do you think that neuroscience, as a field, needs to tackle these questions? That is, do you consider free will an important scientific question?
Gazzaniga: We all need to understand more about free will, or more wisely put, the nature of action. Neuroscience is one highly relevant discipline to this issue. Whatever your beliefs about free will, everyone feels like they have it, even those who dispute that it exists. What neuroscience has been showing us, however, is that it all works differently than how we feel it must work. For instance, neuroscientific experiments indicate that human decisions for action are made before the individual is consciously aware of them. Instead of this finding answering the age-old question of whether the brain decides before the mind decides, it makes us wonder if that is even the way to think about how the brain works. Research is focused on many aspects of decision making and actions, such as where in the brain decisions to act are formed and executed, how a bunch of interacting neurons becomes a moral agent, and even how one’s beliefs about whether they have free will affect their actions. The list of issues where neuroscience will weigh in is endless.
Cook: Please explain what you mean by the idea of an "emergent mind," and the distinction you draw between this and the brain?
Gazzaniga: Leibnitz raised the question almost 300 years ago with his analogy of the mill. Imagine that you can blow the mill up in size such that all components are magnified and you can walk among them. All you find are individual mechanical components, a wheel here, a spindle there. By looking at the parts of the mill you cannot deduce its function. The physical brain can also be broken into parts and their interactions examined. We now understand neurons and how they fire and a bit about neurotransmitters and so forth. But somehow the mental properties are indivisible and can’t be described in terms of neuronal firings. They need to be understood in another vocabulary.
This is sometimes called the emergent mind. Emergence as a concept in general is widely accepted in physics, chemistry, biology, sociology, you name it. Neuroscientists, however, have a hard time with it because they are suspicious that this concept is sneaking a ghost into the machine. That is not it at all. The motivation for this suggestion is to conceptualize the actual architecture of the layered brain/mind interaction so it can be properly studied. It is lazy to stay locked into one layer of analysis and to dismiss the other.
Cook: How does the mind constrain the brain?
Gazzaniga: No one said this is going to be easy and here is where the going gets tough. Picking up on the last thought the idea: we are dealing with a layered system, and each layer has its own laws and protocols, just like in physics where Newton’s Laws apply to one layer of physics and quantum mechanics to another. Think of hardware-software layers. Hardware is useless without software and software is useless without hardware.
How are we to capture an understanding how the two layers interact? For now, no one really captures that reality and certainly no one has yet captured how mental states interact with the neurons that produce them. Yet we know the top mental layers and the layers beneath it, which produce it, interact. Patients suffering from depression can be aided by talk therapy (top-down). They can also be aided by pharmacological drugs (bottom up). When these two therapies are combined the therapy is even better. That is an example of the mind constraining the brain.
Cook: And how does this idea of the mind and brain interacting bring you to your position on free will?
Gazzaniga: For me, it captures the fact that we are trying to understand a layered system. One becomes cognizant there is a system on top of the personal mind/brain layers which is yet another layer--the social world. It interacts massively with our mental processes and vice versa. In many ways we humans, in achieving our robustness, have uploaded many of our critical needs to the social system around us so that the stuff we invent can survive our own fragile and vulnerable lives.
Cook: You talk about “abandoning” the idea of free will. Can you explain what you mean by this, and how you came to this conclusion?
Gazzaniga: As I see it, this is the way to think about it: If you were a Martian landing on Earth today and were gathering information how humans work, the idea of free will as commonly understood in folk psychology would not come up. The Martian would learn humans had learned about physics and chemistry and causation in the standard sense. They would be astonished to see the amount of information that has accumulated about how cells work, how brains work and would conclude, “OK, they are getting it. Just like cells are complex wonderful machines, so are brains. They work in cool ways even though there is this strong tug on them to think there is some little guy in their head calling the shots. There is not.”
The world is not flat. Before this truth was realized, people use to wonder what happened when you got to the end of the earth-- did you fall off? Once we knew the earth was round, the new perspective, made us see how the old questions were silly. New questions also seem silly many times until a new perspective is accepted. I think we will get over the idea of free will and and accept we are a special kind of machine, one with a moral agency which comes from living in social groups. This perspective will make us ask new kinds of questions.
Cook: Are there particular experiments which you think have shed important light on the question of free will?
Gazzaniga: All of neuroscience in one way or another is shining light on how the brain works. That is the reality of it and it is that knowledge, slowly accumulating that will drive us to think more deeply. One way to get going on this is to try and answer the simple question. Free from what? What does anybody want to be free from? I surely do not want to be free from the laws of nature.
Cook: Do you think this science is going to force philosophers to change how they think about free will? And how about the rest of us?
Gazzaniga: Human knowledge can’t help itself in the long run. Things slowly, gradually become more clear. As humans continue on their journey they will come to believe certain things about the nature of things and those abstractions will then be reflected in the rules that are set up to allow people to live together. Beliefs have consequences and we will see them reflected in all kinds of ways. Certainly how we come to think and understand human responsibility in the context of modern knowledge of biologic mechanisms will dictate how we choose our laws and our punishments. What could be more important?
Are you a scientist who specializes in neuroscience, cognitive science, or psychology? And have you read a recent peer-reviewed paper that you would like to write about? Please send suggestions to Mind Matters editor Gareth Cook, a Pulitzer prize-winning journalist at the Boston Globe. He can be reached at garethideas AT gmail.com or Twitter @garethideas.0 SHARES Facebook Twitter Google Whatsapp Pinterest Print Mail Flipboard
While estimates had already been released prior to today in regards to the number of enrollments through the health insurance marketplaces through November 30th, the Department of Health and Human Services released the official numbers on Wednesday. The report showed that more and more people selected a health care plan via the marketplaces in November. How many? When counting the state based marketplaces with the federal exchange, 365,000 people had purchased insurance by the end of November.
This is a very encouraging number. Even better is that over 800,000 people were determined to be eligible for Medicaid under the new guidelines. Therefore, through the end of November, 1.2 million people were able to obtain health insurance. And, remember, this was WHILE Healthcare.gov was experiencing issues. Other numbers that are of interest showed that 39.1 million people visited either a state-based exchange website or Healthcare.gov since October 1st, while 5.2 million had contacted call centers. Besides the 365,000 that had enrolled in plans, another 1.9 million have completed applications and are just waiting to select a plan.
As for the so-called troubled federal website, nearly 140,000 people were able to select a plan through it by the end of November. That number will surely rise, for as the website improved through the months of October and November, more and more people kept enrolling. With the deadline to enroll in a plan that takes effect on January 1st fast approaching (December 23rd), we should see a large increase in the number of plans that are selected in the next two weeks. Those numbers will still continue to rise into the new year as people enroll before the cutoff date of March 31st.
The White House already stated that 29,000 people enrolled in a plan during the first two days after the ‘reboot’ of the federal website. The likelihood is that we will see a HUGE spike in plan enrollments by the end of this month and the numbers will start coming more in line with the targeted goals. However, what shouldn’t be glanced over is the fact that 1.2 million people are now insured that weren’t just two months ago. 1.2 million Americans have had there lives changed for the better. 1.2 million people are no longer forced to use the emergency room as their primary caregiver.
Of course, Republicans on Wednesday were in complete denial that any of this was good news. On Speaker of the House John Boehner’s Twitter, he posted an article from the conservative Washington Examiner saying that the adminstration was in a ‘deep hole’ on enrollments:
HHS report shows ObamaCare in deep hole on enrollments after two months http://t.co/iUjLW1YUCh via @dcexaminer — John Boehner (@johnboehner) December 11, 2013
Senator Ted Cruz (R-TX) also jumped into the action on Twitter, tweeting another Examiner article while stating that millions of more Americans have had their policies canceled than have signed up:
Obamacare cancelled insurance for millions more Americans than it has been able to provide insurance: http://t.co/FhCkqEpTWQ #FullRepeal — Senator Ted Cruz (@SenTedCruz) December 11, 2013
In the end, the GOP knows they have lost on this issue and are just trying to win the messaging battle a little bit longer. As more and more time passes, thousands and then millions of people will have signed up for a health care plan or be deemed eligible for Medicaid. The further along we go, the less their message will resonate with everyday people who will find out how much better this law makes their lives.
If you’re ready to read more from the unbossed and unbought Politicus team, sign up for our newsletter here! Email address: Leave this field empty if you're human:UCI president Pat McQuaid says USADA is willing to bend the rules to nab Armstrong and needs an independent review
LONDON (VN) — The ongoing battle over jurisdiction of alleged evidence that Lance Armstrong cheated his way to seven Tour de France titles took another step sideways Friday, as UCI president Pat McQuaid said that the international federation is demanding an independent panel review USADA’s evidence against Armstrong and five U.S. Postal Service team associates prior to any arbitration hearings or sanctions.
McQuaid spoke for 45 minutes with a group of journalists attending the day’s Olympic BMX races. The impromptu gathering came as a response to a letter sent to the UCI by WADA director general David Howman on Tuesday, which stated that the UCI did not have jurisdiction over the case.
As USADA pursues a sanction for Armstrong that would see him stripped of some, if not all, of his Tour titles, the UCI’s insistence that it should make a determination on whether a doping violation occurred, rather than USADA, has given the appearance that it might be stalling, or stifling, the investigation.
McQuaid stated that the UCI is trying to ensure that the accused receive a fair trial, stressing repeatedly that by withholding its information from both the respondents and the federation, USADA was violating basic principles of due process.
“I’d like to confirm that the UCI does not have, nor has it ever had, the intention to stop these investigations, nor to make any obstruction of these investigations,” McQuaid said. “Our aim and objective is to ensure the fundamental fairness of the results management process.”
Not trying to save Armstrong’s skin
To date, USADA has not shared its investigation files with the UCI, and McQuaid said by enforcing lifetime bans for three former members of the Postal team entourage — Dr. Luis Garcia del Moral, Dr. Michele Ferrari and Jose “Pepe” Martí — and withholding its evidence, the national anti-doping agency had overstepped its boundaries.
“When this started, unfortunately, USADA released the charge letters to the public immediately,” McQuaid said, although the source of the leaked charging letters has not been confirmed. “This affair is a trial in the court of public opinion, and that’s not just for anybody. I’m in no way trying to save Lance Armstrong’s skin — not in any way. The question at stake here is, I am concerned that the authority of the UCI as an international federation has been undermined by USADA with the support of WADA.”
Accompanied by UCI lawyer Philippe Verbiest, McQuaid explained that the UCI had reversed its previously stated stance — that the case “is a USADA investigation” — after USADA issued lifetime bans without allowing the accused the chance to review the case files of their alleged doping violations.
“At the time that I said this is American affair and the UCI wouldn’t be involved, the UCI legal department was still looking into it,” McQuaid said. “A few days later, when USADA announced lifetime bans on three individuals, that was when we started to closely examine what was going on. To give a lifetime ban — when you collect evidence, you prosecute, and then, so to speak, you’re the executioner — without any due process, is completely against legal principles. It’s reminiscent of medieval justice.”
Because USADA has refused to turn over its case to the UCI, McQuaid said the federation is demanding that an independent panel review USADA’s evidence.
“It was then we realized these affairs should probably be taken out of hands of USADA, and given to an independent group. Not the UCI, the UCI doesn’t necessarily want to deal with this process, but it should be given to an independent group,” he said.
“We’re now in a very strange situation, where the UCI, the governing body of cycling, is not aware of what’s going on,” McQuaid continued. “And we’re not sure that the people involved will be granted a fair defense.”
“When I made statements following the announcement of the lifetime bans, WADA put out a communiqué the following day, saying that the life bans had to be respected. To the best of my understanding, in order for the UCI to validate those sanctions, we need to see the evidence upon which they were based. And USADA is refusing to show us that evidence. Until the time we see that evidence we cannot accept or recognize that life ban.”
Under the WADA code, which the International Olympic Committee instituted in 2000 and the UCI adopted July 2004, USADA has the authority, granted by the U.S. Olympic Committee, to investigate and sanction athletes and licensees independent of national or international governing bodies such as USA Cycling or the UCI. The federations are required only to enforce the sanction determined by three-member arbitration panels at either the |
, "one of the cheapest guys" he knew, was actually a millionaire. "He never made more than a low five-figure, blue-collar salary, but he used the stock market to save his way to $1.2 million in investments" by age 60, Sean said.
Inspired by his grandfather's financial finesse, he started saving any extra cash he earned from his first job at age 16. Later, after reading a book called "Early Retirement Extreme" by Jacob Lund Fisker, he became determined to reach financial independence by age 37.
At 22, he graduated college with a degree in finance and economics and got hired as a financial analyst in Denver making $45,000 a year. He immediately set up his employer-sponsored 401(k) and contributed 5% of his pretax salary, which was fully matched by the company.
Now, three and a half years later, Sean's salary is $70,000 and his 401(k) contribution — just one of his vehicles for saving — is up to 25%.
Last year, at age 25, his net worth reached $100,000. That's when he started his blog, My Money Wizard, to share his ambitious journey to early retirement.
As of August 2016, Sean's net worth was nearly $150,000. Below, he talks us through the growth of his savings accounts and why each is vital to achieving his goal of retiring before 40.
Although Sean requested anonymity, Business Insider reviewed tax and bank statements that confirmed the figures he's reported.Boxing legend George Foreman entered the political ring this week to address national anthem protests in the NFL and NBA players who say they would refuse to meet President Trump at the White House.
The man behind the “George Foreman Grill” was interviewed for Monday’s “Offended America” podcast and showed no hesitation when asked about Golden State Warriors forward Kevin Durant, or national anthem protests inspired by former San Francisco 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick.
The 68-year-old former heavyweight champion said today’s sports stars do not value of patriotism and lash out to get attention.
“I love the United States,” Mr. Foremantold hosts Jacob Wohl and Hunter Avallone, Fox News Channel reported Tuesday. “They haven’t been brought up with people who were patriotic … A lot of people died so that they can have that privilege … Today, there’s nothing to sell about anyone. A lot of guys say, ‘look, I got all this money but no one knows me.’”
This isn’t the first time Big George, who won the heavyweight championship in two different “careers” separated by a decade-long retirement, has trumpeted patriotism while other black athletes did not.
After winning the gold medal at the 1968 Mexico City Olympics by TKO’ing a favored Soviet fighter, Mr. Foreman walked around the ring displaying a tiny U.S. flag. Just days earlier, sprinters Tommie Smith and John Carlos had raised their fists in a Black Power salute on the medal stand.
In this week’s interview, Mr. Foreman eventually turned his attention to the president, at which point he recounted financial troubles in the early 1990s. He credited Mr. Trump’s promotion of a fight with Evander Holyfield in 1991 with his ability to recover from bankruptcy.
“I’ll always be grateful for the entrepreneur Donald Trump — and now President Donald Trump,” Mr. Foreman said. “I’m sorry, you have to be careful now days. He’s a good president. A lot of people don’t like him, but evidently more do because he’s the president of the United States … I had little and hardly no hope at all. What a privilege. He promoted that show down there.”The most intriguing matchup of the knockout round of the MLS playoffs is between Atlanta United and the Columbus Crew. Only one point separated the two teams in the Eastern Conference, with Atlanta finishing just ahead of the Crew. But the game has a very different dimension when viewed through the current fortunes of the two teams.
On one hand, we have Atlanta United, which became the first MLS expansion team to make the playoffs since the Seattle Sounders in 2009 and only the third ever. Playing in the magnificent Mercedes Benz Stadium, Atlanta United twice broke the attendance record for a single-season game and set a new high-water mark for single-season ticket sales with close to 820,000 paying spectators.
Reward from the MLS head office came quickly when it was announced this week that Atlanta will host the 2018 MLS All-Star game.
Awarded an MLS franchise in the spring of 2014, Atlanta United owner Arthur Blank quickly built a first-class operation that hit the ground running when the team started to play this year.
Such has been the team's success that it’s fair to say that Atlanta United is the “expansion face” that Major League Soccer wants to present to North America and the world.
Longtime Columbus Crew supporters can only look on and remember the days when Major League Soccer officials pointed to the Crew as the face of the league.
The Crew was “the original” of the 10 teams that kicked off the inaugural Major League Soccer season in 1996, and over the last 20-plus seasons, the Crew has won the MLS Cup and the US Open Cup and picked up the Supporters’ Shield three times.
Lamar Hunt, the Crew's initial owner, came to MLS as one of the greatest advocates for soccer in North America. Hunt’s soccer roots went back to the early '60s, and he was one of the founders and team owners when the NASL was formed in 1968.
Hunt had experienced firsthand how detrimental it was to play in front of 20,000 spectators in stadiums built to accommodate many times more.
The Hunt family promised to build the first soccer-specific stadium in Columbus, and in 1999, before a sell-out crowd of 24,700, they delivered. The entire $28.5M cost was financed by the Hunts.
Since 1999, another 12 soccer-specific stadiums have been built, and another three will open in the next two years.
Ironically, the two teams that led in 2017 attendance share stadiums with NFL teams. But the Seattle Sounders (average in 2017: 43,666) and Atlanta United (48,200) both clearly understand that “managing the space” and ensuring a soccer atmosphere is key to developing a fan culture and game atmosphere.
Yesterday Atlanta United set another @MLS attendance record with over 71,874 fans in @MBStadiumpic.twitter.com/48Kcm5DaPU — Everything Georgia (@GAFollowers) October 23, 2017
The costs to build soccer-specific stadiums have grown considerably since the Columbus Crew took that first step two decades ago. To date, Red Bull Arena, which opened in 2010, is the costliest at $220M, but Audi Field, the new home of DC United, due to open in June, has a price tag of $300M.
Even with the most basic of designs, a new soccer-specific stadium built to hold 20,000 or so is going to cost at least $100M today.
Normal inflation accounts for some of the increase, but expectations have risen as well. Some of the amenities and revenue streams that might have been ignored two decades ago are expected by fans and owners.
And that brings us to the heart of the current Columbus Crew high-stakes stand-off. Anthony Precourt bought the Crew in 2013 for $68M, and despite selling the naming rights to the stadium and seeing average attendance grow from 2012 to 2016, the owner wants a new downtown stadium, financed by taxpayers.
When Precourt bought the Crew in 2013, he agreed to keep the team in Columbus for a period of 10 years but with one caveat. The get-out-of-jail card was that Precourt would be allowed to move the team to Austin within that window. If there was ever a case of a wilting canary in a coal mine, this was it.
For lo and behold, Precourt Sports Ventures issued a statement last week to say that “it was exploring strategic options to ensure the long-term viability of the club, including remaining in Columbus at a new stadium or potentially relocating the club to the city of Austin, Texas.”
*The owner then doubled down and announced that the team would not refund season-ticket purchases for the 2018 season should the move to Austin come to pass in 2019.
For the Columbus soccer community, the back-to-back statements were a clear indication that the owners were more interested in pursuing a scorched-earth policy than working with the community to ensure that the team stays where it is.
Major League Soccer’s stance has not helped matters either. MLS appears supportive of the Crew’s plan to play the Columbus and Austin communities off each other.
For a league that spends so much time talking about how important fans are to MLS and its future, it is impossible to view this position as anything but staggeringly hypocritical and cynical.
The sense of betrayal was only magnified when The Columbus Dispatch reported that “Austin FC” and “Austin Athletic” had been trademarked by MLS earlier this year.
The more optimistic of us may point to all of this as simply being a part of the cut and thrust of the negotiations process and believe a solution will be found to keep the Crew in Columbus.
The City of Columbus comes through with funding, Precourt agrees to sell to local interests (even if he has turned down a previous overture), MLS owners refuse to sanction the move — all are still possible.
Stranded in the middle are the Columbus Crew supporters. But rather than resigning to a feeling of impotence, the fans have instituted an aggressive “Save the Crew” campaign aimed at keeping the Crew where they should be by applying pressure on the politicians, the Crew owners, and other MLS owners.
Thanks again to our friends all over the country who showed their support yesterday. This is not over. Tell everyone you know. #SavesTheCrew pic.twitter.com/Q0u3rA9zFg — #SaveTheCrew (@Save_The_Crew) October 23, 2017
Stats and Facts
Record in 2017
Atlanta United: W15, D 10, L 9; Points 55; Goals scored 70; Goals against 40
Columbus Crew: W16, D 6, L 12; Points 54; Goals scored 53; Goals against 49
Top Scorer
Atlanta United: Josef Martinez, 19 goals
Columbus Crew: Ola Kamara, 18 goals
Attendance
Atlanta United: total, 819,404 (ranked #1 of 22); average, 48,200
Columbus Crew: total, 262,469 (ranked #20); average, 15,439
Payroll
Atlanta United: $8.9M (ranked #8)
Columbus Crew: $6.75M (ranked #15)
TV Coverage
Atlanta United vs. Columbus Crew starts at 7:00PM ET on Thursday, Oct. 26, and will be broadcast on ESPN 2 and UniMás in the U.S. and on TSN and TVA Sports in Canada.
Precedent for Moving
In 2006, the San Jose Earthquakes moved to Houston and morphed into the Houston Dynamo. However, the marks, records, logo and team records “remained” in San Jose.
Two years later, the San Jose Earthquakes re-emerged under the ownership of Lew Wolff, and in 2015, the team moved into the newly built $100M Avaya Stadium.
Other Playoff Games
Oct. 25
8:30PM ET: Chicago Fire vs. New York Red Bulls on Fox Sports 1 and UniMás in U.S.; TSN 3+5 and TVAS in Canada
10:30PM ET: Vancouver Whitecaps vs. San Jose Earthquakes on UniMás and NBC Sports California in U.S.; TSN 1, 3, 4, 5 and TVAS2 in Canada
Oct. 26
9:30PM ET: Houston Dynamo vs. Sporting Kansas City on UniMás, KUBE Houston and Fox Sports KC in U.S.; TSN 4 and TVAS in Canada
Postscript - The Columbus Crew backtracked Wednesday afternoon on the issue of refunds - details here.Fox News military analyst and retired Lieutenant General Thomas McInerny defended Donald Trump Jr. from accusations of colluding with Russia by promoting the discredited Seth Rich murder conspiracy.
One day after the Rich family pleaded with the public to stop using their son's murder as a “political football,” McInerny appeared on Fox Business’ After The Bell and used Rich’s murder to claim that Russia was not behind the DNC email hacks and to dismiss accusations of Russia collusion around Donald Trump Jr.:
MELISSA FRANCIS (HOST): A couple of the assumptions that he is making based on this, that he feels that the Trump family has been discredited in terms of self-reporting on the meetings that they had. Also proving that they were in fact receptive to the idea of receiving information that would hurt the Hillary Rodham Clinton campaign, based on information that the Russian government had. Let's bring in retired lieutenant-general Thomas McInerney, retired general and Fox News military analyst. Some of the things, the other conclusions that he made there, I'm not totally convinced of.
[...]
THOMAS MCINERNY: This is all fake news. The fact is, there are two things that that committee has got to look at. They have got to look at the DNC computer servers, that was hacked that released that information, and John Podesta's and others emails. Why hasn't the DNC turned that over to the FBI?
FRANCIS: But tell us, why you are tying that to this?
MCINERNY: Because this shows that the Russians did not do it. That server was turned over by Seth Rich and no one will look at his server. And those two servers blow this whole Russian conspiracy, collusion up.
FRANCIS: Okay.
MCINERNY: And that is why it is that simple. I've been watching this for a long time and why the Congress has not gone after those those servers, because cyber is my business, Melissa -- and so, if you get the server, you get the fingerprints of the people that hacked you.
FRANCIS: Okay. So let's concede that we want to get that server.Five people are thought to have been killed when one of the Philippines' most active volcanoes erupted, throwing rocks on to a party of foreign climbers and their Filipino guides.
Several members of the party were also seriously hurt following Tuesday's eruption of the Mayon volcano in Albay province.
Three German climbers and a Filipino guide are among the dead, according to Albay provincial governor Joey Salceda.
Salceda said eight people had been injured and everyone was accounted for apart from one foreign climber who was missing, presumed dead.
A rescue operation is now under way to bring the climbing party down from the mountain.
"The injured are all foreigners. They cannot walk. If you can imagine, the boulders there are as big as cars," Salceda said, speaking from provincial capital Legazpi.
"We will rappel the rescue team, and we will rappel them up again."
The eruption was normal for the restive Mayon, said Renato Solidum, the head of the Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology.
The 2,460-metre mountain, about 340km southeast of Manila, the capital, has erupted about 40 times during the past 400 years.
No alert was raised after the latest eruption and no evacuation was being planned, Solidum said.
Climbers are not allowed when an alert is up, and the recent calm may have encouraged this week's trek.
However, Solidum said that even with no alert raised, the immediate zone around the volcano is supposed to be a no-go area because of the risk of a sudden eruption.PucaTrade Has Achieved Net-Reduction in PucaPoints WRITTEN BY Eric Freytag
We are now removing more points from the economy than we’re creating each month. We’re still seeing tremendous success with the point-reduction features we’ve launched since September, and are now certain that the net point-reduction trend will continue into the future, accelerating with each new point-sink we launch.
We’re a bit behind schedule with our next feature that will remove points (Promoted Traders), but we’re making good progress and expect it to be released this month.
Here’s a closer look at the points removed by each of features that remove points, by day:
Trades were a bit down from what we were anticipating in October, with 228,675 cards sent down from September’s 259,584. We’re confident that continued initiatives on point-reduction will have a positive effect on trade, and that these metrics will be improved with time.
We’re also noticing that since the launch of Future Site, a higher proportion of cards with lower values are being traded than before Future Site launched. This appears to be related to the launch of package-sorting on the Send page, which makes it incredibly easy to send large quantities of lower-value cards.
We’re exploring ways to further incentivize the exchange of higher-value cards; which could include things like modifying our leaderboards to highlight the highest-value senders (in addition to the highest-quantity ones), formally supporting member-created prices or legitimizing bounties, or simply allowing people to set higher PucaValues for cards on their Wants lists.
Although it’s too early to move forward with any plan, this has been at the forefront of our thoughts and we remain committed to improving the system in every way we can to maximize trade for all PucaTrade members.Cleveland has come a long way over the last decade. We have made great progress in terms of education, positioning for the future, economic development and opportunities, along with improving our image nationally and internationally. This progress has been overshadowed by recent events, particularly the release of the U.S. Department of Justice report. Cleveland has met and overcome many challenges and we will maintain our focus as we go through the challenges of today. I am aware of the challenges, and I know that we will pull through as we have in the recent past.
As you may know, the city of Cleveland contacted the Department of Justice in 2012 after the Nov. 29, 2012 East Cleveland incident, where Cleveland police officers were involved in the use of deadly force, to review the city's policy governing police use of force.
The city of Cleveland is not opposed to the investigation. We welcome the review and will make any necessary changes. This review gives the city of Cleveland the greatest opportunity to reform and improve practices that are needed in the Division of Police.
The Department of Justice investigation was completed on Dec. 4, 2014.
On Dec. 2, 2014, the city of Cleveland and the Department of Justice entered into a Joint Statement of Principles agreement which states, "the parties have agreed to begin negotiations with the intentions of reaching a court-enforceable settlement agreement.... As one of its terms will include a provision for an outside independent monitor to ensure continued compliance...."
While in the negotiation period the city of Cleveland is reviewing the DOJ's findings to determine which areas the city does or does not agree with. We will enter into a consent decree once those areas are agreed upon. This is a normal part of the negotiating process.
To date, the city of Cleveland and the Department of Justice have begun negotiations with the purpose of reaching a settlement, as to what will be in the consent decree. Several meetings have been held and others are scheduled.
At the same time, the city of Cleveland is identifying areas that can be changed before the settlement. We are reviewing policies and determining need for change, legislative actions that may be needed, and modifications of collective bargaining provisions.
Although we invited and welcomed the DOJ investigation, the DOJ's investigation and findings report on police practices does not look far enough into the criminal justice system. The review should be broadened to include the criminal justice system as a whole, to determine if there is disparity, or a pattern of practice of Constitution violation.
The review should include who gets arrested, who gets charged, what they are charged with, who gets indicted, what cases are brought to the grand jury, and what sentences are being imposed in court.
When police officers are involved, the disparity and the risk of a pattern of Constitution violation are even greater.
The majority of the men and women who protect and serve our city do so with the highest level of integrity and with each of your best interest at heart. This is in no way an indictment of them and I applaud them.
However, I want to be clear that those officers who are not following the policy, procedures and general police orders, and who do not conduct themselves in a professional manner that our citizens deserve, will be held accountable and, if appropriate, terminated.
As mentioned before, we have the greatest opportunity to change the inadequacies in the Cleveland Police Department as well as the criminal justice system. We can rid the system of disparity and pattern of practice of Constitution violation.
Change can only happen if we remove the fog of confusion and the noise of chaos. In order to make our city great, we must secure the constitutional privileges of every citizen and Cleveland police officer.
Frank G. Jackson is the mayor of Cleveland.BEIRUT (Reuters) - Air strikes and government artillery killed at least 20 people, including 10 children, in the largely rebel-held Syrian province of Idlib on Tuesday, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.
The Observatory, a Britain-based war monitor, said Russian or Syrian government warplanes pounded the rebel-held town of Khan Sheikhoun, killing seven children and two pregnant women.
Warplanes and government artillery also killed 11 people in the village of Baarbo in the southwest of the province, the monitor reported.
“The Russian Defence Ministry has denied information reported in multiple foreign media outlets about alleged strikes by the Russian Air Force in the region of Khan Sheikhoun near the city of Idlib,” Russia’s TASS news agency quoted a ministry spokesman as saying on Tuesday.
“Russian jets did not fly in the area on Nov. 8 and no missile strikes were carried out.”
Syria’s war pits President Bashar al-Assad, supported by Russian air power and Iranian-backed militias, against an array of mostly Sunni rebel groups, including some backed by Turkey, Gulf monarchies and the United States.
Idlib contains the largest populated area of Syria controlled by rebels - including nationalist groups under the banner of the Free Syrian Army and Islamist fighters including the former al Qaeda affiliate Jabhat Fateh al-Sham.I hope so, and I would choose lives.
Gary Anderberg, an advanced reader of my just-released book, “The New Killer Apps,” recently sent me a gracious but stern email admonishing me for failing to address the dramatic loss of professional driving jobs that could come with Google’s driverless cars. (With his permission, I’ve shared that email as the first comment to this article.)
I agree that Mr. Anderberg’s concern is warranted. But, honestly, I hope that driverless-car-driven job losses do become a real problem.
Jobs will only be lost if Google or some other innovator delivers fully autonomous cars. That would also mean, however, that we could reap tremendous gains in vehicle safety. We would be forced to choose between saving lives and losing jobs. I would choose lives.
Mr. Anderberg’s concern about job loss is shared by many and was well-articulated by Lee Vinsel in a blog post that circulated on Dave Farber’s influential IP mailing list shortly after I got Mr. Anderberg’s email. The post says:
It seems obvious that the profoundest impacts of this technology will come not after geeks buy Google cars but after companies use the systems to shed workers. Hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of people—truckers, cabbies, and delivery people—drive for a living in the USA. Why wouldn't corporations replace these workers with autonomous vehicles and, thereby, cut labor costs, benefits, workers compensation claims, etc.?
I’m sympathetic to these concerns. The loss of jobs to automation is more than a conceptual issue. It is part of my personal experience.
There was a time not too many generations ago when Chinese immigrants like me mostly worked in two trades—restaurants and laundries. My father worked until his last days in his laundry. It was a good-enough livelihood to let him bring his family from China. But, by the mid-1970s, self-service laundromats and home washing machines had decimated the business. When my father died, we had to pay a scrap hauler to dismantle the equipment and take it away. It was worth that little. Needless to say, none of his kids went into the business.
Just as washing machines eliminated Chinese laundries, fully driverless vehicles would eliminate many professional driving jobs—including many, like taxi-driving, that form an economic bridge for current immigrants. The impact might be sudden, as Mr. Anderberg worries. Or it might be more gradual and allow more time for adaptation. Some argue that jobs will be created—just as when cars replaced horses—and that the increased productivity will be a collective good. But there are no guarantees.
Whether the shift is sudden or gradual, we should feel for those who lose their jobs. But, should we take action to prevent the potential job loss?
Should we have banned washing machines, or taxed and regulated them heavily, to keep my father’s hand laundry viable? It was his route to the lower middle class. That, in turn, enabled immense opportunities for me. The route no longer exists. Should we stop driverless cars from closing off opportunities for those in numerous other job categories?
As we ponder what to do, we should not lump all automation technologies together. Some automation technologies, like laundry machines, are mostly about convenience, productivity and cost reduction. In these cases, the technology enables a simple trade: one man’s cost savings helps to eliminate another man’s job. To the former, this is progress. To the latter, it is a Faustian bargain.
The calculus for driverless cars is more complex. Here we’re balancing not just cost and convenience against jobs. We must also factor in safety—in the form of eliminating large-scale death, injury and property damage.
Worldwide, 1.2 million people die each year in car-related accidents. Another 50 million are seriously injured. In the US, 9.5 million cars are involved in 5 million accidents. In addition to the 34,080 killed in 2012, 2.2 million were injured and 240,000 hospitalized. Car accidents are the highest cause of death for Americans between the ages of 3 and 33. That human suffering has huge economic consequences, too. In the US alone, the cost of accidents due to injuries, property damage and lost productivity is estimated at more than $450B per year.
More than 90 percent of vehicular accidents are due to driver error. Autonomous vehicles offer the potential of reducing a significant percentage of those accidents. To me, that is the most profound benefit of the technology.
Here’s another plus about pursuing autonomous cars. Many of the safety benefits might be gained as the technology is developed—even before we achieve full automation. That won’t protect the hundreds of thousands of jobs tied to car accidents, such as in emergency rooms, hospitals, physical rehabilitation centers, auto parts factories, tow-truck operators, collision repair shops, insurance claim call centers and so on. In the interim, however, the jobs of professional drivers will be safe (and safer).
The case for driverless cars is also reinforced by other potential societal benefits—such as enhanced mobility for those unable to drive, reduced congestion, better land use and lower environmental impact.
So, as you consider the loss of jobs due to driverless cars, make sure to consider what is gained above and beyond the reduced labor cost. You don’t have to be a heartless free-market capitalist to conclude that the pursuit and adoption of driverless car technology is worthwhile in spite of the potential job displacement.
That does not mean that we have to accept the dystopian view of the secondary effects of driverless cars. Some level of social and economic disruption is inevitable but it can be mitigated. Some level of graceful adaptation is possible.
General Motors does not have to be the next Kodak. Allstate Insurance does not have to be the next Sears. Hertz does not have to be the next Borders. History tells us that today’s market-leading companies will tend to be complacent about the disruptive innovation challenges and opportunities stemming from driverless car technologies. They will double down on their current strategies and business models rather than lead the exploration of new ones. Those that fall into this all-too-easy tendency to defend the past rather than invent the future will end up on the wrong side of the inevitable creative destruction. The resulting havoc to their investors, employees, business partners, etc., will be devastating.
Kodak, as I’ve discussed in previous articles, resisted the digital future for a long time and doubled down on its film and chemical heritage. In the long term, this led to the squandering of valuable corporate assets. Shareholders, pension holders, and employees lost almost everything.
Tendency, however, is not destiny. As Paul Carroll and I explain in “The New Killer Apps,” large car-related companies are well positioned to leverage their assets and lead the transformation. To do that, General Motors, Ford, Toyota, Allstate, Progressive, and so on—all the companies that currently share in the almost $2.5T in annual car-related revenue in the US— will have to out-innovate the start-ups and new entrants (like Google) that would otherwise banish incumbents into the history books. (Thus the subtitle of our book: “How Large Companies Can Out-Innovate Start-Ups.”)
The mistake that Kodak made, and today’s market leaders must avoid, was to think small about disruptive technologies. Successive Kodak management teams assumed that the future would be a slightly different version of the present. They never accepted that digital technologies might challenge their dominant film-based products and business models. Thus Kodak never took the short-term hits to make the large-scale changes that might have enabled it to evolve into a leader in digital imaging. But, doing so was not out of the question—as demonstrated by Fuji, Kodak’s longtime film competitor.
Instead, large companies that successfully innovate Think Big. They consider the full range of possible futures. They make sure they understand the emerging technology context, rather than lock on to their current assumptions. They’re not too proud to explore their doomsday scenarios—including how new developments might drive them out of business. And, rather than just looking for incrementally faster, better and cheaper products, they dare to dream big. Successful innovators are willing to start from a clean sheet of paper in order to pursue “killer apps”—new products that rewrite the rules of a category or entire industries.
The need (and opportunity) to Think Big applies to downstream players as well. Freight and transportation companies, for example, could embrace the discontinuous changes enabled by driverless trucks. Rather than simply thinking about trucks that eliminate drivers whenever possible, manufacturers, carriers, shippers and, yes, truckers could reimagine the overall logistics and supply chain and uncover new value-adding business models and roles. (I’ll return to the issue of autonomous trucks in an upcoming article.)
There is also a role for government. Forward-thinking states could gain regional economic comparative advantage by creating regulatory conditions that foster innovation and help local businesses capture opportunities (and more quickly address challenges). This is already happening with driverless cars in Florida, Nevada and California. Other states will have to resist another destructive tendency—which is to rally around the status quo to protect entrenched interests. This short-sighted strategy might lead to even greater economic devastation in the long term if the epicenters of innovation are pushed to other geographical regions. It also amounts to a choice of jobs over lives.
Not all jobs, of course, can be saved. And, not all jobholders will have an easy transition to a redefined job in the driverless-car world. In those cases, we can work hard to retrain and redeploy displaced workers, and we should.
For my father, it was too late to consider career alternatives. He stayed at his laundry to the end, even though he was barely scratching out a living. But he had done well enough for long enough to get our family to the point where others could help through other kinds of jobs. And society provided the scholarships, grants, loans and opportunities for his children to pursue other professions.
We need to make sure that those opportunities are available to the current and future generations of displaced workers. That’s good for the workers and good for society.
What we cannot do, however, is to allow the deaths, injuries and destruction to continue just to protect jobs. That would be a worse Faustian bargain.
What’s your thought about the societal benefits versus costs of driverless cars? Please join the conversation below.SCARBOROUGH, ONT. (The News Desk) — Insurance salesman and Ontario native Doug Whittaker, 31, announced today that he was utterly disillusioned with the current political climate, and would not be voting for Hillary Clinton or Donald Trump.
“I mean, one’s just as crooked as the other,” said Whittaker, who has lived his entire life in Scarborough, Ont., and does not hold dual citizenship in any other country.
“I really don’t see what difference it would even make. I figure I might as well just sit this one out.”
Whittaker is just the latest among a rising number of Canadians who have expressed their utter disgust with what they perceive to be a corrupt, broken U.S. electoral system.
“It feels like the average person has absolutely no voice in the coming presidential race,” Whittaker said. “And that’s just appalling.”
When asked who he had voted for in last year’s federal election, Whittaker said he could not remember. ♦
If you liked this, like our Facebook page!William Langewiesche was granted such wholesale access for a simple reason: the people in charge were familiar with his work in these pages, work that has produced dramatic narratives built around human and technical complexity. During the more than ten years that Langewiesche has been a correspondent for The Atlantic, he has written about the U.S.-Mexican border, the ValuJet crash in Florida, the shipbreaking industry on the coast of India, and U.S. military operations in the Balkans, among other topics. Langewiesche has four times in the past been a finalist for the National Magazine Award, and his cover story of last November, about the suicidal plunge of EgyptAir 990 into the Atlantic Ocean, won this year's award in the Reporting category. This month William Langewiesche joins James Fallows on our masthead as a national correspondent.
Langewiesche came to this magazine (with an article about the Sahara Desert) out of the clear blue sky; he had been a professional pilot, and had previously written primarily for aviation magazines. Several elements of that background—the bird's-eye perspective; the interest in details of technique and process; the calm demeanor; the canny assessment of human strengths and weaknesses; an appreciation of honesty not only as a virtue but also as a survival skill—proved to be natural assets in his new profession as a roving journalist. In his reporting for "American Ground," Langewiesche explored the shifting debris with construction workers and engineers, documenting the crises and questions as they arose. He crawled through "the pile" with survey parties and descended deep below street level to areas where underground fires still burned and steel flowed in molten streams. He interviewed hundreds of people, from ironworkers and city managers to architects and doctors. What he witnessed in his reporting, Langewiesche says, was "uniquely American improvisation on an enormous scale."
LANGEWIESCHE WAS ONE OF SEVEN Atlantic contributors to be honored at the 2002 National Magazine Awards. Caitlin Flanagan, who began contributing to the magazine only last year, was a finalist in the Reviews and Criticism category, for three review essays about books on college admissions, wedding planning, and tabloid newspapers. Flanagan lives in Los Angeles, and is now an Atlantic contributing editor. A group of three short stories—"The Hunter's Wife," by Anthony Doerr; "Digging," by Beth Lordan; and "Popular Girls," by Karen Shepard—was also a finalist, in the Fiction category.
Samantha Power won the National Magazine Award in the Public Interest category, for her Atlantic article "Bystanders to Genocide" (September 2001), which challenged the conventional wisdom that "nothing could have been done" to mitigate the 1994 genocide in Rwanda. At a minimum, Power argued, a combination of bureaucratic inertia and political cowardice in Washington cost tens of thousands of lives. Power's reporting for her Atlantic article has now become part of a book, "A Problem From Hell": America and the Age of Genocide, which was published in March.
And Penny Wolfson won the National Magazine Award in the Feature Writing category, for her article "Moonrise" (December 2001), which described the battle of her teenage son, Ansel, with muscular dystrophy. Ansel's physical condition, already immensely difficult, will of course only worsen. Wolfson portrayed her remarkable son, her family, and their common perseverance with honesty and restraint, and even with humor. Ansel is scheduled to start as a freshman at Columbia University this fall.This is a petition to the U.S. Trustee showing interest in the establishment of an Equity Committee in the GT Advanced Technologies, Inc, Chapter 11 Bankruptcy Proceedings.
About GT Advanced:
"
Products and Services
GT Advanced Technologies is a leading diversified technology company producing advanced materials and innovative crystal growth equipment for the global electronics, solar and LED industries. Our technical innovations accelerate the use of advanced materials, enabling a new generation of products across this diversified set of global markets. Our technologies allow our customers to lower the cost of manufacturing providing them with a high return on investment.
Our expanding foundation of products reflects our long-term commitment to R&D investment and is helping build new industries that accelerate the adoption of energy-saving technologies for a greener world.
Today, leading manufacturers around the world rely on the proven performance and reliability of our products, the unmatched support provided by our global service professionals and our role as a strategic partner. "
This is a petition to Establish an Equity Committee for GT Advanced Technology, Inc Publish Shareholders!
Best Regards,
RGThe next entry in Giants Software's farming simulation series, Farming Simulator 2014, will be available for Nintendo 3DS and PlayStation Vita June 24, the developer announced today.
Farming Simulator 2014 marks the series' entry into the handheld gaming market; previous titles have been available on mobile devices, Mac, PlayStation 3, Windows PC and Xbox 360. The game will include new vehicles and machinery players can use to build their farm.
"In Farming Simulator 14 on 3DS and Vita you face the challenges of a modern farmer, and raise livestock (cows), grow crops, sell produce and manage |
dog toy! Beesly already loves it.
Next, for the baby: I opened the first gift for her and found an adorable little monkey outfit with a onesie, a bib, and some pants. Seriously too stinking cute! The other present for the baby had 5 more onesies!
Lastly, the gift for me! It's a heavy book filled with the best pictures from National Geographics Instagram. I had expressed my love for photography and travel. This book is so awesome. Really great pictures!
Thanks so much, Santa. I really enjoyed opening each gift. I'm stoked about the book and thr monkey outfit! You're awesome and you did a really great job. :)Plano’s $3 billion Legacy West is driving big business and thousands of new jobs to the growing city.
But that growth -- as it's doing in much of the rest of Collin County -- is also steering more traffic to Plano as well. Lots more.
In an effort to ease congestion around the mixed-used development that is now home to companies such as Toyota, Liberty Mutual and JPMorgan Chase, Plano city officials are looking for ways to get residents out of their cars.
Last month the city wrapped up a traffic study that took officials more than a year to complete.
“That area historically has been very low-density,” said Matt Tilke, the city’s senior traffic engineer. “Before we turn into gridlock, which we don’t want to have happen, the study is intended to look at the pieces and what causes congestion and look at ways to mitigate that and prevent it.”
The number of people living in the Legacy West corridor at build out, which city officials expect to happen in the next 10 years, is expected to be somewhere between 6,000 to 8,000 residents.
And while widening the roadway may be an an option to relieve congestion, there’s only so much that can be done because right-of-way space is limited. So the city is also turning to the businesses to work together to encourage employees to pursue alternate transit options.
“When we think about solving transportation, we think about what are the things we can do. More roads? More buses? Mass transit? All the things we can physically do, but I think it really comes down to behavioral [changes] and the question was how do we get people out of their cars? That was pretty striking to me," Mayor Harry LaRosiliere said earlier this month. “Our message will be talking about changing that mindset of getting out of cars and it means a lot of different things."Deposits of above Rs 5,000 in banned banknotes can be made only once till December 30, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) said on Monday, the latest in a series of banking restrictions after the government recalled high-value bills.
Such deposits will be accepted only after two bank officials satisfy themselves on why the deposits were not made earlier. The accounts must also be compliant with customer information details, called KYC, otherwise deposits can be restricted to Rs 50,000, the RBI said.
“The (depositor’s) explanation should be kept on record to facilitate an audit trail at a later stage,” the central bank said in a notification.
The government pulled out 500-and 1,000-rupee bills on November 8, in an effort to fight a parallel ‘black economy’, and has since announced near-daily changes to banking rules to manage the transition. The banned notes can be deposited in banks till December 30 and thereafter at select RBI counters till March 31.
But the shock move has led to a severe cash crunch. Cash withdrawals from banks have been restricted to Rs 24,000 per account per week, although most banks are unable to provide even that. The government has said it will replenish most of the withdrawn cash – about 86% of the money in circulation -- with new 2000-and 500-rupee notes.
Read: Demonetisation’s ever-changing rules: a complete history
Withdrawal of Legal Tender Character of existing ₹ 500/- and ₹ 1000/- Bank Notes (Specified Bank Notes) - Deposit...https://t.co/eTDuFizbP6 — ReserveBankOfIndia (@RBI) December 19, 2016
Late in the evening, finance minister Arun Jaitley said no questions would be asked junked currency was deposited in one go but repeat deposits might raise queries. “If they are going to go everyday and deposit some currency, same person, that gives rise to suspicion. In that event, a person may have something to worry about. Therefore everyone is advised whatever old currency you have, please go and deposit it now.”
Union law minister Ravi Shankar Prasad said the government would come up with a “structured response” on the new norms. “They have issued something, the government will come with structured response on that,” he said after meeting with heads of banks.
Monday’s changes also stipulated that even for deposits below Rs 5000, made in one go or cumulatively till December 30, customers could be questioned should the banks feel the need.
Read | D for Demonetisation. W for Why?
At the time of demonetising the high-value bills, the government had said people should not panic and crowd banks, and that they had enough time to deposit or exchange their money.
“Many people could not deposit money as they were waiting for the queues to end. This shows the ill-intent and mismanagement of the Modi government,” Congress chief spokesperson Randeep Surjewala said.
The decision is seen aimed at discouraging a late surge in deposits of unaccounted-for money in regular bank accounts. The government has said it had come across instances of the corrupt using bank accounts of the poor to make deposits of banned notes.
The RBI’s November 11 press release that asked people to exchange notes at their convenience.
Read | Demonetisation woes: HT’s photo of old man crying in a bank touches a raw nerve
The RBI notification said the banking new restrictions were placed to encourage people to make deposits under the Pradhan Mantri Garib Kalyan Yojana, 2016, a new window to declare unaccounted for wealth.
But the principle opposition party wasn’t convinced and questioned the decision to depute bank officials to quiz people. “Banks are meant to serve people. Don’t turn them into police stations. This actually exhibits a criminal mind,” Surjewala said.
Read | India after demonetisation: Full coverage
First Published: Dec 19, 2016 13:11 ISTObama administration complicit in war crime?
Paul Joseph Watson
Infowars.com
January 28, 2013
UPDATE: Britam has admitted that it was hacked but denied that the emails released by the hacker were genuine. Click here for a statement by a Britam spokesman.
Alleged hacked emails from defense contractor Britam reveal a plan “approved by Washington” and funded by Qatar to stage a chemical weapons attack in Syria and blame it on the Assad regime, fulfilling what the Obama administration has made clear is a “red line” that would mandate US military intervention.
The leaked emails, obtained by a hacker in Germany, feature an exchange (click here for screenshot) between Britam Defence’s Business Development Director David Goulding and the company’s founder Philip Doughty;
Phil We’ve got a new offer. It’s about Syria again. Qataris propose an attractive deal and swear that the idea is approved by Washington. We’ll have to deliver a CW to Homs, a Soviet origin g-shell from Libya similar to those that Assad should have. They want us to deploy our Ukrainian personnel that should speak Russian and make a video record. Frankly, I don’t think it’s a good idea but the sums proposed are enormous. Your opinion? Kind regards
David
The fact that the plan involves delivering a CW (chemical weapon) that is “similar to those Assad should have,” clearly suggests that the idea is to stage a false flag chemical weapons attack that could be blamed on Assad by Gulf states like Qatar and NATO powers.
If the claim that such as plot was “approved by Washington” can be verified, then the Obama administration is complicit in a war crime.
According to Cyber War News, which details the process of how the emails were hacked and includes screenshots of the leaked documents, the hack also uncovered, “extremely personal information,” including copies of passports of Britam employees, some of whom appeared to be mercenaries.
A full list of all the hacked documents can be found here. One software systems administrator who analyzed the ‘header’ details from the email in question concluded, “I have to admit that the email does indeed look genuine….all these facts check out. So with Mythbusters objectivity I have to call this one plausible.”
Online business profiles confirm that both David Goulding and Philip Doughty work for Britam Defence.
Last year, reports began to circulate that that US-backed rebel fighters in Syria had been given gas masks and were willing to stage a chemical weapons attack which would then be blamed on the Assad regime to grease the skids for NATO military intervention.
Soon after in August, President Barack Obama warned that the use or even transportation of chemical weapons by the Assad regime would represent a “red line” that would precipitate military intervention. French President Francois Hollande followed suit, stating that the use of such weapons “Would be a legitimate reason for direct intervention.”
At around the same time, a source told Syrian news channel Addounia that a Saudi company had fitted 1400 ambulance vehicles with anti-gas & anti-chemical filtering systems at a cost of $97,000 dollars each, in preparation for a chemical weapons attack carried out by FSA rebels using mortar rounds. A further 400 vehicles were prepared as troop carriers.
The attack would be blamed on the Syrian Army and exploited as an excuse for a military assault. A March 2012 Brookings Institution report entitled Saving Syria: Assessing Options For Regime Change outlined this very scenario – where a manufactured humanitarian crisis would be cited as justification for an attack.
Yesterday, Israel’s vice premier Silvan Shalom told reporters that if Syrian rebels obtained chemical weapons from stockpiles belonging to the Assad regime, such a development would force Israel to resort to “preventive operations,” in other words – a military strike on Syria.
In December, a shocking video emerged of Syrian rebels testing what appeared to be a form of nerve gas on rabbits, bolstering claims that the rebels had already obtained chemical weapons.
As Tony Cartalucci also highlights, “Mention of acquiring chemical weapons from Libya is particularly troubling. Libya’s arsenal had fallen into the hands of sectarian extremists with NATO assistance in 2011 in the culmination of efforts to overthrow the North African nation. Since then, Libya’s militants led by commanders of Al Qaeda’s Libyan Islamic Fighting Group (LIFG) have armed sectarian extremists across the Arab World, from as far West as Mali, to as far East as Syria.”
Last month, 29 different US-backed Syrian opposition groups pledged their allegiance to Al Nusra, an Al-Qaeda-affiliated group which, as the New York Times reported, “killed numerous American troops in Iraq.
Numerous reports confirm that Al Nusra is the leading front line fighting force in Syria and is commanding other rebel groups. Given their prominent role, allied with the fact that the terror group has been responsible for numerous bloody attacks in Syria, the notion that the Obama administration would approve a plot that could see chemical weapons fall into the hands of Al-Qaeda terrorists could represent a foreign policy scandal even bigger than Benghazi-Gate.
In a related story, the Syrian Electronic Army, a separate hacktivist group, continues to release hacked files and emails from numerous sensitive foreign ministry and military websites belonging to Saudi Arabia, Qatar and Turkey, including emails sent between these countries.
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Paul Joseph Watson is the editor and writer for Infowars.com and Prison Planet.com. He is the author of Order Out Of Chaos. Watson is also a host for Infowars Nightly News.
This article was posted: Monday, January 28, 2013 at 6:01 am
Tags: foreign affairs, terrorism, war
Print this page.The death of King Edward VII on May 6, 1910, marked the proper end of Edwardian era. Society marched gaily on until the summer of 1914, but no longer was there a charismatic, pleasure-loving, and cosmopolitan monarch to look to for amusement, fashion, sport, and manners. Though most of the king’s set were just as middle-aged and elderly as he was, Edward VII’s appetites still set the tone, and King George V and Queen Mary’s firm adherence to the quiet life sent ripples on unease throughout high society. The splintering of cliques that had begun well into Edward’s reign now bore fruit since the new king and queen were alleged to detest Americans, to despise the raffish crowd the dead king collected around him, the bed-hopping, and the indiscriminate mingling of wealth with blue blood. According to The Edwardian Daughter, the memoir written by Sonia Cubitt (née Keppel–and HRH the Duchess of Cornwall’s grandmother), Mrs. George Keppel lost no time in packing up the family for a long trip away from England now that her lover was dead. Court mourning was instituted, and though many hesitated to throw themselves back into the London Season the king’s death so abruptly interrupted, the smart set commemorated their deceased king and social leader with the infamous “black Ascot.”
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PhD student, public historian, and author of historical fiction that complicates the past by night! Follow me on Twitter @edwardian_era PhD student, public historian, and author of historical fiction that complicates the past by night! Follow me on Twitter @edwardian_eraUPDATE: 'Black Lives Matter' protesters continue to block I-93 traffic in Milton, arms locked in 1,200-pound cement filled barrels
MILTON - Protesters have chained themselves to barrels in the middle of Interstate 93 northbound, blocking every lane of traffic during Thursday's morning commute.
Massachusetts State Police said the road is shut down at East Milton Square, along with the HOV lane on I-93 southbound at Mystic Avenue in Medford.
Troopers and local police are working to remove the protesters, and traffic is "severely delayed," state police said on Twitter, adding that the barrels weigh 1,200 pounds.
The protest is in support of the "black lives matter" movement, aimed at calling attention to and reducing the number of people of color killed by police officers.
The Associated Press quotes a statement sent by the protesters, saying the demonstration was meant "to confront white complacency in the systemic oppression of black people in Boston."
ABC affiliate WCVB quotes an activist named Katie Sietz: "Today, our nonviolent direct action is meant to expose the reality that Boston is a city where white commuters and students use the city and leave, while Black and Brown communities are targeted by police, exploited, and displaced."
This is a developing story. It will be updated as more information becomes available.
Total arrests from this morning's protest total 29. They caused serious risk to public safety. More info to be released at 11:30. — Mass State Police (@MassStatePolice) January 15, 2015
Protestors with arms chained together inside barrel on Rte 83 Milton pic.twitter.com/ORaUqQ7les — Tim Alben (@TimAlben) January 15, 2015
Arrests will be ongoing at any and all locations where individuals have obstructed traffic. — Tim Alben (@TimAlben) January 15, 2015
RIGHT NOW: Two lanes of traffic getting by. Protestors still on 93 north near East Milton Square. @NECN pic.twitter.com/wBRnMDaAXm — Jeff Saperstone (@JeffSaperstone) January 15, 2015
Protestors arrested on 93 in Somerville #7news pic.twitter.com/rQMXv1mXyq — Steve Cooper (@scooperon7) January 15, 2015
Hmm. MT @OnlyInBOS: ALERT: I-93 NB in Milton protesters are sitting on the highway. pic.twitter.com/oMN4U8Mnae — Dustin Fitch (@DustinGFitch) January 15, 2015
Going 2 #BOSTON? 93NB jammed in #QUINCY w/ reports of protesters "chained to barrels" blocking hwy nr Furnace Brook pic.twitter.com/XXgdulAeBz — Heidi Voight (@HeidiVoight) January 15, 2015Church Youth Volunteer Accused of Sexually Abusing a Dozen Male Students
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Close to a dozen males have come forward to accuse a West Virginia man and former church youth volunteer of sexually abusing them as minors.
While the West Virginia State Police has not disclosed the man's name, Westminster Presbyterian Church has confirmed that the suspect "has volunteered in various capacities for the church, including with youth trips that required chaperones."
The church's senior pastor, Jonathan Rockness, also claimed that while the Bluefield's church had alerted authorities at the beginning of the year, the police initially did not find enough information to prosecute him.
"In June, the police reported back to us that they would not be pursuing the case, as the behavior we reported was inappropriate, but not actionable," Rockness said in a statement shared with WOAY Television. "Even though the legal authorities declined to pursue the case any further, the leadership of the church was not satisfied that we had gotten to the bottom of the situation."
Following the police's decision, the church subsequently suspended the suspect from church-related activities beyond attending services and launched their own investigation. Over the course of its inquiry, authorities have confirmed that around 12 males came forward to accuse the volunteer of sexual abuse, starting as early as 1986.
The victims' ages at the time of the alleged sexual abuses ranged from pre-teens to teenagers.
After concluding its own report, the church reported this information back to the police who decided they now had enough information to pursue it further.
While the current suspect has not yet been charged, WVNSTV reported that he could be accused of "sexual abuse, sexual assault and sexual abuse by a custodian."
The church reiterated that it has "been fully cooperative with the authorities and will continue to be, as we are committed to uncovering the truth and seeing justice met."
"We also hope and pray for healing and wholeness for any potential victims in this situation. We are devastated for them and their families," Rockness wrote.Toronto's Hospital for Sick Children has launched a billion dollar fundraiser to rebuild its home on University Avenue.
The building was erected in 1949. Sick Kids moved in two years later. In launching its fundraising push, the hospital says 21st century medicine shouldn't be held back by a building's age.
SickKids is looking to raise $1.3 billion, much of which will go to the makeover.
Already, $570 million in donations and pledges has been secured.
It is expected to take 10 years to complete. "We're committed to continuing to provide services on our site. That is one of the reasons why this is a very complicated project that will take a decade to complete. We do not expect to close any services over that time frame or move patients to other care centres," say SickKids CEO Dr. Mike Apkon.
To donate to SickKids, go to their website.CELEBRITY chef apps, online how-to videos and recipe-sharing websites have all joined traditional cookbooks as guides for the amateur epicurean. But wouldn’t it be nice if your kitchen could help you prepare a meal?
Computer scientist Yu Suzuki and colleagues at Kyoto Sangyo University in Japan kitted out a kitchen with ceiling-mounted cameras and projectors that overlay cooking instructions on the ingredients. This lets you concentrate on slicing and dicing without having to look up at a book or a screen. “Cooks can easily and visually understand how to prepare an ingredient for a recipe even if they have no cooking experience,” says Suzuki.
Suppose you want to fillet a fish. Lay it down on a chopping board and the cameras will detect its outline and orientation so the projectors can overlay a virtual knife on the fish with a line indicating where to cut. Speech bubbles even appear to sprout from the fish’s mouth, guiding you through each step (see picture).
If that is not enough, the kitchen also comes equipped with a small robot assistant named Phyno that sits on the countertop. When its cameras detect the chef has stopped touching the ingredients, Phyno asks whether that particular step in the recipe is complete. Users can answer “yes” to move on to the next step or “no” to have the robot repeat the instructions.
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“A small robot assistant called Phyno sits on the countertop and guides you through the recipe”
There are some limitations, however. “Currently we have to develop a system based on a manual analysis of real cooking processes,” says Suzuki, so for now the system can only help you prepare fish and slice onions. “In the future, we will automate the analysis process.” He will present the work at the Asia Pacific Conference on Computer Human Interaction in Matsue, Japan, later this month.
“It’s a great idea,” says Thomas Ploetz at Newcastle University, UK, who has built a smart kitchen himself (“Mastering the art of French by cooking“).
Meanwhile, Jinna Lei at the University of Washington has also installed cameras in the kitchen to watch over novice chefs. Lei and colleagues used Kinect-like depth-sensing cameras capable of recording both the shape and appearance of kitchen objects, allowing them to track cooking actions, such as whether a particular ingredient has been added to a bowl.
The system uses both object and action-recognition to keep track of what the cook is doing. Each object, such as a bowl or apple, has a number of actions related to it. For example, bowls are generally used for mixing, while apples can’t be mixed but can be chopped. Tracking is about 80 per cent accurate and Lei is investigating ways to improve this, such as adding a thermal camera to better identify the user’s hands by their body heat. She will present the work at the UbiComp conference in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, next month.
Eventually, Lei hopes the system will be able to prompt chefs when they make a mistake. “For example, if the system detects sugar pouring into a bowl containing eggs, and the recipe does not call for sugar, it could log the aberration,” says Lei. She tested it on a cake-baking video containing seven objects and 17 actions and it identified the start and end points of actions to within a third of a second in over 90 per cent of cases.
Ploetz suggests that Lei’s research could complement Suzuki’s by helping to automate recognition of new ingredients, while adding his own work to the mix could make your kitchen even smarter. “All of them together would be a nice combination.”
Mastering the art of French by cooking Smart kitchens could help you learn another language as you hone your cookery skills. Thomas Ploetz and colleagues at Newcastle University, UK, put accelerometers in a variety of kitchen equipment as a way to record users as they perform culinary tasks. A computer gives cooking instructions in French and can sense if users have picked up the right equipment to carry out the recipe. If not, the system will rephrase again in French before finally giving an English translation. Ploetz also has plans to create equipment that can score your cooking skills, based on how well you execute each task. “The next step would be gamification,” he says. “You could compete with Jamie Oliver.”Edward Snowden has left a cryptic tweet sparking concern among the masses that his safety is in question.
The whistleblower recently tweeted a 64-character hex code that was traced to a bitcoin transaction amounting to 0.000911, leading many to question whether or not this was a dead man’s switch, which is an automatic message that is set to release if the user of an account does not check-in consistently.
In Snowden’s case, if he has been captured or killed, it would prompt journalists and friends to release encrypted files.
According to Sputnik News, Edward Snowden’s girlfriend thinks that he has been killed while others believe that the tweet was, in fact, a signal by Snowden, ahead of a major document release.
The tweet, which was shortly erased, followed a previous message from Edward Snowden and only said, “it’s time,” which came a few days earlier.
Of course, while some have come forward to say that Snowden is okay, mystery still surrounds him considering that his Twitter account has been inactive for an extended period, according to Sputnik News.
One user who tested Edward Snowden’s message as a private key hash on the bitcoin blockchain said that the amount 0.000911 could have been a distress call from the whistleblower; however, others are saying that it may have been an unintentional hash in a bitcoin transaction.
For now, we remain in the dark as to whether or not Edward Snowden’s safety is in question or not.
Featured image from GongTo via Shutterstock.Zedd, Ellie Goulding and twenty one pilots will also perform at the show, kicking off Sunday at 9 p.m.
Before Eminem and Rihanna hit the road for their Monster Tour this summer, the powerhouse duo will be bringing their hit to the 2014 MTV Movie Awards.
It was announced on Tuesday morning (April 8) that Em and Rih Rih will be gracing the stage this Sunday during the annual event. This will be their first performance of "The Monster," the hit single from November's The Marshall Mathers LP 2. It reached #1 on the Billboard Hot 100.
The duo join previously announced performers twenty one pilots with their new single "Car Radio" and Ellie Goulding and Zedd, who will join forces to perform "Beating Heart" and "Find You."
Last week, Em released a behind-the-scenes clip of the song's music video. In it, the Rap God revisits scenes some of the music videos from earlier in his career, though he said that they didn't transport him to those days. "Redoing this scene actually brings back no memories for me because I don't remember it," he joked to the camera (with a straight face).
Another Slim video is on the way. Over the weekend, he posted an Instagram of him and Spike Lee, along with the caption, "Spike came out to The D for the 'Headlights' video...Coming soon."
The 2014 MTV Movie Awards will be hosted by Conan O'Brien. Make sure to tune in at 9 p.m. ET/PT this Sunday, April 13, when they air from Los Angeles' Nokia Theater.|
Prime Minister of Armenia Karen Karapetyan announced the reduction of tariffs for Moscow-Yerevan railway and ferry transportation, the PM said on Facebook.
He stated that previously the transportation of goods via Georgia and Russia was carried out at high prices which affected both the cargo transportation process and the pricing policy.
Presenting the steps taken, the PM said Armenia-Georgia-Russia trilateral talks were held aimed at reducing the tariffs for the cargo transportation at abovementioned routes.
The agreement reached with the Georgian side as a result of talks and the new reducing tariffs came into force from February 22, 2017, whereas the discounted tariffs provided by the Russian side from March 13.
Thus, the tariffs for Moscow-Yerevan railway and ferry transportation decreased by 32-35%, whereas at the opposite Yerevan-Moscow direction, the tariffs decreased by up to 52-54% depending on the cargo type.Adam Ward, CTV Barrie
More than $100,000 found in an old television at a Barrie recycling centre has been returned to its rightful owner.
Employees at GEEP Industries were dismantling the television last month when a cash box and banking records were found inside the TV. The television had been sitting on the property for more than a year.
“I was like ‘whoa!’ There was like four stacks of $50 bills and I knew it was a large amount of money,” says general manager Rick Deschamps.
The items were ultimately handed over to police. Officers were able to use the banking records to locate the owner.
“There were some bank documents and legal documents inside so we were able to track down him in that capacity,” says Barrie police Const. Nicole Rodgers.
The owner, a 68-year-old man from Bolsover, Ont., which is located near Kawartha Lakes, told police that he had put the inheritance money in the television for safe keeping.
“One of those safe spots that he thought he'd never forget, but apparently he did and it got passed on to a family friend many years later,” says Rodgers.
That family friend eventually brought it to the recycling centre.
“Hopefully he's put it in a savings account now and his family will be able to use the inheritance the way they wish.”When Jeff Lamb contacted us about his ‘MZ Special,’ we thought we’d just stumbled upon a new shop, specializing in vintage, racing-inspired customs. But we were dead wrong.
It turns out that Jeff’s just a regular bloke: “I’m a 41-year-old hopeless motorcycle enthusiast, now amateur bike builder, from Brisbane, Australia. A self-employed father of two boys, husband of a great woman and owner of some tools.”
A couple of years ago Jeff met the Ellaspede crew at a moto expo. By the end of the conversation, Jeff knew he wanted a cafe racer. All he needed was a suitable donor, and that’s where the bizarre—and surprisingly capable—MZ Skorpion comes in.
Launched in 1994, the Skorpion featured a British chassis, Italian brakes and suspension, and a Japanese engine and electrics—borrowed from the Yamaha XT660. Everything was assembled at MZ’s home base in Germany.
It sounds like the world’s worst parts-bin special, but the press at the time praised it for being affordable and light, with heaps of torque and good handling. It also became a popular choice for club racing, even if it was a curious-looking machine.
“The large-diameter-tube perimeter frame was a real standout—I hadn’t seen anything like it before,” says Jeff. “It reminded me of the frames of 1960s Puch scooters and mopeds.”
Sold on the idea, Jeff snapped up a 99-model Skorpion Tour, “with no shortage of Blu-Tack, touch up paint, electrical tape, cable ties, hope and WD-40.”
There was just one problem: despite having a ton of ideas originally, Jeff hit a creative wall. After countless sketches and false starts, he finally stripped the bike down out of sheer desperation.
“I now had hundreds of parts, more ideas, a bike that wasn’t usable, a mess and more builder’s block. This didn’t really help.”
Jeff threw in the towel, loaded up a trailer with all the parts and made his way to Ellaspede’s workshop. Ideas were exchanged, sketches made and emails sent back and forth. A clear brief was soon on the table.
“They costed the job based on my dreams,” says Jeff, “and that’s when I learned what it costs to have a pro shop take a concept through to reality. I paid the guys for the work to date, picked up my trailer full of bits and licked my wounds.”
“The gap between my ideas and the reality of a full custom build was a mix of shock and disappointment—not in Ellaspede, but in myself for thinking this sort of thing can be done for a small amount of money.”
At least Jeff now had a clear direction. So he decided to do as much as he could himself, outsource whatever was beyond his means—and bring Ellaspede back in near the end.
First on the agenda was sorting out the fairing. An Avon-style fairing was key to what Jeff had in mind, so he contacted a well-known classic fiberglass manufacturer who claimed to have the right molds.
“But when it came to me offering an order and an up-front payment,” explains Jeff, “it became a trail of unanswered phone calls and emails. Eventually the internet coughed one up, and this one made its way, ironically, from Germany.”
Next up was the one-piece fuel tank, seat unit and rear oil tank. Jeff shaped the whole unit out of foam, before handing it over to a local fabricator. More hiccups ensued…
“He thought he could do it, but couldn’t bring himself to tell me (or himself) he couldn’t,” says Jeff. “For seven months the mold and frame were with him, and it took me fronting him to come clean to get the gear back.”
“In a twist, a friend randomly suggested I try a place he drives past regularly, which brought me to a chap called John Allen, fabricator extraordinaire. His story is fascinating on its own: ex-Honda Factory rider form the 80s and early 90s, former room-mate of Kevin Schwantz and current racer of a TZ750 two-stroke missile at post-classic racing meets. And a just nice, modest bloke.”
John knocked it out the park, fabricating everything to Jeff’s spec while adding all the reinforcing needed to make it work properly. “To think his life and incredible motorcycle experience brought that tank unit to my bike, is actually humbling.”
In the meantime, Jeff had been busy with smaller details. Every part was cleaned, refreshed, painted, polished or replaced, right down to the last bolt. “Wynnum Bearings and Bolts were invaluable help,” says Jeff.
He also built the seat pan—by heating 10mm thick commercial grade kitchen cutting board in the oven, and fitting it to the bodywork. Once it was perfect, he sent it off for some professional upholstery.
The finish on the new levers is equally homemade. Jeff wrapped them in leather, dipped them in epoxy, then refined the shape with an angle grinder before a final dip. “The end result feels good, offers nice grip and was good fun!”
Off-the-shelf parts include CNC’ed clip-ons, minimal Posh switches and a lobster-tail exhaust. The forks are stock Paioli units that Jeff sent to Rad Hard Chroming to rebuild and re-chrome. They even carry new, vintage Paioli stickers, tucked safely under a clear coat.
There’s a new, adjustable Wilbers shock out back too. John helped relocate the rear brake reservoir with a new frame mount. The ignition was relocated, so Jeff sourced an MZ clock to fill the hole left in the triple clamp. “It worked… once.”
The belly pan took three goes, finally working when Jeff got an early 2000s Yamaha part to fit as intended. The paint saw Jeff cycling through vendors again, until Roberto’s Custom Powder Coating hit the mark.
Then Ellaspede re-entered the picture. “I had some ideas for the gauges that I couldn’t make happen and Ellaspede came to the rescue with a neat and functional Acewell gauge. It was good to know the team were still on board when I needed them.”
Ellaspede finished Jeff’s electrical work for him—including making a new wiring harness—sorted out a few issues, handled some additional fabrication and even sorted out a breather issue with the relocated oil tank.
They also tackled the final fire-up, test and tune, finally helping Jeff and his ‘MZ Special’ over the finish line.
Jeff admits that, in the end, he probably didn’t save any money going this route. But he learnt a hell of a lot along the way.
“People like John Allen and Ellaspede are an example of the depth of skill that exists out there in motorcycle land,” he says. “But for every John Allen there seem to be a few dreamers who take on jobs they are not up to.”
“Advice in some of the custom Facebook groups is brilliant, even if just for inspiration or motivation. Members of the FB groups Brisbane Café Racers and Sydney Café Racers have contributed, without probably even knowing it.”
He adds that he owes a debt of gratitude to his long-suffering wife, Kendell, and to his brother, Chris, for his motivation.
But what we really want to know, is would he do it again? “Yes, and I’ve already started on a super rare Honda MVX250—a two stroke V3.”
Here’s hoping things go a little more smoothly next time.
Images by AJ Moller.This is…not what embattled "Louisiana" Democrat Sen. Mary Landrieu wanted to read in the Washington Post -- which, as it turns out, is her hometown paper:
In Washington, Sen. Mary Landrieu lives in a stately, $2.5 million brick manse she and her husband built on Capitol Hill. Here in Louisiana, however, the Democrat does not have a home of her own. She is registered to vote at a large bungalow in New Orleans that her parents have lived in for many decades, according to a Washington Post review of Landrieu’s federal financial disclosures and local property and voting records. On a statement of candidacy Landrieu filed with the Federal Election Commission in January, she listed her Capitol Hill home as her address. But when qualifying for the ballot in Louisiana last week, she listed the family’s raised-basement home here on South Prieur Street. The New Orleans house, which Landrieu claims as her primary residence, is a new flash point in one of the most closely contested Senate races in the country. Republicans are considering taking legal action to question Landrieu’s residency in the state, arguing that since winning her seat in 1996 she has become a creature of Washington. For Landrieu, there are hazardous parallels to other recent cases in which residency questions have dogged incumbents. Former senator Richard Lugar (R-Ind.) lost reelection in 2012 after reports that he stayed in hotels when he returned to Indiana, while Sen. Pat Roberts (R-Kan.) is drawing flack this year for not having a home of his own in Kansas and listing a donor’s house as his voting address.
Lugar was dumped by primary voters last cycle (before the GOP frittered away the seat he vacated), and Roberts is only leading by high single digits in the ruby red state of Kansas. Landrieu is one of the most endangered Senate Democrats in the country, representing a state -- from afar -- that Barack Obama lost by 17 points in 2012. Landrieu has gone 'full Beltway.' She lives in her multimillion-dollar DC mansion (remember this tax-related flap?), not in the state she ostensibly serves. The Senator claims that she lives at her parents' house when she's in town, but neighbors, including some of her supporters, aren't so sure:
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I usually examine a speaker's off-axis behavior by mounting it on a computer-controlled Outline turntable and taking a quasi-anechoic response measurement every 5°. At JI's we kept the speaker stationary and, with one end of a 50"-long string tied to a nail driven into the floor at the speaker's center point, marked out with blue masking tape an arc that covered the quadrant of 0° to 90°, in 5° increments. The result is shown in fig.2, with the on-axis response indicated by the black trace, and the responses in 15° increments plotted in traces of orange, green, blue, magenta, purple, and turquoise. (I did take a measurement every 5°, but the resulting Fuzzmeasure plot was too complicated to publish at a size that would fit on this page.) The Renaissance ESL 15A maintains its response up to 15° to its sides, but then the dipole cancellations begin to take effect in the treble, and by 45° off axis (blue trace), the top octave is depressed by 10dB. Below 1kHz the panel is not as directional as I'd expected, presumably due to the curved shape of MartinLogan's panel diaphragm.
Fig.2 MartinLogan Renaissance ESL 15A, lateral response family at 50", responses on mid-panel axis (black) and at: 15° (orange), 30° (green), 45° (blue), 60° (magenta), 75° (purple), 90° (turquoise) off axis.
In the vertical plane, the Fuzzmeasure plot (fig.3) is difficult to interpret, but basically, the panel maintains its treble response over a wide (±10°) window compared with the response on the panel's midpoint (black trace).
Fig.3 MartinLogan Renaissance ESL 15A, vertical response family at 50": responses at 15° (purple), 10° (orange), 5° (blue) above mid-panel axis, response on mid-panel axis, responses 5° (magenta), 10° (turquoise), 15° (blue) below mid-panel axis.
With the speakers in the positions that JI had determined were optimal for his auditioning, I examined their spatially averaged response. Using the Earthworks microphone, I average 20 1/6-octavesmoothed spectra, individually taken for the left and right speakers in a rectangular grid 36" wide by 18" high and centered on the positions of the listener's ears. This mostly eliminates the room acoustic's effects, and, I have found, correlates well with a speaker's perceived tonal balance.
Fig.4 shows what I found. (The Bass Level was set to 0dB for all the measurements.) The red trace is the spatially averaged response without Anthem Room Correction applied to the woofers, the blue trace with ARC. You can easily see the effects of ARC; in fact, with ARC applied, this is one of the flattest spatially averaged in-room responses I have measured in 27 years of performing this test. Yes, this excellent behavior was partly due to JI's superbly proportioned roombut if you disregard the narrow peak just above 100Hz and the slight lack of energy between 150 and 250Hz, the response falls within ±2dB limits from 20Hz to 10kHz. Wow! (What I haven't shown is how closely the left and right speakers matched at the listening position: within 1dB from 100Hz to 20kHz!)
Fig.4 MartinLogan Renaissance ESL 15A, spatially averaged, 1/6-octave response in JI's listening room without (red) and with (blue) Anthem Room Correction.
Well, not quite "Wow!"with an in-room measurement such as this, the target response should gently slope down in the mid- and high treble. The traces in fig.4 suggest that the Renaissance ESL 15As should sound slightly bright, which was what I heard when I listened to them in JI's room; still, the speakers' extended, powerful lows and extraordinarily transparent, uncolored mids and highs took my breath away.
I exported the impulse-response data that I took with Fuzzmeasure on the mid-panel axis from a distance of 50", and used MLSSA to calculate the step response from those data (fig.5). This suggests that the electrostatic panel is connected in positive acoustic polarity, the powered woofers in negative polarity, and that the decay of the panel's step smoothly blends with the start of the woofers' step, implying optimal crossover design. Note, by the way, that the panel's step begins about 500µs later than would be expected at the 50" mike distance; this is a result of the latency of the laptop's A/D converter.
Fig.5 MartinLogan Renaissance ESL 15A, step response on mid-panel axis at 50" (5ms time window, 48kHz bandwidth).
Finally, I used MLSSA's processing power to calculate a cumulative spectral-decay plot from the Fuzzmeasure impulse-response data (fig.6). This doesn't look anywhere near as good as I'd anticipated from listening to the ESL 15As. As I've written in the past, panel speakers never perform as well on this test as do point-source speakers, and their impulse responses also look hashy. However, what I actually examine in my reviews is not a speaker's response to an impulse, but its impulse response as calculated by cross-correlating an MLS signal (MLSSA) or chirp (Fuzzmeasure) signal, based on the speaker being a perfectly linear system. Perhaps, then, the problem with measuring a panel speaker is that its calculated impulse response does not accurately reflect the behavior of its panel in the same way a conventional speaker's impulse response does. Though the panel is evenly driven over its entire area, and the average motion of the diaphragm reacts in a linear manner to the drive signal, I suspect that the panel actually behaves in a Chaotic manner (footnote 1). In effect, the panel "shimmies" as it movesand that, together with local interference from multiple sources arriving at the microphone, gives rise to the messy-looking waterfall plot.
Fig.6 MartinLogan Renaissance ESL 15A, cumulative spectral-decay plot on mid-panel axis at 50".
That aside, I keep returning to the Renaissance ESL 15A's extraordinary in-room response, which is even better than the BeoLab 90's. As I said: "Wow!"John Atkinson
Footnote 1:in the formal mathematical sense: "the inherent unpredictability in the behavior of a complex natural system."Intel built a processor for wearable computing, and now it has a tiny computer where that processor can live. At CES 2014, Intel CEO Brian Krzanich announced Edison, "a full Pentium-class PC" that's the size and shape of the SD card you might otherwise put in your camera. It's powered by a dual-core Quark SOC, runs Linux, and has built-in Wi-Fi and Bluetooth connectivity, according to the company. Intel even has a specific app store designed for Edison, and a special version of Wolfram that will come to the tiny computer.
To demonstrate the potential for Edison, Intel showed a concept for a "Nursery 2.0." In the concept, a baby was wearing a Mimo onesie outfitted with sensors tracking things like temperature, and Edison was used to display that information on, of all things, a coffee mug. When the baby was comfortable, blinking lights on the mug show a happy green smiling face, but when something is wrong that face turns red. A much more useful application, however, involved using Edison to switch on a bottle warmer when your baby starts to stir, that way it's ready come feeding time.Truck driver David Frederickson's dashboard-mounted camera captured his heroism as he saves a woman and her one year-old from a fiery crash. After a car t-bones a semi-truck, the semi's fuel tank ignites, causing a huge explosion on the I-10 in Biloxi, Mississippi. Watch below.As Frederickson pulled up to the scene of a horrific crash, the explosive collision was so intense, most would assume the worst for the vehicle occupants."That guy's dead, dude," said the man sharing Frederickson's truck cab.When Frederickson asked whether he felt they should try to help the crash victim out of their car, his partner responded, "No! What are you gonna do?""I got a fire extinguisher," said Frederickson, before exiting the cab and trotting down the smoke-filled highway.Despite his partner's pessimism, Frederickson runs out to the flame-engulfed car with his extinguisher, managing to repel the fire enough to reach the passenger-side door. Inspired by Fredericksons' bravery, other motorists join to help him retrieve the vehicle's passengers, which included a woman and her one year-old.After pulling the passengers out of the car, and escaping to the side of the road, Frederickson and the other rescuers watch as the fire grows to swallow the entire car. By the time firefighters reach the scene, the passenger area is completely engulfed in flame. Without a doubt, Frederickson' bravery saved the two accident victims.The video was uploaded to YouTube by Frederickson' son, who wrote the following:"Thankfully my father had the presence of mind, bravery, and forethought of carrying a fire extinguisher, to be the first person on scene to risk his own life in order to possibly save another and to inspire others and lead them into taking action. Everyone involved in the rescue effort is a hero in my books."Reportedly, the car doors had been jammed-shut from the crash, preventing the female driver from exiting the vehicle. The female driver suffered a broken leg, and all others involved in the crash sustained only minor injuries.Aliza Naqvi, a 14-year-old student at Dr. Norman Bethune Collegiate Institute in Toronto, carries a key chain strung with seven coloured beads. When she’s feeling stressed or anxious, she can pull it out as a reminder: The first bead, which is blue, stands for “breathe.” The second, red, cues her to reflect on her thoughts; yellow is to consider her emotions, and so on. “At any school, there’s a lot of stress involved,” Naqvi says. “The expectations are really high.” This small token, which fits in her pocket or handbag, reminds her to “take a mindful breath, and to be a little more stable.”
This year, Bethune, which is part of the Toronto District School Board (TDSB), introduced lessons in mindfulness—a type of meditation that encourages awareness of the present moment, in a non-judgmental way—to all of its 200 Grade 9 students, including Naqvi. In six workshops over a two-month period, led by the school’s own teachers, students practised breathing, “body scans” (a meditation exercise that draws attention to different parts of the body), and learned to “surf the wave” of difficult emotions, like anger or anxiety, as Naqvi puts it. The program at Bethune—where one-third of all students have lived in Canada for less than five years—grew out of concern that students faced “a great deal of pressure,” says principal Sandy Kaskens. Surveys showed they had “high expectations of themselves, and their social and emotional well-being was low.” Naqvi admits she was skeptical in the beginning, as were her classmates. That first session, “a lot of people were giggling,” she says. But she was won over, as were her parents, who “realize how much stress we go through.”
According to Kaskens, the response was overwhelmingly positive. This fall’s Grade 9 class will benefit from the same lessons in mindfulness—a practice that’s spreading to schools across the country, even at the elementary level. At Vancouver’s Renfrew Community Elementary School, for example, students begin their day by heading outside to do tai chi, and school assemblies kick off with a mindful breathing exercise. “There are 415 kids in a gym,” says principal Hugh Blackman, “and you can hear a pin drop.”
Entire school boards are adopting similar programs. The Vancouver School District, which includes Renfrew, offers mindfulness training to teachers through the MindUp program, which include classroom “brain breaks” three times daily. The Toronto Catholic District School Board also runs mindfulness sessions for teachers, focusing on those who deal with vulnerable and special needs kids. There are signs the movement is growing further yet. In August, the U.K.-based Mindfulness in Schools Project, which trains teachers across Europe, will offer its first-ever Canadian teacher-training course in Ottawa, with another to follow shortly after in Vancouver. Soon enough, kids across Canada might be practising deep breaths and body scans alongside their math and English homework. Still, not everyone is onside: Some parents (and teachers) worry the practice of meditation is akin to bringing religion into schools—or simply that time in the classroom could be better spent.
Mindfulness, a non-religious meditation practice with roots in Buddhism, has been taught to everyone from medical patients to prison inmates in Canada. There’s a growing body of evidence to back it up, at least among adult practitioners. A 2013 study from the University of Calgary found that it could help breast cancer patients cope with diagnosis, perhaps because it encouraged them to accept the news without jumping to conclusions or getting bogged down in negative thoughts. In 2010, researchers at the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health in Toronto concluded that, when it comes to warding off a relapse into major depression, mindfulness is as effective as medication. Brain-scan studies in adults have shown that a regular practice brings about changes in the brain, positively affecting regions associated with memory, sense of self, empathy and stress.
But when it comes to meditation’s impact on the child or adolescent brain, “there hasn’t been a single [brain scan] study,” says Brown University neuroscientist Willoughby Britton. “We have no idea what’s happening, but we can make some educated guesses.” As we pay attention, areas in the prefrontal cortex—which is responsible for higher thinking and self-control—activate, she says; this region is underdeveloped in kids (it continues to develop well into our twenties). Mindfulness seems to engage these parts of the brain.
Teaching this skill set in schools is relatively new, and controversial, not only because research exploring its impact on kids and teens has lagged. “People connect meditation with religion,” explains Jack Miller, a professor at the University of Toronto’s Ontario Institute for Studies in Education, who instructs teachers on how to use mindfulness in classrooms. In the U.S., where even school yoga practice has raised eyebrows, it’s been especially problematic. Last year, a mindfulness program at an Ohio elementary school was shut down amid a flurry of parent complaints, partly over perceived overtones of Eastern religion. Not only that: “They were taking valuable time away from education to put students in a room of darkness to lie on their backs,” one mother of three kids complained to a local newspaper.
In Vermont, where mindfulness programs are now available in some elementary and high schools, “we worked the most on language,” says Marilyn Neagley, director of the Talk About Wellness initiative, which teaches self-calming skills to school-age kids. “When we say ‘mindfulness,’ we feel it’s safer than saying ‘meditation,’ ” whereas yoga is often simply referred to as “stretching,” adds Neagley, who was instrumental to introducing these programs across the state. (In Canada, this has been less of an issue: At Bethune, teachers use a Tibetan singing bowl to sound the beginning of mindfulness practice, whereas U.S. teachers have been encouraged to use “secular” chimes.) The main objection Neagley runs into isn’t from parents. It’s from teachers, who say they’re already too busy: “I can’t do one more program.”
At Bethune, last November, interested teachers started practising mindfulness together over the lunch hour; after a full day of training in January, they launched student workshops a month later. “It’s become really clear that if you want to do this in schools, you have to start with teachers,” says Willem Kuyken, professor of clinical psychology at the University of Exeter, who has studied mindfulness programs in U.K. schools, where they’re more established. “The teacher needs to embody the qualities [of mindfulness] they’re trying to teach.”
Jon Gold, who teaches seventh- and eighth- grade history at Moses Brown School in Providence, R.I., has been practising mindfulness for years. He starts each class by ringing a bell, closing his eyes and inviting students to join him in silent meditation. “Once in a while, I’d give the hairy eyeball to a kid,” he says, “but they came to value that time. They felt calmer and better able to focus.” Gold collaborated on a new study in the Journal of School Psychology, which randomized Grade 6 students into two groups: One took an Asian history course with a daily mindfulness exercise, and the other an African history course with another activity (instead of meditating, they built a life-size Egyptian mummy). According to the study’s lead author, Brown University’s Britton, both groups saw benefits on anxiety and depression, suggesting that experiential activity in school can support kids’ mental health; the young meditators were also significantly less likely to develop suicidal ideation, or thoughts of self-harm.
More studies are beginning to explore the impact of mindfulness on kids and teens. In the U.K., a 2013 paper found that 10- and 11-year-olds who participated in an eight-week program were better able to ignore distractions. Another found that 12-to-16-year-old students had fewer symptoms of stress and depression. “The effect became larger at the most challenging time of the school year, during the end-of-year exams,” says Exeter’s Kuyken, the lead author. Some research has suggested that mindfulness can help children and adults cope with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, maybe offering an alternative (at least for some) to medication. As far as the effects of mindfulness on the youngest kids, though, “that’s pretty much an evidence-free zone,” Kuyken continues. The programs now sprouting up at elementary schools in Canada, the U.S. and the U.K. will be a boon to researchers, who wish to explore the effects of meditation on the young mind.
Since the mindfulness sessions at Bethune came to a close, Naqvi finds herself drawing on lessons they learned. In times of stress, she says, it helps her understand “it’s okay, everyone feels the same way. Taking a deep breath makes you feel more confident, and ready for what you’re about to do.”NATO Deputy Secretary-General Alexander Vershbow has warned against attempts to bolster Moscow-backed rebels in Moldova as Kyiv scrambles to quell a separatist uprising in eastern Ukraine.
Speaking to RFE/RL ahead of his visit to Moldova next week, Vershbow said Moldova was facing "increasing pressure" due to the crisis in Ukraine.
He called on Moscow to "respect Moldova's territorial integrity" and said the alliance would look "very negatively" at any attempt to bring Moldova's breakaway Transdniester region "closer to Russia."
Vershbow said he would discuss efforts to increase Moldova's military capacities during his visit to Chisinau.
Moldova is not a NATO member but joined the alliance's Partnership for Peace program in 1994.
The standoff in Ukraine, where government troops have been fighting rebels in the Russian-leaning east following Russia's annexation of Crimea, has sparked fears Transdniester could be Moscow's next target.
NATO's supreme allied commander in Europe, U.S. Air Force General Philip Breedlove, warned in March that Russian troops massed on Ukraine's eastern border were well positioned to invade Transdniester.
Liliana Barbarosie Liliana Barbarosie is a correspondent for RFE/RL's Moldovan Service. Subscribe via RSSAnd yet, in spite of all of the scenes that make me roll my eyes and all of the moments that I wish Lea Michele would stop singing with that damn "cry face," I can't help but appreciate what Glee is doing on television right now. It is blazing a trail for shows that look beyond the idea that the "gay character" must be a stereotype - the laughable sidekick - and that there must only be one of them. This season, it feels like Glee has more gay characters than straight characters, and the clear emotional highlights of each episode are the ones that prominently showcase gay and lesbian issues.
Now in its third season, the show couldn't be any more different than it was when it began. The characters aren't captivating, the subplots are becoming increasingly ridiculous and predictable, and the episodes often feel like they follow the logic of, "We have these five songs to use for this episode - let's build a plot around that!"
Three years ago, I used to look forward to every episode of Glee, the Fox dramedy about an Ohio high school and their Island of Misfit A Cappella Singers. The first season was a fantastic work of television, with believable arcs, likable characters, and appropriately placed songs.
In season one, we saw Kurt, a femme gay kid who loves fashion and musical theatre, come out to his blue collar mechanic of a father, who accepted and defended his son. It was an important storyline that isn't often played out on national television targeted at a wide audience range.
That was all well and good, but in the past few months, we've seen Glee incorporate even more gay characters into its storyline, allowing the writers to convey a huge number of gay experiences over the course of the season. We've seen how Santana, the cheerleading prima donna, was drug out of the closet thanks to a dirty local political campaign and rejected by her traditional grandmother, who says she won't forgive Santana for her immorality. We've seen Kurt and Blaine develop a happy-go-lucky, first love romance into one of the few relationship strongholds on the show. We've seen an asshole gay kid named Sebastian from a rival a cappella group try to seduce Blaine away from Kurt. We've seen Brittany emerge as a positive representation of bisexuality. We've met Rachel's two dads, who represent the idea of the U.S. same-sex power couple. If the show got any gayer, it'd be a PG-rated version of Queer as Folk.
One of the most jarring gay moments on the show came last week, in Glee's spring finale, when Kurt's old tormenter, David Karofsky, attempted suicide after transferring schools and being teased incessantly for being gay. In an emotional montage, Karofsky is pushed around by the guys at his new school in the locker room, some of whom have spray-painted "FAG" on his locker. Karofsky goes home, lays out his best suit, belt, and tie on his bed, changes into them, and looks up at a ceiling beam in his closet, committed to hanging himself.
Karofsky's attempt thankfully fails, but the show writers do a good job at grounding the suicide attempt in emotional reality, cutting to the teachers at McKinley High who must explain Karofsky's actions to his former classmates. The weight of the storyline - especially when it's viewed through the lens of the teen suicides and anti-LGBT bullying we've read about in the news multiple times each month - packs a powerful punch.
Storylines like this - and Kurt coming out, and Santana coming out, and Brittany being a proud, successful girl attracted to both men and women - are why I still watch Glee. In spite of the shitty dialogue, in spite of the sometimes-grating song choices, and in spite of the contrived "How Will They Do At Sectionals?" plots, I like this show because it is using its popularity to help gay, lesbian, bisexual and questioning youth understand themselves. It's doing enormous things for positive media representation of the LGB community (and, yes, I realize that it needs to work on its portrayal of trans issues).
Instead of presenting one image of what it means to be a gay high school student or a gay adult, Glee is showcasing a variety of identities and telling the kids who watch this show again and again and again that it is OK to be gay. Its message is that even non-straight people can do awesome things, that there is always a reason to keep your head held high, and that you have every right to tell yourself that you are awesome and fabulous and worth it. It echoes back to the song that made the show famous: "Don't Stop Believin'." Even if everyone else in the lives of this show's young audience is telling them that they can't, Glee is showing them that they can and that they will and that they should. And for that, the show deserves to be commended.Former Ball State quarterback Keith Wenning found a new home in the NFL Tuesday after he was signed to the New York Giants practice squad.
Wenning, who has been in the NFL since 2014, has played on both the Baltimore Ravens and Cincinnati Bengals practice squads. He advanced to the active roster for the Bengals in 2015 when starting quarterback Andy Dalton had a season ending thumb injury.
Wenning has been on the market since September after being waved by the Bengals. The Giants picked up Wenning after Ryan Nassib, third string quarterback, was placed on injured reserve last week. Wenning will be third in line after starting quarterback Eli Manning, and second string quarterback Josh Johnson.
Wenning graduated from Ball State in 2013. His multiple school records include: touchdown passes (91), passing yards (11,187), pass completions (1,012) and pass attempts (1,598).Bitcoin Scalability: An Outside Perspective
Alex Chernyakhovsky Blocked Unblock Follow Following Sep 28, 2015
Two weeks ago, at Scaling Bitcoin 2015 in Montreal, more than 200 people came together to discuss the future of Bitcoin infrastructure. The attendees represented an incredibly diverse group — core developers, miners, academics, policy experts, hobbyists, industry professionals, and everyone in between. The guidelines of the conference — no decisions and the Chatham House Rule — helped foster discussions and exchange ideas on how to improve Bitcoin.
It’s hard to overstate the importance of explicitly not making decisions. The Bitcoin community, many attendees admitted, stands to benefit from improved communication, both among itself and with those in other related areas of interest. Many of the problems facing Bitcoin right now have strong parallels to research in academia and industry, but those connections are only starting to be made. We think there’s a lot that the Bitcoin community can improve by building on solutions that already exist for other systems. Here’s a selection of papers and technologies we think the community should be looking at, grouped by the Bitcoin-specific problem they address.
Efficient Block Transfer
For Bitcoin to function, the blockchain has to be available for all nodes. Since Bitcoin spans the Internet, this makes data delivery an interesting challenge. During the conference, Bitcoin-specific solutions of invertible bloom lookup tables (IBLTs) and the Relay Network were presented. IBLTs reduce the data that needs to be propagated through the network on average, while the Relay Network allows blocks to take more efficient paths through the Internet and get to all nodes faster.
Meanwhile, academia and industry have produced solutions to related problems. Mosh’s State Synchronization Protocol (SSP; paper) allows two peers to efficiently reach the same state while transferring the minimal amount of data by sending only the differences. SSP uses UDP directly, and can transfer data efficiently even in the presence of packet loss. The IBLT technology provides a “logical diff” (in SSP terminology) but the current proposal is to use it over TCP. As such it doesn’t have SSP’s resilience to packet loss. Research on improving TCP for scale is also still ongoing. The Datacenter TCP (DCTCP) paper outlines a technique that could also improve overall block transfer performance.
The Relay Network is somewhat similar to Content Delivery Networks (CDNs), such as Akamai (paper). CDNs improve the availability of data through replication and geographical redundancy. Network tomography data, combined with user request load, result in mapping systems that redirect clients to the “best” location. While the Relay Network has an explicit goal of reducing latency, and not necessarily efficient bulk data delivery, many of the techniques employed by both systems utilize aspects of the physical network topology to increase efficiency. In fact, CDN techniques can be used to extend the Relay Network by using routes provisioned by commercial CDN providers, which strive for optimal topology. Akamai’s IP Application Accelerator and Google’s Cloud Load Balancing are potential building blocks.
Bootstrapping a Bitcoin node requires a huge amount of data, but most of this data is extremely static. We can increase the availability of the Bitcoin blockchain by publishing a well-established static prefix to a CDN. In this mode of operation, the CDN is performing optimally for bulk data delivery. Data transfer over long, congested links is reduced, which improves latency and throughput. A blockchain CDN, possibly built directly on a commercial CDN provider’s platform, could greatly simplify setting up new Bitcoin nodes.
Reliable (High Availability) Nodes
The Bitcoin Core codebase as implemented has the implicit intention that all participating machines would be monolithic, with comparable capabilities and running the same services. In practice, we’ve already seen a huge differentiation between the network participants: lightweight wallet devices, dedicated miners, full-node servers all exist and have different requirements. Full nodes are particularly interesting, as they perform the validation that help ensure the security of the entire network. Unfortunately, full nodes are resource intensive to run, making them fairly rare. This strongly suggests that full nodes should all be highly-available, well-sharded, and provisioned with extra capacity.
Ideally, there would just be sufficiently many full nodes that individual node availability wouldn’t be a concern, and the network could temporarily shift load if there was a significant event. Alternatively, each individual node could run across multiple machines, spreading load. Google’s Spanner database (paper) describes a highly-available and fault-tolerant methodology that also supports data sharding. Notably, Spanner uses synchronized clocks to improve the performance of the Paxos consensus algorithm. This allows Spanner to run at a global scale, similar to the Bitcoin network. For Bitcoin’s applications, that would introduce a notion of trust, which is not an acceptable design. However, an individual node can be replaced with a cluster of machines running the distributed, sharded node. This would increase the resilience of an individual node without sacrificing any of the network’s decentralized properties.
What are the limits of scale?
Although the Internet is already quite big, it still presents a scaling limit to Bitcoin and other decentralized networks. Bandwidth is improving every year, and although is expected to hit approximately 250 Tbps in 2016 (according to Cisco), most of the bandwidth is already spoken for. This makes it all the more important to keep track of the scaling horizon. While it’s not yet clear what that is for networks, Google cautions that improvements do not follow Moore’s Law while describing the Jupiter cluster fabric (paper). There’s still some room to grow; Jupiter achieves 1300 Tbps within the datacenter, and the global internet is likely to eventually reach this capacity. Nielsen’s Law seems like a more appropriate model to follow.
However, one should allow a significant margin-of-error when making projections 20 years in future. Even if 8 gigabyte blocks in 2036 sound feasible, one should account for larger network and, thus, more than 8 connections per peer to maintain low latency. Further dampening factors include those not related to network, e.g., room for cryptographic agility.
Raw bandwidth isn’t enough to make a system scale. Google further employs Bandwidth Enforcer (paper) to prevent unfair use of their network. While Bandwidth Enforcer wouldn’t be suitable on the public Internet, it could serve as a basis for curbing spam and abuse within the Bitcoin network, with the caveat that some substantial engineering effort would be needed to make it suitable for a trustless, decentralized network.
Bitcoin as a building block, not a monolith
Although Bitcoin and the surrounding ecosystem is a young and emerging technology, it’s important to remember that it extends to other communities. Just as Bitcoin provided the first decentralized append-only database supporting transactions, there are other novel systems and solutions that have interesting properties. We should work to extend Bitcoin with those advances as they mature.
This post was authored by Alex Chernyakhovsky with help from Madars Virza. Thanks to Jeremy Rubin for editing.Rob Ager has no academic credentials in the realms of psychology or film making, but he clearly doesn’t need them. He has an incredible intuitive grasp of the links between celluloid and the subconscious mind. He’s not only a brilliant thinker, he’s a tenacious researcher. In this fascinating study of Stanley Kubrick’s disruption of spatial logic in order to create a sense of unease in his film The Shining, Ager gets at the heart of what makes the movie so spooky - the fact that it’s so fucking disorienting, an Escher-like maze of endless corridors drifting into infinity. A terrifying dream folding into itself. Jung would have loved this movie and Ager’s take on it.
Ager wrote, narrated and edited this outstanding analysis of Kubrick’s much-maligned vertiginous masterpiece.
Via Mister HonkThe Turkish Foreign Ministry has informed the United Nations that a camp for 2,000 persons is ready at Mardin for Syrian-Armenians who may wish to take refuge in Turkey.
I was delighted. Then a Christian friend called and asked: “April 24 is approaching and it is the Armenians again, just as 1915 will be observed.” I was angry because I couldn’t make the connection. Then came a statement by our Foreign Ministry: “All claims that Turkey supported opposition forces involved in the Kassab clashes by allowing them to use Turkish territory or in any other manner are entirely baseless.”
Mehmet Ali Edipoglu, a member of the parliamentary Foreign Affairs Committee was in Hatay for a while to find out what was happening. He sent me an email: “We went to the villages of Gozlekciler and Candir as well as the Teknecik outpost. We were stopped by soldiers. We were upset by their warnings that our lives could be in danger. But in the areas they didn’t let us enter and even in the areas used by the soldiers, Syrian-plated cars were roaming about. According to information from villagers, thousands of fighters coming from Turkey crossed the border at at least five different points to launch the attack on Kassab. We ourselves observed dozens of Syrian- plated cars nonstop transporting terrorists and firing into the Syrian outpost from the military road between Gozlekciler village and our military base at Kayapinar.”
Among the allegations we heard was one that two tanks and about 30 semis had crossed the border, in addition to pickup trucks mounted with DShK heavy machine guns. According to a hard-to-believe report by a reporter for Al-Alam news channel, “The Turkish army shelled the Syrian military base near Kassab. … At Kassab, Jabhat al-Nusra hoisted its own flags on Turkish tanks.” The prevailing conviction is that the Turkish military shot down the Syrian jet to impede Syrian air operations against armed groups that captured Kassab.
Just as we were focusing on Kassab, the tape recording of the meeting between Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu, Undersecretary of Foreign Affairs Feridun Sinirlioglu, Deputy Chief of General Staff Gen. Yasar Guler and chief of National Intelligence (MIT) Hakan Fidan surfaced. If the recording was authentic, they were talking about measures to be taken for the Tomb of Suleiman Shah threatened by the Islamic State of Iraq and al-Sham (ISIS), Syria scenarios, weapons and ammunition problems of groups fighting in Syria, ammunition sent to the area earlier and results achieved. Their discussions showed how deep Turkey has sunk in Syria. They were scary, beyond logic. How then can I be surprised by the claims about Kassab?
At a time when opposition groups defeated at the Qalamoun battles were withdrawing to the north and foreign fighters were beginning to go back to their countries, their success in Kassab was a gain that reinvigorated Jabhat al-Nusra and its ally, the Islamic Front. At least, they were able to stand on the shores of the Mediterranean they dreamed of and posed for photos. For three years, they couldn’t cut through the Mediterranean front Latakia to Tartous, because it couldn’t be done without the logistical and military support of Turkey. The daily As-Safir, published in Beirut, wrote about the role of foreign intelligence services in the Kassab offensive: "Especially Turkish intelligence played a key role in preparations and planning of the attack, and supported its implementation.” Ibrahim Idlibi, the leader of the Lighting Brigade that took part in the offensive, proudly explained how they got anti-aircraft weapons and rockets from Turkey.
We don’t know how true these reports are. But when the critical actor is Turkey and the target is an Armenian town, then Kassab affairs assume different proportions. Although opposition militants said they protected the church in Kassab, Egyptian Abu Kathede in his Facebook message sent out a photograph of the church saying, "We took down the crosses. Our brothers will turn the church to a mosque.” Of course, the entire Armenian diaspora is talking about this.
The Armenian National Committee of America (ANCA) said Armenians had been once again forced to flee and asked Congress and the White House to put pressure on Turkey. Armenian President Serzh Sargsyan said Turkish soldiers in 1909 and 1915 had tried to deport Armenians from Kassab and history was repeating itself.
Kassab is one rare location where Armenians live as a community. Like the Vakif village of Hatay, it is a symbol. They don’t find Turkey’s welcoming them to be convincing. To be honest, Turkey doesn’t want the Armenians to come and the Armenians don’t trust Turkey. We are at a critical juncture. The country that will pay the bill for a possible disaster in Kassab is known. As April 24 approaches, Turkey will be confronted with this issue at every possible opportunity.
These miscalculated, ill-judged moves in the end may bring Turkey to The Hague. With tape recordings or without, someone must answer the question posed by Armenian journalist Rober Koptas: "What changed? Until yesterday, it was Turkey blocking any attack against Kassab. But now, to say the least, it has turned a blind eye to Islamist groups.”For decades, the capital scoured state dinner invitation lists and Camp David visitor logs |
my son was Sam I Am, and my girls were Things 1 and 2. The judges were roaming anonymously among us, so I approached anyone holding a clipboard and mugged like a politician, casually tossing Thing 2 from arm to arm for appealing effect.
Sure enough, we won a $50 savings bond that by this time could be worth as much as $32.75. But standing proudly onstage next to an 8 year-old boy squirting blood from his eyeballs and a twelve year bloody zombie bride, I thought, "Whatever happened to pirates and hobos?"
My favorite personal Halloween outfit was a 1976 Superman costume -- basically a shapeless plastic body apron and short vinyl cape. It had none of the super-sculpted muscles or soft cloth you see in every Superman costume now, even the ones for toddlers and pets.
My costume also inexplicably came with a red Lone Ranger-style plastic mask. I wore it gamely, because what was a 1970's Halloween costume without some sharp piece of plastic cutting painfully into your skin?
But kids' costumes in modern times have gone from sickly sweet to just plain sick. A walk down the dripping, splattered, fake blood-soaked Halloween aisle of your favorite drugstore proves the point: Gore again wins the popular vote.
When I went online to find kids' costumes, I found life-like swords and machetes, clear masks that filled up with blood, and a wide range of disembodied heads and severed limbs. I saw a "zombie doctor" costume with "PVC rotting chest, pants with rotted knee, zombie mask, surgical mask, surgical cap, and latex gloves" that came in size 4-6!
So where's the Texas Chainsaw Massacre costume for toddlers, I wondered. Isn't Leatherface more or less Bob the Builder with an attitude?
Just as puzzling: Many costumes for little children are based on movies the Motion Picture Association says "may be inappropriate for children under 13" -- Wiggles-free flicks like Star Wars III, Pirates of the Caribbean, The Incredible Hulk, and Transformers.
There's an even a "Michael Myers" costume for sizes 8-10. Not Mike Myers, the goofy Canadian slapsticker, but Michael Myers, the sadistic serial killer of Halloween. Putting an R rating on that movie is like putting a Surgeon General's warning on a hand grenade.
I have nothing against horror -- in fact, I love it. In 1980, my mother, a devout fan of the genre, made one of the most dubious parenting decisions since Joan Crawford shared with her little girl a certain distaste for dry-cleaning hangers. She brought her two young children to see The Shining. My brother and I begged to see it, then screamed and hid our faces like kids trapped in a hell-bent roller coaster. Escape from Witch Mountain this was not.
Scarred by that experience, I could have grown into the kind of kid other children hide their pets from, but I simply inherited my mother's taste for good scares. I knew I was hooked when, as a movie usher in 1984, I was so mesmerized by the new Wes Craven film A Nightmare on Elm Street that I volunteered for ticket-ripping duty just to be close to the poster.
Around this time last year, my girlfriend and I went to see the 7:45 pm showing of Rob Zombie's gory remake of Halloween. While the movie was predictably awash in blood, sex and psychosis, the most disturbing part of the experience was that we were sharing the theater with children.
In our Sunday night show, we counted at least half a dozen kids from different families, all clearly under 12. One looked to be no older than 7. (I presume their parents rejected the 10 pm show because we all know it's bad to keep kids up that late.) I later wrote an open letter to Rob himself about it.
During the movie, these kids cheered and giggled with every violent slash and thrust. Later, they chatted with their parents about their favorite maniacal moments. "The explicit sex scene or the graphic disembowelment -- what do you think, son?"
Looking at the kids, you might convince yourself they were unaffected, but children are sponges. Any stimuli received by their growing brains counts as learning. And this is some savage stimuli.
When my son came home one day expressing enthusiasm for a series of spooky kid stories called Goosebumps, I was thrilled.
"I really enjoy horror fiction," he said in his "I'm smart, see?" voice.
But this doesn't mean I'm buying him the Hostel III "mangled tourist" costume anytime soon. He's better off carving pumpkins with dull knives, gathering gobs of candy, and pulling Halloween inspiration more from R.L. Stine and J.K. Rowling than from my glorious nightmares.As 2011 draws to a close, it is fair to say that this year has been one of the most disastrous for the European Union in its history. The eurozone crisis has spread from the periphery to the core and all political and financial rescue packages were too little, too late. Towards the end of the year it felt like EU leaders took longer to agree the latest measures to restore confidence than it took for markets to lose it again.
It was also unfortunate that the little action taken was mostly misguided. This includes austerity policies implemented simultaneously across Europe and the creation of so-called debt brakes, which is basically the constitutionalisation of a failed stability framework. The last summit of the year also brought about the biggest political rift in the union's history, with the UK blocking a treaty change leaving the EU deeply divided and caught up in a silly war of words.
In Germany there is an annual vote for the Unwort des Jahres ("most infamous phrase of the year"). From a European perspective, my absolute favourite this year is "national interest". Like it or not, EU politics has become more British in recent years. The UK has always seen the union as an institution in which you try to secure your "national interest" rather than a place where you make political compromises with partner countries. The inability to move beyond the perceived short-term "national interest", at the expense of what is better in the mid to long term, has been a key reason for the EU's powerlessness to respond adequately to the challenges it faces. We are moving towards political deadlock in a severe and worsening crisis and the forecast for next year doesn't look good either.
It now seems unavoidable that the world economy enters another recession, which is likely to reach depression levels in some countries. Last week Christine Lagarde of the IMF issued a warning not just against the looming downturn but against 1930s-style policy responses of protectionism and isolation in the name of the "national interest" (here it is again). She rightly exposed the pursuit of misguided, domestically driven policies as self-defeating in the mid to long term. Protectionist policy measures will trigger defensive responses, which will worsen the aggregate situation further so a depression becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy. The world has been in this situation before – and it did not end well.
Against this gloomy backdrop, what will 2012 have in store for Europe? A few years ago the Kaiser Chiefs famously sang I Predict A Riot. If we continue on current trends, I predict more than one riot for 2012. One of this year's novelties, stemming from junctures such as the Arab spring, the ascendancy of the Occupy movement and the massive protests against economic policies in Spain and Greece, was the rise of new social movements and the widespread use of communication technologies to co-ordinate civil unrest. Once the genie is out of the bottle it is almost impossible to put it back in. So unless the protest causes are addressed effectively, which seems unlikely, civil unrest is set to continue and grow next year.
Is there any positive scenario for 2012? The eurozone crisis is at the heart of global economic uncertainties and their potentially devastating social consequences. Therefore, what the EU does next year to resolve the eurozone crisis will be of global significance. The individual measures needed to resolve the crisis have been widely discussed and are well known. But unless EU leaders completely change course and overcome political and legal obstacles to install the European Central Bank as a lender of last resort, draw up plans for a real fiscal union, introduce eurobonds, devise a strategy for new growth, pursue necessary structural reforms in surplus as well as deficit countries and finally reform the financial sector, there is little hope the current malaise can be overcome.
Unfortunately, the miserable scenario looks much more likely. If EU leaders continue to pursue their misguided policies, forcing crisis countries into depression-level GDP reductions and even higher unemployment, the whole situation will unravel sooner rather than later. Under these circumstances there is no chance to improve national debt levels so social costs will rise and defaults and forced exits from the eurozone become much more likely. The already weak European banking sector would not be able to withstand the shock of several countries leaving the euro – it is very unlikely that only one country leaves if the euro started to crumble – causing another financial meltdown and extended legal battles.
The EU itself would not survive such a shock intact either. The British relationship to the union has to be resolved by a referendum sooner or later. And a mixture of disappointment and outright anger could also tempt other countries to reassess their membership, sending the EU into a process of disintegration, which would spell further economic and political disaster. It is not too late to change course, but the window of opportunity is closing very fast. If we continue down the current path, the Unwort des Jahres 2012 will not be "national interest" but rather "return of nationalism". We are on a slippery slope and EU leaders would do well to fathom the long-term consequences of their actions.''The witness saw the IGIS about his concerns,'' Mr Collaery said. IGIS did not launch an investigation, but ''he received official permission to see a lawyer about his grievances''. The approach was made to the former inspector general of Intelligence and Security, Ian Carnell, he added. Mr Carnell finished his posting in 2010. The current IGIS, Vivienne Thom, told Fairfax Media: "I won't comment on any approach taken by any particular person to my office, or my predecessor." The former spy headed the operation to bug the East Timorese government offices during negotiations on the $40 billion Timor Sea oil and gas fields in 2004. According to Mr Collaery, it was done under cover of an aid project. The alleged eavesdropping enraged East Timor, which declared the treaty invalid and is seeking arbitration in The Hague, accusing Australia of multiple breaches of international law, including the Vienna conventions on diplomacy and treaties.
Mr Gusmao said on Wednesday: ''Raiding the premises of a legal representative [Mr Collaery] of Timor-Leste and taking such aggressive action against a key witness is unconscionable and unacceptable conduct. It is behaviour that is not worthy of a close friend and neighbour or of a great nation like Australia.'' Attorney-general George Brandis denied the raids were an attempt to ruin the legal case of East Timor (also known as Timor-Leste). He said he was only responding to a request from ASIO director-general David Irvine and that the ex-ASIS agent had broken the law by revealing classified information. Mr Irvine was head of ASIS in 2004. Senator Brandis also suggested Mr Collaery risked breaking the law and wasn't covered by lawyer-client privilege. Mr Collaery challenged Senator Brandis to make his remarks outside Parliament. He said Senator Brandis was trying to intimidate him. The ex-ASIS agent became aggrieved after he found out that former foreign minister Alexander Downer began working as a consultant to resources giant Woodside after leaving Parliament.
Woodside had the rights to develop the Timor Gap reserves, and it was Mr Downer who allegedly ordered the eavesdropping. Mr Downer declined to comment directly on the allegations of espionage, but railed against the ingratitude of the East Timorese government. ''John Howard, I and other members of the Howard government, and the Australian taxpayers and its military, made a huge, huge effort for the Timorese people,'' he told Fairfax Media. ''We gave them 90 per cent of the [royalty] revenue from the joint development area [for oil and gas in the Timor Sea]. That's nearly all of it. So thank-you very much.'' The Howard government - either intentionally or inadvertently, according to historians - prompted the East Timorese vote for independence. It also provided security for the poll and kept troops in East Timor for more than a decade.
Loading But concerns East Timor got dudded in the agreement, known as the Certain Maritime Agreement on the Timor Sea, remain potent in the fledgling and poor nation. East Timor is especially riled that its wish for a processing facility on its soil was ignored by Woodside. IGIS did not respond to questions on Wednesday.As we look back over yet another fascinating year for bitcoin, it’s natural to assess the individuals that helped influence the industry.
This year, of course, it’s not just about bitcoin anymore: the technology underlying bitcoin, the blockchain, has taken own a life of its own, with institutional interest in blockchains almost reaching a frenzy. In a development that would have seemed almost impossible a year ago, banks and major financial institutions are starting up blockchain projects to probe the possibilities of the technology.
The industry needs influencers to point the way on technical or regulatory issues, to build awareness, to dream up revolutionary new solutions to serious global problems and to build elegant new enterprises to take this exciting emerging tech to the masses.
We had our own ideas as to who those people were in 2015 and we also asked you, the public, to give us your opinions in our reader poll.
For this year’s top 10 list, we took into account the year’s biggest events, the nominees’ individual contributions to the community and the results of our poll.
So, who reached the top 10 this year? Read on to find out…
10. Bobby Lee
The CEO of Shanghai-based bitcoin exchange BTCC (previously BTC China), Lee has been influential in helping bridge east-west divide in the bitcoin community.
Lee often appears at conferences and recently played a significant part in the ongoing scalability debate, translating and moderating at the Scaling Bitcoin Workshop to ensure China-based miners could talk to Western developers.
His prominence is such that he can make headlines as easily as anyone in the bitcoin space, and his popularity with the community saw him voted to the Bitcoin Foundation’s Board of Directors.
9. Blythe Masters
There has been a lot of talk about the scarcity of women in tech, and the bitcoin space still has work to do. Blythe Masters, however, is a notable exception, being the highest-profile finance executive in the blockchain space, and arguably, the industry at large.
Masters was the global commodities chief at JP Morgan Chase and is now CEO of Digital Asset Holdings (DA), a firm providing settlement and ledger services for digital assets.
Her expertise and prominence has seen her make the cover of Bloomberg Businessweek, while her startup has made the most acquisitions in the space and is rumoured to have received funding from JP Morgan and Santander.
While Masters is not exactly a fan of bitcoin (she’s been publicly of both minds about the matter), she has done as much as anyone to promote blockchain technology on Wall Street, even turning down a job running Barclays’ investment bank to stay at DA.
8. Balaji Srinivasan
Srinivasan is the head of 21 Inc, a once-secretive startup that long accrued vast amounts of VC cash even while few people outside the company had any idea of its business plan.
In March, however, 21 finally made global headlines when it was revealed that it had raised a total of $116m, the most of any bitcoin firm – ever. This raised the question, what was its amazing product or service going to be?
At last, in May, leaked documents revealed tests that showed 21’s technology could enable machine-to-machine bitcoin transactions that could be used to, say, facilitate real-time marketplaces for Internet bandwidth.
All was quiet for a period, until it finally released a product, a small-scale mining device called the Bitcoin Computer, which began shipping on Amazon in November.
Lodged patents hint at more to come, but many believe the 21 Bitcoin Computer will be the start of a new wave of developer innovation in the industry.
For raising the profile of bitcoin across the globe and bringing a mass bitcoin device to a major outlet, Srinivasan has certainly been an influence in 2015.
7. Theymos
A divisive figure in the bitcoin community, Theymos is the pseudonym for one of the moderators of Reddit’s bitcoin forum, r/Bitcoin.
His style of moderation has generated controversy due to perceived strict and opinionated policy rules and alleged censorship, with one user suggesting jokingly Theymos would possibly ban Satoshi Nakamoto, bitcoin’s inventor.
Things got so bad that other entrepreneurs have tried to displace r/Bitcoin as the industry’s main discussion board forum.
Bitcoin evangelist Roger Ver, sometimes called ‘Bitcoin Jesus’, started Bitcoin.com forum partly to provide an alternative site for discussion, and another reddit forum, r/btc, was launched. Then there’s the unlaunched DATT initiative, which is aiming to decentralize Reddit altogether.
Whether you agree with Theymos’ style, he has undoubtedly had an influence on the community and its discussions, though this influence is likely to be challenged again next year.
6. Gavin Andresen
With the bitcoin community currently engrossed in a serious technical debate about how to best alter the code to allow greater numbers of transactions, the network’s long-time maintainer has unsurprisingly taken a leading role in the conversation.
Andresen was outspoken with his view that capacity should be drastically expanded – and quickly.
The programmer took to forums to enthusiastically push his case for Bitcoin XT, a new client designed as a way for miners to vote away bitcoin’s current 1MB block size limit.
While the plan continues to be debated, the manner in which Andresen introduced the idea proved divisive, with the sudden release of Bitcoin XT causing its fair share of exaggerated, and negative, headlines.
For his regular involvement in the bitcoin community and work on bitcoin’s code, Andresen was also in last year’s list, where he placed fifth.
5. Vitalik Buterin
Despite his youth, Buterin has already built an impressive resume in the digital currency industry, having been involved in several notable projects outside of his initial editorial endeavour, Bitcoin Magazine.
After participating in the creation of Dark Wallet and KryptoKit, the Toronto native founded Ethereum – a specialized blockchain network for decentralized applications.
Given his role as figurehead of the project, Buterin also a regular on the conference circuit and was one of the four individuals to appear on last year’s Most Influential poll, where he placed sixth.
However, 2015 was arguably more important for the crowdfunded project, which after sky-high expectations was met with delays and consistent rumors of behind-the-scenes difficulties.
Still, Ethereum has persevered, with the project throwing a marquee event in London to showcase the enterprise interest in its now live, though still early-stage tech, and becoming the home to a number of new startups.
In short, 2015 was a year in which Ethereum really had to prove itself, and though it’s still early, it’s safe to say it’s become an integral part of industry conversation.
4. Brian Armstrong and Fred Ehrsam
The co-founders of Coinbase have done as much as anyone to help take bitcoin mainstream, with their user-friendly international exchange and wallet platform providing a simple way for non-techy people to buy, hold and use bitcoin.
But as their startup develops, Armstrong and Ehrsam have shown an increasing willingness to exert their position as industry thought leaders.
This year, Armstrong and Ehrsam became more comfortable using their company blog and social media presence to promote their ideas on how they believe bitcoin needs to move forward.
In the process, they weren’t scared to flag what they felt was poor media coverage of the technology or promote bitcoin over altcoins.
While Coinbase gets some community criticism on social platforms for its strict adherence to global regulations, the pair have certainly done their bit for bitcoin.
3. Wences Casares
The CEO of bitcoin security startup Xapo, Wences Casares continues to be one of the bigger celebrities in the bitcoin and blockchain industry.
More notable is that this attention comes in spite of the fact that Xapo has remained relatively quiet in 2015. The startup released few new products and services this year, and is now engrossed in a lawsuit with the former employer of a number of its key executives.
But while Casares has been quiet on the business front, his evangelical talks receive widespread coverage, even for non-news announcements, and he will tell anyone who will listen about how bitcoin can change the world.
The Argentinian entrepreneur is even credited with spreading the word about the digital currency throughout Silicon Valley and reticent financiers on Wall Street – a mission which, he has said, drew laughter from skeptics.
2. Brian Forde
Since being brought in to head MIT’s Digital Currency Initiative (DCI) this April, the ex-White House senior advisor has made great strides in highlighting the benefits of bitcoin and the blockchain to those both inside and outside of the prestigious university.
As part of MIT Media Lab, the DCI is now seeking to engage other departments in its work, whether its with its School of Engineering or School of Broadcasting & Journalism, so that a new generation of young minds is exposed to the emerging technology.
Though his public presence has since been more subdued of late, Forde hit the ground running, talking widely of the need to promote the technology in a way that people can understand while setting out the DCI’s goals.
This year, he has also harnessed the power of the MIT brand to bring the technology to groups that have been historically underrepresented in industry conversations and been outspoken on subjects such as New York state’s BitLicense regulations.
1. Satoshi Nakamoto
The pseudonym for the much-discussed genius (or geniuses) that invented bitcoin once again proved his or her vast influence over the industry this year.
With Wired‘s and Gizmodo’s ‘revelations’ that Craig Wright, an Australian entrepreneur, was the much sought-after Nakamoto, bitcoin’s elusive creator showcased just how much attention he can generate for the technology.
Even in a week when the industry produced its most widely acclaimed proposal to address scalability and its oldest trade organisation seemed ready to collapse, Nakamoto overshadowed all other developments.
What followed has become somewhat of a predictable script.
Pundits argued Nakamoto’s true identity doesn’t matter, while other media outlets sought to uncover flaws in the emerging evidence. Regardless, the conversation soon spread beyond the bitcoin community to mainstream publications the world over.
But while often branded as “bitcoin’s creator”, Nakamoto is also the inventor of its decentralised ledger, the blockchain. And even as big banks seem increasingly keen to harness the power of “the technology”, Nakamoto and his or her invention remains at the center of conversation, earning the number one spot in our poll.
Honorable mentions
There were many other notable individuals who played their part in the bitcoin and blockchain over the last year.
The following 10 individuals also received impressive numbers of votes from our community: Andreas Antonopoulos (bitcoin advocate and author); Dan Morehead (Pantera Capital CEO); Mike Hearn (R3CEV chief platform officer); Chris Larsen (CEO at Ripple Labs); Barry Silbert (CEO at Digital Currency Group); Roger Ver (angel investor); The Blockstream developers; Elizabeth Rossiello (CEO at BitPesa); Tim Swanson (director of market research at R3CEV).
Want to share your opinion on bitcoin or blockchain in 2015, or a prediction for the year ahead? Send ideas to news@coindesk.com to learn how you can join the conversation.
Trophy image via ShutterstockEU trade officials concluded talks on a free trade agreement with Georgia on Monday (22 July), as the South Caucasus country edges towards an association treaty with the bloc.
The commercial text covers trade in energy and services together with standards on rules of origin, customs and trade facilitation.
Officials hope to seal overall agreement on the trade and association pact in October or November.
According to the European Commission, the EU is Georgia’s largest single trading partner, accounting for 26.6 percent of its total trade in 2012. The EU executive arm also estimates that the free trade deal could increase the country's economic output by 4.3 percent per year, equivalent to €292 million.
The EU started negotiations on an association agreement with Georgia in July 2010, as part of its eastern partnership strategy launched in 2009 involving Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Moldova and Ukraine.
Although the agreements do not offer the prospect of accession to the EU, the bloc is keen to use access to its markets, as well as visa liberalisation schemes, in exchange for commitments to political reform.
Progress on the eastern partnership is the main priority of the Lithuanian presidency, with the prospect of signing an association agreement with Ukraine in the autumn widely regarded as being the big prize.
Earlier this month, Lithuanian President Dalia Grybauskaite told journalists in Vilnius that "stopping the drift" of the proposed eastern partnership agreement with Ukraine, as well as energy policy, would be the two priorities of her country's EU presidency.
However, Grybauskaite acknowledged that relations with Ukraine were "sensitive and complicated."
She added that President Viktor Yanukovych's government would be required to move towards judicial reform, in particular by ensuring that the office of public prosecutor should be politically neutral, and to end "selective justice" by releasing former PM Yulia Tymoshenko from jail to receive medical attention.
The Lithuanian government is anxious that failure to secure agreement with eastern European countries could push them into the arms of Russia, which is promoting its own trade bloc.
Launched in 2010 together with Kazakhstan and Belarus, which itself borders Lithuania, the Russia-dominated Customs Union aims at establishing a future Eurasian Union by 2015.
Critics such as the United States fear that it is an attempt by Moscow to re-establish a Soviet-style economic bloc.Drug companies interested in ME/CFS? A race to produce the first drug for ME/CFS? A race? Those almost sound like fantasies but that’s the message Jarred Younger brought in his recent video talk.
The bottom line, he said, is that over the last three months he’s met with pharmaceutical companies who’ve realized that the first company to bring an ME/CFS drug to market is going to hit it big. Younger didn’t mention it, but it’s hard to believe that Ampligen’s approval in Argentina hasn’t caused the pharmaceutical industry to wake up a bit.
(One only has to look at Lyrica’s success in fibromyalgia. Lyrica is clearly not a perfect drug; it’s side effects prevent many from using it, but that hasn’t stopped it from becoming a blockbuster drug. In 2014 Lyrica, which is also approved for other conditions, was Pfizer’s top-selling drug and the top selling central nervous system drug period.)
When asked which mechanisms drug companies might be targeting Younger suggested two major themes: neuroinflammation and metabolism. Right now they’re in the information gathering and small pilot study phase. That’s obviously no guarantee that a drug will be developed, but it’s a big step forward for a disease that has never, except for Hemispherx Biopharma, received any pharmaceutical company interest.
Because any new drug has to go through animal and then human trials, a new drug for ME/CFS is years away. A quicker route companies are exploring, Younger said, is drug repurposing: using drugs that are FDA approved for other conditions than ME/CFS.
In its Biovista repurposing project, The Solve ME/CFS Initiative (then the CFIDS Association of America) uncovered a low dose naltrexone / Trazodone drug combination that might work. That idea never got off the ground, but both Ron Davis of the Open Medicine Foundation and Dr. Nancy Klimas of the Institute for Neuro-Immune Studies – http://www.nova.edu/nim/index.html – at Nova Southeastern University believe drug repurposing has to come first, and both are pursuing it.
Davis has samples of every known FDA approved drug in his tool kit. If he can determine which pathways are broken he can start doing preliminary lab studies to determine which drugs might work.
The movement forward validates what advocates have been saying for years: that the first drug approved for ME/CFS is going to reset the table, and that a strong research foundation is needed to produce that drug. Pharmaceutical companies, after all, target biological abnormalities and that requires biological research. In the absence of that “in” provided by biological research, treatment studies in ME/CFS will be dominated by approaches that require no biological foundation – such as CBT.
Of course, we don’t have that strong research foundation yet, but it appears that we have enough of it that pharmaceutical companies are beginning to show interest.
The NIH, hopefully, is either tuned into some of these developments or is listening, because if Younger is right, this field could be on the cusp of an important breakthrough. A timely influx of funds could do wonders.
It wasn’t just drug companies. Younger also reported a new found interest from research labs. (Later, he talked about two clinical researchers who have asked to join his lab).
Treatment Studies
It’s no surprise that drug companies and others are reaching out to Younger. He practically invented the low dose naltrexone fibromyalgia market with his seminal treatment trials, and he’s continuing to emphasize treatment studies. At least three are in the works, and at some point he hopes to create a rapid clinical trials center.
Low Dose Naltrexone (LDN) and ME/CFS – In this trial Younger attempts to do the same thing for ME/CFS he did for FM. This pilot 30- person trial, which was funded with UAB funds, will tell Younger if he LDN helps with fatigue. He noted that LDN work wells for pain in FM, but whether it helps the fatigue in ME/CFS is entirely unclear. If it does he’ll apply for a bigger grant and do a larger study.
• LDN II: LDN and Fibromyalgia – the response rate – which refers to what is called “a clinically significant” response or 30% reduction in symptoms – in Younger’s LDN studies was about 65%. The average patient response, however, was a pretty startling 50% reduction in pain. That means 65% of the patients received about a 50% reduction in symptoms. Younger emphasized that it took 8-10 weeks for that response to show up If you have FM and you only tried LDN for a month or so – you still have no idea if you’re a responder or not; you need to be on the drug for 8-10 weeks.
• LDN III: Who Does it Help? – Younger noted that people with FM seem to fall into two different camps: LDN either helps a lot or it doesn’t help at all. Determining who LDN helps and why is clearly a goal of his but figuring that out would require very large studies. In lieu of that Younger’s taking as much base-line data as he can, and trying to infer from that who it helps and why.
• LDN IV: Dosing – The other question is dosage; could it be that some people who don’t improve on LDN are simply not taking the right dose? Studies use one dose, but clinicians report high variability in the dosages that work ranging from 4.5 mg to 9 mg/day. Answering that question would require a huge study – probably about 400 patients and costing about $2 million.
• Dextromethorphan and Fibromyalgia – This study involves Younger’s first test of an FDA approved drug with microglial inhibiting properties in fibromyalgia. Mostly used as the active ingredient in cough-suppressant formulations, dextromethorphan has been able, in animal models, to protect neurons from glutamate excitotoxicity, hypoxia and ischemia, and inhibits microglial activation. As with LDN, low doses were more effective and higher doses were not effective in reducing neuroinflammation in one study (using a mouse model). Five to ten studies have examined dextromorphan’s effects on central nervous system activation.
• Gulf War Syndrome Botanical Study – In this study, Younger tests a bevy of botanical products with possible microglial inhibiting properties in GWS. This study will begin in late October. He noted that highly concentrated versions of botanicals can be just as potent (and have as many side effects) as drugs. In fact, many, if not most of our drugs, are straight extracts from botanicals or synthesized versions of them. One problem with botanicals is that there are so many possibilities.
Neuroinflammation, Pain and Fatigue Lab Studies
Younger acknowledged that the NPFL website is a bit behind the times and started rattling off studies the now 11-person lab is engaged in.
Brain thermometry ME/CFS and FM Study – Younger’s “burning brain” study involves his attempt to assess the degree of neuroinflammation present in a bunch of diseases by measuring the temperature of the brain.
The AHRQ report highlighted the fact that the failure to include other diseases in ME/CFS research efforts has thwarted attempts to establishing a biomarker. That’s apparently not going to be a problem with Younger’s study. It started with ME/CFS and FM and has grown to include rheumatoid arthritis, multiple sclerosis, traumatic brain injury and pediatric rheumatoid diseases. By the time that study is done we should know whether or not neuroinflammation exists in ME/CFS and FM, if it does exist how severe it is, and where in the brain it occurs, and how it differs from other diseases.
Funding is not yet, however, secured for the ME/CFS part of the study. Younger has two grant applications in at the NIH which he said got good scores, and one application in with a private foundation. He seemed confident about getting funding.
Good Day Bad Day Chronic Fatigue Syndrome Study – The best news from the big (N=150) NIH-funded Good Day/Bad Day study is the booming patient participation. This study, whose predecessor highlighted leptin, requires patients to come in every day for about a month for a blood draw. In most diseases that might be a hard sell but not in ME/CFS; Dr. Younger said they’ve had such a great response that they’re actually about a hundred patients behind. They’ve had about 30 people go through the study and will start doing data analyses next month. This big study is still a couple of years from completion.
Fibromyalgia Alcohol Intolerance Study – Younger said this study would be done quickly and it was. The study did not provide any compelling evidence that the immune systems of people with FM respond any differently to alcohol than healthy controls. My guess is that something was missed, and Younger agreed that that was possible. Good for Younger, though, for being the first to probe this intriguing issue.
Immune Tracking Study – This study will determine if destructive immune factors are getting into the brains of ME/CFS patients. He said the study – which he is clearly very high on – will get funded; he will find a way. (He has applied to one private foundation and will apply to a couple more.)
(My rudimentary understanding is that many immune factors shouldn’t be in the brain, but if the blood:barrier has been weakened, or if the cells in the brain are actually opening the door and inviting them in – then they can cause neuroinflammation and other issues. This study would be a natural addition to any study that finds evidence of neuroinflammation in ME/CFS.
Others
System Dynamics – When asked about tracking both the autonomic nervous system (ANS) and the immune system Younger gave a sigh. Both systems, he said, are highly connected: ANS problems can jolt the immune system and vice-versa. Younger believes that multiple systems go wrong in diseases like ME/CFS and FM, and when they do they reinforce each other and lock each other into a kind of steady state.
When that happens one input is not going to fix the illness; you need multiple inputs targeting the different systems involved to move them out of their new dynamic. It’s these multiple system dynamics which have made it so difficult for western medicine – which excels at targeting single factor problems such as the polio virus – to treat chronic illnesses.
We can add Younger, then, to the list of researchers including Gordon Broderick and Bob Naviaux who believe that a kind of system reset has resulted in a kind of locked state from which it is difficult to escape.
That said, Younger’s expertise lies in the immune system; that, and his budgetary realities will restrict most of his research to that. This whole system reset problem, of course, cries out for the kind of collaborative research effort envisioned by Ron Davis, and which hopefully is underway at the NIH intramural study. Davis envisions experts in different fields coming together regularly to communicate and collaborate and solve ME/CFS.
The NIH’s intramural study could, on a smaller scale, replicate Davis’s idea. Involving immune, nervous system, autonomic nervous system experts and others, it could proceed as a collection of separate studies, or it could be a collaborative effort where ANS findings, say, inform immune ones which inform nervous system ones etc. The second type of study would require frequent principal’s meetings, and would be a living, evolving thing which changes over times as the findings come in. That sounds like the type of study Nath is producing but time will tell.
A New Stressor! – Just what we need – a new stressor! In response to a question Younger reported that he’s working with Peter Rowe and Kevin Fontaine to develop a kind of quickie physical stressor for research studies that won’t require ME/CFS patients exercising themselves into exhaustion.
High Rates of Problems Found – Younger employs the De Paul Symptom Survey which requires that symptoms be both frequent and severe to identify patients for his studies. (Post-exertional malaise, interestingly, is assessed but not required.) About a quarter of patients, though, don’t pass the extensive blood test filter he uses when the blood test picks up evidence of a rheumatoid disease or a thyroid problem or an infection they didn’t know about. This high rejection rate clearly speaks to a lot of missed diagnoses, and the need to have a good doctor who regularly monitors patients.
Conclusion
Younger’s news suggests that even before significant new funding has arrived that drug manufacturers and researchers are starting to wake up to the potential lurking behind this difficult but fascinating disease. Let’s hope we get some good news soon from Vickie Whittemore telling us that NIH is finally going to start doing its part and funding ME/CFS – perhaps at just the right time |
but mostly we feel blessed by the friendship of these two children that helped our boy and now help our family,” Baptista said on Thursday.
With their canonization, the Marto siblings enter an elite group of deceased Catholic figures. A 2014 report from the Pew Research Center found that only 30 percent of popes have been canonized throughout Catholic history, with just seven being canonized in the last 1,000 years. Although canonization was once the result of popular demand, it is now rare in the Catholic Church. In addition to the pope’s approval, today’s canonization process requires an investigation on behalf of church authorities into the life, writings, and legacy of a prospective saint. Prior to the Marto siblings, the most recent canonization took place on October 16, 2016, with seven deceased figures achieving sainthood at a mass at St. Peter’s Square in Rome.
We want to hear what you think about this article. Submit a letter to the editor or write to letters@theatlantic.com.Image caption Facebook helped investigators establish the source of the attack and to identify victims
An alleged cybercrime ring said to be responsible for losses of $850m (£530m) looks to have been foiled by the FBI - by using Facebook.
In a statement, the US authority said 10 suspects had been arrested globally, including from the UK and US.
Facebook users were targeted over two years beginning in October 2010.
A gang was said to be using a botnet to steal credit card, bank account and other personal identifiable information from victims.
Facebook worked with authorities to reveal the alleged source of the attacks, as well as identifying which users may have been hit.
Other suspects were arrested in Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Macedonia, New Zealand and Peru.
Property raid
A botnet is a network of computers that have been infected by a virus that allows a hi-tech criminal to use them remotely.
In this particular attack, 11 million computer systems were said to have been compromised by multiple variants of malicious software known as Yahos.
Cybersecurity teams from around the world were involved in the investigation, including the UK's Serious Organised Crime Agency (Soca).
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The world's largest social network is no stranger to instances of cybercrime.
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Most Americans thought 2017 would be the year this country finally smashed the glass ceiling. Few suspected we'd smash the Overton window instead.
If you aren't familiar with it, the Overton window refers to the range of ideas that are reasonably well "tolerated in public discourse." It's basically a measure of what you can say in polite company. One of the alt-right's objectives has long been to "shift" this window so that — by dint of repetition in public (through venues like Breitbart and InfoWars) — white supremacist ideas can work their way back into the mainstream. This is considered a first step toward destigmatizing undisguised racism and eugenics so that far-right politicians like Rep. Steve King (R-Iowa) can openly espouse ideas that — for a few short decades, anyway — constituted a third rail in our political landscape.
On this front, the alt-right has succeeded. They have a weak president whose ego-defining need for approval has him regularly bowing to his extremist base. President Trump's reluctance to unequivocally condemn the white nationalists who murdered Heather Heyer in Charlottesville was a victory for them, and they knew it. He's embraced their hatred of brown-skinned immigrants, condemning both those with connections to this country for suspicious "chain migration" and immigrants without any such connections — who come in through a lottery system instead — as suspicious characters. He has inflamed every sheltered white American's fear to the screaming point. His message is simple: Everyone who looks different than you is scary and out to take things that you think are yours. Build walls! Hide in your house! Keep them out and jail them! He's not a person who can cope with truth, so instead he feeds the fear and the anger. "Whether the video is real, the threat is real," White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders said after Trump tweeted a video whose claims were proved to be untrue, and that's really this administration's motto.
I'm not telling you anything you don't know. But I want to clarify this side of the equation because one interesting (and less understood) consequence of the right's narrowing of its commitments — to hysterical suspicion of brown skin and uncritical worship of the super rich — has been that people from the center- to far-left have expanded the discourse of the sayable too.
As the GOP has embraced Russia on the right, socialism is something even sometime centrists are seriously considering. As the stock market stops bearing any true relation to how people on the ground are living, capitalism is no longer seen as the only principle of governance. Consequently, the equation of corporations with "job creators" is fading. Trickle-down economics has finally become the joke many always knew it to be. The idea that corporate needs are a good proxy for human needs is being re-examined — not just by the far left, but by people who might never have reached similar conclusions under a Clinton presidency.
Universal health care used to be a pipe dream. It's becoming a standard Democratic talking point. Sexism used to evince eye-rolls and charges over oversensitivity; now men are — to no one's surprise more than my own — seeing actual consequences for decades of abusing the women in their professions. As the scope of the professional challenges women have spent decades facing down becomes legible to those who never bothered to look, the very people who used to minimize women's claims are quietly wondering how on Earth they managed for so long.
I don't think we've reached that tipping point into a broader understanding of racism, but anyone who thought racism was "over" because America elected a black president certainly understands just how wrong they were. The rise of American Nazis has demonstrated that white supremacy is so fragile that its response to a single president of a different race was to fall in love with the Confederacy and elect a know-nothing without even rudimentary competence. Their solution was to burn it all down.
This is instructive. The alt-right's best efforts have yielded an unexpected result: The Overton window hasn't shifted; it's smashed. The frame is gone, and every idea that used to be unthinkable is on the table again. Our most basic assumptions of what a society should be and do are being renegotiated.
As we look to 2018, I hope that we can see the possibilities.The bamboo or gentle lemurs are the lemurs in genus Hapalemur. These medium-sized primates live exclusively on Madagascar. The greater bamboo lemur, formerly known as Hapalemur simus, was considered part of this genus, but is now classified as belonging to the genus Prolemur.
Etymology [ edit ]
Bamboo lemurs were first described by French zoologist Isidore Geoffroy Saint-Hilaire in 1851. Comparing their small size, proportions, speckled fur, and other traits to those of marmosets—then classified in the genus Hapale—he named the genus Hapalemur. Hapale derives from the Greek word απαλός (hapalos), meaning "gentle".[4]
In their discussion of lemur name etymologies, Dunkel et al. speculated that the once popular vernacular name for the genus, "gentle lemur", derived from the translation of Hapalemur, despite their notoriety for being one of the most aggressive lemurs in captivity—an observation first noted in a letter by Dutch naturalist François Pollen published in 1895. More recently, the common name "bamboo lemur" (often used for both Hapalemur and Prolemur) first appeared in the mid- to late-1980s following the rediscovery of the greater bamboo lemur (Prolemur simus). However, the name became more generally used a year or two later following the discovery of the golden bamboo lemur (Hapalemur aureus) in 1987. For a few years, both names or combinations of both were widely used, but "bamboo lemur" became the preferred name in 1994 with the publication of the first edition of Lemurs of Madagascar. The term "gentle lemur" has seen little use in both popular and academic literature since the early 2000s.[4]
Description [ edit ]
Hapalemur griseus) Lesser bamboo lemur (
The bamboo lemurs are characterized by a grey-brown fur, which varies by species. Their muzzles are short and their ears are round and hairy. Lengths vary from 26 to 46 cm, with tails just as long or longer, and they weigh up to 2.5 kg.
Bamboo lemurs prefer damp forests where bamboo grows. Although they can be active any time of the day, they are often active just after dawn. Though primarily arboreal, they sometimes come down to the ground. The Lac Alaotra gentle lemur or bandro (Hapalemur alaotrensis), which lives in the reed beds of Lac Alaotra, spends much of its time in water and can swim well, unlike other lemur species, which only venture to water to drink.
The lesser gentle lemurs live together in groups of three to five animals, which probably represent families composed of a male, one or two females, and their offspring. They communicate with a variety of sounds.
They are called bamboo lemurs because they almost exclusively eat bamboo. How bamboo lemurs can detoxify the high amounts of cyanide (from bamboo shoots) in their diets is unknown.[5]
Gestation lasts 135 to 150 days and ends between September and January, when the female bears one to two young. These are weaned after about four months (if the food supply is ample) and are fully mature at two years of age. Their life expectancy is up to 12 years.
Classification [ edit ]
As of 2010, the classification of bamboo lemurs lists five species and three subspecies.[6]Before Team America would become a title associated with puppets, it was used as a moniker for the United States men’s national soccer team, who, for a season, decided to try their hand at being a club side too.
In 1983, America’s premier soccer league, the North American Soccer League (NASL), was on its last legs. Recent seasons had seen the ageing, overpaid foreign stars suck finances dry, as attendances shrunk and teams went bust. The success of Pele and the Cosmos in the late 1970s had resulted in an all-too-rapid expansion: teams, owned by many trying to emulate the Cosmos model, had popped up all over the country, only to disband when the fans (and money) never came.
The fortunes of the national team were not much sweeter. Few of the US players were well-known or getting game time - their chances stifled by foreign players who saw NASL as some sort of a retirement home. As a result, USA had not qualified for a World Cup since 1950, when a plucky group of amateurs stunned England 1-0 in Brazil.
The task facing the NASL commissioner, Howard Samuels, was essentially one of do-or-bust. What was decided upon was a joint venture with the USSF that would see the national team, under the title Team America, join the NASL as a club, hoping to boost the fortunes of both league and the nation. Based in Washington, DC, overseen by a New York businessman, Robert Lifton, and playing in the Robert F Kennedy Stadium, Team America would loan national team players from their respective clubs, as long as both the player and the club agreed.
Samuels and USSF’s hope was that this concept would see all areas of American soccer benefit. A strong national team could inject excitement into a sport that was popular amongst first- or second-generation immigrants, but was always looking to attract more Americans to the stands. (The US’s Miracle on Ice at the 1980 Winter Olympics was seen as a prime example of how international success could drive interest in a sport.) There would also be a focus on the 1986 World Cup, which due to Colombia pulling out, was still looking for a host nation just four years before kickoff. With the hosts automatically qualifying, it was thought that Team America would show the bidding committee a commitment to on-field development.
The idea was novel, the ambitions high. But the Team America experiment - a concept that barely resembles anything before or since - would ultimately fail.
In January 1983, coach Alkis Panagoulias and his team hosted a series of tryouts, which would select the best 20 players from 39 invited from the NASL, Major Indoor Soccer League (MISL) and American Soccer League (ASL). Though some of the country’s best would opt to take part, others - such as Rick Davis, Winston DuBose and Juli Veee - chose not to become involved.
“There were those who were a little more reluctant, a little more hesitant towards it.” Jeff Durgan, who joined Team America as a 21-year-old from the New York Cosmos, told the Guardian. “And rightfully so: they were concerned about what they would be giving up, what they would be walking away from - moving away from their homes and families.”
Durgan said that there was no disdain towards the players who chose not to join the experiment. He believed that perhaps a more suitable alternative for the US men’s national team would have been to improve the preparation for international matches, rather than setting up a team in DC.
“Typically for a World Cup qualifier, we would show up in the host city - and especially for those home games - a day or two before the qualifier, come together as a group, maybe train once, go out there and try and qualify for a World Cup,” Durgan says. “When you compare that to now and the facilities, the number of players who are brought in from around the globe and the choices that national team staff have from a player pool, I think it’s advanced to where it needs to be - that would have been, I think, a better investment at that time.”
These suggestions were unlikely to impress the World Cup committee as much as a club-meets-country hybrid squad though. Instead, Team America existed as a mish-mash of some of the States’ top stars, those looking to make an impact on the international stage and naturalized players.
“I got involved because I had just become an American citizen,” says English-born Alan Merrick, who played more than 100 times for West Bromwich Albion before embarking on a career in the US. “If it would have been funded correctly, it would have cut down the number of years it’s taken the national team to get to the level it deserves.”
The season started well, with Team America winning eight out of their first 13 games, including a victory against the New York Cosmos. However, what followed was nothing short of a disaster for a team that was originally intended to showcase the best America had to offer.
During the final 17 games of the season, Panagoulias’ side recorded just two wins. In an attempt to improve results, Lifton and the backroom staff even reached a point where they approached clubs to try and loan US-eligible players on game-by-game basis. It did not work.
The season ended with Team America’s goal tally standing at 33 in 30 games; they were flat bottom of the league (a 10-20 record). This drastic dip in form coincided with financial losses for the club and attendances at RFK Stadium averaging just 12,000.
Moreover, prior to the end of the season, in May 1983, Fifa would name Mexico as the host nation of the 1986 World Cup, despite the country hosting the tournament in 1970.
“Where we were as a country in the global sport of soccer, I would have been surprised if we would have gotten the World Cup,” says Perry Van der Beck, a midfielder who had moved to Washington from the Tampa Bay Rowdies. “But it wasn’t out of the question: eight years later they did get it, in 1994.”
Failing to win the 1986 World Cup bid meant that USA needed to qualify for the tournament from the Concacaf region. They would, however, not make it - eventually losing a crucial home tie to Costa Rica in 1985, having failed to make it past the first round of the Olympics soccer tournament the year before.
Between those interviewed for this article, there were mixed opinions on just how much of an impact the failed World Cup bid had on the end-of-season results. But without the guarantee of playing in the tournament through hosting, and investment in the team, the league and the USSF lacking, Team America would disband after just one season. It is believed that the main reason for the team’s demise was that funders could only justify keeping the team afloat were there the prospect of financial rewards off the field or if the club (and national team) had been successful on it. Team America showed neither.
The players, many of whom had packed up their families to move to DC, would go off in search of new teams. What followed was a public blame game between the USSF, Lifton and Samuels, before the NASL disbanded at the end of the following season. With the league struggling even when the team was formed, Jeff Durgan questions if the bigger picture was ever really consider: “What was in place if we had been successful? I don’t know if anyone had thought that far ahead.”
When reminiscing about their time with Team America, the recurring theme players discussed was ambition. They praised a far-out concept, but admitted that the lack of financial backing and naivety of those in charge meant the team was always doomed to fail. Many still ask what other options the US had.
“The interesting thing is, when you think about the Team America experiment in the context of any other country, most people - the Germans, British, Italians, French - would look at you and laugh, thinking, what would ever compel you to try something like that?” Durgan says. “But in context with what was happening at the time in the US, there is some logic in the effort to do it … Something needed to be done to maintain interest in the sport.”Techland Illustration
Crazy as it sounds, Motorola Mobility — the mobile devices division of Motorola purchased by Google — just secured an injunction to prohibit the sale of major Microsoft products in Germany, including Windows 7 and the Xbox 360.
A court in Mannheim ruled Wednesday that several Microsoft products, including Internet Explorer and Windows Media Player, infringe on various Motorola patents relating to video compression technology, and that Microsoft must remove those items from German stores.
But in a curious cross-national legal development, Motorola was preemptively ordered in April by a U.S. court not to enforce the German ban, were it granted, pending a ruling on a related patent dispute in Seattle. The chances Motorola would act to immediately enforce the German ban are thus nil, says Microsoft. What’s more, Reuters notes that Microsoft has already moved its European distribution operations from Germany to the Netherlands in anticipation of the German ruling.
“This is one step in a long process, and we are confident that Motorola will eventually be held to its promise to make its standard essential patents available on fair and reasonable terms for the benefit of consumers who enjoy video on the web,” said Microsoft in a statement. “Motorola is prohibited from acting on today’s decision, and our business in Germany will continue as usual while we appeal this decision and pursue the fundamental issue of Motorola’s broken promise.”
At issue in the Mannheim ruling, specifically, were two Motorola patents for H.264 video playback. H.264 is an industry standard for video compression, first published in 2003. On its website, Motorola lists H.264 as one of several major patent holdings that include 2G, 3G, 4G, MPEG-4, 802.11 and near field communications (NFC).
The Mannheim ruling is the latest development in a rash of international patent lawsuits brought by companies like Apple, Samsung, Google and Microsoft as global sales of devices like mobile phones and tablets that depend on patented technologies skyrocket. Microsoft is working to have U.S. imports of Motorola’s Android-based phones blocked, for instance, while Motorola’s working to do the same to Microsoft’s Xbox 360. And both Microsoft and Apple have challenged the fees Motorola charges on the retail price of products that use its technology, an issue the European Commission is currently investigating.
The next step in the Microsoft-Motorola patent dispute: a hearing on the Seattle patent case, scheduled for May 7.Daniel W. Drezner is a professor of international politics at the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University and a regular contributor to PostEverything
Full disclosure: The hard-working staff here at Spoiler Alerts does not like Attorney General Jeff Sessions. Not one little bit.
I didn’t like him when he was the first senator to endorse Donald Trump. I didn’t like him during the campaign when he dismissed divergent views as “soulless globalism.” And I really don’t like him bringing back the 1980s War on Drugs sentencing or putting a halt to forensic science reform.
Yesterday, however, I tweeted something inaccurate about the sitting attorney general. And for that I owe him an apology.
The genealogy of my error: First, perusing Twitter, the following tweet caught my eye:
Sessions to border agents: “It is here, on this sliver of land, where we first take our stand against this filth."https://t.co/lBHKcvaq0Q — Josh Dawsey (@jdawsey1) April 11, 2017
I’m not going to lie, seeing the word “filth” used to seemingly describe illegal immigrants brought me up short. It’s pretty potent language for an attorney general to use to describe fellow human beings. I quickly scanned the linked Wall Street Journal story and saw these paragraphs:
In remarks Tuesday to Border Patrol agents at the US-Mexico Border in Nogales, Ariz., Mr. Sessions spoke in stark terms about the threat he said illegal immigration posed. “We mean international criminal organizations that turn cities and suburbs into warzones, that rape and kill innocent citizens,” Mr. Sessions said, according to the text of his prepared remarks. “It is here, on this sliver of land, where we first take our stand against this filth.”
This seemed like a typical Sessions tactic of using absurd language to talk about the entire category of illegal immigrants, a category he really dislikes. So I tweeted the following:
Filth. He described illegal immigrants as "filth."
Whatever your views on immigration that's f**king embarrassing for a US official to say. https://t.co/sl5x5uLObK — Daniel W. Drezner (@dandrezner) April 11, 2017
At that point, I had to fulfill some day-job responsibilities, like meeting with students and colleagues and such.
By the time I got back on Twitter, it had gone viral. And it turned out that my tweet was not true at all.
First of all, here’s the relevant portion of the attorney general’s prepared remarks:
But it is also here, along this border, that transnational gangs like MS-13 and international cartels flood our country with drugs and leave death and violence in their wake. And it is here that criminal aliens and the coyotes and the document-forgers seek to overthrow our system of lawful immigration. Let’s stop here for a minute. When we talk about MS-13 and the cartels, what do we mean? We mean criminal organizations that turn cities and suburbs into warzones, that rape and kill innocent citizens and who profit by smuggling poison and other human beings across our borders. Depravity and violence are their calling cards, including brutal machete attacks and beheadings. It is here, on this sliver of land, where we first take our stand against this filth.
The context is clear: Sessions was going to use “filth” to describe MS-13 and drug cartels, not all illegal immigrants crossing the border. One might think, like I do, that the language is hyperbolic, but in context it did not imply what I thought it implied in my tweet.
Furthermore, as it turns out, Sessions didn’t even say the word “filth” in his speech, as the Washington Examiner’s T. Becket Adams reported:
Here is what the attorney general told border agents Tuesday: “[A]long this border … transnational gangs like MS-13 and international cartels flood our country with drugs and leave death and violence in their wake. And it is here that criminal aliens and the coyotes and the document-forgers seek to overthrow our system of lawful immigration,” he said. Sessions added, “Let’s stop here for a moment. When we talk about MS-13 and the cartels, what do we mean? We mean international criminal organizations that turn cities and suburbs into war-zones, that rape and kill innocent citizens and who profit by smuggling poison and other human beings across our borders. Depravity and violence are their calling cards, including brutal machete attacks and beheadings.” He concluded with this line: “It is here, on this sliver of land, on this border, where we first take our stand.”
As the updated Wall Street Journal story noted, “Mr. Sessions deviated from his prepared remarks and didn’t say ‘filth’ as he delivered his speech.”
So, full stop, I was wrong, and I apologize to the attorney general for making this mistake. I wish I had caught the error in time to delete the tweet before it went viral. Alas, I did not. Deleting it now seems like I’d be trying to erase my mistake. I did respond with a follow-up tweet, but that is insufficient given all the attention this received.
So, yet again: I made a mistake, and I’m sorry. Spoiler Alerts regrets the error.Image caption Ian Rankin's first Rebus novel, Knots and Crosses, was published 30 years ago.
One of Scotland's most famous detectives looks set to make a return to the small screen.
It is 10 years since the fictional Edinburgh detective John Rebus last appeared on television.
But now independent producer Eleventh Hour Films has announced that it has acquired the television rights to Ian Rankin's best selling crime novels.
The deal coincides with the 30th anniversary of the publication of the first Rebus novel, Knots and Crosses.
Award-winning writer Gregory Burke has been tasked with adapting the novels for TV, according to the production company.
'Bold and visionary'
The Scottish playwright won plaudits for his play Black Watch and for his screenplay for the critically-acclaimed film '71.
Eleventh Hour Films said he will work up a "bold and visionary take for a contemporary international TV audience".
Mr Burke's attachment to the project has been warmly welcomed by Rebus' creator, Ian Rankin.
Image caption Ken Stott played Rebus from 2000-2007, and appeared in a BBC Children in Need sketch with Alex Norton.
He said: "I'm so thrilled and honoured that Gregory Burke is bringing his outstanding storytelling talent to Rebus.
"As far as I'm concerned it's the perfect match, allowing the character of John Rebus to emerge in all his complex three-dimensional glory."
Mr Burke added: "It is an honour and a privilege to have the opportunity to work on adapting an iconic character like John Rebus for television.
"As someone who has grown up and lives in south east Scotland, Ian Rankin's best-selling books provide the perfect material to make a thrilling series about crime in the modern world."
In a series of tweets to fans, Mr Rankin also said that he had his "fingers crossed" that actor Ken Stott would reprise his role as the gruff detective.
Stott took on the lead role in an earlier TV incarnation of Rebus, an STV production for ITV which ran from 2000 until 2007, replacing John Hannah.
The author also suggested that more time would be given to each story, with longer episodes.UPDATE ON MARCH 26: The Clark County Coroner identified the couple involved in Thursday's apparent murder-suicide as Holly Ann Guillen and Andres Guillen. No city of residence was listed.
ORIGINAL STORY
HENDERSON (KTNV) -- Henderson police are investigating the death of a 55-year-old man and a 54-year-old woman Thursday afternoon as an apparent murder-suicide.
The couple was found in the desert area near the intersection of East Larson Lane and Gilespie Street, south of Las Vegas Boulevard and St. Rose Parkway.
Around 2:50 p.m., a passerby noticed the man on the ground next to a silver Chevrolet Cruz and attempted to get a response from him to check if he needed help. After failing to get a response, he notified police. As emergency personnel arrived, they determined the man was deceased and located a deceased woman nearby.
The man and woman had apparent gunshot wounds.
The names of the couple will be released by the Clark County Coroner’s Officer pending next of kin notification.
Anyone with information is asked to call Crime Stoppers at 702-385-5555.Calcutta High Court judge Justice CS Karnan who appeared before the Supreme Court first time since the contempt notice was issued against him said restore my work or I am willing to go to jail.
But, the seven-judge Supreme Court bench refused to restore administrative and judicial work to Justice Karnan and asked him to respond to the contempt notice in four weeks. However, Justice Karnan opposed the non-restoration of his judicial powers and said that he will not appear in the apex court on next date of hearing. "I am also holding constitutional post. My dignity has been hurt and work has been taken away without hearing me," he said. He also added that he was not fighting for personal benefit, but was fighting for institutional integrity and that the judiciary has not taken any action against the complainants.
The Chief Justice of India JS Khehar also asked Justice Karnan if he’ll stick to a previous submission of tendering unconditional apology or wants to argue in person/engage a lawyer.
Since, his mental health was constantly brought up as a reason when he didn't appear for the hearing, CJI Khehar suggested Justice that a medical record can be filed if he thinks he is "not mentally fit" to respond. But, Attorney General Mukul Rohatgi said that there was no question of non-comprehension, he is aware of what he's doing. To which, SC replied saying we can see his state of mind is not clear and he is not able to comprehend what exactly he is doing. Justice Karnan also asked the apex court to restore his work or else he wouldn't get back to normal senses.
After the conclusion of hearing, Justice Karnan issued a contempt notice against seven judges alleging that they violated "principal of natural justice", which ensures procedural fairness. When asked by ANI, if he has the power to do so, he said "yes I do".
In an unprecedented order on March 10, the Supreme Court had issued bailable warrants against Karnan to secure his presence before it on March 31 in a contempt case. "I am greatly saddened by what is happening. A sitting judge of a High Court, who is supposed to be a matured individual, is acting in a reckless manner making scurrilous allegations against brother judges of the High Court, against sitting judges of the Supreme Court," the AG said while talking to a private news channel here.
He also said Justice Karnan's claim of being discriminated against for being a Dalit is without substance and added that judges are appointed on the basis of merit and not caste or religion. "To talk about the Dalit card and all that is absolutely without substance. We have judges from all walks of life. Whether minority, majority, caste, religion. We never had this kind of thing. Judges are not appointed on the basis of caste or religion. They are appointed on the basis of merit or standing," Rohatgi said.
Also read Justice Karnan demands compensation from SC for disturbing his mind, normal life
He also said the judiciary has to solve it and the government has nothing to do with it. "The government has nothing to do with this. It is a matter really internally of the judiciary. The judiciary has to solve it and obviously the message must go out loud and clear that if it happens, these kind of things happen within the judiciary, the judiciary must come out openly and ensure that it will act in the same manner or maybe a little stricter, if it happens amongst you," he said.
The top law officer also said that for a country which follows the rule of the law all are supposed to obey the order of the court. "It's very saddening and actually I am at a loss of words to explain such conduct. Not appearing before the court, defying the court. See, for a country which follows the rule of law, everybody has to obey the order of a court. The higher you go, greater the obedience. Whatever the message he was sending, this way the institution will crumble. The rule of law will break down and it will be complete anarchy," he said.
(With inputs from agencies and Ritika Jain)You have to ask whether the RCMP has learned anything from the years of adverse publicity that has damaged the iconic force's reputation with Canadians.
Fatal misuse of Tasers, questionable in-custody deaths, botched major investigations such as Air India, a looming sexual-harassment lawsuit by a former member.
And now, with all that on the table, the RCMP admits a senior Alberta Mountie disciplined for sexual misconduct and drinking on the job is not being dismissed. Instead, he's being transferred from Edmonton to British Columbia, where trust in the RCMP could hardly be lower.
Donald Ray was a staff sergeant in Edmonton's K-Division behavioural sciences unit, in charge of its polygraph unit, when he was accused of disgraceful conduct.
The Ottawa Citizen obtained documents from Ray's internal disciplinary hearing.
An investigation revealed Ray was hosting after-hours parties in his office, which included a well-stocked bar fridge. He would ply female subordinates with liquor and make sexual advances. He encouraged one woman to touch his penis and had sex with another in the room where lie-detector tests were conducted.
For that and other inappropriate behaviour with the women he worked with, an RCMP adjudication board that met last November did not fire Ray.
Instead, he was demoted from staff sergeant down to sergeant, docked 10 days pay and ordered transferred out of the Mounties' Alberta headquarters.
This despite senior officers at national headquarters in Ottawa saying the pattern of Ray's behaviour was so disturbing that it would take "considerable effort to rebuild the damaged trust of our organization," the Citizen reported.
RCMP Commissioner Bob Paulson conceded as much in an email exchange with Postmedia News.
"If I could change this case I would, I cannot," Paulson said. "What I can do is make sure that we get a system where this sort of frustration is eliminated.
The board apparently decided against firing Ray because he expressed regret and remorse for his actions and received strong letters of support from colleagues.
But even under existing rules, what does it take to get fired?
"It's 2012, not 1912," the Vancouver Province said in an editorial blog post. "There are few workplaces in Canada where Ray's conduct wouldn't have resulted in his near-instant dismissal.
"If the Mounties really are serious about stopping conduct like Ray's, too common in their ranks, they need to start firing the offenders."
Deputy Commissioner Craig Callens, in charge of B.C. Mounties, said he agreed to accept Ray's transfer to the province but promised he would be closely monitored and would be fired if he stepped out of line again.
But former RCMP constable Krista Carle told Postmedia it shows the "old boys' culture" is alive and well within the force.
"To transfer him to another province is utterly shameful," said Krista, one of the first women to speak out publicly last year about sex-harassment allegations in the RCMP. "He should be encouraged to retire or forcibly removed from duty."
Paulson promised to crack down on "outrageous" conduct within the force, some of it criminal, but Carle said the decision in Ray's case shows little has changed.
"I really thought, 'Maybe they'll get the big picture,' " Carle said.
But Paulson said Ray's disciplinary process was already underway when he was appointed commissioner and he could overrule the board's decision.
Edmonton Journal columnist Paula Simons called the penalty absurd.
"The Mountie's failure to take sexual misconduct seriously is hardly unique to Edmonton," she wrote. "In the wake of very high-profile complaints from female officers in B.C., more than 200 women have joined a pending class-action lawsuit against the force, alleging endemic sexual harassment, effectively condoned by the macho RCMP management culture."
The best known case involves Corporal Catherine Galliford, a high-profile media officer with the B.C. Mounties now on indefinite sick leave.
Galliford, the face of the force for major cases such as the Air India bombing and serial killer Robert Pickton, alleges she was subject to years of sexual harassment and even physical assault, CBC News reported earlier this month.
The RCMP said its professional standards unit is investigating the allegations Galliford made in her statement of claim.Millions of people around the world use cannabis on a daily basis for a myriad of illnesses.
This plant is helping many veterans with PTSD, it's helping a great deal of children who suffer from daily seizures as a result of their epilepsy, it's been helping millions who suffer from regular pain as a result of their chronic diseases, and a heck of a lot more.
Industry experts suggest that when it comes to understanding cannabis, the medical studies are limited in a number of ways, because of the federal prohibition that has existed for some time. However, as legalization has spread there has been an increase in the available research on the subject and researchers suggest that there could be potential for cannabis to be valuable in treating serious mental health issues and much more.
Researchers have for many years now accredited cannabis with having anti-inflammatory properties and now a majority of the states in the US have legalized |
. (I’ve seen cows happily grazing 50 metres from a turbine spinning at full speed.)
• Children taken to abandoned farmhouses near wind farms wake up in the middle of the night (really!), and children have no “preconceived bias” (surely they would never listen to their parents!) so this means it must be taken seriously.
• Wind turbines catch fire (true, but rare); then they can throw fire hundreds of metres, the fire brigade can’t approach and put it out, and your neighbour will probably sue you for the fire because the wind company may just be a shelf company with $2 in the bank and won’t be able to pay them out.
• Proximity to wind turbines will cause your land value to drop 30% “as predicted by one of the national sales manager of a major rural real estate company”. (We weren’t told which company this referred to).State health leaders on Monday announced a possible security breach involving 2,000 birth records.
A reel containing names, addresses, Social Security numbers and some medical information was found in an unsecure location, the California Department of Public Health reported.
The records were for people born from May through September of 1974 in Santa Clara, Santa Cruz, Shasta, Siskiyou, Solano, Sonoma, Stanislaus, Sutter and Tehama counties. Also included was information on their parents.
State officials said they were unaware of unauthorized use of the data. They are collaborating with the California Highway Patrol to investigate and declined to reveal where the records were found.
People whose records may have been on the reel and who have questions can call 855-737-1796 between 8 a.m. and 5 p.m. Monday through Friday or email 1974birth@cdph.ca.gov.
The health department recommends that people who believe their information could have been compromised place a fraud alert on their accounts with the three major credit reporting agencies, get copies of their credit reports and take other steps to monitor for identity theft.
Sandy Kleffman covers health. Contact her at 510-293-2478. Follow her at Twitter.com/skleffman.Cycling is riskier than driving but contrary to popular wisdom the long term trend in the number of riders killed on Australian roads is downward (but not such good news for MAMILs)
A new paper on road fatalities in Australia shows that the number of cyclists who died in crashes declined over 1991-2013 at an average rate of 1.9% per year.
Although the downward trend is not as fast as it is for car and pedestrian fatalities, it’s nevertheless a distinct improvement and goes against the popular wisdom (e.g. see Is the risk of getting killed while cycling on roads increasing?).
It’s all the more remarkable because exposure – particularly the number of cyclists – increased over the period.
Recent trends in cyclist fatalities in Australia is written by Soufiane Boufous and Jake Olivier from the University of NSW. It’s published in the July issue of the journal, Injury Prevention.
They counted 959 reported cycling fatalities over 1991-2013. Most (88%) were the result of a cyclist colliding with a vehicle, such as a car or truck.
Deaths from this cause fell at the rate of 2.9% p.a. over the period. The average age of those who died increased substantially; from 26 years in 1991 to 39 years in 2013.
But fatalities where no vehicle was involved – such as death resulting from a fall – went against the overall trend; they increased at the rate of 5.8% p.a.
These crashes accounted for only 12% of all cyclist deaths over the period but increased their share e.g. they went from 3% of all bicycle fatalities in 1991 to 22% in 2013.
The average age of those who died in non-vehicle crashes also increased substantially; from an average of 35 years in 1991 to 55 years in 2013.
The non-vehicle group had a markedly higher age profile. Over the 1991-2013 period, 63% of riders who died were aged over 40 years and 28% were 60+; the corresponding figures for fatalities involving a vehicle are 24% and 17%. (1)
The reason for the fall in overall fatalities isn’t clear.
The authors speculate that the increase in age at death in both categories might reflect “the rise in popularity of cycling among middle and older age groups coupled with a drop in children and youths”.
They think the higher average age of non-vehicle fatalities might be due to differences in exposure arising largely from improvements in cycling infrastructure.
Older riders (are) more likely to use routes with maximum separation from motorised traffic than younger riders. Previous research indicates that safety concerns were a key deterrent to older adults’ cycling and most would only consider riding on cycle paths or roads with little motor vehicle traffic.
Older riders are more vulnerable in a crash because they’re frailer; they tend to sustain more serious injuries than younger riders. This is also true for older occupants of vehicles involved in a crash (e.g. see What’s the problem with elderly drivers?).
The researchers don’t offer a specific hypothesis for why fatalities involving a vehicle fell, but one possibility is of course better infrastructure.
That seems an incomplete explanation because it implies cyclists are travelling fewer absolute kilometres in unprotected conditions even though their total numbers are growing.
There might be other explanations for the overall fall in fatalities.
Perhaps the improvement is due in part to slower traffic speeds resulting from higher congestion, lower speed limits, or possibly even stronger enforcement. Or it could be that the “safety in numbers” effect got stronger with the growing popularity of cycling.
A new report by the Bureau of Infrastructure, Transport and Regional Economics, Pedestrians and road safety, provides another possible explanation.
It shows the number of pedestrian traffic fatalities in Australia is also trending down. However the number of cases of pedestrians suffering injuries serious enough to require hospitalisation is relatively steady.
This difference suggests the possibility that improvements in medical access and/or care might be part of the explanation for the fall in pedestrian fatalities. If this difference also holds true for other modes, it might help explain the fall in cycling fatalities.
The numbers could also be affected by the way “near misses” are treated. Some deaths counted as not involving a vehicle may in fact have resulted from cyclists having to take emergency action to avoid a collision with a motorist (this cyclist was very lucky).
Whatever the reason it’s good news that cycling road deaths are falling overall. It would be even better if it’s matched by a decline in serious injuries.
The increase in fatalities where no vehicle is involved is worrying and is bound to attract attention; but as the authors hypothesise it might primarily reflect the greater numbers that now have the option of cycling in protected conditions, as well as the composition of those riders e.g. by age. (2)
All riders can cite examples of hazardous conditions for cycling on roads and in bike lanes that can lead to a fall or worse. These need to be addressed with the same vigour that governments have tackled unsafe conditions for motorists.
Cycling is getting safer in terms of the risk of being killed, but as I’ve noted before it’s still a lot riskier than driving (see Is cycling more dangerous than driving?). There’s still a pressing need to reform road laws to support cycling as well as provide better infrastructure.
_______________By now you’ve heard that Aaron Donald (probably) won’t be on the field when the Los Angeles Rams take on the Indianapolis Colts on Sunday. You won’t get that feeling from Sean McVay – who refuses to rule him out – but it’s the truth.
Wade Phillips is undoubtedly one of the best defensive minds in the game today, but even he can’t draw up a gameplan that will mask the gaping hole left by Donald. The two-time All-Pro is such a transcendent talent to the point where there may not be a player in the NFL who can replace him.
Phillips hasn’t said much about the infamous holdout, but he weighed in on Thursday after practice.
“As far as Aaron Donald, we know what the situation is and I know what the situation is,” Phillips said during his press conference. “I’ve been through it before. It’s disappointing. It’s disappointing that he’s not here for whatever the reasons are, but I’ve been through it before, too. You’ve got to play with the guys you have. We believe that we can play well and that’s what we’re going to try to do. So, wishing and hoping one hand and all that stuff.”
The 70-year-old coach isn’t new to coaching rare talents on defense. Throughout his career, he’s had the chance to work with Hall of Famers – guys like Reggie White, Bruce Smith, Curley Culp. He’s also coached future Hall of Famers in J.J. Watt and Von Miller. Both of those latter two players broke the bank with huge paydays, and Donald is bound to do the same.
As for when Donald returns, it’s anyone’s guess. But when he does, Phillips knows that his job will be easier, and there isn’t much his scheme can do to make him a better player than he already is.
“I think you give them the opportunity to do what they do well,” Phillips said. “I think those kind of players, J.J. Watt, I can go on and on really. They’re talented. They do what they do really well. You’ve got to let them do it and you’ve got to put them in a position to be able to utilize their talent, is all you have to do. That’s not real hard.”
Phillips indirectly compared Donald to Miller and Watt, whom he coached early in their careers. And essentially, it’s a matter of not screwing things up for players of that caliber because they’re so naturally dominant regardless of scheme.
“I think you’d have to mess it up as a coach for those guys not to play well. I said it before, if a great player like that can play in your scheme then you’ve got the wrong scheme,” he said. “So, I don’t worry about those kind of players. Now, I still think you have to coach them. I still think they have to work to be better whoever it is. And those guys that you mentioned did that.”
Tanzel Smart will “replace” Donald on Sunday, so to speak, which is a huge ask – especially for a sixth-round rookie. Phillips said he’s “done a really good job” so far, but still has to get better.
Related Rams announce six team captains for 2017[Ed. Note: This week, as part of a larger SB Nation season preview series, we will be focusing on “what’s changed?” for the 2017 Mariners. We’ll be examining each major aspect of the team—team culture, pitching, offense, defense, and the minors—throughout the week. Today we look at the defense.]
“Defense wins championships,” my first baseball coach Tracy told me when I was six years old, “always has, always will.” I believed him. He was bigger than me, after all, and had been my coach for two years already. My short checklist of reasons to trust a person were satisfied. For a chest-thumping cliche, it’s had some merit recently in Major League Baseball.
Recent Winners (Ranked by Fangraphs “Def”) Year World Series Champion World Series Loser AL Regular Season Wins Leader NL Regular Season Wins Leader Seattle Mariners Year World Series Champion World Series Loser AL Regular Season Wins Leader NL Regular Season Wins Leader Seattle Mariners 2016 1st (Cubs) 5th (Indians) 13th (Rangers) 1st (Cubs) 22nd 2015 1st (Royals) 17th (Mets) 1st (Royals) 11th (Cardinals) 24th 2014 16th (Giants) 1st (Royals) 7th (Angels) 11th (Nationals) 13th
Of the 10 playoff teams last year, just two were below-average defensively - the Mets at 17th, and Baltimore at 19th - and both were the losers of their Wild Card games. Six of the remaining eight were in the top 10. The Cubs were not going wanting in any capacity last year but their defensive dominance set them apart. The Royals built their reputation over the past half-decade on defensive brilliance and an airtight bullpen. As Casey Boguslaw wrote earlier this offseason, both teams sacrificed offensive production for defensive excellence (although in the Cubs’ case, that sacrifice was limited mostly to sticking with Jason Heyward). The Mariners, by most outside evaluations, have done similarly. In the outfield in particular, as Eno Sarris noted with some trepidation, Seattle has three starters capable of playing center field well, as well as a number of secondary options who boast excellent defensive chops. All of Seattle’s outfielders are projected to be below-average offensively, however. Any of them could exceed expectations and projections, but even if they don’t, Jerry Dipoto’s gamble will come down to two questions: does defense really win championships? And if so, has the Mariners’ defense improved enough to do so?
Sometimes it can be difficult to properly compare the Mariners to the rest of the league when it is so easy to hold the present players up against the shades of those who came before. Comparing Jarrod Dyson to Corey Hart and Rickie Weeks Jr. hardly seems fair, yet they will occupy the same position less than three years apart. Nonetheless, while previewing each position, take heart. While sometimes it may feel like we’re grading on a curve compared our recent history, the Mariners are in fact expected to have one of, if not the best defense in baseball in 2017.
Catcher
Mike Zunino is solid. Positive framing numbers and a good arm translate into happy pitchers and lots of snap tags at second. Carlos Ruiz may be a downgrade defensively from Jesús Sucre, but he’s not going to make you rend your garments. Well, maybe he will, but what you do in the comfort of your own home is your business.
First Base
Much has been made of Dan Vogelbach and his attempts to improve his footwork around the bag. I suspect he and his more athletic but less first-base-familiar Danny V counterpart, Danny Valencia, will both be sub-par defensively. Neither has looked comfortable this spring, but, in a theme continuing from Adam and Ben’s work yesterday on their offensive potential, the bar set last year (and for the past half-decade, for that matter) could give a mouse a challenge in limbo. First basemen’s gloves are meant to be seen and their bats are meant to be heard. Last year neither occurred in any sort of pleasant fashion. This year in the field, the Danny V’s won’t be taking your breath away, but they will probably be fairly invisible, and that’s an improvement.
Second Base
Robinson Canó’s slow, inevitable march further right in the infield seemed to be granted a stay last year, as two fewer hernias likely helped him perform more serviceably. Make no mistake, Robi is not getting better, and his range is going to continue to be underwhelming, but he should continue to excel at what he does best: throw fools out in a way no second baseman has any business doing, and turning the slickest double plays this side of the Rockies.
Shortstop
Eight players have recorded at least one inning at shortstop for the Mariners since the start of the 2014 season. I decided to check in on all of their 2017 plans.
Mariners Shortstops 2014-2016 Old Shortstop Year(s) as a Mariner shortstop Current team 2017 Spring Activity Old Shortstop Year(s) as a Mariner shortstop Current team 2017 Spring Activity Brad Miller 2013-2015 Rays Playing 1st and 2nd base Nick Franklin 2013-2014 Rays Battling for a 2nd base/utility spot Willie Bloomquist 2002-2008, 2014-2015 N/A Retired (hanging out in Bremerton) Chris Taylor 2014-2016 Dodgers Battling for a utility spot/learning to play outfield Ketel Marte 2015-2016 Diamondbacks Battling illness and for a roster spot Shawn O'Malley 2015-Present Mariners Battling Taylor Motter/his appendix for a utility spot Luis Sardiñas 2015-2016 Padres Battling for the starting SS position Mike Freeman 2016-Present Mariners Likely headed to AAA as utility depth
Of this illustrious group, only one, Shawn O’Malley, is even on the current 40-man roster. Jean Segura, much like the Danny V’s at first base, enters into a position where basic competence will be an upgrade, defensively and across the board. Even prior to his mono-induced total evaporation, Ketel Marte was, much like Brad Miller before him, unable to translate his excellent speed and arm strength into competent, consistent play in the field. The 27 year-old Segura has the speed to cover the range and familiarity working double plays with his countryman and idol, Robi. He is, relative to the league, hopefully an average defensive shortstop, and likely a bit below that. When average, or even below-average, replaces catastrophic, however, the improvement is noticeable, and Segura’s steadiness should be just that.
Taylor Motter and Shawn O’Malley both are dependable backups, and while if either plays extensively the Mariners are in trouble, both are capable of dependable defense.
Third Base
Kyle Seager is very good at defense. He made a lot of errors last year. He’s still very good at defense. Do not worry about Kyle Seager. He worries enough for all of us.
Outfield
For most teams, lumping the back line together would be ludicrous. Adam Jones and Mark Trumbo are both outfielders, yet one’s recent attempt to rob a home run will run on highlight reels for all time, while the other is more likely to end up on a blooper reel for a similar effort. The Mariners outfield, however, looks rather similar at every spot. Since Jake Mailhot has diligently looked into the logistics of playing three center fielder caliber athletes in one outfield, I’ll stick to summarizing a few key points: There will be a fair amount of time where Jarrod Dyson, Leonys Martín, and Mitch Haniger play at all three spots, based on health and rest. The drop-off defensively shouldn’t be significant. Guillermo Heredia, Ben Gamel, and even Taylor Motter have the range to pick up the slack when one of the original members of the Marine Layer needs a break.
The improvement in range from Seth Smith, Franklin Gutierrez, and Nelson Cruz will be immense. This means more caught balls, naturally. It also means more balls cut off in the gap, or before they reach the corner. It means doubles turned into singles. It means RBI base hits turned into runners stranded on third. It means opponents second-guessing their own speed, or running themselves into outs. It’s unclear how often Cruz and Valencia will fill in outfield spots, but even then, having two elite outfielders allows the Mariners to hedge in their alignment and compensate more effectively.
Jerry Dipoto and the Mariners organization has leaned whole hog into designing a team that fits Safeco Field. That means emulating the outfields of Mike Cameron and Ichiro Suzuki, or Ichiro and young Franklin Gutierrez. That means pitchers that attack (and control) the zone and force the defense to be alert and engaged. The Mariners are projected by PECOTA, a projection system from Baseball Prospectus, to be the best defense in baseball by nearly double the second-best team’s level. In 2013 the Mariners had the worst defense in all of baseball. That team started Raul Ibanez, Jason Bay, Carlos Peguero, Michael Morse, and placed an over-matched Michael Saunders in center field to put together an outfield that was perhaps the worst unit in the MLB in decades. This April they will boast a stable of stallions to traverse the outer greens, with veterans at each infield position, save for 1st base, providing steady play.
To take a page from the Royals’ playbook yet again, “speed doesn’t slump.” Gloves don’t tend to slump either. Mariners fans will have plenty to be excited about in the top halves of innings at Safeco Field this year.In economics Edit
The original observation was in connection with population and wealth. Pareto noticed that approximately 80% of Italy's land was owned by 20% of the population.[7] He then carried out surveys on a variety of other countries and found to his surprise that a similar distribution applied. A chart that gave the inequality a very visible and comprehensible form, the so-called "champagne glass" effect,[8] was contained in the 1992 United Nations Development Program Report, which showed that distribution of global income is very uneven, with the richest 20% of the world's population controlling 82.7% of the world's income.[9] Distribution of world GDP, 1989[10] Quintile of population Income Richest 20% 82.70% Second 20% 11.75% Third 20% 2.30% Fourth 20% 1.85% Poorest 20% 1.40% The Pareto principle also could be seen as applying to taxation. In the US, the top 20% of earners have paid roughly 80-90% of Federal income taxes in 2000 and 2006,[11] and again in 2018.[12] However, it is important to note that while there have been associations of such with meritocracy, the principle should not be confused with farther reaching implications. As Alessandro Pluchino at the University of Catania in Italy points out, other attributes do not necessarily correlate. Using talent as an example, he and other researchers state, “The maximum success never coincides with the maximum talent, and vice-versa.”, and that such factors are the result of chance.[13]
In software Edit
In computer science the Pareto principle can be applied to optimization efforts.[14] For example, Microsoft noted that by fixing the top 20% of the most-reported bugs, 80% of the related errors and crashes in a given system would be eliminated.[15] Lowell Arthur expressed that "20 percent of the code has 80 percent of the errors. Find them, fix them!"[16] It was also discovered that in general the 80% of a certain piece of software can be written in 20% of the total allocated time. Conversely, the hardest 20% of the code takes 80% of the time. This factor is usually a part of COCOMO estimating for software coding.
In sports Edit
It has been inferred the Pareto principle applies to athletic training, where roughly 20% of the exercises and habits have 80% of the impact and the trainee should not focus so much on a varied training.[17] This does not necessarily mean that having a healthy diet or going to the gym are not important, but they are not as significant as the key activities. It is also important to note this 80/20 rule has yet to be scientifically tested in controlled studies with regards to athletic training. In baseball, the Pareto principle has been perceived in Wins Above Replacement (an attempt to combine multiple statistics to determine a player's overall importance to a team). "15% of the all the players last year produced 85% of the total wins with the other 85% of the players creating 15% of the wins. The Pareto Principle holds up pretty soundly when it is applied to baseball..."[18]
Occupational health and safety Edit
Occupational health and safety professionals use the Pareto principle to underline the importance of hazard prioritization. Assuming 20% of the hazards account for 80% of the injuries, and by categorizing hazards, safety professionals can target those 20% of the hazards that cause 80% of the injuries or accidents. Alternatively, if hazards are addressed in random order, a safety professional is more likely to fix one of the 80% of hazards that account only for some fraction of the remaining 20% of injuries.[19] Aside from ensuring efficient accident prevention practices, the Pareto principle also ensures hazards are addressed in an economical order as the technique ensures the resources used are best used to prevent the most accidents.[20]
Other applications Edit
Mathematical notes Edit
The idea has a rule of thumb application in many places, but it is commonly misused. For example, it is a misuse to state a solution to a problem "fits the 80/20 rule" just because it fits 80% of the cases; it must also be that the solution requires only 20% of the resources that would be needed to solve all cases. Additionally, it is a misuse of the 80/20 rule to interpret a small number of categories or observations. This is a special case of the wider phenomenon of Pareto distributions. If the Pareto index α, which is one of the parameters characterizing a Pareto distribution, is chosen as α = log 4 5 ≈ 1.16, then one has 80% of effects coming from 20% of causes. It follows that one also has 80% of that top 80% of effects coming from 20% of that top 20% of causes, and so on. Eighty percent of 80% is 64%; 20% of 20% is 4%, so this implies a "64/4" law; and similarly implies a "51.2/0.8" law. Similarly for the bottom 80% of causes and bottom 20% of effects, the bottom 80% of the bottom 80% only cause 20% of the remaining 20%. This is broadly in line with the world population/wealth table above, where the bottom 60% of the people own 5.5% of the wealth, approximating to a 64/4 connection. The 64/4 correlation also implies a 32% 'fair' area between the 4% and 64%, where the lower 80% of the top 20% (16%) and upper 20% of the bottom 80% (also 16%) relates to the corresponding lower top and upper bottom of effects (32%). This is also broadly in line with the world population table above, where the second 20% control 12% of the wealth, and the bottom of the top 20% (presumably) control 16% of the wealth. The term 80/20 is only a shorthand for the general principle at work. In individual cases, the distribution could just as well be, say, nearer to 80/20 or 70/30. There is no need for the two numbers to add up to the number 100, as they are measures of different things, (e.g., 'number of customers' vs 'amount spent'). However, each case in which they do not add up to 100%, is equivalent to one in which they do. For example, as noted above, the "64/4 law" (in which the two numbers do not add up to 100%) is equivalent to the "80/20 law" (in which they do add up to 100%). Thus, specifying two percentages independently does not lead to a broader class of distributions than what one gets by specifying the larger one and letting the smaller one be its complement relative to 100%. Thus, there is only one degree of freedom in the choice of that parameter. Adding up to 100 leads to a nice symmetry. For example, if 80% of effects come from the top 20% of sources, then the remaining 20% of effects come from the lower 80% of sources. This is called the "joint ratio", and can be used to measure the degree of imbalance: a joint ratio of 96:4 is very imbalanced, 80:20 is significantly imbalanced (Gini index: 76%), 70:30 is moderately imbalanced (Gini index: 28%), and 55:45 is just slightly imbalanced (Gini index 14%). The Pareto principle is an illustration of a "power law" relationship, which also occurs in phenomena such as brush fires and earthquakes.[31] Because it is self-similar over a wide range of magnitudes, it produces outcomes completely different from Normal or Gaussian distribution phenomena. This fact explains the frequent breakdowns of sophisticated financial instruments, which are modeled on the assumption that a Gaussian relationship is appropriate to, for example, stock price movements.[32]
Equality measures Edit
Gini coefficient and Hoover index Edit Using the "A : B" notation (for example, 0.8:0.2) and with A + B = 1, inequality measures like the Gini index (G) and the Hoover index (H) can be computed. In this case both are the same. H = G = | 2 A − 1 | = | 1 − 2 B | {\displaystyle H=G=|2A-1|=|1-2B|\,} A : B = ( 1 + H 2 ) : ( 1 − H 2 ) {\displaystyle A:B=\left({\frac {1+H}{2}}\right):\left({\frac {1-H}{2}}\right)} Theil index Edit The Theil index is an entropy measure used to quantify inequalities. The measure is 0 for 50:50 distributions and reaches 1 at a Pareto distribution of 82:18. Higher inequalities yield Theil indices above 1.[33] T T = T L = T s = 2 H artanh ( H ). {\displaystyle T_{T}=T_{L}=T_{s}=2H\,\operatorname {artanh} (H).\,}
See also Edit
References EditVancouver's mayor is warning that the Vancouver Art Gallery's glittering plans for a new facility may not proceed as quickly as anticipated, saying it looks like it will be "very difficult" for the VAG to meet the fundraising timeline set out by city council.
Earlier this month, the gallery announced a shortlist of five architecture firms bidding to build the new facility on the site known as Larwill Park. But the city requires the gallery to raise $150-million in additional provincial and federal funding for the project by the end of April, 2015.
Mayor Gregor Robertson said in an interview he is optimistic the VAG will get there "eventually," but that meeting the deadline may be tough. And indications from the federal government are even less encouraging.
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"The timelines now look very difficult, given the signals sent by Victoria and Ottawa. There's no good news in the near term with funding," Mr. Robertson told The Globe and Mail during a wide-ranging interview about arts and culture this week.
The city's conditions state that the VAG needs to raise $100-million from Ottawa, and an additional $50-million from the province, which has already contributed $50-million.
Federal Heritage Minister Shelly Glover was unavailable for an interview on Thursday, but a statement from her office said: "The project is too expensive."
"The Canada Cultural Spaces Fund, which supports projects which improve physical conditions for professional artistic creativity, presentation and exhibition, has an annual budget of approximately $30-million for all regions of the country. A request of $100-million for a new building greatly exceeds the scale of the CCSF. Minister [of Industry] James Moore has spoken clearly on this issue in the past and our government's position hasn't changed on it," wrote Mike Storeshaw, Ms. Glover's director of communications.
Last April, a spokesperson for Mr. Moore, then the heritage minister, told The Globe "at this time, a multimillion-dollar funding commitment is not something our government can afford."
The province has also sent signals that $50-million may not be forthcoming from Victoria.
In an interview last summer, Minister of Community, Sport and Cultural Development Coralee Oakes (who was unavailable for an interview on Thursday) said the government had many priorities. "We can't do it all."
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When asked about the issue at an announcement at the VAG last October, Premier Christy Clark focused on the funding granted in 2008 by premier Gordon Campbell. "I'm quite confident that the art gallery will be able to fundraise the rest of the money and find the rest of the money to be able to support this fantastic project."
The city has indicated willingness to allow the project to proceed should the $150-million instead come from the private sector. If the VAG fails to meet the April, 2015, deadline, the mayor said the issue would go back to council. (With the election this fall, it will be a new council.)
"VAG will state their case … and council will need to decide what to do next with the two acres at Larwill Park, and whether there's potential for that proposal and an extension is in order, or the situation's more dire," Mr. Robertson said. "I'm optimistic we'll see this happen in the medium term, but it's a huge project and it needs a lot more support, obviously, from the province and the feds."
VAG director Kathleen Bartels and board chair Bruce Munro Wright were out of the country on Thursday, and unavailable to comment. But they have expressed optimism about raising the funds, in particular once an architect, design and capital campaign are in place.Well this one’s been teed up perfectly really following last week’s post on The Glenlivet, and specifically how they’re catching the Glenfiddich in terms of sales whilst placing emphasise on their recent and historical innovation. So Glenfiddich, your move it seems. And here it is: Glenfiddich Gallery, a bespoke online whisky service where you can discover cask strength malts that match your personal tastes and also design the bespoke packaging your whisky will come in!
Whilst there is a certain award-winning online retailer that’s provided the opportunity to personalise both the labels and the liquid of your whisky for some time now *ahem*, this is an incredibly exciting step for a leading single malt brand to take.
Discover and design your bespoke Glenfiddich.
With prices ranging from around £300 to £100,000, this is clearly luxury territory (the cheapest currently available is £390), but the range of casks hand-picked by Malt Master Brian Kinsman for the Gallery is impressive. Vintages range from 1958 to 1994, with the number of bottles of each available varying from just 3 to around 100. A variety of cask types and flavour profiles are of course included in this range, which leads us on to the clever bit…
Choose from a variety of rare whiskies.
(As ever, click on the image to enlarge.)
You can enter your preferences on the Gallery’s Taste Profiler using some sliders – it’s a super-simple 4-step process that’s all very intuitive – absolutely perfect for tablet and mobile users too. (For technological context here, Lagavulin only got around to joining twitter less than a week before this launch – the third of the Classic Malts to do so I believe.)
Do you prefer Rich, robust red wines or Floral, lighter whites? Succulent summer fruits or Zesty citrus? Intense or Subtle spices? Sweet or Savoury?
The site then pops your tastes onto the whisky flavour map, showing which casks will suit you best as well as offering some suggestions across a range of prices.
Here’s where Sam came out when I showed the new site to him at the end of last week.
Once you’ve selected a whisky, you can then design your packaging by choosing the colour scheme and adding a personalised message/name to the box and bottle. (There’s also a copper plaque inside where there’s room for longer messages.)
Design your own packaging.
Some examples of the finished products.
At the launch event on Tuesday night I was able to have a play about with all this on a slightly smaller scale, taking away a sample of of one of the whiskies now available through Glenfiddich’s new site.
Time to go through this Taste Profiler then…
There were four whiskies on the night, one per quadrant of the flavour map.
New UK Brand Ambassador Mark Thompson was on hand to bottle the chosen samples.
We also got to choose the colour of our sample box and booklet (naturally), but I suspect you’re rather more interested in the liquid…
Glenfiddich 23 Year Old 1991 (cask 10534) – 55.9% abv
The “elegant and floral” Glenfiddich was aged for 23 years in a single refill hogshead. Filled April 1st (oo-er) 1991 it spent the intervening years in warehouse 29 before being bottled at natural cask strength. A full bottle will set you back £590 through the Gallery.
Tasting Note for Glenfiddich 23 Year Old 1991 (cask 10534)
Nose: “Hard Williams pear” is spot on at cask strength, sugar snap peas too, almond oil and just a little vanilla or clotted cream fudge. Water reveals more fragrant depth with more green notes and sweet blossoms.
Palate: Some fizzy apple belts at full strength as well as fresh apple and orange fruit salad. Floral with pot pourri and some fragrant oak on the tail.
Finish: Green apple skin and dry scones.
Overall: Very elegant and quite floral. As Brian Kinsman says, “The classic flavours of an aged Glenfiddich, if on the lighter end – wonderfully clean and crisp.”
During the evening Brian and Global Brand Ambassador Ian Miller took us through four more whiskies, from an example of classic distillery character, to an unusually long rum finish (12 years!), to a hugely Sherried example before we were invited to a private tasting with Brian of a couple more casks. The message was clear: they have a huge range of casks to choose from across different ages and flavour profiles. And if some of the available whiskies start selling out? Well, Brian will be able to select another to take its place from their extensive stocks. They’re rightly proud not only to be in a position to make Glenfiddich Gallery work in terms of stock, but also that they’ve gone ahead and made this personalised online service a reality.
JakeThis Is How I Roll: Kat Vecchio and Joe "Maulin' Brando" Mihalchick on the rise of men's roller derby
Last weekend, I was lucky enough to attend a screening of This Is How I Roll, a documentary about the growing presence of men's roller derby teams. Not satisfied with acting as coaches and referees -- or standing on the sidelines rooting for their derby girlfriends -- a small group of guys started talking about forming their own team and, eventually, |
least until missions can be flown from the comfort of their couchFor a couple of weeks now, the University of Toronto (U of T) community has been debating, engaging with, and responding to the comments made publically by Jordan Peterson, professor of psychology, in criticizing Bill C-16 and the charged idea of "political correctness."
Bill C-16 amends the Canadian Human Rights Act and the Criminal Code to include gender identity and gender expression as possible grounds of discrimination and to protect against intentional and unintentional gender-based hate. Discrimination is not a new topic within the Canadian legislation, and what this new bill activates, is mainly the addition of gender to the already existent categorical grounds of discrimination, such as race, national or ethnic origin, language, colour, religion, sex, age, as well as mental or physical disability. At the moment, there are six provinces that explicitly list 'gender identity' and 'gender expression' in their human rights legislation: Alberta, British Columbia, Newfoundland and Labrador, Nova Scotia, Ontario and Prince Edward Island.
In a series of YouTube videos released about two weeks ago, Peterson goes through entire paragraphs of the Ontario Human Rights' Commission Gender Identity and Gender Expression Brochure, criticizing its content, attacking its language, and further arguing against the ideology of what we have come to know as "political correctness," a totalitarian concept in Peterson's mind, supported by an uninformed and resentful Marxist and semi-Marxist doctrine of the radical left, which seems to have found encouragement in the current federal and provincial liberal governments. Since historical evidence supports that identifying as a Marxist is no better than identifying as a Nazi, and since claims for equality, diversity and "that kind of thing" are purely ideological and do not put a stop to any hate discourse (since shutting someone's up will not change someone's mind), Peterson concludes that, the accommodation of gender based needs is dangerous, particularly as definitions of gender are not independently framed from biological sex. Peterson feels oppressed by such radically motivated political correctness, hence his refusal to use the gender impartial pronoun -- "they." Society's role is not to make people feel included and comfortable but rather to maintain a minimum level of peace, Peterson argued on a recent CBC Radio interview, hence he defends his right to use whatever language he pleases while declining to recognize another person's right of determining how they want to be addressed.
Since such dialogues did not take place in a bus station nor at the local bar, but rather within an academic context (Peterson being referred to as the "professor who slams political correctness"), it is important to draw attention on some fallacies that weigh on Peterson's thought.
First, there is no historical evidence that Marxism is as totalitarian as Nazism. Perhaps Peterson tacitly refers to the Stalinist systems from the former Soviet Bloc, however, it has been argued, for example, by the Hungarian Marxist philosopher, Gáspár Miklós Tamás (among others), that the Soviet regimes were merely systems of state capitalism and not mot-à-mot establishments of applied Marxism. More so, Marxism is quite different from Nazism, in terms of political orientation and desired societal outcomes. Marxist ideals derive from notions of equality and equity and not from charged principles of nationalist pride and ethnic supremacy.
Second, ideas related to political correctness, or what we have come to know as identity politics, do not originate from Marxism per se but rather from the field of post-colonial and subaltern studies, despite such approaches initially departing from within Marxist thought, as Vivek Chibber, a New York University scholar, has shown. The culture of political correctness, geared towards politicizing cultural representations and identities, has taken ground in the 80s, when anti-racist and feminist activists started to fight for the development and implementation of institutional and organizational policies that would create equal representation and increase representational access for groups systemically and systematically under-represented (in terms of gender, race, ethnicity, etc.) in the public field. Yet such representational ideas of access and equity tend to reject the archetypal Marxist insistences on class inequalities and focus instead on axes of dominance based on different particularities (i.e. as defined by categorical -isms). In short, we could perhaps talk about a post-Marxian cultural theory in terms of identity politics and not necessarily a Marxist one.
Third, the radical left does not constitute a universal self-encompassing term and it is highly debatable that political correctness is in fact sustained by radical left ideals. This is of course dependent on where does Peterson place the radical left on the political spectrum. If he presumptuously equates liberalism with the radical left (which he seems to do) then of course anything slightly left of the centre would be radical, despite the fact that system-changing social justice efforts are doubtly compatible with liberalism (which so far maintains the free-market mantra for distributing access and equity). Yet institutionalized approaches would rarely be seen as radical from an anarcho-communist perspective, for example. More so, notions of radicality are geo-politically defined. What passes as radical within the Anglo-American context, would rarely pass as radical in Latin America or Europe, where radical would be more about occupying a public institution rather than facilitating access to it. Arguably, if the idea of political correctness were too radical, it would not have been institutionalized.
Forth, if claims for equality, diversity and "that kind of thing" are ideological, so is the position of ignoring them. "Ideology" is a term that originated in the late 18th century, from the French idéologie, although initially from the Greek idea of "form, pattern" as combined with logos, denoting discourse or compilation. According to the Oxford Dictionaries, "ideology" is nowadays defined as a system of ideas and ideals which forms the basis of our economic or political theory and policy. While Peterson tends to view ideology as a separate thing, a possession that only the radical leftists seem to be endowed with, it is equally ideological to claim that gender identity is fixed on binary categories, a position epistemologically rooted in positivism (a universal certitude of truth-based natural phenomena) and theoretically rooted in structural-functionalism (there are systems of structures in the world that make the world function, such as the existence of male/female categories, hence is undesirable to abruptly change the systems, since this would result in the society not being able to function -- and any non-binary forms of gender will disrupt the natural male/female order of things), politically concerned with preserving the status quo and economically supporting a free market society as the ultimate regulatory of individual needs. No governing body should decide whose needs should be accommodated, Peterson states, since this is done by the market, and regulated via individuals’ purchasing power. Yet such a statement clearly reflects a strong ideological grounding of neoliberalism and individualism.
Fifth, why should Peterson's right over his use of language should prevail over other people' rights? Unless someone thinks he is God, and he should have the right to determine how he addresses everyone. And if I ask you to call me Bob and you insist on calling me David, because in your mind I look like a David and not a Bob, what legitimates your right to override my stated wish of calling me Bob?
Lastly, it would have been beneficial if Peterson would have explained what he means by and how he defines the terminology of political correctness, ideology, Marxism, liberalism and the radical left. The audience might have had a better understanding of what he tries to convey and perhaps his words would not have spurred the ulterior trans-phobic treats directed at queer and trans-identified people on the U of T campus.
The arguments against identity politics and political correctness can be made on two grounds. From a radical left premise, which takes categorical thinking as passé and aims to surpass categories and renounce difference, since it starts from the basis that representing differences also maintains differences. And from further on the right, whereas binary categories are taken sine qua non, as biologically determined and hence unchangeable, since they existed as such for centuries. Both are ideologically framed. And as much as Peterson seems to hate ideology, his argument is ideologically outlined as well, but on the right of the political spectrum.
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Image: Flickr/Ted EytanTOKYO — The decision to ban Japan’s annual whaling drive off Antarctica, handed down by the United Nations’ highest court on Monday, was a hard-won victory for conservationists who long argued that Tokyo’s whaling research was a cover for commercial whaling.
The ruling by the International Court of Justice in The Hague halts a Japanese program that has captured more than 10,000 minke and other whales in the Southern Ocean since 1988 in the name of biological research.
Japan may not be ready to lay down its harpoons entirely. Though the ruling is final, it allows the Japanese to continue to hunt whales under a redesigned program, said Nanami Kurasawa, who heads a marine conservation group in Tokyo.
And the court’s decision does not affect smaller hunts that Japan carries out in the northern Pacific, or coastal whaling carried out on a smaller scale by local fishermen.Ever have a tab start playing audio without your permission? The latest version of Chrome's dev channel lets you mute the tab with a simple click.
Chrome recently added an icon that indicates which tab is playing a sound, but the dev channel just made this feature even better: now, you can click that icon to mute the tab. You just need to enable a quick flag first:
Type chrome://flags/#enable-tab-audio-muting into Chrome's address bar and press Enter. Chrome should automatically scroll down to the "Enable Tab Audio Muting UI" flag. Click the enable link below it. Restart Chrome.
Remember, this is only available in the dev channel for now, so you'll need that installed for this to work. Hopefully, this will make its way into the stable version of Chrome soon. If you don't want to use the dev channel, check out the MuteTab extension, which performs a similar function.
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Google Chrome Gets Experimental Audio Muting Functionality | GhacksBEIT HASHITA – If the synagogue most secular Israelis will not attend has to be Orthodox, then nowhere is this saying truer than on the kibbutz – or at least, so it was up until now.
Just ask Yaakov Yonish (known as “Yonish” by his friends and family) of Beit Hashita, a flagship of the kibbutz movement that is widely known for its eponymous brand of canned pickles and olives. Yonish, a salt-of-the-earth guy in his seventies who holds a master’s degree from the Technion but prefers to list his profession as shepherd, is the driving force and spirit behind one of the newest non-Orthodox congregations in Israel, set up just over a year ago at this privatized kibbutz in the Jordan Valley. Like many kibbutzniks, he feels uncomfortable with the term “Reform,” preferring to describe its affiliation as “traditional with ties to the Reform movement.”
Every three weeks on Friday evening, anywhere from 50 to 70 residents of the community gather for a Reform-style Kabbalat Shabbat service at the kibbutz cultural hall, with several dozen showing up for Beit Midrash Jewish studies classes every two weeks. And for the second year running, the kibbutz will be holding a joint celebration for all its bar- and bat-mitvah boys and girls, with each one being called up to read from the Torah.
Once the bastion of Israeli secularism, kibbutzim around the country are suddenly discovering alternative forms of Judaism. And at communities where Yom Kippur was once marked with barbequed pork feasts, Conservative and Reform rabbis are being invited to lead Kol Nidrei services.
The irony of this change is not lost on the leaders of the non-Orthodox movements in Israel. “What is happening on the kibbutzim is especially intriguing considering their historic role in the establishment of the state, their longstanding association with secularism and the crises they’ve been through,” notes Gilad Kariv, executive director of the Israel Movement for Reform and Progressive Judaism.
The Reform movement, he estimates, has extended its reach to somewhere between 60 and 70 kibbutzim in recent years, providing its services to rural communities located in half a dozen clusters, mainly in outlying areas of the country. “These are kibbutzim that until now had no connection whatsoever to religion,” he notes.
This past Yom Kippur, adds Kariv, Conservative and Reform rabbis ran services at somewhere between 20 and 30 kibbutzim. And that doesn’t include the handful of movement-affiliated kibbutzim set up in decades past, most with large concentrations of Anglo-Saxon immigrants. “More and more kibbutzim are telling themselves that if we’re going to move in this direction, we might as well embrace something closer to our liberal values that reflects the egalitarianism that’s always been part of our ideology,” he notes.
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“There’s a feeling that these kibbutzim want some connection to Judaism and are asking themselves whether Chabad is the only alternative,” says Rakefet Ginsberg, vice president for development at the Israeli Conservative, also known as Masorti, movement, which has connections now with about half a dozen kibbutzim. In some cases, that means that on the High Holy Days, its rabbis are invited to conduct services on their premises. In other cases, it means they come to officiate at weddings, circumcisions and bar- and bat-mitzvah ceremonies.
But gaining a following on the kibbutzim, she notes, is no small challenge. “They’ve shunned religion for so long that inevitably there’s resistance and lots of catching up to do.”
Full of challenges
Just to illustrate how confounding the process of reconnecting with Judaism can be, Ginsberg cites the example of Kibbutz Beit Keshet in the lower Galilee, with which the Conservative movement recently forged ties. Some of its members, though completely secular, insisted that men and women be separated during services because that’s how they remember it being done traditionally, whereas others were adamant about praying together. “So what we ended up doing is dividing the room into three sections,” recounts Ginsberg,” one section for men, another for women, and the third for both men and women.”
Yonish is all too aware of the challenges. A little over a year ago, when Beit Hashita held its first Reform-style Kol Nidrei service, he and the other 170-plus worshipers were greeted by a group of protesters when they emerged from the kibbutz cultural hall. “They told us, ‘You are not going to bring God into our home,’” he recalls.
Among a growing list of non-Orthodox rabbis who were born and raised in secular kibbutzim, Tlalit Shavit, in her faded jeans and cowboy boots, knows she doesn’t fit the part very well. “Whenever I visit preschools, they say to me, ‘You can’t be a rabbi – you don’t have a beard or a kippa.’” Among her other outreach activities, she is also the new designated rabbi for Beit Hashita, where she works closely with Yonish.
Leading Yom Kippur services at a place like Beit Hashita, which lost 11 of its own sons in the war that broke out on this day 40 years ago, can be an especially daunting task, she acknowledges. “Some people told me there was too much God and too much religion for them in the service,” recounts Shavit, who grew up in Kibbutz Sdot Yam near Caesarea and began to embrace Reform Judaism while living temporarily in New York. “It’s not easy for them, since many of them have a built-in aversion to anything that smacks of religion.”
Two relatively recent developments may explain the change of heart among many kibbutzim and their willingness to reexamine their fraught relationship with Judaism. One is the collapse of the socialist model that dominated kibbutz life until the 1980s, and the other is the changing demographic of these communities, as more and more city dwellers seeking a better quality of life, many of them from more traditional backgrounds, have built homes in new neighborhoods established on kibbutz land.
Beit Hashita is a case in point. “Until about 10 years ago, I had no connection to religion or tradition,” recalls Yonish. “But then the kibbutz was privatized and new people started moving in. After socialism collapsed, it seemed to me there was no glue to bind us together the way there used to be. I began to ask myself what do we have in common with the 200 new residents who’ve moved here, and the one thing I could come up with was Jewish tradition.”
But it was something very personal, he acknowledges, that initially triggered his change of heart. “When my daughter got married and moved to England, I understood that just being an Israeli is not enough to tie us to this place,” he says. “That’s when I started going around the kibbutz and telling people, ‘Friends, we’ve run too far away from our roots.’”
Since moving to Yahel, a kibbutz affiliated with the Reform movement, three years ago, Rabbi Benjie Gruber has also begun to serve another half a dozen nearby kibbutzim in Israel’s southernmost district. “I do about 10 to 15 bar mitzvahs each year and about 5 or 6 weddings,” he says. “And this year for the first time, I’ll be conducting the annual service for all the second-graders at the regional school at Kibbutz Yotvata when they receive their first Chumash,” referring to the Five Books of Moses.
Another first this year was an invitation he received from the very secular Kibbutz Eilot to lead a tashlich service at the Red Sea, to symbolize the throwing away of sins on Rosh Hashanah.
Gruber, who himself grew up Modern Orthodox, says of most of these secular kibbutzim, “if they didn’t come to me, they’d be doing nothing in terms of religion.”
For Ginsberg, what’s surprising is not that the kibbutzim have begun to embrace progressive Judaism but that’s it taken them so long to do so. “In so many other areas in this country, the kibbutzim led the way,” she notes. “But here, they seem to be lagging behind. I guess it has to do with the fact that they’ve been disconnected for so long.”
Beit Hashita. On Friday evenings, anywhere from 50 to 70 residents gather for a Reform-style Kabbalat Shabbat service at the kibbutz cultural hall. Gil Eliahu
A Kabbalat Shabbat service at Beit Hashita. Gil EliahuEDMONTON
The Edmonton Eskimos are starting them young.
In an effort to increase the profile of football in the city, the CFL club has join forces with the sports provincial governing body at the grassroots level.
On Thursday, Football Alberta announced a partnership with the Eskimos, forming a novice touch-football league that will introduce the game to players as young as six years of age.
“This is a way to basically redevelop the way amateur football is offered at the beginning levels,” said Tim Enger, Football Alberta’s technical director.
“Currently right now, you can get your kid involved at age nine and they can play tackle football — which is wonderful — but we’re taking a shot at going at some lower levels.
“What we’re offering next year is flag football for six-, seven- and eight-year-olds. It’s following the concept of long-term athlete development, the Canadian sports for life that is the growing concern in amateur football and amateur sports in general.”
The goal of the program is to start teaching the basic skills of the game, which Enger says has been a difficult aspect of kids trying to get involved with football.
The 16-team, 160-player league will consist of a one-hour touch football game a week, starting in September at the Commonwealth Stadium field house. The six-, seven- and eight-year-old players will receive instruction from Eskimos players.
“We’re going to get our players involved as much as we can with this and also get other football groups in the city involved.” said Eskimos community and amateur football manager, Brad Morgan. “We want to get them in at an early age to enjoy the sport.”
In recent years, there has been a concern with a declining number of kids playing football.
This program gives Football Alberta an opportunity to introduce the game at a similar age group to other sports being offered in and around the city.
“You have to go back to 1993 to find the last time that a U of A Golden Bear quarterback was from the Edmonton area for the entire season,” Enger said. “So we want to get these kids throwing the ball, we want to get them catching the ball in a non-contact environment.”
The program also helps the Eskimos begin to develop a young fan base, who perhaps one day could suit up for the local team.
“At the end of the day, 16, 17, 18 years from now, it would be really cool if a kid drafted by the Eskimos and plays in the CFL started his path in this particular thing,” Enger said.
“We’ve very excited about the prospect. We noticed some trends in the past few years.
“We have Corbin Sharun and Gord Hinse proudly representing the Edmonton area as local-grown players for the Eskimos.
“But if you go back to the glory days of the Eskimos back in the ’70s and ’80s where you had as many as six starters from the Edmonton area.”
One concern for parents about football at a young age is exposing their kids to contact so early. The novice program takes contact out of the equation, focusing on the passing and catching aspects of the game.
“I think there is that concern with contact football at an early age,” said Morgan.
“This gets them involved at an early age and helps them appreciate the sport and learn the fundamentals before they get involved in the contact.”
derek.vandiest@sunmedia.ca
Twitter@SundvandiestISM, 6 November 2009 20 years to the fall of the Berlin wall: Demonstrators toppled 8 meters tall concrete wall in Niilin Three protest marches were held today in the West Bank to mark the 20th anniversary to the fall of the Berlin wall, which has been declared an international day of action against Israels barrier. In Nilin, the 300 demonstrators managed to topple a part of the eight meters tall concrete wall that cuts through the villages land. Following the direct action, the army fired scores of live rounds at the demonstrators. Demonstrators topple concrete wall Using small tools, Nilin residents push concrete wall No matter how tall, all walls fall
The concrete wall in Nilin five to eight meters (15 to 25 feet) in height has only recently been laid on the path of the wall cutting through Nilins lands, in addition to the already existing electronic barrier and razor-wire. Since the Wall was built to allow more land to annexed to the nearby settlements rather than in a militarily strategic manner, demonstrators have been able to repeatedly dismantle parts of the electronic fence and razor-wire surrounding it. The section of the Wall in Nilin is the only place along the route of the barrier where a concrete wall has been erected in an attempt to deal with the civic, unarmed campaign waged by the village in protest of the massive land theft that will enable the expansion of the illegal settlements of Modiin Ilit and Hashmonaim. Since Israel began its construction in the year 2002, This is the first time demonstrators succeed in toppling a part of Israels barrier which is a concrete wall. One of the demonstrators, Moheeb Khawaja, said during the protest: "Twenty years ago no one had thought the monster that divided Berlin into two could be brought down, but in only two days in November, it did. Today we have proven that this can also be done here and now. It is our land beyond this wall, and we will not give up on it. We will win for a simple reason justice is on our side." Background Israel began construction of the Wall on Nilins land in 2004, but stopped after an injunction order issued by the Israeli Supreme Court (ISC). Despite the previous order and a 2004 ruling from the International Court of Justice declaring the Wall illegal, construction of the Wall began again in May 2008. Following the return of Israeli bulldozers to their lands, residents of Nilin have launched a grassroots campaign to protest the massive land theft, including demonstrations and direct actions. The original route of the Wall, which Israel began constructing in 2004, was ruled illegal by the ISC, as was a second, marginally less obtrusive proposed route. The most recent path, now completed, still cuts deep into Nilins land. The Wall has been built to include plans, not yet approved by the Armys planning authority, for a cemetery and an industrial zone for the illegal settlement Modiin Ilit. Since the Wall was built to annex more land to the nearby settlements rather than in a militarily strategic manner, demonstrators have been able to repeatedly dismantle parts of the electronic fence and razor-wire surrounding it. Consequently, the army has erected a 15-25 feet tall concrete wall, in addition to the electronic fence. The section of the Wall in Nilin is the only part of the route where a concrete wall has been erected in response to civilian, unarmed protest. As a result of the Wall construction, Nilin has lost 3,920 dunams, roughly 30% of its remaining lands. Originally, Nilin consisted of 15,898 dunams (3928 acres). Post 1948, Nilin was left with 14,794 dunams (3656 acres). After the occupation of the West Bank in 1967, the illegal settlements and infrastructure of Modiin Ilit, Mattityahu and Hashmonaim were built on village lands, and Nilin lost another 1,973 dunams. With the completion of the Wall, Nilin has a remaining 8911 dunams (2201 acres), 56% of its original size. Nilin is effectively split into 2 parts (upper and lower) by Road 446, which was built directly through the village. According to the publicized plan of the Israeli government, a tunnel will be built under road 446 to connect the upper and lower parts of Nilin, allowing Israel to turn Road 446 into a segregated-setter only road. Subsequently, access for Palestinian vehicles to this road and to the main entrances of upper and lower Nilin will be closed. Additionally, since the tunnel will be the only entryway to Nilin, Israel will have control over the movement of Palestinian residents. Israel commonly uses tear-gas projectiles, rubber coated steel bullets and live ammunition against demonstrators. Since May, 2008, five of Nilins residents were killed and one American solidarity activist was critically injured from Israeli fire during grassroots demonstrations in Nilin. 5 June 2009: Yousef Akil Srour (36) was shot in the chest with 0.22 caliber live ammunition and pronounced dead upon arrival at a Ramallah hospital. 13 March 2009: Tristan Anderson (37), an American citizen, was shot in the head with a high velocity tear gas projectile. He is currently at Tel Hashomer hospital near Tel Aviv with uncertain prospects for his recovery. 28 December 2008: Mohammed Khawaje (20) was shot in the head with 5.56mm caliber live ammunition. He died in a Ramallah hospital 3 days later on 31 December 2008. 28 December 2008: Arafat Rateb Khawaje (22) was shot in the back with 5.56mm caliber live ammunition and pronounced dead upon arrival at a Ramallah hospital. 30 July 2008: Yousef Amira (17) was shot in the head with two rubber coated steel bullets. He died in a Ramallah hospital 5 days later on 4 August 2008. 29 July 2008: Ahmed Mousa (10) was shot in the forehead with 5.56mm caliber live ammunition and pronounced dead upon arrival at a Ramallah hospital. In total, 19 people have been killed during demonstrations against the Wall. Israeli armed forces have shot 40 demonstrators with live ammunition in Nilin. Of them, 11 were shot with 5.56mm caliber live ammunition and 24 were shot with 0.22 caliber live ammunition. Since May 2008, 87 arrests of Nilin residents have been made in relation to anti-Wall demonstrations in the village. The protesters seized by the army constitute around 7% of the villages males aged between 12 and 55. The arrests are part of a broad Israeli intimidation campaign to suppress all demonstrations against the apartheid infrastructure in the West Bank.Vault 7: The Russian Hacking story is over
No convincing evidence of Russian interference in the 2016 election through the Wikileaks releases will ever exist. Nice try FBI, DHS, Obama and “17 intelligence agencies” but you’re lying.
Will Pflaum Blocked Unblock Follow Following Mar 7, 2017
US Government has ZERO credibility
Original Kennedy Quote from NYT April 25, 1966
No evidence, no story
Trump may have troubling or illegal ties to the Russian mafia or government. The Putin government may have met with the Trump campaign to plan to undermine the integrity of the 2016 election. We can’t yet know all of these questions.
We can know with almost complete certainty, however, that Craig Murray and Julian Asssange’s statements that Russia had no role in the DNC and Podesta leaks will almost certainly remain the best and final word on the subject of how the emails got to Wikileaks.
Any one of dozens of individuals no longer or never associated with the CIA could have left evidence to suggest Russia was hacking the DNC. The files created by the CIA are now out there, floating around, and have been for months or years. The Russians, the CIA, a friend of a guy who worked for the CIA in 2014… too many suspects, all have the same fingerprints.
The individual who passed these programs to Wikileaks to publish today did so, perhaps, in the hope that software companies and individuals would put fixes in place to protect privacy. Wikileaks and the leaker behind Vault 7 are providing a public service in revealing the extent to which our information is still being hacked by the government, even after Obama promised to stop it following the NSA Snowden releases.
We cannot know who hacked the DNC: no authentic “Russian” trail is possible. If the government wants to make the contrary claim, that we can know Russia did hack the DNC and Podesta, they’ll have a hard time proving it. Anything that looks Russian isn’t.
CIA Hacker is a fun job
We’re only a day into year zero, as Assange puts it. Vault 7 Wikileaks release includes CIA hackers having what seems like a great time. They keep in shape. They love their work, even if they complain a bit from time to time.
Who are they fighting and why? Never seems to come up. It’s just a fun job. They get to travel to Germany and play spook. This leak has already appeared in an article in Der Spiegel.
CIA is all in, for themselves
The CIA itself has a clear mission: to avoid any scrutiny of their budget and to have as much latitude to act as independently as possible. Do the president and congress have any control over these guys?
The idea that there is a real foreign enemy out there, the idea that the CIA represents the good guys fighting this foreign enemy seems utterly absurd at this point. The CIA has to prop up the enemies in order to justify their budget. Thus, the CIA is making Russia malware stronger and more scary. Imagine what would happen in the Russians were not that bad or not that effective: the CIA would have a hard time justifying their secret budget of some unknown billions of dollars.
Scary stuff from the CIA
Vault 7 is filled with strange and disturbing comments. Here we read, “Mendicant Engineer — reserved for the next tool delivered during a gov’t shutdown.” Nice to know they are ready for the shutdown. The rest of us? Not so much.
Fake-off mode is scary. “Suppress LEDs to improve look of Fake-Off mode… Turn on or leave WiFi turned on in Fake-Off mode… Parse unencrypted audio collection… During initial development, a rough approximation of bit rates for different audio quality settings were made. Quality 1 settings required 100 kB/minutes. Quality 5 settings required 250 kB/minutes. Quality 7 settings required 350 kB/min. Quality 5 seemed to provide very nice results and is usually used.”
Hello, Big Brother. Can you hear me?
Smoking gun of fake Russian claims
The CIA intentionally uses Russian malware and disguises their tracks to look like Russians. Here is the link to the article on how to hide your tracks and look like the Russians. In these instructions for hiding your origins, we read “DO NOT leave dates/times such as compile timestamps, linker timestamps, build times, access times, etc. that correlate to general US core working hours (i.e. 8am-6pm Eastern time).” More of those in that same link.
Meanwhile, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) in their joint statement on Russian hacking, said, “... are consistent with the methods and motivations of Russian-directed efforts. These thefts and disclosures are intended to interfere with the US election process. Such activity is not new to Moscow — the Russians have used similar tactics and techniques across Europe and Eurasia, for example, to influence public opinion there. We believe, based on the scope and sensitivity of these efforts, that only Russia’s senior-most officials could have authorized these activities.”
So, who are you going to believe, the DHS or your own eyes? There is no such thing as evidence “consistent with the methods” of the Russians because those same methods are consistent with the CIA.
In the FireEye report commissioned to prove Russian hacking, we read, “The second was that malware compile times from 2007 to 2014 corresponded to normal business hours in the UTC (+) 4 time zone, which includes major Russian cities such as Moscow and St. Petersburg.” Right, just as the CIA instructed their hackers to do.
The FBI in their report “GRIZZLY STEPPE — Russian Malicious Cyber Activity” said, “The U.S. Government confirms that two different RIS actors participated in the intrusion into a U.S. political party. The first actor group, known as Advanced Persistent Threat (APT) 29, entered into the party’s systems in summer 2015, while the second, known as APT28, entered in spring 2016.” The systems were old Russia malware, as reported here.
Old, well-known Russian malware is just what the CIA would use. “The CIA’s Remote Devices Branch’s UMBRAGE group collects and maintains a substantial library of attack techniques ‘stolen’ from malware produced in other states including the Russian Federation.”
We can now say that the “Russia did it” story is over in anything other than an “alternative fact” universe. There is not now nor will there ever be any evidence that Russia gave the Podesta and DNC leaks to Wikileaks. If Russia influenced the 2016 US election, they did it some other way, without Wikileaks, without revealing Podesta’s emails.
Driverless cars, smart TVs: big brother has infected tech
Can the CIA murder anyone at any time by turning their own car against them? Michael Hastings was investigating the CIA, then died in a car crash. And then there is this:
If they are listening to you through your TV can you dismiss the idea they killed Kennedy?
Have you seen this Kennedy quote? “I will splinter the CIA into a thousand pieces and scatter it into the wind.” — John F. Kennedy
It’s been pretty prominent today and it is a real quote. The writers of this 1966 New York Times article got the quote from someone in the Kennedy administration. He was really murdered and the idea that the CIA did it is tin-foil hat stuff… like the CIA listening to you through your television, which they can do right now.
I didn’t think too much about the Kennedy assassination until that quote popped up. I am agnostic on whether or not the CIA killed Kennedy. They might have. It would not be the first democratically elected leader they killed. I dug out the original article with the “scatter to the wind quote,” from April 1966 from the front page of the New York Times. You should read the entire article. It’s amazing. No such intelligent, fair reporting is likely to appear in the New York Times today. Instead of a critical and fair consideration of all possibilities, otherwise known as journalism, the NYT today puts out propaganda like this.
This Vault 7 release confirms the seemingly obvious statement by John McAfee back in December: “if it looks like the Russians did it, then I can guarantee you it was not the Russians.”
70 billion dollars buys you a lot of code and newsprint
With 70 billion dollars in the budget, the CIA can give money to Amazon to buy the Washington Post and pay software developers to let them in.Posted by Admin | March 27, 2017 | Adventure, Anime, RPG, Strategy, Visual Novel.
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of the most fearsome defensive players New Orleans has ever seen spilled onto the concrete, dead.
You probably know him differently by now, though. Or at least you do by his mugshot: This 6′6, more than 300-pound black man — round-headed, a thumping beard and waving dreads — known as Cardell Hayes. His hood in the Ninth Ward calls him “Bear,” naturally. He looks like one.
On April 9 last year, the night he shot Smith, Hayes woke and sold his last pit bull puppy. “Bullies” as he calls them. He breeds them by the book; even does the artificial insemination himself. He played with his son, Cardell Hayes Jr., or CJ for short. Hayes ran some errands, went to football practice, and then hit his favorite neighborhood spot by night’s end.
Lance’s Barbershop sits down Ursulines Avenue in the Treme neighborhood. It’s a haven for Hayes, a calm place to ease his mind after a day driving a tow truck, dealing a pit, or pouring cement.
Dwight “Whitey” Harris frequently leapt on Hayes’ back when Hayes would enter, “It’s like man versus Bear,” Whitey says. “When I attacked him he picked me up by my ankles.”
Lance Rouzan usually orders some extra-large pizzas while barbers trim heads. It’s frequently busy. Late night Saturdays in New Orleans tend to get like that.
A pocket in Hayes’ jeans vibrates. Kevin O’Neal, his best friend, had been calling all day. Rouzan and the boys saw his face crack a grin. “What’s going on?” one asked. House party. Uptown.
Some high school friends were having a get-together. Hayes would scope it out. He’d call if it was worth a drive.
It turned out to be a bust. Maybe 20 people showed and were playing Pictionary. It was lackluster enough to head home early.
The problem was that O’Neal rode to the function in Hayes’ Hummer. They had to go back to the shop to retrieve his truck. That much is indisputable. How the next part goes, though, depends entirely on whom you’re talking to.
One of the corridors where Will Smith and Cardell Hayes’ vehicles collided. Photo: Bryan Stewart | Edit: Tyson Whiting
Right after 11 p.m., the duo zoomed down Magazine Street. The Hummer jolted. A Mercedes SUV was behind them. Hayes pulled over. The Mercedes sped away. The Hummer drove after it. Maybe Hayes could get the license plate. He had already been in an accident once, and insurance ain’t cheap.
Hayes will tell you he tried to call 911 while chasing the Mercedes. The prosecution insists Hayes is a liar. Hayes says he tried to pump his brakes during the chase but accidentally hit the car. The prosecution says he rammed that SUV.
A man named Richard Hernandez exited the passenger’s side of the Mercedes. Hayes says he didn’t leave his car until Hernandez charged at him and ripped off his shirt. Prosecutors reluctantly agree. Hayes also says Hernandez wrapped a “shiny object” in the shirt and swung at him. Prosecutors say Hernandez wasn’t the aggressor.
The contested points of that night haven’t found any resolution in the months since. You’ve probably heard different versions of these depending on which lawyer’s mouth said it. How Hernandez’s actions made Hayes get his gun. How Hayes claims Smith hit him “three or four times” in the face. And how, maybe, the Smith party taunted him for not using that pistol.
“Nigga, you got your gun? Well I’m gonna get mine and I’m gonna show you what to do with it,” Hayes, under oath, recalls Smith yelling.
“What else can I think other than he’s trying to kill me?” Hayes says. Still, at that point, Hayes hadn’t drawn. Smith started fighting with his wife, Racquel. She pulled him from the scuffle. She reminded him of their kids waiting at home: Lisa, Wynter, and Will Jr.
The Smith family finally reached its vehicle. The Hernandez family had run away. Will Smith then reached into his car. The whines of police sirens are about to blare down Felicity and Sophie Wright Place.
Hayes raised his pistol while he begged Smith not to grab his gun.
“Please don’t do this, bruh,” he can be heard saying on video from last summer entered as evidence. “Please, please don’t do this.”
Racquel shrieked in the direction of her husband. “No, baby, no.” Hayes insists that he didn’t wanna pop this guy.
“I didn’t have nowhere to run,” Hayes says. “If I turned and run, I’ll get shot and killed”
Hayes saw the man turn. A bang. Hayes released eight shots. As the smoke cleared, bystanders could only see a giant crying next to a dead body. He bellowed into the night, praying an ambulance would answer his calls.
April Apr April 9: A driver in a Hummer runs into the back of Smith’s SUV. An argument ensues. Smith is fatally shot and his wife Raquel is wounded in the legs. Hayes is arrested on the scene.
April 11: Surveillance video shows Smith’s SUV bumping Hayes’ Hummer moments before the crash that preceded the shooting.
April 12: Police say they found a loaded handgun in Smith’s car, that Hayes told officers on the scene he was the shooter and that in addition to the.45 used in the shooting officers found a revolver in Hayes’ vehicle.
April 13: An attorney for Smith’s family holds wide-ranging news conference during which he says Smith didn’t brandish a gun during the altercation and had a concealed-carry permit. But a lawyer for Hayes says a witness saw Smith with a gun that night. A coroner says Smith was shot seven times in the back and once in the side.
April 15: Hayes’ lawyer calls for the New Orleans police to recuse themselves from the investigation, claiming their competency and honesty are questionable. The request is later rejected.
April 16: Funeral services are held for Smith.
April 28: Grand jury indicts Hayes on one charge of second-degree murder, which carries a mandatory life sentence, and one charge of attempted second-degree murder.
May May May 5: Smith’s wife, Racquel, accepts his posthumous degree from the University of Miami.
June Jun June 3: A defense lawyer says test results show Smith was legally drunk the night he died.
July Jul July 14: Hayes’ lawyer tries to get the New Orleans District Attorney’s Office off the case, saying the DA made “baseless and inflammatory” statements about him in a report sent to law enforcement agencies.
July 22: The judge refuses to remove the New Orleans DA and his staff from the Hayes case.
October Oct Oct. 28: Racquel Smith offers her first public remarks since her husband’s death, speaking at Will Smith’s induction into the Saints’ Hall of Fame.
November Nov Nov. 16: Judge rules the jury will be sequestered during Hayes’ trial, which begins Dec. 5.
December Dec Dec. 5: Trial begins.
Dec. 11: A jury convicts Hayes of manslaughter and attempted manslaughter. Source: AP
Across town, Nandi Campbell’s phone started ringing. The lawyer got a midnight call from bounce artist Big Freedia. Hayes made national news. Homicide by shooting. Road rage turned murder in New Orleans. Somebody had to go find Freedia’s cousin.
Campbell saw Hayes in a police interview room and told him for the first time that Smith, a Super Bowl champion, was the man he killed. Hayes couldn’t believe it. He used to watch Smith’s game tapes and study his moves as budding defensive lineman. He idolized him.
Hayes crumpled next to Campbell.
“My life over with,” Hayes said. “They gonna make me look like I shot and killed this man. I looked up to Will as a football player.”
“No, baby. Ya life not over,” Campbell said in a New Orleans drawl, placing a hand on his back. “Don’t say that.”
Hayes is not innocent in the realm of moral court. He killed a man and may have maimed a woman. But Hayes isn’t denying that he killed someone — he’s arguing that he was within his right to do so.
Formerly named Thurgood Marshall Middle School, this is the Mid-City building where Bryant Lee says he met Cardell Hayes. Photo: Bryan Stewart | Edit: Tyson Whiting
The state of Louisiana wants Hayes to fry on the plantation fields of Angola, the Louisiana State Penitentiary. That has become evident over the 246 days between the killing and Hayes’ conviction.
That might seem like an eternity. But not many people in New Orleans have seen a man go down as fast and surgically as Hayes. In 2015, there were 16 murder trials in Orleans Parish. The average time from arrest to trial was 3.2 years. The shortest was two years.
Hayes was arrested overnight. He was indicted in 18 days. He received a bond near $2 million an hour after. He was sent to trial eight months later. Then he was convicted after a six-day trial under the first sequestered jury in over four years in a parish that couldn’t afford it. That’s how much the state wanted justice for Will Smith.
Attorney Peter Thomson, who represents Smith’s family, said days after the killing that Hayes was a “cold-blooded murderer,” that he intentionally rammed the Mercedes, that he was “deranged.” New Orleans Police Superintendent Michael Harrison said hours after the killing that the NOPD vowed to “build a strong case,” allowing the prosecution of Hayes to be done to the “fullest extent of the law.”
Saints quarterback Drew Brees spoke for five uninterrupted minutes on his former teammate’s death. He called the violence an “epidemic.” He said he thinks the young men feel like they have been abandoned, or are lacking family, or are lacking a father. At one moment it was drugs. At another, it was gang violence. He was sad for New Orleans, and angry at New Orleans, and taking wild swings at making sense of it.
“What that tells me is that the person who’s pulling the trigger in many cases has no regard for the life that he’s about to try to take,” Brees said. “He also has no regard for his own life, because there’s consequences with that and they have to recognize those consequences.”
New Orleans head coach Sean Payton said “our city is broken” the same week because his former player got killed, and he even called for an end to guns.
Defense attorney John Fuller presented himself as the only man with a difference in opinion. Hayes retained the up-and-comer who took the high-publicity case to bolster his own practice and profile, delaying a criminal court judgeship in the process. In Fuller, Hayes had a gem, one of the most intimidating, eloquent, problematic, God-fearing black defense lawyers the South has to offer — or at least one who didn’t mind leaning into that role.
Fuller got to work quickly, spoon-feeding the city a defense based on a vice familiar to New Orleans: corruption. It was evident in the investigation of Hayes’ case, or at least, that’s what Fuller was selling. And to sell that, he needed a big audience. So he started his months-long sermon in the pulpit of the media.
“Cardell Hayes,” Fuller said to gathered TV cameras on a dreary April afternoon four days after the shooting, “was tried and convicted before I got out of church Sunday morning.”
My Redeemer Missionary Baptist Church is where Pastor Sha’Teek Nobles, a family spokesperson, says Cardell Hayes was a member. It sits off S. Claiborne Avenue in Central City. Photo: Bryan Stewart | Edit: Tyson Whiting
In the eight months Hayes spent behind bars awaiting trial, not many cared to look into the man behind the late-night mugshot or the man he killed. The Saints lost a soldier from their defensive line. All anyone knew was that some rogue gunslinger killed him in cold blood.
Stray blogs said Hayes did security for the Saints, which was never true. USA Today said his “bullies” are “loyal, protective and potentially dangerous—characteristics that apparently Hayes shares.” Sports Illustrated capitalized off that rhetoric, running a story titled “The Saint v. ‘The Thug.’” Tyrann Mathieu, an NFL defensive back and former prep star here, said on Twitter that April that Hayes was a “hating ass coward.”
“Everyone starts on the side of the Saints,” Derwyn Bunton, New Orleans’ chief public defender said. “The sentiment, overwhelmingly, was that folks assumed Mr. Hayes was some hot-head thug that killed a beloved member of the community.”
Racquel Smith’s husband was that beloved member of the community.
“I don’t want sympathy,” Racquel said during trial. “I want justice for my husband … He loved New Orleans. He loved the people and the community and he did so much for the community. We loved it because we both came from humbling beginnings. It was us.”
“Would you exaggerate or leave out parts of what would happen to preserve the memory of your husband?” Fuller asked her on the stand.
“No, sir,” she said.
“Would you do anything to save his public image?” Fuller said.
“No,” she said before circling back. “I know the truth.”
Racquel Smith testified that she didn’t believe her husband had a temper, though it was reported in 2010 that he dragged her by her hair out of a Lafayette, Louisiana, nightclub. She says she doesn’t remember how much he’d drank, but on the night Smith was killed, blood tests showed he was three times past the legal alcohol limit.
Will Smith died with gunpowder residue on his hands. Of the two bullets that hit Racquel, one bullet’s origin can’t be conclusively proven — it’s still embedded in her leg. She testified that a doctor told her it was too risky to remove. But no one attempted to either prove her claim or negate that claim. Her testimony went unchallenged.
Presented with a chance to finally dispute the corruption narrative that Fuller fed the media — that the case had been manipulated to get quick justice for the local celebrity — Racquel didn’t waver. She told you. She didn’t want empathy. She just wanted justice. Regardless if, like she admits, she never saw the person who shot her.
If it’s worth anything, though, she swears it was Hayes.
“No one sympathized for me. He was putting lies about my family,” Racquel said.
“You are reading all these horrible things, that are false, and you don’t say a word?” a prosecutor asked.
“Yes, ma’am.” Racquel said.
“Did you wait to tell these ladies and gentlemen of the jury your story?” the prosecutor asked.
“Yes ma’am,” Racquel said.
“Is this the first time anyone showed any sympathy for your case?” the prosecutor asked.
“Absolutely,” Racquel said.
This is the last place cardell Hayes lived, as provided by public record. It sits in New Orleans East on Morrison Road. Photo: Bryan Stewart | Edit: Tyson Whiting
Hayes made his home deep in the Ninth Ward, a place plastered on network news during Katrina when the levees broke. His last known residence leads you down Morrison Road, in New Orleans East.
It’s a fleeting oasis here, narrowly missed by tornados that struck nearby in early February 2017. Small homes with overgrown bushes dot opposite sides of the canals. It’s working class renewal sprinkled amid desolation. A shotgun duplex here. An orange spray-painted X there.
Hayes’ house is big enough for him and his girlfriend, Tiffany, to raise CJ in. The neighborhood is lively. School kids yell and run down sidewalks in the afternoons. Girls in colorful barrettes hoot for “Angel” or “Rosie” or “Tyrell” or “Kevin.” It’s a normal hood for a middle-class family.
Down Crowder Boulevard there are a slew of gas stations and markets separating highway entrances from exits. You can get fried chicken by the bucket and gas past dusk. If you’re really hungry, a smaller stand by one gas pump sells fresh po-boys.
Ten minutes east, Hayes laced his cleats in Joe W. Brown Memorial Park. He played for the Crescent City Kings, a development team the papers don’t even waste ink on. Plenty remember “Bear” as CJ’s father, Dawn Mumphrey’s son, Genitra Mumphrey’s brother, a familiar face at Lance’s, a football star from Warren Easton High School, a businessman, and much more.
Warren Easton High was where Cardell Hayes became a touted defensive lineman, rising up recruiting websites as a top-50 recruit in Louisiana. Photo: Bryan Stewart | Edit: Tyson Whiting
Leonard Brooks, 42, helped raise the boy from these blocks. Brooks, who says he’s Hayes’ uncle, has been choked up by the proceedings. Hayes is a churchgoing boy, he says, a role model to Brooks’ other, younger family members. No one’s denying he killed Smith. But few seem to recognize that this may have been self-defense.
“All they want to do is bury my nephew,” Brooks said. “As God as my witness, I would trade places with him so he can be with his family because, I know, in my heart, he was protecting himself.”
Bryant Lee, a store owner, met “the real silent dude” at Thurgood Marshall Middle School. They went to college and sweated in football camps together.
Lee had a brother who got locked up way back. A middle-class man could go insane counting the bills. He asked Hayes for advice, and Hayes gave him $1,000. When Lee tried to return the money, Hayes laughed it off. You can’t give back a gift.
“That’s just not his character. He’s a loyal dude. He’s family-oriented and giving. He’ll give you his last,” Lee said about Hayes’ portrayal. “If I was in the situation, I would’ve done the same thing. Out here? It’s kill or be killed.”
Five years ago, Casandra French saw him at a brass band parade.
Hayes was introduced as “the man with the American bullies.” Her husband desperately wanted to get a litter together. They needed the extra cash. Hayes was big in the game. So he handed her husband a hound and stuck around to help get their litter together.
Soon they were doing inseminations. And their daughter got a scholarship to play second baritone at Alabama State. Due to his unasked kindness, she now has spending money.
“Because of him, now we’ve had six litters and that’s what keeps us going,” French said from the front seat of her car. “He was never a troublemaker. I just pray for the man. The glimpse I have of him is a very good person. To do what he did, he’d have to be pushed.”
Lamont Simmons met him on the gridiron at Victory Field. Simmons played a few steps behind him on defense. Hayes came on the team midseason a year or so ago. He learned the plays in two weeks and gave the team the lift it needed. Hayes’ push got the developmental gang to a championship game.
Between those lines, Simmons learned about “Bear.” He saw a doting father who brought CJ to practice and let his boy ride his shoulders and play in his dreads. He befriended a man who coached his son in pewee kickoffs and kissed him whenever he could. He understood the mild-mannered giant that “led by example” and broke up fights as Simmons threw haymakers at opposing offenses.
“He was a mediator, he was always calm, except during a double team,” Simmons recalls.
It’s the weight of all of this that momentarily had Joe Howard in knots on a bench outside one of the court hearings last year.
Howard went to high school with Hayes. His wife’s sister is a friend of the family.
“He doesn’t have that aggressive nature that was put out,” Howard said with a huff. “But that’s with anything. A black man goes to jail, the public sees the mugshot and you are automatically labeled.”
The corner of Gravier and S. White St. sits Orleans Parish Prison, a holding cell blocks from where Cardell Hayes was tried in December. Photo: Bryan Stewart | Edit: Tyson Whiting
The Orleans Parish Prison is an uninspiring behemoth of a building. It’s not a last stop. It’s a holding cell, a nationally known repugnant penitentiary.
OPP is just a peek at the hell Angola offers.
The Life and Legend of Leadbelly describes Angola as a place that kneels defendants in courtrooms upon sentencing. It’s America’s largest maximum security facility where 85 percent of prisoners never leave. “One of 10 inmates” annually get shanked there, according to the book. It sits in the middle of nowhere on a bend by the Mississippi River. The only things around for miles are an airstrip, a rodeo, and a radio station.
This is what Hayes had been grappling with in the months leading up to trial. At worst, he’d stay caged in Angola on a life sentence for second-degree murder. It’s possible that in Louisiana — the only state besides Oregon where all 12 members of a jury don’t have to unanimously agree on murder — that he could’ve gotten a reduced sentence. Negligible homicide isn’t the worst bid for killing a football king down South. At least he’s alive.
At best, like his lawyers said, he’d go not guilty on all charges. He’d walk free after a few days of court. But with the way Hayes’ case was handled, that option seemed further away each passing month.
Parties surrounding the case didn’t understand why the defense was failing. Plenty thought the overconfident Fuller was to blame. One lawyer close to both the prosecution and Fuller said the defense attorney could have received bad information from his client.
“He looked kind of silly when he didn’t come out with [any] video,” the lawyer said after Fuller didn’t present additional evidence during a Nov. 7 hearing. Fuller had been publicly promising video evidence that Billy Ceravolo, a former NOPD captain and friend of Smith, moved a gun from Smith’s car. It was a key piece of the corruption narrative that titillated observers into thinking there’d be an actual showdown between the sides at trial.
Another lawyer, who is close to the defense team, walked around between the lulls of court and asked, “Why doesn’t he just show this video?!” before offering his smartphone, which replayed an inconclusive video of an unidentifiable man at the scene of the shooting. Fuller introduced no such video at trial in April, and Ceravolo explored bringing a defamation suit against him.
The prosecution hinted at those missteps during trial. They asked O’Neal, Hayes’ best friend, when he testified about comments he allegedly made describing Fuller as a “sell-out,” a “nobody,” harping on a feeling that family and friends expected Hayes home months ago. O’Neal didn’t hide it. He hated the legal system, Fuller, and the timeframe that kept his companion confined to a cage.
“I’m heartbroken and tore up,” O’Neal said. “It’s extremely OK for me to be emotional.”
If you’re Fuller, you want justice to work as slow as you remember, with no rush to judgment. He pleaded in court for months to move this trial back. Who could possibly get convicted eight months after killing a man?
“I cannot, in good conscience, say I’m going to (delay),” Judge Camille Buras said in September when Fuller asked to move trial after the NFL season, hoping to ensure a fair tribunal for his client.
“That does not, to me, seem like a good legal reason.”
An emptied park in Cardell Hayes’ neighborhood where the effects of Katrina still linger. Photo: Bryan Stewart | Edit: Tyson Whiting
“I don’t know how we can automatically make these assumptions that are so vulgar about black men,” Dyan French Cole or “Mama D,” a Seventh Ward resident protesting Hayes’ arrest on the corner of Tulane Avenue, said one December morning at the start of trial. Surrounded by half a dozen protestors, she pointed toward the criminal court where Hayes prepared for the week that would decide his life.
“They are guilty when they walk up these steps, not after they go inside.”
This much is a given here: Louisiana’s criminal justice system is in need of reform, and New Orleans along with it. Cole’s refrain is a common local opinion about Hayes’ case. New Orleanians empathize with him — not many, but enough to garner attention. They’ve seen plenty of “Cardells” before. They’ve seen black boys disappear into a courtroom only to never return. Hayes isn’t the first and won’t be the last.
Harry Connick’s 30-year run (from 1973-2003) as the former district attorney is one cause for their angst. A southern Democrat that used music to leverage political power, the “Singing District Attorney” ran an office laced with controversy when he wasn’t humming at nightclubs in the French Quarter.
The U.S. Supreme Court chastised his regime in a 1995 opinion, describing an office culture that repeatedly failed to turn over exculpatory evidence. In that case, a man spent 14 years on death row and was nearly executed before missing evidence exonerated him. He called his predecessors weak, “moral midgets” and received dozens of misconduct complaints.
Leon Cannizzaro, the current DA, came in 2008 billing himself as a reformer. Yet in 2011, he was asked why his office mishandled a murder case by not turning over evidence. Cannizzaro responded that the defense counsel never asked for it. “If he doesn’t, we aren’t obligated to give it to him.”
During the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina in 2005, Henry Glover’s charred body was found in a roadside Chevy, having been burned by NOPD officers after they’d shot him. Two days later, cops shot six unarmed black people on Danziger Bridge, killing a 17-year-old boy and a 40-year-old man. Both resulted in police cover-ups.
A Justice Department attorney called these crimes the “most significant police misconduct” prosecution since Rodney King’s beating. Eleven years later, the city paid more than $13 million in a civil rights settlement.
That’s why Byron Cole was outside of criminal court most of the sweltering summer. Cole wanted to personalize this case. He felt the need to watchdog this system. He, Simmons, O’Neal, and many others marched with signs and megaphones. They broadcasted their message over live streams on Facebook. They passed out white “Free Bear” T-shirts with a bear’s face on the front and dreadlocks raining from its head.
This wasn’t just that they thought Hayes was being prepared for a ludicrous trial in a kangaroo court. He was the son of New Orleans they saw themselves in the most.
“We live under a stranglehold in New Orleans, man,” Cole said one day in November. “It’s really just status quo racism. Modified black laws. Modified Jim Crow.”
More recently, the community was stung by similarities between Smith’s shooting and that of Joe McKnight, a rushing powerhouse and national mega-recruit killed by Ronald Gasser one parish over in early December. The makings of Gasser’s case are similar to Hayes’ — a local football hero gunned down in an act of road rage — except for one detail. Gasser, who is white, left jail 24 hours after he shot a former NFL player. After public outcry, Gasser was charged and indicted. Hayes, who is black, hasn’t been home since April 9.
The McKnight shooting’s aftermath enraged Hayes’ family and friends. One day, it led to a heated argument outside of court.
“We just watched a white man execute a man in cold fucking blood. Cold fucking blood, stood over him, witness are out there saying what they saw,” O’Neal said on a video which was posted to Facebook, with Simmons behind him and Big Freedia to his left.
“This man is at home, bruh! This man is at home. Cardell Hayes was attacked by Will Smith, as well as Will Smith’s entourage, and he’s sitting in jail for murder. For murder! He’s sitting in jail for murder with a $1.7 million bond and don’t none of y’all give a fuck about that.”
The prosecution doesn’t understand the fuss. “What happened in Jefferson Parish has nothing to do with this case,” prosecutor Laura Rodrigue said, to which Buras nodded during jury selection.
“Whatever happens in this case, it won’t reveal anything new to me,” Chuck Perkins, a local radio host said from his studio in October. “The only thing it’ll do is reconfirm that there are different legal systems for us black folk and the wealthy or the white.”
A man runs out of Orleans Parish Criminal Court one December afternoon during the week that decided Cardell Hayes’ life. Photo: Bryan Stewart | Edit: Tyson Whiting
The second floor of the courthouse in Mid-City sings from the scuff of prisoners’ shoes sliding across tile. Men and women in orange jumpsuits shuffle through wooden doors along the hallway during the week of Hayes’ trial.
New Orleans courts are more picturesque than most. The roof is decorated with Victorian chandeliers. Parthenon-style oak columns balance Buras’ stand, which is anchored by Louisiana and United States flags with two angels dancing on the flagpoles.
“That’s what this was, this was murder!” prosecutor Jason Napoli screams in his closing argument. “April 9 was an execution on the streets, and the only verdict in this case is guilty as charged.”
The families are separated by a center aisle, the Smiths on the right, Hayes’ family on the left. During testimony, a member of the Smith family had flashed a middle finger at O’Neal. Hayes’ family had the tendency to laugh during Racquel Smith’s emotional three hours on the stand. Another night, there was a minutes-long staring contest as court let out after a long, contentious day.
The Smith family has a police escort. Racquel Smith is accompanied by crestfallen women wearing goose egg-sized diamond rings. On each arm are battered-looking NFL men.
Hayes’ family and supporters carpooled or came on the bus, arriving with their own expressions of grief etched on their faces. A lot of the time during the trial, bailiffs kept them from entering the court. It was a fire hazard to have that many people on one side of the room.
Racquel Smith cried during the swings of the trial. Her kids had lost their dad. She’d lost the love of her life. And by her and her friends’ accounts, Hayes was evil. He purposely pulled the trigger and put those bullets in her legs. Sending him “back to the streets,” as Napoli says on that last day of trial, was not an option.
“The most important evidence in this case is buried with Will Smith. Those are his wounds,” Napoli says before crying in front of the jury. “Will Smith played defense for this city. He was defenseless that night. Now it’s your turn to play defense for him.”
The crescendos of the prosecution draw ire from Hayes’ supporters. Many of them believe the truth was thrown aside to get justice for just one family in the case: Hayes was legally allowed to carry in this state, one with Stand Your Ground laws. That he drew and fired at a threat didn’t make him devilish. It made him Louisianian.
“Don’t throw away this boy’s life like this. You owe this family more than that,” Fuller says to the jury. “We have the rich and famous and the poor and the powerless. Don’t jump to conclusions. This boy deserves to be treated like everyone else.”
By the time court recesses, each side thinks it won. Fuller shakes old women’s hands, leads the gathered public in prayer, yucks it up with bailiffs. The prosecution surely doesn’t mind Brees hugging Cannizzaro midcourt as a horde of Saints stars sit and comfort Racquel Smith.
The heaviness of this case weighed tangibly on family. The mornings grew to afternoons and crept into nights. They spent every day, at times 14 hours, in court for a six-day trial reliving the night that changed everything.
One of those evenings, Hayes’ mother, Dawn, ducked to St. Bernard Avenue for a quiet meal. In the months her boy had been behind bars, she’d lost a lot of weight, Bryant Lee said. Fair-toned with skin the color of sweet potato pie, Dawn Mumphrey’s hair is graying around her temples.
At the only table in the joint, her head shifted between a window and her hands.
“You gotta eat something, grandma” a waitress said.
“I’m trying,” she replied. “But I can’t hold anything down.”
The place started to close as Dawn finally picked at her plate. Her pupils grew red. Her voice cracked, and she whispered as the shop grew empty.
“I pray for strength,” she sniffed. “I know he’s coming home. I just know it.”
Another corridor where Will Smith and Cardell Hayes’ vehicles collided. Photo: Bryan Stewart | Edit: Tyson Whiting
The jury finds Hayes guilty of the manslaughter of Will Smith and the attempted manslaughter of Racquel Smith after five hours deliberating. The verdict comes right as Sunday Night Football ends. Media reports later described how pressured the jury felt to convict. The members wanted to write letters begging for leniency at sentencing.
“In between, there were lots of tears,” a juror told the New Orleans Advocate. “This was gut-wrenching.”
As soon as Hayes is cuffed, his momma glues herself to the mahogany pillars on her left. His pastor tries to hold her as she wails, her body cranking like a metronome. What do you tell Dawn Mumphrey when the state takes her only boy away for good?
“Do you need a drink?” Hayes asks, unable to help her with two bailiffs anchoring him.
Hayes’ family waits in the empty chambers that night sobbing as the Smith family departs with its police escort. Payton flew back from an afternoon loss in Tampa Bay to hear the verdict in person. He bear-hugs former tailback Pierre Thomas, who was with Smith before the shooting, and slaps his hand so loudly it echoed the empty halls.
“We did it,” he said.
Racquel Smith cries into her coat as she exits, her friends shaking deputies’ hands. As they pass, Hayes’ family can’t seem to leave.
They are stuck to this place and their last minutes with Hayes. Rouzan, his friend from the barbershop, has tears wedged in his thick beard. Hayes’ sister, Genitra, had been smiling all week and running around with CJ, Hayes’ son. Now she ducks under a pew.
Lawyers from each side bolt out of doors from different angles of the courthouse. Fuller, who beamed every time the spotlight was on him, left through one side door downtrodden, trudging into the darkness surrounding the building. The prosecution, content that their version of justice has been delivered, darts out of a different side door with smiles earned after an emotional battle.
“This was the murder of a hero,” Cannizzaro says hours later, explaining that his office wants Hayes, 29, to serve 60 years. “Mr. Hayes is not going to hurt anyone ever again.”
A deputy slams the doors behind Hayes’ family members as they drag themselves down those main courthouse steps. Big Freedia fought off cameras so Dawn and Genitra could sprint to a nearby SUV.
With two families destroyed and the courtroom battle finished, it is finally clear that justice is not the same as recompense. “There are no winners in a situation like this,” Deuce McAllister, a former Saints running back and close friend to Smith, tells cameras outside as he walks out with Racquel.
The only lights left shining are the red twinkles from an ambulance speeding down Tulane Ave. Camera crews spinning the news are met by a group of citizens at the place that had sent so many of them away over the years. People parked their cars in the middle of intersections. They cried into Snapchat apps and live feeds as the news spread around New Orleans.
A middle-aged man in a hoodie walks up to the courthouse from the dark. He begins yelling at ESPN’s cameras, beseeching them to “tell the truth.” When asked, the man declines to give his name, only identifying himself as “a concerned citizen of New Orleans.”
“That was a good kid. Y’all know what it was. This is a set-up and a game.”
He pauses.
“Cardell Hayes was guilty when he walked up those steps.”The city's new LED lights (foreground) shine whiter than the yellow lights now around the city. View Full Caption DNAinfo/Howard Ludwig
AUSTIN — Mayor Rahm Emanuel Tuesday tapped a Massachusetts-based energy efficiency company to install new high-efficiency streetlights across the city as part of a $160 million contract.
The $160 million contract for Ameresco Inc. is set to be introduced to the City Council Wednesday, according to a statement from the mayor's office.
The city tested out the new high-efficiency streetlights in seven neighborhoods before rolling out 270,000 whiter, crisper Light Emitting Diode lights across the city next year.
The lights will be installed over four years, with the first lights set for neighborhoods with high rates of violent crime "that would most benefit from clearer and more reliable lighting," according to a statement from the mayor's office.
The new lights will also be installed along approximately a dozen main arterial streets across the city during the first year, according to a statement from the mayor's office.
The new streetlight fixtures will consume 50 to 75 percent less electricity than existing lights, officials said. The project also includes a new management system that will give the city a state-of-the-art smart lighting grid that will alert crews when lights are about to burn out.
Rebekah Scheinfeld, the city's transportation commissioner, has said the new lights will last as long as 15 years, nearly three times longer than the old lights, which the city has used for nearly 50 years.
That will decrease calls for service from residents, officials said.The federal government would be likely to intervene in future widespread port slowdowns under a bill introduced by Oregon Democratic Rep. Kurt Schrader and a group of Republicans from the West Coast and Midwest.
As it stands now, a U.S. president has the power to ask for a court order that can force striking unions to keep working. Many state and federal legislators called for President Barack Obama to use that power during a nine-month period, starting |
of the Lutheran Church- Missouri Synod are still ahead of us.
Rev. Timothy Yeadon
President, New England District
The Lutheran Church—Missouri Synod
____________________
Additional resources on the Church and Civil Religion.Phish‘s annual New Year’s Eve run is quickly approaching! While people figure out their tickets, plan their travel, book their hotels, and generally prepare for the madness that is New Year’s Eve in New York City, it’s important to remember that, outside of the four nights at Madison Square Garden, there are a ton of awesome shows planned as pre and post parties throughout the city. There’s something for everyone, from funk to jazz to straight up jams, so we hope to make your decisions easier by presenting this comprehensive guide of best pre-show and post-show parties for this year’s Phish New Year’s Eve run!
**CEG & Phishafterparties.com are giving away a pair of tickets for the Phish New Year’s Eve show and tickets to the Phish After-Party series too! Enter to win here**
Wednesday, December 28th
Particle – American Beauty – 11:55pm
Particle is one of the most reliable late-night bands in the biz. They always bring a high-energy dance party, with keyboard wizard Steve Molitz leading the charge. Expect electronic beats, quality jams, and fun covers when Particle takes the stage with their brand of “Space Porn Funk” at American Beauty, which is located just one block from Madison Square Garden. The band will be coming off a long, three-month tour with Kung Fu earlier in the month, so expect Particle to be a well-oiled machine when they get to New York City for this year’s annual New Year’s run late-night. [Buy tickets here]
Aqueous & Mungion – DROM – 11:30pm
This duo of up-and-coming jam bands is sure to rock any rock fans to their core. Both bands are tight as hell and know how to deliver the goods in the live setting. Mungion will take the stage first, and their progressive compositions and energetic jams are sure to bring the thunder. Buffalo, NY’s high-energy Aqueous will close things out with a showcase of their exciting dual-guitar attack and ambitious improvisation. This will be an awesome way to kick off the New Year’s run, with two of the best up-and-coming bands in the scene putting on a clinic at DROM. [Buy tickets here]
Thankful For Amy (Winehouse) – The Cutting Room – 11:55pm
If all-star tribute shows are your game, look no further than “Thankful For Amy” at The Cutting Room. The show is headlined by former American Idol contestant and all-around badass Elise Testone, who has really made a name for herself in the Northeast in 2016. With tributes to Michael Jackson and Led Zeppelin also in her repertoire, Testone’s tribute to Amy Winehouse is perhaps her best-known act, with Winehouse’s soulful catalog providing the perfect showcase for Testone’s powerful vocals. She’ll be joined by an excellent cast of musicians for this gig, with Jay Jennings from Snarky Puppy, Natalie Cressman from the Trey Anastasio Band, Jay Rodriguez of Groove Collective, Antoine Katz of Cory Henry & The Funk Apostles, and Adam Fallen from Rhythm & Stealth on the bill, with Trey Cooper and Kyle McCarter rounding things out. [Buy tickets here]
Hayley Jane and The Primates Do Bowie – BB King’s Blues Club – 11:55pm
2016 was such a sad year for the music world. We lost Prince, Sharon Jones, Leon Russel, Bernie Worrell, Phife Dog and Maurice White (among many others) in what can only be described as a tragic year. Perhaps the biggest loss of 2016 was David Bowie. The beloved rock ‘n’ roll icon spent years cultivating one of the best and most consistent catalogs in music, constantly delivering top-shelf material that continued to blow our minds with his final album, Blackstar, released just two days before his untimely death. On Wednesday, December 28th, Hayley Jane and The Primates will bring a raucous tribute to the “Thin White Duke” to the cozy confines of BB King’s Blues Club, giving fans one more opportunity to celebrate the life and music of the great David Bowie before bringing the awful year that was 2016 to a close on a high note. [Buy tickets here]
Madaila – Arlene’s Grocery – 11:55pm
Psych-pop upstarts Madaila will bring their synth-heavy vibes to the famed Arlene’s Grocery for an intimate post-Phish late night that is sure to satisfy fans with a more pop-centric lean. The band’s groove-oriented material is a welcome change of pace to the scene, drawing inspiration from Prince and Frank Ocean, and psychedelic rock. The band’s tight compositions, funky melodies, and impressive harmonies set them up for an exciting live show, and they are sure to surprise you with their skillful and thoughtful improvisation. [Buy tickets here]
Thursday, December 29th
Kung Fu – The Cutting Room – 11:55pm
Kung Fu are the masters of progressive funk. Their thunderous live performance is a familiar mashup of jazz fusion and improvisational bliss, with their tight compositions buoyed by an adventurous ability to jam. Guitarist Tim Palmieri delivers a masterclass on a nightly basis, continuously showing off the top-notch skills that have set him apart from the pack for years now. The band’s musical ability is huge, their jams are top notch, and they perform a number of fun and awesome covers. What more could you ask for from a Phish late night show? [Buy tickets here]
Dead Sessions – American Beauty – 4:00pm & 11:55pm
Vermont’s longtime cover band Dead Sessions will be bringing their unique brand of the Grateful Dead catalog to American Beauty both before and after Phish takes the stage. Dead Sessions will perform a pre-show party at 4pm and will return for a fun late night performance at 11:55pm. Ever since Dead Sessions’s formation in 1998, the band has featured a who’s who of guest musicians, with their rotating lineup allowing for members of Trey Anastasio Band, Grace Potter & The Nocturnals, Assembly of Dust, RAQ, Gordon Stone and more to perform with the band, including Phish archivist Kevin Shapiro on drums. This has been a reliable sellout each year in larger rooms like BB King’s and Highline Ballroom, so get your tickets now! [Buy tickets for the early show here, and the late show here]
lespecial and Chromatropic – DROM – 11:55pm
lespecial has quietly made a name for themselves as one of the best young bands in the Northeast. After cutting their teeth in the Boston music scene, they’ve brought their “Aggressive death-funk dance” music on the road with awesome success, impressing audiences up and down the east coast with their flowing, electronic grooves. They’ll be joined by jazzy jamtronica act Chromatropic, who’ll add a pulsating energy to the mix. If you go to this show, make sure to bring your dancing shoes, as the energy and good vibes will be turned up to maximum from the moment Chromotropic hits the stage. [Buy tickets here]
Galactic – PlayStation Theater – 11:30pm
Galactic will be hitting Times Square’s PlayStation Theater for a huge late-night show that’s sure to keep every funk fan dancing until sunrise. Stanton Moore and co. always know how to throw a party, and on this evening they’ll be joined by TAUK, who will be opening the show before heading up north to link up with Lettuce for two NYE-run shows. John Medeski will be the evening’s special guest, adding to the shows eclectic lineup. Times Square is a zoo this time of year, but close your eyes and make a bee-line for the PlayStation Theater, and you shall be rewarded with a night of down and dirty New Orleans funk music. [Buy tickets here]
Friday, December 30th
Holly Bowling – The Cutting Room – 4:00pm
Holly Bowling has been on an absolute tear recently. She turned in a masterful performance at Brooklyn Comes Alive, she released a new album of Grateful Dead material to go along with her Phish covers, she got to perform with both Phil Lesh and Bob Weir, and she was recently featured in this month’s “10 New Artists You Need To Know” segment in Rolling Stone magazine. Luckily for New York-area Phish fans, Bowling has been tapped to perform a pre-Phish show at The Cutting Room. Bowling will hit venue on December 30th, and she’ll be sure to deliver her mesmerizing brand of Phish and Dead covers for a memorable musical journey. [Buy tickets here]
PhanArt Presents: Formula 5 – American Beauty – FREE Show – 3:00pm
When on a major Phish run, phans have come to count on PhanArt as their go-to for all things phan-made. While it is incredible to organize so many artists in one place, the shows often take place in conference rooms in hotels or event centers, giving them a trade show vibe as opposed to a community hang (the most recent event at Brooklyn Bowl Las Vegas is an outlier). Well, this year in New York City, PhanArt is taking thins up a notch, bringing a standard art show to the Hotel Penn, as well as a special showcase at American Beauty that will feature two sets of music from up-and-coming funk jam band Formula 5. This show will be the ultimate pre-Phish hang, with tons of incredible art to see and/or purchase, several bars, free pizza with your drinks, and a quick one-block walk to MSG come show time. [more info here]
Galactic – PlayStation Theater – 11:30pm
Galactic will return to the PlayStation Theater for night two of their Phish late-night run. They’ll be joined by Sister Sparrow & The Dirty Birds for this show, so don’t miss out! [Buy tickets here]
Marcus King Band – The Cutting Room – 11:55pm
Marcus King Band are a force to be reckoned with. After releasing an album produced by venerable icon Warren Haynes, King and his cohorts just announced a tour with Eric Krasno Band, as he continues his ascension through the blues guitar ranks. King’s show at The Cutting Room should be a classic, with his reinvention of the blues genre bringing his music to audiences young and old. King is an old soul, and it shows in his songwriting and overall approach to music. Simply put, the kid is on the rise, and he’ll bring his raw musical talents to New York City for a truly memorable performance on December 30th. [Buy tickets here]
Pink Talking Fish: Animals – Gramercy Theater – 11:55pm
PTF have blown up over the past two years, turning into one of the best and most in-demand tribute acts on the live circuit. The band delivers top notch covers of Phish, The Talking Heads, and Pink Floyd, fitting all three band’s unique styles together and turning them into a huge dance party. This late night show will find PTF focusing on Pink Floyd‘s classic album Animals, which will be performed in its entirety on the evening. Fear not, as Phish and Talking Heads classics will be peppered throughout! [Buy tickets here]
Spafford and The Magic Beans – American Beauty – 11:55pm
Looking for two white-hot rising stars of the jam scene? Look no further than Spafford and The Magic Beans. The Beans have been making a name for themselves for the past few years, breaking out of their home base on the Front Range of Colorado and hitting festivals and clubs nationwide. They have an infectious, good-vibes energy that will keep you dancing until the wee hours. Similarly, Spafford is an improvisational force to be reckoned with. Hailing from Arizona, the unbelievably tight quartet has never played on the east coast, so New Yorkers are in for a rare treat. Their patient jams and balls-to-the-wall energy make for a special combination, and they have simply been blowing audiences away at each tour stop this fall. [Buy tickets here]
Saturday, December 31st
Holly Bowling – The Cutting Room – 4:00pm
Holly Bowling will return to The Cutting Room at 4:00pm on New Year’s Eve for another special Phish pre-show! [Buy tickets here]
Stella Blue’s Band – American Beauty – 4:00pm
The Stella Blue’s Band will be taking their talents from Garcia’s and bringing it to American Beauty for an awesome pre-Phish tribute to the Grateful Dead. The band has been on the rise ever since their formation in 2009, evolving into one of the best touring tributes to the Dead on today’s live circuit. [Buy tickets here]
The James Brown Dance Party – Gramercy Theatre – 1:30am
The Funkiest All-Star Tribute In Show Business will feature the 15-year reunion of The Giant Country Horns! This edition of the exciting, ever-changing project from the Chase Brothers of Jazz is PHSH will be blessed by the presence of funky drummer Clyde Stubblefield, who famously performed with James Brown starting in 1965, playing drums on such hits as “Sex Machine” and “I Got The Feelin’.” The band also features the incredible Elise Testone on vocals, plus members of Charles Bradley, Tedeschi Trucks, Lauryn Hill & more, making it a special evening for fans of James Brown and Phish alike. [Buy tickets here]
Snarky Puppy – Irving Plaza – 1:30am
Thank you, Snarky Puppy! You didn’t have to make your New Year’s Eve show a Phish late night…You could’ve been anywhere in the world, but you’ll be here in New York City, at the famous Irving Plaza. Snarky Puppy will deliver a lights-out late-night set of jazz fusion and world music, timed perfectly for phans at MSG to make the short trip from MSG to Union Square. Snarky Puppy needs no introduction, as they are one of the most impressive bands on the live circuit, continuing to defy expectations at every turn with their unique and pure approach to live music. [Buy tickets here]
The Magic Beans & Spafford – American Beauty – 1:30am
The rising starlets will play their second night at American Beauty,with Spafford taking the opening slot and The Magic Beans closing after Phish finishes up their traditional New Year’s show at MSG. [Buy tickets here]
More info and all ticket links can be found at www.phishafterparties.com.[Michael Dornisch] was surprised to find that the main processor of the Raspberry Pi reaches about 56 degrees Celsius (about 133 degrees F) while streaming video over the network. He thought it might help the longevity of the device if he was able to cool things off a bit. But why stop with just the processor? He added heat sinks to the SoC, Ethernet/USB chip, and voltage regulator.
From his parts bin he grabbed a small heat sink that was probably used on a graphics card. After measuring the three chips with his digital calipers he cut out the footprint he needed, resulting in three smaller heat sinks. We didn’t realize that thermal compound has enough gripping power to hold the sinks in place without any mechanical fastener, but apparently it does. [Michael] mentions that it’s possible to use other adhesives, like JB Weld. What’s important is that you use something (ie: thermal compound or a liquid adhesive) to prevent any air gap from coming between the chip surface and the aluminum.
He measured the result as a 17.3 degree C (31 degree F) drop in temperature. We looked around and it seems there’s no internal temperature sensor on the Broadcom chip so these surface readings will have to suffice. Do you think this will prolong the life of the board if it is used regularly to play back high quality video? We already know that these temperatures are within the specifications for the hardware.
[Thanks Simon]Death Row inmates oppose Prop. 34
This injection table, with straps, would be used for the exectuion of a condemned prisoner. Officials from San Quentin State Prison display the newly completed Lethal Injection Facility, on Tuesday Sept. 21, 2010 in San Quentin, Calif. less This injection table, with straps, would be used for the exectuion of a condemned prisoner. Officials from San Quentin State Prison display the newly completed Lethal Injection Facility, on Tuesday Sept. 21,... more Photo: Michael Macor, The Chronicle Photo: Michael Macor, The Chronicle Image 1 of / 4 Caption Close Death Row inmates oppose Prop. 34 1 / 4 Back to Gallery
Like other state prisoners, the 725 inmates on California's Death Row can't vote. But if they could, there's evidence that most of them would vote against a November ballot initiative to abolish the death penalty.
It's not that they want to die, attorney Robert Bryan said. They just want to hang on to the possibility of proving that they're innocent, or at least that they were wrongly convicted. That would require state funding for lawyers and investigators - funding that Proposition 34 would eliminate for many Death Row inmates after the first round of appeals.
Bryan has represented several condemned prisoners in California as well as Mumia Abu-Jamal, the radical activist and commentator whose death sentence for the murder of a Philadelphia policeman was recently reduced to life in prison. The attorney said California inmates have told him they'd prefer the current law, with its prospect of lethal injection, to one that would reduce their appellate rights.
"Many of them say, 'I'd rather gamble and have the death penalty dangling there but be able to fight to right a wrong,' " Bryan said.
Or, as Death Row inmate Correll Thomas put it in a recent newspaper essay, if Prop. 34 passes, "the courthouse doors will be slammed forever."
Added legal rights
The seeming paradox reflects the tangled legal procedures surrounding capital punishment and the state's efforts to guard against wrongful convictions and executions by providing additional rights to the condemned.
All criminal defendants who can't afford to hire a lawyer have a right to legal representation, at state expense, for their trial and appeal. But only those sentenced to death are guaranteed a state-funded legal team for the post-appellate proceedings known as habeas corpus.
Habeas corpus allows inmates to challenge their convictions or sentence for reasons outside the trial record - typically, incompetent legal representation, misconduct by a judge or juror, or newly discovered evidence. Such challenges are reviewed by both state and federal courts.
For condemned prisoners, it often represents their best chance to stave off execution by presenting their claims to federal judges, who are appointed for life, rather than elected state judges. A ruling that leads to their acquittal, or even a finding of innocence, is also more likely in habeas corpus than in the earlier direct appeal.
Life without parole
Prop. 34, on the Nov. 6 ballot, would replace the death penalty with life in prison without parole. Death Row inmates would have their sentences reduced to life - and, as a consequence, lose access to state-funded lawyers for habeas corpus, except for those who have already filed their claims.
They would have to file them on their own, or with volunteer lawyers. A judge who finds strong evidence of innocence could order the state to pay the inmate's legal costs for further proceedings.
More than 300 inmates would be affected by the measure's passage, said Bryan, who as a state-appointed habeas corpus lawyer won a state Supreme Court ruling last month overturning a death sentence for a double murder in San Jose.
Same legal footing
Attorney Natasha Minsker, the Yes on 34 campaign manager, said the initiative would place now-condemned inmates "in the same position as every prisoner convicted of a serious felony in California," with the same right to go to court.
They would no longer automatically get state-funded lawyers for habeas corpus claims, Minsker said. The main purpose of those lawyers now is "to save a person's life" from a wrongful execution, but that task would disappear if Prop. 34 passed, she said.
No one has polled Death Row inmates on Prop. 34. But an organization called the Campaign to End the Death Penalty sent letters to 220 condemned prisoners in California and received about 50 replies, all but three of them against the ballot measure, said Lily Mae Hughes, the group's director.
The reasons were described in commentaries carried in June by San Francisco's BayView newspaper from three condemned prisoners, two of them opposing Prop. 34.
"We are in fact taking a step backward in our ability to challenge our convictions," said Kevin Cooper, convicted of murdering four people, including two children, in San Bernardino County after his escape from prison in 1983. State and federal courts have upheld his death sentence, although five federal judges declared in a dissenting opinion two years ago that they believed he might be innocent.
Thomas, whose death sentence for the fatal shooting of a San Diego motorist was upheld by the state Supreme Court last year, said fellow inmates agree with him that life without parole is "another death penalty."
Donald Ray Young, one of two brothers sentenced to death for the 1995 murders of five people at a bar in Tulare - crimes they deny committing - supported Prop. 34.
"Let us choose the ballot box," he wrote, "or the pine box will choose us."IF YOU’RE RELYING on the public health care system, you’re living your life under surveillance, says Khiara Bridges, a law professor and anthropology researcher at the Boston University School of Law.
All sorts of incredibly invasive details about your life, including sexual experience, eating habits, and job history, are stored in databases that are accessible not only to your caregivers, but potentially to law enforcement, too, she says.
Bridges will be discussing her research on the routine and invasive monitoring of women who require certain public health care assistance on Friday at a Georgetown Law School conference titled “The Color of Surveillance: Government Monitoring of the Black Community.”
Her first book, Reproducing Race, featured four women at a New York City public hospital whom she followed from May 2006 to September 2007. These women were enrolled in the Prenatal Care Assistance Program, which serves uninsured and underinsured women, including undocumented immigrant women.
The women start by going through what she calls “information canvassing” in order to enroll — answering questions on topics “from sexual abuse, to intimate partner violence, to how often they ate, what they ate, how they make their money, how their partner makes their money.”
They are then required by law to speak with nurses, health educators, HIV counselors, social workers, financial officers, and others.
“Their lives are just so open to observation and regulation,” Bridges says in a phone interview.
These “case management services” are officially there to provide help in “gaining access to needed medical, social, educational, and other services.”
But Bridges argues that the questions sometimes stray into the unnecessary, invasive, and non-medical territory. She calls it “a gross and substantial intrusion by the government into poor, pregnant women’s private lives.”
Bridges says she is publishing a new book next spring called The Poverty of Privacy Rights — zooming in on just how little privacy the underprivileged have under systems like Medicaid. She’s explored the topic in several law review articles, including one at Harvard titled “Privacy Rights and Public Families.”
Those who can afford private health care get to pick what they say to whom, Bridges says. “They don’t have to talk about the past if they don’t want,” she explains. They can protect their privacy through their wealth.
Bridges is particularly concerned about exceptions in the law that allow for incredibly personal information to be shared with law enforcement. As she writes in a section of her forthcoming book:
Crucially, the Privacy Act contains exceptions that allow for the nonconsensual disclosure of collected information. Intriguingly, one of those exceptions “allows disclosure to other jurisdictions for law enforcement.” The result of this exception is that when a population is imagined to be inclined toward criminality, then that population exists in a state of exception under the Privacy Act: Its information can be disclosed as long as it is for law enforcement purposes. … … Undeniably, welfare beneficiaries are one of those populations that are thought to be comprised of criminal elements. The irony should be apparent: The act that provides protection from the disclosure of information, and thereby saves the constitutionality of information-collecting regimes, itself provides for disclosure.
Other researchers and groups, such as the Stop LAPD Spying Coalition, are concerned about the surveillance of people who enroll in Electronic Benefit Transfer programs to buy groceries, or take advantage of other public benefits.
The monitoring of people who need public assistance has long been an issue with feminist thinkers and other legal scholars.
Maria Cristina Rangel, a feminist activist and mother who relied on the public benefits system, wrote in a 2001 book:
The whole system is based on the assumption that you are trying to screw [welfare officials] over. There are constant check-ins and impossibly long lists of “verifications” to submit to the state in order to back your story; inquisitions involving a battery of questions asked by countless supervisors behind closed doors when it appears that your story does not add up … [and] if you don’t comply … your benefits can be cut.
Bridges remains focused on everyday public health care monitoring. And, she says, “The least scrutinized program is Medicaid.”Just two weeks after Verizon’s 4G data network most recently went on the fritz, it looks like customers are once again being forced to live their lives without data. Scores of Verizon users across the country will be waking up without without so much as a 3G connection in sight until a fix is in place.
A quick look at Verizon’s support forums illustrates the extent of the data outage: the data outage has struck New York, California, Illinois, Washington D.C., New Jersey, Florida, North Carolina, and Ohio (among others).
Now the outage doesn’t seem to be affecting everyone (much like last time), and some users are reporting that their data service has been restored. I’d take those reports with a grain of salt for the time being: my Verizon Galaxy Nexus manages to pick up a 1X or 3G connection sporadically, but it never lasts for long. That said, anyone who has an LTE smartphone may want to switch into the CDMA-only mode, as that’s where I’ve had most of my (limited) success with data.
While I’m sure that it won’t be too long before Verizon sorts out this mess, it may not be the most comforting situation for customers looking to re-up their contracts with Big Red. They’ve had pretty consistent 4G service for the year that the network has been live, but now customers have had to deal with two major data snafus in one month. C’mon Verizon, I expect these sorts of data issues from RIM, not you.
Verizon has yet to acknowledge the issue via a release, although their @VZWSupport Twitter account has just started fielding customer complaints about the outage. We’ll keep you posted on any further developments.
UPDATE: It’s all over, folks. Back to web surfing and tweeting as usual.
https://twitter.com/#!/VZWnews/status/149566208503578624Native YouTube Ranking Factors and Rank Correlations 2016 helps provide marketers and YouTubers the insight needed, to gain organic (non-paid) visibility within the YouTube SERPs (Search Engine Result Page – the page that shows the results of any given search on YouTube). As any type of data analysis can get rather complicated, you can click any of the following links to jump to the corresponding point, or read the YouTube Ranking Factors Key Learnings and Takeaways post here.
Data Gathering, Size, and Correlations – Ranking Factors 2016 – Understanding the Data – Percentage Distribution of Positive Factors
Grouped Factors Percentage – Thoughts on “Per View” data – Thoughts on “Engagement” – Future Data
Data Gathering, Size, and Correlations
What is meant by “Native”? YouTube ranking factors can largely be divided into two categories, one that provides power to the video (Native), that you have no control over (such as Likes or Watch Time), and another that is about “Relevancy” (such as name of the video, keywords in the description, and so forth). Ranking correlations on Relevancy is expected to hit in about a month.
The data was gathered from roughly (varies slightly on some factors) 250 different high-volume search terms, during January 2016. Limiting it to high-volume searches was chosen to have more similarity between how the algorithm might look and rank the videos. With terms with very low monthly volume, there might be very little content, and as such the algorithm wouldn’t be “forced to work in full effect”, so to speak, and hence terms with an assumed high volume was chosen.
Examples of these searches are: “pewdiepie”, “science”, “cute animals”, “america”, “how to cook”, “photoshop tutorial”, and “call of duty”.
For each of these searches, data was gathered on the top 40 ranking videos for each search term.
A total of 33 different data points was gathered for each video, and an additional 8 were calculated from the gathered data (such as viewer retention and total engagement).
In total, over 400.000 individual data points was used in the calculation of the data shown below.
While this sounds like a lot, it’s important to remember to key things: this is based on 250 search terms (billions exist), and on top 40 rankings. Both of these numbers greatly limits the data, and how correlations may play out. This was released under the mantra “A good plan executed today, is better than a great plan executed in a week.”
More data than shown was gathered, but was removed from the final findings either because the data turned out to be incomplete, or because arranging the data correctly from the way it was gathered would take too long. This data includes total words in subtitles (used to calculate Words per Minute), Exact Match Keywords in Title, and more. This data is expected to be included in future studies.
Last, it’s incredibly important to remember that: Correlation Does Not Always Equal Causation.
The data below is correlation. In theory, all that means is that throughout the data, mathematically there is a connection between the ranking and corresponding data. However, it is not possible to determine whether the data (such as comments or likes) resulted in higher rankings, or higher rankings result in more comments and likes. This is discussed again further down.
Ranking Factors 2016: Hierarchical List
The below graph shows all the factors measured, ordered in a hierarchical list, with the factors that got the highest correlation score at the top, with the lowest correlation score at the bottom.
Understanding the Data
Likes
“Likes” represents the total amount of likes a given video has gotten, over its lifetime on YouTube.
It was quite the surprise to see this gaining a top spot in this list, as this is not something YouTube has ever seemed to put particular weight on. However, it could (perhaps more likely) be that Likes are simply the biggest player in total engagement, which comes in second – meaning that Likes itself is not important, but is just the most common form of engagement on a video.
The difference in correlation between Likes and Total Engagement, is so small, that it is statistically impossible to say which would be higher on the list, in case of a larger dataset.
Total Engagement
“Total Engagement” is the total amount of Likes, Dislikes, Comments, Shares, and Subscriptions driven by a video, over its lifetime on YouTube.
It was surprising to see it ranking higher than factors such as Watch Time, but it’s not surprising at all to see it high on the list. As you’ll notice with Dislikes slightly lower on the list, YouTube cares more about how engaging a video is, whether that engagement is negative or positive – and that makes sense. If negative engagement (such as Dislikes) made a video rank lower, Rebecca Blacks “Friday” video would never be able to rank for the keyword “Friday”, even though its highly relevant.
Instead, we can assume that “negative engagement” is viewed by YouTube as “provocative” or “controversial”, instead of “bad”.
Total Likes/Dislikes
“Total Likes/Dislikes” is the total amount of Likes and Dislikes a video has received, over its lifetime on YouTube.
After understanding that Engagement overall is one of the more important factors in the list, it’s a given that the total amount of Likes and Dislikes would also be very high on the list, as they are one of the biggest factors in Total Engagement, and Dislikes appears just a few steps further down.
Views
“Views” is the total amount views a video has gotten, over its lifetime on YouTube.
It’s unlikely that views are actually a core ranking factor in and of itself, but rather an indicator of what is needed to rank highly. Without many views, a video would most likely never get the Watch Time needed, to rank highly in competitive search results.
Since these were measured only on high-volume keywords, it could also be the natural situation that any video that ends up ranking highly, will automatically gain many views relatively fast simply from the organic search traffic it would receive.
Dislikes
“Dislikes” is the total amount dislikes a video has gotten, over its lifetime on YouTube.
The fact that Dislikes ranks this highly on the list, is at the very least proof that YouTube does not care whether a video has gotten many dislikes or not. It is most likely not a ranking factor in and of itself, but rather part of total engagement.
Comments
“Comments” is the total amount comments a video has gotten, over its lifetime on YouTube.
As with the rest of the engagement factors, it’s not surprising to see this at a high spot. That it ranks lower, seems to indicate that the amount of comments on a video vary much more, than likes for instance. Where many likes are very often an indicator of a “rank worthy” video, comments fluctuate more.
Watch Time
“Watch Time” is the total amount of minutes a video has been watched, over its lifetime on YouTube.
Its particularly interesting, that what has been touted as the main ranking factor by YouTube, is not found on the list until now. Watch Time was specifically put in place, to replace Views as the main ranking factor – ironically, at least in correlation, it is found considerably lower on the list than Views or Engagement.
This could potentially indicate, that Watch Time, while important, is not the end-all-be-all that is often touted by YouTube themselves.
Total Channel subscribers
“Total Channel Subscribers” is the total amount of subscribers the YouTube Channel of a video, when the data for the video was collected.
Whether the total amount of channel subscribers is a ranking factor (it could potentially be used as a way to say “many people regularly like the content from this creator, so we assume it is generally good”), or not is hard to say.
Channel subscribers could also simply play a big factor in getting engagement much higher, and also result in many more views (as it is automatically sent out to all the subscribers) which in turn would result in a higher Watch Time.
Nonetheless, it shows that large channels have a very clear advantage over smaller channels, when it comes to ranking videos.
Viewer Retention
“Viewer Retention” is the average percentage of how much of a video is viewed, over its lifetime on YouTube.
Viewer Retention is the second “official” ranking factor from YouTube, but it would seem it is considerably less important than Watch Time. In fact, Watch Time has a correlation that is almost 4 times stronger than Viewer Retention.
This could mean that Viewer Retention is used more as a “tie breaker”, when two videos reach the same amount of watch time, rather than a strong ranking factor in and of itself.
Resolution
“Resolution” is the max resolution a video is available on YouTube.
Unsurprisingly, people prefer to watch a video in a High Definition format. As internet speeds have gotten faster all over the world, it allows people to watch video in a much crisper format, and this is a clear indicator that (obviously) people prefer to do so.
It should serve as a warning to video creators, that while “studio production” quality is still not needed on YouTube, there is definitely a tendency for people to prefer videos of a higher quality.
Total Channel Videos
“Total Videos” is the total amount of videos the channel of a video has, when the data for the video was collected.
As with the total amount of subscribers, Total videos is equally difficult to say. YouTube could use it as an indicator, that if a channel has uploaded many videos, it is most likely more trustworthy than a very small channel.
But it could also be, that channels that have uploaded many videos, have simply perfected their craft more, and as such tend to upload videos of a higher quality, and have most likely also garnered more subscribers – both of which might not help in and of itself, but would help boost other factors.
Driven Subscriptions
“Driven Subscriptions” is the total amount of people, who have subscribed to the channel through the video itself.
It was rather surprising to see this as low as it is, considering the quality signals it is actually sending. If a person subscribes to a channel, after having watched a video, most would agree that obviously that video must have been of such high quality that the user says “I’ll gladly watch whatever else this channel sends my way”. By that logic, should be one of the strongest factors.
That it ranks as low as it does, might mean that YouTube isn’t counting this as a factor at all, and that it’s simply natural for videos of a high quality to garner more subscribers than “bad” videos.
As we will see with other numbers further down, this could indicate that the search algorithm is considerably less advanced/intricate, than one might assume.
Length
“Length” is the length (time) of a video.
It is highly unlikely that the length of a video itself, is a ranking factor. However, as we know that Watch Time is a ranking factor, it is only natural that videos that are longer (meaning people watch more minutes) would fare better, than videos that are much shorter.
Total Likes/Dislikes per View
“Total Likes/Dislikes” is the total amount of Likes and Dislikes a video has received, divided by the total amount of views, over its lifetime on YouTube.
As you will notice with anything on this list, that is measured “per view”, it has an outright negative correlation. This should not be understood as “YouTube ranks my video lower because of this”, rather it is likely that the correlation is so non-existent, that |
Cubs’ super-utility gig wouldn’t be any less fulfilling.
Baez played second base exclusively for Puerto Rico’s second-place World Baseball Classic team, but he won’t have that luxury with the Cubs.
“I know I’m going to play a lot, so I’m relaxing,” said Baez, who doubled, flew out to the warning track and struck out Saturday in his first spring training game since March 5. “[The WBC was] really good for me to take some real [at bats] and to be in motion of a game.”
Baez will spend the rest of spring training getting reacquainted with different positions, though manager Joe Maddon whittled those options down, for now, to shortstop and second base.
Javy Baez returned to the Cubs' lineup Saturday. (Getty Images)
He has work to do. Baez’s fielding error at shortstop led to a Rockies run in the Cubs’ 7-4 split-squad loss. He dropped another throw that negated a likely double play.
Baez hit.345 with one homer and five RBI in the WBC and made two of the tournament’s most impressive plays. In the semifinal last week, Baez slid head-first and used a swim move to avoid a tag.
While covering second base in Round 2, against the Dominican Republic, he pointed and celebrated a caught-stealing — while administering a no-look tag.
Baez didn’t know he’d done anything spectacular.
“I had so many [phone] messages and so many videos about it,” he said.
Baez, who didn’t attend the celebratory parade in Puerto Rico this week, defended the team’s joyous style. The Cubs have never asked Baez to curb his flair, though Maddon has stressed with him the ability to make routine plays.
“This is a game,” Baez said. “It’s not as serious as a lot of people take it. Everybody’s got their style.”
That emotion made this year’s WBC the most popular ever, though Maddon posited that world events contributed to a “perfect storm” of nationalism, “with world politics, national politics and the way everybody reacted to everything right now.”
Baez loved the WBC, dubbing teammate Yadier Molina of the rival Cardinals “one of the great catchers ever.” He’s proud of the impact the team had on the island, too. So many fans bleached their hair in support of the team, which had done the same, that Puerto Rico stores ran out of dye.
Soon, Baez’s yellow faux-hawk will be a memory, too.
“I’m going to cut it soon or dye it back black,” he said.
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The MVP, Hall of Famer and Summer Wind? Vegas Cubs’ kind of townAnother month is in the books for 2013, and that means we just had 30 days of new apps and games. We’ve mentioned numerous times how app releases have really picked up lately, especially official apps from big name sources. It can be easy to miss some of the apps and games that were released in a months time. Lucky for you we have this handy monthly recap of the best apps from April.
Rovio’s first non-Angry Birds game is a Rube Goldberg machine puzzler. The goal is to help Alex finish his chores and clean his room by building contraptions. Amazing Alex has more than 100 levels, 35 objects to choose from, and four locations to build on.
Camera360 is a powerful and feature-packed app. It provides a bevy of filters, effects, frames, and options to help you get the perfect photo. it works as a Lens app for Windows Phone 8, meaning it can be launched directly from the camera.
Countdown is a very popular app on iOS that has come to Windows Phone. Countdown is so popular because of it’s simple design and functionality. It allows users to create countdowns for virtually anything you want.
Cut the Rope Experiments is basically the same as the original Cut the Rope game. You start out with the same type of props and challenges as the first game, but as you go new props and situations are introduced.
Find My Coffee has been a popular app on iOS and Android for a while among coffee lovers. It helps people find places that sell coffee. Starbucks, many other national and regional chains, and local coffee shops included.
GoComics is home to basically all the syndicated comics you would see in a standard newspaper, plus a lot of online comics as well. They have all the big ones: Calvin and Hobbes, Dilbert, Foxtrot, Peanuts, Garfield, and much more.
This game stars all the Ice Age characters you know and love. Sid, Mannie, Ellie, Diego, and even Scrat-everyone’s real favorite character-are all present. The main task is to build a new village for the gang, but there are side missions and mini-games along the way to keep things interesting.
Indigo is a personal assistant app for Windows Phone that aims to help even more. It’s special because it integrates with a number of system apps. It reminds us a lot of Ask Ziggy, but with a lot more personal info.
Instagraph is not an official Instagram app, nor does it have Instagram’s blessing. Despite that it is the only app available for Windows Phone that will allow you to upload picture to your Instagram account. It’s pretty neat.
MC4 puts you in the shoes of a soldier who is trying to help his unit avoid global devastation after a nuclear attack. The game is packed with Hollywood-style effects and great voice acting. It’s one of the most visually impressive games on the platform.
MonsterUp Colors is a hybrid between Tetris and Bejeweled. The goal of the game is to match the color cubes as fast and accurate as you can to score points. There is a time limit and power-ups to make it more interesting.
Ms. Splosion Man is a 3D platformer with a fun premise. Scientists accidentally created Ms. Splosion Man by spilling champagne. The goal of the game is to help Ms. Splosion Man escape the facility by blowing things up.
NBC News is a full featured app for Windows Phone. It has voice commands, lockscreen support, and the ability to pin news sections. It has an awesome design and is a welcomed addition to the News section in the Windows Phone Store.
Currently Nest offers Android and iOS apps, but thanks to a Windows Phone developer there is a new unofficial app that can do the same. Nest Thermostat by Mike Richards is the first app to allow Windows Phone users to control their Nest.
This is not a new app, but the update is so large it might as well be. OpenTable now uses Foodspotting photos for dishes, has mobile-optimized restaurant menus, and reviews from verified users. It is much improved.
The biggest app of the month is Tumblr. The popular blogging platform took a long time to arrive on Windows Phone, but it was worth the wait. Tumblr is a completely native expirience with some great WP8 features.
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That wraps up another month! April was a great month for app and game releases. We hope you found a couple here that you didn’t know about. We’ll be back at the end of May to round up the next months worth of apps. What were your favorite apps from April?15 Tips for Seeing a New Rheumatologist- Your First Visit
I have written before about finding a new rheumatologist, but what about your first visit to your new rheumatologist? Here are 15 tips for when you’re done doctor shopping and ready to try them on:
Keep in mind that every doctor works differently and each person presents their disease differently.
Arrive early and assess the waiting room. If you have a hard time sitting up for the duration of your wait or you find the chairs to be causing you discomfort and pain, kindly ask the office staff if there is any alternative or a room available for you to lay down in.
Try to find the new patient paperwork online. Lots of practices will have websites with printable forms. This will save you time in the waiting room and hopefully get you in and out faster. Also helps if you have a difficult time with painful hands and writing pages of paperwork at a time! You can also call the doctor’s office and ask them to fax or mail you the forms.
Bring all necessary insurance information and your insurance card
Make a Health Information Sheet– write a list of all your symptoms and considering including date/period of onset and note which ones are the most severe and how they have changed over time (try to keep these notes short), current medications/vitamins/supplements with the actual dosages and how often you take them, current medical history: any diagnoses/diseases/conditions and treatment for them, current physicians with contact information, family history, your personal contact information and your emergency contact’s information. Also list any current or past treatments for anything rheumatology-related. Make three or four copies of this sheet and allow your doctor to have one for your chart. This makes taking your history significantly easier for the nurses/physicians in the office. I also suggest giving one to your emergency contact person and carrying one with you at all times in your wallet in case of emergency. Keep it updated as your health changes.
Consider your symptoms in detail and be honest about them. Be prepared for questions about when your symptoms started, how they have changed over time, what makes them worse and what makes them better, if they are exacerbated by physical activity, etc. Do you have fevers? When do they spike? When do they break? Do they come with chills/sweats? Be honest when discussing symptoms, no matter how embarrassing or uncomfortable it may be to discuss things like your sexual history or bowel movements. If it weren’t important, your doctor wouldn’t ask!
Make a mental (or literal) note of how your symptoms impact your daily life and what tasks seem to be most difficult. This is a common question on symptom forms and from the doctor too.
Put together a list of concerns/questions and make sure you ask all of them, and continue to ask questions as your rheumatologist goes along. Don’t hold back your questions even if asking so many questions makes you feel insecure– it’s crucial to your health that you completely understand what is discussed in the appointment and you leave feeling like you have a clear idea of what’s going on. Make sure you leave understanding the doctor’s general consensus and plan of action– what is the next step? Treatment plan, if any? Lab results, if any? What is the diagnosis or suspected diagnosis, if any? Make sure you leave feeling informed.
Bring any relevant medical records from other doctors and make a copy for yourself to keep as well.
Bring a notebook and take notes! If you feel comfortable with someone else being with you throughout the appointment, have someone with you to take notes or jot down important info as you meet/talk with the physician. The appointments can be overwhelming, of course, and sometimes it’s hard to remember everything when you’re not feeling well, in pain, and overwhelmed. Having someone to write down important information, or doing so yourself, is a huge help.
Prepare for a long appointment. The first consult is generally a lengthy one, so dress in comfortable clothing and prepare to put aside a few hours of your day. Bring something to keep you busy in the waiting room. Chances are, you will spend a decent amount of time with this new doctor going over your entire medical history. You may also be asked to have labs drawn or x-rays done right there on site, so prepare accordingly and find out if you need to be fasting before your labs are done. Consider driving/transportation arrangements if you know that you will be unable to drive yourself after a long day. Bring a small snack and a bottle of water.
Expect to be poked and prodded. If you’re being examined for joint involvement, the doctor will more than likely examine you and lightly press on/move various parts of your body. Your doctor will likely use a stethoscope and listen to your heart/lungs and bowels. They may or may not palpate your abdomen. Anticipate being asked to wear a gown and consider appropriate clothing in case you do have to change into a gown.
Avoid wearing nail polish or covering up rashes with make up. Rheumatologists look at the skin and nails. Make up and nail polish can conceal significant physical findings that make a difference when seeking a diagnosis.
Always ask for a copy of any blood/lab results after they come in and if no one calls you with the results after a week, call them. Doctors mix up labs all the time– having a copy is key, really.
Finding a rheumatologist is a lot like dating. They might be super smart and well educated, but a poor communicator. They might be super nice, but not the greatest at looking at the whole picture. If you don’t feel comfortable with the doctor after your visit, if you feel disrespected or are not taken seriously, don’t be afraid to find another one. Your health is yours to take care of; don’t be afraid to doctor shop until you’re confident that you’re in the best possible hands. Some tips on Finding Doctor Right here.
Best the best patient you can be. What does that mean? Find the balance between being an advocate for yourself (asking questions, voicing concerns) while still remaining respectful and courteous to your doctor(s) and office staff.
Best of luck!In 1982, Judas Priest found themselves at a crossroads. Point of Entry had brought criticism from fans who thought the record suffered from commercial leanings. For their next record, the band could either continue to court radio or proudly return to their characteristic heavy sound. With Screaming for Vengeance, Judas Priest chose the latter path and created one of the strongest statements of their career.
To reassure fans that the new album was a return to form, the cover needed to make a bold visual statement. The result was The Hellion, an airborne beast of destruction. One glance at Screaming for Vengeance and it was clear that the Priest was back.
A mere visual representation was not enough. The legend of The Hellion was to be forever etched in metal lore. Flipping to the reverse side, fans are formally introduced to this metal monster.
“From an unknown land and through distant skies came a winged warrior. Nothing remained sacred, no one was safe from the Hellion as it uttered its battle cry…Screaming for Vengeance!”
The Hellion is honored with its own song. Along with “Electric Eye” and “Riding on the Wind,” the album opens with a 1-2-3 punch before the music gets even heavier with “Bloodstone.” The title track was faster than any Priest song before it. Closer “Devil’s Child” ensured that no Judas Priest fan could possibly accuse the band of abandoning their metal roots.
Still, the album was hardly perfect. One look at the hype sticker reveals what were deemed selling points. “You’ve Got Another Thing Coming” proved to be an enduring hit. The immortal classic “The Hellion/Electric Eye” remains a source of pride. Yet, “(Take These) Chains” was a misstep. It’s the sound of a band who wanted to rage but were forced to write for radio. The song is awkward in the context of heavier songs. There’s a reason why this song has never been played in concert.
The follow-up needed to be an absolute metal masterpiece without glaring commercial aspirations. Everything about this new album had to be more extreme, including the artwork. A new metal monster was needed. Meet the Metallian!
The Metallian is a monstrous tank of conquest. Red, white and blue armor suggest that Judas Priest had America in their sights. Their brand of British Steel would continue to roll through the American heartland, further solidifying their growing dominance of the U.S. metal scene.
As before, the back cover reveals the origins of a metal monster. Lowercase letters have been banished. All caps usher in the legend of THE METALLIAN.
“RISING FROM DARKNESS WHERE HELL HATH NO MERCY AND THE SCREAMS OF VENGEANCE ECHO ON FOREVER. ONLY THOSE WHO KEEP THE FAITH SHALL ESCAPE THE WRATH OF THE METALLIAN…
MASTER OF ALL METAL”
The reference to Screaming for Vengeance immortalized the album into Judas Priest mythology. The Metallian logo harkens back to Sad Wings of Destiny. A subtle reminder of the band’s incredible body of work, it’s clear that the term “MASTER OF ALL METAL” applies not only to a fantasy beast, but also to Judas Priest.
With two recent albums ensuring their legacy as the embodiment of pure metal, Judas Priest were ready to explore new sonic territory. Turbo was divisive, not only for the use of guitar synths, but also for a blatant attempt at assimilating into the pop metal of the day. Ram It Down was heavier but not enough to redeem them in the eyes of fans that felt betrayed. With the rise of thrash upping the standards for how heavy metal should be, Judas Priest seemed like a watered down version of their former selves.
Once again, Judas Priest needed to reclaim their rightful place as heirs to the heavy metal throne. Like Screaming for Vengeance before it, Painkiller was a return to true metal. Taking a cue from the eighties, a pair of new metal monsters helped Judas Priest enter the new decade.
The Painkiller is not fully human. Rather, he is “half man and half machine.” After an absence from previous albums, the iconic logo reappears. Branded into armor and worn as a badge of honor, the Painkiller proudly displays a symbol synonymous with Judas Priest.
Our new metal warrior rides a fanged serpent/motorcycle hybrid. In place of wheels there are spinning metal blades that destroys as it transports. As The Painkiller “Rides the Metal Monster” he ushers in the next era of Judas Priest.
As always, the rear cover outlines a new chapter in Judas Priest history.
“AS MANKIND HURLED ITSELF FOREVER DOWNWARDS INTO THE BOTTOMLESS PIT OF ETERNAL CHAOS, THE REMNANTS OF CIVILIZATION SCREAMED FOR SALVATION
-REDEMPTION ROARED ACROSS THE BURNING SKY…THE PAINKILLER!”
Painkiller certainly brought redemption. Easily the heaviest record of their career, fans embraced the re-energized band with open arms. The album was so well received that news of Rob Halford leaving Judas Priest sent shockwaves through the metal community. To this day, Painkiller is heralded as one of the best Judas Priest albums in a dizzying sea of masterpieces.
Though Priest and Halford both remained active over the next decade, it was inevitable that they would join forces again. Angel of Retribution was what one expected from a classic Priest reunion but the double-concept album Nostradamus left fans underwhelmed. It had been over 20 years since Painkiller and the arrival of a new metal monster was long overdue. Enter the Redeemer of Souls!
This winged creature of fire wears the mark of Judas Priest around his neck. It is a clear indication that Redeemer of Souls recaptures the vibe of vintage Priest. Keeping with tradition, the back cover elaborates upon the arrival of this supernatural agent of salvation.
Death, doom and destruction rain down upon the Forsaken
One being stands alone to save humanity
A soldier born from the past on sad wings of destiny
Powerful, unflinching and bearing the eternal force
That will proclaim and assert metal’s deliverance
The Redeemer of Souls!
Just the mention of Sad Wings of Destiny sends chills down the spines of long-time fans. Judas Priest have returned, not only to redeem themselves after Nostradamus, but to “assert metal’s deliverance.” It’s almost inconceivable, but after all these years, Judas Priest have crafted a metal masterpiece on par with the classic albums of their prime. It confirms what we have known all along. Judas Priest are the torch-bearers and representatives of a genre they love. Like the Metallian, Judas Priest are the masters of all metal!(Picture: Trina Cary Photography)
Photographer Trina Cary is fed up of being told that her naked body is unacceptable.
Last year, she took her first set of nude self portraits in her friend’s room.
Feeling inspired and confident, she built up the courage to share those photos on Facebook, and quickly received more likes, comments, and shares than she had ever received on a photograph.
‘This was right where I was supposed to be,’ Trina told metro.co.uk. ‘Baring it all to the world. Showing my soul to others to help them grow.’
Her photos went viral. Her followers grew.
But every time she posted a nude self-portrait, that photo would quickly be reported – despite Trina taking the time to censor every image so it doesn’t violate Facebook’s community standards.
Last week she posted a photo with her hands covering her breasts, naked but with a patch of thorns covering up her genital area.
(Picture: Trina Cary Photography)
‘I darkened my lower half so that you couldn’t see anything at all even if you zoomed in on your phone,’ said Trina.
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‘I loved this photo. I felt like me in it. I felt strong and beautiful. I was so delighted to have gotten one good image from my self portrait session and was so excited to share it with all of my followers.’
Within ten minutes of being posted, the photo was reported. Trina then received a notification telling her that she had been banned from Facebook for seven days due to ‘inappropriate content’.
(Picture: Trina Cary Photography)
(Picture: Trina Cary Photography)
‘This created a storm inside of me,’ said Trina, explaining that she was ‘outraged’ that her photo had been banned even though it didn’t violate any of Facebook’s expressed rules.
Being banned for seven days caused issues for Trina in her professional life, preventing her from contacting clients she had traveled to do a photoshoot with.
(Picture: Trina Cary Photography)
‘I had other clients who were in the middle of talking with me who thought I had unprofessionally blocked them,’ said Trina. ‘I was helpless. I couldn’t fight it.’
Trina used that anger as motivation.
Fed up of seeing videos of naked men, sexual and suggestive images, and violent pictures shared on Facebook without any issue, while her artwork was banned, Trina decided to stage a protest.
(Picture: Trina Cary Photography)
She posted a callout on Facebook, inviting women to join her for a nude photoshoot.
30 women responded, and the group headed to a stark rock quarry in Kelowna, Canada, to strip down entirely nude – apart from ‘censored’ tape covering their breasts and pubic areas.
(Picture: Trina Cary Photography)
‘The process was absolute chaos,’ said Trina. ‘But amazing chaos.
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‘These women showed up nervous and shaky, not knowing one another at all and yet within 10 minutes they were all best friends.
(Picture: Trina Cary Photography)
‘Helping tape each other laughing and exchanging compliments. There was no judgement, no fear just courage, empowerment and joy.’
One of the women, Mariah Raven, said that she had never felt so at peace as she did posing nude with 29 other women.
‘I wasn’t looking around judging others, for once I felt like we were all just equal,’ Mariah said. ‘It was the most freeing feeling I’ve ever felt.
(Picture: Trina Cary Photography)
‘This shoot reminded me to love my body, to love myself and every bit of it. It brought back my confidence.’
Another participant, Paige, also found the photoshoot empowering.
(Picture: Trina Cary Photography)
(Picture: Trina Cary Photography)
She said: ‘Everyone there had their own reasons to do it. Mine was to finally face my own insecurities. My body.
‘I went from a size 9 to a size 18 in the course of a year after having my daughter. My body changed and I hated it.
‘I hated myself. I hated mirrors and I hid myself in layers of clothing.
(Picture: Trina Cary Photography)
‘Yesterday, against my own insecurities, I stripped out of those layers and I bared it all. Standing amongst a group of incredible, strong and beautiful women, I felt loved and accepted and beautiful myself.
‘This morning I woke up to find this picture from the shoot and I panicked. There I am, my biggest insecurities laid out before my eyes. My body, my stomach.
(Picture: Trina Cary Photography)
‘But then I looked and I’m smiling in that photo. I’m happy in that photo, and I’m standing beside a gorgeous, incredible women, who I just met and we are strong. We are united. We are beautiful. We are love.’
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HR Starr, another woman who stripped off for the shoot, described the experience as ‘incredible.
‘We as women are so frequently told our bodies are dirty, or need to be hidden, or that there is something wrong if we don’t meet certain standards,’ she said.
(Picture: Trina Cary Photography)
‘This is about owning and loving ourselves. And about not being complacent when people want to censor us.’
Trina explains that the message of the photoshoot is simple: it’s a big f*** you to Facebook’s community standards, and to the people who keep reporting her photos.
‘These are the images people should see, these are the images your children should look at.
(Picture: Trina Cary Photography)
‘Don’t you want your daughter to see a photo of you standing strong and confident, embracing your flaws and laughing with a bunch of women?
‘I understand there are the haters out there who don’t believe you have to be naked to be empowered and to each their own.
(Picture: Trina Cary Photography)
‘But I know for myself and quite a few others, they do, it’s about baring all and still feeling beautiful. Seeing and accepting and supporting others with love and compliments.
‘We are real, we are strong and we are proud confident, beautiful women.’
MORE: This project brilliantly points out why Instagram’s anti-nipple policy doesn’t make sense
MORE: Frostine the plus-size ballerina will inspire you to love your body
MORE: The world’s first ever nude ginger calendar is here and it’s red hot
Advertisement AdvertisementA couple of years ago, the basketball team I root for, the University of Michigan, had a player named Zack Novak. Everybody loved his story. He was slow and pudgy coming out of high school, recruited by nobody, and offered a spot at Michigan. Turned out he could play, at least some. He was only six foot three, but he played power forward, compensating for his lack of size and skill with unrelenting effort. He graduated from the business school and became team captain. If you watch college sports, you know the kind of player I’m talking about. Right: a white guy.
Michigan guard Zach Novak (0) reacts to his slam dunk in a contest during the college basketball team's "Michigan Madness" festivities at Crisler Arena, Friday, Oct. 16, 2009, in Ann Arbor, Mich. (AP Photo/Tony Ding) Photo: Tony Ding/AP
If you ever watched a Michigan game, you knew Novak’s story, because the announcers talked about it every time. And it was very easy to see: Watching him hang in there on the low block against opponents five or six inches taller every game was a constant miracle. He was a gritty, hustling, tough, smart overachiever. Racial stereotyping in sports coverage is a decades-old phenomenon. In Novak’s case, nobody minded because the stereotypes were completely true. But watching every single game Michigan plays has given me some perspective on how race continues to inflect coverage in sports-media.
The player for Michigan the announcers like to talk about now is a kid named Nik Stauskas. He’s also white. He’s not especially gritty or tough. He’s an incredible scorer with good height, phenomenal shooting range, and an ability to unleash dunks or acrobatic layups. The thing the announcers mention every game — the fact that is incorporated into the shorthand notes they use to define a player’s story line — is that Stauskas worked hard in the off-season to gain muscle.
That’s true. Though it’s also true that Stauskas remains really skinnyand shows no special grit. Also, in contrast to the easy stereotypes of white players, I’ve noticed he makes a lot of mental errors with his passes and sometimes lacks effort on defense. Watch him on these two plays letting opposing players run right past him on the fast break for a layup:
He seems like a nice kid, and he’s still a great player. But mainly he’s just a remarkable talent playing in a great offensive system. Michigan fans have a running joke about announcers marveling that Stauskas is (they say this nearly every game) “not just a shooter” — unlike the stereotypical white player, he has the athletic ability to fly past defenders and soar into the air. The announcers are sufficiently aware of his ability to acknowledge that he is not just a shooter, but not aware enough to realize that the fact they need to mention this is a joke on their eyes.
The thing is, there is a player on the team this year who’s almost exactly like Zach Novak. His name is Jordan Morgan. In high school, he was pudgy, slow, and small. No major conference programs except Michigan offered him a scholarship. But he physically transformed himself and has become, like Novak, an amazing overachiever. As a six-foot-seven center, he’s almost as undersize for his position as Novak is. He won’t shoot unless he’s within a couple feet of the basket, and often not even then, because opposing players can often swat away his shot attempts. Instead he spends most of every offensive possession throwing his body around the court, setting screen after screen to open up shots for his teammates.
He uses leverage, smarts, and unrelenting effort to gain every inch of advantage fighting against opposing centers. Morgan is a fifth-year senior who already graduated with a degree in engineering, and is studying for a master’s degree in manufacturing engineering.
But the announcers don’t talk about this stuff even one-tenth as often as they did Novak. And when they do, they don’t use terms like “gritty,” “unselfish,” “scrappy,” and “smart.” My explanation is that it’s because he looks like this:
Jordan Morgan #52 of the Michigan Wolverines reacts while taking on the Duke Blue Devils during the third round of the 2011 NCAA men's basketball tournament at Time Warner Cable Arena on March 20, 2011 in Charlotte, North Carolina. Photo: Kevin C. Cox/Getty Images
Yeah, he’s black. Now, don’t get me wrong — I don’t think anybody wants to suppress the story of an undersize, pudgy engineering nerd who made himself into a gritty, overachieving captain on a Big Ten champion team and who is also black. I bet the national media would love a story like that. I suspect they just don’t see it.
The gulf in physical talent between Novak and other players was glaring. Now, look at Morgan, with his gigantic biceps. If you don’t know him and you are using a simple heuristic, you probably think he’s a pretty good athletic talent, even if if is a little short. You don’t think about the fact that he gained that muscle after intense weight training. (Announcers never mention it.) And so one player is surrounded by a narrative of hustle, smarts, and toughness, and another player with the exact same qualities is not.
The situation is far better than it was three or four decades ago, when announcers would liken the skills of black players to animals. Today, they have some awareness of racial stereotyping. What’s left, I think, is far more characteristic of how racial bias typically works. Bad intent does not come into play. White people simply have certain preconceptions, and preconceptions make you see the things you expect to see and miss the things you don’t.In 1884, Clark Hull was born in a log house in Akron, New York to an impoverished family. This would be the least of his concerns: For much of his childhood and adolescence, he would be plagued with health problems.
First, as a child, Hull was diagnosed with typhoid fever and left with impaired vision and memory. Second, as a university student, he was diagnosed with Polio and left without the use of one of his legs.
However, despite his streak of bad luck, after 10 years of overcoming multiple obstacles and working several menial jobs to pay his tuition, Hull graduated with a well-earned PhD in psychology.
Hull could’ve easily eased off in his academic endeavours upon graduation (and, given his circumstances, would’ve be excused for doing so), but for Hull, this was only the beginning. In fact, unbeknownst to him at the time, Hull was onto something big.
Hull’s Goal Gradient Theory
It has struck me many times that the human organism is one of the most extraordinary machines—and yet a machine – Clark Hull.
Perhaps, because of his own triumphs in the face of adversity, Hull became fascinated by goal attainment and began studying it, particularly, how rats searched for a reward in a maze.
After 10,000 hours of experimentation, Hull stumbled up an irregular pattern; one he hadn’t anticipated (and one that we now hold to be true): The closer the rats got to their goal – that is, finding a reward in a maze – the faster they got.
Humans, is seems, are no different.
X Marks the Spot
In a 26.2 mile marathon, there’s an unusual event that occurs in the brains of runners at the 26.1 mile mark.
When runners turn the corner and see the finish line, their brains are suddenly flooded with endorphins and other chemicals that give them the much-needed boost to accelerate across the finish line.
It’s called “The X-Spot”.
Shawn Achor, a positive psychologist and author of Before Happiness: Five Actionable Strategies to Create a Positive Path to Success writes:
At the precise moment your brain realizes that attaining your goal is not only possible but probable, it releases a potent stream of chemicals that help you speed up... the closer you perceive success to be, the faster you move toward it. [1]
If X-Spots can be applied to running, can we apply them to other goals as well?
The answer can be found in the most unlikely of places: Coffeehouses.
How Long Does It Take You to Receive a Free Coffee?
Hull was a behaviourist: He believed that our brains rely on objective rules of behavior. But because behaviourism is often overlooked in modern academia, unfortunately, so were his discoveries.
That was until 2006, when researchers at the Columbia University Graduate School of Business did a series of fascinating studies that modernised Hull’s hypothesis in a business context.
The researchers were interested in how local coffee shop customers would behave when participating in a customer reward programme.
The setup was as follows: The customers were given a stamp card and were told for every purchase, they would get a stamp. If they received 10 stamps, they would receive a free coffee.
The researchers then recorded the dates the customers purchased their coffees. They wanted to know whether the customers would buy coffee with higher frequency the closer they got to the free coffee.
And, just as Hull’s hypothesis predicted, that’s exactly what happened. The closer the customers got to their tenth coffee, the more regular they returned to the coffee shop.
But wait, there’s more.
The researchers repeated the experiment, but this time half of the customers got a “buy 10 coffees and get one free” card (Group A) and the other half received a “buy 12 coffees and get one free card” – but with two stamps to begin with (Group B).
In other words, both groups needed to buy 10 coffees to a get a free one, but Group B had a perceived headstart.
Group A hadn’t even started but the Group B were already one sixth of the way there. Buying a coffee in Group A would only bring them one tenth (10 percent) of the way towards a free coffee, but in Group B, it brought them one third (33 percent) closer.
The distance both Group A and Group B had to make was identical, but the customers in Group B – those who perceived the goal as closer – got the free coffee faster than anyone in Group A. [2]
The lesson here is not only do we accelerate towards our goal when the end is in sight, but having endowed progress – a perceived headstart – works to our advantage, even if it is artificial.
How You Can Use This
Not only do we work harder and faster when we get objectively closer to our goal, but when we perceive we are as well.
In other words, it’s not your objective proximity to your goals that’s important, but your subjective perception of that objective reality.
The easiest way to do this is to (1) Use endowed progress: Move towards an outcome that already has progress built in and (2) Identify X spots: Help your brain believe that success is close, achievable, and worthwhile. Set mileposts at the 70 percent mark and periodically check distance already covered.
Writing a book can be a daunting task, but if you redirect your focus from what you’ve left to do to what you’ve done already – say, the chapter you’ve written – you’ll feel endowed with progress.
Similarly, checking your progress at the 70% mark (say, with each chapter’s completion) will remind you of how much you’ve already achieved.
Remember: When you know you’re nearing your goal’s completion, your brain releases those success accelerants that will increase your motivation to speed up your progress.
With that said, there’s one caveat: Don’t disregard the process. The process will motivate you when you feel demotivated, help you build forward momentum and even adapt if need be.
When You Lose Momentum
Demotivation is often inevitable with any long-term goal. That said, it’s necessary to have an effective strategy in place.
Minjung Koo and Ayelet Fishbach at the University of Chicago have found that in situations where you’re less committed or motivated, the best way to accelerate growth is to look, not ahead to the finish line, but behind you at what you’ve already accomplished. [3]
If you’re dieting, don’t concern yourself with the weight you’ve yet to lose (that’ll only discourage you), concern yourself with you’ve lost already.
If you’re an entrepreneur and canvasing for new clients by cold calling |
leaders in protected bike lanes.
Imagine a major city where 35 percent of all traffic is people on bikes. Or think even bigger--an entire nation where 27 percent of all trips are pedal-powered.
This is not some Utopian vision of the commons dreamed up by a 24-year-old after too many handcrafted beers. These are real places located in modern societies with high levels of car ownership. Places not so different from the US named Copenhagen and the Netherlands.
Don’t believe it? Go there, and you can see for yourself. You’ll be surprised to find these are great places for everyone, no matter how they get around, because cities that work for bicyclists are more vital, prosperous, convenient and attractive places to live and work.
In fact, it’s never been easier for local leaders across the US to experience life in these world-class communities. Next summer PeopleForBikes, a Colorado-based non-profit, is organizing tours of Denmark and the Netherlands to offer public officials, planners, civic activists and business leaders practical lessons about how to help their own cities thrive. (Minimum of four participants from each community.)
“These tours are 20 percent about bikes and 80 percent about how to make great places full of economic, social and cultural wealth,” said PeopleForBikes’ Zach Vanderkooy in a phone conversation from Amsterdam, where he was leading a group of officials from Atlanta, Seattle and Boston.
“Nothing is better than getting on a bike to see how it feels,” said Rick Dimino, CEO of the Boston business coalition A Better City, who was part of the recent Netherlands tour. “We saw some very creative and robust ways that a strong bicycling system can improve mobility, quality of life and our economy in the US.”
“I took hundreds of pictures on those trips and I gave many slideshows for our planners and transportation people to show what could be done,” remembers Gabe Klein, former Director of the Chicago Department of Transportation, who visited Danish and Dutch cities on PeopleForBikes study tours.
Chicago, never noted previously as a great place to bicycle, is now ranked as America’s #2 Bike City by Bicycling magazine. That’s because the city is now second only to New York (Bicycling’s #1 city) in the number of protected bike lanes--bike routes on busy streets that are physically separated from fast-moving vehicles. According to Vanderkooy, “protected lanes together with slow-speed local streets and off-street paths create a seamless transportation system that strengthens public transit and helps keep all traffic well-organized and free-flowing.”
Since 2009, more than 275 leaders from American communities coast-to-coast have enjoyed up-close and personal experiences with world-class transportation infrastructure and public spaces on these study tours, including current or future transportation directors in Los Angeles, San Francisco, Seattle and Chicago.
Up to this point, the tours have been by-invitation only, but applications are now being accepted for next summer’s expanded PeopleForBikes World Class Cities 2015. Candidates are encouraged to apply as soon as possible to be part of “this five-day rolling conversation about transforming US streets”.
Brian Payne, President of the Central Indiana Community Foundation and a participant in a recent study tour to Denmark and Sweden, has already snapped up 12 spots for a delegation from Indianapolis. “We’re planning to bring neighborhood leaders, traffic engineers, city council members and public works employees,” Payne says, “because these trips change how people think about and experience a city, especially when they can all share moments of inspiration.”
“It’s a serious trip,” Payne adds. “You get up early in the morning and go all day and then go out to dinner to talk over everything you’ve learned. But you’re studying what makes a city livable and great, and that’s a lot of fun.”
Alumni of the tours enthuse about discovering great ideas that can be applied back home, not only European examples but also what they learn from peers in other American cities. “We’ll be taking a trip to Indianapolis,” explains Tami Door, CEO of the Downtown Denver Partnership who was on the same tour as the delegation from Indianapolis. “We want to see what they’re doing there.”
Indianapolis, a city that until now was more famous for car racing than bike riding, has become one of America’s leaders in protected bike lanes. Payne’s foundation launched a campaign to create the Cultural Trail, a bike and pedestrian route separated from traffic that winds for eight miles through the center of the city. A study from Indiana University’s Center for Urban Policy and the Environment calculates that the Cultural Trail’s impact on residential and commercial development and tourism will add $863 million dollars and 11,000 jobs to the local economy.
Vanderkooy stresses that the point of these study tours is not for local US leaders to simply copy what they see in Denmark or the Netherlands, but to stimulate their creativity to find the best ways to promote social and economic vitality in their own communities. He explains that the workshops, seminars and firsthand experience on the streets help them “figure out how to do if faster--and better--in America.”
Three weeks after they returned home from the Netherlands, a delegation from Madison, Wisconsin was laying the groundwork for protected bike lanes. Pittsburgh Mayor Bill Peduto toured Danish and Swedish cities, with PeopleForBikes in late June--and by early September, with help from the local business community, the city had built three new protected bike lanes.
Denver City Councilman Albus Brooks, who toured Denmark in June, the transformation was personal as well as professional. “I once had been skeptical of bike lanes, and by the time I went to Copenhagen I was a supporter. Now I am fierce advocate.”
Brooks is helping lead the push for major bike improvements in Denver. “Anytime we re-do streets we’re going to think about protected bike lanes, bike boulevards and wider sidewalks-- the whole complete streets idea.”
And he’s planning a bike event for community people in his diverse downtown district. “I came back excited about how to make biking more multi-ethnic, multi-cultural and multi-age.”In 2008, the Bitcoin whitepaper was released, and the resulting fallout has been nothing less than earth shattering. Today, with cryptocurrency assets approaching a half a trillion dollar market cap, it is well past time to identify and model the market structures that have been created, the controls that have been instated over them, and the resulting effect that they have on the major players in the market.
In the freely available portion of this article, I would like to address Bitcoin itself and ignore alt-coins and Bitcoin forks such as Bitcoin Cash. While these additional cryptocurrencies are certainly an important part of the overall ecosystem, they are ultimately tangential to the core topic of this article, the Bitcoin Transaction Market. For those looking for more information, consider paying for the extended analysis beyond the pay-wall.
[ NOTE FROM THE AUTHOR: I have now made all but a final note from me freely available. There is no more pay wall to the remaining significant content of this article. Also, while I have your attention, I'd like to note that some 7 months after writing this piece, I have learned a lot, and there is very little that I would like to change about this article. Regardless, aside from making the pay wall "disappear," I have changed nothing aside from a few edits on things like typos since the initial publishing of the article. ]
Identifying the Market Players
In order to properly identify and create an accurate model of the market, it is first necessary to identify market players and their role in the ecosystem. Additionally, it is valuable to consider the economic structures under which each player operates to better understand the nature of the market as a whole. For this, we must examine at a high level what must occur for a transaction to be accepted on the network.
For a transaction to be accepted as valid and completed on the Bitcoin network, a user must transmit it to the network where it will be propagated to miners, who then validate the transaction according to the network protocol and place it into a block, which they secure through a proof of work mechanism. The proof of work mechanism consists of the use of mining computers, a form of capital good that must be run at a cost to the miner, to solve cryptographic hashing functions looking for an answer that satisfies conditions that the network deems valid. Additionally, the network protocol adjusts the conditions for validity such that the difficulty of finding a valid answer results in an average block find rate of one block every 10 minutes over the long run.
Considering this high level analysis, two major market players can be identified: The Miners, who serve the role of firms supplying mining power and transaction processing as well as to enforce network protocols, and the Users, who transact on the network, serving as the demand for transaction processing capacity.
While there are certainly additional technical roles within this market sector, they serve only minor economic purposes in facilitating the transaction market itself and can be ignored in this discussion without compromising the accuracy of the economic model.
Constructing the Market Models
To begin constructing the transaction market model, we will start with a simple supply and demand graph with the appropriate labels for each.
This graph should be familiar to most everyone, as it is a standard supply and demand graph. This is both the simplest and most natural state of the Bitcoin transaction fee market. What is traditionally labeled as the price is here labeled “Transaction Fee” and the quantity, “Transaction Quantity” with the intention of avoiding confusion with the overall price and supply of Bitcoin itself.
To fully understand the nature of the supply side of the transaction fee market, it is essential to explore the market structure of mining itself, and how that plays into the broader market of transaction fee pricing.
Those already well versed in basic economics will recognize this graph as that of a theoretical perfect competition prior to long run effects of competition. Over extremely short periods, this can be somewhat inaccurate, as in Bitcoin, the difficulty of mining blocks is fixed rather than fluid, such that additional mining will result in additional blocks found within an unadjusted difficulty period, therefor reducing fees, or vice versa. In a short term graph such as that, the Marginal Revenue curve would slope downward for large miners in response to the change in block find rates providing additional transaction capacity for the network.
However, over the medium and long terms, this effect is eliminated due to the difficulty adjustment algorithm regularly resetting block speeds to the intended 10 minute interval. Additionally over the long run, due to both competition and adjustments in difficulty, marginal revenue for the individual miner always trends towards marginal cost such that average total costs equal marginal revenue.
During difficulty adjustments, there is a sudden shift of expected revenue per hash performed by miners, inversely affecting marginal revenue for miners. In order to maximize profits, this leads miners to supply a quantity of hashing power, either turning on or turning off miners, that corresponds to the intersection between marginal cost and marginal revenue, as shown in the graphs.
Additionally, it is possible for marginal revenue to fall below a shutdown point where average total cost always exceeds marginal revenue at any quantity of mining. This is an effect that has seen to the demise of CPU, then GPU mining on the Bitcoin network as ASIC miners of increasing efficiency and hashing power have come online.
Other effects certainly exist, such as a lag in deployment of mining resources that makes it impossible for some miners to operate at equilibrium, as well as miner’s expectations of the future price of Bitcoin. However, in addition to being outside of the scope of this article, over the long run these effects trend strongly towards a perfect competition equilibrium of normal profit, as mining resources will eventually reach full deployment and the price of the underlying asset cannot continue rising indefinitely.
When aggregated across a competitive mining industry, the marginal cost of mining always trends such that marginal cost equals marginal revenue (the expected total block reward,) at the market equilibrium. Any underlying shifts in mining supply or user demand will always push marginal cost towards this same equilibrium over the medium to long run.
Accounting for the Block Reward Subsidy
The Block Reward, set at the time of this writing as 12.5 Bitcoins per block, serves as a subsidy for miners to operate on the network, both securing the network with hash power and accepting transactions into the blockchain as a byproduct of that process. Over time this effect will be removed, and the natural fee market as seen in the supply and demand graph without the subsidy will become the dominant source of miner revenue.
As can be seen, the block subsidy serves to increase the carrying capacity of the network (transaction quantity,) while reducing the cost to transact using the network. While typically considered an inefficient market manipulation, this has been essential in Bitcoin’s early days both to ensure sufficient mining power is applied to secure the network, and to encourage user adoption of the currency.
Accounting for Artificial Network Controls
The question then arises, how does the block size limit affect the market? For now let’s ignore the block reward so that we may analyze the block size limit in isolation.
The immediate effect of the block size limit is that it acts as a supply cap, enforced by network protocol that can only be changed with a hash rate of greater than 50%. It should be noted that this supply cap is not currently placed due to any economic factors, nor do technical limitations appear to be involved as simply allowing the network to find equilibrium would work if technical limitations were the defining factor.
In an economic sense, this means that the placement of the block size limit is arbitrary, meaning that any equilibrium to the left of the block size limit results in a natural fee structure, while any equilibrium to the right results in an artificially inflated fee as network users compete to have their transactions accepted into blocks.
Additionally, as shown in the previous analysis of the mining market, aggregate marginal cost always trends towards aggregate marginal revenue, which, in the near-perfect competition of the mining market, is the price, or in this case, the transaction fee paid by the user. The question then becomes, what happens to the market when the block reward subsidy is applied?
In this, the most accurate model of the current Bitcoin transaction fee market, it becomes clear that the transaction fees paid by users becomes uncoupled entirely from the effect of the block reward subsidy, the result of which is that user adoption is no longer encouraged. Additionally, transaction quantity does not increase due to the arbitrary cap on transaction acceptance, despite a rightward shift of market equilibrium.
But surely this is good for miners, as it greatly increases the reward for mining. In fact, the market structure applied here looks on first glance to be a perfect, enforced cartel designed to maximize miner profits, if only it were set in accordance with the right economic factors. However, there is one flaw in that analysis.
As is shown time after time, aggregate marginal cost always trends towards aggregate marginal revenue, with the result that miners do not actually benefit from this market structure. Instead, more resources are allocated to purchasing mining hardware due to a combined effect of two major distortions in the market - the block reward subsidy, and the block size limit. This raises costs of both honest miners and potential attackers equally, doing nothing to improve security of the chain, all while decreasing efficiency of the network as a whole. In fact, it can be argued that this makes it more likely that large interests will be able to out compete small miners in the short run at deploying mining resources, due to their greater capacity for absorbing short run fixed costs.
At best, this structure does ensure a higher miner profitability than on chains with the same hashing algorithm without such restrictions or with less adoption and use, thus artificially driving mining power towards this rather than other competing blockchains. But ultimately, this heightened profit is not entirely due to real market conditions, rather, it is due at least in part to arbitrary technical restrictions that do not otherwise benefit miners themselves, and that harm users directly by increasing both the cost to transact and the time that it takes for a transaction to be accepted on the blockchain.
Final Thoughts
While debate rages on over the scaling debate despite network forks that have occurred in an attempt to sidestep the issue as a whole, it is clear that the market structures discussed in this article are here to stay on the Bitcoin Core blockchain. Regardless of any technical concerns surrounding an unrestricted block size, or any tendency that may or may not exist for mining power to centralize into the hands of a few given a natural fee market, it is clear that the economic structures that have been created are not conducive to adoption by users, and attempts to increase adoption on the network beyond the block size limit will only result in greater costs of transacting on the network.
Some will challenge the analysis in this article, claiming that proposed scaling solutions aside from raising the block size limit have been ignored, and to those individuals I would suggest two things - first, that any scaling solution not currently in place must necessarily reduce either the number of size of on-chain transactions that are currently not crowded out of the market or they will do nothing to alleviate current on-chain scaling concerns, and second, to return to this author with such concerns when those scaling solutions are actually implemented and prove to be a substantial factor in alleviating pressure on the on-chain fee market. Until that time comes, there is no practical benefit derived from Layer 2 solutions, and as such, they can be ignored when considering current market models.
Otherwise the question arises, in light of knowledge that may be gleaned from this article, who stands to gain from installing a market structure that so clearly harms the cause of user adoption without benefiting the miners who actually run the network? That, it would seem, is the first step in discovering the true cause of the scaling debate as it has turned out - but that goes well beyond the scope of this article, and should therefor be left for now as an exercise for the reader.
For those curious to know more and to delve into some questions that cannot be answered quite as clearly as those covered in this free portion of the article, please explore the content beyond the pay-wall. Topics covered include an evaluation of the “store of value” argument, a short analysis on layer 2 solutions, additional explorations on the effects of the block size limit on transaction fees and what that means for the potential value of the network, and considerations on where potential users could go if and when they are priced out of using the Bitcoin network for their desired use cases.
Beyond the (Original) Pay-Wall
The question that ultimately drives the prices of underlying assets such as Bitcoin, Bitcoin Cash, Ethereum, Iota, oil, US Dollars, gold, bananas, etc. is, why are people buying the asset, and does that asset effectively fill the role desired by the individuals buying that asset?The analysis in this portion of the article is not meant to be predictive of future value, but to analyze specific effects and forces that play on the market. In no way does this amount to a complete analysis of all effects playing on this market, nor does it claim to effectively weigh the strength of one force over another in directing the price of any given asset.Please understand, this section does not merely serve as a disclaimer to avoid legal liability for actions taken in response to the analysis presented in this article, but to make the point that it is impossible for any one individual to understand the entire picture when it comes to market forces. Anyone claiming to know for certain what will happen are just asking to be blindsided by an effect that they did not previously account for.With that in mind, the following should be considered the opinion of the author, and is nothing more than a presentation of arguments that may, despite reasonable efforts by the author to be thorough and fair in his analysis, be incomplete. Additionally, it should be noted that there are no graphs in this section, not out of the author’s laziness, but because graphs tend to convey a sense of certainty that in this case is impossible to achieve.
On the "Store of Value" Argument
A lot of discussion has been had over whether or not the “store of value” argument holds weight in establishing Bitcoin’s price.It cannot be discounted that people’s personal predictions of future value of an asset do directly affect the market price for that asset over the short run, however, without an understanding of the fundamentals of the market, this argument alone can seemingly justify any price, if only the right emotional state can be teased out of the market.When applied on a practical level, this argument amounts to no more than one of three options: the price is going up/down because the price is going up/down; the price will go up/down because the price is currently going down/up too much; or, the price is staying the same because the price is staying the same.There is no equilibrium in this form of analysis, nor are there any fundamentals guiding the action of price movements, and therefor, no accurate price to be derived from it. If left as the only tool for establishing the price of an asset, the “store of value” argument will do nothing more than produce a price chart that is indistinguishable from random noise over any scale, long or short, until such a time that the market fails entirely.Even while this sort of argument plays on the psychology of the individual over the short run, the “store of value” argument cannot in and of itself account for the price of an asset being sustained over the long run as there is no predictive value in that argument that can survive the test of time.Additionally, the “store of value” argument implies the eventual desire to “unstore” that value by using it. How can something be stored if it is not easy to unstore it for immediate use? By analogy, should fresh water be considered stored if poured into the ocean, or is it more accurate to say it has been thrown away? Alternatively, what do you call a battery that no longer holds a charge?For these reasons, even those who believe that Bitcoin is a store of value cannot ignore market fundamentals, the realistic use cases for Bitcoin given its current or likely future construction, and the substitutes for Bitcoin if it is unable to service the needs and wants of potential users.
What is the Value of Bitcoin?
Bitcoins are a purely digital asset without any direct use value whatsoever. As such, Bitcoin is fundamentally nothing more than a currency and a unit of account.
Transactions as a Requirement of Use
Even the most elegant uses of the Bitcoin Blockchain, Layer 2 solutions included, require transactions to be placed on the network. The number of transactions required for a given use case depends on implementation of that use case. For a simple person to person exchange, a single transaction may be sufficient. Alternatively, operating a Lightning Network payment channel from start to finish requires at least two on-chain transactions regardless of the total number of transactions processed off-chain.Regardless of the use case being considered, bitcoins are the unit of account for transacting on the network because only bitcoin can be used to directly pay miners their fees. (It should be noted that it is possible to pay a miner off-chain to include, or even exclude, specific transactions in their blocks, but this is generally not a favorable approach over the long run due to various economic effects that run well beyond the scope of this article.)Even in cases where bitcoins themselves are not exchanged on the network, bitcoins are still the unit of account for use of the network. An example would be the storage of data on the blockchain, which could be placed in a transaction without a fee - however, in order to be included in a block, the miner must have leftover resources with which to process the free transaction, which implies that they have received enough value through other transactions, the block reward subsidy, or other means including a sense of altruism to serve this use case for free. More likely still is that such a use case would be coupled with a transaction fee that directly pays the miner for validating this transaction. In all cases, bitcoins are the unit of account.
Transaction Fees and the Unit of Account
To better understand this issue, let’s examine Iota and Ethereum. Iota’s Tangle could be used on an unimaginable scale while the price of Iota, the currency, is not effected, because Iota itself is not a factor in transacting on the Tangle. This is because the proof of work is done by the user, validating two transactions before their own, without receiving payment in Iota for having done so.There is no unit of account inherent to the Iota ecosystem, and unless individuals use it in real exchange at the risk of losing their entire purchase value, there is no unit of account anywhere in the system. Unless restricted from doing so by the Iota developers, any other currency could be loaded up as a resource on Iota and used as a pure replacement for Iota, perhaps with other perks included.On other chains, non-monetary uses of the network requires payment in the form of the underlying asset. For example, on Ethereum, execution of smart contracts requires “gas” payments, payable only in Ether. In the case of Ethereum, ether has at least some value as money because it is the unit of account in paying for gas to run smart contracts, which are themselves valuable.
Bitcoin's Use Cases
Returning to Bitcoin, given current limitations artificially placed on the network, namely, the block size limit, the Bitcoin network can only service, in theory, about 7 transactions per second. While short run hash power variations may alter this figure in the short run, at this time it is sufficient to suggest that 7 transactions per second is the limit.What is the highest asset price that can be supported by an economy that has a built in limit of roughly 7 transactions per second, or roughly 600k transactions per day? And once that limit is reached but the economy is still growing, what happens to the cost of transacting on that network, with that asset as the unit of account?The second question is easily answered using the models provided in the free section of this article, but the first question depends entirely on what people do with those transactions.While it would be satisfying to be able to put specific numbers down as answers to these questions, it is simply not possible to do so with any amount of accuracy. Others have speculated on the potential price by comparing Bitcoin to other markets, such as the international gold market, or the Visa payments network. Ultimately, these answers give a ballpark figure, but cannot possibly account for all the variables in human action that lead to one valuation over another.So what are people using Bitcoin for? Are they creating jewelry out of it, like gold? I certainly don’t see how, after all, bitcoins are a purely digital asset without any direct use value whatsoever. Are they buying coffee, or videogames with it? Due to the effects caused by the block size limit, the videogame publishing platform Steam no longer accepts Bitcoin, and coffee is the traditional example of supposed “spam” on the blockchain that is used all over to deride people for taking up precious space on the blockchain and in the hard drives of node operators.Many people believe that all that’s needed to handle these sorts of transactions is a Layer 2 scaling solution such as Lightning.
An Analysis of Layer 2 Solutions
Supporters of the Lightning Network and other Layer 2 scaling solutions believe that those 7 transactions per second on-chain can support a massive economy, by essentially compressing large volumes of off-chain transactions into a few on-chain transactions.From an economic perspective, there is nothing wrong with this analysis, and if Layer 2 solutions are proved out on a technical level, users adopt them, and their claims of the potential of Layer 2 solutions come to fruition, then the 7 transactions per second can support an economy of many more than 7 transactions per second. This, it would seem, would justify quite a high price of bitcoins, and could also justify high transaction fees on the network.Additionally, in accordance with their ability to take transactions off-chain, Layer 2 solutions would ease pressure on the on-chain fee market by shifting demand for on-chain transactions to the left as compared to total transactions conducted in the combined Layer 1 and Layer 2 economy.These promises, as mentioned in the free portion of the article, have yet to be proved out on a practical level. Additionally it should be noted that the potential ability to expand Bitcoin transaction capabilities off-chain does nothing from an economic perspective to justify a block size limit. Instead, if Layer 2 solutions do not lower demand for on-chain transactions to below the block size limit, the block size limit is just increasing the cost of doing anything on the chain, including opening and closing Layer 2 payment channels. Supporters must look elsewhere for their justifications of such a limit.With that in mind, let’s look at the extended effects of a block size limit on the Bitcoin transaction fee market regardless of the involvement of Layer 2 solutions. Specifically, what does a block size limit mean for adoption of Bitcoin, and how will potential users adjust given the effects of the block size limit on the transaction fee market.
Further Effects of the Block Size Limit on Bitcoin
As discussed in the free portion of this article, when the block size limit is reached, two things happen: fees decouple from the downward effect of the block reward subsidy due to an inability for the quantity of supplied transaction throughput to adjust to quantity demanded, and fees necessarily increase due to user competition over placement of their transaction in a block.This effect has been demonstrated at an increasing rate over the past months with increases in the mempool size, and resulting increases in transaction fees as the market adjusts to the new pricing model.What we have not yet addressed is what happens to users themselves whose transactions are priced out of acceptance into a block.On one hand, many of these individuals must simply wait for their transaction to eventually be accepted into a block as natural variances in transaction rates, block find rates, and mempool clearance rates move their transaction into the clearing batch for the next found block. This is a non-monetary cost to users, and can also be counted as an added, if hidden, cost of using the network. This has been the typical case up to this point, where the fee paid inversely corresponds to a wait time before acceptance into a block. However, this is not necessarily going to remain the usual state of affairs.As greater demand is placed on the network, the upward pressure on fees must come from transaction fee bidding wars that can only clear as transactions are cleared. With greater adoption comes greater upward pressure on fees, more transactions entering the mempool, and more bitcoins stuck awaiting confirmation into the blockchain.Not only is it the case that unconfirmed transactions are examples of value stuck in the mempool, but any transactions that users did not make due to the expected wait times or the expected transaction fees required for confirmation in a reasonable time represent lost opportunities for value exchange on the network.In essence, all value of demand to the right of the block size limit is value that is not being serviced by the Bitcoin network. This value is being priced out of Bitcoin.Is it possible for all of that value to be captured, if only the block size limit were removed? No, of course not. Instead, all value to the right of the supply and demand equilibrium would still be unserved. This is true of any and all mediums of exchange, as all mediums of exchange carry some form of cost in transacting with it. The question is, what is the cost of using Bitcoin as compared to other mediums of exchange, and how many users will switch from one medium of exchange to another in a given time frame?Asked differently, what are Bitcoin’s competitors, and what will users do in response to artificially high costs of using the Bitcoin network?
Where do Users go from Here?It's A Bird, It's A Plane, It's A New Superman Bio!
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Eighty years ago, Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster created the iconic comic book character Superman, but it took several years of rejections before they finally sold him to Detective Comics Inc. in 1938. The distinctive superhero made his first appearance in the comics in June 1938 — and since then has appeared in radio dramas, TV shows, video games, newspaper comics and countless films.
How has the Man of Steel evolved over the past eight decades — and what has made him so popular? Those were the questions that intrigued biographer Larry Tye, whose book Superman tells the story of the red-and-blue-clad icon who Tye calls "the longest-lived American hero of the last century."
He gave us an unwavering sense of right and wrong.... Unlike all these other heroes — the dark Batman or the fraught Spider-Man — Superman was out there, always like a clear sign of light.
"Americans embrace Superman partly because he captured so many things that are part of our psyche and part of our sense of ourselves," Tye tells Fresh Air's Terry Gross. "... He gave us an unwavering sense of right and wrong. He sweeps in to solve our problems. He was a bit like a Messiah in that he descended from the heavens to help us discover our humanity. And unlike all these other heroes — the dark Batman or the fraught Spider-Man — Superman was out there, always like a clear sign of light."
The story of Superman was created by Jerry Siegel, who grew up in a Jewish neighborhood in Cleveland and was often teased as a child.
"Every day, when he'd go out on the school playground, kids would yell at him, 'Siegel, Siegel, birds of an eagle,' " says Tye. "And he wished he would fly away. The only thing he could do was to escape into a world of fantasy and create his own kind of characters that could fly away."
Siegel's earliest comics involved a character called The Super-Man, who was a bad guy trying to control the world. Later on, he dropped both the word 'the' and the hyphen — and changed Superman into a heroic character trying to save others from bad guys.
Superman The High-Flying History of America's Most Enduring Hero by Larry Tye Hardcover, 409 pages | purchase close overlay Buy Featured Book Your purchase helps support NPR programming. How?
"He stayed up with a pencil and paper that he had brought to bed with him, and suddenly, in the course of the night, this vision of a 'hero of light' came to him. And he jotted down the story, and then next morning, he ran down the street to his neighbor Joe Shuster's house... and he said, 'Here's my story. Make it work on paper. Draw something.' "
Shuster drew precisely the kind of hero that Siegel had in mind: a bold, chiseled superhero dressed in blue, yellow and red. After a self-titled series was launched in 1939, Siegel wrote all of the Superman stories and Shuster drew all of the art. But Shuster's eyesight soon began to deteriorate, and other artists stepped in to help with the artwork.
Tye says Shuster's poor eyesight did come in handy: It provided Superman's creators with a viable story for why Superman never served in World War II. (They thought having Superman serve — with his actual superpowers — would undermine the strengths and sacrifices of the actual troops.)
"They had Superman in the disguise of Clark Kent taking his eye test when he was about to be inducted into the Army, only he failed the eye test," says Tye. "And how could he fail the eye test? Well, he was using his X-ray vision not to read the screen in front of him, but to read the screen two examining rooms away. So what happened was, he ended up not being inducted into the Army but doing just what DC Comics wanted him to do: He stayed home, he rallied everybody against saboteurs on the home front, he was part of the bond drive — but he was never there undermining the troops."
And yet, says Tye, most of the ration kits shipped overseas during World War II contained a copy of Superman's comic book.
Interview Highlights
On why people love Superman
"He was the story of a foundling, a sole survivor of a doomed planet, and for the same reasons we love Little Orphan Annie and Oliver Twist, we love Superman. There was this brilliant love triangle connecting Clark and Lois and Superman, and that had a side for everyone, whether you're the boy who can't get the girl, the girl pursued by the wrong boy or the conflicted hero. And this wasn't just any hero, but he had the very powers that I would have loved to have had."
Enlarge this image toggle caption Anonymous/AP Anonymous/AP
On how Superman was different from other superheroes
"While most heroes were a mortal disguising himself as a superhero — the way Peter Parker did with Spiderman or the way Bruce Wayne did with Batman — Superman was the hero, and the disguise was Clark Kent. And what that meant was that he was really comfortable doing all the heroic things that he did because that was who he really was. I think his disguise as Clark Kent was meant to suggest that he was reaching out to us and trying to understand humanity and trying to be as human as he could."
On why Superman might be Jewish
"Jerry called his character, as he came down from Krypton, 'Kal-El' which [means] 'a vessel of God' in Hebrew. So we have this character coming down, being put down in space by his parents to try and save him, and being rescued by two gentiles in the middle of the Midwest somewhere in America. If that's not the story of Exodus and Moses, then I've never seen that story told well. This was a time when we were on the eve of World War II, and the Nazis were on the brink of coming to power in Germany.... I think this idea of this baby being rescued was a sense of what was going on in Europe, where Jerry's ancestors had come from.... And it's a rule of thumb that when a name ends in m-a-n, the person whose name that is, they're either a superhero or Jewish or both."
Enlarge this image toggle caption Courtesy Larry Tye Courtesy Larry Tye
On how Superman changed once he became a big business
"The editors in New York over time started to exercise their editorial control. They saw this as both a character and a business. They would go down to the level of dictating just what his forelocks looked like. They could be too curly. His arms should be shorter and less 'ape-like.' And Joe should get rid of his hero's 'nice fat bottom.' His editor told him that he worried that that made Superman look too 'la-dee-dah.' And they were really concerned about the image of the character. They had a sense of what Lois [Lane] should be. She should be attractive but not too attractive, that Superman ought to make sure that he never lost his manliness and that the character ought to look like what they were getting a read on, on what would sell the best."
On the editors worrying about Superman's appearance
"They were worried that he looked too gay. This was an era and these were publishers that weren't willing to take chances with anything that they saw as risky, and certainly not with their No. 1 money-making character Superman."
On the early Superman TV series starring George Reeves
"As ridiculous as the fight scenes looked, what topped them was the flying scenes. What he was doing was jumping off a small trampoline and going up into the air as high as he could go, trying to jump through a window. And then they would have him up in this crazy contraption where he was being held above the ground. And once it actually dropped him, it looked about as much as flying as the early movie serials where they have cartoon characters flying. The flight scenes were incredibly ridiculous, and yet we bought it all because we wanted to."
On the 'Superman curse'
"The Superman curse suggests that a couple of things happen to people who play Superman or who are involved with the character at all. The curse actually started with George Reeves |
the right angles, the guys who were commuters and, you know, they weren’t from all the right families. The club that they weren’t allowed in was called the Franklins. So Richard Nixon always saw the world in terms of Orthogonians and Franklins, you know, the silent majority and the liberal elite. And if you think about it, all of us at some point of our lives are Franklins and all of us are Orthogonians. We’re always feeling the sting of resentment. So it’s a very powerful message.
Moyers: Trump struck many people here in New York City like that. He hungered to be accepted by the establishment. It was palpable.
Perlstein: An Orthogonian — that’s correct.
Moyers: He was always trying to get into the—
Perlstein: Trying to get into the club. Trying to buy the World Trade Center to do it. And now feral greed seems to drive him, even as president.
And that’s the interesting thing, because we had a bait-and-switch. Of course Donald Trump doesn’t ever seem to have intended to govern in the interest of the blue-collar dispossessed white working class in whose name he claimed to speak. He handed over the keys almost immediately to the Goldman Sachs bankers and the plutocrats. And now there’s Stephen Bannon going off half-cocked on his own behalf and claiming to be the true avatar of the Trumpite revolution — you know, more Trumpier than Trump, I guess. So we’re at a pretty interesting crossroads as we speak here.
Moyers: Your books show how resilient the conservative movement has been in our time. It keeps rising from the grave to move the Republican Party further and further right. Defeated with Goldwater in 1964, back in 1968 with Nixon. Defeated by Jimmy Carter in 1976, back with Reagan in 1980. Defeated by Clinton in 1992, back with George W. Bush in 2000. Defeated by Obama in 2008, back with Trump in 2016. Everyone kept saying the Republicans were finished unless they purged the conservatives. Now it’s the conservatives purging the Republicans.
Perlstein: So let’s talk about the transition from Carter to Reagan. That’s the subject of my historical research right now. Basically, you have the bounty of America’s postwar boom that was built upon the fact that all of our economic competitors were damaged by war. It was built upon cheap oil and cheap resources, and then on the social legislation of the 1960s that was offered on the assumption of a post-scarcity era — that we had basically solved the economic problems. Economists were confident, through Keynesian means, that they could keep recessions in check with low inflation. All that breaks down in the 1970s for various complicated reasons. And the response of a lot of Democrats — from people in Congress like Sen. Gary Hart, who essentially declared the New Deal tradition his ideological enemy, to Jimmy Carter, who said that the challenge of the future was accepting that we had to live in a period of austerity, to Jerry Brown in California, who backed a balanced-budget amendment to the Constitution — all of them were saying, basically, folks, look, the party’s over. You can’t have all the nice things anymore.
And this is precisely at the time that Republicans like Ronald Reagan are saying, “The problem is that taxes are too high.” Remember, Republicans for generations had been saying with great frustration since the New Deal, “We can’t win elections because no one shoots Santa Claus!” Santa Claus could no longer deliver those things the Democrats were voting for the people from the public treasury. So basically Democrats in the late 1970s said, “We’re not going to be Santa Claus anymore. We’re going to be the responsible grown-ups in the room.” The Republicans had to figure out a way to be Santa Claus. In fact, Jude Wanniski — remember him, the guy from The Wall Street Journal, one of the brilliant propagandists of supply-side economics? — called his theory of why tax cuts were great politics and policy of the Republicans “the two Santa Claus” theory. Of course, it turned out to be complete poppycock. You know, it was just nonsense.
Moyers: Supply-side economics?
Perlstein: Yes, supply-side economics was just the sheerest invention. But as politics, the conservatives were able to take advantage of Democrats abandoning the field of, basically, populism in the same way you have Bill Clinton deciding that the answer to the recession in the early 1990s is giving in to the bond-holders.
Moyers: And then there’s Barack Obama.
Perlstein: And you have Barack Obama, for all his administrative and communication skills, deciding that the important thing to do when the economy melts down after the big crash is to foam the runway for the banks and ease their soft landing instead of making people whole who literally had their homes stolen by banks. So the Democrats are not blameless in this.
Moyers: Are you saying Democrats provided the conservatives with the source of their resiliency?
Perlstein: But the fact of the matter is, liberals have always been too glib about the power and resilience of the reactionary tradition in America. Remember, half the country went to war to preserve slavery in this country — and it wasn’t just slavery; it was an entire feudal system in which basically society was ordered — the great chain of being from the slave to God.
Moyers: This is where your first book, Before the Storm, about the conservatives after the Goldwater defeat, tapped into historical DNA, connecting the modern conservative movement way back to people who were appealing to—
Perlstein: Whiteness — the white picket fence — the nuclear family—
Moyers: Yep—
Perlstein: —and Kevin Phillips called the other side — the liberals who were basically plunging ahead with all this social legislation that in a way rewired how people experienced their relationship to the state and to each other — he called them “the toryhood of change.” The snobs who are telling people how to live. They’re a toryhood. They’re controlling. They experiment with people’s lives.
Moyers: That’s obviously not how we saw it.
Perlstein: I’m sure. But unfortunately, the state can be a very scary thing, and benefits that are delivered by the state can often very easily be recast as oppressive to people, especially when their relative position in the pecking order is weakening. It’s not a zero-sum game. We know that as liberals when we invest in people who have been disinvested, that’s a rising tide that lifts all boats. But it can be a very traumatic thing to lose one’s sense of power and privilege in a changing world, and the conservatives recast themselves as not merely the preservers of order but the forces of dynamism. They saw themselves as cutting through this kind of sclerosis of liberalism. As the New Right leader and strategist [and] founder [with Jerry Falwell] of the Moral Majority Paul Weyrich put it, organizing discontent, finding places where people feel the world slipping away and gaining a toehold and turning that into political power, and if they have to lift a Trump on their shoulder to cross the finish line, well…
Moyers: You’ve spent years studying the infrastructure by which conservatives prepared for this moment. What do you see as the singular opportunity that enabled them to seize the opportunity in 2016, after eight years of Obama?
Perlstein: What was the discontent? I think that there are two kind of broad wellsprings of that discontent. One is economic — the fact that people weren’t made whole after the traumas of 2007 and 2008, the fact that the heartland Main Street America is being emptied out, that capital continues to flee overseas, that factories continue to close, that people are exploited by credit-card companies and student loan companies and all the rest. That sort of economic dispossession. But another wellspring, frankly, is the sense that one’s symbolic power that comes with being white and Christian and sitting behind that white picket fence, is not what it once was, especially in the hands of what they identified as “this foreign Kenyan usurper, Barack Obama.”
You know, back in Weimar, Germany, as Hitler was making his way to power, the socialists used to say anti-Semitism is the socialism of fools. And by that they meant when you’re being screwed by the boss and you blame the Jews instead of joining our socialist party in which we’re fighting to give you power in the workplace and power over the economy — well, that makes you a fool. But that interplay between ethnic scapegoating, religious scapegoating and a sense of economic dispossession — which doesn’t necessarily mean poorness or privation, it could mean a sense of economic vulnerability, the fear of falling that Barbara Ehrenreich a long time ago called the secret to the inner life of the middleclass — creates a situation where everyone’s place in the economic pecking order is ever precarious. Especially in America where we don’t have that safety net, that social democracy. I think that’s the enabling condition for a lot of this.
Moyers: And then there’s how you have put Donald Trump in the context of a sociological concept called “herrenvolk democracy.”
Perlstein: Oh, yes, which basically means social democracy for the favored race as a way not of expanding liberty to all citizens but only to the accepted in-group, people like us.
Moyers: The benefits were intended for the herrenvolk — universal for them but limited to them.
Perlstein: And that’s always been the struggle. Think of the original populists, the People’s Party of the 1890s. Often described as very white. But there’s a book that just had its 50th anniversary. The Tolerant Populists, by Walter Nugent. And as against interpretations of the populists that were popular among certain mid-20th century historians and social scientists, Nugent actually read populist newspapers that were often German-language newspapers, revealing that among the populist party nominees in Kansas in the late 19th century were African-Americans, women, Jews — that there has in fact been a tradition of multiracial class-based political mobilization that is a spark, a flame we can fan, a heritage we can claim. And consider this: For all the compromises that Franklin Roosevelt made with Southern white segregationists to get his New Deal legislation passed, the fact of the matter is that African-Americans across the United States put pictures of Franklin Roosevelt on their walls. They knew that this guy had his heart in the right place. John F. Kennedy’s picture was up on the wall in African-American homes all across the country. They knew he had his heart in the right place, even though he was very slow to find his way to proposing a revolutionary civil rights act in 1963.
Moyers: Yes, when President Johnson traveled through Appalachia, or other impoverished places, he couldn’t get over it. Hadn’t he just signed the Civil Rights Act of ’64? The Voting Rights Act of ’65? But there, on the wall, were photographs of JFK.
Perlstein: Life’s unfair, no? So I’m saying, I wouldn’t get too hopeless. Some interesting things are happening now.
Moyers: I don’t recommend any rose-colored glasses, Rick. You have written over and again that our society has never been one of consensus. Americans are always in conflict, polarized, competing and fighting.
Perlstein: Our national community builds in the act of transcending original wounds. If you think back to the late 18th century to the constitutional convention where delegates were trying to figure out a way to hold together a nascent commercial society in the North and a feudal society in the South, and doing it over the bodies of enslaved Africans and yet at the same time were superintended by a new Constitution professing ideals of liberty and individual dignity — man, that’s very heady stuff and not something that lends itself to easy accord. We’d like to believe that we’re united and at peace with ourselves and that we have the will to transcend and even repress those original psychic wounds—
Moyers: But we’re yoked to reality, including human nature—
Perlstein: Which gets us in a heck of a lot of trouble. So I try to get people to face hard truths in the interest of a difficult healing and a grace that is not cheap.
Moyers: The most somber realist in the White House, despite passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, was Lyndon Johnson. He kept watching [Alabama Gov.] George Wallace campaigning in primaries rallying white Democratic voters. Wallace would in effect say things like, “I’m all for the New Deal. I’m just not for it for black folks.” Johnson saw the blowback coming.
Perlstein: Yes, that’s herrenvolk democracy. Social democracy only for the white majority. I understand that in that 1964 campaign, the great Daisy commercial guys — Doyle, Dane and Bernback — cut commercials celebrating the Civil Rights Act. But they were not run, correct?
Moyers: Correct.
Perlstein: Because you guys knew better than the liberal majority and the people at The New York Times what was going to happen. The Times ran a headline the day after the ’64 election saying, “White backlash does not develop.” Well, they didn’t notice [what happened] that very day in California, which voted by a million votes against ending housing discrimination.
Moyers: And two years later, in 1966, California elected Ronald Reagan for governor. Democrats lost heavily in the congressional races.
Perlstein: But look, at the same time after he signed the Civil Rights Act, when Lyndon Johnson told you that he thinks he’s just given up the South to the Republicans for his lifetime and yours, I like to think there was an implied second part to that sentence, which is, “We have cemented the loyalty of Northern African-Americans for your generation and mine.” And that was a dialectic too.
Moyers: Well, a lot depends now on whether Donald Trump is an outlier or the representative of a new and even more adamant conservative politics.
Perlstein: You know, a lot of African-Americans traditionally have said, “Give me an outright Southern racist than the polite wink and a nod of a Northern racist any day, because at least you know what you’re dealing with and you can fight him out in the open.” So I think that Trump’s radicalism represents a certain opportunity to the people who have been trying for generations to instruct white people about what it is like to be black in America, what it is like to be an immigrant in America, what it is like to be Mexican, what it is like to be of a minority religion or no religion, and women who are trying to instruct men what it’s like to be under the gun of constant harassment and sexual objectification at the office. Things are becoming a lot clearer now. The edges, the invisible lineaments that divide us from each other are becoming a lot more perspicuous, a lot more visible — and I think that’s a useful tool for social change.
Moyers: So the turmoil and conflict we’re experiencing today might be because we are beginning to strip the whitewash off the history of our country.
Perlstein: I think it’s happening in a way that we haven’t quite seen in the past, and maybe we can hold out some promise for some interesting developments.
Moyers: We haven’t talked about guns, and the fierce religious zeal conservatives attach to guns. More than we can imagine at the moment, I sense we’re going to have to reckon with guns on the road ahead.
Perlstein: (Pause) I have a hard time understanding why conservative politicians don’t denounce what the National Rifle Association is doing with those video spots, in the figure of Dana Loesch, that really come straight from the propaganda files of Goebbels in Nazi Germany. They talk about how liberals are destroying truth and undermining our way of life and that guns are the only way that we can be safe. When are we going to demand Republicans start distancing themselves from a National Rifle Association that has literally become an anti-constitutional insurrectionist organization?
Moyers: But Republicans, conservatives, the NRA — are all part of the same ball of wax.
Perlstein: Well, the thing about the Second Amendment that’s so interesting to me as a historian, Bill, is that it’s the only part of the Constitution that really affirmatively mentions regulation as a good thing — “a well-regulated militia.” It’s such a bizarre text in the first place. But in the second place, a constitution is quite literally a machine for governing without violence. Without a constitution, it’s a war of all against all, and the person who can dominate the other person physically wins. As interpreted by the NRA and unfortunately by the Supreme Court as an individual right, it almost deconstructs the whole point of the Constitution, which is that people shouldn’t have to carry around guns. Our founders gave their lives, their fortunes, their sacred honor for a government of laws and not a government of arbitrary—
Moyers: Coercion.
Perlstein: Coercion, yes—
Moyers: Enforced by guns.
Perlstein: Yes, again. Every clever college freshman will tell you that ultimately a government is the monopolization of the use of force, and if you resist the rule of law you are going to be physically removed from the body politic. That’s the last resort. But there’s a first resort — and the National Rifle Association, at the behest and by the funding of the weapons industry, has created it: the first resort of insurrection.
A member of my family works for an investment bank. She once showed me a securities report — you know, one of those things that bankers come up with for analyzing an industry, whether it’s a buy or a sell. And it was so fascinating to read, in the cool rational jargon of bankers, the idea that the gun industry does great when there are Democrats in power because then they can scare the bejesus out of people that they’re going to take their guns away — an utter and rank lie, but one that the cunning forces of capital also have deployed as a profit-making strategy. It’s a very dangerous reality. And now we’re seeing it now. This did not get a lot of publicity but in Gainesville, Florida last week, when Richard Spencer was there—
Moyers: Leader of the white nationalists.
Perlstein: —leader of the white nationalists, and they had the largest police presence on a college campus in the history of the school. But that didn’t keep another white nationalist, who thought that he was being physically menaced by someone with a stick, to fire a shot at left protesters. They missed, but that sort of escalation by people who are trained to believe that they are under literal physical threat — demagogues like Dana Loesch and organizations like the National Rifle Association — may just cause an escalation of violence that is becomes extremely dangerous to all of our liberties.
Moyers: Do you ever go online to some of those gun sites? Do they frighten you?
Perlstein: Very scary. Because there’s an almost religious ideology that unless you are prepared to meet any threat with violent force, you, your family, the women and children you are charged by a kind of patriarchal ideology to protect, are endangered. I went to one site that offers tactical training on how to clear a room, how to get off the maximum number of rounds in the shortest period of time, what clothes to wear with breakaway pockets so you can shoot faster — there’s an entire narrative of how the world works, and the core of that narrative is that there are bad people who are not like you who are out to kill you and you have to kill them first.
Moyers: Do you write your history books to oppose the people you are writing about?
Perlstein: Do I write my books to oppose? I don’t think so. No, I think I write my books to affirm. Ultimately, I write my books motivated by a fascination, by the challenge of the various tribes of America to live together. I take great pleasure in making connections and in reaching readers and hopefully edifying them and enlightening them. I like to think that I use my work, my books, my journalism to create a community, a community of readers, of thinkers, of citizens. So ultimately, I think I do see it as an affirmative act. I’m not nihilistic, I’m optimistic.
Moyers: Thank you, Rick Perlstein.As bitcoin price slumps, investor interest holds steady
Jennifer Longson, owner of EO Cups and Cakes in San Francisco, sales a half dozen of her cup cakes Thursday, April 25, 2013 in San Francisco, California. Longson is one of the few retailers that will accept the virtual currency known as bitcoins. less Jennifer Longson, owner of EO Cups and Cakes in San Francisco, sales a half dozen of her cup cakes Thursday, April 25, 2013 in San Francisco, California. Longson is one of the few retailers that will accept the... more Photo: Lance Iversen / The Chronicle Photo: Lance Iversen / The Chronicle Image 1 of / 3 Caption Close As bitcoin price slumps, investor interest holds steady 1 / 3 Back to Gallery
Bitcoin has had a rough go of it recently.
In a 48-hour period in January, the digital currency and payment system declined 34 percent in value. It rebounded some — a bitcoin was worth $235 at the close of last week according to CoinDesk — but still trades at a tiny fraction of its $1,200 peak in December 2013.
With the decline, bitcoin businesses have struggled to continue operations. Last month, one company, CEX.io, said the tumbling prices forced it to temporarily suspend its bitcoin mining services. Mining operations are the backbone of the bitcoin network, running the computer program that processes all bitcoin transactions in exchange for a chance to unearth new bitcoins in the process.
Virtual currency has faded from the public eye, too. News coverage has declined precipitously, according to a media study by CoinDesk and Bitpay. Google searches for bitcoin fell off dramatically last May and have remained flat, according to Google Trends. And a recent survey by CoinCenter found 65 percent of people hadn’t heard of bitcoin at all, prompting the Bitcoin Foundation, a nonprofit bitcoin advocacy group, to this month launch a public awareness campaign to explain the relevance of bitcoin.
“The decline in value has definitely reduced mainstream enthusiasm,” said Gregory Kennedy, a Silicon Valley thought leader who writes regularly on bitcoin.
“I haven’t heard anyone say that they were profitable from bitcoin in a long time,” he added.
And yet, as prices have dipped and the spotlight has dimmed, investment dollars have poured in and the number of bitcoin transactions has swelled.
Transactions rise
In the last quarter of 2014, investment in bitcoin startups hit a new record of $129 million, according to the analysis firm CB Insights. Investment in 2014 totaled more than $400 million. In January, the bitcoin exchange Coinbase received a $75 million investment — the largest ever in a bitcoin startup — from big-name institutions such as the New York Stock Exchange and USAA.
“There is some aspect of the luster of bitcoin dropping,” said Matthew Wong, an analyst with CB Insights. “But investors are interested in not just bitcoin but its underlying infrastructure. Investors don’t see health of the space tied to price. It’s a long-term play, and there isn’t any indication the deals will drop off anytime soon.”
Major financial institutions have expressed interest in bitcoin, too, both curious about its potential to reduce the cost of transactions by cutting out middlemen and eager to assess the possibility of its competitive threat.
Speaking at the Museum of American Finance on Wall Street this month, former Treasury Secretary Larry Summers even voiced his enthusiasm for digital currency. Such payment systems, he said, will one day be ubiquitous.
“There will be a moment when they will go from you are struck by their presence to you are struck by their absence,” he said.
Last December, daily bitcoin transactions passed 100,000 for the first time in the digital currency’s history. More than 80,000 merchants — Microsoft and Overstock.com among them — now accept bitcoin. And that number is expected to reach 140,000 this year, according to analysis by CoinDesk.
But a decline in mainstream interest, bitcoin believers say, may be a good thing.
“There was this weird bitcoin spotlight for a while and there were casualties of that,” said Patrick Murck, the executive director of the Bitcoin Foundation, alluding to bitcoin’s infamous volatility. “Now that the hype cycle has died down, I think you’re seeing a maturing of the technology and the ecosystem.”
But Kennedy said the decline in interest could also lead to a Bitcoin Winter of sorts, with funding tapering off alongside interest until more “legitimate” uses for bitcoin in everyday life emerge. Wong, the analyst, said he expects many smaller bitcoin companies will fold in 2015 as they struggle to prove their relevance to customers.
A ways to go
Nathan Lands, an entrepreneur and bitcoin evangelist, learned the hard way just how far bitcoin may have to go. He was forced to rethink his bitcoin wallet startup, QuickCoin, after its use waned just one month after its launch in June. Bitcoin wallets allow users to exchange funds with one another via smartphone, but it turned out there just wasn’t much demand for it.
Lands’ wife’s restaurant, Ramen Underground in Japantown, was also a bitcoin pioneer — one of the first restaurants in San Francisco to accept virtual currencies. But interest there has dwindled, too.
“We’re somewhere in between the 'experimenting’ and'starts working’ (phase), which falls right after 'initial enthusiasm’ and'reality sits in.’” he said. “The biggest hurdle today is giving people unique ways and reasons to use bitcoin beyond speculation. Right now, you really only have remittances as a legitimate use case. Everything else makes very little sense.”
QuickCoin, Lands readily admits, was a failure. But he’s not ready to give up on his bitcoin belief altogether. The new incarnation of his company, Blockai, hopes to use tactics such as gaming and music to entice novices to give bitcoin a try.
“Just having a better bitcoin wallet isn’t enough,” he said.
Kristen V. Brown is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. E-mail: kbrown@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @kristenvbrown
What is a bitcoin?
Bitcoin is a peer-to-peer payment system that uses units of digital currency that only exist online and are not controlled by any central authority, such as a bank or government. Bitcoins are stored in a virtual wallet, and users exchange funds via anonymous identification numbers, like a wire transfer between bank accounts. Transactions are processed on computers that run the open-source bitcoin software — those who volunteer their processing power have a shot at unearthing new bitcoins for themselves in a process called mining. The thinking is that bitcoins are precious: There’s only a fixed number of them, making owning a bitcoin a little like having a share of a company stock.During the flurry of signings at the start of free agency, an unsurprising move fell under the radar. Jay Cutler, after missing most of the 2016 season with a labrum injury in his throwing shoulder, was released by the Chicago Bears.
The reception of the news among Bears fans was much like that of Eddie Lacy’s departure from Green Bay, good riddance. The expectations were high for Cutler, who despite leaving Chicago as their all-time passing touchdowns and passing yards leader, has been looked on widely as a disappointment for his 109 interceptions in eight seasons. His 2-11 record against Green Bay in games started in the regular season and playoffs was a cause of much frustration among Bears fans.
Just north of Chicago in the land of cheese however, Cutler will be remembered as the cause of side-splitting laughter and eye-rolling when our friends below the border tried to convince us he was elite. Cutler threw 23 interceptions in 13 games against the Packers while with Chicago. As Charles Woodson once said while with the Packers, “We don’t need luck; Jay will throw us the ball.”
Here they are, ranked by importance of the game, time in that game and how awful the throw or decision was that led to that pick.
23. Derrick Martin, First Quarter, Week 3 of 2010
Every interception except this one came in a game the Packers would ultimately win, so Martin’s pick of an overthrown Cutler pass to Greg Olsen in the end zone falls mostly for this reason. The Bears would win this game 20-17, helping set the stage for a dramatic season finale in Green Bay that season.
22. Nick Collins, First Quarter, Week 1 of 2009
This may have been the moment Bears fans began to question the Jay Cutler trade. Just over ten minutes into his first game with Chicago, Cutler rolled out of the pocket and threw a dart into double coverage that was off target and straight to Collins. This drive was deep in Packer territory, spoiling Cutler’s first potential scoring drive with Chicago. As they say on SportsCenter’s Top Ten plays, more from this game later…
21. Clay Matthews, Third Quarter, Week 4 of 2014
The Bears trailed 24-17 midway through the third quarter in a game where they had the chance to sink the Packers to 1-3 with a victory. Just outside the red zone, a short pass to Josh Morgan was broken on by Tramon Williams and deflected into the air, right to a waiting Clay Matthews near the line of scrimmage. Matthews nearly returned the pick for a touchdown, but pulled up due to a lingering hamstring injury. The ensuing drive led to a Jordy Nelson touchdown, bringing the game to 31-17 as the Packers began to pull away. Was this pick Cutler’s fault? Probably not. Was it funny? Absolutely.
20. Charles Woodson, First Quarter, Week 13 of 2009
This pick is very emblematic of the Cutler era as a whole: lofty expectations that ultimately fell well short. This time it was Woodson settling beneath the under-thrown pass intended for Devin Aromashodu. Woodson returned the pass for nine yards, leading to a Packers field goal. This was the first of two for Cutler in this game.
19. Morgan Burnett, First Quarter, Week 3 of 2011
Looking to answer an early Packers score, Cutler took a shot to Roy Williams, who had a step on the underneath coverage of Tramon Williams down the sideline. The pass hung in the air too long however, and Burnett was able to close for the interception, his first of two off Cutler in that game.
18. Jerron McMillian, Fourth Quarter, Week 2 of 2012
It is really a wonder why the Bears kept Cutler in for some of these games, but alas with three minutes left and the Bears trailing 23-10 with no timeouts remaining, he was still out there slinging picks. This time, a stare-down of his intended receiver Earl Bennett resulted in the fourth and final interception of Cutler’s second such game in Green Bay. The Bears would lose by the same score of 23-10.
17. Micah Hyde, First Quarter, Week 10 of 2014
This was actually a decent throw by Cutler. He was looking for Martellus Bennett on an out route to the sideline, and delivered a high pass where seemingly only Bennett could catch it. It was not quite high enough however, and hung just long enough for Hyde to knife underneath and pick it off. The pick set Green Bay up nicely at the Bears 23 yard line, and they would score four plays later to increase their lead to 14-0.
16. Tramon Williams, Second Quarter, Week 2 of 2012
Cutler, facing a blitz on second down as he tried to lead his team back from a 10-0 hole before halftime, tried to squeeze a pass to Earl Bennett over the middle. Williams dove in front for his first of two interceptions in the game. It was also the first of four picks for Cutler, who was having nightmares of 2009 all over again.
15. Charles Woodson, Third Quarter, Week 2 of 2012
Cutler dug his trailing Bears in a deeper hole while trailing 13-3 late in the third quarter, scrambling out of the pocket to cork a heater over the middle to Earl Bennett. Woodson was all over it like a meatball pitch in the Packers’ charity softball game. This was Cutler’s second of four in the game, and Woodson’s 55th pick of his career.
14. Tramon Williams, Second Quarter, Week 1 of 2009
Only two minutes of game time after throwing his second pick with Chicago, Cutler faced third and eight and a heavy blitz from a pair of Packers rushers. Apparently not knowing the meaning of “throw the ball away,” Cutler chucked a reckless pass over the middle, which NBC cameras could not even capture the intended receiver of before it was picked by Williams, who returned the pass from his own 35 down to the three yard line of Chicago. This capped a scoreless first half for the Bears offense, with a safety by the defense saving them from a bagel.
13. Casey Hayward, Second Quarter, Week 14 of 2012
Cutler made one too many mistakes in a close game by squandering a late first-half opportunity with a horrendous throw over the middle to Hayward. The pass, intended for Devin Hester, appeared to be a case of receiver breaking one way, defender breaking another, with Cutler getting confused and throwing it right to Hayward. The then-rookie returned his sixth pick into Bears territory for a 28 yard return that led to a late first-half Packers touchdown. The Packers would go on to win 21-13.
12. Tramon Williams, Fourth Quarter, Week 2 of 2012
Now trailing 16-3 in part thanks to Cutler’s inability to hang on to the ball while conducting the Bears offense, he was once again in fourth quarter panic mode. A deep heave to Brandon Marshall in double coverage was under-thrown, tipped and caught by Williams for his second and Cutler’s third of the game. Under-thrown and double coverage are starting to become key words here…
11. Nick Collins, Fourth Quarter, Week 13 of 2009
With the Bears leading at the start of the fourth quarter 14-13, Cutler had a chance to drive the Bears down for an insurance score. Instead, on a third and five from his own 32, Cutler panicked in the face of a blitz and rushed a pass to the left side. In what was either a miscommunication, a really poor route by Knox or a combination of both, the pass fell into the waiting arms of Collins as Knox stumbled nearly five yards behind. Collins returned the pick inside the Bears’ 20 yard line, leading to a touchdown and two-point conversion that would prove to be the difference in a 21-14 Packers victory.
10. Casey Hayward, Fourth Quarter, Week 10 of 2014
Another unfortunate deflection led to the only pick-six on this long list of futility. Trailing 48-7 in another head-scratching “why was he out there?” moment, Cutler was trying to save a shred of dignity in the game by driving the Bears down for a second score with just under 11 minutes to play. His throw careened of the helmet of his lineman Kyle Long, into the hands of Hayward, who ran 82 yards for the score. Green Bay won 55-14, starting a run of seven of their final eight games en route to a first round bye in the playoffs.
9. Sam Shields, Third Quarter, Week 4 of 2014
Trailing 31-17 in what was once a close game, Cutler began to unravel. On the very next possession after an unfortunate bounce led to his first interception, Cutler threw an inexplicable pass right to Sam Shields. The receiver ran downfield, Shields kept his eyes on Cutler and was caught underneath. A good throw might have led to a score, but instead Cutler threw a bullet to Shields, who returned it 62 yards to the Bears ten yard line. A game that was once 24-17 became 38-17 in half a quarter due to errant throws from Cutler.
8. Morgan Burnett, Fourth Quarter, Week 3 of 2011
With the Packers leading 27-10 in the fourth quarter with 12 minutes left, Cutler was trying desperately to get his team back in the game. As we know, Cutler and desperation throws rarely end well for him, and although Roy Williams again had a step on Tramon Williams, the pass was behind his target and picked by Burnett. This stalled drive helped the Packers secure a 27-17 victory to improve to 3-0 in a season they would start 13-0.
7. Clay Matthews, Fourth Quarter, Week 1 of 2015
The final Green Bay interception off of Cutler during his time with the Bears was another game clincher for the Packers. Green Bay led 24-16 with Chicago driving just outside the red zone. Cutler, overlooking Clay Matthews in a zone assignment over the middle, fired a pass to Martellus Bennett that Matthews undercut. Matthews returned the pass 48 yards, 15 of which were cut off on an illegal block in the back on the return. The Packers would capitalize with an Eddie Lacy touchdown run, giving them enough distance to hold off the Bears 31-23.
6. Al Harris, Fourth Quarter, Week 1 of 2009
In what was a fitting conclusion to a miserable start of the Cutler era, a final comeback attempt with about a minute remaining was cut short by a crafty Harris. Intended receiver Johnny Knox slipped, or was knocked slightly off his route by Harris’ bump and run coverage. Harris read Knox’s route, and stepped in front of Cutler’s secondary read for a game-clinching interception that was nearly returned for a touchdown. Two of Cutler’s four interceptions from this game came within ten yards of being returned for touchdowns.
5. Charlie Peprah, Third Quarter, Week 17 of 2010
On third and 19 midway through the third quarter of a must-win contest for the Packers, Cutler presented the first of two late Christmas gifts to Packers defenders. Trying to thread the needle between double coverage to Knox in the end zone, Peprah leaped in front of the pass to save a touchdown in a low-scoring 3-0 game at the time in favor of the Bears. The turnover kept the game in reach for a Packers team fighting to make the playoffs.
4. Johnny Jolly, Second Quarter, Week 1 of 2009
The second of Cutler’s four-pick debut was possibly his most pathetic pick thrown against the |
has become closely linked to China, it is also increasingly wary of what China’s rise might mean for the region. Its 2009 strategic defense white paper outlined a need for the country to build a new fleet of a dozen advanced diesel-electric submarines.[3] On the other hand, Japan is a country with a long history of building such vessels, the latest of which are its Sōryū-class submarines that are equipped with ultra-quiet air-independent propulsion. After Abe relaxed Japan’s arms export controls in April 2014, the two countries accelerated talks over how Australia could acquire certain defense technologies (and possibly entire submarines) from Japan. If such acquisitions are eventually made, they would further cement Australia as a true security partner with Japan.
What has been particularly impressive is the ease with which Japan has developed its new security relationships, all of which were formed in the last year. (See map.) A few of these intersect with the many bilateral security ties the United States maintains in the region, whether they are formal treaties (blue) or simply close relationships (green).
Japan is not alone. Vietnam has extended its search for friends to India and Russia and recently took the step of cooperating with the Philippines, a rival claimant in the South China Sea. Meanwhile, the Philippines has strengthened its alliance with the United States through a new security pact, the Enhanced Defense Cooperation Agreement (formerly known as Increased Rotational Presence). Other Southeast Asian countries have begun to take precautions too. Even historically quiescent Indonesia has moved to reaffirm its claim to the exclusive economic zone around the Natuna Islands, a portion of which overlaps China’s South China Sea claim. Indeed, as long as China forcefully presses its maritime claims and Abe can move Japan towards collective self-defense, Tokyo may find more Asia-Pacific countries receptive to its offer of new security relationships.Things are apparently changing at Burger King -- and the king himself is reportedly taking the fall.
According to USA Today. the fast-food chain is de-throning its "king" character as it gives its menu more fresh, healthy options.
So -- no more commercials featuring that frozen smile.
The newspaper calls Burger King's plan "the first of many steps to reinvent itself over the next year," making its advertising target Mom rather than teens, and stressing healthy items on its menu, including some new ones.
"In a new ad campaign set to air this weekend," USA Today says, "Burger King will nationally roll out the California Whopper on Monday, made with what's arguably the gastronomic trend of 2011: guacamole. In a serious image twist, the entire commercial shows only the sights and sounds of the fresh ingredients being washed, sliced and diced. There are no words, just pulsating music."
The newspaper quotes Alex Macedo, Burger King senior marketing vice president, as saying there are "no plans to bring the King back anytime soon."
Burger King has been struggling in its battle with McDonald's.
BK's same-store sales were down 6 percent in the first quarter, even as those at McDonalds rose 3 percent, USA Today says, citing consulting firm Technomic.While Wall Street continue to issue sky-high price targets in excess of $1,000 on Apple (AAPL) shares last year, BTIG’s Walter Piecyk saw the writing on the wall in April and downgraded the stock to Neutral. Five months later, Apple shares took a spectacular dive and have yet to show any real signs of recovery. Piecyk seemingly now believes we’re at the bottom, however, as the analyst on Thursday upgraded Apple to Buy with a $540 target.
“We believe the stock is reflecting low buy-side investor expectations, even if the sell-side has not yet caught up with their estimate revisions,” Piecyk wrote in a research note. “Apple will also benefit from a reversal of the impacts of the tighter phone upgrade policies in the United States, its most important market, and is likely to come to a decision on its cash by the end of the month.”
BTIG sees a number of upcoming catalysts including the launch of a cheaper iPhone by the end of the year, which could contribute $11 billion to Apple’s fiscal 2014 revenue. “We believe a product that addresses the more than 70% of global wireless subscribers that are unsubsidized pre-paid is necessary in order for Apple to grow its EPS next year,” Piecyk said. He sees Apple selling 35 million units in fiscal 2014 at an average selling price of $300.
Piecyk also thinks Apple could be cooking up a larger iPhone. “We don’t pretend to understand what consumers want and have leaned heavily towards Steve Job’s belief that ‘consumers don’t know what they want until you show it to them,’ ” the analyst wrote. “But it’s undeniable that there is demand at the high-end (where all the profits are made) for a larger screen. A more material move in the size of the iPhone would generate a better upgrade cycle compared to the marginal change in size of the iPhone 5.”
Apple shares were trading up 1% on Piecyk’s upgrade during Thursday’s pre-market session.The clash between Manchester City and Chelsea on Saturday had so many talking points.
The lunchtime kick-off was a pulsating affair for 90 minutes, with Chelsea eventually running out 3-1 winners.
While the action on the pitch was incredibly exciting, the scenes towards the end turned rather unsavoury.
Sergio Aguero’s horror tackle on David Luiz saw the Argentine dismissed and sparked a mass shoving match between the two sets of players. City midfielder Fernandinho was also sent off after he grabbed Cesc Fabregas by the neck and pushed him over the advertising hoardings.
Footage later showed that Fernandinho was retaliating after Fabregas had given him a little slap around the face.
Article continues below
The incidents continued after the final whistle when City boss Pep Guardiola clearly snubbed Fabregas’ handshake on the pitch.
Many claimed that it was because of Fabregas’ involvements in Fernandinho’s sending off, while Marca suggested it was something more sinister stemming back to their time at Barcelona.
However, Guardiola has finally revealed the real reason he didn’t shake Fabregas’ hand - because he simply didn’t see it.
"I greeted Cesc Fabregas in the changing room, I didn’t realise he was there on the pitch," he said when asked about the incident.
Take a look at the video and see for yourself:
Hmmmm, we’re not sure we believe you, Pep.
After the match, the former Barcelona and Bayern Munich manager apologised for the actions of his side.
"It is a pity the game finished like this," Guardiola said.
"I don't like that and I apologise for what happened. I don't think Aguero's challenge is intentional. Both players were strong, that is all.
"Then Fernandinho went over to defend his team-mate because of what the opponent did to Aguero.
"When (City winger) Nolito did that against Bournemouth, it was a red card for him and a three-game ban. That is why Fernandinho went to defend his team-mate, that is all.
"I have not spoken to him about it - if it is on TV, we will see about it."
Following the controversy at the end, the FA have announced that both clubs have been charged with failing to control their players.
It’s also been confirmed that Aguero will miss the next four Premier League matches, due to already receiving a retrospective red card for a clash with West Ham’s Winston Reid in August.
However, it’s been revealed that Fabregas won’t receive any ban for his ‘slap’ on Fernandinho.Pann : IU is suing 82 people for leaving hateful comments
1. [+685, -106] IU is good at gags
IU: "I'm confident to be in top 5 celebrities that don't care about hateful comments."
2. [+544, -32] She can sue the hateful comments and Britney can sue her
3. [+477, -31] It doesn't matter if she's suing them but she should give feedback to other issues
4. [+176, -6] She has time to sue hateful comments but no time to clarify other controversies
5. [+158, -11] How low is Lee Jieun going to go?
6. [+146, -5] And what happened to the Britney issue?
7. [+134, -13] ㅋㅋ I knew it. It's the beginning of her victim cosplay... She's gonna release a song soon. Expecting to see emotional ballad, IU ^^
8. [+121, -12] Why is she giving feedback only to hateful comments instead of other controversies? Ugh
9. [+108, -12] It's not time for her to be suing people and acting shameless... Seems like she's being "whatever". Does she want to keep her pride until the end? How sad.
10. [+108, -6] Was she preparing for this instead of giving feedback? I knew she wasn't ordinary when she held a fansign with Zeze picture. What is she gonna say if the hateful commenters say they were talking about a third person?Exclusive | Mignola & Golden’s ‘Joe Golem’ Returns In May
Back in 2015, Mike Mignola and Christopher Golden brought their creation, Joe Golem, to comics with a five issue miniseries that transported readers to an alternate timeline where most of the lower part of Manhattan has been permanently submerged under water. In “the Drowning City,” Joe Golem is an unlikely hero…who may have actually been a Golem! Joe’s past may be murky, but he’s the occult detective that this city needs.
CraveOnline is proud to exclusively announced that Mignola and Golden are reteaming with artist Patric Reynolds and colorist Dave Stewart for a new five-issue Joe Golem miniseries beginning in May. As before, the miniseries will feature two different and distinct stories.
Joe Golem Occult Detective: The Outer Dark #1
Mike Mignola (W), Christopher Golden (W), Patric Reynolds (A), Dave Stewart (C), and Dave Palumbo (Cover)
“Two years after he killed a child-snatching monster and stopped an undead takeover in the Drowning City, occult detective Joe Golem searches for a man with superhuman strength who is attacking citizens under orders from the otherworldly voices in his head. But Joe has his own demons to wrestle with...”
“Joe Golem: Occult Detective takes place in a truly strange world full of characters Mike Mignola and I are always thrilled to get back to,” explained Golden. “Our private detective fights monsters, while his love life and his identity are plagued by missing memories and dreams about living centuries ago as an actual golem. He’s guided by a Victorian detective kept alive with magic and weird mechanisms, but this mentor is also hiding the truth about Joe’s past. The Outer Dark #1 launches Volume Two of the series, which will again be five issues broken down into two arcs, illustrated again by Patric Reynolds, who brings this flooded alternate history version of New York to life in a way that astonishes on every page. Joe’s world is bigger than readers think, but they’re going to see that very soon, and I can’t wait!”
Joe Golem Occult Detective: The Outer Dark #1 will be released on Wednesday, May 31 in comic book stores everywhere.
What did you think about the return of Joe Golem? Let us know in the comment section below!
Photo Credit: All images provided by Dark Horse Comics.Caleb Clarke is following in his father's footsteps at the Blues.
The Blues have signed New Zealand under-20 duo Dalton Papalii and Caleb Clarke for the 2018 Super Rugby season.
Loose forward Papalii and wing Clarke, the son of former All Blacks and Blues midfielder Eroni, were both members of the national under-20 side which powered their way to the world title in Georgia in June.
One of the new ITC (Interim Training Contract) recipients this year, Papalii has already forged a close involvement with the Blues.
He was a graduate of the club's under-17 and under-18 programmes before moving on to play for the Blues under-20 and A teams for the last two years, captaining the age-group team both years.
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A former St Kentigern College captain, Papalii led the team to the Auckland 1A Championship in 2015, captained the Auckland under-19 side in 2016 and was part of the New Zealand under-20 side for two years.
Clarke has also come through the Blues development programme and has been part of the franchise's apprenticeship in 2017.
Part of the Mt Albert Grammar national championship winning side from 2016, the big winger was a star performer at the under-20 world championships.
He was part of the Blues under-18 side and the New Zealand secondary schools in 2015 and 2016, the Blues development programmes for under-17, under-18 and was this year in the Blues under-20 and the A teams.
"We continue to work very hard on developing and retaining our best talent, with a focus on young players with the right attitude to become successful professionals who have a passion for the Blues," said Blues high performance manager Tony Hanks.
"Both of these two players not only have proven ability on the field, they are both young men with character and integrity who have also proven to be leaders to this point in their careers.
"The Blues are excited to have both of them on board while we continue to work closely with a number of others looking towards 2018 and beyond."Thanks to a recent wave of spirited startups, “having drinks at home” has become a lot more creative; solutions like Brewie make home brewing easier, gadgets like Fizzics make all your suds taste like they’re coming out of a tap, and subscription box solutions like Saloonbox allow you to dabble with different cocktail recipes without stepping out of your house. With a new device set for early-bird delivery in Summer of 2017, you’ll be able to brew your own craft hard cider at home by using standard off the shelf ingredients.
Alchema is a device that enables virtually anyone to create craft hard cider with minimal effort—in fact, only about 5 small steps “minimal effort,” and from start to sip, the whole process only takes two weeks. It’s also possible to make wine with the device by using your own wine grapes and waiting a little longer for the aging process.
As with any home smart device, there’s a companion mobile app for Alchema. One function of the app is to enable monitoring of all aspects of the fermentation process without having to open the lid and manually check the batch. The app also helps kick off the process by offering recipe alternatives. To begin, users simply choose a recipe from the recipe collection. They then add the ingredients (fresh fruit, sugar, water) and choose the right yeast (provided as part of the product package) based on what the recipe specifies. In addition to the curated recipe list users can create their own recipes and customize the alcohol content and sweetness to their preferences.
There’s also a social media component to the device. Users have the option of sharing their recipes with other Alchema users or their existing connections through the other major social networks. The posts outline essential metrics such as brewing time, average temperature, alcohol content, sweetness, astringency, bitterness, and acidity. The app even shows a chart of the alcohol content over time.
One of the biggest reasons homebrew beginners fail to succeed with their early brewing efforts is contamination which often leaves a bad taste. This is why Alchema is equipped with a medical grade UV-C LED light which sanitizes the container before beginning the fermentation process.
Alchema weighs 4kg, holds approximately 3 wine bottles (2.4L), and is 15.7”x9.8”x8.3”. The device runs off a standard 5V/1A micro USB cable, and can hold containers as heavy as 10kg.
The device is now available for pre-order via their Kickstarter campaign. The company has already raised over $115,000 on an $80,000 goal and there is still more than 30 days left in the campaign. Semi early bird pricing is $359 for the smart homebrewer and three yeast packets (unfortunately the $299 units have all be gulped), and the final product has an estimated retail price of $399.The theory of output as a whole, which is what The General Theory of Employment, Interest and Money purports to provide, is much more easily adapted to the conditions of a totalitarian state. John Maynard Keynes
In looking at and assessing the economic paradigm of John Maynard Keynes — a man himself fixated on aggregates — we must look at the aggregate of his thought, and the aggregate of his ideology.
Keynes was not just an economist. Between 1937 and 1944 he served as the head of the Eugenics Society and once called eugenics “the most important, significant and, I would add, genuine branch of sociology which exists.” And Keynes, we should add, understood that economics was a branch of sociology. So let’s be clear: Keynes thought eugenics was more important, more significant, and more genuine than economics.
Eugenics — or the control of reproduction — is a very old idea.
In The Republic, Plato advocated that the state should covertly control human reproduction:
You have in your house hunting-dogs and a number of pedigree cocks. Do not some prove better than the rest? Do you then breed from all indiscriminately, or are you careful to breed from the best? And, again, do you breed from the youngest or the oldest, or, so far as may be, from those in their prime? And if they are not thus bred, you expect, do you not, that your birds and hounds will greatly degenerate? And what of horses and other animals? Is it otherwise with them? How imperative, then, is our need of the highest skill in our rulers, if the principle holds also for mankind? The best men must cohabit with the best women in as many cases as possible and the worst with the worst in the fewest, and that the offspring of the one must be reared and that of the other not, if the flock is to be as perfect as possible. And the way in which all this is brought to pass must be unknown to any but the rulers, if, again, the herd of guardians is to be as free as possible from dissension. Certain ingenious lots, then, I suppose, must be devised so that the inferior man at each conjugation may blame chance and not the rulers and on the young men, surely, who excel in war and other pursuits we must bestow honors and prizes, and, in particular, the opportunity of more frequent intercourse with the women, which will at the same time be a plausible pretext for having them beget as many of the children as possible. And the children thus born will be taken over by the officials appointed for this.
Additionally, Plato advocated “disposing” with the offspring of the inferior:
The offspring of the inferior, and any of those of the other sort who are born defective, they will properly dispose of in secret, so that no one will know what has become of them. That is the condition of preserving the purity of the guardians’ breed.
In modernity, the idea appears to have reappeared in the work first of Thomas Malthus, and later that of Francis Galton.
Malthus noted:
It does not, however, seem impossible that by an attention to breed, a certain degree of improvement, similar to that among animals, might take place among men. Whether intellect could be communicated may be a matter of doubt: but size, strength, beauty, complexion, and perhaps even longevity are in a degree transmissible. As the human race could not be improved in this way, without condemning all the bad specimens to celibacy, it is not probable, that an attention to breed should ever become general.
Galton extended Malthus’ thoughts:
What nature does blindly, slowly and ruthlessly, man may do providently, quickly, and kindly. As it lies within his power, so it becomes his duty to work in that direction.
Margaret Sanger — the founder of Planned Parenthood — went even further, claiming that the state should prevent the “undeniably feeble-minded” from reproducing, and advocated “exterminating the Negro population”.
And these ideas — very simply, that the state should determine who should live, and who should die, and who should be allowed to reproduce — came to a head in the devastating eugenics policies of Hitler’s Reich, which removed around eleven million people — mostly Jews, gypsies, dissidents, homosexuals, and anyone who did not fit with the notion of an Aryan future — from the face of the Earth.
Of course, the biggest problem with eugenics is that human planning cannot really control nature. Mutation and randomness throw salt over the idea. No agency — even today in the era of genetics — has the ability to effectively determine who should and should not breed, and what kind of children they will have.
As Hayek noted:
The recognition of the insuperable limits to his knowledge ought indeed to teach the student of society a lesson of humility which should guard him against becoming an accomplice in men’s fatal striving to control society – a striving which makes him not only a tyrant over his fellows, but which may well make him the destroyer of a civilization which no brain has designed but which has grown from the free efforts of millions of individuals.
Keynes’ interest in this topic appears to have descended from his contempt for the individual, and individual liberty. He once wrote:
Nor is it true that self-interest generally is enlightened; more often individuals acting separately to promote their own ends are too ignorant or too weak to attain even these.
The common denominator in all of these examples — and in my view, the thing that brought Keynes toward eugenics — is the belief that the common individual is too stupid to be the captain of his own destiny. Instead, the state — supposedly equipped with the best minds and the best data — should centrally plan. Eugenicists believe that the state should centrally plan human reproduction, while Keynesians believe that the state should centrally engineer recovery from economic malaise through elevated spending. Although it would be unwise to accuse modern Keynesians of having sympathy for eugenics, the factor linking both of these camps together is John Maynard Keynes himself.
Keynes’ description of an economic depression — that a depression is a fall in the total economic output — is technically correct. And many modern Keynesian economists have made worthwhile contributions — Hyman Minsky, Steve Keen, Michael Hudson, and Joe Stiglitz are four examples. Even the polemicist Paul Krugman’s descriptive work on trade patterns and economic agglomeration is interesting and accurate.
The trouble seems to begin with prescriptions. Keynesianism dictates that the answer to an economic depression is an increase in state spending. And on the surface of it, an increase in state spending will lift the numbers. But will momentarily lifting the numbers genuinely help the economy? Not necessarily; the state could spend millions of dollars on subsidies for things that nobody wants, wasting time, effort, labour and taxes and thus destroying wealth. And the state can push a market into euphoria — just as Alan Greenspan did to the housing market — creating the next bubble and the next bust, requiring an even bigger bailout. State spending creates additional dependency on the state, and perverts the empirical market mechanism — the genuine underlying state of demand in a market economy — which signals to producers what to produce and not produce. Worst of all, centralist policies almost always have knock-on side-effects that no planner could foresee (causality is complicated).
So Hayek’s view on the insuperable limits to knowledge applies as much to the economic planner as it does to the central planner of human reproduction.
While eugenicists and Keynesians make correct descriptive observations — like the fact that certain qualities and traits are inheritable, or more simply that children are like their parents — their attempts to use the state as a mechanism to control these natural systems often turns out to be drastically worse than the natural systems that they seek to replace.
As Keynes seems to admit when — in the German language edition of his General Theory — he noted that the conditions of a totalitarian state may be more amenable to his economic theory, the desire for control may be the real story here.
Keynesianism brings more of the economy under the control of the state. It is a slow and creeping descent into dependency on the state. As we are seeing in Europe today, cuts in state spending in a state-dependent economy can cause deep economic contraction, providing the Keynesian more confirmation for his idea that the state should tax more, and spend more.
That is, until nature intervenes. Just as a state-controlled eugenics program might well spawn an inbred elite suffering hereditary illnesses as a result of a lack of genetic diversity (as seems to have happened with the inbred elite Darwin-Galton-Wedgwood clan), so a state-controlled economy may well grind itself into the dirt as it runs out of innovation as a result of a lack of economic diversity. Such a situation is unsustainable — no planner is smarter than nature.According to the Robotic Industries Association (RIA), robotic sales have risen to its fastest start ever in 2014. The IFR Statistical Department also expects, “that between 2014 and 2016 worldwide robot sales will increase by about 6% on average per year [and] in 2016, the annual supply of industrial robots will reach more than 190,000 units."
Tech in Motion (http://www.techinmotionevents.com/) Silicon Valley is excited to host its first Robotics event with some of the hottest Robots in the market. From educational purposes, crime fighting, and personal assistants; we will be presenting all areas of robotics that are making a difference! We welcome everyone to take a deeper look into this “innovative new world” we are headed into and come explore revolutionary technology. This is going to be an educational, captivating, and interactive event that will bring to light the, “Rise of the Robots.”
Companies: (Pssst! There will be 5-6 K5's, a SaviOne, and 2-3 NAO's at this event)
Knightscope (http://knightscope.com/), develops technology that will predict and prevent crime with an innovative combination of large-scale robotics, predictive analytics and social engagement. The Knightscope K5 Autonomous Data Machine utilizes a combination of autonomous technology, robotics and predictive analytics to provide a commanding but friendly physical presence while gathering important real-time on-site data with its numerous sensors. Data collected through these sensors is processed through the K5's 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 not only allow the entire community to review the data, but to contribute important real-time information.
Savioke (http://www.savioke.com/) (pronounced "savvy oak") is creating autonomous robot helpers for the services industry. Their first product, SaviOne (AKA "the Botlr"), is a delivery robot for hotels that brings amenities like toothbrushes, towels and cell phone chargers to guest rooms autonomously. Savioke is passionate about delivering easy-to-use yet sophisticated robots that can help people and aim to improve the lives of people by developing and deploying robotic technology in human environments - the places people live and work.
Aldebaran Robotics (http://www.aldebaran.com/en), founded in 2005, Aldebaran is a world leader in humanoid robotics. Currently there are over 6,000 of Aldebaran's flagship NAO robot being used for research and academics in K-12 curriculum and universities in over 70 countries. Aldebaran has it's sights on the personal robotics market, and is continuing to build custom robotics solutions for businesses. Aldebaran Supports a global community of engineers, developers and others interested in exploring the endless possibilities of how robots can be used in the home, workplace, schools, healthcare etc. The mission of their developer community is to inspire developers to challenge the future of social, emotional, and personal robotics; and develop the types of applications that will allow these and other robots to truly enrich the lives of humans around the world.
Tonight’s Agenda:
6:00 pm – 7:00 pm: Snacks, Networking, Robot Interaction!
7:00 pm – 7:10 pm: Sponsor Announcement & Leap Motion Raffle Winner Announced
7:10 pm – 8:00 pm: Knightscope Presentation with K5
8:00 pm - 8:30pm: Aldebaran Presentation with NAO
8:30pm – 9:00 pm: Savioke Presentation with SaviOne
Leap Motion (http://developer.leapmotion.com) has generously donated a Leap Motion Controller to be raffled off at this event!
Leap Motion's v2 software contains 26 new tracking points for improved finger definition and major improvements to handling occlusion. Built specifically with VR and AR applications in mind, v2 “top-down mode” brings dynamic 3D input straight into any HMD, and access to raw stereoscopic image data allows developers to experiment with infrared augmented reality.
We would like to thank our gracious sponsors Workbridge Associates (http://www.workbridgeassociates.com/locations/new-york), Jobspring Partners (http://www.jobspringpartners.com/locations/new-york), GoEngineer (http://www.goengineer.com/), and MarketplaceLIVE (http://www.telxmarketplacelive.com) for sponsoring this month’s event.
About Our Sponsors:
GoEngineer (http://www.goengineer.com/) delivers software, technology and expertise that enable companies to unlock design innovation and deliver better products faster. With more than 30 years of experience and thousands of customers in high tech, medical, machine design, energy and other industries, GoEngineer provides best-in-class design solutions from SOLIDWORKS, Stratasys, Objet, CAMWorks and Product Lifecycle Management (PLM). Check them out on all of their social media accounts: Facebook (https://www.facebook.com/goengineer), YouTube (https://www.youtube.com/user/goengineer), Twitter (https://twitter.com/GoEngineer), LinkedIn (https://www.linkedin.com/company/goengineer), Google+ (https://plus.google.com/101084524922750716243/posts), GoEngineer Blog (http://www.goengineer.com/blog/).
MarketplaceLIVE (https://telxmplwest14.eventbrite.com/?discount=SVTECHVIP) | Nov 13th 2014 | 9am – 6pm | Nob Hill Masonic Center, San Francisco, CA
Tech in Motion Members Receive Free Entry When You Register Online: CLICK REGISTER HERE (https://telxmplwest14.eventbrite.com/?discount=SVTECHVIP)
MarketplaceLIVE (http://www.telxmarketplacelive.com) helps companies grow by enabling them to connect to new partners, new markets and gain access to new revenue streams. The event brings together leading cloud computing providers, service providers, capital market firms, large enterprises, media and entertainment companies as well as industry analysts, network strategists, and C-Level technology experts in a truly dynamic atmosphere.
The full-day event features two keynote speakers and more than 60 high-profile tech exhibitors for the 700+ attendees to experience. In addition to keynotes and networking opportunities, MarketplaceLIVE will offer four expert led technology panels highlighting the following topics: Mobile, Video & Gaming ‘Oh My!’, Solving Issues Larger than Us, Cloud Wars & Coalitions, and Start-ups & Legends.
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• Interested in sponsoring a Tech in Motion event? Click Here (http://bit.ly/1nq8Kxr)!Donald Trump's oldest daughter Ivanka and son-in-law Jared Kushner, a top campaign adviser, were off the campaign trail in New York City to pray at the grave site of a revered Jewish leader Saturday night — as the GOP nominee was wisked to safety in Nevada after a protester ran toward the platform.
The couple, who are observant Jews, were videotaped at the site of the grave of the Lubavitcher leader Rebbe Menachem Schneerson, who died in 1994.
Ivanka, who converted to Judaism, is seen wearing a black hat and follows her husband into a room where people sit down at tables and write out their prayers and wishes that will be left at the side of Schneerson's grave in Queens, N.Y.
Meanwhile, at the Nevada rally, Trump was protected by his Secret Service guards when a man rushed the stage. The protester was apprehended; he had no weapon.
The Schneerson grave site is known as "The Ohel" — the Hebrew word for "tent" — the structure built over the grave of the venerated rabbi, Haaretz noted. According to the news outlet, tens of thousands of visitors come to the grave every year to receive a posthumous blessing and inspiration from the late Jewish leader.Seattle Seahawks quarterback Russell Wilson (3) greets fans after an NFL football game against the San Francisco 49ers in Santa Clara, Calif., Sunday, Jan. 1, 2017. (AP Photo/Tony Avelar)
RENTON, Wash. -- The secret to a speedier boarding process? Be a 12.
But not just any 12, be a Russell-Wilson-jersey-wearing 12.
For the second straight year Alaska Airlines is allowing Seahawks fans -- or anyone, really -- wearing the quarterback's No. 3 jersey to board early on all flights departing Seattle. Wilson is in his fifth year as the airline's Chief Football Officer.
The promotion begins Friday and will continue through the regular season. Seattle plays its first preseason game at the Los Angles Chargers on Sunday night.
"As Seattle's hometown airline, we are happy to once again extend this perk to our guests for the 2017 season," said Natalie Bowman, Alaska Airlines' managing director of brand and marketing communications in a press release. "We invite all Seattle sports fans to join us in cheering Russell and the team on to a winning record."
The announcement of the promotion comes as the airline released a series of advertisements featuring Wilson as a talk-show host, one who spouts incredibly cheesy one-liners and engages in jovial banter with his co-host, Stu.
For example, one of the episodes of The Russell Wilson Show, he suggests there should be a zombie movie about bees, titled "ZomBees."
And that's just the first episode.
The best part of these six commercials, all released Friday, is the brief moment where Wilson, in an all white suit, sits at a grand piano under a disco ball with smoke oozing near his feet and strokes the keys while donning what looks like a matching feathered shawl.
Maybe that should be outfit that fans have to wear to cut the boarding lines.
SeattlePI.com is a KOMO News partner. You can read this story at SeattlePI.com here.ALL this week, crowds have been waiting in hushed lines to view a yellowing document on display at the National Archives in Tokyo. For many, Japan’s war-renouncing constitution, written by an occupying army during a few sweltering days in 1946, is something of a sacred text. But Japan’s prime minister, Shinzo Abe, has made little secret of his desire to amend it. He chose the 70th anniversary of its entry into force, on May 3rd, to announce that he would try to secure changes to it by 2020, when Tokyo hosts the Olympics. That will require the approval of both houses of the Diet, along with popular assent through a referendum. The inevitably contentious debate will consume a huge amount of political energy over the next three years, possibly at the expense of Mr Abe’s already flagging economic reforms.
Mr Abe wants to end questions about the legality and appropriate use of Japan’s not-quite army, the Self-Defence Forces (SDF), by amending Article 9, the constitution’s iconic pacifist clause. This prohibits Japan from maintaining land, sea or air forces, which sits a little awkwardly with the SDF’s 250,000-odd servicemen, 1,600 aircraft and a fleet boasting four large helicopter-carriers. It also leads to endless debates about whether it is legitimate for Japan to participate in international peacekeeping missions, for example.
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Many in Mr Abe’s Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) have long viewed Article 9 as a humiliation, imposed by the victorious Americans. After all, says Keiji Furuya, a politician, the party was born in 1955 with the explicit aim of amending the constitution. Mr Abe’s grandfather, Nobusuke Kishi, tried hard to revise it while he was prime minister in the 1950s. (He failed.)
Mr Abe has started his campaign on a forceful note. “Those members of the public who think of the constitution as an immortal tome are now a small minority,” he told his supporters. He has some reason to be confident: his ruling coalition has a hefty parliamentary majority and, with the help of like-minded parties, commands two-thirds of both houses—the required strength needed to call a referendum. North Korea’s frequent missile tests are helping to make his case for him.
Yet there is ample room for miscalculation. A new poll by NHK, Japan’s state broadcaster, finds that just 25% of the public want Article 9 rewritten, with 57% opposed. Support for constitutional change peaked over a decade ago; young people, in particular, have grown wary of foreign entanglements, says Eiji Oguma, a sociologist. Mr Abe himself concedes that the economy is a bigger concern for most voters. By pursuing |
for spots here, and you have to do what you feel is the best, and that becomes difficult.
My Comment: But how about Thursday and Friday when you are playing A-Rod. Is there a responsibility then?
Question: Has this week or the last few weeks changed your relationship at all with A-Rod?
Girardi: Oh, I think maybe in the long run it won't, but I think in the short term it’s been difficult. I said it yesterday, when you’re the guy that's telling someone 'no,’ you’re usually the guy people vent their anger at, whether you’re the little boy getting your hand slapped by your mom or dad, or you’re the player like I was that was cut from the [high school] basketball team and told to go practice baseball. I wasn’t happy about it.... So yeah, it’s difficult, and that’s why I get partially angry here because I believe people are playing both sides of the fence because it creates news. That doesn’t help our situation, that doesn’t help our clubhouse, it doesn’t help our relationship that we built over so many years; that’s what angers me."
A-Rod: I'm just going to keep it about the game.
My comment: A-Rod continues to take the high road. Good for him, but it is pretty clear this has been torture for him. Yes, he makes a lot of money, but torture nonetheless.
Question: To be fair, you did say Sunday that you’d play him every day if he wanted, right?
Girardi: Yes, and I corrected myself yesterday. I got caught up in my emotions, and I apologize for that, OK? I made a mistake. I’m human. But I told you what I was trying to do. And when I was asked the other questions, I'm aware of what my quotes were, that there would be conversations and I would try to get him in every game. I said that. But what I’m saying is, I made a mistake! And I’m admitting that. And I’m admitting that to everyone who’s watching because I have a responsibility, and I’m trying to take care of my responsibility.
My comment: Credit to Girardi for admitting a mistake and apologizing.
Question: A-Rod told us he was "surprised" and "shocked" about that. What do you think of that?
Girardi: I know he didn’t like it, but again, I have a responsibility to the game of baseball, and no one individual is bigger than this game. No one. No one, no one, no one.
My comment: Fair point, but in this case, it seems that A-Rod's farewell tour was designed to celebrate him. This has diminished him further.
Any similarities between this and 2014, when you kept a struggling Derek Jeter during his farewell tour hitting second?
Girardi: Part of that is, when you talk about moving people, we didn’t have anybody hitting that year. I didn’t really have a replacement. So this year we have people that we want to try, we have replacements, and that’s the biggest difference.
My comment: Somewhat true, but Jeter batted second with the fifth-worst OPS in baseball.
Question: The fans' biggest problem has been with Aaron Hicks. Why do you play him over A-Rod? Do you feel like that gives you that better of a chance to win?
Girardi: I’m not saying that I don’t think I can win with Alex in the lineup. What I’m saying is that I’m putting out what I feel is the best lineup. As we sit around and talk about it as coaches, that’s my job. That is in my job description. My job description does not entail a farewell tour. My job description is to try and win every game and put everyone in the best possible position, and that’s what I’m trying to do.
My Comment: It would've been easier to just play A-Rod in all the games here. It also may have given the Yankees a better chance to win, as he does have a flair for the dramatic and... Aaron Hicks.OWINGS MILLS, Md. -- If Baltimore Ravens wide receiver Breshad Perriman gets an extra step on a cornerback for a touchdown catch, it could be the result of dropping some pounds this offseason.
Editor's Picks Flacco set to play for 1st time since knee injury Ravens quarterback Joe Flacco said in a radio interview Tuesday that he will play on Saturday, his first game since he suffered a season-ending knee injury nine months ago.
The lost weight didn't come from a diet or increased exercise. It was a haircut.
Perriman doesn't know why he decided to clip off his signature dreadlocks, which hung below his shoulders. He just woke up one morning and got rid of them.
"I feel much lighter," Perriman said. "Once I cut it, I weighed myself, and I lost three or four pounds. It was crazy."
Perriman caused a buzz on Twitter late last month when he posted a picture that showed he had shaved his head and now sported a bald look.
The Ravens hope Perriman's trim brings similar results to the last time one of their wide receivers said goodbye to his dreadlocks. Before the 2013 season, Torrey Smith went with a shorter hairstyle and produced career numbers. He caught 65 passes that season for 1,128 yards and four touchdowns.
Perriman, who returned to practice Tuesday and expects to play in the regular-season opener, likes his new haircut. In fact, he has just one complaint.
"It just gets cold sometimes," he said with a smile.Rob grew-up in the Chicagoland area attended public schools. He holds a B.S. in Engineering from the University of Illinois where he was active in the College Democrats and served as a precinct captain and member of the county Democratic executive committee. He moved to Seattle in 2001 to work in the technology industry and currently works on interoperability, open source, and open standards for Microsoft.
Upon arrival in Seattle, Rob immediately applied to be a PCO, joined the 36th District Democrats, and joined the King County Young Democrats. Within local Democratic organizations he has served in officer roles responsible for communications, elections, endorsements, finance, fundraising, membership, political action, recruitment, retention, social media, technology, treasury, and web presence; including caucus coordinator for the 43rd District Democrats in 2008 where over 20,000 people attended precinct caucuses. Prior to his election as state party Secretary, Rob served as First Vice-Chair for Communications for the King County Democrats and as national Secretary for the Young Democrats of America.
Rob volunteers as an instructor of computer science in the Seattle Public Schools through the TEALS program and has previously served on the boards of the Northwest Progressive Institute, the Jewish Federation of Greater Seattle, and the Pacific Northwest Anti-Defamation League. Rob and his wife, Hillary, live in the Montlake neighborhood of Seattle with their newborn son and rescued black lab mix.Sanjay Bumbroo
Tribune News Service
Fatehgarh Sahib, Sept 18
Anganwadi centres in Fatehgarh Sahib have not received ration for mid-day meal for the past three years, resulting in an increase in the dropout rate. Notably, there are 900 anganwadi centres in Sirhind, Amloh, Khamano, Bassi Pathana and Khera blocks of the district.
During a random survey of various anganwadi centres, including the one at Sanipur village, it was found that they had not received supplies for the past six months due to which children go home hungry, causing resentment among parents. Earlier, about 10 children came to the Sanipur anganwadi centre. Now, only six come to the centre.
Amarjit Kaur, an accredited social health activist (ASHA), said they received ration for mid-day meal six months ago but the supply was stopped abruptly. She said they themselves brought children to the centre and offered food on their own.
District Programme Officer Naresh Kumar said they had sent an estimate of Rs 87.3 lakh for the ration for the first quarter of the current financial year to the higher authorities but it had not been cleared.
Gurpreet Singh and Lakhvir Singh, both residents of Sanipur village, said children used to get daliya, kheer, panjeeri and other items in their meal. “Their parents used to do odd jobs to make both ends meet after dropping their children at these centres but now they are worried,” they said.
900 centres in district
Anganwadi centres in Fatehgarh Sahib have not received ration for mid-day meal for the past three years, resulting in an increase in the dropout rate. Notably, there are 900 anganwadi centres in Sirhind, Amloh, Khamano, Bassi Pathana and Khera blocks of the district.
District Programme Officer Naresh Kumar said they had sent an estimate of Rs 87.3 lakh for the ration for the first quarter of the current financial year to the higher authorities but it had not been cleared.Early Weather Events
Civil War Weather, War of 1812 Weather, and Revolutionary War Weather
This page is an excerpt from the book Washington Weather
Washington Crossing the Delaware in 1776
George Washington and his Continental Army crossed the ice-clogged Delaware River on Christmas night of 1776 in a snowstorm. Washington and his army were en route to Trenton, New Jersey to attack Hessian forces. Leutze’s painting of the crossing does not accurately portray the poor visibility caused by the blowing snow and sleet. One foot of snow and sleet fell in Trenton, New Jersey, and two feet of snow fell from Northern Virginia to Central Maryland.
Click here for a report
The Tornado and the Burning of Washington in 1814
The British army invaded Washington and set fire to the city on August 24, 1814. A day later, a line of severe thunderstorms spawned a tornado in Washington that killed several British soldiers and caused significant damage to the city. Heavy rain associated with the storm helped extinguish the fires that burned throughout Washington.
Click here for a report
The Thunderstorm and the Battle of Ox Hill
In the rain, the Union Army retreats to Washington the day after the second Battle of Bull Run, August 31, 1862. On the next day, the Battle of Ox Hill occurred near Fairfax, Virginia, during a period of intense thunderstorms. The fighting raged for several hours in heavy rain and strong winds, ending in a stalemate. After the battle, the Union Army continued its retreat to Washington and the Confederate Army marched north, setting the stage for the Battle of Antietam.
Click here for a report
The Mud March
The Army of the Potomac on their infamous “Mud March” during the Nor’easter of January 21, 1863. The Union Army became hopelessly bogged down in mud and aborted their march. Several days of heavy rain made the dirt roads impassible for the army’s heavy supply wagons and artillery. Strong winds and temperatures in the 30’s added to the miserable conditions for the soldiers.
Click here for a report
The Great Snowball Battle of Rappahannock Academy
Over ten thousand Confederate soldiers engaged in a spirited snowball battle near Fredericksburg, Virginia on February 25, 1863. Twelve inches of snow cover combined with mild temperatures provided ideal conditions for the massive snowball fight. Combatants employed real battle tactics in the snowball fight, including forming battle lines, charging, skirmishing, use of cavalry, and capturing prisoners.
Click here for a report
1) Summary and Explanation of Colonial Weather
2) John Smith's Accounts of Virginia's Weather, 1607
3) The Native American's Five Seasons, 1608
4) John Clayton describes Virginia's Weather, 1685
5) Benjamin Franklin Documents Coastal Storm Tracks, 1747
6) Thomas Jefferson on Virginia's Climate, 1781
7) Early Themometers
8) The Little Ice Age
9) Global warming in the late 1700's?
10) The Storm of 1586 that Ended Raleigh's First Colony
11) Jamestown's First Summer of 1607
12) Jamestown's Great Frost and Starving Time Winters, 1607-1610
13) The "Dreadful Hurricane" of 1667
14) "The Great Fresh" of 1771
15) The Washington and Jefferson Snowstorm of 1772
16) The Christmas Snowstorm of 1776
17) The Cold Wave of 1780 that froze the Chesapeake Bay
18) Snowbound in 1784
19) A Look Back at 1797
20) The Tornado and the Burning of Washington, August 25, 1814
21) "The Year without a Summer" in 1816
22) The Great Snowstorm of January 1857
23) The Thunderstorm and the Battle of Ox Hill (Chantilly), September 1, 1862
24) The "Mud March" Nor'easter, January 20-23, 1863
25) The Great Snowball Battle of Rappahannock Academy, February 25, 1863
Book OrdersThe June death of John F. Wolfe closes a chapter, and maybe the book, on the most powerful family in Columbus history. What happens next?
The June death of John F. Wolfe closes a chapter, and maybe the book, on the most powerful family in Columbus history. What happens next?
Not many decline an invitation to the Dispatch holiday luncheon. It's a who's who of business and political leaders, crammed into the top floor at?34 S. Third St., the same Mad Men-style office that, for decades, has been a destination for city power players and wannabes seeking John F. Wolfe's counsel and consent.
The 2015 luncheon had all the trappings of gatherings past: The conversations and the drinks flowed, and chef Hartmut Handke's spread was top-shelf, featuring smoked scallops and salmon, Chilean sea bass, roasted tenderloin, a display of salads as glorious as a nature's color wheel and, of course, Wolfe's favorite-the lightly breaded chicken wings. "He just loved them," Handke says.
But this luncheon was distinctly different, too. Though the iconic sign proclaiming the Dispatch "Ohio's Greatest Home Newspaper" adorned the roof above the guests, it now was only a neon reminder of what used to be. Six months earlier, faced with the reality that family owned newspapers were a relic, Wolfe did what, for many, seemed unfathomable: He sold the Dispatch, the city's daily newspaper that for more than 100 years had been his family's primary source of pride, wealth and power.
The difficulty of the decision seemed evident in Wolfe's appearance. He was thinner and his eyes looked sunken. "He didn't look good," Handke says.
Concern about his health picked up a couple of months later when Wolfe was honored by the Ohio Newspaper Association with a lifetime achievement award. "He was an obvious choice," says ONA director Dennis Hetzel.
At the Feb. 18 awards banquet at the Polaris Hilton, Wolfe looked exceedingly frail as he made his way to his seat, steadied on the arm of Dispatch Printing Co. CEO Michael Fiorile. "He'd lost a lot of weight. He was gaunt," Hetzel says. "When he walked up to accept the award, you could tell it was a struggle."
Wolfe offered a few brief remarks in a voice even softer than usual, and then "hauntingly" shuffled back to his seat, as one onlooker described it.
It was the last time most in the room would ever see John Wolfe alive. He died June 24, at 2:19 p.m. at the James Cancer Hospital-the acclaimed medical facility the Wolfe family was instrumental in helping to fund. He was 72 years old. According to his death certificate, the immediate cause of death was respiratory failure caused by the pancreatic cancer that he'd endured for two years with characteristic stoicism and privacy.
Columbus profoundly changed that day. The city not only lost one of its most important and influential figures, but his death also marked the end of an era that traced back to the 19th century. John F. was the last in a line of Wolfe patriarchs who shaped-and blocked-numerous civic and political agendas. With no heir apparent to lead the sprawling family now in its fourth generation in Columbus, many questions are left hanging.
Could it mean the sale of Wolfe's broadcasting holdings, which include 10TV and WBNS radio? How will Wolfe's death affect the Columbus Partnership, the alliance of city business leaders that he launched in 2002 with his longtime friend Les Wexner, founder and CEO of L Brands, which gave rise to Columbus 2020, the region's job-creating engine, and the Columbus Downtown Development Corp., which has spearheaded such landmark projects as the Scioto Greenways and the Columbus Commons?
What happens to Wolfe's ownership stake in the Arena District and Grandview Yard? The Columbus Blue Jackets and the Crew? What happens to the Third Street block of Capitol Square, where the Dispatch building sits-perhaps the most prized piece of property in the county? What will be the impact on the many other organizations that Wolfe supported as a trustee, board member or financial backer, including the Wexner Medical Center, Nationwide Children's Hospital, St. Ann's Hospital, COSI, the Columbus Zoo and Aquarium, the Franklin Park Conservatory, Ohio State University, Franklin University, Columbus Academy and the Columbus School for Girls, to name just a few. If it was important to Columbus, it was important to John F. Wolfe.
"I can't walk around anywhere Downtown without seeing John F. Wolfe's fingerprints," says Guy Worley, president and CEO of the Columbus Downtown Development Corp.
"Shirt sleeves to shirt sleeves in?three generations"
The line outside John F. Wolfe's calling hours was impressive both for its length- spilling out the Columbus Club's front door onto Broad Street for half a block before turning down Fourth for nearly another-and for the notables seen standing in it, such as former mayor Mike Coleman and Cardinal Health CEO George Barrett, who normally don't stand at the back of the line for anyone.
John F. Wolfe wasn't anyone. He very well might have been, as his longtime friend and attorney John Zeiger told him just a week before his death, "the finest citizen this city's ever had." But he had a head start. The Wolfe family has been putting its mark on Columbus for more than a century, ever since brothers Robert F. and Harry P. Wolfe (John F.'s grandfather) moved to Columbus in 1893 and started their own shoemaking business.
Wolfe Brothers Shoe Co. grew into one of the city's most successful businesses. But it was only the beginning, as they staked their claim to power by purchasing both the Ohio State Journal in 1903 and the Columbus Dispatch in 1905. Through the years, a succession of Wolfe men, including John F.'s father, Preston, shaped Columbus by growing their business interests-venturing into banking (with BancOhio and Ohio National Bank) and radio and television stations with the same call letters, WBNS, which stand for Wolfe Banks, Newspapers and Shoes. (The family got out of the shoe and banking business decades ago.)
Major responsibility was suddenly thrust on John F. at age 32 when he became Dispatch publisher after the death of his predecessor, Edgar Wolfe Jr., in a plane crash in 1975. But it wasn't until nearly 20 years later that he began to fully come into his own. Before then, he toiled in the shadow of his second cousin, John Walton (J.W.) Wolfe, the family patriarch legendary not only for his civic and philanthropic contributions, but also his delight in exerting his will to reward friends and punish enemies.
After J.W.'s death in 1994, John F. became the head of the family. The contrast could not have been starker. J.W. looked at politics as a blood sport and clashed with Wexner when the fashion retail mogul first emerged as an impatient billionaire with big ideas. John F. brought a different temperament, more fair-minded and less brash. He embraced Wexner, and the two became a dominating civic duo-using the Columbus Partnership as their vehicle-that changed the spirit and face of the city.
John F. was willing to play hardball-as evidenced by the Dispatch singlehandedly pushing the Hollywood Casino off of its intended Arena District site to the hinterlands of Columbus' West Side, as just one example. But he was far less driven by ego than his predecessor. "He was a consensus-builder," says Worley. "He was very collaborative and collegial. He used that word a lot."
"He took the fiduciary role very seriously whenever he was placed in a position of authority," says a longtime business associate. "I don't think people realize how passionate John was and how deeply he felt the responsibility of being in a leadership role."
The reason Wolfe took his role as the family leader so seriously, many say, is that he realized he was the proverbial last of the Mohicans. There was no heir apparent.
His wife of more than 50 years, Ann, was never officially involved in running the Wolfe enterprises. "John took care of the business. Ann took care of the family," says an associate. Among his three daughters, the youngest, Katie Wolfe Lloyd, showed the most interest. She launched the former Capital Style magazine in 2009 and was named vice president and publisher of the magazine division shortly after the Dispatch Printing Co. purchased Columbus Monthly and Columbus C.E.O. in 2011. Since last year's sale of the printing operations, she is now vice president of Wolfe Associates, the private foundation in charge of charitable giving for the Dispatch Printing Co. None of the other fourth-generation Wolfes hold any executive positions in the family businesses.
One name mentioned for leadership consideration is Michael Perrini, who's married to Sara, the oldest daughter. Perrini, the managing director of private wealth management for Robert W. Baird & Co., is said to have the skills to help lead the family's fortunes. He also served as the family spokesman at Wolfe's memorial ceremony at the Southern Theatre and impressed the crowd of several hundred with a warm, humorous soliloquy humanizing his father-in-law in ways few ever heard. He told of Wolfe's abilities on the dance floor or during a card game, his irrational obsession with trash day and sharing life with three daughters. Perrini told the crowd that one of John F.'s frequent quotes was, "Girls, for as dumb as you think I am, you live pretty well."
Perrini, however, has never worked for the Dispatch Printing Co. or any of its affiliates. "He's awesome," says Lucy Wolfe, John F.'s cousin and a Columbus real estate agent and Dispatch Printing Co. shareholder. "He's got a very good business head and a lot of savvy. I'd feel better if he was involved."
As it stands, it doesn't appear anyone from the Wolfe bloodline will run the family's various businesses. "My great-grandfather [Harry Wolfe] used to have a saying: Shirt sleeves to shirt sleeves in three generations. That was his warning to everyone," says Lucy. "Turns out he might be right. The next generation doesn't have A) the desire or B) the ability to run everything. It looks like everything will be run by employees."
"I think the leadership that John put in place worked closely enough with him to know his wishes," says cousin Bill Wolfe of Columbus. "But they need some leeway to make some decisions on their own. It will take some time to see what transpires."
The Empire
Those closest to Wolfe say the realization that there was no family successor had been driving his business decisions for a long time.
"Over the years, John F. was very mindful of the need for prudent estate planning and financial planning to ensure that Ann and his girls and [five] grandchildren were taken care of," says a longtime friend and colleague. "He recognized that this wasn't just a baton that he could simply hand off. By simplifying the assets, the business and its sustainability, he did his family a great service."
That simplification included selling the Columbus Dispatch, the ThisWeek chain of weekly newspapers, the magazine division and the printing facility, to New Media Investment Group Inc. for a reported $47 million-a fraction of what those assets were worth a decade earlier.
In hindsight, many wondered whether Wolfe's decision to sell was prompted by his cancer diagnosis. State Rep. Mike Curtin doesn't think so. The former Dispatch editor and the first non-Wolfe to be named president of the Dispatch Printing Co. says, "I was not terribly surprised at all that he sold the paper. I never thought, and still don't think, that the sale had anything to do with his health. Economic imperatives drove the decision. Whatever health issues John was experiencing were secondary to the decision."
The sale left the Dispatch Printing Co., despite the name, without any print holdings. Its affiliates are now the Dispatch Broadcast Group, which includes WBNS-10TV and WBNS-AM/FM radio stations, as well as WTHR-TV in Indianapolis, and Capitol Square Ltd., a commercial real-estate development company that owns much of the Third Street block across from the Statehouse, as well as numerous other properties around the city, including 20-percent ownership stakes in the Arena District and Grandview Yard.
Additionally, the family owns more than 5,500 acres of farmland in Madison County and another 970 acres in Clark County, most of which is being sharecropped. And there's the Wigwam, a private hunting lodge-style resort on about 60 acres near Reynoldsburg, where the family has entertained guests, including a number of U.S. presidents, for nearly 90 years. It's valued by the Fairfield County auditor at just over $4 million. John and Ann also owned three private residences, including their 25th-floor condo at Miranova, the longtime Wolfe summer home on Journal Island at Buckeye Lake appraised at $1.3 million and a Naples, Florida, manse close to the Gulf of Mexico valued at $6.8 million.
The leadership of the business now rests with Michael Fiorile. On July 29, a month after Wolfe's death, Fiorile was elected chairman of the board of directors of the Dispatch Printing Co.-the first non-Wolfe to hold the title. "If the paper hadn't been sold, this would be a far different discussion," New Albany Co. head and longtime friend Jack Kessler told Columbus Monthly on the morning of Wolfe's memorial. "But with the paper being sold and the real estate, which is doing fine, and the farms, which are doing fine, and then the TV stations, with Mike Fiorile running them for the family, I think everything's in very good order. I think John left this world with his family in very good financial order."
Fiorile did not respond to numerous phone calls and emails requesting comment for this story. The Wolfe family, through Zeiger, issued a statement that said, in part, it "remains committed to the ongoing success of each of the Companies. They will operate under the direction of existing management, which has our full support."
Fiorile has a wealth of broadcast experience; he's served as chairman of the CBS Television Affiliates Board, as well as on the National Association of Broadcasters board. He joined the company 22 years ago as CEO of the Dispatch Broadcast Group, after stints as general manager of stations serving the Carolinas and in Sacramento.
But he also faces an uphill battle. The broadcast side of the business has long been the golden goose since the revenue tide began to turn against the newspaper industry. But it, too, faces some of the same economy-of-scale challenges that Wolfe faced with the Dispatch.
"There's no question the small, family-owned media enterprise is very few and far between," says Mike Cavender, executive director of the national Radio, Television and Digital News Association. "I can probably count them on my hand."
They've been replaced by large conglomerates like the Sinclair Broadcast Group, which owns 173 stations in 81 markets, or Nexstar Broadcasting, which owns 104 stations in 58 markets, whose size gives them greater leverage in negotiating rates for programming with networks and national advertisers.
Knowledgeable sources say Wolfe had been encouraged since the early 2000s to grow the company's radio and TV holdings with an eye toward becoming a Midwest broadcast power. But for whatever reasons, he never acted on the advice.
Now speculation is high, even among employees at 10TV who asked not to be identified, that the stations could be prime takeover targets after the highly profitable election season and the Summer Olympics.
In March alone, 10TV grossed nearly $600,000 in advertising revenue just from five presidential candidates leading into the Ohio primary, according to FCC filings. And that doesn't include cash from the various non-candidate groups like PACs, or advertising from any of the state and local races and ballot issues.
"Television stations love political years, especially if you're fortunate enough to own a station in a swing state," says Cavender. "It can go a long way toward boosting your bottom line for at least a couple of quarters." In addition, the Dispatch Printing Co.-owned WTHR-TV in Indianapolis, the market leader for 16 years, is an NBC affiliate, and as such, aired the lucrative Summer Olympics.
That success could be what determines future ownership. "The big conglomerates will eventually come calling if they haven't already," Cavender says. "There will be suitors, and everything has its price."
The real estate side of the equation is even harder to figure out. A recent story in Business First quoted Fiorile as saying he'd like to have the former home of the Dispatch leased to new tenants within a year.
Sources say Wolfe planned to move the radio stations from their current Front Street offices, which are being leased, to the Dispatch building. But the site is too valuable for the plans to end there. The Dispatch Printing Co. not only owns the former Dispatch building, but virtually the rest of the block south to State Street, as well as the surface parking lots stretching east to Fourth Street. "Conceptually, we look at the land we have and know that there is a higher and better use than parking lots, but you only get one chance to develop it," Wolfe told Columbus C.E.O. magazine, Columbus Monthly's sister publication, in October. "Sooner rather than later we'll engage with different potential planners to give us an idea of what might be doable."
It may be the one unfinished part of Wolfe's final plan, says one close associate, and, perhaps, the best indication that not even Wolfe himself realized how quickly his health would fail.
"John was the bucket"
Where Wolfe's absence will be felt most is in the loss of his guidance and leadership. Gov. John Kasich made reference, during Wolfe's memorial service, to the hundreds of people-Kasich included-who made the trip to Wolfe's fifth-floor corner office to seek his counsel. "Think about how much advice was dispensed in that office and how much of the landscape of Central Ohio was changed by what transpired in that office, on that couch, papers spread out on that coffee table," says a former associate. "It's mind-blowing."
Another longtime friend and colleague used an analogy to describe the impact Wolfe had on Columbus. "Leadership is like putting your hand in a bucket of water. You move it around in there, and you think you're having a great impact. But when you pull your hand out, there's little evidence that it was ever in there. It was different with John F. In many ways, he was the bucket."
Wolfe's leadership style was most often described as selfless and collaborative-the cornerstone upon which one of his greatest contributions, the Columbus Partnership, was founded. The Partnership has proven so successful that last year it was highlighted by the Harvard Business School Professor Jan Rivkin in a case study as a civic model for economic development. Rivkin dubbed it, "The Columbus Way."
"John F. Wolfe lived his entire life thinking about the future of Columbus and the success of Columbus," says Partnership CEO Alex Fischer. "But you don't want to do that alone. John, Les [Wexner] and Jack [Kessler] taught us a behavior pattern and a standard of collaboration that wouldn't have happened without him."
Fischer, who says, "I still find myself reaching for the phone to call John," explains that moving forward with the Partnership's work is possible because of the ideal Wolfe set. "That history was baked in on the idea that we don't want Columbus' future, or Columbus' current, to be attached to anyone."
And that hope is the big unanswered question. Can this spirit of collaboration continue without Wolfe, who was the city's institutional memory and served in some sense as an informal check and balance? (No one else had enough standing to counterbalance Wexner, the most powerful voice at the Partnership.) And now that there is no longer a clear cut No. 2, who among the other top CEOs-not without ambition or ego-will compete for more influence?
"It's yet another transition and we're doing it, not with ease, but in the spirit John had been instilling in it all along," Fischer says. "Except now, there's a dozen or more people who play that role instead of two or three. That's where we've turned the corner, and that's what John was most proud of."
For his part, Wexner looks to the memory of his former partner to motivate civic and economic development for years to come. "John F. was such a wonderful partner," Wexner wrote in a statement for this story. "One of the ways in which we honor his legacy is to make certain that we move forward in building on the momentum that he helped to create. I am more focused than ever in making certain that we think about 'What would John F. do … What would John want us to be?'"
The future direction of the Columbus Way, however, must find a new course-one that doesn't pass through 34 S. Third St.With a physical design that is largely unchanged other than the addition of a glass back for wireless charging support, and featuring incremental improvements to the camera system most notably with the Plus version, the iPhone 8 and 8 Plus are interesting largely due to the presence of a new Apple SoC. The upcoming iPhone X (pronounced "ten") stole the show at Apple's keynote annoucement earlier this month, but the new A11 Bionic chip powers all 2017 iPhone models, and for the first time Apple has a fully custom GPU after their highly publicized split with Imagination Technologies, makers of the PowerVR graphics found in previous Apple SoCs.
The A11 Bionic powering the 2017 iPhones contains Apple’s first 6-core processor, which is comprised of two high performance cores (code-named ‘Monsoon’) and four high efficiency cores (code-named ‘Mistral’). Hugely important to its performance is the fact that all six cores are addressable with this new design, as Apple mentions in their description of the SoC:
"With six cores and 4.3 billion transistors, A11 Bionic has four efficiency cores that are up to 70 percent faster than the A10 Fusion chip, and two performance cores that are up to 25 percent faster. The CPU can even harness all six cores simultaneously when you need a turbo boost."
It was left to improvments to IPC and clock speed to boost the per-core performance of previous Apple SoCs, such as the previous A10 Fusion part, which contained a quad-core CPU split in an even arrangement of 2x performance + 2x efficiency cores. Apple's quad-core effort did not affect app performance beyond the two performance cores, with additional cores limited to background tasks in real-world use (though the A10 Fusion did not provide any improvement to battery life over previous efforts, as we saw).
The A11 Bionic on the iPhone 8 system board (image credit: iFixit)
Just how big an impact this new six-core CPU design will have can be instantly observed with the CPU benchmarks to follow, and on the next page we will find out how Apple's in-house GPU solution compare to both the previous A10 Fusion PowerVR graphics, and market-leading Qualcomm Adreno 540 found in the Snapdragon 835. We will begin with the CPU benchmarks.
Continue reading our look at the performance of Apple's A11 SoC!
First we have Geekbench 4, the popular cross-platform CPU benchmark which we run on all Android and iOS devices.
With the A11 Bionic Apple’s single-threaded dominance has never been more obvious, and this time the multi-threaded scores are not simply the result of scaling with the performance cores alone. The overall multi-threaded score of 10490 (the first time we've seen five digits from a mobile platform) represents such a significant leap over the single-threaded result that it is clear most - if not all - of the four efficiency cores can be utilized for compute-intensive work such as this benchmark.
Looking back on the A10 Fusion results from in our iPhone 7, we saw single/multi scores of 3486 and 5558, respectively, but even this (roughly 60% higher) multi-threaded scaling still compared very favorably to the high-end Snapdragon 835 which scored 6188 multi, and just 1844 single-threaded.
A breakdown of the results shows Apple leading in every category, with an emphasis on single-threaded dominance.
Apple's IPC is the key here, and their highly optimized operating system is another factor to consider. For its part Geekbench should still be providing as objective a look at cross-platform CPU performance as possible, and Apple's lead with the A11 Fusion has reached dizzying heights.
Now a look at the overall result from Basemark OS II:
More A11 Bionic CPU dominance. This is by far the fastest mobile processor we have tested, and it raises the question: how far from traditional CPUs is a mobile part like this? Geekbench can of course run on standard PC hardware as well as mobile platforms, and while there has been some debate as to direct comparisons of mobile and desktop/laptop hardware it's still the best we are going to be able to do today.
The Intel Challenge: Part 1
How does the A11 Bionic stack up against a dual-core Kaby Lake mobile CPU? Here is the iPhone 8 Plus up against an Intel Core i5-7300U (2-core/4-thread), with the Galaxy S8+ included for reference:
There you have it. The fastest smartphone CPU even beats a current-gen Intel mobile part (in Geekbench, anyhow). The A11 Bionic is slightly higher in single-threaded performance, with the large multi-threaded advantage clearly |
needed to do the work you have come here to do.There are still many who do not understand who they are. These people have been called “the lost ones”, although in truth no one is ever lost. These people do not understand why their world is the way it is. They cannot accept their role as creators. They look outside of themselves for someone or something to blame, and they continue to believe that this has caused their reality to be what it is. Your work is to be among these people and to touch them with your light and with your love. This is all that is needed.You will do this by expressing the light and love within you. You will express your God Self by being the light, the vestibule, the channel (vessel/cup), the one who expresses unconditional love and compassion, understanding, kindness etc., whether that be with a smile, or by doing the grocery shopping for someone who is ill, or by washing the feet of an elderly person who can no longer do it for themselves, or by simply listening to their woes and being there for them in their hour of need. The world is filled with people in need of unconditional love and there is a multitude of different ways and possibilities open to you each day to make a difference in someone’s world, to light the spark or ignite the flame of Divine Love within.When faced with a challenge ask yourself, “What would love do now” or “What would Jesus do?” Then allow the voice of Spirit to be felt in your heart. Allow the knowing of this to flow through you. The answer most times would be a simple one such as “Be true to yourself.” Know that when you are being true to yourself, you are to tuning into your heart, not the ego.This is part of a series of initiations you will all go through; for all those who are wishing to embody 5th Dimensional consciousness.You are learning to discern which choices lower your vibration and which choices support your rising energetic frequency. You will soon learn which choices are more in alignment with your highest intention because being out of alignment, even in the smallest way, will cause you to feel discomforted and unhappy.Learning to stay out of judgment is one of the most challenging initiations you will go through before reaching the higher frequencies. The good, the bad and the ugly are all a part of you at some level. Getting your hands dirty once in a while forms part of the purification process. Become as innocent and accepting as a child. Allow yourself to feel vulnerable whilst knowing you are completely safe and protected. These are initiations into a World of Mastery.Cease having any expectation whatsoever because expectation is a form of conditional love. Begin to see yourself as the grain of sand as well as the entire cosmos. There is nothing you are not. You created it, all of it.We leave you with our absolute love and our blessing, and guide you to stay in your Heart, for it is there in your Sacred Space where you will find all you have ever needed and indeed, all you will ever need.Namasté.Sources:After some confusion over Tesla’s plan to build an electric pickup truck at the Tesla Semi event last month, CEO Elon Musk now confirms that a Tesla pickup truck is coming “right after Model Y.”
Musk had previously confirmed that Model Y, a small SUV or crossover built on the Model 3 platform, would be Tesla’s priority once Model 3 production is ramped up.
That’s why it was surprising for Tesla to unveil the next generation Roadster at the Tesla Semi event since the vehicle was expected to come out after Model Y, which has yet to be unveiled.
At the same event, Musk also released the first image of a Tesla electric pickup truck, but some people still think it’s a joke.
He claimed that it was a smaller version of Tesla Semi and “a pickup truck that can carry a pickup truck.”
While it sounded like a joke, Musk had previously mentioned his intention to leverage work on the Tesla Semi to create a Tesla pickup truck.
Today, he confirmed that he already has “the core design/engineering elements” in his mind and wants to bring it to market right after Model Y:
I promise that we will make a pickup truck right after Model Y. Have had the core design/engineering elements in my mind for almost 5 years. Am dying to build it. — Elon Musk (@elonmusk) December 26, 2017
Musk has indeed been talking about building an electric truck for a while now. During a Tesla owners event in 2013, Musk discussed his idea for a Tesla truck:
“I am quite keen on building a truck and I think there’s a lot one can do with truck technology. One of the things that I think should be present in trucks is something like an air suspension that dynamically adjusts the load and sorta keeps the angle of the truck correct and the ride height even and adjust the dampening in real-time. Because the challenge you have with any vehicle where there’s a big potential difference between the minimum and maximum load is that the suspension is always wrong and usually wrong by a lot. I was driving an F-250 down the 405 one day and honestly that thing… it was resonating on 405 on the little ridges. I thought my teeth were going to rattle out of my head. If you put load on it it’s fine, but if you’re empty it’s not. It would be good to do that and obviously to make it light and really handle well. That’s where having a battery pack low can improve the center of gravity. I think it’s possible to produce a really well handling truck that feels good at any load point. That would be really great.”
Now, we have a slightly better idea of the timing since it’s coming “right after Model Y.”
Earlier this year, Musk pushed Model Y further down the road since he wanted to bring the vehicle to market on a brand new platform, but he later said that his executive team talked him out of it and now the vehicle should come sooner on the Model 3 architecture.
Update: Musk later added that the Tesla pickup will be “similar in size” or “slightly bigger” than a Ford F150:
Similar total size. Maybe slightly bigger to account for a really gamechanging (I think) feature I’d like to add. — Elon Musk (@elonmusk) December 26, 2017
Electrek’s Take
It still doesn’t give us a great idea of the timing as long as we don’t know when Model Y will hit the market.
But in my opinion, Tesla will unveil Model Y sometime next year and attempt to bring it to market as quickly as they did with Model 3 – 18 to 24 months.
What do you think? Let us know in the comment section below.Eagles right tackle Lane Johnson has just made a very important promise to those of legal drinking age in Philadelphia.
"I have a lot to prove to this city," Johnson said Sunday, via ESPN.com. "I think if we have a few big years and make the playoffs, if we win a Super Bowl, I'm giving out beer to everybody."
While the quote is supposed to be the centerpiece of a Johnson redemption story, it may just have perfectly summed up the Eagles tackle on his own. Johnson has already explained and apologized profusely for his second violation of the league's policy on performance-enhancing substances, which cost him 10 games a year ago. In the meantime, he's done the only thing he's really had to do this offseason.
From the piece:
"Johnson says he has cut out supplements altogether, and is instead relying on more strict diet. Johnson says he is as heavy he's ever been at around 325 pounds, and feeling stronger than ever."
Johnson, the former No. 4 overall pick in the 2013 draft and recipient of a six-year, $66 million deal last January, is a top five right tackle when healthy and on the field. During the games prior to his suspension last year the Eagles offensive line as a unit was looking like the perfect fit for a budding young quarterback in Carson Wentz. Only when they had to start looking for outside options, did problems develop.
Johnson will ultimately find forgiveness in on-field longevity and team success. The beer, assuming it's a local selection like Victory or Neshaminy Creek couldn't hurt though.An Oakdale man is dead and a police officer hospitalized with a gunshot wound to the arm after authorities attempted to serve a search warrant in a quiet neighborhood Thursday morning.
The shooting occurred about 8 a.m. when Oakdale police and a Bureau of Criminal Apprehension agent attempted to search the split-level home on the 2700 block of Granite Avenue. When entering the home, police encountered a man and “a weapon or weapons were used,” according to the St. Paul Police Department, which is assisting with the case. The Oakdale officer was shot and the suspect was injured, although authorities did not specify the nature of his injuries. Both were taken to Regions Hospital in St. Paul, where the suspect was pronounced dead. Oakdale police declined to immediately identify the officer.
Scanner traffic captured by the MN Police Clips website indicates that the suspect, identified by neighbors as 53-year-old Mark A. Kuzel, turned the gun on himself after the shooting.
Neighbors said the tan, split-level house belonged to Kuzel who bought it in 1999, according to property records. Kuzel’s criminal record shows three DWI-related convictions and only minor traffic violations from more than 20 years ago. Crime scene tape surrounded the entire block Thursday afternoon as police went door to door questioning neighbors. A lone blue car sat in the driveway.
According to audio captured by the MN Police Clips website, the incident unfolded quickly, with an officer reporting shots fired at 7:52 a.m. and requesting dispatchers to send an ambulance. As police call dispatch to block off the street, more gunfire is reported.
“Shots fired again inside, possible self-inflicted, stand by,” an officer radioed.
The wounded officer was walked to an ambulance within minutes. Shortly after 8 a.m. the scene was declared “Code 4,” or no longer in need of assistance.
“Code 4, we have one suspect,” an officer radioed while requesting a second ambulance.
Later Thursday, crime scene tape surrounded the house where the shots rang out, said Gregory Trierweiler, who lives down the street from where the shooting took place.
“It’s a little unnerving to hear gunfire,” he said.
Staff writer Tim Harlow contributed to this report.
Karen Zamora • 612-673-4647
Liz Sawyer • 612-673-4648"Sometimes you get in the habit of just doing things because that’s the way you’ve always done them. Sometimes it’s O.K. to sit back and say, 'Is there a better way of doing things? Is it tradition or best practices?'"
That's Arizona head coach Rich Rodriguez questioning the wisdom of having a National Signing Day in an interview with Sports Illustrated. Rodriguez is a member of the American Football Coaches Association's board of trustees, and he thinks there's enough merit to the idea of scrapping signing day altogether that he's going to bring it up with his colleagues this offseason.
With four-star linebacker Roquan Smith deciding not to sign a National Letter of Intent, much of the conversation about recruiting reform has centered around getting rid of or drastically altering the document. But Rodriguez and SI's Andy Staples submit that perhaps it's not the NLI that's the problem but everything else about how the recruiting process is currently set up.
What if prospects could sign at any time following an offer from the school — not just after the first Wednesday in February of their senior season — instantly locking both sides into an agreement of at least one academic year beyond the enrollment date. Schools would, in theory, be much more selective in doling out offers, and players would be slower to commit. Because in this case, to commit would be to sign and forfeit your right to negotiate with other schools.
"If somebody has offered a kid, let him sign, it's over," former Nebraska head coach Bo Pelini told ESPN.com in June 2014. "That will stop some of the things that are happening -- people just throwing out offers, some of them with really no intention of taking a kid."
Such a set-up might have prevented the one that Irmo (S.C.) Dutch Fork running back Matt Colburn found himself in two days before National Signing Day. Louisville pulled his original offer at the 11th hour and replaced it with an invitation to greyshirt. Though he eventually ended up signing with Wake Forest, Colburn had to scramble to find a new school because Louisville had let its class fill up.US Secretary of State John Kerry (L) meets with Lao Prime Minister Thongsing Thammavong at the Prime Minister's Office in Vientiane, Jan. 25, 2016.
As Laos kicks off its chairmanship of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, activists fear that the human rights agenda in the country and the region will get swamped by economic concerns and regional discord over issues like the partition of the South China Sea.
“When geopolitical interests are crucial, I am afraid that human rights and democratic values are the very first things to appear in words alone, only to be left out and not truly followed,” Vanida Thepsouvanh, president of the Paris-based Lao Movement for Human Rights told RFA’s Lao Service.
Over the weekend ASEAN foreign ministers met in Vientiane for an agenda-setting retreat in the Lao capital. That meeting follows the organization’s first meeting in the United States which Laos co-chaired earlier in February. U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry also became only the third secretary of state to visit the country when he stopped for a day in January.
Human rights overshadowed
While the ASEAN chairmanship shines a spotlight on this landlocked, communist country of about 6.8 million people, activists fear that the attention fails to illuminate the need for human rights reforms in Laos and some of the other nine member countries.
On Saturday ASEAN issued a statement that was long on defining economic goals and expressions of concern over China's moves to dominate the South China Sea, but was short on mentions of human rights.
“Laos does not need an ASEAN/US summit in Sunnyland [California], nor does it need to chair ASEAN to give basic human rights to the people in Laos,” Vanida said. “Each day is an opportunity to do it, and make it real. It is a matter of will. This political will is absent with the Lao system.”
Amnesty International campaigner for Cambodia, Laos, and Viet Nam Janice Beanland agreed.
Take the example of community development worker Sombath Somphone, she said. Sombath’s Dec. 15, 2012 abduction at a police checkpoint in Vientiane is widely believed to have been carried out by police or some other government-linked group, though authorities have consistently denied playing a role in his disappearance.
“The Lao authorities have steadfastly refused to investigate the enforced disappearance of Sombath Somphone and have even introduced new draconian measures to limit civil society,” Beanland said. “The diplomatic community must make much stronger attempts to encourage Laos to break with the past and its blatant disregard for fundamental freedoms of everyone.”
Laos is not alone in its disregard for civil rights as many ASEAN nations continue to ignore the need to address civil rights issues, she said.
“ASEAN as an organization is failing to respond to the clamor from citizens in the region to address human rights issues,” she said. “It is difficult to see any signs that the human rights situation is going to improve in the near future. Severe restrictions on expression, association and peaceful assembly continue to make it a blind-spot for human rights in Southeast Asia.”
U.S. influence
The Obama administration began its “pivot to Asia” in 2011, and President Obama attended the meeting in Sunnyland, California. He is expected to attend the ASEAN summit in September.
U.S.attention in Southeast Asia should bring a bigger emphasis on human rights, but Washington appears to be more interested in using its influence to counteract China than protecting human rights, Beanland explained.
“The U.S. can be a particularly influential force, but seems more preoccupied with security and pushing back against the influence of China,” she said.
Not everyone in the civil society community is as pessimistic about human rights changes. The spotlight that shines on the ASEAN chair and the need to open up the country to Western investment will turn the tide, a Lao expert on community development told RFA.
“This will be the first time for Laos to express itself to the world,” said the expert, who spoke on condition of anonymity. “This will have a positive impact in the long term even though there is no clear sign of support for human rights now in Laos.”
Reported by RFA's Lao Service. Translated by Ounkeo Sousksavanh. Written in English by Brooks Boliek.SANTA CLARA, Calif. -- The day after the first presidential debate of 2016, San Francisco 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick had criticism for Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton.
Kaepernick, who has drawn plenty of attention the past couple of months because of his decision to not stand during the national anthem as a form of protest of racial inequalities in the United States, said he watched "a little bit" of the debate and came away unimpressed.
"To me, it was embarrassing to watch that these are our two candidates," Kaepernick said. "Both are proven liars, and it almost seems like they're trying to debate who is less racist, and at this point, I was talking to one of my friends who goes, ‘You have to pick the lesser of two evils, but in the end it's still evil.'"
Trump has spoken on the record about Kaepernick's protest, levying his objections to Kaepernick's kneeling during the anthem -- after the QB initially sat -- on a Seattle radio station in late August. Appearing on the Dori Monson Show, Trump suggested that Kaepernick find somewhere else to live if he doesn't like the United States.
"I have followed it, and I think it's personally not a good thing. I think it's a terrible thing, and you know, maybe he should find a country that works better for him -- let him try, it's not gonna happen," Trump said.
Kaepernick had offered similar criticisms of Trump and Clinton when he first began discussing his reasons for his protest. Kaepernick circled back to Trump on Tuesday afternoon when the QB was asked what he thought of Trump's comments on the radio show.
"That's a very ignorant statement, that if you don't agree with what's going on here, that if you want justice and liberty and freedom for all, that you should leave the country," Kaepernick said. "He always says, 'Make America great again.' Well, America has never been great for people of color and that's something that needs to be addressed. Let's make America great for the first time."This article is over 3 years old
Roy Morgan poll has Labor’s primary vote at 34.5%, its lowest level since April 2014, but Labor is still ahead, in two two-party preferred terms, 51% to 49%
Support for Labor has fallen by 2.5 percentage points following opposition leader Bill Shorten’s appearance at a royal commission into trade union corruption, the latest Roy Morgan poll has found.
The Coalition’s two-party preferred vote is up by the same margin, putting them at 49% to Labor’s 51%.
The Coalition is well ahead of Labor in the primary vote, up 2.5 percentage points to 41.5%. Labor’s primary vote is down 1.5% to 34.5%, the lowest level of support for the opposition since April 2014.
Support levels for the minor parties are also down between 0.5 and one percentage points. The Greens are still enjoying a relatively high primary vote of 13.5%, while Bob Katter’s Katter Australia party sits at 1.5% and the Palmer United party is on 1%.
Labor is ahead in the two-party preferred stakes in three states – Tasmania, South Australia and Victoria – while the vote is divided evenly in Queensland.
Support for the government is highest in Western Australia, polling at 52.5% to Labor’s 47.5%.
But the government still lags behind Labor with voters between the ages of 18 and 34 comprehensively favouring the opposition, 63.5% of 18-24-year-olds polled saying they would vote Labor.
By contrast, voters over the age of 60 favour the Coalition, 58% to Labor’s 42%.
Roy Morgan surveyed 3,110 people either face to face or via SMS over two weekends, 4-5 July and 11-12 July.
Shorten was grilled by the royal commission on 8 and 9 July over his time as head of the Australian Workers’ Union.Pulling an Officer Barbrady, Reuters this afternoon essentially told us all to "move along, people" as regards news of five Syrians caught in Honduras bound for the U.S. with fake Greek passports.
Here's how Gustavo Palencia of the news wire filed his story "Honduras detains five Syrians said headed to U.S. with stolen Greek passports" (emphases mine):
Honduran authorities have detained five Syrian nationals who were trying to reach the United States using stolen Greek passports, but there are no signs of any links to last week's attacks in Paris, police said.
The Syrian men were held late on Tuesday in the Honduran capital, Tegucigalpa, on arrival from Costa Rica, and had been planning to head to the border with neighboring Guatemala. The passports had been doctored to replace the photographs with those of the Syrians, police said.
"We received information from (fellow) police services that these five Syrians left Greece and passed through Turkey, Brazil, Argentina and San Jose in Costa Rica before finally reaching Tegucigalpa," said Anibal Baca, spokesman for Honduras' police. "They are normal Syrians."
U.S. Republican lawmakers defied President Barack Obama on Wednesday and set out plans following last week's deadly Paris attacks to tighten screening of Syrian refugees.
Obama has pledged to take in 10,000 Syrians next year from the war-torn country. But his plan faces stiff resistance from Republicans, concerned some of the refugees could be associated with Islamic State.
Reports that at least one of the Paris attackers was believed to have slipped into Europe among migrants registered in Greece prompted several Western countries to begin to question their willingness to take in refugees.The Summoner Level Proficiency Bonus Summoning Points Summon Damage Die Features Spells Known 1st 2nd 3rd 4th 5th 1st +2 1 1d4 Manifestation, Enchant — — — — — — 2nd +2 1 1d4 Spellcasting 2 2 — — — — 3rd +2 1 1d4 The Rite of Contract, Contract Feature 2 3 — — — — 4th +2 1 1d4 Ability Score Improvement 3 3 — — — — 5th +3 2 1d6 — 3 4 2 — — — 6th +3 2 1d6 Contract Feature 4 4 2 — — — 7th +3 2 1d6 Resonance 4 4 3 — — — 8th +3 2 1d6 Ability Score Improvement 5 4 3 — — — 9th +4 2 1d6 Transposition 5 4 3 2 — — 10th +4 2 1d6 Contract Feature 6 4 3 2 — — 11th +4 3 1d8 Comprehension 6 4 3 2 — — 12th +4 3 1d8 Ability Score Improvement 7 4 3 3 — — 13th +5 3 1d8 Severance 7 4 3 3 1 — 14th +5 3 1d8 Contract Feature 8 4 3 3 1 — 15th +5 3 1d10 Invigoration 8 4 3 3 2 — 16th +5 3 1d10 Ability Score Improvement 9 4 3 3 2 — 17th +6 4 1d10 — 9 4 3 3 3 1 18th +6 4 1d12 Entrust 10 4 3 3 3 1 19th +6 4 1d12 Ability Score Improvement 10 4 3 3 3 2 20th +6 4 1d12 Rebirth 11 4 3 3 3 2 Class Features As a Summoner, you gain the following class features Hit Points Hit Dice: 1d8 per Summoner level
1d8 per Summoner level Hit Points at 1st Level: 8 + your Constitution modifier
8 + your Constitution modifier Hit Points at Higher Levels: 1d8 (or 5) + your Constitution modifier per Summoner level after 1st Proficiencies Armor: Light Armor
Light Armor Weapons: Simple weapons, Simple ranged weapons
Simple weapons, Simple ranged weapons Tools: None
None Saving Throws: Constitution, Charisma
Constitution, Charisma Skills: Choose two from Arcana, Insight, Nature, Religion, Performance, Persuasion Equipment You start with the following equipment, in addition to the equipment granted by your background: (a) a shortbow with 20 arrows or (b) A light crossbow with 20 bolts
(a) five javelins or (b) any simple melee weapon
A scholar's pack
Enchant At 1st level, you gain the ability to Enchant your hands with elemental power with a bonus action. For 1 minute, you may use your spellcasting modifier instead of Strength or Dexterity for attack rolls and damage rolls for attacks made with weapons held in your hands. The weapon becomes magical if it is not already. Weapons enchanted this way lose their enchantment at the end of your turn if they leave your hand. This ability increases in power accordingly with your summoner level. The enchanted weapon acts as a +1 weapon at 5th level, a +2 weapon at 11th level and a +3 weapon at 17th level. If the weapon already had such a property, only the largest may apply. The damage type varies according to your contract as follows No Contract : No change in damage type
: No change in damage type Contract of Flame : Fire
: Fire Contract of Ice : Cold
: Cold Contract of Storms : Lightning
: Lightning Contract of Might : Force
: Force Contract of Life : Radiant
: Radiant Contract of Death: Necrotic Manifestation At 1st level, as the chosen leader of your tribe, you are blessed with the ability to call forth your tribe's patron spirit into physical form. This power is represented by summoning points, which allow you to call into being a powerful entity of magical energy. Summoning Points You have 1 summoning point, and you gain more as you reach higher levels, as shown in the Summoning Points column of the Summoner table. You can never have more summoning points than shown on the table for your level. You regain all spent summoning points when you finish a long rest. Coalesce You can use your summoning points to manifest your tribe's patron spirit into the material world. Starting from 1st level, using an action you can expend one summoning point in order to bring forth an otherworldly being into existence in an empty space up to 10ft away from yourself. If there are no empty spaces within 10ft of you, this feature can not be used. This being takes the form of a medium sized, featureless spectral ball of energy. This entity acts independently of you, but it always obeys your commands. The entity is friendly towards you and any attempts to turn it against its master automatically fail. In combat, this entity rolls its own initiative and acts on its own turn. It can take all actions as normal and deals damage that scales according to the Summon Damage Die column of the Summoner table. This feature can not be ended by means of the dispel magic spell, nor can it be interrupted by counterspell. When the entity drops to 0 hit points, it disappears, leaving behind no physical form. It reappears after you use this feature again. While the entity is within 100 feet of you, you can communicate with it telepathically. Additionally, it can understand all languages that you are proficient in however it can not speak or write. The use of this feature requires concentration (described in Chapter 10), however you may maintain concentration on your manifestation and one additional spell. Failing a concentration saving throw while concentrating on another spell ends your concentration on both that spell and your manifestation. The entity remains on the material plane for as long as you can maintain concentration. You may choose to dismiss the entity back to its plane of existence as a free action. The entity's statistics are described as follows: Formless Spirit Medium Elemental, Alignment - same as character Armor Class 12 (Natural Armor)
12 (Natural Armor) Hit Points 10 (+1D8 + 2 per Summoner level above 1st)
10 (+1D8 + 2 per Summoner level above 1st) Speed 30ft. STR DEX CON INT WIS CHA 14 (+2) 14 (+2) 14 (+2) 6 (-2) 10 (+0) 4 (-3) Condition Immunities Charm, Sleep, Fear, Poison, Disease, Prone
Charm, Sleep, Fear, Poison, Disease, Prone Senses passive Perception 10
passive Perception 10 Languages Same as character Actions Form - Weapon. Melee Weapon Attack: +4 to hit, reach 5ft., one target. Hit as per Summoner Damage Die + Strength Modifier) Magical Bludgeoning, Slashing or Piercing damage Spellcasting As the chosen one of your tribe, you have spent years bathed in the essence of power from the planes beyond and their intersection with the material plane. This intersection from the lands beyond the material world fuels your spells. See chapter 10 for the general rules of spellcasting and chapter 11 for the summoner spell list. Spell Slots The Summoner table shows how many spell slots you have to cast your spells of 1st level and higher. To cast one of these summoner spells, you must expend a slot of the spell's level or higher. You regain all expended spell slots when you finish a long rest. For example, if you know the 1st-level spell magic missile and have a 1st-level and a 2nd-level spell slot available, you can cast magic missile using either slot.
Spells Known of 1st Level and Higher From Level 2, you know two 1st-level spells of your choice from the summoner spell list. The Spells Known column of the Summoner table shows when you learn more summoner spells of your choice. Each of these spells must be of a level for which you have spell slots. For instance, when you reach 5th level in this class, you can learn one new spell of 1st or 2nd level. Additionally, when you gain a level in this class, you can choose one of the summoner spells you know and replace it with another spell from the summoner spell list, which also must be of a level for which you have spell slots. Spellcasting Ability Charisma is your spellcasting ability for your summoner spells, since the core of your magic relies on your ability to will the essence of power from otherworldly realms into being on the material plane. You use your Charisma whenever a spell refers to your spellcasting ability. In addition, you use your Charisma modifier when setting the saving throw DC for a summoner spell you cast and when making an attack roll with one. Spell save DC = 8 + your proficiency bonus + your Charisma modifier
= 8 + your proficiency bonus + your Charisma modifier Spell attack modifier = your proficiency bonus + your Charisma modifier Spellcasting Focus You can use a druidic focus (found in chapter 5) as a spellcasting focus for your summoner spells. Rite of Contract At 3rd level, you choose a rite of contract, undergoing a signing to reveal your spirit's true form and power. Choose a contract of Flame, Ice, Lightning, Might, Life, or Death, all detailed at the end of the c1ass description. The contract you choose grants you features at 3rd level and again at 6th, 10th and 14th level. Resonance Starting at 7th level, as the bond between your spirit and yourself grows ever stronger, you begin to understand the fundamental nature of the element your companion represents. You gain resistance to the damage type of your contract. Contract of Flame : Fire
: Fire Contract of Ice : Cold
: Cold Contract of Storms : Lightning
: Lightning Contract of Might : Force
: Force Contract of Life : Radiant
: Radiant Contract of Death: Necrotic Transposition Starting at 9th level, you gain the ability to step through the bond you share with your spirit. As a bonus action, you can choose to swap your position with that of your spirit. This feature cannot be used again until you complete a short or long rest. Comprehension Starting at 11th level, you have gained a thorough understanding and appreciation of the elemental planes. You have advantage on Intelligence ability checks to recall knowledge regarding the elemental planes and elemental beings. In addition, you can understand and speak Primordial. Severance Starting at 13th level, you learn to harness the power contained within the bond between you and your spirit. As an action, you can choose to forcibly sever the bond that ties you to your spirit. If you choose to do so, your spirit's hit point total immediately drops to 0. In addition, the following effects occur depending on the contract you have signed: Contract of Flame : Each creature within 15ft of your spirit must make a Dexterity saving throw. On a failed save, a target takes 8d10 Fire damage and is immolated, taking a further 3d10 fire damage at the start of its turn until it uses its action or some other means to smother the flames. On a successful save, a target takes half as much damage and is not immolated. An immolated target can make a Constitution saving throw at the end of each turn, on a successful save, the effect ends.
: Each creature within 15ft of your spirit must make a Dexterity saving throw. On a failed save, a target takes 8d10 Fire damage and is immolated, taking a further 3d10 fire damage at the start of its turn until it uses its action or some other means to smother the flames. On a successful save, a target takes half as much damage and is not immolated. An immolated target can make a Constitution saving throw at the end of each turn, on a successful save, the effect ends. Contract of Ice : Each creature within 15ft of your spirit must make a Constitution saving throw. On a failed save, a target takes 8d10 Cold damage and its speed is halved for 1 minute. On a successful save, a target takes half as much damage and its speed is not reduced. A creature can repeat this saving throw at the end of each of its turns, ending the effect on a successful save.
: Each creature within 15ft of your spirit must make a Constitution saving throw. On a failed save, a target takes 8d10 Cold damage and its speed is halved for 1 minute. On a successful save, a target takes half as much damage and its speed is not reduced. A creature can repeat this saving throw at the end of each of its turns, ending the effect on a successful save. Contract of Storms : Each creature within 15ft of your spirit must make a Constitution saving throw. On a failed save, a target takes 8d10 Lightning damage and is stunned until the end of its next turn. On a successful save, a target takes half as much damage and is not stunned.
: Each creature within 15ft of your spirit must make a Constitution saving throw. On a failed save, a target takes 8d10 Lightning damage and is stunned until the end of its next turn. On a successful save, a target takes half as much damage and is not stunned. Contract of Might : Each creature within 15ft of your spirit must make a Strength saving throw. On a failed save, a target takes 8d10 Force damage, is knocked prone and pushed 15ft directly away from your spirit. On a successful save, a target takes half as much damage and is unmoved.
: Each creature within 15ft of your spirit must make a Strength saving throw. On a failed save, a target takes 8d10 Force damage, is knocked prone and pushed 15ft directly away from your spirit. On a successful save, a target takes half as much damage and is unmoved. Contract of Life : Each hostile creature within 15ft of your spirit must make a Wisdom saving throw. On a failed save, a hostile target takes 8d10 Radiant damage. On a successful save, a hostile target takes half as much damage. In addition, an area with radius 15ft centred around your spirit takes on the property of the hallow spell lasting for 1 minute.
: Each hostile creature within 15ft of your spirit must make a Wisdom saving throw. On a failed save, a hostile target takes 8d10 Radiant damage. On a successful save, a hostile target takes half as much damage. In addition, an area with radius 15ft centred around your spirit takes on the property of the hallow spell lasting for 1 minute. Contract of Death: Each creature within 15ft of your spirit must make a Consititution saving throw. On a failed save, a target takes 8d10 Necrotic damage and gains 1 level of Exhaustion. On a successful save, a target takes half as much damage and is not exhausted.
In addition, the bond between you and your spirit grows resistant to interference from outside forces. If you are forced to make a concentration saving throw and fail, you can instead choose to succeed. You can use this feature once per short or long rest. Invigoration You have learnt to siphon energy from the small breaches between the material plane and beyond. Beginning at 15th level, once per day when you finish a short rest, you can choose expended spell slots to recover. The spell slots can have a combined level that is equal to or less than half your Summoner level (rounded up). Entrust Beginning at 18th level, the bond between your spirit is unshakeable. You cannot be char |
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