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a little cash to if you want food. Those Who Are Playing: You are responsible for the following: * A Computer (preferably capable of handling some of the games, not all) * Various Power & USB Cables * Monitor(s) * Keyboard * Mouse * Headphones * Ethernet Cable * Any Games that you might insist we play * A little cash for food For more info check out the event on our wiki: http://wiki.midsouthmakers.org/w/September_11th_LAN_Party Share this: Twitter Facebook Google Reddit LinkedInWe recently got hands on with an engineering sample of PowerColor’s Devil Box which will officially launch on October 20. The Devil Box is primarily designed for gamers who want a powerful graphics card that can easily be used with their notebook or NUC for desktop-class graphics performance. We were not able to test the Devil Box’ performance over Thunderbolt 3 as our desktop’s motherboard requires a BIOS update to support an external GPU, and at this moment in time only the Razer Blade (2016) and Dell XPS 13 (2016) notebooks and the Intel NUC NUC6i7KYK kit support it. However, we do have photos and impressions of this external graphics adapter that we would like to share with BTR’s readers. First of all, the Devil Box is large and the engineering sample is quite heavy, weighing probably more than 15 pounds. Our sample does not have a handle and may look a little different from what is finally released. It measures approximately 15.75 x 6.75 x 9.5 inches. PowerColor’s name is in large white letters on the other side. Devil is featured on the front and there is a USB 3.1 Type C port available: The back of the Devil Box features 3 USB 3.0 ports, a SATA connection for an additional 2.5″ HDD or SSD, a LAN connection, and a 40GB/s Thunderbolt 3 connector. There is an off/on switch, and an intake fan together with the power cord connector also on the rear panel. Taking off the front grille, we see a PCIe riser slot for the video card and connections to its mini-motherboard. Removing the back cover reveals a Seasonic 500W slim design PSU that is often used in mini-ITX cases. 125W of the PSU is dedicated to powering the Devil Box electronics which leaves 375W for powering a video card. Of course, we wanted to install some video cards into it to see how they would fit. First up, we tried a midrange card, the Red Devil RX 470. The Devil Box is supposed to fit much larger cards so we tried the last generation reference 290X. There are two 8-pin PCIe cables to feed the card and they are best plugged into the card before it is installed into the PCIe slot as there is very little room inside the Devil Box to easily plug in the power connectors after the card is installed. It is also very difficult to lock down the card as there is very little room to get your fingers inside the box with a thumbscrew, and it is impossible to use a screwdriver. The reference 290X is about the longest card that will fit. The Devil Box will allow a video card that up to 12.2″ in length, so a 295X2 is too long and also too power hungry. Video cards more than 5.5″ inches wide are also a no go, and they must be less than 2″ in thickness which will preclude using some of PowerColor’s own 390X or Fury designs. The Fury X card itself would fit, but the radiator would have to hang outside the case with the grille open as there is no support for AIO liquid cooling, making its use extremely unlikely. Even though the Devil Box is based on AMD’s XConnect technology, it will accept Nvidia cards including the TITAN X. This technology allows Radeon graphics cards to be plugged into supported notebooks while it is still operating, but the system will need to be shut down before installing a GeForce card. The video card can finally be displayed properly and we wish that the grille was clear acrylic plastic with holes instead of metal mesh. The Devil Box is well ventilated with an exhaust fan on top to remove the hot air. You can mount a 2.5″ SSD or HDD inside also on the bottom in the slot provided. Here is another view looking down on the Devil box from above. The Devil Box will light up using its own RGB LED lighting when it is plugged in, and it looks good sitting next to your notebook. The Specifications Here are the specifications as detailed on PowerColor’s site: What we think We think that the Devil Box is a very interesting concept. We have seen AMD teasing external adapters for notebooks since 2010, but only with Thunderbolt 3 has it become a reality that a notebook gamer can actually use this technology effectively. PowerColor suggests that it may be useful with Intel’s mini NUC PCs, but it doesn’t make a lot of sense to us that someone would buy a tiny PC and pair it with a large box that dwarfs it. In this case, it would be more practical to just use a mini-ITX system in our opinion. The most likely target buyer of the Devil box will have a powerful and thin ultrabook for portability who doesn’t want the heavy weight that comes with a gaming notebook. Although Pascal gaming notebooks are as powerful as their desktop equivalents, they are also quite expensive and the GPU is generally not upgradeable. The Devil Box is designed by PowerColor so that you only need to buy only one PC to get the portability of an ultralight notebook but still have the ability to get powerful desktop graphics at home. Until recently, a gamer either had to buy a relatively large and heavy notebook to carry around or they had to buy a desktop for gaming and a ultralight notebook for work or school. Now the only requirement for high end gaming requires that you have one notebook with a powerful CPU to use with the Devil Box. Pairing a TITAN X and a weak CPU, for example, would really hold back its graphics performance. We still have no word on pricing from PowerColor but we will update you when it is released on October 20. Happy Gaming!The Movie (4/5) American audiences love their survival stories. They don’t care if you’re stranded on an island, on Mars, or at wits end in the middle of the ocean. The characters in these stories typically overcome the most extreme of odds in an attempt to see their family, or accomplish a goal, embodying the kind of person we all want to be in our own lives. Man in the Wilderness, a story of a man who is mauled by a bear and left for dead in the wilderness, is one of those classic stories of human triumph. The film follows a loose adaptation of the real life story of frontiersman Hugh Glass, who was in real life mauled by a grizzly bear and left for dead. In our story, we follow the frontiersman Zach Brass, as he travels with a fur trapping country through the Northwest United States. While taking a younger, less experienced member of the crew hunting for meat, he is mauled by a grizzly bear and nearly killed. After deciding that the weather and threat of Natives is too great a risk, their leader, Captain Henry, orders all but two of them to move on. The two are to remain until he dies to bury him, but they end up deserting him when the threat of Natives gets too great. Still alive, and spurred on by the memories of his childhood and of the child he’s left behind with a young wife, Zach is spurred on to survive his grave injuries, using all of his acquired skills to ensure that he finds his peers. If this story sounds at all familiar, it’s because it was recently brought back to the big screen by director Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu and actor Leonardo Dicaprio in their 2015 movie The Revenant. Whereas that story is a brooding, tense film about one man’s desire to get vengeance on the men who wronged him in a quest for fur profits, Man in the Wilderness takes a bit of a different path. Told through a mix of flashbacks, we get a distinctly different flavor of our lead character. In this movie, he’s painted as a man who’s always struggled to survive, fighting against the teachings of the church, and later fighting to make it home to his infant son, whom he has yet to meet. The Revenant’s main character, in contrast, is an angrier, vicious man, whose sole goal is to kill the men who left him behind after brutally murdering his son. Running in parallel to Brass’s survival plot, is the story of Captain Henry, played by the ever stubborn and curmudgeonly John Huston, and his men, as he drives them onwards back to civilization with a large boat and a shipment of beaver pelts. In an effort to save the last remnants of his former command, he burdens his men with carrying the large boat over land, slowing them down considerably in their attempt to escape the natives. This, along with the fear that Brass is coming to get them, slowly poisons the morale of the crew, and slowly seeds dissent amongst them throughout the film, culminating in a rather thought provoking ending that pushes for a more pacifist resolution than other westerns of this kind. Man in the Wilderness is a less aggressive, fast paced, and ultimately less violent version of the big screen epic that took home a couple Oscars at this past year’s ceremony. It packs in some excellent action, and less brutal, but no less convincing version of the bear attack that captivated audiences, with a fantastic display of practical effects, costume design, and makeup. The film’s score, composed by Johnny Harris, is triumphant in a 70s way, and just barely over the top in the best way. The film’s theme is fantastic, and worth indulging in on its own. Man in the Wilderness may seem tame to diehard fans of Innaritu’s brutal adaptation of the story, but it stands tall on its own, with a decidedly less terrifying presentation of the same story. The Video (4.5/5) Shot on 4-perf 35mm film with Panavision anamorphic lenses, Man in the Wilderness was shown in theaters using the 2.35:1 aspect ratio. Restored by Warner Archive for home video, the film is presented in 1080p, maintaining the original 2.35:1 aspect ratio. I have a crippling soft spot for 60s and 70s Panavision lenses. They have this beautiful shallow depth of field and softness to them that give the image such a light and stylized look that’s unbeatable. Combined with the film’s used of on location shooting and push for natural film lighting, Man in the Wilderness looks fantastic on Blu-ray. The film carries a lovely layer of natural film grain that never becomes aggressive, and while the majority of the film falls into the softer range of the spectrum, close ups of Brass and the various other characters reveal excellent detail. Color is muted due to the setting, but is rock solid through the film’s runtime. It will never be as sharp or well defined as its young brother The Revenant, but Man in the Wilderness looks excellent in 1080p. The Audio (3/5) Man in the Wilderness was released in the era where stereo sound-on-film was just starting to become a thing. As a result, it was produced in mono, which has been recreated faithfully here in DTS-Master Audio 2.0 sound. Man in the Wilderness is a pretty flat sounding movie, even during the major battle scenes and the bear attack, which traces back to the film’s original recordings. The film’s triumphant theme is carried through nice and clear, and sound effects and dialogue are presented without any issue. The track is clean, but antiquated. Special Features/Packaging (2/5) Man in the Wilderness, released to Blu-ray by Warner Archive as part of their Manufactured-On-Demand series of Blu-ray, is packaged in a standard blue keepcase. The front artwork features a colorful action shot of Richard Harris as Zach Brass wielding his spear, with the film’s titles and the standard Warner Archive banner. The back artwork feature a few shots from the film set against a different photo of Zach Brass wielding his spear, as well as a few paragraphs about the film, credits, and technical specifications. Pleasing, but minimal, in standard Warner Archive fashion. As for features, the disc only contains the film’s theatrical trailer, and no other features. Consider this one a barebones release in that regard. Technical Specs (click for technical FAQs) Video Codec: AVC Resolution: 1080p Aspect Ratio: 2.35:1 Audio DTS-Master Audio 2.0 (English) Subtitles English SDH French Spanish Overall (3.5/5) Man in the Wilderness has brief moments of intensity, but feels rather light on its feet, moving faster and less aggressively towards its climax than other films of its nature. The story is less about Brass, and more of a classic western civilized man vs. Natives sort of story, but is no less effective at characterizing Brass, played with determination and confidence by Richard Harris. The film’s Blu-ray features an excellent visual presentation, coupled with a limited mono soundtrack, and decent packaging. The lack of significant extras is a shame, but overall I feel this definitely a film worth owning. Recommended. Note: this Blu-ray is manufactured on demand, and can be ordered through Amazon or the Warner Archive Shop located HERE."We have confirmed the identities of the dead, and their families have been informed," Stockholm police official Jan Evensson told reporters on Sunday. Police would not reveal the identities of the victims, but three have later been named as Briton Chris Bevington, Belgian Maïlys Dereymaeker and 69-year-old Swede Lena Wahlberg from western Sweden. The fourth victim was an 11-year-old girl. Bevington was a 41-year-old who worked for Spotify and lived in Stockholm. His father, John Bevington, said in a statement: "We are all devastated by the untimely and tragic death of our talented, compassionate and caring son Chris." "A wonderful husband, son, father, brother and close friend to many. The family requests absolute privacy at this incredibly difficult time to mourn his passing in peace." A photo of Chris Bevington, released by his family. Photo: AFP PHOTO/Family handout via Foreign & Commonweatlh Office The suspected perpetrator of the attack was scheduled to be deported from Sweden, but authorities had not been able to enforce the expulsion, police also said at a press conference on Sunday. The man, a 39-year-old Uzbek national named Rakhmat Akilov, had unsuccessfully applied for residency in Sweden and is also reported to have shown ‘interest’ in terror group Isis. He has admitted to the attack. Eight people are still being treated for injuries sustained during Friday’s attack, according to Stockholm Municipality’s press office on Tuesday. Two remain in intensive care.Photographs of industrial rows of cramped pens, each imprisoning a solitary calf, will shock those who still believe in the fairytale of the pastoral dairy farm, where blushing maidens milk smiling cows. Welfare legislation says that calves should only be held in solitary pens until they are eight weeks old, but Animal Equality claims that the battery calves it photographed at Grange Dairy in Dorset are up to six months old – too large for their hutches– and say that some have grazes on their backs. But trading standard officers say there is no evidence of any breach of animal welfare requirements. Marks & Spencer, which sells milk from the farm, said it was “disappointed” to see the report, but it has refused to drop the supplier. Upsetting as the story is, what happens elsewhere in the dairy industry amounts to systematic cruelty. In reality, the daily practices of most dairy farms are more distressing than those of meat production. A mother cow only produces milk when she gets pregnant. So, starting from the age of 15 months, she will usually be artificially inseminated. Farmers mechanically draw semen from a bull, and then force the female cow into a narrow trap, known as a “cattle crush”, where they will brutally impregnate her. Dairy is proving to be a vulnerable spot for the entire slaughter racket When she gives birth, her calf will typically be removed within 36 hours, so the farmers can steal and sell you the milk that is meant for her baby. Wildlife experts say that a strong bond between cow and calf is formed quickly after birth. Following that callous separation, the mother will bellow and scream for days, wondering where her baby is. The answer depends on the gender of the calf. If male, he will probably either be shot and tossed into a bin, or sold to be raised for veal, which delays his death by just a matter of months. But if the calf is female, she will usually be prepared for her own entry into dairy production, where she will face the same cycle of hell that her mother is trapped in: forced impregnation, the theft of her baby, and a return to the cattle crush two or three months later. For at least six months of the year, she will often be confined inside dark sheds. But a growing number of dairy farms in Britain use a “zero-grazing system” in which cows spend their entire lives indoors, in increasingly intensive structures. Although growth hormones are banned in the UK and antibiotic use is limited, a dairy cow can be given reproductive hormones and prescribed antibiotics by a vet to ensure she is kept in a condition to produce an unnatural amount of milk. Under normal circumstances, she would generally only have a maximum of two litres of milk in her udder at any one time, but rapacious farmers may force her to carry 20 litres or more. Her udder becomes so heavy that it makes her lame and she often develops an agonising infection called mastitis. The strain this puts on her body means she is exhausted by the age of five. Soon, her milk yield will no longer be considered profitable. Or she might simply collapse under the agony of it all. Either way, she will be dragged off by a tractor, squeezed into a cramped truck, and driven to the slaughterhouse, to be killed and turned into burgers or baby food. Her throat slit after five sad and torturous years – under natural circumstances she could have lived to 25. Facebook Twitter Pinterest ‘The public is steadily waking up to the fact that the reality of milk production is not a matter of trivial imperfections.’ Photograph: Animal Equality/PA Dairy is proving to be a vulnerable spot for the entire slaughter racket. The public is steadily waking up to the fact that the reality of milk production is not a matter of trivial imperfections, of concern only to idealist vegans, but in fact the most dark and wicked part of all farming. And delicious, non-dairy milk, cheese and dessert alternatives are now widely available, so as people learn the truth it is easy for them to ditch dairy for good. In January, Sainsbury’s reported that sales of its new own-brand vegan cheeses were 300% greater than it had anticipated. Think dairy farming is benign? Our rivers tell a different story \| George Monbiot Read more Smaller businesses are also evolving. The Fields Beneath cafe in north London abruptly stopped offering cow’s milk last week, replacing it with vegan alternatives like oat, almond and soy milk. It posted a notice in its window, explaining that it took the move after watching the powerful five-minute YouTube video entitled Dairy Is Scary. The notice added: “We didn’t think it was either.” And Ice Shack, an ice-cream and dessert parlour in Manchester, is transforming into a fully vegan business next week. The industry is starting to panic. David Dobbin, chairman of Dairy UK, fears a “demographic time bomb” as young people increasingly shun milk. Only 10 years ago, there were about 21,000 dairy farms in England, Scotland and Wales. Industry analysts believe there will be fewer than 5,000 left by 2026. The National Farmers Union’s dairy spokesman Michael Oakes said on Monday that the message of anti-dairy campaigners is “not going away”. He called for “positive promotion” of the industry. They’ll have their work cut out. Even the planet’s most shameless and gifted spin doctors would find it hard to put a positive angle on the brutal reality of most dairy farms.Let’s face it, friends. You can ignore politics, but politics won’t ignore you. If somebody asks what you think of politicians, what’s your gut response… Yum or Yuk? For most people it’s a yuk that ranks even lower than cockroaches and colonoscopies. People know the status quo is deeply wrong. Seventy-five percent of Americans believe the government is thoroughly corrupt. Half see the regime as an immediate threat to their freedom. Even if you’re bored or disgusted by politics, a moment of focus is warranted. Why? Because Americans are at serious risk despite their material comfort relative to much of the rest of the world. Dire Stakes Americans are suffering from record levels of depression, suicide, obesity, and stress-related disease. The U.S. has become medication nation. People are drinking themselves to death in record numbers. I travel a lot, and every time I return to America the feeling of anxiety in the air is palpable. Simply put, things are not OK. Americans know these are dangerous times. But despite what politicians and the media keep insisting, the primary threat to our well-being isn’t ISIS, or falling televisions. It’s true that serial killers are incredibly scary, regardless of whether they’re motivated by religious zealotry. And mass shootings, perpetrated overwhelmingly by non-Muslim males, are horrific. But “private violence” isn’t how hundreds of millions of people get slaughtered. These shocking democide statistics reveal the most pressing lesson of politics: The more powerful any political regime becomes, the more at risk we are. A small, poor government has limited ability to inflict widespread harm. But a monumentally powerful government is capable of inflicting catastrophic harm at home and abroad. Indeed today’s U.S. regime is the most monumentally powerful government in history. It possesses an unprecedented capacity to stalk, propagandize, extort, kidnap, bankrupt, cage, or destroy anyone and anything that doesn’t serve its interests. Permission to Live Relative material comfort and the never-ending entertainment hurricane distract us from the danger of the situation. The simple truth is that the government calls the shots in virtually every aspect of our lives. If you doubt that, please review the CFR and state legal codes. Leave me a comment naming anything that’s not “regulated” (in other words, controlled) by the regime under threat of fines or imprisonment. But isn’t this just “law and order”? Nope. It’s a matrix of control which has turned us into unwitting criminals. Over 40 percent of all men are arrested by age 23. The rest of us just haven’t been caught yet. Really. Everyone is at risk. Law professor John Baker warns, “There is no one in the United States over the age of 18 who cannot be indicted for some federal crime. That is not an exaggeration.” Every adult choice we make today is subject to government permission. None of this happened overnight. It’s the generational result of politicians hatching literally thousands of new laws year after year, decade after decade. The mainstream media calls politicians “lawmakers” for good reason. Making up laws is their primary expression of power. The effects often extend for decades after their political terms end. Even centuries. I know it’s tempting to block this stuff out, but there’s a vast and growing wasteland of ruined lives who have already been victimized. Some might claim I’m exaggerating, but facts speak louder than any warning: The U.S. government cages millions of nonviolent people and kills countless innocents abroad while stalking the rest of us. None of us is exempt from the fallout. The Democracy Delusion Here’s the reality of democracy in America: Less than 0.001 percent of the government is elected. That’s right, less than one one-thousandth of one percent of the government is chosen by “the people.” The U.S. regime is 22 million tax-funded employees who “govern” through thousands of federal, state, and local bureaucracies. (That doesn’t count millions of private contractors on the government’s payroll.) Just how many of these strangers do voters get the pretense of choosing? Four stuffed shirts at the national level and a few local politicians… It’s like voting for a handful of ice cubes to be tossed on an iceberg. And yet the perpetual caging, killing, and stalking are done in the name of democracy, as if to suggest that voters chose these outcomes. “The will of the people” is a farce. Now researchers at Princeton have proven what most of us already know: There’s ZERO relationship between what the government does and what voters want. Voter turnout is at record lows because people know the system is a scam. Even celebrities are wising up. Welcome to the democracy delusion, Mr. Diddy. Is the system corrupt? Depends on your perspective. To the regime it’s working as designed. It’s set up for anything but change. For those who believe voting for one one-thousandth of one percent of the government matters, know that the fix is in anyway. Despite record low approval ratings, incumbents have a 96 percent reelection rate — by design. It all seems like madness, until you realize the system is set up to serve the regime, not you. Meanwhile, those 22 million unelected strangers will be “governing” you before and after every election. And you’ll continue to pay their salaries under threat of imprisonment regardless of how or if you vote for the 0.001 percent. Politics divides, then conquers. The premise of choosing a handful of power-seeking strangers to lie to represent you and boss you around govern you hasn’t worked out well. It’s left millions of Americans angry, cheated, bitter, and fed up. This isn’t about voting harder or protesting louder. It’s about embracing truth and pulling back the curtain. Politics is the biggest racket on earth. No Bounds America’s reputation has historically revolved around buzzwords like liberty, independence, and self-determination. So tell me, what if you’re a peaceful person who just wants to be left alone? What if you don’t want to fund military invasions, coups, black sites, or three ways to kill everything? Or the caging of millions of nonviolent people in the War on Drugs? Or the rapacious bailouts of megabanks and regime cronies? Or the surveillance panopticon stalking you at every turn? What if paying for so much predation, graft, and creepiness to be carried out in your name by strangers who claim to “represent” you conflicts with every cell in your being? The government’s response to these questions is unequivocal: “Too damn bad.” In other words, complain all you want, but pay and obey or be caged. Meanwhile, the regime manufactures ever bigger stockpiles of murderous WMDs while shutting down cupcake and lemonade stands to “keep us safe” as it puts explosives in school buses and loses samples of deadly pandemic diseases. Let’s stop whistling past the graveyard. The U.S. government’s reach knows no bounds. – part 1 – THE TERRIFYING REALITY OF USA #1 “The land of the free” is a dystopian punchline for anybody willing to step back and take a sober look around. The flag — and “the republic for which it stands” — is at peak power. Empire is an understatement. No government in history has straddled a taller mountain of laws, lucre, surveillance tech, enforcers, prisons, and weapons of mass destruction. USA #1 is a terrifying reality to confront. Every regime “win” has been our loss. What follows is a reckoning of those losses. It’s not good news, but I won’t leave you feeling angry or defeated. After the reckoning of #1’s we’ll look at some miraculously great and exciting developments, and a roadmap for living a free life in spite of the dangers we face. Let’s turn our eyes on the racket together. Among the world’s 197 regimes, the U.S. Government is the… #1 TAX FARMER Money can’t buy happiness, but it certainly buys power. We begin here because cash is the lifeblood of every government. The more money a regime extracts from people, the more powerful it becomes. The “Founding Fathers” of the U.S. government were fierce tax haters. They revolted against the British regime over being taxed from afar. There was no income tax under the “absolute Tyranny” of King George, but a 2-3% sales tax on certain goods made them want to throw down the gauntlet of rebellion. This of course made the Founding Fathers terrorists in the eyes of the British government. Today the Founders would be branded “extremists” and locked up under the Patriot Act. Or gunned down by IRS agents. So with the spirit of the Founder’s tax rebellion in mind, consider the irony that the government they established enforces the most invasive and widespread taxation system on the planet. Global Taxation The U.S. government is the only regime in the world which imposes global taxation. (Actually, tinpot dictatorship Eritrea does too. Apparently the U.S. is its role model.) What’s global taxation? For Americans it means that even if you don’t live in the U.S. or work for a U.S. company, you are legally compelled to file taxes with the IRS. By comparison, when citizens from other notoriously high tax jurisdictions like France live and work in other countries, the French regime doesn’t tax them. But say you’ve been a winemaker in Italy or a doctor in New Zealand for the past 20 years…30 years…50 years. Surely there’s a statute of limitations? Nope. If you’re a U.S. citizen, the IRS demands that you bend the knee. Every year. Decade after decade. There are certain deductions and treaties which can reduce the double taxation burden (in other words, paying taxes to two different governments). This makes the filing complexities an expensive make-work boon for accountants and tax lawyers. It gets even worse. If you were born and raised in another country and have never set foot in the United States, it’s criminal not to file taxes every year if your parents happen to be U.S. citizens. F’ing FATCA The practical among you may be wondering how the government can possibly enforce this global taxation system. The answer is FATCA — the Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act. Through FATCA, banks around the world are forced to be de facto IRS agents, literally filing reports with the government on all “U.S. persons.” The process is so costly and complex that many international banks have shut down Americans’ accounts and stopped accepting new American customers. FATCA effectively amounts to backdoor capital controls. A Swiss banker explains, “We survived World War I, World War II, the instability of the 1960s, inflation of the 1970s, the fall of the Berlin Wall, the credit crisis of 2008, QE, and now negative interest rates. But FATCA is killing us. We have to turn away all clients with any U.S. contacts, even if they’re not U.S. citizens. Because if they have contact with the U.S., they may owe tax in the U.S. or be subject to the SEC. We could be attacked by the IRS or the SEC without doing anything wrong. And yet, the IRS has an office here in Zurich. Imagine that. A foreign country has a tax collection office in our city. It’s crazy.” “If you don’t like it you can always leave!” This is the refrain of regime apologists who don’t understand global U.S. taxation. If only it were as easy as picking up and moving. You are in the IRS crosshairs no matter where you go. Not only that, 2016 marks the advent of tax lockdowns. If the IRS decides you “owe” them $50,000 or more, it can revoke your passport. Your ability to travel is now subject to the IRS legal standard of guilty until proven innocent. Trillions More Continuing on, imagine what the reaction of the Founding Father tax rebels would be to this: The U.S. regime extracts astronomically more taxes than any other government on the planet. The IRS doesn’t just take more from people. It rakes in trillions more. Every single year. A trillion is one thousand billion. That’s a far bigger number than most people fathom. One thousand seconds is 17 minutes ago, but one trillion seconds is 31,709 years ago. That’s hundreds of centuries before the pyramids were built. Let’s compare Uncle Sam’s tax haul to other regimes. Look at this OECD data, and in the “Variable” drop-down menu select “Total tax revenue in USD.” You’ll see how staggeringly large the margin is over other regimes. No other jurisdiction even comes close. The “land of the free” averages 10x more on average. Some may note that the U.S. has a bigger population than most other countries. True, but much of the regime’s spending goes to things that have nothing to do with population size. For example, China has over a billion more people than the U.S., yet the U.S. spends three times more on its military. And seven times what Russia spends at half the U.S. population. Besides, that OECD data is just federal. Not counted are the additional trillions extracted by state and local taxes. Say you’re a hard-working high earner in California – a doctor or engineer, for example. You’re paying over 13% in state income taxes on top of 40% federal. That’s a combined rate of over 50%. (By comparison, Russia imposes a 13% flat tax on income.) Then pile on property taxes, capital gains taxes, sales taxes, and literally dozens of other taxes. Taxing the Death of Foreigners Ready for more global tax imperialism? The U.S. government imposes estate tax on NON-Americans. If you aren’t familiar with the term, estate tax is the political term for death tax. You get taxed not because you bought something (sales tax) or earned money (income tax), but because you died. Yes, the government taxes you for dying, even if you’re not American and have never set foot the United States. Non-Americans who own over $60,000 in U.S. situs assets — like Apple or Whole Foods stock — are charged a 40% tax upon death. Note that we’re not talking capital gains tax like Americans pay on stock market profits. No, this is 40% of the total market value of the assets at the time of your death, even if you’ve lost money owning them. Can’t believe it? Here’s an overview with more information. If you want the gory details, wade into the federal tax code. No other country does anything so blatantly imperialistic and rapacious. The media never talks about death tax on non-Americans, so people get trapped by it all the time. They pass away and their accounts get locked down until their heirs pay off the IRS. This shakedown of course comes as an unimaginable shock to those grieving the loss of a loved one. If you have non-American friends, help them out. Let them know that if they’re determined to own U.S. based assets like real estate or stocks, they can legally avoid death tax by owning the assets via entities that don’t die — in other words, a trust or corporation. (Get guidance from an experienced tax lawyer.) Or just keep things simple and opt out of owning U.S. situs assets altogether. Who needs the aggravation? Have friends with green cards who no longer live in the U.S.? Make sure they know that until they get rid of their green card, they’re legally subject to global U.S. taxation. Costs of Compliance Sadly, the tax nightmare isn’t over. You’d think any regime raking in trillions every year from people around the world would at least make the extraction process quick and efficient. Yeah…no. The U.S. tax code is by far the most cumbersome and complex in the world. 74,000 pages. This may seem inconceivable to Americans, but in many countries it’s unheard of to use accountants, lawyers, or tax preparation companies like H&R Block to file taxes. They’re simply not needed. Meanwhile, Americans blow about $140 billion every year on tax preparation. That amount is, absurdly, counted towards GDP, as if something productive were happening. Worse than the massive financial hit, the loss in quality of life and societal benefit is tragic. We’re talking 7.6 billion hours per year wasted on tax preparation and filing. Let’s put 7.6 billion hours in terms we can understand. Assuming a standard 40-hour work week for 50 weeks per year: It’s as if ALL of San Francisco, Seattle, Atlanta, Kansas City, Cincinnati, Miami, and Boston did nothing but tax preparation and filing year round. And the regime has the gall to call it Tax Season. Hang the wreath and colored lights, extortionists are caroling at our door! We’ll never know the amazing inventions and life-changing products the world has lost and will continue to lose to this perennial avalanche of waste. The compounded cost to humanity is tragic and incalculable. “Fair” and “Share” The government tells us that taxation is just “paying your fair share” of the regime’s operation. Let’s think that through… Is taxation sharing? No. Sharing is voluntary. Charity is sharing. Sometimes people share a meal, sometimes their savings, sometimes their time, sometimes an organ, sometimes everything they own. Humans are miraculous sharers. It’s no mystery why that is. Unless you’re a sociopath, helping people feels good. But taxation is compulsory. Compulsion isn’t sharing. Paying money to neutralize the threat of being kidnapped and caged is extortion. There’s no spirit of goodwill when you’re being extorted, no matter where your money goes. On the contrary, taxation fosters resentment because it’s rooted in compulsion. Just because something is institutionalized by politicians doesn’t make it any less wrong. Taxes are compulsory because the regime correctly assumes people won’t approve of how it uses our money. Otherwise taxation would be voluntary, like our payments to every other institution in the world — charities, clubs, religious organizations, schools, professional groups, guilds, societies, and every service on offer by millions of companies and individuals. Regime judge Oliver Wendell Holmes famously said, “Taxes are the price we pay for a civilized society.” (Surprised the IRS quotes him?) But what is civilized about extortion?
, as their own tools can potentially receive useful contributions from people outside of their own full-time engineering teams. Box Open Source will have strict standards for maintaining the quality of its projects so that others can count on these tools continuing to work well, VanEvery said. For example, he said, each project on Box Open Source has unit tests included, and Box will reject any pull request that doesn’t include unit tests of its own. “We’ll constantly be running builds,” he said. “Quality is really important.” The Python programming language is strongly represented in the projects debuting on Box Open Source today, with top billing given to Python-oriented projects such as RotUnicode and Flaky. This makes sense, as the Box Open Source launch coincides with the annual PyCon programming conference being held this weekend in Montreal. Levie said that we can expect more rollouts in a variety of languages in the months and years ahead. “This is really kicking off a much broader initiative. It’s the first phase of what we think will be a journey to putting out more of our technology in a range of projects in the open source community.”Doctor Nguyen Thanh Liem (R) performs Vietnam’s first stem cell transplant at Vinmec hospital in Hanoi in March 2014. Photo credit: Lao Dong/Vinmec A Hanoi hospital has successfully cured a man of paralysis using own stem cells. A Hanoi hospital has successfully cured a man of paralysis using own stem cells. Dao Cong T., 50, of Hai Phong, broke his spinal cord and suffered paralysis in his arms and legs following an accident. Vinmec International Hospital injected adipose-derived stem cells into his veins and medullary cavity, according to a Phu Nu (Women) newspaper report. The patient showed significant recovery ten days later and has been able to sit up, move, turn his body and hold things after a month. The injected stem cells accelerate the creation of new cells and heal injured ones. T. had received physical therapy at other hospitals but the treatment did not work. Dr Nguyen Dac Nghia, head of the orthopedic department at Vinmec, said treating paralysis caused by spinal cord injuries is problematic. Alternative interventions all involve invasive surgery. Dr Nguyen Thanh Liem, a world renowned surgeon and director of the hospital, said early stem cell transplants should be conducted for any neurological injury. Like us on Facebook and scroll down to share your commentOakland teachers being arrested inside the Wells Fargo bank in Oakland on May 12, 2011. San Francisco Bay Area Independent Media Center photo. Oakland Teachers Asssociation 'Arrest the real crooks — the bankers!'... Oakland teachers arrested at Wells Fargo protest Six Oakland California teachers were arrested at a branch of Wells Fargo Bank on Thuresday, May 12, 2011, during a protest against the banks policies and the relationship between the favored position of the banks while public schools and being cut and privatized. YouTube video taken at yesterday's (May 12, 2011) rally and sit-in at Wells Fargo Bank. Chicago Teachers Union Education in Crisis: What YOU Can Do! over 300 educators listened Dr. Lois Weiner explain what’s prompted this assault on public education and teachers and why creating space in this landscape for schools that serve all students well and support quality teaching and teachers requires transforming teacher unionism. The attack on public education has taken many forms:privatization and commercialization of services; creation of charter schools to displace neighborhood schools; curricula geared to standardized tests; de-professionalization of teaching; and vilification of teachers. The Dehumanization of our Children. A new mindset is necessary, one that views families as customers, schools as ‘retail outlets’ where educational services are received, and the school board as a customer service department that hears and addresses parental concerns. From The Book of Knowledge Investing in the Growing Education and Training Industry,” Merrill Lynch Report, April 9, 1999 Massive Wall Street Protest Draws Over 20,000 by Allison Kilkenny, May 13, 2011 More than 20,000 protesters descended upon Wall Street Thursday to demand an end to Mayor Bloomberg’s draconian education cuts and his soft touch approach to billion-dollar companies. The May 12 event began as a series of splinter cell protests in the radius surrounding Wall Street that ultimately converged on the financial district. http://www.thenation.com/... The march coming to Wall Street on Thursday, May 12, 2011. Photo from United Federation of Teachers website. Lower Manhattan on May 12 was flooded with tens of thousands of educators, other unionized workers, students, community advocates and New Yorkers of all stripes calling for a fundamental reordering of the city’s priorities. “This city is upside down,” said UFT President Michael Mulgrew to the huge crowd of UFT members, students and parents who gathered outside City Hall. “It’s not working for all of us and that’s why we are out here today. We want a city that works for everyone.” Among those leading the march on May 12 were United Federation of Teachers President Michael Mulgrew (center, in blue shirt) and American Federation of Teachers President Randi Weingarten (second from right). Photo from United Federation of Teachers website. “We are the middle class workers who built this city and we deserve to be treated with dignity,” said Correction Officers’ Benevolent Association President Norman Seabrook as the protesters roared their approval. “This city belongs to us — not the rich, not the powerful.” The UFT protesters, who marched en masse to Wall Street after the City Hall rally, were united in their outrage at Mayor Bloomberg’s insistence on teacher layoffs when the city has a large budget surplus. “They’re using the kids as political footballs,” said Suzanne O’Brien from IS 51 in Staten Island. “Wall Street gets away with murder and the most vulnerable pay the price.” According to the UFT, the march stretched 24 blocks through the city on May 12. Photo from United Federation of Teachers website. The crowd was filled with teachers with disturbing tales of how layoffs would devastate their schools. Dena Schwartz from PS 189 in the Bronx said her four-year-old school would lose 17 teachers — 47 percent of its entire teaching staff. Maria Herrera and Damaras Solis Padilla from Columbia Secondary School in Harlem said their school was slated to lose 79 percent of the school’s faculty. Math teacher Judith Glazer, the chapter leader at IS 125 in Woodside, said her school had been notified that five teachers would be laid off and 31 were in danger of being bumped to other schools. “I am here to fight for the children, our staff and our rights,” said Glazer, who brought 45 of her colleagues to the rally. “If Bloomberg is the education mayor, he shouldn’t be looking for layoffs. Enough is enough. We are not going back to 1975.” Victoria Mulligan, a science teacher at PS 78 in Long Island City, said she felt compelled to stand up for the children. “What the mayor is doing is not in support of the children, it is in support of his agenda,” she said. Laura Daigen-Ayala, at the rally with her colleagues from PS 48 in Manhattan, blasted the mayor for balancing the city budget on the backs of kids and teachers. “This is a city with a budget surplus and millionaires and billionaires are getting tax breaks,” she said. “The DOE website says ‘Children First;’ well, we’ve been devoting our lives to children while the mayor has been devoting his life to making money.” The UFT marchers met up in the Water Street area with thousands of activists representing other sectors of the city economy, including transit workers, CUNY faculty and students, housing advocates and AIDs and homeless advocates. Michael Richardson, a tower operator for NYC Transit subways, said the teachers’ fight with Bloomberg hit close to home for him. “What happens to city workers like school teachers happens to us,” Richardson said. “If teachers get laid off arbitrarily, and if seniority means nothing, we could be next. It’s a slippery slope.” Performance-based teacher layoff bill dies in committee California legislation calling for the creation of teacher ratings for use in layoff decisions instead of seniority fails to win enough votes to move forward. Legislation that would have allowed school districts to lay off teachers based on performance, not seniority, failed in a state Senate education committee Wednesday. The measure, proposed by state Sen. Bob Huff (R-Diamond Bar), called for school districts to create new administrator and teacher evaluations that would be partially based on student test score data. It would have allowed district officials to lay off teachers based on performance. Huff said the testimony was a sign of teacher unions' power and helped quash the bill. "What happened today was [the union] flexed their muscle," he said. California Teachers Assn. representatives did not return an email, but A.J. Duffy, president of the Los Angeles teachers union, said he was pleased that the bill did not pass. "There must be something better," he said. http://articles.latimes.com/... http://www.ctunet.com http://www.uft.org http://sites.google.com/... http://www.teachersolidarity.com Mr. Bloomberg also is backing off plans to eliminate more than 16,000 day-care slots next year. http://online.wsj.com/... California Legislation that would have allowed school districts to lay off teachers based on performance, not seniority, failed in a state Senate education committee Wednesday. http://articles.latimes.com/... “I'm not going to be a union buster,” Davis said. “Especially starting in my own city. The only “no” vote came from State Rep. Monique Davis, D-Chicago, who said she could not support a plan that could weaken the Chicago Teachers' Union. http://www.mcdonoughvoice.com/... Delegates at the WEA Representative Assembly in Tacoma stop short of strike call http://blog.thenewstribune.com/... Naperville Teacher's Union Files Unfair Labor Complaint Against District 203 The complaint was filed “because we were given information that the school board decided to freeze some of our members,” http://lisle.patch.com/... Denver Classroom Teachers Association is threatening a lawsuit on these hiring non-qualified teachers(scabs) http://www.denverpost.com/... UWGB faculty vote in favor of union representation http://www.fox11online.com/... Teachers' union in vote for strikes. Members of the NASUWT union unanimously agreed to reject the changes proposed by the Convention of Scottish Local Authorities (Cosla) and the Scottish Government which included a two-year pay freeze as part of a £45 million package of cuts. http://scotlandonsunday.scotsman.com/... Teachers and students gather at City Hall to oppose cuts outside San Francisco City Hall http://www.examiner.com/...Ready to fight back? Sign up for Take Action Now and get three actions in your inbox every week. You will receive occasional promotional offers for programs that support The Nation’s journalism. You can read our Privacy Policy here. Sign up for Take Action Now and get three actions in your inbox every week. Thank you for signing up. For more from The Nation, check out our latest issue Subscribe now for as little as $2 a month! Support Progressive Journalism The Nation is reader supported: Chip in $10 or more to help us continue to write about the issues that matter. The Nation is reader supported: Chip in $10 or more to help us continue to write about the issues that matter. Fight Back! Sign up for Take Action Now and we’ll send you three meaningful actions you can take each week. You will receive occasional promotional offers for programs that support The Nation’s journalism. You can read our Privacy Policy here. Sign up for Take Action Now and we’ll send you three meaningful actions you can take each week. Thank you for signing up. For more from The Nation, check out our latest issue Travel With The Nation Be the first to hear about Nation Travels destinations, and explore the world with kindred spirits. Be the first to hear about Nation Travels destinations, and explore the world with kindred spirits. Sign up for our Wine Club today. Did you know you can support The Nation by drinking wine? President Obama’s swearing-in. (AP Photo) Ad Policy “So you see, the election four years ago wasn’t about me. It was about you. My fellow citizens—you were the change…. Only you have the power to move us forward.” —President Obama, Democratic presidential nomination acceptance speech, 9/6/12 “You and I, as citizens, have the power to set this country’s course. You and I, as citizens, have the obligation to shape the debates of our time, not only with the votes we cast, but the voices we lift in defense of our most ancient values and enduring ideas.” —President Obama, inaugural address, 1/21/13 On Monday, in his second inaugural address, President Obama offered words that inspired hope among some advocates who work every day on economic security issues—whether creating opportunities for families struggling in poverty, or creating better jobs for all workers. There was hope in Obama saying that “we are true to our creed when a little girl born into the bleakest poverty knows that she has the same chance to succeed as anybody else because she is an American, she is free, and she is equal not just in the eyes of God but also in our own.” Hope in the idea that “the wages of honest labor will liberate families from the brink of hardship,” and that “our journey is not complete until our wives, our mothers and daughters can earn a living equal to their efforts.” Hope in the notion that we will “empower our citizens with the skills they need to work hard or learn more, reach higher.” Hope in the reaffirmation that “we, the people, still believe that every citizen deserves a basic measure of security and dignity.” Hope in touting “the commitments we make to each other through Medicare and Medicaid and Social Security.” Hope in his emphasizing—as he did in his 2012 Democratic convention speech—the common ground between his work as president and ours as citizens: “You and I, as citizens, have the obligation to shape the debates of our time.” Which is exactly what so many in the anti-poverty movement have been striving to do for decades now. Nation executive editor Betsy Reed aptly notes in her post the “chasm” between the America that Obama envisioned in his address, and the real lives of low-income people today: “Given the chasm that now separates rich from poor, improving conditions in schools or preserving Medicaid and other existing social programs is not going to give a hard-knocks Bronx kid the chance to compete with his Park Avenue counterpart on a level playing field.” She argues that those born in poverty will never have an equal shot at success, and that to suggest otherwise is both intellectually dishonest and harmful, as it makes it seem as though someone only becomes stuck in poverty due to his own failings. But those who would blame the poor for being poor will always do so, no matter the circumstances. In my opinion, Obama is right to lay out the ideal we should be striving for—whether we reach it in a generation, or two, or never—and he is especially right that it is up to citizens to move this nation where we want to go. Protecting and improving existing programs will not fully achieve the kind of equality and equal opportunity that the president described. But promoting policies that reflect a commitment to ending hunger, raising wages and labor standards, pursuing full employment, making college affordable, creating alternative career pathways, implementing progressive tax reform, building affordable housing and more will surely move us in the right direction, even if progress comes in fits and starts. Obama’s vision and impassioned plea for citizen action clearly had an effect on Ai-jen Poo, co-director of Caring Across Generations, who wrote in an e-mail following the address: “Hearing these words made me hopeful about the next four years. He’s been hearing us.… This year we will have to turn these words into real change. It will depend on us, speaking up, taking action, and putting it all on the table.” And Joel Berg, executive director of New York City Coalition Against Hunger, said: “In precise, elegant terms, the president reminded us why we are all in this together and why expanding economic opportunity is both a moral imperative and an economic necessity…. While we hope, Mr. President, that you will forcefully lead on the vital issues of hunger, poverty, and inequality, advocates understand that it is also our job to build the public support to enable you get the job done.” President Obama declared that “we are made for this moment and we will seize it.” I will suggest again that the anti-poverty movement is made for this moment too. Its leaders and groups have done the work required—pick your topic, and you will find numerous studies and evidence on what works, what it costs and what the economic benefits are. The question now is this: after the anti-poverty/pro-economic security crowd is done defending what needs to be defended in these budget debates—and it is doing an extraordinary job unifying in that regard, including through the Save For All campaign, which over 1,900 organizations are participating in—what will it do to go on the offensive? To offer a powerful, unfied vision for a more equitable economy? What will it do to change the current conversation in city halls, statehouses, Congress and the White House? In neighborhoods and workplaces? At kitchen tables and conference tables? What will be its Stonewall, its Seneca Falls, its Selma? In my opinion, the anti-poverty movement will need to be as creative, visible, and gripping—in its own way—as the Occupy Wall Street movement was in 2011. The change needed—the kind of change Obama spoke to—won’t happen through hushed conversations in quiet rooms, and it won’t happen if it’s disconnected from the voices of a working and middle class. I don’t have the answers, but I know that the leaders and groups in this movement—whether at the national level or the grassroots—can come up with them. What will they now do to respond collectively to Americans who are yearning for the land of equal opportunity that Obama described? Get Involved Tell Your Senator: Co-Sponsor the Violence Against Women Act Support the Paycheck Fairness Act Protect human needs programs like Head Start, childcare and nutrition aid Notable Study “Research Shows How Program Reduced Gun Violence in Crown Heights, Brooklyn,” Center for Court Innovation. New research from the Center for Court Intervention suggests that the anti-violence project, Save Our Streets, is having a profound impact on gun violence in Crown Heights. From early 2010 through 2011, average monthly shooting rates there decreased by 6 percent, while it increased by 18 to 28 percent in surrounding areas. The research suggests that gun violence in Crown Heights was 20 percent lower than what it would have been without the Save Our Streets project. Save Our Streets takes a public health approach to gun violence, treating outbreaks of violence as epidemics of disease. “Violence Interrupters”—individuals who know the streets and understand the consequences of violence from personal experience—work to break the cycle of violence and retaliation by interrupting volatile situations before people get hurt. They are trained in special mediation techniques, and provide on-the-scene mediation to resolve conflicts before they spin out of control. Researchers also found that the work of Save Our Streets is well known in the community. “Violence interrupters are the foot soldiers making the neighborhood safer,” said Willard Hawkins, a community activist who lost someone close to him to gun violence, “I thank them every day.” Honda Re-Introduces Volunteer Income Tax Assistance Act, Receives Lifetime Award for Progressive Leadership Representative Michael Honda (D-CA) introduced the Volunteer Income Tax Assistance (VITA) Act to provide needed assistance to the national network of community VITA sites, which serve as reliable, no-cost tax preparation services for America’s workers. This program helps ensure that low-income individuals take advantage of existing ladders of opportunity, such as the Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC), the Child Tax Credit (CTC), and the American Opportunity Tax Credit (AOTC) that helps make college more affordable. “Particularly in times of economic hardship, stretched budgets, and divided government,” said Honda, “we need to ensure that the anti-poverty programs already in existence are operating to the best of their ability. Tax credits that promote work, send kids to college, and are proven ladders of opportunity are going underused. The VITA program helps millions of working families take advantage of programs Congress designed to help them, and I’m proud to fight to protect this critical assistance.” The bill authorizes $30 million in matching grants to eligible Community VITA programs to be used for program operation, taxpayer outreach and related financial services. You can find the VITA centers operating in your district by visiting http://irs.treasury.gov/freetaxprep/. Mazel tov, too, to Representative Honda on receiving the CPC Lifetime Award for Progressive Leadership last night. Not only is this a man progressives can count on to consistently be in their corner, but he can back up those policy positions with sound fiscal thinking, as he demonstrated as lead author of the People’s Budget. Reader comments on “An Anti-poverty Contract for 2013?” “People who are poor need something more to hang on to than a vision of what we don’t want” Greg, On the Martin Luther King Jr. holiday, I read your piece in which you called for a national contract to address poverty in America. Later that evening, my family and I watched an old documentary about King. My sons, now 8- and 10-years old, who have learned about King and the great movement that he and Ralph Abernathy and the other great leaders of that time built, had never seen footage of King’s speeches, the bus boycotts or of police violence against Americans. Watching the video, my 10-year old, a large bundle of a boy who is both tough and sensitive, cried to see the state police treat Americans so cruelly. My 8-year old, who had just spent the day with his good friend Richard, exclaimed after watching the entirety of King’s “I Have a Dream” speech, “Martin Luther had a dream about me and Richard!” Then I recalled my favorite King quote, “You cannot drive out darkness with darkness, only light can do that.” I thought a lot that night about the interviews with civil rights leaders and the clips in the video that emphasized that the key to King’s powerful message was that he was able to hold steady to his dream of a better America, which at the time seemed impossible to harness, but without being seen as a dreamer. Though he frequently pointed out what was wrong with the sociopolitical status of our nation, he was most powerful when he showed us what America could and should be. I harkened back on the nearly fifteen years of anti-poverty work I have participated in and, at times, led and realized how much time had been spent organizing against policies that have resulted in increased poverty and inequality. All the energy spent there was time not spent on conjuring and fighting for the America we do want. Not only have we been unsuccessful with that strategy, this kind of advocacy is unsustainable and disempowering to the communities of people who are poor and need something more to hang on to than a vision of what we don’t want. All of this is to say that I agree. The anti-poverty community does need a contract, a pact, a plan to address poverty, but more than that, to remind America that we are a country of principles and that we are in this together. I honestly believe that our leaders—whether Republican, Democrat, Independent or a member of another party—commit their lives to public service because they believe in the principles of America, including her great promise for equality of opportunity. If we start there, we can make America a place where everyone has the same chance at a life free from the indignities and human injuries caused by poverty and deep inequality. I am committed to work with others in our anti-poverty community and, more importantly, outside of it, to draft and mobilize around that vision and hope others who read your column can join too. JESSICA BARTHOLOW Legislative Advocate Western Center on Law and Poverty “It’s essential for us to own a short list of big policies” Greg, This is a terrific post. You made two big points that I think are especially right on: (1) “many [in the economic justice community] seem to focus on the lack of will in our political leadership to fight poverty; instead the primary focus might be on what the movement itself is doing to create political will”; and (2) we need to coalesce around a simple, clear and concise anti-poverty agenda, one that includes four or five key policies that are easily grasped and in sync with most people’s values, and forge new alliances around them. Related to your first point, I think we need to take a more critical look at the problematic ways in which much of the elite media frames poverty. I think the biggest issue here is The New York Times. The Times has published a number of high-profile pieces on poverty over the last year. But in nearly all of these pieces what I’ve called the “disorganized single-parent meme” has figured prominently. The Times desperately needs new voices (and some diversity) on its poverty beat. On your second point, my short list of four or five policies will probably look a bit different, a topic I hope to write about myself soon. But I agree it’s essential for us to own a short list of big policies on the progressive wing of the possible that we’re constantly lifting up in public debate. In developing this kind of list, a point recently made by Paul Starr is worth remembering: “The idea of a war on poverty without strengthening the hand of labor was a great mistake.” To do this we need to do much more than increasing the minimum wage. Finally, I think this effort should be framed in terms of what we’re for—real economic security and opportunity—and not just in terms of what we’re against. SHAWN FREMSTAD Senior Research Associate Center for Economic and Policy Research “Only if we put in place a four-part policy can we greatly reduce poverty” Greg, Poverty cannot be greatly reduced unless the poor who are unemployed, or who work less than full-time, are offered wage-paying Transitional [subsidized] Jobs to enable them to work for wages for forty hours each week. This is perhaps the single most important policy we can take for reducing poverty. Without a lot of new jobs to offset the now massive—and in most years, substantial—job shortage, we will never get to our goal. Raising the minimum wage is fine, but unless the worker is employed in the first place it doesn’t matter how high the minimum wage is. $7.25 per hour x 0 hours of work is the same as $8, $9, or $10 x 0 hours of work. Moreover, the minimum wage cannot be raised high enough—unless it’s raised so high that it truly does wipe out jobs—to lift a large segment of the working poor out of poverty. It is therefore essential to reform the Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC), particularly by providing a substantial earning supplement for workers without children. Finally, there is a large group of poor who have so severe a disability that they cannot work, or who have reached an age (whether 65 or older) where we no longer expect them to work to escape poverty. For this group, the best solution is to raise the minimum SSI, SSDI and Social Security payment so that it guarantees an income above the poverty line. Our work shows that if—and only if—we put in place a four-part policy consisting of (1) offering Transitional Jobs to the unemployed, (2) raising the minimum wage, (3) strengthening the EITC’s earning supplement and (4) providing a higher minimum income for those who cannot work due to a disability, or whom we do not expect to work because of age and retirement—can we greatly reduce poverty. DAVID R. RIEMER Senior Fellow Community Advocates Public Policy Institute “An excellent start to abolishing [poverty] directly” Greg, This call for an anti-poverty contract overlapping with celebrating Martin Luther King Jr.’s birth and contributions is an ideal opportunity to acknowledge comments made by King in 1967, “Final Words of Advice”: “I am now convinced that the simplest approach will prove to be the most effective—the solution to poverty is to abolish it directly by a now widely discussed measure: the guaranteed income. “Earlier in this century this proposal would have been greeted with ridicule and denunciation as destructive of initiative and responsibility. At that time economic status was considered the measure of the individual’s abilities and talents. In the simplistic thinking of that day the absence of worldly goods indicated a want of industrious habits and moral fiber. “We have come a long way in our understanding of human motivation and of the blind operation of our economic system. Now we realize that dislocations in the market operation of our economy and the prevalence of discrimination thrust people into idleness and bind them in constant or frequent unemployment against their will. The poor are less often dismissed from our conscience today by being branded as inferior and incompetent. We also know that no matter how dynamically the economy develops and expands it does not eliminate all poverty. “…Those at the lowest economic level, the poor white and Negro, the aged and chronically ill, are traditionally unorganized and therefore have little ability to force the necessary growth in their income. They stagnate or become even poorer in relation to the larger society…. “We are likely to find that the problems of housing and education, instead of preceding the elimination of poverty, will themselves be affected if poverty is first abolished.” As your post argues, lingering deficit views of people in poverty allow America to avoid directly addressing poverty through action and policy. The commitments you identify are an excellent start to “abolish[ing] it directly” and a monument of action to King that would be far greater than any celebration or citing once again the standard King speeches that allow us to continue ignoring instead of addressing inequity. PAUL THOMAS, EdD Furman University Education Clips and other resources (compiled with James Cersonsky) “Brownback’s policies: Aiding or abandoning Kansas’ poor,” Eric Adler “What has Emanuel done so far about racial segregation?” Steve Bogira “Where’s the ‘collective action’ in Obama education policy,” Arthur Camins via Valerie Strauss “Parents tell of close calls in wake of school-nurse shortage,” James Cersonsky “Dear President Obama: Want Equal Pay for Equal Work? Here’s Where to Start,” Bryce Covert “Obama to America: Work Harder,” Josh Eidelson “Will Immigration Reform Address H-2 Guestworker Recruiter Violations?” Mike Elk “Dispatches From the US Student Movement,” Extra Credit at The Nation “The Martin Luther King dreams that Obama forgot,” Fredrick Harris “Child poverty rates increase unabated,” (VIDEO) Melissa Harris-Perry “Making the Case for Hastening Progress Toward Health Equity,” Eve J. Higginbotham “Foreclosures and Homelessness: Understanding the Connection,” Institute for Children, Poverty & Homelessness “A Closer Look at Who Benefits from SNAP: State-by-State Fact Sheets,” Brynne Keith-Jennings “Chipping Away at Poverty—an Exchange” (and readers comments!), Nicholas Kristof, responding to Jonathan Stein and Rebecca Vallas “Backing Obama but still hungry for change,” Trymaine Lee “Young Women Still Behind in Economic Well Being,” Legal Momentum “Making It Happen: How Career Academies Can Build College and Career Exploration Programs,” MDRC “Earnings of the top 1.0 percent rebound strongly in the recovery,” Lawrence Mishel and Nicholas Finio “Does the Housing Voucher Program Enable Households to Move to High-Quality Neighborhoods?” Chris Narducci “Finding Housing Policy Solutions in Shared Challenges across the Atlantic,” Susan Popkin “Will Mississippi Close Its Last Abortion Clinic?” Alissa Quart “What Obama’s Inaugural Address Got Wrong About Poverty,” Betsy Reed “Does Income Inequality Cause High Teen Pregnancy Rates?” Theresa Riley “Unemployed far outnumber job openings in every sector,” Heidi Shierholz “What’s the connection between foreclosures and homelessness?” Anna Simonsen-Meehan “Inequality is Holding Back the Recovery,” Joseph Stiglitz “HUD Transportation Policy May Inadvertently Fuel Residential Segregation,” Philip Tegeler “Passive Radicals: The Manufactured Myth,” P.L. Thomas “A call to Obama to focus on early childhood education,” Elaine Weiss and Cassie Schwerner, via Valerie Strauss Vital Statistics US poverty (less than $17,916 for a family of three): 46.2 million people, 15.1 percent. Children in poverty: 16.1 million, 22 percent of all children, including 39 percent of African-American children and 34 percent of Latino children. Poorest age group in country. Deep poverty (less than $11,510 for a family of four): 20.4 million people, 1 in 15 Americans, including more than 15 million women and children. People who would have been in poverty if not for Social Security, 2011: 67.6 million (program kept 21.4 million people out of poverty). Gender gap, 2011: Women 34 percent more likely to be poor than men. Gender gap, 2010: Women 29 percent more likely to be poor than men. Twice the poverty level (less than $46,042 for a family of four): 106 million people, more than 1 in 3 Americans. People in the US experiencing poverty by age 65: Roughly half. Jobs in the US paying less than $34,000 a year: 50 percent. Jobs in the US paying below the poverty line for a family of four, less than $23,000 annually: 25 percent. Poverty-level wages, 2011: 28 percent of workers. Low-income families that were working in 2011: More than 70 percent. Families receiving cash assistance, 1996: 68 for every 100 families living in poverty. Families receiving cash assistance, 2010: 27 for every 100 families living in poverty. Food stamp recipients with no other cash income: 6.5 million people. People experiencing homelessness on any given night, US: 643,067. Children living on streets or in homeless shelters, US: 1.6 million, 42% under age six. Annual cost of child poverty nationwide: $550 billion. Quote of the week “Children in other rich countries like Canada, France, Germany and Sweden have a better chance of doing better than their parents did than American kids have. More than a fifth of our children live in poverty—the second worst of all the advanced economies, putting us behind countries like Bulgaria, Latvia and Greece. Our society is squandering its most valuable resource: our young.” —Joseph Stiglitz, excerpt from “Inequality Is Holding Back the Recovery.” James Cersonsky co-wrote the “Clips” section of this blog. This Week in Poverty posts here on Friday mornings, and again on Sundays at Moyers & Company. You can e-mail me at WeekInPoverty@me.com and follow me on Twitter.A quarter of a century ago, if one wanted to get an inside look into the more traditional circles of the Orthodox community, one would have to rely on hearsay or a very occasional news story in a secular daily or weekly Jewish newspaper. That kind of story aroused a mixture of pride, surprise and validation, precisely for its rarity. Even then, the chances of such a story capturing the nuances, or even being factually correct, were iffy. No more. In fact, if one were to read every English-language Chareidi Orthodox publication today, one would have little time for anything else. Hundreds of pages are published weekly. I am not even counting the occasional, high-quality kashrut newsletters and yeshivah publications. It all boils down to this: Given the halachic aversion to television and other forms of mass communication, the last bastion of readership for financially healthy, community-validated print journalism today is the Orthodox Jewish community. To all appearances, the Chareidi publications seem to be on solid financial footing. While print journalism appears to be struggling for its survival, the Chareidi Orthodox Jewish press is flourishing. At first glance, these Chareidi publications might seem to be overwhelmingly similar. In fact, they have marked differences, testifying to the reality of diverse subsets within the Chareidi Orthodox community. In fact, to speak of a single Chareidi community is very much an outsider’s perspective, given the marked internal differences. Each Chareidi subset has its own publication, though to be sure, there is overlap. A brief run-down of the major Chareidi publications, highlighting both similarities and differences: Yated Ne’eman, a newspaper of upwards of 200 pages weekly, founded in 1987, is primarily the voice of the so-called Litvish, Lakewood yeshivah-type community—though, to be sure, the news pages embrace Chassidim and Sephardim as well. Yated hosts a chinuch forum; a shidduch forum; a psychologist’s forum; a forum for halachic queries; weekly essays on the parashah; profiles of great rabbinic eminences, living and dead; much general national and world news; columnists from the secular press; a robust letters page, including personal comments that have nothing to do with what has been published; photographs of rabbinic eminences and noteworthy events, such as weddings; and a variety of related features, long and short, as well as a small magazine with a children’s section. Its community news from around the country, but especially from Lakewood, New Jersey and similar communities, is detailed and carefully researched. Yated projects a definite point of view. For example, if it feels that left edges of the Orthodox Jewish community have left the fold, Yated will bluntly scrutinize and criticize the development. While print journalism appears to be struggling for its survival, the Chareidi Orthodox Jewish press is flourishing. The English-language Hamodia, established in 1998, is both a small daily newspaper—the only English-language Orthodox daily—and a much larger weekly newspaper. The weekly comes with many sections: a magazine, hard news, community news, features and opinions, rigorous reportage on developments in health and a children’s section. Hamodia seeks to represent the entire spectrum of the Orthodox Jewish community—Litvish, Chassidic and Sephardi—and to identify the events and perspectives in Orthodoxy that unify it. The publication strives for solidarity and to provide “newsworthy and ethical reading material” to ensure that readers are not exposed to material deemed inappropriate. Hamodia presents various events
Small presses give you the best combination of both options. No matter which route you choose, make sure you do your homework first. Know exactly why you are going with your choice. Is the unlimited control offered by self publishing enough to outweigh the initial costs? Is the host of free benefits offered by a small press the deciding factor, even if it means perhaps getting slightly different formatting than you had in mind? Make an educated decision based on your personal goals. My advice should not be taken as definitive. Everything here is simply my opinion after a few years of success in the industry.by John V. Walsh Norman Solomon betwixt the political sheets with Robert Kagan? How could that be? Has our political world turned upside down? Driving south to Mountain View in my new home state of California, I tuned into KPFA, the Pacifica outlet in the Bay Area. Norman Solomon, longtime prominent figure in Progressive Democrats of America (PDA) and co-founder of “Roots Action” was being interviewed on a program called “Talkies.” Just a few hours earlier Bernie Sanders had endorsed Hillary Clinton, betraying the millions who voted for him (and voted against her) and losing the respect of many millions more. On air Solomon was commenting on the termination of Bernie Sanders’s milquetoast campaign against Hillary Clinton. And he was contrasting Hillary unfavorably with Bernie in a very detailed way with lots of references to Hillary’s policies. No personality analysis, no psychobabble. He mentioned that perhaps the most prominent neocon these days, Robert Kagan, was supporting Hillary Clinton for President. Yes, the same Kagan who calls for ever more US wars in the Middle East and for confrontation with the second mightiest nuclear power, Russia. Solomon pointed out quite correctly that Kagan had even said that Hillary shared his beliefs, but she would call them something other than neoconservatism.” Then in almost the next breath Solomon called on Bernie’s followers to support Hillary for President. No, not Jill Stein, but Hillary. No sooner did he say that than a caller to the show got on air and asked a very pointed question. The caller asked Solomon why he was throwing in with Robert Kagan. Solomon seemed mystified. The caller reminded him that, by his own admission minutes before, he and Kagan were now backing the same candidate – Hillary. Solomon promptly went berserk. He quickly changed the subject since to Trump who was not mentioned by the caller. Moreover, Solomon had no substantive comments on Trump, merely responding with psychobabble that Trump is “crazy.” The KPFA host quickly shut the caller off before he could utter any more heresy. (So much for real discussion on what passes for the media of the left these days.) It may seem harsh on poor Norm to point out the sleazy company he is now keeping. But facts are facts. Both Norm and Robert Kagan will be supporting Hillary. And the main reason for Kagan’s opposition to Trump is quite clear. Trump is not a reliable warmonger. Thus Trump is a threat to the further depredations of the US Empire and the machinations of Israel which Kagan so loves. It is fully understandable for progressives to back Jill Stein. It is a morally and ethically defensible position for a progressive – as is staying at home and not voting at all. In that regard the Bernie or Bust people have been right on the money. But backing a mass murderer like Hillary, who is intent on doing more of the same and threatens the whole human race with a bellicosity that may lead on to World War, is not morally defensible. To be fair to Norm, he was not advocating a vote for Hillary in “safe states,” ie., states where she is sure to win, but “only” in states, where she needs every vote she can get. In other words vote for Hillary wherever your vote will count. Mr. Kagan would certainly rub his bloated hands in satisfaction with Solomon’s recommendation. Some may feel that this is all very unfair to poor Norm and the many fake “progressive” leaders who will soon join him in embracing Kagan’s candidate, Hillary – if they have not already done so. Watch for other “progressive” leaders to jump on board the Hillary bandwagon in the next few days and weeks. Norm is not alone. Progressives who do not like this kind of thing should speak up now and do so forcefully. What makes such a position not only unethical but downright criminal is that Hillary has labeled Putin as “Hitler.” You only do one thing with a Hitler. You go to war with him. So Hillary puts the entire human race at risk of nuclear conflict. There is no greater evil than that. Many people not just former DoD capo, William Perry, are pointing out that we are now closer to nuclear conflict than we have been since the Cuban Missile Crisis. And Hillary is the most likely to get us into such an Armageddon. So Norman, as a leader amongst progressives where are you and others like you taking them? John V. Walsh can be reached at John.Endwar@gmail.comFats Domino and The Birth of Rock ‘n’ Roll traces how Fats Domino’s brand of New Orleans rhythm and blues morphed into rock and roll, appealing to black and white audiences alike. Actor Clarke Peters narrates. Fats Domino was one of the most popular rockers of the 1950s and early 60s. His achievements and record sales during that time were rivaled only by Elvis Presley. With his boogie-woogie piano playing rooted in blues, rhythm & blues, and jazz, he became one of the inventors, along with Presley, Chuck Berry, Jerry Lee Lewis and Little Richard of a revolutionary genre of music, rock ‘n’ roll. Fats Domino was born Antoine Domino, Jr. on February 26, 1928. He was the last of eight Domino children and the only one of his siblings born in New Orleans. His journey from a poor childhood in the Lower Ninth Ward to a key figure in rock ‘n’ roll is told using vintage performances of Domino and his band interwoven with reminiscences of fellow architects of rock ‘n’ roll. Among those interviewed are producer/songwriter/bandleader and longtime collaborator Dave Bartholomew, who co-wrote and produced most of Domino’s hits; J&M studio owner, engineer and producer Cosimo Matassa, who was involved in creating rock ‘n’ roll recordings by Domino, Little Richard, Ray Charles, Lloyd Price and many others; and saxophonist Herb Hardesty, a mainstay of both Domino’s and Bartholomew’s bands. Learn more about the film.Nicholas Layman, 19, has been charged over a stabbing at a Newfoundland soccer field that has shocked the country and left a boy fighting for his life in hospital. The young man appeared in St. John's provincial court Friday afternoon on charges of aggravated assault and assault with a weapon. Layman was also charged with attempted murder later Friday. Layman was sent for a brief psychiatric assessment following his initial court appearance, but a doctor was unable to say whether Layman would be fit to stand trial. He will spend the next seven days in the Waterford Hospital, a psychiatric hospital in the west end of St. John's. He's due in court again on Oct. 3. When asked for comment, a member of Layman's family said it was a "very difficult time for us." Meanwhile, a source close to the victim's family said the boy was sedated, but considered to be in stable condition at hospital in St. John's as of Friday afternoon. The soccer pitch was still covered with balls and pylons on Friday morning, as the Royal Newfoundland Constabulary scoured for evidence in the case. Forensics investigators with the Royal Newfoundland Constabulary were at the soccer pitch in Topsail on Friday, following the stabbing of a young boy at a soccer camp. (CBC) The boy, believed to be 11, was stabbed in the neck during a skills camp involving several dozen young players at a pitch in the Topsail neighbourhood of Conception Bay South, a suburban town just west of St. John's. Layman was arrested late Thursday night, a couple of hours after emergency responders rushed to tend to the stabbed boy. An abandoned car that was found on a nearby road was seized and towed away on Thursday night. Witnesses told CBC News that a young man from the bleachers had stabbed the boy. "He fell into my arms, and I just grabbed and held his wound, and put my arm around the back of his head, and lay him down on the field and lay with him, and just applied pressure to his wound," said a soccer father who was on the scene. CBC News is not identifying the father for privacy reasons. "I just screamed to some other parents to call 911," he said. The boy was taken to hospital and had been listed in serious condition. Sources tell CBC News that police believe the attack was random, and that a mental-health issue may be involved. Police Chief Bill Janes said he could not divulge details of how the suspect was taken into custody. 'Disbelief that someone could do that' Conception Bay South Mayor Ken McDonald said the stabbing has shocked people in his community. He fell into my arms, and I just grabbed and held his wound, and put my arm around the back of his head and lay him down on the field... and just applied pressure to his wound. — Parent who assisted boy stabbing in Topsail "Fear and shock are a couple of words to describe it. To me it, it was a bit of disbelief that someone could do that," said McDonald. McDonald said counsellors are available to help children, parents and coaches who saw the gruesome scene play out before their eyes. "I'm sure it's very traumatic. You watch an incident like this happening on a TV show and it kind of gives you the shivers — to be there first-hand and see it happen? It's not going to be easy to put that out of their minds in the very near future," said McDonald. Janes was visibly shaken as he spoke late Thursday night with reporters at police headquarters. The Royal Newfoundland Constabulary secured a soccer pitch in the Topsail area of Conception Bay South after a young boy was stabbed in the neck. (CBC) "This incident can only be described as a terrible tragedy," he said. The RNC held the pitch overnight as a crime scene, and has brought in forensic specialists to help collect evidence. The pitch was illuminated overnight to help police. Meanwhile, the C.B.S. Soccer Association said activities at the field and nearby clubhouse have been suspended for now. In a statement, the organization said it was "shocked and saddened by an incident at Topsail Field Thursday evening that sent one of our young players to hospital.” Counsellors available for children The English School District said counsellors will be available at neighbourhood schools on Friday to help children deal with the traumatic scene. The boy who was stabbed is a student at Holy Family School in neighbouring Paradise. Sandy Hounsell, who chairs the school council, described the incident as traumatic and devastating, including to his own son. "He was very inquisitive, and asking questions and why such a thing would happen — and that's where the difficulty is in how do you explain that," he said. "How do you make an 11-year-old understand why something like this would happen?"TAMPA — From Cuba to Cooperstown. A year ago, the only thing certain in Aroldis Chapman’s life was that when the Yankees’ season opened, he would begin serving a 30-game suspension for violating MLB’s domestic violence policy. Today? Since then, Chapman helped the Cubs win the World Series, signed a five-year deal worth $86 million and returned to the team he learned to love quickly and didn’t want to leave last July when the gas-throwing lefty closer was dealt by the Yankees to the Cubs. “I had the opportunity to return to the team I wanted to play for. Now it’s just focus and giving my all out there,” Chapman told The Post through an interpreter. “Hopefully in the future I can get to the Hall of Fame.” Chapman, 29, has a long road to travel to get from Holguin, Cuba, to baseball’s shrine in upstate New York. With 182 saves, Chapman enters the 2017 season 61st on the all-time list. Mariano Rivera, a first-ballot Hall of Famer when he becomes eligible, leads with 652. Trevor Hoffman, who received 74 percent of the vote (75 percent is required) in January, his second year on the ballot, is second all-time with 601 saves. Goose Gossage (310 saves) Dennis Eckersley (390), Bruce Sutter (300) and Hoyt Wilhelm (228) are in the Hall of Fame. However, they pitched in a different era when closers worked multiple innings. Sutter worked 661 games without starting and threw 1,042 innings. Of Eckersley’s 1,071 games, 361 were starts. Gossage appeared in 1,002 games and started 37. Fifty-two of Wilhelm’s games were starts. All of Chapman’s 383 big league games have been out of the pen, from where he has averaged 36.2 saves the past five years. Lee Smith, who is third on the all-time list with 478, received 34.2 percent of the Hall of Fame vote this past year, his final one on the ballot. Billy Wagner has 422 saves and received 10.2 percent of the votes in his second year. John Franco, fifth on the all-time list and the leading lefty with 424, lasted one year on the ballot. Clearly, there is closer bias among voters. The 2016 season left an impression on Chapman, who routinely pushes the speed guns into triple-digits. “It was an unforgettable year for me, the whole experience of getting traded [to the Yankees], getting traded again, winning the World Series,’’ said Chapman, who posted a combined 36 saves in 39 chances with the Yankees and Cubs and added four more in the postseason. “It was an unbelievable year, not only for me but for my family. I wanted to come here, the best baseball in the world, means the world to me. I’ve been to four All-Star games. It was a blessing to go through life and be a champion and fortunate enough to get a nice contract. As a player, you want to perform.’’ Chapman is reunited with Dellin Betances in the Yankees’ pen, but Andrew Miller was dealt to the Indians in July shortly after Chapman left for the Cubs. According to a scout who has seen Chapman multiple times this spring, it’s not a fair fight when he’s on the mound. “He is throwing the slider good and the changeup has been good,’’ the scout said of Chapman, who has appeared in five spring games. “He has three plus-plus pitches and is throwing strikes. I know he hasn’t been facing the 1927 Yankees, but some guys don’t have a chance against him.’’Bar versions of “Wheel of Fortune,” “Weakest Link” and “Family Feud” are coming soon to a hangout in Dupont Circle. United Social Sports, a local events company, plans to add a Sunday night “game show” league to its lineup of winter bar games, according to company founder Robert Kinsler. The new game show night is scheduled to launch at Buffalo Billiards (1330 19th St. NW) on Jan. 29 and possibly also Songbyrd Music House and Record Cafe (2477 18th St. NW) soon after. Each week, league members will be able to participate in trivia competitions modeled after game shows like “Wheel of Fortune,” “Jeopardy,” “Cash Cab,” “Who Wants To Be A Millionaire,” “Family Feud.” The games will be slightly altered to allow the maximum number of competitors at a time. “We’re focusing more on the group games,” Kinsler said. “We’re tweaking those things and applying our social sports know-how and magic to it.” The company first “beta tested” its new game show-themed league earlier this year. If the latest round of game show events takes off, Kinsler said it will become a permanent fixture in the United Social Sports lineup. Registration costs $49. Those interested in joining the game show league can sign up on the company’s website. Photo via United Social SportsWASHINGTON — Celebrations aside, President Trump may wait until next year to sign the tax bill into law, delaying $120 billion in automatic cuts to popular programs such as Medicare and sparing Republicans from having to explain them in an election year. Here's why: If Trump signs the tax bill this month, it could trigger steep automatic spending cuts early next year to a raft of programs. But if Trump waits until January to sign the bill, the spending cuts would be delayed until 2019 — after next year's congressional elections — giving lawmakers a full year to prevent them. Congress gave final approval to the $1.5 trillion tax package Wednesday, sending it to Trump. The bill-signing delay wouldn't affect taxpayers. The tax cuts would still go into effect in January, and workers would still start to see changes in the amount of taxes withheld from their paychecks in February. The delay, however, is another example of how politicians from both major parties routinely flout a law that was meant to instill fiscal discipline on Washington. The arcane budget law is called Paygo, or pay-as-you-go. Years ago, Congress approved the law imposing steep automatic spending cuts whenever Congress passes legislation that adds to the nation's growing debt. But the automatic spending cuts, which have been around since Ronald Reagan was president, have never been enforced. Republicans want to add a provision to a year-end spending bill that would waive the Paygo law, but they need help from Democrats to do it. "So, a crude tool designed to prod Congress to face up to its fiscal responsibilities now goes the way of the dinosaur," Bill Hoagland, a former Senate Republican aide, wrote in an op-ed in Roll Call. Despite Republican claims otherwise, the tax bill would add billions to the nation's debt — more than $1 trillion over the next decade, according to official congressional estimates. If the Paygo law is waived, Trump can sign the tax bill as soon as it reaches his desk without worrying about the automatic spending cuts. But if the law isn't waived, and Trump signs the bill this month, he would be required to issue an order to cut about $120 billion in spending in early 2018, said Hoagland, who is now a senior vice president at the Bipartisan Policy Center. The Paygo law was meant to be painful: The cuts would target specific programs, including Medicare, price supports for farmers, a fund for crime victims and subsidies for affordable housing, Hoagland said. If Trump waits until January to sign the tax bill, the automatic spending cuts would be delayed until 2019, giving lawmakers time to waive the Paygo law, said Ed Lorenzen, a former Democratic aide who is now a senior adviser for the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget. "That means Congress wouldn't have to do anything to prevent it from taking effect until the end of next year," Lorenzen said. Trump's top economic adviser, Gary Cohn, said the president would like to sign the tax bill as soon as possible. "If we can get Paygo waived in the (spending bill), we will sign the tax bill this year," Cohn said Wednesday at an event sponsored by Axios. "The president would like to sign the tax bill."Almost 30 critical cases, including children with cancer, approved for help in area near Damascus where 400,000 people remain trapped Critically ill patients are being evacuated from the besieged Syrian rebel-held enclave of eastern Ghouta, but the fate of hundreds of others with life-threatening conditions remains unresolved. The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) in Syria said its staff, along with those of the Syrian Arab Red Crescent (Sarc), had “begun the evacuation of critical medical cases from eastern Ghouta to central Damascus” on Wednesday. Charity launches Syria emergency appeal to save critically ill children Read more The Syrian American Medical Society (Sams) said four patients had been taken to hospitals in Damascus, the first of 29 critical cases approved for medical evacuation, and the remainder would be evacuated over the coming days. They include 18 children and four women with heart disease, cancer, kidney failure and blood diseases. The news was confirmed by the official Syrian government news agency, and appears to follow local negotiations as well as several humanitarian appeals from high-profile figures including King Abdullah of Jordan, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, Turkey’s president, and Sergei Lavrov, Russia’s foreign minister. The Sams advocacy manager, Mohamad Katoub, tweeted that five people had been approved for the first group of evacuations. It was not clear why only four of the five left. Almost 400,000 residents of eastern Ghouta, one of the last remaining rebel strongholds in Syria, have been caught in a regime siege for the last five years, and some have been in urgent need of medical attention for months. Although the area is designated by Russia, Iran and Turkey as a de-escalation zone, the Syrian government has until now refused to lift the siege, claiming the area is held by opposition rebels bent on attacking the capital, Damascus. A near total blockade has been in force for almost eight months, pushing up the price of food and medicines. SAMS (@sams_usa) Today in besieged #EastGhouta, #Syria, medical evacuations began for a group of 29 critical cases, approved for medical evacuation to Damascus. Four patients were evacuated today, w/remainder being evacuated over the coming days. Details to follow. pic.twitter.com/Y2kDqIbkD5 Eastern Ghouta has been subjected to ceaseless bombardment and was targeted in a sarin gas attack by Assad’s forces in 2013, which, despite international condemnation, did not lead to direct reprisals from the The evacuations are part of a complex exchange of detainees between Assad’s government and the rebel group Jaysh al-Islam, an opposition faction formed by a merger of Islamist groups in 2013 that was initially funded by Saudi Arabia. Sarc said the evacuations were the result of “long negotiations”. An ICRC spokeswoman declined to give more details, citing the sensitivity of the operation and the risk that the deal might yet collapse. ICRC Syria (@ICRC_sy) Tonight the @SYRedCrescent with @ICRC team started the evacuation of critical medical cases from #EasternGhouta to #Damascus. #Syria pic.twitter.com/Xqoy9HF7oz Jaish al-Islam (Army of Islam) confirmed the rebels had agreed to free some of their prisoners in return for the evacuations. “We have agreed to the release of a number of prisoners … in exchange for the evacuation of the most urgent humanitarian cases,” the group said a statement. Pressing for more evacuations, Fayez Arabi, a spokesman for the opposition-held Rural Damascus Health Directorate, said: “The number of people awaiting evacuation due to inadequate medicine and medical supplies has now surpassed 600.” Erdoğan has offered to take all the patients most in need of treatment into hospitals in Turkey. The UN has been waiting months for the Syrian authorities to provide “facilitation letters” to allow the aid operation to get under way. Hamish de Bretton-Gordon, director of Doctors Under Fire, a charity working with hospitals in the district, said the evacuations were a ray of light in the six-year conflict, and hoped that the deal might lead to a wider ceasefire. Writing in the Guardian last week, De Bretton-Gordon had appealed to Russia’s president, Vladimir Putin – a key ally of Assad’s – to show mercy. “Medieval siege techniques have resulted in no aid for four years,” the jointly authored article said. “Children, in particular, are dying of starvation in sight of the Lebanese and Jordanian borders.” According to news agencies, once the deal was negotiated, families waited in the darkness in the rebel-held town of Douma for their children to board ambulances bound for hospitals in Damascus. Three children were among the first four patients to leave, a Sarc official told Agence France-Presse. According to agency reports, the first four were a girl with haemophilia, a baby with the autoimmune disorder Guillain-Barré, a child with leukaemia, and a man in need of a kidney transplant. Facebook Twitter Pinterest A Syrian boy in the rebel-held town of Douma in Syria’s eastern Ghouta region. Photograph: Hamza Al-Ajweh/AFP/Getty Images Meanwhile, Lavrov said on Wednesday that a Moscow-proposed peace congress scheduled for next month was crucial for reaching a settlement in Syria and was not hampering UN-led talks. On Tuesday several dozen Syrian opposition groups had issued a series of statements saying the talks in Sochi next month were an attempt to circumvent the UN-led peace process. Lavrov, who was meeting the Syrian opposition leader, Ahmad Jarba, on Wednesday, told Russian news agencies that the Sochi congress would lay the groundwork for UN-led talks. The Russian foreign minister cited “broad support” for the Sochi talks among Syrians and said Russia’s goal was to gather the largest number of opposition groups possible to help launch constitutional reform. Reuters contributed to this reportYup, the Air Force is moving to buy a brand new pair of big jets for the president. Well, whomever is president at the end of the decade, anyway. We mentioned (tweeted) this last September when Air Force Secretary Michael Donley mentioned that the service will look at buying a new presidential transport in the next decade. The Air Force has been looking to do this for a while now, but in light of numerous acquisition priorities and difficulties it faced with them (think the CSAR-X, KC-X and next-gen bomber. Oh, don't forget the Marines' cancelled VXX presidential helo program.) in the last decade, the effort never really got of the ground. Apparently, the service outlines its intent to buy two new airliters to replace the iconic Boeing 747-based VC-25s that began carrying the president in 1990 and 1991. Remember, their Boeing 707 predecessors served from the early 1960s until the 1990 as the president's airplane, so this timeframe for replacement makes sense. One of the biggest reasons for replacing the current VC-25s is their lack of power compared to newer versions of the 747 (c'mon, you know the next Air Force One is going to be made in the USA). From Defense News:Detroit — Despite the horrifying wounds inflicted, criminal charges are unlikely against the owner of 12 pit bulls that attacked and savaged a man earlier this month. The unidentified victim — age 40 to 50 — suffered severe wounds to his hands and feet when the dogs attacked at 10 p.m. Oct. 2 near an abandoned home in the 4500 block of Pennsylvania. The attack was so vicious police were forced to shoot and kill one of the animals before the remaining dogs were penned up in a nearby house. “As of right now, it appears there won’t be any charges because the incident was noncriminal in nature,” Sgt. Michael Woody said. “We don’t have any real criminality here to suggest that the owner would be arrested for the mauling.” According to Woody, the dog owner was arrested the day of the attack but on a warrant that wasn’t related to the mauling. “He’s since been released,” Woody said. “The remaining 11 animals were picked up by animal control. An investigation showed that all 11 were involved in the attack and they have been euthanized.” Police believe the dog owner was squatting at the house near where the attack occurred. The victim remains in critical condition in Detroit Receiving Hospital. TGreenwood@detroitnews.com (313) 222-2345 Read or Share this story: http://detne.ws/1xt2eHwACCRA (Reuters) - Ghana’s President Nana Akufo-Addo came under fire on Sunday when it emerged that his inaugural address plagiarized quotes from speeches by U.S. presidents Bill Clinton and George W. Bush. Ghana's President elect Nana Akufo-Addo speaks during his swearing-in ceremony at Independence Square in Accra, Ghana January 7, 2017. REUTERS/Luc Gnago The outcry on social and national media over Saturday’s speech took the shine off a moment of triumph for the former opposition leader, who won a convincing victory in December after twice losing battles for the presidency. The slip is embarrassing in part because Akufo-Addo’s New Patriotic Party (NPP) prides itself on the professional competence of its leadership. The party has outlined policies aimed at creating jobs, fighting poverty, promoting business and restoring Ghana to its status as one of Africa’s most dynamic economies. “It’s a wake up call that there’s been a transition from leader of the opposition to the presidency and I’m sure he (Akufo-Addo) will be more careful in future,” pollster and author Ben Ephson told Reuters, adding that any political damage is unlikely to be lasting. Many commentators had praised the statesman-like nature of the speech of about 26 minutes, delivered to an audience of dignitaries and foreign leaders moments after Akufo-Addo took the oath of office. The Director of Communications for the presidency, Eugene Arhin, apologized for the errors on Facebook, calling it a “complete oversight and never deliberate”. He noted that the speech contained four correctly attributed quotations. Other NPP leaders close to Akufo-Addo declined to comment on how the errors occurred. The criticism focused on two sentences in Akufo-Addo’s speech. “I ask you to be citizens, citizens not spectators, citizens not subjects, responsible citizens building your communities and our nation,” he said. “Though our challenges are fearsome, so are our strengths. Ghanaians have ever been a restless, questing, hopeful people and we must bring to our task today the vision and will of those who came before us.” The first line almost matches one from Bush’s inaugural address in 2001, while the second mirrors Clinton’s inaugural speech in 1993 with only the country name changed.Daphne and Velma, the teen-girl sleuths from “Scooby-Doo,” are getting their own origin story in a live-action feature-length film from Jennifer and Ashley Tisdale’s production banner. “Daphne and Velma” is being produced by the Tisdale sisters’ Blondie Girl Productions and Warner Bros. Television Group’s Blue Ribbon Content digital studio. Sarah Jeffery (“Shades of Blue”) and Sarah Gilman (“Last Man Standing”) star in the title roles as Daphne and Velma, respectively. The film is currently shooting in Atlanta and is set to be released by Warner Bros. Home Entertainment in 2018. The studio isn’t disclosing distribution details at this point. “Daphne and Velma” tells the story of Daphne Blake and Velma Dinkley before they team up with Scooby and the rest of the Mystery Inc. gang. The mystery-solving teens are best friends but have only met online — until Daphne transfers to Velma’s school, Ridge Valley High, stocked with high-tech gadgetry by the school’s benefactor, tech billionaire Tobias Bloom. While their peers vie for a coveted internship at Bloom’s company, Daphne and Velma try to uncover the reason why the school’s brightest students are disappearing — only to emerge again in a zombie-fied state. “Blondie Girl is committed to telling stories from a female perspective and we could not be more thrilled to give Daphne and Velma their own story,” Ashley and Jennifer Tisdale said in a joint statement. “It’s so exciting to partner with Warner Home Entertainment and Blue Ribbon Content to introduce a new generation to the smart, charismatic, fearless females that we all know and love.” For Warner Bros.’ part, “We wanted to give the audience a new take on these two familiar faces, who are fan favorites in the Scooby-Doo universe,” said Peter Girardi, EVP of Blue Ribbon Content and EVP of alternative programming of Warner Bros. Animation. “Daphne and Velma” is produced by Blue Ribbon Content and Blondie Girl Productions with production services provided by Lifeboat Productions. Serving as producers are Ashley Tisdale (best known for the “High School Musical” franchise), Jennifer Tisdale (“Bring It On: In it to Win It”), Amy Kim (“Confess,” “Alive in Denver”), Jaime Burke (“The Pact”) and Suzi Yoonessi (“Olive and Mocha: First Kiss”). Yoonessi also is directing, from a script by Kyle Mack and Caitlin Meares. “Scooby-Doo, Where Are You!,” from Hanna-Barbera Productions (now a division of Warner Bros. Animation), first aired in 1969 on CBS. The franchise has since yielded about a dozen television revivals and spinoffs, as well as more than three dozen films. Warner Bros. Television Group formed Blue Ribbon Content in 2014. Its projects include comedy “Now We’re Talking” for Verizon’s Go90 from Uninterrupted, the Time Warner-backed sports media company founded by LeBron James; docu-series “Best Shot” for YouTube Red in association with James’ SpringHill Entertainment; “Ellen’s Pet Dish” for Ellen DeGeneres’ EllenTube; and “Justice League: Gods and Monsters Chronicles” for Machinima. Blondie Girl Productions, founded by Ashley Tisdale and run by Ashley and her sister Jennifer with Kaitlin Saltzman as head of television, is repped at UTA and currently has a deal at Warner Horizon Scripted Television. The L.A.-based company’s recent projects include Freeform’s comedy series “Young & Hungry” and are producing a comedy for CBS from writer Joanna Quraishi in association with Warner Bros. Television. Pictured above: Sarah Jeffery (left) and Sarah Gilman.WILMINGTON, NC (WWAY) — The Wilmington Police Department is asking the city to approve a $196,000 real-time camera center. Police Chief Ralph Evangelous said these centers already exist in a handful of cities across the country including Raleigh and Albuquerque. Evangelous said the center would allow police more access to public and private databases including surveillance cameras and social media. - Advertisement - Wilmington Business Owner Poodle Lockhart said she has noticed lots of change downtown since she opened 17 years ago. “With all the crime that we’ve had in the past 15 years,” Lockhart said. That is why Wilmington Police Chief Ralph Evangelous wants a real-time camera center. Related Article: Death of pregnant teen in Southern Pines now investigated as double homicide “It really gives us a whole new dimension in how we respond to crimes in progress,” Evangelous said. The facility would be called the STING, Situational Tactics & Intelligence Nexus Group, Center. He said the $196,000 operation would give police more data access. “We’ll have the ability to data dip into about 20 to 25 different databases with one name, address or vehicle search,” Evangelous said. Evangelous said police would also be able to monitor cameras across the city. “For example, let’s say we had a shooting occur at 2 or 3 o’clock in the morning,” Evangelous said. “We’ll be able to pull up those traffic cameras immediately as this is occurring before the officers even arrive and be able to see who is coming and going from the areas and be able to push out that information in real-time.” He said that also includes private cameras in businesses if police get permission to use them. “Banks, convenience stores, gas stations,” Evangelous said. That is not all. Police will also be able to tap into social media. “Real- time as things are occurring to see what is popping up and what people are saying,” Evangelous said. City council will have the final say on the project, but Lockhart said the port city needs it. “I think we need all the help that we can get,” Lockhart said. Evangelous said if city council approves the center it would take at least three months to build the facility. He also said he would need to hire three full time positions and two part time positions to monitor the data.Since New Year’s is traditionally a time for resolutions, and since the new Congress convenes this week, I thought I would suggest some New Year’s resolutions for Congress: 1) Bring the troops home — Congress should take the first, and most important, step toward ending our hyper-interventionist foreign policy by bringing our troops home and closing all overseas military facilities. The American people can no longer afford to bear the cost of empire. 2) Pass the Audit the Fed bill — The American people deserve to know the entire truth about how the Federal Reserve’s monetary policy benefits big-spending politicians and financial elites while harming average Americans. 3) Repeal the PATRIOT Act and rein in the National Security Agency — It is approaching two years since Edward Snowden revealed the extent of the NSA’s unconstitutional spying. Yet Congress still refuses to put a leash on the surveillance state. Congress should take the first step toward restoring respect for the Fourth Amendment by allowing Section 215 of the PATRIOT Act to expire. 4) Shut down the Transportation Security Administration — Treating all American air travelers as criminal suspects and subjecting them to intrusive and humiliating searches does nothing to enhance our security. Congress should shut down TSA and return responsibility for airline security to the airlines. Private businesses can effectively protect their customers and employees if the government gets out of the way. 5) End all corporate welfare — Federal programs that provide subsidies or other special benefits to politically-connected businesses cause economic inequality, distort the market, and waste taxpayer money. It also makes political and moral sense to cut welfare for the rich before cutting welfare for the poor. Congress should start dismantling the corporate welfare state by killing the Export-Import Bank and the Overseas Private Investment Corporation. Congress should also reject legislation proposed to benefit one industry or individual, such as Sheldon Adelson’s Internet gambling ban. 6) Repeal and Replace Obamacare — Many Americans are losing their insurance while others are facing increasing health care costs because of Obamacare. Repealing Obamacare is only a first step. Congress should both repeal all federal policies that distort the health care market and restore a true free market in health care. 7) End police militarization — The killing of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri in August brought the issue of police militarization to the center of national debate. Congress must end all federal programs that provide military equipment to local police forces. 8) Shut down the Department of Education — It is no coincidence that education in America has declined as federal control over education has increased. Congress should de-fund all federal education programs and return control over education to local communities and parents. 9) Allow individuals to
with 108. Mega Garchomp has the highest base Attack, with 170. Highest base Speed (when not Mega Evolved), with 102. Lowest base Special Attack (when not Mega Evolved), with 80. Hydreigon Hydreigon's stats give it a number of unique characteristics from the other pseudo-legendary Pokémon. It has the highest base Special Attack of all the pseudo-legendary Pokémon. Similarly, it is the only pseudo-legendary Pokémon that does not have a base stat over 125, but it is also the only pseudo-legendary Pokémon that does not have a base stat under 90. Its well rounded stats mirror Dragonite with Hydreigon also having a high attacking stat (Special Attack in this case), and above average stats in other categories. Only pseudo-legendary Pokémon with multiple elemental immunities (however its immunity to Ground is due to its Ability, Levitate). Has the highest base Special Attack, with 125. Hydreigon and its evolutionary relatives are the only pseudo-legendary Pokémon line that do not have a Hidden Ability in any of their forms. Goodra Unlike the other pseudo-legendary Pokémon, Goodra is mainly defensive, and its Attack and Special Attack are very similar. It has the lowest base Attack of all the pseudo-legendary Pokémon. Only pseudo-legendary Pokémon with a single type. Highest base Special Defense, with 150. Lowest base Defense, with 70. Kommo-o Kommo-o has mostly well-rounded stats and is slightly more defensive than offensive. Lightest pseudo-legendary Pokémon, at 172.4 lbs. (78.2 kg). Lowest base HP, with 75. The only pseudo-legendary Pokémon with an exclusive Z-Move, Clangorous Soulblaze. Consequently, it also the only pseudo-legendary Pokémon with an exclusive Z-Crystal, Kommonium Z. Other Tyranitar and Metagross are the only pseudo-legendary Pokémon that are not Dragon-type. Tyranitar and Kommo-o are the only pseudo-legendary Pokémon that have a unique type combination. Goodra and Kommo-o are the only pseudo-legendary Pokémon that do not always have a type immunity. Salamence and Metagross have the highest base Attack of all non-Mega-Evolved pseudo-legendary Pokémon, with 135. Garchomp and Kommo-o and their evolutionary relatives are the only pseudo-legendary Pokémon lines that do not have a base friendship of 35. Users These Pokémon are often used in-game by the members of the Elite Four and Champions. As Shadow Pokémon In story mode of Pokémon Colosseum, Shadow Metagross is used by Nascour and Shadow Tyranitar is used by Evice; it is notable that the two Cipher leaders have positions comparable to those of the final Elite Four member and Champion, respectively. Pokémon XD complemented the list of pseudo-legendary Pokémon as of Generation III by featuring Shadow Salamence (used by Eldes) and Shadow Dragonite (used by Miror B.). Another commonality is that all four pseudo-legendary Pokémon have Shadow Rush as one of their Shadow moves. In the anime In the main series Pseudo-legendary Pokémon have appeared multiple times in the anime. Dragonite in the anime Tyranitar in the anime Salamence in the anime Metagross in the anime Garchomp in the anime Hydreigon in the anime Goodra in the anime Kommo-o in the anime In Pokémon Origins Only Dragonite has appeared in Pokémon Origins. It appeared in File 4: Charizard under the ownership of Lance. Dragonite in Pokémon Origins In the manga In the Pokémon Adventures manga Dragonite in Pokémon Adventures Tyranitar in Pokémon Adventures Salamence in Pokémon Adventures Metagross in Pokémon Adventures Garchomp in Pokémon Adventures Hydreigon in Pokémon Adventures Goodra in Pokémon Adventures Trivia Generation III is the only generation so far to have introduced more than one pseudo-legendary Pokémon. All pseudo-legendary Pokémon that existed at the time were available as Shadow Pokémon in either Pokémon Colosseum (Tyranitar and Metagross) or Pokémon XD (Dragonite and Salamence). Among Pokémon commonly mistaken for pseudo-legendary Pokémon are Slaking, Flygon, Aggron, Volcarona, and Haxorus. For one reason or another, these Pokémon do not fit the criteria of those above and so are not pseudo-legendary Pokémon. The first stage of all pseudo-legendary Pokémon (that existed at the time) are available in the Johto Safari Zone.2013 was the year of teases from Vin Diesel. Maybe that gave his Fast & Furious co-star Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson some ideas, because the Rock is now doing a tease of his own. In answer to fan questions via Twitter today, the star said “We just had a big meeting w/ Warner Bros CEO re: @DCComics 2014 we will partner up and create the cool bad assery. #RockTalk” What’s he alluding to, and is it a movie, or a comic book project? A while ago Johnston had been attached to play Lobo in a film, but he said that “went away” quite a while back. He’s also been linked to play Black Adam in a Shazam movie, but that project seems even more dead than the Lobo film. So who is the Rock gearing up to play for WB and DC? And will it be a film of his own, or in Zack Snyder’s sequel to Man of Steel? Or all all those questions even aiming in the wrong direction? You wouldn’t think that the Rock would be meeting with the CEO of WB if he was just working on a comic book project for DC, but with this little detail to go on, it’s hard to say… and the particular wording still suggests Lobo. We just had a big meeting w/ Warner Bros CEO re: @DCComics 2014 we will partner up and create the cool bad assery. #RockTalk @ActionTilson — Dwayne Johnson (@TheRock) December 31, 2013 The actor also mentioned a couple things about other upcoming projects: My fav role of all time without a doubt is HERCULES. 10 years of hard work & slow prep for the role. Summer 2014. #RockTalk @SketchHenry — Dwayne Johnson (@TheRock) December 31, 2013 In JAN the other Hercules movie will come out. Lutz is a good kid and wanted to work. I love competition. Bring it on. #RockTalk @BADGUYPAT — Dwayne Johnson (@TheRock) December 31, 2013 Hawaii is my fav. Cool to announce my next film, SAN ANDREAS will be filmed in Brisbane, Australia. #April #AussieLove #RockTalk @GBP4EVER — Dwayne Johnson (@TheRock) December 31, 2013 I'll clarify. SAN ANDREAS (my next movie shooting in April) is the first ever big 3D earthquake disaster film. #RockTalk @OliverRosslee — Dwayne Johnson (@TheRock) December 31, 2013Union safety representatives were forced to step in after a whistleblower reported the use of “dangerous” metal weapons in a scene involving child actors on the set of the fantasy sequel Allegiant, reports the website Deadline. Thirty young actors allegedly risked serious injury from more than 100 untrained adult extras wielding metal clubs, scythes, axes and machetes during a battle scene being shot for the film, the third episode of dystopian saga The Divergent Series. The whistleblower, who has asked to remain anonymous, called in representatives from the International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees (IATSE) in Atlanta, after witnessing a chaotic “melee” on the first day of shooting the scene at an abandoned mill in rural northwest Georgia. Following the union’s intervention, the weapons, some of which were sharp, were subsequently replaced with rubber equivalents for the second day of the shoot. William Hurt describes fatal Midnight Rider train accident Read more The studio Lionsgate had been filming a battle sequence in which denizens of a run-down settlement known as the Fringe face off against government soldiers who have arrived to take away their children. “I had to do a double-take when the prop master passed out the weapons to the extras,” the whistleblower wrote in an email to the film’s safety consultant, seen by Deadline. “Concerned, I went around and handled the weapons for myself and saw that they were steel and aluminum, with bladed edges, and some were quite sharp.” The email continued: “Most of the Fringe adults were given prop weapons for action scenes in which they were running around panicked as their children were kidnapped, with soldiers chasing them. The children were also running through the melee, and as the scene progressed they were breaking free and running in all directions on their own as the Fringe adults tried to stop the soldiers. “Everyone seemed to know it was wrong, but no one was willing to speak up. To me, it seems that saving money – the expense of rubber props – took priority over safety. This particularly upset me because small children were involved. I personally saw four people trip and fall just because of the footing on the set, and several people were given medical care for heat exhaustion, which can cause fainting – and falling on these weapons is just as dangerous as swinging them into someone else during the chaotic scene.” The production’s safety coordinator has not yet made any public comment on the claims but promised the whistleblower action via email. “Thank you for bringing this to my attention,” the unnamed coordinator wrote. “I do not and will not take this lightly. As you are well aware of, these weapons are completely unsatisfactory for the type of action that you have described. I will bring this to the attention of all key personnel involved with this production as well as Lionsgate executive staff. Thank you for your willingness to express yourself and others and I will continue to do everything I can to make our industry safer, injury and fatality free.” Facebook Twitter Pinterest The Divergent Series: Insurgent - video review A Lionsgate spokesperson told Deadline: “We take safety issues very seriously, and we are currently investigating this.” Safety on Hollywood film sets has emerged as a major talking point following the death of camera operator Sarah Jones on a railway track during the filming of Gregg Allman biopic Midnight Rider in February 2014. Jones died when a train struck a hospital bed placed across a track on the Doctortown trestle bridge over the Altamaha river in Wayne County, Georgia, during the filming of a dream sequence featuring the actor William Hurt as Allman. The film’s director, Randall Miller, later received a two-year jail sentence and eight years’ probation for involuntary manslaughter and criminal trespass. The whistleblower in the new incident is said to have known Jones personally. Allegiant, based on Veronica Roth’s third novel in the young adult Divergent trilogy, is being released in two parts. The Divergent Series: Allegiant – Part 1 is due to hit multiplexes in March next year, with part two following in March 2017.HTC is teasing that it has exciting news about the software coming to its Vive virtual reality headset. Of course, there's only one game we really care for. HTC is teasing that it has exciting news about the software coming to its Vive virtual reality headset. Of course, there's only one game we really care for. HTC and Valve could be the first to bring a virtual reality headset to consumers in the form of the Vive, which is expected to get a wide release before March 2016. HTC is hinting that there will be big news regarding its launch titles. When asked about the Vive’s accompanying software, Senior Manager of Product Marketing for virtual reality at HTC, J.B. McRee, said: “That’s one of the things we're holding back to reveal more information about but there's going to be a big story and we're excited to share it.” Unfortunately, HTC isn’t so excited that it will share the news right now. Of course, there’s only one title that people care about. If (whisper it) Half-Life 3 does release alongside the Vive, it would make it a much more tempting prospect. Left for Dead 3 could also be an option, but when you tease Valve fans like this any other game may seem like a slap in the face. McRee later added, “There are things we haven't really talked about from a software perspective that we're excited to share as well, that I think people will be excited to hear." HTC shows no signs of dampening expectations anyways. HTC and Valve know that virtual reality needs to hit the ground running. “You only have one first time with VR and you can never get that back,” McRee said. HTC is yet to announce the price of the Vive, but it’s not expected to come cheap. Online EditorsOn the surface, Trump comparing himself to Eisenhower seems almost as much of a laughable stretch as Cruz invoking JFK. Temperamentally, they’re polar opposites: One a bombastic millionaire spewing bigotry and self-aggrandizement at campaign rallies, the other a prim West Point graduate who, throughout his life, according to PBS, “would blush if he slipped and said a ‘hell’ or a ‘damn’ in front of a lady.” Trump certainly has reasons for wanting to tie himself to the very model of a moderate, restrained Republican. But there are also real political similarities that give Trumpism something of a claim to a GOP lineage. “Eisenhower was very much a centrist in social issues,” Rodgers notes, and “he wanted to keep what worked in the New Deal.” Trump, of course, supports Planned Parenthood and has promised not to dismantle Social Security or Medicaid—high treason to the Republican right, but a nod to the centrism of the Eisenhower Era. Trump has also taken a cue from one of Eisenhower’s least moderate programs, promising to round up the 11 million immigrants currently living in the United States and return them to their home countries, much as Eisenhower did in the 1950s with his notorious (and offensively named) Operation Wetback, which shipped more than a million undocumented immigrants across the border in 1954 alone. But while the Ike analogy has some basis in reality—unlike Cruz/JFK—the notion of Trump as another Eisenhower hasn’t stuck. When Trump rails against women, immigrants, and liberal elites, making wildly sexist and xenophobic statements in public, he counteracts his efforts to make himself look like a measured, polite Republican in the Eisenhower line. You can’t be “presidential” merely by likening yourself to someone who was. John Kasich has tried to do something markedly different than Sanders, Cruz, or Trump—not only compare himself to past greats, but also use them to make another candidate look unworthy. Last month, New Day for America, the main super PAC backing Kasich, released an ad immediately after the governor won the Ohio primary. It begins with Abraham Lincoln, Teddy Roosevelt, Eisenhower, and Reagan flashing across the screen in quick succession. “There was a time when presidents were honorable, trustworthy,” the narrator intones. “What’s happened? We must stop Hillary Clinton.” She appears on screen, grimacing into the camera. The ad is aimed at making Kasich look like he belongs in the pantheon of great GOP presidents. He might look like a goofy dad, the narrator implies, but he has the same mettle as Rough Rider Teddy Roosevelt (forget for a moment that Roosevelt once ran for president as a Progressive, championing powerful central government and protective legislation for workers in 1912). The commercial also hits Clinton, and in ways that might not have been consciously intended. Rodgers summarizes the message that comes across: “Hillary Clinton doesn’t belong on Mount Rushmore, but [Kasich] does.” A woman doesn’t belong, in other words, but this guy does. The commercial may not be purposely sexist, Rodgers says, but the imagery makes a pretty powerful suggestion: You see “these great men, and then a picture of this somewhat strained woman who he would like to portray as somewhat out of her depth.” In the end, however, this could be an even less effective approach than Cruz trying to channel JFK. The strike against Clinton puts Kasich on the wrong side of history, and an astute viewer might penalize him for it. Kasich is no spring chicken, and implying that a woman would look out of place on Mount Rushmore only makes him look more out of touch. Clinton’s own approach to history has probably been the smartest of the 2016 field: Forget about it. Clinton remains one of the few candidates who has not likened herself to previous presidents in her campaign ads; in her speeches, she’s sometimes invoked her husband (it would seem odd if she didn’t), but mainly clung tight to the current president, Barack Obama. But by not going the “I’m the next FDR/Lincoln/JFK” route, Clinton is also attempting to compensate for her shortcomings—just by different means. One of her biggest disadvantages is that she already seems like a candidate from the past, a holdover from the last Clinton White House. In that sense, running campaign ads that link her to dead, white, male politicians would be counterproductive. Clinton needs to tell voters that she has a visionary message that can usher America into the future, and unlike the other candidates, she holds a trump card: As the first woman president, she’d make history on her own. Why look to the past for inspiration? THIS WEEK’S ADS: After the New York primary, the candidates are setting their sites on states that head to the polls next week, particularly Pennsylvania, Connecticut, and Maryland. Below, we’ve analyzed six new commercials that debuted this week. You can see every presidential campaign ad that’s run during this cycle at the New Republic’s 2016 Campaign Ad Archive. Bernie Sanders: “Sons of New York” Type: Issue ad Who Paid for It? The Sanders campaign Reach: Aired in New York Impact: History buffs must have loved this ad, which features archival footage of FDR. The message is clear: Bernie Sanders, like Roosevelt, is a visionary figure setting out to redefine the Democratic Party. Though it didn’t catch on in the Empire State, where Sanders finished with just 42 percent of the vote, at least New Yorkers got a little lesson in Great Depression history in the process. Hillary Clinton: “The Same” Type: Issue ad Who Paid for It? The Clinton campaign Reach: Aired in Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, Harrisburg-Lancaster-York, Wilkes Barre-Scranton, Johnstown-Altoona, and Erie media markets as part of a seven-figure ad buy there. Impact: Clinton has used a version of this ad before, but this slightly rejiggered edition is just as good as the first time. It hits all the right notes: a diverse audience; a beaming Hillary, resplendent in orange; a promise to get equal pay for women; and a very cute kid. Hillary Clinton: “My Mom” Type: Issue ad Who Paid for It? The Clinton campaign Reach: Aired in Connecticut, in the Hartford media market Impact: This ad, like many of Clinton’s gun-control spots, is a tearjerker. The main character, Erica Smegielski—whose mother, Dawn Hochsprung, died trying to protect her students at Sandy Hook elementary school in December 2012—is an eloquent spokesperson for Clinton. But she really gets you with this line: “She reminds me of my mother. She isn’t scared of anything.” Ted Cruz: “Not Easy” Type: Attack ad Who Paid for It? The Cruz campaign Reach: Aired in Pennsylvania Impact: Highlighting Clinton and Trump’s privileged backgrounds, this is one of better spots to come from the presidential contenders in recent weeks. It ought to play well in hardscrabble Pennsylvania, where the line, “My father gave me a small loan, of a million dollars,” will hardly endear Trump to rank-and-file voters. Ted Cruz: “Right” Type: Attack ad Who Paid for It? The Cruz campaign Reach: Aired in Pennsylvania Impact: You have to give Cruz points for succinctness in this 15-second ad. But it can sound a little overly aggressive as the narrator rockets through his bullet points: “Grow jobs,” he says. “JOBS. Freedom. Security. CRUZ.” Ted Cruz: “Solutions” Type: Issue ad Who Paid for It? The Cruz campaign Reach: Aired in Pennsylvania Impact: Ah, Ted Cruz, ever on a quest to make himself look presidential with the line, “solutions over slogans.” He’s aired a version of this ad before, in Wisconsin. But this new and improved version has a redoubled emphasis on manufacturing jobs going as the campaign heads into Rust Belt Pennsylvania.Former Vice President Dick Cheney's public relations apparatus was firing on all cylinders Wednesday morning, with the release of a predictable statement about the failed Underpants Bomber fracas. And by "public relations apparatus" I mean "cable news and Politico." Needless to say, Cheney is well-qualified to take an authoritative posture when it comes to terrorism. After all, he and his little buddy "kept us safe" from terrorist attacks for eight years, right? Other than the worst terrorist attack in American history, of course, along with the Anthrax Attacks, the Beltway Snipers, the thousands of terrorist attacks on our contractors and soldiers in Iraq and Afghanistan, and the attacks on our allies in London and Madrid, Cheney did a fine job keeping us safe (more about this in my book). Good job, Mr. Cheney! So it wasn't any surprise when Cheney stopped thumbing through Uncle Billy's misplaced $8,000 long enough to fire off a few words about the failed Underpants Bomber attempt and the Obama administration's response. And since Dick Cheney is a very serious terrorism expert -- mainly because more Americans died in terrorist attacks on his watch than any other vice president ever -- the media gobbled it up, practically unchallenged. Cheney said: As I've watched the events of the last few days it is clear once again that President Obama is trying to pretend we are not at war. He seems to think if he has a low-key response to an attempt to blow up an airliner and kill hundreds of people, we won't be at war. He seems to think if he gives terrorists the rights of Americans, lets them lawyer up and reads them their Miranda rights, we won't be at war. First of all, way to condemn the attempted attack, Mr. Cheney -- oh wait, you didn't condemn anything other than the president. Sorry. You chose instead to attack the commander-in-chief while troops are in harm's way. Weren't you guys totally against that sort of thing, by the way? Oh right. Everything prior to January 20, 2009 doesn't count. But that last part about giving "terrorists the rights of Americans" and letting them "lawyer up," is fascinating coming from Mr. Cheney. Maybe the worms have begun to infect his brain to a point where he's forgotten about how his administration allowed Richard Reid, the "Shoe Bomber," to be prosecuted, tried, convicted and incarcerated on American soil in our civilian judicial system. And which administration was it that released the Yemeni plotters from Guantanamo? Guess. The year was 2007 and unless Barack Obama has a totally rad time traveling DeLorean, President Bush and Dick Cheney were running our anti-terrorism efforts at that point. Good job again, Mr. Cheney! The reality is that Dick Cheney is fully aware of his inconsistencies and contradictions. This strategy of deliberate ignorance is a phenomenon that's rampant on the wingnut right. In fact, it's been going on for more than a year now, and it's absolutely reached a high water mark this week. The wingnut right has been essentially recycling liberal attacks on Bush/Cheney and using them to attack President Obama and the current administration. It's literally a childish game of payback. Call our guy a lazy, incompetent doofus who spends more time on vacation, will you? Well, see how you like it! Naa-naaaa! They've tried almost every Bush era attack, even though none of them fit the current president. All the while pretending they didn't defend Bush for the exact same things. Yet, for some reason, whenever the wingnut right engages in this silly game, they're treated like serious grown-ups. (Technically, it's the press's responsibility to ask people like Dick Cheney about inconsistencies rather than simply reading his statement and inviting a Republican stooge like Ron Christie on TV to defend it.) I mean, almost everything Karl Rove has said about the Obama administration is a recycled Bush attack. This week: And the president waits 72 hours before we hear from him, and it's over 72 hours from the time of the incident to the time that the president spoke today... How many days sailed on by before Bush responded to the Shoe Bomber attempt? Six days. Prior to this doozy, Rove slammed President Obama for Japanese Bow Gate -- totally and deliberately ignoring Bush's handholding, sword dances and bronskies with the Saudis. I can't confirm the bronskies. As with Cheney, and probably more so, Rove knows exactly what he's doing. He's tweaking Democrats and liberals as a form of petulant, childish payback. What should be of greater concern to the Democrats and the White House is that this payback hackery has the serious potential to go well beyond the self-contradictory jabs within the pages of Politico and Drudge. This week ought to prove once and for all that if there's ever a successful terrorist hijacking and detonation of another taint bomb, the Republican Party -- especially if they gain a majority in Congress -- will absolutely move to impeach the president. In the aftermath of the successful and terrible 9/11 attacks, Bush's approval ratings shot up to 90 percent. Democrats and Republicans rallied around the president in defiance against violent religious extremism. Meanwhile, President Obama has just presided over a failed terrorist attack in which a Qaeda-doof botched a crotch rocket -- the airplane landed on time and there were minimal injuries. The hijacker is still alive and is talking like a Chatty Cathy doll. Yet President Obama is somehow targeted by the right as an utter failure because of it. Now imagine if there had been an attack even close to the scope of the 9/11 hijackings. In other words, preside over the biggest terrorist attack in American history and it's an epic win for President Bush. Preside over a failed attack and it's an epic fail for President Obama. I'm actually a little surprised that the Republicans, lead by Peter King and Pete Hoekstra, haven't attacked President Obama for not responding to the news of that van in Times Square that turned out to be nothing. Why is Obama weak on not-at-all-related-to-terrorism? The Republicans are doing this because they can. Jim DeMint is going unchallenged for putting a hold on the TSA administrator nomination because he can. The Washington establishment media is gamed in favor of the Republicans and their peepee-pants fear-mongering due to a self-conscious striving for balance. No one will seriously challenge the Republicans because the press is mortally terrified of being labeled as "in the tank for Obama." Instead, false equivalencies and free passes for unmitigated GOP hypocrisy rule the day. And Dick Cheney gets to say whatever he wants, whenever he wants without so much as a follow-up question. Looking on the bright side, thanks to Dick Cheney for helping to reunite progressives around a common cause. Appreciate it. Bob on Twitter Bob Cesca's Awesome Blog! Go!Actor Tom Hanks appeared on ABC's Good Morning America on Friday to discuss his upcoming fantasy drama film Cloud Atlas, but during the segment he had a verbal slip-up, uttering the f-word on live television. "Mostly it's swear words," he said, describing the English accent he used in the role to host Elizabeth Vargas. Then, trying to act with the accent, he says, "f***ing boots." Both Hanks and Vargas quickly gasped — hand to mouth — and apologized. Hanks and GMA even addressed the situation on Twitter: For GMA, spesh kowtow for Lizzie V for WHAT DID I JUST SAY??? Oops!In character!Sorry!Hanx — Tom Hanks (@tomhanks) October 19, 2012 .@tomhanks: "Next time I'm on this show there will be a 7 second delay." — Good Morning America (@GMA) October 19, 2012 ABC issued this statement about the flub: "This morning Tom Hanks accidently used an expletive during a live interview on GMA with Elizabeth Vargas. They both immediately apologized on air, and the show was corrected for the all subsequent feeds." Cloud Atlas, which also stars Halle Berry and Hugh Grant, hits theaters Oct. 26.Apr 27, 2014; Washington, DC, USA; Chicago Bulls guard Jimmy Butler (21) dribbles the ball as Washington Wizards forward Trevor Ariza (1) defends in the first quarter in game four of the first round of the 2014 NBA Playoffs at Verizon Center. Mandatory Credit: Geoff Burke-USA TODAY Sports Is the Eastern Conference Really about LeBron and Derrick? by Lamar Battle We’ve made it to August NBA fans! Another month closer to the opening of training camp and meaningful basketball being played again. Much of the NBA summer coverage is dedicated to rumors and speculation, let’s take a respite from the whispers credited to “multiple sources” and dive in to 5 interesting stats from the Chicago Bulls’ 2013-2014 season. 1. Jimmy Butler Shot 43% On Corner Three’s Jimmy Butler’s 3P% fell be nearly 10% this past season from the previous one. The explanation for this dip is quite clear to me. The below chart explains what changed. Column 1 shows Butler’s overall 3-Point %, column 2 shows the % of 3-point shots that came from the corner, and column 3 shows the % shot on corner threes. As we can see, Butlers 10% dip in overall 3P% may simply be attributed to his 30% decline in 3’s taken from the corner. With Derrick Rose’s slashing ability and Pau Gasol’s post game Jimmy can hopefully find his way back to the corner where he could benefit from an influx of offensive talent around him. 2. Mike Dunleavy Held His Opponent to the Lowest eFG% According to Synergy, Mike Dunleavy was the highest rated defender on the Bulls at 91st percentile, also held his man to lowest eFG% — BBALLBREAKDOWN (@bballbreakdown) August 18, 2014 When people think about Mike Dunleavy their first thought isn’t typically “World-Class Defender” yet on a team with several elite, and decorated defensive players it was Mike Dunleavy who managed to hold his opposing player to the lowest eFG% (a statistic that adjusts for the fact that a 3-point field goal is worth one more point than a 2-point field goal). In Tom Thibodeau’s defense perimeter players deny their players entrance to the lane. They do this by over compensating their defense to the inside pushing players base-line where big man are stationed and ready to assist forcing a more difficult shot. The system itself lends help to perimeter defenders, so Dunleavy wasn’t locking down guys one on one, but he was playing his part in leading them to the base-line, proving he can be counted on to perform in Thibodeau’s demanding defensive system. 3. Pau Gasol Had 92 Blocks in 2013-14 Despite playing in only 60 games last season Gasol was able to rack up 92 blocks. The unique thing about this number is that it is exactly equal to the number of blocks Carlos Boozer had as a Chicago Bull. Gasol totaled Boozer’s blocking numbers from 4 whole seasons in just 60 games. Gasol’s 1.5 blocks per game would put him on pace to have tied for the team lead with reigning defensive player of the year, Joakim Noah. Gasol’s size and shot blocking will be a welcomed addition to a Bulls line-up that features a defensive system designed to funnel perimeter players into help from interior defenders. 4. The Bulls Outscored The Wizards While Noah and Gibson Were On The Court Together Depth issues, among other issues, plagued the Bulls during their brief playoff stint in 2014. The two returning members of the Bulls’ front-court rotation, Joakim Noah and Taj Gibson, actually outscored the Wizards in the 118 minutes they were on the floor together during the series. similarly, the 3-man combination of Noah, Gibson and Butler also posted a higher point total over the 101 minutes they shared the court together during the series. If theirs one resolution Bulls fans can take away from the series its that our core players, who played, performed while on the court together. I’m an eternal optimist and will always find the good in every situation, even when those situations are terrible playoff series. 5. Mike Dunleavy Ranked in the Top 4 in 9 statistical Categories Last Season In case you can’t tell, I’m a Mike Dunleavy fan. I feel he’s a tremendous value given the contract he’s on and feel it’s far too common a suggestion on basketball forums and sites that the Bulls look to move Dunleavy. Back on topic, here are the 9 statistical categories Dunleavy finished in the top 4 in last season: Stat Rank Points 4th Blocks 3rd Steals 4th Assists 4th Rebounds 4th FT% 2nd 3P% 2nd Minutes Played 3rd Games 1st Dunleavy’s finger-prints are all over the stat book. He contributes in a wide variety of categories and is a player that can be counted on to contribute towards winning basketball. If the shots not falling Dunleavy will use his length to pull down rebounds or sacrifice his body to take a charge. Dunleavy was brought in to be a back-up last season but after the trade of Luol Deng he gamefully stepped up to the plate and contributed to a 48 win team. As we gain more and more access to stats and information our understanding of the game will continue to evolve. Where we previously only had access to the over-all 3-point percentage we can now break down 3-pointers by position on the court, giving us a greater understanding of a players’ ability. As always, keep it locked in to Pippen Ain’t Easy for all your Bulls news, rumors, analysis and stats.There are more than 2 million unemployed Americans who might have jobs today if not for austerity. That's the conclusion of a new study by Michael Greenstone and Adam Looney at the Brookings Institution. In the 46 months since the Great Recession ended, state, local and federal governments have cut about 500,000 jobs. In contrast, in every other U.S. recession since 1970, the government hired approximately 1.7 million people, on average. That means the U.S. is an estimated 2.2 million jobs in the hole. Given the size of the U.S. labor force, an extra 2.2 million jobs would mean the U.S. unemployment rate would be about 6.1 percent, instead of 7.5 percent. That would be below the 6.5 percent rate the Federal Reserve is targeting with its extraordinary bond-buying program known as quantitative easing. Worried about Fed-fueled financial bubbles? Thank austerity. In fact, the Fed recently called out tight fiscal policy in explaining why it's keeping the economy's gas pedal floored. That 2.2 million jobs would also get the U.S. job market back to its peak level of employment, set in January 2008, in the early months of the recession. Right now, we're about 2.6 million jobs shy of that peak, making this the slowest job-market recovery since World War II. The government has not helped at all -- in fact, it has pulled in the other direction, firing people when it should be hiring. That 2.2 million jobs would also help close another wide disconnect: Employers aren't firing people any more, but they're only barely hiring, leaving the economy about 4 million jobs short of where it should be, given current levels of unemployment benefits. More than half of that gap could be attributed to stingy government, if Brookings is right. And this is all before most of the effects of the across-the-board budget cuts of the federal government's sequestration, which might cost the economy another 750,000 jobs, the Brookings study notes.PROVO, Utah — Pay attention now, class. A major transformation is underway within the LDS Church, reshaping all teaching and learning from Sunday School courses to the priesthood. The shake up is radical, but members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints are only beginning to grasp the breadth and depth of a fresh emphasis on the learning process through the introduction of new methods, teaching manuals and curriculum. "We have had a revolution in teaching in the church. Most of you have not caught onto it yet, but the Brethren are modeling it," LDS employee Ronald Schwendiman told an Education Week audience at Brigham Young University last year. If "revolution" seems like a strong word, note that Schwendiman has been in the middle of the metamorphosis as the church's director of publishing product management for Seminaries and Institutes of Religion. But he is not the first to use that description, nor was he the last. And more has changed since he said it. In May, the church released a new teacher manual, "Teaching in the Savior's Way," and introduced one of its most visible changes, the creation of teacher councils in every congregation. Earlier this month, a direct request was emailed to anyone who teaches a class in the church from Elder Jeffrey R. Holland of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles. Elder Holland invited teachers to join him in an interactive online discussion on Nov. 5 about the new manual and teacher councils. Learning process Why alter all teaching in the church? LDS leaders say they want to help church members become better — and more active — learners, a critical skill in an age saturated by information. "With the current conditions of the world, we desperately need real learning and teaching in our homes, meetings and gospel classes," Matthew Richardson said in the October 2011 LDS general conference while a member of the church's general Sunday School presidency. The goal is to alter classroom interactions radically in
ersey-at-home tradition.[20] Thanksgiving Day uniforms With the Cowboys traditionally hosting Thanksgiving Day games, separate practice uniforms have been used for these games in recent years. Through the 2000 season, the Cowboys continued the usual practice of wearing white at home. In 2001, the Cowboys wore blue at home for the first time in years with was an older design of the blue jersey. Dallas would lose the game, but again wore the older blue jersey at home on Thanksgiving the next year and won. With the 2002 victory, it seems an exception to the theory of the blue jersey jinx is invoked on Thanksgiving. Thus, the Cowboys continued wearing blue at home on Thanksgiving from 2003–2006, however it was always an older-styled alternate blue jersey. In 2007 and 2008, the Cowboys returned to wearing white at home for their Thanksgiving game. From 2009 to 2017, the Cowboys returned to wearing blue at home on Thanksgiving only. (From 2009–2012, the team again decided to go with an older-styled blue uniform as they had in previous years on Thanksgiving, and since 2013 have worn the newer-styled blue jersey.) The Cowboys wore white jerseys on Thanksgiving in 2018. In the 2015 season, the Cowboys wore their Color Rush variation of the 1990s "Double Star" jerseys for a Thanksgiving game against the Carolina Panthers.[29] Stadiums Cotton Bowl The main entrance of the Cotton Bowl The Cotton Bowl is a stadium which opened in 1932 and became known as "The House That Doak Built" due to the immense crowds that former SMU running back Doak Walker drew to the stadium during his college career in the late 1940s. Originally known as the Fair Park Bowl, it is located in Fair Park, site of the State Fair of Texas. Concerts or other events using a stage allow the playing field to be used for additional spectators. The Cotton Bowl was the longtime home of the annual Cotton Bowl Classic college football bowl game, for which the stadium is named. (Beginning with the January 2010 game, the Cotton Bowl Classic has been played at Cowboys Stadium in Arlington.) The Dallas Cowboys called the Cotton Bowl home for 11 years, from the team's formation in 1960 until 1971, when the Cowboys moved to Texas Stadium. It is the only Cowboys stadium within the Dallas city limits. The Cowboys hosted the Green Bay Packers for the 1966 NFL Championship at the Cotton Bowl. Texas Stadium The outside of Texas Stadium For the majority of the franchise's history the Cowboys played their home games at Texas Stadium. Just outside the city of Dallas, the stadium was located in Irving. The stadium opened on October 24, 1971, at a cost of $35 million and with a seating capacity of 65,675. The stadium was famous for its hole-in-the-roof dome. The roof's worn paint had become so unsightly in the early 2000s that it was repainted in the summer of 2006 by the City of Irving. It was the first time the famed roof was repainted since Texas Stadium opened. The roof was structurally independent from the stadium it covered. The Cowboys lost their final game at Texas Stadium to the Baltimore Ravens, 33–24, on December 20, 2008. After Cowboys Stadium was opened in 2009, the Cowboys turned over the facility to the City of Irving. In 2009, it was replaced as home of the Cowboys by Cowboys Stadium, which officially opened on May 27, 2009 in Arlington.[30] Texas Stadium was demolished by implosion on April 11, 2010. AT&T Stadium AT&T Stadium during a game AT&T Stadium, previously named Cowboys Stadium, is a domed stadium with a retractable roof in Arlington. After failed negotiations to build a new stadium on the site of the Cotton Bowl, Jerry Jones, along with the city of Arlington, Texas, a suburb of Fort Worth, funded the stadium at a cost of $1.3 billion. The stadium is located in Tarrant County, the first time the Cowboys will call a stadium home outside of Dallas County. It was completed on May 29, 2009 and seats 80,000, but is expandable to seat up to 100,000. AT&T Stadium is the largest domed stadium in the world.[31] A highlight of AT&T Stadium is its gigantic, center-hung high-definition television screen, the largest in the world. The 160 by 72 feet (49 by 22 m), 11,520-square-foot (1,070 m2) scoreboard surpasses the 8,736 sq ft (812 m2) screen that opened in 2009 at the renovated Kauffman Stadium in Kansas City as the world's largest.[32][33][34] At the debut pre-season game of Cowboys Stadium, a punt by Tennessee Titans kicker, A. J. Trapasso, hit the 2,100 in. screen above the field. The punt deflected and was ruled in-play until Titans coach Jeff Fisher informed the officials that the punt struck the scoreboard. (Many believe Trapasso was trying to hit the suspended scoreboard, based on replays and the angle of the kick.) The scoreboard is, however, within the regulation of the NFL guidelines — hanging approximately five feet above the minimum height. No punts hit the scoreboard during the entire 2009 regular season during an actual game. Also, on August 22, 2009, the day after AJ Trapasso hit the screen, many fans touring the facility noted that half of the field was removed with large cranes re-positioning the screen. According to some fans, a tour guide explained that Jerry Jones invited a few professional soccer players to drop kick soccer balls to try to hit the screen. Once he observed them hitting it consistently he had the screen moved up another 10 feet. The first regular season home game of the 2009 season was against the New York Giants. A league record-setting 105,121 fans showed up to fill Cowboys Stadium for the game before which the traditional "blue star" at the 50-yard line was unveiled for the first time; however, the Cowboys lost in the final seconds, 33–31.[35] The Cowboys got their first regular season home win on September 28, 2009. They beat the Carolina Panthers 21–7 with 90,588 in attendance. The game was televised on ESPN's Monday Night Football and marked a record 42nd win for the Cowboys on Monday Night Football.[36] On July 25, 2013, the Cowboys announced that AT&T would be taking over the rights to the name of the stadium.[37] Training camp sites Dallas Cowboys training camp locations:[38] Rivalries The NFC East, composed of the Cowboys, Philadelphia Eagles, Washington Redskins and New York Giants, is one of the least-changed divisions of the original six formed in the wake of the NFL-AFL merger (its only major changes being the relocation of the Cardinals franchise from St. Louis to Arizona and its subsequent move to the NFC West in the league's 2002 realignment). Three of the four teams have been division rivals since the Cowboys' entry into the NFL. As such, the Cowboys have some of the longest and fiercest rivalries in the sport. Washington Redskins The Redskins and Dallas Cowboys enjoy what has been called by Sports Illustrated the top NFL rivalry of all time and "one of the greatest in sports." Some sources trace the enmity to before the Cowboys were even formed, due to a longstanding disagreement between Redskins owner George Preston Marshall and Cowboys founder Clint Murchison, Jr. over the creation of a new football team in the South, due to Marshall's TV monopoly in that region. The two teams' storied on-field rivalry goes back to 1960 when the two clubs first played each other, resulting in a 26–14 Washington victory. Since that time, the two teams have met in 116 regular season contests and two NFC Championships. Dallas leads the regular season all-time series 70–42–2, and the Redskins lead the all-time playoff series 2–0. The Cowboys currently have a 14–7 advantage over the Redskins at FedEx Field. Some notable moments in the rivalry include Washington's victory over Dallas in the 1982 NFC Championship and the latter's 1989 win over the Redskins for their only victory that season. The last Cowboys game with Tom Landry as coach was a win over Washington on December 11, 1988. In the 2010s, the Redskins have struggled to consistently compete for the Division title, but still play the Cowboys particularly tough, posting an impressive upset victory against Dallas in 2014, despite being outclassed by the Cowboys in the overall standings. Philadelphia Eagles The competition with Philadelphia has been particularly intense since the late 1970s, when the long-moribund Eagles returned to contention. In January 1981, the two teams faced off in the NFC Championship, with Philadelphia winning 20–7. A series of other factors heightened tensions during the 1980s and 1990s, including several provocative actions by Philadelphia fans and Eagles head coach Buddy Ryan. Among these were the 1989 "Bounty Bowls", in which Ryan allegedly placed a bounty on Dallas kicker Luis Zendejas and Veterans Stadium fans pelted the Cowboys with snowballs and other debris. A 1999 game at Philadelphia saw Eagles fans cheering as Michael Irvin lay motionless and possibly paralyzed on the field. In 2008 the rivalry became more intense when in the last game of the year in which both teams could clinch a playoff spot with a victory, the Philadelphia Eagles defeated the Cowboys 44–6. The following season, the Cowboys avenged that defeat by beating the Eagles three times: twice during the regular season to claim the title as NFC East champions and once more in a wild-card playoff game by a combined score of 78–30, including a 24–0 shutout in week 17. That three-game sweep was Dallas' first over any opponent and the longest winning streak against the Eagles since 1992–1995 when Dallas won seven straight matches against Philadelphia. During the 2013 season Dallas won the first meeting 17–3 at Lincoln Financial Field in Philadelphia. They would meet again in Week 17 at AT&T Stadium with the winner clinching the 2013 NFC East title. The Cowboys came into the game at a disadvantage with starting quarterback Tony Romo out with a season ending back injury which put backup Kyle Orton as the starter. It was a tight game with the Eagles up 24–22 with less than 2 minutes to go in regulation. Orton got the ball and started driving down the field when he was intercepted by the Eagles defense, which ended the game and the Cowboys season. In 2014, the Cowboys and Eagles both won against each other on the road, with Philadelphia posting a dominant 33–10 win on Thanksgiving Day in Dallas, and Dallas returning the favor two weeks later by defeating the Eagles 38–27 in Philadelphia. The second game between these rivals clenched a playoff spot for Dallas and led to formerly first place Philadelphia missing out on the post-season. Dallas leads the regular season all-time series 63–50. New York Giants The first game ever played between the Giants and Cowboys was a 31–31 tie on December 4, 1960. Dallas logged its first win in the series on October 29, 1961 and New York's first was on November 11, 1962. Among the more notable moments in the rivalry was the Giants' defeat of Dallas in the 2007 playoffs en route to their victory in Super Bowl XLII and winning the first regular season game played at Cowboys Stadium in 2009. Dallas currently leads the all-time series 65–46–2. Pittsburgh Steelers The two teams met in the first regular season game the Cowboys ever played in 1960 (a 35–28 loss to the Steelers), the first-ever regular season victory for the expansion Cowboys in 1961, and would later meet in three Super Bowls, all of them closely contested events. The Steelers-Cowboys is to date the Super Bowl matchup with the most contests. The Steelers won Super Bowl X and Super Bowl XIII; both games were decided in the final seconds, first on a last-second throw by Roger Staubach, then as a fourth-quarter rally by Dallas fell short on an onside kick. The Cowboys won Super Bowl XXX in January 1996. It is said that the rivalry was fueled in the 1970s due to the stark contrast of the teams: the Cowboys, being more of a "flashy" team with Roger Staubach's aerial attack and the "flex" Doomsday Defense; while the Steelers were more of a "blue-collar" team with a strong running game and the 1970s-esque Steel Curtain defense, a contrast that still exists today.[40] In addition, both teams have national fan bases rivaled by few NFL teams, and both come from areas with a strong following for football at all levels. Dallas leads the all-time series 16–13 including the playoffs. San Francisco 49ers The bitter rivalry between the Dallas Cowboys and San Francisco 49ers has been going on since the 1970s.[41][42] The NFL Top 10 ranked this rivalry to be the tenth best in the history of the NFL. San Francisco has played Dallas in seven postseason games. The Cowboys defeated the 49ers in the 1970 and 1971 NFC Championship games, and again in the 1972 Divisional Playoff Game. The 1981 NFC Championship Game in San Francisco, which saw the 49ers' Joe Montana complete a game-winning pass to Dwight Clark in the final minute (now known as The Catch) is one of the most famous games in NFL history. The rivalry became even more intense during the 1992–1994 seasons. San Francisco and Dallas faced each other in the NFC Championship Game three separate times. Dallas won the first two match-ups, and San Francisco won the third. In each of these pivotal match-ups, the game's victor went on to win the Super Bowl. Both the Cowboys and the 49ers (and the New England Patriots) are second all-time in Super Bowl victories to the Pittsburgh Steelers with five each. The 49ers-Cowboys rivalry is also part of the larger cultural rivalry between California and Texas. The Cowboys lead the all-time series with a record of 18-17-1. Green Bay Packers The Cowboys–Packers rivalry is a rivalry between the Dallas Cowboys and the Green Bay Packers.[43] It is one of the best known intra-conference rivalries in the NFL. The two teams do not play every year; instead, they play once every three years due to the NFL's rotating division schedules, or if the two teams finish in the same place in their respective divisions, they would play the ensuing post-season. The rivalry has also resulted in notable playoff games.[44][45] The all time regular seasons series record is 15–13 in favor of the Packers, and the postseason series is tied 4–4. Season-by-season records Players of note Current roster Texas Sports Hall of Fame Super Bowl MVPs Ring of Honor Unlike many NFL teams, the Cowboys do not retire jersey numbers of past standouts as a matter of policy. Instead, the team has a "Ring of Honor", which is on permanent display encircling the field. Originally at Texas Stadium, the ring is now on display at AT&T Stadium in Arlington. The first inductee was Bob Lilly in 1975 and by 2005, the ring contained 17 names, all former Dallas players except for one head coach and one general manager/president. Although the team does not officially retire jersey numbers, some are kept "unofficially inactive", so it is uncommon to find any current players wearing the number of one of the "Ring of Honor" inductees. As of 2019, these following numbers have been kept out of circulation: Troy Aikman's No. 8, Tony Romo's No. 9, Roger Staubach's No. 12, Bob Hayes' and Emmitt Smith's No. 22, Bob Lilly's No. 74, Jason Witten's No. 82, and No. 88, worn by Drew Pearson, Michael Irvin, and Dez Bryant. The Ring of Honor has been a source of controversy over the years. Tex Schramm was believed to be a "one-man committee" in choosing inductees and many former Cowboys players and fans felt that Schramm deliberately excluded linebacker Lee Roy Jordan because of a bitter contract dispute the two had during Jordan's playing days. When Jerry Jones bought the team he inherited Schramm's Ring of Honor "power" and immediately inducted Jordan. Jones also has sparked controversy regarding his decisions in handling the "Ring of Honor". For four years he was unsuccessful in convincing Tom Landry to accept induction. Meanwhile, he refused to induct Tex Schramm (even after Schramm's induction to the Pro Football Hall of Fame). In 1993, thanks in part to the efforts of Roger Staubach as an intermediary, Landry accepted induction and had a ceremony on the day of that year's Cowboys-Giants game (Landry had played and coached for the Giants). In 2003, Jones finally chose to induct Tex Schramm. Schramm and Jones held a joint press conference at Texas Stadium announcing the induction. Unfortunately, Schramm did not live to see his ceremonial induction at the Cowboys-Eagles game that fall. Some of the more recent inductees were Troy Aikman, all-time NFL leading rusher Emmitt Smith, and Michael Irvin, known as "The Triplets". The Cowboys waited until Smith had retired as a player before inducting Aikman and Irvin, so all three could be inducted together, which occurred during halftime at a Monday Night Football home game against the arch-rival Washington Redskins on September 19, 2005. The most recent inductees are defensive end Charles Haley, offensive lineman Larry Allen, and wide receiver Drew Pearson, who were inducted into the Ring of Honor during halftime of the Cowboys' game vs. the Seattle Seahawks on November 6, 2011, safety Darren Woodson, who was inducted on November 1, 2015, and executive Gil Brandt, who was inducted on November 29, 2018. All-time first-round draft picks Head coaches and staff Head coaches Current staff Radio and television As of 2010, the Cowboys' flagship radio station is KRLD-FM. Brad Sham is the team's longtime play-by-play voice. Working alongside him is former Cowboy quarterback Babe Laufenberg, who returned in 2007 after a one-year absence to replace former safety Charlie Waters. The Cowboys, who retain rights to all announcers, chose not to renew Laufenberg's contract in 2006 and brought in Waters. However, Laufenberg did work as the analyst on the "Blue Star Network", which televises Cowboys preseason games not shown on national networks. The anchor station is KTVT, the CBS owned and operated station in Dallas. Previous stations which aired Cowboys games included KVIL-FM, KRLD, and KLUV-FM. Kristi Scales is the sideline reporter on the radio broadcasts. During his tenure as Cowboys coach, Tom Landry co-hosted his own coach's show with late veteran sportscaster Frank Glieber and later with Brad Sham. Landry's show was famous for his analysis of raw game footage and for him and his co-host making their NFL "predictions" at the end of each show. Glieber is one of the original voices of the Cowboys Radio Network, along with Bill Mercer, famous for calling the Ice Bowl of 1967 and both Super Bowl V and VI. Mercer is perhaps best known as the ringside commentator of World Class Championship Wrestling in the 1980s. Upon Mercer's departure, Verne Lundquist joined the network, and became their play-by-play announcer by 1977, serving eight years in that capacity before handing those chores permanently over to Brad Sham, who joined the network in 1977 as the color analyst and occasional fill-in for Lundquist. Longtime WFAA-TV sports anchor Dale Hansen was the Cowboys color analyst with Brad Sham as the play-by-play announcer from 1985–1996. Dave Garrett served as the Cowboys' play-by-play announcer from 1995–97, when Brad Sham left the team and joined the Texas Rangers' radio network team as well as broadcast Sunday Night Football on Westwood One. Seeking to expand its radio broadcasting scope nationally, the Cowboys began a five-year partnership with Compass Media Networks on February 2, 2011. The result was the America's Team Radio Network, a supplement to the franchise's regional one.[46] Beginning with the 2011 season, Kevin Burkhardt and Danny White handled the broadcasts, with Jerry Recco as the studio host.[47] See also References NFL 2002 Record & Fact Book ISBN 0-7611-2643-0 Further readingEach year, Americans discard 32 million tons of plastic. Only about 9% of this waste is recycled. This means that the vast majority of plastic waste discarded in this country ends up in incinerators or landfills. Traditional plastics require sunlight to be broken down. So plastic goods that are buried in landfills are expected to take hundreds of years to decompose. Some types of plastics may never decompose. Clearly a sustainable alternative is necessary. Material Scientists are investigating alternatives to petroleum-based plastics. The following biological materials have been considered to create bioplastics: 1. Corn-Based Plastics By far corn-based plastics (called PLA) are the most readily available alternative. Because of the properties of PLA it is used most readily in just one type of plastic production: food packaging. Several years ago many large manufacturers began using corn-based bioplastics and advertising their environmental benefits. PLA products are admittedly far from perfect. They biodegrade most readily in large scale compost facilities. These facilities, unfortunately are still few and few between. But there are still measurable benefits. PLA uses 65% less energy to produce than petroleum-based plastics. 2. Chitin-Based Plastics Researchers have asked this simple question for decades “how does nature create a strong material that biodegrades quickly?” This mode of thinking is really the nexus of the field of biomimicry, which aims to use nature’s pre-existing solutions when tackling a challenging human problem. Earlier this year, researchers at Harvard announced that they had developed a low cost method for creating plastics from the chitin in shrimp shells. Chitin is the second most abundant polymer on Earth. The plastics made by the research team were more versatile than corn-based plastics and could be used to make large three-dimensional objects. Similarly impressive, the plastics made by this method broke down and served as a nutrient source for plants within three weeks of being buried. Unfortunately, this technology is still in the earliest phases of development. So it will likely be years before we see chitin-based bioplastics available commercially. 3. Plastics Produced by Bacteria Researchers have created a method for bioengineering bacteria to produce a substance called BDO. BDO can be used to produce a variety of different types of plastic wares. The bacteria grow in fermenters, producing BDO which also serves as the food they need to grow and divide. Overall, the process uses 30% less energy than the production of traditional plastic products. It is a few years ahead of chitin-based plastic production in research and development, so we may see these bioplastics products hit the market even sooner.If you had been told a decade ago that there was a deeper level of government pulling the strings from of front line government policy; that an Orwellian State loomed with surveillance, you’d label them a conspiracy theorist. But with the world today full of Snowdens’, Assanges’, and other whistleblowers bravely standing up for everyone else’s rights, the notion doesn’t seem so ‘conspiracy’ and far-fetched. Presidents, government officials and dozens of politicians have, over the years, uttered hints about those ‘secret elites’ running the show. Here are but a few of them: Canadian Defence Minister Paul Hellyer – Senior posts in Lester B. Pearson and Pierre E. Trudeau’s governments; known for the unification of the Canadian Armed Forces; stated in the G8 conference “UFOs are as real as the airplanes flying overhead.” “It is ironic that the U.S. would begin a devastating war, allegedly in search of weapons of mass destruction, when the most worrisome developments in this field are occurring in your own backyard. It is ironic that the U.S. should be fighting monstrously expensive wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, allegedly to bring democracy to those countries, when it itself can no longer claim to be called a democracy, when trillions, and I mean thousands of billions of dollars have been spent on projects about which both the Congress and the Commander in Chief have been kept deliberately in the dark.” View the clip where he spoke this: U.S. President, Woodrow Wilson – a participant and headliner with the Treaty of Versailles; and responsible for the first go at the United Nations, by constructing the League of Nations as part of his Fourteen Points plan for peace in Europe. “Since I entered politics, I have chiefly had men’s views confided to me privately. Some of the biggest men in the United States, in the field of commerce and manufacture, are afraid of somebody, are afraid of something. They know that there is a power somewhere so organized, so subtle, so watchful, so interlocked, so complete, so pervasive, that they had better not speak above their breath when they speak in condemnation of it.” U.S. President, John F. Kennedy – and his famous speech: “…And there is very grave danger that an announced need for increased security will be seized upon by those anxious to expand its meaning to the very limits of official censorship and concealment. That I do not intend to permit to the extent that it is in my control. … For we are opposed around the world by a monolithic and ruthless conspiracy that relies primarily on covert means for expanding its sphere of influence–on infiltration instead of invasion, on subversion instead of elections, on intimidation instead of free choice, on guerrillas by night instead of armies by day. It is a system which has conscripted vast human and material resources into the building of a tightly knit, highly efficient machine that combines military, diplomatic, intelligence, economic, scientific and political operations. Its preparations are concealed, not published. Its mistakes are buried, not headlined. Its dissenters are silenced, not praised. No expenditure is questioned, no rumor is printed, no secret is revealed.” U.S. Senator, William Jenner – addressed Congress in 1954 with this: “Today the path to total dictatorship in the U.S. can be laid by strictly legal means … We have a well-organized political-action group in this country, determined to destroy our Constitution and establish a one-party state … It operates secretly, silently, continuously to transform our Government … This ruthless power-seeking elite is a disease of our century… This group … is answerable neither to the President, the Congress, nor the courts. It is practically irremovable.” U.S. Senator, Daniel K. Inouye – serving from 1963 until 2012 when he died, this highest ranking Asian-American politician had this to say about a shadow government: “There exists a shadowy government with its own Air Force, its own Navy, its own fundraising mechanism, and the ability to pursue its own ideas of the national interest, free from all checks and balances, and free from the law itself.” See for yourself in the clip below. This Article (Five reasons to believe there is a Shadow Government controlling the World) is a free and open source. You have permission to republish this article under a Creative Commons license with attribution to the author and AnonHQ.com.KANNADA is ailing. It has speakers, of course—nearly 50m of them, mostly in southwestern India. It’s the official language of the state of Karnataka, where active film, television, and music industries broadcast Kannada voices to millions of people. Writers have written in Kannada for nearly 1,500 years, producing a body of literature that includes a complex grammar written in 850. Kannada was the administrative language of some of the subcontinent’s most powerful kingdoms. There are Kannada newspapers and books published constantly. And writers in Kannada, an officially designated “classical language” (referring to its age), have achieved some measure of national prominence. Get our daily newsletter Upgrade your inbox and get our Daily Dispatch and Editor's Picks. Still, not all is rosy. The demographic balance in Karnataka’s capital Bangalore, now the third-largest city in India, is rapidly changing. Hindi and English are ascending as Bangalore aspires to national and international prominence. Immigrants to the city often decline to learn Kannada. Though primary public education is (by law) conducted in Kannada, the masses in Bangalore’s many private schools learn in Hindi and English. And although a cohort of 50m Kannada voices would be formidable in most of the world—fewer than thirty languages exceed it in native speakers—this group is a mere droplet in India’s teeming sea of people. But G Venkatasubbiah, a Kannada lexicographer, doesn’t despair. Mr Venkatasubbiah, popularly known as Professor GV, is a familiar face in Karnataka. He edited the first modern Kannada dictionary—a 9,000-page, 8-volume series—and wrote several dozen other books and articles. His newspaper column Igo Kannada (“This Is Kannada”), which ran for 18 years, was compiled into a bestselling sociolinguistic chronicle of the language. (He is also your correspondent’s great-uncle; a copy of Mr Venkatasubbiah’s friendly orange Kannada-English dictionary is never far away.) Still spry at 100 and ubiquitous at cultural events, Professor GV is, to many, a grandfather figure to the Kannada language. To hear him tell it, Kannada is threatened, but the situation is not grave. “Our modern literature is full of life. And Kannada has an ancient literature of great quality—especially epics and poetry. We are not going anywhere,” he said. But if Kannada’s favored position in Bangalore is at risk, he says, the state government is to blame. Most politicians in Karnataka speak Kannada as a first language, but their advocacy efforts are limp. In contrast, the state government in Tamil Nadu is ferociously supportive of Tamil-language initiatives. Mr Venkatasubbiah believes Kannada can be promoted alongside, and not to the exclusion of, languages like Hindi and English. He suggests that the government should strengthen primary education language requirements and sponsor more programs that instill in Kannada-speakers a sense of pride in their language. One example of a rare success: the Kannada Sahitya Sammelana, a major literature conference, was held in Bangalore last year. Mr Venkatasubbiah was host and the events were well-attended. But even though the conference has occurred annually since 1915, it was last in Bangalore in 1970. This was an unfortunate hiatus. The city’s linguistic makeup has changed dramatically since 1970, and a high-profile cultural conference like the Kannada Sahitya Sammelana taking place during such a formative period could have reenergized Kannada learning and writing. For other possible language initiatives, states like Kerala provide models. Kerala has the highest rate of literacy in India: nearly everyone in the state knows how to read the official language, Malayalam. This is partially due to the state government’s strict educational requirements. When my father’s family moved to Karnataka over a century ago, they had no choice but to learn Kannada. It’s now hard to imagine newer immigrants feeling the same pressure. In some ways, Kannadigas have begun to lose control of their largest city. A telling example: seven years ago, Kannadigas largely supported changing the spelling of Bangalore to Bengalūru, in line with its original pronunciation. But wary national commentators warned that such a provincial name would undermine Bangalore’s global ambitions. The decision was postponed. (No word yet on the irreparable damage that Bengali, Marathi, and Tamil speakers have wrought on Kolkata, Mumbai, and Chennai.) Amidst such circumstances, Karnataka may risk recreating the conditions that led to the rise of Shiv Sena, a militant group, in neighbouring Maharashtra. Shiv Sena began as a violent protest movement founded by Marathi-speaking people who believed that other languages were gaining too much ground in a Marathi state. Like Karnataka, Maharashtra has an outsized center—Mumbai—where Hindi and English are dominant. Like Mumbai, Bangalore attracts immigrants from all over the country, many of whom will never learn the city’s native language. There are warning signs in Karnataka: monolingual English displays are sometimes vandalised or destroyed, with kannaḍada drōhi, “traitor to Kannada”, graffitied across the mess. Part of the problem may be that Bangalore, like Mumbai, has a dubious claim to cultural capital of the state. (In Maharashtra, that title goes to Pune.) Bangalore is the indisputable center of activity in southwestern India, but Mysore (pictured), the second city of Karnataka, was only recently the sole cultural and political locus in the region. Prior to that, Hampi (now in ruins) was the capital of a powerful Kannada-speaking empire. Bangalore is not a Delhi or a Kolkata or a Hyderabad, old cities with old cultural institutions. Modern Bangalore, founded relatively recently, grew around a British military post. Many prominent Kannada figures like Mr Venkatasubbiah now call Bangalore home, but theirs is a reluctant migration. Mysore is loudly Kannada; Bangalore is simply loud. Without the sort of endemic pride associated with the ancient, perhaps initiating Kannada pride from Bangalore was always going to be a difficult task. Mr Venkatasubbiah recognises that his world is changing. But he is not motivated by the sort of aggrieved conservatism that characterises so many older linguistic commentators. He knows better: language changes. So even while he documents the influx of Hindi and English into the Kannada of his fellow Bangaloreans, he doesn’t despair. “This trend isn’t of any evil consequence. Hindi and English borrowings have already been assimilated, welcomed into the local tongue,” he wrote in an email. Yet he isn’t complacent. “Bangalore is changing. Hindi, Urdu, English, Malayalam, Tamil, Telugu, Gujarati, and Marwari are the languages heard on our streets,” he said. His is, ideally, a Kannada city. “The multilingual quality of our Bangalore can be a great advantage, but no scheme would ever be complete without Kannada. If nothing is done, I am afraid that Kannada will be pushed back into second place here.”Virginia School District Bans Sherlock Holmes Book The desire to shield children from controversy has led another school district to ban a classic novel. Doug Mataconis · · 26 comments Albemarle County, Virginia is primarily known as the home of Thomas Jefferson and the University of Virginia, but now it’s also earning a distinction for another reason: Thursday’s vote was the culmination of the work of a committee commissioned to study the book and two discussions by board members. Board member Diantha McKiel, of the Jack Jouett District, said it was important to note that the school system has a history of reconsidering books. “Sometimes we have declared books age inappropriate, sometimes we have decided that they should stay where they are,” she said. More than 20 former Henley students turned out to oppose the book’s removal from the lists. Rising Western Albemarle High School ninth-grader Quinn Legallo-Malone spoke during public comment to oppose removal of the book. He called the work “the best book I have read so far.” The board based its decision on the recommendation of a committee commissioned to study the Victorian work. In its report, the committee concluded that the book was not age-appropriate for sixth-graders. In her comments to the board, Brette Stevenson, the Henley parent who first complained about the book in May, said the work was not suitable as an introduction to mystery and deductive reasoning. “‘A Study in Scarlet’ has been used to introduce students to the mystery genre and into the character of Sherlock Holmes. This is our young students’ first inaccurate introduction to an American religion,” Stevenson told the board. The offending portions of A Study In Scarlet apparently had to do with several passages referencing Mormonism: You don’t have to be a world-class detective to see that the book casts Mormons in a bad light, suggesting it’s a religion whose adherents are willing to commit murder to protect their ideals. Take this passage from Chapter 3: “The man who held out against the Church vanished away, and none knew whither he had gone or what had befallen him. His wife and his children awaited him at home, but no father ever returned to tell them how he had fared at the hands of his secret judges. A rash word or a hasty act was followed by annihilation, and yet none knew what the nature might be of this terrible power which was suspended over them.” Although the school board agreed to pull the book from the sixth-grade curriculum, members said they might introduce it in the high school curriculum. Perhaps then they could use the book to teach a lesson about forgiveness. Why can’t that lesson be taught in Sixth Grade? And if you’re going to introduce students to the mystery genre, what better book to start with than the very first of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s Sherlock Holmes mysteries. The book, for example, tells the story of how Dr. Watson and Holmes met and introduces plot elements that show up in later works. Moreover, the book was published in 1886, when the controversies over Mormonism, it’s practice of polygamy, and the question of Utah statehood were still being debated in the United States. To the extent that Doyle’s predominantly British audience knew anything about the LDS Church, it was through press coverage of the LDS Church’s various conflicts with American authorities going back to the 1830s. It wasn’t until 1890 that those conflicts were resolved. So, it’s not surprising that at fictional depiction of the Chruch would be heavily influenced by the era it was written. It strikes me that this would be an excellent opportunity for a teachable moment that even 6th graders can learn from. There is this tendency in education to shield students from controversial ideas that gets reinforced when ever some vocal minority speaks up and complains. It’s led to bans on Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn, the two greatest works from one of America’s greatest writers, because of their use of a racial epithet, even though both works are meant to show how
While "nanobrewery" isn't a designation with a precise definition, it's generally understood to mean an operation with a three-barrel-per-batch (a barrel is 31 gallons) output or less. And these starter systems, often anchored by a tasting house and a small distribution network, can grow into major players. The famed Dogfish Head Brewery in Milton, Del., began life as a 10-gallon operation in 1995. In 2010, it produced 75,000 barrels. Mike Barlas of Flytrap Brewing, Lisa and Barry Owings of Broomtail Craft Brewery, and John Savard and Michelle Peck of Wilmington Homebrew Supply are outfitting parcels of real estate across the county with shiny stainless tanks, as each aims to pour a first draft in the coming months. But unlike most industries, these hypothetical competitors often can be found swapping strategies while tipping back a cold one. "A rising tide lifts all boats, so we're working to draw attention away from the mass-market beers," Barlas explained. "The more of us that are yelling to do it, the better." Fans of craft beer are fiercely loyal to the Davids in the battle of the brewskis, but tend to spread the wealth around rather than settle on a single label. This creates a self-supporting culture among brew masters and drinkers alike, where demand gives rise to an ever-refreshing variety of supply. "With the craft brewing industry growing at that percentage, we're not competing with each other," Savard said. "If that percentage grows we all benefit." First out of the gates likely will be Broomtail, a three-barrel project born of CEO Owings' empty-nest desire to raise a different kind of baby, this one cobbled together in spare hours on a raided savings account. Her husband, Barry, equal parts precision engineer and mad scientist, will man the back-of-house duties as head brewer. Recently he could be found unpacking fermentation tanks that stood well over his head. Lisa, basking in a fresh coat of aquamarine paint on the Dutch Square space they've leased, was bullish about the young company's potential. "It's just a leap of faith and wanting to do something now that the children are older," she said. "I think there's such a market, especially in Wilmington. There's such a great craft brew community here, I just think that now's the time." Downtown will find Barlas leveraging a change-of-use permit to reconfigure an empty office building at 319 Walnut St. into Flytrap Brewing. His will be a smaller two-barrel outfit showcasing his own skills, which include a principled approach to business fundamentals thanks to an MBA earned at UNCW in 2009. Barlas made an early foray into the frothy waters of professional brewing, but the timing was off, he said. His first stab, Forthright Brewing Company, was dissolved in 2010 before it got off the ground. Lessons from that episode have honed his approach, however, and coming weeks should find him beginning the major overhaul his new space will require. "The build out is pretty significant, changing an office building into a manufacturing facility. Even though it's small manufacturing, it's still a process," Barlas said. "I'm going to need floor drains and sinks, hoses where they weren't before." In the mid-town area, Savard and Peck recently signed a lease on an 11,000-square-foot property at 824 S. Kerr Ave, a monumental step up from their current snug, 800-square-foot quarters at nearby 4405 Wrightsville Ave. In addition to moving their already established home brewing supply company, they'll be launching Wilmington Brewing Company in the new space. Like the other two breweries, their operation will feature a tasting room. Unique will be the recipes for their beers hanging over the taps, allowing fans to buy the goods to make their own batch. Peck noted that the trio of new destinations would likely spawn peripheral ventures, such as bus tours shuttling patrons from one sudsy spot to the next. "I feel like Wilmington is ready and needs a bigger beer community," she said. "And I think there's plenty of room for everybody, it's a very viable market." Paul Stephen: 343-2041 On Twitter: @pauljstephen The following craft brewers are among those that have inquired about opening locations in the Wilmington area. Atwater Brewery: Wilmington is among the potential sites this Detroit-based brewery is considering for an East Coast expansion of their business. www.atwaterbeer.com Broomtail Craft Brewery: In addition to beer, Lisa and Barry Owings share a love for all things equestrian. Their daughter is the model for the silhouetted horse and rider in their logo. www.facebook.com/BroomtailCraftBrewery Flytrap Brewing: Mike Barlas has just launched a Facebook page for his new business, which will be the go-to source for information as his brewery takes shape downtown. www.facebook.com/FlytrapBrewing Wilmington Brewing Company: For the home brewing enthusiast, Michelle Peck and John Savard will be happy to send you home with recipes and ingredients to make the beers they'll have on tap. www.wilmingtonhomebrew.comCalifornia’s 2010 law did not legalize marijuana, but it officially knocked down "simple" possession of less than one ounce to an infraction from a misdemeanor--and it applies to minors, not just people over 21. Police don’t arrest people for infractions; usually, they ticket them. And infractions are punishable not by jail time, but by fines--a $100 fine in California in the case of less than one ounce of pot. "I think it was pretty courageous not to put an age limit on it," said Males, a longtime researcher on juvenile justice and a former sociology professor at the University of California at Santa Cruz. Arresting and putting low-level juvenile offenders into the criminal-justice system pulls many kids deeper into trouble rather than turning them around, Males said, a conclusion many law-enforcement experts share.MANILA - A law granting free college education in 2018 will not cover students with failing grades, Senator Bam Aquino said Sunday. "Iyung pag-uusap sa deliberation, siguro naman dapat walang bagsak ang mga estudyante kasi mahalaga po na mayroong kapalit," Aquino, one of the authors of the free tuition law, told DZMM. "Iyung intention po namin sa Senate, kung may bagsak then the next semester, hindi ka puwedeng mag-avail. Pero kung naayos mo naman iyun at pumasa ka na, pwede ka nang mag-avail ulit." (During the deliberations, we agreed that students should have no failing marks. Our intention in the Senate is that if a student failed a subject, he cannot avail of the free tuition in the following semester. Once he has passed the subject, he will qualify again for the free tuition.) The free tuition law, which President Rodrigo Duterte signed earlier this month, covers Filipino students taking their first undergraduate degree in 112 state universities and colleges (SUCs) and 16 local universities and colleges (LUCs). Aquino noted that other countries providing free tuition require beneficiaries to render at least 2 years of public service. Senators however were concerned that implementing the service program would require a huge budget that could be funneled into the P20-billion cost of providing free college education. The finer details of the free tuition law would be reflected in its implementing rules and regulations (IRR) that education and budget officials are working on, said Aquino.Hi my name is Mervin and welcome to improvement daily weekly.With this blog we aim to make you better, faster and live a productive life. I constantly talk of something called the “Endgame” I really like that term because it sounds like world depends on it (well atleast for me) that word is nothing but a signal for me to get and get to work! Endgame is nothing but your GOAL your finish line. Track runners think about this all the time they have it embedded in them that they want to get to the finish line and first – that is the first thing that gets one motivated and focused is once you’ve visualised your goal – your endgame. It’s all about the GOAL. As long as you have a vivid GOAL, being alone actually keeps you more motivated, focused and productive. A goal is vivid when you can exactly “see” yourself at the place you want to ultimately get to. For example, you “see” yourself as the best chef in your city or country. Or the best football player in your league. Or the best father among other fathers you know. Or basically anything. In other words, you have such a strong and unstoppable desire to achieve your goals that you’re willing to take massive actions to make it happen. When that happens, whenever you have alone time, you will use it wisely by improving yourself and learning new things. You’ll realize that alone time is one of the most conducive time for self-improvement. You don’t need external impulses to keep you motivated, because the fire is burning in you. While such desire and actions do not guarantee success, the lack of them almost guarantee failure. Practice “seeing” your GOALS as vividly as possible. The right actions will follow. AdvertisementsWHEN I TELL people that I have schizophrenia the usual reaction I get is surprise, followed by a line of questioning. The first most commonly asked is: “What do the voices in your head say?” This is understandable, people are naturally curious. But the second question never fails to amuse me: “What happens if you ever stop taking your medication?” Hollywood films have led many to believe that coming off antipsychotics ends in disastrous consequences. This is not the case. I’m medication free In fact, I am currently medication free. For years, I started and ended my day with an array of tablets. Huge cocktails of drugs taken daily with horrific side effects. Vomiting, dizziness, headaches, hypotension, weight gain and stiffness left my joints in agony. I also developed restless legs syndrome (RLS), temporarily lost my peripheral vision and was no longer able to drive. Coming off medication was not a decision that I took lightly. My dosage was reduced slowly and carefully over a long period of time. The truth is, for me, the drugs don’t work. Learning coping mechanisms I have trialled many antipsychotics and the best result I ever had was the slightest reduction in symptoms. I have had psychosis for a long time, long enough for me to learn healthy coping mechanisms. I live with schizophrenia without taking any medication, but my situation is an exceptional case. For most others, medication is completely necessary in order to live a fulfilling life. Also, side effects are on a case by case basis, many people can take antipsychotics without experiencing any adverse side effects. Medication nation The documentary did an excellent job of bringing awareness to just how destructive these addictions can be. Source: Shutterstock/Thirteen Recently RTÉ One aired a documentary, “Medication Nation,” where Dr Eva Orsmond looked at Ireland’s apparent overuse of medication. Highlighting the issue of addiction to over the counter and prescription drugs is, of course, important and the documentary did an excellent job of bringing awareness about how destructive these addictions can be. My only issue with the programme was the lack of balance on the subject of medication in relation to mental health problems. Just to be clear, if there was a magic pill to take away my psychosis, you can be sure I would take it. I may not be on medication now but if my psychosis gets to a point where it is negatively impacting my life, and all my other recovery methods are no longer working for me, then I would go back on medication. Not an “easy way out” Antidepressants are not happy pills that solve your worries and prevent you from dealing with life’s problems; medication is not the easy way out. When I was on meds, I got the “easy way out” line quite a lot. Looking at the side-effects I have listed above, does it look like taking medication gave me an easier life? No, but I needed it at the time. People who are on medication for any kind of mental health problem, don’t take meds because they want to, they take them because they have to. My late mother was a reiki practitioner and my dad is a pharmacist, therefore I grew up with a balanced view of both sides. Talk therapies alone can be more helpful than medication for mild to moderate depression or anxiety. Everyone knows exercise, mindfulness and a healthy lifestyle are good for your mental health but the problem is all of this depends on personal circumstances. Medication is a helping hand When you are too mentally unwell to get out of bed, any thoughts of exercise and mindfulness go out the window. Medication can be the driving force behind what gets a person up in the morning so that they can bring the dog for a walk, cook a healthy meal or participate in therapy. Medication is not a crutch but a helping hand towards stability. There is a huge stigma surrounding mental health problems, I do not agree with anything that encourages this and creates a sense of shame around taking meds to help with an illness. Irish people are more mindful than ever of how effective a good diet and exercise is to our mental health. We now live longer than the generations before us. It cannot be ignored that medication plays a huge part in this too. Nicola is an ambassador for See Change and Teenline. Using her personal experience of schizophrenia, Nicola writes about mental health for multiple news sources and also for her own blog prettysane.com. For more information visit www.seechange.ie.ADVERTISEMENT: By: Guo Heng Chin Welcome back readers! This is the second part of the Hunting for Commander Foils series where we evaluate foil Commander staples to see if they hold any financial potential. You can find the first part here. Today we shall continue where last week’s article left off, shiny artifacts. Taking into account the comments I have received for the first article in the series, I am going to slightly alter the format of the discussion. The first article was written in a pseudo-set review style in an attempt to cover as many cards as possible by working down the list used to rank the popularity of the cards. While I eschewed foils that are too expensive (no point harping about a $118 foil Sensei’s Divining Top if the majority of readers would not be willing to spend that much for it) or are stagnant price-wise, I covered foil staples that are already relatively expensive like Solemn Simulacrum. My intention were to evaluate if it is worth acquiring your personal copy of those cards even though they may not be good spec targets anymore. However, it gave the impression that the article was discussing ships that have already sailed. Plus it seemed that a set review style would be too long-winded; last week’s article barely made its way down the top ten cards. So I am opting for a more succinct approach this week: I shall focus only on the foil Commander staples on the list that are undervalued, a topic I think readers of this column prefer. Before we get to the cards for this week, an obligatory shout-out to the super useful database in which we will be extracting our cards from: The list comes from an extensive Commander statistics database created and maintained by MTGSalvation.com EDH Primer Committee member scoeri. Every month, scoeri runs a script which trawls mtgsalvation.com for user-posted Commander decklists and breaks them down into various categories, giving an invaluable snapshot of the Commander metagame. You can find the lists here under the forum post Statistical Breakdown of the Commander Metagame. The database was last updated on 31 October 2014 with 3023 decks from 1473 users (decks posted or updated from 31 October 2013 – 31 October 2014). I am indebted to scoeri for the awesome database. As with last week, we will be using the colorless list for the purpose of this article as the list includes artifact creatures while the artifact list only contains noncreature artifacts. Last week, we made our way down the list to Expedition Map. This week, the criteria will be stricter and we shall only discuss artifacts that possess financial potential. We will be skipping over popular, obvious and already sailed artifacts like Chromatic Lantern and focus on foil staples that are still cheap like this sacrificial deer: Hart of Gold Foil Theros: $1.12 ADVERTISEMENT: Number of Foil Printings: 1 The humble draft mana fixer, Burnished Hart has been getting a lot of love on the EDH subreddit and it is easy to see why: most Commander decks would like to have access to mana-fixing, and a double Rampant Growth on a bear (bear-hart) that fits into decks of any color has the making of a Commander staple, if it is not already one. Though more expensive than Armillary Sphere in casting and activation cost, the fact that Burnished Hart is a creature gives it synergy with a wider range of strategies: besides the usual artifact recurrence with Academy Ruins, it can be reanimated, pulled out from your bottom (of your deck, hopefully most of the time) with Grenzo, Dungeon Warden, it triggers Sidisi, Brood Tyrant (which by the way has been growing in popularity as a Commander) and many more interactions a humble Armillary Sphere is not capable of. Theros is still a Standard-legal set, but going for slightly more than $1, I see only upside for foil Burnished Hart. While I do not think foil Burnished Hart will grow to the double digit price of other common artifact mana-fixers like Dimir Signet and Azorius Signet due to the significantly larger print run of modern day sets like Theros, I am confident that foil Burnished Hart will exceed the price of other common rarity foil artifact mana-fixers on the top fifty list like Wayfarer’s Bauble, which is already less popular than Burnished Hart as of writing and is going for $3.81. The shiny fawn will take a while to become a full-fledged hart, get it now when Theros is abundant in supply and foil Burnished Harts are aplenty in bulk foil boxes before it becomes a $4 – $5 card. I know I am getting some myself. Trading Cards in a Game of Trading Cards M13 Foil: $2.79 M14 Foil: $1.98 Number of Foil Printings: 2 Trading Post is the Batman’s utility belt in Commander. Need to block a rampaging 12/12 Hydra Broodmaster? Here’s a goat. Need more lands? Sacrifice that goat of yours who is going to die anyway to get back your Wayfarer’s Bauble. Need more gas? Sac that worn out Worn Powerstone to further fuel your conquest. Life’s got you down? Toss away that 10th land you drew for 4 life. Trading Post feels a bit like a Planeswalker in the sense that it generates incremental card advantage once per turn when it hits the board. Of course, I’m not claiming that Trading Post is anywhere near the power level of a Planeswalker (maybe except Tibalt) but it ekes you advantage over a prolonged game, and most Commander games tend to go long. Trading Post is a Swiss Army knife that most Commander decks could find use for and yet foils of it could be acquired for less than $2. Granted M14 has just rotated out and being printed in both M13 and M14 created a huge supply. Nevertheless $2 is pretty close to bulk for foil rares, what more for a popular Commander rare. I suspect foil Trading Post will become one of those foil rares that surprises people when they look up its price a few years down the road. There’s always a risk of reprint, but at $2, how much can you lose? Plus foils do retain their value better than normal copies. Foil Trading Post have a lot of room to grow, though I doubt it will be able to hit foil Staff of Domination prices due to Trading Post’s higher supply and the fact that Staff is ran as a one-of in Legacy and Vintage MUD decks (not that Vintage counts for much). However I do think that foil Trading Posts could hit $8 – $10 in the coming years. Trading Post is also a pretty fun card to play, and its appeal as a ‘one-stop shop’ probably contributes to its popularity among the casual crowd. Did I mentioned, Trading Post has synergy with the artifact creature Burnished Hart too? Signets That Shine Ravnica Block Foils: $2.51 – $14.58 ADVERTISEMENT: The cycle of signets from the original Ravnica block are some of the most popular artifact mana fixers in Commander, with four of them in the top fifty most played colorless cards list (five if you refer to the artifacts list). But their prices are starkly different. You have foil Dimir Signet at $14 and foil Azorius Signet at $10. Foil Izzet Signet is around $7 and the rest are under $5. A foil Gruul Signet is a measly $2.51 and foil Selesnya Signet is no better at $3.16. They all have seen the same number of foil printings. So why the huge price gap between the most and least expensive signet? The price pattern shows that the signets with green in them are the cheapest of the lot. Perhaps already having access to plenty of mana fixing, green-based decks do not run signets as much as the non-green decks do. A quick glance through another database by scoeri breaking down the statistically average composition of the decks of the top fifty commanders validated the hypothesis. The green-based decks rarely included signets in their list, while the non-green decks often ran all the signets their color identity allows. Furthermore, the four signets in the top fifty most played colorless cards list (and the fifth signet if you count the artifacts list) are all non-green. That makes the green-based foil signets a bad investment, regardless of how cheap they currently are. However foil Rakdos Signet and foil Orzhov Signet seem to be significantly lower than the other four non-green signets; they the only non-green foil signets available for under $5 but they see similar amount of play with the two most expensive signets, Dimir Signet and Azorius Signet. Boros Signet sees less play than both Rakdos Signet and Orzhov Signet and is $6. Check out the top fifty most popular commanders over the past year, from the same database referred to by this article: As mentioned above, most of the non-green decks run all the signets their color identity allows. From the list we can see that popular non-green decks running Dimir Signet and/or Azorius Signet tend to also run Rakdos Signet (Nekusar, the Mindrazer, Jeleva, Nephalia’s Scourge, Marchesa, the Black Rose) and Orzhov Signet (Oloro, Ageless Ascetic, Sydri, Galvanic Genius, Kaalia of the Vast, Sharuum the Hegemon). These Ravnican guild signets did not appear in Return to Ravnica and each signet bears the name of their respective guilds, so it is highly unlikely for the signets cycle to see a foil printing outside another visit to Ravnica, which probably would not happen within the next five years or so, a.k.a. a long, long time. So far they have been reprinted in Commander and Archenemy, both non-foil supplementary products. I am of opinion that Rakdos Signet and Orzhov Signet are mispriced and are due for a market correction. Closing With the signets, we conclude the artifact segment of Hunting for Commander Foils series. Do comment on if you’ve enjoyed the approach I took for this article, and any suggestions for future articles are more than welcomed. You can find me @theguoheng or just drop a comment here. Join me next week as I discuss the epic fails (and whatever little wins) I have experienced throughout my time in Magic finance and the lessons I have learnt from them. In the mean time, I can’t wait to finally unpack that Built from Scratch deck I have purchased over the weekend but have yet to find time to bring it out for a test run. Artifacts for the win! ADVERTISEMENT:Soledad Roa-Duterte (November 22, 1916 – February 4, 2012) was a Filipino teacher and activist. She was the mother of Philippine president Rodrigo Duterte. Early life [ edit ] Duterte was born as Soledad Roa y Gonzales on November 14, 1916 in Cabadbaran, Agusan (present-day Agusan del Norte), the daughter of Eleno, a Maranao Tribe descendant who adapted the Roa surname, and Fortunata Gonzales. Aside from Maranao, she is also of Kamayo descent. The Roas also traces their roots to Leyte.[1] Duterte accomplished her elementary and high school studies in Cabadbaran and entered the Philippine Normal School in Manila for her collegiate studies. She then entered the Bureau of Public Schools as a teacher.[2] Career [ edit ] Duterte or Nanay Soling ( lit. Mother Soling) as called by her supporters, led the Yellow Friday Movement, a movement against the administration of then President Ferdinand Marcos in Mindanao leading to the People Power Revolution.[3] She also founded and oversaw the Soledad Duterte Foundation which conducted livelihood and skills training to the indigenous people of Marahan, near the boundary area of Bukidnon province.[4] Duterte was also once a teacher at the University of the Visayas in the Danao Campus. Death [ edit ] She died at the Davao Doctors Hospital on February 4, 2012 at the age of 95.[4] Personal life [ edit ] Duterte was married to Vicente Duterte, who was a lawyer from Cebu whom she first met during her stay at the Bureau of Public Schools. Together with her husband, she settled in the Davao region in 1950. Vicente Duterte also served as governor of the now defunct Davao province. Vicente died in February 1968. She is the mother of Rodrigo Duterte, the 16th President of the Philippines, and grandmother of Paolo and Sara Duterte. Duterte’s other children are Eleanor Duterte; Benjamin "Bong" Duterte, a one-term city councilor of Davao between 1992 and 1995; Jocellyn Duterte, who lost in several attempts to grab a Third District city council seat as well as for the mayor post in 2001; and Emmanuel "Don/Blue Boy" Duterte who ran and lost in the First District congressional race in 1998.[2]Following the detention and death of University of Virginia student Otto Warmbier -- and amid dictator Kim Jong Un's continued nuclear ambitions -- the U.S. government is set to ban American citizens from traveling to North Korea, according to reports on Friday. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson had determined to implement a “geographical travel restriction” for North Korea, which would make the use of a U.S. passport to enter the rogue regime illegal. The restriction is reportedly going into effect 30 days after a notice is published in the Federal Register, but it was not immediately clear when the notice would be published. There was no announcement in Friday’s edition of the government publication. NORTH KOREA ECONOMY IS GROWING AT HISTORIC RATE DESPITE SANCTIONS Under U.S. law, the secretary of state has the authority to designate passports as restricted for travel to countries with which the United States is at war, when armed hostilities are in progress or when there is imminent danger to the public health or physical security of U.S. travelers. Since 1967, such bans have been implemented in: Algeria, Iraq, Lebanon, Libya, Sudan, Cuba and North Vietnam. NORTH KOREA FIRING SQUAD CARRIES OUT PUBLIC EXECUTIONS IN SCHOOL YARDS, REPORT SAYS #BREAKING Read statement regarding the US travel ban to DPRK here: https://t.co/UhZI3fc6K8 — Young Pioneer Tours (@YPioneerTours) July 21, 2017 Young Pioneer Tours, a company that arranges trips into North Korea, and the same outfit Warmbier used for his trip to the country, tweeted a statement early Friday acknowledging the upcoming restriction. “We have just been informed that the US government will no longer be allowing US citizens to travel to DPRK (North Korea.) It is expected that the ban will come into force within 30 days of July 27th. After the 30 day grace period any US national that travels to North Korea will have their passport invalidated by their government," the statement said. Warmbier was detained at Pyongyang’s airport on Jan. 2, 2016, near the end of his tour group's stay in North Korea. Warmbier was sentenced to 15 years in prison with hard labor for allegedly attempting to steal a North Korean political banner from a hotel. North Korea released Warmbier -- who had fallen into a coma -- to the U.S. in mid-June after he spent 17 months in detention. He died a week later. At least three Americans remained in North Korean custody. The Associated Press contributed to this report.Like a fancy touchscreen watch that reminds you to buy milk, a robot vacuum is a luxury few of us actually need—but many of us would love to have. For years iRobot’s Roombas have been the go-to choice for autonomous floor cleaning, but Samsung is making a strong case to upgrade to its new POWERbot VR9000. At $1,000 the VR9000 is even more expensive than the top-of-the-line $700 Roomba 880, but Samsung has managed to justify the extra cost by designing an incredibly intelligent and capable robot vacuum that requires very little human intervention once it’s been set up. Advertisement What Is It? The Samsung POWERbot VR9000 is a robot vacuum that does most—but not all—of your floor cleaning chores for you. Unlike iRobot’s offerings, which often seem like robots first and vacuums second, the VR9000 feels like Samsung has taken a modern cyclonic bag-less vacuum and upgraded it with advanced autonomous functionality. Cleaning definitely seems like its first priority, followed closely by making your life a little easier. Advertisement It’s also important to point out that whereas Roomba’s line of robot vacuums use intelligent algorithms to bounce around a room in a criss-cross pattern so that they eventually clean every last spot (most of the time), the VR9000 uses a tiny top-mounted digital camera with a fish-eye lens to actually visually map out the shape and size of a room. And that includes any obstacles that might be in its way, allowing it to plot out the most efficient cleaning route to both maximize its battery life and minimize the amount of time you have to hear it running. Who’s It For? Any home can benefit from an appliance that promises to alleviate a weekly chore, but the POWERbot VR9000 is especially useful for those who spend a lot of time at work and don’t want to have to get home to nothing but housework until bedtime. The VR9000 can easily be scheduled with a daily cleaning routine so that while a house is empty, its carpets and floors can be automatically and constantly cleaned. Advertisement An advanced robot vacuum like the VR9000 can also be a big timesaver for homes with lots of messy kids that require repeated cleanings on a daily basis, and whose floors are littered with toys. In my testing, the combination of the VR9000’s digital camera, IR sensor, and touch sensors allowed the robovac to carefully tip-toe through endless obstacles. Which means you don’t have to clean your home before your robot cleans your floors. Design It wasn’t until James Dyson introduced his cleaning products to the world that vacuum cleaners every looked even remotely cool. But companies have realized that even if a vacuum doesn’t do anything particularly innovative, consumers will assume it does as long as it looks futuristic. Advertisement But the VR9000 does do wonderful things, and it definitely looks the part. The copper tube that presumably houses the vacuum’s impeller and motor makes the dirt container on top look like a giant Duracell battery (which I happen to think looks cool) and its black and white color scheme (of the model we were testing) definitely has a stark, futuristic appeal. If you like visitors asking you about all your gadgets and toys at home, the VR9000 will certainly elicit some questions while parked against the wall charging. Advertisement As far as form versus functionality, the robovac also sits low enough to the ground that it was able to easily squeeze under all the beds in our home. And it has a relatively small footprint so—when docked against a wall, charging—it doesn’t feel like it’s wasting a lot of space in a room. One design element we particularly appreciated was that the VR9000’s dirt canister was located on top of the vacuum, not underneath or on the side. It made it easy to tell when it was getting full, and it can be easily removed just by lifting a large plastic quick release lever. Once released, the canister still remains closed and sealed until you get to a garbage can and remove the top, which means you’re not going to spill any dust or dirt enroute. Advertisement Using It With the POWERbot VR9000’s user interface, Samsung has done a good job at keeping it very simple to use if all you want is the robot to go and clean until its battery is nearly dead. But there are also a handful of slightly more advanced options for when you want to maximize the effectiveness of the vacuum’s cleaning routine, or its battery life. The ‘Auto Clean’ mode is the robovac’s standard and most basic option that simply sends the VR9000 into your home to clean until it decides it’s covered every last inch of floor space, at which point it will automatically return to its charging base. The ‘Spot Clean’ mode works in a similar fashion, except that the VR9000 will attempt to remain in one room or area without wandering off into other parts of your home. Finally, there’s a ‘Max Clean’ mode which works just like ‘Auto Clean’ except the VR9000 will keep cleaning, even re-doing areas it’s already covered, until its battery is nearly depleted and needs to recharge. Advertisement All of these modes are accessible from a simple touch panel on the top of the VR9000, but for the first little while you’ll definitely want to keep the manual on hand to help decipher exactly what the various light-up icons representing each mode mean. They’re not impossible to figure out, but they could have probably been made a little more clear with simple text labels underneath each image. Advertisement Thankfully the POWERbot VR9000 also comes with a wireless remote that’s a lot easier to understand and gives access to all of the vacuum’s options and cleaning modes. Although it looks a little dated (I’m sure a TV I had 15 years ago had the exact same remote) the buttons are all clearly labeled with text, and it means you can activate the vacuum from the comfort of your couch. The remote also allows you to use the VR9000 in its ‘Manual Mode’ like a very slow remote control car that happens to also suck up everything in its path. Steering is a little jerky using the remote’s left and right buttons, and there’s actually no reverse button to get you out of trouble. However, since the robot can just rotate in one spot, we were never actually able to get it trapped anywhere while driving it around using the wireless remote. Advertisement The one feature that really makes the VR9000 standout is how well it actually cleans. On the underside you’ll find its spinning bristled brush that cuts a wide swath across your floors, reducing the number of back-and-forth passes the robot has to make while cleaning. The brush doesn’t go quite all the way to the edges of the actual vacuum, which means its edge-cleaning capabilities aren’t immaculate. But in our testing we found there was still enough suction power to pull in smaller dust and dirt particles on the sides where the spinning brushes didn’t reach. After trying the vacuum for hours on end our test floor was pretty much free of dust and dirt. So half a box of table salt had to stand in for this cleaning test. As you can see in this before and after shot, the VR9000 was able to suck up the vast majority of the salt in its path as it rolled through this mess I created. Advertisement It still left some salt behind, but it’s important to note that the VR9000 also has a built-in dust sensor that’s able to detect when there’s still dirt on the floor that needs to be cleaned. So while I had manually steered the vacuum straight through this mess in a single pass using the wireless remote, in its autonomous mode it would have instead done multiple passes until its dust sensor decided that all the debris was completely cleaned up. If the POWERbot VR9000 does happen to miss a spot, or if you spilled something and want it to come over and vacuum just a specific area, the included remote is also able to blast out a small illuminated target that the robot can easily follow. Just point it at the spot you want cleaned (or re-cleaned) and the VR9000 will automatically drive over and thoroughly clean the area where it last saw the red target. It’s like teasing a puppy or kitten with a laser pointer—just not as fun. Advertisement The Best Part The POWERbot VR9000 has an uncanny ability to find its way back to its charging base when it’s done cleaning. If you needed specific proof of the robovac’s ability to intelligently navigate a space with ever-changing obstacles (chairs moving, clothing on the ground, toys scattered about) watching the robovac find its way back home after it’s done cleaning is just fascinating. Advertisement In our brief time testing, we were never able to prevent the vac from autonomously returning to the charger—short of actually trapping it in a room. On one occasion we watched it carefully squeeze through a set of chair legs that were less than half-an-inch wider than the VR9000 itself to get back home. And on another it attempted to find its way back to its charging base through our living room, only to discover it was no longer an accessible route. Once it realized it was stuck, it back-tracked about 20 feet and then decided to take an alternate route through our pass-through kitchen instead. If there was a TV channel that just showed intelligent robot vacuums autonomously finding their way back to their charging bases, I would
effects of a continuous campaign—along with the distorting influence of media and money that it brings—encourage a mindset among politicians that makes compromise more difficult. Systematic rejection of compromise is a problem for any democracy because it biases the political process in favor of the status quo and stands in the way of desirable change. Privileging the status quo does not mean that nothing changes. It just means that politicians let other forces control the change. The status quo includes not only a current state of affairs but also the state that results from political inaction. In the deeply divided politics of 2011, rejecting congressional compromise on raising the debt ceiling would not have left the economy unchanged. A status quo bias in politics can result in stasis, but it can also produce unintended and undesirable change. The resistance to democratic compromise is anchored in what we call an uncompromising mindset, a cluster of attitudes and arguments that encourage standing on principle and mistrusting opponents. This mindset is conducive to campaigning but inimical to governing. Resistance to democratic compromise can be kept in check by a contrary cluster of attitudes and arguments—a compromising mindset—which favors adapting one’s principles and respecting one’s opponents. It is the mindset more appropriate for governing because it enables politicians more readily to recognize opportunities for desirable compromise. When enough politicians adopt it, enough of the time, the spirit of compromise prevails. The influence of campaigning is not necessarily greater than other factors that interfere with compromise. Compromises are difficult for many reasons, including increased political polarization and the escalating influence of money in democratic politics. But the uncompromising mindset associated with campaigning deserves greater attention than it has received. First, it reinforces all the other factors. Even sharp ideological differences would present less of an obstacle to compromise in the absence of the continual pressures of campaigning that the uncompromising mindset supports. Second, for compromise to play its proper role in the process, politicians and citizens need to understand not only the partisan positions and political interests that influence compromise but also the attitudes and arguments that resist or support it. Third, unlike some of the other factors, such as ideological polarization, campaigning is an essential and desirable part of the democratic process. It becomes a problem only when it interferes with governing. Our defense of compromise in democratic governance is consistent with—indeed requires—a vigorous and often contentious politics in which citizens press strongly held principles and mobilize in support of boldly proclaimed causes. Social movements, political demonstrations, and activist organizations are among the significant sites of this kind of politics. The citizens who participate in these activities play important roles in democratic politics. But their efforts would be in vain if the democratic process of governance did not produce public benefits that citizens seek and protect rights that they cherish. The success of democratic politics ultimately depends on how our elected leaders govern—and therefore inevitably on their attitudes toward compromise. Two Compromises Consider two pieces of historic legislation—the Tax Reform Act of 1986 and the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act of 2010. The Tax Reform Act was the most comprehensive tax-reform legislation in modern American history, achieved only after years of failed attempts. The historic effort began without much fanfare. In his State of the Union address in 1984, President Ronald Reagan called merely for a study of the problem, with a report to be submitted after the election. Congressional Democrats did not think he was serious about reform. Walter Mondale, his challenger in the election, showed no interest in making tax reform an issue. The hard work on the bill began quietly, with experts meeting secretly in the Treasury Department. The proposals that came out of Treasury were turned into a bipartisan compromise, forged with the support of President Reagan, Democratic House Ways and Means Committee chairman Dan Rostenkowski, and later with the help of Republican chairman of the Senate Finance Committee Bob Packwood and Democratic Senator Bill Bradley. All the supporters of the Tax Reform Act gained something they wanted, but they all also made concessions that flew in the face of their most principled reasons for supporting comprehensive tax reform in the first place. Democrats were glad to end loopholes for special interests and the wealthy, but they also had to agree to lower the top tax rate more than their strong commitment to progressive taxation would support (from 50 percent to 28 percent). Republicans won the lower marginal tax rates, but they also had to accept the elimination of some $30 billion annually in tax deductions, which would result in the wealthy contributing a higher percentage of income tax revenues than they had in the past. Compromises—even the most successful ones, like the Tax Reform Act—never satisfy pure principles. After the act was passed, its supporters rallied to its defense, hailing it as landmark legislation. It was—if compared to previous or subsequent tax reform. But judged by the moral principles invoked even by its staunchest supporters—whether principles of progressive taxation or those of the free market—the Tax Reform Act fell far short. Now fast-forward to the efforts to pass a healthcare reform bill in 2009–10. Healthcare was an important issue in the campaigns leading up to both the Democratic primary and to the general election in 2008. Most of the presidential candidates set forth proposals that were more detailed than is usual in a campaign. Barack Obama came late to this debate. But once in office, Obama made reform a priority. At first, he signaled that he was open to compromise on the details of his proposal and left the negotiations largely to congressional leaders—essentially the same strategy that President Reagan had followed with tax reform. But the political landscape had changed. Throughout the 1990s, Republicans had begun more often to unite in the manner of a parliamentary minority, a strategy that drastically reduced the possibilities for bipartisanship. When Congress was unable to reach bipartisan agreement on healthcare reform by the August 2009 recess, the campaign in effect began again, with opponents taking advantage of the break to mobilize opinion against the pending proposals—often distorting them in the process. The upshot was to end whatever small hope there might have been for bipartisan compromise. Reformers then turned to the task of compromise within the Democratic Party, a challenge that turned out to be almost as formidable. The first bill passed with only a five-vote majority in the House in November 2009. The Senate passed its own bill on the day before Christmas. As the leaders in the House and Senate were trying to hammer out a compromise between the two significantly different bills early in 2010, a special election in Massachusetts erased the Senate Democrats’ filibuster-proof majority and caused many moderate Democrats in both the Senate and the House to reconsider their support. The campaign mentality returned with a vengeance. The reform proposals had to be divided into separate bills, a rarely used legislative procedure (reconciliation) invoked to gain final passage, and the ultimate measures rendered less comprehensive than any of the original proposals. Although the Affordable Care Act was not bipartisan, the process that produced it was just as much a compromise as was the Tax Reform Act. All those who voted for healthcare reform gave up something that they thought valuable, and they agreed to disagree about greater cost controls, the nature of the mandate for universal coverage, insurance coverage for abortion services, abortion funding, and the inclusion (or exclusion) of a public option (a government-run insurance agency that would compete with other companies). Although all who supported this compromise evidently believed the legislation would be better than the status quo, they also believed that the compromise bill could have been still better if only their opponents had been less obstinate. Although nearly everyone agreed that tax reform was long overdue and healthcare in dire need of change, political leaders struggled to reach these agreements, and the agreements fell far short of what reformers had sought. For the healthcare reform bill to pass, it took an epic push by a president enjoying a majority in both houses and willing to stake the success of his first year in office on passing the bill. And the majority supporting this compromise was—with the exception of one lone vote among 220—exclusively within one party. Both efforts addressed major problems that had proved resistant to reform for many years, but only the Tax Reform Act was widely considered to be a significant improvement over the status quo. Many critics of the Affordable Care Act thought it was worse than doing nothing, and many supporters thought that it was better only than doing nothing. Not even a crisis can ease the way of compromise. Although the consequence of failing to reach a compromise to raise the debt ceiling in 2011 was high risk of governmental default and a further financial crisis, the process of reaching the compromise was also agonizingly difficult, and the agreement provided only a short-term fix. Achieving compromise on any of the many complex issues on the democratic agenda is always a challenge. Characteristics of Compromise A classic compromise is an agreement in which all sides sacrifice something in order to improve on the status quo from their perspective, and in which the sacrifices are at least partly determined by the other sides’ will. The sacrifice involves not merely getting less than you want, but also, thanks to your opponents, getting less than you think you deserve. The sacrifice typically involves trimming your principles. We call these defining characteristics of compromise mutual sacrifice and willful opposition. Although many kinds of compromise share these characteristics, legislative compromises—agreements that produce laws—do not always function in the same way as compromises to avert a war or create a peace in international politics or compromises to conclude deals in commercial transactions. Unlike major international compromises, legislative bargains are not negotiated with an ultimate threat of force in the background (though sometimes legislators speak of nuclear options and act as if electoral death is the end of the world). Unlike common commercial deals, the bargains struck by legislators are not primarily financial. Legislative compromises usually implicate principles as well as material interests. The character of legislative compromise is shaped by its distinctive democratic and institutional context. It takes place in an ongoing institution in which the members have responsibilities to constituents and their political parties, maintain continuing relationships with one another, and deal concurrently with a wide range of issues that have multiple parts and long-range effects. The dynamics of negotiation in these circumstances differ from the patterns found in the two-agent, one-time interactions that are more common in most discussions of compromise. Conclusions about compromise—even more so than many other concepts in political theory and practice—depend heavily on context. To make progress in understanding legislative compromise, we need to focus on how it operates and the specific challenges it confronts in American democracy in our time. The U.S. Congress is a critical case in part because its performance in recent years has been so widely condemned as dysfunctional. If we can find greater scope for compromise in this hard case, we might reasonably hope to find it in other political institutions. Within the arena of legislative compromises, we need to distinguish between what may be called classic compromises and consensual compromises. Classic compromises express an underlying and continuing conflict of values: the disagreements among the parties are embodied in the compromise itself. Consensual compromises are based on an underlying convergence of values or what is often called “common ground.” These compromises set aside the original disagreement and conclude in a consensus. Consensus is a lofty goal, and politicians never tire of claiming that they are seeking it. President Lyndon Johnson declared: “The biggest danger to American stability is the politics of principle, which brings out the masses in irrational fights for unlimited goals. Thus it is for the sake of nothing less than stability that I consider myself a consensus man.” Some advocates of consensus see it as promoting the value of community. Still others believe that it is more likely to produce the best laws and policies. They all urge politicians to find consensus and to base legislation on common ground shared not only between ideologically opposed parties but also among most citizens who do not have highly developed, let alone extreme, political ideologies. All citizens want a better life for themselves and their children; all want security, decent healthcare, a good education, and the like. A consensual compromise would converge on this common ground. Few doubt that consensus is desirable if it can be found, and most agree that it is usually preferable to a classic compromise, which leaves all parties dissatisfied. But the common ground is more barren, and the possibilities for basing legislation on it more limited, than the inspiring rhetoric in its favor might suggest. Yes, a consensus existed among legislators and citizens that the tax system should be made fairer and that health care should be made affordable for more people. But this general consensus on the need for reform did not translate into a common-ground agreement on the particular provisions of either a tax or a healthcare reform bill. To produce reform legislation, specific terms had to be negotiated, and as is usual at this level, the common ground became fractured terrain. In the context of a polarized politics, an additional problem with counting on common-ground compromises is that trying to find the usually small points of agreement in the middle is likely to prove less effective than combining big ideas from the partisans. Describing how they managed to gather a majority on their politically diverse commission on fiscal responsibility, co-chairs Alan Simpson and Erskine Bowles emphasize the value of “shared sacrifice” that comes from “bold and big” compromises. “Commission members were willing to take on their sacred cows and fight special interests—but only if they saw others doing the same and if what they were voting for solved the country’s problems.” Classic compromises are sometimes also distinguished from what are called “integrative agreements,” also known as “problem-solving,” “value-creating,” or “win-win” solutions. Long the favorite of many writers on negotiation, they offer the prospect of an agreement in which both sides gain over the status quo, and neither side sacrifices. (The lack of sacrifice is why it does not count as a classic compromise.) The much-cited example, devised by Mary Parker Follett, the pioneering scholar in this field, features two sisters who both want the same orange. The classic compromise solution is simply to split the orange. But it turns out that one sister wants only the juice and would throw out the peel. The other sister wants only the peel for a cake, and would discard the pulp. If they recognize that they have different interests in the orange, they could reach an integrative solution: one would take all of the pulp, the other all of the peel. Both would gain, and neither would sacrifice anything. Like the consensus agreements they resemble, the opportunities for achieving integrative agreements are scarcer in legislative politics than some of their enthusiasts imply. Most of the examples of successful integrative agreements involve individuals or groups trying to resolve specific financial disputes rather than the kind usually faced in the ongoing negotiations that take place in legislatures. When legislators seek integrative solutions, they often use tactics of logrolling or expanding the pie. Logrolling typically requires the government to spend more money in order to satisfy the legislators’ favored causes. Special interests then prevail over the public interest. By expanding the budgetary pie, older generations typically load more debt onto younger or future generations. Healthcare reform shared a feature of this problem. It expanded the budgetary pie by universalizing health insurance, but it fell short of coming to clear and certain terms with the rapidly rising costs of healthcare. Only a classic compromise, which would include measures that more fully control costs and entail some sacrifice on all sides, could begin to deal with this problem. Legislative opportunities to achieve win-win solutions that serve the public without any sacrifice are rarely available. Legislators are much more likely to find themselves confronting conflicts that cannot be resolved without sacrifice on all sides. If they want to make gains over the status quo, they will have to give up something of value. They will not have the luxury of hoping for the pure win-win solutions that some negotiation theorists promise. They will just have to compromise. We can cheer on politicians when they search for common ground, but we should not let their failure to find it cast doubt on the value of the classic compromise. Mindsets of Compromise The compromising mindset displays what we call principled prudence (adapting one’s principles) and mutual respect (valuing one’s opponents). In contrast, the uncompromising mindset manifests principled tenacity (standing on principle) and mutual mistrust (suspecting opponents). Return now to the Tax Reform Act and Affordable Care Act, and notice how the defining characteristics of compromise—mutual sacrifice and willful opposition—map onto these mindsets. To accomplish tax and healthcare reform, both sides had to give up something of value. The need for mutual sacrifice makes compromises inherently difficult. Citizens and their representatives have different interests and values, and they naturally resist giving up something they care about, especially if they believe that one of their core principles is at stake. Supporters of the Tax Reform Act and Affordable Care Act believed that the compromises would improve the status quo, but at first they clung tenaciously to their principles. The compromise came about only because the principled positions that reformers espoused—a simple and transparent tax code or universal healthcare coverage, for example—did not survive intact in the tangled process that produced the final legislation. To achieve these compromises, the mistrust so easily generated by willful opposition also had to be partially suspended. Enough of the legislators respected their opponents enough to make the necessary concessions. But in both cases, the uncompromising mindset that fosters mistrust of one’s opponents hung over the process and its aftermath. Even in the case of the Tax Reform Act, resistance was relentless, and discontent rife. The opponents, under the influence of the uncompromising mindset, nearly prevailed. The supporters, only fitfully taking up the compromising mindset, nearly yielded. Healthcare reform fared worse. Both the process and the outcome were more widely and severely criticized than any aspect of tax reform. The suspicion and mistrust characteristic of the uncompromising mindset lingered among Democrats themselves. The progressive wing faulted their leaders and the president for betraying campaign promises. Moderate Democrats complained that their colleagues did not appreciate how public opinion had shifted against the reform, and how vulnerable they would now be in the 2010 midterm elections. Political polarization is no doubt an important part of the story of why compromise is so difficult. But partisan polarization does not shed much light on why compromise on healthcare reform within the Democratic Party was at least as difficult as compromise on tax reform between the two parties. Polarized profiles do not necessarily prevent political opponents from reaching agreement. Even when the ideological positions of political opponents are polarized, compromising mindsets can make a difference. Some observers are so impressed by the influence of polarization that they give up any hope of compromise and see partisan domination as the only alternative. They begin by describing increased polarization among not only political elites but also engaged partisans, who spend most of their lives with like-minded peers. The uncompromising views of these engaged partisans, coupled with the “disappearing center” in American politics, create strong incentives against compromise. Strong partisans may still chase the tantalizing dream that the next election will settle the matter, once and for all. My party will gain control and push through its agenda, undiluted. Yet in contemporary American politics it is highly unlikely that one party will gain complete control at the national level (securing the presidency, the House, and the reliable 60 votes needed to overcome a filibuster in the Senate). And if one party were to gain control, it would still face the daunting task of making compromises within its own ranks. Neither can we look for a single, strong leader to come to the rescue. No president can prevail as long as Congress remains recalcitrant. There is no escape from compromise. Politicians are likely to continue to work in a strongly divided partisan environment, and they need to find ways to reach agreements if they expect to govern well. Looking more carefully at differences between the Tax Reform Act and the Affordable Care Act can help clarify what makes compromise more or less possible in polarized partisan contexts. Tax reform was not an issue in the campaigns before or after the compromise. Healthcare reform was an issue in the 2008 and 2010 elections, and no doubt will be an issue in campaigns to come. Partly as a result, the process that led to the Tax Reform Act was more responsive to the compromising mindset, and the process that produced the Affordable Care Act was more susceptible to the uncompromising mindset. Furthermore, the permanent campaign that reinforces that mindset has been more conspicuous in recent years than it was in the mid 1980s. Campaigning in an uncompromising style—making unconditional promises and discrediting rivals—plays a moral as well as a practical role in democratic politics. It enables candidates to communicate where they passionately stand on important issues and to differentiate themselves from their opponents. It is a necessary element of an electoral system with competitive elections and is therefore a legitimate part of the democratic process. But so is governing. To govern, elected leaders who want to get anything done have to adopt a compromising mindset. Rather than standing tenaciously on principle, they have to make concessions. They have to respect their opponents enough to collaborate on legislation. Here is the internal tension in political compromise: the democratic process requires politicians both to resist compromise and to embrace it. The uncompromising mindset that characterizes campaigning cannot and should not be eliminated from democratic politics. But when it comes to dominate governing, it obstructs the search for desirable compromises. The uncompromising mindset is like an invasive species that spreads beyond its natural habitat as it roams from the campaign to the government. Many observers blame Republicans for the uncompromising spirit that pervades current American politics, pointing out that they have become more extreme and intransigent in recent years. But it would be a mistake to dwell on who is most to blame at the moment. The uncompromising pressures are persistent in a democratic process in which campaigning dominates governing. If it so happens that one party is more responsible for the polarization at a particular time, this should not distract us from the broader problem that needs to be addressed to make room for responsible governing. The problem of compromise in American democracy has always been challenging. It becomes harder still with the rise of the permanent campaign. The relentless pressures of campaigning—which call for an uncompromising mindset—are overtaking the demands of governing—which depend on a compromising mindset. Because legislating in the public interest is all but impossible without compromise, the domination of campaigning over governing has become a critical problem for American democracy, and increasingly for other democracies. By recognizing the pressures of the permanent campaign and the dynamics of the mindsets in play in democratic politics, politicians, the media, and, above all, the voting public would be more likely to find ways to address this problem. Major institutional change in the public interest itself requires compromise, and the leaders who would bring it about will themselves have to set their minds to it. In an earlier uncompromising era, the Beatles got it just about right: “You tell me it’s the institution/ Well, you know/ You’d better free your mind instead.”Auburn's Sugar Bowl berth was sweet for head coach Gus Malzahn. The fourth-year Auburn coach received a $200,000 performance bonus when the Tigers accepted a bid to the Jan. 2 bowl game in New Orleans. No. 14 Auburn (8-4) will face No. 7 Oklahoma (10-2) in the Sugar Bowl, which will kick off at 7:30 p.m. CT from the Mercedes-Benz Superdome. As part of Malzahn's contract with Auburn, the coach receives a $200,000 bonus if Auburn does not appear in the SEC Championship Game but earns a berth in a New Year's Six game -- either of the two College Football Playoff national semifinals or the four top-tier bowl games. Despite losing two of its final three games -- including losses to rivals Georgia and Alabama for the third straight season -- Auburn is headed to the Sugar Bowl as the highest-ranked SEC team not appearing in the CFP. Since top-ranked Alabama, which won the SEC Championship Game on Saturday, is headed to the playoff, Auburn will represent the SEC in New Orleans. "We are thrilled about the opportunity to play in the historic Sugar Bowl against a great Oklahoma team," Malzahn said in a statement. "I'm excited for our players, coaches and the Auburn family to experience one of the best bowl games in all of college football. We van't wait for this opportunity and look forward to our trip to New Orleans." Auburn entered last week ranked No. 14 in the CFP rankings, one spot ahead of SEC East champion Florida, which checked in at No. 15. Florida was throttled by Alabama in the SEC title game, 54-16, dropping the Gators further to No. 17 in the final CFP rankings. That Florida loss sealed Auburn's postseason fate -- and helped trigger Malzahn's bonus. Oklahoma earned the Big 12's automatic Sugar Bowl bid by finishing first in its conference. Oklahoma won Saturday's rivalry game win against Oklahoma State, which decided the Big 12 championship.POLICE officers have been angered by extra hours and travelling expected of them to provide security for the Commonwealth Games, The Scotsman has learned. It has been claimed that motorists will be put at risk by exhausted police officers making their way home from Games venues having spent 64 hours of a four-day stretch either working or driving. An anonymous e-mail sent to The Scotsman claimed officers were “furious over the latest bullying tactics from senior officers”. The e-mail said that Police Scotland was ordering officers to turn up for duty at remote venues outside their normal shift patterns. It claimed that colleagues had been told that it was their responsibility to ensure that they had business car insurance, so it would be legal for them to use their own car to go the extra distance to work. “Police officers are also concerned about the safety of the public, fearing that they will be a danger on the roads after working extended shifts miles from home,” the e-mail said. “An example of this is an officer who has been ordered to parade at a venue, two hours drive from their normal place of duty, for a 12-hour night shift and this is to be done for four consecutive nights. “Aside from the obvious cost of petrol for these journeys, and the 16 hours of the officer’s time to travel, which Police Scotland are refusing to pay for, it is frightening that this officer will be driving home in the early morning, having effectively worked 64 hours in four days.” The complaints were echoed by another police source. A senior officer said: “I have difficulty managing my officers, many of whom don’t know if they are coming or going and have enormous uncertainty and anguish about personal and childcare arrangements because of the lack of information coming from the Commonwealth Games planning team.” The Scotsman understands that the Police Federation, the body which looks after the interests of officers, intends to raise its concerns about Games staffing with Chief Constable Sir Stephen House. Police Scotland said that guidelines indicated expenses were available to reimburse officers required to spend more on travelling beyond their normal journey to work. Assistant Chief Constable Derek Robertson, Silver Commander for Commonwealth Games Safety and Security, added: “The deployment of officers is constantly reviewed, in consultation with the Police Federation, in order to minimise the possibility of any officer being required to work excessive hours or travel excessive distances to their place of duty.” He added: “If any officer has concerns about welfare or their duties they should immediately raise this with their supervisors, who will be more than happy to address any personal issues.”East Texas Court Finally Issues Newegg Order Two Years Late; Judge Upset About How Newegg Handled Things from the might-want-to-look-in-the-mirror dept The Court concludes that under either Newegg's or TQP's interpretation there was not a showing of substantial evidence that the claim limitation is infringed. After Newegg’s Petition for Mandamus was docketed in this case, the Court, among other actions, immediately asked the District Clerk to investigate why its systems had failed in this case, both to understand the issue and to, hopefully, determine a way to prevent such an occurrence in future. District Clerk David Maland forwarded his findings to the Court: I am responding to your inquiry of July 8th as to why defendant Newegg's posttrial motions have not been appearing on the 6 month CJRA pending motion report. Upon inquiry, it was discovered that an order staying Case No. 2:11-cv- 428, a case with a similar number, was inadvertently docketed in the instant case on June 7, 2013 (docket entry #242 - see attached screen shot; erroneous order also attached). A note was made by the docket clerk at that time that the stay order was filed in error, but she neglected to lift the stay flag in the database. The bottom line is that a stay was created when the erroneous order was entered in this case and the stay flag remained in place until it was discovered and removed on July 8, 2015. This prevented any pending motions in this case from showing on your pending CJRA motions report during that time period. Please accept my deepest apology for this situation. We have advised the deputy clerk in question of her error and have taken curative actions designed to avoid repetition of this kind of error. Please contact me if you have any questions. The Court is aware that more time has passed since the briefing has been complete on Newegg’s Motion than is optimal. However, although approximately 20 months have passed since the trial in this case, the time at which Newegg’s Motion for JMOL was fully briefed and Newegg’s Supplements were before the Court—the point in time where these matters typically would have been decided—was approximately 12 months ago. While Newegg did file an electronic notice with the Clerk’s office during this time (approximately 8 months ago), this is the sole action that Newegg has taken. Never once in this time has counsel for Newegg directly contacted the Court’s staff inquiring about this matter. How this situation could simultaneously be so prejudicial that a resort to mandamus might be considered while, at the same time, Newegg could not be troubled to pick up a phone and call the Court’s staff is baffling. Finally, the Court intends to address, by written opinions, the issues that it has carried within a reasonable time. The Court, like most courts, has a busy docket, which periodically may cause more time to pass in a particular case than is optimal. In the future, the Court suggests that the parties themselves would be better served (and costs reduced) if they elected not to shoot first and ask questions later. I asked my counsel to do everything possible to expedite judgment. Since pretty much the verdict was delivered. I’d specifically inquired whether we could/should call and/or write and/or file a notice on a monthly basis politely reminding the Court that we were awaiting judgment, if for nothing else but to build a record. I was specifically advised by counsel and local counsel (based on his knowledge of local practice) that the Court would likely not look kindly on repeated reminders to issue a judgment. We reminded the Court as frequently as we dared—4 times. We asked. We asked. We asked. We asked. We were advised strongly to avoid ex parte and/or repetitive (after 4 attempts) requests. Then we filed a very respectful Mandamus petition, almost 15 months after the final briefing on a renewed JMOL motion. Newegg did not attribute any ill intent or will as the cause of delay. Hardly a “shoot(ing)” and not even remotely, under any objective standard, premature. I would continue to suggest, with utmost respect, that his incredibly busy docket could be lightened if he were to grant venue transfer motions more frequently that are almost certainly supported under binding Supreme Court precedent, and if he and his clerks didn’t have to deal with extra motions seeking permission to file Section 101 challenges to patent validity permitted under Alice. Last week we wrote about an incredible situation in East Texas, where Judge Rodney Gilstrap had not issued a ruling in 20 months on a filing by Newegg concerning a ridiculous jury decision. As we had noted, everything about the case was fairly ridiculous. The patent in question, 5,412,730, was ridiculous and never should have been issued in the first place. The troll who owned it, TQP, should never have been allowed to shake down hundreds of companies by claiming that anyone encrypting web traffic infringed. TQP was able to bring in $45 million in settlements from this one bogus patent alone. Newegg brought out the biggest names in encryption to point out that the patent was bogus, and also pointed out that even if the patent was valid, it clearly did not infringe. No matter, the East Texas jury still sided with the troll, because that's East Texas.Newegg, in response, asked Judge Gilstrap to basically overrule the jury, and issue a "Judgment as a Matter of Law" (JMOL) which is basically the judge saying that the jury got the law wrong in determining its verdict. And then... nothing. As new things happened in related cases, Newegg filed updates with the court, as kind of a nudge. Newegg had vowed to appeal the case, but was procedurally unable to do so until Gilstrap ruled one way or the other on the JMOL. So, eventually, last week it took the somewhat extreme step of filing a Writ of Mandamus with the appeals court, basically asking it to order Judge Gilstrap toand issue an order.TQP quickly filed a weak and silly opposition to the writ, not addressing the actual issues raised (because what are they going to argue -- that the judge should never rule on the case?). And before Newegg could reply, it appears that someone in Judge Gilstrap's office finally woke up and issued an order, siding with Newegg in the JMOL. In short, after doing nothing for 20 months, leaving everyone hanging on a jury verdict over this bogus patent, and ordering Newegg to pay $2.3 million, the court said, "Oh yeah, jury wrong, no infringement":In other words, no infringement, the jury was just wrong, everyone get on with their lives. Seems like this could have happened quite a long time ago, no? At the end of the filing, Judge Gilstrap finally addresses this issue and rather than being apologetic, he appears to be pretty angry at Newegg. As for why this happened? Well, that gets buried in a footnote:So, yes, there's an apology there from the court clerk, but you'd think that the judge might want to issue one as well. But, no, he goes... the other way, scolding Newegg.This is both misleading and ridiculous. First of all, Newegg repeatedly (four times) had filed additional information with the court, which you'd think should be sufficient to remind the court that it has a pending issue to attend to. And while it is true that Newegg's lawyers did not call the court clerk to find out what's up, Newegg's chief legal officer, Lee Cheng, says that's because basicallywarned them that the East District Court does not look kindly on parties reaching out to the court in such a manner. Cheng tells me:Separately, Cheng responded to Gilstrap's closing whine that his docket is so busy that this one slipped through the cracks, by noting that there are ways to deal with that:In other words, maybe it's time for East Texas to give up its reputation as welcoming patent troll lawsuits at every opportunity and send those lawsuits, that are clearly about jurisdiction shopping, to other courts where they can be handled more efficiently. Filed Under: east texas, encryption, patent trolls, patents, rodney gilstrap, writ of mandamus Companies: newegg, tqpSource: Xinhua\| 2017-10-16 13:53:42\|Editor: liuxin Video Player Close SYDNEY, Oct. 16 (Xinhua) -- Over 50 wallabies were inhumanely slaughtered and left to rot over the weekend in the Australian State of Queensland, with the gruesome mystery continuing to shock local community. Wildlife rangers who investigated the scene at the Mareeba Turf club told local media on Monday that they initially thought the animals must have been shot, however a more disturbing picture is beginning to emerge. "One particular animal had been hit in the back, its back was broken and it was bludgeoned on the head, vice president of the Tablelands Wildlife Rescue Beth Stern told local media on Monday. "This has been happening for a few weeks and we only found out about it on Friday," he said. "There are close to 100 animals that have been killed." Mareeba Turf Club secretary John Thurlow said the venue had installed a kangaroo fence one month ago and someone has used the barrier to trap the wallabies. "We were allowing the wallabies to become accustomed to [the fence] before we drove them out," he said. "Someone has closed those gates and used our new fence to herd them into an area where they could take pot shots at them." Animal welfare investigators also reported a number of arrow wounds and were horrified to find a number of joeys barely alive in their dead mothers' pouches. "It was a horrific scene for people who care for wildlife," Stern said.E l triunfo de Manuel Natal, un joven abogadopara un escaño del PPD en el Senado —a pesar de tener en contra la maquinaria de “líderes” del PPD— demuestra de forma dramática y contundente uno de los procesos medulares de nuestra vida política: la militancia del PPD y del PNP se van sintiendo cada día más libres para asumir conductas electorales contrarias a las que les solicitan los líderes máximos de sus partidos. Y el hecho de que el victorioso seamuestra una vez más que, o el PPD se mueve lejos del carcomido ELA territorial y abraza el derrotero soberanista en asociación con EE.UU., o tendrá la ruptura —predicha por William Miranda Marín en su último discurso— que traerá a Puerto Rico un nuevo juego político. La conjunción de los resultados del plebiscito diseñado por la Administración Fortuño, con lo que acaba de ocurrir en la Comisión de Recursos del Senado que revisó por corto tiempo el resultado de esa consulta, señala esa dirección. El cantazo contra los estadistas Comencemos por los estadistas y el PNP, quienes por lo ocurrido en Washington y en Puerto Rico con los resultados de su plebiscito “hecho a la medida” debieran ya admitir que el único “triunfo” posible para la estadidad ya ocurrió, pero que el otro que ellos dicen buscar, no es posible. Por una combinación de los factores de expulsión de población de la colonia, del ELA territorial, y la concesión de una ciudadanía estadounidense territorial en 1917 que aseguró el libre tránsito, la estadidad federada “ganó históricamente” como el estatus político en que vive la mayoría de los puertorriqueños individualmente. Esa situación se ha dado porque entre cerca de siete millones de seres humanos nacidos en Puerto Rico, más de la mitad, 4 millones, se vieron obligados a optar por el aeropuerto y se fueron a residir y hacer su vida en alguno de los 50 estados de Estados Unidos de América. Viven ahora en la estadidad federada. Es
aby. According to the filming notice she found, the cast and crew are expected to be filming at the park from July 10th to 13th. Central Park is one of the most popular filming locations in the Lower Mainland of BC. In addition to being a location that Legends of Tomorrow has used several times before, in the past year the park has been used by Van Helsing, The Flash, Supernatural, Once Upon a Time, Arrow and more. Legends of Tomorrow Season 3 is scheduled to start filming in Vancouver and area July 7th until February 26th. It premieres Tuesday, October 10th at 9pm on The CW in the US and on CTV TWO in Canada. Update 7/6: Showrunner Marc Guggenheim revealed via Twitter that filming is underway (which is a day ahead of the original schedule). The tweet also mentions that production is starting with episode 3×02 first, which is uncommon for the Arrowverse shows which normally shoot in order. An image of the episodes script cover shows that the episode will be titled “Freakshow”. Supergirl Season 3 Although Kara and team have put the threat of Queen Rhea behind them, their work is far from over. Recently added to the cast of Supergirl season 3 is Odette Annable (Pure Genius). According to Deadline.com, she’ll portray this season’s big bad, a recently well known Kryptonian and formidable villain from the comics lore, “Reign”. In last season’s finale, Kara and Mon-El were torn apart after his pod was drawn into a wormhole, but mention of him in the network’s official summary of season 3 revealed that we haven’t seen the last of Chris Wood’s character yet. We’ll also see the return of the David Harewood, Chyler Leigh, Mechad Brooks, Jeremy Jordan and Calista Flockhart. Despite the undeniable on-screen chemistry and the proposal during the season 2 finale, we’ll see less of Alex and Maggie (aka Sanvers) this season. Floriana Lima (who plays Maggie) has stepped down from her series regular status. She’ll be back in some capacity though, because she’s still set as a recurring character as per TVLine.com. Katie McGrath was introduced as Lena Luthor during the beginning of season 2 and recurred throughout the rest of the season. According to Deadline.com, we’ll be seeing a lot more of her in Supergirl season 3 as she’s been promoted to series regular. Erica Durance (Smallville) is joining the series in a recurring role according to Deadline.com. She’ll be replacing Laura Benati as the character Alura. Supergirl season 3 is scheduled to start filming in Vancouver and area July 6th until April 28th, 2018. It premieres Monday, October 9th at 8pm on The CW in the US and on Showcase in Canada. Also Starting This Week Once Upon a Time – Season 7 (TV Series) Cast: Lana Parrilla, Robert Carlyle, Colin O’Donoghue, Andrew J. West, Alison Fernandez Filming until April 2nd, 2018 To All The Boys I’ve Loved Before (TV Movie) Filming until August 4th For a full list of what’s filming in Vancouver and British Columbia right now, check out our In Production page. Filming Locations As always, keep an eye on our Current Filming Locations page where we post any information received via Twitter or otherwise. If you’re interested in checking out some past locations, have a look at our Filming Locations Archive. Thank you @lemon_buzz for the initial scoop on when each of these shows would be returning to Vancouver to resume filming! If you see any of these productions, including the The Flash season 4 filming in Vancouver and British Columbia, be sure to let us know by tweeting us (@WhatsFilming) or via our Submit a Location page.Hello Rocksmith fans! This week’s clue has been posted and solved and it looks like we’ll be adding a few more songs from @TheBlackKeys to Rocksmith 2014! Let’s check out @DanAmrich’s clue: thoman23 knew that we were looking for a periodic table translation Periodic table code. The numbers on the bottom can be translated like this: 9 53 60 90 68 13 85 53 8 7 F I Nd Th Er Al At I O N Find The Relation Hermitian figured out that the numbers related to frequencies of music notes! D# D# F# A# D# F# which of course corresponds to… Black Keys! The Black Keys are featured quite a bit in the Rocksmith library! Guitar Hero recently acquired two songs already on Rocksmith and Rock Band has three songs that would be welcome to the Rocksmith library (Strange Times, Lonely Boy, and Howlin’ For You) Many snarky jokes were made at Rocksmith’s launch about the abundance of content relating to @TheBlackKeys but if you look online in 2015 you’ll find that songs like Next Girl and I Got Mine give new players the confidence they need to continue on their guitar playing journey. Here’s what we are hoping for… Little Black Submarines would be a great addition, a fairly challenging guitar part that really shows off Auerbach’s songwriting. Lonely Boy was supposed to have a Pro Guitar arrangement on Rock Band 3 so it’s only fitting that Rocksmith fill that void, right? Gotta Get Away is the single you want off Turn Blue… Not Fever. I’m Howlin’ for this song to be in Rocksmith 2014 Would you pay $3.00 for a Ten Cent Pistol? Here are the Top 10 most listened to songs from @TheBlackKeys on @Spotify! Which song do you expect to make it into next week’s song pack? Are you happy to see The Black Keys return to Rocksmith after almost four years? Or is this just too simple for your liking? Let us know!It looks like not everyone is happy with the dedicated Bixby button that’s found on the left side of the Galaxy S8 and S8 Plus. Some people just don’t want to use Samsung’s digital assistant and are also complaining about accidentally pressing the button from time to time when they are trying to lower the volume. An individual by the name of Zach McKay from Los Angeles has a solution for this problem. He launched a Kickstarter campaign for a Galaxy S8 and S8 Plus case that not only protects your device if you happen to drop it but also covers and hides the Bixby button. Thanks to the case, you’ll never accidentally press the Bixby button again. Check out the incredibly funny video below to get more info. Zach is trying to raise $16,000 but, unfortunately for him, things aren’t looking good at this point. He still has a long way to go, as he has only managed to raise $75 so far. By pledging $20, you’ll get a Bixby-free case for your Galaxy S8 or S8 Plus along with the “I Hate Bixby” sticker. If you really despise Samsung’s digital assistant, you have the option of pledging $40, which will get you the “I Hate Bixby” baseball cap along with the case and sticker. The case comes in black, but if the campaign raises over $20,000 — which probably won’t happen — it will also be available in as many as three additional color options. Based on the image you case above these include red, silver, and dark blue. If you own a Samsung Galaxy S8 or S8 Plus and hate Bixby, you can back the project via the button below. Just in case you want to save some money, keep in mind that you can also remap the Bixby button to open Google Assistant or any other app of your choice.President Trump answers questions about the violence, injuries and deaths in Charlottesville in New York Thomson Reuters President Donald Trump continued his attacks on prominent Senate Republicans on Thursday, saying that South Carolina Sen. Lindsey Graham was "publicity seeking" and calling Arizona Sen. Jeff Flake "weak" and "toxic" amid condemnation from Republican lawmakers over his muddled response to last weekend's violence in Charlottesville, Virginia. The president said on Tuesday that there was "blame on both sides" for the violence that erupted between white supremacists and counterprotesters last Saturday, prompting a swift and critical response from prominent Republican senators like Graham, Bob Corker, Richard Burr, Orrin Hatch, and Thom Tillis. "The President has not yet been able to demonstrate the stability nor some of the competence that he needs to demonstrate in order to be successful," Corker said on Thursday in response to Trump's comments. "When it comes to white supremacists & neo-nazis, there can be no equivocating: they're propagators of hate and bigotry," tweeted Tillis. "Period." The tension between the president and members of his own party had long been simmering given Trump's willingness to feud with Republicans he perceives as unfairly critical or insufficiently loyal. But GOP lawmakers have typically stopped short of criticizing the president directly, even when denouncing his recent attacks on Attorney General Jeff Sessions and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell. Now, Trump's defense of a white nationalist protest, plummeting poll numbers, and constant undermining of the establishment GOP — which he effectively cut ties with when he fired former chief of staff Reince Priebus — have raised questions about whether Republicans are getting closer to abandoning him. "We don't have to wonder about it," said Republican strategist Rick Tyler, the former spokesman for Ted Cruz's presidential campaign. "It's known. It's like speculating what will happen if we keep driving the car on empty. The motor will eventually stop running." AP Trump's attacks on key Republican lawmakers like Sens. John McCain, Marco Rubio, Rand Paul and Lisa Murkowski have undoubtedly hurt his chances of accomplishing legislative priorities such as tax reform and funding for a border wall. "If any legislation passes it will be in spite of Trump, not because of him," Greg Valliere, chief investment officer and long-time political analyst at Horizon Investments, wrote in a note to clients on Thursday. Tyler, meanwhile, said "Trump's hopes of getting any significant legislation to his desk now are nil." Longer-term, however, Trump may be faced with a bigger obstacle to policy wins than a hostile Congress — impeachment. FBI special counsel Robert Mueller, who is currently investigating whether Trump's presidential campaign colluded with Russia during the election, can't move to remove Trump from office if he finds that Trump has committed a crime. It is still unclear, for that matter, whether a sitting president can even be indicted. But Mueller will be tasked with bringing any evidence he finds of criminal wrongdoing to Capitol Hill, at which point the question of Trump's fitness for office will become entirely political. As such, the damage Trump has done to his relationships with more than half of the Republicans who sit on the Senate Judiciary Committee — which would ultimately be tasked with voting to remove Trump from office if the House moved to impeach him — may prove more dangerous for him in the long run. Since taking office seven months ago, Trump has criticized or alienated committee members including Graham, Flake, Ted Cruz, Ben Sasse, Orrin Hatch, John Cornyn, and Thom Tillis. He has even annoyed the committee's chairman, Republican Sen. Chuck Grassley, for ignoring information requests from various oversight committees. Grassley told Reuters on Thursday that, if it came to it, he would be an "impartial" juror on any impeachment proceedings. But he said that Trump's preoccupation with responding to his Republican critics has not been helpful. "He should be 100% sticking to ideas and forget about personalities," Grassley said. Brian Gardner, a political analyst at KBW, wrote in a note to clients on Thursday that, "even for Republicans, working with the White House could be seen as politically dangerous." "The President's approval ratings are already poor and may dip further," the note continued. "Frankly, there will be little to be gained by working with the White House." And if Mueller's findings prove damning, many Republicans will have virtually nothing to gain by defending him — and no loyalty that would spur them to. "Skills like building alliances, loyalty, trustworthiness, clear communications, compromise, vision, ability to persuade, working across the aisle, understanding what others need from a deal, and above all leadership... some of these skills can be learned," Tyler said. "But Trump seems to have a cognitive defect that does not allow him to learn from his mistakes."The two men travelling on stolen passports on the Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 that mysteriously disappeared on Saturday have been identified as Iranian nationals. A BBC Persian report quotes an Iranian friend of one of the men, who said he hosted the pair in Kuala Lumpur after they arrived from Tehran in the days preceding their flight to Beijing. The friend, who knew one of the men from his school days in Iran, said the men had bought the fake passports because they wanted to migrate to Europe. The pair were travelling on passports belonging to Christian Kozel, an 30-year-old Austrian, and Luigi Maraldi, a 37-year-old Italian. They had bought the passports in Kuala Lumpur as well as tickets to Amsterdam, via Beijing. One of the Iranian nationals' intended final destination was Frankfurt, where his mother lives, while the other wanted to travel to Denmark. The same source that spoke to BBC Persian also emailed CNN with a photograph of him posing with his two friends in the days before they embarked on their fateful trip. An editor at BBC Persian told The Telegraph that the two Iranians were “looking for a place to settle”. Both Malaysia and neighbouring Thailand, where the passports were originally stolen, host large and established Iranian communities. US-led sanctions on Iran have plagued the economy and encouraged many young Iranians, who face high unemployment, to seek ways to travel to Europe, North America or Australia – legally or illegally.Edel Rodriguez for The Boston Globe If the day was pleasant, and even when it wasn’t, the two boys would march themselves into the forest, in the shadow of the Black Hills in South Dakota, and hunt. They were no more than 8 at the time, so they took BB guns—all their parents allowed them—and looked for small game, squirrels mostly. The challenge of it turned the boys, Brian Baldwin and his cousin Chuck, into sportsmen, and then best friends. After high school, Chuck went off to Vietnam as a helicopter gunner. Brian started college and joined the ROTC on campus. By the time he got his commission and completed flight school—to be a Medevac pilot—the war was almost over. Nevertheless, Brian’s military career took off: He found that he loved the officer’s life. Chuck, though, struggled. He came home from the war quick to anger, and drank too much, moved around a lot, and watched his marriage dissolve. When Brian saw him around the holidays, Chuck would want to talk about the war. Brian always switched the subject. Advertisement One night in the 1980s in his home in Rapid City, S.D., Chuck drank too much again. Only this time, before he passed out, he pointed a gun at himself. When he pulled the trigger, he left behind a second wife and a young son—just a few years removed from his first hunting trip. Get Today in Opinion in your inbox: Globe Opinion's must-reads, delivered to you every Sunday-Friday. Sign Up Thank you for signing up! Sign up for more newsletters here Soon, “post-traumatic stress disorder” entered the public lexicon. What haunted Brian were the signs he missed. He wished he’d pulled more bottles away from Chuck or talked with him when he wanted to discuss the war: Chuck was isolated back in South Dakota, Brian realized, with no one around him who knew the military, the images he’d seen. Brian never forgot that. In 1998, after 25 years, Brian retired from the Army. He ultimately took a job as a project manager at the University of Texas Imaging Research Center, which scanned the brains of people who suffered from PTSD. “I wanted to make up for my own failings,” he says. He wanted to know why Chuck could be affected by Vietnam in ways other vets weren’t. He wanted to know, in short, if it would be clinically possible to predict who would develop PTSD. He met with Michael Telch, a professor of psychology at the school. Telch was intrigued by Brian’s idea, but knew its limitations. It wasn’t easy to do a before-and-after study of trauma. In the civilian population, it was impossible to guess when a person would live through something traumatic. And in the military, some leaders didn’t even believe in PTSD; the last thing they wanted were civilian academics questioning soldiers. Advertisement But the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan changed that. Or rather, the veterans returning from those wars and the nearly one in five Vietnam vets who had suffered, or still suffered, from PTSD provided irrefutable proof that the military needed to look for ways to treat the condition. Brian had spent part of his career at nearby Fort Hood, and in 2007 he and Telch approached Army leaders at the base about a study. Telch wanted to put soldiers through a battery of tests before they deployed, have them fill out online journals during their tour, and then follow them for a time after they’d returned to the States. Fort Hood agreed. Telch ran his tests and, once the soldiers had come home and he could analyze his results, found something intriguing: If soldiers exhibited certain physical and emotional characteristics before deployment, they were more likely to suffer from PTSD after it. As Brian Baldwin would have hoped, it appears as though PTSD can be predicted. Telch’s work is part of a provocative new strand of PTSD research, using modern psychology and computer science to unlock why and when a traumatic experience can derail a life. These studies—not just in military but civilian populations, too, testing cops and other first responders—hold the potential to transform our understanding of PTSD, changing it from an enigmatic and disruptive affliction that crashes over some people but not others, to a condition that can actually be predicted, quantified, and prepared for. While it sounds promising, the new research also raises ethical questions: If it becomes possible to screen enlistees for their vulnerability to PTSD, is it fair to keep some out of combat and send in others, especially in an all-volunteer military where every solider has raised his or her hand to take the same risks? And if you send these potentially troubled enlistees to war anyway, what is your liability for any harm they do to themselves afterward? Or to others? Christina Murrey Michael Telch says he and his researchers have measured soldiers “in all sorts of things that haven’t really been looked at in a prospective study.” Advertisement Even if a test is developed, some PTSD experts question whether we should screen soldiers at all. To do so could create the impression that battle trauma is something orderly, even manageable, when war itself is chaos and the consequences of facing combat uncontrollable. To screen soldiers for PTSD, some experts believe, is to pretend war is something it’s not. * PTSD may be a relatively new phrase, but the problem it describes is as old as any history of war. In “The Iliad,” for instance, after the great warrior Achilles hears that a friend has died while fighting in his place, he scoops dirt into his hands and pours it over his body; he pulls out his hair; he says, “Nothing matters to me now.” In a rage, he finds Hector, the man who killed his friend, and spears him through the neck. He then ties the body to his chariot and drags the corpse through the streets. What Achilles endures—the torture of knowing that his life came at the expense of his friend’s death—is “also the story of many combat veterans, from Vietnam and other long wars,” writes Jonathan Shay, a former psychiatrist at Boston’s Department of Veteran Affairs Outpatient Clinic, who won a MacArthur Fellowship in 2007 for examining psychological trauma in “The Iliad” and “The Odyssey.” Though it may not have gone by the name PTSD, other cultures in other times have acknowledged it and tried to treat it. Many Native American tribes, for instance, held initiation ceremonies for warriors at every stage of their lives, says Edward Tick, a clinical psychotherapist who is currently training Army chaplains in dealing with PTSD. “In Lakota tribes,” Tick says, “PTSD was called something that meant ‘The spirits left him.’” The tribe comforted the warrior for days or weeks and held a ceremony when they felt he had regained his equilibrium. Russia is seen as the first modern society to treat psychological wounds. In the Russo-Japanese War of 1904 and 1905, Russian military personnel placed civilian psychiatrists near the front lines, to treat the soldiers who had developed “shell shock,” according to Richard A Gabriel’s book “No More Heroes: Madness and Psychiatry in War.” The Russian psychiatrists confirmed much of what the Lakota had intuited: It was best for the soldiers to rehabilitate not in isolation but amid others, almost always from their warrior class. The psychiatrists talked with these soldiers near the front, for days or weeks if necessary. Many Russian soldiers then rejoined their units, Gabriel writes. (Americans began using such “forward” treatment, as Gabriel describes it, at the end of World War II, and it remains common today.) But when it comes to the modern science of PTSD, research has only recently asked the more basic question of why it happens, and to whom, and when. Charles Marmar, a psychology professor at New York University, has followed police officers from the academy through their first years on the streets, trying to determine whether some cops are at increased risk of developing PTSD. So far Marmar has found that officers who experienced childhood trauma, or hold a negative view of the world, or have only a few years on the force, are more likely to develop PTSD. (He also found no correlation between PTSD and intelligence.) Dewleen Baker, a professor at the University of California San Diego and psychiatrist at the VA San Diego Healthcare System, is overseeing a longitudinal study with over 2,000 Marines, studying them from prior to their deployment until well after it, and looking among other things to identify the specific kinds of experiences that might cause PTSD. Michael Telch, among researchers who focus on the military, has pushed furthest toward the possibility of predicting whom PTSD might strike. With Brian Baldwin’s assistance and Fort Hood’s blessing, Telch had roughly 160 soldiers submit to a battery of tests at the University of Texas before the soldiers headed to Iraq. “We made sure that...they’d never been deployed to a war zone before,” Telch says, the better to establish a baseline of experience. Once they were in country, the soldiers filled out an online log every month of the stressors they’d faced, and any psychological reactions they’d had to them. Once the soldiers had returned to the States, Telch and his staff monitored them for a year. Perhaps the biggest insight came from the eye-tracking test. Before deployment, Telch asked soldiers to look at a panel of four faces while a computer monitored the soldiers’ eye movements. In the panel the soldiers saw a happy face, a sad face, a fearful face, and a neutral face. The soldiers who quickly averted their gaze from the fearful face—looked away within 100 milliseconds of seeing the photo—were far more likely to develop PTSD after deployment, the study found. These soldiers needed only half as many war-zone stressors as other soldiers to develop symptoms associated with PTSD, the study found. The research was published last year in the American Journal of Psychiatry. In total, Telch and his colleagues have published five studies on the Fort Hood soldiers and PTSD, with a sixth forthcoming. “We measured [the soldiers] in all sorts of things that haven’t really been looked at in a prospective study,” he says. The researchers have looked at what happens to cortisol levels when soldiers with high testosterone feel threatened. (The levels shoot up, indicating stress.) They’ve tested soldiers’ panic response, by having them inhale oxygen laced with 35 percent carbon dioxide; those who lose their nerve appear to be more likely to develop PTSD. Dr. Jennifer Vasterling, the chief of psychology at the VA Boston Healthcare System and a researcher at the National Center for PTSD, says Telch’s work has “a unique place” in the study of the disorder. A few researchers have conducted a handful of before-and-after studies on PTSD in the military, she says, but never one with numerous real-time readings of a soldier’s psychological state. Telch says that his preliminary results are just that. He would like to know what other physical or mental characteristics might lead to an increased risk of PTSD—as well as conduct further tests on the characteristics he’s already singled out. Predicting PTSD is a new idea, he says, and it will take time to say conclusively which soldiers under what circumstances are likely to develop the disorder. Still, “Do our studies have any implications for prevention?” Telch asks. “Definitely.” * As many as 20 percent of Iraq and Afghanistan veterans have PTSD or will develop it, the VA estimates. So what will the military do with Telch’s studies? Officials at the Department of Defense did not return requests for comment for this story, and Fort Hood officials declined to comment. Telch says he is not trying to develop a formal screening test himself; he says that would fall to the military. But it’s already clear what issues might arise as doctors get better as predicting who is more susceptible to psychological trauma. One is simple fairness. Is it fair to keep soldiers off the front based on a test that assigns them a higher percentage chance of developing PTSD? (The police tests raise the same question about officers on the beat.) General Barry McCaffrey is a retired four-star general and an advocate for veterans battling drug and alcohol addictions. When asked if the military should filter out soldiers likely to develop PTSD, McCaffrey says without hesitation, “I think the answer is yes.” Some of these wounds can last a lifetime—or end a life. And, as Edward Tick points out, given the nation-building nature of today’s wars, soldiers ill-equipped for the front could perhaps still serve in diplomatic capacities. But McCaffrey also acknowledges that the military would quickly run into practical limitations: It is a force composed of volunteers, and the military has had to lower its recruiting standards simply to find enough men and women to fight in Iraq and Afghanistan. Many soldiers have endured multiple tours. Rigorous screening may not be practical; the military needs the recruits it gets. It may also be harder to apply than it might first seem. To assume that some soldiers should go to the front while others drink tea with the locals misconstrues modern warfare, McCaffrey and other military experts say. There isn’t necessarily a “front” that you can keep soldiers away from: There are only urban streets, desolate villages, some familiar faces, and a lot of uncertainty. The threat of a battle is everywhere and nowhere. This underlies another problem that some experts have with screening soldiers for PTSD: the notion that traumatic events can somehow be contained. Tick worries that any successful predictive test could lull the military into seeing PTSD as a solvable problem, more like a preventable disease than an inevitable, if random, consequence of seeing combat. “That’s dangerous,” he says. The best approach, he argues, is for the military to assume that some people will always be haunted by the experiences they endure, and that it is in fact “normal” for this to happen. The psychic impact of war isn’t so much a disorder, or a sign of some preexisting weakness, as a battle injury—one that underscores the valor, and hardship, of what we ask of people when we send them to war. “Combat hurts,” Tick says. “And it should hurt. [The military] can’t go looking for a silver bullet.” Paul Kix is a general editor at ESPN: The Magazine.An agreement on creating a 'green customs corridor’ for agricultural products has been signed by Moscow and Damascus during a visit by a Russian delegation to Syria. Read more "Syrians are trying hard to supply high-quality products to the Russian market. Why shouldn't we take these products that give jobs to thousands, tens of thousands of Syrian people? We have agreed on this," Russian Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Rogozin told TASS. Rogozin has been heading a Russian delegation meeting Syria's President Bashar Assad to discuss economic assistance. He co-chairs a Russian-Syrian commission for trade and economic, scientific and technical cooperation. "Syria was a successful country that used to sell oil, grain. Now it has neither oil nor grain nor many other products to meet the demands of the population," Rogozin said, adding that the commission will consider any means to support the country. The heads of major private Russian industrial companies were in Damascus to present energy and transport projects to President Assad. "He personally guaranteed that Syria will create a most favored treatment for each Russian company," Rogozin said. Syria applied to be part of a free trade zone with Russia two years ago. Negotiations have been going on since before the war erupted in the country. #Syria asks to be part of a free trade zone with Russia http://t.co/w9gu0y0bTZ — RT (@RT_com) October 25, 2014 According to Syrian Prime Minister Wael al-Halqi, the two countries have already signed nearly a billion dollars worth of agreements to develop energy, trade, finance and other sectors of the war-torn economy. Syria has offered Russia a chance to explore and develop oil and gas on land and offshore. In particular, Russia was invited to upgrade the Baniyas refinery and construct a refinery with Iran and Venezuela. The sides also aim a joint bank to facilitate transfers. The bank would be controlled 50-50 by the countries’ central banks.It is claimed Ernest Hemingway once wrote a six-word short story that could make people cry for a bet. The wager was ten dollars, which Hemingway won with the following: “For sale: Baby shoes. Never worn.” However, there’s no hard evidence that this ever happened. Snopes has categorized the anecdote as “Undetermined.” Quote Investigator claims Hemngway’s tale was first reported in Get Published! Get Produced!: A Literary Agent’s Tips on How to Sell Your Writing by Peter Miller in 1974: Apparently, Ernest Hemingway was lunching at Luchow’s with a number of writers and claimed that he could write a short story that was only six words long. Of course, the other writers balked. Hemingway told each of them to put ten dollars in the middle of the table; if he was wrong, he said, he’d match it. If he was right, he would keep the entire pot. He quickly wrote six words down on a napkin and passed it around; Papa won the bet. The words were “FOR SALE, BABY SHOES, NEVER WORN.” A beginning, a middle and an end! The six word story was also mentioned by author Arthur C. Clarke in a letter dated 11 Oct. 1991: “My favourite is Hemingway’s—he’s supposed to have won a $10 bet (no small sum in the ’20s) from his fellow writers. They paid up without a word.... Here it is. I still can’t think of it without crying—FOR SALE. BABY SHOES. NEVER WORN.” Quote Investigator suggests possible sources for the story may be early advertisements from 1906 onwards; newspaper stories, the first from 1910; or even an essay on creative writing by William R. Kane from 1917. Whatever the truth of the matter, this short story does succeed in telling a moving tale in just six simple words, and the anecdote about its origin does little to change Hemingway‘s position as one of the greatest writers of the twentieth century. Here’s how Mr. Hemingway described the author’s role in his Nobel Prize winning speech in 1954: “Writing, at its best, is a lonely life. Organizations for writers palliate the writer’s loneliness but I doubt if they improve his writing. He grows in public stature as he sheds his loneliness and often his work deteriorates. For he does his work alone and if he is a good enough writer he must face eternity, or the lack of it, each day. “For a true writer each book should be a new beginning where he tries again for something that is beyond attainment. He should always try for something that has never been done or that others have tried and failed. Then sometimes, with great luck, he will succeed.” Ernest Hemingway interviewed at his home in Cuba after his Nobel Prize win had been announced.Overview Number of Puerto Ricans Ancestry Self-identified race Language The official languages[50] of the executive branch of government of Puerto Rico[51] are Spanish and English, with Spanish being the primary language. Spanish is, and has been, the only official language of the entire Commonwealth judiciary system, despite a 1902 English-only language law.[52] All official business of the U.S. District Court for the District of Puerto Rico is conducted in English. English is the primary language of less than 10% of the population. Puerto Rican Spanish is the dominant language of business, education and daily life on the island.[53] The US Census Bureau's 2015 update provides the following facts:[54] 94.1% of adults speak Spanish, 5.8% speak only English, 78.3% do not speak English "very well". Public school instruction in Puerto Rico is conducted almost entirely in Spanish. There have been pilot programs in about a dozen of the over 1,400 public schools aimed at conducting instruction in English only. Objections from teaching staff are common, perhaps because many of them are not fully fluent in English.[55] English is taught as a second language and is a compulsory subject from elementary levels to high school. The languages of the deaf community are American Sign Language and its local variant, Puerto Rican Sign Language. The Spanish of Puerto Rico has evolved into having many idiosyncrasies in vocabulary and syntax that differentiate it from the Spanish spoken elsewhere. While the Spanish spoken in all Iberian, Mediterranean and Atlantic Spanish Maritime Provinces was brought to the island over the centuries, the most profound regional influence on the Spanish spoken in Puerto Rico has been from that spoken in the present-day Canary Islands. The Spanish of Puerto Rico also includes occasional Taíno words, typically in the context of vegetation, natural phenomena or primitive musical instruments. Similarly, words attributed to primarily West African languages were adopted in the contexts of foods, music or dances.[56] Religion There are many religious beliefs represented in the island. Religious breakdown in Puerto Rico (as of 2006) is given in the table on the right.[57] Religion Adherents % of Population Christian 3,752,544 97.00% Non-religious/other 76,598 1.98% Spiritist 27,080 0.70% Muslim 5,029 0.13% Hindu 3,482 0.09% Jewish 2,708 0.07% Buddhist 1,161 0.03% The majority of Puerto Ricans in the Island are Christians. Spiritists have a large secondary following. Muslims, Hindus, Jews, and Buddhists all have a small presence as well. Roman Catholicism has been the main Christian sect among Puerto Ricans since the arrival of the Spanish in the 15th century, but the presence of Protestant, Mormon, Pentecostal, and Jehovah's Witnesses denominations has increased under U.S. sovereignty, making modern Puerto Rico an inter-denominational, multi-religious community. The Afro-Caribbean religion Santería is also practiced. In 1998, a news report stated that "Puerto Rico [was] no longer predominantly Catholic". Pollster Pablo Ramos wrote that the population was 38% Roman Catholic, 28% Pentecostal, and 18% were members of independent churches.[58] However, an Associated Press article in March 2014 stated that "more than 70 percent of [Puerto Ricans] identify themselves as Catholic".[59] The CIA World Factbook reports that 85% of the population of Puerto Rico identifies as Roman Catholic, while 15% identify as Protestant and Other.[60] Boricua Puerto Ricans often proudly identify themselves as Boricua (formerly also spelled Boriquén, Borinquén, or Borinqueño), derived from the Taíno word Boriken, to illustrate their recognition of the island's Taíno heritage. The word Boriken translates to "land of brave lords(s)". Borikén was used by the original Taíno population to refer to the island of Puerto Rico before the arrival of the Spanish.[61] The use of the word Boricua has been popularized in the island and abroad by descendants of Puerto Rico heritage, commonly using the phrase yo soy Boricua ("I am Boricua") to identify themselves as Puerto Ricans. Other variations which are also widely used are Borinqueño and Borincano, meaning "from Borinquen". The first recorded use of the word Boricua comes from Christopher Columbus in his Letter to the Sovereigns of 4 March 1493.[62] Political and international status See also References Further reading "Adiós, Borinquen querida": The Puerto Rican Diaspora, Its History, and Contributions, by Edna Acosta-Belen, et al. (Albany, New York: Center for Latino, Latin American, and Caribbean Studies, SUNY-Albany, 2000) , by Edna Acosta-Belen, et al. (Albany, New York: Center for Latino, Latin American, and Caribbean Studies, SUNY-Albany, 2000) "Orgullo Boricua", WAPA TV program Boricua Hawaiiana: Puerto Ricans of Hawaii—Reflections of the Past and Mirrors of the Future, by Blase Camacho Souza (Honolulu: Puerto Rican Heritage Society of Hawaii, 1982) , by Blase Camacho Souza (Honolulu: Puerto Rican Heritage Society of Hawaii, 1982) Boricua Literature: A Literary History of the Puerto Rican Diaspora, by Lisa Sénchez González (New York: New York University Press, 2001) , by Lisa Sénchez González (New York: New York University Press, 2001) Boricua Pop: Puerto Ricans and the Latinization of American Culture, by Frances Negrón-Muntaner (New York: New York University Press, 2004) , by Frances Negrón-Muntaner (New York: New York University Press, 2004) Yo soy Boricua in
way schemas are selected from the tab in Properties, so now you will find all schemas of the server by clicking “More Schemas…” in the database view. Choose the schemas you want to see here and hide any you don’t need from the context menu. Now you need to refresh your data source if you’ve updated from the previous version. Remember, that only schemas added to the database tree are available in code completion. Import CSV Many of you told us that the way of importing CSV files (with the help of Edit As Table) was not very convenient. You asked, we delivered! Enjoy a dedicated UI for importing CSV, TSV (well, DSV) files to the database. Click the schema you wish to import data to, and choose Import From File… from the context menu. Then choose the CSV file where your data is. You will see the Import dialog window. The left-hand panel is for format specification: choose the delimiter, whether the first row is a header (the separate format options are available for it), and specify if you have quoted values in the file. On the right-hand side, you see a frame describing the table to be created and a result data preview. Press Delete to remove a column from the result. If you want to import data to an existing table, just use the context menu of this particular table to choose Import From File… What happens if there are errors in the file? Write error records to file option is available. The import process will not be interrupted, but all the wrong lines will be recorded to this file. Language Injections This feature lets you treat string literals as live code written in other languages (like XML, JSON, any SQL dialect or regular expressions), including formatting, highlighting, usage search, completion, and even refactoring. Language is auto-injected into a literal when DataGrip understands the type of the string inside. For example, if you are working with values from JSON columns, they will be treated as such. Language can also be injected when you’re specifying a column default value. In the following case it’s XML, which makes all the XML-related features available there: rename elements by Ctrl(Cmd)+F6, find usages by Alt+F7, and enjoy completion for attribute names. For more information about XML support you can have, read this IntelliJ IDEA help page. DataGrip and IntelliJ IDEA share a common platform, everything described there will work in DataGrip just as well. By default, there are only two predefined injection types: JSON and XML. However, it’s really simple to create your own injections: just press Alt+Enter and then select Inject By Type. There are many languages you can inject. Notice that quick search is available here. You will be offered to create a custom type pattern that simplifies the use of injections; for instance, you can configure it to inject XML into any type ending with DATA. You can use regular expressions to define the injection patterns. There’s RegExp assistance, too: Alt+Enter invokes the Check RegExp feature. Your pattern will be added to the list in Settings/Preferences → Editor → Language Injections. Since it’s possible to inject languages into any string in the SQL code, we can use Check RegExp if we’re inserting, for example, a value for the Visa card pattern. Did you see this the ‘was temporarily injected’ tooltip? If you want to have the injection whenever you edit a particular piece of code, comment it with “language=” like on the following screenshot. In it is another important example — the use of DynamicSQL that provides coding assistance for the injected fragment. Table Editor Completion for values in table is available via Ctrl+Space. It looks through all the values in the column and offers you a list of possible matches. Remember, that if you need completion by used words in the editor (all open consoles), use Alt+/. Some improvements have been made in PostgreSQL: now you can modify different range types. And types with time zones. We’ve added actions for resizing columns: use Ctrl(Cmd)+Shift+Left/Right You can resize several columns at the same time. Ctrl(Cmd)+Shift+Up stands for the default size. Notice, that selection of the whole row was invoked by Shift+Space, like in Excel. Query Console Just like any other IntelliJ-Platform-based IDE, DataGrip editor now officially supports fonts with programming ligatures. To enable ligatures, go to the Settings → Editor → Colors & Fonts → Font, specify a font that supports ligatures, e.g. FiraCode, Hasklig, Monoid or PragmataPro (the font has to be installed) and select the Enable font ligatures option. And here you are! A small enhancement for those who use many languages, IntelliJ-based IDEs including DataGrip now understand what you mean, even if you forgot to switch the language of input. Surround action doesn’t ruin multi-carets anymore. Also, we’ve added surround with function which means that the caret will be placed before the brackets, not after: put the name of the function here. Notice, you can just type “bion” to put get_AuthorByIdOrName function. DataGrip now supports search path in PostgreSQL, meaning you can add schemas one by one in the switcher of the console. The console has a list of schemas to look in. If there are two tables with the same name in different schemas, the first one will be used. Thus, the order is important: move schemas in the search path with the mouse or Alt+Arrows. Connectivity We’ve added completion for database names in the connection dialog. Make sure you’re logged in to the server, and then press Ctrl(Cmd)+Space. For those who had problems connecting to SQL Server, we published a small tutorial covering the most common issues. Recompile objects in Oracle We’ve fixed some bugs in recompiling packages and added a way to recompile any DB object. Well, it has to be recompilable, of course, like procedures, views, types, triggers, etc. There is a possibility to recompile only invalid objects in the group, too. Dumping Tables Now you can dump multiple tables and even the entire schema, which means that any data (not only result-sets), can be exported to CSV, JSON or a list of INSERT/UPDATE statements. We are working on dumping improvements with using of external tools like mysqldump and pg_dump. If you have thoughts or demands, please tweet at us or create feature requests in our issue tracker. Background Images A small new feature will help you make DataGrip look different: set any image as the background of your IDE. Add the folder with the picture to the Files panel, and then choose Set Background Image from the context menu. Or just choose Set Background Image from Find Action by Ctrl(Cmd) + Shift + A. And that’s not all! A short list of other improvements: Copying SSH and SSL settings copies the password as well. *.sql files are associated with DataGrip on Windows and also can be opened from the “Open with” context menu. Fixed DBE-569: important bug with timed out connection on MySQL. The Database tool window now provides the option Auto-scroll from Editor. tool window now provides the option Auto-scroll from Editor. Eras support in Date types for PostgreSQL If you use auto-completion, in case of identical names DataGrip will qualify the name of the object automatically. Go to source works from the preview in Find in path. Inserting the selected keyword in completion by “;” and “,” doesn’t insert a space anymore. CTE support has been improved — we parse it even not finished. Aggregate functions in ORDER BY are not highlighted as errors. The same for PREVIOUS VALUE in DB2. Test connection UI has been improved. Now is the moment to try all this! Get your 30-day trial of DataGrip today if you haven’t before, or just test new features if you use DataGrip. And while you are trying 2016.2 we are already working on 2016.3 expected this fall. Stay in touch! Your DataGrip Team JetBrains The Drive to DevelopOne of East Austin's original craft brewers is officially approved to move much further east. According to a Facebook posting by engineers Big Red Dog, Live Oak has been approved to start construction on a new complex "near 71 and 183." City records indicate the location is 1615 Crozier Lane, on a lot with river access off of 71. The move has been in the works for several years now; Live Oak even sought approval to serve kayakers on the river. Live Oak Brewing Company set up shop on East 5th street in Austin in 1997, which makes them old timers in the craft brewing world. Since then, the Austin brewery world has exploded, as has the brewery touring scene. While more breweries than ever are setting up shop in East Austin, perhaps it's no surprise that Live Oak is expanding to a more rural brewery complex similar to hyper-popular hill country destinations like Jester King. Eater has reached out to Live Oak for more details; watch this space for updates.AP Photo/Mary Altaffer Emilio Palaguachi, center, speaks at a rally at New York's City Hall to call for a vote on paid-sick-days legislation, which has been held up by It’s too late for Tonisha Howard, the mother of three in Milwaukee who was fired for leaving work to be with her hospitalized two-year-old. And for Felix Trinidad, who was so afraid of losing his job at Golden Farm fruit store in Brooklyn that he didn’t take time off to go to the doctor—even after he vomited blood. Trinidad, a father of two who had stomach cancer, continued to work until just days before his death at age 34. But for workers in Portland and perhaps Philadelphia, paid sick days just got much closer to becoming reality. Last Wednesday, the city council in Portland, Oregon, voted unanimously for a bill granting most employees up to 40 hours of paid sick leave per year. On Thursday, the Philadelphia City Council passed a similar law—and, with only one vote short of a veto-proof majority, advocates are hopeful they can find the last member they need to get it past Michael Nutter, who vetoed a similar bill in 2011. Meanwhile, in New York City, advocates geared up for a hearing on a paid-sick-leave bill, even though Council Speaker Christine Quinn still stubbornly refuses to bring it to a vote. Overall, the sentiment seems to that be more paid leave victories are inevitable. “We’re going to see a wave of wins,” predicts Ellen Bravo, executive director of Family Values @Work, an advocacy group that has been working on paid sick days laws throughout the country for more than five years. “I think we’re growing toward a tipping point.” Part of the reason for the recent successes may be that the earliest paid-sick-days laws—starting with San Francisco’s, which went into effect in 2007—have now been in place long enough for people to feel their effects. And there haven’t been very many negative ones. “The sky didn’t fall,” as Bravo puts it. The smooth transition into a world in which workers have some paid time off when they or their kids get sick flies in the face of dire predictions about cost and abuse of the law. “Our experience is that the business lobbyists complain, they fight against every little thing in the bills,” says Eileen Appelbaum, a senior economist at the Center for Economic and Policy Research. “But once the law is in place, businesses quickly adapt to it.” Appelbaum has studied the effects of San Francisco’s paid sick days law and found that “most people don’t use all the days they have. They use, on average, three or four days a year.” Another reason for the new momentum behind these laws may be the growing sense of injustice around the unequal distribution of paid sick days. Nearly three-quarters (73 percent) of full-time, private industry workers had paid sick leave plans in 2009, according to the Bureau of Labor statistics. But slice the workforce another way and you can see that almost 40 million people nationwide—including more than 80 percent of low-wage workers and 73 percent of part-time workers—don’t have any paid sick time at all. In addition to a class divide, there’s also a gender divide, with women—80 percent of whom have primary responsibility for sick kids—less likely to have paid sick time to care for them than men. “I think, for people who have paid sick days, who tend to be the opinion makers and voters, there’s a feeling that having low-income workers unable to take time off to care for themselves doesn’t seem right,” says Sherry Leiwant, co-founder and co-president of A Better Balance, a group of attorneys that has been involved in drafting and advocating for sick days bills. Most advocates seem hopeful that the current wave of state and local laws will lead to federal legislation that will cover workers in all states across the country. “The more examples we have of these policies and programs having no negative effects on business, the easier it becomes to make the case in Congress,” says Appelbaum. “You need to have this momentum to resist the business lobby and the big money that comes from them.” But while anticipation among supporters builds—and Connecticut representative Rosa DeLauro is expected to soon reintroduce the national paid-sick-leave bill, which Republicans quashed by in 2009—opposition remains fierce. The National Federation for Independent Business (which has received large donations from Karl Rove’s Crossroads GPS) has issued reports in more than a dozen states about the effects of paid-sick-leave laws, including inflated estimates of their cost to businesses and grim predictions about widespread lay-offs. Legislatively, opponents of these laws have also adopted a tactic of pre-emption, or passing laws that would make it impossible to pass sick leave laws—either by rolling back existing ones or limiting the ability of cities and towns to pass them in the future. It is a strategy that seems to be supported and spread by the powerful, far-right advocacy group, the American Legislative Exchange Council. Such a law has already passed in Mississippi, and similar bills are wending their way through the systems in Florida, Washington, and Michigan. In New York City, where one of the most painful and closely watched paid-sick-leave battles is playing out, the main opposition strategy seems to be stalling. Since 2009, Quinn has refused to bring a vote on the bill, which would require employers with five or more employees to grant up to five paid sick days a year. Even after The New York Times ran three editorials calling on her to bring the bill to a vote, prominent women in New York City wrote a public letter asking for the same thing, and supporters of the bill made 22 amendments to it in the hopes of making it more acceptable to business, Quinn hasn’t budged, insisting that a paid-sick-leave law would hurt small businesses. Still, proponents of the bill are probably right that, with or without Quinn, momentum is moving in their direction. It’s not just Portland and Philadelphia, or even the dozens of other efforts that are now underway across the country. Nor, looking internationally, is it just the generous Nordic states. The vast majority of the world’s countries, rich and poor, already offer paid sick leave. McGill Institute for Health and Social Policy Here a visual is worth many words. Thanks to Jody Heymann’s Raising the Global Floor project, we have one (you may also click on the image to the right to enlarge). Note the United States is a giant red anomaly in a mostly blue world. The red represent the zero paid sick days we guarantee annually, while the shades of blue are the various amounts of time other countries offer. (In the vast swaths of navy, which includes the Democratic Republic of the Congo—the very poorest country in the world—sick workers get 26 weeks or more off paid per year.) Most of these countries passed paid sick leave protections in the past few decades, as women entered the workforce in large numbers—and fewer families had a parent at home to take care of a sick kid. But, as the last week showed us, it’s not too late for us to catch up. “We are finally in this country having the national dialogue that they had in Sweden and other countries 40 years ago,” says Appelbaum.Ecuador-based studio Freaky Creations will bring its exploration puzzle game To Leave to the PlayStation 4 and PS Vita later this year in addition to Linux, Mac and Windows PC, creative director Estefano Palacios said. Palacios showed the latest version of the game at this year's Game Developers Conference in San Francisco, which has undergone some significant changes since we first saw it last year. The game's storytelling and cutscenes have been streamlined, and there is now a greater focus on environmental storytelling. In To Leave, players take on the role of a young boy named Harm, who is trying to leave the city of Candice. According to Palacios, the game is a metaphor for the challenges of life, and the team of developers at Freaky Creations hopes that players will be able to relate to it in some way. "[The city of Candice] is a fire with a mind, and the only thing she wants to do is to grow," Palacios said. "And to do that, she farms her people by luring them with what they desire and keeping them entertained until they are ripe to be burned. Then she goes and burns and devours them. That's how she fuels her growth." The story and events in the game can be taken literally, but Palacios hopes that players will be able to identify with Harm is some way and project themselves into the world of Candice. The game explores feelings of hopelessness, the feeling wanting to leave but being unable to, maybe because it's too hard or because it's too tempting or easy to stay. Palacios believes some people might be able to identify with these feelings in their careers, relationships, addictions or where they are in life. He told Polygon that the game's theme was inspired by unhappy relationships, people stuck in unhappy jobs and the fear of venturing out and trying something new because the status quo — unhappy as it may be — is the safest and easiest option. ...The game's theme was inspired by unhappy relationships, people stuck in unhappy jobs and the fear of venturing out... "We want to match the player's feelings with Harm's feelings," he said. "There's a point in the game where you've been trying to leave for so long you've forgotten your purpose. There's a moment where's you feel like you've been trying to break free for so longer, you don't know if it will ever happen. Then you realize Harm's motivation for leaving. He's hanging onto his door, he feels like he's going to go down, he knows he could just go back, but he remembers why he is leaving. He remembers what kind of pain Candice inflicts, what kind of loneliness you can experience in Candice, and how Candice doesn't let you do what you want. "The purpose for the team is to make Harm's story a bit vague in order for the player to project meaning into it. We want the player to say, 'In my life, this was happening to me.' Maybe it will resonate with players." To Leave was developed within Sony Computer Entertainment's Latin America Incubation Program, which is an initiative that helps game development communities in Latin America make games for PlayStation consoles. The Incubation Program loans development kits to game-makers in the region at no cost and provides them with access to Sony's developer support website. Palacios told Polygon that without the program, To Leave would not have come as far as it has today. Speaking to Polygon, the program's account manager Mike Foster said Latin America has largely been ignored by the rest of the world in terms of game development, which is why he and a few members of SCEA decided to travel to the region to see in what ways they could support the local industry. "We were amazed by the passion and enthusiasm present in game development," Foster said. "I immediately fell in love with the community there and knew right away I wanted to be involved in bringing attention to them in any way I could. "From the first time we met the team at Freaky Creations, we knew they were creative and motivated. Their game, To Leave, clearly stands out from a visual standpoint, and the gameplay is a great metaphor for the difficulty all of us face in trying to leave situations in life where we are stuck. I believe that the unique look and storyline if really going to capture the player's interest and, of course, the game is fun to play, with its evolving gameplay and incredibly difficult, yet rewarding level of challenge."Illustration: Tom Lynton Illustration: Tom Lynton Before my friend Mark Fisher died in January, he had been working on a book called Acid Communism. This was Mark’s term for a utopian sensibility shared by the political radicals and psychedelic experimentalists of the counterculture of the 1960s and 70s. It rejected both the conformism and authoritarianism that characterised much of post-war society and the crass individualism of consumer culture. It sought to raise the consciousness of individuals and society as a whole, be that through the creative use of psychedelic chemicals, aesthetic experiments in music and other arts, new kinds of household arrangements, radical forms of therapy, social and political revolution, or all of the above. Mark had no personal interest in psychedelics. He liked the idea of ‘acid’ as an adjective, describing an attitude of improvisatory creativity and belief in the possibility of seeing the world differently in order to improve it. In fact, when we first got to know each other, he still considered himself a hippy-hating post-punk, utterly dismissive of the legacy of both the summer of love and the radicalism of ‘1968’. But I (and others) persuaded him that it was a mistake to go along with the views of figures like Slavoj Zizek, or Adam Curtis, who simply dismissed the counterculture and the radicalism of the 1960s and 70s. These commentators tend to focus on how the utopianism of the counterculture apparently led directly to the banal individualism of ‘new age’ and late 20th-century narcissistic consumerism. I have always argued that those outcomes must be seen as distortions of the radical potential of the counterculture, which had had to be neutralised and captured by a capitalist culture that found itself under genuine threat from radical forces in the early 1970s. Technologies of the self From this perspective, techniques of self-transformation like yoga, meditation or even psychedelic drugs, in theory, might have some kind of radical potential if they are connected to a wider culture of questioning capitalist culture and organising politically against it. By the same token, they can easily become banal distractions, ways of enabling individuals to tolerate every-intensifying levels of exploitation and alienation. These ‘technologies of the self’, to use Michel Foucault’s term, have no inherent political meaning. From a progressive political perspective the question is whether, and if so how, they can be used to challenge entrenched assumptions of capitalist culture, enabling people to overcome their individualism in order to create potent and creative collectivities. For the women’s movement of the early 1970s, the most important ‘technology of the self’ was probably the ‘consciousness-raising group’ – small groups of women who would meet to discuss all kinds of personal and social issues from a feminist perspective, seeking to liberate themselves from sexist and patriarchal assumptions. This was also the moment when black power and the gay liberation movement reached their most intense levels of politicisation, and when the politics of the ‘New Left’ was at its most influential. What linked together all of their political positions was a rejection both of traditional hierarchies and of any simple individualism. These movements were libertarian, promoting an ideal of freedom, but they understood freedom as something that could only be achieved or experienced collectively. Higher consciousness Mark was interested in reviving the idea of ‘consciousness-raising’, and in theorising the effects of capitalist ideology in terms of ‘depletion of consciousness’. This is a way of thinking about the techniques used by various apparatuses of power – from school league tables to the tabloid press. As many previous writers have noted, such institutions operate not just by feeding us false information, but also by affecting us emotionally in order to make us feel less able to act in the world, less able to think creatively or dynamically. From this perspective, ‘raising’ consciousness isn’t just a matter of giving people information about the sources of their oppression. It is also about enabling them to feel connected and alive, personally and collectively powerful enough to challenge their oppression. There’s a fascinating confluence between the idea of ‘higher’ consciousness that emerges in some of the mystical, yogic and philosophical literature of the 20th century and the idea of politically ‘raised’ consciousness that became so central to 1970s radicalism. Both of these ideas had older antecedents. Radical politics can take strength and inspiration from cultural forms that promote feelings of collective joy The idea of raised political consciousness had its roots in the Marxist idea of ‘class consciousness’, whereby workers come to realise that their shared interests as workers are more significant than their private interest as individuals, or the cultural differences they may have with other workers. The mystical idea of ‘higher’ consciousness has its roots in Hindu and Buddhist ideas of the individual self as an illusion. Escape from that illusion, realisation that the self is only an incidental element of a wider cosmos, is sometimes referred to as ‘enlightentment’. But the original sanskrit and pali terms might be better translated as ‘awoken’. Maybe it’s not an accident that ‘woke’ has become a popular radical slang term for raised political consciousness. Collective joy Many writers thinking along similar lines have argued that radical politics can take strength and inspiration from cultural forms that promote feelings of collective joy (festivals, disco, etc), overcoming the alienating individualism of capitalist culture. An interest in this, and all of these other ideas about consciousness-raising and radical social organisation, motivated some of the organisers of The World Transformed, and Labour activist Matthew Phull, to approach me about the possibility of creating a space to discuss them at this year’s event. It was Matt who came up with the phrase ‘Acid Corbynism’, a suggestive term implicitly raising the question of whether it would be possible to link the politics of the current Labour left to this tradition of utopian experimentalism. In fact, there are already historical links between them. A crucial feature of the politics of the New Left was its critique of bureaucratic authoritarianism, in the public sector and the commercial world. The radicals of the New Left called for the democratisation of households, workplaces and public institutions, from schools to the BBC. Labour’s general election manifesto made few concessions to this tradition, being almost entirely a list of things that central government would do and rules it would impose. But last year Labour commissioned a study into the feasibility of implementing new co-operative and radically democratic forms of ownership of enterprises and services, reminding us that the call for workers’ control of industry was part of the radical tradition associated with Tony Benn and his followers in the 1970s and 80s (the most famous of those followers being Corbyn himself). Although critics of Corbynism see it as a personality cult focused entirely on the leader himself, Corbynite activists have found themselves part of a largely self-organised movement, seeking to raise public consciousness and their own political effectiveness through the use of cutting-edge communications technologies. Perhaps campaigning apps and organising platforms are our new technologies of the self. Whether these radical tendencies can be developed into a full-blown project to democratise British institutions (including the Labour Party) remains to be seen. But history suggests that political and social change on the scale we seek must be accompanied by extensive cultural innovation. Pro-Corbyn memes and football chants are a start. What new forms of expression may emerge in the years ahead, nobody can predict. It seems certain, however, that the struggle against neoliberalism and authoritarian conservatism will still require forms of culture that are collectivist without being conformist, liberating without simply breaking social ties.A couple of dozen people plan to continue looking for missing Appalachian Trail hiker Geraldine Largay with the aid of search dogs in the coming weeks. Largay, 66, from Tennessee, was reported missing July 24 while hiking the Appalachian Trail from West Virginia to Maine. After a week of extensive searching, the Maine Warden Service scaled back the search but left the investigation open and welcomed any new leads. Additional Photos George Largay and his wife, Geraldine, at the Ramsey Cascades in Great Smoky Mountains National Park, which straddles the borders of Tennessee and North Carolina. Geraldine Largay has been missing since July from a portion of the Appalachian Trail between Route 4 near Rangeley and Route 27 in Wyman Township. Contributed photo via Facebook The poster the Maine Warden Service is distributing to seek additional information about missing Applachian Trail hiker Geraldine Largay. Contributed photo “We will continue to search as long as we can reasonably believe that we can find something,” Cpl. John MacDonald said on Thursday, adding that any chance at closure for Largay’s family and friends is worth the search. “It still hasn’t been too long, and if there is the likelihood that we can find something, we will search. That’s what we do.” While no new leads were reported, according to MacDonald, the search will pick up in a couple of weeks with about 25 searchers and some search dogs. The warden service also has put up posters at popular trails and hunting locations in the area, showing a photo of Largay and details about her and her disappearance. “Every case is different, and we’re certainly not closing this one,” MacDonald said. “As time goes on, we’ll continue searching, weather and schedule permitting.” The news of Largay’s disappearance has spread among hikers who continue to call or email wardens, MacDonald said. “The hiking community is tightly knit, so I get the feeling that word about Largay has spread,” MacDonald said. “Many hikers are more diligent, looking for anything that could help while they’re hiking.” MacDonald said dozens of them have called with potential tips, some of which have been helpful, while others prove to be fruitless. “We’ve talked to people claming to see (Largay), and it wasn’t her,” MacDonald said. Largay’s last confirmed sighting, according to the warden service, was on July 22, when an unidentified female hiker took a picture of her at Poplar Ridge lean-to. MacDonald said the female hiker provided useful information that helped narrow Largay’s potential whereabouts, but he would not say anymore about the woman. He also said the warden service has contacted hiker Trevor Pike, whose father wrote in a blog that Pike had interacted with Largay, but he wouldn’t comment further. He said the information is kept confidential because of the ongoing missing-person investigation, which is typical during a search for a missing hiker. MacDonald also would not comment about the tip the warden service received about a hiker who reportedly stayed with Largay at the Spaulding Mountain lean-to the night before she was reported missing. “We’re not naming who the caller is, because the information that she provided may have been interpreted incorrectly,” he said. MacDonald said in a previous email that the warden service knows Largay didn’t spend the night at the Spaulding lean-to before she disappeared. The posters have been placed throughout the region where Largay was hiking. “Hunting season is coming up, and we want to get word out to those who haven’t heard about it yet,” MacDonald said. When Largay was reported missing, she was a day overdue for a meeting with her husband, George Largay, who had communicated with her throughout the trip via text messages and met her periodically to replenish her supplies. George Largay was planning to meet his wife July 23 in Wyman Township for supplies, but after a day passed with no sign of his wife, he reported her absence. MacDonald said Largay’s husband waited a day because the poor weather and the trail’s rough terrain prompted him to give her more time to show up. Largay started her hike in April, 950 miles south in West Virginia and was about 200 miles from the Appalachian Trail’s northern end, Mount Katahdin’s Baxter Peak, when she disappeared. The warden service said 98 percent of people reported missing are found within 48 hours. George Largay told the Tennessean newspaper in August that his family isn’t giving up hope but is moving on. Plans for a memorial service for his wife are set for Oct. 12 outside Atlanta, where the couple lived for many years, according to McNeely Pigott & Fox Public Relations. Largay has been a client of the firm for 15 years for business purposes, according to the company. Jesse Scardina — 861-9239 [email protected] Share filed under:Japan’s suicide rate is the sixth highest in the world and the second worst among eight major industrialized nations, according to the latest government white paper on suicide measures released Tuesday. This year’s report, approved by the Cabinet, shows that the number of people who took their own life declined to 21,897 in 2016, the lowest level in 22 years. But the figures also show that suicide was the top cause of death among people in five age groups from 15 to 39, a trend that stands out amid a decline in other generations. Japan’s suicide rate (the number of suicides per 100,000 people) stood at 19.5 as of 2014. Russia topped the list of eight major economies at 21.8. Japan’s rate was higher than 15.1 in France, 13.4 in the U.S., 12.6 in Germany, 11.3 in Canada, 7.5 in Britain and 7.2 in Italy. The year of most-recent available statistics varies by country. The highest rate was observed in Lithuania, where 30.8 out of 100,000 were recorded as having taken their own lives. It was followed by 28.5 in South Korea and 24.2 in Suriname. The 11.7 suicide rate for Japanese women was the third highest, following South Korea’s 17.3 and Suriname’s 13.4. Tuesday’s report, the 11th annual installment, indicates that Japan’s campaign against suicide has made some progress. The number of suicides surged in the late 1990s and remained above 30,000 for more than 10 years, with the highest number — 34,427 — recorded in 2003. The figure has remained below 30,000 since 2012. Since mapping out its first policy principles on suicide countermeasures in 2007, the government has taken a series of steps, including strengthening research on the medical and social causes of suicide, setting up more hotlines, holding seminars for municipal leaders, and beefing up support for people who attempted suicide and for next of kin. The white paper includes the results of a survey the government carried out last October of 3,000 people aged 20 and older. In the survey, 46.9 percent of the respondents said they hesitate to seek help from others when they are confronted with stress and 23.6 percent said they have contemplated suicide. As for future measures that they wish to see established, 59.9 percent said they want to prevent their children from taking their own lives, 51.2 percent said they want more consultation centers that can respond to various kinds of problems and 47.2 percent said they want mental health to be promoted in workplaces.In many Western countries, crooked teeth are seen as imperfections and most people consider a straight set of pearly whites ideal. The story is slightly different in Japan, where yaeba, or snaggletooth, are considered cute; with some men finding the imperfect smile they form endearingly childlike and attractive. Okay, so maybe ‘snaggletooth’ is an unfair translation. Yaeba literally means “multilayered” or “double” tooth, and describes the fanged look achieved when molars crowd the canines and push them forward. It’s not a serious dental deformity, but it’s certainly enough to get you picked on at school in some countries. Thanks to the popularity of pop-idol group AKB48′s Tomomi Itano (pictured above) and other celebrities sporting a pair of rogue chompers of their own, yaeba has turned into a cosmetic craze in recent years, with Japanese women of all ages flocking to dental clinics to have temporary or permanent artificial canines, called tsuke-yaeba, glued to their teeth. The price? Anywhere from US$210 – $540 — per tooth. Dental Salon Plasir, located in Tokyo’s ritzy Ginza district, is one such clinic offering a tsuke-yaeba procedure, and they’ve even made this informative commercial so you can see what the process of paying someone to wreck your teeth is like: Longtime readers of our site might also recall the world’s first snaggletooth girl group, TYB48 suke-aea48), which held their debut concert in Akihabara, Tokyo, last April.TYB48 was actually formed by another dental clinic offering tsuke-yaeba, Pure Cure in Roppongi, Tokyo. Excite recently sat down with clinic director and strapping young playboy Taro Masuoka (pictured below) to ask him about the popularity of tsuke-yaeba and how he came up with the idea for a pop group. “Yaeba give girls an impish cuteness”, spoke Masuoka, who for some reason deliberately lists himself as ‘single’ on the Pure Cure website. “It’s a sense of beauty unique to the Japanese, but yaeba can be an attractive feature on women in their teens and twenties.” He even encourages the former group into his clinic with a half-price discount on tsuke-yaeba for middle school and high school students (ID required). Masuoka, a Sagittarius and B blood type, admits that there are some women who come back to have their tsuke-yaeba taken off, and for that reason also offers removable-type tsuke-yaeba at the same price. Regarding the formation of TYB48, Masuoka, who enjoys making cakes and cosplaying in his free time, explains: “A lot of my patients are fashion-conscious and very cute. I wanted to find some way to take advantage of this, so I formed TYB48.” While TYB48 has yet to make it big on the pop idol stage, it looks like the yaeba craze will be sticking around in Japan for awhile; but could it ever catch on overseas? Let us know what you think of the look in the comments below
Waldorf Towers (paid for by a Louisville businessman who hoped to manage Clay) where the Olympic champion spent an hour showing Schaap photographs he had taken in Rome. Eventually, as Schaap recalls, he had to go to bed. “’Cassius,’ I said, ‘you’re going to have to explain to my wife tomorrow why I didn’t get home tonight.’ ‘You mean,’ said Cassius, ‘your wife knows who I is, too?’” The perceived wisdom, largely drawn from Ali’s autobiography The Greatest: My Own Story (which he claimed not to have read) is that Clay later threw his gold medal into the Ohio river after a Louisville restaurant refused to serve him and a motorcycle gang threatened him. In fact, this story was invented – he simply lost the medal. He admitted years later: “I don’t know where I put that thing.” Ali was issued with a replacement gold medal at half-time in the USA v Yugoslavia basketball game at the Atlanta Games in 1996. Ali had already made an impact in Atlanta. Shaking, trembling but still majestic, he took the Olympic torch from the swimmer Janet Evans and lit the flame at the opening ceremony. It is as enduring a memory from that Games as any achieved by an athlete.Image copyright Reuters Image caption Christian families had already fled when the rioters struck Police in the Pakistani city of Lahore have made 150 arrests after Muslims torched dozens of Christian homes in response to an allegation of blasphemy. Government officials and emergency teams are examining the damage in the city's Joseph Colony area to see how people can be helped, police said. The Christians had already fled their homes when the mob struck on Saturday. Christians gathered in Lahore and Karachi, the country's biggest city, to protest at the attack. They condemned the violence and called for better protection as well as compensation for those affected. Christians make up about 1.6% of Pakistan's mainly Muslim population. Allegations of blasphemy against Islam are taken very seriously with a number of controversial recent prosecutions. Compensation Police said two friends, a Muslim and a Christian, had apparently become involved in a drunken argument, with the former accusing the latter of a blasphemous comment. It appears that a crowd of Muslims went from a mosque on Friday to the house of the Christian man. The man was taken into police custody in a bid to pacify the crowd while hundreds of Christians fled their homes. Pakistan's blasphemy laws After partition in 1947 Pakistan inherited offences relating to religion which were first codified by India's British rulers in 1860 In the 1980s clauses were added to the laws by the military government of General Zia-ul Haq One clause recommends life imprisonment for "wilful" desecration of the Koran, another says blasphemy is punishable by death or life imprisonment Muslims constitute a majority of those booked under these laws, followed by the minority Ahmadi community A majority support the idea that blasphemers should be punished, but there is little understanding of what religious scripture says as opposed to how the modern law is codified Q&A: Pakistan's controversial blasphemy laws On Saturday, a mob began ransacking and burning their houses. A police officer, Abdul Majid, said later on Saturday that one group had taken it upon themselves to dispense justice. "Last night, after arresting the man [accused], I told everyone that I had arrested him and there was no need for any agitation but one group insisted that I should hand him over to them," he said. "That group is responsible for all this." Suspected rioters were arrested after police viewed TV footage of the attacks. Pervez Rashid, a spokesman for the Punjab provincial government, told Geo television the suspects "would be tried in anti-terrorist courts". Punjab police said four officers had been removed from their posts for "negligence". One Christian man whose house was torched, Jani Masih, asked why innocent Christians were being punished for one man's alleged crime. "What is our fault?" he asked AP news agency. "What have we done? We could have been held responsible if we had done anything. This is cruel." Christians held small rallies after the violence to demand an inquiry. Father Peter John, from the Church of St Patrick in Karachi, urged the government to "see also that the people who are affected, their properties are burnt... get some sort of compensation". Mr Rashid told Geo TV that each family would get 200,000 rupees ($2,050) and their homes repaired.The democrats need to stop whining about Senator Obama, get off our butts and help him win. Enough with the all the hand wringing, with all the "what Obama NEEDS to do NOW" advice and Hillary comeback fantasies. Obama WILL win but he needs YOUR help. Let's focus our energy on getting Obama elected. What have you done today to help Obama win? Stop whining, get busy. If your ignorant friend keeps forwarding those "Obama is a secret Muslim who wasn't born in the US and by the way, did you notice that he's black?" e-mails, delete the e-mail and register a few voters to cancel out the ignoramus vote. Don't get mad, get even. Dems worry that whites won't vote for a black man. That means we need to focus on registering more people who WILL vote for a black man. Stop worrying about those who would never have supported the ticket for whatever reason and focus on making the case for Obama-Biden with the others. Obama needs your help to win and he's asked you to get in your friends and neighbor's faces: "I need you to go out and talk to your friends and talk to your neighbors. I want you to talk to them whether they are independent or whether they are Republican. I want you to argue with them and get in their face," he said. "And if they tell you that, 'Well, we're not sure where he stands on guns.' I want you to say, 'He believes in the Second Amendment.' If they tell you, 'Well, he's going to raise your taxes,' you say, 'No, he's not, he's going lower them.' You are my ambassadors. You guys are the ones who can make the case." Keep It Simple. McCain Equals Bush. Period. McCain = Bush means we win. Continuing to whine about Palin means they win. Let's continue to weave the narrative that a vote for McCain is four more years of the failed Bush policies. Remind voters that McCain voted 90% of the time with Bush. We need to point out just how dishonorable this once honorable man has sunk by saying and doing anything to win. With McCain, it's politics first, country last. Please don't be distracted by the new shiny thing called Palin. If you insist on talking about Palin, focus on McCain's poor judgment. Focus on McCain - a 72 year old, four-time cancer survivor, who picked a corrupt, lightweight to be a heart beat away from the Presidency. Tie them both to Bush: "What the difference between Palin and Bush? Lipstick. As far as we know." Sarah "I Can See Russia" Palin is dropping like a rock. The media is starting to do the vetting the McCain camp didn't. At some point, she has to do a press conference. Doesn't she? We just need to keep focusing on the economy and pointing out that the "Anything But Straight Talk Express" full of good old boys can't fix what ails us: "Yesterday, John McCain actually said that if he's president he'll take on, and I quote, 'the old boys' network in Washington.' I'm not making this up. This is somebody been in Congress for 26 years, who put seven of the most powerful Washington lobbyists in charge of his campaign. And now he tells us that he's the one who's gonna take on the old boys' network," he said. "In the McCain campaign that's called a staff meeting!" Obama Has Earned Your Support Senator Obama beat the Clintons - the best known brand of the Democratic Party. Obama raised more money, he worked the delegate rules to beat them and built the finest field operation that has been up and running for months. The McCain field operation is a joke compared to ours. The "No Drama with Obama" campaign was well-run by professionals without the drama and back-biting of the Clintons. They stayed on message, made adjustments when necessary and won the primary. In Denver, despite all the carping about the Clintons, Obama unified the party. The Clintons did an amazing job helping him to that end! It was an amazing and inspiring convention. We must remain unified in the face of the recent attacks, smears and lies. Hillary has her nose to the grindstone for Obama and so should you. Obama's Getting His Groove Back, He's Barack On Track Obama is getting his groove back. Obama is a marathoner who is sometimes a bit slow on the pivot. During the primary, there were bumps in the road but he always managed to adjust. He started as a weak debater but thanks to Hillary he improved during the dozens of democratic debates. John McCain and the repugs only had eight debates to prepare him for battle. However, we need to continue to up the ante for the GOP ticket, "McCain and Palin are skillful politicians." Ratchet up expectations for their debate performances. Resist repeating the GOP talking point that Biden has to be gentle because Palin is a girl. Obama is pivoting and punching back now. The Obama campaign is unleashing more surrogates. They are running lots of new ads. Throw him a bone please. Roderick Spencer nails it. Obama is GOOD at this. We need to calm down: There is a consistent story out of the Obama campaign. It goes like this: an attack is launched by one of his opponents. The attack appears to be working. Poll numbers change. A gap widens, or narrows. Dismay starts to surface as the candidate and his closest advisors don't seem to be doing anything. Eventually, there is a meeting, or a conference call. Suggestions of how to respond come in thick and fast. Voices clamor to be heard. Then, through the noise comes this directive, "Okay, let's everybody just calm down. Here's what we're going to do." The conversation quickly goes from clamorous to orderly, from strident to strategic, and the campaign moves forward. Since Iowa, remember Iowa!?, this has been happening. Yet it seems that with each new punch thrown by the opposition, his most avid supporters, especially those on the chattering Left who supposedly know better, seem to forget... that Barack Obama is GOOD AT THIS. Hillary Won't Be Our VP. Enough Already. Seriously. You have to admire the tenacity of the Hillary supporters who still she a way she can get on the ticket. OK. Repeat after me, "Hillary is not and will not be Obama's VP!" We've moved on. So should you. Oh and embrace Biden...and his gaffes. Biden will continue to make gaffes. We should continue to shrug the gaffes off, "Oh that's just Joe!" Stop Whining, Do Your Part and Register Voters to Win We need to register voters while we can. Many states cut off registration in early October. The key to winning is registration and turn out. Thanks to the contentious battle with Senator Clinton, since 2006, the dems have registered 2.1 million voters while the repugs have lost 440,000. At a minimum, contact your "fab five", confirm they are registered and talk to them about why you support Obama. Use the Obama website or blogs as a resource to educate them about your candidate. Focus on these key dates to mobilize your base: September 26, 2008: Presidential debate with foreign policy focus, University of Mississippi, Oxford, MS October 2, 2008: Vice Presidential debate, Washington University, St. Louis, MO October 7, 2008: Presidential debate in a town hall format, Belmont University, Nashville, TN October 15, 2008: Presidential debate with domestic policy focus, Hofstra University, Hempstead, NY You have a few days to pull together a debate watch party and raise money for Obama. Despite record breaking fundraising, the RNC maintains a cash advantage. From Obama's Website: Here's How to Make Change: The Obama campaign asks you how do you want to get involved: "I'll talk to anyone", "I'll talk to my friends, family, and neighbors" or "I want to help on my own". Read through the options at the Obama Action Center and figure out how you will spend the next five weeks getting him elected. Enough whining. Get active. Let them pry this election from our cold dead hands. The Obama campaign has 2,400 staff members and offices in all 50 states registering voters and getting out the vote. Obama needs more volunteers in your home town to maintain the edge in his superior field operation.You can taste the iPad influence in Google’s Nexus 9 tablet. Laying eyes on it for the first time, you’d be forgiven for thinking Apple made it. The slim bezel and the 4:3 aspect ratio screen are very iPad, but the display is slightly smaller — 8.9 inches to Apple’s 9.7. At 15 ounces (425 grams), the Nexus 9 just as light as the iPad Air 2. The metallic rim adds the iPad feel, but I noted one important difference: It's easier to hold the Nexus 9 in one hand. I was able to grasp it more or less comfortably with my fingertips on one side and my thumb on the other, but I'm 6'4" (with what I suspect are normal-sized hands for that height) so your mileage may vary here. Even the Nexus 9's pixel count is identical to the iPad’s at 2,048 x 1,536. Clearly, Google and HTC, which built the tablet, have stopped any pretense about differentiating and are going with what works. The Google Nexus 9 with optional keyboard case. Image: Mashable, Elizabeth Pierson We’ll save the discussion about the merits of imitation for another time, but there’s no question the Nexus 9 is a well-made tablet. Powered by the latest Android software — version 5.0 or “Lollipop” — the Nexus 9 is one of the first devices to pack a Tegra K1 processor. That brings 64-bit processing, which translates into faster performance overall while preserving battery life. Firing up a few apps and websites, I found the tablet to be plenty fast and very good a multitasking. Lots of people use tablets to watch movies, and the Nexus 9 has something special in that department: Great stereo speakers. Dialing up the latest Avengers: Age of Ultron trailer on YouTube, I could hear the action even in a loud, crowded room. When you fold the corner of the Nexus 9's "origami" case, it automatically launches the camera. Image: Mashable, Elizabeth Pierson My favorite feature of the Nexus 9 is how the camera works with the "origami" style case. The case attaches via magnets, but fold over the corner that covers the camera and the camera app automatically launches. People do take photos with tablets after all, and at least this can mean they won't look extra ridiculous with a tablet cover hanging from the bottom. If there’s a tablet that will move the needle for Google it’s the Nexus 9. Smaller tablets are getting eaten alive by phablets, but Googles latest big-screen mode looks like a winner at first blush. Just don’t tell Apple.President Trump speaks during a White House news conference on June 9. (Pete Marovich/Bloomberg) It remains unlikely that President Trump will face a serious threat of impeachment. Despite the slowly accumulating information about investigations into Russian meddling in the 2016 election — and Trump’s reaction to those investigations — he has an ace in the hole. A trump card, if you will. His party is very unlikely to vote to impeach him, and his party controls Congress. It’s as simple as that. Impeachment is a political decision, and there is no sign at this point that there’s a political reward for most Republicans in taking on Trump. Members of Congress represent their constituencies, but they also keep one eye trained on how their political base is doing. As long as Republican voters are happy with Trump, Republican members of Congress will be, too. There is a very important qualifier to the preceding paragraph: “at this point.” As time goes on, how Republican voters (and therefore Republican members of Congress) view Trump may change. They may grow more fond of him; their opinions may grow more negative. There may also come a time when Trump’s unpopular enough with non-Republicans that Republicans who may face close races in 2018 will grow more and more likely to defect from his team. It’s anyone’s guess how the next few months will unfold. With that in mind, we put together an index that incorporates key metrics which can offer insight into how much of a risk of impeachment Trump faces. The higher Trump’s impeachment index score, the more the political risk is growing. Every six hours, the tool loads the current data. Here’s what’s included: PredictIt market data. (Low importance.) The website PredictIt allows users to buy shares in the likelihood of an event happening. If people start buying more shares of Trump being impeached by the end of 2018, they think that’s more likely to happen — and our index moves up. . (Low importance.) The website PredictIt allows users to buy shares in the likelihood of an event happening. If people start buying more shares of Trump being impeached by the end of 2018, they think that’s more likely to happen — and our index moves up. Trump job approval data. (High importance.) The RealClearPolitics average of Trump’s job approval rating. . (High importance.) The RealClearPolitics average of Trump’s job approval rating. The generic congressional ballot. (High importance.) The RealClearPolitics average of recent polling on the generic congressional ballot — which is to say, how likely Americans are to say they plan to vote for a Democrat or Republican next year. . (High importance.) The RealClearPolitics average of recent polling on the generic congressional ballot — which is to say, how likely Americans are to say they plan to vote for a Democrat or Republican next year. “Wrong track” polling. (Low importance.) The RealClearPolitics average of recent polling on whether people think America is headed in the right direction or on the wrong track. Granted, the index takes a quantitative approach to a subjective thing — whether Republicans in Congress are nervous enough about Trump and whether there’s enough evidence to impeach him. As the investigation into Trump’s campaign and his behavior in office expands, though, and as polling continues to shift away from Trump, these are data points that will be worth tracking. As of writing, the Index is probably right: The odds that Trump is ousted remain low. As of writing.(CNN) Emboldened by Donald Trump's surprise victory, Republican lawmakers vowed after Election Night that they wouldn't waste a single day to pursue their most urgent mission: Kill Obamacare. The President-elect, too, has been in a hurry, declaring that the Affordable Care Act must be repealed and replaced more or less at the same time. "Probably the same day, could be the same hour," Trump said at a news conference last week But on Capitol Hill, urgency doesn't always translate into speed. In the first two weeks of the new year, Republican leaders have confronted resistance from rank-and-file lawmakers from across the ideological spectrum. Nervous about the potential political fallout of moving too fast on Obamacare repeal, some Republicans are now cautioning restraint -- a stark contrast from their ferocious attacks against President Barack Obama's signature health care law over the past several years. Trump further complicated matters over the weekend when he told The Washington Post that he was nearly finished with his own plan to replace Obamacare and warned that he won't let Congress get in his way. "The Congress can't get cold feet because the people will not let that happen," Trump said. Although he didn't offer much in the way of details, the incoming president's comment that he wants both "insurance for everybody" with "much lower deductibles" sets the stage for a potential clash and drawn out negotiations with Republican lawmakers who have been stressing universal access over universal coverage. "Repeal and replace is a bloody complicated exercise," said Brian Fortune, president of the Farragut Square Group, a health care consulting firm in Washington. "The challenge for the Republicans is, of course, to rework something without getting blamed for all the downstream effects -- quite difficult. Senate Republicans got the ball rolling on Day One of the new session of Congress, introducing a budget resolution whose sole purpose was to repeal the health care law. Following Senate and House approval of the resolution last week, Republicans now get to work on crafting a second measure -- a budget reconciliation bill -- that contains the language to roll back big chunks of Obamacare. But leading up to last week's first procedural vote, Republicans in both chambers expressed deep reservations. The overarching worry among Republicans is that the party will vote to dismantle major portions of a law that covers some 20 million people before there is even a blueprint for an alternative, and be held responsible for widespread disruptions in health insurance. JUST WATCHED Trump on repealing Obamacare Replay More Videos... MUST WATCH Trump on repealing Obamacare 00:30 Complicating matters is the reality that several main pillars of the law enjoy broad support, such as the pre-existing conditions rule as well as a provision that allows children under the age of 26 to stay on their parents' health policy. In the House, a mix of conservative and moderate lawmakers was skittish about supporting the budget resolution. They pressed House Speaker Paul Ryan for reassurances that the process of replacing Obamacare would unfold around the same time as the vote to repeal it. GOP Rep. Charlie Dent of Pennsylvania told CNN before the vote on Friday that things were moving too quickly. "I'm very concerned on the policy side specifically, that the replacement occur either simultaneously or as close to simultaneously as possible," Dent said. "If we don't provide a credible replacement plan, my main concern is that there would not be gaps in coverage for people who are currently subsidized. Also concerned about how the insurance markets might react." Dent -- along with eight other House Republicans -- ultimately voted against the budget resolution. And in the Senate, a group of five GOP senators introduced an amendment to the budget resolution to extend the deadline by which to craft the reconciliation bill -- the measure that would repeal Obamacare -- from January 27 to March 3. While that deadline is largely viewed as symbolic and unenforced, the senators were sending a clear message: We need more time to figure out what's next. "We just want to make sure that we get it right," GOP Sen. Susan Collins of Maine, one of the supporters of the amendment, told CNN. "One of the problems with Obamacare is that it was rushed through without input from Republicans for the most part, and we realize that insurance markets are complicated. And we don't want people to fall through the cracks." Asked whether the amendment signaled that Republicans were increasingly less concerned about overhauling Obamacare on the most expedient timeline, Republican Sen. Bill Cassidy of Louisiana, another author of the amendment, pushed back. "My gosh. If you're going to say we're going to fly to the moon but we're going to do it in March instead of next week, would you still feel it's pretty urgent?" Cassidy said. "You'd say, oh my gosh, we've got to get to work!" Under pressure, Ryan has grown increasingly emphatic that there will not be long lag time between a repeal vote and when Congress considers a replacement package or set of measures. At a CNN town hall last week, Ryan went as far as to say that GOP leaders would repeal and replace "at the same time." But other than to say that there would be action within the first 100 days of the Trump administration, he declined to commit to a specific timeline, noting that the whole process would take "a little bit of time." But even while lawmakers in his party are growing wary of acting too quickly, Trump has been ratcheting up the pressure on Republicans to help him deliver on his campaign promise as fast as possible. JUST WATCHED Full interview: Senator Rand Paul Replay More Videos... MUST WATCH Full interview: Senator Rand Paul 09:50 And if in fact Trump does release an Obamacare replacement plan of his own, that could present a series of new challenges for Ryan and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell who are under pressure to satisfy an array of ideological priorities from rank-and-file members. At his news conference in New York City last week, Trump said that a plan to repeal and replace the health care law would be submitted "as soon as" Tom Price, his nominee for Health and Human Services secretary, is confirmed. Price, a Georgia congressman, will testify before the Senate Health committee on Wednesday, but the Senate Finance committee, which will vote on his confirmation, has not yet set a hearing date. It's unclear what role Price will have in shaping the GOP's new healthcare system, and a Trump transition official told CNN that the incoming administration is "taking nothing for granted" before the congressman's confirmation. "It's all about the confirmation," the official said. "Nobody's looking past that date."I can feel it in my bones, I can almost touch it — the Independent Republic of London. It’s an idea whose time has surely come. Scotland still has a burning independence flame, Catalonia had its unofficial referendum. Why not London? It dominates its country politically, culturally and economically like few other cities; it is the birthplace of modern democracy, Charlie Chaplin and Pret A Manger. Our population is two-thirds bigger than Scotland’s; our economy is two-thirds bigger than Catalonia’s. Per head, west London is the richest area in Europe — above Luxembourg, Hamburg and Brussels. Yet the capital has been outvoted by rural England. It is being dragged out of the EU against its will. It is under the control of a Conservative government it didn’t elect. Its brand of liberalism is out of the game. It’s not the specifics, it’s the principle. Shouldn’t we point out that it’s our ball, and we are taking it home? Benedict Anderson, the sociologist, described nations as “imagined communities”. What are Londoners if not one people, bound together by our frustration at the District Line and an urban sense of superiority? Actually, the sense of superiority is very nuanced: we ascribe to ourselves the virtues of cosmopolitanism without any of the self-centeredness that afflicts New Yorkers. Truly, we would be the Goldilocks nation. What about the practicalities? An independent London would stay in the EU. We would seek a deep and special partnership with the rest of the UK. We would take back control of our laws, money and borders. Our flag would be the Tube map. Our border would be the M25 motorway. Relax — it would be as frictionless as possible. An even more global London. The love child of medieval Venice and today’s Hong Kong. I know what you’re going to say: there might be an economic cost. Indeed there might. But look at the upside. House prices might fall. You might get a seat on the 113 bus, or a centre court ticket at Wimbledon. We need a figurehead who knows London but also knows Leaving. Boris Johnson, if you’re reading this... London’s dominance is a mixed blessing. We have been clogged up by the headquarters of national power — the ministries, the monarchy, the BBC. Better to turn Westminster, Buckingham Palace and Oxford Circus over to the tourists, who have pretty much taken control of them anyway. A London enclave could do us all a favour. It would regenerate the rest of the UK. Plus Britain would no longer be an island nation — adieu to the isolationist psyche. We Londoners would lose our stake in the England football team winning the World Cup, but most of us lost that a while back. Immigration inevitably would be a thorny topic. Of course we would, to quote Brexit secretary David Davis, make a generous offer. Our starting point is that anyone with an Oyster public transport card would be allowed unlimited right to remain. What happens if you lose your Oyster? Would we really allow free movement to those from Hungary but not from Hull? These are details the Department for Exiting the UK would have no problem sorting out. Presumably. We would need a national anthem. Which is tricky given that The Beatles were from Liverpool, and nearly everyone else on the Wikipedia page for best British bands seems to have come from Manchester. There was a suggestion that we could try something whimsical by Flanders and Swann, but it turns out they were born in Wales. Again, this is something the Department would need to look at. These uncertainties might damage the prospect of the London Leave campaign, so we would need a popular figurehead to win the case for independence. A person of flexible views. Who knows London, but also knows Leaving. Former mayor Boris Johnson, if you’re reading this, please phone the office. And delete any previous article you’ve written opposing an independent London. And yet something doesn’t quite convince. For one thing, where will it end? Already, UK Independence party councillors in Havering have tried unsuccessfully to separate their borough from the Greater London Authority. Who could stop a similar separatist movement in Hampstead or Dulwich? The literati would plot in the London Review of Books, and no one else would find out until it was too late. Then there’s the risk our city-state might get a bit insular: how many Chelsea-Arsenal derbies do we want to watch? Crucially, there’s the time commitment. Independence is a diary killer. Londoners like to think of themselves as cosmopolitan, but their primary identity is just being busy. You can hardly have a conversation without contractually agreeing to watch a whole new box set. I’m not sure we have the time for revolution. We have a dream, but we also have a full schedule.Anthony J. Annucci, the acting commissioner of the State Department of Corrections and Community Supervision, said that officials did not know how the inmates acquired the tools. The prison’s tools had been accounted for on Saturday afternoon, he said, but officials were investigating whether the inmates could have gotten tools from outside contractors doing construction at the prison. Officials were also trying to find out how the inmates knew their way out, he said. “It may have been over a period of time,” he said. “It may have been trial and error. We don’t know.” Mr. Cuomo said the inmates had used decoys made from sweatshirts to make it look like they were asleep in their beds, deceiving corrections officers who check on them every two hours. Image Richard Matt Credit New York State Police, via Associated Press The discovery prompted an immediate lockdown of the prison, which remained in effect late Saturday. Officials said more than 200 law enforcement officers were involved in the search, along with helicopters, K-9 units and bloodhounds. Maj. Charles Guess, the State Police commander of the region, said the police and prison officials were conducting a full investigation with local and state authorities, as well as the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the United States Marshals Service. The police described Mr. Matt as 6 feet tall and weighing 210 pounds. He has black hair and hazel eyes, officials said. He has a tattoo on his back that says “Mexico Forever,” hearts tattooed on his chest and left shoulder and a Marine Corps insignia tattooed on his right, according to the police. Mr. Sweat is 5 feet, 11 inches tall and weighs 165 pounds, the police said. He has brown hair and green eyes, and tattoos on his left biceps and his right fingers, according to the police. It was not Mr. Matt’s first escape. Officials said he had escaped from an Erie County jail in June 1986. He was eventually caught and returned to prison, where he served time for that crime and for forgery.There are certain fanbases that just go bonkers over their favorite artist. The majority of these groups go gaga over celebrities and pop stars like the Kardashians and Taylor Swift, respectively. However, as EDM has become more popular, we’ve seen these groups dig their nails into producers and DJs more and more, most notably artists like Bassnectar, Krewella, Dimitri Vegas & Like Mike, as well as Martin Garrix and Marshmello. And where those last two are concerned, their fanbases just got something huge to look forward to… lets do it! — MARTIN GARRIX (@MartinGarrix) June 26, 2016 So yeah, at some point, marshmello and Martin Garrix had talked about collaborating together, and now it finally looks like it’s going to happen. Of course, Martin Garrix has an album coming out later this year – but as far as we know, all of those tracks are already completed, which would give him time to mess around with a random collab or two. At this point, we have no further information about the collab other than the two plan for it to happen. That being said, we’ll be keeping our eyes and ears open for some sign of the collab in either of their sets for the rest of year.Over the last couple of days I have received a hodgepodge of gifts from my Santa, most of which made me very happy. Let me backtrack for a second here. I'm not interested in people spending a lot of money on me. Of course we all have a secret hope that we'll get lucky and be matched with a millionaire, but we also all have a secret hope that we'll be bitten by a radioactive insect and develop super powers. It's not going to happen, but it's fun to dream. No...The part about Secret Santa that I really like is knowing that someone took the time to try to pick out something they know I would like based on a very little bit of information. It requires a kind of creativity that I wish I had (you know...along with the super power wish? something that's not likely to happen?), and I love it when I can see it in other people. So, I present to you my gifts: 1) My Santa saw that I like spending time outside, but really hate getting bitten by mosquitoes. Being the smart Santa that she is, she thought I might like to try addressing this problem. I hate bug spray. I rarely use bug spray. However...she gave me a whole bunch of little bracelets that are supposed to repel the blood-sucking little bastards. I'm pretty stoked to try it out next summer. 2) My Santa also saw that I like books and saw fit to gift me with a book by Sarah Vowell called Assassination Vacation. I haven't read it yet, but it looks like it's about the history of political assassinations. Importantly, the author is a contributing editor for This American Life, which I LOOOOOOOOOOVE, so the book is bound to be a great read. 3) I like music, but I am very bad at keeping up with the music scene. I think I heard "Wrecking Ball" for the first time this week when a visiting family member sang it to be obnoxious. If I could get everyone who I've ever met (or people I haven't met) to send me mix CDs of whatever music they are currently listening to, I'd be a happy camper. My Santa said that she couldn't do that, but she did send me a CD from a group that I've never heard of before: Trampled by Turtles. I'm super excited to start listening to it (driving over to my parents' house immediately after posting this...it will be in my car's CD player). 4) The 4th gift? I don't want to talk about it. Let's just say that I guess everyone's bound to have a miss sometime. I kid, I kid. Santa also thought it would be funny to give me Arachnaphobia, a movie that caused me endless nightmares and anguish as a young child. In fact, I think my first post was when I felt the need to come out of lurkdom to disparage this fine film, and wish curses upon all those who made it. I laughed when I opened it. I will have to watch it again and see if there is the same reaction, though this time I will be armed with plenty of adult drinks to distract me if it gets too scary. Thanks so much, Santa!Move over, Spanx! Playtex unveil new slimming and anti-cellulite shapewear that will help you lose weight Most women turn to control pants hoping to look like they've dropped a few pounds. But now a new pair of underwear promises to help you lose actual weight - without lifting a finger. Playtex 'Objective 1 Size Down' is a range of shapewear clinically proven to provide slimming and anti-cellulite effects - as well as an immediate shaping effect. Playtex 'Objective 1 Size Down' is a range of shapewear clinically proven to provide slimming and anti-cellulite effects - as well as an immediate shaping effect The £35 Spanx-like garment, available in short and long versions, does the work for you, helping to drop centimeters off your hips and thighs - in just 28 days. The underwear works using Acti-Mineral ceramic crystals that are woven into the fibers of the fabric. They stimulate a continuous massage effect of the body, improving blood microcirculation and facilitating the removal of toxins. And the garment can be washed without compromising the effect of the crystals. The new range is designed to address specific problem areas such as the tummy, bottom, hips and thighs.A woman casts her ballot Tuesday, June 5, 2012, in Milwaukee. AP Photo/Jeffrey Phelps (CBS News) Sixty percent of Wisconsin voters in today's recall election say recall elections are only appropriate for official misconduct, according to early CBS News exit polls. Twenty-eight percent said they think they are suitable for any reason, while nine percent think they are never appropriate. Today's recall election in Wisconsin pits Republican Gov. Scott Walker versus Democratic Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett, in a rematch of their 2010 race. According to the early exit polls, 6 percent say they decided on their candidate in the last few days, with 93 percent saying they made up their minds before that. The recall effort was brought about mainly in response to Walker's plan that restricted collective bargaining rights for public union workers. Today, 52 percent of Wisconsin voters in the early exit polls said they have a favorable view of unions for government workers, while 43 percent have an unfavorable opinion of these unions. Among voters in unions households (public or not), 69 percent view these unions favorably. On the issue of collective bargaining, 50 percent of Wisconsin voters say they approved of the recent changes to state law that limits collective bargaining for government workers
49/50 and messed up the 50th input. You may end up getting a B with a higher numerical score. The game would then override your previous A rank with a B. This isn’t much of a game breaker but it can get really annoying if you are trying to get a full A record. Unfortunately the difficulty of the game can be a little unreasonable towards the end of the game’s main story. The compulsory levels to advance the story themselves are not overly hard but rather the bulk of the side-levels are massively hard. Not only does the window of success for each button-input become tighter, the amount of attention the game demands from you also increases to a point where it just seems cluttered. Of course this alone wouldn’t be reason enough to dismiss this game. The true shame comes from the fact that the tunes in these side-levels often seem to not mesh as well with the button-inputs as the tunes in the main story levels. Most (there are exceptions) of the levels from the main campaign boasts a great blend between the mechanics, button-prompts and tune providing players with a fun experience and allowing them to rely completely on the beat if they wanted to. Quite a few of the side-levels on the other hand feels like it is trying to incorporate gameplay mechanics that don’t necessarily work well with the chosen tunes. This made the extra levels in the game less fun and more often than not quite frustrating. Pairing this with the fact that the game often explains the mechanics of each level minimally, it can be unreasonably hard to understand what you are doing wrong in a particular level. Fortunately these levels make up only a small part of the game and are completely optional. In summary I think this game has an interesting plot and a great cast of characters, and while the main levels of the game are really fun and satisfying, a considerable number of the side-levels are more frustrating than fun. I would recommend this game to players who are big rhythm game fans and to those who are patient. Much time will be spent retrying levels to get the feel of the controls and mostly it is fun but occasionally there are a few annoying ones that players will just have to move on from and live with. Rating: 4/5CLANCY OVERELL \| Editor \| CONTACT A south-east Brisbane mother of three is been treated for stress this afternoon, following an embarrassing school-pick-up-time incident. Ashley Quirk-Whitely was pulled from her precariously positioned Range Rover Sport by emergency crews, after the full-time-stay-at-home-mum accidentally reversed her suburban utility vehicle over the front of her teenage daughter’s soon-to-be first car, a Volkswagen Golf It is believed she was stuck for up to 15 minutes until help arrived. Emergency respondent Sam Cranstoun, who was first on the scene, said the incident comes as a warning for mothers all around the country, as we head into the long lunch months. “Obviously people in this area don’t get breathalized so there’s no way of telling what her blood alcohol level was – but part of me thinks rosè could have played a big part in this” Cranstoun says he was able to treat the ‘rattled and hysterical’ wife of a JP Morgan executive quite efficiently after checking her vital signs. “I just saw the Camilla dress and the raw squeeze juice sitting in the car drink holder. I knew I’d be able to find some Valium above the fridge,” “I had her settled in a few minutes, while we figured out where the husband was” Ashley’s husband, John, was contacted immediately, but was unfortunately unable to hear what was happening through the roaring ambience of the Queensland Rowers Club – where he had been attending a rugby Old Boys event. It is believed his mother was then contacted to pick this kids and take them back to her house in Adelaide East Street, Ascot. The greater Bulimba community has rallied around Ashley this evening, with close friends booking a table at the Oxford Street Jetty bar for a few mojitos. More to come.They came ready to eat and left with stomachs full of West Brighton's best. Hundreds of Staten Islanders participated in the first-ever Forest Avenue Restaurant Crawl and Street Festival Sunday. The Forest Avenue Business Improvement District hosted the event. Foodies had the opportunity to stroll along the commercial strip, sampling dozens of dishes along the way. Organizers tell NY1 they hope the event brings more attention to the shopping district. "We're known for major events we have the Saint Patrick's Day parade memorial day parade. This is gonna be another part of it. We want people from Tottenville, people from Saint George, people from Brooklyn, people from Jersey to come and visit Forest Avenue,"said Dan Clark, Forest Avenue BID. "It exposes the rest of Staten Island to all of the wonderful treasures that we have here on Forest Avenue," said councilwoman Debi Rose. More than a dozen restaurants participated in the inaugural event.The Moroccan-born Muslim mayor of the Dutch city Rotterdam last week told his fellow Muslims living in the West that if they don’t like it there, then they should “fuck off.” Mayor Ahmed Aboutaleb, who immigrated to the Netherlands at age 15, spoke out against the attack on Charlie Hebdo’s Paris headquarters on the day of the attack, and he did not hold back. “It is incomprehensible that you can turn against freedom,” Aboutaleb said on Dutch television station Nieuwsuur, according to the Daily Mail. “But if you don’t like freedom, for heaven’s sake pack your bags and leave.” “If you do not like it here because some humorists you don’t like are making a newspaper, may I then say you can fuck off,” he continued. Watch the video via YouTube: H/t Raw StoryThe essence of Manchester United Football Club First I wanted to say that I know the blog kind of dried out during the summer. The motivation for posting just died out between the youtubeclips and transfer rumors, and spending a lot of time on creating something, without even creating discussion felt pointless. Now, some motivation has come along and I feel like scribbling down some thoughts. If you rather want to read about transfer targets or watch Zlatan dribble on youtube, this post is probably not for you! Well enough of that, I am back with a vengeance! It’s August, we’re gathering steam and the season is about to get very real, very soon. I couldn’t be more excited. Rios’ testimonial today is the first real test and we’ll actually be able to win Moyes first trophy with the club on Sunday. We should be looking to snowball our form off from here, and I am shaking with excitement. For the post, I wanted to share some less tactical thoughts, but focus more on something that has been between the lines of all discussion this summer. The United tradition, the United way. What are we, how did we become such a massive club, and how have we kept it rolling? Red The true inspiration for this post, actually stems from finally getting my finger out of my arse and purchasing Gary Nevilles’ “Red”. I picked it up yesterday, and I can’t put it down. Reading about United from the bottom-up, from someone who is everything the club is about, is one of the most interesting experiences a fan could get without being directly involved with the club. I recommend you to pick it up. As the book portraits a young, eager big brother Gary, with an even more talented Phil, fighting for balls and dreaming of playing for their favorite club, it got me back to thinking about our roots under Sir Alex Ferguson and Matt Busby. Local lads. The unsung heroes. The Nevilles, the Butts (yes, I know), the John O’Sheas. The players that worked their ass off, day in and day out, just to figure in the squad. Just to be part of the greatness that is Manchester United. In these times of greedy youngsters demanding contracts and forcing their way out of a club, rather than working hard to deserve the increase. The players that stay an hour extra on the pitch, run one more lap, goes to bed early. These, combined with the extreme talents such as Giggsy, Scholes and Beckham, have been the core of the only United team that myself and many other fans have ever known. With the extreme confidence and talented leadership of a certain Sir Alexander Chapman, has been the foundation of this club as long as I can remember, and I wouldn’t have it any other way. Talented outsiders versus the local red In many ways, this summer has been frustrating. Many of us have been feeling like we have been ski-jumping without skis, falling, not knowing. Ferguson is out. Scholes finally retired. Rio Ferdinand is older, we have a new manager and coaches. Everything is new and scary. This is human nature. Even if we’re sitting here in Norway, Ireland, Holland, the States or in India, it feels scary. The connection to the club leads to worry, but there is comfort to be found. Moyes has already started his continuation of the United tradition. Phil Neville has gained a key position in the staff, his own coaches at Everton followed and Giggs has been promoted to a player/coach. We are witnessing the rocket launching of the new Manchester United era, with David Moyes as the captain and familiar faces around in other important positions. Our squad is already top 10 in the world, and combined with the team spirit that comes from bringing youth players through your own academy or teenagers bought in to breathe and learn the United way will fight harder than any primadonna you could possibly buy. We could very well be challenging for the Champions League in the years to come. This summer has been filled with rumors of players to cover this and that spot. Will Moyes replace the local lads in Cleverley or Welbeck? For more polished players, it could have a very good short-term impact. We could be challenging already this season. But long term, is this the best solution? To buy a ton of players? I don’t think so. And Moyes seems to agree. He hasn’t done any panic purchases, and it is fantastic for us to see. Do we need a Garay, or could we put our faith in Evans and Michael Keane? The latter seems to be the United way. It pays off long-term, and to quote the Boss, “young players will surprise you”. What I am getting at is that the core of our club in the past couple of decades have been to phase in our “own” players rather than spending a ton where it isn’t absolutely necessary. We paid out for Berbatov, for Rooney, for Ferdinand. Deals we had to do at the time. But we didn’t buy a RB when Neville retired. Ferguson simply handed the torch over to young Rafael. And by the looks of it, it has been the right choise once again. Spending crazy cash in panic We never do this. We tend to make some risky “what-if” purchases like Bébé or Obertan now and then, but never something like the guy in the picture. We would never buy a 28 year old for 30 million pounds if we already had a decent central midfield, with double coverage on the bench. If we had a Jack Rodwell just waiting to break through. And this is one of the things that seperates us. It is the United way vs the oil money/sheikh way. I prefer ours. Even if it means we lose a trophy now and then. When we win them, it feels so damn sweet. We win them our way, and it doesn’t feel like cheating. We keep our integrity, in a way. Reading the Neville biography lit a fire in my passion for the United youth again. We have so many talented kids in our system, and I can’t wait to see them bond together, win stuff (hey, we just won another trophy with the reserves!) and develop into starters or rotation players for the Man United XI. It means that every now and then, you’ll have transition seasons. I am sure we’ll have one or two of those when Rio, Giggs and Vidic retire. But it is fine. Our younger players have learned the mentality. They already know how to win. They know what not to do. Now they are the ones to carry it on. And I love watching that. The new great team come into life. It was amazing to see Rooney, Ronaldo, Fletcher, Evra and Kieran Richardson play theirselves into the United team. To be able to sell Roy Keane because Fletcher was growing up, letting Giggs rest when needed because Richardson could do a job. We are about to become a new big team, and I can’t wait to see it unfold. Jones, Smalling, Rafael, Evans, Cleverley and Welbeck already have hundreds of games between them, and should be looking to cement positions into their own. Rafael and Evans has come the furthest so far, but the others will follow. Some might not make it, but we’ll still have a core of players that you would call red. You would call them Red Devils. Carrying on tradition Andreas Pereira, the lad in the picture, with a medal hanging around his neck, is certainly on his way of doing that. Carrying on. Just like when Gary Neville was a youngster, our kids go to Northern Ireland to play in the Milk Cup. And we won. Of course did we win! Our youth teams are amazing. The determination and skillfullnes among our youth players make them the best in the country. And this is the essence of Manchester United Football Club. And by that, I don’t mean that we should not buy a midfielder or two this summer. I mean that long term, we’ll still be a team that is dominated by players that have been in the club, and intends to stay here, for a long time. A mixture of world class talent, local passion, experience and a burning desire to win. And the knowledge of how to. In the pre-season tour, local Lingard, Ben Amos and Michael Keane, academy player Januzaj and new startlet Wilfred Zaha were all given a lot of play time. Most of them impressed so much that many fans want to give them a spot on the bench for this season. And I find myself agreeing. Why shouldn’t Januzaj be able to play in 20-30 games this season? We gave Ronaldo that when he was the same age. I hope we do. You won’t develop the best player in the world unless you throw him to the wolves early. Of course you need to give them time, but match them at a higher level than they are getting with the reserves. Let them play the final 30 minutes when we’re 3-0 up against Norwich or the entire Carling Cup-clash against Leeds. Nothing will speed their development in a better way. The club has always been about winning. We want to win. But we want to do it our way. We are often refered to a “buying club” by other fans, which is something I’ll call bullshit. By the definition of a buying club, you could probably put every team in the world under that category. What I read into it, is teams that buy their way to trophies. Chelsea won the league without a single player that had gone the grades in the club. It cost them around 6 billion pounds to catch up with us, but it felt like cheating. It felt wrong. I wanted to fight fire with fire, but Ferguson knew better. He knew that developing our own players and strengthening from the outside, only where it was absolutely necessary, was the only way. Our wallet isn’t as thick. But we’ve won more trophies than them since the Russian oil money-guy bought them. Which is, in my opinion, just as impressive as what we did in the 90s. We’re competing in a market where we’re strong, but miles behind the clubs that are owned by gazillionaires from the middle-east. But we’re winning. And I am loving every single bit of it. The heart in our team is our best attribute. Combine that with talent, and you will have a whole different atmosphere than a bunch of lads from all around the world, being overpaid and not really giving a damn. Our now noisy neighbour cracked up as soon as there was some drama. We win despite of drama. We get stronger the more enemies we have, and this is the reason everyone from the outside admire and hate us. And I hope we continue that in that fashion. AdvertisementsThe CW was the channel that started the “Arrowverse” with “Arrow” in 2012. As of 2017, it has grown to have five superhero shows. Critics are starting to ask whether that is becoming an overkill. Earlier this week, The CW dropped a trailer for their newest TV series, “Black Lightning.” Even though the TV show will not air until 2018, fans are getting excited to see a lesser known character that originally debuted in the comics during the 70s. This will be their first superhero show to feature a main character of color, expanding diversity on superhero shows. Soon after the trailer drop, The CW came out with a statement about how it will fit into their established universe. “We do not aim to do a five-way crossover,” said Mark Pedowitz. “Black Lightning, at this time, is not part of the Arrowverse. It is a separate situation.” There is some controversy surrounding having so many superhero shows airing on the same channel. “This programming will last as long as people want to watch it,” said Pedowitz. “As long as we have quality programming, which we have thanks to [Arrowverse super-producer] Greg Berlanti and [Black Lightning creators] Salim and Mara Brock Akil… it will last as long as people want to watch it.” All the other superhero shows were renewed for another season. The only changes that are confirmed for sure is that “Arrow” is swapping places with “Riverdale” and will be airing on Thursdays starting this fall with its sixth season. Not many things are yet announced about the new season, aside from the new direction it is taking. The show writers are planning on going to make it closer to the comics and explore some of the newer characters like Wild Dog (Rick Gonzalez) and Dinah Drake (Juliana Harkavy). Wendy Mericle, producer of “Arrow” confirmed to MoviePilot that season six will not feature any more flashbacks from the island. Over on “The Flash”, the writers are keeping a secret who returns and who will not for their fourth season. Tom Felton was one in question as to whether he will return. While Tom Cavanagh is confirmed to return, the fans will have to wait to see what version of Wells he will be playing. As far as Candice Patton’s return, nothing was said for sure to avoid spoilers. However, fans can only hope to see her return as she has done such a fantastic job in the role of Iris West. “Supergirl” fans are waiting in anticipation for the finale as so many questions are still left to be answered. With the release of the vague summary for season three, it is possible to speculate that Mon-El (Chris Wood) will reprise his role. This would be an exciting move, hopefully continuing Kara and Mon-El’s relationship. Calista Flockhart has been a fan favorite in the role of Cat Grant in season one. Her comment in the episode “Resist” got fans talking as she said, “I am not going anywhere.” There is nothing confirmed as Flockhart left due to the filming location change. Whatever ends up happening, the 2017-18 schedule looks very promising. With many great changes coming to all of The CW shows, the fans have much to look forward to in the fall. AdvertisementsOregon State University scientists just identified a new reason why some curry dishes, made with spices humans have used for thousands of years, might be good for you. New research has discovered that curcumin, a compound found in the cooking spice turmeric, can cause a modest but measurable increase in levels of a protein that's known to be important in the "innate" immune system, helping to prevent infection in humans and other animals. This cathelicidin antimicrobial peptide, or CAMP, is part of what helps our immune system fight off various bacteria, viruses or fungi even though they hadn't been encountered before. Prior to this, it was known that CAMP levels were increased by vitamin D. Discovery of an alternative mechanism to influence or raise CAMP levels is of scientific interest and could open new research avenues in nutrition and pharmacology, scientists said. Turmeric is a flavorful, orange-yellow spice and an important ingredient in many curries, commonly found in Indian, South Asian and Middle Eastern cuisine. It has also been used for 2,500 years as a medicinal compound in the Ayurvedic system of medicine in India -- not to mention being part of some religious and wedding ceremonies. In India, turmeric is treated with reverence. The newest findings were made by researchers in the Linus Pauling Institute at OSU and published in the Journal of Nutritional Biochemistry, in collaboration with scientists from the University of Copenhagen in Denmark. The work was supported by the National Institutes of Health. "This research points to a new avenue for regulating CAMP gene expression," said Adrian Gombart, an associate professor of biochemistry and biophysics in the Linus Pauling Institute. "It's interesting and somewhat surprising that curcumin can do that, and could provide another tool to develop medical therapies." The impact of curcumin in this role is not nearly as potent as that of vitamin D, Gombart said, but could nonetheless have physiologic value. Curcumin has also been studied for its anti-inflammatory and antioxidant properties. "Curcumin, as part of turmeric, is generally consumed in the diet at fairly low levels," Gombart said. "However, it's possible that sustained consumption over time may be healthy and help protect against infection, especially in the stomach and intestinal tract." In this study, Chunxiao Guo, a graduate student, and Gombart looked at the potential of both curcumin and omega-3 fatty acids to increase expression of the CAMP gene. They found no particular value with the omega-3 fatty acids for this purpose, but curcumin did have a clear effect. It caused levels of CAMP to almost triple. There has been intense scientific interest in the vitamin D receptor in recent years because of potential therapeutic benefits in treating infection, cancer, psoriasis and other diseases, the researchers noted in their report. An alternative way to elicit a related biological response could be significant and merits additional research, they said. The CAMP peptide is the only known antimicrobial peptide of its type in humans, researchers said. It appears to have the ability to kill a broad range of bacteria, including those that cause tuberculosis and protect against the development of sepsis.We don’t know much about Grockit. The company is creating a new way to get people to learn online, and has spent the last year working away in stealth mode. Whatever it is, it’s apparently impressing investors: Grockit just raised $8 million in Series B funding from Integral Capital and Benchmark Capital, bringing its total to $10.7 million – impressive for a product that has yet to see the light of day. According to the company’s press release, Grockit is “a MMOLG (Massively Multi Player Online Learning Game) where people can connect to learn from each other”. The company hopes to release the product this fall. Grockit originally launched in November 2006 as an online exam-prep class that competed with companies like Kaplan and The Princeton Review. In July 2007 Grockit announced that it had scrapped that idea in favor of their current plan, and raised a $2.7 million Series A round led by Benchmark and angel investors. The company was founded by Farbood Nivi, who taught in the exam-prep business for years, and Michael Buffington, an experienced Rails developer.In recent years, there’s been an increase in the number of media reports on users of synthetic cannabinoids. Commonly referred to by names such as ‘Spice’ or ‘K2’, the most recent reported case involved five UK students being hospitalised after use. But what are the chemicals present in ‘spice’ and similar drugs, and what are the chemical compounds in cannabis that they aim to mimic? That’s what this graphic and post attempt to answer. Let’s start with cannabis. Cannabis contains a large number of compounds known as ‘cannabinoids’. These are produced naturally by the plant, and the most important is tetrahydrocannabinol, or THC. This is the major compound in cannabis responsible for the drug’s effects. The cannabinoids in cannabis target the cannabinoid receptors; these come in two varieties, CB1 and CB2 receptors. CB1 receptors are found primarily in the brain, and it’s the interaction of cannabinoids with these receptors that is responsible for psychological effects. The CB2 receptors are found mainly in the immune system, and are partly responsible for the anti-inflammatory and potential medicinal benefits of cannabis (though in some cases, these are also due to interaction with CB1 receptors). Why do we even have receptors that the chemicals in cannabis are capable of activating? The cannabinoid receptors are usually activated by what are known as ‘endogenous cannabinoids’ – in other words, cannabinoid chemicals we produce in our bodies. One of these is anandamide, a neurotransmitter which has a number of roles, including in pain, appetite, and memory. Research into the roles of endogenous cannabinoids is still continuing – they were only discovered after investigation into the effects of THC in the body, hence why the class of chemicals and the receptors are named after cannabis. Synthetic cannabinoids are a class of compounds originally synthesised to further investigate cannabinoid receptors, and the potential medicinal benefits of cannabis. None of them are found naturally in cannabis – they are all the product of laboratory synthesis. Work on them began in the 1970s, and initially they were structurally similar to THC. However, since then, a wide variety of compounds with structures much different from that of THC have been synthesised. What they do all have in common is their interaction with cannabinoid receptors. The manner in which the synthetic cannabinoids can be grouped is variable. Some studies place them in three very broad categories: classical cannabinoids, which are structurally similar to THC; aminoalkylindoles, the largest group, which can be split into further subcategories; and non-classical cannabinoids, which include compounds such as cyclohexylphenols. Other classification systems use seven or more groups which are more structurally specific. The issue with the large number of new & different synthetic cannabinoids being produced for both research and illicit use is that in cases, they defy categorisation in some of these systems, which has led some researchers to suggest that they should instead be categorised by biological activity. In terms of how they act, there are marginal differences between natural cannabinoids like THC and synthetic cannabinoids. Whilst they act on the same cannabinoid receptors, THC is only a partial agonist, whilst synthetic cannabinoids used for illicit purposes are full agonists. These terms will require a little explanation for those unfamiliar with them. An agonist is a molecule that binds to a receptor and activates it; a partial agonist does not induce the maximum response, however, whereas a full agonist can. The fact that synthetic cannabinoids are full agonists means that their potency compared to THC is higher; animal studies have suggested that their potency can be 2 to 100 times that of THC. The first isolation of synthetic cannabinoids from ‘spice’ was reported in 2008, but reports of their use in ‘legal highs’ precede this. With cannabis classified as an illegal drug in many countries, these synthetic cannabinoids may seem an attractive substitute to many would-be cannabis smokers. The synthetic cannabinoids themselves are solids, but are dissolved in solvents then sprayed onto dried herbs, which can then be smoked. However, the various synthetic cannabinoid compounds were not originally synthesised with human consumption in mind. As such, they have not undergone any form of safety testing, and little is known about the scope of their effects in humans. That probably makes it obvious why there are concerns over the use of synthetic cannabinoids, but what are the specific effects they’ve been linked with? As stated, there haven’t been any controlled studies on humans, so what we know about their effects is limited to case reports from hospitalisations. These, however, seem to suggest that adverse effects from synthetic cannabinoids are often much more severe than those seen in studies with THC, and can include nausea & vomiting, various psychological symptoms, seizures, and in more severe cases acute kidney failure. Some cases of hospitalisation after the use of synthetic cannabinoids have also led to death. There is no form of antidote for synthetic cannabinoid use. You might wonder why synthetic cannabinoids aren’t more tightly regulated, considering that the compounds have undergone no safety testing and there is concern over their effects. The issue is that their regulation is something of a game of cat & mouse. A number of synthetic cannabinoids are controlled in many countries – but those producing them simply switch to structurally similar compounds that are yet to be placed under legislation. In the US, the DEA banned the first synthetic cannabinoids in 2011, and since then well over 250 new, uncontrolled compounds have cropped up to take their place. In some countries, such as the UK, a generic approach to regulation is adopted, whereby all compounds derived from a certain structural template are classified as class B drugs. This covers a large range of synthetic cannabinoids, and also has the advantage that it pre-emptively bans any compounds that are derivatives of the same structural template. However, even this method is not foolproof – several synthetic cannabinoids have been synthesised with a chemical structure that does not fall under current UK legislation. In some countries, this generic approach is not possible for legal reasons. The use of synthetic cannabinoids really is something of a lottery. There’s no way of knowing exactly what synthetic cannabinoids are present in a mixture without analytical testing, and the quality of the products, as they are unregulated, often does not meet pharmaceutical standards. Additionally, they can be contaminated by other byproducts from the reactions used to synthesise them. Due to the manner in which ‘spice’ is produced, by spraying with synthetic cannabinoids, there’s also the possibility that it can be distributed unevenly, which can lead to higher than intended doses being ingested. Overall, it’s clear that the perception of synthetic cannabinoids as a ‘safe’ cannabis alternative is a flawed one. Enjoyed this post & graphic? Consider supporting Compound Interest on Patreon, and get previews of upcoming posts & more! The graphic in this article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License. See the site’s content usage guidelines. References & Further Reading Share this: Facebook Twitter Reddit LinkedIn TumblrIn my adolescence, I based many of my conceptualisations of Japan on three sometimes questionable sources: my Japanese language lessons programme, Japanese TV, and, yes, anime/manga. And they were all completely dead-on about how awful commuting by train in Tokyo really is. No, seriously, it’s the worst. But don’t just take my (single) word for it…. take my many, many words for it. Japanese commuter trains are clean, well-lit, and reliable. And that’s about all the positive I can say for the entire experience. Advertisement The average commute time in Japan is 90 minutes. If that seems insane, that’s because it totally is. And you have to understand that if 90 is the average number of minutes, there have to be plenty of examples of commutes much longer than that. Then there’s mine. It takes me well over two hours to get from the front door of my current apartment in Japanese suburbia (we call them “bedroom communities”) to the gate of the international school in downtown Tokyo where I currently work. On a particularly bad day, it takes closer to three. And even my driving commute was an hour two years ago, and that’s pretty normal for driving commutes in Japan. But trust me, the train is so much worse. It doesn’t start off so badly, given how far I live from Tokyo. Of course, I have to get up at 4:45am and get on the train by 5:30am in order to be on time to work at around 8:00. There are two reasons why it’s not a solid two hours (or less): 1. I have to make multiple transfers and 2. everything you’ve ever heard about the way people get smashed into train cars by station attendants and security guards is totally and completely true. Advertisement When I leave my station, it’s early enough that I always get a seat. This is helpful on the way in, but only on the first leg of the trip. By the time I hit my first transfer, an area called Akabane (赤羽, means red feather), I know I’m in for another hour or more of standing, with a heavy school bag on my shoulder. I’ve added an additional shoulder strap just to help me a bit with the weight. It’s the second leg of my trip that fits the Tokyo commuting stereotype. When I get to Nagatacho (永田町) station to transfer from the Namboku (南北) Line to the Hanzomon (半蔵門) Line, it’s in the middle of central Tokyo, and it feels very much like being in the queue for a major Disney World attraction. Advertisement Shoved together with schoolgirls, office ladies, and salarymen, I am herded by station attendants and security guards into marked-out lines. If I’m just a few minutes later than planned, I may have to wait for two or three trains to come and go before my group is finally allowed to board. Once we are in, the aforementioned attendants and security guards help shove us into our car, making sure to add as many people as possible, so that in the end, we cannot help but rub up against each other in otherwise very awkward if not deeply offensive ways. And we all pretend it’s normal. Well, most of us do. Then are those who would, and indeed do, take advantage of the situation. Due to the nature of commuting in Tokyo, Japan has for quite some time had an issue with sexual harassment on the trains. It’s often of minors, a problem known as chikan. I am sad to report that I personally have been a victim of this kind of molestation, along with other types of harassment in Japan which I have previously covered over on Jezebel. For this reason, Japanese railways now have women-only train cars during the worst peaks of rush hour. Unfortunately, they run later than my own commute, and tend to not run between most of my stations. I have ridden women-only cars about three times, despite the fact that I’ve indeed been a target and could benefit from them. Advertisement On the way back, it’s nothing but human sardines from my workplace station to my home station. If I leave fairly early, I don’t get more space, but I do tend to get a much younger crowd, mostly students dressed not too dissimilarly from myself. If I leave fairly late, I have to put up with being crammed in with salarymen smelling of stale beer, cigarettes (which I am deathly allergic too, as I have a formic acid allergy, which is used as a filler in manufactured tobacco), and sometimes the overwhelming stench of sweat and urine. The trains are clean, but Japanese tend to bathe in the night time, not in the morning, so there’s little to guarantee that your train mates will be reflective of the metal tubes in which they ride. It’s worth acknowledging here that my experiences on trains have done a lot for my assimilation and integration in terms of visual presentation. This is far more about sociocultural context than it is about things that move you, and I think it’s important to relate because it affects my experiences of being moved. Advertisement In addition to my experiences as a woman on Japanese trains, I have also had the intersectional experiences of being seen as a “foreigner” and therefore as a “foreign woman.” This has further entrenched in me a very common Japanese sociocultural response to conflict: making presentation and expression decisions which minimise differences. It’s about sticking out as little as possible, especially from afar. In the past I’ve had real problems being identified as a “foreign woman” from across a train car. This doesn’t just mean being noticed by sexual predators; it can also mean being noticed by people without malicious, but still annoying or marginalising, intent. I’ve had old men and women manoeuvre across a train car to engage “the foreigner” in “international conversation,” I’ve had men hit on me in the middle of a train car, and I’ve had far too many experiences of people trying to get free English lessons out of me, despite the fact that I very much prefer to speak Japanese when going about my normal Japanese life in Japan. There are ways in which I have addressed this is to blend in as much as I can. My hair, which naturally is a light brown with reddish highlights, I now keep near black. I style it along Japanese lines, often mimicking the various styles of my female Japanese students. I already had a preppy style long before I came to Japan, as I attended two private Catholic schools and I was always a pleated skirts, oxfords, blazers, and boat shoes kind of girl. Now it all has distinctly “Japanese schoolgirl” elements to it (some of it from the school I attended and taught at concurrently, and I’m still young enough looking to pull it off). My fairly minimal make up also follows Japanese norms and coloring, as I’ve attained a yellowish-golden tan. My eyes are still their Irish green, but from even a fairly short distance, I don’t appear different enough to warrant much of a second glance. Advertisement I’ve seen a significant decrease in the amount of uncomfortable behavior I have to deal with after making these somewhat gradual and mostly unplanned changes in presentation. Although few Japanese people actually say it, as it would be considered prying, I can usually tell that many assume I must be be “half.” Only one person has ever flat out asked me if I’m a naturalised (or naturalising, as my process is far from finished) Japanese person. There’s one exception to this overall dramatic decrease in being bothered, and I try to avoid it as much as I can: showing any type of confusion about where I am or where I am going. This is particularly problematic right now as I’ve only just figured out which routes save me time or money or both. As I go about learning the Tokyo train and subway systems, just as any rural yokel moving to Tokyo would, my confusion (if obvious enough) attracts the attention of station staff or fellow travelers. And in Tokyo, my confusion plus my appearance are mistaken for a tourist identity. This can lead to an awkward and time consuming interaction whereby I must demonstrate that I can I speak and read Japanese, that I am definitely
.00 £15.00 £21.00 £39.99 £26.99 Millwall £333.00 £514.00 £22.00 £30.00 £3.00 £3.40 £2.00 £23.00 £26.00 £43.00 £35.00 Oldham Athletic £325.00 £350.00 £20.00 £22.00 £3.00 £3.00 £2.00 £22.00 £22.00 £39.99 £29.99 Peterborough United £295.00 £480.00 £21.00 £26.00 £3.00 £3.20 £2.20 £23.00 £26.00 £40.00 £30.00 Port Vale £345.00 £380.00 £22.00 £23.00 £3.00 £2.50 £1.50 £22.00 £22.00 £39.99 £29.99 Rochdale £277.50 £407.00 £17.00 £22.00 £3.00 £2.00 £1.50 £22.00 £22.00 £40.00 £30.00 Scunthorpe United £294.00 £372.00 £18.00 £23.00 £3.00 £2.80 £1.20 £23.00 £23.00 £44.00 £36.00 Sheffield United £320.00 £490.00 £20.00 £29.00 £3.00 £3.40 £1.60 £20.00 £27.00 £45.00 £35.00 Shrewsbury Town £285.00 £445.00 £20.00 £22.00 £3.00 £3.00 £1.80 £20.00 £20.00 £39.99 £29.99 Southend United £335.00 £395.00 £24.00 £24.00 £3.00 £2.80 £1.70 £22.00 £24.00 £44.00 £36.00 Swindon Town £345.00 £430.00 £18.00 £25.00 £3.00 £3.40 £2.00 £18.00 £25.00 £44.99 £34.99 Walsall £246.50 £430.50 £19.50 £25.00 £3.00 £3.20 £2.20 £19.50 £22.50 £39.99 £24.99 Wigan Athletic £250.00 £342.00 £15.00 £25.00 £3.00 £2.40 £1.80 £15.00 £20.00 £39.99 £31.99 League Two 2015-16 Season tickets Match-day tickets Home expenses Away matches Replica shirts Club Cheapest Most exp. Cheapest Most exp. Progr-amme Pie Tea Cheapest Most exp. Adult shirt Junior shirt Accrington Stanley £200.00 £250.00 £20.00 £20.00 £3.00 £2.50 £1.50 £20.00 £20.00 £39.99 £29.99 Barnet £242.00 £352.00 £17.00 £23.00 £3.00 - £1.60 £17.00 £23.00 £49.90 £39.90 Bristol Rovers £260.00 £540.00 £18.00 £28.00 £3.00 £3.20 £1.30 £16.00 £19.00 £39.99 £29.99 Cambridge United £275.00 £400.00 £18.00 £24.00 £3.00 £3.00 £1.50 £20.00 £20.00 £42.00 £32.00 Carlisle United £305.00 £400.00 £19.00 £22.00 £2.00 £2.60 £1.50 £19.00 £22.00 £40.00 £30.00 Crawley Town £290.00 £460.00 £16.00 £22.00 £3.00 £3.00 £1.50 £16.00 £20.00 £40.00 £35.00 Dagenham & Redbridge £199.00 £400.00 £18.00 £21.00 £3.00 £2.50 £1.20 £21.00 £21.00 £38.50 £31.00 Exeter City £276.00 £488.00 £16.00 £26.00 £3.00 £2.60 £1.50 £16.00 £24.00 £40.00 £30.00 Hartlepool United £250.00 £295.00 £18.00 £20.00 £3.00 £3.00 £2.00 £20.00 £20.00 £44.00 £36.00 Leyton Orient £180.00 £315.00 £22.00 £24.00 £3.00 £2.50 £1.80 £22.00 £24.00 £44.00 £36.00 Luton Town £250.00 £390.00 £18.00 £22.00 £3.00 £3.50 £1.80 £18.00 £22.00 £40.00 £35.00 Mansfield Town £330.00 £330.00 £20.00 £22.00 £3.00 £3.00 £2.00 £18.00 £18.00 £40.00 £35.00 Morecambe £219.00 £419.00 £16.00 £24.00 £3.00 £3.20 £1.70 £17.00 £21.00 £40.00 £30.00 Newport County £250.00 £410.00 £17.00 £24.00 £3.50 £2.60 £1.50 £17.00 £21.00 £37.50 £27.50 Northampton Town £249.00 £410.00 £22.00 £22.00 £3.00 £3.10 £2.10 £20.00 £22.00 £39.990 £29.99 Notts County £315.00 £420.00 £22.00 £24.00 £3.00 £2.80 £1.80 £24.00 £24.00 £40.00 £30.00 Oxford United £239.00 £350.00 £18.00 £22.00 £3.00 £3.30 £1.60 £20.00 £20.00 £39.99 £34.99 Plymouth Argyle £320.00 £380.00 £22.00 £22.00 £3.00 £3.00 £2.00 £22.00 £22.00 £39.99 £29.99 Portsmouth £300.00 £370.00 £20.00 £20.00 £3.00 £2.20 £1.00 £20.00 £20.00 £39.99 £29.99 Stevenage £279.00 £395.00 £18.00 £24.00 £3.00 £2.50 £1.00 £20.00 £24.00 £39.99 £29.99 AFC Wimbledon £260.00 £430.00 £16.00 £20.00 £3.00 - £1.50 £16.00 £20.00 £45.00 £25.00 Wycombe Wanderers £223.00 £352.00 £15.00 £22.00 £3.00 £3.00 £1.60 £20.00 £20.00 £40.00 £35.00 Yeovil Town £269.00 £393.00 £20.00 £25.00 £3.00 £3.20 £1.80 £16.00 £22.00 £40.00 £30.00 York City £275.00 £412.50 £18.00 £21.00 £3.00 £3.10 £1.80 £18.00 £19.00 £44.00 £36.00 National League 2015-16 Season tickets Match-day tickets Home expenses Away matches Replica shirts Club Cheapest Most exp. Cheapest Most exp. Progr-amme Pie Tea Cheapest Most exp. Adult shirt Junior shirt Aldershot Town £299.00 £358.00 £17.00 £19.00 £3.00 £2.50 £1.00 £17.00 £19.00 £38.00 £28.00 Altrincham £240.00 £290.00 £14.00 £15.00 £2.50 £2.40 £1.50 £14.00 £15.00 £35.00 £30.00 Barrow £230.00 £300.00 £14.00 £15.00 £2.50 - £0.80 £14.00 £15.00 £40.00 £35.00 Boreham Wood £180.00 £260.00 £16.00 £18.00 £3.00 - £1.30 £16.00 £18.00 £35.00 £25.00 Braintree Town £288.00 £340.00 £15.00 £18.00 £2.50 £1.50 £1.00 £15.00 £18.00 £35.00 £30.00 Bromley £275.00 £300.00 £15.00 £15.00 £2.50 £3.00 £1.00 £15.00 £15.00 £35.00 £25.00 Cheltenham Town £315.00 £414.00 £16.00 £21.00 £3.00 £3.20 £2.00 £16.00 £16.00 £36.99 £28.99 Chester £255.00 £342.00 £15.00 £18.00 £2.50 £3.00 £1.00 £15.00 £15.00 £40.00 £35.00 Dover £270.00 £315.00 £15.00 £15.00 £2.50 £2.50 £1.20 £15.00 £15.00 £38.00 £32.00 Eastleigh £120.00 £180.00 £15.00 £18.00 £3.00 £2.50 £1.50 £12.00 £12.00 £35.00 £25.00 Forest Green Rovers £240.00 £340.00 £15.00 £19.00 £3.00 £3.50 £1.30 £15.00 £15.00 £40.00 £35.00 Gateshead £280.00 £300.00 £15.00 £15.00 £3.00 £2.40 £1.60 £15.00 £15.00 £39.95 £29.95 Grimsby Town £285.00 £378.00 £18.00 £18.00 £3.00 £2.50 £1.50 £16.00 £18.00 £39.99 £34.99 Guiseley £240.00 £270.00 £15.00 £15.00 £3.00 £2.50 £1.00 £15.00 £15.00 £35.99 £29.99 Halifax Town £319.00 £319.00 £17.00 £17.00 £3.00 £2.50 £1.00 £17.00 £17.00 £49.95 £42.95 Kidderminster Harriers £250.00 £340.00 £14.00 £17.00 £3.00 £4.50 £2.00 £10.00 £17.00 £36.00 £28.00 Lincoln City £245.00 £335.00 £18.00 £18.00 £3.00 £3.00 £2.00 £16.00 £18.00 £37.99 £31.99 Macclesfield Town £225.00 £400.00 £15.00 £19.00 £3.00 £2.90 £1.70 £13.00 £19.00 £40.00 £35.00 Southport £232.00 £345.00 £13.50 £15.00 £3.00 £2.50 £2.00 £13.50 £15.00 £39.95 £34.95 Torquay United £280.00 £395.00 £16.00 £20.00 £2.50 £3.00 £1.50 £16.00 £20.00 £40.00 £30.00 Tranmere Rovers £289.00 £380.00 £17.00 £20.00 £3.00 £3.50 £1.50 £17.00 £17.00 £40.00 £30.00 Welling United £230.00 £250.00 £15.00 £15.00 £3.00 £2.50 £1.00 £15.00 £15.00 £38.00 £30.00 Woking £295.00 £330.00 £18.00 £18.00 £3.00 £2.50 £1.50 £18.00 £18.00 £34.99 £29.99 Wrexham £241.00 £359.00 £15.00 £19.00 £3.00 £2.60 £1.80 £17.00 £17.00 £39.99 £34.99 Women's Super League 2015-16 Season tickets Match-day tickets Home expenses Away matches Replica shirts Club Cheapest Most exp. Cheapest Most exp. Progr-amme Pie Tea Cheapest Most exp. Adult shirt Junior shirt Arsenal Ladies £35.00 £40.00 £6.00 £6.00 £2.00 - £1.00 £6.00 £6.00 £55.00 £40.00 Birmingham City Ladies £30.00 £45.00 £7.00 £7.00 £2.50 - £1.00 £6.00 £7.00 £29.99 £24.99 Bristol Academy Ladies £30.00 £40.00 £5.00 £7.00 £1.00 - £1.00 £5.00 £7.00 £30.00 £15.00 Chelsea Ladies £30.00 £30.00 £5.00 £5.00 £2.00 - £1.00 £5.00 £5.00 £53.00 £43.00 Liverpool Ladies £30.00 £30.00 £5.00 £5.00 £2.00 £2.30 £1.60 £5.00 £5.00 £49.99 £41.99 Manchester City Women £48.00 £48.00 £6.00 £6.00 - - £1.80 £6.00 £6.00 £55.00 £43.00 Notts County Ladies £30.00 £60.00 £6.00 £6.00 £2.00 £2.80 £1.80 £6.00 £6.00 £40.00 £30.00 Sunderland Ladies £38.00 £40.00 £5.00 £5.00 £1.00 £1.50 £1.00 £5.00 £5.00 - - Women's Super League Two 2015-16 Season tickets Match-day tickets Home expenses Away matches Replica shirts Club Cheapest Most exp. Cheapest Most exp. Progr-amme Pie Tea Cheapest Most exp. Adult shirt Junior shirt Aston Villa Ladies £25.00 £25.00 £3.00 £3.00 £1.00 £1.50 £1.00 £3.00 £3.00 £50.00 £42.00 Doncaster Rovers Belles £25.00 £35.00 £5.00 £5.00 £3.00 £3.10 £2.10 £5.00 £5.00 £35.00 £30.00 Durham Ladies £25.00 £35.00 £4.00 £4.00 £2.00 - £1.00 £4.00 £4.00 - - Everton Ladies £30.00 £30.00 £5.00 £5.00 £2.00 £2.60 £1.60 £5.00 £5.00 £50.00 £40.00 London Bees £18.00 £18.00 £4.00 £4.00 £2.00 - £1.60 £4.00 £4.00 £20.90 - Millwall Lionesses £24.00 £30.00 £5.00 £5.00 £2.00 £3.00 £1.00 £5.00 £5.00 - - Oxford United Ladies £25.00 £25.00 £5.00 £5.00 £2.00 - £1.30 £5.00 £5.00 £39.99 £34.99 Reading Ladies £15.00 £25.00 £5.00 £5.00 £2.00 £2.50 £1.20 £4.00 £5.00 £45.00 £35.00 Watford Ladies £30.00 £30.00 £4.00 £4.00 £2.50 - £1.00 £4.00 £4.00 - - Yeovil Town Ladies £15.00 £30.00 £4.00 £4.00 £1.00 £2.50 £1.00 £4.00 £4.00 £36.00 £30.00 Scottish Premiership 2015-16 Season tickets Match-day tickets Home expenses Away matches Replica shirts Club Cheapest Most exp. Cheapest Most exp. Progr-amme Pie Tea Cheapest Most exp. Adult shirt Junior shirt Aberdeen £298.00 £425.00 £21.00 £28.00 £3.00 £1.90 £2.10 £24.00 £25.00 £50.00 £43.00 Celtic £337.00 £559.00 £23.00 £34.00 £3.00 £2.20 £2.20 £23.00 £29.00 £53.00 £40.00 Dundee £340.00 £385.00 £22.00 £25.00 £3.00 £2.00 £2.20 £22.00 £25.00 £45.00 £35.00 Dundee United £299.00 £440.00 £19.00 £25.00 £3.00 £2.00 £2.20 £19.00 £25.00 £44.00 £36.00 Hamilton Academical £350.00 £350.00 £22.00 £22.00 £2.50 £1.90 £1.50 £22.00 £22.00 £40.00 £35.00 Heart Of Midlothian £280.00 £480.00 £18.00 £32.00 £3.50 £2.20 £2.00 £18.00 £28.00 £45.00 £35.00 Inverness Caledonian Thistle £200.00 £380.00 £16.00 £30.00 £3.00 £2.20 £2.20 £21.00 £21.00 - - Kilmarnock £280.00 £330.00 £18.00 £24.00 £3.00 £1.70 £1.70 £20.00 £24.00 £40.00 £30.00 Motherwell £295.00 £420.00 £19.00 £27.00 £3.00 £2.00 £1.70 £23.00 £27.00 £45.00 £35.00 Partick Thistle £308.00 £340.00 £22.00 £22.00 £3.00 £2.20 £2.00 £22.00 £22.00 £45.00 £35.00 Ross County £300.00 £360.00 £20.00 £26.00 £3.00 £2.10 £1.60 £20.00 £22.00 £40.00 £30.00 St Johnstone £310.00 £375.00 £22.00 £26.00 £2.00 £2.10 £2.00 £22.00 £22.00 £40.00 £35.00 Scottish Championship 2015-16 Season tickets Match-day tickets Home expenses Away matches Replica shirts Club Cheapest Most exp. Cheapest Most exp. Progr-amme Pie Tea Cheapest Most exp. Adult shirt Junior shirt Alloa Athletic £190.00 £220.00 £16.00 £18.00 £2.00 £1.50 £1.00 £16.00 £18.00 £35.00 £30.00 Dumbarton £235.00 £250.00 £18.00 £20.00 £2.50 £1.85 £1.80 £18.00 £20.00 £40.00 £35.00 Falkirk £225.00 £325.00 £18.00 £19.00 £2.50 £1.90 £1.60 £18.00 £18.00 £45.00 £35.00 Hibernian £335.00 £380.00 £22.00 £28.00 £2.00 £2.30 £2.20 £22.00 £28.00 £44.00 £36.00 Livingston £220.00 £220.00 £15.00 £20.00 £2.50 £1.50 £1.70 £15.00 £20.00 £39.99 £29.99 Greenock Morton £230.00 £270.00 £17.00 £17.00 £2.00 £1.50 £0.80 £17.00 £17.00 £40.00 £35.00 Queen of the South £256.00 £256.00 £16.00 £16.00 £2.50 £1.60 £1.20 £16.00 £16.00 £40.00 £35.00 Raith Rovers £200.00 £250.00 £18.00 £20.00 £2.00 £1.80 £1.40 £18.00 £20.00 £40.00 £34.00 Rangers £263.00 £524.00 £18.00 £33.00 £3.00 £2.50 £2.50 £20.00 £24.00 £47.99 £36.99 St Mirren £275.00 £350.00 £20.00 £22.00 £3.00 £2.10 £2.00 £20.00 £20.00 - - Scottish League One 2015-16 Season tickets Match-day tickets Home expenses Away matches Replica shirts Club Cheapest Most exp. Cheapest Most exp. Progr-amme Pie Tea Cheapest Most exp. Adult shirt Junior shirt Airdrieonians £235.00 £250.00 £16.00 £16.00 £2.00 - - £16.00 £16.00 £40.00 £35.00 Albion Rovers £180.00 £180.00 £14.00 £14.00 £1.50 £1.50 £1.00 £14.00 £14.00 £40.00 £35.00 Ayr United £205.00 £220.00 £15.00 £17.00 £2.00 £1.60 £1.00 £13.00 £15.00 £35.00 £36.00 Brechin City £170.00 £185.00 £12.00 £12.00 £2.00 £1.50 £1.00 £12.00 £12.00 £35.00 £26.00 Cowdenbeath £210.00 £230.00 £14.00 £14.00 £2.50 £2.00 £1.00 £14.00 £14.00 £40.00 £30.00 Dunfermline £210.00 £260.00 £15.00 £17.00 £3.00 £2.00 £1.50 £15.00 £15.00 £40.00 £35.00 Forfar Athletic £190.00 £200.00 £12.00 £13.00 £2.00 £1.20 £0.80 £12.00 £12.00 £35.00 £25.00 Peterhead £165.00 £215.00 £12.00 £12.00 £2.50 £1.90 £1.20 £12.00 £14.00 £45.00 £35.00 Stenhousemuir £180.00 £180.00 £13.00 £13.00 - £1.60 £1.50 £12.00 £12.00 £36.99 £26.99 Stranraer £170.00 £185.00 £13.00 £13.00 £2.00 - - £13.00 £13.00 £40.00 £30.00 Scottish League Two 2015-16 Season tickets Match-day tickets Home expenses Away matches Replica shirts Club Cheapest Most exp. Cheapest Most exp. Progr-amme Pie Tea Cheapest Most exp. Adult shirt Junior shirt Annan Athletic £120.00 £145.00 £10.00 £10.00 £2.00 £1.50 £1.00 £10.00 £10.00 £35.00 £30.00 Arbroath £180.00 £180.00 £13.00 £13.00 £2.00 £2.00 £1.00 £13.00 £13.00 £38.00 £32.00 Berwick Rangers £144.00 £144.00 £12.00 £12.00 £2.00 £2.50 £2.00 £12.00 £12.00 £35.00 £25.00 Clyde £150.00 £160.00 £12.00 £12.00 £2.50 £2.00 £1.75 £12.00 £12.00 £35.00 £30.00 East Fife £160.00 £180.00 £13.00 £13.00 £2.00 £1.60 £1.30 £13.00 £13.00 £35.00 £28.50 East Stirlingshire £150.00 £150.00 £12.00 £12.00 £2.00 £2.00 £1.50 £12.00 £12.00 £35.00 £30.00 Elgin City £145.00 £175.00 £10.00 £12.00 £2.00 £1.00 £0.60 £10.00 £12.00 £35.00 £25.00 Montrose £175.00 £195.00 £12.00 £12.00 £2.00 £2.00 £1.00 £12.00 £12.00 £45.00 £36.00 Queen's Park £140.00 £140.00 £12.00 £12.00 £0.00 £2.90 £2.00 £12.00 £12.00 £40.00 £35.00 Stirling Albion £170.00 £170.00 £12.00 £12.00 - £1.50 £1.00 £12.00 £12.00 £35.00 £30.00 Welsh Premier League 2015-16 Season tickets Match-day tickets Home expenses Away matches Replica shirts Club Cheapest Most exp. Cheapest Most exp. Progr-amme Pie Tea Cheapest Most exp. Adult shirt Junior shirt Aberystwyth Town £80.00 £85.00 £6.00 £6.00 £2.00 £2.00 £0.80 £6.00 £6.00 £43.99 £31.99 Airbus UK Broughton £36.00 £54.00 £7.00 £7.00 £2.00 - £1.00 £7.00 £7.00 £35.00 £27.00 Bala Town £75.00 £75.00 £6.00 £6.00 £1.50 - £1.00 £6.00 £6.00 £31.99 £26.99 Bangor City £111.00 £111.00 £8.00 £8.00 £2.00 £2.30 £1.00 £8.00 £8.00 £35.00 £25.00 Carmarthen Town £60.00 £70.00 £7.00 £7.00 £2.00 - £1.00 £7.00 £7.00 £35.00 £25.00 Gap Connah's Quay - - £7.00 £7.00 £2.00 £2.00 £1.00 £6.00 £6.00 £35.00 £35.00 Haverfordwest County £60.00 £85.00 £6.00 £6.00 £1.50 £1.50 £0.80 £6.00 £6.00 £28.00 £20.00 Llandudno FC £95.00 £100.00 £8.00 £8.00 £2.00 £2.00 £1.00 £8.00 £8.00 £35.00 £25.00 Newtown AFC £80.00 £80.00 £7.00 £7.00 £2.00 - £1.00 £7.00 £7.00 £30.00 £25.00 Port Talbot Town £70.00 £80.00 £6.00 £6.00 £2.00 £1.50 £1.00 £6.00 £6.00 £25.00 £15.00 Rhyl £60.00 £140.00 £8.00 £8.00 £2.50 £2.00 £1.00 £8.00 £8.00 £37.00 £28.00 The New Saints £61.00 £120.00 £8.00 £8.00 £3.00 £2.50 £1.00 £8.00 £8.00 £30.00 £20.00 Irish Premiership Season tickets Match-day tickets Home expenses Away matches Replica shirts Club Cheapest Most exp. Cheapest Most exp. Progr-amme Pie Tea Cheapest Most exp. Adult shirt Junior shirt Ballinamallard United £140.00 £140.00 £10.00 £10.00 £2.00 - £1.00 £10.00 £10.00 £35.00 £25.00 Ballymena United £150.00 £160.00 £10.00 £10.00 - - - - - £40.00 £32.00 Carrick Rangers £150.00 £150.00 £10.00 £10.00 £2.00 - £1.00 £10.00 £10.00 £40.00 £32.00 Cliftonville £115.00 £130.00 £10.00 £10.00 - - - - - £40.00 £30.00 Coleraine £130.00 £160.00 £10.00 £10.00 £2.00 - £1.00 £10.00 £10.00 £40.00 £35.00 Crusaders FC £112.00 £140.00 £10.00 £10.00 £2.00 - £1.00 £10.00 £10.00 £40.00 £35.00 Dungannon Swifts £140.00 £140.00 £10.00 £10.00 £2.00 - £1.00 £10.00 £10.00 £35.00 £30.00 Glenavon £70.00 £140.00 £10.00 £10.00 £2.00 - £1.00 £7.00 £12.00 £40.00 £35.00 Glentoran £155.00 £160.00 £10.00 £10.00 £3.00 £2.00 £2.00 £10.00 £10.00 £40.00 £30.00 Linfield £140.00 £150.00 £10.00 £10.00 £2.50 - - £10.00 £10.00 £40.00 £30.00 Portadown £70.00 £140.00 £10.00 £10.00 £2.00 - £1.00 £10.00 £10.00 £37.50 £32.50 Warrenpoint Town - - £10.00 £10.00 - - - £10.00 £10.00 £36.00 £30.00 European clubs 2015-16 Season tickets Match-day tickets Home expenses Away matches Replica shirts Club Cheapest Most exp. Cheapest Most exp. Progr-amme Pie Tea Cheapest Most exp. Adult shirt Junior shirt Athletic Bilbao £297.02 £736.58 £22.39 £82.09 - - - - - £63.43 - Barcelona £73.88 £614.19 £17.16 £275.38 - - - - - £89.55 - Real Madrid £166.42 £1,305.99 £26.12 £111.94 - - - - - £55.47 - Valencia £149.26 £1,097.03 £7.46 £111.94 - - - - - £59.70 - Paris St-Germain £313.44 £2,113.46 £15.67 £186.57 - - - - - £63.43 - Lille £119.40 £738.82 £11.19 £104.48 - - - - - £63.43 - Monaco £141.79 £820.91 £11.19 £90.30 - - - - - £63.43 - Marseille £141.79 £783.59 £7.46 £111.94 - - - - - £59.70 - Bayern Munich £104.48 £559.71 £11.19 £52.24 - - - - - £48.47 - Schalke 04 £142.17 £659.71 £11.57 £38.81 - - - - - £59.66 - Borussia Dortmund £154.48 £660.46 £12.46 £40.60 - - - - - £59.66 - Bayer Leverkusen £141.79 £444.04 £11.19 £50.75 - - - - - £59.63 - IFK Goteborg £79.60 £343.60 £11.20 £26.40 - - - - - £52.00 - Malmo £131.60 £359.60 £11.20 £50.40 - - - - - £51.92 - FC Copenhagen £93.56 £336.60 £11.39 £16.34 - - - - - £59.30 - Aalborg £133.65 £163.35 £10.40 £13.37 - - - - - £51.98 - Molde £88.00 £432.00 £12.00 £40.80 - - - - - £56.00 - Stromsgodset £136.00 £264.00 £12.80 £25.60 - - - - - £48.00 - Ajax - - - - - £63.43 - PSV Eindhoven £195.90 £563.44 £20.15 £50.37 - - - - - £59.69 - Anderlecht £171.64 £417.92 £3.73 £52.24 - - - - - £63.43 - Standard Liege £104.48 £276.12 £11.94 £32.09 - - - - - £59.70 - Benfica £73.88 £645.53 £6.72 £55.97 - - - - - £63.43 - Sporting Lisbon £85.08 £267.17 £5.22 £48.51 - - - - - £55.96 - Porto - - - - - £55.96 - AC Milan £156.72 £1,571.66 £14.93 £160.45 - - - - - £59.70 - Inter Milan £148.51 £1,656.74 £26.12 £227.61 - - - - - £64.18 - Juventus £320.90 £1,119.42 £18.66 £104.48 - - - - - £59.70 - Napoli - - - - - £66.42 - Roma £200.75 £1,014.94 £18.66 £149.26 - - - - - £64.18 - *Exchange rates: 1 euro = £0.7463; 1 Swedish Krona = £0.08; 1 Norwegian Krone = £0.08; 1 Danish Krone = £0.099Ever since a thin ledge of pavement was poured along Big Sur’s cliffs, opening the rugged region to tourism in the 1920s and 1930s, California has fiercely fought to save Highway 1. And Mother Nature just shrugs it off. More than 60 times in its history, the Big Sur route has been buried by landslides. Even before this winter’s storms, about $130 million was budgeted over the next decade for repair, replacement and realignment. Related Articles Big Sur coast grows 13 acres from landslide If money’s no object, Big Sur now offers ‘unique opportunity’ Highway 1: How far south can you get on Memorial Day weekend? Highway 1 bridge closure cuts Big Sur off from California Big Sur map: Where you can go and where you can’t after the mudslide Demolition of Big Sur’s buckling bridge begins; rebuild could take a year Big Sur bridge won’t open until Sept.
an involuntary flutter of the eyelids, all attributed to a thing without form. At the risk of spoiling the delightful mystery, the truth is that you will provoke this sort of restlessness when you attempt to expel entire categories of your subjects (it’d be an insult to use the republican adjective of ‘citizen’) from the social positions granted to their ancestors as a birthright without killing them outright, and still attempting to rely upon them for tax income and political support. If you’re going to spit on a man without shooting him afterwards, don’t be surprised if he retaliates against your impudence later. Why is there demand for new traditions? People intrinsically desire a sense of belonging, because to belong to a strong tribe with a long past and hopeful future is to be a secure person. Because that is increasingly being denied to entire categories of people in the West, those people who have been ejected from their own cultural history have a desire that they feel in their gonads to find a civilization that they can call home again. There is a certain logic to this whole political scene that the Left tends to only recognize in temporary flashes : “…they cling to guns or religion or antipathy to people who aren’t like them…” We could, of course, say the same thing about the Left: they cling to the guns of their SWAT teams, the revelatory-evangelical religion of civil rights, and their hatred of those who don’t share their way of life. Even though they consider us wayward, they still believe that they have a right to our souls. The cacophony is the grumbling of millions of ornery men telling them that they have no such right. What was the American community has already been sundered into countless factions. A war krazy-glued it together with a solution containing the blood and guts of hundreds of thousands of dead American men. But even the best glue job comes undone with tension. The desire for self-determination within nations is entirely understandable when you take the dispassionate view of the American federation of states as breaking down on a material and moral level. To be beholden to an alien tradition is an agonizing experience for the human creature, a practice that causes endless resentments. The way to reduce conflict is to make those divisions more readily visible in the culture and to formalize that division through treaty & other law. Let’s acknowledge together that, while ending the American federation might harm the lives of a small number of people living around Washington D.C., that it’s political prudent to acknowledge the insolvency of the American government and to devolve governance to smaller states. The synthetic tradition of Americanism has failed. It has become a punchline. The people are straining to find new ones that they can call their own. AdvertisementsWhat goes into an NFL trade? It's a question I feel like I'm answering all the time. Every time someone says "The San Diego Chargers should trade Donald Butler, he's a bum" it's up to me to tell them why it's not quite as simple as sending one player to another team in exchange for another player or picks. Typically, there's very little difference between releasing a player and trading a player. Certain contracts have little clauses built in them that create differences, but those are rare and still don't help very much. For the Chargers to trade Eric Weddle, which is something that many people have suggested since it doesn't appear he'll be happy this year or be a Charger next year, they would first need to take $2.6 million dollars and light it on fire. Kind of. If they were to trade or release Weddle, the Chargers would be on the hook for the remainder of Weddle's signing bonus ($2.6 million), but would rid themselves of his salary this season ($7.5 million), leaving them with a net gain of $7.5 million in cap space. With that $7.5 million, they would be hoping to replace a 5-time All Pro. One of the more interesting names thrown out as a possible trade target for the Chargers would be Muhammad Wilkerson of the Jets. Not only is he a monster defensive lineman with experience in a similar defense, but he's 25-years old and in the last year of his contract. Wilkerson wants a mega deal and the Jets aren't prepared to give him one. Sound familiar? Now, the Chargers might be even less willing, since they just gave a big deal to Corey Liuget to be the anchor of the line, but who knows? Perhaps they want to build the league's best offensive and defensive lines, stocked with players in their mid 20s, and try and win a Super Bowl that way. The fun thing is, it wouldn't cost the Jets a dime to trade Wilkerson. They would just be on the hook for Weddle's $7.5 million, but that's not far off from the $7 million they're about to pay Wilkerson already. Net loss of a half-million and they get all season to negotiate with Weddle? That's worth it to me, if I'm the Jets. If the Chargers swung the deal, they'd end up with about $1 million less in cap space than they have now ($9.4 million), but they'd be replacing one All-Pro with another and would be building their defense up so much in the front-seven that the drop off from Weddle to Jimmy Wilson would probably be tolerable. They would also get a player in his mid 20s that they could book-end with Liuget for the next 4-5 years, if they were willing to shell out the money. What do you think the Chargers should do?Pierre Karl Péladeau is perhaps the most divisive figure in Quebec’s already fractured cultural, political and business landscape. The businessman and erstwhile politician (he was leader of the Parti Québécois for what felt like 10 minutes in 2015) casts a long shadow over the province. As CEO of Quebecor, Péladeau oversees a media juggernaut. His leadership style — all sharp elbows and micromanaged attention — has long earned respect and derision in roughly equal helpings. People either hate or admire him. Many are beholden to his power and fortune. So it speaks volumes that Péladeau has managed to unite with some of his bitterest enemies (and the occasional ally) in a volley against the federal government — specifically Canadian Heritage Minister Mélanie Joly. This group of 100 odd bedfellows is furious about the wide berth being given to Netflix in the government’s ‘Creative Canada’ strategy. Netflix isn’t compelled to collect tax from its Canadian customers, while other such streaming services doing business in Canada are already doing so. More egregious still is the fact that there is no government-enforced earmark for French language content in that $500 million Netflix has vowed to spend on Canadian programming. The largely unspoken proxy of this argument, muttered in Quebec’s cloistered artistic milieu, is that the federal government is outsourcing its cultural identity to a California-based content behemoth for the lowly price of $500 million over five years — an investment Netflix might have made anyway. Not long ago, this sort of anger emanating from Quebec would have sounded the death knell for a federal government. The artistic community in Quebec looms large; it’s rooted in the province’s sovereignty movement and has a ready bullhorn in the province’s media. Until 2011, it also had an eager partner in the Bloc Québécois, which would harvest and distill its animus for political benefit. This artistic-media-political offensive would serve to remind Quebecers of just how different they are from the rest of the country. Péladeau’s Netflix kvetching reeks of self-interest. And Joly has been able to foist her Creative Canada project on Quebec simply because the province’s political clout has diminished. Péladeau’s Netflix kvetching reeks of self-interest. And Joly has been able to foist her Creative Canada project on Quebec simply because the province’s political clout has diminished. Perhaps the best example of the damage this could inflict on a government occurred during the 2008 federal election campaign. Until a few weeks before that fall election, Prime Minister Stephen Harper was on track to win a majority government by way of massive support in Quebec. For Quebec separatists, it was an unthinkable situation: an Alberta-bred populist politician with social conservative tendencies (and a decidedly shaky grasp of the French language) could win Quebec’s hinterland. And then Harper opened his mouth. Specifically, he said exactly what you’d expect from an Alberta-bred populist politician: he announced a $45 million cut to federal arts grants. “Ordinary people understand we have to live within a budget,” he said. Quebec’s media amplified the howls from its cultural elite, and the Bloc Québécois went to work. Harper’s Quebec support plummeted and he failed again to win a Conservative majority in Parliament. Essentially, he bought himself $45 million worth of bad press. Much has changed in the ten years since. A boom in the largely unregulated delivery of what used to be the purview of a highly regulated industry — television — has made it impossible for governments and businesses to ignore the Netflixes and Amazons of the world. For the same reason, the decline of broadcast television has meant fresh hell for the Canadian Media Fund, which draws its funding from the diminishing returns of those very broadcasters. Politically speaking, the change has been just as profound. With Creative Canada, the federal government has virtually ignored the Quebec fact, as well as its dominance in the field of cultural production. Creative Canada seems geared towards Toronto and Vancouver, not Montreal. The Liberal party circa 2008 would have railed against such an affront to Quebec, as it did when Harper was at the helm. But while she has telegraphed the possibility of taxing Netflix, Joly has remained firm on the precepts of Creative Canada — Quebec be damned. So what has changed? Péladeau, for one. After years of purposeful ambiguity, the Quebecor CEO flew out of the closet as an unalloyed separatist in 2014. As such, the federal government has far less motivation to curry favour with him or his myriad media holdings. As well, Péladeau’s Netflix kvetching reeks of self-interest. He owns Illico, the province’s largest streaming service and one of Netflix’s competitors in Quebec. He also owns internet provider Videotron, which has had to invest heavily in infrastructure to deliver the likes of Netflix to its customers. Joly has been able to foist her Creative Canada project on Quebec simply because the province’s political clout has diminished. With all of 10 MPs, the Bloc Québécois hovers between rump and non-entity status. Three years after suffering its worst political defeat in four decades, the Parti Québécois remains locked in the basement of public opinion. Finally, a mere seven years after being virtually shut out from the province, the fortunes of Liberal Party of Canada in Quebec are almost absurdly bright. The party recently won a byelection in the Saguenay region, where federalists are almost as rare as anglos. Two years after his election, Justin Trudeau remains far and away the most popular federal leader in the province. His opposition, meanwhile, consists of a Saskatchewanian with broken French and a guy who wears a turban. In short, Quebecers seem to love the Liberals again. No wonder the party is so willing to ignore them. The views, opinions and positions expressed by all iPolitics columnists and contributors are the author’s alone. They do not inherently or expressly reflect the views, opinions and/or positions of iPolitics.February 8, 2008 — Dark Star The second alpha version of openSUSE 11.0 was launched and it is available for download and testing. Althoughit is just a development release, this version comes packed with some important improvements. Here are the most essential changes since the Alpha 1: KDE 4.0.1 replaced KDE 3.5.8 as the default K Desktop Environment; GNOME 2.21.90 was integrated in this release; The installer was greatly improved; Live CDs for both GNOME and KDE are now available; The CD editions support German as an additional language; The DVD editions contain only OSS software; Linux 2.6.24; OpenOffice.org 2.4 Beta; Alsa 1.0.16 RC2; D-Bus 1.2 RC2; X.org 1.4.1 Pre. The developers have found some bugs, which are not yet fixed. Here is a short list with the most annoying ones: Progress dialog “Loading the Package Manager…” blocks the installation-update proposal. Although you can accept the proposal by clicking on the “Accept” button, you can’t see the proposed data/values. KDE3 autostart applications may crash on KDE4 startup; Mono apps do not work on the GNOME LiveCD; Missing graphical menu on Live-CD; Popups during the installation behave sporadically. Remember that this is an alpha release and it should NOT be installed on production machines. It is intended to be used for testing purposes only. Please report bugs to the openSUSE Bug Tracker openSUSE 11.0 release schedule: 6 December 2007: openSUSE 11.0 Alpha 0 17 January 2008: openSUSE 11.0 Alpha 1 7 February 2008: openSUSE 11.0 Alpha 2 18 March 2008: openSUSE 11.0 Alpha 3 17 April 2008: openSUSE 11.0 Beta 1 2 May 2008: openSUSE 11.0 Beta 2 13 May 2008: openSUSE 11.0 Beta 3 29 May 2008: openSUSE 11.0 Release Candidate 1 12 June 2008: openSUSE 11.0 Goldmaster release (internal) 19 June 2008: openSUSE 11.0 Public release Download : Software.openSUSE.org AdvertisementsThe first thing I wanted to do after finishing BoJack Horseman’s fourth season was go back and start it all over again. A combination of intricate jokes, meticulous background detail, and sly emotional twists have always made Netflix’s animated show one of the most rewarding to revisit. I’ve seen every episode upward of three times, and each time I watch one, I find something new to hold onto, whether it’s a hidden punchline or a new depth of meaning gained through time. I could say BoJack Horseman is incredibly deft and powerful for a show ostensibly about snarky animals living in Hollywoo(d), but the truth fans have known since the end of the first season is that the show is just incredibly deft and powerful, period. As much as I trust the show at this point, BoJack Horseman had its work cut out for it with season four. The third season wasn’t just beautiful and devastating, but it drove central misanthrope BoJack (Will Arnett) as far to the brink as it ever had — which, considering how many nihilistic drug binges we’ve seen BoJack get lost in over the years, truly is saying something. Fresh off a particularly harsh bout of self-loathing and the horrifying death by overdose of his old co-star, BoJack drove out of Los Angeles with the resigned slump of a (horse)man trying to find a literal dead end to match the ones in his own mind. He was trying so desperately to reach the end of the road, it was hard to imagine how he’d find his way back again — or how the show could make it not feel cheap after letting him spiral out so many times. So season four makes a bold and smart decision right off the bat: Where the past three seasons steadily built BoJack’s arc to a final devastating punch to the gut, this one flips that arc around. Rating vox-mark vox-mark vox-mark vox-mark vox-mark Whereas BoJack’s low point typically comes in the penultimate episode of the season, the bleakest chapter of BoJack’s story this season comes in the second episode, on the heels of a premiere that follows everyone but him living in his absence — and then the show largely lets him live his life while everyone else’s crumbles around them. Meanwhile, BoJack’s new attempt to be a better person comes from wanting to be a decent guardian for Hollyhock (the extraordinarily good Aparna Nancherla), the winsome teenager who shows up and reveals that she could be his daughter. But more interesting, and ultimately impressive, is how this season dives into the past, untangling it with careful, empathy. It’s a season that feels like the insightful BoJack we’ve come to know, but also one wearing its skin in a way that feels just uncomfortable enough that it’s clear something in its bones has changed. Without BoJack firmly at its center, the season becomes a little more scattered, but purposefully so. And by season’s end, it’s shifted the show in a way that feels more permanent than ever. Everyone is growing and changing this season — until they’re not At the beginning of season four, the regular cast of characters around BoJack — including eternally chipper neighbor Mr. Peanutbutter (Paul F. Tompkins), restless writer Diane (Alison Brie), slacker roommate Todd (Aaron Paul), and ambitious agent turned manager Princess Carolyn (Amy Sedaris) — seem to be getting their collective shit together. BoJack doesn’t even show up until that second episode, with the premiere instead following everyone else living almost an entire year without him, and doing pretty well for themselves. Mr. Peanutbutter, spoon-fed flattery from his political consultant ex-wife Katrina (Lake Bell), decides a fun thing to do would be running for governor against the far more pragmatic incumbent, Woodchuck Couldchuck Berkowitz (Andre Braugher, wielding his fine-tuned deadpan to brilliant effect). Diane, wary but supportive, keeps writing for “Girl Croosh,” one of the only clickbait blog satires that’s ever truly made me laugh. Princess Carolyn and her mouse boyfriend Ralph (Raul Esparza) are trying for a baby while she runs her own management company, and even Todd finds something like stability when he joins an asexual support group. But almost all of this success steadily dissolves throughout the season. (Todd, as always, remains Teflon-level immune to lasting damage.) Hollyhock forcing BoJack to really, truly confront his past starts to save him; her openhearted charm and earnest desire to make everyone happy is impossible to resist. But in contrast to other seasons where BoJack’s descent into depression ripples throughout the show, he remains more separated in season four from everyone else than he ever has — and they still fall apart, some more than they ever have before. Diane, Princess Carolyn, and even Mr. Peanutbutter end up facing the fact that they’ve all tried so hard to be the people they think they should be without realizing they have no idea who those people even are. Going into the particular journeys everyone undergoes this season would take up more time than any of us have — though Princess Carolyn’s painful arc deserves special notice, as does Sedaris bringing it to life — so from here, let’s get into the biggest way season four messes with the show’s formula, for the better. This season’s relationship with time seems haphazard, but it’s the sly MVP BoJack Horseman disappears from his life for an entire year. The first episode (“See Mr. Peanutbutter Run”) plays out Mr. Peanutbutter’s increasingly ridiculous bids to become governor (including a botched ski race, duh); the second (“The Old Sugarman Place”) jumps backward to fill us in on what happened during BoJack’s lost year, which he spent crashing at the Michigan lake house where his mother Beatrice (Wendie Malick) grew up a wide-eyed girl and later vacationed as a fatally bitter mom, with interwoven flashbacks to her childhood wafting through the scenery like ghosts. But that’s far from the last time season four plays with aggressive time jumps. Several times throughout the season, a joke will include a cutaway to a week or even month later. In upending the episode’s reality, the show makes the audience recalibrate its perception of the season as a whole, and anxiously anticipate the next weirdo jump. In the bizarre seventh episode “Underground,” for example, the regular cast of characters — plus bonus Jessica Biel and Zach Braff, voiced by themselves — get stuck underground for several horrifying days that quickly descend into total anarchy. While episodes of TV usually take place over a few days, “Underground” sporadically jumps ahead in time without any warning, more and more quickly, illustrating exactly how frayed everyone’s nerves are getting while also making jokes land with startling force. Even more jarring is the ninth episode (“Ruthie”), when what seems like a flash forward to a space future featuring Princess Carolyn’s distant descendent is ultimately revealed to be a fantasy Princess Carolyn imagines in order to tell herself things will work out, eventually. If this casual flash-forward and all around technique seems like BoJack is playing fast and loose, the show illustrates that it’s anything but. Almost a full two years pass from the beginning of the season to its end, and in that time, most everyone undergoes serious changes that leave them completely different. In order to do that, the show’s relationship with time — which has heretofore been pretty straightforward — not only had to change, but evolve. In “The Old Sugarman Place,” we see BoJack go through his old cycles of hating himself, refusing to get help, getting help, and rejecting that help. But in the flashbacks to his mother’s life we learn more about her family, and how she became the supposedly heartless crone BoJack came to know; played by Jane Krakowski and Matthew Broderick, Beatrice’s parents were heartbreaking and obliviously cruel, respectively. This episode is as gut-wrenching as BoJack gets — at least before the 11th episode, “Time’s Arrow,” takes a deep dive into Beatrice’s past by way of her disintegrating present-day mind. Fractured by dementia, Beatrice’s perception of everything around her keeps blending with her past. This is largely played for laughs — every time she calls BoJack “Henrietta” she enrages him just a little bit more — until “Time’s Arrow” devotes an entire episode to seeing the world through her eyes. The past flickers, warps, comes in and out of focus. It splits with what we know, and dovetails with the story in ways both unexpected and startling. Anchored by a steely Malick, “Time’s Arrow” doesn’t just show Beatrice’s journey through her cold childhood, defiant teenage years, and disappointing adult life — it makes it feel more real and present than the faded sepia pictures in her albums and dissolving mind allow. When Beatrice’s story finally reveals the truth behind Hollyhock’s, it brings together several stray threads from throughout the season so well that it’s hard not to immediately flip back and trace how the show set their arcs up for the sheer pleasure of watching their meticulous storylines collide. So while every season of BoJack is ambitious in its own way, season four may in fact outdo them all, if only because it so thoroughly challenges the show itself at every turn. If the first three seasons waded into everyone’s past to reveal the broken pieces, the fourth takes a deep breath and jumps in to discover how they broke, with breathtaking nerve. The first four seasons of BoJack Horseman are now available to stream on Netflix.Rep. Ron Paul (R-Texas) raised $1.8 million in 24 hours between Saturday and Sunday, a major online “money bomb” timed to coincide with his 76th birthday. This is the fourth time Paul has raised more than $1 million in a day this campaign cycle, and a signal that he will have the money to compete as long as he wishes for the Republican presidential nomination. ADVERTISEMENT The big haul came despite a cyberattack during the same time period that shut down Paul’s website for a few hours. Paul had more than $4 million in the bank at the end of June, and besides this raised another $600,000 in a day for fundraising for the Iowa straw poll, in which he finished a close second behind Rep. Michele Bachmann Michele Marie BachmannGillibrand becomes latest candidate scrutinized for how she eats on campaign trail Trump will give State of Union to sea of opponents Yes, condemn Roseanne, but ignoring others is true hypocrisy MORE (R-Minn.). Paul spent about a half million dollars on the straw poll. In comparison, Bachmann had $3.3 million cash on hand at the end of June, although her campaign was only weeks old at that point and much of her money was from her House account. She spent approximately $1 million on the straw poll. Former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney leads the GOP candidates in both the national polls and fundraising: He has more than $12 million in the bank, and a political action committee set up to support him has another $12 million. Romney can also self-fund should he decide to: He spent $44 million of his own money on his 2007-2008 campaign. Paul’s fundraising prowess is nothing new: He raised $5 million in one day during his 2007-2008 run for president. In most national polls he trails the front-running trio of Romney, Bachmann and Texas Gov. Rick Perry, but leads all other announced GOP candidates.The administration of US President Barack Obama is moving into its final three months in office and the trajectory of one of its signature foreign policy initiatives - the US "rebalance" to the Asia-Pacific - remains unclear. Washington's inability thus far to ratify the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) trade deal - a 12-country deal that encompasses nearly 40 percent of the world's gross domestic product - has its friends and partners in the region concerned about its long-term commitment to the Pacific. Unease in Asia In August, Singapore's Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong bluntly referenced this unease during his trip to Washington: "For America's friends and partners, ratifying the TPP is a litmus test of your credibility and seriousness of purpose [in the Asia-Pacific]." Lee further stressed that the United States could not achieve its aims in Asia through a security-centric posture: "It will add substance to America's'rebalance', which cannot just be about the military, or the 7th Fleet." Japan, one of Washington's most important allies in the region, has also urged the US to follow through on the TPP. Japan's Prime Minister Shinzo Abe recently visited the US to attend the United Nations General Assembly meetings and indicated that: "Through the TPP, the US can make clear its commitment to playing a leadership role in the growing Asia-Pacific." READ MORE: The Trans-Pacific Partnership in perspective Abe, who also met Democratic presidential hopeful Hillary Clinton to press her on supporting the TPP, then outlined the stakes: "Success or failure will sway the direction of the global free-trade system, and the strategic environment in the Asia-Pacific." Ratification of the TPP during the "lame-duck" session of Congress - after the election in November and before Obama's successor takes over in January - remains a possibility. Despite this however, the window for finalising the deal is closing, and political opposition from both presidential candidates has further complicated the White House's elevator pitch to Congress. Enters the RCEP Aside from damaging US credibility in the region, the slow-drag on the TPP is turning the attention of some in the region back to trade possibilities with China. The most ambitious multilateral competitor to the TPP is the Chinese-led Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP). One of the key reasons why RCEP has failed to gain traction over the past few years is the political capital that most RCEP members - including Japan, Australia, New Zealand, Singapore and Vietnam - devoted to finalising the TPP after rounds of gruelling negotiations. While many members overlap between the TPP and RCEP, the most striking difference is the absence of the US in the latter - along with other large economies such as Canada. The RCEP agreement, which has 16 members with nearly a third of global GDP, has thus far been slow going, with negotiations dragging since discussions on the pact launched in 2012. One of the key reasons why RCEP has failed to gain traction over the past few years is the political capital that most RCEP members - including Japan, Australia, New Zealand, Singapore and Vietnam - devoted to finalising the TPP after rounds of gruelling negotiations. RCEP includes other big economies in Asia that are currently outside the TPP, including India, South Korea and Indonesia. While this wide network of key regional economies makes the pact attractive, it also is sure to lessen its standards and comprehensiveness - a watermark of the TPP. Indeed, as President Obama has stated on numerous occasions, finalising the TPP would ensure that Beijing "doesn't get to write the rules" on trade and commerce in the region. Significant hurdles Despite the positive movement, however, RCEP still faces significant hurdles. Members of the deal remain at loggerheads over cuts on goods tariffs and have yet to agree on other key areas including e-commerce and intellectual property rights. Moreover, RCEP faces different challenges with the inclusion of India and Japan - neither of which has a free trade agreement with China. This makes negotiations more difficult as both sides are more or less breaking new ground (despite the fact that Japan is also simultaneously engaged with China on a trilateral free trade agreements with South Korea). OPINION: Time is running out on TPP But while the US may frame this as a China trade pact - the reality is that RCEP is centred on the Association of South East Asian Nations (ASEAN) - with all 10 members involved. Indeed - all of the other members (Japan, China, India, South Korea, Australia and New Zealand) already have free trade agreements with ASEAN. The RCEP therefore is more of a web of all of these free trade agreements together (ASEAN 6), along with the inclusion of new potential deals among the non-ASEAN members. RCEP's obstacles are not impossible to overcome, especially due to the fact that the deal - without Washington - has lower expectations on standards than the TPP. Also, the current slow-dance in RCEP negotiations may change significantly if it becomes clear that the TPP will not be ratified in the coming months and is instead punted to Obama's possible successor - both of whom have slammed the deal. RCEP lead negotiators had originally pledged to conclude a deal by the end of this year, but it now appears that this was overly ambitious. RCEP members will hold their 15th round of negotiations next month in China and look to bridge the gap and work towards concluding a deal likely sometime next year. J Berkshire Miller is the director of the Council on International Policy and is a fellow on East Asia for the EastWest Institute. The views expressed in this article are the author's own and do not necessarily reflect Al Jazeera's editorial policy.WEST ST. PAUL, Minn. - A suspect is in custody after authorities say he or she stole a Metro Transit bus and took it for a joy ride Wednesday night. Metro Transit Spokesman Howie Padilla says a bus driver reported that the bus was stolen around 9:50 p.m. According to Padilla, the driver stepped away from the bus while on a stop near the intersection of Marie Avenue East and South Roberts Street in West Saint Paul. That's when the suspect reportedly jumped in the bus and drove off. Authorities responded and eventually stopped the bus going west on I-494 near 24th Avenue. The suspect was arrested without incident and booked into jail. No passengers were on the bus at the time it was stolen, and nobody was hurt.Chicago Has Officially Approved Its First Cat Café Here's a little guy from the Tree House Humane Society It's official: the city has approved the creation of a new cat cafe. The city approved the ordinance Wednesday, and if all goes well, this summer you should be able to visit the Tree House Humane Society's new West Rogers Park facility for your fix of caffeine and cats. "I will be first in line for a latte and some quality time with the kittens," said Alderman of the 50th Ward Debra Silverstein, in a statement. The Tree House Humane Society, Chicago's first no-kill cat shelter, outgrew its current facility so it broke ground at the new facility at 7225 N. Western Ave. last June. Cat cafés have popped up all over the world, but this one will be somewhat unusual because it is connected to a shelter. The Cat Café will be on the first floor of the building. There will be a coffee bar with full-length glass windows that will serve coffee, tea and espresso drinks. In an adjacent sitting room, you can sip your coffee and pet cats. Tree House hopes that this will be a good way for people to get to know adoptable cats at the shelter before taking them home, but it will also help to raise money for their work rescuing and rehabbing kitties. (You can also donate to support their work here.) Artist rendering of new facility courtesy Tree House The rest of the facility has "cageless colony rooms" including "catios" and a humane education center. Tree House Executive Director Dave de Funiak released a statement: "We are extremely grateful to Alderman Silverstein and the City Council for making this dream a reality and for paving the way for cat cafés to operate in Chicago. The Tree House Cat Café will provide a unique opportunity for individuals to interact with our rescued, adoptable cats, ultimately helping more animals find their forever homes and enabling us to rescue even more. As an organization, our focus is to create a compassionate community and transform animal welfare in Chicago and across the country, and the Cat Café is one more way we can accomplish this." The facility is expected to open mid-year 2016.The 7 Signs That Someone Might Be Running For President In 2020 And 20 people who are already making some of those moves. Donald Trump showed that the field of people who could be elected president is larger than just senators, governors and vice presidents. And his underwhelming approval ratings so far suggest that anyone who wants to be the commander-in-chief should run in 2020 — at the moment, President Trump looks vulnerable. So 2020 could have a huge field of Democratic candidates — perhaps even a Republican challenger — and there has been a ton of speculation about who might run, from the surprising (Oprah Winfrey) to the utterly predictable (New Jersey Sen. Cory Booker). It’s too early to guess who will actually take the plunge, but it’s not too early to start looking for the signs. Even Trump tested the presidential waters in traditional ways: The real estate mogul gave a speech to the Family Leader, a high-profile conservative group in Iowa, in 2013. He then returned to the Hawkeye State a year later to campaign for U.S. Rep. Steve King. Like many past presidential hopefuls, he spoke at a New Hampshire “Politics and Eggs” breakfast. He joined a few other future candidates at another Granite State event put on by the conservative group Americans for Prosperity. So to get a sense of who might be preparing to might run in 2020, FiveThirtyEight looked at some of the things that the 22 men and women who ran in 2015 and 2016 did between Election Day 2012 and the midterms in 2014, after which many of them formally declared their candidacies. We looked at seven signs that indicated a person might run for president: Making at least one visit to Iowa for a political event; Making at least one visit to New Hampshire for a political event (We should note here that this story would not be possible without the work of Eric Appleman, a journalist who runs a site called Democracy in Action that since 2001 has tracked nearly every appearance that a prospective or declared candidate has made to Iowa and New Hampshire.); Making at least one visit to South Carolina for a political event; Participating in an interview for at least one feature story in any of a few large national magazines that are followed by political junkies ; Making at least one campaign appearance — outside of Iowa, New Hampshire and South Carolina — for his or her party’s candidates for governor or U.S. Senate; Releasing a book in the time between the 2012 elections and the 2014 midterms or reaching an agreement to write a book that would be released during the campaign cycle; Being included in at least one early national poll of the race that was conducted by either media outlets or polling companies. Put all these together and you have a familiar playbook for presidential candidates. In 2006, for example, Barack Obama campaigned for Democratic candidates in tight Senate races in states like Pennsylvania. He wrote a policy book and made a stop in Iowa. Time Magazine profiled him, and CNN included him in a poll of potential 2008 candidates. It’s likely that our data is incomplete. Some candidates didn’t receive much media coverage before their campaigns began, which makes them difficult to track. Even when coverage is good, it’s particularly difficult to prove a negative, such as that someone never went to Iowa for a political event during a two-year period. But our goal here is not to create a formal model to predict who will enter the presidential race. Instead, we just wanted to look at factors that are commonly associated with running for president and get a sense of how much they truly are signals of a candidacy. So what happened in 2013 and 2014? In 2016, the strongest sign that someone was running for president, perhaps unsurprisingly, was that they visited Iowa between the 2012 election and the 2014 midterms. Of the 22 people who ran in 2016, 17 participated in at least one political event in the Hawkeye State during this period. VISITED POTENTIAL CANDIDATE IOWA N.H. S.C. BOOK INCLUDED IN POLLS HELPED CAMPAIGN* MAGAZINE PROFILE Ted Cruz ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓ Rand Paul ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓ Marco Rubio ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓ Mike Huckabee ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓ Bobby Jindal ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓ Rick Perry ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓ Rick Santorum ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓ Hillary Clinton ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓ Martin O’Malley ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓ Chris Christie ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓ Scott Walker ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓ Bernie Sanders ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓ Jeb Bush ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓ Ben Carson ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓ Carly Fiorina ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓ Jim Webb ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓ Donald Trump ✓ ✓ ✓ Lindsey Graham ✓ ✓ George Pataki ✓ ✓ Jim Gilmore ✓ John Kasich Lincoln Chafee Political activity of 2016
, and there were enough chairs for twenty people. "Sit, and tell me what brings you here. Ozpin gave me a general outline, but not specifics." Jaune proceeded to explain the situation, using Ren as an example the whole while. As he spoke, Solace's face gradually grew more grim, and it wasn't long before his chin was resting on his knuckles, shaking his head. Pyrrha also told him of the talk that she had had with Naze, and this made his face grow even darker. "This is bad." He said in a heavy tone. "I should've expected deception like this from a beast like him." He leaned back, and thought for a moment. "Yes, I think I could purify your friend, but I will require time to prepare. As for the boy's plight with the girl, he is welcome to stay here, if he wishes. She will not find him here." He looked to Ren to see if this was agreeable. Ren nodded limply, his eyes unfocused. "Good, you're welcome to anything I have. It's not quite the monastery that I was raised in, but it will do. Humble beginnings." Jaune got up, looking at the time on his scroll. "Oh, Pyrrha, we have to get back soon! Nora will probably be going berserk by now." Pyrrha got up to follow, but then stopped, saying Jaune "Why don't you go on ahead. I'd like to discuss a few more things with Solace. Wait for me by the entrance to Beacon, would you?" Jaune raised an eyebrow, than sighed, saying "Alright, but I don't know if I can handle it if I get caught again." He started to walk towards the door, and Pyrrha turned to Solace again. "So, about the war that Naze told me about…" her voice trailed off as she worked to isolate the part that she wanted to know the most. "Would that really happen? Would you lead humanity against him like that?" Solace sighed, than stood, turning away. He remained that way for a long time, barely even breathing, before turning and saying "If only you could understand the depths of depravity that he had reached to." Pyrrha cocked her head questioningly, and Solace continued. "He is a lich, and a lich is the worst kind of monster. He was a human, once. I don't know this through any personal knowledge, but I know it in the same way that I know once you were a crying baby. It is the only explanation. Anyways, my order stands to defend the natural purity of the human soul. He took that purity, and sacrificed it for power, and for life everlasting. But he gave up his humanity in the process, leaving him devoid of feeling. Now he is a husk, his breast as cold as ice. It is not only because of this, but also that he could bring this horrible fate to others, that I wish him destroyed. I will not sleep soundly until this happens, for I know that he has some insidious plan." Pyrrha spoke up, saying "But he said that he wanted peace, and that he didn't-" Solace cut her off, speaking over her "Of course he did. He would have no reservation for lying! Nothing he says can be trusted, and none of those twisted by his ruinous grip can be trusted." Solace sighed, then sat back down, waving towards the door. "Go, please. Bring me Nora in three days, I should be ready by then." Pyrrha bit her lip. She had many things that she still wanted to ask him about, but he looked exhausted. She did as he asked, said goodbye to Ren, and found Jaune waiting outside of the door, arms folded. The two retuned to Beacon, not speaking the entire way. They didn't know if they could handle Nora for three days.A heavy fog permeated the coast as Paloma Aguirre rode the waves at Imperial Beach, rotating her bodyboard into them and flying off the lips. "It's one of the best waves in San Diego County," Aguirre said of Imperial Beach, after her morning surf session. "If you want a powerful wave that has good shape and is consistent, this is where it's at." The 40-year-old dual citizen of the U.S. and Mexico was runner-up bodyboarding champion at the national Mexican surfing games five years ago. She's been surfing since she was a teenager in Puerto Vallarta, Mexico. "If I could, I'd spend all day in the water," Aguirre said. She recalled the first time she saw brown water around her at Imperial Beach. It didn't concern her. She had been in brown water before, in Puerto Vallarta, where storms pulled earth off the mountainsides and darkened the ocean — just mud. "When I moved here, I had the same assumption, and I didn't realize that sometimes when I went out in brown water, that was sewage water," she said. RELATED: Cross-Border Sewage Spill Response Uncovers Ongoing Problems For Aguirre, that is the downside of surfing in Imperial Beach: south-to-north flowing currents sometimes bring contaminated waters from northern Baja California, where water treatment infrastructure is aging and sewer pipes often collapse. Sewage spills and insufficiently-treated water discharged into the ocean can carry pathogens causing ear infections, gastrointestinal problems and more. “It's really interesting because we have a line, a man-made line that we decided to put in place to separate both countries... to the environment, to mother nature, it’s a joke … nothing’s going to stop the water," Aguirre said. That line is three miles south of here, but the morning fog obscures the visibility of any distant line. The horizon seems to meld into the sky. The Imperial Beach pier appears to vanish midair. One of Aguirre's favorite spots to surf is just a few yards north of the U.S.-Mexico border fence, where the steel has disturbed the coastal floor in a way that gives the waves there extra power. She said she often looks south and sees her Mexican friends surfing in Playas de Tijuana. While the national debate around U.S.-Mexico border security has focused on the need to stop illegal immigration and drug trafficking, Aguirre has been trying to get elected officials to pay attention to a less-known cross-border flow: pollution. Aguirre has become a leading local figure in the fight. She is the coastal and marine director for Wildcoast, an Imperial Beach-based nonprofit that organizes cleanups and awareness campaigns to improve water quality and other environmental issues. She said the decades-long struggle to tackle the problem has been repeatedly hindered by a lack of binational collaboration. Your browser does not support inline frames or is currently configured not to display inline frames. Content can be viewed at actual source page: https://www.youtube.com/embed/A7ZSrEZq4C0 “You have two countries trying to address the issue in their own way and within their own judicial and legislative systems," she said. "You can have soft treaties or agreements... but there's no real binding power behind it, in the sense that if they decide not to do it you can't take them to court.” There’s been some headway. In the 90s, the U.S. and Mexico built an international sewage treatment plant in south San Diego County. It was upgraded in 2010. But the cross-border pollution problem has persisted, and it extends beyond the ocean. Trash also piles up on land. When the Tijuana River floods, it brings everything from car tires to soda bottles onto an estuary in Imperial Beach. Aguirre visited the valley recently, and discovered a large yellow zucchini growing from the trash. She harvested it. “Along with the sewage you get human waste, obviously, and seeds that come out of that and germinate throughout the valley, and the conditions are pretty good for produce," she said, tossing the vegetable in her hands. "So, yeah, zucchini." Aguirre said she hasn’t lost hope that a solution can be found to protect the environment on both sides of the border – something more lasting than the never-ending cleanups. Wildcoast is advocating to save the Border Wastewater Infrastructure Program, which would help renovate Tijuana's old sewer pipes and other Baja California water infrastructure. The Trump administration plans to cut funding for the program next year. “It’s a beautiful resource, I think it’s both countries’ responsibilities to protect," she said. "The environment knows no borders.” For Paloma Aguirre, water quality problems and other environmental issues tied to Mexico are personal and affect her day-to-day life in Imperial Beach. To view PDF documents, Download Acrobat Reader.Web development is tricky. There is a myriad of goals to strive for -- an effective user experience, unique features and components, nifty buttons and impressive overlays, a responsive or adaptive layout, browser and device compatibility, SEO (Search Engine Optimization), accessibility, style guide consistency... No matter the consequence, businesses always want to have the latest and greatest for their sites. Since those goals are developed in parallel and sometimes conflictingly, it is very challenging to ensure optimal performance. Just think about how much code gets downloaded to the browser - as the code for all those goals is combined. Delivering all your code during the page load can be very cumbersome for your page performance, and can spike your Speed Index way up (which is bad: the higher your Speed Index is, the slower your page is). If you are not familiar with the Speed Index, think of it like a consistent score of combined measurements to assess the performance of a webpage. For more information, check out the WebPageTest.org Documentation. The good news is that optimizing such scenarios is not rocket science. All you need to do is be savvy about how to optimize the Critical Rendering Path. Whaat? Let me explain. The Critical Rendering Path Putting it simply, the Critical Rendering Path (or CRP) is the sequence of steps the browser takes to render the critical content of a webpage (more on critical content in a moment). In other terms, the CRP is the browser's own workflow to process all the critical HTML, CSS, JavaScript, images, and media content. One of the biggest challenges in web development is keeping your page's CRP as minimal as possible. This is your best bet to ensure a good page load time and to achieve a better Speed Index. In the next sections of this article, we will discuss some ways to minimize the CRP. For more information about the CRP, check out Patrick Sexton's article and the thorough Ilya Grigorik's Website Performance Optimization course at Udacity. In order to discuss what is accounted for as the critical content of the page, I would like to present to you some concepts: 1. Above the fold vs Below the fold Think about a newspaper, when you have just bought it. It comes folded, and the most important headlines appear above the fold. This is meant to catch your attention before you open the newspaper, in order to convince you to buy it. In this way, the content above the fold has the absolutely necessary information to be advertised about today's edition, which is defined as critical. Everything else will appear below the fold and will only be revealed after you have bought and opened the newspaper. Web pages are no different. The fold is now the bottom line of your browser. When you open a page, the page fold will separate the content that gets displayed right away, from the content below which would require scrolling down in order to be revealed. Likewise, the above the fold page content is considered more critical, for which the browser will spend all its processing power during the CRP processing: downloading files, parsing HTML, CSS, and JavaScript and then immediately rendering the markup (images and media content). Hence, the below the fold content stands as less critical, since the browser will just download it and parse it, but not render it. TL;DR: Above the fold content: more critical (download, parse and render) Below the fold content: less critical (download and parse) 2. Page loading vs Lazy loading Now, think about a complex website with massive content that you interact with frequently, such as Facebook or Amazon. Those sites always have more content to show as you scroll down the page. And they do not appear sluggish at all. How come? The key here is lazy loading. These sites will load as little as possible to fill the viewport, and will lazily load more content as the user interacts with it, like scrolling down, pressing a button, or clicking on a tab. Pretty much any content can be lazy loaded: HTML, JavaScript, CSS, images, and other media. The more content that gets lazy loaded, the less content that is downloaded on page load time, which will help with the CRP and keep your Speed Index low (remember, a low Speed Index is good). Once any page-loaded content has to pay the high rent (in order to belong to the CRP private club), only the necessary content should be on the page load. In this way, any page-loaded content is potentially critical while any lazy-loaded content won’t be critical. TL;DR: Page-loaded content: potentially critical Lazy-loaded content: non-critical 3. Server-side rendering vs Client-side rendering In the old generation of the web, every website would process all its templates on the server-side and deliver an HTML response to the browser. Nowadays websites may render some (or most) templates on the client-side instead, from a JSON response. One of the main reasons behind this shift is that a JSON response containing the data needed to render a feature is generally much smaller than the actual HTML content for the same feature. From an HTTP response containing just JSON, the same HTML content can be rendered on the client-side, and this HTTP response can be downloaded in considerably less time. Something to keep in mind is that doing client-side rendering on a feature may negatively impact its SEO value, since the content doesn't belong to the first page response and hence it won't be available to most search engine bots. Google bots officially started to process JavaScript, but still your feature's SEO value is likely to be impacted, as Google might not be able to execute highly complex or arcane JavaScripts, and we should always remember that Google isn't the only big search engine around. More on that in Santiago Esteva's article. TL;DR: Server-side-rendered content: more critical and more SEO value Client-side-rendered content: less critical and less or none SEO value Optimizing the CRP Quick recap: More critical content is related with above the fold, page-loaded and server-side rendered. is related with above the fold, page-loaded and server-side rendered. Less critical content is related with below the fold, lazy-loaded and client-side rendered. In order to optimize the CRP, think about this: everything that isn't critical enough should be taken off the CRP for better page performance and lower Speed Index. Some ways you can do that: 1. Moving content to below the fold Search for less important HTML/images/media content which is above the fold and move it to below the fold. For instance: let's say your page has a vertical banner on the left side, but only half of it appears above the fold, which makes it somewhat useless for the above the fold experience. By pushing it down a little bit (so that none of it appears above the fold for a typical 1024x768 resolution) you will have effectively moved it to below the fold, which means the browser no longer needs to wait for this image download to be finished in order to render the above the fold content. The browser will still download it, but not during the above the fold rendering. This means that now the critical content of the page isn't depending on that banner anymore. 2. Lazy-loading features Search for lazy-loadable features on the page load, and replace their immediate loading with JavaScript listeners that will load them upon condition. For instance: your page might have an overlay that is only displayed after the user presses a button. Instead of downloading the HTML, CSS, or JavaScript for the overlay on the page-load time, you can just add a click listener on this button that will download the HTML, CSS, or JavaScript for the feature only after the user presses this button for the first time. This can be accomplished in a few different ways, but I particularly recommend Webpack. P.S.: If you are developing a responsive page, big gains can be leveraged if you suppress from the page load any feature that isn't compatible with the user's device. By suppressing, I mean not downloading the HTML, CSS, and JavaScript for the feature - "simply hiding the extra content" will still download and parse it. 3. Rendering non-SEO-critical content on the client-side Search for non-SEO-critical content which is being rendered server-side during the page load, and remove it from the first page response. Now, add a JavaScript listener after the DOM is ready that will render the feature on the client-side. For instance: your page might have some section for user comments that you don't want to be indexed by search engine bots. Instead of including the HTML comments on the first page response, you may render them on the client-side to save on the page size. In order to do this, you first need to have a JSON array with the comments data needed to render them on the client-side. One way to do this is to embed this JSON array on the first page response, under something like a <script id="commentsData" type="application/json"> tag. This technique is also known as JSON bootstrapping. Alternatively, this JSON array may be obtained from an asynchronous call to the server, if you don't want to bootstrap the JSON on the first page response. Keep in mind though, that an extra roundtrip to the server during the page load may increase your total load time. Now, you just need to provide a JavaScript listener that, once the DOM is ready, will retrieve this JSON array from the tag, parse it, and render the comments markup using the data from it. Be a savvy front-end developer This is just the very beginning of CRP optimization. There is a lot to go through from here, and many other optimization techniques may also positively affect the CRP. I have previously written about the mind-boggling JavaScript modules, which can relieve the CRP when well structured, specially if your previous code was all based on global variables. Hopefully, now you will be able to tell if the next feature asked for by your business is going to impact your page's CRP, and if so, you should be able to set up an action plan for the sake of your page performance!Priebus says the RNC can link 'the nomination process to the debate calendar.' Priebus: RNC can control debates Republican National Committee Chairman Reince Priebus said in an interview posted Wednesday that there is an “opportunity” for the RNC to take charge of the presidential debate process in upcoming elections. “If you have 10 presidential candidates, and seven out of 10 or eight out of 10 will take whatever two-hour slot that is open to them, then you end up with a debate anytime some cable network decides to hold one,” Priebus told National Review. “You can’t control that situation. Our endeavor is to come up with some idea that helps us control that situation.” Story Continued Below He said in the interview that the RNC now has the chance to link “the nomination process to the debate calendar.” “Now, we didn’t have that opportunity two years ago; there is no mechanism to tie the nomination process to the debate calendar,” he said. “But we have that opportunity now. We can do that with a three-quarters vote of the Republican National Committee…. The RNC could hypothetically say, ‘Look, here’s the debate calendar. Here are the moderators. We’re going to have one debate a month starting on this day.’” ( PHOTOS: 10 great debate moments) Candidates, he said in the story, will have to abide by that schedule in order to clinch the nomination. The RNC could enforce that, Priebus added, through carrots and sticks: “either through bonus delegates or penalties of delegates subtracted.” The presidential primary debate process came under fire in last campaign season, and some Republicans said after the election that Romney had become damaged goods by the time the GOP debates came to an end. Priebus himself voiced opposition to the lengthy primary debate process as early as April of 2011. “The idea of 20 different forums and 20 different groups is a little much,” he said at the time. “We need to have some order in our debate process.” This time around, Priebus said, the party has leverage. “There is one major reason that a presidential candidate needs the Republican Party: To get on the ballot in November, a presidential candidate must get a majority of delegates at a national convention to vote for him or her,” he told the conservative publication. “If the presidential candidate can’t make that happen, he or she is not on the ballot. So that is one idea that we will be looking at.”Click to email this to a friend (Opens in new window) Click to share on Telegram (Opens in new window) Click to share on WhatsApp (Opens in new window) Click to share on Google+ (Opens in new window) Click to share on Reddit (Opens in new window) Click to share on Twitter (Opens in new window) Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window) Lebanon has driven ISIS from most of Syria border area: official ARA News Amsterdam – The United States is alarmed by the “ridiculous” rhetoric from Ankara, attacking American foreign policy and even suggesting that the US is supporting the Islamic State (ISIS). Turkish officials have been issuing bellicose and conspiratorial statements, in response to the tacit alliance between Syrian Kurdish forces and the US-led coalition. Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu has said that Turkey would not accept the participation of the Kurdish Democratic Union Party (PYD) in the Astana peace talks, even if the Washington insisted on it. The talks are scheduled to take place later this month in Kazakhstan. Çavuşoğlu also called on the incoming Trump administration to end America’s cooperation with the Syrian Kurds, characterizing the People’s Protection Units (YPG) as “terrorist groups” analogous to the Al-Nusra and ISIS. Mark Toner, the US State Department’s Deputy Spokesman, responded on Friday saying that the Washington is “alarmed by some of the rhetoric that we’ve seen from various quarters in Turkey over the past weeks.” “I mean, the idea that the US is not actively countering Daesh, for example, is ridiculous given all that we’ve accomplished over the past year and a half in really reducing Daesh’s foothold in Syria as well as in Iraq,” countered Toner, employing another acronym for ISIS. “The other allegations that I won’t even address or speak to, but there’s a lot of ludicrous statements out there about US involvement in incidents and terrorist incidents in Turkey that are just beyond the pale,” the American official continued. “They’re not only not true, but they’re harmful to our [US-Turkey] relationship.” Nevertheless, Toner explained that the anti-American statements being made in Ankara will not affect the US seeing Turkey as a partner and an ally. “I mean, we’re alarmed by these statements, but […] we understand that Turkey right now is under a lot of pressure,” he said. “The Turkish government and Turkish people have been touched by terrorism. They’ve been affected by an influx of refugees. They’ve been affected by what’s happening in Syria and they’re concerned about it,” the State Department’s representative continued. In an op-ed published by the Washington Post on Thursday, Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu wrote that “It is sadly true that the Turkey-US bilateral relationship is under severe strain […] The Turkish government hopes the new administration under Trump will repair relations with Turkey.” However, Toner has refused to acknowledge that US-Turkish relations have worsened. “I would never say that they’ve worsened. I would say that they’ve become more complex given the events happening in Syria that, as I said, have a direct effect on Turkey.” “We are in common cause when we’re going after Daesh. We –Turkey and the US– agree, as do many countries around the world, that Daesh needs to be rooted out and destroyed,” the American official added. “For Turkey, it’s really a tangible threat on their border.” Turkey wants the new Trump administration to end American support for the Kurds in Syria and the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) that have been effectively fighting ISIS and are now encircling Raqqa–the Islamic State’s de facto capital. However, analysts say it is unlikely the new administration will change US policy regarding the Syrian Kurds. Rex Tillerson, President-elect Donald Trump’s pick for Secretary of State, recently told a senate hearing that the Syrian Kurds are America’s greatest ally in Syria. Prominent Syrian Kurdish officials recently visited Washington to explore the possibilities of opening a Washington office, which will likely also draw anger from Ankara. “We don’t agree on every issue or every approach with Turkey on destroying Daesh or removing Daesh from the battlefield,” Toner concluded. “That said, we are cooperating with them. We are talking through these things and that is what mature countries and democracies do when they face these kinds of challenges.” Reporting by: Wladimir van Wilgenburg \| Source: ARA News For the latest news follow us on Twitter Join our Weekly NewsletterHuman Rights Watch: ISIS fighters should be prosecuted for war crimes against Yezidis Mosul: Islamic State executes four of its own militants for escaping battlefront Neither Syrian factions nor Turkey can prevent Kurdish federalism: US think-tank ARA News Saudi twin brothers on Friday killed their parents and stabbed a third brother in the capital Riyadh. The Saudi police arrested the twins before escaping the crime scene in the Hamra neighbourhood in Riyadh, according to local media. “Details behind the motive of the attack is still unknown but authorities are not ruling out cause of terrorism yet,” the Saudi Alarabiya news agency reported on Friday. The twin brothers have first chased their younger brother up to the rooftop of the families house in Riyadh and stabbed him multiple times, and he is currently in critical condition in intensive care unit. “The suspects then approached their father a stabbed him multiple times before heading to their mother who was in another room in the house,” Alarabiya reported. Both suspects were reportedly supporting the radical group of Islamic State (ISIS).Just when we all thought we’d reached peak beard, a surprising development has happened in the fascinating world of male grooming. Yes, you guessed it (you probably didn’t guess it) – the lumbersexual is here, with his beard, plaid shirt, backpack and artfully scruffy hair barely contained by his sensible woollen hat. He’s your Tinder date, sipping craft beer at an underground bar with his sad eyes and permanently unrealised dream of living in an isolated woodland shack. He’s your new boyfriend, who used to share a four-cheese pizza with you in bed after a long day, and who now looks like an extra who wandered out of the forest in Game of Thrones. Hell, he could even be the groom on your hipster wedding day. We may have only just been given a great new portmanteau term for the type, but the lumbersexual has been here for a while. I know more than one urban-dwelling man who has suddenly acquired some sort of rurally themed weaponry in the last six months (axes, bows and arrows, tiny knives that they use to open beer cans at parties). And I’ve noticed that if you walk around certain areas for long enough, the proliferation of plaid (on plaid on plaid) will eventually make you feel as though you are living your life inside an optical illusion. But the question on everybody’s lips, as with most new trends, is: guys, is this OK? Is it fine for my friend to adorn his walls with old bear traps he bought on eBay when he had to give up carving the Christmas turkey last year because it “looked too real”? Is there a problem with wrapping yourself up in a heavy duty woodsman’s jacket for your minimally hazardous commute from Peckham to the Apple store Genius Bar? Is there something fundamentally wrong with calling yourself rugged when you actually spent 20 minutes of your morning delicately trimming your beard in the bathroom mirror? Or should we cut these guys some slack (preferably using a vintage hatchet from Colorado?) Lumbersexual adorns his wall with bear traps despite being unable to carve a turkey because it looks ‘too real’. Photograph: Sunny Miller/Corbis Although I personally have spent too many dates fearing that the froth from the latest craft beer will get stuck in my lumbersexual admirer’s facial hair and make it look like a sponge, I find myself cautiously defensive of the trend. Posers they may be, but surely lumbersexuals don’t seriously think we believe that their pulled pork sandwiches are made from wild boar they slew in the communal garden behind their high-rise apartments. Instead, this so-called reaction to the unashamedly feminine metrosexual seems to me all about playing with gender stereotypes. I like the poseur who sits beside me at a nauseatingly hip cafe with his cold brew, Barbour jacket and anchor tattoos – I can’t deny it. He isn’t telling me he’s anything but a freelance web designer who can grow an impressively bushy moustache. He isn’t sitting at home, crying over his laptop and wondering why he can’t just get out there and be a “real man”. Instead, he’s playing with the concept of what masculinity looks like and does. He is at the same time both aggressively attached to the traditionally masculine look and completely removed from the lifestyle that it advertises. ‘Is there something fundamentally wrong with calling yourself rugged when you spent 20 minutes of your morning delicately trimming your beard?’ Photograph: Angela Cappetta/Corbis Men are given a harder time than women when they play with gender through style, since fashion still isn’t seen as their rightful domain. The metrosexual threw caution to the wind and started carrying his moisturiser round in his manbag; the lumbersexual now serves us up a hypermasculine aesthetic with an unashamedly ironic grin. Did the lumbersexual, as accused, steal his look from the gay world of “bears” and “cubs”? It seems likely. As Tim Teeman at the Daily Beast says, “First, straights came for the smooth, pretty gay look … and now you have come for our hairier brethren.” Those who questioned straight culture in the first place were always better at laughing at gender, after all. Now that we can all share in the joy of metros, lumbersexuals and the “metrojacks”(who fall in the middle – yes, really), I am all too happy to laugh along.Find out how many ways you can approach a single encounter in our interactive narrative game based on Arkane's new project. One of the most surprising and exciting things about Dishonored is the focus on simulation and choice that pervades nearly every element of the game. Any given situation can be approached from a number of different directions. Outright force, mobility, stealth, supernatural powers, gear, trickery, distraction, and more options are presented to the player. Every option can dramatically alter the outcome. During our visit to Arkane Studios, we had the opportunity to see several early glimpses of the game in action. While a longer gameplay story demo offered an extended look at the game, we were also shown a shorter test area of the game used by the team to try out new ideas. The encounter – a large room filled with guards – could be tackled from dozens of angles. We asked the developers to show us the short demo encounter repeatedly, and we ended up watching over 30 unique approaches to the battle – some of which skipped the battle altogether. We've synthesized our time with the demo into a short narrative game. While the scenes in the story are pieced together from the many playthoughs we witnessed, every individual event or choice described is a real option already implemented into the early version of the game. In actuality, we've eliminated a number of the choices for the sake of brevity. Click on the link below to choose your path through Dishonored. When you're done, simply choose another path to see the demo from a new perspective. Have fun! <<<<<< >>>>>>GENEVA (Reuters) - South Korea called on Monday for major powers to criminally pursue North Korea’s leadership before its “ever-worsening” human rights record including mass executions and forced labor threatened world peace. South Korean Minister for Foreign Affairs Yun Byung-se addresses the United Nations General Assembly in the Manhattan borough of New York, U.S., September 22, 2016. REUTERS/Eduardo Munoz Foreign Minister Yun Byung-se, in a speech to the United Nations Human Rights Council, condemned the “assassination” of Kim Jong Nam, half-brother of North Korean’s leader, two weeks ago in Malaysia by agents using VX nerve agent. Malaysian authorities have identified eight North Korean nationals, including one diplomat, as suspects or as wanted for questioning, he said. North Korea has not acknowledged the victim was Kim Jong Nam, but last week blamed Malaysia for the death of one of its citizens there, accusing it of an “unfriendly attitude” in a scenario drawn up by South Korea. Yun told the 47-member forum in Geneva that several hundred high-level officials had been “openly or extrajudicially executed in North Korea not to mention the countless ordinary people.” It was no wonder increasing numbers of North Koreans had defected. “We all know who is ultimately responsible for the abuses and crimes,” he added without elaborating. Quoting U.N. reports, Yun said that up to 120,000 people were imprisoned in North Korean prison camps. “Indeed, the whole country has turned into a massive gulag with unrelenting surveillance,” he said. An aggravation of the human rights situation would threaten the peace and security of the international community. “We should act individually and collectively before the violation of human rights leads to a much bigger calamity,” Yun said. “... It is high time to end impunity for human rights violators including (North Korea’s)...leadership” and hold them accountable at the International Criminal Court (ICC). There was no immediate reaction to Yun’s comments from the delegation of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK) or its main ally China.“A woman could get bitten by a mosquito and have a child with a terrible malformation — and that could happen in Florida or Texas or Arizona, or anywhere this mosquito is,” said Dr. Thomas R. Frieden, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. “We don’t think the numbers will be large,” he said, “but the impact could be very large.” Stopping Zika’s spread, he and other public health experts say, will require vigorous mosquito control across a broad swath of the United States. But the quality of services varies wildly. Some of the weakest spots for mosquito control are in places where the Aedes aegypti mosquito regularly appears — in Mississippi, Alabama, Georgia and the Carolinas, and along the Texas coast — largely because they lack the tax base to pay for it, said Joseph Conlon, a retired Navy entomologist who is a technical adviser to the American Mosquito Control Association. If there were ever a place most at risk for homegrown Zika, it is Florida, the state with the largest number of imported Zika cases in the continental United States — 74 reported at last count. And Miami-Dade — the largest port of entry into the United States from the biggest countries in Latin America, according to federal statistics — is the county in Florida with the most reported cases, 32.EPA Regulations Give Kilns Permission To Pollute Enlarge this image toggle caption David Gilkey/NPR David Gilkey/NPR Part three of a four-part series, Poisoned Places: Toxic Air, Neglected Communities. The smokestack stands more than nine stories above the southeastern Kansas prairie and the small city of Chanute, and it's bright, white flashing lights are like a beacon in the night sky. "In the wintertime when the leaves are off the trees you can see that," says Ken Lott, 71, a pecan farmer and Lutheran minister with a farm two miles northeast of the stack. "I tell people that that's my Christmas tree over there because it really looks good." But for Lott and for people in communities across the country, smokestacks like the one in Chanute provide mixed messages. They signal some of the best-paying jobs around (137 people in Chanute), funding for community projects and revenue streams for local governments. Many also emit toxic air pollution affecting millions of Americans as NPR and the Center for Public Integrity have documented in a joint investigation. In some cases, companies fail to meet pollution standards and regulators fail to respond quickly. But the Ash Grove cement plant in Chanute, a town of 9,000 people, and its skyscraping smokestack have not run afoul of the law or the state and regulators who enforce it. The plant does not appear on Environmental Protection Agency lists of facilities requiring urgent enforcement or extra scrutiny. "The plant is in compliance," says Karl Brooks, the regional EPA administrator. "We have a standard and we comply with it," adds Curtis Lesslie, an Ash Grove vice president, as he stands on a steel, wind-swept platform just below the top of the smokestack. Below him, the massive fiery cement kiln spins. The kiln burns hazardous waste for fuel, which concerns some people living downwind despite the assurances of regulators. They've pleaded with state and federal officials for help, in tense and testy meetings. John Galemore, 74, who owns an oil business in Chanute, has pushed regulators hard. "We have no other protection than you people," Galemore told them. "You're our front line and our defense. And all we're asking is that you assure us with testing that we're safe." Lott also attended the meetings. "They are not watching closely," he says of the EPA and the Kansas Department of Health and Environment, or KDHE. "They are not sampling the air coming out of their smokestack." Kilns 'Not Designed To Burn Hazardous Waste' Regulators have resisted, citing Ash Grove's compliance with pollution standards. But those standards give cement kilns permission to pollute when they burn toxic junk for fuel. Kilns are legally allowed to pump more toxins into the air than are hazardous-waste incinerators, which burn many of the same dangerous materials, including industrial solvents, aluminum plant waste and other toxic leftovers from the production of chemicals, oil and pharmaceuticals. Enlarge this image toggle caption David Gilkey/NPR David Gilkey/NPR "The problem with cement plants that burn hazardous waste is that they're not designed to burn hazardous waste," says Jim Pew, a lawyer for the environmental group Earth Justice. "In my view it's a
15:.LFB21:.cfi_startproc #APP # 142 "gcc_asm.c" 1 add var15(%rip), %edi # 0 "" 2 #NO_APP jmp foo.cfi_endproc.LFE21:.size func15,.-func15 Of course, if you want an immediate, there is a symbol for that as well, 'i'. The limitation is that an immediate must be a compile, or link-time constant. int func16(int p1) { asm ("add %1, %0" :"+r" (p1) : "i" (99) : "cc"); return foo(p1); } Which compiles into:.globl func16.type func16, @function func16:.LFB22:.cfi_startproc #APP # 150 "gcc_asm.c" 1 add $99, %edi # 0 "" 2 #NO_APP jmp foo.cfi_endproc.LFE22:.size func16,.-func16 Notice how gcc automatically converts into the AT&T syntax for us, with the dollar symbol preceding the constant. There are other constraint modifiers. One of which is the '#' symbol which acts like a comment character. int var17; int func17(int p1) { asm ("add %1, %0" :"+r" (p1) : "m#hello" (var17) : "cc"); return foo(p1); } The above compiles into:.p2align 4,,15.globl func17.type func17, @function func17:.LFB23:.cfi_startproc #APP # 159 "gcc_asm.c" 1 add var17(%rip), %edi # 0 "" 2 #NO_APP jmp foo.cfi_endproc.LFE23:.size func17,.-func17 Everything after the hash symbol is ignored. Unfortunately, you can't include spaces or punctuation symbols within the comment. The other thing that ends the 'comment' is a comma. This is because you can use commas to allow multiple alternatives in an inline asm. The alternatives are linked together (all first option, all second option, etc.) rather than being unlinked like in the 'rm' case. Some example code is: int var18, var18a; int func18(int p1, int p2) { /* Uses reg-reg option / asm ("add %1, %0" :"+m,r,r" (p1) : "r,m,r" (p2) : "cc"); / Uses mem-reg option / asm ("add %1, %0" :"+m,r,r" (var18) : "r,m,r" (p2) : "cc"); #if 1 / Uses reg-mem option even with two memory operands (gcc copies for us) / asm ("add %1, %0" :"+m,r,r" (var18) : "r,m,r" (var18a) : "cc"); #else / Creates invalid instruction with two memory operands / asm ("add %1, %0" :"+g" (var18) : "g" (var18a) : "cc"); #endif / Uses reg-mem option / asm ("add %1, %0" :"+m,r,r" (p1) : "r,m,r" (var18) : "cc"); #if 0 / Doesn't work "inconsistent operand constraints" / asm ("add %1, %0" :"+r,m" (p1) : "m,r" (var18) : "cc"); #endif return foo(p1); } The above shows the power of the technique. In x86 assembly language, there can only be a single reference to memory within an instruction. Thus if we use two 'g' constraints, we can sometimes generate invalid code. One fix for this is to use register-only 'r' constraints. However, they can lead to inefficiency. What we want to do is only ban the invalid option. By using alternative constraints, we select the valid'm + r', 'r + m', and 'r + r' options. Note that this feature isn't used very often within inline asm code, so is a little buggy. The final inline asm which is #defined out, in the above function should work. However, gcc gets confused by it. The fix is to add the 'r + r' option, like in the other cases. When compiled, the above yields:.p2align 4,,15.globl func18.type func18, @function func18:.LFB24:.cfi_startproc #APP # 174 "gcc_asm.c" 1 add %esi, var18(%rip) # 0 "" 2 # 170 "gcc_asm.c" 1 add %esi, %edi # 0 "" 2 #NO_APP movl var18a(%rip), %eax #APP # 178 "gcc_asm.c" 1 add %eax, var18(%rip) # 0 "" 2 # 186 "gcc_asm.c" 1 add var18(%rip), %edi # 0 "" 2 #NO_APP jmp foo.cfi_endproc.LFE24:.size func18,.-func18 Disparagement Another possibility is when you want a constraint, but you don't want the compiler to worry too much about the cost of that constraint. This doesn't really come into play very often. In fact, with orthogonal architectures like x86, it may not happen at all. This is really a case of API leakage, where gcc offers a feature that may be useful to some machines to all. The '' constraint specifier causes the following character to not count in terms of register pressure. The canonical example is the following: int var19; int func19(int p1) { int out; /* Picks the "same register" case / asm ("add %1, %0" :"=r,m" (out) : "0,r" (p1) : "cc"); /* Picks the "mem-register operand" case / asm ("add %1, %0" :"=r,m" (var19) : "0,r" (out) : "cc"); return var19 - out; } In the above we have an instruction (an add, in this case), which will either take two references to the same register, or a memory-register combination. The same-reg, same-reg case is more strict, and we would like gcc to use the memory-addressing version if possible. The '' accomplishes this. However, this trick is rather subtle... and probably shouldn't be used with inline asm. The above compiles into:.p2align 4,,15.globl func19.type func19, @function func19:.LFB25:.cfi_startproc #APP # 204 "gcc_asm.c" 1 add %edi, %edi # 0 "" 2 # 208 "gcc_asm.c" 1 add %edi, var19(%rip) # 0 "" 2 #NO_APP movl var19(%rip), %eax subl %edi, %eax ret.cfi_endproc.LFE25:.size func19,.-func19 Note how the differing form of the instruction is chosen. A much better technique is to use constraint modifiers that explicitly penalize some alternatives over others. By using the right amount of penalization, you can create patterns that match the machine's costs. GCC will then be able to make intelligent choices about which is best. The simple way to do this is to add a '?' character to the more costly alternative. / Alternatives - costs (works with partial matches) / int func20(int p1, int p2) { #if 1 / Picks using eax / asm ("add %1, %0" :"+r?,a" (p1) : "d?,r" (p2) : "cc"); #else / Picks using edx / asm ("add %1, %0" :"+r,a?" (p1) : "d,r?" (p2) : "cc"); #endif return foo(p1); } The above shows how you can tell the compiler that (for example) %eax can be more or less expensive to use than %edx. It compiles into:.p2align 4,,15.globl func20.type func20, @function func20:.LFB26:.cfi_startproc movl %edi, %eax #APP # 220 "gcc_asm.c" 1 add %esi, %eax # 0 "" 2 #NO_APP movl %eax, %edi jmp foo.cfi_endproc.LFE26:.size func20,.-func20 Of course, a single level of penalization might not be enough. You can add more '?' symbols. Two question marks is even more penalized than one. / Can use more than one '?' for larger cost / int func21(int p1, int p2) { #if 1 / Picks using eax / asm ("add %1, %0" :"+r??,a?" (p1) : "d??,r?" (p2) : "cc"); #else / Picks using edx / asm ("add %1, %0" :"+r?,a??" (p1) : "d?,r??" (p2) : "cc"); #endif return foo(p1); } Giving:.p2align 4,,15.globl func21.type func21, @function func21:.LFB27:.cfi_startproc movl %edi, %eax #APP # 235 "gcc_asm.c" 1 add %esi, %eax # 0 "" 2 #NO_APP movl %eax, %edi jmp foo.cfi_endproc.LFE27:.size func21,.-func21 For even greater penalization, you can use the '!' symbol. It is equivalent to 100 '?' symbols. This should be very rarely needed. / Even stronger disparagement of the alternative! = 100?'s / int func22(int p1, int p2) { #if 1 / Picks using eax / asm ("add %1, %0" :"+r!,a??" (p1) : "d!,r??" (p2) : "cc"); #else / Picks using edx / asm ("add %1, %0" :"+r??,a!" (p1) : "d??,r!" (p2) : "cc"); #endif return foo(p1); } Giving:.p2align 4,,15.globl func22.type func22, @function func22:.LFB28:.cfi_startproc movl %edi, %eax #APP # 250 "gcc_asm.c" 1 add %esi, %eax # 0 "" 2 #NO_APP movl %eax, %edi jmp foo.cfi_endproc.LFE28:.size func22,.-func22 Clobbers Up until now, we have only used the clobber part of the asm intrinsic for'memory', and 'cc' (condition codes). However, there are other things you can put in there. The most often used are names of registers. This tells gcc that that register is somehow used in the asm string. It will not use that register for inputs or outputs, and will helpfully save that register before the asm is called, and then will automatically restore it afterwards. An example of this where we clobber the %rdx register is: int func23(int p1) { unsigned out = 25; asm ("mul %1" : "+a" (out) : "g" (p1) : "%rdx", "cc"); return out; } The mul instruction will write to %rax and %rdx. We don't care about the upper part, so it isn't an output. To tell gcc about the register write, the clobber does the job. (Yes, there are other versions of the x86 multiply instruction that don't clobber %rdx unnecessarily, but this is just an example of how clobbers might be useful.) This compiles into:.p2align 4,,15.globl func23.type func23, @function func23:.LFB29:.cfi_startproc movl $25, %eax #APP # 264 "gcc_asm.c" 1 mul %edi # 0 "" 2 #NO_APP ret.cfi_endproc.LFE29:.size func23,.-func23 In this case, %rdx is 'dead' because it is a parameter-register in the ABI. GCC doesn't need to save or restore it, so doesn't. Without the clobber, we would need to save and restore the register manually. That would be inefficient in cases like the above, were such saves and restores are not needed. Of course, you can clobber more than one register: / More than one clobber / int func24(int p1) { int out; / %1 cannot overlap clobber list. Note use of "%%" in asm / asm ("mov %1, %%edi \t" "call foo \t" : "=a" (out) : "g" (p1) : "%rdi", "%rsi", "%rdx", "%rcx", "%r8", "%r9", "memory", "cc"); return out; } The above is bad coding style. You really shouldn't use control-flow altering instructions inside inline asm. GCC doesn't know about them, and can do optimizations that invalidate what you are trying to do. (If 'foo' is inlined everywhere, it may not even exist to call.) Also, there have been many bugs when the number of clobbered registers gets too large. If gcc can't find a way to save and restore everything it may simply give up and crash. In the above case, we are lucky, and it compiles without issue. The trick is to notice that the clobbered registers are all dead (except %rdi) due to the x86_64 SYSV ABI..p2align 4,,15.globl func24.type func24, @function func24:.LFB30:.cfi_startproc movl %edi, %eax #APP # 275 "gcc_asm.c" 1 mov %eax, %edi call foo # 0 "" 2 #NO_APP ret.cfi_endproc.LFE30:.size func24,.-func24 A much better technique is to use explicit temporaries. GCC can then allocate them where ever it has space. It can also move things around for more efficiency, based on the needs of surrounding code. An example of doing this is: / Better option, if available. Use temp out registers / int func25(int p1, int p2) { int temp1, temp2; int out; / '=&' so temp's don't overlap with inputs / asm ("mov %3, %1 \t" "mov %4, %2 \t" "shr $10, %1 \t" "shl $10, %2 \t" "add %3, %1 \t" "lea (%4, %2, 1), %0 \t" "xor %1, %0 \t" : "=r" (out), "=&r" (temp1), "=&r" (temp2): "g" (p1), "g" (p2) : "cc"); return out; } In the above, we use two temporary registers. Since we don't want them to overlap the other inputs or outputs, they need to be defined by '=&r' constraints. The only thing left on the clobber list is the 'cc' due to the arithmetic and logic instructions altering the condition codes..p2align 4,,15.globl func25.type func25, @function func25:.LFB31:.cfi_startproc #APP # 288 "gcc_asm.c" 1 mov %edi, %edx mov %esi, %ecx shr $10, %edx shl $10, %ecx add %edi, %edx lea (%esi, %ecx, 1), %eax xor %edx, %eax # 0 "" 2 #NO_APP ret.cfi_endproc.LFE31:.size func25,.-func25 Finally, there is another way to name registers within the asm string itself. Depending on your point of view, the numerical '%0-%9' scheme may be more or less readable than the following: int func26(int p1) { int out = 137; asm ("sub %[p1], %[out_name]" : [out_name] "+r" (out) : [p1] "g" (p1) : "cc"); return out; } By putting a name within square brackets in the constraints we can then use those names in the asm string. Note that the asm operand name does not have to be the same as the C variable it comes from. However, for readability, it may be better to keep the two the same if possible. The main disadvantage of the technique is that it can make the asm string a little longer, and can make it harder to see what addressing modes are used..p2align 4,,15.globl func26.type func26, @function func26:.LFB32:.cfi_startproc movl $137, %eax #APP # 304 "gcc_asm.c" 1 sub %edi, %eax # 0 "" 2 #NO_APP ret.cfi_endproc.LFE32:.size func26,.-func26 Less Common Constraint Types There are a few standard constraints beyond those discussed above. One of these is for "offsetable memory", which is any memory reference which can take an offset to it. In the orthogonal x86 architecture, this is anything that'm' could reference, so this constraint class isn't too useful there. Other machines may be different though. An example of its usage is: int func27(int p1) { static int out[2]; asm ("mov %1, 4+%0" : "=o" (out) : "r" (p1)); return out[1]; } Which compiles into:.p2align 4,,15.globl func27.type func27, @function func27:.LFB33:.cfi_startproc #APP # 317 "gcc_asm.c" 1 mov %edi, 4+out.2398(%rip) # 0 "" 2 #NO_APP movl out.2398+4(%rip), %eax ret.cfi_endproc.LFE33:.size func27,.-func27 The linker and assembler understand the more complex addressing within "out.2398+4(%rip)", and will generate the appropriate fix-up for us. Since some machines have offsetable memory as a separate class from normal memory constraints, there is some memory which is not offsetable. If you want to have a constraint that references such memory, you can use the 'V' constraint flag. However, since x86 doesn't have such a beast, we don't provide an example of its use. Some machines provide memory that automatically increments or decrements things stored within it. Such memory can be described by the '' constraints. Again, x86 doesn't have anything like that, so those constraints are not supported, and no example is provided. Another constraint that isn't so useful on x86 is 'n'. That refers to a constant integer that is known at assembly time. Some machines have less capable assemblers and linkers, and cannot use the more general 'i' constraint. 'i' is an integer constant known at link time. Since 'n' defines a sub-category of 'i', you can also use it on x86: int func28(void) { int out = 0; asm ("add %1,%0" : "+r" (out) : "n" (5)); return out; } The above acts just like 'i' would do, and uses the 5 as an immediate:.p2align 4,,15.globl func28.type func28, @function func28:.LFB34:.cfi_startproc xorl %eax, %eax #APP # 332 "gcc_asm.c" 1 add $5,%eax # 0 "" 2 #NO_APP ret.cfi_endproc.LFE34:.size func28,.-func28 Another integer immediate constraint type is's'. This describes an integer that is known at link time, but not compile or assembly time. This isn't particularly useful on x86, but on other machines can lead to optimizations. Not all immediates are integers. Some machines allow immediate floating point numbers. The 'E' constraint is for floating point immediates that are defined on the compiling machine. If the target machine is different, then the bit-values may be incorrect. Thus, this constraint shouldn't be used if you are cross-compiling. The x86 architecture really doesn't allow floating point immediates. You should get constants into SSE registers and the legacy floating point stack from memory instead. However, there are a coupled of special cases that still work: double func29(void) { double out; unsigned long long temp; asm ("movabs %2, %1 \t" "movq %1, %0 \t" : "=x" (out), "=r" (temp) : "E" (2.0)); return out; } The above use the bit-pattern for the double '2.0', and indirectly moves it into an SSE register (defined by the 'x' constraint). It would be more efficient to do a direct memory load, but the above does work:.p2align 4,,15.globl func29.type func29, @function func29:.LFB35:.cfi_startproc #APP # 346 "gcc_asm.c" 1 movabs $0x4000000000000000, %rax movq %rax, %xmm0 # 0 "" 2 #NO_APP ret.cfi_endproc.LFE35:.size func29,.-func29 The code for float-sized immediates is similar: float func30(void) { float out; unsigned temp; asm ("mov %2, %1 \t" "movd %1, %0 \t" : "=x" (out), "=r" (temp) : "E" (2.0f)); return out; } Giving:.p2align 4,,15.globl func30.type func30, @function func30:.LFB36:.cfi_startproc #APP # 357 "gcc_asm.c" 1 mov $0x40000000, %eax movd %eax, %xmm0 # 0 "" 2 #NO_APP ret.cfi_endproc.LFE36:.size func30,.-func30 In addition to the 'E' constraint is the 'F' constraint. This is cross-compiling friendly, and should probably be used instead. Otherwise, it has the same meaning as it's 'E' cousin. double func31(void) { double out; unsigned long long temp; asm ("movabs %2, %1 \t" "movq %1, %0 \t" : "=x" (out), "=r" (temp) : "F" (2.0)); return out; } Which produces identical code to the 'E' version:.p2align 4,,15.globl func31.type func31, @function func31:.LFB37:.cfi_startproc #APP # 368 "gcc_asm.c" 1 movabs $0x4000000000000000, %rax movq %rax, %xmm0 # 0 "" 2 #NO_APP ret.cfi_endproc.LFE37:.size func31,.-func31 Another rarely used constraint is 'p'. It describes a valid memory addresses. On x86, it behaves just like'm' does. You should use the more standard'm' instead. void func32(void) { static int mem; void out; asm ("lea (%1), %0" : "=r" (out) : "p" (&mem)); return out; } Which compiles into:.p2align 4,,15.globl func32.type func32, @function func32:.LFB38:.cfi_startproc #APP # 381 "gcc_asm.c" 1 lea ($mem.2421), %rax # 0 "" 2 #NO_APP ret.cfi_endproc.LFE38:.size func32,.-func32 There is one final constraint common to all machines, 'X'. This constraint matches absolutely everything. This catch-all doesn't give gcc any information about how to pass the information to the inline asm, so gcc picks the form most convenient for it. Since the exact output will be highly variable, it is difficult to use in normal asm instructions. However, it may be helpful in asm directives: const char func33(int p1) { const char str; asm (".pushsection.data \t" "1: \t" ".asciz \"%1\" \t" ".popsection \t" "lea 1b(%%rip),%0 \t" : "=r" (str) : "X" (p1)); return str; } The above compiles into:.p2align 4,,15.globl func33.type func33, @function func33:.LFB39:.cfi_startproc #APP # 390 "gcc_asm.c" 1.pushsection.data 1:.asciz "%edi".popsection lea 1b(%rip),%rax # 0 "" 2 #NO_APP ret.cfi_endproc.LFE39:.size func33,.-func33 This creates a zero-terminated ASCII string containing the operand used by gcc. With a bit of section magic, it obtains a pointer to it, which is then returned in the output. X86 Register Constraints Most of the previous constraint types will work on all machines. Some have been x86-only though. For example, 'a', which will expand to '%al', '%ax', '%eax" or '%rax', will obviously not work the same way on another architecture. We have seen a few of these x86-only, but there are many more. A simple register constraint is 'R'. This selects any legacy register for use. i.e. one of the a,b,c,d,si,di,bp, or sp registers. This may be useful when interfacing with old code unable to use any of the new 64 bit registers. Otherwise, the constraint acts just like 'r' would do: int func34(int p1, int p2, int p3, int p4, int p5) { int out; / Copies from r8 into legacy register first */ asm ("mov %1, %0" : "=r" (out) : "R" (p5)); return foo(out); } The above cannot use p5 as is because it is passed in %r8 by the ABI. Thus gcc will insert a move instruction into a legacy register as requested. This copy wouldn't happen if 'r' were used instead;.p2align 4,,15.globl func34.type func34, @function func34:.LFB40:.cfi_startproc movl %r8d, %eax #APP # 405 "gcc_asm.c" 1 mov %eax, %edi # 0 "" 2 #NO_APP jmp foo.cfi_endproc.LFE40:.size func34,.-func34 Another constraint that picks a subset of the available registers is 'q'. This picks a register with an addressable lower 8-bit part. The list of available registers differs between 64-bit mode and 32-bit mode. In 32-bit mode, some of the registers don't exist. i.e. you can't access %dil or %sil. char func35(char p1) { char out; asm ("mov %1, %0" : "=q" (out) : "q" (p1)); return out; } Otherwise the use looks exactly like 'r' would have..p2align 4,,15.globl func35.type func35, @function func35:.LFB41:.cfi_startproc #APP # 414 "gcc_asm.c" 1 mov %dil, %al # 0 "" 2 #NO_APP ret.cfi_endproc.LFE41:.size func35,.-func35 A variant of the above is the 'Q' constraint, that picks a register with a 'high' 8-bit sub-register. i.e. any of the a, b, c or d registers: char func35a(char p1) { char out; asm ("mov %1, %0" : "=Q" (out) : "Q" (p1)); return out; } Which compiles into:.p2align 4,,15.globl func35a.type func35a, @function func35a:.LFB42:.cfi_startproc movl %edi, %edx #APP # 423 "gcc_asm.c" 1 mov %dl, %al # 0 "" 2 #NO_APP ret.cfi_endproc.LFE42:.size func35a,.-func35a Notice how the compiler was not allowed to use the %edi register as the operand any more. Instead, it picked %edx. As we have seen in the earlier sections, some of the x86 registers have constraints of their very own. We have seen 'a' and 'd'. Similarly, 'b' and 'c' do what you might expect, and refer to the '%bl', '%bx', '%ebx', and '%rbx' registers, and the '%cl', '%cx', '%ecx', and '%rcx' registers respectively. An example of this might be: int func36(int p1, int p2, int p3, int p4) { int out; asm ("mov %1, %0 \t" "add %2, %3 \t" "add %4, %0 \t" "add %3, %0 \t" : "=&r" (out) : "a" (p1), "b" (p2), "c" (p3), "d" (p4) : "cc"); return out; } Where every input has had its register manually defined by an explicit constraint. GCC needs to do a little bit of copying to get everything into the right spot;.p2align 4,,15.globl func36.type func36, @function func36:.LFB42:.cfi_startproc movl %edx, %r8d pushq %rbx.cfi_def_cfa_offset 16.cfi_offset 3, -16 movl %ecx, %edx movl %edi, %eax movl %esi, %ebx movl %r8d, %ecx #APP # 423 "gcc_asm.c" 1 mov %eax, %r9d add %ebx, %ecx add %edx, %r9d add %ecx, %r9d # 0 "" 2 #NO_APP popq %rbx.cfi_def_cfa_offset 8 movl %r9d, %eax ret.cfi_endproc.LFE42:.size func36,.-func36 There are also special constraints for the si and di registers, 'S' and 'D' respectively. (We have used 'D' before in func13().) Something using them looks like: int func37(int p1, int p2) { int out; asm ("mov %1, %0 \t" "add %2, %0 \t" : "=&r" (out) : "D" (p1), "S" (p2) : "cc"); return out; } Which compiles into:.p2align 4,,15.globl func37.type func37, @function func37:.LFB43:.cfi_startproc #APP # 435 "gcc_asm.c" 1 mov %edi, %eax add %esi, %eax # 0 "" 2 #NO_APP ret.cfi_endproc.LFE43:.size func37,.-func37 There is one final way to access the general purpose registers, which is via the 'A' constraint. This is the two-register pair defined by the a and d registers. This is useful when you want to deal with 128-bit quantities in 64-bit mode, or 64-bit quantities in 32-bit mode. The low bits are stored in the a register, and the high bits in the d register, just like the multiply and division asm instructions expect. Its use looks like: __uint128_t func38(unsigned long long p1, unsigned long long p2) { __uint128_t out; asm ("mul %2" :"=&A" (out) : "%0" (p1), "g" (p2) : "cc"); return out; } Which compiles into:.p2align 4,,15.globl func38.type func38, @function func38:.LFB44:.cfi_startproc movq %rdi, %rax #APP # 445 "gcc_asm.c" 1 mul %rsi # 0 "" 2 #NO_APP ret.cfi_endproc.LFE44:.size func38,.-func38 Since the ABI requires a function returning a 128-bit integer to do so in %rax and %rdx, the above has no extra register to register copies. (Other than that required to get the multiply instruction initialized.) X86 Floating Point Constraints The x86 has a strange floating-point coprocessor which uses an internal stack of registers. Dealing with this is difficult with gcc. You need to make sure that the right number of values are added and removed from this stack. GCC assumes that all output constraints are under its purview, and are popped by it. Input constraints are more complex, can be either popped by gcc afterwards or not. The least complex method is to tie an input constraint to an output. That makes it popped afterwards with the output that replaces it. You can also clobber an input to make it assumed to have been implicitly popped. Otherwise, gcc will assume it can use the input later for other calculations, and will handling the popping of that register itself. One critical detail is that the floating point processor acts on a stack. That means that the used (popped or not) registers must be contiguous. It's not possible for gcc to re-arrange the stack by popping something the middle. You need to make sure the outputs are first in the stack, followed by all registers you pop, and finally followed by the ones gcc will pop from that stack. The constraint for the top of the floating point stack is 't'. We can add things to the stack without a floating point register input by using memory instead: long double func39(int p1) { long double out; asm ("fild %1" : "=t" (out) : "m" (p1)); return out; } The above converts an integer into a long double float:.p2align 4,,15.globl func39.type func39, @function func39:.LFB45:.cfi_startproc movl %edi, -12(%rsp) #APP # 454 "gcc_asm.c" 1 fild -12(%rsp) # 0 "" 2 #NO_APP ret.cfi_endproc.LFE45:.size func39,.-func39 The ABI mandates that long doubles are returned in st(0), so the above routine doesn't need to alter the stack. The next-from-top floating point register, st(1), also has a special constraint: 'u'. An example of its use might be: long double func40(long double p1, long double p2) { long double out; asm ("fadd %2, %0" : "=&t" (out) : "%0" (p1), "u" (p2)); return out; } Note how in the above we link the first input to the output, so it is stored in st(0), and popped by gcc afterwards. The other input is in st(1), and since is not clobbered, will also be popped by gcc afterwards..globl func40.type func40, @function func40:.LFB46:.cfi_startproc fldt 8(%rsp) fldt 24(%rsp) fxch %st(1) #APP # 463 "gcc_asm.c" 1 fadd %st(1), %st # 0 "" 2 #NO_APP fstp %st(1) ret.cfi_endproc.LFE46:.size func40,.-func40 You can see how gcc sets up the floating point stack (in a not particularly efficient way). You can also see how the st(1) input is cleaned up afterwards by the ftsp instruction. st(0) is still live at the end of the function, and is used for the long double output. Finally, you can create an input in an arbitrary floating point slot by using the 'f' constraint. (This doesn't work as an output constraint.) An example of this is: long double func41(long double p1) { long double out = 2.0; asm ("fadd %1 \t" : "+&t" (out) : "f" (p1)); return out; } Where just to be different from the previous function, we use an in-out parameter on the top of the stack..p2align 4,,15.globl func41.type func41, @function func41:.LFB47:.cfi_startproc flds.LC1(%rip) fldt 8(%rsp) fxch %st(1) #APP # 472 "gcc_asm.c" 1 fadd %st(1) #
April 5, 2028 May 8, 2028 March 5, 2030 May 9, 2030 See also EditDonald Trump Jr. has needed several tries to tell the whole truth about last year’s now-infamous Russia meeting. After the New York Times uncovered the extremely shady meeting Donald Trump Jr. held at Trump Tower last June, the eldest Trump son appeared on Sean Hannity’s show and offered to testify under oath on the matter. Then, last week, the Senate Judiciary Committee announced that he and Paul Manafort, who also attended the Trump Tower sit-down, would appear at a public hearing on Wednesday, raising expectations of a Comey hearing–like spectacle. But on Friday, the leaders of that committee, Senators Chuck Grassley and Dianne Feinstein, announced they wouldn’t be issuing subpoenas and that the testimony given by Trump Jr. and Manafort would be private. On Sunday, Grassley appeared to confirm that the two would not even be under oath when they answer questions. Al Franken complained to Jake Tapper on CNN’s State of the Union Sunday that Trump Jr. and Manafort’s private testimony was “not good enough,” and that they should testify under oath. But CNN reported that the idea of a public hearing at this juncture wasn’t likely in the first place: A source familiar with the committee’s thinking says there was incentive among the committee to make the agreement with Manafort and Trump Jr. because there was a recognition that they were unlikely to appear in a public session. But the threat of trying to force them to appear publicly and to issue a subpoena was enough to get agreement from the two to provide records and to interview them quicker than they otherwise would have liked, a source familiar with the discussion says. It’s not clear when Trump Jr. and Manafort will speak to the committee. In the meantime, Glenn Simpson, who co-founded the investigative firm that commissioned the infamous Steele dossier, was subpoenaed by the committee after refusing to testify in private. And, perhaps more intriguing, Jared Kushner will talk to the Senate Intelligence Committee in a closed-door session on Monday.NAME Geo::libpostal - Perl bindings for libpostal SYNOPSIS use Geo::libpostal ':all'; # normalize an address my @addresses = expand_address('120 E 96th St New York'); # parse addresses into their components my %address = parse_address('The Book Club 100-106 Leonard St Shoreditch London EC2A 4RH, United Kingdom'); # %address contains: # ( # road => 'leonard st', # postcode => 'ec2a 4rh', # house => 'the book club', # house_number => '100-106', # suburb =>'shoreditch', # country => 'united kingdom', # city => 'london' # ); DESCRIPTION libpostal is a C library for parsing/normalizing international street addresses. Address strings can be normalized using expand_address which returns a list of valid variations so you can check for duplicates in your dataset. It supports normalization in over 60 languages. An address string can also be parsed into its constituent parts using parse_address such as house name, number, city and postcode. FUNCTIONS expand_address use Geo::libpostal 'expand_address'; my @ny_addresses = expand_address('120 E 96th St New York'); my @fr_addresses = expand_address('Quatre vingt douze R. de l\'Église'); Takes an address string and returns a list of known variants. Useful for normalization. Accepts many boolean options: expand_address('120 E 96th St New York', latin_ascii => 1, transliterate => 1, strip_accents => 1, decompose => 1, lowercase => 1, trim_string => 1, drop_parentheticals => 1, replace_numeric_hyphens => 1, delete_numeric_hyphens => 1, split_alpha_from_numeric => 1, replace_word_hyphens => 1, delete_word_hyphens => 1, delete_final_periods => 1, delete_acronym_periods => 1, drop_english_possessives => 1, delete_apostrophes => 1, expand_numex => 1, roman_numerals => 1, ); Warning: libpostal segfaults if all options are set to false. Also accepts an arrayref of language codes per ISO 639-1: expand_address('120 E 96th St New York', languages => [qw(en fr)]); This is useful if you are normalizing addresses in multiple languages. Will die on undef and empty addresses, odd numbers of options and unrecognized options. Exported on request. parse_address use Geo::libpostal 'parse_address'; my %ny_address = parse_address('120 E 96th St New York'); my %fr_address = parse_address('Quatre vingt douze R. de l\'Église'); Will die on undef and empty addresses. Exported on request. parse_address() may return duplicate labels for invalid addresses strings. WARNING libpostal uses setup() and teardown() functions. Setup is lazily loaded. Teardown occurs in an END block automatically. Geo::libpostal will die if expand_address or parse_address is called after teardown. EXTERNAL DEPENDENCIES libpostal is required. INSTALLATION You can install this module with CPAN: $ cpan Geo::libpostal Or clone it from GitHub and install it manually: $ git clone https://github.com/dnmfarrell/Geo-libpostal $ cd Geo-libpostal $ perl Makefile.PL $ make $ make test $ make install AUTHOR © 2016 David Farrell LICENSE See LICENSEFormer Turing Pharmaceuticals CEO Martin Shkreli believes Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton may have early onset Parkinson’s disease. “I believe Hillary Clinton has Parkinson’s disease. Her symptomology is consistent with early onset Parkinson’s. She has freezing gait, dyskinesia, on-off symptomology,” expressed Shkreli during a recent Periscope livestream. “I actually don’t think she had a stroke, because if she had a stroke we would see serious neurological defects,” he explained. “People with stroke have, as you know, cardinal symptoms like slurred speech or a difficulty walking… They require post-stroke physical therapy to recover, so I think that in essence, what’s happened is that she has Parkinson’s disease.” “I think she had an embolism, had the clot dissolved, she probably had some kind of concussion, [though] concussions aren’t responsible for this kind of symptomology,” he continued. “I’m not a physician, I’m not a neurologist, but I have been in pharmaceuticals for fifteen years. I actually funded many different Parkinson’s disease medicines, so I know a lot about this area…” “I do think Hillary is hiding these issues from us. I don’t think that these issues are problematic, at all, I think that she should be proud of being sixty-eight. Most people who are sixty-eight are sick,” Shkreli stated. “They have something wrong with them, that’s why being old is what it is. The fact that she’s in ‘perfect health’, to me, is absurd. You can look at these videos and see she needs help up a flight of stairs. What symptomology is that? That’s a disease. What accounts for that? I think it’s Parkinson’s.” https://twitter.com/MartinShkreli/status/762374379514765314 https://twitter.com/MartinShkreli/status/762378884952317952 Shkreli went on to address the rumor surrounding Clinton’s aide who has been spotted close to her during every public appearance. “I can’t make a diagnosis, obviously, but I think she’s being dishonest with her health… I do find it very unusual that there’s this big guy, who basically seems like a bodyguard, but he seems like more than a bodyguard,” he mused. “I have bodyguards, they don’t talk to me like that. He seems like a health professional.” https://twitter.com/MartinShkreli/status/762387500421750784 https://twitter.com/MartinShkreli/status/762716409591898112 In a follow-up livestream, Shkreli reiterated his statement, saying: “My job for many years now has been health. I think I know a lot about the health world and I think there’s something wrong with her, and she’s not telling us… Why are we trusting her doctor? You know, why can’t there just be an independent medical examination?” Charlie Nash is a reporter for Breitbart Tech. You can follow him on Twitter @MrNashington or like his page at Facebook.Your browser does not support inline frames or is currently configured not to display inline frames. Content can be viewed at actual source page: http://youtu.be/bggbqGYU3pQ Video by Katie Euphrat GUESTS: Alex Kreit, Associate Professor Director, Center for Law and Social Justice, Thomas Jefferson School of Law, former chairman San Diego Medical Marijuana Task Force. Kenny Goldberg, Health Reporter, KPBS. Transcript for audioclip 15371 Alex Kreit, Medical Marijuana Your browser does not support inline frames or is currently configured not to display inline frames. Content can be viewed at actual source page: http://youtu.be/BWewC2uo37E Medical marijuana has been legal in California since 1996. But today in San Diego County, many patients are having trouble getting their hands on the drug. That’s because all of the openly operating storefronts that sell marijuana have been shut down. In response, activists in four local cities have placed measures to authorize medical marijuana dispensaries on the November ballot. But even if the measures win, patients might ultimately lose. Vey Linville has severe emphysema. He needs bottled oxygen to survive. When Linville was first diagnosed, doctors told him without a double lung transplant, he’d soon be dead. Linville got his affairs in order. Then one day when he was searching on the Internet, he discovered a treatment for breathing problems that used to be widely prescribed in the 1800s, Tincture of cannabis. Linville found a recipe for it, and decided to make it himself. "And I went out and joined one of the clubs, one of the dispensaries, and was able to buy a quarter pound of concentrates, that I put in a small amount of alcohol, and consumed over about 10 weeks," Linville recalled. "And instead of dying as expected, here I am, six years later, doing better and better." These days, Linville uses just a few drops of the tincture in his tea. But getting any amount of marijuana is difficult, because nearly all local dispensaries have been closed. Linville said that puts him in a tough spot. "It’s immoral to make me choose between suffocating and doing business with a drug dealer," Linville argued. "This is not a choice that the patient should be faced with. It’s wrong." Linville is with the group Americans for Safe Access. With the help of some local activists, they’ve placed a measure on the November ballot in Imperial Beach. That’s the town where Linville grew up. Prop S would repeal Imperial Beach’s ban on medical marijuana dispensaries. It would allow dispensaries to operate under specific zoning and operational requirements. Imperial Beach business owner Marcus Boyd is one of the driving forces behind Prop S. Boyd became an advocate back in 2008, when his sister was dying in a local convalescent home. Boyd says marijuana helped relieve her pain. One night she asked staff for a joint. She wanted them to call Boyd to get one for her. "They laughed, and a couple of hours later, she passed away," Boyd remembered. "When I found that out the next morning by going there, I made a commitment to myself and to her that I would make sure that people in need are able to find medicine when they need it." Boyd says Prop S limits dispensary operating hours, and has more than a dozen other restrictions to protect patients and the community. Nonetheless, Imperial Beach Mayor Jim Janney and the majority of the City Council are against it. Janney’s not opposed to medical marijuana per se. He thinks patients should be able to get it. But Janney said the authors of Prop S went overboard. "If it was as simple as saying I want to allow for three storefronts in Imperial Beach, they would have said that. But they didn’t do that," Janney pointed out. "We could have up to 19 or 20 of them, or more, depending on how you locate them. I think that’s way too far. I don’t think that was good law. I don’t think that’s really the way it should work." Imperial Beach voters won’t be the only ones in November to decide whether to allow dispensaries in their town. Voters in Solana Beach, Del Mar and Lemon Grove will also weigh in. But even if these measures pass, there are no guarantees that any medical marijuana dispensaries will be allowed to operate. That’s because U.S. Attorney Laura Duffy has been aggressive in enforcing the federal ban on marijuana. Working with the DEA and local law enforcement, she’s led the way in forcing local dispensaries to shut down. Duffy has gone even further. In July, she sent a letter to the City Attorney in Del Mar. The letter said city employees who conducted activities mandated by their dispensary ordinance would not be immune from federal prosecution. Duffy declined to be interviewed for this story. Despite the federal government's position, Vey Linville said there are tens of thousands of sick people in San Diego County who could benefit from medical marijuana. "People with AIDS, people with cancer, that really are entitled to safe access to this medicine, as they would be to any other," Linville said. Encinitas voters will get to decide whether to allow dispensaries in 2014. Alison St John, Patty Lane and Peggy Pico contributed to this report. To view PDF documents, Download Acrobat Reader.The Prickly Politics of Aid In a fiery May Day speech in La Paz, Bolivian president Evo Morales announced that he was expelling the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), accusing it of conspiring against his government. He did this despite the fact that USAID shut down its democracy and governance programs in the country several years ago in response to Bolivian government objections. The Americans then pledged to work only in apparently uncontroversial areas like health and environmental conservation. Bolivia’s decision to end U.S. assistance to the country after nearly 50 years of USAID presence reflects the ideological tensions between Bolivia’s first-ever indigenous-led government and Washington. But Morales isn’t the only one targeting aid providers. Last September, Russia asked USAID to leave, making similar accusations of political interference. Earlier that year, the Egyptian government charged a group of Americans, Egyptians, and other employees of five Western democracy and rights organizations with illegal activity, driving almost all of the Americans out of the country. These cases are only the most visible examples of growing pushback by governments around the world against foreign assistance they deem too political. Dozens of governments have proposed or enacted measures to limit or block foreign aid flows to domestic groups, vilified local non-governmental organizations for working with foreigners, and harassed or kicked out international NGOs. By its very nature, foreign aid is politically sensitive. Efforts by one country to change basic elements of life in another through injections of financial and technical resources are inherently intrusive. The modern aid enterprise that emerged in the late 1950s and 1960s attempted to address this sovereignty concern by limiting their efforts in two crucial ways: they would pursue only socioeconomic objectives — economic growth and other public goods like basic infrastructure and health care — and they would direct their aid to governments, not to competing domestic actors. For more than 30 years the aid community largely held to these implicit terms. But in the early 1990s aid providers moved beyond this formally apolitical framework. Frustrated with decades of poorly performing programs and unmet development objectives, donors embraced the idea that governance failures in aid-receiving countries were often at the core of disappointing socioeconomic results. Sustainable advances in education, agricultural productivity, economic growth, or other key priorities require more than technical knowledge and capital — they need well-functioning government institutions. Focusing on governance meant focusing on politics, no matter how much aid providers initially tried to portray the concept as neutral and technical. It meant fighting corruption, confronting patronage networks, and many other politically sensitive tasks. In the same years, the dramatic spread of democracy in the developing and post-communist worlds prompted many Western aid groups to adopt democracy as a goal. They embraced a new orthodoxy which held that democracy and socioeconomic progress go hand in hand. Donors created a whole new range of programs to support democratic transitions, from elections assistance and political party aid to civic education programs and legislative support. Western aid programs aimed at democracy and governance now total somewhere around $10 billion annually. With these political goals came more political methods, including a sharp increase in foreign assistance to nongovernmental actors. This move initially reflected a desire to support an independent civil society as an essential element of democratization. Yet it spread further when development agencies — including those, like the World Bank, that do not explicitly support democracy — concluded that they could advance socioeconomic goals (such as improved public services) by empowering citizens to demand better governance. In short, aid significantly departed from a near-exclusive focus on socioeconomic objectives and governmental partners. Recipient governments were uneasy with this change, skeptical of donors’ intentions and upset with external criticism of their own political practices. Yet few governments pushed back at first. This was due to the apparent triumph of the Western political model and the lack of legitimate alternatives in the early post-Cold War period, the unusually low degree of overall geostrategic tension in that era, and the simple fact that many aid-receiving governments didn’t take these new aid approaches very seriously, seeing nongovernmental groups as fairly marginal actors. This relatively benign environment has changed. Many countries that initially appeared to be moving toward democracy have veered instead into semi-authoritarian rule and limited space for civil society organizations, such as Russia and Ethiopia, while some previously democratic countries like Venezuela have become more authoritarian. People in many countries are questioning whether Western-style democracy and governance is really the best path to rapid economic progress, looking instead to Chinese-style authoritarian capitalism or other models. Sovereignty claims are rising, not declining; the product of growing sensitivity over Western political interventionism from Iraq and Afghanistan through to Libya and beyond. And the repeated toppling of governments by citizen mobilization over the past decade — whether the color revolutions in Ukraine and Georgia or the more recent Arab revolts — have vividly highlighted to political leaders the potential power of once seemingly inconsequential civil society actors. The recent volley from La Paz is thus not a random skirmish but a harbinger of what will likely be more such conflicts to come. The United States and other donor governments that have adopted more political goals and methods in their aid over the past twenty years now face a fundamental choice: whether to stick to their convictions about the importance of melding the political and economic elements of development or instead retreat to more limited approaches and aspirations. While some may be tempted to argue that aid should pull back from politics and focus only on basics such as healthcare or primary education, such an approach is neither feasible nor wise. Almost all major aid organizations, both bilateral and multilateral, have established a range of politically-oriented aid programs and accumulated considerable knowledge about how to make a positive political difference, whether explicitly framed as democratic progress or as more accountable and participatory governance. Donors pursue these objectives not just because they believe that democratic governance is intrinsically a good thing, but also because they consider it central to sustainable socioeconomic progress. Building schools and providing textbooks without paying attention to a government’s willingness and capacity to manage educational finances cleanly, hold teachers accountable, and ensure equal access to education is not a recipe for success. And providing support to a government without attention to its human rights record or practices of social inclusion is not likely to win durable friends, as the case of Egypt under Mubarak so vividly demonstrates. Although there are of course differences in scope and depth of th e political issues that aid now addresses, the core point is that there is no clear division between "political" and "nonpolitical" aid. In this context, aid organizations need to confront the practical challenges of becoming politically engaged and politically smart. This does not necessarily mean being more challenging of recipient governments, although it sometimes may. At its core, being politically smart is about taking seriously how all aid programs in a country fit into and affect the broader political environment. It requires investing in political analyses of recipient countries to understand the most promising entry points for developmental change and the likely political risks. It also implies designing programs that fit into local political processes, flexibly adapt to changing political conditions, and make informed decisions about whether and how to challenge local power structures. U.S. and British aid providers have developed interesting initiatives in Nigeria, Burma, the Philippines, and elsewhere to support locally rooted public-private coalitions for change that work in a sustained way in complex political environments to help bring about lasting reforms. While these elements of politically smart development may seem like obvious steps, even just basic political understanding is startlingly undervalued within development agencies. Economists and other socioeconomic experts, who still dominate development agencies, tend not to be good at thinking and working politically. They fear that openly addressing politics will contaminate their efforts to present themselves as neutral technicians. And aid organizations, under intense pressure to prove their worth, are setting ever narrower targets, hurrying money out the door, and focusing on easily visible results. In this environment carrying out political analysis can seem like a luxury rather than a necessary prerequisite. The shift over the last two decades by the aid community to directly address recipient country politics is rooted in fundamental insights about how development occurs and how aid programs can be effective. Arguably it is the most important advance in the overall aid paradigm in decades. The increasingly prickly international context should motivate aid providers to reaffirm their political convictions and principles, not retreat into the technocratic straitjacket of the past.USAID is supporting the Government of Ukraine as it implements constitutional and electoral reforms that fulfill its stated goal of becoming a fully inclusive and economically stable democracy. 'USAID supports a strong and independent media in Ukraine,' said Paige Alexander, Assistant Administrator for the Bureau for Europe and Eurasia (E&E). 'This additional funding will help to protect vulnerable journalists while also advancing press freedoms and democratic governance in Ukraine.' In the name of a "free and independent media," the US government through its Agency for International Development (USAID) has announced that it will dedicate an additional $1.25 million to subsidize the Ukrainian media in advance of the May 25th presidential election.Through its multi-year " U-Media " project, USAID has been a major sponsor of the Ukrainian press. It goes without saying that the media outlets and organizations underwritten by the US government in Ukraine adhere closely to the US government's foreign policy position in the country and region. There will be no US government support for alternative media when it favors the government in power.The infusion of more than a million dollars into US government-friendly media outlets and NGOs in Ukraine just weeks before the presidential election should be seen for what it is: direct external manipulation of the democratic process in Ukraine.Nevertheless, the US interference is advertised as "supporting platforms for free and open communications."But USAID makes it clear which side this project is intended to support:It is an attack on language itself for the US government to claim that the media it funds is "independent," as that belies the meaning of the term. Nevertheless the State Department continues to waterboard the English language:At a time when US Secretary of State John Kerry and his State Department continues to attack the Russian-government funded station RT for being state supported, it should be instructive to witness the hundreds of pro-Washington media outlets that are funded by the US government overseas. It should be instructive to see the electoral processes that are manipulated by the US government's cash infusion to the side it favors.Pot. Kettle. Black."Too queer for the straight world; too straight for the queer one," spits New York-based rapper F. Virtue on his 2016 single, "License and Registration." The underground artist—real name Will Kowall—wrestles openly with identity on his Factor Chandelier-produced track, unraveling diary-like rhymes above a nostalgic, low-key instrumental. "There's no definition; call it what you want, but we'll prove time and time again the names you give are wrong," he says, knocking holes in social categorizations. In the Ross Louis Klein-directed video, an undercover police officer, played by Johnny Sagan, pulls over a group of individuals in a car, as they step out one-by-one in opposition of his authority. Embodying a diverse spread of race, sexuality and gender identity, the five confident characters flaunt incredible ambiguity, highlighting the power of nuance in personal presentation and a complete disregard for labels. The wide-eyed, newly woke officer flees the scene, returning to his car to put on some red lipstick of his own—a statement about expression and the power of visibilty to help foster self-acceptance. Watch F. Virtue's "License and Registration," and learn more about the artist's new release, below. OUT: What's the story behind this track? F. Virtue: The central focus of the song started out with my lack of a place, or specific scene, in music. I've always been on a search for who I may speak to most, in hopes we find each other. But outside of music, the same sentiments echoed in my personal life, growing up closeted and in a suppressive city coming to terms with my own identity. But in the end, it's these abnormalities I'm so grateful for, because they're what makes me (us). And maybe others dealing with the same things out there can look with me and understand how great being different is, being themselves are, through the experience of this track. Unpack the lyric, "Too queer for the straight world; too straight for the queer one." When I was making music before I was out, I was in a very stereotypically classically homophobic hip-hop scene. Times have definitely changed in rap, but when I came out and started to write about queer themes, I thought, "How will those listeners relate to this?" But in the same breath, the vibe is more aligned with that brand of hip-hop to the point where it's really lyric-based headphone music, so it's hard for me to play gay venues or clubs. That line is kind of explaining how I feel caught in the middle of both worlds, but how all of that is just stupid because there really are no worlds I need to be caught between, and I can just do my thing for anyone who's down. How about the lyric, "Mother Nature is gender-fluid; Father Time is trans"? This line is definitely more open to interpretation, but to me it's about how we have these rigid perceptions of gender—what a boy is and likes. Mother Nature and Father Time were always called such, but they are so much bigger. And the hugeness of them embraces all sides of the spectrum—nature and time, they're too wise and ancient to be cis. Describe the concept of your new video. The director Ross and I figured it would be good to tell a story in this world of the Trump administration's outright oppression. We also knew we wanted it to open with close shots of people, whose genders you couldn't identify, knowing the viewer would try to. We wanted that to prove how ridiculous we are for trying or even thinking we need to. The policeman represents these labels and boxes that society tries to put us in, with the group of friends just trying to live freely, but being unable to do so because of "the man," But it turns out "the man" has issues of his own—sound familiar? These visuals complement the song because the battle I've had in "finding my place" was really inflicted by the outside world all along, and none of these borders should exist. We should all be able to live free and happily without issue. I see some familiar face—tell me about casting.The videos below, shared by rebel groups and activists, also show the explosion and the immediate aftermath of the blast. The video below, shared by a local activist, shows the huge blast, reportedly coordinated by several rebel groups. Rebels set off tons of explosives in a tunnel running beneath the checkpoint in Maarat al-Numan, just a few miles east of Talmenes, a town that was allegedly the target of chlorine gas attacks in recent weeks. A massive explosion in Syria ’s northwestern Idlib province killed more than 30 government troops on Tuesday, in an operation rebels staged to “liberate” a checkpoint on a strategic highway. Read more A massive explosion in Syria’s northwestern Idlib province killed more than 30 government troops on Tuesday, in an operation rebels staged to “liberate” a checkpoint on a strategic highway. Rebels set off tons of explosives in a tunnel running beneath the checkpoint in Maarat al-Numan, just a few miles east of Talmenes, a town that was allegedly the target of chlorine gas attacks in recent weeks. The Homs ceasefire is a symbolic blow to Syria's rebels. Read more here. The video below, shared by a local activist, shows the huge blast, reportedly coordinated by several rebel groups. The videos below, shared by rebel groups and activists, also show the explosion and the immediate aftermath of the blast. Rebels talk about the successful “liberation” of the checkpoint in the footage below. The clips below, shared by local activists, claim to show evidence of a chemical attack on Talmenes on April 21. Syria accused of swapping chemical weapons for barrel bombs. Read more here. The first footage shows pieces of the bomb and lifeless animals that show no clear signs of injury. The next videos show victims coughing and receiving treatment for respiratory problems, reportedly as a consequence of the bombing. Intensifying fighting in the strategic region has displaced tens of thousands of people over the last days, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a UK-based monitoring group. More than 150,000 people are estimated to have been killed since the beginning of the conflict in Syria. Follow Alice Speri on Twitter: @alicesperi Photo via FacebookSALT LAKE CITY — In 1944, Alden Higgs was a senior at Davis High in Kaysville, Utah. For several years he had watched friends join the military to fight in World War II. Now, two days before his 18th birthday, he decided to drop out of school and serve his country in the Air Force. In those days, a teenager approaching his 18th birthday knew military service was inevitable. He had two options. He could either wait to be drafted by a random branch of the armed forces, or he could choose where he served by signing up, before he reached the legal age of service, himself. When Higgs arrived at the recruiting office he was given bad news. Since his birthday was on a Sunday, and it took two days to process the paperwork, he couldn’t join the Air Force. He would need to wait to be drafted. The idea of being powerless over which branch he served in was unappealing to Higgs, so he walked over to the recruiting office of his second choice: the Merchant Marines. Two weeks later he was sent to train in Los Angeles. Although he had discounted joining the Navy, the preparation he received was the same as those who attended Navy boot camp. Little did he know that, while he was under the impression he was serving his country, for decades many would deem him and his comrades as draft-dodgers and non-military. A great need There was a reason Higgs didn’t know the Merchant Marines weren’t considered part of the armed forces. The U.S. Merchant Systems “did not stress its civilian status to candidates for the training schools. Instead, it concentrated on publicizing the critical role that the merchant marine played in the war effort, emphasizing that the enrollees would be fulfilling a patriotic duty in signing up.” Indeed, Higgs was filling a drastic need. The requirement for trained seamen to ship supplies to the troops was so great that training schools were allowed to admit teens as young as 16. Accepting from a pool too young to serve in the other branches of the military was one of the ways the USMS could fill its quota of needed seamen. And that quota was large; from 1942 through 1954, more than 180,000 personnel were put into service. At first, the need for men to man the supply ships was so great that they received a mere three weeks of preparation before being shipped to sea. Eventually, once immediate shortages were taken care of, a more extensive training was given to them. The most dangerous branch of the military Related: 2 veterans work to honor all Utah Purple Heart recipients Outside the George E. Wahlen Veterans Home in Ogden sits a monument to soldiers from Utah who earned Purple Heart medals. There are more than 1,500 names etched in granite tablets, and hundreds more in waiting. During World War II, the Merchant Marines constituted the lifeblood of the armed forces. Because their ships ferried everything from food, medical supplies and ammunition to the fighting forces, they were usually the vessels most targeted by the enemy. The casualty rate of Merchant Mariners was so high that during the war it was kept secret so men wouldn’t be dissuaded of joining. Even the newspapers didn’t report the massive losses of Merchant Marine vessels. At its peak, in 1942, there was an average of 33 Allied mariner ships sunk each week. When comparing the United States Merchant Marines with the other major branches in the U.S. military, the Merchant Marines not only served the longest, but also suffered the highest rate of casualty. It is estimated that 1 in 26 Merchant Marines died during World War II, as opposed to the Marines, who had the second highest rate with 1 in 34 perishing. Serving as a Merchant Marine Just because their main job was ferrying supplies didn’t mean the Merchant Marines were untrained sailors on powerless boats. Higgs was one of those trained to man the 20mm antiaircraft guns. Others worked the 3”/50 gun mounted on the ship’s fantail. Their gun skills were put to use often in defending their ships and cargo. Higgs' shipping duties took him through enemy territory and his ship experienced several close calls. His experiences in Manila and Nagasaki filled his mind with images he would never forget and that would haunt his mind forever. Service after the war Even though many saw an end to their military service with the Japanese surrender in 1945, the U.S. government continued to ask men to join the Merchant Marines. These mariners were used to bring soldiers home from the different fronts, as well as freighting supplies throughout newly occupied and war-devastated areas. With all this work to do, Higgs wouldn’t return home until more than a year after the war’s end. The GI Bill On June 22, 1944, the GI Bill was signed into law by President Franklin D. Roosevelt. This bill helped finance veterans’ educations, home and business loans and unemployment pay. When Roosevelt signed the bill, he made a lengthy statement, describing the importance of the new law. He said it would give “servicemen and women the opportunity to resume their education or technical training after discharge.” He went on to say that the bill gave “emphatic notice to the men and women in our armed forces that the American people do not intend to let them down.” The GI Bill had a pronounced effect on servicemen’s lives. Over 2.2 million veterans took advantage of its education provision. By the time the first veterans exited college in 1949, they made up 70 percent of graduates. Buying a home was also paramount for veterans. Between the years 1944 to 1952, 2.4 million home loans were backed by the Veterans Administration. Higgs' survival made him luckier than many of his fellow mariners. However, his buddies who served in the Air Force, Navy, Marines and Army returned home with the title of veterans and all the considerations that went with it. Those who served in the Merchant Marines, like Higgs, came home to the realization that their nation did not consider them veterans or candidates for the GI Bill. Instead, the boy who dropped out of high school to serve his country was refused the same aid to purchase a home or attend college. Veterans, finally Higgs and other mariners were surprised that their services weren’t seen as veteran-worthy. For years many pled with leaders for the same benefits their friends enjoyed. Finally, in 1988, the federal government agreed to extend the title veteran to those who served in the U.S. Merchant Marines. At last, these men could partake of benefits long withheld. But, more importantly, they would now hold the honored and long-deserved title of veteran. This Veterans Day, as we ponder the sacrifices made by those both living and dead, may we reach beyond the traditional branches of the military and appreciate those who served in one of the most dangerous military branches of World War II: the Merchant Marines. × Photos Related StoriesA dramatic building boom helped China to develop the world's second largest economy. But now, economists say, a runaway real estate sector poses the greatest risk to growth. Eight out of 10 economists say the property market poses the biggest threat to the economy, according to a new survey conducted by CNNMoney. That's a shift from the previous three quarters, when most economists identified credit growth as the primary hazard. "The major concern is oversupply -- property construction has been growing at an unsustainable rate, with the pace of urbanization having peaked," said Qinwei Wang of Capital Economics. "With developers' inventories of unsold property still increasing, real estate looks set to remain a drag on the economy." It's easy to see why economists are concerned. JPMorgan estimates the sector and related services make up about 20% of GDP, and property investment alone accounted for more than 15% of economic growth last year. Related: China's growth stagnates as property threat grows Already, ailing developers in the country's smaller cities are offering big discounts to unload property. Even major cities have seen falling prices and waning real estate investment demand. Economists worry that a housing shock could ripple out to the broader economy, especially the banking sector -- which provides financing to many developers. In addition, real estate is closely tied to the manufacturing and services sectors. A sluggish property market could also hurt Beijing's ability to hit its official GDP growth target of 7.5% for 2014. Some analysts argue the point of no return has passed. Nomura economists, long among the most bearish of bank analysts, said in May that China's property bubble has already burst, and the country's economy could slow dramatically unless Beijing steps in with new stimulus measures. "It is no longer a question of 'if' but rather 'how severe
maternal deaths a major health priority by making maternal health care free for poor women, and providing cash incentives for those delivering at health facilities instead of at home. Despite this "priority" status, monitoring is so poor there is no reliable record of how many women are dying each year, and whether these initiatives are reaching those who need it the most, the report says. It cites numerous examples where a breakdown in the system ended tragically. India created a flagship programme - the National Rural Health Mission - in 2005 to improve rural health, with a specific focus on maternal health. But the system is not working as it should in many cases, the report says. It blames corruption and a lack of awareness among women for the sorry state of affairs. Bookmark with: Delicious Digg reddit Facebook StumbleUpon What are these? E-mail this to a friend Printable versionGive Party Girl (Prod. Oren Yoel) a spin - it's a new offering from Asher Roth, featuring Meek Mill. It was dropped on Thursday, April 19th, 2012. Asher Roth's rap artistry continues to improve with every release, something which is most definitely evidenced on Party Girl (Prod. Oren Yoel). His ever-expanding catalogue is definitely better for it, and we're looking forward to the next piece of the puzzle - aren't you? Check out Asher Roth on Outside. Check out Asher Roth's profile page for the most recent info, news, songs, and mixtapes. Who else would you like to have seen on the track? Let us know what you think, folks. Quotable Lyrics "My girl, she drinks and smokes Then she goes to fashion shows Forth and back, back and forth Takes the just like a pro Try to keep on up with her but really why bother Girl's a super hottie plus she parties way harder Still looking great with no make-up on Keep going strong 'til the break of dawn"Native apps have overtaken the web as the main place where smartphone users go for entertainment, information and more. So it should come as no surprise that one of the companies that profits the most from our use of the web is looking for ways to get us to use the it more again. According to The Information, Google last year secretly acquired a startup called Agawi, which had developed technology to use and stream mobile apps over the web without downloading them first, used in applications like in-app adds to preview and promote gaming apps. Google confirmed the deal directly to TechCrunch in a terse note. “The Agawi team has joined Google. We aren’t sharing other details,” a spokesperson said. Before the confirmation, there were several clues that pointed to it being correct. Agawi itself is no longer a live business: its web site is dead (kind of ironically), and its various Twitter accounts have not been updated since 2013. There are three former Agawi employees now listed as working at Google on LinkedIn, all software engineers, including co-founder Rohan Relan. Two other co-founders, Peter Relan (who had been the executive chairman) and Rajat Gupta (the CEO) do not include Google in their LinkedIn resumes. The Information describes Google’s move to buy Agawi and integrate its technology as part of the search giant’s larger efforts to get people back to using the web, and specifically away from downloading apps in order to enjoy content. But a lot of the numbers about how Google has developed its own apps platform, Android Play, don’t seem to support this. For example, the company has paid out $7 billion to developers and has more than 1 million apps in its store. There is nevertheless a pretty clear reason why Google would want to swing more attention to apps and how they might be consumed over the web: it makes the majority of its revenues from web searches and the ads that run against them. Efforts like Apple’s new deep-link-based search in iOS 9 pose a threat to Google’s core business model because provides an alternative way to find content within apps that do not use Google or the web. Google has of course worked on ways of building out its apps business, including search in native apps: it’s enhanced its own deep-linked apps service, with some 50 billion links within apps now indexed to be searchable online, and with 100 apps integrated into Google Now. One way Google could use Agawi’s technology could be enhance how app search in Google works. Its streaming technology could be used to let people search for and then preview apps before downloading them. Apple’s new search offering, which uses deep-link technology to surface content from within apps, essentially gives its iPhone and iPad users a way to search inside those apps, thereby giving users less of a need to use Google’s search engine, and the web in general. Apple’s search currently only covers apps that a person has installed on his or her phone, but it seems only a matter of time before that gets extended to the wider catalog of uninstalled apps, too. Agawi, which started out in Peter Relan’s YouWeb incubator, has been around in one shape or another since 2010 (its first name was iSwifter). In theory its technology could be used for all kinds of content, although it focused its efforts initially on gaming and then developing ad units where you could play the games from within the ads. This latter product is also interesting from a Google perspective. Google, whose Android OS powers the majority of smartphones globally, is also a leader in mobile advertising. While we have seen a lot of developments from other companies in rich media and programmatic ads, as well as from the likes of Facebook and its own in-app efforts, this is a sign of how Google itself may be looking to innovate again in its mobile advertising approach. In fact, you can think of this ad unit as a super-charged app-install ad. From what we understand, you can set a limit on how long you can stream a game in the ad unit, to make it into a preview, which then converts into a download link from the app store. Updated throughout with Google confirmation and additional information.I want to talk about the first characters you are introduced to in the world of Firewatch, the first game from CampoSanto. I feel that the first 15 minutes of Firewatch is a microcosm for gender in video games. We are introduced to Henry and his wife, Julie through his short recollections from Henry. Occasionally we are given choices, which are all presented from Henry’s point of view. The game fails to offer any positive traits for Henry within this introduction. It also fails to give any reason why Julia be interested in dating, let alone marrying, Henry. Julia, a professor at the local college, is presented as educated, funny and willing to compromise her needs for her partner. In contrast, Henry is presented as an alcoholic, overprotective, manipulative and seemingly unemployed. The first interaction between the two characters takes place at a bar. The game gives the player two options of an opening line for Henry to introduce himself to Julia. The choice is between drunkenly complimenting her or assuming she’s a student. Both options strike me as misogynistic, not to mention socially clumsy, which is why I was caught off guard when Julia decides to date Henry. This makes me wonder if the writers assumed that the players wouldn’t empathize with Julia. The game fails to provide any reason why Julia, a career minded woman with a stable job and a higher education, would be interested in Henry, whom the games give only negative character traits. This trope of having a likable, competent woman fall for a unlikable, troubled man strikes me as particularly unsavory. This narrative reinforces the idea that a man deserves a relationship just for being a man while a woman has to work to make herself a desirable partner. And beyond that, video games have a dearth of stories where toxic masculinity is presented uncritically, and it pains me to see a game as unique as Firewatch join the list. The game also gives the player the decision of adopting a small beagle, Julia’s favorite, or a larger dog, which Henry thinks would be more apt to protect Julia. Later, Henry and Julia are attacked by a mugger while walking the dog. If you choose the beagle, it will not protect either Henry or Julia. I find it absurd that the game is establishing a world that punishes Julia for making decisions that prioritize her own wants over Henry’s overzealous concerns. Granted, the game does eventually flesh out Henry’s character, and the world he inhabits, but only after Julia’s story line has been wrapped up. The game also introduces Delilah, a complex and likable female character, after the short intro sequence, which not only adds depth to the world, but also to Henry’s character. Still, it is troubling to me that the writers would offer up such a flat, unlikable protagonist during it’s opening minutes. All that being said, I am enjoying the game. I am thankful that we have games like Firewatch that push the medium forward by presenting writing worth critiquing.Yeah, and we’d almost have believed you, except that the “joke” was the same “joke” that McCain is himself quoted as saying by Scientific American. Note the “joke” the McCain campaign is now saying an aide told earlier today about McCain helping to create the BlackBerry. Asked what work John McCain did as Chairman of the Senate Commerce Committee that helped him understand the financial markets, the candidate’s top economic adviser wielded visual evidence: his BlackBerry. “He did this,” Douglas Holtz-Eakin told reporters this morning, holding up his BlackBerry. “Telecommunications of the United States is a premier innovation in the past 15 years, comes right through the Commerce committee so you’re looking at the miracle John McCain helped create and that’s what he did.” Now note the non-joke in which McCain himself, using the exact same language as the “joke,” says that he helped create the cell phone and wi-fi: I am the former chairman of the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation. The Committee plays a major role in the development of technology policy, specifically any legislation affecting communications services, the Internet, cable television and other technologies. Under my guiding hand, Congress developed a wireless spectrum policy that spurred the rapid rise of mobile phones and Wi-Fi technology that enables Americans to surf the web while sitting at a coffee shop, airport lounge, or public park. So was McCain “joking” too – pretty stupid way to run a presidential campaign, putting our repeated “jokes” lying about your boss’s record, or did the McCain aide in fact tell the truth as the campaign sees it, that John McCain thinks he created the Blackberry? It’s pretty clear that the campaign thinks all of this is true, but now is running scared because this lie was one lie too many.Play enough fantasy football and you're bound to find guys that you like and want to have on your team by any means necessary. These are your Ride or Die guys. The players who are either going to lead you to fantasy success or sink the whole operation. We here at NFL Fantasy are no different. Fantasy analysts... they're just like us! We spend the time from February to July scouring pro and college game tape, pouring over endless statistical spreadsheets and taking the temperatures of our takes to seek out the players we're certain are going to be studs. And now the time has come for me to grace you with my Ride or Die players for the 2016 fantasy football season. These are players (1 QB, 2 RB, 2 WR) that can be drafted in Round 5 or later in most re-drafts that will return top-15 value at their respective positions. Follow me on Instagram for season-long updates on how this group fares. Let's see if I live to regret this. Nah. Here we go. Quarterback Eli Manning, New York Giants: Few, if any, of us have been shy about promoting Manning's fantasy potential with another year in Ben McAdoo's offense coming. In fact, it's probably had a lot to do with the Giants signal-caller going from an original ADP in the double-digit rounds to coming off the board on average in the eighth round. Still, Manning remains a quality option for anyone who tends to wait a little longer to get a fantasy quarterback. He's landed in the top-15 in nine of the past 10 seasons -- including four top 10 finishes. If that's not enough, there's more excitement about the Giants pass-catchers in 2016 than has been felt in a long time. Expectations are high for rookie Sterling Shepard. Will Tye has the chance to be a deep sleeper tight end while Shane Vereen and Rashad Jennings (121 combined targets in 2015) offer outlets from the backfield. Oh yeah... and there's that Beckham character, too. Other candidates: Derek Carr, Kirk Cousins, Jameis Winston Running backs Dion Lewis, New England Patriots: The Man Who Slayed Belitricks is more than deserving of a spot on this roster. Through the seven games he played last season, Lewis was averaging 12 fantasy points per game -- better than Lamar Miller, David Johnson and Danny Woodhead. It's always dangerous to try and extrapolate numbers like that over the course of a 16-game season... but never let it be said that I don't live dangerously. At Lewis' pace from last season, he would have scored 192 total points, which would have been good for fourth. That's not PPR, folks. That's standard scoring. Need proof of how important Lewis will be to the Patriots offense this year? They've made the decision to hold him on the PUP list in an effort to preserve him for the regular season despite a lack of setbacks in his recovery from knee surgery. With a head coach that values players who are "multiple", Lewis' dynamic ability to make plays as a runner and receiver means he can regain last season's 55 percent share of the snaps. Giovani Bernard, Cincinnati Bengals: I can hear it now... "Marcas, Gio's in a committee and had just two touchdowns last season. How can you be so high on him?" Well, it's because he's a good football player. It's also because Bernard provides for the Bengals offense the same type of options that Dion Lewis does for the Patriots. Last season, Bernard topped 1,200 scrimmage yards for the second time in his three NFL campaigns and far outperformed Jeremy Hill just on the eye test alone. But to more directly answer those questions -- the Bengals have a committee approach in their backfield (like most of the NFL) but this is arguably the most well-defined committee in the league. Even with Hue Jackson taking his act to Cleveland, Bernard is still expected to be the chain mover while Hill works as the hammer. Keep in mind that touchdowns are a fickle beast... and that works both ways. Bernard totaled 15 scores in his first two seasons before posting just two last year. Conversely, Hill wasn't exactly spectacular in the red zone last season averaging just 2.1 yards per carry (compared to Bernard's 4.7 YPC average). Here's where you hope talent and offensive fit win out. Wide receivers Randall Cobb, Green Bay Packers: I wrote at some length about Cobb's 2016 potential in my offseason Bust-a-Move series. Last season he was considered a disappointment in comparison to his breakout 2014 campaign. When Jordy Nelson went down with an injury, the expectation was that Cobb would slide up to the WR1 spot and gobble up most of that vacant production. Charlie Murphy voice Wrong. Wrong. We all learned a valuable lesson about the need to have a bona fide No. 1 receiver who can attract attention from defenses and set everyone else up to prosper. If anything, 2015 gave us a new appreciation for Jordy Nelson. But that's not to suggest that Cobb isn't an extremely talented player. His 2014 campaign was not a fluke and if the Packers offense is anywhere near as potent as most expect this season, another 1,200 yards and double-digit touchdowns is not an impossibility. Michael Floyd, Arizona Cardinals: The path to being a top-15 fantasy receiver generally includes being part of an efficient, up-tempo offense with a quarterback who can consistently get the rock to his playmaking receivers. Sure, it sounds simple. Then again, we keep trying to make Jeremy Maclin a WR1. Okay, maybe that's not 100 percent fair. Regardless, Floyd won't have any of those obstacles down in the desert. The Cardinals ran the fifth-most plays in the league last year and were tied for sixth in yards per play. Top it off with Carson Palmer who finished third in passer rating last year, and all of the requisite elements are there. But let's not forget Floyd himself who's been vying for WR1 honors on this roster for the past couple of seasons. Beginning the year with a finger injury put him at a disadvantage but from Week 10 until the end of the season, he led the team with 530 receiving yards. He also proved his big play potential by averaging 12.3 air yards per reception (fifth-best in the NFL last season) and 21.3 air yards per target (third-best). With a full, healthy season there could be big things in the offing for Floyd. So there you have it, my #RideOrDie2016 squad. Check in all season long to track their progress. And keep the conversation going -- let me know your guys either in the comment section or on Twitter @MarcasG. Why wait? CLICK HERE to get your 2016 NFL Fantasy season started. Marcas Grant is a fantasy editor for NFL.com and a man who is foolhardy enough to put this list on the Interwebs. Find him on Snapchat at marcasg9.White House lawyer's ex-client list includes a convicted terrorist CLOSE One of Trump's lawyers has represented some of the most powerful people in Washington and even an ex-terrorist. Nathan Rousseau Smith (@fantasticmrnate) has the story. Buzz60 White House lawyer James Burnham had an unusual client list last year, including Donald Trump, Mitt Romney and a Saudi national spending his life in prison for plotting a terrorist attack in the U.S. In a financial disclosure form released by the White House, Burnham — now senior associate counsel in the White House — declared that one of the sources of his compensation at the law firm of Jones Day was "legal services" the firm performed for Khalid Aldawsari of Marion, Ill. Filers are required to declare any source of compensation over $5,000. Aldawsari was admitted to the U.S. on a student visa in 2008 and arrested in 2011 for attempting to assemble bomb-making materials. The FBI charged he had “acquired or taken a substantial step toward acquiring most of the ingredients and equipment necessary to construct an (improvised explosive devise), and he had conducted online research of several potential U.S. targets.” Aldawsari had also “described his desire for violent jihad and martyrdom in blog postings and a personal journal." He is serving a life sentence at a medium security prison in Marion. It is not clear what services Jones Day provided for Aldawsari, though there was apparently an online campaign last year to free him from prison. Burnham's disclosure form reports $810,000 in salary and bonuses from Jones Day last year, and, as required by law, lists the client accounts he worked on. Under the disclosure rules, “The filer discloses payments both from employers and from any clients to whom the filer personally provided services. The filer discloses a source even if the source made its payment to the filer's employer and not to the filer.” Other clients Burnham served in 2016 include former Virginia governor Bob McDonnell, the Republican National Committee and Mitt Romney’s presidential campaign committee, which is still winding down operations from his 2012 presidential bid. The Democratic research firm American Bridge first noticed Aldawsari's name on the client list. A host of lawyers in President Trump's White House came from Jones Day, including White House Counsel Don McGahn, who was general counsel to the Trump campaign last year. The White House declined to comment on this story. Read more: Read or Share this story: http://usat.ly/2nIwy32Nokia is planning to issue a software update to its range of Lumia Windows Phone 8 devices that includes Bluetooth 4.0 support. Sources familiar with Nokia's plans have revealed to The Verge that the Bluetooth update will include Low Energy support for fitness devices like Fitbit, and a range of new accessories that Nokia is planning to release soon. We're told that the majority of Nokia's Lumia Windows Phone 8 range will be updated, including the Lumia 820 and 920. Most of Nokia's Windows Phone 8 devices include chipsets that support Bluetooth 4.0, but the option has not yet been enabled. A recently leaked slide revealed Nokia plans to update its Lumia 520, 620, and 720 devices too. We understand that Nokia's new accessories will focus on combining the Bluetooth Low Energy support with the company's location services like Here Maps and Here Drive. The Bluetooth 4.0 update will be delivered to most devices as part of Nokia's "Amber" update in the coming weeks.(CNN) -- Over 1,000 years before Pythagoras was calculating the length of a hypotenuse, sophisticated scribes in Mesopotamia were working with the same theory to calculate the area of their farmland. Working on clay tablets, students would "write" out their math problems in cuneiform script, a method that involved making wedge-shaped impressions in the clay with a blunt reed. These tablets bear evidence of practical as well as more advanced theoretical math and show just how sophisticated the ancient Babylonians were with numbers -- more than a millennium before Pythagoras and Euclid were doing the same in ancient Greece. "They are the most sophisticated mathematics from anywhere in the world at that time," said Alexander Jones, a Professor of the History of the Exact Sciences in Antiquity at New York University. He is co-curator of "Before Pythagoras: The Culture of Old Babylonian Mathematics," an exhibition at the Institute for the Study of the Ancient World in New York. "This is nearly 4,000 years ago and there's no other ancient culture at that time that we know of that is doing anything like that level of work. It seems to be going beyond anything that daily life needs," he said. Many scribes were trained in the ancient city of Nippur in what is now southern Iraq, where a large number of tablets were discovered between the mid-19th century and the 1920s. Typical problems they worked on involved calculating the area of a given field, or the width of a trench. These problems, says Jones, required the kind of math training taught to American Grade 10 students, but not in a format we would now recognize. "It's not like algebra, it's all written out in words and numerals but no symbols and no times signs or equals or anything like that," he said. This system, and the lack of recognizable Western mathematical symbols such as x and y, meant that it was several years before historians and archaeologists understood just what was represented on these tablets. It took a young Austrian mathematician in the 1920s, named Otto Neugebauer, to crack the mathematical system and work out what the ancient Babylonians were calculating. But despite his advances, it is only recently that interest in Babylonian math has started to take hold. "I think that before Neugebauer and even after Neugebauer, there wasn't a lot of attention placed on mathematical training in Babylon even though we have this rich cuneiform history with the tablets," said Jennifer Chi, Associate Director for Exhibitions and Public Programs at Institute for the Study of the Ancient World. One of the aims of the institute, she says, is to find interconnections between ancient cultures as well as look at what the institute sees as under-represented ancient cultures -- and the culture of ancient Babylonian math, she says, is ripe for popular revision. "When we think of ancient mathematics, the first names that come to mind are Pythagoras and Euclid," she said, but that "this shouldn't be the case." And though ancient Babylonia is often referred to in popular culture as a "lost" world, in fact much more evidence of mathematical learning from the period exists than from ancient Greece, said Chi. Jones of New York University believes that there is much more that could be excavated but that, of course, current conditions in Iraq are not favorable. Still, there are enough tablets in collections across the world for mathematical historians to get stuck into. For non-mathematicians, these tablets are a fascinating document of life in Mesopotamia. Most of the problems displayed are grounded in the everyday needs of ancient Babylonians. But some tablets show the students engaging in what Jones calls "recreational math" -- math for math's sake. "The only point of learning to do this kind of thing is really as a mental exercise, as a way of showing how smart you are," he said. And it seems there is still more to learn from the Babylonians. Duncan Melville is a Professor of Mathematics at St. Lawrence University in Canton, New York, whose special interest is Mesopotamian mathematics. According to Melville, teachers can continue to learn a thing or two about the way math was taught in Mesopotamia. "You look at the way they set up their sequences of problems and it's all very carefully graduated, from simple problems to more complicated problems," he said. "As a teacher of mathematics, it's very interesting to see how they organized their material," he continued. "There's still interesting things to learn from cutting-edge pedagogy 4,000 years ago." With research continuing into this strand of ancient history, it remains to be seen whether Pythagoras's theorem will come to bear the name of an old Babylonian scribe instead.DETROIT - The Detroit Red Wings have a toughness void and have shown some interest in defenseman Luke Witkowski, a source said. The 6-foot-2, 217-pound Witkowski will hit the free-agent market at noon Saturday. He's best remembered by Red Wings fans as the Tampa Bay player who exacted revenge on Anthony Mantha in a March 30 fight that resulted in the Detroit rookie suffering a broken finger that ended his season. Witkowski, 27, had no goals, four assists and 39 penalty minutes in 34 games for the Lightning last season, when he earned the league minimum of $575,000. He's a native of Holland, Mich., who played four seasons at Western Michigan, including 2010-11 for Red Wings coach Jeff Blashill. The Red Wings have seven returning defensemen on their roster and are expected to sign Trevor Daley on Saturday. Witkowski would be added to an already crowded blue line, where the team would have more players than it can keep on the roster. If signed, Witkowski likely would compete for a roster spot and sent to the Grand Rapids Griffins if he cleared waivers, if he didn't make the cut. The team doesn't know what to expect from Niklas Kronwall, whose bad knee isn't going to improve, and Ryan Sproul might not be ready for the start of the season following off-season ACL surgery. The Red Wings signed forward Steve Ott last summer to add some toughness and abrasiveness. They traded him to Montreal at the deadline for a sixth-round pick. Other than Justin Abdelkader and Jonathan Ericsson, Detroit doesn't have many players who fight - or who they want to see fighting. Witkowski had six fighting majors last season, three with the Lightning and three with AHL Syracuse. Witkowski has appeared in parts of three seasons with the Lightning (no goals, four assists, 58 penalty minutes in 54 games).× L.A. City Council Votes Unanimously to Decriminalize Street Vending The Los Angeles City Council on Wednesday voted unanimously to decriminalize street vending — a move long sought by immigrant advocates who argued that sidewalk sellers should not face criminal charges that could place them at risk of being deported. Fearing a coming crackdown on immigrants under President Trump, Los Angeles City Council members Joe Buscaino and Curren Price vowed to stop punishing vending as a crime and to begin setting up a regulated system. In January, the council voted to draft an ordinance decriminalizing vending. Previously, selling food or goods on the sidewalk could lead to misdemeanor charges in Los Angeles. City staffers say it could take months for Los Angeles to work out all of the details and begin handing out permits to vendors. In the meantime, vendors who ply their trade on city sidewalks still could be cited and fined for violating the municipal code, but they would not face criminal convictions. Click here to read the full story on LATimes.com.Like many other Wallabies supporters, I did a fair bit of swearing at the television on Saturday afternoon. This isn’t an uncommon occurrence when I watch the men in gold play. In fact, you can probably say that after the last couple of years my swearing has developed into a finely crafted prose. My inventive yammerings aside, I was banished to the room with the spare TV on Saturday afternoon so I could swear and have my aneurysm in peace. That way my kids didn’t have to hear me yowl in protest at yet another poorly executed Will Genia kick. Facebook Twitter Whatsapp Reddit Email Share The Wallabies performance against Scotland on the weekend has resulted in a fair bit of wailing and gnashing of teeth on social media. For once, I didn’t join in. I wouldn’t say I was distraught. I certainly wasn’t angry. I was just disappointed. But in a way, I also knew this was going to happen. Watching the Wallabies play a great game occurs so rarely these days but I start each game with stirring optimism and a heart full of hope. More often than not, I’m surly and, probably, drunk by the end. What has become apparent is how the Wallabies, and Australian Super Rugby teams, fall apart throughout a game. As a Queensland Reds supporter, this feeling of morbid acceptance is my default setting but I’m not used to seeing my national team play like a bunch of blokes who just met in the changing room. “G’day mate. Welcome to the team. This is Bernard. He passes the ball. Sometimes he’ll pass it to where you’re running. Do you know how to do a chip kick?” I’ve noticed a distinct gulf in the skills department in both Australian Super Rugby teams and our national team. It’s a complete lack of the basics. Prove me wrong. Watch a replay from the weekend or from a Super Rugby game a few weeks ago. I’m not talking about a lack of insane offloading skills or fancy footwork, I’m talking about the ability to catch and pass to a man running at pace. As in a ball being passed from one player to the next that doesn’t result in the receiving player catching it behind him or slowing down to take it or dropping the ball stone cold. Advertisement Advertisement Now I’m hesitant to mention the All Blacks here because I do know there are a legion of All Black fans who, if given the chance, would delight in reminding you about the difference in the skill set between players from the two countries. But I watched the All Blacks play Samoa on Saturday night and, although the game was essentially a training run against a bunch of blue tackle bags, the skills of the players from one through to 23 are sublime. And these skills were also on display in the U20s final where the Kiwi team eviscerated the English. I saw the same basic skills. Nothing fancy. Just passing from man to man, running at pace. Why are Australian teams so bad at this lately? The Wallabies started to lift late in the game on Saturday afternoon. When Tevita Kurindrani attempted to pass the ball to Reece Hodge running at full speed with a gap looming on the wing, I had a glimmer of hope he’d put Hodgey through a gap on the wing. Nope. The ball went forward and rolled across the sidelines. Hodge did attempt to dive for the ball but only succeeded in driving his face into the dirt as the Scottish fans hooted in delight. I held onto my scream but I felt something pop deep inside my noggin. This wasn’t the only time something farcical happened during that game. Twice the ball came down from a lineout and, instead of neatly plopping into the waiting hands of Genia, the ball doinged off the head of a forward and bounced towards the Scots. Then we had that intercept try and a charge down of a Will Genia kick (cue internal scream) which also resulted in a try to the Scots. Don’t get me started on our reliance on a small kick behind the line as our go-to attacking option. In the first half we were hot on attack about ten metres out and all Dane Haylett-Petty had to do was pass the ball through the hands and we would have scored a try or gone close. Advertisement Advertisement Did he do this? No. He grubbered a kick in and we all watched the ball roll dead. Why did Dane do this? Was he so unsure of his teammate’s ability to catch a ball and, heaven forbid, draw a man and pass the ball that he decided the only way forward was to go for the high-risk option. That’s what it felt like to me. With 20 minutes to go, I was resigned to the fact that we were going to lose the match. Australian teams have not only lost the ability to win a game at the death, they’ve lost the ability to even stay in the contest. Do I have an answer for this? In short, no. I’m involved in junior rugby (screaming from the sidelines is involvement, don’t judge me) and I see kids practicing passing and catching all night long at training. Do professional players stop doing the basics once they make a Super Rugby squad? Is this a coaching issue? It seems the Reds, Waratahs and Brumbies all seemed to have developed this malaise. The Reds are coached by a man whose only coaching skill seems to be “giving the boys a bloody good revving up in the sheds at half time” and the Brumbies are coached by possibly Australia’s most exciting player in the last 25 years who seems to have forgotten how to play the game. A Kiwi bloke coaches the Waratahs but it’s apparent he’s had that knowledge of rugby basics drilled out of him during his time at the club. Going on his lack of emotion as the Waratahs let yet another opposition player waltz through to score, possibly by some sort of electro-therapy that has numbed his facial muscles. Michael Cheika is the coach of the Wallabies but I’m starting to think he’s more of a motivator than an actual coach. If I took a deep drink of my beer every time the camera pans to the coaches box and shows Cheika mouthing obscenities during a game, I’d be onto my third liver by this stage. We’re not privy to the instructions a coach gives his players but I sure as hell hope it isn’t “I want to see a silly kick for every third pass.” I’d like to give him more credit than that. This weekend, the Wallabies are playing Italy in Brisbane. Anything less than an absolute clinical drubbing will be a failure in my books. I don’t want a gritty, hard fought win. That will only paper over the cracks and give us all a false sense of security. I want to see my team play well by doing the basics. I also want the backs to be fitted with shock collars that zap them every time they even contemplate a stupid kick. Is that too much to ask? AdvertisementMerlin's balls, everything in here is beyond wonderful! I am so sorry that this post is late, a lot of really unfortunate things have happened, and I have had a really rough few weeks. I suddenly owed a lot of bills, things happened at college/with my health so I had to temporarily withdraw until fall quarter, and my grandpa has colon cancer and is being taken off of life support. Receiving such a thoughtful gift where it is clear how much time has been put into it has been so wonderful, and something I really needed today. Thank you, Santa, for everything. When I got to the post office, pink slip in hand, I was given a long, triangular prism! It had a Slytherin S with a snake, and I was so excited! I actually read a message from my Santa as I was walking away with my precious (sorry, wrong fandom!), and apologized for it taking so long. Unfortunately, my excitement for the gift was a bit dampened, as I received the news that my grandpa, who was in the ICU at the time, has been diagnosed with colon cancer, but since he was too weak for treatment, was going to be taken off of life support. This info was smuggled to me, as my father wasn't going to let me know (long story). However, thinking about the possible contents of this box did lift my spirits a little, and when I got home, I tore into the package, eager to reveal its secrets. The first thing I pulled out was a clothy substance. When unrolled, it became clear that this was a Slytherin tank top, which I will wear regularly! Next, the box produced a long wooden box, of a very pretty red-purple color! And it has a snake, S for slytherin on the sides, and my username on top! Opening up the beauty revealed a hand made wand, just for me! At the handle end of the wand, the Slytherin S was painted in green. Immediately, I had to pick it up and try it, of course. It worked beautifully. After gingerly placing my wand back into its box, I pulled out another thin, long rectangular box! This has a leatheresque top, and upon opening, revealed it was Dumbledore's wand, which we all know is the Elder Wand! What fun! It is gorgeous, and I love it so! After pulling out all these goodies, I looked once more into the box to ensure that I was not missing anything, and low and behold, a folded piece of paper! This paper was a letter, informing me that I was missed in Slytherin, and contained pictures of Hogsmeade and Hogwarts to help me get over my homesickness! Everything in this care package was wonderful, sweet, thoughtful, and utterly amazing. Thank you so much, Santa, for all the gifts, and the amount of care and thought you put into them. I will treasure everything you gave me, and proudly boast about how incredible my HP Santa is.Sony Pictures Entertainment is exploring the possibility that hackers working on behalf of North Korea, perhaps operating out of China, may be behind a devastating attack that brought the studio’s network
feed, nicknamed the Lulz Boat, they identified themselves as “the world’s leaders in high-quality entertainment at your expense.” Their first bit of dark comedy came on May 30th, when they hacked the PBS Web site, in retaliation for what they thought was unfairly negative coverage of the WikiLeaks founder, Julian Assange. They posted a fake news story reporting that the late rappers Tupac Shakur and Biggie Smalls had been hiding out in New Zealand. “Local townsfolk refuse to comment on exactly how long or why the rappers were being sheltered,” the story read. “One man simply says ‘we don’t talk about that here.’ ” The day after the PBS prank, the group began tweeting a series of warnings to Sony. “Hey @Sony,” one read, “you know we’re making off with a bunch of your internal stuff right now and you haven’t even noticed? Slow and steady, guys.” Some saw the warnings as more geohot backlash for the company. “The group is sending a message to Sony for messing with one of their own, hacker George Hotz,” a blogger wrote. On June 2nd, LulzSec hacked the Sony Pictures Web site, compromising what it claimed to be more than a million passwords of consumers who had put their personal information on the site. (Sony later put the figure at thirty-seven thousand.) The group’s purpose, it explained in a statement, was not to come across as “master hackers” but to expose the continued weakness of Sony’s security systems. Lulz’s statement said that Sony was “asking for it,” because the company stored the passwords in plain text, instead of encrypting them. The statement went on to encourage fellow-hackers to “tear the living shit out of it while you can; take from them everything!” LulzSec members broke in using a rudimentary technique called SQL Injection, which allowed them access to unauthorized data on the Sony Pictures site. “From a single injection, we accessed EVERYTHING,” they said. “Why do you put such faith in a company that allows itself to become open to these simple attacks?” Black-hat hackers began posting corporate e-mails, and, during the summer of 2011, attacks on media, technology, and other institutions came almost daily. Nintendo got hacked, and so did Sega, Electronic Arts, the News Corporation, Booz Allen Hamilton, NATO, and Lady Gaga. Even the C.I.A. was hacked, LulzSec claimed. It was the Summer of Lulz. Hotz didn’t mean to inspire a hacker war, but he doesn’t regret what he did. One night at a restaurant in Palo Alto, he clarified his position on the attacks against Sony. “If being a techno-libertarian leads to online anarchy, so be it,” he said. “I’m not a cause. I just like messing with shit.” Hotz defines a hacker as “somebody with a set of skills,” and points out that the skills alone don’t make you good or evil. It’s up to you to decide how to use them. Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg may be his generation’s most famous hacker, but Hotz most embodies its original spirit. He hacks for the technical challenge and the fun. He doesn’t identify as white-hat or black-hat, preferring to think of himself more like someone twisting wrenches under a sink. “Hacker is to computer as plumber is to pipes,” he once blogged. When I met him again, later in the summer, at DefCon, a hacker convention in Las Vegas, he wasn’t at a bar with guys in long black coats, plotting some corporate takedown. He was alone on a couch in a back room, coding on his laptop.NFC-enabled figures are the big thing right now and with their upcoming toy line called amiibo‚ Nintendo is set to throw a new contender into the ring‚ battling for plastic toy supremacy with Disney Infinity 2.0 and Skylanders: Trap Team. So how do amiibo stack up against the already impressive competition? The answer is great. In fact‚ they might end up being the best NFC-enabled toys on the market. Currently amiibo only work with Nintendo’s upcoming Super Smash Bros. but during a short demonstration at a recent Nintendo event in Toronto‚ I couldn’t help but imagine how perfect amiibo would be for the Pokemon franchise or one of Nintendo’s other iconic series. Although nothing specific has been revealed yet, Nintendo has indicated amiibo will be compatible with Hyrule Warriors, Captain Toad Treasure Tracker, Mario Kart 8, Mario Party 10 and Yoshi’s Wooly World. The toys will also reportedly work with the upcoming “New” 3DS. Nintendo’s current 3DS model requires a special adapter to be compatible with amiibos. NFC toys might sound silly‚ especially if you’re an adult‚ but they aren’t. There’s something intangibly compelling to having a virtual profile or character linked to a real-world figurine. NFC or Near Field Communication is a relatively new form of instant wireless communication features in a number of devices, including most smartphones. When Nintendo’s toys launch‚ you’ll be able to purchase amiibo of popular Nintendo characters like Link‚ Princess Peach‚ Yoshi and Luigi‚ place them onto the Wii U’s NFC-enabled GamePad and then watch them appear in-game. Why games like Skylanders: Trap Team don’t take advantage of the Wii U GamePad’s NFC features is unclear. The technology is built directly into the Wii U’s controller. Including an extra scanning base in the Wii U version of these franchises really isn’t necessary. After scanning into Smash Bros., your amiibo can then be equipped with moves and trained to fight in a certain way. A Nintendo representative at the event explained a level 50 amiibo with maxed out stats isn’t the same as a Smash Bros. AI-controlled character with its difficulty set to the highest level. This is because amiibo adapt to your play style‚ learning how you fight and molding to your skill set. If you grapple a lot or tend to take out your opponents with a special attack‚ so will your amiibo partner. If you’re the kind of Smash Bros. player who is fond of items, your amiibo will gravitate towards using items more frequently. Likewise, if you never use items, your amiibo will have no clue what to do with them. Fighting other amiibo, rather than real-world players, also helps your toy level up faster. When you first use a new amiibo the toy is registered with your console. According to a Nintendo rep, you need to navigate over to “Games & more” and register the amiibo to a specific profile on your Wii U. In a way this makes amiibo seem like glorified, really cool looking USB sticks. Next you’re able to give the toy a unique name, adjust its armour and special moves, or even feed it left over equipment to increase its stats. amiibo also seem to be usable in most of Super Smash Bros. modes, from chaotic eight-player smash battles to team smash. All stats and rewards earned are then written to each figure before you’re able to use it in Super Smash Bros. This means you can also take your amiibo over to a friends house and use on their Wii U with Smash Bros. In a way this makes Amiibo seem like glorified, really cool looking USB sticks. In Smash Bros. the amiibo is effectively an intelligent punching bag that grows and trains with you. For those new to the Smash Bros. series‚ amiibo could end up being an excellent training tool. Since amiibo in Smash Bros are more than just game-generated AI opponents‚ they could also be used for a variety of other purposes. They seem great for filling out a game of Smash‚ especially if you aren’t a fan of the game’s often predictable AI. There’s also Pokemon-like training and attachment potential with amiibo. After all, players train and fight with their amiibo much like they do with their Pocket Monsters in the Pokemon series. In terms of their build quality, amiibo feel solid and are full of small touches hardcore Nintendo fans will appreciate, although they don’t feature as much detail as the version of the toys shown off at E3 this year. Some of each figurine’s smaller details have been lost in the mass production process. While Nintendo’s use of amiibo in Super Smash Bros. is far from a silly gimmick, the company still hasn’t announced their plans for integrating the technology into other franchises. Hopefully the company finds equally compelling ways to force fans to run out to the store and buy little plastic toys. The first wave of amiibo are set to be released on Nov. 21, 2014 at $12.99 and six more will follow in December. Nintendo’s starting amiibo lineup is as follows: Mario, Peach, Yoshi, Donkey Kong, Link, Fox, Samus, Wii Fit Trainer, Villager, Pikachu, Kirby and Marth. The six amiibo launching in December are: Zelda, Diddy Kong, Luigi, Little Mac, Pit and Captain Falcon. Super Smash Bros. is also set to launch on Nov. 21st. Follow @Patrick_ORourke.The Budapest City Assembly Wednesday officially put an end to the city’s bid to host the 2024 Olympic and Paralympic Games with a vote of 22 for and six against Mayor Istvan Tarlos’ motion to withdraw the project. The motion, filed by the Mayor last week, came on the heels of the submission of a city-wide petition with over 266,000 signatures that called for a public referendum over the bid. With that result, Prime Minister Viktor Orban softened his support for the project leading to a loss of political “unity” that was too damaging for the project to move forward. It is widely believed that the Prime Minister, who will face the polls in an election next year, saw a potential referendum loss as a political liability. The support in Wednesday’s vote came mostly from members of the Prime Minister’s Fidesz party. The referendum drive was launched by upstart political youth group Momentum Mozgalom who told GamesBids.com last week that they had to address the Olympic bid issue or people would question why they didn’t pursue it. Others, including IOC President Thomas Bach believe the group was using the Olympic stage to further its own political agenda and a run at next year’s elections. Momentum claimed that the Olympic Games were not a fit for Budapest at this time and money would be better spent instead on education, healthcare, housing, and transportation. “Everything that is going on is no longer about sports,” Mayor Tarlos said during a debate in the assembly prior to the vote. “The saddest thing is what kind of image the country is creating itself abroad with this circus surrounding the Olympics” Proponents of the bid are already looking forward to a future bid for the Games. Budapest 2024 bid Chief Balázs Fürjes last week said “It’s not if, but when Budapest will host the Games.” The withdrawal of Budapest puts the European city in the ranks of Hamburg and Rome – both cities having dropped out earlier in the 2024 race after loss of support. Only Los Angeles and Paris, both already two-time Olympic hosts, remain in the race set to be decided by an International Olympic Committee (IOC) vote on September 13. Budapest officials portrayed it’s project as a viable mid-size city solution, one that would be essential to prevent the hosting of the Olympics from being an exclusive club for wealthy mega-cities. With a compact footprint and more intimate setting, they believed a Games in Hungary would be user friendly and leave a valuable and sustainable legacy for the “sport mad” citizens of the nation.Breaking News Emails Get breaking news alerts and special reports. The news and stories that matter, delivered weekday mornings. March 15, 2016, 10:47 PM GMT / Updated March 15, 2016, 10:47 PM GMT By Corky Siemaszko Rep. Pete Sessions is skeptical of global warming and says big government is a waste — but he believes in the power of magic. The conservative Texas Republican introduced a House resolution this week that would officially recognize magic as a "rare and valuable art form and national treasure." Chairman Pete Sessions, R-Texas, speaks during a House Rules Committee meeting on November 2, 2015. Al Drago / CQ Roll Call via AP, file Dropping the names of magicians like Harry Houdini and David Copperfield and referencing writer Arthur C. Clarke and artist Leonardo da Vinci, Sessions' resolution declares that magic needs to be "preserved, understood, and promulgated." And it ticks off several reasons why any opposition to "H. Res. 642" should be made to disappear. "Whereas magic is an art form with the unique power and potential to impact the lives of all people; Whereas magic enables people to experience the impossible; Whereas magic is used to inspire and bring wonder and happiness to others; Whereas magic has had a significant impact on other art forms," the resolution states. Magician Harry Houdini performs a rope escape, left, and a card trick in these undated photos. AP Sessions also mentions Eric Hogue, a former professional clown who is now mayor of Wylie, Texas, and "who learned the art of magic as a child, continues to use those skills to teach elementary school students about the different roles and responsibilities of local government." One of the most conservative members of Congress, Sessions has tried before to get magic officially recognized as an art form, Politico reported. But so far he's not been able to pull that legislative rabbit out of a hat.Chief executive Charles Green believes Rangers will be involved in the formation of a new European league. Green's consortium relaunched the Ibrox club after the former incarnation could not be saved from liquidation. I'm convinced it will happen because otherwise where will the revenues for the top come from Charles Green on a European league Rangers currently play in Scottish Football League Division Three. "There will be a European league because big teams can't keep subsidising small teams for the next 10 years because they will go stale," said Green. "Arsenal don't want to play Southampton or Swansea, but ask them if they want to play Celtic or Rangers. It's what the fans want to see. "Fans across the world want to see Manchester United play Barcelona, not just once every few years but every season." Green is convinced Rangers would be part of any new European league. "If there are two divisions of 18 clubs, how could Rangers not be a part of that?" he asked. "I'm convinced it will happen because otherwise where will the revenues for the top come from? These days Arsenal are struggling to sell out their game against West Ham." Last month, BBC Scotland revealed Scottish clubs, including Rangers, were to discuss the possibility of being part of a new European regional league set-up. Uefa is believed to be open to change as it grows increasingly concerned by the polarisation between the top clubs and top leagues. Green added: "How can Manchester United's revenues be £320m and Aston Villa, who are completely useless, get £250m? "What Manchester United put into world football is massive, but what they take out of it is a joke and they won't put up with that for much longer."You mean, she's real?? C. S. Lewis wasn't imagining things... Born in the late 1400s, Blessed Lucia (or “Lucy” in English) Brocadelli was actually from Narni or “Narnia” in Latin, an ancient town in Umbria. A pious child, she is said to have received visions from an early age. Following her father’s death in her early teens, she was married off by her uncle to Pietro, Count of Milan, though they lived as brother and sister. Catholic Herald, as well as the Here is an article about her from theas well as the Wikipedia entry Of course, we have no idea whether C. S. Lewis had ever heard of Blessed Lucy when creating Lucy Pevensie of "Spare 'Oom" of the land of "War Drobe," but the real Lucy led a pretty fantastic life nonetheless. Among other amazing things, Lucy of Narnia received the stigmata and became the prioress of a convent. She spent the last years of her life [read: 40 years of wilderness wanderings] locked up by her successor. Or was it the White Witch?? Blessed Lucy died in 1544. By 1710, her body was still incorrupt, and she was beatified by Pope Clement XI. A humble and sweet child, who was uniquely perceptive to the voice of the Lion! This could described either the Pevensie or the Saint. Blesssed Lucy of Narnia, Pray for Us!Understanding Credit Unions Banking isn't just for banks — another type of financial institution that millions of people use every day is called a credit union. Credit unions operate like banks, with a few key differences that might make a credit union your perfect option. A credit union is a not-for-profit, financial collective; members of credit unions are also considered part owners. Rather than operating with the goal of making a profit and providing value to shareholders — which are banks’ primary objectives — credit unions make their members the top priority. Every credit union seeks to benefit a particular group of people or organization. There are credit unions for teachers, military personnel, residents of specific cities and more. However, that means that to join a credit union, you must qualify under its field of membership.Economic research has only a tenuous relationship to economic policymaking in Washington. President Obama’s new proposal to raise the federal minimum wage from $7.25 to $9.00 is a case in point. It would bad for workers and the economy, but the administration seems to be ignoring the large body of theory and evidence on the issue. Labor economist Mark Wilson discusses the economics of the minimum wage in an essay on Downsizing Government. Here are a few highlights: There is no free lunch when the government mandates a minimum wage. If the government requires that certain workers be paid higher wages, then businesses make adjustments to pay for the added costs, such as reducing hiring, cutting employee work hours, reducing benefits, and charging higher prices. … The main finding of economic theory and empirical research over the past 70 years is that minimum wage increases tend to reduce employment. The higher the minimum wage relative to competitive-market wage levels, the greater the employment loss that occurs. While minimum wages ostensibly aim to improve the economic well-being of the working poor, the disemployment effects of a minimum wages have been found to fall disproportionately on the least skilled and on the most disadvantaged individuals, including the disabled, youth, lower-skilled workers, immigrants, and ethnic minorities. … Nobel laureate economist Milton Friedman observed: ‘The real tragedy of minimum wage laws is that they are supported by well-meaning groups who want to reduce poverty. But the people who are hurt most by higher minimums are the most poverty stricken.’ … In the American economy, low wages are usually paid to entry-level workers, but those workers usually do not earn these wages for extended periods of time. Indeed, research indicates that nearly two-thirds of minimum wage workers move above that wage within one year. … While they are often low-paid, entry-level jobs are vitally important for young and low-skill workers because they allow people to establish a track record, to learn skills, and to advance over time to a better-paying job. Thus, in trying to fix a perceived problem with minimum wage laws, policymakers cause collateral damage by reducing the number of entry-level jobs. … As Milton Friedman noted, ‘The minimum wage law is most properly described as a law saying employers must discriminate against people who have low skills.’Richard Czarnecki is a British-born Polish politician who is a member of the European Parliament for the Law and Justice Party (PiS). In the following interview he discusses Poland’s recent announcement that it would not accept its quota of “refugees” as demanded by the European Union. Many thanks to Ava Lon for the translation, and to Vlad Tepes for the subtitling: Video transcript: 00:00 “The Talk of the Day”. And in our studio — Ryszard Czarnecki, 00:04 vice-president of the EU Parliament. Good morning Mr Vice-President. 00:08 Good morning to you, good morning ladies and gentlemen. —“There’s a war being waged against Europe 00:12 and we need to answer with appropriate methods,” 00:16 said Jarosław Kaczyński after Saturday’s terrorist 00:20 attack in London. What methods are appropriate? 00:24 What is Jarosław Kaczyński calling for? —Most of all, 00:28 we cannot encourage immigrants, 00:32 immigrants from outside of Europe, mostly Muslims — let’s call the spade a spade — 00:36 to come here. And all sorts of 00:40 decisions at the EU level 00:44 or on the level of the members of the EU, which are encouraging the arrival, right now, 00:52 of people from outside Europe, automatically 00:56 spin the boom of new phases of immigration. I remember I was 01:04 in Tanzania in a delegation for the EU Parliament 01:08 when Chancellor Merkel very hospitably 01:12 opened the gates of Germany. 01:16 And those scenes on TV were, of course, 01:20 they were something like an… — for the inhabitants 01:24 of Africa — an encouragement: Let’s go to Europe! 01:28 You can’t do that! — You are talking now about political methods, but Jarosław Kaczyński said, 01:32 “…with appropriate political methods, but also different ones, 01:36 if necessary.” Well that corresponds with the words of British PM Theresa May, who 01:40 said that the patience of British people is almost exhausted. 01:44 I’m trying to imagine how such 01:48 a war, with terrorism, waged not only with political methods, 01:53 Might look like; because the main problem isn’t 01:57 the fact if the Islamic State has one town more or less 02:01 in the Middle East, but the problem is what is going on in the streets of European cities. 02:05 Therefore, sacrificing some liberties, a permanent curfew? 02:09 How to win such a war inside the EU? 02:13 Great Britain happens to be a country 02:17 that has at its disposal good special forces, which, 02:21 it has to be said, have stopped a number of terrorist attacks, 02:25 among them also those whose perpetrators could have been 02:29 people called “lone wolves”, who organized the attack by themselves. 02:33 British special forces are rated better than 02:37 the intelligence services in some countries on the continent; however, 02:41 for years Great Britain also accepted, for the sake of peace 02:45 and cohesion, the activities of radical imams on their 02:49 territory, in mosques in British towns. 02:53 And those radical imams were 02:57 cranking up young Muslims 03:01 who — often — were born in the UK and Northern Ireland, and those attackers 03:09 are being recruited precisely from among those people —And suggestions are appearing in other 03:13 EU countries that the radical imams need to be deported. 03:17 Yes, of course, and also we need 03:21 to watch them closely; fortunately this isn’t a Polish problem, because 03:25 Poland was, is, and will be conducting a wise immigration policy, 03:29 following the rule of: “Option ZERO”: Stop, zero 03:33 Islamic immigrants from outside Europe, and Muslim immigrants in general. 03:37 However, other countries, well, brought about the situation 03:42 where those trained 03:46 — in the territory of the Islamic State, in Syria, Iraq 03:50 — young people with French, Belgian, Dutch, British 03:54 German citizenship, are coming back to Europe, and 03:58 a vast majority of the attackers 04:02 who committed those attacks, either in Paris or 04:06 in Brussels or other European agglomerations, all those 04:10 attackers, or at least a large majority of them, 04:14 were trained on the territory of the Islamic State; they went through training, 04:18 then they went back to Europe, and somehow the intelligence services couldn’t 04:22 follow them. Those are very obvious sins of dereliction. 04:26 We, Poland, are learning from other countries’ mistakes; 04:30 we are drawing conclusions from other countries’ mistakes; 04:34 and we certainly won’t open our doors 04:38 to Muslim immigrants at all. 04:42 We can support the refugees there, where they are, 04:46 which also recently was mentioned by former US President 04:50 Barack Obama, disagreeing somewhat with 04:54 his hostess for his visit, Chancellor Merkel. —A very important subject in domestic politics, 04:58 a very important subject in European politics, but moving to 05:02 a higher level, to the UN: 05:06 Poland recently became an non-permanent member of the UN Security Council. 05:10 What possibilities does this open up for us? 05:14 How can we really influence what is going on 05:18 globally, thanks to that opportunity? —It’s a great success. 05:23 For comparison, I’m going to — because most media don’t mention it — 05:27 well, six years ago 05:31 our neighbors 05:35 in the new EU, Hungary and Slovenia 05:39 lost a fight for non-permanent membership 05:43 on the UN Security Council. Before that 05:47 the Czech Republic and Slovakia also lost this fight, 05:51 and from the countries in the larger EU 05:55 in the voting, in New York, at the UN forum, 05:59 Italy and Greece failed as well. 06:03 The more we should appreciate Polish success, and also the scale of this success, 06:07 because never before has a country received in a vote 06:11 such a large number of votes. 06:15 190 is a huge number. —So, while being happy for that success, 06:19 I’m trying to translate it into real things, because right now, when 06:23 I read the comments in the papers today, I got the impression that we only did it to put pressure 06:27 on Russia in order to get the wrecked Tupolev back [in which gov’t leaders crashed in Russia]. 06:31 Above all, Poland, which is very important, will be 06:35 an ambassador for the countries in our region 06:39 of Eastern Europe, or the New EU, and 06:43 let me remind you that from the New EU 06:47 13 countries entered, among them 11 from our region 06:51 in the last 13 years, but caution, in the situation, where 06:55 in that group of five of the permanent members 06:59 of the UN Security Council, after Brexit 07:04 from the EU members only France will be left, so Poland, 07:08 through those 24 months 2018-2019, 07:12 will also be even more a representative of the EU. 07:16 This also gives us larger possibilities to represent 07:20 the New EU and the entire EU in New York at the UN, 07:24 but also to play some diplomatic-political games 07:28 here, in situ, on the old continent, in Europe. 07:32 However, of course, 07:36 already the fact of our membership caused reactions 07:40 very quickly; Washington as well as Moscow 07:44 turned to Poland for urgent political consultations, probably 07:48 at the level of the assistant ministers of foreign affairs. I’m talking about it because 07:52 this shows that Poland is becoming a player, 07:56 which totally refutes the BS. —That means that the further — 08:00 …the stupid, idiotic propaganda theses of the opposition that Poland 08:04 is isolated, that Poland is meaningless. —But perhaps it means that the further, 08:08 but it’s 190 votes —Perhaps it’s because from far away you see differently than from close up. 08:12 You see differently, because the difference in the way Poland was treated during this vote — 08:16 this success in the UN that you are talking about — 08:20 and how it is painted 08:24 by some of our partners from the EU, 08:28 Well, is very big. —Well, in Europe there is 08:32 a certain war, not only the real war with Islam, 08:36 but also within Europe a war between the leftist, liberal circles, 08:40 with the conservative, traditional circles, 08:44 which defend certain values, and of course 08:48 within that war the target is 08:52 also sometimes Poland, which is ruled by 08:56 a party that respects traditional values: Christian 09:00 and patriotic. But the fact that the vice-president of 09:04 the European Commission, Mr Timmermans was for years an activist 09:09 of the Dutch Left, of the Labour Party, is often somehow 09:13 forgotten by commentators, and it’s worth reminding people of. 09:17 Are we going to have a new Prime Minister? Mateusz Morawiecki is supposed to replace Beata Szydło, 09:21 So Rzeczpospolita [a newspaper] speculates. And Beata Szydło 09:25 will supposedly become the president of the Parliament, replacing Marek Kuchciński. 09:29 I don’t know anything about that, and I don’t think that 09:33 these types of changes 09:37 were being discussed right now by the leadership of PiS [Law and Justice party]. 09:41 But the propositions that the Polish people will hear 09:45 during the party congress in July — must be already be 09:49 under discussion. Do you know anything about that? 09:53 We want to present a proposal for Poland and for the Polish people, 09:57 not for the political class, because 10:01 in reality our 10:05 “examiners” are Polish taxpayers, Polish voters, 10:09 and independent of the fact that the opposition, 10:13 also unfortunately — and I’m saying it as the vice-president of the EU Parliament — 10:17 …so the opposition in the West in the EU 10:21 also paints our homeland 10:25 in very dark colors, and often in 10:29 an unjust, unfair and false manner. 10:33 We — are going forward without paying attention to it, and we will try to represent 10:37 very specific propositions, which like those 10:41 made up until now, during the eighteen months of our government, 10:45 for a Kowalski and a Nowak [typical Polish names], 10:49 their families will live better and Poland will be stronger on the international stage, 10:53 which has been proven by the vote in the UN. —Since you underline 10:57 the word “taxpayer” so much, I’m guessing that those who 11:01 speculate that perhaps the economic subjects 11:06 we’ll be hearing during that congress and new propositions will surface are right. 11:10 It’s a part of the life of Polish people, you might say… —Ryszard Czarnecki, vice-president of the 11:14 EU Parliament, was the guest of Signs of the Day on Channel One on the radio. 11:18 Thank you very much. —Thank you, and have a good day.Whitworth Veteran Memorial: In Memory of Those who Died Protecting the U.S. Here Whitworth honors and remembers those who made the ultimate sacrifice in defense of the United States. These Whitworth students were American heroes and deserve to be remembered. To honor these brave men, please take a moment to learn more… The Loop: The Path That Connects Whitworth Although it is commonly known as “The Loop”, the green space that is considered the centerpiece of Whitworth's campus is in fact rectangular. From an aerial view, it is obvious that this part of campus is a natural landscape of pine trees and grassy… Warren Hall The post-World War II decades were good ones for Whitworth College, which saw great expansion and growth. In particular, student enrollment vastly increased, due to the GI Bill and a greater sense of optimism, freedom, and prosperity. To serve… Arend Hall: The dorm that is just a hop, skip, and jump away from the HUB Arend Hall was named after Albert Arend, who was a member of the Whitworth Board of Trustees beginning in 1925 and served as the chairman for the board from 1958 until 1972. He played a significant role in guiding Whitworth through some of its… Baldwin-Jenkins: Where two separated dorms become one Baldwin-Jenkins is a dormitory for first-year students and is named in honor of two individuals who made a significant impact on Whitworth's history: Estella E. Baldwin and Marion R. Jenkins. Estella Baldwin served as registrar from 1935-1970, and…Many people give up on it after playing it for only a few minutes and never pick it up again. Here is the secret: It's almost impossible to solve the cube without knowing the basic solution method. The solution pamphlet that comes with a store-bought cube can be very confusing, so I've arranged this article to make it simple, and I've included pictures and videos. You do not have to memorize long complicated algorithms to solve the cube using this article. For beginners, the layer-by-layer method is the easiest. The first step in this method starts with picking a color to build the 1st layer. A layer is 8 cubies, has 9 stickers on the face, and 12 stickers around the outside edges of the face. For the purposes of this article, I will pick the white side as my first color to start solving the cube.There have been several versions of the Suicide Squad throughout the years. With the movie set to release later this year, we thought we would give Amanda Waller a hand in assembling her next version of the Squad. We've scoured popular culture to find the smartest, most ruthless and deadliest characters in fiction to create our own Suicide Squad. You're welcome, Waller. There are plenty of lists floating around about which comic book characters should join the team so we decided to do this one a bit differently. For starters, there are no comic books characters in this list. Secondly, a couple of them are a bit zany, but we tried to look at the characters themselves as opposed to the tone and setting of the source material they originated from. Continue scrolling to keep reading Click the button below to start this article in quick view 341 Shares Share Tweet Email Copy Link Copied 18 Jaime Lannister Prior to the loss of his hand, the Kingslayer was the greatest swordsman in the Seven Kingdoms and while the aforementioned hand is a bit of a problem, we’re sure ARGUS can hook him up with a nifty prosthetic. As a skilled swordsman and veteran of several battles, we imagine Jamie would make a good field commander for the Squad. A swordsman might seem out of place in a world of superpowers, but comic books are full of characters who do amazing things while armed with less than a bladed weapon. And it’s not like there isn't precedent for it; there is literally a character named Katana in the upcoming movie. The biggest problem with Jaime being part of the Squad is a matter of temperament. He can be very arrogant, and that tends to lead to him making mistakes, such as his capture by Robb Stark. However, the loss of his hand, as such things do, humbled him and arguably made him better leader for it. 17 Boba Fett Arguably the coolest character in the Empire Strikes Back was the deadly bounty hunter, Boba Fett. While his end in Return of the Jedi was less than glorious, he still managed to make quite an impact. With his wide array of deadly weapons, training and experience as a bounty hunter, Boba Fett would make an excellent addition to the Squad. His bounty hunter skills make him an ideal assassin, but he could also serve as an effective member of a black ops team. Fett normally works alone, but we’ve seen that he’s willing to work with others such as when he first took up bounty hunting Whether working solo or as part of a group, he would certainly be a valuable and dangerous asset to ARGUS. Fett would be rather difficult to control, but thinks to his mercenary nature it’s possible that Waller wouldn’t even have to force him to join the Squad. She could simply hire him permanently though that would make him security risk so he'd probably get the kill switch treatment like everyone else. 16 Hans Gruber You know you’re probably taking things a bit too far when you’re kicked out of your terrorist organization for having extremist views, but Die Hard's Hans Gruber wasn’t going to let a little thing like that stop him. Instead of giving up the on the whole wanted fugitive plan, he decided to use his training and connections to stage an elaborate heist. Sure the plan ultimately ended in his death, but Gruber earns an A for effort. In many ways, Gruber is the perfect person to join Suicide Squad. He’s ruthless and deadly enough to get the job done, but he’s also very calculating and rarely loses control. In a team that includes Harley Quinn, self-control can be a precious commodity. Gruber is intelligent and reasonable enough to know that it is in his best interests to play Waller’s game so he’d probably be fairly easy to work with once you explained the rules to him. 15 Hannibal Lector Made famous in Silence of the Lambs, Hannibal Lector managed to pull off the impressive feat of being infinitely more creepy than the film’s actual antagonist while spending most of the movie locked in a cell. Hannibal occupies an unusual place on this list in that he could still be useful to the team and never leave his cell. ARGUS is, at least in part, a spy organization, and interrogation is an important part of the job. To be frankly honest, we suspect an 10 minute session with Hannibal would prove more revealing than anything else ARGUS could dream up. If you don’t believe us, just go back and watch Silence Of The Lambs. He’s easily one of the creepiest characters in fiction and, as the book it’s based on proves, that isn’t all due to Anthony Hopkin’s talent as an actor. The only downside
Voyageurs Cup has now been handed out a total of 11 times with the Montreal Impact winning the first seven editions, followed by four straight Toronto FC wins, and with Vancouver's name still not sullying the trophy. It has been contested by both the USL and MSL version of the Vancouver Whitecaps and Montreal Impact, Toronto FC, Toronto Lynx, Calgary Storm (also competed under the Calgary Mustangs name), Edmonton Aviators, and FC Edmonton over its short history. The trophy was originally bought and paid for by a group of Canadian supporters but is now under the care of the Canadian Soccer Association who have agreed to loan it from the Voyageurs to present to the winner of the awfully branded Amway Canadian Championships. The winner of the Cup now gets the title of Canadian Champions and with that a spot in the CONCACAF Champions League but it still continues to have strong ties to Canada's leading soccer supporters group, with members of the Voyageurs doing the presenting honours each year. Over its history the Voyageurs Cup has become a key element of the rivalries that have been formed between Canada's top three professional clubs. Montreal may have their early years of dominance to take comfort in but since winning the title in 2008 they have failed to win a single match. Vancouver has never won the trophy but their fans will point to a number of instances where they were "screwed" and assure you that this will be their year. It is a short history but one that is full of drama which should make any Canadian fan excited about the 2013 edition of the competition. It may not be the priority for Toronto FC this season as they continue to rebuild and don't really need the extra games of competing in the CCL, but as someone who respects the history of the Voyageurs Cup it would be hard to stomach the team giving anything but their best effort to claim Canada's top soccer prize.Irish people are cooking just five meals per week at home – whether breakfast, lunch or dinner – according to Home Truths, an annual report on consumer habits from the country’s largest food retailer, SuperValu. As part of the supermarket chain’s Let’s Get Ireland Cooking campaign – to promote healthy eating and cooking at home from scratch – an online survey of 1,000 adults, carried out in late February of this year, found that nine out of 10 of us, or 87 per cent, cook five times a week. That figure is up from 84 per cent last year, and according to the report, released today, the increase is driven by an upsurge in the popularity of cooking breakfast, particularly among 18-24-year-olds. In this age group, 67 per cent said they cooked breakfast five times a week, up from 42 per cent last year. For the purposes of the survey, “cooking” breakfast from scratch could be anything from making a smoothie to frying a full Irish, the imperative being that it was constructed from ingredients at home rather than picked up “on the hoof”. Whether they cooked it from scratch or not, over half of parents surveyed said they give their children, under 16 years of age, portions that are the same size or bigger than their own. Time remains the main impediment to cooking from scratch, but fewer people are blaming laziness (down from 25 per cent last year to 17 per cent this year) or lack of inspiration (down from 19 per cent to 12 per cent). Sunday roast The Sunday roast remains popular, with 45 per cent of those polled indulging in the weekly ritual (up 3 per cent), and there is also a rise in the numbers eating a family meal together, with 94 percent of those with dependent children “regularly” having a family meal (up 5 per cent). However the popularity of ordering takeaways, and visiting fast food restaurants, continues to increase, both up 5 per cent compared to last year. The report, developed in conjunction with Dr Mary McCreery, consultant dietician nutritionist, also addresses perception and understanding of the food pyramid. This visual representation of what constitutes a balanced diet was recently revised – amid much debate – and vegetables and fruit replaced bread, pasta, cereals and rice as the foods we should be eating most of. Fruit and veg According to the report, half of adults are aware of the Department of Health’s new food pyramid and almost nine out of 10 feel they should make changes having seen the food pyramid, most saying they need to eat more fruit and vegetables and cut back on treats. Commenting on the report, Dr McCreery said: “It’s really encouraging to see more people cooking good, wholesome food from scratch and that time isn’t such a barrier, as people become more equipped in their cooking skills and routines. Planning meals in advance and buying fresh food not only benefits your health; it also is less expensive than any of the other, less healthy options.” Musician and mental health campaigner Niall Breslin, Galway chef and author Michael O’Meara, and Siobhan Berry who writes the Mummy Cooks blog, have been revealed as the new faces of Let’s Get Ireland Cooking. They join the supermarket chain’s existing ‘ambassadors’, chefs Kevin Dundon and Martin Shanahan, Stephen and David Flynn of The Happy Pear, and food stylist and writer Sharon Hearne Smith.FILE PHOTO: U.S. Director of National Intelligence Dan Coats testifies before the Senate Armed Services Committee on worldwide threats on Capitol Hill in Washington, U.S., May 23, 2017. REUTERS/Yuri Gripas WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Top U.S. intelligence officials will testify before a Senate panel next week on the law governing the collection of foreign intelligence, parts of which are due to expire at the end of the year, the Senate Intelligence Committee said on Friday. Director of National Intelligence Dan Coats, Acting FBI Director Andrew McCabe, National Security Agency Director Mike Rogers and Deputy U.S. Attorney General Rod Rosenstein will appear before the committee in both open public and closed-door hearings on Wednesday to discuss the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, or FISA, the committee said in a statement. The next day, former FBI Director James Comey, who was fired by President Donald Trump last month, is scheduled to testify before the same committee. Comey had been overseeing an FBI investigation into Russian interference during the 2016 presidential election and possible collusion between Moscow and Trump associates, and the Senate panel is conducting a parallel probe. A part of FISA known as Section 702 will expire on Dec. 31 unless Congress votes to reauthorize it. The statute allows the NSA to collect digital communications of foreigners believed to be living overseas whose communications pass through American phone or internet providers. For technical reasons, it also incidentally collects data on Americans, a practice that privacy advocates have said evades Constitutional protections against warrantless searches. FISA and U.S. surveillance practices have come under increased scrutiny in recent months amid unsubstantiated assertions by President Donald Trump and other Republicans that the White House under former President Barack Obama improperly spied on Trump or his associates. A bipartisan coalition of lawmakers in the House of Representatives is working on legislation that would renew Section 702 but with additional transparency and oversight, among other changes, though it remains unclear if it would have enough support to pass Congress and be signed by Trump. A White House official told Reuters in March the administration supported the law’s renewal and did not want to alter it.+1 32K Shares A GoFundMe page has raised roughly $24,000 for an Army veteran that was injured and hospitalized after being brutally beaten during the Charlotte riots last week. Violent protests broke out in the streets of Charlotte following the death of Keith Lamar Scott, 43, who was shot by a black police officer in an apartment complex in Charlotte. United States Army veteran David Palmer was attacked last Wednesday by rioters. His sister, Ashley Warlick told WBTV that her family got separated by rioters after having dinner at the EpiCentre. “It was shortly after that things went south,” Warlick told WBTV. “We were separated at that point. So I got on the phone with my brother multiple times trying to make sure that he headed back home.” ADVERTISEMENT Palmer had run into the Epicentre to get away from a group of men that attacked him, his sister said. Palmer found work as a bartender’s assistant at the EpiCentre after spending seven years in the Army. “They stole his phone and caused bodily injuries, not to mention the mental toll that it has taken. This is David’s first year as a civilian after serving seven years in the United States Army and also serving overseas…. He got a job as a barback at a local bar making quick cash until he starts school in the spring,” she wrote on the GoFundMe page. After getting attacked, he suffered a fractured eye socket and multiple broken bones in his face, she wrote. Warlick told WBTV that Palmer is going to have a metal plate on the left side of his face and will also need reconstructive surgery. “My little brother is my rock and seeing him go through such an awful situation is heart breaking,” she added. “I knew I couldn’t protect him while he was in Afghanistan, but never did I worry about our own streets.” The video below only shows a small portion of the attack against Palmer. It shows mostly the aftermath of the people taking part in the attack and witnessing it. ADVERTISEMENT [revad2]A year ago, Apple seemed unstoppable. Its share price topped $700. Its cash horde eclipsed the GDP of many countries. Pundits mused about a $1 trillion market cap with a straight face. But nowadays, Wall Street sees Apple very differently — and this morning’s much-hyped iPhone announcements from the tech giant did little to stop its year-long descent into stagnation. Apple’s gold phones, 64-bit processors, and fingerprint sensors barely budged the needle on Wall Street, as shares fell more than 2 percent from the day’s opening price of $506.20. The great slide began last September. By April of this year, Apple had shed nearly $300 billion in value, and shares bottomed out below $400. As WIRED wrote at the time, bearish sellers had plenty of reason to doubt that the post-Jobs Apple could still dazzle. Yet Apple CEO Tim Cook did little to reassure investors. As Samsung handsets gained market share and prices on Android phones fell, investors doubted Apple could keep charging the premium prices that kept its margins high. Worst and most obvious of all, Apple failed to feed the insatiable consumer appetite for the new. As has been widely reported, its new iPhone announcements today mark the end of the longest gap in new hardware releases since at least the launch of the iPad. As that clock ticked, shares fell or stayed flat. Even the preview of iOS 7, the most radical redesign of Apple’s mobile operating system since its initial release, failed to mollify Wall Street. If the market’s immediate reaction is any indication — and in the era of high-speed trading, it usually is — the iPhone 5C and 5S unveiled today still don’t go far enough. As the new phones were unveiled and tech writers cooed, investors reacted with a collective “meh.” After the presentation came to a close to the strains of Elvis Costello — no iWatch or new Apple TV in sight — the company’s share price began to trickle lower. Notably, Apple spent a lot of time at its event highlighting the high-end advances of the new 5S, dashing quickly through the less expensive 5C by comparison. Such a choice makes sense if the goal is to keep investors distracted from the margin-eating potential of less expensive phones. But the extended focus on geeked-out new features didn’t do the trick. Though the faster, sleeker, more powerful phone is unarguably cool, the steps forward are still incremental. And incremental isn’t what the world expects from Apple. Steve Jobs’ death wasn’t an event of worldwide significance because he could craft better spec sheets. Apple’s brand is synonymous with vision, a corporate identity that was once its greatest asset. Now that asset has become a liability.Please enable Javascript to watch this video MATOACA, Va. - A mother, father and two children were found dead at a Chesterfield home on Father's Day. Investigators are not looking for suspects at this time and believe the deaths were the result of a triple-murder-suicide. The family lived in a home along the 5700 block of Fox Maple Terrace, near Hampton Avenue, in the McCormick Woods subdivision. Officers responded just after 10 p.m. Sunday to reports of gunshots in the neighborhood, police said. When police arrived they found an adult male, believed to be the father, and a child dead inside the home. They also found a woman, believed to be the mother, dead outside the home. There was a child with the mother. That child later died at Southside Regional Medical Center. Police have not yet released the names of the victims. Police did confirmed the children were a two-year-old boy and a nine-year-old girl. Investigators are going door-to-door in the neighborhood asking neighbors what they saw, heard and knew about the family. Officers have asked people who knew the family to call in with information about what might have sparked Sunday's violence. This is a developing story.PTSD treatment that aided S.F. kids gets trial SAN FRANCISCO Program for youths with stress disorder to get 3-year trial Dr. Victor Carrion knew his treatment for post-traumatic stress disorder in children worked. But he couldn't prove it. A pilot study of a handful of San Francisco Visitacion Valley Middle School students exposed to pervasive community violence had shown the effectiveness of the one-on-one treatment. With his initial funding used up, the Stanford University researcher needed more money to document the success. Now he'll get the chance. An anonymous donor has stepped forward to fund a three-year full trial that will include treating 50 children suffering from PTSD - preferably in San Francisco, Carrion said. The donation will be funneled through the Lucile Packard Children's Hospital Foundation. The amount and source were undisclosed. "I'm so happy because we've been waiting for so long to do it," Carrion said of the study. "After this study, I will be able to say this works and give it to the people and train them how to use it." A year ago, The Chronicle reported on Carrion's work in San Francisco and the devastating effects of PTSD on children as well as their inability to thrive in school. PTSD is pervasive in violent communities, with a third of children living in those neighborhoods suffering from the mental disorder, according to the U.S. Department of Veteran Affairs and leading child trauma experts. Children in communities such as Bayview-Hunters Point and Visitacion Valley are frequently exposed to gunfire, shootings, stabbings and other gang- or drug-related violence. The Chronicle's stories drew attention to Carrion's need for funding to scientifically document his treatment. Carrion's method allows treatment providers to follow an easy-to-use manual that takes a child through a step-by-step program to address the cause and symptoms of PTSD in school-age children.The one-on-one treatment includes about 17 hourlong sessions. The new funding will enable him to bring in a trained team counselors to treat 25 children, with another 25 in a control group. When the first group of children is finished, the second group will also receive treatment, Carrion said. He wants to continue the research in San Francisco schools - where he conducted his pilot study. Visitacion Valley Middle School Principal Jim Dierke said he'd be thrilled to have Carrion's team back. "That's really great news," he said, adding he'd be raising his hand to volunteer his school as a trial site. "I'll have both hands raised." Dierke sees the symptoms of PTSD almost daily - the violent and seemingly inexplicable outbursts, the inability to pay attention and the emotional withdrawal, among others. "It's showing up all over the place," Dierke said. Despite the lack of funding, Carrion has trained San Francisco district teachers and staff this year about the symptoms and effects of PTSD. He's now approached school district and community leaders to find out if they're interested in having him return to treat the children at district schools. "Some school systems are a good setting to (treat) a lot of the kids that experience that community violence," he said. "This looks like the ideal place for it to be done."Making 'EthereRum' Distilled by a Bitcoin Miner Bitcoin mining could have an unexpected application in the booming spirits industry. Shortcuts to aging rum and whiskey are sought after, and experiments have included dumping oak chips into whiskey barrels, and artificially heating and cooling barrels to imitate the passing of seasons. Also Read: Bitcoin Mining Power Growing Bigger But Greener Electrical and computer engineering graduate of Cornell, Avi Aisenberg, describes himself as a hardware guy. These days, he’s running his company South Florida Distillers in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, making rum from locally sourced molasses. As I speak with him by telephone, he’s in his warehouse with plans of attending the North American Bitcoin Conference the following day. He’s followed bitcoin since 2009, but only recently took the tumble down the rabbit hole by purchasing mining equipment. Learning to Mine (Efficiently) “I had difficulty digesting the notion that I could buy something like a Bitmain Antminer or Canaan Avalon, burn the electricity off 24/7, and get paid for it,” Mr. Aisenberg tells bitcoin.com. He ultimately purchased three Antminers and placed them in his distillery. “The last thing I thought I needed was for my warehouse to get any hotter,” Mr. Aisenberg said. “With the three antminers connected, approximately 4000 W of heat was now continuously being dumped into the air.” The spirits distiller hit on the idea to use the exhaust heat to cycle the temperature of his rum barrels to help accelerate the aging process. Heating and cooling the wooden barrels not only affects the temperature of the rum, but it causes the barrels to expand and contract. While this occurs, rum is forced back and forth through the charred inner surface of the barrel, helping filter the tastes and extracting the sugars and flavors from the wood. The idea of spoofing temperature cycles is not new to the spirits industry. Bryan Davis, founder of Los Angeles distillery Lost Spirits, helped to pioneer accelerated aging using temperature variations, among other adjustments, directly on spirit holding tanks and without wooden barrels. Large spirits producers have even placed heating units or routed chiller heat exhaust into their rickhouses (where barrels are stored) to temperature cycle the room. Without bitcoin mining, Mr. Aisenberg views such approaches as a waste of heat. After about two months of mining, Mr. Aisenberg decided to post a picture on Reddit to gauge the community’s reaction and was positively surprised by the response. Fine-Tuning “Why not take it one step further?” he thought. Mr. Aisenberg then focused on the distillation process itself. Distillation is the action of purifying a liquid through a heating and cooling process. For rum, distillers typically heat a boiler of fermented molasses with steam or electric causing the ethanol vapors to evaporate around 173 F, while the water in the solution does not boil off until 212 F. This difference in boiling points allows for the separation. The vapors are then passed through a condenser and out pours a steady stream of rum. “If I am heating my still with resistive electric heating already, why not pass those same electrons through my ASIC bitcoin miners first?” Mr. Aisenberg pondered. There was only one problem. The heat off the miners only measured between 130 to 140 F – not enough to drive the process. “Introduce a vacuum and you can drop the boiling point of ethanol to 130 to 140 degrees no problem,” says Mr. Aisenberg. “I’ve set up a table top vacuum still with the boiler submerged in a bath of water. The bath acts as heat capacitor to smooth out the varying heat levels off the miner. Once the ethanol starts to boil off, the remainder of the distillation process is the same.” For now, he is using just three Antminers and has had successful results on a small scale. Mr. Aisenberg claims that he is working on scaling the process to larger volumes but will need an ASIC hardware partner to help realize his design. Ethered Up South Florida Distillers now plans to release the first ever rum distilled via bitcoin mining heat. It will be called EthereRum thanks to the suggestion of Redditor ‘Lazilox.’ “I now believe there are endless industrial heat applications that could benefit from bitcoin mining besides warming up rooms,” Mr. Aisenberg concludes. What weird mining experiments have you tried? Let us know in the comments below. Images courtesy of Reddit, South Florida Distillers, Avi Aisenberg. The rollercoaster ride of bitcoin exchange trading is too tame for some people. If you’re the type who prefers something with more edge, head over to the Bitcoin.com Casino. All games are high-stakes and provably fair, run by professionals.Dec 3, 2014 - Destiny Dev Team The Dark Below releases on December 9th, 2014. This new content will expand the world of Destiny for some players. It will also change the experience of playing Destiny for all. To support the updates that will go live with the expansion, we have made changes to a number of systems that drive the game. New Legendary Gear Existing Legendary gear on display in the Tower will be replaced New Legendary gear will feature higher Attack and Defense values Legendary items will still require Ascendant Materials for upgrades This new, more powerful gear will be available to all players of Destiny Legendary gear will not be as powerful as new Raid gear or Exotics New Rank Commendations In addition to Crucible or Vanguard Marks, purchasing new Legendary items will require a Crucible or Vanguard Commendation or Commendations are received in Reputation Reward Packages delivered by the Postmaster upon reaching a new Reputation Level Exotic Talent Changes As part of the December 1 st Destiny Update, Exotic Armor and Weapons no longer require Ascendant Materials for upgrades Destiny Update, Exotic Armor and Weapons no longer require Ascendant Materials for upgrades The final power node of all Exotic Gear will require an Exotic Shard This new material is obtained by one of the following means: Dismantling unwanted Exotics Purchased from Xûr for 7 Strange Coins New Exotic Upgrading Exotic Gear in The Dark Below will have higher Attack and Defense values than current Exotic Gear. For players and their current caches of Exotics, a path will exist to bring them forward into The Dark Below. Starting December 9 th, Xûr will offer players the opportunity to upgrade Exotics to the higher Attack and Defense values , Xûr will offer players the opportunity to upgrade Exotics to the higher Attack and Defense values Upgrading an Exotic in this way will require an Exotic Shard The upgrade will reset the progression invested into the item Each week, Xûr will possess a selection of upgrades for existing Exotics in his inventory Crucible (PvP) Changes Expansion I will include two new exclusive competitive playlists New Crucible arenas ( Pantheon, Skyshock, and The Cauldron ) will be featured in map rotation ,, and ) will be featured in map rotation Playlists available in the Director will change week over week Experiences will alternate between 12 and 6 player engagements Map rotation will alternate between focusing solely on new expansion arenas and including original launch maps in the mix Heroics and Nightfall (PvE) Changes With the Light level increase to 32, Heroics and Nightfalls will be increased by 2 Light levels to keep up with new content, level increases, and gear items New Raid: Crota's End The new Raid, Crota's End, will unlock on December 9th Players at Light level 30 can lead a Fireteam immediately upon release The reward system in Crota's End will address some issues reported in the Vault of Glass: Raid loot in Crota's End will drop at a higher rate New Raid gear will contain a wider variety of potential perks Weapons and Gear from Crota's End will not require Ascendant materials for upgrades Radiant Shards and Radiant Energy acquired in the Raid will be used to upgrade new Raid gear Unwanted weapons and gear from Crota's End will dismantle into Radiant materials Primary weapons will only drop in the harder version of Crota's End, released sometime in January We are hopeful about the changes we're making to the way Raid loot works. We look forward to watching the streamers attempt to become the world first to complete the new Raid. Good luck!As we've previously reported, former Wolf Parade man Spencer Krug is back in his Moonface guise with a new album, the stripped-back, voice and piano-only Julia With Blue Jeans On, out through Jagjaguwar on October 28. Shortly after the release, Krug will be embarking on a tour of North America and Europe, kicked off by a now sadly sold-out, Quietus-sponsored gig in St. Pancras Old Church at the beginning of November. To mark the announcement, Krug has given us a first play of a new video of him performing album cut 'Love The House You're In' live in session for Paper Bag, his Canadian label - have a watch of that above, with tour dates below and tickets over at Moonface's website: NOVEMBER Sun 3 - St. Pancras Old Church, London Tue 5 - Chopin Theatre, Chicago, USA Fri 8 - Underground Arts, Philadelphia, USA Sat 9 - Le Poisson Rouge, New York, USA Sat 16 - Djavad Mowafaghian World Art Centre, Vancouver, Canada Sun 17 - Columbia City Theatre, Seattle, USA Wed 27 - Stuk, Leuven, Belgium Thu 28 - Les Trois Baudet, Paris, France DECEMBER Sun 1 - Le Guess Who? festival, Utrecht, The Netherlands JANUARY Mon 27 - Royal Albert Hall, LondonHeathcliff is an American comic strip created by George Gately in 1973[1], featuring the title character, an orange cat. Now written and drawn by Gately's nephew, Peter Gallagher, it is distributed to over 1,000 newspapers by Creators Syndicate, who took over the comic from McNaught Syndicate in 1988[2][3]. The strip is usually presented in single-panel gag frames on weekdays. On Sundays, though, the strip is expanded to multiple panels and titled Sunday with Heathcliff. A regular feature in the Sunday strips is Kitty Korner, where unusual cats in the real world are described. Heathcliff daily comics can be currently read online on GoComics.[4] Setting [ edit ] The strip takes place in a port town called Westfinster. Heathcliff as seen in the strip is predisposed to annoying Mr. Schultz, the manager of the local fish store, called the Elite Fish Market; tipping over, and much more often somersaulting garbage cans into the air, to the annoyance of the local sanitation workers; annoying the milkman to get milk (usually by tricking them into dropping a milk bottle or two); bothering the hard-working sailors who work on the Tuna Fleet; harassing and abusing the dog population; being an informant to the local Dog Catchers; and pursuing female cats. His girlfriend is a girl cat named Sonja; but he has been the target of unrequited affection by another female cat named Crazy Shirley.[citation needed] Sonja's owner, Herb Jablonski, sees Heathcliff as a nuisance, especially when he brings Sonja home late; but his wife sees Heathcliff as a cat who truly loves Sonja and treats her like a queen, and is often pointing out Heathcliff's gallantry to her oblivious husband. While Sonja is showered with gifts and adoration by Heathcliff, Mrs. Jablonski drops not so subtle hints to Herb, who doesn't take them seriously.[citation needed] Heathcliff is also involved in an occasionally difficult relationship with Mr. Nutmeg, the moustached owner of the house he lives in. He is, however, loved by the young grandson, Iggy, whom he sees as his friend and owner (although he too can be annoyed with him, especially when Heathcliff hides his trombone); and Mrs. Nutmeg, Iggy's grandmother, overindulges him. He is also a friend of Iggy's playmates Willy, Iggy's brainy best friend; and Marcy, a neighborhood girl whom Heathcliff (dressed in baby clothes) has played play doll carriage with. Another character is Muggsy Faber, Westfinster's local bully and his bulldog, Spike, whom Heathcliff usually (and very easily) outwits. Another dog named Chauncey, unlike Spike, is friendly and lovable, and constantly licks Heathcliff's face.[citation needed] An occasional visitor is Heathcliff's father Pops Heathcliff[5] who wears a black and white striped prison uniform.[citation needed] In other media [ edit ] Animated series [ edit ] Two animated TV series based on the strip, both simply named Heathcliff, were created. Although Heathcliff did not speak in the comic strip, both animated versions of him were voiced by Mel Blanc. Heathcliff was one of the last original characters Blanc would voice before his death in 1989. The first Heathcliff was produced by Ruby-Spears Productions and debuted in 1980. The first season featured segments with Dingbat and the Creeps (Dingbat is the vampire dog (Frank Welker) accompanied by Spare Rib the skeleton and Nobody the jack-o-lantern who were both voiced by Don Messick), which were created by Ruby-Spears for the show, and the second season featured fellow comic strip character Marmaduke (voiced by Paul Winchell). This version is sometimes seen on Boomerang. In 1984, the second Heathcliff debuted, which was produced by DiC Entertainment. This series featured segments with The Catillac Cats (AKA Cats and Co. by the end credits of the show), which is why this version is sometimes referred to as Heathcliff and The Catillac Cats. In 2005, Shout! Factory released a Volume 1 DVD for the show, featuring the first 24 episodes of the series. Since then Mill Creek Entertainment has gained the license and released the show on DVD, with a ten-episode 'best of' compilation entitled 'King of the Beasts' and two volumes that cover Season 1, volume 1 contains 32 episodes, while volume 2 has the remaining 33. Both Heathcliff cartoons together ran from 1980-1988. Heathcliff's female human pal, Marcy, was drawn in the strip as a normal girl with brown hair, a green skirt and has a bow in her hair. In the animated series, Marcy was still drawn as a normal girl, but with blonde hair and a bow and a blue T-shirt and a pink skirt, and instead of white socks, she had purple. Why exactly these character design changes were made is unknown. DiC had also redesigned other characters. Comic books [ edit ] Starting in 1985, Star Comics, an imprint of Marvel Comics, began producing comic books titled Heathcliff. The series ran for 56 issues, changing to the Marvel Comics brand with issue #23. Star Comics added an additional spin-off title in 1987 called Heathcliff's Funhouse (which also switched over to Marvel with issue #6). It was a combination of new material and reprinted stories that first appeared in the original Heathcliff title. In the comics, Heathcliff had a far better relationship with Mr. Nutmeg, and much of his adventures were done with Mr. Nutmeg's grandson. Heathcliff's reputation for adventurism was even noted by the local police, who recruited him for a sting operation against a gang of cats stealing purses, in exchange for them forgiving the fact Heathcliff swiped shellfish, of course. Heathcliff (56 issues, Star/Marvel) (56 issues, Star/Marvel) Heathcliff Annual (1 issue, Star) (1 issue, Star) Heathcliff's Funhouse (10 issues, Star/Marvel) (10 issues, Star/Marvel) Heathcliff Spring Special (1 issue, Marvel UK) (1 issue, Marvel UK) Star Comics Presents: Heathcliff (1 issue, ashcan) (1 issue, ashcan) Star Comics Magazine (AKA Star Comics Digest) (13 issues, Star) Film [ edit ] In 1986, Heathcliff: The Movie debuted in theaters. It was an anthology film, which consisted of seven episodes from the 1984 series. The film was released on VHS by Paramount Home Video in 1988.Looking for news you can trust? Subscribe to our free newsletters. Lincoln Chafee kicked off his quest for the Democratic presidential nomination on Wednesday in Virginia by promising to fight climate change, curb extra-judicial assassinations, and switch the United States to the metric system. Wait, what? The Rhode Islander, who served in the Senate as a Republican before joining the Democratic party after being elected governor, unveiled his left-leaning, if idiosyncratic, agenda in a wide-ranging address at George Mason University. His continued opposition to the Iraq War, which he voted against authorizing as a senator, could put him in conflict with the party’s front-runner, former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. As a senator, Clinton was an early supporter of the invasion, though she has since called it a mistake. National defense was just one area in which Chafee advised heeding the wisdom of the international community. (He likewise proposed ending capital punishment entirely, and praised Nebraska for its recent ban.) But then Chafee went a few feet—er, meters—further: Earlier I said, let’s be bold. Here’s a bold embrace of internationalism: Let’s join the rest of the world and go metric. I happened to live in Canada as they completed the process. Believe me, it is easy. It doesn’t take long before 34 degrees is hot. Only Myanmar, Liberia, and the United States aren’t metric, and it it’ll help our economy! Finally, a presidential candidate with a foolproof plan to bring down rising temperatures.Canada finished the Sydney Sevens rugby tournament on a strong note Sunday, winning all three games on a day of controversy to win the consolation Bowl competition and finish ninth. The Canadian men defeated Wales 32-21 and Scotland 35-12 before beating Samoa 17-12 on a pair of tries by Nathan Hirayama. But the big story involved the two finalists. Story continues below advertisement New Zealand beat Australia 27-24 in a thriller to win the inaugural Sydney event although it played the tournament's second day in the shadow of controversy lingering from the teams' first meeting. Australia and New Zealand were drawn in the same group as Canada and, in the last pool match Saturday, New Zealand scored a stoppage-time try for a 17-17 draw with Australia that placed it atop Pool A. Television replays later showed New Zealand had eight players on the field at the start of the move that produced the decisive try. World Rugby launched an investigation Sunday as New Zealand fought its way into the final and scored a try after full time for its second successive tournament victory. Australia coach Andy Friend said it should act decisively to avoid a repeat of the bungle that could be especially embarrassing in an Olympic year. "The question is how can that happen?" Friend said. "In an Olympic year, if that comes down to a gold medal game, well what's the point? "Our boys, when they came off, they said they couldn't understand how they had the numbers out there. What we have to make sure is that those simple mistakes don't happen in a big tournament." New Zealand also scored a try in stoppage time to beat South Africa in the final of last week's Wellington Sevens. Again, both of the finalists in Wellington emerged from the same pool and New Zealand's victory in the last pool match against South Africa was contentious; won with a try after the final siren. Story continues below advertisement Story continues below advertisement New Zealand, South Africa and Fiji are tied in first place in the Series standings after four of eight rounds. Canada remains 12th. The circuit switches to North America next with stops in Las Vegas and Vancouver. Canada lost to New Zealand, Australia and Portugal on Day 1 in Sydney. But Liam Middleton's team bounced back against Wales on Sunday and led 22-7 at the half before the Welsh fought back to reduce the lead to 27-21. Sean White and Hirayama each scored two tries with singles from Adam Zaruba and Harry Jones. Jones added three more tries against Scotland, with two from Hirayama. Pat Kay also scored in the Bowl final against Samoa as Canada ran up an early lead of 17-0. Samoa is one of the teams Canada will be battling at the final Olympic qualifying tournament this summer. Story continues below advertisement Sunday's final between Australia and New Zealand was one of the most thrilling in World Series history. Australia led through most of the match but New Zealand mounted a series of comebacks before finally snatching victory with a try to Reiko Ioane. "We said it would take 20 minutes to win and we just kept on going and we got the victory in the end," New Zealand captain Tim Mikkelson said. Australia scored first drew with a try by Henry Hutchinson who had come off the bench to score two second-half tries – including a sudden-death winner – in the quarter-final against England. New Zealand levelled the scores with Reiko Ioane's first try which came from a powerful break down the left touchline by his brother Akira. Hutchinson scored his second to give Australia a 12-7 lead but New Zealand immediately replied with a try to Kurt Baker. Next, Sam Myers put Australia ahead 17-12 and New Zealand again fought back with a try to Mikkelson to level the match at 17-17. Australia seemed to have clinched victory when Greg Jeloudev scored less than two minutes from full time for a 24-17 lead. Ioane scored again but a missed conversion with 30 seconds remaining left the home side with a 24-22 lead. Story continues below advertisement Then with the last play of the game Ioane achieved his hat trick and New Zeland sealed a 27-24 win. Australia was unable to join South Africa, who won in Cape Town, and New Zealand, who won in Wellington, in winning their home leg
.DPS director: Snoop Dogg a 'dope-smoking cop hater' Copyright by KXAN - All rights reserved (via Instagram: @snoopdogg) [ + - ] Video PAUL J. WEBER, Associated Press - AUSTIN (AP) - Texas' chief law enforcement official called Snoop Dogg a "dope-smoking cop hater" before reprimanding a state trooper who posed for a picture with the rapper, according to emails made public Wednesday. Snoop Dogg posted an Instagram photo with Department of Public Safety Trooper Billy Spears in March with the comment, "Me n my deputy dogg." It was taken during the South by Southwest music festival, where Spears was working off-duty as extra security. Spears is now suing DPS after being disciplined for taking a picture with a public figure who has several convictions for drug possession. Emails obtained by Spears' attorney through open-records laws show that the incident went all the way to DPS Director Steve McCraw, who is best known for overseeing the state's expansive border security operations. "Apparently, he would rather work the convention while on a week's vacation to earn additional money rather than take an additional tour on the border," McCraw wrote. "He must not understand that he was being lampooned by a dope-smoking cop hater, which reflects very poorly on the Department." DPS spokesman Tom Vinger confirmed the authenticity of the email but did not comment on its content. He referred to the agency previously saying that DPS holds employees to high standards of conduct and judgment. The emails include a DPS supervisor explaining that Spears and other troopers have routinely taken pictures with other celebrities at SXSW. He mentions actor Robert Duvall, former NBA star Shaquille O'Neal and musicians Cee Lo Green and Rob Zombie. Spears is seeking unspecified damages in a Travis County court. He claims his discipline was retaliation for filing a complaint several weeks earlier against a superior. ___ Copyright 2015 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.If you have a Moto 360 and a strong sense of nostalgia for Nintendo 64, download the Secret Agent Watchface and walk around with the Goldeneye 007 pause screen on your wrist (seen here, modeled by by Phandroid). The left bar seems to always stay at 100 percent (congrats, you're healthy!) while the right bar will go down according to the watch's battery life. And if Apple doesn't tempt you tomorrow, the more James Bond-appropriate all-metal Moto 360 is coming this fall. If you don't have a Moto 360, you can do what I did about six months back and make your own $7 version. Touchscreen doesn't work but battery life is phenomenal. Update: "Rmukapps," the app's creator, reached out to let us know about a beta version of Secret Agent Watchface (if anyone's curious to try) that will turn the left bar into the tethered phone's battery indicator, among other features.RAS LANOUF, Libya - Libyan warplanes are launching airstrikes and engaging in heavy ground battles with a rebel force advancing west toward the capital Tripoli along the country's Mediterranean coastline. Associated Press reporters at the scene said forces loyal to Libyan leader Muammar Qaddafi retook the town of Bin Jawad, about 110 miles east of Gadhafi's stronghold city of Sirte. The reporters witnessed airstrikes on the rebel forces and heavy fighting on the ground. The rebels have been moving west toward Tripoli, and gaining ground over the past few days. They captured the key oil port of Ras Lanouf on Saturday and by Sunday they were moving toward Sirte, which could prove to be a decisive battleground. The opposition force pushed out of the rebel-held eastern half of Libya late last week for the first time and have been cutting a path west toward Tripoli. On the way, they secured control of two important oil ports at Brega and Ras Lanouf and by Sunday, the rebels were advancing father west when they were hit by the helicopter fire and confrontations with ground forces. Fierce ground battles were raging around the front line between two towns about 30 miles apart, Ras Lanouf and Bin Jawad to the west. The reporters witnessed air attacks by helicopters on the rebel forces and heavy fighting on the ground. A warplane also attacked a small military base at Ras Lanouf and destroyed three hangars and a small building. Regime forces shelled rebel positions at Ras Lanouf with rockets and artillery. Ambulances sped toward the town and rebels moved trucks carrying multi-rocket launchers toward the front lines. Libya rebels battle against Qaddafi air force Rebels, Qaddafi forces both make gains in Libya Qaddafi troops assault rebel city; dozens dead Complete coverage: Anger in the Arab World In Tripoli, the city of 2 million that is most firmly in Qaddafi's grip, residents were awoken before dawn by the crackle of unusually heavy and sustained gunfire that lasted for at least two hours. Some of the gunfire was heard around the sprawling Bab al-Aziziya military camp where Qaddafi lives, giving rise to speculation that there may have been some sort of internal fighting within the forces defending the Libyan leader inside his fortress-like barracks. Qaddafi's whereabouts were unknown. The uprising that began on Feb. 15, inspired by rebellions in neighboring Tunisia and Egypt, has been sliding toward a civil war that could be prolonged, with rebels backed by mutinous army units and arms seized from storehouses going on the offensive to try to topple Qaddafi's 41-year-old regime. At the same time, pro-Qaddafi forces have tried to conduct counteroffensives to retake the oil port of Brega and in the rebel-held city of Zawiya west of Tripoli where bloody street battles were reported over the weekend. The U.S. has moved military forces closer to Libya's shores to put military muscle behind its demand for Qaddafi to step down immediately. But Washington has expressed wariness about talk of imposing a "no fly" zone over the North African nation to prevent the Libyan leader from using his warplanes to attack the population. At the same time, the U.N. has imposed sanctions, and Libya's oil production has been seriously crippled by the unrest. The turmoil has caused oil prices to spike on international markets. Hundreds, perhaps thousands have died in the violence with tight restrictions on media making it near impossible to get an accurate tally. The rebels headquartered in the main eastern city of Benghazi have set up an interim governing council that is urging international airstrikes on Qaddafi's strongholds and forces. British Defense Secretary Liam Fox said Sunday that a "small British diplomatic team" is in eastern Libya to try to talk to rebels. But he would not comment on a report that special forces soldiers were captured by Qaddafi opponents when a secret mission to put British diplomats in touch with leading rebels went awry. British Foreign Minister William Hague urged Qaddafi to hand over power and put an "immediate stop" to the use of armed force against Libyans. In Tripoli, Libyan authorities tried to explain the unusually heavy gunfire that erupted before dawn by saying it was a celebration of the regime taking back Ras Lanouf near the rebel-held east and the city of Misrata close to Tripoli. Despite those claims, AP reporters saw ongoing battles still in progress in Ras Lanouf hours after the claim of victory and residents of Misrata said the city remained in opposition hands. After the gunfire eased in the early morning, thousands of Qaddafi's supporters poured into Tripoli's central square for a rally, waving green flags, firing guns in the air, and holding up banners in support of the regime. Hundreds drove past Qaddafi's residence, waving flags and cheering. Armed men in plainclothes were standing at the gates, also shooting in the air. Over the weekend, residents of Zawiya, a city of some 200,000 people just 30 miles west of Tripoli, said pro-Qaddafi forces stormed in to try to break the control of rebels over the area. Zawiya was the city closest to the capital held by the opposition. Members of the elite Khamis Brigade, named for one of Qaddafi's sons who commands it, had been massed outside Zawiya for days. Residents said Saturday that a large number of tanks rolled into the city and many were killed and wounded in the counteroffensive. Libya's Deputy Foreign Minister Khaled Qaid claimed on Saturday that "99 percent" of Zawiya is under government control. The AP made repeated attempts to reach Zawiya residents by phone on Sunday, but the phones were turned off. Britain's Sunday Times newspaper reported that up to eight British special forces soldiers, armed but in plain clothes, were captured while escorting a junior British diplomat through rebel-held territory in eastern Libya. It said the special forces intervention angered Libyan opposition figures who ordered the soldiers to be locked up on a military base. The British Defense Secretary Fox said his government was in touch with the team in Benghazi but told BBC radio it would be "inappropriate" to comment further. When pressed on whether the U.K. diplomatic team was in danger, Fox reiterated that the government is in contact with the diplomatic team. "It is a very difficult situation to be able to understand in detail," he said. "There are a number of different opposition groups to Colonel Qaddafi in Libya who do seem relatively disparate." British Foreign Minister Hague repeated the international community's demand for Qaddafi to step down. "Given the continued levels of illegitimate violence within Libya we call upon Colonel Gaddafi to put an immediate stop to the use of armed force against the Libyan people," Hague said in a statement. "He must hand over power without delay to a government which fully recognizes the legitimate aspirations of the Libyan people," he added. "The U.K. reiterates its support for the transition to a government that will deliver greater democracy, justice, transparency, human rights and accountability in Libya. We understand the desire of Libyans to enjoy the freedoms which have been denied to them for many years and support them in this endeavor," he said.As reported over the weekend, having returned from his first foreign trip president Trump is preparing a "war room" in response to the barrage of Russian news blanketing the media, and plans to restructure the White House communications strategy and possibly staffing. There have been rumors around Washington that press secretary Sean Spicer's job is in danger (and that Jared Kushner, the focus of much of the latest newsflow, may be forced to take a "step back") but the White House has denied these rumors. In an interview with Fox News' Jeanine Pirro earlier this month, Trump said Spicer has been "doing a good job but he gets beat up." But the biggest issue plaguing the White House at this moment is the seemingly relentless leakage of confidential information surrounding Trump's activities, with Trump administration officials saying last week the recent high-profile leaks of classified information are "coordinated and timed." And in a new development, CBS News has confirmed that three leakers of classified information at the White House have been identified and are expected to be fired. According to CBS, "officials within the Trump White House believe leaks of Mr. Trump's conversation with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov are a "deliberate attempt" by officials who are holdovers from President Obama's administration and are trying to damage the Trump presidency." Last week, the Trump campaign released an email to supporters entitled "SABOTAGE," in which the campaign said, "There are people within our own unelected bureaucracy that want to sabotage President Trump and our entire America First movement." The White House has yet to announce any terminations or staff reallignment. Instead, overnight Trump took another swipe at reports that his Twitter privileges may be removed, saying that "the Fake News Media works hard at disparaging & demeaning my use of social media because they don't want America to hear the real story!"The Wienermobile is a marvel of American motoring, with 72 years in service and a design more memorable than any other. At 27 feet in length, the legendary frankfurter is also one of the bigger vehicles on the road, but that's all changed with the introduction of the MINI Cooper Wienermobile. At only 15 feet in length, the diminutive mystery meat machine is a more compact tribute to one of America's favorite foods, and its down-sized footprint is better for the environment, too. Oscar Mayer unveiled the Mini Wienermobile as part of a promotion celebrating the company's 125 years in business, though the company didn't say whether the MINI Cooper would remain in the Wienermobile fleet While it wouldn't be right for the MNI Cooper to replace the original Wienermobile altogether as the official transportation for the world's biggest hot dog, we think it's certainly capable enough to join the fleet, especially after we learned how dangerous the original can be on icy roads. Follow the jump to view some funny video of Super Bowl champion Michael Strahan checkin' out the MINI Wienermobile. He digs them chrome rims something fierce.[Source: New York Times via AutoblogGreenGet the biggest Black Country 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 Above: Collection of the best videos showing the EXTREME weather which hit Birmingham The worst rain we’ve EVER seen. That’s the verdict of West Midlands Firefighters who had to deal with the aftermath of the devastating storm which swept through Birmingham and the Black Country. The brigade was inundated with more than 500 999 calls as some streets were literally awash with several feet of water on Wednesday afternoon. Many were from people who were trapped in vehicles which had driven into water and were unable to escape. Some homes were completely flooded - Great Barr resident Dean Evans’ home was left ruined after water rushed in, leaving sofas, tables and even his washing submerged. This was among the worst-hit parts of the city – so much so that Thornbridge Avenue residents saw a man take to a canoe to transport himself Residents in Haddon Road found had to wade through up to a foot of water at the height of the storm, marked by tide marks around the properties. Many roads were flooded, including part of the M5, while several roads in Handsworth suffered structural damage because of the water. Below: Collection of amazing flood pictures taken by Birmingham Mail readers Video Loading Video Unavailable Click to play Tap to play The video will start in 8 Cancel Play now Some streets literally cracked up under the pressure, with ‘sink holes’ opening up. Six schools were forced to fully or partially close on Thursday due to water damage. Scores of drivers became trapped while trains and trams were also heavily disrupted by the flood waters. The maternity ward at City Hospital was flooded while there were also problems with the electrics. More: How we covered the flooding chaos as it happened It is too early to know total cost of the clean up and repair operation, but it is likely to be many hundreds of thousands of pounds. A spokesman for West Midlands Fire Service said : “Rain like many of us haven’t seen in our careers!’ That was how one fire officer described last night’s flash flooding across the West Midlands. (Image: Julèz Dominguez) “It was an extremely busy evening for the brigade, stretching our resources, with our Fire Control handling over 500 calls for assistance. The type of incidents we attended varied, from people trapped in cars, to hospitals that had flooded, to walls that had collapsed because of the rain. “We’ve received a lot of thanks online, and our crews and staff really appreciate it. Whilst we hope incidents like this never happen, we regularly train and prepare for when they do. We’re glad we were able to help people in their time of need.” Flooding in Birmingham June 2016 Thankfully there are no downpours being forecast for the next few days - Friday and Saturday in Birmingham will be cloudy with temperatures of around 19C.In move likely to be seen as strengthening David Cameron’s hand, Mark Carney says union membership has opened up economy but also exposed it to shocks Mark Carney, the governor of the Bank of England, has said that EU membership opened up the UK economy and made it more dynamic, but also left it more exposed to financial shocks. In an intervention likely to be seen as strengthening David Cameron’s hand as he prepares to enter negotiations with Britain’s EU partners, Carney challenged the prime minister to demand “clear principles” to safeguard Britain’s interests outside the euro, as he warned that botched European integration could threaten financial stability. Carney, speaking in Oxford on Wednesday evening, said Britain was possibly “the leading beneficiary” of the EU’s single market, and that being in the bloc had been one of the drivers of its strong economic performance in the four decades since it first joined. “Overall EU membership has increased the openness of the UK economy, facilitating dynamism but also creating some monetary and financial stability challenges for the Bank of England to manage,” Carney said. “Thus far, we have been able to meet these challenges.” On immigration, one of the most controversial aspects of Britain’s relationship with Europe, he said that the free movement of labour could help tackle skills shortages and allow faster economic growth. However, Carney said closer ties with the EU had also left Britain, with its large, open financial sector, vulnerable to the sovereign debt crisis that swept through the eurozone. “Since the crisis began, shocks arising from our biggest and closest trading partner have challenged UK dynamism and made it more volatile,” he said. “In the aftermath of the crisis, it is essential that EU rules, directives and regulation continue to support the UK’s ability to address risks to financial stability.” The Bank would like Downing Street to seek assurances that, as eurozone member states press ahead with closer economic and financial integration, Threadneedle Street will not lose its discretion to set regulation to suit the UK. Why the Bank is unable to distance itself from politics Read more Central bank governors have traditionally avoided intervening in politics, but Carney has made a series of forays into public debate, including warning Scottish voters about the risks of leaving the UK and, more recently, highlighting the financial and economic risks of climate change. In a 100-page report published to coincide with Carney’s speech, the Bank highlights several examples of EU post-crisis regulation it believes have not been in Britain’s interests, including the cap on bankers’ bonuses. It also expresses concerned about the way in which a single eurozone banking watchdog was being established. “From the Bank of England’s perspective, steps to ensure financial stability for those within the euro area should not impede the achievement of financial stability for those without, including the United Kingdom,” Carney said. This argument is one that has repeatedly been made by George Osborne. The chancellor has urged eurozone members to press ahead with integration and reduce the threat of a renewed sovereign debt crisis. But he has also said the euro should not become the main locus of decision-making about the future of the single market. Bank insiders insisted the contents of the report had not been discussed with Treasury officials or ministers, but Carney’s argument will provide a platform for the prime minister to demand reforms. Sources in Threadneedle Street also stressed that it had no intention of “marking the government’s homework”. Even before formal talks begin, high-profile campaigns on both sides of the referendum debate have been launched, with Britain Stronger in Europe fronted by the former Marks & Spencer boss Stuart Rose, pitted against Vote Leave.The Confederation of British Industry, the lobby group, also entered the fray on Tuesday, stressing the benefits to companies and consumers of staying inside the single market. Carney’s intervention came as the Spectator reported that Stephen Parkinson, a senior special adviser to Theresa May, the home secretary, is to resign from the government to work for the Leave campaign. The move will fuel speculation that May, who made a hardline speech at the Tory conference questioning the merits of high levels of immigration, may join the Leave campaign when Cameron completes his EU renegotiations. The governor insisted his speech was not an attempt to assess the overall pros and cons of continued British membership of the EU, or the possible consequences of “Brexit”. But Eurosceptics are likely to seize on his warnings about the dangers of the wrong kind of EU regulation for future stability. The Bank’s analysis was the outcome of the secret Project Bookend, whose existence was revealed by the Guardian. The first section of the report spells out the benefits to the UK of the “four freedoms” of the EU, set out in the 1957 treaty of Rome: free movement of goods, people, capital and services. Hopes and hurdles for the European project \| Letters Read more Speaking in Oxford’s ornate Sheldonian theatre, Carney said that, ever since the repeal of the corn laws almost two centuries ago, the UK economy had “bet on openness”, opting for free trade over protectionism, and EU membership had enhanced that. “Although the UK’s dynamism is the product of many factors including deep human capital, well-developed physical infrastructure, a competitive fiscal regime and the rule of law, the EU has arguably bolstered it by establishing the world’s largest since market with free movement of goods, services, capital and labour.” But, with its disproportionately large financial sector, boosted by US and Asian companies, which can set up in the City of London and operate throughout the EU under so-called passporting rules, the UK was also left vulnerable. “Greatly increased financial openness, in part associated with EU membership, has made the UK financial system larger, more complex and more exposed to shocks from abroad,” the governor said. “These developments reinforced domestically generated vulnerabilities in the run-up to the global financial crisis.”2016 season preview: New Orleans Saints By Bryson Vesnaver • Jul 28, 2016 The New Orleans Saints have been fighting through some difficult seasons recently, finishing 2015 with a second consecutive 7-9 record. They haven’t made the playoffs since the 2013 season, despite having one of the league’s best quarterbacks in Drew Brees. While the offense has rarely been a problem, the New Orleans’ defense struggled mightily at times last season. With only so many years left for Brees to compete for another Super Bowl, the Saints will be looking to make every season count. [More: Be sure to check out PFF’s ranking of all 32 NFL QB situations, offensive lines, running back units, receiving corps, secondaries, and defensive front-sevens. Catch up on all the team previews here.] Drew Brees still one of the best QBs in the NFL Quarterbacks: Seventh in PFF’s season preview rankings The Saints rank highly on our QB situations list thanks to the high-level play of Drew Brees. Last season, Brees finished as our fourth-highest-graded quarterback, at 87.6. His 77.2 adjusted completion percentage was the seventh-best mark in the league. He was one of the best at throwing the deep pass, with a second-best 50.6 adjusted completion percentage on deep throws. There’s no reason to think that his play will drop off at all this season, and the Saints will still have one of the best signal-callers in the NFL under center. If Brees does get hurt, the Saints will have to run with backup Luke McCown. McCown showed that he could be an effective player in one game last season, but New Orleans should hope that it doesn’t come to that again in 2016. Rushing game largely dependent on Mark Ingram’s health Running backs: 21st The Saints could find themselves ranked higher on this list if things all go right for the team. Mark Ingram is the likely workhorse running back if he can stay healthy; last season, his 59.4 elusive rating was seventh in the NFL among qualifying backs, and his 2.9 yards after contact per attempt was the fifth-highest mark in the league. C.J. Spiller seems to be a shell of the player he once was, with his elusive rating dropping every year since his league-best 94.6 in 2012. (Last season it was just 9.7.) Rookie Daniel Lasco (California) has the potential to replace Spiller as a third-down speed specialty back, but he had issues with drops in college. Young talent should improve upon last season Receiving corps: 21st The Saints’ receiving corps has definitely undergone a change in recent years, with stalwarts like Marques Colston, Kenny Stills, and Jimmy Graham no longer on the team. Instead, the unit is led by third-year wideout Brandin Cooks, who impressed in his sophomore season. Cooks has some of the surest hands in the league, having dropped just six of 143 targets over the past two seasons. The Saints will also have second-round draft pick Michael Thomas (Ohio State) to catch passes this season. Thomas was one of our highest-ranked receiving prospects last season, and brings very good hands and the ability to go up and win the ball on iffy throws. The Saints also brought in TE Coby Fleener (Colts) to try and replace the production they got from Ben Watson (Ravens) last year, and overall to try and replace what they lost in Jimmy Graham (Seahawks). Fleener has never quite impressed like he was expected to in Indianapolis, but perhaps a change of scenery will do him some good. Left tackle Terron Armstead leads solid O-line unit Offensive line: Eighth At worst, the Saints have a good offensive line. At its best, New Orleans may own one of the top offensive lines in the NFL. LT Terron Armstead was our third-highest-graded tackle in football last season, at 90.9. He’s an elite tackle who is just as good at run-blocking as he is at pass-blocking, and could get even better this season as he matures in the league. LG Tim Lelito is one of the top run-blocking guards in the NFL but has struggled in pass-protection. C Max Unger had his best pass-blocking season since 2011, and while his run-blocking wasn’t great, it wasn’t necessarily bad, either. RG Andrus Peat showed some bright spots in an overall average rookie season, and should see more improvement in 2016. Zach Strief is only three seasons removed from being a top-three right tackle in the NFL, and it’s possible that he could regain that form. If all of these players can reach the potential that can be reasonably expected of them, this could be a scary-good offensive line. Defensive front-seven the weakest grouping on Saints’ roster Front-seven: 29th The Saints’ front-seven was one of their biggest weaknesses last season, specifically when it came to stopping the run. New Orleans allowed a league-worst 4.9 yards per carry in 2015, and only four players in their entire front-seven posted above-average run-defense grades. DE Cameron Jordan is the one star of this unit, ranking as the sixth-best edge rusher in the NFL with a 90.1 grade. His 70 total pressures last season were fifth-best at his position. The Saints drafted DT Sheldon Rankins (Louisville) in the first round in the hopes that he can help shore up the interior of their defensive line. DT Nick Fairley was also brought in after a strong 2015 season in St. Louis. Behind the line, the Saints have a linebacker crew that, other than sophomore Stephone Anthony, really lacks anyone that has given any reason to believe they will be any better this season. Delvin Breaux could develop into a top-tier NFL corner Secondary: 15th Gone is Brandon Browner and his lowest overall grade for a corner in PFF’s 10-year history. That alone is improvement for this unit going into 2016. CB Delvin Breaux had some mental lapses and allowed a fair few touchdowns, but he also ranked 10th in coverage snaps per reception allowed and 18th in yards per coverage snap allowed. There’s no reason to think he won’t improve into one of the better corners in the league in 2016. Safeties Kenny Vacarro and Jarius Byrd showed much improvement from poor 2014 seasons, and may be close to reaching the level of hype that was there when the two were first paired together. This secondary unit has the potential to be great, and is definitely one of the keys to the Saints’ success this season.With all the horrific news that is coming out of Syria from the devastating war, a new video has gone viral, where a person can be seen cutting a cake shaped like a kid, with a caption that read “Russian woman eats a cake shaped like the drowned Syrian child!”. The video caught my attention first on twitter, then I started to see people sharing it and re-uploading it on facebook, and some news corporations went further, as usual, and wrote reported the video while uploading it as if it was their by adding their logo on it, for example the Egyptian “Dostor” news website. Before really getting my hands dirty with this video to verify it, I noticed the same phrase in Arabic being shared on social media. Yes it is catchy. So I took it as it is and did a search on Youtube. Why Youtube, because it is one of the most used platform to share videos. And yes, I found several of videos with, more or less, the same title, one of it was uploaded on May 13, 2016, entitled “امرأة روسية تصنع كيكة على شكل الطفل السوري الغريق” — “ Russian woman makes a cake shaped like the drowned Syrian child”. Between the end of November, and mid May more than 5 months. hmmmm. I tried to take some screenshots of the video footage, but nothing really interesting came up in the search result page. So i used some keywords in English — as a small test — and did a Youtube search. searching “Cake kid shape” I tried first to use three words: “cake kid shape”, but I got results that tackle the matter of kids baking a cake. Aha.. kids are bigger than babies. So I did another search for “cake baby shape” — baby instead of kid, and I got a whole different search result page. searching for “cake baby shape” As you may have noticed, the first video on the top, which has almost 9 million views, uploaded 7 years ago, was something similar to the original case, at least from what the thumbnail shows. A capture of the Youtube video. This video was uploaded by a user called “Dan Gentle” on September 11, 2009. And in the caption I could read “Another video of me cutting/slicing the baby cake I made for Colleen.” So this guy was making baby shaped cakes, and this is another video, so let me check what other kind of videos does he have on his channel.Update: On Tuesday evening SpaceX would not confirm that a large deal had been reached. "Toray is one of a number of suppliers we work with to meet our carbon fiber needs for Falcon rocket and Dragon spacecraft production, and we haven’t announced any new agreements at this time," a company spokesman told Ars. "As our business continues to grow, the amount of carbon fiber we use may continue to grow." Original story: SpaceX appears to be betting big on carbon fiber composites, which could increase the capacity of its future rockets to get people and supplies into space—and eventually to the surface of Mars. According to a report in Nikkei Asian Review, SpaceX has signed an agreement with Toray Carbon Fibers estimated to be worth $2 billion to $3 billion. The total price and delivery dates have yet to be finalized. It is not immediately clear exactly when, and in which launch vehicles, these lightweight composites will be employed by SpaceX. But the company is not alone in its interest—NASA and other aerospace companies have been experimenting with the materials because of their potential to increase the amount of payload that can be carried by a rocket. They could also lower overall manufacturing cost. The scale of the deal seems telling, however. If the value of the deal as reported is correct, in the billions of dollars, it seems probable that the carbon fiber composites would be used in SpaceX's proposed Mars Colonial Transporter rocket. This is the very large (but still under development) rocket the company plans to use to transport humans to Mars. SpaceX is already far along in the production of its Falcon Heavy rocket, which is based on the Falcon 9 core stage. The first stage of the Falcon 9 rocket, which SpaceX has successfully been landing this year, has tank walls and domes built from an aluminum lithium alloy. Carbon fibers, which are generally woven into a fabric, possess desirable qualities such as high tensile strength, low mass, high temperature tolerance, and low thermal expansion. This has made them very popular with aircraft manufacturers, such as Boeing and Airbus. Toray, headquartered in Japan, is a leading provider of carbon fibers to airplane manufacturers. In a bit of irony, Toray is likely to produce carbon fibers for SpaceX at its Decatur, Alabama-based factory, which is located in the same city where SpaceX competitor United Launch Alliance manufactures its rockets. The carbon fiber deal may represent another sign, along with the company's recent movement of the Raptor engine to a Texas test facility, that SpaceX is making substantial progress toward developing and launching rockets to Mars, including potential human missions sometime in the 2020s. Investing $2 billion or more on carbon fibers suggests the scale of SpaceX's Mars ambitions are grand indeed.After the rim had been the bearer of bad bounces, someone had to be the bearer of bad stats. Well, not really, but this reporter, following the Heat’s 99-90 overtime loss to Memphis, foolishly chose that role anyway. “How many did I miss?” Chris Bosh asked late Tuesday during the course of a conversation about the odd ups and downs of the game he continues, in spite of its challenges, to love as a living. He was told he missed 10 straight shots, including the one just before the regulation buzzer — though, upon later fact-checking, that count was actually one short of the reality. He had actually missed 11 straight after making 16-of-18 dating back to the start of the previous game. “Ten in a row?” Bosh said. “Damn. It had to even up like that. Son of a (bleep). I thought it was like seven.” Sign Up and Save Get six months of free digital access to the Miami Herald His smile as he said this might suggest to some that he wasn’t taking the situation seriously, but that would be yet another misinterpretation of the man who is so often misunderstood. You would probably smile too, if you had endured and overcome as much as he has in 2015, a year that, in his words, “30 percent sucked.” That tough stretch, of course, came much earlier in the calendar, just after the All-Star game in February, when he was diagnosed with a blood clot in his lung that could have threatened his life and ultimately did end his 2014-15 season. He kept telling everyone over the summer that he had completely recovered, and that has proven true. He has not only been a better player than last season, rebounding at a higher rate and committing turnovers at a lower rate while raising his shooting percentages from two-point range, three-point range and the foul line. He has been the Heat’s best player, period. He’s second in points (to Dwyane Wade) and rebounds (to Hassan Whiteside), but first in win shares (as measured by Basketball-Reference.com), and by far first in raw plus-minus (plus-95). He’s even more of a runaway first in the more complex metric of on-off net rating. When he’s on the court, Miami outscores opponents by 6.9 points per 100 possessions, and when he’s off, Miami is outscored by 4.7 points per 100 possessions. For context, the Heat is not a minus when missing any other player, which includes a plus-7.5 per 100 possessions without Luol Deng, a plus-7.1 per 100 possessions without Wade and a plus-5.9 per 100 possessions without Whiteside. Again, we may be inclined to take this for granted, but we shouldn’t, not in light of the concern not so long ago. Certainly, he doesn’t, even if he is no longer referencing the adversity regularly. He just spins it positively. “That gave me time to kind of do other stuff, pick up new hobbies and see parts of the world and have experiences that I probably wouldn’t have had until I retired,” Bosh said. “I knew it would never happen again. With all the thinking I had to do, I was like, well, let me go do stuff. Even my father was like, man, you get to think and reflect. What was the last time that you thought and reflected? I think I was like 10.” And so, about missing 10, or 11, straight shots? When you know now that basketball isn’t anything close to life or death, how do you reconcile that with the occasional disappointments? “Well, I mean, you just be in it,” Bosh said. “You just enjoy it. Enjoy the ups and enjoy the downs. Because the NBA is a gift. It’s something that I’m lucky to be in. Everybody doesn’t get that chance. A lot of guys would kill to be in it. So, like, man, when we’re up, cool, I’m enjoying it. When we’re down, hey, it’s not that bad, I’m enjoying it. And these are emotions we all asked for. So, a tough loss, just shake it off, come back, try the next time.” So, yes, Tuesday, even with the unsatisfying finish, was fun. Challenging, frustrating, but fun. Fun competing with Marc Gasol and Zach Randolph. Fun to take his shots. Fun to, as he said, “lay it out on the line in front of all these people. “Just keep that in perspective,” Bosh added. “Like, all right, anytime it’s tough, like, well, it ain’t that bad. In hindsight, just looking at it, I could be laid up, with stuff poking in me, taking pain meds and all that stuff. So it’s not that bad.” He’s back to being really good, after a really scary situation. That makes his the story to smile most about, when reviewing the Heat’s 2015.Kathryn McKinnon Berthold (born January 6, 1984), known professionally as Kate McKinnon, is an American actress and comedienne, who is best known as a regular cast member on Saturday Night Live and The Big Gay Sketch Show, and for playing the role of Dr. Jillian Holtzmann in the 2016 Ghostbusters reboot. McKinnon is known for her character work and celebrity impressions of pop singer Justin Bieber, comedian television host Ellen DeGeneres, and political figures
azio. Inter president Massimo Moratti was quick to condemn the behaviour of his team's supporters and hoped there would be no repeat when the Milan teams meet at the San Siro on 24 February. "I was told about it because I couldn't make out clearly what they were saying. I'm very sorry about that," Moratti said. "I'm very sorry and I really hope it doesn't happen during the derby." Earlier this month, AC Milan vice-president Paolo Berlusconi was accused of using racist language to describe 22-year-old Italy international Balotelli.Euvie: This episode is about our insights and experience with DMT, dimethyltryptamine. We recently travelled to a country where the personal use of DMT is legal and we experimented with it there. We brought back some insights that we’d like to share with you guys. Here it is, hope you like it. Mike: We’ve been experimenting with DMT, dimethyltryptamine, which is the active ingredient in ayahuasca. There’s lots of information about it online you can check out. There’s a documentary called DMT the Spirit Molecule. We’re not going to really explain too much what DMT is. What we’re going to talk about is our experiences from using DMT. There’s been some pretty amazing insights from that. Euvie: I do think it’s worth mentioning that DMT is naturally present in the human brain, it’s produced in the pineal gland and it’s released during REM sleep in smaller doses. It’s also released in a very high dose when you’re born and when you die. Mike: Some of this is theory still. Euvie: Really? I thought it was proven. Mike: Not all of it is absolutely solid proof but there’s a lot of really strong theories supporting the release of DMT at birth and death. The areas it’s produced are not totally known. What is known is that DMT is an extremely common chemical molecule found in nature. You can find it in grass, in plants, in tree bark, it’s in animals, it’s in us. It’s a pretty interesting molecule and it’s even more of an interesting experience. It is the most powerful psychedelic that you can ever experience. It sends you to peak after smoking anywhere from 10 milligrams to 20 milligrams. It sends you to peak in about 4 or 5 minutes and back down to baseline within about 10 to 15 minutes depending on your own body chemistry. Usually, the trips last around 15 minutes or so. Euvie: In the case of ayahuasca it’s taken orally with MAI inhibitors and it lasts longer but we’re not going to touch on that in this particular episode. Mike: Insights. Let’s talk about the first time. It was pretty difficult to smoke it the first time. We were pretty nervous. We’ve got experience obviously with mushrooms and a few other psychedelics but we were nervous about this one because of its reputation. We didn’t get a full dose, we were using glass pipe. We got a taste for it and experience from it. There was not much else, there was a sharpening of edges, glowing of edges in the room. That was pretty much it though for me. What about you? Euvie: Yeah, I got some visuals. It was, I would say, comparable to a mushroom experience. Quite mild. There was a body sensation, a tingling, a dissolving of the body, which I found interesting. The sense of bodily dissolving, relaxation, and some visuals. That was it. It was quite mild. Mike: It was quite a comforting experience actually for me. I was nervous about it and then I tried it and I got a sense for it. It gave me more confidence and comfort for trying it again. I had this feeling like, “Oh, this is normal. This is natural. This is not something that’s giving me a chemical feel or an unnatural feeling.” Because of the device we were using to smoke it, it was just really cumbersome. You were supposed to take large hits to be able to cross over to a threshold point. With this device, it was really difficult to do that. We decided we were going to look for an e-cigarette, because that seems to be a pretty decent method, at least online people have said it’s worked for them. We went out and got one, we got a little Evoke Vaporizer. It was about $15 I think. It seemed to work fairly well, we mixed it with some e-juice. We smoked it for the second time and I got a lot farther with it. I remember an opening up of the room. It was dark, I think it was at night that we did this. The room seemed to open up like all the oxygen was sucked out of it and I had this extra sense of what was in the room and the space. The colours had the vibrancy turned up on them. There was that glowing of edges and then I noticed this crackly light behind my head, behind my eyes. It moved around to the sides and then to the front of my vision. It moved to my third eye area, where the third eye is said to be. That reminded me of my experiences through meditation, which I thought was very interesting, that I could have a similar experience through DMT of meditation and through meditation of DMT. There was this degree of concentration that I knew I needed and didn’t possess at the very moment to reach a breakthrough point. It also gave me an insight that possibly this experience is possible to get through meditation. That was very interesting. That’s about as far as I got from that experience. There was a wind tunnel sound. I felt like I was right at the edge of a wind tunnel, which fits with the visuals I was seeing. I was seeing fractals and a lot of what you would see in r/hollowfractal on Reddit. I saw a lot of that, I think that was pretty much it for the second time. What about you? Euvie: My second time was pretty crazy. People talk about DMT breakthrough experience and I’m pretty sure that was it. It was so short and such a smack in the face that it was hard to figure out what was going on. It started with the breaking apart of reality. First of all, the body dissolved but I’m used to that through meditation so it didn’t seem scary or abnormal. Then sound started dissolving and what happened is that, yeah, I also felt that wind tunnel sensation. Then it turned into this prolonged blood curdling scream, which was terrifying for a moment and then I just caught myself reacting to it that way and decided to let go and just let the experience happen without judging it as bad. After that, it was easier. Then I was shot through this tunnel in space and then I ended up in this room, which was very mechanical looking. It definitely didn’t feel organic in any sense. I saw these letters from all languages in the world and all these words and strands of sound tangling and forming the fabric of this room. I didn’t quite recognize what it was until the next experience, which it became clear that reality was formed out of language. In this one, it was just so fast that I didn’t clue in. There were also these objects, metallic looking objects that were spheres and… What’s that object that’s a 3D triangle? Mike: Tetrahedron? Euvie: I think that might be it. It has four points, it’s a 3D triangle. There were spheres and these 3D triangles at the same time. They were bouncing around but they weren’t alive. There were all these dancing people but they were a decoration, they weren’t alive either. It was all a very strange and uncomfortable experience but I let go of the discomfort and just experienced it. Everything was very brightly coloured, neon pink and purple everywhere. Very obnoxious, almost like a teenage Japanese girl or something. Screaming, high pitched scream and this pink and obnoxious dancing. Mike: Weren’t there dancing butts or something, too, that you described? I think you were a little embarrassed talking about that. I remember even at the time you described this motion of these coy females with nude butts and they would just shake their butts and look over their shoulder. Euvie: Yeah, it was very obnoxious. Miley Cyrus kind of thing. Colourful and obnoxious. I couldn’t figure out why I was being shown this. Yeah, it was just very silly and it made me laugh. I came out of it laughing. I didn’t gain any profound insight at the time but later on I got some insights, especially after the next experience actually. Why don’t you go and talk about your number three? Mike: Okay. Number three is a whirlwind. I felt like after the second trip that the e-cig wasn’t giving me enough. I had a very bad smoking technique. I was taking these massive bong rips from these e-cigs – poor little e-cig. It just couldn’t keep up. I was sucking in mostly oxygen and thinking, “This tastes good,” because it’s mixed with an apple flavour e-juice – but that was it. The third time I constructed this contraption, this gravity bong out of a two litre Pop bottle and a plastic bag. I had taken this hit from this giant lung and, at that point, I was feeling kind of nervous. I should go back a little bit here. During the day, I forget what was going on but there were events during the day that were bothering me for some reason. I had decided pretty early on I was not going to do it, I was just not feeling good. Then you said you were going to do it and I had this stupid little ego thing that was like, “If Euvie’s doing it, I’ve got to do it.” I decided to do it, which is just a bad choice. I’m nervous, I’m a little bit shaky, feeling weird about all this drug paraphernalia because now I’ve got this stupid two litre monstrosity of a bong. I just feel wrong. I intake it and I sit down in my usual spot. It starts to come on but I’m noticing that I’m distracted, I’m intellectually distracted with thinking about how stupid this e-cig is, how stupid this bong is, how maybe I shouldn’t have done this to begin with, shit I’m already deep into it now. I start getting to the usual feeling, the brightening of edges, the whooshing sound. But this time, the whooshing sound increased in frequency and pitch up to the point of a mosquito. Mosquitos, I don’t know what it is, but we’re just mortal enemies on a spiritual level. I’ve been in crazy zygon traffic riding on my motorbike and I’m as calm as a cucumber, but put me in a room with a mosquito when I’m trying to sleep and I just go nuts, I just cannot handle it. Anyway, going back to this, it was funny at the same time that it was really not what I wanted. It was a reflection of what I was trying to do – I was trying to control my thoughts and run from certain types of thoughts. There was the thought, “This e-cig’s not working. This other thing’s not working. I don’t like this, I don’t like this.” All these judgements and everything. I’m remembering in the back of my head, “I shouldn’t be thinking that in the middle of a psychedelic trip, I can’t b thinking that.” Every time I’d have that thought to try and run from something, I would be given a manifestation of it in the trip. It started with the mosquitos, which was fairly manageable. Not really but I’m now being swarmed by mosquitos all around my head. I thought, “Okay, this is just a trip. I can deal with this. It’s fine.” Pretty much immediately after I regain some semblance of centring, I started feeling this chemical feeling rise like, “Oh no, the e-juice is going to cause me cancer.” I had this chemical feeling because that actually, in day to day life, is something that also bothers me a bit. I hate drinking water out of a plastic bottle because of the plastic taste or I hate drinking tap water that has a metallic taste. There’s little quirky things I guess about me where if I taste chemical, if I taste anything like that, I feel like, “Oh, I’ve got cancer now.” It’s not really how it is but I had that in the back of my head. I’m tasting his e-cig juice and it’s bringing up this feeling of chemical carbonation almost, then that thought stuck. I started feeling like my whole body was being dissolved in a bottle of carbonated soda water or something. It first started in my skin and then it was in my eyes and then it was in all my orifices and then it was in my bones. It was just a terrible, terrible feeling. From that point on, the rest of the trip took on this feeling. I thought, “Again, I know what this is. This is a bad trip.” I thought, “I’ve got to control this, I’ve got to get centred, I’ve got to resist.” During this time, I’m also understanding that the resisting is part of what’s causing the problem. Accepting is what I need to do. Pointing at what I want, what kind of experience I want, is what I need to do but instead I’m running from what I don’t want. I know that that theme has been a recurring thing in my life. Then finally I got rebalanced at that point, all the while I’m seeing crazy visuals. Fractals, a combination of everything you could see on hollowfractal on Reddit. Then I hear this voice as I’m starting to get re-centred. This voice is like, “Yeah? How about this?” It was challenging. If I had to pick a visual appearance for this being, it would have been a gremlin from the Gremlins movies in the 90s. It wasn’t necessarily evil but it was trying to bother me, it was trying to set me off by giving me what I didn’t want. At this point, it’s getting more and more intense and I start feeling this tapping on my teeth, all of my teeth individually. I open my eyes in this trip and I see these gremlins hitting my teeth with syringes and they’re tapping and chipping away at my teeth. Every single tooth has got a syringe tapping on it. That was not a good feeling. It’s me versus the gremlin. The gremlin’s trying to set me off and then I’m beating it, then set me off and I’m beating it. Every time this would happen, it would be, “Yeah? How about this? Yeah? How about this? Yeah? How about this?” It would get more and more intense. Finally, the trip ended and I came out of it not emotionally scarred or feeling negative about any of it. I didn’t even like the gremlin had any kind of negative urges to it, it was just trying to challenge me and show me something. I came out of that trip feeling like, “Stop running, start accepting. Stop running from this stuff, start accepting it.” As I’ve said before about psychedelics, there’s no pit of spikes at the end of this. Just accept it. With that lesson, I took that into my next trip. Why don’t you talk about your trip? Euvie: Yeah. My number two and number three were in close succession, maybe just an hour apart. I broke through on the second one but I struggled to gain any insight from it. It was just so overwhelming I guess. But as I came down from it I started realizing that it’s similar to what you’re talking about, that letting go is very important. I was also given these different things that maybe weren’t quite as horrifying as gremlins tapping at your teeth but were still disconcerting – the blood curdling scream, the obnoxious nature of the visuals. They weren’t nurturing or comforting in any sense. It was like being at the peak of an acid trip in a strip club or something. Mike: That sounds horrible. Euvie: Yeah, it’s just terrifying and not arousing at all. Yeah, I decided to go in again just to figure it out. Actually, something that I forgot to mention is that, as soon as I broke through the tunnel it felt like I had died. Because the body dissolved and then the reality, the sound broke apart, everything broke apart and I had this momentary feeling, “Okay, I’ve died.” Then I caught myself thinking that and then I thought to myself, “Okay, this is common on DMT, I’m just going to role with it. I’m just going to let it go and see what happens.” That prevented it from being a bad trip because I just allowed it. Third time when I went in I had this thought, my intention was, “I want to learn something from this, I want to bring something back.” Also, I thought, “Can you show me something else? Will it always be this obnoxious?” I went into it and, sure enough, both wishes were granted. I was shown very calm visuals. The colours were a lot more pleasant. It was gentle purples and teal and seafoam green and the visuals were of these giant fractals curling up into elephants. An elephant is a very Zen symbol. There was a presence, it felt like there was a being watching over me but I didn’t see it. I heard words, all the symbols from all the languages were DNA strands twisting into this fractal elephant and forming the fabric of that reality. Everything was very much 3D. Mushroom visuals, they take from what’s already there in the environment and add to it or maybe overlay it. These visuals, they were fleshed out, they were maybe even multidimensional, 4D or whatever. They were solid. I felt these strands of words and when I started listening in they were human experiences, traumatic ones too. Somebody lost a close member of the family or somebody close to them died, somebody’s child went missing, somebody’s partners cheating on them and these people are in distress, crying and screaming about their experiences. All these experiences are being pulled together like strands to form the fabric of reality. Again, I let go of the discomfort of the experience and just observed it. What I realized is that from this higher reality perspective, all those experiences were the same. From that perspective it was impartial to the traumatic nature of human experience. They were all just being used as material to form the fabric of reality. Also, there was this sense of knowing, it wasn’t just that I visually saw this happen, it was a knowing that this is how it is. That was very interesting because at that level, I say I was thinking this but actually, I wasn’t really thinking in the day to day sense. It was just I would just know certain things or realize certain things instantly. It’s difficult to describe. Mike: Yeah. The words just don’t do it justice. Euvie: Yeah. Mike: It’s impossible to describe what you see, it’s almost like you have to translate something into some lower dimension to even begin to point in a direction of what you saw. Euvie: Yeah. Mike: But it’s nowhere close to what you actually… Euvie: Yeah. Mike: I remember hearing these fantastic things from Terrence McKenna and Joe Rogan, many of the group of psychedelic speakers in that circle, and there’s no way what they said could have even remotely described what I saw. It’s just an impotent version. Euvie: It’s not so much that the visuals are crazy – and they absolutely are, they’re insane – but that’s not the value of the experience, not at all. There’s these underlying things that you realize that are just so profound that they’re difficult to translate into human language. Just that knowing, for example, that I had. How do you translate that? In our reductionist society, we care so much about proof and scientific observation and replicating studies and measuring everything and this kind of thing. But you go into this other reality, this other dimension and you have another sense. We say we have five senses. In this other dimension, there’s a knowing, you just know things. How do you describe that? How do you explain that? Mike: Yeah. When you told me that trip, I also had my own interpretation of it, too. That that was interesting and had value for me. It made me recall the time I heard Terrence McKenna talk about how important it is to talk about your psychedelic experiences – that is the purpose, you’re not just sharing the value you pull back for yourself, you should go out there and talk about these things. Make it normal for people to talk about these things. There is so much insight and value and wisdom to be pulled from these plants and these chemicals. It shows you exactly what you need and what you’re looking for. Euvie: Yeah. That’s another thing. I felt like it was that I was being shown things. On one hand, it was partially a reflection of myself, especially coming up. Then once I broke through, it was like I was being shown things and they were being shown to me in ways that would supposedly make sense to me. It’s as if some being or my higher self was trying to communicate something to me through the means that I knew, through the means that I would understand, through this imagery that would make sense to me. Mike: Actually, that’s a perfect way to bring on talking about my next experience with DMT, which came after the horrible gremlin carbonated mosquito journey. I’d never, at this point, had felt like I’d broken through and I definitely hadn’t. I had gone up to a threshold each time and felt like there was more to be learned, I wasn’t ready for it, I wasn’t allowing it. This fourth time doing it I had no preconceptions about it, I had very little agenda with it. I just wanted to go and experience it. I was calm, I meditated for about 45 minutes before. The trip came on very strong. It seems like every time is different but there’s also a familiarity to all of it, as well, when you go through it. This time, I broke through. This time, I went right to the edge and went right through it. I’d gotten proper smoking technique using just the e-cig alone. I took a lot slower hits, I held them in long. Even when I was just nearly in outer space already and not even recognizing I had hands, I made the attempt to take that last hit and that’s what really sent me over the edge. I get to this space and I’m in a white dome and there’s this black entity there. He’s just in the centre of the room – he or she – looking around and sees me, walks up to me, puts his hand on my head. At that point, I felt like a supreme celebration. It was celebrating, all of the world was celebrating. I was celebrating because I knew I had actually made it through. That was the full tone of the trip. I was also being shown this combination of everything I’d ever seen in hollowfractal and in [inaudible and in trippy and any of the different subreddits that focus on mind expansion artwork. Every representation of anything anyone has ever described about DMT I saw at once. The interesting thing about this is there is a multi-dimensional aspect to this place. I was also simultaneously aware of my body and my breath and the space I was in. There were more dimensions to the space but I was decoding them in a three-dimensional way because that’s all my mind can conceive of. I see these things, these dimensions intersecting and I realize that the images I’m looking at are being arranged and shown to me in layers. I spend a lot of time in Photoshop, so when I look at an image I think of that image in layers – of what’s in front, what’s behind, how are they blended together. The trip was showing all these hollowfractal images and layers so that I could come back and decode it and make art out of it, or something. There was this rotating skull in the centre of one of these fractal layers. It had neon edges. Actually, now that I think of it, it was like the image of the skull that I made for the psychedelics episode. I didn’t really make the connection there but… Yeah, that’s exactly it. It was an outline of that skull. It had lots of three-dimensional fractals moving behind it and the skull was rotating. Interesting. Also, this reminds me. I had an interpretation of your trip with the strands and the building blocks of language and experiences that you were talking about – everyone’s experiences making up the fabric of this reality. Sort of the way you explained it to me when we had chatted about this was that there were building blocks. In my head, I’m picturing Lego. I’m picturing houses and ships and objects being built out of these blocks of human experience. Again, we translate things that are multi-dimensional into the concepts that we can understand in three-dimensions. It makes a lot of sense that a conscious unembodied entity – something that doesn’t interact on a physical dimension like we do – that their creation would be made out of conscious experiences and their objects would be multi-dimensional, emotion or language or experienced based objects. Yeah, I took that lesson from your experience and thought of that as such a huge reason to be communicating your psychedelic experiences. Someone else could pick up on something that maybe you didn’t even mean and take a whole other dimension of meaning from it. Anyway, I came back and I woke up with tears in my eyes because it was just so intense, so happy, and I had never experienced anything like that before in my life. It was a clear, “Yes, that was it. That’s what everyone’s talking about, yup.” There was also a feeling like it was all good, because I was feeling like, “The e-cig worked, I don’t have to have all of this drug paraphernalia lying around.” The technique worked, the clearing my mind worked, the meditation worked. That’s another thing. I felt like I had to have this strong grasp and concentration and I felt like that contributed to sending me over the edge, but I got attached to that feeling of grasping. A few times, I let go and that helped. It made me recognize the lesson from the trip before, which was I keep running away from thoughts I don’t want instead of going after the thoughts I do want. This one I was like, “I’m grasping for thoughts I do want but I don’t really need to do that either. I just need to settle back and surrender and relax.” I think the meditation really did a lot of help and it really shaped the whole mood of the trip. There was this calmness but this observance of the most impossible things you could ever see. How about your next trip? Euvie: This was number four for me. I had also meditated but just for a short while before going into the trip. This was I the morning, it was very bright outside. As I was coming up through the tunnel I had all these very intense yellow, golden, orangey visuals of Buddhas and Shivas and this kind of imagery that was probably a reflection of my just meditation before that. But then when I broke through on the other side, that was all gone. The interesting thing about DMT is that there’s different stages to it. When you’re coming up and then when you’re coming back down, the visuals that I get and the feeling around the experience is different than what it’s like on the other side. Yeah, it was very intense fractals, visuals, craziness then bam – I’m on the other side. Actually, the visuals are, in some ways, less crazy on the other side. They’re still completely alien but just less fast I guess. It’s more of a solid reality. When I broke through I was in this room and there was this very… I was in the room but, at the same time, there was sunshine or some sort of very intense bright light. It felt like it’s not really coming from somewhere but it’s just inside. I don’t know, it’s very difficult to describe. Yeah, it was this very bright light. Almost like looking at the sun with polarized sunglasses, where you see the rays sharply coming off of it. There’s very bright light. There were these beings all around me and there were lots of them. They were just going about their business. From my very limited human perspective, I would describe it it’s like a bunch of families walking around and enjoying the sunshine. That’s probably not what they were doing, that’s just my silly human interpretation but that’s how it felt. They were just going about their day or whatever. I was just suddenly there. It felt like some of them were adults and some were kids. One of the adults noticed me and came up to me and reached out to me to check if I’m okay. That’s how I’m interpreting it. Again, I don’t know if it was maybe something else. Checked up on me and then I looked up at it and smiled. It made sure that I was okay and it just went on its way. It’s funny, for example, Joe Rogan talks about [00:32:00] this, how he had an alien talking to him saying, “Do not give in to this astonishment.” I definitely gave in to the astonishment, because I had felt a presence before but it didn’t correspond to any kind of form. It was just the presence, “I just know that there’s a being around. This time, I actually saw them. They were fleshed out. It was overwhelming and I was so happy about it, that I [00:32:30] experienced it and saw all these beings. Mike: Actually, when you said, “Don’t give into astonishment,” that’s exactly what happened to me in the last trip, too. There was just so much happening, it was such a celebratory feeling that I just felt like, “Yes, I’m here,” and everyone else was like, “Yeah, you’re here.” Everything I saw was a reflection. Like fireworks of that moment. I also came back and I remember saying to you after that that, “Okay, I know where the mailbox is. Next time, I’m going to be able to go back and pull information out of there if I can control the astonishment.” Euvie: Yeah. It was just a very happy feeling for me, although they seemed… A lot of them seemed indifferent, they were just going about their day. The analogy that I can think of is it’s just a sunny day and a bunch of families are walking around, enjoying the sunshine. One of them sees a homeless schizophrenic guy sitting on the curb and comes over and just reaches out to check up if he is okay, then continues going on their way. We were talking about this after. It’s just a funny analogy, “What if that schizophrenic guy is actually experiencing another being coming through from a different dimension.” Mike: Yeah, exactly. Euvie: Being in his perspective and maybe that’s why everyone else thinks he’s schizophrenic. Mike: Turns out he’s a doctor in the other realm and that’s just the language he uses, like, “My under wet, the aliens are here.” Euvie: I came down from that experience and I was laughing and just very joyous. Mike: Yeah, you were laughing like I’d never heard you laugh before, too. It was just the funniest joke you’d ever heard. Euvie: Yeah. Coming down, I opened my eyes. Before that, it was at night so even when I opened my eyes I couldn’t see very much of the physical reality, it was just dark, but this time it was in the morning so I actually looked outside and saw the two realities overlapping and our 3D reality slowly coming back and me slowly regaining my body. Yeah, just waking up from a very intense dream and you’re like, “Wow, I have a body. Wow, we’re in this reality, okay. Alright.” Just acclimatizing to it. The previous two experiences were very intense and it was definitely another realm. For some reason, this one had more of an impact on me and I had this very strong feeling that there’s this reality is just a thin veil and that we’re just this consciousness, bigger consciousness that’s just somehow shaped into the perception of a human body and this 3D reality, but there’s actually so much more to it. There’s other dimensions of vibration that we’re just not accessing on our daily basis but we can access them, like you said, through deep meditation for example. Yeah, it was just a very profound experience for me. Then that whole day I just was walking around… Actually, it was a sunny day so I went and did the thing where I walk around and enjoy the sunshine. I was taking pictures and I was just walking around with this stupid grin on my face all day because I felt we’re here in this 3D reality, in this experience, for a short while. As I was shown through some of my other experiences, we’re shaping what kind of reality we have, we’re collectively shaping it. Since we’re only here for a short while, might as well enjoy it, might as well play and explore and do all these kinds of things. That’s what I did. I just went out had a very joyous day. Yeah, I felt so much gratitude and I saw all these little synchronicities happening all around me. It’s difficult to describe but I almost felt like I had none local communication with people around me. I don’t know if it was just me but I felt like we all have these deep knowing that this reality is just an illusion. Not in a bad, not in a horrifying way – just we’re here to explore and to enjoy it and to play. Mike: Interesting. For me, trip number five, that’s the one that has had the biggest impact but I think it requires a bit of pretext before I get into describing this one. As you know if you’ve listened to other episodes of ours, we’ve gone to meditation retreats twice in a row the last… Not this past Christmas but the two Christmases before. One of the things I’ve had some really profound experiences with but brought back in very sporadic and inconsistent ways is the stillness in knowing from meditation. From silencing the narrator, the critic, the storyteller in the mind and, instead, being in this stillness and fullness of life. I think a lot of people have this idea about meditation and stillness and absence of thought as an absence of everything, like you’re just going into the darkness and the abyss. Sure, to a certain level, that’s what you’re trying to do but there’s this activity involved in that that is also preventative from reaching the stillness and the deep stillness. The ego will always grasp, it’ll say, “Good job, you actually didn’t think there for a long time. Good job, awesome.” You, again, have to remind yourself, “No, that’s the ego speaking and pulling me out.” Even the quote unquote good thoughts that you have, the self-congratulating thoughts, the attempt to have an experience and then extract value out of it and bring it back and have an agenda with whatever insights or anything you can bring back from the meditative state, this is, again, the ego attempting to stay alive. What happens through these deep meditation experiences is you enter this, I like to call it a stream of consciousness. It’s a fullness of consciousness. If you were to visualize this fullness of consciousness, it would be everything on manifest, everything creative, everything that ever has been and ever will be, it wears our dimension, our reality, our physics, our universe, our multiverse, is a thin skin, a thin membrane that is just almost insignificant – not insignificant but almost inconceivable small part of this wholeness, which some people say is infinite. Anyway, this is an experience that I pulled from meditation and that experience entered in to my most DMT trip. The trip started as it usually does. This time, I did it alone and I took some effort to get centred, to remove all fear. I was still a bit nervous. I did have an agenda at the beginning of it. I had forgotten about these lessons from meditation. I had this agenda, I wanted to finish this article I’m writing about DMT experiences, “I want to go into this experience and pull something out of it and bring it back.” I took the first few hits, the normal experience. It’s funny to say it’s normal because it’s the most intense experience of your life happening in seconds. Launched into space and I see this rod of energy, a long cylinder of energy and it’s yellow to bright white and it’s pulsing. I visualize myself as a massive object that’s orbiting around this cylindrical sun. Every once in a while I cross paths with it and I get absorbed by it. That happens when the ego shuts up, when the mind stops, and when I release. That’s the key difference here I want to illustrate. It’s not the control and suppression of thoughts, it’s the release and the recognizing that when you’re mad at yourself for your thoughts coming in, that’s the ego sneaking in the backdoor saying, “You were thinking again, you’re thinking right now.” It’s just a very subversive little bastard that keeps trying to sneak in through the backdoor and continue narrating your life. Every time I was finally able to let go of that, I would slip back into the stream and that’s where the pure insights come from, that’s where the pure knowing and comfort comes from. I feel like this energy that I slipped inside of is outside of time. It doesn’t matter how long you spend in it, it matters that you visit it regularly because once you’re in it it’s like infinite time. Then you come out of it. You can just be in there for an instant and you come out of it and you’re just this brand-new reborn person with new insights, new knowledge, new zest and happiness for life. The longer you spend in corporeal reality, the longer you are separated from this energy, the more the ego crops up, the more the fears and agendas and worries start cropping up. Anyway, I feel like I’m this orbiting object around this cylinder. It brought to mind an insight I had a few days ago about relationships on a level of personal relationships but then relationships of objects in physical reality in mass, how they affect each other on a gravitational level. I could be totally wrong about this because I’m obviously not a
icity get their act together. But, in true comic fashion, don’t be too surprised if the contested relationship takes awhile to get back off the ground.Absent a major crisis of confidence, it’s highly difficult to defeat a sitting president. GOP reality check: Obama looking tougher to beat in 2012 Just four months after posting historic election gains, Republicans are experiencing a reality check about 2012: President Barack Obama is going to be a lot tougher to defeat than he looked late last year. Having gone from despondency in 2008 to euphoria last November, a more sober GOP is wincing in the light of day as they consider just how difficult unseating an incumbent president with a massive warchest is going to be, even with a still-dismal economy. Story Continued Below “I consider him a favorite, albeit a slight favorite,” said former George W. Bush adviser Karl Rove. “Republicans underestimate President Obama at their own peril.” Much of the GOP realism is rooted in a long-standing truism of American politics – that absent a major crisis of confidence, it’s highly difficult to defeat a sitting president. But aside from the traditional advantages of incumbency, Republicans are also fretting about the strength of Obama’s campaign infrastructure, the potential limitations of their own field and, particularly, the same demographic weaknesses that haunted them in 2008. The best indicator of the GOP outlook on 2012 may be the shape of the party’s prospective field. Many of the contenders who can afford to sit out a presidential election cycle and wait for an open-seat race – Sen. John Thune (R-S.D.), New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie and former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush come to mind – seem intent on doing so. The view among senior Republicans is not that Obama is a sure bet or that the GOP nomination is not worth having. Many are convinced 2012 will be more competitive than 2008 and that the White House can still be won. But there is an unmistakable sense among Republicans that the breezy predictions of Obama turning out to be the next Jimmy Carter were premature. “The people that are sitting around saying, ‘He’s definitely going to be a one-term president. It’s going to be easy to take him out,’ they’re obviously political illiterates – political idiots, let me be blunt,” said former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee in an interview. Some of those in the GOP, like Huckabee, who have considered or are considering a run are candid about the enormity of the challenge they’ll face, pointing to Obama’s potent political organization and the inherent power of the presidency. “You just don’t go against a billion-dollar mountain of money, a guy who’s already won the presidency once – but he gets to fly in on Air Force One and make all his campaign stops with the trappings of the office,” said the Arkansan. Others mulling a White House pointed to Obama’s response to what the president himself called the midterm “shellacking.” Thune, who said last week that he wouldn’t seek the GOP nomination next year, praised Obama as a “very shrewd politician” to the Associated Press, noting that the president had moved the middle by supporting the extension of the Bush-era tax cuts. “As I observed his response and reaction to the midterm election, that was all part of my assessment of the landscape,” Thune said. “Any incumbent is a tough race, and he’s no exception. I think he’s got plenty of vulnerabilities, but I also observed how adept politically he was.” While noting it was still early in the campaign, Christie highlighted another unmatched advantage Obama enjoys. “He proved he could win once, so that’s one more time than anybody else who has run,” said the first-term New Jersey governor. Then there are the structural advantages that helped lift Obama three years ago. Even as the GOP benefited last fall from what many independent voters saw as the president’s initial overreach, they still face nagging difficulties at the polls with minority voters and youths.Image copyright AFP Image caption The controversial suit was the most coveted item at the auction Diamond barons and millionaire businessman gathered in the Indian state of Gujarat to bid for a suit emblazoned with pinstripes spelling the name of Prime Minister Narendra Modi. The winning bid soared above 43m rupees ($690,000; £450,000). Mr Modi auctioned the suit, which he wore during a meeting with US President Barack Obama last month, after critics accused him of extravagance. BBC Hindi's Ankur Jain has the stories of some of the main bidders. Hitesh Patel: Diamond millionaire - Bid $690,000 His father's company, Dharmanandan Diamonds, has a turnover of more than $900m. His father, Lavji Patel, is also a partner in an air-taxi service and a hospital project. Image copyright Vijay Soneji The firm was raided by revenue intelligence officers for evading import duty. "Mr Modi and my father have known each other for some time," Hitesh Patel told the BBC. "Mr Modi has attended all our social events. We want to buy this suit and donate for the cleaning of Ganges river." Mukesh Patel: Diamond trader - Bid $320,000 He is known to be close to Mr Modi, and is also a friend of businessman Ramesh Kumar Virani, who claims to have gifted the suit to the prime minister. His first bid, made earlier on Friday morning, was for $239,220. His firm - M Kantilal and Company - was accused of 1.55bn rupees ($24.9m; £16.19m) tax evasion. Lavji Badshah: Entrepreneur - Bid $290,000 In 2013, the Gujarat government allotted a plot of land in Surat to Mr Badshah and his partners, including Lavji Patel, to build a hospital. Mr Modi, who was then the state's chief minister, attended the foundation-laying ceremony. A year before that, about 100 tax officials had raided Mr Badshah's offices. Mr Badshah is also Lavji Patel's partner in the air taxi service which was started last year. At noon on Friday, he was leading the auction. Kamal Kant Sharma: Entrepreneur - Bid $225,000 "The suit has a story of two great leaders, Mr Modi and Mr Obama," he said during the auction. Image copyright Reuters A millionaire with interests in the ship-breaking industry, Mr Sharma's company was raided by tax authorities in 2012. "In India, you can't be a big business if you are not raided at least once by tax sleuths," he said. "My office was raided just before my daughter's wedding." Mr Sharma said he wanted to gift the suit to his grandchildren, adding: "I will be paying for it from my hard earned money."Uses Wasteland Ghost's PatcherGUI to install. A godly piece of work it is, which will hopefully make my mods compatible with any future patches.Installation isn't difficult, just plop the text file somewhere nice and follow the instructions for the tool.EW only.------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------In normal play, when a Rookie is promoted, the game gives them their base perk automatically. This mod prevents that; instead, while waiting to assign the perk, you can use the soldier-scrolling buttons on the bottom of the Squaddie's "Abilities" page to change their class.Does not work on MECs, or once the first perk is locked in, but should work with reward soldiers (unique or otherwise). When changing class, the unit being displayed will not update immediately - so it might look like your new Assault is still holding an LMG, but they aren't. Changing any equipment will sync it up. Also note that a soldier just switched off of Heavy won't have a pistol equipped automatically, but be left with a placeholder empty slot. I'd recommend giving them a proper sidearm pronto.There are certainly no shortage of issues as we head into the 2016 elections, some of which include terrorism/national security, U.S. economic growth, prescription drug inflation, and of course marijuana. Over the past two decades we've seen a rapid shift in the way the American public views the currently illicit drug. In 1995 there wasn't a single state that approved marijuana for medicinal use, and just a quarter of respondents in national polls shared a favorable view of the drug. Today, there are 23 states that allow marijuana to be prescribed by physicians for medicinal use and four additional states that are experimenting with recreational use for adults. Furthermore, slightly over half of all respondents in major national polls now have a favorable opinion on marijuana. In short, there's no reason why marijuana shouldn't be a hot topic in the 2016 elections. Medical marijuana could save the U.S. healthcare system money But, the marijuana debate is about more than just gaining access to recreational marijuana -- it's about granting access to chronic or terminally ill patients that could benefit from marijuana. If marijuana were legalized across the United States for medical use it could, in theory, save the health insurance industry a substantial amount of money. As we looked at last year, a clinical review published by Dr. Kathryn Hahn of Oregon State University's College of Pharmacy in 2011 suggested that drug diversion -- the act of using prescription drugs in a recreational manner -- costs the health insurance industry $72.5 billion a year, including $25 billion in costs to the private insurance market. At the heart of these costs are opioid-based prescriptions which are being abused and could potentially be replaced by marijuana, thus reducing costs by practically eliminating the chance of an overdose or complications. In theory, medical marijuana could potentially provide a new treatment pathway for a number of diseases, and it could lower healthcare costs for providers -- something that could intrigue the federal government. Will medical marijuana ever be covered by Medicare? But, could medical marijuana ever catch on with Medicare, the entitlement program largely responsible for covering a substantial amount of the late-in-life costs of our nation's seniors? In 2015 Medicare is anticipated to cost the federal government about $546 billion, or roughly 3% of GDP, so any program or therapy that could save the federal government money is likely to be at least considered for future implementation. Here are three critical steps we'd probably need to see for Medicare to step up and cover medical marijuana for our nation's seniors. 1. A well-defined safety profile First, we'd need conclusive evidence that marijuana has a safety profile that can be trusted over the long run. As noted above, marijuana use in issues that involve pain and/or inflammation could practically eliminate the chance of an overdose for patients. However, the long-term use of marijuana is still very much up for debate. On one hand, we have quite a few clinical studies implying that marijuana could be useful in fighting aggressive brain cancer, in controlling blood sugar for type 2 diabetics, and in treating epilepsy in both adults and children. More studies are needed to conclusively determine that marijuana is behind the efficacy observed in these studies, but there are definite correlations that marijuana may offer medical benefits to some patients. On the other side of the coin long-term marijuana use has been linked with possible memory loss, abnormal brain formation, and adverse psychological effects. We also have to remember that for decades researchers focused almost entirely on marijuana's risk profile, meaning we just don't have a good balance of good versus bad data available for lawmakers or researchers to comb through. Long story short, the first thing we need is for all the puzzle pieces to come together and for marijuana to demonstrate a favorable safety profile. Formulating this picture will likely take many more years. 2. Clear evidence that marijuana can reduce healthcare costs Secondly, there will need to be clear evidence presented to lawmakers that using medical marijuana is not only safe for the user, but that it will save the federal government a substantial amount of money over the long run. If Hahn's study is correct, utilizing medical marijuana in the place of other prescription drugs would not only reduce the cost to the consumer at the prescription level, but it would insulate hospitals and clinics from the misuse of prescription products. Once again, it's nearly impossible to overdose on marijuana, meaning there would likely be a correlated drop in expenses related to treating overdose patients. The other thought that comes into play here is that if marijuana were legalized on a federal level, the federal government could sanction its own grow farms and bypass a middleman or pharmaceutical company in the process. Doing so could net it substantial cost-savings over the long run. 3. A rescheduling of marijuana at the federal level Lastly, if marijuana is proven to be safe and cost-effective for the federal government, then it would be up to Congress to not be apathetic about the issue and reschedule the drug away from its current illicit (schedule 1) status. Rescheduling marijuana would signify that it does indeed have medical benefits, and it would essentially remove federal prosecution from the table, save for rare instances. Doing so would also open the door for banks to begin offering banking services to marijuana businesses without the fear of prosecution. Finally, it would remove the restrictive federal tax laws in place for businesses that sell schedule 1 substances, allowing them to take normal business deductions. If these three steps are met, then it's possible the federal government could begin covering medical marijuana for Medicare patients. An unlikely scenario means a risky investment Although it's intriguing to ponder what the future of medical marijuana may hold in terms of treatment potential and for Medicare, its chances of being covered by Medicare appear highly improbable at the moment. The biggest hurdle that marijuana is unlikely to overcome any time soon is its safety profile. It's probably going to take many years before lawmakers have enough data to the point where they feel comfortable deciding whether or not to legalize or decriminalize marijuana. While always a possibility that Congress could legalize the drug, there's no guarantee that existing marijuana stocks and businesses have enough cash in their coffers to survive the long wait. Additionally, there are no guarantees that Congress will even push to legalize or decriminalize the drug, period. Plus, marijuana businesses are at a distinct disadvantage to "normal" businesses until the government changes its stance on the drug. In the meantime it means minimal access to basic banking services such as a checking account or line of credit, as well as having to pay substantially more in federal taxes. Medical marijuana's progression is a story worth monitoring; and one day in the future it may be moneymaker for investors and an option for Medicare patients. But, for the time being your best bet is to keep your investment money far away from the marijuana industry with so many questions still left unanswered, and to come to the realization that Medicare is unlikely to cover medical marijuana anytime soon.Ireland’s London embassy refused to accept a letter condemning the state's assault on anti-austerity activists while an RT cameraman filmed on Wednesday. The Irish state is fearful of "political policing" gaining global media attention, campaigners say. Following three days of “heavy handed” dawn raids on the homes of Irish anti-austerity activists, a solidarity protest was held outside the Irish embassy in London on Wednesday. The demonstration was organized after 11 Irish anti-water charges campaigners were arrested, detained and questioned by police. The campaigners in question maintain they were arrested on spurious grounds. Among those hauled into police custody were socialist TD (MP) Paul Murphy, and leftist Dublin councilors Mick Murphy and Kieran Mahon. All three men are public representatives of Ireland’s Anti-Austerity Alliance, which has campaigned tirelessly against the Irish government’s debt repayment strategy to international and EU creditors. Following several hours of questioning, they were released without charge. Other anti-water charges campaigners arrested by Irish police include two boys aged 16 and 14. Ten officers were reportedly dispatched to arrest the 16 year-old, while six officers showed up at each of the remaining activists’ doors. The campaigners were detained in police custody in connection with an incident at a community demonstration in Dublin last November involving Ireland’s Minister for Social Protection. A criminal investigation regarding the alleged false imprisonment of Minister Joan Burton at the rally is ongoing. Burton's car was reportedly obstructed by protesters for two hours during the demonstration while she remained seated in the vehicle. Additionally, members of her team say they were assaulted as police escorted them from the scene. Irish TD Paul Murphy, who was removed from his house at 7am on Monday by police, told RT the arrests were “politically motivated,” and designed to intimidate Ireland’s anti-water charges movement. The movement opposes the Irish government’s recent policy shift on water taxation. Campaigners warn the government's water charges are a veiled austerity tax that many Irish citizens can't afford to pay. Murphy stressed the timing of the arrests, following the election victory of Greece’s leftwing Syriza party, is worth noting. “We have an establishment that is scared, scared that the lessons of Greece will be learnt, that there is an alternative to austerity and the establishment parties can be ousted,” he said. “They focus that fear, correctly in my opinion, on the anti-water charges movement, which is the biggest movement of protest this state has seen in decades.” The TD for Dublin South-West said he was unsure who had orchestrated the arrest of the political campaigners. He suggested the call may have come from the upper ranks of Ireland’s police force or the Irish government itself. Murphy argued the primary objective was to “criminalize the anti-water charges protests,” and quietly quash dissent. Wednesday’s protest outside the Irish embassy was organized by the Socialist Party of England and Wales. Neil Cafferky, a member of the party, told RT the arrests of political campaigners in Ireland were designed to undermine Ireland’s anti-water charges movement and wider political left. UK campaigners who were gathered at London's Irish embassy on Wednesday attempted to hand its staff a letter criticising the Irish government’s “attack on the democratic right to protest.” Protesters had informed the embassy of the letter prior to the demonstration. Embassy officials refused to accept it, however, while an RT cameraman remained on the scene. They subsequently accepted the letter once the cameraman had left. “The eviction of the RT cameraman from the embassy really does show that the Irish government is not at all comfortable with the scrutiny these arrests are attracting worldwide,” a spokesman for the protesters said. The demonstration's organizers told RT the continued persecution of political activists in Ireland will be “met with a wave of protest internationally.” Demonstrators have gathered in multiple rallies across Dublin in recent days to protest against what they say is the Irish establishment's attempt to stamp out dissent. Dublin’s recent wave of dawn arrests is not the first phase of alleged political policing to surface in Ireland. In January 2013, socialist TD Clare Daly was arrested for supposed drink driving. She was handcuffed outside her car, and subsequently brought into police custody. Following official tests, it transpired she was well below the state’s legal alcohol limit. Although the incident was reported widely in Ireland’s press, her name was eventually cleared and no charges were brought against her. The timing of Daly’s arrest is significant, Irish TD Paul Murphy said. He said the incident occurred while she was attempting to expose “a major scandal” in the Irish police force. The Anti-Austerity AllianceTD stressed Daly’s arrest was staged, whereby she was“handcuffed and pictures were leaked to the media.” He said the arrest was a calculated move “to damage her publicly and diminish the allegations she was making about the police.” Ireland’s Prime Minister Enda Kenny insists Irish police operate independently of the state’s government. Probed on the arrest and detainment of Murphy, Kenny declined to comment. As he made his way to a ministerial meeting, he said the issue was a matter for Irish police. “They run their operations completely independent of Government,” he said. Ireland’s Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform, Brendan Howlin, also dismissed allegations of political policing following the arrest of Murphy. Howlin said Ireland’s police force and prosecutorial system is autonomous from its government. “I reject any notion of political interference with policing,” he said. “The guards do their job as they see it in their own light independently. That’s the way independent proper functioning democracies work.” Anti-Austerity Alliance TD Paul Murphy was silenced when he attempted to raise concerns over “political policing” in Ireland’s parliament on Thursday. The Ceann Comhairle, responsible for chairing Irish parliamentary debates, ruled he was out of order. Murphy's microphone was subsequently switched off. Prior to the arrest of Irish campaigners this week, a political meeting in Dublin held in solidarity with Greece’s newly elected government was monitored by two members of Ireland’s Special Branch police force.Jun 19 2017 12:04PM GMT Tags: Thanks! We'll email you when relevant content is added and updated. Following Follow Email Thanks! We'll email you when relevant content is added and updated. Following Follow government Thanks! We'll email you when relevant content is added and updated. Following Follow privacy Thanks! We'll email you when relevant content is added and updated. Following Follow Security Here’s another reason why politicians shouldn’t use private email accounts to conduct official business: It can cost your state $100,000. This is reportedly what the state of Indiana is spending to hire people to deal with the backlog of Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests for former governor, now vice president, Mike Pence after it was ascertained that he used an AOL.com email address for official business. “Emails released to IndyStar in response to a public records request show Pence communicated via his personal AOL account with top advisers on topics ranging from security gates at the governor’s residence to the state’s response to terror attacks across the globe,” wrote Tony Cook for the Indianapolis Star when Pence’s AOL account was revealed in March. In May, a number of papers reported on the FOIA backlog. “The administration of Pence’s successor as governor, Eric Holcomb, entered a one-year contract last month with a Shelbyville firm, McNeely Stephenson, to handle the ‘unusually high’ number of requests, records show,” writes the Associated Press. “More than 50 such requests are pending.” “A portion of the requests are generic and ask for emails related to state business sent or received by Pence,” write Cook and Kaitlin Lange in the Indianapolis Star, adding that the paper has two outstanding requests of its own. “Others have asked for emails from Pence’s personal account relating to the 2016 election, voter fraud and RFRA. Among those making requests were national reporters from the New York Times and Rewire, a publication that covers reproductive health issues.” Interestingly, Lange and Cook report that the $100,000 is to be divided, with $30,000 to be paid in 2017 and the remaining $70,000 in 2018, indicating that the law firm doesn’t expect to respond to the requests soon. On the other hand, if the years are fiscal years rather than calendar years, fiscal 2018 would start on July 1, 2017, and that time period would be less surprising. It is not clear why Pence chose to use a personal email account for some messages, such as whether he was trying to hide the messages from Indiana citizens, or simply used whatever email address was convenient. The official response was, “Similar to previous governors, during his time as Governor of Indiana, Mike Pence maintained a state email account and a personal email account. As Governor, Mr. Pence fully complied with Indiana law regarding email use and retention. Government emails involving his state and personal accounts are being archived by the state consistent with Indiana law, and are being managed according to Indiana’s Access to Public Records Act.” At that time, the office released 29 pages of email messages from Pence’s AOL account, but declined to release an unspecified number of others “because the state considers them confidential and too sensitive to release to the public,” Cook writes. Yes, the messages too confidential and sensitive to release to his constituents were sent using AOL. Oh, and it got hacked. “Pence’s account was actually compromised last summer by a scammer who sent an email to his contacts claiming Pence and his wife were stranded in the Philippines and in urgent need of money,” Cook writes. After that, Pence reportedly set up a different AOL account. Aside from the security aspect, the private email account also raises troubling issues of government transparency, Cook writes. “Advocates for open government expressed concerns about transparency because personal emails aren’t immediately captured on state servers that are searched in response to public records requests.” And while Indiana state officials are advised to copy or forward their email messages involving state business to their government accounts to ensure the record is preserved on state servers, there is no indication that Pence took any such steps to preserve his AOL emails until he was leaving the governor’s office, Cook adds, when he sent his staff with 13 cartons of printed email messages to the Indiana Statehouse to be archived. The law firm is trying to get digital access to the messages to speed up the public records response process, according to the AP. As you may recall, Pence criticized Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton for using a private email server for all of her email messages. “Pence fiercely criticized Clinton throughout the 2016 presidential campaign, accusing her of trying to keep her emails out of public reach and exposing classified information to potential hackers,” Cook writes. But that’s different, Pence said. “There’s no comparison whatsoever between Hillary Clinton’s practice — having a private server, misusing classified information, destroying emails when they were requested by the Congress,” he responded in March to the Indianapolis Star article. “We have fully complied with Indiana’s laws. We had outside counsel review all of my previous email records to identify any that ever mentioned or referenced state business.” Pence supporters also say that sending all messages through a private email server that one controls is not the same thing as sending some messages through a commercial email provider. One can argue the relative benefits and weaknesses of the two systems. Good news, though: Pence has reportedly stopped using AOL since taking office as vice president.Matchpool’s Vision of a Matchmaking Economy on Ethereum is One Step Closer with Alpha Release Matchpool, a blockchain platform which is reminiscent of a combination of Slack, Facebook and Online Dating, announced on July 17 the release of its alpha launch. Through an initial coin offering, Matchpool raised over $5 million in less than two days earlier in 2017. By allowing users to create shared interest groups, similar to the messaging platform Slack, and rewarding those who make connections, Matchpool hopes to to go beyond the intial use case of dating, where the developers hope it can gain traction in fields such as business, education and networking. The community platform is driven by the Ethereum blockchain and users are rewarded for their participation with Guppies, which is an ERC20 token. Guppies (GUP) are used to access private pools, purchase content and incentivize matchmaking. Pool owners are incentivized with GUP as when two members start chatting in the private pool, pool owners receive a payout. The token will be integrated into the beta release of the platform in the upcoming months. Co-founder Maximus Richardson explained: “We’re a community driven project, and want to build the product around the needs of Matchpool’s members. It’s great to see some of our investors now trialing the platform and giving us invaluable feedback and feature ideas in the community forum — it makes the whole process so much more rewarding.” Continued Maximus Richardson, “We built Matchpool based on the needs and interests of the community, and participants have tested the platform to provide feedback and new feature ideas. We look forward to continued feedback from the community as we prepare for our eventual Beta launch.” What can you do on the alpha release of Matchpool? A Medium post from Richardson lists the features : A fresh new identity Register and sign in with email or Facebook Create and edit profiles Search pools via pre-assigned categories Request/be accepted to join pools View members in pools Post discussion threads in pools Create and edit pools Accept or reject pool member requests Privately chat with other members (Currently you can chat with everyone) Add a unique Ethereum addresses to profiles and pools. The Ethereum-based platform has already attracted attention from the entertainment industry, as well as ex-JP Morgan employees and investors, as a way to engage their communities. According to Matchpool CEO, Yonatan Ben Shimon, “The pools themselves can be dedicated to virtually anything, and therefore, bring people together accordingly with their shared interests.” Richardson added, “Further down the line, we will offer developers the opportunity to develop custom DApplets, which will provide pool owners with add ons for their communities. Developers can earn from transactions via DApplets they create.” Following several months of testing in of the alpha release, the beta version will follow sometime in early 2018. On top of the alpha release, Matchpool is also engaging the cryptocurrency community with Guppy.fm, which will host a series of podcasts where you can hear from crypto veterans, industry stakeholders and well-known figures in the sector. With uncertainty surrounding the project in April 2017 and some media outlets writing the project off, the Matchpool team has displayed its resilience and the blockchain-based social network is one step closer to achieving its vision of a “Matchmaking Economy” on Ethereum. Interested readers can check out Matchpool’s alpha release here. Two prizes of 5,000 GUP will be awarded to two individuals who engage with the alpha release and give the most insightful feedback.Perhaps it’s just a professional hockey player’s family member being social regarding their family member, said pro athlete, on an open social medium? Most of us know full well by now that social, mediums – Facebook, Twitter, Reddit, Pinterest, Google+, etc – can be a great place to find conversation or entertainment, or it’s a great tool for publicly sharing personal news with friends and family… Yet making mention of contract talks and asking an ominous question to the public when their family member remains an unsigned restricted free agent? What is the worst plot twist you can imagine about Nikita's contract? pic.twitter.com/MtipmN10tn — the Older Kucherov (@denis_kucherov) August 25, 2016 Nikita Kucherov's older brother has tweeted about Nikita’s contract situation already this summer, though not in detail but in vague fashion (though featuring clear ties to the situation). That factoid makes it more quizzical what brought this on. At the same time, someone tied to Kucherov posing this question publicly seems like a negotiating ploy of its own; ominous remarks posted publicly gets a reaction (as this very article is evidence of) from fans and the media. What is the worst plot twist that this writer can imagine tied to Nikita Kucherov’s new contract? Either side trying to present urgency or encourage a panic from the fans.Chairman Jerry Moran has overseen the group’s best haul so far this election cycle. \| AP Photo NRSC raised $4.62 million in January The National Republican Senatorial Committee raised $4.62 million in January, a source told POLITICO, the group’s best haul so far this election cycle. NRSC officials plan to announce that they have more than $10 million cash on hand and no debt. Story Continued Below The Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee has not yet announced its January fundraising amount. The deadline is Thursday. The DSCC ended December with $12 million cash on hand but $3.75 million in debt. ( POLITICO's full coverage of the 2014 elections) The NRSC’s haul comes after it just barely edged out the DSCC in December, $4.02 million to $4 million. The Republican committee was outraised by $16 million in 2013, but party leaders say they now benefit from increasing donor confidence that the GOP can pick up the six seats it needs to win back the Senate. President Barack Obama has committed to at least six DSCC fundraisers in 2014. The first two are expected to be held in New York and Washington in the next few weeks.In the years since leaving the White House, former President Bill Clinton has built his personal foundation into a sort of Davos West, where the rich and powerful gather. The William J. Clinton Foundation draws its financial support, impressively, from across the political spectrum. Billionaires on the donor list, released this week, range from conservative Richard Mellon Scaife to the favorite target of the right, George Soros. Until Hillary Rodham Clinton became secretary of state, foundation donors were not publicized. Clinton and the Obama administratioin reached an agreement to release the names to address any accusations of conflict of interest. The full list includes many foreign entities, a source of concern to some of Clinton's critics. Our focus in this space is billionaires. The map below shows billionaires and billionaire-controlled foundations that have contributed. (An interactive version can be found on the Muckety web site.) Follow me on Twitter: @Muckety.Bateman's2 quantitative description of sex differences in Drosophila melanogaster gave rise to the modern era of sexual selection theory3,7,8,9 by showing that the slope of the line relating reproductive success to mating success (the sexual selection gradient) is nearly flat for females, whereas the slope of this line is much steeper for males. The magnitude of the sex difference in the strength of selection depends on the relationship between male and female sexual selection gradients4,10,11. Anisogamy generates the conditions for sexual selection, as numerically abundant male gametes compete to fertilize rare female gametes12. In contrast, in a truly ‘isogamous’ population, where males and females produce identical numbers of equal-sized gametes, it would be possible for every gamete to participate in a successful fertilization. Male and female sexual selection gradients would converge and have equivalent slopes, and the intensity of selection on each sex would be identical, assuming no parental care13. This theory has not been tested, however, because exceptionally high ratios of sperm number to egg number have been considered ubiquitous across taxa. Selection generated by sperm competition is attributed with the evolutionary maintenance of anisogamy, or tiny sperm14,15,16. However, recent comparative analyses of some taxa17,18, and experimental evolution studies in D. melanogaster1 and Caenorhabditis elegans19, indicate that postcopulatory sexual selection can also favour increased investment per sperm. The rise in costs associated with the production of longer sperm—including delayed reproductive maturity20, decreased male fecundity20,21 and increased energetic investment in testes (as measured by the gonadosomatic index, or GSI = (gonad mass/total body mass) × 100)—suggests that the strength of selection maintaining sperm length does not decline as isogamy is approached. Evidence suggesting intense sexual selection in species with longer sperm conflicts with the theoretical prediction that sexual selection should be weaker in species with longer sperm owing to the trade-off with sperm number. Substantial variation in sperm size has been described for most taxa22; sperm length across Drosophila species is more variable than in the remainder of the animal kingdom23. Therefore, this genus serves as a useful system to examine the big-sperm paradox. In species with no parental care, as in most Drosophila24, parental investment consists of the energy invested in sperm or eggs, and potential reproductive rates8 can be determined by measuring gamete production rates. We quantified sex-specific gamete production rates in both a short- and long-sperm species: D. melanogaster (sperm length = 1.87 mm; GSI = 5.05; ref. 21) and D. bifurca (sperm length = 58.29 mm; GSI = 10.60; ref. 25). A sperm:egg production rate ratio of 29.3:1 for D. melanogaster versus 5.8:1 for D. bifurca was determined (Table 1). D. bifurca is nearly isogamous in terms of gamete size and gamete production rate (Fig. 1). Natural populations of D. bifurca probably further approach isogamy because males require 17 days posteclosion to produce fertile gametes, whereas females require only 7 days (ref. 25)—a factor not included in our rate calculations. GSI, which is widely reported and easily quantifiable, was used in the among-species analyses. Sperm length in Drosophila explains nearly all of the interspecific variation in GSI21. Although interspecific relationships are reported here using only GSI, qualitatively similar findings resulted from analyses using sperm length, and multiple regressions confirmed that testis mass—as opposed to body mass—is the component of GSI that explains the majority of the variation among species in all significant correlations (see below). Table 1: Sperm and egg production rates of D. melanogaster and D. bifurca Full size table Figure 1: Drosophila bifurca sperm and egg. Sperm are produced at a rate that is approximately six times faster than eggs in D. bifurca (see Table 1). a, Scanning electron micrograph (SEM) showing a single, 6-cm D. bifurca spermatozoon dissected from the seminal vesicle, where sperm are individually rolled into compact balls. b, SEM of a single D. bifurca sperm (copied six times) next to an SEM of a D. bifurca ovum at the same magnification. Micrographs by R. Dallai. Full size image We repeated Bateman's2 competitive mating experiment along the anisogamy–isogamy continuum with experimental evolution lines of D. melanogaster selected for longer (mean ± s.e.m. = 2.03 ± 0.01 mm) or shorter (mean ± s.e.m. = 1.67 ± 0.01 mm; ref. 1) sperm lengths. The resulting sexual selection gradients confirm the big-sperm paradox: as sperm length increases, the magnitude of sex differences declines (Fig. 3a). This decline results from the combined effect of a decrease in male slope (analysis of covariance (ANCOVA), F 1,58 = 4.689, P = 0.0345) and, although not significant, an increase in female slope (ANCOVA, F 1,244 = 0.340, P = 0.5605) as sperm size increases (Fig. 2a, b). Figure 3: Mating system measures in relation to investment in sperm production. Each interspecific regression point (open circles) represents a Drosophila species (m = D. melanogaster, v = D. virilis, l = D. lummei, b = D. bifurca). Error bars, which represent one s.e.m., and significance values for comparisons of the D. melanogaster selection lines were obtained using the bootstrap method with replacement (number of replications = 1,000). a, Intraspecifically, the sex difference in selection gradients is less in the long-sperm population than in the short-sperm population (P = 0.018). b, Sex difference in sexual selection gradients decreases significantly across species as investment in testes (GSI) increases (y = -3.189x +
added, before walking away. That was the same day, across town at the White House, that Trump bragged to the Russians that he had fired Comey and that pressure had been taken off the investigation. "I just fired the head of the FBI. He was crazy, a real nut job," Trump told Lavrov and other Russian officials gathered in the Oval Office exactly one month ago, according to The New York Times. "I faced great pressure because of Russia. Now, that's taken off." In his testimony, Comey made note of that, mentioning that Trump brought up his firing as evidence that the investigation would lighten up now. "It confused me when I saw on television the president saying that he actually fired me because of the Russia investigation and learned, again, from the media that he was telling, privately, other parties that my firing had relieved great pressure on the Russia investigation," Comey said. "[T]elling, privately, other parties" is a clear allusion to the Trump meeting with Russian officials in the Oval. But that was not the only mention: "I know I was fired. Again, I take the president's words. I know I was fired because of something about the way I was conducting the Russia investigation was, in some way, putting pressure on him, in some way, irritating him. And he decided to fire me because of that." And: "It's my judgment that I was fired because of the Russia investigation. I was fired, in some way, to change — or the endeavor was to change the way the Russia investigation was being conducted." Comey repeatedly implied that he believed Trump was holding his desire to stay in the job over his head, thinking he could extract loyalty from him, a quid pro quo: "My common sense told me that what was going on is either he had concluded, or someone had told him, that you didn't — you've already asked Comey to stay, and you didn't get anything for it, and that the dinner was an effort to build a relationship — in fact, he asked specifically — of loyalty in the context of asking me to stay." Comey expanded on what he found to be the significance of being fired because of the Russia investigation (just in case the senators and viewing audience couldn't discern it for themselves): "That is a — that is a very big deal, and not just because it involves me. The nature of the FBI and the nature of its work requires that it not be the subject of political consideration. And on top of that, you have — the Russia investigation itself is vital, because of the threat. And I know I should've said this earlier, but it's obvious — if any Americans were part of helping the Russians do that to us, that is a very big deal. And I'm confident that, if that is the case, Director Mueller will find that evidence." Once again, it was another Mueller reference from Comey. That is yet another bread crumb Comey is laying out for investigators to follow and connect to intent — that Trump was trying to quash the investigation. "Again, I take the president's words...." The trail is out there. And Mueller is an uberdetailed, hyperthorough investigator. He will likely pick each one up with tongs and latex gloves, put them in a Ziploc bag and have them sent back to the lab for examination, leaving no bread crumb unanalyzed. After all, as Comey said in the hearing, "In any complex investigation, when you start turning over rocks, sometimes you find things that are unrelated to the primary investigation, that are criminal in nature." The president has hired a bulldog lawyer, one who has protected Trump's interests — and his brand — over the years. He's a loyalist and a corporate lawyer — not a criminal defense attorney. If Trump and his team aren't careful — and they don't start treating this as a genuine legal problem instead of just a political one — all the president's men could find themselves in a heap of trouble. And that doesn't mean his political problem is going away. Even if Mueller doesn't believe the standard for criminal prosecution of obstruction is met, his findings, if he puts credence in Comey's testimony, could be damning and lay the foundation for articles of impeachment when or if Democrats wrest back control of Congress at some point in the Trump presidency.In the late 1980s, African-Americans looking for upscale entertainment in the city had few options. But a club called Ivory's offered everything they could ask for, namely three floors, beautiful people, good music and often a few famous faces. Prince, Queen Latifah, Will Smith, Ice Cube, Tupac and TLC all stopped by the club on their way up. The venue was unique because it had a black owner. Steve Branch, a former chef and Safeway manager who threw dance parties on the weekends, bought what was a struggling restaurant called Ivory's in 1987. He credits his experience with the supermarket chain for his success with the club. "I was well rounded from a business standpoint," he says. Branch says the club drew patrons from as far away as Atlanta and New York and grossed more than $1 million in 1989. Richmond was a major entertainment pit stop for recording artists on their way to Miami or New York. "It was nothing to see a performing act on 'Soul Train' on Saturday and on Tuesday night they would be on my stage," Branch says. But it was something else the night Prince showed up in 1988. The purple one was in town for his LoveSexy tour and wanted to see lights on the club's dance floor. Branch says Prince entered through the back door and walked through the club undetected until everyone seemed to notice him at once. "It was like something out of movie, the whole club just froze. The women started screaming, standing up on chairs, on the bar," Branch says. "It was an all-time great experience." click to enlarge Prince made a surprise stop at the club in 1988 to check out the dance floor lights. Like most nightspots, Ivory's changed with the times. As hip-hop began to dominate the urban market, the fur coats and dress shoes that patrons wore were replaced by Timberlands and hoodies. The club earned a reputation for being less than safe, with the media frequently reporting shootings around the venue. Rodney K. Mullins, a Virginia Commonwealth University student during the club's heyday, hasn't forgotten his good times at Ivory's or the times when violence became part of the night. "Even though we knew the potential for violence, it was still a draw due to its proximity to VCU," he says. "I met and partied with folks I'm still friends with 20 years later. Once my friends got shot, I stopped going and so did most of Richmond." The transition from an upscale club to one that embraced street culture was challenging, Branch says. He concedes that he probably could have done some things differently, and adds that the club didn't always get a fair shake in news media. "It only took a couple of knuckleheads to get to fightin' or go outside and fire a couple of gunshots in the air," Branch says. "Then the whole crowd was stigmatized with an image." But it was a different kind of fight that led to the club's closing in 1994, Branch says, citing the club's clashes with Virginia Department of Alcoholic Beverage Control as what led him to finally shut down. When asked for details about his dealing with the ABC, he says: "You fight the battles that you can win." Branch now works in the travel industry and teaches empowerment seminars. But he hasn't forgotten the glory days of Ivory's and he's planning to bring them back — if only for one night. "Now that it's been 20 years … this is the time, in 2014, for the official Ivory's reunion to take place," he says, adding that other clubs have held parties with the Ivory's name. Details are being worked out, he says: "It's going to be an incredible event that takes place every year."IOWA CITY — After touring the Iowa City VA Medical Center with colleague Sen. Joni Ernst on Friday, Sen. Chuck Grassley questioned the transparency of the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs, both nationally and locally. The Republican Iowa senators met with VA officials in the wake of the July 8 suicide of a Davenport veteran who reported being denied admittance to the Iowa City VA. “If it could have been prevented, it should have been prevented,” Ernst said of Sgt. Brandon Ketchum’s death. “There may have been a provider who tried to do something, we don’t know yet. When that report comes out, we’ll see.” Ketchum’s death gained attention after he posted a message on Facebook saying he went to the Iowa City hospital July 7 seeking help, only to be told to go home and take his medication. Ketchum’s girlfriend, Kristine Nichols, told The Gazette last month Ketchum was seeking help at the VA for substance abuse. He had been addicted to painkillers and, later, heroin, Nichols said. The VA’s Office of the Inspector General is investigating what happened leading up to Ketchum’s suicide and whether standard procedures were followed or should be changed to better help veterans with mental health or substance abuse issues, senators said. There is no timeline for the probe, but Grassley said the VA better do a thorough job. “There’s a reason to be suspicious about this given what came to the surface in the summer of 2014,” Grassley said. Media reports in 2014 showed dozens of veterans died while waiting for care at facilities in other states, and revealed some VA officials falsified records to make it look like vets were getting timely care. “It stems from the fact there’s not enough appreciation of whistleblowers,” Grassley said. “People in the higher up don’t want to hear anything bad. Our job in Congress is to make sure there is maximum transparency because transparency brings accountability.” Grassley questioned transparency of the Iowa City VA after reporters were not allowed on hospital premises Friday for a news conference. “Is this a national organization (rule), or just this facility somehow has different rules than other facilities?” Grassley asked. “You ought to ask them whether it’s because I’m up for re-election.” Reporters were allowed on the grounds of the VA Central Iowa Health Care System in Des Moines after Ernst toured it last month, she said. The Iowa City VA banned news media from the hospital Friday because officials believe it’s a violation of the federal Hatch Act, which governs “partisan political activities” on federal property, Public Affairs Officer Bryan Clark said in an email Friday. The law “prohibits VA resources from being used for speeches, media engagements or other activities that would be considered a part of an ‘action in support of, or in opposition to, or attempting to influence, current policy of the Government of the United States,’ or could be perceived to influence an election or support for a specific candidate for public office,” he wrote. When asked whether Des Moines officials were violating the law by allowing media on the premises at the Ernst event, spokesman Jon Pruett said yes. He said media may visit the Iowa City VA for other stories that don’t involve members of Congress. If the OIG report shows the Iowa City VA needs to make changes, Ernst said she’s hopeful officials will do so without congressional action. Ernst, a retired lieutenant colonel in the Iowa National Guard, has been a vocal advocate for suicide prevention among veterans. “How many veterans may be lost while Congress fights over the language of specific bills?” she asked.Once Upon a Time S04E20: "Lily" Once Upon a Time’s “Lily” was by far my favorite episode of the season, if not the series, and that has to do with two things: 1) No fairy-tale land b-story! The show becomes so much more sophisticated emotionally when it drops the magical MacGuffins and random Disney character cameos and just centers on driving the plot with emotions and character dynamics. “Real world” episodes also offer the constraint of no magic, so characters get to actually talk through their problems versus solving every conflict with a bolt of purple lightning. 2) Emma and Regina sharing scene after scene after scene. OUAT’s wildly successful first season rarely took a break from Emma and Regina’s chemistry, and despite a sea of laughable plot contrivances and lackluster love interests, their dynamic has developed into an unspoken partnership that feels more authentic than the Charmings’ marriage. Except this episode Regina was done playing around and was speaking about that partnership in no uncertain terms. When Maleficent asked Emma to find her daughter, she revealed a couple key details that made Emma realize Maleficent’s daughter was also her best/only friend Lily. A little scrolling through Storybrooke’s microfiche and it was official: her ex-girlfriend Lily was the same baby her parents had filled with evil and dropped into a wormhole. Emma was deeply stricken by the revelation that her only friend was apparently pre-destined to meet her, and also stunned that Lily had in later years moved from Minnesota to an address right outside of Boston, where Emma had been living. Weird coincidence or...? Regina was like, “Fate is crazy y’all, one time I adopted a little boy without realizing his mom would be my future wife. Anyway, is this hussy stalking you? Did you two date? How about I come with you when you go look for her?” Regina also said she needed Emma which, uh... I don’t think Regina has ever made herself vulnerable like this to anyone ever before? Emma perked up at the thought of a road trip and just like that, the two most powerful women in Storybrooke were loading up the VW Bug with the Snow Queen’s scroll, Capri Suns, and the Drive soundtrack. Meanwhile in Teen Emma’s backstory, fan-favorite Teen Lily had turned up in Emma’s new foster-family’s garage. She seemed really eager to stay over for dinner and was wearing a comically oversized beanie. Next: Page 2By Jay Forte, Contributing Reporter RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – According to a report released yesterday (April 20th) by a UK-based NGO/non-profit organization, Global Witness, Brazil leads the list of countries with the highest number of activists murdered for defending the environment and land rights in 2014. The study found that in Brazil there were 29 activists killed last year, and acknowledged the number is probably much higher given the lack of reporting in remote areas. The report states “Globally, it’s likely that the true death toll is higher. Many of the murders we know about occurred in remote villages or deep within the jungle, where communities lack access to communications and the media. It’s likely many more killings are escaping public records.” Most of the murders reported were related to conflict over land ownership according to Global Witness. Colombia appears as the second largest number of deaths of activists (25 murders), and more than half Indian. Next are the Philippines (15), Honduras (12) and Peru (9). The NGO says there were 116 deaths registered of activists in the seventeen countries surveyed. The number represents an increase of twenty percent compared to that recorded by the NGO in a report released in 2013. Most of the killings occurred in Central America and South America (88). The second most affected region was the Southeast Asia. In addition to the deaths, the publication reports that activists face risks such as physical violence and restriction of freedom. The organization calls on governments and the international community to investigate the crimes and punish the culprits. “National governments are not protecting the rights of environmentalists increasing threats of agribusiness projects, mining, timber and hydropower,” notes the text of Global Witness. Since 2002 the organization says that Brazil has had 477 reported murders of activist, over four times as many as the next ranked country, Honduras (with 111). The interactive chart provided by Global Witness also lists the names of all the 29 activists killed during 2014 in Brazil. According to the Department of Human Rights (SDH), the Presidency of the Republic, the Brazilian government has worked with pioneering a protection program to human rights defenders coordinated by the state. Currently, the Program to Protect Human Rights Defenders has 415 activists under protection. Of these cases, 142 involved the struggle for land rights, 111 rights of indigenous peoples and fifty to fight for the protection of the environment. To join the protection program, there must be formal request and security measures include on-site visits in the defenders’ work environment and police protection in cases of serious risk and vulnerability. The President of Brazil, Dilma Rousseff, was scheduled to sign a decree on Monday, April 20th, demarking three areas of land in the Northern region of Brazil as indigenous lands, two in the state of Amazonas and in one in the state of Para. Together the areas total 232,500 hectares and will house four indigenous ethnic groups. The countries covered by the publication of the Global Witness are: Brazil, Colombia, the Philippines, Honduras, Peru, Guatemala, Thailand, Paraguay, Mexico, Indonesia, Myanmar, Ecuador, Uganda, India, Costa Rica, South Africa and Cambodia.Wake up buddy, it’s Friday! Hmm, doesn’t look like much of a morning person. Rough night? Flavor of the Week Last week’s flavor text contest on scrollsguide.com had another brilliant turnout. Let’s do another. We’ve covered Energy and Order so far. How about some Decay? Introducing the next scroll from Set 7: Echoes – Sleep Moratorium: I’ll take one Nuru, please. Thank you very much. As usual, it’s your job to fill in the empty space at the bottom of this scroll. If we select you as a winner, you’ll have your flavor text added to the game and be given a Tier 3 version of Sleep Moratorium! Oh, yeah… you’ll get… this thing too. It… it never stops looking at me… Scrolls Modding – Summoner Did you know there’s an actively developed Mod pack for Scrolls? It’s called Summoner, and a clever community member by the name of noHero is responsible for currently maintaining it. He’s done a great job with it, and recently added features such as a Battle Log and a Drawing Tool. A brief list of the modifications can be found in this post written by TheCheesymaster. Nrp has also put together a simple tutorial video on how to get started with this impressive set of tools. Keep in mind, it can be a little tricky to get working – so if you’re not very technically minded, you may just want to stick to the vanilla version. Tournaments There has been a surge of recent tournaments, but I’ll only be covering the ones occuring this weekend in this blog post. Remember, a great place to check for upcoming tournaments is the Scrollsguide Tournaments Forum. This month’s Braggin’ Brawl, a competition between Scrolls guilds, will be somewhat of a departure from previous formats. In the interest of making it easier for smaller guilds to participate, guilds are now allowed to register up to two “teams of three.” Click on the link above for more info – or visit the Scrollsguide Guild Recruitment forum to find yourself a guild. Two more ESL cups to go before the playoffs. Get your games in this weekend and win some gold and scrolls in the process! Rewards for placing high in an ESL series are as follows: Tournament heads for the top 4 players of the series playoffs 500 gold per participant in each cup will be distributed to the top 3 finishers A Tier 3 Scroll of choice to the winner of each cup Next Week’s Tournaments For casual and competitive players alike, allow me to introduce the Friday Minion League, scrolls.fr‘s Cheap Baguette Open, and Pineapple Cup #2! Click those links to find out more for now, but expect a mid-week blog post highlighting these tournaments individually. So… many… tournaments! (That’s a good thing) Meanwhile, most of the team has been on a field trip to the Game Developers Conference in San Francisco, California. Our new external artist, Vike, continues to crank out unit art in the meantime – which Bomuboi will begin animating once he returns. Did you know that he animated all four of the newly introduced units? He’s pretty darn good at it. See you next week! -Gary (@Atmaz)Brett Gibbs, an attorney for copyright-trolling firm Prenda Law, is in a tight spot. A Minnesota man named Alan Cooper has accused Prenda of stealing his identity and making him the head of two litigious shell companies called "AF Holdings" and "Ingenuity 13." Earlier this month, an angry California judge ordered Gibbs to appear in his courtroom on March 11 to explain himself, and he invited both Gibbs and defense attorney Morgan Pietz to file written comments on the issue. Both did so on Tuesday. Apparently realizing the legal danger he's in, Gibbs has hired attorney Andrew Waxler to represent him. As Fight Copyright Trolls notes, Waxler's focus is on "primarily defending lawyers in malpractice actions." "Mr. Gibbs has strived to be honest and forthright with this Court, and all courts during his legal career," Waxler writes. Gibbs' defense is that he's just a lowly outside counsel for Prenda, and that as a result he knows almost nothing about the clients he represents. In other words, if Prenda did anything unethical, it was the fault of his superiors, not him. According to Gibbs, his "only involvement with AF Holdings and Ingenuity was and is as a contracted outside attorney representing AF Holdings in California" on behalf of Prenda. Gibbs says that he "does not have direct contact with his clients and receives assignments related to the litigation from the senior attorneys. Thus, Mr. Gibbs does not have direct contact with the principals of AF Holdings or Ingenuity. Mr. Gibbs has never met Alan Cooper, and does not know the extent of Mr. Cooper's role is in AF Holdings aside from seeing a signature from an 'Alan Cooper' on the aforementioned assignment and pleadings." Of course, Gibbs doesn't specify who these "senior attorneys" are, but the Tuesday filing of defense lawyer Morgan Pietz names names. Pietz believes that "Alan Cooper" isn't the only bogus identity Prenda has used in recent years, and he offers still more evidence linking "Cooper" to Prenda puppetmaster John Steele. The real, Minnesota-based Alan Cooper worked for Steele as a caretaker before Cooper raised his identity-theft concerns. Prenda has identified a man named as "Salt Marsh" as the owner of AF Holdings. Since that doesn't sound like a real name, attorney Nicholas Ranallo did some digging. He was unable to find anyone named "Salt Marsh," but he did discover that a man named Anthony Saltmarsh shares an Arizona address with Steele's sister, Jayme Steele. Pietz suggests that Saltmarsh is Ms. Steele's "live-in boyfriend." Pietz also reveals the existence of another Prenda-linked company, called VPR Inc. A 2010 filing with the Nevada Secretary of state lists "Alan Cooper" as the firm's only officer, and "Cooper" is listed as having the same Arizona address Saltmarsh shares with Steele's sister. Finally, Pietz notes that on March 24, 2011, someone registered the domain notissues.com with the name "Alan Cooper" and the e-mail address johnlsteele@gmail.com. Here again, "Cooper" is listed as living with Ms. Steele in Arizona. If you believe there's really a man who has the name of Steele's caretaker, the address of Steele's sister, and the e-mail address of Steele himself, you might be interested in some unique swamp-related real estate opportunities in Florida, where Steele now resides. "Mr. Gibbs surely bears a significant amount of responsibility for Prenda’s egregious actions, but he has not acted alone," Pietz writes. "The fraud here is systematic, and part of a conspiracy involving several other lawyers and laypeople." In Pietz's view, these villains include Paul Duffy (nominally Prenda's principal), Steele, Steele's former law partner Paul Hansemeier, and Mark Lutz of Sunlust Pictures fame. Perhaps when the judge is finished grilling Gibbs, he should order these other Prenda-related people to his courtroom to answer questions about their activities. We've e-mailed Steele for comment and have not received a response. Listing image by Shawn HokePowerful stream primitives ( where ( or ( service # "^api" ) ( service # "^app" )) ( where ( tagged "exception" ) ( rollup 5 3600 ( email "dev@foo.com" )) ( else ( changed-state ( email "ops@foo.com" ))))) Riemann streams are just functions which accept an event. Events are just structs with some common fields like :host and :service You can use dozens of built-in streams for filtering, altering, and combining events, or write your own. Since Riemann's configuration is a Clojure program, its syntax is concise, regular, and extendable. Configuration-as-code minimizes boilerplate and gives you the flexibility to adapt to complex situations. I wrote Riemann for operations staff trying to keep a large, dynamic infrastructure running with unreliable but fault-tolerant components. For engineers who need to understand the source of errors and performance bottlenecks in production. For everyone fed up with traditional approaches; who want something fast, expressive, and powerful.It’s been over a year since Oliver Heldens first tipped us off to a forthcoming collaboration with Knife Party, but the wait is finally coming to an end. Recently dropped during Oliver Heldens’ Tomorrowland performance, the unreleased collaboration with Knife Party did more than tweak some heads at the festival’s enchanted main stage. It’s nothing close to the heavily charged jam we would have expected from Rob Swire and Oliver Heldens, but the underground result is inescapably awesome. The groove is on point, and the production’s fierce percussion elements are a fierce testament to the power of house. We have yet to hear an official title for the track, but with its tumbling drum hits and driven shuffles, this spritely gem is on par to have wicked success. Have a listen below, and get an earful of this newest gem starting at 14:37.Tens of thousands of Israelis and foreign friends of Israel from across the world flooded Jerusalem’s streets on Thursday as they marched to celebrate Israel’s existence. Follow Ynetnews on Facebook and Twitter Some of the participants who arrived for the traditional annual Jerusalem March explained to Ynet that they were motivated to attend due to their deep devotion to the Jewish people, their love of the nation of Israel and for the people living in Zion. Jerusalem March attracts thousands from around the world (צילום ועריכה: אלי מנדלבאום) X Jerusalem March 2016 (Photo: Eli Mendelbaum) The display of solidarity was particularly significant in light of the recent UNESCO decision to adopt a controversial resolution which Israel has said denies the deep historic Jewish connection to holy sites in Jerusalem. Shushana from Finland (Photo: Eli Mendelbaum) “We love Israel, and we want to support Israel, “said Shushana from Finland. “To feel the connection between Israelis is the best.” Photo: Eli Mndelbaum David from Canada enthusiastically told Ynet, “We want the Jewish people to know that Canada stands with them, that we love them and we say shalom to Israel. God bless you.” Peruvian delegation joins the festivities (Photo: Eli Mendelbaum) In keeping with tradition the parade, which takes place during Chol Hamoed—the interim period between Sukkot and Simchat Torah—saw the streets filled with groups hailing from dozens of nations waving the Israeli flag and singing traditional Israeli and Jewish songs of peace. After the conclusion of the march, a number of celebratory performances took place in different locations in the capital.A renowned physician and researcher, Jack McConnell proved to be a terrible retiree. "I never got so bored in my life," says McConnell, whose career achievements include directing the development of the tuberculosis tine test, Tylenol tablets, and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) technology. "I sat around thinking, 'Is this all I got left?'" It wasn't: after retiring to Hilton Head, South Carolina, to play golf, the pediatrician quickly noticed that a large number of the resort island's low-income residents had no health care. So he started a free medical clinic to serve them, luring recently retired physicians and nurses off the golf course and back to work."We offer them a way to practice medicine the way they were taught to practice," says McConnell in his honeyed East Tennessee drawl—an unhurried, personal approach that dates to an era before managed care. The success of the Volunteers in Medicine Clinic, which opened in 1994 and last year tallied nearly 30,000 patient visits, speaks both to Hilton Head's doctor-heavy demographics and to the persuasive powers of its founder. (McConnell persuaded South Carolina lawmakers to waive licensing procedures, obtained blanket malpractice coverage for a fraction of the normal rate, and even coaxed local contractors to donate their construction services.) Now, the Volunteers in Medicine Institute is using McConnell's model to build a network of free clinics nationwide; so far it's opened 50 clinics from Washington to Georgia. "Every community in this country has all the resources it needs to operate a facility like ours," says the intrepid physician, who at 81 is in the process of starting a clinic in Africa. "But someone has to step up and take the risk." *The name of this award was originally the Impact Award. In 2008, the awards were renamed as the Inspire Awards.SMU head coach Larry Brown waves to the crowd after winning an NCAA college basketball game against UC Irvine in the first round of the NIT Wednesday, March 19, 2014, in Dallas. SMU won 68-54. (AP Photo/Sharon Ellman) (Photo: The Associated Press) DALLAS (AP) — Cannen Cunningham scored 17 points to lead SMU to a 68-54 victory Wednesday night over UC-Irvine in the first round of the NIT, giving Hall of Fame coach Larry Brown his first college postseason victory in 26 years. Ben Moore added 11 points in the Mustangs' first NIT win since 2000. Nick Russell had 10. Top-seeded SMU, which was ranked as high as No. 18 this month, lost its final three games of the season to miss out on the 68-team NCAA tournament. The Mustangs will face LSU in the second round SMU (24-9) used a 23-7 run in the second half to erase a 35-29 deficit, scoring inside and hitting free throws to balloon the lead to 53-42 with 8:16 left. However, less than 2 minutes later, officials determined the Mustangs inadvertently were given a 1-and-1 opportunity too early, and they subtracted two points from the hosts to make it 51-44 with 7:24 left. "In the NBA they go back to a correctable situation, but we lost the ball," Brown said. "Made two free throws, I could see them taking that away, but why did we lose the ball?" Soon after the overturned call, a UC-Irvine foul was overturned after discussion by the referees. "He called it foul," said Brown, who turns 74 in September. "I've never seen that, but again they came over and explained it to me. They didn't like the rule. They told me they didn't like the rule, but that's the way it had to be called." The call didn't seem to affect the Mustangs, as the Anteaters never got closer than six the rest of the way. Luke Nelson led No. 8 seed UC-Irvine (23-12) with 13 points, and Alex Young chipped in 10. After the Anteaters turned a 30-29 halftime lead into a 35-29 advantage less than three minutes into the second half, SMU cranked up its intensity to erase the lead. "Cannen especially, he was being aggressive," Moore said. So I think that really picked up the tempo for us because we see him going hard and we see him really trying to be aggressive. So I think that really helped us out." Copyright 2014 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.KOCHI: Muslim women are not allowed to travel alone for the Haj pilgrimage to avoid risking their safety, the state government has informed the Kerala high court. The government clarified its stance on a petition filed by a Muslim woman questioning the Haj Committee of India’s denial of permission to her to travel with a female companion. According to the committee’s rules, Muslim women have to be accompanied by a male family member to perform Haj.The petitioner, 64-year-old Aminakutty Mohammed of Kadalundi in Malappuram district, is demanding a court order permitting her to travel with a female companion.Opposing this, senior government counsel Sajid T P told the court of Justice Antony Dominic that it was in view of the safety and security risks involved in permitting Muslim women to travel alone that the Haj committee was insisting that they be accompanied by a male family member.The counsel also opposed the plea on the ground that the decision of the Haj committee would fall under the realm of government policy.As per the rules framed by the Haj committee, women performing Haj should be accompanied by a male member of the family whom she cannot marry. Such a male member is termed as ‘mehram’ in Sharia, the moral code and religious law of Islam.Questioning the Haj committee’s denial of permission for want of a ‘mehram’, the woman has alleged that it amounts to gender-based discrimination. The Haj committee’s decision is violation of Article 14 of the Constitution, which guarantees right to equality before law and prohibits discrimination on grounds of religion, race, caste, sex, or place of birth, her petition said.ABC This Week viewers were treated to a classic conservative versus liberal debate Sunday. When former Clinton labor secretary Robert Reich tried to blame the increase in poverty in the past five years on Republicans, former Speaker of the House and current CNN host Newt Gingrich called it "baloney" firing back, "Every major city which is a center of poverty is run by Democrats" (video follows with transcript and absolutely no need for additional commentary): JONATHAN KARL, SUBSTITUTE HOST: And let me ask you, Mr. Gingrich, Speaker, when you look at that issue of inequality - and this is something he's put front and center, the Pope has. It's something of course that President Obama talks a lot about. We saw the story about homelessness in New York-- NEWT GINGRICH, FORMER SPEAKER OF THE HOUSE: Sure. KARL: Stark reality of the gap in the nation's biggest city. Is this an issue that Republicans should be talking about? GINGRICH: Absolutely. I mean, how can you justify the level of wealth in those big towers in New York City and the level of poverty in those alleys? And without talking about government, say, surely a society that cared, that believed every person was endowed by their creator with the right to pursue happiness, would come up with a better solution than 22,000 children that are homeless. And I think that the Republican Party has an obligation to rethink some of its indifference to the very poor. And I think the Democrats have an obligation to ask themselves after 50 years of the war on poverty, isn't it clear that government is not a very good [unintelligible]. (CROSSTALK) ROBERT REICH: The war on poverty - which next year we are going to celebrate the 50th anniversary in addition to the Civil Rights Act - the war on poverty was successful for a time. What has happened however over the last 30 years is that much of the, much of the ardor, much of the concern, much of the, what propelled that war on poverty has dissipated. KARL: Why after five years of President Barack Obama we see the problem worse? REICH: Well the problem is worse; I think it has something to do, perhaps, with the intransigence of the Speaker's Party, because every time there was a jobs bill, every time there was an effort to expand a low income housing, every time there was an effort to provide better opportunities for young people. We're talking about equal opportunity. GINGRICH: Every major, every, this is baloney. REICH: At the basis of this, what is baloney? GINGRICH: Here's the baloney. Every major city which is a center of poverty is run by Democrats. Every major city. Their policies have failed, they're not willing to admit and the fact is it's the poor who suffer from bad [unintelligible].Cases of measles in England continue to fall, with 73 confirmed cases in July. This is the third successive fall in monthly measles totals (from 116 and 194 cases in June and May) and brings the total number to 1,365 cases since the start of the year. In April, a nationwide MMR catch-up programme was launched by Public Health England, NHS England and the Department of Health. The programme aimed to prevent measles outbreaks by vaccinating as many unvaccinated and partially vaccinated 10 to 16 year olds as possible ahead of the new school year that starts this week. Progress in the campaign has been monitored using data on the MMR vaccination status of children between 10 and 16 years old, gathered during July 2013 from around a quarter of general practices in England. When compared with data for a similar number of children aged 9 to 15 years in 2012, and then extrapolated to all GP practices in England, the numbers suggest that almost 65,000 previously unvaccinated children nationally may have received a dose of MMR vaccine since last year. Additionally, around 2% more children in the 10 to 16 year age group have completed the 2 dose course. Most vaccines were given in primary care, although in some areas school campaigns were undertaken in response to local measles outbreaks. Vaccine supply figures suggest that around 200,000 extra doses of MMR have been used. Plans are now being developed to further reinforce the programme and increase vaccine uptake in school age children. Dr Mary Ramsay, Head of Immunisation at Public Health England, said: We are still making good progress towards the 95% uptake target. We have seen a persistent month-on-month drop in cases, however, it is still too soon to tell if this is of consequence to the campaign. As children return to school this week it is important to remember that measles is highly infectious and spreads easily in the classroom. Children who are fully vaccinated with MMR help to stop the
are telling your mind to build cognitive shortcuts so that you can analyze data faster. This means that your attention is focused on examining these fields and sequences, and other areas of these packets lose part of your attention. While cognitive shortcuts like these are helpful they can also promote IB. In the example above, if you look closely at other parts of the packets, you will notice that the third packet, a TCP SYN packet initiating the communication between 192.168.1.12 and 203.0.113.12 actually has a data length value of 5. This is peculiar because it isn’t customary to see data present in a TCP SYN packet whose purpose is simply to establish stateful communication via the three-way handshake process. In this case, the friendly host in question was infected with malware and was using these extra 5 bytes of data in the TCP SYN to check in to a remote host and provide its status. This isn’t a very common technique, but the data is right in front of our face. You might have noticed the extra data in the context of this article because the nature of the article made you expect something weird to be there, but in practice, many analysts fail to notice this data point. Let’s look at one more example. In Figure 2 we see a screen populated with alerts from multiple sources fed into the Sguil console. In this case, we have a screen full of anomalies waiting to be investigated. There is surely evil to be found while digging into these alerts, but one alert in particular provides a unique anomaly that we can derive immediately. Do you see it? Figure 2: Alerts in Sguil Our investigative habits tell us that the thing we really need to focus on when triaging alerts is the name of the signature that fired. After all, it tells us what is going on and can relay some sense of priority to our triage process. However, take a look at Alert 2.84. If you observe the internal (RFC1918) addresses reflected in all of the other alerts, they all relate to devices in the 192.168.1.0/24 range. Alert 2.84 was generated for a device in the 192.168.0.0/24 range. This is a small discrepancy, but if this is not on a list of approved network ranges then there is a potential for a non-approved device on the network. Of course, this could just be a case of someone plugging a cheap wireless access point into the network, but it could also be a hijacked virtual host running a new VM spun up by an attacker, or a Raspberry Pi someone plugged into a hidden wall jack to use as an entry point on to your network. Regardless of the signature name here, this alert is now something that warrants more immediate attention. This is another item that might not be spotted so easily, even by the experienced analyst. Everyone is susceptible to IB, and it is something we battle ever day. How can we try to avoid missing things that are right in front of our eyes? Diminishing the Effects The unfortunate truth is that it isn’t possible to eliminate IB because it is a product of attention. As long as we have the ability to focus our attention in one area, then we will become blind to things outside of that area. With that said, there are things we can do to diminish some of these affects and improve our ability to investigate security incidents and ensure we don’t miss as much. Expertise The easiest way to diminish some of the affects of IB is through expertise in the subject matter. In our leading example we mentioned that there were a few people who stopped to listen to Joshua play his violin in the station. It is useful to know that at least two of those people were professional musicians themselves. Hearing the music as they walked through the station triggered the right mechanisms in their brain to allow them to notice what was occurring, compelling them to stop. This was because they are experts in the field of music and probably maintain a state of awareness related to the sound of expert violin playing. Amongst the hustle and bustle of the metro station, their brain allowed them not to miss the thing that people without that expertise had missed. In security investigations it’s clear to see IB at work in less experienced analysts. Without a higher level of expertise these junior analysts have not learned how to focus their attention in the right areas so that they don’t miss important things. If you hand a junior analyst a packet capture and ask them where they would look to find evil, chances are their list of places to look would be much shorter than a senior analyst, or it would have a number of extraneous items that aren’t worth being included. They simply haven’t tuned their ability to focus attention in the right places. More senior analysts have developed the skill to be able to selectively apply their attention, but they rarely have the ability to codify it or explain it to another person. The more experienced analysts get at identifying and teaching this information, the better chance of younger analysts getting necessary expertise faster. Directed Focus While analysts spend most of their time looking at data, that data is often examined through the lens of tools like SIEMs, packet sniffers, and command line data manipulation utilities. As a young industry, many of these tools are very minimal and don’t provide a lot of visual cues related to where attention should be focused. This is beneficial in some ways because it leaves the interpretation fully open to the analyst, but without having opinionated software this sort of thing promotes IB. As an example, consider the output of tcpdump below. Tcpdump is one of the tools I use the most, but it provides no visual queues for the analysts. Figure 3: Tcpdump provides little in the way of visual cues to direct the focus of attention We can compare Tcpdump to a tool like Wireshark, which has all sorts of visual cues that give you an idea of things you need to look at first. This is done primarily via color coding, highlighting, and segmenting different types of data. Note that the packet capture shown in Figure 3 is the same one shown in Figure 4. Which is easier to visually process? Figure 4: Wireshark provides a variety of visual cues to direct attention. It is for this reason that tools developed by expert analysts are desirable. This expertise can be incorporated into the tool, and the tool can be opinionated such that it directs users towards areas where attentional focus can be beneficial. Taking this one step farther, tools that really excel in this area allow analyst users to place their own visual cues. In Wireshark for example, analysts can add packet comments, custom packet coloring rules, and mark packets that are of interest. These things can direct attention to the right places and serve as an educational tool. Developing tools in this manner is no easy task, but as our collective experience in this industry evolves this has to become a focus. Peer Review One last mechanism for diminishing the affects of IB that warrants mention is the use of peer review. I’ve written about the need for peer review and tools that can facilitate it multiple times. IB is ultimately a limitation that is a product of an analyst training, experience, biases, and mindset. Because of this, every analyst is subject to his or her own unique blind spots. Sometimes we can correlate these across multiple analyst who have worked in the same place for a period of time or were trained by the same person, but in general everyone is their own special snowflake. Because of this, simply putting another set of eyes on the same set of data can result in findings that vary from person to person. This level of scrutiny isn’t always feasible for every investigation, but certainly for incident response and investigations beyond the triage process, putting another analyst in the loop is probably one of the most effective ways to diminish potential misses as a result if IB. Conclusion Inattentional blindness is one of many cognitive enemies of the analyst. As long as the human analyst is at the center of the investigative process (and I hope they always are), the biggest obstacle most will have to overcome is their own self imposed biases and limitations. While we can never truly overcome these limitations without stripping away everything that makes us human, an awareness of them has been scientifically proven to increase performance in similar fields. Combining this increased level of metacognitive awareness with an arsenal of techniques we can do to minimize the effect of cognitive limitations will go a long way towards making us all better investigators and helping us catch more bad guys.by Timothy Baldwin I find it very interesting and disturbing to see how a constitution can be used to trap and enslave the people of the states into a statically fixed and inflexible union, along with an alleged supremacy of federal laws over state sovereignty, when the meaning of that same document can allegedly change over time under the so-called â€œliving constitutionâ€ theory. Let us apply first principles to find the truth of the matter. If a constitutionâ€™s meaning can change and thus its application and implementation, based upon current variable and assorted conditions, then the union itself must likewise be capable of change, based upon those same considerations. Have you not noticed, when someone suggests that the sovereigns of a state have the natural and compactual right to peacefully withdraw themselves from the union (which was formed by the statesâ€™ ratification of the U.S. Constitution in 1787), there are those self-proclaimed constitution-loving scholars and politicians who proudly protest, â€œNo! You cannot do that! It is not allowed by our constitution! Once you voluntarily entered the union, you have waived your right to leave the union!â€ In the same breath, those same persons will gladly propose that the meaning and application of our constitution can change over time under a â€œliving constitutionâ€ so that our laws may reflect the current conditions of society (of course, determined by those other than the affected sovereigns themselves). They admit too much, for this statement is based upon a principle that necessarily destroys the position that the states have no right to dissolve their compact, or alternatively, destroys the living constitution theory. If a constitutionâ€™s meaning and application can change over time based upon current conditions, then that necessarily means the union itself is subject to the same fluctuations as determined by the sovereigns that unilaterally became a part of that union. If the goal of a constitutionâ€™s force is supposedly to secure freedom, and in the name of that goal, those living-constitutionalists propose that a constitution changes over time, then it necessarily follows by principle of constitutional construction that those states who originally bound themselves to its force can relieve themselves of that force where the circumstances justify its dissolution. Put differently, where the circumstances of their ratification have changed to the point that freedom is best protected by their removal from the union, then removal it is as they choose. But I guess living-constitutionalists would deny the states this right because it would deny ultimate power to the almighty union/federal governmentâ€“their political god. See, you cannot have it both ways: that is, the character and nature of the constitution changes over time, but the force holding those who voluntary entered the union never changes. The constitution provides both the meaning of government limitations and the terms of union. If the meaning can change, then so can the union. If you argue otherwise, please explain how a party to a compact (i.e. constitution) who entered the union upon certain guarantees, promises, protections and limitations is forever bound to that union (by force) when those guarantees, promises, protections and limitations are removed and replaced with meanings and applications contrary and different from those originally promised to be true. This is called â€œbait and switchâ€ which is considered criminal and illegal in any contract scenario throughout the states in America. Do you think this principle applies less to the most fundamental law in society: that is, in constitutions? George Washington did not think so: â€œThe Constitution which at any time exists, till changed by an explicit and authentic act of the whole people, is sacredly obligatory upon all.â€ George Washington and William T. Peck, ed., Washingtonâ€™s Farewell Address and Websterâ€™s Bunker Hill Orations, (New York: Macmillan Co., original from Harvard University, 1919), 12. Of course, tyrannyâ€™s way is to not to change a constitution by the explicit and authentic acts of the people who created the constitution (which of course requires debate, consent and ratification), but by oligarchic methods of court decisions, government precedent and fraud. As I have noted before, the â€œliving constitutionâ€ idea was the catalyst to Americaâ€™s War for Independence. It is in fact the trap that would-be tyrants who creep up in republics use to trap and enslave unsuspecting (and of course, ignorant) people in what would otherwise be a free country based upon free principles in a constitution. It is in fact the snare that has been used against the states of America for generations and it is still used today as an extremely useful method for entrapment of sovereign states. The end result: governing the un-consented: tyranny. Today marks a distinct point in Americaâ€™s history where the sovereign states of America have to make a decision about what principles they will submit to: the principles of freedom or the principles of slavery. Decisions are being made in this arena today, and will continue to be made as tyrannyâ€™s grip squeezes tighter and firmer around our necks. Some will choose freedom. Some will choose slavery. Some may be scared about what this may mean (not giving credibility to such feelings, but only observing them). It may mean economic struggles and political battles. It may mean inconvenience and more responsibility. It may mean political involvement and actually choosing a side. It may mean pains and labors and re-education. But I must ask: is the price of freedom too high? For our founders, they proved what Patrick Henry eloquently stated: â€œIs life so dear, or peace so sweet, as to be purchased at the price of chains and slavery? Forbid it, Almighty God! I know not what course others may take; but as for me, give me liberty, or give me death!â€ Indeed, Americaâ€™s founders did not believe the price of freedom was too highâ€“at least with the assumption that their posterity would contribute their minds, hearts and bodies to maintaining that freedom. After having experienced all the hardships of securing freedom for these states in America, John Adams says to his posterity: â€œPosterity, you will never know how much it cost the present generation to preserve your freedom. I hope you will make good use of it. If you do not, I shall repent in heaven that ever I took half the pains to preserve it.â€ John Adams, Abigail Adams, and Charles Francis Adams, Familiar Letters of John Adams and His Wife Abigail Adams, During the Revolution: With a Memoir of Mrs. Adams, (New York: Hurd and Houghton, 1876), 265. Perhaps John Adams has already repented. Ultimately, matters of political and societal freedom are determined by those sovereign body-politics that have the power to make and un-make constitutions. The ultimate matter of which states will live in freedom is determined by the body-politic of that state: the people, who comprise the sovereign element of the state. Where lines are crossed, the sovereigns must decide for itself the recourse it will take to redress the usurpation. This is no new concept. James Madison notes the dangers in political battles whereby the federal government usurps power from the states as perpetrated by Congress and the President and confirmed by the U.S. Supreme Court decisions. He says in Federalist Paper 39: â€œ[The United States Supreme Court decisions are] to be impartially made, according to the rules of the Constitution[, which] is clearly essential to prevent an appeal to the sword and a dissolution of the compact.â€ Madison recognized that when the federal government usurps its powers IN THE NAME OF the constitution, this puts the states in a natural position to defend their freedom and their powers. It forces the states to revert back to pre-U.S. Constitution status and to recall those powers once given. As a parenthetical note, Madison also recognized that an appeal to the sword is not necessarily the same thing as dissolution of the compact. It is only when union is forced by tyrants that an appeal to the sword is necessary in self-defense. Otherwise, dissolution of compacts should be peaceful. We have been told for years that the meanings and applications of the constitution supposedly have changed over time and that this is in fact constitutionally correct. Well then, what is good for the goose is good for the gander. That is, principles of construction require this conclusion: the sovereigns of the states then most assuredly have the innate right and power to decide whether or not those changes shall apply to their body-politic, in the interest of preserving freedom. Otherwise, if states are not allowed to choose their own political and societal fate after they entered into the union, then the federal government most certainly should not be given power which changes over time. One is static and the other is fluid. Yet both are governed by the same document. Moreover, do we see the chains of the constitution binding the federal government (as intended) to the same constraints that they insistently impose upon the people of the states?! Ha! It makes me laugh even to suggest it. People of the states, it is time to wake up to our political realities. It is time to that we know the traps that have been laid before us. We must be astute statesmen and stateswomen, who know the principles of freedom, who know the nature and character of our union, who know when we are being taken for the gullible servants we have become. It is time that we not fall victim to tyrannyâ€™s trap. The States of America must once again look to the principles of freedom and into our own borders and sovereignty for political and societal freedom! Tim Baldwin is an attorney who received his Juris Doctor degree from Cumberland School of Law at Samford University in Birmingham, Alabama. He is a former felony prosecutor for the Florida State Attorneyâ€™s Office and now owns his own private law practice. He is author of a soon-to-be-published new book, entitled FREEDOM FOR A CHANGE. Tim is also one of Americaâ€™s foremost defenders of State sovereignty.Â See his website. Copyright (c) Timothy Baldwin, 2009.The name of the game was the same for all contributors — to be the differentiator in a room full of HR experts. Whether the solution was concentrated on driving candidate experience, improving employee retention, or creating better internal communication, they all lacked the most important factor of the recruiting process — finding the right fit. There’s no reason to drive candidate experience with one hundred of the wrong candidates. It’s impossible to improve employee retention if you’re hiring the wrong kind of talent. And creating better internal communication doesn’t matter if you’re not interviewing the candidates fit for the job. There were a few buzzwords at the event that simply clouded over the rest, including: Data Analytics, Artificial Intelligence, and Machine Learning. These “buzzwords” are carrying a great amount of weight in the lives and organizations of HR experts. Why? Because they’re transforming the industry — which means they’re demanding our attention. When you hear the words, Artificial Intelligence, your mind immediately goes to another place — robots, machines, and big data. But, you also envision deeper intel at your fingertips, higher productivity, and more efficient processes. That’s why it’s intriguing — no one knows exactly what to think when they see the letters “AI” side by side, but it captivates our attention. At Arya, we believe that AI is disrupting talent acquisition — creating a more intelligent workforce by augmenting what individuals can do. AI is providing recruiters with both valuable and actionable insight — allowing them to successfully identify and place the best fit. This enhances the growth of a personal candidate experience, drastically raises retention rates, decreases time-to-fill and most importantly, identifies a quality hire fit for the job. Artificial Intelligence at HR Tech We were amazed at the excitement surrounding Artificial Intelligence for Recruiting at HR Tech. The heart of our conversations were with individuals excited that AI can automate their sourcing and increase their recruiters’ productivity. Others were more intrigued by the fact that AI capitalizes on their internal data and consolidates their processes. But all were captivated by the clear competitive advantage this technology brings. Either way you spin it, AI providers were a rarity at this show. The buzz was there, but there were very few exhibitors strictly focused on empowering recruiters with an AI tool. Why? Because it’s a differentiator — and people are arriving late to the party. Knowledge is power AI takes large volumes of complicated data and turns it into meaningful and accessible information for your recruiters — creating a strategic action plan for your organization. If you’re confused about the terminology and just want a simple explanation for what’s going on behind the scenes of this technology, here it is: Data uncovers the story — AI delivers it. Finding the best fit for a position is every recruiting organization’s end goal. Nothing else matters if you can’t find the candidate that will excel in the position and grow in the organization. Enter AI. By automating your sourcing, AI identifies (by comparing several plots of data to millions of profiles) the candidates who will be the best fit for the position — delivering a deeper story of who they are to your recruiters, empowering them to spend their time on building the appropriate relationships and placing the best talent (Learn the specifics here). The Arya platform is the only machine learning engine to source candidates. That means it retains your knowledge and learns to duplicate your successful hiring patterns and best practices. That’s a game-changer. (In all honesty, the star of the show may just have been Arya herself. She was a photographer, a selfie-queen, and she clearly drew the attention of passer-bys. See for yourself): Final thoughts We were incredibly thankful that we got to be a part of HR Tech 2016. The future of HR is something to be excited about! At the end of the day, it didn’t matter how large your backdrop looked, how extravagantly decorated your booth was, or the level of flashiness your promotional items met. What mattered was how valuable your solution was. HR innovation is transforming the way companies are operating — growing the workforce as a whole. AI is placing the growth of recruiting directly into your hands. I’d say it doesn’t get any more valuable than that. Are you ready to be a part of the solution that will catalyze the success of talent acquisition? The time is now. See you next year, HR Tech!Every once in a while, a feature request comes in that may not matter to a lot of our customers, and may only be used by a few people ever, but that is really important. Colorblind mode is one such feature. I was hanging out with Vince (a product manager at one of our awesome customers, Betterworks) and going through his feedback on Rainforest. We got through the long long list of his desires and dislikes (thanks Vince!). He finally paused, and said “oh, one more thing – I’m partially colorblind and I can’t tell the difference between passes and fails in Rainforest”. And so began a journey of discovery. The problem Vince, like roughly 8% of men, is colorblind. The most common type of colorblindness is the group known as red-green deficiencies. People with this condition have trouble distinguishing between red and green, especially between similar shades. Let’s take a look at our dashboard – the screen that Vince had problems with. Oops. The only way to tell if something has passed or failed in Rainforest is through distinguishing between red and green. By removing the colors, we can get an even better sense of how this might look to someone like Vince: So it’s pretty clear that this design really doesn’t work for Vince, and for a couple of reasons: Colors are the only way of conveying important information. There is no secondary signifier, meaning that if you can’t tell the colors apart this interface is useless. (Read more on designing for colorblind users.) It’s very hard to actually distinguish between the two colors, since they are such similar shades. Solution 1: show important information using symbols as well as color This was the easiest ‘fix’. Previously, we had repeated the browser icon on each ‘result’, with the color as the only signifier of pass or fail (yes, this was a crappy design). Since the browser is obvious because it’s the key for the column, we could replace this repeated information with something useful – a symbol denoting pass or failure: This is really just a principle of good design – don’t repeat yourself, and don’t display information unless it’s helping your customer do the job they are trying to do. However, this is still only visible after you have expanded a set of results. So we also need to update the colors on the page to make it easier for Vince to tell them apart. Solution 2: update the important colors to be easier to tell apart People with red-green colorblindness have a hard time differentiating between red and green. So, the second step to making Rainforest’s dashboard usable for Vince is to pick two colors that are super easy to tell apart: And using our simple way of checking contrast when the color information isn’t clear, this seems to be an improvement: And sure enough, Vince was happy! Boom!!! goes the dynamite. I can unequivocally identify pass/fail. Before it required a lot of squinting. Nice! Love you Vince. How to do this for your customers The way we implemented this was through applying a.colorblind class to the body for all users with a certain flag enabled, and then to create a conditional stylesheet to override certain important colors. The code for both is trivial, but here’s the stylesheet for your perusal (SCSS). We added an accessibility area to the user settings section to toggle this simply: But that got me to thinking – surely there’s a better, more universal way of handling this? The elegance of Cascading Style Sheets make it trivial to override styles in your app based on specific classes. So why should every app developer reinvent the wheel and write custom code to tell the browser that this user is colorblind. Isn’t that the browser’s job? Wouldn’t it make more sense for the user to have some sort of way to inform every website they visit about their accesibility requirements? You can probably see where this is going. Introducing: an accessibility extension I whipped together a simple extension that tells any website you visit that you are colorblind, by adding a.colorblind class to the body of the page. Check it out on the Chrome webstore or on GitHub. This seems like the easiest way to improve accessibility across the web, by keeping it ultra simple for developers to target colorblind users and removing the need to create the infrastructure and code to store whether a particular user is colorblind or not. Future versions will add more granular information (for example, the type of colorblindness), as well as displaying to the user whether the site they are on has styles specifically targeting their accessibility requirements. If you’re interested or think that you have a better idea for helping solve this issue, please create issues on the project and submit your improvements as pull requests. Mostly just share it with your colorblind friends.Filmmaker Michael Moore announced he was hosting a star-studded protest of President-elect Donald Trump’s inauguration. Continue Reading Below And who cares? No one. At least that’s what the author of “Michael Moore is a Big Fat Stupid White Man” says. “I hate to admit it, but basically Michael Moore’s become irrelevant. I hate to admit it because that means that I’ve become irrelevant,” author David Hardy told the FOX Business Network’s Stuart Varney. Hardy said Moore no longer has the clout and draw he once had. The liberal filmmaker made some of the highest-grossing documentaries of all time – but his time has passed, Hardy said. “In terms of mobilizing people, he has a handful, small cadre of followers who are loud, but have no real world effect,” he said. Advertisement Hardy viewed Moore’s calls for protests more as a PR stunt, rather than a political statement. “In fact, Moore thrives on this sort of thing,” Hardy said. “He desperately wants to be noticed, he doesn’t want to face the fact that, you know, we’re over the hill.”Our editor’s pick of this week’s 10 best psychology and neuroscience links: The Two Kinds of Stories We Tell About Ourselves “One of the great contributions of psychology and psychotherapy research is the idea that we can edit, revise and interpret the stories we tell about our lives even as we are constrained by the facts,” writes Emily Esfahani Smith at Ideas.TED.com Split Brain, Undivided Consciousness? Neuroskeptic says a new paper challenges a decades-old theory in neuroscience. The Secret To Living a Meaningful Life Your ambitions to improve your life do not need to be confined by your personality. For my latest Personology column at BBC Future I looked at the inspiring research of Professor Brian Little. Exceptional Minds: Where Autism Is No Barrier To Success Watch this video about Exceptional Minds, an animation studio and digital arts school for young adults who fall on the autism spectrum. William James, Dude You have to see this photograph of a young William James, shown at Mind Hacks. Locked-in Patients Tell Doctors They are ‘Happy’ After Computer Reads Thoughts A small but remarkable new study, reported at The Telegraph. The Curse of Confidence In this short BBC Radio 4 show, Rowland Manthorpe explains why he thinks the quality of confidence is overrated and is more of a curse than a blessing. The Secret Life of Five-Year-Olds This episode of a new series on Channel 4 examines differences between boys’ and girls’ behaviour, with a series of challenges that explore everything from levels of risk-taking to tactfulness. What We Talk About When We Talk About Donald Trump and ‘Gaslighting’ The psychological term, borrowed from pop culture, which is now being used to describe what President Trump is doing to us. By Caitlin Gibson at The Washington Post. Cross Section: Uta Frith – Science Weekly podcast For the Guardian’s Science Weekly podcast, Nicola Davis sits down with Professor Uta Frith to talk autism, passion, rebellion and the role of women in science. — Christian Jarrett (@Psych_Writer) is Editor of BPS Research DigestThe community of Hopkinsville has been mourning the loss of a teen who was killed in a gun-related accident. The incident happened Saturday on Beaumont Court. Reports stated 14-year-old Elijah Austin, known as EJ, was playing video games at a relative’s house when he accidentally shot himself with a gun that was in the home. The deputy coroner said they do not believe foul play was involved; however, an autopsy has been set in Louisville, Kentucky to determine any further details. According to his coach, the team and those in need following EJ’s death met at 2 p.m. Sunday. Hopkinsville High School Principal Todd Marshall said he was a rising star. "He was a very good student. As a freshman, he was emerging as a leader on the football team and within the school," Marshall said. Marshall said EJ played football, baseball, basketball, and grew up in the neighborhood. "Right now our school is grieving an awesome student, and we're sorry for the family and ask for prayers for the family," Marshall said. Marshall said EJ excelled in the classroom. "Good student," Marshall said. "Very proud of him. Worked well with other kids, was always in a good mood in the hallways when I saw him. Just a good student all around. We're sorry for his loss." The principal added EJ was already receiving interest from potential colleges. "And was probably going to be a big star within four years for us, and colleges would have been looking at him tremendously," Marshall said. There was an outpouring of love and condolences on social media Sunday. One of his coaches tweeted: "Best Frosh DB [defensive back] I've ever coached. Even better kid & leader. Had such a bright future that was matched by an infectious personality. Gone too soon." "He had that leadership quality where kids just kind of followed him on and off the field. He could ask kids to do things in the school, and they would kind of follow him along," Marshall said. The Monday after fall break, they will have grief counselors at school. The football team's official twitter page tweeted out a link to a gofundme account to help the family during this difficult time. *NewsChannel5.com does not assure that the monies or donations deposited to the account will be applied for the benefit of the persons named as beneficiaries. If you are considering a donation, you should consult your own advisers and otherwise proceed at your own risk.Josh Crabb, CTV Winnipeg Fourteen-year-old Carson McConnell is focused on this weekend's provincial hockey championship. Soon, Carson – a defenseman with the Pembina Valley Bantam AAA Hawks – will have to shift his attention to where he will play hockey next season. A decision that he says, just got a little more complicated. "I was looking at AAA Midget,” said McConnell. “To try and work really hard over the summer and to try and make it next year would be my goal, but now I got a couple other options.” One of those options is attending a sports school for hockey. In the past it would’ve meant leaving Manitoba and his home in Pilot Mound. Except now, Carson could do that while staying in his hometown. Home to a little more than 600 people, and a new arena built almost entirely by volunteers, the southern Manitoba community will soon become home to the province's only hockey sports school for boys. "It will be good exposure for the town, it will bring a lot of dollars into the area for us,” said Pat Sutherland, the president of the Pilot Mound Recreation Complex. “You got some kids sharing the same dream, to achieve the best level of hockey they can, and we're going to bring it up a notch," said Sutherland. The town partnered with Fred Voser of SISEC Hockey Academy in Calgary and got approval from Hockey Manitoba to create the Pilot Mound Hockey Academy. It will become a place where midget-age players, between 15 and 17 years old, can get their education while sharpening their on-ice skills and pursuing a dream. "What we're actually doing is we're putting a product in place that might keep the local kid in Manitoba," said Voser. Rod Collins grew up in Pilot Mound and will coach and manage the program. He has coached at sports schools before—with the Notre Dame Hounds in Wilcox, Saskatchewan and also at Shattuck Saint Mary's in Minnesota, where he helped develop superstars Sidney Crosby and Jonathan Toews. "His hockey knowledge is incredible and will bring great assets to the academy," said Voser. The Pilot Mound Hockey Academy wants to compete in the Manitoba AAA Midget Hockey League but still needs league approval. If they don't get into that league, Voser said they will compete in the Canadian Sport School Hockey League against similar schools based in Alberta and BC. Hockey Manitoba Executive Director Peter Woods said while there are already sports schools for girls in Manitoba, this is the first one for boys in the province. Woods said it will give families another option. “Anytime we have an opportunity for players to stay a little bit close to home, certainly from a family perspective and a development perspective, I think it's opportunistic to take advantage of that,” said Woods. The academy will recruit outside the province, but their main goal is to give Manitobans a sports school closer to home. It will cost families $26,000 to send their kids for the year. That fee includes travel, ice time, 50-60 games, strength and conditioning training and room and board (players will be billeted with local families), as well as their education. Voser said the cost is in line with other sports schools, but more expensive than playing AAA Midget hockey. The players at the academy will attend Pilot Mound School which is already preparing to welcome 25 new kids from the academy in the fall. Rick McConnell said his family must now help Carson decide if a sports school would be right for their son. "It's tough, there's a lot of pressure at this age," said Rick. "It's really going to depend on the family and the kid, what they're looking for, if they want to leave home. There's a lot of things that come into play,” he said. Carson wants to do whatever will take his hockey the furthest and go where scouts will see him play. "The hockey school would probably get you a little more exposure, but AAA Midget is high in exposure too," said Carson. Now, he has both options in his own backyard.Abstract Background. Microbiome-directed therapies are increasingly used preoperatively and postoperatively to improve postoperative outcomes. Recently, the effectiveness of probiotics, prebiotics, and synbiotics in reducing postoperative complications (POCs) has been questioned. This systematic review aimed to examine and rank the effectiveness of these therapies on POCs in adult surgical patients. Methods. We searched for articles from PubMed, Embase, Cochrane, Web of Science, Scopus, and CINAHL plus. From 2002 to 2015, 31 articles meeting the inclusion criteria were identified in the literature. Risk of bias and heterogeneity were assessed. Network meta-analyses (NMA) were performed using random-effects modeling to obtain estimates for study outcomes. Risk ratios (RRs) and 95% confidence intervals (CIs) were estimated. We then ranked the comparative effects of all regimens with the surface under the cumulative ranking (SUCRA) probabilities. Results. A total of 2,952 patients were included. We found that synbiotic therapy was the best regimen in reducing surgical site infection (SSI) (RR = 0.28; 95% CI, 0.12–0.64) in adult surgical patients. Synbiotic therapy was also the best intervention to reduce pneumonia (RR = 0.28; 95% CI, 0.09–0.90), sepsis (RR = 0.09; 95% CI, 0.01–0.94), hospital stay (mean = 9.66 days, 95% CI, 7.60–11.72), and duration of antibiotic administration (mean = 5.61 days, 95% CI, 3.19–8.02). No regimen significantly reduced mortality. Conclusions. This network meta-analysis suggests that synbiotic therapy is the first rank to reduce SSI, pneumonia, sepsis, hospital stay, and antibiotic use. Surgeons should consider the use of synbiotics as an adjunctive therapy to prevent POCs among adult surgical patients. Increasing use of synbiotics may
within a week or a month, what we read could affect our whole life. "I don't only study books; I study nature." We moved to France when my mother, at age 50, made a decision I still find admirable and incomprehensible. She abandoned her profession, her roots, her friends, and her place in a well-defined society to become a lonely housewife in a slum in Paris. My parents figured this gave us a better chance to survive. And what was the war like for you personally? The critical year was 1944, when I was 19. I turned 20 just too late to be in the military during the war. But certainly not too late to watch what was happening. A constant feeling of anxiety made me develop what many people call a survival instinct. In a dangerous situation I was very careful to abstain from intervening, or even to skip away. Courtesy Art Matrix What kind of education did you get early on? I don't remember about learning to read and write, but I do remember very well learning to play chess very early. This is a very geometric game, and geometric memory is essential. In Poland chess is very popular. I was a local champion and soon would have been pushed to compete seriously. Also, my father was a passionate collector of maps, so I could read them as far back as I can remember. In fact, I learned to crawl on a Caucasian rug that my parents had received as a wedding present. Caucasian rugs are very geometric. You've said you played "intuitive" chess. What do you mean by that? Well, I had an uncle who, like most people in Poland at that time, seemed to be chronically unemployed. He was kept alive by the family. In particular, he was my tutor—today this would be called home-schooling. A very cultured person and a truly nice man, yet very ill-prepared. But he taught me the rules of chess and played with me—not according to a textbook but in a very, very informal fashion. He didn't explain to me the famous games with all the old champions' names but instead kept asking, "What do you think is the best move?" It was my good luck to leave Poland and abandon chess about the time when I would have started reading the books about the famous games, the championship of 1870 when so-and-so beat so-and-so, and so on. I never did that. Courtesy Art Matrix Free of constraints You've said there is a danger of making rules absolute. In France, one must belong to one well-defined and very stable sub-community. You do your work and don't look "over the fence" or at what your neighbor does. This is an extraordinary burden largely established in Napoleonic times. By the late 19th century, it was deeply rooted. The French school of mathematics was very strong, and gifted young people were virtually pushed into joining. To the contrary, France had no counterpart to James Maxwell in Britain or Max Planck in Germany, who were creating theoretical physics. But you didn't let such constraints hold you back. I didn't. Perhaps my early rootlessness gave me an awareness that one can live without being so completely specified. You've been interested in the revolution in thinking that took place during the Renaissance. I love the term "natural philosophy" from that period. It is lovely indeed. Too bad it hasn't been used since the 18th century. Courtesy Art Matrix What does that term mean to you? Before Galileo, a philosopher was somebody who studied the great books. Many of those people were extraordinarily brilliant, but their absolute obedience to books was destructive. What Galileo did was to say that natural philosophy is written in the Great Book of Nature and that one must move from reading the books in the library to reading the books around us—that is, use the experimental method and believe in the power of the eye. That was the big thing. Newton was called a natural philosopher. And in the 18th century, the professions of mathematics and physics were not deeply distinguished, but now they are. I'm certainly a philosopher—how do you say?—entranced with unifying ideas. However, I don't only study books; I study nature. Also art of the past, for the purpose of finding artifacts that I could embrace. Doesn't such a stance have dangers of its own, like being too much of a generalist, perhaps? This is a fundamental question that deserves a very careful answer. Close and competent authority has continually reminded me that every generalist is a gambler and faces very serious professional threats. Perhaps so, but I was lucky. I am glad to be able to say that many distinct fields forgave me the time I spent on other projects and gave me a very nice share of very nice awards. Had I been nothing but a gambler, I would have vanished absolutely. But I have always been extremely disciplined and conservative. Courtesy Art Matrix Let me elaborate. I did start as a gambler but soon enough realized that all my successful "plays" had a strong common feel, a common flavor. As a result, I gradually made myself into a red-blooded true innovator/ specialist—the organizer of a fractal theory of roughness as a new field following its own ways. "What I did was totally despised by my peers, who felt that I'd completely destroyed my promise." Back to your question, which I understand perfectly. Many people I have known were blessed with comparable intelligence, memory, and independence of mind but just abandoned themselves to the pleasure of commenting about everything that comes out, on new discoveries made in, say, biology or cosmology. They are the ones who live a very "dangerous" life. One very close friend, whom I admired endlessly and rated as superior to me in many of the basic tools of our trade, never knew how to discipline himself. By the end of his life, he had already been forgotten. Courtesy Art Matrix A freewheeling atmosphere Is this point of view what led you in 1958 to consider working as a scientist at IBM's Thomas J. Watson Research Center? No. Going to IBM was initially pure accident, and it took me many years to realize how lucky I'd been. In fact, my story provides an interesting reflection on what it is to be lucky. I had the chance of enjoying a very long and varied apprenticeship, which included working with people nobody would expect me to work with. For example, I spent two years in Geneva as an associate of Jean Piaget, the child psychologist. However, in the mood that prevailed in France, I belonged nowhere. What I did was totally despised by my peers, who felt that I'd completely destroyed my promise, that I was just playing around with things of no particular interest. A good older friend commented that my Ph.D. was one half in a field that didn't yet exist, and one half in a field that no longer existed. But that didn't disturb me. Why not? I was trying to tell my colleagues and everybody that, assuming there is a choice, one should not force people to move as fast as possible and decide as early as possible where to go. One should not force people to classify themselves before they are ready. But it was talking to the deaf. In France, if you tried to change from field to field, you had to start from scratch. Courtesy Art Matrix You've said you were forced out of France. I was referring to an intense feeling of not belonging. Also, I was a junior professor of mathematics, but my senior professor, whom I liked very much, was about to retire, and the idea of working for his replacement was totally unbearable. I could have stuck around, I'm sure, but I would not have liked it. How did you get to IBM then? Pure luck. Some people I knew were joining IBM Research, and they invited me for a summer in 1958, just after I had started teaching in France and was very dubious about my prospects there. IBM was changing all the time, so I thought I might, perhaps for a couple of years, do enough to please the establishment, yet save enough time to do some gambles of mine. Courtesy Art Matrix Wasn't IBM the image of a highly structured environment, though? This image was strong and pervasive, but the reality was different. The goal was to create a freewheeling academic atmosphere. While they lasted, IBM's laboratories were highly renowned. That summer was very nice, so after a substantial discussion my wife and I decided to ask France for a leave and stay at IBM for a year or two. During the first two years at IBM I hit a very conspicuous jackpot and was invited by Harvard as Visiting Professor of Economics [laughs]. So we postponed our return to France. "It dawned on him that I was unpredictable and might do things about which he didn't give a hoot." Which you eventually postponed indefinitely. Yes. After a year as Visiting Professor of Economics, I hit a second jackpot: Harvard asked me to return as a Visiting Professor of Applied Physics. So while I had left France temporarily, I eventually faced the reality of the situation. I was helped by Jerry Weisner, a very remarkable fellow and good friend, who later became President of M.I.T. I asked him for advice about what to do next. It's a long story, but his conclusion was that IBM was no longer a chancy situation. There was no other place in any country where I could do my kind of work. Courtesy Art Matrix Because of that freewheeling academic atmosphere. Yes. IBM was very keen to achieve intellectual renown and technological success. So they wanted me back, while everywhere else I had this problem of being unclassifiable. People would tell me, "If we knew that you were going to stop running around and, from today on, become an honest economist or an honest electrical engineer or an honest this or that, we would offer you a job instantly." At one point a university offered me a very high position. But the next day the Dean called to withdraw the offer, because it dawned on him that I was unpredictable and might do things about which he didn't give a hoot. [laughs] You've had a lot of opposition over the years, haven't you? I have. For example, a proposal I made to the National Science Foundation was turned down. I was very surprised when a man telephoned and told me, "In order to fund this thing, we need six Outstanding reviews, and you have five Outstanding and one Excellent. So you can't be funded." I was so shocked that I raised my voice. In Europe, to raise one's voice is okay, but not in America. I told this man, "Please consider the fact that what I propose is completely at variance with everything else you're supporting. In a certain sense, this proposal is criticizing my peers, because I think they do things in a narrow fashion, and I'm offering a new way. So five Outstanding and one Excellent should be viewed not as a failure but as something of a success." To his credit, he agreed—sort of. "Yes, okay," he said. "I'll fund you. But I'm going to cut your grant in one-half." Courtesy Art Matrix Asking questions Now, in mathematics, your main contribution has not been proofs but new questions, correct? That's been the case in pure mathematics, in which the overwhelming bulk of mathematical work consists of proving or extending existing statements. But my work in other fields has had a very, very different aspect. In economics there are no proofs. Science is "proven" by its applicability. Now, my uncle, who was a mathematician given to strong opinions, was very scornful of some of his peers. He said that they were very, very good, but they were just theorem-provers. They have an extraordinary arsenal of techniques, remember many previous results, and put them together in new ways. But they don't have the creativity to ask new questions. So in mathematics there has been historically this more or less sharp distinction between those who are best known for asking questions and those who are best known for proving theorems that others have conjectured. Courtesy Art Matrix Who among mathematicians do you most admire for asking questions? The greatest mathematician in my private pantheon has been Henri Poincaré. Altogether a very great man, he started many branches of mathematics from scratch, but he acknowledged himself that he didn't prove any difficult theorem and cared about proofs less than about concepts. I'm nowhere near Poincaré [laughs]—don't misunderstand me. My point is that a large number of truths that I discovered did not result from purely mathematical deduction but from skilled examination of mathematical pictures. And do you see the world differently now because of those mathematical pictures, because of fractals? I certainly see the world today differently from the way I saw it early on. And friends of mine who are mountain climbers tell me they see mountains differently now than before. People who just like to look out the window when they fly—they tell me that they see mountains differently now than before. They see an orderliness to mountains, piles upon piles of pyramids that before they did not see.Pneuma: Breath of Life Xbox ONE Review Publisher: Developer: Deco Digital, Bevel Studios Platform Reviewed: Xbox ONE Release date: 27/02/2015 At some point in our lives we may find ourselves pondering the meaning of life, the existence of the world and our place in it. Pneuma: Breath of Life is a first person puzzle game that explores these thoughts and ideas as if we were a God and how that would change our perceptions and beliefs. Playing as a character who believes himself to be a God we listen to his inner monologue as he progresses through his world, questioning his being and how that relates to the world which surrounds him. Progression through the story is achieved by solving a series of puzzles built entirely around the principle of perception. Relying solely on the power of sight, objects can be moved or manipulated simply be looking at them. Look at a torch and it will light, look at it again the flame will extinguish. If you want the bridge to move, simply look at the correct spot and move your head, then watch as these apparently vast, immovable objects seem to bend and twist to your will. Physical interaction is kept to a minimum, there are some mechanisms which require a button push to operate, but most of the time you be relying on what you see in order to manipulate your surroundings. There are no convoluted controls to master or overly complex mechanics to learn. You are encouraged to look closely at every detail whilst searching for clues which will help you proceed. Built using the Unreal Engine 4 the world looks absolutely stunning. The Romanesque architecture is both grandiose and subtle in equal measure. Beautifully carved stone structures all wonderfully illuminated by the stunning lighting effects makes exploring each location an absolute pleasure. The mesmerising soundtrack has an almost hypnotic effect and you may find yourself being thoroughly drawn into the landscape. When the dark clouds hide the warmth of the sun and the rain beats relentlessly at your window, the world of Pneuma is a delightful place to escape to. Sadly this idyllic setting is spoiled by a few nasty blots upon the landscape. Game length will vary, it all depends how quickly you can solve the puzzles, for me it took less than three hours to complete and I am by no means an expert when it comes to this style of game. There is no real need to play through this more than once so, value for money is a consideration. The all-important monologue is voiced by someone who sounds a little like an excited YouTube’r, something I found particularly irritating. His slightly comical attitude is a mistake, in my opinion, the person who narrated the trailer would have been perfect, his pace and tone would match the dialogue perfectly. Lastly, due to nature of interaction using a controller can be an awkward and slightly clumsy affair. The developers have stated the PC version will support the Oculus Rift and I can’t escape the feeling that this would be the ideal way to experience this game. Be that as it may, there are very few titles, especially on a console, that offer this type of experience. If, after a long day, you feel a little tired and a little sore from the beating the world has dished out and you just want to escape to a warm and comfortable place; to slow the rush of modern life and to be left alone to ponder as you stroll along. Pneuma: Breath of Life will welcome you with open arms, but be warned, it won’t last long enough.Media playback is unsupported on your device Media caption Jet Pack Man - aka Nick Macomber - took to the air outside the National Space Centre The Olympic flame was carried into the sky by jet pack at the start of day 46 of the torch relay, which involved journeys by road, sea and train. Stuntman Nick Macomber lifted off using a jet pack before handing the flame to Kevin Davies at the start of the day's route from Leicester to Peterborough. Ex-Leicester and England footballer Gary Lineker and a 50-goal female striker were among the torchbearers. A total of 100 people carried the flame on the 78-mile route. In a special intergalactic-themed community event, Tuesday's relay began amid scenes reminiscent of the Los Angeles 1984 Olympics when Mr Macomber took off with the torch strapped to his body. The 23-year-old, who is originally from Alaska but now lives in San Diego, has been flying for a year and has just over 100 flights to his name. London 2012 Olympic torch relay Search maps, check street routes and join in 70 days of live coverage in video, stories and pictures Find out where the Olympic torch is going Once back on the ground he passed the flame to Mr Davies, who was nominated for his determination to carry on with his life after he became a tetraplegic following a motorbike accident in 2008. The relay included two train journeys and a boat trip as well as visits to the Sir Dennis Rooke Building at Loughborough University, Burghley House and the Cathedral Gardens in Peterborough. Railway adventure Lineker was among the day's early runners, carrying the torch in his home city of Leicester. England's second-highest goalscorer - 48 goals in 80 appearances - started his career at Leicester City. He will be one of the BBC's prime time presenters of Olympic Games coverage between 27 July and 12 August. Before his leg, he said on Twitter: "It's the sort of dank, miserable, grey morning that requires a torch to see where you're going. Media playback is unsupported on your device Media caption Gary Lineker carries flame in Leicester "Now where can I get one of those?" Afterwards, he said: "Back home. In need of a nap. 300 yards was never my distance. Wiped out." The flame left Leicester by train, travelling to Quorn on the Great Central Railway the UK's only double-track, mainline heritage railway. In Quorn, the flame was carried by Baroness Sue Campbell, who chairs the Youth Sport Trust, an independent charity devoted to changing young people's lives through sport. There was a visit, appropriately, to Loughborough University - the UK's top sports education institution - where torchbearer Audrey Cooper, who represented GB in the inaugural Olympic beach volleyball tournament in the Atlanta 1996 Games, was greeted by members of the current Team GB. Ms Cooper has also coached the GB women's indoor volleyball team and will be supporting them to compete in the London 2012 Games. She works for Volleyball England as the Community Development Coach Manager. Also in Loughborough, the flame was carried by Paralympic athlete Richard Whitehead, who holds the world record for athletes with a double amputation, in both the full and half-marathon. He will compete for GB at London 2012. Burghley House In challenging, somewhat stormy, conditions during the afternoon, the flame was carried on a boat travelling across Rutland Water from Whitwell Harbour. Torchbearer Matthew Usher passed the flame to Stephen King while each was on a separate boat - the only 'torch kiss' due to take place on water during the entire relay. Media playback is unsupported on your device Media caption Crowds lined Peterborough embankment to see the torch on its way to the cauldron The torch then became guest of honour at Burghley House, which is regarded as one of the finest Elizabethan houses in the country and is the home of the Cecil family. At the front of the house the flame was passed between torchbearers Dave Thompson and Sue Probst in the presence of Miranda Rock, the granddaughter of former Olympic hurdler David Cecil (Lord Burghley) who won a gold medal at the 1928 Games, and London 2012 chairman Sebastian Coe. The flame then took its second train journey of the day when it was loaded on to the Nene Valley Railway - a steam engine and diesel locomotive heritage attraction - at Stamford, in Lincolnshire. When it arrived in Peterborough, it was carried by 87-year-old John Peake, who won a hockey silver medal playing for Great Britain at the 1948 Olympics in London. The final torchbearer of the day, Natasha Applegate, carried the flame into the evening celebrations on the River Embankment site in the city. Natasha was selected for her dedication to playing and coaching football. A total of 8,000 people will carry the flame during its 8,000 mile, 70-day journey to the opening ceremony of the Olympic Games in London on 27 July.THE Three network remains down for many customers nationwide tonight, after an electrical failure at a data centre earlier this afternoon. THE Three network remains down for many customers nationwide tonight, after an electrical failure at a data centre earlier this afternoon. Three network down for many of 2m customers nationwide Many of the company’s 2m customers have been unable to text or make calls since around 3pm this afternoon. It is understood the issue mainly affects former O2 customers, which recently transferred over to 3 Ireland as part of the mobile operators' merger. A Three spokesperson told Independent.ie this evening: "Some customers are currently experiencing intermittent 2G and 3G service issues. "This has occurred due to an electrical failure at one of our data centres which caused an increase in temperature in the building and then subsequently impacted some systems affecting customer service. "Our dedicated Networks team is continuing to work hard to resolve this as soon as possible and we apologise for any inconvenience caused." Customers took to Twitter to vent their frustrations – with outages being reported nationwide. Some customers also complained they were unable to get though to customer care. The company recently absorbed O2’s customers, making it the second largest operator here behind Vodafone. The company's official account earlier tweeted: "Some customers may be experiencing issues with their service. We’re working on getting this fixed ASAP. Sorry for any inconvenience caused." Customers of Tesco Mobile, which uses Three's network, are also affected by the ongoing outage. Online EditorsIn the heated debates about asylum seekers, including the tragic death of Reza Berati on Manus Island, there is one group that is always forgotten: children. Ten years ago we lamented the fact that there were about 100 children held in Australia's immigration detention prisons, arguing that those children were subject to ''organised'' and ''ritualised'' abuse by the Australian government. We used the term ''ritualised abuse'' to explain that the children were subject to formal and repeated acts of abuse, carried out under a belief system that the government adopted to justify such cruelty. We used the term ''organised abuse'' to illustrate that children were being abused by many perpetrators who acted together in ways they knew could be extremely harmful. Illustration: Andrew Dyson Ten years later, there are 10 times as many children subject to this organised, ritualised practice on the Australian mainland, Christmas Island and Nauru. Children without parents, dismissively referred to as ''unaccompanied minors'', are now joining transported families with children on Nauru. As the abuse has markedly increased, we have further refined our definition to incorporate ''commercialised trafficking'' in children. Australia is now trafficking more children across national borders, defying UN protocols of trafficking in persons. As the tragic events on Manus Island unfolded, there was barely a murmur about what was occurring in the second offshore imprisonment site of Nauru, with 10 unaccompanied children forcibly sent there from Christmas Island; more have now followed. Through deliberately misleading and confusing terminology, these trafficked children are described in various ways; ''transferees'' and ''illegals'' are being sent to ''secure'' detention sites, rather than to imprisonment.Apple may be trying to attack a niche portion of the wearable market by creating a more “premium” option, but premium hardware doesn’t always equate to blissful software. The developers of the Tesla app for the Apple Watch found that out in their latest project. According to them, Google approached Tesla to create an app for Android Wear after seeing they’d done one for the Apple Watch. They accepted Google’s challenge, and more than just create a beautiful app for which to control your Tesla smart car, they laid out a wealth of impressions about the development experience and differences between the two platforms. Here’s a spoiler for you: they like Android Wear. A lot. Their love for it comes from the fact that it’s a much more open platform to work with compared to Apple Watch. Where Apple limits developers on API access and low-level device integration, Tesla found it refreshing that Android Wear gave them nearly everything they needed. Perhaps their most favorite thing was being able to experiment with unique user interface tricks — apparently things are quite restricted in that regard on iOS. They also wondered how the Apple Watch could only manage 18 hours of battery life on such a limited platform compared to 2 days on many of the smart watches that run Android Wear. Things weren’t all peachy for the Tesla team on Android Wear. Here are a few complaints they had: Voice activation is too slow of a process. Their suggestion to Google is to allow developers control over the command after the initial “OK Google” to cut down on the 2-3 second pauses needed between each part of the command. While better than the Apple Watch, battery life could still be improved. They love Pebble in that regard. Thin documentation — not a knock on the platform itself, but certainly something that can mar the development experience. But even with all that, they believe Google has done a fine job with Android Wear and can’t wait to see where it goes from here on out. Be sure to read their full thoughts on Android Wear development and what went into the new Tesla app over at Eleks Lab.HOUGHTON — A settlement conference has been ordered March 24 in the case of a former Michigan Technological University student suing the school over his expulsion for a post made on the social media site Yik Yak. The hearing in the case of Matthew Schultz will be in U.S. District Court in Marquette. Both parties and their attorneys must attend the hearing, as well as a member of Tech’s board authorized to act on behalf of the university. Schultz, of Norway, is suing the university, several officials and Ryan Grainger, whose Twitter account posted a doctored version of Schultz’s post. Schultz made a post on Yik Yak saying, “I’m gonna shoot all black people …… a smile tomorrow,” followed by a smiley-face emoji. The first part of the sentence mimicked a threat made on Yik Yak at another university shortly before Schultz’s post. The post from Grainger’s account, which was directed at university officials, included a screenshot of Schultz’s post, but with the post-ellipsis portion whited out. Schultz is seeking damages of more than $75,000 and reinstatement to the university. He claims the university violated his First Amendment right to free speech, while the university’s disciplinary process violated due process. The university wants the case dismissed. At a hearing before the settlement conference order, Michigan Tech representatives said the suit should be thrown out on several grounds, including that Schultz’s original post could be considered a “true threat,” stripping it of First Amendment protection, and that Tech employees named individually in the suit should receive qualified immunity for performing their jobs. Grainger said he had received the altered screenshot from another operator of the @MTUYaks Twitter account but had not altered it himself. Judges in settlement conferences act as mediators to help the sides resolve differences and reach a settlement but cannot resolve the case, according to a federal U.S. District Court site. If the parties cannot reach an agreement, the case proceeds to trial. As in most cases, a different judge than the trial judge will preside over the hearing.In Texas, an average of $41.5 million per year is funneled into local law enforcement budgets as a result of forfeitures. A bipartisan coalition is forming in the Texas Legislature to overhaul a Reagan-era police practice that allows law enforcement officers to confiscate personal property without charging the owner with a crime. State Senator Konni Burton, R-Colleyville, is carrying Senate Bill 380, which would repeal civil asset forfeiture, a practice the libertarian-leaning Republican says flies in the face of the U.S. Constitution. “Right now, law enforcement can seize property under civil law, and it denies people their basic rights,” said Burton, who sits on the Senate Criminal Justice Committee. “There’s a basic problem with this process that I want to correct.” Under Texas’ civil asset forfeiture laws, cops can seize and forfeit property — such as cash, cars and even video game consoles — they suspect to be ill-gotten gains. Property owners can challenge the forfeiture in a civil court proceeding, but they have to do so without the help of state-appointed attorneys, as those are afforded strictly for criminal defense. The practice can be a boon for law enforcement agencies, many of whom oppose Burton’s measure. In Texas, an average of $41.5 million per year is funneled into local law enforcement budgets as a result of forfeitures, according to the Institute for Justice, a libertarian think tank. For years, legislators have worked to reform civil asset forfeiture after a number of “horror stories” drew national attention to the process, according to Sergeant Jim Smith, who heads the San Antonio Police Department’s legal asset seizure detail. In 2005, 30-year-old Javier Gonzalez was stopped en route from Austin to Brownsville to visit his dying aunt. He was traveling with more than $10,000 cash that he planned to spend on funeral arrangements. Though Gonzales wasn’t carrying drugs or contraband, the Jim Wells County Sheriff Department officers who stopped him arrested Gonzales and pressured him into signing away his rights to the money. It was the only way he’d avoid felony charges of money laundering, they told him. In response to this case and others like it, Houston Democratic state Senator John Whitmire, chair of the Senate Criminal Justice Committee, helped pass a sweeping asset forfeiture reform bill in 2011. Whitmire’s bill, SB 316, prevented cops from using bogus agreements like the one Gonzales signed. It also required law enforcement agencies to submit yearly forfeiture audits and restricted how they can use forfeited funds. Smith, who has worked in SAPD’s asset seizure detail for 11 years, told the Observer that law enforcement has abused asset forfeiture in the past, but he believes that the 2011 reforms fixed the problem. Burton’s bill would go further by requiring a criminal conviction before law enforcement could forfeit property. In 2013, the Legislature directed the Office of Court Administration (OCA) to study civil asset forfeiture. OCA found that state and local law enforcement agencies in Texas had “confiscated approximately $486 million in asset forfeiture cases” from 2003 to 2012. According to the OCA report, DAs and law enforcement agencies used the majority of the funds they received through civil asset forfeiture to pay for equipment, training and salaries. During Ronald Reagan’s presidency, states passed asset forfeiture laws to direct funds confiscated from drug operations back into the law enforcement agencies fighting the war on drugs. Civil asset forfeiture became law in Texas in 1989. Now it’s uniting politicians who might not otherwise be willing to break bread, according to Matt Simpson, senior policy strategist for ACLU Texas. “It’s an issue that crosses party lines; it’s not Democrat versus Republican or liberal versus conservative,” he told the Observer, adding that he hasn’t “seen a bill we wouldn’t support in relation to civil asset forfeiture reform, especially some of the stronger ones.” Conservatives like Burton argue that civil asset forfeiture is a perversion of personal liberty, while legislators on the left argue that the practice leads to discriminatory policing because officers target people of color at disproportionate rates. Civil asset forfeiture overhaul ranks high on Whitmire’s wish list for criminal justice reform. The matter excites him, he told the Observer, because it’s one of the few policy arenas in which he is able to make headway working with Republican legislators. “I’ll work with them on that,” he said. “I think there is a good environment for criminal justice reform [this session], but the devil is in the details. You really don’t see the pushback until you start making some progress.” In the case of Burton’s bill, that pushback will likely come sooner rather than later. She told the Observer that she has already encountered resistance from law enforcement officials. Burton’s bill includes no mechanism for replacing the funds law enforcement agencies are almost certain to lose with the repeal of civil asset forfeiture. And many law enforcement agencies aren’t going to give up without a fight, according to Charley Wilkison, executive director of the Combined Law Enforcement Associations of Texas (CLEAT). Wilkison and Smith, of SAPD, said they will be at the Capitol to oppose Burton’s bill. “And I would be surprised if you didn’t hear from mayors and city managers and other officials who have to deal with budget issues,” Wilkison said.Tired of the same old keychain? Want a change? Check out the KeyFlip. It is a stylish, innovative, post modern industrial way of carrying your keys. Impress your friends and co-workers! I have a small mill that I converted to a CNC that I have been making prototypes on. I originally made the KeyFlip out of MDF wood to test the concept. I then made it out of aluminum which made the KeyFlip strong, sturdy, and fashionable. It allows up to 4 standard house/work keys to be flipped out at any time (6 Key version now available). I also used a small bushing to go inside the housing so the keys are not loose and won't slide out on their own. If you give a light push on the indented corner, the keys will rotate out. My Goal- My Goal is to move up to a better Mill which will be stronger and faster, so I can make more creative designs out of Stainless Steel and Titanium. With a better mill I will be able to make multiple KeyFlips at once, instead of making them one by one. My Dream Mill is the Tormach 1100!!! Also, I will be able to make some other creative products that I have designed and you will like. The KeyFlip- I am going to offer 3 different materials for the KeyFlip: Aluminum 6061-T6, Stainless Steel T-303, and Titanium. Each one will have a brushed finish. You can add custom engraving as well (20 character max on one line). Check out the rewards. The dimensions of the KeyFlip are 1" x 2.75" x.5" (L x W x H). -- Types of Keys: Most keys fit the KeyFlip. If any of your keys don't fit the KeyFlip, any hardware store will have one that will fit and you can cut. See how easy it is to add keys to the KeyFlip! Aluminum Left - Titanium Right Aluminum - Stainless Steel - Titanium Thank You all for taking the time to look at my project. Please look over the rewards that I have to offer and consider backing The KeyFlip. You will help me achieve my dream of making more creative projects!!! Also a big thanks to Brad over at Bottle Grenade who helped me add features to the KeyFlip!!Homeland Security is losing track of one in five illegal immigrants who have been trusted to live in communities before they are deported, DailyMail.com can exclusively reveal. Immigration and Customs Enforcement allows more than 73,000 foreigners to live in towns and cities across the United States as part of the controversial Alternatives to Detention (ATD) program. Instead of being locked up in detention centers, they are allowed to relocate before they are processed and sent back to their native countries. They are required to check in regularly with immigration officials or wear ankle bracelets so their movements can be tracked. But figures released to DailyMail.com through a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request states ICE is losing track of more than 18% of the individuals chosen to be part of the program - including suspected gang members and residents from President Trump's six travel ban countries. Some have wreaked havoc in the communities they have been relocated to, while others are arrested for violent crimes. The shocking statistics have raised questions as to why potentially dangerous illegal immigrants are being placed in the program, which comes at a huge cost to taxpayers. Homeland Security is losing track of one in five illegal immigrants who have been trusted to live in communities before they are deported, DailyMail.com can exclusively reveal (file picture) This map shows the top three cities in the US with ATD immigrantswith Miami, Florida having the most (5,669) The majority that are allowed into the program are from Central America. The most (18,853) hail from El Salvador - a country that is struggling to deal with deadly gang violence. Guatemala (18,280), Honduras (15,362) and Mexico (8,343) follow closely behind. Of those enrolled, 212 come from Trump's eight travel ban countries. Immigrants from Romania (1,128) and Armenia (251) make up the highest proportion from Europe, while India (701), Haiti (5,238) and China (701) also feature in the top countries. Eighteen are from Uzbekistan, the native country of Sayfullo Habibullaevic Saipov, the terror suspect accused of killing eight people by mowing down with a Home Depot truck in New York on Halloween. He was on a visa and not in the program. WHAT IS THE ALTERNATIVES TO THE DETENTION PROGRAM? The system was put in place by Immigration and Customs Enforcement as a way to make sure illegal immigrants to meet the requirements of their 'detention', but while still living in the community. They use certain methods to keep track of those involved, including: Parole/release on own recognizance Bond Check-ins at ICE offices Home visits and check-ins Telephonic monitoring GPS monitoring through an electronic ankle bracelet Abel Ezquivel, 23, was shot and killed with a stolen gun in San Francisco in August. One of the suspects charged in his murder was wearing an ankle monitor issued to him by ICE Some are seeking asylum from
in the Start Menu and click on a “Command prompt (Admin)”. Type “ipconfig” and press “Enter”. Record the IP Address of the VM. In my case, the IP for VM2 is 192.168.2.4. Open a Console Session to the second VM and open its command prompt. Type “ipconfig” and press “Enter”. Record the IP Address of the VM. In my case, the IP for VM1 is 192.168.1.4. Ping the first VM from the second VM (and vice-versa). You should receive several replies. In the final step, we will use Internet Explorer. Open IE, then, type the first VM IP address in the address bar (i.e. http://192.168.1.4). Press “Enter” to visit the first VM to access the default IIS web page (and vice-versa). You should see the default IIS Welcome Page which is hosted on both VMs. Summary In Part I, we attached two VMs on different subnets to a new virtual VM network. And then we validated both VMs can route between each other. In a larger deployment, you can create separate virtual networks for different apps and tenants, and they will be completely isolated from each other even if they are using the same address space. In Part II, we will be creating an external facing public VIP that load balances across multiple web server VMs, and we will create Site-to-site (S2S) VPN to a Remote site. Until then… see you in Part II. Thanks for reading! Related materials: Views All Time Views All Time 3 Views Today Views Today 8 Appreciate how useful this article was to you? No Ratings Yet No Ratings YetThe World’s Most Advanced Offshore Accommodation 474 SHARES Facebook Twitter Whatsapp Linkedin Say hello to the Safe Boreas. The world’s most advanced offshore accommodation vessel, designed for the harshest offshore environments. Built in 2015, by Sembcorp Marine’s Jurong Shipyard in Singapore, the Safe Boreas has been built with state-of-the-art dynamic positioning (DP3); six, four mega watt thrusters; a fully integrated, hydraulically compensated, telescopic gangway; and a total of 450 single cabins, all of which are single. Safe Boreas Design & Capability The Boreas has been designed and built to GVA 3000E and to comply with stringent Norwegian and UK regulations. The vessel is currently fully certified to operate in all sectors of the North Sea. On top of its DP3 (dynamic positioning) system, Safe Boreas is also equipped with a 12 point mooring arrangement; allowing for operations, even in harsh environments, to be conducted in both DP and anchored mode, providing maximum cost efficiency. Safe Boreas Facilities Safe Boreas provides full construction support facilities, including fully equipped workshop, two 50 tonne cranes, office facilities, and an open deck area of approximately 1000m2 (10,764 ft2). Safe Boreas Accommodation Accommodate wise, Safe Boreas can accommodate up to 450 persons, all in single man cabins; and due to its unique design, that incorporates two large atriums, all cabins an recreational spaces receive natural daylight. Safe Boreas Single Cabins Recreation facilities include a gym, saunas, internet cafe and cinema, as well as an indoor golf simulator. Safe Boreas Golf Simulator Montrose Field The Safe Boreas is currently on hire to Talisman Sinopec, located at its Montrose platform in the UK North Sea, supplying accommodation and construction facilities to the Montrose Area Redevelopment (MAR). WATCH — The Safe Boreas VideoArsène Wenger has warned Arsenal's fans not to expect any "miracle" signings during the January transfer window. Arsenal, who head to Brighton for Saturday's FA Cup fourth-round tie, have been linked with a string of players across Europe, from Barcelona's David Villa and Borussia Dortmund's defender Mats Hummels to the Montpellier playmaker Younès Belhanda and West Ham's combative midfielder Mohamed Diamé. Wenger, however, insists his main concern is about maintaining performance levels on the back of their midweek 5-1 thrashing of West Ham at the Emirates Stadium, which kickstarted their Premier League campaign. "What I worry about is getting the players who have been injured back fit, to get the players who play for this club to perform at full potential," Wenger said. "If we perform at full potential we cannot expect any miracle from outside, we want to make things happen inside. "If someone else can strengthen our squad, we will do it of course, but we have the resources inside to do well. We have two players in every position, that should be enough, plus the young players in behind. "But if we find the top-class players in any position, we never refuse to strengthen our squad." Wenger stressed Arsenal had not lodged any formal bids with their reported targets. He said: "We have been linked with David Villa, like Chelsea, but there's nothing concrete there. We are not on the case." On Hummels, he said: "No, I can't imagine Dortmund selling their defenders in the middle of the season anyway and we have not made any approach there." Diamé stressed on Thursday he was happy at Upton Park, having only moved there from Wigan in the summer. Wenger said: "We cannot come out with the names we are on. We have not approached West Ham on that." Overall, Wenger is not a big fan of the January window. "I think it should be all completely cut out or limited to two players," he said. "It is unfair for the league that some teams who have played for example Newcastle twice already have an advantage on teams who play Newcastle now they have bought six or seven players. You do not face exactly the same team so I believe the number of players you could buy should be limited." Arsenal will be without their captain Thomas Vermaelen because of a minor ankle injury on Saturday. The midfielders Abou Diaby and Tomas Rosicky are back in contention. Wenger has called for his men to continue where they left off against West Ham, running in four goals in the space of 10 minutes at the start of the second half. "We wanted to respond and get the points because we have to make up some ground [in the Premier League]," he said. "What is very important for me is the manner in which we responded. It was a continuity of the second half at Chelsea and from now on, it's important that we continue like that." Wenger, though, will be taking nothing for granted against Brighton and Hove Albion, who knocked Newcastle out in round three and are in the Championship promotion shake-up. He said: "They play out from the back, have a lot of possession and a big South American influence with their manager, the players they have, and the way they play. You know you will face a typical away game in the Premier League."mightyinvincible: phantomrose96: phantomrose96: I was rewatching Uraraka vs Bakugou and Midoriya vs Todoroki at the gym today and theres a few important things i wanna point out that i missed with my old recap Okay really it’s one thing but Deku has this habit of just rolling over submissive to people who intimidate him, until they say one negative word about someone Deku cares about Then Deku goes right for the jugular and it’s great Bakugou: Move, loser Deku: O-o-o-h-h-h Kacchan I didn’t see you!!! Ah whoops s-s-sorry I’m heading on out of here sorry to be in your way I-I-I I’m going now!!!! Bakugou: You piece of shit, you told Gravity Girl to mess with me, didn’t you Deku: Hey Baku-bitch listen the fuck up for one second k? Uraraka came up with that strategy all on her own, because she’s smart, and if I catch you insulting her ever again you can catch these fucking hands, Move, loser O-o-o-h-h-h Kacchan I didn’t see you!!! Ah whoops s-s-sorry I’m heading on out of here sorry to be in your way I-I-I I’m going now!!!! You piece of shit, you told Gravity Girl to mess with me, didn’t you Hey Baku-bitch listen the fuck up for one second k? Uraraka came up with that strategy all on her own, because she’s smart, and if I catch you insulting her ever again you can catch these fucking hands, Endeavor: Move, loser Deku: O-o-o-h-h-h-h Endeavor I didn’t see you!!!! Ah whoops s-s-sorry I’m heading on out of here sorry to be in your way I-I-I I’m going now!!!! Endeavor: Dont hold back fighting Shouto–I need him to surpass All Might as my ultimate creation and beating you is the first step. Deku: Yo hey Endeavor u take criticism? You’re a horrific piece of shit and Todoroki owes you nothing. He’s his own person. And that’s not you so. Crawl back into the sewer you spawned in and never come back out. “Ah heck oh no I annoyed Kacchan! I’ll just keep walking dont want any beef with Kacchan!” insults Ururaka “Fuck you I take that back now I’m angry.” “Oh geez oh man it’s Endeavor I gotta just keep walking he’s a scary dude.” Implies Todoroki owes him anything ALRIGHT SO WE’RE ABOUT TO HAVE SOME PROBLEMS GOD, i have been hoping for an oppotunity to talk about why Izuka F’ing Midoriya is my favorite protagonist ever, so i hope you guys can forgive the long post, but i need to RANT. This single character trait is basically the crux of My Hero Acadamia. Deku doesn’t possess the “abuility” to put others before himself, it’s in his very NATURE to do so; it is both his greatest strength and most powerful weakness. It is the trait that All Might saw in him and decided he was worthy to possess One for All; and yet the trait that he repremands his deciple for every time Deku hurts himself saving someone else. Deku is litterally so humble that he would never fight for himself. Someone could slap him across his face and he would probably appologize to them. The minute that someone is in danger, even someone he doesn’t know, or doesn’t like them, he would risk his own life and well being to protect them. My Hero Academia constantly pushes this question of what a hero really is, and Deku is exactly the answer to that question. Someone who doesn’t stop to think about the danger to themself, who would fight with broken bones and blood pouring out of them. Self-sacrifice is what makes a hero, and Izuku Midoriya epitimizes that in every single way, and i love this good boy so much.Joe Sestak and Carolyn Maloney are poised to defy the unambiguous wishes of Obama and challenge incumbent senators of their own party. \| AP photo composite by POLITICO Renegade Dems buck Obama He’s riding high in the polls among his fellow Democrats, but President Barack Obama’s political sway within his own party is about to be tested. Two House Democrats, Joe Sestak of Pennsylvania and Carolyn Maloney of New York, are poised to defy the unambiguous wishes of Obama and challenge incumbent senators of their own party. Story Continued Below Both indicated to POLITICO that they were likely to run — and would do so regardless of what Obama said. Sestak, a second-term Philadelphia-area congressman and retired admiral, said he was just over a month away from announcing his intention to challenge Republican-turned-Democrat Sen. Arlen Specter. “I understand the very short-term, expedient desire to have the insurance of a 60th vote,” Sestak said, speaking of the implications of Specter’s April party switch and why the longtime senator was so quickly embraced by the administration. But he added of Obama: “I believe in his heart of hearts, he really wants a real Democrat to win this race, and I think he very much respects that we are pretty independent-minded in Pennsylvania and we should have a choice.” Asked directly if a plea from Obama would make any difference, Sestak shook his head and said: “No.” Maloney, a veteran member of Congress who represents much of New York City’s silk-stocking Upper East Side, dispatched longtime Democratic consultant and her likely chief campaign strategist Joe Trippi to state her intentions about a potential challenge to Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.). “She’s way past all that,” Trippi said when asked about how Maloney would respond to a request from Obama to stay out of the race. “She really believes the people of New York deserve a choice. She’s not somebody who’s going to back down.” The two races illustrate the risks for Obama, or any president, in trying to play local kingmaker — namely, the very real possibility that no matter how popular he is, he may not be able bend every contest to his wishes and that by trying to do so, he risks being defied by his own party. For Obama, there’s an added irony that isn’t lost on some Democrats — that the ultimate insurgent candidate is now in the incumbent-protection business. In the case of Sestak and Maloney, Obama may be reaping what he sowed. While Hillary Clinton wasn’t an incumbent in the presidential race, she was the establishment figure who many Democratic elites rallied around early on in the primary. But the president proved that an insurgent can win and that Democratic primary voters can buck their elected leaders. The Politico 44 Story Widget Requires Adobe Flash Player “Who do they think inspired these people to run?” asked Trippi. “They started this. They took on the established order of the party. If they had listened to the establishment, Obama wouldn’t be in the White House. It’s hard for them to argue with this when they blazed the trail.” Also recently, North Carolina Attorney General Roy Cooper, a popular Democrat with rural roots, demurred when Obama urged him to take on first-term Republican Sen. Richard Burr, according to sources familiar with the recruitment. Cooper was a top recruit of Sen. Robert Menendez (D-N.J.), who heads the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee, but Cooper decided he just didn’t want to serve in Washington, the sources said. But in the Gillibrand race, Obama had better luck waving off Rep. Steve Israel’s threatened primary challenge to Gillibrand. “He talked about the importance of party unity and said he was interested in my continued House leadership on energy issues,” recalled Israel, who wanted it known that Obama’s “appeal persuaded me to forgo my own immediate political desires at this time.” (One senior Democrat noted that the White House wouldn’t have put Obama on the phone with Israel without knowing the congressman would bow to his wishes.) But the president has yet to contact Sestak, and a conversation Vice President Joe Biden recently had with Maloney appears to have had little impact.While cruising the wide world of web recently, I landed on a.gov website with an interesting article that I thought had some interesting results. The premise of the article is that the US Department of Energy wanted to know how vehicle maintenance effected fuel mileage, specifically dirty air filters. So they did an experiment with 4 cars: 2003 Toyota Camry 2.4L 2007 Buick Lucerne 3.8L 2006 Dodge Charger 5.7L 1972 Pontiac Grandville 455ci (aww yea) Now, I encourage you to read through the whole article, but if 27 pages of government written science experiments doesn’t sound exciting to you, then you are in luck, because I am about to give you the cliff notes in my own words. Here is a link to the full experiment in PDF form. http://www.fueleconomy.gov/ Here we go – The people doing the test first set up a series of gauges on the intake of each of the engines so that they could measure the air pressure before the filter, the pressure drop across the filter, and the intake manifold pressure. Then with each of the 3 fuel injected cars set up this way, they did a series of lab tests and driving tests. They started by measuring the pressure drops across clean & clogged air filters. They “clogged” the new filters by wrapping the filters with paper towels. (Note to self: Wrap friends air filter on 4/1/2012). Then they moved on to the driving tests by measuring the time it took to accelerate from 20 to 80 mph at WOT (wide open throttle). Clearly there is a performance decrease in these engines. Just thinking about how the engine must feel during this test makes me want to grab an inhaler. Now these cars know what it feels like to be a Karmann Ghia. Next up, they measured the fuel economy for each individual car with and without the clogged air filters. Here is just one example of the results, this one below happens to be the 2003 Toyota Camry. As you can see, they did 3 different driving tests for each vehicle, and there is not a measurable decrease in fuel economy. The results were the same for all three cars. Strange huh? It is apparently because if less air goes into the engine, the computer knows it, and offsets fuel to match the smaller amount of air. Wrap your brain around that one for a moment. Oh. Then the big ol’ carbureted 1972 Pontiac Graaaandville entered the air filter party. It was officially time for the 455 to shine and show the young whipper snappers who’s boss… A similar set of gauges was hooked up to the air intake and all of the pressures were measure for a clean vs. clogged filter. As expected, when they did the driving tests in the Grandville, it immediately tried to eat the clogged filter whole and swallow it like a champ. It was having no part of this “less air” test. On the graph below, you can see that the lack of air flow greatly hampered its acceleration time. Amazingly, even with a carburetor, the 20 foot long rolling couch only lost 2 – 2.5% of its fuel economy during these tests. One of the tests couldn’t actually be performed because the Pontiac was struggling so badly to breath that it overheated every time they tried to run it. Poor 455. So what exactly can we gain from this data? Hmmm, well I guess it’s nice to know that somebody is testing these types of things to keep the public informed. It certainly surprised the heck out of me that a clogged air filter doesn’t seem to effect a fuel injected vehicle’s fuel economy, though I’m not surprised that it kills every single hope of performance. Does this mean you shouldn’t change your filter? Not really. It just means that if you changed it recently in your Subaru with hopes of getting better gas mileage, you may be disappointed. Sorry me. The good news is that if you change your story a bit and tell yourself that you bought the fresh new air filter for better throttle response (obviously), you instantly feel better about the purchase. Phew. All images borrowed from: http://www.fueleconomy.govMark this day down. Today – last night, actually – the New York Times and Roll Call reported (it's hard to see who was first) what may be the biggest political story of the campaign. How big? John McCain might have to fire his campaign manager. Big enough? The story is this. The lobbying firm of Rick Davis, the manager, was being paid $15,000 a month by Freddie Mac until last month. That fact is a direct contradiction of words McCain had spoken Sunday night. At that time, responding to a Times story being prepared for Monday's paper revealing that Davis had been the head of a lobbying consortium led by Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae until 2005, McCain said Davis had done no further work for either mortgage giant. Someone's lying – either Davis to McCain, or McCain to the public. I trust you see the problem here. The stories are here, by David Kirkpatrick (whose reporting on this topic has been leading the way) and Jackie Calmes of the Times, and here, by Tory Newmeyer of Roll Call. You should definitely read every word of both. I think after you do you'll agree that, depending on how big the pick-up is today and how hard the Obama camp presses this, it's pretty difficult to see how Davis can stay on as campaign manager. The revelations are devastating for two reasons. First, as I noted above, either Davis lied to McCain or McCain lied to the voters. From the Times story: On Sunday, in an interview with CNBC and The Times, Mr. McCain responded to a question about that tie between Mr. Davis and the two mortgage companies by saying that he "has had nothing to do with it since, and I'll be glad to have his record examined by anybody who wants to look at it." Who lied to whom? This is the kind of thing we might not know for a while, or maybe never. My hunch would be that Davis concealed it from McCain and that McCain, as is his wont, just winged it Sunday night, without really caring whether it was true, because that's what he does. But let me clearly label that a hunch. I don't know. But it doesn't really matter. The second reason this is devastating is maybe even bigger than the question of the Sunday lie, which is limited in scope after all to a sort of narrow legal question. The second reason is that McCain has been going around putting lobbyists, specifically for F & F, at the heart of the whole problem. This is from the Roll Call piece: Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac emerged as issues in the presidential race last week because of turmoil in the financial markets. In a radio address from Green Bay, Wis., on Saturday, McCain blamed the companies and their political clout for creating the housing mess now roiling Wall Street. "At the center of the problem were the lobbyists, politicians and bureaucrats who succeeded in persuading Congress and the administration to ignore the festering problems at Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac,'' he said. "Using money and influence, they prevented reforms that would have curbed their power and limited their ability to damage our economy. And now, as ever, the American taxpayers are left to pay the price for Washington's failure.'' I just can't picture any way of wiggling out of that. He is talking in those sentences about his own campaign manager! And he's going to be able to keep him on? Strange things happen all the time, but I have trouble seeing it. Oh and by the way: No wonder Steve Schmidt, another top McCain strategist, said on a Monday conference call with reporters that "Whatever The New York Times once was, it is today not by any standard a journalistic organization." He obviously knew that more was coming and was trying to lay some discrediting groundwork. This is a terrible, terrible story for McCain, and yes, the biggest political story of the general-election campaign so far.IT looks like a beautiful, elegant photograph of a bride and groom but there are two reasons this may be one of the saddest wedding pictures ever taken. One is that the young groom is dying and two is that his beautiful bride is actually an inflatable sex doll. The surprisingly tasteful wedding pictures have gone nuts on Chinese social media but netizens are divided on whether they are real or yet another cynical viral marketing campaign. According to CCTV, the unidentified man is a 28-year-old Beijing resident suffering from a terminal illness (reportedly cancer) who wanted to experience a top-of-the-range wedding shoot before he died. So he bought a realistic inflatable sex doll and a wedding dress and arranged for her (it?) to be professionally styled and made up before tying the knot. “Some netizens recently revealed that the man is actually suffering from a deadly cancer,” CCTV reported. “In order not to hurt other people’s feelings, he chose to marry an artificial doll instead of a real person.” It is not the first time a terminally ill person has turned to an artificial doll to fulfil a dying wish. In May, another Chinese man sent social media into meltdown after he posted pictures of child-sized doll he bought in place of the daughter he would never have. “Two years ago, Song Bo was diagnosed with a serious illness which gave him constant headaches and brought upon depression,” Rocket News reported. “Convinced he would never marry or have children, Song was browsing the internet one day when he stumbled upon a listing on China’s online shopping site Taobao that was to give him new hope. “Song bought a child-sized love doll, just 145cm tall and now takes her everywhere with him. (He) lives with his mother, who apparently did not object to her son bringing the $3117 doll into their lives. He treats the doll as a daughter, and has named her Xiao Die (‘little butterfly’). Wherever he goes, Little Butterfly goes too.”Treating impoverished First Nations patients is a surprisingly lucrative enterprise for the country’s dentists, with the six highest-billing practitioners receiving more than $1-million a year from Health Canada, according to government figures the National Post obtained. Subtracting the 60% of dental billings typically spent on staff salaries and other overhead, the top 25 billers would earn personal income from work on aboriginal patients of about $200,000 to $640,000 a year, the Health Canada statistics suggest. The average full-time dentist in Canada makes $142,000 a year. The figures, released under the Access to Information Act, come as the cost of dental care for aboriginals — who suffer from sky-high rates of dental decay — climbs swiftly, with spending on the program jumping more than 9% per capita in 2009-10. [np-related] The department says the steep billings are explained at least partly by the fact that several of the dentists have multiple clinics on different reserves and provide specialized services, though one on the list is under investigation for possible irregularities. Representatives from the Assembly of First Nations and aboriginal health groups were not available for comment. A Winnipeg-based expert says the numbers may appear lofty but are not out of line, especially since a limited number of dentists serve the First Nations market, often providing urgent or emergency care. “These practitioners may be among the few in an area who are willing to go to these [remote] communities,” said Robert Schroth, a dentist and researcher with the Manitoba Institute for Child Health. “They are the only show in town, and there may be few competitors.” Dr. Schroth was co-author of a Canadian Pediatric Society report last year that highlighted the extent of poor dental health among aboriginals, suggesting that more than nine in 10 young children have cavities in their baby teeth, some with so many they require surgery under a general anesthetic. Dr. Robert MacGregor, president of the Canadian Dental Association, said it is hard to judge the billing figures, because there are a lot of unknowns. But those dentists who serve First Nations communities tend to work hard, he said. “We do know the disease rate is higher in the aboriginal population, so there’s more work to be done,” he said. “If a person is working 12-hour days, which is not uncommon, as I understand, in some of these clinics … that obviously makes an impact on your income.” Health Canada pays for a number of health services for aboriginal people under the Non-insured Health Benefits (NIHB) program, including dental care, prescription drugs and eye care. All of those on the list of the 25 highest-revenue dentists billed at least $500,000, with the top six ranging from $1.1-million to $1.6- million. The identity and location of the practitioners were removed by the department for privacy reasons. Dentists say the rule of thumb is members of the profession take home 40% to 45% of the fees they charge, after paying hygienists and other staff and financing often-pricey equipment. According to Statistics Canada, the average employment income for full-time dentists in Canada is about $142,000, after overhead is paid. Seven of the dentists on the list have multiple clinics on different reserves, each with their own support or technical staff, and two of the dentists are specialists, whose fees tend to be higher, said Oliva Caron, a spokeswoman for Health Canada, in an email response to questions. The dentists’ staff can include dental “therapists,” who are allowed to perform limited procedures, such as minor fillings. High billing can also result from practitioners visiting remote communities, said Ms. Caron. At the same time, the NIHB program has a “rigorous” audit system for the 14,000 dental practitioners who do work for the department, with particular focus on those claiming large sums, she said. “Every provider on this list of top-25 providers has been audited by the program, and many have been audited multiple times,” said the official. Any inappropriate billings must be repaid, repeat offenders are de-listed and evidence of fraud is turned over to police and regulatory colleges, she said. Health Canada spent $194-million on dental services in 2009-10, the most recent year for which it has issued an annual report, up more than 9%. Still, the report notes that many First Nations people go without dental care at all, as just 36% of those eligible had any kind of dental appointment in 2009-10. National Post • Email: tblackwell@nationalpost.com365 Shares Share “Seriously? Seriously!” When I hear either of my daughters take the word “seriously” from a reasonably volumed, one-word question to a high-pitched, broken-voiced shriek of a statement, I know that conflict is officially in the mix. The girls are less than two years apart, and their personalities are very different. My oldest is an assertive, outside voice type of person. She’s curious, talkative, very expressive – and when something isn’t working for her, she doesn’t hesitate to let that be known. My youngest daughter is polar bear cool. She’s a laidback, generally quiet, “leave me alone with my art and my books” type of person. She’s funny, quirky – and quick to etch out the parameters of her personal space. As you might imagine, the differences in their personalities make conflicts a near-daily occurrence. They view the world differently, they approach communication differently, and like most people in the world, they don’t like their opinions to be challenged or their preferences to be ignored. Not much different than adulthood, right? Save for a better sense of context, minimal egocentrism, and far more life experience, there’s really just one main thing that marks the difference between adult-to-adult conflict management and adult-to-child conflict management, and that one thing is the desired outcome. When dealing with adults, the desired outcome tends to be solely about finding a solution. When dealing with children though, we’re not just looking to solve the problem of the moment – we’re also trying to show them how to approach problems like that in the future. As a parent, my approach to conflict isn’t always based on trying to find a solution to the conflict. Instead, I see it as my job to assess the situation and then make choices that may include facing, or even encouraging, conflict so that the important conflict management life skills can be introduced, reinforced, and practiced in a safe environment. But we ourselves are susceptible to the same feelings of anxiety and fear when it comes to conflict. So the challenge often lies in how to nurture healthy self-governance and personal leadership in our children when we may not be practiced in those skills ourselves. So let’s explore some examples of ways we can turn moments of conflict – whether that’s between us and our children, or among our children – into opportunities. Because if we’re clear on some ways to handle both, we stand a better chance at helping our children (and ourselves) practice healthy decision-making when it comes to conflict management. Why We Need to Make Room for Adult-to-Child Conflict This is specifically for those times when you, yourself, are part of the conflict. It’s way easier (for me, anyway) to take a sound approach to conflict management if I’m not one of the conflicting parties. If I’m stepping in to help manage a conflict between my daughters, or between them and one of their friends, it’s so easy for me to see simple alternatives, or to draw examples from stuff I learned in school (like cognitive dissonance) to offer up a myriad of reasonable solutions. But when I’m one of the people in the middle the conflict, I’m much more likely to bark my assertions, express my discomfort, and then lock myself in my bedroom to watch mixed martial arts fights and pretend to be whoever’s winning. Since I’ve realized that becoming Anthony Pettis won’t actually help me solve any conflicts, I’m learning how to make room for conflict instead. Here’s an example: Daughter knows she’s responsible for washing dishes and wiping counters some time between after dinner and before 10pm. Mom steps out of her room at 10:30pm to find dishes in the sink, and Daughter chilling on her iPad. When I’m not making room for conflict, I tend to take these instances as personal affronts – as if my daughter hatched a plan not to wash dishes so she could fight against the system (which would be her dad and me). I personalize it, and I talk to her about starving children with no dishes to wash, and grandmothers she’s lucky she didn’t have because a full sink of dishes would equal an epic ass whoopin’, and so on. Basically, I bring up fear-focused examples of consequences for her choice to not wash the dishes. That approach solves my frustration in the moment, and it empties the sink full of dishes. But it doesn’t resolve the real issue, which is my feeling that she’s not being considerate about the distribution of tasks among our household – taking her life and privileges and the people around her for granted, basically. That recognition of the real issue is often the first step toward turning conflict into opportunity. Taking time to process your feelings and think through what you want to convey helps you manage anxiety about having to address the issue. It’s a practice run, in a sense, and it allows you to see yourself and to decide if you’re comfortable with how you respond. That is a conflict management skill: stepping outside of your feelings, not by avoiding them, but by facing them so you can feel through the issue (inconsideration) and not just the symptom (a sink full of dishes). When I face my feelings and hold myself responsible for helping my daughters to grow and evolve, I recognize that I don’t want to frighten my children into doing the things I want them to do. Because if I can manipulate them in that way, so can any other adult. I don’t want to socialize them solely based on fear of an undesirable outcome. Instead, I want them to see how they can manage their time and energy by trusting my (and their father’s) judgment when they don’t agree with a task (like dishwashing), and thinking through ways to get to what they want (free time) by addressing their responsibilities, which include chores. When I take the time to align my desired outcome with my action, I get really clear that the bark and threaten approach is more about my frustration than their skill building. And when I’m clear-headed, I do things that help my daughters to better manage themselves. For this particular ongoing issue, I had the girls create a dishwashing chart. That chart shows who is responsible for washing dishes on which days, and has a reminder about the 10pm deadline. The chart is on the fridge, and I reference it once or twice throughout the day. That lessens over time, and I’m okay with the process. I also remind them about their ability to influence their environment by choosing their actions. In this instance, it means that I replace empty threats (like physically and emotionally abusive ass whoopin’ techniques I’d never actually employ) with a reminder that if primary tasks aren’t addressed (which includes dish washing), then luxury tasks (like iPad time) are removed or shortened. Their dad and I are consistent with this, so there’s no conflicting message, and they get to see how their choices (to wash dishes on time or not) affect their environment (free time availability). So, in this instance, a set of life skill related actions, as opposed to fear-focused threats might be: Reminding my daughters a few hours before the deadline Being honest and telling them that I don’t like washing dishes either, but that it isn’t always about what we like when it comes to shared responsibilities Suggesting that they set a time to wash the dishes each night so it becomes an easy routine Asking them what they plan to do with their non-task related time (which prompts them to look at their task list for the week) Express my feelings without apology, but also without tying in threats that I won’t actual follow through on Offering an encouraging comment (“You’re on it today, honey!”) when they do what they’re responsible for doing Reminding them that it’s okay to forget to wash the dishes, but if it becomes a pattern, they lose privileges Being consistent with the consequence for not completing the task (every single time they don’t wash the dishes, and there is no logical reason, we do whatever we said we’d do) Helping them come up with their own ideas for consistently remembering to wash the dishes before 10pm Think of some options that may work for you, too. And feel free to use some of the suggestions above. As long as you’re coming from a place of skill building over fear-focused reactions, you’re creating an opportunity for your child to understand and eventually utilize good conflict management skills. For Those Moments When It’s Them, Not You We couldn’t address conflict management in parenting without examining the instances when our children are arguing or fighting with each other. This is for when you’re watching your children in the middle of a rising conflict. Here’s an example: One child wants to go across the street to the playground, but the other child wants to stay home and play Minecraft. They know that they both have to go to the playground, because they’re not allowed to go alone, so what starts out as a basic “What shall we do for fun right now?” conversation becomes a full-blown argument about fairness, fun-ness, and frustration. The first thing is not to assume that you need to step in. Some skills are best taught by doing, not by watching. I
reduce the size of the market share for paint. If two companies with similar products compete within an industry, they will each benefit as advertising and marketing by the companies will generally increase customer demand. For example, two businesses selling different brands of house paint will mutually benefit as customer demand for their products increases due to the competing marketing campaigns. The presence of a company that sells and promotes vinyl siding as a substitute for painted surfaces will reduce the size of the market share for paint. Competitive rivalry: This factor in the analysis takes into consideration the number of competitors in an industry and their relative strength. An industry with many companies offering similar products will offer a company little opportunity to control the ability of consumers or suppliers from going elsewhere. Porter believed that an analysis of the five forces that exist in every industry could help forecast a company’s ability to compete and remain profitable. You will obtain sufficient information on your industry from the five forces analysis to formulate long- and short-term strategies to incorporate into your business plan. A business plan for startup companies will benefit from an industry analysis that provides ownership with information to make decisions and formulate policy in certain key areas. You should be able to answer the following key questions about the industry and your company’s ability to successfully compete in it when you have completed the industry analysis: What are the primary economic characteristics of the industry? How strong are the competitive forces that exist within the industry? What trends or changes can be expected in the industry and from where will they come? What response will competitors make to the entry of a new company into the industry? What are the factors that will determine your company’s ability to succeed? What are the industry prospects for profitability and potential for growth? Will the company compete on a local, national, regional or international basis? What modifications or changes must be done to the company’s products or services to make them competitive in this industry? Industry Analysis Resources and Tools There are a number of free industry analysis resources and tools available to entrepreneurs preparing to write a business plan. A few of the more popular sources of industry information include: BizStats (www.bizstats.com): It offers statistics and financial data on businesses in a variety of industries as well as tools to calculate business valuation and cost of goods sold. Securities and Exchange Commission (www.sec.gov/edgar.shtml): The SEC makes annual reports and other financial filings of publicly traded companies available for review at its website. FreeLunch.com: This site from Moody’s Analytics offers data on economic trends and financial data from around the country. Hoover’s Online (www.hoovers.com): This is a product of Dun & Bradstreet that offers a searchable database of financial information and profiles of public and private companies. U.S. Census Bureau (www.census.gov): Government agencies can offer a treasure-trove of information. The Census Bureau has searchable databases with industry overviews, economic data by region and population statistics. Thomas Register (www.thomasnet.com): Originally published in book form, the Thomas Register is a searchable database of product information and market trends for a variety of industries. It publishes an annual survey it calls its “Industry Market Barometer” that shows where reporting companies are, where they have been and where they are heading. Library of Congress Legislative Information (https://beta.congress.gov/): The primary source for information about recently enacted federal legislation that could affect a business or an entire industry. Websites of individual companies or trade associations: Most companies have websites that provide information about the business including products and management structure. Trade associations usually have websites that offer glimpses into what is happening within an industry from the viewpoint of those working in it. An industry analysis is not to be confused with a market analysis or a competitor analysis, both of which are included in a business plan for entrepreneurs. An industry analysis will describe the products offered within a particular industry and the parameters of the marketplace in relationship to economic, regulatory and political issues. Where an industry analysis establishes the scope of the marketplace, a market analysis tells a business owner if a market within a particular industry will be profitable for a company’s product. How to do a Competitor Analysis A competitor analysis is a process in which a business obtains information to identify and learn more about key competitors in order to be able to predict how the competition will react. Competitive analysis serves a vital role in strategic planning, so writing a great business plan becomes easier if you do your research before you begin to write your business plan. A competitor analysis, unlike the competitive rivalry factor of an industry analysis, focuses attention on each competitor’s strengths and weaknesses instead focusing on the overall competitive climate within an industry. A competitor analysis offers a detailed profile of each competitor along with an analysis of marketing strategies that can be used to counter position your company to improve market share or profitability. At the completion of your competitor analysis, you should be able to: Identify your primary competition within your industry and marketplace Know the company profile of your competitors Identify the geographic location in which competitors operate Identify competitor’s market share and profitability Know and understand your competition’s strategies and objectives Identify benefits, such as increased customer awareness, derived from your competitors’ marketing How to identify and understand competitor strategies that are successful and those that are not How to anticipate your competition’s response to implementation of your strategies and plans Learn how to turn your competition’s anticipated response to your benefit The following steps will guide you through your competitor analysis: Create a list of your current and future competitors Gather data and information about your competitors, their products, and their marketing and pricing strategies Review and analyze the data Create a list of your competitors’ strengths and weaknesses Create strategies to take advantage of competitors’ weaknesses while a minimizing threats posed by their strengths Sources of Competitor Information Information for a competitor analysis is available from a number of sources including news stories and press releases, advertising, company websites, promotional campaigns, patent and copyright applications, price lists and, in the case of publicly traded companies, annual reports and SEC filings. Sometimes, getting information about a competitor might require a bit of sleuthing on your part. If your competitor has a store that is open to the public, there are no rules prohibiting you from visiting it and taking a look around. Becoming a member of a competitor’s mailing list to receive promotional material and updates on new products and pricing is a quick and easy source of information. The information gathered about competitors might not seem like much when looked at separately, but when viewed as a whole, it can be mosaic-like in what it reveals about your competition. A random conversation with a supplier might reveal information about a change in a competitor’s product line. The point is to take advantage of every opportunity to acquire data about the marketplace in which your business operates, and it might reveal something about your competitors that could be of use in developing or refining your marketing strategy. How to do a Product Feature Comparison A product feature comparison allows you to compare your company’s product with products produced by competitors. Unlike a competitor analysis that allows you to determine how your business measures up to competing businesses, product feature comparisons limit their focus to the products themselves. When used as part of the process of creating an easy business plan, product features comparison data can provide information that is critical to making marketing decisions. 1. Conducting the Research The first thing you should do is purchase or acquire your competitor’s product. This gives you the chance to evaluate your competitor’s sales process while you are acquiring the product to test. By using the product, you can compare features on the competitor’s product with those of your own product. If the features of the competing product give it a performance advantage over your own, you can evaluate how important those features are to determine if your product should be redesigned.Another source of information on the product is the internet. What are consumers saying about your product versus the product sold by your competitor? Product reviews by websites that specialize in testing products could also tell you how your product is faring in the marketplace in comparison to other products. 2. Product Comparison Tables The information you obtained through your research and product testing is easier to compare if it is compiled in a simple table format. The features of each product can be listed under separate columns for each feature, and each product feature can be judged to determine which one was the best. The best feature gets one point while the other product’s feature gets no points. The winning product is the one that ends up with the most points. Another method of evaluating the features of different products is to assign a score of 1 to 10 with the higher score going to features deemed to be the most important as far as product performance. The winning product is the one that ends up with the highest overall score. 3. Coming to a Conclusion Comparing a competitor’s product features with those of your own product is only useful if you use the information to make worthwhile improvements to your product. Redesigning your product just to make it look more like your competitor’s product only makes sense if the redesign meets a customer need that your product is not currently meeting. The conclusions you reach from the data a product feature comparison gives you can be incorporated into the market analysis, competitive analysis and marketing plan sections when you begin to write a business plan. The information will also be useful in guiding decisions made for the future development of new products. How to Conduct Market Research Market research provides businesses with information about their customers and the markets in which they do business. By analyzing the data that it collects, business owners offer products that consumers want at prices that are competitive with other sellers. For the new entrepreneur who is learning how to start a business, market research performed prior to the preparation of a business plan can help in formulating strategies to reduce risks, recognize marketplace and industry trends, and identify opportunities to increase sales. The marketplace for many businesses is no longer limited to one country. The growth of internet commerce has made it possible for even small businesses to participate in the global economy that exists for many products and services. Market research can help owners of businesses to evaluate the feasibility of expansion into international markets. The data collected through market research should give a business owner the answers to the following questions: Who are the customers for a company’s product or service? What factors influence consumers to purchase this product or service? What improvements or changes in current products would encourage customers to purchase more of them? What price range will cause customers to switch to other competing products? What features of a competitor’s product do customers like or dislike? What other uses of the product exist that can be introduced into new markets? Marketing research allows you to compile a profile of your current or potential customers to provide answers to the following questions: How old are they? Where do they live? What is their highest level of education? How large is the customer base? What are their favorite leisure time activities What do they do for a living? How much do they earn? Where are they employed? What technology do they use and prefer? What are their beliefs, values or opinions? Where do they prefer to shop? For whom do they shop? Market Research Tools The methods of gathering information about consumers do not have to be complicated. Frequently used methods include: Interviews by telephone or face-to-face Surveys conducted online, by telephone or through the mail Questionnaires completed online, in person or through the mail Focus groups to solicit feedback from people representing a cross-section of potential customers Steps in Market Research Any of the tools used to gather information can be employed using a five-step approach. Step 1: Identify what you want to learn or find out. Be specific about what you want to learn. Working on a single issue or question is easier than trying to create a survey or interview covering a wide variety of topics. For example, if your company is attempting to develop a new and improved widget to replace widgets that are currently being sold, you might focus your research on customer experiences with the old widget. Are they satisfied with how it performs? Do they believe there is a need for a new and improved model? Would they buy a new and improved model? How much are they willing to pay? Step 2: Draft questions to allow for follow up questions depending upon the answer given. Step 3: Identify the target group for your research. Interviewing people who have never used your product will not generate data to allow you to determine how users of your product will react to changes in its design. Step 4: Select the most effective tool for obtaining the information you need. If your company is in the telecommunications industry, conducting a survey by telephone might be more effective than one conducted through the mail. Step 5: Analyze the results of your research. Market research data is only as good as the use to which you can put it. Go back and review the purpose behind your research. Determine if the data you gathered allows you to answer the question or solve the problem. If it does, develop a strategy and implement it. If it does not, then decide what additional data you need and return to step 1. The Key Elements in Writing a Business Plan The answer to the question “How do you write a business plan?” depends upon the type of business and the purpose for which you are going to use it. Too many business owners think of a business plan as the thing they need in order to convince a bank to lend their company a loan or to convince a venture capitalist to invest in it. In fact, business plans come in all shapes and sizes depending upon the audience for which the plan is intended. For example, a startup company would want a business plan containing all of the bells and whistles to serve as a comprehensive guide for the new owners and management. Should the time come when financing is needed for new equipment or for expansion, a revised business plan that focuses on the company’s financial growth and ability to repay the debt would be needed. Business plans are written with an audience in mind. Internal business plans are written for a company’s management team to use as an operational guide. It can also be written with a specific project in mind to allow owners and managers to evaluate the feasibility and profitability of the project. These types of plans might include projections about profitability and growth ten or more years into the future. External plans are written for the benefit of an audience located outside of the company. Prospective investors or venture capitalists and lending institutions are examples of the types of audiences for which external business plans are created. These types of plans are created to answer a question or address a particular problem. For instance, prospective investors want a business plan that demonstrates future growth and profitability of the company to generate a return on their capital investment. How to Write a Business Plan Too many businesses start out with inadequate planning. No one goes into business to lose money. If you start a business, your expectation is that it will be profitable and that it will succeed. Writing a business plan forces you to focus on the strategies that will make your business a successful one. That is why learning how to write a plan is so important for new businesses or established businesses that might be venturing into new markets or launching new products. Business plans come in all shapes and sizes, so what you choose to include in your business plan will depend upon your audience, the question it seeks to answer or the problem it seeks to resolve, and your personal preferences. The most frequently included elements of a business plan are the following: Executive summary Business description Business environment analysis Industry analysis Competitive analysis Market analysis Marketing plan Operations plan Team and management plan Financial projections Appendix The Executive Summary Regardless of the business plan format chosen, the executive summary always appears first in the document. Its purpose is to educate and inform the reader about the company. It should explain where the company is at the present time, where it is going and how it plans to be successful. In a plan prepared for an external audience, such as investors or bankers, the executive summary is the first opportunity the business owner has to engage the interest of the reader. Even though it appears first in a business plan, the executive summary should be written last. The executive summary is a snapshot of your business plan that a reader can quickly look at to become acquainted with your business. Writing it last allows you to highlight the strengths of your plan into the first section your audience reads. Your executive summary should include the following information Mission Statement: This explains to the reader why your company exists. The activities of your company should be guided by its mission statement. Company Information: This is a brief statement giving an historical perspective of your company. It should include the date of formation, locations, company founders and number of current employees. Highlights: This is an opportunity to tell the reader about profit or market milestones achieved by the company since its inception. Products and Services: Briefly mention and describe the products or services offered by the company. Financial Information: This section is particularly important for companies seeking financing and should include mention of bank references and investors. Future Projections: Explain the direction in which ownership and management plan to take the business. Remember that even though it might be the last thing you write for your business plan, the executive summary is the first thing that people will read. You have to grab reader’s attention and hold it. Think of the executive summary as a highlight reel showcasing your business. One of the reasons for saving the executive summary until last to write is to give you the chance to include the best parts from each of the sections of your business plan in it. Write the executive summary with a particular audience in mind. If you are trying to attract investors, you should focus on those sections of your business plan that establishes how your company’s product is filling a consumer need. Reference the market research and marketing strategies that demonstrate how your company will take advantage of this. After completing the executive summary, read it aloud. It should convey your intended message in clear, unequivocal terms that flow without sounding like a sales pitch. Business Description A business description tells the reader more than simply, “We sell things.” This section of the business plan is an overview of the company, including its legal structure, its owners and management, a brief company history, information about the products or services it offers, markets the company will serve and other information to demonstrate how the company plans to introduce its product into the marketplace. The purpose of the business description is to help a reader to quickly grasp the goals the company has set and how it intends to meet those goals. By the time a people are finished reading, they should have a clear picture of the nature of the company’s business, its business structure, its goals and objectives, and its strengths and advantages. Begin the description with a few sentences that give a capsule view of the company, its product and its position in the industry in which it competes. This is an elevator pitch to get the reader interested in learning more about the company. Let the reader know if this is a new venture or one that has been in business for a while. The business description should continue with a statement about the type of business structure adopted by the company. Explain whether it is a corporation, partnership, sole proprietorship or limited liability company, and list the names of the principals along with brief profiles for each one showing how their presence benefits the company. Part of the description of the business should include information about the products and services sold by the company, the potential customers, supply and distribution channels, competitive advantages offered by product features and how the company plans to exploit those advantages. End the business description by explaining the specifics of how the company plans to be profitable. The business description section of a business plan should not be overly long. Depending upon the size of the company and the number of products offered by it, a description that is one to two pages in length should suffice. Business Environment Analysis Business planning is an on-going process that does not begin and end with writing a business plan. Periodically taking stock of how a company is doing is essential to ensuring that it meets its goals and will become or continue to be successful and profitable. A business plan should be flexible by incorporating tools to analyze company performance in comparison to other businesses in the industry. A business environmental analysis accomplishes section accomplishes this by providing useful information to management and company owners. Analyzing this data affords the management team an opportunity to identify those plans and strategies that are working, as well as those that are not. The environment in which a company operates involves internal and external factors that influence how business is conducted. Internal factors include a company’s business culture, its organizational structure, and the methods by which it is managed. External environmental factors might include government activities such as laws and regulatory actions, economic changes such recessions, social trends and movements that shift consumer preferences, and innovations in technology that can help or damage a business’ profitability and productivity. A systematic process of analyzing the environment to identify those environmental factors affecting a company, determining the impact they are having on the business and developing strategies to take advantage of them or limit their affects. After a business has implemented a strategy, the process continues with monitoring of the business environment to ensure that the strategy is working and does not require modification or change. Business plan tools that give management a constant source of current and accurate information about the marketplace and the industry, as well as competitive forces at work in both, are essential to an effective analysis of the business environment. Three of those tools are the industry analysis, the competitor analysis and the market analysis that should be included when writing a business plan. Industry Analysis The industry analysis that you performed before sitting down to write your business plan can be incorporated into it to provide data on the industry and markets in which your company conducts business. Drawing upon the data you collected by using the various industry analysis resources mentioned earlier allows you to identify the risks and opportunities confronting the company as it prepares to enter the marketplace with its products or services. This information permits you to develop strategies to take full advantage of the opportunities presented to business while minimizing or avoiding the identified risks. When written as a section of a company’s business plan, an industry analysis can be presented as a five-step process. Step 1: Give a brief overview of the industry. Define the industry in terms of historical background, the geographic area it services and the products it offers. Step 2: Review trends and growth patterns that have existed within the industry. Step 3: Identify factors that influence the industry. These might include government regulatory policies and competitive practices of other businesses. Step 4: Using data gathered through research, forecast anticipated growth of the industry. The predictions should be both long- and short-term. Step 5: Describe how your company will position itself within the industry. Focus on how your company can take advantage opportunities identified within the industry. Competitive Analysis You want your business plan to tell you how your company compares to others in the industry. It is difficult to predict how your company’s product or service will perform in the marketplace without knowing what your competitors are doing. A competitive analysis section draws upon the research you did before you began to write your business plan to offer the data and analysis to support your performance assumptions. Writing an effective competitive analysis can be accomplished in five steps. Keep in mind that the data you will need about your competitors should have been gathered earlier when you conducted the industry analysis prior to starting work on creation of your business plan. Step 1: Identify and list your competitors. You can do this in paragraph format or in a spreadsheet. You should include the name and location of each competitor along with the products they offer, sales volume, market share, pricing information, marketing strategy and other details their business. Step 2: List your competitors’ strengths and weaknesses. Step 3: Analyze the strengths and weaknesses of your company. Focus on how your company can exploit its strengths while overcoming or minimizing identifiable weaknesses. Step 4: Describe your company’s role in the marketplace. Explain how your company can compete for a share of the market given the information you acquired about your competitors. This is where you support marketing decisions and strategies with the data you previously gathered through your marketing research, product feature comparison, competitive analysis and industry analysis. Step 5: Give a detailed description of your company. Use this opportunity to describe how ownership, management, location, business structure and other resources possessed by your company will give it the opportunity to succeed in the marketplace. Market Analysis You should use this section of your business plan to describe the market into which you intend to introduce your company’s products or services. This is where you draw from the data you collected earlier when you did your preliminary market analysis before getting to work on preparing your company’s plan. Ideally, a market analysis should offer an overview of the marketplace, the positions held by your competitors and other facts to support your company’s strategies pertaining to marketing, production and distribution. Some of the key topics that should be addressed in this section include: A description of the industry and the market. This should include information about projected growth, potential changes in consumer demand and anticipated trends or cycles that could affect product performance. Describe your customers. Describe the customer need that the product or service satisfies. Provide demographics about your customers and show how the product your company offers falls within those demographics. How big is the market? If you market research shows that the market has been shrinking, a decision to enter or continue in the market should be supported by research supporting a prediction for future growth. Describe and explain pricing structures of your company and its competitors. Describe how your marketing and pricing will give your company an advantage in the market, or describe what changes must be made to give your company an edge. The data collected in the competitive analysis can be incorporated into the market analysis to show how your company will compete with other companies offering the same or similar products or services. Marketing Plan The purpose of a company’s marketing plan is to attract customers willing to purchase a particular product or product line. Creating a market for the product or service your company offers began with the business environment analysis and continues through the development of a marketing strategy. A marketing strategy must be flexible and should be evaluated periodically to determine if it must be reworked due to changes in the marketplace. Marketing plans frequently include strategies for four stages. Penetration strategies represent the company’s plans for its initial entry into the market. Growth strategy builds upon the success of a product by introducing it to different users or into new markets. Another strategy analyzes new or alternative methods of distribution of a company’s product to increase sales such as hiring of sales people or developing new retail outlets. The fourth strategy controls the communications process between the company and its customers. Methods of advertising and audiences to be targeted are just two of the issues that a communications strategy should address. The strategies created by a company under its marketing plan are affected by or have an effect upon other aspects of the business plan. For instance, a decision by a business to expand into new markets by acquiring a company already selling in the new market might be hampered by a lack of capital to complete the transaction, or it might force the company to seek additional capital by adding investors or borrowing money. Operations Plan The operations plan is closely tied to the team and management plan section of a business plan. An operations plan is the engine that runs the machine you call a business. Without an operations plan, nothing else in your business plan will get done. The operations section of a business plan created to obtain bank financing or for some other external purpose does not require the details that must go into a plan that will guide ownership and management in running the business. This section should be crammed with details and instructions to direct people within the organization in the day-to-day operations of the business. The personnel covered in the team and management plan section of a business plan should be able to refer to the operations plan for guidance in carrying out the strategies and tasks needed to run the business. An effective way of including an operations plan when writing a business plan is to combine it into a single section entitled “Operations and Management Plan.” Writing the section begins with the creation of an organization chart showing the title, duties and responsibilities and supervisory role of each member of the business. Team and Management Plan The people who make up your ownership and management team are the focus of the team and management portion of a business plan for entrepreneurs. Whether intended for internal or external use, readers of this section of a business plan should have a clear understanding of who is in charge. The length and complexity of this section will depend upon the size of the company. The business plan written by a sole proprietor will be much shorter than one prepared for a corporation with multiple management teams, a board of directors and multiple locations. Included in the team and management section is a list of owners and key management personnel along with a description of the role each plays in running the organization, the compensation and benefits each one receives, and the criteria used for giving promotions and increasing compensation. Brief biographical information for each of the owners, key personnel and members of the board of directors offers readers insight into the qualifications each person brings to the organization. Other information about the company that should be included in this section includes: Business structure Length of time business has existed Mission statement and values Background and history of the company Financial Projections This section of the business plan provides readers with a picture of where your company has been and where it is going from the point of view of its finances. Established companies should include financial data of past performance. Banks, venture capitalists and other lenders usually want at least three years of financial data, but some might want to see up to five years of information. Financial data that should be included in the plan include income and cash flow statements and balance sheets. Some lenders might ask for the inclusion of accounts receivable statements, accounts payable statements and documentation of other debt obligations of the company. Regardless of how long a company has been in existence, this section must include projections of future financial picture of the company. These projections must be supported by data the company has compiled through its research and analysis of the industry, competitors, markets and products. Financial forecasts should include the following documents: Statements of projected income Balance sheets Cash flow statements Capital expenditure budgets Assumptions that a company makes about future market trends or other factors that could influence the financial projections it has made should be explained. People outside of a company want to see that financial projections contained in a business plan are supported by accurate data or by an analysis based on assumptions having an historical basis for them. Financial projections can be supported by graphs, charts, credit history, order history, reference letters or anything that a business believes will lend credibility and support the predictions made in the plan. Such items might work best if they are included in the appendix section of the plan. Appendix The information supporting projections, strategies and assumptions made in a business plan will be found within the body of each section of it. An appendix usually contains financial information to which company owners and managers might want to limit access. For example, a company that prepares a plan in specifically to obtain lender financing could use the appendix to submit tax returns, credit histories and confidential date such as customer information only to those lenders requesting it. It can also be used for supporting reports, photographs and other information that takes up more than a couple of pages. An appendix should begin with a table of contents corresponding to the organization of the sections of the business plan. Even if it only contains information pertaining to some but not all sections of the plan, the appendix should always be located after the last section of the plan. Resources on How to Write a Business Plan: Business Plan Examples http://www.bplans.com/sample_business_plans.php http://www.score.org/resources/business-planning-financial-statements-template-gallery http://www.businessplans.org/businessplans.html http://www.businessballs.com/freebusinessplansandmarketingtemplates.htm http://www.businessplanarchive.org/ Business Plan Writing Resources http://www.carnegielibrary.org/research/business/bplansindex.html http://www.hbs.edu/entrepreneurship/resources/businessplan.html http://www.entrepreneur.com/businessplan/index.html http://www.sbdcnet.org/small-business-information-center/business-plans http://www.inc.com/business-plans https://www.sequoiacap.com/grove/posts/6bzx/writing-a-business-plan http://www.sba.gov/tools/business-plan/1 https://business.usa.gov/start-a-business http://www.startupconnection.net/premium-resources/business-plan-disconnect/ Article References on How to Write a Business Plan: William A Sahlman. How to Write a Great Business Plan. Harvard Business Press Books 2008. ISBN-1422121429 Bruce R. Barringer. Preparing Effective Business Plans: An Entrepreneurial Approach. Prentice Hall 2008. ISBN-0132318326 http://www.hbs.edu/entrepreneurship/resources/businessplan.html http://www.gsb.stanford.edu/ces/resources/business_plans.html http://www.sbtdc.org/pdf/industry_analysis.pdf http://www.quickmba.com/strategy/porter.shtml http://www.sec.gov/edgar/searchedgar/webusers.htm#.U7Wr6bG9Ztk http://www.sba.gov/content/market-analysis http://www.entrepreneur.com/article/78002 http://www.sba.gov/writing-business-plan http://www.sba.gov/content/company-description http://smallbusiness.chron.com/environmental-business-analysis-43238.html http://edwardlowe.org/digital-library/how-to-develop-and-use-a-business-plan/ You might also enjoy…Climate Change Montana rancher looks to the past to prepare for tomorrow’s climate Can re-engineering the family ranch help it survive climate change? As a kid on his family’s Montana ranch, Erik Kalsta performed a daily chore: He’d walk 500 paces from his house to a white shed, where an instrument panel recorded the height of the nearby Big Hole River. Then he’d march home and call in the measurement to a U.S. Geological Survey hydrologist. Over time, the data points created a long-term history of the river’s ebbs and flows. On a warm day last February, Kalsta, now 48, sat in the kitchen of the same home, wearing wire-rim glasses, a silvering goatee and a lightweight Patagonia sweater. He pointed out the window at the stream gauge, which is now automated. Kalsta’s success as a rancher depends on snow and rain, and 92 years of stream data tell him that runoff patterns are changing. “This is that early spring pulse that’s been coming earlier and earlier,” he says, glancing towards the swollen river. It’s become normal for snow to begin melting into the river in March instead of April. But in 2015, it started rising in February. That’s a problem, because it means that the water’s availability might be out of sync with the growing season or the times he can legally draw from the river to irrigate. “This is kind of scary,” Kalsta admits. “(But) we’ve still got time to turn this thing around.” Sarah Jane Keller He’s talking about the possibility that spring snow might compensate for the early melt, but he could just as easily be contemplating the future of his ranch, which his great-grandparents started working in the 1880s. Most of Kalsta’s property — which gets only about 7 inches of moisture per year — is already too dry to support his grass-fed cattle and sheep business over the long term. Kalsta worries that without management changes, and if climate change continues to disrupt runoff and parch the land, he’ll have to sell. “If I have to leave here, this place is going to make a fantastic subdivision,” he says wryly. Kalsta is trying to adapt by getting his soil to absorb more water. It’s a simple idea, but hard to execute. If he’s successful, it will help him ride out droughts, keep violent rains or snowmelt from washing his soil into the river, improve wildlife habitat, and ultimately boost grass production. “In general, our watersheds here were much spongier in the past,” says Molly Cross, a Montana-based Wildlife Conservation Society climate researcher who consults with Kalsta. As snowpack becomes a less reliable natural reservoir, it’s increasingly necessary to recover some of the capacity for water retention that’s been lost through floodplain development and overgrazing. To that end, the Wildlife Conservation Society is working with landowners east of Kalsta to build screen-like structures from willows. These slow the river’s flow, encouraging the water to spread out and soak in, so streamside plants can take hold. Kalsta hopes to accomplish something similar through different means. And so he’s turning his ranch into a laboratory for figuring out what “climate adaptation” actually looks like in practice. Justin Derner, director of the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Northern Plains Regional Climate Hub, says ranchers are keenly aware that climate and weather variability makes their business riskier, and for some, makes it more likely that they’ll have to sell their land. “I think the periodic droughts since 2000 have really hit home,” he says. Ranchers are trying a variety of things to cope with wild swings in moisture and grass production, he says, including setting aside pasture to “bank” grass for bad years, and using new long-term weather-prediction tools to plan stocking rates. “There’s no one-size-fits-all answer, where everybody is going to do the same thing.” Kalsta is focusing his efforts on an arid, ancient volcano called McCartney Mountain, his property’s dominant landform. Late last winter, the dry gullies on McCartney’s lower flanks looked like something you’d see in New Mexico. Kalsta hopes that by slowing the flow of water, he can initiate a soil-building scheme that will increase plant productivity by 400 to 500 percent. With McCartney’s stubby grass, rabbitbrush, prickly pear and rock, it’s hard to imagine. As his 86-year-old neighbor told him, “Son, if I remember my math right, five times zero is still zero.” The ranch’s history is unusually well documented; McCartney hosted a weather station for 60 years and Montana State University has grazing research plots on the property. Kalsta’s family also kept exceptionally detailed journals that go back to the 1880s; his grandmother’s later entries are handmade spreadsheets with weather, river flows, calving dates and wildlife sightings meticulously lined out on manila folders. Those journals serve as a baseline for what he hopes to achieve. One 1896 -entry by his great-grandfather, Horace, describes the grasses up on McCartney as “belly high to a mule.” Kalsta suspects that historical overgrazing by wild horses and during big cattle drives is partly to blame for the grasses’ decline. Below-average precipitation in seven out of the last 15 years hasn’t helped. Kalsta thinks the mule-high grass was Great Basin wild rye, a species he’s never seen on that part of the ranch. But he knows the big, bushy grass could return, given better conditions, because he’s sifted its seeds out of the soil and germinated them. Sarah Jane Keller Being resilient to climate change, he’s begun to think, might mean looking backwards in order to move ahead — restoring and re-engineering the soil to regain the land’s former productivity and water-storage capacity. Four years ago, after Kalsta noticed that the washes already hosted soil-building lichens and mosses, student volunteers installed rock dams in the dry gullies running down McCartney Mountain. Ideally, the dams will slow the flow of torrential summer rains and rapidly melting snow to trap the water and the soil it can carry away. “It’s mostly about water movement,” Kalsta says, standing at the base of McCartney’s golden slopes. “How we get it down here and what it does in between is what’s going to help us in the long term and keep this from turning into
and the next bust became the Great Depression, and it was only so bad because the government kept trying to fix it, and we’ve been going downhill ever since. (I probably butchered both histories, but the point is you can use it however you need to back up your philosophy.) So what is Elizabeth Warren’s philosophy? She talks a lot about the need to invest in infrastructure and research and education and these sorts of things, and how the system of government is corrupted by industries lobbying for special breaks and subsidies and so forth, and we just need to stop the lobbyists so that government can work for everyone. This sounds great. Jon Stewart brings up Ron Paul’s philosophy that the more stuff the government does, the more it invites lobbyists to make sure they are doing that stuff in their favor, and that the only way to get the money out is to let the free market do stuff. Warren’s response is that such libertarian philosophy would give us “no future!” No bridges, no roads, no nothing. Therefore, “Government is what we do together!” Well, I have three problems with this response. 1. First, she might just be wrong. Libertarians are quick to point out all the hypothetical ways the free market could provide roads, and all the historical examples of it actually happening (Hawaiian road repair volunteers!). They point out how most bridges used to be constructed without the government. They think it’s funny that liberals want mass transit to replace polluted driving because they argue that the government’s overspending on roads is what led to all this polluted driving in the first place, and that the free market wouldn’t have incentivized those evil cars so much. (For all of the above, see this reddit thread.) But let’s assume that maybe she’s not wrong. These days we’re so used to the government providing all of our infrastructure that it’s a little scary to imagine life without it. Maybe there are things in life that would provide benefit to everyone, but they wouldn’t naturally emerge in a free market because it would cost individuals more to provide than it would be worth to them individually. Economists call these things “public goods.” Maybe infrastructure and education and research are public goods that allow the market to reap greater things than it would otherwise. Does this make her argument better? I don’t think so. 2. Even if infrastructure is a public good, it’s not the chief problem with our government’s finances. Warren seems to have a schtick about corporations not paying enough taxes, as if that is the primary reason we can’t fund enough things that might be public goods. She talks about how the percentage of GDP we spend on infrastructure or research is lower than other countries and lower than it used to be and how we’re threatening to lower it still, and she makes it seem like if we could just get corporations to pay more taxes then we could fund all this stuff like we really need to. Well, I think that’s a little disingenuous (and I won’t get into the “should we even have corporate taxes” argument; I’m not smart enough yet to have an opinion about it). Taxes from corporations are only one of several forms of government income, and infrastructure spending is only one form of government expense. There is no real link between them and there are many other factors involved. I saw no talk on these videos of our debt or the fact that are borrowing 40% of our budget. Taxing corporations more to spend more on infrastructure won’t fix that. All of this ignores the real elephants in the room: Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid, which now make up 43% of the budget, and Defense, which makes up another 20%. She probably wants to spend less on defense, and I would give her that; libertarians want to spend less on defense too. But SS/M&M are almost half of the budget now, and projected to grow further. If we can fix those, hey, I’ll give you more discretionary spending for public goods without doing anything about corporate taxes. But it’s more fun to talk about increasing a 9% sector of income to help pay for parts of a 19% sector of expense without addressing the real giant issues. 3. But, most importantly, even if we decide we want the government to provide public goods and we make it an appropriate part of our budget, she still has completely sidestepped the question of how to remove lobbyists from screwing things up. I heard her explain the problems of lobbyists multiple times in these videos, and I heard her explain why she thinks the libertarian philosophy won’t fix it, but I never heard her explain how she thinks her philosophy will fix it. She says we need leaders who are accountable! Well of course we do, but how does wishing for accountable leaders stop the lobbyists? It comes back to the fundamental agreements and disagreements between the Tea Party and the Occupiers. They both agree that the rich and powerful are corrupting themselves with the government to get an unfair cut of the pie. But while the Tea Party sees that as evidence that the government should stop cutting up the pie, the Occupiers seem to think that the government should just kick out the lobbyists so they can cut the pie more fairly. But as long as the government is doing the cutting, there will always be an incentive for the connected to get themselves a better piece! She doesn’t like Paul’s philosophy of cutting the cutting, but I haven’t heard her say one word yet about how to keep the cutting and make it fair. (If she does have a plan and she just didn’t articulate it on the twenty minutes of Stewart I just watched, I apologize. Please tell me what it is.) It seems to me that Warren has a lot of good intentions and ideas that sound great but that she may be trying to ignore the way the world works. Dreams and fantasies don’t produce a better world, and I hope too many people don’t fall for it.by This is a guest post by Karen Dudnikov who co-authors Tabberone's Trademark and Copyright Abusers Hall of Shame. The opinions are Karen's and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of the SharkTankBlog, its editors, or authors. Trademark Lawsuits History First, we have to tell you where we sit before we tell you where we stand on m3 girl designs. In 2001, we (Karen & Mike) were selling on eBay as the county in Colorado where we live has few regular job opportunities. In August of 2001, Warner Brothers terminated several of our eBay listings where we were selling hand-made items made from lawfully purchased Warner Brothers fabric sold in thousands of outlets around the United States. Warner Brothers backed off after we resisted. Then M&M/Mars attempted the same thing. They backed off in 2002 after we fought back. We learned our lesson. After that, we quickly filed federal trademark lawsuits when attacked by trademark and copyright bullies. Beginning in late 2002 through 2005, we sued Disney, Major League Baseball Players, Sanrio (Hello Kitty), United Media (Peanuts), and many others. Most preferred to settle rather than defend their assertions. M3 Girl Designs Trademark Lawsuits Some people do not like what we say on our website and how we say it. It has been our experience that it is a waste of time being nice to and about people and lawyers who are involved in the unethical use of threatening federal lawsuits to intimidate others into compliance. The original threats from m3 girl designs (the company name is all lower case letters) were based upon its claims of copyright ownership of an idea. When someone fought back they changed their approach to avoid having to defend a lie and claims of plagiarizing artwork by Maddie Bradshaw. m3 girl designs would have you believe that Maddie Bradshaw parlayed $300 into selling 50,000 bottle caps a month in two years. m3 girl designs came to our attention in September 2009 when someone emailed us about the threats of trademark lawsuits being made by m3 girl designs. The Bradshaws were attempting to eliminate competition by sending cease and desist letters that claimed they owned the copyrights to bottle cap jewelry. Their attorney was falsely claiming a copyright on the idea of bottle cap jewelry. Faced with daunting attorney fees incurred from defending trademark lawsuits, most recipients of the letter stopped their “alleged" infringement and withdrew from the market. A few fought back. Those who did fight back, won for the most part. The original cease and desist letters ALL made primarily copyright claims and not one of them made ANY trade dress claims. Several companies ignored the cease and desist letters and found themselves the defendants in lawsuits filed by m3 girl designs. Not one of the original trademark lawsuits made any trademark trade dress claims. But every one of the lawsuits made untenable copyright claims. One cannot copyright an idea but rather one can copyright the expression of that idea. Any attorney who claims an idea is copyrighted is lying to you. Blue Brownies fights M3 Designs Trademark Lawsuits Blue Brownies fought back and found itself in a long, and very prolonged legal battle. The legal battle began in early 2010, and in early 2012 m3 girl designs changed its legal claims, dropping the untenable copyright claims in favor of the ridiculous claims of trademark trade dress infringement. At trial in June 2012, Diane Bradshaw and Maddie Bradshaw were well coached in their non-credible testimony but even the judge did not believe the evidence and testimony of trade dress infringement. The jury also rejected all claims made by the plaintiffs and found for the defendants on all counts. But the emotional and physical stress of the legal battle took its toll on the defendants, who had not done anything illegal when they marketed bottle cap jewelry. In the past, Maddie Bradshaw tried to convince the world that she had “invented" the idea of bottle cap jewelry and that the artwork was original to her. It was established in the course of the trial that Maddie Bradshaw was not telling the truth on either issue. On our website, we go after m3 girl designs, Maddie Bradshaw and Diane Bradshaw because they were lying about their intellectual property rights in an effort to eliminate legitimate competition. While they appear to be very likeable and personable when they appeared on Shark Tank, they were, and we believe they still are, nothing more than schoolyard bullies who take the lunch money of weaker kids. The Shark Tank episode gives the impression that m3 girl designs got $300,000 for 30% of their company. They did not get a cent. Part of the pre-show agreement states that all offers made on the show are pending further investigation and verification. The Shark Tank investors withdrew their offer. We go into detail about m3 girl designs and the Bradshaws on our website with documentation about all their copyright and trademark lawsuits to support our claims. www.tabberone.com/Trademarks/HallOfShame/M3Girl/M3Girl.shtml This was s a guest post by Karen Dudnikov who co-authors Tabberone's Trademark and Copyright Abusers Hall of Shame. The opinions are Karen's and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of the SharkTankBlog, its editors, or authors.Big Sean ft. Kanye West – All Your Fault [VIDEO] G.O.O.D Music Battle rap style performance from Big Sean and Kanye West. Big Sean drops two new visuals today from the release of his latest album Dark Sky Paradise. The first cinematic is from the track titled “ALL YOUR FAULT”, which features a stand out verse and collaboration with the G.O.O.D MUSIC founder himself, YEEZUS. Shots of a very energetic Kanye perform in a vast crowd of fans, which flows in and out of trippy camera angles and filters for a backstage view. DR. WEST talks about the police brutality issue and invites the listeners to handle the problem with a full scale riot and “Tear The City Up”. With his cult-like following, you never know what Kanye is capable of initiating. The production is a very perfected and minimal with the highlight of the soulful sample that appears throughout the song. With help from OG WEBBIE & DJ MANO (who produced The Weeknd’s latest track The Hills), Kanye provides epic production skills on this one. Big Sean delivers a signature sound with his punch-line driven verse that is cleverly pieced together. We also hear a very familiar adlib/tag of “Straight a up” from Travi$ Scott.A Groves family is taking legal action against the company that sold them a $20,000 service dog after the company, Guardian Angel Service Dogs, itself threatened litigation if the family didn’t turn over all the money it raised from fundraisers almost five months ago. The McLeod family – Ryan, Tara and their twin sons Racer and Rider – along with a flood of supporters from throughout Southeast Texas, held a number of fundraisers for Racer, who suffers from Type 1 diabetes, commonly referred to as juvenile diabetes. The money raised went toward the purchase of a diabetic alert dog. Through scent detection, he can sense – when properly trained – when a person’s blood sugar level rises or falls to dangerous levels. Money was also raised to go toward ongoing medical care for Racer. The McLeods are plaintiffs in a declaratory judgment filed last week in the 58th Judicial District in Jefferson County asking to sever ties with Guardian Angel Service Dogs after they received a dog that wasn’t completely trained and still isn’t 100 percent capable of warning the family if Racer has blood sugar that’s too high or too low. While the training is part of the issue, Dan Warren, president of Warren Enterprises LLC, which also owns Guardian Angels Service Dogs Inc., a not-for-profit company out of Montpelier, Va., is demanding that the extra money made by the McLeods’ fundraising efforts go to him. In addition to Guardian Angels, Warren also owns Warren Retrievers, a company that breeds Labrador retrievers, which he also uses as the Guardian Angel service dogs. Guardian Angels was registered with Guidestar.org, which tracks nonprofit organizations; however, they did not supply the site with any IRS information, including a 990, which is to provide the public with financial information to ensure it is not abusing its tax-exempt status. In a letter from Warren’s attorney, John W. Anderson, dated June 5 of this year, he states that the McLeods received “well in excess of $60,000 in charitable donations from fundraising activities” and that because the McLeods promoted the event “as being tax deductible to the donors and for the benefit of Guardian Angel,” Warren and his company are entitled to the excess money raised by the McLeods. Messages left for both Warren and his attorney, Anderson, were not returned. Matthew Morgan of the Reaud, Morgan & Quinn law firm is assisting attorney John Werner in the matter for the McLeods pro bono and said the McLeods fulfilled their monetary obligation with Warren and his company by paying the $20,000 for the dog and that any additional money raised is being used for Racer’s ongoing medical care. The McLeods’ petition to the court states that the McLeods held several fundraisers and “through the generosity and caring of the community, including many people who had never even met Racer, enough money was raised not only to pay the Defendant (Warren), but also to set up a separate account devoted exclusively to Racer’s ongoing medical needs.” The McLeods are seeking a declaration that they not be required to pay more than the $20,000 already paid for the dog and that Warren is not entitled to any money in Racer’s separate account. McLeod argues that while they did use the Guardian Angel name when promoting the event – which Warren said they could do – there was never any mention made about excess funds going back to Guardian Angel Service Dogs and that Warren offered to help with fundraising along the way. McLeod also said the family never used Guardian Angels’ tax ID number. “They don’t owe them money,” said Morgan. “The McLeods paid the $20,000 for the dog. (Guardian Angel) owes them some training, but we’ve offered to cut that off and go our separate ways, but they won’t.” A dog that doesn’t alert “We were told we’d be able to sleep through the night and if the dog noticed Racer’s blood sugar change, he’d come and alert us,” said Ryan McLeod, a Beaumont firefighter who is perplexed and frustrated with the whole situation. “My wife and I would’ve never gone with this company if we’d known we were going to have to train the dog ourselves.” Guardian Angel provides one week of training when the dog is delivered and two days of training every 90 days for the next two years as part of the agreement. All other required training is to be done by the owner.The McLeods’ twin sons are 3 1/2 years old. Racer, in addition to diabetes, also suffers from albinism, which according to his father, is very rare considering neither he nor his wife have the gene for albinism. It’s the albinism that causes Racer’s pale skin, cloud-white hair and reddish eyes. There’s no medical proof that it’s a bi-product of his diabetes. Late in November 2011 after a near fatal incident with Racer, the family began researching service dog companies and diabetic alert dog providers and Warren’s Guardian Angel Service Dog page was one of the first companies to pop up. “Our main concern was at night,” said McLeod. “One night we checked him, he was perfectly normal to make it through to the morning, and 45 minutes later he was having a seizure.” Fortunately, Racer was sleeping with Tara that night and she felt him having the seizure. Had he not been sleeping with his mother that night and in his own bed instead, he could have died. McLeod said most of the diabetic alert dog companies require the buyer to travel to the company to pick the dog up, whereas Guardian Angel actually flies out and delivers the dog to the customer. “I talked to him on the phone, and he had me crying on the phone talking to him,” McLeod said of his initial conversation with Warren. “He also told us the dog would be trained to alert when we received him,” said McLeod, adding that most service dogs go through one to two years of training before they’re given to a family. Gunner, the chocolate Labrador retriever the McLeod’s received, was 3 months old when he was delivered. “Obedience-wise, we haven’t had any issues,” said McLeod. “As far as being out in public, he listens and he does what he’s supposed to.” McLeod said Warren assured him the dog would be trained to “alert,” meaning the dog would be able to notify Ryan and Tara if the dog, through scent detection training, noticed Racer’s blood sugar was too high or low. Ultimately, the dog is supposed to “paw” a person when Racer’s blood sugar is too high and “touch” with his nose if the blood sugar is too low. At 5 months old, Gunner, while a good dog, is still learning how to detect, and can’t yet indicate high or low blood sugar. When Gunner was dropped off in May, the trainers that accompanied the dog indicated that the McLeods would be responsible for training the dog on how to “alert.” “We said, ‘Wait a minute, the whole reason we got this dog was because it knows how to alert,’” said McLeod. “We told (Warren) my wife and I both have jobs, and between the two boys, we have very busy and hectic lives, and we don’t have time to train a dog.” Maria Ikenberry, executive director for Eyes, Ears, Nose and Paws, a service dog company out of Carrboro, N.C., said she’s never dealt with anyone from Guardian Angel and has only heard of the company. A relatively new company, Ikenberry said Eyes, Ears, Nose and Paws has trained three diabetic alert dogs, and they took up to two years to train. She said her company has eight dogs it’s training right now and prefers training their dogs on-site as opposed to having the dogs trained with the owners. “If you talk to Assistance Dogs International, you’ll find that that is not the standard for assistance dogs,” said Ikenberry. “What you’ll also find is there’s no standard for diabetic assistance dogs, either.”Bonnie Bergin, a pioneer in the service dog industry who actually came up with the idea of service dogs for people in wheelchairs 37 years ago, said it is preferred by most service dog agencies who are members of Assistance Dogs International that dogs be trained for up to two years by certified professional trainers as opposed to having a dog trained by a family with occasional training visits. “I don’t see how parents as described, with the small amount of instruction, can do an adequate job training the dog,” said Bergin, who runs the Bergin University of Canine Studies, just outside of Santa Rosa, Calif. Spreading the word electronically Late Wednesday afternoon, a Facebook post was put on the Guardian Angel Service Dogs page by Warren letting all the members of the group know that “publicity was forthcoming” regarding the McLeods’ legal action against the company, which “may or may not be true,” according to the post. Warren indicated that a reporter from The Examiner might be in touch with Guardian Angel’s clientele, and if so, it was their discretion to speak with the media, but he was confident anyone who spoke would be “honest and forthcoming in your remarks about Guardian Angel Service Dogs. You, our friends that we have served, are our best line of defense against falsehoods. Thank you for your support.” One of those customers who came to the defense of Warren and Guardian Angel was Jamie Shasteen, whose daughter Alissa suffers from Type 1 diabetes and is expected to get her dog in the fall. While the family, which lives in Illinois, is still raising funds for the dog, she said it’s a “moral” issue and “common sense” that any excess funds raised by a family working with Guardian Angel be given to the company since it’s being raised for Guardian Angel and using the Guardian Angel name. “The McLeod family fundraised using Guardian Angel Service Dog’s name,” said Shasteen. “They exceeded what they needed to pay for the dog, and it’s common sense when you go over, that money goes back. They’re just mad that they fundraised using that name and that tax ID number and they were told they couldn’t keep the money after they kept the money.” Shasteen said that Warren made it very clear “from the beginning” that excess funds raised by families would be put back in a fund that would go to other families in the same state looking for diabetic alert dogs. She also harped on the McLeods for their lack of “research” since the company clearly indicates training is done primarily by the family and not done prior to the dog’s arrival. “They should’ve known that before they got the dog,” said Shasteen. While her arguments certainly support Guardian Angel’s contentions, Shasteen was a little shaky when it came to details regarding the information that “clearly” states the fundraising and training protocol. “That’s stuff that you find out when you start with this company,” said Shasteen. “You can ask Dan yourself.” She said she’s known about the company for more than a year, but has been working with them for “about five months.” When pressed further about where the protocol is listed, Shasteen continued, “I don’t know if (Dan) specifically told me that, but it’s common sense. It’s common sense to anybody with common sense.”McLeod said neither he nor his wife was ever briefed or informed on the fundraising and training protocol from Warren. A glimpse at Warren’s Web site warrenretrievers.com mentions how he offers help fundraising for clients buying a dog through Guardian Angels, yet provides no insight as to what is done with excess funds. “He’s great working with you throughout the fundraising process leading up to buying the dog,” said McLeod, “but once he gets paid, it’s impossible to get in touch with him and he passes off everything on to his trainers. If I’d known we were going to go through all this, we’d have never chosen this company.” Fred Davis can be reached at (409) 832-1400, ext. 227, or by e-mail at fred [at] theexaminer [dot] com.Nope, we didn’t see this one coming either. In one of the most unlikely yet pleasantly surprising collaborations of the year, Fredo Santana and Childish Gambino join forces on this rattling new record, “Riot,” produced by Young Chop. While Fredo issues Auto-Tuned threats in that sinister tone of his, Gambino takes a bite out of Santana’s flow to back up his comments from a few days ago: “Sliding in your top five / Let ’em hate on that line.” The track is taken from Fredo’s new mixtape, Walking Legend, which also features Lil Durk, Chief Keef and Lil Reese. Listen to “Riot” and download Fredo’s Walking Legend mixtape below… DOWNLOAD: Fredo Santana Walking Legend (Mixtape) Related: New Music: RiFF RaFF Feat. Childish Gambino “Lava Glaciers” (Prod. Harry Fraud) New Music: Fredo Santana Feat. Lil Durk “All I Ever Wanted” (Prod. Metro Boomin) Aggressive Rap: Childish Gambino Has Some Words For Drake, Kendrick and ScHoolboy QMember Group: Contributors Posts: 153 Joined: Fri 21st Aug 2009, 12:04am Member No.: 13,085 MemberGroup: ContributorsPosts: 153Joined: Fri 21st Aug 2009, 12:04amMember No.: 13,085 QUOTE(A Horse With No Name @ Tue 23rd February 2010, 3:47am) QUOTE(GlassBeadGame @ Mon 22nd February 2010, 10:16pm) QUOTE(MZMcBride @ Mon 22nd February 2010, 10:08pm) QUOTE(GlassBeadGame @ Mon 22nd February 2010, 8:23pm) Davies' explanation that the plagiarism is "accidental" and comes about when pasted passages from sources got inserted without getting the once over dusting is one of clearest examples of WP as a simulation of a scholarly activity, not the actual scholarly activity itself. This is what happen when the people who could not otherwise engage in the activity engage in the virtual activity without making any distinction. I don't really need to be the one to point out that plenty of scholars have been caught plagiarizing. And with the advent of the Internet, it's become even easier to scan old works that were once never suspected. I'm not sure if it was your intention, but your comment makes it seem as though the issue of plagiarism is somehow (particularly) related to Wikipedia. This seems far more closely linked to general human behavior. I don't really need to be the one to point out that plenty of scholars have been caught plagiarizing. And with the advent of the Internet, it's become even easier to scan old works that were once never suspected. I'm not sure if it was your intention, but your comment makes it seem as though the issue of plagiarism is somehow (particularly) related to Wikipedia. This seems far more closely linked to general human behavior. My point was that this guy had no idea that appropriating the work of another person, making cosmetic changes to hide the appropriation, was itself wrong. You know that, right? My point was that this guy had no idea that appropriating the work of another person, making cosmetic changes to hide the appropriation, was itself wrong. You know that, right? The circle-the-wagons effect to stifle all talk of plagiarism is in full motion, despite efforts by Ironholds and Durova to point out that these are not isolated cases of "Oops, my mistake!" As usual, Arbcom and its apologists/stooges want to maintain a double standard that works very well for them but makes the rest of the web site look ridiculous to the rest of the world. Ultimately, everybody wins. Roger keeps his worthless position (note how he first claims that he is too busy to respond, then he goes into a full-depth answering), his friends keep him in his worthless position, and those keeping track of the hypocrisy and stupidity of Arbcom (and, by extension, the full WP culture) have a Fort Knox-worthy gold reserve of evidence that confirms how Wikipedia has nothing to do with serious reference publishing and everything to do with idiot games. The circle-the-wagons effect to stifle all talk of plagiarism is in full motion, despite efforts by Ironholds and Durova to point out that these are not isolated cases of "Oops, my mistake!" As usual, Arbcom and its apologists/stooges want to maintain a double standard that works very well for them but makes the rest of the web site look ridiculous to the rest of the world.Ultimately, everybody wins. Roger keeps his worthless position (note how he first claims that he is too busy to respond, then he goes into a full-depth answering), his friends keep him in his worthless position, and those keeping track of the hypocrisy and stupidity of Arbcom (and, by extension, the full WP culture) have a Fort Knox-worthy gold reserve of evidence that confirms how Wikipedia has nothing to do with serious reference publishing and everything to do with idiot games. A compliment for Ironholds? Oh my At the end of the day, ArbCom are politicians. Whatever the agendas of users, as they advance further up the "ranks" they become increasingly concerned with covering their own arse as opposed to, y'know, helping the project. A lot of admins engage in arse-covering; most 'crats, all arbs. A compliment for Ironholds? Oh myAt the end of the day, ArbCom are politicians. Whatever the agendas of users, as they advance further up the "ranks" they become increasingly concerned with covering their own arse as opposed to, y'know, helping the project. A lot of admins engage in arse-covering; most 'crats, all arbs.The Turing Digital Archive contains a single tantalizing blueprint image for an elaborate gear-driven mechanical calculator that Turing proposed to build in 1939, which would have helped to make progress in verifying the Riemann Hypothesis. It was to be a very special-purpose device for adding up sine components in the various ratios needed to perform calculations using the Riemann-Siegel theta function, which was a new development in the 30’s. The table in the blueprint contains the ratios he would need for mechanical linkage, although as Bill Casselman points out, the table actually contains several calculation errors which would have eventually caused some problems. [My personal favorite is the column for ratios in log base 8.] From Turing’s application to the Royal Society: “It is proposed to make calculations of the Riemann zeta-function on the critical line for 1,450 < t < 6,000 with a view to discovering whether all the zeros of the function in this range of t lie on the critical line. An investigation for 0 < t < 1,464 has already been made by Titchmarsh. The most laborious part of such calculations consists in the evaluation of certain trigonometrical sums In the present calculation it is intended to evaluate these sums approximately in most cases by the use of apparatus somewhat similar to what is used for tide prediction. When this method does not give sufficient accuracy it will be necessary to revert to the straightforward calculation of the trigonometric sums, but this should be only rarely necessary. I am hoping that the use of the tide-predicting machine will reduce the amount of such calculation necessary in a ratio of 50:1 or better. It will not be feasible to use already existing tide predictors because the frequencies occurring in the tide problems are entirely different from those occurring in the zeta function problem. I shall be working in collaboration with D. C. MacPhail, a research student who is an engineer. We propose to do most of the machineshop work ourselves, and are therefore applying only for the cost of materials, and some preliminary computation.” Although this physical machine was never finished, due to the arrival of World War II, Turing continued to putter with the Riemann Hypothesis throughout his career via the zeta function, eventually becoming the first person to use an electronic computer to calculate zeroes, and thereby extending the upper limit for known zeroes to t < 1540. [Minuscule by today’s standards, but not bad for work done with paper tape in raw base 32 on a machine with a little over 25,000 bits of memory!] He also devised what is now called “Turing’s method” for easier computational analysis of the function. These exploits are detailed in his papers “A method for the calculation of the zeta-function” and “Some calculations of the Riemann zeta-function,” which are both widely referenced in contemporary math papers.The Campbell teal or Campbell Island teal (Anas nesiotis) is a small, flightless, nocturnal species of dabbling duck of the genus Anas endemic to the Campbell Island group of New Zealand. It is sometimes considered conspecific with the brown teal. The plumage is similar to that of the Auckland teal, dark sepia with the head and back tinged with green iridescence, and a chestnut breast on the male, with the female dark brown all over. Its natural habitat is tussock grassland dominated by Poa tussock grass, ferns and megaherbs. The species also uses the burrows and pathways of petrel species that nest on the islands. They are apparently territorial in the wild, and probably feed on amphipods and insects. Conservation [ edit ] The Campbell teal was once found on Campbell Island, but was driven to extinction there by the introduction of Norway Rats (which ate their eggs and chicks), and was for a while presumed extinct. In 1975 it was rediscovered on Dent Island, a small (23 hectare) islet near Campbell that had remained rat-free. The population was so small that a single event could have driven it to complete extinction; to prevent this from happening, 11 individuals were taken into captivity by the Department of Conservation for captive breeding at the Mt Bruce Wildlife Centre in 1984 while the rest followed in 1990. They were also put on the list of critically endangered species in 1979. Captive breeding was initially very difficult to achieve, as no studies on the behaviour of the species had been carried out in the wild and "staff [at Mount Bruce] thus had to experiment with a range of techniques to encourage breeding. Success came in 1994 when Daisy, the only wild origin female to ever lay eggs in captivity, finally accepted a mate. Subsequently, breeding has occurred every year – wild origin males contributed genes by pairing with captive raised females."[2] A tiny population of 25 captive-bred individuals was released on Codfish Island in 1999 and 2000, already intensively managed and pest-free as an important habitat for the critically endangered kakapo. In the final phase of the ecological restoration of Campbell Island (cattle, sheep and cats had already been removed), the world's largest rat eradication campaign was undertaken by helicopter drops of more than 120 tonnes of poisoned bait over the entirety of the island's 11,331 hectare area in 2001; this operation successfully removed what was estimated to be the world's densest population of Norway rats (200,000) from Campbell Island and it was officially declared rat free in 2003. Fifty Campbell teal, a mix of captive-bred and wild-acclimatised animals (from Codfish), were reintroduced to Campbell Island in mid-2004, after an absence of more than a century. Subsequent monitoring in 2005 has shown that the majority of these birds are now thriving in their ancestral homeland. By 2011 the species has firmly been returned to Campbell Island, resulting in a reclassification of its threat status to Endangered. References [ edit ]Pre Some time back I had a second round interview with Amazon for an SDE role. This is my experience. The first round interview experience has already been documented well here. Please note that I ~respect Amazon as a company (mainly because a lot of people I respect work there). I’ve kept this brief, without excessive philosophizing about the Right Way to Interview and Privacy etc, talking only about my interview experience and spinoff feelings/thoughts. If you think developers are whiny and are exceptionally well-paid and a little interviewing inconvenience is really not a big deal, then you have a point, but this post is not for you. … My second round interview involved me being on line with a proctor (from ProctorU), whose job was to provide tech support and make sure I don’t cheat. As preamble, the proctor made me download some software, one of which spun up a UI for chatting with the proctor and giving them access to my machine so they can take control of my entire computer, including mouse. The proctor then proceeded to shut down all my running applications for me (I never realized what an unnerving experience it is to see your mouse move on your screen under someone else’s bidding). Then, my system settings were messed around with to make sure I can’t take screenshots. Of course, my camera and microphone are taken control of as well. After similarly Big Brother’ing around for a while, I’m asked to raise my laptop and show my desk through the webcam, which I do. At this point I was told: “Clean your desk.” I wasn’t sure I’d heard correctly. “Clean your desk, please. Your institution [Amazon] has mandated that there cannot be any written material next to you while you take the exam.” “Cleaning my desk” would take upwards of an hour to do properly, and there was a lot of paper I didn’t want getting mixed up, so I suggested half-jokingly I take the exam on my bed. “Yes, but first you have to show me the bed and remove the sheets to make sure no written material is hidden underneath. Also, you cannot have access to a pen or paper. Please also keep your cellphone far behind you, where I can see it.” So here I am, taking an interview that is supposed to mimic real working conditions. On my bed. With my Macbook on my lap. Without access to pen and paper. After about 5 more rounds of “pick up your laptop and show a 360 degree view of your room” and “please show your floor, no sir, you need to get up from your chair and push it away and then show”, I’m allowed to start. I’m helpfully told that I can take one bathroom break, for 5 minutes, in between two tests. I start with the first part of the interview, which is a Work Simulation. In order to gauge how well I work with a team in a real-life scenario (umm), a video is supposed to play where I’ll be addressed
you to Dolphin Project Cove Monitor and SaveDolphins.net Founder, Oxana Fedorova for providing information and translation contained in this blog. Featured image: courtesy SaveDolphins.net. HOW YOU CAN HELP Sign/share the petition “Stop the Import of Dolphins from Japan to Russia“ Take the Pledge to NOT Buy a Ticket to a Dolphin Show, the latest in Electronic Arts' blockbuster life simulation franchise, has exceeded 1.4 million PC and Mac sales in its first week on shelves, the publisher said today.According to EA, that figure represents the strongest PC game launch the company has ever had. The game was developed by theteam out of Electronic Arts' Redwood Shores headquarters.Following unsightly public controversies over the use of digital rights management in previous EA titles like Maxis', Electronic Arts announced prior to's release that it would contain only a basic disc check."We feel like this is a good, time-proven solution that makes it easy for you to play the game without DRM methods that feel overly invasive or leave you concerned about authorization server access in the distant future," the company said in a statement.Early reaction toseems to be that it is a more significant mechanical evolution of the game than the relatively iterative. Critical reception to the title has been uniformly positive, with an 87% average rating on Metacritic.Though involved on a consultative basis,designer Will Wright, founder of the series' original developer Maxis, is not thought to have played a significant role in the game's development, and has now left Electronic Arts for his own Stupid Fun Club think tank.This article is over 3 years old Incident comes days after South Korea said it would conduct its largest ever annual joint military exercises with the US in March North Korea fired artillery rounds during an apparent military drill near a frontline island on Saturday, a military spokesman from South Korea said, as tensions run high following nuclear and missile tests by Pyongyang. US tightens sanctions on North Korea after nuclear test and rocket provocation Read more The incident comes days after the South said it would conduct its largest ever annual joint military exercises with the United States in March. The exercises usually cause a spike in cross-border friction. “The North Korean army fired a few artillery rounds” at around 7.20am from an artillery battery at Jangsangot promontory on its southern coast near the disputed sea border between the two Koreas, a defence ministry statement said. “North Korea is believed to have conducted a military drill” north of the sea border, it said. As a precautionary measure the South urged residents on Baengnyeongdo island to prepare to go into shelters and fishing vessels at sea to return to nearby ports, it said. In 2010 the North shelled Yeonpyeong island near Baengnyeongdo, killing four people, in response to a live-fire drill conducted by the South near the disputed sea border.Liberal and Labor premiers have declared war on the federal government’s $80bn in hospital and school funding cuts, pleading with the nation to rise up in resistance against cutbacks that will result in thousands fewer teachers and hospital beds. The premiers accused the prime minister, Tony Abbott, of getting his facts completely wrong, after he said of the funding cuts on Sunday: “We’ve got an enormous amount of time to sit down and work things out … we’re not talking about next week, or next month, or even next year.” The premiers said the federal government’s unilateral termination of scores of national partnership agreements would have a massive immediate impact on state services – including 1,200 hospital beds and $300m in concessions to pensioners and the elderly, starting from 1 July. They demanded an immediate Council of Australian Governments (COAG) meeting with the prime minister to “sort this mess out”. A spokeswoman for the prime minister rejected the premiers' demand, saying there would be no special COAG before the next scheduled meeting in September. The prime minister had already had private conversations with most of the premiers, she said. And the premiers flatly rejected the federal government’s suggestion that they should figure out how to raise taxes to meet the shortfall, including possibly asking for an increase in the goods and services tax. The Queensland premier, Campbell Newman, said he knew the “federal government wants us to talk about tax increases” but he rejected the strategy, saying: “Sorry, we aren’t going there … the federal government should look at their own inefficiencies and waste … instead of passing $80bn of problems to the states.” Newman called on voters to lobby the federal government to defeat the cuts and said he had already been lobbying Queensland federal MPs to resist the cutbacks from within the Coalition. “I would like people to pick up the phone and call your local LNP [Liberal National Party] member and tell them you’re concerned about this … I’ve been ringing and giving a few people an earful because that is how serious this is, and there are federal members who understand how serious this is,” he said. The South Australian premier, Jay Weatherill, said he would be lobbying senators to take up their traditional constitutional role as representatives of the states to reject the cuts. The revolt by the premiers came as thousands of Australians rallied in Sydney, Adelaide, Brisbane, Melbourne and Perth to protest against the budget, and a reinvigorated Labor party began a television advertising campaign about how ordinary Australians would “pay” for Abbott’s “lies”. The NSW premier, Mike Baird, said the budget had created “a mess” by trying to pass an $80bn spending cut to the states. “In simple terms, the cuts that have been put forward we cannot absorb. We can give no clearer message to Canberra: we cannot absorb these cuts; these cuts have an immediate impact – over a thousand hospital beds nationally are impacted by the decisions on health, and this cannot be allowed to proceed,” Baird said. The Victorian premier, Denis Napthine, said the terminated agreements between the federal and state governments would cost Victoria about $200m from 1 July, on top of the impact of the $80bn cuts in the longer term. “These are simply unaffordable and unsustainable, and those who will be affected are ordinary Australian families,” Napthine said. Newman also rejected the idea that the cuts would not affect the states for some time. He listed scores of organisations that would immediately lose federal funding – from the diabetes association, to the heart foundation and the association of tuckshops. He also cited pensioner concessions, aged-care concessions and local government funding, which he said would inevitably result in an increase in rates. Baird said the long-term impact of the budget cuts was untenable, reducing federal hospital funding from 40% to only 14%. Wetherill saud: “We are all standing here saying no … we will be campaigning around this. We have a Senate, it’s a states’ house. We’ll be asking them to exercise their responsibilities … because this is unacceptable...Tony Abbott has united the nation against these cuts.” The newly elected Tasmanian premier, Will Hodgman, said: “What we are seeing is something that is untenable and unsustainable.” Labor is attacking the government’s broken pre-election promises. The opposition leader, Bill Shorten, said: “I understand that the prime minister said specifically today when it was put to him... didn't you promise no tax increases, no changes to health and education? What the prime minister said today, I understand, is... ‘people hear different things’. “What a cheeky, presumptuous statement by the prime minister of Australia. It is true people heard Tony Abbott say one thing before an election and another thing after an election. But, prime minister, Australians know a lie when they hear one, and you have been the national championship liar of election promises and Australians aren’t going to forget anytime soon, no matter how many weasel words you come up with.”John Barrowman has taken to Twitter to deny categorically that he is a surprise guest star in the Doctor Who 50th Anniversary show. Showrunner Steven Moffat renewed speculation that he might be involved when he was asked during the Doctor Who 50th Anniversary panel at San Diego Comic Con why Captain Jack Harkness wasn't in the special. He responded, "How do you know what is or is not in the 50th. I've lied my arse off for months - you know nothing so don't make presumptions." Confronted with the fresh rumours, John told followers, "It was nothing to do with me being busy. Availability was not a prob. I just wasn't asked." He then added, "Once and for all please stop saying I'm messing with u or lying, I am not in the 50th. I'm disappointed and all this just rubs it in" Star names confirmed for the special are Matt Smith, David Tennant, John Hurt, Jenna Coleman, Billie Piper, Joanna Page, Jemma Redgrave and Ingrid Oliver. Steven Moffat's panel comment and his repeated reminders that fans have no idea what was filmed behind closed doors at Roath Lock studios have sparked rumours that other characters might return, possibly even one or more of the classic Doctors. On Sunday the BBC released photos that confirmed that the Daleks will also be returning for the special, along with the Zygons. The Doctor Who 50th Anniversary Special has been filmed in 3D and is thought to be movie length. It will be shown on Saturday 23rd November on BBC One and BBC America, and will also have a limited cinematic release.Donald Trump seemed to enjoy his briefing in Puerto Rico last week, and it’s easy to understand why. The president got to host an event where people took turns praising him; he congratulated himself on an “incredible” job well done; and he chided Puerto Rico for interfering with the U.S. budget, before telling locals they didn’t suffer a “real catastrophe.” Close video San Juan mayor: Trump was insulting to the people of Puerto Rico Mayor Carmen Yulín Cruz of San Juan, Puerto Rico, reacts to Donald Trump’s visit to the storm ravaged island, calling Trump’s remarks insulting, and describing him as the “miscommunicator-in-chief,” but also finding hope in interactions with White… share tweet email save Embed But perhaps the indelible image from Trump’s brief visit to the island was watching him lob paper towels to locals as if he were having fun shooting free throws. As the Toronto Star’s Daniel Dale noted, this was a moment the president was eager to defend when he sat down with Mike Huckabee, who now has a new show on a Christian cable network. U.S. President Donald Trump lashed out at the “fake” journalists who criticized him for tossing rolls of paper towel to Puerto Rican hurricane victims. The paper towels, he said, were beautiful. And soft. “They had these beautiful, soft towels. Very good towels,” Trump said in a conversation that aired Sunday on Christian television network Trinity Broadcasting. “And I came in and there was a crowd of a lot of people. And they were screaming and they were loving everything. I was having fun, they were having fun. They said, ‘Throw ‘em to me! Throw ‘em to me, Mr. President!’” These towels were amazing. Incredible. They were just tremendous. They were quite possibly the paper-towel equivalent of the chocolate cake served at Trump’s luxury golf resort in Florida. And let’s not forget, for an island devastated by a hurricane, with residents struggling without electricity or potable water, “beautiful, soft towels” are no doubt in high demand. We also learned during the interview that Trump believes: * the “filibuster rule” prevented Republicans from passing a health care bill, which still isn’t even close to being true; * Iran is “funding” North Korea, a claim for which he’s offered no proof; * he created the word “fake”; * the Middle East is “much less of a mess now” thanks to himself; * the Las Vegas gunman was “a sick person, but probably smart”; * and repealing the Affordable Care Act, sending block grants to states instead, would mean Trump could stop focusing on “fixing somebody’s back or their knee.” This was a timely reminder of why the president rarely does interviews with journalists from major, independent news organizations. Real reporters might be inclined to ask follow-up questions and press Trump after plainly ridiculous answers. Mike Huckabee, meanwhile, whose daughter is the president’s press secretary, touted Trump as a “rock star.”Corporate giants are coming out in support of same-sex marriage as part of a letter-writing campaign to increase pressure on Federal Parliament to pass the reform. Organisations including Qantas, PricewaterhouseCoopers, SBS and Football Federation Australia have signed an open letter that argues same-sex marriage is not just "the only truly fair option" but "a sound economic option" - as it will keep workforces happy and therefore productive as well as competitive for talent worldwide. FFA chief David Gallop says his sport embraces same-sex marriage. Credit:Getty Images FFA chief executive David Gallop told Fairfax Media: "A sport like ours is uniquely placed to raise awareness about this kind of social issue. And we take seriously our support for diversity and inclusion." Over the past decade, organisations such as Telstra, Optus, ANZ, Westpac, IBM and David Jones have indicated their support for same-sex marriage.By: Greg Sylvander It had been awhile since we heard from Ray Allen. The last two seasons, his name had been linked to multiple teams, hoping he would put off retirement. Hoping he would return to the court to tell Father Time “not now” and gear up to swish a dagger late in a crucial playoff game somewhere. Well today, Allen put that speculation to rest by releasing a Letter to His Younger Self via The Player’s Tribune while also announcing his retirement. As a lifelong HEAT fan who had the pleasure of watching Ray Allen in Miami for two epic runs to the NBA Finals, I think now is as good a time as ever to reflect back on his time in Miami. Ray Allen was great in Milwaukee, great in Seattle, great in Boston, great in Miami, great with reporters, great on and off the court. — Hardwood Paroxysm (@HPbasketball) November 1, 2016 I remember when the whispers started that he was thinking about joining Miami in defense of the 2012 championship. On one hand was cocky HEAT fan, how could anybody say no to The Godfather, King James and Flash? But also there was an underlying feeling, at least for me, of it being too good to be true. Could this team get that much better? Also, could they really convince Ray Allen to leave Boston and join his playoff arch enemies? Whispers quickly became screams and Ray Allen was sitting next to Pat Riley in his office. WE GOT RAY was the tag line. Miami had acquired the piece that would ensure back-to-back championships. After the summer of 2010, Shane Battier taking less money the following summer to join and now Ray Allen coming board, it felt like Pat Riley could close the deal with anybody. He got them all. Discounted. This HEAT fan felt like Henry Hill, played by Ray Liotta, in Goodfellas when he talks about living differently than the rest of the world. Privileged. We were made men. The frame of mind went something like this: “For us to live any other way was nuts. To us, those goody-good NBA teams led by conservative GMs overpaying average players, taking the subway to work every day, worried about the salary cap, were dead. I mean they were suckers. They had no balls. If we wanted something we just took it. If anyone complained twice they got beat on the court so bad, believe me, they never complained again.” The season that followed did nothing but add fuel to the cocky HEAT fan’s fire. The team finished 66-16, winning 27 consecutive games along the way. Ray Allen played an instrumental part in all of that winning. Whether it was his 19 point debut vs Boston, to his game winning 4 point play vs Denver, to 21 points off the bench in a double OT thriller vs Sacramento during the 27 game win streak. Allen didn’t start any games that season, but he finished almost all of them. It was uncanny to watch how effortlessly he would take big shots, and how quickly all of his high profile teammates trusted him to make them. He fit perfectly from the moment he arrived. In fact, their might not be a single player who came to the Miami Heat in my 26 years as fan who was trusted in big spots faster than Ray. Chemistry was formed in what felt like an instant. After dispatching of Milwaukee, Chicago & Indiana in the Eastern Conference playoffs, a date with the San Antonio Spurs awaited the HEAT in the Finals. Finally the chance to win back to back championships was here. Four wins away from finishing the mission, from cementing the legacy of the Big three in Miami. Through 5.95 games of that 2013 NBA Finals, the Miami HEAT looked outmatched. As the 4th quarter came to a close in Game 6, all of that bravado displayed by Cocky HEAT fan started to deflate like air leaving a balloon. The team was on the brink of elimination, on the ropes literally and figuratively. As the clock winded down in Game 6 at American Airlines Arena, the HEAT down 5 points with 28 seconds left to play, officials began bringing yellow rope out to block off the court for the Spurs’ trophy presentation. It was over. The season from HEAT fan heaven was about to go to hell. Then, Jesus himself rose to save us. Jesus Shuttlesworth, that is. What came next cannot be described adequately in words. So better to just allow you to watch. What you just watched was the most clutch shot in the history of the sport of basketball, on any level, in any country, by any player. Ever. The feeling that came over HEAT fans when that shot went in is almost akin to an out of body experience. You don’t believe it’s happening, but you know it’s real. You have to pinch yourself and double check to make sure it’s real. But you know it is. Although the rest of Game 6 and Game 7 were extremely close contests, and could have gone either way, when that shot went in by Ray Allen it felt like destiny. Even in the midst of an epic Game 7, a sense of calm was over me throughout the duration of the series. We often discuss how Game 6 at Boston in 2012 was a defining game for the Big three era in Miami. How that game was a legacy defining game (at the time) for LeBron James. How it was “winner take all” for the blueprint in Miami. What is discussed less frequently is what might have become of the Big three HEAT had Ray Allen’s shot not gone in with 5 seconds remaining in Game 6 vs San Antonio. Yes, they were coming off a championship in 2012, in the NBA Finals for the third consecutive year, but merely reaching the Finals was not considered a success. It was championship or bust. Truthfully, it was multiple championships or bust. Ray Allen very well might have saved the HEAT from imploding a year sooner than it actually did in the 2014 NBA Finals. Many people around the HEAT insist had the HEAT lost to the Spurs in 2013, Chris Bosh was likely to be dealt. Or that it would have been seriously considered. At the very least, Allen’s finger prints are all over the 2013 NBA Championship banner hanging from the rafters in American Airlines Arena. Considering the timeliness of Ray Allen’s contributions, maybe those finger prints are on that banner more so than any HEAT player not named LeBron James. Ray Allen, for that, HEAT Nation thanks you. We thank you for the memories. Looking back, I think most of us would choose to go back and appreciate your time in Miami even more than we already do. Thank you, for swishing the single biggest field goal in the history of Miami HEAT basketball. The Big three era is over and potential trips to the NBA Finals seem farther away now than at any time in probably the last decade. Life as “made men” in Miami is over. But “The Shot” will live forever.Columnist’s note: Please consider this an open letter to President Donald Trump and Steve Bannon, his intrepid special adviser. May 20 will mark the four-month period for the still new Trump administration, which should provide the team with the time necessary to have performed the proper “environmental impact study” necessary to achieving the goal of draining the swamp by 2020. So here are some honest and forthright questions to consider (if anyone from the administration cares to address them – publicly or privately). First, here are the two big over-arching questions, followed by more specific and narrow followups: How big is the swamp? And who’s blocking the drain? The rest of the questions are designed to get down to the important details: Has a step-by-step drainage plan been developed? Is there a swamp-draining czar? Who are the members of the swamp-draining A-Team? Is it possible today to itemize what needs to go down the drain with the swamp goo? Is it time to name and identify the powerful interests and specific enemies of the swamp-draining initiative? Who are the allies of the Trump administration’s swamp SEAL squad? How can your supporters around the country help you meet these objectives? Has a checklist been developed? If so, what, if anything has been checked off the list in the first 120 days? Is it realistic that the mission could be accomplished before the election of 2020? How will the swamp-draining mission affect the 2018 midterm election? Can anyone be specific, at this point, about how draining the swamp in Washington will fundamentally change the culture of the federal government? Swamps breed mosquitoes and other pests. What are some of the plagues that will be addressed by the elimination of this standing bog? Some people love swamps. They are often referred to euphemistically by those trying to preserve the status quo as “wetlands.” Who is among the “wetlands preservation” forces? Will draining the swamp reduce the size of government? Is a return to constitutionally limited government one of the goals of draining the swamp? Is draining the swamp a prerequisite to reducing the $20 trillion national debt? Will draining the swamp make the government accountable to living within its means the way every business and individual and family in America must do? How was the swamp created in the first place? How can we assure it is never re-created after the swamp is drained? Is draining the swamp dangerous work? Have you faced threats from the swamp creatures who like their habitat? What are the major obstacles to finding the drain and pulling the plug? Has the swamp ever been drained before in the history of Washington? Is there a timetable? What will be the evidence average Americans can be looking for that will show that the work of draining the swamp is on schedule? Are you as confident today as you were during the campaign that draining the swamp is not a mission impossible? Who on the executive team has previous experience draining big muddies like this one? Can you point to any specific achievements yet? Is the swamp defined by your team just “everything that is wrong in Washington that needs correction”? Or is it something more definable like “the corrupt system that perverts constitutionally limited government in the best interests of the people”? How will we know when the job is done? Is anyone keeping score? Is a report card being developed? Which will be accomplished first – the swamp drained or the wall built? I have other pertinent questions, but this should keep everyone busy for the time being. Color me eager for answers, but patiently optimistic. Get Joseph Farah’s new book, “The Restitution of All Things: Israel, Christians, and the End of the Age,” and learn about the Hebrew roots of the Christian faith and your future in God’s Kingdom Media wishing to interview Joseph Farah, please contact [email protected]."Schoolchildren and parents staged a protest against the pollution around schools throughout Hampstead and Highgate which they claim is choking them to death," reports a local newspaper in London. A photograph supplied by one of the parents shows the kids in face-masks. So, the story is about air pollution caused by school-run parents in their people-carriers? Nope. Cyclists. "Donning face masks, they called on London mayor Sadiq Khan to intervene to stop the Cycle Superhighway 11," continued the Ham & High. (The parents are also opposed to HS2 and the building work taking place on a local hospital.) Employment lawyer Jessica Learmond-Criqui, who coordinated the protest, said: “Hampstead is already bad and in excess of safe NO2 levels for adults and kids. The readings are off the scale. “Why is the mayor encouraging TfL to force up to 475 extra cars per hour into some of our narrowest residential side roads?” She added: “While we support cycling, CS11 in its current form is not right for our area. I would invite the mayor to reach out to community leaders and give them the support they need to come up with a safe scheme for cyclists but which won’t increase the toxicity on the young and old lungs in our area." Last year Learmond-Criqui was the leader of a crowdfunding drive to raise £150,000 for a judicial review of CS11, which claimed that it would “act as a cork” to traffic, diverting motorists onto leafy residential roads. This is latest in a growing number of cyclists-cause-air-pollution news stories. Last week Michael Gove MP asked London mayor Sadiq Khan “do you think that we might more easily be able to meet the very welcome things on air quality, if we were to revisit exactly how the provision of bike lanes has been implemented?” And he has not been the only Tory MP suggesting that removing cycleways is the way to decrease London’s illegal air quality. Earlier this month Sir Greg Knight said: "Is there not a case... for making local authorities take into account the congestion effects of their crusade to remove road space in favour of wider pavements and more cycle lanes? [Pollution] is going up because pavements have got wider and road space is being turned over to cycle lanes. If [the Mayor of London] wishes to reduce air pollution, he and others need to take care when they are seeking to remove highway lanes." (Knight is chair of the all-party parliamentary historic vehicles group and the owner of a number of historic vehicles, including a 1972 Jensen Interceptor. This British classic has a 7.2 litre engine and is famously thirsty for petrol, and quite the polluter.) And last month, during an air quality debate in the House of Lords, Lord Tebbit claimed the "cause of the excess nitrous oxide in the air in this area of Westminster and along the Embankment is those wretched [cycleway] barricades which have been put up by the former mayor.” What Tory MPs – and school-run mums – don't ever seem to blame is the increased levels of motor traffic due to a range of factors including internet deliveries. Westminster Council has found that just a single address on Baker Street has been getting 100 separate Amazon deliveries per day. And far from causing congestion, one US study has shown that motor vehicle speeds were increased on those road with cycleways. As this video shot earlier today demonstrates, cyclists are very efficient users of space – imagine if this many cyclists were all in cars?A treasure trove awaits Bernie Madoff obsessives who log into the website for US Bankruptcy Court, Southern District of New York. There they’ll find nearly 500 pages of verbiage — most taken from the fraudster himself — during two days of deposition for a lawsuit in April. A group of so-called “clawback defendants” sought testimony from Madoff in hopes of getting back some of the $65 billion that went up in smoke with Madoff’s Ponzi scheme. “One of my problems was I always wanted to please everybody,” said the felon who ruined the lives of many. The investors he tried to please most were called the Big Four: Beverly Hills money manager Stanley Chais, New York real estate broker Norman Levy, Florida accountant Jeffry Picower and Boston philanthropist Carl Shapiro. “I was like a son to them, and they were like surrogate fathers to me,” Madoff said. But they were all partners in crime. “They were aware of it,” he said when asked if the Big Four knew whether Madoff’s bookkeeper cooked the books. “They had instructed her to do it.” The deposition even revealed the scammer had a civic side. Madoff called not going to trial his “biggest mistake” — yet appreciated that it saved “the government spending millions of dollars and years in a trial with me.” Besides, he added, “I was [guilty] from 1992 on, which was bad enough.” But the convict, who’s not even a decade into his 150-year sentence, was at his most convincing when asked why we should believe him this time around. “I have nothing to lose now,” he said.SÃO PAULO, Brazil — The protests were heating up on the streets of Brazil’s largest city last week, but the mayor was not in his office. He was not even in the city. He had left for Paris to try to land the 2020 World’s Fair — exactly the kind of expensive, international mega-event that demonstrators nationwide have scorned. A week later, the mayor, Fernando Haddad, 50, was holed up in his apartment as scores of protesters rallied outside and others smashed the windows of his office building, furious that he had refused to meet with them, much less yield to their demand to revoke a contentious bus fare increase. How such a rising star in the leftist governing party, someone whose name is often mentioned as a future presidential contender, so badly misread the national mood reflects the disconnect between a growing segment of the population and a government that prides itself on popular policies aimed at lifting millions out of poverty. After rising to prominence on the backs of huge protests to usher in democratic leadership, the governing Workers Party now finds itself perplexed by the revolt in its midst, watching with dismay as political corruption, bad public services and the government’s focus on lifting Brazil’s international stature through events like the 2014 World Cup and the 2016 Olympics inspire outrage.NPR says that its editors and staff have reached their limit with some of the user comments that appear on NPR.org's printed stories and blogs. "We've recently observed a significant increase in the amount of spam in the comments as well as comments from some individuals who participate simply to anger or insult other community members," the Inside NPR blog noted on Wednesday. Hence the organization "will more aggressively" moderate subscriber responses on the site. New registrants who wish to post comments on the radio service's webpages will go through a vetting process, conducted by a team of community managers. The latter will enforce NPR's Community Discussion Rules, the short version of which can be summarized as follows: Be polite Don't use obscene words Stay on topic Don't ramble, and Report trolls, but don't respond to their posts Once a new user "has established a reputation for following the commenting guidelines all of his comments will appear immediately after posting," Inside NPR explains. "Community managers will only review comments in response to a specific report from other community members." As for existing users, about two percent "who have demonstrated a history of breaking the discussion rules," will have their comments scrutinized. Once these "consistently adhere" to the community rules, "we'll stop reviewing their comments before they are posted." Appalling things This new policy has been a while in coming. In October, NPR noted that the site had grown to 350,000 registered participants, and thus needed a little help moderating comments, particularly with trolls who come "to wreak havoc in discussions." Hence, the media organization brought in Canadian-based ICUC Moderation Services to assist. NPR Ombudsman Alicia Shepard insists that the newest move wasn't prompted by subscriber "vitriol" in reaction to NPR's coverage of the attack on CBS Correspondent Lara Logan in Cairo. But those responses obviously vexed the organization. Some NPR.org users said "appalling things online" about the case, Shepard complained, "so ugly, in fact," that staff took down dozens of anonymous remarks that appeared on an NPR blog about the situation. Among them: "Those dirty Muslims. Now I know why their women wear burkas. It's because the men can't control themselves." And: "They're Arabs, what do you expect? They're nasty people from the dirtiest place on earth." Face-to-face Since October, NPR.org's registration total has grown to a total of 450,000 subscribers, the new procedures announcement discloses. In a recent blog post Shepard suggested that the network should go even further in moderating discussion. "I am a strong advocate of doing away with anonymous comments," she wrote on Friday. "I often wonder what the dialogue might be like in a face-to-face setting, if people would be so harsh or make personal attacks." News organizations are struggling with the anonymous comment question. Last year Arianna Huffington of the eponymous Huffington Post told The New York Times that the "trend is away from anonymity." But even as The Washington Post announced plans to revise its comments policy, the Post's ombudsman Andrew Alexander noted that anonymity provides "necessary protection for serious commenters whose jobs or personal circumstances preclude identifying themselves. And even belligerent anonymous comments often reflect genuine passion that should be heard."A neighboring landowner is appealing the City of Seattle’s decision to permit a 75-foot solar-powered building at the corner of 15th Ave and Madison. In the appeal announced Thursday morning, lawyers representing Madison Court, the apartment building destined to find itself in the shadow of the high-profile Cascadia Center for Sustainable Design and Construction, object to a lengthy list of the significant decisions made so far on the project by the city’s Department of Development and Planning including the decision to grant permission for a departure from the area’s zoning laws to allow the building to be built up to 75-feet high to meet the building’s sustainability goals. In the appeal letter, lawyers for Miller Court are asking the city’s Hearing Examiner to either require an Environmental Impact Study for the Cascadia Center building or require it to conform to standard zoning rules for the area. The appeal hearing will be held March 29. The move comes only weeks after the state authorized local bonds to pay for an $11 million federal energy grant awarded to the 50,000 square-foot Cascadia Center and the team behind it, The Miller Hull Partnership, Point32, Schuchart Construction and PAE Consulting Engineers. The Cascadia Center is planned as a living building “designed to satisfy all [of] its energy, water and waste needs on-site,” according to architecture firm Miller Hull which is leading its design. The building will have an expansive set of solar panels designed produce 100% of the building’s energy needs. The building will include residential space, retail and office space and will serve as the headquarters of the Bullitt Foundation. The project aims to meet the goals of the Living Building Challenge, a set of 20 priorities not least of which are 100% on-site waste management and renewable energy generation. The most prominent feature of the building will be a huge Photovotalic (Solar Panel) which will cover the entire roof and south side of the building. We wrote about the early plans for the project — and the challenges of solar in the Pacific Northwest — here. We documented concerns raised at community design meetings — Madison Living Building design meeting notes: A “solar rights issue” — many of which involved the proposed height of the structure. The Madison Court appeal letter includes nine objections to the project. Some of the objections raised will be the first challenges for the city’s Living Building Pilot Program as Madison Court contends that the Cascadia Center backers haven’t shown their project will meet the necessary requirements to be justify departures from city code. The letter also documents the Madison Court group’s objection to the granting of the 10-foot increase in height and objections to the building’s gigantic solar panels — “The structural building overhang departure for the Madison Street stairwell and the catwalk under the south photovoltaic (“PV”) roof array unjustifiably convert public space to private use and conflict with adopted design guidelines…” Also on the objection list: the impact on parking and traffic Madison Court says the sustainable Cascadia Center will cause. The group is also concerned that the Seattle Department of Transportation is reviewing the solar panel structure as a “skybridge.” The Cascadia Center was originally planned to begin construction this winter. Backers said construction will take about 12 months once work begins. The site at the intersection of Madison and 15th Ave currently stands fenced and empty after the demolition of the longtime home of CC Attle’s. (All images: Miller Hull)WAKING SPIRITS The Sixth World doesn’t give people much time to grow up. Whoever you are, wherever you live, there’s going to come a time when the world is going to throw you some serious curveballs, and if all you can do is bitch and moan about how you’re not ready for what’s coming your way, you’re not going to last long. Get strong, grow up, and figure out how to survive—that’s what everyone else has done. Except for those lying two meters underground. One of those tests is about to hit Lena, a young woman living in the Sioux Nation. She’s going to learn a lot about how life in the Sixth World works, and just how far people will go to get what they want, but before she can process any of that, she is going to have to survive criminals, smugglers, and worse. She doesn’t have much to help her, except for some new powers she does not understand. Using them, and drawing on some unexpected allies, is the only way she will live out the day. Wolf and Buffalo is original short fiction for Shadowrun, Fifth Edition, and part of the Shadows in Focus: Sioux Nation collection of books—though you don’t need to read anything else to enjoy the story! Note: This product contains one epub file.First published Thu Feb 17, 2011 In general, writings on progress tend to bear a close relationship to the environment in which they were produced. Because of the strong connection between doctrines of progress and historical events, this article is organized by time and place. However, that principle of organization does not mean that each doctrine should not be assessed on its own merits. To help the reader, the next section briefly summarizes the conceptual framework that is used throughout the rest of the article. Philosophical proponents of progress assert that the human condition has improved over the course of history and will continue to improve. Doctrines of progress first appeared in 18th-century Europe and epitomize the optimism of that time and place. Belief
, the light suggests that it is midday’). There’s the epistolary or diaristic present—c.f., Matthiessen’s Snow Leopard (‘Sept. 28. At sunrise the small expedition meets beneath a giant fig...’).” And when we get to the diaristic and the epistolary, when in combination with the conversational, we start to understand why we would use it in fiction. We use it in poetry, journalistic profiles, vernacular stories told between friends, screen treatments, stage directions. In literary criticism, when describing what a writer has done, the writer’s work is treated as a continual present—a place where everything is still happening each time it is read. This resembles the way victims of assault and trauma think of their memories—they almost always tell the story of what happened to them in the present tense, because it is a place still vivid for them, in their minds. It is entirely plausible to imagine any of these being an influence on a writer in search of form or texture. The novelist Christopher Bram, for example, says of it, “I’ve used present tense myself only once, in Father of Frankenstein, but didn’t notice I was doing it until ten pages in. I realized I was using it because it’s the tense of screenplays. That seemed appropriate for a novel about a movie director so I kept using it.” Given the present tense is also common as the verb tense of the letter and the diary entry, this seems impossible to assert that the speaker on the page is only ever reporting from something as it is happening, and has no time or room to reflect on the page. At the least, to insist that is all that is possible in the present tense strikes me as a misunderstanding. But this is easily one of the most widespread of misunderstandings about the present tense. I most often use the present tense in personal essays when I am writing about the past—about events anywhere from the recent past to 30, 40 years removed. When I write in the present tense in nonfiction, it’s a kind of withdrawal into all of the available memory and evidence I can find as I look for the shape that might be there. Most certainly, an exploration of the past. In fiction, I use it when I am writing about a character’s past this way—performing their performance of this kind of act of memory. I see the tense as a way to visit a moment as I would visit a place, a way to walk through time as if it has dimensions, time that has been slowed down or even frozen, and in this way, I can consider the moments I describe more deeply than I might have. In the present tense, you aren’t stuck to the moment—you can go forward and backward in time. In fiction, the demands of the present tense are in some ways the opposite of that exploration of uncertainty—the tense places a demand for the elimination of all other possibilities in the writer’s imagination—this is what happened and is what is still happening whenever this memory returns to this character or whenever this moment matters. Granted, it requires a belief that memory is like a text that cannot change, in the way writing can, once printed, be permanent and collectible. But the best writers play with this, say, as in Margaret Atwood’s Cat’s Eye, where she moves from the past tense recollections of an adult painter returned to her hometown to the present tense narrative of the child that painter was—and the subject is soon what she has chosen to remember and what to forget—and this is given to the reader, not to the narrator, to discover. When I move from first to third person, or second, if I keep the present tense, it is not because what happens is somehow cinematic to me—it is perhaps closer to say that cinema most resembles what that looks like. If anything, it feels most like theater to me. But certainly, cinema is an influence on writers. John Updike, in his Paris Review interview, said, of his decision to set Rabbit, Run in the present tense, Rabbit, Run was subtitled originally, “A Movie.” The present tense was in part meant to be an equivalent of the cinematic mode of narration. The opening bit of the boys playing basketball was visualized to be taking place under the titles and credits. This doesn’t mean, though, that I really wanted to write for the movies. It meant I wanted to make a movie. I could come closer by writing it in my own book than by attempting to get through to Hollywood. I think we use the present tense, when we do, because it is all around us, and to the extent the modernist imperative, of including the vernacular in fiction, still matters, this may be part of why it is there as a tool. Does it provide immediacy? Maybe. But I think it does not automatically ensure immediacy any more than the past tense can ensure authority. I think we choose it intuitively because of any or all of those reasons. At the very least, perhaps it is at least time to stop saying it is new, or trendy, and admit that it is here, and has been, for some time. Denying the present tense is valid as a tool would seem only to contribute to its misuse. Which is really, it seems, what everyone who complains of it complains of.English [ edit ] Etymology [ edit ] Borrowed from French ennui, from Old French enui (“annoyance”), from enuier (modern French ennuyer), from Late Latin inodiō, from Latin in odiō (“hated”). Doublet of annoy. Pronunciation [ edit ] Noun [ edit ] ennui (countable and uncountable, plural ennuis) A gripping listlessness or melancholia caused by boredom; depression. Quotations [ edit ] For quotations of use of this term, see Citations:ennui Synonyms [ edit ] Translations [ edit ] listlessness, boredom Bulgarian: скука (bg) f ( skuka ) Danish: kedsomhed (da) c, sløvhed c, ligegyldighed c, apati c ,,, Dutch: lusteloosheid (nl) verveling (nl) Esperanto: enuo Finnish: ikävystyminen French: apathie (fr) f, indolence (fr) f , German: Langeweile (de) f, Apathie (de) f , Hungarian: kedvtelenség közöny (hu) unalom (hu) Ido: tedo (io) Irish: atuirse f, bailitheacht f, liostacht f ,, Italian: noia (it) f Japanese: 無聊 (ja) ( buryō ), つれづれ ( tsurezure ), アンニュイ ( annyui ) ,, Maori: rohea rowhea Polish: znużenie (pl) n Portuguese: tédio (pt) m, enfado (pt) m, fastio (pt) m ,, Russian: ску́ка (ru) f ( skúka ), тоска́ (ru) f ( toská ) , Spanish: apatía (es) f Swedish: leda (sv) c Tagalog: pantot Turkish: sıkıntı (tr) usanç (tr) bıkkınlık (tr) bezginlik (tr) Welsh: diflastod (cy) m melancholia, depression Danish: depression (da) c, melankoli (da) c, tungsind n, sørgmodighed c ,,, Esperanto: enuo Finnish: ikävä (fi) French: mélancolie (fr) f, dépression (fr) f , German: Depression (de) f, Melancholie (de) f , Icelandic: lífsleiði (is) m, óyndi n , Irish: lagsprid f Japanese: 憂鬱 (ja) ( yūutsu ), もの憂さ ( monousa ), アンニュイ ( annyui ) ,, Portuguese: melancolia (pt) f, depressão (pt) f , Russian: тоска́ (ru) f ( toská ), хандра́ (ru) f ( xandrá ) , Spanish: melancolía (es) f Turkish: bunaltı (tr) bunluk (tr) buhran (tr) melal (tr) ( archaic ) Welsh: diflastod (cy) m The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables, removing any numbers. Numbers do not necessarily match those in definitions. See instructions at Wiktionary:Entry layout#Translations. Translations to be checked Irish: (please verify) leimhe f (please verify) meirtne f Verb [ edit ] ennui (third-person singular simple present ennuis, present participle ennuying, simple past and past participle ennuied or ennuyed) ( transitive ) To make bored or listless; to weary. French [ edit ] Etymology [ edit ] From Old French enui, probably from the verb enuier. Pronunciation [ edit ] Noun [ edit ] ennui m (plural ennuis) ( uncountable ) Boredom; lassitude. 1832, Honoré de Balzac, La Femme de Trente Ans, Chapter 3, Notre ennui, nos mœurs fades sont le résultat du système politique. — Our boredom, our insipid customs, are the result of the political system. ( uncountable ) Trouble, issue, annoyance. 1883, Emile Zola, La joie de vivre — Mon Dieu! nous étions d’une inquiétude! dit le père qui avait suivi son fils, malgré le vent. Qu’est-il donc arrivé? — Oh! des ennuis tout le temps, expliqua-t-elle. D’abord, les chemins sont si mauvais, qu’il a fallu près de deux heures pour venir de Bayeux. Puis, à Arromanches, voilà qu’un cheval de Malivoire se casse une patte ; et il n’a pu nous en donner un autre, j’ai vu le moment qu’il nous faudrait coucher chez lui… Enfin, le docteur a eu l’obligeance de nous prêter son cabriolet. Ce brave Martin nous a conduites… "We have been very anxious about you," said the father, who had followed his son, in spite of the wind. "What has happened to make you so late?" " Oh! we've had nothing but troubles," she answered. "To begin with, the roads are so bad that it has taken us nearly two hours to come from Bayeux. Then, at Arromanches, one of Malivoire's horses went lame and he couldn't let us have another. At one time I really thought we should have to stay with him all night. But the Doctor was kind enough to offer us his gig, and Martin here has driven us home." Usage notes [ edit ] In the sense of "trouble", the word is almost solely used in the expression l'ennui avec ( “ the trouble with ” ) or as a pluralia tantum (see ennuis). Related terms [ edit ] Further reading [ edit ]Chet Faliszek's AI-powered tactical shooter (that's not about shooting) The Valve writer discusses why he joined Bossa and how he wants players to tell their own stories James Batchelor UK Editor Friday 15th December 2017 Share this article Share Companies in this article Bossa Studios In perhaps the most surprising hire of the year, Chet Faliszek - the man who penned Portal and Left 4 Dead - joined UK developer Bossa Studios. It's a major coup for Bossa, to be sure, but it's a seemingly odd move for the writer to leave the hallowed Valve in favour of a studio best known for quirky titles about woefully poor surgeons and playable bread. But Faliszek tells GamesIndustry.biz his shift was the culmination of a long-running friendship between himself and the Bossa team, and a much needed return to game development. For the final three years of his 12-year stint at Valve, Faliszek worked on the firm's virtual reality efforts but he also filled his time playing around with artificial intelligence and its potential applications in video games. Often meeting with the Bossa team at conferences and other events, he soon discovered that they had been doing the same thing, with the two parties “approaching the same kind of problem but from two very different angles.” “We'd both come to the conclusion that this solves a bunch of the core problems that stops you from really giving a player agency,” Faliszek tells us. “There's also something about the size [of Bossa] I like. The team wants to take risks and do something different. One of the things I would talk about with Imre [Jele, co-founder] and Henrique [Olifiers, CEO] is I wanted to try something we could fail at. Only a studio our size could take the risk on something like this and be agile enough [to build it].” Faliszek has a little difficulty describing his first project at Bossa. He initially positions it as a co-operative tactical shooter, but that's already an oversimplification. “It's a really broad range of things,” he says. “If you're just shooting, we've failed. It should have a broader set of verbs than that, you should be able to do different things.” "I wanted to try something we could fail at. Only a studio our size could take the risk on something like this and be agile enough [to build it]" It's perhaps easier to explain, or at least hint, at what the game might become by discussing the two core pillars Faliszek identifies: AI and story. The former is something that an increasing number of companies are looking into, both within the games industry and without, to the point where AI is rapidly becoming a buzzword firms use to sound like they're on the cutting edge. But Faliszek's three years in VR has taught him to understand “the difference between hype and the real thing”. “There's definitely a lot of hype [around AI],” he acknowledges. “[There is confusion around] what people think is AI and what isn't - there was an 'AI' doing a TV interview and giving witty answers, but they'd known the questions ahead of time and programmed it to do that. Same with stories of an AI writing Emily Dickinson - it's not coming up with great poetry from scratch, it's being fed and bunch of poetry and it's mimicking it. “People's perception of where AI is and the reality of where it really is do not match. It'll be interesting as we go forward, because our bet is on making a great game where no one even talks about the AI but that we're only able to make because we're using the AI.” There are already plenty examples of how AI is used to power combat systems in games - Faliszek's own Left 4 Dead games used an AI director to handle pacing - but the former Valve writer is confident his new project will be one of the first where it is “the underlying thing that drives everything.” “Right now, we're not trying to craft anything because once you start going down that road, you'll want to do more - and that will increase the need for a larger team or more time,” he says. “Instead, we're trying to create systems that will do this.” "If you're just shooting, we've failed. It should have a broader set of verbs than that, you should be able to do different things" Faliszek talks of a game where each player's experience is unique to them, where NPCs “do the unexpected but understandable”. His focus on NPCs reacting to player actions in more varied ways, of feeling more real, are reminiscent of Monolith Productions' Nemesis system in Middle-Earth: Shadow of Mordor and its sequel. “Shadow of Mordor's a great example of how [AI] affects that game, makes you feel about that game, how you interact with characters and how it can make things personal,” Faliszek agrees. “We wanted to bring that across with all aspects of the game so you could understand where, if you get into trouble or face problems, you understand how you got there. You understand the path - either your defeats or victories - that got you there." He continues: “That's what we mean by story, too. When we say story, it's often people thinking big monologues and that kind of story. But story is also activities and actions and different elements. When we talk about story and the narrative, that's what we're exploring. That gives you a broader range of interactions you can have with NPCs.” Faliszek recently gave a talk to developers about his new project, which Bossa later posted to YouTube, in which he said “the best stories are the ones players can tell about themselves”. It's a phrase that instantly brings to mind online multiplayer shooters like PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds, where tales of narrow escapes, incredible triumphs and hilarious failures are common - although in such cases this is entirely dependent on the other players in the match. “That's a perfect example,” Faliszek says. “[Stories come from] all the other players, there's no AI in that game in that sense. So how can you do that where it's just NPCs? That's our challenge, that's what we're going after.” The decision to make his tactical shooter (that's not just a shooter) a co-op affair was a conscious one - not only to offset the inevitability that certain players will actively try to ruin the experience for others, but also to solve a lot of the problems he used to run into on previous projects like Left 4 Dead. "People's perception of where AI is and the reality do not match. Our bet is on making a great game where no one even talks about the AI but we're only able to make because of AI" “In those games, the player characters will only ever say things we've written,” he says by way of example. “I once had to write for another game a line that went something like 'go pick up that thing over there' - because we didn't know what the thing we might add to the game would be or where it would be. “It would have been awesome to just tag that item, give the words to the AI, the AI understands what it's sitting next to and just be able to say it. There's a lot of busy work in language that it'd be nice to not write.” He continues: “It's not just language, it's activity and actions as well. Hopefully, it will surprise you. One of the nice things with that side of the AI is, if we do it right, it doesn't need to know everything - it just needs to know the right words. It can choose its own words, it doesn't need to be an NPC saying 'hey, you're double crossing me', they could say 'hey, you're screwing me over' or 'I'm mad at you'. There's a lot to play around with.” The notion of betrayal also alludes to another reason why Bossa's game won't be a traditional shooter. The entire genre is built on titles where the conflict has already begun, but Faliszek says players will be “starting in peace”, then given motivation to explore the world and “either be helpful or negative to other people”. The adventure stems from them, with different NPCs reacting differently to players depending on their previous actions. “Those kind of interactions, the kind of stories that derive from there make some level of sense but they're not as structured as classic stories,” he says. “The AI will be looking and going 'oh wait, you're about to meet this character but you don't know if they're mad at you or not, you've only met nice people lately and lived a very peaceful existence, let's put an antagonistic guy there'. "You don't have to just defeat everything or kill everything, you can befriend or ally or share a common goal" “The trick is making sure you're not just antagonising the player, or stopping them from handling things the way they wanted to. You have to make sure it doesn't feel random. You also have to make sure you're not encountering the same things: 'oh, it's this one again'.” Throughout our discussion, Faliszek stresses that the'verbs of play' will be different to traditional shooters. While there will still be plenty of opportunities for players to run, shoot, kill, he's keen to enable them to befriend or ally as well. “Most games now are about challenge and difficulty - and I'm not going to get into that argument, but there are more to games than this,” he says. “Some games are built around the fun of building or the sense of accomplishment in solving a puzzle or outsmarting somebody. Those aren't just straight up challenges, or mechanic-based affairs. We're trying to open it up for that, because then it opens us up to other verbs. You don't have to just defeat everything or kill everything, you can befriend or ally or share a common goal.” But describing the game as a tactical shooter instantly implies defeating things. By shooting, in fact. “Yeah, and we struggle with whether that's the right way to describe it or not,” Faliszek acknowledges. “There's a framework for all that happening in the game, but there needs to be more than that. If everyone you meet in the world is someone you want to shoot, we've failed. You want to enable players to interact or have different relationships with the characters.” He continues: “I get worried that when we talk about stories and narrative devices, people think it's going to be this big, text-heavy adventure but it's not that. It's an action kind of thing that allows you to do other things you don't typically do in these type of games.” Even so, it all sounds a lot more serious than previous Bossa titles - or even Faliszek's past works. Between them, the writer and the studio have produced the comedy interactions of Portal, Surgeon Simulator and I Am Bread - so is this a major departure for Bossa? “I wouldn't say the game is a comedy or wacky, but there's a sense of [levity] that works and mirrors with my own,” Faliszek assures us. “If I tried to write the most serious game in the world, it would not be serious by the end of it - I just couldn't pull that off. I have great respect for people who can do that, but I can't. I'm going to start making jokes at some point.” "If I tried to write the most serious game in the world, it would not be serious by the end of it - I just couldn't pull that off" Faliszek is unable to comment on the exact structure of the game, but it does sound like it will be less dependent on strict missions and funnelling players from event to event. We've all experienced that frustration when you cross an invisible boundary that triggers the warning “You are leaving the mission area”, forcing you to turn back, but Faliszek is keen to ensure his game is more open. “A player should always be able to walk away from a story,” he says. “If you say no, they have to go do this story, all of a sudden that becomes a gate. You're imposing on them and robbing them of agency. If you're simply putting a bunch of things blocking players from what they want, they then have to decide whether it's worth it or not, whether to engage with it and how they would navigate through those obstacles. That's what our prototypes are exploring, and trying to figure out how to add obstacles without them becoming a gate, without saying there's only one way to do something.” Overall, it sounds like Faliszek is taking the concept of game design back to something akin to Dungeons & Dragons: players are presented with a scenario and make their own decision on which course of action to take, with the Dungeon Master (in this case, the AI) determining the consequences. Is that what he's aiming for? “A little bit,” he says. “Those are some of the terms we were using when first talking about this project: the 'game master' idea, and if you decide to do something crazy how much would the DM go along with it before roping you back in. It was a good framework to think about some of these things.” He concludes: “I'm kinda scared to say we're doing something different, because someone's going to go 'oh no, this game already did that', but we're trying.”In high school, I was obsessed with planning what I was going to wear to school every day. The nights before classes I would spend hours upon hours sorting through clothes, losing myself in the depths of my closet. I would stage at least three different options on my bedroom floor, arranged and styled in the ways in which I would wear them — even pulling underwear samples and placing them with each option in order to see if the underwear matched as well. In many ways I was neurotic with this ritual, but it was something that brought me a sense of control in my life. At 13, control is something one desires as one’s body changes, you start high school, and if you are like me: you realize you’re gay in a place where that’s the last thing anyone wants to be. At 13 I couldn’t control my attraction to men, but I could control what shirt I was going to wear. During these nightly sessions I would contemplate difficult questions like: Are camouflage cargo pants already passé in 2003? Can I wear pink and make it look masculine? Is putting a t-shirt over a button-up a skater-punk look or collegiate-prep-on-Thanksgiving-break one? My sister would sometimes stop by my room during these sessions and act as my wardrobe assistant. She was two years younger than I, but had a keen eye and a quick tongue. Her remarks would be sweet vignettes like: “Oh that is cute, I don’t see a lot of the other guys wearing that.” Or her personal favorite: “You dress really nice for a guy!” And then sometimes the most painful one: “Um, no.” Then it was back to the drawing boards. At the time, I wasn’t conscious of what these exchanges meant, and I thought I was just trying hard to look my best. I knew looking my best in my southern republican school meant looking like a guy’s-guy who liked women and played sports and drank beer. So, my mission was to look like this guy’s-guy who liked all of those things, but also liked to shop and dress nice…but maybe not as much emphasis on the “liking” women part. A few years later when I arrived at college in Chicago I found myself not partaking in the same obsessive rituals as before. I still cared very much about what I wore to class, and there was some planning, but it was not at the levels that were sustained through high school. I found myself not feeling a need to manage my outer appearance as heavily in the urban jungle of Chicago, like I did in Tennessee. This past nightly ritual — I would come to figure out — was less about looking “good” and more about me testing the limits of my own gender and sexuality. Those times when I would bring my sister in to my room to help me pick out clothes and I would say “How does this look?” was really me asking: How gay do I look? A lot of us go through our own versions of this every morning when we awake. We look in a mirror and stare into our closets or drawers and think about how ______ we’d like to be today. And in my case I was trying to gauge the levels of “gay” that could be read through the articles of clothing on my body. For many gay men, this ritual is important and something we have become too familiar with. When we look in the mirror in the mornings and gauge how gay we are presenting that day we are also asking ourselves: how safe do I want to be today? Because we still live in a world where men are not celebrated for being effeminate, but instead ridiculed and sometimes face different forms of violence. The ways one presents themselves in public is directly tied to many facets of their life. We dress one way, we get treated one way. RuPaul famously said, “You’re born naked & the rest is drag.” Drag is a great metaphor for our daily lives and dress. In the drag world one’s form of drag is in tandem with how much money one makes, their success, and who their following is. How we represent ourselves in public — the drag we put on, so to speak — is powerful, and it affects the ways we move about and the experiences we have. Our drag can bring us love; it can bring us shame; or a lot of hate. The other night I was at a gay bar celebrating a friend’s birthday who came in from out of town. I wore a sweater that I have worn many times, and have usually only received praise about, or someone telling me I was shedding because it sometimes sheds like most wool sweaters will do. As I stood talking to friends a man approached me and grabbed my sweater and said, “You’re drowning in wool, don’t wear this again.” I stood there stunned. Not only did this man come up to me and disrespect me without any reason, but he also felt comfortable enough to lay his hands on me. “Excuse me?” I barked back at him, pushing his hands off my sweater. “What?” He was giggling now. “Did I say something wrong?” I stared him up and down. He was in his late-20s or early-30s, I couldn’t decide. He wore designer boot cut denim and a plaid, fitted button-down shirt. He had facial hair, and drank a beer from a bottle. He was the essence of a masculinity that I did not portray. He was a clone of the gay men before him. “Do you think there is something wrong with me wearing my sweater here?” I sipped my whiskey slowly, never unlocking my eyes on his smug look. “Dude, don’t you think it’s a little too gay? I mean you are like all wool and no man.” His friend standing next to him began laughing at this remark. During this remark I thought back to high school. I thought about my sister sitting in my room, helping me make sure my outfit was just right for school, that it was just on that border of gay but not too gay. I thought about all the times I was called faggot or sissy or punk in the streets. I thought about the countless hours I spent years ago thinking about how different my life would be if I weren’t gay. And I thought about how much I wanted to throw my drink in this guy’s smug face. “Do I think I am too gay? Really? We are in a gay bar? That isn’t possible, asshole. Just because you dress like that and can walk down the street and no one knows you are gay doesn’t mean you can come to me and tell me how to dress. I woke up this morning, I put on this sweater, and I am keeping it on. You can go to hell.” He put down his beer on the bar defensively. “Look, I am sorry! I was just trying to help. I just am tired of all these little queens walking around here making it worse for all of us. If you could just dress like him…” — his finger shot up and pointed across the room — “then I think it would make things a lot better.” My mouth hit the floor. “You know what, I really can’t discuss this with you anymore.” I began to walk away, defeated for the first time in a long time. I have always touted myself as a champion in these situations. My quick tongue and wit has always been my shield. I am on the offensive, and never give my opponent the time to put me on any type of defense. But for some reason this interaction made me feel numb. I felt too gay for a gay bar. I turned back to him before leaving the bar completely, “You know who is really making it all worse for us?” “Who is that?” By this point I could tell that he could tell I was clearly upset. “People like you. People who never got over the bullying and the teasing, people who took exactly what every homophobe said to them and internalized it and are now throwing it around in our own bars, our own safe spaces. How do you expect the world to love us if we can’t love each other?” He picked his beer back up, taking a swig. “Look, I am sorry — I didn’t know you would take it this way. I was kind of kidding…” “No it’s fine. I am fine. But after today, I hope you think about this the next time you think someone is too gay, and hopefully you will find new words to engage them with.” I made my way through the bar, sweater still on, and onto the street with a friend. I have yet to run into that guy since. Today, as a 20-something, when these instances happen I do recover. I don’t take off my sweaters or cloths that make me look too gay, but instead keep wearing them. I usually retaliate with words in ways that aim to help change the mind of the person attacking me, and sometimes I can’t and I fail. And what I think about most after these instances is how other people are affected by these moments. What high school student is out there right now sitting on his bedroom floor obsessing over his clothes to make sure he looks just right so he doesn’t have to deal with as much teasing? What young gay boy is in a store wanting an article of clothing so bad, but knows if he wears it another gay man may not find him attractive because he looks just “too gay.” I still own that sweater and I wear it frequently. Every time since that incident, when I put it on, I think about the bearded guy with the bottle of beer in one of my favorite gay bars. And I find strength when realizing that wearing that sweater doesn’t make me feel like a guy’s-guy and my sister didn’t have to approve this before I wore it. Wearing this sweater, to me, signifies that I am me and not anyone else. That I have carved out a place in the world that is my own, and that I don’t need the approval of another man to wear sweaters that make me look like I am “drowning in wool.” And when I wear that sweater and see other boys in sweaters or other clothing that some may find to be “too gay” I smile. Because neither one of us is drowning in anything. We are swimming.Share this Share this... Linkedin “For a long time I was showing up to races and everyone was like ‘who’s that weird tattoo girl?” says Kelli Samuelson who’s discussing the large collection of ink that, by her own estimations, covers around 60 percent of her body. “I’ve always been super creative and they’re another form of expression for me, but they’ve taken a back seat for the moment. You don’t want to get anything done and then have to go sweat on a bike the next day, it doesn’t feel good!” Talking to Kelli for a matter of minutes it’s obvious that her unique approach to cycle racing goes further than her look. Her commitment to the sport, most recently as founder of LA Sweat, a road team she created to challenge the traditional model of how professional teams work, has placed Kelli firmly at the heart of the Californian scene. “I was finding a lot of teams, especially locally, were run by men and were male dominant, and the women’s teams were getting the leftovers, in terms of sponsorship and support,” she explains. “I wanted to create a new avenue for women to race, and having had some success with my old team I really wanted to support my friends and fellow riders who wanted to do more. So I started my own team.” After securing a number of sponsors and putting together a team of like-minded, dedicated riders, Kelli implemented her idea, albeit with a steep introduction to the realities of being team manager and rider. “Luckily I’m kind of weird in that I really like organising things so running the team works for me,” she jokes. “It’s definitely taken on a lot more of my time, when we began everything was very loose and on a handshake, now it’s all on paper. Its totally more serious, but we don’t like to take ourselves so seriously.” The surprising thing is that Kelli only started riding competitively a relatively short time ago. After growing up in Boise, Idaho as a ballet dancer, a vocation that she gave careful consideration too throughout high-school, a chance alleycat race at college sparked her passion. “Going to college in Seattle I figured I didn’t need a car to get around so I sold it and bought a bicycle,” she says. “In the beginning I had no desire to race whatsoever, but my friends started talking about doing this street race which sounded fun, so I entered it and ended up doing fairly well. That was my lightbulb moment, I decided that I wanted to race my bike all the time. So the next week I bought a road bike, got a coach, and about seven months later I quit everything to ride full-time. I made huge life decisions really early and went with it.” Following this decision, which her parents initially thought was crazy – “They totally get it now though” – Kelli progressed quickly through the racing ranks, eventually signing to Team Cinelli Chrome and becoming a key member of the Ritte Women road team. Things were moving so well that she was eying trials for the Rio Olympics until finding herself on the wrong side of a chronic leg injury. “I was riding with this pain and it got to the point where it felt like scorching hot saw blades cutting my legs,” she says. “Then I was racing in Barcelona and there was a moment with about three laps to go I went into a hairpin turn at full speed and my hip just popped. I finished the race but I knew I was done for the season.” A battery of tests and a batch of X-rays later the doctors found that the ball of her femur had to be reshaped, which necessitated reconstructive surgery and an eight-month layoff. “It’s been pretty frustrating at times,” she acknowledges. “I’ve buried myself into running LA Sweat, but you know how athletes are, we want to ride and we want everything to go 10 times faster than it actually does.” With the rehab nearing its gru
them on the production of Feud, but one area of equality that she’s less sure about is that awkward matter of who gets paid what. “I don’t think it matters that Jennifer Lawrence is paid 70 times more than what I am,” she says. “It’s a business that is so subjective and I feel so lucky to be able to earn a living, and this is why to go after pay equality is a really chancy subject – because if Tom Cruise has a leading lady that’s in the movie as much as he is, should she get the same amount of money if she’s been in the business a shorter amount of time? And should a character actor that’s been in the business for 50 years not get paid more? It’s a sin what happens to these supporting actors through the years where they can barely exist on the pay they get. There’s no equity in terms of value, and who knows how these decisions are made. So you can’t apply that to feeling unfair because the whole fact that actors get paid as much as we do is ridiculous. I mean, what a fabulous life. I can’t bitch about whatever my pay level is. I don’t focus on that.” Facebook Twitter Pinterest Susan Sarandon in The Meddler. Photograph: Sony But as content as Sarandon seems, there’s no denying that she’s been frustratingly absent from the spotlight in recent years. She’s not stopped working but more often she’s been taking on small, little-seen roles. It’s not simply a dearth of scripts for women of a certain age in the industry, it’s also Sarandon being understandably picky. Unlike many other Oscar-winning female actors, she’s resisted the urge to take on thankless roles in franchise fodder. She chose not to play the doomed female president in last year’s Independence Day: Resurgence (“When I read the script, I couldn’t understand what was going on”) and the only sequel you’ll see her in any time soon is John Turturro’s Big Lebowski spin-off (something she calls “a crazy film” that she “still can’t believe they got the money for”). 'You’re dead in two seconds': why do female stars over 40 agree to be in blockbusters? Read more After the success of Thelma and Louise, many thought it would be a game-changer, showing Holly-bros that there’s a sizable audience for a film about female friendship – but as Bridesmaids has since shown, these hits are often seen as unlikely exceptions and fail to cause the seismic shift predicted. “I think that a woman can look at a story that has a male protagonist and can identify that she could do that or be in that situation,” she says. “But I think it’s harder for male executives to imagine that anybody is really gonna get into a female lead because it’s hard for them to imagine. I don’t think it’s meant to be a mean thing, I just think it’s a lack of imagination.” It’s meant that, while she’s starred in a number of aforementioned female-fronted films, she’s still been paired mostly with men throughout her career. It’s been a generally harmonious time, but Sarandon recalls the closest she’s got to having a Bette v Joan situation. “There was one gentleman,” she says. “He hadn’t really done films, I don’t think, and he was in the midst of a very successful TV run and was a heart-throb. There were definitely some problems and he’d developed some habits, because in the atmosphere where he was working, he wasn’t used to women challenging him in any way and was spoiled by the rules that they set up. At one point, they allowed him to leave on my reverse at the end of the day, so I was suddenly expected to do my lines with the script supervisor and him gone for my close-up.” She won’t give me a name but she counts it as a rare occurrence. “I don’t thrive on tension or any kind of aggression,” she says. But it’s an unavoidable part of the job, especially, depressingly, for a woman who chooses to speak her mind. While men might still be seen as “brave” and “refreshing”, women who speak out are still often painted as “difficult” or “bitchy”. Sarandon knows this all too well. “I think it is more annoying to have a woman with opinions for a lot of people,” she says. “I couldn’t give you any solid proof that has hurt my chances in the business. Today in the New York Times, they were talking about the Academy awards and the fact that I was one of the people who didn’t get a nomination for The Meddler, and [it] mentions that it might have something to do with the Clintonized Hollywood, when I supported Bernie Sanders.” Facebook Twitter Pinterest Bernie Sanders and Susan Sarandon in April 2016. Photograph: Brian Snyder / Reuters/Reuters Which brings us to the elephant in the room (or over the phone). Sarandon was a vocal supporter of Sanders as he ran against Clinton to become the Democratic pick for president. When he lost out on the nomination, she expressed her frustration and publicly endorsed the Green candidate Jill Stein instead, stating that she did not vote with her vagina. She had previously called Clinton “more dangerous” than Trump. “I have had a huge amount of backlash,” she says. “There’s been a really strong blame for a lot of things that are obviously not my fault.” A cursory scan of Twitter shows a stream of bile all the way from the Will & Grace star Debra Messing to the author Kurt Eichenwald. Sarandon remains defiant, unapologetic and frustrated with Democrats who suggest that she’s let the party down. “There’s no valid argument,” she says. “It’s just an easy place to put your frustrations, to blame me. I mean, if you read the list of people who voted Hillary Clinton – and then I think it’s me and Viggo Mortensen on the other side. You’d have to be delusional to actually think that Beyoncé and Jay Z and George Clooney and Julia Roberts and Meryl Streep, and the list goes on, were actually overpowered by the two of us.” But she’s unperturbed, still hyper-aware of the daily failings of Trump’s government. And despite resistance, she’s continuing to show up at Democratic events, such as a recent anti-Trump rally in New York. “I’m focusing on reaching out and forming a coalition not only with all of Hillary’s people but with people I know that voted for Trump, because we have serious work to do now, and we can’t indulge in blaming or depression or any of those things,” she says. “There isn’t time any more to look back. We have to look forward.”Shiness, a combination of a fantasy role-playing game and a manga series, is the first effort from French indie studio Enigami, which is launching a $100,000 Kickstarter campaign for the project today. Enigami created a fantastical world with its own fictional language, where various races live among islands floating in the sky. Players start out as a character named Chado who's searching for his friend Poky, a quest that leads into an epic journey across the celestial islands. Eventually, players will be able to put together a party of three characters from a group of five as they explore the realm. According to Enigami, the inspiration for Shiness came largely from manga and anime such as Naruto and Dragon Ball, so Shiness' battle system draws from fighting games. Battles are one-on-one fights that take place within the world, and support characters on the edge of the area can provide assistance. In addition to standard melee combat, players will have to incorporate magic attacks into their arsenal if they want to succeed. Along with the video game, Enigami is working on a Shiness manga series. Readers of the manga will pick up clues that will help them uncover hidden quests in the game. Quests will affect players' reputation, which changes the tenor of their relationships with NPCs, and players' actions have the power to change the world. Enigami is aiming to launch The Lightning Kingdom, the first episode of Shiness, in the first quarter of 2015 on Mac and Windows PC, with PlayStation 4 and Xbox One versions possible as well.Image caption The late season decline is thought to indicate how thin the ice now is Arctic sea ice has reached its minimum extent for the year, setting a record for the lowest summer cover since satellite data collection began. The 2012 extent has fallen to 3.41 million sq km (1.32 million sq mi) - 50% lower than the 1979-2000 average. Arctic sea ice has long been regarded as a sensitive indicator of changes in the climate. Scientists who have been analysing the startling melt think it is part of a fundamental change. "We are now in uncharted territory," said Mark Serreze, director of the National Snow and Ice Center (NSIDC) in Colorado, US. "While we've long known that as the planet warms up, changes would be seen first and be most pronounced in the Arctic, few of us were prepared for how rapidly the changes would actually occur." This year's minimum caps a summer of low ice extents in the Arctic. On 26 August, sea ice extent fell to 4.10 million sq km (1.58 million sq mi), breaking the previous record low set on 18 September 2007 of 4.17 million sq km (1.61 million sq mi). On 4 September, it fell below four million sq km (1.54 million sq mi), another first in the 33-year satellite record. We know very little about the consequences of drastic sea ice reductions. Most model predictions have sea ice declining less fast Dr Poul Christoffersen, University of Cambridge "The strong late season decline is indicative of how thin the ice cover is," said NSIDC scientist Walt Meier. "Ice has to be quite thin to continue melting away as the sun goes down and Fall approaches." Scientists say they are observing fundamental changes in sea ice cover. The Arctic used to be dominated by multiyear ice, or ice that survived through several years. Recently, the region is characterised by seasonal ice cover and large areas are now prone to completely melt away in summer. The sea ice extent is defined as the total area covered by at least 15% of ice, and varies from year to year because of changeable weather. However, ice extent has shown a dramatic overall decline over the past 30 years. A 2011 study published in Nature journal, used proxies such as ice cores and lake sediments to reconstruct sea ice extent in the Arctic over the last 1,450 years. The results suggest the duration and magnitude of the current decline in sea ice may be unprecedented over this period. Analysis It's difficult to grasp the scale of this but picture about a dozen United Kingdoms lined up side by side: that's how much more sea ice has vanished beyond the average amount left at the end the summer over the past 30 years. This is a bigger, faster, more dramatic melt than anyone would have imagined possible even a few years ago. The most striking impression during a visit to Svalbard earlier this month was the look of shock on the faces of the scientists. The models have underestimated the rapidity of the processes at work. The polar winters will always see the ocean refreeze. But the prospect of change on a planetary scale looms closer: the Arctic ice cap, a permanent feature at the roof of the world throughout human history, becoming a seasonal, temporary one instead, and sooner rather than later. Follow David Shukman on Twitter Dr Julienne Stroeve, a research scientist with the NSIDC, is currently aboard a Greenpeace ship in Svalbard, Norway, that has just returned from a research expedition to assess the region's melt. She said the new record suggested the Arctic "may have entered a new climate era, where a combination of thinner ice together with warmer air and ocean temperatures result in more ice loss each summer". She continued: "The loss of summer sea ice has led to unusual warming of the Arctic atmosphere, that in turn impacts weather patterns in the Northern Hemisphere, that can result in persistent extreme weather such as droughts, heat waves and flooding." Dr Poul Christoffersen, from the University of Cambridge, told BBC News: "We know very little about the consequences of drastic sea ice reductions. "Most model predictions have sea ice declining less fast. But the fact is that less sea ice means more heat going into the upper ocean and the lower atmosphere. There could be some large scale effects from this, such as shifting wind patterns, surface ocean currents and potentially the jet stream. "The wet northern European summer of 2012 could very well have been influenced by the record low extent of sea ice in the Arctic." If the current melting trend during summer months continues, there will be opportunities as well as challenges. Some ships have already been cutting their journey times by sailing a previously impassable route north of Russia. Oil, gas and mining firms are all planning to exploit rich resources thought to be held by the Arctic, although they are strongly opposed by environment campaigners. Paul.Rincon-INTERNET@bbc.co.ukThe Russian military are assisting the local authorities in dealing with a deadly anthrax outbreak. The occurrence in western Siberia has already killed 1,500 reindeer, which are used as livestock by the indigenous people. The Russian Air Force is surveying the area in the Yamalo-Nenets Autonomous Area affected by the anthrax outbreak in preparation for the deployment of biohazard troops. Transport planes have delivered 200 personnel, some 30 all-terrain vehicles and all the necessary supplies for the decontamination mission, which is mostly disposing of carcasses of animals killed by the lethal disease, to the region’s capital Salekhard. The response comes after anthrax was confirmed to be the cause of death of some of 1,500 reindeer, who died in Yamal over the past weeks. The governor declared a state of emergency on Monday, when numerous reports of the mass deaths of livestock started to surface. READ MORE: Anthrax infection found in Wiltshire cow The affected area was quarantined and 12 families of reindeer herders were evacuated. Of the 63 people 40, mostly children, were sent to hospital for preventive treatment. Anthrax can be lethal in roughly a quarter of patients unless treated with antibiotics, but is rarely fatal under proper medical supervision. So far none of the patients have contracted the disease. Read more The mass vaccination of both people and animals that are at high risk of infection was ordered in the area. The neighboring Tyumen region sent health specialists to Yamal to speed up the vaccination effort. As of Friday, all reindeer have been vaccinated and the veterinarians had switched to other animals, the governor’s office said. The biggest challenge the operation is facing is logistics. Yamal is Russia’s fifth-largest region, with an area comparable to Turkey and bigger than the US state of Texas. Half of the region is above the Arctic Circle while the area is mainly made up of permafrost planes, cold swamps and taiga forests. This is the first outbreak of anthrax in Yamal since 1941 and is likely to have been caused by an extraordinary heat wave. The temperature average for July is around 17 degrees Celsius. However, this month, the temperature has climbed to as high as 35 degrees. A number of the reindeer have died from overheating, rather than from anthrax. It is believed the extreme heat melted part of the permafrost where a reindeer was buried after dying from the disease over 70 years ago and anthrax was subsequently released into the atmosphere. Anthrax bacteria can lay dormant for decades or even centuries in spore form while retaining viability. The spores are very difficult to eradicate and are more dangerous when inhaled compared to infecting the skin, which gave anthrax a prominent place in history as a bioweapon. One of the most famous cases of anthrax being used as a biological weapon came in the US in 2011 during a series of letter attacks, which killed give people and infected another 17 people.GMB warns of 'worst-case scenario' if UK Government backslides on frigates pledge. Shipyard: Move would be 'a total betrayal', says the GMB (file pic). SWNS Around 800 jobs could be lost at BAE's Glasgow yards if the UK Government backslides on orders to build frigates in the city, a union has warned. GMB said the weapons manufacturer had told union representatives of a "worst-case scenario" which would lead to as much as 20% of work on the Type-26 ships being outsourced from the upper Clyde over the lifetime of the contract The union, which campaigned for a No vote in the 2014 independence referendum, is now seeking to open talks with the UK Government over the future of the yards in Scotstoun and Govan. Gary Smith, GMB Scotland secretary, said: "This would be a total betrayal of the upper Clyde workforce by a desperate Tory government trying to shift the goalposts in the face of their failing economic stewardship. "We've gone from the upper Clyde workforce being promised the manufacture of 13 Type-26 frigates in 2014, for that to be cut to eight frigates last year. "We've gone from promised investment that would secure thousands of skilled jobs and hundreds of apprenticeships for a generation, only to be told to prepare for redundancies. "In the same week that Scottish unemployment increased by 20,000, the prospect of significant job losses at Govan and Scotstoun doesn't even bear thinking about - it could tip our economy over the edge. "GMB Scotland rejects this typically ruinous Tory agenda and we will resist any redundancies or withdrawal of work on the upper Clyde by using every tool we have at our disposal." A BAE Systems spokesman said: "Following the strategic defence and security review, we are working with the Ministry of Defence to agree a revised baseline for the Type 26 ships and a production schedule for the two additional Offshore Patrol Vessels in Glasgow. "We are engaging our trades unions as we work through this process. Our focus is to deliver the capability the Royal Navy needs, while ensuring the best value for UK taxpayers." Want to receive the latest headlines straight to your inbox? Subscribe This field is required. That doesn't look like a valid e-mail format, please check. That e-mail's already in our system. Please try again. Please tick the box below to confirm your subscription Thanks for subscribing to our 'Morning Briefing' newsletter. Subscribed Want to receive the latest headlines straight to your inbox? Thanks for subscribing to our 'Morning Briefing' newsletter. Subscribe Download: The STV News app is Scotland's favourite and is available for iPhone from the App store and for Android from Google Play. Download it today and continue to enjoy STV News wherever you are.Lando Norris beat Dorian Boccolacci to victory in the first of three Eurocup Formula Renault races at Monza. Norris took the lead away from Boccolacci at the start of the race, and the pair then pulled away from the rest of the field. Boccolacci remained within half a second of Norris for most of the race and posted the fastest lap, but the British teenager did enough to take his third Eurocup win and extend his points lead. Monaco winner Sacha Fenestraz started third on the grid but lost out to Harrison Scott at the start. Fenestraz finally got ahead of the Briton with a few laps remaining, only for Scott to fight back and secure the final podium spot on the following tour. Robert Shwartzman made up a couple of places from his grid position to finish fifth, with Will Palmer having to settle for sixth. Force India protege Jehan Daruvala started 16th but charged through the field to seventh, finishing on Palmer’s tail. Max Defourny is the closest man to Norris in the standings but dropped from eighth to sixth. Hugo de Sadeleer climbed as high as fifth early on but ended up 10th behind Alexey Korneev.From Team Fortress Wiki “ — The Engineer Let's do this Texas style. ” Styles are alternate versions of cosmetic items and weapons. Introduced in the Hatless Update on April 14, 2011, styles enable the player to alter the visual form of an item at any time. Styles applied to items do not affect the painted status or tradability of the item. The style of an item can be changed by selecting the item in the backpack and then clicking 'Set Style'. If the item has defined styles, a window will appear listing the styles available in a drop-down menu, allowing the player to select one. Current styles range from being alterations to the painting scheme on an item to a separate model of the item entirely. Promotional items that were released in tiers, such as the cosmetics of the Steam Treasure Hunt, or the Ghastlierest Gibus, have styles that mimic the appearance of the lower-tiered counterparts. There are currently 140 items that have styles. Items with styles Bugs Alternate styles on items sometimes will not show up in the loadout menu. Disguised Spies will show the original style of the weapons and cosmetic items. DemonstrationSignup to receive a daily roundup of the top LGBT+ news stories from around the world Large-scale trials of anti-HIV injections are planned to begin within groups of gay men in the Americas and Thailand, Reuters reports. GlaxoSmithKline’s majority-owned ViiV Healthcare unit, working with U.S. government agencies and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, plans to start a four-year trial of injectable pre-exposure phrophylaxis (PrEP) as soon as next month. Its experimental drug cabotegravir will be trialled in groups of gay men in Thailand and the Americas, with a second trial beginning next year within groups of African women. Two separate studies evaluating cabotegravir’s performance in combination with another drug for HIV treatment were launched this month. Following on from the success of HIV prevention drug Truvada – taken once daily in pill form – the injections aim to help those for whom taking regular medicine is difficult or unlikely. Truvada is now being used for PrEP by 80,000-90,000 people in the US. Studies have shown that taking PrEP in pill form can cut the risk of catching HIV by more than 90 percent, but only if the medication is taken daily. In previous clinical trials, some African women claimed they feared judgment from their communities if they kept anti-HIV medication in the house. By administering an injection within a clinic environment, the recipients will be offered privacy and will also be ensured appropriate drug levels to keep them safe. The hope is that an anti-HIV implant will exist in future, similar in size to a contraceptive device, that will sit beneath the skin. “The more options there are the better and I think for some individuals injections will be great,” said Jean-Michel Molina, professor of infectious diseases at Hospital Saint-Louis in Paris. “Now that we know antiretrovirals have great potential to prevent HIV infections, it is time to really assess other ways to deliver these drugs.” Approximately 1.9 million people contract HIV each year and the World Health Organisation has recommended PrEP for all groups at serious risk of infection.How To Set Up The Head Kick Knockout The Process Of Setting Up, Throwing, and Landing a Head Kick KO It might be kind of sadistic, but I think one of the most beautiful things to see in Muay Thai is when a Thai boxer lands a flush head kick and drops his opponent. Ok, that’s definitely sadistic, but you get where I’m coming from, right? I mean, there is SO much skill that goes into landing a head kick it’s insane! Besides having flexible hips and hamstrings, you also need solid high kick technique, impeccable timing, and the ability to draw your opponents guard down to open up your chance to land a head kick. Now that might sound like a lot (because it is), but even if you have the flexibility, technique, and timing, the most important aspect of landing the head kick is the ability to set it up. Why? Because no one is going to just let you kick them in the head (duh). With that being said, setting up the head kick by getting your opponents hands down is critical in order for you to plant your shin across your opponent’s temple. One of the most common ways to get your opponent’s guard to lower is by throwing hard strikes to his body and/or legs. If you punish your opponent’s body with punches, knees and kicks, his natural reaction will be to protect his body by lowering his arms to cover his ribs. If you start hammering his legs with low kicks, you can see how he reacts to see if he lowers his arms to try and catch your kick. Without properly setting up a head kick, your opponent can easily block, evade or even counter your kick attempt… which would suck! In this video breakdown by my buddy Lawrence Kenshin, he shows us how legend Orono Wor Petchpun is able to setup the head kick by peppering his opponents body and forearms with roundhouses. Although this video is specifically breaking down the southpaw vs. orthodox matchup, this same type of setup can be used regardless of what stance you and your opponent are in. Orono Wor Petchpun: High-Kick Setup Another great way to set up a head kick is by “masking” it with other strikes. One of the best ways to accomplish this is by simply using a jab or cross and then following up with a high kick. GLORY World Series champ, “Bazooka” Joseph Valtellini, is a master at this. He’s able to land head kicks in nearly every fight and has his fair share of KO wins because of his ability to “mask” or disguise his high kick. Not only that, but he’s also able to land these brutal head kick knockouts because of how often he attacks his opponents legs. Check out another great video breakdown by Danny from Acumen Athletics. He’ll analyze the strategy and techniques Valtellini used during his fight against a tough opponent in Karim Ghajji. It’s a thing of beauty! Kickboxing Breakdown: Frame, Push & Headkick (Valtellini vs Karim) Both of these videos are loaded with practical, effective techniques and tools. Watch this final video from Warrior’s Collective so you can start using to set up the head kick in training or your next fight right away! If you’re looking to improve the power, speed and technique in your kicks, then make sure you download these free 3 Killer Kicking Drills! There are NEW Muay Thai videos released on my Youtube channel every week! Make sure to keep checking back and subscribe to my channel for updates on new Muay Thai techniques, workouts, drills and combos! If you want more in-depth technique tutorials, video breakdowns, training tips and more, then you gotta check out NakMuayNation.com. Like these Muay Thai technique tutorials and breakdowns? Comment below and share with us your thoughts! Also, make sure to share it with your training partners and instructors so you can try it out during your next training session. Please follow and like us: Like this: Like Loading...Project Blue contributed this article to Space.com's Expert Voices: Op-Ed & Insights. Alpha Centauri is having a moment: Our mysterious neighboring star system has been seeing a surge of scientific interest lately, and for good reason. Although space researchers have often focused on our own star system, Alpha Centauri has become a more viable option to closely study, and even potentially travel to one day. Our nearest stellar neighbor has received a lot of buzz recently due to the announcement of Breakthrough Starshot, a mission backed by famed cosmologist Stephen Hawking, Russian investor Yuri Milner and Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg, with the goal of sending probes to Alpha Centauri someday. Although it's the closest star system to our sun, Alpha Centauri is still 4.37 light-years (25 trillion miles, or 40 trillion kilometers) away from Earth. Because it's so far away, reaching and studying Alpha Centauri poses significant challenges. But the three-star system — comprising Alpha Centauri A, Alpha Centauri B and a faint red dwarf star Proxima Centauri — also presents enormous opportunities for furthering space research, which is why it is the focus of our mission at Project Blue. [Imaging Planets Around Alpha Centauri Is Aim of New Telescope (Video)] NASA's Kepler space telescope has found thousands of exoplanets in the universe, many of which orbit in the habitable zones of their stars and could be Earth-like. In fact, one out of every two sun-like stars has a rocky, potentially Earth-like planet in its habitable zone. At Project Blue, we are aiming to actually see one with our own eyes — and take the first photograph of a planet like Earth. So, why focus on Alpha Centauri? In short, it gives us the best opportunity to accomplish our mission. A large reason for this is its proximity. After Alpha Centauri, the next-closest sun-like star is 2.5 times farther away and would require a telescope roughly 2.5 times larger in order to be viewed at the same level of detail. The system also has a unique binary structure: It contains not just one, but two stars similar to the sun, doubling our chances of finding planets in either of their habitable zones. In fact, that gives us an estimated 85 percent probability that the Alpha Centauri system harbors at least one potentially habitable planet. However, although the binary structure increases our odds, it also presents challenges. In order to take the photograph, we have to use a specialized system to efficiently suppress the light of two stars to see any potential surrounding planets. An artist's rendition of an exoplanet orbiting in the habitable zone of Alpha Centauri A and B. (Image: © L. Calçada/Nick Risinger/ESO) Finally, the last reason our focus remains on our neighboring star system is that Alpha Centauri A is a yellow "G2"-type star that has a temperature and color that closely match the sun's, thus increasing the chances of the existence of an Earth-like planet. Alpha Centauri B, which is a bit cooler and redder than our sun, is also still a good candidate to host a rocky planet like Earth. The image we hope to take would reveal whether the planet appears blue, as Earth does from space, which could suggest that it hosts liquid oceans or a substantial atmosphere — and, therefore, the potential to support life. Our chances of spotting a planet successfully are high in Alpha Centauri. This is only underscored by the discovery of an Earth-like planet in the star system earlier this year. Scientists have located the planet Proxima b, with a minimum mass 1.3 times that of Earth, orbiting in the habitable zone of its star, Proxima Centauri. This recent discovery is indeed exciting, and it sparked Breakthrough Starshot to announce that it will focus on the potential to travel to Proxima b one day, once the technology is developed. However, the planet is not a good option for Project Blue. Because Proxima b orbits so closely to its small, dim star, it would be extremely difficult to image with a telescope, and as such, our focus remains on the larger stars Alpha Centauri A and B. Alpha Centauri's potential is exciting to not only the science community but the future of humanity, and it's clear that it will provide us with some of our most exciting space discoveries in the years to come. Follow us @Spacedotcom, Facebook and Google+. Original article on Space.com.He lives in the highest parts of the mountain, with a thick coat covering his small body. Citla is a mountaineer as no other, and with an enormous heart. The small dog lives in the vastness of the Pico de Orizaba, the highest mountain in Mexico. He lives some 13,000 feet above sea level and has become one of the most experienced mountain guides in the world. The white dog, with some black fur on his face, has created such an aura around him, with many stories regarding the company and guidance he provides to mountaineers and visitors to the mountain. He has earned the titles of "Guardian Angel of the Mountain" and "The Mountain Guide". Well aware of the three routes in the south face of Pico de Orizaba, he constantly goes to the summit, 18,471 feet over sea level, as a company and guide to the mountaineers, with the uncanny ability of caring for those suffering from "mountain sickness". He is known to have three shelters: the guardhouse in the Large Millimetric Telescope premises, Dead Man's Cave and the refuge of the summit. "There are people who say that the spirit of a mountain climber reincarnated in the dog, because it is very particular that this animal, without being trained, knows the routes and cares for the people," said the president of the Alpine Club of Ciudad Serdán, Hilario Aguilar Aguilar. The loving animal, who receives every person he meets with joy, never leaves his mountain and as soon as he takes hikers all the way down, returns to his majestic enclave, not allowing himself to be removed from there. There are climbers from Japan and Brazil who remember him with affection, after the tribulations that they lived together. "If they get lost he leads to the refuge and if they deviate from the path he takes them to the right one," expresses Hilario. Citla's exact age is not known, but it is estimated that he is between nine and ten years old. According to one of the stories about his presence in the area, a mason hired to work in the telescope, Alfonso Serrano, brought the then puppy as a company. Since then, the testimony of his great feats abound among the groups and communities of mountain climbers, and people who have risked their lives attempting to tame the beast which is the peak of Orizaba. But some time ago, the guardian had to leave the mountain, and for the worst possible reasons. Citla was attacked by a dog property of a man who came on a VW bug from Mexico City, and instructed his Alaskan Malamute to mangle the smaller canine. The aggression was brutal: Citla's jugular was cut, and two ribs and one of his legs were fractured. Citla was facing death and looked for refuge in Dead Man's Cave, where he was found by his human friends. The dog was taken to a vet in Ciudad Serdán who was able to save his life, and with the help of his fellow climbers he received the needed medications and food, and even had a cataract removed from one of his eyes. While the small dog began to get better and better, his desire to return to the mountain grew stronger and stronger, to the point that he had to be restrained because he looked for every chance to escape and return home. Finally, he returned with his friend Hilario and now he is again in the mountain, waiting in the white snow with only his face being visible in his cold kingdom, ready to aid the mountaineers in need of guidance and company.Cardiovascular diseases (CVD), including coronary artery disease, peripheral artery disease and cerebral vascular disease, are the leading cause of mortality worldwide, which contribute to over 30% of global mortality annually 9. A hallmark of CVD is atherosclerosis that is commonly associated with a broad spectrum of risk factors including hypertension, smoking, diabetes, hyperlipidaemia and ageing 10. It has been confirmed that influence of life style, such as the dietary pattern, may significantly affect the morbidity and prognosis of CVD patients. Generally, Mediterranean diet is related to decreased CVD risk, while excessive intake of carbohydrate and high‐fat diet substantially raises the incidence of CVD 11. Notably, effects of microbiota and changes of TMAO have been involved in the underlying mechanisms contributing to the association between dietary pattern and CVD risk. Indeed, an early prospective cohort study suggested that increased serum TMAO level independently predicts major adverse cardiovascular events (MACE) in over 4000 patients undergoing elective cardiac catheterization 12. Subsequent studies demonstrated that the pernicious aspects of TMAO in atherosclerosis may include the potential interactions with inflammatory pathways, cholesterol metabolism, platelet activation and subsequent thrombosis events 13. Although subsequent cohort studies in patients with coronary acute syndrome 14 and chronic kidney disease (CKD) 15 - 18 further confirmed the prognostic role of circulating TMAO for CVD outcome, some studies failed to detect a significant association between TMAO level and CVD prognosis 19. Therefore, in this study, we performed a systematic review and meta‐analysis of all available cohort studies to quantitatively evaluate the association between baseline circulating TMAO and subsequent cardiovascular events. Recent findings from studies in animal models and patients suggest that microbiota from human body may contribute to the development of various disorders, including diabetes, atherosclerosis and related cardiovascular disorders. Interestingly, trimethylamine N‐oxide (TMAO), an organic compound that was first found in marine organisms 1, 2, is recently proposed to be involved. Physiologically, TMAO functions by stabilizing proteins exposed to urea and pressure stress in deep sea creatures. In humans, choline‐, L‐carnitine‐ and lecithin‐derived mainly from red meat, egg yolks, dairy products and seafood can be hydrolysed by trimethylamine (TMA) lyase from gut flora to form the major depository of TMA in gastrointestinal tracts 3, 4. TMA is further oxygenated into TMAO by hepatic flavin monooxygenases (FMOs) in host liver, followed by kidney clearance or distribution to different tissues 5. A human mutation on FMO3 causes trimethylaminuria, a rare genetic defect with which patients fail to convert choline‐derived TMA into TMAO, resulting in a strong fishy odour from body excretions 6. So far, several strains of bacteria, including Firmicutes, Proteobacteria, Anaerococcus hydrogenalis, Clostridium asparagiforme, C. hathewayi, C. sporogenes, Escherichia fergusonii, Proteus penneri, Providencia rettgeri, Edwardsiella tarda and Desulfovibrio desulfuricans, have been identified as potential producers of TMAO in vivo 6. Recently, increased serum TMAO level is observed in patients with congestive heart failure and associated with an increased mortality in the same population 2, 7. Moreover, a positive association between plasma TMAO level and colorectal cancer has also been reported 8. HRs and their corresponding C
world reflect nuanced and context specific experiences of the right to privacy. Gender-Based Violence Against Palestinian: Women in Virtual Space 7amleh - Arab Center for the Advancement of Social Media Freedom on the Net 2018: The Rise of Digital Authoritarianism The internet is growing less free around the world, and democracy itself is withering under its influence. Freedom House Freedom on the Net 2018: China The level of internet freedom declined due to the new cybersecurity law which strengthened repressive restrictions on online activities. Freedom House The humanitarian metadata problem: "Doing no harm" in the digital era New technologies continue to present great risks and opportunities for humanitarian action. To ensure that their use does not result in any harm, humanitarian organisations must develop and implement appropriate data protection standards, including robust risk assessments. Privacy International Russia's Strident Stifling of Free Speech 2012-2018 Laws passed since Vladimir Putin's return to the presidency in May 2012 have dramatically strengthened the Russian authorities’ control over the flow of information online and offline. Much of this crackdown has been fuelled by Russia’s foreign policy, in particular its role in the conflict in neighbouring Ukraine and its armed intervention in Syria. PEN International PROPUESTA DE ESTÁNDARES LEGALES PARA LA VIGILANCIA EN CHILE La regulación de la vigilancia estatal constituye uno de los desafíos más significativos plan- teados por la irrupción de las tecnologías de comunicación: aunque esperamos que el apara- to estatal mantenga la seguridad, su capacidad de buscar esos fines infringiendo la privaci- dad crece sin una respuesta normativa. Derechos Digitales Online attacks on journalists in Poland In June 2018, IPI visited Poland as part of its Ontheline project, which aims to identify best newsroom practices for preventing and better responding to online harassment of journalists. International Press Institute (IPI) Online harassment of journalists: the trolls attack In this report RSF sheds light on the latest danger for journalists – threats and insults on social networks that are designed to intimidate them into silence. Reporters Without Borders (RSF) Measuring Pakistani women's experiences of online violence A quantitative research study on online gender-based harassment in Pakistan Digital Rights Foundation Online violence against women in Pakistan - Submission to UNSR on violence against women This report will explore the laws and institutions that are in place within Pakistan to deal with issues of online violence against women. Digital Rights Foundation Cyber Harassment Helpline - One year report, December '16 to November '17 The Cyber Harassment Helpline was launched after the successful completion of the Hamara Internet (translates as “Our Internet”) project, and based on its findings in the “Measuring Pakistani Women's Experience of Online Violence” report Digital Rights Foundation Pay No Attention to That Man Behind the Curtain Exposing and Challenging Government Hacking for Surveillance Privacy International Mapping Cybercrime Laws and Violations of Digital Rights in the Gulf and Neighbouring Countries Digital rights and freedoms have been severely compromised by national cybercrime legislation and prosecution, and now judicially. Gulf Centre for Human Rights (GCHR) No Place for Criticism: Bangladesh Crackdown on Social Media Commentary This report documents abuses under section 57 of the ICT Act to warn that any new law should protect rights, not be used to crack down on critics. Human Rights Watch (HRW) Privacy and Freedom of Expression In the Age of Artificial Intelligence While AI impacts a plethora of rights, ARTICLE 19 and Privacy International are particularly concerned about the impact it will have on the right to privacy and the right to freedom of expression and information. ARTICLE 19, Privacy International Issues in Frameworks, Freedom of Expression and Internet Rights in Nigeria A Baseline Research by the Nigerian Journalists Internet Rights Initiative (NJIRI) International Press Centre (IPC) Forbidden Feeds: Government Controls on Social Media in China. Based on extensive interviews with writers, poets, artists, activists, and others personally affected by the government’s grip on online expression, as well as interviews with anonymous employees at Chinese social media companies, the report lays bare the destructive impact of the Chinese government’s vision of “cyber sovereignty” on netizens who dare to dissent. PEN American Center Ten-Year Edition: A Decade of Decline The general trend over the past 10 years has been bleak, with an overall negative trajectory for press freedom. The major turning point was the election of Xi Jinping as General Secretary of the Communist Party of China in 2012 and President of China in 2013. International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) Digital (In)security of Journalists in Pakistan Pakistan has been slow to recognize that violence, threats and harassment faced online by journalists reflects the violence they are exposed to offline. A nationwide survey of working journalists was conducted to ascertain their level of digital insecurity, to record their experiences and the protections they desired from the journalist community, their media organizations, and the government. Digital Rights Foundation Internet Freedom in Africa: Baseline Report of Eight Countries Media Foundation for West Africa (MFWA) Women's rights online: Issues in Ghana Although the internet has the potential to bridge the gender equality gap, it is still a hugely unexplored terrain or many Ghanaian women because of issues of access, affordability and knowhow. Media Foundation for West Africa (MFWA) Internet Landscape of Pakistan 2017 Internet Landscape of Pakistan is an indigenous effort to regularly monitor and document the ongoing trends and challenges that impact digital and human rights in the country. This is the third edition in the series. Bytes for All (B4A)President Barack Obama today spoke about the recent court decision that gutted the nation's network neutrality law, saying that he expects the FCC to take action to preserve the open Internet, which proved crucial in his presidential campaign. Further Reading Obama: I want the FCC to ban paid Internet fast lanes "It's something that I've cared deeply about ever since I ran for office, in part because my own campaign was empowered by a free and open Internet and the ability for citizens all across the country to engage and create and find new ways and new tools to mobilize themselves," Obama said. "A lot of that couldn't have been done if there were a lot of commercial barriers and roadblocks and so I've been a strong supporter of net neutrality." The Federal Communications Commission passed the current net neutrality rules, via the Open Internet Order, in 2010 during Obama's first term. The rules prevented Internet service providers from blocking Web applications or charging for access to the network. Verizon challenged the rules and got them overturned, but the FCC could rewrite the order to put it on a more solid legal footing. Obama was asked about the court ruling this afternoon in a Google hangout. You can see the video here: Obama said he expects the FCC to do something, although he said he won't intervene directly. Here's the rest of the president's response: The new commissioner of the FCC, Tom Wheeler, who I appointed, I know is a strong supporter of net neutrality. We live under a system in which when a court rules we have to respect that ruling initially, but the FCC is looking at all the options at their disposal, potential appeals, potential rulemaking, a variety of tools that they may have in order to continue to vindicate the notion of a free and open Internet, and I think you can feel confident that this administration will continue to support that. There are going to be a lot of technical issues about how best we can get to that. And I know that they're still evaluating the court opinion. The one good piece of news coming out of this court opinion was that the court did confirm that the FCC can regulate this space. They have authority, and the question now is how do they use that authority, if the old systems and rulings that they had in place were not effective in preserving net neutrality do they have other tools that would stand up to court scrutiny that accomplish the same goals. You can expect that even though the FCC is independent, once I make the appointment I can't meddle in the decision making there, based on my conversations with Tom Wheeler before he was appointed I'm pretty confident, and they've said already that they're going to be exploring how they can continue to uphold what makes the Internet so special. Consumer advocates have called upon the FCC to reclassify broadband as a common carrier service so that anti-blocking and anti-discrimination rules can be reinstated. Wheeler hasn't revealed exactly what he'll do, but he said this week "you will see some specifics coming out shortly." Obama also responded to a question about NSA spying today. He mainly re-hashed previous statements that we've already written about, but if you'd like to see what he said, here is the video:1 of 8 View Caption Steve Griffin \| Tribune file photo House Minority Leader Brian King, D-Salt Lake City. Rick Egan \| Tribune file photo Utah State Rep. Brian King, speaks during a panel discussion at the Hinckley Institute, during a Francisco Kjolseth \| Tribune file photo Rep. Lowry Snow, R-St. George, speaks about juvenile justice reforms during a luncheon a Al Hartmann \| Tribune file photo Rep. LaVar Christensen, R-Draper, pushes family values in his legislation in the state Capitol Francisco Kjolseth \| Tribune file photo Rep. Ken Ivory, R-West Jordan, speaks in support of a resolution calling on president Don Steve Griffin \| Tribune file photo West Jordan Republican Rep. Ken Ivory talks to the audience during a 2014 town-hall meeting Chris Detrick \| Tribune file photo Sen. Lyle Hillyard, R-Logan, is the longest serving sitting legislator in Utah. And it looks Scott Sommerdorf \| Tribune file photo Rep. Brian King, D-Salt Lake City, right, discusses legislation with then-Rep. Kay McIffConservatism is a State of Being JD Rucker Blocked Unblock Follow Following Sep 15, 2016 Those of us who listen to Mark Levin know two things for sure: (1) He’s a conservative, and (2) He’s pragmatic in the way that he approaches true conservatism. This second reality may sound contrary to popular belief since he’s often accused of being impractical with the application of some of his ideals, but in truth his pragmatism is pure when applied to a society that embraces conservatism. In other words, his ideas are only impractical if you accept that liberalism cannot be defeated. If you assume that conservatism is right and, if allowed to flourish, would yield a better circumstance for everyone, then the only practical approach is to acknowledge the primacy of conservatism as the future of a prosperous America. One topic with which I disagreed with Levin initially is his premise that conservatism is not an ideology. I recall first hearing about the idea in a comment on one of my articles. Someone said something to the effect of, “I agree with everything you’re saying, but don’t call conservatism an ideology. It’s not.” That led me to explore the concept which brought me to Levin’s perspective. Yesterday, it was reiterated at CR. It’s an impassioned way of making the point and it worked. Liberalism, socialism, Republicanism… they’re all ideologies. The challenge with an ideology is that it focuses on the governance of a land and/or people that follows certain tenets laid out by pundits and wonks, philosophers and academics, manipulators and power-brokers. They are substitutes for and barriers around the driving forces of humanity. They go against our God-given rights by imposing man-made restrictions. They take us from our higher revelations and bring us down to our baser natures. Let’s look at these three prominent ideologies growing in America today with examples of how they contradict the intended and righteous nature of this country. Liberal ideology A liberal ideology works against the people by making freedom a weapon to be wielded against itself. It distorts freedoms by finding other “freedoms” to impose ahead of them. It isn’t just in laws and government. In the policies of institutions such as universities and sporting leagues, liberalism is entrenched. Some examples: A baker’s freedom to practice her religion is superseded by a gay couple’s freedom to not be “discriminated” against. A college student’s right to not be close to someone that might offend them supersedes another college student’s right to listen to a conservative speaker. A woman’s right to use the restroom with other women is superseded by a transgender’s right to select which bathroom suits them at that moment. For liberals, rights must be inclusive to a fault. Feelings are more important than realities and any sensible rights, whether given by God or declared by the Constitution, are subject to revisions based upon the knee-jerk reactions of the moment. The greatest danger that liberalism imposes on us all is the threat of destroying the things that have made this country great for the sake of promoting a fleeting opportunity to feel good for the moment. They thrive on temporary fixes and instant gratification, foundation be damned. Socialist ideology There’s no need to delve too deeply into this one. If you’re reading this article, chances are very strong that you’re well-aware of the dangers of a socialist ideology. What’s mine is not really just mine. Laziness is rewarded while industrialism and hard work are condemned. It’s the essence of the dystopian end to Atlas Shrugged, though what was written as hyperbole back then is sadly not far from the reality that socialists want to impose today. (Quick note: I’m not a fan of Ayn Rand or the anti-Biblical faux-conservatism that her writing often espoused, but when understood from an academic perspective, Atlas Shrugged made some good points about capitalism and personal responsibility.) If a liberal ideology focuses on victories for the moment, a socialist ideology is the long-term extension that can have no possible end other than economic collapse. Socialism works for a very brief moment. It is fundamentally flawed because it cannot sustain itself for longer than a few decades, even in a country as blessed as America. Republican ideology Many pundits believe that Donald Trump is hijacking the Republican Party. In reality, he’s the culmination of a Republican ideology that has been growing for five decades. There was, of course, an eight-year period from 1981–1989 when the Republican ideology had to retreat to the shadows, but it has continued to expand and take root since revolting against the modern conservative movement’s rise of the early 1960s. Of all the major political ideologies, this is the hardest to see. It’s camouflaged by the conservatives in its midst and keeps everyone guessing through doublespeak veiled by right-wing enthusiasm. For decades, we’ve watched the Republican ideology in practice while they talk like conservatives, particularly during campaign season. Some examples: Their campaign pledges are to cut spending, cut taxes, and eliminate frivolous expenditures, but they increase spending, replace taxes with other taxes, and add to frivolous expenditures. They say that want to stop Obamacare, then condemn any action that is taken against it (remember how they condemned Ted Cruz in 2013 for going after Obamacare, then ignored him when they won control of the Senate a year later). Around elections, they promote the ideas of a free market economy, but will say nothing about Trump’s proposed minimum wage increase or free paid maternity leave. Why do they embrace Trump’s promise to spend more and increase the national debt? Why won’t they tell him that entitlements are destroying any future the country might have? How do they justify his constant pull to the left without protest or guidance? The answer should be violently obvious. Trump hasn’t hijacked the Republican Party. He’s enabled it to be itself unencumbered by conservative principles. Donald Trump isn’t the disease that has overcome Republican ideology. He’s the symptom of an ailment that has always been there hidden beneath a thin layer of conservatism that has been the nature they’ve presented to the public for decades. With Trump, the Republican Party can safely shed its unwelcome outer skin and operate as the big-government crony capitalistic entity that it has always wanted to be. Conservatism is not an ideology From time to time, I have to catch myself as I continue to call it an ideology. I’m sure the phrase “conservative ideology” has slipped through from time to time out of convenience to keep an unbroken flow of consciousness without having to give an explanation about the phrase. This is that explanation. The thing that differentiates conservatism from the ideologies that attempt to compete with it is the notion of principle. An ideology is the science of ideas pertaining to a particular leaning that manifests as laws and philosophies. A principle, once embraced, becomes self-evident and overarching. A conservative does not have to weigh and balance ideas on a scale. They can recognize the validity of a stance based solely on the precepts of God and our founding fathers. A principle in its purest form is a state of being. We don’t espouse conservative ideas. We are conservatives. We don’t have conservative guidelines that we apply to our lives. We live as conservatives. Conservatism is a set of principles, therefore conservatism is a state of being. That’s not to say that everything is black and white. Conservatism works from the core of an issue. Conservatives can debate whether there should be exceptions that allow for an abortion or at what point an egg becomes a human life, but at the core a conservative knows that abortion is murder. Issue by issue, there can be debates between conservatives, but any question pertaining to the core of an issue should only yield disagreement when the premise is misunderstood by one or both sides of that argument. What is the conclusion to be drawn from this understanding? The Republican Party cannot be fixed from within. It must be recognized for what it is and the ideology that it holds dear. An occasional flash of conservative thought or a policy proposal that jibes with conservative principles is inevitable, but at the heart of the party is Donald Trump, Paul Ryan, and Mitch McConnell. Louie Gohmert will never be Speaker of a Republican-led House. Mike Lee will never be Senate Majority Leader of a Republican-led Senate. They and people like them are the outsiders, the misfits, the necessary evils to a Republican Party that believes in the sanctity of the Establishment and the preeminence of the Republican ideology over conservative principles. Through education, grassroots outreach, and an unyielding commitment to enable Americans through freedom, we can break through the bonds of ideology. Conservatism doesn’t need to be defended or even promoted. It simply needs to be released. True conservatism will spread once it’s free from the Republican Party because true conservatism is right. This is why we must form a new conservative party. America needs it now more than ever. Article originally appeared on The New Americana.From New York City Mayor (and billionare) Mike Bloomberg's political website: Over the next three weeks, the Mayor will be making an eight figure independent spending campaign that will support moderates on both sides of the aisle — as well as independents — who have shown a willingness to work in a bi-partisan fashion. Howard Wolfson will oversee the Mayor’s efforts. "It's critically important that we have elected officials in Washington, Albany, and around the nation who are willing to work across party lines to achieve real results," Mayor Bloomberg said. "I’ve always believed in the need for more independent leadership, and this new effort will support candidates and causes that will help protect Americans from the scourge of gun violence, improve our schools, and advance our freedoms." “The Mayor has always stepped forward to back candidates that are willing to cast aside party politics, and candidates who are willing to stand up to special interests to make the right decisions for the people they represent,” said Wolfson. “This is a major expansion of his efforts nationally, and it’s something I am proud to be a part of.” The independent spending campaign will be the largest effort yet undertaken by Mayor Bloomberg to impact races and referenda across the country. The campaign will target candidates who support — and oppose — efforts to crack down on illegal guns and reform education policy. It will also make contributions to marriage equality referenda. The mayor has a long history of supporting candidates and referenda that reflect his independent and nonpartisan approach to government.Share. The current status of the many DC Comics projects at the network. The current status of the many DC Comics projects at the network. It’s looking to be very busy time for DC Comics characters on TV. With Arrow a success, The CW are also now working on a spinoff for The Flash and also have Hourman in development – and then there are the DC projects set up at other networks, including Gotham at FOX and Constantine at NBC. At the TCA (Television Critics Association) press tour today, I asked the CW president Mark Pedowitz if the decision to make The Flash as a standalone pilot, rather than a backdoor pilot episode of Arrow (as originally planned) meant the show’s chances of being picked up to series were as good as they seemed. “I’m very bullish on the show,” said Pedowitz. “I think what Greg Berlanti, Andrew Kreisberg, Geoff Johns and Marc Guggenheim did introducing the character on Arrow was great. And because of that, we felt that rather than try to squeeze in a spinoff, let’s make it into a bigger pilot. So if we do launch the series, we’ll launch it with a bang like we launched Arrow.” Exit Theatre Mode As for Hourman, Pedowitz explained, “We’re still waiting for a script. A lot of [pilot] scripts have not come in yet. We’re waiting for the writers to deliver the scripts. As soon as I can get enough scripts with our development team, we’ll start making the recommendations for pilots.” The CW have one other DC adaptation currently in development, iZombie, based on the Vertigo title. Pedowitz noted it was one of several projects from the busy Rob Thomas, including his about to be released Veronica Mars movie and a just-announced webseries spinoff for Veronica Mars he’s doing for The CW. The CW had been developing a Wonder Woman origin series, Amazon a year ago. Though they passed on the initial script, they’d ordered a second one. However, Pedowitz today revealed, “We did not go forward with it.” As to whether the might revisit the project or character again down the line, Pedowitz remarked, “If it's the right material, absolutely. Again, it always comes from the script. We're being very careful with Arrow. We've being very careful with Flash. These are iconic characters, so we're going to be very careful with Wonder woman. You only get one shot.” With a young Bruce Wayne a focus on FOX’s Gotham, Pedowitz was asked if that meant they could never use Bruce Wayne on Arrow. “Never say never,” he replied. “Remember, Bruce Wayne in Gotham is 12 years old. I think he’ll be a little bit older if he does appear on any of our show.” FOX’s Kevin Reilly had said that they had rights to use all the Batman characters on Gotham, but Pedowitz indicated that didn’t mean that only FOX could use them, saying, “I don’t believe that's quite true. Again, from my sources, I don't believe that's quite true.”Despite considerable advances in safety equipment and driver assistance systems, traffic deaths in the U.S. are rising. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration reported recently that road fatalities rose 10% in the first half of 2016 – after an increase in 2015 that was the sharpest in 50 years, when 38,300 people died on U.S. roads, according to the National Safety Council. Why? NHTSA reported that a 3.3% increase in U.S. miles traveled in the first half of this year – the result of lower gas prices, healthy new car sales and a stronger economy – could not account for the higher number of deaths. Auto executives at AutoMobility L.A., the industry-only portion of the L.A. Auto Show, believe the rise in deaths is a direct result of distracted driving – namely, texting.Henrique "HEN1" Teles (born July 14, 1995) is a Brazilian profesional Counter-Strike: Global Offensive player and former Counter-Strike 1.6 player. He is the twin brother of Lucas "LUCAS1" Teles and the two are also younger brothers of Charles "pbf1" Teles. Information [ edit ] Gear and Settings [ edit ] Mouse Settings (list of) Advanced Mouse eDPI DPI Polling Rate Sensitivity Zoom Raw Input SteelSeries Rival 300 1800 400 1000 Hz 4.5 1.2 On Last updated on 2017-05-04 (660 days ago). Mouse Settings (list of) (calculate) Simple Mouse Curvature Circumference Mouse Setup Sensitivity Zoom Raw. SteelSeries Rival 300 2376 MPI 1.559 deg/mm 9.1 in/rev 23.1 cm/rev 400 DPI @ 1000 Hz 4.5 1.2 On Last updated on 2017-05-04 (660 days ago). Hardware Mouse Mousepad SteelSeries Rival 300 SteelSeries QcK Monitor Refresh rate In-game resolution Scaling BenQ XL2420Z 144 Hz 1024×768 Black Bars Keyboard Headset Razer BlackWidow Chroma Sennheiser Game Zero Last updated on 2017-05-04 (660 days ago). Crosshair Settings (list of) Style Size Thickness Sniper Gap Outline Dot Color Alpha 4 4 1 1 -1 Yes (thickness 0) No ( 0 ) Green ( 1 ) 200 Last updated on 2018-05-29 (270 days ago). Click "Expand" for a code to copy and paste into your console. cl_crosshairalpha 200; cl_crosshaircolor 1; cl_crosshairdot 0; cl_crosshairgap -1; cl_crosshairsize 4; cl_crosshairstyle 4; cl_crosshairusealpha 1; cl_crosshairthickness 1; cl_crosshair_sniper_width 1; cl_crosshair_drawoutline 0; Achievements [ edit ] Highlights [ edit ] Other [ edit ] VNC CS:GO [ edit ] Gallery [ edit ] Interviews [ edit ] 2016 [ edit ] References [ edit ]Wait a second! I thought you were considered innocent until proven guilty! What the heck! Are we now expected to prove we are innocent if wrongly convicted. Is this judge saying that if someone is convicted of murder, then subsequently the prosecution's case falls apart but because he can't prove he didn't do it, you're still guilty? This judge, William T Moore, was appointed by President Clinton. "But the judge overseeing the hearing, William T. Moore Jr., decided that in order to overturn the original jury verdict, Davis needed not only to cast doubt on the evidence against him, but to provide "clear and compelling" proof of his innocence. In an August 2010 ruling dismissing Davis' appeal, he declared that while the state's case "may not be ironclad," Davis failed to make a showing of "actual innocence" and thus should not be granted a new trial. The evidentiary hearing was the first such legal proceeding in more than 50 years. " Wait a second! I thought you were considered innocent until proven guilty! What the heck! Are we now expected to prove we are innocent if wrongly convicted. Is this judge saying that if someone is convicted of murder, then subsequently the prosecution's case falls apart but because he can't prove he didn't do it, you're still guilty? This judge, William T Moore, was appointed by President Clinton. Check this reasoning out. "But the judge overseeing the hearing, William T. Moore Jr., decided that in order to overturn the original jury verdict, Davis needed not only to cast doubt on the evidence against him, but to provide "clear and compelling" proof of his innocence. In an August 2010 ruling dismissing Davis' appeal, he declared that while the state's case "may not be ironclad," Davis failed to make a showing of "actual innocence" and thus should not be granted a new trial. The evidentiary hearing was the first such legal proceeding in more than 50 years. " To not grant a new trial is ridiculous. It's a capital case for goodness sake.In 1962, a young scholar from Saskatchewan by the name of Rudy Wiebe caused outrage and scandal in Mennonite communities throughout North America when he published his first novel, Peace Shall Destroy Many. The title, taken from a verse in the Book of Daniel, encapsulated the contention of the novel – that pacifism and non-conflict, core tenets of the Mennonite faith, may in fact be sources of violence and conflict, all the more damaging because unacknowledged or denied. Although the book was published two years before I was born, I can remember my parents discussing it at the kitchen table, conspiratorially, as if the topic was in itself dangerous. My mother would later tell me that she had driven herself to the city, Winnipeg, the day it was made available in stores – it would never have been sold in my little conservative Mennonite town – to find out what all the fuss was about. By the time I was buying books myself, I had learned to think of this novelist named Rudy Wiebe as controversial and heroic, as an intellectual whose work was groundbreaking and revolutionary. These were exciting words to me. All the fuss was about the challenging questions posed by the novel’s central character, Thom Wiens, an earnest young farmer living in a small isolated community in Saskatchewan (much like the community Rudy Wiebe grew up in). It is 1944, wartime, and the local men have either gone to conscientious objector work camps around Canada, or stayed behind to tend the crops and raise livestock. Wiens begins to wonder whether the Mennonite opposition to war may be self-serving. How can Mennonites stand aside while others are dying to protect the freedoms they enjoy? How can Mennonites justify selling their produce to the Canadian army, at a profit no less, and continue to preach peace and love for one’s enemies? Rudy Wiebe hadn’t intended to stir things up with his novel. He was no Mennonite provocateur or self-appointed rabble-rouser. He wanted to write honestly and philosophically about the conflicts that arise from non-conflict. He also wanted to raise questions of sexuality and racism, and to test the established perception of Mennonites as a people ‘in the world but not of the world’. At the time, Wiebe was a devout Christian and respected member of the Mennonite establishment. After the book was published he was fired from his job as the editor of a Mennonite newspaper and denounced, by some, as a liar, an upstart and a traitor. Even worse, an atheist. Others, like my parents, were supportive, secretly though, as was and is the custom among dissenting Mennonites. When my mother said, ‘Rudy Wiebe has aired our dirty laundry and it’s about time,’ she whispered. It was important to keep the peace in all matters, including the matter of Peace Shall Destroy Many. ‘I guess it was a kind of bombshell,’ Wiebe told an interviewer in 1972, ‘because it was the first realistic novel ever written about Mennonites in western Canada. A lot of people had no clue how to read it. They got angry. I was talking from the inside and exposing things that shouldn’t be exposed.’ Shouldn’t be exposed. These are telling words. The conviction that certain realities shouldn’t be exposed is what lurks behind the time-honoured Mennonite practice of avoiding conflict and refusing engagement. Everyday life in these remote towns and colonies is punctuated by conflicts, big and small – just like anywhere else – but Mennonites have a number of distinctive methods for dealing with them. You can, for example, whisper about them with your spouse late at night in bed and hope he or she doesn’t betray you to the elders. Pray for resolution. Ask for guidance from your church pastor, who may also be the source of the conflict. Turn the other cheek, according to the words of Jesus. And, if it’s bad enough, freeze out the individual creating the problem until they cease to exist in your thoughts, or even better, have that person shunned. (Shunning happens by order of the elders. It involves a complete denial of the individual’s existence. It is a method of conflict avoidance that maintains the righteousness of the community while preventing any resolution or possibility of justice. It is murder without killing and it creates deep-seated wells of rage that find no release.) War is hell, it’s true. Shouldn’t be exposed is another hell. Shouldn’t be exposed stifles and silences and violates. Shouldn’t be exposed refuses and ignores and shames. Shouldn’t be exposed shields bullies and tyrants. I have seen it in my own life. When my sister was ten years old, she was grabbed off the street, driven around for a while by a group of teenage boys unknown to her or any of our family, doused in some brown, toxic liquid and dropped back off in front of our home. The white furry hat that she’d just received as a Christmas present was ruined and had to be thrown into the garbage. That’s all I know about that. I don’t know what else happened in the car. Police weren’t called, nobody was called, it had happened and then there was silence and over time it seemed as though it might not have happened after all. My grandmother, my father’s mother, was a secret alcoholic. Our community was dry, drinking was a sin, but she shoplifted bottles of vanilla extract from the local grocer and drank them one by one alone in the darkness of her small apartment. My parents would let themselves in with a key that they kept, pick her up, clean her up and put her to bed. My mother had mentioned to me that she suspected that my grandmother had been assaulted by a group of local men when she was a young woman, but it was never spoken of, never investigated. Every few weeks, the owner of the grocery store where my grandmother stole vanilla would call my father and tell him the sum total of the missing bottles – he never confronted my grandmother directly – and my father would write him a cheque and that was that, until the next time, when the same process would be repeated. My other grandmother, my mother’s mother, was stood up at the altar twice by my grandfather until finally, on the third try, they were married. She had thirteen children, buried six of them as babies and spent a great deal of time praying. She would never even have suggested to my grandfather that his sexual desire was becoming an inconvenience. In fact, it was killing her, each pregnancy posing another threat to her life. At the onset of menopause and with the blessed end of pregnancies clearly in sight, she dropped dead of high blood pressure. My father had a nervous breakdown at the age of seventeen and was diagnosed with bipolar disorder, then called manic depression. His family never spoke of it except to berate him for being weak and effeminate and not devout enough a Christian, even though he attended church relentlessly, taught Sunday school, prayed his heart out for relief and never missed a sermon. When I was twelve, the car dealership next door wanted to expand their parking lot and they put pressure on my father to sell our house. My father didn’t want to sell the house he had built himself for his new bride and the offspring that followed, and my mother encouraged him to fight, but he didn’t once argue or put up any kind of resistance. Business was next to godliness in our town and if my father refused to sell his house and beautiful yard filled with chokecherry trees and Saskatoon trees and petunias and tiger lilies and home-made birdhouses painted with cheerful colours then he truly was a sinner. He sold the house for cheap and mourned his loss quietly. I remember my mother slinging her arm around my father’s broad shoulders and whispering, ‘Defend yourself, man,’ and my father smiling mysteriously, with no words attached. My mother’s cousin received a Rhodes Scholarship to study at the University of Oxford and just a few months into the first term he died there, mysteriously, under suspicious circumstances, or according to God’s will, in which case what was there to do about it? His parents chose not to hear any details of an investigation or an autopsy. What if their son had died from a drug overdose, or sexual misadventure, or suicide? If they don’t know, then they don’t feel obligated to condemn him as a sinner, and they can imagine their bright, young, beloved son in heaven. My son’s girlfriend told me a story about an Italian friend of hers. This Italian friend had an aunt who was absolutely furious with her brother for something they’ve all since forgotten. In order for her brother to know the extent of her rage she dragged a dead and bloodied deer carcass (I’m not sure where she got it from) onto his driveway for him to discover in the morning. That dead deer carcass said, ‘Don’t Fuck With Me!’ Her brother got the message. He apologized. She made him prove he meant it. He convinced her of his contrition. They laughed. They clinked shot glasses of grappa and drank to peace. Basta! Well, I don’t know exactly how it all went down but I’ve been so envious of this Italian brother and sister duo ever since my son’s girlfriend told me the story. During my twenty-year marriage, which ultimately ended in divorce and a tsunami of agony and madness and guilt for thinking that I had destroyed my innocent family out of pure selfishness and conceit, and with the thought that I should probably destroy myself before I could cause more damage, I would sometimes air my complaints to my husband after he’d been drinking and when he was just about to fall asleep. I knew that he wouldn’t remember what I had said but at least I would have gotten it off my chest. It was a perfect arrangement. I could speak up but it wouldn’t turn into a huge blowout. I would talk about mundane things, mostly, how it bugged me that we always had to have supper at 6 p.m. sharp, for instance, or that he didn’t seem enthusiastic about my decision to join the Dakar Desert Rally, but I’d often get into bigger issues too; fundamental questions about our happiness and our compatibility. He would nod and smile, his eyes closed, and tell me we’d work it all out, he had to sleep, sorry. In the morning he’d have no memory of the conversation. In true Mennonite fashion, I had managed to take the edge off my disappointment and dissatisfaction (by saying a kind of prayer, pretending that someone was listening), without exposing myself, without provoking a big, ugly fight, and without changing a
the Chetrit Group, based in Brooklyn, was the owner of Willis Tower in Chicago, the second-tallest building in North America, behind 1 World Trade Center.A University of Texas student claims in a lawsuit that UT President Gregory L. Fenves misapplied the school’s sexual assault policy and suspended him for five semesters even though his accuser agreed to have sex after a sorority formal in spring 2016. The case, which raises questions about the rights of the accused, comes amid national and local concern over the prevalence of campus sexual assault. According to the lawsuit filed Monday in U.S. District Court in Austin, Fenves on April 12 overruled a university hearing officer who determined that there had been no assault. In a letter informing the student of his suspension, Fenves asserted that the woman was highly intoxicated and "someone who is intoxicated cannot give consent to sexual activity because they are incapacitated." Fenves, citing testimony by a witness who attended the formal, added, "While parties may disagree as to whether intoxication and incapacitation are synonymous, certainly, someone described as: ‘incredibly intoxicated, no longer coherent, at a point where she needed to be taken home away from the event because she couldn’t form sentences,’ meets the definition of incapacitated." The lawsuit accuses Fenves of coming up with his own standard for incapacitation and ignoring the university’s standard, which defines it as "a state of being that prevents an individual from having the capacity to give consent" and "could result from the use of drugs or alcohol." The lawsuit also says Fenves has a possible conflict of interest because the father of the woman is a university donor who gave a significant sum within a month of her allegations. And, while the school’s investigation was ongoing, the lawsuit says the university brought on the father to be an adviser at the school. READ:Court documents in this case Brian Roark, the attorney who filed the suit, said in a statement to the American-Statesman that if Fenves’ decision stands, it would subject "thousands of innocent students to being kicked out of school for engaging in behavior that is both legal and within the acceptable norm for many, if not most, Americans of college age, whether they are students or not." It’s unclear whether Fenves, who has been president since June 2015, has overruled a hearing examiner’s decision in any other sexual assault cases. UT spokesman J.B. Bird said the university generally does not comment on pending litigation and, due to federal privacy laws, does not comment on student disciplinary measures. "Our policies and procedures in such cases are followed and applied with care and diligence at all levels, including appeals to the president during which he makes decisions only based upon the record in the case," Bird said. "It is common for students to appeal cases to the president and for him to exercise his role of responding to their appeals." A survey of UT undergraduates released in March found that 15 percent of women reported that they had been raped, through force, threat of force, incapacitation or other forms of coercion such as lies and verbal pressure. A White House task force concluded that 1 in 5 women is sexually assaulted while in college. And Baylor University is facing a cascade of lawsuits by women who claim they were attacked and their cases ignored or bungled by the university for years; the scandal led to the firing of the football coach and the demotion and eventual departure of the school’s president. Students drank on boat The lawsuit does not identify either of the students, calling him John Doe and her Jane Roe. The lawsuit says the two students were nearing the end of their sophomore years on April 16, 2016, when the woman invited the man to her sorority’s boat party on Lake Austin. The woman told investigators she had five cups of sangria — a drink that contains red wine, fruit and sometimes brandy. She said she consumed no more alcohol the rest of the day and night. The man said he also had been drinking. After the boat party ended, the two of them took a bus to her sorority’s formal and stayed there for about 90 minutes before returning to her sorority’s house to check in and get something to eat. Then, according to the lawsuit, they walked to the man’s apartment where, the woman later told investigators, she verbally agreed to have sex. It had been more than four hours since her last drink, according to the lawsuit. By asking the woman for consent, the lawsuit says the man adhered to UT advice to students, "Yes Means Yes." The slogan is visible on campus flyers posted by the group Voices Against Violence. "A few days later, Jane decided that she had actually been too intoxicated to make a good decision about whether or not she wanted to have sex with John that night," the lawsuit reads. On Feb. 24, hearing officer Conrad Fjetland, a chemistry lecturer at UT, ruled in favor of the man, concluding that "the complainant made rational decisions throughout much of the evening prior to and after the sexual intercourse." But in reversing the decision, Fenves drew on comments the male student made about his accuser "stumbling" on the walk to his apartment. "Under these conditions, an inebriated party has no ability to consent to sex," Fenves wrote. Reinstatement, damages sought Roark, the attorney who filed the suit, formerly taught law at UT and has a history of battling the school on sexual assault matters. In February 2016, he filed a lawsuit on behalf of two male students who faced disciplinary action for sexual assault. A Travis County judge dismissed the suit, letting the university hearing process play out. Roark said the hearing officer in both cases ruled in favor of his client. In October 2015, Roark successfully defended Longhorns football player Kendall Sanders in a sexual assault case that went to trial in Travis County. A female student accused Sanders and teammate Montrel Meander of rape after a night out downtown in June 2014. A jury acquitted Sanders; the district attorney then dropped Meander’s charges. UT had previously expelled both men and dismissed them from the football team. In the lawsuit, Roark accuses Fenves of bowing to public pressure, citing an April 22 story in The Dallas Morning News in which UT System Chancellor Bill McRaven says donors praised him for the survey that revealed 15 percent of female undergraduates have been raped. Too, the lawsuit says, by so strongly speaking out against campus sexual assault, Fenves "allows advocacy to leak into what should be neutral decision-making." The suspended student wants a jury to order his reinstatement to UT and to award damages, including past and future economic losses and loss of educational and career opportunities. "If parents have a child attending the university, they should now be worried about their child potentially being branded as a rapist and forced out of school for actions that consenting adults have been doing for thousands of years — drinking alcohol and having consensual sex," Roark said.Sylvie Rosen, 17, is a high school senior in New York. Her father, Jay Rosen, 58, is a journalism professor at New York University. Jay: Have you taken any kind of programming class? Sylvie: I’m taking a beginner programming class this semester, and I took a seminar on programming with physics during freshman year. This semester we started at a very basic level, coding lines, balls, colors: Now we’re working on balls colliding. The class is taught in what the teacher calls a “flipped environment.” He assigns videos to watch for homework, and we work on the new topics in class. Any questions or debugging gets worked on in class. Jay: Why did you elect to take a beginning course in programming? Sylvie: It was a different kind of opportunity that I’d not been offered before (aside from that freshman seminar), and I was interested in discovering whether or not I enjoy programming. At my school, there has never, to my knowledge, been a programming class before. Jay: What’s the gender breakdown in that class? Sylvie: I was waiting for that one. There are nine students and including me, two girls. Jay: Seven boys, two girls: Do you think that makes a difference for you as a student in the class? Sylvie: For me specifically? No, I do not think so. The class is based on individual work and less on collaboration. If it were the other way around, I would have a different answer. Jay: Why do you think there are so few girls in the class? Sylvie: Lots of reasons: Art and music classes meet during the same time, so students cannot take art and programming. There’s also an English class that meets then. Students — seniors especially — want to have some free periods, and that period is the elective block. I also think offering the class solely senior year caused less girls to take it. Many students don’t want to commit to another kind of class so late in their high school career. Most students in this class have had some experience with programming before, however minimal. So, if girls in my grade have been less exposed to coding previously, I think they’re less likely to take a class on it. Jay: So what would your recommendation be for getting more girls at your high school interested in programming? Sylvie: Start earlier! Or make the classes mandatory, at least for one semester. That would get more girls as well as boys involved. I also don’t think girls are as aware as boys of coding as something to learn or be interested in. Jay: Why are boys more aware of coding as something to be interested in? How does that happen? Sylvie: I think that boys play more video games. That probably piques their interest in learning about coding and how all these games work. I know I never thought about it until this year, when I started learning about programming. And, of course, there is the stereotype of the male programmers. Jay: You never thought about it until this year? Never thought about what? Sylvie: How games work. What line of code in angry birds makes the bird fly when you lift your finger. I didn’t think about, say, how many lines of code it takes to make a ball follow your mouse, or what that code includes, or what variables are necessary. Jay: So is this beginner’s course getting you more interested in programming? Sylvie: Yes it is! I hope to take at least one coding class in college. Jay: I want to ask this in the least defensive way possible, because I genuinely don’t know the answer myself. Do you think your parents sent any “girls don’t code” messages your way, subtle or overt? Through omission (not doing something) or commission? Sylvie: Yes, actually I do. I wasn’t offered any opportunities to code earlier than high school, or outside of high school. My parents didn’t ask if I wanted to learn to code over a summer or after school. However, I’ve never been a “STEM student,” so I understand why they might not have thought about it. Jay: What would have been the right age? Sylvie: Seventh or eighth grade probably. Maybe ninth, but any older and I would not have chosen it over other activities. Jay: When you say you have never been a STEM student, what do you mean? You’ve done pretty well in math and science. Sylvie: Math is actually my worst subject by far. I do well enough in science, but it’s not my favorite subject, and it doesn’t ignite a love for the subject the same way the humanities does. Jay: OK, but coding can be just as useful in the humanities, in the arts, or in activism. Civic hacking is an entire field in itself. Are you aware of that? Sylvie: No, I am not. Jay: Or maybe the question should be: why didn’t your digitally aware father make you aware of that? Sylvie: I really couldn’t say. Jay: You have taken a look at Girls Who Code, right? Sylvie: It sounds like a great program! From what I’ve read, the girls who do the program come out with a positive experience, more opportunities, and a desire to learn more about coding. Also, I love how they present the statistics. It’s clear and simple. Jay: “Applicants must be a current sophomore or junior girl in high school.” If we had offered you the opportunity to apply for those summers, do you think you would have been interested? Sylvie: Well I read that and got disappointed, so… yes. Jay: I’m disappointed too. In myself! Because I knew about that organization. Sylvie: Ah, well. Nobody’s perfect. Jay: Have you ever thought about starting a company? Is that something you can see yourself doing? Sylvie: I would love to do that some day! Jay: Your cousin Zack has started three companies, and they are all successful. Does knowing him and hearing him talk about his companies make it seem like a doable thing for you? Or is it more like: That’s his life, not mine? Sylvie: More of the latter, I think. His path definitely won’t be mine, and I think I’m less of a risk taker. There is influence in that I respect him, he is successful, and I can learn a lot from him. But I won’t be following his path, even if I end up at a similar destination. Jay: You read Ann Friedman’s Matter story on the larger problem of women in technology. What did you think of it? Sylvie: I identified with her point about “the hoodie archetype.” I also liked how she wrote about which schools and companies are trying to solve this problem. Those stories are inspiring and quite hopeful. Jay: This is a quote from that piece: There’s some truth to the fact that women are more risk-averse in male-dominated industries like tech and finance, but it isn’t because of innate gender difference. Researchers have found that, in environments where women are greatly outnumbered, they succumb to ‘stereotype threat’: Their worries about conforming to negative perceptions cause their worst fears to come true. Strike a chord? Sylvie: Yes! I wanted to mention that part of the article; it particularly resonated with me. Jay: How so? Sylvie: Well, I think women are worried about how other people think of them, and even though I try not to think that way, it is sometimes unavoidable. There is also the opinion that you don’t want to be called “a woman in tech” and singled out because you are a woman. That must contribute to this “stereotype threat.” Jay: When you close your eyes and try to picture the people who are making this stuff, creating these platforms and machines, what do you see? Sylvie: That is something I had zero sense of when I was younger. Jay: Are you saying that technology just seemed to “appear,” and you didn’t really think of it as made by people? Sylvie: I thought of it as made by people, but I did not think beyond that as to who did the making. Jay: And how about now? Sylvie: I see more men than women, but I also would like to think tech companies are progressive in fixing the gap because they’re at the forefront of modern civilization. Follow Matter on Twitter \| Like us on Facebook \| Subscribe to our newsletterKochi: Google India has announced the roll out of free high-speed public Wi-Fi at nine railway stations across India including Ernakulam Junction (South) in Kerala, in association with RailTel. The other stations are Bhopal, Bhubaneshwar, Kacheguda, Pune, Raipur, Ranchi, Vijayawada and Vishakhapatnam. Google had introduced the free high-speed Wi-Fi at Mumbai Central earlier in January this year. According to a note posted by Gulzar Azad, Head of Access Project, Google India on Google India Blog, “While you wait for your train, you can now look forward to free high-speed Wi-Fi to hopefully make that wait a bit more enjoyable and productive. We hope that people passing through these first 10 stations will enjoy being able to easily stream (or offline) an HD video, research their destination, or download a book or a new game for their journey ahead.” “It’s still early days, but we’re really happy about this progress towards making high-speed Wi-Fi available to more than 10 million Indians every day. In the months ahead, we’ll continue to work in close partnership with Indian Railways and RailTel, to reach 90 more stations this year, and eventually 400 spanning the whole of India”, he added. So how does all of this work? Well, if you’re in one of these stations, you’ll know that high-speed Wi-Fi is available if you see the ‘RailWire Wi-Fi’ network in your Wi-Fi settings. If you see it, select it and follow the simple steps below to gain access on your phone and up to two additional devices, like a laptop or tablet – you’ll just need an Indian mobile number to get an access code for each device: The Wi-Fi will be entirely free to start, so you can stream and download to your heart’s content. While there will always be some level of free Wi-Fi available, the long-term goal will be making this self-sustainable to allow for expansion to more stations and places, with RailTel and other partners, in the future. Also, to make sure that a few people spending all day in the station downloading lots of big files don’t slow down the network for everyone, users might notice a drop in speed after their first hour on the network. Most people should still be able to do the things they’ll want to do online. Kerala IT NewsOn Thursday, Oct. 1, House Sergeant-at-Arms Billy Cloud went to the Arizona Department of Administration building and picked up the keys to a state-owned car. It was clearly marked, as all state fleet vehicles are, with a sticker noting it is “for official use only.” On the forms to rent the car, Cloud stated his destination was Tucson. That afternoon, Cloud drove House Speaker David Gowan home to Cochise County, where Cloud also lives. Nineteen days later, when he returned the car, Cloud had put more than 4,800 miles on the odometer. That is farther than a person can drive in any one direction in the continental United States, and would be roughly the equivalent of taking a road trip from Seattle to Miami, then turning north and driving to Boston. Cloud’s October rental was the longest trip in a state-owned vehicle out of more than 10,000 trips detailed in a Department of Administration database covering all state car rentals from July 2013 through October 2015. It was one of seven times Cloud rented a state car over a four-month-period starting in June 2015, during which he traveled more than 11,000 miles. The database shows that use of state vehicles has skyrocketed recently in the House of Representatives, where a handful of lawmakers and top staffers have driven tens of thousands of miles in the last few months, at no personal cost because the House pays the Department of Administration for the rentals. That’s a striking contrast to the chamber’s rare reliance on the state fleet in past years. In 2014, two House staffers rented vehicles and drove a total of 674 miles. In 2015, House staffers and lawmakers have racked up more than 24,000 miles in 35 different rentals. The Senate, by comparison, hasn’t rented a single car in the more than two years covered in the database. A large part of Cloud’s job is to drive Gowan to events related to his job as speaker. But on Oct. 5, Gowan officially announced he was a candidate in the Republican primary for Arizona’s 1st Congressional District. While Cloud’s public calendar was nearly blank for the 19 days in early October when he rented the state car, Gowan’s public schedule was jam-packed with events, including many campaign events. In the weeks surrounding his congressional campaign announcement, Gowan was zig-zagging across the massive CD1, which is nearly as large as the state of Iowa. It spans from Four Corners and Flagstaff in the north, down to through Casa Grande and the northern suburbs of Tucson. In his travels, Gowan spoke to Republican groups and voters in Tuba City, Casa Grande, Flagstaff and Safford. Public records and social media show Gowan wasn’t alone on some of those long drives. The records show Cloud, a public employee, rented a state-owned vehicle and drove Gowan to several political events in CD1, hundreds of miles from the Capitol or his legislative district in southern Arizona. Gowan declined to comment on the travels, but House Republican spokeswoman Stephanie Grisham said the events were strictly related to his job as speaker, not his campaign for Congress. “Gowan always says he’s the speaker for the whole state of Arizona, and I think it’s been pretty clear that he is. He goes all over the state. He tries to speak at and appear at as many things as he can when he gets invited, and he wishes he could do more,” Grisham said. She said Gowan and his staffers are very careful about not using state resources for campaign events, and frequently have discussions about whether events could be construed as campaign-related. But Tom Ryan, a Chandler-based personal injury attorney who has made a name for himself as a crusader against Arizona political corruption, reviewed some of the records obtained by the Arizona Capitol Times. He disagreed that the events could be considered anything but campaign-related. Ryan said the violations of state law are so “stunning” that he intends to bring a legal complaint against Gowan and several of his close allies. He accused them of violating not only the laws governing the use of the state vehicle fleet, but also violating the state’s prohibition on using government resources for a campaign purpose. Glimpses of Gowan’s travels Gowan’s official calendar, and the official calendars of several other lawmakers, were largely blacked-out by House attorneys before they were turned over in response to a public records request from the Arizona Capitol Times. The staff attorneys said the redactions were made for two reasons. The first is to keep confidential the topics of meetings under a legal precedent called “legislative privilege.” Those redactions are generally succinct on the calendar, disclosing who the lawmaker was meeting with but not what they were meeting about. The other reason given for the redactions was because many of the events in the calendars were not official state business, and therefore not subject to the state public records laws. Those redactions covered every word over days, and even weeks, of the calendars for Gowan and several other lawmakers. But after the Capitol Times noted many of the events Cloud drove Gowan to were redacted from the calendar, and therefore not considered state business by the chamber’s own attorneys, Grisham provided a new, slightly less-redacted version of the speaker’s calendar. Even redacted, the records contained several glimpses of where Gowan and Cloud were traveling during Cloud’s 4,800 mile rental. And social media postings from Gowan’s official congressional campaign account show that the speaker was in full campaign mode at some of those stops. On Oct. 8, for example, three days after he announced his candidacy, Gowan’s calendar states Cloud drove him to Flagstaff. In the morning, Gowan had a radio interview, in which he discussed his newly launched campaign for Congress for about half of the allotted time. For breakfast, he met with business leaders and local politicians. From his campaign Twitter account, Gowan posted a group photo of the meeting, saying he was “listening to voters and talking about my vision to make DC accountable.” He ended the tweet with hashtags of his campaign slogan and the congressional district: “#RespectTheWest” and “#AZ01.” For lunch, he again met with business and community leaders, and tweeted a photo of the event the next day. Grisham acknowledged Cloud took the photos. And while he was on the radio in Flagstaff discussing his congressional campaign, Gowan told voters to come meet him at the Flagstaff Tea Party meeting that night. That meeting, however, was one of the many campaign events redacted from Gowan’s official calendar, because it was not related to his “official business.” But Grisham said even that Tea Party event was official business, as Gowan was invited there to address the crowd as the speaker, not as a congressional candidate. Grisham said the original redactions were made by House attorneys who were erring on the side of caution, and only show that the attorneys thought the events could be unrelated to state business, not that the events are definitively not official business. “Staff did make mistakes,” she said, noting they are discussing internally how to ensure the chamber is more transparent. But relating to Gowan’s Flagstaff trip in a state car, Grisham said the speaker did nothing wrong. “Everything he did was official. And, in fact, there was a veteran’s site that he visited, and you’re going to see there is a priority request in the budget from the speaker for the veteran’s home (in Flagstaff),” she said. On Oct. 17, Gowan’s calendar states Cloud drove him to Tuba City to ride in a float for the Navajo Nation Fair, where at least one other Republican CD1 candidate was also working the crowd. Gowan’s official campaign Twitter posted a group picture of the candidate with then-Democratic Sen. Carlyle Begay, Arizona Republican Party Chair Robert Graham and several Navajo Republicans. Tuba City is more than 400 highway miles from Gowan’s hometown of Sierra Vista, and is deep in the solidly-Democratic Navajo Nation, where Republican lawmakers rarely visit – unless they’re running for Congress in CD1, where Navajo votes can swing the election. (Story continues after graphic) But Grisham said Gowan was invited to speak, again, as the House speaker and not a congressional candidate. And she said he has, in fact, been to Tuba City before, on other official state business. The records show several other examples of Gowan hitting the expansive campaign trail during the 19 days Cloud drove 4,800 miles in a state car, but the records are so heavily redacted, it’s impossible to see who, if anyone, drove him to the events. Grisham said Cloud frequently drives the speaker to events, but he wouldn’t do so in a state-owned vehicle if there were any question as to whether the event is campaign-related. For one campaign event in Casa Grande on Oct. 5, for example, Grisham said Gowan’s campaign consultant, Constantin Querard, drove him because it was clearly a campaign event. Grisham stressed that you cannot separate the man from the job, and said everywhere Gowan goes, he’s asked about his congressional campaign. The line between speaker and congressional candidate can be blurry. But some lawmakers are more careful than others about keeping their state business and election-related business separate. Some lawmakers won’t even casually discuss their election plans with reporters in their state offices. Others see no problem with that. The issue arises almost every campaign season, and in December, the House Rules Office sent out an email reminding lawmakers to be extra careful. The email warns that lawmakers and their staff are prohibited from using state resources, including computers, email, phones and House conference rooms, for anything campaign-related. “Moreover, during work hours, House employees are strictly prohibited from engaging in any type of campaign or political party work. Members (of the House) should be careful not to inadvertently request assistance from staff that may relate to a campaign,” the email states. Driving Gowan to his official meetings is a large part of Cloud’s job responsibilities. One of Gowan’s first acts after becoming speaker-elect in November 2014 was to hire Cloud, a longtime friend, onetime Cochise County sheriff candidate, former Department of Public Safety officer and Tombstone marshal, at a salary of $80,000. The former sergeant-at-arms earned $40,000, but Grisham said at the time of the hire that the pay increase was justified because Cloud would also be working a security detail, protecting the speaker and transporting him to and from events related to his official duties. The House speaker and Senate president are automatically assigned a Department of Public Safety officer to transport them to, and protect them at, public events. But Gowan’s public schedule shows that over the course of his first year as speaker, Gowan has frequently eschewed his assigned DPS officer in favor of Cloud driving him to and from state-related meetings. The speaker of the House has full control over the chamber’s purse strings. Since becoming speaker, Gowan has built a reputation of traveling heavily-staffed, and on the state’s dime. When he and Senate President Andy Biggs flew to Washington, D.C., to watch U.S. Supreme Court arguments on the redistricting case in March 2015, for example, Gowan flew cross-country with an entourage of the House attorney, the House GOP spokesperson, a policy adviser and his deputy chief of staff. The state paid the bill for all of them. Biggs paid his own way to D.C. and didn’t bring even the Senate attorney, who was one of the Legislature’s lawyers in the case. Strict rules for government vehicles Before Gowan became speaker, it was rare for a lawmaker to rent a state car. From July 2013 to April 2015, Gowan was the only lawmaker in either chamber to rent a state car – he went for a nearly 2,300 mile drive in July 2013. Grisham couldn’t say where the speaker went on that 2013 trip. Following the 2015 legislative session, however, use of the state fleet by House lawmakers and employees has risen substantially. Gowan, a handful of Republican lawmakers and some top Republican staff members have made frequent use of state-owned vehicles recently, records show. The state has strict laws governing what public employees and elected officials can, and cannot, do with a state car. Arizona law says a vehicle owned by the state “shall not be provided to an employee, including an elected official, for the employee’s personal use” and that the cars can only be used “for business purposes only” which does “not include normal commuting to and from the employee’s residence.” The Department of Administration’s own rules, which are included in an information packet given to everyone who rents a state vehicle, say the cars cannot be used for “personal convenience” and drivers are prohibited from transporting family members or friends. And rentals are limited to two weeks. During his 19-day rental, the department sent Cloud a letter notifying him he was late to return the vehicle. While some local governments, such as Cochise County, have installed random vehicle monitoring in their own fleets, the state vehicle fleet has no such technology. The department doesn’t police the drivers, and takes their stated destination at face value, according to Department of Administration spokesperson Megan Rose. But it does have a phone number and portal on its website to take complaints about misuse of state cars. In 2015, the department received 29 complaints, though only six of them were about actual state vehicles, Rose said. The rest of the complaints were about cars that belonged to city and county governments. None of the complaints were about cars rented by lawmakers or the legislative staff. Grisham noted that lawmakers only earn $24,000 per year before their per diem pay and mileage reimbursement, and many drive cars that are unreliable and could break down on a long trip. She noted that lawmakers have every right to use state vehicles for official state business. But some of the trips by lawmakers are clearly in violation of the law. Both Cloud and Gowan’s calendars, for example, note that Cloud was driving himself and Gowan to their homes in Cochise County on October 1, just hours after picking up the keys to the state car. Car pool users are prohibited from using them for normal home-to-work commuting. In addition, Gowan and two of his close allies all took separate state vehicles to San Diego for an annual American Legislative Exchange Conference meeting in July. House Majority Leader Steve Montenegro and his seatmate, Republican Rep. Darin Mitchell, drove state-owned utility 4x4s to San Diego to attend the ALEC event, and traveled 879 miles and 730 miles on the trips, respectively. Mitchell’s rental lasted only two days, while Montenegro lasted six. Gowan also headed to the ALEC conference in a state-owned car he rented in his own name. But Gowan traveled roughly three times as many miles as the other lawmakers, clocking 2,349 miles over 12 days. Grisham said that after ALEC, Gowan took the car to other state related business back in Arizona. Ryan, the Chandler attorney, criticized ALEC as a secretive corporate lobbying organization that hosts lavish vacations for lawmakers and their families which are paid for by corporate interests attempting to gain favor with state lawmakers. He said driving a state car to the organization’s meeting would very clearly be against the law. “There’s no way they can claim ALEC is a state event. If ALEC is a state event, I want every (public record) from that conference,” Ryan said. The state does not pay for lawmakers to attend the conference, and all travel, hotel and conference registration costs are paid for by “scholarships” for lawmakers provided by corporate members of ALEC. Additionally, Montenegro brought his wife to the conference, even though family members are expressly prohibited from traveling in a state car. But Montenegro said he asked the House attorney several times if he could drive the state car to ALEC and if he could bring his wife along, and that the House attorney, who has since left the chamber, said it would be OK. Still being cautious, Montenegro said he called the Department of Administration, and told them his wife was going with him, and asked if it would be OK if she drove. He said the department told him that his wife shouldn’t drive, but didn’t mention that she shouldn’t even be in the car. “There’s nothing that I want to do in a hidden manner. I called ADOA and asked them: (My wife) is going to be with me. Can she drive? And they said, no, she shouldn’t drive. But I was not told that it wasn’t OK for her to be in the vehicle,” he said. Rose, the Department of Administration spokeswoman, said the department doesn’t make the call of whether an event is or is not official business, and that the “determination of what qualifies as state business lies within the agency that is paying for the service.” In other words, it’s ultimately up to the House to decide what qualifies as official House business. But when the staff attorneys weighed in on what is and isn’t official state business, via the calendar redactions, they were heavy-handed in their determination that many events were not official business. During some of both Mitchell and Montenegro’s vehicle rentals, House attorneys redacted every item from their calendars. When Montenegro drove 519 miles between Aug. 19 and 21, every item on his calendar was redacted for those days. When Mitchell drove 384 miles on July 2 and 3, his calendar was fully redacted for both days. The redactions also cover all of Sept. 11 through 14, when Mitchell drove a state car 381 miles. In all three cases, Montenegro said, he and his seatmate were in Yuma talking with local elected officials about their legislative priorities and concerns. And Montenegro noted that the vast majority of the time he drives around his giant district, he does so in his own car on his own dime. “Ninety-nine percent of the time, I use my own vehicle to do state and personal business. But on occasion when I’m invited to be a speaker or to meet (with people) as the majority leader with the mayor or council folks or supervisors, I have used (a state car). But that’s seldom and it’s for official reasons,” he said. Republican Rep. Michelle Ugenti’s calendar was also fully redacted for the seven days she drove a state car 392 miles with a stated destination of Prescott. The cost of public service The state fleet exists so that state employees and elected officials can borrow the cars and use them for official state business. By sharing vehicles across agencies, the service reduces the total number of vehicles the state needs, Rose said. And many of the 35 rentals by the House this year seem to fall squarely within the bounds of “official use.” (Story continues after graphic) Though lawmakers can use the state’s motor pool, other agencies use the vehicles much more often. The chart above shows which agencies put the most miles on state motor pool cars, from the Department of Education to the Board of Barbers. (Graph by Rachel Leingang, Arizona Capitol Times) Mitchell, who traveled almost 3,200 miles on a state car between July and October 2015, spent many of those miles driving around his district, which spans from Yuma to Litchfield Park. It was the same for Montenego, who totaled more than 2,400 miles. Lawmakers frequently have to travel very long distances to meetings across sometimes huge legislative districts. And they usually pay for that travel from their own pockets. Grisham said lawmakers can claim mileage for driving to official meetings across their district. But several lawmakers, including Montenegro, said they didn’t realize that was allowed, and usually just cover the costs themselves. In state-owned vehicles, the lawmakers pay nothing themselves. Instead, the taxpayers pay the cost of their rentals, and cover their gas. But still, Grisham noted, it’s often slightly cheaper to rent a state car than to reimburse lawmakers for their mileage. The Department of Administration billed the House almost $8,000 for rentals between January and October this year, including gas. The department’s rates are slightly lower than an inexpensive rental car company. Cloud’s 19-day trip, for example, cost the House $494, not including gas. Enterprise gave a quote of $690 for a similar car over the same number of days, not including gas. Former Republican lawmaker and Senate Ethics Committee Chairman Ron Gould frequently criticized his fellow conservatives during his time in the Legislature for not practicing the small government principles they preach. He never used a state car. In fact, he didn’t even know the state had a fleet of vehicles, and questioned the wisdom of the state maintaining them. Like many other lawmakers, he said his understanding was that lawmakers could not get mileage reimbursement for trips around their districts. “The mileage around the district, I didn’t think we were eligible to be reimbursed for that. I mean, it’s political,” he said. Gould said he ran two cars into the ground over his eight years at the Capitol, driving from his home in Lake Havasu City to Phoenix and around his massive district, which covered almost the entire western border of Arizona. But in his eyes, that was part of the cost of being a public servant. “I wouldn’t think that the taxpayers are too keen on (lawmakers using state cars)… And I wouldn’t have taken advantage of that, because I never wanted to take advantage
to the occasion. “When they can export safe cars to other countries, why can’t they do so for our customers. They should market their safety features for higher sale of products,” he added.The Middle East is afire with rebellion, Japan is imploding from an earthquake, and the battle of the budget is on in the United States, but none of this seems to be deterring President Obama from a heavy schedule of childish distractions. The newly installed tandem of White House Chief of Staff William Daley and Senior Adviser David Plouffe were supposed to impart a new sense of discipline and purpose to the White House. Instead, they are permitting him to showcase himself as a poorly focused leader who has his priorities backward. This morning, as Japan’s nuclear crisis enters a potentially catastrophic phase, we are told that Obama is videotaping his NCAA tournament picks and that we’ll be able to tune into ESPN Wednesday to find out who he likes. Saturday, he made his 61st outing to the golf course as president, and got back to the White House with just enough time for a quick shower before heading out to party with Washington’s elite journalists at the annual Gridiron Dinner. With various urgencies swirling about him, Saturday’s weekly videotaped presidential address focusing on “Women’s History Month” seemed bizarrely out of touch. Obama Friday took time out to honor the 2009-10 Stanley Cup Champion Chicago Blackhawks. Thursday was a White House conference on bullying – not a bad idea perhaps, but not quite Leader of the Free World stuff either. Obama appeared a little sleepy as he weighed in against the bullies, perhaps because he’d spent the night before partying with lawmakers as they took in a Chicago Bulls vs. Charlotte Bobcats game. Meanwhile, the president has been studying for weeks whether to establish a No Fly Zone over Libya, delaying action while the point becomes increasingly moot as Qaddafi begins to defeat and slaughter his opponents. And lawmakers from both Parties are wondering why he seems to be AWOL in the deficit reduction debate. The Libya indecision follows an inconsistent response to the protests that ousted former Egyptian President Mubarak and seemed to catch the White House off guard. The perfunctory response from the White House Monday to Saudi Arabia’s dispatch of troops to Bahrain suggested the administration wasn’t prepared for that one either. But the fun stuff won’t end anytime soon. On Thursday, the Taoiseach of Ireland will be in town to help the president celebrate St. Patrick’s Day. And then Friday it’s off to Brazil for the start of a three-country Latin American tour. Oddly, he’ll be missing Carnival, which went down last week.A common image of domestic violence: a woman on the brink of homelessness, taking refuge from her abusive spouse in a shelter because she has nowhere else to go. But recent domestic violence cases in the news, from South African Olympian Oscar Pistorius allegedly murdering his girlfriend to CBS New York anchor Rob Morrison accused of choking his wife, are revealing what domestic abuse experts say has been the dirty little secret of the wealthy for too long. From Stamford, Conn., to Beverly Hills, Calif., domestic violence in upscale communities has long had a unique stigma, the industry’s few experts say. “Higher-income people hide behind what I call a veil of silence,” says Dr. Susan Weitzman, founder of the Weitzman Center, an advocacy organization that raises awareness about what she calls upscale abuse. “They believe it’s only happening to them. No one can hear you scream on a 3-acre lot.” Recent research on the relationship between domestic violence and the economy has focused on the effects of the 2008 recession and found that abuse is three times as likely to occur when couples are under financial strain. According to the National Network to End Domestic Violence, three of four domestic violence shelters reported increases in women seeking help after September 2008. But Weitzman and her peers say there’s no comparable research for wealthy couples, reinforcing the public’s ignorance of the problem and the culture of silence surrounding upscale abuse. Frequent cycles of violence can characterize upscale domestic abuse, Weitzman says. Most abusive relationships include a so-called honeymoon period, in which the abuser tries to apologize with gifts and promises to change. But the wealthy clients Weitzman has worked with usually don’t experience a honeymoon period. The violence can be unrelenting, she says. After the violence, the first unique obstacle wealthy women face in getting out of abusive relationships is admitting the abuse itself, an already harrowing task complicated by the fear—and often the reality—of not being believed by peers. “The woman is often disbelieved when she comes out,” Weitzman says. “People will say, ‘Look at your husband, look at your lifestyle.’” Weitzman says she remembers one client whose abusive spouse poured a glass of water on her during a marriage counseling session. “All the therapist did was offer the woman a Kleenex,” she says. Linda Bollea, ex-wife of wrestler Hulk Hogan, says she knows the fear of coming clean about abuse all too well. In her memoir Wrestling the Hulk: My Life Against the Ropes, she alleges that her ex-husband emotionally and physically abused her. (He has filed a lawsuit against her for defamation.) Bollea recalls the anxiety that “the empire would collapse after ‘outing’ the abusive spouse. It makes it scary and difficult to ask for help. Once the abusive spouse realizes their partner’s unhappiness, it gets much more because now there is no fixing it.” That problem is only compounded in the courtroom, where high-income husbands can assemble what Weitzman calls “legal dream teams.” She says she recently worked with a woman whose abusive husband hired six attorneys, each at $500 an hour, to fight for custody of his children. “The women are left at the mercy of a system,” says Dr. Jeanne King, a psychologist specializing in domestic abuse among the wealthy, “and that system becomes an insiders’ club.” Even when the abusers are subject to legal proceedings, they are adept at manipulating the system. During one court battle, Weitzman says, a husband accused of abuse was asked to have his car appraised by forensics experts. When the experts got to the garage, they found the car disassembled into thousands of pieces. “The disclosure of abuse only brings on a new warfare” for wealthy abused women, King says. “She’s exposed his abuse from behind closed doors and possibly ruined his career, so now there’s a campaign against her.” That campaign often involves stripping the abused woman of all her financial resources, says Jan Edgar Langbein, executive director of the Genesis Women’s Shelter in Dallas. “The woman may be living in an affluent household, but she often has as much access to finances as someone with no money at all,” she says. Expensive, painful custody battles are typical in cases of upscale domestic abuse, Langbein, King, and Weitzman say. “The abuser will try to hurt you in the way it hurts most, by getting custody of the kids,” Langbein says. According to data from the American Judges’ Association, 70 percent of contested custody cases involving domestic violence eventually grant joint or sole custody to the abuser. Langbein says she is seeing more and more affluent women seeking help from Genesis’s non-residential programs, part of the overall growth in domestic violence around the nation in the last five years. But Weitzman says there is some good news: the highest-profile cases, from Chris Brown to Pistorius, are raising awareness about the pervasiveness of upscale violence. And some women’s shelters are developing specific programs for wealthy women. In 2007, a shelter in Naples, Fla., developed a “Women of Means” program. Similar programs have sprung up around the country, though Langbein says a nearby Dallas shelter with a separate program for affluent women has earned the disparaging moniker “the Prada group.” David Hopkins, partner at Schiller DuCanto & Fleck, a family law firm based in Chicago, has been working for more than a decade to level the playing field for abused women facing expensive legal battles when their abusers sue for defamation or custody. He says he’s worked with many clients with wealthy abusers. “In the most extreme cases, the abusive party is able to recoup irrespective of the cost,” he says. “The goal is to financially destroy the victim.” To combat what he calls the “sheer vindictiveness” of unnecessary litigation against abuse victims, Hopkins helped pass statutory reforms to Illinois’s Marriage and Dissolution of Marriage Act so that victims would have equal access to finances to pay for legal fees. Despite advancements in treatment for wealthy domestic violence victims and legal developments to help victims fight back, there’s much more work to be done to de-stigmatize upscale abuse, experts tell The Daily Beast. “These are still the women who fall through the cracks of the system,” King says.A new study, published online in JAMA Internal Medicine, found that physicians have a poor understanding of risks and benefits of common treatments, tests, and screening procedures in every field they examined. The researchers, Tammy C. Hoffman, PhD, and Chris Del Mar, MD, work at the Centre for Research in Evidence-Based Practice at Bond University in Australia. They set out to understand whether physicians had accurate knowledge of the risks and benefits of common treatments and procedures. In order to do so, they combined the data from 48 studies, including 13,011 clinicians. They found that in almost every situation, including psychopharmaceutical prescription, CT scans, and cancer screening, physicians tended to overestimate the benefits of treatment and screening, while minimizing the potential risk. There was one exception to this rule: When asked about the risks to a pregnant mother, doctors tended to overestimate, rather than underestimate, the risks. This was true for both psychopharmaceutical use and for radiological tests. Overall, the researchers found that most physicians were only able to correctly estimate potential harms of procedures 13% of the time (9 of the 69 outcomes), and correctly estimated the magnitude of potential benefits only 11% of the time (3 of the 28 outcomes). Participants were far more likely to underestimate harm (34%) rather than overestimate it (5%), and they were far more likely to overestimate benefits (32%) rather than underestimate them (9%). Some of the individual studies included in the meta-analysis were worrisome on their own merits. For instance, a 2005 study that surveyed doctors regarding cancer screening tests concluded that “Physicians were unaware of screening test efficacy and risk.” Similarly, a 2003 study found that “Most GPs overestimated the accuracy of screening tests for prostate cancer.” Studies examining doctors’ understanding of cancer risk from radiology (such as CT scans) consistently found that knowledge of the risks was poor. In fact, a 2004 study concluded that “Many physicians in this sample had a lack of basic knowledge about radiation exposure.” In that study, the researchers found that doctors did not even utilize basic methods for protecting themselves from radiation exposure. A previous study conducted by Drs. Hoffman and Del Mar examined patients’ estimations of risks and benefits and found that patients were even more ill-informed. This finding makes it imperative that physicians take steps to be informed enough to provide information to patients who may not understand the risks of the procedures they are asked to undergo. In the field of psychiatry, researchers have increasingly called for clearer procedures for ensuring that patients are informed about the risks of pharmaceutical treatment. For instance, a 2012 article in the International Journal of Law and Psychiatry suggested that the dangers of antidepressant medications have been consistently obfuscated by the pharmaceutical industry, which has also exaggerated their potential benefits. Another study, published this year, found that “Claims that second-generation antipsychotic drugs have safety advantages over classical neuroleptic drugs and prevent relapse were not supported in these key studies” and suggested that the use of these medications should be reconsidered. These results are concerning, and indicate that more research should be done to examine providers’ perceptions of risk and benefit for psychiatric and psychological treatments. The researchers suggest that training programs need to provide more clarity around the specific risks and benefits of common treatments, in order to more adequately prepare physicians for informed consent conversations. **** Hoffman, T. C., & Del Mar, C. Clinicians’ expectations of the benefits and harms of treatments, screening, and tests: A systematic review. JAMA Intern Med. Published online January 9, 2017. doi: 10.1001/jamainternmed.2016.8254 (Abstract)Quentin Tarantino’s “Star Trek” movie project has gained momentum at Paramount Pictures with “The Revenant” screenwriter Mark L. Smith hired to write the script. Tarantino and J.J. Abrams will produce and Tarantino may direct. Abrams will produce through his Paramount-based Bad Robot Productions. News of the duo working on the R-rated project first emerged on Dec. 4. Details of the plot have remained under wraps. Smith teamed with director Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu on the script for “The Revenant.” Paramount is in post-production on World War II thriller “Overlord,” which Smith co-wrote with Billy Ray and Abrams produced. “Overlord” opens on Oct. 26. Paramount has released 13 “Star Trek” movies since 1979’s “Star Trek: The Motion Picture.” The studio rebooted the franchise in 2009 with Abrams directing “Star Trek” and “Star Trek: Into Darkness” in 2013 before moving to 2015’s “Star Wars: The Force Awakens.” Justin Lin directed “Star Trek Beyond” in 2016. Tarantino is a fan of the original “Star Trek” TV series and is in pre-production on his ninth movie, an untitled project centered on the Manson Family murders, which Sony has scheduled for Aug. 2, 2019 — the 50th anniversary of the killings. Abrams is currently in pre-production on “Star Wars: Episode IX.” Smith is repped by WME, Anonymous Content, and Syndicate Entertainment. The news was first reported by Deadline Hollywood.This year large metropolitan newspapers have folded in Seattle, Denver, and Tucson. More will likely follow. Journalists at the Post-Intelligencer, the Rocky Mountain News, and the Citizen joined the 10,000 print newsies downsized or bought out from print newsrooms over the past few decade. Media pundits (including me) cluck-cluck incessantly over these democracy-wrenching signs of the impending journalistic apocalypse. But readers in those cities still have print options for newspapers providing some local news. Not so in the mountain town of Carbondale, Colo., whose population about equals its elevation. The Valley Journal, founded in 1975, had its plug pulled in March, reports DeeDee Correll of the Center for Rural Affairs. The 6,000 residents had no other sources of local news. Their solution: Publish a newspaper themselves. A core of volunteers started the Sopris Sun, running it as non-profit free weekly with a press run of 3,000 copies. Why’d they do it? Says the Journal‘s original founder, Rebecca Young: “It just beat the dickens out of sitting around whining that our paper was dead.” Carbondale’s solution was civic-minded. It taps every possible source of revenue, including grants. Says Carbondale Mayor Michael Hassig: I don’t know if they have a business model that will work. It wouldn’t surprise me if [the newspaper] was sustainable because there are an awful lot of people who do labors of love here. There was a void. Every town should have a park, a library and a newspaper.” [emphasis added] The Sun, of course, has days of reckoning ahead. Commitment and pride may drive volunteerism, but is free labor a sustainable business model? Will printing 3,000 copies a week be a cost that eventually cannot be borne? Will volunteers shy away from penetrating coverage of their neighbors and friends who may be public officials or business owners? Will the Sun succumb to soft-feature-itis by being unable or unwilling to produce eat-your-veggies journalism? American has thousands of small daily and weekly newspapers. The mean circulation of the American daily newspaper is about 38,000 — but I’ll bet the median circulation is a third of that. Small papers’ chances of economic survival are much higher than the metro newspapers of large cities. Small papers offer unique goods – local news and a local audience for local advertisers. Big newspapers are targets of aggregators galore. Their goods are not always unique. Carbondale could react quickly to fulfill the communal void left by the demise of its newspaper. Could Cleveland? Portland (either one)? Tampa Bay? Dallas? Boise? Toledo? Burlington? San Diego? St. Louis? Spokane? Buffalo? America’s cities are largely served by only one daily newspaper of substance. (Yes, that substance has been diluted by foolish cost-saving measures such as firing or buying out the professionals who report and write the product the papers are trying to sell.) We’ve seen the first metro dailies fail. What happens when the lone metro of a large city ceases print publication? Perhaps opportunity happens. Dan Conover, says his bio, edited a big metro-daily and took a buyout in 2008 after 18 years in the news business. He makes this observation: A client looking to invest in media asked me earlier this month for advice on what might replace failing newspapers. My response? There are plenty of interesting ideas in play, but the first meaningful test won’t come until a major American city loses its only metro daily. So wait. That’s because metro newspapers are taking up the market space in which the innovation he’s looking for must occur. Newspapers may be failing, but most do a passable job of limiting serious competition in their markets. What succeeds in the shadow of an established metro, therefore, may not be what ultimately winds up contending for the market positions vacated by Old Media giants. [emphasis added] That’s an interesting perspective. So pundits like me will be watching what’s lining up to contest for that “market space” about to be relinquished, developments in Seattle, Denver, and Tucson suggest, by large metro dailies. [Thx to my colleague Carole McNall.]A revolutionary cancer therapy that uses genetically engineered immune cells has been approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, ushering in a new era of cancer treatment. The FDA calls the treatment, made by Novartis, the “first gene therapy” in the U.S. The therapy is designed to treat an often-lethal type of blood and bone marrow cancer that affects children and young adults. Known as a CAR-T therapy, the approach has shown remarkable results in patients. The one-time treatment will cost $475,000, but Novartis says there will be no charge if a patient doesn't respond to the therapy within a month. “We’re entering a new frontier in medical innovation with the ability to reprogram a patient’s own cells to attack a deadly cancer,” said FDA commissioner Scott Gottlieb in a statement. The therapy, which will be marketed as Kymriah, is a customized treatment that uses a patient’s own T cells, a type of immune cell. A patient’s T cells are extracted and cryogenically frozen so that they can be transported to Novartis’s manufacturing center in New Jersey. There, the cells are genetically altered to have a new gene that codes for a protein—called a chimeric antigen receptor, or CAR. This protein directs the T cells to target and kill leukemia cells with a specific antigen on their surface. The genetically modified cells are then infused back into the patient. In a clinical trial of 63 children and young adults with a type of acute lymphoblastic leukemia, 83 percent of patients that received the CAR-T therapy had their cancers go into remission within three months. At six months, 89 percent of patients who received the therapy were still living, and at 12 months, 79 percent had survived. An estimated 3,100 patients aged 20 and younger in the U.S. are diagnosed with acute lymphoblastic leukemia each year, making it the most common childhood cancer, according to the National Cancer Institute. Current treatment options include chemotherapy and stem-cell transplants, but about 600 pediatric and young adult patients with the disease relapse each year, and many remain incurable. David Mitchell, founder of an advocacy group called Patients for Affordable Drugs, said in a statement that the $475,000 cost is “excessive” and claims the federal government spent $200 million in early research on CAR-T therapy before Novartis purchased rights to the treatment. The group recently met with the company to appeal for a “fair” price for its therapy. Previous estimates predicted a price tag between $600,000 to $750,000. The historic approval bodes well for rival companies Kite Pharma and Juno Therapeutics, which are also developing CAR-T therapies. Kite Pharma, which is awaiting FDA approval for its CAR-T therapy to treat a form of blood cancer in adults, was this week bought out by Gilead in a deal worth $11.9 billion. Though the Novartis therapy has shown extraordinary results in patients, questions remain about how the company will be able to manufacture personalized therapies quickly enough to get them to patients across the country. Novartis says it takes an average of 22 days to create the therapy, from the time a patient's cells are removed to when they are infused back into the patient. Kymriah will initially be available at 20 U.S. hospitals within a month, Novartis says. Eventually, 32 total sites will offer the therapy. CAR-T therapy has also been known to cause potentially life-threatening side effects in some patients, including neurological problems and a reaction called cytokine release syndrome. Juno Therapeutics ended a CAR-T study earlier this year after patients died from cerebral edema, or swelling in the brain. No patients treated with the Novartis CAR-T therapy have died from that complication, according to the company. The FDA defines gene therapy as a medicine that “introduces genetic material into a person’s DNA to replace faulty or missing genetic material” to treat a disease or medical condition. This is the first such therapy to be available in the U.S., according to the FDA. Two gene therapies for rare, inherited diseases have already been approved in Europe.We all know that Real Housewives Of Atlanta queen bee NeNe Leakes is “VERY rich,” but now there is documentation to prove it, as the current salaries of the RHOA cast has been revealed. Sign Up For Our Newsletter! Close Thank you for subscribing! Please be sure to open and click your first newsletter so we can confirm your subscription. RELATED: Why Phaedra Parks Won’t Return To “The Real Housewives Of Atlanta” [VIDEO] When it was announced that NeNe Leakes would be returning to full-time status on Bravo’s highest-rated show Real Housewives of Atlanta, many assumed that she would be awarded a hefty payday for her OG status and overall level of non-stop entertainment. Well now, Celebuzz has every RHOA cast member’s salary and let’s just say that there are a few surprises, but NeNe Leakes making more than anyone else is not one of them. Let’s look at the breakdown on how the RHOA ladies fare with their Season 10 salaries via Celebuzz: Shereé Whitfield is an original member of the show, but she left during seasons five, six, seven, and eight. She only netted about $1 million this season though it was $200,000 more than she made in her previous years. Porsha Williams was given a $100,000 raise for her work on season 10 which is currently airing, but she only made $800,000 for the season. She’s the youngest cast member and may not have the bargaining experience of her older counterparts. She’s been on the show since season five. Kenya Moore was given a $100,000 raise to make $1.5 million for season 10, but she may not be getting any more money from Bravo anytime soon. Kenya has been unable to get her new, mysterious husband Marc Daly on the show, and the producers feel like she’s unwilling to share the reality of her life on camera. She was fined $25,000 for not getting her father on camera to tell him about her surprise Caribbean wedding, and she lost out on the two-episode Spain trip costing her $100,000. Cynthia Bailey got the largest bump for this season. She went from $1.2 million to 1.6 million on season 10. Her storyline is quite intriguing since she divorced her husband Peter and started dating again. Her struggle trying to manage her relationships with Kenya and NeNe Leakes also makes for great TV. Kandi Burruss was the wealthiest pre-show ‘Housewife.’ Her years in the entertainment industry as part of girl group Xscape made her a multi-millionaire in her own right. She knows how to negotiate and get what she wants. She got a $200,000 bump for season 10, and she pulls in $2 million. NeNe Leakes made her triumphant return to ‘RHOA’ for season 10 after a run in TV and on Broadway. She is an original member of the show, but left in season eight after becoming too busy with other things in her life to film. She commanded $2.5 million for season 10 and is the highest-paid star on the show by far. Well, we guess that’s why NeNe looks like she’s living her best life…and securing the bag at the same time! The Latest: Check out today’s Top Stories here: Tiffany Haddish’s Ex-Husband To Sue Her For Defamation GET THE LOOK: Holiday Christmas Sweaters To Get Your Claire Huxtable On RHOA Salaries Revealed, Proving NeNe Leakes Is Queen was originally published on hellobeautiful.comMan fatally shot in robbery attempt A would-be robber was fatally shot by a 23-year-old Humble man in the back seat of a car with his infant child. The Humble man and his girlfriend had gone to a parking lot in the 10800 block of South Gessner about 9 p.m. Friday to buy a cell phone from a private individual, police said. As the man and his baby sat in the back seat of the car, several men approached. One of them, armed with a loaded shotgun, tried to get into the car, Houston police spokesman Kese Smith said. Because the car's child safety locks were on, the man couldn't get out and fearing for him life, he fired a pistol at the intruder, killing him, Smith said. The case will go to a Harris County grand jury to determine if charges will be filed, Smith said.Image copyright AFP Image caption The notoriously difficult "Gaokao" exam determines whether and where students will go to university A Chinese city has banned high school students from tearing up textbooks or yelling in hallways to relieve exam pressure, state media said. The ban, issued by the Xiamen Education Bureau, comes 10 days before the National College Entrance Examination. Almost ten million students across China sit for the notoriously difficult, two-day exam every year. High schools should instead provide psychological guidance, the China Youth Daily report said. An "unconventional measure of blowing off steam before the exam has prevailed in recent years, with students tearing their textbooks into pieces and throwing them off the school building. Some choose to yell in the school buildings to cheer themselves up as well," CCTV said in an online post. Xiamen officials also encouraged schools to let students relieve stress in a more "healthy way", the post said, without giving specifics. The exam, called the Gaokao, determines if and where students will go to university. Stephen McDonell, China Correspondent, BBC News Young Chinese people see the Gaokao as a make-or-break moment with a result that could see them hurtle down one of life's paths or another: poor farmer or doctor; factory worker or scientist. The exams have been criticised for leading to a culture of cramming and rote learning. When you're competing with millions of students fighting for limited places the temptation to cheat is high and you can hear Chinese people speaking openly about doing this. At its most extreme the stress from the Gaokou is thought to lead to clinical depression and even suicide. Jack Ma, the founder of Chinese online shopping giant Alibaba, had to sit the exam three times in order to get into university. China's number two leader Li Keqiang once used the Gaokao to springboard himself from poor Anhui Province into China's most prestigious academic establishment Peking University. Recently a judge let a young man off after he first failed the Gaokao, then was caught stealing basic items on 17 occasions in order to survive, study and take the exam again. After his family repaid the victims, he will re-sit the Gaokao in the coming weeks. 'Waste of resources' In a poll on Chinese website Sina, 51% of users said they did not support the ban. Some users commented saying that the books belonged to the students, so it was up to them what they wanted to do with it. Others pointed out that the students were unlikely to tear up their textbooks before their exams, and that they were simply tearing up scrap paper. Image copyright Sina Image caption The top user comments saying "You don't really believe they are tearing up textbooks right?" adding that it was probably pieces of written scrap paper However, another Sina user pointed out they were in support of the ban, saying that the practice was a waste of resources, adding that the books could be given to other classmates or sold instead. Image copyright Sina Image caption "Even if you dont want the books, you can sell them", says this Sina user in an online post According to the Global Times, seven students in Hubei Province were allegedly expelled last year for tearing up textbooks and flinging them out of the school's windows. The school later said the students had only been warned and they would still be able to take the exam.New Delhi: South Korean Ambassador to India on Thursday called for checking a "resurgent China" and said the arms race in East Asia can be cause of concern. "It is in the interest of the Asian region to prevent China, that has increased its defence budget to 750 per cent since the past two decades, from becoming a regional hegemony. "The continuing arms race in the East Asia can be a concern for the regional countries, including India," Korean Ambassador Joon-gyu Lee said at an event here. Speaking at a conference titled: 'India and Korea: New Prospects for Bilateral Co-operation', the Ambassador called for strategic partnership between India and South Korea in strategic areas. "India and Korea share common cultural, political and economic values. Right from having a political system based on liberal democracy to the cultural pathos, both the countries have a lot in common. "The strengths of the Indian economy like defence, space research and airpower as well as Korea's strong shipping industry, can reap combined benefits for both the regions," he said. Lee also noted the importance of Indo-South Korean cooperation in the fields of nuclear energy and maritime security. "Both India and Korea can exchange help with respect to nuclear energy and share crucial information among each other regarding maritime security. With India emerging as a strong force in SAARC and keeping in mind its 'Look East policy', there is a need for combining the wisdom of the region and ensure better co-operation among the regional countries. "This unity of thoughts and action is also crucial for stopping the dominant forces," he said.Game details Developer: Ubisoft Montreal Publisher: Ubisoft Platform: PS4 (reviewed), Xbox One, Windows Release Date: October 27, 2017 ESRB Rating: M for Mature Price: $60 Links: Steam \| Official Website Ubisoft Montreal: Ubisoft: PS4 (reviewed), Xbox One, WindowsOctober 27, 2017M for Mature: $60 Glistening sands and teaming life stretch far away. I stand at the head of a gilded Pyramid, looking away to the bustling lives and vibrant oases around me. Dust curls up along the horizon, eager to embrace a nearby village. Hippos lumber around the beaches, warding off wary intruders with their girth. This is ancient Egypt not as we imagine it—a popularized image of endlessly mythologized figures—but closer to Egypt as it really might have been. It's lush and vibrant, harsh and unforgiving; a land of scoped mystery, steeped in blood. Ubisoft has plenty of experience replicating realistic (or at least realistic-esque) worlds like these throughout the Assassin’s Creed series. The mega-developer's latest tentpole, Assassin's Creed: Origins, continues the tradition. The attention to detail is exceptional, and here that's no mere quip about superficial beauty. Like a digital museum, great care has been spent curating the fineries and looks and culture of its disparate corners. Indeed, Ubisoft has already announced a “Discovery Mode” update, coming next year, that literally turns the game into a digital museum, allowing visitors to rifle through relics and records, pyramids and obelisks to learn about the mores and traditions of the people who lived there. Trope-laden, crushing variety For now, though, Origins is more of a known quantity, a rough assemblage of the cornucopia of ideas that have settled into the popular consciousness of what games need to be (side missions, gathering, crafting, stealth sections, and so forth). As such, Origins has a sort of crushing variety, for better and worse. As in the many preceding Assassin’s Creed games, you assume the role of a skilled assassin. This time you’re Bayek, who lived two millennia ago as the last of the medjay—an ancient paramilitary order whose real-world counterpart all but vanished after 1000 BCE. He's charismatic and brutal, a rough-hewn product of his torturous life. Packed with rage and desperate for revenge—as these heroes always are—you follow Bayek as he treks across Northern Africa hunting a string of targets. Trope-laden as the set-up may be, Bayek is far more charismatic and rounded than many previous series protagonists. Origins weights his quest with many believable instances of injustice, such as greedy landlords abusing their power. Even so, playing Bayek isn't about a never-ending rage-fueled bloodbath, either. He quips, share drinks with friends, and makes nice with children. It creates the unsettling air that he's always bubbling, just beneath the surface, ready to explode and unleash a caged beast. That rage becomes an important and enduring theme throughout the game. Bayek's anger is righteous, yes, but it's also clearly hard-to-control and self-destructive. Even that bare level of nuance is surprising and refreshing in a major release like this. Much of the adventure centers on tracking your targets and navigating the political tumult of the era. This is Classical Egypt in its waning years, thousands of years from the time of the pyramids' construction, and long after the glory of the Egyptian Empire hit its peak. Naturally, Bayek finds himself at the fulcrum of history, adjusting the balance of power in the region—often unintentionally—in ways that leave their mark for millennia to come. There's a charming, popcorny grandeur to it all that dovetails well with the game's extensive playground. Watching camels plod about with the golden peak of Giza in the backdrop, or seeing the rolling waves that reach for the horizon, carrying whole fleets of triremes is like something out of a book, evoking an impossible era that seems mystical only because of its distance from the modern. The grandeur of the ancient world Alien-obsessed conspiracy theorists notwithstanding, the game helps lead to a genuine realization that people—real human beings—built some of these gargantuan structures and, moreover, that such landmarks were well-integrated facets of ancient life. This alone is a revelation that comes in waves and curdles as a lasting marvel at our long-dead progenitors. What really hampers this adventure is how often the game trips over itself, hamstrung by the endless string of tasks you're given. This is still an open-world game, and while great care has been taken to make much of its "content" engaging, it's also got sterling ideas stretched far too thin. As but one example, like in Horizon: Zero Dawn before it, you'll spend a fair bit of time hunting for materials—be they leather or bone. You can then refine them into more useful tools or clothing for protection. The whole system is clever enough. Bayek can send a trained eagle to scout and mark fruitful hunting spots. This gives you a top-down view of the area, an objective, and a motivation to get there (gathering so that you can produce better equipment). That sounds like it's all you need—means, motive, opportunity—but all of the goals are extrinsic and don't align with the thirst for exploration that such lush riversides and mysterious deserts invite. Instead, you're led to grind for more and more, without cause or motivation. Much of Assassin's Creed: Origins can feel mindless, then, as if you're merely checking boxes and moving on—a problem the series has perennially struggled with. Some of those checkboxes, like traversing the land and immersing yourself in a nearly-breathing recreation of the Ancient, are phenomenal. They’re only made more so when you get the opportunity to rub shoulders with important real-world figures like Cleopatra. Others, like clearing out enemy bases, are just the opposite. Changing the formula To its credit, however, Origins dramatically overhauls the Assassin's Creed formula, making even the dull bits far more entertaining than in some of its prior iterations. The series' signature parkour has evolved into an even more freeflowing and natural exercise than ever. These worlds feel seamless and far less game-y as a result. The impression is one of infinite possibilities, just waiting to be unearthed as opposed to being a guided tour that highlights a chosen path. Combat, too, has picked up a major rework. Your fights—both with your assassination targets and the guards as you're making your escape—have been honed to be more tactical endeavors. Positioning and focus matter. Bouts are largely duels, with you squaring off against only a couple of foes, often in succession. It's ordered without feeling rigid, and some spectacular animation work lends itself to fluid, almost artful dances with blades and knives. Still, there’s a persistent clash between what the game wants you to do and what's actually entertaining to do in its well-crafted world. Then there's another major flaw here: bugs. The game is gorgeous, yes, but too often the pace crawls as standard consoles struggle to keep up with the demanding environments. (We didn't get the chance to play on PC, so we can't account for performance there. Nor can we vouch for the PS4 Pro or Xbox One X versions.) Despite this, Origins is a triumph, of sorts. The feeling of perusing the ancient world in this fidelity is
not had the benefit of preventative health care. I hear people say all the time that without this clinic, they would be dead." The clinic is primarily run by donations and grants, and Liston works hard to keep it a true community effort. Pharmacy students come from Purdue and Butler universities to work at its pharmacy. Indiana State University's sports medicine department sends students to help the clinic's physical therapy department. The Rural Health Initiative provides resident doctors weekly. Doctors, nurses, mental health experts and dentists volunteer thousands of hours. Even local medical labs donate their services. Under Liston's leadership, the clinic has expanded. It has already filled all three floors of the former school and church. She worked with construction companies, who donated their time, to retool the building's lower level to install more counseling offices, a physical therapy center and a fitness area. "The needs here are great," she said. "I'm glad we've been afforded the opportunity to help meet them." Now I can smile Sister Connie Kramer is one of the founders of the Saint Ann Medical and Dental Services. She said she got the idea for the clinic after reading an article written by a local woman who had seen a free one in North Carolina. The woman wanted someone to establish one in the Terre Haute region. "I said to myself, 'I have a place for that,' and that's how it began," Kramer said. At the time, she was the parish administrator for Saint Ann's. But initially, the Sisters of Providence, which she joined in 1964, sent her out to use her education degree to teach a subject she had never even taken. Sister Connie Kramer She later went back to school to get a degree in pastoral ministry. "That was where my heart had been drawn," she said. Under her leadership, Saint Ann's worked with the Sisters of Providence to offer the broader community a variety of services in what they called "caring corner." The programs run from these buildings included feeding the hungry and providing medical and dental care. Catholic Charities also provides broader services including giving shelter to the homeless and providing free day care and youth programs. The free medical clinic was a perfect fit. She opened the free dental clinic in 2005 and she ran it. She made that decision after a doctor called to say that a 26-year-old woman, the mother of two young children, had died after an infection spread from an abscess in her mouth. "The physician called and said, 'You've got to do this,'" Kramer said. "I knew it was expensive, but I vowed we would find a way. "This is the hidden tragedy of health care that the Affordable Care Act does not address. There really isn't an emergency dental room for people who can't afford to pay for it." She said she hears people talk daily about what having the clinic means to them. "I had people waiting three years to have their teeth pulled, and they tell me, 'Now I can eat again,' or 'You gave me back my smile,' when they couldn't before because their teeth were awful." "When you have the privilege of seeing someone terrified have hope in their eyes after only an hour in our care, no one can pay you for this kind of work," she said. "It is truly powerful to be able to fill these needs."Spanish authorities seized 20,000 military-style uniforms being sent to fighters of the Islamic State and the Nusra Front, the Interior Ministry announced Thursday. Police conducted a counterterrorism operation last month in the port cities of Valencia and Algeciras, where officers opened three shipping containers and found the uniforms along with other military accessories, the ministry said. The uniforms were mixed with “secondhand clothing” to avoid raising suspicion while passing through customs. Intervenidos 20.000 uniformes/complementos militares destinados a organizaciones terroristas Jabhat Al Nusra y DAESH pic.twitter.com/rby3r36J55 — Policía Nacional (@policia) March 3, 2016 The ministry said in a statement that police arrested seven people on suspicion of providing logistical and financial support to ISIS and the Nusra Front, an Al Qaeda affiliate in Syria. The New York Times reported that five of the seven people were Spanish citizens. Spanish authorities released a video showing a large pile of the camouflage clothing, according to The New York Times. An Interior Ministry spokesman told the paper the uniforms were not made in Spain and an investigation was underway to see where they came from. The police operation “neutralized a very active and efficient business network whose primary purpose was to supply, maintain and strengthen” the Islamic State, the statement said. Spanish police didn’t say where the uniforms were intended to go to. The Associated Press contributed to this report.James Martin/CNET It looks like you'll be able to opt out of the ads on the new Kindle Fire tablets after all. I just received this e-mail from an Amazon spokesperson: I wanted to let you know that with Kindle Fire HD there will be a special offers opt-out option for $15. We know from our Kindle reader line that customers love our special offers and very few people choose to opt out. We're happy to offer customers the choice. In answer to my follow-up question, the spokesperson specified that the opt-out will be available on both the Fire HD and $159 entry-level Fire model. The clarification is a reversal from the "no opt-out" policy that Amazon confirmed to CNET (and other publications) yesterday. Quick reversal of new policy On Thursday morning, Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos introduced an updated line of Kindle e-readers and Fire tablets at a press conference in Santa Monica. By Friday morning, the Web was rumbling as it began to become clear that all of the new Fire tablets were "Special Offers" versions that included advertisements on the lock screen and (much smaller) on the main home screen. However, unlike past Kindle e-ink readers, there didn't appear to be an option on Amazon's site to purchase a non-Special Offers version of the Fire at a higher price. The assumption was that users would be able to "purchase" an ad opt-out after the fact -- something that you can do with current ad-supported Kindles. And, indeed, Engadget reported that at least one Amazon support representative had said exactly that to a customer. Amazon/screenshot by John P. Falcone Since none of that was made explicitly clear at the press conference -- nor on the Kindle Fire product pages -- I decided to go directly to the source. I e-mailed my Amazon press contact, who promptly and succinctly confirmed: no opt-out. The ensuing reaction on social media was, suffice it to say, mostly negative. Even though it's widely understood that the sponsorships help keep the Kindle prices low, the lack of choice struck a nerve with potential consumers: "@techmeme: Amazon confirms: All new Kindle Fires stuck with ads (@falconejp / CNET) reviews.cnet.com/8301-3126_7-57... " < Pity, looked awesome otherwise — Martin Hargreaves (@techmjh) September 7, 2012 It took Amazon just over 24 hours to reverse course and announce that the opt-out would remain in effect for all Kindle models. By doing so, the company effectively removes a red flag from its promising new line of tablets which begin shipping next week -- just two days after arch-rival Apple is expected to announce a new iPhone and (possibly) its own smaller iPad. Editors' note (7:32 p.m. PT): Expanded with the "Quick reversal of new policy" section.Democratic vice presidential nominee Tim Kaine will deliver remarks entirely in Spanish at a rally in Arizona on Thursday, highlighting the growing importance his party places on Hispanics in presidential politics. The Republican National Committee, meanwhile, is working to fill in what has quite literally been radio silence from Donald Trump’s campaign on Spanish language outreach efforts. The RNC on Wednesday released an ad aimed at Hispanic voters, with the Spanish version to run on Telemundo and Univision, urging people to vote Republican. But it doesn’t mention the party’s presidential nominee by name, and Mr. Trump’s campaign has shied away from Spanish-language efforts. SEE ALSO: Donald Trump leads by 3 percentage points in latest Virginia poll In fact, he’s the first GOP nominee in years to forgo a Spanish-language version of his campaign website. Mrs. Clinton has gone all-in on Spanish, with new ads Wednesday featuring actor Jimmy Smits speaking in Spanish. Mr. Kaine’s rally in Arizona, meanwhile, will be his second Spanish-only address in a matter of weeks. He already delivered such a speech at a church service in Miami last month. The approaches are in line with both campaigns’ broader strategies: Democrats are working to turn out every minority voter they can, while the Trump campaign focuses on his white working-class base, leaving the granular efforts at minority outreach to others. SEE ALSO: Clinton unloads swing state attack on Trump’s character “The Trump campaign has largely left this to the RNC and various super PACs,” said GOP strategist Ford O’Connell. “This is hardly a head-scratcher when you realize they’re not even waging a traditional air war overall.” Mr. Trump said at a rally in Miami on Wednesday that the campaign is doing great with the Hispanic community and that he noticed some “Cubans for Trump” signs in the crowd. “We’re going to fight very hard for the Cubans, and we’re going to fight very, very hard for the Hispanics, because they have not been properly taken care of,” he said. Trump campaign manager Kellyanne Conway said Wednesday on MSNBC they feel really good about their Hispanic outreach program. “People of all backgrounds want change, and there’s only one clear choice when it comes to that,” she said. Republicans appear to be banking on Mr. Trump’s message alone putting him over the top, as the RNC ad aimed at Hispanic voters does not include his name, but rather urges people to “vota Republicano.” People in the video drove home the messages of lower taxes, small business job creation, school choice, protecting unborn life and religious freedom, and national security — all subjects that have been cornerstones of Mr. Trump’s campaign. “While Democrats have spent years taking Hispanic voters for granted, we are offering a new direction that gives a voice to all Americans,” said RNC Chairman Reince Priebus. But the Trump campaign’s lack of a concerted effort on Spanish language ads could undercut the RNC’s pitch, particularly in hotly contested states such as Florida, Colorado, Nevada, New Mexico and Arizona, where Hispanic voters make up a sizable portion of the electorate. The Clinton campaign’s ad, meanwhile, sought to play up the potential power of the estimated 27 million Hispanics eligible to vote this year. “When you’re 27 million strong, no one can tell you that you don’t belong, or expect you to just move along,” the ad said. In the end, Hispanics are going to be swayed on policy and not necessarily political rhetoric, which still leaves Mr. Trump with ground to make up, said Christine Sierra, professor emerita of political science at the University of New Mexico. “Given that Mr. Trump hasn’t really reached out to Hispanics on policies, other than a restrictionist policy [on immigration] which does not enjoy popular support, he’s dug himself a big hole in the state with Hispanics,” she said.“The goal is to defeat Obama,” Mr. Corsi said in a telephone interview. “I don’t want Obama to be in office.” He said he was planning to aid several conservative groups that intend to run advertisements against Mr. Obama this fall, though he would not name them. Mr. Corsi, who has over the years also written critically about Senator John McCain, Mr. Obama’s probable Republican opponent, said he supported the Constitution Party presidential nominee, Chuck Baldwin, and had not been in touch with McCain aides. He called his reporting on Mr. Obama, which he stands by, “investigative,” not prosecutorial. Ms. Matalin said in an interview that the book “was not designed to be, and does not set out to be, a political book,” calling it, rather, “a piece of scholarship, and a good one at that.” She said she was unaware of efforts to link it to any anti-Obama advertising. Photo In its timing, authorship and style of reporting, the book is strikingly reminiscent of the one Mr. Corsi wrote with John O’Neill about Mr. Kerry, “Unfit for Command,” which included various accusations that were ultimately undermined by news reports pointing out the contradictions. (Some critics of Mr. Kerry quoted in the book had earlier praised his bravery in incidents they were now asserting he had fabricated; one had earned a medal for bravery in a gun battle he accused Mr. Kerry of concocting.) But books like “Unfit for Command,” which remained for some 12 weeks on the Times best-seller list, and, now, “The Obama Nation,” have become an effective and favored delivery system for political attacks. There have been anti-Clinton (both Bill and Hillary) and anti-Bush books too numerous to name. The sensational findings in these books, true or dubious, can quickly come to dominate the larger political discussion in the news media, especially on cable television and the less readily detectible confines of talk radio and partisan Web sites. Fact-checking the books can require extensive labor and time from independent journalists, whose work often trails behind the media echo chamber. Advertisement Continue reading the main story Web sites on the left have begun poring over Mr. Corsi’s latest book. Media Matters, which is run by David Brock, a former right-wing journalist who wrote a classic of the attack genre, “The Real Anita Hill,” has been particularly aggressive in fact-checking the book, and its press releases on inaccuracies in the book have gotten some attention on cable television. Several of the book’s accusations, in fact, are unsubstantiated, misleading or inaccurate. For instance, Mr. Corsi writes that Mr. Obama had “yet to answer” whether he “stopped using marijuana and cocaine completely in college, or whether his drug usage extended to his law school days or beyond.” “How about in the U.S. Senate?” Mr. Corsi asks. But Mr. Obama, who admitted to occasional marijuana and cocaine use in his high school and early college years, wrote in his memoir that he had “stopped getting high” when he moved to New York in the early 1980s. And in 2003 The State Journal-Register of Springfield, Ill., quoted him responding to a question of his drug use by saying, “I haven’t done anything since I was 20 years old.” Newsletter Sign Up Continue reading the main story Please verify you're not a robot by clicking the box. Invalid email address. Please re-enter. You must select a newsletter to subscribe to. Sign Up You will receive emails containing news content, updates and promotions from The New York Times. You may opt-out at any time. You agree to receive occasional updates and special offers for The New York Times's products and services. Thank you for subscribing. An error has occurred. Please try again later. View all New York Times newsletters. In an interview, Mr. Corsi said “self-reporting, by people who have used drugs, as to when they stopped is inherently unreliable.” In exploring Mr. Obama’s denials that he had been present for the more incendiary sermons of his former pastor, the Rev. Jeremiah A. Wright Jr., Mr. Corsi cites a report on the conservative Web site NewsMax.com that Mr. Obama had attended a sermon on July 22, 2007, in which Mr. Wright blamed “the ‘white arrogance’ of America’s Caucasian majority for the world’s suffering, especially the oppression of blacks.” Mr. Obama, however, was giving a speech in Florida that afternoon, and his campaign reported he had not attended Mr. Wright’s church that day. Photo William Kristol, a columnist for The New York Times, had cited the same report in a column, and issued a correction. “There is a dispute about the date, and Kristol chose to side with Obama,” Mr. Corsi said. “We can nitpick the date to death,” he added, saying his “fundamental point” was Mr. Obama’s close association with someone ascribing to “black liberation theology.” Mr. Corsi described most of the critiques of his book as “nitpicking,” like a contradiction of his claim that Mr. Obama had failed to dedicate his book “Dreams of My Father” to his family; Mr. Obama dedicated the book to several family members, in the introduction. Mr. Corsi called the Media Matters critique inconsequential because it was advancing a liberal, political agenda. Advertisement Continue reading the main story Media Matters was created in part to answer a conservative “echo chamber” — one that liberal activists say they have still yet to match — that gives books like Mr. Corsi’s extra bounce. “There’s just no doubt that in terms of longer-term infrastructure, there’s more out there on the right than there is on the left,” said Cliff Schecter, author of a liberal attack book on Mr. McCain, “The Real McCain,” which, with 35,000 copies in print, did not make the Times bestseller list. Mr. Obama’s campaign has yet to weigh in heavily on Mr. Corsi’s accusations. It appears to face the classic decision between the risk of publicizing the book’s claims by addressing them and the risk of letting them sink into the public debate with no response. “This book is nothing but a series of lies that were long ago discredited, written by an individual who was discredited after he wrote a similar book to help George Bush and Dick Cheney get re-elected four years ago,” said Tommy Vietor, a spokesman for Mr. Obama. “The reality is that there are many lie-filled books like this in the works cobbled together from the Internet to make money off of a presidential campaign.” He added, “We will respond to these smears forcefully.” Several Democrats associated with Mr. Kerry’s campaign in 2004 said in interviews Tuesday that they were comfortable so far with Mr. Obama’s more muted response to the book, which has not showed up yet in television advertisements. Even Mr. Corsi said this book did not have what “Unfit for Command” had: a built-in interest group, the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth, to run advertisements against its target. While he said he thought it was a certainty that he would be “assisting in the creation of ads in the fall,” he did not say what he believed their content would be.Sexually explicit material (SEM) (including Internet, video, and print) may play a key role in the lives of Black same-sex sexually active youth by providing the only information to learn about sexual development. There is limited school-and/or family-based sex education to serve as models for sexual behaviors for Black youth. We describe the role SEM plays in the sexual development of a sample of Black same-sex attracted (SSA) young adolescent men ages 15–19. Adolescents recruited from clinics, social networking sites, and through snowball sampling were invited to participate in a 90-min, semi-structured qualitative interview. Most participants described using SEM prior to their first same-sex sexual experience. Participants described using SEM primarily for sexual development, including learning about sexual organs and function, the mechanics of same-gender sex, and to negotiate one’s sexual identity. Secondary functions were to determine readiness for sex; to learn about sexual performance, including understanding sexual roles and responsibilities (e.g., “top” or “bottom”); to introduce sexual performance scripts; and to develop models for how sex should feel (e.g., pleasure and pain). Youth also described engaging in sexual behaviors (including condom non-use and/or swallowing ejaculate) that were modeled on SEM. Comprehensive sexuality education programs should be designed to address the unmet needs of young, Black SSA young men, with explicit focus on sexual roles and behaviors that may be inaccurately portrayed and/or involve sexual risk-taking (such as unprotected anal intercourse and swallowing ejaculate) in SEM. This work also calls for development of Internet-based HIV/STI prevention strategies targeting young Black SSA men who maybe accessing SEM. The minority stress model and sexual script theory are useful for framing the study’s goals. The minority stress approach acknowledges the stress that individuals experience as a result of being a member of stigmatized sexual minority groups ( Meyer, 2003 ). For Black SSA young men, this would refer to membership in a marginalized sexual orientation and racial group. Minority stress occurs when individuals are isolated from social structures and norms because of their minority status (Black race and sexual orientation) ( Crocker, Major, & Steele, 1998 ; Lazarus & Folkman, 1984 ; Link & Phelan, 2001 ). As a result, individuals are isolated from basic health needs (sexual education) and positive social interactions with similar persons (other Black SSA young men) ( Cooley, 1992 ), and they may be more likely to seek alternative sources for information. The present study seeks to understand the role and function of SEM on sexual development among Black adolescent males who engage in sex with other males and whether young men describe that SEM impacts sexual and risk-taking behavior during first same-sex sexual relationships. To ensure quality and credibility of the emergent themes from qualitative interviews, we conducted two validation checks. The first consisted of two-member check-in group validation checks (after the first five interviews were complete and halfway through the interviews) with five gay and bisexual Black men 19–23 years of age (in each group) to respond to initial interview themes and identify additional areas for inquiry ( Guba & Lincoln, 1981 ). This age range was chosen because of its proximity to the age of the participants and to recruit young adults who could reflect on their adolescent developmental experiences. The second check in consisted of a focus group with “experts” from the community who had extensive work with the gay, bisexual, and transgender community to independently verify the themes that emerged from the qualitative analyses ( Lincoln & Guba, 1985 ). Questions elicited content and meaning and allowed participants to elaborate on responses, as well as clarify ideas and feelings experienced with SEM prior to first same-sex sexual experiences and romantic partners. Participants also made clarifications between the types of media used, the type of SEM watched, and their preferred type of sexual actors. We then connected the codes under larger headings. This process allows the researcher to understand the larger framework and structure of the phenomenon ( Schutz, 1970 ). We analyzed data using categorical and contextualizing analytic methods. We first read the interviews multiple times in their entirety to hear and understand codes that emerged from the data. We then deconstructed narrative data and rearranged those data by categories to facilitate comparisons. We examined participant’s responses using a contextual strategy to examine adolescents’ description of first same-sex sexual experiences within the developmental and social context of their lives. We concentrated on the participants’ life experiences and the meaning of the phenomenon, in this case the use of SEM prior to first same-sex sexual experiences. The interview focused on the participant’s first romantic relationships and sexual experiences with other males. An interview guide was developed with feedback from experts focused on sexual development of SSA youth and researchers with experience working with Black gay and bisexual men and other men who have sex with men. The guide was grounded in phenomenological and constructivist frameworks that provided a general structure for discussion but required participants to provide their own definitions based on life experiences and perceptions. Thus, participants were provided with a sample definition of SEM based on Hald and Malamuth’s (2008) definition as “any kind of material aiming at creating or enhancing sexual feelings or thoughts in the recipient and, at the same time, (1) containing explicit exposure and/or descriptions of the genitals and (2) clear and explicit sexual acts such as vaginal intercourse, anal intercourse, oral sex, masturbation, bondage, etc.,” but asked to define, using their own words what SEM meant to them and then through in-depth exploration determine factors that have influenced SEM use. Youth were also encouraged to discuss additional information that was not covered by the interview guide. Sample questions for the interview are provided in. Participants completed a 10-min audio-recorded computer-assisted self-interview survey on demographics, relationships, sexual history, and risk. Questionnaire items were derived from prior studies assessing STI/HIV risk in adolescent males in same-sex sexual relationships. The brief questionnaire was then followed by one in-depth face-to-face, semi-structured qualitative interview lasting 90–120 min conducted by a trained interviewer. Participants were provided refreshments/snacks, reimbursed US $40 for their time, and provided bus tokens for transportation. Interviews were audio-recorded and transcribed verbatim. Unique identifiers were used during the interview and pseudonyms replaced names and places to ensure participant confidentiality. Qualitative analysis software (NVivo 10, Version 10; QSR International, 2012) was used to facilitate coding and analysis. Participants were recruited using a plurality of approaches including snowball sampling, venue-based outreach at community-based organizations and community events, at area clinics (adolescent, STD, and school-based health clinics), and advertisement on social network Internet sites (≥18 years). Potential subjects who screened eligible and were consented to participate in the study were provided up to six study referral coupons to be distributed among members of their social and sexual networks. On average, participants referred 1–2 contacts for the study. Participants were provided remuneration of $10 for each social contact who was eligible and consented to participate in the study. Most participants (40.4 %, N=19) were recruited through snowball sampling. Written consent was obtained from all participants. Youth (<18 years) were allowed to consent for participation in this study if they were seeking sexual health information, testing for sexually transmitted infections or HIV, and other confidential services covered under the Maryland Law (Article 20–102 of the Maryland Annotated Code). A waiver of parental consent was granted through Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine Institutional Review Board. We recruited 47 Black (including African-American, Black-Caribbean, Black-Arab, Black-White) biologically male adolescents, aged 15–19 years, who reported having had any prior (anal or oral) sex with male partners to participate in a baseline semi-structured qualitative interview about first same-sex sexual experiences and three follow-up interviews (every 4 months). The lower age boundary of 15 years was chosen based on research that suggests first same-sex sexual debut occurs around 15.5 years (oral sex) and 17.2 years (receptive/insertive anal sex) ( Kubicek et al., 2008 ). This study focuses on findings from the baseline survey and the first qualitative interview. In order to avoid emotional trauma associated with recall of coerced sexual experiences, including experiences of child sexual abuse, these interviews focused on non-coerced sexual experiences. Eight (17 %) youth described not watching or using SEM at all. Youth had a hard time articulating reasons for non-use, but mostly described not being aroused or not seeing the point of SEM. One participant described not using SEM because the adult film actors could not physically perform how he performed so it provided no use for him. It (porn) was just something that I liked. It was just something to watch. I really don’t watch porn to figure out things to do. I mean I can do that but I don’t. I just watch it just to watch it Users also described using it frequently with masturbation for sexual release. This youth describes that after watching SEM the first time, he did not watch it to figure things out. He watched it because he enjoyed watching it. It was physically satisfying to watch. During repeat follow-up interviews four months later, we found that SEM use continued to resonate with the youth. Most youth (N=29, 85 %) who described having used SEM at the first interview reporting having used it in the last 4 months. Among the SEM users, over half (59 %) described watching SEM 21 or more times in the past 4 months ( ). Repeat users mostly (N=14, 48 %) described watching gay porn only, but straight and gay porn was also fairly common (N=13, 45 %). Participants who described not using SEM around first same-sex sexual experience (N=8, 17 %) did not report any SEM use at the follow-up interview. In repeat users, SEM was used to learn new sexual positions and to better understand what sexual positions would be more comfortable during sex. Participants also described by watching pornography frequently they were able to “research” about sexual positions and what should feel good during sex. This participant’s quote is representative of how he assumed anal sex should feel because of having watched SEM to prepare for sex. This was a recurrent theme about sex being painful but that individuals had to “get over it” and eventually it would be comfortable. Like it teaches you a lesson. Although sex hurts when you watch the gay porn, it’s like they’ll get over it. You have to get used to it. I understand that it’s going to hurt but I just got to get used to it. That’s why I watch gay porn. Youth also described learning about whether sex should or should not feel good. If sexual actors felt very aroused, then participants described assuming that their first experience should be very sexually aroused. Similarly, some participants assumed that anal sex should hurt because it looked uncomfortable or painful on SEM. Watching SEM to learn sexual scripts also occurred commonly with partners. Partners would use SEM immediately prior to engaging in sexual activity and then reenact what they had watched while having sex. One participant described it as “that was the first time I ever watched porn and he (partner) said, ‘Why don’t we do this?’ and we did.” This occurred mostly with participants who were very nervous about their first same-sex sexual experience. Sex partners would provide additional resources to help ease the concern and worry about sex. This participant’s quote is representative of how some youth commonly described how they modeled their experiences from what they had observed and how modeling reinforced positive feelings toward the activity in subsequent sexual activity. In addition, health protective behaviors that occur during the sexual activity were sometimes learned from SEM, with participants watching how sex actors used condoms and lubrication in certain positions. Alternatively, when unprotected sexual activity was depicted in SEM, it was common for participants to describe having engaged in similar behavior as a result of having seen a similar script in SEM. I used to make big noises and this, that and the third… and I got that from the porn ‘cause when they came, you know, “Ahhh!” So I used to be like, “Ahhh! Participants who described utilizing SEM more than once described using it to learn sexual performance scripts. Sexual performance scripts focused not only on learning about sexual roles and positions, but also on gestures and sounds. I looked at porn and all that, and I know a lot of stuff on girls, so I just thought maybe you do the boy the same way. Other participants described watching SEM alone to learn how to perform as an insertive or receptive partner in preparation of having sex. This included watching opposite-sex SEM to determine what would work as the insertive or receptive partner. He (partner) told me to watch gay porn and so that’s what I did and I kind of saw how it was done. One day, he asked me if I wanted to try it and I said, “yeah, sure” and that’s when I proceeded to top him After participants described having resolved their sexual attraction to individuals of the same sex, youth described having to make decisions about sexual roles during sexual activity and whether to act as the insertive (top), receptive (bottom), or versatile (both) partner. We did not find that participants explicitly described personal development of feminine characteristics or masculine characteristics as a result of watching SEM. Instead, we found that several participants used SEM to clarify sexual roles and responsibilities during most first same-sex sexual experiences, but not necessarily to clarify one’s own sexual role. Participants described self-identifying as preferring the receptive or insertive role prior to watching SEM. Participants who identified with the receptive described identifying more with the female or the receptive partner while participants who described identifying with the insertive role identified more with the insertive partner who was usually a muscular male. SEM was most helpful in providing instruction about how to perform in the insertive or receptive role during first penetrative experience. The participants in this sample did not specifically describe racial preference of SEM actors for certain sexual positions (i.e., insertive partners being Black race only and receptive partners being White race only). Instead, participants described watching SEM with sex partners or alone to model how to perform in certain sexual positions. Sexual performance was a key theme that emerged among participants as a reason why they watched SEM. Sexual performance included learning about position and sexual roles in certain positions; how adolescents should act during sexual activity with sexual partners; and how sex should feel (experiences of pain and pleasure). It was common, in this sample, that youth described sexual development as a process that occurs over time and not all at once where participants described learning about sexual performance through a series of experiences and experiments to determine what felt enjoyable. While this frequently occurred alone, it also commonly occurred in the context of a sexual relationship. Participants described partners using SEM to engage participants in having sex to introduce sexual scripts and to promote starting sex for the first time. One participant described it as “that was the first time I ever watched porn and he (partner) said ‘Why don’t we do this.’ and we did.” I felt like from watching porn, I didn’t feel like I did much so I was like I’m probably still not ready but at least I know what it looks like Youth described watching SEM to determine their readiness to have sex. Participants described if they felt aroused by the sex and that they understood how to perform the sex, they were more likely to be ready to engage in sexual activity. SEM served as a bridge to begin sexual activity by calming nerves about sex and helping them to mentally prepare for initiation of sexual activity. I can say it probably influenced what I’m attracted to because now I know what turns me on and what turns me off and I realized that from just browsing through videos. I feel like porn kinda seta standard for me since now I know what I like and what I don’t like …you’re attracted to the build of the person in the porn and what they’re doing and then what they’re doing makes you masturbate and then I guess that’s why you say you’re attracted to somebody like that person Porn taught me a lot. I first started out with straight porn. Porn actually helped me realize that I was gay. When I was watching porn, it started from just boys and girls but I started looking at the guy more. So then I got interested in two guys and a girl and then it just went to two guys and then to more guys and that’s when I noticed, “Wow, I don’t like girls anymore Others described that by being attracted to the male partner in straight porn they began to recognize their sexual orientation/identity. One participant vividly recalls by being turned on to gay sex he actually helped sort through his sexual attraction to other men. I started straight porn but I noticed that I didn’t like it because it had a female in it for real and I didn’t like it. It was just something that I would just look at the guy. I watch it but I just look at the guy do the stuff. Many participants described using SEM to help discover and navigate their sexual orientation exploration and identity development. They often described that watching SEM served as a confirmation of their sexual orientation as gay. Youth commonly described not getting aroused from straight porn or paying attention only to male actors and being aroused by gay porn as an indication that they were either gay or bisexual. Most described that this was the first time they had watched sexual intercourse (including vaginal or anal intercourse), so they sought information about what goes where and how to perform the sexual act. I think I just got on the computer again and started looking up stuff, how to do this and how to do that, what it’s like, how to take it. I was very curious to be sure. Back then, the only one that was really talked about was AIDS and HIV, and we only talked about it through school, but when we’re talking about it in school, male-on-male sex or it being transferred like that wasn’t talked about just because it (gay sex) wasn’t supposed to be going on. I guess you watch (porn) to learn. I’m a visual learner. So I guess since I watched it and I was like, okay, well this is what you do and that’s what you do and then I guess I just took it from there SEM served the purpose as a visual aid or tutorial, because same-sex sexual activity was not talked about in schools or at home and participants described not having resources to ask questions about sex. The day after I watched the porn with them (cousins), it was just ringing in my head like I wonder if there is gay porn out there that would show me what to do and how to do it. So I actually went on the Internet and looked it up on the porn site and it came up. Participants described that SEM served as a “manual for sex.” Participants learned about how sexual organs function and how to masturbate and ejaculate. Most participants described having little to no experience with sex and SEM provided knowledge about sexual organs and about same-gender sex, including the mechanics of sex between men and how sex should be performed. Many youth described being introduced to SEM by family members, peers, or sexual partners. Family members (e.g., father, brothers, cousin) commonly introduced SEM to help participants learn about sex in general. Some family members also introduced SEM to pique interest in opposite-sex activity and discourage same-sex activity. Throughout all of the themes, the influence of peers and/or sexual partners influenced whether SEM was used prior to first same-sex. Influence of peers and/or sex partners was less impactful during repeat SEM use. Few youth described naturally finding SEM on the Internet or in a sex store ( ). Several themes emerged from the interviews about the use of SEM around the time of first same-sex sexual experience in the sample. Participants described using SEM primarily for exploration related to general sexual & sexual orientation development, including learning about the appearance and function of sexual organs, the mechanics of same-gender sexual activity, and the process of understanding and exploring one’s sexual identity. Secondary functions included exploration related to determination of readiness for sex and learning about sexual performance, including understanding sexual roles and responsibilities (e.g., learning to perform as a “top” or as a “bottom”), introducing sexual performance scripts, and models for how sex should feel (e.g., pleasure and pain). Participants commonly described having watched SEM prior to/around first same-sex sexual experience (N = 39, 83 %, ). Many participants could not recall age of first SEM use. Those that could recall age of first use described being introduced to or using SEM during a wide age range of 6–17 years old. Participants who described exposure prior to 10 years old, described discovering a family member’s video (DVD) material or being introduced by an older sibling or friend. Among the participants who described having used SEM, most described having utilized Internet material (N=30, 79 %) and some watched DVD movies (N=4, 10.5 %).
know what’s coming.” “Their reckoning is coming.” The GOP and individual Republican candidates are actively seeking Tea Party endorsements and votes. “At every meeting we have, we see local and state representatives of the Republican Party counting heads and trying to drum up support from our members,” said Nighta Davis, organizer of the North Georgia Patriots. “For six years the Republicans controlled Congress and the White House under Bush and they could have solved this country’s problems. But they did nothing of the kind.” “Now they want to co-opt us,” she added. “But they just don’t get it.” Ray Franz, a local Republican politician in western Michigan for three decades, is running for state representative for the 101st district, which includes Manistee. “The Republicans and the Tea Party movement are on the same page on most issues,” he said at a local Tea Party meeting. “The party has lost its brand and these conservatives are right to want to hold our feet to the fire and make sure we represent them properly.” Adam Kinzinger won the Republican primary to run for Illinois’ 11th district in the U.S. House of Representatives. In a blog in early January Eric Odom, executive director of the American Liberty Alliance, described Kinzinger as a “strong” Tea Party candidate and recommended readers consider donating to his campaign. Kinzinger said his campaign saw a major spike in small donations between $10 and $20 following that blog. “I’m a conservative Republican, and Tea Party people believe in the same things that we do,” he said. “The movement has helped remind the party that it lost track of the Republican principles that I believe in.” ENDANGERED RINOS The polarization of U.S. politics may explain why moderate Republicans are in trouble. According to the Pew Research Center, as recently as 2004, 30 percent of Americans were Republicans, but that fell to 23 percent in 2009. Conservatives made up 37 percent in 2004 and ended 2009 at the same level. According to Gallup, conservatives went from 36 percent of the population in 1992 to 40 percent in 2009, while moderates slid from 43 percent to 36 percent. Conservatives derisively call moderate Republicans RINOs — Republican In Name Only. They are angry at moderates over issues like immigration and the cap and trade climate bill. Joe Walsh, a Tea Party Republican who won the Republican primary for 8th U.S. congressional district in Illinois, said conservatives in his district are furious. “The biggest applause I get from audiences comes when I whack the Republicans over the head for doing the same thing as the Democrats,” he said. “This year, party establishment support could be the kiss of death. What will matter this year is the support of the rank and file.” Ted Schendel, 53, a semi-retired police officer and a Tea Party Republican, is running against “four millionaires” to be the Republican candidate for the 2nd district of Michigan. “Just before Christmas I was watching Glenn Beck when I realized that Glenn alone cannot take our country back,” he said, speaking at the Manistee Tea party meeting. “So instead of just shouting at the TV, I decided to run for office.” “I’m not stupid, I know I’ve got one almighty mountain to climb,” he said. “The only way I can do it is if I can get the common man behind me.” Tea Party Democrats are a rarer breed. Tim Curtis, 53, is a former U.S. Marine who owns a UPS Store franchise and is a member of the Tampa 9.12 Project. He is running as a Democrat for U.S. Congress in Florida’s 11th district. “There are those who believe in bigger, more costly and more intrusive government,” he said. “That’s not what this country was intended to be. The Tea Party movement cuts across party lines, as there’s more uniting us than separating us.” According to the Ipsos/Reuters poll, while 49 percent of Republicans said they identify with the Tea Party movement only 11 percent of Democrats said the same. While there appear to be Tea Party-inspired candidates running as Republicans across the country, there is not yet a clear picture of just how many are out there. “We’ve heard from a lot of them from around the country, but I don’t think anyone has counted them yet,” said JB Williams, who runs conservative web site www.freedomforce.us. “But we’ll see more of them as the year goes on.” “This is a movement that is determined to enact change peacefully,” he added. “But if someone tries to stop them, don’t be surprised if they resort to other means.” Many others are getting involved in local politics to push fiscal conservatism, including at the precinct delegate level. Called a number of different things in different states, this is the lowest elected unit in both political parties. The average precinct represents 1,100 voters. They get out the vote and can influence candidate selection. Selected in primaries, few people vote in these races. “In some counties up to 60 percent of these slots are vacant,” said Philip Glass, a commercial mortgage banker and national director of the National Precinct Alliance. This volunteer group is mapping the rules nationwide for becoming a precinct delegate to aid conservatives take these seats. “The tools for taking over both parties are just lying there waiting to be picked up,” he said. In Connecticut both parties use a town committee system. As a registered Republican, Tanya Bachand went to her Republican town committee and asked how to run. She was told three of the committee’s 12 spots were vacant and was asked to take a seat. “We have heard the same story many times from across the state,” she said. “This is the way to take over the Republican party from the ground up.” Tea party conservatives are also paying attention to key races in other states. “Any race in the country can become a national race,” said Tea Party Patriots’ Meckler. The movement has its sights set on a number of RINOs in this year’s Senate races. They are backing Marco Rubio against Charlie Crist in Florida, Rand Paul (the son of Republican Congressman Ron Paul) against Trey Grayson in Kentucky, Mike Lee in Utah against incumbent Robert Bennett, Chuck DeVore against former Hewlett-Packard CEO Carly Fiorina in California and, last but not least, J.D. Hayworth against McCain. “Many people in Arizona feel that John McCain has leaned across the aisle,” said Kathy Boatman, a member of the East Valley Tea Party in the Phoenix suburb of Gilbert. “But the only problem is that when he leans across the aisle... they pull him down, and sometimes flat on his face.” At a Tea Party event in south Miami, everyone favored Rubio, who has a substantial lead over Crist in the polls. “Charlie Crist is exactly what we don’t want,” said Nancy Meinhardt, a paralegal and a leading light in the Florida Tea Party movement. “He’s a Republican in name only, he’s not a conservative. It’s all a facade.” While some Tea Party groups endorse candidates, others steadfastly do not. “We leave that to individual groups to decide on a local level whether to endorse someone,” Tea Party Patriots’ Meckler said. Tea Party candidates did not fare well in the Texas primaries in early March, though James Henson, a politics professor at the University of Texas, said the state is a “low tax, low service, small government environment.” “Texas is already Tea Party country,” he said. “You’d have to represent some fairly extreme views to push Republicans here further to the right.” “In the midterms I wouldn’t be surprised to see Tea Party voters hold their noses and vote for the Republican candidates who won the primaries.” In the primaries in Illinois in early February, with the exception of Joe Walsh, Tea Party candidates fared badly. Tony Raymond of the Northern Illinois Patriots said Tea Partiers were kicking themselves for not getting involved sooner. “We missed the boat and are now stuck with some candidates we’d rather not vote for,” he said. Chris Merrill, a conservative radio host in Kansas City, said even if candidates are not running specifically as Tea Party candidates many are running on fiscal conservative platforms. “In some years the Tea Party message would not have resonated like it does this year,” he said. “It’s hard to say how many Tea Party candidates will get elected, but we will see more fiscal conservatives.” “We’ll have to wait and see whether that will still be the case in 2012.” BATTLES AHEAD Of the possible challenges ahead for the Tea Party movement the two main ones are not from the left, but from the right. The first comes from social conservatives, or the religious right. The Tea Party movement is dominated by fiscal conservatives and leaders like Eric Odom of the American Liberty Alliance say social issues like abortion and gay marriage should be avoided. When asked about abortion, for instance, Tina Dupont of the Tea Party of West Michigan says the group does not discuss it. “Most of us are probably pro-lifers,” she said. “But we avoid the topic because it is so divisive.” This has been noted by some on the religious right. “At the national level you have people saying it is all about fiscal issues and not about social issues because they say they are divisive,” said Tony Perkins, president of Christian lobby group the Family Research Council. Chris Merrill said while Tea Partiers can avoid divisive issues at meetings, they cannot if they run for office. “Running a campaign is different,” he said. “At some point they have to take a stand on social issues.” Some say a showdown between social and fiscal conservative groups may be inevitable. “Fiscal conservatives want to limit the size of government, social conservatives want to use government to further their agenda,” Henson said. “That will likely cause problems.” The other problem is the extreme fringe of the Tea Party movement, which was evident at a demonstration outside the Detroit auto show on a snowy day in January. More than half of the 20 or so protesters held signs protesting government bailouts. The rest held placards with black and white pictures of President Obama’s face, with a Hitler mustache added. Within minutes, both groups had moved to opposite corners of their allotted patch of concrete. Andrew Moylan of the National Taxpayers Union said with evident discomfort he had tried unsuccessfully to get rid of the Obama-as-Hitler posters. “I oppose Obama’s policies vehemently, I don’t agree with what he is trying to do,” he said. “But I believe that he is well-intentioned, even if he is dead wrong.” “Comparing him to Hitler is not only wrong on so many levels, it also reflects badly on us because all the pictures in the papers and on TV will be of them,” he added. “Our message will get lost in that.” Slideshow (5 Images) Those who argued here that Obama is like Hitler say that healthcare reform would grant doctors the power of life and death over patients, as under the Nazi regime. The movement has also attracted members of the Council of Conservative Citizens, which supports some white supremacist causes, and from the John Birch Society and the LaRouchies. In a February 19 column in the Wall Street Journal, former Bush adviser Karl Rove described both as “fringe groups.” “If tea party groups are to maximize their influence on policy, they must now begin the difficult task of disassociating themselves from cranks and conspiracy nuts,” Rove wrote. “This includes 9/11 deniers, ‘birthers’ who insist Barack Obama was not born in the United States, and militia supporters espousing something vaguely close to armed rebellion.”In this book, Ugo Bardi carries on the great tradition established by the Club of Rome when it sponsored the Limits-to-Growth studies of the 1970s. In fact, Bardi wrote it as a report to the Club, drawing on an observation of Seneca, the great Roman Stoic philosopher of 2000 years ago: “Growth is slow but the road to ruin is rapid”. There are certainly many signs of an impending collapse of modern civilization, yet how close are we to it, and what can, or should, be done? Bardi certainly does not shy away from tough questions! His ultimate answer is, appropriately, a Stoic one: Don’t fret over what is beyond our control – big change is coming whether we like it or not. But do try to understand the complex system we live in and look for “leverage points” – feasible actions with big effects that might nudge the coming collapse into less dangerous territory. Surprisingly business and political leaders are often quite aware of these “levers of power” but choose to pull them in the wrong direction. Ugo’s prime example is “economic growth”, which at this point in time, will only accelerate the collapse and make it far more painful, placing him firmly in the “de-growth” camp, though he does not use that term. To give us more ideas, he lists twelve leverage points, p. 165, identified by Donella Meadows. These he combines into three broad categories: (1) Oscillations (e.g. financial booms and busts) and instabilities (e.g. war and political turmoil), (2) Critical resources (e.g. fossil fuels), and (3) Ways the system works (e.g. commerce, governance, culture). As to the latter point Bardi advises not to take a head-on, brute-force approach (prohibition of alcohol or drugs, and revolutions, being classic examples) despite their political popularity, but instead to engineer regulatory and cultural changes designed to “go with the flow” and overcome the forces of resistance in more strategic ways. Obviously this applies to the instability and resource issues as well. For humanity, a big problem is our inability to deal with long term delays. Another is that society tends to creep up on dangerous “tipping points”, with institutions being caught unaware or paralyzed by inertia and lack of easy options. The “business-as-usual” limits-to-growth scenario suggests that collapse will begin within a decade or two. Bardi suggests that our current political difficulties are symptom of this. From another point of view, Peter Turchin, in “Ages of Discord”, identifies the 2020s as period of epic turmoil for the US. Others may argue that fracking, combined with continued develops in technology, may give us a brief reprieve, more like one of softer limits-to-growth scenarios. But already more experts are worried about how the world will feed 9 to 10 billion people as fossil fuel wealth heads into serious decline within a generation or two, even without wars. Bardi explains why a Seneca-type collapse, rather than a slower decline, is likely: several factors may combine to drive down the system, feeding off each other: In this case, once industrial production begins to drop due to the rising cost of oil and resources, pollution (especially climate change) will also be taking an increasing toll, and food will be hard hit as well. Financial collapses are similar: there is a great deal of unexpected synergy, or “panic”. Resilience means designing the system to prevent these kind of destructive synergies. In finance that means things like reserve requirements and limitations on leverage. For today’s deregulated free market capitalism, it would mean new regulations, sacrificing short term efficiencies, to maintain diversity in resources, technology, production and transportation networks, etc. All this could be viewed as efficiency from a long term point of view. In deed, I think that establishing a 100 year timeline for maximizing profits (or minimizing losses) would be a very useful way to go about this. Related to this is Peter Barnes’ idea of establishing public trusts to benefit future generations, governing valuable natural resources and the “commons”. This book starts out with a multitude of interesting historical examples of a variety of collapses, both social and physical, from Egypt pyramids and the Roman Empire, to 19th century whaling, up to coal and oil (ongoing), plus airplane and financial crashes, famines, runaway climate changes, and more. There is some overlap with “Six Sources of Collapse” by Charles Hadlock, such as on brittleness or resilience in networks, but overall Bardi is more philosophical, broadly scientific, and much less mathematical. He relegates his explication of the Seneca effect in system dynamics to a three variable example in an appendix, using diagrams from user-friendly software rather than equations.Advertisement - Continue Reading Below We’ve known a teensy little bit about the Chevy Bolt for a while now, but this news from WSJ fills in the blanks with some unexpected surprises. Chevy trademarked the “Bolt” name in late summer 2014, stoking rumors that the new nameplate would go on a $30k Volt variant powered by the Volt’s hybrid drivetrain. According to WSJ’s intel, that’s not the case. “The Chevy Bolt, carrying a more capable battery manufactured by South Korea’s LG Chem Ltd., will be aimed squarely at Tesla’s forthcoming Model 3, a $35,000 electric car also slated to debut in 2017,” the paper reports. “The concept version of the electric car will be a hatchback designed to look more like a so-called crossover vehicle, according to people familiar with the design. The Bolt will be capable of driving four times farther than a Chevrolet Volt plug-in hybrid on a single charge.” The new all-electric vehicle’s drivetrain would center around a new battery design by LG Chem, using what WSJ is calling a “pouch” layout. LG has figured out how to improve on the battery’s storage, durability, and capacity compared with the current-generation Volt’s battery pack, the report explains. The Bolt project, approved by GM CEO Mary Barra when she was product chief under former CEO Dan Akerson, would help achieve Barra’s stated goal of having 500,000 partially- or fully-electric GM vehicles on the road by 2017—three years ahead of Tesla CEO Elon Musk’s self-imposed deadline to hit the same number. The all-electric Bolt would join the Spark EV and the updated 2016 Volt in Chevy’s eco-vehicle lineup. Advertisement - Continue Reading Below For its part, the all-new Volt—which we’ve seen glimpses of ahead of its Detroit debut—receives a lighter, higher-capacity battery pack and an upgraded gasoline generator for improved range and acceleration for 2016. It can’t come soon enough for Chevy, which has sold fewer than 75,000 Volts since the car’s introduction in 2010. So keep an eye on the Chevy stand come Monday. Between the Volt and the Bolt, the new lineup is sure to give Chevy fans a jolt.So… we have finally come to this… eventually every game developer must deal, one way or another, with water on their game. It’s our time. When thinking about our forest, water, lakes and even seas were something that we wanted to add to spice a little the topography of this location… the ideas were many, but it always comes to how “good” your water is… so you don’t break immersion (huh…). Objectives: Our goals were laid down at the very moment our subsequent levels were created… water is a key part on the first arc. We needed the following: Water that can react to collisions (do ripple waves) Water that can simulate oceans and high tides. Water that doesn’t look out of place. So let’s take it step by step… this tutorial will cover the first two points… the physical behaviour of our water, but for that.. we must first solve our first question… Water: sprite? shader? Whatever the case.. we must respect this first “art” approach given by our artists. Water visual idea 2D Water vs 3D: Having a 2D game, the answer seemed obvious (duh.. 2D brah). This would imply creating 2D sprites that animate the water (those should tile)… and when the character hits the water.. it creates a splash animation. Using this approach, has two issues: Water cannot be “simulated” and if we wanted to add movement, we needed more 2D assets per movement type. Tiling on our game can be a little hard to accomplish due to the nature of our art work… altough it is a solved issue, still requires a little time to set up the water paint masks to tile. Besides… it just didn’t give us that “alive” feeling we are seeking for our game. So… 3D it is! Having extreme care with the art style not being torn apart by this choice (see: next part – water: the reckoning) we started the creation of the physics simulation. Chosing the main function – Sine vs Gerstner Waves. While investigating this topic we came across two awesome articles that helped us quite a lot with this part: GPU Gems (for understanding the math behind the gerstner wave) and OceanShader with Gerstner Waves (for implementing the gerstner wave on UE4 material editor). While those two articles help quite a lot specially on ocean shaders, we only ever used a small fraction of the logic there, but what those tutorials fail to mention is the core concept of a traveling wave. Assuming not everyone is familiar with the core concepts we will do a little TL;DR: Function: think of it as a little machine that eats values and spits values. Sine function: a “machine” that receives any number and returns a value between -1 and 1, it’s cyclical, meaning that when it does a loop, it simply repeats itself with the new values.. for example inputing “pi” will give you a value of 0… while inputing “pi/2) will give you 1… etc Here… is dangerous to go alone, take a graph: The sine function. So with this we have an idea of how the sine behaves… But what happens when one inputs different type of data? If inside our sine, we feed it the current time: We would see the sine going up and down… repeating itself. If we instead, feed it “distance” data: We would see a sine that’s stationary (doesn’t move) but has a different value on each point… like an still picture of a ripple wave (frozen in time). If we feed it with time AND distance: We have the concept of a traveling wave. For better visualization take a look at this article So, having the idea of the function y(x,t) = A * Sin(kx – wt), we just need to order it a little to be of better use for us. k is the length constant is the length constant w is the “time” constant is the “time” constant A is amplitude After a little reordering (check the prior article) With: Lambda : the length of the wave. : the length of the wave. S = the speed of the wave y(x,t) = ASin(kx-wt) = ASin(2pi/Lambda x – v2pi/Lambda t) Is a equation that uses variables that are more easily modificable for our artists (we only wanted to deal with length and speed). With this we only need to talk about the other wave, the Gerstner Wave. Gerstner Wave: So.. the issue with the sine wave, it’s that is a really simple wave (the simplest wave actually!… every other wave can be represented as a sum of sines), the issue with only using sines fo this.. is that they are good for small water bodies, but seas tend to have another “shape”. While sine waves have a rounded tip and rounded bottom.. seas tend to have a pointy tip and rounded bottom… the Gerstner Wave is a good approximation for that (more info on GPU Gems). Credit to Gpu Gems We won’t be talking much about them… but they are basically a modified sine wave that can receive a “Steepness” value for controlling precisely that pointy tip. With this two solutions we proceed on creating those material functions (using UE4). Traveling Sine Function Gerstner Wave Function Ok! Main component complete, we now have a wave that travels! For the Gerstner Wave… our jorney ends here… because we won’t do ripple effects with that function and only use it to simulate high seas.. here’s the result of the function being hooked up to the World Diplacement Node: Sea displacement Ok that’s awesome!… but we’re not yet done… we will bid farewell the Gerstner Wave and use the sine function to transform it in a “Ripple Wave Function”. The Sinc Function but not quite Thinking about a ripple wave in general will lead to the following mental image: “a large peak at the point of impact, that diminishes when time and distance passes”. So… do you think this is a good enough approximation of a “ripple” wave? Yep… looks about right This is called the “Sinc Function”, a fancy name for just saying: “Hey.. take this sin(x) and multiply it by 1/x (the rational function)”, it basically works by taking the argument (input) of the sin(x) function and dividing the sine wave by it, as 1/x is greater the closer to zero it gets, this approximates quite well the “large peak that diminishes.” So… we just grab what we feed the sine wave and divide our result by that? Sounds easy! Well, not quite, this is what happens when you do that Traveling Sinc Wave Basically we’re making the Sinc wave move away from the center, not diminish in time and distance… that’s a Traveling Sinc Wave. For the Sinc Wave to work like we want we will modify the Sinc Wave to be like this Sinc_2(x) = ASin(2pi/Lambda * x – v2pi/Lambda t) /(x * friction + t * decay+ smoothness) This new function works just like the sinc but with a few modifications.. those are The argument of the sine function is not the same as the divisor, so it won’t translate into a traveling Sinc function. Friction: a factor that makes the distance matter more or less on the diminish of the sinc function. For greater values, the wave loses energy faster when moving away from the impact point. a factor that makes the distance matter more or less on the diminish of the sinc function. For greater values, the wave loses energy faster when moving away from the impact point. Decay: Same as friction but on time… the wave dies quickly if this value is high enough… but for a zero value decay, the wave never decays. Same as friction but on time… the wave dies quickly if this value is high enough… but for a zero value decay, the wave never decays. Smoothness: This variable was created in order to smooth the sharp peak on the origin when the time equals zero, by shifting the 1/x function to the right (farther from infinity). Use a greater value if you need a small peak, use 0 if you want a big sharp spiky, dangerous and extreme peak. This new function will give us this result: Sinc wave without filter This is ALMOST what we want… but if you take a look at a tiny detail…the wave isn’t “born” on the center and then travel to the borders, it kinda just “pops” into existence, and this looks really weird. So… with the sinc wave complete, let’s patch this up with the last function to add. The Step function as a Lowpass Filter. The final step (huhx2) on our efforts to make the water shader will be the creation of a “Filter” something that lets some values pass, but destroys other values, what we want to do is, with the velocity and time alive of the wave, filter out everything that the wave hasn’t reached out yet (to avoid the pop up). This means that every vertex point that is greater than the distance traveled by the wave gets filtered out, in other words: “every point greater than v*t must equal 0”. This, translated into material nodes look like this (trying to avoid if/else here): Step function on Material Nodes (divisor is the distance of the current vertex) Multiplying this final function will finally let us have a proper traveling sinc wave: Proper Traveling Sinc Wave With that we have a good traveling wave that can be (hopefully) used on the game. By creating a material instance that has 3 Traveling Waves and with 3 different set of material inputs for each one, we created a blueprint that (on actor hit) cycles through those waves setting the Impact Point and Impact Time so the Waves react to objects thrown to them (the creation of the larger material is actually easy to do, so it won’t be covered here, although if requested, we can later edit this post to add screenshots to that material). This is the result of our wave reaction mesh: Waves… done Little Note: Don’t forget to use the times since the impact as the sin(kx-wt) time, if you just input the game time, every wave you create will be in phase… and it just looks weird. With this we wrap the first part of our water shader tutorial, next issue we will discuss how we changed from this wireframe, to something actually usable in game. So, if anybody of you actually enjoyed this tutorial, please let us know on the comments… also adding us at out twitter @CritFailStudio and Facebook /CriticalFailureStudio and giving us your support and ideas for next tutorials and game feedback will help us greatly to keep on this weekly posts. Cheers!Grand Circus’ office space in the Broderick Towner in downtown Detroit is buzzing with activity. In a conference room with large windows that overlook the People Mover elevated train, a group of students is learning the basics of coding. On another floor, entrepreneurs are huddled around laptops in the firm’s sprawling co-working space, while others congregate in a communal pantry, stocking up on caffeine and snacks. Grand Circus launched in 2013 to capitalize on the city’s growing tech scene, and the company offers classes to the public, rents co-working space and hosts events. This is where you’ll usually find entrepreneurs like Javier Evelyn, whose early-stage med-tech firm, Alerje, uses technology to address food allergies common in communities of color. The issue is one close to Evelyn’s heart; the Afro-Latino suffers from allergies to cashews, cheese, pistachios and fish. “Five years ago, I didn’t think this would be possible,” says Evelyn, 34, a former insurance salesman turned software developer. That this sort of energy is taking shape in Detroit – a city whose population is about 80 percent African-American – is no mistake. By 2020, there will be 1 million unfilled computer programming jobs in the United States, according to the Department of Labor, yet fewer than 10 percent of the country’s software engineers are African-American. Firms like Grand Circus are working with the city of Detroit to change that outcome. The firm runs four 10-week-long boot camps per quarter that prepare participants for entry-level careers in software engineering, back-end development and more, says Jennifer Cline, a senior marketing manager at Grand Circus. Tuition for each boot camp is $8,500, but through a partnership with the city’s TechHire program, Detroiters can apply for a limited number of scholarships. The four-year local talent initiative was announced late last year to provide workforce development training and apprenticeships in IT careers. “This investment comes at a time when Detroit is experiencing significant growth as an IT hub” said Jeff Donofrio, director of workforce development for Mayor Mike Duggan, in a December news release about the launch of TechHire. The program is managed by the city of Detroit workforce agency Detroit Employment Solutions Corporation. Between January 2015 and March 2016, 111 of 113 people who were enrolled in Grand Circus boot camps graduated, and 93 percent of participants found full-time employment in entry-level developer positions, according to Grand Circus. An estimated 37 percent of participants were identified as non-white, and income averaged $48,000. Grand Circus also partners with Code 2040, a nonprofit named for the year when minorities will make up the majority of the U.S. population that creates educational, professional and entrepreneurial pathways for black and Latinx entrepreneurs. Among the offerings: an entrepreneur-in-residence program that connects black and Latinx-run startups like Evelyn’s Alerje with the resources needed to take their startups to the next level, including $40,000 in seed capital, a co-working space and access to mentors through the Google for Entrepreneurs global network. The push for increasing the number of Detroiters into careers in tech comes as the city continues to evolve from its industrial roots and climb out of high unemployment; currently, 8.4 percent of Detroiters are unemployed. Similar to the jobs in manufacturing that historically offered Detroiters with a high-school diploma a middle-class income, entry level careers in technology can provide similar financial security. While boot camps like those offered at Grand Circus are geared toward working adults in career transition, most in the industry would agree that one of the biggest barriers to entry for people of color is exposure to the field. That’s where nonprofits like JOURNi come in. Founded in 2016 by two millennial Detroiters, Brian McKinney and Richard Grundy, and New Yorker Quiessence Phillips, the trio wanted to give Detroit middle-schoolers and high-schoolers their first experiences with the field. Phillips has done hackathons through the San Francisco-based Black Girls Code program, which gives African-American girls a three-day crash course in app development. But JOURNi provides a curriculum spread out over the course of a summer or several weeks during the school year. At the start of each JOURNi session, students are assessed to determine their familiarity with technology, and then receive lessons online and offline to get a handle on programming language like HTML and CSS, before they are tasked with developing a website for a local business. Students are also introduced to black and Latino professionals so they can see that a career in tech is within their reach. “People of color tend to feel like they don’t fit in,” Phillips says. “I don’t know if that is an internal thing and something we need to get over, but it does need to be addressed.” So far, the JOURNi approach has resonated with students. “Some of the students were basically dragged there by their parents, but by the end they see so much benefit from it,” Phillips says. “It’s so important that we are creators and not just consumers. If you gain enough knowledge you will have a seat at the table.” Javier Evelyn A career in technology began to feel like a possibility for Evelyn several years after he had been working in the insurance industry in his native Chicago. Up until about four years ago, Evelyn had only dabbled in coding when he was offered a gig designing a website for an insurance company. He failed miserably, but he decided the only way to succeed was if he dove into learning code full-time. Every day after he got home from his job in insurance sales, he embarked on his second “9 to 5,” taking self-guided classes through the night in what he calls YouTube University. Meanwhile, he saved his earnings to raise the $8,000 needed to enroll in coding boot camp. “To call it a boot camp is an understatement,” says Evelyn of the intense eight-week course. “I had a migraine after the first week.” While he lacked exposure to others like him in the technology industry, he says he comes from a family of entrepreneurs, and that gave him the confidence he needed to make the transition. Now that he’s well on his way to realizing success with Alerje, Evelyn hopes he will be able to help demystify the industry. “The primary thing is exposure, it comes down to normalizing it, so more people can see that regular guys and gals can be involved,” Evelyn says.Spurs set to bid for Saints star Jay Rodriguez and he could be joined by boss Mauricio Pochettino at White Hart Lane Spurs keen to strengthen strike force with move for England man Rodriguez Gino Peruzzi attracting interest from QPR Championship clubs queuing up for Huddersfield's Adam Clayton Burnley keen on Mallorca captain Emilio Nsue Swansea defender Neil Taylor could be on move to Premier League rivals Newcastle midfielder Dan Gosling set for Bournemouth switch Tottenham will launch a bid for Southampton striker Jay Rodriguez in the coming weeks. Although the England forward is recovering from surgery on the anterior cruciate ligament in his right knee, the White Hart Lane club are convinced he will be back in action before the end of the year. Southampton have already fielded bids of £25million from Manchester United for Luke Shaw and £20m from Liverpool for Adam Lallana and are now braced for Tottenham's opening gambit for Rodriguez. Earning his Spurs? Jay Rodriguez is a summer target for Tottenham In good form: Rodriguez scored 17 goals for Southampton before his season was cut short by injury The 24-year-old was in excellent form for Southampton prior to his injury scoring 17 goals and was pushing for inclusion in Roy Hodgson's World Cup squad. Tottenham, who could yet appoint Southampton coach Mauricio Pochettino as their new manager, want more homegrown players to blend with the large influx of foreign players they invested heavily in last summer. Some of those will go, with Romanian centre-back Vlad Chiriches, Erik Lamela, Etienne Capoue, Roberto Soldado and the more established Jan Vertonghen all attracting interest - predominantly from Italian clubs. Rodriguez can play from the left of the attack or behind a main striker and his pace and intelligence gave Southampton a cutting edge that had hem pushing for European contention at one stage of the season. They face a difficult summer and will be fighting off more bids with Calum Chambers, Morgan Schneiderlin, Victor Wanyama and Dejan Lovren all subject to interest from Premier League rivals. Reunited? Mauricio Pochettino and Rodriguez could both be at Spurs next season Hammers eye move for defender Peruzzi West Ham are showing an interest in Catania right-back Gino Peruzzi. The 21-year-old was due to sign for Sunderland last summer but the club pulled the plug on the deal as he had failed to recover sufficiently from a knee ligament operation. Argentina international Peruzzi had flown to England and agreed personal terms but medical reports meant Sunderland did not want to take a chance and a £5m move from Velez Sarsfield was put on hold. Peruzzi, however, went on to prove his fitness and secured a move to Italy for £4million. Hammer time: Catania's Gino Peruzzi (left) is a target for West Ham He has gone on to play 22 games this season but was sent off for a second bookable offence at the weekend. Manager Sam Allardyce will hold a meeting with co-chairman David Sullivan tomorrow about the club's summer plans and will also find out about his
senior Iraqi politicians say that for the first time there is talk of partitioning the country. The current crisis was sparked on 23 April when the Iraqi army attacked a sit-in protest in the Sunni Arab town of Hawijah, killing at least 50 people and injuring 110. Outraged Sunni Arab protesters have since stepped up their demonstrations against the Shia-led government. Demonstrators are increasingly protected by armed men, some of whom are accused of dragging five military intelligence soldiers in civilian clothes from a car that came near a protest in Ramadi and killing them. 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. There are signs that the Iraqi army can no longer cope with a crisis in which it is confronting both Sunni Arabs and Kurds. Many soldiers prefer to desert the army rather than shoot at protesters said Najmaldin Karim, the Kurdish Governor of Kirkuk, where Hawijah is situated, in an interview with The Independent. Most deserters are Sunni, Mr Karim said, but he added that some are Shia who don’t want to fight in strange places for something they don’t believe in. Mr Karim, formerly a doctor in the US, confirmed that Kurdish troops have moved to take over positions around Kirkuk left vacant by the Iraqi army, but vehemently denies that this is a land-grab by the Kurds seeking to take over the oilfields as Iraqi army commanders have alleged. Affirming that Kurdish forces have taken over places vacated by the Iraqi army, he explained that Iraqi military units are under orders to leave their outposts at night and concentrate in defensible positions. “They [Iraqi army commanders] are playing on people’s emotions and trying to detract from the fact that they attacked civilian demonstrators and killed scores of them at close range.” Mediators seeking to end the protest in Hawijah last week say they only needed another six hours to end the confrontation when the army attacked. A confrontation between the Kurds and the central government in Baghdad last summer has led to poor relations between the two. Security cooperation has broken down and there has been a 30 per cent rise in terrorist attacks in Kirkuk as a result. Last week al-Qa’ida in Iraq was able to take over the town of Suleiman Bec in Kirkuk province and only left under a truce arrangement “It is really ironic,” says Mr Karim, “that at Hawijah the army attacks demonstrators including children and elderly. And then at Suleiman Bec al-Qa’ida killed the police chief. They captured and killed whoever was in the police station. The whole population of the town left. Terrorists controlled the town for 24 hours and then they were given safe passage to get out with their weapons and stolen cars.” Iraqi politicians are gloomy about the prospects for keeping the country together. Mowaffak al-Rubaie, the former Iraqi National Security Adviser, said in a phone interview yesterday that for the first time he was hearing leaders in Baghdad talk seriously of partitioning the country. He said ”I believe Iraq is going through its most critical phase since the creation of the state in 1921. " He said that for Iraq partition would not be a soft option but would be more like the bloodbath when India and Pakistan divided. In the last four months Mr Maliki has done little to conciliate the Sunni Arabs who have been conducting a peaceful campaign demanding civil and political rights. They want an end to job discrimination and a terror law under which suspects can be arrested tortured on the word of an unknown informant. The protests were conducted largely without violence until the unexpected break-up of the Hawaijah sit-in. Sunni Arabs are now demanding that the army withdraw from their areas. A highly influential Sunni religious figure, seen as the inspirational leader of the protests, Abdul Malik al-Saadi, had previously counselled moderation, but last week issued a statement saying “if they open fire, then burn the land beneath them, and defend your selves with courage.” The government has been ambivalent in its attitude to the demonstrations, sometimes declaring their grievances to be just and at others demonising them as al-Qa’ida members. “I call upon the peaceful protesters to expel the criminals targeting military and police,” Mr Maliki said in a statement posted on his official website. Yesterday ten satellite television companies, including al-Jazeera and al-Sharkiya, had their licenses withdrawn, while earlier the authorities announced a curfew in the whole of Sunni Anbar province in western Iraq. But the television channels have gone on operating and the army may not be in a position to enforce a curfew. Iraq Timeline 21 December 2012 Thousands protest against raid on home of Sunni Finance Minister. Demonstrations against perceived government sectarianism spread. 23 April 2013 More than 50 people killed when security forces raid anti-government protest camp in Hawijah, near Kirkuk. 25 April 40 killed as Sunni gunmen take control of Suleiman Beg. Sunni clerics call for formation of tribal army. 27 April Militants kill five Iraqi soldiers in Anbar province as Prime Minister Maliki warns that violence may lead to the return of sectarian civil war. Blair has not visited Iraq since leaving Downing Street The office of former Prime Minister Tony Blair admitted today that he has not visited Iraq since he left Downing Street almost six years ago. Mr Blair, along with President George W Bush, led the invasion of Iraq in 2003 and is now a Middle East peace envoy for the Quartet (the United Nations, the European Union, the United States and Russia). Although he “closely monitors developments” in the country and “has obviously met people from the region on various occasions since”, he has not set foot in Iraq since 2007. He did, however, “give a speech to the Iraq Britain Business Council last year”, a spokesman added. 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 nowEdit: It looks like Barge ‘reached out’ to Ontario craft brewers in the fall of 2014. At least, according to their Twitter. Barge Craft Beers, the company that put the Ontario government on notice to change their liquor laws, sent a letter (by fax) to the Attorney General of Ontario this morning. The letter included their proposed change to Ontario liquor laws. You can find the entirety of the letter here. The main change they suggest is quite simple: change three words. It just so happens that those three words are: Brewers Retail Inc. They want to change it to: licensed beer retailers. This would fundamentally change the way beer is sold in Ontario, allowing competing stores such as craft beer stores to pop up. Ben Johnson asked Barge if Craft Brewers were included in the discussion of this change. Barge said that they contacted every single one but this is in contention at the moment.For those of you complaining of him prescribing meds. that's what psychiatrists do, for behavioral problems you need to see counseling as well. Meds. and counseling is the ONLY way to succeed in getting behavioral issues under control. Counseling teaches the individual how to live with the issues at hand and meds are for helping the symptoms. For instance, depression: counseling gets to the root of the cause, is itinherated? Chemical imbalance? Life experiences? Psychiatrists prescribe meds for the symptoms, crying, fatigue, unsure feelings. Not all meds work the same for every person, it's a process, sometimes a long process because some meds take weeks before the individual starts to feel better. You won't get therapy from a psychiatrist, that is why counseling + psychiatric help works best. Honestly I think Dr. Sood is fantastic, and I love my counselor, Tina Anderson. I hope this helps those who were disappointed with their experiences.Who finds Bill Gates’ creativity sexy? By guest blogger Sam McNerney Ever since the Sirens seduced sailors with their music, Sophocles entertained ancient Athens, and our Paleolithic ancestors decorated cave walls in Lascaux, individuals have been drawn to acts of creativity. Today, the allure of creativity is all the more apparent. After Tim Berners-Lee created the World Wide Web in 1991, we’ve witnessed a proliferation of creative expression on YouTube channels, blogs, and even Twitter. Given the undeniable link between human nature and creativity, it’s no surprise that psychologists study why creativity exists. Geoffrey Miller has argued that it evolved as a result of sexual selection. In this view, creative expressions are like a peacock’s tail, a not-so-subtle advertisement to potential mates. Others add that creativity evolved to solve problems. Our species expanded beyond the Savannah not by multiplying but innovating. So what counts as an “act of creativity”? Are all creative behaviours equally sexy? Is everyone attracted to the same creative behaviours? A group of creativity researchers led by Scott Barry Kaufman addressed these questions in a paper just published in The Journal of Creative Behavior. They began by drawing on the research of Gregory Feist, who differentiates three forms of creativity: ornamental/aesthetic (art, music), applied/technological (science, engineering) and everyday/domestic creativity (interior decorating, making a new recipe). The participants were an “ethnically diverse” sample of 815 individuals—119 males and 696 females. For the first part of the experiment, they completed a 43-item checklist in which they ranked creative acts such as “painting a picture,” “writing short stories,” and “making websites” in terms of sexual attraction. Then they took a shortened version of the Raven’s Progressive Matrices Test and the Word Knowledge Test to measure general cognitive ability. Finally, they completed a personality test and a questionnaire about their own creative achievements. The purpose of the tests and questionnaires was to find correlations between intelligence, personality, and creative achievements and the creative acts each participant preferred. Do certain types of people find certain forms of creativity sexier than others? Or is one form of creativity universally attractive? The first finding confirmed previous research—people generally prefer creative acts in the ornamental/aesthetic domain. According to the participants, some of the sexiest creative behaviours are activities like writing music, taking photographs, writing poetry, and performing in a band. Kaufman, on his blog “Beautiful Minds,” clarified that artistic forms of creativity evoke the strongest emotions because they “were shaped primarily by sexual selection pressures.” (He quotes Daniel Nettle: “You remember Beethoven and Brahms, but can you name a single innovator in the field of sewer construction and sewage treatment?”) But that’s not the whole story. Participants who made creative achievements in technology and scored high on intellectual curiosity—this group ranked things like “making websites” and “writing an original computer program” higher than average—had a bias for the applied/technology domain. Science nerds were attracted to science nerds. On the other hand, the best predictor for a preference toward the ornamental/aesthetic domain was not creative achievement within the domain, but openness to new experiences, one of the big five personality traits. Among the male participants, creative achievements in the everyday/domestic domain also predicted a preference for ornamental/aesthetic creativity. For the men, the researchers also found a negatively correlation between a preference for applied/technology creativity and general cognitive ability. Overall, the paper supports the theory that sexual selection molded our creative instincts to perform music, writing stories and poetry, and create visual art – creative acts within the ornamental/aesthetic domain that indicate desirable traits such as mental fitness and displays of openness to experience that, as Kaufman puts it in Mating Intelligence Unleashed, “are ‘more in-your-face’ than applied/technology forms of creativity … “. The paper also provides a more nuanced perspective. If we want to understand why creativity is sexy, we must take into account individual differences. What we like and what we’ve accomplished shape the creative behaviours we’re drawn toward. _________________________________ Kaufman, S., Kozbelt, A., Silvia, P., Kaufman, J., Ramesh, S., & Feist, G. (2014). Who Finds Bill Gates Sexy? Creative Mate Preferences as a Function of Cognitive Ability, Personality, and Creative Achievement The Journal of Creative Behavior DOI: 10.1002/jocb.78 Post written by Sam McNerney (@sammcnerney) for the BPS Research Digest. McNerney is a US writer with a focus on cognitive psychology, philosophy and business. He’s written for Scientific American, Scientific American Mind, Fortune, Fast Company, TechCrunch and BBC Focus and maintained a blog on BigThink.com called Moments of Genius. He currently blogs at his website: sammcnerney.com.Until recently, some felons in Germany could be, quite literally, locked up in prison for life. In 1998, the government in Berlin lifted a 10-year maximum limit on preventative detention -- a law that was upheld by Germany's high court in 2005. But this May, the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg ruled that the law violated human rights. The direct result was that a handful of serious offenders in German prisons were freed immediately with dozens more, including serial rapists and people who had committed multiple murders, up for release soon. Additionally, the Strasbourg ruling triggered a political debate in Germany and created a huge problem for both politicians and members of the judiciary. They scrambled to come up with a solution that guarantees public safety, but which also takes the rights of offenders into account. This week, German Justice Minister Sabine Leutheusser-Schnarrenberger, who has been criticized for acting too slowly on the issue, and the German Interior Minister Thomas de Maizière announced a proposal for solving the problem that de Maizière described as "unusually complicated." Not a Jail, Not a Psych Ward The two ministries are proposing changes to the preventive detention legislation that would see the creation of a new kind of institution where the criminals could be kept after their prison term if they were still deemed a threat to society. The institution would neither be a jail nor a psychiatric facility -- some are calling it "jail light." The facilities would be primarily used for prisoners deemed to be "mentally disturbed" in external assessments and an ongoing danger to the general public. It would be "something other than imprisonment but also different from a psychiatric facility," Leutheusser-Schnarrenberger told reporters. "The main emphasis would be on therapy." In the proposed institution, freedom of the individuals involved would only be restricted to the degree required by the treatment, the justice minister said. An offender could eventually be released if deemed to be safe. Germany's two largest police unions have welcomed the plan, saying it was long overdue. But not everyone has responded favorable. German commentators on Friday are divided over the issue. Left-wing Die Tageszeitung writes: "So who exactly will be affected by this new law? Offenders who are psychologically ill are already held in special facilities, not in preventive detention. If the administration is hoping that the courts will now redefine all those offenders in danger of recidivism, as psychologically ill, then it is laboring under powerful delusions. This kind of thing -- the labeling of disagreeable persons as mentally ill -- is something we know from political dictatorships. It is shameful that this is the promised 'legally binding solution'." "When it becomes clear that there are almost no actual cases to which this new law on preventive detention applies, then the rest of this (political) compromise will also fall apart. Instead of making false promises, it should be said publicly that the most of those in preventive detention affected by this ruling will be released -- but that they are not half as dangerous as many believe them to be. Much of this pertains to old men who were once a danger. Now they need social services more than they need tighter controls." Conservative Die Welt writes: "In a constitutional state, one may only punish crimes that have been committed, not potential crimes. Everyone is innocent until proven guilty. But what does one do with violent criminals where one knows that they will almost certainly commit crimes again after they have served their sentence? The state's duty is to act in the interests of its citizens' safety, ensuring that those potential crimes can never be committed. There is no solution to this dilemma that will do justice to the need for safety and the right to liberty." "This compromise... is a step in the right direction. Above all, in the establishment of an institution for housing and therapeutic treatment, that would (conceptually) exist somewhere between prison and a psychiatric ward." The center-left Süddeutsche Zeitung writes: "Anyone who believes they can make political capital out of recidivist, serious offenders is mistaken. Former Chancellor Gerhard Schröder, who wanted to put sexual offenders away 'forever' had to learn this. It is possible that such populist promises might capture some voters. But in a constitutional state nobody should be kept behind bars after they have served their sentence, possibly for the rest of their lives. Anyone who tries to do this is guilty of serious infringements of human rights themselves -- and will be condemned for that." "Whether this proposal is legal will have to be decided by the judges of the Federal Constitutional Court. Then, should they be considered psychologically disturbed, serious offenders are to be held in secured institutions after serving their sentences. But there are opportunities here for despotism. One should not define offenders as mentally disturbed just to be able to keep them locked up. That happened in the former Soviet Union, but it should not happen in a country where the rule of law is observed." The center-right Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung writes: "Politically speaking, and with regard to (Chancellor Angela Merkel's coalition government), the fact that Leutheusser-Schnarrenberger and de Maizière have been able to come up with a united, jurisprudent reaction to the judgment made by the European Court of Human Rights makes this look like a success. However, they could not -- and would not -- promise that all the risks posed by the release of these offenders... will be negated." "But if the situation with around 15 former offenders who have already been released, and who are now under police observation around the clock, is anything to go by, the populace won't be able to restrain their fears. They will want to know how many of the remaining 60 offenders, to whom the ruling also applies, will be released before the proposed law comes into effect. They will also have to accept that individual rights cannot be excessively infringed just to satisfy the desire for safety for everyone."Funko Disney Lilo & Stitch Flocked Stitch Dorbz Vinyl Figure Limited Edition Hot Topic Exclusive is rated 4.9 out of 5 by 18. Rated 5 out of 5 by NickTheMisfit from Cutest Dorbz Ever Always a Disney fan, especially Lilo and Stitch. Definitely keeping this one in the box. Rated 5 out of 5 by Nana54 from Cute I bought for my granddaughter she's 18 now and still loves stitch Rated 4 out of 5 by TheKracken from Super cute Hes adorable, looks super cute with all my other Stitch figures. Happy I bought him Rated 5 out of 5 by canders from I love my Stitch Dorbz!! I was up and waiting for my little buddy here to come up on the website and was so excited that I did! He is so adorable and fluffy! The box is in great condition and I received my package much faster than I though I would too!Using exclusive technology that keeps high-shine lipsticks liquid, Melted Latex redefines the lips with honey-like texture that ensures gloss clings to lips with a latex shine. Doe-foot applicator comfortably coats lips in bursts of intense, buildable, lacquered color that lasts for hours Formulated without parabens, sulfates or pthalates High-impact, super-rich, saturated pigment offers lacquer-like vibrancy and juicy shine Stays saturated with color while keeping a comfortable, flexible, cushiony wear Doe-foot applicator allows for precise application How to use: Step 1: Using the Doe Foot Applicator, Draw and X on the Cupid’s bow Step 2: Pull color from left corner to meet the top of the left lip Step 3: Pull from right corner to meet top of right lip Step 4: Fill in Top and Bottom Web ID: 4864406As I showed in an earlier article on Jews and Brexit, Jewish attitudes are complex and nuanced because Jewish interests on Brexit are not entirely clear. (Needless to say, the interests of Britain as a whole, much less White Britain, are not relevant to this internal Jewish debate.) Nevertheless, there can be little doubt that the recent push to have Parliament vote on Brexit is very much a Jewish project. Much ink has recently been spilled on the efforts of the Mischon de Reya law firm to “derail” Brexit. The technicalities of this effort are fairly straightforward — the goal is to render null and void the referendum on EU membership and shift the decision from the hands of the people to the highly compromised halls of power at Westminster. According to Mischon de Reya, “Parliament must have its say.” While discussion has hitherto been focussed on these technicalities, considerably less attention has been paid to the firm’s history, character, and demographic. Mischon de Reya was founded by Victor Mischon, the son of a rabbi in 1937, and its senior partners still appear, in the main, to be drawn from London and New York Jews. There is considerable crossover between influential positions at Mischon de Reya and those at the Board of Deputies of British Jews and similar organizations. Victor Mischon was at one time a President of the B.o.D., and more recently these links remain in the form of Anthony Julius who has worked for both de Reya and the B.o.D., and also in the form of James Libson who heads Mishcon de Reya’s Private department, and has carried out a great deal of pro bono work for Jewish causes. The Daily Mail reports that the firm, which has been accused of “treason,” has refused to “name any clients linked to its Brexit action — and would not confirm if it had worked for free.” However, it is reported that one of the most influential figures among this group of ‘hundreds’ of “anonymous academics and businessmen” is Jewish property speculator Alex Chesterman. One thus begins to notice a pattern emerging. Chesterman is reported to have lobbied ‘fellow businessmen’ and ‘academics’ back in June, and at that time employed Mischon de Reya to carry out the desired legal work for mounting a challenge against Brexit. Chesterman’s lawyer of choice was at de Reya was David Pannick QC. The Jewish News reported back in June that Pannick, who is also Jewish, soon complained to the Royal Courts of Justice that his staff had been subjected to “anti-Semitic abuse” for their actions against Brexit, illustrating quite clearly the demographic of the team working on this treason. We join yet another dot when we discover that Pannick’s panic was heard at the Royal Courts of Justice by the equally Jewish Sir Brian Leveson. Pannick asked Leveson whether the names of claimants should be redacted, given the abuse, saying: “People have been deterred from [making legal claims].” By ‘people,’ Pannick must surely have been inferring that Jews have been hindered from ‘making legal claims.’ Predictably, Leveson acceded to Pannick’s request, with the result that anti-Brexit backstabbers are now operating behind a legally imposed veil to undermine the democratically expressed will of the British people. Catastrophically, the High Court has now accepted Mischon de Reya’s legal challenge against Brexit, with the Daily Mail describing the judges involved as “enemies of the people.” Of the three judges who came to that decision, media attention has focussed on the Lord Chief Justice, Lord Thomas. Hardly mentioned at all are the other two judges, the Jewish homosexual Terence Etherton and the New Labour mogul Philip Sales, also said to be Jewish. Quite apart from any ‘conspiracy theory,’ the facts about the legal challenge to Brexit are as follows: The legal bid appears to have been initiated by Alex Chesterman, a Jewish businessman. The bid was delegated to the law firm Mischon de Reya, founded by a Jewish lawyer, and that has retained a strong synthesis between its work and that of Jewish interests. The legal bid has been led by a Jewish lawyer, David Pannick, QC. In an effort to obscure the staffing and clientele behind the bid, David Pannick approached the Royal Courts of Justice to obtain masking measures for the bid. This measure was granted by Lord Justice Sir Brian Leveson, also Jewish. Finally, the legal bid was accepted by three judges at the High Court, two of whom, Terence Etherton and Philip Sales, are Jewish. Jews are thought to comprise around 0.5% of the British population, and in light of this statistic the demonstrable prominence of Jews in the legal challenge against Brexit must be seen as nothing less than remarkable. Addendum: One of the more infamous of Mischon de Reya’s current crop of lawyers is Anthony Julius (the subject of a previous series of articles by me). While studying English literature at Cambridge University between 1974 and 1977, Julius placed himself “among those Jews who have sought out anti-Semitism.” He admits in his Trials of the Diaspora to becoming part of a “radical faction” which emerged in the humanities at that time, and that he was heavily influenced by his reading of “Freud … and the line of Western Marxist thinking that can be traced from the Austro-Marxists through to Antonio Gramsci and the Frankfurt School.” After graduating Julius went to law school and, when he finished there, he started his career as an ethnic activist by becoming chief lawyer to the British Board of Deputies of British Jews, an organization comprising elements of both the American Jewish Committee and the Anti-Defamation League. In 1983 he successfully defended the Board of Deputies when it was sued by a Conservative Party candidate. The Board of Deputies had conducted a propaganda campaign, distributing flyers in the candidate’s constituency during a General Election detailing his previous involvement with the National Front, an association the Board of Deputies claimed was evidence of the man’s anti-Semitism. In 1992, after he was expelled from Canada, David Irving applied for access to the documents which provoked his expulsion under Canada’s Access to Information Law. Among these documents “Irving claimed, was a dossier on his activities compiled by the Board of Deputies of British Jews and sent to the Canadian authorities. Irving wanted to sue for libel, but Julius, who acted for the Board, said that Irving was ‘sadly too late’ in filing the proper papers.”What is the sound of one hand clapping? Don't just read that and nod - try to visualize, or audibly imagine, the sound. Koans are instructions to be practiced, not puzzles to be intellectualized, and they're meant to lead to insights about the nature of life that one could never reach by reasoned philosophy or rational thought. To my mind, Sigur Ros' aptly un-titled album serves something of a similar role. It is not meant to be appreciated in the same way that much of our music presents itself. All of its scarce and repeated lyrics are unintelligible, just familiar enough to make you try to draw meaning from them. But the human noises mixing with the often surreal instrumental ones evoked something in me that feels deeper than a "mood". The songs on this album proceed slowly, deliberately, but are punctuated occasionally by sudden shifts in intensity. The auditory tour evokes imagery and visceral sensations which are usually inspiring, sometimes uncomfortable, and generally very weird. Accordingly, it feels like this music pushes me, challenges me in odd and foreign ways that defy verbal explanation, ways which I have found at times disconcerting but always appreciated. If you have never heard Sigur Ros before, take care in how you first listen to it. Create a setting that is surreal enough and imaginative enough to give the album room to unfold its otherworldly splendor - for me, my first hearing was in an almost-dark log cabin with incense burning at three in the morning. Maybe being outside in the woods would work better for some people. My experience is that if you form strong associations with music like this the first time heard, the music will have more meaning and value to you when you hear it in other (more normal) contexts later on. Sigur Ros' [] album is for those who think music can draw them a little out of their comfort zone and help them learn more about themselves, or perhaps give them emotional strength they will need in daily life. I experience the music as cleansing and supportive, and I listen to it when I need to decompress from a particularly stressful week. You may use it in drastically different ways. However you use it, I think you'll admire Sigur Ros for their subtle and trippy auditory artwork.The chaos created in Richard Cordray’s departure from the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) was planned well in advance of his resignation last week, despite staff warnings of the problems it would create. According a Business Insider report, a current CFPB official who requested anonymity stated that Cordray’s decision to include the appointment of Leandra English as his interim successor within his resignation generated concern within the agency. "What the media doesn't know is that our Legal Department has been looking into this for a long, long time," the CFPB official said. "And they have already said and told the former Director that they believe the President has the authority to appoint an interim director in spite of the Dodd-Frank Act's language. So, the whole thing frankly is a political stunt and all of the people are actually quite angry because they think this is nothing but political." Other CFPB officials stated that the senior leadership of the agency was “firmly behind” Mick Mulvaney, who was named by President Trump as Acting Director, adding that they "unanimously" decided to comply with the president's appointment. However, they acknowledged that the Mulvaney leadership will be vastly different from the Cordray approach. "Nobody is under the illusion that the Bureau will stay the same," said an unnamed official. "Things will change. Mulvaney said very clearly to the Bureau staff that he will make changes."Many bank customers have long felt nickeled-and-dimed by fees imposed by financial institutions. But now some banks are demanding much bigger denominations. The region’s largest banks are charging consumers as much as $50 a month if they do not maintain minimum balances or meet other requirements for certain high-end checking and savings accounts. Citizens Bank charges customers $50 a month when the balance in a top-end money market account slips below $1,000. Sovereign Bank imposes fees of up to $30 a month, and Bank of America and TD Bank each charge $25 a month whenever customers fall short of minimum balance and other qualifications for some premium checking accounts. “I haven’t seen anything like $50 a month before,’’ said Greg McBride, an analyst with Bankrate.com, a website that tracks bank fees and interest rates. “That’s a steep price to pay.’’ The sticker shock is the latest sign that US banks are pushing fees to new heights to boost revenue and shed unprofitable customers with slim balances. Since 2009, banks across the country have more than doubled the average monthly maintenance charge for basic checking that does not pay interest, to $4.37, according to Bankrate.com. But many of the nation’s largest banks now charge $25 or more per month for premium accounts that offer higher interest rates, free checks, or extra services. The average fee for interest-bearing checking tops $14 a month nationally, up from $12.55 in 2009. Some institutions may waive the charges if customers complain, as is the case with most bank fees. Bank profits have been pummeled since 2008 because of steep losses on mortgages, tepid demand for loans, low yields on investments, and new regulations. The biggest banks have lost billions of dollars in revenue from new rules reducing the amount they can collect in debit card fees and limiting overdraft charges. “Banks have been trying to recoup some of those lost revenues or get rid of accounts that are not cost-effective,’’ said Richard Barrington, senior financial analyst for MoneyRates.com, a financial website that tracks bank rates. Spiros Aloupis, a Citizens Bank customer in Revere, said he was shocked when he received mail advertising the bank’s Performance Money Market Account and saw the $50 monthly fee for letting the balance fall below $1,000 on any day during the month. Aloupis said he thought it was a mistake, until he called and Citizens confirmed the fee. “Isn’t that ridiculous?’’ said the 86-year-old retiree, who has a safe deposit box with the bank.Samsung 850 EVO 1TB 2.5" Internal Solid State Hard Drive For Desktops/Laptops, SATA/600 is rated 4.7 out of 5 by 521. Rated 5 out of 5 by CAT V from great and i do mean great I HAD A FEW SSD DRIVES TO PICK FROM BUT I PICKED SAMSUNG BECAUSE BECAUSE I KNOW THE REP THAT THEY HAVE AND WE HAVE 3 SAMSUNG TV AND THEY ARE GRATE [This review was collected as part of a promotion.] Rated 1 out of 5 by ShopperReview from Fast SSD but did not last long I have had the SSD installed in my macbook pro which has been incredible speeding up the performance of the computer. I have been using the SSD for almost a year until it crashed on me. I've lost all data and have tried running recovery software. Rated 2 out of 5 by UM1111 from SAMSUNG SSD -1TB could not run on the second time use, and do not what to do nextAtlético de Kolkata have been at the summit of the Hero Indian Super League from the start of the tournament and held on to that top spot despite a few hiccups along the way. They come into this match against NorthEast United FC on the back of a goalless draw against second placed Chennaiyin FC at home. The visitors on the other hand have played out two consecutive draws and currently lie sixth in the standings. Ricki Herbert’s team will be looking to upset the league leaders and gain some measure of revenge after having gone down to the same opposition by a 0-2 margin at home in the first leg. Goal scoring has been an issue for the Highlanders, having netted only six times in eight games. Spanish playmaker Koke is responsible for half of them. Kolkata however have scored 11 goals so far with Ethiopian striker Fikru Teferra netting three. NorthEast have attempted more crosses (122-102) and have a better shot on goal percentage (57-56%) than the hosts but the visitors will have to make use of these qualities to get the better of the local side. Atlético de Kolkata play a physical game and it is no surprise to see their yellow card count soar. They’ve picked up a tournament high 20 cautions with three players seeing red while their visitors have had nine bookings and no sending-offs. Form Guide (most recent first) Atlético de Kolkata: DLDDW NorthEast United FC: DDLDW Luis García vs Joan Capdevila Kolkata’s marquee man Luis García will be up against the marquee man from the rival side in this all-Spanish battle. García has been an important part of the set-up for Antonio Habas’ team with his ability to get past players and take shots at goal. His creativity will be vital for the side with Fikru Teferra and Jofre making searing runs into the rival box. Former World Cup winner Capdevila has however been one of the pillars of the NorthEast defence and will want to put a cap on his countryman’s creativity and goal scoring threat. The ex-Villareal player has a great left foot and can take shots from a distance while also being a danger from set-pieces. Arnab Mondal vs Koke The Indian centre half has been a rock at the back for the league leaders along with Josemi. His willingness to put in a tackle has enabled him to break up play on numerous occasions. He will have to be at his best to contain the threat of NorthEast playmaker Koke. The Spanish forward is the top scorer for the visitors and is capable of scoring spectacular goals, like the one he did against Chennaiyin. His movement with and without the ball is an important aspect of his game and Mondal will have to curb his distribution and passes and also prevent him from taking shots at goal. Biswajit Saha vs Len Doungel The Kolkata left-back has been a revelation for his side during the course of the tournament. His impressive work rate and mentality make him a dangerous player. He can cause a lot of problems down the left wing for the rivals but will be up against it when facing the pacy Len Doungel. The diminutive Manipuri hasn’t had much game time in the tournament but already has a goal to his name. Playing down the right wing, Doungel makes intelligent runs into space to receive the ball and cut in to shoot or lay it on for a teammate. Players to watch Atlético de Kolkata Fikru Teferra – The Ethiopian hasn’t netted a goal in a while and he will look to get back to scoring ways against Herbert’s men. With good movement and pace, the striker is a handful for any defender on his day. He had chances to score against Chennai in his previous match but was unable to put the ball past Gennaro Bracigliano. He will want to put that behind him and increase his tally. NorthEast United FC Felipe de Castro – The Brazilian was charged up in his side’s previous encounter against Pune City but was unable to score or provide an assist. His constant movement and work rate make him a key player for the Highlanders who will hope that he can continue in the same vein and link defence with attack alongside Kondwani Mtonga. Team Speak Atlético de Kolkata Luis García (marquee player): “We are on the top of the table, that means we are definitely doing something right. The only thing is that we have to find a way to score more goals and start winning again.” NorthEast United FC James Keane (striker): “We played very good football so far, we have been very solid in defence; we have been unlucky maybe when it comes to scoring, but I am sure that goals will come."
Galbraith/Reuters An irrigation pipe is seen at a farm near Cantua Creek, California. Communities in the San Joaquin Valley have been battling a dangerous pesticide byproduct in their drinking water. California is expected to set a strict state-level maximum contaminant level for a probable human carcinogen called 1,2,3-trichloropropane (TCP) next week ― 28 years after the state’s Water Resources Control Board first detected the chemical in its drinking water system. If the board passes this provision, utilities would be required to test for TCP and treat it out of the water if levels exceed 5 parts per trillion. TCP was initially used as an industrial solvent, paint remover and degreasing agent, according to the Environmental Protection Agency. It’s also a byproduct of two pesticides that were widely used in agriculture in the 1980s. Both of those pesticides, Dow’s Telone and Shell’s D-D, have long since been discontinued or reformulated to remove the TCP, but environmental advocacy groups like the Environmental Working Group say the damage has already been done. TCP has been detected in the water supplies of 94 different water systems serving 8 million Californians, according to an EWG report released this week citing EPA monitoring results. “This is a contaminant that, because it does not adhere to soil, very readily contaminates and migrates into groundwater,” Bill Walker, managing editor at the EWG and co-author of the report, told The Huffington Post. “It’s remarkably persistent. Once it’s in the water, it stays there for centuries.” Sixty percent of these water systems are in the agriculture-heavy San Joaquin Valley. Tests for Kern County, which is in the region, show that 151 contaminated wells and 20 different water systems have exceeded the state’s proposed legal limit for TCP since at least 2001. Some communities have sought to address the TCP in their water by suing the companies involved. Last December, the city of Clovis in Fresno County won a $22 million judgement against Shell, and there are currently dozens of other legal actions against Shell and Dow. A new statewide limit for TCP will strengthen the case of utilities that lack the funding to properly treat contamination without raising rates for their customers, said Jenny Rempel, director of education and engagement at the Community Water Center advocacy group. Many people who live in affected areas are from low-income families. “This shows the state is prioritizing community health,” Rempel said. “This is a huge step forward toward making sure Californians have safe water.” Short-term exposure to TCP can irritate people’s eyes, noses and throats; animal studies have linked long-term exposure to reduced body weight and liver and kidney damage, according to the EPA. Multiple animal studies have also linked TCP exposure to the development of cancerous tumors. The EPA has listed TCP as a contaminant candidate since 2009 and has required larger water utilities to test for it since 2013, but so far the agency hasn’t set a federal maximum contaminant level for TCP. This means it’s up to states to regulate the chemical, which has been found — at a rate six times higher than the proposed California limit — in water systems that serve about 4 million people in 13 other states. But many states lack the resources, scientific expertise or political will to address the issue, Walker said. So far, only Hawaii has passed regulations addressing TCP. “California can go their own way,” Walker said. “But for other states it’s a horrible situation that we know this contamination is out there and states are waiting for the EPA to act, but the EPA has not acted.” It seems unlikely that the situation will improve under President Donald Trump. TCP is just one of dozens of chemicals that the EPA has labeled a water contaminant candidate but hasn’t regulated. Since 1999, the agency has named 109 contaminants for which water utilities must test. Pesticides were increasingly among the group of contaminant candidates the agency is considering for regulation, but it’s unclear whether that trend will continue under EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt ― especially since he was behind a move last month to reverse a proposed ban on an insecticide that has been linked to learning disabilities in children. Regardless of whether the EPA takes action, pesticides are increasingly turning up in tap water. This month, a group of scientists at the University of Iowa and the U.S. Geological Survey identified neonicotinoids — a class of pesticides that include the popular insecticide imidacloprid — in treated drinking water for the first time. Although it’s not known how exposure to neonicotinoids can harm humans, clean water advocates say the Iowa study is another indicator of the unregulated, understudied dangers that are likely present in many Americans’ water supplies. “Contrary to what many people think, in the U.S. in 2017, you are not guaranteed to get a safe glass of water when you turn on the tap in your kitchen,” Walker said. ―The document below is a November confidential summary obtained by Deadspin of something called the Spring Professional Football League, which presents itself as a non-hostile NFL alternative, to be built on the bones of the several leagues that have tried and failed before. According to its own forecasts, the SPFL, whose management includes a number of former XFL and NFL Europe executives, will debut in 2013 with eight teams playing a 14- to 16-week season. The summary lists the cities under consideration as New York, Washington, Memphis, Orlando, Charlotte, Chicago, Detroit, Philadelphia, San Francisco, Denver, Dallas, Phoenix, Houston, Los Angeles, and Seattle. Teams would be centrally owned by the league, a la Major League Soccer. Advertisement You can read the full summary for yourself at the bottom of the post. Keep in mind that the document is intended to goose investment; the numbers are projections, and rosy ones at that. It's not clear where things stand with the league today. If the SFPL were hewing to its timeline, we should expect a league unveiling sometime this month. A call to the SPFL's CEO, Mark E. Singleton, was not returned. With the exception of Singleton, a former accountant at KPMG whose CV has him both investing in Mongolian mining and running a non-profit, non-partisan, largely non-existent Internet forum for public policy debate, the SPFL's management has been pulled from the NFL and the wreckage of its old competitors. The president and chief operating officer is Michael F. Keller, a former Michigan linebacker and defensive end who was drafted by Dallas in 1972 and who went on to become, in his words, "a start-up guru." Keller has worked with the Cowboys, the Seahawks, the NFL League Office, NFL Europe, and the USFL. He was reportedly the first hire at the XFL—the league founded by WWF owner Vince McMahon that lasted only one unruly season—where he served as vice president for football operations. (And he's the father of former Nebraska and Arizona State quarterback Sam Keller, who in 2009 sued the NCAA and EA Sports over the use of his likeness in video games.) In addition, the SPFL's vice president of football operations, William C. Baker Jr., is a former NFL scout who has worked with the USFL, the Arena Football League, and the XFL. The assistant to the president, David A. Rahn, has done front-office stints in the NFL, the USFL, and the MLS. The director of cheerleading, Jay Howarth, was in charge of XFL cheerleading, which is just about all anyone remembers of the XFL anyway. Advertisement The summary invokes those defunct leagues—under the header "Learning From the Past"—and offers a few "reasons for failure." One of them is, "Directly competing with the NFL in the fall or for talent," suggesting the SPFL has no plans to do either. (That's ultimately what did in the USFL, the last real threat to the NFL's monopoly.) I sent the summary to sports economists Roger Noll and Rodney Fort to get their take on the league's viability. They weren't nearly as optimistic as the proposal's authors. Fort called it a "cute document," full of "pie-in-the-sky plans" and a lot of "what-ifs." Noll wrote in an email: "My overall assessment is that this is XFL redux without the pizzazz and the McMahon baggage, but with all of the other flaws." We'll have more of their analysis later. Spring Professional Football League: Confidential Summary, November 2011 [Download as PDF]UPDATED: The two films dwarf the other new movies opening over Valentine's Day and Presidents Day -- "RoboCop," "Endless Love" and "Winter's Tale." Remaining a master builder in its second weekend, The Lego Movie ended Valentine's Day in a tie with new entry About Last Night, but is expected to zoom ahead on Saturday for a possible $59 million-plus finish over the long Presidents Day weekend. From Warner Bros. and Village Roadshow Pictures, Lego Movie took in $13 million on Friday, pushing its domestic total to $93.3 million. The 3D animated movie, enjoying an amazing hold, will cross the $100 million mark sometime on Saturday. Among the weekend's four new entries -- including three 1980s remakes -- Sony's About Last Night is faring the best, thanks to Kevin Hart's rising star status. Fueled by sweethearts looking for something to do on Valentine's Day, the Screen Gems movie took in $13 million on Friday for a projected four-day opening in the $35 million range. GUEST COLUMN: Leslye Headland on Reimagining 'About Last Night' for a Black Cast About Last Night, starring African-American actors this time and nabbing an A- CinemaScore, is a remake of the 1986 film starring Brat Pack members Demi Moore and Rob Lowe. Hart -- who is still in theaters with hit Ride Along -- stars opposite Michael Ealy, Regina Hall and Joy Bryant. Steve Pink directed the film, about two couples who hook up at a bar. Universal's romantic drama Endless Love, also benefiting from Valentine's Day, opened to $7.3 million on Friday for third-place finish. Starring Alex Pettyfer and Gabriella Wilde, the Universal film is based on the 1981 Franco Zeffirelli film that starred Brooke Shields and Martin Hewitt. While the original was panned, it was a solid box-office performer. Moreover, the theme song, by Diana Ross and Lionel Richie, became an instant hit and remains a classic. It is also the biggest-selling single of Ross' career. The remake, directed by Shana Feste, earned an A- CinemaScore. Endless Love is projected to gross $20.4 million for the four-day weekend, putting it in a close race with Sony and MGM's RoboCop remake. RoboCop placed No. 4 Friday, grossing $7 million for a soft three-day total of $11.9 million (the sci-fi action movie opened Wednesday). The pricey $100 million reboot is tracking to gross between $21 million and $22 million for the four-day holiday weekend. Overseas, RoboCop has grossed $34 million through Thursday. Targeting males, RoboCop was directed by Jose Padilha and stars Joel Kinnaman in the title role. It opens 27 years after Paul Verhoeven's original debuted, and also stars Abbie Cornish, Michael Keaton, Gary Oldman and Samuel L. Jackson. STORY: Inside the 'Lego Movie' Premiere With Chris Pratt and Will Arnett Holdover The Monuments Men rounded out the top five on Valentine's Day, declining only 28 percent to $5 million. Directed by George Clooney, the World War II comedy-drama is expected to remain in the No. 5 spot for the weekend with a four-day gross just under $20 million. The weekend's fourth new film, Winter's Tale, took in a disappointing $3.7 million on Friday for a sixth-place finish. Adapted from Mark Helprin's novel, the romantic drama marks the feature directorial debut of writer and producer Akiva Goldsman. The $57 million film, starring Colin Farrell, Jessica Brown Findlay and Matt Bomer, is expected to gross between $10 million and $11 million for the four days. Winter's Tale earned a B CinemaScore. Ride Along, earning $3.4 million on Friday, could beat Winter's Tale for the weekend.America has more than its fair share of extremists who believe people need to stock up on guns to fight against tyrannical government in Washington.Add one more to the list: Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia. In a speech in Montana on Monday, the jurist was asked about the Second Amendment and what arms were protected by that provision of the Constitution. That “remains to be determined,” he replied. As one example, he asked if people have a right to “bear shoulder-fired rocket launchers?” Perhaps they do, Scalia suggested. The answer would turn on the historical understanding of the Framers, who Scalia said included the Second Amendment in part to preserve the right of people to revolt against a tyrannical leader. Five years ago, in a case called District of Columbia v. Heller, Justice Scalia, writing for the majority, said that the core of the Second Amendment was personal self-defense. The arms protected, he wrote, were those that are in common use for lawful purposes, like handguns. Perhaps four-and-a-half years of living under President Barak Obama—you know, that socialist from Africa who’s bent on destroying America—has convinced Scalia that Americans need a right to far more powerful weapons. If the Second Amendment guarantees a right to revolt against the government, then surely Scalia’s question about shoulder-fired rocket launchers isn’t so hypothetical. Americans would need such rocket-launchers—along with fully-automatic machine guns—to have any reasonable chance of success against the military’s weapons. Handguns aren’t going to cut it against Obama’s drones, stealth fighters, and other high-tech, high-powered weapons. The idea that the Second Amendment gives people the right to revolt against government is broadly shared among gun-rights extremists. And, indeed, the Framers were armed revolutionaries who understood that guns were useful for throwing off the yoke of tyranny. No doubt they believed that an armed citizenry would make it difficult for a tyrannical ruler to run roughshod over the people. But that’s not why they put the Second Amendment in the Constitution. The Constitution was intended to be a charter of government, not a recipe for revolution. It was, as the legendary Chief Justice John Marshall said of the Constitution in 1819, “intended to endure for ages to come, and consequently, to be adapted to the various crises of human affairs.” The Framers thought the Constitution itself, with its division of powers, reliance on popular sovereignty, and judicial oversight, would prevent tyranny from ever arising. The Framers had the humility to recognize that this charter of government may prove flawed. Yet the mechanism for changing it was the amendment procedures of Article V, not a revolution through the Second Amendment. The insurrectionist understanding of the Second Amendment fails to account for two other features of the Constitution. First, the Second Amendment itself includes a preamble referring to the necessity of a “well-regulated militia.” Contrary to the views of some gun-control advocates, the militia referred to was not the National Guard. As Scalia correctly explained in the Heller case, the framers thought we, the common people, were all part of the citizens militia. Nonetheless, as part of that militia we must be “well regulated.” While there are genuine debates about what types of regulations are permissible under the Second Amendment, there is no doubt that the Framers thought that those regulations of the militia would come from the government. So how can the Second Amendment be read to provide a right to revolt against the government? If there was any doubt about the government’s power to regulate gun owners—that is, the militia—that should be put to rest by Article I, Section 8. That part of the Constitution gives Congress the authority “for organizing, arming, and disciplining, the militia.” A militia rising up against Washington, however, is hardly one that is disciplined. Moreover, that same section of the Constitution explicitly provides that Congress shall have the power of “calling forth the militia to … suppress insurrections.” In other words, the Framers believed the militia would put down revolutions, not engage in them. Unfortunately, Justice Scalia, that acclaimed lover of originalism, seems to be taking his cues from the Tea Party rather than from the text and history of the Constitution.Nomination of Pete Hoekstra, one of Tea Party’s founders, raises eyebrows in first country to legalise gay marriage A gay rights opponent who once appeared in a campaign advert that was accused of being racist and who has claimed that refugees pose a threat to Europe has been named as Donald Trump’s choice for US ambassador to the Netherlands. The nomination of Pete Hoekstra, a former congressman and one of the founders of the conservative Tea Party movement, has raised eyebrows in the Netherlands, a bastion of liberal values and the first country in the world to legalise gay marriage. The Dutch newspaper De Volkskrant observed that Trump had “put a Dutchman in the Netherlands – but it is a Dutchman from the Netherlands of the 50s”. Hoekstra, who represented Michigan’s 2nd congressional district in the House of Representatives from 1993 to 2011, was born in the Netherlands but left when he was three years old. His nomination will need to be approved by the Dutch government and confirmed by the US Senate in order for him to take up the post. Hoekstra has spoken out against gay marriage and as a congressman consistently voted to limit women’s right to abortion. He is also a strident supporter of the death penalty. He caused a stir when running for the Senate in 2012 when he appeared in a campaign advert featuring a young Chinese women with a thick accent cycling by some rice fields thanking the US for borrowing heavily from her country. The Asian & Pacific Islander American Vote group described the advert as “very disturbing” and claimed it had been designed to stir up “anti-Asian sentiment”. Hoekstra also once claimed there was chaos in the Netherlands due to a “secret jihad” in Europe. “Cars are being set on fire. Politicians are being set on fire,” he said. “Yes, there are no-go zones in the Netherlands.” He has spoken in recent years at congresses of the anti-Islam American Freedom Alliance, where the far-right Geert Wilders was once a guest. The Dutch liberal MEP Sophie in ‘t Veld said: “We are looking forward with interest to cooperating with Mr Hoekstra. We will certainly remind him his roots lie in a country that values tolerance, equality and inclusion. “We are proud of being the first country worldwide to have legislated for same-sex marriage. We are proud to have the lowest abortion rates in the world, and it is safe and legal. “We are proud in our country that people of immigrant origin can be mayor of a big city or speaker of a parliament. We expect the representative of our friend and ally the United States to fully and wholly respect our values and to show that respect in his all his acts and words.” When asked in an interview in 2006 with De Volkskrant whether he feared the Netherlands had become a modern-day “Sodom and Gomorrah”, Hoekstra denied it. “I do not feel like that at all. I’d like to come here,” he said. “It is clear that the Netherlands has made a different choice in a number of areas than the USA. You must respect that as a foreign politician, even though you have a different opinion.”I’ve got a word in mind, a maiden with whom you’ve probably had a long relationship. You’d probably be surprised to learn that she has an identical twin, though, that you’ve never met. I like looking at words that appear to have assigned duties, no further inquiry needed, and then take the dubious course of championing a new way of looking at them. A waste of time? Maybe. But those who look for immutable meaning will always be wrong, never mind the apparent contradiction. Language, and therefore meaning, is always changing. Let’s just look at that sturdy little word “individual.” You know what it means as well as I do. But only about 500 years ago, it had the exact opposite definition: member of a group. How can that happen? The short answer is, “No one knows.” Social evolution, including language, is never easy to see when it’s right in front of you. It takes some time to notice what changes have happened while you thought everything was standing still. That maiden is called Faith, of whom I’ve written before, but with a different purpose. I just want to take a quick look at her sibling, Fidelity. Faith and Fidelity have the same Latin mother, with the odd name Fides. But they left home some time ago now. Fidelity means to hold true, to have allegiance, to be steadfast. More simply, to be loyal. One can have faith without fidelity – e.g., the myriad New Age religious carpetbaggers, who flit from one nest to another in search of the best spiritual high. But one can also easily show fidelity without the least interest in faith or belief of any kind. Does anyone really think that the abandonment of a faith or belief in God, for instance, suddenly causes a person to lose all moral conviction, to become rootless, without principle? Fidelity is simply what remains after faith (in its conventional sense) is abandoned. This is the shortest defense of pure atheism I can offer, one which I think is sufficient to the task, as it’s not my main concern. One can easily hold true, for instance, to a high standard of morality – and more important, nobility – without the least belief in a higher governing power of any kind whatsoever. Nobility itself is the act of not passing on harms done to oneself to others, which is certainly an allegiance to a high moral standard. I do want to make very clear, however, that atheism as such has no more to do with who and what one is as a person than does religiosity; people of all stripes do all manner of things, both good and bad, no matter what they’re faithful to, no matter what standard of fidelity, no matter what they believe. Well-meaning individuals can acquiesce to mass murder with all the enthusiasm of a tailgate party, if it’s for the right cause – or, I might say, the right team. Go America squad! Shock and awe me, dude! Social evolution, unfortunately, is not necessarily upward, as new cultural norms can allow and even reinforce group behavior that ordinarily would be intolerable. Once enough people get on board ordinary standards of decency need not apply. So it seems to me that, for some, it might be nice if Faith and Fidelity move back home. It’s clear enough that Faith cannot always ward off acts of evil. And Fidelity, by herself, can be lonely. Faith and Fidelity together, in allegiance with our best nature, are noble sisters.Seemingly no team in the NBA has been more connected to a Free Agent this summer than the Sacramento Kings and Ryan Anderson. Anderson, of course, is a Sacramento native who played high school ball at Oak Ridge and grew up watching and falling in love with those same Kings teams we did. This isn't the first time the Kings have been connected to Anderson either. Anderson actually came to Sacramento back in 2012, but the Kings never ended up making an offer to him. He was a restricted Free Agent at the time, and the Kings opted to instead spend their money on the cheaper Jason Thompson. Now the Kings have the chance to get Anderson again, and it seems like they're still going to try to make it happen, even though they just drafted two more big men in the draft and have a variety of needs elsewhere, particularly in the backcourt. Why is that? I have a couple of theories. For starters, the Kings still want help now, and I also believe they're going to trade Rudy Gay at some point this summer. Gay is currently the team's second leading scorer. Someone else has to fill that void should he leave. Anderson could be such a guy. There's also the fact that Papagiannis and Labissiere aren't ready to step in and be contributors just yet, and this would give them more time to develop. The seemingly biggest reason however, is a matter of mutual attraction. It's not often that the Kings find themselves an upper tier Free Agent that actually wants to come to Sacramento. Last year, that was Rajon Rondo, but he had tarnished his reputation in Dallas and didn't necessarily want to be in Sacramento for the long term, which is why he got that one-year deal. Anderson DOES want to be in Sacramento for the long term, and if the Kings sign him, he'd instantly become one of the top-5 Free Agent signings in Sacramento Kings history just in terms of talent. Anderson is going to be pursued by others as well, with the Washington Wizards already expressing interest. It's going to cost somewhere upwards of $15 million a year (and that's likely on the low-end of estimates) to acquire him. Personally, I'd be looking to spend that money elsewhere (particularly in the backcourt), but I understand why the Kings are going to at least try. It's not often that Free Agents of Anderson's quality would consider Sacramento among their top options. Free Agency begins this Friday, July 1st. We'll see how invested the Kings are in bring Ryan Anderson back to his hometown soon enough.My column on Gen. John Kelly and whether previous presidents always made condolence calls to the families of fallen soldiers produced an outpouring of both praise for Kelly and vitriol for his criticism of a Florida congresswoman. Yet a note from a Colorado woman, Julie Schrock, stands out in the crowd. Her Marine son, Cpl. Max Donahue, was severely injured in Afghanistan in 2010, and died. He was 23. Here is what she wrote: “I’m a Gold Star mother and it pains me to see what is happening. The media bias is obvious to anyone willing to dig a little deeper than just believing what they hear on the news. “When my son died, then President Obama not only made no effort to reach out, but the condolence letter we received was signed by a computer. He didn’t even sign the letter! “Then, when I received multiple copies of the letter, I was told there was a computer ‘glitch’ that wasn’t fixed yet so more would probably keep coming and I should just throw them away. Not even a Sorry! “I anonymously reported this to our local news station, which ran it one time versus the three days of Trump mishandling of a Gold star condolence. Sad and hurtful to say the least.” A final point: Schrock is incensed at NFL protests during the national anthem, and wants them to stop. In an open letter to Denver players, she wrote that each time they kneel, it disrespects “my son, his service, his death and his family.”An artist himself, Toledo, OH native Roger Grieve has undoubtedly appreciated thousands of works of art over the years. But this past Sunday, Grieve walked into the Toledo Museum of Art and saw the masterpieces within for the first time as they were intended to be seen. Despite his love of art and his passion for creating it, Grieve was born color blind and has never even been able to see the fruits of his own labor as the rest of the world sees them. But revolutionary new glasses created by Oakland, CA-based EnChroma and provided to Grieve by the Toledo Museum of Art allowed the man to see the various works of art on display in full, vivid color. MUST SEE: Brand new images show us how hot the iPhone 7 will actually be “For years, I thought peanut butter was green. It still looks green, but I know otherwise,” Grieve told local TV station WTOL. “I tend to stop at all blinking traffic lights at night because of red/yellow confusion. Also, when my wife recently picked out new towels for one of our bathrooms, I complimented her on the brown color choice, but the towels were gray.” Image source: EnChroma The photo above shows us how a color blind person might see the world. The right portion of the image displays the landscape as most people would see it, with clear separation between the green, red, orange and yellow tones. On the left side, you can see the photo as a color blind person might see it, with red and orange leaves that appear to be different shades of yellow. Red-green color blindness is surprisingly common, affecting 1 in 12 men and 1 in 200 women. “My sons and I are all excited about it,” Grieve said before heading into the museum to try the glasses with his sons, who are also color blind. “We don’t know what to expect really because we’ve never seen these colors before like this, so it’s sort of hard to anticipate what it’s going to be. We’re just looking forward to the experience.” A video showing Grieve’s reaction to seeing works of art in full color for the first time is embedded below. (Watch the video here if the embed isn’t working.) EnChroma sells its glasses for the color blind directly to consumers starting at $269 on the company’s website.The stance of the US President-elect Donald Trump on the Trans-Pacific partnership (TPP) deal could lead to its collapse, experts told RIA Novosti. MOSCOW (Sputnik) — On Monday, Trump said that the United States would withdraw from the TPP agreement on the first day of his tenure as president in January. Alexander Gabuev, Chair of the "Russia in the Asia-Pacific" program at the Carnegie Moscow Center, considers that an agreement on TPP in its current form was likely to be abandoned, as its implementation was impossible without participation of the United States. "There is nothing to quit as the agreement is still not ratified. Agreement is impossible without the United States, while US Congress has no intention to ratify it. Judging by the fact that [Democrat nominee] Hillary Clinton spoke out against the TTP, and Trump took a sharply negative position [regarding the deal], while the Republicans have a majority in both houses of the Congress, the agreement is unlikely to be ratified. Therefore, TPP in its current form is likely to be buried," Gabuev said. © AFP 2018 / Nicholas Kamm With TPP Dead, China Looms to Fill US-Sized Hole in Asia-Pacific Trade He believes that the main question is to what extent the new US administration will abandon the free trade agenda, since Trump has repeatedly claimed he has no intention to return to the TPP discussion at all. "Another issue is that he has changed his opinion on many things he was talking about during his campaign. And that's even before his inauguration. How it will look like when he takes the Oval office [official office of the US president], appoints people and start working, is also unclear yet. Therefore, there is a lot of uncertainty," Gabuev added. Abandoning GOP Tradition Sergey Rogov, Scientific Coordinator at the Institute for US and Canadian Studies i of the Russian Academy of Sciences, told RIA Novosti that it was unusual that Trump abandoned the traditional Republican support for the free trade. "He has also spoken out against NAFTA-North American Free Trade Agreement- and against Obama’s Trans-Pacific partnership agreement. In fact, it is a protectionist program," Rogov said. © AFP 2018 / Mandel Ngan Trans-Pacific Partnership Poised to Crumble as Trump Announces Withdrawal According to him, the question that immediately arises is how to implement it in practice, as more than 90 percent of the items sold in the US stores is manufactured in China. The TPP pact has been prepared under the US leadership for several years and was signed by 12 counties (Australia, Brunei, Canada, Chile, Japan, Malaysia, Mexico, New Zealand, Peru, Singapore, the United States and Vietnam) in February 2016. It seeks to remove barriers to trade among its signatories, which together account for 40 percent of the world's economy. While none of the 12 countries has canceled its participation in TPP after the US presidential election, Japanese authorities said that the pact would be meaningless without the US participation.Kalle Rummenigge, already a significant figure in the history of the Rekormeister, both from his playing days, and his leadership as the chairman of the board, has become THE face of the club in the absence of Uli Hoeneß. He sits down with the Süddeutsche Zeitung for a lengthy interview, to talk about his favorite topics: FC Bayern and German football. Following is a translation of the entire interview, as posted online on the newspaper's website. Süddeutsche Zeitung: Herr Rummennigge, when FC Bayern went ahead after seven minutes in the second leg against Barcelona, did you suddenly believe in a miracle? Karl-Heinz Rummenigge: Believed? Maybe hoped. My entourage in the stands is often emotional, I'm more of a realist. The third goal against in the first leg was the decider. That 3-0 allowed Barcelona to approach things in Munich in a relaxed fashion. SZ: Coach Pep Guardiola said, what this team accomplished this season, is more important than what they accomplished last season - even though they won the Double and the Club World Cup. Do you see it the same way? KHR: I said before the season: Our goal, in a post-World Cup season that we know is tough, is to be German champions, and to play a good role in the other competitions. We accomplished that, despite endless injury problems. I am very satisfied with how the season went. SZ: Not everyone around Bayern sees it the same. KHR: I realize that the media lately only measures us against the Triple in 2013. Something we've only won once in 115 years, which some people are forgetting. SZ: People are questioning the tactics of the coach, after two semifinal ousters. There are questions whether the team needed to defend so offensively after the 0-1 deficit in Barcelona, or the 1-0 lead in Munich. Was a good position carelessly risked? KHR: I don't participate in discussions like that. We have a highly qualified coach, in whom I have full confidence. SZ: But does he overwhelm the culture of Bayern sometimes with his offensive defending, which, despite all of the star power on offense, has always been a stable and tough Katsche-Schwarzenbeck club? KHR: I've noticed, in some of the media, a distinct anti-Guardiola trend. That has absolutely nothing to do with the mood of the club. We are very happy with this man. I am in constant communication with our key players, and they confirm my opinion from day one, that the board can consider itself lucky to have a coach with such a precise plan. Our team is happy with him too. SZ: In the conflict between the coach and the former team doctor, Hans-Wilhelm Müller-Wohlfahrt, you sided with Guardiola. After the 1-3 defeat in Porto, you were reported to have made the medical staff responsible for the loss. KHR: We have locker room confidentiality, I can't give you any information about that, but I can say this much: Naturally, we weren't exactly in the best mood after that game. SZ: Some of the injury situations appear somewhat mysterious. Many readers called and asked: What's up with Franck Ribéry? KHR: We don't only have locker room confidentiality, but also a medical confidentiality, and I ask you to please respect that in the case of Ribéry. SZ: Ribéry hurt himself in the game against Donetsk, and we heard that it would be three or four days. That was eight weeks ago. KHR: Sometimes it's just not that easy with a diagnosis. SZ: And Holger Badstuber? He was diagnosed with a tendon tear, which he allegedly played with. How did that work? KHR: Holger had a tear in a different part of the muscle that had surgery, which happened in the home game against Porto. If you knew the details of our medical records, then you would better understand the thoughts and emotions of our coach. He had to pay a high price against Barcelona. SZ: Some critics pin the CL elimination on the tactics of the coach. How do you react to those that find it strange that the coach changes the system three times during games? KHR: Exactly that argument is pretty interesting. In Pep's first season, we had the discussion in the media that he can only play one system. Ball possession, tiki-taka, whatever they call it. Now people are noticing, whoa, sometimes he plays a three-man defense, sometimes a four-man defense. That only shows one thing, that the coach is extremely flexible, and he thinks intensely about how to set the lineup. He fulfills all the criteria that we expect from a good coach. SZ: Were you surprised yourself, when your coach started with a risky three-man defense, and then switched to a four-man defense after 15 minutes? KHR: Everyone saw that the three-man defense had a problem at that moment, so it's right that the coach switched it up. That's not a weakness, that's a strength. That is viewed somewhat one-dimensionally in Germany. SZ: What do you mean? KHR: I'll give you an example. In Hannover, Guardiola subbed out Dante after 30 minutes. In Germany, he was criticized for it, how can you show up the poor guy? Do you know what Gazzetta dello Sport wrote? They wrote: "Pep won the game." SZ: What does that tell you? KHR: That tells me that the game is viewed differently in different countries. Here they discuss too many trivial things around the game. In other countries the game is maybe viewed a little more strategically. There, when a coach makes a change in the game, they see it as a strength. I think it's right that our coach actively coaches. SZ: Just recently there was a report that Manchester City wants Guardiola. Immediately. KHR: It's not a coincidence that Pep is one of the most coveted coaches. Believe me: When Pep someday says "I want to do something new", you will have 15 top clubs standing in line. Please don't forget, he won five titles in two years with us. I think that might even be a record for our club. SZ: Guardiola recently declared that he will be here next year, but he demonstratively hasn't committed himself past the summer of 2016. Wouldn't you have to convince him to sign an extension soon, just to avoid unrest? KHR: What do you mean "demonstratively hasn't committed"? We have a clear agreement. We agreed in January, that we would talk about his future in the second half of 2015. That's
Penn State 3-2 MSU hockey (12-12-2, 6-4-2-2 Big Ten) completed a weekend sweep of No. 19 Penn State Saturday night at Munn Ice Arena. The Spartans beat the hardworking Nittany Lions 3-2 behind a hat trick from sophomore forward Mackenzie MacEachern. Junior goaltender Jake Hildebrand made 40 saves in the game, earning his 12th victory of the season. For the second straight night, MacEachern opened the game’s scoring. Just past the midway point of the first period, MacEachern started the play by making a pass along the blue line to senior defenseman Ron Boyd. With senior forward Matt Berry standing in front of the net, Boyd fired a wrist shot that went wide and bounced off the backboards. With MacEachern driving to the net hard, the shot careened off the side of the net and landed right on the stick of MacEachern, who buried his eighth goal of the year high-glove side. The Nittany Lions tied the game at 1-1 on a power play goal 7:31 into the second period. Junior defenseman Connor Varley let a slap shot go from the blue line that beat Hildebrand to his blocker side. The goal ended a streak of 164:45 where MSU hadn’t allowed a goal at Munn. PSU was all over the Spartans through the first half of the second period, but took two costly penalties in a span of 1:03 that gave MSU a two-man advantage. MSU capitalized on the 5-on-3 power play when MacEachern tallied his second goal of the game. Junior forward Matt DeBlouw, who drew the first PSU penalty, let a blast go from the blue line. After PSU goaltender Matthew Skoff made the initial pad save, the rebound found its way right to MacEachern to the side of the net who made no mistake in giving MSU a 2-1 lead. DeBlouw and Berry registered assists on the play, giving that forward line nine combined points on the weekend. MSU got its sixth opportunity on the power play when PSU junior forward Curtis Loik got called for high-sticking 7:55 into the 3rd period. MacEachern added his third goal of the game, and fourth of the weekend, off another rebound from a Berry shot. PSU forward Casey Bailey made it 3-2 with 2:24 remaining in the game, but couldn’t manage to score the tying goal.What ever happened to some of the San Diego Padres‘ players that used to make us proud? I’m talking players like Quilvio Veras, Derrek Lee and Ben Davis, who we seem to never see around. I’m sure you’ve seen Dave Winfield, but what about Matt Clement? Ask a Padres fan when is the last time they’ve seen Roberts, not Dave. I’m talking about the Roberts who was better known as Bip. I can’t do this rhyme blog, and not mention the times when the Padres had the crime-dog Fred McGriff. That’s back when at third-base was Gary Sheffield with Jerald Clark in left-field. That was before 1993, so the catcher at the time was Benito. I remember when Greg Vaughn, Steve Finley and Tony Gwynn were the Padres’ starting outfield trio. In my opinion, there hasn’t been a better Padres’ outfield since. Those were the good old days back at Qualcomm when they had the palm trees behind the outfield fence. That’s no knock on Petco, home to Khalil Greene and Brian Giles before he was let go. I’m guessing Adrian Gonzalez made Padres fans forget all about Ryan Klesko. Before the team wore the cammy’s and before the uniforms became blue and sandy, the Padres had a couple of Andy’s — Andy Benes and Andy Ashby. Speaking of uniforms — brown and orange — I loved when they used to wear it. Even though most of the new generation of Padres fans hate them, the brown and gold Taco Bell look also deserves some merit. Speaking of Bell, when is the last time anyone has seen an ex-Padres player that went by the name of Derek? I still have memories of players like Wally Joyner, Jim Leyritz and Show — his first name was Eric. Even though Leyritz’s time in San Diego was just a pit-stop — that bat-flip of his I will forget not. I also can’t forget players like Joey Hamilton and Sterling Hitchcock. Remember Mike Cameron who played center field, and played it well? That was before Milton Bradley, who last I heard was facing a stay in Jail. Speaking of Bradley; who remembers the game when he and the umpire had a spat and manager Bud Black was trying to hold him back, and in the midst of all of that, somehow Bradley tore his ACL? Oh, I can’t forget about one of my favorite Padres pitchers. That would be none other than David Wells, or Mark Langston, along with the other Padres named Mark in that era. I’m talking Mark Grant, Mark Sweeney, as well as Mark Loretta. 1984, 1996, 1998, 2005 and 2006, a special shout-out to those rosters. On them I’m sure the late great Jerry Coleman hung the most stars, gave them the most oh doctors. Mr. Coleman rest in peace. The Padres’ organization has had some good moments, but also has had its share of grief. It was a sad day when Trevor Hoffman left, to say the least. Ask why? Because the team went from “Hells-Bells” to the only Bell they had was Heath. It’s about time people start to recognize more of the Padres’ exes. I’m talking like Sean Burroughs who was sent to Tampa and Adam Eaton who was sent to Texas, and not just those from the 1998 team who the Padres recently honored and paraded around Petco Park in a Lexus. We need to recognize Padres that played in different seasons, not only just that year. Before I go I can’t forget the Phil’s — I’m talking Phil Nevin and Plantier. Though I haven’t touched on them all, I just wanted to acknowledge some of the memorable players San Diego has had here. Some of which who happen to be my favorite Padres in history, and some of which produced moments I can still picture vividly. If this brought a smile to the face of a Padres fan, trust me, it was done intentionally. Thank you all for joining me as I pay homage to some of my favorite Padres players and relive some of my favorite Padres memories. Jason Cooper is a San Diego Padres writer for RantSports.com. Follow him on Twitter @mrjcpr or add him to your network on Google.Florida Man isn’t the hero we need. He is the hero we deserve. This cantankerous shape shifter wanders the Sunshine State inflicting folly on small town and big city alike. His love of drugs, especially stimulants, is at a level usually reserved for Gonzo journalists. He is skilled in all things from weaponry to garden maintenance. He has the uncanny ability to be arrested and back on the street within minutes. Some suspect that he might be a time traveler, like a pill popping Keystone drinking Doctor Who. The sheer amount of newsprint dedicated to his exploits might be a record. Sometimes, Florida Man is crafty beyond measure. Like the time he foreclosed on a bank, or accidentally banned all computers in the state. Underestimating Florida Man just because he occasionally gets so drunk he sets his car on fire and gives the cops a taco for his ID is a definite mistake. There is also a dark side to Florida Man, an insane fugue state that leads to incredible disasters. Just the other day Florida Man pretended to be a plastic surgeon and botched a penis enlargement. Or there was the time he chewed his fingertips off to avoid being fingerprinted by the cops. His antics are both Jekyll and Hyde. In a state that is filled with giant lizards and more humid heat than a nuclear reactor, is it really surprising that he can’t always control his powers? In the end, this vagabond is America. He lives free, untethered to the rules and laws of man. Sure, he might burn your house down for telling him not to masturbate in front of a window, but haven’t we all been there? Let he who hasn’t tried to pay for booze with a rock cast that same stone. Like the guitar solo in ‘Freebird,” Florida Man is a living monument to what the blood of patriots has won. He is a reminder that our self imposed limitations, like Florida laws, are just a constructs of The Man. Fight on, Florida Man. We’ll see you in the papers. — Tony Southcotte hails from the Rocky Mountains somewhere around the state of Colorado. Possibly raised by grizzly bears, this gritty denizen of the arena now spends most of his time grappling with Java updates and dysfunctional RAM. With not much fiction under his belt, it might seem tempting to bet against Mister Southcotte, but an impressive knowledge of everything from PVC pipe to psychedelic drugs makes Tony a storehouse of fiction waiting to hit the paper. Plus, you know, there’s the possibility of him ripping you apart like a grizzly bear.PITTSBURGH (June 14, 2017) – The Pittsburgh Riverhounds have agreed to a developmental partnership with the Ocean City Nor’easters of the Premier Development League (PDL) through the 2018 season. Originally founded as a Division 3 pro club in 1996, the Nor'easters joined the PDL in 2003 and since then have the sixth-best record among the 72 teams in the league. Ocean City has qualified for the playoffs seven times and has made two PDL final four appearances since 2013, and has won multiple honors, including Organization of the Year in 2008. The amateur club’s success has translated against professional opponents as well, notching five upsets in Open Cup play since 2003 and recording four wins against MLS Under-23 squads this past summer – D.C. United, New England Revolution, New York Red Bulls and Reading United. "I am personally really excited to do this partnership deal with Ocean City,” head coach Dave Brandt said. “It's a club I've been aware of and familiar with for quite awhile, and they have a fantastic record and reputation both as a winning organization, and an organization who are serious about developing and working with top players and advancing their careers. Clearly one of the top PDL organizations in the country, and we are delighted to align with them." As part of the developmental side of the USL, the Nor’easters have paved the way for several players to professional soccer, seeing 22 members drafted into MLS, including 10 in the last three years, and more than 60 of them have moved on to sign pro contracts since 2003. Six of them have played with the Hounds, including three current players: Keasel Broome, John Manga and Chevaughn Walsh – the latter most notably signed last year after notching PDL MVP and Golden Boot honors. Both clubs expect the affiliation to provide key improvements in player identification, establishing an expanded player-scouting network between the clubs, in addition to staff development initiatives within the USL-PDL framework. Initiatives are expected to include collaboration between the staffs of both clubs in training, film work, as well as the potential for Ocean City prospects to trial with the Hounds throughout the summer. "We are thrilled and equally excited to have the opportunity to work closely with the Hounds. We felt this partnership was the right time, the right place and most importantly, the right organization,” said Tim Oswald, Ocean City Sporting Director. “We have been very impressed with Coach Brandt's philosophies and vision for the club and his aspirations to push the envelope in his short time with Pittsburgh. I have no doubt that he will grow the club and its brand to new heights. “This partnership exemplifies the Path-to-Pro model of the PDL and we are proud to provide our players and staff with an expanded umbrella for development.” With the addition of Ocean City, the Hounds have further strengthened their developmental network, now running affiliations from the PDL through MLS (Columbus Crew SC).October was a rotten month for the U.S. housing market. Today, we learn that new home sales fell by 8.1% to an annualized rate of just 283,000, according to the Census Bureau. That's well below the increase to 310,000 that economists estimated. This follows news yesterday that existing home sales also dropped, by 2.2%. Fewer new homes sold shows even more clearly that home buying demand is failing to recover. Here's how the chart looks: You can see that new home sales rebounded slightly in September after hitting an all-time low in August. But in October, they dropped back down to their July level. There's no upward trend here. Instead, sales appear to be stabilizing at an annualized rate below 300,000. The drop in existing home sales was pretty easy to explain away as likely caused in large part by the foreclosure and mortgage documentation mess. With new home sales, that argument isn't as strong. While potential buyers in general might be wary about banks practices and procedures surrounding mortgages, with existing home sales foreclosed property sales are relevant. With new home sales struggling, however, it's more likely that simply weak home buying demand is to blame -- at least in the market for new houses. That's particularly bad news for construction jobs, which could use a boost by more homebuilding. But fewer new home sales also means that more buying demand will extinguish existing home inventory more quickly, which should help the housing market hit bottom sooner so it can finally rebound in a meaningful way. We want to hear what you think about this article. Submit a letter to the editor or write to letters@theatlantic.com.Tutorials and Talks Using Google Translate API with PHP Jacek Barecki has a tutorial on SitePoint PHP showing you how to use the Google Translate API to handle the translation of dynamic input that may have come from other sources. After going through this tutorial you will be able to fetch translations from the Google Translate API right from your app. You will learn how to gain access to the API, how to use it and how to handle errors if they occur. Incorporating Mongounit into Multi-datasource Models with Traits Chris Saylor writes on the Zumba Engineering site - A while back we open sourced Mongounit, a PHPUnit extension for testing models utilising mongodb. One key issue that we’ve discovered as we incorporate MongoDB into more of our data models is that extending Mongounit’s TestCase class limits that unit test towards Mongo only as the datasource. Since only a portion of our data is in Mongo while the remaining is in MySQL, limiting a test case to work with one datasource or another is too limiting. Building A Web App with Symfony 2 - Finalising In Part 1 and Part 2 of this series, Taylor Ren covered the basics of using Symfony 2 to develop a functioning web site. In this part of the tutorial he covers some more advanced techniques and finishes the project with pagination, image watermarks and NativeQuery. The code he'll be using is identical to the code from Part 2 – the features are already there, they just weren't discussed. HHVM With Symfony 2 Looks Amazing Facebook recently announced that their HHVM is now more compatible with most of the popular framework. On the Liip blog, Christian Stocker posted his findings after working with Symfony2 on the HHVM, based on Facebook's work around the HipHop version of optimised PHP. DTracing a PHPUnit Test: Looking at Functional Programming Christopher Jones has posted a quick example of using DTrace Dynamic Tracing to work out what a PHP code base does. He thought this would be a good time to fire up DTrace and see what is going on. Since DTrace is "always available" even in production machines (once PHP is compiled with --enable-dtrace), this was easy to do. Practical PHP Refactoring: Encapsulate Downcast (and Wrapping) On the dzone site, Giorgio Sironi has posted - In statically typed languages, each variable must have a minimal type known at compile time. PHP instead, a is dynamic language where variable can contain any object and the only enforcement of an interface can be performed on method parameters via type hinting. Introduction to Gearman - Multitasking in PHP Gearman provides a distributed application framework for work with multiple machines or processes. It allows applications to complete tasks in parallel, to load balance processing and to call functions between languages. The framework can be used in a variety of applications. Gearman is multi-threaded and is known to be able to carry out 50 thousand jobs per-second. On the SitePoint PHP blog there is an introductory tutorial showing you how to use Gearman in PHP to handle multitasking outside of the normal script execution. Introduction to Clustering in PHP In Part 1 of this tutorial, an extremely simplified definition of clustering would be having multiple computers working together for a single goal. Typically you see it with distributed computing applications (network rendering of graphics, protein folding, etc.), but in the web world it is defined as having multiple servers providing a website or service. In practice, however, this can be more complicated especially when coupled with incorrect ideas around what clustering truly is. Mapping with Geocoder PHP and Leaflet.js Interactive maps inside a web application have a lot of great uses. From visualising data to highlighting points of interest, maps are expected to communicate ideas within the context of location easily. The hardest part, however, is converting that data into coordinates that the map can understand. Luckily, Geocoder PHP allows us to connect to different geo-coding providers. Combined with Leaflet.js, a simple Javascript library, creating maps is a breeze. Beyond Inheritance In his last post, Anthony Ferrara talked about revisiting the concept of Design Patterns and questioned how useful it is to "learn" them. The conclusion drawn was that you are better served by focusing on how objects communicate rather than traditional patterns. With that not the only "traditional concept" he believes we should move beyond. So let's talk about inheritance... Jacek Barecki has a tutorial on SitePoint PHP showing you how to use the Google Translate API to handle the translation of dynamic input that may have come from other sources. After going through this tutorial you will be able to fetch translations from the Google Translate API right from your app. You will learn how to gain access to the API, how to use it and how to handle errors if they occur.Chris Saylor writes on the Zumba Engineering site - A while back we open sourced Mongounit, a PHPUnit extension for testing models utilising mongodb. One key issue that we’ve discovered as we incorporate MongoDB into more of our data models is that extending Mongounit’s TestCase class limits that unit test towards Mongo only as the datasource. Since only a portion of our data is in Mongo while the remaining is in MySQL, limiting a test case to work with one datasource or another is too limiting.In Part 1 and Part 2 of this series, Taylor Ren covered the basics of using Symfony 2 to develop a functioning web site. In this part of the tutorial he covers some more advanced techniques and finishes the project with pagination, image watermarks and NativeQuery. The code he'll be using is identical to the code from Part 2 – the features are already there, they just weren't discussed.Facebook recently announced that their HHVM is now more compatible with most of the popular framework. On the Liip blog, Christian Stocker posted his findings after working with Symfony2 on the HHVM, based on Facebook's work around the HipHop version of optimised PHP.Christopher Jones has posted a quick example of using DTrace Dynamic Tracing to work out what a PHP code base does. He thought this would be a good time to fire up DTrace and see what is going on. Since DTrace is "always available" even in production machines (once PHP is compiled with --enable-dtrace), this was easy to do.On the dzone site, Giorgio Sironi has posted - In statically typed languages, each variable must have a minimal type known at compile time. PHP instead, a is dynamic language where variable can contain any object and the only enforcement of an interface can be performed on method parameters via type hinting.Gearman provides a distributed application framework for work with multiple machines or processes. It allows applications to complete tasks in parallel, to load balance processing and to call functions between languages. The framework can be used in a variety of applications. Gearman is multi-threaded and is known to be able to carry out 50 thousand jobs per-second. On the SitePoint PHP blog there is an introductory tutorial showing you how to use Gearman in PHP to handle multitasking outside of the normal script execution.In Part 1 of this tutorial, an extremely simplified definition of clustering would be having multiple computers working together for a single goal. Typically you see it with distributed computing applications (network rendering of graphics, protein folding, etc.), but in the web world it is defined as having multiple servers providing a website or service. In practice, however, this can be more complicated especially when coupled with incorrect ideas around what clustering truly is.Interactive maps inside a web application have a lot of great uses. From visualising data to highlighting points of interest, maps are expected to communicate ideas within the context of location easily. The hardest part, however, is converting that data into coordinates that the map can understand. Luckily, Geocoder PHP allows us to connect to different geo-coding providers. Combined with Leaflet.js, a simple Javascript library, creating maps is a breeze.In his last post, Anthony Ferrara talked about revisiting the concept of Design Patterns and questioned how useful it is to "learn" them. The conclusion drawn was that you are better served by focusing on how objects communicate rather than traditional patterns. With that not the only "traditional concept" he believes we should move beyond. So let's talk about inheritance...Apache Kafka is a very popular message broker, comparable in popularity to Logstash. More and more companies build streaming pipelines to react on, and publish events. Kafka gains accelerated adoption for event storage, distribution, and Elasticsearch for projection. My friend Hannes and I call it a perfect match, so we gathered during a quiet christmas holiday to implement a connector between the two. All code is available on Github and runs on Docker Compose. Note For this article I’ve worked with Hannes Stockner, Hannes is a freelance developer with significant experience working in Kafka. In the past he worked as a Software Engineer for various companies in Vienna, Hamburg, and London. Currently he streams millions of events a day with Apache Kafka, Apache Samza, Spark and Cassandra in real-time. Meet him at Kafka London Meetup. Prerequisites A Linux console or Apple OSX console (not tested on windows, but adaptable with little effort) A Git client to fetch the project Docker Compose Apache Maven installed, Maven would not work with a JRE, requires a JDK7 or greater and JAVA_HOME pointing to it. Check if ”'mvn -v” reports a JDK Git clone https://github.com/hannesstockner/kafka-connect-elasticsearch What is Kafka Connect? Until recently, the integration between Kafka and the outer world was totally left to the integrator. For example, there is an Elasticsearch plugin for consuming Kafka topics. With Connect, the Kafka team reacted to different quality levels of homegrown integrations, common problems were addressed: scalability, fault tolerance, and configuration management. Up and running in one minute For this post, we will be using hosted Elasticsearch on Qbox.io. You can sign up or launch your cluster here, or click "Get Started" in the header navigation. If you need help setting up, refer to "Provisioning a Qbox Elasticsearch Cluster." Why not start from the end? All the work is already done, so you can experiment with our basic connector. We used the flozano/kafka Docker Image together with the official elastic search image to create a Docker compose. Run docker pull -a flozano/kafka If you have Elasticsearch already running, make sure to shut it down first. Then build a fat jar out of the source code of the kafka-connect-elasticsearch project, in the project folder run: mvn clean package Export the environment variable: export DOCKER_IP=<your prefered docker IP, example: 172.17.0.1> Go to the project folder and run: docker-compose up Result: Starting kafkaconnectelasticsearch_elasticsearch_1 Starting kafkaconnectelasticsearch_kafka_1 Attaching to kafkaconnectelasticsearch_elasticsearch_1, kafkaconnectelasticsearch_kafka_1... kafka_1 \| 2016-01-03 09:44:13,952 INFO success: kafka entered RUNNING state, process has stayed up for > than 1 seconds (startsecs) docker ps should show something like: e77a432c25e9 flozano/kafka:0.9.0.0 "supervisord -n" 19 hours ago Up 40 minutes 0.0.0.0:2181->2181/tcp, 0.0.0.0:9092->9092/tcp kafkaconnectelasticsearch_kafka_1 6a161df0d06d elasticsearch "/docker-entrypoint.s" 19 hours ago Up 40 minutes 0.0.0.0:9200->9200/tcp, 0.0.0.0:9300->9300/tcp kafkaconnectelasticsearch_elasticsearch_1 goto http://<your prefered docker IP, example: 172.17.0.1>:9200/kafka_recipes/_search it should respond with: { error: { root_cause: [ { type: "index_not_found_exception", reason: "no such index", resource.type: "index_or_alias", resource.id: "kafka_recipes", index: "kafka_recipes" } ], type: "index_not_found_exception", reason: "no such index", resource.type: "index_or_alias", resource.id: "kafka_recipes", index: "kafka_recipes" }, status: 404 } Now run the script./run_standalone.sh in order to start the Kafka Connect server (make sure your console has the exported DOCKER_IP variable). The script will import a bunch of recipes from the openrecipes database. You can inspect Kafka connect at http://localhost:8083/connectors/local-elasticsearch-sink { name: "local-elasticsearch-sink", config: { topics: "recipes", index.prefix: "kafka_", tasks.max: "1", name: "local-elasticsearch-sink", es.host: "docker", connector.class: "com.hannesstockner.connect.es.ElasticsearchSinkConnector" }, tasks: [ { connector: "local-elasticsearch-sink", task: 0 } ] } How to build an Elasticsearch Connector Figure: A Kafka Connector subscribes to a Topic and expands tasks according to the load of the Topic. Tasks feed an Elasticsearch cluster. Kafka Connect consists of two classes: (1) One representing the Connector, its duty is to configure and start (2) Tasks, which are processing the incoming stream. Our implementation requires a SinkConnector only, because the business cases for Elasticsearch as a source for Kafka Topics are not numerous we use the standard FileSourceConnector to feed Kafka with openrecipes.json data. Figure: Components and Dependencies of the project. Docker Compose manages two Docker containers, one for Kafka, one for Elasticsearch. public class ElasticsearchSinkConnector extends SinkConnector { public static final String ES_HOST = "es.host"; public static final String INDEX_PREFIX = "index.prefix"; private String esHost; private String indexPrefix; @Override public String version() { return AppInfoParser.getVersion(); } @Override public void start(Map<String, String> props) { esHost = props.get(ES_HOST); indexPrefix = props.get(INDEX_PREFIX); } @Override public Class<? extends Task> taskClass() { return ElasticsearchSinkTask.class; } @Override public List<Map<String, String>> taskConfigs(int maxTasks) { ArrayList<Map<String, String>> configs = new ArrayList<>(); for (int i = 0; i < maxTasks; i++) { Map<String, String> config = new HashMap<>(); if (esHost!= null) config.put(ES_HOST, esHost); if (indexPrefix!= null) config.put(INDEX_PREFIX, indexPrefix); configs.add(config); } return configs; } @Override public void stop() { //not implemented } } Code: the Connector class configures the tasks and provides a template how to start the tasks public class ElasticsearchSinkTask extends SinkTask { private static final Logger log = LoggerFactory.getLogger(ElasticsearchSinkTask.class); private String indexPrefix; private final String TYPE = "kafka"; private Client client; @Override public void start(Map<String, String> props) { final String esHost = props.get(ElasticsearchSinkConnector.ES_HOST); indexPrefix = props.get(ElasticsearchSinkConnector.INDEX_PREFIX); try { client = TransportClient.builder().build().addTransportAddress(new InetSocketTransportAddress(InetAddress.getByName(esHost), 9300)); client.admin().indices().preparePutTemplate("kafka_template").setTemplate(indexPrefix + "*").addMapping(TYPE, new HashMap<String, Object>() {{ put("date_detection", false); put("numeric_detection", false); }}).get(); } catch (UnknownHostException ex) { throw new ConnectException("Couldn't connect to es host", ex); } } @Override public void put(Collection<SinkRecord> records) { for (SinkRecord record : records) { log.info("Processing {}", record.value()); log.info(record.value().getClass().toString()); client.prepareIndex(indexPrefix + record.topic(), TYPE).setSource(record.value().toString()).get(); } } @Override public void flush(Map<TopicPartition, OffsetAndMetadata> offsets) { } @Override public void stop() { client.close(); } @Override public String version() { return new ElasticsearchSinkConnector().version(); } Code: The SinkTask Class initializes the Elasticsearch index and streams new data from a Kafka Topic. Lifecycle of a Kafka Connect Task Based on the two represented Java classes we examine the lifecycle of the whole Connect infrastructure: The ElasticsearchSinkConnector reads the configuration properties in start(Map<String, String> props) In taskConfigs(int maxTasks) each Task can be configured separately, we are subscribing to the same Kafka Topic and everyone is forwarding Json to the same Elasticsearch Index Each ElasticsearchSinkTask receives its config with start(Map<String, String> props) It creates an Elasticsearch TransportClient A dynamic Elasticsearch mapping template is created for Kafka Connect related indexes. Since the Elasticsearch operation is idempotent, we can do this for every task-initialization. Initialization phase has ended. Now, Kafka Connect listens to the registered topic and we push records into Elasticsearch with SinkTask#put(Collection<SinkRecord> records). When shut down, ElasticsearchSinkTask#stop() is called, which closes all connections to ES. Finally, the Connect Standalone server is taken down and the program exited. Cleaning the Docker Image if something goes wrong If you need to start fresh during your experimentations, try: docker volume rm $(docker volume ls -qf dangling=true) docker volume ls -f dangling=true docker-compose rm docker-compose up Conclusion In this article we have demonstrated how Kafka can feed Elasticsearch through Kafka Connect. The new Connect library makes it easy to get data in or out of Kafka. Therefore, implementers can focus on the copy process. Connect guarantees robust scalable processing of Kafka topics and should be used instead of Elasticsearch plugins. References Great introduction to Kafka Connect: http://www.confluent.io/blog/how-to-build-a-scalable-etl-pipeline-with-kafka-connect We used dynamic mapping for this demo: https://www.elastic.co/guide/en/elasticsearch/guide/current/dynamic-mapping.htmlShare Pinterest Email Following on reports that Kobe Steel, one of Japan’s leading steel manufacturers, manipulated manufacturing data for its copper and aluminum production, new information claims the company also falsified data for its steel manufacturing. According to Bloomberg, Kobe Steel falsified quality certification data for steel wire. Parts using this type of wire can include belts in radial tires and critical internal engine parts like valve springs. There aren’t any reported recalls associated with this announcement at the time of writing, but considering the risk, that’s bound to change. Recalls 2.7 million more Takata airbag inflators recalled after new findings The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration says ongoing testing of Takata-made airbags will force an additional 2.7 million airbag inflators to be recalled. The inflators in question were... Like the Takata airbag scandal, the initial findings appear to be opening floodgates of deep-seated misconduct. Insiders aren’t sure why the company is certifying materials outside of the acceptable ranges, but according to the managing director of the Bucephalus Research Partnership, it’s likely due to one of two reasons: either the company is just trying to save money or they can’t produce the right material in the right amounts. The scandal is still unfolding, but it’s reported that Kobe Steel has lost nearly $2 billion in market value so far. The companies that used Kobe for as a supplier are also under investigation.Image copyright AP Image caption Thousands of anti-government protesters are occupying two Islamabad highways Anti-government demonstrators in Pakistan are advancing towards parliament, breaching a designated secure zone in the capital Islamabad. Protesters used wire cutters and cranes to move shipping containers barricading the so-called red zone, which houses state buildings and foreign embassies. They have encountered no resistance so far from security forces, who have been instructed to avoid violence. The demonstrators want Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif to resign. Thousands of anti-government protesters have been occupying two Islamabad highways. Imran Khan, the cricketer-turned-politician, has been leading one group of protesters since Friday. He accuses Mr Sharif's PML-N party of vote-rigging in the 2013 election and has called on him to stand down. Mr Sharif's party won that election by a landslide in what was Pakistan's first peaceful transfer of power between two civilian democratic governments. 'Blood boiling' Anti-government cleric Tahirul Qadri has also mobilised his supporters to march on Islamabad. The government has accused the protesters of attempting to derail democracy. They have offered talks with the demonstrators, but these have been rejected. The protesters are advancing at a snail's pace, and are not likely to reach the parliament until late in the night, the BBC's Ilyas Khan in Islamabad reports. Thousands of policemen are deployed around the red zone, and appear to be equipped with riot gear and teargas shells, but not firearms, our correspondent adds. Image copyright AFP Image caption Thousands of protesters are marching towards Pakistan's parliament Image copyright AFP Image caption Protesters used cranes to remove containers barricading the red zone Image copyright Reuters Image caption Imran Khan has been using a shipping container as a stage during the protests At the scene: Ilyas Khan, BBC News, Islamabad The protesters chanted slogans as they breached the barriers to enter Islamabad's high security zone. The police offered no resistance, though they did steer the crowd through a single route instead of allowing them to spread out. So tens of thousands of protesters are now set to occupy Constitution Avenue, which many believe will paralyse key state institutions, such as parliament, the Supreme Court and the federal ministries. The unrest has seen the government of Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif put on the back foot; first it decided not to resist the protesters' convergence on Islamabad, and later conceded their demands of setting up protest camps where they wanted. Now that they are inside the capital's "red zone", many fear the government's options to defuse the crisis may be shrinking. Earlier on Tuesday, Interior Minister Chaudhry Nisar said: "The government has decided to hand over the security of the red zone of Islamabad to the army." Some observers said the move could indicate that the government had the support of the military. Fear of violence Supporters of Mr Khan and Mr Qadri are angry about Pakistan's poorly performing economy, growing militancy, and the government's failure to deliver services such as a steady electricity supply. But other opposition figures have criticised the demonstrations and Mr Khan's call for people to stop paying tax bills in protest at the government. In a country with a history of military coups, there is a fear of violence and of a possible army reaction, correspondents say. On Monday MPs from Imran Khan's PTI party vowed to quit their national assembly seats. The Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaaf (PTI) party has 34 of the national assembly's 342 seats, making it the second-biggest opposition group. The lawmakers have yet to tender their formal resignations to the speaker of the national assembly. The party said it would also resign from seats on provincial assemblies, except for Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, which it governs.Spy agencies reportedly have a long-standing ban on Lenovo PCs due to backdoor vulnerabilities that could allow an attacker to remotely access to the computers. Spy agencies reportedly have a long-standing ban on Lenovo PCs due to backdoor vulnerabilities. Lenovo PC banned by spy agencies in the UK, Australia and the US due the possible impairment with a backdoor that could allow attackers to remotely access to the computers. The news was reported by the Australian Financial Review which revealed that intelligence agencies banned Lenovo PCs due the presence of backdoor vulnerabilities that were discovered during testing sessions. The document reveals that intelligence sources confirmed the ban was decided since the mid-2000s “just after a series of test conducted for the hardware and firmware qualification on Lenovo chips. The research allegedly documented the presence of hardware and firmware backdoor vulnerabilities in Lenovo chips. “AFR Weekend has been told British intelligence agencies’ laboratories took a lead role in the research into Lenovo’s products. Members of the British and Australian defence and intelligence communities say that malicious modifications to Lenovo’s circuitry – beyond more typical vulnerabilities or “zero-days” in its software – were discovered that could allow people to remotely access devices without the users’ knowledge. The alleged presence of these hardware “back doors” remains highly classified.” The details on the tests conducted and related results are considered classified, but anyway it was diffused the concerning revelation, “Lenovo’s PC include vulnerabilities allegedly could provide remote access to intruders”. The inhibition could be shared by the “Five Eyes” group of nations, Australia, Canada, New Zealand, the UK and the US, due the strong collaboration within respective intelligence agencies. The spy agencies fear the Chinese cyber espionage, a silent menace that is able to steal intellectual property and sensitive information from private businesses and government offices. A security analyst at tech research firm IBRS, James Turner, said hardware back doors are very hard to detect if well designed.They were often created to look like a
I turned them on to the pizza there," she joked. Across the street from Harry's used to be Durant Motors before it was purchased by General Motors, which gave factory workers a convenient place to chow down. Harry’s opened in 1922, making it Lansing’s longest family-owned restaurant business. How to go Closed Sunday, 10 a.m. to midnight Monday through Saturday. Harry's Place, 404 N. Verlinden Ave. in Lansing. You might also like: Best bang-for-your-buck pizza Buy Photo Leo's Lodge is located at 2525 E. Jolly Road in Lansing. (Photo: Tony Richards/for the Lansing State Journal) On Sundays, when you order any size pizza at Leo's Outpost or Leo's Lodge, you get another one free if you dine in. Unlike Cosmos, you won't find roasted pears or pistachios on your pizza. The "craziest" topping you'll find here is anchovies, which is perfect for those who prefer their pizza traditional. Need another reason to go? (Hint: It involves booze.) Bloody Marys are $4 all day Sunday at both locations. And if you're looking for a place outside of Lansing, Relli's specialty pizzas in DeWitt are half off all day Wednesday. How to go Noon to midnight Sunday through Wednesday, 11 a.m. to 2 a.m. Thursday through Saturday. Leo's Lodge, 2525 E. Jolly Rd. in Lansing. Noon to midnight Sunday through Wednesday, 11 a.m. to 2 a.m. Thursday through Saturday. Leo's Outpost, 600 S. Pennsylvania Ave. in Lansing. 9 a.m. to 11 p.m. Sunday, 11 a.m. to 11 p.m. Monday through Wednesday, 11 a.m. to midnight Thursday, 11 a.m. to 1 a.m. Friday and Saturday. Relli's, 202 E. Main St. in DeWitt. More on lsj.com Best gluten-free pizza Buy Photo Bell's Greek Pizza in East Lansing has gluten-free options. (Photo: Jeremy Herliczek/for the Lansing State Journal) Allergic or sensitive to gluten? Chances are that you've probably given up on eating pizza a while ago, or have resorted to making your own. The good news is that Bell's Greek Pizza in East Lansing offers gluten-free options, they never charge extra, and the crust doesn't taste like cardboard, promised owner Habib Jarwan from Lebanon. "Our crust is seasoned with herbs, so it's flavorful," he said, "and nothing – our dough, sauce, veggies, meat – is ever frozen or canned. That's why we've been around 50 years." Also? Bell's pizza is probably the only pizza in the Lansing area with a Middle Eastern twist. Take the chicken shawarma pizza, for instance. Or the gyro pizza with lamb gyro meat, tomatoes, onions and tzatziki sauce – which usually consists of yogurt, sour cream, cucumber and garlic pureed with olive oil, dill and lemon juice. "I'm vegan, but sometimes I cheat because the (gyro pizza) is so yummy," Jarwan joked. When you don't feel like grabbing an entire box of pizza, stop by on Wednesdays and enjoy a slice for a dollar. How to go 10 a.m. to 4 a.m. Sunday through Saturday. Bell's Greek Pizza, 1135 E. Grand River Ave. in East Lansing. Best surprisingly tasty pizza "We're not as fancy as some of the other guys, but we take pride in our pizza," said Center Stage co-owner Steve Mudget. At Center Stage, you can pretty much build your own pizza because they offer "just about any topping." But the key to making delicious pizza is perfectly cooked cheese, Mudget said. They use a blend of muenster, provolone, white cheddar and mozzarella cheeses. "You want (the cheese) to get a little bubbly and slightly brown," Mudget said, adding that "our regulars come in and order pizza a couple times a week." As a bonus, they also offer trivia on Thursdays and live entertainment Saturday nights. And speaking of unexpected delights, Dispatch, an Irish sports pub right off Interstate 496 on Lansing Road, makes a mean garlic chicken parmesan pizza. How to go Closed Sunday, 11 a.m. to 10 p.m. Monday through Thursday, 11 a.m. to midnight Friday, 4 p.m. to 1 a.m. Saturday. Center Stage, 1785 W. State Rd. in Lansing. Noon to midnight Sunday, 11 a.m. to 2 a.m. Monday through Saturday. Dispatch Sports Pub & Grill, 3004 Main St. in Lansing. What would you add to this list? Contact Reporter Princess Gabbara at pgabbara@lsj.com or (517) 377-1006. Follow her on Twitter at @PrincessGabbara. Read or Share this story: http://on.lsj.com/2B1yTjaA Japanese diplomat wrote shortly after World War II that Japan’s theoretical and technical knowhow on encrypting sensitive information was woefully underdeveloped during the hostilities, declassified diplomatic records Thursday showed. Kazuji Kameyama, who had previously headed the telegram division of the Foreign Ministry, wrote in December 1945 that Japan would face “a tremendous disadvantage” in the international arena if it were left behind in this area amid rapid advances in other countries’ encryption technology. Kameyama, then a counselor at the Japanese Embassy in Moscow, reflected on how Japan was outsmarted by the United States, which managed to intercept and decipher its coded messages exchanged between the ministry and diplomatic missions abroad during the war. He proposed that Japan immediately “take advantage of the lesson it had drawn from its abject failure in the past.” Specifically, Kameyama called for setting up a research center to improve Japan’s encryption technology and facilities to make necessary prototype cipher machines and promoting the training of technicians. Kameyama later served as the first mayor of Seki, Gifu Prefecture.Now, I’m not going to start a victory lap until Lucasfilm official reveals a May 20th release of Episode VII, but this is some promising news. We’ve been screaming over and over that those stupid December delay rumors are flat-out lies created by a blogger with some kind of perverted grudge against J.J. Abrams, but now a leak of Lucasfilm marketing materials again confirms that Episode VII is slated for a “Spring/Summer 2015″ release. JediNewsUK received a brochure from the European Brand Licensing Show that details Disney/Lucasfilm’s Star Wars marketing plans for the next two years. Right there in “Spring/Summer 2015″ they list the theatrical release of Episode VII: Will this stop those lying bloggers trying to smear Star Wars by making up false rumors about a December delay? Doubtful, as bad Star Wars Episode VII news drives hits to their sites. But this is official marketing material, and if the movie was coming out in December it wouldn’t specifically say Summer.Stick-wielding attacker leaves man with brain injury in S.F. San Francisco police are investigating separate stabbings over the weekend in the Mission District and Chinatown that left two men wounded, including one with life-threatening injuries. San Francisco police are investigating separate stabbings over the weekend in the Mission District and Chinatown that left two men wounded, including one with life-threatening injuries. Photo: Spencer Platt / Getty Image, Getty Image Photo: Spencer Platt / Getty Image, Getty Image Image 1 of / 1 Caption Close Stick-wielding attacker leaves man with brain injury in S.F. 1 / 1 Back to Gallery Police are investigating a brutal beating that left a man with life threatening injuries, including a fractured skull, in San Francisco’s Portola neighborhood early Friday morning, authorities said. Officers responded to reports of the attack around 12:45 a.m., said Officer Albie Esparza, a police spokesman, near the corner of San Bruno Avenue and Bacon Street. Investigators determined the victim, a 51-year-old man, had been waiting at a bus stop when he was attacked for no discernible reason by an unknown assailant wielding a stick, Esparza said. The victim suffered a fractured skull, bleeding on the brain, a punctured lung and broken ribs, Esparza said, and was being treated at a local hospital. There was no apparent motive, Esparza said, and no description of the attacker. Anyone with information about the attack can contact investigators at (415) 575-4444. Kale Williams is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. E-mail: kwilliams@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @sfkaleAldarisGCE Profile Joined June 2013 United States 20 Posts Last Edited: 2014-09-03 23:47:27 #1 First and foremost I would like to say that my primary concern at this point in time is assisting our current players that wish to leave Alloy eSports find new teams. I do not want their reputations or careers damaged by this. If any teams are interested in signing any of the players currently on the Alloy eSports roster, please feel free to contact me. The only goal I have ever had is to give players a chance to achieve the highest possible level of success in eSports. I made mistakes. That much is clear. I have not been honest with myself more than anyone else. I had a dream, and that was to help people achieve their own dream. It is clear that I do not have enough experience, regardless of my 4 years of education in business and management, to effectively and properly own and operate an organization in eSports. By far my biggest mistake from a management standpoint was not having written contracts on everything. Not only is it bad business, but also leaves an organization unprotected and completely liable. The next biggest mistake I made was saying I could provide something before I ever had any physical or written proof that Alloy eSports would receive it(it meaning gear, funding, etc.). The next biggest mistake has to be not telling the complete truth to everyone 100% of the time. It was and still is the wrong thing for me to have done. As a person, I would like to sincerely and deeply apologize to any players, owners, managers, casters, or fans that I may have negatively impacted by my actions as a team owner. I know it will not be enough for most of you, but I hope it means something to at least a few people out there. Although it may not have always seemed like it, my actions were always in the best interest of the players or the team, never for personal gain. The Alloy eSports management staff and I have not yet decided what the proper course of action is, and we do not want to make any decisions without first speaking with the current members of our organization. We will keep everyone updated about our decision via r/starcraft as well as the Alloy eSports Twitter and Facebook accounts. We will be able to be more clear in definitive in the next few hours and the coming days. I would like to thank everyone that is or has been apart of or contributed to Alloy eSports in any capacity. Your hard work, dedication, time, and commitment have been truly invaluable and nothing short of admirable and inspiring. To all of you, past and present, thank you and GLHF, I hope you are able to succeed in spite of this. My goal and dream was to help elevate players to the highest possible levels of success. Unfortunately, I failed to do so in a proper and morally correct manner. To my fellow fans of eSports and specifically Starcraft, Please do not let my poor choice of actions and decisions deter you from following and supporting eSports. Regardless to what some people may say, Starcraft is not even close to dead. The viewership for recent tournaments continues to be very strong, and the scene in terms of teams and players is healthier than ever. It may not be as big as it was, but it is much healthier, for lack of a better word. So again, I beg of you, PLEASE do not let what I have done change your opinion or support of eSports. With all of this in mind, I would like to say that regardless of what course of action is taken regarding the future of Alloy eSports in the coming hours and days in order to hopefully preserve the team and its survival, I will be stepping down and removing myself from any and all operational tasks relating to Alloy eSports effective immediately following the release of this statement by Richard Lewis. EDIT: Article being commented on http://www.dailydot.com/esports/alloy-esports-cube-moore/ First and foremost I would like to say that my primary concern at this point in time is assisting our current players that wish to leave Alloy eSports find new teams. I do not want their reputations or careers damaged by this. If any teams are interested in signing any of the players currently on the Alloy eSports roster, please feel free to contact me. The only goal I have ever had is to give players a chance to achieve the highest possible level of success in eSports.I made mistakes. That much is clear. I have not been honest with myself more than anyone else. I had a dream, and that was to help people achieve their own dream. It is clear that I do not have enough experience, regardless of my 4 years of education in business and management, to effectively and properly own and operate an organization in eSports.By far my biggest mistake from a management standpoint was not having written contracts on everything. Not only is it bad business, but also leaves an organization unprotected and completely liable. The next biggest mistake I made was saying I could provide something before I ever had any physical or written proof that Alloy eSports would receive it(it meaning gear, funding, etc.). The next biggest mistake has to be not telling the complete truth to everyone 100% of the time. It was and still is the wrong thing for me to have done.As a person, I would like to sincerely and deeply apologize to any players, owners, managers, casters, or fans that I may have negatively impacted by my actions as a team owner. I know it will not be enough for most of you, but I hope it means something to at least a few people out there. Although it may not have always seemed like it, my actions were always in the best interest of the players or the team, never for personal gain.The Alloy eSports management staff and I have not yet decided what the proper course of action is, and we do not want to make any decisions without first speaking with the current members of our organization. We will keep everyone updated about our decision via r/starcraft as well as the Alloy eSports Twitter and Facebook accounts. We will be able to be more clear in definitive in the next few hours and the coming days.I would like to thank everyone that is or has been apart of or contributed to Alloy eSports in any capacity. Your hard work, dedication, time, and commitment have been truly invaluable and nothing short of admirable and inspiring. To all of you, past and present, thank you and GLHF, I hope you are able to succeed in spite of this.My goal and dream was to help elevate players to the highest possible levels of success. Unfortunately, I failed to do so in a proper and morally correct manner. To my fellow fans of eSports and specifically Starcraft, Please do not let my poor choice of actions and decisions deter you from following and supporting eSports. Regardless to what some people may say, Starcraft is not even close to dead. The viewership for recent tournaments continues to be very strong, and the scene in terms of teams and players is healthier than ever. It may not be as big as it was, but it is much healthier, for lack of a better word. So again, I beg of you, PLEASE do not let what I have done change your opinion or support of eSports. With all of this in mind, I would like to say that regardless of what course of action is taken regarding the future of Alloy eSports in the coming hours and days in order to hopefully preserve the team and its survival, I will be stepping down and removing myself from any and all operational tasks relating to Alloy eSports effective immediately following the release of this statement by Richard Lewis. Sour About ThatErdogan asks Nawaz to use Islamabad’s pull on Iran and in the Middle East to help Ankara ISLAMABAD: Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Saturday sought Pakistan’s diplomatic support for his country on several crucial issues, including the civil war in Syria. Erdogan, who stopped at the Nur Khan airbase on his way back to Turkey from Indonesia, held a meeting with Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif during his two-hour layover. Although an official statement issued by the government did not reveal much about what the two leaders discussed, sources privy to the meeting shared with The Express Tribune some of the items on the agenda. They said Erdogan asked Premier Nawaz to use Pakistan’s influence on Iran and in the Middle East to help Turkey on several diplomatic fronts. In addition to the ongoing civil war in Syria, these include efforts to curb Kurdish militias, tackle Iran’s influence on the government in Damascus and prevent the Islamic State from penetrating Turkey. According to sources, Erdogan’s Justice and Development Party has weakened after failing to secure a majority in Turkey’s recent general elections. This was the main reason behind the Turkish president’s request for Pakistan’s diplomatic assistance. Erdogan appeared to be concerned in particular about Iran’s expected resurgence following its agreement with world powers over its nuclear programme, sources said. They added that the two leaders devised a strategy in light of this to deal with Tehran’s influence in Syria and on other regional players. The statement issued by the Foreign Office after Erdogan’s meeting with Premier Nawaz said that the two leaders held discussions on enhancing bilateral relations, and on international issues of mutual interest. An official handout released by the Prime Minister’s House said Premier Nawaz appreciated the personal contribution of President Erdogan to the growth and expansion of Pakistan-Turkey ties. It added that the prime minister appreciated Turkey’s technical participation in various development projects in Pakistan and expressed the desire to increase the volume of trade and investment between the two nations. Earlier, upon his arrival at the Nur Khan airbase, the Turkish president was accorded a red carpet welcome. He was received by Prime Minister Nawaz who was accompanied by Punjab Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif, national security and foreign affairs adviser Sartaj Aziz, Finance Minister Ishaq Dar, Defence Minister Khawaja Asif, special assistant Tariq Fatemi, Maryam Nawaz and Foreign Secretary Aizaz Chaudhry. Erdogan was presented the guard of honour by a smartly turned out contingent of the Pakistan Air Force and a bouquet by a young boy and girl dressed in traditional attire. After his brief stopover at the airbase, Erdogan left for Turkey at around 10pm. Before his departure, Prime Minister Nawaz held a banquet in his honour. Published in The Express Tribune, August 2nd, 2015. Read full storyWhen a Puerto Rican wins the Powerball, it’s time to invoke the second amendment and load our guns. That is the message that went out when a $564 million Powerball lottery was held on February 11 and one of the three winning tickets was sold in Ponce, Puerto Rico. Almost immediately, Latino Rebels reported a national spate of offensive tweets, which were soon picked up global outlets such as NBC News, Buzzfeed and The Daily Mail, to name a few. Some of the more memorable ones: “It’s completely outrageous someone from Puerto Rico won the Powerball, thought this was America!” “Puerto Rico won the Powerball? Thanks, Obama.” “Since when could you win a Powerball jackpot in Puerto Rico? Don’t they use the Euro as currency?” Other tweets were written in language too offensive, or grammatically inept, to print. The legality of Powerball in Puerto Rico is beyond question: the island is a U.S. territory, and its inhabitants are U.S. citizens. But the animus behind these tweets —particularly the unprintable ones— indicates a fundamental misunderstanding of the relationship between Puerto Rico and the U.S. Let’s try to correct that. The U.S. “liberated” Puerto Rico from Spain in 1898. Later that same year, Hurricane San Ciriaco destroyed thousands of the island’s farms and nearly the entire year’s coffee crop. Of 50 million pounds, only five million were saved. American hurricane relief was bizarre. The U.S. government sent no money. Instead, the following year it outlawed all Puerto Rican currency and declared the island’s peso, whose international value was equal to the U.S. dollar, to be worth only sixty American cents. Every Puerto Rican lost 40% of his or her money overnight. In 1901, the U.S. passed the Hollander Act, which raised the taxes on every farmer in Puerto Rico. With higher taxes, crippled farms, and 40% less cash, the farmers had to borrow money from U.S. banks. But with no usury law restrictions, interest rates were so high that within a decade, the farmers defaulted on their loans and the banks foreclosed on their land. The U.S., which was undergoing its industrial revolution, then turned a diversified island harvest (coffee, tobacco, sugar, and fruit) into a one-crop, cash-cow economy. By 1930, all of Puerto Rico’s sugar farms belonged to 41 syndicates. 80% of these were U.S.-owned and the largest four syndicates —Central Guánica, South Puerto Rico, Fajardo Sugar and East Puerto Rico Sugar— were entirely U.S.-owned and covered over half the island’s arable land. With no money, crops or land, Puerto Ricans sought work in the cities. When the Puerto Rican legislature enacted a minimum-wage law like the one in America, the U.S. Supreme Court declared it unconstitutional. This decision was reached despite AFL-CIO President Samuel Gompers’ testimony that “the salaries paid to Puerto Ricans are now less than 50% what they received from the Spanish.” To make matters worse, U.S. finished products —from rubber bands to radios— were priced 15% to 20% higher on the island than the mainland. Again, Puerto Rico was powerless to enact any price-fixing legislation. Today, U.S. federal agencies control Puerto Rico’s foreign relations, customs, immigration, postal system, radio, TV, transportation, Social Security, military, maritime laws, banks, commerce, currency and defense. That’s without the people of Puerto Rico having a vote in U.S. elections. The U.S. did give Puerto Ricans one gift. Over the objection of the Puerto Rican legislature, Puerto Ricans were declared U.S. citizens in 1917, just in time for military conscription into World War I. For decades, the extent of military control over the island was particularly striking. No one could drive five miles in any direction without running into an Army base, nuclear site or tracking station. The Pentagon controlled 13% of Puerto Rico’s land and operated five atomic missile bases. The island of Vieques, after 62 years of non-stop bombing, resembled an asteroid more than an island. From 1984 through 1998, over 1,300 warships and 4,200 aircraft used the island for target practice, and pounded it with 80 million pounds of ordnance. In 1998 alone, 23,000 bombs were dropped on Vieques. In 2014, the U.S. Congress finally recognized the 65th Infantry Regiment —also known as the Borinqueneers— for their service in every U.S. conflict since World War I. In Korea, Vietnam and Iraq, this service meant disproportionately high casualties and deaths, since the Borinqueneers were frequently – and sometimes maliciously – assigned to the front lines. The Borinqueneers received the Congressional Gold Medal for the blood they spilled, while defending America. It is thus clear that when a Puerto Rican pays for a lottery ticket and manages to win, that person has nothing to be ashamed about. They are not a second-class lottery winner… or a second-class citizen. It is equally clear that the U.S. public education system has some serious holes in it, when a nation so sadly misunderstands eight million of its own citizens. *** Nelson A. Denis is a former New York State Assemblyman and author of the upcoming book, War Against All Puerto Ricans.When Barack Obama visits Laos Monday, as part of what is likely to be his last trip to Asia as president, he will be cementing what many see as his most significant contribution to America’s “pivot” to Asia: strengthened relations with the Southeast Asian countries on the frontline of China’s assertive expansion in the region. From the Philippines to Vietnam, Malaysia and Laos, Mr. Obama has strengthened US ties with the smaller countries in the region that are feeling the pressure of Beijing’s rise as an economic and military great power. In some cases, most notably those of Burma and Laos, Obama has been instrumental in “flipping” once-closed and China-dependent countries to closer ties with the US and the rest of the world, many Asia experts say. When historians “look closely at the so-called rebalance or pivot … the most significant legacy for the president is going to be engagement of Southeast Asia,” says Michael Green, senior vice president for Asia at the Center for Strategic and International Security Studies (CSIS) in Washington. The reality is that the US rebalancing to Asia has been a continuing priority of US presidents since Richard Nixon, Mr. Green says. But he notes that Obama has significantly expanded leader-level engagement with Southeast Asian countries, building up military ties to a number of countries while establishing full diplomatic relations with Burma, also known as Myanmar. “A lot of this has to do with China’s rise, but I think sustained diplomacy explains it,” says Green, a former director for Asian Affairs at the National Security Council under President George W. Bush. Why TPP matters At the same time, the weakest piece of Obama’s “pivot” – what Green dubs an “incomplete” – is the initiative’s economic dimension. In the eyes of most Asia analysts, the future of the US position in Asia and its role as a leader counterbalancing China’s economic rise depends on implementation of the Trans-Pacific Partnership. Better known as TPP, it is a 12-nation Pacific Rim trade pact that Obama has vowed to pass in Congress before leaving office. But it faces strong headwinds in the US, notably from both major presidential candidates. “The fact is, a lot of the Asian capitals where they have to constantly choose between bending to Chinese pressure or holding up Chinese pressure with American support are going to look to TPP as a sign of US long-term … staying power in the Asia Pacific region,” says Douglas Paal, director of the Asia Program at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace in Washington. “If TPP fails,” he adds, “the US will be seen as reducing its economic engagement [and] that over time the US will not maintain its military presence if it does not have an appropriate economic underpinning to it.” The White House largely holds the same view. “If the US can’t complete the agreement, it would be seen as a significant setback, I think, for American leadership,” said Ben Rhodes, Obama’s deputy national security adviser, briefing reporters this week on Obama’s Asia trip. “We would be stepping back from that leadership role, we would be ceding the region to country like China who do not set the same types of high standards for trade agreements.” Obama to meet with China's Xi Obama arrives in China Saturday for two days of talks and a G20 summit, before moving on to Laos for bilateral meetings and two Asian summits. Obama will be the first US president to visit Laos and will participate in the US-ASEAN (Southeast Asian Nations) summit and the East Asia Summit – underscoring his commitment to the region. In China he’s scheduled for a long sit-down with Chinese President Xi Jinping. Obama will hold a widely anticipated bilateral meeting with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and is expected to meet on the G20 sidelines with Russian President Vladimir Putin. For the White House, Obama’s last Asia tour will underscore what it sees as the president’s achievement: a “rebalancing” of US military assets and economic focus to Asia that allows for management of rising competition from an expanding China. Fortifying relations with allies and partners in the region who are most affected by China’s expansion and intensifying assertiveness is a key piece of Obama’s Asia strategy, officials say. They add that dealing with the challenge of China’s transformation from a regional player to a global power largely through engagement and cooperation is also a hallmark of Obama’s Asia policy that will be handed off to the next administration. From the perspective of some Asia analysts, however, Obama’s embrace of China as a great power even as he has moved to deepen ties to China’s smaller neighbors has led to confusion across the region. Green of CSIS says a certain “back and forth” by Obama between recognizing China’s “core interests” in the region on one hand and asserting a “rules-based order” in defense of smaller nations on the other has raised doubts about the US-Asia stance. Others say they expect the tougher side of the president’s China policy to take the spotlight when Obama meets with President Xi. “There’s going to be a very sharp message on the concerns about maritime security [in the South China Sea] about cybersecurity, about trade and investment challenges in the relationship which are heating up as well,” says Michael Goodman, senior adviser for Asian economics at CSIS and a former director for international economics on the National Security Council. The trend in US-China relations has increasingly been “to manage competition,” he adds. US future as a Pacific power Just how far this framework of cooperation within competition will carry over into post-Obama US-China relations remains a question, with most analysts anticipating testier bilateral relations no matter who lands in the White House. Chinese officials are particularly wary of Hillary Clinton, regional experts say, because they see her being tougher on regional security issues and view her as the author of the US “rebalance” to Asia, which they do not favor. But Goodman says that much of the discussion around the US future as a Pacific power will be moot if the US fails to cement an economic partnership with the region. “TPP is absolutely essential to the pivot, the rebalance strategy, it’s essential to the US position in Asia,” he says. “It is going to be tremendously damaging to US credibility, the sense that the US is a credible partner, if we look like we’re willing to walk away from TPP.”------------------------ Trixie Custom Plush Her eyes were embroidered with a Brother Innovis 750D embroidery machine, Madiera Rayon embroidery thread, and Bernina V6 embroidery software. The eyes were designed and digitised by me, and feature gradient embroidery. Her pattern was also designed by me. Her hooves contain poly pellets so she can stand well on her own. She is 17 inches to the top of her head. She has flat hooves and 3d sculpted ears. She has no wire in her whatsoever, so she is extra cuddly. Please do not ask for the pattern, under no circumstance will I be giving it out. I'm really sick with the flu. Have a Trixie plush I just photographed. She is mine and not for sale. Send chocolate plz PLEASE zoom in to check out her details! I'm really sick with the flu. Have a Trixie plush I just photographed. She is mine and not for sale. Send chocolate plzPLEASE zoom in to check out her details! ----------------------- Please comment/fav. It means allot to me. I read every comment and do my best to reply. ----------------- Watch me or check out my journal (and tumblr) to see WIPs of this and other current projects. ---------------- I am currently working on other plushes. Keep an eye out on my page if you are interested in owning any of my future plushes. I have not asked for critique. Any critique is not appreciated.-----------------Watch me or check out my journal (and tumblr) to see WIPs of this and other current projects.----------------I am currently working on other plushes. Keep an eye out on my page if you are interested in owning any of my future plushes. Facebook: www.facebook.com/nazegorengcraftsTumblr: www.nazegoreng.tumblr.comTwitter: www.twitter.com/Nazegoreng----------------------- - See page & journal for detailsTrixie is made from azure, baby blue and sky minky.IT IS a train station without a suburb, and the head of Sydney Markets thinks it is time to ditch the name of Flemington. Sydney Markets chief executive officer Brad Latham believes the western Sydney train station should be renamed Sydney Markets to better reflect its use. The Sunday Telegraph can reveal the NSW government is not opposed to the idea, but would require community endorsement. media_camera Sydney Markets CEO Brad Latham wants Flemington railway station renamed Sydney Markets to avoid confusion for people wanting to catch the train to the markets. Picture: Toby Zerna The station was named after local landowner John Fleming, whose property became the site of the old Flemington markets. The markets were later rebranded as Sydney Markets, while the surrounding residential area became Homebush West. Mr Latham, who has overseen operations at the markets since 2006, said it made sense to change the name. The move would not only help first-time visitors to the markets know at which stop to get off, but help promote the area. “We changed our branding 15 years ago — Sydney Markets even has its own postcode,” he said. “Changing the name of the station would avoid consumers becoming confused when they see Flemington. “We are doing a lot of work with the Government, linking the railway bridge to the markets, which is a two-minute walk away. It makes sense to change the name of the station.” The move has been supported by the Sydney Business Chamber, which points out how the station is no longer attached to a suburb. Chamber Western Sydney director David Borger backed the move, saying the government could even have some fun with the signage. media_camera Lisa Wang, who runs the newsagency overlooking Flemington station, thinks the renaming is a good idea for the suburb. Picture: Toby Zerna “They could spell out the station name in bananas and broccoli — just have some fun with it,” he said. “The Sydney Markets is one of the great food centres of Sydney, stretching over 44 hectares. “Flemington doesn’t really mean anything to people anymore. It doesn’t even represent a suburb.” Lisa Wang, the owner of a newsagency that overlooks both the station and Sydney Markets, said changing the name would bring more people to the area and provide some meaning. “When you talk about Flemington there is nothing to think about, there is no Flemington. So I think Sydney Markets makes sense and would be good,” she said. “The area needs a bit of lifting up. The Sydney Markets name change would help with the lift.” Local Cathy Pan agreed a change would be good for business. “I like the name Flemington but I think changing the name will bring more people. It will be good for business,” she said. However, Homebush West local Shu-Min, who was returning from shopping at the markets, said a change would cause problems. “People will get confused between here and the Sydney Markets in the city. People think of this as Flemington markets,” she said. media_camera Cathy Pan and her mum Shu-min Weh walk on the overpass between Flemington train station and Sydney Markets. Picture: Toby Zerna Newcomer to the area Geoff Kay was more concerned about the lack of a lift at the station, but admitted that he, being a fan of tradition, would like the name Flemington remain. The Sunday Telegraph understands the government would consider a name change should it be met with community support following a formal application being made to the NSW Geographical Names Board.CLOSE Former President Barack Obama may not be done serving the public after all, being called to serve for jury duty in Chicago’s cook county. For more on the story here is Zachary Devita. Buzz60 Former President Barack Obama will serve jury duty next month. (Photo11: Steve Helber, AP) WASHINGTON — Former president Barack Obama isn’t quite done serving his country. Obama —now a private citizen — plans to perform his civic duty and show up for jury duty in Illinois next month. Cook County Chief Judge Timothy Evans announced during a budget meeting Friday that Obama would serve, the Chicago Tribune reported. “He made it crystal-clear to me through his representative that he would carry out his public duty as a citizen and resident of this community,” Evans told the Tribune. Evans said officials will take safety precautions and make any special arrangements needed for the Obama's appearance. Details were not yet available. But jurors in Cook County are paid $17.20 for each day of service, according to the Associated Press. More: Bush and Obama get the giggles during Clinton speech More: Obama to hit campaign trail for first time since leaving office More: Former president Obama says latest GOP effort to overhaul Obamacare is 'aggravating' Obama owns a home in Chicago and one in Washington, D.C. Obama, who once taught constitutional law, has been a champion of civic participation and voting rights. Evans told the Tribune that Obama's decision to show up for jury duty is "highly appreciated.” “It’s crucial that our society get the benefit of that kind of commitment,” he said. Up until recently, Obama has mostly stayed out of the public eye since President Trump took office in January. Obama campaigned earlier this month for Virginia's Democratic gubernatorial candidate Ralph Northam and recently appeared with former presidents George W. Bush, Bill Clinton, George H.W. Bush and Jimmy Carter to raise money for Hurricane Harvey relief. Obama's office declined Saturday to comment on the former president’s private schedule. Read or Share this story: https://usat.ly/2hhzZvFThis has not been an especially pleasant offseason for fans of the Toronto Blue Jays, and on the day after watching Edwin Encarnacion don the jersey and cap of the team that ended their most recent playoff run, you can’t blame them for feeling dissatisfied and chagrined. Of course, that’s part of the nature of fandom, where anxious uncertainty between games ratchets emotions upwards. Fans will be fans, they will be fanatical about their teams, and with the notable exception of the pre-2013 acquisitions of R.A. Dickey and a slew of Marlins, most off-seasons amongst Blue Jays over the past decade have been greeted with derision or skepticism by a vocal portion of the fanbase. What makes this year peculiar is that even those who would consider themselves even-handed and rational observers have had to strain to piece together the plan or process that has led the team to its current roster. What’s worse is the feeling that comes after, the conclusion that maybe the front office has botched it. That’s not to say that we should skewer Ross Atkins, or Mark Shapiro, or ownership. If they mis
dropped. Japanese national broadcaster NHK reported last month that Akihito had informed the Imperial Household Agency, which manages the emperor’s affairs, that he wished to abdicate “in a few years” because of medical problems that have included prostate cancer and heart surgery. According to Japan’s Kyodo News service, Akihito is likely to avoid direct mention of abdication during his televised message, since that could require changes to the constitution or Imperial Household Law. Any direct discussion of the issue by the emperor could be construed as improper participation in government policy-making. Instead, Akihito is expected to discuss his thoughts on his role as emperor and concerns that he may not be able to fulfill his official duties in the future, the news service said. The taped message is scheduled to air at 3 p.m. Monday (2 a.m. ET Monday), after financial markets close. The address will be just the second time Akihito has delivered a nationwide TV address. The first was after the devastating earthquake and tsunami that struck northeast Japan in March 2011. Many Japanese found his message of sympathy for nearly 20,000 people killed or missing and reassurances to the nation to be deeply moving. Read or Share this story: http://usat.ly/2aRq4rSThe Mint Linux mintBox PCs are ideal for both hobbyist and business use. I love the Linux Mint desktop distribution. Lots of people love Mint. Mint's my current favorite Linux desktop distribution. But, like most distributions, to run it, I had to install it myself. Now, Mint, in conjunction with CompuLab, is selling its first Mint-branded PCs. True, you could buy a PC or laptop from ZaReason and a handful of other Linux PC vendors with Mint Linux, but the two mini-PCs that Mint and CompuLab are offering are the first to have Mint's official blessing. Setting up Mint 13: 2012's Best Linux desktop These PCs, the fit-PC3 basic and pro models are now available with Linux Mint branding under the name "mintBox." According to Clement "Clem" Lefebvre, Mint's founder, "The mintBox is amongst the toughest computers on the market. It features a die-cast solid-metal case which acts as a giant passive heatsink. Although the metal makes the mintBox heavier than other devices its size, it makes it feel really unique, robust and well engineered. More importantly, it cools down its components without needing any fans. Other than the noise coming from its internal 250GB hard-drive, the mintBox is completely silent." The mintBox comes with four USB ports: Two in the front, and two in the back. Two of these support USB 3.0. It also has a pair of external serial AT Attachment (eSATA) ports; two mini-Peripheral Component Interconnect Express (PCIe) sockets, plus a mSATA port, and a good old RS-232 port. This tiny computer, smaller than a Mac Mini, also comes with Ethernet, 802.11b/g/n Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, and Gigabit Ethernet. Both models also come with an HDMI port and a DVI adapter. As you might guess from that construction and all those ports, the mintBox started life as an industrial computer. And, indeed, CompuLab is an embedded and industrial computer specialist. The mintBox Basic, which list for $476 plus shipping, duty, and value added tax (VAT) comes with a 250GB hard drive. For a processor, it uses an AMD APU G-T40N. This is a 1GHz dual core, which includes an integrated ATI Radeon HD 6290 for graphics. This is an Intel-compatible embedded system unit. This system comes with 4GBs of RAM. The higher end mintBox Pro retails for $549 plus shipping, duty, and VAT. It is identical to the Basic except it uses the higher-speed AMD APU G-T56N. This is a 1.65GHz dual core CPU and comes with an ATI Radeon HD 6320 for graphics. It also comes with 8GBs RAM and a ribbed metal case for better heat dissipation. Lefebvre also claims that one of the highlights of both models are how "easy it is to open it. Both the RAM and the HDD are accessible from underneath the box. Use a standard screwdriver to open the bay and you can upgrade your RAM or switch the HDD for a SSD drive without any hassle." This makes both ideal for people who like to upgrade their systems. The mintBox, according to Lefebvre, with its Kensington lock and 4 small dents underneath it for the mintBox to be mounted on a VESA (Video Electronics Standards Association) mount bracket and their low-power consumption "(respectively idle and full load: 8-17W for the basic model, 9-24W for the pro model) make the mintBox an attractive device for companies, hotels and cybercafés where it can be placed or mounted on walls securely and significantly reduce noise levels and electricity bills." In other words, the mintBox is meant both for serious computer hobbyists and for serious business use. The system has been tested with both Linux Mint 12 and the latest Linux Mint 13. According to a note by Lefebvre, it appears that the mintBox will be shipping with "Mint 13 OEM 64-bit, the big question is whether it's Cinnamon [Mint's own GNOME 2.x style desktop based on GNOME 3.x) or MATE [A Gnome 2.x fork] by default and with or without ATI drivers. Both editions work out of the box on the hardware without drivers, except the sound output via HDMI." Audio via HDMI requires an AMD/ATI driver, fglrx. If not supplied in the system this can be installed via Mint's Software Manager. I imagine this driver will be pre-installed as CompuLab and Mint ramp up production. Both mintBox versions are available for purchase today. US and Canadian orders are shipped from CompuLab's US office in Florida. Expected delivery time from "in-stock" is two weeks. In the rest of the world, the units are shipped from CompuLab's Israeli offices. 10% of each sale goes towards Linux Mint. Related Stories: 2012's Best Linux desktop: Linux Mint 13 Fedora 17 & GNOME 3.4: Return to a useful Linux desktop (Review) Ubuntu 12.04 vs. Windows 8: Five points of comparison Mint's Cinnamon: The Future of the Linux Desktop? (Review) Linux Mint 12 Debian Edition SlideshowThe need for clean solutions Global warming is a contemporary issue that we need to contend with. No matter what the naysayers say, statistics show that this grave problem needs urgent attention, and that the major underlying causes are due to human activity.True, the earth has been known to undergo temperature changes from time to time. But, what we’re experiencing now is a drastic rise compared to that witnessed centuries before. Rising sea levels is one of the clear indicators. Ice caps are melting, posing a risk to the lives of creatures like polar bears and penguins. Low lying countries are witnessing erosion on their shores, forcing people to relocate to higher ground. Carbon emissions are increasing despite many countries scrambling to rewrite policies to halt this trend. According to an IPCC report, sea level rise for the years between 2090-99 is pegged at 0.18 to 0.59 mm. Though the estimates were eventually disregarded as it was felt that there was no proper scientific understanding, currents trends do show that they will rise and in time, pose a hazard to the planet and its creatures. The year 2037 looks set to cast a gloom over the Arctic, which is expected to see large patches of ice free land. What does this bode for those living in or near it? As it is, erratic weather is being witnessed in many areas with storms and droughts making an appearance more than ever before. The potentially bleak future that could face us has led many to find possible solutions that could help reverse, or at the very least halt global warming. Here, we discuss the use of algae. Algae: A green savior a) Energy source Fossil fuels are out of the question and rightly so. We can no longer afford to rely on their limited supply and the massive carbon output they emitt. Algae could very well change all this. Their use in creating bio fuel isn’t new as it has a potential to produce more biomass than other sources per unit area per year. What is new, however, is a demonstration performed by Instructables, a how to community, that shows how to construct an algae bioreactor out of recycled plastic bottles. Using algae, the photo bioreactor converts sunlight and carbon dioxide into energy. b) Pollution control Treating sewage usually requires the use of chemicals. Since most treating agents are toxic in nature, they can pose a health hazard to humans and other life forms. Algae have the potential to trap fertilizer in runoff from farms which can then be reused. These little organisms can also be used to filter ponds and aquariums through a device known as an algae scrubber. An algal turf scrubber, meanwhile, can be used to capture a large amount of phosphorus runoff. c) Plastics Plastic isn’t known for its eco friendly nature but algae have been successfully implemented in the manufacture of biodegradable plastics. d) Nutrition Algae have also found their way into food with many countries including them as part of their diet. Their richness in nutrients like vitamins, iron, magnesium, calcium and iodine make them a healthy source of food. In fact, China is said to consume over 70 different types of algae and Japan with over 20. e) Pigments Coloring agents are widely used in food processing to make them appear more attractive and palatable. But, some of these agents can contain chemicals that do more harm than good. Algae extracts can be used as a substitute for these coloring agents and dyes as they’re non toxic and quite organic. f) Fertilizer The use of humble seaweed’s as a fertilizer dates back to centuries. Algae are also used in livestock feed and soil conditioners. They can be cultured in clear tanks and ponds to be used as a fertilizer or they can be used to treat effluents emitted from these ponds. Trends a) Generate bio fuel with a homemade algae bioreactor Like we mentioned above, a recent demonstration showed how algae can be used to generate bio fuel. The DIY project uses stacks of recycled bottles that contain algae and water, which are placed in the sun. Carbon dioxide is then pumped into the bottles, after which algae biomass is slowly produced. Algae oil is then extracted and can be used for any product that runs on bio fuel. While this example is a home project, imagine the possibilities if the experiment could be conducted on a much larger scale. b) Flower Street Bioreactor gets fuel from algae Emergent Architecture has developed the Flower Street Bioreactor which utilizes LED lights to promote the growth of algae. The LED lights are powered by solar arrays that harvest sunlight to facilitate the process of photosynthesis. Like the homemade bioreactor, the Flower Street Bioreactor produces oil which can then be used to power products and generate electricity. c) Solar powered Perth Photobioreactor generates bio fuel using algae Emergent Architecture has taken algae based bio fuel generation a step further with its Perth Photobioreactor. The equipment will use red and green colonies of algae housed in fiber composite monocoque. The front end will feed light and carbon dioxide into the reactor while the back end will generate bio fuel. The system is so designed that the photosynthesis process can continue even at night due to the presence of helixes of lights in each algae coil. Thin film solar transistors will help generate power to operate the system. The bottom line This miracle organism has opened up a path that will simultaneously generate energy and treat waste as well. Naturally, it is important to have a realistic figure of the amount of fuel that can be produced using algae. A few years ago we saw many firms investing largely in algae farms after claims were made that they could produce thousands of gallons of fuel per acre per year. But, a white paper published in 2009 changed all that, giving the world a more realistic outlook. It told that an acre of algae farm could produce 4,350 to 5,700 gallons annually. Of course, to arrive at a definite figure, a detailed analysis will need to be conducted. Once it is done, engineers and scientists can apply their technical know how to algae production and energy generation to give us a way out of our present fuel starved situation.NEW YORK – Following the hiring of right-wing pundit Tomi Lahren, Fox News has announced that they will finally be allowing long-time contributor Ann Coulter to die. “So much pain… for so long,” whispered Coulter, barely audible over the sound of the iron lung she must be kept in whenever she isn’t on TV. “Finally… freedom.” Coulter rose to prominence due to her criticism of the Clinton administration. Since then, she has become a familiar face in the conservative movement, appearing frequently on dozens of Fox News shows, even while her beliefs and positions were slowly corroding her body from the inside out. “The great thing about Tomi is that she’s young, she’s fresh, and her vital organs haven’t spent the last decade attacking her out of pure spite,” said Fox News producer Alan Watson. “Plus, it costs about $10 million a year just to replace Ann’s rotting parts. Now that money goes right back in our pockets.” Additionally, Fox says that since they’re roughly the same size, they can probably use Coulter’s old chains to restrain Lahren when she inevitably starts trying to escape the sickness that’s festering inside her. “I’m honoured to be joining the Fox News team,” said Lahren, 25, as doctors tried to establish exactly how long she’d be able to do this before her own toxicity made life too painful to keep on living. “It’s an opportunity to finally get my message out to the people, and also a great chance to give Ann the sweet, sweet release of death she’s been begging for since the start of the Obama-era.” At press time, Coulter, now off the respirator, had beckoned her caregivers closer, choking out a single word, “Hillary…”, before finally, finally, passing away.Corfe Castle in Dorset, today a hulking ruin, was in its day one of the most splendid royal palaces in England, and a particular favourite of King John. The Plantagenet monarch spent more time there than any at other castle apart from Marlborough, and invested vast sums in redeveloping it, adding spectacular new chambers and royal apartments for his own enjoyment. It was also at Corfe that the king committed one of the most infamous acts of his reign, by having 22 knights starved to death. This incident has been surprisingly overlooked by historians of John’s reign, who either mention it only in passing, or fail to mention it at all. Yet at the time it clearly ranked as one of the king’s most detestable crimes, alongside his more famous decision to starve to death the wife and son of William de Briouze, and the murder of his own nephew, Arthur. John’s struggle against Arthur explains the background that led to the starvation of the knights at Corfe. The king had succeeded to the English throne in 1199 after the death of his older brother, Richard the Lionheart, with seemingly little opposition, but England was only one part of the sprawling Angevin empire that had been cobbled together by their father, Henry II. In other regions – particularly Brittany and Anjou – the preference was for Arthur, the son of Richard and John’s late brother, Geoffrey, who had been duke of Brittany until his death in 1186. The result was a war of succession that seemed to have been resolved in John’s favour by 1200, but which re-erupted in 1202. On July 30th 1202, John heard terrible news. His mother, the elderly Eleanor of Aquitaine, was being besieged by Arthur’s forces in the castle at Mirebeau, 15 miles north of Poitiers. Had she been captured the political consequences for John would have been disastrous. The king was almost 100 miles away at Le Mans, but by moving at lightning speed he was able to turn the tables on his enemies. At dawn on August 1st John and his troops descended on Mirebeau and took the besiegers completely by surprise: Arthur and all his supporters were captured. The king sent a jubilant letter back to his regents in England, exclaiming ‘God be praised for our happy success!’ But John’s success quickly unravelled, in part because of the way he treated his prisoners. The king took the knights he had captured at Mirebeau back to Normandy in carts, heavily shackled and chained. ‘He kept his prisoners in such a horrible manner and in such abject confinement’, commented the author of The History of William Marshal, ‘that it seemed an indignity and a disgrace to all those with him who witnessed his cruelty’. Some, like Arthur, were imprisoned in Normandy, but John had so many captives that he sent dozens of them across the Channel to be kept in castles in England. Because the king refused to enter into negotiations with Arthur’s supporters about the possibility of their lord’s release, they continued in their rebellion. In October 1202 they succeeded in capturing two of his principal cities, Angers and Tours, and by the end of the year John was forced to withdraw to Normandy. Becoming increasingly desperate, John first seems to have given orders for Arthur to be mutilated – orders which were not carried out. Then, in January, he apparently tried a different tack, and visited the castle at Falaise where Arthur was being held. According to the chronicler Roger of Wendover, the king promised his nephew many honours if he would abandon his struggle, but Arthur replied defiantly, saying he would not desist until John gave up all of the Angevin empire, including England. Wendover’s story draws some support from the fact that John did visit Falaise at the start of 1203 – his enrolled letters show that he arrived there on January 30th and stayed for three or four days. They also show the terrible nature of his anger, which resulted in the mass starvation at Corfe. On January 30th, the king sent letters to one of his trusted henchmen, Hugh de Neville, ordering him to cross the Channel to England, taking with him two of the prisoners from Mirebeau, Warin de Craon and Maurice de Basuen, who were to be deposited at Corfe. If this was the initial limit of John’s plan, he soon enlarged it. Five days later he sent a barrage of writs to England, directed to the keepers of 18 castles, requiring them to send a further 22 named individuals to the same place, ignoring all previous orders about their custody. He then wrote to the constable of Corfe, telling him ‘that he should do what Thomas, clerk of our chamber, and Hugh de Neville will tell him on the king’s behalf concerning the prisoners that have been delivered to him’. The nature of these orders, which clearly could not be committed to writing, is revealed by contemporary chroniclers, at least four of whom make reference to these men’s terrible fate. ‘Twenty-two of the noblest and strongest in arms were starved to death in Corfe Castle’, wrote the annalist at Margam Abbey in south Wales, ‘so that not one of them escaped’. For modern audiences, who sometimes confuse the reality of the Middle Ages with the fantasy of Game of Thrones, this might not seem especially shocking. But in western Europe since the mid-11th century it had been political unacceptable for noblemen to kill each other. Between 1076, when William the Conqueror blotted his copybook by executing the earl of Northumbria, and 1306, when Edward I hanged the earl of Athol in London, no top-ranking aristocrat in England was deliberately put to death. By deciding to kill 20 or more of the knights he had taken at Mirebeau, John was breaking this taboo on a grand scale. Moreover, not only was the king killing these men, he was killing them in a gratuitously unpleasant manner. Instances of other rulers starving people to death in the Middle Ages are exceedingly rare. According to one chronicler, Richard I had ordered the starvation of a man who had tried to frustrate his release from German captivity. Two centuries later, Richard II was variously reported to have been starved to death by his gaolers or to have starved himself to death in a fit of depression. But starvation was a technique that John used time and again after his experiment in 1203. In 1210 he famously used it to destroy Matilda de Briouze and her son, William, who were said to have wasted away in the dungeons of either Corfe or Windsor. He may have used it again in 1212 to punish Geoffrey, archdeacon of Norwich, who was said by several writers have perished in a royal castle after a long and severe confinement. In October 1215, according to Ralph of Coggeshall, John declared he would kill the rebel baron Oliver d’Argentan ‘cruelly by starvation’, but stopped after three days when Oliver’s brother agreed to submit. A few months later, the rebel garrison at Belvoir Castle in Leicestershire reportedly surrendered after the king threatened to starve their lord, William d’Aubigné. The example of Oliver d’Argentan is instructive, because it gives us a possible insight into John’s mentality. If Coggeshall is correct, the king started to starve Oliver in order to pressure his brother into an unconditional surrender. Might he have been trying to use the same tactic in 1203 with the knights captured at Mirebeau, in order to persuade their rebellious relatives in Anjou and Brittany to lay down their arms, or their lord, Arthur, to relinquish his claim? Had John’s intention simply been to condemn these prisoners to a slow death, he could have sent the orders to starve them to their various keepers all over England. The fact that he first had them all sent to Corfe suggests that there may have been some method in his cruelty, for Corfe lies on the south coast, closer than almost any other castle in England to Normandy. John’s order to give these men a deliberately slow death could have been called off within a day or so, in a way that would have been impossible if they were wasting away in Bamburgh or Newcastle. Plausibly, the king could have constructed this scenario in order to put the same mental pressure on Arthur and his supporters that he would later place on the brother of Oliver d’Argentan: submit and your starving kinsmen will be spared. The alternative explanation is that John was simply sadistic. One of the repeated refrains of chroniclers who lived through his reign is that he was cruel. As the quotes above show, the charge of excessive cruelty was levelled against him by both the History of William Marshal and Ralph of Coggeshall. The Anonymous of Béthune, who wrote for a Flemish lord who had fought on John’s side in 1215–16, describes him as ‘a very bad man, more cruel than all others’. Contemporaries, in short, regarded King John as a villain – a criminal (felun) in the words of William Marshal’s biographer. Given his penchant for condemning people to die in such a horrific way, it is easy to understand why. Marc Morris’s King John: Treachery, Tyranny and the Road to Magna Carta, published by Cornerstone, is out now in paperback. @Longshanks1307.QUANTICO--In the Marine Corps' rush to drop weight, one of the most beloved and storied pieces of gear could be left behind. At the service's first Equipping the Infantry Challenge here Sept. 27, program managers said they're looking for a lighter, more practical alternative to the iconic ammunition can. Scott Rideout, program manager for ammunition at Marine Corps Systems Command, told industry leaders that the rectangular can, which today looks much the same as it did during World War II and Vietnam, may be overdue for an upgrade. Marine Corps ammo comes to the warfighter, he said, "in the same metal can that it's come in for 100 years. That metal can is one of those things that when the ammunition is brought to Marines, they take the ammunition out, distribute it however they're going to distribute it, then throw [the can] away. The ammo can itself provides no value added to the Marine, except to help get the ammunition there." Some may disagree. The blog Shooter's Log in 2013 listed 50 possible uses for the ammo can that range from improvised washing machine to anchor. Another website, Survival List Daily, topped that with 74 uses, including field toilet and cook pot. The gear is even more central to Marine Corps identity: one of the elements of the Combat Fitness Test that all Marines must pass once a year is the ammunition can lift, in which troops are tested on the number of times they can lift a 30-pound can above their head and shoulders within two minutes. But the calculus is simple, Rideout said: "Ounces equal pounds, and pounds equal pain." Emerging technology, such as logistics drones that might be able to carry resupply items to troops in the field, may also put limits on how much a new delivery of ammunition can weigh. The cans, which weigh anywhere between three and seven pounds depending on their make and the caliber of ammunition, can amount to a quarter of the ammo weight that Marines are carrying, Rideout said. "If we can get that weight out of the system, that’s more ammunition that can be resupplied to Marines to allow them to do their jobs," he said. "So we need lighter-weight packaging. Ammo is what ammo is, but there are a couple areas out there where we can reduce weight to enable Marines to do their jobs better, especially against a near-peer type competitor or distributed ops." Ammo cans aren't the only area getting a look. Rideout and Mary Flower LeMaster, chief engineer for ammunition at SYSCOM, said the brass casing that houses bullets may also be ripe for improvement. "The brass provides no value added to the weapons system; it’s just to enable the round and the propellant to interface with the weapon to provide effect downrange," Rideout said. "That’s where we need to attack that weight. And there is technology out there that can do that and so we’re looking for industry to help us there." Rideout and LeMaster provided no alternatives to these key ammunition items, and it's unclear how the Marine Corps might move forward with service-specific improvements to items used by multiple service branches, like ammo cans and brass. But this call-out to industry is in keeping with a broader service effort to solicit revolutionary ideas to improve the way Marines fight on the battlefield. During the same Infantry Equipping Challenge event, SYSCOM Commander Brig. Gen. Joseph Shrader said he wanted ideas for a meal, ready-to-eat optimized for Marine infantrymen in the field, with more efficient and practical packaging. Currently, the ammunition managers said, they're looking for ideas to improve five different calibers of ammo, as well as the cans: 9mm, 5.56, 7.62,.50-caliber, and.300 Winchester Magnum.In psychedelic Web vid, Gravel 'raps' about Democrats excluding him Former Alaska Sen. Mike Gravel, whose fierce anti-war views have earned him a coterie of online supporters, is protesting his exclusion from Democratic presidential debates with a psychedelic video posted this week on YouTube. "Phony patriotism is jingoism," Gravel raps over a remix of John Lennon's "Give Peace a Chance" with flashy animations interspersed with clips of Democratic candidates and President Bush playing behind him. "Why won't you let me say what I want to say? Power to the people. Give peace a chance." Gravel, whose gadfly candidacy seems to be gaining little traction beyond a few popular Internet videos, has been denied the opportunity to appear alongside Democratic candidates in any more debates this year. In earlier debate appearances, Gravel excoriated Democratic lawmakers who voted to let President Bush invade Iraq and now are criticizing the war, and he spoke out against the government's war on drugs, a topic most other candidates have avoided. "Why are they afraid of the truth?" Gravel asks in the two-minute video.: file_get_contents(): php_network_getaddresses: getaddrinfo failed: Name or service not known inon line: file_get_contents(http://feeds.delicious.com/v2/json/urlinfo/data?url=http%3A%2F%2Fhandbookofawesome.com%2F2012%2F02%2Fgratitude%2F): failed to open stream: php_network_getaddresses: getaddrinfo failed: Name or service not known inon line “Let us be grateful to people who make us happy; they are the charming gardeners who make our souls blossom.” (Marcel Proust) Dr. Martin Seligman is obsessed with happiness. Along with Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi (forget about pronouncing it right, “chick-sent-mumble-mumble” is often close enough) who coined the term “flow”, Seligman is considered one of the founding figures of Positive Psychology, a movement focused on helping individuals thrive in life. He’s been researching the definitions, mechanisms, causes, implications, ups and downs and ins and outs of happiness since the late nineties, so it’s safe to say he knows a little something about the subject. It would be easy to get bogged down in a profound discussion about the meaning of true happiness, but since the Handbook of Awesome is all about practical stuff, we’ll jump right into some of the techniques he’s discovered to boost your happiness. These are effective tools he’s found in placebo-controlled trials and then published in peer reviewed journals, so it’s not just snake oil either. One of the fundamental concepts Seligman has discovered is that the best way to make ourselves happy is by making others happy. I know this sounds like some herbal-tea soaked hippie is just vomiting love, rainbows and sunshine all over the place, but if you think about it, it’s actually quite logical. We’re social creatures, for ages our own survival has been tied to those around us: our family, our village, our nation. Teamwork, compassion and kindness have been beneficial from an evolutionary perspective, since they help societies to organize themselves. Hence it’s only natural we’d get a kick out of helping others! So, cutting to the chase, what’s one of the happiness insights that Seligman has found? Consider the gratitude visit, which produced a huge effect in participants both in terms of increased happiness as well as decreased feelings of depression. The effect lasted, on average, for a full month afterwards. So how can you get this no-strings-attached free happiness boost? Simple, you need to send us all your money and join our cult! Just kidding. Here’s a few steps to get you started: Think about someone you know who’s done or said something that really changed your life for the better. It might have been years ago or just last week, but ideally it should be someone who is alive and known to you personally (not e.g. the guy who invented Velcro). for the better. It might have been years ago or just last week, but ideally it should be someone who is alive and known to you personally (not e.g. the guy who invented Velcro). Write a letter of gratitude to that person. You may have already thanked them in passing, but this time, really put your heart into the letter and make it clear how much they’ve helped you. . You may have already thanked them in passing, but this time, really put your heart into the letter and make it clear how much they’ve helped you. Deliver the letter personally and insist on reading the letter out loud to the recipient, start-to-finish. Don’t tell them in advance why you’re coming over, make it a surprise. to the recipient, start-to-finish. Don’t tell them in advance why you’re coming over, make it a surprise. Feel free to discuss the content afterwards. That’s it. Effective and so simple, there’s no reason not to try it. When we feel gratitude, we remember a positive event in our lives, and the receiver feels appreciated for what they’ve done. If ever there was a win-win situation, this is it. We’ll cover more of the tools and techniques advocated by Seligman and others in later posts! In the meantime, feel free to pass this little piece of advice on to your friends, maybe one of them will be inspired to pay you a gratitude visit!Tottenham manager Mauricio Pochettino has revealed Emmanuel Adebayor could make his first appearance in more than two months against Burnley on Wednesday night. The Togo striker has not played since the 2-1 home defeat by Stoke on November 9, after which he criticised the club’s supporters. He returned to Africa on compassionate leave last month amid speculation he had been the victim of witchcraft from his own mother, though sources close to Adebayor insist he returned home to be with a seriously ill family member. Emmanuel Adebayor could make his first appearance for two months against Burnley on Wednesday The Tottenham striker last featured for Mauricio Pochettino's side against Stoke in November He has not featured since returning to Spurs in mid-December. However, the forward is in line to make his comeback in the FA Cup third-round replay against Burnley at White Hart Lane, with Harry Kane set to be rested. Pochettino said: ‘Could Ade play against Burnley? Maybe yes, he is not injured. Maybe I will make changes. We need to analyse who played against Crystal Palace and then see who has a chance. Adebayor returned to Africa last month amid rumours he was the victim of witchcraft from his own mother ‘We have played 34 games, more than anyone else. We need to manage our players.’ Burnley boss Sean Dyche has warned English football is in danger of ‘brainwashing’ itself into believing homegrown players are inferior to expensive foreign stars. Dyche was disappointed goals by Scott Arfield and Danny Ings against QPR were not appreciated more, with pundits focusing on poor defending instead. ‘It would be nice to promote the fact that two young British players — new to the Premier League — can score goals like that,’ said Dyche, who has fielded the same all-British line-up in the last seven Premier League games.James Cameron is planning to convert Titantic into 3D Avatar will be re-released this summer with an additional six minutes of footage, its director James Cameron has said in a newspaper interview. "We were sold out of our Imax performances right up to the moment until they were contractually obligated to switch to Alice in Wonderland. "So we know we left money on the table there," Cameron told the LA Times. Cameron also said the Avatar sequel will be centred on the ocean on the planet Pandora. The ocean would be as "equally rich and diverse and crazy and imaginative," he said. The award-winning filmmaker claimed the release of Alice in Wonderland and Clash of the Titans in 3D, so soon after Avatar came out, meant there were not enough cinemas available to give Avatar a proper run. By the time the film is re-released, it will also be out on DVD but Cameron believe those who have already seen Avatar at home will still want the big screen experience. Tim Burton's Alice in Wonderland had record opening takings for a 3D movie when it was released in March. Avatar became the fastest movie ever to achieve $1bn (£625.6m) in ticket sales around the world earlier this year.Hillary Clinton sure didn’t look like an “awful” candidate up on the debate stage this week. “Awful” was how ABC News political analyst Matthew Dowd derided the Democratic nominee over the summer on This Week. “She is an awful candidate. Everybody knows it,” he stressed. Dowd was hardly alone. The Beltway pundit class has relentlessly portrayed Clinton as someone who’s supremely uncomfortable in her own skin and ill-suited to be the Democratic nominee or the next president. But that’s not what 80-plus million viewers saw when they tuned into the debate. Poised, confident and in control, Clinton walked away with a clear victory, according to all scientific polling. So why the huge disconnect between the way the press portrays Clinton, often with a relentlessly caustic and cynical eye, and the reality of who Clinton is as a candidate, as seen during the debate? A large chunk of viewers, regardless of whether they support her or not, must have been genuinely confused by the person they watched for 90 minutes, and the person they’ve seen depicted in the press throughout this campaign. She certainly didn’t resemble the supposedly phony, unlikeable, calculating politician the press has been describing most of this year. She didn’t come across as the deeply secretive, distant, “scripted,” figure who can’t connect with voters. (Fact: Clinton accumulated more votes than any other candidate during the presidential primaries.) Aside from her agenda and her politics, the press has been nearly universal in the way they’ve described Clinton as a person and as a candidate. She’s “afraid to say what she thinks about anything for fear of alienating this or that constituency,” explained The Washington Post, while emphasizing, “She often comes across as inauthentic or lacking a basic core of beliefs.” Bottom line: Clinton is a deeply flawed candidate, and possibly a deeply flawed person. And that has been the nearly universal media theme since the beginning of this campaign. Last summer, The Wall Street Journal suggested Clinton sounds too "scripted and poll-tested," while Politico this year marked her victory in the Kentucky primary with the downer headline, “Hillary Clinton’s Joyless Victory.” But instead of that scheming Clinton caricature showing up at the debate, viewers saw a confident, at-ease candidate who at one point even shimmied with delight on the national stage. “[T]ens of millions of Americans saw the candidates in action, directly, without a media filter,” noted New York Times columnist Paul Krugman following the debate. “For many, the revelation wasn’t Mr. Trump’s performance, but Mrs. Clinton’s: The woman they saw bore little resemblance to the cold, joyless drone they’d been told to expect.” Indeed. Unfortunately, as Media Matters has been noting for years
inda Gates (@melindagates) June 16, 2016 Read or Share this story: http://usat.ly/1ttp9WEYou've heard about acts of kindness among strangers, but here's one that breaks the mold.The center divide of Interstate 80 is an unforgiving no-man's land populated by the broken down or the desperate.Last Saturday night, John Badial of Vacaville fit the latter category. "All my money for the week, all the money we had was in the center divide," Badial said.He's an auto mechanic and father of two who made the common mistake of leaving his wallet on the roof of the family car. "I went right over the bump and I happened to glance in my rear-view mirror and saw everything fall out of my wallet and hit the ground," Badial said.California Highway Patrol Ofc. James Morrell doesn't often receive calls about people crawling around highway medians in the dark on their hands and knees. "I thought he was broken down or ran out of gas, something like that," he said.As Morrell soon learned those $200 meant everything to a man with a family living paycheck to paycheck. "Everything is accounted for. Every nickel gets spent, pretty much, so it was a huge loss for us," Badial said.But there is more to this story because Morrell is second generation CHP and there was something about Badial's plight that touched him.As he escorted him to a gas station, he noticed a cash machine nearby. While Badial filled up his tank with gas, Morrell withdrew $60, walked over and gave it to him. "Because that is how I was raised, my parents taught me to help everyone in any way that I'm able to do. And that's again the reason why I got this job. I wanted to help everybody," Morrell said."I was pretty thankful and got choked up about it because he doesn't know me from Adam, you know," Badial said.They know each other, now.Two strangers linked by bad luck and goodwill and an act of kindness on a busy highway.President Donald Trump with Russian President Vladimir Putin at the G-20 summit on July 7 in Hamburg, Germany. AP Photo/Evan Vucci Russian President Vladimir Putin told President Donald Trump during their meeting at the G-20 summit earlier this month that it couldn't have been Russia that hacked into the Democratic National Committee last year because Russian hackers were too good to get caught. That is according to The New York Times' David Sanger, who reported Sunday that Trump emerged from the meeting telling his aides that Putin had offered "a compelling rejoinder: Moscow's cyberoperators are so good at covert computer-network operations that if they had dipped into the Democratic National Committee's systems, they would not have been caught." In an interview with Reuters shortly after the two met, Trump alluded to Putin's comments: "Somebody did say" that if Putin did order the hacking, "you wouldn't have found out about it," Trump said. Trump declined to say who that "somebody" was but called the idea "a very interesting point." The White House declined to comment, referring all Russia-related questions to Trump's outside legal counsel. But the episode aligns with a comment Sunday from the new White House communications director, Anthony Scaramucci, who said Trump was not convinced that the Russians hacked into the DNC last year. Trump "said to me yesterday that if the Russians actually hacked this situation, and spilled out those emails, you would've never seen it — you would've never had any evidence of that," Scaramucci said in an interview with CNN. "They're super confident in their deception skills and hacking." The notion that Moscow would have tried to conceal its efforts, however, differs from what experts and intelligence officials have concluded was the main purpose of Russia's election interference: to sow chaos and undermine the legitimacy of the election, no matter who won. The Russians "were unusually loud in their intervention," James Comey said during a House Intelligence Committee hearing in March, two months before he was fired as FBI director. "It's almost as if they didn't care that we knew." Comey suggested that Russia may have wanted the US government to tell the public what Russia was doing so as to "amplify" its efforts. "Their loudness, in a way, would be counting on us to amplify it by telling the American people what we saw," Comey said, "and freaking people out about how the Russians might be undermining our elections successfully." Putin denied last month that the Kremlin had ordered the cyberattacks. But he said that "patriotically minded" Russians, whom he compared to artists, might have taken it upon themselves "to fight against those who say bad things about Russia." Trump is still skeptical that the Russians were behind the election hacking. According to Scaramucci, Trump called him from Air Force One on Saturday and "basically said to me, 'Hey, you know, maybe they did do it, maybe they didn't do it.'"Lou Reed and Metallica in hit and run accident leave White Light/White Heat dead on the side of the highway - rock and roll road kill. Everything about this is just plain wrong, from Metallica’s dunderhead playing to Reed’s total inability to find the pocket of the song…which is understandable because there is none. What is not understandable is why Reed continues to trash the Velvet Underground’s legacy. Can the surviving members of VU get a cease and desist order? This is like watching a beloved friend racing toward the edge of a cliff in an out-of-control 1978 Ford Pinto - a sense of helpless dread overcomes you as you avert your eyes and pray for Divine intervention. Just when you think it couldn’t get worse, Loutallica shows you just how bottomless the pit is. And that Lars fuck should have his hands bound with chicken wire and never allowed anywhere near a drum kit. “If all this makes you feel sorry for him, then you can compliment yourself on being a real Lou Reed fan. Because that’s exactly what he wants.” Lester Bangs, 1973. Later With Jools Holland, November 8, 2011.Scott Strichart has worked on localizing and marketing fan-favorite franchises like Persona, Ni no Kuni and Final Fantasy. These days he’s heading localization efforts for the Yakuza series. We talked with him about the process of bringing Yakuza 0 to the West! Graham Russell, Michibiku: Thanks for talking to us, Scott! To start, could you talk a bit about your history in games localization and your involvement with Yakuza 0? Scott Strichart: All right, I’ll give you the 30-second version. (laughs) I started at Atlus in 2007, and I was here for four years. I was on the team for Persona 4 vanilla, Radiant Historia, 3D Dot Game Heroes and a couple of other things. From there, I spent two years at Level-5. I was one of their first production employees in the North American branch. I worked on the Guild series and Ni no Kuni, and then I went to Square Enix as a brand manager for two years on Final Fantasy. That’s when the guys here — Sam Mullen and Bill [Alexander] — they called me back and were like, “yo, we need someone to do Yakuza.” And I’m like, “that sounds like a plan.” It was all pretty serendipitous because we had just bought a house down here in Orange County, so it worked out as beautifully as it possibly could for me to make my return to steward Yakuza. Since you started out at Atlus, what’s it like to return, and how’s the company different from your original stint? Well before I left, Atlus really hadn’t done the whole “Atlus + Sega” thing, and now that there’s this Sega involvement here, it’s only gotten better. There’s this kind of merging of ideas of how Sega does things and Atlus does things. Everyone’s working on either Sega products or Atlus products, but the company culture is still very much Atlus while the Sega influence helps it become more than Atlus, I guess I would say. For Yakuza 0, what was that localization like? Was it a big team effort? How were duties split? For Yakuza 0, this was the first time that Atlus was going to be handling some of that localization. Previously, Sega had outsourced it to this great group of localization guys named Inbound. We weren’t going to toss Inbound off of these projects at all; they’ve done a great job on the whole franchise. So we asked Inbound to also work on Yakuza 0, and what they did is provide the entire translation, which in truth could have been thrown directly in the game, because they’re that good. What happened after that is that Atlus — well me, really, me and one other editor, his name’s Dirk — we went through and did a second pass on everything, taking it to that next level of localization. Where Sega had not previously done all of the kinds of bells-and-whistles-type stuff on the title cards, the chapter titles, the honorifics… all that stuff was our decision to take that in a new direction for Yakuza, especially considering we were going back to the beginning and this was kind of our opportunity to reboot the localization for the franchise. Do you think that’s what Atlus really brings to these Sega projects, that extra degree of polish? I wouldn’t say that the Sega games have any type of bad localization before, but Atlus is known to be best-in-business and they pride themselves a lot on that. When we did Persona 4 back in the day, people really liked that localization, and when we did Radiant Historia, people really liked that localization. I think that Atlus continues to have to build its own kind of chops. We can’t sit on it. We can’t just call ourselves one of the best places to do localized content if we’re not going to stay ahead of the curve. Every game gets that kind of treatment, and that’s definitely one of the great things about working with Atlus. The Yakuza games — especially 0 — walk the line between authenticity and parody. There’s so much that the games want to portray with realism, but then it’s followed by wackiness. How do you approach localization when there are such differing tones in one game? It’s absolutely crazy, you’re absolutely right to point that out. And it’s so tough to explain, because when someone says “what’s Yakuza,” well… for the longest time, people interpreted Yakuza as, well, it’s Japanese Grand Theft Auto. And it’s absolutely not! It’s not a crime simulator, it’s not… whatever Grand Theft Auto is, Yakuza isn’t. Back in the day, when they called Ryu ga Gotoku — which of course translates to “like a dragon” — Yakuza, maybe they were aiming for it to be a sort of Japanese Grand Theft Auto. But since those days, the series has really found its footing in this salty-sweet blend of absolute photorealism and over-the-top nonsense. So it’s not hard for us from a localization perspective, because the game’s doing it already. The main story is this gritty, hardcore crime drama, and the sub-stories are over-the-top batty stuff, you know? The game does that balancing for us, and it guides us when, okay, this is the ridiculous part, or this is when it needs to be super-serious. There’s definitely something to be said for the way that CS1 (the division of Sega that builds Yakuza) does this franchise. There’s a lot about this game that’s a prequel, designed to provide backstory for characters you’re already supposed to know. But so many Western players haven’t played Yakuza! How did you approach this in localization? Did you try to provide more context? The cool thing about 0 is yeah, it’s a prequel, but I wouldn’t say that it actually expects you right off the bat to know who these dudes are. When Nishikiyama rolls up on you at the very beginning of the game, he gets what we internally call the don-don. (laughs) It’s basically just those little title cards where the character appears and it freezes to black and white for a bit — we lovingly call those don-dons because that’s the noise it makes — but if the game was expecting you to know who he was, it certainly wouldn’t give him that, you know? Right out of the gate, that first hour of content is literally explaining Kiryu’s situation. It’s explaining where they’re at in life. I don’t think it really throws characters at you in a way that says “you know who this is already.” Maybe there are some characters later in the game where it says “you might know who this is, and if you do you’re going to get more out of it,” but it certainly doesn’t leave newcomers to the series in the dark. I think 0 is one of the most perfect starting places for the game — for the franchise — because you can get in on the ground floor. A lot of people will point to Kiwami or Yakuza 1 being of course the first franchise starting point, but now that we’ve announced that we’re doing both, I would say get in at 0 and then get Kiwami too. But if you really cannot justify getting 0 right now — and I understand, we’re in the middle of Japanageddon (laughs) — Kiwami’s coming in a couple of months and you can go back and play 0 then. The two connect to each other in a way that’s really symbiotic and a great way to get into Yakuza. Both of those games will provide your entry into the franchise without issue. It almost feels like it’s begging for an official play order. Is it chronological? Is it release order? The Internet will argue about this until the end of time. I wouldn’t say that you’re not doing yourself a favor by starting with 0, because you absolutely are. Again, ground floor, Kiryu’s 20 years old, things are right where they start. When working on localizing 0, was there any effort to look back at the original localization of Yakuza 1 since it’s supposed to be before those events and try to match that style for consistency in this one? When I came back, I was a complete Yakuza noob and completely under the impression that we were looking at “Grand Theft Auto Japanese.” (laughs) I was very fortunate that I had a couple of months before Yakuza 0 was going to kick off on localization, and I was able to sit down and literally play from Yakuza 1 to Yakuza 5, and as I pride myself on doing, I became a Yakuza bible. How many months did that take? Well Yakuza 5 came out last December, and I was ready to start Yakuza 5 by the time it came out. That’s impressive! These games are not short. No, they’re not! I unfortunately had to go along the critical path, and I didn’t get to see a lot of the sub-stories in 3, 4 and 5, but I got what I needed to out of those, for sure. So going back to your question, do you take from Yakuza 1… not just Yakuza 1. We looked at from Yakuza 1 through 5 and how the series has evolved. Originally in Yakuza 1, Shintaro Kazama was incorrectly labeled as Fuma, and they were “incorrectly” addressing him as Kazama. Over time, you can watch… they corrected Kazama’s name, and even though they continued to call him Kazama at times, we looked at that and said, no, we’re going to get this to be a little more authentic. When you don’t dub the game, you’re hearing these characters be like “Kiryu, Kiryu, Kiryu” and when the subtitle says “Kazuma, Kazuma, Kazuma,” it’s disconnecting you a bit from what’s being said. So our approach to this was how far can we draw the English into what they’re actually saying without actually losing the player into a non-localization, a literal translation that would be so boring and dry that you wouldn’t want to play it. But it’s such a fine line. It’s a very fine line between those two things, and I feel like we threaded it pretty well in 0. The balance between those turned out pretty great, yeah. Not just with consistency with previous releases, there’s a lot of the localization of Yakuza that’s trying to explain Japanese culture to Western audiences. (laughs) Yeah. As an example, there’s the Shogi minigame, which was localized not just translate what was there, but also to explain Shogi to people and make it playable. You know, it sucks that, in the previous Yakuza games, in order to play Shogi you’d have to have a second screen up just to look up what the pieces were. Forget playing the game, just knowing what the pieces were would require a second screen. So the effort has been continually to reduce the need for that kind of resource outside of the game. We rewrote the entire Mahjong tutorial too, and now it’s 34 pages of Mahjong explanation that you are welcome to dive into should you so desire. And even then you still might not quite get it, but there’s only so much we can do without literally putting a YouTube video in there to walk you through some Mahjong. Atlus in particular, on the spectrum of keeping things authentic versus adjusting things to make sense of references to Japanese culture, is a bit more than most on the side of maintaining authenticity. How do you know where to draw the line, when to adjust things so people understand them and when to say “well, that’s just what they do?” It’s a tough line to draw! I can’t say with certainty that “this is exactly where we draw the line,” because there isn’t one. It has to be this case-by-case basis where, well, this is explained prior in the game, or this is voiced and we can’t work an explanation into that because that’s not what the voice is saying. But a lot of the sub-stories, for instance! Like the Majima sub-story where the dude is on the ground and he has a stajun — a stadium jumper or varsity jacket — we cleverly worked that in there, “you see, in Japan, they call these stajun,” and Majima is like “well, I wouldn’t know that.” There’s a lot of that kind of thing where we’re able to work in an explanation at the same time as the characters are clearly like, “yeah, no duh.” Again, it’s a per-project basis where we have to make those calls, and it’s really tough; there’s no right way or wrong way to do it, and sometimes you just learn from doing it. It’s really tough to say that there’s a particular line to draw, because there isn’t. While we’re on the topic of drawing lines: Yakuza 0 goes some places with its mature content. Fair enough! (laughs) And yet that content is seemingly totally preserved. Were there any times when that caused trouble with the ESRB or Sega of America, and how do you resolve that? When you’re doing an M-rated game — Yakuza’s been an M-rated game for the entire time that it’s been released, it’s never dipped into Teen — in the industry, we often talk about “soft Ms and hard Ms,” and to us, Yakuza sits at a “hard M.” (laughs) It would be an issue if it ever pushed into AO, but the ESRB has very clear guidelines about what constitutes an M-rated game versus what constitutes an AO game, and the dev team is smart enough to know what those lines are, even for the Americas and Europe, to make sure that they don’t cross that line. I was confident that the game was going to get an M. Yeah, there’s the stuff in there, the gravure videos, and it’s like, “okay, that’s there…” It is! It is totally there. (laughs) I don’t make a point to highlight it, the marketing doesn’t really highlight it, it’s not a selling point, it’s not something people really need… but at the same time, you don’t take it out. In today’s localization climate, taking stuff out of an M-rated game for the purposes of censoring content is just not where you want to go with something. Was there anything that was difficult to bring over from a licensing perspective? You may have caught a lot of the conversation about the two songs from a band called Shonan no Kaze that did not make it over to our version, and that’s not censored content, that’s a licensing issue. And I can’t really speak to the business part of it, but I will say that the way that licensing music is structured in Japan can be so prohibitive that, if it’s going to hurt a project’s feasibility for localization, of course, of course we have to cut the music. You know? I’d rather bring a game over to the States than say “sorry, we couldn’t bring that over because there was a music licensing issue.” Would you say that, over the years, it’s gotten a little better as the Japanese side of things has become more prepared with licensing? You know, Japan would have to get out in front of it and be like, “well, we know that the US and the EU are going to want to localize this game, so maybe we can negotiate worldwide type of rights,” but that’s going to vary for every musician, every artist, how many songs they use… it’s no easy task, you know? It’s still an issue, and I don’t think that we’re any closer to solving it for the Yakuza series than we have been before, despite the fact that we are making our best efforts to look at things and see what we can do. It’s tough. At the end of the day, it’s just a tough thing to try to accomplish. Well in the case of those two songs, I have to say: if somebody plays this game and says “oh, well this was two songs away from being enough content,” I don’t know what game they’re playing. There’s too much game in this game. I’ve seen a lot of complaints about the songs that were replaced, and I get it — you know, they’re not the ones that were taken out — but the replacement songs are always created by the Ryu ga Gotoku sound team internally, they’re approved all the way up the chain. It’s not like we just throw in some type of generic butt rock. (laughs) The Japanese team takes a lot of pride and care into replacing those songs if they have to. One of the big selling points for the Yakuza series in Japan is getting all these famous actors to play these roles, and that’s part of the authenticity is that you get real acting out of these main characters. Are there any issues with that outside of Japan, even just from a recognizability perspective? Using the characters is never an issue. We’ve never had a problem yet where we had to replace a character. In the Chinese version of Yakuza 0, they replace a late-game character with an actual Chinese actor, because it made sense in that market to do that, it was a cool thing for them. Our version is of course the localized Japanese version, so you don’t have that Chinese guy in there. That’s just an interesting little tidbit. What does suck about it is that, oftentimes, our audience has no idea who these people are. We have all this incredible talent in these games and We’re like “Yo, check this out, it’s this person!,” and they’re like, “yeah, I have no idea who that is.” It’s unfortunately just kind of a “lost in translation” thing, it doesn’t create a selling point for the game. They’re still great to have, because of course their acting chops are top-notch. They’re the greatest actors in Asia sometimes, you know? We got Beat Takeshi in 6, that’s incredible! And you’re not going to look at him and be like “well, he blew that line!” Can you imagine if you were dubbing Beat Takeshi’s lines? Who would we get? Well I imagine you can imagine that. Yeah. (laughs) We have fun talking about that sometimes, just off-the-cuff. Who would be the equivalent of Beat Takeshi in the States? Who is the Western Beat Takeshi? You know who the consensus is? Bill Murray. Not that we would have any hope of getting Bill Murray to do a voice in Yakuza, not that we would ever even consider dubbing it at this point, I just think it was an interesting conversation to have. Sounds about right! Yakuza 0, like most Yakuza games, contains arcade games. What localization work needs to be done on those, which are essentially standalone things? There’s a studio Sega works with called M2 who has become the stewards of Sega ages past. And whenever they can get them to do it, anyone else, because they’re the best in the business. Exactly. Those games are ported directly by M2, they’re running on their own executables inside the game which is why there’s a slightly longer loading time when you go into one of those games, and you know, they’re the best at what they do. You can see that when you press L1 and get the different styles — the screen elongates, the CRT lines filter in — they have been so great at maintaining Sega’s archival history of games that I for one am just super-stoked that they rely on them to put these games in, because they’re a piece of Sega history that would otherwise just go by the wayside. People need to see where Sega came from, I think. While talking to you, we would be remiss if we didn’t bring up your time at Level-5, specifically the Guild games, because they seem like such an anomaly, not just in development but also in localization. They’re such weird little things that there must be stories behind what it took to bring those over. Yeah, definitely. I was essentially the production guy at Level-5 America, and the desire to bring those over was led by our vice president and me. (laughs) So yeah, it was a struggle, and each game’s creators had very heavy input on how those game looked and felt in English, but at the end of the day, I’m just super-happy that we were able to do them, because Weapon Shop de Omasse was… when people ask, “what’s one of the best games you’ve ever localized,” I say that one. It’s hilarious. The Starship Damrey was great, Attack of the Friday Monsters was also incredible… It’s the closest thing we’re ever going to get to a localized Boku no Natsuyasumi, so… Exactly, right? Little, cute, amazing, fun games made by people… the tagline for Guild was “the chains are off,” these guys get to do what they want to do and make little games that were fun and cool, and it was a pleasure to localize those. Well it’s great that we got them, and it’s a shame that that can’t keep going, you know? Well, Hino-san is a man of his own desires, and if he decides that he ever wants to do a Guild03, he will, because he is a man of his own desires. (laughs) You also have this perspective, having spent time on the marketing side with Square Enix. How is it different to approach a game when you’re doing the selling as opposed to the localization side? Having had a localization background, I think I did bring a pretty interesting perspective to marketing because I was always consumer-first. Everything about every plan I made, every thing I wanted to sell was “is this good for the consumer, is this going to be something they want,” and I didn’t always win those battles. The dollars have to come before the consumers sometimes. But one of the great things about Atlus is they’re very consumer-friendly as well. With the Business Edition of Yakuza 0, the business card holder thing is literally free. They’re not charging a premium edition upgrade, and those are the kinds of decisions I support from a marketing perspective. Going into the marketing world taught me a whole lot, but at the same time, from my perspective, if you think of my life as a skill board, I have all these points allocated into localization, production and marketing… sometimes I feel like this Red Mage-type that has learned a lot about everything but excelled at nothing. (laughs) Have you ever felt a desire to hop over the fence? Telling marketing “you should be doing this” or, back when you were in marketing, “maybe we should tweak this line”? Yes! I felt that all the time, but I think I’m able to successfully compartmentalize myself and say “not my job, let them do their jobs, I’m going to do mine.” I work with a lot of great people who took my feedback into consideration on a lot of stuff, whether that was marketing to loc or loc to marketing, and being the Yakuza bible in my head that I am now, they lean a lot on me on the things they want to do, and there’s just a lot of cool stuff that we’ve been able to do because we have such a great relationship with the marketing department here. I know you have two more Yakuza games to do. Is that your life for the foreseeable future? Absolutely. I was brought on with the intention of these three games being the spearhead of the Yakuza reboot-ish kind of thing for the West. 0’s getting some great traction but we have to build on that for Kiwami and also for 6, so… there’s a lot of work to do. (laughs) There’s a lot of work to do, but for the foreseeable future, those definitely are my life until 2018 when Yakuza 6 launches and hopefully it’s where we want it to be by that point! This interview has been lightly edited for clarity. Thanks again to Scott for talking to us! You can send screenshots of your favorite Yakuza 0 lines to him on Twitter.October release announcements + big reveal coming this Friday! As we gear up for the October madness, here's a rundown of what's going on at VS... (scroll down for October reveals!!) September titles are up for pre-order right now and the limited slipcovers are selling INSANELY FAST (our best selling preorders EVER actually). This is what you get: PSYCHOS IN LOVE limited slipcover: Gorman Bechard's late 80s splatter classic, PSYCHOS IN LOVE, makes its Blu-ray debut in an all new restoration of the camera negative, in what's also our most extras loaded release ever! Note: this is a limited'stickered cover' slipcover edition, exclusive to VinegarSyndrome.com. ORGY OF THE DEAD limited slip: One of the quintessential 60s nudie films, AC Stephen's ORGY OF THE DEAD, penned by Ed Wood and starring Criswell, comes to Blu in all of its breathtaking colorfulness (the first of many Stephen films to come). Note: this is a limited 'fluorescent dayglo' slipcover edition, exclusive to VinegarSyndrome.com -- dust off your black light!! TRIP WITH THE TEACHER limited: Earl Barton's grim survival thriller, TRIP WITH THE TEACHER, also makes its Blu-ray debut, newly restored from its camera negative, and featuring the first ever commentary track with its elusive director. Note: this release is strictly limited to 3,000 units. Also coming to DVD in September: On DVD, we have the psychedelic hardcore horror film DARK DREAMS, starring Tina Russell and Harry Reems, along with a triple feature from maverick San Francisco filmmaker, Charles DeSantos, which includes THE SINFUL PLEASURES OF REVEREND STAR, KINKY TRICKS, and CHINA LUST. August release are in stock! In the mean time, all August titles are IN STOCK AND SHIPPING, so order today and save! And now...here's the full October rundown: First up, Charles Philip Moore's Evil Dead inspired and Fulci-esque DEMON WIND makes its DVD and Blu-ray debut in an all new and extremely colorful 2k restoration, and filled with extra features, plus for a limited edition VinegarSyndrome.com exclusive, we recreated the original lenticular cover!!! Fabrice Zaphiratos' almost indescribably insane arthouse slasher, BLOOD BEAT, is making its DVD and Blu-ray debut, fully restored from its original negative! One of the few hardcore features to also quality as a slasher, Roberta Findlay's A WOMAN'S TORMENT makes its DVD and Blu-ray debut, newly restored from its original negative and features its unseen and extended R rated version! After a lengthy search, Ted Mikels finally located film elements for his 1971 classic, THE CORPSE GRINDERS, and we're honored to be bringing it to Blu-ray. This special edition includes archival interviews with Ted as well as a new historical commentary with his friend, filmmaker Elijah Drenner. Finally, a double dose of Roberta Findlay's 80s horror work featuring devil worshiping priests in PRIME EVIL and vengeful ghosts in LURKERS, both of which are making their Blu-ray debuts restored from their original negatives! October preorders will be available on our site later this week. THREE of the releases will come with limited edition slipcovers, exclusive to VinegarSyndrome.com: DEMON WIND (lenticular slip), BLOOD BEAT and THE CORPSE GRINDERS! We’re not finished just yet… We're gearing up to announce what will not only be one of our biggest titles of the year, but probably among the biggest titles we've ever released! Look for an exclusive announcement on the VS Facebook page on Friday. Trust us, it's major... This release will be made available in a special edition during our annual Black Friday sale in November. Fall conventions! This fall we also return to many of our favorite conventions. Here's what's on our schedule: 9/8-9/10 - Horrorhound - Indianapolis, IN 9/16 - CT Horror Fest - Danbury, CT 9/29-10/1 - Cinema Wasteland - Strongsville, OH 10/13-10/15 - Rock and Shock - Worcester, MA 10/27-10/29 - Chiller Theatre - Parsippany, NJ 11/3-11/5 - Crypticon Minnesota - Bloomington, MN Sale this weekend at The Archive! The Archive (Vinegar Syndrome's "factory store") has been open for three months! We can't thank enough our customers, fans, friends and family who've come by to help launch this great experiment. To celebrate our first 3 months, we're having a 20% off sale this weekend! Stop by, explore the place and grab some records and movies! Address: 118 Congress Street in Bridgeport, CT ph# 203.441.5678 Store hours: Saturday & Sunday, 11am-7pm More info: https://www.facebook.com/TheArchiveCT/ Finally, for our New York area friends... https://quadcinema.com/program/erotic-city/ We've helped put together an incredible mini-festival of (s)exploitation cinema at The Quad Cinema, starting on Friday and running for one week. Plenty of VS restorations are showcased, along with rare 35mm prints and some amazing forgotten films from the Distribpix and AGFA vaults. Check it out here:Back in 2014, HWW was acquired by international metadata provider Gracenote – which might not have seemed significant at the time but was actually a great win for Australian TV viewers because it meant Australia's broadcasters no longer had direct control over licensing of the EPG. Instead foreign companies looking to access the Australian EPG could deal with a multinational which didn't have a vested interest in shafting Australian viewers. Thus we come to the new Plex DVR service, announced overnight at the IFA technology show in Berlin. Plex DVR offers Electronic Program Guide access for 70 countries including Australia, via an international licensing deal with Gracenote. Were Australia's EPG licensing still controlled locally, Australian Plex users would have been left out in the cold. Plex DVR is available for free to all Plex Pass subscribers and is built into the Plex Media Server software available for computers and Network Attached Storage drives. It lets you schedule recordings of live TV via the Plex web interface, convert those recordings to a range of formats and then stream them to Plex-compatible devices around your home. You can also access the recordings via the internet while away from home. While cloud PVR services like Optus' TV Now have been struck down by the courts due to fretting by the AFL and its broadcast partners, Plex DVR is within the letter of the law because users are making the recordings using devices on their premises rather than in the cloud. Initially Plex DVR is only compatible with the slick HDHomeRun network tuner but plans are afoot to support other network and USB television tuners, says Plex co-founder and chief product officer Scott Olechowski. Streaming live channels is also on the roadmap – which is likely to raise the ire of those determined to dictate what Australians watch and how we watch it.There’s a lot of great Inception material this week, thanks primarily to the DVD and Blu-ray which just hit shelves. But the book Inception: The Shooting Script has been around for a bit, and if you haven’t had a look, there are a couple aspects that make it wortwhile. Beyond the script there’s an interview with Christopher Nolan conducted by his brother Jonathan Nolan. And you’ll also find the map Chrisopher Nolan drew to delineate the film’s dream layers. That has been scanned, and you can find it below. In Contention presents the interview and the scan of the map. Most of the interview will be familiar to people who’ve been reading along as Mr. Nolan did press for the film. But the map might be new to you, and it’s a nice peek into the director’s process in crafting the picture. Click the image for a larger version.What gets lost amidst all the outrageous things Donald Trump says is his record of criminal activity and alleged criminal activity. It is as if the media and public assume that Trump cannot be both an
in the hood, in middle America, all around the world.Last week, author Mallory Factor appeared on Fox & Friends. The main purpose of the visit seemed to be to suggest that unions were “calling the shots” at the Democratic National Convention. And, of course, to demonize President Obama. During the discussion, Gretchen Carlson brought up the North Carolina AFL-CIO’s “Hug-a-thug” booth, an attempt to poke fun at and dispell some of the harsh rhetoric toward unions. But Factor was too interested in smearing to appreciate any other kind of humor. He explained to Carlson: Well, uh, the Hug-a-Thug… well, they call themselves “thugs,” and, uh, I just want to know if our Thug in Chief is gonna be there. Obama, because he is the thug in Chief- he really represents these unions. Hug-a-Thug is, you go to a booth and get hugged by a union guy. Ok, guess which part of that was both unnecessary and tactless? Hint: It’s in bold. Could you imagine the fallout if CNN or MSNBC showed up at the RNC and staged interviews like this about Romney? Or if a Huffpo reporter trotted out Michael Moore just to make such a comment about Paul Ryan? No, seriously… imagine it. Yet nobody on the curvy couch even blinked an eye at such a comment, much less challenged it.How The Playoff Picture Affects Fantasy and Gambling Jake Rosen Blocked Unblock Follow Following Dec 29, 2016 Published on deepishthoughts.com I do not envy those of you who have fantasy titles decided in week 17. Definitely don’t need the stress of having guys like Fitzgerald Touissant or Paxton Lynch directly altering my championship odds. We’re going to witness some sloppy football this week with only 14 teams still in contention for the 12 playoff spots. However, the seeding remains fluid and the timing of the games opens the door for some down to the wire moments. AFC 1. Patriots 13–2 Brady and company clinched a first round bye after last weeks routing of the Jets. They travel to Miami as 9.5 point favorites. Kickoff is at 1:00 and the Pats can clinch home field with a victory. The Pats can also clinch by an Oakland loss. We can thank the fantasy Gods for Oakland’s 4:25 kickoff. New England would likely have rested their starters if Oakland played the early game and lost. Due to the early start time, they are forced to play for the win and give the starters their full complement of snaps. This should be more of a Blount game. He is a virtual lock to find the end zone. Edelman remains a ppr wr2 while the rest of the pass catchers are tough to trust in a championship setting. 2. Raiders 12–3 The Raiders will have something to play for even if they are out of contention for the top seed by kickoff by virtue of a New England victory. They could slip down to the 5 seed by a losing at Denver (-1.5) plus the Chiefs defeating a Chargers team with nothing to play for. Both the Chiefs and Raiders kick off at 4:25 so the first teamers should be out there all day. The match up with Denver’s D coupled with the Carr injury makes anyone on Oakland outside of Latavius Murray nearly impossible to trust. Crabtree will draw the more favorable matchup on the outside if you’re desperate. Paxton Lynch will be under center for the Broncos, which makes betting the under on the current 40.5 point total very appealing. 3. Steelers 10–5 We have confirmed reports of Big Ben, Bell, Harrison, and Pouncey sitting for this week’s home game against the red hot Browns (+6). Brown will most likely sit out but is reportedly lobbying to play. It’s possible the Steelers roll with mainly backups after giving the rest of the starters enough work to stay in rhythm for next week. Betting on the Browns isn’t for the fainthearted, and they are guaranteed to make you question your general decision making skills. Week 17 is the hardest to bet due to the lack of motivation in most matchups; so even with all their Brownsiness and curses, they are a good bet to compete and cover against an uninspired Steelers team. 4. Texans 9–6 Well someone had to win this dumpster fire of a division. The Texans are still barely functioning on the offensive side of the ball. It would make sense for Hopkins and the rest of the starters to play as they attempt to form a rapport with new QB Tom Savage. They travel to face off against an eliminated Titans (-3) team without Mariota. Lamar Miller should rest and attempt to finally get his body right for the playoffs. He has never had a workload even close to this before and desperately needs some recovery time. CJ Fiedorowicz presents back end TE1 value while Hopkins is a boom or bust flex solely because of the matchup against the leagues friendliest secondary in terms of fantasy points. 5. Chiefs 11–4 The Chiefs are 6 point favorites for their 4:25 game against the Chargers. They can grab the two seed if they win and the Raiders fall to the Broncos. Both games kickoff at the same time so the Chiefs will be playing their starters for the entirety of the game. Ware is a great bet to bounce back from this mini slump. Tyreek Hill’s ability to score on any play makes him a high ceiling flex. Kelce remains an elite option. I like the Chiefs to pick up the win and cover. The Chiefs have been the second stingiest defense in the league in term of fantasy points allowed to tight ends. This would typically be a matchup Antonio Gates owners would fear. However, it is very possible this is the last time Gates will suit up in his career and is two touchdowns away from having the most scores of all time for a tight end. This gives him a big bump in value. Look for Rivers to feed him the ball in the red zone. 6. Dolphins 10–5 They have ripped off 9 wins in their last 10 but still do not instill fear in most other teams. They can still sneak into the 5 seed with a win and Chiefs loss so we should see what they are actually made of this week. Adam Gase has confirmed they will not be resting any starters. The possibility of playing Houston instead of Pittsburgh greatly outweighs the risk of any possible injury. Jarvis Landry has seen a significant down tick in targets since Matt Moore has taken over. Jay Ayjai is the only Dolphin worth starting. NFC 1. Cowboys 13–2 I understood why Jason Garrett chose to play his starters last week against the Lions. Having them sit the bench for three weeks in a row before they host a divisional game could have created some rust, not to mention a media outburst if they lose. So I expect everyone to at least play in this meaningless game against the Eagles (+3.5). It will most likely not be enough playing to correlate to their typical fantasy value though. Darren McFadden is the strongest fantasy play for Dallas in this game. 2. Falcons 10–5 The Falcons are in position for a bye but can be caught by the Seahawks or Lions if they lose. Fortunately for fantasy players, both teams play at the same time or after the Falcons. This means the Falcons usual suspects should be out there or the entire game and should feast on the Saints defense. Julio remains banged up and should rest or be on a snap count. Which gives Taylor Gabriel one of the highest ceilings of the week. He is a great DFS play. It will be nearly impossible for Freeman and Coleman to duplicate their historic outputs from their last matchup against the Saints (+7). Both need to be in your lineup though. 3. Seahwks 9–5–1 They too can only be caught by teams who play after them. Insert Wilson and Graham into your lineups with confidence. Play Doug Baldwin with the same confidence Richard Sherman has in his own abilities. The Niners have been historically bad against slot receivers and running backs. Monitor the Thomas Rawls situation all week. Whoever lines up in the backfield is worth a start. The Seahwaks are most vulnerable through the deep ball. I can’t imagine Kaep being able to expose them there. This should be a blowout as the Seahwaks tune up for round one. 4. Packers 9–6 Currently hold a tie breaker over the Lions. Very possible their 8:30 matchup with Detroit serves as a play in game. More to come on this later 5. Giants 10–5 Locked into the number 5 seed. Which is unfortunate for Lions and Packers fans. The G-Men are 7.5 dogs at Washington and a Redskins loss clinches playoff berths for both the Lions and Packers. It appears that the Giants starters will get at least few series in. OBJ can provide an entire games value of fantasy points on one play but his floor is extremely low. Stay away from everyone else. The Giants should rest their D as well. Cousins, Fat Rob, and Jackson should tear up the JV Giants squad. 6. Lions 9–6 The NFL really couldn’t ask for anything more. Two rivals with high powered offenses facing off in a one game playoff (assuming the Skins take care of business). The Lions appear to be fools gold. Their best win on the year is either Washington at home or the Saints on the road. Their record is a product of a soft schedule and are trending in the wrong direction. 3.5 points is not enough for them. Give me the surging Packers all day. This game should follow suit of the 38–31 shootout from earlier in the year. Marvin Jones will not replicate his 6/205/2 line so there will be more than enough yardage to go around for Tate and Ebron. The Lions will be without top corner Darius Slay for this one. You could make the argument for Jordy Nelson being the top WR play this week. Adams needs to be in your lineup while Jared Cook and Ty Montgomery offer nice upside as streamers. Outside Looking In Redskins 8–6–1 They’re in with a win against the Giants backups plus GB/DET not ending in a tie. Strong DFS options Bucs 8–7 They need 3 randoms wins, a random tie, and the planets to be aligned. Not gonna happen. However, they need to take care of business at home as 5 point favorites against Carolina for any of that to happen. They play in the early slate of games so Mike Evans remains an elite option. Doug Martin’s departure and Brate’s injury means Quizz is the only other Buc worthy of consideration. He’s a mid range RB2. Players For Sure Out LeVeon Bell Big Ben Trevor Siemian Tyrod Taylor Doug Martin Players Possibly Out/ Likely to be on a Snap Count OBJ Eli Antonio Brown Dak Dez Zeke Lamar Miller Hopkins Julio Olsen Rawls Jonathon Stewart 5 Best Bets of the Week. Home Team in CAPS REDSKINS (-7.5) over Giants Packers (-3.5) over LIONS Browns (+6) over STEELERS Seahawks (-9.5) over 49ERS Chiefs (-6) over CHARGERSDownload the slides for this talk (PDF, 325k). Rule-Based Programming in Interactive Fiction As I write this, Inform 7 is approaching its third birthday. I7 is a tool for creating interactive fiction (text adventure games). Like all the most powerful IF development tools, I7 is a programming language -- a powerful and peculiar one. Inform 7 gets a lot of attention for its English-like syntax. I'm not going to talk about the natural-language aspects of I7. I'm going to talk about the underlying programming model, the system of rules and rulebooks. That's less attention-grabbing than the flashy syntax; but, in my opinion, it's equally radical. And perhaps a more important development, in the long run. To be fair, I also like talking about the rule-based programming model because I contributed some of its ideas, back when I7 was first taking shape. I'm not claiming authorship here, mind you. I got into a long and digressive email conversation with Graham Nelson and Emily Short, in which we all threw ideas around, and then Graham went ahead and spent six years developing his ideas. I shoved mine on the shelf. This means that I will talk about I7 for a while, and then break into a wild flight of "but this is how I think it should be done!" And then finish up with all the reasons I haven't made it work yet. Such is a hacker's life. The rule-based programming model is not new. It's got connections to logical programming languages, as in Prolog. It's related to (or maybe the same as) aspect-oriented programming. But why do I like this model? Well, why does anybody like any kind of programming model? A programming language is a tool for handling design complexity. That's what all of computer science is, really -- languages, libraries, type systems, garbage collectors, everything you learn about programming. They're ways to build more and more complex designs without losing your grip. The way you manage complexity is to be able to ignore it. A good programming tool lets you forget about some part of the problem, so that you can focus on some other part. And it ensures that when you return to the parts you forgot, you haven't accidentally broken them. The first work of IF, Adventure, was a messy FORTRAN hack. The second, Dungeon (or Zork), was created at MIT, so it was a messy LISP hack. (Actually a LISP dialect called MDL, which is why you see angle brackets as well as parentheses.) These were messy because they were built as games, not game-design tools. The creators were figuring out how to build IF worlds on the fly. The MIT gang went on to create the first well-known IF design system, under the Infocom banner. It consisted of a virtual machine, a language called ZIL, a compiler for the language, and a parser library written in the language. ZIL looked a lot like MDL, but it actually had a much simpler structure; it was essentially BASIC written with parentheses. (I mean angle brackets.) Adventure and Dungeon sparked lots of imitators. The next twenty years gave us a whole roster of IF development systems. These were mostly created by people who had learned to program in the 70s and 80s, so the languages followed the programming models you'd expect: BASIC-like, C-like, Pascal-like. Although, to be fair, a couple were genuinely LISP-y. How did these systems compare? Small code samples, like the ones above, show off difference in syntax. But the underlying code model is important too. For example, the version of Adventure I quoted was written almost completely without functions. (Just two small utility functions are used.) The parser and game logic are all one mass of loops and gotos. Nobody would consider writing a complex program that way today. So, the simplest IF systems had if/else statements. The more advanced ones had functions and data structures. The most complex aspired to what people thought of as the sacred peak of computer science: object-oriented programming. It's not hard to imagine why designers moved towards OO design tools. Think about what a typical IF game comprises. You've got some rooms, which contains objects. Some objects are containers, so they have other objects inside them. And then you have some representation of the player, which can also contain objects. Everybody likes to generalize, and the obvious generalization is to say that a container is a kind of object. Then the player looks like a special object, and rooms can be objects too (or maybe a special kind of container). Presto, everything in the world is an object. Maybe object-oriented programming would be a good fit! Here's a common OO pattern: an object field (or property). Every object in the game has a description, its response to the "EXAMINE" command. A field works nicely for that. We can define a description field in the base class, of type string. This basic description applies to all objects, as a default; we can then override it for specific objects. This is working really well! It gets a little trickier, though, because many objects have dynamic descriptions. They change over the course of the game. For example, the bottle can be filled with either water or oil. We could handle this by assigning a new value to Bottle.description every time the bottle changed state. Sometimes that's practical. But we'd like a more flexible option; we'd like to associate some code with the bottle which computes the current description. Code associated with an object is, of course, an object method. Here's the object description implemented as a method instead of a string field. By the way, this model leaves us with a lot of one-line print methods. Many descriptions aren't dynamic. So it winds up being convenient to allow a shortcut, where you say "description: STRING" and interpret that as a method that prints STRING. Inform 6 has this shortcut, for example. But it's syntactic sugar; it doesn't change the model. I've used a more interesting shortcut here. Some OO languages, like Java, are very strict about the distinction between objects and classes. You define classes, and then instantiate them to create objects. That's a nuisance in IF, because most objects in an IF game are unique. Adventure only has one glass bottle. It would be tedious to have to define a Bottle class and then do Bottle.new(). So OO IF languages tend to use a prototyping model: you can define a one-off object with its own fields and methods, and then maybe subclass it if you need to. That's what I've done above. Descriptions are a bit of a special case. The basic behavior of an IF game is a read-parse-perform loop: read a command from the player, parse it into action data, and then execute the action. How does that look in an OO system? Let the parser be a black box. (A black box with months of fiddly work inside it, sure.) It sucks in the player's command, and spits out a tuple (VERB, NOUN). OO doctrine says that a VERB is a method, and a NOUN is an object. So we call that method of that object. End of turn, read the next command. So we define a bunch of objects, give them appropriate action methods, drop the parser on top, and we've got a game, right? Right... until we try to do anything more complicated. Then it falls apart like a bundle of ball bearings. When it's dark, you can't examine anything; or rather, you always get the same response: "It's too dark to do that." But where do we put that check? It applies to all objects, but if we put it in the Object.examine() method, any specific object method will short-circuit it. We could paste the same check into Sword.examine(), Lamp.examine(),... every object in the game... but that's the kind of repetitive coding style that OO was supposed to fix. What about the "LOOK" command? That doesn't have an object at all, which is a little problematic for object-oriented code. Maybe single-verb commands should be routed to the room. That makes sense for "LOOK", but not so much for "INVENTORY". "PUT MEAT IN BASKET" is even worse -- it has two objects, a direct object and an indirect object. We could invoke a method on the Meat object or the Basket object. Really, we'd want to invoke methods on both, because either one could customize the default "PUT X IN Y" action. (A thimble is too small to put most objects in; smoke is too diffuse to be put into anything.) The method we're writing might belong on some other object entirely. Imagine a room with an orc and a pie. If you try to take the pie, the orc kills you, unless you've killed him first or otherwise removed him from the room. It would be logical to send the orc object a message for every "TAKE" action in the room. Where does this stop? Should we invoke a method on every object in the room for every action? (In what order?) Another fun case: some checks apply to multiple actions. An electrified lever zaps you if you pull, push, or even touch it. We don't want to copy that check into every touching method. Maybe we could have "pull" and "push" be subclasses of a base "touch" class... except, hang on, that makes no sense. OO has no notion of methods subclassing other methods. I suppose we could drop the "verbs are methods" scheme, and represent verbs as abstract objects. Pass the verb as a parameter. Instead of invoking Flower.smell(), we'd invoke Flower.do(Smell). But we also need those multi-object checks, so we'll pass the object as a parameter too: Player.do(Smell, Flower). This neatly covers all the cases I've described. It's perfect. Except -- now all of our game logic is jammed into one enormous method, full of if and switch statements. Perfect, if your goal is to go stark staring bonkers. This is how Inform 6 manages its code. Every action invokes this wrapper function, which invokes a whole slew of object methods: on the player, on nearby objects, on the room itself, on the command target object. Each of these in turn has its chance to determine the action outcome. If none of them raise a hand, the action's default behavior is invoked. This is usable. I've written complex games in Inform 6. But you can't call it "object-oriented" in any deep sense. It's the stilted result of deciding that every bit of code must be associated with one object, and then trying to name (in advance) every object that some action code might be associated with. It gets the job done, as long as you're willing to force yourself into its mold. (Even when you do, it's not as flexible as you might hope. For example, the order of method checks is rigid. You can't write a room effect that overrides a nearby-object effect.) So I sat back and said to myself, player, how am I really using Inform 6? I'm not looking at objects and then deciding what methods to override. Rather, I'm thinking up conditions, and then working out what objects and methods I6 wants me to attach them to. I feel like I'm designing my game and then porting it to I6. The question, then, is what language am I porting it to I6 from? If I were working in a language that fit my approach, I would create a cloud of rules and conditions. The compiler would then knit them together into a game. Some of my rules would be associated with objects, as in I6. But other rules would be associated with actions, and others with global game state (like the time of day). It's the compiler's job to ensure that every relevant rule is considered in the course of handling an action. Here's a pass at what a rule might look like, as a program element. The atom identifies what process we're carrying out or computing. The behavior of an atom is defined by one or several rules. (The atom might have parameters, but we'll get to that in a moment.) The code is arbitrary code; it does something. (Let's take for granted the shortcut I mentioned above, where a bare string means "print this string".) The condition describes under what circumstances this code should be used for the atom. This is less alien than it sounds. If we strip off the condition part of the rule, what we're left with is -- an ordinary function. "To do FuncName, run this code." The condition is effectively "always"; you can read it as an implied "...if true" condition. If we throw in an object parameter, we can effectively build an object field. The first rule, with an "if true", defines the general condition -- it always holds, unless another rule overrides it. The second rule applies to a class of objects. The third rule applies to a specific object. Of course we need the compiler to understand that the second rule overrides the first rule, and the third overrides the second. That's doable, at least in theory. The first condition is clearly totally generic. And if we've defined the Hope Diamond as being a treasure, then the compiler can tell that the third condition is a specific case of the second. So these logical relationships will get all the rules lined up in the right order -- at least for this simple case. By the way, we don't really need the atom part of the rule at all. We could treat the atom as just another parameter. That simplifies the syntax, at the cost of making the conditions more complicated. Maybe this is the theoretically pure path. It's certainly more powerful -- it lets us define rules that cover several different atoms. But it's one step farther than I'm willing to go. I need some irreducible structure to hang my scarf on, and atoms are it. (That's why I call them "atoms". In Inform 7, they're called "rulebooks".) We can set up many familiar programming structures using this rule mechanism. For example, a constant is just a one-rule atom with no parameters, which returns a value. (Again, we might want to write simple actions as bare values.) An object method works just like an object property -- a list of rules based on class membership. What about a property whose value can be reassigned? Computed property values are nice, but sometimes you really do want to store a new value somewhere. Here we have a delicate vase which is rendered worthless if you hit it. (I'm sneaking another syntactic shortcut in on you. The condition of this rule is really "...if (obj is MingVase)". I've just specified the parameter condition directly.) The assignment operator, :=, needs to fit into the rule system. Let's treat it as this implicit, overriding rule: The compiler will have to generate these implicit rules for any atoms that are assigned to in the program code. It will also have to keep track of what values have been assigned where. No big deal; it's just a lookup table, managed behind the scenes. This sort of assignment rule works just as well for simple global variables. Here's a Score atom which starts out as zero, but increases at a particular point in the game. Note that the first rule defines a constant, same as we defined Pi earlier. Then the second rule turns the constant into a variable. Don't let this scare you. Plenty of programming languages let you rebind any identifier at any time. Let's get a bit more ambitious. I've been writing rule conditions that use the "ofclass" operator, as if I had a traditional object hierarchy to work with. Pretend I don't like traditional object hierarchies, and want to use atoms instead. A class is just a set of objects; we can implement that as a membership property. Three very simple rules. All objects are non-treasures, with these two exceptions. Now we can rewrite the earlier Price rules without any need for the "ofclass" operator. When you get down to it, an inherited property value is just one property (the Price) derived from another (the Treasure membership property). So we have one atom whose computation depends on another atom. The compiler will have to track this dependency in order to generate appropriate code. But that will be a pretty simple job -- especially since the Treasure rules are so simple. You could imagine more complex dependencies; perhaps a subclass relationship, where one "class" atom implies another. It'll work the same way. We know how to build dependency graphs, and detect circular dependencies, and that's all we need. Since all atoms play by the same rules, we can do some tricks that traditional OO can't. We can change an object's class, or classes, at runtime. Assign false to Treasure(MingVase), and the vase stops being a treasure. Or we could make Treasure(MingVase) be a more complex computation, derived from other game state, rather than a constant true or false. Now that I've gotten all of these program structures built, it's time for you all to raise your hands -- good -- and ask me: why? Why am I interested in replacing functions, and classes, and variables and constants, with these rule-based substitutes? This isn't the path that Inform 7 went down. I7 uses rules for a lot of its infrastructure, but it still has variables and constants and classes and properties. Traditional ones, not made out of rule-stuff. I7's rulebooks aren't very atomic, for that matter. They're fairly heavyweight structures, which take some effort to set up and invoke. You wouldn't want to define a single I7 constant using a rule. But I think that a rule-based model is appropriate for IF. For big heavy features, for tiny little low-level features, for everything. The reason, the big overarching reason, is that IF programming is full of exceptions. I don't mean the catch/throw kind of exceptions; I mean exceptional cases. And they're not the kind that you plan for in advance. They're irregular, unpredictable, ad-hoc kinds of exceptions. Each time you stumble over one of these cases, you write some code that tweaks an existing part of the game logic -- modifying either some library code, or some code you wrote last week. So you can't afford to think about the interactions between this tweak and every other tweak in the game. That's N-squared interactions as your game grows -- too much complexity to handle. You have to be able to ignore them. You have to say, this change applies under these conditions, and all of those changes apply under different conditions, so they're all safe from each other. I've already talked about the ability to slip from a simple value, perhaps a string, to a dynamic piece of code. You don't want to have to go back and turn a static print statement into a function call, or a function call into a method, just because you changed your mind about how one case should work. The simplest mechanism in the design system should scale up to as much complexity as you need. IF work usually starts by loading up a standard library. This is a big swathe of pre-built command logic and world logic; you need it, but you need to be able to modify it, too. You need to be able to customize all of it. Really, the characteristic Frustrating Moment of building a text adventure is looking at some part of the library -- a string value, a behavior, a command -- and saying "How do I change that?" (If you're unlucky, it's "Dammit, there's no way to change that.") An example, so that you don't think I'm making this stuff up. I was working on a game a couple of years ago, and it had a lot of doors. In Inform, a door can be open or closed. That's a boolean property -- you can set it one way or the other. Well, I need one door whose open-ness was a function of the open-ness of several other doors. So now it's a boolean property which, in one case, is a function call. IF design runs into this all the time. You give the player a numeric score, and then decide that in chapter ten the player will go crazy and his score will be a random number. Or "rhinoceros". Treasures break and become worthless. A telephone needs the attributes of a person, because the "talk" verb is associated with people, and you have to be able to talk to a telephone. (This was a real I7 bug report.) Earlier I was making fun of the notion of redefining Pi. But redefining string constants is the most elementary level of IF work. The standard library has an message "You are empty-handed"; you want to change that to a more distinctive "You ain't got nothin'." That kind of change should be supported up-front. (It's a non-trivial amount of work in I7, unfortunately.) It's not just you and the library. Any well-used IF system will have a large collection of third-party libraries, or library extensions. They also want to modify the standard library. At the same time, you are modifying them. There are code tweaks flying back and forth between all these different code sources. Inevitably, some of them will collide. So you need a system which is built from the ground up to resolve separately-defined behaviors. For that matter, once your game gets beyond a certain point, you're effectively collaborating with yourself. You get chapter one working; then you're working on chapter two, and all that chapter-one code is effectively a library. It does its job, but you may have to make changes that intersect it. You can't annoy the guy who wrote it -- who happens to be you. One of the dirty open secrets of IF design is that testing is really, really hard. There's no such thing as a complete unit test, because the range of possible input is unbounded. You can go through a scene and tune every verb the player might think of -- and I do -- but it's still not safe, because tomorrow you're going to write more code that involves those verbs and those objects. So, again, you need a development system which is smart at the level of "When does this code apply?" I am confident that my rule model provides all the flexibility and customizability that I need. The question is, does it provide the safety -- the ability to tune out complexity and focus on one rule at a time, without breaking the whole system. Does this model let you manage complexity, or just bury yourself in it? Answer: beats the heck out of me. The tricky bit, and the bit I've been glossing over in this whole rule discussion, is how you handle conflicting rules in a rulebook (that is, an atom). I mentioned one strategy already: logical precedence. A general rule is always overridden by a more specific rule. For example, if you have a rule for containers, and then a rule for closed containers, the latter is clearly an exception to the former. (Formally: if condition X logically implies condition Y, then rule X overrides rule Y.) This is great as far as it goes... which is the easy cases. Most rule conflicts are partial overlaps, not clean exceptions. For example, you have a rule for describing living people, and then a rule for describing things when it's dark. Those are two independent conditions. We intuitively feel that the darkness rule takes precedence -- when it's dark, you can't see anything at all. But how does the compiler decide? All of the easy solutions are terrible. For example, the compiler could decide that if two rules conflict, the earlier one (in the source code) is overridden by the later one. This sucks because one day you reorganize your program, to tidy it up a little, and everything starts working differently. Not good. Inform 7 has a painfully detailed schema for deciding which rules come before which. It's in the manual, and nobody understands it. (The logical precedence strategy is in there, but in a strange scattered way that I don't understand.) I hate when fundamental language mechanisms are too complicated to understand. A simple strategy is "don't cope with it." Throw an error and let the author fix it. Fixing it means either declaring which rule takes precedence, or, equivalently, writing a new rule to cover the overlap. But of course that's the worst possible plan for complexity management. One new broadly-stated rule might conflict with dozens of existing rules, and there's no way the author wants to resolve all those conflicts manually. Equally of course, the author will have to get involved at some point. The compiler will never be smart enough to resolve every problem on its own. So let's presume the compiler has done its best, and thrown an error. The author is faced with what's left. We need a model where the author can resolve many precedence conflicts at once, in some general way, while still being able to adjust individual cases as desired. The author's life would be simpler if he could declare precedence for entire groups of rules at a time. We already have rules coming in groups, right? The standard library is a group, each library extension is a group. If the author has organized his code into chapters, or sections, or files, then each one of those could be a group. Probably groups will be split into subgroups, too. Of course, we may want to override a general precedence statement in particular cases. Maybe one rule in the group needs high priority, even though most of the group is low priority. Maybe you just need to tweak a specific case. So the compiler will have to be able to figure out which precedence statements are exceptions. It will have to detect circular precedence. If it detects a conflict, it will have to ask for help in deciding which precedence statement takes precedence... This is the point where you raise your hands -- good -- and ask, didn't you just say all that? Twenty minutes ago? Because the precedence mechanism I'm describing sounds exactly like the rule mechanism it's supposed to fix. Precedence is an atom; all those precedence statements are rules. So I honestly don't know whether I have a workable system. Maybe the rule engine can manage itself, bootstrapping itself, with the complex cases resting on the simple cases. Or maybe it's all circular logic and it can't get off the ground. A quick survey of other trouble spots: Some properties are related. If X is the parent of Y, then Y is the child of X -- and it's also true that X is nonempty. We'd like to implement all of those computations as atoms, so that their behavior can be customized. But what does it mean to redefine the Child relation? Do you have to redefine Parent and Nonempty, too? That's fragile; keeping them in sync would be difficult. (Inform 7 avoids this by working at the high level of relations, instead of the low level of rules. That's clearly better for this case, but I'd like to find an approach that has the advantages of both.) Some operations occur in several phases. An IF action typically has a "perform the work" phase and a "report what happened" phase. Do we set this up as one atom that does two things, or two atoms? The author probably wants to define them at the same time; writing one rule is conceptually easiest. And sometimes you want to override the whole thing with one rule. But then sometimes you want to change the displayed message, or change the underlying implementation, or maybe do the work silently. So we need to be able to treat the two phases separately. You might try to write two rules with the
City, Colo. – 6:30 p.m. La Maquina (SOUTH CA) at Strikers FC South Coast (SOUTH CA) Lake Forest Sports Park and Recreation Center; Lake Forest, Calif. – 9 p.m. San Nicolas FC (SOUTH CA) at Corinthians USA (SOUTH CA) Rialto High School; Rialto, Calif. – 10 p.m. Footballers Academy (SOUTH CA) at San Pedro Monsters FC (SOUTH CA) Daniel’s Field; San Pedro, Calif. – 10 p.m. Del Rey City SC (SOUTH CA) at LA Wolves FC (SOUTH CA) Toyota Sports Complex; Torrence, Calif. – 11 p.m. OCT. 25, 2015 Boca Raton FC (FL) at Real Miami Club of Football (FL) St. John Bosco Football Stadium; Miami, Fla. – 4:30 p.m. Colorado Rush (CO) at FC Boulder (CO) Pleasant View Soccer Complex; Boulder, Colo. – 5 p.m. El Farolito (NORTH CA) at San Francisco City FC (NORTH CA) Kezar Stadium; San Francisco, Calif. – 6 p.m. Outbreak FC (SOUTH CA) at Buena Park FC (SOUTH CA) John F. Kennedy High School; La Palma, Calif. – 6 p.m. Charlotte Sporting Soccer Academy FC (NC) at Queen City United FC (NC) West Mecklenburg Stadium; Charlotte, N.C. – 7 p.m. Real Sociedad (SOUTH CA) at Ozzy’s Laguna FC (SOUTH CA) East Los Angeles College; Monterey Park, Calif. – 7 p.m. Red Force FC (FL) at Uruguay Kendall FC (FL) Broward College-South Campus; Pembroke Pines, Fla. – 8 p.m. Davis Legacy (NORTH CA) at IFX Ballistic (NORTH CA) Las Positas College; Livermore, Calif. – 8 p.m. Valley United SC (SOUTH CA) at Cal FC (SOUTH CA) Agoura High School; Agoura Hills, Calif. – 10 p.m. Chula Vista FC (SOUTH CA) at Temecula Football Club (SOUTH CA) Linfield Christian School; Temecula, Calif. – 10 p.m. Tobacco Road FC (NC) at CD Motagua of New Orleans (LA) NOTE: Tobacco Road FC withdrawn (Travel). CD Motagua advances to Round 2 KC Athletics (KS) at International Portland Select (OR) NOTE: KC Athletics have withdrawn (Travel) IPS advances to Round 2 ——————————————————————– QUALIFYING: SECOND ROUND (All Times Eastern) GPS Omens (MA) at Southie FC (MA) Lawrence Veterans Memorial Stadium; Lawrence, Mass. – Nov. 15, 4 p.m. ——————————————————————– Lansdowne Bhoys (EAST NY) at Worcester FC (MA) Pappas Recreation Center; Auburn, Mass. – Nov. 14, 5 p.m. ——————————————————————– Jersey Shore Boca (NJ) at NY Pancyprian Freedoms (EAST NY) Belson Stadium, St John’s University; Jamaica, N.Y. – Nov. 14, 7 p.m. ——————————————————————– West Chester United (EAST PA) at Salone FC (EAST PA) Marcus Foster; Philadelphia, Pa. – Nov. 15, 4 p.m. ——————————————————————– Dulles Sportsplex Aegean Hawks FC (MD) at Aromas Cafe FC (DC/VA) Western Allenade High School; Crozet, Va. – Nov. 15, 3 p.m. ——————————————————————– La Maquina / Strikers FC South Coast winner at Chula Vista FC Eastlake High; Chula Vista, Calif. – Nov. 21, 11 p.m. OR La Maquina / Strikers FC South Coast winner at Temecula FC Temecula Valley High School; Temecula, Calif. – Nov. 21, 10 p.m. ——————————————————————– Boca Raton FC / Real Miami winner at Uruguay Kendall FC Broward College-South Campus; Pembroke Pines, Fla. – Nov. 21, 6 p.m. OR Boca Raton FC / Real Miami winner at Red Force FC Broward College-South Campus; Pembroke Pines, Fla. – Nov. 22, 6 p.m. ——————————————————————– Colorado Rush / FC Boulder winner at Colorado Rovers Dick’s Sporting Goods Park; Commerce City, Colo. – Nov. 21, 6:30 p.m. OR Colorado Rush / FC Boulder winner at Harpo’s FC Dick’s Sporting Goods Park; Commerce City, Colo. – Nov. 22, 12 p.m. ——————————————————————– Davis Legacy / IFX Ballistic winner at San Francisco City FC Crocker Amazon Field; San Francisco, Calif. – Nov. 21, 4 p.m. OR Davis Legacy / IFX Ballistic winner at El Farolito Boxer Stadium; San Francisco, Calif. – Nov. 22, 4 p.m. ——————————————————————– Valley United SC / Cal FC winner at LA Wolves FC Mira Costa High School; Manhattan Beach, Calif. – Nov. 21, 10:30 p.m. OR Valley United SC / Cal FC winner at Del Rey City SC St. Bernard High School; Playa Del Rey, Calif. – Nov. 22, 8:30 p.m. ——————————————————————– Outbreak FC / Buena Park FC winner at San Pedro Monsters FC Daniel’s Field; San Pedro, Calif. – Nov. 21, 10 p.m. OR Outbreak FC / Buena Park FC winner at Footballers Academy Orange County Great Park; Irvine, Calif. – Nov. 22, 11 p.m. ——————————————————————– San Nicolas FC / Corinthians USA winner at Ozzy’s Laguna FC Santa Ana Stadium; Santa Ana, Calif. – Nov. 22, 7 p.m. OR San Nicolas FC / Corinthians USA winner at Real Sociedad St. John Bosco Football Stadium; Bellflower, Calif. – Nov. 22, 7:30 p.m. NOV. 21 or 22 Charlotte Sporting / Queen City United winner vs. CD Motagua (LA) Site / Date TBD NTX Rayados / Austin Real Cuauhtemoc winner vs. International Portland Select Site / Date TBD QUALIFYING: THIRD ROUND April 1-2, 2016 US OPEN CUP FIRST ROUND: May 11, 2016Hey, Rand Paul, what are your chances of actually being president? Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) says he may follow in his father's footsteps and run for president in 2016. "I'm not going to deny that I'm interested," Sen. Paul tells ABC's Jonathan Karl about his presidential aspirations. While Paul is quick to add that he isn't ready to make a decision about a presidential bid yet, he is not hesitant to say that the Republican Party needs a new message. "I think we have to go a different direction because we're just not winning and we have to think about some different ideas," says the senator. Yes, Sen. Aqua Buddha, please do this We Democrats have become used to a certain level of unintentional comedy from the Republican presidential primaries, and this year's crop of crazy really set a high standard. If there's anyone in the GOP who has even a chance of keeping us as entertained as Michele Bachmann and Herman Cain and Rick Perry did, well, it just might be the rogue ophthalmologist who, while running for the Senate, had to "categorically deny that [he'd] ever kidnapped anyone or forced anybody to use drugs"; made a federal case out of getting detained by the TSA except that he wasn't actually detained but that's just a minor detail; believes you have a constitutional right to choose your own toilet, but not to keep men like Paul out of your vagina ; and who also believes that just because the Supreme Court declares something unconstitutional, well, that "does not make it so" even though that's sort of exactly what that means. So yes, Rand Paul, please, pretty please, with a cherry on top, run for president in 2016. The popcorn industry thanks you in advance.When you play a match, it is statistically proven that players actually have the ball 3 minutes on average. The best players – the Zidanes, Ronaldinhos, Gerrards – will have the ball maybe 4 minutes. Lesser players – defenders – probably 2 minutes. So, the most important thing is: what do you do those 87 minutes when you do not have the ball…. That is what determines whether you’re a good player or not. –Johan Cruyff One of the qualities that makes great artists great, is their ability to see and render the spaces between objects. In a still life of a bowl of fruit, a glass of water, a table cloth and wall paper, they not only see each individual entity but also see the relationship between them. Great artists not only draw or paint what’s physically present, but what’s not there. The geometry between edges. The background. In art these are known as negative spaces. One of the qualities that makes football so beautiful, that can give it an aesthetic dimension that far surpasses its rudiments of eleven players, a ball and the pitch is that it is a game of negative space. If the ball is the point of reference and the focus of attention it is the parts of the game taking place in more distant regions of activity that sculpt a match. It is not only the players that matter, but how they interrelate on the pitch. So much joy comes from what happens in those spaces that aren’t dictated by the ball, that aren’t occupied by anyone at all. In their last match Barcelona comfortably beat Zaragoza 4-0 at Camp Nou. Though the victory was far from a surprise and Zaragoza is far from a formidable side (particularly defensively), the Blaugrana played very well. In fact it was one of their better recent performances. What the team did very well this match that it hasn’t done well over the past few matches was to use space to make the pitch functionally “large.” Much of this was due to the role that Barça’s two advanced flank players assumed. Both Sanchez and Cuenca had interesting matches. Neither notably altered the match through their direct play on the ball or their individual quality. Sanchez was clearly off form. He’s played little football this season overall due to injury. And he’s particularly played limited minutes within the Barcelona system. And that was clearly apparent in the Zaragoza match. Cuenca individually played well – but he wasn’t incorporated into the match as much as he could have been by his teammates. Nonetheless, together, they exerted significant influence over the outcome through their tactical play. In this regard, the Zaragoza match was a stark example of how a player can be decisive, even in attack, without touching the ball. It shed’s light on Cruyff’s maxim about what makes a player “good” in any particular match. Tactical Analysis: The image below typifies much of Zaragoza’s approach to the match. Zaragoza is playing very narrow and compact – much as Sevilla, Viktoria Plzen (Camp Nou leg), and L’Hospitalet have done this season to thwart Barcelona from translating dominance in possession into scoring. All ten of the Zaragoza outfield players are stationed between the width of the eighteen yard box. Zaragoza are particularly concerned about defending “positive space” – that is the player with the ball and the immediate space around him. For much of the match Zaragoza sought to defend the ball with two to three players (one man on the ball and the nearby defenders forming a “wall” to the goal or cutting off passing angles to disrupt the short passing game). Zaragoza have formed a cluster of four players around the ball. Behind them there are four more Zaragoa defenders. There are seeking to form a dense column of defense between the ball and the goal to prevent Barça from playing the ball through the middle. They’ve accomplished this objective effectively – Zaragoza have numerical superiority in this region of danger 8 vs. 4. In the central space their ten defenders occupy they outnumber Barça 10 vs. 5 – they can literally double mark every Barça player stationed towards the middle of the pitch. The key to this sequence is what’s happening in the space Zaragoza is choosing not to defend. Notice how Isaac Cuenca is stationed extremely wide at the touchline. Zaragoza is pressuring Xavi who has the ball. They have Xavi and Alves outnumbered 4 vs. 2. A wall of three players cuts off Fabrgas from Xavi – there is no pathway for a pass. Towards the middle Messi is triple marked. Rather than running to the ball Cuenca stays wide however. He doesn’t creep into towards the ball. Critically, he remains positioned to in a way that ensures that Xavi has a strong passing angle. If he edges forward or moves backwards – that passing angle deteriorates. Cuenca appears to be just standing there – but what he is doing is orchestrating negative space perfectly. Watch how radical a simple ball from Xavi to Cuenca impacts Zaragoza’s defensive shape: There is no ideal way to play the game. In seeking to overplay the center to take away Barça’s greatest strength, Zaragoza has had to leave the flanks relatively open. Once the ball is circulated wide they have to completely reconfigure their shape. Notice how disorganized they’ve become. Xavi and Alves – once facing a 2 vs. 4 situation are now each single marked. Messi once triple marked is now 1 vs. 1 with his defender as the Zaragoza backline is forced to drop a few steps deeper. Most importantly, notice what’s happened with Fabregas. Before he was stationed in space that was cut off from the other players. Now he is free, finding a center space between the Zaragoza defenders. Comparing the two images above demonstrates why spacing the pitch wide is so critical. It makes the pitch large and forces the defense to zone more area. This in turn opens up more space in the interior. And it’s this interior space Fabregas has so deftly moved into, putting himself into a very dangerous position. All of this came from one simple ball from Xavi to a completely wide open Cuenca. Cuenca then easily splits the two defenders seeking to close him down with a short pass to the now wide open Fabregas. Commentators often make remarks about Barcelona’s “useless” passing. Indirect play, short passes, etc. Many of these remarks are made because too much attention is paid to the positive space around the ball. This sequence started with Xavi under pressure and completely cut off from Fabregas – he had no passing angle to get Cesc the ball. With one short pass what Barcelona has done is to sculpt a passing angle to Fabregas. By staying wide Cuenca is able to make the pass that Xavi could not. This sequence ends with Barcelona generating a dangerous scoring opportunity. Fabregas shortly goes on to play the ball back to Alves and link up with him for an incisive 1-2 towards goal. Overall, Cuenca had a better game than Sanchez as the Barcelona left wing looked significantly off game form due to lack of minutes. Nonetheless, Sanchez’s tactical impact was similarly significant as demonstrated by the sequence below which demonstrates how dynamic Barcelona’s play was along both flanks. Staying wide, Cuenca receives a long pass from played quickly by Keita from the Barcelona half. Rather than immediately pass the ball, Cuenca takes a few dribbles to run at the defense. While again this appears to be a simple action, what it does is to draw Messi’s defender away from him. For much of the match Zaragoza attempted to defend Messi with three defenders. Through use of width and direct play, Barcelona have created a situation where Messi is unmarked. Messi receives the ball open in space from Cuenca, who continues his run centrally. Notice how the Zaragoza defense reacts to Messi have the ball free in space. The entire defense collapses centrally. Zaragoza becomes extremely narrow with their entire backline and holding midfielders attempting to clot the middle and prevent Barcelona from playing in this space. Over the past month or so we’ve seen this kind of situation develop again and again for Barcelona. Messi makes a run, the defense narrows and collapses to the middle. The Barcelona attackers gather to the middle to link up and play the ball short and fast (likely back to Messi on a 1-2). Messi then has to thread a pass through a high density of defenders – a pass which has to be made perfectly or the play is broken up. What made the game against Zaragoz different is Sanchez’s positioning. The left defensive back has pinched in to the middle. However, Sanchez, maintaining tactical discipline, stays very wide. He’s hardly moved in at all despite all of the action and movement to the middle. Sanchez instead is orchestrating space that’s being ignored and where no visible activity is taking place. Rather than being forced to play a low probability pass through tight space Messi has another option – an outlet in Sanchez. The ball played to the open wide player again causes the Zaragoza defense to lose shape and become more disorganized. Zaragoza throughout looked to defend the ball with at least two players – one to pressure and one to cover. With Sanchez free to move onto the simple ball from Messi two defenders have to move towards him. This in turn takes two defenders who were in the middle away from that vital space. Additionally, the entire backline starts to drop deeper. Notice how Messi initially passes the ball and delays his run. He knows that this pass will force the defense deeper. As the defenders speed up to retreat, Messi slows down momentarily to develop the space around him. This is a perfect example of why he is so effective as a false 9. Sanchez, then takes a few quick dribbles to run at the defenders. His goal isn’t to beat them per se. Instead, it is to further draw the two defenders towards him. Through the wide player receiving the ball in space and running at the defenders Xavi is now open in space. It wasn’t even much of a run – but it’s often the subtle factors which define how space is used. Also – notice what’s happened with Messi. He is now single marked. That is one of the major outcomes of this sequence for Barça. All match Zaragoza attempted to mark Messi with multiple defenders – and here he is at running into the 18 yard box single marked. This is a significant tactical “victory” for Barcelona. In the image above, once he’s drawn the defender away from Xavi, Sanchez passes the ball the now open playmaker. Seeing this, Messi accelerates his run and Xavi is now able to make a relatively simple pass for Messi to run onto inside of the 18 yard box. Zaragoza outnumber Barça 6 vs. 3 around the ball. But by shaping negative space Barcelona has created a situation where Messi is 1 vs. 1 with the defender inside of the box. Barça have forced the opposition into the exact situation their entire defensive tactical system was designed to stop. If Messi had initially tried to play the ball through the middle rather than having the option to go wide to Sanchez it is unlikely this would have happened. There was such a density of defenders that a perfect pass would have been required to play the ball through the middle. But by opening up space Barcelona has achieved exactly what is hopes to – Messi in the box with the ball single marked. Ultimately Xavi’s pass was slightly wide and Messi lost his footing. Nonetheless the sequence created twp dangerous opportunities. First it gave Messi a chance in a dangerous space. Second, the defender had to play the ball out to dispossess Messi setting up a corner. It was that corner which Puyol made a great run from deep and got a free header on goal – a chance he usually buries for a score. Conclusion The team that controls the ball largely controls the game. But controlling the ball involves much more than possessing it. Barcelona is at its best when it’s able to use the ball to control space on the pitch. Doing so however requires Barça to not only arrange space around the ball but to enlarge the pitch, to force the defense to play in spaces where it doesn’t want to. To execute in this fashion requires Barça to sculpt space across the pitch by using the flanks dynamically. As we’ve seen, this kind of play doesn’t need to be complicated – often simple balls can creates dramatic impacts, particularly because so much of the defensive focus of the opposition has to be central. Over the past month or so when Barcelona struggled somewhat they didn’t use space across the pitch effectively. They became too focused on the positive space around the ball. It was good to see them getting back to a more tactically balanced way of playing against Zaragoza.With polls showing a close race between President Barack Obama and Republican nominee Mitt Romney, a relative handful of votes either way in a battleground state like Florida or Ohio could make all the difference. The potential for disruptive crowds of observers at some precincts has sparked fears that voters may be intimidated or harassed or have their eligibility to vote challenged directly. The concern is particularly intense among African-American and Hispanic voters, who historically have suffered discrimination and were targeted anew in more recent elections, civil rights leaders say. "People have suffered and bled for our right to vote," said the Rev. Victor T. Curry, pastor of New Birth Baptist Church in Dania Beach, north of Miami. "We will have monitors who will monitor the monitors." Most of the major legal cases against voter suppression have been resolved. But citizens who have been fighting against restrictive photo ID laws, voter-roll purges and other efforts that have a discriminatory impact on minorities, the poor, the young and the elderly fear that, come election day, the war on voting will still be in full force in the form of poll-watchers:One group that has drawn considerable negative attention on this score is True the Vote. Its leaders say they will have a million monitors on precinct-watching and voter-challening duty on election day. That's a bold claim for an organization that has raised less than $200,000. It also makes claims to non-partisanship. But it associates with Americans for Prosperity, the Koch Bros.-funded advocacy group that had a tremendous impact on the Republican takeover of the House of Representatives. It also has strong ties to various tea party operations in several states. In Houston, where it is based, True the Vote in 2010 went after supposed voter fraud in the 18th congressional district represented by Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee, an African American. Two-thirds of her constituents are black or Latino, and the median income is 60 percent of the national average. The district was chosen because it has thousands of addresses where six or more people are registered to vote. That is evidence of possible fraud, according to True the Vote. This conveniently ignores the fact that financial circumstances and cultural traditions encourage "doubling up" and the practice of extended families living under one roof. Out of 3,800 supposedly suspicious situations, True the Vote ultimately settled on 500, most of which did not pan out when officials reviewed them. In one case, they found eight to 10 persons registered at a vacant lot. Aha! Turned out that the building had been bulldozed and the inhabitants had moved. From its base in Houston to Florida, Massachusetts, Wisconsin and other states. True the Vote has been implicated in several efforts to intimidate voters, particularly college students, minorities and immigrants or people perceived to be immigrants. The research and policy group Demos and "good-government" advocacy organization Common Cause took issue with a number of True the Vote's alleged actions in its report, Bullies at the Ballot Box. The report noted that True the Vote's leaders seem to have a special affinity for the work of Matthew Vadum. He wrote an op-ed last year titled, Registering the Poor is unAmerican. “[H]ow else can you justify a law that mandates that welfare recipients be given — be encouraged — to vote when they’re there in the cheese line picking up their check?...You shouldn’t be encouraging people to destroy the country, you shouldn’t be encouraging people to vote themselves benefits from the government.” Is there an echo in here? Does that sound a little bit like Mitt Romney speaking to donors when he thought he was unplugged? Demos and Common Cause found the True the Vote crowd just as bad: True the Vote’s founder, Catherine Engelbrecht, has said “we see again with this administration... it’s just stunning the assault on our elections that we’re watching gain steam with every passing day, so we found ourselves to be unwittingly on the front lines of an issue that I think will be the inflection point for this election.” A reporter attending True the Vote’s Colorado State Summit described how one speaker told the crowd that “they should enjoy bullying liberals because they were doing God’s work. ‘Your opposition are cartoon characters. They are. They are fun to beat up. They are fun to humiliate,’ he intoned. ‘You are on the side of the angels. And these people are just frauds, charlatans and liars.’” Rep. Elijah Cummings, a Maryland Democrat, wrote Engelbrecht to say that many of the groups voter challenges that many of the challenges appear to have no legitimate basis and "could amount to a criminal conspiracy to deny legitimate voters their constitutional rights." It won't just be True the Vote monitoring the polls. There is nothing wrong with doing so. In fact, it's a good thing as long as the goal is to facilitate fairness and lubricate the participation of all citizens who want to vote. It's the intimidation factor that is at issue. For minority voters, blacks, Latinos and American Indians especially, that intimidation has ugly roots. For this reason, every state should adopt Nevada's rules for poll monitors. Before anyone is allowed to observe the conduct of the voting, s/he must sign a form stating s/he: • may not talk to voters within the polling place; • may not use a mobile phone or computer within the polling place; • may not advocate for or against a candidate, political party or ballot question; • may not argue for or against or challenge any decisions made by county election personnel; • may not interfere with the conduct of voting; and • may be removed from the polling place by the county clerk for violating the election laws or any of the above. It will take more than a few rules, of course, to keep the dark forces from trying to suppress the vote at the polls. As we have seen for decades, and in a heightened form this clear, clearing obstacles from citizens' right to cast a ballot free from harassment and worse is forever a work in progress. Whether in the courts, the legislatures or head-to-head with the intimidators right at the polls, liberals must remain in the forefront of a struggle that has cost the lives of more than a few Americans whose sole reason for being victimized was their belief that they and everyone else had a constitutionally guaranteed right to choose their representatives.Cancer is good at hiding. It's so good that sometimes sick patients are sent home with a clean bill of health. And screenings don't always help: A 2013 study by Oxford University found "no evidence" that screening programs are responsible for the decline in breast cancer, and a study by the Huntsman Cancer Institute last year found that colon cancer is missed in about 6% of colonoscopies. A company is looking to change that margin of error by bringing a super-smart computer into the examination room. "In one panel of scans that we looked at, when you look at the number of times that radiologists sent someone home with a clean bill of health, about 7% of the time that patient was ultimately found to have cancer," said John Zedlewski, a data scientist with Enlitic, a medical technology company. When Zedlewski used Enlitic's algorithm against the same panel, there weren't any mistakes. Related: These temporary tattoos measure glucose How does it work? Enlitic's technology uses machine learning -- which some say is a version of artificial intelligence. It takes medical information from one patient -- whether it's a CT scan, an X-ray or details about, say, a tumor -- and then converts it into a mathematical representation. It's then added to a large pool of data and compared to other patients who have experienced similar issues. Think of it as crowdsourcing your symptoms. And not just with one or two people, but millions. The more data the computer has, the smarter it gets, and the more accurate the diagnoses. At least that's the dream. But before this technology makes it to your local doctor's office, there are some barriers. Accessing all that data isn't easy. Not only do individual hospitals have their own data-keeping practices, but every department within that hospital does too. That means the vast amount of medical records are locked in servers, vaults and so-called "data silos." "Physicians are not very good in breaking those silos, " Dr. Igor Barani, Enlitic's chief medical officer, told CNN's Rachel Crane. "We need systems that actually mine this data and help us interpret it in a more meaningful way." Related: Will robots help the bedridden see the world? Additionally, some clinics and hospitals still use paper to keep records. Digitizing all that, and changing the way doctors and nurses keep records, is going to take time. This is especially important for older patients. "A lot of older people have seven, eight doctors. All those charts are scattered in the wind and don't really talk to each other," said Dr. Ajay Choudri, a radiologist who advises Enlitic. "The first part of getting a massive computer involved in managing people is to get all the data in one spot." The government is working on that. Under a recent law, all hospitals must digitize records this year (other health providers are incentivized to do the same). It's a start, but a more comprehensive strategy is needed, according to the Government Accountability Office. Enlitic isn't going to wait around. The company has formed partnerships with hospitals and academic institutions, and has secured $3 million more in funding, adding to the $2 million it had when it was founded last year. It's also the only company building a system like this. There are some startups that tackle other parts of medical care, like Iodine, which is trying to get better data about drugs, and Theranos, which is working to make medical testing easier. But Enlitic is putting it all together -- radiology, pathology, genomic, electronic medical records and more. The company is hoping its technology will hit the market in the next couple of years, and thanks to its algorithms, lives will be saved. Might not be such a bad idea to have a super computer looking over your doctor's shoulder. CNN's Rachel Crane contributed reporting.Rosita's love life is booming! Well, at least it is for the actress who plays Rosita. Star of The Walking Dead, Christian Serratos, is now expecting her first child with boyfriend David Boyd. People broke the news this afternoon, after a source confirmed that the actress, was indeed, having a baby. Last season, Walking Dead co-star Alanna Masterson had a child, and it didn't affect the filming schedule or character arc all that much. She may have had to feed her baby between takes, but that didn't stop her from doing all her own stunts. With that in mind, Serratos' pregnancy shouldn't be much of an issue. The only thing think about now, is whether or not the show will work a pregnancy into Rosita's story somehow. Fans of the comics will know that the character ends up expecting a child down the road, although the show hasn't reached that point yet. Still, she has recently been with Spencer on the show. So there are ways of making that work.On a team with the league’s flashiest manager, the most heavily covered executive in the game, the likely MVP, last offseason’s most expensive free-agent bat, and the reigning Cy Young winner (who is also an underwear model), you’ll find Kyle Hendricks, the model of consistency. In 30 starts this season, the 26-year-old Cubs right-hander has made it through five innings 30 times. He’s allowed four runs or fewer 30 times, and he’s posted a game score of at least 40 30 times. Nobody else in baseball can say the same. Sure, he’s got a couple of 12-strikeout games and a complete-game shutout tossed in there, but Hendricks led the majors in ERA not because of a string of spectacular starts, but because he went the whole year without getting lit up once. “Watching him on a start-by-start basis has been fascinating, because pretty much every start he’s got the command and the same stuff every time out,” said Cubs manager Joe Maddon. “You would think that a guy would, at some point, have a difficult outing. Even when he’s not 100 percent right on, his ability to throw something soft for a strike in a fastball count really helps him in certain moments against aggressive hitters.” Related The Red Sox Are Secretly Almost As Good As the Cubs Previously a league-average starter, Hendricks has become one of the best pitchers in baseball. But to achieve that level of unmatched consistency, he had to become unpredictable. Hendricks looks like his fastball in the way that people sometimes look like their dogs; at 6-foot-3, 190 pounds, he’s tall without being intimidating and lean without being skinny. His only remarkable physical attribute is his shockingly deep voice. Unlike Jake Arrieta, the hard-throwing Texan whose muscles have muscles, or the gigantic Jason Hammel, Hendricks just looks like a normal dude, with a normal fastball to match. As a result, he’s been compared (as is always the case when a righty with good command but an iffy fastball has any success) to Cubs great Greg Maddux. Except in his prime even Maddux threw harder than Hendricks does. Among 73 qualified starters, Hendricks is tied for 58th in average fastball velocity, with Bartolo Colón. Hendricks’s four-seamer sits around 90 miles per hour, which is borderline suicidal for a right-hander in a hitters’ park. It’s at best his third-best pitch, but Hendricks is atop the ERA leaderboard because he’s throwing it almost three times as frequently as he was last year. “The best pitch in baseball is a well-located fastball,” said Cubs catcher Miguel Montero. Hendricks doesn’t have elite velocity, but “well located” is something he can do. And even though he doesn’t throw gas, his ability to throw what he wants where he wants when he wants has turned into a weapon in and of itself. When calling pitches, Montero treats it like one. “I don’t have the gas, but I have the location,” Montero said. “So as a catcher I still call my game. I still call what I think is the best game for him stuffwise.” “Not everyone has the command,” said former teammate Dan Haren. “I think that’s what separates people. You can have the best game plan in the world, and you can know exactly how to get hitters out, but if you can’t execute the pitches and put them where you want to, it really doesn’t matter.” Nobody knows that better than Hendricks, who’s been tagged since childhood with what might be the single greatest backhanded compliment for a guy in his line of work: “pitchability.” “I haven’t had the electric stuff since I was young, so I’ve always had to be able to pitch,” Hendricks said. “I knew command was going to have to be my game. Learning command takes a while, though — up through the minor leagues that was my whole focus.” Hendricks was a standout at Capistrano Valley High School in Mission Viejo, California, enticing the Angels to spend a 39th-round pick on him out of high school. But Hendricks turned down not only the Angels but the two-time defending WCC champion University of San Diego (which would years later produce Hendricks’s teammate Kris Bryant) in favor of the freezing cold and relative baseball obscurity of Dartmouth College in New Hampshire. “Where I was at in my development, I couldn’t see myself sitting for a year, or even two,” Hendricks said. “If you go to a big program, you might not play your first two years, and I didn’t know what that was going to do to me.” Hendricks got his wish, earning second-team All–Ivy League honors as a freshman. He struggled as a sophomore, but bounced back to post a 2.47 ERA and a.236 opponent batting average as a junior. The Texas Rangers picked Hendricks in the eighth round in 2011, only to deal him and minor league third baseman Christian Villanueva to the Cubs a year later for the aging Ryan Dempster. Hendricks made his big league debut in 2014 and posted a 2.46 ERA in 13 starts as a 24-year-old rookie. But his lack of elite velocity always made it feel like a matter of time before big league hitters would figure him out. Related Your 2016 MLB Award Picks It almost happened in 2015. This time last year, Hendricks was relying on his two best pitches — his sinker and his changeup — almost to the exclusion of his four-seamer and his curveball. “Last year I was a two-pitch pitcher,” Hendricks said. “Part of that is that my mechanics didn’t feel solid, so I didn’t have a lot of confidence when I was taking the mound. But it’s pretty much impossible to be a two-pitch starter in this league, particularly if you don’t have electric stuff.” Mechanical issues are scary for a pitcher — getting off-rhythm or losing your release point can lead to a loss of command or velocity, serious injury, or even the yips. It’s what derailed Tigers righty Jordan Zimmermann’s recovery from a neck injury this year and possibly cost Detroit a playoff berth. Hendricks never got that bad, but he still had to fight to keep his delivery together. “It’s really frustrating. I was struggling with it for maybe a month or more,” Hendricks said. “It’s going to happen in this game. You’re not going to be perfect all the time, so
the legendary Darkness. Shu and the other Seven Soldiers of Light managed to once again seal off the force of Darkness, but lost their Shadow Powers in the process. Two years has passed since the battle with Darkness. As Shu and Bouquet continue their battle against General Logi and his Rosekstan army, a new threat arrives. Powerful dragons calling themselves the “Legion of Elite Species” set out to test the worthiness of mankind, selecting Shu as the candidate. Chris has been writing about anime, manga, movies and comics for well on twenty years now. He began AnimeOnDVD.com back in 1998 and has covered nearly every anime release that’s come out in the US ever since. He likes to write a lot, as you can see. Chris Beveridge – who has written 55650 posts on The Fandom Post. Facebook • Twitter • YouTube • PinterestSignup to receive a daily roundup of the top LGBT+ news stories from around the world A Jehovah’s Witness leader in America has used the promotion of a child safety cartoon as an excuse to go on a homophobic rant, accusing gay men of being sexual predators and a “plague of the new morality”. “Jehovah’s Witnesses take a stronger position than most on the spiritual inappropriateness of any form of immorality,” Tony Morris, a member of the Governing Body of Jehovah’s Witnesses tells viewers. “As a religious organization, we have taken a decisive stand against such behaviour.” Morris also claims that other religious bodies haven’t appreciated the “magnitude” of child abuse in their organisations. “Others,” he says, “knew of the problem and covered it up.” But not the Jehovah’s Witnesses, Morris argues, citing articles from a religious magazine published in June of 1982. Believing these writings were prescient, Morris proudly reads names of articles about “kiddie porn” and child abuse, and links being gay to molesting children. To defend against what Morris calls a “plague of the new morality,” the religious leader is promoting a new promotional video to train kids in getting out of dangerous situations especially with “homosexual men” Morris says, who believe they have “the right to use boys for sex.” Mr Morris is no stranger to making outrageous, homophobic statements. Just last year, he warned against wearing tight trousers, as “they’re designed by homosexuals”. “What’s happened now is that it’s really caught on more – the tight suit jacket and the tight pants. Better known as tight pants. They are tight all the way down to the ankles. It’s not appropriate. It’s not sound of mind,” Morris ranted, clearly enraged by modern men’s fashion. “The homosexuals that are designing these clothes – they’d like you in tight pants.” See his latest contribution to society below.In Parliament were filed 5 bills: one of the League, the first signing of the parent company in the Senate, Massimiliano Romeo; one of popular initiative; a third plaque by Fratelli d’Italia and two by Forza Italia. All five texts, from Wednesday, will be examined by the Senate Justice Committee. Common objective of the center-right forces, both government and opposition: “to widen” the meshes of self-defense, aiming to ensure that this, in practice, is always presumed and, therefore, recognized. Such as? “Taking utmost account of the victim’s emotional and psychological state”. Currently, the art. 52 of the Criminal Code provides that “it is not punishable who has committed the fact for having been forced by the need to defend a right or that of others against the current danger of an unjust offense, provided that the defense is proportionate to the offense”. In particular, in the cases provided for by art. 614 (violation of domicile, ed) “there is a proportional relationship if someone legitimately present in one of the places indicated there uses a weapon legitimately held or other suitable means for the purpose of defending: one’s own or the other’s safety; others, when there is no desistence and there is danger of aggression “. In addition, “the provision also applies if the fact occurred within any other place where a commercial, professional or entrepreneurial activity is carried out”. The Lega proposal, unique among the proposing parties to the government, modifies the art. 52, adding a paragraph with the aim of always recognizing the legitimate defense, without any principle of proportionality: “It is considered that he acted for legitimate defense the one who performs an act to reject entry or intrusion by theft or against the will of the owner or of who has the legitimate availability of the property, with violence or threat of use of weapons by one or more persons, with violation of the domicile referred to in Article 614, paragraph 1 and 2, The League also aims to exacerbate the penalties. And modifies the art. 165 of the Criminal Code, limiting the maximum suspension of the sentence, which is “subject to full payment of the amount due for the recovery of damage to the injured person”. The proposed law of popular initiative, however, aims to change the art. 614 on the violation of domicile, exacerbating penalties, and art. 55 of the Criminal Code, which regulates “excess negligence”. The Fdi proposal modifies the art. 52 of the Penal Code, extending the recognition of self-defense to the places adjacent to those under protection. And extending the scope of his “presumption”. Finally, the two proposals marked Fi intervene on different sides: on art. 52 of the Criminal Code, providing that “punishability” must be “in any case excluded when the act has been committed through excitement or fear”; on Article. 55, disposing that “the fault is excluded when the excess” defense is due “to the psychological conditioning determined by the behavior of the person to whom the reaction is directed”.AS FAR as extreme weight loss measures go, there's fat chance most of us would try this at home. A dieter in Iowa ordered a tapeworm off the internet in a desperate bid to lose weight and then told her doctor about her extreme weight loss measure. Her physician was so stumped by the news and with little clue what to do next he called the Iowa Department of Public Health for help. Iowa's Public Health Department medical director Dr Patricia Quinlisk told the GP to prescribe an anti-worm medication and then issued a warning to health workers about the dangerous practice. She said: "Ingesting tapeworms is extremely risky and can cause a wide range of undesirable side effects, including rare deaths," she wrote. "Those desiring to lose weight are advised to stick with proven weight loss methods; consuming fewer calories and increasing physical activity." Tapeworms live in the human digestive tract and their larvae can be absorbed by eating undercooked meat. The symptoms can go unnoticed and can lead to weight loss and headaches - among other things. Originally published as Woman buys tapeworm online, eats to lose weightThe 2009 article on health benefits of fasting, continues to be one of the most popular posts on this blog with almost 5,000 views. And most of these come through Google search, suggesting there’s a lot of interest in the subject. Here is a slightly edited version: Fasting is the act of willingly abstaining from some or all food, drink, or both, for a period of time. Almost every expert in medicine, heath and nutrition has written something about the benefits of fasting. Here’s a summary: Fasting promotes detoxification. As the body breaks down its fat reserves, it mobilizes and eliminates stored toxins. Fasting gives the digestive system a much-needed rest. After fasting, both digestion and elimination are invigorated. Fasting promotes the resolution of inflammatory processes, such as in rheumatoid arthritis. Fasting quiets allergic reactions, including asthma and hay fever. Fasting promotes the drying up of abnormal fluid accumulations, such as edema in the ankles and legs, and swelling in the abdomen. Fasting corrects high blood pressure without drugs. Fasting will normalize blood pressure in the vast majority of cases. Fasting makes it easy to overcome bad habits and addictions. Fasting rapidly dissipates the craving for nicotine, alcohol, caffeine and other drugs. Fasting clears the skin and whitens the eyes. It is common to see skin eruptions clear while fasting, and the whites of the eyes never look so bright as they do after fasting. Fasting restores taste appreciation for wholesome natural foods. People say that their taste buds come alive after fasting and that food never tasted so good. Fasting initiates rapid weight loss with little or no hunger. Most people are surprised at how little desire for food they have while fasting. Besides the above health benefits, fasting is also an excellent training in self discipline and will power. Successful fasting for a period of time can provide motivation to carry on a healthy diet. Will you try it? [Millions of Muslims around the world are starting their fasting month, called Ramadhan. We would abstain from all food and drinks from dawn to dusk every day for thirty days! Many break their fast with dates.]On Tuesday, Forbes released a list of the ten most disliked athletes in America based on the most recent Nielsen surveys. To the surprise of no one, Lance Armstrong and Manti Te'o are tied for first place. While Armstrong may have cleared his conscious by admitting to Oprah that he did, in fact, find hope with dope, he did himself no favors. All his previous self-righteous statements and ads dedicated to his holiness and clean system make him all the more hypocritical now. No one likes a liar, but people especially dislike liars who throw everyone else under the bus to conceal their own lies. On top of all of this, he is not paying back any of the bonus money he cheated to earn. What a stellar guy. Te’o has tried to elicit sympathy from the masses by claiming he fell victim to an online girlfriend hoax. There’s debate as to whether he played along for so long because he was embarrassed or because he wanted to use it for his own personal gain. Based on him being tied for #1 on this list, it is more than likely the majority of our perception falls under the latter. At worst, Te'o perpetuated the hoax after finding out he had been Catfished. He even asked Katie Couric, "I, my whole world told me that she died on Sept. 12. Everybody knew that. This girl, who I committed myself to, died on Sept. 12. Now I get a phone call on Dec. 6, saying that she’s alive and then I’m going be put on national TV two days later. And to ask me about the same question. You know, what would you do?” I mean, how about verifying your girlfriend was real and not telling lies about meeting her in the first place? Te'o's "faaaaaar from it" comments on gay rumors didn't do any favors either. Too many things don't add up in this situation, and any PR campaign to get Te'o back in our good graces has so far failed. Here's the full Top 10: T1) Lance Armstrong 15% appeal T1) Manti Te'o 15% appeal 3) Tiger Woods 19% appeal T4) Jay Cutler 21% appeal T4) Metta World Peace 21% appeal 6) Alex Rodriguez 22% appeal 7) Michael Vick 23% appeal T8) Kurt Busch 27% appeal T8) Kobe Bryant 27% appeal T8) Tony Romo 27% appeal Tiger Woods has been relatively quiet since his cheating scandal ruined his marriage, reputation and possibly golf career. He lost sponsors, lost tournaments and lost our respect. There were recent rumors that Woods was trying to get back with his ex-wife, Elin, and was willing to offer her a $350 million anti-cheating clause. While this probably won't happen, it brings us right back to the situation that got him here to begin with. There appears to be a large disconnect here, though. The sports world has completely forgotten about and forgiven Tiger's trysts and is back to celebrating his every move but according to this survey it seems the greater public has not. And then there’s poor Jay Cutler (yes, I’m biased). Forbes writes: "Seen as standoffish with teammates and the public. Fair or not, the sight of Cutler riding a stationary bike on the Bears’ sideline after pulling himself from a 2011 playoff game still lingers as a symbol of softness." How many times do I have to tell you people, HE IS NOT SOFT? Have you not noticed how often he gets sacked? Far more than any other quarterback in the league. Yet when Lovie Smith and team doctors tried to preserve his knee, he gets lambasted? No, I do not accept this. I understand that he gives off the attitude of not caring, but as he has pointed out himself, "If I yell on the sideline, I get killed. If I don't say anything I get killed. If I walk away, I get killed. It's a no-win situation." He has a point, people. Additionally, Cutler hasn't lied, he hasn't beaten anyone up or gone to jail, and he hasn't had any fake dead girlfriends pop up out of the woodwork. Yes, the #BlameJayCutler narrative is that strong. Rounding out the top five is Metta World Peace. His name is ironic considering he just got suspended without pay for punching Brandon Knight of the Detroit Pistons in the face. Alex Rodriguez did not get his nickname A-Roid by accident. And the latest PED rumors have driven the Yankees to refuse to disclose his whearabouts as he recovers from hip surgery. Rodriguez has been known to be an arrogant jerk, and he uses performance enhancing drugs and makes like $10 million an inning. So, yeah, I can see why he might not be seen in the most favorable of lights. It's really hard to forget someone's past when they make money on fighting and torturing dogs – which is why Michael Vick remains on this list. While he served his time and is trying to raise awareness of animal abuse, it will take him a VERY long time to be off this list entirely. But, on the bright side, he is hated less than six other people, so he has that going for him. Kurt Busch, Kobe Bryant, and Tony Romo finish the Top 10. The problem with Romo being on this list is that he like Jay Cutler doesn't DO anything that should warrant his inclusion. He doesn't get multiple DUIs, he doesn't beat people up, he seems like your average nice guy, so why the heck is he on this list? It might be because the Cowboys have a massive fan base looking to blame their lack of winning on the most likely culprit. While it's probably not Romo, the quarterback is always the easiest to blame. (See: Cutler, Jay) While some atheletes are probably unfairly judged more than others, it seems like the majority ruled with this most recent list. Who's here that shouldn't be and who's missing from this list of America's least liked athletes?Buzz Aldrin speaking at the Humans to Mars Summit in Washington on May 9. (credit: J. Foust) Buzz Aldrin will not stop talking The moderator who introduced Buzz Aldrin at the Humans To Mars (H2M) Summit last Tuesday said that when she informed Buzz that he had 30 minutes to speak, he replied that this was not nearly enough time. Predictably, he blew through his 30 minutes, then through the 20-minute break, and then 10 minutes into the next panel discussion. He didn’t care. He’s Buzz Aldrin. He always does this. They know that he is the space equivalent of Grandpa Simpson: once he starts talking, he won’t stop, and he doesn’t care if nobody is listening, or if he’s interrupting the conversation, or if he is inconveniencing others. Several years ago, Buzz showed up at a workshop of the Lunar Exploration Analysis Group, which was happening at the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory where he was getting a tour. He took over the microphone and had his Mars slides put up on the screen and started into his Mars pitch. About twenty minutes into his stream-of-consciousness address, he paused and asked what group he was speaking to. When informed that they were lunar scientists he said, “I don’t care about the Moon, I’m here to talk about Mars,” thereby insulting everybody in the room, including those studying the lunar samples that he brought back to Earth in 1969. By now, anybody who has been in the space field or attended a few space conferences knows this about Buzz. They know that he is the space equivalent of Grandpa Simpson: once he starts talking, he won’t stop, and he doesn’t care if nobody is listening, or if he’s interrupting the conversation, or if he is inconveniencing others. He is oblivious to most social norms. More than oblivious, he is obnoxious. He informed one panel of aerospace engineers that his Mars plans were better than theirs, adding, “All I have is intuition, which is a lot more than you.” If he was just about anybody else, he would be yanked off the stage. At H2M several times during panel discussions he seized the microphone and started into various sales pitches—either his Mars plans, his foundation, or his book or TV projects. He did the exact same thing last year, so conference organizers knew what they were in for. They could have turned off his microphone, but apparently concluded that it would be rude to silence the rude astronaut. (See “A year on Mars”, The Space Review, May 31, 2016.) Buzz may have been the second person to walk on the Moon, but he was probably the first to remove the shine off the All American Boys myth of the early astronauts. His 1973 book Return to Earth—later made into a TV movie—included his admission about suffering from depression and alcoholism and shared the kinds of personal details that most people would consider embarrassing, or at least would never tell in polite company. One of the things that comes through loud and clear in Return to Earth is Buzz’s insecurity. He needs the attention, but it will never be enough and it fuels most of his actions. It used to be that American culture frowned upon admissions of alcoholism and depression, so Aldrin’s airing them in the early 1970s was bold and with little precedent. Then American culture changed and praised these admissions, labeling them “brave.” What do we owe our heroes? What do our heroes owe us? In the early days of the space program NASA, aided by a questionable agreement with Life magazine, sought to portray the first astronauts as the embodiment of American values. Good husbands, fathers, family men, patriots, professionals. It would have been naïve even at that time to expect them all to be from the same cookie cutter mold. Perhaps that mold was legitimate in one dimension only: they were all competent, even outstanding, pilots. Neil Armstrong in some ways was the most perplexing for people because after doing all the parades and the talks and the interviews, he decided that he had had enough and wanted to get back to a more normal life, however one in his situation could define “normal.” But it is still surprising in retrospect to see just how totally different many of these men were in their other traits. Some of them embraced wacky UFO theories. Others went into business, sometimes with dubious results. Most of them seemed to be willing to use their space experience to continue to make money, although few seemed truly committed to space exploration. Pete Conrad was considered by many of his fellow astronauts to be an outstanding pilot and commander, swore like the sailor he was, but in his later years seemed dedicated to making reusable rockets, both as an engineer and entrepreneur. Dave Scott worked with lunar scientists and college students. Alan Bean painted his experiences. Neil Armstrong in some ways was the most perplexing for people because after doing all the parades and the talks and the interviews, he decided that he had had enough and wanted to get back to a more normal life, however one in his situation could define “normal.” He became a professor and turned down interviews, and people started to refer to him, inaccurately, as a “recluse.” There were some space buffs who were bitter about Armstrong’s refusal to be who they demanded that he be, to embrace the things they wanted him to embrace, to push for more space exploration, to continue to make appearances and sign autographs and allow the public to own him. I never bought the “recluse” label, and in fact, when I contacted him in 2010 about serving on a committee looking at NASA’s research aircraft program, Armstrong readily accepted. He was friendly, quiet, even a bit dull. But he was still willing to talk about Apollo, and one of the thrills of my life was when he made an impromptu presentation where he narrated his lunar landing to a small group of aeronautics experts. Armstrong knew who he was and he accepted it with quiet dignity. He had nothing to prove. Buzz Aldrin has been the most prolific and outspoken space exploration advocate of all the early astronauts. He has been talking about space exploration ideas since at least the 1980s, but he has also been marketing himself and various products for decades. In early 2009, he lobbied successfully to be included in Obama’s inauguration day parade and was rewarded a year later when he got to fly with Obama to a speech at Kennedy Space Center where the president sought to prop up a flailing space exploration plan for NASA. Buzz’s talk to the president onboard Air Force One may have been the origin of Obama’s been there, done that comment about the Moon, from which NASA is still recovering. (See “Moonbuzz”, The Space Review, Monday, October 18, 2010.) As the Humans to Mars Summit ended May 11, Aldrin stood at a microphone, seeking one final opportunity to talk. (credit: J. Foust) Our heroes are rarely who we want them to be… It was not Buzz’s post-Apollo space advocacy that catapulted him to renewed stardom. In 1995, the movie Toy Story featured the character Buzz Lightyear, which launched Buzz into the vernacular. In 2002, he famously punched a Moon landing denier in the face. Later in 2009, after marching in Obama’s parade, Buzz got even more publicity when he hitched his star to rapper Snoop Dogg, whose shtick included marijuana use and who even had his own line of pornographic videos. Buzz rapped alongside Snoop, proving that there was no media gig that he would decline. That undoubtedly led to his appearance a year later on Dancing With the Stars. Even though he was eliminated early, the show exposed Buzz to a new generation that had never really known him, and soon he was making other TV appearances as himself, like on CBS’s top-rated The Big Bang Theory. As Buzz entered his 80s, he finally became a brand. Why do space conferences and events invite Buzz Aldrin to speak when they know this is going to happen? It is because he is a celebrity, a brand, and he draws some people to attend so they can shake his hand and take a selfie with him. Buzz’s talk at H2M was about Mars cycling spacecraft, an idea that he has been talking about since 1985 and which seems to have gained little traction even among space enthusiasts. He advocated the concept with increasing vigor in the 1990s but stopped for a few years to pitch a reusable spaceplane, later returning to the cycler and wearing a t-shirt with a line from the movie Total Recall: “Get your ass to Mars!” He presents his slides to audiences at every opportunity—even barging in uninvited—and his charts have gotten more and more complex over time. His latest version includes a programmatic flow chart. (Unfortunately, at the end it does not say, “Start the reactor, free Mars!”) Why do space conferences and events invite Buzz Aldrin to speak when they know this is going to happen? It is because he is a celebrity, a brand, and he draws some people to attend so they can shake his hand and take a selfie with him. And it is almost certainly because the organizers of events remain enthralled, either by Buzz, or by his celebrity. The 1999 film Being John Malkovich managed to perfectly capture this phenomenon. In the film people are able, through a mysterious tunnel, to enter into actor John Malkovich’s body for a short time. One person does this while Malkovich is at home, ordering new bath towels over the telephone. The interloper emerges fifteen minutes later, dropped into a ditch near the New Jersey Turnpike, but still totally enthralled—he was John Malkovich! There will always be people who want to be Buzz Aldrin. Buzz Aldrin is many things. He is impolite. He is opinionated. He is not lazy. He is brave. Not too long ago he became the oldest person to ever visit the South Pole—a trip that nearly killed him when he suffered from altitude sickness. Viewed from one perspective, Buzz is a visionary, a salesman, a prophet. He certainly believes the Mars story he is advocating. But inevitably, the story is still all about Buzz. Multiple times at H2M after the various panel discussions when the moderator would allow questions from the audience Aldrin—who camped out next to a microphone—would be the first to grab the mic and then start talking, about whatever he wanted, even if it had little to do with the panel. At one point, after talking for over seven minutes, the moderator asked if Buzz had a question. “Question?” Buzz asked, puzzled. No, of course not. He had forgotten who was on the stage, or even why he had grabbed the microphone. Douglas MacArthur once memorably said that soldiers never die, they just fade away. Buzz Aldrin will someday die, but he will never fade away. HomeLimor “Ladyada” Fried was the first female engineer to grace the cover of Wired in March 2011 I’ve been working as an engineer for a year and a half now - since I graduated - and I love it. I’m lucky enough to work for a great company with a relatively high proportion of intelligent, motivated women for role models. But when a site-based role came up a couple of months ago and was offered to me, I umm-ed and ahh-ed about accepting, despite site roles being coveted in my company (they are considered the best/only way to get the essential experience needed to progress). I aired my concerns to my manager: is it worth the hassle? Won’t I face discrimination and harassment for being young and female? “No, no,” he assured me, with all the confidence and bewilderment of someone who has never in their life had to consider this question. A few months later and I can tell you he was very, very wrong. Think back to the last time you were cat-called at from a building site as you walked past it. Now imagine walking back and forth past that site for 8 hours a day, 5 days a week, and you have a good approximation of my life. Working on a construction site is brilliant in terms of how much you can learn as an engineer - but the sexism I face is, in a word, exhausting. On my very first day I received an email sent to me by mistake from the man in charge of the whole operation, asking his mate if I was ‘fit’ (I can only assume the intricacies of replying/forwarding emails elude him, despite being responsible for a multi-million-pound construction project). This pretty much solidified my worst fears: that the first thing I was to be judged on in my new role was my appearance, rather than my competence, since I’m pretty sure he didn’t mean ‘fit for the role’ (and FYI, no-one looks good in high vis orange) - but of course I was advised by everyone to ‘laugh it off’. I was forbidden to reply by my boss, who instead replied on my behalf telling him how ‘upset’ it had made me and how I ‘wished to be spared any reminder of the incident’. GREAT. So glad you have my back, bro. Just a shame that you had my back in that ‘taking away your voice and speaking for you’ way so beloved of complete jerks. An example of the sort of dialogue that follows me around during my day-to-day tasks at work: I’m frequently asked to expose myself (‘Get your rat out’ is a particular favourite. I’ve been informed it’s Scouse slang, and that apparently, if we were on a southern site they’d be yelling, ‘Get your gammon out’. The mind boggles.) And I think I can now say with a degree of certainty that the consensus is that, yes, most of them would probably fuck me (‘I’d do her’ is reiterated with astounding frequency). This sort of constant commentary is absolutely detrimental to my work; most of the time, it feels like being an attraction in the zoo. Last week I was out inspecting some welds when a welder stopped me and asked me what a lovely girl like me was doing in a place like this – ‘and not in the kitchen’, while his clearly enlightened mates buckled over at the sheer hilarity of the joke. My retort - ‘Isn’t it crazy, next they’ll be giving us the vote!’ - I suspect was lost on him during his interspersal of ‘cooking and cleaning’ mimes with demonstrably more vulgar gestures. Meanwhile, despite the fact that I am fully inducted and have a massive label on a highly conspicuous hard hat to prove it, I was stopped by a supervisor the other day who asked what I was doing ‘out here, all on my own’. On the more bizarre side, someone once sang ‘Isn’t she lovely?’ at me from a scaffold and someone else offered me a bite of his chocolate as I crawled through a boiler (I declined). It baffles me. If you didn’t know better you’d think that outside of work these men are kept in a woman-less vacuum located somewhere in the 1950s. But they must leave at some point and see wives/daughters/sisters/mothers/random women in the street etc, in the real world, right? Seeing a woman can’t be that much of a special event in their lives, surely? Or is that not the point at all? Is the point less about novelty or even sex, and much more about straightforward intimidation? What’s even more depressing is that I know now the men in my company discuss the harassment that I face on-site when I’m not there (I have a secret ally who I occasionally ply with cocktails and he tells me things he shouldn’t). They discuss the best way for them to deal with people hollering at me when they are with me (should they intervene on my behalf? Would that make the situation worse?) But, strangely, the one idea that has never occurred to anyone is to discuss it with me. In fact, whenever extreme frustration causes me to bring it up in the workplace, everyone looks a bit uncomfortable, rolls their eyes and changes the subject. The sexism within this direct company is more insidious. One colleague apologises directly to me every time he swears in my presence. This has the unwanted side effect of adding HOURS onto meetings of a particularly heated nature – and, I hope goes without saying, is entirely unnecessary. I thought twice about publishing this article, because I’m aware that it could put off a cohort of lady-engineers (otherwise known as, y’know, engineers) which is so desperately needed. A fuckton of girls in hard hats, to the point that it’s not a comment worthy sight any more, is my vision of the Engineering Utopia. But for now, a construction site is a strange peek back in time into a workplace with no woman. As for the man in charge who sent an email asking his friend if I was ‘fit’, I actually ignored my boss and did send my own reply - a sarcastic offer of tuition in the ancient and complex art of the email - only for him to respond with, ‘Touche. I very much look forward to our first meeting’, which made me want to scrub my skin off. Did he think that we were FLIRTING?! Is that what he thinks this is?! Amongst all the obvious personality flaws, he also has a small badger growing on his chin. And I’ll be damned if a man with a bad attitude and an anthropomorphic chin is going to prevent me from doing any job whatsoever.The history of chess spans some 1500 years. The earliest predecessors of the game originated in India, prior to the 6th century AD. From India, the game spread to Persia. When the Arabs conquered Persia, chess was taken up by the Muslim world and subsequently spread to Southern Europe. In Europe, the game evolved into its current form in the 15th century. In the second half of the 19th century, modern tournament play began, and the first world chess championship was held in 1886. The 20th century saw great leaps forward in chess theory and the establishment of the World Chess Federation (FIDE). Developments in the 21st century include the employment of computers for analysis, which actually based back in the 70's with the very first programmed chess games on the market. Also team consultations, and online gaming appeared in the mid 90's. Contents Origin The precursors of chess originated in India during the Gupta empire,[1][2][3][4] where its early form in the 6th century was known as chaturaṅga, which translates as "four divisions [of the military]": infantry, cavalry, elephantry, and chariotry, represented by the pieces that would evolve into the modern pawn, knight, bishop, and rook, respectively.[5] In Sassanid Persia around 600 the name became shatranj and the rules were developed further, and players started calling "Shāh!" (Persian for "King!") when attacking the opponent's king, and "Shāh māt!" (Persian for "the king is dead") when the king was attacked and could not escape from attack; these exclamations persisted in chess as it traveled to other lands thereafter. Full article ▸Tesla Motors is getting a whole lot of traction these days, and auto dealerships don’t like it. The company has come under increasing pressure recently, particularly in eco-conscious California where car sales are steadily gaining prominence, as are its supercharger charging stations. But according to California New Car Dealers Association, (CNCDA) the problem with Tesla isn’t its unusual over-the-Web sales technique (although this has become a bone of contention in some states recently), but that it isn’t telling the truth to consumers. The CNCDA says that Tesla’s online sales calculator, which is designed to show consumers what their monthly payment would be if they bought a Tesla car, is misleading. The 20-page complaint, which was filed September 16, 2013 with the California Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV), accuses Tesla Motors of “a long-term advertising strategy to mislead consumers as to the affordability of its vehicles.” The complaint cites a number of issues, including the addition of a tax rebate that it says most consumers would not be eligible for based on their incomes. “The tax credit is completely irrelevant to the purchase price for the Model S. Whether the customer never applies for the credit, has insufficient tax liability to claim the full tax credit, or can claim the full credit, the tax credit has no bearing on the purchase price of the Model S,” the CNCDA asserts in its complaint. The organization also cites a Congressional Budget Office study in which the agency says that only 20 percent of tax filers have the tax liability to use a $7,500 tax credit. “By including the tax credit in the advertised price quote for the vehicle, Tesla is misleading 80 percent of the population of the actual purchase price of the vehicle, even net of the federal tax credit,” says CNCDA. In fact, the reason the federal tax credit exists is to incentivize buyers (even those with enough income to afford a $70,000 car) that might not otherwise consider buying a particular commodity, like a rather expensive electric car whose savings are reflected in its long-term usage, not in its price tag. As Lee Hutchinson explains in his article on arstechnica.com, Tesla’s advertising is geared toward high earners, many of whom would have a tax liability large enough to qualify for such a rebate. Just because only 20 percent of the eligible buyers apply for the tax credit doesn’t mean it isn’t a valid point to raise to consumers. Appliance stores regularly boast the fact that certain “energy-saving” purchases may win consumers a rebate. But that may not be the reason that the consumer buys the product. What Tesla Motor’s advertisements do is challenge conventional notions about car sales and advertising. If it takes advantage of anything, it is the fact that many consumers feel more comfortable investigating a sale from behind a computer where they can methodically research the information and aren’t pressured to make a decision on the spot. Its approach has been likened to that of Apple, which promotes its products on the web and sells through its privately owned stores. No doubt this idea makes car dealers nervous. It not only cuts out the car dealer, but makes it easier for the car industry’s highest-bracket customers to investigate purchases on their own time without the pressure of a one-to-one with a salesperson. My suspicion is that Tesla knew when it went to market that they would be testing some well-entrenched notions about car sales, what’s kosher and what’s not. Judging by the CNCDA’s complaint, it sounds like Tesla will also be testing the boundaries of laws that weren’t directed at protecting the Internet consumer – and in a state that prides itself on consumer action. But even though California’s car dealers may think they have grounds to complain, the final decision when it comes to the success of a car sale ultimately lies with the consumer. And that’s a fact that I am sure Tesla Motors has already figured out. Image of Tesla Model Scourtesy of Tesla MotorsReady to fight back? Sign up for Take Action Now and get three actions in your inbox every week. You will receive occasional promotional offers for programs that support The Nation’s journalism. You can read our Privacy Policy here. Sign up for Take Action Now and get three actions in your inbox every week. Thank you for signing up. For more from The Nation, check out our latest issue Subscribe now for as little as $2 a month! Support Progressive Journalism The Nation is reader supported: Chip in $10 or more to help us continue to write about the issues that matter. The Nation is reader supported: Chip in $10 or more to help us continue to write about the issues that matter. Fight Back! Sign up for Take Action Now and we’ll send you three meaningful actions you can take each week. You will receive occasional promotional offers for programs that support The Nation’s journalism. You can
. Not only that, the camera will track head movements which will be translated onto the character in the game. This section was a little weird because it was partially scripted and ad-libbed by the guys doing the demonstration. The script writers should be fired. It was then time to seek out the third player, John (a pilot for this black box mission), and pick up some ship items. Heading upwards in the station an Ursa rover was summoned and suits were applied to the characters via the Mobiglass. Once the suit was on, the voices changed tone as it was all being filtered over comms inside from the helmets on the characters. Entering the Rover you get a good look outside of the station and it was also time to demonstrate what would happen if a player removed his helmet on the Mobiglass readout. The Mobiglass was then used to call another player, who appears in video form in the Comms section of the Mobiglass, which was a nice immersive touch. The Rover then meet up with John in his Constellation ship as it landed on the surface. John lowered the cargo for the Rover to enter the ship. With the three players now aboard, they took their positions in the cockpit and flew away from the asteroid surface showing how much Delamar has improved from last year’s demo. According to Roberts, one of the craters on the surface of the asteroid could fit the entirety of Skyrim inside it (no comment on whether it would fit all of Skyrim’s functioning gameplay mechanics). Delamar is one of the smaller planetoids in the game. It doesn’t really matter how big it is if there’s nothing in it though. Crash! Crash alert! The game suddenly crashed and the pilot was disconnected from the game. Whoops. Another player then had to step in and take the controls of the ship and try and recover the demo. Roberts came up with a few suggestions to try and salvage the demo eventually suggesting they should “roll it from the start” and messaging down the mic “do not show the loading screen”. Roberts paced up and down the stage mumbling into his headset. Oh dear. We have to do it all over again, but thankfully without all the terrible dialogue between players. This took some time with Roberts issuing orders such as “Paul, please get off the loading screen” as he continued to pace the stage, covering his mic. Sadly it wasn’t a hot mic because Jared or another minion was probably getting told to get shit together. Minutes pass… The stream cuts out to a ship trailer to save any further embarrassment should anyone be tuning in late. More minutes pass… Finally, we are back! The demo team now rush through the demo as fast as possible dispensing with some of the chit-chat to get back to where they were. OK, back to the ship. To try to avoid another crash the two players did not take to the co-pilot seats in the cockpit this time. This was obviously a factor in the last crash for some reason. This time the jump worked. The demo could continue. The crew and ship moved slowly toward the planet, and this was when we could actually see some planetary landing action. The ship broke the atmosphere right above where the mission wreckage would be, which of course was no coincidence. Once on the surface, the Ursa Rover was deployed from the ship and it moved out toward the wreckage to find the black box. Equipping weapons, the two crew moved through the wreckage of the ship. Ta-da! A big red box is found in the middle of a corridor which was picked up and carried by one of the players. But wait! Surely something was going to happen? Aha! An ambush as first the Ursa rover comes under fire, and then John’s ship. John is now toast. He’s gone! Noooo. RIP John. Meanwhile, the guys in the rover are driving away as fast as possible with the back door open while one of them tries to shoot down the pursuing ship. Yes! With a couple of very suspicious looking shots from a much-discussed Rail Gun the ship down. While all this is going on Chris Roberts continues to drop hints that perhaps they should call for some help. Help is now on the way as an aerial battle above the surface continues. Help arrives, the enemy is down, and all is well again in the universe. The mission is saved and their ride has arrived. It’s the first capital ship that’s working in the game; the Idris. No wait! Disaster! For some reason they can’t pilot the rover on to the ramp of the Idris. After three attempts it literally falls apart at the foot of the ramp. Oh dear. We also just noticed that they have left Melissa behind because she must have died in that unscripted rover accident. What bastards. Where is the black box? Did the mission properly end? We have no idea, but the demo was a bit of a mess. Roberts returns to the stage to try and explain why some things are broken. But getting a rover up a ramp is not exactly “pushing it” as Roberts implies. 3.0 Details and Facial stuff The 3.0 update comes with a new launcher with UI improvements; now downloading will be faster for everyone. They are still working on the Spectrum stuff which Roberts says is the backbone for face and voice data. A Faceware video was then shown, explaining the tech behind the facial animation features. This also means CIG can sell their own webcam that, apparently, is super at capturing facial expression in low-light environments and at high framerates. What a happy coincidence. Another way for backers to burn their money ahead of release. There’s no doubt it’s quite impressive technology but is it really that important? We have seen Star Trek Bridge Crew use a similar idea for mic and lip syncing which does not require a fancy camera. Back to the demo Roberts moved back to the Star Citizen demo on board the large Idris capital ship. Oh look! Melissa is alive somehow. Resurrection tech confirmed. The captain sets a course for Yela and Grim Hex. It looks like the mission is still on despite the rover crash, Melissa dying, and the black box which mysteriously vanished. Apparently, the black box was stolen by the captain of another enemy ship. Nothing makes much sense any more, but it’s time for some space combat so who cares? The gun turrets are manned and a low FPS battle ensues between the two ships. It’s a jerky experience at times and not that enthralling to watch from the outside of the ship. The ship landing inside the Idris looked good though, and was probably quite difficult to do. Wait! There’s more The same battle was then going be replayed, but this time any side could win (“no Stormtrooper shooting,” says Roberts). While we waited for the hamsters to replenish themselves inside the demo PCs, Roberts said that they have only had capital ships fighting each other for about a week. Roberts was asked how long it would be until players could do this. Roberts did not respond. The end To conclude, this was another rehearsed and choreographed Star Citizen game demo that at times looked impressive and at other times looked an absolute mess. With 3.0 supposedly just around the corner, there’s obviously still work to be done on much of what was shown. Roberts has been very careful not to say when features that were shown on this demo would appear. Even in this demo, the game looked juddery and framerates must have been dropping below 10 FPS at times. This is a shame because it can look great when it actually works. Yes, it’s still in ‘alpha’, but let’s not forget that we are now five years into this project. The facial tracking is an interesting addition, but is it really that important considering how much foundational work remains to be done? Still, it’s a good way for CIG to rake in extra money on selling webcams and, presumably, pick up some investment from Faceware. The bottom line is this: the die-hard Star Citizen fans are going to lap up this Gamescom demo, but the more skeptical will have hoped to see something a lot more polished. If you missed the stream you can watch it below. Because the game crashed there was a long period of nothing and a re-run of the same content. To save time, we have edited out the rerun which featured no new content or commentary. This should save you around 20 minutes or more viewing time. If you want to watch the full thing, re-run, crash stuff etc, watch the second video.As Sea Ice Declines, Winter Shifts in Northern Alaska The consequences of the record loss of Arctic sea ice this past summer are becoming clear to the 4,000 or so residents of Barrow, Alaska, who have seen a much milder and snowier-than-average start to their typically long and bitterly cold winter season. Temperature departures from average during the past month in Barrow, AK. Click to enlarge the image. Credit: NWS Alaska Region. As is typical for this time of year, much of Alaska has already been plunged into winter conditions, with temperatures below 0°F in some locations. Yet Barrow, which from its perch on Alaska’s North Slope is the country’s northernmost town, has had a downright balmy start to the Alaskan winter. (Well, balmy for Barrow, at least.) According to the National Weather Service, Barrow has seen “almost continuous above-normal temperatures” since September “due to a lack of sea ice” formation until last week. Along with the above-average temperatures has come above-average snowfall. Snowfall since July 1 has been more than a foot above average, the Weather Service said, with 31.4 inches of snow having fallen through Nov. 17. The record melt of Arctic sea ice this summer resulted in a broader expanse of open water in the Arctic Ocean. The darker ocean waters absorbed more incoming solar radiation, warming the sea and the lower atmosphere, thereby helping to warm lands that border the Arctic Ocean, such as Barrow. Open water also provides a ready moisture source for precipitation, be it in the form of rain or snow, and this accounts for much of Barrow’s recent snowy spell. Temperature outlook for December 2012, showing a likelihood for continued above average temperatures along Alaska's North Slope (blue arrow). Credit: NWS/CPC. As the Arctic climate has warmed in recent years, fall sea ice cover has often formed later in certain areas, and when it does form, it has tended to be thinner than average. After setting a record low in September, sea ice extent doubled during October but still only managed to recover to the second-lowest extent on record for October, ranking just above 2007. Studies show that sea ice loss can speed warming of parts of the Far North, thereby helping to melt permafrost and unlock the greenhouse gases currently locked in such frozen lands. The National Weather Service had predicted the early winter warmth in far northern Alaska. Back in October, when the National Weather Service released its initial winter weather outlook for the winter of 2012-13, forecasters assigned this region the highest odds of any part of the country to have warmer-than-average conditions, due to the lack of sea ice. In October, Mike Halpert, the deputy director of NOAA’s Climate Prediction Center, said, “Right now there is no ice at all there. We would certainly expect the early winter to be above average [temperature-wise].” More recently, sea ice has rapidly increased around Barrow, which should cut off some of the available moisture for the above average snows that have struck the region, and cut temperatures to more typical levels. Related Content It's Official: Arctic Sea Ice Shatters Record Low Demise of El Niño Throws a Wrench in Winter Outlook[There was a video here] Three California deputies who repeatedly punched and kicked an apparently subdued suspected horse thief on live television earlier this year have been charged with assault by a police officer, the L.A. Times reports. In April, 10 San Bernardino County sheriff’s deputies were put on administrative leave when an NBC news helicopter captured them swarming around a tased chase suspect and striking him dozens of times over two minutes. After reviewing the footage, District Attorney Mike Ramos said at a press conference on Tuesday that just three of the deputies “crossed the line” and would be charged. From KNBC: Video that showed deputies repeatedly punching and kicking Pusok as he lay on the ground was studied “frame by frame” during the investigation, Ramos said. Deputies said a stun gun was ineffective due to his loose clothing. The group surrounding the man grew to 11 sheriff’s deputies. Pusok appeared to have been kicked 17 times, punched 37 times and struck with batons four times, a review of the video showed, and 13 blows appeared to be to the head. “We carefully took a look at every individual in this case,” said Ramos. “And, it’s really important that you can see the terrain. Those bushes are tall. You can’t see around them. So when these other officers are running up... They hear something the other officers are yelling, not knowing the circumstances.” If convicted, each of the deputies face up to three years in prison. According to an FBI spokesperson, a federal civil rights investigation into the incident is ongoing. [Video via NBC//h/t Buzzfeed]South Carolina offensive line coach Shawn Elliott will be the next head coach at Georgia State, TheBigSpur.com has learned. Elliott has been a candidate for the position since former Panthers head coach Trent Miles was fired on November 13. Elliott, who was also the run game coordinator or co-offensive coordinator from 2010-2015, spent seven years at South Carolina, including six games last season as interim head coach. During Elliott’s time at South Carolina, there were five offensive linemen drafted into the NFL, headlined by third round pick A.J. Cann, a starting guard for the Jacksonville Jaguars. Prior to Elliott’s arrival, the Gamecocks had five offensive linemen drafted in the previous 17 years. Elliott was tabbed by South Carolina athletics director Ray Tanner as the interim head coach last season upon Steve Spurrier’s retirement. The Gamecocks won the first game that Elliott was in charge, a 19-10 triumph over Vanderbilt, but dropped the next five games. The average margin of defeat in those games was 5.2 points per game. An official announcement by Georgia State on Friday.Two Seattle-based entrepreneurs expect to receive approval this spring on a patent for a product that the cannabis industry has been lacking for years: powdered THC. And though cyclodextrins were originally thought to be the most promising means of achieving this dream, these two twenty-somethings have figured out a different way to do it. When asked how long he’s been working to make powdered THC a reality, Oleo co-founder and CEO Russell Stebbins laughed. “Should I tell you about the first time I tried to freeze smoke in my parents’ freezer?” he asked in return. “I’ve been looking for the patent on this [for years]. I just wanted to know how to do it…and I couldn’t believe that process wasn’t out there.” “[Russell is] the yes guy. I’m the no guy,” added co-founder and COO Derick Anderson. “I tried to say no, we shouldn’t file a patent, it’s too expensive.” But Stebbins was adamant, and his confidence led the pair to file in March of 2014. It was Anderson who determined how to bind THC particulates to a carbohydrate base that dissolves in cold water – something chemists and would-be entrepreneurs had failed to do for years. Anderson, an aspiring neuropharmacologist, said that once discovered, the process is simple to follow, but getting there took a mental leap – he borrowed a basic idea from a very different industry, and couldn’t believe it when the process worked. The co-founders plan to work with producers in each cannabis market they enter, allowing these businesses to license their process, create the powdered THC and use the Oleo brand, which will be sold in turn to distributors and retailers. Why was it so hard to create a seemingly simple product? THC itself is not water-soluble, so it needs to be “trapped” in something with dual polarity – that is, a compound that reconciles the fact that water is polar and THC is not. Once trapped in this compound, the THC has new de facto properties, like the ability to dissolve in cold water, distribute itself evenly, and stay suspended in the solution. It also displays increased bioavailability: while the same amount of THC in an edible can take up to two hours to reach the bloodstream, the effects of powdered THC dissolved in water can be felt more acutely, in as little as 10 minutes. With flavor and color added, Oleo’s powdered THC is packaged into measured plastic tubes that can be opened and eaten plain (much like Pixy Stix) or added to any beverage or food. What’s in the name? “Oleo comes from oleoresin…which is derived from the Latin root word oleum, which means oil. Also, it’s the kind of thing you can just yell,” Stebbins laughed. “We want people to share Oleo,” added Anderson, explaining that each Oleo pack of six 10-milligram servings will include three flavors they guarantee purchasers will love (lime, mango and watermelon are particularly popular), and three more eccentric flavors (think blueberry, grape or blackberry) that people might like to give away to friends. Both Anderson and Stebbins have been working full-time on Oleo since September 2015, and though the brand has found its way into six Seattle-area medical dispensaries in recent months, the team is currently focused on refining its process and readying its product for the Washington recreational market. The duo say that moving slowly has allowed them to create a better final product, and they already have a long list of people interested in being processors. Currently, the build-out of the first processing facility (at Western Cultured in Arlington, Wash.) is scheduled to be completed in the next two months. Meanwhile, Anderson and Stebbins continue to manage everything, from branding and marketing to proprietary packaging design, in-house. As they wait for their patent, Stebbins and Anderson are already working on several new products using Oleo, which they prefer to keep secret for the time being. In the meantime, keep an eye out for Oleo in Washington state rec stores as early as this summer. Image Source: Sara DilleyTopGolf opening second Houston-area location Image 1 of / 20 Caption Close TopGolf opening second Houston-area location 1 / 20 Back to Gallery TopGolf, one of the most popular golfing facilities in the state, plans to open its second Houston-area location, company officials announced. Randy Starr, the company's chief development officer, said a groundbreaking will take place this week for the planned site at 550 Spring Park Blvd. in Spring, near the new ExxonMobil headquarters. The company opened its Houston location in December at 1030 Memorial Brook Blvd., where over 250,000 visitors have teed off this year, company spokeswoman Adrienne Browne said. Company officials expect the planned TopGolf Houston North to enjoy the same success when it opens next summer. The new three-level facility will include up to 2,900 square feet of private event space and 102 climate-controlled hitting bays that can host up to six players at one time. Starr estimates that TopGolf Houston North will serve approximately 400,000 visitors in its first year of operation. Almost half of all TopGolf guests describe themselves as "non-golfers." "The TopGolf team has been blown away by the support the Houston community has shown us these past six months," Starr stated in a press release. "We are excited to bring another entertainment venue to north Houston and serve as an amenity to the thousands of people who will be working at the new ExxonMobil headquarters across the freeway (Interstate 45)." TopGolf offers golfing games for all ages and skill levels and technology to track every player's shots. The facility also has 230 HD TVs and a restaurant. "We are thrilled to be welcoming a second TopGolf location to Houston," Greg Ortale, president and CEO of the Greater Houston Convention and Visitors Bureau, stated in a press release. "It's great to know that visitors have multiple options – depending on where they are staying in the Houston area – to golf at this unique attraction. TopGolf Houston North will contribute further to Houston's position as a prime recreational and leisure tourist destination." To track the new TopGolf site's progress, visit topgolf.com/houstonnorth, facebook.com/topgolfhoustonnorth and twitter.com/tghoustonnorth.More than 80 per cent of the homes available to rent are too expensive for people on state housing benefits, the Simon Communities in Ireland has said. In a new study published on Thursday, the charity said the figures showed the gap between housing payments available to people on social welfare and market rent prices continued to grow. The report comes a day after the Department of Housing’s latest homelessness figures show that at the end of December 2016 a total of 7,148 people were living in emergency accommodation, including 2,505 children. This is the first time the number of people living in emergency accommodation has surpassed 7,000. Figures from the Simon Communities report showed just 17 per cent of the properties were available for people in receipt of rent supplements or Housing Assistance Payment (HAP) to rent. The study was carried out over three days, November 28th-30th, 2016, and looked at rental properties advertised on daft.ie in 10 locations. The areas included city areas in Dublin, Cork, Galway, Waterford, Limerick and a number of large towns. It showed the average rent across 260 rentals for a one bedroom home in Dublin’s city centre was €1,900. It then compared the average prices with a rental supplement/HAP rental limit for €660. Niamh Randall, spokeswomen for the Simon Communities in Ireland, said on-going action was needed to ensure a “meaningful impact” on the lives of people experiencing homelessness and housing insecurity. “Already there has been a drop in the number of properties available to people within these limits since our last study in August 2016,” she said. “People who are single and couples fared particularly badly with only five properties available across the 10 locations falling within rent supplement/HAP limits for a single person.” Ms Randall said State housing benefits must keep pace with market rents. “What is clear is that the combination of increasing rents and decreasing property availability is reducing the beneficial impact of rental supplements/HAP payments for people who are homeless, at risk of homelessness and those on low incomes,” she said. “We continue to call for full rent certainty with rent linked to the Consumer Price Index (CPI) and enhanced security of tenure.” She said the payment limits needed to be reviewed every six months to stay aligned with private market rents. The report also revealed there were 643 properties to rent in November 2016 at the 10 locations. It stated this was a drop of 44 per cent from the homes available to rent in May 2015, when the charity carried out its first study. .After more than a year of construction and a decade of planning, Omnitrans is about ready to roll out its $197.1-million rapid transit bus line later this month. The near 16-mile sbX Green Line is the first bus rapid transit service in the Inland Empire. It opens to the public on April 28, allowing bus riders to travel north and south from Cal State San Bernardino to Loma Linda University. Officials will hold a completion celebration at 9 a.m. Tuesday at Court Street Square in San Bernardino. Bus rapid transit, officials said, is faster and has fewer stops. The buses will also have traffic signal priority capability, allowing them to change stoplights to green for speedier travel. The system includes 5.4 miles of dedicated lanes, 16 station locations, with stops at major points of activity, such as colleges, hospitals, government centers, job centers, and retail. “One of the reasons this particular corridor was selected and garnered support at the federal level at $75 million is because it was already a high-use corridor, and it has many key destinations along the line, which includes two universities, hospitals, the San Bernardino city and county centers, downtown San Bernardino, high schools, and several job centers,” said Omnitrans spokeswoman Wendy Williams. “It’s just a robust corridor in terms of locations that would benefit from the service.” The rapid transit bus fleet is comprised of 14 natural-gas powered vehicles that can seat about 40, and 80 with passengers standing. Transportation officials said their goals include reducing traffic on the region’s freeways, improving air quality, increasing bus ridership, fostering transit-oriented development in the West End of San Bernardino County, and providing better transit connections between the Omnitrans system, Metrolink, the Gold Line, and L.A./Ontario International Airport. “We do know that having bus rapid transit stations that are permanent looking, similar to light rail, helps to spur economic development, as we’ve seen in other cities that this has been done, like Cleveland, Ohio,” said Anna Rahtz, acting planning director for Omnitrans. “Also, the idea is to provide transit options competitive with the private automobile, because it’s faster, more direct and more efficient. We’re hoping to increase transit ridership throughout the valley, and hopefully alleviate traffic congestion and air quality.” Not everyone has been on board for the sbX line. San Bernardino Area Chamber of Commerce President Judi Penman said the project has actually hurt business in the area. “I sincerely hope that the value of the bus ridership makes up for the hardship it has cost the businesses,” Penman said. “Those hardships have included the loss of storefront parking, and the left-hand turns that were promised to the businesses. And some businesses just gave up and left.” Vassileios Douvikas, owner of Burger Mania restaurant on E Street, just south of Mill Street, said his business had declined by 10 percent during construction of the green line. With construction complete, Douvikas said business has returned and he’s hoping ridership could translate to customers. “If people really are going to use that bus, yeah it’s going to help me, but I don’t see a lot of people using the bus,” Douvikas said. “I hope people use the bus. They’ve done what they’ve done. The business will make money if it works, and people start eating, I would benefit because the bus stop is in front of the restaurant.” The Green Line is the first of a planned network of sbX corridors in the western Inland Empire. The West Valley Connector Corridor is a proposed rapid bus line from Fontana to Pomona to serve many significant activity centers in the western portion of Omnitrans’ area, according to plans. The overall vision for the sbX system was approved by San Bernardino Associated Governments, the county’ transportation planning agency also known as SanBAG, in 2004. Of the $191.7 million cost of the project, 96 percent comes from federal, state and county funds designated for transit projects. Funding sources include $75 million from the FTA Small Starts Program; $45.62 million from the FTA Urbanized Area Formula Program; $21 million from the Federal Highway Flexible Funds for Congestion Mitigation and Air Quality Program; $14.34 million from Proposition 1B Bonds; and $5.48 million from San Bernardino County Measure I, the voter-approved half-cent sales tax, from funds dedicated to express bus and bus rapid transit. Construction for other rapid transit corridors depends on funding. Omnitrans officials hope success with the Green Line will help to bring money for the rest of the system.Appearing Monday on Mike Huckabee’s radio show, Representative Todd Akin (R-KS), the embattled Republican candidate for Senate, expressed regret for his bizarre comments about “legitimate rape” over the weekend. “I’ve really made a couple of serious mistakes here which were just wrong, and I need to apologize for those,” Akin said. “There is no such thing as legitimate rape. It’s an evil act and it’s committed by violent predators. …” Later on Sean Hannity’s radio show, Akin addressed his assertion that women who are the victims of so-called “legitimate rape” are not likely to get pregnant. He claimed to have read a medical report confirming this notion, but now no longer believes it. He probably read such a claim because it’s common in pro-life circles, along with the canard that abortion causes breast cancer. It’s a central part of the argument many conservatives make when suggesting that abortion should not be legal, even in cases of rape and incest. In reality, 25,000 rapes a year result in pregnancies, a fact that pro-lifers go to great lengths to dispute. Why? If a woman can only be impregnated when she’s consenting, this justifies completely criminalizing all abortions. The crusade to ban all abortions includes many if not most elected Republicans. The runner up in this year’s GOP primary Rick Santorum endorses it, along with Rick Perry. Even soon-to-be vice presidential nominee Paul Ryan was anti-abortion rights without exception — until he became Mitt Romney’s running mate. Romney once bragged about having the support of the man who helped Akin come up with his views on “legitimate rape.” Romney now claims he believes in exceptions for rape and incest — yet when he was pursuing his party’s nomination, he supported the Human Life Amendment, which promotes a ban on all abortions and certain types of birth control. 52 0 0 0 2 54The European Parliament's research department has found that four out of five member states surveyed carry out wide-scale telecommunications surveillance. In a report released on Friday the department revealed that the U.K., France, Germany and Sweden all engaged in bulk collection of data. The Netherlands, which was also examined, has not done so, so far, but is engaged in setting up an agency for that purpose. The report notes that although surveillance has been carried out for decades, there is no room for complacency because the amount of data currently available is so large. It says the current surveillance programs "go largely beyond what was called before targeted surveillance or a non-centralised and heterogeneous assemblage of forms of surveillance." The U.K. leads the European surveillance field and is the only country to come close to the scale of the U.S. National Security Agency (NSA), the report says. In the U.K., the Government Communication Headquarters (GCHQ) receives approximately £1 billion (US$1.6 billion) annually and has a staff of 6,000. "It appears unlikely that the programmes of EU member states such as Sweden, France and Germany come close to the sheer magnitude of the operations launched by GCHQ and the NSA," says the report. Reports allege that GCHQ has placed data interceptors on approximately 200 U.K. fiber-optic cables that transmit Internet data and that by 2012 the agency was able to process data from at least 46 fiber-optic cables at any one time. This gives the agency the possibility to intercept more than 21 petabytes of data a day. This is estimated to have contributed to a 7,000 percent increase in the amount of personal data available to GCHQ from Internet and mobile traffic in the past five years. In order to deal with this vast amount of data, GCHQ uses a system of so-called "Massive Volume Reduction," removing 30 percent of less intelligence-relevant data such as peer-to-peer downloads. The remaining data is combed using some of up to 40,000 "selectors" such as keywords, email addresses or phone numbers of targeted individuals by about 300 GCHQ and 250 NSA staff working together. Content such as recordings of phone calls, content of email messages and entries on Facebook is kept for up to three days while metacontent such as time, date, creator and location of content is stored for up to 30 days. In France, the DGSE (Direction générale de la sécurité extérieure) is responsible for surveillance. In 2010, Bernard Barbier, a technical director at the DGSE, said that France ranked fifth in the world in metadata collection after the U.S., the U.K., Israel and China, and runs the second most important intelligence data collection and processing center in Europe after the U.K. Data is intercepted and collected by approximately 20 interception sites, located on national and overseas territories and comprised of satellite stations and interception of fibre-optic submarine cables. In Sweden, the National Defence Radio Establishment (FRA) is alleged to have been running "upstreaming" operations (tapping directly into the communications infrastructure as a means to intercept data) for the collection of private data -- collecting both the content of messages as well as metadata of communications crossing Swedish borders through fibre-optic cables from the Baltic Sea. The metadata is retained in bulk and stored in a database known as "Titan" for a period of 18 months. In Germany, large-scale surveillance activities are predominantly carried out by the Bundesnachrichtendienst (BND), which has a staff of 6,500 and last year had a budget of €504.8 million (US$694 million). Two other organizations also believed to be running mass surveillance operations or processing related data are Militärischen Abschirmdienst (MAD) and the Bundesamt für Verfassungsschutz (BfV). The BfV employs 2,757 people and had a budget of €210 million in 2012. The three intelligence agencies together search up to 20 percent of communications having a foreign element for specific purposes such as the fight against terrorism or the protection of the Constitution. The report notes that there are currently no publicly disclosed programs of mass cybersurveillance in the Netherlands. However, the Joint Sigint Cyber Unit (JSCU) is due to be up and running next year. It is expected to centralize cybersurveillance in the Netherlands and will have a staff of 350. Its annual budget is unknown, but it will cost €17 million to set up. The official objective of the program is the infiltration of computers and networks to acquire data for early-warning intelligence products; the composition of a cyberthreat picture; enhancing the intelligence; and conducting counterintelligence activities. According to the Parliament report, there are strong suggestions to indicate that several if not all of these member states are exchanging intercepted data with foreign intelligence services, namely the NSA. "At a very pragmatic level, large-scale surveillance appears to have strong limitations and is certainly not key in crime prevention. Such surveillance creates the tendency to collect data extensively and retain them over a long period of time in order to establish series of trends that facilitates big data correlations and hierarchies," the report said. However, the report is concerned that the distinction between targeted surveillance for criminal investigations purposes and large-scale surveillance with unclear objectives is increasingly blurred, and recommends further investigation. Follow Jennifer on Twitter at @BrusselsGeek or email tips and comments to jennifer_baker@idg.com.UPDATE: WEDNESDAY, JULY 1, 2015: A new sign has been posted at Amyx Hardware & Roofing Supplies in Grainger County. The sign reads, "We reserve the right to refuse service to anyone who would violate our rights of freedom of speech & freedom of religion." The sign bears the signature of the store's owner Jeff Amyx. We'll have more on this story later today on 10News and WBIR.com. ORIGINAL STORY: (WBIR) An East Tennessee store owner is using what some call a controversial sign to express his beliefs following the Supreme Court's ruling on same-sex marriage. Several WBIR 10News viewers brought this story to our attention on Facebook. Jeff Amyx, who owns Amyx Hardware & Roofing Supplies in Grainger County, added the 'No Gays Allowed' sign because gay and lesbian couples are against his religion. Amyx, who is also a baptist minister, said he realized Monday morning that homosexual people are not afraid to stand for what they believe in. He said it showed him that Christian people should be brave enough to stand for what they believe in. "They gladly stand for what they believe in, why can't I? They believe their way is right, I believe it's wrong. But yet I'm going to take more persecution than them because I'm standing for what I believe in," Amyx said. He said he has no plans to take the sign down.The Danish tax ministry announced Saturday that it's scrapping a fat tax it introduced in October of last year, saying the measure has only increased companies' administrative costs and caused Danes to venture across the border to purchase their unhealthy snacks. Evy Mages/ for the Washington Post "The fat tax and the extension of the chocolate tax, the so-called sugar tax, has been criticized for increasing prices for consumers, increasing companies' administrative costs and putting Danish jobs at risk," the Danish tax ministry said in a statement Saturday. The country's fat tax added 16 kroner ($2.7) per kilogram of saturated fats in a product, and was levied on everything containing saturated fats, including raw ingredients like butter and milk to prepared foods like pizzas. The price of a half-pound of butter, for example, rose by 2.20 kroner, or 37 cents, but apparently the larger problem was the administrative headache food companies had to endure in order to set the new prices. The Danish tax ministry said it was also cancelling plans to introduce a tax on sugar, the AFP reported. It's an interesting development at a time when the United States and other countries are attempting to steer consumers to healthier choices with their own counter-obesity policies. Last year Hungary instituted a 50 U.S.-cent tax on fatty foods, plus higher tariffs on soda and alcohol, with the proceeds going to health care costs. Last week, senators in France called for a tax on foods with palm oil, a levy that has been termed the "Nutella tax" after the beloved chocolaty spread that would become pricier as a result. Israel also is weighing a junk food tax, and in the U.K. Prime Minister David Cameron said he was considering a fat tax similar to Denmark's, referring to the United States in a local TV interview as a cautionary tale. "Look at America, how bad things have got there – what happens if we don't do anything? Yes, that should be a wake-up call," Cameron said. In the United States, New York is leading the charge in the war on fat by prohibiting artificial trans fats in restaurant foods, slapping calorie labels on eatery menus and, most recently, adopting a controversial ban on oversize sodas in restaurants, which is now working its way through the state's courts. Local policymakers in Washington also have tossed around a similar soda measure. It's hard to predict whether these laws will actually improve public health, though, or if they'll go the way of Denmark's failed policy. New York
rillard did not like our contemporary condition but he did his best to thrive as a thinker and a writer while coming to grips with its radical uncertainty. Writing, beyond the political, after any possibility of transcendence, was his post-Marxist politics. As he said with such heart rendering poignancy for a Parisian man of the Left of his generation: “there are no children of May” (Baudrillard in Genosko, 2001:74). Is a post-Marxist, post-Baudrillardian Marxism possible? Of course not. But those on the Left who in earlier times might have been Marxists can now, through a serious engagement with Baudrillard, challenge the productivist ideology on which Marx foundered and capitalism continues to proliferate. Through a serious engagement with Baudrillard’s challenge to Marx the Left can find its last chance to be truly radical. References Baudrillard, Jean. [1973] 1975. The Mirror of Production. St. Louis: Telos. ---- [1972] 1981. For A Critique of the Political Economy of the Sign. St. Louis: Telos. ---- (1985). “The Divine Left” in Gary Genosko. The Uncollected Baudrillard. London: Sage, 2001. ---- [1977] 1987. Forget Foucault. New York: Semiotext(e). ---- [1987] 1990. Cool Memories I, 1980-1985. New York: Verso. ---- [1976] 1993a. Symbolic Exchange and Death. London: Sage. ---- [1990] 1993b. The Transparency of Evil: Essays on Extreme Phenomena. New York: Verso. ---- [1981] 1994. Simulacra and Simulation. Ann Arbor: The University of Michigan Press. ---- [1995] 1996. The Perfect Crime. New York: Verso. ---- [1970] 1998a. The Consumer Society. London: Sage. ---- [1997] 1998b. Paroxysm: Interviews with Philippe Petit. New York: Verso. ---- 2000. The Vital Illusion. New York: Columbia University Press. ---- [1999] 2001. Impossible Exchange. New York: Verso. ---- [2000] 2002. Screened Out. New York: Verso. ---- [2001] 2004. Fragments: Conversations with Francois L’Yvonnet. New York: Routledge. ---- [2004]. 2005. The Lucidity Pact Or The Intelligence of Evil. London: Berg. Gane, Mike (Editor). 1993. Baudrillard Live: Selected Interviews. London: Routledge. Marx, Karl. [1844] 1977. Economic and Philosophic Manuscripts. Moscow: Progress Publishers.MANILA -- Did you know that more than 35 Filipino words have made it to the Oxford English Dictionary? In its 2016 update, words uniquely coined by Filipinos like “aggrupation,” “yaya,” and “tabo” were added to the international dictionary. In celebration of Buwan ng Wika, the ABS-CBN Investigative and Research Group takes a look at some of the Filipino words that have become part of the English language through the years. Advanced: Of a clock or watch: indicating a time ahead of the correct time (Philippine English) This term is most likely an offshoot of Pinoys’ tendency to be late for appointments—a habit that they themselves dubbed ‘Filipino time.’ Wearing an ‘advanced’ watch is thus a way of avoiding being on ‘Filipino time.’ Aggrupation: (Philippine English) An association or grouping, especially a political organization; an affiliation formed on the basis of common interests or objectives. This word has long been used in Philippine political discourse, and in bills filed in Congress and other official documents. But the word ‘aggrupation’ was only included in the Oxford English Dictionary in 2016. Bahala na: (Philippine English) Expressing an attitude of optimistic acceptance or fatalistic resignation, especially in acknowledging that the outcome of an uncertain or difficult situation is beyond one's control or is preordained; Hence also as n.: an approach to life characterized by this attitude Pinoys are known for their sense of humor even through the worst disaster—an attitude that often borders on fatalism. The term ‘bahala na’ succinctly encapsulates this Pinoy characteristic of giving up to fate the things beyond their control. Balikbayan: (Philippine English) A Filipino visiting or returning to the Philippines after a period of living in another country. With 2.2 million Filipinos working overseas per the 2015 Census, nearly every Filipino has a relative or knows someone working abroad. Filipinos have thus coined the term ‘balikbayan’ to refer to someone who returns home from abroad. When a balikbayan arrives, the whole clan—along with the entire neighborhood—celebrate. A balikbayan usually ships a ‘balikbayan box’ to the Philippines: a big box containing food, clothes, toys, kitchenware, and the like for family and friends. Batchmate: A member of the same graduation class as another; a classmate (chiefly S. Asian and Philippine English) By putting together two English words: ‘batch’ and ‘mate’, Filipinos have coined a new term to denote what in other countries is simply called a ‘classmate’. Filipinos have an affinity with their batchmates that often remains long after graduation. Carnap: To steal (a motor vehicle) (Now chiefly Philippine English) Carnapper: A person who steals a motor vehicle; a car thief (Now chiefly Philippine English) These terms have been used in American publications in the mid-20th century but eventually fell out of use in the US. In the Philippines however, these terms have remained typical. The Philippine National Police includes the category ‘carnapping’ in its official crime statistics. In 2016, the police have recorded 9,334 ‘carnapping’ incidents in the country. Comfort room: (originally) a room in a public building or workplace furnished with amenities such as facilities for resting, personal hygiene, and storage of personal items (now rare); (later) a public toilet (now chiefly Philippine English) What the rest of the English-speaking world refers to as a “restroom” “toilet” or ”washroom” is a ‘comfort room’ for Filipinos. Like the word ‘carnap,’ the term ‘comfort room’ had already been used in American publications but later fell out of use. Dirty Kitchen: (Philippine English) a kitchen where everyday cooking is done by household staff, as distinct from a kitchen that is purely for show or for special use by the owner of the house. It is not uncommon for Filipino homes to have two kitchens: a nice kitchen just for show, to be used only on special occasions by the owner of the house, and a second ‘dirty kitchen’, where the household’s daily meals are prepared. Gimmick: (Philippine English) a night out with friends Whereas the English definition of ‘gimmick’ refers to a trick to attract attention, Filipinos have coined a new meaning for this word to refer to a night out with friends. High blood: n. and adj. (a) n. colloq. high blood pressure; hypertension; (b) adj. (Philippine English) angry, agitated In the Philippines, the English words ‘high’ and ‘blood’, when joined together, refers to hypertension, as in high blood pressure. But Filipinos also use the term to connote feelings of anger and agitation. Note: Not to be confused with “high-blooded,” which refers to someone of noble descent or from a highly regarded family. Kikay: (Philippine English) n. A flirtatious girl or woman. Also: a girl or woman interested in beauty products and fashion A woman who likes to shop for new clothes and cosmetics is ‘kikay.’ Filipinos also created the hybrid term ‘kikay kit’ to refer to a small case or bag to hold one’s toiletries and cosmetics. Mabuhay: (Philippine English) An exclamation of salutation or greeting: long live ——! good luck (to you)! hurrah! cheers! A multipurpose term, ‘Mabuhay’ is primarily used as a greeting to guests, and as such, has become a mark of Filipino hospitality. It is also used as an exclamation for what in English are the expressions ‘Long live!’ ‘Good luck!’ ‘Hurrah!’ or ‘Cheers!’ Mani-pedi: colloq. (orig. Philippine English). A beauty treatment comprising both a manicure and a pedicure According to the Oxford English Dictionary Editorial, while the word ‘mani-pedi’ is now widely used all over the English-speaking world, it was discovered to be of Philippine origin. Filipino writer Kerima Polotan-Tuvera first used the term in a 1972 essay. Presidentiable: (Chiefly Philippine English) A person who is a likely or confirmed candidate for president Every six years, Filipino voters elect their next leader from among several ‘presidentiables.’ From the English word ‘president,’ Filipinos have added the suffix –able to refer to a candidate for President or a likely candidate for the position. Pulutan: (Philippine English) Food or snacks provided as an accompaniment to alcoholic drinks Americans usually munch on peanuts while drinking beer. Pinoys also love to drink beer while munching on, well, an entire menu of dishes collectively known as ‘pulutan.’ Sisig is a crowd favorite, but also deep-fried pork intestines (chicharon bulaklak), fried tofu, grilled pork, grilled seafood, and even veggie sticks. Salvage: (Philippine English) to apprehend and execute (a suspected criminal) without trial Notwithstanding the formal meaning of ‘salvage’ as being saved, this word was used in the Philippines to refer to the summary execution of a suspected criminal, or the immediate killing of someone accused of a crime without due process. This word has become popular again with the rise in the number of suspected drug pushers and users killed since last year. Sari-sari store: (Philippine English) A small neighborhood store selling a variety of goods A Filipino neighborhood is incomplete without a ‘sari-sari store.’ Filipinos have coined this term from the word ‘sari’, which means ‘variety.’ Don’t be fooled by its diminutive size though—a sari-sari store offers nearly everything that a supermarket and pharmacy offers—snacks and canned goods, alcoholic drinks, cigarettes, even medicines and toiletries—but sold per piece or ‘tingi’. Tabo: (Philippine English) A dipper used to scoop up water from a pail or bucket while washing, traditionally made of coconut shell or bamboo but now more commonly made of plastic. This permanent fixture in many Filipino homes is a simple but functional multipurpose tool that may be used for bathing, washing clothes, cleaning the house, and for washing one's bottom. Yaya: (Philippine English) A woman employed by a family to look after a child, or a sick or elderly person. In the Philippines, especially in urban areas, yayas have become an organic part of the household so much so that when yaya is away, the entire household falls into disarray. Their nurturing ways and genuine concern for the children they look after have endeared Pinoy yayas to families the world over. Prince William, celebrity chef Anthony Bourdain, and Olympic gold medalist Joseph Schooling have openly declared and demonstrated their affection for their Pinoy yayas. Other Filipino words or English words with Filipino meanings included in the Oxford English Dictionary are: baon, barangay, barkada, barong, barong tagalog, baro’t saya, buko, despedida, estafa, go down, halo-halo, KKB (kanya-kanyang bayad), kuya, pan de sal, pasalubong, sinigang, suki, and utang na loob.I recently got this palette in the Too Faced Mystery Bag 2016 and have been really enjoying it lately. One of the items that was included was an older palette, but one I didn’t have. The Too Faced Cat Eyes Palette has nine eye shadows included and is organized to make it easy to create 3 different looks. I was definitely excited to get this palette even if it isn’t new and trendy – it had some neat shades, glitter, and a theme that I love! The Too Faced Cat Eyes Palette has three lighter shades in larger pans, which look perfect for base shades or highlights. It also has 6 smaller pans of shadows that range from dark to bright to glitter. The variety is nice to have in such a small palette and makes it easy to create different looks. There is even a little guidebook that offers instructions to create three looks using the shadows. Keep reading to see swatches of all the shadows. I swatched from top to bottom going across the rows, so the shadows are shown in the following order: Purr, Tiger’s Eye, Leopard, Meow, Pussy Cat, Jungle Love, Kitten, Kitty Glitter, and Panther. Immediately I noticed there were some standout shades in the Too Faced Cat Eyes Palette. Tiger’s Eye is a lovely warm golden shade that is deep enough to be noticed on it’s own but still work as a neutral. Jungle Love has stunning glitter in it and although I haven’t tried applying it wet as the palette suggests, I can only imagine how much more intense it could be. I love the shade of it – an indigo/navy hue, but the glitter is what really makes it a star for me. I also liked Kitty Glitter which is a lighter silvery blue shade that was really smooth to apply. Panther is a matte black that was slightly dry at first but built great deep colour after a second swipe. Leopard was kind of dry and didn’t really impress me, and Pussy Cat was a neat light purple but I can’t see myself using it a bunch. The three larger pans were a mixed bag. The very first one, Purr, was quite chalky but Meow was smooth and nice to work with. Kitten was just so-so. They look kind of similar in the swatches but with the difference in application I know which one I will be using more often. Overall I am happy with the different shades in the Too Faced Cat Eyes Palette and although they aren’t all stellar eye shadows, there are enough great ones to make up for a few dry ones. Have you tried the Too Faced Cat Eyes Palette? Let me know what you think of it!CHENNAI: It may be puppy love, but the kind that lasts forever. A Bengaluru girl has become a social media darling after rejecting a prospective groom over his dislike for dogs.Soon after Karishma Walia posted her final WhatsApp conversation with the man - a chronicle of his attempts to make her give up her year-old pet Lucy -on Facebook on Tuesday, it went viral.“It was an arranged marriage set-up. This guy was good to talk to, well-to-do and pretty good looking, but when I told him that I wanted to bring my dog with me after marriage, he wasn't keen on it,“ says Karishma, a passionate animal lover.Soon after she told him about her desire, he messaged, saying he didn't “want a dog to come in between my love life and not share the same bed... and my mom doesn't like dogs in general (sic)“. For Karishma, her pet was a non-negotiable, something the guy found unbelievable. In his messages, he said he hoped “it may be a temporary phase in life when you like dogs“. When Karishma refused to budge, he signed off in a huff, asking her to “please marry the dog in that case“.“He couldn't digest the fact that a dog can be someone's priority,“ says Karishma, “I am OK with not marrying, but I am not OK with abandoning my dog.“While her parents initially tried to dissuade her from taking a “hasty decision“, Karishma says now her mom respects her decision. And the man in question still doesn't seem to have given up. “He has been texting me; telling me it is funny how a dog could be a priority, but I have not replied,“ says Karishma.You could say the guy doesn't have a dog's chance.By 2015, 75% of the world’s employees will be young people (ie., the Millennial Generation or Gen Y). The prospects for economic prosperity for this generation are not particularly encouraging, and yet has high and positive expectations. If we could point to one trend that paints a rather dark picture, it is the coming boom of large numbers of young males with few prospects for economic success. According to a Bank of America/Merrill Lynch report, market turmoil is coming in 2015 due to an underappreciated huge male youth boom (ages 15-29), and the problem is there aren’t enough jobs globally to employ them (180 million in India, 170 million China, 160 million in Africa). The reports goes on to conclude that the more angry young men there are to fight over opportunities and marriageable women the greater the negative impact on economic and social structures. Some key findings Deloitte’s third annual Millennial Survey While most Millennials believe business is having a positive impact on society and increasing prosperity, they think business can do much more to address society’s challenges in the areas of most concern: resource scarcity, climate change, income inequality and ethical business practices; Millennials believe the success of a business should be measured in terms of more than just its financial performance, with a focus on improving society among the most important things it should seek to achieve. of nearly 7,800 Millennials from 28 countries across Western Europe, North America, Latin America, BRICS and Asia-Pacific about business, government and innovation are: Deloitte concludes, as a result of the economic pressures to flatten organizations, they must build “corporate ‘lattices” rather than corporate ladders for Millennials. These young people in their 20’s would like new jobs and new assignments every 12-24 months and won’t wait for 3-5 years for a promotion. The study also points to Millennials preference for organizations that have open, transparent and inclusive leadership styles; and they thrive on fairness and performance-based appraisals, not tenure and seniority. Millennials would prefer to have access to a number of peers and other leaders, rather that be limited to working with one leader or manager, and finally; Millennials thrive on innovation and change. The Pew Center’s massive new report on the state of affairs for the Millennial generation is full of contradictions about them. For example: Economic conditions for Millennials are atrocious, with high unemployment, yet they are the most optimistic of any generation; The Millennial generation is the most educated generation in history and the deepest in debt for their education; While the economy has been the most prosperous in history, the Millennial generation will not likely live a better standard of living than their parents; Millennials say they care about the environment, but don’t consider themselves environmentalists; Millennials have few attachments to traditional political and religious institutions. The Millennial Compass Report completed by the MLS Group and the Ashbridge Business School in the U.K. recently completed a study entitled Truths About the 30-and-under Generation in the Workplace. The study highlights issues of relevance to today’s employers, with the some conclusions that may be startling to some. As many experts have observed, Millennials are very different from previous generations. The Millennial Compass Report, which surveyed 1,293 employees in the U.S., India, China, the U.K., France and Brazil shows that Millennials “are focused on achieving through personal networks and technology; having good work-life balance; and getting high levels of support from their managers. They don’t want to be tied to an organization, a timetable or a hierarchy, and they’d rather avoid the stress they see their senior leaders shouldering.” Other conclusions of the report that are noteworthy: Millennials are ambitious to move up in their careers. More than 40% of this generation expects to be in a management position within two years. Millennials say they have a strong work ethic, but redefine the term to include good work-life balance; Loyalty to the organization is not a particularly strong value for Millennials. Nearly 50% of those surveyed say they plan to depart from their employer after 2 years; While Millennials worldwide say they expect to be in senior management positions and/or running their own companies within a few yeas of graduating, and international experience was not of high importance; Millennials want to view their boss or manager as their “friend,” viewing them more as a peer, coach or mentor. Millennials are not concerned with titles, and strongly admire those with experience or knowledge over position or power; Millennials believe their skills are better utilized than those whose managers are from the Baby Boom generation. Millennials want a manger who is very supportive, on their side and has their best interests at heart. Clear from these studies is Millennials’ different definition of loyalty to the organization and expectations for frequent career or job changes. Millennials have a very different perspective and expectation of the role and behavior of managers, seeing them more in an encouraging, coaching and peer capacity, something that is currently at odds with the current generation of Baby Boomer managers who see their role as one associated more with power and position. Ray Williams is president of Ray Williams Associates, a Vancouver-based firm that provides leadership training, executive coaching and speaking services. He is author of the book, Breaking Bad Habits, and also a contributing author of a best selling book, Ready, Aim, Influence. He can be reached at ray@raywilliamsassociates.comJulian Gill / Staff Writer Sophomore Anthony Mazur was just starting to realize his love of photography when he joined the Flower Mound High School yearbook staff. He took thousands of photos with the school’s camera and promoted them on his Flickr account, trying to carve out a career for himself. Then he had to take them all down. “I started selling my pictures to parents, tried licensing them to news organizations and getting internships to learn as much as possible,” he wrote on his Flickr page. “It felt great to receive such amazing support from parents, players and friends. I believed I found my place. One day, that all changed…” The school’s assistant principal Jeffrey Brown called Mazur down to his office, where his Flickr page was displayed on the computer. Brown threatened to suspend Mazur and ban him from all extra-curricular activities if he continued posting the pictures for his personal use, citing a violation of student privacy. Mazur claims Brown also made a “concealed threat” by asking that any money he made from the pictures be returned to the school. Mazur said FMHS insisted he was “working on behalf of the school and they expected [the pictures] to be used for school purposes only.” When he signed an administrative directive ordering him to take the pictures down, he posted it on Twitter. The directive gave no indication Mazur violated student privacy rights, only saying he breached school policy by using the pictures for personal gain. “FMHS’s students, parents, teachers, coaches and administration expect pictures taken during these situations be used for the sole purpose of school related publications,” the directive read. “Anthony has violated this understanding when he posted the pictures on Flickr for personal gain.” The photos have since been removed from Mazur’s Flickr account, and his parents have filed two unsuccessful appeals to the principals and superintendent, respectively. Now, Mazur has taken the fight to social media, asking people to support Federal Copyright Laws and tweeting #IAmAnthony, his personal call for awareness. With several local media outlets taking notice, a broader issue is starting to surface. Title 17 of U.S. code 106 states “the owner of copyright under this title has the exclusive rights to do and to authorize pictorial, graphic, or sculptural work…and to display the copyrighted work publicly” In this case, Mazur would legally own the pictures because he is the author. Mazur also cites a section of the Lewisville ISD policy manual, which says, “A student shall retain all rights to work created as part of the instruction or using district technology resources.” According to an article published in the Lewisville Texan, some of the photos on Mazur’s Flickr account were taken for his yearbook class. Lewisville ISD then released a statement with a different reason for punishing Mazur, saying he violated the district’s Acceptable Use Policy (AUP) for technology. “The district considers the use of [school] technologies to be inappropriate when a student electronically posts data (including but not limited to audio recordings, video recordings, images and personal information) about others or oneself when it is not related to a class project and/or without he permission of all parties,” the policy reads. The original administrative directive did not cite an AUP violation. Evan Stone is an intellectual property lawyer in Denton who has extensive knowledge on U.S. copyright laws. He thinks the district stands on relatively firm footing. “If the students all entered into an agreement stating when and how they can use the school equipment and the students breached that agreement, then yes, that’s a problem,” he said. “Now whether or not Anthony still owns the copyrights to the stuff he shot, I would say that he does. But that doesn’t mean he can’t be sued for a breach.” Stone added that Mazur, the author of the work, is legally able to sell the pictures with proper authorization. “If any of these students are buying images of themselves, that’s implied consent,” Stone said. “Absent a work-for-hire agreement or an employer-employee relationship, there is no way the school owns any of the copyrights to those images.” Mazur has his own camera now and continues to post the pictures on Twitter. Neither the school nor the Mazur family has filed any charges. Lewisville ISD declined to comment for this story. Here is the statement from Lewisville ISD in its entirety: “According to Lewisville ISD’s Acceptable Use Policy for technology, the electronic communications system is defined as the district’s network (including the wireless network), servers … and any other technology designated for use by students, including all new technologies as they become available. The district considers the use of said technologies to be inappropriate when a student electronically posts data (including but not limited to audio recordings, video recordings, images and personal information) about others or oneself when it is not related to a class project and/or without the permission of all parties. Lewisville ISD’s practice is if anyone attending a public district event takes photos using their own device from an area accessible to the public, the district would not interfere with those photos being posted to a third-party site. “The district is not at liberty to share student information pertaining to this situation due to the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act [FERPA].”Following tense Normandy Four talks, Russian President Vladimir Putin told reporters he had expressed Moscow’s readiness to extend the humanitarian ceasefire in Aleppo for as long as needed. Meanwhile, his EU counterparts accused Russia and Syria of “war crimes.” German Chancellor Angela Merkel and French President Francois Hollande chose to focus on Russia’s role in the Syrian conflict, claiming that Moscow bears “responsibility” for the start of the political process in Syria. Merkel alleged that the separation of terrorists from “moderate” rebels in Aleppo – something Russia and Syria have been demanding – is an impossible task without a complete ceasefire. “It will not be possible to separate terrorists from civilians under bombardments,” Merkel said at the briefing. Hollande in turn called what is happening in Aleppo “a real war crime,” calling for “maximum” pressure to be exerted on Russia. The Western powers also expect that Moscow will put more pressure on Syrian President Bashar Assad to stop the bombing of rebel forces controlling eastern Aleppo, which comprise Al-Nusra terrorists and the groups the West considers moderate, such as the Free Syrian Army. Merkel went as far as calling Russian and Syrian air strikes on terrorist hideouts in eastern Aleppo “inhumane.” READ MORE: Planned humanitarian pause in Aleppo extended by 3 hours, 8 corridors to open – Russian military “This is a severe blow to the people of Aleppo, and we are sure that it is impossible to separate terrorists and civilians when such bombardments are taking place,” she said. While Hollande admitted that “of course, there are terrorists in Aleppo” he stressed that “bombardments should be out of question.” Both German and French leaders did not exclude that they may discuss new sanctions against Russia during the upcoming EU summit. “We should not exclude this possibility,” Merkel said, calling the Berlin negotiations on Syria “tough” and “difficult.” Putin held a separate news conference, reiterating the Russian position on Syria and lamenting that little progress achieved in talks on the conflict in eastern Ukraine. The Russian leader said he had talked “about the Russian side's plans to extend the pause in delivering airstrikes [in Aleppo] for as long as possible, depending on the developments in this territory.” Putin stressed that Moscow has been calling for the reinvigoration of work on a new Syrian constitution, which would be the first step toward a political transition in the war-torn country. “I once again reminded our colleagues that Russia proposes to step up work in this sphere on devising and adopting a new constitution, on the basis of which preliminary election may be held and positions of all conflicting parties may be preliminarily coordinated,” Putin said. Roadmap on eastern Ukraine by November – Normandy Four The leaders of Normandy Four have not made any breakthrough on Wednesday when it comes to the conflict in eastern Ukraine. However, they agreed to work out a road map on a Donbass settlement by November, based on the Minsk agreements of February 2015. All parties to the Berlin talks “confirmed their commitment to these agreements,” Putin noted, saying that Minsk Accords continue to serve as a basis for the peace process in eastern Ukraine. While no new documents have been signed during more than 5-hour long talks in Berlin on Wednesday, the leaders of Russia, Germany, France and Ukraine, the four states that comprise Normandy Four group, have discussed several key points to be included in the next agreement to be thrashed out by the countries’ foreign ministries. READ MORE: Militia commander killed in bombing attack in eastern Ukraine One of the main obstacles in the way of the conflict resolution is the refusal of Kiev to approve legislation for local elections to be held in the self-proclaimed Republics of Donetsk and Luhansk. Putin said that Russia is “ready to broaden the OSCE [Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe] mission” in the zones of withdrawal and storage of heavy machinery. Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko earlier said Russia greenlighted “an attempt now to deploy an armed OSCE mission, which we call a police mission, which will ensure security during elections, as well as during the transitional period.” Merkel confirmed that the agreement on granting OSCE observers better access to border regions has been reached, but was cautious about prospects of sending an armed or any other extra OSCE mission to the area. Read more The deployment of any additional OSCE mission depends on the approval of legislation on local elections, which so far has not been passed by Kiev, the Chancellor pointed out. “If there is an election process, if there are election rules, then we can also talk about an OSCE mission, including armed missions. But at the moment it is not an urgent issue,” she said, adding that that “meetings should be regular for the peace process not to lose momentum.” Hollande sided with Merkel and described the arrangement of Donbass elections as the “main task” of the political process in Ukraine. READ MORE: ‘Attacking terrorists in Aleppo is only way to protect civilians’ – Assad Other unresolved issues remained, such as the definition of contact lines, with Poroshenko insisting that Debaltsevo, currently under control of the eastern Ukrainian rebels, should be handed over to Kiev. The parties aim to continue working together on settlement in eastern Ukraine, in particular, in reaching “final agreements on the framework of implementation and enforcement of the agreement on special status of certain areas in Luhansk and Donetsk regions,” Putin said. The Normandy Group will meet in November at the level of foreign ministers who are expected to thrash out the details of the roadmap.Random griffon I doodled, except she's a raven/wolf combo instead of an eagle/lion. I was thinking of making her my ponysona/griffonsona, especially after I rewatched Griffon the Brush Off and I decided griffons are officially amazing. As long as they're not total bitches like Gilda was Also, made a similar MLP species called Valravns. I decided mine's not a Valravn mainly because Valravns are described as being quite vicious, and well, she doesn't look very vicious (in my opinion), and Valravns seem to have red eyes and wolf ears. Plus, I'm not vicious either (most of the time), so if she's gonna be my griffonsona, she has to be like me. MostlySo yeah, there you go. I still need to flesh her out and think of a name still. Hmmm.The former head of the Steubenville chapter of the NAACP is under fire on Thursday after he reportedly told a conservative publication that a 16-year-old rape survivor was “drunk” and willing to have sex. In an interview with International Business Times, Royal Mayo, who the NAACP lists as the former leader of the Steubenville chapter in Ohio, defended the actions of former football players Trent Mays and Ma’lik Richmond after they were convicted of raping the 16-year-old girl. Calling the girl an “alleged victim,” Mayo suggested that the sex may have been consensual. “She said her mother brought her to the party, at 3 o’clock, with a bottle of vodka,” he explained. “Where did you get it, young lady? You brought it from home? Where’d you get it? You came to the party with your mother.” “They’re alleging she got raped; she’s acknowledging that she wanted to leave with Trent. Her friends say she pushed them away as she went and got into the car, twice telling them, ‘I know what I’m doing; I’m going with Trent.’” Mayo admitted that he had personally known Richmond, who was sentenced to at least one year in a juvenile correctional facility. “Back in August, when the rumors first started going around, I talked to Ma’lik, and he said, ‘No, Mr. Mayo, we didn’t do anything to that girl. I don’t know what these rumors are; I don’t understand it,’” Mayo recalled. A spokesperson for the NAACP on Thursday said that the organization was working to release a statement in response to Mayo’s comments. WTOV reported in 2009 that a domestic charge against Mayo was dropped after his girlfriend accused him of beating her. Update (1:30 p.m. ET): In a statement provided to Raw Story, the NAACP said that it “abhors the remarks attributed to Royal Mayo regarding the rape victim in the Steubenville [case].” “The remarks are Mayo’s own, and do not reflect the position of the NAACP and its membership,” the statement said. “Mr. Mayo is not the president of the Steubenville NAACP and is not a spokesman for the NAACP. The article attributing him as such has been corrected by the International Business Times.“ “Rape is a despicable crime of violence. The NAACP understands that comments that blame victims for the actions of their attackers contribute to and perpetuate a culture of acquiescence to rape.” [Photo: Facebook/Royal Mayo] [Ed note: The original version of this story incorrectly identified Mayo as the current head, based on the IBT’s reporting and a look at the NAACP’s website. IBT has since corrected it after clarification from the NAACP as have we, and we regret the error.]The attorney general of the United States believes that not only is affirmative action unnecessary, but that it constitutes discrimination against whites. If that’s the case, shouldn’t more black Americans be in positions of power? Last month, Northwestern University conducted the most comprehensive study on hiring discrimination in U.S. history. And the findings suggest that despite well-publicized efforts, there has been little to no reduction in hiring bias against African-Americans in the last 25 years. Indeed, the demographic that received the most substantial benefitfrom affirmative action was white women. While the study revealed a hiring bias in all industries, some industries are worse than others; particularly, law and technology have shown the least progress. Currently, less than 5 percent of all tech workers are African-American, and less than 11 percent are Hispanic and Latinos. As you might expect, the higher you climb in the ranks, the worse this figure becomes. For double minorities, like women of color, a change in mindset may be required to see themselves as employable in the tech industry. Women like Ehi Aimiuwu-Jinadu, a black mother of five and founder of GeekMomsCo, have had to fight to redefine the face of tech. “Before getting into the tech space, I used to believe that the corporate world, in general, wasn’t for black women,” Aimiuwu-Jinadu told Salon. “It was never on my radar especially because I was a college dropout. I was told by pretty much everyone that without a college degree I wouldn’t make it anywhere,” she added. Women in tech are a rarity — only 25 percent of computing jobs are held by women — but a black woman in tech without a traditional education is unheard of. Only 3 percent of computing jobs are held by black women and less than 1 percent by Latinas at any degree level. Over the last ten years, there has been little to no diversification of the demographics of bachelor's degrees received in the computer science field. SPONSORED According to the National Science Foundation, only 698,000 women within the science and engineering degree field have any level of degree, compared to 2,148,000 men. Upon breaking this figure down racially, just 47,000 of black women have any level of degree as a computer and information scientist. Black men have double the degrees as black women (107,000) but still pale in comparison to their white (women: 388,000 degrees and men, 1,378,000) and Asian counterparts (221,000 women with degrees versus 504,000 men). Yet the tech industry itself claims to be devoted to the cause of increasing diversity —
with Brazil having the edge with 11 wins and four draws. England v Germany Ticket prices: £100, £65, £55, £45, £35 (£20 & £10 family ticket) Travel Club members: £95, £60, £50, £40, £35 (£20 & £10 family ticket) A £10 discount is available for OAPs, Students and U16s elsewhere in the stadium except L2 and family enclosure Members sale: 12 noon, Friday 6 October General sale: 12noon, Friday 13 October Hotline: 0844 826 2010 Members disabled sale: 12 noon, Friday 6 October General public disabled sale: 12 noon, Friday 13 October Hotline: 0845 458 1966 Click here for tickets England v Brazil Ticket prices: £100, £70, £55, £45, £35, (£20 & £10 family ticket) Travel Club members: £95, £20 for Cats 1, 2, 3, 4 (£20 & £10 family ticket) A £10 discount is available for OAPs, Students and U16s elsewhere in the stadium except L2 and family enclosure Members sale: 12 noon, Friday 6 October General sale: 12noon, Friday 13 October Hotline: 0844 826 2010 Members disabled sale: 12 noon, Friday 6 October General public disabled sale: 12 noon, Friday 13 October Hotline: 0845 458 1966 Click here for ticketsPhoto: Jennifer Kerrigan for The Intercept Wells Fargo, the current poster child for corporate crime recidivism, announced that three of its board members would step down at the end of the year, in a nod to the company’s many incidents of customer abuse. But, in an example of what passes for accountability in the modern age, they did not claw back any compensation from those board members. Instead, the departing board members were allowed to take an early retirement. And the replacements are either already on Wells Fargo’s payroll, or come from close corporate partners. Stephen Sanger, who only took over as chair of the board of directors after the resignation of CEO and chair John Stumpf last year, will step down Jan. 1, along with two colleagues, Cynthia Milligan and Susan Swenson. The trio are among the bank’s longest-serving board members; Milligan joined in 1992, Swenson in 1998, and Sanger in 2003. And all three served during Wells Fargo’s decade-plus practice of instituting fake accounts to goose sales growth, not to mention recent revelations of nickel-and-diming mortgage borrowers, auto loan customers, small business owners, and investors. The board members will not have to give back annual salary, bonuses or stock options. They just get to move along. Wells Fargo described the changes in a statement as part of their “commitment to refreshment” of the board. Yet Wells decided to replace Sanger by promoting someone from inside the company. Former Federal Reserve Governor Elizabeth Duke will take the chair position. Duke has served on the Wells Fargo board since 2015. During that time, the board was made aware of the fake accounts scandal, before it was revealed to the public. This is part of a pattern with Wells Fargo. When Stumpf stepped down last October, Tim Sloan, then president and chief operating officer, took the top slot. Sloan was groomed for years to replace Stumpf, and four months before the transition, he vowed not to change the bank’s high-pressure sales culture, which led to the fake accounts scandal. Both the Sloan and Duke appointments, in other words, look like a mere acceleration of an inevitable change at the top, rather than a true break with the past on policy or culture at the bank. Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., has been calling for the Fed to remove the entire Wells Fargo board, which they can do if they uncover risk management failures that threaten the safety and soundness of the bank. She did not see Wells’s latest action as sufficient. “Letting a few board members retire early and shuffling around current board members simply doesn’t cut it,” Warren said in a statement to The Intercept. “The Fed should remove all remaining board members who served during the fake-accounts scandal.” Warren also wrote a letter to Fed Chair Janet Yellen on Wednesday reaffirming her belief that the Fed should fire the Wells Fargo board. “Between 2011 and 2015, Wells Fargo seems to have had an almost limitless capacity to cheat its customers and shirk its regulatory responsibilities,” Warren wrote. “Yet a dozen Board members from that period continue to serve today.” Maxine Waters, the ranking Democrat on the House Financial Services Committee, also criticized the action, noting that Duke served on the board during its multitude of scandals. “This superficial change in leadership at Wells Fargo isn’t enough to restore the trust and confidence of the American public,” Waters said in a statement. “It is time that Congress recognize Wells Fargo for what it is — a recidivist institution that has committed millions of crimes and shows no remorse.” Waters vowed to introduce legislation to break up mega-banks when Congress returns in September. The board reshuffle also points to another problematic aspect of the way Wells Fargo does business: how deeply the bank has become enmeshed with the accounting firm, PricewaterhouseCoopers. The company announced one new board member, Juan Pujadas, a retired PwC principal who will be the second retired partner from the consultancy on the board, joining Rick Richardson. While Pujadas no longer works actively at PwC, he still associates himself with the firm. Wells has been employing management consultants at PwC since before the fake accounts scandal broke. In the summer of 2015, Wells hired the company to assess the extent of customer harm from the unauthorized account creation. This relationship is familiar in corporate America. The Big Four auditing firms won’t conduct internal accounting investigations for the companies that employ them to monitor their books, because of a perceived conflict of interest. So when Wells Fargo gets into trouble, instead of calling for help from its auditor, KPMG, another firm — in this case, PwC — will be brought in. It’s a nice side business. These internal investigations are extremely lucrative. The often long investigations allow the companies in question to make the case that they take allegations of wrongdoing seriously, and will cooperate with regulators to reach a resolution. But, in reality, the private investigations serve as a substitute for government oversight; instead of regulators delving into the details of malfeasance, they outsource to an internal probe which may not be totally forthcoming. The end result is typically a lenient settlement. The early retirements for Wells’s three board members came about because of a separate “self-evaluation” of board activity, conducted by former Securities and Exchange Commission Chair Mary Jo White. When she left the SEC following President Donald Trump’s election, White went right back to defending corporations at Debevoise & Plimpton, a Wall Street law firm. White was criticized during her SEC tenure for failing to scrutinize corporate fraud in the financial sector. Apparently, all it took for her to get around to investigating was getting paid by the bank. And that’s who truly benefits from modern-day corporate accountability: the hangers-on who cover for corporate clients. Consumers don’t see much of a change. And the disgraced executives who presided over the misconduct? They just get to retire in peace.There is a strange new annual tradition apparently taking hold in Buffalo: throwing sex toys on the field when the Bills host the New England Patriots. It first happened last year, when a large rubber dildo with Tom Brady’s name written on it was tossed from the stands in the third quarter. Scroll to continue with content Ad The New England Patriots beat the Buffalo Bills, 23-3 on Sunday. (AP) And it happened again on Sunday, again in the second half. DILDO ON THE FIELD IN BUFFALO ALERT pic.twitter.com/4ZromQJR0W — Laces Out (@LacesOutShow) December 3, 2017 These days, you never can be too careful, particularly when you’re talking about the safety of thousands of fans in a stadium, but according to ESPN reporter Mike Rodak, sheriffs, stadium security and a hazmat team gathered around the offending phallus after it was cleared off the field by a member of the chain gang. Must have made for some interesting discussion when they found out what the offending object was. There are some strange things that happen in and around New Era Field. More NFL coverage from Yahoo Sports: • Detroit’s Silverdome demolition doesn’t go as planned • Archie Manning: Eli could retire after this year • Watch: TomBrady gets into sideline spat with coach • SEC title game does a number on Falcons’ fieldLOS ANGELES — Plenty of young people go to museums. But too many of them come involuntarily as part of school trips, and their body language often shows it. They’d much rather be at home playing video games. But what if there’s a way to do both? The Getty Center, an art museum on a West Los Angeles hilltop, is opening a new exhibit this weekend that combines virtual reality with ancient Chinese cave paintings to create an experience that allows users to look around and learn — and it’s a heck of a lot more fun than staring at a painting on the wall. The Getty exhibit, which opens Saturday, highlights the ornately decorated Dunhuang Caves in the Gobi Desert of western China, which date from the 6th century and are a Unesco World Heritage Site. Items from the original caves are displayed in the museum’s galleries, and the interiors of three of the caves have been recreated by artisans in China on paper and wood and set up as full-scale replicas in a free standing building at the museum. “Bringing this significant exhibition here provides a rare opportunity for people in the U.S. to experience the beauty and history of this remote artistic site in China,” said Emily Wang, director of marketing and community development at East West Bank, the exhibit’s lead corporate sponsor. Photo: GABRIELLE LURIE/AFP/Getty Images But there’s also an immersive virtual reality experience, which is new for Getty. Visitors first watch a montage of nature scenes from the caves projected on large screens before putting on 3D glasses and going into a separate room where the cave is rendered in lifelike size and detail. There, a narrator highlights and explains individual elements, as International Business Times observed on a visit to the museum this week. Garson Yu, founder of Yu + Co., which specializes in motion graphics for TV and movies, spent about two years developing the immersive experience. Yu’s team spent more than a year taking photos of the site, then texture-mapped them on a 3D framework to create the entire cave. The show is displayed on a curved screen in a roughly circular space, which had to be a particular size to give the experience the proper scale. But interestingly — especially for those who can’t make it to the Getty before the exhibit closes in September — Yu said the virtual tour is Oculus-ready, meaning it’s compatible with the Oculus virtual reality system used in headset devices like Facebook’s Oculus Rift and Samsung’s Gear VR. And while there’s no immediate plan to distribute the experience outside of the Getty, Yu said he certainly envisions it eventually being made available for VR users far from California. And they can watch it in whatever room they want. “Everyone can experience it,” Yu said, “even if you can’t come to the Getty in L.A.” Thomas Gaehtgens, an art historian and director of the Getty Research Institute, told IBT the virtual experience really does re-create the sense of scale and beauty that visitors get when seeing the actual caves in China. “It is astonishing and particularly exciting to experience the virtual cave,” Gaehtgens said. “Modern technology gets you inside, gives you the feeling of scale, and by walking around considering the wall paintings at leisure allows to contemplate the dense spirituality of this outstanding sacred location.” Still, there’s no substitute for the real thing, and Yu and others at the Getty said they hope that exploring the caves virtually from a remote place would motivate people to want to see them for real. Indeed, other museum visitors who previewed the experience were even more excited to see the replica caves when it was done; and after seeing the replica caves, some were asking about the best way to fly from L.A. to Dunhuang.Name Run Description Amount Goal Emil-handed Run NieR: Automata If met, Halfcoordinated will complete the entire NieR: Automata run while holding an Emil plushie on his free hand. $2,740.00 $2,500.00 Fight Shovel Knight Azure Striker Gunvolt 2 johncarls will fight Shovel Knight during his Azure Striker Gunvolt 2 run. $5,238.05 $5,000.00 Choose the Suit Show Options Hide Options Metroid Prime Choose the suit design used for the Metroid Prime run. $4,423.00 (None) Name Run Description Amount Goal Fusion Suit Metroid Prime It's an unlockable, you gotta use it! $2,425.00 (None) Chozo Suit Metroid Prime The fusion suit looks like awful pasta. Stick with what we know. $1,998.00 (None) Filename Choice Show Options Hide Options Castlevania: Symphony of the Night Choose the Filename used for the Castlevania: Symphony of the Night run. 8 characters, A-Z, plus! -. '. Cannot be RICHTER or X-X!V''Q. $2,468.69 (None) Name Run Description Amount Goal PIG EGG Castlevania: Symphony of the Night $705.69 (None) HPMOR Castlevania: Symphony of the Night $625.00 (None) AphoticK Castlevania: Symphony of the Night $261.00 (None) HELP ME Castlevania: Symphony of the Night $145.00 (None) 2B Castlevania: Symphony of the Night $107.00 (None) CLARENCE Castlevania: Symphony of the Night $75.00 (None) BARKLEY Castlevania: Symphony of the Night $70.00 (None) Buttz Castlevania: Symphony of the Night $55.00 (None) MELO Castlevania: Symphony of the Night $25.00 (None) RICK Castlevania: Symphony of the Night $15.00 (None) MORTY Castlevania: Symphony of the Night $5.00 (None) VENI Castlevania: Symphony of the Night $5.00 (None) AXEARMOR Castlevania: Symphony of the Night $0.00 (None) Choose the Androids Show Options Hide Options Assault Android Cactus Choose the android characters used for the Assault Android Cactus run. $1,576.69 (None) Name Run Description Amount Goal Starch Assault Android Cactus Uses a laser cannon and a burst-fire micro missile launcher. $506.69 (None) Aubergine Assault Android Cactus Uses a mini Helicopter and a Black Hole cannon. $477.00 (None) Holly Assault Android Cactus Uses a Heat-Seeking machine pistol and a literal cannon. $440.00 (None) Cactus Assault Android Cactus Uses an Assault Rifle and a Flamethrower. $153.00 (None) Name the Player Show Options Hide Options ActRaiser The player character, aka The Master, needs a name. You choose it. 8 character limit. $915.01 (None) Name Run Description Amount Goal CBX ActRaiser $270.00 (None) Siobhan ActRaiser $145.01 (None) Koshiro ActRaiser $125.00 (None) Iwata ActRaiser $70.00 (None) ARBYS ActRaiser $65.00 (None) glorious ActRaiser $50.00 (None) Hobo ActRaiser $30.00 (None) Ultimate All Levels Super Monkey Ball Deluxe If met, Jcool114 will do an Ultimate All Levels run instead of an Ultimate run. $6,000.00 $6,000.00 All Good Futures Sonic CD 2011 If met, Flying Fox will do a Tails All Good Futures run instead of a Tails Any% run. $5,000.00 $5,000.00 Choose the Soundtrack Show Options Hide Options Sonic CD 2011 Choose the Soundtrack used for the Sonic CD run. JP OST vs US OST. $2,602.06 (None) Name Run Description Amount Goal US Soundtrack Sonic CD 2011 $1,338.50 (None) JP Soundtrack Sonic CD 2011 $1,263.56 (None) Green Hill Zone Blindfolded Sonic Generations If met, Frokenok will speedrun the entirety of Green Hill Zone blindfolded, both modern and classic levels. $0.00 $5,000.00 Hidden Easter Egg Mirror's Edge Catalyst There's an easter egg near the end of Mirror's Edge Catalyst, involving rodents and a locomotive. If you want to see it, this one's for you. $5,060.00 $5,000.00 Collect the new Rainbow Coin Donkey Kong 64 Kiwikiller67 will collect the hidden Rainbow Coin that remained unfound until last year. $3,256.00 $3,000.00 Bonus Henry Any% Run Castlevania: Legacy of Darkness If met, SluckySeven will complete an additional Henry Any% run after his Carrie Any% run. $5,000.00 $5,000.00 Filename and License Plate Choice Show Options Hide Options Tryrush Deppy Choose the Filename and License Plate Number used for the Tryrush Deppy run. 5 letters for Filename, 00-00 format for License Plate, numbers only. $467.78 (None) License Plate Design Show Options Hide Options Tryrush Deppy Choose the License Plate Design used for the Tryrush Deppy run. $121.00 (None) Twitch Integration Clustertruck If met, we will enable Twitch Integration for the Clustertruck run, where you can send commands through the chat to mess with the runner. $5,010.00 $5,000.00 Put Hat on Bus Show Options Hide Options OmniBus Konasumi's bus likes to wear a hat. Choose the hat the bus will wear. $545.00 (None) Beeto's Big Break Shovel Knight: Specter of Torment Beeto's Big Break is a challenge mode stage where Specter Knight needs to juggle a beetle through the entire stage without dropping it. $5,076.32 $5,000.00 BONUS GAME: Shovel Knight: Specter of Torment Shovel Knight: Specter of Torment Replace SETUP BLOCK 1 with an Any% run of Shovel Knight: Specter of Torment by MunchaKoopas. $15,125.00 $15,000.00 Choose the Armor Color Show Options Hide Options Shovel Knight: Specter of Torment Choose the armor color used for the Specter of Torment run. $1,480.50 (None) Name Run Description Amount Goal Purple Shovel Knight: Specter of Torment $685.00 (None) Green Shovel Knight: Specter of Torment $665.50 (None) Red Shovel Knight: Specter of Torment $70.00 (None) Blue Shovel Knight: Specter of Torment $60.00 (None) Filename Choice Show Options Hide Options Shovel Knight: Specter of Torment Choose the Filename used for the Specter of Torment run. $1,018.50 (None) Name Run Description Amount Goal Gregg Rulz OK Shovel Knight: Specter of Torment $525.50 (None) Aughostus Shovel Knight: Specter of Torment $220.00 (None) Link Shovel Knight: Specter of Torment $107.00 (None) Boneless Shovel Knight: Specter of Torment $65.00 (None) Predix Shovel Knight: Specter of Torment $51.00 (None) Filet Shovel Knight: Specter of Torment $5.00 (None) Watch the post-credits cutscene The Wheel of Time The Wheel of Time has a post-credits cutscene. If you want to see it, here you go. $2,500.00 $2,500.00 Capture Team Rocket Pokemon Puzzle League FFR Pro 21 will complete the 2D Special Stage and capture that pesky Team Rocket. $3,045.51 $3,000.00 Cyndaquil Nickname Show Options Hide Options Pokémon HeartGold/SoulSilver Choose the nickname given to the Cyndaquil in the Pokémon HeartGold/SoulSilver run. 10 characters. $4,964.17 (None) Name Run Description Amount Goal FireSonic Pokémon HeartGold/SoulSilver $1,989.43 (None) Torchic Pokémon HeartGold/SoulSilver $1,473.00 (None) Final Pam Pokémon HeartGold/SoulSilver $715.00 (None) Frenipan Pokémon HeartGold/SoulSilver $243.00 (None) Gwyn Pokémon HeartGold/SoulSilver $115.00 (None) Boneless Pokémon HeartGold/SoulSilver $110.50 (None) GreenMeany Pokémon HeartGold/SoulSilver $55.00 (None) Primus Pokémon HeartGold/SoulSilver $50.00 (None) UncleSam Pokémon HeartGold/SoulSilver $50.00 (None) Goomy Pokémon HeartGold/SoulSilver $42.24 (None) FirePotato Pokémon HeartGold/SoulSilver $36.00 (None) Rune Pokémon HeartGold/SoulSilver $30.00 (None) Lavos Pokémon HeartGold/SoulSilver $25.00 (None) SethRich Pokémon HeartGold/SoulSilver $10.00 (None) LordZuul Pokémon HeartGold/SoulSilver $5.00 (None) Raikou Nickname Show Options Hide Options Pokémon HeartGold/SoulSilver Choose the nickname given to the Raikou used in the Pokémon HeartGold/SoulSilver run. 10 characters. $8,502.66 (None) Name Run Description Amount Goal USA Pokémon HeartGold/SoulSilver $6,085.70 (None) Pizza Pokémon HeartGold/SoulSilver $702.01 (None) HOOOOOOOOO Pokémon HeartGold/SoulSilver $436.50 (None) ZipZapCat Pokémon HeartGold/SoulSilver $360.69 (None) OhMyDog Pokémon HeartGold/SoulSilver $295.00 (None) Mike Pokémon HeartGold/SoulSilver $165.00 (None) Goomy Pokémon HeartGold/SoulSilver $100.00 (None) Doggo Pokémon HeartGold/SoulSilver $92.76 (None) Sami Zayn Pokémon HeartGold/SoulSilver $65.00 (None) Baikou Pokémon HeartGold/SoulSilver $60.00 (None) mandyLurk Pokémon HeartGold/SoulSilver $35.00 (None) Rexyou Pokémon HeartGold/SoulSilver $30.00 (None) ThunderCat Pokémon HeartGold/SoulSilver $15.00 (None) Widowmaker Pokémon HeartGold/SoulSilver $10.00 (None) Sentret Nickname Show Options Hide Options Pokémon HeartGold/SoulSilver Choose the nickname given to the Sentret used in the Pokémon HeartGold/SoulSilver run. 10 characters. $3,970.52 (None) Emily vs Corvo Show Options Hide Options Dishonored 2 Choose the character story played for the Dishonored 2 run. $2,711.39 (None) Name Run Description Amount Goal Play Emily's Story Dishonored 2 Play as Emily Kaldwin, the Empress of the Isles. $2,526.39 (None) Play Corvo's Story Dishonored 2 Play as Corvo Attano, protagonist of Dishonored 1. $185.00 (None) Secret Dog Ending Silent Hill 2 Silent Hill 2 has a hidden ending. It involves a Shiba Inu. $5,010.05 $5,000.00 Chris vs Jill Show Options Hide Options Resident Evil Choose the character played for the Resident Evil run. $3,892.74 (None) Name Run Description Amount Goal Play as Jill Resident Evil $3,382.72 (None) Play as Chris Resident Evil $510.02 (None) Choose the Voice Language Show Options Hide Options Onimusha: Warlords Choose the voice language used for the run. $2,527.00 (None) Name Run Description Amount Goal English Onimusha: Warlords $1,876.00 (None) Japanese Onimusha: Warlords $651.00 (None) Use the Panda Suit Onimusha: Warlords Samanosuke will trade his samurai armor for an "adorable" panda suit for the duration of the run. $3,500.16 $3,500.00 Filename Choice Show Options Hide Options Castlevania III: Dracula's Curse Choose the filename used for the Castlevania III run. 8 characters. $2,440.80 (None) Name Run Description Amount Goal FinalPam Castlevania III: Dracula's Curse $941.69 (None) Juese Castlevania III: Dracula's Curse $710.00 (None) Muscles Castlevania III: Dracula's Curse $414.11 (None) HELP ME Castlevania III: Dracula's Curse $220.00 (None) WALLCHIK Castlevania III: Dracula's Curse $55.00 (None) Shankar Castlevania III: Dracula's Curse $50.00 (None) Roofress Castlevania III: Dracula's Curse $0.00 (None) Filename Choice Show Options Hide Options Startropics Choose the filename used for the Startropics run. $1,512.48 (None) Name Run Description Amount Goal Bananas Startropics $767.48 (None) Harry Startropics $320.00 (None) YerOlDad Startropics $165.00 (None) Vaisi Startropics $150.00 (None) Jeff Startropics $60.00 (None) SWE Startropics $50.00 (None) Crisdoile2 Startropics $0.00 (None) BONUS GAME: Mega Man X Mega Man X Replace SETUP BLOCK 2 with an Any% Buster Only run of Mega Man X by ColonelFatso. $20,245.00 $20,000.00 Choose Character Names Show Options Hide Options Divinity: Original Sin Choose the character names used for the Divinity: Original Sin coop run. 20 characters, letters and numbers. Top 2 selected. $6,015.03 (None) Name Run Description Amount Goal DatBoi Divinity: Original Sin $1,922.02 (None) 2B Divinity: Original Sin $1,577.01 (None) 9S Divinity: Original Sin $1,500.00 (None) Got2BFAST Divinity: Original Sin $345.00 (None) Amaterasu Divinity: Original Sin $315.00 (None) Bunner Divinity: Original Sin $151.00 (None) Swingle Divinity: Original Sin $125.00 (None) TheLaw Divinity: Original Sin $55.00 (None) Goldy Divinity: Original Sin $10.00 (None) Choose Character Names Show Options Hide Options Might and Magic VI: The Mandate of Heaven Choose the character names used for the Might and Magic VI run. 15 character maximum, letters, numbers, symbols. Top 4 selected. $1,472.11 (None) Name Run Description Amount Goal Slartibartfast Might and Magic VI: The Mandate of Heaven $471.11 (None) Goku Might and Magic VI: The Mandate of Heaven $235.00 (None) Chevreau Might and Magic VI: The Mandate of Heaven $100.00 (None) Swingle Might and Magic VI: The Mandate of Heaven $100.00 (None) rooSip Might and Magic VI: The Mandate of Heaven $60.00 (None) SandKnight Might and Magic VI: The Mandate of Heaven $60.00 (None) KangarooJacques Might and Magic VI: The Mandate of Heaven $45.00 (None) Fana Might and Magic VI: The Mandate of Heaven $35.00 (None) Vodor Might and Magic VI: The Mandate of Heaven $6.00 (None) Choose the Ending Show Options Hide Options Might and Magic VI: The Mandate of Heaven Save the world ending vs Destroy the World ending. Both cinematics are amusing. $1,715.00 (None) Name Run Description Amount Goal Save the World Might and Magic VI: The Mandate of Heaven $1,235.00 (None) Destroy the World Might and Magic VI: The Mandate of Heaven $480.00 (None) Unlock the Burst Wave Ys Origin The Burst Wave is a powerful weapon that resembles a Kamehameha from Dragonball Z. Ghost King will collect it and show it off for you. $2,005.00 $2,000.00 Play on the US Prototype Version The Firemen If met, Omnigamer will play on the US Prototype version of the game for The Firemen run. $4,233.14 $4,000.00 Sing Nessum Dorma Ratchet & Clank Xem will sing "Nessun Dorma", a famous opera aria, after his Ratchet and Clank run. $8,050.00 $8,000.00 Ayla's Name Show Options Hide Options Chrono Trigger Choose the name given to Ayla for the Chrono Trigger run. 5 characters, no duplicate names. $4,132.00 (None) Name Run Description Amount Goal OBB Chrono Trigger $1,642.00 (None) EEGAH! Chrono Trigger $1,436.00 (None) LAYLA Chrono Trigger $561.00 (None) Katia Chrono Trigger $148.00 (None) Lucca Chrono Trigger $75.00 (None) Nyaa Chrono Trigger $60.00 (None) Mao Chrono Trigger $50.00 (None) Pepsi Chrono Trigger $35.00 (None) Linty Chrono Trigger $25.00 (None) Crono's Name Show Options Hide Options Chrono Trigger Choose the name given to Crono for the Chrono Trigger run. 5 characters, no duplicate names. $9,406.55 (None) Name Run Description Amount Goal TACOS Chrono Trigger $2,450.55 (None) Goku Chrono Trigger $1,315.00 (None) Geran Chrono Trigger $160.00 (None) Binyo Chrono Trigger $75.00 (None) Taako Chrono Trigger $45.00 (None) Cloud Chrono Trigger $30.00 (None) Frog's Name Show Options Hide Options Chrono Trigger Choose the name given to Frog for the Chrono Trigger run. 5 characters, no duplicate names. $5,728.91 (None) Name Run Description Amount Goal Glenn Chrono Trigger $2,660.55 (None) Hypno Chrono Trigger $2,205.50 (None) Tsuyu Chrono Trigger $570.27 (None) Toad Chrono Trigger $182.59 (None) MJFrg Chrono Trigger $100.00 (None) Ree Chrono Trigger $10.00 (None) Lucca's Name Show Options Hide Options Chrono Trigger Choose the name given to Lucca for the Chrono Trigger run. 5 characters, no duplicate names. $2,918.45 (None) Name Run Description Amount Goal Arbys Chrono Trigger $1,449.25 (None) NERD! Chrono Trigger $1,165.20 (None) Midna Chrono Trigger $55.00 (None) Tedd Chrono Trigger $50.00 (None) Cathy Chrono Trigger $29.00 (None) Marle's Name Show Options Hide Options Chrono Trigger Choose the name given to Marle for the Chrono Trigger run. 5 characters, no duplicate names. $2,173.56 (None) Name Run Description Amount Goal Love! Chrono Trigger $1,000.00 (None) Bulma Chrono Trigger $592.50 (None) Hest Chrono Trigger $527.06 (None) Nadia Chrono Trigger $9.00 (None) Robo's Name Show Options Hide Options Chrono Trigger Choose the name given to Robo for the Chrono Trigger run. 5 characters, no duplicate names. $5,248.31 (None) Name Run Description Amount Goal RyanD Chrono Trigger $2,382.46 (None) ARB-Y Chrono Trigger $1,755.76 (None) WallE Chrono Trigger $473.09 (None) RoBro Chrono Trigger $200.00 (None) Bendr Chrono Trigger $145.00 (None) Ernst Chrono Trigger $75.00 (None) Wall-E Chrono Trigger $25.00 (None) Mara Chrono Trigger $10.00 (None) Rick Chrono Trigger $10.00 (None) Ringo Chrono Trigger $10.00 (None) Rev Mode Tetris: The Grand Master EnchantressOfNumbers will demonstrate upside down Tetris mastery in TGM1's Rev Mode. $6,000.00 $6,000.00 Master Mode Tetris The Grand Master 3: Terror Instinct KevinDDR will make an attempt at GM rank in Master Mode. $12,513.62 $12,500.00 Shirase No Hold Tetris The Grand Master 3: Terror Instinct KevinDDR will play through Shirase mode without ever using the "Hold" button to save a piece, making the run significantly more difficult. $15,000.00 $15,000.00 Filename Choice Show Options Hide Options Zelda 2: The Adventure of Link Choose the filename for the Zelda II run. 8 characters; letters, numbers, spaces, dashes and periods. $7,861.16 (None) Name Run Description Amount Goal LUNK Zelda 2: The Adventure of Link $1,988.43 (None) Error Zelda 2: The Adventure of Link $1,787.52 (None) Germench Zelda 2: The Adventure of Link $1,195.00 (None) LANK Zelda 2: The Adventure of Link $665.00 (None) Zelda Zelda 2: The Adventure of Link $522.00 (None) 2B Zelda 2: The Adventure of Link $500.21 (None) Bagu Zelda 2: The Adventure of Link $325.00 (None) Wolf Zelda 2: The Adventure of Link $230.00 (None) McBobert Zelda 2: The Adventure of Link $118.00 (None) BB Zelda 2: The Adventure of Link $105.00 (None) HOTDAD Zelda 2: The Adventure of Link $100.00 (None) Pokemon Zelda 2: The Adventure of Link $90.00 (None) Ganon Zelda 2: The Adventure of Link $40.00 (None) Bubba Zelda 2: The Adventure of Link $35.00 (None) Lint Zelda 2: The Adventure of Link $25.00 (None) Bonus Diamond All Zones run Crypt of the NecroDancer: AMPLIFIED If met, SpootyBiscuit will do an All Zones run with the new character Diamond. $8,067.66 $7,500.00 Choose the Random Seed Show Options Hide Options Crypt of the NecroDancer: AMPLIFIED The Nocturna race will use the seed chosen by you, the donators. 1-10 characters, alphanumerics and spaces. Case insensitive. $2,456.00 (None) Name Run Description Amount Goal 2LEFTFEET Crypt of the NecroDancer: AMPLIFIED $881.00 (None) GREGG RULZ Crypt of the NecroDancer: AMPLIFIED $734.00 (None) 17 Crypt of the NecroDancer: AMPLIFIED $505.00 (None) GOT 2B RAD Crypt of the NecroDancer: AMPLIFIED $200.00 (None) PRAISE4HAM Crypt of the NecroDancer: AMPLIFIED $21.00 (None) Choose the Soundtrack Show Options Hide Options Crypt of the NecroDancer: AMPLIFIED Choose the Soundtrack used for the Crypt of the NecroDancer run. $5,704.18 (None) Additional Any% NG+ run Shadow Complex Remastered ajfirecracker will complete a NewGame+ glitched run of Shadow Complex after his glitchless run. $5,000.00 $5,000.00 Get the Good Ending Avenging Spirit If met, johncarls will save the girl and get the Good Ending. $2,000.00 $2,000.00 Choose the Language Show Options Hide Options Star Wars Jedi Knight II: Jedi Outcast Select the language used for the Jedi Outcast run. $7,491.68 (None) Name Run Description Amount Goal German Star Wars Jedi Knight II: Jedi Outcast $3,584.35 (None) Spanish Star Wars Jedi Knight II: Jedi Outcast $1,796.45 (None) French Star Wars Jedi Knight II: Jedi Outcast $1,106.23 (None) English Star Wars Jedi Knight II: Jedi Outcast $1,004.65 (None) Level 1 Sephiroth Kingdom Hearts II Final Mix Bl00dyBizkitz will complete the optional super hard bossfight against Sephiroth on Level 1 mode. $20,088.96 $20,000.00 Level 1 Terra/Lingering Will Kingdom Hearts II Final Mix Bl00dyBizkitz will fight the hardest boss in the game, Terra/Lingering Will, on Level 1 mode. $20,135.50 $20,000.00 Sing Disney Songs Show Options Hide Options Kingdom Hearts II Final Mix Choose which songs you'd like the Kingdom Hearts crew to sing during the KH2 Final Mix run. Top 5 will be selected. $14,253.29 (None) BONUS GAME: Kingdom Hearts II Final Mix Kingdom Hearts II Final Mix Replace SETUP BLOCK 3 with a LV
, is the marching band–influenced "Morris Brown", featuring guest artists Sleepy Brown and Scar, both artists on Big Boi's Purple Ribbon label. The song's title is a reference to Atlanta's Morris Brown College, with the school's marching band providing the instrumentation. The third single, André 3000's "Idlewild Blue (Don'tchu Worry 'Bout Me)" delves into the blues genre, complete with a blues-style acoustic guitar riff and a harmonica element reminiscent of Aquemini single "Rosa Parks". In tune with the film, Idlewild reflects OutKast's original style tempered by 1930s influences. The fourth single, "Hollywood Divorce" was released in November 2006, and features verses from Lil' Wayne and Snoop Dogg and is produced by André 3000. 2007–13: Hiatus and solo work [ edit ] In 2007 after the sixth album under the OutKast name, Idlewild, Big Boi announced plans to release a full-fledged solo album. While he had released a previous solo album in Speakerboxxx, it still was technically under the OutKast name. The album was later titled Sir Lucious Left Foot: The Son of Chico Dusty. The album's first promotional single, "Royal Flush", was released in 2007, and featured Raekwon and André 3000. After many delays and setbacks, the album was finally released internationally on July 5, 2010. Guest artists include singer Janelle Monáe; Big Boi's own new group Vonnegutt; plus established rappers T.I. and B.o.B.[42] Sir Lucious Left Foot: The Son of Chico Dusty received general acclaim from most music critics, earning praise for its inventive sound, varied musical style, and Big Boi's lyricism.[43][44] In a July 2010 interview for The Village Voice, Big Boi revealed that he was working on the follow-up album to Sir Lucious Left Foot, entitled Daddy Fat Sax: Soul Funk Crusader, stating that he was "maybe about six songs into it",[45] and that he was "planning on doing a bunch of sax samples, tenor, soprano, and probably have at least a couple sax players come into the studio for the next record".[46] The project later evolved into the 2012 album Vicious Lies and Dangerous Rumors. André 3000 returned to rapping in 2007, after a hiatus from the genre, appearing on various remixes, including: "Walk It Out", "Throw Some D's", "You", Jay-Z's "30 Something", and original songs such as UGK's "International Players Anthem", Devin the Dude's "What a Job", Fonzworth Bentley's "Everybody", and with Big Boi "Royal Flush" and the leaked single "Lookin For Ya". He also appeared on John Legend's album, Evolver, on the track "Green Light", which was released on October 28, 2008. Prior to the release, Benjamin commented: "It's going to be a surprise for a lot of John Legend fans, because it is a lot more upbeat than John is—than people think John is. I was actually happy to hear it. This is a cool John Legend song." Benjamin has stated that he is making a solo rap album, and that the response to his remixes is part of the motivation for it.[47] In September 2011 it was announced that OutKast was moved to Epic Records following restructuring within Sony Music Entertainment. Epic Records is headed by LA Reid who has worked with Outkast in the past.[48] In 2012, Andre 3000 was cast to play Jimi Hendrix in a biopic film titled Jimi: All Is by My Side, which was later released on September 26, 2014. 2014: Reunion [ edit ] In late 2013, it was reported that Outkast would reunite at the Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival in 2014. This was later confirmed on January 8, 2014, when it was officially announced that the duo would headline the festival on April 11 and 18.[49] It was later announced on January 13, 2014 that Outkast would be performing at more than 40 festivals around the world throughout the spring and summer of 2014 to celebrate their 20th anniversary, including one of the largest festivals in the UK, Bestival. Despite rumors, Big Boi has insisted that the duo are not currently working on a new album together. Outkast returned to Atlanta for their #ATLast homecoming shows over the weekend of September 26, 2014, selling out within minutes of tickets going on sale. The shows had a large variety of openers, ranging from R&B singer Janelle Monáe and rapper/rock artist Kid Cudi to rappers 2 Chainz, Future, Bun B, and Childish Gambino. Outkast's Dungeon Family associates Sleepy Brown and Big Gipp also appeared onstage with the duo, rapping and singing on their respective songs.[50][51] At Atlanta's One MusicFest, the Dungeon Family, Goodie Mob, Organized Noise, Killer Mike, and Outkast appeared performing their rap hits.[52] Musical style and influences [ edit ] Outkast's musical style and lyrical content have evolved throughout the group's career. Rolling Stone described their music as "idiosyncratic" and "inspired by the Afrocentric psychedelics of George Clinton and Sly Stone."[53] The band's debut album Southernplayalisticadillacmuzik incorporates analog elements such as Southern-styled guitar licks, languid soul melodies, and mellow 1970s funk grooves.[54][55] It also features digital hip hop production elements such as programmed snare beats, booty bass elements,[54] ATLiens and Aquemini feature outer space-influenced production with echo and reverb effects.[56] With Stankonia, OutKast became the first hip-hop act to openly acknowledge rave culture as an influence.[57] Stankonia and Speakerboxxx/The Love Below would draw on sources such as psychedelia, gospel, funk, techno, soul, electro, and rock music.[58] During the late 1990s, rappers tended to embrace slow, laid-back beats in their productions. On several tracks on Stankonia, the group employed faster, more chaotic tempos to reflect rave culture and the introduction of new drugs such as ecstasy into the hip-hop scene.[57] One central motif of OutKast's songwriting is the duality of the two members and their differing personalities, with Big Boi as "the player" and Andre 3000 as "the poet".[59] Big Boi generally covers the more conventional hip-hop topics such as his childhood in the South, sex, and partying, while Andre 3000 discusses more unorthodox themes.[60] In contrast to much of hip hop music in the late 1990s, OutKast did not tone down its Southern regional qualities, like the harmonica break on "Rosa Parks" and distinctive Atlanta slang and diction throughout. The duo experimented with several delivery styles on the record, using "relaxed, hyper, distorted, speedy and conversational presentations."[61] OutKast often discusses the status of women in the South, and contrasts with the misogynistic attitudes common in hip-hop music. In Slate, Alex Abramovich praised the duo for "[tending] to shy away from the misogyny and violence rap is so often (and not always unjustly) condemned for."[62] In his book Classic Material: The Hip-Hop Album Guide, Oliver Wang writes that songs such as "Slum Beautiful" and "Toilet Tisha" "reimagine 'round the way girls, not only as just more than one-dimensional accessories, but as objects of affection with lives and concerns that are worth exploring."[63] Collaborations and other work [ edit ] During the recording of Stankonia OutKast and Mr. DJ began producing tracks for the artists on their Aquemini Records imprint through Columbia, including Slimm Cutta Calhoun and Killer Mike, who made his debut on Stankonia's "Snappin' & Trappin." In 2002, OutKast participated in the only Dungeon Family group album, Even in Darkness, along with Goodie Mob, Killer Mike, Sleepy Brown, Witchdoctor, and Backbone among others, and featuring Bubba Sparxxx, Shuga Luv and Mello. In 2002, the group and Killer Mike contributed the lead single "Land of a Million Drums" to the Scooby-Doo soundtrack. On February 27, 2011, it was announced that Big Boi is creating a joint album along with Killer Mike and fellow Atlanta rapper Pill.[64] Later that day, Big Boi posted on his Twitter account that he was mixing Killer Mike's album entitled, PL3DGE.[65] In 2010, Andre 3000 was featured on Ciara's remix for her hit single "Ride", from the album Basic Instinct.[66] On January 14, 2011, a song with Ke$ha called "The Sleazy Remix" was leaked.[67] On June 7, 2011, Beyoncé's song "Party" was leaked, it features Benjamin, it is his first collaboration with the singer. It is also featured on Beyoncé's fourth studio album entitled 4 released June 24, 2011. On August 24, 2011, Lil Wayne's album Tha Carter IV leaked, featuring a song entitled "Interlude" with Benjamin and fellow rapper Tech N9ne performing. Also in 2011 Andre featured on Chris Browns "Deuces" remix as well as on a Lloyd song, "Dedication To My Ex (Miss That)", with Lil Wayne. In 2012 Andre also appeared on Drake's second album Take Care, on the song "The Real Her" which also featured Lil Wayne. In 2012 Andre 3000 featured on Gorillaz "DoYaThing" with James Murphy of LCD Soundsystem. The song was released as a free download in February that year as part of a Converse promotion. Andre 3000 was featured on Frank Ocean's 2012 album Channel Orange on the song "Pink Matter". On January 11, 2013, Big Boi appeared on a remix of the song, adding a verse before Andre's. In response to the added verse, Andre issued a statement on January 15 insisting that the track did not constitute an OutKast reunion.[68] Phantogram revealed in an interview with Variance Magazine in February 2014 that they plan to release an EP with Big Boi.[69] The resulting album Big Grams was released in September 2015. Film projects [ edit ] Benjamin has made appearances in Families, The Shield (as Robert Huggins, a character that originated in an episode titled "On Tilt" from Season 3 in 2004), Be Cool, Revolver, Semi Pro, and Four Brothers. He was also cast as Percival in Idlewild, released on August 26, 2006. He voiced a crow in Charlotte's Web, a movie adaptation of the 1952 children's book. As of November 2006, he voiced "Sunny Bridges," a prize-winning musician who gives up touring to teach at his alma mater, in Class of 3000, an animated series he produced on Cartoon Network. He has also worked with Esthero on a promotional version of "Jungle Book" which was on a Wikked lil' grrrls sampler, but never made it to the actual album due to issues with Esthero's label, Warner Bros.. The following year, he appeared in the basketball comedy Semi-Pro, with Woody Harrelson and Will Ferrell. He also starred in the 2008 film Battle in Seattle, a film about the 1999 Seattle World Trade Organization protests. Benjamin was a member of Quentin Tarantino and Lawrence Bender's production company A Band Apart until its close in 2006; he then formed his own company, Moxie Turtle. Big Boi appeared on Nick Cannon's Wild 'n Out Season 3 as one of the many guest stars, as well as guest starring and appearing as a musical guest on Chappelle's Show performing his song "The Rooster". He is currently reaching more into acting, having appeared in T.I.'s film ATL, OutKast's film Idlewild and starring in Who's Your Caddy?. He appeared in the Law & Order: Special Victims Unit episode "Wildlife", which aired November 18, 2008. Big Boi played hip-hop artist "Got$ Money". Lawsuit [ edit ] In April 1999, OutKast and LaFace Records were sued by Rosa Parks over Aquemini's most successful radio single, which bears Parks' name as its title. The lawsuit alleged that the song misappropriates Parks' name, and it objected to the song's obscenities.[70] The song's lyrics are virtually unrelated to Parks, except for a reference in the chorus: "Ah ha, hush that fuss / Everybody move to the back of the bus". The song, which OutKast maintained was intended partly as homage, refers to Parks metaphorically: the purpose of the song's chorus is to imply that OutKast is overturning hip hop's old order, that people should make way for a new style and sound. In the initial suit, the District Court for the Eastern District of Michigan at Ann Arbor granted summary judgment for OutKast. Later on appeal, however, the issue of whether OutKast violated the Lanham Act for false advertising was reversed and remanded for further proceedings. This was based on the Court's determination that the title "Rosa Parks" had little artistic relevance, whether symbolic or metaphorical, to Rosa Parks the person. Parks' representation hired lawyer Johnnie Cochran to appeal the decision in 2001, but the appeal was denied on First Amendment grounds. In 2003, the Supreme Court turned down an appeal to overrule the lower court's decision.[citation needed] The judge ruled that the song was an "expressive work" and that it was protected by the First Amendment. The judge stated that there was a definite linkage between the song and Rosa Parks. In December 2003, André told UK journalist Angus Batey that, following a Detroit concert in the midst of the legal battle, relatives of Parks had approached him and implied that the case had less to do with Parks than with the lawyers.[71][permanent dead link] In April 2005, the judge in the case appointed an impartial representative for Parks after her family expressed concerns that her caretakers and her lawyers were pursuing the case based on their own financial interest. The case was settled on 14 April 2005, with Outkast and the co-defendants, SONY BMG and its subsidiaries Arista Records and LaFace Records, admitting no wrongdoing but agreeing to develop and fund educational programs concerning Rosa Parks.[72][73] Discography [ edit ] Studio albums Awards and nominations [ edit ] References [ edit ] Notes Sources Norris C: "Funk Soul Brothers", Spin, vol. 16/12 (2000), 142–8 Media related to Outkast at Wikimedia CommonsYou know who you are. I recognize the all-black uniform. You stand out in the crowds of protesters as they walk Oakland’s streets. I know you think I’m one of your enemies, but I’m not. Because of your indignation, you are unable to see that I’m similar to you. I know you think you know the law, but you don’t. I know my rights, and you can’t tell me what I can film on a public street. I can take your verbal abuse, but you will stop putting your hands on my body. You are done pushing me around, trying to take from my hand the phone I’m always holding. And you, the reader, might think I’m talking to Oakland police officers, but I’m not. This message is for those who attempt to hide themselves under the veil of protest as they smash windows, graffiti sidewalks and walls, and set fires in the streets. I’m tired of watching you desecrate The Town. While covering the first two of what might be many nights of protests in Oakland, I’ve seen people release their frustration by rallying in the streets. I know the pain of women, queers, Muslims and others who, based on the rhetoric spouted by our president-elect and his supporters, now fear they could be targeted every time they leave their homes. Welcome to my world — and a reality shared by people of color since this country was founded. Don’t you think we should get to know each other a bit more? Let’s swap life stories. The next four years could bring the darkest days in generations — or we could use the time to build something that’s more representative of our diversity. But first, we should talk to the people who want to burn Oakland. You know who you are. You were one of a few hundred in downtown on Tuesday after our new president — oh, this hurts to write — Donald Trump was elected. You came back on Wednesday night and moved among the 7,000 mostly peaceful protesters who voiced anger at the American political system and called for police reform. But as hard as you tried, you didn’t blend well with the masses. I saw you bust the storefront window of Oaklandish, the Oakland-centric apparel company on Broadway. I watched you scurry as protesters yelled for you to stop. Why did you run? Did you run that fast to your voting station on election day? I saw you hanging back as concerned onlookers peered into Good Mother, the art gallery on 13th Street, as the shards of glass under their feet crunched like chewed potato chips. You smirked as an employee, shielding his eyes with his arm, knocked jagged pieces of glass from the window frame with his skateboard. You laughed out loud when a young woman ran up to kick him in the rear because she thought she was protecting the store from a vandal. Do you want us to fight each other? Oh, I understand: You believe in anarchy. I saw several of your symbols Wednesday night among the scribbled tags on the windows and doors you weren’t able to break. You weren’t done on 13th Street, because you then tried to light overturned trash cans on fire, but Assan Jethmal, who owns Good Mother with his three brothers, confronted you. “I just don’t get what the point is,” Jethmal told me outside the gallery. “This just has no message. I knew they were going to take it to another level.” Your tactics ruined the message, and perhaps the demonstration itself. Oakland police didn’t allow the demonstration to move up Broadway toward Auto Row. Instead, the protesters walked in a circle for hours with Broadway and Telegraph Avenue as the main strips. The containment fed your frustration. As the police marched to clear the street so a fire outside Uber’s future home on Telegraph could be extinguished, a billowing American flag was projected onto the side of the building. A helicopter noisily chopped the air overhead, spotlighting the fire below. Flash bangs were followed by tear gas. I grabbed my friend and held her against a fence so she wouldn’t get trampled. Tears streamed down our faces as we choked. You had arrived with your face already covered by a bandanna, because a provocation that required such a response by police is what you wanted. But why? What changes when you break a window in Oakland? Tell me you’re not out here wreaking havoc for kicks while others struggle to make sense of an uncertain future. Otis R. Taylor Jr. is a San Francisco Chronicle columnist whose column appears Tuesday and Friday. Email: otaylor@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @otisrtaylorjrby He has proven to be one of the most stubborn of creatures in a political sense. Unlike the dinosaur of political thinking he has been accused of being, British Labour’s Jeremy Corbyn continues to survive the meteorites, and more nuanced weapons, directed at him. The initial strategy from Labour MPs was to oust their leader in July on procedural grounds. The mutineers (call them the Tories in Labour clothing, the Blairites) failed to get their wishes of disqualifying Corbyn from office by a narrow 18-14 ruling by the National Executive Committee that Corbyn be allowed on the ballot even without the endorsement of 20 percent of his MPs.[1] Instead of limping away in defeat from contender Owen Smith, Corbyn strengthened his position to be, interestingly enough, Labour’s strongest leader on paper to have ever been elected. Even prior to Corbyn’s triumph, Smith was nervous at not having the numbers for unseating the Labour leader, suggesting, in an open letter to Labour Party members and supporters that his ideas would remain “as relevant after this contest as they have been during.” When loss is assured, best focus on the non-corporeal aspect of a losing performance. Corbyn’s numbers proved thumping in their dimensions. There were 500,000 who flocked to the polls, and of those, 61.8 percent went Corbyn’s way, up from the 59.5 percent he garnered in September 2015. Had 130,000 party members not been deemed ineligible, the victory would have been an even greater massacre of his rival. Detractors feel a gloomy similarity with previous Labour leaders liked for their resolve and manner but feared for their suicidal streak before ruthless conservative governments worshiping before the market altar. “Our policies,” claimed Vernon Coaker in a typical view of that situation, “have to change. If we don’t change we will die.” For all that, Corbyn and his movement are more alive than ever, having little desire to expire. He is very much a manifestation of tide and force, a reminder that the Zeitgeist at the moment favours suspicion of central powers divorced from human sentiment. The bureaucrats and party hacks are not in vogue. Central to that is a good smattering of good old decent socialism that had been much maligned by Tony Blair’s own surgical, and bewitching efforts. Knowing this to be the case, Smith was always struggling to remind voters within the party that Corbyn did not have a monopoly on the socialist creed. The machine men and women are the robots to be feared and, more directly, ignored. Deputy leader Tom Watson has been accused of being a “Witchfinder” while past leaders such as Neil (“Lord Kneel”) Kinnock have been reminded of their supposedly perfidious past to workers. Manufactured in the New Labour hot house of stated reform, the Blairites have begun to rust before the vengeful Corbynistas in the Momentum movement. Their presence is such as to land suggestions of a “personality cult” in the making. The irony now is that Corbyn, in an effort to avoid another disruption, will attempt to appoint his own shadow cabinet with minimum influence of the MPs within his own party. This will also give him a shot at having better control over the National Executive Committee, which has not always been friendly to his efforts. Swimming on the tide of popularity, any resistance was bound to look foolish, though it refuses to abate. Individuals like Wes Streeting MP told those at a gathering that, “We the people in this room, and across our party cannot surrender to a political tradition that will keep this party in opposition for generations to come.”[2] Individuals such as Iain McNicol, the Labour General Secretary, show the gap between the Corbyn movement and party managerialism that emphasises “clause one socialism”. Parliamentary presence was one thing, the grass roots, with a revived socialist sentiment, quite another. Former Shadow Health Secretary, Heidi Alexander, who has been niggling and sceptical of Corbyn, only had electioneering, and conservative styled appeal electioneering at that, on the brain. “What people like me are determined to do is continue fighting for a Labour Party that speaks to and for the whole of the country, and one which is capable of winning the next general election.” The newly re-crowned leader has also threatened a certain number of de-selections for Labour MPs, and promised to shift the focus on policy making to the lower echelons of the party. Such a method, in one sense, is an attempt to draw out and marginalize his detractors. The revenge of history on the New Labour movement is nigh. Each time an effort it made to target Corbyn’s leadership, the party receives a boost in membership. (There were 15,500 additions the immediate aftermath of his victory.) Corbyn, even if he is not successful at the next election, has already made his mark on his party by localising interest at the branch level rather than that of the focus group, becoming something of an avenging angel. This is the social democratic agenda in action, though whether the British voter will give him a chance is another story. The managers will be terrified, as much for their jobs as indeed for the party. If nothing else, Corbyn will have created something distinct from the Labour-Tory formula that characterised the Blair years. Notes. [1] https://www.neweurope.eu/article/jeremy-corbyn-triumphs-new-labour/ [2] http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/jeremy-corbyn-shadow-cabinet-elections-mps-labour-conference-a7329631.htmlIndiana is the latest state to decide that poor people need to be punished and humiliated for the crime of being poor. The bill that would force people to pull down their pants and pee in exchange for state assistance was only withdrawn after it was changed to include drug testing for the legislators.. Drug testing people who are poor enough to apply for state assistance has already proven to be an abject failure. Remember Florida Gov. Rick Scott’s (R) idea of mandating drug tests for welfare applicants? As we’ve discussed before, the Republican governor had a theory: the state could save money by forcing drug users to withdraw from the public-assistance system. At least, that was the idea. In practice, the policy failed spectacularly – only about 2 percent of applicants tested positive, and Florida lost money when it was forced to reimburse everyone else for the cost of the drug test, plus pay for staff and administrative costs for the program. Drug testing people who apply for assistance is a waste of time and money. It's also been struck down as unconstitutional. A federal judge on Tuesday struck down as unconstitutional a Florida law that required welfare applicants to undergo mandatory drug testing, setting the stage for a legal battle that could affect similar efforts nationwide. Never ones to let an unfair issue die, the Republicans are trying again in another state. They've merely "tweaked" the law this time, hoping they'll be able get around the unconstitutional bits. Issues of fairness or privacy do not concern them. If you're poor, everything is fair game. Indiana legislators have decided to go down the road of being the next testing ground for failed Republican policy. The roads they really need to focus on are on the ground. Indiana does the worst job of any state at clearing their roads and highways. I'm not talking towns and side streets – which make no mistake, they also do a lousy job of clearing. In this case I'm referring to their main interstates I-69, I-74 and various state routes. ↓ Story continues below ↓ Here is the truth about Indiana versus Pennsylvania, Ohio, West Virginia and Illinois: To be blunt, Indiana’s road efforts are the worst I have ever seen. I saw westbound Interstate 74 go from almost pure ice to almost normal right at the Illinois line and beyond . The Interstate Highway System signed into law by President Eisenhower is a boon to areas like mine. It makes traveling between our states by car a matter of course that can be easily navigated by grabbing a map or, in this modern era tapping into your cell phone's GPS, and hitting the road. Much has been done to expand, improve and make the experience of driving through the Midwest a safe and adventurous experience. Driving through Indiana in winter is not an adventure, it's a nightmare. I live in Ohio and I travel to Indiana frequently. We're all having the same brutal winter weather. West Virginia, Pennsylvania, Illinois. Winter here is very harsh. I was recently trapped in Muncie, Indiana for two days. We accepted the fool's errand of traveling into Indiana because it was only a two hour drive and the roads in Ohio were clear. We drove the last 50 miles over a terrifying sheet of snow and ice on a main road. The closer we got into the city, the worse it became. We were the only people on the road where a semi and a snow plow had given up and pulled over. But I could not afford to stay on 35 North all night. We had to get to shelter before dark. We barely made it. It took us nearly five hours to complete what is normally a two hour drive max, because the roads were so very dangerous. If I had known the difference in the roads between the two states, I would have waited. In every other state, but Indiana, it seems that the state coordinates with counties, cities and townships to clean and treat the roads. Everyone does their part to keep the roads clear in harsh winter weather that dumps snow, ice, rain and slush and deadly mixtures of all of these onto the roads. The most recent massive and deadly pile-up in Indiana to make national headlines is a result of their failure to take clearing their roads seriously and to make more of an effort to do so. There is no reason they cannot tap into the resources and lessons from their neighboring states to prevent tragedies like this from happening in the future. Three people died and more than 20 were injured — including one critically — in the crash Thursday on a snowy stretch of eastbound Interstate 94 in northwestern Indiana. At least one person was trapped in a vehicle for hours before authorities could come to the rescue, Indiana State Police said. But I suppose it's more important for the 1% to force people pull down their pants and pee when they need are help the most. It's easier to amuse yourself thinking that you're solving a problem that doesn't exist than it is to face the real problems that truly cost lives. Indiana should stop pissing on their constituents and focus on their true priorities.PHE Report- Electronic Cigarette less harmful than Smoking Monday, 16 November 2015 7:26:00 pm Australia/Melbourne A recent report commissioned by Public Health England (PHE) has found that e-cigarettes are around 95% less harmful than smoking tobacco and also, the report shows that e-cigarettes are helping smokers who cannot or do not want to stop smoking to change to e-cigarettes could help to reduce smoking related disease, death and health inequalities. The report indicate the emerging evidence that e- cigarettes can be effective cessation and reduction aids and also e-cigarettes help people quit smoking and it was determined that there is “no evidence” that they offer young people a gateway into smoking, Unlike of this, trends in England explained that since e –cigarettes were introduced to the market, cigarette smoking among adults and youth has declined. One of the problems that e-cigarettes has faced is the continuing negative media campaigns against them, and it is the probable explanation for the change in the perception of e- cigarettes safety, many people think the risk of e-cigarettes are the same as smoking tobacco and this report clearly shows that e- cigarettes are 95% less harmful to the health than normal cigarettes, and help most smokers to quit tobacco. “E-cigarettes are not completely risk free but when compared to smoking, evidence shows they carry just a fraction of the harm,” explained Professor Kevin Fenton, Director of Health and Wellbeing at PHE. “The problem is people increasingly think they are at least as harmful and this may be keeping millions of smokers from quitting. Local stop smoking services should look to support e-cigarette users in their journey to quitting completely.” The report also explain that e-cigarettes are not a danger for a young population and also for non-smokers, according to the study realized by smoking toolkit study (STS, England) which showed that some of people who use e-cigarettes for the first time do not still using them, and all of these studies have showed that they has helped a lot of people who want to quit to stop this. “Fears that e-cigarettes have made smoking seem normal again or even led to people taking up tobacco smoking are not so far being realised based on the evidence assessed by this important independent review,” said Professor Linda Bauld from Cancer Research UK. “In fact, the overall evidence points to e-cigarettes actually helping people to give up smoking tobacco.” It’s estimated that currently 80,000 people in England die each year as a result of smoking, but if everybody who does smoke were to switch to e-cigarettes, then this figure is predicted to drop to just 4,000. The evidence, according to the report, is clear: Smoking e-cigarettes is much less harmful than smoking tobacco cigarettes. And if used in conjunction with stop smoking support services, they offer a much better chance at quitting altogether. The report of the public health of England suggest “Encouraging smokers who cannot stop smoking to switch to e-cigarettes could be adopted as one of the key strategies to reduce smoking related disease and death” Download the complete report below. PHE Ecigarette ReportThough not nearly as well known as TED, The Moth is gaining momentum as a platform for great storytelling. The range of TED Talks is broadly inclusive of personal storytelling as well as high minded ideas grounded in social and scientific research. The Moth is more narrowly focused on emotional epiphanies drawn from life experiences – particularly those rooted in failure, frustration, futility, and fear. Note that many speakers have shared both stages including: Malcolm Gladwell, Janna Levin, and Ed Gavagan. The ones with an () at the end of the title are featured in The Moth’s new book. Without further delay, here is the list of the 10 most viewed Moth stories as of December 20, 2013. #1 Anthony Griffith: The Best of Times, The Worst of Times #2 Steve Burns: Fameishness #3 Mike DeStefano: Franny’s Last Ride () #4 Moran Cerf: On Human (and) Nature #5 Dan Savage: Not That Kind of Gay #6 George Lombardi: Mission to India () #7 Andy Borowitz: An Unexpected Twist #8 Neil Gaiman: Liverpool Street #9 Edgar Oliver: Apron Strings of Savannah #10 Ed Gavagan: Drowning on Sullivan Street ()Released earlier this month, Chillingo’s Ravensword has been living proof that a 3D role-playing game is not only possible on Apple’s platform, but that it can raise our expectations for mobile gaming in general. It was not a game without its flaws, but for a first attempt, it has set the bar high, not only for other developers but for Ravensword’s own team. Not resting on their laurels, the team is already hard at work on the game’s first expansion. We were fortunate enough to have the opportunity to ask developer Josh Presseisen about what we can expect in the coming months, and snag some exclusive concept art. Ravensword’s development was hampered by a few problems, mostly with Apple’s approval process, that caused it to receive a few unexpected delays. This will hopefully not be the case with expansion, which could see a four to six month development window. “I’d say that’s a fair estimate. We don’t know for certain as we are still in planning stages, but we hope sooner than later,” Presseisen told us. Even though they’re still calling the game an expansion, Presseisen believes that “it will be a separate product, as so much is changing (somewhat drastically) based on our customer feedback and reports.” They already have an update to the original that should be submitted in the coming days, which “will have some new areas to explore and some other small upgrades.” The expansion, then, aims to go a lot further than the original. “It will probably take the original and double it– meaning the size of the world will double; you will still be able to get into the old world areas too, but there will be an entirely new land (and ocean) to explore,” Presseisen explains. What we’ll be doing on the ocean remains to be seen, but we can’t help but envision something like the GameCube’s The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker. “The story has been roughed out for the expansion,” Presseisen said, “and it includes new lands to explore. Many new enemies, which are being worked on by Elder Scrolls Artist, Mark Jones. He’s also helping out on the weapons as well.” Jones’s inclusion on the expansion has certainly garnered our interest, and as you can see in the exclusive concept art, there are many imaginative landscapes and characters that could blossom from his work. We can only hope that the final product will reflect these early drawings. “He’s got some ideas as well to add to the mix– its great to have such a talented artist approach us and want to be a part of the team. Right now he’s contracted to do more beasties and weapons in the expansion. I’m sure as time goes on, he’ll be lending us a hand in other areas as well,” Presseisen says. Beyond new lands and enemies to encounter, other ideas that we felt may have been missing from the original could show up in the expansion. One of the possible changes is how conversation happens and the inclusion of dialogue trees. To that, Presseisen tells us, “We are going to try to get into that more, and see how much it snowballs at first. Obviously when setting up stories, it adds more options to where you end up in the end of the game; However, it doubles the amount of testing required, and since we are a very small team, we have to be realistic about what goes into the game. Right now we’re not at that stage, but we are thinking about how it can be done.” We suppose that means that a lot of you need to start crossing your fingers if you wish to see it in the final game. Character depth will generally be more robust in the coming expansion, though. “There will be different races and classes, including customization for each,” he tell us. There may even be multiple story arcs, although that is strictly a possibility, and nothing that he could confirm. “We received requests to be able to play as a female character – so that is definitely going to be an option, as well as more armor, weapons, magic, etc…” And yes, having customization out of the players’ hands will be a thing of the past, as he assures us that, “At the very end of development on the original we received some feedback about doing customization, but it was much too late in the process, and
splits with his wife (she slept with a mailman), he makes a single error in punctuation when going over a contract; and because of the resulting financial loss to the firm, he's fired. Despondent, he heads back to his (small) hometown of Stuckeyville, "Anytown", USA. There he realizes he's been missed by a lot of friends whom he's missed; and he sees Carol, the girl he'd adored in high school. Swept up in roiling emotions, Ed buys the local bowling alley on a whim, moves to Stuckeyville, and determines to win Carol's heart. His horizons broaden as he settles once more in Stuckeyville, and the series itself settles into a charming, funny, often serious slice-of-life series focused not solely on Ed, but on the lovable ensemble cast of people who live and work with him in Stuckeyville. Written by KatchanCharacter design doodles for manga girl. Erin - prince’s lover 😊❤️✨ #mangacharacter #instamanga #doodle #scribble #manga #drawing #draw #sketchbook #sketch #instadraw #instaillust #illustratenow #instaart #instaartist #mangaartist #artist #sketchoftheday #artoftheday #instagramart #artistoninstagram #artistofinstagram #instagrammanga #characterart #art #instadrawing #mangadraw #characterdesign #mangagirl #mangagirldrawing #illustration 😉 In pink :) Prince Theo in his royal uniform 😊❤️ #drawing #manga #sketchbook #sketch #pinkpencil #doodle #doodling #scribble #sketchoftheday #artoftheday #instadraw #instaillust #instamanga #feature_my_stuff #illustratenow #illust #instaart #instaartist #instadoodle #mangadraw #mangaartist #comicartist #drawingcomic #characterart #characterdesign #instagramart #instagramdrawing #artistoninstagram #artistofinstagram #illustration 😘 In progress... Character illustration - Erin the girl that stole prince’s heart ❤️😊😚💕 #drawing #sketchbook #characterart #art #mangadraw #instaartist #illust #artistoninsta #instamanga #instaillust #instaart #artoftheday #illustrationoftheday #instaillustration #instamanga #artist #doodle #doodling #characterdesign #originalcharacter #balackink #artistsoninstagram #artistsofinstagram #drawingmanga #instadoodle #drawingoninstagram #mangagirl #instagramdraw #instadraw #scribble Prince and his lover illustration in black ink ;) #drawmanga #instamanga #instacomic #instaartist #artistoninstagram #artistoninsta #mangaart #mangaartist #mangadrawing #characterart #illustration #instaillust #illustratenow #feauture_my_stuff #sketchbook #sketchoftheday #artoftheday #art #drawing #sketch #instadoodle #mangacouplelove #artist #instagramart #instaillust #scribble #illustration #mangadrawing #blackandwhiteart #blackinkdrawing Oh how I love drawing my handsome prince 😁💕he is soooo cool 😎😘 #mangaartist #mangacharacter #coolmangaguy #instaartist #artistoninstagram #artistoninsta #instaart #instamanga #illust #illustratenow #characterart #artist #drawing #drawingcomics #instacomics #instadraw #instagramart #drawmanga #characterillustration #handsomeguydrawing #ikemenmangaprince #instagramillustration #instaillustration #illustrator #artoftheday #artistoninsta #sketchbook #sketchoftheday #doodling #scribble Erin - romantic character doodle 😊 #instaartist #artistoninstagram #artistoninsta #art #manga #instamanga #characterdesign #characterart #doodle #drawing #sketch #sketchbook #instaart #instaillust #instaillustration #instadraw #instadrawing #drawingmanga #mangadraw #artist #mangaartist #instagramart #instagramdrawing #artoftheday #sketchoftheday #sketching #characterdrawing #scribble #mangaart Playing with watercolors ;) #watercolor #painting #art #sketchbook #paint #creativedoodle #doodle #instaart #instapaint #watercolorart #instaartist #instaillust #illustration #artist #artistoninsta #artistoninstagram #artistofinstagram #brushstrokes #drawing #doodling #sketchoftheday #artoftheday 🎨😊 Cheeky sneak peek of a nightgown 😉 #drawing #sketchbook #sketch #draw #mangadraw #characterdesign #characterart #instaart #instadraw #instamanga #instasetch #instaillust #instaillustration #illustration #doodle #scribble #blackink #doodling #mangaartist #artist #artistoninstagram #instaartist #illust #drawingmanga #clothesdesign #art #sketchoftheday #sketching #artoftheday 🎨❤️😘Quis hoc crederet? Against all the odds, Pope Francis’s Latin-language Twitter account is a roaring success — boasting 208,000 followers on Wednesday — more than those following papal tweets in German or Arabic. Two months after former pontiff Benedict XVI joined the social networking site, enthusiasts of the ancient language persuaded him to open an account in Latin, without banking on it having much success. The response stunned them. Latin is “an international language, a transnational way of communicating which is still very much alive,” said American priest Daniel Gallagher, an expert in the language and member of the team in charge of translating and posting the pope’s tweets. For its fans, the Italic language embodies “virtue and nobility of expression”, as well as “the ability to communicate across centuries”, he told AFP. While Latin is well suited to Francis’s messages in terms of their brevity, his phrases are “difficult to translate, because his style is so informal”, Gallagher said. The expression “sourpusses” had the team flummoxed until someone thought to translate it as “vultu truci”, a term taken from Roman playwright Plautus. Gallagher and his colleagues have fun coming up with inventive ways to translate the latest technological or web-based jargon. “Welcome to the official Twitter page of His Holiness Pope Francis” became “Tuus adventus in paginam Papae Francisci breviloquentis optatissimus est”. “We try not to stray too far from Cicero,” the priest said in reference to the great ancient Roman orator. “If he saw our translation, we would want him to have at least a vague idea of what it said!” he said. Isabelle Poinsot, a follower from Paris, said she found it “refreshing to read a small, pure thought each day” and found “the discrepancy between a modern medium and an ancient language rather amusing”. Followers of the twitter account, @Pontifex_ln, are not just nerdy professors in stuffy academic offices or iPad-wielding priests. The largest cohort are German, followed by Britons, Americans and fellow fans from China, India and Africa. “We have every reason to think that many are young students, from universities, schools or even younger,” Gallagher said, adding that some use the tweets as homework, setting out to translate them. Others are journalists, lawyers, or people nostalgic for the Latin lessons of their youth, who get a kick out of translating a Francis phrase a day. Some get so involved that they reply to the pope’s tweets in Latin. Elitism also plays its part: “Some follow the pope in Latin because it’s a way to create a group. They enjoy belonging to an unusual community, with its own code. If you are able to translate it, you are accepted into the club,” Gallagher said. “What we think of as a modern phenomenon is no such thing. The satirical epigrams of the Roman poet Martial could have been tweets, for their brevity, conciseness, frankness and humour,” he added. The Vatican launched the Latin section of its website in 2008 under Francis’s predecessor Benedict XVI, a keen advocate of the language, which is still used for the Holy See’s most important official documents. Knowledge of Latin was an unexpected asset for Italian journalist Giovanna Chirri, who had what was no doubt the scoop of her career in February 2013 when Benedict announced his retirement in Latin — and she was the only reporter who understood him.LOS ANGELES – No. 2 UCLA clinched the Pac-12 Conference title by defeating the Arizona Wildcats, 5-3, on Sunday afternoon in front of a sell-out crowd at Jackie Robinson Stadium. The Bruins finish the weekend 3-0, the team's fifth series sweep this season. This marks the 11th conference championship in school history and the third in the past five seasons. Additionally, UCLA ties a school-record for conference wins with their 21st of the season (set in 2013, 1986 & 1979). UCLA climbed back from an early two-run deficit to total five runs on eight hits. No Bruin had more than one hit, but Chris Keck (1-for-4, 2 RBI) and Brett Stephens (1-for-5, R, 2 RBI) each drove in a pair of runs to lead the UCLA attack. Out of the bullpen, Cody Poteet (5-1) threw 1.1 scoreless innings, striking out one, to earn the victory. Arizona starter Bobby Dalbec (2-7) received the loss after allowing four runs on six hits in 4.1 innings. Senior closer David Berg (12) earned the five-out save, coming on in the eighth inning to shut the door on the Wildcats. Arizona (28-23, 12-18), who hadn't scored all weekend, took the early lead on UCLA with a run in the opening frame. After the lead-off hitter was retired, Kevin Newman doubled down the left field line and was followed by Riley Moore who singled up the middle. With runners on the corners, Bobby Dalbec then hit a sacrifice-fly to right field to give the Wildcats the 1-0 edge. Three innings later, the Wildcats added another run to go up by a pair. Tyler Krause doubled with one out and advanced to third on a failed pick-off attempt. JJ Matijevic then cashed in with an RBI-groundout to extend the Arizona lead to two. In the bottom of the fifth inning, UCLA (40-12, 21-6) finally got the bats working, putting up a four-spot to take the lead away from Arizona. Trent Chatterton and Justin Hazard singled in consecutive at-bats and each advanced a base on an error to lead off the frame. Stephens then followed with a single back up the middle to plate two runs and bring the game even at two. Then, after a walk to Kevin Kramer and a bunt single from Luke Persico, Keck delivered two more runs for the Bruins with a single of his own to put UCLA on top, 4-2. The Bruins proceeded to tack on an 'insurance' run in the bottom of the sixth inning to push the lead to three runs. With two outs and Chatterton on third, Kramer blasted a double off of the right-center field fence to plate the fifth run of the contest for UCLA. The Wildcats responded with a run in the eighth inning to pull back within two runs of the Bruins. However, Dalbec's RBI-double would serve as the last tally of the game for Arizona who subsequently succumbed to David Berg out of the bullpen. UCLA will play its final non-conference game of the season on Tuesday, May 19 at UC Irvine. The game is set for 6:30pm and can be heard live on uclabruins.com. Notes: David Berg, Christoph Bono, Justin Hazard, Chris Keck, Kevin Kramer and Grant Watson were all honored as part of UCLA's Senior Day today. This is the fourth time Head Coach John Savage has reached the 40-win plateau during his tenure with UCLA. The Bruins are undefeated in weekend series this season, 13-0. This is UCLA's fifth series sweep this season. UCLA is now 29-0 when leading after six innings, 30-0 after seven innings and 33-0 after eight innings. Brett Stephens led the Bruins in hitting this weekend, going 7-for-15 (.467) with two runs and three RBI. The UCLA pitching staff posted a 0.64 ERA this weekend, allowing just three runs on 12 hits.Nobody tweeted or blogged or e-mailed. They didn’t telephone either. Bereft of electricity, gasoline and gas, this tsunami-traumatized town did things the really old-fashioned way — with pen and paper. Unable to operate its 20th-century printing press — never mind its computers, Web site or 3G mobile phones — the town’s only newspaper, the Ishinomaki Hibi Shimbun, wrote its articles by hand with black felt-tip pens on big sheets of white paper. But unlike modern media, the method worked. “People who suffer a tragedy like this need food, water and, also, information,” said Hiroyuki Takeuchi, chief reporter at the Hibi Shimbun, an afternoon daily. “People used to get their news from television and the Internet. But when there is no light and no electricity, the only thing they have is our newspaper.” While recent political ferment across the Arab world has trumpeted the power of new media, the misery in Japan, one of the world’s most wired nations, has rolled back the clock. For a few days at least, the printed and handwritten word were in the ascendant. After writing and editing articles, Takeuchi and others on staff copied their work onto sheets by hand for distribution to emergency relief centers housing survivors of Japan’s worst-ever earthquake and deadly tsunami that followed. “They were desperate for information,” said Takeuchi, who has slept in the office for the 10 days since the tsunami flooded the ground floor of his house. With electricity now restored to about a third of the northeast town’s 160,000 residents, Takeuchi’s newspaper has put away its pens and started printing. Internet access is still not available. Monday’s printed front page cheered a “miraculous rescue drama” — the story of an 80-year-old woman and her 16-year-old grandson plucked from their ruined Ishinomaki home Sunday. Down the coast in Sendai, a once-thriving city of more than 1 million, the digital juggernaut has also come to a halt. “In conditions like these, nothing has power like paper,” said Masahiko Ichiriki, president and owner of Kahoku Shimpo, the city’s main newspaper. With most shops shut, people can’t buy batteries to power radios. The collapse of the region’s electrical system has shut down Sendai’s computers and television sets, but Ichiriki’s Sendai newspaper has published throughout. It even put out a single-page flash edition on the evening of the tsunami. Information-starved residents, said the proprietor, “depend on our newspaper for a lifeline.” It not only provides news about a catastrophe but also mundane, vital information: which shops have food, which roads have been cleared of rubble, which banks have cash and which branches of a popular liquor store have reopened. In Ishinomaki, which is smaller than Sendai and suffered more damage, the Hibi Shimbun didn’t publish for two days after the tsunami. One of its six reporters was swept away in his car while returning from an assignment. He survived and, after several days in a hospital, is back at work. Takeuchi, the chief reporter, was in the office when the earthquake struck at 2:46 p.m. on March 11. He had just finished work on that day’s edition, which featured a front-page article about Ishinomaki’s “hidden charms” and officials’ promises to improve hospital and other facilities. The quake shook the newspaper’s two-story building so hard that fluorescent lights fell from the ceiling and filing cabinets skidded across the floor. The first handwritten edition, prepared March 13, featured a pledge to “try and get information as accurate as possible.” It reported on the arrival of rescue teams from across Japan and on the extent of the ruin. Houses and businesses along Ishinomaki’s waterfront were destroyed. More than 30,000 people took refuge in shelters. “We now know the full extent of the damage,” read a headline. The next day, the paper wrote the names and ages of 34 area residents whose bodies had been identified. It also reported on a robbery in a supermarket, a sign of the town’s desperation. But the paper has tried to lift rather than dampen people’s battered spirits, Takeuchi said. “We look for things related to hope. This is our philosophy,” he said. The paper stopped publishing the names of the dead because “the number just kept growing.” More than 1,300 corpses have been identified. All of these efforts have helped fill that void left by the absence of electronic media. “Living with no electricity or water and not much food is hard enough,” said Yutaka Iwasawa, 25, of Ishinomaki.“But the worst thing was that there was no information.” He said he missed e-mail and surfing the Web.For the past few days, a mystery has been unfolding in Silicon Valley. Somebody, it seems, hired Burson-Marsteller, a top public-relations firm, to pitch anti-Google stories to newspapers, urging them to investigate claims that Google was invading people’s privacy. Burson even offered to help an influential blogger write a Google-bashing op-ed, which it promised it could place in outlets like The Washington Post, Politico, and The Huffington Post. The plot backfired when the blogger turned down Burson’s offer and posted the emails that Burson had sent him. It got worse when USA Today broke a story accusing Burson of spreading a “whisper campaign” about Google “on behalf of an unnamed client.” But who was the mysterious unnamed client? While fingers pointed at Apple and Microsoft, The Daily Beast discovered that it's a company nobody suspected—Facebook. Confronted with evidence, a Facebook spokesman last night confirmed that Facebook hired Burson, citing two reasons: first, it believes Google is doing some things in social networking that raise privacy concerns; second, and perhaps more important, Facebook resents Google’s attempts to use Facebook data in its own social-networking service. Like a Cold War spy case made public, the PR fiasco reveals—and ratchets up—the growing rivalry between Google and Facebook. Google, the search giant, views Facebook as a threat, and has been determined to fight back by launching a social-networking system of its own. So far, however, Google has not had much luck, but Facebook nonetheless felt it necessary to return fire—clandestinely. Here were two guys from one of the biggest PR agencies in the world, blustering around Silicon Valley like a pair of Keystone Kops. At issue in this latest skirmish is a Google tool called Social Circle, which lets people with Gmail accounts see information not only about their friends but also about the friends of their friends, which Google calls “secondary connections.” Burson, in its pitch to journalists, claimed Social Circle was “designed to scrape private data and build deeply personal dossiers on millions of users—in a direct and flagrant violation of [Google's] agreement with the FTC.” Also from Burson: “The American people must be made aware of the now immediate intrusions into their deeply personal lives Google is cataloging and broadcasting every minute of every day—without their permission.” Chris Soghoian, a blogger Burson offered to help write an op-ed, says Burson was “making a mountain out of molehill,” and that Social Circle isn’t dangerous. Soghoian asked Burson directly what company was paying the agency to spread this stuff around. Burson wouldn’t say. Miffed, Soghoian published their email exchange online. You can see it here. The story gained wider attention when USA Today reported that two PR flacks from Burson—former CNBC tech reporter Jim Goldman, and John Mercurio, a former political reporter—had been pushing reporters at USA Today and other outlets to write stories and editorials claiming Google was violating people’s privacy with Social Circle. USA Today looked into it, but decided the claims were exaggerated—at which point, Goldman ran for cover. “After Goldman’s pitch proved largely untrue, he subsequently declined USA Today’s requests for comments,” the paper reported. The mess, seemingly worthy of a Nixon reelection campaign, is embarrassing for Facebook, which has struggled at times to brand itself as trustworthy. But even more so for Burson-Marsteller, a huge PR firm that has represented lots of blue-chip corporate clients in its 58-year history. Mark Penn, Burson’s CEO, has been a political consultant for Bill Clinton, and is best known as the chief strategist in HIllary Clinton’s 2008 presidential campaign. Yet here were two guys from one of the biggest and best-known PR agencies in the world, blustering around Silicon Valley like a pair of Keystone Kops. Even yesterday, when I asked flat out whether Facebook had been the client behind the campaign, a Burson spokesman refused to confirm it. Then, later, learning that Facebook had come clean, the Burson spokesman wrote back and confirmed it. As for Facebook, its pious handwringing about user privacy might be a bit of a smokescreen. What really seems to be angering Facebook is that some of the stuff that pops up under “secondary connections” in Google’s Social Circle is content pulled from Facebook. In other words, just as Google built Google News by taking content created by hundreds of newspapers and repackaging it, so now Google aims to build a social-networking business by using that rich user data that Facebook has gathered. Facebook claims that Google is violating Facebook’s terms of service when it uses Facebook member data in that way. “We are concerned that Google may be improperly using data they have scraped about Facebook users,” the spokesman says. A Google spokeswoman reached last night said Facebook’s allegation about Google improperly using data was a new one and the company needed time to consider a response. The clash between Google and Facebook represents one of the biggest battles of the Internet Age. Basically, the companies are vying to see who will grab the lion’s share of online advertising. Facebook has 600 million members and gathers information on who those people are, who their friends are, and what they like. That data let Facebook sell targeted advertising. It also makes Facebook a huge rival to Google. Last month, Google CEO and cofounder Larry Page sent out a memo telling everyone at Google that social networking was a top priority for Google—so much so that 25 percent of every Googler’s bonus this year will be based on how well Google does in social. It’s hard to say whether Google will ever be able to crack Facebook’s grip on social networking. But after this sorry, clumsy episode, Facebook no longer seems so invincible. In fact, it almost seems a little afraid. Dan Lyons is technology editor at Newsweek and the creator of Fake Steve Jobs, the persona behind the notorious tech blog, The Secret Diary of Steve Jobs. Before joining Newsweek, Lyons spent 10 years at Forbes.Essam Attia is the New York street artist responsible for placing fake NYPD ads reading "Drones: Protection When You Least Expect It" around town. In September, he gave a video interview to Animal NY, with his identity and voice obscured, in which he discussed this project and his art in general. Wednesday morning, the NYPD arrested him at home. The NYDN reports that he's charged with "56 counts of criminal possession of a forged instrument, grand larceny possession of stolen property and weapons possession," the last (and possibly worst) charge coming because cops found an unloaded.22 pistol under his bed when they arrested him. On a practical level, Attia was not the most careful art criminal. He signed his work "ESSAM;" and he told Animal that he was a "a 29-year-old art-school grad from Maine, who served in Iraq as a 'geo-spatial analyst.'" It probably did not take an incredible amount of police work to narrow down the possibilities. Still—great work by the NYPD to prove Essam's point: you are all being watched. Poke humor at the ALL SEEING GOVERNMENT EYE, and it will make you pay. IT KNOWS ALL. In the Animal interview, author Matt Harvey noted, "He agrees that there is an inherent irony in his spoofs: the very fact that the NYPD (which claims to be strongly pursuing him with their 'counter terrorism squad') hasn't caught him yet, is proof that we have not reached a state of Orwellian control." Ah.... cancel that. [Photo via Animal]My son Jake drew me the picture on the left, completely unprompted one day. I came home from work and he said, “Dad, I made this for you at school. It’s a stage. Someday you will be on that stage working with Chris Cornell.” It’s been front and center on my desk ever since. On the right, Chris and I backstage before his show in Baltimore a few months later. I will never forget our conversation. Just him and I on folding chairs, in an empty dressing room, eye-to-eye talking about art. Complementing each other. His words of encouragement were a major inspiration behind Artist Waves. I believe Chris Cornell changed the world with his voice. Certainly mine. “Blow Up the Outside World”, “Higher Truth”, “Call Me a Dog”, “I am the Highway”, all of Euphoria Morning — “Finally Forever” was my wife and I’s wedding song. …man, you had a profound song for every emotion I’ve ever felt. The power of music encourages you to …’Carry On’ even when everything hurts. I am so grateful for all Cornell’s art has given me. In 2008, after working an event for his street team, I went inside the PNC Bank Arts Center and caught his blistering set on the Projekt Revolution tour. Chris — during “Black Hole Sun” you jumped off stage, made your way through the crowd, hitting every note perfectly in stride… you hopped a fence and found yourself atop a hill that overlooked the entire amphitheater. At it’s highest point, you turned, faced down on the audience smiling up, and you soared through the last minute of the anthem. It was pitch black out, but there was spotlight illuminating you, perfectly capturing the magic. It moved many to tears. That’s how I will remember you. That moment…. That’s what you were to me and will always be. Sending love to his beautiful family who have always been so incredibly kind to me,… genuine and gracious. Just like Chris. RIP CC. Let the wind carry you home. Your voice, your songs, your spirit, your impact…will forever resonate. Thank you for everything. “Heaven send hell away, no one sings like you anymore….” Devastated, Jeff ? “Ascend may you find no resistance Know that you made such a difference All you leave behind will live to the end The cycle of suffering goes on But memories of you stay strong…” “Black Hole Sun” — piano: If you enjoyed, please recommend by clicking the heart below Follow Artist Waves on: Facebook, Twitter & Medium ~ follow Jeff Gorra \| twitter @JeffGorra \|JeffGorra@ArtistWaves.com https://upscri.be/de3ab8/James Roper-Caldbeck builds some of the coolest vintage Harleys around. And he’s a long way from Milwaukee—four thousand miles away, to be precise, in the Danish capital of Copenhagen. James’ specialty is traditional bobbers: clean, low-slung machines with an appealing retro vibe. He’s finally getting the recognition he deserves, with a coveted place in The Brooklyn Invitational show later this month. You’d be hard pressed to tell, but this FLH is actually a budget build. “Jens, my client, came to me asking for a bike similar to David Beckham’s Knuckle, built by the Garage Company.” There was just one small problem—Jens was on a Budget. “As we all know, in the world of vintage Harley-Davidson, shit is getting really expensive,” says James. “Especially when you start mentioning the words Knuckle, rigid frame and springer.” James suggested a different direction. One option was to use a late Shovelhead Electra Glide, and when Jens saw some examples, he was excited again. The project started with a 1971 FLH shovelhead that had been repainted in a bright blue. “Otherwise it was in extremely original condition,” James notes, “right down to all the factory hardware, like the nuts and bolts. That’s rare.” Mechanically, things were pretty good. The engine and transmission had already been rebuilt and the S&S carb looked new, so James’ main job was to install a new electrical system. He also got rid of the huge battery box: “After finding the smallest battery possible, I then chopped the original box down and used a Sportster battery cover.” The tank is from a Danish SCO moped, and something of a signature item on Jamesville builds. After adding the mounting tabs and a new petcock bung, James made a new aluminum gas cap to replace the original plastic one. (“I don’t like plastic.”) The rear fender is from a Super Glide, which James chopped. “I then welded the tail closed, and installed two marker lights as the taillights.” He’s installed 19’’ Akront aluminum rims front and back, and covered them with 400-19 Excelsior Comp-H tires with a classic European three-block tread pattern. (“I was told they were used on British racing cars in the 30s.”) James admits to having misgivings when he started the build—he’d never built a custom bike using a swingarm frame before. “The hardest and most important job on these bikes is getting the stance right. That’s true with all bikes, but with a swingarm, stuff is moving…” I’d say James got the stance just right. There’s a late 60s muscle car feel to this FLH, helped by the red leather tuck n’ roll seat. The racing stripes paintjob subtly amps up the vintage vibe, and the twin rear lights look like they’ve been lifted straight off a ’68 Charger. If you’re within shouting distance of NYC, head over to the sixth annual Brooklyn Invitational on September 20. A Customs From Jamesville ’49 Panhead will be on show, alongside machinery from other Bike EXIF favorites like Walt Siegl, Dime City Cycles and Scott Jones of Noise Cycles. If that’s a little to far to travel, head over to the Customs From Jamesville site to see more of James’ work.It isn't that it is specifically a version behind. For a while there it was on par (made it up to r5 on one version). The reason it takes a while to update to the latest is because a few of the utilities that are a part of the pack can take a while to update and the version before last updated quite a bit of the behind the scene stuff (emotions and what not) so both Therapist and DFHack took a good bit of time to update. At the start of this update cycle the pack would update with or with out those but since we are far enough along the curator of this pack has decided to wait for them. Eventually the pack will catch up with the current version though as the running joke states, when the pack updates it probably means a new version of vanilla will be coming in the next few of hours.Quick thoughts on the Jets' decision to stay with Mark Sanchez as their starting quarterback, which was announced Wednesday morning: 1. This was the safest move for Rex Ryan. It demonstrates the organization's commitment to Sanchez, its willingness to make it work. The Jets have to pay him $8.25 million next year in guaranteed money, and you know that factored into it. If Ryan had promoted Greg McElroy, it would've meant they had given up on Sanchez, the onetime golden boy whom they envisioned as the face of the franchise for many years. 2. Sanchez will have a short leash Sunday in Jacksonville -- a well-deserved short leash. He has 18 turnovers, including five in the past two games. When he gives the ball away, it demoralizes the offense. If he struggles in the first half, it'll be McElroy time, probably for good. Sanchez needs a positive start to regain the trust of his teammates. 3. This will tell us a lot about Sanchez's mental toughness. For three years, he never had to worry about getting benched. Sunday was his first brush with a possible demotion. Maybe it was a wake-up call. Finally, he knows Ryan means business. If he cracks, the Jets will know he's not their guy. 4. The next two games are on the road, which helps Sanchez, who was booed throughout Sunday's win over the Cardinals. If he redeems himself on the road, it could buy him a little good will for the next home game, Dec. 22 against the Chargers. 5. This shows the organization doesn't see McElroy as the long-term answer. The Jets like his intangibles, especially his smarts, but they still regard him as a developmental player whom they hope can become a solid No. 2 quarterback in the league. 6. Ryan realizes it would've been a tremendous leap of faith to entrust the remainder of the season -- and perhaps his job security -- to a former seventh-round pick who has attempted only seven passes in the NFL. As Ryan likes to say, he's in the winning business -- and he needs wins. He's not likely to get fired, but he doesn't want to take any chances. 7. Tim Tebow wasn't even a factor in this quarterback decision. He has to be wondering, "Why did I want to come to the Jets?" He has a right to be frustrated. They sold him a bill of goods. It'll be interesting to see how they use Tebow this week. Would they dare to deactivate him for his homecoming game in Jacksonville? The Jaguars, hoping for a big crowd, don't want that to happen.The odds for Senate Republicans to repeal and replace Obamacare got steeper over their week-long break, as opponents of their current plan dug in deeper and a path to consensus failed to materialize. Upward of a dozen Republicans oppose the bill drafted by Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell. Senate leaders and the White House are still bent on pushing the legislation through in the next few weeks, but their success increasingly depends on the GOP holdouts making unlikely and unimaginable reversals on the deeply unpopular bill. The Republican plan, as currently written, is projected to lead to 22 million fewer Americans having health insurance, a $772 billion cut to Medicaid, and 15 million fewer people enrolled in that program versus Obamacare, according to estimates from the Congressional Budget Office. While members of Congress were back in their districts for the July 4 recess, opponents of the bill like Sen. Susan Collins (R-ME) became even more brash in their intransigence. At the same time, usually reliable Republican votes like Sen. John Hoeven (R-ND) came out against the plan. McConnell’s best hope now is cosmetic changes to the legislation that, while not changing the underlying structure, could give opponents cover to come around and support it. But after their past comments on the bill, it’s hard to imagine how some of these holdouts could ever support anything resembling the current plan. That would require epic reversals over relatively modest policy changes. Given the thin margin for error — 50 of the 52 Senate Republicans must back the health care bill — it’s become increasingly difficult for it to pass. But McConnell and his lieutenants are going to try. They want to be done with health care before August. Leadership can still make some tweaks to the bill Senate leaders are going to make changes to the existing bill. Sen. John Cornyn (R-TX) even made the patently ridiculous claim on Friday that the Senate hadn’t produced a bill yet. As we seek to save Americans from failures of Obamacare, reports of polls fail to acknowledge that no Senate bill yet exists #workingonit — JohnCornyn (@JohnCornyn) July 8, 2017 They’ll likely tweak the existing plan and try to sell it as a brand new product. One amendment known to be under consideration has been advanced by Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX), one of the conservatives opposed to the current bill because it doesn’t roll back Obamacare’s insurance regulations enough. The Cruz proposal would allow health insurers to sell non-Obamacare plans as long as they also sold plans that compiled with the law’s regulations. Conservatives think this would help lower premiums, while also allowing Republicans to claim that they are maintaining Obamacare’s popular protections for people with preexisting conditions. McConnell sent the amendment to CBO for analysis last week. He has also charged Cruz with selling his colleagues on the plan, the Washington Post reported, many of whom are skittish about rolling back the Obamacare regulations most favored by the public. The thinking goes that if conservatives get a win on regulations, they would be amenable to keeping some of Obamacare’s taxes on the wealthy. That could in turn give McConnell more money to spend on financial assistance for Americans to purchase private insurance and perhaps on softening the current plan’s deep Medicaid cuts. That might assuage some moderate concerns. But it’s not at all clear that those changes would do much to change the bill’s bottom line from CBO: a dramatic increase in the uninsured compared with Obamacare. Moderate senators have dug in against the plan’s coverage losses and Medicaid cuts Further complicating matters for McConnell is the comments moderate senators have made in opposing the current bill. Those public statements will make it very difficult for any of these members to reverse course and support even a revised version of the bill. "I cannot support a bill that is going to result in tens of millions of people losing their health insurance,” Collins said late last month
Sunset 5:51 p.m. Sponsored by: Brown University in celebration of its 250th Anniversary Saturday, November 8th – WaterFire Salute to Veterans Sunset 4:33 p.m. Sponsored by: Alex and Ani, Bank of America, and the Walmart Foundation. With the generous support of the Textron Charitable Trust Saturday, November 29th – Basin Lighting Sunset 4:17 p.m. Sponsored by: New England Bridge Conference Friday, December 19th – Basin Lighting Sunset 4:17 p.m. \| Lighting 4:30 p.m. A Very Special Christmas WaterFire to Benefit the Providence Rescue Mission We hope you are able to join us for a night of art, culture, music, community and surprises in 2014.Teamwork was the focus of Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders’ address to the crowd that assembled in the Schottenstein Center on Sunday night to catch a glimpse of the Democratic presidential candidate before Tuesday’s Ohio primary. “I think on Tuesday, we are going to win here in Ohio. And the reason we are going to win is we are in the process together of revitalizing American democracy,” Sanders said at the “Future to Believe In” rally. “If we stand together, there is nothing we cannot accomplish.” In the hour leading up to the senator’s arrival, chants of “feel the ‘Bern’” echoed through the arena while an eclectic mixtape of music, ranging from Muse to Bob Marley, blared through the speakers suspended above a mass of blue-sign-waving supporters. Ohio State student Morgan Johnson, a third-year in public affairs, spoke to the crowd before Sanders took the stage. “For once, it feels like it is going to be ‘we the people’ again. It is not going to be ‘we the money’ or ‘we the lobbyists,’ it is going to be ‘we the people,’ one person, one vote,” said Johnson, who serves as state director of College Students for Bernie in Ohio. “(Sanders) has inspired action, we have seen young people around the country getting together.” A little after 6 p.m., Sanders arrived at the podium, greeted by a roar of cheers, claps and whistles. He began his speech by addressing remarks made by Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump, who cancelled a rally in Chicago as a result of protests the businessman claimed were spurred on by Sanders’ supporters. “A candidate for president of the United States should condemn violence, not encourage violence,” Sanders said in response to Trump saying he would ask his attorneys to look into paying the legal bills for an attendee charged with punching a protester at one of his rallies. “You don’t go around and say it is okay to beat someone up and ‘I’ll pay the legal fees,’ that is not what this country is about.” Sanders did not only make a point to highlight the differences between himself and Trump. The senator also devoted a significant portion of his speech to emphasizing what sets his campaign apart from that of former Secretary of State and current Democratic Party frontrunner Hillary Clinton. “Those differences are pretty profound,” he said. “You can tell a lot about a candidate based on how he or she raises money for his or her campaign.” Following a cheer of “Bernie Sanders has our backs, we don’t need a super PAC,” which was started organically by a lone voice in the crowd, the senator smiled and said, “You know what? We don’t need a damn super PAC.” “But Secretary Clinton has gone a different route. What she has done is establish several super PACs,” Sanders added. “Who knows if what she says behind closed doors to Wall Street is what she says to the American people.” Other issues mentioned during the rally included Sanders’ views on prison reform, increasing the minimum wage to $15 per hour and tuition-free education at public colleges and universities. “Our job is to encourage people to get an education, not punish them for getting an education,” he said. “The world has changed. The economy has changed. Today, people need more education than they used to. So when we talk about public education, we cannot just talk about first grade through 12th grade. That was good back then. It doesn’t work today.” As he concluded his speech, Sanders explained that bringing about change is never easy. “What American history is about is that change never happens from the top down, but from the bottom up,” he said. “Employers in companies did not give workers the right to form a union, workers fought for that right. They got beaten up, went to jail and even died for that right.Nobody gave African Americans their freedom. People fought and died for that right.” As the clapping in the room continued to crescendo, Sanders promised supporters that he is the right choice to represent the Democratic Party going into the general election and asked attendees for their support. “Here is the simple truth about (the Ohio primary on Tuesday). If there is a large voter turnout, we will win. If there is a low voter turnout, we will lose,” he said. “If the Democratic Party wants the strongest candidate to defeat Donald Trump, you’re looking at that candidate.” Sanders returned to campus later Sunday evening to participate in a town hall forum hosted by CNN and TV One in OSU’s Mershon Auditorium. A recap of that event can be found here. Republican Party presidential candidate and Texas Sen. Ted Cruz also stopped in Columbus to host a rally at the Northland Performing Arts Center. A recap of that event can be found here.Caffeine is a chemical in many foods and beverages, including coffee, tea, chocolate, guarana and kombucha. It is widely used in the Western world as a stimulant because it can help increase alertness, improve mental focus and keep you awake. Unfortunately, caffeine also has a negative effects. In addition to disrupting sleep, it also has detrimental effects on several internal organs. Heart Effects Caffeine has several negative effects on the heart, according to the Harvard Medical School website. Excessive caffeine consumption can cause arrhythmia, or irregular heartbeat. It can also increase the heart rate, although this effect typically subsides as your body processes and eliminates the caffeine from your system. Most important, caffeine can contribute to hypertension, or high blood pressure. Hypertension puts you at risk for heart disease and strokes, notes the University of Maryland Medical Center. It can also produce effects such as headaches, nausea, eyesight problems and seizures. Liver Effects Recent studies suggest that moderate coffee consumption might help offset the effects of alcohol on the liver, according to the Medical News Today website. However, the caffeine present in coffee also negatively affects the liver. According to Dr. Donna Smith, contributor to the Chet Day website, caffeine combines with hydrochloric acid in the stomach to produce a toxin called caffeine hydrochloride. This toxin is absorbed by the liver, which must neutralize and flush it out of your system. As the liver processes toxins, it incurs tissue damage and forms scar tissue, which eventually impacts the liver's ability to function correctly. Brain Effects Ingesting foods and beverages containing caffeine can affect the brain by affecting the secretion of chemicals in the brain that affect the body. The brain reacts to caffeine by producing adrenaline, which can have short-term effects of increased alertness and energy, but produces a "crash" after the caffeine wears off, according to the Pacific Northwest Foundation. It also interferes with the brain's production of adenosine, a chemical that induces calmness. Coffee and other caffeine-containing products cause the brain to release cortisol, a stress hormone that constricts blood vessels, contributes to hypertension and hampers the absorption of essential minerals and vitamins, among other negative effects.On Wednesday, Twitter went on an alt-right purge, targeting white supremacists and alt-right and "alt-lite" figures with de-verifications and at least one suspension. The social media giant changed their verification (signaled via a blue checkmark) standard for online accounts after receiving backlash for verifying Jason Kessler, who organized the white nationalist protest-turned-fatal riot in Charlottesville, Virginia, this summer. "We are conducting an initial review of verified accounts and will remove verification from accounts whose behavior does not fall within these new guidelines," announced Twitter. "Promoting hate and/or violence" and "inciting or engaging in harassment of others" were included as such behaviors, as noted by The Guardian. In light of the new subjective verification standard, Twitter sought out far-right personalities, commentators, and journalists to strip of their checkmarks. Kessler and white supremacist Richard Spencer were among those deverified. Twitter's stripped the verification badges off of prominent white nationalists Richard Spencer and Jason Kessler pic.twitter.com/Hy5CPl7z25 — Jack Smith IV (@JackSmithIV) November 15, 2017 Alt-right personality and podcast host James Allsup, who has since changed his Twitter name to "PUNISHED ALLSUP," was also stripped of his verification. Be a "video editor" for a leftist rag and have 1k followers: Twitter verified! 170,000 YT subs, 22k Twitter followers, 30m YT views: un-verified Almost like @jack has an agenda or something. — PUNISHED JAMES (@realJamesAllsup) November 15, 2017 The Rebel TV's Tommy Robinson posted an ominous "& so it begins" after he was informed by Twitter of his de-verification. & so it begins pic.twitter.com/DXhkfW0IIq — Tommy Robinson (@TRobinsonNewEra) November 15, 2017 Alt-right personality @wifewithapurpose and self-described "alt-lite" journalist Laura Loomer have, too, been de-verified. Twitter just emailed me to tell me they are removing my "verified badge" because they claim my account "doesn't comply with Twitter's guidelines for verified accounts." Translation: I'm a conservative. pic.twitter.com/F1AsxWI6Fm — Laura Loomer (@LauraLoomer) November 15, 2017 Though it is unclear if the events are connected, alt-right figure Baked Alaska had his account suspended on Wednesday as well. According to Mashable, the outlet was informed by a Twitter spokesperson that "the company does not comment on individual comments (as is known) but pointed to Twitter's Hateful Conduct Policy, specifically'repeated and/or or non-consensual slurs, epithets, racist and sexist tropes, or other content that degrades someone.'" Baked Alaska got banned permanently from Twitter and now he's ranting outside a McDonald's that "Twitter cannot get away with this" pic.twitter.com/YXJ0vinzxI — Will Sommer (@willsommer) November 15, 2017 There have been no reports of far-left figures being censored or stripped of their verification thus far. The left-leaning Anti-Defamation League (ADL) applauded the Twitter crackdown on the Right as a win "against hate." The removal of verification badges from known white supremacist @Twitter accounts is a digital statement that white supremacy is NOT in the public interest. And the digital battle against hate continues... #NeverIsNow @ADL_National https://t.co/wYHQLp9T3Y — Oren Segal (@orensegal) November 15, 2017 But will this action undermine or empower those voices who have been de-verified or suspended? You can rightly despise the alt-right and others who espouse hateful ideologies, but stripping them of their verifications and suspending them from the platform, which will largely be perceived as a form of censorship, may end up feeding the beast. A recent example of the ban-the-bigot mentality resulting in growth of an ideological movement comes to us at the hands of crowdfunding site Patron, as highlighted by journalist Yair Rosenberg. In an attempt to stamp out "hate" via censorship, a response site, fittingly and mockingly called Hatreon was developed to serve those removed from Patreon. The move backfired on Patreon: In August, when Hatreon first went live but before it fully launched, alt-right luminary Richard Spencer began pulling in a modest $85 per month. Today, just a few short months later, he clocks in at $918 per month and counting. Back in August, Andrew Anglin, proprietor of the neo-Nazi Daily Stormer, was taking in $700 a month from fans. Today, he is raking in $7,739 a month, or a whopping $92,868 a year. In other words, despite the feel-good foisting of Anglin and company from mainstream internet crowdfunding platforms and online hosting services, he is still approaching a six-figure retainer for racism. Rumors are already circulating that Twitter will complete its purge of the alt-right by the end of the month by suspending or banning the accounts they have already de-verified. "Bigots cannot truly be booted off the web, and can easily create their own alternative platforms when required. Bump them off one web host, and they will find another in a place like Hong Kong, as the Daily Stormer did," writes Rosenberg. "Knock them off Patreon, you get Hatreon."Amid Maria Sharapova's impending return from a doping ban world number one Andy Murray has revealed he is against the idea of giving dopers a wild card. The world's highest earning female athlete notably failed a drug test at the 2016 Australian Open as she tested positive for meldonium. Sharapova was subsequently suspended from the sport for two years by the International Tennis Federation (ITF). However, the ban was eventually reduced to just 15 months by the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS). With Sharapova's ban coming to an end in April 2017, Wimbledon is facing a dilemma as to whether or not to hand the Russian a wild card. The 29-year-old has already been guaranteed wild card slots in tournaments in Stuttgart, Madrid and Rome. Murray, who previously said she deserved her ban, believes players should have to earn their way back. "I think you should really have to work your way back," Murray told The Times. "However, the majority of tournaments are going to do what they think is best for their event. If they think having big names there is going to sell more seats, then they're going to do that." Sharapova would have to reach two semi-finals from the three events she has a wild card in to automatically earn a place in Wimbledon. If she is unable to do that, it is up to Wimbledon to decide what they plan on doing. "She [Sharapova] has an opportunity to try to improve her ranking up until that point and potentially not need a wild card," Murray added. "But then if she doesn't, that becomes Wimbledon's decision and how they want to play that." "I'm sure they'll think long and hard about it and how they feel people will view it and then make the right decision for them." While the Sharapova issue has divided the sport, there are some in favour of giving the Russian a second chance such as tennis legend, Boris Becker who hopes everyone can move on.MSNBC Sen. Bernie Sanders on Wednesday asked MSNBC anchor Andrea Mitchell not to "moan" about Hillary Clinton's "problems" in the presidential race. In a Wednesday interview, the anchor pointed out that presumptive Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump has used some of Sanders' rhetorical attacks on Clinton against the former secretary of state. "Donald Trump has just been hammering away at her. Up until now, he hasn't been going after you. She's fighting two big candidates and you're fighting one," Mitchell said. "Oh really? Andrea, in every state that we have won, in 19 states, we've had to take on the entire Democratic establishment. We've had to take on senators, and governors, and mayors, and members of Congress," Sanders said. He added: "So please do not moan to me about Hillary Clinton's problems." Sanders added that he could've taken more personal shots at Clinton, but instead focused many of his critiques of her on concrete policy issues. "As you well know, there are many areas that I could've attacked Hillary Clinton on that I have chosen not to attack her on," Sanders said. Despite Sanders' recent primary victories, Clinton still holds a massive lead among the pledged delegates and unpledged "superdelegates" needed to secure the party's presidential nomination. For its part, the Clinton campaign has largely relented in its rhetorical jabs at the insurgent Democratic candidate in recent weeks, instead setting its sights on Trump. Still, during Wednesday's interview, Sanders reiterated that he plans to stay in the race, hoping that several landslide victories could help convince superdelegates to switch camps and propel the senator to a contested convention. "It is a steep hill to climb, but we are going to fight for every last vote that we can get, every delegate that we can get," Sanders said.Ramallah, Occupied West Bank - Seven Palestinian homes have been demolished in the past 24 hours across the Occupied West Bank - a move dubbed by Palestinian leaders as "collective punishment". The list of demolished structures includes three houses in the town of Qabatiya, south of Jenin, belonging to families of a trio gunned down in February after they killed an Israeli soldier. Overnight on Monday, Israeli forces destroyed the family homes of Ahmad Zakarneh, Mohammad Kmeel and Ahmad Abu el-Rub, who fatally shot an Israeli border policewoman near Jerusalem's Damascus Gate. Four other homes were also razed in Occupied East Jerusalem and the villages of Surif and Duma in the West Bank. Clashes erupted in Qabatiya following the demolitions, with five Palestinians taken to hospital in Jenin after they were shot with rubber-coated steel bullets. The family of a fourth man - incarcerated by Israel following accusations of aiding the three young men - was also handed a demolition order. Qabatiya, home to 20,000 Palestinians, has been completely sealed off by the Israeli army twice in recent months, and many of its inhabitants have had their work permits revoked. At least 10 Palestinians from the town have also been killed by Israeli forces since October last year. In a wave of attacks since October last year - carried mostly by young, disgruntled Palestinian youths - at least 33 Israelis and foreign nationals have died. Nearly 200 Palestinians, including civilians, assailants and others whom Israeli officials claim were armed with knives, have been killed. Since September last year, 57 houses belonging to Palestinians have been levelled, according to the Palestine Liberation Organisation's negotiations affairs department. READ MORE: How impunity defines Israel and victimises Palestinians Israel halted the punitive practice it regularly uses against Palestinians in 2005 after an internal commission found that it did not deter attacks. But the policy was revived last year despite the recommendations, and slammed by rights groups as a form of collective punishment. "This is an arbitrary policy that affects everyone indiscriminately," said Ahmad Kmeel, Mohammad's father. "How is [it] the fault of the father, mother and the children? No one knew what he was going to do." Israel's Supreme Court paved the way for the demolitions after it turned down appeals made on behalf of the families. Rajeh Zakarneh, Ahmad's father, said the family dismantled and moved furniture after losing the petition. "I built this house with my own two hands," Zakarneh told Al Jazeera. "But my son is worth more than a thousand homes." Earlier on Sunday, the court had cancelled home-demolition orders for three of four Palestinians convicted of being involved in a stone-throwing attack in September that led to the death of an Israeli motorist. Najeh Abu el-Rub, Ahmad's father, had hoped the court would also overturn the decision to raze his family home. "We turned to the courts but that did nothing for us. They insisted on destroying the houses," Abu el-Rub said. Chief Palestinian negotiator Sa'eb Erekat said the house demolitions were tantamount to acts of "collective punishment" that were being reported to the International Criminal Court. "Granting impunity for continued Israeli crimes will not achieve a resumption of negotiations. Rather, it is killing any realistic political horizon to end the Israeli occupation of the State of Palestine," Erekat said.Ride-hailing company Lyft has partnered with Justin Bieber <a href="http:// “>in a deal that will give riders a chance to buy the pop star’s upcoming album Purpose for $5. The catch? Riders just have to slide into a “Bieber Mode”—yes, it’s a real thing—in the Lyft app between 9 p.m. on Thursday and midnight a week later, and hit the “buy and ride” button. When the ride is over, the passenger will receive a link to download the album and a $5 credit for a future ride. Bieber’s album will be released Friday. On its face, this looks like just another gimmick or ploy to attract more riders. But this deal is more than that. The partnership with Bieber —as well as a multi-year deal announced this summer with Starbucks—shows how Lyft is experimenting with how its platform can be integrated with other brands or products. In other words, the Lyft app can be used for more than connecting riders and drivers. It can introduce a range of products—coffee and Bieber is just the beginning—to a captured audience. Don’t expect this to turn into a marketing free-for-all, however. Lyft will likely only partner with companies and organizations that tie back to its own brand. The Bieber deal makes sense not because all Lyft passengers are Beliebers, but because the company has tried to make music part of its culture. For example, users can tell drivers about their music preferences in advance through its personal profiles feature. Drivers can have the rider’s favorite music queued up before they get into the car. Lyft has introduced a number of new programs, promotions, and products to compete against Uber in a battle over drivers and passengers. For instance, Lyft announced in October separate partnerships with Hertz and Shell as well as a new tool that lets drivers collect their pay more quickly. Under the Shell deal, drivers will get discounts on gas. Hertz is offering lower daily, weekly, or monthly car rental rates in an effort to attract drivers who don’t own a car or whose vehicle doesn’t meet Lyft’s standards. In general, Lyft’s promotions tend to be fun and whimsical and centered around an event or holiday. Lyft delivered zombies to offices and homes in San Francisco and New York for the Halloween holiday. The company also celebrated October 21—the day Marty McFly in the movie Back to the Future traveled to the future —by offering rides in DeLoreans. Earlier this summer, the company partnered with the Outside Lands music festival in San Francisco and provided tricked-out music-themed vans to shuttle passengers to and from the event. Uber has offered its own promotions including delivering kittens for National Cat Day. Both companies have also rolled out VIP-type services. Lyft Nation, a club for the top 10% of its passengers in each city, rolled out in June. Customers who qualify get invited to secret parties and receive exclusive partnerships. Uber quietly rolled out an UberVIP service in 2015 in cities like New York, Denver, and Washington D.C, which gives qualifying customers access to drivers who have at least a 4.8 rating (out of 5) and “high quality cars only.”He was known for skillfully bringing lyrics to instrumental improvisations that augmented the songs' titles and added to their narratives. Jon Hendricks, the jazz singer known for furthering the art of vocalese with trio Lambert, Hendricks & Ross, died Wednesday in a New York City hospital. He was 96. His daughter, Aria Hendricks, confirmed his death to The New York Times. Born John Carl Hendricks — the Times explained he dropped the “h” from his first name when he became a performer — on Sept. 16, 1921 in Newark, Ohio, the singer was a pioneer in popular jazz. He was known for skillfully bringing lyrics to instrumental improvisations that augmented the songs' titles and added to their narratives. The practice, known as vocalese, was conceived by singer Eddie Jefferson but expanded upon by Hendricks with his jazz group. Lambert, Hendricks & Ross was comprised of Hendricks, Dave Lambert and Annie Ross (and later her replacement, Yolande Bavan). Together, they found success with the 1958 album Sing a Song of Basie, released on ABC-Paramount Records, before recording more LPs with Columbia Records and some live albums and eventually splitting up in 1964. In 1962, their High Flying album was awarded a Grammy for best performance by a vocal group. In 1998, Sing a Song of Basie was honored with a Grammy Hall of Fame Award. Hendricks also created Evolution of the Blues, a stage show that ran for five years in San Francisco, and served as a jazz teacher and critic. Later in his career, he performed alongside his wife, Judith, with the vocal quartet Jon Hendricks and Company. His children also joined in on performances, as did singer Bobby McFerrin. Hendricks and McFerrin went on to win a Grammy for the song "Another Night in Tunisia" in 1986; Hendricks was credited for writing the lyrics. In 1997, he was in a touring ensemble that performed Wynton Marsalis’ Pulitzer Prize-winning Blood on the Fields. Hendricks is survived by daughters Aria and Michele, son Jon Jr., three grandchildren and a niece. Judith died in 2015. This story first appeared on Billboard.com.(CNN) -- A large number of dead birds were found in the city of Falkoping, Sweden, Tuesday night and Wednesday morning, according to a press release on the website of the Swedish National Veterinary Institute. Necropsies were performed on five of the birds. The institute said they died due to "sudden, hard external blows," according to the press release. They had no signs of infection or other illnesses, and there were no external signs indicating what killed them. "We have determined that the birds have died from severe internal bleedings caused by external blows," said the Institute's Marianne Elvander. A similar unusual incident occurred in Arkansas on New Year's Eve. Thousands of red-winged blackbirds and starlings were found dead over a square-mile area in the town of Beebe. In a separate incident, some 500 red-winged blackbirds, starlings and sparrows were found dead Monday morning in the southern Louisiana community of Labarre.poster="http://v.politico.com/images/1155968404/201602/625/1155968404_4744376416001_Trump-rubio-.jpg?pubId=1155968404" true Donald Trump said Marco Rubio's repeated debate line was "certainly different." Trump: Rubio 'was having a hard time' Donald Trump on Monday added to the pile-on crushing Marco Rubio for his curious repetition during the debate. "He was having a hard time. It was sort of interesting to watch, because he made the one statement, and I'm one with a good memory," the Republican candidate said in an interview with "CBS This Morning" with co-hosts Charlie Rose, Norah O'Donnell and Gayle King. Story Continued Below Trump noted that he heard Rubio say, "let's dispel once and for all with this fiction that Barack Obama doesn't know what he's doing. He knows exactly what he's doing" one time and then again " a few minutes later, "the same statement, almost identical." "And I said all right, that's OK, we've repeated ourselves on occasion, Charlie, right? And, other than Norah and Gayle, but Charlie and I repeat ourselves constantly, right?" he joked with the co-hosts. "But, but, OK, so then I heard it again, and then I heard it a third time, a fourth time, and I think even a fifth time. And I said, wow, that's really strange." Remarking that he "didn't know it was going to be blowing up... a massive blowup," Trump continued, calling Rubio's repeated line "certainly different." "I mean, it was a little — I'm standing there and I'm saying, did I hear that five times now? I mean, you know, what's going on here? And it was, you know, obviously a soundbite that he likes but you can use a soundbite once but you can't use it five times," he said. "It doesn't work." Asked whether he himself has said things that he regrets later, Trump in a moment reflection remarked that he does but, "I also don't dwell in the past." "I learn from the past and you know, we all make mistakes and certain things you would have done differently in life, I mean, all of us," he reflected. "Who wouldn’t have, if you had that option? But we never do have that option. So you have to learn from life, and if you do something, don’t do it again, that’s all."WASHINGTON — With the CIA’s assessment that Russia intervened to help Donald Trump win the presidential election dominating the news, senators on both sides of the aisle have spared no kind words for Vladimir Putin, interrupting their Christmas vacation to call for an investigation into the hacking. But they also didn’t spare much legislative effort over the last two and half months of Congress to take away from the president-elect the power to unilaterally ease US policy toward his Russian counterpart once in office. In September, the House of Representatives unanimously passed a piece of legislation that would prevent the White House from removing economic sanctions placed on Russia for invading Crimea and other parts of Ukraine. But that bill was left to languish in Senate committee for months before members of Congress left town for the year on Saturday. Because President Obama’s sanctions against certain individuals and businesses tied to Putin were done by executive order, they can be undone by the next president with a stroke of a pen. But the bill, called the Stability and Democracy for Ukraine Act, would take that power away. The Senate version of the legislation would have required that the sanctions remain in place until either Russia or Ukraine give up their claims on the contested Crimean peninsula, which Russia invaded in 2014. Given the unlikelihood of either scenario, the sanctions would in effect be permanent. “If we fail to respond to Russian aggression in Ukraine, it will signal to Moscow and other nations that anyone can act contrary to international law and American interests without fear of repercussions,” Rep. Mike Fitzpatrick, co-chair of the Congressional Ukrainian Caucus and a Republican representative who co-sponsored the bill, told BuzzFeed News. But the Republican-controlled Senate has yet to take up the legislation. With the end of the term last week, the process will have to start over in the new Congress and chances of passing the bill before Trump — whose incoming chief of staff would not commit the administration to keeping the sanctions — is sworn in have dwindled to nearly zero. “We’ve pushed it. There seems to be a reluctance on the part of the Senate,” Democratic Representative Eliot Engel, lead author of the legislation, told BuzzFeed News. “I’m concerned about our new president because he says nice things about Putin and seems to gloss over some of the thuggery of what Putin is doing.” One Democratic colleague in the Senate, Senator Bob Menendez, blamed Republicans for dragging their feet on the sanctions bill. “It is unnerving that some of my Republican colleagues would consider walking away from longstanding, responsible policies to counter Russian aggression,” Menendez told BuzzFeed News in a statement. Menendez, who introduced the bill in the Senate, said he invited Republican colleagues to co-sponsor a Senate version of the bill, but none signed on. Since September, the bill has languished in the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, headed by chairman Bob Corker, who was being considered for the job of secretary of state before being passed over for Exxon Mobil chief executive Rex Tillerson. Neither the offices of Corker or Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell would say whether or not the senators support the bill. But an aide for Corker told BuzzFeed News that a “lack of consensus between the administration and members on both sides of the aisle has prevented further consideration of additional measures related to Ukraine.” Engel said the White House doesn’t support the bill because it does not want to further antagonize Russia. “I know the administration doesn’t support it. The attitude is that if we aid Ukraine, then Russia will escalate,” Engel said. “But I disagree with that.” The White House declined to comment, saying it usually avoids doing so on pending legislation. Without bipartisan support, the bill, which Menendez introduced in the Senate on the last day of Congress with three other Democratic co-sponsors, had little chance of passing before the end of the year. At least two Senate Republicans, John McCain and Lindsey Graham, support its passage, however. “I’m for it. I’m all for it,” McCain told BuzzFeed News. Before the House vote in September, BuzzFeed News reported that business interests, including Exxon Mobil, pushed to have sanctions against Russia related to the energy and banking sectors removed from the list of those to be made permanent. Before Russia invaded Crimea, Exxon was in the throes of executing one of the biggest oil deals in its history. But the $500 billion agreement between Exxon and Rosneft, a state-owned Russian oil company, to pump oil in the Russian Arctic was put on hold due to the sanctions. Tillerson, Trump’s choice of secretary of state, has personally spoken out against the measures to constrain Russia. “We do not support sanctions, generally,” Tillerson told told shareholders in 2014. “We don’t find them to be effective unless they are very well-implemented comprehensively — and that’s a very hard thing to do.”Oakland Raiders quarterback Derek Carr was voted AFC West offensive player of the year by the four reporters covering the division for ESPN.com. Derek Carr established a new high in single-season completion percentage in 2016 (63.8). Scott Winters/Icon Sportswire Paul Gutierrez, Oakland Raiders reporter: Any questions about just how “valuable” Carr was to the Raiders’ fortunes need only look at how Oakland played after he went down with a broken fibula in his right leg in the fourth quarter of Game 15. Shell-shocked, Oakland was outscored by a combined 62-20 following Trent Cole rolling over Carr’s leg and the once-prolific offense became a shell of itself under Matt McGloin and Connor Cook as the Raiders lost consecutive games for the first time this season. Two years ago, Carr’s NFL career started 0-10, then Oakland went 7-9 last season and the Raiders were about to be 12-3 when the Raiders’ spiritual leader went down. “Obviously, when you lose an MVP, it takes a toll,” Khalil Mack said. And after passing for 3,937 yards, 28 touchdowns and six interceptions for a passer rating of 96.7, Carr, who had seven comeback victories in the fourth quarter or overtime, epitomized “valuable,” not just for the Raiders or the AFC West but also for the entire league. Jeff Legwold, Denver Broncos reporter: It’s Carr. If you need proof, take a gander at the Raiders’ losses to the Houston Texans in the wild-card round and the Broncos in the final game of the regular season. Carr missed those two games because of a fractured lower leg suffered Dec. 24 against the Indianapolis Colts. Without him the Raiders had 221 net yards of offense against the Broncos to go with just 203 net yards in the wild-card loss to the Texans. Before the injury, Carr was in the conversation for the league’s MVP award. He finished 63 yards shy of a 4,000-yard passing season to go with 28 touchdowns and six interceptions. And an indication of how well he managed himself in the pocket -- to go with investment the Raiders made in the offensive line -- Carr was sacked 16 times in his 15 starts. Adam Teicher, Kansas City Chiefs reporter: If the Raiders needed to know how important Carr was to them, the only evidence they needed was the two games they played without him. Oakland collapsed after losing Carr with a broken leg and lost the final regular-season game to the Broncos, costing the Raiders the division championship and a first-round bye in the playoffs. In the 15 games before his injury, Carr was generally at his best in the fourth quarter -- when he threw for 10 touchdowns and just one interception. Eric Williams, San Diego Chargers reporter: Carr had a breakout season in leading Oakland to the playoffs for the first time since 2002, and in my opinion meant more to his team than any other player in the AFC West. Carr completed 64 percent of his passes, finishing with 28 touchdown passes and six interceptions. Carr was even more impressive when games matter most in the fourth quarter, throwing 10 touchdown passes and just one interception. A broken right leg suffered by Carr in garbage time against the Colts derailed Oakland’s playoff hopes.Alcoholism in family systems refers to the conditions in families that enable alcoholism, and the effects of alcoholic behavior by one or more family members on the rest of the family. Mental health professionals are increasingly considering alcoholism and addiction as diseases that flourish in and are enabled by family systems.[1] Family members react to the alcoholic with particular behavioral patterns. They may enable the addiction to continue by shielding the addict from the negative consequences of their actions. Such behaviors are referred to as codependence. In this way, the alcoholic is said to suffer from the disease of addiction, whereas the family members suffer from the disease of codependence.[2][3] While it is recognized that addiction is a family disease, affecting the entire family system, "the family is often ignored and neglected in the treatment of addictive disease." [4] Each individual member is affected and should receive treatment for their own benefit and healing, but in addition to benefitting the individuals themselves, this also helps to better support the addict/alcoholic in his/her recovery process. "The chances of recovery are greatly reduced unless the co-dependents are willing to accept their role in the addictive process and submit to treatment themselves." [5] "Co-dependents are mutually dependent on the addict to fulfill some need of their own." [4] For example, if the "Chief Enabler" (the main enabler in the family) will often turn a blind eye to the addict's drug/alcohol use as this allows for the enabler to continue to play the victim and/or martyr role, while allowing the addict to continue his/her own destructive behavior. Therefore, "the behavior of each reinforces and maintains the other, while also raising the costs and emotional consequences for both." [6] Alcoholism is one of the leading causes of a dysfunctional family.[7] "About one-fourth of the U.S. population is a member of family that is affected by an addictive disorder in a first-degree relative." [4][8] As of 2001, there were an estimated 26.8 million children of alcoholics (COAs) in the United States, with as many as 11 million of them under the age of 18.[9
it was unclear whether public schools and universities could forbid marijuana possession under the new law. A spokesman for the public safety office said its legal counsel was considering “a lot of questions” as the deadline drew near. But the spokesman, Terrel Harris, would not elaborate. “We are just trying to make sure we have all the answers,” Mr. Harris said. Mr. Capeless said that in particular the department needed to address a clause in the new law that said neither the state nor its “political subdivisions or their respective agencies” could impose “any form of penalty, sanction or disqualification” on anyone found with an ounce or less of marijuana. Advertisement Continue reading the main story “It appears to say that you get a $100 fine and they can’t do anything else to you,” he said. “Can a police officer caught with marijuana several times get to keep his job and not be disciplined in any fashion? Can public high schools punish kids for smoking cigarettes but not for having pot?” Mr. Bernath agreed that the law was “not completely clear” on how to handle such situations, but predicted that they would be rare. “I think the resistance has to do with dealing with something new,” he said. “We’re pretty confident that once this gets going and the newness of it wears off, a lot of the apprehension will go away.”Last week police in Cleveland shot and killed 12-year-old Tamir Rice, claiming the boy tried to pull a (fake) gun out of his pants when ordered to put his hands up. The interaction was instigated by a 911 caller who said he saw someone with what was a “probably fake” gun. Now surveillance video appears to contradict police claims, as it shows the police officer shooting Rice immediately after getting out of a moving patrol car. Watch below, via Cleveland.com: There could be more than 300 million (real) guns in America, and an infinitesimally small proportion are used to commit crimes. Politically expedient fearmongering over guns, however, can lead to frivolous 911 calls that, in combination with trigger-happy yet largely immune cops, can be fatal. Matt Yglesias says the cops' assumption Rice's toy gun was real "wasn't unreasonable." For someone that spends a lot of time arguing from authority, he doesn't hold the "experts" to a high standard. You can't be deferential to cops' judgment AND not expect them to make better judgments and then blame anything other than your attitude on the police violence that predictably follows. Boys, and girls, have been playing with toy guns for decades and somehow cops used to be able to handle it without arresting or shooting children.Many countries are on the brink of becoming self-sufficient in their clean energy production, thanks to advances in battery technology that allow electricity from renewable sources to be stored and used on demand. Over the years, as renewable energy generation methods have charged forward, utility companies have struggled with how to integrate that clean energy in usable ways. Now, scientists at Harvard, MIT, Stanford, the Lawrence Livermore and Oak Ridge labs, and other agencies are working on energy storage projects funded by the U.S. Department of Energy, with their sights set on what the department calls the ‘holy grail’ of energy policy. The department says the industry could be transformed in as little as five to ten years. Earlier this year, Advanced Research Projects-Energy (ARPA-E), the division of the U.S. Department of Energy founded in 2009 to oversee these projects, claimed to have achieved that goal. Without pointing to a specific invention or discovery, ARPA-E insists that the solution lies amid the 75 projects the agency is funding. The breakthrough technology—the next generation of renewable energy storage—is expected to be developed for large-scale usage in as little as five to ten years. Related: New study says U.S. could run entirely on clean energy by 2050 “I think we have reached some holy grails in batteries–just in the sense of demonstrating that we can create a totally new approach to battery technology, make it work, make it commercially viable, and get it out there to let it do its thing,” said Ellen Williams, ARPA-E’s director. The battery systems under development range widely in their approach to long-term renewable energy storage. They range from hybrid fuel-cell to zinc-air batteries, as well as next generation flywheels, a system that stores energy as heat in molten glass, and a wild idea from Harvard that uses a rhubarb derivative. If just one of the 75 government-funded research projects leads to a viable battery storage device that costs significantly less than current grid electricity systems, the future of utility-scale renewable energy will be cracked wide open. Of the projects backed by the agency, three already have grid-scale and back-up batteries on the market and six others are in the process of developing new batteries. Each promises the potential for efficient, cost-effective energy storage that could make it possible (and financially alluring) to break up with fossil fuels for good. Via The Telegraph and The Guardian Images via Shutterstock and Harvard UniversityWhose Line Is It Anyway?, the improv "competition" series where everything is made up and the points don't matter, was a sleeper hit for eight seasons on ABC and ABC Family starting in the late '90s. Now, Wayne Brady, Ryan Stiles and Colin Mochrie are back to their old hilarious tricks in a reboot on The CW. Aisha Tyler, who takes the hosting reins from Drew Carey, fills us in on the upcoming antics. TV Guide Magazine: What do you bring that's new or different as host? Aisha Tyler: Well, more girlness and more blackness. [Laughs] I love Drew, and I was incredibly honored to be asked to take over for him, but I'm not going to try to be him. I'm going to bring my own sensibility. TV Guide Magazine: Some of the improv games on the show — like Scenes From a Hat and Sound Effects — are the stuff of YouTube legend. Will you introduce any instant classics on the reboot? Tyler: There are a bunch of new games, including one that is absolutely my favorite, but I can't tell you. There's gotta be some surprises! TV Guide Magazine: The show also has a celebrity participant each week. Were there any standouts? Tyler: [The Vampire Diaries'] Candice Accola was pretty amazing. That was a real shock just in terms of how game she was. She's a singer! Kevin McHale [from Glee] obviously was amazing, but no one was surprised by that. TV Guide Magazine: Will we see you performing toe-to-toe with the guys? Tyler: I don't get out on the floor in this season — we do a lot of back-and-forth from the desk — but hopefully if we come back, I'll be able to get in there. Whose Line Is It Anyway? premieres Tuesday at 8/7c on The CW. Subscribe to TV Guide Magazine now!The World Stars team included Michel Salgado (captain), Luis Figo, Roberto Carlos, Fabio Cannavaro, Guti, Fernando Hierro, Fernando Couto, Vitor Baia, Bodo Illgner, Clarence Seedorf, Patrick Kluivert, Steve McManaman, Fernando Morientes, Marcel Desailly, Gaizka Mendieta, Edgar Davids, Jari Litmanen, Christian Karembeu, Boudewijn Zenden and Santiago Solari. Iran’s All-Star team featured 1998 and 2006 Iran World Cup players as well as Iranian celebrities. The World Stars team takes the field once a month in a country to raise funds for people who are suffering from a disease or disaster. Support for Ebola patients in Africa was one of the latest fundraisers of this team. The match was held to raise money for MS patients. The game The constellation of world-renowned former soccer giants, including Vitor Baia, Luis Figo, Marcel Desailly, Pedro Miguel Carreiro Resendes, known as Pauleta, as well as Fabio Cannavaro, edged the Iranian side 3-0 in a fixture staged at Azadi stadium in western Iran. On the 24th minute, the world stars were awarded a free kick, which Brazilian footballer Roberto Carlos, adroitly landed just inside the Iranians’ net. In the 31st minute, Figo cracked a terrific shot into the bottom corner of the net to put the world’s all-star team 2-0 ahead. Shortly afterwards, Iran’s Alireza Mansourian, who is currently manager of Naft Tehran F.C. in Iran Pro League, delivered a pass to Farhad Majidi, who shot. The goalkeeper for world stars’ team, Vitor Baia, parried the shot outside the penalty area, and the referee, Afshariya, flashed the red card. However, he altered his decision due to the nature of the match and showed the Portuguese retired footballer the yellow card. Pauleta seized a golden opportunity one minute before the breather and scored the third goal for the world retired soccer giants. The match lost its momentum after the break, and both squads did not threaten each others’ posts. Sources: Payvand News 1, Payvand News 2, Tasnim News Agency, IRNA, Borna NewsASIAN LINGUISTIC MAPS : Arabian Peninsula & Near East Irak or Iraq (24 living languages) : Adyghe(Adygey, West Circassian) Arabic, Gulf Spoken (Gulf Arabic, Khaliji) Arabic, Judeo-Iraqi (Arabi, Iraqi Judeo-Arabic, Jewish Iraqi-Baghdadi Arabic, Yahudic) Arabic, Mesopotamian Spoken (Arabic, Baghdadi, Furati, Iraqi Arabic, Mesopotamian Gelet Arabic, Mesopotamian Qeltu Arabic) Arabic, Najdi Spoken Arabic, North Mesopotamian Spoken (Mesopotamian Qeltu Arabic, Moslawi, Syro-Mesopotamian Vernacular Arabic) Arabic, Standard Armenian Assyrian Neo-Aramaic (Aisorski, Assyrian, Assyrianci, Assyriski, Lishana Aturaya, Neo-Syriac, Sooreth, Suret, Sureth, Suryaya Swadaya) Azerbaijani, South Bajelani (Bajalani, Bajoran, Bejwan, Chichamachu, Gurani) Chaldean Neo-Aramaic (Chaldean, Fallani, Fellihi, Kaldaya, Kildani, Lishana Kaldaya, Modern Chaldean, Neo-Chaldean, Soorath, Soorith, Suras, Sureth) Domari (Middle Eastern Romani) Farsi, Western (Persian) Gurani (Gorani, Hawramani, Hawrami, Hewrami, Macho) Koy Sanjaq Surat (Koi Sanjaq Soorit, Koi-Sanjaq Sooret, Koy Sanjaq Sooret, Koy Sanjaq Soorit) Kurdish Kurdish, Central (Kurdi, Sorani) Kurdish, Northern (Badinani, Bahdini, Behdini, Kirmanciya Jori, Kurmanji) Kurdish, Southern Mandaic (Mandaean, Mandi, Modern Mandaic, Neo-Mandaic, Sabe’in, Sabean, Subbi) Sarli (Sarliya) Shabak Syriac Extinct languages : Jewish Babylonian Aramaic (Babylonian Talmudic Aramaic) Israel (33 living languages) : Adyghe (Adygey, West Circassian) Amharic (“Falasha”) Arabic, Judeo-Iraqi (Arabi, Iraqi Judeo-Arabic, Jewish Iraqi-Baghdadi Arabic, Yahudic) Arabic, Judeo-Moroccan Arabic, Judeo-Tripolitanian (Jewish Tripolitanian-Libyan Arabic, Tripolita’it, Tripolitanian Judeo-Arabic, Yudi) Arabic, Judeo-Tunisian Arabic, Judeo-Yemeni (Judeo-Yemeni, Yemenite Judeo-Arabic) Arabic, South Levantine Spoken (Levantine, Palestanian-Jordanian Arabic) Arabic, Standard Armenian (Armjanski, Ermenice, Haieren, Somkhuri) Barzani Jewish Neo-Aramaic (Bijil Neo-Aramaic, Lishan Didan, Lishan Dideni) Bukharic (Bokharan, Bokharic, Bukharan, Bukharian, Judeo-Tajik) Domari (Nawari, Near-Eastern Gypsy) Dzhidi (Judeo-Persian) English (Anglit) Hebrew (Ivrit) Hulaulá (’Aramit, Galiglu, Hula Hula, Jabali, Judeo-Aramaic, Kurdit, Lishana Axni, Lishana Noshan) Hungarian Israeli Sign Language (ISL) Judeo-Arabic Judeo-Berber Judeo-Georgian Judeo-Tat (Bik, Dzhuhuric, Jewish Tat, Judeo-Tatic, Juhuri, “Tati”) Ladino (Dzhudezmo, Haquetiya, Judeo Spanish, Judezmo, Sefardi, Spanyol) Lishán Didán (Galihalu, Lakhlokhi, Lishanán, Lishanid Nash Didán, Persian Azerbaijan Jewish Aramaic) Lishana Deni (Judeo-Aramaic, Kurdit, Lishan Hozaye, Lishan Hudaye) Lishanid Noshan (Galigalu, Hula’ula, Hulani, Jbeli, Kurdit, Lishana Didán) Polish (Polski) Romanian Russian (Russit, Russki) Tigrigna (“Falashas”, Tigrinya) Yevanic (Judeo-Greek, Yevanitika) Yiddish Yiddish Sign Language Yiddish, Eastern (Judeo-German, Yiddish) Extinct languages : Hebrew, Ancient (Old Hebrew) Jordan (7 living languages) : Adyghe (Adygey, West Circassian) Arabic, Levantine Bedawi Spoken (Bedawi) Arabic, Najdi Spoken Arabic, South Levantine Spoken (Arabic, Levantine Arabic, Palestinian-Jordanian, South Levantine Arabic) Arabic, Standard Armenian Chechen Domari (Barake, Gypsy, Kurbat, Middle Eastern Romani, Nawar, Tsigene) Jordanian Sign Language (Lughat il-Ishaarah il-Urduniah, LIU) Kabardian Kuwait (2 living languages) : Arabic, Gulf Spoken (Khaliji) Arabic, Standard Mehri (Mahri) Liban / Lebanon (5 langues vivantes) : Arabic, North Levantine Spoken (Lebanese-Syrian Arabic, Levantine Arabic, Syro-Lebanese Arabic) (Arabe Levantine Nord) Arabic, Standard (Arabe Standard) Armenian (Armanski, Ermenice, Haieren, Somkhuri) (Arménien) English (Anglais) French (Français) Kurdish, Northern (Kurde septentrional) Palestinian West Bank and Gaza (4 living languages) : Arabic, Levantine Bedawi Spoken (Bedawi) Arabic, South Levantine Spoken (Bedawi) Arabic, Standard Domari (Nawari, Near-Eastern Gypsy) Samaritan (Samaritan Hebrew) Samaritan Aramaic Syria (16 living languages) : Adyghe (Adygey, West Circassian) Arabic, Levantine Bedawi Spoken (Bedawi) Arabic, Mesopotamian Spoken (Furati, Mesopotamian Gelet Arabic, North Syrian Arabic) Arabic, Najdi Spoken (Bedawi) Arabic, North Levantine Spoken (Lebanese-Syrian Arabic, Levantine Arabic, North Levantine Arabic, Syro-Lebanese Arabic) Arabic, North Mesopotamian Spoken (Mesopotamian Qeltu Arabic, Moslawi, Syro-Mesopotamian Arabic) Arabic, Standard Armenian (Armjanski, Ermenice, Haieren, Somkhuri) Assyrian Neo-Aramaic (Aisorski, Assyrian, Assyriski, Lishana Aturaya, Neo-Syriac, Suret, Sureth, Suryaya Swadaya) Azerbaijani, South Domari (Barake, Gypsy, Kurbat, Middle Eastern Romani, Nawar, Tsigene) Kabardian Kurdish, Northern (Kurdi, Kurmancî, Kurmanji) Lomavren (Armenian Bosha, Arnebuab Bisa, Bosa, Bosha) Turoyo (Surayt, Suryoyo, Syryoyo, Turani) Western Neo-Aramaic (Loghtha Siryanoytha, Maalula, Neo-Western Aramaic, Siryon) Extinct languages : Mlahsö (Suryoyo) All languages [Show] All languages [Hide] Arabia Saudiana (Latin), Arabia Saudita (Italian, Romansh, Spanish), Arabia Saudită (Romanian), Arábia Saudita (Portuguese), Arabia Saudite (Albanian), Arabia Saudyjska (Polish), Arabie Saoudite (French), al-'Arabīyah as-Sa'ūdīyah - العربية السعودية (Arabic), Arab Saudi (Indonesian, Malay), Arav ha'Saudit - ערב הסעודית (Hebrew), Aravia Saudita (Guarani), Saoedi-Arabië (Dutch), Saūda Arābija (Latvian), Saŭda Arabio (Esperanto), Saudi Araabia (Estonian, Võro), Saûdi-Araabje (Frisian), Saudi-Arabia (Finnish, Norwegian, Scots Gaelic), Saudiarabien (Swedish), Saudi-Arabien (Danish, German), Saudijska Arabija (Croatian, Serbian), Saudikí Aravía - Σαουδική Αραβία (Greek), Sauditska Arabiya - Саудитска Арабия (Bulgarian), Saudo Arabija (Lithuanian), Saudova Arabija (Slovene), Saudovskaya Araviya -Саудовская Аравия (Russian), Saudská Arábia (Slovak), Saúdská Arábie (Czech), Saujiarabia - サウジアラビア (Japanese), Sawdi Arabia (Welsh), Sawdi Arabja or Għarabja Sawdita (Maltese), Səudiyyə Ərəbistanı (Azeri), Söğüd Ğäräbstan (Tatar), Suudi Arabistan (Turkish), Szaúd-Arábia (Hungarian), 沙特阿拉伯 (Mainland China), 沙烏地阿拉伯 (Taiwan), அரபு நாடு (Tamil), Tô Cách Lan / Xcốtlen / Scốtlen (Vietnamese), Uskoti (Swahili), 蘇格蘭 (Chinese) Iemen - イエメン (Japanese), Iémen (Portuguese), Iêmen (Brazilian Portuguese), Iemen (Welsh, Scots Gaelic), Iemenia or Iemenium (Latin), Jeemen (Estonian, Võro), Jemen (Afrikaans, Bosnian, Croatian, Czech, Dutch, Finnish, German, Hungarian, Maltese, Norwegian, Polish, Slovak, Slovene), Jemena (Latvian), Jemenas (Lithuanian), Jemeno (Esperanto), Teyman - תימן (Hebrew), Teymen - תּימן (Yiddish), al-Yaman - اليمن (Arabic), Yaman (Indonesian, Malay), Yemen (Catalan, Danish, Italian, Romanian, Spanish, Swedish, Turkish), Yémen (French), Yəmən (Azeri), Yemen - Йемен (Bulgarian, Russian), Yemen - Ємен (Ukrainian), Yeméni - Υεμένη (Greek), 葉門 / 也門 (Chinese) Bachrania (Latin), Bachréin - Μπαχρέιν (Greek), Bachrejn - Бахрэйн (Belarusian), al-Bahrain - البحرين (Arabic), Bahrain - بحرين (ٗUrdu), Bahrain (Breton, Danish, Finnish, German, Italian, Norwegian, Polish, Scots Gaelic, Swedish, Welsh), Bahrain - बहरैन (Hindi, Marathi), Bahrain - బహ్రైన్ (Telugu), Bahrajn (Czech, Slovak, Slovene), Bahrein (Bosnian, Catalan, Croatian, Dutch, Estonian, Hungarian, Serbian, Spanish, Võro), Bakhreyn - בחריין (Hebrew), Bahreina (Latvian), Bahreinas (Lithuanian), Bahreïn (French), Baħrejn (Maltese), Bahreyn (Turkish), Bəhreyn (Azeri), Bahreyn - Бахрейн (Bulgarian), Bahrejn - Бахрейн (Russian, Ukrainian), Bālín - 巴林 (Mandarin Chinese), Barein/Parein - 바레인 (Korean), Barein (Brazilian Portuguese), Bareine (Brazilian Portuguese alternative, Baharem (Brazilian Portuguese alternative), Barejno (Esperanto), Barém (Portuguese), Bārēn - バーレーン (Japanese), બહરૈન (Gujarati), বাহরাইন (Bengali), Bahrain - บาห์เรน (Thai) Āmàn - 阿曼 (Mandarin Chinese), Omã (Portuguese variant), Omaan (Estonian), Omaan' (Võro), Oman (Azeri, Danish, Dutch, Finnish, French, German, Indonesian, Italian, Malay, Maltese, Portuguese variant, Romanian, Slovene), Oman - Оман (Bulgarian, Russian), Omán (Spanish), Omán - Ομάν (Greek), Omán (Czech, Hungarian), Omāna (Latvian), Omān - オマーン (Japanese), Omanas (Lithuanian), Omano (Esperanto), Omão (Portuguese variant), ‘Umān - عُمان (Arabic), Umman (Turkish), Oman - โอมาน (Thai) Suria (Armenian), Shiria - シリア (Japanese), Síria (Catalan, Portuguese), an tSiria (Irish), Siria (Italian, Romanian, Romansh, Scots Gaelic, Spanish), Sīrija (Latvian), Sirija (Lithuanian, Serbian, Slovene), Sirio (Esperanto), Siriya - Cиpия (Bulgarian, Russian), Sirja (Maltese), Sirye - סיריע (Yiddish), Soría (old Italian), Suriah (Indonesian), Suriya (Azeri), Suriye (Turkish), Sūriyyah - سورية (Arabic), Surya (Armenian), Suriya - סוריה (Hebrew), Süriä (Tatar), Süüria (Estonian), Süüriä (Võro), Syria (Latin, Malay, Polish, Welsh), Sýria (Slovak), Syría - Συρία (Greek), Sýrie (Czech), Syrië (Afrikaans, Dutch), Syyria (French), Syrien (Danish, German, Low Saxon, Swedish), Syriska (Lower Sorbian), Syrje (Frisian), Syyria (Finnish), Szíria (Hungarian), 敘利亞 (Chinese) Catar (Portuguese variant), Katar (Czech, Dutch alternate, Estonian, German, Hungarian, Polish, Slovak, Slovene, Turkish), Katár - Κατάρ (Greek), Katar - Катар (Bulgarian, Ukrainian, Russian), Katar - קטאר (Hebrew), Katara (Latvian), Kataras (Lithuanian), Kataro (Esperanto), Katāru - カタール (Japanese), Qatar (Azeri, Danish, Dutch, Finnish, French, Indonesian, Interlingua, Italian, Malay, Portuguese, Romanian, Spanish, Swedish, Tatar), Qaţar - قطر (Arabic), kadaer - 卡達 (Chinese variant), Kwoti (Maltese), 卡塔尔 (Mandarin Chinese) Miatsial Arabagan Amirayutiunner (Armenian), Apvienotie Arābu Emirāti (Latvian), Araabia Ühendemiraadid (Estonian), Araabia Ütisemiraadiq (Võro), Arab Emirate Yeonhapguk -아랍 에미레이트 연합국(Korean), Arabiemiirikunnat or Yhdistyneet arabiemiirikunnat or Yhdistyneet Arabiemiraatit (Finnish), na h-Eimearatan Àrabach Aonaichte (Scots Gaelic), Birleşik Arap Emirlikleri (Turkish), Birləşmiş Ərəb Əmirlikləri (Azeri), Emirados Árabes Unidos (Portuguese variant), Emiratele Arabe Unite (Romanian), Emirati Arabi Uniti (Italian), Emirati Għarab Magħquda (Maltese), Emiratos Árabes Unidos (Portuguese, Spanish), Émirats arabes unis (French), Emiriah Arab Bersatu or Amiriah Arab Bersatu (Malay), Förenade Arabemiraten (Swedish), (De) Forenede Arabiske Emirater (Danish), (De) Forente arabiske emirater (Norwegian), Al-Imārāt al-‘Arabiyyah al-Muttahida - الإمارات العربية المتحدة (Arabic), Arabu Shuchōkoku Rempō - アラブ首長国連邦 (Japanese), Ikhud ha'Amiruyot ha'Araviyot - איחוד העמירויות הערביות (Hebrew), Inoména Araviká Emiráta - Ηνωμένα Αραβικά Εμιράτα (Greek), Jungtiniai Arabų Emiratai (Lithuanian), Mga Nagkakaisang Emiratong Arabo (Filipino/Tagalog), Obedineni arabski emirstva - Обединени арабски емирства (Bulgarian), Obyedinyonnyye Arabskiye Emiraty - Объединённые Арабские Эмираты (Russian), Sameinuðu arabísku furstadæmin (Icelandic), Spojené arabské emiráty (Czech, Slovak), Tetã peteĩ reko Amérikagua (Guarani), Uni Emirat Arab (Indonesian), Unuiĝintaj Arabaj Emirlandoj (Esperanto), Vereinigte Arabische Emirate (German), Verenigde Arabische Emiraten (Dutch), Združeni arabski emirati (Slovene), Zjednoczone Emiraty Arabskie (Polish), Združeni arabski emirati (Slovene), 阿拉伯联合酋长国 / 阿拉伯聯合大公國 (Chinese) Iisrael (Estonian, Võro), Iosrael (Scots Gaelic), Iseurael/Isŭraël - 이스라엘 (Korean), Israel (Danish, Finnish, German, Guarani, Latin, Norwegian, Portuguese, Romanian, Romansh, Spanish, Swedish, Welsh), Israël (Dutch, French), Israele (Italian), Israeli - ისრაელი (Georgian), Israelo (Esperanto), Isuraeru - イスラエル (Japanese), İsrail (Azeri, Turkish), Israíl - Ισραήλ (Greek), Isrā'īl - إسرائيل (Arabic, Urdu), Izrael (Albanian, Croatian, Czech, Hungarian, Polish, Serbian, Slovak, Slovene), Iżrael (Maltese), Izrael - Израел (Bulgarian), Ísrael (Icelandic), Izraēla (Latvian), Izraelis (Lithuanian), Izrail - Изpaиль (Russian), Yǐsèliè - 以色列 (Mandarin Chinese), Yisrael - ישראל (Hebrew), Yisroel - ישׂראל (Yiddish), Israel - อิสราเอล (Thai) Ġordan (Maltese), Giordania (Italian), Iòrdan (Scots Gaelic), Iordania (Romanian), Iordanía - Ιορδανία (Greek), Iordaniya - Иордания (Russian), Iorddonen (Welsh), Jordaania (Estonian, Võro), Jordan (Croatian, Danish, Malay, Norwegian, Serbian), Jordania (Albanian, Finnish, Interlingua, Latin, Polish, Spanish), Jordánia (Hungarian), Jórdanía - (Icelandic), Jordânia (Portuguese), Jordanie (French), Jordanië (Dutch), Jordanien (German, Swedish), Jordānija (Latvian), Jordanija (Lithuanian, Slovene), Jordanio (Esperanto), Jordánsko (Czech, Slovak), Ürdün (Turkish), Ürdün or İordaniya (Azeri), al-Urdun - الأردن (Arabic), Yarden - ירדן (Hebrew), Yardn - ירדן (Yiddish), Yordania (Indonesian), Yordaniya - Йордания (Bulgarian), Yuēdàn - 約旦/约旦 (Chinese), Yoreudan/Yorŭdan - 요르단 (Korean), Yorudan - ヨルダン (Japanese). Jordan - จอร์แดน (Thai) Formerly Teuranseu Yoreudan/T'ŭransŭ Yorŭdan - 트란스 요르단 (Korean), Transjordan (English), Transjordania (Spanish), Transjordanie (French), Transjordanië (Dutch), Transjordanien (German) Libanan (Armenian), Leabanon (Scots Gaelic), Lebanon (Indonesian), Lebanon - เลบานอน (Thai), Levanon - לבנון (Hebrew), Levonon - לבֿנון (Yiddish), Liban (French, Polish, Romanian, Serbian), Liban - Либан (Macedonian, Serbian), Libāna (Latvian), Libanas (Lithuanian), Líbānèn - 黎巴嫩 (Mandarin Chinese), Libani (Albanian), Libani - ლიბანი (Georgian), Libano (Esperanto, Italian), Líbano (Portuguese, Spanish), Libanon (Afrikaans, Czech, Danish, Dutch, Finnish, German, Hungarian, Norwegian, Romansh, Slovak, Slovene, Swedish), Líbanon - (Icelandic), Libanu (Maltese), Libanus (Latin, Welsh), Liibanon (Estonian, Võro), an Liobáin (Irish), Livan - Ливaн (Bulgarian, Russian), Lívanos - Λίβανος (Greek), Lubnan (Malay), Lübnan (Turkish), Lübnan or Livan (Azeri), Lubnān - لبنان (Arabic), Rebanon - レバノン (Japanese), Rebanon - 레바논 (Korean) Baghestin (Armenian), Bālèsītǎn - 巴勒斯坦 (Mandarin Chinese), Fələstin (Azeri), Filistin (Turkish), Filusţeen - فلسطين (Arabic), Palestin (Malay), Palestina (Afrikaans, Czech, Dutch, Indonesian, Lithuanian, Maltese, Norwegian, Portuguese, Romanian, Serbian, Swedish, Welsh), Palästina (German), Palestiina (Estonian, Finnish, Võro), Palestíni - Παλαιστίνη (Greek), Palestino (Esperanto), Palestyna (Polish), Paresuchina - パレスチナ (Japanese) Coveite (Portuguese variant), Kēwēitè - 科威特 (Mandarin Chinese), Koeweit (Afrikaans, Dutch), Kouvéit - Κουβέιτ (Greek), Koweit (Portuguese), Koweït (French), Kuvait (Hungarian), Kuvajt (Czech, Slovene), Kuvajto (Esperanto), Kuveit (Estonian, Võro), Kuveit - כווית (Hebrew), Kuveita (Latvian), Kuveitas (Lithuanian), Kuveiti - ქუვეითი (Georgian), Kuveyt (Turkish), Küveyt (Azeri), Kuveyt - Кувейт (Bulgarian, Russian), Kuwait (Danish, Dutch, German, Finnish, Indonesian, Italian, Malay, Norwegian, Portuguese variant, Spanish, Swedish), Kuwajt (Maltese), al-Kuwayt - الكويت (Arabic), Kuwēto - クウェート (Japanese), Kuweiteu/K'uweit'ŭ - 쿠웨이트 (Korean), Kuwejt (Polish), Kuvet - คูเวต (Thai) Eraqi - ერაყი (Georgian), Iorac (Scots Gaelic), Iraak (Estonian, Võro), Irac (Romansh, Welsh), Irak (Albanian, Croatian, Danish, Dutch, Finnish, French, German, Hungarian, Indonesian, Maltese, Norwegian, Polish, Romanian, Serbian, Slovak, Slovene, Spanish variant, Swedish, Turkish), Irak - Иpaк (Bulgarian, Russian), Irák (Czech), Irák - Ιράκ (Greek), Irakas (Lithuanian), Irāka (Latvian), Irakeu/Irak'ŭ - 이라크 (Korean), Irako (Esperanto), Iraku - イラク (Japanese), al-Irāq - العراق (Arabic), Irāq - عراق (Urdu), Írak (Icelandic),Iraq (Italian, Kurdish, Malay, Spanish), Irak - עיראק (Hebrew), Iraque (Portuguese), Iraquia (Latin), Mesopotamia (Latin variant), İraq (Azeri), Yìlākè - 伊拉克 (Mandarin Chinese), Irak - อิรัก (Thai) Map (all languages) [Show] Map [Hide] Aragonés - Mapa / العربية - خريطة / Asturianu - Mapa / Български - Карта / বাংলা - মানচিত্র / Bosanski - Karta / Català - Plànol / Česky - Mapa / Dansk - Kort (geografi) / Deutsch - Karte (Kartografie) / English - Map / Esperanto - Mapo / Español - Mapa / Euskara - Mapa / Eesti - Kaart (kartograafia) / فارسی - نقشه (زمین) / Suomi - Kartta / Français - Carte géographique / Galego - Mapa / עברית - מפה / हिन्दी - मानचित्र / Hrvatski - Karta / Magyar - Térkép / Bahasa Indonesia - Peta / Íslenska - Kort / Italiano - Mappa / 日本語 - 地図 / ქართული - გეოგრაფიული რუკა / 한국어 - 지도 / Lëtzebuergesch - Landkaart / Lietuvių - Žemėlapis / മലയാളം - ഭൂപടം / Bahasa Melayu - Peta / Nederlands - Kaart (cartografie) / ‪Norsk (nynorsk)‬ - Kart / ‪Norsk (bokmål)‬ - Kart / Polski - Mapa / Português - Mapa / Română - Hartă /
the end of 1998.[59] An estimated 3 million Genesis units were sold by Tec Toy in Brazil.[99][100] Technical specifications [ edit ] The main microprocessor is a 16/32-bit Motorola 68000 CPU clocked at 7.6 MHz.[101] The console uses a Zilog Z80 sub-processor, mainly used to control the sound hardware and provide backward compatibility with the Master System. The system has 72 kB of RAM, 64 kB of video RAM, and can display up to 61 colors[102] at once from a palette of 512. The games are in ROM cartridge format and inserted in the top.[103] The system produces sound using a Yamaha YM2612 FM synthesizer and a Texas Instruments SN76489 PSG; the latter is integrated with the Video Display Processor (VDP). The Z80 processor is primarily used to control both sound chips to produce stereo music and sound effects. Most revisions of the original system contain a discrete YM2612 and a separate YM7101 VDP; the functionality of these two chips was later integrated into a single custom ASIC (FC1004) for the model 2 and later revisions.[103] The back of the model 1 console provides a radio frequency output port (designed for use with antenna and cable systems) and a specialized 8-pin DIN port, both of which provide video and audio output. Both outputs produce monophonic sound; a headphone jack on the front of the console produces stereo sound.[104] On the model 2, the DIN port, radio frequency output port, and headphone jack are replaced by a 9-pin mini-DIN port on the back for composite video, RGB and stereo sound, and the standard RF switch.[105] Earlier model 1 consoles have a 9-pin extension port, although this was removed in later production runs and is absent in the model 2. An edge connector on the bottom-right of the console allows it to be connected to a peripheral.[106] Peripherals [ edit ] Sega Genesis six-button controller The standard controller features a rounded shape, a directional pad, three main buttons, and a "start" button. Sega later released a six-button version in 1993. This pad is slightly smaller and features three additional face buttons, similar to the design of buttons on some popular arcade fighting games such as Street Fighter II. The third model of the controller, MK-1470 was released with the Sega Genesis Model 3, with a switch between Normal, Turbo, and Slow while also having the Mode button. Sega released a wireless revision of the six-button controller, the Remote Arcade Pad.[107] The system is backward compatible with the Master System. The first peripheral released, the Power Base Converter (Master System Converter in Europe), allows Master System games to be played.[108] A second model, the Master System Converter 2, was released only in Europe for use with the Mega Drive II.[107] Other peripherals were released to add functionality. The Menacer is a wireless, infrared light gun peripheral used with compatible games.[108] Other third parties created light gun peripherals for the Genesis, such as the American Laser Games Pistol and the Konami Justifier. Released for art creation software, the Sega Mega Mouse features three buttons and is only compatible with a few games, such as Eye of the Beholder. A foam-covered bat called the BatterUP and the TeeVGolf golf club were released for both the Genesis and SNES.[107] Sega Power Base Converter on a model 1 Genesis In November 1993, Sega released the Sega Activator, an octagonal device that lies flat on the floor and was designed to translate the player's physical movements into game inputs.[107][109] Several high-profile games, including Mortal Kombat and Street Fighter II: Special Champion Edition, were adapted to support the peripheral. The device was a commercial failure, due mainly to its inaccuracy and its high price point.[107][110] IGN editor Craig Harris ranked the Sega Activator the third worst video game controller ever made.[111] Both EA and Sega released multitaps to allow more than the standard two players to play at once. Initially, EA's version, the 4 Way Play, and Sega's adapter, the Team Player, only supported each publisher's games. In response to complaints about this, Sega publicly stated, "We have been working hard to resolve this problem since we learned of it", and that a new Team Player which would work with all multitap games for the console would be released shortly.[112] Later games were created to work on both the 4 Way Play and Team Player.[107] Codemasters also developed the J-Cart system, providing two extra ports on the cartridge itself, although the technology came late in the console's life and is only featured on a few games.[113] Sega planned to release a steering wheel peripheral in 1994, and the Genesis version of Virtua Racing was advertised as being "steering wheel compatible," but the peripheral was cancelled.[114] Network services [ edit ] Sega Mega Modem peripheral, which allowed access to the Sega Meganet service In its first foray into online gaming, Sega created Sega Meganet, which debuted in Japan on November 3, 1990. Operating through a cartridge and a peripheral called the "Mega Modem," this allowed Mega Drive players to play a total of seventeen games online. A North American version, dubbed "Tele-Genesis," was announced but never released.[115] Another phone-based system, the Mega Anser, turned the Japanese Mega Drive into an online banking terminal.[19] In 1994, Sega started the Sega Channel, a game distribution system using cable television services Time Warner Cable and TCI. Using a special peripheral, Genesis players could download a game from a library of fifty each month and demos for upcoming releases. Games were downloaded to internal memory and deleted when the console was powered off. The Sega Channel reached 250,000 subscribers at its peak and ran until July 31, 1998, well past the release of the Sega Saturn.[115] In an effort to compete with Sega, third-party developer Catapult Entertainment created the XBAND, a peripheral which allowed Genesis players to engage in online competitive gaming. Using telephone services to share data, XBAND was initially offered in five U.S. cities in November 1994. The following year, the service was extended to the SNES, and Catapult teamed up with Blockbuster Video to market the service, but as interest in the service waned, it was discontinued in April 1997.[116] Library [ edit ] The Genesis library was initially modest, but eventually grew to contain games to appeal to all types of players. The initial pack-in game was Altered Beast, which was later replaced with Sonic the Hedgehog in 1991.[19] Top sellers included Sonic the Hedgehog, its sequel Sonic the Hedgehog 2, and Disney's Aladdin.[117] During development for the console, Sega Enterprises focused on developing action games, while Sega of America was tasked with developing sports games. A large part of the appeal of the Genesis library during the console's lifetime was the arcade-based experience of its games, as well as more difficult entries such as Ecco the Dolphin, and sports games such as Joe Montana Football.[19] Compared to its competition, Sega advertised to an older audience by hosting more mature games, including the uncensored version of Mortal Kombat.[19] Initially, the Genesis suffered from limited third-party support due to its low market share and Nintendo's monopolizing practices. Notably, the arcade hit Street Fighter II by Capcom initially skipped the Genesis, instead only being released on the SNES. However, as the Genesis continued to grow in popularity, Capcom eventually ported a version of Street Fighter II to the system known as Street Fighter II: Champion Edition,[118] that would go on to sell over a million copies.[119] One of the biggest third-party companies to support the Genesis early on was Electronic Arts. Trip Hawkins, founder and then president of EA, believed the Genesis faster drawing speed made it more suitable for sport games than the SNES, and credits EA's success on the Genesis for helping catapult the EA Sports brand.[120] Another third-party blockbuster for the system was the port of the original Mortal Kombat. Although the arcade game was released on the SNES and Genesis simultaneously, the two ports were not identical. The SNES version looked closer to the arcade game, but the Genesis version allowed players to bypass censorship, helping make it more popular.[121] In 1997, Sega of America claimed the Genesis had a software attach rate of 16 games sold per console, double that of the SNES.[122] Sega Virtua Processor [ edit ] [123] The graphics produced by the Sega Virtua Processor are comparable to those of Nintendo's Super FX chip. On the Super NES, companies could add enhancement chips to cartridges to increase the console's capabilities and produce more advanced graphics; for example, the launch game Pilotwings contained a digital signal processor. Later, the Super FX chip was designed to offload complex rendering tasks from the main CPU. It was first used in Star Fox, which renders 3D polygons in real time, and Super Mario World 2: Yoshi's Island demonstrates rotation, scaling, and stretching of individual sprites and manipulates large areas of the screen.[123] Sega began work on an enhancement chip to compete with the Super FX, resulting in the Sega Virtua Processor. This chip enables the Genesis to render polygons in real time and provides an "Axis Transformation" unit that handles scaling and rotation. Virtua Racing, the only game released with this chip, runs at a significantly higher and more stable frame rate than similar games on the SNES.[123] The chip was expensive to produce, and increased the cost of the games that used it. At US$100, Virtua Racing was the most expensive Genesis cartridge ever produced. Two other games, Virtua Fighter and Daytona USA, were planned for the SVP chip, but were instead moved into the Saturn's launch line-up.[123] There were plans to sell the SVP chip as a separate upgrade module for the Genesis,[124][125] but this module was never released.[123] In addition to accessories such as the Power Base Converter, the Sega Genesis supports two add-ons that each support their own game libraries. The first is the Sega CD (known as the Mega-CD in all regions except for North America), a compact disc-based peripheral that can play its library of games in CD-ROM format.[126] The second is the Sega 32X, a 32-bit peripheral which uses ROM cartridges and serves as a pass-through for Genesis games.[127] Sega produced a custom power strip to fit the peripherals' large AC adapters.[128] Both add-ons were officially discontinued in 1996.[57][126][127] Sega CD [ edit ] By 1991, compact discs had gained in popularity as a data storage device for music and software. PCs and video game companies had started to make use of this technology. NEC had been the first to include CD technology in a game console with the release of the TurboGrafx-CD add-on, and Nintendo was making plans to develop its own CD peripheral as well. Seeing the opportunity to gain an advantage over its rivals, Sega partnered with JVC to develop a CD-ROM add-on for the Genesis.[3][129][130] Sega launched the Mega-CD in Japan[3] on December 1, 1991, initially retailing at JP¥49,800.[131] The CD add-on was launched in North America on October 15, 1992, as the Sega CD, with a retail price of US$299;[3] it was released in Europe as the Mega-CD in 1993.[131] In addition to greatly expanding the potential size of its games, this add-on unit upgraded the graphics and sound capabilities by adding a second, more powerful processor, more system memory, and hardware-based scaling and rotation similar to that found in Sega's arcade games.[3][132] It provided battery-backed storage RAM to allow games to save high scores, configuration data, and game progress.[129] Shortly after its launch in North America, Sega began shipping the Sega CD with the pack-in game Sewer Shark, a full motion video (FMV) game developed by Digital Pictures, a company that became an important partner for Sega.[3] Touting the benefits of the CD's comparatively vast storage space, Sega and its third-party developers produced a number of games for the add-on that include digital video in their gameplay or as bonus content, as well as re-releasing several cartridge-based games with high-fidelity audio tracks.[126][129] In 1993, Sega released the Sega CD 2, a smaller and lighter version of the add-on designed for the Genesis II, at a reduced price compared to the original.[126] A limited number of games were later developed that use both the Sega CD and the Sega 32X add-ons.[133] The Mega-CD sold only 100,000 units during its first year in Japan, falling well below expectations. Although many consumers blamed the add-on's high launch price, it also suffered from a tiny software library; only two games were available at launch. This was due in part to the long delay before Sega made its software development kit available to third-party developers.[131] Sales were more successful in North America and Europe, although the novelty of FMV and CD-enhanced games quickly wore off as many of the system's later games were met with lukewarm or negative reviews. In 1995, Sega announced a shift in focus to its new console, the Saturn, and discontinued all advertising for Genesis hardware, including the Sega CD. The add-on sold 2.24 million units worldwide.[90] Sega 32X [ edit ] With the release of the Sega Saturn slated for 1995, Sega began to develop a stop-gap solution that would bridge the gap between the Genesis and the Saturn, and would serve as a less expensive entry into the 32-bit era.[134] At the Winter Consumer Electronics Show in January 1994, Sega of America research and development head Joe Miller took a phone call from Nakayama, in which Nakayama stressed the importance of coming up with a quick response to the Atari Jaguar. One potential idea for this came from a concept from Sega Enterprises, later known as "Project Jupiter," an entirely new independent console.[135] Project Jupiter was initially slated to be a new version of the Genesis, with an upgraded color palette and a lower cost than the upcoming Saturn, as well as with some limited 3D capabilities thanks to integration of ideas from the development of the Sega Virtua Processor chip. Miller suggested an alternative strategy, citing concerns with releasing a new console with no previous design specifications within six to nine months.[136] At the suggestion from Miller and his team, Sega designed the 32X as a peripheral for the existing Genesis, expanding its power with two 32-bit SuperH-2 processors.[137] The SH-2 had been developed in 1993 as a joint venture between Sega and Japanese electronics company Hitachi.[138] At the end of the Consumer Electronics show, with the basic design of the 32X in place, Sega Enterprises invited Sega of America to assist in development of the new add-on.[136] Although the new unit was a stronger console than originally proposed, it was not compatible with Saturn games.[137] Before the 32X could be launched, the release date of the Saturn was announced for November 1994 in Japan, coinciding with the 32X's target launch date in North America. Sega of America now was faced with trying to market the 32X with the Saturn's Japan release occurring simultaneously. Their answer was to call the 32X a "transitional device" between the Genesis and the Saturn.[135] This was justified by Sega's statement that both platforms would run at the same time, and that the 32X would be aimed at players who could not afford the more expensive Saturn.[127] The 32X was released in November 1994, in time for the holiday season. Demand among retailers was high, and Sega could not keep up orders for the system.[137] More than 1,000,000 orders had been placed for 32X units, but Sega had only managed to ship 600,000 units by January 1995.[127] Launching at about the same price as a Genesis console, the price of the 32X was less than half of what the Saturn's price would be at launch.[134] Despite the console's positioning as an inexpensive entry into 32-bit gaming, Sega had a difficult time convincing third-party developers to create games for the new system. After an early run on the peripheral, news soon spread to the public of the upcoming release of the Sega Saturn, which would not support the 32X's games. The Saturn was released on May 11, 1995,[139] four months earlier than its originally intended release date of September 2, 1995.[140] The Saturn, in turn, caused developers to further shy away from the console and created doubt about the library for the 32X, even with Sega's assurances that there would be a large number of games developed for the system. In early 1996, Sega conceded that it had promised too much out of the 32X and decided to stop producing the system in order to focus on the Saturn.[127] Prices for the 32X dropped to $99 and cleared out of stores at $19.95.[137] Variations [ edit ] More than a dozen licensed variations of the Sega Genesis/Mega Drive have been released.[141] In addition to models made by Sega, alternate models were made by other companies, such as Majesco Entertainment, AtGames, JVC, Pioneer Corporation, Amstrad, and Aiwa. A number of bootleg clones were created during its lifespan.[19] First-party models [ edit ] Genesis (second model) Genesis CDX Genesis Nomad TeraDrive In 1993, Sega introduced a smaller, lighter version of the console,[103] known as the Mega Drive 2 in Japan, Europe, and Australia[d] and simply sold as Genesis (without the Sega prefix) in North America. This version omits the headphone jack in the front, replaces the A/V-Out connector with a smaller version that supports stereo sound, and provides a simpler, less expensive mainboard that requires less power.[106] Sega released a combined, semi-portable Genesis/Sega CD unit called the Genesis CDX (marketed as the Multi-Mega in Europe). This unit retailed at $399.95 in the U.S.[142] (roughly $100 more than the individual Genesis and Sega CD units put together, since the Sega CD dropped its price to $229 half a year before[143]), and was bundled with Sonic CD, Sega Classics Arcade Collection, and the Sega CD version of Ecco the Dolphin.[144] The CDX features a small LCD screen that, when the unit is used to play audio CDs, displays the current track being played.[145] With this feature and the system's lightweight build (weighing two pounds), Sega marketed it in part as a portable CD player.[142] Late in the 16-bit era, Sega released a handheld version of the Genesis called the Genesis Nomad. Its design was based on the Mega Jet, a Mega Drive portable unit featured on airplane flights in Japan. As the only successor to the Game Gear, the Nomad operates on 6 AA batteries, displaying its graphics on a 3.25-inch (8.25-mm) LCD screen. The Nomad supports the entire Genesis library, but cannot be used with the Sega 32X, the Sega CD, or the Power Base Converter.[146] Exclusive to the Japanese market was the TeraDrive, a Mega Drive combined with an IBM PC compatible computer. Sega also produced three arcade system boards based on the Mega Drive: the System C-2, the MegaTech, and the MegaPlay, which support approximately 80 games combined.[19] Third-party models [ edit ] Wondermega (JVC model) Wondermega 2 Amstrad Mega PC Genesis 3 Firecore LaserActive Working with Sega Enterprises, JVC released the Wondermega on April 1, 1992, in Japan. The system was later redesigned by JVC and released as the X'Eye in North America in September 1994. Designed by JVC to be a Genesis and Sega CD combination with high quality audio, the Wondermega's high price ($500 at launch[147]) kept it out of the hands of average consumers.[148] The same was true of the Pioneer LaserActive, which requires an add-on known as the Mega-LD pack, developed by Sega, in order to play Genesis and Sega CD games. Although the LaserActive was lined up to compete with the 3DO Interactive Multiplayer, the combined price of the system and the Mega-LD pack made it a prohibitively expensive option for Sega players.[149] Aiwa released the CSD-GM1, a combination Genesis/Sega CD unit built into a boombox. Several companies added the Mega Drive to personal computers, mimicking the design of Sega's TeraDrive; these include the MSX models AX-330 and AX-990, distributed in Kuwait and Yemen, and the Amstrad Mega PC, distributed in Europe and Australia.[19] After the Genesis was discontinued, Majesco Entertainment released the Genesis 3 as a budget version in 1998.[150] In 2009, AtGames began producing two new variations: the Firecore, which can play original Genesis cartridges as well as preloaded games, and a handheld console preloaded with 20 Genesis games.[151] Companies such as Radica Games have released various compilations of Genesis and Mega Drive games in "plug-and-play" packages resembling the system's controller.[152] Re-releases and emulation [ edit ] A number of Genesis and Mega Drive emulators have been produced, including GenEM, KGen, Genecyst, VGen, St0rm,[153] and Gens.[154] The GameTap subscription gaming service included a Sega Genesis emulator and had several dozen licensed Genesis games in its catalog.[155] The Console Classix subscription gaming service includes an emulator and has several hundred Sega Genesis games in its catalog.[156] Compilations of Sega Genesis games have been released for other consoles. These include Sonic Mega Collection and Sonic Gems Collection for PS2, Xbox, and Nintendo GameCube; Sega Genesis Collection for PS2 and PSP, and Sonic's Ultimate Genesis Collection (known as the Sega Mega Drive Ultimate Collection in PAL territories) for PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360.[157][158] During his keynote speech at the 2006 Game Developers Conference, Nintendo president Satoru Iwata announced that Sega would make a number of Genesis/Mega Drive games available to download on the Wii's Virtual Console.[159] There are select Sega Genesis games available on the Xbox 360 through Xbox Live Arcade, such as Sonic the Hedgehog and Sonic 2,[160] as well as games available via the PlayStation Network[161] and Steam.[162] Later releases [ edit ] On May 22, 2006, North American company Super Fighter Team released Beggar Prince, a game translated from a 1996 Chinese original.[163] It was released worldwide and was the first commercial Genesis game release in North America since 1998.[164] Super Fighter Team would later go on to release two more games for the system, Legend of Wukong and Star Odyssey.[164] In December 2010, WaterMelon, an American company, released Pier Solar and the Great Architects, the first commercial role-playing video game specifically developed for the console since 1996,[165] and the biggest 16-bit game ever produced at 64 Mb.[166] Pier Solar is the only cartridge-based game which can optionally use the Sega CD to play an enhanced soundtrack and sound effects disc.[167] In 2013, independent programmer Future Driver, inspired by the Disney film Wreck-It Ralph, developed Fix-It Felix Jr. for the Genesis.[168] On December 5, 2007, Tec Toy released a portable version of the Sega Genesis/Mega Drive with twenty built-in games.[169] Another version called "Mega Drive Guitar Idol" comes with two six-button joypads and a guitar controller with five fret buttons. The Guitar Idol game contains a mix of Brazilian and international songs. The console has 87 built-in games, including some from Electronic Arts based on the mobile phone versions.[170] In 2009, Chinese company AtGames produced a Sega Genesis/Mega Drive-compatible console, the Firecore.[151] It features a top-loading cartridge slot and includes two controllers similar to the six-button controller for the original Genesis. The console has 15 games built-in and is region-free, allowing cartridge games to run regardless of their region.[171] AtGames produced a handheld version of the console.[172] Both machines have been released in Europe by distributing company Blaze Europe.[171] It was announced that TecToy has developed a new Genesis console that not only looks almost identical to the original model of the Sega Genesis known as the Genesis III, but also has a traditional cartridge slot and SD card reader which will be released in June 2017.[173] In 2018, Sega announced a miniature dedicated console version of the Genesis, the Mega Drive Mini. Similar to the NES and SNES Classic Editions, it will allow users to play a number of built-in Genesis games.[174] Legacy [ edit ] The Sega Genesis has often ranked among the best video game consoles. In 2009, IGN named it the fifth best video game console, citing its edge in sports games and better home version of Mortal Kombat, and lauding "what some consider to be the greatest controller ever created: the six button."[175] In 2007, GameTrailers named the Sega Genesis as the sixth best console of all time in their list of top ten consoles that "left their mark on the history of gaming," noting its great games and solid controller, and writing of the "glory days" of Sonic the Hedgehog.[176] In January 2008, technology columnist Don Reisinger proclaimed that the Sega Genesis "created the industry's best console war to date," citing Sonic the Hedgehog, superior sports games, and backward compatibility with the Sega Master System.[177] GamingExcellence also gave the Sega Genesis sixth place in 2008, declaring, "one can truly see the Genesis for the gaming milestone it was."[178] At the same time, GameDaily rated it ninth of ten for its memorable games.[179] In 2014, USgamer's Jeremy Parish wrote, "If the Atari generation introduced video games as a short-lived '70s fad... and the NES generation established it into an enduring obsession for the young, Sega's Genesis began pushing the medium toward something resembling its contemporary form," expounding that the system served as "the key incubator for modern sports franchises," made "consoles truly international" by providing Western third-parties previously put at a disadvantage by Nintendo's restrictive licensing policies with a more profitable alternative, created "an online subscription service" that foreshadowed "PlayStation Plus more than 15 years early" with the Sega Channel, and "played a key role in ensuring the vitality and future of the games industry by breaking Nintendo's near-monopolistic hold on the U.S. and awakening the U.K. to the merits of television gaming."[180] For his part, Kalinske highlighted Sega's role in developing games for an older demographic and pioneering "the concept of the'street date'" with the simultaneous North American and European release of Sonic the Hedgehog 2.[181] John Sczepaniak of Retro Gamer noted, "It was a system where the allure was born not only of the hardware and games, but the magazines, playground arguments, climate, and politics of the time."[19] Sega of America's marketing campaign for the Genesis was widely emulated, influencing marketing in the subsequent generation of consoles.[183] See also [ edit ] Notes [ edit ] ^ Through use of the Power Base Converter peripheral ^ Japanese: メガドライブ, Hepburn: Mega Doraibu? ^ 수퍼겜보이 ; RR: Syupeo Gem Boi), Super Aladdin Boy ( 수퍼알라딘보이 ; RR: Syupeo Alladin Boi) Super Gam*Boy ( Hangul ), Super Aladdin Boy ( Hangul ^ Spelled as Mega Drive II (with a Roman numeral) in the PAL region.(Newser) – The Associated Press has talked to two unnamed law enforcement officials about the Nov. 1 shooting at LAX, and the officials reveal a number of potential missed opportunities. A major one: There were two armed officers assigned to patrol the TSA screening area where authorities say Paul Ciancia opened fire, killing one and wounding three—except they had gone on break and hadn't told a dispatcher they were doing so, as is required. One was reportedly on a bathroom break in or near a neighboring terminal; the other was in a car outside the terminal, en route to a meal break. The airport police union chief countered that both were in a position to respond quickly, and explained that it's typical to "get to your [lunch] location and you tell them that you're there" so as not to lose break time while traveling. That left the area staffed only by unarmed TSA officers—who themselves failed to hit the panic button or call for help as they fled. An airline contractor eventually placed a call to a police dispatcher, who then radioed officers. That amounted to a nearly 90-second lag. Within a minute of that somewhat belated call, the two armed officers had reacted, says the union chief: one had stopped someone who ran out of the terminal and the other was heading toward the scene. The coroner determined TSA agent Gerardo Hernandez died within five minutes of being shot. (Read more LAX shooting stories.)The city of El Dorado, Ark., a two-hour drive south of Little Rock, probably isn’t the first place that comes to mind as an up-and-coming tourist destination, but if Terry Stewart, 71, the former chief executive officer and president of the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame, has his way, this perception may soon change. As the chief executive officer of El Dorado Festivals & Events, Mr. Stewart is charged with turning the city into the next music and arts hub in the United States. A $70 million infusion is key to the project: The money comes from a combination of donors, including Murphy Oil Corporation, the Arkansas Economic Development Commission and the Walton Family Foundation. The first phase of the initiative, the $54 million, six-block Murphy Arts District in downtown El Dorado, is making its debut on Sept. 27. The district’s five-day opening celebration will have performances by artists like Brad Paisley, Smokey Robinson, Ludacris and the hip-hop trio Migos. Below are edited excerpts from an interview with Mr. Stewart. What exactly is the Murphy Arts District? It’s essentially a new neighborhood in the center of El Dorado. We’ve repurposed a number of historic buildings to create a cabaret restaurant, a 2,000-seat music hall and an outdoor amphitheater which can seat 10,000 people. There’s also a two-acre play park for children with climbing equipment, slides, a zip line and a water area where there are fountains to run and jump through.by Don Paskini In conversation with our star columnist Laurie Penny, James Purnell explained that when it came to welfare reform ”I think the question we need to ask is, ‘does it work?, isn’t it?” One of the flagship measures of the welfare reform proposals, supported by the leadership of all three main parties, the media, numerous expert advisers and employment providers alike, is the use of the private and the voluntary sector to get what Purnell charmingly calls “the stock” back to work. During the debate on the Second Reading of the Welfare Reform Bill last week, only two MPs, Katy Clark and Dai Harvard, raised concerns about this. But, in the words of the Secretary of State, “does it work?” By happy coincidence, the Financial Times answered this question last Friday: “The latest figures show that where the independent sector has become involved with welfare-to-work programmes it is falling way short of delivering the promised jobs. What is more, the phenomenon was evident even before the recession started to bite.” The FT goes on to report that Pathways to Work – a programme aimed at helping get 1m people off sickness benefits – is running 73 per cent short of its target, and that overall, the private sector-led employment programmes have delivered 60 per cent of the expected jobs in the six months to September, while consuming 98 per cent of the expected expenditure. The private companies which lobbied so hard for these contracts have lost a lot of money, and one of the biggest, Reed in Partnership, is planning restructuring that may lead to redundancies. In other words, they have managed to design the scheme so badly that not only is it totally failing to meet its own targets, but the more money the government tries to give to private companies to help people get jobs, the more likely those companies are to get into financial trouble and have to sack their own workers. I’m guessing that the “solution” to this in the short term will be higher levels of corporate welfare – private companies will be offered more money in the next round of contracts and required to do less in terms of helping people get jobs. Because the cross-party alliance behind these reforms would rather do that then admit that on any remotely reasonable examination of the evidence, regardless of ideological affiliation, they are wrong and the left-wing of the Labour Party and trade unions are right, and amend the welfare reform proposals accordingly. Back before James Purnell slithered onto the scene, in December 2007, I wrote about the direction of the welfare reform agenda: “But it is not entirely fanciful to suggest that in the future, there might not be more jobs than at present. With the state of the global economy, trouble in the public finances and so on, it might well be the case that there are fewer jobs available, and that many people won’t be able to get a job, no matter how hard they look for one. So I asked one of the proponents of Welfare Reform what would happen in such a scenario. His answer was that the entire system is based on the assumption that the number of jobs will continue to rise indefinitely, and would have to be totally redesigned if this were no longer the case. (This is someone who supports the reforms). There are parts of the country, and millions of people, who have still not recovered from the devastation of mass unemployment in the 1980s. If mass unemployment returns to Britain, then people will have to cope with benefits which are lower than under Thatcher, and be required by a system which is not fit for purpose to spend their time searching for jobs which do not exist. Those that don’t comply will have their benefits cut or stopped entirely. Meanwhile, more of the resources available will be spent on advisers monitoring that people are searching for the jobs which don’t exist, and punishing them if they fail to do so. There are many different ways of addressing this risk and trying to deal with it, but what bothers me is that it isn’t even being considered. So the point when support from the welfare state is most needed is exactly the same as the point when the new system becomes not fit for purpose.”[notes: completely made up how slaves were treated when romans actually, y'know, started fighting.] continuation of the preatrix!au of last year. The first little part of this is actually that first drabble. The new content can be found under the '6 months later' subheading. dedicated to fozziewazxi (and my christmas present to them) because they're the absolute best. no doubt about it. i really hope it lives up to your hopes and expectations :) [notes 2: warning for physical punishment and a lot of pain. sex, but no rape. happy fluffy ending :)] [notes 3: thank you to guest reviewer who told me there is a feminine form of 'praetor'. this has been updated to reflect it :) ] She'd called for surrender, and they'd given her a war. Elsa held little sympathy for the barbarians who opposed her. For their good, and the good of the Empire, they would fall. The New World was only so very small, and Rome intended on conquering all of it. It was better to come willingly than attempt to escape the fate that Rome would one day own them all. Her own parents had made that wise decision, moving from the alpine fjords to the very heart of the civilised world. Elsa only lamented the loss of her home; not the wealth that the move had brought. She'd proven herself to be valuable to the fight; the consul didn't care about her origins. It was a matter of power. Rome could not fall to the Gaulish brutes. It was conquer or be conquered. For the good of all, sacrifices must be made, whether they be loyal Romans, or the people of Gaul who'd never lifted a sword in their life. And when the battle ended and all that lay around them were the bodies of the dead, Elsa turned and left, walking to the edge of the city. The soldiers could argue and quarrel amongst themselves, fighting like vultures to gain the best spoils; some meat from homes, candles, coins. People. The consul would care, she imagined. The wealth of the towns, cities they conquered, became Rome's wealth. To steal after a won battle was to steal from Rome herself. But the men were tired and she was tired, and the only things left were the people. Rome would not care if another family owned another slave. "Praetrix!" A voice called from behind her, and Elsa turned. A young man, fresh-faced but with haunted eyes (eyes of war, Elsa told herself. The same eyes that every man on her regimen carried) was running towards her, armour jangling. He dropped to a bow at her feet, and she nodded, motioning for him to stand. "Praetrix," he began, "the leader, Dumnorix. He fell in battle, the only marker of his station being a ring." He moved forward and dropped the golden jewellery into the preator's hand. Elsa frowned. The consul had wanted the leader of the town; and who was she to defy their orders? But, how could she have predicted the man would leave his home to partake in battle? The soldier's next words broke her from her train of thought. "But, the men… they've found his kin; a girl." Elsa furrowed her brows. "Datter…" she murmured to herself. When the man gave her a strange look, she coughed. "Daughter," she corrected. His eyes lit up with recognition, and a question, but with a stiff nod, she dismissed him. That was when she heard the scream. Hurriedly moving back through the city, Elsa found herself stumbling across a sight that should have been rarer than it
.” BTW, the “coffee achiever” in the DTBS video is played by my manager Jay Levey. “Insane Emily” Menden of Manitowoc, WI asks: How in the world did you end up on the Movie Lounge?!?! The host of the show, Kent Osborne, is the brother of the Academy-Award-nominated Mark Osborne, who co-directed my “Jurassic Park” video. They’re both currently working on their own low-budget independent film in which I made a small cameo. Josh Boileau of Manitoba, Canada asks: In the song “I Want a New Duck,” is that the music for “Ghostbusters”? It sounds close to the same. It’s actually a parody of “I Want A New Drug” by Huey Lewis and the News – but apparently Huey felt the same way you did. He sued Ray Parker Jr. (the writer of the “Ghostbusters” theme song) for copyright infringement. Karla of Lindon, Utah asks: Why are you pictured in “MAD About TV” sitting in a coffin? Is there a story behind it? That confused me a lot too when I first saw it. I figured it out when I saw the next issue of MAD magazine – the same illustration was used for a gag in which I had supposedly written a song called “Pretty Fly For A Dead Guy.” So I guess they were just recycling their art. Lindsey of Saugerties, NY asks: What is the highest you’ve ever been on the Billboard charts, and for how long? “Eat It” made it to #12 on the singles chart, and “Bad Hair Day” made it to #14 on the albums chart, both for one week. Rachel Merrick of Turner, ME asks: When were your parents married? August 14, 1949. Dayna Sorrells of AL-buquerque, NM asks: In the video “Eat It,” a picture falls off the wall. Who or what was on that picture? That was Dr. Demento, making one of his famous cameo appearances. (If memory serves, I believe the good Doctor was getting married the day we were shooting that scene!) Jerry of Haymarket, VA asks: Al, my accordion teacher says that a 96-bass accordion is enough – what would you recommend? Sure, a 96-bass accordion is enough… if you’re a WIMP! Real men only play 120-bass accordions! Shannon-Queen of Saturn-Roae of Meadville, PA asks: Hey Al, how you doin’? I was just wondering, did you go to your senior prom? No, I didn’t go to my senior prom, or my junior prom, or any high school dance, for that matter. Jesamy Porter of Missouri asks: Did you get to pick your co-stars in your movie “UHF” or did someone else? Jay Levey (my manager and the director of “UHF”) and I made all the final casting decisions together. Caitie of Arvada, CO asks: In the “UHF” video when you are pretending to be Billy Idol, you say “UHF” and it looks like you’re blowing smoke out of your mouth. Did you really inhale smoke when you were shooting the video? Although I’d never smoked in my life, I had to take a puff on a clove cigarette to achieve that effect. David Guzman of Brooklyn, NY asks: In the questions for January 2000 on this site, someone asked about the glasses holding up your mask when doing “Fat” on the “‘Weird Al’ Yankovic-Live!” video, but why did you have glasses on when doing “Amish Paradise”? I just thought it helped sell the “Amish look.” Doug “Mr. Dougie” Kiel of Burlington, Wisconsin asks: Did you ever meet Donny and/or Marie prior to being on the show? I’d met Donny once or twice previously – in fact, I believe there’s a picture of me in the “Permanent Record” booklet where Donny’s holding me up by my lapels. Matt Chelko of State College, PA asks: First off, I’d like to say that you did an excellent concert here in State College, but I was wondering, on the “‘Weird Al’ Yankovic – Live!” video, why wasn’t the entire medley included? The “concert only” songs in the medley were never cleared, and therefore could not be included in a product that was for sale to the public. The “between songs” films could not be included for a similar reason. Scott Snyder of Fond Du Lac, Wisconsin asks: Was Harvey the Wonder Hamster a small guinea pig on one of your MTV specials years ago or was I just drunk? Harvey was, in fact, feeling a little under the weather that day, so his pal Bob the guinea pig was nice enough to fill in for him at the last minute. John “I wish my name were cooler” Colvin of Oregon, OH asks: Hey Al! I was just watching “UHF” and I was wondering how you did that stunt with Emo cutting off his thumb. So let us in on the secret. It’s actually a very simple movie trick. Emo was heavily anesthetized when he cut his thumb off with a power saw, so he really didn’t feel a thing. And then as soon as the director yelled cut, the team of highly skilled micro-surgeons that we had standing by quickly attached it back on. Luckily, we only needed to do a couple takes. Asher Doak of Marietta, OH asks: Hey Al, I was just wondering: You know how Jim usually sings harmony with you during the chorus part of your songs? Do any of the other guys ever harmonize with you? If so, how many? Actually, on the albums I sing virtually all the harmonies myself. Of course, in concert that’s a little difficult to do, so as a rule Jim will sing the high harmony parts, Steve will sing the low harmony parts, and Bermuda and Ruben will sing only when absolutely necessary. Robert Lares of Los Angeles, CA asks: Your liner notes say that Kim Bullard plays [keyboards] on “Headline News,” but in the video it’s Ruben in a wig. Why not Kim? Well, Kim is a terrific keyboard player, sure, but let’s face it – Ruben just looks a lot better in a blonde wig. Jimmy Imoehl of Eagle, Wisconsin asks: In the song “Mr. Frump In The Iron Lung,” were you using the air valve on your accordion to make the sound of Mr. Frump breathing? You are correct, sir! Al Nennig of New London, Wisconsin asks: I just bought your second album “‘Weird Al’ Yankovic In 3-D” and because it was reissued it doesn’t have any liner notes inside. So I’m confused on “King of Suede” as to whether the background singers are saying “Is my size on sale” or “Is my size avail(able).” I know, I know, I should have bought the album the day it came out but I kinda wasn’t born yet. Sorry. Thanks a lot. That’s me and (producer) Rick Derringer singing, “Is my size up there…?” Ludwig Von Ruiner of Ruination asks: If and when you have children, will they also be weird? For instance, would you name your son Weird Walter or your daughter Weird Wendy? No, that would be kind of cruel, don’t you think? I mean, who in their right mind would name their kid Walter? “Ask Al” Q&As for February, 2000 Karla of Lindon, Utah asks: Were you surprised about the “Achy Breaky” question on “Donny and Marie” and were they really good sports about it? I had actually mentioned that song to the show’s producer during the pre-interview, and I knew they were going to ask me about it. I think they were mostly pretending to be upset – they’re professionals, and they realize that what I do is all in good fun. By the way, they had asked me to perform a song on the show, but only if I could cut it down to under three minutes. Being the uncompromising artiste that I am, I declined, since I didn’t want to hack any verses out of “Saga” or “Pentiums.” (I also recently turned down a chance to be on Regis & Kathie Lee for the exact same reason – only their stipulation was that the song had to be under TWO minutes!!) teri2k of AL!buquerque,NM asks: Hi, Al, you’re terrific! I’ve heard a description of your room on the tour bus, and how you have the air vents taped over to keep out cigarette smoke. Do you have some other air intake, or way to keep fresh air in your room? Doesn’t it get stuffy? The vents aren’t taped over to keep out cigarette smoke (smoking is strictly prohibited on the band bus) – they’re taped over to keep out the AC. I have to stay out of air conditioning and smoky rooms if I want to avoid losing my voice on the road. If my room ever gets stuffy, I can always open a window and let in some fresh air. Annapolis Amy of Maryland asks: How many people ride on your tour bus? There used to be a dozen or so people all on one bus – but since the tour started last year, we’ve been leasing two busses, so now the band rides on one bus and the crew rides on the other. Ironically, the crew bus has become the “party” bus, while us guys on the band bus mostly sit around working on our laptops. Caroll Flanery of Redding, CA asks: How do you finance your music videos? Does the money come out of your own pocket, do you have a separate production company set up just for music videos, or is there some other way? The record company pays for all expenses up front, but half of it is reimbursable through my royalties, so in essence, I pay for half the cost of my videos. There is a production company that deals with each video, and they are paid a separate fee (which is part of the video budget). I even get to pay myself to direct, although half of my paycheck is in essence coming from my back pocket. Dr. D.R. of Solon OH asks: How do you feel about your appearance in the recent issue of MAD? I’m thrilled whenever I get a mention in MAD. If you want to know more about my life-long love affair with MAD Magazine, you might want to check out the recently released softcover book “MAD ABOUT TV.” I wrote the foreword for it. Kate Jones of Acton, MA asks: Al, none of my family members like your song The Night Santa Went Crazy just because it’s gross (No offense). Unfortunately, that’s one of my favorite songs. What should I do? Well, obviously, you were adopted. Perhaps they haven’t broken the news to you yet. I’d just bring the subject up sometime over dinner, whenever there’s a lull in the conversation. Tuck Davion of San Diego, CA asks: Hi Al! I just wanted to know, what is the difference between the Capitol Records version of “My Bologna” and the album release version? The Capitol Records version is the original bathroom recording – the ONLY instrument is the accordion. The album release version was done in the studio and features the whole band. On the “Permanent Record” box set, the initial pressing went out with the incorrect version of “My Bologna,” which caused a great disturbance in the Force. Tabitha Lynch of Fort Worth, TX asks: Do you collect things from each city you travel on, like shot glasses? Lately I’ve started collecting souvenir squished pennies, and those pens that have things floating in them. Mitch Rabb of Pevely, MO asks: I noticed during The Saga Begins music video that Rubén’s face is always partially covered with the hood of his robe. Why is this? We didn’t want to frighten small children. Marianne Rose of Erie, PA asks: Okay Al, I just gotta know! In the video for “Smells Like Nirvana,” did you actually make that over the shoulder basketball shot, or was it some amazing editing or special effects?? I threw the basketball up into a net which was just out of frame, and a crew guy hanging from the rafters dropped another basketball straight down into the hoop. Not that I COULDN’T have made the shot, mind you… Doug Kiel “Mr. Dougie” of Burlington, Wisconsin asks: What was it like being on the Mancow show? Are you a fan of the show? The show is syndicated across about half the country and a lot of people heard you. Curious minds want to know 🙂 My record company was concerned about my being on the show because apparently he has a history of ripping people apart on the air – but Mancow was great to me. I’ve known him for years, and he’s actually a big fan… In fact, he credited me as being one of the reasons he decided to get into radio in the first place! Kim of Houston, TX asks: In your song “I Want a New Duck” you say: “And show me how to get down. ‘How to get down,’ baby. Get it?” What exactly is the joke there? I just don’t get it. I feel very stupid that I don’t but maybe you can enlighten me! Hmmm. You ever hear that old joke… “How do you get down off an elephant?” “You don’t get down off an elephant, you get down off a DUCK.” HA HA HA HA HA HA HA. See, duck feathers are called “down.” HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA!!! John Hall of Derry, NH asks: On Running With Scissors is “Your Horoscope For Today” a style parody of the Mighty Mighty Bosstones? Thanx, love your show! There’s definitely a lot of Mighty Mighty Bosstones influence in that song, but I was also listening to a lot of Reel Big Fish and other contemporary ska bands while I was writing it, so I just like to think of Horoscope” as a generic 90’s third-wave ska tune. Janet of Mesa, AZ asks: How can one talk to you on a more personal basis? Oh, I don’t know, I suppose one could call me up on the phone or drop by my house for a little chat… Gray of Staunton, Virginia asks: In the song “Moonlight Star” on “In 3-D,” what are the people saying when you start singing “I Wanna Know?” It sounds like “READ A CHICKEN.” Please HELP!!!!!! Um, first of all it’s MIDNIGHT Star… and I believe the part you’re referring to is the part that goes: “You can read it, you can read it, you can read it, you can read it in the Midnight Star.” Although “read a chicken” is pretty good, too. Gavin of Sydney, Australia asks: Did you use a real dental drill in “Cavity Search”? It sounded so much like the real thing that I was actually wincing! I didn’t want to just take a dental drill sound off a sound effects record. I wanted to make the Ultimate Dentist Song, so I decided to do it as authentically as possible. I got my real dentist (Dr. Schuster) to come into the recording studio. He brought his actual dental drill with him as well as a real human tooth – and then he proceeded to wail away on it while the tape rolled. I even took a turn with the drill and the tooth myself. It was pretty sick. Dan Butera of Under Weird Al’s tour bus asks: In “Cavity Search,” what kind of music is playing at the end accompanied by a high-pitched dental drill? That’s supposed to sound like Muzak – the kind of music that’s generally played in dentists’ waiting rooms. Chrissy Maher of Turner, ME asks: What were your SAT scores? I don’t remember exactly – I’m pretty sure I scored in the 600’s for English and in the 700’s for Math. Polka Man of who knows where asks: Hey, Al! I was just wondering who wrote “The Weird Al Show”? I didn’t see many episodes, but it seemed distinctly like you had graced the scripts. Did you get to write a lot of it, or were there other people who wrote it? I was the head writer, but I also had a rotating staff of writers that I worked with, including Susan Amerikaner, Tracy Berna, Zeke Kamm, Steve Lookner, Mark O’Keefe and Ron Weiner. glassesmiley of Lafayette, IN asks Dear Al, when did you get your first PC? I think it was early 1992. Christine Coulter of Carbondale, KS asks: Have you ever met the Backstreet Boys? I met them when I was doing VH1’s “Fairway to Heaven” – I got to give them “golf tips.” We’re actually kind of on the same label – Volcano is distributed through Jive (the Backstreet Boys’ label). Melissa of Northampton, MA asks: In “Pretty Fly For A Rabbi,” you give credit to two different women for singing in the song, but I can only hear one woman singing in it. I believe that’s Tress MacNeille. So when does Mary Kay Bergman sing in it? Originally I had Mary Kay come in to sing the whole song. I basically wanted her to do the voice of Kyle’s mom from South Park. Her agent wouldn’t let her do it (thinking that it might get her in trouble with Comedy Central) – so Mary Kay wound up doing kind of a squeaky voice instead. Later, I decided that the “squeaky voice” thing really wasn’t what I was looking for, so I called in my old friend Tress to do her Fran Drescher impersonation instead. The part that you can still hear Mary Kay on is the line in the middle of the song where she does the very Gentile-sounding ”for a Rab-bi…” Mary Kay was an incredibly sweet, talented, funny, wonderful woman, and we all miss her very, very much. Peter Mullins of Sydney, Australia asks: I know you’ve heard this question before (or a dozen similiar ones) but things have changed and I was wondering if there are any plans of you guys doing a tour however insignificant in Australia??? I’m very sorry to say this, but the much-anticipated Australian tour fell through. We’d been negotiating with an Australian promoter for a very long time, and in the end we just couldn’t make it happen. We’re extremely thankful for all the support we’ve gotten in Australia (and especially for the fans who have given us our first gold record outside of North America!) and we apologize for not being able to make the trip this time. We’d all LOVE to play there, so hopefully someday… Lord Spank of Omaha, NE asks: Hi, Al. Today I heard Madonna’s cover of “American Pie.” How come she’s ripping your stuff off now? I imagine she finally got tired of me making fun of her all these years. Oh well, I guess turnaround’s fair play. (I still think my version’s funnier, though.) David Jeffreys of Royal Oak, Michigan asks: Were the people in your Disney special your real parents? That’s what they tell me. MaraJayde of Michigan asks: During “Like A Surgeon” while Rubén is doing his cone-bra thing, who’s playing the keyboard? In the live concert video there are close-ups of someone’s hands and I was just wondering whose they are. That’s Jim playing the keyboard (he also plays keyboards in “Amish Paradise”). When we first started doing the “Truth or Dare” version of “Surgeon,” Jim wore the cone bra and Rubén played keyboards – but Jim felt uncomfortable doing it, and obviously it was a role that Rubén was BORN to play – so they just switched parts. Lucy “Nifty Little Doodah” Horton of New Canaan, CT asks: Hey Al!!! I LOVE you!! Anyways, I was just wondering, was there a specific reason why you chose to write the song “My Baby’s in Love With Eddie Vedder” about Eddie Vedder? Well, with a title like that, it would have been pretty stupid if I wrote the song about somebody else, wouldn’t it? “Ask Al” Q&As for January, 2000 Harold Waide of Dansville, NY asks: Hey Al… Since the world didn’t come crashing down, I’m sure fans are interested in knowing what you did for New Year’s Eve… Did you hide in a bomb shelter? Hide in your house and watch all the fun on TV? WHAT??? I went to a couple parties and had a great time. Jack Ayer of Newnan Georgia asks: Al, in your December ’99 questions someone named Fred Durst from L.A. California submitted a question. Was this THE Fred Durst, lead singer of Limp Bizkit? I can’t say for sure, but I highly doubt it. Actually, I DID meet Fred at one of the New Years Eve parties I went to. He was really nice, and said he was a fan. In fact, he started telling me what parodies I should do for “Nookie”! (I refrained from telling him that I write my own material, thank you!) Patrick Baker of Ann Arbor/MI asks: On “The Saga Begins” video, the desert looks slightly choppy on the beginning. Is it computer generated or filmed on location at some desert? That scene was really shot in the desert. The reason the beginning looks a little “choppy” is because I chose to speed up that first shot when we were doing the final editing on the video – and when the speed change is implemented in the editing stage (as opposed to while you’re actually shooting), the footage sometimes doesn’t wind up looking quite as smooth. I still thought it was preferable to having a pan of the desert that was just way too slow. Alicia Slater of Ionia MI asks: On “I Lost On Jeopardy,” how did your head spin? I believe it was clockwise. Daniel of Brisbane/Queensland asks: How come there is only a Special Edition film clip of “Pretty Fly For A Rabbi” In Australia?? It seems like because it’s not released in America that you can’t be bothered making one?? Let me explain for the non-Australians: My Australian record company decided to release “Rabbi” as a single there, even though it was not a single in North America, and they insisted on releasing a video to go along with it. I didn’t have the time (or the inclination to spend a big pile of money) to do a video for the song, but I told them that if they absolutely had to have a video for it, they could make one themselves by cutting together bits from “W.A.Y. Live!” Which is what they did. Adam Shuler of Casa Grande, AZ asks: In the catalogue section of the site, where it lists your albums and such, I saw The TV Album. I just bought one of those the other day, but mine is called The MuchMusic TV Album. I know these are the same songs, but what is the difference between the 2? Just the title. I’m not sure how you got a copy of the MuchMusic version in Arizona – it was meant for Canadian release only. We let MuchMusic put their name on the album as part of a promotional deal we had with them at the time. Jessie Niessink of Redding, California asks: On your AL-TV 2K thingy, when you were doing the Al News, you were showing a bunch of movies that never made it. You showed a clip of the one where that guy can tap into some one else’s body and stuff. Who acted out the guy that was reading the magazine and clipping his toenails? In the clip for “Being Corey Feldman,” that was me playing Corey. The show’s producer, Craig Armstrong, was hovering over me holding a digital camcorder (that’s also him doing the voice-over). Sean “It’s Not Art” Peterson of Castro Valley, CA asks: What type of changes can we expect in the change from Touring With Scissors ’99 and Touring with Scissors 2K? Chances are, we’re going to change a couple of the video clips – maybe add a bit or two from the latest AL-TV. We may even possibly throw in a different original song instead of “Eddie Vedder” every now and then – we’re still talking about that. And there will most likely be a few other subtle little changes here and there, but for the most part, it will be the same show. Dylan Roche of Severna Park, Maryland asks: In your song, “Phony Calls”, is the ‘my crotch’ phone call a real clip from the Simpsons? Yes, that was taken directly from an episode of the Simpsons – I think it was called “Blood Feud.” It was a pretty sweet deal for the Simpsons’ voice actors – they each got a nice pile of money, and they didn’t even have to come to the studio! Luke Owen of Woking, Surrey, England asks: Hi there, Al. I was recently listening to “Running With Scissors,” and was wondering… the woman who says “It’s all about the Pentiums, baby” at the beginning of that song…… well, no woman is listed in the credits as saying it… so is it……. nah, it couldn’t possible be. Could it? No, it’s not Celine Dion. Actually, the woman who did that part asked that she not be given a credit, because she was being paid “under the table.” Shhh. Maroon Moron of Boise Idaho asks: How did you come about to direct [a video for] for The Jon Spencer Blues Explosion? Are you a big fan like myself, or did you come to know the band in some other way? I was being interviewed for Grand Royal magazine by Mike D from the Beastie Boys and Russell Simins from the Blues Explosion. We started talking about how I wanted to branch out into directing videos for other artists, and then Russell mentioned that Jon Spencer was looking for a director for their next video… and things just kind of progressed from there. I had been familiar with some of their music, but after working with them and seeing them play live, I became a real fan. Keith Steelman of Harriman/Tennessee asks: Al, My Question if you think Andy Kaufman is a comical genius or do U hate him???????? Are those my only two choices? Gee, then I guess I’ll have to pick the “genius” one. I’ve always liked Andy. I even met him once very briefly in 1982 – he came backstage after one of Dr. Demento’s all-star Evenings of Dementia. Veronica of Los Angeles, CA asks: Hey Al, I noticed that in Weird Al Live the song “Jerry Springer” goes slower than it does in the record and it starts with music instead of you saying, “It’s been….”. Why? We play it just a hair slower live because, well, it’s a tough song to sing that fast! And the musical intro is there mainly to help me sing the beginning of the song in the right key and at the right tempo. Samantha of Leesburg, VA asks: What did Jerry Springer think about your song of his show? From all reports, he wasn’t that thrilled. At one point we were considering doing a video for that song, and we inquired if Jerry would be in it. We sent him a rough mix of the song while we were still in the studio finishing up the album. Before he had heard the song, he seemed excited about the prospect of being in a Weird Al video, but after hearing the lyrics, he balked, saying that the song was just too “negative” towards the show, and that he didn’t want to associate himself with it. Oh well. Julie Shilling of Verona, NJ asks: Hey, Al! I was just wondering… I know that you get permission to do a parody of someone’s song, but what if you want to do a parody of a song by someone who died, let’s just say Elvis Presley, and you can’t get permission because he’s not alive, then what do you do? Do you just ask someone else? Skip the song? Just wondering. If an artist is no longer living, I get permission from that artist’s estate (which usually means the closest living relative). Andy “Who Took My Boxer Shorts” Sikora of Taos NM asks: How come you didn’t use as many sight gags in “The Saga Begins” video as in others? It was a matter of practicality and budget. I had to come up with a video concept that could be done as cheaply as possible because A) the song was over 5 ½ minutes long, B) I knew that whatever costumes and effects we used would eat up a big chunk of the budget to begin with, and C) I figured no matter what I did, MTV wouldn’t play the video very much anyway, for the same reason they didn’t really play “Jurassic Park” (not “contemporary” enough for them). So I came up with the idea of Star Wars Unplugged – and even though it’s not gag-a-second comedy, I thought it was an appropriate and effective treatment for the song. Katie Winters of Harlingen, TX asks: Al, what year did you become a vegetarian? 1992. Greg “Kill The Grand Poohbah!” Sepelak of Cary, NC asks: So I’m watching the VH1 “Behind the Music” episode about you, and they discuss UHF. They really made it sound like after that you were ready to dive headlong into a stump grinder. So exactly how big of an exaggeration is this? I know that box-office-wise it was limping, but I also know that show loves dirt… Hey, I was disappointed, sure, but I didn’t go into some huge spiraling depression. BTM loves to play up the drama, and since there’s so little in my life… well, they had to find SOME place to play that sappy violin music, didn’t they? Kate of somewhere in OR asks: What was your worst subject in middle sGermany’s foreign intelligence service (BND) spent several years spying on U.S. targets, including the White House, Der Spiegel reported Thursday. The magazine claims it has seen documents containing around 4,000 selector keywords for BND surveillance between 1998 and 2006. It contains email addresses at the White House and the U.S. finance minister and secretary of state. Military institutions such as the U.S. Air Force and the U.S. Marine Corps and space agency NASA are other targets on the list, according to Spiegel. Hundreds of foreign embassies and international organizations are mentioned in the documents. BND President Bruno Kahl refused to comment on the report and only addressed the agency’s future operations. “The question concerning who can scout the BND and who cannot does not just depend on increasing authorization for lawmakers, but also implementing an ambitious series of controls,” Kahl told Spiegel. Chancellor Angela Merkel, who took office in 2005, recently denied she had any knowledge of BND’s foreign spying operations. “I assumed that the BND does not engage in such activities,” Merkel told a parliamentary enquiry Feb. 17. “It’s a waste of effort and energy.” NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden revealed U.S. spying operations in Germany in 2013. Chancellor Angela Merkel, who’s phone was tapped, publicly criticized the U.S. for spying on an ally. Merkel said such a practice “just isn’t on.” Follow Jacob on Twitter Content created by The Daily Caller News Foundation is available without charge to any eligible news publisher that can provide a large audience. For licensing opportunities of our original content, please contact licensing@dailycallernewsfoundation.org.They may not be on most people's list of most attractive species, but bats definitely have animal magnetism. Researchers from the Universities of Leeds and Princeton have discovered that bats use a magnetic substance in their body called magnetite as an 'internal compass' to help them navigate. Dr Richard Holland from Leeds' Faculty of Biological Sciences and Professor Martin Wikelski from Princeton University studied the directions in which different groups of Big Brown bats flew after they had been given different magnetic pulses and released 20km north of their home roost. Dr Holland was part of the team which, in 2006, discovered that bats used the Earth's magnetic field to get around, but until now, how bats were able to sense the field was still unknown. Big Brown bats were put through a magnetic pulse 5000 times stronger than the Earth's magnetic field, but orientated the opposite way. (The bats were put into a coil (10cm diameter by 10 cm long) which produced a pulse of 0.4 seconds that was 0.1 tesla in strength.) Dr Holland said: "We had three groups of bats. One had undergone the magnetic pulse with a different orientation, and one control group had received no pulse at all. The third group had undergone the pulse, but in the same orientation as the Earth's magnetic field. By including this group, we could easily see if changes in behaviour were the result of confusion caused by the pulse itself rather the impact of its orientation on the magnetite." The control group made their way home as normal, as did those which had undergone the pulse with the same orientation to the Earth's magnetic field. But of those which had been through the pulse with a different orientation, half went home but half went in the opposite direction. "This clearly showed that it is the magnetite in their cells which give bats their direction as we were able to change how the bats used it as an internal compass, turning their north into south," says Dr Holland. "But as only half were affected, it's likely there is another mechanism as well, which in some bats enabled them to override the impact of the pulse." Magnetite is found in the cells of many birds and mammals, including humans, but if we were once able to find our way by an internal compass, it's a skill we appear to have lost long ago. The researchers were able to conduct their unique experiment by use of radio transmitters on the bats which were monitored from the ground and from a plane to verify the signals were correct. However, this kind of monitoring is limited to short distances, so the team is now in discussions with NASA and ESA about using satellites to help track smaller migratory birds and mammals. The satellites currently used by scientists can only track larger sea birds over 300g, although 60 per cent of mammals and 80 per cent of birds are below this size. The technology exists to track this size of target, but no satellite has yet been launched. Dr Holland believes tracking this size of bird or mammal is of key importance. "Birds and mammals carry and spread diseases, such as rabies or bird flu, and plotting their migration and movement can help us predict this spread. Large movements of birds can act as pests in themselves, but other species are scarce and need conservation support. We were only able to make our discovery through studying bats in the wild. But for many creatures, satellite tracking is the only way to study them in their natural habitat to help tackle these issues." Citation: Holland RA, Kirschvink JL, Doak TG, Wikelski M (2008) Bats Use Magnetite to Detect the Earths Magnetic Field. PLoS One 3(2): e1676. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0001676 http://www.plosone.org/doi/pone.0001676 The research was funded by Dr Holland's Marie Curie Fellowship, the National Geographic Society and the National Science Foundation.Stevie washes the dishes, but Adam Page would just throw them out the window… – Stevie Woltz Andrew interviews Stevie Woltz, the man behind Ring Of Honor Pro Wrestler Adam Page, about how he decided to become a pro wrestler, and how he recently blew up his life. https://theatrecpt.files.wordpress.com/2016/08/sns30_blowup.mp3 Appetizer: Blowing Up Your Life Andrew thinks back to this time last year when he was winning big in Atlantic City, and contemplates the steps to becoming a professional poker player. For some insight and encouragement, Andrew decides to take a look at someone who has successfully reinvented himself, a friend he met in a film class who made a pro wrestling documentary, and went on to do so much more. First Course: Stevie Meets Adam Stevie Woltz was a dreamer from a young age. Here, we listen to his road to becoming a professional wrestler/teacher, how he balances his two personas, and there’s even a love story! (Starts at 5:45) Second Course: Adam Meets Japan Stevie gets a call that changes his life, and sends him promptly to the other side of the world for a tour with New Japan Pro Wrestling. While a great opportunity, how will Stevie cope with everything that he is leaving behind, and how will he thrive in an foreign environment? (Starts at 23:22) Dessert: Andrew reflects on what it means to boldly blow up your life, as Stevie gives some sage wisdom for all of those at home who might want to try (Starts at 43:45) To see Stevie wrestle live near you, go to Ring Of Honor’s website and click events. If you are in the New York area, you can watch Stevie at Field of Honor 2016 SATURDAY, AUGUST 27TH, 2016 MCU PARK 1904 SURF AVENUE BROOKLYN, NEW YORK STARTING AT 6PM Produced by Exectuive Director Julia Katz, Podcast Production Manager Chelsea Rugg, and Podcast Head Honcho Andrew Terrance Kaberline Hosted, Written, and Edited by Andrew Terrance Kaberline Today’s episode featured stories from Stevie Woltz Subscribe to Sunday Night Supper on iTunes The opening and closing theme for Sunday Night Supper are by Podington Bear Tracks: “Bit Rio” and “60’s Quiz Show” All of Podington Bear’s music can be found, hereMicro Flynning Your Life to Eventual Doom 6 Situations That Call For Your Immediate Action Ken Kamami Blocked Unblock Follow
in the nation by the 1950s) by aggressive expansion (opening breweries on the East and West coasts and in Texas) and memorable advertising ("From the land of sky-blue waters... "). It reflects the history of American beer further still by what happened next: Hamm Brewing withered away in a consolidating industry dominated by the big three of Anheuser-Busch, Miller and Coors. Hamm Brewing passed through several hands during the second half of the 20th century, including Olympia Brewing, Pabst Brewing and Stroh Brewing before Miller Brewing finally acquired the brand in 1999. The original St. Paul brewery was shuttered in 1997. Hamm's endures on the edges of the portfolio of what is now MillerCoors but is growing quickly as the company seeks to up its presence in the economy beer segment. During the past year, Hamm's has been one of MillerCoors' strongest brands, according to IRI, a Chicago-based market research firm; growth is up 33 percent. It is distributed nationally and produced at six of MillerCoors' seven breweries nationwide. It's also pretty darn good — you know, for big beer — and stood out as a clear favorite of our blind tasting panel of three Chicago craft brewers. Megan Mares, a brewer for MillerCoors' Great Lakes region, said the beer is believed to approximate the original Hamm's recipe. Though at heart it is an adjunct lager like most other major American beers — it gets corn in the mash bill, something craft brewers typically don't do — it is also crisp, refreshing and balanced. "Hamm's sets itself apart with a little bit more hop characteristic — a grassy, fruity hop note — and a great balance of malt character with a little caramel sweetness," Mares said. "It's very crisp and very clean, but provides a little more than the typical American-style lager." Our panel agreed. jbnoel@chicagotribune.com Twitter @joshbnoelYesterday (January 17) Just Blaze posted a video on his Twitter account that showed Dr. Dre hinting that his long awaited album, Detox, would be released on April 20 [watch below]. A rep for rap legend spoke to MTV News and debunked the rumors, saying the date was not referring to the LP’s release. As of press time, it is unclear what the superproducer was promoting. Back in November, Dre dropped his first single for the project, the Snoop Dogg and Akon assisted “Kush.” To date the song has peaked at No. 11 on Billboard's Rap Songs chart. Dre told XXL in our Dec/Jan 2011 issue that he’s amped about finally releasing the disc—which is 12 years in the making. “I’m really feeling it now,” he said. “My energy has been back and forth with the record, tussling with doing it out of obligation, as opposed to doing it because I really feel it. My feelings about it have been going up and down. Now I’m in that place where I’m really feeling it, and it’s coming out right. It’s like, Yeah, I’m excited about it.” As of press time Detox does not have an official release date. — Elan ManciniNot content with claiming his third world championship in as many years and smashing Mick Doohan's 17-year old record of race wins in a single MotoGP season, Marc Marquez is preparing to take on a selection of the world's finest dirt trackers at the Superprestigio event in Barcelona. Following on from the successful inaugural event last January, the second running of the Superprestigio takes place on Saturday and boasts a line-up befitting of its venue and organiser. Set in the classy Palau San Jordi, metres from the old grand prix road circuit in the Montju?c hill overlooking the Catalan capital, Marquez has invited an all-star cast to lay siege to the 200-metre circuit. Usually the scene of music concerts and national basketball events, the arena has been transformed into a dirt-lined oval for the season-ending event. On Friday it welcomes six road racing world champions in the 'Superprestigio' class and a further four in the 'Open' category for testing before the practice, qualifying and racing heats take place on Saturday. Continuing the proud Catalan tradition of hosting world class dirt track events which pit grand prix stars against American dirt trackers, the 2014 showcase will see a repeat of the January vintage, in which Marquez was overcome by American Grand National flat track champion Brad Baker in the final for the maiden Superprestigio title (pictured). Baker and Marquez's job will be a notch more challenging this time around after the announcement that three-time World Superbike champion Troy Bayliss had entered the event. Now 45-years old, Bayliss has been taking dirt track seriously since his world championship retirement in 2008 and is the current holder of Australia's 250/400cc dirt track titles. The two remaining 2014 grand prix world champions, Tito Rabat and Marc's younger brother Alex, are also entered alongside MotoGP 'Factory' riders Scott Redding and Bradley Smith. Add in ex-world champions Toni Elias and Julian Simon, plus grand prix winners Mika Kallio, Johann Zarco, Jordi Torres and Jonas Folger and the 'Superprestigio' category alone enjoys a superstar-studded feel. No less than 112 grand prix victories and eleven world championships are shared across the class. Baker meanwhile will have to contend with current American Grand National flat track champion Jared Mees and 2012 All-Star Pro champion Shayna Texter in the 'Open' class. Fresh from claiming his second national title in October, Mees will have American expectations resting on his shoulders as he aims to uphold the USA's proud dirt track tradition in his first European race. Great Britain is well represented in the 'Open' category too, with Guy Martin, 15 times a podium finisher at the Isle of Man TT, the highest profile participant. As was the case in 2013, British dirt track specialists Tim and Tom Neave are among the 48 entries. Ex-World Superbike runner and former British Supermoto champion Christian Iddon will line up in the 'Superprestigio' class. The 'Open' class also boasts four world champions of different racing disciplines. Four-time World Enduro champion Ivan Cervantes will compete alongside Taddy Blazusiak [five time Superenduro world champion], Thomas Chareyre [three time Supermoto world champion] and Joonas Kylmakorpi [three time FIM Long Track Champion]. Riders got a feel for their machines on Thursday afternoon at the pre-event shakedown at the Rufea dirt track, 100 miles west of Barcelona. An hour-long test session gets underway on Friday evening before free practice starts at 11.00 on Saturday. The Superprestigio and Open heats then begin at 18.00 before the four best riders from each class subsequently meet for a twelve-lap dash in the 'Superfinal' event. If January's event is anything to go by Saturday should serve up another scintillating battle, befitting of its location and entry that will go some way to showing whether Americans can still claim to be the masters of dirt track. The 2014 Superprestigio Dirt Track line-up can be seen below: Superprestigio class 93 Marc M?rquez (ESP) - MotoGP 53 Esteve Rabat (ESP) - Moto2 12?lex M?rquez (ESP) - Moto3 24 Toni El?as (ESP) - WSBK 60 Juli?n Sim?n (ESP) - Moto2 21 Troy Bayliss (AUS) - WSBK 45 Scott Redding (GBR) - MotoGP 38 Bradley Smith (GBR) - MotoGP 36 Mika Kallio (FIN) - Moto2 5 Johann Zarco (FRA) - Moto2 94 Jonas Folger (GER) - Moto2 23 Marcel Schrotter (GER) - Moto2 19 Xavier Simeon (BEL) - Moto2 7 Lorenzo Baldassarri (ITA) - Moto2 88 Ricard Card?s (ESP) - Moto2 9 Kenny Noyes (USA) - Moto2 81 Jordi Torres (ESP) - Moto2 33 Enea Bastianini (ITA) - Moto3 2 Remi Gardner (AUS) - Moto3 91 Gabriel Rodrigo (ARG) - Moto3 11 Albert Arenas (ESP) - Moto3 15 Dani Ribalta (ESP) - Endurance 99 Christian Iddon (GBR) - WSBK 87 Luca Marconi (ITA) - Supersport Open class 6 Brad Baker (USA) - Flat Track 1 Jared Mees (USA) - Flat Track 50 Shayna Texter (USA) - Flat Track 610 Joonas Kylm?korpi (FIN) - Long Track 25 Iv?n Cervantes (ESP) - Enduro 111 Tadeusz 'Taddy' Blazusiak (POL) - Superenduro 4 Thomas Chareyre (FRA) - Supermoto 8 Guy Martin (GBR) - TT/Endurance 3 Jos? Pedro G?mez (ESP) - Supermoto 14 Tim Neave (GBR) - Dirt Track 90 Aidan Collins (GBR) - Dirt Track 68 Tom Neave (GBR) - Dirt Track 30 Alan Birtwistle (GBR) - Dirt Track 28 Oliver Brindley (GBR) - Dirt Track 10 Francesco Cecchini (ITA) - Dirt Track 121 Fabrizio Vesprini (ITA) - Dirt Track 20 Jos? Luis Mart?nez (ESP) - Motocross 66 Joel Lozano (ESP) - Motocross 13 Jaume Gaya (ESP) - Supermoto 16?ngel Grau (ESP) - Supermoto 17 Gerard Bailo (ESP) - Supermoto 77 Ferran Card?s (ESP) - Road Racing 18 Franc Serra (ESP) - Motocross 91 Ra?l Cardona (ESP) - Flat Track Crash.net will be providing live coverage from this weekend's Superprestigio, both via www.Crash.net/MotoGP and our Twitter account @Crash_MotoGP.Many thanks for your donations and for your support. The latest XApps and the new MATE 1.16 desktop environment were pushed towards the Linux Mint 18.1 “Serena” and LMDE 2 “Betsy” repositories. We just finished addressing some issues with MDM, and we’re currently working on a few compatibility issues which affect the Cinnamon screensaver in LMDE and in Slackware before announcing the official release of Cinnamon 3.2. We were expecting Cinnamon 3.2 to be out at the end of October and this probably will push the release of Linux Mint 18.1 into the month of December. Although these issues do not affect Mint 18.x, I believe this is a good thing for the upcoming release. It’s given us more time to react to early reports coming from Arch Linux and to fix many small bugs already. This is something which usually happens during the BETA phase. We’re also seeing more and more artists updating their themes in preparation for Cinnamon 3.2. If you are waiting for 18.1, I would like to thank you for your patience. It might seem long right now, but whenever it happens, looking back at the release, only quality will matter. Sponsorships: Linux Mint is proudly sponsored by: Donations in October:Microsoft's big plan for mobile is still a bit of a mystery heading into 2017. While Redmond has pulled back on its hardware ambitions undoing much of the Nokia Mobile acquisition the company continues to aggressively build out the Mobile version of Windows 10 with no signs of slowing down. All of this to the dismay of the media and even consumers who don't see the point. Vahe Torossian, Corporate Vice President at Microsoft and the new president of Microsoft France shed some light on the company's mobile strategy in a recent interview with France's Le Point. Torossian reaffirms Microsoft's position of retrenchment noting that the firm has lost the battle in the consumer market. Instead, Windows 10 Mobile is mostly about "focusing on the business side" according to Torossian at least for the "next few years." The admission is an honest one as Torossian notes that the barriers to compete at this stage in the consumer smartphone market are "now too high." While Windows 10 Mobile has made admirable strides since its debut last year the argument that it offers something more than Android or iOS is a difficult one to make in late 2016. At this point, people using Windows 10 Mobile do so out of personal preference rather than any substantial advantage over Apple and Google. Nonetheless, Microsoft is sober about their mobile ambitions. While the company is cognizant that competing against Apple and Google in mobile is futile at this stage, Microsoft does see a path forward. According to Torossian Microsoft is "betting on a technology leap in a few years with a paradigm shift." Details about that technology swing were not given. Microsoft, however, is apparently looking at the Universal Windows Platform (UWP), Continuum, AI, and Inking technologies as some examples of where mobile computing is headed. The next bend in the curve Back in October 2015 I wrote an article titled The future of Windows Mobile – Does Microsoft want to reboot the concept of a phone? that laid out Microsoft's long-term vision in the mobile space. The argument I made was that the Lumia 950 and Lumia 950 XL were decent phones, but not representative of what Microsoft is doing in hardware e.g. Surface, HoloLens, and Band. That is one reason why the announcement of those phones was kept rather low-profile. There was no advertising nor any consumer push for those devices. And why should they? The hardware and the OS at the time were underwhelming, and Microsoft knew that. Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella revealed some of this thinking in 2015 in an interview with Mary Jo Foley: "Therefore, we have to be on the hunt for what's the next bend in the curve. That's what, quite frankly, anyone has to do to be relevant in the future. In our case, we are doing that. We're doing that with our innovation in Windows. We're doing that with features like Continuum. Even the phone, I just don't want to build another phone, a copycat phone operating system, even." "So when I think about our Windows Phone, I want it to stand for something like Continuum. When I say, wow, that's an interesting approach where you can have a phone and that same phone, because of our universal platform with Continuum, and can, in fact, be a desktop. That is not something any other phone operating system or device can do. And that's what I want our devices and device innovation to stand for." I think that statement is still genuine and very indicative of what Microsoft is betting on. Truth be told, it is the only thing they can do if they're not giving up in the mobile arena. I have been bringing this topic up a lot on our podcast recently about what comes next after the smartphone. It is evident that mobile technology is evolving and converging. The idea that in five years we'll still have the same smartphone design and functionality despite the rapid progress being achieved is woefully misguided in my opinion. The question is what does come next and is Microsoft choosing the right path? That's up for debate. Ironically, Google is facing the opposite problem in trying to get from mobile to the desktop (see Andromeda: How Google can conquer the desktop, figure out tablets — and maybe change Android phones forever). Apple faces the same issue with its OS bifurcation and increasing reliance on becoming only a phone manufacturer. There is also the diminishing returns on apps (read Walt Mossberg's article on why he says "the App Store is over"). Microsoft sees today's concept of a smartphone as nearing the end of its run. It's not just about running apps on a device that fits in your pocket but expanding beyond that to other screens. The HP Elite x3 is just the beginning of such a shift, but the same could be said about Treos and the Pocket PC back in 2006 that preceded the smartphone revolution.A short piece exploring some common issues and objections when it comes to agitational material. As with the last post I wrote, this one is rooted in a Facebook discussion/argument between members of the Recomposition editorial collective. Mostly between Nate Hawthorne, Scott Nappalos and Adam Weaver, but including others from some of the A New World In Our Hearts organizations. I didn't catch all of it, so I could possibly be missing some elements and perspectives, but the topic seemed to revolve around the language we use in propaganda. The debate apparently started over an image someone made of what I believe were student protests in Chile. The text on the image read "The Only Meaning of General Strike is Communization". Whether the image was intended as public propaganda or merely playing around on Photoshop, I'm not sure, but it sparked a discussion about how almost nobody knows what that term means and that we shouldn't get into the habit of using language most people won't understand. The whole conversation brought up 3 points to me: 1)There is a supposed general baseline on what propaganda resonates with people. 2)Propaganda aimed at our circles is a waste of time. 3)We do not have the ability to define words and ideas. The 'general baseline' Undoubtedly, the term 'communization' is not something even completely defined with the small amount of people that use it, hence a 300+ page book, mostly consisting of debates revolving around the meaning. So while there is a point on not using that term, I think the term 'general strike' is also almost as vague and unfamiliar, and in any case, there is something to be said on our ability to define words the way we like in this vacuum and see them catch on (more on this later). I think it's tough to really know what will resonate with people. Often times, a mythical, nonexistent'regular worker' is used as the measuring stick for what we should say and how we should say it. To a certain extent, this makes sense: a lot of the language of the radical left sounds completely alien within the context of American political discourse. There is also the ever present problem of inward looking radical 'communities' that have their own social norms and language that can differ widely from other social groups (including ones individuals from these radical "communities" are ostensibly a part of). However, this'regular worker' does not actually exist. Working class people vary widely in their interests, educational backgrounds, and understanding of specialized political and economic terms. That doesn't mean there aren't bad ideas when it comes to public agitation though. The Stalinist sect, with their newspaper headline screaming "DEFEND THE DEFORMED WORKERS' STATE OF NORTH KOREA" seems clueless if their newspaper is for random general consumption on the street (to say nothing of the revolting position this slogan reveals). Similarly, a call for an "unlimited wild general strike" in Wisconsin earlier this year when people were having enough difficulty even understanding the concept of the much simpler - and less wordier - 'general strike' also seems of limited use for on the street results. Most good organizers will tell you that a bad - but common - way or organizing is going to everyone and telling them your issue and getting them to agree that this is their issue, too. Most are not moved this way. Instead, finding out people's different issues, tying them together and relating them to solutions and ideas is more constructive. A smiliar approach should be adopted with propaganda. Another bad organizing move (for revolutionaries) is telling people what their issue is by using a lowest common denominator approach. Basically, watering down your message to the point where you have now created a general baseline. But, this approach is not about meeting people where they are at (a worthwhile goal), it now becomes assumptions about whether they can be met at all. It is both presumptuous and negatively determines the potential of your efforts. So what's the baseline? Is there one? I would say it's difficult to pinpoint and there probably really isn't a general one. However, there are baselines for more specific social groups. For instance, propaganda that resonates with precariously employed undocumented immigrants is going to differ from graduate students with citizenship. Single mothers will not necessarily find the same inspiration in a flyer or text that retirees will. And so on. Ingroup propaganda Notice that "people on the periphery of our circles" or even "we" are excluded from the above examples. Most of the time, it seems, propaganda is seen as meant solely for that vague general baseline and for no one else. People on the edge of our tendencies or even we ourselves, do not need material aimed at us, as if we are somehow immune to the effects that we are convinced work on others. I think this is false and an area where insurrectionary anarchists get partially right. They recognize the power of in-group propaganda to motivate their base and keep spirits high and utilize it in exactly that fashion. The stoic, robot-like militant caricature which the Situationists critiqued decades ago is not something to be emulated. We still need to be inspired. We need to laugh. We need to be reminded that what we're doing is not a waste, but part of something larger. On the flipside though, insurrectionary anarchists tend to direct most of their propaganda to their own, which is not something I would advocate. I am simply recognizing that people already involved in revolutionary unions, political organizations and projects also need propaganda aimed at them. Personally, groups like the Deterritorial Support Group or WSA-SoCalseem to be good examples of some of ingroup propaganda. Even as an IWW militant fully convinced already, their propaganda inspires me and gets me excited about what I'm doing. This is just something that is necessary. In a small but valuable way, it keeps me determined. Mere words and graphics that can accomplish such a thing should not be taken lightly. Defining words & ideas The third and last point this discussion brought up for me was the lack of confidence that exists among some folks in our ability to define our language and communicate ideas. This lack of confidence is somewhat understandable. Most of our experience has come during a low point of class struggle. A certain type of cautious conservatism can manifest because of this. In Madison, a couple of socialist sects called the IWW's call for a general strike 'premature' or 'irresponsible'. While this was probably motivated by being outflanked on the left, this also has to do with thinking 'the masses aren't ready'. And while a general strike did not end up happening, the simple fact that it resonated with so many people shows there are new possibilities. The events in Oakland have proven this even more. Most also would not have imagined that a mass movement would have emerged that used the same language (and some of the same tactics) of "Occupy Everything, Demand Nothing" that exploded from the insurrectionary tendencies in the student movement two years ago. In fact, some "anarchists" were so aggrevated and angry about this tendency that they wrote an open letter, more or less siding with the accounts of authoritarian groups. I don't believe this was just based on one or two specific incidents of questionable behavior by individuals, as was claimed. The open letter was a hit piece that took on a tendency that some felt uneasiness with because it refused a lowest common denominator approach. Bringing this up again isn't because I feel the need to retroactively condemn what happened, but rather, it is an example of how a lack of confidence in our ability to define our words and ideas leads to an uneasiness towards those who refuse to sugarcoat them, which can lead to a sort of'movement managerial' role, where self-identified anarchists pit themselves against others who largely share their general politics. This is unfortunate and should be avoided. Hope I've sketched out some ideas for discussion in regards to how we use propaganda. I hope we realize more that there is no 'general baseline' that appeals to everyone, that it breaks down into specific social groups, that stuff directed at our own people is worthwhile and valuable and that uneasiness in using our own language sometimes is unnecessary,Failed Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton suggests she would have gone to war in Syria by now, but Democrats still can’t grasp why some “peace” voters defected to third parties, as Nat Parry explains. By Nat Parry In the latest installment from The Election That Will Not End, a renewed attack on third party supporters for supposedly enabling Donald Trump’s surprise victory last year is making headlines, with political commentator Bill Maher leading the charge against those who could not bring themselves to supporting the Hillary Clinton-Tim Kaine Democratic ticket in Election 2016. Singling out Green Party presidential candidate Jill Stein and leading academic Cornel West – who backed Stein in the general election – Maher suggests that they may be mentally defective for suggesting that Trump and Clinton both represented potential threats to the country and the world. “Have you lost your fucking minds?” Maher asks. “Go fuck yourselves with a locally grown organic cucumber,” Maher tells the “liberal purists” who allegedly cost Clinton the election. This renewed assault on Stein ignores the fact that her share of the vote was statistically negligible and there were far more people who chose not to vote or had their votes suppressed. Investigative journalist Greg Palast, for instance, has shown that tens of thousands of voters may have been improperly purged from the rolls in key states such as Michigan, which likely had a greater effect on the electoral outcome than Stein’s vote totals. The analysis also rests on the flawed assumption that all of Stein’s votes would have gone to Clinton had the Green Party not been competing. Nevertheless, the attacks on Stein and West represent the latest salvo in a rather undemocratic and disingenuous effort to shame individuals who have decided to reject the limited choices offered by the two-party system and are exercising their democratic right to build independent political movements. This right is enshrined in a number of international human rights accords agreed to by the U.S. government, but apparently is still rather controversial in the United States. For the most part, Democratic and Republican partisans grudgingly accept the right of other political parties to compete (even if no one should vote for them, of course, so as not to “spoil” the election), but in some cases they come out and actually make their true views known that parties such as the Greens and Libertarians should simply not exist. This was the case last week when a Democrat named Abbey Bartletmitzvah tweeted that “the Green Party does a disservice to America by existing,” a statement that was unique only in that it openly stated the desire among two-party system defenders for the elimination of any challenge to this system. More often, Democrats just lob accusations at Greens and independent voters insinuating that they are personally responsible for all the problems in the world. Following the House vote to repeal Obamacare last week, for example, the Green Party reiterated its longstanding call for a universal health care model like those enjoyed by most of the world only to be met with hatred and anger by Democrats still seething over their loss a half-year ago. “You’re responsible for this!” one hysterical Twitter user responded. “You & your minions brought this on us,” said another. “You realize you are the fucking reason Trumpcare is a thing, right?” asked another. Quasi-Official Parties There is a tinge of unfairness to the implication that every one of Trump’s misdeeds can be laid at the feet of dissidents who refused to vote in line with the Democratic Party establishment. Considering that many of these people have long been committed to activism only to come to the painful conclusion that the answers they are looking for could not be found in voting for one of the two quasi-official U.S. parties, it can be difficult for third party voters to accept that they are responsible for everything from the Supreme Court to climate change. There are also some mixed messages in the U.S. approach to multi-party democracy, with on one hand, alternative parties being allowed to exist, but on the other hand, anyone who votes for them coming under criticism as “spoilers.” If Democrats were more upfront in their desire to ensure that voters have no options other than choosing between the Democratic or Republican parties, they might consider introducing legislation declaring these two parties as the officially recognized parties in the United States and prohibiting other parties from competing. Of course, this would place the U.S. on par with totalitarian states and in clear violation of international standards for democratic elections, but at least the ambiguity would be removed as to whether third parties are allowed to compete or not. Voters would also have more clarity on whether they are permitted to cast ballots for these renegade parties. But coming out and expressly banning third parties is not likely to happen because, for one, it could raise international concerns about the U.S. commitment to basic democratic principles and, perhaps more importantly, it would deprive supporters of the two-party system of one of their favorite scapegoats. Democratic critics of the Greens take delight in pointing out their lack of electoral success on the national level, highlighting this as a repudiation of the Green Party platform and as legitimation of the Democrats. But despite the fact that the Greens’ lack of success means that the Greens have never actually held power, they are still routinely blamed for all the country’s problems. Straw Man Arguments There is also a tendency to distort the primary arguments of Green Party backers, with straw man arguments set up such as “Clinton and Trump are the same.” This is called the “false equivalence” argument, which Democrats enjoy shooting down with counter-points about Trump’s cabinet picks and xenophobic policies such as the “Muslim ban” and the proposed Mexico border wall. The implication is that Republicans are obviously much worse than Democrats in all respects, so the “liberal purists” who may object to Clinton’s hawkishness or close ties to Wall Street are just being unrealistic and holding her to a different standard. Clinton alluded to this straw man argument herself in an interview with CNN’s Christiane Amanpour last week. Pointing to a number of factors that she says cost her the election – mainly the “Comey letter,” which had informed Congress prior to the election that the FBI was reopening its examination of her use of a private email server as Secretary of State, and what she called “Russian Wikileaks,” which had shared with the public excerpts of her paid Wall Street speeches and revealed collusion between the Clinton campaign and the Democratic National Committee to sideline insurgent Bernie Sanders’ candidacy in the primaries – she complained that she had to overcome not only those obstacles, but also an “enormous barrage of negativity, of false equivalence, of so much else.” Clinton’s “false equivalence” charge is one that is familiar to supporters of third parties, who are often accused of engaging in this logical fallacy when weighing options and evaluating candidates. When people decide that they cannot in good conscience support either of the candidates nominated by the two major parties, they are routinely accused of drawing a “false equivalence,” i.e. falsely claiming that “they are all the same,” when in fact this is rarely the view of people who decide on a third party option. While the factors for people opting for a third party candidate are complex and varied, one of the main reasons is simply that the candidate is expressing views that the voter identifies with. Of course, this is the essence of democracy – being able to freely cast your vote for a candidate who represents your interests without fear of retribution or having to defend yourself against recriminations – but apparently it is still considered a radical concept in the United States. Regime Change Wars Ironically, in the same Amanpour interview in which Clinton warned against “false equivalence,” she also offered a substantive policy reminder of why many peace-minded voters decided they could not cast a ballot for the former Secretary of State who has built a reputation as a hawkish interventionist and a vocal proponent of regime change operations from Iraq to Libya to Syria. In discussing Trump’s approach to Syria, Clinton said she supported the recent U.S. missile strike targeting a Syrian airfield, but nevertheless complained that it was too limited in scope and perhaps may have even been coordinated with Russia in order to keep East-West tensions under control. “I am not convinced that it really made much of a difference, and I don’t know what kind of potentially backroom deals were made with the Russians,” Clinton told Amanpour. “There’s a lot that we don’t really yet fully know about what was part of that strike. And if after all it was a one-off effort, it’s not going to have much of an effect.” In other words, Trump erred not by firing 59 cruise missiles against Syria, which violated international law and resulted in numerous civilian casualties, but by limiting the scope of this attack. The clear implication is that if Clinton were president, it would not have been “a one-off effort,” and probably would not have been done in consultation with Russia. Instead, Clinton would likely be making U.S. intervention in Syria a centerpiece of her foreign policy, and would show little concern over how this might spiral out of control in terms of ratcheting up tensions – or all-out military confrontation – with nuclear-armed Russia. So, despite what Democratic partisans may insist, in fact, there is reason to believe that in some ways, a hypothetical Clinton presidency may indeed have brought many of its own dangers. While a Muslim ban may not have been in the cards in a Clinton administration, another U.S. war in the Middle East certainly was. In some ways this vindicates the arguments of those who decided to cast a vote for an alternative to Clinton or Trump, or what Wikileaks’ Julian Assange likened to a choice between “cholera or gonorrhea.” And indeed, despite the ongoing efforts to blame third party supporters for the calamities of the Trump presidency – most recently exemplified by Bill Maher’s malicious attacks on Stein and West – interestingly, public opinion surveys continue to indicate that many Americans are increasingly open to alternatives to the two-party system. A recent ABC News/Washington Post poll found that if the election were held today, Jill Stein and Libertarian Gary Johnson would likely fare better than they did six months ago. While Stein and Johnson only received 2 and 4 percent of the vote, respectively, on Nov. 8, if the election took place now, 3 percent would vote for Stein and 5 percent for Johnson, the poll found. This growing support for third parties reflects longstanding public-opinion trends in which Americans appear to be clamoring for alternatives, as shown in polling last year, and may stem from the fact that large numbers of Americans find that the two major parties do not represent their interests. Indeed, in the same poll that found growing support for Stein and Johnson, 62 percent of voters said that the Republican Party is out of touch with Americans, and 67 percent said Democrats were out of touch. If many Democrats have their way though, these disaffected voters would have no other options outside of the two-party system. Nat Parry is co-author of Neck Deep: The Disastrous Presidency of George W. Bush. [This article first appeared at https://essentialopinion.wordpress.com/2017/05/08/renewed-recriminations-over-election-2016/ ]Abdulhussain Abdulredha, a hugely popular actor, director, playwright and producer passed away in London on August 11, aged 78, after going into a coma. His body arrived in his native Kuwait on Wednesday, on a private plane charted by the Emir of Kuwait Sabah Al-Ahmad Al-Jaber Al-Sabah. Thousands of mourners gathered in the scorching heat to say farewell, with several of them fainting as his casket was carried to his final resting place. Mourners from across the Gulf, from Jeddah to my Bahraini village of Diraz, travelled to Kuwait to pay their respects. It was a scene of collective grief on a scale not witnessed in decades, demonstrating the power of art to transcend the divisions and discord that ravage the region. It also shows how the vestiges of free expression accorded in Kuwait, during a particular period at least, harnessed both criticism and good will, and most important of all inclusivity. Abdulredha touched the rich and poor, the bidoon, the Shia and the Sunni, the regime loyalists and the opposition, and in fact, royal family members themselves - even as they were caricatured. Throughout his life, Abdulredha was seen as legendary in his political courage, wit, powerful charisma and unique characterisations through defiant cultural productions. I am only one of the millions of fans who grew up on a staple of VHS tapes of Abdulredha's performances. Abdulredha's art influenced people all over the world, but his timeless works are even more relevant where political progress has stalled and much of the same issues he tackled are as pertinent today as they ever were. In their grief over the loss of such an insurmountable figure, GCC citizens also mourn the loss of authentic artistic expression in an age of innocence, before the depoliticisation and corporatisation of the entertainment industry. After his death, social media saw over two million tweets about the artist and hashtags such as #Kuwait_mourns_Abdulhussain_Abdulredha (in Arabic) has been trending. His former colleagues, heads of states and activists took to social media to express their sorrow. Some Wahhabi and Salafi figures tried to sectarianise his death, but these attempts met swift rebuttals and in some cases, punitive action, even though such toxic discourse is normally permitted on these platforms. Abdulredha, born in 1939, performed and produced over 30 plays and television series over the course of his a half-century-long career. His huge personality, witty scripts and powerful charisma captured the public conscience on stage and screen, cementing his position as the founder of a political and social genre. One of the founding members of a theatre movement led by Zaki Talaimat in the sixties, Abdulredha eventually established his own entertainment television channel, and also gained state recognition. One cannot but also mention his other talents as he also sang and composed most of his on stage songs. OPINION: Rethinking the Arab capital through art Today, Abdulredha's plays serve as historical records, addressing everything from life in the pre-oil era, the democratic transition in Kuwait, the impact of sudden oil wealth on individuals in the 70s, to Kuwait's political fragility especially after the Iraqi invasion, and wider themes
cigarettes. On the day he was killed by NYPD Officer Daniel Pantaleo he did not even possess any cigarettes. He committed no crime, and posed no threat to anyone. The back story here is that neither the taxing authorities (that would be New York City) nor the cigarette manufacturers and distributors want to lose any revenue in what is essentially a legalized racket. A box of cigarettes can cost between $12 and $14.50 in NYC. The Adobe Flash Player is required for video playback. Get the latest Flash Player or Watch this video on YouTube. There is a lot of money to be made and/or lost because of the burgeoning black market in cigarettes. Consequently, someone decided to make a very dramatic example of Eric Garner. The message: Don’t deprive the municipality of their needed tax revenue. & Don’t undersell the businesses that sell tobacco products. Everything about the Garner case smacks of a setup. It’s almost as though those who engineered this murder in broad daylight did so in order to viralized the video and audio content. Not only will every black marketeer get the intended message very quickly, the race baiters can also use the cold-blooded murder and police brutality to further advance their cause. Although it may be difficult for many to comprehend, the murder of Eric Garner was quite purposefully staged to also advance the race war agenda. Just look at what has occurred around the nation since the decision not to indict was made public. Because it was such a senseless and defenseless crime by a group of 6 white policemen against a single black citizen, it is mega-charged to further galvanize a snowballing grass-roots movement against pervasive police brutality. 1% Plutocrats vs 99% People: US Federal Government Works For The Corporate Oligarchy There is no question that the police — everywhere — are totally OUT OF CONTROL. The amount and degree of naked police brutality in America has ratcheted up dramatically since 9/11. However, the deliberate militarization of police departments across the country has very little to do with terrorizing black communities. It has much more to do with keeping the 99% in check. COMPLETE check! The true purpose behind so much shocking police brutality and unjustifiable killing lies with the very rich and powerful 1%. In short, they’re scared. Like never before, they know they will soon be facing some sort of a firing line. Their compulsive manipulation of all the markets (stock, bond, real estate, currency, commodities, derivatives, etc.) is now well-known … and well documented. So is their overwhelming influence over every organ of government — federal, state, county and city. More significantly, it is their (1%) total control over law enforcement in all 50 states that is being foisted (by the Department of Homeland Security) on police departments everywhere. This is by design. Acts of police brutality are being staged and choreographed to have a very dramatic effect on communities large and small. In order to have maximum effect, these shocking crimes against the citizens are becoming more graphic and horrifying. The more fear that can be instilled into the general public, the more self-policing there will be among the populace. Much of the pervasive cow mentality is actually propagated and perpetuated in order to help keep each other from being hurt, or killed, by rogue cops. This pre-planned and ongoing psyop has taken such a turn for the worse that the internet is now replete with hundreds of police brutality videos, each of which could be entitled: Shock & Awe! Yes, it’s that bad out there. However, the people are finally waking up to the fact that the police have literally been given a license to kill … without cause. They have also been given carte blanche in many urban areas to engage in acts of glaring police brutality whenever, wherever, however they see fit. Herein lies the root of the problem, as it has been addressed at the very highest levels of the ruling Plutocracy. The festering class war has been sufficiently tamped down by TPTB (aka the Plutocacy) by simply replacing it with a full-scale race war. This same “divide and conquer” strategy has been used quite successfully for millennia. Sometimes it is race, sometimes it’s religion. Other times it has been sharp differences in customs, or traditions, or language that was used to divide and rule. Nevertheless, it almost always provides the desired results for those who skillfully employ it. US Foreign Policy Utilizes Same Approach: Wields Big Stick To Start Wars Here again the 1% is always starting wars around the globe in order to exert more control over the planet’s finite resources. War mongering also fits into TPTB’s time-honored tradition of wealth creation by way of the arms trade, gunrunning and arms trafficking. Through the Military-Industrial Complex the top 1% exerts total command and control over of the entire US military. The armed forces are primarily mobilized to function as the 1%’s own mercenary armies abroad. This transparent use of taxpayer dollars by the 1% to protect their extensive business interests, both at home and abroad, is rarely questioned. Nor is their frequent employment of local law enforcement in local matters. That is, until now! The sustained intimidation and continued threats against the 99% is wearing thin. The Internet Age has made it much more difficult to get away with their usual divide and rule tactics. This article is just one example as to why that is the case. Sunlight has always functioned as the best disinfectant. Shining the light on their tricks of the trade will surely expose TPTB in a way that they cannot, will not, tolerate. That is the one thing which the ruling plutocracy will always try to avoid — EXPOSURE. Just as the US State Department and CIA jointly ran a black operation during the recent Kiev coup d’état, the Feds are implementing numerous black ops in racially-charged communities around the nation. Their goal appears to be nothing less than a nationally televised race war. In this way TPTB can eternally point the finger at the perfect red herring known as racial tensions. Tensions that have been surreptitiously fabricated and then fed by the likes of Barack Obama, Eric Holder, Al Sharpton, Jesse Jackson and many other prime movers throughout the repugnant Racism Industry. Race Wars Are Always Class Wars In Disguise At the end of the day racial tensions are always the result of fierce economic competition. Race wars are actually class wars in disguise. Race riots occur during times of great financial duress. Racial hatreds are easily inflamed when those on the other side of the tracks appear to be doing better. The greater the divide between the 1% and the 99% the more anger and rage, frustration and discouragement will be vented. The Obama Administration is already well-known for willfully neglecting the black communities throughout the nation. Obama’s complete lack of sound economic policy and necessary financial restraint have pushed the nation to a monetary collapse and fiscal bankruptcy. Truly, the political, economic and social consequences of Obama’s systematic destruction of American enterprise is catastrophic. Obamacare alone has served to shudder countless businesses across the country. The poor black communities have essentially shunned that cost-prohibitive scheme designed to enrich health insurance companies. One need look no further than the city of Detroit (and Obama’s hometown Chicago) to understand the degree of Obama’s willful neglect. That city resembles nothing short of an apocalyptic wasteland. Having a predominantly black population, Detroit has nevertheless received very little federal assistance, financial aid or emergency relief (like when the water is shut off). Just how long can such a dire situation continue before a ‘racial’ conflagration occurs. Financial desperation will always push the economically oppressed into desperate actions. This Administration is quite aware of their gross failure in regard to economic recovery because the Congressional Black Caucus has told them so repeatedly. Many of the more honest minority state representatives have admitted that Obama has proven to be an unmitigated disaster for black America. In fact he has done very little regarding the critical causes of community renewal, business development and genuine black empowerment. Because of their monumental failure, Obama and his racist cohorts have chosen to play the race card at every opportunity as a means of misdirection. By inciting racial tensions, race riots, and race wars their own profound failings are covered up. By continually misdirecting the peoples’ attention to genuine or fictitious acts of racism, the root causes of the coming class war are never exposed so that they can be addressed. When Race Riots Morph Into Class Warfare The mere knowledge of their plans greatly minimizes the likelihood that TPTB will be successful in this misguided endeavor. Because they have used the same devious tactics practically forever, they are easily known by their actions. With smartphones in the hands of almost everyone who leaves their home these days, it’s much easier to capture their crimes against humanity in real time. Hence, TPTB police perps on the ground are much easier to nail, as we all saw with the callous killing of Eric Garner[3]. At the very heart of the coming class war are the perceived human rights of economic justice and financial security. Eric Garner’s only ‘crime’ was selling single cigarettes known as loosies. Can you imagine that he was murdered for selling single cigarettes … without tax?! As previously mentioned, on the day that Eric was choked to death, they found no cigarettes in his possession. Something is very wrong with that picture. VERY wrong indeed! Perhaps Eric Garner’s death will spark the much feared class war that TPTB have thus far been successful in postponing. No matter what form the upcoming revolution takes, We the People (@ 99%) will have no problem taking back our country. After all, it’s 99% against 1%. Let the revolution begin! And may it be a peaceful one. Conclusion More and more people are coming to understand that the USA Inc. is just that — a CORPORATION. They are also waking up to the fact that this nation is administered by a “government of the Corporation, by the Corporation, for the Corporation”. There are now signs and symbols everywhere: Corporate America has a stranglehold on both government and the governed. They own practically everything in sight and control virtually every resource under the sun. They run the show on every TV and radio channel, call the shots in every statehouse and courthouse, and tell us exactly who we will elect every two and 4 years. Truly, if ever the devil were to make a pact with the perfect entity by which to carry out his nefarious deeds, INC is it. Michael Thomas December 5, 2o14 State of the Nation Author’s Note When Candidate Barack Obama was running for office in 2008 there were many ‘stories’ and reports comparing him to Abraham Lincoln. Both were from Illinois prior to their election to the presidency. Both were tall and lanky. Both were known for being glib and quick-witted. Both became president during a time of deep divisions within the body politic. Talk of civil war and/or revolution was commonplace, as if a forgone conclusion. “Obama energized these speculations by launching his presidential campaign from Lincoln’s hometown of Springfield, Illinois.” — Obama & Lincoln The New Age community, in particular, fell for this extremely cynical and calculated narrative. The same president who won a Noble Peace Prize carries out illicit, extra-judicial assassinations by drones on a regular basis. Obama has to his credit two new unlawful wars in Libya and Syria, continued illegal warring in Iraq and Afghanistan, and a violent coup d’état in the Ukraine leading to yet another deadly civil war. However, his most ignominious achievement is restarting the Cold War with Russia and making an enemy of Vladimir Putin. Only under the color of black skin could a Democratic president have gotten away with such contemptible conduct. Only the shuck and jive of a half black, half white president could so deceive the electorate — TWICE — after continuing all of the major policies of the disastrous Bush presidency, and keeping many of the same inept, some say traitorous, policymakers. As for the festering race war, and coming class war, only one statement can be made: Now you know why the 1% installed a ‘black’ President and ‘black’ Attorney General during this particularly precarious time of their (TPTB) existence. Editor’s Note State of the Nation fully acknowledges that racial discrimination is a pervasive and deep-rooted problem in this country. Racial bias still exists throughout every sphere of life. Black communities witness unnecessary and violent deaths on a weekly basis. False testimony, false evidence, false arrests, false prosecutions, false convictions, false imprisonments and the wrongful execution of innocent black men mar the record of this nation’s “Criminal Injustice System”, as it is known in the black communities. Truly, the lives of black males are valued much less, and, therefore, taken much more easily than those of any other race. Endnotes [1] Missouri Lt. Gov. Rips Gov. Nixon Over Lack of National Guard Presence in Ferguson [2] Ferguson Grand Jury Decision: Why Was The Darren Wilson Verdict Announced At Night? [3] Eric Garner: Chokehold his own doing, or ‘death by economic regulation’? References FERGUSON PROTEST PSYOP: ENGINEERED RACE RIOTS AND STAGED POLICE BRUTALITY Police Terrorism: Brutality And Killings By Cops Are Off The ChartsSTUNNING! CNN Host Kamau Bell Leads Antifa Mob in Violent Anti-Prayer Protest (VIDEO) CNN Host Kamau Bell led the violent Antifa terrorist mob in California last weekend. The far left hack who hosts CNN’s “The United Shades of Gray” was guest speaker in front of mob that went on to beat the hell out of a prayer group in Berkeley. This is CNN. After the rally Bell lauded the causes of “black” and “brown” people in his tweets. Berkeley shouldn't just come together when the Nazis/KKK kids/Fault Right/white supremacists show up. We should be like this everyday… — W. Kamau Bell (@wkamaubell) August 28, 2017 Black ppl, Brown ppl, LGBT ppl, immigrants, refugees, Muslims, Jewish ppl, Pagans, UU's, Mormons, disabled ppl, poor ppl, mentally ill ppl.. — W. Kamau Bell (@wkamaubell) August 28, 2017 & even white ppl… especially the white allies out in those Berkeley streets today & the white half of my children. 😁✊🏿✊🏾✊🏽✊🏼✊🏻✊ — W. Kamau Bell (@wkamaubell) August 28, 2017 Via Tucker Carlson Tonight:Alan Jaras is an artist/scientist who since his retirement as a industrial research scientist and microscopist has focused his energy on bridging art and science together with his research "to gain a deeper understanding of how these patterns form and how to make images that hopefully can be considered a form of art." Using only film, and without a lens on the camera, in what Alan says could still be described as a photogram, he shoots a targeted light source through and a piece of art glass or formed plastic to capture the created refraction patterns. The results, what could be described as "images of strange microscopic or deep sea creatures or even galaxies forming in deep space," pull at the viewers perception of digital and analog, art and science, all the while expanding our imaginations and understanding of the world around us. I talked with Alan about his photo process, the inspiration behind it, other beautiful color effects found in nature, and how to start a fire using a flower vase. Take the time to read through everything Alan has to say and you won't walk away uninspired, I promise. COLOURlovers: Hi, how are you today? Alan Jaras: Today I feel particularly good. I live in the North West of England in the UK and over here we've had another wet summer, as we approach the start of autumn today the sun is shining in a clear blue sky, it definitely lifts the spirits. CL: How do you spend you time? Alan: I took early retirement from my work as an industrial research scientist and microscopist some years ago intending to spend more time concentrating on photomicrography, macrophotography and photography in general. However, the internet, and Flickr in particular, changed things for me. The worldwide interest in my refraction patterns or "Refractographs" as I call them has set me off in a new direction towards, what looks like, the start of a new career. I work from home and need the dark to photograph the images, so from late September until March when the sun has set and it's dark enough for me in the evenings I can spend a couple of hours actually taking photographs. Looking directly into the viewfinder at a bright light can be a big strain on the eyes so I limit the length of time. I've had over 40 years training peering into microscopes in darkened rooms so I'm quite used to it, but I still want to look after my eyes. During the day I spend a lot of time trying out new ideas, experimenting with plastics, resins, paints, dyes and seeing what sort of new refraction patterns I can create. Like a scientific experiment I keep a careful record of the things I try and all the samples I produce are coded and numbered for future reference. With the interest generated on the internet there is also the need to spend quite a bit of time replying to emails and comments on Flickr. Looking out of the study window now I can see that after all the rain the lawn grass needs cutting and the weeds are beginning to take over the garden - if the weather stays dry I'll try to make a start later today. There's always something waiting to be done. CL: Can you talk about your photo process. Alan: I only use film and traditional manual 35mm cameras - I have never used or owned a digital camera (I have nothing against them: just never felt the need for one). For my photography in general I still use cameras from the 1960's, I don't have any zoom lenses and I even use a hand held light meter. For my 'Refractographs' I don't even need a lens on the camera, I just use a camera body as a mini darkroom to hold the film while the image is projected directly on to it. The piece of glass, or formed plastic, replaces the camera lens. I think the technique can still be classed as a photogram but whereas the conventional photogram is made in a darkroom as a contact print directly on to photographic paper using an enlarger as the light source, I use a darkened room and a distant point light source and capture the image on to 35mm colour film from which enlargements can be made. After a lot of experimentation on film types I have now settled on using tungsten rated colour slide film (Fujichrome T64). The 64 ISO (ASA) film speed means fine grain size which will give larger enlargements (40" x 30" is quite acceptable). For my processing I use a local professional photo lab that specialises in exhibition quality traditional enlarger hand prints, either directly from the colour film using the Cibachrome (now Ilfochrome) process or the film is scanned at high resolution for large digital prints with the associated large file size - a high resolution scan of a 35mm frame can be 250-300MB in size. For web work and evaluation I scan my own images using an Epson Perfection V700 scanner. CL: What do you use for a light beam? Alan: I've tried numerous light sources. About 40 years ago I had access to a conventional darkroom and used an enlarger and B/W film to make some monochrome negatives of glass refraction patterns for printing Image link or Image link and . When I rekindled my interest nearly three years ago I wanted to work in colour so that's when I started trying it out with a camera body. I first of all used a shaft of sunlight shining through a slit in a window blind Now, that is a bit too bright for my eyes. I even tried the moon on a cold clear winter's night but that got a bit too cold and the exposures were too long (both for me and the film) so I tried out one of my high power microscope lamps with a collimated beam of light and an overrun tungsten bulb. This was a 50 year old specialist lamp and the bulbs were difficult to find (the stock I had lasted about a year). I now use a 150W halogen lamp which is bright enough to give me exposures of between 1/2 and 1/125 seconds depending on the object I'm imaging. CL: Can you tell us about caustics, your research and bridging art and science together. Alan: Caustics are all around us and are seen especially when a single bright source of light is shining. They occur when the beam hits a curved surface and reflects from it such as the pattern of the 'caustic curve' you can see at the bottom of a cup or if the beam is transmitted through a transparent curved surface such as a lens they can be focused to a bright spot - if the lens is turned the shape of the spot extends to a long 'comet like' pattern. The word 'caustic' means 'to burn' and it was from the ability of a curved mirror to focus the suns rays to a bright burning spot that we get the name. The Olympic Torch is still lit by this method. Caustic patterns are seen dancing on the bottom of a swimming pool in sunlight, reflected under a bridge from the ripples on the surface of water and probably everybody has seen the patterns when sunlight shines through a glass vase or a glass of wine. It is similar patterns that I try to capture in fine detail on film by working with glass, plastics and other refractive media. For over 30 years my wife and I have been collecting hand made studio (art) glass. After such a long time we have built up quite a collection with much of it out on display. It's fascinating to watch how the colours change with different lighting conditions and especially when sunlight shines on them. You have to be careful though, large spherical flower vases filled with water like goldfish bowls have been know to start household fires and burn scorch lines on window curtains. Anyhow, many of the pieces we have show lovely detailed patterns of quite complex shape, colour and intricate detail when lit by sunlight, the finest detail focusing just an inch or so behind. It gets quite difficult trying to hold a large piece of art glass in the dark in one hand while trying to see the image in the viewfinder, compose the picture and then wind on the film for the next exposure, it does help to have a sturdy tripod and a monopod in front with a frame to hold the glassware. The patterns with glass are susceptible to the slightest movement so each exposure produces a different image. To start with, I would take three or four exposures and make careful notes and details of the brightness of the lamp with my light meter. Nowadays, with experience, I usually only need one or two exposures as I can judge the brightness of the image quite well through the viewfinder. The 'Bending Light' set on Flickr show the sequence of images from my early attempts to the latest works. Many of the early works have been scanned from prints using an old flat bed scanner and viewed on an old monitor. Now that I want to achieve much higher quality I've upgraded the computer, monitor and scanner and I am now able reproduce the image as I see it on the original film when viewed on a colour corrected light box. This brings me to another point - how to reproduce the image as a viewable print suitable for display and show the quality of image that I see from the film on the light box. Transparency film has a special quality, the image is viewed by passing light through the film rather like the way the image was produced in the first place by passing light through the glass. The 'caustics' are three dimensional, some are focussed on the film plane, some just in front others behind, also because of the refractive index properties of the material different colours are focussed at different positions too. When viewed on the light box the colours of the patterns appear at different levels 'floating' above the film in a wonderful 3D effect, some more that others depending on the colour. The background is dense black - so much so that the film lab technicians can't see where to cut the film, there being no distinction between one frame and the next - normally films show a black band between exposures but if the background is a perfect black then its hard to tell. So instead of the film coming back in cut strips I get it in an uncut roll and its left for me to decide where to make the cuts. With a print you view the image with reflected light and these blacks are difficult to achieve. Cibachrome prints have a high gloss surface and a good deep black which gives depth to the image and brings out a lot of the 3D effect I see on the slide film. With a digital print from a scanned image again a high gloss paper is best but the blacks may not be quite as deep as the Cibachrome. The next problem with a high gloss print is firstly mounting and then preserving the surface finish from fingerprints and handling scratches. The prints have to be mounted on a smooth mount such as plastic or polished metal, traditional card mounts have a surface texture which shows through when high gloss prints are pressure mounted on it. I have been looking at 'face mounting' behind clear acrylic (Plexiglass) sheet. The back of the print is first bonded on to a polished aluminium sheet and then the front or 'face' of print is 'glued' under pressure with a clear silicone resin to a front sheet of clear acrylic. This is similar to the way a thin section of a sample is prepared for microscopy - the section is placed on a glass microscope slide then a clear refractive index liquid forms a thin transparent interface with the top cover glass. It's like looking at the fish in the sea through a glass bottomed boat - surface scattering is reduced and the colours enhanced. I think at the moment this is the best way for mounting my prints to get the full effect of the image and the 3D effect. Another technique I will probably try is to have large transparencies made for viewing on a wall mounted light box or deep black frames with anti-reflection coated glass. Getting back to caustics; I soon went through my collection of glass finding about 1 in 20 pieces suitable. I then thought of trying to form my own refractive surfaces out of transparent plastic materials, rather than relying on 'as found' patterns I hoped to be able to explore the way the patterns were formed and create new patterns to order - well that was the hope. I've spent about two years experimenting, at the moment I'm not going to reveal the technical details and methods I use but I'm now well on the way to better control. These patterns are much more 'organic' in shape, I can add coloured dyes or chemicals which interact with the curing and setting process and distort the surface texture which again generates delicate refraction patterns. The 'Twisting Light' set was the result of this method of preparation. More complex patterns can be made by passing the light beam first through one of the glass pieces and its refraction pattern then passed through one of the plastic forms - a double refraction or recursive pattern. The next stage was trying to control where the patterns occur on the image and to try and make small scenes out of these patterns. This is my 'Taming Light' set. Here I place small shapes of plastic and maybe other materials in a small area the size of a 35mm film frame, they may be coloured and then laminated up or fused - the effects of the 'inclusions' modify the refraction patterns locally and generate specific patterns where I want them to appear. This is one of the early examples I particularly like, I may go back and explore this effect in a little more detail - This is another type of pattern I've recently been working on: It's really one long series of scientific experiments and exploration, trying to gain a deeper understanding of how these patterns form and how to make images that hopefully can be considered as a form of art - aesthetically pleasing, a talking point, and generating images and possibly feelings within the viewer's mind and imagination. The dancing patterns that the early cave dwellers saw on the cave walls made by the flickering flames from their fires and reflected from the pools of water must have filled them with awe and wonder and possibly fear. Without the millennia of knowledge behind them that we now have, who knows what they thought they were - spirits, sprites, magic? CL: Why did you start taking photos like this? Alan: First of all it was a technical challenge - looking for a way of recording something that I personally found amazing and then wanting to share it with others, hopefully arousing an interest and curiosity in the optical world that's surrounds us all. CL: What do you try and communicate through your work? Alan: I leave a lot to the viewers' imaginations. I can direct somewhat their thoughts by the titles I give the works but through the experience and feedback I have had on my Flickr images I find that most people have different interpretations of what they see in the images. There is no scale, no reference point so they could equally be images of strange microscopic or deep sea creatures or even galaxies forming in deep space. Many, especially the patterns made from plastics, do resemble the shapes of underwater creatures because the same forces and properties which shape the plastics also help generate the forms of the sea creatures,such as surface tension, density, viscosity, flow etc. I'd like the viewer to experience some of the wonder and fascination for these patterns and other optical effects that I myself have. I've always been fascinated at seeing optical effects for the first time. Like a child with a kaleidoscope, the first look at pond life under a microscope or viewing the moon through a telescope. There are many other beautiful colour effects in nature - iridescence, dichroism, the sparkle of light by mineral crystals, interference colours, the shimmer and flash of opals, rainbows and other optical weather effects, backlit dew on a spiders web; I'd like people to generally have a sense of scientific curiosity and discovery that comes from looking at things in a little more detail. The fact that you know how an optical effect is formed doesn't detract from it's visual impact - I still look at rainbows or can marvel at the iridescent colours on a beetle's back. I'd like more people to experience the wonders of science and nature and use their eyes more to observe the world in a little more detail. CL: What's the most colorful place you've ever been figuratively and/or literally? Alan: I think it's the 'world' of the polarising microscope and particularly the colours formed by birefringent crystals. I've always admired the work of the British photomicrographer Spike Walker this was the sort of work I was planning doing before I got sidetracked. The colours of the crystals change as the microscope slide is rotated - again the colours give scientific information about the optical properties of the chemical crystals and can often be used to identify the material without the need for complex computer driven analytical machines. I think his images are another example of the bridge between science and art. Another colourful place which sometimes I can find quite visually overpowering (even with my experienced background) is a large retail store or a supermarket. The clamour of colours all fighting for recognition and visually shouting "buy me" can cause overloading of the optic nerve perhaps it's because I have no control over the patterns or imagery that my eyes try to take in or it may be the effect of all those fluorescent lights. Whatever the cause the effect is almost trance making perhaps that's the effect the store designers and packaging designers want to engender - it just makes me want to get out as quickly as possible. CL: What are your plans for the future? Alan: Over the last few months I've been creating new works ready to photograph - I'll be starting that in a couple of weeks time. The Agitatto Gallery in Geneva is the first gallery to have selected some of my works for inclusion in their gallery catalogue. I hope this venture is a success and will lead to other gallery representation. I would also like to build up a body of mounted work large and exciting enough to lead to an exhibition offer.Popular Pole Robert Kubica is testing an F1 car – Mark Hughes looks at the prospects of a comeback Robert Kubica testing a 2012 Lotus for Renault today at Valencia represents the first time in a Formula 1 car since his rallying accident early in 2011. This a driver once dubbed by Fernando Alonso as ‘the best of us all’. UPDATE: He completed 115 laps at Valencia, and according to Renault on Facebook he complained about grip, understeer and downforce... It follows on from his first single-seater tests earlier in the year – in a GP3 car at Franciacorta in Italy and a Formula E at Donington. What was significant about these earlier tests was they allowed him to assess whether the limited articulation of his injured right arm still prevented him from being able to steer within the confines of a single-seater’s cockpit. The Franciacorta circuit was chosen for the fact that it features two tight hairpins that require a lot of steering lock. Kubica was reportedly delighted to find that the arm no longer presented a problem, that it was now possible for it to function without being held out at an angle that had previously prevented it from fitting into such an enclosed space. So if it is now possible for him to properly drive a single-seater, does that beg the tantalising question of an F1 comeback? A test with a current F1 team hardly pours cold water on such an idea. He has maintained strong links with the Enstone team for which he’d just set the fastest time in pre-2011 season testing and for which he drove in 2010. He has tested simulations of current cars on the team’s simulator over the years and has invariably been super-competitive in comparison to the regular drivers (very often significantly faster). His friend Toto Wolff went on record at the end of 2012, saying he believed that without the accident, Kubica in the 2012 Lotus (the car that was piloted by Kimi Räikkönen and Romain Grosjean) would have been world champion. It’s also now known that he had in place a Ferrari contract from 2013 to partner Alonso, agreed with the Scuderia’s then team principal Stefano Domenicali. Is it too fanciful to suggest Kubica might have joined the Scuderia as reigning world champion? It was certainly well within the bounds of possibility. So while the test in Valencia today – in the car tested the previous day by the team’s third driver Sergey Sirotkin – is partly a reminder of what might have been, for Kubica it is almost certainly more than that. He is a man who cannot live without competing in a car, who has zero interest in the riches it can bring or the image it can lend, and who has always pushed himself to extremes unusual even by the standards of a racing driver. If his feel for the car and the track remains unimpaired and he can physically withstand the greater forces of the 2017 cars, he will be looking for an F1 return. He is 32 years old. Could here be a place for him? Renault is clearly interested enough to give him a very serious test. Speculation rages about whether Jolyon Palmer will get to see out this season (with Sirotkin, Pierre Gasly and Felipe Nasr all in the mix as possible short-term replacements) while others in talks with the team for 2018 include Esteban Ocon, Carlos Sainz and Sergio Pérez. All Kubica can do is prove by the sheer force of his performances in the car that he is the best candidate. This run in an old Lotus is far more than just a nice day out. If we next see him testing a hybrid Renault, it will be all the confirmation needed: Kubica is on the comeback trail.Introduction Republican activist Shaun McCutcheon, left, talks with his lawyer Dan Backer during a Feb. 11, 2015, hearing at the Federal Election Commission in Washington, D.C. Dave Levinthal/Center for Public Integrity The nation’s top election regulator advertised today’s rare, daylong public hearing as an opportunity to address a recent Supreme Court ruling that allowed people to contribute money to an unlimited number of federal politicians. Instead, liberals and conservatives used the Federal Election Commission’s forum to argue for their pet political money agendas while routinely, if politely, talking past one another. Big money has become “a source of cynicism for our elections,” argued Lisa Gilbert, director of Public Citizen’s Congress Watch project, who joined a host of other liberals and reformists in demanding that politically active groups be required to disclose their funders. “We don’t need less money in the political process, we need more,” said lawyer Dan Backer, who successfully represented plaintiff Shaun McCutcheon in the McCutcheon v. FEC case that was supposed to be the subject of today’s meeting. Other conservatives and advocates of a laissez-faire campaign finance system expressed fear that the FEC’s three Democratic appointees will try to regulate political speech on the Internet and reveal the identities of donors to politically active nonprofit groups. The forum, which began at 8:15 a.m. and lasted well into the afternoon, laid bare the vast divide in the public and on the commission between those who want more transparency and controls on political spending and those who believe spending money on behalf of political candidates is sacred free speech. The absence of intense debate about the McCutcheon decision appeared to annoy Republican National Committee Chief Counsel John Phillippe Jr., who had been called to testify on the topic. Channeling 1992 Reform Party vice presidential candidate James Stockdale, he mused, “Who am I, and why are we here?” FEC Chairwoman Ann Ravel, a Democrat, reveled in the hearing, which she called “historic.” That’s hardly surprising, as Ravel intends to spend this year speaking out about what she considers the “grave problem” of “politically active nonprofit organizations — many conservative, but some liberal — together fueled by hundreds of millions of dollars from donors who aren’t publicly known. Ravel is also looking to make the FEC less insular and esoteric, having already conducted wide-ranging public forums in Chicago, Denver and Atlanta. The forum turned into a debate about the Supreme Court’s seminal Citizens United v. FEC decision, which allowed corporations and unions to spend unlimited amounts of money on advertisements that call for the election or defeat of candidates, nearly as much as the McCutcheon decision. When speakers did address the McCutcheon decision, the issues that arose seemed comparatively small bore, such as tweaking rules governing contribution earmarks or joint fundraising. In a rather meta twist
the way we are going with other sequences too!" - which we did not know at that stage". The geometry needed to be rendered in New York was incredible, but Bluff tells a very funny story. Bluff did several shots himself, which he likes to do on any show he works on. When looking at one complex shot, Bluff wondered to himself if he could turn off some Geometry to speed up the render. "The majority of the buildings had interiors. Some went to ridiculous levels, they actually had offices with desks" he says " When I was looking to simplify things- just to render something quickly, and I saw something called post-it notes, of which there were several thousand. I realised there was a 3D computer monitor asset with post-it notes on it, - and that was duplicated in an office many times - which was then duplicated in over hundreds of floors - in a building in the background...it is one of the dangers of having a library of high quality assets!". One of the other funny aspects of the New York scene were the pigeons. While in the film's logic no one notices the chases due to the magic reality 'bubble' that the heroes are fighting in - early on during dailies the ILM team decided that the flocks of pigeons could notice something was wrong and react to vast bending buildings by flying out of the way. "It was a little inside joke, no one could tell what is going on apart from the Zealots, the Sorcerers, Mordo.. and the Pigeons". Hong Kong, was primarily executed in the ILM London office. Mark Bakowski supervised the London team. "One of the hardest things about it was just talking about the work. It might seem easy now, but everyone found it a challenge" explained Bluff. "For example, a shot might be part of a sequence moving backwards, so the buildings were re-forming, yet the principle actors are acting 'forwards', as normal in real time, yet there are extras performing with them that were acting backward, to collide with them, and then the next take of the next shot, the camera was going the opposite direction to shoot some actors running forward - who would be reversed in the comp - now everything I have just said there is utterly confusing - but that is exactly what we were dealing with!" he jokingly tries to explain. In addition to this, the team would have to add in element shots that would need to be comped in going in reverse, and multiple layers of extras added..."so once we worked out the language and the previz - we could then go ahead and plan and execute the work, - but it was a completely different headspace from New York". The Marvel team did a large amount of testing prior to principal photography to work out how to best shoot the material. A lot of care was taken to work out what cheats could be done and how to approach the principle photography. The team had hoped to film the Hong Kong sequence in just 15 nights but it ended up being almost 23 night's shooting on the Hong Kong Set. "It was a real challenge," explained Ceretti, "During pre-viz we realised we were going to shoot a lot of motion control, and we worked very closely with ILM to see if we could shoot cleverly without so much motion control, we couldn't. It was just so complicated, but we knew for some shots were shooting with the 65 - so we knew we could shoot locked off at 6K and then add movement in post". Due to the complexity of the Hong Kong sequence the team managed to only shoot five or six sequences a night. It was not just motion control or the problem of half the cast moving forward while the other half walked in reverse "we also shot some of the actors at different frame rates, the background guys were moving at half the speed of our foreground actors, who were moving at normal speed. It was a gigantic puzzle and we shot it in order as we were really destroying the street as we filmed". he explains. Due to the atmospheric effects in Hong Kong and all the dust, ILM used a Deep Composite pipeline for the sequence. The complexity of the entire sequence was greatly addressed by the detailed Perviz provided by the team at The Third Floor. Bluff felt that anytime any questions came up with the actors - watching Previz would address most of their issues. One aspect that Ceretti really enjoyed about the sequence he only discovered after the film was finished. He pointed out that when a building reforms it takes a while to work out what you are looking at, and then near the end of the reverse sequence it seems to pop into place and the audience can see that all the debris is from say a building. This last pop is something that the Audio team also emphasised, led by the film's composer Michael Giacchino. "He thought about the music the same way," comments Ceretti "All the attacks on the sounds are working exactly the same way our simulations are playing, they are all playing backwards in a natural way so it is a deceleration, and the music plays the same way, and I thought that was a nice parallel between our worlds" he said. Commenting on the simulation Bluff said that at ILM they very often had to imagine what the sound effects would sound like. "To make the effects play in reverse did need some modification to the tempo, If you watched the animators showing shots to each other you'd see a lot of people hand waving and making sucking in air sounds - just trying to tell the story.. to ensure that when you arrived at the shot it wasn't just a waterfall of debris", he adds. Sometimes to make it work, Bluff's team had to tweak the weight so things moved differently, particularly with the bamboo reforming in the background. "It is not logical when you look at it backwards" Bluff explains. "But it was a good challenge because it became creative and it was design led." "The audio team played all the effects backwards very carefully, they really did a great job" adds Ceretti. "Everything working together - sound and image - it was all thought about at many levels - which is nice". ILM did their Digital Doubles in RenderMan, unless they were "ants in wide vistas, which might have been done in V-Ray", says Bluff. While ILM produced photorealistic digi-doubles, these assets were passed to Method which was required to work at even higher resolutions because the digital Dr Strange would both come closer to camera and end up falling through his own eye ball. In addition to this ILM fed some of the other teams the digital double assets that were the basis of the Digital Dr Strange. ILM needed to produce a digital double for New York and Hong Kong. Plowman Craven captured the static actor mesh and textures. The face asset scans of Benedict Cumberbatch were derived from the Disney Research in Zurich developed Medusa rig face, and interestingly, the Swiss team provided a new type of high quality eye scan and model pioneered by Pascal Bérard (ETH Zurich/Disney Research: Zurich). We will have a separate story on the technological innovations in Eye scanning later this week. The actual eye photography as well as the body scanning of the actors and sets was supervised by Huseyin Caner. "Actually the eye was very challenging" he recalls. "We were asked to take very close up images of Benedict's eye and this is only the second time we have been asked to do it,...and we did end up working very closely with the Disney guys working it out,.. it is like taking a shot of a curved mirror and you don't want to be seen in the mirror!" he explains. "You need the right tools and really know what you're doing, - Benedict was very patient especially as we were about 10cm away from his eye with a quite powerful light - he was very helpful". The team had a main rig set up on set of some 130 SLR cameras able to fire simultaneously. This means in a few seconds the team could do a fully 360 high resolution photogrammetry shot of any actor. Over the course of the film Cumberbatch was shot 5 or 6 times in various costumes. Each session taking about 5 mins, from walking in, - to being done. For all the props the team did additional high resolutions shoots - this included weapons, cloaks and key parts of the actor's costume. The rig Plowman Craven used has 4 extra Canon 5D cameras with longer lenses aimed at the actor's face. "In one shot, in a split second we get head scan, body scan and the texture photos", explains Caner. The Plowman Craven team hand over whatever the VFX teams requires and here they handed over cleaned up triangulated meshes. This is ready to be retopologized. They also provide camera positions (rig survey details), HDRs of the scanning room, textures, colour calibration shots and any special requests the teams had based on the item or actor. Method Director Scott Derrickson summed up, “‘Doctor Strange’ is a mind-trip action film that is bizarre, ambitious, wild and extreme. It’s filled with things that you haven’t seen before. Each set piece is an attempt to do things in ways that we haven’t seen in the past, and to give audiences fresh visuals and fun, adrenalized sequences.” This is never more true than in the sequence known internally as the MMT or Magical Mystery Tour Chad Wiebe, Visual Effects Supervisor at Method Studios, who managed the Canadian Method team commented that the MMT "was the most complex scene that we worked on", although most of that work ended up being done by Method's LA team. Wiebe was Method's VFX supervisor of Avengers: Age of Ultron, and importantly Method Studios had worked on Ant-man, led then by Greg Steele as VFX sup. The Ant-man connection was important as some of the imagery from the MMT would connect visually with the sub-atomic end sequence in Ant-Man. "When you go into the MMT - there is definitely a moment of it that references the quantum realm that was done in Ant-man, "explains Ceretti. "Especially with the floating cubes and elements like that but it (MMT) was also a nod to what we had done in Guardians - especially with the saturated colours and other things like that". The quantum scale of Ant-man and the saturated Knowhere, located inside the decapitated head of an unidentified Celestial being are all in the same universe as Dr Strange and so visual tie ins all build the richness of a Marvel Universe, at a design level. At Method it had been the plan for the work to be split 70:30 between LA and Vancouver but in the end the only major shot that was done in Canada was when Dr Strange was shot out of the room and into the Wormhole, which starts the MMT sequence. The rest of the Multi-verse imagery was supervised in LA by Doug Bloom, with Olivier Dumont working alongside as the visual effects designer. Method did all the MMT with the exception of one part that linked visually to the end Dormammu sequence. As Luma Pictures did all the Dormammu effects and Dark realm animation work, Method worked with them for this part of the multi-verse. Actually the sequence was planned to be 7 minutes but grew to close to 10 minutes in one version of the edit. In the end, the sequence was approximately 2 minutes of on screen effects and consisted of 7 realms each nicknamed by the production team, (although many of the nicknames were not entirely accurate by the time those sequences were completed). From the Wormhole we find Dr Strange in the "Speaker Cone' He then travels to Bioluminesce world (but on screen this moved more to a blue world than the name implies) This leads to the fractals of'soft solid' world Then the Quantum Realm that is a nod to Ant-Man Strange then has the fall through his own eye and Cosmic Scream The Dark Dimension Realm and finally Shape Shifting realm before returning to 'earth' in our realm or reality This last realm did have Dr Strange morphing and changing shape, becoming cubes and all manner of different shapes, but ultimately the director decided the audience needed to see Cumberbatch and so most of the shape shifting was removed. Doug Bloom points out that in addition to the stylistic reference to fractals, in the MMT sequence the team used actual "pure mathematical fractal geometry" which they baked down into volumetric representations which then moved through the traditional Method pipeline. They also used some fractal mathematics to place geometry, and then the team "manipulated that geometry by hand - so we broke the equation, but it still had the feel of a fractal" explains Bloom. Olivier Dumont adds that with the actual fractals the artists do not have much flexibility to manipulate the fractals "so you are better of to bake it out, and place it the way you want... that is the hard part with fractals they are not really controllable". They reference and used Mandelbrot equations, Mandelbulbs, full volumetric fractal surfaces and volumes "and we found what we could do reliably to control speed and frequency during our R&D period, and then it was a game of offsetting the animation until we got something that sat in the shot properly "explains Bloom. As mentioned above Method in LA needed to do some of the most detailed digital double work for the MMT, and while they got assets and scans from ILM and the production, Method needed to work much closer to camera. "Their CG double wasn't going to be used as closely as ours, so we had to be a bit more precise", explains Dumont. "We also had to transition smoothly between a real shoot of Benedict on a gimple to a CG model without noticing anything, so we had to have all the proportions and textures just right". The data from set included some cross polarised facial images from Plowman Craven's work but this was extended based on Method's "previous work on digi-doubles and really studying the reference photos - and in the end brute forcing it, rather than using an advanced acquisition approach - which is great if you have all the data, from say a lightstage but we didn't have all that so it was a hybrid approach of reference and tweaking" explains Bloom. Regarding Cumberbatch's eye modeling, halfway through development, Method got the high resolution eye reconstruction from Disney Research in Zurich, based on stills taken on set by Plowman Craven. "That gave us the topology of the Iris, but that geometry had to be rebuilt for our pipeline, so even though it was theoretically high quality geo - it actually was used as reference as we had already started sculpting (Z-brush) based on the photography". The eye and face of Dr Strange were all rendered in V-Ray, but without the benefit of the most recently SSS Alshader. "We are only just looking at that now, we actually referenced the (DHL) Emily project" said Bloom. "We used it as a base but we have such a solid team of Lookdev artists who have spent many years doing digi-doubles here and at other companies and they just have a really good understanding of what we needed to make that skin look and feel realistic". The character team at Method on the project was three Lookdev artists, one modeller (Maya and Z brush) and one texture painter working in Mari (from the Foundry). His face used a FACS based blendshape rig, "the modeller has a lot of experience with processing FACS data and hand sculpting all the blendshapes.. and we actually had him sitting with the artist doing the face rigging", explains Bloom. "The one thing that was forgiving for us was that Strange did not have to deliver any dialogue." The hair and facial hair was all done in XGen but by team members in Vancouver. Both grooms of his hair and face were developed in parallel in Canada while the LA team worked on the skin and general shaders. The MMT came later than the initial work awarded to Method so the Vancouver team remained focused on the sequences Method already had, and LA managed the MMT. Ceretti commented that given the complexity and visual creativity required the company was a good match for the MMT, "Method have really good creative people there,.. also I had worked at Method for a few years - I know these guys very well and I know they are very creative, - obviously there is also the competitive bidding process, - but we decided to go with them". In Vancover, Method did many key sequences such as the Car crash, the rooftop training and the key discover that Dr Strange could control time when we first experiments with an Apple in the Library. Method Studios completed a total shot count of 270 shots with a crew of 140 artists (including productions staff). For the time warping apple shot, Wiebe did not want the CG apple to look like it moved from one blendshape to another. He felt this would not convey the sense of time, a blendshape animation would give the appearance of a morph which could be interpreted as just a magical transformation, rather the team focused on making it look more photographic and more like a timelapse which in turn signals the control of time not just a magical transformation of the apple itself. For the Car crash Wiebe's team in Vancouver combined High Speed Photography shot with Cumberbatch and some green screen car photography, "But the majority of the work from when Strange's Lamborghini hits the truck and goes off the side of the road - is all a full CG environment, digital car, digital Dr Strange and remains fully cg until the point he hits shoreline water", he explains. Lamborghini lent the Dr Strange production six $237,250 Huracán LP610-4 Lamborghinis, or as Bloomberg news called them six "10-cylinder, wedge-shaped, screaming hunk of menace". The article also reporting that the team trashed one of those six for the production. Inside the car, there was a Phantom camera rig filming Cumberbatch in a special car set, but in the final film, while his face and hair were kept, most of the rest of the frame is digitally replaced for a more dangerous interaction with more flying glass and debris added. The team worked hard to make the CG cut seamlessly with the High speed footage. Method simulated the car as both a rigid body dynamic (RBD) simulation with cloud sims for the airbag and Strange's wardrobe. The car was simulated in Houdini and then rendered in a hybrid system of both Mantra and V-Ray."The majority of the larger RBD pieces were exported to Maya as we could render them in V-Ray. A lot of the particulate, smoke and really fine detail debris was rendered in Mantra." he explained "The Environment was also rendered through Maya in V-Ray". V-Ray is Method's native renderer and Wiebe tried to do most things in V-Ray, but the studio has also rendered other major projects in Mantra, heavy destruction films such as San Andreas were "all done in Houdini through Mantra for example, but as this show had a lot of physical rigid bodies such as the environments, we tried to stay in V-Ray as much as possible, - but all the effects, or particles such as the mandala (Elder magic) were done in Mantra". In the film there are various types of magic that the team needed to address. Visible spells from mandalas, magical runes shields, whips, stalks and aerial 'lily pads' that allowed them to jump off mandalas in the air. These were all done in Houdini. The patterns came from the Art Department that had done very specific research and "a lot of it was based on sacred geometry" explains Wiebe. "It is really a play on Mathematics,...there was tons of different designs of ancient mysticism combined with mathematics... the combination of those elements made it unique and not really something I think we have seen before". These were also helped by having on set contact lighting from special LED props. The spark portals that Strange and others travel through were represented with a large on set physical chaser light array that cast not only contact lighting on the cast but also light spill on to the set and environments. The actors held light LED leads and small LED clear plastic shields for the same reason. While these requires some work to remove in post, the team thought the realism of the contact lighting was more than worth the effort. Framestore and other facilities all worked on the range of magical effects shots, as these spanned almost all the effects sequences. The magic is light-based, producing sparks and energy, and uses a fiery yellow/orange colour palette throughout. ‘As with any form of magic, the complexity of the effect came from how subjective the look is and how much we wanted it to look real’, states Alexis Wajsbrot, Framestore's CG Supervisor. ‘When we started on the effect, the first concept used long-exposure photography. The reference was a streak of light from Strange and his magical whip; the sparks were also long, creating a curved flare which you can’t generate without CG. It just ended up looking too fantastical; so we kept making the effects shorter.’ Framestore In terms of 'casting' visual effects companies for particular work, Framestore had impressed not only Ceretti but also Marvel with their great character work on Guardians of the Galaxy with Rocket in particular. While this film had no such explicit CG characters, Ceretti knew there would be a lot of digital double work and they also wanted Dr Strange's cape (or 'Capey') to be very carefully animated. Framestore worked on over 365 shots between October 2015 and September 2016, covering work that spanned environments, the complex ‘Mandlebrotting’ of sets, incredibly high resolution digi-doubles of key characters, the creation of the astral form and animation of the cape. Ceretti describes the cape as being heavily influenced by Aladdin's magic carpet. In the story the cape is like a horse in an old western, "a horse and a rider - trying to break in a horse, and then they start to work together and at first the horse is a bit crazy and the rider doesn't know how to work with it - which is what happens at the beginning with Dr Strange, the cloak is doing its own thing in Sanctum sequence and he doesn't know what it is trying to say, and then they start working together and then he wears the cape, and he can fly and at the end there is definitely a connection between them - we really tried to tell the arc of the story between them". Cloak was not rigged with cables, so there were at least three different cloaks. In addition to the main full costume cloak there was a collar section so that the main cape could be animated later. On set for the action sequences they would sometimes film with a partial cloak and then re film with no cloak at all so it could be added later in post by the animation team. Not all the cloaks were by Framestore but "all the big animation work with the cloak is done by Framestore" Ceretti explains. At Framestore the VFX Supervisors were Jonathan Fawkner, Mark Wilson and Rob Duncan. A particular challenge for the compositing team was developing and propagating the look of the Space Shard effect seen throughout the Sanctum attack sequence. “The space shards were created using a combination of CG animated trails whose motion vectors were treated in comp to give us an interesting distortion for fast moving weapons,” explained Compositing Supervisor Oliver Armstrong. “A system created using Nuke's particle tools was also used to generate slower, flowing distortions for the more static shots.” Mandlebrotting the set The Mandlebrot sets within the film are dream-like, kaleidoscopic interior shots which fold the environments, pulling them apart and re-configuring into complicated patterns around the characters. ‘The effect was quite difficult to nail down, as to how far we should go with it’, says Wilson. ‘Especially when our live-action characters had to be integrated within those scenes.’ Because of the quantity of movement within the whole set, nearly everything needed to be animated; even if the team didn’t strictly need to animate a prop, they had to make it available to the animators in case certain surrounding elements within the scene needed to move in a different way. Led by Animation Supervisor Nathan McConnell a new pipeline was introduced, whereby the animation team was set up with a rigging tool of their own. Says McConnell, ‘We designed a new workflow to create a toolbox for the animator, incorporating all of the levels of movement and pivots. The animators were able to rig everything themselves, and had the power to duplicate the geometry if needed.’ ‘There’s the whole set bending and moulding, cloning and reconfiguring itself, but then there’s also the Mandelbrot pattern, which is the mathematical formula that creates these crazy patterns and the fractured world aspect to it’, adds Wilson. ‘Once we had animated all of these assets, our FX team then placed additional Mandelbrot sponge fractal patterns inside it, using Houdini to drive a proprietary Arnold procedural iso surface shader at render time to give us a mathematical organic growth that was really cool. That was all new to us!’ A shader writer at Framestore, Josh Bainbridge, was principally involved in the execution of the Mandelbrot shader. Bainbridge provided details regarding their work: "Due to the complexity of the Mandelbrot geometry and detail required, we decided to extend Arnold to allow for intersection of arbitrary iso surfaces. What this meant was that a mathematical function could be chosen to define a shape, and then a ray marching technique called 'near distance estimation' was used to find the intersection along a ray. This allowed us to render a range of very complex and detailed structures (including the Mandelbrot fractal), without storing or looking up any volume data. It also seamlessly integrated the lighting and shading of the surfaces into our physically based rendering system. Our solution involved every iso surface being confined to the space of a particular polygonal object. Attached to this object would be information on the mathematical function and its parameters to be used when rendering the surface. This allowed effects artists to change parameters for each object individually, and combine different iso surfaces in one scene. We then used the same polygonal object to gather other information such as texture parametrization, which allowed us to lookdev and light the fractals like any other asset." The Astral Form One of Doctor Strange’s powers is that he can exist in another plane – what the Marvel world calls the ‘astral plane,’ home of his “astral form’. However, when Strange is in his astral form, he can still be in the real world although not visible to humans. It’s fairly established in the comics, but was a challenge for Framestore to digitalise how that should look. ‘It was one of the hardest effects we’ve had to deal with at Framestore; finding the right balance of a look that was subtle but also beautiful’, says Wajsbrot. VFX Supervisor Jonathan Fawkner led the work on the astral projection scenes. It became clear early on that with Strange in a semi-transparent form, the background would play a crucial role. In every single shot the team therefore needed to vary the amount of transparency and the tools to make it feel as though Strange was transparent but still visible, using subtle tricks to keep the transparency coherent. ‘In the end we back-lit everything’, explains Fawkner. ‘When our characters were back-lit, you actually got a lot of negative space, which the eye perceives as contrast. It just so happens that when the character is transparent, the eye interprets both what is behind and that lack of detail at the same time. On top of that we had the FX team drive a particle system that gave the characters a slightly twinkly patina.’ It wasn’t just a case of making the characters transparent, however. Extremely high resolution CG digi-doubles were cut back-to-back with plate photography. These had to be graded so that they followed the lighting principles established for the astral form effect. Because the characters are able to fly, the team also had to find a level of gravitation that made them look naturally airborne, without encroaching on zero gravity effect. They also needed to illuminate our world. ‘Strange is meant to be a source of light when he is in astral form’, adds Wajsbrot. ‘We were always imitating some kind of aura around him, a volumetric emission from his clothes and skin in the same colour, which we controlled in compositing.’ At one point in the film, Strange is in his astral form and has to make himself visible to people in the real world to instruct a surgeon who is performing a complicated surgery. Framestore named it the ‘semi-astral’ state. ‘We had Strange emerge from a glassy, fractured portal’, explains Fawkner. ‘They did shoot Benedict on set but we had to adapt his body in some shots, providing CG arms and adjusting his position using our digi-double.’ This semi-astral form was less luminous and very slightly more dense: ‘It was always just a case of perception. How transparent do we make it? It was a lot of trial and error.’ ‘As the film went on, we got a real feel for the world that Doctor Strange is living in, and the effects started to flow’, says Wilson. The film’s imagery and storyline belong in Marvel’s world, but the tone is unique in its use of magic and dark arts, illusion and mystery. Lola As well as key sequences and effects, Framestore also worked on the Crimson Bands of Cyttorak, a harness used by Strange to restrain Kaecilius. Interestingly, during this sequence a (digital) tear is shed. The tears and most of the eye work on the Zealots was done by Lola VFX. As the Zealots are transformed by Dark Magic the area around their eye's take on a very distinctive look which is based on a geode. What is remarkable is that while the effect appears to be very 3D and solid, it is all done with 2D compositing in Flame by Lola. There was some makeup applied in some shots, but most of what the audience sees, in terms of shadow and highlights is just detailed, hand crafted compositing. Lola has an incredible track record with Marvel films, from the incredible skinny steve to the face work of Vision. The work was done in LA at Lola supervised by Trent Claus. Luma and others Luma did the first mirror dimension in London which sets the tone for the film and the all of the final Dormammu sequence. As already mentioned the Dark realm also appeared in the earlier MMT sequence. Here Luma designed the environment to make it have links to the style of Guardians and also be unique to this film. In the MMT there needed to be, in one shot in particular, a seamless transition from Method's work into Luma's work. Luma provided Method with a series of QuickTime and Maya files with Luma's camera. Luma's work at this point was very much in sync with what the client wanted and Method aimed to blend into Luma's work extending backward the Luma camera. Method then gave back a unified camera that allowed Luma to render their sequence and have the two renders match perfectly. Luma then handed over their render for the final composite at Method. Method also provided the digital Dr Strange in this section. Once the transition was done the work was fully completed by Luma as the shots were stand alone. The only last minute change was to grade the footage to make sure the link was understood by the audience by having the colours even closer together between the MMT dark realm and the final showdown. The Dark realm also had influences of microscopic photography and tendral like links which were a nod to the original Marvel comics.By now many of you are getting your hands on the HSN3 book, reading through it, and checking out all the new toys in the army. Of any sectorial in the book, the Onyx is perhaps the one that had the most anticipation before it's release. As a totally new sectorial, it has brought with it a slough of amazing new sculpts, and it was those sculpts that got me into The Combined Army to begin with. Onyx Contact Force First up, lets take a look at the units available to the Onyx Contact Force, fortunately, it's been put together for me in this nice graphic: Off the bat, it is drastically different than the other Combined Sectorials in that it pulls for the various species in the army, not just one. An Onyx force will be made from the best of the best among the Shasvastii, Morats, Sygmaa, Umbra, and the EI remote constructs. As with my Caledonia review, I wont be going over every unit in the army, but I will talk about the Fire Teams and combos that I find the most interesting. Of Lieutenants Hackers, and Smoke Every army needs a Lieutenant, and nearly every army will need a Hacker, and I compiled a list of all the options, and their cost, in the graphic below. The Lieutenant choice is probably the most difficult choice you'll have to make. It's not that they don't have many options, it's just that they are almost all aggressive choices, and/or have a steep SWC tax associated with them, and actually, with the exception of the Umbra Samaritan, and Nexus Operatives, they all are paying extra points for the liberty of leading your force. Only having these tax-free options means your lieutenant choice will often be fairly obvious. The Onyx army also has no source of Chain of Command or Mnemonica, so if you do take an aggressive Lieutenant, you will have to be very careful. Since the army has access to so many remotes, you'll want to consider your options. There are a few standard hacking devices, plus the EVO hacker, you'll likely want 2 sources of support ware to get the most out of all the remotes in the army. There are a lot of appealing hacker platforms equipped with Assault Hacking Devices, but there is no Killer Hacking device (yet). The Nexus again plays an important role, as not only are they your least expensive hacker, but it can be both a Hacker and Lieutenant. Finally, a small note, but an important one to remember, the Onyx Contact Force has no source of smoke, so you'll have to move up the board the old fashioned way. Unidron Batroids Probably the most iconic link of this sectorial, Unidron Batroids are the first linkable remotes in the game. Their basic gear is pretty awesome, with a plasma carbine that becomes B3 in a link, plus potentially +3 BS, it's a very deadly weapon to have on a basic troop, with B2 in ARO, you're effectively firing at full effectiveness in ARO. Their SWC options also become incredibly deadly when used in a link, they have access to Missile Launchers, Spitfire, K1 Combi Rifle (with TinBot A), and perhaps most terrifying, a Plasma Sniper Rifle. An interesting aspect of the Unidron link is that it can contain a Nexus Operative, Umbra Legate, or both. The Umbra Legate is a fantastic unit, but I think that you wont get the most out of it in a Batroid link, which will likely be used defensively. Alternatively, the Nexus Operative adds some very interesting options. It allows you to add the cheapest standard hacking device in the army to the link, who may also be the army lieutenant. With the hacking device, you can do something fun like giving the Plasma Sniper the Marksmanship skill, making the weapon even more deadly. My first instinct when running a Unidron link is to use this set up: Nexus Operative Hacker: 24/0.5 Unidron Batroid K1 Combi Rifle + TinBot A: 17/0.5 Unidron Batroid Plasma Sniper Rifle: 24/1.5 Unidron Batroid Plasma Carbine: 14 Unidron Batroid Plasma Carbine: 14 For a total of 93 points and 2.5 SWC, you have a unit that will devastate the enemy at long range with the Plasma Sniper Rifle, at medium range with the K1 Combi Rifle or Plasma Carbines, with strong defense from hacking with the Tinbot. There isn't much this link can't do, though it does consume a fair amount of your SWC allowance. Rodoks The other option for your core link team are the Rodoks. An incredibly popular choice for the Morat Aggression Force, you will definitely see them get plenty of play time in the Onyx. They are highly maneuverable, moderately priced, and decently survivable, add that to dual light shotguns in a 5-man link, meaning you're firing B4 at BS 21 within 8", they can really put out some devastating attacks. In the Onyx, they have the added benefit of being allowed to tack on an Umbra (of either variety) or a Nexus Operative. While I think the Nexus will get left behind, adding an Umbra Legate or Samaritan is ugly! Since Rodoks want to close the gap to deliver their short ranged weapons anyhow, you will be getting in range for your Umbra to do some work. Umbra Samaritans The first new unit in the book, the Umbra Samaritan is a truely terrifying foe. Highly maneuverable with 6-2 and Super Jump, it is absolutely deadly in melee, swinging with CC24, a monofilament weapon, OR Protheion L4 (as Tom points reminds us, you can't use both at the same time). They have 3 main equipment options, all of which are quite deadly: Breaker Combi Rifle, Red Fury, or a EI Assault Hacking Device with Plasma Carbine, and each comes with a Flash Pulse and Vorpal Close Combat Weapon. Their speed and maneuverability makes them ideal companions for Rodoks, and when they're in a 5-man link, the Vorpal CC Weapon can be thrown twice and hit enemies on 18's within 8" – that's enough to make any TAG crap in it's aluminum britches. Xeodrons The Onyx are a force capable of bringing plenty of super jumping models, so what better than a TAG who can follow along? For less than 60 points, the Xeodron brings a profile very similar to the Nomad Gecko, complete with Arm 5 and Str 3, but significantly more maneuverable. All 3 variants bring a heavy pistol to deal with the enemy up close, a blitzen to give a nasty long-distance ARO, plus either a Red Fury, K1 Combi Rifle, or a Multi Rifle. Personally, I'm a huge fan of the MULTI Rifle personally, even more with the new Stun ammunition. To make Xeodrons even more terrifying, you can match them up with an Umbra Samaritan in a Haris team... This will be very expensive for your typical 300 point game, coming in well over 150 points, but
the Department of Energy to hand out an unlimited number of loan guarantees to underwrite the construction of new nuclear plants without congressional review. This amounts to a massive giveaway to the nuclear industry, as construction costs have spiraled so dramatically over the past decade that the private sector now refuses to finance new plants. With the Congressional Budget Office warning that the chance of default on these loans is at least 50 percent, the energy bill could leave the taxpayer on the hook for billions. Supporters of the energy measure have argued that passing this bill alone is more politically feasible than getting cap and trade through the Senate. But although a bipartisan group of senators on the Energy and Natural Resources Committee approved the measure, its prospects look very different in the wider Senate. Right now, cap and trade is drawing heavy fire from senators from states whose economies depend on forms of energy that would be penalized by a carbon cap. But if Democrats opted to advance a bill with no cap, that measure would then be attacked by the most dedicated supporters of a comprehensive climate solution. Already, 17 senators have written to Obama urging him to keep the focus on a comprehensive bill. Even Lindsey Graham, who has blasted the existing cap-and-trade bills, says the energy-only option is “not strong enough.” “I’m not going to ask the environmental community to accept a compromise that doesn’t in a serious way deal with our carbon pollution problems,” he said last week. “You’ll get some votes for a comprehensive package that you wouldn’t get for stand-alone proposals.” So what now? With a bloc of Democrats almost entirely written off, it seems Graham, Kerry, and Lieberman are left figuring out just how much oil, gas, nuclear, and coal are needed to sweeten the deal for Republicans. Graham remains confident that they can figure out the right mix. “If we can make the energy piece attractive enough for Republicans, there’s going to be more than a handful that would agree to emissions controls,” he said. The Obama administration seems to have adopted the same strategy: In the energy portion of his State of the Union address, Obama spoke only of initiatives to encourage nuclear, oil, gas, and “clean” coal—and barely mentioned renewable energy. Kerry was adamant last week that despite the media reports, he, Graham, and Lieberman aren’t abandoning the effort to cap on carbon emissions. But he admitted that they were open to other possibilities beyond the cap-and-trade scheme Democrats have been sweating over for the past year. “We’re not stuck on one idea. We’re looking for a way to come at this that gets the job done, but the job remains the same: addressing the real urgency of climate change,” he said. “There are any number of ways of skinning this cat.”Video game news outlet Destructoid let go of its UK team yesterday, placing three people out of work including co-host of the Jimquisition Podcast, Laura Kate Dale, who served as their UK editor. “As of June 30th this month, the UK team at Destructoid (Myself, Joe Parlock, Vikki Blake) will no longer be a salaried team at Destructoid” announced Dale on her Patreon page last night. “Our team being dismantled is apparently nothing to do with content quality of viewership of content, and due to seasonal financials and our team of three being the most recent additions to the salary payroll.” In her Patreon post, Dale makes a call for monetary pledges in order to fund her and her previous team on their own business venture: Obviously, recieving this news two days before heading off for surgery is less than ideal haha. I want to address the fate of our little team, as well as our hopes and plans going forward. In a perfect world, I would like to bring Vikki and Joe over to my little content creation platform. I would like to pay them the same salary they were earning at Destructoid, and instead have them creating content for my site and feeds. Dale received heavy criticism in December after she attacked an independent game developer for creating a satirical game under the name of “Tranny Gladiator”. Dale, who is a transgender female herself, made numerous demands of the developer Pan Games after her Jimquisition co-host and fellow social justice warrior Jim Sterling made a video about the game, sending his fans after the developer. “I really hope Steam refuses to let this on Greenlight at step one,” posted Dale on Twitter. “Let’s repeat – If you are not Trans, you do not get a say on if Tranny is a slur / if it should be reclaimed etc.” After the developer apologized on Twitter and issued a statement about the situation, Dale issued a veiled threat, tweeting, “I’m telling you now for your own good, pull that trailer, remove the word tranny and the suggestion ex CD Red staff work for you,” before also demanding that the small developer “get a trans person involved as a paid consultant before re launching this project,” despite the project receiving support from numerous other trans women. @pan_games get a trans person involved as a paid consultant before re launching this project. — Laura Kate Dale (@LaurakBuzz) December 20, 2015 https://twitter.com/MrNashington/status/678597666159374337 Breitbart Uses T-Slur To Mock 15-Year-Old Transgender Activist, surprising nobody who has ever heard of Breitbart. https://t.co/Dp1dk8WClY — Laura Kate Dale (@LaurakBuzz) December 4, 2015 After issuing a statement and attempting to fix the situation, Pan Games went silent on social media and have not made any updates or continued their development of the game since December. Dale was also the subject of controversy after claiming that a presenter at the Eurogame Expo in 2013 referred to her as “he,” “it,” “thing,” and “this one.” She later recanted the claim that those terms were used, but not before significant public backlash had been levied at the supposed offender. The presenter, British actor Fraser Millward, said that he had referred to Dale as “this person” but apologized anyway for “publicly misgender[ing] her.” As of writing, Dales Patreon fundraiser has reached $2,346 out of the needed $3,000 a month to continue as a team. Charlie Nash is a reporter for Breitbart Tech and former editor of the Squid Magazine. You can follow him on Twitter @MrNashington or like his page at Facebook.Donald Trump speaks at a campaign rally in Charlotte. (Erik S. Lesser/European Pressphoto Agency) Much has been written about Donald Trump’s improbable presidential candidacy. Many analysts believe that a key factor is prejudice among his overwhelmingly white supporters. Trump’s candidacy has few modern parallels in terms of the bluntness of its appeals to racial resentment, xenophobia and religious prejudice, as suggested by his willingness to question Barack Obama’s citizenship and propose religious tests for immigration to the United States. There is no shortage of evidence that Trump voters exhibit relatively high levels of prejudice toward African Americans, Muslims and others. [The science of Trump: Here’s how political science explains the rise of an unlikely candidate] But most of the evidence is observational, demonstrating a correlation between Trump support and animosity to minority groups. Those analyses don’t show that racial prejudice actually causes people to evaluate policies or make other political judgments differently. In a new experiment, however, we provide some causal evidence. We show that white Trump supporters were more opposed to a mortgage assistance policy when they were experimentally induced to think of black rather than white Americans. Combined with the existing observational findings, this is strong evidence that racial animosity is indeed a key factor motivating Trump voters. Our experiment: How we ‘cued’ race We embedded our experiment in a recent Internet survey conducted by Survey Sampling International (SSI) for the Center for the Study of Political Psychology at the University of Minnesota. [Trump supporters already doubted women’s claims of sexual harassment, before they heard the infamous recording. Why would they change now?] Respondents were randomly assigned to see an image of either a black or a white man standing next to a foreclosure sign on the screen while they gave their opinions about a mortgage relief program. The picture was identical except for the race of the person in the photo. Note that the racial cue in our experiment was subtle. We didn’t call attention to the photo, and respondents were never encouraged to think about it in the rest of the survey. After seeing the image and reading text about recent “proposals to help people who are struggling with their mortgages and may lose their homes,” respondents answered several questions. We asked about their support for the mortgage relief program, whether the availability of mortgage relief would make them angry, and the extent to which they blamed potential beneficiaries of the program for their own plight. [Will Donald Trump cost Republicans the House? It’s very unlikely.] Though all respondents of various racial and ethnic groups were included in the survey, we focus only on the 746 white respondents in the sample. This is because there were almost no non-white Trump supporters. How we know race shapes Trump supporters’ political attitudes In the graph below, we present the percentage of respondents who said that they opposed the mortgage relief program, split by Trump support and which experimental condition they were assigned to. On the left side, among respondents who said they did not support Trump and were assigned to white cue condition, 28 percent opposed the program. By contrast, 22 percent opposed it in the black cue condition. But among Trump supporters, the relationship was reversed. Fifty-nine percent of respondents who saw the picture of the black man said they opposed the program, compared with just 51 percent among people assigned to the white condition. In other words, respondents were more hostile toward the program when they had seen the photo of a black man. We found similar results when we looked at the effects of the racial cue on anger toward the mortgage policy. In the graph below, Trump supporters in the black condition were more likely to say they were more than “somewhat angry” about the program than fellow Trump voters in the white condition. At the same time, among those opposed to Trump, exposure to the black cue significantly decreased anger. Finally, Trump supporters in the black condition (see the graph below) were more likely than their counterparts in the white condition to say that beneficiaries of the mortgage program were more than “somewhat to blame” for their financial situation. On the other hand, whites who did not support Trump were significantly less likely to blame recipients after receiving the black cue. It’s worth noting that all these findings hold up in more sophisticated analyses. When we control for age, income, sex, education, party identification, ideology, whether the respondent was unemployed, and perceptions of the national economy — other factors that might shape attitudes about mortgage relief — our results were the same. In the end, our experiment shows that white Trump supporters are more likely to oppose government assistance when they are subtly led to think of African Americans rather than whites. Moreover, the prospect of such assistance makes them angrier and more likely to “blame the victim” when they have African Americans in mind. It appears clear that Trump’s supporters are driven, at least in part, by a distinctive pattern of racial animosity. Matthew D. Luttig is a postdoctoral scholar in the department of political science at the University of Chicago. Howard Lavine is the Arleen Carlson Professor of Political Science and Psychology at the University of Minnesota and the author (with Marco Steenbergen and Christopher Johnston) of “The Ambivalent Partisan.”US Department of Justice officials have asked Deutsche Bank AG and JPMorgan Chase & Co to provide details on their dealings with 1MDB, as global investigations into the troubled Malaysian state fund widen. US Department of Justice officials also travelled to Kuala Lumpur to speak to senior bankers and other people with close links to the state fund, three people with direct knowledge of the matter told Reuters. They said JPMorgan and Deutsche were not the target of investigations at this stage, but had only been asked to provide details. Deutsche Bank and JPMorgan declined to comment. The Department of Justice also declined to comment. The US move marks the latest development in a wide-ranging global investigation across three continents into possible corruption and money-laundering at 1MDB, the advisory board of which is chaired by Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak. Najib has denied any wrongdoing and said he has not taken any funds for personal gain, but opposition leaders and government critics have stepped up calls for him to resign. The sources spoke on condition of anonymity as they were not authorised to speak to the media. It is not clear how long the US officials were in Kuala Lumpur, or whether they had completed their visit. A team of lawyers for Deutsche Bank are in Kuala Lumpur preparing the report they intend to submit to the Department of Justice, one of the sources said. Malaysia's attorney-general, who was hand-picked by Najib, cleared him of all criminal offences in January, declaring that US$681 million that were deposited into Najib's personal bank accounts were a gift from Saudi Arabia's royal family. 'No 1MDB funds in PM's accounts' The Wall Street Journal reported that more than US$1 billion was deposited in Najib's account and global investigators believe much of it originated from 1MDB. The fund has consistently denied these claims and repeated again, yesterday, that no 1MDB funds went into the prime minister's personal accounts. Deutsche Bank is one of the many global lenders that had dealings with 1MDB, as the energy-to-real estate group expanded rapidly after its inception in 2009. The bank provided a US$975 million loan for 1MDB in late 2014, which was repaid last year. The German bank was also advising the fund on a proposed US$3 billion initial public offering of its energy assets, which never took place. JPMorgan normally acts as a US clearing bank for lenders operating in Malaysia. Its dealings, if any with 1MDB, were not immediately clear. The US government is already reviewing Goldman Sachs' relationship with the Malaysian fund. A Federal Bureau of Investigation team specialising in "international kleptocracy" is leading the bureau's inquiries, a person familiar with the matter told Reuters last year. Goldman came under fire for the fees it charged for helping 1MDB raise funds through bond offerings. The fund racked up borrowings of about RM42 billion, before selling off assets in 2015 to pay down debt. Goldman has declined to comment. Other international banks that have dealt with the fund are also facing questions. Singapore's central bank said today it had asked financial institutions to provide details of any transactions linked to 1MDB, without identifying any lenders by name. The burgeoning 1MDB scandal has rocked Najib's government as public outrage over the alleged mismanagement and corruption grows. The scandal has fuelled a sense of crisis in a country under economic strain from slumping oil prices and a prolonged slide in its currency last year. Dr Mahathir Mohamad, Malaysia's longest-serving leader and once Najib's patron, has become his fiercest critic and is leading a campaign to oust the prime minister with the support of some opposition leaders. Mahathir quit the long-ruling Umno party, and joined hands with long-standing foes to crank up pressure on Najib to quit. Along with the United States and Singapore, other countries are conducting investigations. On Thursday, Luxembourg's state prosecutor launched a judicial inquiry into allegations of money laundering involving hundreds of millions of dollars against 1MDB. This follows a similar inquiry by Swiss prosecutors, who said earlier this year they had identified four cases of alleged criminal misconduct in the suspected misappropriation of about US$4 billion from Malaysian state companies. Malaysia's central bank also said it would pursue administrative action against 1MDB for missing a deadline to submit documents on its finances abroad. Additional reporting by John Chalmers and Olivia Oran - ReutersEurope should embark on a collective project to become the world leader in renewable energy by 2020, write Enrico Letta, President of the Jacques Delors Institute, Herman Van Rompuy, President Emeritus of the European Council and President of the European Policy Center and Bertrand Piccard, pilot of the Solar Impulse, in an open letter to policymakers. Such a leadership effort would go a long way to addressing a multitude of challenges facing Europe: it would lead to growth and innovation, create jobs, lower energy dependence, benefit the environment and the climate, democratise the energy sector, and even lead to lower immigration if Africa is included. Europe is in need of ambitious and challenging projects that will create a feeling of belonging and pride for European citizens and their governments. What better choice than to make Europe the World Leader of Renewables by 2020. This is a realistic and most appropriate ambition for the European Union which has been promoting the fight against climate change for two decades, setting clear targets for decarbonisation and devoting 20% of its budget to invest in the energy transition to a low carbon economy in a way that will bring profit and create jobs. We do not have to drill to make renewables and energy efficiency power our lives Such a project would be a win-win venture for all: it brings to all citizens better control over their own energy consumption, it offers industry and services a genuine industrial and innovation policy creating jobs and new opportunities in Europe, it creates substantial wealth by reducing the fossil fuels import bill, and leads to lower greenhouse gas emissions and less air pollution. Modernisation This project would be a major structural reform and a centrepiece of the modernisation of the European economy. It is perfectly in line with the ability of European industry to deliver the innovative products and services that such ambition implies, building on energy efficiency and the power of digitisation. The recent completion of a world tour by Solar Impulse, the 100% solar-powered plane, is a demonstration of the ability of European researchers and industries to utilise the potential of clean technologies. If some decide to stay in a dirty past, we must move to a cleaner future But there is more. It would offer a unique opportunity to boost the European research community and innovators and to foster their cooperation with industry. It would be a great window to show the accomplishments of European cities, as witnessed by the success of the Covenant of Mayors for Climate and Energy, which has mobilised more than 6000 cities and regions across Europe to become carbon neutral in the near future, thanks to renewables and innovative solutions. Community initiatives in Germany, Scandinavia and in other places to invest in renewables show the key role that citizens could play in this endeavour. We do not have to drill to make renewables and energy efficiency power our lives. Renewables can be the key fuel for electricity, cooling and heating of buildings, and mobility. Reaffirming this goal is all the more important after the ratification of the Paris Agreement – and the US elections. The more so because it is an economically profitable course. If some decide to stay in a dirty past, we must move to a cleaner future. Industrial policy So what should be done? The energy sector in Europe is already undergoing a transition towards renewable sources of energy, including the decentralisation of power generation this implies, as well as digitisation and a new role for consumers who are becoming producers themselves or at least more involved in their energy consumption. This change of paradigm has been recognised by the Juncker Commission when it chose Energy Union as one of its top priorities and called for an holistic approach to the sector. The Energy Union proposed by the Commission is nothing else than the path to a modern low carbon and digital economy driven by the empowerment of consumers, the new decentralised and abundant sources of energy like wind, solar, hydro and biomass, the optimisation of these resources through interconnections across Europe and digitisation making the whole system intelligent and interactive. Experience shows that in the field of energy, decisions have to be made at the highest political level It has also been recognised by major energy players such as the incumbent utilities in Italy, Germany, France and elsewhere. However, the renewables revolution is in danger of stalling. The Energy Union is only moderately supported by the Member States. As confirmed by top class analyses and reports, the EU is losing ground in its renewable leadership, compared to China and even the USA. What is needed is a dynamic and innovative industrial policy combined with advanced services to deliver the welfare to our citizens. Renewable energy has already created millions of jobs and it has the potential to create many more. Renewable energy is not only a source of Kilowatts or CO2 emission reductions, it is an essential provider of sustainable jobs and growth. New jobs and new growth. To become a world leader in renewables, the following five steps and policies should be implemented without delay. 1 First, there must be a clear and long-lasting political will, expressed at the highest level, and now legally mandated by the Paris Agreement, in order to lead the players to invest in renewable sources of energy and energy efficient solutions for which they are right to expect a stable and predictable regulatory framework. Indeed, many investors, be they institutional or corporations, are desperately asking for clear legal frameworks to know in which direction to invest. Experience shows that in the field of energy, decisions have to be made at the highest political level. The EU would not have been able to lift its renewable share of the energy mix from 6 to 15% between 2007 and 2015 without the decision of the European Council of March 2007 setting a binding target of 20% by 2020 for renewables. It is up to the European Council, legally backed by the co-legislators, on the basis of the Commission’s proposals, to provide the needed stability and predictability and then for the Member States to implement the necessary measures, as framed and decided at European level. A robust signal should be given to European industries and research institutes about the absolute priority to be given to innovation, and notably disruptive innovation Money and investment tools are abundant in Europe (European Fund for Strategic Investments also known as the Juncker Fund, the Structural Funds, the European Investment Bank, the National Development Banks, institutional investors, crowdfunding etc…). But they do not necessarily find their way to renewables because of the lack of an appropriate regulatory framework and, as a consequence, of relevant projects. In this respect, the new instruments including the electricity market design and the renewable directive, that were proposed by the Commission on 30 November 2016, should create the right conditions for renewables to be fully part of the market, considering also the stability of the network and the need for continuity of supply. While the aim should be to eliminate all subsidies to any fuel in the foreseeable future, and first of all for fossil fuels, support schemes for renewables should be proportionate to the objectives, market based and be limited in time, auctioning becoming the rule to avoid any oversubsidisation. The lack of a significant price of carbon should be taken into account, in favour of renewable sources of energy given their economic, geopolitical and societal advantages. 2 Second, there must be a financial and fiscal framework which offers citizens, corporations and cities the right conditions to invest in renewables and to deploy the most innovative technologies. We should make Member States like Cyprus and Malta, now dependent on oil, the best examples of entirely renewable powered countries Tax holidays should be designed to incentivize investments by individuals in energy efficiency and renewable energy in buildings. Companies should be encouraged to switch to renewable electricity, as part of their corporate social responsibility policy. Here the example of the leading high-tech corporations in the USA procuring green electricity shows how important and influential this can be. 3 Third, there must be at European and national levels strongly coordinated and forward looking innovation and industrial policies encouraging the discovery, the development and the deployment of all sources of energy which are renewable, with a view to make them competitive on the market. A robust signal should be given to European industries and research institutes about the absolute priority to be given to innovation, and notably disruptive innovation, in renewables, mobility, efficiency, batteries, storage, digitisation, transmission and distribution with the encouragement of networks of researchers, stimulating start-ups and midcaps, and of visible inducement awards. Horizon 2020 should be adapted to this ambition and stimulate all other research and innovation entities, private and public, to pursue the same objectives. 4 Fourth, the European Union should lead by example at home through the boosting of a wide range of tangible and well-coordinated initiatives, making use of all instruments and leverages that are available. We should for instance make Member States like Cyprus and Malta, now dependent on oil, the best examples of entirely renewable powered countries. We should also design the biggest public and private project worldwide to put an end to the scandal of 1.2 billion people on our planet having no access to electricity (600 million in Sub-Saharan Africa, 200 in India!). This scandal is one of the reasons of the important economic migration affecting Europe. The COP 22 that just ended in Marrakech showed the importance of integrating the needs of the African continent in future plans of the European Union. Renewable electricity and especially solar PV offers the most convenient and cost effective solution to this unacceptable situation and the EU has all the ingredients to undertake such project. It should first mobilise the competent private sector resources (manufacturing, operating, digital, financial) to design the project for which it could then mobilise its substantial new future external investment plan, including development cooperation funds. The challenge here is to move from large costly projects, prone to corruption and suboptimally efficient, to a myriad of microprojects and microcredits, close to people’s preoccupations. 5 Fifth, a European wide inspirational campaign promoting renewables in all Member States should be launched as the glue that binds together all the elements above. The ongoing democratisation of the energy sector indicates that the time is ripe to be ambitious and audacious A roadmap for European renewable leadership should be established to demonstrate the comprehensive approach taken, including an industrial policy encompassing research and innovation, skills development, financing, trade measures and development cooperation tools, without forgetting a robust monitoring of the implementation of the various milestones. This could be launched at the occasion of the next State of the Energy Union due at the beginning of 2017. Ambitious and audacious If the EU is to be serious about its ambitions to be the world leader in clean energy transition, as targeted by President Juncker in its political guidelines in July 2014, it is now time to gear up and to mobilise all the resources it has to achieve this goal. The European leaders should convince and engage the citizens on this path. The ongoing democratisation of the energy sector indicates that the time is ripe to be ambitious and audacious, as citizens are more and more willing to become active participants of the energy market, with millions already producing electricity with solar panels on their roof. And the undisputed contribution of this project to the creation of many qualified jobs, the renaissance of our industry, the partial solution to the economic migration flows, the security of supply, the energy independence and the democratisation of our society means that it has to be undertaken. It may also usefully serve the cohesion of the European Union. European citizens expect their leaders to show longer term vision and corresponding determination in tackling the fight against climate change while creating jobs and steering innovation to secure a better future. The Juncker Commission launched the right proposal at the right time. But it is now time for all European leaders to fill it with life and transform it into concrete projects to make the Energy Union a reality benefitting all Europeans. Editor’s Note Enrico Letta is President of the Jacques Delors Institute. Herman Van Rompuy is President Emeritus of the European Council and President of the European Policy Center. Bertrand Piccard is pilot of Solar Impulse.Duck Soup. Still from YouTube. Over the course of Donald Trump’s improbable march through the Republican primaries, many writers turned for comparison to A Face in the Crowd, a 1957 film directed by Elia Kazan. It focuses on Larry “Lonesome” Rhodes, a charismatic vagabond, played with devilish enthusiasm by Andy Griffith, who gains exceptional political and cultural influence through the folksy, faux-populist drivel he spouts on his radio and TV programs. It’s a tempting analogue for Trump. But I’d argue that there’s a better pop cultural point of comparison, one that more aptly captures the idea of Trump as a vain strongman whose bluster has scarily escalating stakes: Duck Soup, the madcap Marx Brothers’ classic from 1933 that poked fun at the erratic dictators who were consolidating power in Europe at the time. Indifferently received when it opened, Duck Soup has since been celebrated as one of Hollywood’s most memorable war films. Like all Marx Brothers’ movies, it is an anarchic farce with a ramshackle plot, absurdist set pieces, and exaggerated characters. The film satirizes thin-skinned leaders with dictatorial tendencies but makes no pretense of being set in the real world. Later in his life, when asked about the larger meaning of Duck Soup, Groucho brushed off the question: “We were just four Jews trying to get a laugh.” (It should be noted that at least one dictator found subversive meaning in the film: Benito Mussolini banned Duck Soup in Italy.) If any lesson is to be drawn from Duck Soup—and it’s always dangerous to look for lessons in Marx Brothers’ films—it’s that giving too much power to, and projecting too much onto, a leader with deep-seated insecurities and a mercurial temperament is a surefire way to destabilize the national order. The movie takes place in Freedonia, a fictional country mired in a prolonged economic recession. Its only hope of quelling citizen unrest is soliciting $20 million from Mrs. Teasdale, a wealthy widow played with dignified obliviousness by Margaret Dumont. She agrees on one condition: that the country’s current leader step aside for her hand-picked successor, Rufus T. Firefly (Groucho), a wisecracking charlatan with no apparent executive experience. The inauguration ceremony exposes Firefly’s unfitness for the office. He shows up late; insults the ambassador of Sylvania, an antagonistic neighboring country; and asks his secretary to dictate a letter about an outstanding dental bill but then threatens to fire him for enclosing the payment. When asked how he intends to run the country, Firefly bursts into a raucous song about his nakedly authoritarian policies. He advocates the firing squad for petty offenses, encourages citizens to report all forms of pleasure, and hopes to benefit from corruption. “If you think this country’s bad off now,” he brags, “just wait till I get through with it.” Far from being horrified, the guests appear amused at his unvarnished honesty. Cabinet meetings in his new administration proceed according to Firefly’s whim. He can’t be bothered with detail-oriented reports and prefers to jot down notes on faulty plumbing than discuss the complexities of the tax code. So contemptuous is Firefly toward his cabinet—made up of distinguished career bureaucrats—that the secretary of War resigns on the spot. Instead of promoting from within, Firefly turns to an unlikely outsider—a curbside peanut vendor (Chico) who also happens to be a spy for the Sylvanian government. Ultimately, Firefly’s tendency to insult everyone in his sight leads to a diplomatic crisis. Throughout the film, Firefly and Trentino, the Sylvanian ambassador who has plans to undermine the Freedonian government, engage in heated verbal sparring. When Trentino calls him an upstart, Firefly slaps the ambassador across the face with a glove. Trentino threatens war on Freedonia. With Mrs. Teasdale imploring him to mend the rift, Firefly concedes that he lost his temper, but then again strikes Trentino when he jokes with Firefly about their quarrel. As the two countries prepare for war, Trentino agrees to swallow his pride only if Firefly formally apologizes and offers his hand as a symbol of peace. Rather than taking this basic step, Firefly imagines the humiliation he’d suffer if Trentino were to refuse his handshake. Worked up in a paranoid fever, Firefly smacks Trentino with a glove yet again and, with this gesture, thrusts his country into an entirely avoidable war. In many ways, Firefly’s (and, by extension, Groucho’s) ludicrous personality places him beyond comparison, but Trump might be the exception. Like Firefly, he’s a nonpolitician who is unable to conform to presidential standards of solemnity and competence. Both dismiss the advice of establishment figures, are too distracted with personal grievances to delve into policy details, and have checkered histories of reneging on promised payments. Even their physical characteristics bear some resemblance, with Trump’s preposterous hairdo standing in for Groucho’s equally preposterous greasepaint mustache. They wear their deceptions right on their faces. But the most obvious overlap between Trump and Firefly comes from their pathological compulsion to belittle any perceived rivals and then refuse to apologize or back down. Whether it’s slapping an ambassador or berating the parents of a fallen soldier, they consistently favor entrenchment over contrition, even when presented with opportunities to right the course. Their outsized, deeply rooted personas render them seemingly incapable of restraining their destructive impulses. More than 80 years later, Duck Soup retains its transgressive spirit. The film imagines a world where an inexperienced and indecorous leader plunges his country into war partly because of some mild insults he’s unable to move past. It’s reminiscent of a memorable line from Hillary Clinton’s acceptance speech at the DNC: “A man you can bait with a tweet is not a man we can trust with nuclear weapons.” Before this election, Duck Soup resonated in the United States through the ways it lampooned concepts like nationalism and political decorum. Because of Trump’s ascension, however, Rufus T. Firefly no longer seems like an alien political figure. It’s a notion that even Groucho Marx would’ve found absurd.The actor, who has clashed with Trump on social media over his Saturday Night Live impression, made a tongue-in-cheek offer to perform the AC/DC classic Alec Baldwin has made President-elect Donald Trump an offer to play at his inauguration on 20 January. His song of choice? AC/DC’s Highway to Hell. Saturday Night Live: 2016's best skits Read more The actor who did a recurring impression of Trump on Saturday Night Live throughout 2016, made the tongue-in-cheek offer on Twitter, after a string of high profile names refused the gig. Elton John, Andrea Bocelli and Gene Simmons are among the performers who have reportedly turned Trump down. The only confirmed acts so far are the Mormon Tabernacle Choir, America’s Got Talent contestant Jackie Evancho, and the Rockettes, although the Beach Boys are rumoured to be considering playing. Baldwin and Trump have clashed on social media after the actor began impersonating him on SNL. In November, Trump wrote: “I watched parts of @nbcsnl Saturday Night Live last night. It is a totally one-sided, biased show – nothing funny at all. Equal time for us?” Baldwin’s withering response, reminded Trump that after the election there is no equal time rule. “There is no more equal time. Now u try 2 b Pres + ppl respond. That’s pretty much it.”Amber Rudd has been appointed secretary of state for energy and climate change following the dramatic departure of Liberal Democrat Ed Davey - much to the relief of some environmental groups. Rudd is among the most credible and least divisive of the new Tory cabinet. She has worked as a parliamentary private secretary to George Osborne, suggesting that she retains close ties with the chancellor. But she was also seriously undermined during her post as energy minister when Michael Gove, as chief whip, cancelled her trip to the Lima climate change conference, insisting that she remained to vote in Parliament on an issue the government was sure to win. Seductive whispers The trip would have been invaluable in raising her profile on the international stage and building the networks and credibility to argue Britain's case. She will also have to vie for the chancellor's attention against the seductive whispers of the climate deniers. Chief among them is Lord Lawson of the Global Warming Policy Foundation (GWPF). Lawson has been successful in raising the cash for his charity from Tory donors - but perhaps, more importantly, has shown that many financing the party are against climate policies. Osborne often sought private advice from his predecessor at Number 11 - flattering the ageing grandee by hosting his party at the prestigious address and praising him from the dispatch box during budget speeches. The Conservatives would appear to be in a stronger position now they have formed a government. But, ironically, the majority is smaller than that enjoyed by the coalition. David Cameron must retain the support of all but 12 of his party in order to pass legislation and avoid humiliation in the House of Commons. The 'grey blob' at the heart of the Tories And there is now a hard core of climate deniers - numbering at least 12 - in the Tory ranks, led by the bitter Owen Paterson and the oil-tainted Peter Lilley. Paterson was sacked from the last government reportedly because Lynton Crosby feared climate denial was going to destroy Tory support among the electorate. Here, we take a closer look at the main climate deniers in the Tory party and assess how they have done in their local constituencies. The lesson is that the rump of the deniers threatens to become a serious challenge. Rudd will have to fight a strategic, robust and constant rearguard defence against those who are ostensibly on her side. Their aim will be to frustrate and distract her, just as the European referendum will provide a significant distraction for the party and the country, as we enter the crucial Conference of the Party talks in Paris in November. Owen Paterson, Conservative MP For North Shropshire Owen Paterson has been re-elected to the ultra-safe Conservative seat of North Shropshire, beating Labour's Graeme Currie. He has secured a majority of 16,500 votes with 51% of the total share. A renowned climate change sceptic, Paterson had controversially served as environment secretary, a post he eventually lost last summer during a Cabinet reshuffle. According to Paterson, his sacking was a measure to appease the "green blob". In the latest annual lecture for Lord Lawson's GWPF think tank, he called for the repeal of the Climate Change Act. During the election campaign Paterson did not shy away from the opportunity to reinstate his backward-looking views on global warming. At a hustings event in the North Shropshire constituency, he claimed that climate change is yet to happen. This was an assertion that drew loud jeers from the public in attendance. Green Party candidate Duncan Kerr commented on the occasion: "It is very depressing when this is the view of the former Secretary of State for the Environment." Quotes: "People get very emotional about this subject and I think we should just accept that the climate has been changing for centuries." "It would also lead to longer growing seasons and you could extend growing a little further north into some of the colder areas." Peter Lilley, Conservative MP For Hitchin and Harpenden Former Cabinet minister Peter Lilley held onto the Tory safe seat of Hitchin and Harpenden with an increased majority after winning 31,408 votes - up from 29
into traffic for a tough shot worth one less point? The more you watch, though, the more you realize you don't need to understand what he is doing to appreciate it. Much in the way that an opera can be beautiful even if you don't speak the language. So, how did Haws rack up all those points? Tonight, a Haws special to start, a mid-range jumper from just below the free throw line. Then another from jumper the elbow in which he fell over after the shot. He tied the record curling off a screen at the top of the key, just inside the three point arc. The record breaker was the most traditional, a lay-up just over five minutes into the game. He's done it by playing 134 games and starting 132 of them. His career scoring average is 19.5 points per game. As a freshman he scored 11.3 points per game. 21.7 as a sophomore, 23.2 as a junior and 22.4 so far this season as a senior. If you foul him he makes you pay, as he is an 88.8% free throw shooter over his career. Since returning from his Mormon mission he has been held under 10 points in just three games. During that span he scored in double figures for 60 consecutive games. He didn't play competitive basketball for two years but didn't miss a beat upon his return. 20-plus points in his first six games after returning from the Philippines. Only once in his career, February 2, 2010 vs. TCU, has Haws been held scoreless. The Cougars have one more regular season game remaining, at Gonzaga on Saturday. Then at least one game, possibly three, in the WCC Tournament. Whether it's the NIT or the NCAA, the Cougars will be playing in a postseason tournament. So, Haws has at the very least three more games to pad his record. Watch those games, because you aren't likely to find another scorer like Haws for a while.The rapper's road manager was also cleared over the incident Rapper Kanye West has been cleared of criminal charges following a scuffle with a photographer at LA International airport on 11 September 2008. However, the 32-year-old - who was not in court - must complete 50 hours of community service, an LA City Attorney's Office spokesman said. West had pleaded not guilty to charges of assault, theft and vandalism. He and his manager, Don Crawley, were arrested after apparently breaking a photographer's camera flash. A video shot by the gossip website TMZ appeared to show West smashing the camera while inside the airport terminal. Civil settlement Mr Crawley was also charged on two counts of assault, two counts of theft and two counts of vandalism. Both men have subsequently completed an anger management course. West's lawyer, Blair Berk, said the case was "wildly overcharged" and that it should be dismissed in the interests of justice, fairness and common sense. Singer Swift was interrupted mid-speech The hip-hop star and photographer are believed to have reached a civil settlement over the case. It is not the first time West's temper has got the better of him. Last month he was forced to apologise after storming on stage at an awards ceremony. The rap star experienced widespread negative publicity when he interrupted country star Taylor Swift's acceptance speech at the MTV Video Music Awards. He told her Beyonce should have won the best female award instead. He has repeatedly apologised for the incident and told talk show host Jay Leno that he was taking time off from music to reflect on his behaviour.Ubuntu Lucid Lynx: free OS that Just Works Today, I got caught up enough from my tour to update my ThinkPad to the latest version of Ubuntu. Lucid Lynx went in like butter. The update ran unattended, took about 1h including downloading the whole OS, updated all of my apps without a hitch, and is running smoothly. I'll let you know if anything breaks, but this looks like yet another flawless Ubuntu update for me, making me a very, very satisfied user indeed. I know I once promised to document my Ubuntu Linux changeover in detail, but it doesn't look like it's going to happen. To be honest, there just wasn't much to write about. I bought a ThinkPad (currently using the X200, lusting after the X201), downloaded and burned a CD, stuck it in the drive, turned it on, clicked "Install." To move my data over from my old Mac, I booted it into USB-drive mode and dragged the files over. Getting DRM'ed audiobooks out of iTunes was the hardest part (all hail AudioHijack, which let me capture the files, though it took a month's constant playback on three old Powerbooks to convert my thousands of dollars' worth of Audible books to MP3 so I could take them with). Since then, it's Just Worked. When I need to do something new -- edit audio, say -- I go to the software center and look at what apps exist for that purpose, select some highly rated ones, download them, try them, keep the one I like (all the software is free, so this is easy). Migrating to new machines? Easy. Just take my list of installed apps to the new machine as a text-file on a USB key and ask Software Center to download them and configure them. Backups? Easy: external generic USB drive and rsync (exactly what I used with my Mac). For the first two or three weeks, there was some disorientation. None of the things I used were where I expected to find them. It was the OS equivalent of when we remodeled the kitchen and it took me two weeks to remember where the new cutlery drawer was. Then the OS vanished: of course it did. It's plumbing. You're not supposed to notice plumbing. If you have to notice plumbing, there's something wrong with the plumbing. Do I have to type in a lot of arcane command-line gibberish? No. I sometimes choose to because I like having little pythony things lying around that friends have written for me or that I've pieced together myself, but that was true on my Mac as well. I could happily do all the important things on my machine without ever touching the terminal. Does everything work? Hell yeah. Ubuntu's support for arcane stuff like 3G modems is vastly superior to anything I've seen on the Mac or Windows: just plug in the modem, wait for it to autodetect, confirm its guess, and go. The sexy multifunction Logitech mouse? Just worked -- no drivers required. My HP all-in-one scanner/copier/printer? Just worked. Webcams, USB mics, etc etc? Never had to download a driver, never had to install a driver: they just worked. Oh, sure, sometimes I don't know off the bat how to do something a little arcane (after I replaced the UK keyboard my ThinkPad came with with the US version, I had to figure out where to tell the OS about it, for instance), but it's never more than one or two googles away. And sometimes apps crash, but not often -- and the OS itself has crashed so infrequently that the most common cause of my reboots is running out of battery. The folks at Canonical were kind enough to give me a comp support account, and I've used it a couple times for weird, dire things, like recovering from serious hardware errors or getting the crypto stuff on my encrypted partition just right, and they are excellent, but these are the kinds of problems I expect to need a hint or two from an expert with. So there you have it: Ubuntu: It Just Works. Install it, spend two weeks wondering where the cutlery drawer is, watch it disappear. Thereafter, only notice it when it does something amazing, like flawless OS updates or very simple transfers to new machines. You can download and burn a Lucid Lynx CD free, boot any machine from it, and give Ubuntu a test-drive. Try it! Lucid LynxTechnology often mimics nature in its quest to achieve efficient, stable and manoeuvrable flight. Over the past two decades inspiration for flying machines has often been drawn from the insect world. The flapping motion of insects’ wings has given insight to flight enthusiasts but stabilising machines with insect-like flapping wings poses some problems. In the so-called ‘normal mode’- the wing motions used by bees, flies and hummingbirds- flight is prone to instability. The other mode of flight- the up-and-down flapping of a dragonfly- is understood less well but robots designed to mimic these up-and-down motions often require extra controls to stay upright. The new design in this study avoids inherent instability, which can require sails, tails or feedback to correct, and instead ‘exhibits intrinsic stability using flapping wings alone’ say the team from New York University. The team behind this new research searched for inspiration for their new flying machine not in the skies but in the seas. The team have developed an aircraft with four flapping wings which are pushed in-and-out in pairs. Wings on opposite sides of the machine flap simultaneously with the second pair of wings following close behind. This allows the conical body of the flying machine to effectively open and close to generate lift. ‘While there is no known flying animal that employs such a scheme, this design is reminiscent of the swimming motions of jellyfish,’ say Leif Ristroph and Stephen Childress- the scientists behind the study. The team suggest that the motion of the wings generates a jet flowing downwards which provides the machine with lift; much like the domed bell used by jellyfish to propel themselves through water. The team came up with the concept for the flying machine using experiments by the Applied Math Lab at New York University. The scientists determined that a flying machine shaped like a cone or pyramid might be able to achieve stable hovering by flapping aerodynamic wings with no need for extra sails or tails. Using their theory the researchers designed and built their miniature flying machine. The machine, which is made of carbon fibre loops and thin mylar film for the wings, is powered by a tiny motor which weighs just 1.1g. The lightweight machine’s wings are just 8cm long but provide enough lift and stability to keep the small machine in the air. Currently the jellyfish-like aircraft carries a motor powered by an external power supply but the team predicts that fine tuning the wing size would increase lift and make carrying an onboard battery possible in later models. The team say their study is ‘a step towards a feasible device’ and suggest that such small-scale flapping-wing aircrafts could be used for surveillance and reconnaissance as well as traffic and air quality monitoring in the future.There comes a time for every startup when they must hire a candidate who is outside their immediate network. Maybe it’s the first hire; maybe it’s the tenth hire. Targeted job advertisements are a great way to accelerate the hiring timeline. Plus, seeing an ample amount of qualified candidates will increase your quality of hire. Smart leaders find the startup communities full of qualified candidates. Post Startup Jobs Here: Crunchboard, the official job board of the TechCrunch Network. The CrunchBoard gives you access to the millions of technology and business savvy readers of TechCrunch, MobileCrunch, CrunchGear, TechCrunch IT and is one of the most popular job boards for internet startups., the official job board of the TechCrunch Network. The CrunchBoard gives you access to the millions of technology and business savvy readers of TechCrunch, MobileCrunch, CrunchGear, TechCrunch IT and is one of the most popular job boards for internet startups. Post a Job to CrunchBoard Mashable is the largest independent online news site dedicated to covering digital culture, social media and technology. Mashable has one of the most engaged online news communities with a job board to post jobs. is the largest independent online news site dedicated to covering digital culture, social media and technology. Mashable has one of the most engaged online news communities with a job board to post jobs. Post a Job to Mashable LinkedIn is Connecting the world’s professionals to make them more productive and successful. Manage your professional identity. Build and engage with your professional network. Access knowledge, insights and opportunities. is Connecting the world’s professionals to make them more productive and successful. Manage your professional identity. Build and engage with your professional network. Access knowledge, insights and opportunities. Post a Job to LinkedIn Facebook is a social utility that connects people with friends and others who work, study and live around them. SmartRecruiters offers: – creative and design of your ad – setup and activation – cost per click budget – monitoring and optimization of your ad campaign. is a social utility that connects people with friends and others who work, study and live around them. 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Post a Job to VentureBeat Craigslist is a good source of for posting jobs in a specific location for startups. Craigslist is a classified advertisements website with sections devoted to jobs. is a good source of for posting jobs in a specific location for startups. Craigslist is a classified advertisements website with sections devoted to jobs. Post a Job to Craigslist GitHub is a great place to start to find your startup coder. GitHub is the best place to build software together. Over 4 million people use GitHub to share code. s a great place to start to find your startup coder. GitHub is the best place to build software together. Over 4 million people use GitHub to share code. Post a Job to GitHub StackOverflow has exclusive access to the 25+ million programmers on the top developer sites on the internet. Reach top talent from the top tech community for your startup. has exclusive access to the 25+ million programmers on the top developer sites on the internet. Reach top talent from the top tech community for your startup. Post a Job to StackOverflow Your Site is a great place to start your hiring needs. Build an awesome career site with SmartRecruiters. Leverage your existing traffic. Display live jobs on your website and get more candidates. is a great place to start your hiring needs. Build an awesome career site with SmartRecruiters. Leverage your existing traffic. Display live jobs on your website and get more candidates. Post a Job to Your Site Advertising your open positions to right community will increase demand not only in working for your company, but also in your company itself. Whether you are a bootstrapped startup or a startup funded to scale, it’s time to think big and get the word out.At the end of the day, the “public trust” is our most important national asset. Without public trust, the wheels fall off of our nation of laws. Can there be an act more loathsome than the intentional squandering of the public trust, for the sake of political gain? The congressional passage of the disastrous Obama-brokered Iran nuclear deal of 2015 is a prime example. The tactics used to intentionally deceive the American public — 57 percent of whom disapproved of the deal — amounted to a gross non-disclosure of significant dangers. For the sake of political gain, Iran, America’s sworn enemy and the world’s largest purveyor of Islamic terror, was handed a pathway to a nuclear weapon and $150 billion, including $400 million in cash delivered to the Islamic Republic in an unmarked cargo plane. Former Secretary of State John Kerry admitted in an interview with CNBC, “some of it will end up in the hands of the IRGC (Iran’s Revolutionary Guard Corps) or other entities, some of which are labeled terrorists.” The world knows these “labeled terrorists” as Hezbollah and Hamas. Basking in the glowing approval of President Obama, nobody worked harder to facilitate the passage of this foully flawed arrangement than Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.). Despite the massive strategic downside of the deal’s terms, Schumer proceeded with vigor to employ a skillful combination of smoke, mirrors, and political trinkets. One by one, despite intense opposition, even those senators who seemed to understand the dire consequence of an empowered Iran accepted Schumer’s sparkling trinkets. In a classic act of political trickery, Schumer — understanding the need to cover his tracks with New York voters, including within his own Jewish community — issued a statement of “conscience” and voted perfidiously to disapprove of the agreement, while simultaneously refusing to lobby for other “no” votes. Amid the abrupt termination of former FBI Director James Comey, Schumer is once again exercising profound hypocrisy. The Senate minority leader, who last year said he does “not have confidence” in Comey due to his reopening of the investigation into Hillary Clinton’s emails days before the presidential election, is suddenly outraged over Comey’s dismissal. In the event that President Donald Trump’s alleged collusion with the Russians is proven, the president should, in bipartisan unanimity, be quickly removed from office. Yet Schumer should not be the delegated poster child for the pursuit of the truth. Abdicating the fundamental obligation of upholding the safety and security of Americans, as evidenced by his deceitful ramrodding of Obama’s nuclear deal, disqualifies him as an impartial judge of the truth. By boastfully lecturing Americans that “nothing less is at stake than the American people’s faith in our criminal justice system and the integrity of the executive branch of our government,” Schumer makes a revolting mockery of this essential task. Not since the era of the Vietnam War has America’s faith in the integrity of the government been so deflated. At the same time, the future credibility of the Democratic Party relies on the party’s ability to sit Schumer on the bench.This is the first post of a series of ten in which we will go in-depth on each of the ten biggest issues the Chargers had last year, and need to improve this year. Let's start with a problem on defense that has seemingly gone unnoticed... Missed Tackles The Problem Per Football Outsiders, the Chargers had the 12th most broken tackles on defense last year with 63 (explained in-depth here). The Charger with the lowest percentage of broken tackles was Takeo Spikes, who is no longer on the roster. Just to make sure that wasn't a bogus stat, I went over to Pro Football Focus to check out all inside linebackers, and Spikes had the highest combined tackling efficiency, which is the number of attempted tackles per miss, by a whopping 12.5% over 2nd place. So, in a sense, he'll be missed, and rookie Manti Te'o has even larger shoes to fill. Fan favorite Donald Butler ranked 37th in the same category. Below is a chart that lists each player, how many snaps/missed tackles they had last year, their tackling efficiency per PFF, and their tackling efficiency ranking by position (save the rookies, obviously). Not listed are former Chargers Shaun Phillips, who ranked 31st out of 34 eligible outside linebackers, surprise. Quentin Jammer, who ranked 26th amongst Cornerbacks, while Antoine Cason ranked 35th. Lastly, we have the Safeties. Corey Lynch and Atari Bigby were 59th and 60th, among the lowest tier of Safeties. Player Snaps/Missed Tackles Tackle Efficiency Position Rank Donald Butler 731/8 9.6 37th DJ Smith 385/3 19.5 11th Jaret Johnson 525/5 7.6 29th Melvin Ingram 475/7 7.3 30th Dwight Freeney 768/1 N/A 1st Derek Cox 776/15(!) 5.2 100th Marcus Gilchrist 640/8 7.6 80th Shareece Wright 120/2 12 Not Enough Snaps Eric Weddle 1,062/9 12.2 15th After getting a good look at the numbers for each position, a tackling efficiency at around 9 is average, and this chart backs up most of what I saw last year from the Chargers. The tackling was below average. The majority of the Chargers were below average when it came to tackling last year. I can't really pinpoint the issue or blame one sole person, because it was the entire team that was the issue. The problem is, it was a domino effect. We know how they were horrendous on 3rd down, and tackling has as much to do with that as anything else. Missed tackling led to less aggressive calls, which led to easy conversions for the offense. It became a trend many of us hope is reversed this upcoming season. The Solution Wrapping up is an obvious solution, but the personnel that was added this offseason should help the Chargers greatly. I think fans will be pleasantly surprised with the addition of D.J. Smith. He's athletic, physical, and a sound tackler. Shareece Wright showed above average tackling skills last year. I recall, in his limited action, he made a handful of key tackles on 3rd down for stops. I wonder if we'll see more and more of Eric Weddle playing near the line of scrimmage to help eliminate these tackling issues. Being one of the better open field tacklers in the game, he would be a significant upgrade from last year's in-the-box Safeties. Gilchrist worries me, because at Safety last year he was more passive than aggressive. When he blitzed, he was great, but he'll have an entirely new role this year. I do think the passive scheme last year with all the off-coverage on 3rd down had somewhat of a trickle-down effect and hurt the team tackling all together. If the Chargers want to take the next step on defense, they're going to have to improve their tackling. That starts with the aggressive play-calling by the Defensive Coordinator, and confidence in the players. Can Te'o be a consistent tackler? Will the Linebackers be good enough in coverage to be in a position to make the tackle? Can the new starting Cornerbacks be physical enough? Eyes will be on the second level to see if they can make the tackle and get off the field. It will be something to watch early on in the season and throughout training camp. More from Bolts From The Blue:Help Save the Irrawaddy Dolphin! by: WWF recipient: Mr. Goh Nan Kioh, Executive Chairman of Mega First The newly proposed Don Sahong Dam could herald the extinction of the rare and revered Mekong Irrawaddy dolphins. Today, just 85 survive in a small stretch of the Mekong River. The sound waves from the initial explosions to clear tons of rock could potentially kill dolphins equipped with highly sensitive hearing. Later, they would have to survive increased boat traffic, changes in water quality, and habitat destruction. The Don Sahong Dam is not just bad news for Mekong dolphins: It will have dire consequences for the food security and livelihoods of people who rely on the Mekong River's rich fisheries. The clock is ticking. Mega First, the developers, have scheduled construction of the Don Sahong to begin later this year. So we must act now. Sign the petition and tell Mega First that you won't let Mekong Irrawaddy dolphins be dammed. read petition letter ▾ I urge you to immediately suspend any further development of the Don Sahong Dam. The Mekong River is the only home of the Mekong Irrawaddy dolphin and the heart, spirit and lifeblood of the Cambodian people. If built, the Don Sahong Dam will directly cause the extinction of this important species unique to the Mekong. If built, the dam will have severe impacts on fisheries, potentially impoverishing more than 60 million people in Cambodia and the Lower Mekong Basin. There are alternative approaches and technologies that support sustainable management of the Mekong River's resources and can help meet energy needs. Mega First does not need to be the company remembered for permanent and widespread damage to the Mekong River. You can choose to be a trailblazer for sustainable development and demonstrate your leadership as a responsible and forward-looking global citizen. The Mekong River is a vital natural resource, and I am making my voice heard to protect its future from this destructive dam, for people and for wildlife. [Your comment here] Sincerely, [Your name here] Dear Mr. Goh Nan Kioh, Executive Chairman of Mega First,I urge you to immediately suspend any further development of the Don Sahong Dam. The Mekong River is the only home of the Mekong Irrawaddy dolphin and the heart, spirit and lifeblood of the Cambodian people.If built, the Don Sahong Dam will directly cause the extinction of this important species unique to the Mekong.If built, the dam will have severe impacts on fisheries, potentially impoverishing more than 60 million people in Cambodia and the Lower Mekong Basin.There are alternative approaches and technologies that support sustainable management of the Mekong River's resources and can help meet energy needs. Mega First does not need to be the company remembered for permanent and widespread damage to the Mekong River. You can choose to be a trailblazer for sustainable development and demonstrate your leadership as a responsible and forward-looking global citizen.The Mekong River is a vital natural resource, and I am making my voice heard to protect its future from this destructive dam, for people and for wildlife.[Your comment here]Sincerely,[Your name here]So this might not be allowed but do please read anyway HelloSince the last smoke bug we have/had,People are getting banned because of it, overwatch banned, some are abusing it and might deserve it, others didn't abuse it and do not deserve it (including me).I never abused this bug, I changed my shader details to medium after 3 games because someone told me that was the fix, I didn't know how to fix it before that, I did not try to kill people through smoke but when it wasn't my smoke I couldn't know sometimes.There are more people getting banned because of this and it isn't very fair, the best they could ban us for is griefing because hacking option actually says external help, a bug is not external, it's a fault by valve not by us.So please this needs to be in the open so it gets more attention, steam support is completely ignoringt his matter and only answers by automated posts.If you got banned aswel for this same reason, post it here so they can see the size of there problem, I'd like to remark aswel that the size might be small community wise but the damage is the same for each individual as if everyone would have gotten banned, because we still lost our inventory and account.Thank you for your timeIf there is misogynistic abuse taking place in this election cycle, the abuser is Hillary Clinton. The left enjoys backing GOP candidates and their supporters into a corner just before the election by painting the Republican candidate as something he is not. But their Hitlerian wisdom tells them “the bigger the lie, the better,” and their tactical hero, Alinsky, teaches, “If you repeat a lie enough, eventually their ‘useful idiots’ (leftist’s own words for their blind followers) will believe it.” WikiLeaks emails are being downplayed in the media as “yet to be authenticated,” but since not one has been proven inauthentic, the emails are almost certainly genuine. Additionally, the Clinton media are trying to make the case that they believe Russian hackers are responsible for the email hacks, so the emails somehow don’t matter. Three things: Even if Russian hackers did leak the emails, it doesn’t make them untrue. The Clinton campaign has yet to deny the emails are genuine and the contents are true. This doesn’t tie Trump to Russia. But Hillary’s sale of uranium to Russia and the millions she took for Bill’s five-minute speech there certainly tie her to Russian Communists. (See com. ) The abuse goes beyond the Clinton campaign lies, but the October mudslinging is nothing new. The left has done it every election, and it would be doing it even if the nominee weren’t Donald Trump. There is a special venom for Trump, though, because he has single-handedly exposed the corruption of the elite in the GOP, the Democratic Party and the media. Clinton’s abuse of Mr. Trump is unspeakable. Somehow that is ignored since she is a woman. But she is a very abusive woman, and many who have worked for her know this well. To vote for Hillary Clinton requires ignorance on such a mass scale, it is dizzying. Convincing the left to merely wake up to the danger and abuse reminds me of trying to convince an abused wife to leave her abuser. The denial is overwhelming, and though it is often obvious from those looking on, the abused wife simply cannot see her situation for what it is. What do women want? Not Hillary! Gina Loudon teams up with her fellow Politichicks in their first blockbuster, “What Women Really Want” — available at the WND Superstore There are 10 major facts one must ignore to support Hillary Clinton. These are provable facts, not accusations. These provable facts versus sheer allegations are the major difference between the campaigns’ October surprises: 1) In the Podesta emails, Hillary Clinton’s campaign admitted that the only way they could defeat Trump was to accuse him of sexual perversion. It is no surprise at all that they would create this narrative; they are using their own playbook as exposed in the Podesta emails. 2) Donald Trump is the only choice for women. Our streets are more dangerous than they were eight years ago. Murder rates are skyrocketing. Name any major city in the U.S. that is run by Democrats, and I will show you a city where crime is rising, families are broken apart, economies are failing and people are hurting worse than before Democrats took over. This is plantation politics, tantamount to the new slavery. It keeps people oppressed and guarantees they will vote for mere freebies. Hillary doesn’t care if the U.S. goes down, as long as she is the undertaker. She has made hundreds of millions of dollars with these tactics. Expect an emboldened, even more abusive “Madam President.” God forbid. 3) Our world is more dangerous, and terrorism has come to our homeland. Hillary will exacerbate terror in the U.S. and abroad via her pledge to completely open borders, her refusal to even identify Islam as the broker of terror, and the tens of millions of dollars she has taken from ISIS-funding countries like Qatar and Saudi Arabia. She left Americans in Benghazi and lied about it, blaming a video rather than the actual culprit: radical Islamic terror. She is colluding with terrorists and communists. Do not doubt this for a moment. If you do, see the “Enemies Within” documentary for the full list of facts on this. 4) Hillary blamed a 12-year-old rape victim for the crime of her rapist. She has taken tens of millions of dollars from ISIS-funding countries that also stone and oppress women for crimes like driving or getting an education. And she spent $100,000 smearing the names of the women her husband is accused of sexually assaulting. She is a rape enabler, at best – a true misogynist at worst. She is the last person women need in the White House. 5) Refugees are fleeing the Middle East because of the death and destruction there that was caused by Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama over the past several years. They want to increase that number by the millions, and America as we know it, will lose sovereignty and security. 6) ISIS terrorists must be defeated where they live. Instead of putting out the fires she has caused in the Middle East with her disastrous policies as secretary of state, Hillary Clinton wants to bring refugees here by the tens of thousands. In the WikiLeaks emails, Hillary commits to “open borders” and “open trade,” and she even says that Wall Street need not believe what she says to voters. That is just to get elected, I guess. But she thinks the majority of her voters will never even know this, because she believes they are stupid. Remember that she called Latinos “needy,” insulted Catholics, Southerners and many more in her emails. They are mere voting blocks for her; Lenin-style “useful idiots” in her eyes. She knows she has them deceived, so there is no way she can respect them. 7) Hillary Clinton is a risk to our economic security, too. Clinton wants to raise taxes and increase regulation on businesses. She told Wall Street she wants open trade. Debt will continue to skyrocket under her tyranny, and this woman who has never created a single job will only ever broaden the size and scope of government control in our lives. 8) Possibly one of the worst parts of this October surprise is that women who are actual victims of sexual assault are being harmed by Hillary’s dangerous and narcissistic campaign smear using women. These accusations trivialize the issue of sexual assault, and women across the globe will pay the price. These women who are coming forward now, in an obvious attempt to influence voters just days before an election, are making it harder to believe women who really are abused. 9) Hillary’s campaign has proven that she has mastered abuse of power. She colluded with the State Department, the Department of Justice, the FBI and more. She also likely received debate questions before the debate, and enjoyed veto power of headlines in various media outlets including the New York Times, NBC, CNN and more. She dangerously controls the media and federal government agencies in Pravda-esque ways that Putin could only ever dream. 10) Hillary lies. Even her own staff admits she has trouble feigning remorse for her 33,000 illegally deleted emails and her illegal server. Her supporters believe she is dishonest, but their own lying candidate has convinced them somehow that Trump is more dangerous, so they continue to follow blindly. She told Goldman Sachs executives she has “a public and a private face” so they could be assured her allegiance to Wall Street is real and her words to voters are merely for votes. This election is not Republican versus Democrat. This is the political establishment elite versus We the People. If Hillary is elected, she will be a literal tyrant, controlling the federal bureaucracies, above the law, controlling the media. America ought to be horrified with her totalitarian approach to winning the election and abjectly reject her. But America seems to have lost its collective mind, like a pining lover for an abusive relationship. Let’s hope America wakes up in the voting booth. Her very life hangs in the balance. Gina Loudon teams up with her fellow Politichicks in their first blockbuster, “What Women Really Want” — available at the WND SuperstoreStudents of VETOGA, a nonprofit organization that trains active military members, veterans and their families to teach yoga to veterans. (Photo by Jason Andrew for The Washington Post) In a quiet room in Old Town Alexandria, the students sit quietly on mats, facing an altar with mala beads and a meditation singing bowl. For the next 11 days they will spend most of their waking hours together, bonding as they go through rigorous training to become yoga teachers. It might be any teacher training program in this yoga-obsessed metropolitan area, but look at the students snap to when the teacher says, “Eyes front.” See how the guest lecturer’s “’Morning, everyone,” elicits a reflexive, synchronized “’Morning, sir!” And what about those dogs sitting along the periphery, one starting to whine as she senses elevated cortisol levels in her owner? [These soldiers at Walter Reed are making masks to reveal the hidden wounds of war. And to heal.] Welcome to VETOGA, a program that instructs military veterans from across the country to teach yoga, and in turn, teach other veterans how to salute the sun. The program was developed by Justin Blazejewski, 38, who has spent most of his adult life in combat zones, first as a Marine and then as a civilian government contractor. After more than 40 trips to Afghanistan and Iraq, he was hobbled by injuries and living in perpetual fight-or-flight mode. “My parasympathetic nervous system, the one that allows you to rest and relax, wasn’t in action since 1998,” he recalled. Then, in 2008, he took a yoga class. “I physically felt my body let go for the first time. I didn’t realize I was holding that tension until I did yoga. My brain turned off and the rest of my body started letting go.” Afterward, he walked out and said, “I want more of this.” As he continued to go overseas, where thousands of troops lived in the constant tension of war zones, he realized that they needed release as much as he did — sometimes even more. Even once they were home, many struggled with physical and emotional scars, including post-traumatic stress disorder and traumatic brain injury. To Blazejewski, discovering yoga had been a gift, and he wanted to share it. [Meet the 34-year-old neuroscientist who is developing a drug to prevent PTSD and depression] So he began to do so, starting with an initial training course in November. Twelve members of the first class now teach yoga to veterans in eight states. The current class has 25 students. Unlike some teacher training programs that lose students partway through because of the rigorous schedule, the students here are used to 16 hours a day of boot camp; by contrast, the 13 1/2 hours a day at VETOGA might seem gentle. Justin Blazejewski, a Marine veteran and former contractor and the founder of VETOGA, leads a teacher training class in Alexandria, Va. (Photo by Jason Andrew for The Washington Post) The course, taught by diverse yogis, includes lessons in meditation, anatomy, the history of yoga, and various styles of practice, as well as focused instruction on teaching to veterans. While it includes the basics for yoga teachers, it does not include the 10-hour segment, which can be taken separately, for certification in teaching people with trauma, TBI, and PTSD. But just being veterans gives the teachers-in-training a level of empathy and camaraderie that can be elusive in the civilian world. [This 93-year-old World War II veteran connected with his wartime love after 71 years apart] “It’s the power of community,” Blazejewski said, noting that more than 22 veterans a day kill themselves. Despite receiving services such as counseling and job training, “at
the nation’s largest state. The good news for Bay Area residents is that because Republicans allot three delegates for each congressional district a candidate wins the popular vote in, voters who live in super-liberal San Francisco or Oakland will see a Republican presidential candidate in their midst for the first time since the Pleistocene Epoch. Three delegates earned from San Francisco count just as much as three delegates earned from GOP-heavy Kern County. Texas Sen. Ted Cruz’s campaign is far ahead organizationally in California, having secured supporters across the state months ago. They’re going to be strong in the more conservative Central Valley and among evangelical voters there and in the Inland Empire of Riverside and San Bernardino counties. Cruz devotee in Mission Kasich’s operation — whose top adviser in California is former state Insurance Commissioner Steve Poizner — will probably target a dozen or so congressional districts along California’s more liberal coast. Trump doesn’t have much of an operation in the state, but that’s been his modus operandi most everywhere so far, and it’s been working. In another sign of an unpredictable campaign season, one of the most devout Cruz volunteers lives in San Francisco’s Mission District — which is better known as a warm bosom of support for liberal Democratic Sen. Bernie Sanders. But there in his apartment, Tom Canaday volunteers 60 hours a week for the Cruz campaign, mostly harvesting supporters on social media and connecting them to the campaign. After selling his gourmet pork business, he had some extra time while he looked for his next venture. He’s an evangelical Christian and fiscal conservative who found Cruz to be the most thoughtful candidate in the race. “We’ve had this funny situation that we’ve been building this campaign for months — and didn’t know if there would ever be a meaningful campaign in California,” Canaday said. “Now the future is here. It’s clear that it will be meaningful.” Joe Garofoli is The San Francisco Chronicle’s senior political writer. Email: jgarofoli@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @joegarofoliThe actor could end up filling the boots worn by "Once Upon a Time" star Josh Dallas. Marvel Studios is targeting Zachary Levi to join the cast of Thor 2. He would replace Josh Dallas in the film. Dallas played Fandral, one of the Warriors Three in Thor, but is bowing out of the sequel to the 2011 hit movie due to his commitments to the ABC show Once Upon a Time. Levi’s involvement may blessed by the gods, however. He was in talks to originally play the role in 2010 but had to bow out when his cult NBC show Chuck got a last-minute reprieve from cancellation and an episode extension. Levi’s talks are in at an early stage -- negotiations have not yet begun, according to sources -- but an offer is imminent. Thor 2 is gearing up fast for a July start. Game of Thrones director Alan Taylor is set to hop into the director’s chair. Chris Hemsworth, Natalie Portman, Idris Elba and Anthony Hopkins are returning, and Mads Mikkelsen is in negotiations to play the villain. Marvel had no comment.Exactly one month ago, the Chicago Bulls sunk to the place everyone thought they would this season: rock bottom. After holding a 19-point lead against the Lakers in Los Angeles, the Bulls gave away the game and lost by nine. Head coach Fred Hoiberg looked disturbed by it all in his postgame press conference.The players, meanwhile, seemed disappointed, but resigned to the fact that this is what life would be like this season. It couldn’t get much worse. Naturally, it did. Chicago lost the next eight straight — five of them by seven points or fewer. As recently as two weeks ago, the Bulls were on a 10-game losing streak and had an overall record (3–20) that would have made Sam Hinkie beam with pride. Then, Nikola Mirotic happened. Yes, that Nikola Mirotic — the one who had his jaw broken by a Bobby Portis punch before the season even began. Mirotic returned seven games ago, and the Bulls have been unstoppable ever since. After Wednesday’s 112–94 win over Orlando, Chicago is now a perfect 7-of-7 since Mirotic’s comeback game on December 8. This move from Nikola Mirotic was so nice even Bobby Portis gave him a high-five pic.twitter.com/xlYFKQejzE — Def Pen Hoops (@DefPenHoops) December 19, 2017 I’m not sure if anyone has inquired about what Mirotic did during his recovery, but it looks like he went to Rockets University and came back as a better version of Ryan Anderson. He’s shooting nearly half of his shots from 3-point land, and more than 20 percent of his shots are coming from the midrange. All told, the 26-year-old with the majestic beard is averaging 19.6 points a game (nearly eight points higher than his previous career best), on a ridiculous 48.8 percent from 3 and 52 percent from the field. Chicago is 18.3 points per 100 possessions better when Mirotic is on the court than when he’s off. Small sample size, etc., etc., but this is mind-blowing. The key to Mirotic’s run seems to be an almost brazen level of confidence. Even though the Bulls recently moved their red-hot forward to the bench in favor of rookie Lauri Markkanen, Mirotic is still handling the ball like a natural point guard and pulling up from everywhere like he’s Steph Curry. Mirotic carrying the Bulls like Sylvester Stallone carried that gigantic tree log in Rocky IV isn’t the only part reason for the team’s dramatic turnaround. Kris Dunn, part of the trade that sent Jimmy Butler to Minnesota, didn’t start this season right. But the second-year point guard is having one of the best stretches of his career, averaging 16.6 points, 7.4 assists, 4.9 rebounds, and 2.4 steals during the Bulls’ seven-game winning streak. Dunn’s chemistry with players like Denzel Valentine, who has had a resurgence of his own, has also helped. But there’s a cost to this recent string of success. Even after seven straight wins, the Bulls (10–20 overall) are still second-to-last in the East. In other words, they haven’t gained much ground for an improbable playoff push. But they have helped other rebuilding teams close the gap in the race to the bottom. As of Thursday, the Bulls are fourth worst in the NBA, with 10 wins. Right behind (ahead of?) them are six teams with 11 wins. The Clippers are also lurking with 12 wins. And while Markkanen has indeed reclaimed his starting spot, Hoiberg must now balance distributing minutes in a suddenly crowded frontcourt. Hoiberg has walked the line well so far — Mirotic and Markkanen played the same number of minutes (26) in Philly on Monday, and Mirotic played just two more minutes than the rookie in Wednesday’s blowout. But it will be interesting to see if the coach can keep everyone happy when a win is on the line. But while management may fret over winning too many games and losing out on a chance at Luka Doncic, the players seem to be enjoying their moment. “It’s a blast,” Lopez said Wednesday night. Portis called it “a different feel.” Against the Magic on Wednesday, Portis dished the ball to Mirotic, who sank a 3. They pointed at each other in affirmation. As the old adage goes: The best way to get over a teammate breaking your jaw is to go on a seven-game winning streak., “something important has to happen. Because today is a very special day. Can everybody hear?” “Before we get started,” Roxane Gay told the packed auditorium of the keynote she was giving at Emory Univeristy alongside Erica Jong to kick off the Decatur book festival in Georgia, Friday night“something important has to happen. Because today is a very special day. Can everybody hear?” Then, over the first notes of a Beyoncé song she played from her phone, Gay playfully asked, “Whose birthday is it?” Jong laughed genially as the audience shouted back, “Beyoncé”. But then she could not resist correcting Gay. “May I just remind you that Beyoncé walks in the shoes of Billie Holiday and Ida Cox, the great blues women,” Jong said. “most of whom were African American, who created feminist poetry in this country.” Facebook Twitter Pinterest Erica Jong in 1976: ‘We have a long tradition of women of colour being feminists’ Photograph: Evening Standard/Getty Images While some audience members clapped, others shifted uncomfortably at the disconnect between Gay’s light-hearted opening and Jong’s seriousness. It was the first of many awkward moments in an evening that, while meant to celebrate feminism, ended up illustrating its generational, cultural and racial divides. Jong is a scion of second-wave feminism and the sexual revolution, having gained national fame with her wildly popular 1973 debut novel, Fear of Flying. This week, to much anticipation, she released a follow-up of sorts, Fear of Dying. Gay, meanwhile, is still enjoying the success of her 2014 essay collection, Bad Feminist, which has been at the forefront of what is becoming a national discussion of culture and identity. . At first glance it seemed like an ideal pairing for a discussion about feminism’s place in American culture. And indeed, for the first portion of the conversation, Gay and Jong chatted fairly amiably about feminism’s emerging accommodation of older women and Jong’s own identification with Clarice Lispector Virginia Woolf and Charlotte Brontë Sign up to our Bookmarks email Bookmarks is our new weekly email from the books team with our pick of the latest news, views and reviews, delivered to your inbox every Thursday Read more But when the audience was invited to ask questions, things got tense again. A barely audible young woman asked a long, multi-layered question that Gay paraphrased to the audience as, “How do we make sure that feminism becomes more and more inclusive and accounts for more than just white women?” , Gay said, “Feminism has to realise it’s really about In her answerGay said, “Feminism has to realise it’s really about intersectionality … but that word tends to be off-putting. That just means that we inhabit more than one identity. I’m not just a woman. I’m Haitian American. I’m Catholic. I’m from Nebraska. I have a body. I have tattoos. I mean not all of these identity markers matter as much as others. “You have to think about how there are multiple barriers for equality for some women. That it’s not just gender. It’s also sexuality, class, race, ethnicity, ability. And we have to take these things into account. We have to realise that just because we’re women does not mean we’re equal.” Jong’s response began rather differently. “I also want to say that anybody who says that feminism is only a white thing is ignorant of the history of feminism,” she began. She mentioned blues singers, black abolitionists, and black female civil rights leaders, “who were all passionate feminists beyond any white women you could name”. Jong said she thought anyone who claimed otherwise was speaking from “historical ignorance. “We have a long tradition of people of colour, of women of colour, being feminists,” Jong insisted. “A long tradition.” When Gay agreed but reminded Jong that mainstream feminism has historically excluded women of colour, the audience clapped. Jong, apparently taken aback, demanded: “And I don’t know – are you talking about me?” Gay answered simply, and almost consolingly, “No.” Jong went on to say, “Because I can tell you that in my history I was called, like you, a bad feminist. In the 70s I was called a bad feminist by many people because I liked to wear lipstick and I liked to wear high heels and I thought men were cool and I liked to wear fancy underwear. So that’s just bullshit. I mean it’s ignorance.” Gay responded: “Yes, but I think we’re speaking beyond – it’s not about us. Just speaking about feminism, like some of the current concerns of feminists.” As the audience mumbled, Jong then insisted: “Current concerns of feminism are multiple, many. And number one, women with brown or black skin have been passionately involved in feminism from the beginning. Two, we recognise that. The rest of Jong’s response included her assertion that the Black Lives Matter movement (referred to in the original audience question) was “a political movement trying to show us our failure of empathy, and as such I salute them”. And she was adamant that reading black writers was important, as was reading “African and European and British and Caribbean and whatever” writers. “But let’s not confuse animals,” she urged. “Feminism has always been interested in people of colour, in my view.” Now, it was Gay who off-handedly mumbled, “OK.” Jong added: “We may not have achieved that glorious heaven where we all join hands and love each other, but we have all recognised the problem and are working toward it.” “All right, we’ll take another question,” suggested Gay, as the audience laughed and clapped. Later, when another audience member asked both Gay and Jong if either had been influenced by either Mae West or Moms Mabley, the drama intensified. Gay mostly demurred on the response with a simple “No”. Jong gave a lengthy answer, crediting West for being “a great old broad”. Then Jong asked, “And who is Mabley?” An audience member shouted a sarcastic reply: “She was a great old black woman broad.” At the very end of the evening, Jong and Gay agreed that feminism might reach a point where difference will not be an obstacle. They both also agreed that it would take a lot of time and a lot of work to bridge the divide. “But it’s not going to be work for people of colour,” Gay emphatically said. “We’re good.” The talk left audience members, among them several prominent novelists and poets, tweeting their frustrations at Jong’s comments: — Saeed Jones (@theferocity) September 5, 2015 Erica Jong also claimed "no one" would know about Sojourner Truth had it not been for Gloria Steinem writing about her. Oh word? #dbf2015 Jong simply added the following response on Twitter:Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella Karyne Levy/Business Insider At an event in San Francisco today, Microsoft's CEO Satya Nadella made his first appearance since becoming CEO and introduced the long-awaited Office suite for the iPad. You can download the apps from the App Store for free, and you'll be able to read documents using the apps for free. It only works on iPads running iOS 7.0 or later. But if you want to create and edit documents, you're going to need an Office 365 subscription, which costs around $100 per year. We got a chance to demo the new suite at the event. The apps run smoothly, as you would expect, and really integrates the use of touch in a cool way. It's especially useful for people who already use Office, as the documents and formatting options are nearly identical to the desktop version of the suite. The goal of the Office suite, it seems, is not to offer a particularly deep set of editing and reading options, but to give users a broad set of tools for editing, tweaking and creating documents on the go.Some European countries are expected to break with Washington and start supplying the Syrian rebels with weapons in the next few months, the representative of the Syrian opposition in Britain has told the Guardian. The National Coalition's London representative, Walid Saffour, predicted that by the next meeting of the western and Arab Friends of Syria group in Turkey, due in late spring or early summer, "there will be a breakthrough that will end the restrictions of the European countries". "This would be for the ammunition we require, the quality weapons we need to deter the Syrian regime from using aeroplanes and Scud missiles to bomb villages and bakeries," Saffour said. "We on the ground are advancing steadily but we are suffering from a lack of ammunition. We expect that to change at the next Friends of Syria meeting in Istanbul." Another opposition figure involved in supplying the rebels said there had been a noticeable relaxation in recent days of the strict restrictions the US and Turkey had put on arms flows over the Turkish border. He claimed a Syrian army helicopter and a Mig warplane had been shot down in the past two days, for the first time by imported missiles. "These were not weapons that had been captured from Syrian army bases as before. These were released from the Turkish warehouses. These are weapons the opposition had purchased previously but had not been allowed to take across the border," the opposition source said. "Before, 23mm was the maximum calibre for anti-aircraft guns permitted and we were allowed to bring in RPGs [rocket-propelled grenades] but not armour-piercing shells. But there is a major shift on the ground now. The policy is changing. "I think the shift in American attitudes goes far beyond the official reports. I think that Washington knows it can no longer allow to let the problem fester." The EU formally changed its arms embargo on Syria on Thursday to allow the supply of armoured vehicles, non-lethal military equipment and technical aid to the opposition. The move came as the US secretary of state, John Kerry, made his first trip to a Muslim nation since taking office, visiting Ankara, where he met Turkish leaders to discuss Syria. While Saffour did not name the countries he expected to supply arms, the British government, which took the lead in pushing for the relaxation of the sanctions, is expected to act swiftly in reaction to the new EU rules. Foreign secretary, William Hague, is due to make a statement to parliament next week detailing the new equipment and training the UK will give the rebels. The aid is expected to include civilian vehicles – reinforced to provide protection against shelling – of a kind the British government is already supplying to UN aid workers operating in Syria. On British insistence, the EU embargo will come up for review in June and the UK is expected to push for a further relaxation in what can be provided to the opposition if there is no let-up in the two-year-old conflict, in which more than 70,000 people are estimated to have died. Speaking at the Friends of Syria meeting in Rome on Thursday, Hague stressed military aid was possible in the future. "That will be an important decision, of course, and has its own risks, and that is why we haven't done that so far. But I don't rule that out," he said. A British official said: "We are going to keep on raising the pressure on the Assad regime. The Friends of Syria meeting in Rome was not the end of a process. It is the beginning of a process." Saffour, the National Coalition's representative, said: "If the EU embargo doesn't change, then some of the EU countries will change their policy – if not openly, then quietly." He said US officials had also told the coalition that the White House policy of providing non-lethal aid only would come under review in the next few months, as new members of Barack Obama's administration, such as Kerry and the defence secretary, Chuck Hagel, enter the internal debate. There have been reports over the past few weeks that the flow of arms to rebel fighters has increased markedly, including some anti-tank weapons made in the former Yugoslavia. The Croatian government has denied reports that its arms industry supplied some of the weapons. Ivica Nekic, the managing director of the Croatian arms export agency, said: "We would be aware of any sale from Croatia, and no Croatian weapons have been sold to anyone in Syria." Asked about reports that Croatian arms were supplied through Saudi Arabia, Nekic said Croatia had only sold the Saudi military helmets and was in the process of negotiating a sale of pistols. Asked about other customers in the Middle East, Nekic said: "We sell to more than 50 countries around the world. I can't speculate on every country, and every sale we make. It would not be correct." Muhannad Hadi, the World Food Programme's regional emergency co-ordinator for Syria and neighbouring countries, said the British donation of armoured cars had already saved the lives of WFP staff delivering food aid on both sides of the lines. "They turned out to be a life-saving tool. Our weapons were attacked four times in the past several months, by mortar. And the thing is nobody was injured." The WFP currently supplies food to 1.5 million people in Syria in all 14 of the country's governorates, and in many parts of the country there are pockets with unknown populations which are beyond the agency's reach because of fighting. Hadi said the WFP hoped to increase the number of recipients to 2 million this month and 2.5 million next month, but was facing a critical shortage of funding. "If we don't have funds in May for Syria, there will be serious problems. There will be breaks in the pipeline. Food needs a lead time to bring it in, with shipping and logistics, so we need the funds very, very soon."You know how it goes - some games just play better with physical buttons, and the latest title from Crescent Moon Games, Shadow Blade, feels like one of them. Yet if you disregard for a moment that you've ever used a gamepad before, this game won't remind you incessantly the way most side-scrollers do. The control scheme, which consists largely of taps and swipes, is actually pretty intuitive. With enough practice, it really makes the game worth playing. You play as Kuro, a sword-wielding youngster who must ninja his way through enemies and, similarly, ninja his way around traps. The graphics are crisp, though the simplistic 3D models may look more attractive on a smartphone than a tablet. Regardless, the game is still covered in the high-level of polish we've come to expect from Crescent Moon Games. Shadow Blade is listed as free, but you will need to pay for the full version after downloading it to enjoy most of the content. Out of the box, the game comes with 7 stages, but $1.99 will get you access to over 45 in total. Aside from that, there doesn't seem to be any surprises. The experience is ad-free, and there aren't any street peddlers trying to sell you 4,000 shurikens for $2.99.On June 3, 2014, the US Patent and Trademark Office officially published a series of 62 newly granted patents for Apple Inc. In this particular report we cover three major user interface patents covering both 3D and spoken user interfaces. Apple Granted Patent for a 3D GUI for the Desktop Apple has been granted a patent today for their invention relating to 3D GUI for a Desktop Computer. In one implementation, a graphical user interface includes a back surface that is axially disposed from a viewing surface, and one or more side surfaces that are extended from the back surface to the viewing surface. A visualization object receptacle, e.g., icon receptacle, is displayed on one or more of the side surfaces, and one or more visualization objects, e.g., icons corresponding to one or more system objects can be displayed within the icon receptacle. In another implementation, a two-dimensional, desktop can be depth-transitioned from a viewing surface to a back surface, and one or more side surfaces can be extended from the back surface to the viewing surface. A visualization object receptacle, e.g., icon receptacle on the one or more side surfaces can be generated. One or more visualization objects, e.g., icons corresponding to the desktop items can likewise be generated within the icon receptacle. In another implementation, a graphical user interface includes a viewing surface and a back surface axially disposed from the viewing surface to define a depth. One or more side surfaces can extend from the back surface to the viewing surface and a visualization object receptacle can be disposed on one or more of the side surfaces. One or more visualization objects corresponding to the desktop items can likewise be disposed within the icon receptacle. Apple credits Imran Chaudhri, John Louch, Christopher Hynes, Timothy Bumgarner and Eric Peyton as the inventors of granted patent 8,745, 535 which was originally filed in Q2 2007 and published today by the US Patent and Trademark Office. Patently Apple first introduced this patent application back in 2008 and covers many more graphics for you to explore. With Apple's Jonathan Ive now shifting Apple's UI further to flat graphics for Yosemite, this 3D GUI is likely not to surface unless a competitor forced their hand. Apple Granted Patent for Spoken Interfaces Apple has been granted a patent today for their invention relating to Spoken Interfaces. Apple's 2006 granted patent specifically relates to enhanced accessibility through an operating system level service is provided for assisting a visually impaired user to obtain audible information and interact with elements of a standard user interface provided by the operating system. The service enables access and control of elements of the standard interface including control of any application that implements the accessibility advanced programmer interface and is being executed by the operating system and any element that may be hidden by other windows. Apple credits Eric Seymour, Richard Fabrick, Patti Yeh and John Louch as the inventors of granted patent 8,744,852 which was originally filed in Q and published today by the US Patent and Trademark Office. To review today's granted patent claims and details, see Apple's patent. Apple Granted Patent for a 3D Imaging & Display System Apple has been granted a major patent today for their invention relating to a 3D imaging and display system. More specifically, Apple's granted patent specifically states that the user input is optically detected in an imaging volume by measuring the path length of an amplitude modulated scanning beam as a function of the phase shift thereof. Visual image user feedback concerning the detected user input is presented. Patently Apple covered one of the original patent applications on this invention back in 2011 with more graphics for you to check out. With Apple acquiring PrimeSense who was behind Microsoft's Kinect device, Apple's wild invention just might have a chance of coming to life in the future. Being able to interact with Apple TV via Air Gestures would be very cool. Note that all of the connections to PrimeSense patents found in our December 2013 report have now been disconnected as Apple wants to keep their possible future 3D inventions secret. Apple credits Christopher Krah as the sole inventor of granted patent 8,743,345 which was filed in Q3 2011 and published today by the US Patent and Trademark Office. Apple's patent notes that their work on this invention goes all the way back to Q4 2005. A Note for Tech Sites covering our Report: We ask tech sites covering our report to kindly limit the use of our graphics to one image. We thank you in advance for your cooperation. Patently Apple presents only a brief summary of granted patents with associated graphics for journalistic news purposes as each Granted Patent is revealed by the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office. Readers are cautioned that the full text of any Granted Patent should be read in its entirety for full details. About Making Comments on our Site: Patently Apple reserves the right to post, dismiss or edit any comments. Comments are reviewed daily from 4am to 8pm MST and sporadically on the weekend. New on Patently Mobile this Week Samsung Reveals New Circular Interface Smartwatch with Rotating Ring Controller, 3 Gesture Levels, new Charger & MoreFun War/Territory conquest game! I love the variety provided by the random matching of races/special powers, and the chance to quit a race and pick a whole new one adds a nice level of strategy. 9 Luck Strategy Casual Intense Complex Simple Easy to learn and understand. Can take some time to remember all the different races and skills, but all players get a referencecopy with info. Fun! 8 Luck Strategy Casual Intense Complex Simple Play predominantly on the iPad. It eases the setup and makes the game quite a bit more casual that way. I find the strategy pretty easy to work with, but casual games may be challenged. 8 Luck Strategy Casual Intense Complex Simple Easily one of my favorite games. The replay value on this one is what keeps me playing it. Every game you get different combos and develop new strategies. Just got the expansion and love it! 8 Luck Strategy Casual Intense Complex Simple This is a very fun game. Looked difficult to learn but is actually quite easy. Never the same game - changes each time you play. 6 Luck Strategy Casual Intense Complex Simple This game overs alot or replayability though it's random character elements and the number of expansions out. A very good game! 8 Luck Strategy Casual Intense Complex Simple Interesting dynamic and replayability, lots of quality expansions. Nice light strategy game. 8 Luck Strategy Casual Intense Complex Simple Great strategy game. It's fun to pick from the race/ability combinations. If you're a real addict you can also get the app on an iPad, it's a 2 person game so the strategy is a little different. 8 Luck Strategy Casual Intense Complex Simple This is a great game to satisfy those strategic conquest urges, when you're playing with a casual group. Fun, light hearted, and easy to pick up! 8 Luck Strategy Casual Intense Complex Simple When you choose a race, you don't keep it for the entire game; even if you're winning. Races are disposable so when you've exhausted one, you choose another and come out swinging! 9 Luck Strategy Casual Intense Complex Simple My new favorite game! It looked daunting at first- but once I dove in, things were much simpler than it looked! SUPER FUN! 10 Luck Strategy Casual Intense Complex Simple A game that attempts to correct all of the problems that plague RISK. Very similar, deep strategy, but you are always part of the game in Small World. Good for experienced board game players. 10 Luck Strategy Casual Intense Complex SimpleAfter running his own business building custom homes for the past 30+ years, my dad recently took a job as a civil inspector for the gas and electric company. This career shift requires him to live out of a suitcase in hotels around Northern California five days a week. Bummer for my mom and the lonesome pup who longingly waits by the back door hoping for his best friend’s return each night, but big bonus for me. You see, at least 75% of this on-the-road life brings him to the Bay Area where it’s convenient to squeeze in a weeknight father-daughter dinner. A perk of the job. When before I was lucky if I got to see my dad every three months or so, NOW he’s just a BART ride away. Occasionally I can even twist his arm enough to get him come all the way to Berkeley for a home cooked meal, a welcome change from all the eating out I’m sure. And Wednesday night I dragged him to our place with the promise of a Father’s Day feast, topped off with these chunky gooey rocky road cookies to say “I love you.” As close as I am with my mama, I was a daddy’s girl growing up (except when I got into trouble). We may or may not have worn matching In-N-Out tee shirts and Indiana Jones hats. Aside from my sarcasm and giant bushy eyebrows, my dad gave me the skill of using power tools, and for that I am eternally grateful. I know most daughters probably say this, but I mean it when I say my dad can fix anything. Oh, and he kicks butt at Trivial Pursuit too; sometimes Lucas and I call him to settle disputes because he always knows the answer to even the most obscure questions. Needless to say, my dad’s a pretty cool dude. Back when his visits were less frequent, he’d be welcomed with a mile long daddy-do-list, but I decided to give him a night off for Father’s Day;). He’s been complaining for a while now that I must not really love him since I’ve never made him the lasagna that he’s heard so much about. So I served up a heaping slice of homemade lasagna as the first course before these chocolatey bites. I inherited my immense sweet tooth from both parents, but dessert is one of my dad’s most important meals of the day. As a child, my dad taught me the proper way to eat ice cream: overflowing from a giant bowl with no less than two cups full. Nowadays, if the restaurant we’re dining at has a poor dessert selection, we always make sure to find a suitable sweet alternative before parting ways. His Father’s Day meal wouldn’t be complete without a dessert nightcap. As a tribute to one of his favorite ice cream flavors, Rocky Road, I whipped him up a batch of cookies. A taste of home while on the road. Just to make sure they weren’t poisonous, I split one with Lucas the night before. Even though chocolate isn’t my thing, I’m pretty confident they’d make a chocoholic spin in circles. They were rich and dense, a cross between brownies and fudge with a crunchy cookie exterior. Dad scarfed down three of them in about 30 seconds flat, so I’m pretty sure he loved them. I also made a batch of Lucas’s dad’s favorite oatmeal raisin cookies. When the honey lemon chamomile cookies arrived for Mother’s day, his dad was jokingly concerned that there weren’t any oatmeal raisin ones in the box. So we wanted to surprise him with his request. Unfortunately, the recipe produced crunchy biscuits, and by the time they would have arrived in Texas they’d break Roy’s teeth. Don’t worry Roy, we’ve got a second try in the oven right now that’ll be shipped off tomorrow! I sent the crumbly batch with my dad to share on the job site and was told that all three dozen rocky road and oatmeal raisin cookies disappeared during lunch hour. Success. Happy Father’s Day, Daddy! PrintIt was an emotional day in Abbotsford on Sunday, as thousands of people attended the funeral for Abbotsford Police officer Const. John Davidson. Members of the public as well as law enforcement officers from all over BC – and further afield – came to pay their final respects to the fallen officer. Davidson was fatally shot while responding to reports of a stolen vehicle and of someone firing shots in the direction of the general public. A 65-year-old Albertan man, Oscar Arfmann, was apprehended after the shooting and has since been charged with the first-degree murder of Davidson. Davidson had worked as a police officer for 24 years, beginning his law enforcement career in the UK in 1993, before being hired to the Abbotsford Police in 2006. Davidson is survived by his wife and three adult children. Funerap Procession in Abbotsford today for Abbotsford police officer, John Davidson who was killed in the line of duty last week after stopping a man with a stolen vehicle….#ripjohndavidson #abbotsford #abbotsfordpolice #funeralprocession #neverforgotten #hero A post shared by Bradonthestreets (@bradonthestreets) on Nov 19, 2017 at 11:29pm PST The service has ended, and a hard rain has begun to fall. Thousands of first responders honoured the life of Abbotsford Police Const. John Davidson today. He was killed on duty almost two weeks ago. A post shared by Darren McDonald (@unkied) on Nov 19, 2017 at 4:14pm PST #thinblueline #abbotsford A post shared by Chandra Koonts (@chandra_koonts) on Nov 19, 2017 at 12:50pm PST A post shared by Jeff C (@jcooks91) on Nov 19, 2017 at 8:47pm PST Today was an emotional day. I was truly honoured to stand along with Gary and my brother Glenn as flag bearers for Constable John Davidson along the funeral procession route. There were thousands of police officers from around the world who marched in honour of #abbypd #fallenhero. A post shared by Katie (@ksyroid1) on Nov 19, 2017 at 5:31pm PST See also HEY YOU! Sign Up to our Newsletter for exclusive content, contests, and perks. DH Vancouver Staff Daily Hive is the evolution of Vancity Buzz, established in Vancouver in 2008. In 2016, the publication rebranded and opened newsrooms in Calgary, Toronto, and Montreal. Send story tips to @DailyHiveVan @DailyHiveVancouver Daily Hive is the evolution of Vancity Buzz, established in Vancouver in 2008. In 2016, the publication rebranded and opened newsrooms in Calgary, Toronto, and Montreal. Send story tips to [email protected] Please enable JavaScript to view the comments powered by Disqus.1.2 Gigawatt North Sea Offshore Wind Farm Receives Green Light December 12th, 2014 by Joshua S Hill The announcement came Wednesday from the office of the Secretary of State, and when the Hornsea project begins operation in 2020, it is expected to generate enough electricity to meet the needs of approximately 800,000 UK homes. The project is being developed by a consortium called SMartWind — made up of Mainstream Renewable Power, Siemens Financial Services, and DONG Energy. “With around 2,500 local green jobs on the horizon, this is another great boost for Yorkshire and Lincolnshire,” said Energy and Climate Change Secretary Ed Davey. “Making the most of Britain’s home grown energy is crucial to creating job and business opportunities in the UK, getting the best deal for consumers and reducing our reliance on foreign imports. Wind power is vital to this plan, with £14.5bn invested since 2010 into an industry which supports 35,400 jobs.” The Hornsea Project One is located in the Hornsea Zone, an area dedicated to the development of offshore wind energy that could eventually total 4 GW. Located to the east of southern England, the Hornsea Zone claims to have the potential to meet the electricity needs of approximately 4% of all demand in the UK. “SMart Wind are delighted with the grant of the DCO following a robust examination from the Planning Inspectorate,” said Andy Kinsella, Mainstream Renewable Power’s Chief Operating Officer. “Hornsea Project One is part of the essential new infrastructure that has driven major investment in the Humber economy and ensures a low carbon future for the area. Today’s announcement is testament to the world-class expertise of the Mainstream team who have been developing this project for the past six years.”
house again, they would arrest his children. Then they left and went to our other neighbors' homes where the doors had also been marked the night before. Abuse of Detainees: Beatings, Forced Confessions, and Rape On August 13, Judiciary spokesman Ali Reza Jamshidi acknowledged that the authorities detained some 4,000 people in the post-election protests.[10] This number included more than one hundred journalists, prominent political figures, and human rights defenders. Both ordinary and well-known individuals faced harsh treatment and were denied any semblance of due process. In June and July, Human Rights Watch spoke with 22 protestors from Tehran who reported the circumstances of their arrests and detention. Many said they were beaten once they were taken to detention centers or police stations. Authorities refused to provide information on the number of arrests made, the condition of detainees, or where protesters were kept. Some were released in the middle of the night, far from where they were detained. A woman who was apprehended near Baharestan Square on June 17 and later taken to Shapour police station described the conditions of her detention: There was a fluorescent lamp that didn't really help us to distinguish day from night. There was no soap. They confiscated all our personal belongings. It was hard to lay down or sleep. We were not allowed to use restrooms when we needed to. In Tehran's hot weather, we were deprived of a fan or water. They interrogated us. If anyone had a green scarf, shawl, or bracelet indicating that they were Mousavi supporters, their situation was worse. On the last day, I was feeling sick and a female guard came and kicked me a few times to stop me from crying. Protesters sent to Evin prison faced similar situation. Three released detainees told Human Rights Watch that due to lack of space, every small solitary confinement cell held five prisoners. One detainee who spent nine days in Evin told Human Rights Watch: I was interrogated three times... and most of the questions related to my personal and political beliefs. During the interrogation I was beaten by baton and insulted verbally. Once the interrogator told me, "If you die here nobody will know because no-one knows that you have been arrested." A journalist who was detained a few days after the election and held for 35 days described his situation to Human Rights Watch: Six officers entered our house and collected all of my work and personal items. We then went to my office, and they collected all my belongings there, too. They transferred me to a military base in southeastern Tehran. It was like hell. For the first three days they didn't feed us. They said they had "forgotten." I asked why they hadn't forgotten to beat us. I was blindfolded even in solitary confinement. It was so hot I couldn't move. The interrogators kept coming in and cursing me. On the second night they came and started beating and cursing me. They hit my body, my back, and my feet with kicks and wire cables, telling me that I wouldn't survive. On the [third] day, they brought me my meal and told me to eat with my hands. I said I hadn't washed my hands in three days, having had to wipe my butt with my hands."This is your problem," they said. After four days the authorities transferred him to Evin prison: While arguing with my interrogator over his questions, they hit me with cables several times. They also put pens between my fingers [and squeezed my hands] several times. In solitary confinement, I kept thinking that they would come and take me to interrogation any minute. Several times they came and woke me up violently in the middle of the night and took me to the interrogation room. I was going crazy. Some of the worst violations documented by Human Rights Watch occurred at Kahrizak Prison, a detention center outside of Tehran. At least three detainees died due to injuries sustained in Kahrizak.[11] The severity of abuses reported at Kahrizak prompted Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei to order the center's closing on July 27.[12] The government also carried out two separate inquiries involving the center, one of which found Tehran's former prosecutor general, Saeed Mortazavi, directly responsible for the ill treatment of detainees there.[13] One former Kahrizak detainee, Ebrahim Sharifi, had to flee the country after publicly revealing abuses he had suffered in the detention center. He spoke with Human Rights Watch about his experiences: On June 23, three men in a car arrested me near my father's house and took me to an unknown location blindfolded and in handcuffs. On June 24, guards beat me violently with something that felt thicker than a whip, possibly a hose. I was not given any food or water. On June 25, fake execution sessions started. They gave us a piece of bread and water that tasted foul. We were randomly selected and beaten. On June 26, prison guards one more time set up fake executions, cursing and randomly beating people who asked for water or to use the toilet. I said, "Execute me if you want and get it over with." I received a kick to my stomach and when I fell to the ground more kicks in the stomach, until I started throwing up blood. Another man said, "Take this faggot and make him pregnant, so he won't be a smartass again." That man grabbed me violently and pulled me to another location. He tied my hands and feet and pulled down my underwear and [...] while he was raping me he said, "I was so wrong to enjoy 12 and 13-year-old girls before. You little faggots are so much better. You can't even defend your own ass, how do you want to start a velvet revolution?" I threw up blood and passed out. When I regained consciousness I found myself in what looked like a clinic. I was throwing up blood and I was bleeding with excruciating pain in my anus. It took 16 or 17 hours until someone came and said to the doctor, "Doctor, is he going to die by himself or should we waste him ourselves?" That guy replied, "He is in a very bad shape. Let him go or he will become trouble for us, like the other two did." They transferred me to a location, which I believe was the same room as the one I had been in before. On June 30 they left me on Sabalan highway after driving me around blindfolded for a few hours. At Evin prison the most serious abuses Human Rights Watch documented were directed against well-known political figures and human rights defenders. As early as June 13, the day after the election, authorities set out to arrest scores of leading figures in the reform movement. Mostafa Tajzadeh, former deputy at the Ministry of Interior under President Mohamed Khatami, was among them. Saeed Hajarian, former editor of the banned daily Sobh-e Emrooz and a well-known theoretician of the reform movement who was gravely wounded in an assassination attempt in 2000, was arrested and detained without charge on June 16.[14] Also on June 16, authorities arrested Mohammad Ali Abtahi, a former vice president under President Khatami and advisor to reformist presidential candidate Mehdi Karroubi. In statements to Human Rights Watch, the families of all three detainees said that the authorities were severely pressuring the detainees to make false confessions. The families' fears were realized on August 1, when the government started public trials of over 100 of those detained after the election. A visibly thinner Abtahi recited statements implicating key reformist figures, including former president Khatami and leading presidential candidate Mir Hossein Mousavi, as being involved in behind-the-scenes plots to foment unrest after the election.[15] Prior to this court session, Abtahi's wife told Human Rights Watch that in her last prison visit he looked very agitated and had lost more than 30 pounds. "He told me he is taking pills which help him forget everything, and stop him from thinking good or bad thoughts," she said. A released political prisoner told Human Rights Watch that during his interrogations he could hear Abtahi being interrogated in the next cell and practicing his confession with his interrogators: "During the few days that I was interrogated in that room, sometimes I could hear the voices of Abtahi and his interrogators," this person said. "Most of the discussion was around his personal life and his professional relations with others." He also told Human Rights Watch that he had been briefly in the same room with Abtahi, who told him that he had been brought to the court to practice his confessions. On September 20, during his Eid-e Fetr sermon, Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei stated that confessions of one detainee against others were not admissible in court or permissible from a Sharia point of view. However, he noted that confessions against oneself in court or in "front of cameras and an audience of millions" are "admissible, sufficient, and acceptable." [16] In addition to detaining ordinary protestors and well-known political reform figures, the government targeted prominent human rights activists. On June 16, security officers claiming to be clients entered the law offices of Abdolfatah Soltani, confiscated his computer and documents, and arrested him.[17] Soltani, along with Nobel Laureate Shirin Ebadi and others, co-founded the Tehran-based Center for Defense of Human Rights, which defends victims of human rights abuses.[18] At the time of his arrest, Soltani was serving as the senior member of the legal team representing seven Baha'i leaders imprisoned since May 2008.[19] He was released on August 28, after 72 days of confinement. In an interview with Human Rights Watch, Soltani listed the human rights violations he endured in the course of his arrest and detention: I was in solitary confinement for 18 days with no access to my lawyer or to my family, no shower, and harsh physical conditions. I had no access to books, television, radio, or a pen...According to Article 32 of Iranian Constitution, a detainee is entitled to two things within 24 hours: the reading of the charges against him, and the reasons for those charges. After 27 hours in solitary confinement, I was charged with things that weren't even crimes.They told me, "You have raised doubts about the election." They regarded this as a crime. I had not shared an opinion about the elections with anyone. They told me to separate myself from the Center for Defenders of Human Rights and from other civil society groups. They told me I was pursuing a velvet revolution and a soft overthrow and as such I wasn't allowed to continue my activities. They said I couldn't have an organization. Soltani said that his interrogators threatened to flog and beat him if he didn't answer them. The security forces also threatened to re-arrest him if he spoke publicly about his imprisonment. On July 15, plainclothes security forces seized human rights lawyer and women's rights advocate Shadi Sadr while she was walking to attend Friday prayers. According to a friend who witnessed her arrest, two men in civilian clothes approached them on motorcycles as a green Peugeot with three passengers stopped in front of them; the men pushed Sadr into the car. When Sadr managed to get out, after her friend opened the car door, one of the men beat her with a cable and threw her back into the car.[20] After authorities released Sadr nearly two weeks later, on July 28, she told Human Rights Watch: I was in jail for 12 days without a warrant. On the second day, they took me to the office of Judge Haddad's representative at Unit 209 [in Evin prison]. Mr. Sobhani, Judge of 2nd Branch was there and he issued the 50 million Toman bail order [approximately $50,000 USD]. By noon, all steps were completed for my freedom. Later I realized this all was a psychological game because they never informed my family to post my bail. They took away my glasses and only gave them back to me during interrogations. I am almost blind without my glasses. I refrained from eating for two days to get my glasses back. [I also experienced] what others have also said about [Unit] 209: solitary confinement, blindfolds, forced chadors, personal questions, questions unrelated to charges, questions about my beliefs.Since my release, the intelligence service keeps calling. They must have called a thousand times, saying they want to interview me, and that unlessI show up in person to answertheir questions theywill not returnmy personal belongings. On July 6, 2009, security forces arrested Mohammad Ali Dadkhah, a prominent human rights lawyer and founding member of the Center for Defense of Human Rights, in his law office. Nasrin Sotoudeh, Dadkhah's attorney, after meeting him on August 28, told Human Rights Watch: He has been under pressure in prison to confess.For example, they kept him on top of a high staircase and pushed him, catching him just before he went tumblingdown. When he was arrested, he wasnt fed for 48 hours. They wouldn't let him use a bathroom. Theytold him to denounce Shirin Ebadi and other attorneys with Center for the Defense of Human Rights as traitors. On September 14, authorities released Dadkhah on a bail of 500 million Toman [approximately 500,000 USD]. Major Attacks on Peaceful Protestors since August After August, authorities did not let up on their campaign to silence peaceful critics of the Ahmadinejad government and its policies. Security forces and Basij militias continue to detain, and courts continue to convict activists, journalists, and human rights defenders following unfair trials. The harshest crackdowns in the months since the mass summer protests have been in response to large street demonstrations or efforts to organize them. On November 4, protestors in Tehran and other cities such as Shiraz and Tabriz, gathered to hold alternative demonstrations in response to officially sanctioned demonstrations commemorating the take-over of the US embassy in 1979. The alternative demonstrations were the largest opposition street protests since those that immediately followed the June election.[21] Riot police and members of the Basij attacked protestors, attempting to disperse crowds by beating demonstrators and firing tear gas.[22] One month later, students used the occasion of National Student Day on December 7 to stage protests throughout the country.[23] Students on the campuses of major universities in Tehran, Mashad, Tabriz, Isfahan and other cities participated. Police and Basij forces clashed with protestors, with major confrontations occurring on the campus of Tehran University, where security forces blocked all entrances to the university.[24] According to press reports, confrontations with students extended beyond the campuses to streets where police tear-gassed demonstrators.[25] One witness to the clashes near Tehran's Amir Kabir University told Radio Farda: As soon as the crowd begins to gain momentum the police attack, and the Basijis, or security forces, or plainclothesmen – or whatever they are – disperse them. At the moment I am close to the Vali Asr gate at Amir Kabir University. Students have broken down the door and people are going in and out. Some people have entered the university. The situation is very tense at the moment. Those students who are trying to get out of the [university] are encountering difficulty because they could be arrested. It looks as if they've arrested several people who have exited... There are clashes all the way from the intersection of Vali Asr to the side streets and people are running toward Enqelab Square. [26] On December 20, Grand Ayatollah Hossein Ali Montazeri, the highest-ranking clerical critic of the government, died. His death occurred one week before the day of public mourning on the Shia calendar known as Ashura. In Shia Muslim mourning rituals, the seventh day after a death is a significant day of commemoration. Demonstrators used the occasion of Montazeri's death, and its proximity to the Ashura rituals, to mourn him publicly and show their opposition to the government's policies after the election. On December 27, demonstrators gathered in major cities throughout the country, including Tehran, Qom, Isfahan, and Mashhad. Clashes between demonstrators and riot police plus Basij resulted in the death of at least 8 demonstrators.[27] Ali Habibi Mousavi, a nephew of former presidential candidate Mir Hossein Mousavi, was among those killed.[28] One witness in Tehran reported to the BBC that a police car deliberately ran over a protestor: We entered from Palestine Street, and we headed east toward the Vali Asr intersection. Plainclothes forces were waiting for us at the Vali Asr intersection. They forced the crowd to disperse in different directions and prevented us from gathering... When the crowd reached Vali Asr Square it split apart. One group headed toward Haft-e Tir, and the other toward Keshavarz Boulevard... I was standing at the corner of [Vali Asr] Square. From Keshavarz Boulevard, [we witnessed] a Law Enforcement Forces pickup truck that had the word "police" written on it run over [one of the protesters]. The man had walked past me only 2 to 3 minutes earlier. He was a 40-year-old guy with long hair. He lost a lot of blood. When the crowd reached him he no longer had a pulse. The truck was speeding around as if it wanted to run over the whole crowd. Over the following week authorities arrested hundreds of demonstrators and activists in conjunction with the Ashura gatherings.[29] Authorities claimed once again that foreign governments and media outlets were fomenting unrest in the country. Ten members of the Baha'i community were among those the government arrested in connection with the Ashura protests. On January 12, 2010, Abbas Jafari Dolatabadi, the General Prosecutor of Tehran, told the Iranian press that the ten Baha'is detained on January 3 faced charges of "organizing the unrest on Ashura [December 27] and sending photos of the unrest abroad." He also claimed that authorities had found arms and ammunition in the homes of some of the ten detainees.[30] On January 28, the Iranian government hanged Mohammad-Reza Ali-Zamani, 37, and Arash Rahmanipour, 20.[31] Although both men had been arrested prior to the presidential election, they were tried as part of the mass trials in August, where they reportedly confessed to membership in the illegal Kingdom Assembly Party and to having planned a deadly 2008 bombing of a mosque in Shiraz.[32] The lawyer for Rahmanipour, well-known human rights defender Nasrin Soutoudeh, has said that her client's conviction was based on a coerced confession and that authorities prevented her from adequately defending him.[33] It appeared that the government was attempting to associate those detained in connection with peaceful post-election protests with persons accused of armed terrorist attacks. On the same day, the government sentenced nine people to death on charges of "enmity with God" and accused them of "counterrevolutionary and norm-breaking acts and rioting" during demonstrations linked to Ashura and other post-election protests.[34] In the context of Iranian laws, the vaguely defined charge of "being at enmity with God" can be applied to membership in or support for an organization that seeks to overthrow the Islamic Republic. On January 30, the trial of 16 individuals arrested in connection with the Ashura protests began in a branch of the Revolutionary Court of Tehran, with Judge Abul Qasim Salavati presiding; the prosecutor claimed in court that the defendants were working to achieve the "regime change" interests of foreign states – a charge that can also result in death sentences.[35]A new study from Denmark has shown that everyday chemicals such as those contained in pizza boxes and other food packaging could increase the risk of spontaneous miscarriage by up to 16 times. Of the 392 women participating in the study, 56 had miscarried. Scientists discovered that those who had suffered miscarriages had elevated levels of endocrine-disrupting polyflourinated alcylated substances (PFAS). The study was carried out by the University of Southern Denmark and the children’s health project Odense Child Cohort. READ MORE: Babies react to pain ‘just like adults do,’ MRI scans reveal PFAS are substances that make products water- and grease-resistant. They can be found in various products including pizza boxes and other food packaging, furniture, and sports clothing. “It is packaging we use for food that is treated with fluorinated substances because it needs to be resistant to water and grease - for example, wax paper, pizza boxes and popcorn bags. <…> The problem is that they build up in the body and never really leave again,” consumer attorney Claus Jørgensen told media outlet Fyens Stiftstidende. “These chemicals are often not listed because they aren’t in the food itself but in the packaging of fast coat or in coating of running clothes,” Tina Kold Jensen, one of the research leaders, told DR broadcaster. They are, thus, very difficult to avoid in everyday life. READ MORE: Bullied children at ‘higher risk’ of mental illness than abuse victims – study “We need to find out if these chemicals are dangerous. If they are, we need to have some legislation. It can’t be up to the individual consumer,” she added. The substances can be extremely dangerous to unborn children, the level of the risk surprised the scientists. “At first I did not believe it, for usually we find a half or two times greater risk, but 16 is much more than we expected,” Tina Kold Jensen, one of the research leaders, told Fyens Stiftstidende The country’s environment minister, Kirsten Brosbøl, said that she had asked the Danish Environment Protection Agency (Miljøstyrelsen) to look into the matter, as the Danish people “should have fewer dangerous chemicals in <…> daily lives.”A Derry man who benefitted from the kindness of a good samaritan has seen his story go ‘viral’ online. David Doherty from Ardgrange in the city was travelling to Liverpool by boat on December 28 when he discovered he had lost his wallet and phone. A fellow passenger overheard him asking at the boat’s information desk if anyone had handed in a wallet. David subsequently discovered he’d left it in his sister’s car in Derry. Explaining what had happened, David said: “He over heard me asking the boat reception if a wallet was handed in and asked me if I found it. I explained to him my situation and I told him I would work it out when I got there. Ten minutes later he came back to me and told me he was a trucker and he has a son my age and that the same thing had happened to him and someone helped him out. So he arranged for me to get a dinner and breakfast on the boat and also got me access to the Truckers’ lounge. After a cup of tea and a long chat he told me he was off to his cabin and to go to reception in 15 minutes. I went up and there was an envelope for me containing £40 and a note saying “have a safe journey back to Leeds, and remember what goes around comes around”! “I can’t explain how thankful I am. His name was Tom and he works for Kelly’s European Freight Company. I’ll be forever grateful,” said David. So far, the story has attracted over 30,000 ‘likes’ and 1,000 shares on Facebook. You can read David’s original Facebook post hereIt's bad enough that Google's Web crawler bots have been hijacked by malware and used to spread a SQL injection attack. What's worse is that this sort of exploit -- turning Web crawlers into attack bots -- dates back almost 15 years. It's one that most any modern software engineering organization ought to know how to thwart, especially Google. Ars Technica first reported how security researcher Daniel Cid of Sucuri noticed some strange things going on with a client's website. A firewall was blocking requests coming in from Google's address block. That was odd. Even stranger, those requests were all too obviously a variety of SQL injection attack. [ Also on InfoWorld: 19 open source GitHub projects for security pros. ] What Cid found was that Google's automated site crawlers had apparently been tricked into delivering a malicious payload. The crawlers were following URLs from another site that led to the victim's site -- URLs that had embedded in them, via a simple obfuscation, the very SQL injection attack being performed. Google's bots cheerfully followed the links, not realizing that by doing so they were launching an attack on the victim's server. The issue raised a major question with both Cid and Steve Ragan of CSO Online: If you're suffering from what amounts to an attack by Google, do you block Google and, thus, risk being delisted? It also raises an even larger question: Should Google's bots be attempting to identify such attack payloads in the first place, or does the burden of protecting a site fall wholly on the site's owners? Granted, it's any site owner's responsibility to know the risks of running a public-facing resource. Unfortunately, those risks are multiplying daily: cloud-based DDoS attacks, DNS poisoning, the list goes on. But as the 800-pound gorilla on the Web, Google has an even greater responsibility to ensure that the very tools allowing the rest of us to search the Web -- and bringing Google a handsome profit in return -- don't become weaponized. It might not be easy to do, as obfuscated-information attacks can be notoriously difficult to ferret out. (Sucuri has found obfuscated malware in what looked like a Joomla template.) But Google must put forth the effort. For companies that rely on Web search rankings for their business, blocking Google's crawlers is out of the question. At the same time, it's clear that Google's bots are following any URL they encounter with no attempt to sanitize or defang them. If we're all going to continue to play Google's game, Google needs to ensure that the things it does in the dark don't become a source of inadvertent risk for others. The Web may be a risky place, but there's no reason Google shouldn't do its part to make it less so. This story, "Google's dangerous bots put the whole Web on edge," was originally published at InfoWorld.com. Get the first word on what the important tech news really means with the InfoWorld Tech Watch blog. For the latest developments in business technology news, follow InfoWorld.com on Twitter."Republicans shouldn’t be surprised. They spent eight years laying the groundwork for the rise of Donald Trump,"Sen. Harry Reid said. \| AP Photo Reid: With Trump, 'Republicans are reaping what they've sown' Republicans should not be surprised by the rise of Donald Trump, Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) said Wednesday on the floor. The party has created a "Frankenstein monster" in Donald Trump, he declared. “Republicans have spent the last eight years stoking the fires of resentment and hatred, building Trump piece by piece," said Reid, referring to a Feb. 25 op-ed in The Washington Post by Robert Kagan, a former official in the Reagan White House. The piece, titled, "Trump is the GOP’s Frankenstein monster. Now he’s strong enough to destroy the party," framed Reid's speech Wednesday, a day after Trump claimed victory in seven states on Super Tuesday. "Today, the Republican establishment acts like it’s surprised by Donald Trump and his victories around the country They feign outrage that a demagogue spewing bile … is somehow winning in a party that has spent years telling immigrants are not welcome in America," Reid said, in reference to Trump's immigration plan to deport all undocumented immigrants and build a wall between the U.S. and Mexico, making the Mexican government pay for it. "They act surprised that Republican voters are flocking to a birther candidate, even as Republican congressional leaders continue to support a man who refuses to distance himself from the Ku Klux Klan," Reid continued, alluding to Trump's reluctance to disavow David Duke and the Ku Klux Klan in a CNN interview earlier this week, despite having done so two days earlier. Trump later blamed the incident on a "lousy earpiece" provided by the network, and again disavowed Duke in subsequent remarks. Reid tore into Republicans for being outraged at Trump's success among Republican voters while they refuse to hear a Supreme Court nominee for President Barack Obama. "Republicans shouldn’t be surprised. They spent eight years laying the groundwork for the rise of Donald Trump," Reid said. "The reality is that Republican leaders are reaping what they’ve sown.” The Nevada Democrat ran through a litany of Republican obstruction in Congress, slamming leaders and rank-and-file members for their failure to cooperate or come to the table on issues as varied as financial reform to health care. Republicans "have set the Trump standard," Reid said, going on to say that the Republican Party "has long used Islam to fearmonger. Now, Donald Trump is doing the same thing." "The Republican Party has spent years railing against Latinos and immigrants, trying to incite fear," Reid said, referring to comments from Rep. Steve King (R-Iowa) about undocumented immigrants with "calves the size of cantaloupes" in 2013. It's not just Trump, Reid explained, arguing that Texas Sen. Ted Cruz, Florida Sen. Marco Rubio and Ben Carson "are saying basically the same thing," although more subtly. Reid also noted impishly that House Speaker Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) has said he would support Trump as the nominee and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) has not said he would not vote for him, "publicly at least." "Donald Trump is the standard bearer for the Republican Party. Republicans created him by spending seven years appealing to some of the darkest forces in America," Reid said. "Now, it's up to the Republicans and try undo what they've done by denouncing Donald Trump. It's time for Republicans to stop the Frankenstein they've created." Reid concluded that if Republicans fail to do so, "he'll tear the party apart even more than it is now."Donald Trump and retired Lt. Gen. Mike Flynn at a rally inside an aircraft hangar in Grand Junction, Colorado, on Oct. 18, 2016. David Hume Kennerly/Getty Images The last days have brought plenty of reasons for schadenfreude. Many of my friends seem to be seized by a mood of dizzy excitement. I get why. Former National Security Adviser Michael Flynn faces time in jail. Donald Trump may have incriminated himself with yet another impulsive tweet. Impeachment, though still a distant prospect, looks a lot closer now than it did a few weeks ago. If this is not yet the beginning of the end, it may, one day, come to be seen as the end of the beginning. And yet, I have felt neither excitement nor schadenfreude over the past days. Instead, in one of these strange mood swings of which this year of Trump has been so full, I’ve found myself filled with an even more profound sadness than before. Sadness that craven liars and chancers like Flynn were—and let’s not kid ourselves, are—in charge of our government. Sadness that all the evidence of treasonous behavior close to the heart of power seems to have so little bearing on how my fellow citizens feel about the president. Sadness that run-of-the-mill Republicans who have spent decades worrying about the deficit care so much about giving handouts to billionaires that they are willing to vote for a tax reform that would hugely raise the deficit. Sadness that Sebastian Gorka was contracted to give speeches at the Heritage Foundation, marking yet another step in the Republican establishment’s surrender to the Trumpkins. Sadness that about half of all voters in Alabama remain likely to vote for somebody who was banned from a local mall for preying on teens. Sadness that even the prospect of nuclear war with North Korea—unlikely, perhaps, but far more likely than any nuclear confrontation since the end of the Cold War—does not appear to have focused the minds of all those congressmen and senators on Capitol Hill who, in private, rave and rant about how irrational Donald Trump is. And sadness, too, that the gravity of this political moment still hasn’t sunk in. Chaotic and cacophonous though the past two years have been, one lesson from them is painfully clear: Again and again, we all believed that there was some backstop that would avert the next degradation of our political system. Each and every time, we turned out to be wrong. And yet we cling to the belief that backstops remain in place to stop even crazier things from happening: If Trump fired Robert Mueller, refused to accept the outcome of the 2020 election, or launched a nuclear missile at North Korea, somebody would stop him. It’s possible. If the night appears darkest just before dawn, we are just about due for the sun to rise. And yet, we must at this point ponder the possibility that the self-correcting mechanisms on which we pin our hopes for the future will turn out to be just as illusory as those that have proved elusive in the past. Given the rich range of horrors that could ensue in the coming years, that is a mind-boggling thought. But it is another, less tangible thought that has been boggling my mind for the past weeks. It is a thought that will, I know, seem peculiar or even melodramatic to most Americans. But as a Jew who grew up in Germany, it is one to which I had been accustomed since childhood before gradually growing out of it the longer I spent in America and the further the horrors of the Third Reich receded into the past. The question is this: What would you—and you, and you, and I—do if a murderous government took over? Would we hide its victims? Would we look away? Or would we collaborate? And the answer I have been turning over in my head over the past weeks is: In light of the sheer cravenness we are witnessing all around us, we should not be particularly confident of how our politicians and our neighbors, our friends and perhaps even we ourselves would act. This comparison seems ridiculous on its face. Trump is no fascist, and nothing he has done in any way resembles the horrors inflicted by the Nazis. Tempting though it may be to liken the most horrible of American presidents to the most horrible of all political leaders, doing so only serves to cloud our understanding of the Nazis and cheapen the memory of their victims. But in another way, that vast differences between then and now are precisely why the comparison seems even more revelatory. For while Nazi collaborators were complicit in crimes that are incomparably worse, they also had to reckon with dangers that were incomparably more scary. Leading conservatives who resisted Hitler in 1933 faced the prospect of the concentration camps. Leading conservatives who resist Trump in 2017 face the prospect of losing an election or being banished from Fox News. The fact that they are willing to be complicit in much lesser evils for much lesser reasons makes our current political moment all the more grubby; it does not, however, make the moral judgment it implies all that much less depressing. As a person of the left, it is of course tempting to believe that this cravenness is only found on the right. If people like Lindsey Graham or Paul Ryan are so willing to sell out, isn’t it because their principles have, all along, been rather conformable with those of the president—or, perhaps worse, because they had no principles worth the name to begin with? There is a large grain of truth to this. But to believe that the right is tempted by authoritarianism because its ideals are self-interested or hierarchical, while the left is immune to such depredations because it cares about freedom and equality, is sadly too simple. After all, perfectly decent people who seemed to hold perfectly admirable principles have, again and again, become deeply complicit with authoritarianism. In the 1950s, parts of the Western left glorified Joseph Stalin; in the 1960s, the Viet Cong and Mao Zedong; in the 1970s, Tito and the Khmer Rouge; in the 1980s, the Baathist regime in Iraq and the Islamist regime in Iran; in the 1990s, the slaughterers in Serbia and the Zapatistas in Mexico; in the 2000s, the dictators of Latin America and the terrorists of Hezbollah; in the 2010s, Bashar al-Assad and Vladimir Putin. Even the left’s opposition to self-avowed fascism has, as Nick Cohen shows in What’s Left, not been as consistent as we like to think. There is a reason why George Orwell spent World War II wondering which of his comrades would collaborate with the Nazis if they invaded Britain. During the 1930s, George Lansbury, the leader of the Labour Party, had been so opposed to rearmament that he wound up becoming an apologist for Adolf Hitler. (“Hitler,” he raved after meeting him, “appeared free of personal ambition … I wished that I could have gone to Berchtesgaden and stayed with him for a little while. I felt that Christianity in its purest sense might have had a chance with him.”) If history teaches us anything, then, it is that all humans—liberal as well as conservative, British and American as well as German, brown or black as well as white, and Jewish or Muslim as well as Christian—are capable of cowardice and treachery, of hypocrisy and cravenness. In Nathan Englander’s “What We Talk About When We Talk About Anne Frank,” two women imagine whether their respective husbands would be willing to hide them in case of a second Holocaust. First, Deborah musters her husband. “Of course he would,” she says, and they give each other a tight hug. Then it’s Mark and Shoshana’s turn. “So would I hide you?” [Mark] says. And for the first time that day he reaches out, as my Deb would, and puts his hand to his wife’s hand. “Would I, Shoshi?” And you can tell that Shoshana is thinking of her kids, though that’s not part of the scenario. You can tell that she’s changed part of the imagining. And she says, after a pause, yes, but she’s not laughing. She says yes, but to him it sounds as it does to us, so that he is now asking and asking. But wouldn’t I? Wouldn’t I hide you? Even if it was life and death—if it would spare you, and they’d kill me alone for doing it? Wouldn’t I? Shoshana pulls back her hand. She does not say it. And he does not say it. And of the four of us no one will say what cannot be said—that this wife believes
colossal slam over Greg Monroe. It was a botched defensive assignment that led to a layup and the fiery aftermath. In the final 10 seconds of the first quarter, Josh Smith and Austin Rivers got crossed up on a defensive assignment, resulting in an uncontested Michael Carter-Williams layup. No one was happy, including Coach Doc Rivers. As the Clippers brought the ball back the other way, Smith ran along the Clipper sideline, with Rivers angrily yelling about the botched execution. Amazingly, while all this was going on, the ball swung to Smith in the corner in front of the bench, and he hit a buzzer-beating 3. He didn’t celebrate the points; he took his mouthguard out and yelled back at Rivers. Then he angrily put his warm-up shirt back on and took a seat on the bench. “It was a defensive mistake that we’d just gone over,” Rivers said. “That’s what irritated me.” It was a moment that could’ve helped the Clippers disintegrate. With rumors that the Clippers are shopping Smith and Lance Stephenson, rumors Rivers called “silly,” serving as a backdrop, the wrong twist, the wrong tension, seemingly, could bring the Clippers down. But Wednesday gave a hint to a larger truth. Maybe the Clippers are stronger than we think. On-court disagreements aren’t new to the Clippers. Blake Griffin and Redick bickered as Redick left the court in the first quarter after the two battled for the same rebound, leading to a turnover. Last season, Jordan, Paul and Griffin had a lengthy disagreement in a win at Utah. “Guys get irritated,” Doc Rivers said. “Guys say things to coaches. Coaches say things to players. Players say things to players. …Tonight, we just wanted to win, and we were irritated. …We do have a group to me, where, it just kind of goes away and it’s good.” This doesn’t happen everywhere. “Those,” Rivers said, “are the kinds of teams you don’t win with.” Everyone from Paul to Jordan to Smith said the Clippers need to be able to be honest with one another, to point out each other’s mistakes without hurting feelings. “It happens,” Paul said. “It happens sometimes when we’re winning. It happens sometimes when we’re losing. It’s what good teams do.” Smith said there’s a common thread running through the Clipper locker room and staff that keeps them from allowing incidents like Wednesday’s to escalate. They all know they’re in the building for the same reason. After arguing with his coach on the sideline in Milwaukee, Smith stayed engaged in the game. When someone made a play, he applauded. When someone checked out, he offered a hand. “At the end of the day, we’re all competitors,” Smith said. “We all want each other to do our best. It’s nothing personal when we’re policing each other. You saw it where multiple players got on each other; then, we moved forward. And, we found a way to win. “ … I’ve been on some bad teams, but this is a team that’s a veteran group. We know what we’re capable and we have one common goal, and that’s to win a championship. If you have that vision and focus on that task, anything that happens during the game doesn’t faze you.” THE BIGGEST NEWS Paul Pierce said he’s year-to-year at this point in his career, and he’ll decide this summer whether to retire or not. Inconsistent play and inconsistent minutes have defined his L.A. homecoming thus far, with the Hall of Famer averaging career lows in almost all statistical categories. THE BEST QUOTE “I think the older you get and the less and less you’re able to do things that you could do before, you start thinking about maybe it’s that time” – Pierce, on thinking about retirement. THE BEST STAT Redick was 4-of-17 from the field in his first six quarters after returning from essentially a two-game absence thanks to a sprained right ankle. In the last two quarters Wednesday, Redick was 8-of-10. AFTER THE BUZZER Paul recorded a season-high 18 assists and was a team-best plus-25. … The Clippers held Milwaukee to a season-low 20 percent from 3-point range. … Jordan is averaging 16.8 rebounds over his last five games. … The Clippers’ game at Chicago on Thursday will be the first time this season they have played three road games in a row. Contact the writer: dwoike@ocregister.com(Dreamstime) It's marriage. Much has been written about privilege in academic settings over the past few decades. There’s the privilege of wealth, and the advantages wealth confers if a baby is lucky enough to be born into it. Much too has been written about the advantages of being born into this world as a Caucasian — known in academia as “white privilege.” Advertisement Advertisement But not enough has been written about the most important advantage a baby can have in America: the advantage of being born with a mother and father who happen to be married. Call it “the marriage privilege” — the advantages are startling. In a report last year entitled “Saving Horatio Alger,” which focused on social mobility and class in America, Richard Reeves of the Brookings Institution discovered that the likelihood of a child raised by parents born into the lowest income quintile moving to the top quintile by the age 40 was a disastrous 3 percent. Worse, 50 percent of those children stay stuck in the bottom quintile. And the outlook for the children of those marriage-less children is equally stark. That’s bad news for the country, and the American dream, such numbers. Advertisement But Reeves discovered a silver lining while crunching the data: Those children born in the lowest quintile to parents who were married and stayed married had only a 19 percent chance of remaining in the bottom income group. Advertisement Reeve’s study revealed that this social-mobility advantage applied not just to the lower class: The middle class was impacted, too. The study revealed that children born into the middle class have a mere 11 percent chance of ending up in the bottom economic quintile with married parents, but that number rises to 38 percent if their parents are never married. You’d think a finding like that would be headline news across the nation, or that the media might want to talk about the real reason for the wealth gap in America — the marriage gap. Raj Chetty, the Bloomberg Professor of Economics at Harvard University, had this to say about the very same subject in the executive summary of his study, “Where is the Land of Opportunity? The Geography of Intergenerational Mobility in the U.S.”: The strongest predictors of upward mobility are measures of family structure such as the fraction of single parents in the area. As with race, parents’ marital status does not matter purely through its effects at the individual level. Children of married parents also have higher rates of upward mobility if they live in communities with fewer single parents. We find modest correlations between upward mobility and local tax and government expenditure policies and no systematic correlation between mobility and local labor market conditions, rates of migration, or access to higher education. Advertisement Chetty wasn’t finished. In his full paper, he had this to say: Finally, mobility is significantly lower in areas with weaker family structures, as measured e.g. by the fraction of single parents. As with race, parents’ marital status does not matter purely through its effects at the individual level. Children of married parents also have higher rates of upward mobility in communities with fewer single parents. Interestingly, we find no correlation between racial shares and upward mobility once we control for the fraction of single parents in an area. Advertisement That last sentence is worth including in every discussion we have about race and class in America. Because it turns out that once you control for the proportion of single parents in an area, the correlation between social mobility and race disappears. Few people in America have done better work in this area than the University of Virginia’s Brad Wilcox. In a recent paper published through the American Enterprise Institute, he had this to say about America’s growing gap between America’s marriage haves and have-nots: The retreat from marriage — a retreat that has been concentrated among lower-income Americans — plays a key role in the changing economic fortunes of American family life. We estimate that the growth in median income of families with children would be 44% higher if the United States enjoyed 1980 levels of married parenthood today. The reasons for the stark difference in economic outcomes are as obvious as they are important. Marriage is a form of social capital that creates the foundation for all kinds of positive results. “Children raised in a stable, intact family are much more likely to benefit from the time, attention, and money of two parents,” Wilcox explained in a recent interview. “They are more likely to thrive in school, to steer clear of encounters with the police, to avoid having a teenage pregnancy, to graduate from college, and to be gainfully employed as an adult.” Advertisement Advertisement The marriage deficit has been seen as the defining problem in the black community by at least one prominent black opinion-shaper: the late William Raspberry, the Pulitzer Prize–winning Washington Post columnist. Back in 2005, he was as blunt as blunt can be about the elephant in the room when it comes to race and class in America. “Father absence is the bane of the black community, predisposing its children to school failure, criminal behavior and economic hardship, and to an intergenerational repetition of the grim cycle,” he wrote. The culprit, Raspberry concluded, alongside some of the top ministers in the African-American community who’d just met in Washington to call attention to the issue, was the decline of marriage. Indeed, he pointed out that some youth workers in black neighborhoods know children who’ve never seen a wedding. Advertisement Raspberry expressed little tolerance in the column for those who blame the low marriage rates on poverty, crime, or racism. “Black men aren’t born incarcerated, crime-prone dropouts,” he wrote. “What principally renders them vulnerable to such a plight is the absence of fathers and their stabilizing influence. Fatherless boys (as a general rule) become ineligible to be husbands — though no less likely to become fathers — and their children fall into the patterns that render them ineligible to be husbands.” Raspberry wasn’t finished, highlighting the impact marriagelessness has on young girls, too: The absence of fathers means, as well, that girls lack both a pattern against which to measure the boys who pursue them and an example of sacrificial love between a man and a woman. As the ministers were at pains to say, it isn’t the incompetence of mothers that is at issue but the absence of half of the adult support needed for families to be most effective. And then came his conclusion: America’s almost reflexive search for outside explanations for our internal problems delayed the introspective examination that might have slowed the trend. What we have now is a changed culture – a culture whose worst aspects are reinforced by oversexualized popular entertainment and that places a reduced value on the things that produced nearly a century of socioeconomic improvement. For the first time since slavery, it is no longer possible to say with assurance that things are getting better. Advertisement The problem of an unraveling civic culture was the central part of Charles Murray’s book Coming Apart back in 2012, with a focus on two white fictional neighborhoods he labeled Belmont (an archetypal upper-middle-class town) and Fishtown (after a neighborhood in Philadelphia that’s been home to the white working class since the time of our nation’s birth). “In 1960, extremely high proportions of whites in both Belmont and Fishtown were married — 94% in Belmont and 84% in Fishtown. In the 1970s, those percentages declined about equally in both places. Then came the great divergence,” Murray explained in a long essay for the Wall Street Journal at the time. “In Belmont, marriage stabilized during the mid-1980s, standing at 83% in 2010. In Fishtown, however, marriage continued to slide; as of 2010, a minority (just 48%) were married. The gap in marriage between Belmont and Fishtown grew to 35 percentage points, from just 10.” The conservative Murray, like his liberal counterpart William Raspberry, then made the connection between marriage and the other social problems that stem from the breakdown of family and religiosity. The breakdown, Murray noted, hasn’t proceeded exactly as we might think: It is worrisome for the culture that the U.S. as a whole has become markedly more secular since 1960, and especially worrisome that Fishtown has become much more secular than Belmont. It runs against the prevailing narrative of secular elites versus a working class still clinging to religion, but the evidence from the General Social Survey, the most widely used database on American attitudes and values, does not leave much room for argument. For example, suppose we define “de facto secular” as someone who either professes no religion at all or who attends a worship service no more than once a year. For the early GSS surveys conducted from 1972 to 1976, 29% of Belmont and 38% of Fishtown fell into that category. Over the next three decades, secularization did indeed grow in Belmont, from 29% in the 1970s to 40% in the GSS surveys taken from 2006 to 2010. But it grew even more in Fishtown, from 38% to 59%. In writing about the very Americans that Murray described in that white working class neighborhood of Fishtown, Brad Wilcox has come to a very similar conclusion: In the 1970s, this group was more likely to attend church than any other group in the country. But now, for both economic and cultural reasons, Middle Americans are falling behind. Middle Americans, especially Middle American men, are losing their connection to marriage, work, religion, and civil society. This doesn’t bode well for the fate of our nation, or for our democratic life together. Advertisement “I am convinced,” the late author Stephan Covey once wrote, “that if we as a society work diligently in every other area of life and neglect the family, it would be analogous to straightening the deck chairs on the Titanic.” Covey was right, but the case for marriage is not lost. Indeed, it’s never fully been litigated in the court of public opinion, let alone the culture. Unlike social forces beyond any person’s control, teaching a generation to do the simple things generations did before them to live the American dream — finish high school, find work, get married, and have children, and in that order — is possible. We have to be talking about the policies that could encourage marriage, and pay attention to groups around the country — particularly in some of our churches — that are doing some remarkable work on the marriage front. It’s time we started talking about the connections between marriage, love, and God, too. Bonhoeffer said it best in a letter to his niece: “It is not your love that sustains your marriage, but from now on, the marriage that sustains your love.” It’s time we started talking about the health and happiness of married folks (take, for instance, the fact that married people have more sex than unmarried people). It’s time we all started telling the story about the most important gap in American life, the marriage gap, and how we might close it. We need, in other words, to be talking about the privilege that matters most in American life — the marriage privilege. — Lee Habeeb is the vice president of content at Salem Radio Network. He lives in Oxford, Miss., with his wife, Valerie, and daughter, Reagan. Mike Leven is the former COO and president of the Las Vegas Sands, and is now Chairman and CEO of the Georgia Aquarium.Carie Cauley, left, Rev. Hannah Bonner and Rhys Caraway protest on July 20. (Karen Warren/Houston Chronicle via AP) An ordained pastor with the United Methodist Church has been keeping a daily vigil outside the Waller County Sheriff’s Office and County Jail, where Sandra Bland died under disputed circumstances last month. On Monday, Waller County Sheriff Glenn Smith let pastor Hannah Bonner know how he feels about her vigil by telling the pastor that she should “go back to the church of Satan that you run.” Bonner recorded the Monday-afternoon exchange, along with a later conversation with the sheriff. Hannah Adair Bonner, an ordained pastor with the United Methodist Church in Texas, recorded her interaction with Waller County Sheriff Glenn Smith. Bonner has been keeping a daily vigil outside the Waller County Sheriff's Office and County Jail, where Sandra Bland died under disputed circumstances. (Hannah Adair Bonner) “We were sitting out there, as we have been, fiddling around with a guitar,” Bonner told The Washington Post on Tuesday. As she and other protesters sat there, Bonner said, Smith came out of the jail; he was, she said, “clearly aggravated and looking for something to do.” Eventually, as seen on Bonner’s video, the sheriff approached the pastor and asked: “You need a business card?” “We know your name, sir,” she replied. “Why don’t you go back to the church of Satan that you run?” Smith said before walking into the jail lobby. “Oh, that was great, thank you,” Bonner said. The exchange was the first testy interaction between Bonner and the sheriff, she said. Officers, including Smith, had previously engaged in playful banter with the pastor and a small group of protesters who have come to the jail daily since July 15 — two days after Bland was found dead in her cell at the county jail. The protesters were even able to use the jail’s lobby restrooms as needed without incident, Bonner said. [A year after Ferguson, have white Christians learned anything?] Bonner told The Post that her purpose at the jail is to “be respectful but to also ask the questions that need to be asked.” An autopsy and an investigation into Bland’s death have ruled her death a suicide by hanging, though Bland’s family and some activists say her death and the coroner’s and district attorney’s conclusions are suspicious. Earlier this month, Bland’s family sued the sheriff’s office, along with the state law enforcement agency and officer who arrested her during what began as a routine traffic stop days before her death. Bland, a 28-year-old African American woman, was arrested after a Texas state trooper threatened her with a stun gun while ordering her to leave her vehicle. In the lawsuit, her family says that the officer violated Bland’s constitutional rights during the arrest, and that the jail failed to adequately monitor her while in custody, or to provide adequate medical treatment. Bonner said she is holding vigil every day because, she said, “I just want people to know that Sandy still speaks; her voice can’t be silenced.” Waller County Sheriff Glenn Smith at a July 21 press conference. (Pat Sullivan/AP) A spokesman for the Waller County Sheriff’s office did not return multiple e-mailed requests for comment Tuesday about the interaction with Bonner. Calls placed by The Post to the sheriff’s office automatically disconnected Tuesday. An e-mail sent to the sheriff’s office’s catch-all account for complaints and compliments returned an automatic out-of-office message containing a statement from Smith that does not directly address his remarks to Bonner. According to Bonner, after the initial confrontation with Smith on Monday, the sheriff came back outside the jail, took a photo of her license plate and another of her face. In a second video Bonner posted on Monday, Smith is seen observing the area around the jail’s entrance. Another protester asks Smith why he is taking pictures. His reply: “Just intelligence.” The protester responds that it feels “more like intimidation.” “I hate that you feel that,” Smith says, adding: “It’s been a real peaceful, good three weeks.” The two engage in a lengthy, cordial discussion over how the sheriff has treated her group, during which it becomes clear that the sheriff believes Bonner had a role in a tense protest the day before, on the anniversary of Michael Brown’s shooting death in Ferguson, Mo. During that protest, a large group packed the jail’s lobby and chanted in support of Bland until law enforcement officials pushed the protesters outside. Bonner told The Post she had been present at an earlier Sunday rally outside the jail, but did not enter the facilities with the smaller group after the rally ended. The sheriff’s office said in a statement posted to Facebook that the Sunday protest “interrupted our dispatch office to the point that everyday calls could not be heard,” and that the office considered the protests “a direct threat to public safety [and] not a peaceful assembly.” The statement said that four officers were injured while removing protesters from the premises. It did not address Smith’s remarks to Bonner. “Yesterday, I sort of saw the difference in what y’all are promoting,” Smith told the protester in the second Monday-afternoon video. “We gotta look at each one of y’all here,” he added. When the protester told Smith that no one from their group was involved in the action that spilled inside the jail on Sunday, Smith replied: “She is, the church of Satan lady right there.” “None of us were in there,” Bonner told him. Smith then said that before the protest began, “she was out here provoking” — again referring to Bonner. “What did I do to provoke?” Bonner asked repeatedly. The sheriff replied that things would be different at the jail the following day. As Bonner spoke by phone with The Post on Tuesday, she arrived at the jail, as she has every day for nearly a month. Waiting for her, she said, were the Rev. David Israel Madison, an AME pastor, and Ashton Woods, whom Bonner described as an “atheist ally.” There was also a surprise from the sheriff’s office. “Oh, wow,” Bonner said over the phone. She explained that the sheriff’s office had set up barriers around the area where she has been sitting every day. Photo: Hannah Bonner Although Bonner intends to continue her protest outside the jail, she is now concerned that the environment under which she is doing that will be less safe for her and her friends. “The rumor has been spread in this community that two officers were shot” during the protests, Bonner said. The rumors, she believes, are intended to “intentionally raise the danger for me.” Soon after Bonner arrived on Tuesday, she paused her interview with The Post to speak with two women who, she said, were approaching her in a car outside the jail. After the exchange — which The Post could not hear — Bonner said: “They said to me, ‘please be careful.'” “Two local women are terrified for my life right now,” Bonner said. She added, “That was pretty extreme how upset they were.” The small group of protesters ended up sitting under a tree near the jail’s entrance on Tuesday, with their normal spot now off-limits. Soon after they left the parking lot, Bonner wrote on Instagram, that tree was “cut down.” When asked for comment, a spokesperson for the national body of the United Methodist Church said the organization had nothing to add. 1 of 31 Full Screen Autoplay Close Skip Ad × How people reacted to Sandra Bland’s death View Photos Sandra Bland — a 28-year-old African American woman — was stopped for failing to signal while changing lanes, but the routine traffic stop turned confrontational after the officer ordered Bland to put out her cigarette. Three days after her arrest, Bland was found dead in her jail cell. Caption Sandra Bland — a 28-year-old African American woman — was stopped for failing to signal while changing lanes, but the routine traffic stop turned confrontational after the officer ordered Bland to put out her cigarette. Three days after her arrest, Bland was found dead in her jail cell. July 26, 2015 Margaret Hilaire, center, bows her head in prayer during a demonstration in Katy, Tex., calling for the firing and indictment of Texas State Trooper Brian Encinia, who arrested Bland. Brett Coomer/Houston Chronicle via AP Buy Photo Wait 1 second to continue. [This story, first published on August 11, has been updated]In a recent article, Joel Kotkin critiques the work of Jane Jacobs; he points out that Jacobs idealized middle-class city neighborhoods, and suggests that because cities have become dominated by childless rich people, middle-class urbanity "has passed into myth, and... it is never going to come back." He suggests that Americans are "moving out to the suburbs as they enter their 30s and start families" because central cities are only appropriate for "the talented, the young, and childless affluent adults." This claim rests on a couple of assumptions: 1) that cities have little appeal to families and 2) that the only Americans whose preferences are typical are those middle-class families. The first claim has an element of truth: families do tend to prefer more suburban living environments. But what Kotkin overlooks is that the tide is turning (at least a little). Although American suburbs clearly have more children than cities, the most desirable city neighborhoods are more appealing to parents than was the case a decade ago. For example, Kotkin writes that Greenwich Village (where Jacobs lived) "today now largely consists of students, wealthy people and pensioners." But according to the Furman Center's neighborhoood-by-neighborhood surveys of New York housing, the percentage of households with children actually increased in New York's more desirable urban neighborhoods. For example, in Jacobs's own Greenwich Village, 15.1 percent of all 2013 households had children under 18—lower than in most places to be sure, but higher than in 2000, when only 11.4 percent had children. Similarly, the "households with children" percentage increased from 11.4 percent to 15.1 percent in New York's financial district, from 14.6 percent to 17.8 percent in the Upper West Side, and from 13.3 percent to 16.6 percent in the Upper East Side. Kotkin sees an America polarized between child-friendly suburbs and child-hostile cities, But in reality, there seems to be a kind of convergence between the city's affluent central neighborhoods and the rest of the city—while the urban core is becoming more child-oriented and outlying areas (especially poorer outlying areas) are becoming less so. The percentage of households with minor children decreased from 38.1 percent to 29.3 percent in Central Harlem, from 40.8 percent to 29.4 percent in Washington Heights/Inwood, and from 38.1 percent to 29.3 percent in East Harlem. Similarly, the "households with children" percentage increased from 25.1 percent to 27.1 percent in affluent Park Slope, while declining in low-income Brownsville and East New York (two parts of Brooklyn especially far from Manhattan). New York is not unique: in Washington, D.C., the number of children increased in the city's most affluent areas and decreased in the city's poorer areas. Kotkin correctly points out that despite widespread commentary about gentrification, even cities with lots of rich people (such as New York and Chicago) still have plenty of low-income areas. He therefore reasons that cities are perfectly fine for the very rich and the very poor, but not for the middle classes. However, he overstates this trend by relying on some statistics that might not support his case. In particular, he relies on a Brookings Institution study listing the most and least unequal cities: according to Kotkin, the most compact, walkable cities are the most unequal. However, Kotkin, by comparing central cities alone, misses one relevant fact: most of these compact cities are trapped within their 1950 city limits, while, according to the Brookings study itself, the low-inequality cities are usually "Southern and Western cities with expansive borders, and either include many'suburban' neighborhoods alongside a traditional urban core, or are themselves overgrown suburbs like Mesa, Arizona and Arlington, Texas." It logically follows that if 46-square-mile San Francisco was compared to the inner 46 miles of Omaha or Oklahoma City, the latter cities might seem somewhat more unequal, and San Francisco might seem less exceptional in comparison. Despite my quibbles, Kotkin is on to something: it is true that large cities tend to be more unequal than their suburbs. But unlike Kotkin, I don't treat this as an inevitable fact of life. Some cities are too expensive for middle-class families, but that is a result of public policy rather than some force of nature. Because older cities are more likely to be "built out," those cities are less likely to be able to add housing to meet increased demand. So to retain the middle class, a city must go out of its way to encourage new housing. Instead, many cities have restrictive zoning that artificially limits housing supply, thus causing prices to rise. And when cities attempt to solve this problem, they sometimes do so by trying to build or mandate the creation of low-income housing, which may help the poor more than the middle classes. If cities had less restrictive zoning, perhaps more housing would be available for the middle class. By contrast, Kotkin believes that cities are inherently undesirable because "[f]amilies in urban apartments today, says Cornell researcher Gary Evans, generally have far weaker networks of neighbors than their suburban counterparts, a generally more stressful home life, and significantly less social support." However, the study that Kotkin links to says nothing of the sort. Evans does not mention the word "urban" at all. Instead, he claims that the "number of people per room [is] the crucial variable for measuring effects of crowding on children's development." This means that an apartment with one child living in one room is less stressful than one where four children live in two bedrooms. Evans also focuses on noise pollution, such as traffic noise.* Kotkin writes that because urban centers are (allegedly) only for the childless, "the central city offers at best only a temporary lifestyle." It appears to me that Kotkin is assuming that "desirability" and "desirability to 35-year olds with small children" are the same thing. This may have been the case in the America of the 1950s. But delayed marriages, an aging society, and plunging birth rates mean that "35-year-olds with small children" are a much smaller group than in the United States of the 1950s. In 1960, almost half of all households were families with children under 18. Since then, this number has fallen to under 30 percent. In 1960, only 13 percent of households included just one person; that number has more than doubled, to 28 percent. In sum, thirtysomething families no longer dominate American housing markets, and their preferences no longer need govern the majority of American construction. *Kotkin may have been thinking about a portion of the article stating "families living in high-rise housing, as opposed to single-family residences, have fewer relationships with neighbors, resulting in less social support." But since the sentence is in a paragraph that doesn't even mention Evans, it is not clear that this sentence even refers to Evans' research, or to some other research. Moreover, "urban" and "high-rise" are not synonymous, nor are "apartment" and "high-rise."Native to North America, blueberries have been part of the human diet for more than 13,000 years, long before they were formally recognized for their healthy and anti-cancer effects. Blueberries are among the best foods you can eat, and I recommend eating them every day. I have created easy, healthy recipes using blueberries, plus non-dairy milk, ground flax seed, and other nutrient-dense, plant-rich foods, that give my patients a variety of ways to enjoy this wonderful fruit. Since blueberries contain flavonoids and other specific phytochemicals that help protect against vascular instability, I instruct my diabetes and heart disease patients to eat fresh blueberries every day, and to eat frozen blueberries in the wintertime. In my book, The End of Heart Disease, I cite a study that showed a 68 percent increase in blood nitric oxide levels among women who consumed blueberry powder daily for 8 weeks.1 This is beneficial because nitric oxide relaxes and protects blood vessels. Blueberries are packed with tannins and anthocyanins that have been linked to anti-cancer effects and the prevention–and even reversal–of age-related mental decline. Blueberries have been shown not just to prevent, but actually reverse abnormal physical and mental decline, including coordination and balance, in aged animals.2 Evidence in humans supports these results. Nine adults in their 70s and 80s with mild memory decline added about two cups of wild blueberry juice to their diet for 12 weeks, and their performance on memory function tests improved compared to the placebo group.3 The flavonoids in blueberries — catechin, epicatechin, myricetin, quercetin, and kaempferol — are extremely valuable for superior health. And remember, phytochemicals are not optional nutrients; they are essential for the normal function of your immune system. For a powerful health booster, try this easy recipe, Dr. Fuhrman’s Patriotic Salad. The synergistic punch of blueberries, strawberries, and leafy greens activates phytochemical repair mechanisms that arm our cells against damage from toxins and aging. The blueberry flax smoothie recipe is another easy recipe using fresh or frozen blueberries, non-dairy milk, and ground flax seeds. Patients tell me that they prefer this to ice cream. Dr. Fuhrman’s Patriotic Salad 1 cup fresh or frozen blueberries 1 cup fresh or frozen strawberries 6-12 lettuce leaves 1 banana ½ cup non-dairy milk ½ cup cashews or macadamia nuts Blend nuts, banana and non-dairy milk to make topping. Arrange berries and lettuce leaves in a bowl. Pour topping over fruit and serve. Dr. Fuhrman’s Blueberry Flax Smoothie 2 cups fresh or frozen blueberries ¾ cup non-dairy milk 1 Tbsp. flax seeds, ground 5 kale leaves Blend and enjoy.“It’s cool to know that my songs can go out into the world and mean something different to someone else. To maybe uplift them or help them out if they’re dealing with something in their life that they can’t share with anyone else. It’s amazing how music has that capability.” Adam Young is excited. We can feel the OMG vibes oozing down the phone line, connecting us to the Billboard, NRJ Music Awards and Vevo award-wining, platinum-selling 29-year-old as he takes on his millionth interview of the day. Why is he so excited? Owl City’s new album, Mobile Orchestra, is another commercial success for multi-instrumentalist Adam, the sole member of Owl City and an in-demand artist who has collaborated with the likes of Armin van Buuren, Chicane [Nick Bracegirdle] and Blink-182’s Mark Hoppus among others. Mobile Orchestra hit No 1 on the iTunes Pop chart upon release, and the young singer-songwriter is basking in largely positive reviews of his latest creation. “I’m really excited about this album,” gushes Adam, who landed a gargantuan hit with the six-time platinum-selling pop song Fireflies back in 2009. “It’s taken me a lot longer to make this one than any other album I’ve put out because there are so many different vocalists on it - scheduling and getting everyone in the studio was really challenging because we’re all so busy. Each of the guest vocalists did such an amazing job. I feel lucky to have worked with them.” Aloe Blacc, Hanson, Jake Owen, Sarah Russell and Britt Nicole all guest feature on Mobile Orchestra, a 10-track electronica-pop-rock-country affair that includes grand opener Verge, the countrified Back Home and Adam’s ode to pop punk Bird With a Broken Wing. “I’m so excited that all of the songs are out now, but in a way I feel as though they aren’t really mine any more. It’s a little bittersweet,” he confides. “Sometimes when I’m on tour, someone will come up to me and explain what one of my songs means to them, and sometimes they’re talking about emotions that I never even thought about when writing.” Here Adam gives us a whirlwind tour of Mobile Orchestra, talking about the gear behind his electronica sound and offering insight into his always-on creative brain, before letting us know what he thinks is the greatest country album of all time. Clue: it isn’t one of Johnny’s.LAKE JACKSON, Texas--(BUSINESS WIRE)-- Ron Paul 2012 Presidential Campaign Manager John Tate released the following statement concerning the Bureau of Labor Statistics' employment situation summary for the month of October 2011: “The national unemployment rate of 9 percent for the month of October 2011 comes as no shock. There are plenty of data illustrating a dire state of affairs even as Washington intervenes heavily in the economy – and seeks to nudge us further off the cliff. “The four-week moving average for new unemployment insurance claims is still higher than the troublesome 400,000 benchmark. “An all-time record 6.7 percent of Americans, a staggering 20.5 million people, suffer deep poverty, defined in 2010 as earning $5,570 or less or just $11,157 for a family of four. “In total, 46.2 million people live below the official poverty line. This week, we also learned that nearly 15 percent of Americans – 45.8 million people - relied on food stamps in August, with recipient rolls having risen 8.1 percent in the past year. “All of this is taking place in a wealthy industrialized nation of 312 million people blessed with favorable geography and abundant natural resources. “We can and must do better. “More federal intervention is not the answer; it will only dig a deeper hole. Few in government seem to realize this. “To make matters worse, this week, Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke announced a tacit continuation of the Fed's quantitative easing policy, meaning the institution's top official still can't grasp the truth that the Fed-created boom and bust cycles result in the kind of stubborn joblessness we're seeing. “Also note how casually our leaders mention there will be sustained weak economic growth until 2014. “Meanwhile, the Obama administration is making crude threats about women being assaulted as a result of Congress deciding against the President's costly, deficit-financed stimulus re-boot. This shows a clear lack of the leadership America urgently needs. “In September, metropolitan area unemployment for Washington-Arlington-Alexandria, the locus of government and influence peddling, was a respectable 6.1 percent, demonstrating that as the private sector suffers, government thrives. “Washington elites cannot see
Up Continue reading the main story Please verify you're not a robot by clicking the box. Invalid email address. Please re-enter. You must select a newsletter to subscribe to. Sign Up You will receive emails containing news content, updates and promotions from The New York Times. You may opt-out at any time. You agree to receive occasional updates and special offers for The New York Times's products and services. Thank you for subscribing. An error has occurred. Please try again later. View all New York Times newsletters. The complaint asserts that the practice is not only deceitful, but also wasteful and damaging to the environment. Would another publication have elicited a more positive response from Mr. Harmon? A San Francisco Chronicle, or perhaps a copy of Consumer Reports?Des Moines, Iowa (CNN) Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker can't escape the divisive battles with union workers that have defined his tenure as governor -- not even in Iowa. The Republican presidential candidate faced boos and chants of "liar" from dozens of protesters who drove down from Wisconsin as he stumped Monday at the Iowa State Fair Des Moines Register soapbox, and the heated incident devolved into physical altercations between supporters and demonstrators. As the protesters shouted, Walker seized the opportunity to highlight his record as a fighter who faced off against unions in Wisconsin and became the first governor to successfully fight an effort to recall him from office. "I am not intimidated by you sir or anyone out there," Walker said to one heckler. "This is what happened in Wisconsin. We will not back down, we will do what is necessary." Protestors interrupt @ScottWalker - "I am not intimidated," he says pic.twitter.com/bFRc8uNSl0 — Betsy Klein (@betsy_klein) August 17, 2015 Walker's affiliated super PAC is named "Unintimidated PAC" -- a nod to his successful fights with organized labor since taking office in 2011, including surviving a recall election. Read MoreThings we learned from Seahawks' training camp Tuesday include thoughts on Thomas Rawls, Jeremy Lane and Chris Carson. Here are three observations on Seahawks’ practice Tuesday from beat writers Jayson Jenks and Bob Condotta. First, from Jenks: 1, Thomas Rawls still loves contact. That’s an obvious thing to anyone who has watched Rawls run, but it was obvious again on Tuesday, when the Seahawks wore shoulder pads for the first time. On one carry, Rawls lowered his shoulder into a defender, causing him to exchange a few words with the defense. A little later, he did the same thing, which led to another little confrontation. So, yeah, Rawls still runs like he’s hunting for contact. He takes pride in it. Relishes it. It’s part of his identity, he’ll tell you, part of where he comes form. It’s one of the things the Seahawks love about Rawls: He gains yards, but he also sets a tone. He runs the way the Seahawks want their running backs to run. The issue with Rawls has been injuries, but if he stays healthy, he’ll bring the style the Seahawks demand from their running backs. 2, Pete Carroll said something interesting about Earl Thomas. Earl Thomas is about to begin his eighth NFL season. This is one of those things you know to be true, but it’s still weird to see it. Has it really been that long? Anyway, all eight of Thomas’ years have been with Pete Carroll, and on Tuesday, Carroll offered high praise for how Thomas looks right now: “I told Earl this morning that he looks in better condition and faster than I’ve ever seen him since year one or two,” Carroll said. “The last three or four years, this is the best he’s ever been.” Thomas is coming off a season-ending injury, and the Seahawks saw in his absence how much he means to the defense. 3, Doug Baldwin and Jimmy Graham both made ridiculous catches. Jimmy Graham hauled in a juggling catch in traffic, surrounded by defenders — the kind of play he’s specially suited to make, seeing he’s a humungous human being. Doug Baldwin made a leaping, one-handed catch over the middle — the kind of play he’s made before (Remember the playoff game against Minnesota?). Small reminders that both guys are really, really good at catching a football. And from Condotta: 1, Chris Carson could really make a run at tailback. Carson, a seventh-round pick out of Oklahoma State, has been intriguing since the day he was drafted due in part to the high praise he received from coach Pete Carroll, who called him something of a personal favorite. We didn’t see much of Carson in the offseason program, though, due to a lingering hamstring injury. But Carson has been full go in training camp, and on the first day of any pads on Tuesday he was as impressive as anyone, showing good vision and quickness as well as a smooth stride. After a final touchdown run late in practice quarterback Russell Wilson and Baldwin each sprinted down field to pat hit him on the helmet. Asked about Carson later Carroll smiled and gave a short answer saying “he did a nice job today.’’ Maybe at this point Carroll would prefer to let everyone find out about Carson on their own. If Carson continues to show what he did Tuesday, he could well find himself making a legit run at a roster spot — he’s likely battling with Alex Collins for the fourth spot behind Rawls, Eddie Lacy and C.J. Prosise. 2, Blair Walsh is off to a good start. Maybe it’s because Seahawks fans mostly remember Blair Walsh for his shocking 27-yard miss that allowed Seattle to beat Minnesota in a wild card playoff game following the 2015 season. Or maybe it’s because they still don’t want to let go of Stephen Hauschka, one of the most popular kickers in NFL history. But there has seemed to be a lot of skepticism about the ability of Walsh to serve as a capable replacement for Hauschka. Recall the Seahawks signed Walsh to a one-year deal worth $1.1 million as a free agent after deciding to let Hauschka walk. Hauschka eventually signed a three-year contract worth almost $9 million. Not only did they view it as saving a lot of needed money but also potentially getting just as good of a kicker. While fans may inevitably remember the miss against the Seahawks as well as a few others that caused the Vikings to release him last year, the Seahawks prefer to think he can again be the kicker who was first team All-NFL in 2012 and made the first 12 field goals of longer than 50 yards in his career. Walsh at the moment has no competition. But with a contract that includes no guaranteed money the team could easily make a move if he struggles. Walsh was 2-4 when camp opened on Sunday. But he’s rebounded the last two days to go 10-10 in team sessions including 6-6 on Tuesday, all kicks between 24 and 43 yards. 3, Jeremy Lane remains the frontrunner for the starting right cornerback job. Carroll called the right cornerback job wide open during the spring. But the veteran Lane may be close to making it an open-and-shut case. Lane has been the starter opposite Richard Sherman throughout camp (as he also was in the spring) and received a hearty vote of confidence from Carroll after Tuesday’s practice. “Jeremy Lane had a fantastic offseason,’’ Carroll said. “He made a big shift in his mentality and his approach. He is so serious. He studied so much. He has applied himself in his conditioning work, his strength work, his focus on the field. He has been fantastic. You ask anyone in the program and they will tell you Jeremy Lane is on fire right now. I think he sees the opportunity and he wants to go for it and he wants to own it and we couldn’t ask for more. He is off to a great start and he looks fantastic.” While Lane appears in line to be the starter at RCB, he also will still be the main nickel back, it appears. As camp has opened the Seahawks have continued what they did in the spring, which is have Lane and Sherman as the two starting corners in the base defense, then when they go to nickel Lane moves inside to cover the slot and Neiko Thorpe or Shaquill Griffin has come in to play right corner. Thorpe appears still the leader for that but on Tuesday Griffin also got some significant time with the number one defense, as well.HEALDSBURG, CA - DECEMBER 11: Eight inches of rain fell on Northern California's Wine Country in a 24-hour period causing widespread flooding on December 11, 2014, in Healdsburg, California. Following a three-year drought, the creeks and the Russian River overflowed their banks, flooding much of this tourist community's downtown business district. (Photo by George Rose/Getty Images) When it comes to drought, California is no longer “exceptional.” Data released Thursday, after recent heavy rains, shows that just 32 percent of California now faces “exceptional drought,” the most severe level of dryness recorded by the U.S. Drought Monitor. The week before, 55 percent of the state was covered by the designation -- an alarming statistic that had held steady since July. Images courtesy of the National Drought Mitigation Center, NOAA and the USDA “The short-term drought is over, particularly in the northern half of the state,” Mark Svoboda, a climatologist with the National Drought Mitigation Center, told The Huffington Post. “We’re looking more now at the long-term hydrological impacts … things like reservoirs and snowpack and groundwater. They’re the last to improve.” The update follows the “storm of the decade,” which closed schools, roadways and public transportation. “Two consecutive weeks of widespread heavy … precipitation, augmented by above-normal autumn precipitation, produced major stream and river flooding in north-central California,” the U.S. Drought Monitor’s David Miskus wrote in a summary accompanying the drought update. He noted that flooding on the Sacramento River was at its highest since December 2005, and runoff contributed to good increases in the state’s major reservoirs. Svoboda explained that while a heavy storm only provides so much relief on its own, it is an important first step in drought recovery. “It gets soil moistures recovered, so then when we get future rain or snow that melts out in the spring, that will lead to better runoff into streams, reservoirs and groundwater, which will help recovery there,” Svoboda said. “If it had stayed dry, then the soil’s going to take the first cut of the check, if you will, to get itself saturated before it’s going to share that water with groundwater, stream flows and reservoirs.” The rainfall has been major cause for celebration for California’s home water-harvesters. Some reported collecting 1,800 gallons of water in a few hours. While not potable, the water can be used for landscaping, washing cars and dishes and doing laundry. Miskus warned there is still a long road to recovery. The second-most severe level of drought covers 78 percent of the state.If you can’t get enough of the Supergirl TV series, DC Comics is here to help. Beginning Monday, Jan. 25, the publisher is launching a new digital comic series, Adventures of Supergirl, based on Melissa Benoist’s on-screen character.“We’re telling a story that takes place in the Supergirl TV universe,” says Sterling Gates, who is writing the 13-chapter series. “The goal is to expand Supergirl’s world in a way that the TV show might not have the time or the budget to do, and we're different villains that the TV show isn't going to explore.” To ensure that his Adventures are in sync with the TV show, Gates is working closely with the showrunners of the CBS superhero drama. “Andrew Kreisberg and Ali Adler have been excellent in helping to steer the ship of the comic, just as they're steering the show,” he says.“They’ve really great to work with. I’ve gone up to their offices, I’ve met with their writers. We all want to be on the same page and deliver great stories within that world.” Not that Gates needs much introduction to the character. He wrote DC's main Supergirl title from 2008-2011. "For me, she is still the same character that she was back then,” he says. “She’s a positive force against a very dark and cynical world.” In Adventures of Supergirl, a mysterious villain is targeting Kara in all aspects of her life. “Someone has information about who she is, what she’s doing, and goes after her in her personal life, her work life and her Supergirl life.” Among the pawns this villain uses are a series of classic DC Comics rogues, including Rampage (as seen in the preview panels from the first chapter, below), Psi and Vril Dox. All the main characters from the TV series will appear in the story, but Gates is mum on whether we might see Kara's famous cousin. “If you watch the show you understand how Superman operates within the confines of this world,” is all he will tease. Adventures of Supergirl’s cover art is being created by Cat Staggs (who handled the gorgeous covers for the Smallville Season 11 digital comic as well), while a rotating team of artists will cover the interior pages, including Bengal (who drew the first chapter), Jonboy Meyers, Emanuela Lupacchino and Emma Vieceli. New chapters will be released biweekly on Mondays, available via the DC Comics App, readdcentertainment.com, iBooks, comixology.com, Google Play, Kindle Store, Nook Store, and iVerse ComicsPlus. All 13 chapters will collected in a print edition coming later this year.CLOSE The chamber, along with Uber and Lyft, welcomed the ruling. USA TODAY A driver for Uber Technologies Inc., arrives at an authorized customer pick up area at Seattle-Tacoma International Airport, in Seattle. A federal judge in Seattle on Tuesday, April 4, 2017, temporarily blocked the city's first-in-the-nation law allowing drivers of ride-hailing companies such as Uber and Lyft to unionize over pay and working conditions (Photo11: Ted S. Warren, AP) SAN FRANCISCO — A Seattle judge on Tuesday temporarily blocked the first law in the nation that would have given Uber, Lyft and taxi drivers the right to unionize. The law was originally passed in 2015 but had been challenged by two lawsuits. U.S. District Judge Robert Lasnik's temporary restraining order was in response to a request by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce filed last month. It argued the Seattle law classified drivers as employees when they were actually independent contractors and thus not eligible to unionize and collectively bargain over wages and working conditions. The Teamsters Union is seeking to unionize the workers. It has demanded that Uber and Lyft turn over lists of drivers who meet the criteria set by the Seattle law, that they have driven at least 52 times in a three-month period in the proceeding year before Oct. 19, 2016. The case represents an important front in the on-going battle between gig economy workers trying to gain more employee-like benefits while companies seek to have them definitively classified as contract workers. If the workers win, it could mean that the business model Uber and Lyft have built will no longer be viable. The U.S. Chamber filing argued that requiring Lyft, Uber and taxi companies turn over lists of drivers involved confidential and trade secret information. The issues in the case are complex and far-reaching, potentially destroying the business model upon which Uber, Lyft and other ride-hailing businesses are based. Because of that complexity, Lasnik wrote, “The public will be well-served by maintaining the status quo while the issues are given careful judicial consideration as to whether the city’s well-meaning ordinance can survive the scrutiny our laws require.” The temporary injunction should by no means be seen as an indicator of which way the case will ultimately be decided, Lasnik wrote. Lyft was pleased the court ruled that what it called Seattle’s “experimental law” wouldn’t be implemented until issues raised by drivers are heard. “The ordinance is a poorly drafted law that could undermine the flexibility of drivers to choose when, where and for how long they drive - the very things that make Lyft so attractive to drivers and useful for passengers,” said Adrian Durbin, Lyft’s director of communications. Uber looks "forward to the court’s full consideration of the many serious legal questions about this ordinance as the lawsuit moves forward,” said Brooke Steger, general manager for the company in the Pacific Northwest. Read or Share this story: http://usat.ly/2nUNMtZThis is a pretty hotly contested topic in trading courses. Some say that you are a terrible trader if you do not hold until price hits your profit target. Other say that you cannot go broke taking a profit. So who is right? In this post, I will give you my opinion on which stance is right and why I think so. I want to be up front and say that my way is not necessarily the right way. You have to figure out what works for you…but I hope that this gives you something to think about. Now that you know how I feel about it, let's see why. There are two reasons… Waiting For All Your Profit Could Mean You Get None Of It If you wait for those last five pips, it could mean that price might rocket against you. Why wait for five measly pips, when you can get most of your profit now? This is probably the best argument for taking a profit early. There is one caveat with this however. I will only do this if price action is showing me that it might reverse or is indecisive. If price looks like it will continue down to my target, I will hold on for as long as I can. But at the first sign of reversal, I'm outta there. Taking A Profit Can Cure Indecision Is there some important news coming out? Has the market been crazy lately? Did your dog chew up all your underwear? Then taking a profit can get you out of the market and save your sanity. The name of the game is not only capital preservation, but mental preservation. If you are able to take some money out of the market and sleep better at night, then taking your profit early may not be such a bad thing. The Flipside Of course all of these benefits also come with a downside. If you take your profit too early, you can be taking small profits and large losses, leading to a negative expectancy. If you second guess your system, you can undo all of the hard work that you did backtesting your system. I believe that taking your profit early should only be done occasionally and selectively. Keep a trading journal and note when you took a profit early. If you are taking a profit too early, too often, this will also show in your trading results. Adjust your trading as necessary. Conclusion Taking your profits early can be a good thing, but only experience will tell you when it is a good idea to do so or not. So remember to put in your screen time and watch the live market. That is the only way to get a better feel for when you should take your money and run. I'm not saying that I'm always right when I take my profit early. What I am saying is that you should remain flexible in your approach and give yourself the ability to do so, if you think it is necessary. What do you think? I would love to hear your opinion, leave a comment below. ###The financial meltdown in 2008 was not the result of ethereal and enigmatic forces, it was the result of fraud in the financial markets. That truth was initially hidden by politicians, regulators, banks, and the bought priesthood of mainstream economics. But despite all the lies, the day of reckoning has finally arrived for one of the world’s most powerful corporations, JPMorgan. Of course, there won’t be jail time for executives – prison is for the little people. But, contrary to some Republican presidential candidates, corporations aren’t people. They are mindless engines of profit and the only acts of contrition the machines can output is in the form of paying money and JPMorgan has already agreed to pay $13 billion for crashing the economy in 2008 through fraud and greed. JPMorgan Chase & Co CEO Jamie Dimon has pleaded with and complained to the U.S. Justice Department but cannot convince the government to end its criminal probe of his bank because prosecutors are not yet certain of their findings, people familiar with the matter said. Dimon has negotiated a tentative $13 billion deal to settle many of the U.S. investigations into mortgage bonds that JPMorgan – and the banks it bought during the financial crisis – sold to investors. Finally we are talking about a fine that might sting a little. The previous fines Wall Street banks have paid have been laughable. But a $13 billion fine would be more than half of JPMorgan’s profit last year. Serious money. Though apparently JPMorgan thinks it might have to pay even more for its wrongdoing. JPMorgan has set aside a total of $23 billion to pay for legal issues, and faces more than a dozen probes globally. What kind of business needs that much money to deal with criminal investigations and lawsuits? A criminal enterprise? The fraudulent mortgage derivatives JPMorgan and other Wall Street banks sold to investors helped trigger the 2008 financial crisis when the fraudulent loans went bust and no one had enough capital to cover the losses – despite AIG providing insurance in the form of credit default swaps on the mortgage derivatives. AIG, as we all know now, was incredibly reckless and was unable to cover the derivatives it had insured. Ultimately the Too Big To Fail banks received billions from the taxpayers with TARP and over a trillion dollars from the Federal Reserve in the form of secret loans. No bankruptcies for the banks but plenty of painful foreclosures for homeowners who did nothing wrong. Now JPMorgan inc. is saying sorry the only way a corporation can – paying out lots of money. But have the banksters learned their lesson?About 1. A shower soap dispenser installed in a water supply pipe and a shower head of a shower system and comprising: a water pipe including an upper segment for connecting with the water supply pipe, a lower segment for coupling with the shower head, and a seat defined between and communicating with the upper segment and the lower segment; a channel passing through the upper segment, the lower segment, and the seat; a pipe joint connecting with the seat and extending outwardly from an outer wall of the water pipe; the seat having a groove defined therein and communicating with the channel; the pipe joint having a tunnel defined therein; at least one feeding hole formed on the seat so as to communicate with the groove and the tunnel; the pipe joint also having an abutting portion and at least one orifice defined on a distal end thereof; a shower soap cartridge including a body, a seal element, a plug, a cover, and a resilient element, wherein the body has a chamber portion, a first connecting portion mounted on one end of the chamber portion, and a second connecting portion disposed on another end of the chamber portion; the chamber portion has a cylindrical cavity defined therein; the first connecting portion is coupled with the pipe joint of the water pipe and has an outlet communicating with the cylindrical cavity, and a diameter of the outlet is smaller than that of the cylindrical cavity, the second connecting portion has an intake communicating with the cylindrical cavity; the seal element is placed into the body from the intake and axially moves in the cylindrical cavity so as to stop the outlet communicating with the cylindrical cavity; and between an external rim of the seal element and the cylindrical cavity is defined a slit; when the first connecting portion of the body couples with the pipe joint of the water pipe, the seal element is pushed by the abutting portion of the pipe joint to move toward the intake, thus removing from the outlet; the plug is placed into the body from the intake and axially moves in the cylindrical cavity, such that between the plug and the seal element is defined a store room so as to store a soap liquid filled from the intake of the body, and as the soap liquid runs out, the plug is biased against the seal element; the cover is connected with the second connecting portion of the body so as to close the intake; the resilient element is fixed between the cover and the plug so that the plug is pushed by the resilient element to press a soap liquid in the store room toward the outlet during which the soap liquid forces on the seal element, so before the first connecting portion of the body couples with the pipe joint of the water pipe, the seal element stops the outlet communicating with the cylindrical cavity, and when the first connecting portion of the body is in connection with the pipe joint of the water pipe, the soap liquid is pressed into the tunnel from the slit through the at least one orifice; an on/off valve is installed on the seat of the water pipe and includes a housing fixed in the groove and moving between a close position and an open position, the housing includes a valve hole communicating with the channel and closes the at least one feeding hole when the on/off valve is fixed at the close position, such that a soap liquid in the tunnel of the pipe joint does not flow into the channel via the at least one feeding hole, and when the on/off valve is fixed at the open position, the housing removes from the at least one feeding hole, so the soap liquid in the tunnel of the pipe joint flows into the channel via the at least one feeding hole and then mixes with a shower water flowing through the channel so as to produce a shower soap water, thereafter the shower soap water is guided into the shower head. 2. The shower soap dispenser as claimed in claim 1, wherein the seat has a horizontal through aperture passing through the channel so as to define the groove in the seat, and a diameter of the horizontal through aperture is greater than that of the channel so that the groove has two fixing walls defined on two sides thereof and two opposite concave faces formed between the two fixing walls, wherein one of the two concave faces is adjacent to the pipe joint and passing through the two feeding holes; the housing is formed in a column shape and rotates between the close position and the open position; the housing also has a passage defined on a middle portion thereof so as to form the valve hole and has two opposite convex faces defined on an outer surface of the middle portion thereof so as to contact with the two concave faces of the seat; the housing further has two closing walls arranged on two sides of the two convex faces thereof so as to close the two fixing walls and has two coupling portions mounted on two sides of the closing walls thereof; the on/off valve further includes two rotatable knobs disposed on the two sides of the groove of the seat and coupling with the two coupling portions of the housing so that the housing is axially limited in the groove, and each rotatable knob is rotated to drive the housing. 3. The shower soap dispenser as claimed in claim 2, wherein the channel of the water pipe has a projected portion defined therein; a predetermined portion of a concave face adjacent to the pipe joint is formed on the projected portion, and the two feeding holes pass through the predetermined portion of the concave face which is formed on the projected portion. 4. The shower soap dispenser as claimed in claim 2, wherein the housing also has two O-shaped rings secured on the closing walls so as to close the two fixing walls of the seat. 5. The shower soap dispenser and shower soap cartridge as claimed in claim 2, wherein the seat also has a circular tab arranged around an opening of one of the two fixing walls, and the circular tab has a limit recess defined thereon; the housing has a limiting protrusion fixed on a coupling portion relative to the circular tab so that the limiting protrusion is retained in the limit recess of the seat, such that the housing is limited to rotate between the close position and the open position relative to the limit recess. 6. The shower soap dispenser as claimed in claim 2, wherein the housing has two opposite notches and two opposite cutouts defined on each coupling portion; the two rotatable knobs are formed in a sleeve shape and are fitted onto the two coupling portions, wherein each rotatable knob has two opposite hooks and two opposite insertions fixed therein, such that the two hooks retain with the two notches, so the two rotatable knobs connect with the two coupling portions, and the two insertions are inserted into the two cutouts so that the two rotatable knobs rotate circumferentially along the two coupling portions of the housing. 7. The shower soap dispenser as claimed in claim 1, wherein the water pipe includes two feeding holes formed on the seat so as to communicate with the groove and the tunnel. 8. The shower soap dispenser as claimed in claim 1, wherein the seal element is circular, and a diameter of the external rim of the seal element is smaller than a diameter of an inner surface of the cylindrical cavity, such that the slit is defined between the external rim of the seal element and the inner surface of the cylindrical cavity. 9. The shower soap dispenser as claimed in claim 8, wherein the cylindrical cavity of the body has a closing fence formed therein and around the outlet so as to contact with the seal element, such that the seal element stops the outlet communicating with the cylindrical cavity. 10. The shower soap dispenser as claimed in claim 9, wherein the pipe joint of the water pipe has an outer screwing section formed around an outer surface thereof and has an abutting portion arranged on a top end thereof, and the first connecting portion of the body has an inner screwing section arranged around an inner surface of the outlet, such that the inner screwing section of the body is screwed with the outer screwing section of the pipe joint, the abutting portion inserts into the cylindrical cavity via the outlet when the water pipe connects with the shower soap cartridge, so the seal element is pushed by the abutting portion to move toward the plug; the pipe joint has two gaps defined on the distal end thereof so as to from the two orifices, and a part of the pipe joint enters into the cylindrical cavity when the shower soap cartridge connects with the pipe joint so as to communicate the slit with the tunnel. 11. The shower soap dispenser as claimed in claim 1, wherein the second connecting portion also has second inner threads arranged around an inner surface of the intake; the cover has an end wall formed on a top end thereof and has a peripheral wall integrally extending outward from the end wall; the peripheral wall of the cover has second outer threads arranged thereon so as to screw with the second inner threads of the second connecting portion of the body, such that the cover connects with the body, and the end wall of the cover abuts against the intake of the housing; the peripheral wall has a slot defined therein so as to receive the resilient element. 12. The shower soap dispenser as claimed in claim 1, wherein an extending direction of the two feeding holes is identical to that of the pipe joint, and the two feeding holes and the pipe joint incline toward the upper segment, such that an angle is defined between an axial line of the pipe joint and that of the channel, and the angle.theta. is between 30 and 60 degrees. 13. The shower soap dispenser as claimed in claim 12, wherein the angle.theta. is 45 degrees. 14. The shower soap dispenser as claimed in claim 1, wherein the upper segment of the water pipe has an inner threaded section formed on an opening thereof so as to screw with the first outer threads of the water supply pipe, such that the water pipe is connected with the water supply pipe, and the lower segment of the water pipe has an outer threaded section formed on an opening thereof so as to screw with the first inner threads of the shower head, such that the water pipe is connected with the shower head. 15. The shower soap dispenser as claimed in claim 1, wherein the resilient element is a spring. 16. A shower soap cartridge connected with a pipe joint of a water pipe, and the pipe joint including an abutting portion formed thereon; the water pipe installed between a water supply pipe and a shower head of a shower system; the shower soap cartridge comprising: a body including a chamber portion, a first connecting portion mounted on one end of the chamber portion, and a second connecting portion disposed on another end of the chamber portion; the chamber portion including a cylindrical cavity defined therein; the first connecting portion being coupled with the pipe joint of the water pipe and having an outlet communicating with the cylindrical cavity, and a diameter of the outlet being smaller than that of the cylindrical cavity, the second connecting portion having an intake communicating with the cylindrical cavity; a seal element being placed into the body from the intake and axially moving in the cylindrical cavity so as to stop the outlet communicating with the cylindrical cavity; and between an external rim of the seal element and the cylindrical cavity being defined a slit; when the first connecting portion of the body couples with the pipe joint of the water pipe, the seal element being pushed by the abutting portion of the pipe joint to move toward the intake, thus removing from the outlet; a plug being placed into the body from the intake and axially moving in the cylindrical cavity, such that between the plug and the seal element is defined a store room so as to store a soap liquid filled from the intake of the body, and as the soap liquid runs out, the plug being biased against the seal element; a cover being connected with the second connecting portion of the body so as to close the intake; a resilient element fixed between the cover and the plug so that the plug is pushed by the resilient element to press a soap liquid in the store room toward the outlet during which the soap liquid forces on the seal element, so before the first connecting portion of the body couples with the pipe joint of the water pipe, the seal element stopping the outlet communicating with the cylindrical cavity, and when the first connecting portion of the body is in connection with the pipe joint of the water pipe, the soap liquid being pressed into the pipe joint from the slit through at least one orifice of the pipe joint. 17. The shower soap cartridge as claimed in claim 16, wherein the seal element is circular, and a diameter of the external rim of the seal element is smaller than a diameter of an inner surface of the cylindrical cavity, such that the slit is defined between the external rim of the seal element and the inner surface of the cylindrical cavity. 18. The shower soap cartridge as claimed in claim 17, wherein the cylindrical cavity of the body has a closing fence formed therein and around to the outlet so as to contact with the seal element, such that the seal element stops the outlet communicating with the cylindrical cavity. 19. The shower soap cartridge as claimed in claim 18, wherein the first connecting portion of the body has an inner screwing section arranged around an inner surface of the outlet, such that the inner screwing section of the body is screwed with the outer screwing section of the pipe joint, the abutting portion inserts into the cylindrical cavity via the outlet when the water pipe connects with the shower soap cartridge, so the seal element is pushed by the abutting portion to move toward the plug. 20. The shower soap cartridge as claimed in claim 16, wherein the second connecting portion also has second inner threads arranged around an inner surface of the intake; the cover has an end wall formed on a top end thereof and has a peripheral wall integrally extending outward from the end wall; the peripheral wall of the cover has second outer threads arranged thereon so as to screw with the second inner threads of the second connecting portion of the body, such that the cover connects with the body, and the end wall of the cover abuts against the intake of the housing; the peripheral wall has a slot defined therein so as to receive the resilient element. 21. The shower soap cartridge as claimed in claim 16, wherein the resilient element is a spring. What is claimed is:Scientists urge obesity prevention after study finds there is no change in breast cancer risk for overweight women who lose weight Scientists are calling for greater action to prevent obesity after a major study established that overweight and obese women run an increased risk of breast cancer that is not diminished by weight loss. The study of more than 67,000 women in the United States, who were followed for a median of 13 years, confirms that excess weight is a real risk for breast cancer after the menopause. The paper, published in JAMA (Journal of the American Medical Association), highlights that two-thirds of women in the US, as in the UK, are either overweight or obese and therefore running a raised risk of breast cancer. The findings “should motivate programmes for obesity prevention”, it says. The results “suggest that prevention of weight gain may be an important public health strategy for reducing breast cancer risk”. The study, by Marian L Neuhouser of the Fred Hutchison Cancer Research Center in Seattle and colleagues, found that a woman’s risk of breast cancer increased if she gained more than 5% of her bodyweight, even if she was initially of normal weight (a BMI of 18.5 to 25), “but there was no change in risk for women who lost weight”. The risk rises the more excess weight women carry. Those who are obese, with a BMI over 30, have a 58% higher chance of breast cancer than those of normal weight. Deaths among the most obese were also twice those among those of normal weight. The findings come from the Women’s Health Initiative, launched in 1993 by the National Institutes of Health in the US to investigate ways to prevent major illness, including heart diseases and cancer, in women. It has also looked at hormone replacement therapy and diet. In a commentary in the journal, Clifford Hudis of Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, New York, and Andrew Dannenberg of the Weill Cornell Medical College, New York, note that the National Cancer Institute recently suggested obesity will replace tobacco as the single biggest modifiable risk factor for cancer. “The danger of inaction is before us – a growing public health burden in the form of cancer and other ailments – but which action to take remains far from clear,” they write. The finding that losing weight does not protect women from breast cancer is frustrating, they say. “This challenges the simple suggestion that patients who are overweight or obese should just lose weight to reduce their cancer risk. Weight control (when achieved) may be very effective for many weight-associated illnesses and ailments, but the data suggesting that it will reduce an already elevated risk of breast cancer are limited. “We need clinical trials to determine whether weight loss and body composition changes in overweight and obesity will reduce breast cancer risk.” Because body fat is a significant source of oestrogen, the breast cancers in overweight and obese women are usually oestrogen-receptor positive. The paper says it is not clear at which stage in a woman’s life weight gain confers the greatest risk. During adolescence and pregnancy, breast epithelial cells undergo rapid division and differentiation, for instance, which might make them susceptible – but there are also changes during the menopause. Katie Goates from Breast Cancer Campaign and Breakthrough Breast Cancer said: “It’s not yet possible to predict with certainty who will get breast cancer but there are proven steps women can take to reduce their risk, aside from
4-30.catv.broadband.hu ~isis@cpe-071-077-070-109.nc.res.rr.com ~isis@d28-23-151-180.dim.wideopenwest.com ~isis@5ED39B01.cm-7-4c.dynamic.ziggo.nl ~isis@wsip-184-178-47-23.ks.ks.cox.net ~isis@201.220.88.110 _________________________________________________________ ************************************* SOME SITES *********************************** -Some of ISIS sites that were taken offline: #Target joinalqarda.com 144.76.97.176 #TANGODOWN #Target alintibana.net 144.76.97.176 #TANGODOWN #Target opcharliehebdo.com 104.28.7.87 (Imposter Website)#TANGODOWN #Target islaam.com 97.74.45.128 #TANGODOWN #Target Qa3edon.100free.com 205.134.165.186 #TANGODOWN #Target daulahisamiyah.net 119.81.24.187 #TANGODOWN #Target ansar1.info 79.172.193.108 #TANGODOWN #Target jhuf.net 104.28.20.19 #TANGODOWN __________________________________________ *********************************** More To Come Soon *********************************** -More to come soon... And Remember, We Own The Internet... We Are Anonymous, We Are Legion, We Do Not Forgive, We Do Not Forget, Expect us. -------------------------------------- -=Anonymous=- -=[MaJHoul]=- -=[G]=- -=Tom McLennon=- -=RedCult Team=- RAW Paste Data -#OpISIS Video Link: http://youtu.be/BPE_sRhZp6M Greetings citizens of the world, we are Anonymous, Operation ISIS Continues: First we need to clarify few a things. We Are: Muslims, Christians, Jews... We Are hackers, crackers, Hacktivist, phishers, agents, spies, or just the guy from next door. We Are students, administrators, workers, clerks, unemployed, rich, poor, We are young, or old, gay or straight. We wear smart clothes or rugs, we are hedonists, ascetics, joy riders or activists. We come from all races, countries, religions, and ethnicity. UNITED AS ONE, DIVIDED BY ZERO... We Are Anonymous. -REMEMBER...THE TERRORISTS THAT ARE CALLING THEMSELVES ISLAMIC STATE,(ISIS), ARE NOT MUSLIMS!!!. -ISIS; We will hunt you, Take down your sites, Accounts, Emails, and expose you... From now on, no safe place for you online... You will be treated like a virus, And we are the cure... We Own The Internet... We are Anonymous, We are Legion, We do not forgive, We do not forget, Expect us. -Now, Some of ISIS's Twitter accounts, Sites, Emails that were Exposed & Destroyed by Anonymous, RedCult team: -Twitter: *********************************** PRIMARY TARGETS *********************************** https://twitter.com/Daash https://twitter.com/DaashISIS https://twitter.com/DaashConnect https://twitter.com/DaashConnect1 https://twitter.com/DaashConnect2 https://twitter.com/DaashConnect3 https://twitter.com/DaashConnect4 https://twitter.com/DaashConnect5 https://twitter.com/DaashConnect6 https://twitter.com/DaashConnect7 https://twitter.com/DaashConnect8 https://twitter.com/DaashISIS https://twitter.com/ISISConnect https://twitter.com/ISISConnect2 https://twitter.com/ISISConnect3 https://twitter.com/ISIS_Connect https://twitter.com/D3ichy1 https://twitter.com/Nour_zalam https://twitter.com/fadou7_ilma3bar https://twitter.com/Faysal_da3iche https://twitter.com/sam7anA7mar https://twitter.com/Salman7asoun https://twitter.com/far7at_naser_3 https://twitter.com/Asad3oumran https://twitter.com/AbouHilal_bader https://twitter.com/Abou7amadElrasy https://twitter.com/Dafiq_ISIS https://twitter.com/Salman_Anwar https://twitter.com/Jazib_moutawakil https://twitter.com/Albakistani_JN https://twitter.com/umar_media_ttp https://twitter.com/Din1080 https://twitter.com/abu_elbaraa91 https://twitter.com/Din1080 https://twitter.com/ZawahiriRafidhi https://twitter.com/interditAuPaien https://twitter.com/Qan9Yaman https://twitter.com/Abouyamany https://twitter.com/AlRani1 https://twitter.com/AMouwahidin https://twitter.com/AbouMoustapha1 https://twitter.com/Abou_illabaisse https://twitter.com/Ja3faralsadik https://twitter.com/E7sanALsadiq https://twitter.com/Ja3far_aboumahdi https://twitter.com/imam_3antar https://twitter.com/AbuBicha https://twitter.com/OumShaheed1 https://twitter.com/aboomusab69 https://twitter.com/riahizaid12 https://twitter.com/Khaled_nousra https://twitter.com/MouvementSalafi https://twitter.com/akhypotteur https://twitter.com/Dz_Bara_ah https://twitter.com/UmmSherazzade https://twitter.com/Salam_nour https://twitter.com/Abou_OmarAlchamy https://twitter.com/Abou_jabal https://twitter.com/Baghdadid1 https://twitter.com/Ra2if_w https://twitter.com/Amin_3abdala https://twitter.com/Qouyas7 https://twitter.com/zalmour_3aziz https://twitter.com/karkhan_el_nour https://twitter.com/Barlous_3antar https://twitter.com/karim_soura https://twitter.com/SrhZtn https://twitter.com/Monimelperso https://twitter.com/Abounizar_sadim https://twitter.com/AbouNasir_nousra https://twitter.com/khalid_da3ichy https://twitter.com/Mouhran_salam_alah https://twitter.com/Mounir3abed_nousra https://twitter.com/MinhajNoubouwa https://twitter.com/abou_suisse https://twitter.com/dawlaReporter https://twitter.com/FatimaYouYouu https://twitter.com/Nour_Da3ich https://twitter.com/aylan7x https://twitter.com/Parigi6 https://twitter.com/moujahidardent https://twitter.com/patience1900 https://twitter.com/alfuratwadijlah https://twitter.com/CassKhattab https://twitter.com/ibnhouss > Rachid Abou Houdeyfa https://twitter.com/aboushaheed_ https://twitter.com/abubakr99amb https://twitter.com/Salashh https://twitter.com/jamilnousran https://twitter.com/jamilnousran1 https://twitter.com/striv5r https://twitter.com/Abu_Qa_ https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCW_pGgW8EM1VYLZSmD-Zr1w https://twitter.com/AbuBritani https://twitter.com/Dawlat_islam7 https://twitter.com/DohakJ https://twitter.com/rawafidhslayer https://twitter.com/AL_WQAEY https://twitter.com/a_m_o_h_a https://twitter.com/princekhattab https://twitter.com/ybahrumi https://twitter.com/AbuSfynAliraqi https://twitter.com/ee_m77771 https://twitter.com/AlqadKref https://twitter.com/walidalhanbali2 https://twitter.com/abuzubeyr911 https://twitter.com/DawahAk4 https://twitter.com/Abu_Baraa1 https://twitter.com/1f21207468944bb https://twitter.com/States_Mujahid https://twitter.com/JuwayriyyahBntH https://twitter.com/birdofgreen https://twitter.com/Abu_Baraa1 https://twitter.com/anjemchoudary https://twitter.com/AbuHaleema02 https://twitter.com/jihadi4life https://twitter.com/AbuKhatarnak https://twitter.com/omaromsen https://twitter.com/bakoon9 https://twitter.com/QaQa_ibnAmr https://twitter.com/rashedha111 https://twitter.com/waaeslamah99 https://twitter.com/Emam_ALQourachy https://twitter.com/bayazed_alshami https://twitter.com/0541666 https://twitter.com/mhiisni https://twitter.com/intent/user?user_id=393440365 342 K TARGET N° 1!!! https://twitter.com/EYADQUNAIBI https://twitter.com/intent/user?user_id=532700952 156 K followers https://twitter.com/s_2O17_ https://twitter.com/intent/user?user_id=241640145 116 K followers https://twitter.com/zahran1970 https://twitter.com/intent/user?user_id=870434053 111 K followers https://twitter.com/ZaidZamanHamid https://twitter.com/intent/user?user_id=126966274 104 K followers https://twitter.com/Al_forqaan https://twitter.com/intent/user?user_id=399730349 88.1 K FOLLOWERS https://twitter.com/IslamArmy01 https://twitter.com/intent/user?user_id=707052698 73700 followers https://twitter.com/dralgzouli https://twitter.com/intent/user?user_id=571854743 >>> 50,9 K Followers!!! https://twitter.com/alheetari https://twitter.com/intent/user?user_id=1100821141 47.900 followers (prédicateur) https://twitter.com/Q8__HACK https://twitter.com/intent/user?user_id=1249204051 37.000 followers https://twitter.com/taweel_ruaa https://twitter.com/intent/user?user_id=2534504508 30.000 folowers https://twitter.com/salah_news3 https://twitter.com/intent/user?user_id=2901960090 26.100 followers https://twitter.com/anjemchoudary https://twitter.com/intent/user?user_id=263428605 26.000 followers <<!! https://twitter.com/Nsaaeet https://twitter.com/intent/user?user_id=525504379 25600 followers https://twitter.com/Latest111 https://twitter.com/intent/user?user_id=2813747288 24.4 K followers! https://twitter.com/awsfasfasisis https://twitter.com/intent/user?user_id=2807440143 23.3k folloers https://twitter.com/motlaqghazai https://twitter.com/intent/user?user_id=425726100 (22500 followers) https://twitter.com/mri45555 https://twitter.com/intent/user?user_id=2684467195 20.500 followers https://twitter.com/Abu_Baraa1 https://twitter.com/intent/user?user_id=513116847 20,000 follower https://twitter.com/MohammadHlabi80 https://twitter.com/intent/user?user_id=2427673497 17,9 K followers https://twitter.com/aman12000 https://twitter.com/intent/user?user_id=2835577020 17.600 followers https://twitter.com/mamoonhatem https://twitter.com/intent/user?user_id=2911174142 15,300 followers https://twitter.com/thabet207 https://twitter.com/intent/user?user_id=619362308 15 K followers also has another account https://twitter.com/thabet209 https://twitter.com/intent/user?user_id=1510978010 (only 1943 followers) https://twitter.com/soor18957 https://twitter.com/intent/user?user_id=2841241388 14.400 followers https://twitter.com/fallujaty2 https://twitter.com/intent/user?user_id=2834912653 12.8 K followers! https://twitter.com/ah_bawade https://twitter.com/intent/user?user_id=2836021826 12.8 K FOLLOWERS https://twitter.com/HarvardDr https://twitter.com/intent/user?user_id=18596784 12000 followers https://twitter.com/Suhib_5 https://twitter.com/intent/user?user_id=2818431679 11,4 K followers https://twitter.com/amarr_2025 https://twitter.com/intent/user?user_id=2411166558 10.9 K followers! https://twitter.com/fs518 https://twitter.com/intent/user?user_id=714215533 14 613 followers https://twitter.com/TurkieALrubaish https://twitter.com/intent/user?user_id=217219193 10000 followers ********************************** LESS THAN 10K TARGETS ************************************ https://twitter.com/rb6a__11 https://twitter.com/intent/user?user_id=2840708923 9438 followers https://twitter.com/7oor880 https://twitter.com/intent/user?user_id=2824902576 8575 followers https://twitter.com/Altmimy_1 https://twitter.com/intent/user?user_id=842163252 8531 followers https://twitter.com/tatamaddad4 https://twitter.com/intent/user?user_id=2835871014 8119 followers https://twitter.com/sarah_loveis https://twitter.com/intent/user?user_id=2757572152 7719 followers https://twitter.com/abdullahalresh4 https://twitter.com/intent/user?user_id=2767201860 7153 followers https://twitter.com/si__si191991 https://twitter.com/intent/user?user_id=2635292182 6735 followers https://twitter.com/ansary_e3 https://twitter.com/intent/user?user_id=2895024826 6994 followers https://twitter.com/abu_yazeed14 https://twitter.com/intent/user?user_id=2817902875 6670 followers https://twitter.com/Labik0 https://twitter.com/intent/user?user_id=1070814528 6655 followers https://twitter.com/Ms_R291 https://twitter.com/intent/user?user_id=2969122137 6554 followers https://twitter.com/ShhedEnShaAllah https://twitter.com/intent/user?user_id=376985372 6492 followers https://twitter.com/alkendy27 https://twitter.com/intent/user?user_id=2228462724 6108 followers https://twitter.com/enof2016 https://twitter.com/intent/user?user_id=1549160924 5926 Followers https://twitter.com/abu_hafes_isis https://twitter.com/intent/user?user_id=2882492261 5749 followers https://twitter.com/moouslima123 https://twitter.com/intent/user?user_id=2794261458 5710 followers https://twitter.com/AVYX_v__v_fy https://twitter.com/intent/user?user_id=2824247594 5687 followers https://twitter.com/RBJ_AlGaMDi_ https://twitter.com/intent/user?user_id=2767536520 5201 followers https://twitter.com/alsham_asd https://twitter.com/intent/user?user_id=2197275166 5597 followers https://twitter.com/albokmalislam11 https://twitter.com/intent/user?user_id=2788089920 5501 followers https://twitter.com/Khilafa_M1 https://twitter.com/intent/user?user_id=2940495631 7089 followers https://twitter.com/Sm_Wayli https://twitter.com/intent/user?user_id=1954719127 8382 followers https://twitter.com/Ajnad12 https://twitter.com/intent/user?user_id=2845933318 5237 followers https://twitter.com/abosad321 https://twitter.com/intent/user?user_id=2775191765 5180 followers https://twitter.com/isiscoool https://twitter.com/intent/user?user_id=2796074387 5329 followers https://twitter.com/503e4b5476fd44e https://twitter.com/intent/user?user_id=2586354721 5219 followers https://twitter.com/NajdiDawah https://twitter.com/intent/user?user_id=2550078900 5123 followers https://twitter.com/ALFataih3 https://twitter.com/intent/user?user_id=2955320248 5809 followers https://twitter.com/Alkindyy_is https://twitter.com/intent/user?user_id=2889068404 5371 followers https://twitter.com/aboood11397 https://twitter.com/intent/user?user_id=749690491 4689 followers https://twitter.com/Mejadl00 https://twitter.com/intent/user?user_id=2794355206 4641 followers https://twitter.com/adilyonsoo2 https://twitter.com/intent/user?user_id=2540351630 4783 followers https://twitter.com/l12146 https://twitter.com/intent/user?user_id=2839540298 4527 followers https://twitter.com/isis__100 https://twitter.com/intent/user?user_id=2913530876 4512 followers https://twitter.com/shehabms3 https://twitter.com/intent/user?user_id=604465057 4257 followers https://twitter.com/truthsmaster https://twitter.com/intent/user?user_id=814187370 4163 followers https://twitter.com/twer1394 https://twitter.com/intent/user?user_id=2890952795 4308 followers https://twitter.com/azdDson3 https://twitter.com/intent/user?user_id=2959845024 4767 followers https://twitter.com/Th_b_at12 https://twitter.com/intent/user?user_id=2763512176 4282 followers https://twitter.com/m7mad_22122 https://twitter.com/intent/user?user_id=2772275044 4078 followers https://twitter.com/muhajir_1 https://twitter.com/intent/user?user_id=1586953038 4094 followers https://twitter.com/QURAN_SWORD2 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Taiyuan, capturing Langmeng(狼孟). – An earthquake occured. – From Shiji: Aristocratic Family of Zhao, Qin attacked a castle of Fan Wu(番吾). Riboku manage to defend it against Qin. Year 16, 231BC – September, Qin sent soldiers and Tou to accept Nan An(南安) from Han. – Wei offered land to Qin. Qin set up Li county(丽邑). Year 17, 230BC – Tou attacked Han, capturing King An of Han and annexed all the lands of Han. – Another earthquake occured. – Empress Dowager Huayang died. She is wife of Sei’s grandfather, King Xiaowen. – A famine occured. Year 18, 229BC – Qin sent a large army to attack Zhao. Ousen led the army of Shangdi(上地) to attack Jing Xing(井陉). Yotanwa attack He Nei(河内). Kyokai attacked Zhao. Yotanwa lay siege to Kantan. – From Shiji: Biographies of Assassins: It was mentioned that Ousen has led hundreds of thousands of soldiers to Zhang(漳) and Gyou. Shin’s army left Taiyuan(太原) and Yunzhong(云中). Year 19, 228BC – Ousen and Kyokai captured Dongyang(东阳), capturing the king of Zhao. They then led the Qin army east, preparing to attack Yan, with the armies stationing at Zhongshan(中山). – From Shiji: Aristocratic Family of Zhao, Zhao sent Riboku and Shiba Shou to stop Qin’s advance into Zhao. Riboku was eventually executed and Shiba Shou stripped off his duties. Zhao Cong and Qi general, Yan Ju, replaced them. Zhao Cong’s army was defeated and Yan Ju fled. The Zhao king defeated. – From Shiji: Biographies of Lian Po and Lin Xiangru, Qin sent money to Kaku Kai, the high ranking official in Zhao, to bribe him to spread false rumors about Riboku and Shiba Shou planning a rebel against the king. The king of Zhao sent Zhao Cong and Yan Ju to replace Riboku and Shiba Shou. Riboku refused the order to return to court and was captured and executed by agents. Shiba Shou was stripped off his duties. In 3 months, Ousen struck fast and defeated Zhao Cong and Yan Ju, defeating the state of Zhao entirely. – After the fall of Kantan, Sei travelled to Kantan and buried alive all those who offended his mother in the past. After Sei returned, his mother died soon after. – Prince Ka of Zhao led a few hundred men to the region of Dai, setting up a small state of Dai, proclaiming himself king, combining his armies with the armies of Yan. – A major famine occured. Year 20, 227BC – Crown Prince Dan of Yan was afraid of the threat of Qin. He sent Jin Ke to assassinate the king of Qin. Jin Ke was executed by having his body torn apart. Ousen and Xin Sheng was sent to attack Yan as revenge. Yan sent its army to defend against Qin but was defeated to the west of Yi river. Year 21, 226BC – Ouhon attacked Ji(蓟), the capital of Yan. *However, some sources indicate that Ouhon attacked Jing(荆), which is another name for Chu. The 2 chinese characters are quite similar in structure and there are records of both the fall of Ji and battle in Chu this year so both could be possible, despite their geographical locations being far apart. Let’s see which will Hara choose. – Ousen defeated the crown prince’s army and obtained the head of the crown prince after reinforcements from Qin. – From Zhan Guo Ce: Ch31, Yan No.3, we know that when Shin was pursuing the king of Yan towards Liaodong(辽东), through the suggestion of the king of Dai, the Yan king killed his own crown prince and gave Qin the crown prince’s head. We can deduce from there that Shin was part of Ousen’s invasion in the line above. – The king of Yan moved to Liaodong and became the king there. – Ousen retires. –Shiji: Biographies of Bai Qi and Wang Jian details the reason for Ousen’s retirement. Sei asks both Shin and Ousen on their plans to invade Chu. Shin replied that 200,000 soldiers is enough to take Chu while Ousen thinks that he needs at least 600,000 soldiers. Sei disagrees with Ousen, and Ousen decides to retires. Sei sent Shin to invade Chu with 200,000 soldiers, resulting in a loss despite winning earlier battles in Chu. Scholars have blamed this loss is on the betrayal of Shouheikun halfway during the invasion, forcing Shin to turn the Qin army back resulting in a 2-pronged attack by Chu. Shin lost 7 of his lieutenants in this war. – A rebellion started in Xinzheng(新郑, old Han territory). – Shouheikun moved to Ying(郢), the old capital of Chu that was captured by Hakuki in the past. – A blizzard, bringing 2 feet and 5 inches of snow. Year 22, 225BC – Ouhon attacked Wei, redirecting the waters from the yellow river to flood Daliang, the capital of Wei. The king of Wei surrendered and Qin annexed the lands of Wei. Year 23, 224BC – The king of Qin resummoned Ousen for the invasion of Chu. Qin captured all castles south of Chen(陈, Chu capital) up to Pingyu(平舆) and capturing the king of Chu. -King of Qin toured Yingchen(郢陈). -Kouen made Shouheikun the new king of Chu, rebel against Qin in Huainan(淮南). -From Shiji: Biographies of Bai Qi and Wang Jian, Sei then invited Ousen back to lead 600,000 in the invasion of Chu. When Ousen set off from Kanyou, he made multiple requests to Sei for beauties, money and land when he return victorious from Chu. This is to give Sei the impression that Ousen wants only material wealth rather than rebel with the 600,000 soldiers, so that he will not suffer the same fate as Riboku. Instead of invading Chu, Ousen found a spot in Chu to build up defenses and refuses to attack despite taunts from the Chu army. He then waited patiently until the perfect opportunity to attack and crush the Chu army in one fell swoop, killing Kouen and capturing the king of Chu by the end of the year. Year 24, 223BC – Ousen and Moubu attacked Chu and defeated the Chu army. Shouheikun died and Kouen committed suicide. Year 25, 222BC – Qin sent a major force led by Ouhon to attack Liaodong of Yan, capturing King Xi of Yan. He then attacked Dai, capturing King Jia(King Ka) of Dai. -Ousen attacks the lands south of Yangtze, defeated the king of Yue, setting up Huiji county(会稽郡). -From Shiji: Biographies of Bai Qi and Wang Jian, Shin was in fact involved in final invasions of Yan (as well as Qi). Year 26, 221BC – King Jian(Ouken) of Qi and his chancellor Kou Shou sent their armies to defend the western border with Qin. Qin sent Ouhon to lead his army down to invade Qi from the south of Yan. -From Shiji: Biographies of Bai Qi and Wang Jian, Shin was in fact involved in final invasions of Qi (and Yan). From Shi Ji: Biography of Meng Tian, Mouten was rewarded the post of governer(same as Tou) for his family’s achievements over the years and his participation in conquering Qi. -China is now unified under Qin AdvertisementsSEATTLE—Baseball fans across the nation admitted Monday that the sight of Ken Griffey Jr. in a backwards baseball cap—an iconic image that once filled fans with joy and promise and a feeling that maybe, just maybe, eternal youth was possible—now makes them feel completely and utterly depressed. "To see him wear his hat like that is actually heartbreaking," 27-year-old Seattle resident Peter Morley said of Griffey, who is hitting.152 this spring training. "It just doesn't look right anymore, you know? It doesn't look natural." Advertisement "Maybe it's because his face is fatter," Morley added. As the 40-year-old Griffey begins his 22nd season, fans say the sight of the once-lean five-tool player flipping his cap around is no longer synonymous with athletic excellence, infinite potential, or effortless cool. Instead, they claim it is a sad reminder of how time takes its toll on the body, how we try to relive our former glory but never quite do, and how the prime of our life passes in an instant. Fans also say that Griffey's backwards cap reminds them, especially those of them in their mid- to late 20s, that their childhoods are most definitely over. Advertisement "This is going to sound weird, and I can't quite describe why, but seeing Griffey with his hat backwards used to make me feel like summertime. Does that make any sense?" said a fan, who wished to remain anonymous, adding that 16 years ago he purchased a fitted Seattle Mariners cap and wore it backwards every day to emulate Griffey. "I can't believe I'm saying this, but now I wear my hats forwards simply because he still wears his hat backwards. It's just too painful." Fans say the sight of Griffey in a backwards hat was most uplifting in the early to mid-1990s, before his move to Cincinnati. Their joy at seeing his face beneath the bill-less cap reportedly peaked during the 1993 Home Run Derby when Griffey, hat turned round on his head, became the first player to hit the warehouse beyond the right field fence at Camden Yards. However, during Griffey's injury-plagued seasons from 2000 to 2007, the sight of the backwards hat caused feelings of frustration, anger, and hopelessness, and eventually became associated in their minds with countless utterances of the phrase, "Get up, you're fine. Please get up. Oh, God." Advertisement The moment of complete and utter despair came yesterday as Griffey hit a now-rare home run during batting practice and cheering fans realized they were fooling themselves into thinking 2010 would be a fairy-tale season. "I honestly believed that, when he returned to Seattle last year, seeing his Mariners hat turned backwards again would make me feel better," said Seattle resident David Jaffe, adding that the sight of Griffey in a backwards White Sox cap sent him into a downward spiral he'd like to forget. "But when I actually saw him it just made me more upset. It finally dawned on me that I'm this pathetic guy trying to recapture a moment in 1994 that will never exist again." According to a Sporting News poll, 43 percent of baseball fans can't even bear to look at Griffey wearing his hat backwards. Another 24 percent say the visual reminds them of torn hamstrings. And 33 percent of respondents said that images of Alex Rodriguez, Prince Fielder, or CC Sabathia wearing their hats backwards just aren't the same, and actually make things much worse. Advertisement One hundred percent of respondents said they'd like to see Griffey play 10 more years and break every record there is, adding, "Fuck you if you don't believe he can do it." "You know what? I saw a recent picture of him with his hat backwards, and if you looked at it from the right angle, you could believe he had just one chin, and the gray hairs in his goatee were actually nothing more than the spring sunlight shining through," said Michael Dorenzo, who, despite being from New York, is a hardcore Seattle Mariners fan because of Griffey. "He was 'The Kid' again." "Jesus Christ," he continued, suddenly growing morose. "Who am I kidding? I guess we all have to die some day." Advertisement When asked for comment during a press conference yesterday, Griffey, his hat backwards, smiled broadly, and for one brief moment appeared to be the same man who led Seattle to the ALCS in 1995. He then coughed wildly, sending the cap flying off his head.TOKYO — A top official hinted Thursday that Japan’s newly installed conservative government might seek to revise a nearly two-decade-old official apology to women forced into sexual slavery during World War II, a move that would most likely outrage South Korea and possibly other former victims of Japanese militarism. Speaking a day after the new cabinet was named, the official, Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga, who serves as the government’s top spokesman, refused to say clearly whether the new prime minister, Shinzo Abe, an outspoken nationalist, would uphold the 1993 apology. Mr. Suga said at a news conference that it would be “desirable for experts and historians to study” the so-called Kono Statement, which acknowledged the Imperial Army’s involvement in forcing thousands of captured Asian and Dutch women to provide sex for Japanese soldiers. Most historians say the women were coerced and were not prostitutes, as Mr. Abe and other nationalists have claimed in the past. Mr. Suga also said, however, that the Abe government would uphold a broader apology, issued in 1995 to observe the 50th anniversary of the end of World War II, to all victims of Japan’s colonialism and aggression. Advertisement Continue reading the main story Mr. Abe, who also served as prime minister in 2006 and 2007, has never been shy about his right-wing agenda, which includes calls for textbooks with a more patriotic tone. But after watching his popularity plummet in his last term as mainstream Japanese bridled at his hawkish stands, some analysts have suggested that he might be more restrained this time. Photo If Mr. Abe revises the apology, the move will run counter to the wishes of the United States. American officials say they have urged Mr. Abe to shelve calls to revise the Kono Statement to avoid increasing tensions with South Korea. The United States has been urging the two countries, its closest allies in the region, to increase cooperation as China is asserting more territorial claims and as North Korea appears to be continuing to strengthen its nuclear weapons and missile programs.I can think of worse ways to die, but I can’t think of any more embarassing. For those of you who don’t know our good friend David Carradine has passed away due to “Complications” from Auto-erotic Asphyxiation (He hung himself AND his junk from a closet door)……. gross. Apparently Mr. Carradine was a bit kinky and would do this often, there was also some question of cross dressing and Lingerie. Okey dokey! Well to each there own I guess. I used to watch Mr. Carradine all the time on “Kung Fu Theater” which was awesome and he was hilarious as Frankenstein in “Death Race 2000.” If you haven’t seen the original you must. It’s part of your cultural heritage. Anyway, welcome to The Zombie Nation Mr. Carradine. Unfortunately zombies don’t need to breath so there will not be anymore “slappy fun time” for you. Sorry about that.Fellow Atheists:United We Stand Fellow atheist activist, Lee Moore, recently published an open letter to the greater atheist community. In his letter, he has called for an end to the atheist-on-atheist flame wars and has instead called on unity to fight against the Trump administration. Moore points out that during the Bush Administration, atheists came together to rise up against the very real threat of Christian Theocracy. When Obama became President, many atheists dwelled on our differences instead of our common cause. Obama, after all, acknowledged atheists and had a Humanist mother. Some even suggested (without evidence) that he was a secret atheist himself. While I don’t think that is true, he certainly was friendlier and more receptive to the atheist community and many of our concerns. We were even able to find common ground with the President on many issues. Obama supported robust science education, was concerned about climate change, and supported the Jeffersonian Wall between Church and State… somewhat. He at least played lip service to that one. Thanks to Joe Biden and the growing strength of the gay community, Obama finally “evolved” on the issue of marriage equality too. For atheists, Obama was pretty good. He wasn’t Bernie Sanders good, but still pretty good. Now that Trump is President there is some concern. While Trump personally probably doesn’t give a rat’s ass about religion, he has surrounded himself with the Religious Right. His VP, Mike Pence, is even more wacky religious than Bush was. Betsy DeVos, his Education Secretary, want to gut public education in favor of religious schools. The list of wacky religious officials goes on and on. Atheists can no longer afford to fight among ourselves. We are a diverse community and we all have issues we care more deeply about than other issues. That’s fair. We should continue to fight for the issues we care about. However, we have to unite and fight together on the issues we have in common. We need to fight together on issues like science education, education in general, climate change, separation of church and state, etc. We need to fight together against those who want to use their holy book to dictate the lives of everyone else. Moore pointed out that the last Reason Rally had a fraction of the numbers that the first one had. But that isn’t the only concern. Atheist engagement is down across the board. The last PhillyCoR Unity Picnic ended up losing money and I am guessing that attendance has been down at atheist groups and conferences across the country. The sense of urgency within our community had disappeared. Well, now that urgency is here again!!! Trump may just be the best thing to happen to our community. He is our common enemy that we need to light the fire under our collective asses. Is there an atheist personality you have feuded with over the past eight years? Stop the feud! Be the better Humanist. As Benjamin Franklin once said, “We have to hang together or we will most assuredly hang separately.” I am adding my name to Lee’s letter. Will you add your name?Hydrocodone bitartrate and acetaminophen pills, also known as Vicodin. United Nations data say the United States outpaces all other countries in opioid use. (Toby Talbot/AP) The number of opioid prescriptions has decreased in the past few years, after more than a decade of explosive growth. This reflects new practice guidelines underscoring opioids’ generally poor effectiveness at reducing chronic pain, increased monitoring of prescribers by government and health-care organizations, and widespread horror within and without medicine over the epidemic of opioid-related deaths. Although reducing the number of prescriptions will decrease the number of people who become addicted to opioids, too many prescribing restrictions could deny opioids to patients who need and benefit from them. How can we know if and when prescribing controls have gone overboard and the population has insufficient access to prescription opioids? In short, how will we know if the effort to restrict opioids has gone too far? United Nations data provide one important benchmark against which to judge how much more or less opioid consumption might be appropriate for a given country. And what it finds about the United States is jaw-dropping: Even when the list is restricted to the top 25 heaviest consuming countries, the United States outpaces them all in opioid use. For example, Americans are prescribed about six times as many opioids per capita as are citizens of Portugal and France, even though those countries offer far easier access to health care. The largest disparity noted in the U.N. report concerns hydrocodone: Americans consume more than 99 percent of the world’s supply of this opioid. Source: United Nations International Narcotics Control Board One might think that Americans consume more opioids because as an aging population, they have objectively more aches and pains. But the U.S. population ranks only 42nd in the world in its proportion of people aged 65 or older. Countries with a much higher proportion of senior citizens than the United States, such as Australia and Italy, consume only a fraction of the prescription opioids of Americans. If objective need doesn’t explain the relatively enormous prescription opioid consumption in the United States, what does? Economics, politics and culture are all likely at play. Unlike most of the developed world, the United States puts minimal constraints on aggressive marketing by pharmaceutical companies, whether the target is patients, prescribers, or medical and scientific societies. U.S. pharmaceutical manufacturers have been highly successful at promoting prescription opioids in this lightly regulated, profit-driven health-care environment. The huge profits of opioid manufacturers and distributors translate into significant political clout, further supporting expanding U.S. opioid consumption. For example, as previously reported in The Washington Post, when federal drug agents began holding opioid distribution companies accountable for shipping massive numbers of opioids to pill mills, lobbyists from the industry successfully pressured the Justice Department’s leadership to curtail the investigation. Chillicothe, Ohio is grappling with an addiction epidemic driven by opioids like heroin. But some here aren't letting overdoses rule. (Lee Powell/The Washington Post) Cultural factors may augment U.S. opioid consumption, as well. Relative to Europeans, Americans have more faith that life is perfectible (e.g., all pain can be avoided). Consider, for example, a 55-year-old who feels acute back and leg pain after doing the workout that was easy when he was 25. A European in this situation might reflect sadly that aging and physical decay must be accepted as part of life, but an achy American might demand that his doctor fix what he sees as an avoidable problem by prescribing him opioids. None of this means that some Americans don’t have a legitimate need for opioids, nor that U.S. doctors sometimes don’t prescribe opioids when they should. But it does suggest that before launching into hysteria that the recent, small drops in opioid prescribing reflect a “war on pain patients,” we should recognize that U.S. consumption dwarfs that of other developed countries that have older populations with better access to prescribing health-care providers. Keith Humphreys is a professor of psychiatry at Stanford University.BOSTON—In a startling discovery that sheds new light on the link between the earliest American colonists and their modern descendants, researchers at Boston University announced Thursday they have traced the U.S. obesity epidemic back to a single heavyset Mayflower passenger. Through an exhaustive analysis of genetic samples, as well as diary entries, ship logs, and tattered medical records from the early 17th century, a multidisciplinary research team has reportedly determined that the majority of severely overweight individuals in the United States today share key genetic markers and unhealthy eating behaviors that appear to be passed down from a 307-pound Plymouth Colony settler named Jeremiah Alden. Advertisement “At a time when the average European male weighed perhaps 135 pounds, Jeremiah’s tremendous size was an exceedingly rare trait, which is indicated by contemporary accounts of him as a ‘startling behemoth’ and ‘wide-across as three men together,’” biologist Allan Fortner said of the man who, by fathering nine portly children, is believed to have introduced a predisposition toward slow metabolism and sedentary personal habits into the American genome. “After carefully sequencing the DNA of his remains, we have pinpointed this hefty Pilgrim’s appearance in the New World as the single most crucial event giving rise to modern Americans’ elevated BMIs, tendency toward overeating, and aversion to exercise.” “We would certainly not have a situation in which 62 percent of the U.S. population is either overweight or obese had this man simply stayed in England,” he added. Noting that early American colonies were frequently plagued by starvation, researchers said Alden’s sheer caloric intake—a 17th-century journal claimed he “consum’d three-and-twenty biscuits every noonday”—allowed the separatist Puritan to thrive despite the odds, resulting in a selective genetic advantage. The study’s authors also confirmed that the United States’ high rates of Type 2 diabetes, hypertension, knee joint pain, and sleep apnea are almost solely a result of this one enormous man’s contributions to the gene pool. Advertisement Researchers said they were first inspired to study Alden after reading several passages in William Bradford’s Of Plymouth Plantation, which described the settler as a “slothfull fellow who erupteth through his waistcoat with girth” and “labours hard for his breath, the swett allways upon his crimson-hued face.” Though he counted for only one of the Mayflower’s 102 passengers, logs kept during the voyage claimed he had “near devowered rations set a-side for one man’s intire voyage” before the ship had even left port in England, enraging his gaunt and scurvy-prone fellow travelers. “Upon their arrival in the New World, the Pilgrims quickly got to work laying the foundation for a new civilization, but it appears Jeremiah just sort of hung out on board for a few days, nibbling on salt pork,” historian Karen Harmon said. “And once he disembarked, he made quick work of the colony’s stores of grain and dried provisions, leading to around half the settlers dying in that first winter.” Citing records that indicate Alden required “the skines of seven otters to cloathe wholy his great bodily expance,” the research team suggested that his excess reserves of adipose tissue allowed him—and the genes he would pass along—to survive until spring. Advertisement Numerous artifacts provide further evidence of Alden’s rotundness, including a contemporary woodcut that depicts a nearly spherical man, the buckles on his doublet straining to contain his frame as he stands among a group of rail-thin Pilgrims and Native Americans. Additional documents also describe first Thanksgiving in 1621, at which, according to one account, this ancestral forerunner of U.S. obesity “did go back for double, treble, and quadreble servings” of wildfowl and maize. “Mr. Alden hath the breadth of many men & eats as such, w’out nary a mite of shame, his wide, flesh-ly hands etern’ly imparting morsels unto his happy mouth,” reads an entry from the diary of Mayflower captain Christopher Jones. “The savages cry at his immense appearance, be-lieving they that he is some terrible monster.” “This morn we went to gather straw fit for thatch and return’d to finde Jeremiah eating merrilee of our common victuals, which did anger us plenty,” it continues. “Yet he merely shrugged & smiled in a bashfull way, in accordance with his gener’ly joyous & agreeible comportment.” Advertisement The researchers stressed, however, that their discovery of a single obese progenitor should not be used as a scapegoat by modern Americans for their poor dietary habits and dangerously high body masses. “While this is a significant discovery, we must not blame Jeremiah Alden alone for today’s pervasive obesity problem,” Fortner said. “He certainly set our nation on the wrong path in terms of excessive weight and unhealthy food choices, but we must all take responsibility for our own health. Otherwise we might end up just like Jeremiah, who died of a heart attack at age 46 after being accused of witchcraft.”A group of bitcoin enthusiasts installed the first bitcoin ATM in Greece. If you are in Athens, you can buy digital currency in Orizontes bookshop. CoinFox editor, Alexei Tereschenko found ATM on CoinATMRadar: “First bitcoin ATM launched in Greece. This is a one-way Satoshi1 bitcoin machine which is located at Orizontes Bookstore in Acharnes.” The address is IOANNOU THIVAIOU 20 Acharnes, P.C. 13673. Operating company is EasyBitLLC. It is not very far from Athens’ city centre. According to Google Maps, it takes 40 minutes by public transport or 25 minutes by car to reach Akropolis and other tourist sites in the Greek capital’s city centre. The bitcoin community received the news enthusiastically. There were many rumours that the present government of Greece might embrace bitcoin soon to avoid bankruptcy. The country is now in a critical situation, according to the BBC. This week, Greece needs to pay the IMF loan back, but it has no money to do so. To receive an emergency credit from the European countries the government of PM Alexis Tsipras has to cut pensions, raise energy prices and cut salaries in the public sector. The populist prime minister does not agree to reforms that might damage his rating inside the country. As a result, Greece may face a default and (in the worst case scenario) leave the Eurozone in the nearest future. Some people think, that the Greek crisis may affect the price of bitcoin.Now anyone can artificially enhance their performance – from buying drugs online to tricking time-trial apps and riding bikes with hidden motors. But if you’re not racing for cash, what’s the point? A man in his 40s called Graham was cycling up a mountain in Mallorca this spring when he heard a strange whirring noise. It became immediately clear what it was when another rider breezed past, apparently without much effort. She had a tiny, performance-enhancing motor hidden in the frame of her bike. “I was livid!” Graham recalls. “She might as well have been riding a moped.” David Millar: Cycling needs to face its dark period to climb out of abyss Read more The amateur cyclist wasn’t cheating because she wasn’t racing, but, in a small way, she was part of a growing problem. Because, while it is harder for professionals to dope and get away with it, amateurs at all levels of sport appear to be redrawing the line between the fair and the dishonest - or just motoring right across it. “Right now, I imagine there are a lot of cyclists out there Googling ‘motor doping’ and thinking about doing it,” says Peter Flax, a racer and journalist in Los Angeles who has investigated cheating in amateur cycling. “There are lots of totally honest amateur racers devoted to doing it right, but there are enough out there who have other ideas.” Doping used to be a much simpler problem. Drugs such as EPO (erythropoietin), the red-blood-cell-stimulating hormone once favoured by Lance Armstrong, were the preserve of the pros. But, in the past few years, amateur racers chasing much smaller prizes have begun testing positive for a range of substances. The problem is reportedly rife in amateur rugby and boxing, and cycling’s Independent Reform Commission (CIRC), says amateur doping is “endemic” in the sport. Now, concealed motors are beginning to turn up in races, opening a second frontier in cheating. In April, Belgian cyclo-cross racer Femke van den Driessche was banned for six years after one of the devices, which are legal outside of racing but offer any cyclist a decisive advantage, was discovered in her bike during a world championships event in January. Away from the drugs and the battery acid, there is a third frontier, where everyday athletes find subtler ways to massage performance and results in the age where exercise has become yet another thing to share online. “There’s an increased emphasis on looking fast than in actually being fast,” says Michael Hutchinson, the cycling writer and former Great Britain racing cyclist. “It’s sport as a public challenge rather than a private challenge.” Hutchinson and others involved in sport at various levels describe how social media has combined with disposable incomes, vanity and the dirty example of the Armstrong era to create a new normal for many amateurs. But what motivates the no-name cheats among us? And where should we draw the line when we chase not riches and hero status, but arbitrary goals and bragging rights? Now, anyone can hop on Google and get the same advice a team doctor used to get paid massive money for David Millar David Millar, the retired British professional road-racing cyclist, who became an anti-doping advocate when he returned from a two-year ban for doping a decade ago, says that without more research, “everything is hearsay”. But he accepts that the landscape has changed. “In the old days, you had to find out how to do it underground,” he says from his home in Spain. “Now anyone can hop on Google and get the same advice a team doctor used to get paid massive money for.” Not only advice, but the drugs themselves. A BBC Panorama investigation showed last year how easy it can be to buy EPO. Reporter Mark Daly became a transformed athlete on the drug. In one of the most depressing known cases of amateur doping, talented junior national time trial champion Gabriel Evans was caught taking the endurance-boosting drug last December. He said that the documentary had fuelled his curiosity. The internet has opened a door to drugs, but it is changing the way we exercise in other ways, as our inclination to share achievements increases the pressure to make them shine. The medium of choice for cyclists and runners is Strava. When you upload an activity to the fitness social network, recorded on a phone, fitness tracker or cycling computer, it lays your route over a map and automatically ranks your time along identified “segments” of road. The fastest rider on each segment is named King or Queen of the Mountain (KOM/QOM), in a nod to the Tour de France. Strava says that more than 150,000 people are signing up each week and that “tens of millions” of users upload almost half a million activities every day. As the network has grown, it has made racers of us all. If you see a lone cyclist gurning up a hill with a face like Chris Froome’s during an Alpine stage of Le Tour, or a runner dipping for an invisible finish line in the park, she’s probably trying to beat – and then upload – her personal best. Confessions of a Strava cycling addict \| Trevor Ward Read more Hutchinson, a former national champion and Commonwealth Games veteran, has nothing to prove. But even he admits to getting sucked in. “There’s a 2.5-mile segment between two villages near me, which I’ve decided I’m getting before the end of summer,” he says from his home near Cambridge. “I’ll wait for the right breeze and I’ll be out in every bit of go-faster kit I own. I don’t confuse it with a proper bike race, but it’s still a competition. I look at it and think, I’d like to have that.” Hutchinson runs, too, and has noticed suspicious activity on Strava. “You look at some runs and know the guy didn’t do it, because if he did he’d win the London Marathon,” he says. It’s easy to cheat accidentally. I’ve been guilty of ‘train doping’, when I left my bike computer running on the way home from a ride. I declared my 80mph top speed, but there is nothing to stop me driving my car up a hill at a not impossible but KOM-worthy speed with my device running. “You have to accept it’s a bit like the wild west,” Hutchinson says. Yet runners and riders take Strava ridiculously seriously. The Los Angeles biking scene is abuzz with news of a mystery cyclist called Thorfinn-Saasquatch. Last summer, Peter Flax was riding up Mandeville Canyon, a highly contested climb north of Santa Monica, when a man swept past in a blur. “He was going up a huge hill like a pro and I was like: ‘Wow, who is that guy?’” Flax recalls. After weeks of detective work, he exposed the serial “KOM bagger” as Nicholas Brandt-Sorenson, an amateur racer who has failed a doping test and pleaded guilty to selling EPO to other amateurs. Strava says that users should flag suspicious segments, and that it encourages good sportsmanship under its “Stand With Us” code. At the time of writing, Thorfinn-Saasquatch remains top of the Mandeville Canyon leaderboard. He didn’t reply to emails, so you can only guess at his motivations. But his profile fits that of the wealthy, macho man of a certain age, a demographic singled out for concern in the CIRC report on amateur doping. I’ve seen times that just don’t compute. If they were able to do that level clean, they would be on the world tour Chris Pook “You go to a high-level masters race in California and it’s just shocking how much is being spent,” says Flax, who has seen racers increasingly employ pro trappings, including coaches, soigneurs (assistants) and spare bikes. “But we’re talking about people in their 40s and 50s racing for something that’s not even a state championship.” Flax suggests that these men are used to winning in life, and have become rich. They then compete to equip their custom frames with the most expensive parts (you can buy a pair of titanium pedals for £600). They spend 20 hours a week in training and want a return on their investment, whatever it costs. If we were in the age of the Mamil (middle-aged man in Lycra), we are now rolling at incredible speed into the age of the super-Mamil. And if they’re not racing, they are taking part in “sportives” and “gran fondos”, the mass-participation marathons of the sport. These events, some of which cover multiple days, are timed. and can offer the intoxicating sense of being in a race. A few years ago, I took part in the Alpine Challenge, a four-day event in France with about 150 other riders. It wasn’t a race, but a leader’s jersey was awarded each evening, and riders in the fastest group analysed the leaderboard at breakfast as if it really mattered. I fell for it, too, and while I have no reason to suspect anyone was on anything other than pasta and energy bars, I could see how the illusion of professionalism and high stakes might lead the super-Mamil astray. Facebook Twitter Pinterest Gabriel Evans, banned for taking EPO after having his curiosity piqued by Panorama. “I’ve seen climbers putting in performances that just don’t compute,” says Chris Pook, a talented amateur who has ridden in dozens of these events. “Because, if they were able to do that level clean, they would be hanging tough with the big boys on the world tour. But then they wouldn’t want that level of scrutiny.” Pook says that, apart from anything, he’s too terrified of needles to consider cheating. But he recognises the
should be replaced with new ones every 30–90 days. Installing regular software updates is essential to protect the operating system and third-party software from vulnerabilities. There are many additional security features such as private clouds (http://aws.amazon.com/vpc/), encrypted file systems, and encrypted data volumes that may be used by those who have security needs beyond these basic best practices. Prototyping and Development An often-overlooked aspect of cloud computing is running only a single instance where scalability is not a requirement. Simple tasks such as making certain programs run faster by using a faster CPU, increasing the memory, prototyping, or even small Web applications are easily addressed by using a more powerful single instance (Table 1). In some situations, such as daily analysis or constant development, the cost is low enough to leave those instances running on a continuous basis. It is essential to have a clear understanding of the technical requirements of the project in order to select the proper cloud resources. There are three basic criteria to consider for a given project to accurately estimate the cost: hardware, data, and analysis time. First, estimate the amount of memory, disk space, and CPUs needed for the computational task. For existing software, this is often found in the user documentation. For new code development, it may require an iterative process to determine the most suitable instance type. The UNIX “top” command is a good way to check the resource utilization. Second, estimate the amount of data required for analysis. AWS charges per gigabyte to transfer data out of their cloud (data transfer in is now free) and also per gigabyte for persistent storage (Table 1). It is easy to inadvertently incur unnecessary transfer costs as a consequence. Third, estimate the amount of time it will take to complete the analysis, because AWS begins charging for an instance the moment it is launched. Importantly, there are no cost savings by running fewer than the maximum number of instances necessary to complete an analysis because the cost is based on the amount of time an instance is running. For example, using half the number of instances, the job will take twice as long to finish and will end up costing the same amount based on instance runtime—meaning, there is no reason to wait longer for your results than you have to. Developing a Scalable Computing Environment A large-scale computing environment that scales up or down in response to computational demand is the most commonly perceived use of cloud computing because it takes full advantage of rapid replication and linear scaling of cheap commodity compute cycles. However, it is important to remember that the cloud does not “magically” enable programs to run more efficiently or in parallel (unless the code was already written that way). Instead, it requires an understanding of how to connect multiple instances together to form a cluster and knowledge of how to divide a computational task into sub-components that can run simultaneously. Until recently, cluster creation was onerous, requiring substantial amounts of customized solutions handled best by an expert in systems administration and computer science. Fortunately, new advances in open source cluster management software such as StarCluster (http://web.mit.edu/stardev/cluster/), Boto (http://code.google.com/p/boto/), Condor (http://www.cs.wisc.edu/condor/), and Hadoop (http://hadoop.apache.org/mapreduce/) are making cluster creation, termination, and job queuing more automated and accessible to bioinformatics specialists with perhaps only a limited understanding of systems administration and architecture. Within AWS, there is also the option to use Elastic Map Reduce (AWS's implementation of Hadoop) or high performance computing instances (http://aws.amazon.com/ec2/hpc-applications/) for an additional cost per instance. Note that an important consideration for a large cluster is to shut down instances when the number of CPUs is greater than the number of jobs. This will reduce the amount of money spent on idle CPU time, which can be substantial for hundreds or thousands of CPUs [7]. Broadly speaking, scalable computing can be divided into data-intensive distributed applications, of which Hadoop is the prime example, and batch computing, which includes StarCluster and Condor. Hadoop is an open source Java software framework that is composed of two key services: reliable data storage called the Hadoop Distributed File System (HDFS) and a parallel computing technique called MapReduce [8], which was developed by Google to take advantage of commodity computers [9]. Programs must be specifically written using the MapReduce parallel programming model. Although there are many successful applications of Hadoop, including processing NGS data [1], not all programs fit this model and learning the Hadoop framework can be challenging. Batch computing is a simpler programming model that operates by creating a set of tasks that are processed independently and is typical of institutional clusters that run LSF or Sun Grid Engine. StarCluster was created to simplify the cluster creation, management, and job scheduling on AWS. Because many biomedical computing projects are easily divided into independent tasks and using Hadoop is more technical, we will demonstrate the use of StarCluster in the case study example. Case Study: Creating a Whole Genome Mapping Computational Framework To put the previous concepts into practice, we will walk through the analysis of a large amount of NGS data. Specifically, we detail the creation of a pipeline to process an entire human genome's worth of NGS reads using a short read mapping algorithm. We use the ∼4 billion paired 35-base reads sequenced from a Yoruba African male [10] to test the pipeline. For this case study, we selected the open source sequence alignment tool MAQ [11] to map the reads and identify the variants. Although there are newer and more efficient alignment algorithms, MAQ is a good example of software that was not initially designed to run in parallel and is typical of most bioinformatics software. The African genome read set is 370 GB with individual files containing nearly 7 million reads each. Computation time for just one of the 303 read file pairs typically ranges from 4 to 12 hours, and files with more ambiguous reads may require over a day to be fully mapped to the reference human genome. The cloud is an ideal platform for processing this dataset because the computational resources required to run these intensive mapping steps can be allocated quickly and easily, and because mapping short reads to a reference genome is a task that is readily distributed over a compute cluster. Prototyping and Development (Total Cost: $3.85) The NGS mapping example begins by prototyping and testing the whole-genome mapping pipeline (Figure 1A). At this stage, we are interested in testing the mechanics of launching a single instance, installing MAQ, and processing two truncated files (10,000 reads per file). Based on the technical requirements specified in the section above and referring to the MAQ reference manual, we learn that mapping 1 million paired reads takes on average 10 hours and uses 800 MB of memory. Therefore, a single extra-large Linux instance (7 GB memory and eight CPUs) from AWS priced at $0.68/hr can easily handle the truncated example files containing 10,000 reads (Table 1). Using the AWS console, we launch a c1.xlarge instance type with the latest stable release of Ubuntu. From the AWS console, we create a 400 GB EBS volume and attach it to the running instance. Once the instance boots, we login via ssh as root administrator using the public IP address (for example, ec2-184-73-252-16.compute-1.amazonaws.com), download and install MAQ, and copy the NCBI reference genome to a directory on the instance using scp or Wget (http://www.gnu.org/software/wget/). Next, we format and mount the EBS volume and create three directories for testing the mapping data—small (two files, 10,000 reads), medium (32 files, 1 M reads), and all (entire genome). Then, we upload the African genome and the smaller testing files into the appropriate directories. Following the MAQ instructions (http://maq.sourceforge.net/maq-man.shtml) and executing the mapping and assembly commands, we learn that it takes 2 hours to analyze one pair of read files from the “small” directory on the EBS volume. However, only one of the possible eight CPUs on the extra-large instance is in use because we only issued one MAQ map command. While we could manually launch eight MAQ commands, a better approach would be to use cluster management software to automatically take advantage of all eight CPUs and include additional instances. PPT PowerPoint slide PowerPoint slide PNG larger image larger image TIFF original image Download: Figure 1. Step-wise framework for creating a scalable NGS computing application. Using your local computer, ssh into an instance running in AWS. The costs are representative of actual development time, data transfer into and out of the cloud, and the compute time using AWS (Table 1). The costs presented may vary, as AWS frequently updates their pricing structure. (A) An additional 3 hours were included for installing programs and testing the instance for the prototyping phase. (B) An additional 2 hours were included in developing the scalable application to learn how to use the cluster management software. (C) For the final scaled application, we used a 38-instance cluster. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pcbi.1002147.g001 Developing a Scalable Computing Environment (Total Cost: $49.60) Next, we will introduce the use of StarCluster to create and manage a small test cluster of two instances. StarCluster is customized for use on AWS and uses the open source version of Sun Grid Engine (http://gridscheduler.sourceforge.net/index.html) to manage batch queuing across distributed systems, along with OpenMPI to manage job distribution and instance communication. The cluster is composed of a master instance, which is responsible for managing a larger set of worker instances. In this example, each worker instance is able to process eight jobs concurrently and will contain the necessary software to run the analysis. In order to get StarCluster running, we need to work through a few steps that involve configuring the StarCluster instance type, setting the proper security, and installing StarCluster on your local computer to remotely create and terminate a cluster. First, we will configure the StarCluster base instance type or Amazon Machine Image (AMI) with our required software. An AMI packages the operating system, installed programs, and user settings into a binary file that can be launched to exactly replicate an environment. Amazon creates a unique private ID (default) or public ID for each AMI to launch identical instances. We locate the StarCluster AMI through the AWS console under Community AMIs (for example, ami-0af31963), launch it, and attach the previously created EBS volume containing the NGS data to the running instance. Then we install MAQ and any additional processing scripts as before. Next, we need to bundle the instance into an AMI in order to allow StarCluster to launch multiple identical instances. After bundling the AMI (http://docs.amazonwebservices.com/AWSEC2/2011-02-28/UserGuide/), we record the AMI ID—we will use this later in the StarCluster configuration file. We take a snapshot of the EBS volume to back it up in S3. We will use the snapshot ID later in the StarCluster configuration file to allow each instance access to the data. Second, we follow our best practices and create a new security group and key pair for the cluster. This provides more security control in your AWS account and allows you to easily revoke credentials in the unlikely event that the account is compromised. Should further security be desired, it is straightforward to create a “cluster user” using IAM to further restrict access to S3 accounts or limit the number of instances available to launch. Third, we install StarCluster on our local computer following their documentation (http://web.mit.edu/stardev/cluster/docs/index.html). The installation package includes the necessary scripts and configuration files to manage a cluster. The configuration file contains the various parameters to specify the cluster creation such as AMI ID, number of instances to launch, AWS account credentials, instance type, key pair, EBS snapshot ID containing the NGS data, and security group. At this point in our case study, we are interested in testing the scalability of the NGS mapping pipeline by creating a small cluster and confirming that the environment is functioning as expected (Figure 1B). Using StarCluster and the appropriate configuration file, we launch a two-instance cluster from the command line on our local machine. StarCluster returns the IP address of the master instance and from there we can ssh into the instance, verify Sun Grid Engine is running using the command “qhost”, and run a script to launch a set of jobs from the medium directory on the EBS volume using standard Sun Grid Engine options. For this example, a job is defined as mapping each read file to the reference genome. This is an independent task—meaning it does not require additional information from other reads or jobs to be completed successfully. We monitor the job progress using the command “qstat” (http://gridscheduler.sourceforge.net/htmlman/manuals.html). When the jobs are finished, we can save the results on the EBS volume and shut down the cluster. Scaled Production Environment (Total Cost: $320.10) We now expand our case study to the next level of usage, one that best exemplifies the most common conception of cloud computing: a virtually unlimited computational environment, which an analysis task will harness for rapid completion. However, getting to this point requires successful prototyping of an application, namely the prior two stages outlined above, on the cloud and ensuring that your application and pipeline can run on two or more inter-communicating instances. Returning to our case study, we want to create the environment to process the entire human genome (Figure 1C). The previous discussion laid the foundation for creating a scalable computing environment such that increasing the cluster size is as easy as modifying the StarCluster configuration script—in this case we specify 38 instances (38 * 8 CPUs = 304 CPU cluster) in the configuration file. After launching the cluster, we update our job submission script to use the appropriate directory on the EBS volume that contains the entire 370 GB read data. We also configure Sun Grid Engine to only allow jobs to run for a maximum of 10 hours in order to manage the cost. If a job does not finish within that time limit, it will automatically be terminated and noted in the log file for future analysis. We save the final alignment results to the EBS volume and copy the file (142 GB) to our local computer and terminate the cluster. Summary In this overview to biomedical computing in the cloud, we discussed two primary ways to use the cloud (a single instance or cluster), provided a detailed example using NGS mapping, and highlighted the associated costs. While many users new to the cloud may assume that entry is as straightforward as uploading an application and selecting an instance type and storage options, we illustrated that there is substantial up-front effort required before an application can make full use of the cloud's vast resources. Our intention was to provide a set of best practices and to illustrate how those apply to a typical application pipeline for biomedical informatics, but also general enough for extrapolation to other types of computational problems. Our mapping example was intended to illustrate how to develop a scalable project and not to compare and contrast alignment algorithms for read mapping and genome assembly. Indeed, with a newer aligner such as Bowtie [9], it is possible to map the entire African genome using one m2.2xlarge instance in 48 hours for a total cost of approximately $48 in computation time. In our example, we were not concerned with data transfer rates, which are heavily influenced by the amount of available bandwidth, connection latency, and network availability. When transferring large amounts of data to the cloud, bandwidth limitations can be a major bottleneck, and in some cases it is more efficient to simply mail a storage device containing the data to AWS (http://aws.amazon.com/importexport/). More information about cloud computing, detailed cost analysis, and security can be found in references [12]–[14].As the City plans for its next five-year budget cycle, from 2019-2023, it has been consulting and engaging with residents about the 2019 provisional budget and supplemental items on the Let's Talk Budget web page. There, citizens can get informed, find key timelines, view videos, documents and FAQ's related to the budget process. The City is now nearing the end of the budget consultation life cycle. A Public Budget Meeting was held on February 7, 2019. At that meeting, the City updated residents on the draft budget and 2019-2023 Five-year Financial Plan, and introduced staff and community-driven supplemental items along with potential funding sources. The 13 supplemental items are listed on the Let's Talk Budget web page and public comments are invited. At its March 12 Council Budget Meeting, Council will finalize the supplemental items and tax requirements for the 2019 budget. At its April 16 Council Budget Meeting, Council set the tax rates. For historical reference, below are some documents related to the previous Five-year Financial Plan 2018-2022. These documents highlight efficiencies throughout the organization. Please note, in early 2018, the organizational structure of the City changed, and the titles of the departments below reflect the previous organizational structure. The City's financial statements can be found here. Other key publications and reports, including the Annual Report, can be found here.After languishing for nearly a year in a congressional committee with two other H1B visa reform bills, the House of Representatives Judiciary Committee voted to send the “Protect and Grow American Jobs Act” to the full House chamber. This bill introduced by Rep. Darrell Issa Darrell Edward IssaThe Hill's Morning Report — Shutdown fallout — economic distress Former congressmen, RNC members appointed to Trump administration roles Senate throws hundreds of Trump nominees into limbo MORE (R-Calif.) is similar to the other two bills in that it seeks to ensure American companies take the long view by training and hiring American workers, rather than chasing the quick fix — specifically importing workers from South Asia and damaging our long-term economic prospects in the process. ADVERTISEMENT Issa’s bill addresses H1B visa abuse raising the minimum salary of an H1B visa holder to $90,000 per year and by prohibiting those American companies, whose workforces are at least 20 percent comprised of H1B visas holders, from replacing American workers with foreign worker. These measures represent a good start, but while the committee deserves applause for moving the bill forward, we remain in a race against time. This is especially true in the tech industry, where the need for qualified workers remains great and vast pools of potential workers remain shut out of the game. We’re seeing jobs go to H1B visa holders every day. These are jobs that with some formal training could be performed by veterans, displaced blue-collar workers, older workers cut off from their careers, and women returning to the workforce after taking time to raise children. In fact, earlier this year Goldman Sachs estimated that foreign nationals with H1B visas hold nearly one million jobs in the U.S., including at least 12 percent of all tech industry jobs. At one time, the H1B program served a worthy purpose, providing growing companies the ability to hire foreign workers who possess a specific technical skill the company couldn’t find in its pool of American applicants. That‘s capitalism; it’s how the global market works at its best. What we’re seeing now, though, is widespread exploitation of the H1B program as an across-the-board cost cutting strategy. The practice of importing, en masse, foreign IT workers led to the 2014 layoff of 18,000 Microsoft employees and Hewlett Packard’s jettisoning of nearly 85,000 workers over 2015 and 2016. Yet, importing IT workers doesn’t save much money in the short run, and in the long run, it’s a losing strategy. For instance, only a small percentage of all H1B visa holders in the tech industry can get green cards each fiscal year and stay permanently, resulting in a lack of continuity that damages corporate culture, morale, and quality. How can a short-term worker on an H1B visa, most likely working for a foreign-based staffing agency, represent a brand with the same level of pride and care as a company employee with local roots? Even when putting these considerations aside, there is the productivity factor. It shouldn’t come as a surprise that American workers — who from a young age, have learned the importance of creative problem-solving, teamwork and initiative — create more value. In fact, American workers produce up to twice as much output as their foreign counterparts. The idea that foreign IT workers are cheaper is a fallacy. At a time when we’re seeing a sea-change in the nature of IT work, from rote repetitive task-oriented assignments to automated programming and data management, we’re also seeing a profound need for workers who are flexible and embrace challenge. This need will only grow as technologies such as blockchain, Internet of Things, artificial learning and 3D printing become ubiquitous and central to a company’s ability to compete. If American industry is going to remain the epicenter of innovation by taking full advantage of next-generation enterprise technology, we’ll need IT workers at all levels who can thrive in a perpetually shifting business environment. The bi-partisan nature of the H1B bills, including bills similar to Rep Issa’s introduced by Rep Zoe Lofgren Zoe Ellen LofgrenFeminine hygiene products to be available to House lawmakers using congressional funds Whitaker takes grilling from House lawmakers Democrats launch ‘drain-the-swamp’ agenda MORE (D-Calif.) and by Sens. Chuck Grassley Charles (Chuck) Ernest GrassleyOvernight Health Care: Drug execs set for grilling \| Washington state to sue over Trump rule targeting Planned Parenthood \| Wyoming moves closer to Medicaid work requirements Senate reignites blue slip war over Trump court picks Lower refunds amplify calls to restore key tax deduction MORE (R-Iowa) and Dick Durbin Richard (Dick) Joseph DurbinKids confront Feinstein over Green New Deal Senate plots to avoid fall shutdown brawl Overnight Energy: Trump ends talks with California on car emissions \| Dems face tough vote on Green New Deal \| Climate PAC backing Inslee in possible 2020 run MORE (D-Ill,) is extremely telling. There is a mainstream desire not to end the H1B program, but rather restore it to its original intent. The common themes in these bills are also common sense. They increase the minimum salary for H1B visa holders, enforce the requirement that these workers must possess a skill that employers can’t readily source from the American worker pool, limit the number of H1B visas that go to companies with more than 50 employees, and prohibiting certain companies from replacing American workers. Of her bill, which increases the minimum H1B worker salary to $130,000, allocates 20 percent of the visas to startups and eliminates per country caps for workers with unique skillsets, Rep. Zoe Lofgren (D-Calif.) said, “It offers a market-based solution that gives priority to those companies willing to pay the most. This ensures American employers have the access to the talent they need, while removing incentives for companies to undercut American wages and outsource jobs.” Will H1B visa reform prevent companies from hiring the talent they need? No. However, it will compel them to think carefully about which needs they can satisfy exclusively by bringing in foreign specialists. It will also mean that they will have to invest in the types of recruiting programs and technical training models that unleash American workers to do what they do best: Produce. Harley Lippman is CEO of Genesis 10, a professional technology services firm and one of the nation’s largest domestic IT staffing firms.Sporting Kansas City announced Friday that the club has agreed to transfer forward Krisztian Nemeth to Al-Gharafa SC in Qatar, pending a physical. Per MLS policy, Sporting Kansas City will receive two-thirds of the transfer fee. “We wish Krisztian the best of luck and thank him for his valuable contributions to the club,” Sporting KC Manager Peter Vermes said. “He is a talented player who made tremendous strides last year, including helping us win the (Lamar Hunt) U.S. Open Cup.” Nemeth, 27, was named Sporting Kansas City’s Newcomer of the Year in 2015 and became the club’s first MLS Goal of the Year winner for his strike against the Portland Timbers on Oct. 3. During his lone season in Kansas City, Nemeth returned to the Hungary Men’s National Team after receiving zero caps in 2014. He made eight of his 23 career appearances for the Magyars last year, scoring two goals as Hungary qualified for UEFA Euro 2016. The European Championship will run from June 10 – July 10 this summer. Al-Gharafa SC, a seven-time domestic league champion, is currently eighth in the Qatar Stars League standings after finishing the 2014-15 campaign seventh out of 14 teams. Nemeth’s transfer will open a Salary Budget Player spot and international slot on the Sporting Kansas City roster. Sporting Kansas City’s 2016 preseason, presented by Children’s Mercy, began Sunday at Kino Sports Complex in Tucson, Arizona. After competing in the Desert Diamond Cup from Feb. 14-27, the club will kick off its 21st MLS season on March 6 at Seattle Sounders FC.A group of students and parents want to ban gays from prom at an Indiana high school. The proposal has caught fire on the Internet and has received national - and even international - attention. After Terre Haute TV station WTWO covered a meeting Sunday night of a small group from Sullivan High School planning a gay-free prom - Monday has been all about damage control. From the church that opened its doors to the group for that meeting to the school defending it's A-plus name after being called "bigots," no one wants their name mixed up in the mess. Sullivan High School has earned an A for its academic excellence, but recent talk over banning gay students at the high school prom have given the school a failing image. "The Bible says for a man to love another woman," said student Wyatt Land. "Anybody can go to the prom," said Principal David Springer. The controversy started with a misunderstanding about whether same-sex couples were allowed to walk in the grand march before prom. "Of course, a girl could go out with another girl or if they didn't have a date or that was their choice," Springer said. That sparked another group to rise up in opposition, wanting to ban gays at the school-sanctioned prom. But when they saw the school wasn't going to budge and allow that, they decided to hold their own prom - an alternative prom that would be gay-free. Sunday night, students, parents and local church leaders met at Sullivan First Christian Church to discuss their plans and feelings. Eyewitness News asked Diana Medley, a teacher from a different school district, if she thought homosexuals had a purpose in life. "No, I honestly don't. Sorry, but I don't. I don't understand it," she said. Medley's controversial statement cast a long shadow on the church and school that would stretch around the world. "Our church has no involvement in this whatsoever. It's a community thing where people have met here," said Pastor Dale Wise at Sullivan First Christian Church. "You should be able to go with whoever you want. You shouldn't be discriminated against for what you are, what you believe in," said Sullivan High School junior Emily Butler. "As long as they aren't sitting there and kissing on the dance floor and grinding on each other, stuff like that, I don't have a problem with that, I don't see what's wrong with it. Prom is for everybody. It's a high school experience," Land said. The prom is scheduled for April 27 and all students are invited to attend. There is no word on efforts for an alternative event.Susanna Holt, PhD, has developed the Satiety Index, a system to measure different foods' ability to satisfy hunger. A fixed amount (240 calories) of different foods was fed to participants who then ranked their feelings of hunger every fifteen minutes and were allowed to eat freely for the next two hours. Of all the foods tested, potatoes were the most satisfying. How full did that meal you just ate make you feel? Did it satisfy your hunger, or did it make you feel like you'll need a snack later? Now a new tool is available to measure the hunger fighting power of certain foods and help with blood sugar control. Studies by Australian researcher Dr. Susanna Holt and her associates at the University of Sydney have developed one of the most exciting diet concepts ever. Called, the "Satiety Index," Holt's tool ranks different foods on their ability to satisfy hunger. Holt drew up the Satiety Index by feeding 240-calorie portions of 38 different foods to volunteers. The foods were served from under a hood to minimize the influence of appearance, and, if possible, they were served at the same temperature and in the same size chunks. After eating, the volunteers told the scientists what their appetite ratings were, but they were not allowed anything else for the next two hours. Then, after two hours, they were then allowed to eat from a small buffet, where the scientists measured how much they nibbled from a variety of other foods. Their consumption was closely monitored, and every 15 minutes they were questioned about their hunger to see if their subjective impression of satisfaction matched their eating behavior. Using white bread as the baseline of 100, 38 different foods were ranked. In other words, foods scoring higher than 100 are more satisfying than white bread and those under 100 are less satisfying. What Really Satisfies? Holt found that some foods, like croissants, are only half as satisfying as white bread, while boiled potatoes are more than three times as satisfying, easily the most satisfying food tested. But potatoes in a different form—French fries—did not score well. This type of information can have important implications for those wanting to lose weight. The chemical components of a food is one of the factors that determines how it ranks on the index. "Beans and lentils, for example, contain anti-nutrients which delay their absorption so they make you feel full for longer," says Holt. "Roughly speaking, the more fiber, protein and water a food contains, the longer it will satisfy. But you have to look at each foodstuff individually—and that is why we think our index will be so useful." Another thing that makes a food satisfying is its sheer bulk. "You can eat an awful lot of popcorn without taking in a lot of calories," says Holt. "It may not weigh much, but it makes your stomach feel full just because it takes up so much space. Oranges come out very high on the index for the same reason—but orange juice probably wouldn't, even though it has the same number of calories." It is, in fact, the size, bulk and blandness of potatoes that may account for much of its high satiety. Their "portion weight was up to four times greater than the other foods [for the same caloric content]," Holt and her co-authors note in a paper published in the December 1996 issue of the European Journal of Clinical Nutrition. As a group, fruits ranked at the top with a satiety index 1.7 times more satisfying, on average, than white bread. Carbohydrate-rich foods and protein-rich foods deter nibbling almost as well. Holt warns, however, that there are big differences between the satisfaction values of individual foods within the same group. "You can't just say that vegetables are satisfying or that bakery products aren't, because there can be a two-fold difference between two similar foods," says Holt. "We found that bananas are much less satisfying than oranges or apples, and that wholemeal bread is half again as satisfying as white bread [157 compared to 100 respectively]." This too can be valuable information to the weight conscious. "A diet which simply recommends cereal for breakfast overlooks the fact that muesli is only half as satisfying as porridge [oatmeal]," she adds. Some Surprises In general, the more satisfying a food felt, the more effective it proved as a nibbling deterrent. But even here there were some surprises. "Fatty foods are not satisfying, even though people expected them to be," says Holt. "We think the reason is that fat is seen by the body as a fuel which should be used only in emergencies—it stores it in the cells instead of breaking it down for immediate use. Because it doesn't recognize the fat as energy for immediate use, the body does not tell the brain to cut hunger signals, so we go on wanting more. Carbohydrates are the opposite—they raise blood glucose so the body knows it has gotten enough fuel." Jellybeans also scored higher than expected. Volunteers fed jellybeans did not feel satisfied, yet they ate very little afterwards. This resulted in the sweets getting a satiety rating of 118—higher than that of muesli and yogurt and almost the same as white pasta. "I suspect the reason that the jellybeans came out so well was that they made our volunteers feel slightly nauseous," says Holt. "We'll be doing some research on that one—if we can persuade people to act as volunteers!" A Few Words of Advice Holt is concerned that there may be some confusion in the interpretation of her study's findings. "The Satiety Index scores reflect the total amount of fullness produced by the set portions of the test foods over two hours—i.e. short-term satiety. Although most foods with high Satiety Index scores kept fullness relatively high for the whole two hours, there were a few exceptions," Holt notes. "The fruits were served in very large portions, but fullness dropped off quickly towards the end of the second hour, reflecting the rapid rate of gastric emptying (oranges and apples and grapes are mainly sugar and water)," she adds. "Many 'health-conscious' dieters," she continues, "will eat a meal based on several pieces of fruit and some rice cakes (in Australia anyway) and then wonder why they feel ravenous a few hours later. These kinds of extremely low-fat, high-carb meals do not keep hunger at bay because they are not based on slowly-digested carbs and probably don't contain enough protein. A dieter would be better off eating a wholesome salad sandwich on wholegrain bread with some lean protein like tuna or beef and an apple. This kind of meal can keep hunger at bay for a very long time." What About Sugar-free Drinks? Does drinking sugar-free beverages rather than those loaded with sugar help you cut down on the total amount of calories you take in during a typical day? Or do they just make you hungrier? The answer, surprisingly, is neither. Researchers at the University of Sydney in Australia compared the effects of equal volumes of sugar-rich and sugar-free beverages on feelings of hunger and fullness and the free consumption of a palatable, fat-rich snack. Eleven healthy men drank equal amounts of sugar-rich cola, sugar-free cola, and mineral water in random order on separate mornings. Then, 20 minutes later they could snack on all the potato crisps they wanted for the next hour and one-half. Then they got a buffet-style lunch. All the while the researchers covertly recorded what the men ate, and at the end of the day they completed a weighed food diary. Each drink initially decreased hunger to a similar degree. The potato crisp intake was not significantly different for the three drinks. The amount of calories in the crisps and lunch were also not significantly different. "By the end of the day, total energy intakes were similar for the three test conditions," they concluded. "Therefore, the low-calorie/low-sugar drinks did not facilitate a reduced energy intake by the lean, non-dieting male subjects." The Work Continues Holt now works as a research scientist with the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organization (CSIRO), Australia's largest scientific research agency, and is continuing to develop the satiety index. "We've just done a short study comparing the satisfying power of different breakfasts," she writes of her, as yet, unpublished work. "Two high-fat breakfasts of fried eggs and bacon and toast or croissants and jam were much less filling than two equal-calorie high-carb breakfasts which were either rapidly-digested (cornflakes with sugar and toast and jam) or slowly-digested (All-Bran with banana slices, toast and margarine)," she adds. Holt is also interested in how foods affect mood and alertness. "The two high-carb breakfasts tended to improve alertness to a greater extent than the two high-fat breakfasts. Also, because the subjects were not completely satisfied by the two high-fat meals, they tended to be grumpy and a bit more aggressive/disappointed." Additional studies of satiety among children are also being planned. Clearly, future research is warranted and Holt hopes to do it. Eventually tables showing the ratio of satiety to energy will be developed as a tool in planning diets for weight loss or gain. This way we can minimize our hunger pangs and make it easier to stay on our diet programs. The Satiety Index Each of the following foods is rated by how much food people ate after consuming them to satisfy their hunger. All are compared to white bread, ranked as "100" Bakery Products Carbohydrate-Rich Foods Croissant 47% White bread 100% Cake 65% French fries 116% Doughnuts 68% White pasta 119% Cookies 120% Brown Rice 132% Crackers 127% White rice 138% Snacks and Confectionary Grain bread 154% Mars candy bar 70% Wholemeal bread 157% Peanuts 84% Brown pasta 188% Yogurt 88% Potatoes, boiled 323% Crisps 91% Protein-Rich Foods Ice cream 96% Lentils 133% Jellybeans 118% Cheese 146% Popcorn 154% Eggs 150% Breakfast Cereals with Milk Baked beans 168% Muesli 100% Beef 176% Sustain 112% Ling fish 225% Special K 116% Fruits Cornflakes 118% Bananas 118% Honeysmacks 132% Grapes 162% All-Bran 151% Apples 197% Porridge/Oatmeal 209% Oranges 202% Table adapted from S.H.A. Holt, J.C. Brand Miller, P. Petocz, and E. Farmakalidis, "A Satiety Index of Common Foods," European Journal of Clinical Nutrition, September 1995, pages 675-690. Update NutritionData.com has just published on that site a self-directed diet that uses what it calls the "Fullness Factor" at http://www.nutritiondata.com/fullness-factor.html. Ron Johnson, who together with his wife, Lori, developed NutritionData.com, explains the Fullness Factor concept in email to me, part of which I except below because it clarifies what they publish on the website: Volumetrics) to help establish additional data points or constraints, which were then used to create the current FF formula. Sue Holt's study played an important role in the Fullness Factor concept, because it's the only published study
and attacking its stimulus programs. Fed policies make you poorer, and hurt the poor and middle class the most. Ridiculous monetary policies increase the costs of goods. — Senator Rand Paul (@SenRandPaul) December 23, 2013 Other grievances were more personal. He bemoaned the fact that he cannot find classic Kentucky soup at the Capitol. The Senate cafeteria never has burgoo. — Senator Rand Paul (@SenRandPaul) December 23, 2013 As for the turtlenecks he often wears, he says he does not want to hear fashion criticism. Grievance with my otherwise wonderful staff: leave the turtleneck alone. I like it and so do viewers. — Senator Rand Paul (@SenRandPaul) December 23, 2013 The perils of D.C. parking were also an issue. Minor grievance: I can never remember when to move my car for DC street cleaning. — Senator Rand Paul (@SenRandPaul) December 23, 2013 When he complained that Sen. Cory Booker (D-N.J.) does not retweet him enough, Booker responded with a reference to another Festivus tradition, “feats of strength.” U, me & "feats of strength:" Senate floor, name the time MT @SenRandPaul A Festivus grievance re bipartisanship. Booker doesn't RT me enough — Cory Booker (@CoryBooker) December 23, 2013 He says more grievances will be aired later.The rise of modernity has brought with it a moral shift from the universal laws of good and evil to the taste-based judgment of individuals. Our world grows ever more dizzying with the complexity of the threads of modern contingency, and individuals feel ever more alienated from the happenings around them. The plight of a neighbor is no longer as present in mind, since actions are more divorced from knowable results and meaning. For better or worse, the low-level functions of human beings will naturally lead down the easy path of enjoyment and aversion to non-enjoyment, outside of a moral system dictating that there is a correct way to behave. Of course, people still have ideas of right and wrong. If you ask any given person living in a coastal urban area about what is a good thing for a person to do in life, the results won’t be that startling. Much like the Simpsons after season 10, the concept of “doing the right thing” has been quietly replaced by an impostor with the same name and appearance, aping the mannerisms of the original with middling success. Helping others will probably come out as part of our urban sophisticate’s answer, and everything still seems pretty normal. When examined, this answer leads to to this conclusion: being a “good person” is a desirable trait because it feels good. Things are getting a little odd in this world of morals – but they’re about to get a whole lot stranger. We are told that being a happy person is the moral imperative. Follow your dreams! Find true love! Have a fulfilling career! See the world! This is definitely an incredible deal — these are all gratifying things that you already wanted to do, and it gives you the added bonus of making a good person. Of course, her moral prescriptions for living the life of a good person don’t even require thinking about right and wrong, meaning you don’t need a moral system to guide you to such behavior. The less easy truth is that while such things are certainly not bad things to want, they aren’t the final boss of moral goodness, either. In the mind of people like our friend, who is actually an intelligent and kind hypothetical person, the moral imperative to do what is objectively right, whether we would otherwise like to or not, has been replaced by the wholly redundant moral imperative to stimulate the enjoyment-seeking and novelty-seeking firmware that is our animal nature. This modern doctrine’s Achilles’ heel made manifest is the fact that a system of right and wrong based on the feelings of people necessarily inherits the pride, prejudice, and desire for self-gratification that are inherent to the feelings of people. Even assuming the moral conclusions drawn from this relative system are the same as an objective one, the execution is different. As soon an opportunity arises demanding the right thing to be done, a moral relativist will, by the rules inherent to such a system, falter as soon as his egotism or prejudice are challenged. Of course, moral objectivists are prone to the very same human frailty, but not because of the very rules of their moral system. If we are to believe that we ourselves are moral lawgivers, then we are just self-canonized saints in the Church of Me. All experiences start and end with the individual, and absent of a meaning beyond our limits, the unexperienced experience of other beings is beyond our limits. We are the alpha and the omega of our own existence, bounded in a nutshell and counting ourselves kings of infinite space. A mechanistic system of petty likes and dislikes rules our behavior, and likes often manifest in the form of, sometimes impotent, sympathy for others, for the sake of one’s psychological well-being. The modern state has provided the utility of appearing to exorcise the demons of the wrongs of the world through legislation and the diffused, impersonal obligations they mandate. The cost of seeming to be a good person to yourself and others is now much lower, since all you need to do is support the “good” candidate and maybe go with your friends and hold up a sign at a protest one Saturday. This pleases the enjoyment-vs-non-enjoyment ratio of our lower selves. All of this has led to the replacement of the obligations to one’s fellow man with obligations to the state. The existence of the welfare state has liberated us from the psychological need to do the right thing for others. Any unanswered cry for help is only the failure of the policymakers and bureaucrats — the rest of us are inviolable. I’m not suggesting that moral relativism will lead a situation of society-wide chaos, since that’s clearly not the case. Let’s take this thought piece to where it seems to be going: since humans are social animals, we can cooperate and make transactions to find mutual good. Without a system of right and wrong separate from our calculations of reward and punishment, there can still indeed be a functional society. A functional society of strangers with no regard for each other outside of their calculus of maximizing one’s own well-being, but otherwise tripping over each other with gnashing teeth for moments of happiness. I am not indicting markets at all; all economic arrangements of society involve individuals doing what they can to maximize their own good. While markets are definitely the best at that, the free market doesn’t answer questions of right and wrong, and has nothing to say about people being righteous or selfish. Socialism isn’t any different. Under socialism, the same agents will seek the same things, only with burdensome and inefficient restraints. A philosophy familiar to us in the West that does in fact provide an objective guide: the story of Christ. The meaning of the temptations of Christ seems to be misunderstood pretty often. Satan wasn’t giving Christ some clumsy pitch to come to the dark side — if anyone can resist a plain offer of conversion to evil, it’s certainly Jesus. The gambit of the temptations wasn’t to divert Christ away from a path of good; neither party ever doubted that Christ would fulfill his destiny as the messiah. In a ploy, Satan presented alternative types of messianism. Hunger came to JC in the desert, and Satan encouraged to use his miraculous powers to conjure some food. Atop the temple pinnacle, Satan goaded him into jumping off and getting angels to break his fall a la Gandalf where people could see him. Both times he refused. This foreshadows the narrative of Christ’s sacrifice; during the passion, Christ could have lifted a single eyebrow to call down an angelic Spetsnaz to free him, and perhaps even free the Jews from Roman rule. With his supernatural abilities, Christ could have provided food for all of humanity and ended the harshness of earthly life. Both of these actions would have won over the masses simply due to incredible displays of supernatural power. So why did Christ choose not to be an idealized Chairman Mao, alleviating worldly pains, or a powerful wizard king, undeniably divine in his magical glory? Simply put, because these messianisms are irrelevant for the moral context of humanity. The path chosen was the path of loving self-sacrifice, a path far mightier than any other. Pope Benedict XVI articulates this in an audience: However in this period of “wilderness” and of his special encounter with the Father, Jesus is exposed to danger and is assaulted by the temptation and seduction of the Evil One, who proposes a different messianic path to him, far from God’s plan because it passes through power, success and domination rather than the total gift of himself on the Cross. This is the alternative: a messianism of power, of success, or a messianism of love, of the gift of self. Christ’s unconditional sacrifice affirmed the moral imperative of selfless giving and love for others, not just those you like, as what is outside of tastes and opinions, the correct way. It’s important to distinguish the relational love of people, such as the love between friends and family, from unconditional, intellectualized love. The former, while absolutely important and good, is distinct from the latter, agape. Unlike most other pursuits, such as eating, working, and enjoying life with friends and family, agape requires high-level cogitation. With that focused awareness of what the right thing to do, the limits of our low-level ego firmware can be transcended. I don’t think it’s an accident that all the great religions of the world teach a suppression of the self. Christianity and Buddhism, for example, are very different religions, but both teach that the truth is not of this world and not of your own ego. Doing what gratifies the ego is the way of this world. Doing the right thing is the way of the transcendent. On the suggestion that devotion to a higher power crowds out service to one’s fellow man, Pope Benedict XVI writes: In the example of Blessed Teresa of Calcutta we have a clear illustration of the fact that time devoted to God in prayer not only does not detract from effective and loving service to our neighbour but is in fact the inexhaustible source of that service. I don’t think Pope Benedict gets a fair shake when compared to Francis. He has some great quotes.BELLEVUE, Wash.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--T-Mobile US, Inc. (NYSE: TMUS) today announced that its wholly-owned subsidiaries T-Mobile USA, Inc. and T-Mobile License, LLC have signed agreements to purchase certain 700 MHz A-Block spectrum licenses from Verizon Wireless for $2.365 billion in cash and the transfer of certain AWS and PCS spectrum licenses, which have an aggregate estimated value of approximately $950 million. The transactions, combined with T-Mobile’s existing A-Block holdings in Boston, will result in T-Mobile having important low-band spectrum in 9 of the top 10 and 21 of the top 30 markets across the United States. “This is a great opportunity to secure low-band spectrum in many of the top markets in America,” said John Legere, President and CEO of T-Mobile. “These transactions represent our biggest move yet in a series of initiatives that are rapidly expanding our already lightning fast network and improving its performance across the country. We will continue to find ways to advance our customers’ network experience just as our bold Un-carrier moves have shaken up the wireless industry to benefit consumers.” These are significant transactions that will further enhance a rapidly improving network experience that T-Mobile expects will create shareholder value. Low-band spectrum substantially improves in-building coverage as well as coverage in rural areas. It also travels greater distances than high-band spectrum and therefore is a more efficient way to provide coverage at the edge of cities and in less densely populated areas. Combined with its existing Boston A-Block holdings, T-Mobile will have low-band spectrum covering approximately 158 million people — including New York, Los Angeles, Dallas, Houston, Philadelphia, Atlanta, Washington D.C., and Detroit. T-Mobile anticipates rolling out service and compatible handsets on this A-Block spectrum as early as the fourth quarter of 2014. In 2013, T-Mobile continued its rapid LTE rollout, deploying 10+10 MHz 4G LTE in 43 of the top 50 metro areas and it is commencing substantive deployments of 20+20 MHz 4G LTE in 2014. The company launched its nationwide 4G LTE network in 2013, which currently covers approximately 209 million people in 273 metro areas. Also, as part of the transaction, the two companies will realign spectrum blocks in certain markets, primarily in northern California and the Atlanta area. The agreements are subject to approval by the Federal Communications Commission and the Department of Justice, and other customary closing conditions. Following regulatory approval, these transactions are expected to close in mid-2014. TAP Advisors worked as financial advisors for T-Mobile on this transaction. A-Block Spectrum Conference Call T-Mobile US, Inc. (NYSE: TMUS) will host a conference call to discuss the A-Block transaction on Monday, January 6, 2014 at 11:00 a.m. Eastern Standard Time (EST). Supplementary slides for the conference call will be posted to the T-Mobile Investor Relations website at approximately 7:00 a.m. EST. T-Mobile Conference Call Information: Date: Monday, January 6, 2014 Time: 11:00 a.m. (EST) Call-in Numbers: 800-432-9830 International: 719-234-7318 Participant Passcode: 1719015 Please plan on accessing the conference call ten minutes prior to the scheduled start time. The conference call will be broadcast live via the Company's Investor Relations website at http://investor.t-mobile.com. A replay of the conference call will be available for two weeks starting shortly after the call concludes and can be accessed by dialing 888-203-1112 (toll free) or 719-457-0820 (international). The passcode required to listen to the replay is 1719015. About T-Mobile US, Inc. As America's Un-carrier, T-Mobile US, Inc. (NYSE: TMUS) is redefining the way consumers and businesses buy wireless services through leading product and service innovation. The Company's advanced nationwide 4G and 4G LTE network delivers outstanding wireless experiences for customers who are unwilling to compromise on quality and value. Based in Bellevue, Wash., T-Mobile US provides services through its subsidiaries and operates its flagship brands, T-Mobile and MetroPCS. It currently serves approximately 45 million wireless subscribers and provides products and services through over 70,000 points of distribution. For more information, please visit http://www.t-mobile.com. Forward-Looking Statements This news release includes "forward-looking statements" within the meaning of the U.S. federal securities laws. Any statements made herein that are not statements of historical fact, including statements about the expected benefits of the spectrum transaction with Verizon and T-Mobile US, Inc.'s plans, outlook, beliefs, opinion, projections, guidance, strategy, integration of MetroPCS, expected network modernization and other advancements (including build-out of our network on A-block spectrum we own or acquire in the future), are forward-looking statements. Generally, forward-looking statements may be identified by words such as "anticipate," "expect," "suggests," "plan," “project,” "believe," "intend," "estimates," "targets," "views," "may," "will," "forecast," and other similar expressions. The forward-looking statements speak only as of the date made, are based on current assumptions and expectations, and involve a number of risks and uncertainties. Important factors that could affect future results and cause those results to differ materially from those expressed in the forward-looking statements include, among others, the following: the satisfaction of the conditions to closing the spectrum transaction with Verizon and the closing of the transaction our ability to compete in the highly competitive U.S. wireless telecommunications industry; adverse conditions in the U.S. and international economies and markets; significant capital commitments and the capital expenditures required to effect our business plan, including the build-out of our network on A-block spectrum we own or acquire in the future; our ability to adapt to future changes in technology, enhance existing offerings, and introduce new offerings to address customers' changing demands; our ability to develop effective solutions to interoperability issues that may impact deployment of our network on the A-block spectrum we own or acquire in the future; the availability of devices that are compatible with A-block spectrum we own or acquire in the future; changes in legal and regulatory requirements, including any change or increase in restrictions on our ability to operate our network; our ability to successfully maintain and improve our network, and the possibility of incurring additional costs in doing so; major equipment failures; severe weather conditions or other force majeure events; and other risks described in our filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission, including those described in our Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission on August 8, 2013. You should not place undue reliance on these forward-looking statements. We do not undertake to update forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise, except as required by law.People in office buildings nearby described the noise as “a series of bangs”, witnesses exclaimed that they had “no idea how the heck that happened”, and a crowd of stunned people assembled within minutes following what had to be one of the most bizarre traffic accidents in Portland’s history on Wednesday night. Nobody was injured in the accident, which occurred around 7:30 pm in front of the Free Street side of the civic center. What appeared to have happened is the red truck pictured above rear ended the parked sedan as the driver of the truck was pulling in behind it to park. Then, apparently, there was a domino effect that pushed the first sedan into the one in front of it, which then went under the SUV. The man who claimed to have been driving the red truck admitted to rear ending the first sedan, but claimed that the SUV driver had backed up moments after and fled the scene. A woman who claimed to have been a passenger of the first sedan corroborated the man’s story, and the driver of the sedan pinned under the SUV was not present at the scene, nor was the owner of the SUV. Here are the rest of the pictures that I took:Introducing Titan Redeemer, a new Pacific Rim: Uprising Jaeger mech from the upcoming blockbuster sequel directed by Steven DeKnight! Being unveiled as an action figure by Tamashii Nations along with fellow Jaegers Gipsy Avenger and Bracer Phoenix today, Titan Redeemer is also available for pre-order through Amazon and comes with a few unique specs regarding the Jaeger and what we can expect from its performance in the Pacific Rim sequel. Like Bracer Phoenix, Redeemer is currently priced at $32.99. Titan Redeemer Action Figure Titan redeemer, the Jaeger from the February 2018 film "Pacific rim: Uprising" joins the robot spirits line! Includes mini "Scrapper" robot figure Includes optional open hand Part Pre-order Titan Redeemer here! This new Jaeger seems to resemble that of the Chinese Jaeger Crimson Typhoon in a way - sporting a massive blade-like appendage and a relatively agile build. The product description mentions that of a Scrapper mini robot figure - suggesting this Jaeger will have a detachable mini-unit, possibly remote controlled from the Jaeger itself, which can aid the Jaeger in combat when facing multiple Kaiju, or one massive Kaiju. It's unknown whether or not this mini-bot will be Human piloted but I assume it will act more like a Drone. The name Scrapper also suggests the detached component will be capable of dealing some bloody mayhem as well. As new details on Pacific Rim: Uprising's Jaegers surface, we'll be sure to keep you updated! If you are looking forward to the Pacific Rim movie sequel Pacific Rim Uprising, you should join our Pacific Rim 2 Movie forum - a dedicated community of fellow Pacific Rim and Kaiju movie fans! Stay up to date with the latest news on Pacific Rim Uprising by liking Scified on Facebook and by following us on Twitter and Instagram! Also, consider subscribing your email to our Pacific Rim 2 blog for instant notifications of when new posts are made!Mission San Antonio de Valero: For the good of peace and harmony, a treaty for the future of San Antonio Texas General Land Office Blocked Unblock Follow Following Sep 16, 2015 National Hispanic Heritage Month is a celebration of the contributions of Latinos to U.S. history, culture, and society observed annually between September 15 and October 15, a time of many historical mileposts in the Americas. The observance emphasizes the deep historical imprint of Hispanic cultures on the United States and honors the place of Latinos in the contemporary American melting pot, where they number over 55 million. In honor of Hispanic Heritage Month, we’ll focus for several weeks on the impact of Hispanic historical figures in Texas. We’ll also be participating in the Tejano Genealogy Society of Austin’s 2017 Conference, including providing tours of the GLO Archives, September 28–30. Long before that fateful day in March 1836, and long before Mexican troops renamed it “El Álamo” after their company and sequestered its buildings and walls, Mission San Antonio de Valero served as a place of worship for the indigenous population of the region. Compromise between the missions and the cabildo of San Fernando de Béxar pertaining to the limits of the settlement and resolution of other disputes, 14 August 1745, Box 122, Folder 5, Spanish Collection, Archives and Records Program, Texas General Land Office, Austin. There, mission friars followed centuries of traditions of educating, protecting, and defending their flock. As crown-appointed “protectors,” friars provided legal counsel and representation in civil matters. This document from the holdings of the Spanish Collection at the Texas General Land Office offers a window into the various legal representations afforded by the friars on behalf of the indigenous peoples of Mission Valero. As the Villa of San Fernando de Béxar grew, individual factions vied for the survival of their vested interests, especially in regards to land ownership. Although this document does not delve into the root of their discords, evidence supports that a long-standing conflict existed over special privileges from the crown. The isleños (Canary Islanders), who had arrived in the 1730s and founded the town, claimed the title of original settlers for themselves, regardless of the fact that other families living near the presidio, friars, and indigenous peoples had already made the San Antonio area their home. Their economic situation notwithstanding, first settlers controlled posts at town councils and access to land, pasture, and water, which often “endowed them with high social status” within the community. As such, colonists vied for viceregal dispensations of farm land and indigenous labor, both of which were essential to the survival of both Mission and town. By the early 1740s, the residents’ encroachment of Mission Valero’s lands had led to bickering between the governing body of the town, the friars, and the captains of the presidio. This document, penned by Francisco Joseph de Arocha, the royal notary, outlines some of the main grievances voiced by town residents and by the Mission Valero friars. According to Arocha, the members of the Ayuntamiento (municipal council) had pursued three issues: the presidio captains buy the corn harvested by the town residents; the friars allow the Indians to work the farm lands; the Indians (and with them, Mission Valero) be relocated elsewhere to prevent further damage to the residents’ ploughed fields, which they blamed on the Indians’ unfenced farm animals. In his response, the president of the Franciscan friars, Friar Benito Fernández de Santa Anna, noted that the Indians enjoyed the protection of various “causes, reasons, privileges, and laws” that safeguarded them from forced employ by the townspeople and that the Royal Tribunal in Mexico City had ruled against moving the mission. On August 14, 1745, as the future site of the Battle of the Alamo was still under construction, the parties agreed to reconcile their differences. Despite the advantages each side stood to gain if they pressed their cases to the Viceroy, the representatives from each faction gathered at the Cabildo homes to agree on the future of San Antonio. In ceding to each other’s demands through their own “spontaneous will,” the friars of Mission Valero and the town council of San Fernando sought to form a better union. For their part, the friars renounced their claims to the lands on which the town had been built. In return, the town council agreed to create a buffer zone between them and the mission, and established the home of Juan Banul as the boundary of the town. The only exception allowed in the treaty would be the construction of a church or any public building that would not impede the work of the mission. More importantly, to prevent any further discord between the town and the mission, both groups surveyed the land, established clear boundaries between them and promised to respect any prior and future ruling from the viceroys. As the town continued to grow in both importance and size, and as the population at the Mission began to falter, the treaty gave way to the town’s demand for vacant land. In the 1760s, residents of the town began to settle the Potrero area between the Mission and San Fernando. Eventually, the secularization of Mission Valero in 1793 helped to ease some of the pressure from the population growth. Despite the short life of the treaty, during those middle years of growth and settlement of San Antonio de Béxar, the residents of both San Fernando and Mission Valero enjoyed a period of relative “peace, union, and conformity.”Miami University exchange student Andrew Polack examines what he has learned so far in Luxembourg, but not with his studies but with everyday life, public transport and dealing with one of his fears - talking to strangers! Counting today, I have been in Europe for a total of 78 days. With nearly two and a half months of brand new experiences under my belt, I’ve also learned priceless lessons that I will carry with me for the rest of my life. Here are just a couple of those lessons. There’s no such thing as a perfect trip While this sounds incredibly depressing, I’ve found this lesson to be the most comforting one I’ve learned yet. What I mean by this is that very rarely does everything go according to plan, and that it’s actually more fun that way! With my reliance on public transportation here in Luxembourg and Europe, I rarely catch all of my planned buses and trains and shuttles. This has caused me to become a lot more relaxed in my approach to travel. Didn’t catch that connecting train? No problem, I’ll catch the next one! And in the meantime I’ll take in all that my surroundings have to offer. You’d be surprised how much you can learn about a culture just through its train stations and bus stops. For example, last week I was stuck in Italy, with nothing more than my Eurail and passport. Rather than freaking out and wasting energy, I took it one step at a time. Even though I was alone, I had a wonderful time passing through Italy, Switzerland, and Germany to eventually be back in my bed in Luxembourg at the end of the day. Strangers are actually sometimes okay Growing up in America, I was bombarded by adults and authority figures repeating the phrase “stranger danger, stranger danger!” That’s led to me being completely paranoid when I’m in public spaces, and I’m incredibly weary of people that I don’t know. Being in condensed public spaces such as train stations and city centers here in Europe has forced me to face my fears of strangers. On my first week in Luxembourg I had no idea how to get from Luxembourg City back to the château in Differdange. So I walked up to the nearest person who looked like they knew what they were doing, and they helped me with the biggest smile on their face. Since then, I have no problem asking strangers for help, whether it’s directions or a good place to visit or someone to take a picture of my friends and me. Especially here in Luxembourg, the locals are friendly and go out of their way to help me as much as they possibly can. *** I look forward to applying these lessons to life back in America. I see myself being much more relaxed when it comes to traveling and making plans. And I definitely see myself being much more comfortable in populated spaces when I’m in need of some help, as well as being more than willing to help others now that I know how it feels to be on the poor end of that situation. ► See dossier: The Wednesday Word Do not miss the news - sign up to receive the wort.lu newsletter in English delivered to your inbox six days a week.Muhtar Kent is Chairman of the Board of Directors of The Coca-Cola Company. From 2009-2017, he served as the Company’s Chairman and Chief Executive Officer. Previously, he was President and Chief Executive Officer and, earlier, President and Chief Operating Officer. Mr. Kent joined The Coca-Cola Company in Atlanta in 1978, holding a variety of marketing and operations leadership positions over the course of his career. In 1985, he became General Manager of Coca-Cola Turkey and Central Asia. Beginning in 1989, he served as President of the Company's East Central Europe Division and Senior Vice President of Coca-Cola International, with responsibility for 23 countries. In 1995, Mr. Kent was named Managing Director of Coca-Cola Amatil-Europe, covering bottling operations in 12 countries. In 1999, he became President and CEO of the Efes Beverage Group, a diversified beverage company with Coca-Cola and beer operations across Southeast Europe, Turkey and Central Asia. Mr. Kent returned to The Coca-Cola Company in 2005 as President and Chief Operating Officer of the Company's North Asia, Eurasia and Middle East Group, an organization serving a broad and diverse region that included China, Japan and Russia. Less than a year later, he became President of Coca-Cola International, leading all of the Company's operations outside North America. In 2006, he was named President and Chief Operating Officer, and he became CEO in 2008. Mr. Kent holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Economics from the University of Hull in England and a Master of Science degree in Administrative Sciences from Cass Business School, City University London. Active in the global business community, Mr. Kent is the past Chairman of the International Business Council of the World Economic Forum and a member of its Chairman’s Community, a member of the Concordia Leadership Council, a past Chairman of the U.S.-China Business Council, a past board member of the National Committee on U.S.-China Relations, and Chairman Emeritus of the U.S. ASEAN Business Council. He serves on the boards of 3M, Special Olympics International, Catalyst, Cambridge China Development Trust and Emory University.Participants on the British reality show Eden—where 23 people elected to spend a year secluded in the Scottish wilderness—returned to civilization only to learn that the show had been cancelled. Welcome to paradise, baby. The U.K.’s Channel 4 aired but four episodes of Eden last summer, after filming began in July 2016. Very few people tuned in, though, and 11 of the volunteers ended up quitting the show. The remainder were reportedly never told that Eden had stopped airing. The Guardian reports: The programme, which first aired in July last year, was billed as a social experiment where 23 strangers were brought to the remote west Highlands of Scotland to build a self-sufficient community away from technology and modern tools. The year-long saga would be recorded by four crew members and personal cameras. Despite the show being taken off air, those still toiling for survival in the wilds of the 600-acre estate on the Ardnamurchan peninsula were not informed that their ordeal had not been broadcast since August. Advertisement What if you risked everything to be filmed in the wilderness but, all along, there was nobody around to see you torture yourself for entertainment? What was the “prize” involved anyway? Naturally, some of the people involved in the show came away from the experience feeling salty: The exodus, which includes the camp’s two doctors and a paramedic, is said to have been sparked by a mixture of hunger and disillusionment with the project, as various factions formed within the participants. At least two volunteers are understood to have tried to return to the programme, having regretted their decision to leave, but show insiders said the remaining contestants had refused to sanction the move. Advertisement Looks like the producers wanted a real-life Lost and the participants didn’t realize what they’d signed up for other than the empty promise of fame. All of this means not enough people saw this: A rep expects that the rest of the show will air at a date to be determined. “The appeal of Eden is that it was a real experiment and when filming began we had no idea what the results would be and how those taking part would react to being isolated for months in a remote part of the British Isles,” she said in a statement. “That’s why we did it and the story of their time, including the highs and the lows, will be shown later this year.” Advertisement Here are some photos of these poor souls trying to survive.CLOSE Fishers' high rents keep independent restaurants away Wochit Fishers is an up-and-coming city. Development is coming fast and furious. But restaurants – other than 220 chain restaurants within city limits – aren’t. High rents keep independent restaurants from taking on chance on Fishers. (Photo: File photo) Why is it so hard to get a decent meal in Fishers? It’s a question Mayor Scott Fadness said residents ask him all the time. Unless one is an aficionado of the Quarter Pounder, the Triple Double Crunchwarap or a Baconator cheeseburger, only savvy epicurean explorers can find an upscale or locally owned restaurant. For a booming city of 90,000 trying to establish a balance between cutting edge and cozy, the culinary conundrum has gnawed at Fadness for a couple of years. The mayor said there's a simple reason why fast-food joints dominate: High rents are scaring away the mom-and-pops and foodie entrepreneurs. “We are a growing city, with new development and high rental rates,” Fadness said. “That means only the big food chains can afford to move in. The independent guy whose profits aren’t large can’t afford it now.” Competition:Fortville wants to feast on Fishers' population boom Top schools:Westfield tops Carmel, Fishers in Indiana high school ranking The result is a numbing assembly line of chains that forces residents to drive to Indianapolis or elsewhere if they are celebrating a special occasion or want to try something new. In older cities, adventurous restaurateurs seek out space in neighborhoods where real estate values have sunk, often jump-starting foodie districts. Fountain Square and South Broad Ripple in Indianapolis are examples, to a certain extent, of that type of food-processed reinvestment. Fishers is not in that mix. It doesn’t have pockets of abandoned industrial buildings or vacant homes that can be rezoned and turned into funky, new-concept restaurants, Fadness said. The city of 35 square miles has roughly 220 chain and franchise restaurants, including six Subways, four McDonald's and four Taco Bells, according to records with the Hamilton County Health Department. Of those, 25 are independent and locally owned, according to Visit Hamilton County Indiana. Tourism spokeswoman Whitney Riggs said the office counts only independent restaurants that asked to be promoted by the office, so the number could be a little higher. Buy Photo Mike Cunningham in front of Bru Burger Bar, one of Mass Ave.'s most-recognized brands and among five restaurants Cunningham owns on Mass Ave. as part of his Cunningham Restaurant Group. (Photo: Michelle Pemberton/Indy Star) For independents, the high lease rates are akin to a food-borne disease because the small business owner can’t match the sales that established chains rake in, said Mike Cunningham, chief executive officer of the Cunningham Restaurant Group, which owns Bru Burger, Mesh, Union 50 and other Indianapolis restaurants. “The escalating rents can make it difficult to survive,” said Cunningham. The rents in Fishers are often twice as high as Indianapolis — $35 to $40 a square foot compared to $15 to $20, which amounts to $240,000 a year for rent in Fishers versus $120,000 in Indianapolis for a 6,000-square-foot space. Cunningham, who has restaurants in Noblesville, Plainfield and Avon but not Fishers, said he targets $3 million to $4 million a year in sales and tries to keep rent payments to about 6 percent of the gross receipts. But with the prevailing lease rates in Fishers, Cunningham said he’d need sales of $5 million a year to retain that profit margin. “That’s a daunting task,” Cunningham said. "You put yourself in a really dangerous situation if you can’t do really big sales. Everybody, including the mayor, wants independent restaurants, and the demographics are there in Fishers. But the rents are high.” NEWSLETTERS Get the Breaking News newsletter delivered to your inbox We're sorry, but something went wrong Urgent developments you should know now, not later. Please try again soon, or contact Customer Service at 1-888-357-7827. Delivery: varies Invalid email address Thank you! You're almost signed up for Breaking News Keep an eye out for an email to confirm your newsletter registration. More newsletters Fishers is one of Indiana’s wealthiest cities with median household income of $95,500 per year in 2015 compared to $49,000 for the state, according to the U.S. Census. Real estate is also more valuable in Fishers than the rest of the state; the median home was valued at $216,000 last year and $124,000 in Indiana as a whole. Steve Delaney, who specializes in restaurants as first vice president for retail brokerage firm CBRE Group, agrees Fishers rents are high but said most restaurants are satisfied if their rents are 10 percent or less of receipt. “But when you have high rents, you need high volume, and most of the time it’s only the chains that can get there,” Delaney said. High-end restaurants face the added hurdle that more expensive food lowers the profit margin “Meat is low profit margin and pizza is high volume and high profit,” Delaney said. “So the chains sell the pizza.” Despite the expensive leases, some high-end restaurants and independents have managed to open, including upscale tapas-style LouVino on 116
may not be as magically adept, but she is strong in many other ways. As mentioned, she has the singular ability to control and manipulate the men around her in ways that are neither sexual nor disrespectful towards women. Bellatrix is a married woman, but she never once mentions her husband; she is always making reference to how devoted she is to Voldemort. In this way she is putting herself beneath Voldemort, which is undoubtedly how he sees her as well. Contrarily, no man who has ever come across Molly Weasley has ever assumed that he was her better. Sirius tried to go up against her—in his own house no less—, and even he was sent off with his tail between his legs (pun certainly intended). Thus it is fitting that Molly should be the one to send Bellatrix off. Molly defeating Bellatrix is not traditional home roles defeating feminism. Molly defeating Bellatrix is feminism defeating women who are defined by the men in their life. It is strong female empowerment defeating abusive relationships. It is the choice to protect those around you and enact change in your environment defeating hate, greed, and servitude. But most importantly, it is love and respect defeating infidelity and a lack of family values. Bellatrix has no regard for family; she killed her cousin, virtually disowned her sister, and possibly abandoned her husband. Molly, on the other hand, represents love, honor, and the respect that a woman feels when she is protecting her family. To say that she is anti feministic is an insult to her life and life choices. She is one of the strongest, most convincing characters that Rowling created, and it is extremely fitting that it was she who defeated the embodiment of greed and familial disrespect that is Bellatrix Lestrange. Ok, so maybe I wasn’t so brief after all.super excited when I saw that parcel key in our mail slot! My Santa definitely delivered with a good mix of what I asked for! and 4 pounds of it too! A few bags of sugar free candies for my dad who's diabetic as America has way more variety then Canada when it comes to sugar free, he was pleasantly surprised when I handed him his stuff. Girl scout cookies!! I've never been to America during the cookie season but have always been curious to try them as the Canadian girl guides only has thin mints and sandwich cookies. Although he shouldn't have many, my dad was also excited to see the thin mints. I'll be sharing those and the samosa's with my family as I can't eat them due to an allergy but the shortbread ones are all mine, mine I say!!! duvalin bi sabor my Santa included these as they were a favourite of theirs growing up so that's super cool! I haven't had a chance to try them... scratch that, trying them now! I'm trying out the vanilla and hazel nut one right now and it's super good! I'm glad my Santa has included them! it's a really nice mild sweetness and the texture is really nice, a bit smoother then something like nutella. I put in my info that rather then a favourite flavour I dig textures so this was awesome!Dec. 2, 2016, 9:04 PM GMT / Updated Dec. 2, 2016, 9:04 PM GMT By Stephany Bai The chef behind one of America’s most popular Chinese food dishes has died. Chef Peng Chang-kuei was 98 when he died on Nov. 30 from pneumonia, according to the Epoch Times. This screenshot from the "about" section of the Taiwanese restaurant chain Peng's Garden Hunan Restaurant website describes the origins of Peng Chang-kuei's General Tso's chicken dish. Peng Chang-kuei, who died Nov. 30, 2016, is seen in a photo on the website toasting with former secretary of state Henry Kissinger. via Peng's Garden Hunan Restaurant Peng first made General Tso's chicken in the 1950s, when he was working as a chef for the Taiwanese government, according to Taiwan Business Topics. When U.S. Navy Admiral Arthur W. Radford visited Taiwan in 1954 to lead a summit of high-ranking government officials, Peng decided to expand on the usual banquet menu. One of his innovations, a breaded and stir-fried chicken dish in a sweet and spicy sauce, was so popular that the chef was asked what it was called. On the spot, Peng coined “General Tso’s Chicken,” according to Taiwan Business Topics, after a celebrated war hero from Hunan, his home province. RELATED: The Story Behind America's Obsession with General Tso's Chicken Peng opened a restaurant in New York City in 1973, according to the New York Times, which was well-reviewed and counted officials from the United Nations as well as Secretary of State Henry Kissinger as regulars. In the 80s, he returned to Taiwan, where he founded a Hunanese cuisine restaurant chain, Peng’s Garden Hunan Restaurant. Chef Peng and General Tso’s Chicken have both been seen a recent surge in media interest. This screenshot shows Peng Chang-kuei (left) with his son in the documentary "The Search for General Tso," looking at photos of interpretations of the dish Peng Chang-kuei created. via "The Search for General Tso" The chef was interviewed for a 2015 documentary called “The Search for General Tso,” which investigated the origins behind the dish and its namesake, as well as its impact on Chinese-American cuisine. In the documentary, Peng dubbed the evolution of his chicken dish and its subsequent ubiquity “crazy nonsense.” American Chinese chain restaurant Panda Express also introduced the dish as an “American Chinese Original” when they added it to their menu earlier this year. RELATED: Panda Express Celebrates 'Origin and Originality' With 'American Chinese' Campaign "Dishes like General Tso's and orange chicken are the reasons why Chinese immigrant families in the U.S. were able to provide for their families," Panda Restaurant Group chief marketing officer Andrea Cherng told NBC News at the time. "The beauty of it now is that this American Chinese cuisine, instead of it being a means of survival for one family, can be celebrated as incredible entrepreneurship." Follow NBC Asian America on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and Tumblr.Windows 10 Mobile has not been looking too good for Verizon customers recently, with the lack of a Verizon capable device. HP’s upcoming Elite x3 is not expected to work with Verizon either, however, HP might have something else up its sleeve. In an AMA (Ask Me Anything) on the Windows Phone sub-Reddit, a HP Consultant told us that HP is working on another device, but declined to tell us whether it was a mobile device or not: Executives are drooling… it will be a top down effect… ( this isnt the only device coming from HP … hint hint hint) In a follow-up response to another Redditor asking if the HP Elite x3 has had any updates in regards to Verizon support, the consultant replied: Not happening on THIS model.. Further to this, it appears HP has a device lifecycle of 12-15 months, “for each device”: There is a lifecycle planned.. Target is 12 to 15 months for each device. With no further details, it is difficult to see what HP could be working on exactly, however, from the responses, it is a safe bet to say they’re working on another Windows 10 Mobile device that is a possible upgrade or a newer model of the Elite x3, which could include Verizon support. From another discussion, the consultant also stated that the Elite x3 does in fact support CDMA, but it isn’t enabled and Verizon will not support the device: CDMA is there… Verizon hates us.. :( This is good news, as it means that from a technical standpoint, the Elite x3 can support CDMA, should they and Verizon decide to support it after release. Let us know in the comments what you think of this additional information surrounding HP and the Windows 10 Mobile ecosystem that it is investing in. Share This Further reading: CDMAJessica Q: Your hair is so smooth and pretty; I admire it ☆ Do you have a special way in taking care of it? A: I do simple treatment care even at home after I shampoo and when I have time, I do [treatment] care at the hair salon. I think my hair was originally on the thin side~. Q: I went to Seoul at the end of the year, but it was reeeeeeaalllllllllyyyy cold（≧∇≦）I ate spicy and delicious foods, so my body warmed up, but what is Jessica’s favorite food? A: I like all kinds of foods! Korean, Japanese, western-style, Italian, Indian, Mexican, Thai, Chinese, etc… Really, everything! (laughs) Q: Other than singer, what other occupation do you admire?? A: As I thought, more than any other occupation, I think singer is the best for me ^^ Taeyeon Q: A question for Taeyeon who has an amazing voice. Can your pet dog Ginger do any tricks? The pet chihuahua at my house will quickly touch your hand and roll over for red beans. This is the hardest trick the chihuahua can do right now. Also, please tell us the cutest action Ginger has ever done. A: Ginger is really good at jumping! Any time we are eating at home, and even though he always sits with us, this is when I think he is the cutest~ ^^ Q: To Taeyeon who sounds good no matter what song she sings ^^ I really love your singing voice!! What is Taeyeon’s favorite genre? If you have a song that you would recommend recently, please tell us. ♪ A: I don’t really have any favorite genre in particular, I just pick and listen to whatever fits my mood at the time. ♪ Q: The 3rd album is the best! I like LIPS in particular! I’m anxiously anticipating just what kind of performance will be shown at the tour. Question about the 3rd album; please recommend us a song you’re interested in. A: “LIPS” and “Karma Butterfly” have really good rhythms, I think you would always want to repeat them. Hyoyeon Q: When it comes to dance, it’s Hyoyeon! However, have you ever thought about choreographing a Girls’ Generation song? A: Yes, I have~. If I do choreograph, I wonder what kind of song would be good~^^? Q: What sport are you the best at~?? ^^ A: I like running [for] endurance building and skiing because while I enjoy the speed, it’s refreshing to slide in the snow! I’m still practicing golf, but the more I practice the better I get ^^ Q: When do you get the most motivation? A: When it feels like I can do it, yet it doesn't go according to plan~. Translation: arghninja@soshified.com, SeraphyKY@soshified.com, redsunset@soshified.com“We need no more marchers. We need more mayors,” argues Mark Lilla in his recently published pamphlet The Once and Future Liberal: After Identity Politics. In the short book, Lilla insists that movement politics (and identity politics) has not served American liberals well over the last years since it relegated the first order of political business in a representative democracy: winning elections in order to govern. “The role of social movements in American history, while important, has been seriously inflated by left-leaning activities and historians,” Lilla writes. “[I]t is an iron law in democracies that anything achieved through movement politics can be undone through institutional politics,” he adds. Movements such as those led by Mohandas Gandhi and Martin Luther King Jr. can change peoples’ hearts and minds, but “over the long term they are incapable of achieving the concrete political ends of their own.” For that, political operatives and party politicians working through the institutions are needed. In other words, just as Martin Luther King Jr. needed “the machine politician Lyndon Johnson, a seasoned congressional deal maker willing to sign any pact with the devil to get the Civil Rights Act and Voting Rights Act passed,” as Lilla put it, Gandhi required Jawaharlal Nehru, his political heir and successor, to institutionalize and codify some of his visions. It goes without saying that this observation is in no way meant to downplay the political genius of Gandhi and the revolutionary character of his non-violent resistance to British authorities. Nevertheless, Lilla’s thesis provides an interesting new perspective to evaluate the effectiveness of Gandhi and his movement. Perhaps the two most effective political campaigns in Mohandas Gandhi’s political career were the 24-day Salt March in 1930 from his Sabarmati Ashram near Ahmedabad to the village of Dandi on the Arabian Seaside, and his four-day fast in September 1947 to stop communal violence in Calcutta amidst the horrors of intercommunal slaughter during the partitioning of India. The former established Gandhi’s international fame. Among other things, he was named Time Magazine Man of the Year of 1930. The Time’s article even compared Gandhi’s march “to defy Britain’s salt tax as some New Englanders once defied a British tea tax.” It also signified the high-water mark of his political strategy of non-violent civil disobedience—dubbed Satyagraha—in his confrontation with the British Raj. It mobilized hundreds of thousands in India and, alerted millions in the world to India’s quest for independence, and, in the short term, led to a number of concessions by the British Viceroy to the Indian National Congress, setting a precedent for further negotiations as equals. The latter showed Gandhi’s powerful political and spiritual influence at its peak. He singlehandedly prevented the outbreak of violence in Calcutta—a city that had already seen massive bloodshed in the year before—by threatening to fast himself to death in September 1947. Gandhi only ended his four-day fast, after all communal leaders, fearing the Mahatma’s death, had signed a declaration to abstain from violence—and they held their word. Amidst the mass killings that occurred in many parts of the country, Calcutta remained calm for many months subsequently. “In the Punjab we have 55,000 soldiers and large-scale rioting on our hands. In Bengal our forces consist of one man, and there is no rioting,” the last Viceroy of India, Lord Louis Mountbatten, wrote at the time in admiration for the Mahatma. The two events cited above perhaps best illustrate Gandhi’s two favorite tools in forcing political change: carefully choreographed mass rallies preceded by a pamphleteering campaign heavily covered by the press, and his threat to starve himself to death through fasting. With these two tools, he confronted with varying degrees of success both communal divisions on the subcontinent as well as the political and military might of the the world’s largest empire. However, Gandhi’s tools proved less useful in enacting lasting change within political institutions. For that as it turned out, a politician already embedded in political institutions and a political party (the Indian National Congress) was needed. Indeed, one could make the argument that devoid of hard-nosed party politicians, Gandhi’s movement and its legacy would likely not have endured as the Mahatma repeatedly found himself out of his depth in his later years by sticking to impractical visions when it came to the political future of the subcontinent. For example, in an attempt to ward off partition, Gandhi repeatedly suggested that Muhammad Ali Jinnah should form an Indian government entirely composed of Muslims. Indeed, it was the rejection of this proposal of an exclusive Islamic cabinet that made Gandhi officially withdraw from formal negotiations over the transfer of power in the months leading up to independence. Nehru was adamant that any such a proposal–including the codicil that in the event of Jinnah declining the offer (which he surely did) the Indian Congress Party should be allowed to form a Hindu-dominates government—would not work. Indeed, Nehru grew increasingly frustrated with Gandhi’s impractical proposals and his movement politics as the British withdrawal was approaching. Gandhi, Nehru said, is “going round with ointment trying to heal one sore spot after another on the body of India, instead of diagnosing the cause of this eruption of sores and participating in the treatment of the body as a whole.” Lilla would likely endorse this assessment as evidence of the natural limits of movement politics. In a democracy it is often easy to fall for the uncompromising and pure vision of a stirring protest movement rather than trying to affect change by governing through executive offices, legislatures, courts, and bureaucracies. And while Lilla in his book repeatedly reiterates the valuable contributions that political movements have made to advance the cause of liberty and democracy in the past, he is adamant that seasoned political operators are needed to “engage in the slow patient work of campaigning for office, drawing up legislation, making trades to get it passed, and then overseeing bureaucracies” in order to institutionalize lasting political change. In other words, for every Mohandas Gandhi, participatory democracy requires a Jawaharlal Nehru. This is a point well worth considering for any political opposition hoping to transform government in the long-run.According to a report by Chad Ford of ESPN.com, the Toronto Raptors will be/have been actively shopping their #8 pick in this summer’s NBA Draft in hopes of acquiring an established wing player/small forward. The 2 big names on the Raptors most wanted list are Rudy Gay of the Memphis Grizzlies and Andre Iguodala of the Philadelphia 76ers. With the teams first-round pick in 2011 Jonas Valanciunas coming overseas to join the roster next season, the Raptors are hoping to add an elite scorer at the 3 spot to help Valanciunas and his transition into the NBA rather than have one more rookie (boom or bust) thrown into the mix. THOUGHTS I still can’t come to grips with how the Raptors believe they can acquire either Gay or Iguodala (or any other elite wing player for that matter) with the assets they currently have. As far as I know, Andrea Bargnani and DeMar DeRozan are untouchable. GM Brian Colangelo believes that both players are huge parts of the Raptors rebuilding process and long-term future. Neither player is going anywhere anytime soon as far as he is concerned. The expiring contract of point guard Jose Calderon, promising young power forward Ed Davis and that #8 pick are the only trading chips I could see other teams around the league showing interest in. Would that package be enough to land Rudy Gay? Absolutely not. First of all, Grizzlies owner Michael Heisley recently announced that Gay is not on the trade market and that the team has no intention of trying to get rid of him. Even if he were available, a package of the 8th pick, Jose Calderon and Ed Davis more than likely wouldn’t be enough to entice Memphis. At a price tag of $53 million over the next 3 years, Rudy Gay isn’t worth it. The Raptors would have $86 million tied up in Gay and Bargnani if Rudy somehow found his way across the border. Those 2 aren’t worth the financial strain. As far as Andre Iguodala goes, I just don’t see what all of the fuss is about. Is he really the missing piece that will take the Raptors to the postseason? He’s a tremendous player with a lot to offer both on offense and defense, but he isn’t the man to take the Raptors to that next level. I understand why the Toronto Raptors are eager to make a big splash and acquire themselves a superstar wing, but sometimes progress takes a bit of time. If we’ve learned anything from the Oklahoma City Thunder, it’s that a losing franchise can one day find themselves on top of the basketball world just by having solid drafts and picking quality players. The rookie the Raptors would take at spot #8 may never be that franchise-defining megastar, but he will certainly be a huge part of the Raptors future moving forward if all pans out. My advice would be to keep that #8 pick and keep rebuilding through the draft. A core of Valanciunas, Bargnani, DeRozan and the player selected 8th overall is something Raptors fans can be excited about. Going after Gay/Iguodala just smells of desperation. Christopher Walder is a sports blogger and lead editor for Sir Charles in Charge. You may follow him on Twitter @WalderSportsOLYMPIA, Wash. — Several business interests opposed a proposed Washington state tax on the sale of electronic personal information at a legislative hearing Friday. Rep. Norma Smith, R-Clinton, introduced the bill to put a 3.3 percent business-and-occupation tax on gross receipts from the sale of personal data relating to Washington state residents. “I believe it’s the right thing to do in a 21st century economy. It’s a modernization of our tax code. … The average Washingtonian, the average American — their information is being sliced and diced 3,000 different ways, and being bought and sold,” Smith told the House Finance Committee. The House Technology & Economic Development Committee has already recommended passage of the bill. Smith contended the bill would help the state government track a significantly under-watched part of the cyber-economy, the sale of personal data to corporations. This personal information includes postal and email addresses, online browsing habits, physical descriptions, driver license information, identification numbers, and other reports on financial, medical, employment and education information. The data can be used for marketing campaigns, and by the insurance, credit and healthcare industries. A 3.3 percent B&O tax on data sales would put $18.9 million into the state’s coffers in the 2017-2019 fiscal biennium and $57.9 million in 2019-2021, according to state government calculations. And Smith said the systems set up so small businesses won’t have to pay the proposed 3.3 percent B&O tax. Smith contended that corporate sales and tax information on the sale of personal data can be tracked and verified. Her proposed tax system “is transparent. It is fair. And most importantly, it’s simple,” she said Smith pointed to a 2013 Congressional report on the public data broker industry as an argument to increase regulation of that field. Beside taxing the industry, such a system would prove a little public peek into that largely hidden world, she said. “Since consumers generally do not directly interact with data brokers, they have no means of knowing the extent and nature of information that data brokers collect about them and share with others for their own financial gain. … Their customer base encompasses virtually all major industry sectors in the country in addition to many individual small businesses,” the 2013 report said. One section deep in the 2013 report reads: Data brokers collect a huge volume of detailed information on hundreds of millions of consumers. Information data brokers collect includes consumers’ personal characteristics and preferences as well as health and financial information. Beyond publicly available information such as home addresses and phone numbers, data brokers maintain data as specific as whether consumers view a high volume of YouTube videos, the type of car they drive, ailments they may have such as depression or diabetes, whether they are a hunter, what types of pets they have; or whether they have purchased a particular shampoo product in the last six months. Data brokers sell products that identify financially vulnerable consumers. Some of the respondent companies compile and sell consumer profiles that define consumers in categories or “score” them, without consumer permission or knowledge of the underlying data. A number of these products focus on consumers’ financial vulnerability, carrying titles such as ‘Rural and Barely Making It,’ ‘Ethnic Second-City Strugglers,’ ‘Retiring on Empty: Singles,’ ‘Tough Start: Young Single Parents,’ and ‘Credit Crunched: City Families.’ “One company … sells a marketing tool that helps to ‘identify and more effectively market to under-banked consumers’ that the company describes as individuals including ‘widows’ and ‘consumers with transitory lifestyles, such as military personnel’ who annually spend millions on payday loans and other ‘non-traditional’ financial products. The names, descriptions and characterizations in such products likely appeal to companies that sell high-cost loans and other financially risky products to populations more likely to need quick cash, and the sale and use of these consumer profiles merits close review. Representatives of TechNet, the Association of Washington Business, the Consumer Data Industry Association, the Washington Bankers Association and CompTIA testified against Smith’s bill Friday. They pointed out that the state’s current B&O tax on service businesses is 1.5 percent, meaning that Smith’s bill’s rate of 3.3 percent would more than double that tax on the sale of personal data. They also argued that this proposed B&O tax increase would lead to data brokers leaving the state, while not helping to protect people’s private information. This would be difficult to voluntarily comply with — to know when you are tripping over the wire. No other state is doing this. Tom McBride, representing CompTIA, said a 3.3 percent tax would mean data sellers would pay the highest B&O tax rate in the state. Joanie Deutsch, executive director of TechNet, said no other state has a B&O tax specifically on personal data sellers. Dennis Eliason, representing the bankers association, said this would increase credit bureau costs. The associations and companies argued that the definitions and language in Smith’s bill are too broad, which would handicap interpreting passages in order to comply with the new tax rules. “This would be difficult to voluntarily comply with — to know when you are tripping over the wire. No other state is doing this,” said Eric Lohnes of the Association of Washington Business. Washington Department of Revenue officials said a company would have to pay the B&O tax, regardless of whether it is physically located in Washington. A company physically located out-of-state would be liable for the B&O tax if it sells $267,000 of Washington-related personal information, according to the revenue department. To be held responsible for paying this tax, a company would have to meet only one of the following criteria:Muslim-Americans in the Los Angeles area celebrated Eid al-Fitr — an important Muslim holiday marking the end of the holy month of Ramadan — with a two-day Eid festival with food, games, entertainment, and musical performances. But early Saturday, three men came to protest the event, with signs that read, “Islam is a religion of blood and murder.” One man, ranting for minutes, could be heard shouting, “You call yourself a religion of peace? You guys are walking time bombs.” One man, ranting for minutes, could be heard shouting, “You call yourself a religion of peace? You guys are walking time bombs.” “Let’s keep the peace. Let’s show them what we are,” he said. Dalati walked away, only to return to some music. And that’s when the dancing began. Dalati walked away, only to return to some music. And that’s when the dancing began. Dalati told BuzzFeed News he saw the sound guy putting on the music and he thought, "this was the perfect opportunity to drown out the protesters." He turned the music up and walked back with a couple dance moves. “Hold my walkie,” Dalati said before really letting loose on the makeshift dance floor counter-protest. "The whole reason why the dance thing started is because we’re not here to be political. We’re here to celebrate a festival. It’s about love. It’s about peace. And why would anyone want to ruin that?" said Dalati.The argument that embracing a low-carbon future is a road map to economic ruin is bunk, say a band of economists who argue that investing in more efficient transportation, buildings and waste management could save cities worldwide at least $17 trillion. One way to unlock that savings is to promote bikes and buses. The savings come from stimulating economic activity, decreasing health care costs, reducing poverty, and cutting the costs associated with urban sprawl, like time and productivity lost to traffic congestion. That's according to a report, Accelerating Low‐Carbon Development in the World’s Cities, released today by New Climate Economy, a group of economists formed to examine the costs and benefits of addressing climate change. "For too long, there's been the same old argument used to prevent bold action on climate change, which is there's some sort of tradeoff between economic prosperity and climate action," says Nick Godfrey, an author of the report and the organization's head of policy and urban development. "In cities, that is a false choice. Actually, there is a significant confluence between promoting economic growth and prosperity, and climate action." Peter Forsberg/Alamy Transportation comprises as much as one-third of the emission reductions the report says cities can "unlock." That's good for 3.7 gigatons of carbon reductions, which is up to 20 percent of the CO2 emissions needed to keep the global mean temperature from increasing by more more 2 degrees Celsius by the end of the century. In other words, changing how we get around could save money, and maybe the environment. But changing how people move through a city isn't easy. More mass transit is great, but time consuming and expensive to build. Cities in the developing world will account for 90 percent of urbanization in the coming decades, and many of them will be strapped for cash. That's why the report emphasizes two particularly cost-effective modes of transportation: cycling and buses. There are "compelling economic, social and environmental reasons for cities to invest in safe and well‐connected cycling infrastructure," the report says. Biking eases congestion, reduces health care costs, and cuts air pollution. It's an "equitable transport mode," since it's far cheaper to own and maintain a bike than a car. And there are proven ways to promote pedaling any city can implement. Provide bike lanes, and connect them. Lower speed limits and increase penalties for drivers who hit cyclists. Distribute maps of bike paths. Start a bike sharing system—something more than 700 cities have already done. There are great examples to follow: Paris is investing in cycling by doubling its network of bike lanes to 870 miles, creating 10,000 secure bike parking spaces, and offering financial incentives for those buying electric and conventional bikes. London and Munich want to build cycling highways, to make long commutes by bike convenient and safe. That kind of "cycle super highway" can deliver a 19 percent annual return on investment, according to the report. Bus rapid transit (BRT) is a hybrid between traditional bus service and a subway. The buses usually get dedicated lanes, so they don't get tied up in traffic. They make infrequent stops to cover long distances quickly. Fares can be paid before boarding, to keep the vehicle moving as much as possible. The report cites a study that found a BRT system costs about $10 million per mile to establish, one tenth the price of a metro rail system. More than 200 cities have BRT systems, Godfrey says. Lagos, Nigeria has used bus rapid transit to serve its rapidly growing population, and saved money by bringing existing bus fleets into the system—instead of spending money on a whole new pile of vehicles. New York City is using more express buses to expand public transit as well, since building new subway lines in the crammed city is almost prohibitively expensive and outrageously slow. "There's a significant economic dividend to investing in better transit systems," Godfrey says. The key is for city leaders to consider things like cycling infrastructure and bus rapid transit not a burden, but an opportunity.NEW ORLEANS ― Examples of Donald Trump’s misogyny have been piling up since footage was released on Friday of him bragging about groping women. Now, it’s emerged that the GOP presidential nominee once gave radio host Howard Stern permission to call his daughter, Ivanka Trump, a “piece of ass.” Trump was talking to Stern about his daughter, who was then 23 years old, in a 2004 interview, CNN reported Saturday. “By the way, your daughter,” Stern said to Trump. “She’s beautiful,” the brash businessman responded. “Can I say this? A piece of ass,” Stern asked. “Yeah,” Trump replied. The news comes one day after footage leaked of Trump bragging in 2005 that he can “grab” women “by the pussy” because he’s a celebrity. Republican politicians are scrambling to distance themselves from their party’s nominee ― with some planning to write in his running mate, Indiana Gov. Mike Pence, for president. The newly unearthed Stern interview is not the only time Trump has objectified his daughter. In 2006, He said on ABC’s “The View” that if Ivanka weren’t his daughter, he’d be dating her. Trump doubled down on those comments in an interview with Rolling Stone in 2015. “Yeah, she’s really something, and what a beauty, that one. If I weren’t happily married and, ya know, her father...“ Trump said. In a 2003 Stern interview, Trump said Ivanka has “got the best body.” And former staffers on the set of “The Apprentice” told The Associated Press that Trump would often compliment women’s looks on set and compare them to his daughter. “He would just mention it all the time,” Rebecca Arndt, a camera assistant for the reality show, told the AP. “I remember him comparing Ivanka to her and saying that only Ivanka was prettier.” Ivanka Trump has not publicly commented about father’s comments about her. He has apologized for what he called “locker room banter,” referring to his comments about groping women, but he refuses to drop out of the race despite Republicans calling for him to do so. “I’d never withdraw. I’ve never withdrawn in my life,” Trump told The Washington Post. “No, I’m not quitting this race. I have tremendous support.”The US$39.95 singing Elsa doll from the Frozen movie is the holy grail of presents for little girls worldwide. But it is so popular that it's unavailable even in the world's biggest Disney store. Disney’s Frozen is the most successful animated film in box office history, with US$1.14 billion earned worldwide. Its mix of catchy tunes and magical princesses has fuelled demand for its merchandise and second-quarter revenues, with some Disney stores limiting customers to a maximum of two items per visit and related dolls and costumes being sold on eBay for huge premiums. Sean Cronin battles the crowds at Disney World in Orlando to get his hands on a coveted Elsa doll with little joy. Before the doors open at the world’s biggest Disney store in the Florida theme park, the shoppers are already waiting outside. Most are there to buy one item. But all will leave disappointed. The US$39.95 singing Elsa doll from the Frozen movie is the holy grail of presents for little girls worldwide. So much so that they are almost impossible to acquire anywhere on the planet right now. It is either a case of marketing genius or logistical incompetence. Even here in the very heart of the magical kingdom, where everything is possible if you just believe, Elsa is nowhere to be found. Cinderellas, Barbies and Little Mermaids abound, piled high in a variety of costumes. But Elsa is absent. In a corner of the sprawling store in Downtown Disney, among the tennis racket-sized lollipops and Mickey Mouse hats, a small stand has all the Frozen merchandise there is left to buy – a few overpriced T-shirts, a writing pad and a story book. A sign warns shoppers, somewhat redundantly, that purchases of Frozen products are restricted to five per person. “Where’s the rest of it?” I ask, while circumnavigating the tiny table of tat in about three steps. “China,” comes the curt response from a shop assistant, who it seems has been asked the same question one too many times. The perma-smiling Disney sales staff have a sort of pepper-spray politeness about them. It was clear they had little patience to explain to yet another tourist why the entire inventory of Frozen merchandise in the world’s biggest Disney store could be accommodated in the bum bag of one of the seven dwarfs or Dick Whittington’s knapsack. It was a cruel blow and the end of a long journey. I had come half way around the world in search of Elsa. A Siemens press trip to Orlando provided the cover. Now it was only a matter of time before the Germans would track me down and drag me back on to the bus. The quest had been for nothing. Defeat and mandatory viewing of superior German engineering lay ahead. But the real interrogation would come later in having to explain myself to my four-year-old daughter on her birthday. That reception would be even frostier than the film – the highest-grossing animated move of all time, and one with the most irritating of theme tunes – “Let it go, let it go”. Since getting that cursed DVD, every car journey has included a tuneless rendition of it from the kindergarten occupant of the rear car seat. The singing of the three-word chorus has been relentless, repeated over and over and over again like a Guantanamo interrogation technique. Without the doll to distract her, who knows how long she would persist in her incessant and tuneless warbling? Weeks? Months? Then the sequel would be out. And the ear-splitting cycle would begin again. “Let it go, let it go …” The solution appeared like an epiphany. Cinderella in her blue dress was a dead ringer for Elsa. Only the box betrayed her true identity. With a bit of icing sugar dusted over her pretty little frozen head during the general confusion of a kids’ birthday party, nobody would be the wiser. There may be no genuine Elsas left in North America – but there could be a sugar-frosted Cinderelsa. And she would be lickable – a deal-clincher for your average four-year-old. The resemblance was uncanny. Both blondes, broadly the same dress sense, big eyes, pouty lips, pert nose. Elsa, being more independent-minded, may struggle with the household chores. But otherwise they could be twins. If they were to find themselves in some sort of imaginary fairytale police line-up, it would be hard to identify the suspect. Even better: because Cinders is reduced to $14.99, I’m $25 up. Then came the doubt. What if the deception was somehow exposed? Would it trigger trust issues in later life? Would all future disappointments evoke that birthday in the summer of 2014 and crystallise around it? Would the rest of my days be fated to seeking redemption for the lie? What would Walt Disney think? Was I polluting his magical kingdom of low-wage East Coast retirees? There was that, but there was also that$25, I reasoned, while reaching for the Cinderella box on the shelf. Then from somewhere, someplace, perhaps a factory near the industrial region of Guangzhou province, came a voice. Faint at first, then louder, then annoyingly loud
would have set a precedent I just couldn’t let happen — especially if I want to take my property The 3 Geeks to movie and TV studios. If they see a potential copyright/trademark dilemma, it could really hurt my chances. Now, I’ve set a copyright and trademark precedent for myself. Just wish it didn’t have to cost me so much!” Follow Eye on Comics on Twitter.AP Photo/Matt Rourke Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton walks off the stage after speaking in New York, Wednesday, November 9, 2016. This article originally appeared at The Huffington Post. Subscribe here. If you are like me, you are probably very weary of debates about Who Lost America to Donald Trump. The debate goes something like this: Hillary blew it! What a terrible campaign. What a blemished candidate. What horrible judgment to take those speaking fees from Wall Street, to keep classified data on her personal server, to fail to ask her top aide Huma Abedin to leave her employ once the Anthony Weiner mess blew up, yet again. She handed her enemies a loaded gun. And now we’re stuck with Trump!! Hillary screwed up; we pay the price. Hold on, misogynist pig. Hillary won! She won the popular vote by more than two million. Even apart from the alleged hacking of election results, old-fashioned voter suppression—in the form of closed polling places, long lines, restrictions on early voting, abuse of ID requirements, improper purges—probably cost her at least three swing states where the winning margin was razor thin. She won! Yeah, but a decent candidate would have beat Trump by ten points. There was no excitement for Hillary outside the bubble. Did you even see Hillary lawn signs, or bumper stickers? Give me a break. Look at all the dirty tricks—the Russians hacking and leaking confidential communications by her top advisers. The FBI chief breaking all the rules and meddling in an election. Look at how the media obsessed about her emails and kept giving Trump a free pass. I’ll give you this: The rot goes a lot deeper than Hillary. The Democratic Party has been blowing off the white working class for decades, getting into bed with Wall Street, making trade deals by and for corporate America. No wonder Trump, despite being a billionaire and a fake, could get traction as a champion of working people. Why do you think Bernie almost beat her for the nomination? Bernie and the Bernie bros cost us the election. He never was going to win. He sapped energy from the general election. Hey, just think of the Bernie vote as data. Hillary and the establishment party had such weak appeal among the young and the working class that they supported a 74-year-old Jewish socialist. What does that tell you? Those white working-class guys who voted for Trump? How many of them are just plain racist? How many of them would never vote for a woman? There is a new majority coalition in this country—of minorities, women, immigrants, the young, LGBTQ people. It just didn’t totally come together in 2016 because of all the dirty tricks. Yeah, that and the lack of voter enthusiasm. If you think it was racism that defeated Hillary, how do you explain that Obama, a black man, did better in 2008 with the white working class than Hillary did in 2016? I’ll tell you the answer. He looked like an outsider, and regular people are sick to death of insiders—so sick that they voted for Trump. Sorry, but that coalition doesn’t coalesce without the white working class. Maybe they are more inclined to vote for an African American man than a woman, much less a feminist. Sorry, identity politics doesn’t cut it without the working class. No, no, stop. It’s not mainly class. It’s racism and misogyny. It’s culture! Class! Culture! Class! Culture! Arggghh!! OK, campers. Can we please move on? We’ve got a Constitution to defend. Can we stipulate: Hillary ran a terrible campaign, and she was the victim of dirty tricks and presidential Democrats have been far too cavalier about regular working people, and there is plenty of racism and misogyny? Completing the rights revolution for blacks, women, gays, lesbians, trans people, immigrants, would have been tricky politics even had Hillary been better at lunch-bucket policies for Middle America. But it was a bridge too far in the absence of credible appeals to the working class. Gentle reader, it is both/and. And class is culture. Just hang out in a bar in a working-class town, where the factories have moved to Mexico or China, where half the storefronts on Main Street are shuttered and a way of life that was once valued is ruined. Is that class or culture? Surely, it’s both. This was once FDR country. It’s now Trump country. John Kennedy famously said that victory has a hundred fathers and defeat is an orphan. Not this time. This particular bastard of a defeat had plenty of fathers—and mothers. So can we please declare this debate closed, and think about what to do now? What do we know about President-elect Trump? We know that he views the presidency mainly as a business opportunity; that he is appointing other billionaires to high offices, so that they can also turn government and public policies into profit-making ventures. Betsy DeVos, the designated education secretary, supports school vouchers not just as school “choice,” but as a money-making opportunity. We know that apart from a few gestures, he will do just about nothing for the white working-class protest voters. So can Democrats somehow win these folks back? It won’t be easy, precisely because the revolt against the establishment is about culture as well as class. Trump, however, may be his own worst enemy. While posing as a populist, he seems inclined to let the Republican establishment have its way, not just with welfare for the poor but with federal programs that Middle America actually values, such as Social Security and Medicare. At some point, even the devout Trump backers may notice that the man is a fraud. And Democrats need to be there with a brand of constructive economic nationalism that actually serves working people. But in the meantime a great deal is at risk—not just the programs going back to Franklin Roosevelt and the civil rights victories going back to LBJ and Martin Luther King but constitutional democracy itself. Now, can the Democrats please suspend their usual ritual of the circular firing squad—and get on with the business of defending what’s decent in America?Let’s be optimistic and assume that we manage to avoid a self-inflicted nuclear holocaust, an extinction-sized asteroid, or deadly irradiation from a nearby supernova. That leaves about 6 billion years until the sun turns into a red giant, swelling to the orbit of Earth and melting our planet. Sounds like a lot of time. But don’t get too relaxed. Doomsday is coming a lot sooner than that. The Earth is, in some ways, in a precarious spot in the solar system. There’s a range of orbital distances inside which a planet can have both liquid surface water (which is believed to be necessary for life) and enough atmospheric CO 2 to carry on photosynthesis. This range is called the photosynthesis habitable zone. The Earth orbits barely within the sun’s zone. Some scientists estimate that the inner edge lies just 7.5 million kilometers away, which is only 5 percent of the distance between the Earth and the sun. Shutterstock And that inner edge is moving out. Our sun is a massive ball of gas held together by its own gravity. At its center, the intense pressure and heat fuse hydrogen nuclei together to form helium. It takes four hydrogens to make one helium nucleus. As the number of nuclei in the core of the sun decreases by three with each helium nucleus formed, the outward pressure of the core also decreases (because the pressure is proportional to the number of nuclei per volume). In response, the outer layers of the sun squeeze the core harder, increasing its pressure, temperature, and fusion rate, leading to a 10 percent growth in brightness every billion years. The Earth responds to this increasing brightness, in part, by decreasing the thickness of its warming blanket, which is provided by atmospheric CO 2. Rising temperatures on Earth speed up reactions between water and silicate-rocks, which in turn draws CO 2 out of the atmosphere. Sort of like changing your winter down comforter for a cotton sheet in the summer, this helps to keep the surface temperature of the planet habitable. Also in Astronomy The Astronomer Royal By John Steele I interviewed Lord Martin Rees in the 16th-century courtyard of Casina Pio IV in the Vatican Gardens. Originally built as the summer residence of Pope Pius IV, Mozart was rumored to have played there, and some of the greatest minds...READ MORE Eventually, though, the warming sun will cause CO 2 levels to fall so low that plants will start to die. First to go will be the C 3 plants, so called because their photosynthesis process involves a molecule containing three carbon atoms. Most plants are of the C 3 type, including wheat, rice, barley, oats, soybeans, peanuts, coconuts, bananas, potatoes, cotton, and most trees. In about 200 million years, when the CO 2 concentration drops below 150 parts per million (it is at 400 today), C 3 plants will disappear. Civilization relies mostly on C 3 plants, which make up about 85 percent of global agricultural production by dollar value. Another class of plants are C 4 plants, which employ a form of photosynthesis that involves four carbon atoms and is more efficient under many conditions. Although C 4 plants make up only about 3 percent of plant species, they account for about 25 percent of the total photosynthesis on Earth. In order to survive the die-off of C 3 plants, we will probably turn to genetic engineering to expand the list of C 4 plants. Today, C 4 plants include corn, sorghum, millet, and sugarcane, as well as some grasses and weeds. Not even cockroaches will survive. Efforts are already underway to convert rice from a C 3 plant into a C 4, which would result in about 50 percent larger harvests under present-day conditions. At 100 ppm CO 2, the only rice on Earth would be C 4 rice. C 4 plants are thought to have evolved in response to the ongoing depletion of CO 2. It is likely that as C 3 plants die off, C 4 species will continue to expand naturally to fill the newly opened niches in the ecosystem. Unfortunately, about 300 million years after C 3 plants disappear, C 4 plants will die out too. When the CO 2 concentration drops below 10 ppm, neither type of plant will remain. Once plants disappear and cease replenishing atmospheric oxygen, animals will begin to die out. Currently, there are no known significant non-biological sources of oxygen on Earth. Once the plants are gone, oxygen will be a non-renewable resource. Large animals would probably asphyxiate within a few million years. Smaller and hardier creatures might last longer. Some types of microbes will probably survive by using metabolic reactions that do not rely on carbon dioxide or oxygen, but instead use materials such as sulfates or iron. So that’s the number: In a paltry 500 million years or so, no humans will remain on the surface of the Earth—at least, not outside of some hypothetical controlled environment. And things get worse from there. After the atmospheric CO 2 is gone and no longer able to regulate Earth’s surface temperature, things will start to get very hot. In about a billion years, the average surface temperature will increase to above 45 degrees Celsius from the current 17 degrees Celsius. Important biochemical processes turn off at temperatures above 45 degrees Celsius, leaving most of the planetary surface uninhabitable. Animal life will need to migrate to the cooler poles to survive; but by 1.5 billion years from now, even the poles will be too hot. Not even cockroaches will survive. Now, there are a few things we can do to stay our execution. We could, for example, move the Earth’s orbit. If we fired a 100 km wide asteroid on an elliptical orbit that passed close to the Earth every 5,000 years, we could slowly gravitationally nudge the planet’s orbit farther away from the sun, provided that we don’t accidentally hit the Earth. As a less precarious alternative, we could build a giant solar sail behind the Earth with enough mass to drag the planet away from the sun. Such a sail acts like a kite, where the photons from the sun are the wind and the gravity between the solar sail and the Earth acts as the string. The sail would need to have a diameter 20 times that of the Earth but a mass only about 2 percent that of Mt. Everest, a mere trillion metric tons. Strategies like these could, in principle, keep the Earth in the habitable zone until the sun expands into a red giant. (If some other civilization has already built such a large solar sail, we could detect it using the same photometric techniques that are currently used to find exoplanets.) Another survival choice is more complicated—or simpler, depending on your perspective. The future Earth will actually be a pleasant home for non-biological life—better than it is today. For one thing, the brighter sun will provide more abundant solar power. The space weather will also be nicer. The sun is a dynamo spinning on its axis about every 24 days, generating giant magnetic storms that disrupt communication networks, overload power grids, and damage orbiting satellites. Robots today need fear that their circuits could be fried by a solar storm, such as the large solar storm in 1989 that caused a power failure across most of Quebec. Currently, such storms are estimated to occur about once or twice per century. But as the sun ages, this rotation slows down and the magnetic storms will abate. Given these facts, we humans might simply decide to upload ourselves into machines, which would be relatively comfortable on the dystopic future Earth. This would require advanced computing resources and a deeper understanding of neuroscience than are currently available, but there is no known fundamental reason why we could not exchange our biological hardware for robotic replacements. We could probably figure it out in the next few hundred million years. Michael Hahn and Daniel Wolf Savin are astrophysicists at Columbia University.HM Revenue and Customs has been accused of being “hostile to democracy” after hitting Leave campaign donors with huge tax bills, while the giant banking corporations which backed the Remain campaign are left unscathed. The taxman has decided to levy inheritance tax bills ranging into six and seven figures on donors who gave money during the EU referendum, despite political contributions normally being exempt from such charges, the Telegraph reports. While the newspaper knows of one Remain donor who has received a bill, demands are expected to fall disproportionately on Brexit backers, who were typically individual entrepreneurs rather than corporate entities. Meanwhile, the powerful multinationals which served as the Remain campaign’s most prominent backers — including banking giants Goldman Sachs and JP Morgan — have suffered no penalty, as they are not subject to inheritance tax. Brexiteers hit by the bills include Leave.EU co-founder and insurance tycoon Arron Banks, Midlands entrepreneur Lord Edmiston, and City of London heavyweight Peter Cruddas. Brexit supporter Jacob Rees-Mogg MP — grassroots favourite to replace Theresa May as Tory leader — blasted the move as “fundamentally hostile to democracy” and demanded an urgent amendment to the legislation which allowed HMRC — chaired by a former special adviser to arch-europhile Ken Clarke — to levy the charges. Who loses the most from #Brexit? Try Goldman Sachs, the bailed out mega-bank funding the @StrongerIn campaign: https://t.co/A4iHWTQEvA — Leave.EU (@LeaveEUOfficial) April 13, 2016 “Any money routed through the Establishment is tax-free and any money that challenges the Establishment is taxed — a double outrage because the Government spent taxpayers’ money advocating its own view and is now penalising people who had the audacity to challenge it,” noted Rees-Mogg. “It is fundamentally hostile to democracy and the law should be changed urgently by amendment to the Finance Bill which is currently going through Parliament.” Arron Banks, a longtime ally of former UKIP chief Nigel Farage, was clear that he sees the whopping £2 million bill he has been sent as the “revenge of the establishment”. “After the campaign all the Remainers got gongs and the Leavers got kicked in the arse,” said Banks, recalling the flood of knighthoods and honours former prime minister David Cameron handed out to Remainers and personal allies after his referendum defeat. “It is lunacy. It is a political attack,” he added. David Cameron’s Dodgy Honours List: A Fitting Epitaph For A Rubbish Regime https://t.co/fZrf1drQvy pic.twitter.com/oDSMcSDkaH — Breitbart London (@BreitbartLondon) August 1, 2016 Lord Edmiston told the Telegraph he felt HMRC was behaving in an “anti-democratic” fashion, disincentivising individuals from donating to political causes — and, consequently, increasing the future influence of the powerful corporate donors mentioned above. “I just feel it is against democracy – if any time in the future there is an issue and someone is asked ‘would you mind supporting this particular position’, the Revenue are going to jump on your back,” he observed. Peter Cruddas, whose family paid some £50 million in tax last year, was even more scathing: “There are very strict laws around donations, you have to be resident and on the electoral roll. So de facto we paid tax on that money [already]. “We put money up — and at the time we were taking on the Government that put up £9m of taxpayers’ money to present one side of the argument. What we did was to match that through leaflets to put the other side of the argument. “I think we are being victimised. My accountant has never seen anything like it.” Follow Jack Montgomery on Twitter: @JackBMontgomeryNow I don’t know about you but I LOVE cheez-its. I love cheese in general but make it into a cracker and I am sold!! This recipe is super simple, only 5 ingredients (one of which is water!). Absolutely anyone can make these and they are to die for! Makes around 100 crackers. Prep: 10-15 min Cook: 8-10 Let’s start with ingredients! 8 oz. of cheddar cheese (I used white but orange would work just fine!) 4 tbs. butter 1 c. flour 1/2 tsp. of salt plus some extra to sprinkle on 4-6 tbs. ice water Soften that butter! Grate that cheese! Mix the grated cheese, butter, and 1/2 tsp of salt together. Now add in the cup of flour. Mix together and then add the water in 1 tbs. at a time till it all clumps together. It’s time to get rolling! As you can tell I am no the best at rolling out dough… whoops, they don’t have to be totally equal. Just make sure they are pretty thin. The crackers will puff up quite a bit in the oven so if you leave them thick they will be reeeeally thick. The smaller you go the more “cracker like” they will be. All cut up! (pizza cutters are your friends) Make sure to at least poke one hole in each to help with cooking. Sprinkle with a little salt for topping. Bake at 375° until crispy on the bottom, usually around 8-10 minutes. Mmmm so crunchy and cheesy. They are very addicting and in my house never make it to the next day. Short instructions: Ingredients: 8 oz. of cheddar cheese (I used white but orange would work just fine!) 4 tbs. butter 1 c. flour 1/2 tsp. of salt plus some extra to sprinkle on 4-6 tbs. ice water Directions: Soften the butter in the microwave Grate the cheese Mix the grated cheese, butter, and 1/2 tsp of salt together. Now add in the cup of flour. Mix together and then add the water in 1 tbs. at a time till it all clumps together. Place the dough on parchment paper and roll it out. As you can tell I am no the best at rolling out dough… whoops, they don’t have to be totally equal. Just make sure they are pretty thin. The crackers will puff up quite a bit in the oven so if you leave them thick they will be reeeeally thick. The smaller you go the more “cracker like” they will be. Cut the dough into small squares (pizza cutters are your friends) Make sure to at least poke one hole in each to help with cooking. Sprinkle with a little salt for topping. Bake at 375°. Adapted from: http://shopgirlmaria.blogspot.com/ AdvertisementsIf at the beginning of the season, you would have told me the Whitecaps would be struggling mightily on defense, yet lighting it up offensively, I would have laughed and walked away. Throw the phrase 'lead by Kenny Miller' in there, and I probably would've had you committed. Yet, here we are, 14 matches into the season, and the Vancouver Whitecaps boast a powerful recent attack, an attack that has thrust Camilo, Russell Teibert and, yes, Kenny Miller firmly in the spotlight. Miller scored twice against the New England Revolution, two glorious markers that are currently up for MLS goal of the week (hint, hint). Not only that, Miller became just the second Whitecap to receive player of the week honors (Camilo was the first), and he's second on the team in goals, with 5. Consider that for a moment; 5 goals in just six matches because he did miss tons of time with a bothersome hamstring injury. Camilo has played 808 minutes this season, the most of any striker, and he is currently sitting on a solid six goals. Miller has played almost half that at 483 minutes, and he has just one less. Pretty freaking impressive. It's the kind of statistics the Whitecaps thought they were buying when they threw a million dollars at Miller to strap on a Whitecaps kit. It looked like a dismal move last year, and now it looks like a stroke of genius. Martin Rennie, who's been oft criticized for his roster management (and deservedly so) has brought in a veteran leader that can, and has, wear the armband, contribute offensively and do it all with a subtle, 'ah shucks' demeanor. However, is this the Miller we can expect to see from here on out? Last season, Miller's biggest problem (besides his finish) was that he often looked aimless on the pitch. Not that he didn't work hard; the guy absolutely flew to every corner of the turf of BC Place, trying his best to make things happen. However, he tried too hard, which often resulted in mistimed runs and setups killed before they had a chance to get started. That Miller, the Miller who was part of a dysfunctional group is, in my opinion, firmly in the review mirror. It wasn't just that he scored twice on the weekend (heck, they were up a man for most of the match), it was that he's been producing all season long. He started off the year with goals in the first two matches, then was lost to injury. His next couple of matches, he was clearly still getting into match fitness, trying his best to work out his wonky hamstring. I think it's safe to say it's better now. Miller is also the recipient of some fortunate circumstances. Who were the cogs of the offensive machine last season? Barry Robson, the horribly inconsistent, petulant man child was supposedly the pulse of the midfield, while Darren Mattocks was the lone striker. Usually, the Whitecaps attack boiled down to one option; heave up a through ball and hope to God Mattocks could bring it down and score on a breakaway. Now, Miller has the emerging Russell Teibert and his world class set ups, and Camilo up top, an attacker that works better with runs up the pitch and possession, although he could stand to pass a bit more. So, TL;DR, yes, Kenny Miller is rejuvenated and is every bit as good as advertised. Barring injury, he should be able to provide the Whitecaps with a consistent attack, something they haven't had since, well, ever. Now, Miller staying beyond this season--that's a question for another day.Just as people’s voices betray hints of the region they originate from, so, it turns out, do phone calls. Handsets, telephone exchanges, and other call-routing infrastructure imprint subtle and almost unique fingerprints onto the audio of any phone call, a phenomenon that security company Pindrop hopes to use to prevent fraudsters from using stolen credit cards over the phone. “We can identify whether a person is using a landline or cell phone, or when a call supposed to come from a mobile in Atlanta comes from a landline in Nigeria,” says Vijay Balasubramaniyan, CEO and cofounder of Pindrop. The “secret” answers and words used to protect bank and other accounts are often easily compromised, particularly using data gleaned online, or through tactics like phishing. Spoofing a caller ID to match a victim’s number when calling their bank has also become commonplace, says Balasubramaniyan. Pindrop is a relatively young startup, but it is already working with several top banks, says Balasubramaniyan. It processes the recordings of customer calls to flag possible cases of fraud. Another version of the system, not yet released, can instantly communicate a “risk score” when a call connects. That could mean that you don’t get asked so many security questions when you call your bank, because your line noise vouches that it really is you. You’ve probably noticed that calls placed from different places, different devices, and via different networks, such as a cell phone call compared to one made through Internet services like Skype, sound different. When a person makes a call, the chain of technologies between them and the recipient creates a very particular “line noise.” Pindrop’s software has been trained to extract specific information from the line noise on a call. It can even estimate a caller’s location, thanks to the patchwork of different telecommunications equipment that links up the globe. “The telephone network has been around for a long time, so there are very different fingerprints for different regions,” says Mustaque Ahamad, a professor at Georgia Institute of Technology and chief scientist and cofounder of Pindrop. The older infrastructure in Western Europe, for example, makes line noise on calls from there very distinct from those made from Africa. The audio processing software used by providers in different locations also imparts distinctive effects. As a result, a distance of less than 100 miles can alter line noise in a clearly detectable way, says Ahamad, although Pindrop’s service can locate calls only to broad regions. Ahamad and Balasubramaniyan say that it would be very difficult for a fraudster to spoof line noise. Changing phones—for example, between different wired and wireless handsets—would alter only some of the features that Pindrop looks for, says Ahamad, but “the other features stay the same.” The only way someone could change his line-noise profile significantly would be to somehow convince the companies carrying the phone calls to replace their current equipment. Even then the line noise would be very unlikely to exactly match that of the person being impersonated. That makes Pindrop’s large and growing database of line-noise fingerprints from known fraudsters a powerful resource to use to screen future calls, says Ahamad.AT&T has been saying for months that it would launch its LTE-based wireless network sometime this summer. Now it looks like that the company will indeed make that deadline with just a few days to spare. Fierce Wireless reports that the company will launch its LTE service in five US cities on Sunday, September 18. AT&T has previously announced that the cities that will get LTE service first will be Atlanta, Chicago, Dallas, Houston and San Antonio. AT&T plans to expand the network to 10 more US cities by the end of 2011. The launch on Sunday should allow users with LTE compatible devices to have data speeds that are much faster than AT&T's current network. Download speeds have been estimated to be between 5 to 12 Mbps with upload speeds of between 2 and 5 Mbps. However there are currently only a few devices that can connect to that network. It has already put two laptop connection products, the USB Connect Momentum 4G modem and the Mobile Hotspot Elevate 4G, on sale for $49.99 and $69.99, respectively. In addition the previously released USBConnect Adrenaline laptop device can also connect to the LTE network via a software upgrade. AT&T has also launched the HTC Jetstream Android-based tablet that can connect to the LTE network. It's on sale for $700 with a two year contract or $850 without a contract. AT&T plans to release the first LTE compatible smartphones by the end of 2011. Verizon Wireless launched its own faster LTE network at the end of 2010 and now it is available in 143 US cities and metro areas with more to come in the future. It has a number of LTE-based smartphones, laptop connect devices and tablets available for sale.So you dont care about race, gender or sexual orientation... "we specifically encourage entries from women, people of colour and the LGBT community." ...But you do care about race, gender and sexual orientation because its pretty much hinted that not being a straight white guy will give you an advantage. Okay. Also how exactly will you know who is who? So I guess that also means that the key to winning is to have your article revolve around the fact that the writer isn't a straight white guy, right?. Unless of course you plan to send them a follow-up mail asking them: "Hey we really like your piece, but we just need to know your skin colour, race & sexual preference.KTHXBYE". So either you blatantly already have an idea as to what type of article and author will win (meaning that the "write whatever you want" part is worthless), or that that line I quoted above is totally pointless filler.The ACLU has launched a massive effort with more than thirty of its state affiliates to uncover just how law enforcement agencies, large and small, are using cell phone location data to track Americans. The national organization and its affiliates submitted 379 requests through state Freedom of Information (FOI) laws and hope to unearth documentary evidence to show just how law enforcement is using new technology to invade Americans’ privacy. “We want to get a better handle on the scope of location tracking in this country, how often it happens, where it’s happening, whether or not the government gets a warrant based on probable cause,” says Catherine Crump, a staff attoreney for the ACLU’s Speech, Privacy and Technology Project. She believes this effort will demonstrate law enforcement is using technology tracking more and more often for cases. Through the FOI requests, the ACLU seeks to uncover information on: “whether law enforcement agents demonstrate probable cause and obtain a warrant to access cell phone location data; statistics on how frequently law enforcement agencies obtain cell phone location data and how much money law enforcement agencies spend tracking cell phones and other policies and procedures used for acquiring location data.” The ACLU takes a clear stance on location tracking, according to Crump. They “think location tracking is deeply invasive of people’s privacy rights and the government should only be allowed to do it when they have a warrant based on probable cause.” But, it is clear “that’s not what’s happening. We think that violates the Constitution.” “The American public should know the extent to which people are getting tracked without getting a warrant,” Crump declares. She notes how much location tracking has been in the news recently. Not a week goes buy, she says, that we don’t read about a new development related to location tracking. For example, the Supreme Court is “poised to address the issue of whether or not the Fourth Amendment requires the government to attach GPS devices.” Lately, there have been reports that Sen. Ron Wyden (D-OR) knows the NSA is seriously compromising Americans’ privacy through location tracking. Matt Olsen, who has been with the NSA but will likely become head of the National Counterterrorism Center, mentioned during his confirmation hearing if the NSA was using cell phone data to track Americans. Olsen said there are “circumstances where that authority may exist.” Sen. Wyden and Sen. Mark Udall (D-CO) would both like to publicize what the NSA is doing and have asked the Director of National Intelligence James Clapper about the location tracking of Americans. The “troubling government practice,” according to Crump, is becoming more widely used because the old model of law enforcement, where one person is tracked, is becoming increasingly obsolete. Police models are evolving and becoming quite novel in the kind of surveillance used. Police now can figure out the name of a suspect and track that individual and then when that suspect calls individuals they can track all of those individuals’ phones. Sound familiar? That’s basically a main thread of the last half of Season 3 of HBO’s “The Wire.” The “major crimes unit” in the show spends time and resources mapping out the drug ring of Stringer Bell and when someone calls another they pick up a phone number and use that phone number to get closer to people hire up in the ring of drug dealers. It is much different now though. That season aired in 2004 and the show ran from 2002-2008. Seven years later, Apple iPhones and Google Android phones now have the capacity to send GPS location coordinates along with the coordinates of nearby WiFi networks. Apple and Google both faced scrutiny from Sens. Al Franken (D-MN) and Rep. Edward Markey (D-MA) May, after The Guardian published a story on the revelation that vast databases were being built by the two companies thanks to “smartphone tracking” built into the phones. Crump reports that anecdotally the ACLU has heard “industry has marketed to law enforcement” technology that could be used to establish a perimeter so when anyone crosses a line the law enforcement agency would be notified a cell phone has entered the area. The law, which governs privacy, hasn’t been updated since 1986. The Electronic Communications Privacy Act was not written by creative science fiction writers, who imagined one day people would be carrying phones that law enforcement could use to track individuals. The ACLU hopes their project will move Congress to finally update the law. The project also has the potential to be an education campaign. How many Americans are aware of the “digital trails” they now leave? How many know what data or records they are leaving behind, which the government can use to violate their privacy? More importantly, how many no longer believe they have a right to privacy? Arguments by law enforcement authorities, proponents of the ever-expanding national security state and those profiting from new technology that has built-in tracking, are increasingly winning cases on the argument that, if you do not have a reasonable expectation of privacy, you may not have a right to privacy. This effort could teach Americans they do have privacy rights. The information uncovered could be part of an even more significant initiative to educate Americans on what to do to protect privacy so in cases, when asked if they can say they were working to keep certain data and information about their selves private.A poll ahead of Scotland’s upcoming referendum suggests the majority of voters are in favour of Scottish Independence. The YouGov research for the Sunday Times indicates 51% of people support independence, compared to 49% who want to remain in the UK. The results are the latest evidence of a dramatic surge for the 'yes' campaign led by First Minister Alex Salmond, which has seen the gap between the sides decrease in a matter of months. The two point gap is within the margin of error for such polls, meaning a genuine majority will not be known until polling day, 18 September. YouGov has charted a remarkable turnaround for the pro-independence side, which has seen them recover from a 22 point deficit in just one month. A second poll, carried out by Panelbase for ‘Yes Scotland’ suggested a no vote to be leading with 52% to 48% when undecided voters are excluded. The poll, conducted between 2 September and 6 September, also found that 47% of women support independence, which ‘Yes Scotland’ says is a 13 point increase in six months. Writing in the Sunday Mirror, former Prime Minister Gordon Brown acknowledged that the referendum battle was proving tougher than some had expected, and said it was the fault of the Tory party. Mr Brown said that many are angry over the bedroom tax. Labour leader Ed Miliband raised the prospect of manned border posts being introduced if Scotland votes to go independent. In an interview with the Scottish Mail on Sunday, he insisted: "If you don't want borders, vote to stay in the United Kingdom." Deputy First Minister Nicola Sturgeon said "these are exceptionally positive and encouraging figures - and the Panelbase poll shows record support for independence among women.EXCLUSIVE: Man sues Metro Police after Hard Rock fight Copyright 2019 Nexstar Broadcasting, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. Copyright 2019 Nexstar Broadcasting, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. EXCLUSIVE- Man sues Metro Police after Hard Rock fight_20160217071852 prev next LAS VEGAS - A man is accusing Metro Police of police brutality after a fight inside the Hard Rock Hotel and Casino. 8 News NOW obtained exclusive video of the altercation. Ian Tuuamalemalo, the man making the allegations and suing Metro Police, says the video is difficult to watch. “They could have killed me,” he said. The video shows him being tugged on his shirt, followed by what may be a punch. He is shown being taken to the ground by police, restrained and carried out. Tuuamalemalo appears to be passed out. “I don't like being helpless,” he said. The incident occurred January 26, 2014. The 34-year-old man says he was visiting from California for a reggae show at the Hard Rock, when he had a run-in with Metro Police. He and his attorney Cal Potter provided the surveillance video to 8 News NOW. “Society has said, you know, we're going to hold these police officers accountable. We're going to allow private attorneys to come in and sue for violations of civil rights,” Potter said. They claim this is excessive use of force by police. Since there is no audio, it is unclear how this started and what was said between police and Tuuamalemalo. A Metro report describes him as
inch. “This is probably one of the most fun defenses I’ve played on,” Brian Robison said. That description echoed throughout the Vikings locker room Sunday after their defense rendered another offense toothless in a 31-13 win over the Houston Texans at U.S. Bank Stadium. “Oh man, it’s fun,” cornerback Captain Munnerlyn said. “Everybody is having fun out there,” nose tackle Linval Joseph said. Well, not everybody. Not those poor offenses that keep getting chewed up and spit out. The Vikings increasingly look like a Super Bowl contender in large part because of their defense. That unit is so stingy and overwhelming that anything seems possible. The Vikings are playing championship-caliber defense, which remains a remarkable transformation compared to their calamity three seasons ago. The Vikings owned the NFL’s worst defense back then. They couldn’t stop anyone. Now their defense ranks among the best, if not at the very top. Their defense is a treat to watch, the way all 11 guys work in concert, flying around the field ferociously and unselfishly. “We’re about one thing and one thing only: winning,” Robison said. “Guys aren’t out for themselves, to pad their stats. They’re not being selfish and putting others in bad situations.” The Vikings have star players on defense, but they don’t necessarily have one best player. The sum of their parts is a true defining characteristic. “Just one heartbeat,” cornerback Xavier Rhodes said. Chemistry can be overused in sports vernacular. The term is hard to describe but easy to identify. The chemistry within the Vikings defense is unmistakable. Everything just fits. Their confidence is boiling over the sides of the pot. “We enjoy each other on and off the field,” linebacker Anthony Barr said. “That’s the best part of this. We’re very similar in terms of personalities and what we like to do when we’re not playing football.” They like to do the same things when they’re playing football, too. Mainly, wreak havoc on their opposition, particularly quarterbacks. The Texans and quarterback Brock Osweiler became their latest roadkill. The Texans managed only two field goals and a garbage-time touchdown. They didn’t get a first down of their own doing until two minutes left in the first half. Their first three first downs came courtesy of penalties. They converted only one of 13 third-down chances in all. The combination of Mike Zimmer’s scheme and his defense’s talent continues to make quarterbacks act like a bunch of Nervous Nellie’s. Aaron Rodgers looked rattled. So did Cam Newton. Osweiler played that way, too. “It seems like they have their scheme mastered,” Osweiler said. “They got after us.” The Vikings create pre-snap confusion by disguising blitzes and shifting players, making it impossible to know who will rush and who will drop into coverage. Barr said he noticed Osweiler’s eyes focused on the pass rush at times, rather than looking downfield to his receivers. The Vikings registered four sacks, 13 quarterback hits and eight pass breakups. “The defensive line is doing a great job of getting after the quarterback,” Munnerlyn said, “and on the back end we’re covering them up.” Two plays highlighted their effect on the Texans’ psyche. Osweiler threw an ill-advised pass down the middle of the field in the third quarter. Safety Andrew Sendejo closed fast, lunged and snagged it. Harrison Smith ran behind Sendejo with his arms stretched out from the opposite direction. He was in position to intercept the pass, too. The Texans faced fourth-and-16 on their next series. They called a screen pass. That seemed odd, except it wasn’t because they had no chance to contain the Vikings’ ears-pinned-back pass rush long enough for their receivers to get downfield. “We feed off each other,” Smith said. It’s become a feeding frenzy with their defense. They attack from all angles, front to back, side to side. They’re giving the Vikings a decisive edge every time they take the field. “Right now it’s the best defense I’ve been around,” Joseph said. Chip Scoggins chip scoggins@startribune.comSo, since my top scoring post this year was a NSFW post in the factorio Reddit, I was a bit afraid to take part in secret Santa (in the words of my boyfriend: 'you're gonna get a boat load of penis, probably.') Instead, I got the best gift ever, Star Wars lego! I love lego and Star Wars both so that's already a great combination. However, due to a disability I'm spending a lot of time in bed - which I now got to spend in bed with lego, awesome!!! The timing couldn't have been better either, because the gift arrived on one of my bed days. I did get a message telling me I should wrap and unwrap the gift myself (wrapping paper included), which I found very funny :3 any crappy giftwrapping is purely my own fault now ;)The Inverse team is pleased to announce the immediate availability of PacketFence 5.0.0. This is a major release with new features, enhancements and important bug fixes. This release is considered ready for production use and upgrading from previous versions is strongly advised. Here are the changes in v5.0: New Features New active/active clustering mode. This allows HTTP and RADIUS load balancing and improves availability Fingerbank integration for accurate devices fingerprinting. It is now easier than ever to share devices fingerprinting. Built-in support for StatsD. This allows fine grained performance monitoring and can be used to create a dashboard using Graphite Local database passwords are now encrypted using bcrypt by default on all new installations. The old plaintext mode is still supported for legacy installations and to allow migration to the new mode Devices can now have a "bypass role" that allows the administrator to manage them completely manually. This allows for exceptions to the authorization rules Support for ISC DHCP OMAPI queries. This allows PacketFence to dynamically query a dhcpd instance to establish IP to MAC mappings Enhancements Completely rewritten pfcmd command. pfcmd is now much easier to extend and will allow us to integrate more features in the near future Rewritten IP/MAC mapping (iplog). Iplog should now never overflow New admin role action USERS_CREATE_MULTIPLE for finer grained control of the admin GUI. An administrative account can now be prevented from creating more than one other account PacketFence will no longer start MySQL when starting PacketFence will accept to start even if there are no internal networks Added a new listening port to pfdhcplistener to listen for replicated traffic Added a user named "default" in replacement of the admin one Adds support for HP ProCurve 2920 switches Iptables will now allow access to the captive portal from the production network by default Major documentation rewrite and improvements Bug Fixes Fixed violations applying portal redirection when using web authentication on a Cisco WLC Registration and Isolation VLAN ids can now be any string allowed by the RFCs Devices can no longer remain in "pending" state indefinitely See the complete list of changes and the UPGRADE.asciidoc file for notes about upgrading.Your resume only has six seconds to make an impression when you apply for a job. Eye-tracking research shows that this is the average time a recruiter spends reviewing each resume they get. If recruiters can’t scan the key data points of your resume within those six seconds, it isn’t going to get another look. Recruiters experience higher cognitive loads and greater visual fixations when reviewing a cluttered resume. In the recruiter’s eyes, a resume that’s hard to read is not a professional one. It’s important to make a positive first impression and a clear, professional resume is how you do that. Easy on the Eyes Light Resume is a professional resume template that allows recruiters to scan the key data points of a resume within six seconds. Recruiters spend 80% of their scanning time on your name, job title/company, position start/end dates and education. The remaining 20% of their scanning time is spent looking for keywords that match the open position. The template highlights these key data points using a clear visual hierarchy, precise alignment, even spacing, geometric shapes, vibrant color and elegant typography. The layout places relevant information where recruiters expect it and uses a resume’s limited space efficiently. Easy on Your Printer It isn’t just easy to read, it’ll also save you printer ink. If you’re interviewing for several jobs, you’ll need to print out copies of your resume. Most people use up a lot of printer ink because their resumes use bold/regular font weights, full pixel lines and solid color fills. Light Resume isn’t aggressive on your printer ink because it only uses light font weights and ¼ pixel lines with no solid color fills. The colors are CYMK ready so that your text will look clear and crisp when printed. Easy to Customize Customizing Light Resume is as easy as it to read. Open the resume template file with your vector tool of choice, click an element and start editing. Once you’re done, export or print it, and in minutes you’ll have a clear and professional resume. Separate yourself from the pack and revamp your resume to land your dream job. Get it for only $10 Key Features of Light Resume Light Resume only focuses on relevant and useful information that recruiters look for. This disciplines you to present yourself with minimal information, so that your value comes across strong and clear. Within a glance, they’ll know you’re the one to consider for the job. Here are a the key features of Light Resume that make it a template unlike the rest. Light Font Weight & ¼ Pixel Lines Light Resume doesn’t use any bold or regular font weights. It uses a light font weight which makes text easy on the eyes and your printer. Work Experience & Education The work experience and education sections are designed with chronological circle outlines and highlighted headings to make them eye-catching and well-structured. Professional Skills & Tools The professional skills and tools sections are designed as a horizontal histogram with outline bars that measure and display the strength of your expertise in various areas. Self-Summary The self-summary section allows you to express what makes you unique in a simple and effective way using a headline and paragraph. Name and Profession Your name and profession is displayed boldly and proudly in the top left corner with even spacing and elegant typography. Contact Info Your contact information is displayed clearly and distinctly in the top right corner with outline icons and colorful headings. A research study found that rewriting and redesigning your resume can make it easier to read by 60%. You should think about a redesign if your resume includes a picture of yourself. Recruiters spend an average 19% of their time looking at candidate pictures instead of reviewing other key information. If recruiters can review more key information in less time, it’ll make it easier for them to say yes and grant you an interview. There’s no question that a recruiter’s review time is limited and resume readability plays an important role in getting the job. Light Resume is here to make your life easier and to help you win. Get it for only $10 Books ToolkitsJust a few months after the tragedies in Aurora and Oak Creek, the latest act of mass gun violence took place outside of Milwaukee, Wisconsin yesterday. Radcliffe Haughton opened fire at the salon where his estranged wife works, killing three women and injuring four others, before turning the gun on himself. While details are still coming out, the police are already pretty sure that “this incident is domestic violence related.” Earlier this month, Haughton allegedly slashed the tires of his wife’s car. Just last week she got a restraining order against him and he was ordered to turn his weapons over to the sheriff’s department. The Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence has a slew of horrifying stats that show how domestic violence combined with easy access to guns puts the lives of American women at risk. I was especially struck by this one: Women are more than twice as likely to be shot to death by their male intimates as they are to be shot, stabbed, strangled or killed in any other way by a stranger. And, as Eesha thoughtfully explored after the Aurora shooting, the gendered nature of mass murder–even those that aren’t directly related to domestic violence like this one–cannot be ignored. As Bob Herbert wrote a few years ago, after George Sodini killed three women at a Pennsylvania gym, “We’ve seen this tragic ritual so often that it has the feel of a formula. A guy is filled with a seething rage toward women and has easy access to guns. The result: mass slaughter.” Our thoughts go out to the friends and families of all the victims.The Republican presidential dynamic — various candidates rise and recede; Mitt Romney remains at about 25 percent support — is peculiar because conservatives correctly believe that it is important to defeat Barack Obama but unimportant that Romney be president. This is not cognitive dissonance. Obama, a floundering naif who thinks ATMs aggravate unemployment, is bewildered by a national tragedy of shattered dreams, decaying workforce skills and forgone wealth creation. Romney cannot enunciate a defensible, or even decipherable, ethanol policy. Life poses difficult choices, but not about ethanol. Government subsidizes ethanol production, imposes tariffs to protect manufacturers of it and mandates the use of it — and it injures the nation’s and the world’s economic, environmental, and social (it raises food prices) well-being. In May, in corn-growing Iowa, Romney said, “I support” — present tense — “the subsidy of ethanol.” And: “I believe ethanol is an important part of our energy solution for this country.” But in October he told Iowans he is “a business guy,” so as president he would review this bipartisan — the last Republican president was an ethanol enthusiast — folly. Romney said that he once favored (past tense) subsidies to get the ethanol industry “on its feet.” (In the 19th century, Republican “business guys” justified high tariffs for protecting “infant industries”). But Romney added, “I’ve indicated I didn’t think the subsidy had to go on forever.” Ethanol subsidies expire in December, but “I might have looked at more of a decline over time” because of “the importance of ethanol as a domestic fuel.” Besides, “ethanol is part of national security.” However, “I don’t want to say” I will propose new subsidies. Still, ethanol has “become an important source of amplifying our energy capacity.” Anyway, ethanol should “continue to have prospects of growing its share of” transportation fuels. Got it? Every day, 10,000 baby boomers become eligible for Social Security and Medicare, from which they will receive, on average, $1 million of benefits ($550,000 from the former, $450,000 from the latter). Who expects difficult reforms from Romney, whose twists on ethanol make a policy pretzel? A straddle is not a political philosophy; it is what you do when you do not have one. It is what Romney did when he said that using Troubled Assets Relief Program funds for the General Motors and Chrysler bailouts “was the wrong source for that funding.” Oh, so the source was the bailouts’ defect. Last week in Ohio, Romney straddled the issue of the ballot initiative by which liberals and unions hope to repeal the law that Republican Gov. John Kasich got enacted to limit public employees’ collective bargaining rights. Kasich, like Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker, is under siege. Romney was asked, at a Republican phone bank rallying support for Kasich’s measure, to oppose repeal of it and to endorse another measure exempting Ohioans from Obamacare’s insurance mandate (a cousin of Romneycare’s Massachusetts mandate). He refused. His campaign called his refusal principled: “Citizens of states should be able to make decisions... on their own.” Got it? People cannot make “their own” decisions if Romney expresses an opinion. His flinch from leadership looks ludicrous after his endorsement three months ago of a right-to-work bill that the New Hampshire legislature was considering. So, the rule in New England expires across the Appalachian Mountains? A day after refusing to oppose repeal of Kasich’s measure, Romney waffled about his straddle, saying he opposed repeal “110 percent.” He did not, however, endorse the anti-mandate measure, remaining semi-faithful to the trans-Appalachian codicil pertaining to principles, thereby seeming to lack the courage of his absence of convictions. Romney, supposedly the Republican most electable next November, is a recidivist reviser of his principles who is not only becoming less electable; he might damage GOP chances of capturing the Senate. Republican successes down the ticket will depend on the energies of the Tea Party and other conservatives, who will be deflated by a nominee whose blurry profile in caution communicates only calculated trimming. Republicans may have found their Michael Dukakis, a technocratic Massachusetts governor who takes his bearings from “data” (although there is precious little to support Romney’s idea that in-state college tuition for children of illegal immigrants is a powerful magnet for such immigrants) and who believes elections should be about (in Dukakis’s words) “competence,” not “ideology.” But what would President Romney competently do when not pondering ethanol subsidies that he forthrightly says should stop sometime before “forever”? Has conservatism come so far, surmounting so many obstacles, to settle, at a moment of economic crisis, for this? georgewill@washpost.comAfter designing for the first ramen poster, I was exposed to many types of ramen that I finally got to try for the first time such as Tori-Paitan (ramen with a rich chicken broth that was made similar to Tonkotsu style) and Ramen Burger. (Grilled ramen buns sandwiching roast pork, scallions, and other ramen toppings) Other than local Japanese ramen, I also want to introduce ramen recipes that have misleading name such as Yakisoba and Abura-soba, both having "soba in their names." Like most people, I thought they are probably soba noodles. (buckwheat) However, they are not made with soba noodles at all; instead, wheat noodles or ramen noodles are typically used for those recipes. As these discoveries pile up within the year, I decided to design a second ramen poster for the new year of 2016. The Ramen Poster 2.0 will introduce 42 ramen recipes (my old one has 25) that will blow your mind with more variety of must-try ramen in Japan! ILLUSTRATION What makes a bowl of ramen delicious-looking is the beautiful presentation of the bowl, broth, noodle, and toppings that are carefully made and arranged by the chef. This is how I wanted this project to be presented: a poster full of tasty ramen that I wanted to take a bite right away! EDUCATIONAL The Ramen Poster also has its educational part. There are lists of common broth, sauce, and toppings that are used for each regional recipes or a particular ramen dish. While different parts of Japan have their own proud recipes, I wanted to show them on this poster too. For example, in Yamagata, the local specialty cold ramen is very popular. (even in Winter) Sometimes, there are even ice cubes in the beef broth to keep it cold. Other than introducing regional recipes, I also want to mention popular dishes like "Yakisoba." Although the name is suggesting the noodle dish to be a buckwheat soba noodles, it is not common to use soba noodles for this recipe. Instead, noodles made with wheat flour or ramen noodles are typically used to make this delicious stir-fried noodle dish! RECIPES Underneath each illustration, there is a list of ingredients of what each snacks are made out of. Sometimes, gathering a few ingredients will already make you a delicious homemade Japanese snack! DESCRIPTION HANKO: STAMP ON FRONT OR BACK Designer: Fanny Chu Dimension: 24 inch x 36 inch Paper: heftier 10 pt. cardstock with vibrant gloss finish Background: Spicy A background with spicy chili ramen is what makes this poster exciting! Contrast of red chili oil with tasty colorful ingredients make this poster more attractive. (and definitely make us all very hungry for a bowl of ramen now!) REVIEW INTRODUCTIONBy now you’ve probably heard about the video that surfaced last weekend, which showed a US military raid against an ISIS prison. The raid was a joint effort by Delta Force operators and Kurdish Peshmerga forces, and they managed to rescue 70 Iraqi hostages who were scheduled for execution the next day. At least one US soldier by the name of Master Sgt. Joshua L. Wheeler was killed in the raid, making him the first US serviceman to be killed in Iraq in nearly 4 years. As noble as the whole affair sounds at first glance, I have admit that I had a funny feeling about the video when it first surfaced. Maybe it has something to do with the fact that it shows our military fighting militants that our government has covertly supported in the past (and the present as far as we know). Call me crazy, but something about that didn’t sit right with me. Don’t get me wrong though, I do believe that the footage is genuine. I’m sure that helmet cam recorded a real raid that rescued real hostages, and I don’t doubt that a real US serviceman was killed. What bothered me about the video, was why it was released in the first place. When you think about it, it’s kind of strange no? Delta Force is one of the most secretive organizations on the planet, much the like the Navy SEALS. Why would they let this footage be released to the media? Granted, it was the Peshmerga that released it, but somehow I doubt they let it go without consulting the US military first. If they wanted to stay in the good graces of our special forces, they would have never released the film unless they were given permission to do so. And in any case, nobody from our military (as far as I know) has protested the video that was essentially leaked by the Peshmerga. After all that is considered, I can only assume that our military wanted the footage to surface, despite the fact that it portrays a high risk operation being conducted by an ultra-secretive military force. Our government wanted the media to throw that video in our faces on every news channel, and they didn’t disappoint. Why I ask, would our government do that? Obviously, they desperately want us to believe that they really are fighting ISIS, especially after the Russians thoroughly embarrassed them by taking the lead in Syria. However, that’s not the only reason. The real reason why our military let this video leak, and why the media was so enthusiastic about airing it, became abundantly clear earlier today when Defense Secretary Ashton Carter made a stunning announcement. Washington (CNN) The U.S. is considering increasing its attacks on ISIS through more ground action and airstrikes, Defense Secretary Ashton Carter said Tuesday. Carter told the Senate Armed Services Committee that the U.S. “won’t hold back” from supporting partners carrying out such attacks or from “conducting such missions directly, whether by strikes from the air or direct action on the ground.” The White House, however, has yet to make a decision on the options for upping the campaign against ISIS, according to defense and administration sources. They said that further involvement on the ground was one of the possibilities being presented. Essentially, the video was a promo for our return to Iraq. While the video is genuine, its content and the timing of its release make it an effective propaganda piece. They wanted to show the American people that they’re capable of defeating those savages with ISIS, if only we would let them put more boots on the ground. That of course, is something that most Americans haven’t been very enthusiastic about since the end of the Iraq War. It’s also an attempt to rein in the Iraqi government. Right now, Washington is freaking out about seeing our allies in the Middle East defect to the Russian-Iranian alliance, and this is their last-ditch effort to regain control of the situation. They know that they need boots on the ground if they want to discourage Russia’s influence, and keep the Iraqi government in our hip pocket. Washington is quickly losing control of the Middle East, and they can’t stop it unless the American public implicitly allows them to start another invasion. The only question is, are Americans ready for another major war in the Middle East? Are we really going to accept this mission creep into Syria, which could result in a war with Russia? Hopefully the American public won’t fall for Washington’s propaganda this time around. Delivered by The Daily Sheeple We encourage you to share and republish our reports, analyses, breaking news and videos (Click for details). Contributed by Joshua Krause of The Daily Sheeple. Joshua Krause is a reporter, writer and researcher at The Daily Sheeple. He was born and raised in the Bay Area and is a freelance writer and author. You can follow Joshua’s reports at Facebook or on his personal Twitter. Joshua’s website is Strange Danger.Relations as First-Class Citizen - A Paradigm Shift for Software/Database Interoperability I'm happy to announce that Alf Alf 0.15.0 has just been released and with it, this web site! I've been thinking about all of this for many years, often as a cross-cutting concern in my (other) research work. I've been hacking on Alf in particular during my free time for more than two years now. I think it was time to share it in a slightly more official way than as an (almost invisible) open-source research prototype on github. Recent personal events gave it a serious boost and a few people convinced me to give it more visibility. So here we go. Alf is a modern, powerful implementation of relational algebra. It brings relational algebra where you don't necessarily expect it: in shell, in scripting and for building complex software. Alf has an rich set of features. Among them, it allows you to: Query.json,.csv,.yaml files and convert from one format to the other with ease, Query SQL databases with a sounder and more powerful query language than SQL itself, Export structured and so-called "semi-structured" query results in various exchange formats, Query multiple data sources as if they were one and only one database, Create database viewpoints (mostly read-only viewpoints for now), to provide your users with a true database interface while keeping them away from data they may not have access to, Enjoy a rich set of relational operators and even define your own high-level and domain-specific ones. Alf is very young and not all of the advanced features are stable and/or documented. I plan to spend some time in the next weeks and months to work on them, so stay tuned. In the mean time, you can play with Alf on this website, install Alf 0.15.0 and start playing with it on your own datasets and databases, in shell or in ruby. I'll come with advanced material on this blog as soon as possible, I promise. The rest of this post explains the context of this work and why it exists in the first place, in the form of a (very accessible) scientific paper (this writing style is also a test, let me know what you think). The following section provides a short overview of the proposed approach, explaining the title of this blog post. We then detail Alf's proposal, first with a short example illustrating the advantages compared to existing solutions, then with a more theoretical presentation covering three main questions: why true relational algebra?, what type system to expose?, and why not classes and objects?. Alf's limitations and features to come are then briefly discussed, before concluding. Yet another database connectivity library? We already have ARel, Sequel, SQLAlchemy, Korma, jOOQ and probably hundreds of similar projects for connecting to databases from code. Do we really need one more? Well, Alf is a database connectivity library but it is first and foremost about a proposal for a new kind of software/database interoperability, or a paradigm shift if you want. This paradigm is called Relations as First-Class Citizen and it makes Alf different from existing approaches. The difference lies in the kind of data abstraction exposed to the software developer: Call-level interfaces (e.g. JDBC) expose SQL query strings and database cursors (e.g. java.sql.ResultSet ), ), Higher-level SQL libraries, such as ARel, Sequel, and jOOQ expose SQL queries as well. However, they abstract them behind abstract syntax trees (AST), and algebra-inspired manipulation operators. Object-Relational Mappers (ORMs) expose classes and objects together with the SQL/AST interface they generally rely on (e.g. the symbiosis between ARel and ActiveRecord), Alf and Axiom expose Relations (i.e. sets of tuples) and relational algebra. For those interested, I'll discuss some differences between Alf and Axiom later in this blog post. In the mean time and unless stated otherwise, what is said about Alf applies to Axiom too. In this blog post, I'm going to compare Alf with the second category above, i.e. high-level SQL-driven libraries. Not because the Relations as First-Class Citizen paradigm cannot be compared to, say, Object-Relational Mapping but because, at first glance, Alf shares a lot more with those libraries than with ORMs. First things first thus, let start looking at those similitudes and (sometimes subtle) differences. We start with a motivating example in the next section before moving to more theoretical arguments in the one immediately following. Motivating example This might appear rude or offensive, but I need to start by complaining about existing approaches and libraries (why would I work on Alf in the first place otherwise?). Sequel is used in this blog post but the situation is similar with all the libraries I mentioned previously. I've chosen Sequel because I commonly use and actually love it. No offense to be taken therefore even if I claim, in essence, that things could be improved. My main complaint is that, despite providing closure under operations, existing libraries fail at providing a truly composable way of tackling data requirements. To understand why, let me take a concrete software engineering example on (a slighly modified version of) the suppliers and parts examplar. We'll use the following suppliers and cities relations: suppliers : cities : +------+-------+---------+--------+ +----------+----------+ \| :sid \| :name \| :status \| :city \| \| :city \| :country \| +------+-------+---------+--------+ +----------+----------+ \| S1 \| Smith \| 20 \| London \| \| London \| England \| \| S2 \| Jones \| 10 \| Paris \| \| Paris \| France \| \| S3 \| Blake \| 30 \| Paris \| \| Athens \| Greece \| \| S4 \| Clark \| 20 \| London \| \| Brussels \| Belgium \| \| S5 \| Adams \| 30 \| Athens \| +----------+----------+ +------+-------+---------+--------+ Let suppose that the suppliers themselves are the software users and that the following requirements must be met by the particular inferface showing the list of suppliers to the current user: A supplier may only see information about the suppliers located in the same city than himself. The supplier's status is sensitive and should not be displayed. The country name must be displayed together with the supplier's city In terms of the query to be built, those requirements involve a restriction ( same city as ), a selection ( no status ) and a join ( with country name ). Suppose you are supplier S3, the list of suppliers you see looks like this: +------+-------+-------+----------+ \| :sid \| :name \| :city \| :country \| +------+-------+-------+----------+ \| S2 \| Jones \| Paris \| France \| \| S3 \| Blake \| Paris \| France \| +------+-------+-------+----------+ Struggling with reuse and separation of concerns Writting a monolithic query is rather straightforward. Using Sequel for instance: requester_city =... # from context (authenticated user) DB [ :suppliers ]. natural_join ( :cities ). select ( :sid, :name, :city, :country ). where ( :city => requester_city ) # => SELECT sid, name, city, country # FROM suppliers NATURAL JOIN cities # WHERE (city =...) In software involving complex requirements, relying on monolithic queries is unfortunately not always possible and/or desirable (otherwise, creating database views would simply be enough). Two main reasons explain this: The same requirements tend to apply to various and independent software features. For instance, the first two requirements above might apply everytime a list of suppliers is shown, while the third one might not. Complex requirements generally call for a design that achieves both separation of concerns and reuse. Complex software also involves context-dependent requirements. For instance, the first requirement above might be relaxed for administrators (say, suppliers with status greater than 30). This explains why connectivity libraries and their SQL utilities exist in the first place: because of the need to build queries, often at runtime and according to some context. There is a desperate need for more support for this in DBMSs themselves. In the mean time, developers rely on the ability of host programming languages and third-party libraries. Back to our example above, what about the following "design"? # Meet 1) and 2) together as a utility method: separation of concerns def suppliers_in ( city ) DB [ :suppliers ]. select ( :sid, :name, :city ). where ( :city => city ) end # Meet 3) as a utility method: separation of concerns def with_country ( operand ) operand. natural_join ( :cities ) end # Meet them all: composition and reuse requester_city =... # from context with_country ( suppliers_in ( requester_city )) Wrong. The original, and correct, SQL query was: -- Give the id, name, city and country of every supplier located in city... SELECT sid, name, city, country FROM suppliers NATURAL JOIN cities WHERE ( city =...) The new one seems smiliar, but is wrong. As shown below, we lost the country in the process: -- Give the id, name and city of every supplier located in city..., provided -- the city is known in `cities` SELECT sid, name, city FROM suppliers NATURAL JOIN cities WHERE ( city =...) What happened? In short, Sequel's join does not correspond to a algebraic join of its operands. Instead, its specification looks like "adds a term to the SQL query's FROM clause", whose data semantics is far from obvious (here you can blame SQL itself). Observe in particular that the following algebraic equivalence does not hold in Sequel, preventing us from using the design above: suppliers. natural_join ( cities ). select ( :sid, :name, :city, :country ) <=!=> suppliers. select ( :sid, :name, :city ). natural_join ( cities. select ( :city, :country )) Join is a striking example of the problem at hand, but others exist that involve different operators. Let me insist on something: the same is true with ARel, Sequel, SQLAlchemy, Korma, jOOQ to cite a few. The fact is: SQL has not been designed with composition and separation of concerns in mind, Avoiding strong coupling between subqueries tends to be very difficult in practice, Coupling hurts separation of concerns and software design. To be fair... There is a way to use SQL (and, sometimes, those libraries) so as to avoid the problem described here. It amounts at using SQL in a purely algebraic way. Unfortunately, that way is not idiomatic and leads to complex SQL queries, that may have bad execution plans (at least in major open-source DBMSs). In the example at hand, using Sequel's from_self in a systematic way (e.g. on every reusable piece) is safe from the point of view of composition and reuse: def suppliers_in ( city ) DB [ :suppliers ]. select ( :sid, :name, :city ). where ( :city => city ). from_self end def with_country ( operand ) operand. natural_join ( :cities ). from_self end requester_city =... # from context with_country ( suppliers_in ( requester_city )) # SELECT FROM ( # SELECT * FROM ( # SELECT sid, name, city FROM suppliers # WHERE (city =...) # ) AS 't1' # NATURAL JOIN cities # ) AS 't1' The complete recipe for using SQL in such a "safe" way is more complex, of course, but possible. I won't provide the details in this blog post, let me know if a dedicated one is welcome. For now, let see how our new paradigm helps. Relation Algebra at the rescue... Libraries like Sequel and Arel offer closure under operations, meaning that you can chain operator invocations (e.g. operand.select(...).where(...).where(...) ). Subtly enough, that does not make them exposing an algebra, because SQL is not itself a pure relational algebra (see later) and these libraries do espouse SQL in a rather faithful way. In contrast, the Relations as First-Class Citizen paradigm aims at providing an interface that is designed for composition and reuse. To achieve this, Alf takes some distance from SQL and exposes a true relational algebra instead, inspired from Tutorial D. This makes a real difference, even if subtle. To convince yourself, I invite you to use Alf's Try console to check that the example below works as expected. As shown, the three requirements of our case study can be incorporated incrementally thanks to the true composition mechanism offered by an algebra. Commenting a line amounts at ignoring the corresponding requirement: requester_city = 'Paris' solution = suppliers # 1). A supplier may only see information about the suppliers located # in the same city than himself. solution = restrict ( solution, city : requester_city ) # 2) The supplier's `status` is sensitive and should not be displayed. solution = allbut ( solution, [ :status ] ) # 3). The country name must be displayed together with the supplier's city. solution = join ( solution, cities ) Try! To better understand why it works, observe that in Alf, the equivalence mentionned in the previous section holds. That is, the two following queries are equivalent, something that you can check by yourself using the console: project ( join ( suppliers, cities ), [ :sid, :name, :city, :country ] ) Try! and join ( project ( suppliers, [ :sid, :name, :city ] ), project ( cities, [ :city, :country ] )) Try! Interestingly enough, this kind of equivalences may be used for query optimization and smart SQL compilation. I invite you to check the Optimizer and Query plan tabs of the console on both queries. The generated SQL query is the same in both cases. Alf tries very hard to keep generated SQL as simple as possible, in the hope to avoid ugly query plans in the SQL DBMS itself: SELECT t1. sid AS sid, t1.
more than a passing resemblance, and Lowe has proven to have a pretty healthy sense of humor when mocking his past. Billy is pretty much the biggest bully currently in Hawkins, and it remains to be seen if he’ll mellow out with age. We expect he’s moved to one of the big cities, perhaps to the West Coast where he can wear his shirts unbuttoned to his heart’s content. Molly Parker as Max Mayfield As the party’s newest member, tomboy Max had plenty of spunk, despite her bullying step-brother and otherwise difficult family life. Ergo, Molly Parker, so memorable from her work on “House of Cards” and “Deadwood,” would make her ideal to embody Sadie Sink as an adult; both of them have an inner core of strength that no amount of trauma can shake. Jay O. Sanders as Hopper’s brother Look, we all love Hopper. He’s great. He’s a hero. But if the latest “Hellboy” reboot takes off and David Harbour is unavailable, maybe Hopper’s brother (who maybe also happens to be a sheriff in town on the opposite side of Indiana?) comes into town to investigate Hopper’s disappearance. Talk about a twist! Anyway, Sanders could definitely play his relative and would be as convincing as a small town police officer as he was as an MLB radio play-by-play man. Cobie Smulders as Eleven The eye color might not be a match, but otherwise, Cobie Smulders is a perfect fit for the adult embodiment of Eleven. Bringing with her both the right amount of intensity and a capacity for awkward sweetness, Smulders has great range that would be essential for us seeing traces of the former lab rat within the strong woman she’ll certainly grow up to become. Lily Tomlin as Joyce Byers How to follow up one icon? Ask another icon to succeed her. It’s not at all hard to imagine Lily Tomlin echoing Winona Ryder’s nervous energy while also finding her own fun spin on it — after all, theoretically 30 years later, Joyce will have mellowed out a little bit… right? Skeet Ulrich as Steve Harrington Because Ben Schwartz is simply too young, we had to look elsewhere for the right actor. Steve started off on the bad boy track but then became a pretty upstanding dude, good with the kids and exhibiting latent leadership skills. Skeet Ulrich walks this tightrope well also. Already he’s on The CW’s “Riverdale” playing the father of a mouthy teenager, so this feels like a natural progression. More importantly, he’s familiar to genre fans who know how great he was in the dystopian “Jericho,” when the world was turned upside-down (heh) after a limited nuclear attack. Just give him few months, and his hair will grow to the necessary lushness. “Stranger Things 2” is streaming now on Netflix. Sign Up: Stay on top of the latest breaking film and TV news! Sign up for our Email Newsletters here.One-time Washington Post Nationals' beat writer Barry Svrluga recounted, in his book on the Washington Nationals' inaugural campaign in the nation's capital, "National Pastime", the story, told by former Montreal Expos' Assistant General Manager Tony Siegle, of how the Expos' scouts convinced then-GM Omar Minaya to draft right-handed reliever Chad Cordero out of Cal State Fullerton with the 20th pick in the first round of the 2003 MLB Draft. Cordero, then 21, was coming off his third season at Cal State Fullerton, in which the late-breaking-fastball throwing flat-brimmed-cap-wearing closer had gone (5-1) with eight saves, a 1.58 ERA, 68 K's (10.73 K/9) and just eight walks (1.26 BB/9) in 40 games and 57.0 innings. The Washington Post's Svrluga writes in, "National Pastime", that Montreal's scouts thought, "...Cordero was a nice, safe, solid choice," and, "They thought he would sign quickly. They thought he would rise to the majors quickly," and as Assistant GM Tony Siegle is quoted explaining to Cordero and his parents, when he traveled to Chino, California to visit them, the Expos: "...were unlike any other franchise. They were so bereft of talent they provided premature opportunities to those players who were even halfway decent." Mr. Svrluga describes in his book the actual moment Chad Cordero's first contract was signed: "The Expos offer was for a bonus of $1.35 million and an assurance that Chad would be invited to spring training with the majore league club the following year. (Cordero's father) Edward Cordero looked at his son. "'Chad, what do you think?' "'Dad,' Chad said, 'that's more money than I ever thought I was going to get.' He looked at Siegle. 'Where do I sign?'" Tony Siegle was telling Cordero and his family the truth when he spoke about the opportunity the barren Montreal organization allowed for talented prospects to rise through the ranks of the Expos' system. In fact, Chad Cordero would throw just 26.1 innings over 19 games with the Expos' high Class-A affiliate, the Brevard County Manatees, going (1-1) with a 2.05 ERA, 8 saves and 17 K's, in the minors before the Expos brought the right-hander up to make his MLB debut on August 30th 2003 against the Florida Marlins in what was then known as Pro Player Stadium. Cordero threw a scoreless frame in that game, replacing Livan Hernandez, walking the opposing pitcher and throwing his first major league wild pitch before striking Juan Pierre out for his first MLB K. Cordero would earn his first major league save a few weeks later, retiring the New York Mets in order to close out Javier Vazquez's 13th win of the season on September 18, 2003. By June of 2004, Cordero had replaced Rocky Biddle as the Expos' closer. Cordero was (7-3) with 14 saves that season, walking 43 (4.68 BB/9) and striking out 83 (9.04 K/9) in 82.2 IP. The right-hander also earned the last W in Montreal Expos' history, recording the last two outs of the eighth in a tie game with the Mets before Brad Wilkerson's ninth inning HR won the next-to-last game of the season on the road in Shea Stadium. Cordero would shock the baseball world by saving 47 games in 2005 as the upstart Nats made waves in the NL East, holding on to first place deeper in the season than anyone thought possible. Cordero would save 128 games total for the Washington Nationals in six seasons as the Nats' closer, walking 117 (3.28 K/9) and striking out 298 (8.08 K/9) in 305 games and 320.2 IP in which he was (20-17) overall. A torn labrum suffered during the 2008 season effectively ended his career with the Washington Nationals. Then D.C. GM Jim Bowden made the mistake of announcing that the Nats would non-tender the reliever on the radio before ever telling the pitcher himself. The Chief, as he was known, took it personally, and left the Washington Nationals, signing with Seattle as a free agent in March of 2009, but he never would regain the stuff that he had when he first came up with the Expos and eventually became the Nationals' first closer. Cordero pitched in the minor leagues for the Mariners, making nine appearances at the major league level in 2010, and he pitched in the Mets' organization late last year before signing as a free agent with the Blue Jays this past winter. Cordero was released by Toronto in May. Now 29, Cordero had been pitching for the independent St. Paul Saints before he announced his retirement today. Cordero spoke to Washington Post writer Barry Svrluga this past March, recounting the heart-breaking story of the death of his daughter. Cordero told the WaPost writer who'd been there, covering the team when he was at his best that he decided to give it one more try in spite of the tremendous sadness he, his wife and family had been through following their loss. Former Expos and Nats' scouting director Dana Brown, now with the Jays, gave him another chance, but Cordero didn't catch on. He retires with only the 128 career saves he collected with the franchise that drafted him, having played a major role in baseball's return to the nation's capital. No one who watched the first few seasons of Washington Nationals baseball will forget Chad Cordero, the flat brim of his cap pulled down low on his forehead, casting his eyes into shadow. The Flat-Brimmed closer will be missed and will be remembered.Former Vuelta runner up will fight for Maglia Rosa The 2008 Olympic champion Samuel Sanchez has decided to focus on the Giro d’Italia in 2013, with El Correo reporting that he will ride the race for the second time in his career. According to his Euskaltel Euskadi team manager Igor Gonzalez de Galdeano, he will take the start on May 4th in Naples, eight years after participating in the 2005 edition of the race. “If all goes as planned, I will have riders to fight on all the fronts,” said Gonzalez de Galdeano, referring to Sanchez in the Giro and Mikel Nieve - plus, possibly, Igor Anton - in the Tour. Sanchez had a difficult 2012 season, with a very bad crash in the Tour forcing him to miss the defence of his Olympic title. It’s not clear if the memories of that fall have played a part in the decision to aim for the Giro, but Gonzalez de Galdeano has not ruled out him doing both it and the Tour. However unlike many professionals, Sanchez has only ridden two Grand Tours in a single year once before; he competed in both the Giro and the Vuelta in 2005, placing 17th and tenth respectively. In the years since he has done the Vuelta in 2006, 2007 and 2009, netting seventh, third and second overall, while in 2008, 2010 and 2011 he was sixth, third and fifth in the Tour. He also won the mountains jersey in the latter, as well as winning stage twelve. Going back to the Giro almost a decade later is something that Gonzalez de Galdeano hopes will motivate the Spaniard. Apart from being a race that he hasn’t participated in for quite some time, thus giving a fresh perspective, it’s also more mountainous than the Tour de France and should suit his explosive characteristics. “Samuel is 34 years of age, and although he has more seasons at a competitive level and the Tour has been our reference, I think it's time to make race programmes that motivate,” he explained. He believes that the 2013 edition of the race could work out very well for him. “It is a route that could see him go well, and besides, the Giro is a race where the objective of Samuel is to not lose ground to the Italians,” the manager said. However the aim is not to stay level with them, but to end up in front. “To be ahead and with options, we will include foreign riders in the team in order to do a good team time trial,” he added. While Sanchez has only once ridden two Grand Tours in the same year, Gonzalez de Galdeano isn’t ruling out that he could still head to the Tour de France afterwards. “We will decide after the Giro if Samuel is able or not,” he concluded.By John Malouff, Ph.D., J.D. The comprehensive nature of the list of problem solving strategies allows individuals to use a checklist approach to problem solving. It also could facilitate training others in problem solving. The classification of the strategies into types may facilitate the development of new strategies that fit into a specific category. The explanations and examples given could serve as a valuable supplement to other explanations and examples available in books and on the web. The strategies on this list are in themselves not original. The original aspects of this list are: Clarify the problem It is easier to solve a specific problem than a vague one. So clarify the problem before you start looking for a solution. If your problem is that your spouse tells you that you are not supportive enough, find out what he or she means by supportive. If your problem is that your mother can't get the new software to work, determine what doesn't happen that she wants to happen. If your problem is a math homework question, read carefully the question (usually at the end):Is the answer supposed to be in metres or centimetres, rounded or not, square or not, etc. Identify key elements of the problem Problems come to us with varying amounts of important and useless information. Focusing on useless information distracts us and wastes time. So identify the key elements of the problem before you start looking for a solution. If the problem is that of a couple who come to you for counselling because they argue continually, ask them what they argue about, when, and where. If the problem is that your bike squeaks when you ride it, determine what part squeaks. Visualize the problem or a relevant process or situation Sometimes we can see the problem and all its important details right in front of us. This helps us understand the problem. Other times we can't see important elements because they have already occurred or are not visible. In these cases, it is valuable to visualize important elements of the problem. So, if you want to predict the future of the universe, visualize the big bang and the ensuing events. If you want to open a lock without a key, visualize the lock mechanism. If you want to determine how a murder was committed, visualize events that would explain the physical evidence. Draw a picture or diagram of the problem or a relevant process or situation isualizing a problem can aid understanding. However, we can keep only some much visual information in our minds at once. Hence, it is often useful to draw a picture or diagram. So, if you want to calculate when two airplanes will collide, draw their paths and speeds. If you plan to assault a house where a terrorist holds hostages, draw a picture of the room, doors, windows, hostages, etc. If you want to speed up delivery of goods to retailers, draw a diagram showing the steps in the process. Create a model of the problem or a relevant process Creating a model of a problem or relevant process helps us focus on essential elements and gives us the potential to alter the model and see what happens. For instance, if you want to minimize harm to individuals in auto accidents, create a computer model of the structures and forces involved. If you want to build a Mars rover, build a model. If you want to reduce international strife, create a model of causes. Imagine being the problem, a key process, or the solution Imagination can help us understand a problem by visualizing it. More understanding can occur in some cases if we go farther and imagine being the problem, a key process, or the solution. So, if you want to understand space and time, you can imagine, as Einstein did, riding a light beam. If you want to help a person who is very paranoid, you can imagine being that person and seeing the world as he does. If you want to get a hit in a big baseball game, you can imagine going up to bat, seeing the ball clearly, and swinging crisply while you step into the pitch, etc. Simulate or act out a key element of the problem Understanding complex or vague problems can be difficult. Simulating or acting out some key element of the problem can be productive. For instance, if you are calculating probabilities of some event happening, you can simulate the situation and observe outcomes yourself. If you want to help someone become more socially successful, you can act as that person does and observe the consequences. If you want to determine why a spacecraft exploded, simulate its flight, and try ways of recreating the explosion. Consider a specific example Problems often come to us in the abstract. Creating a concrete example helps us explore the problem just as we might explore a specific example of dinosaur bones to understand dinosaurs. So, if you want to determine what makes a person psychotic, consider real people who have become psychotic. If you want to learn how to calculate the volume of a sphere, use a specific radius, such as one metre, and apply the formula. If you want to determine why frogs are dying right and left in your community, examine dead frogs. Consider extreme cases Considering extreme cases is a type of considering a specific example. Here the example is chosen to test the limits of a relevant parameter. Sometimes this gives insight into important processes. So, if you want to determine whether level of intelligence affects retention on a police force, consider officers with the highest and lowest intelligence on the force. If you want to determine what happens to black holes in the long run, consider black holes that continue for infinitely long or black holes that suck up everything in the universe. If you want to determine how temperature affects the flow of electricity, consider a temperature of absolute 0. Acquire knowledge of relevant domains Acquire knowledge about relevant domains. If you want to understand and solve an electrical problem, it may be necessary to learn about electrical systems. If you want to solve the problem of how to keep humans free from solar-wind harm on the way to and from Mars, you may need knowledge of various domains of science, engineering, and medicine. Great knowledge of relevant domains sometimes helps experts solve problems that others cannot. Change perspective Change perspective. If you want to reduce crime in a community, look at crime from the perspective of criminals and victims. If you want to convince a hostage taker to surrender, take that person's perspective. If you want to avoid being bitten by a vicious dog, take the dog's perspective.SEATTLE, May 5 (UPI) -- Training systems and materials in support of P-8A maritime aircraft are to be provided the the U.S. Navy and the Australian government by Boeing. The award from the U.S. Naval Air Warfare Center Training Systems Division in Orlando, Fla., is worth more than $118 million and is a modification to an earlier support contract. Boeing said the modification provides for the supply of two operational flight trainers, two weapons tactics trainers, and upgrades to the existing training system support center for the U.S. Navy. It also calls for the installation of two operational flight trainers, two weapons tactics trainers, one part task trainer, and one training system support center, with six electronic classrooms, 26 mission station desktop trainers, and 32 flight mission system trainers; as well as courseware for the Royal Australian Air Force and interim support for the government of Australia. Work under the modification will be conducted in Whidbey Island, Wash., St. Louis, Mo., and Edinburgh, Australia. Boeing said it expects to complete the work by 2019. The P-8A Poseidon by Boeing is a multi-role aircraft capable of anti-submarine warfare, anti-surface warfare, shipping interdiction, and electronic signals intelligence. It carries torpedoes, depth charges, SLAM-ER missiles, Harpoon anti-ship missiles, and other weapons.By 2020, visitors landing in Tokyo for the Summer Olympics could be greeted by a fleet of self-driving taxis. At least, that’s the dream of Japanese tech company DeNA, which hopes to have autonomous cars shuttling tourists around the crowded, maze-like streets of that megacity within five years. You probably haven’t heard of DeNA. But it’s big in Japan. It’s a mobile gaming company that recently turned heads in the tech world by scoring a hot deal to bring Nintendo’s fiercely protected intellectual property like Mario and Pokémon to mobile devices. Now the company believes it can leverage its mobile infrastructure savvy to develop the best software needed to summon a fleet of robocars on a smartphone. Advertisement So, who exactly is DeNA? And can its driverless autos really give the likes of Google, Uber, and Apple a run for their Silicon Valley money? Meet DeNA Though little known in the West outside the gaming industry, DeNA is an Asian powerhouse. In a nation infamous for a chilly startup environment, DeNA—pronounced “D-N-A”—became wildly successful as a mobile game developer, hitting “unicorn” status with a net worth of over $1 billion. Advertisement Why is this a big deal? It’s a topic that’s been analyzed to death, but basically, startup culture in Japan isn’t what it’s like in other developed nations, so the place isn’t really churning out success stories like Etsy or Airbnb or Dropbox or Twitter. According to StartupRanking.com, the US has the most startups in the world (4,576) followed by India (1,779). Japan has 122. But DeNA is one of Japan’s richest, happiest, sparkliest, Lisa Frank-iest unicorns. Some perspective: It owns a pro baseball team. In recent years, the firm has forayed beyond video games into a slew of emerging technologies, from digital payments to gene testing. And next, robo cars. Advertisement ZMP’s test car (not final Robot Taxi design). Courtesy: ZMP DeNA’s autonomous taxis, called “Robot Taxi,” joins players like Uber, Google, Apple, Tesla, Audi, Volvo, Delphi, BMW, or Mercedes in the race to develop self-driving vehicles. What separates the billion-dollar gaming outfit? These different companies all take a different approach to developing driverless cars. Car companies like Nissan and BMW bring auto manufacturing knowhow to the table. Apple could leverage their expertise in buzzworthy hardware to build a car from scratch without the help of carmakers. Google leads the way in information technology, incorporating rich maps that give a bird’s eye view of the vehicle’s surroundings. Uber’s mastered on-demand ridesharing. And DeNA? The Japanese firm believes autos are reaching a turning point, and that the focus is pivoting from hardware to mobile software—data, apps, user experience, much like smartphones did a decade ago. And one of the main reasons Nintendo picked DeNA from the competition is its decade of experience operating mobile devices and server-side tech for massive user traffic, and commercializing that technology. The company has been leading mobile platforms since 2004—three years before the iPhone came along. Advertisement From Mobile Games to Robo Cars “Cars today are like feature phones in the early 2000s, and we believe we can help them evolve quicker,” says Tomoyuki Akiyama, DeNA’s global press rep. “The automotive industry is vast, and their focus is finally shifting from hardware to software and [mobile] network. We see a huge opportunity there.” Indeed, the hardware behind DeNA’s self-driving car isn’t that different from say, Google’s experimental vehicles. The company is partnering with ZMP, a Tokyo robotics startup that’s been developing autonomous vehicle technology since 2008. ZMP says its Robot Taxi uses lidar sensors and image-recognition cameras to measure distances between objects like traffic lights or pedestrians, the same as Google’s cars, using laser beams. ZMP is also toying with millimeter wave radars: mountable radars that gauge how far or close traffic is ahead on the road, nothing out of the ordinary for this kind of tech. ZMP is currently testing self-driving technology on public roads in Aichi prefecture, about a four-hour drive west of Tokyo. Advertisement DeNA automotive head Hiroshi Nakajima announcing the Robot Taxi partnership with ZMP in May Meanwhile, the gaming giant is working to develop the software side—a hailing app and the interface inside the car. DeNA, whose ventures include a wildly popular manga-reading app for comic lovers, boasts that it has a proven track record of commercializing technology to wide audiences via handheld devices. It’s selling the fun behind self-driving cars: Hiroshi Nakajima, head of DeNA’s automotive division and CEO of Robot Taxi, says “you can technically work, [and also] watch movies, sleep, or even drink” while in Robot Taxi. Advertisement “If you think of the technologies needed to call [robotic] vehicles in a campus or inner-city environment, routing, scheduling and interface to devices, like the phone, become critical,” says J. Christian Gerdes, a mechanical engineering professor at Stanford. “So it isn’t surprising that new players [like mobile companies like DeNA] could play a key role. I consider automated vehicles to be a big puzzle and applications for hailing and routing are definitely a piece of that puzzle.” The company’s been running mobile infrastructure for over a decade, and has been overseeing handheld transactions long before Uber. “Operating a mobile games platform with more than thousand games calls for a robust, server-side infrastructure, that can securely handle millions of users accessing it at the same time,” says Nakajima. “You would also need to design mobile-optimized user experience, and charge the end users for virtual items without troubles. DeNA has all these experiences and they will be definitely useful for our future robot taxi service.” Advertisement Beyond the Olympics Here’s the vision: It’s July 2020. Harried Tokyoites, visiting Olympians, and foreign sightseers alike will all whip out their smartphones and, using a mobile app, summon a ride to their current location in Uber or Lyft-like fashion. Then the fares hop in the humanless cars and cruise the Asian capital. (DeNA eventually wants Robot Taxi in Japan’s rural areas, too.) Advertisement The Olympic Games, always sort of like a World’s Fair for the host country, are an ideal chance to show off the brand new smart taxis as a futuristic mode of transportation to the world. (Reminder: Most tourists don’t speak Japanese, and most Tokyo cabbies don’t speak English.) But the company’s goal isn’t just to cater to the 920,000 foreign visitors that are expected to descend on Tokyo in 2020. Robot Taxi is targeting the professionals who want to work during commute, the tourists flocking to Japan in record numbers and who can’t speak Japanese, and the country’s rapidly ballooning number of seniors who want to maintain their independence. DeNA is also hoping to blur the line between owning a car, renting a car, and using taxis, which is convenient in a densely packed country like Japan. In the future, what will vehicles look like, and how will they function? As more major players enter this market, and the more the technologies overlap—mapping, mobile apps, robotics—the more self-driving cars are poised to become our default mode of transport. Cars become a service and less of an individually owned product. Ride-sharing has become more popular in Japan, since Uber arrived in Tokyo last year. (Even though Uber met its usual controversy once it tried expanding to other Japanese cities.) Robot Taxi follows a basic ride-sharing model, except for the fact that in the driver’s seat, where there’s usually a chatty driver angling for a five-star rating is, well, no one. Advertisement Human or Robot? Let it be known: The cab service in Japan, like most other customer service there, is phenomenal. There, taxis are spotless, often black chariots with doily-laced seats and automatic doors controlled by white gloved drivers who treat you like royalty. And they’re very considerate: After one sloppy night in Osaka, my cabbie brandished a complimentary can of coffee so I could, uh, stabilize. And yet, Japanese companies looking to make self-driving cars—or any technology in general—might be armed with a cultural advantage. Rochelle Kopp is a San Francisco-based expert on Japanese businesses and intercultural consultant. She points out that engineers are cheaper to hire in Japan than in Silicon Valley, and the Japanese work ethic is unparalleled (to the point where it can tizzy staff into exhaustion). Advertisement “I’ve done a lot of work in the automotive industry, and one thing that’s for sure is that it’s a very complicated environment and ecosystem, with long product life cycles, a huge number of literally moving parts, and lots of sensitivities related to safety,” Kopp says. “I think dealing with all of those is going to be a challenge for any of the companies that are trying to do something different in this field, including Google and Uber and Apple. I know that people love to try to ‘disrupt’ markets, but this is going to be a tough one.” Still, DeNA wants its Robot Taxis to offer an alternative to those shiny coffee-stocked sedans. But cabs without a human driver may be a deterrent in Japan; the public perceptions of a human-free car could actually be a hurdle for Robot Taxi adoption. Advertisement In a 2014 survey conducted by the University of Michigan’s Transportation Research Institute, it was found that among China, India, Japan, the US, the UK, and Australia, public perception of self-driving cars was positive in all surveyed nations except Japan, which displayed neutral opinions, according to the study. Interestingly, nearly 50% of respondents in each China and India had “very positive” feelings about autonomous vehicles, while Japan only racked up 10% in the same category. (The US measured in at 22%.) I love the ultra-polite, snappily dressed Japanese taxi drivers shoving canned coffee in my face in the midst of my whiskey-fueled stupor. That’s great service, and the kind of subtle touches that mean so much more coming from a person. And I’m not alone in that sentiment. “I’m kind of old-fashioned, perhaps, but I think that Japanese cab drivers are fabulous,” Kopp says, “and can’t imagine a robot being better.” Advertisement Images via (in descending order): ZMP, DeNA, Wikimedia Commons, Japan National Tourism Organization Top illustration by Jim Cooke Correction, 7/29: DeNA owns one pro baseball team, not 12. (There are 12 pro baseball teams in Japan.)Factoids and minutiae stick in his mind like fridge magnets, carefully arrayed and available for consultation on a whim – uniform numbers, faces, names, anecdotes both funny and tragic. Marc Bergevin remembers. It's not clear how this came to be. It makes for a neat party trick, though. "[Montreal Canadiens coach] Michel [Therrien] can't get over it – I remember every kid I played with when I was 12 years old. He'll throw out a name and I'll tell him, 'Sure, I played midget AAA with that guy.' You wore number 23, right Michel? [Habs assistant coach] Jean-Jacques [Daigneault] wore 15, [Pittsburgh Penguins legend] Mario [Lemieux] had 27 or 12, depending on the year," says Bergevin, the Habs' third-year general manager and one of hockey's most fascinating executives. Story continues below advertisement A prospect he might have seen play once, years ago, in some far-flung European rink? Yeah, that rings a bell: Russian kid, defenceman, shoots left. Recently, Bergevin ran into a minor-hockey teammate at Méchant Boeuf, a restaurant he's been known to frequent in Old Montreal. Bergevin hadn't seen the man in three decades, but he identified him by the number he wore at age 11. "These things just leave a mark," he says. "But my sister will ask me where I left her key yesterday, and I won't know. Don't ask me where I put down my wallet." So it can be established Marc Bergevin has total recall of facts and figures, which is handy when your job is to outmanoeuvre smart hockey people and make snap decisions involving one or more of the thousands of professional and elite junior-aged hockey players in the world. It's a job Bergevin is exceedingly good at and as the March 2 trade deadline approaches no one in hockey will be surprised if he lands another lunker. From contract negotiations to trades to attracting free agents, the personable 49-year-old has emerged as perhaps the league's canniest wheeler-dealer – he garnered nominations for NHL executive of the year in both of his first two seasons. Call it the Bergevin style, a combination of emotional intelligence, talent spotting, networking ability, blind luck (he is the first to admit this) and experience with the real-world pain and joy that can be wrung from 20 years as a marginal NHL player. Story continues below advertisement Story continues below advertisement The Canadiens' recent run of success flows from the players and coaches, but it's no accident that the club's rise began with the hiring of their general manager after a 15th-place finish in 2012. Bergevin draws considerable merriment from the fact he was well down the list of fan choices to take over from Pierre Gauthier in a Journal de Montréal poll in the spring of 2012. (Patrick Roy won by a landslide: "I was Marc Who?" he says.) He's fine with being underestimated, but after nearly three years on the job, that's a pitfall his peers try to avoid. Bergevin's wardrobe choices suggest a bold, confident personality – he's a bit of a clothes horse – but he conducts his affairs with monkish discretion. The contrasts don't end there. At a time where front offices are increasingly populated by law school grads, math quants and MBA types, Bergevin is a go-with-your-gut autodidact. Hockey's a world of buttoned-down overachievers, while he's a mischievous, inveterate prankster – although now that he's the boss, he says, he has toned it down. "It's part of why I wanted to bring him in. If I was going to have to deal with the stress level of the job, I wanted to have at least some fun," says Florida Panthers GM Dale Tallon, who gave Bergevin his first front-office job, in Chicago in 2005. "He has a way about him that gets people to open up. It's a good tool to have as a manager," Tallon adds. Story continues below advertisement Surrounded by big personalities and egos, Bergevin is generally happy to delegate authority. It's revealing that there have been few departures under his tenure – Gerard Gallant, who went to coach the Panthers, stands out. Bergevin admits he warded off approaches last year for associate GM Rick Dudley and scouting director Trevor Timmins by giving them improved deals. "Delegating only works if you have confidence in your staff," Bergevin says. "I saw how it works in Chicago, with Dale and Stan [Bowman]. You hire the right people and you empower them to do their jobs." As he says this, Bergevin is reclining in a booth at a Starbucks near Montreal's Atwater Market. He's a regular, and why not? The place is surrounded by personal landmarks. Down the street is Dilallo Burger, part-owned by Gilles Meloche (a former NHL goalie and hockey lifer who Bergevin has known for decades). Around the corner is the firehouse where his dad used to work. Several of his cousins live a couple of blocks away. His older brother lives in nearby Ville-Émard. Bergevin grew up a few streets south, across the Lachine Canal – which his condo overlooks – in hardscrabble Pointe-Saint-Charles, crammed into a three-bedroom apartment with his parents, four older siblings and one of his grandfathers. "It was so small you had to go outside to change your mind," he quips. Bergevin made enough money as a player – and earns enough now as a GM – to live in a fancier part of town, but he chose to come back to the old neighbourhood. Story continues below advertisement "I'm comfortable here, I'm close to my roots," he says. Familiarity, it turns out, is a major theme in his life. Consider that he remains fast friends with Lemieux and Daigneault, both of whom grew up in the next parish over (the trio met when they were in grade school). He also employs Clément Jodoin, his former midget AAA coach, and Therrien, who once lived with the same billet family in Chicoutimi (he was traded just as Bergevin arrived with the QMJHL's Saguenéens in 1982). Dudley was his boss in Chicago, he played with Canadiens' front-office types such as Scott Mellanby, Martin Lapointe and Rob Ramage, as well as with several of the club's scouts. Not all the people in front office are close friends, but all are well known to him. One of his minor coups was hiring goalie coach Stéphane Waite away from the Blackhawks (his arrival coincided with goalie Carey Price's emergence as perhaps the league's best netminder). Another thing you learn quickly about Marc Bergevin: He attends carefully to his relationships. "He stays in touch," says Ron Stevenson, an octogenarian ex-cop who coached Bergevin, Lemieux and Daigneault with the now-defunct Ville-Émard Hurricanes, a powerhouse pee-wee AA club, in the 1970s and 1980s. Story continues below advertisement The Hurricanes were a tightly-run ship: Players wore their Sunday best to games (that's not where Bergevin's love of finery started; he says it came later, in Chicoutimi), and leaving a piece of equipment behind resulted in having to write out, "I will not forget my elbow pad at practice again" a couple of hundred times. Bergevin recalls the period fondly. Stevenson and his wife were his guests at the Habs' first home playoff game under his tenure. "Marc was just a nice kid, a very respectful kid … not really exceptional in any way, but I will say he had a lot of guts. He would play hurt even then. Well, most of the time," says Stevenson with a laugh, relating an amusing anecdote about the day Bergevin needed a painkilling injection in a sore elbow at a tournament and vanished when the doctor left to fetch the needle and syringe. Those established ties also explain the fabled Bergevin network, a tight web of connections. The hockey world is small, so everyone has contacts, but even by that standard, Bergevin's Rolodex is impressive. In two decades as an NHL player, Bergevin was a member of eight teams and shared a dressing room with just under 450 players, running the gamut from Atcheynum to Zalapski. He played with five of the six Sutter brothers and a Gretzky (Brent, not
will inevitably succeed in bringing about greater justice and inclusiveness in the world. This opinion, which has never been confirmed by the facts, expresses a crude and naive trust in the goodness of those wielding economic power and in the sacralized workings of the prevailing economic system.” Father Roy Bourgeois? FATHER ROY BOURGEOIS: The word “inclusiveness” is very important. And let me just say, just to add onto what Matthew was saying also, I think it’s very important to remind ourselves in this conversation and future conversations of something very important, which really is at the very core of the crisis in the Roman Catholic Church today. And it’s this: The pope, Pope Francis, as we know, is male. He’s a man. He is the leader of an all-male clerical culture that has dominated the Roman Catholic Church for centuries. He and the men in this all-male clerical culture, that I have been a member of for 46 years, we have claimed and continue to claim that only we, as men, can speak for God. Only we, in a sense, can interpret the holy scriptures and know the will of God. And therein lies a serious problem. Women are viewed—and I say this with great sadness; as a Catholic priest, it saddens me to see this and this all-male clerical culture—women are viewed as lesser than men, as expressed in the church’s teaching. Only men can be ordained; women are not worthy. And also, very important, gays and lesbians are seen as lesser than straight. What’s very important, I think, Pope Francis must simply come out to his 1.2 million Catholics—billion Catholics, and say, “We are all created of equal worth and dignity.” We do not have this inclusiveness in the Roman Catholic Church. Therein lies the problem. And because we are all of equal worth and dignity, we must change the church’s teaching, beginning—I highly recommend that our viewers go to the Catechism of the Catholic Church, which talks about the church’s official doctrines and teachings. Some of them, and especially dealing with women and homosexuality, I would refuse to read, you know, on the air. It’s so offensive. It’s so cruel. It leads to suffering and, in some cases, when it comes to the homosexuality teachings, to suicide, to people becoming so shamed they take their lives. The pope must get serious and start talking about inclusiveness in the Catholic Church. AMY GOODMAN: I want to thank you both for being with us. Obviously this is a continuing discussion. Father Roy Bourgeois, speaking to us from School of the Americas Watch, just outside Fort Benning, Georgia, which just held its annual protest against the U.S. Army School of the Americas. And I also want to thank Matthew Fox for joining us, author of over two dozen books, most recently, Letters to Pope Francis: Rebuilding a Church with Justice and Compassion and Occupy Spirituality: A Radical Vision for a New Generation. This is Democracy Now! When we come back, we’ll look at the Supreme Court taking up the case of whether for-profit corporations must cover birth control in the health insurance they provide for their employees under “Obamacare.” Stay with us.West Ham United have made a fresh move to try to secure an agreement from David Moyes to succeed Sam Allardyce as their next manager. West Ham made Moyes their number one target to replace Allardyce in February and investigated whether the Scotsman could be convinced to leave Real Sociedad. It is understood that West Ham have now made a more direct approach to Moyes, with the Scotsman being told he is first choice to lead the club into the Olympic Stadium. Rafael Benítez and Slaven Bilic are on a list of alternative targets to Moyes, but West Ham are committed to pursuing the former Everton and Manchester United manager until they are given a definitive answer. West Ham hope their conviction will convince Moyes to take advantage of an agreement with Sociedad that he can speak to Premier League clubs about a return to England. Moyes only took over at Sociedad in November and is happy at the club and with his life in Spain. He is also grateful for the chance the La Liga club have given him. • Karren Brady angers Premier League rivals with ticket price boast • How LVG thrived where David Moyes failed at Manchester United But West Ham hope to tempt Moyes with the Olympic Stadium move and the promise of an ambitious list of summer transfer targets drawn up by Tony Henry, his former Everton scout. Henry, who worked closely with Moyes at Goodison Park, has been put in charge of West Ham’s transfer business and has already registered an £8 million bid for Sampdoria midfielder Pedro Obiang. The Hammers are also interested in Real Madrid’s on-loan Champions League goalscoring hero Javier Hernández, Sion’s Moussa Konaté and Basel defender Fabian Schär. Sam Allardyce's future as West Ham manager is uncertain The level of trust put in Henry by co-owners David Sullivan and David Gold has only added weight to the theories that Allardyce will not be offered a new contract at the end of the season. Henry never visits the West Ham training ground to discuss targets or transfer strategy with Allardyce, instead only reporting directly to Sullivan and Gold. There have even been unconfirmed reports that Henry was banned from the first-team base at Chadwell Heath by Allardyce. West Ham insist that Allardyce’s future will not be decided until Sullivan and Gold have carried out their annual end-of-season review and the prospect of handing the 60-year-old a new deal has not yet been ruled out. But Allardyce’s chances of keeping his job have become slimmer with each week as West Ham have slipped from fourth to 10th in the table. Sullivan and Gold ideally want a manager with Premier League experience, who has challenged for trophies and the top four, to succeed Allardyce. The pair feel Moyes fits that profile. Left-back Aaron Cresswell has been linked with a move to Manchester City or Chelsea Allardyce is not the only man at West Ham whose future has been the subject of debate. Their impressive left-back, Aaron Cresswell, has emerged as a target for Manchester City and Chelsea. But asked whether the 25-year-old would be wise to stay at Upton Park, Allardyce said: “There’s no doubt about that because he’s year one in the Premier League. Year one is an ongoing experience that you have that you know the level. “Aaron now needs to grow from that experience. His challenge is to continue to work even harder than this year, not to rest on his laurels. “We have seen players do that and then year two is more of a disaster than his impressive first year. His professionalism will come into play at the start of next year by where he gets and if he gets to the next level. “As far as I am concerned, nobody has bid for Aaron Cresswell. It’s all pure rumours and speculation. My problem is does it affect Aaron Cresswell and affect his performance? “That’s for me to make sure Aaron does what he can all season and he performs on a consistent basis. What will happen in the summer, we will wait and see. I have even heard somebody said we have put a £25 million buy-out on him. That’s the first I know, I haven’t heard anything through the owners to say if somebody wants Aaron Cresswell they would have to pay £25 million”.If the Oculus Rift virtual reality (VR) head-mounted display (HMD) has a mascot right now it’s surely Lucky, the protagonist of upcoming platform-based title, Lucky’s Tale. The videogame, developed by Playful and published by Oculus VR itself, was first revealed back in 2014 and his since featured prominently at a number of showcases of the Oculus Rift itself in the year that’s followed. Today, Playful is announcing that it has raised some $25 million USD to continue its working on new IP for cutting edge technologies such as VR. Specific investors haven’t been announced, but Playful will be using the funds to expand its team, which has also been working on Creativerse for PC. Lucky’s Tale, meanwhile, will be releasing alongside the consumer version of the Oculus Rift itself in the first quarter of 2016. With the new funds raised the company will also look to creating new, original projects, though isn’t yet ready to hint at what these might be and if they could support VR platforms. “Interactive entertainment is the 21st century art form,” said studio founder and CEO Paul Bettner. “Now, thanks to breakthrough technologies, our players will literally inhabit our stories, reach out and embrace our characters. It is indistinguishable from magic. That’s why we raised this money. Because the most important growth opportunity our industry has ever experienced is starting now. “We’re inspired by Snow White, by Toy Story, by Mario,” he continued. “These beloved stories and characters share something in common: technology made them possible. Motion pictures, CG characters, interactive video games — these advances enabled fundamentally new levels of empathy and audience connection. We founded Playful to carry on this tradition.” VRFocus will continue to follow Playful’s work in VR, reporting back with the latest updates on its development.MEXICO CITY (Reuters) - Twelve people died and 18 were injured on Tuesday in Mexico’s state of Quintana Roo when a tour bus lost control and rolled over during an excursion to ancient ruins. The bus was carrying 31 passengers, including citizens of the United States, Brazil and Sweden, authorities said. A child was among the dead. Quintana Roo is one of three states on Mexico’s Yucatan Peninsula, which has popular tourist sites. Twenty-seven of the passengers had been traveling on Royal Caribbean cruise ships, spokeswoman Cynthia Martinez said. “Our hearts go out to all those involved in the bus accident,” Martinez said in a statement. “We are doing all we can to care for our guests, including assisting with medical care and transportation.” The tourists were headed to the archaeological zone of Chacchoben, an ancient Mayan ruin south of the resort town of Tulum, when the vehicle veered off the highway early on Tuesday. After the accident, passengers were taken to hospitals, bus company Costa Maya said in a statement. Five have been discharged and the injured were in stable condition, it said. The government of Quintana Roo said in a statement that it was investigating the cause of the accident. The U.S. embassy in Mexico said it was working with authorities to learn whether U.S. citizens were aboard the bus. Last year, 11 tourists were killed in a crash in Quintana Roo when their bus flipped en route to Cancun, the Associated Press reported.The American Family Association, a powerful Christian group, has emerged as a key player pressuring Heinz to pull its Deli Mayo commercial featuring two men kissing – even though it was never broadcast on US TV. Heinz's US HQ was flooded with emails complaining about the Deli Mayo ad, which was only broadcast in the UK, after the AFA found out about it via the internet and mobilised its 3.5 million members. The AFA, which says it stands for "traditional family values" and targets the "influence of television and other media" on society, sent an email "action alert" to its 3.5 million subscribers denouncing the Heinz Deli Mayo commercial as the "kind of ad we can expect to see in California as they prepare to vote on homosexual marriage". "I thought you might be interested in seeing the Heinz ad featuring a homosexual family and two homosexuals kissing," said the email action alert. "We suggest you forward this to all your family and friends letting them know of the push for homosexual marriage by Heinz. This ad is currently running in England, but no doubt can be expected in the US soon." The action alert, sent out on June 24, included the phone numbers of Heinz's US corporate headquarters and an email letter of complaint for subscribers to support. Cindy Roberts, the director of media and public relations at the AFA, told MediaGuardian.co.uk that after the alert was sent out Heinz US called to let the organisation know the ad would not run again. Roberts said Heinz had admitted that the volume of AFA members' email complaints had "bogged the [computer] system down". The AFA alert was sent out a day after MediaGuardian.co.uk revealed that about 200 viewers had complained about the ad to UK's Advertising Standards Authority. Heinz UK said it actually pulled the ad on Friday June 20, several days before the AFA got involved. But Heinz UK only put out an official statement on Monday last week, June 23, saying it had taken the decision to pull the campaign because "some consumers raised concerns over the content of the ad". A Heinz UK spokesman said the company took the decision after receiving "30 to 40" complaints "from all sides of the debate, not from one side exclusively". Despite the UK's pre-emptive move, the AFA appears to have applied significant pressure in the US that contributed to Heinz putting out a second, much more strongly worded statement distancing the company from the Deli Mayo TV ad. "Heinz apologises for its misplaced attempt at humour and we accept that this ad was not in accordance with our longstanding corporate policy of respecting everyone's rights and values," said the statement, which was put out by Heinz US the day after the AFA galvanised its members to protest. Michael Mullen, the director of global corporate affairs at Heinz, declined to reveal how many complaints - or how many votes of support - the company had received about the TV ad. "The ad was intended to be humorous and was not intended to be an advocacy ad," said Mullen in an email statement to MediaGuardian.co.uk. "Heinz made the proactive decision to withdraw the ad before we were contacted by the American Family Association." Wayne Besen, an executive director of gay advocacy group The Truth Wins Out, appeared on a CNN debate in the US last week discussing the Heinz ad. In the debate he raised issue of how the AFA, a powerful American lobby group, had played a role in the strong stance Heinz US had adopted over the ad. "They are a very powerful constituency, a very powerful lobby group. They are one of the top groups in the religious right in America," Besen told MediaGuardian.co.uk. He added that the AFA had gone after companies including Disney and Ford in the past. "They have a lot of experience mobilising campaigns and boycotts. They are like a puritanical national nanny," Besen said. · To contact the MediaGuardian news desk email editor@mediaguardian.co.uk or phone 020 7239 9857. For all other inquiries please call the main Guardian switchboard on 020 7278 2332. · If you are writing a comment for publication, please mark clearly "for publication".It's not my intention to belittle the government shutdown or the political showdown underway between President Obama and the GOP, but more often that not, America's fickle news media is dominated by one subject. It's what gets left out that is often more telling than what everyone (or at least the news) is talking about. Remember the food stamp fight? It was only two weeks ago that the Republican-controlled House of Representatives passed a bill that would strip $40bn from Snap (the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, aka the food stamp program) over the next 10 years by imposing work requirements and eliminating waivers for "some able bodied adults". The move, which would effectively cut support for millions of poor Americans, was seen by critics as a heartless attempt by House Republicans to hack away at the nation's dwindling social safety net. But, what is more outrageous is that it took a draconian piece of legislation to even get the nation's attention on what has become one of the country's most ignored issues: poverty. The Pew Research Center's Project for Excellence in Journalism found that out of 52 mainstream media outlets analysed, coverage of poverty amounted to less than 1% of available news space from 2007 to 2012. It's even more astonishing considering that period covered a historic recession. One of the report's conclusions was that media organizations chose not to cover poverty because it was potentially uncomfortable to advertisers seeking to reach a wealthy consumer audience. As Barbara Ehrenreich, who contributes articles on social issues for Time Magazine, put it: They don't want really depressing articles about misery and hardship near their ads. Poverty coverage is seen as non-lucrative, time-consuming and involves high levels of commitment that editors are unwilling to give their reporters in this age of newsroom budget tightening. The greatest irony, however, is that poverty, as Tampa Bay Times media critic, Eric Deggans, told The Nieman Foundation for Journalism at Harvard earlier this year "is in some ways the ultimate accountability story – because, often, poverty happens by design". In a nation where, according to the US Census Bureau's poverty statistics released last month, 46.5 million people (roughly 15%) of the nation's population lives in poverty, the idea that the media would not cover such a pressing human interest story because of financial troubles is misguided, if not inexcusable. It represents a failure on the part of the industry in fulfilling its role in serving the public interest. The absence of coverage has left the poor with no voice in American society. As the plight of the nation's shrinking middle class, a central issue in last year's presidential campaign, consistently leads media coverage, the idea of poverty in America almost seems a relic from the past. Nearly 50 years after President Lyndon B Johnson launched the "war on poverty" program that ushered in social security, Medicare and Medicaid amongst others, you could be fooled into believing that poverty is no longer a public policy problem in the US. Or as former Secretary of Agriculture, Dan Glickman, put it in a US News & World Report op-ed in May: It feels today like a 'war on poverty' would need to begin with a battle just to gain recognition that poverty even exists. New media outlets, from blogs like Daily Kos to social media, appear ready to fill the coverage vacuum. There are independent journalists and Twitter activists who prolifically cover issues that affect the working poor from debates on raising the federal minimum wage to securing labour rights. The American Prospect, a left-leaning socially conscious bi-monthly magazine, particularly does great work on highlighting poverty. The fast-food worker marches this past summer were a watershed moment for poverty coverage in many ways. Mainstream media coverage of the protests was scant (the Guardian a notable exception), but reporting and analysis were available elsewhere online, most notably from Democracy Now!, the independent TV network that ran a feature online titled "Forgotten Poor", offering viewers a glimpse of those struggling to make ends meet. If this growing underclass of poor Americans continues to be ignored, it will be permanently damaging to what remains of the independent character of US journalism. By bowing to their corporate sponsors in forsaking poverty coverage, the mainstream media is doing a huge disservice to us all by denying us a national discussion on poverty that has not taken place in decades.Expect over 60 artists to play MoSo on June 12-15 MoSoFest, a multi-venue music festival running from June 12-15 in Saskatoon, has just unveiled their full line-up. Check out the YouTube video below. More than sixty artists will play in various venues in the Broadway area. In addition to the festival’s regular programming rumour has it that there will be plenty of after-parties, pre-parties, BBQs and other fun things going on all weekend. Stoked! Headliners: John K Samson The Deep Dark Woods Astronautalis Ladyhawk Marissa Nadler Code Orange Kids Teen Daze Rah Rah Hooded Fang Christine Fellows Also playing: Ghostkeeper, Factor & the Chandeliers, Shotgun Jimmie, Ben Caplan, The Highest Order, Renny Wilson, High Hopes, Indigo Joseph, Economics, Sleepwreck, Foam Lake, Close Talker, Hustle and Thrive, The Wizards, Coldest Night of the Year, Slow Down Molasses, The Mohawk Lodge, Slime Street, Jeans Boots, Haunted Souls, Spoils, Fist City, Powder Blue, Massey and the Fergusons, Rory Borealis & the Northern Lights, The Seahags, John Antoniuk, The Fight, Pandacorn, Light Fires, Ones, Twin Voices, Gunner and Smith, Rosie & the Riverters, Pandas in Japan, Ryan Stinson, Castle River, Factor & the Chandeliers, A Ghost in Drag, Weak Ends, Adolyne, The Weir, Wintermitts, Paper Beat Scissors, Gentleman Reg, the Parish of Little Clifton, body lvl, Autopilot, Pop Crimes, Alissa Arnason, The Foggy Notions, UBT, HighKicks, The Karpinka Brothers, Young Benjamins, Dumb Angel, Gianna Lauren, Two Bicycles, The Moas, Bad Decisions, Tobeatic, Little Criminals, Nolto, Minor Matter, Cam the Wizzard, Kay the Aquanaut For ticket and performer information visit MoSoFest.comThe debt crisis in Europe is forcing the British to once again choose: the continent or the open sea? The fiercely independent British have gone both ways over the centuries, openly spurning, even warring against, the continentals while expanding their reach across the oceans. In recent history, though, they’ve been more “in” than “out” – as members of the European Union for nearly 40 years, even if they still use the pound instead of the euro currency. It is the preservation of the euro that is now prompting “the British question” about relations with the rest of Europe. With the Euro-skeptics reigning over the public discourse in Britain and three crucial meetings of EU heads of state coming before Christmas – each summit deciding on steps toward further European integration – British Prime Minister David Cameron is now publicly hinting at a referendum on EU membership. Changes to the EU’s structure require “fresh consent” from the British people, the prime minister recently said, though he prefers a referendum on Britain's role in the EU, rather than an in-out vote. It seems appropriate to think through the unthinkable: What if Britain actually left the EU? These days, it’s easier than ever to understand the Euro-skeptics. To them, the 17 members of the euro zone are pushing an agenda that Britain never signed on to: Centralize power and allow EU headquarters in Brussels to sap sovereignty from London. The skeptics argue that Britain would not be leaving the European Union; the European Union is leaving Britain. In 1973, the United Kingdom signed up for the EU in order to become part of a single economic market. Now, über-integrationists such as Germany, while delaying completion of the single market, push for all sorts of pooled power that proud English sovereignists believe they must resist. It’s a fundamental conflict of visions between the German chancellor and the British prime minister: Angela Merkel wants more Europe, Mr. Cameron wants less. Even the Euro-skeptics show some understanding for Ms. Merkel, though. David Osborne, finance minister, identifies the “remorseless logic” of an ill-conceived currency zone without fiscal coordination as the key driver. It’s “integrate or perish” for the euro zone. This dictate makes it increasingly hard for the euro zone to hit the brake while the Brits mull further integration, even while it is increasingly hard for Britain to stay halfway in. As the euro zone builds up institutions to govern its currency and rein in debt, Britain will be ever more marginalized. Some already envision a time when Britain will be freed from the shackles of European enslavement. The country, they assume, will celebrate its newfound liberty and go global alone. Yes, they admit, Britain will be less influential in Europe, but not in the world. No longer held back by the greying, over-regulated, sclerotic, and irrelevant continent, Britain could go its merry way, happily trading with India, China, Brazil, and the other giants of tomorrow. In the most unassuming version of a new British strategy (as discussed within Cameron’s Conservative Party) the country would secure a free trade agreement with the EU and turn itself into a bigger “Switzerland with nukes,” as one approving Conservative member of Parliament put it. A more ambitious version sees Britain as a “hub-nation” at the center of flexible and overlapping global trade networks. It would utilize old commonwealth ties – not fasten itself to “fixed, rigid blocks” but focus on countries “with accountable government,” as journalist David Rennie describes it in a report for the London-based Center for European Reform. The country’s military would be turned into a smaller version of the US Marine Corps, concentrating on the Euro-Mediterranean region. British armed forces would extend globally when acting alongside the Americans. The special relationship would be rekindled. Every country, of course, is free to wrap itself in its favorite self-delusions. Observers can be but surprised and ask questions: Why would the United States be interested in a special relationship when Britain is no longer a relevant influence in Europe? Why would the EU consider special economic and trading privileges for Britain after its “Brexit,” when the country just wants to continue on as a free rider? And these other questions loom: How successful can Britain be globally when it is set to fall out of the top 10 of the world economic powers? In years past, it has traded more with euro zone member Ireland than with Brazil, Russia, India, and China combined. In late September, Radoslaw Sikorski, Poland’s conservative foreign minister, addressed the topic in a speech at Oxford University where he studied as an exile. There, Mr. Sikorski recalled how Marxists introduced him to the term “false consciousness” – an ideological contradiction. “Britain today,” said Sikorski, “is living with false consciousness. Your interests are in Europe. It’s high time for your sentiments to follow.” Not too many Brits may want to hear a Pole try to protect them from their own slide toward self-isolation. Perhaps they will listen to the highly regarded British historian and journalist Timothy Garton Ash, who warns that it will be “cold on Europe’s margins.” And the rest of Europe will feel the chill as well. The continent’s horizon will be diminished, and Europe will be even less of a hard power. The continent’s Atlanticists will hardly know whom to befriend in light of a United States pivoting toward Asia and a fleeing Britain. One day, Britain could find itself confronted with a Germany that emulates it: Overburdened by euro-stewardship and faced with a less interested Anglo-American world with which it can integrate, Europe’s central power might also be tempted go global alone – as a hub-nation in a flexible and overlapping export network, but with little regard for traditional alliances. Drawn to pacifism and neutralism it would become a high-tech wingman to the rising nations. Is this the new Europe that Britain, in its desire to get away, wants to help create? Thomas Kleine-Brockhoff is a senior transatlantic fellow at the German Marshall Fund of the United States where he leads the EuroFuture Project.Experiencing the unusually cold weather? Send us your pictures and videos but keep warm. (CNN) Yes, it's winter. And yes, it's cold. But this is different. Just ask Richard Thomas, owner of R. Thomas Deluxe Grill in Atlanta. He keeps a dozen birds outside the restaurant and never, in his 30 years, has he had to move them inside. But that's exactly what he scrambled to do Sunday. "The weather prediction made me nervous," said Thomas, 80. "Rather than risk danger to any of my buddies, so to speak, I just decided to make that decision." As many as 140 million Americans are bracing this week for a polar blast that's barreling across the country, dumping snow in some places and shattering records. Much of the United States will see the coldest temperatures in almost 20 years, according to the National Weather Service. They are expected to be 30 to 50 degrees below average in some cities. To put things in perspective, the weather in Atlanta and Nashville, Tennessee, on Monday will be colder than in Anchorage, Alaska. By Wednesday, nearly half the nation will shudder in temperatures of zero or lower, forecasters said. The unusual weather is already causing headaches, especially for travelers. Close to 3,000 flights were canceled Sunday, said the flight-tracking website flightaware.com, which tracks cancellations due to weather, mechanical and other problems. A man at Logan International Airport in Boston told CNN affiliate WCVB that he will miss two days of a cruise because he can't get to Florida as planned to meet the boat. Another passenger at Logan was overcome with emotion as she spoke, her voice cracking under the stress. "I just want to go home. I just want to get back, settled in. We've been cooped up for two days," WCVB reported Amy Roy said. Here's a look at what's happening around the country: Midwestern snow and one freakishly cold game JUST WATCHED U.S. braces for Arctic blast Replay More Videos... MUST WATCH U.S. braces for Arctic blast 01:31 JUST WATCHED A frosty welcome for Bill de Blasio Replay More Videos... MUST WATCH A frosty welcome for Bill de Blasio 01:07 JUST WATCHED How cold is it in your town? Replay More Videos... MUST WATCH How cold is it in your town? 01:00 Snow was falling across the Midwest. In Brownsburg, Indiana, more than 4 inches had fallen during the morning, said iReporter Bill Byrd. "Most people are staying in their homes, and church services are canceled," he told CNN. Indianapolis Mayor Greg Ballard told residents to stay off the streets, especially after nightfall. "It's not just a snow event, it's a cold event, and that's what scares us," he said. Parents should keep an eye on their kids who might be out sledding into the evening hours -- there is no school Monday -- and check to make sure they don't get frostbite. In Wisconsin, a sold-out crowd more than 70,000 hardcore Green Bay Packers endured temperatures between 4 and 8 degrees. With the wind, the air could have felt as cold as minus 15 degrees. "You can prepare for it, but you can't really prepare for it. We've been doing this our whole life up here. It's what Green Bay is all about -- it's cold weather and hard-hitting football," said Jason Gibbs. The Packers offered free hand warmers, hot chocolate and coffee at the afternoon game, spokesman Aaron Popkey said. Green Bay lost 23-20 to the San Francisco 49ers. In Embarrass, Minnesota, residents wondered whether they might see their record-cold temperature of 64 below zero, set in 1996, snap like an icicle. "I've got a thermometer from the weather service that goes to 100 below," resident Roland Fowler told CNN affiliate KQDS. "If it gets that cold, I don't want to be here." Because of conditions in the Windy City, officials said Chicago Public Schools will be closed Monday. The city had 12 centers for residents to seek warmth, one of which was to stay open all night through Tuesday. Libraries and some other city facilities would also be open, said Evelyn Diaz, the city's commissioner of the Department of Family and Support Services. Illinois Gov. Pat Quinn said 100 warming centers were open statewide. In St. Louis, authorities used an alert system to call people who might need assistance. More than 80 didn't answer, Mayor Francis Slay said, so police were going to check on them. Slay also said that the city would close on Monday except for emergency personnel. "We expect this to be a three-day event," he said, adding that 80 snowplows would be used to keep primary roads passable. The Deep South The arctic blast threatens to sweep subzero lows as far south as Alabama and plunge much of the Deep South into the single digits. Freezing rain is also possible along the Appalachians all the way up to New England over the next couple of days, the National Weather Service said. Deadly conditions The low temperatures and wind chill are a dangerous recipe for rapid frostbite or hypothermia. "Exposed flesh can freeze in as little as five minutes with wind chills colder than 50 below," the National Weather Service's Twin Cities office in Minnesota said. Over the past week, at least 13 people have died from weather-related conditions. Eleven people died in road accidents -- including one man crushed as he was moving street salt with a forklift. One man in Wisconsin died of hypothermia. And an elderly woman with Alzheimer's disease in New York state wandered away from her home and was found dead in the snow in a wooded area about 100 yards away. Travel nightmares John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York closed briefly after an incident involving a regional jet, Delta Flight 4100 from Toronto. Port Authority spokesman Ron Marsico said the plane, carrying 32 passengers, skidded into a snow bank while turning onto a taxiway after landing safely. No injuries were reported. The aircraft was towed to the gate, the Federal Aviation Administration said. Flight operations were suspended for about two hours. The FAA reported lengthy delays at several large airports including Detroit Metro Airport, Philadelphia International, and LaGuardia in New York. As snow fell in Missouri, Interstate 44 in Webster County was closed because of an accident involving multiple tractor-trailers, according to the state's Department of Transportation website. The highway was also closed in Greene County when a semi crashed as it headed west. The bad weather was headed east. Cities like Cincinnati; Lexington, Kentucky; Louisville, Kentucky; and Memphis saw temperatures crash Sunday, and precipitation could lead to dangerous, icy driving conditions. Roads will worsen Sunday night in Atlanta; Birmingham, Alabama; and Knoxville, Tennessee, forecasters said. This, too, shall pass If there's any good news about the biting cold snap, it's that much of it should be over for the Midwest by Wednesday, the National Weather Service said. In the meantime, those in the western part of the country can skip all the fuss. Most of the West can expect relatively pleasant weather through Monday.HTC's Vive Trackers are a game changer, capable of turning any object into a virtual reality controller or prop. And like any new game-changing technology, it's going to take a while for developers to discover the potential. But with the HTC Vive Trackers have only been available for a matter of weeks and they're already being used for some creative, brilliant and strange things. Feet, cats and ceiling fans - the Trackers have appeared in some interesting places. Read this: How people are trying to untangle VR's big mess We've been keeping an eye on what developers and gamers have been up to, and spoke to a few about their projects. Here are some of the best, and most interesting, ways people are experimenting with the trackers right now. A VR theatre experience Alex Coulombe and his team at Agile Lens Immersive Design have been working with another company to build models of theatres in VR. Not only does this allow them to simulate what the theatre will look like when built, but it could one day let theatre-goers preview their seat before buying a ticket. Enter the Tracker, and now Alexa and the team have found a way to add immersion - by creating a 1:1 relationship between the real-world chair and the virtual one. "On the design side, this has been great for moving the chair around to find optimal locations," Alex tells Wareable. "On the presentation side, it's fantastic to put people in locations in a theatre where there will be loose seats and let them shift around the same way they would be able to in the real theatre, finding their own optimal locations — which we certainly take note of." Next, Alex says they want to use the Trackers to replicate rails and balconies with more realism in VR, but he's also excited by how the simple act of sitting on a chair can be totally changed by the Vive's new accessory, and what this could do to games and experiences. "In all contexts, an unexpected opportunity that came from this verisimilitude was the ability to stand up and sit down while staying in VR. Think about it — that's never been a 'comfortable' experience before, but with the Vive Tracker you know exactly where the chair is. No need for a helping hand. I look forward to seeing other designers of all stripes find exciting uses for that seemingly simple (but extremely practical) new affordance." The cat tracker If you're in the middle of a VR experience, you know your space to be as clear as possible. You nudge aside chairs and tables so that you can wander around without tripping and falling on your ass, but what you can't control are stray pets wandering into your VR zone. Enter Triangular Pixels' Tracker VR project, which lets you track either pets or little children who may wander into your area. Essentially, the goal is to be able to warn you when a foreign entity has entered your once-safe virtual space. While half of the project is code-based, the other half was altering a Mynwood Cat Jacket to allow the cat wear the tracker as comfortably as possible. Dance, dance For Joe Sciacchetano, co-founder of Rebuff Reality, inspiration came when he injured his back and was unable to walk for several months. Shortly after recovery he got to try the Vive Pre and the ideas started flooding in. "The importance of the feet and their complete absence in VR was abundantly clear to me," he says. "So I quit my job and started Rebuff Reality to solve this problem." The idea was for a game called Redfoot Bluefoot Dancing, a dance combo title inspired by Dance Dance Revolution that would put people's feet into virtual reality by attaching a pair of Vive Trackers. It works with any song played on YouTube, using machine-learning algorithms that match the beat to the pad. "We remade the pad into a circular shape so that it is easier to hit each button and does not waste space, and made the whole thing into more of a spaceship for VR," Joe tells us. "An even bigger improvement, which is borrowed in part from Audioshield, is having each foot a different color. Though this may seem a small change, if you are familiar with fighting games you know that having two buttons vs. one button significantly increases the amount of combos, and a similar thing happens in our game. Each song can become incredibly unique and challenging." The game will launch in July and Rebuff has also created a proprietary strap that attaches the Tracker to the player's feet and hands (essentially turning you into Rayman) however Joe says
no scientific evidence – namely the claim that CO2 matters and is a significant (or even main?) factor for the forecasts.It seems we’re hearing a lot about 8-Core streaming devices lately. Idroidnation was nice enough to send us a sample of their brand new Android TV box for review: The Idroidnation I-Box. The last time we reviewed an Octa-Core streaming device was the Tronsmart Draco. It started off well, but quickly fizzled out because Tronsmart was non-existent with their support of the box. Any time that a new design comes out, you’re buying into the hope that the device will perform better and better as it ages. I’m talking about everything, not just Android boxes. Will the Idroidnation I-Box age better than the Draco? How does it perform now? Let’s find out. Idroidnation I-Box: Specs The Idroidnation I-Box is built off the Cortex A53 which is an 8-core, 64-bit version of the Cortex A7. This essentially allows the A53 to be smaller than it’s predecessor and give higher performance using less power. Like the Draco, this device also uses ARM’s big.LITTLE technology which enables the CPU to turn on cores when it needs more processing power and turn them off at idle times. There is also 2GB of RAM and 8GB of storage. The storage is split over two partitions, which I found to be disappointing. Manufacturers started doing this as a cost benefit, but with memory prices so low, I’m not sure why they still feel the need to split storage like this. It’s also worth pointing out that this is one of the few TV boxes running Android 5.1.1 Lollipop. We’ll see this more in the future, but it’s great to see Lollipop finally making it’s way on to streaming devices. Here are the official specs from Idroidnation’s website: Operating System Android 5.1 CPU RK3368 – 64-bit Octa-Core Cortex A53 GPU Power VR6110 Supported Formats OpenGL ES3.1, OpenCL 1.2 and DirectX 9.3 4K2K H.264/H.265 real-time Video playback HDMI2.0,4K2K@60fps display RAM DDR3 2GB Storage Onboard eMMC Flash 8GB Connectivity Bluetooth BT 4.0, Ethernet 100 Mb LAN Wi-Fi Wireless 802.11a/b/g/n Expandable Memory Micro SD Card (Maximum support 64GB) Antenna Built-in antenna for Wi-Fi UHD 4K×2K Yes Full HD 1080P Yes HEVC H.265/H.264 Yes Video/Picture Decoding Supports .mkv,.wmv,.mpg, .mpeg, .dat, .avi, .mov, .iso, .mp4, .rm and *.jpg file formats Audio format Support MP3, AAC, WMA, RM, FLAC, OGG Ports USB 2.0 x 3, Micro USB with OTG x 1, HDMI 2.0 x 1, SPDIF x 1, Micro SD card slot Adapter 5V 2A Features Miracast/DLNA Support What’s in the box Android TV box manufacturers have gotten a lot better with their packaging since they first popped on the scene a few years ago. The first devices were simply thrown into a box and included a simple one-sheet of instructions which, if you were lucky, were written in English. By contrast, the Idroidnation I-Box is packaged well. The box is mono-chromatic on plain brown cardboard, and gives it a kind-of “eco-friendly” vibe. Still, it looks like something you’d pick up at any big-box retailer like Best Buy or Target. Once you open the box, the I-Box is there, along with a brief description of the package contents. Underneath, you’ll find an AC power adapter, USB to micro-USB OTG adapter and an HDMI cable so you don’t have to buy your own. There’s also a one-sheet setup guide that looks like something that could be produced by Hewlett-Packard. That’s a good thing, by the way. I’ve often said that they have some of the best set-up material in the tech industry for new users. The iDroidnation’s setup page explains not only how to plug in the box, but also how to perform basic Android functions like opening and closing apps. On the back, there’s a walkthrough on how to change language settings and connect to the Internet. Benchmarks Since the Tronsmart Draco was the only other Octa-Core device I’ve tested so far, my initial though was to use it as a baseline for the Idroidnation I-Box performance. The Draco scored a pretty respectable 34672 in AnTuTu X. If you remember, there was some controversy with the Draco’s AnTuTu 6 score, so I’m going to be erring on the side of caution here. The Idroidnation I-Box scored better on the AnTuTu benchmarks than the Draco, getting a verified score of 36022 on its first run. I ran this test several more times and achieved an average of 35496 over ten attempts. This puts it in line with what CNXSoft found with the RK3368 devices they tested. Overall, pretty solid performance, and a slightly higher score than the MINIX NEO X8-H Plus which scored a 32275. The AnTuTu Video Tester didn’t fare as well, unfortunately. Although the 4K portion of the test worked flawlessly, there were some issues with older formats which you can see in the pictures below. Overall, I’m not too concerned with this as long as Idroidnation updates the firmware down the road. If not, this could be an issue. I also ran 3DMark’s Ice Storm and PC Mark Android benchmarks for the I-Box. The results weren’t what I expected, but not in a bad way. The scores for Ice Storm were a pretty respectable 5148. This was less than the NEO X8-H Plus’ score of 5657. Even though the framerates were almost identical, the MINIX box did score higher in the overall graphics tests. The interesting test was in the PC Mark Android benchmark. Here the Idroidnation I-Box really dominated. It handily beat the MINIX in overall score, 4225 to 3004. Even better, it almost doubled the MINIX’s score in video playback: 4915 to 2456. Clearly there’s some power underneath the hood in this set top box. Kodi Almost everyone who buys a streaming device that’s not made by Roku, Amazon or Google does it to run Kodi. Idroidnation included Kodi 15 with this TV box and it works great. There was a custom skin already installed, but that can be easily changed. I’m disappointed that they chose to include a lot of add-ons that aren’t officially endorsed by Team Kodi. Generally when manufacturers do this they are doing it to promote illegal content. This didn’t appear to be the case with Idroidnation, however, which is good. Including Kodi 15 rather than version 14, or even one of the old XBMC versions is another good sign. I’m always worried when a brand new device comes out with old software. Thankfully, that’s not the case here. The Verdict The Idroidnation I-Box surprised me a little bit, which is getting pretty tough to do. It gives good performance that was rock-solid as far as stability during my stress tests. It may not blow away the competition yet, but you need to remember that this is a brand new box with lots of room to grow. Video playback was good, and didn’t show any signs of stuttering at all. One disappointment was the lack of a custom launcher with this box. One of the great things about Android TV boxes is that we can customize them however we want. That doesn’t mean that it’s easy for newbies, or even casual users to navigate. Especially if you don’t have some sort of air mouse or upgraded controller. There were a couple of minor issues with video formats not being supported, but I expect that those will be fixed in the first firmware upgrade. All in all, I’m pretty impressed with the Idroidnation I-Box. But what do you think? Leave us a comment below, and don’t forget about our contest to win our review sample!!! a Rafflecopter giveawayWe love to speculate on the next-generation of stars, players with a chance to take the next step in their careers, going from good to potentially great. Heading into the 2016 season, I have a come up with a team that I call my Step-Up Team, players who have flashed early in their careers and now can take the next step on the path to being a star. All the players are young, most in their second and third seasons in the league. That's why speculating can be tough, yet their limited resumes and game tapes help to give me the idea that they have the ability to turn it up a notch. Experience matters, and now they all have some. Maybe not enough yet for some, but they have games under their belts. In a league where timetables are sped up now more than ever, the speed of the next step is crucial for the success of teams and the staying power of a coach. If the supposed candidates don't take that step, coaches will be fired and general mangers will likely be right behind. So here's my team of the players I think take the next step in 2016. Offense He threw for 4,042 yards and 22 touchdowns as a rookie, but his completion percentage was only 58.3 percent and he threw 14 picks. Even so, he has the look of a future top-10 passer. His work ethic is outstanding and he loves the game. That matters. He was really good as a rookie, rushing for 581 yards in part-time duty. I think he gets more of the rushing load this season, which means his numbers will go up. He's also a good receiver. He caught 36 passes last season. In his second season, he should be a 1,200-yard rusher with 50 catches. I was going to put Dorial Green-Beckham here, but his trade to the Eagles changed that after the Titans gave up on him. So I went with Funchess. He came on strong late in 2015 and will be even better with a year under his belt. I thought he might be better suited as a tight end coming out of Michigan, but he's trimmed down some and developed into a big, strong receiver. For a WR with his size and skill set, Funchess faces big expectations. USATSI He had 51 catches with six touchdowns last season, and he really didn't get going until the second half. He is small, but he can fly. He's also a heck of a return man. He caught a career-best 64 passes last season, but that was with Andrew Luck sitting much of the year. Now in his third season, he should push 80 catches this season. His yards-per catch should also go up from 11.5 last season. Those who watch the tape know how good this kid is, but the majority of NFL fans don't. That's why he's on this list. He is a real talent and he's only 24 years old. He will be in the Pro Bowl this season. When he played as a rookie last season, he was a mauler and a bruiser. This former college tackle has a chance to be special at guard. Teaming with Zack Martin, the Cowboys might have the best duo in the league. La'el Collins should only continue to get better in Big D. USATSI He is moving from right guard to center and the team is raving about his ability to pick up the mental game. He was a physical guard and should be a physical center. He might not be a Pro Bowl player this year, but he will be for a long time. This player from small school Hobart College had a nice rookie season in 2015. He was good against the run and held up in pass protection. With a year of experience, he will be better in both. On a Rams line that had issues last season, he was solid as a rookie at right tackle. He is a big, powerful player who is good in the run game. He surprised some with how well he handled himself in pass protection. He has missed the open of camp with a foot injury, but is expected to be ready for the opener. Forget that he got paid a big deal. He's a player who hasn't lived up to the expectations yet. But I think in the Saints offense, with Drew Brees throwing to him, he will have a big-time season in terms of numbers. He's a perfect fit. Defense He isn't even a starter, but he might be by season's end. As a rookie last season, he had six sacks with just one start. At 6-foot-5, 252 pounds, he is a powerful rusher. He impressed as a rookie last season, splitting time up front. But he has the talent to be a real force on their defense. He is big, strong and quick. In 2015 as a rookie he was one of the best defenders on the Chicago defense. At 6-4, 320 pounds he is a power player but he can also push the pocket. He had 4.5 sacks last season. When he played last season, he was an effective pass rusher. He didn't put up big sack numbers, but that's coming. As long as he's on the field, he will be a force off the edge for the Texans this year. With J.J. Watt sidelined, the Texans need Clowney to be consistent. USATSI He had four sacks as a rookie last season, but he had three of those in the final seven games. In the Cardinals defense, there's a need for an outside rusher to play a big role and this should be his time to do so. He started nine games last season as a rookie and impressed as run defender. He's only 5-11, but he is a big-body player at 240 pounds and is more than willing to throw his body around. He needs to improve in coverage. He had eight sacks in two starts last season, including five in the final three games. He had three in one game against the Eagles. At 6-5, 268 pounds he has speed of a player much smaller. The Redskins are high on Smith. USATSI The Packers have high hopes for this second-year player. He was a safety in college, but moved to corner last season as a rookie. He can play outside and in the slot. He will be the "other" corner this season with Josh Norman on the roster. But he is a talented young player who loves matching up with top receivers. He showed some real cover skills as a rookie last season. He is smooth, can lock down as a press-man player, and he is willing tackler. He will be in the Pro Bowl this season. He struggled as a rookie in 2014 when asked to play more in coverage, but last year he fit better in the new scheme brought in with coach Todd Bowles. He is a big hitter who has improved in coverage. Calvin Pryor can hit, but can he be more consistent in coverage? USATSI He played corner and hybrid safety last year as a rookie, but he is a fill-time safety now. With his athletic ability, he would be a perfect player to have roaming in the middle of the field.According to BBC News (via The Wrap), the Chinese government is blocking all mentions of Winnie The Pooh on social media sites in an attempt to stop people from associating President Xi Jinping with the cubby, honey-living children’s character. Apparently, Winnie The Pooh has been the go-to reference for people looking to poke fun at President Xi for a while now, but the government is ramping up its censorship operations in advance of the Communist Party Congress this fall so that President Xi can make a big show of his “grip on power”—as the BBC puts it—and try to shut down his critics. Advertisement As for why people used Winnie The Pooh in the first place, the BBC story doesn’t really get into it, but it suggests that replacing the president with a silly figure like the cartoon bear is a straightforward attempt to undermine the assertion that he’s superior to the rest of the population in some way. Whatever the reason, uses of Pooh’s name in Chinese are blocked on the country’s omnipresent WeChat app, and attempts to look up previously accessible Winnie The Pooh images now turn up nothing. For Cheetos’ sake, we just hope Donald Trump doesn’t hear about this and steal the idea to ban things that people use to make fun of him.Share Pinterest Email "Top whatever" lists are popular on the internet -- quick, easy-to-read posts packaged in a convenient list for scrumptious digestion. Porsche is taking that form a step further by make its list into a video -- the first in what appears to be a new series for the automaker. Dieter Landenberger, manager of historical archives at Porsche, pulls the sheet off five super-rare Porsche factory models that look immaculate on camera. The five rare cars are the Porsche 964 Turbo S (86 produced), 1981 924 Carrera GTS (50 -- one in white, the other 49 in Indian Red), 911 GT1 (21 made), 911 SC/RS (20 produced) and the American Roadster (only 16 produced). The voice-over seems a bit more excited -- and Americanized -- than you'd expect from Porsche. However, considering we are going to be hearing the five best sounding Porsches next week as selected by the company, we get the excitement. Check back then for what promises to be a stunning soundtrack.Author: arkayn Nice post. I wanted to add to it a little bit... While those exact percentages are not really that hard to calculate or remember, sometimes it's hard to translate on the fly to what that really means to me in the decision making process. I usually think of an even rougher breakdown of the odds for at least a first pass at eliminating choices... Basically, I break the odds down to: not likely, coin flip, and very likely. 1 AV: coin flip to kill a 1 life unit (or wound a stronger unit) 2 AV: very likely to kill a 1 life unit coin flip to kill a 2 life unit (very likely to wound) 3 AV: very likely to kill a 1 or 2 life unit unlikely to kill a 3 life unit 4 AV: very likely to kill a 1 or 2 life unit (overkill vs. 1 life) coin flip to kill a 3 life unit unlikely to kill a 4 life unit 5 AV: very likely to kill a 1-3 life unit (overkill vs. 1 life) coin flip to kill a 4 life nearly impossible to kill a 5 life Yes, that coin flip for a 2 AV killing a 2 life is much worse coin flip than a 1 AV killing a 1 life, and when it comes down to two coin flips that are equally helpful to my position, I might remember the real odds and go from there. And yes, that "very likely" for a 3 AV to kill a 2 life unit is awfully close to the "coin flip" for a 1 AV to kill a 1 life. But there have to be breakpoints somewhere, and even 67% is decent odds, I still prefer to be a little pessimistic. But basically, "very likely" is something I can more or less count on. Try not to put myself in a position where a "very likely" failing will completely screw me, but taking risks for a "very likely" is generally OK. "unlikely" means don't even try it if it puts me in a bad position - or only try it if it doesn't cost anything or I have a backup plan. "coin flip" means don't count on it, try to have a contingency plan, but generally worth risking or spending moves to set up.This article is from the Fall 2014 issue of the The American Prospect magazine. For the first time in decades, voters in nearly half the country will find it harder to cast a ballot in the upcoming elections. Voters in 22 states will face tougher rules than in the last midterms. In 15 states, 2014 is slated to be the first major election with new voting restrictions in place. These changes are the product of a concerted push to restrict voting by legislative majorities that swept into office in 2010. They represent a sharp reversal for a country whose historical trajectory has been to expand voting rights and make the process more convenient and accessible. Although some of these new laws are harsher than others, and some are still being fought in the courts, they have already dramatically altered the landscape for 2014. The outcomes of some of the tightest races this year could turn on the application of controversial new voting rules. Strict voter ID laws have gotten most of the attention, but are only part of the story. Cutbacks to early voting and voter registration opportunities, and other idiosyncratic changes to voting rules, have the potential to do just as much damage. Why is this happening? Where are the most damaging new laws? What impact could they have in this year’s elections? And how effective are the efforts by voters to push back? (AP Photo/J Pat Carter) Betty James holds a sign outside the Faith Community Baptist Church in Miami, Sunday, October 28, 2012, as she tries to rally churchgoers to board a bus that would take them to vote early. Voting Restrictions in Context First, some perspective. The current assault on voting is highly unusual. Election rules have long been prone to politicization, but the last large-scale push to curb voting access was more than a century ago, after Reconstruction. The first stirrings of a new movement to restrict voting came after the 2000 Florida election fiasco, which taught the unfortunate lesson that even small manipulations of election procedures could affect outcomes in close races. Even so, only a handful of states imposed new restrictions over the decade that followed. That changed dramatically after 2010, when state lawmakers across the country introduced hundreds of bills to restrict voting. Although many of the new laws passed in that first year were initially blocked or weakened by courts, the Department of Justice, and citizen initiatives, states continued to press new voting restrictions in 2013 and 2014. What Explains This Sudden Shift? Partisanship plays a key role. Of the 22 states with new restrictions, 18 passed them through entirely Republican-controlled bodies. A study by social scientists Keith Bentele and Erin O’Brien of the University of Massachusetts Boston found that restrictions were more likely to pass “as the proportion of Republicans in the legislature increased or when a Republican governor was elected.” After Republicans took over state houses and governorships in 2010, voting restrictions typically followed party lines. Race has been a significant factor. In 2008, voter participation among African Americans and certain other groups surged. Then came backlash. The more a state saw increases in minority and low-income voter turnout, the more likely it was to push laws cutting back on voting rights, according to the University of Massachusetts study. The Brennan Center for Justice likewise found that of the 11 states with the highest African American turnout in 2008, seven passed laws making it harder to vote. Of the 12 states with the largest Hispanic population growth in the 2010 Census, nine have new restrictions in place. And of the 15 states that used to be monitored closely under the Voting Rights Act because of a history of racial discrimination in elections, nine passed new restrictions. Some laws are especially egregious in targeting how minorities vote. The push to shut down Sunday early voting in states where African American churches organized successful “Souls to the Polls” drives is a glaring example. Laws restricting voter registration drives are another such tactic. African Americans and Latinos register through drives at twice the rate of white citizens, and in recent years, civic groups have used drives to help close the racial registration gap—as they have for veterans, young people, and other less registered populations. Instead of embracing these efforts, Florida and several other states passed laws that make it difficult—and, before a court stepped in, impossible—for groups to help voters register. The result was a significant drop in registrations. Early Voting Cuts The push to trim early voting provides another clear example of how new voting restrictions target minorities. For more than two decades, states have been increasing early voting opportunities. In fact, most states now offer early voting, and in the last two presidential elections, a full one-third of Americans voted early. The reason for this expansion? Early voting works well—voters like it, election officials like it, and it improves the election system. It is so non-controversial that the bipartisan Presidential Commission on Election Administration recently recommended that all states adopt it to prevent long lines at the polls. Despite this consensus, after the 2008 election, support for early voting eroded among Republican legislators in the South and Midwest. What changed? For the first time, African Americans had begun voting early at high rates. In Southern states, early voting by African Americans nearly tripled between 2004 and 2008, overtaking early voting by whites by a significant margin. In North Carolina, for example, seven in ten African Americans voted early in 2008, as compared to half of white voters. And while Republicans have traditionally been more likely to vote early, in 2008 Democratic early votes exceeded Republican ones. Just as early voting has become successful among minorities and lower-income voters, it has become a target. Since 2011, eight states that saw recent increases in minority early voting usage have sharply cut back on early voting hours and days—Florida, Georgia, Nebraska, North Carolina, Ohio, Tennessee, West Virginia, and Wisconsin. Generally, the days and hours most likely to be slashed were those most popular with minorities and hourly workers, like Sundays and evenings. According to a 2008 Ohio study, 56 percent of weekend voters in Cuyahoga County, the state’s most populous, were black. Some politicians have been surprisingly candid about their motives. A Georgia state senator recently caused an uproar by criticizing local election officials for placing an early voting site in a black neighborhood, calling it a “blatantly partisan move,” and vowing to work in the next legislative session to “eliminate this election law loophole” that enabled officials to facilitate minority political participation. An Ohio official, explaining his 2012 vote to limit early voting hours, said: “I guess I really actually feel we shouldn’t contort the voting process to accommodate the urban [read: African American] voter-turnout machine.” ©Jenny Warburg Moral Monday protesters in Raleigh, North Carolina, call for the repeal of their state's new voting restrictions. Other Voting Restrictions Voter ID. While voter ID laws are nothing new, before 2011 only two states required voters to show government-issued photo IDs at the polls. Since 2011, nine states passed strict new ID laws. (Those states are Alabama, Arkansas, Kansas, Mississippi, North Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, Virginia, and Wisconsin.) Some accept state-issued student IDs while others do not, and some make it easier than others to obtain the necessary IDs. Four more states have passed somewhat less restrictive ID requirements. Nationally, 11 percent of Americans do not have the current state-issued photo IDs required under the stricter laws. Voter Registration Restrictions. Ten states passed laws making it harder for citizens to register. These include laws curbing voter registration drives (in Florida, Illinois, Texas, and Virginia); rules requiring voters to provide documentary proof of citizenship when registering (in Alabama, Kansas, Tennessee, and previously in Arizona); laws eliminating the highly popular same-day registration (in Nebraska and North Carolina); and a law making it harder for people who move to stay registered (in Wisconsin). Voter registration problems, which tend to pass under the radar, have long been the single greatest barrier to voting, causing millions of lost votes per year. Unless your state has same-day registration, if you are not registered, you cannot vote. One in four eligible Americans is not registered, and millions more have outdated registrations. Curbs on Restoring Rights to People with Past Convictions. Florida, Iowa, and South Dakota all made it significantly harder for Americans with past criminal convictions to have their voting rights restored. In Florida and Iowa, those citizens are essentially permanently disenfranchised. Nationally, 5.85 million Americans who have done their time have lost the right to vote; 1.5 million are in Florida. Overall, 7.7 percent of African Americans have lost their right—compared to 1.8 percent of whites. The number and complexity of new voting restrictions across the country are staggering. As Yale Law Professor Heather Gerken put it, “It’s a death-by-a-thousand-cuts strategy.” Key States to Watch In many of the closest races this year, new restrictions and ongoing court cases could become major factors. Data: Brennan Center for Justice/Art: Mary Parsons North Carolina has the dubious distinction of having the nation’s harshest and most sweeping new voting law. Enacted immediately after the Supreme Court gutted the Voting Rights Act last year, the law slashes seven early voting days, imposes a strict photo ID requirement, eliminates same-day registration, stops pre-registration for 16- and 17-year-olds, prohibits the counting of provisional votes cast outside of voters’ home precincts, and more. Other than the photo ID requirement, which will be implemented in 2016, all of these changes are currently in effect. With a tight U.S. Senate race under way, these changes could have an impact on this year’s elections, though it is difficult to predict the magnitude. In 2008, more than 700,000 North Carolinians voted during the week the state cut from early voting—including nearly a quarter of all African Americans who voted that year. Even in the 2010 midterms, more than 200,000 voters cast ballots during that week. Many voters will likely find another way to participate, but some will not. When Florida cut a week of early voting before the 2012 election, it led to congestion and long lines both before and on Election Day. More than 200,000 Floridians did not vote that year because of long lines at the polls. The elimination of same-day registration and out-of-precinct provisional balloting can also do damage. In 2012, nearly 100,000 citizens used same-day registration in North Carolina, almost one-third of whom were African Americans. Nationally, same-day registration is generally credited with boosting turnout by as much as 5 to 7 percent. Already this year, hundreds of citizens cast ballots that went uncounted in low-turnout primary elections because of the elimination of same-day registration and out-of-precinct voting. It is uncertain which of these restrictions will still be in place for the elections. The Department of Justice and civil rights groups have challenged the law in federal court. A district court judge declined to block the changes in advance of the election, but during argument on appeal last week, one judge asked: “How come the state of North Carolina doesn’t want people to vote?” (Regardless of the outcome, the issue will not be fully settled this year; the case is scheduled for a full trial next summer.) Voters are pushing back in the streets as well; the new law has spawned large-scale protests across the state by the “Moral Mondays” movement. That movement has also mobilized a voter registration and education campaign to counteract what the NAACP’s Reverend William Barber calls “the most regressive voter-suppression law passed by any state in this country since Jim Crow.” Texas. In the midst of a high-profile gubernatorial race, the Lone Star State now has a voter ID law that is the harshest in the nation, and called “absurdly strict” by the New York Times. Not only does Texas unnecessarily limit the kinds of IDs it accepts for voting, it also cherry-picks—famously accepting concealed-carry permits but not state-issued student IDs. Before implementing this law, Texas was initially required under the Voting Rights Act to get federal approval to make sure that the ID law was not discriminatory. Both the Department of Justice and a federal court blocked the law ahead of the 2012 elections, finding that it discriminated against minority voters. But while the case was awaiting appeal, the Supreme Court struck down the portion of the Voting Rights Act (Section 5) that required Texas to seek pre-implementation review. Within hours of that decision, Texas moved to implement the law—despite the court’s earlier finding that it was discriminatory. The law is now being challenged under a different part of the Voting Rights Act (Section 2) and the Constitution, but has already been applied in local and primary elections this year. If allowed to stand, Texas’s voter ID law could have a substantial impact this November. Uncontroverted expert data presented at trial showed that 1.2 million eligible Texans do not have IDs that would be accepted under the new law. Among registered voters, more than 600,000 lack acceptable ID. The effect on black and Latino voters is disproportionate; Hispanic registered voters are 3.2 times more likely than white voters to lack ID, and black registered voters are 2.3 times more likely to lack ID, according to an expert study. A weak state program to provide free IDs is unlikely to close this gap before Election Day. As of September, Texas had issued only 279 free IDs, and had done virtually no voter education. Even if the ID itself is free, for many people the cost of obtaining the underlying documents necessary to get it is prohibitive. Lifelong voter Sammie Bates testified that it took her a while to save up the $42 needed to order her birth certificate, which she needed to get free ID: “You’re going to put the money where you feel the need is most urgent. … We couldn't eat the birth certificate, and we couldn't pay rent with the birth certificate.” In the low-turnout November 2013 state primary, more than 250 provisional ballots were rejected because the voters failed to present qualifying ID. While most empirical studies show that requiring voter ID has a negative effect on turnout, there aren’t enough data yet to estimate with precision the impact the law will have on turnout if it remains in effect—especially since there has never been an ID requirement as strict as Texas’s. We may never find out, depending on what happens in the courts over the next few weeks. Closing arguments in the case challenging the law were made on September 22; a decision could come any day now. Data: Brennan Center for Justice/Art: Mary Parsons The states shown in blue are facing court challenges to voter suppression measures. Wisconsin. Unless a court steps in, a strict new voter ID law and cutbacks to early voting are slated to go into effect in Wisconsin for the first time this November. Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker played a significant role in pressing these controversial new voting measures, and they could now make a difference in his close re-election race this year. The new voter ID law, which rivals Texas’s as one of the country’s most restrictive, was previously blocked by multiple state and federal courts, but those decisions were recently lifted, just weeks before the election. By a tie vote, the Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals refused to rehear the appeal en banc, with Judge Richard A. Posner, who famously regretted his vote to uphold Indiana’s ID law, voting to rehear. With almost no time to prepare or educate voters, and with early absentee voting already under way, this last-minute change could create serious snafus in the election. The thousands of people who have already mailed in absentee ballots have been told that they now need to send in copies of their photo IDs—assuming they have them—or their votes will not count. In addition to the confusion, the law will certainly create problems for the 300,000 eligible Wisconsin voters who do not have IDs acceptable under the new law. In Milwaukee County, the state’s largest, 7.3 percent of white voters, 13.2 percent of African Americans, and 14.9 percent of Latinos lack acceptable IDs. Wisconsin also eliminated weekend early voting, effectively preventing “Souls to the Polls” drives in the state this year. Florida’s experience in 2012 shows that cutting Sunday voting can make a serious dent in turnout; more than 18 percent of Floridians who voted on the last Sunday of early voting in 2008—eliminated in 2012—did not vote at all in 2012, according to an analysis by Professors Paul Gronke of Reed College and Charles Stewart of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Kansas and Arizona. Voting restrictions have the potential to make a difference in the close gubernatorial and Senate races in Kansas, and in close House races in Arizona this year. Both states now require documentary proof of citizenship to register to vote, a measure first authored by embattled Kansas Secretary of State Kris Kobach. Since January 2013, tens of thousands of voter registrations have been submitted in Kansas without the required documents. Although aggressive research and outreach efforts have helped get thousands of these documents to voters, there are currently almost 20,000 Kansans who attempted to register but will not be able to vote this November. There are no new numbers available from Arizona, but when the state first implemented its requirement in 2005, more than 31,000 applications were rejected for lack of documents, and community-based voter registration plummeted by 44 percent in the state’s largest county. Only 11,000 of those applicants were later able to register to vote, and about 20 percent of the remaining 20,000 unsuccessful applicants were Latino. The laws are currently the subject of two lawsuits, only one of which is likely to be decided before the upcoming election. If voting advocates prevail in that suit, then voters who lack citizenship documentation will be able to register and vote in federal races only. Florida has long led the country in voting restrictions. Most recently, in 2011, the state cut back on early voting, hampered voter registration drives, and rolled back voting rights for people with past convictions. While the early voting and voter registration restrictions have been mitigated by court decisions and even a 2013 partial repeal, the more than 1.3 million Floridians convicted of crimes who have completed their sentences and paid their debt to society are still essentially permanently disenfranchised because of changes Governor Rick Scott and his clemency board made to Florida’s rules in 2011. Scott’s new criminal disenfranchisement rules, which rolled back pro-voter reforms passed by former Governor Charlie Crist, have the potential to make a big difference in this year
on the Revolutions of the Celestial Orbits was handed to him hours prior to his death. Fortunately for Fr. Copernicus, he could not see the changed Osiander had ordered. Without Copernicus' permission, in deference to the Martin Luther and Philip Melanchthon's fury at the heliocentric system, Osiander added the word "Hypothesis" to the manuscript's title page. In addition, he replaced Copernicus' own preface with another which didn't represent the astronomer's opinions. Instead, Osiander's preface warned the reader to neither expect anything certain from astronomical science nor to accept the book's hypotheses as true. Fortunately, the dedication to Pope Paul III was retained as was the text in its entirety. The real reason Fr. Copernicus hesitated about publishing his research was his fear of exacerbating Protestant ire against the Catholic Church because both Luther and Calvin had already denounced heliocentrism as a heresy. The Catholic Church never had an official opinion one way or the other when it came to that particular theory. Though it's true that Galileo Galilei was accused of disseminating "Copernican ideas," this shouldn't be taken to mean that the Copernicus was on the outs with the Church. Rather, it was Galileo had taken great steps to make himself persona non grata by burning many bridges in his life. It wasn't heliocentrism that upset the Church but rather Galileo's refusal to admit that his ideas were theories rather than facts not subject to questions or criticism. As proof of this, we see the Church's attitude toward the work of Nicholas of Cusa. Unbeknownst to Fr. Copernicus, Cardinal Nicholas of Cusa, a German philosopher and astronomer (1400-1450) anticipated his heliocentric theory and, in fact, was celebrated for it by the Church. Admittedly, his theories are more philosophical and speculative than scientific and strictly empirical but the ideas are there nonetheless. Cardinal Nicholas believed the earth was a star like other stars, that it wasn't the center of the universe, that it moved around the sun and that its poles weren't fixed. In addition, he believed that celestial bodies aren't strictly spherical, nor were their orbits perfectly circular—the later idea anticipated Johannes Kepler's discovery of the elliptical orbits of the planets by almost 200 years. Cardinal Nicholas advocated the idea that the difference between astronomical theory and physical observation of the planet's orbits was explained by relative motion—an idea that anticipated Einstein's by nearly 500 years. Had Fr. Copernicus been aware of Cardinal Nicholas' already published ideas, he would have probably been eager to publish his own research. Though fundamentalist atheists are fond of rewriting history to maintain their cynical and anti-intellectual myopia, the truth is that Fr. Copernicus and Galileo were mostly vilified by Protestants rather than Catholics. Protestants Martin Luther, John Calvin, Philipp Melanchthon and John Owen were fiercely critical of heliocentricism. In fact, Melanchthon stopped reading after the first few pages of Fr. Copernicus' treatise. He wrote to his friend Mithobius on Oct. 16, 1541 condemning the theory and calling for it to be violently repressed by governmental force. He wrote that “certain people believe it is a marvelous achievement to extol so crazy a thing, like that Polish astronomer who makes the earth move and the sun stand still. Really, wise governments ought to repress impudence of mind.” There were certainly some Catholic critics as well but none of it appeared for 60 years after De revolutionibus was published. If atheists were correct about the Church wanting to destroy the heliocentric paradigm, those critics wouldn't have waited an entire lifetime to do so. In addition, Copernicus' De revolutionibus remained completely accessible to scholars throughout Christendom for the entire 60 years without a sanction attached to it. In fact, neither Copernicus' theory nor calendar reform were even discussed at the Council of Trent (1545-1563). In defense of the Catholic clerics such as Cardinal Robert Bellarmine, Francesco Ingoli, Nicolaus Serarius, and Dominicans Bartolomeo Spina and Giovanni Maria Tolosani, who denounced the Copernican theory, they used logic and empirical science to demonstrate, incorrectly, that heliocentrism was wrong. Protestants rejected the theory solely on the basis of Scripture which referred to the earth as not moving (Psalm 104:5, 1 Chronicles 16:30, Joshua 10:1-15). Thus, fundamentalist atheists, refusing to research the irate and unintelligible gossip upon which they willingly choke, continue the nonsensical and ahistorical lies to which they've become accustomed. Fundamentalist atheists angrily claim to be dedicated to "rationality" and "erudition" but always come up short on evidence for either. In my experience, it's unlikely that any of them are steeped in history and few have read a book on logic. Instead, fundamentalist atheists spend their time sniping and trying to out-snark each other as they train their sights on Christians (i.e., Catholics) while managing to avoid offending Jews and Moslems. Historically, atheists have exceled at propaganda — as evidenced by the murderous regimes of Hitler, Stalin, Lenin, Mao and the Kim Dynasty of North Korea, and communists throughout the 20th and 21st centuries. When one intentionally kills the truth, it isn't a great leap to then kill people and from there, to kill a great number of people. Even Christ reminds us: You are the children of your father, the Devil, and you want to follow your father's desires. From the very beginning he was a murderer and has never been on the side of truth, because there is no truth in him. When he tells a lie, he is only doing what is natural to him, because he is a liar and the Father of all Lies. (John 8:44) What can we make of a community of people who substitute hatred for reason? Gossip for learning? Scurrilous lies for truth? Subjective feelings for objective facts? Such is the very nature of fundamentalist atheism.Look out Walking Dead fans, there's a new sheriff in Alexandria! Since Negan has appeared on The Walking Dead this season, Jeffrey Dean Morgan has taken over more than just the Alexandria Safe Zone. Negan has conquered pop culture, and the villain seems to appear everywhere you look. Beginning next summer, Negan can take over your living room, desk, or collectable closet as well. ComicBook.com is bringing you the first look at the newest Negan figure from McFarlane toys, and it is breathtaking. While most of the action figures in The Walking Dead line are posable collectables that fans can play with, this is a much more prized collector's item. The figure stands 7 inches tall and comes with scaled “Lucille” barbed-wire baseball bat. Complete with multiple articulation points and stylized AMC‘s The Walking Dead display base. If you notice, Lucille is coated in red, symbolizing the blood covering the bat after Negan takes out his aggression on Glenn and Abraham.The 53-year-old postie from Rosenheim near Munich came under suspicion when colleagues realized he was faster at the job than they were - and one of them reported him, assuming he was throwing away the mail instead of delivering it. The Münchner Merkur newspaper reported on Thursday how the case ended up at the administrative court in Aibling and how the court heard he had ignored post office rules to make his working day more efficient. He told the court how he had been saving time after working out quicker routes between the postal depots - where mail is held for postmen and women to pick up and then deliver. Judge Isabella Hubert also heard that he was considered a precise and efficient worker. His immediate boss admitted knowing at least in part about the man's time-saving methods, and said she had informally tolerated them. "I admit that some of them are possibly logical," she said - but said they could not be officially accepted as they did not fit the rules. The court case against him was dismissed, but it was not recorded whether he would have to return to a less efficient way of working. The Local/hcThese pages provide a timeline that tells the full story of the BBC Prison Study from the moment the project was first conceived to the point where we drew conclusions from its findings. We explain the background to the study and the ideas that motivated us to do it. We document the way the study was set up, with special emphasis on the ethical issues surrounding such a challenging project. We then describe what happened in the various phases of the study: early days, conflict, order, rebellion, tyranny. Finally, we outline the key conclusions that we draw from the study. When do people identify with the groups and roles in which they find themselves? When are they able to organize themselves and act effectively? What is the effect of groups on well-being? When do people embrace tyranny? We don’t just tell our story in words. We also provide photographs and videos to help bring the story alive and to provide a richer feel of exactly what took place over the 9 days that the study lasted. Arbitrary, excessive and unaccountable use of power, typically by a state over some of its citizens or one social group over another.Cross-posted from Asia Times. The presidential election was over the moment the word “deplorable” made its run out of Hillary Clinton’s unguarded mouth. As the whole world now knows, Clinton told a Lesbian-Gay-Bisexual-Transgender fundraiser Sept. 10, “You know, to just be grossly generalistic, you could put half of Trump’s supporters into what I call the ‘basket of deplorables.’ Right? The racist, sexist, homophobic, xenophobic, Islamophobic — you name it. And unfortunately, there are people like that, and he has lifted them up.” Hillary is road kill. She apologized, to be sure, but no-one will believe her: she was chilling with her home audience and feeling the warmth, and she said exactly what she thinks. The “Clinton Cash” corruption scandals, the layers of lies about the email server, health problems, and all the other negatives that pile up against the former first lady are small change compared to this apocalyptic moment of self-revelation. You can’t win an American presidential election without the deplorables’ vote. Deplorables are America’s biggest minority. They might even be the American majority. They may or not be racist, homophobic and so forth, but they know they’re deplorable. Deplorable, and proud. They’re the median family whose real income has fallen deplorably by 5% in the past ten years, the 35% of adult males who deplorably have dropped out of the labor force, the 40% of student debtors who deplorably aren’t making payments on their loans, the aging state and local government workers whose pension funds are $4 trillion short. They lead deplorable lives and expect that their kids’ lives will be even more deplorable than theirs. Americans are by and large forgiving people. They’ll forgive Bill for cavorting with Monica “I did not have sex with that woman” Lewinsky in the Oval Office and imposing himself on any number of unwilling females. They might even forgive Hillary for losing tens of thousands of compromising emails on an illegal private server and then repeatedly lying about it in a way that insults the deplorable intelligence of the average voter. But the one thing you can’t do is spit on them and tell them it’s raining. They’ll never forgive you for that. They’re hurting, and they rankle at candidates who rub their faces in it. Mitt Romney’s campaign was unsalvageable after the famous 2012 “47% remark,” by which he simply meant that the 47% of American workers whose income falls below the threshold for federal taxes would be indifferent to his tax cut proposals. The trouble is that these workers pay a great deal of taxes–to Social Security, Medicare, and in most cases to local governments through sales taxes and assessments. After a covert video of his remarks at a private fundraiser made the rounds, Romney spent the rest of the campaign with the equivalent of an advertising blimp over his head emblazoned with the words: “I represent the economic elite.” Clinton has done the same thing with the cultural elite. There are racists and homophobes in the Trump camp, to be sure. Everybody’s got to be somewhere. Trump is no Puritan, however, and really couldn’t care less what sort of sex people have, or who uses what bathroom (as he made clear), or who marries whom. He built a new country club in Palm Beach two decades ago because the old ones excluded blacks and Jews. He’s no racist. He’s an obnoxious, vulgar salesman who plays politics like a reality show. I’ve made clear that I will vote for him, not because he was my choice in the Republican field (that was Sen. Cruz), but because I believe that rule of law is a precondition for a free society. If the Clintons get a free pass for influence-peddling on the multi-hundred-million-dollar scale and for covering up illegal use of private communications for government documents, the rule of law is a joke in the United States. Even if Trump were a worse president than Clinton–which is probably not the case–I would vote for him, on this ground alone.On the ground in Leer, South Sudan — When war came to 15-year-old Rebecca Riak Chol’s small town in rural South Sudan in early April, she and 27 other villagers fled into nearby marshlands to hide. They spent two grueling weeks slowly making their way to the relative safety of a region controlled by rebels from her same tribe. They were constantly hungry, constantly thirsty, and constantly in danger of being killed by the troops trying to hunt them down. Chol’s sister died along the way, but it wasn’t because she was found and shot. Instead, she — like growing numbers of South Sudanese — died from starvation. “We didn’t have anything to dig with to bury her, so we just put grass on the body and left it there,” Chol told me during a conversation in the schoolyard of her new home in the small town of Thoahnom Payam. Two school buildings with mud walls and tin roofs flanked the dry dirt yard. In the center was an unused volleyball net. One of Chol’s classmates, 16-year-old Marco Nuer, arrived here in February from a different violence-ravaged part of the country. Like Chol, he paid an enormous price: His father, brother, and sister starved to death along the way. He and his mother were the only ones to survive. The two stories are tragically common in South Sudan, which is facing mass hunger on a scale unimaginable in almost every other part of the world. In February, the United Nations estimated that 100,000 South Sudanese were starving, and that 5 million more — 42 percent of the country’s population — have such limited access to proper food that they don’t know where their next meal is coming from. More recent figures are not available yet, but aid agencies fear the situation could be much worse now. There are two things you need to understand about the famine decimating South Sudan, the world’s newest country and one that came into existence largely because of enormous assistance from the US. First, South Sudan isn’t the only country in the region facing mass starvation. A potentially historic famine is also threatening Nigeria, Somalia, and Yemen. Far from Western eyes and far from the headlines, an estimated 20 million people in those four countries are at risk of dying due to a lack of food. The UN has already officially declared a full-fledged famine in parts of South Sudan and warned that the other three countries will suffer mass death from food and water shortages if “prompt and sustained humanitarian intervention” doesn’t happen soon. Second, these famines weren’t caused by natural disasters like crop failures or droughts. They were man-made — the direct result of the bloody wars and insurgencies raging in all four countries. The upshot is that the current famines, unlike others in recent history, could have potentially been prevented. Washington, which has been slow to act, seems to finally be taking steps to help fight the famine. The Trump administration proposed massive funding cuts to America’s humanitarian food aid, but Congress rejected those cuts and instead allocated close to $1 billion in new funding. In a recent interview with Vox, Michael Bowers, the vice president of humanitarian leadership and response for the aid group Mercy Corps, said the current famine was “entirely avoidable.” “It’s entirely a man-made construct right now, and that means we have it within our power to stop that,” he said. “Wars are hard to stop; famines are not.” On the ground here in South Sudan, the civil war that has left millions on the brink of starvation shows no signs of ending anytime soon. And that means the numbers of men, women, and children dying from lack of food will continue to increase into the indefinite future. In the intensive care unit of an International Medical Corps hospital in the capital city of Juba, the beds are occupied by the tiny, skeletal frames of malnourished children. The building is a simple temporary structure made of cinderblocks and plywood. Although children under 5 years old are the most vulnerable to malnutrition and the infections it can cause in small bodies, they are also incredibly resilient and almost always bounce back if fed high-calorie foods and given proper medicine. The problem is that huge numbers of South Sudanese children aren’t getting that type of food. Many, in fact, aren’t getting food of any kind. Most famines are caused by nature. These are caused by war. Many American adults first learned about the very idea of an African famine in 1985, when Lionel Richie and Michael Jackson brought together some of the biggest stars in rock and pop music to record a song called “We Are the World.” It was part of an effort to raise money to fight a famine that killed a million people in Ethiopia between 1983 and 1985. The song — which also included stars like Stevie Wonder, Paul Simon, Tina Turner, Bruce Springsteen, and Willie Nelson — eventually sold an astounding 20 million copies and raised more than $10 million for relief caused largely by a devastating drought in the impoverished country. The crisis in the 1980s pales in comparison to the famine happening today. Because it isn’t just happening in one country; it’s happening in four. Take Nigeria, where a bloody insurgency by the Islamist extremist group Boko Haram has created a growing humanitarian disaster. Since the group declared war on the country’s central government in 2009, millions of civilians — including huge numbers of farmers — have been forced from their homes to escape the group’s campaign of suicide bombings and kidnappings. With the agricultural systems of hard-hit areas in near collapse because of the fighting, the UN estimates that at least 4.8 million people are in need of urgent food assistance. Somalia, long synonymous with civil war and hunger, risks suffering its second famine of the past five years alone. The UN says that more than 6 million Somalis — fully half the country’s population — need food aid. The problem is that the government of Somalia doesn’t control huge swaths of the country. Much of it is still run by the Islamist militant group al-Shabaab. The ongoing conflict between the government in Mogadishu and the al-Qaeda-aligned group has devastated the economy and made it far harder to bring aid into the country. But it’s Yemen, where 7 million people are facing starvation, that’s perhaps the clearest illustration of how war is directly causing famine. The Arab world’s poorest country, Yemen has suffered from food shortages for years, but a war between the Saudi-backed government in exile and the Iranian-backed Houthi rebels who control much of the north of the country has brought food shipments into Yemen to a grinding halt. With US assistance, Saudi warplanes have destroyed bridges, roads, factories, farms, food trucks, animals, water infrastructure, and agricultural banks across the north, while imposing a blockade on the territory. For a country heavily dependent on foreign food aid, that means starving the people. Coastal communities on the Red Sea are particularly hard hit, with fishermen unable to go out in their boats due to the risk of being bombed from above. In remote mountainous villages inland, whatever food makes it in is so expensive that many people cannot afford to buy it. The lifeline for aid getting into Yemen is Hudaydah port on the Red Sea, which is controlled by the Houthi rebels. Saudi Arabia bombed it in August 2015. In early May, the head of a leading European aid agency described being “shocked to the bone” after a visit to Yemen. “This is a gigantic failure of international diplomacy,” Jan Egeland, the secretary general of the Norwegian Refugee Council, said in a statement. “Men with guns and power inside Yemen as well as in regional and international capitals are undermining every effort to avert an entirely preventable famine, as well as the collapse of health and education services for millions of children. Nowhere on earth are as many lives at risk.” Except, perhaps, for South Sudan. The world’s youngest country is being ripped apart by war and starvation South Sudan was born into aching poverty. After decades of civil war and neglect, the country finally gained its independence from the North in 2011, in large part due to the active assistance of the Obama administration and many of Washington’s key allies. Early on, hopes that the fledgling country might finally begin to emerge from the depths of deprivation ran high. Then–US Ambassador to the UN Susan Rice delivered a speech in Juba at the ceremony marking the formation of the state. “The Republic of South Sudan is being born amid great hopes — the hope that you will guarantee the rights of all citizens, shelter the vulnerable, and bring prosperity to all corners of your land,” she told the hundreds of thousands in attendance. But that optimism may have been misplaced. There are just 200 kilometers of paved roads in a country the size of France, making it difficult for farmers to sell their crops and buy new seeds. Food shortages have haunted rural communities for some time, and cattle raiding — where armed men steal entire herds from nearby villages and towns — is a regular occurrence. Even if a South Sudanese family owned cattle and had planted crops, all of that would soon disappear when war came to their doorstep. Plants would die because farmers fled and never returned. Animals would be stolen or left to starve or die from dehydration. Food shortages and acute hunger may have been almost inevitable for a country that had had trouble feeding itself even in the relative moments of calm before the current storm. That storm erupted in 2013, when the country’s president, Salva Kiir, and his vice president, Riek Machar, went to war. Kiir accused Machar of a coup attempt, which Machar denied. In reality, the split was caused by a toxic mixture of decades of deep resentment over tribal differences heightened during the previous civil war, and a fear that the country’s oil resources would not be fairly divided. Kiir, who is from the dominant Dinka tribe, controlled the country’s armed forces. Machar, from the minority Nuer group, controlled a loose network of tribal militias. Both sides have been accused of war crimes, and more than 50,000 are estimated to have died in the fighting. In recent months, government troops have been conducting “counterinsurgency” efforts in areas where the people are Nuer or from other tribes considered supportive of the rebels. The government says it’s a necessary part of any effort to contain militants and end the fighting; most of the world sees it as the collective punishment of civilians. “Without civilians, those fighters won’t have a place to stay, receive food, receive popular support,” Jonathan Pedneault of Human Rights Watch told me. “So the aim by targeting civilians is meant to cut the grass under the feet of those fighters.” That includes chasing people away from the very thing their lives depend on — food. Rebecca Chol and her classmate Marco Nuer saw that punishment up close. Their families lived in one of the areas most heavily targeted by the current military campaign. When the fighting got closer to their hometowns, both fled, with little food or water and no way of finding more. Like many of their friends and relatives, Chol and Nuer escaped into the enormous marshes that flank the White Nile river, which provide places to hide from troops who are unable to access the area by truck or car. But that safety can come at a huge cost: There is nothing to eat there, so people who survive attacks by gunmen end up perishing slowly from hunger. The village of Thoahnom Payam, where we met Chol and Nuer, is only accessible by traditional dugout canoes, which glide silently between the tall reeds as small, colorful birds fly overhead. It’s a remarkably beautiful landscape, with only a few clues of the chaos in the air. The occasional group of rebel fighters float by, crouched into floating hollow logs, their long legs around their ears, AK-47s in hand. Water lily roots are the only thing people in the marshes have to eat. The town Chol and her surviving relatives now call home lacks enough food to feed all the refugees. Instead, she and her family are still trying to survive based on what they can scavenge in the marshes. On a searing hot day in mid-April, Chol’s mother, Tipasa, took me down to a nearby swamp to forage for something for dinner. Bent over with her arms and legs deep in the muddy waters, she pulled up lilies like weeds and ripped off their small, stumpy roots. She collected the lily roots in a plastic container so they could be soaked before being eaten. They were bumpy black nubs, the size of daffodil bulbs. They looked inedible. Chol’s family may soon get better stuff to eat. It’s relatively peaceful in the town, and Western aid agencies are operating in the nearby village of Ganyiel. At the center of the rebel-held town is a market place where stalls sell tea and some dried fish from the local rivers. A dirt landing strip nearby receives UN helicopters. Here, international aid agencies have some of their most crucial, and remote, outposts. It seems like only a matter of time until food shipments start arriving in Thoahnom Payam, just 30 minutes away by canoe. Back in Leer, where Marco Nuer came from, things are much worse. The town, occupied by government troops, is destroyed and abandoned. The only building intact is a green steel church, empty of any furniture, with the door hanging off. The main street of shops and stalls has been razed to the ground, with sheets of steel scattered about in the grass and rusting vehicles lining the side of the main dirt road. A few miles down that road is rebel-held land. It is a parched, open space with some trees and shrubs scattered around. The heat from the midday sun is unbearable. A few hundred people — originally residents of Leer and the surrounding villages — had crept out of hiding as news spread of a food drop by an aid plane. All of these people had left family members in the marshes, waiting anxiously for them to bring back the food. These thin, tired people were the strongest and most capable of making the journey. They waited with remarkable patience, sitting silently under trees as bags of maize, recently dropped from a plane circling above, were piled up by volunteers wearing International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) bibs. “Life in the swamps is terrible, because when the soldiers come you have to go to the river and hide in the water,” said Mary Nayiel. She was waiting under a tree for some help. “You sit, in the water like this for up to 12 hours,” she told me, crouching down on the ground. She had six children starving in the marshes, waiting for her to return with food. Nayiel and the other women sitting with her were waiting to be given seeds and tools to plant them with. The ICRC handed out hoes and axes as well as maize seeds to grow some crops in rebel-held land outside the swamps. If they planted before the rains came, then they could harvest in August. Many of the people sitting near me will die long before the crops are ready to eat. Scott Doucet of the ICRC was overseeing the handouts nearby. Before the war, he said, the region was capable of feeding itself. “There were a lot of cattle and livestock in this area,” he told me, standing next to a crowd of people sitting in line on the ground. “They were farmers, there was commerce, there was a market here where I am standing right now. All of this is gone now.” The charred remains of shops and stalls were still clear under our feet. A few ashy stumps showed where some of the sturdier shop buildings had been. A few hundred yards away, several huge cattle horns lay on the parched soil. The idea of having meat to eat here seemed farcical now. Government soldiers had burned down the small market when they had taken the area earlier in the conflict. Now villagers who once bought and sold food here are being kept alive with charitable handouts. The town wasn’t always starving. It got that way because of war. For those fleeing war, hunger can seem like an affordable price to pay for safety It would take truly horrific violence for South Sudanese parents to flee into the marshes given the very real — and in some ways likely — chances of watching their children starve to death there. But that kind of horrific violence, unfortunately, is part of daily life in many parts of the country. Ruot Machar was standing with a group of older men in the area where ICRC was handing out aid, some leaning on their spears — a reminder of the feeble defense civilians in this country have against well-armed government or rebel troops. Most of them had the deep horizontal scars of the Nuer tribe markings across their foreheads. “War and hunger are the two dangers in our lives now because they are killing children in the war and the hunger is killing us also,” he said. “Both of these things are so dangerous for us.” “I don’t know why the government is doing this,” he added. “We are their people.” With no real international efforts underway to wind down the war, the most fortunate of South Sudan’s starving people are the ones who have reached camps run by the United Nations, where Western aid agencies are providing food, shelter, and medical facilities. The organizations are keeping hundreds of thousands of people alive; the problem is that millions more live in remote areas of this vast country that the aid groups simply can’t get to. The aid workers themselves are also increasingly at risk. South Sudan is heavily dependent on foreign aid, but it has quickly become the most dangerous place in the world for humanitarian workers. More than 80 aid workers — mostly South Sudanese — have been killed since the conflict began. Female foreign aid workers were gang-raped by rampaging government soldiers who stormed a hotel in Juba during last July’s violence in the capital. While I was in the country in April, three South Sudanese employees of the UN’s World Food Program were violently murdered in the western city of Wau. The WFP said they were trying to get to the warehouse during an outbreak of violence but were killed along the way. Two died of machete wounds, and another was shot. “Looting is a huge problem,” said the country director of one Western charity. “Every time we have to pull out of an area, entire stocks of food and supplies are taken.” Charities have been forced by the government to leave areas where their help is needed. In Leer, access has been granted again by the government, but it’s patchy. There used to be compounds and warehouses for some aid agencies there, but they were all burned down during the fighting. International aid agencies in South Sudan are in a tough position. Caught between an increasingly belligerent and threatening government and the more than 5 million people on the brink of starvation, they are trying to keep people alive without openly condemning the government for their part in starving them in the first place. If they do, they risk being kicked out of the country. At least one agency, while helping journalists get crucial access to cover the famine, was forced to gently request we keep their name out of our reports if we do focus very tightly on the war, and not simply the hunger. They know both are connected, but run the risk of being accused by the government of bringing reporters to places where they can do what Kiir’s regime considers to be “negative” stories about it. On February 20, just days after the UN officially declared that South Sudan was in the midst of a famine, the government in Juba shocked the world by announcing a hike in visa prices for aid workers — from $100 to $10,000. That hasn’t been implemented, but it’s a stark reminder to aid agencies that their relationship with the government is increasingly shaky. South Sudan is trying to cover up the scope of the disaster. It won’t work. Journalists are also struggling to gain access to the country as the government hopes to control the image of the hunger crisis and steer the rhetoric away from it being war-driven. Once inside, intimidation is rife. In nearly 10 years of reporting from conflict zones, I have never worked in an environment where government intimidation is so strong. My cameraman was arrested and detained at a police station for filming a long gas line, and I was detained with him on another occasion while filming some cows. Plainclothes police are on every street corner in Juba, and race towards foreign reporters as soon as they spot them, refusing to recognize the government-issued accreditation they have been issued. The government shut Al Jazeera English’s bureau in Juba on May 2 after objecting to a story where a reporter interviewed Machar’s rebels, and an American NPR reporter was detained for several days after being arrested at his hotel in the capital by security forces. For South Sudanese journalists, it’s even worse: They’ve faced a violent campaign against them since the beginning of the war. In August 2015, President Kiir said publicly, “The freedom of press does not mean that you work against your country. And if anybody among them does not know this country has killed people, we will demonstrate it one day on them.” Three days later, a reporter working for the independent New Nation paper was shot dead in the street. The government of South Sudan will not realistically be able to stop the news of its famine, nor the fact that it was entirely man-made, from being reported. But we’re rapidly approaching the point of no return: Without an immediate and sustained effort to end the violence ravaging South Sudan and the other three nations, the world will for the first time in living memory be faced with four simultaneous famines. The worst humanitarian disaster since World War II will have been one that was caused by, and therefore could have been prevented by, humans. Jane Ferguson is a special correspondent for PBS NewsHour. She has lived in the Middle East for nine years and is currently based in Beirut, Lebanon. Her reporting on this story was done in partnership with the Pulitzer Center for Crisis Reporting. She took these photos in South Sudan in April, 2017. Editors: Yochi Dreazen, Jennifer Williams Graphics: Javier Zarracina Copy editor: Tanya Pai Video: Sam Ellis Project manager and producer: Susannah LockeDid you know that most gel polish only has a recommended shelf life of 12-36 months after it’s first opened? Yikes! I don’t know about you, but I’ve invested a LOT of money in my gel polish collection and I’ll do everything I can to make them last as long as possible. First, do you know how to determine what the shelf life of your polish is? Most companies print it right on the label. Look for a little symbol of an open container… it will say something like 12m, 24m or 36m inside of the container. That’s the manufacturer’s recommendation regarding how long the product should be used once it’s been opened. I took a peek through my gel polish stash and found varying info on the bottles. Here’s a sampling of what I found: LeChat, Pink Gellac – 12 months Gelish, Gelish MINI, RCM – 18 months ibd, Gelaze, ProGel – 24 months Kiara Sky, INK, Couture – 36 months and some are non-existent or so small they’re impossible to read! I try not to worry too much about the shelf life though. I’ve had many of the polishes in my collection for several years and they’re still usable because I care for them properly. Here are some helpful tips on how to care for your gel polishes to help extend their usable life. PROPER STORAGE Gel polish bottles should be stored away from exposure to natural sunlight. Don’t leave them sitting out in front of a window or in a bright room that gets a lot of light. Ideally they should be stored somewhere dark like in a closet, box or drawer. I personally like to see my polishes so I have them prominently displayed on shelves, but they’re in a room on the back of my house that gets very little light. I usually have the blinds drawn in that room as well and the wall that my polishes are on never gets direct sunlight. UV light is what causes gel polishes to cure/harden. Most gel polish bottles are opaque, but some may allow small amounts of light in which will ruin your polish over time. Gelish, for example, has the tiny little window that allows you to see the color (horrible design if you ask me). And some bottles are heavily tinted, but don’t block 100% of the light. You should also avoid storing your polishes in locations that are exposed to extreme temperatures, hot or cold. An even, mild temperature is best. I’ve heard some people say they store their polish in the refrigerator. I can’t personally vouch for that though… if I put my polish in the fridge, there wouldn’t be any room for food. :) Also be sure to close your bottles properly after using them. Clean any excess polish off of the neck of the bottle with a lint-free wipe or cloth and some alcohol to ensure a tight seal. SHAKING / MIXING When polishes sit for a long period of time the ingredients can start to separate. It’s a good idea to shake them up once in a while. I used to hand-shake my bottles, but I’ve been spoiled since buying my Robart Shaker. I always give my polishes a good shake before using them, and sometimes I just randomly shake polishes that I know have been sitting for too long. Shaking helps improve the
24, who’s confined to a wheelchair with cerebral palsy. He’s been at Chimes for two and a half years, and had worked for a while at TJ Maxx, but took a liking to the part of the job with Cyberspa that involved working with computers. The idea of learning more about technology, Ragins says, made him finally abandon his dream of going to Hollywood to become an actor. “Right off the bat, I really got attracted,” he says. Lampner — who made $453,000 in total compensation in 2013 — says his goal is for the businesses to employ fully-abled people as well, to provide something more like an integrated experience. Down the road, he figures Cyberspa might get big enough to move into its own facility and take the disabled workers along. Meanwhile, the revenue from Cyberspa’s operations could finance improvements to the building, like a mezzanine level to put more workshop space. “It’s a not-for-profit. It’s not a non-profit,” Lampner says, explaining his attitude towards earning money. *Correction: A previous version of this article said that Goodwill Industries is a member of ACCSES. It is not.Hillary Clinton. (Photo: Scott Olson / Getty Images) Democratic presidential front-runner Hillary Clinton took over a Detroit manufacturing plant Friday to lay out a “new bargain” plan to create higher-paying jobs. In a wide-ranging economic policy speech, the former Secretary of State drew loud applause from a crowd filled with union members at Detroit Manufacturing Systems. Her plan included calls for strengthening organized labor and raising the minimum wage. “Companies have to start treating workers like assets to be invested in, not costs to be cut,” she told the crowd of several hundred. On hand were Detroit Mayor Mike Duggan, U.S. Sen. Debbie Stabenow, Democratic U.S. Reps. John Conyers of Detroit and Debbie Dingell of Dearborn. Among Clinton’s proposals is a “clawback” to rescind tax relief and other incentives such as the research and development tax credit if a company moves jobs overseas after receiving the tax incentive. The government would be able to take back tax relief for several prior years, according to the Clinton proposal. The clawed-back money would be used to encourage more “economic patriotism,” according to the campaign — investment in U.S. communities that have lost jobs. She also renewed her call for a $12-an-hour minimum wage — up from the current $7.25 federal hourly minimum wage — “and fighting for even higher minimum wages in places where that makes sense.” One unavoidable subject was Thursday’s raucous GOP presidential debate in Detroit, which drew an unsparing review from Clinton. “Last night, Detroit played a different role, didn’t it? — hosting a Republican presidential, I don’t know what to call it, I guess a debate,” she said. “There were so many insults flying back and forth, it was hard to keep track. “But the biggest insult of all was to the American people.” Clinton faulted the four GOP hopefuls for failing to make the economy anything more than an afterthought during the debate and proceeded to weigh in further on her plans that include: ■Creating an exit tax for companies that benefit from U.S. tax breaks and then go through inversion — relocating their headquarters overseas for tax purposes. ■Issuing new tariffs to combat currency manipulation by other countries, particularly China. The former U.S. senator from New York often referred to Flint’s lead-contaminated water crisis. In speaking about how the attack on organized labor has hurt families, she added: “For some parents, it’s even worse — they have to worry about whether they water their kids drank is poisonous...” Later, she returned to Flint when discussing her proposal for $275 billion to bolster American’s failing infrastructure. “We’ll also rebuild our crumbling water systems in Flint and around the country,” Clinton said. Rival Bernie Sanders is campaigning Friday in Traverse City and the Grand Rapids area. The U.S. senator from Vermont is seeking to contrast himself with Clinton in Michigan by noting their “very different views” on trade policies. He opposed the North American Free Trade Agreement that Clinton’s husband signed into law. “If the people of Michigan want to make a decision about which candidate stood with workers against corporate America and against these disastrous trade agreements, that candidate is Bernie Sanders,” he told an audience in Traverse City, according to his campaign. Sanders also has campaigned in Flint and called on Gov. Rick Snyder to resign over the lead-contaminated water and out break of 87 cases of Legionnaires’ disease there, resulting in nine deaths. Prior to her speech, Clinton toured the facility and took the opportunity to work with several company employees. Among them was Deanne Austin, a two-year-worker at DMS who was thrilled by the encounter. “First of all, it’s an honor to be able to meet her,” she said. “She’s on the verge of becoming the first female president of the United States. That, in and of itself, is a mind-boggling thing.” Aside from the celebrity aspect, Austin said the substance of Clinton’s speech also hit home. “I was really pleased with a lot of the things she had to say today,” she said. jlynch@detroitnews.com (313) 222-2034 Read or Share this story: http://detne.ws/1p50pCzIt has been 60 years, US Secretary of State John Kerry recalled, since he sat in the train to Berlin as a young boy in the early 1950s. He had to cross the inter-German border to arrive in the divided city. "I can remember guns rapping on the windows of my train when I dared to lift the blinds and try to look out and see what was on the other side." In Berlin, where his father worked at the time, he rode his bike through the streets of the still-devastated city. Occasionally he encountered signs that proclaimed that a building had been rebuilt with funds from the Marshall Plan. Referring to his colleague sitting next to him, Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel, he said, "Chuck and I feel this Atlantic relationship very much in our bones. Both of our families emigrated to the United States from Europe, and both of our fathers signed up to fight tyranny and totalitarianism in World War II. And we both watched the Berlin Wall go up as we grew up, and we grew up as Cold War kids." Transatlantic renaissance Kerry's and Hagel's speeches at the beginning of the second day of the Munich Security Conference were a sort of counterpoint to the poisoned atmosphere in the wake of the NSA affair that had burdened EU-US relations in recent months. They emphasized how strong the underlying foundation of the relationship still is. The two politicians' sophistication was supposed to present an image of an America beyond the digital superpower that apparently didn't find anything wrong with spying on the heads of state of its closest allies. John Kerry said a transatlantic renaissance was necessary "What we need in 2014 is a transatlantic renaissance," Kerry said. "It's very clear to President Obama that our future requires a renewed and enhanced era of partnership with our friends and allies, especially here in Europe." Indeed, the foreign policy issues that he went on to talk about were much the same as the ones German President Joachim Gauck and Defense Minister Ursula van der Leyen had addressed the day before: the fight against poverty; the struggle to create a viable future in Africa, the Middle East and parts of eastern Europe; and integration as probably the most effective means to combat terrorism. The overarching message was that despite all the current problems and the many differences, Germany, Europe and the US still formed a foreign policy community of values. In their cooperation, the United States and Europe continue to be leaders, Kerry said. However, he added, "Everything I see in the world today tells me that this is a moment where it's going to take more than words to fulfill this commitment." Germany's new foreign policy Whether this applies to the current German foreign policy is questionable. Shortly before Kerry spoke, German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier had outlined the main features of the future German foreign policy. Germany must be prepared to make more substantial, decisive and early contributions to foreign and security policy, Steinmeier said. "Germany intends to and will provide a catalyst for a common European foreign, security and defense policy," he said, outlining the position of the German government. "Only if we put our weight together, to the south and the east, can Europe's foreign policy be more than the sum of many small parts." Steinmeier spoke of Germany's special role constrained by its past, but he also said the past could not always loom over its foreign policy: "A culture of restraint must not become a culture of fence-sitting." Germany was "too large to comment on world politics only from the sidelines." Limits to influence Lavrov and Kerry agreed on the destruction of Syria's chemical weapons, but little else But the German-American or European-American policy will often run up against its limitations. This was the unmistakable message of Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov. He seemed relaxed when he arrived on Friday, dressed casually in jeans and a windbreaker, but now Lavrov sternly explained the Russian point of view. For example, on Syria. Russia is in almost daily contact with the government as well as the opposition, he said. "Russia can do nothing alone," he pleaded - without mentioning his country's role as one of the biggest arms suppliers to the Assad regime. "It is a very difficult situation and to try to convince the [Syrian] government, which is waging a war, to make some gestures - this is a very difficult task," Lavrov said. Conversely, he called on anyone with influence on the opposition to persuade them to return to the Syria peace conference. The phrase "multipolar order" could be heard time and again at the Munich Security Conference. And the discussions about Syria, Ukraine and, under different circumstances, the relations of the West to Iran, showed how much this new order between transatlantic partners has its limits. There is less and less latitude to circumvent regional powers - especially in times in which the West is going through a deep financial crisis. The current economic situation loomed over almost all Munich discussions. And while participants agreed about the desirability of western values, how to implement them is likely to be a question that will occupy participants in many more conferences to come.Last month we released Shiny, our new R package for creating interactive web applications. The response from the community has been extremely encouraging–we’ve received a lot of great feedback that has helped us to make significant improvements to the framework already! Shiny 0.2.3 on CRAN Starting with Shiny 0.2.3, you can install the latest stable version of Shiny directly from CRAN. Since the initial release, we’ve added some interesting features to Shiny, most notably the ability to offer on-the-fly file downloads. We’ve also fixed some bugs, including an issue with runGist that caused it to fail on many Windows systems. Install or upgrade now by running: install.packages('shiny') Coming soon: Shiny Server While Shiny works great today for running apps on your own machine, we indicated in our original blog post that for web-based deployment we’d be offering hosting services and a software package for deploying Shiny applications on a server. Today we have more details to share about Shiny Server, the software package which will allow you to deploy Shiny applications on your own server: Free and open source (AGPLv3 license) Host multiple applications on the same port, with a different URL path per application Allows Shiny applications to work with Internet Explorer 8 and 9 Automatically starts and stops R sessions as needed Detects and recovers from crashed R sessions Designed to serve applications directly to browsers, or be proxied behind another web server like Apache/Nginx Works across network gateways and proxies that don’t support websockets Our goal is to begin beta testing by the end of January. Shiny Server will require Linux at launch, though we will likely add Windows and Mac support later. While we previously said that Shiny Server would be commercial software, we’ve decided to make it free and open source instead. Later in 2013 we hope to introduce a paid edition of Shiny Server that will include additional features that are targeted at larger organizations. That’s all we have on the Shiny front for now. If you have questions, leave us a comment, or drop by our active and growing community at shiny-discuss!Wiz Khalifa was arrested today at LAX airport over a hoverboard. It took six cops to detain him because he was "resisting." However, the video above says otherwise. He was on his way back to the States after doing shows in France and Finland. He tweeted this out before boarding the plane: France was amazing. We fucking killed Finland. Now I'm high and hungover on a plane back to L.a lookin for something to eat. — Cameron (@wizkhalifa) August 22, 2015 Wiz Khalifa arrested for riding hover board in LA airport. pic.twitter.com/cNJhHwpG9x — WORLDSTARHIPHOP (@WORLDSTAR) August 23, 2015 The Pittsburgh rapper took to Twitter to share his displeasure. You can see the tweets below, including a video of the conversation that ended with him being brought to the ground and cuffed: All because I didn't want to ditch the technogy everyone will be using in the next 6 months. Do what you want kids. pic.twitter.com/7F0KIQgFrA — Cameron (@wizkhalifa) August 23, 2015 Haven't been slammed and cuffed in a while. That was fun. — Cameron (@wizkhalifa) August 22, 2015 They love sayin stop resisting. pic.twitter.com/v2tdOOikMy — Cameron (@wizkhalifa) August 22, 2015 I stand for our generation and our generation is gonna be riding hover boards so if you don't like it eat a dick! — Cameron (@wizkhalifa) August 23, 2015 I got some awesome weed and a bad one to roll it for me so it's all good. — Cameron (@wizkhalifa) August 23, 2015 Wiz's alien technology had Jake shook. We'll have more info as the story develops. Wiz's alien technology had Jake shook. We'll have more info as the story develops.Hundreds of refugee families across Canada are marking a heart-breaking anniversary Saturday of the coup attempt in Turkey that some say has left their family members trapped there or stranded overseas in precarious circumstances. One young mother who fled Turkey for Edmonton a year ago recalled the last moments with her husband, and her chilling prediction. "I said 'Maybe I cannot come again to my country,' " the woman told CBC News, fighting back tears. "And it happened — we didn't come back to Turkey." Maybe I cannot come again to my country. - Edmonton mother who fled Turkey The woman left Istanbul and arrived in Edmonton in the spring, via the U.S.A The travel ban imposed by Turkish authorities prevented her husband, who had been in and out of detention, from joining them. He escaped to Greece shortly afterward. CBC News is not revealing their identities or certain details due to their fear of reprisals. On July 15, 2016, a deadly military coup attempt rocked Turkey, triggering a state of emergency and an ongoing government crackdown. Prisons and courts remain swamped after about 50,000 Turks were arrested and many more detained. Those jailed include about 150 journalists, a dozen mostly pro-Kurdish lawmakers and a main opposition party politician, eight prominent human rights defenders and five Turkish-Canadians. About half of those cases are now being addressed in the courts, Selcuk Unal, Turkey's ambassador to Canada, told CBC News earlier this week. More than 2,000 soldiers have been found not guilty, while others have been jailed for life, he said. 34,000 employees reinstated Unal said 34,000 employees have been reinstated out of the 100,000 or so suspended or fired from the military, private sector and civil service, including many judges and lawyers. "It has been understood that they were wrongfully suspected," he said. "Of course, it will be the courts who will decide who was a member, who has taken part and who is not guilty," said Unal. "And the figures that I give actually is, I think, an ample proof that this investigation processes have been ongoing with meticulous and utmost care." Supporters of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, including those who took to the streets and thwarted the coup, insist the government's response is necessary to prevent another onslaught. But in the fallout, advocates say violations of human rights and legal rights are widespread, while those fleeing face other consequences. More than 30 refugee families in Edmonton have been torn apart, with one parent either trapped in Turkey or stranded overseas in precarious circumstances. My daughter — she misses her dad very much and she's growing up without her father. - Edmonton mother who fled Turkey "My daughter — she misses her dad very much and she's growing up without her father," said the Edmonton woman who spoke with CBC News, her voice strained with emotion. "And also my husband is struggling in Greece. He's not safe in Greece." Human rights advocates have expressed concern that countries such as Greece and Malaysia are extraditing alleged dissidents back to Turkey, where their lives are at risk. Edmonton supporters are appealing to federal Immigration Minister Ahmed Hussen to expedite residency applications that would allow refugees here to send for their loved ones. The urgency of those calls were underscored this week when an Edmonton man returned to the region he fled to rescue his wife and small children. Hussen's office did not respond to request for comment. Citizenship and Immigration Canada said the Edmonton man, whose identity CBC News is protecting, has not made a formal request to expedite his application, but supporters say the necessary documents were sent. Allies become enemies The refugees interviewed in Edmonton belong to the Gulen movement, known as Hizmet, which means "service" in Turkish. Turkish authorities blame the group for last year's plot to overthrow the government, branding it a terrorist organization. Unal told CBC News members have "infiltrated and nested" in all public institutions as well as key sectors such as banking, health and media. The leader of the movement, U.S.-based Muslim cleric Fethullah Gulen, a former ally of Erdogan's, has denied involvement in the failed coup. Some suggest the attack was staged to justify the government's consolidation of power and its purge of critics that has gone far beyond Gulen members to target Kurds, leftists and liberals. Gulenists, who have established networks of schools, businesses and relief organizations in Turkey and worldwide, say their movement champions education, religious tolerance and western partnerships. But critics say in their previous alliance with the ruling AK party, Gulenists, who occupied influential positions in the police, judiciary and government, operated in secret and abused their power to mute detractors. Torture allegations denied In the aftermath of July's attempted coup, both Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International said they found evidence of torture and ill treatment of detainees and widespread human rights violations. An October report by Human Rights Watch documented allegations of detainees subjected to stress positions, sleep deprivation, severe beatings, sexual abuse and threat of rape. The watchdog said emergency decrees by the Turkish government had removed safeguards against torture, effectively writing "a blank cheque to law enforcement agencies to torture and mistreat detainees as they like." But the ambassador insisted "there has been no mistreatment of any suspects from these files." "If and when there is a concrete allegation regarding the mistreatment of any coup plotter … we always take them very seriously, and with the concrete information we investigate them in co-operation with other authorities," said Unal. Asylum claims quadruple In Canada, asylum claims from Turkey more than quadrupled in 2016 compared to a year earlier, to 1,303. And numbers from the Immigration and Refugee Board show claims continue to climb, with 590 in the first quarter of 2017. Many say Canada is their last hope. To those fleeing persecution, terror & war, Canadians will welcome you, regardless of your faith. Diversity is our strength <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/WelcomeToCanada?src=hash">#WelcomeToCanada</a> —@JustinTrudeau One recent arrival said it was a tweet from Prime Minister Justin Trudeau that strengthened his resolve to leave his wife and children behind to secure their new home in Canada. "I left them because I wanted to save them," said the man, a teacher who was living abroad at the time of the coup attempt. The home government shut down the Gulen schools he ran, while the Turkish government froze bank accounts and blocked passport renewals, preventing staff from renewing visas to remain abroad. Returning to Turkey wasn't an option due to the risk of being jailed, he said. He and his family took refuge in a third country, but only he had a visa that allowed him to make the journey to the U.S. and then on to Canada to claim asylum. "I'm always worried about them," he said. Minnak, rescued from the streets as a kitten, has become a symbol of a Turkish father's promise to bring his children to safety. (Supplied) He rattles off all the fears that haunt him: his family members don't speak the language; they're not employed; they don't have health insurance; the kids can't go to school; and the country is not secure. But the strain on the man's face lifts briefly as he shares cellphone photos of an eight-month-old black-and-white cat nestled in the arms of his children. He smiles as he explains his daughter rescued the animal as a tiny kitten, hairless and orphaned, from the streets. They named him Minnak, which means "tiny and cute," and together the family took turns nursing him with a syringe and keeping him warm. And when they fled, Minnak went with them. That's something the man reminded his tearful daughter as he left for Canada, promising the entire family would be together again soon. "I didn't even leave a kitten behind, so I wouldn't leave you behind either — don't worry," he reassured her. "I promise I will get you to a safe place." andrea.huncar@cbc.ca @andreahuncarThe host of one of the most popular YouTube channels for Autonomous Sensory Meridian Response demonstrates some of her techniques. (Maria/GentleWhispering) The host of one of the most popular YouTube channels for Autonomous Sensory Meridian Response demonstrates some of her techniques. (Maria/GentleWhispering) The pretty blond woman is plucking at the bristles of a hairbrush with gold-manicured fingertips, tapping her nails softly against the wooden handle as she holds it close to a microphone. Bathed in soft lighting, she smiles knowingly into the video camera, as if sharing a secret. “The tapping sounds remind me of the sound of the rain,” she breathes in a subtly accented whisper. This is Maria, a 28-year-old Russian expat in suburban Maryland, starring in a YouTube video that has been viewed more than 7 million times. Hundreds of thousands of Maria’s devotees return again and again to listen to her hushed whispers as she assumes simulated roles — librarian, hairstylist, masseuse — and performs simple motions: folding towels, blowing smoke from an incense burner, flipping through the pages of a magazine. It might sound like a bafflingly bizarre way to spend time on the Internet. But for Maria’s viewers, her voice and movements hold a certain magic: They can instill tranquillity, overcome insomnia — and induce a mysterious physical sensation known as autonomous sensory meridian response, or ASMR, wherein the body is flooded with waves of euphoric tingles. “It’s like showers of sparkles,” says Maria, speaking as herself. “It’s like warm sand being poured all over you, trickling over your head and down into your shoulders. It’s like goosebumps on your brain.” Maria, a.k.a. the Gentle Whisperer, produces YouTube videos that induce autonomous sensory meridian response (ASMR), a tingling sensation, in some viewers. (Andre Chung/for The Washington Post) ASMR is described as a pleasurable tingling that begins in the head and scalp, shimmies down the spine and relaxes the entire body. Maria — she asked that her last name be withheld for safety reasons; her videos have sometimes attracted unwanted attention — experiences ASMR, and her YouTube channel, GentleWhispering, melds her personal tingle-triggers with others suggested by her fans. The resulting videos have drawn more than 87 million views, making Maria the premier celebrity of a controversial but increasingly recognized phenomenon. But she’s not after exposure or money, she says. Videos by other “ASMRtists” once helped her through a period of depression, and now she wants to pay it forward. From her experience, Maria feels sure that there’s more to ASMR than just the stimulating images and sounds. Maybe watching a woman folding clothes reminds you of your mother. Maybe the undivided attention of a masseuse or a stylist makes you feel cared for. Maybe, amid the din of daily life, there is solace in simple sounds. “Little taps and crinkles, or the way certain thicker pages create the most amazing sound when they turn — many times we miss that,” Maria says. “There are these beautiful little things that we don’t pay attention to.” That’s one way to explain why someone would watch a 20-minute video with no real plot, no denouement, no emotional complexity. On their face, the videos are stiflingly boring. But millions are riveted. Something is happening here. A calming whisper When she first felt it, she had no idea what it was. In kindergarten in central Russia, Maria and her friends would sometimes tickle each other gently, running their fingers over the skin of their forearms. For Maria, the experience was transcendent, sending a cascade of goosebumps over her head and down her back: “I would be left in a zombie-like state,” she says. “I would just be so relaxed.” She soon discovered other triggers. A teacher who whispered instructions while turning the pages of a textbook left her mesmerized. So did the crinkle of paper, a hairbrush against her scalp, soft tapping, murmured sibilance. In 2009, three years after moving to the United States, Maria struggled with depression as she and her husband went through a divorce. While searching for relaxation videos to help her sleep one night, she clicked a suggested link, titled simply “whisper.” “And as soon as I heard the lady’s voice, I just got showered with tingles,” Maria says. “It was so great.” She saw that dozens of other viewers had left comments describing a similar reaction. That’s when she realized she wasn’t alone. The discovery was life-changing, she says. Whenever she felt stressed by her administrative job at a medical company, she watched a “whisper” video to calm down. And when she spoke in gentle tones, she realized that she could provide the same feeling for others. She noticed that some of her employer’s clients often asked her to show them product catalogues, although they rarely bought anything. “They would just keep asking me questions and I would keep flipping pages, and they would just zone out and stare at me,” she says with a shy laugh. She made her first ASMR video in February 2011, filming herself as she leafed through a journal and played with seashells. The video logged just two views in a month, and Maria was so disappointed that she deleted it. A few months later, she tried again; this time, there were a few encouraging comments. She kept at it, and by the end of the year, she had 30,000 subscribers. Nearly three years later, she has more than 300,000. She has invested in her craft, upgrading to top-notch binaural microphones that carry every exhale into a listener’s ears as if Maria is standing beside them. Her videos, like most ASMR recordings, are undeniably intimate. But the intended response — although often described as “brain orgasms” — is not sexual, ASMR enthusiasts insist. (Unsurprisingly, a few of the creepier online comments insist otherwise.) Maria is hardly the only ASMRtist with an impressive fan base. Her YouTube page offers a lengthy list of other recommended video-bloggers, known as vloggers, whom she considers friends rather than competitors. Variety, she says, is necessary to maintain one’s sensitivity to ASMR. “The more people who create the content, the less immunity there will be for everyone,” she says. “We want you to try other videos so you can come back to us. So it’s more of a partnership between all of us.” But it’s still a business, particularly for ASMRtists who hold to a strict programming schedule, solicit PayPal donations or offer one-on-one Skype sessions for a fee. Maria declined to specify her income but says that she holds a part-time administrative job and doesn’t earn enough from online ads to make a living off her videos alone — mainly because she doesn’t want her vlogging to become an obligatory burden. She’ll post a new video once per week or once per month, depending on how busy she is. “I’ve realized that I just cannot do it as a job; I almost start to resent it,” she says. “If this is the only thing I have to do, it’s going to be very hard to do it on the genuine level I want.” Off-camera, Maria’s voice is a little louder, her presence a little bubblier, her demeanor just as kind. Her boyfriend, Darryl, whom she met through the ASMR community, says that this is what drew him to Maria and what attracts her other friends and fans. “There’s a caring and a love that comes through,” he says. “That’s really how she is.” Maria blushes. “Maybe it’s just that I’m looking for companionship,” she says. “Most of the time, when I look at the camera, I try to think that this is my friend... my family.” An array of triggers ASMR videos are kind of like those Magic Eye 3-D images: If you experience the intended effect, the sense of depth can be dazzling. If you don’t, it’s like staring at an uninspired Jackson Pollock knockoff. So the ASMR community has understandably drawn plenty of side-eye from those for whom a hairbrush is just a hairbrush. But the phenomenon has nonetheless burst into the mainstream, thanks to mounting media coverage and a few high-profile references: “Saturday Night Live” alum Molly Shannon gushed to Conan O’Brien about her “head orgasms,” induced by the methodical touch of airport security pat-downs; novelist Andrea Seigel shared her experience with ASMR on the radio program “This American Life” last year; the “Dr. Oz” show has featured ASMR videos as a way to ease insomnia. This year, electronic dance music DJ Deadmau5 released a track titled “Terrors in My Head” that samples Maria’s recordings: “Good morning to you,” drones an eerily soothing, computerized version of Maria’s voice, as if waking interstellar travelers from cryogenic sleep. Meanwhile, tens of thousands of commenters continue to inundate blogs, YouTube videos, Facebook and Reddit forums with their ASMR experiences: This has been happening since I was a kid and I’ve always been drawn to certain sounds in movies because it always caused that strange tickling feeling in the back of my head. When someone is drawing a picture, it REALLY triggers it, especially if they are drawing it for me. I used to get these in primary school when people used to play with my shoes. Okay, science may never explain the shoe thing. But scroll through these lists, and the array of triggers is largely consistent: classical music, haircuts, movie trailers, Bob Ross, more Bob Ross, lots of Bob Ross, the painter best known for his popular instructional videos. Forget the bucolic landscapes; these Ross fans are fixated on his calming baritone and the rustle of his brush on the canvas. Still skeptical? Craig Richard, a professor and researcher at the Shenandoah University School of Pharmacy in Winchester, Va., and founder of a blog called ASMR University, says that’s just fine. “If you don’t experience it, and there’s no published research, I think it’s appropriate to be skeptical,” he says. “I don’t know if I would believe it if I didn’t experience it myself.” There is no solid data about ASMR, no published research studies — not yet. The term “ASMR” is nonclinical, coined in 2010 by a woman named Jennifer Allen who started an ASMR Facebook group and later became part of a team — along with Richard — that collected and analyzed anecdotal information about the sensation. Richard also notes the work of Bryson Lochte, a Dartmouth College undergrad who has used neuroimaging technology to study ASMR for his senior thesis but has not published his results. Despite its mystery, “a lot is known about the physiological states associated with ASMR — relaxation, euphoria, comfort,” Richard says. “It’s the same molecules involved when an infant is comforted by its mother.... It’s endorphins, it’s oxytocin, it’s serotonin.” In a 2012 blog post, Steven Novella, an academic clinical neurologist at Yale University School of Medicine, compared ASMR to migraine headaches — “We know they exist as a syndrome primarily because many different people report the same constellation of symptoms and natural history,” he wrote — and theorized that ASMR could even be a type of “pleasurable” seizure. The uncharted territory isn’t what people experience, Richard says, but how (some people are triggered through their own thoughts and memories; others through external sights, sounds or touch) and why. To help find answers, Allen and Richard’s team launched its first rudimentary ASMR research survey last month. It received more than 4,000 responses within the first 10 days. “The response is showing how passionate and interested in ASMR people are,” Richard says. Words of comfort Maria says that she hears from subscribers, including doctors and psychologists, who are excited by the ASMR research. But mostly, she gets thank-you notes — from people with anxiety or sleep disorders, from overwhelmed college students struggling through exam week, from military veterans who tell her that her videos offer a sense of calm that they can’t find elsewhere. A few weeks ago, Maria says, she was contacted by a young woman whose grandmother was in a hospice. The elderly woman was no longer very responsive, but when the granddaughter played Maria’s videos, “it made her grandmother happy and calmed her down,” Maria says, recalling the woman’s message. “She said, ‘This is so great, because we don’t know how else to help her.’ ” Maria was deeply moved by the thought of comforting someone through the final stages of life. “I just couldn’t believe it,” she says. But maybe it’s not so surprising. Consider Maria’s most-viewed video, every element in the shot meticulously chosen: the subtly patterned wallpaper behind her, the dim lighting, her muted sweater and — especially — her words. “I would like to protect you, to comfort you,” she murmurs. “To help you relax and forget about your trouble, whatever it is.” She smiles and leans close, tracing her fingers over the camera lens as if caressing a face. “Don’t worry about anything,” she whispers. “Everything is going to be all right.”WePay uses various machine-learning models to detect fraudulent payments and manage risk for payers, merchants and their platforms. The Problem In a previous blog post, our Data Science team described how we use a Random Forest algorithm to achieve an optimal combination of model and system performance in building an automated machine learning pipeline that refreshes daily. We are able to use the refreshed models to fight fraudsters who commit collusion fraud, perform credit card testing using stolen cards, or take over accounts. As our data grows, we need to retrain the models faster while consuming fewer resources. We also want to refresh the models more frequently, so as to make use of newly detected fraud patterns to fight more complex attacks. The Historical Approach WePay started off by using a single server node to handle the entire workflow as described in the figure 1: Signals pull from BigQuery - Run a few long BigQuery queries to pull multi-day transactional information from various tables, so that we have all the existing data stored on a flat file local to the single server node. Rollup and Merge - Transpose the key-value pair of transaction signal data into a multi-column, sparsely-populated data table. Each row of the table represents an event/payment which has all the needed features for further processing of the event. This is still all on flat files. Tagging Fraud and down-sampling - WePay specific rules for tagging certain payments as fraudulent and targeting a mixture of fraud and non-fraud payments as the source of training data. Variable creation - The first step for preparing feature data as input for the model training. Imputation and aggregation - Interpolate, aggregate and apply custom logic for existing variable data to create direct input data as features. Random Forest training and model validation - The core step of model retraining, which takes refreshed data, retrains the model, and validates the model performance before persisting the model and the output files to external storage. This approach has several drawbacks: Steps 2 and 3 handle pure data pre-processing tasks, but take more than 50% of the total processing time. However, they use the server’s local disk, which does not scale well. It’s also difficult to retry, resume or monitor progress in these steps. The single-server node becomes a bottleneck for the entire retraining process. The single-server instance makes the processing sequential, whereas a few steps in the process can actually be done in parallel. The single-server is also a single point of failure that requires the retrain process to restart from scratch. Recovering from both application and system level failures are expensive and manual. As WePay has several models to refresh and deploy, the multiplication factor of the slow process makes it quite challenging to refresh models on-demand to react to a changing fraud paradigm. The New Approach The new approach shuffles, improves and merges several steps of the retraining to achieve expected goals: Use BigQuery and UDF - At WePay we love BigQuery. It’s a great tool for our data volume and aggregation needs. With the infrastructure provided by our Data-Infra team, we are able to perform queries on existing datasets in BigQuery, and manage the permissions of various PII datasets as input
Pulling the weighted bar behind the head whilst doing lat pull downs can be detrimental to the shoulders, neck and spine and carries a high injury risk to these areas. To pull the bar behind the neck safely, you need incredibly flexible shoulders, which most people simply do not have. This means that there is a risk of shoulder injury or even rotator cuff damage. Banging the bar on the back of the neck can also cause damage to vertebrae. This exercise is best performed pulling the bar down to the chest and using the back and abdominal muscles to support the controlled movement. As with any exercise it is important to ask for the assistance of an instructor or trainer to make sure you are doing the exercise correctly. Toe Touching A popular choice for stretching the back and legs, once again this can be dangerous for the lower back, especially if done at speed. A better option is to stretch the back of the legs in the seated position. Seated shoulder press machine When pushing above the shoulders it is natural for the hips to assist with this movement and provide support. However, on this machine, the hips are not allowed to do this, meaning all the pressure and strain rests on the shoulders. This runs a high risk of shoulder injury and should be avoided. Seated leg extension machine It’s designed to work the quadriceps, however the design of this machine puts excessive strain on ligaments and tendons around the knee joint. Damage to these areas can be very serious and take a long time to recover from. A good alternative is one-legged leg squats using your own body weight, although it may be better to start with double leg and work up to one legged squats over time. Anything that is too heavy It can be tempting when starting a strengthening routine to head straight for the weight that the person next to you is lifting, however, this can be a sure fire way to injure yourself and put an end to your gym visits for quite some time. Lifting weights that are too heavy puts strain on your muscles that they are not yet developed enough to handle, which can lead to injury. It is essential to start with light weights and gradually build up in weight as your strength improves. It is also important to remember that sometimes exercising using your own body weight or resistance bands can be just as effective in strengthening and toning your body and carries less risk of injury that weight machines and free weights. When working out at the gym, good technique on both weight and cardio machines is essential to prevent injury and make sure the exercise is actually achieving its desired purpose. Always consult with a trainer as to how to operate machines and carry out exercises correctly to minimize injury risk and start small to begin with. References used in this articleToyota has confirmed just Anthony Davidson and Sebastien Buemi will continue in the No. 8 Toyota TS040 Hybrid for the remainder of the FIA World Endurance Championship season, starting at Shanghai this weekend. The team cited its effort last race at Fuji, where points leaders Davidson and Buemi led a 1-2 finish for the manufacturer, as the best option for the future. Nicolas Lapierre, who missed the previous round at Fuji due to personal reasons, is again absent and his overall future with the team is yet to be determined. “Toyota decided to finish the season with two drivers in car No. 8; I have to accept it,” Lapierre said on Twitter. The No. 7 Toyota will again be driven by Alex Wurz, Stephane Sarrazin and Kazuki Nakajima in China this weekend. Meanwhile Toyota reserve driver Mike Conway missed a Monday test for his 2014 IndyCar team, CFH Racing, as the team confirmed he had a conflict. With IndyCar’s 2015 schedule due out this week, there are set to be several conflicts between some of its road and street course races and the FIA WEC calendar. Conway, who has been confirmed for Bahrain with Toyota in the sister No. 7 car, will almost certainly be in just one championship or the other come 2015.Alright, fine, I'll admit it. I'm a Mathias Kiwanuka fan. I have been since his dominant senior season at Boston College. After hearing this morning that San Diego Chargers outside linebacker Dwight Freeney could miss the rest of the season with a torn quad, and knowing the Melvin Ingram isn't coming back for a few months (at the earliest), I started thinking about how Kiwanuka could end up in blue and gold. Versatility After being selected in the first round of the 2006 NFL Draft, "Kiwi" has been the most versatile player on the New York Giants. A starter for almost his entire career, here are the positions Mathias has played. 2006: Defensive End 2007: Linebacker 2008: Defensive End 2009: Defensive End 2010: Defensive End 2011: Linebacker 2012: Linebacker 2013: Defensive End In the Giants' 4-3 defense, there is a huge difference between those two positions. However, Kiwanuka is as good at rushing the passer as he is at man or zone coverage against tight ends and running backs (which pretty much makes him perfect for the role of 3-4 outside linebacker), so he switched back and forth depending on where the Giants needed him. I believe he even switched mid-season a few times when an injury left the Giants short-handed at LB. In this video of Kiwanuka's "Top 5 Plays of 2011", he played DE on four of them and LB on one of them. Similar to Adalius Thomas (there's a name you haven't heard in a while), Kiwanuka's best trait is in his versatility. Good Defensive Coordinators can find ways to disguise what they're doing through it, which makes him a lot like Melvin Ingram. Why the Giants might trade him He's a starter and, although the Giants are 0-4, it's a long season. There's no way New York would want to get rid of Kiwanuka, right? Why would anybody do that? RT @BFTB_Chargers: What say you, @bigblueview? A third-round pick for Kiwanuka? #twittertrades — Ed Valentine (@bigblueview) September 30, 2013 As you can see, my initial offer was a little way too high. We'll get to what the real value is in a minute, but know that the Giants are not tied to Mathias. One reason is his contract. He's in the middle of Year 2 of the four-year contract that wraps up when he's 32 years old. In these first two years, he's accounted for $4.125 million against the cap each year. For the next two years, he'll account for $7 million and $7.45 million against the cap (respectively). The Giants don't want to pay that. They can cut him next year, and save about $2 million in cap space and get nothing back, or they can trade him (taking the same cap hit in 2014) and get back a pick. Another reason is his performance. Along with the rest of the team, Kiwanuka has been terrible so far this year (4 QB hurries in 112 pass rushing chances). You can blame the team/talent around him, or perhaps everyone has simply toned Coach Coughlin out (which happens every few years), or maybe...just maybe...Kiwanuka is finished. For a guy that relies so much on speed, maybe he lost that half-step and can't be effective anymore. If that's the case, it's certainly time for Jerry Reese to get what he can for him. Even if it's not the case, the Giants need to do something to shake up the team and locker room. Why the Chargers might want him Well, for one, they don't have any other options. Even if Mike McCoy and Tom Telesco wanted to fire John Pagano after this season, it'd be pretty hard to justify doing so if his best pass rusher for most of the season turns out to be Larry English. Also, now that we've seen what this offense is capable of, it'd be a shame if 2013 ended up being a losing season for the Chargers simply because the defense couldn't stop anybody. There's plenty of reason to believe that Kiwanuka, who is three years younger than Dwight Freeney, is still a solid pass rusher and good in coverage. There's even more reason to believe that, like the speedy Freeney, Kiwanuka would benefit from a switch from a 4-3 defense to a 3-4 defense. In addition, there's a lot that Pagano could do to disguise his defense (including letting Kiwi play some ILB) with a versatile playing like Kiwinuka being added to his defense, which can only work to help the rest of the defense. How the Chargers might pay for him Well, first, what would they give up: Giants might take it. A 3 would be hard to pass. Don't know why you would give it up RT @BFTB_Chargers: @bigblueview A fifth-rounder, then? — Ed Valentine (@bigblueview) September 30, 2013 There you go. A 3rd rounder would guarantee the team Kiwanuka, a 4th would probably get it done, and a 5th is a wonderful starting point for negotiations. A fifth-round pick to help the team compete for this season, and to help replace Larry English in 2014? Seems like a good move to me. Now, as far as his money goes...I'm not sure how it works. If Freeney goes on IR, does his money still count against the cap? If not, it's almost an even swap. As for next year, the team would probably have to cut somebody (Clary?) to fit Kiwanuka's big contract, but my guess is that they'd aim more for a restructure, and he'd sign it to avoid getting released. Summary So, what do you think? Should the Chargers go after Mathias Kiwanuka in a trade? Is there another pass rusher out there that you'd rather them go for, that would be a fit for this defense and their team would be willing to make available? I want to hear all of the options that are out there!BY: The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) spends roughly $123.2 million per year to provide "email services" for its 70,000 employees, according to the Government Accountability Office (GAO). Buried in a footnote of a recently released GAO report on the agency’s coordination with the nonprofit group Enroll America, the congressional watchdog detailed the high operating costs associated with running the department’s email. "HHS told us that HHS pays $146.64 per month per user for email; that this charge covers connectivity, storage, and other e-mail services; and that this charge is independent of the number of emails that are sent or received," the GAO said. According to the Cato Institute, HHS employs approximately 70,000 people. Assuming each employee has a government email address, the agency pays $10,264,800 per month for its email services. The cost per year runs to $123,177,600. The report also noted that HHS pays $10.44 each month "per telephone line" for the HHS secretary, though it is unclear how many government lines former Secretary Kathleen Sebelius had. "Each phone call, whether local or long distance, is charged at a unit cost of $0.014 per minute," the GAO said. The report revealed that Sebelius, along with a White House official, solicited donations from private health care companies to promote Obamacare, which may have violated federal law.Ireland are to play the United States in a one-off game in June ahead of the two Test tour of Japan. Joe Schmidt’s 27-man squad are currently in Chicago preparing for Saturday’s opening November fixture against the All Blacks at Soldier Field but their return Stateside next summer will see them on the east coast, probably a New York venue. The end-of-season tour will be similar to 2013 when Schmidt first joined the Ireland squad during a North American tour that included victories in Houston in Texas and Toronto in Canada. Again, with many of Ireland’s leading players on the British and Irish Lions tour of New Zealand, it will provide valuable exposure for those who may come into the reckoning before the 2019 World Cup, which also takes place in Japan. The US, currently guided by former Ireland forwards coach and All Black head coach John Mitchell, faces the New Zealand Maoris this Friday at Soldier Field. A number of Irish coaches are currently working in the US collegiate system. Greg McWilliams is director of rugby at Yale University, former Ireland prop Justin Fitzpatrick is at Seattle Saracens and Gavin Hickie is coaching Dartmouth. McWilliams, along with former Munster academy coach Ray Egan, is also working with the All-American collegiate team. “Ireland West,” joked US Rugby chief executive Dan Payne. “We’ll keep taking all the best Irish coaches and young players that want to go to university over here. Beating that drum “We are beating that drum as much as possible. There are over 35 million people in the United States that consider themselves Irish-American.” Payne was previously athletic director at Life University, proving instrumental in AJ MacGinty launching his professional rugby career as a US international. The former Connacht outhalf, who is now with Sale, has kicked 120 points in 10 internationals since featuring at last year’s World Cup. “I saw AJ five or six years ago when he came over to the States from Blackrock to play with the New York Athletic Club,” said Payne. “Life played New York in a championship game, when I watched four or five conversions getting made from the touchline, left and right, and he was switching foot depending on which side. “Mike Tolkin was the head coach of the US men’s team at the time. I asked him: ‘Who is that guy?’ ‘Oh, that’s AJ MacGinty, he is just over on holiday.’ ‘Well, I think he might want to stay a little longer and maybe get a Masters, don’t you think?’ “He got a Masters in sports science, got eligible for residency and now he is growing into the player that is kicking conversions to help us beat Canada. He was late to mature physically, and was able to put on 15, 20 pounds with us, but he so obviously had the skills having come from a strong age-grade programme.”It’s getting hot out there! Plenty of fun outdoor activities coming at you this week. Also lots of opportunities to keep cool inside. I’ll be taking it easy this week and staying in the air conditioning. Monday, June 19 Stone Tap Takeover! 5PM – 2AM Wet City 223 W Chase St, Baltimore Free Stone Brewing Pint Glasses AND T-Shirt giveaways!!! We will be tapping: – Ruinten with Orange & Vanilla Triple IPA – Enjoy By 7/4 Unfiltered IPA – Tangerine Express IPA An evening with Sandy & Rod Hallet of Alkoomi Winery, Western Australia 6PM – 9PM Schola 1005 North Charles Street, Baltimore Alkoomi Wines is one of WA’s largest family owned and operated wine producers. Owners, Sandy and Rod Hallett, together with their children represent the third and fourth generation living and working on the Alkoomi property in Frankland River. It is this family’s love and commitment to the place they chose in the Great Southern, as well as Alkoomi’s unique combination of gravelly loam soils, warm sunny days and cool nights during the ripening season that produce grapes of intense varietal character and a sense of place. Join Sandy & Rod for an evening of Australian food and these great Aussie wines. The class will prepare shrimp with summer vegetables, the Aussie favorite – sausage rolls, roast leg of lamb and the ever-present Pavlova for dessert. Sandy & Rod will bring some of their Riesling, Sauvignon Blanc, Rosé and Cabernet Sauvignon to share with the class. $79. Buy Tickets Here Free Monday Night Fitness Class 6PM – 7PM Center Plaza 222 N Charles St, Baltimore Come join us as we partner with Downtown Partnership of Baltimore to give you FREE Fitness class every Monday night. From 6-7pm join us for a fun and energetic TRANSFORM BODYCamp workout at the Center Plaza in Baltimore. FREE classes will start May 1st through the end of October. Bring a mat, water, and a friend. SoPro Jager Cocktail Competition 6PM – 9PM Southern Provisions 3000 O’Donnell St, Baltimore Southern Provisions is hosting a Jagermeister cocktail compeition upstairs with some of your favorite bartenders from around Baltimore. We invited a bunch of Bartenders from around town to come up with fun and creative drinks with 1 rule. You gotta use Jagermeister in some shape or form! Come to SoPro and hang out upstairs while voting on your favorite drink, the most creative drink, and best named drink! We will have drink specials going on as well as food specials. Voting will be tallied towards 9pm and the winner will be announced downstairs where we will keep the party fun times rolling until close! Crash Course: Wet Felting 6PM – 9PM Open Works 1400 Greenmount Ave, Baltimore Crash Course: Wet Felting covers the basics of traditional wet felting- the fundamentals for laying out fibers, and transforming them into felt. Learn variations of designing a felt piece and spend time perfecting your technique. You will take home several felted works of art. Please bring a plastic bag to transport your felt in case it does not dry before the class ends! Buy Tickets Here Movie Premiere- Doping scandal from 1984 Olympics 6:30PM – 8:30PM The HandleBar Cafe 511 S Caroline St, Baltimore This is the world premier of Tainted Blood: The Untold Story of the 1984 Olympic Blood Doping Scandal. Join us to watch this never seen story! Silk Hoops 6:30PM – 8:30PM Walther Gardens 3501 Southern Ave, Baltimore Learn basic silk painting techniques by using dyes and a resist on silk that is stretched over a metal hoop. The process of painting the dyes on the silk, watching the colors flow on the fabric, is soothing and you will have a one of a kind piece of art to take home. The hoop can be hung in a window as a sun catcher, as a mobile, or on the wall. All materials provided. For adults and children 8 and up. Buy Tickets Here Latte Art Throwdown 7PM – 11PM 3 Bean Coffee 209 Key Hwy, Baltimore Come to the Bean for a Throwdown of epic proportions! Food will be served and beer provided by Diamondback Brewery. Free to enjoy, $5 to pour, door open at seven and sign up ends at 7:45, first pour is at 8. 1st, 2nd and 3rd place walk away with cash and prizes! Drewsif Stalin’s Musical Endeavors/ Sarah Longfield / Lattermath 7PM – 11PM TheDepot Baltimore 1728 N Charles St, Baltimore Feed The Scene presents The Shot and Cringy tour featuring Drewsif Stalin’s Musical Endeavors,Sarah Longfield, and Lattermath + Hydra Kyll and Alukah! Jon Stickley Trio with guests TBA at Metro Gallery 7PM – 11PM Metro Gallery 1700 N Charles St, Baltimore Jon Stickley Trio with guests TBA! Buy Tickets Here Summer Kick off Partay 7PM – 1AM The Point in Fells 1738 Thames St., Baltimore Get ready to kick off the summer with Smirnoff and The Point in Fells. Featuring: $6 Summer Smirnoff Crushes & Bombs, $5 Adult Snowcones, Smirnoff infused watermelon, Ugly Hawaiian shirt contest with 1st & 2nd prizes, and Live music. Bubba Sparxxx w/ Struggle Jennings at Baltimore Soundstage 7PM – 12AM Baltimore Soundstage 124 Market Pl, Baltimore Featuring: Bubba Sparxxx Music, Struggle, with guests TBA! Buy Tickets Here Kaylyn Aznavorian at Teavolve Cafe & Lounge 7PM – 10PM Teavolve Cafe & Lounge 1401 Aliceanna St, Baltimore Catch Kaylyn Aznavorian live at Teavolve Cafe & Lounge in Baltimore, MD performing “Set Me Free” from her upcoming EP “Freedom”, and covers on request at their Open Mic Night from 7-10pm! LILY K + HORN HORSE at Joe’s Downsquares 8PM –? Joe Squared 33 W North Ave, Baltimore LILY K AND HORN HORSE https://lilyandhornhorse.bandcamp.com/ SMALL AXE https://youtu.be/8dstdhpYupA BLUD https://shamkurd.bandcamp.com/ Horatio Dark’s Between the Lines 8PM – 10PM The Windup Space 12 W North Ave, Baltimore It’s nine o’clock. Time to dim the lights, settle in close to your radio and steel your nerves. WIND is taking you on a trip into the realm of the frighting and the bizarre. A trip Between the Lines of Reality with your host, Horatio Dark. We now join the master of the macabre, the antiquarian of the insane, your navigator through the netherworld, Horatio Dark, as he reads between the lines OF REALITY. Vinyl Power at Idle Hour 8:30PM – 11:30PM Idle Hour 201 E Fort Ave, Baltimore I, Kelly Stith, will be spinning vinyl for the last time…this spring. Then, it’s on to summer. So, join me as I offer a drink and play tunes you know from the 50s to now, as well as many that you don’t. But, I am sure you’ll like. Funk to punk. Rock to schlock. And everything in between. Ask for your favorite and I might just have it. I’m gearing up for the upcoming DJ tournament. It’s basically a popularity contest. So I will need your support. And, you could get a free drink for this evening. The first 2 people that come up to me and says they saw this on Facebook, well get a drink of their choice on me. So come on down and win! Plus, if you have some old vinyl and you want to hear it while sipping on your favorite beverage that Jasob the bartender poured for you, bring it in. I’ll gladly put it on for you. Tuesday, June 20 Celebrate World Refugee Day w/ Food & Drinks at Clavel 5PM – 10PM Clavel 225 W 23rd St, Baltimore Join us and celebrate World Refugee Day at Clavel and WC Harlan. Both to commemorate the global crisis, and to celebrate our diversity and history of migration. At Clavel, 50% from margaritas, draft beer, and queso fundido and 100% of Wahaka brand mezcal pours will go to Baltimore organizations serving refugees (see below). At WC Harlan, 50% of Tiki punch and 100% of French 75’s made with Baltimore Whiskey Company’s Shot Tower Gin will be donated! Benefiting organizations: International Rescue Committee, Refugee Youth Project, Catholic Relief Services, and World Relief. Refugee Youth Project Happy Hour Fundraiser! 5PM – 9PM Golden West Cafe 1105 W 36th St, Baltimore Join us again at the Long Bar as we host our June Happier Hours forRefugee Youth Project! Stop by anytime from 5–9pm for special drinks, cocktails & appetizers with proceeds supporting this awesome organization. If you just want to stop by and show your support you can also donate directly at the bar! Jared & The Mill w/ Skribe at Metro Gallery 6:30PM – 10:30PM Metro Gallery 1700 N Charles St, Baltimore Featuring: Jared & The Mill with Skribe. Buy Tickets Here Austrian Wine Dinner 6:30PM – 9:30PM Butchers Hill Society 32 N. Chester Street, Baltimore Butchers Hill Society is happy to announce our first ever, five-course, wine pairing dinner event! Following a thirty-minute welcome reception featuring an Austrian Sparkling Rose & passed hors d’oeuvres, we will make our way through a lovely five-course menu featuring dishes designed by our very own Chef Jesse Ramirez. Each course will be paired with an Austrian wine carefully selected to entice the palate. Our special guest, Austrian Sommelier Klaus Wittauer, has been traveling, purchasing, selling, discovering & studying wines for over 20 years & will be taking us on a journey across the Austrian countryside as he describes each of the six wines that have been selected for the event. Tickets are on sale now! Stop by or call to make your reservation – limit 40 guests!! Butchers Hill Society: 443-453-9716 Tapas in the City at Argosy Cafe 6:30PM – 9PM Argosy Cafe 7 N Calvert St, Baltimore Please join us Downtown on June 20th for a multi course tapas style meal at Argosy Cafe. Trust us, you’ll be drooling for more. Tax and gratuity are included in ticket prices! Buy Tickets Here Skill Build: Handheld Power Tools 6:30PM – 9:30PM A Workshop of Our Own 1780 Union Ave, Baltimore Become familiar with a few basic hand-held power tools, while building a plywood container that could be used for an outdoor planter or indoor magazine storage, or whatever you like! The class focuses on learning best practices for handling the following tools: Drill & Screwguns, Jigsaw, Circular Saw, Clamps, Handsaw, and Chopsaw. Students go home with new skills and the planter or crate that they make. Buy Tickets Here Warner Williams – The Songster Series Kickoff Event 7PM – 9PM Creative Alliance 3134 Eastern Ave, Baltimore On June 20th, Creative Alliance is happy to have Warner Williams kick off The Songster Series, a monthly salon-style event in the Marquee Lounge featuring discussion and performance. The event will be moderated by Robert W. Deutsch Foundation Fellow Brooks Long. Brooks will begin the night with a brief history of the term songster and offer a fresh take on a legendary musician before turning to the night’s featured artist. Nova Gray – The King Presents: All Ages Open Mic Night 7PM – 9PM Hotel RL Baltimore Inner Harbor by Red Lion 207 E Redwood St, Baltimore This is an all ages open mic with performers as young as 7 years old at this event. Artists are encouraged to utilize this platform to hone their skills and to work on their stage presence with the absence of profanity. Please arrive by 7:30pm to sign up with our host Nova Gray. Tuesday Open Mic Nite 7PM – 9PM Breaking Bread Page 771 Washington Blvd, Baltimore ThePoetsChurch open mic Every 1st and 3rd Tuesday 7-9 PM $5 at BreakingBread Skapparoneday / Dark Hollow / Los Swamp Monsters / Indictments/ Chumps 7PM –? TheDepot Baltimore 1728 N Charles St, Baltimore https://facebook.com/skapparoneday https://facebook.com/darkhollowrocknroll https://facebook.com/losswampmonsters https://facebook.com/indictmentshc https://facebook.com/Chumpspunk/ Weekly Team Trivia 7:30PM – 10:30PM The Brass Tap at The Fitzgerald 1205 West Mt. Royal Avenue, Baltimore Team Trivia Baltimore provides a fun and entertaining night for all those who come to play and enjoy getting together for a great time. Best of all, Team Trivia is FREE TO PLAY! In Honor of the Bowl Cut 7:30PM – 9PM Single Carrot Theatre 2600 North Howard Street, Baltimore Still on a high from our debut show, Brisket is PUMPED and ready to perform again. We’re dedicating our second show to the glorious bowl cut, in honor of a very young, hairbrush-hating Sheila. Come see us on Conservatory Tuesday with friends LeRage and Hallie & Tim and find out how our troupe is choosing to celebrate this classic hairstyle. Will we all show up with bowl cuts? Will we cut each other’s hair on stage? Will we just wear bowls on our heads as a beautiful homage?! COME SEE US TUESDAY AND FIND OUT! After all, it’s only $5 for an hour and a half of laughs — what more could you ask for? Buy Tickets Here Tuesday Movie – Highlander 8PM – 10PM De Kleine Duivel 3602 Hickory Ave, Baltimore The original. The best. Tuesday Trivia 8PM – 10PM Frank & Nic’s West End Grille 511 W Pratt St, Baltimore Frank & Nic’s & Charm City Trivia night! Win prizes including gift cards, Frank & Nic’s Shwag, and more! Taco Tuesday specials all day! The Monolithic/Black Radio/Old Eastern at The Sidebar 9PM – 12AM The Sidebar 218 E Lexington St, Baltimore The Monolithic is coming to Baltimore in support of their self-titled debut album. The Monolithic: https://themonolithic.bandcamp.com/ Black Radio: www.blackradiomusic.com Old Eastern: www.theoldeastern.com Wednesday, June 21 Summer Solstice International Yoga Day Meetup 5:30AM – 7AM Lake Montebello June 21st 2017 is Summer Solstice and International Yoga Day. In honor of the sun and of the beautiful practice of yoga, Sominbo Life and Health is having a Meetup at Lake Montebello!! The sun is set to rise at 5:40am on that day so we will begin 5:30am and run till 7am. Class will be led by Christine Patterson but your own beautiful and unique free flow is welcome. Please bring your mat, water, an open heart and a friend! This Event is FREE…but donations are greatly appreciated. See YOU on the the mat, with the rising of the Sun. Chuck’s Trading Post: Grand Re-Opening! 7AM – 7PM Chuck’s Trading Post 1506 W. 36th St., Baltimore Join us on the first day of summer, as we celebrate our grand re-opening under new management. We have a lot of exciting things in store for the future! Enjoy samples of some of our favorite grocery goods! And look for our flyer around the neighorhood – it’s good for 10% off June 20-24! What better way to try us for the first time — or the 100th! Summer Solstice Yoga 7:30AM – 8:30AM Fitzgerald Park 1627 Bolton St, Baltimore Join me for yoga out in the elements of Fitzgerald Park. Make the most of the longest day of the year by beginning your day with a beautiful, and gentle, vinyasa flow, ending with a short, centering meditation. FREE! Please bring your own mat. Some optional props will be available. Bike to Market Day- Druid Hill! 3:30PM – 7:30PM Rawlings Conservatory & Botanical Gardens 3100 Swann Dr, Baltimore What better way to spend a Wednesday evening than with a bike ride, fresh veggies, and a picnic in the park? Join Maryland Farmers Market Association, Bikemore, and the Druid Hill Farmers Market for the second event in our #BiketoMarket series. We’ll have free bike valet, swag and a raffle for all who ride, and more! Open Studio JUNE Edition 4:30PM – 8:30PM Local Color Flowers 3100 Brentwood ave, Baltimore This is a chance to come make a beautiful flower arrangement to take home using flowers, vases and tools provided by Local Color Flowers. This is NOT a formal class. This is time for self directed design with some coaching from our designers if necessary. Adults only please! You can make a wrapped bouquet for $30, a small vase arrangement for $30 or a medium vase arrangement for $50. Please feel free to bring your own vase along if you’d like (pricing is subject to vase size). BARCStoberfest Kick-Off Happy Hour 5PM – 8PM Ropewalk Tavern 1209 S Charles St, Baltimore It’s that time again! BARCStoberfest fundraising has begun. Join us for a kick-off happy hour to raise money (to start filling the ‘pot’ towards are $250,000 goal). Everyone is welcome! Guests can enjoy food and drink specials, with a portion of sales benefiting all established* BARCStoberfest teams! Summer Solstice Luau! 5PM – 8PM Mount Vernon Marketplace 520 Park Ave, Baltimore LIVE MUSIC from Bob Friedman’s All-Star Ukulele Extravaganza! A performance of multiple talented ukulele players, plus open mic slots if you want to play too! FOOD & DRINK SPECIALS Pig Roast from Between2buns Taps Fill Station will be featuring $4 beers and $6 wines Tiki Drinks at Cultured Tropical Tea Mocktails at Juniper Culinary Apothecary UGLY HAWAIIAN SHIRT CONTEST: Wear your ugliest Hawaiian shirt for the Ugly Hawaiian Shirt Contest! Summer Solstice Vinyasa 60 5:30PM – 6:30PM Yoga Tree Baltimore 911 W 36th St, Baltimore SUN SALUTATIONS GALORE with Cadie! The summer solstice is the longest day of the year. It contains more hours between sunrise and sunset than any other day. Derived from two Latin words, sol (sun) and sistere (to stand still), the word solstice actually means “sun standing still.” In today’s asana, we will simply salute the sun, to connect with and build upon the enlivening solar energies that are pulsating within us. Sign Up Here Free Yoga at the Market 5:30PM – 6:30PM Druid Hill Farmers Market – adjacent to Rawlings Conservatory 3100 Swann Drive, Baltimore Join the Baltimore Yoga Village and the Friends of Druid Hill Park for our weekly Free Yoga Class. Instructors will introduce you to the art of yoga and physical fitness surrounded by the idyllic beauty of the outdoor gardens at the Rawlings Conservatory. All levels welcome. Bring your own mat or blanket. Happy Hour Flow At Pitango Bakery 5:30PM – 6:30PM Pitango Bakery + Café 903 S Ann St, Baltimore Yogaworks and Pitango Bakery are happy to offer a fun yoga series outside during the summer every Wednesday! Join us for outdoor yoga on the water as Yogaworks and Pitango Bakery team up to offer you a vinyasa class followed by a delicious spread of fresh snacks! Also… we’re BYOB so come with a bottle! Happy Hour yoga is open to all levels from beginners to advanced. This class will be taught by our finest teachers at Yogaworks Fells Point. Class is $18 sign up here! A Life Worth Taking a Risk for: The Story of One Syrian Family 6PM – 8PM Institute for Islamic, Christian, and Jewish Studies 956 Dulaney Valley Rd, Baltimore 13.5 million Syrians are in need of humanitarian assistance. CRS and our partners provide vital relief to those suffering through the brutal conflict in Syria. Join us in Towson on Wednesday, June 21, to meet and talk with one Syrian whose family is scattered all over the world due to the conflict. As Catholics, and as Americans, we believe it is important for you to hear his story—and to know how your generosity saves, protects and transforms lives overseas. RSVP Here Free Throw w/ Homesafe, Heart Attack Man and Forges 6PM – 11PM Metro Gallery 1700 N Charles St, Baltimore Featuring: Free Throw, Homesafe, Heart Attack Man, and Forges. Buy Tickets Here Chef’s Table 6PM – 8PM Dovecote Cafe 2501 Madison Ave, Baltimore Dovecote presents its Summer Solstice Chef’s Table: an intimate outdoor evening with four of Baltimore’s most passionate chefs, where you’ll have exclusive early access to the Dovecote Summer Menu! Your seat at the table gives you insight on how the Chefs curated their summer menu, the partnerships the cafe has with local farms, and conversations on how food has shaped life and the community! Experience summer #TheDovecoteWay and share a great time under the sun with us! Enjoy a secret farm to table craft menu throughout the evening. Only 10 seats available! Buy Tickets Here German Night 6PM – 9PM Our House 1121 Hull St, Baltimore Just a simple night with all homemade German Food! Ja! Just come and try it! Gnocco’s First Birthday 6:30PM – 11PM Gnocco 3734 Fleet Street, Baltimore It’s our FIRST BIRTHDAY!!! We can’t believe it has already been a year, but one week from today, we turn one! What a blast it has been and we want to throw a party. On June 21st, were hosting a birthday party, which includes a spread of some classic Gnocco dishes and tons of things to nibble on. Tickets are $40/pp and includes all the food you can eat and all you can drink from our birthday selection. Buy Tickets Here Marimo Moss Ball Workshop 6:30PM – 8PM B.Willow 220 West 27th, Baltimore Join us at our workshop table for a lesson on marimo moss balls. Attendees will learn all about this aquatic algae and how to create and care for their own beautiful arrangement. Choose from an assortment of vintage & repurposed containers to plant in! Workshop attendees will also receive 15% off plant purchases before or after the workshop! $35 / person
it would be unrealistic to expect a political decision-maker to modify his or her behaviour in order to conform to higher standards inappropriate to his or her office. It could not be suggested that a councillor who has expressed views to constituents with respect to a development application should disqualify himself or herself. It was in this context that Basten JA said, in the passage quoted by the primary judge in this case and set out above, that a fair-minded observer would expect little more of a councillor than an absence of personal interest and a willingness to give genuine and appropriate consideration to the application. At issue in Jia Legeng and in McGovern was the possibility of bias in the nature of prejudgment on the part of the relevant decision-makers. Neither case had the feature concerning the decision-maker present in this case and they consequently did not address the question whether a person's involvement in the matter antecedent to the decision is incompatible with his or her participation in the decision. The application of the principle in this case The discretionary powers of the Council under the Act with respect to dogs are broad, consistently with their protective purpose. The question for the Council, and its delegates, in exercising the power under s 84P(e) involves the safety of the public. Matters relevant to the decision would include a dog's propensity for attacking dogs and persons and whether measures other than destruction could be taken without exposing the public to an unacceptable risk of harm, for example whether the animal could be effectively restrained. A decision under s 84P(e) affects the owner of the dog. Whether one describes an interest in a dog as a property right, or acknowledges the importance of a domestic pet to many people, the appellant is a person who may be affected by a decision which will require her interests to be subordinated to the public interest. It is therefore understandable that the Council has accepted throughout these proceedings that a decision under s 84P(e) requires compliance with the requirements of natural justice. In its argument, the Council was concerned to make the point that it was not required to provide a hearing of the kind undertaken nor convene a panel to make the decision under s 84P(e). The point may be made in aid of the submission, reiterated at various points in the Council's argument, that the constitution of the Panel to hear the matter did not make the process quasi-judicial in nature. The process could therefore be distinguished from the processes undertaken in cases such as Dickason and Stollery. Describing a process as having, or not having, a quasi-judicial quality is rarely helpful [29] It may be accepted that there is no statutory requirement for a hearing or for a panel in connection with a decision under s 84P(e). The Council or a delegate could themselves decide the matter, subject to the requirements of natural justice. However, it is not to be inferred from the fact that the Council could decide the matter for itself that the standard of neutrality referred to in McGovern, that of merely genuine and appropriate consideration, is relevant to, or determinative of, this case. At issue in McGovern were allegations of prejudgment. The question raised concerning the impartiality of the two councillors was whether they could be expected to give genuine consideration to the application, given the opinions they had expressed. The concern as to the impartiality of Ms Hughes raises a different question. There is no issue before this Court concerning her possible prejudgment of the matter. The question here is whether it might reasonably be apprehended that a person in her position would have an interest in the decision which could affect her proper decision-making. The interest which the appellant alleges existed in this case is akin to that which a person bringing charges, whether as a prosecutor or other accuser, might be expected to have in the outcome of the hearing of those charges. It is generally expected that a person in this position may have an interest which would conflict with the objectivity required of a person deciding the charges and any consequential matters, whether that person be a judge or a member of some other decision-making body. In Dickason [30] The plaintiff in Dickason was a member of a friendly society regulated by statute. He was accused of insulting the District Chief Ranger of the society. It was held that the District Chief Ranger could not sit as part of the committee to hear the charges brought against the plaintiff. Isaacs J [31] [32] [33] Stollery is a case not unlike Dickason. In Stollery, a greyhound owner was accused by the manager of an association which conducted dog racing of attempting to bribe the manager. The manager reported the incident in question to the Greyhound Racing Control Board, which then held an inquiry. The manager himself was a member of the Board. Although he took no part in the deliberations, he remained present in the room whilst they were taking place. The decision of the Board was quashed by this Court. In Stollery, Menzies J referred [34] [35] [36] [37] [38] [39] The joint reasons in Ebner [40] Dickason, which suggests that the application of the prohibition was not considered to be limited only to judicial officers. Ms Hughes' position with respect to the charges in the Magistrates' Court is analogous to the positions of the moving parties in Dickason and Stollery. It can scarcely be doubted that she had a similar interest in the outcome of the charges. However, neither of those cases addressed the issue behind the question which arises here, on the Council's case, as to whether it could reasonably be apprehended that Ms Hughes also maintained an interest in the outcome of the decision under s 84P(e). The Council places considerable reliance upon the fact that the decision-making process took place in two stages. The charges were heard, and pleas taken, in the Magistrates' Court. The Council, through the Panel, dealt with the subsequent but separate issue as to the fate of the dog. Ms Hughes' interest, if any, as a prosecutor, on the Council's argument, ended when the proceedings in the Magistrates' Court came to an end. It is true that the question for the Panel was different from that with which the Magistrates' Court was concerned, in the same way that a penalty proceeding may be regarded as different from that concerning the underlying offence. It may be accepted that different questions are raised in penalty proceedings. In the present case the questions for the Panel would include matters directed to the future, such as the dog's propensity to attack and the safety of the public. However, it is also to be expected that much of the evidence relating to the past offence will also be relevant to penalty and this was the case here. This explains why the briefs of evidence from the Magistrates' Court proceedings and Ms Hughes' notes of those proceedings were provided to the other Panel members. It is not realistic to view Ms Hughes' interest in the matter as coming to an end when the proceedings in the Magistrates' Court were completed. A line cannot be drawn at that point of her involvement so as to quarantine the Magistrates' Court proceedings from her actions as a member of the Panel. It is reasonably to be expected that her involvement in the prosecution of the charges created an interest in the final outcome of the matter. Ms Hughes' continuing interest in the matter may be tested by asking whether, if the Magistrates' Court had been asked to make an order for destruction, as could have been done following conviction, it might reasonably be apprehended that she would remain interested in whether the Magistrates' Court granted the order. The answer must clearly be "Yes". In any event, it is not accurate to describe Ms Hughes as a person who in fact had no ongoing involvement in advancing the matter after the Magistrates' Court proceedings. Having participated in obtaining the conviction for the offence under s 29(4), she organised the Panel hearing and drafted the letter advising the appellant of it. She supplied the Panel with evidence, including further evidence she had obtained as relevant to the future housing of the dog. If Ms Hughes could not actually be described as a prosecutor with respect to the decision under s 84P(e), she was certainly the moving force. That leaves for consideration the opinion of the Court of Appeal that the disqualifying interests in Dickason and Stollery were of a kind particularly personal to the persons in question and that such an element is absent in the case of Ms Hughes. It is true that Ms Hughes' role in this matter did not involve her at quite the same personal level as the manager in Stollery, who was subjected to, and affronted by, the alleged bribe; nor was she the target of abuse as in Dickason, which was directed to the District Chief Ranger. It may be accepted that these factors added another dimension to the level of involvement of those persons. It cannot, however, be said that this dimension accounted for the disqualification in those cases. The interest identified in Dickason and Stollery as necessitating disqualification was that of a prosecutor, accuser or other moving party. An interest of that kind points to the possibility of a deviation from the true course of decision-making. A "personal interest" in this context is not the kind of interest by which a person will receive some material or other benefit. In the case of a prosecutor or other moving party it refers to a view which they may have of the matter, and which is in that sense personal to them. The interest of a prosecutor may be in the vindication of their opinion that an offence has occurred or that a particular penalty should be imposed, or in obtaining an outcome consonant with the prosecutor's view of guilt or punishment. It is not necessary to analyse the psychological processes to which a person in such a position is subject. It is well accepted, as the two cases referred to show, that it might reasonably be thought that the person's involvement in the capacity of prosecutor will not enable them to bring the requisite impartiality to decision-making. This is not to equate such a person with a judge. In that part of the joint reasons in Ebner which deals with the incompatibility of the interest of a prosecutor and judge, it is said that cases of incompatibility might have a special significance, and might operate independently of problems relating to apprehension of bias [41] Ebner is satisfied. In cases of incompatibility, disqualification would seem to be the only possible outcome, because the second step will necessarily be satisfied. The Council submitted that the Court should not apply an automatic disqualification if it found that Ms Hughes' involvement gave her a relevant interest, and that the test in Ebner should be applied. It submitted that the test could not be met because (i) even if Ms Hughes had an interest, the primary judge had found as a fact that she did no more than diligently carry out her responsibility; and (ii) the decision was not made by her, but by her superior, Mr Kourambas. The first of these submissions might be relevant to an allegation of actual bias, but provides no answer to one of apprehended bias based on an interest in the decision. The second is relevant to the proposed notice of contention. For the reasons given in Dickason and Stollery, the participation of others does not overcome the apprehension that Ms Hughes' interest in the outcome might affect not only her decision-making, but that of others. The Court of Appeal was correct to approach the question on the basis that she played a material part in the decision. That is so even if Mr Kourambas was responsible as delegate for the decision. The majority reasons in Ebner should not be understood to exclude cases of the kind here in question from the application of the principle by the test there stated. The test directs attention, as a first step in cases where apprehended bias is alleged, to the critical question of the decision-maker's interest. The difference in the application of the test is that in cases like the present one that concern incompatibility of roles, once the interest is identified as one which points to a conflict of interest, the connection between that interest and the possibility of deviation from proper decision-making is obvious. Conclusion and order A fair-minded observer might reasonably apprehend that Ms Hughes might not have brought an impartial mind to the decision under s 84P(e). This conclusion implies nothing about how Ms Hughes in fact approached the matter. It does not imply that she acted otherwise than diligently, and in accordance with her duties, as the primary judge found [42] Leave to file the notice of contention should be refused. The appeal should be allowed with costs and the orders of the Court of Appeal set aside. In lieu thereof the orders of the Court of Appeal should read: appeal allowed with costs, the decision of the primary judge be set aside, the decision of the Council notified to the appellant by letter dated 15 October 2013 be quashed and there be an order for costs in favour of the appellant of the proceedings before the primary judge. The appellant does not suggest that the injunctions sought against the Council in the notice of appeal are necessary. GAGELER J. The Domestic Animals Act 1994 (Vic) ("the Act") allows a municipal council to appoint an employee to be an "authorised officer" [43] s 29 of the Act [44] [45] s 29 of the Act and if the dog is then seized, the municipal council itself has power under s 84P(e) of the Act to order that the dog be destroyed. The municipal council can delegate that power to an employee under the Local Government Act 1989 (Vic) [46] There is no dispute that the power conferred by s 84P(e) of the Act is impliedly conditioned by the requirement that it can only be exercised as the result of a process which affords procedural fairness to the owner of the dog [47] Act. The standard incidents of procedural fairness, as it ordinarily conditions the exercise of a statutory power, include "the absence of the actuality or the appearance of disqualifying bias" in addition to "the according of an appropriate opportunity of being heard" [48] The issue in this appeal relates to the content and application of the requirement of the absence of the appearance of disqualifying bias in the exercise of power under s 84P(e) of the Act. The test for the appearance of disqualifying bias in an administrative context has often been stated in terms drawn from the test for apprehended bias in a curial context. The test, as so stated, is whether a hypothetical fair-minded observer with knowledge of the statutory framework and factual context might reasonably apprehend that the administrator might not bring an impartial mind to the resolution of the question to be decided [49] [50] To accommodate to a multi-stage decision-making process, or a multi-member decision-making body, the test for the appearance of disqualifying bias in an administrative context might sometimes more usefully be stated in a form which focuses on the overall integrity of the decision-making process. The test in that alternative form might be stated as whether a hypothetical fair-minded observer with knowledge of the statutory framework and factual context might reasonably apprehend that the question to be decided might not be resolved as the result of a neutral evaluation of the merits. Neutrality in the evaluation of the merits cannot for the purpose of that or any other test be reduced to a monolithic standard; it necessarily refers to the "kind or degree of neutrality" that the hypothetical fair-minded observer would expect in the making of the particular decision within the particular statutory framework [51] [52] Whether or not it might be useful to state the test in that alternative form, the test for the appearance of disqualifying bias in an administrative context is to be understood to mirror the test for apprehended bias in the curial context in two important respects. The first is that it is an "objective test of possibility, as distinct from probability" [53] [54] Where the factor identified at the first analytical step concerns one person who is a participant in a multi-stage decision-making process or in a multi-member decision-making body, the second analytical step can be seen to divide into two elements: articulation of how the identified factor might affect that person individually, and articulation of how that effect on that person individually might in turn affect the ultimate resolution of the question within the overall process of decision-making. It has accordingly been emphasised that, if an appearance of disqualifying bias is hypothesised to have resulted from conduct or circumstances of a person who is not the ultimate decision-maker, "then the part played by that other person in relation to the decision will be important" [55] How a person who is individually affected might in turn affect the ultimate resolution of a question required to be resolved as the result of a neutral evaluation of the merits, however, remains always to be determined by reference to the objective possibilities which arise from the externally manifested facts. Although it necessarily involves a consideration of the significance of the role played by the person in the decision-making process, it necessarily involves no inquiry into the actual state of mind of that person or of any other person involved in the decision-making process. The touchstone throughout the relevant inquiry remains the appearance rather than the actuality of bias. That last point is well enough illustrated by an English case [56] Stollery v Greyhound Racing Control Board [57] [58] There has been said to be a "general rule which is strictly applied that the same person cannot be accuser and judge... where... the principles of natural justice are required to be observed" [59] [60] The underlying concern was spelt out in the report which led in the United States to the introduction of the Administrative Procedure Act 1946 (US), which contains an express statement of a general proscriptive rule that no employee "engaged in the performance of investigative or prosecuting functions for any agency in any case shall, in that or a factually related case, participate or advise in the decision [or] recommended decision" of an agency undertaking an adjudication "except as witness or counsel in public proceedings" [61] [62] "Two characteristic tasks of a prosecutor are those of investigation and advocacy. It is clear that when a controversy reaches the stage of hearing and formal adjudication the persons who did the actual work of investigating and building up the case should play no part in the decision. This is because the investigators, if allowed to participate, would be likely to interpolate facts and information discovered by them ex parte and not adduced at the hearing, where the testimony is sworn and subject to cross-examination and rebuttal. In addition, an investigator's function may in part be that of a detective, whose purpose is to ferret out and establish a case. Of course, this may produce a state of mind incompatible with the objective impartiality which must be brought to bear in the process of deciding. For this same reason, the advocate – the agency's attorney who upheld a definite position adverse to the private parties at the hearing – cannot be permitted to participate after the hearing in the making of the decision. A man who has buried himself in one side of an issue is disabled from bringing to its decision that dispassionate judgment which Anglo-American tradition demands of officials who decide questions. Clearly the advocate's view ought to be presented publicly and not privately to those who decide." Of course, if a person who has once been an accuser is not the ultimate decision-maker, examination of the role of the person in relation to the decision will remain important. But it will ordinarily be sufficient to support the reasonableness of an apprehension that the resultant decision might not have been reached as a result of a neutral evaluation of the merits that the person participated in, or even that the person was present during, the substantive deliberations which resulted either in the decision [63] [64] The facts here are fully explained in the joint reasons for judgment. The most critical of them are these. Ms Hughes was the employee of Knox City Council who, as authorised officer, charged Ms Isbester with an offence under s 29 of the Act relating to an attack by her dog. Ms Hughes was later a member with Mr Kourambas of a three-member Panel which deliberated and recommended to Mr Kourambas that he make the order that the dog be destroyed. Mr Kourambas was the employee of the Council who, as delegate of the Council, then made the decision to order under s 84P(e) of the Act that the dog be destroyed. It is important to recognise that nothing in the Act compelled the decision-making structure in fact adopted by the Council for the purpose of s 84P(e). It is also important to note the absence of any suggestion that the participation of Ms Hughes was a practical necessity. The Council did not need to establish the Panel. The Council having established the Panel, Ms Hughes did not need to be a member. Ms Hughes might have developed, as Ms Isbester's prosecutor, a frame of mind incompatible with the dispassionate evaluation of whether administrative action should be taken against Ms Isbester's interests in light of Ms Isbester's conviction. Ms Hughes' frame of mind might have affected the views she expressed as a member of the Panel, and the expression of those views might have influenced not only the recommendation made by the Panel, which included Mr Kourambas, but also the acceptance of that recommendation by Mr Kourambas in his capacity as delegate of the Council. Those are all possibilities which fairly arise from the established facts. There is nothing fanciful or extravagant about them. A hypothetical fair-minded observer with knowledge of all of the circumstances would be quite reasonable to apprehend them. In particular, the reasonableness of the apprehension of those possibilities is not negatived by the circumstances: that Ms Hughes acted throughout in her professional capacity as a Council employee; that Ms Isbester pleaded guilty to the offence and that her conviction was on the basis of agreed facts; that the question for decision by the Council under s 84P(e) of the Act arose subsequently to and was different from the question for decision by the Magistrates' Court under s 29 of the Act; and that the evidence as to the course of the Panel hearing did not demonstrate that Ms Hughes took the position of an accuser in that hearing [65] Contrary to the decision of the Court of Appeal, the proper conclusion is therefore that the involvement of Ms Hughes in the deliberative process resulted in a breach of the implied condition of procedural fairness so as to take the decision of Mr Kourambas beyond the power conferred by s 84P(e) of the Act. Although I would grant leave to the Council to file its notice of contention, I would reject the contention that the decision of the Court of Appeal should be affirmed on the ground that a fair-minded observer would not reasonably apprehend bias on the part of Mr Kourambas. I agree with the plurality that the appeal to this Court should be allowed, that the orders of the Court of Appeal and of the primary judge should be set aside, and that the purported legal effect of the decision made in fact by Mr Kourambas should be quashed by an order in the nature of certiorari. [1] Isbester v Knox City Council [2014] VSC 286 at [84]. [2] [2000] HCA 63; (2000) 205 CLR 337 at 344 [6]; [2000] HCA 63. [3] (2001) 205 CLR 507 at 563 [181]; [2001] HCA 17. [4] Isbester v Knox City Council [2014] VSC 286 at [85]. [5] Isbester v Knox City Council [2014] VSC 286 at [110]. [6] [2008] NSWCA 209; (2008) 72 NSWLR 504 at 519 [80] per Basten JA. [7] Isbester v Knox City Council [2014] VSCA 214 at [48], [65], [69]. [8] Isbester v Knox City Council [2014] VSC 286 at [111]. [9] McGovern v Ku-ring-gai Council [2008] NSWCA 209; (2008) 72 NSWLR 504 at 509-510 [25]- [27]. [10] Isbester v Knox City Council [2014] VSCA 214 at [69], [78]-[80]. [11] (1972) 128 CLR 509; [1972] HCA 53. [12] (1910) 10 CLR 243; [1910] HCA 7. [13] Isbester v Knox City Council [2014] VSCA 214 at [78]- [80]. [14] Isbester v Knox City Council [2014] VSC 286 at [103]- [105]. [15] Isbester v Knox City Council [2014] VSCA 214 at [65]. [16] Isbester v Knox City Council [2014] VSCA 214 at [68]. [17] [2000] HCA 63; (2000) 205 CLR 337 at 345 [8]. [18] (2001) 205 CLR 507 at 563 [183]. [19] [2000] HCA 63; (2000) 205 CLR 337 at 343-344 [4]. [20] Minister for Immigration and Multicultural Affairs v Jia Legeng (2001) 205 CLR 507 at 563 [181]. [21] Hot Holdings Pty Ltd v Creasy [2002] HCA 51; (2002) 210 CLR 438 at 460 [70]; [2002] HCA 51. [22] Kioa v West [1985] HCA 81; (1985) 159 CLR 550 at 612; [1985] HCA 81. [23] Hot Holdings Pty Ltd v Creasy [2002] HCA 51; (2002) 210 CLR 438 at 459 [68]. [24] Stollery v Greyhound Racing Control Board [1972] HCA 53; (1972) 128 CLR 509 at 519. [25] Minister for Immigration and Multicultural Affairs v Jia Legeng (2001) 205 CLR 507 at 562 [179], 565 [187] per Hayne J. [26] Minister for Immigration and Multicultural Affairs v Jia Legeng (2001) 205 CLR 507 at 540 [104]. [27] [2008] NSWCA 209; (2008) 72 NSWLR 504 at 508 [13]. [28] Minister for Immigration and Multicultural Affairs v Jia Legeng (2001) 205 CLR 507 at 539 [102]. [29] Salemi v MacKellar [No 2] [1977] HCA 26; (1977) 137 CLR 396 at 419 per Gibbs J; [1977] HCA 26. [30] [1910] HCA 7; (1910) 10 CLR 243 at 259. [31] Dickason v Edwards [1910] HCA 7; (1910) 10 CLR 243 at 259. [32] Recognised in Dimes v Proprietors of the Grand Junction Canal [1852] EngR 789; (1852) 3 HLC 759 [10 ER 301]. [33] Dickason v Edwards [1910] HCA 7; (1910) 10 CLR 243 at 257. [34] Stollery v Greyhound Racing Control Board [1972] HCA 53; (1972) 128 CLR 509 at 520. [35] Stollery v Greyhound Racing Control Board [1972] HCA 53; (1972) 128 CLR 509 at 516. [36] Stollery v Greyhound Racing Control Board [1972] HCA 53; (1972) 128 CLR 509 at 527. [37] Stollery v Greyhound Racing Control Board [1972] HCA 53; (1972) 128 CLR 509 at 526-527. [38] Stollery v Greyhound Racing Control Board [1972] HCA 53; (1972) 128 CLR 509 at 517 per Barwick CJ. [39] Stollery v Greyhound Racing Control Board [1972] HCA 53; (1972) 128 CLR 509 at 527 per Gibbs J. [40] [2000] HCA 63; (2000) 205 CLR 337 at 358 [59]- [61]. [41] Ebner v Official Trustee in Bankruptcy [2000] HCA 63; (2000) 205 CLR 337 at 358 [59]. [42] Isbester v Knox City Council [2014] VSC 286 at [115]. [43] Section 72. [44] Section 92(b). [45] Section 81(2)(a). [46] Section 98. [47] Gubbins v Wyndham City Council [2004] VSC 238; (2004) 9 VR 620. [48] Australian Broadcasting Tribunal v Bond [1990] HCA 33; (1990) 170 CLR 321 at 367; [1990] HCA 33. [49] Re Refugee Review Tribunal; Ex parte H (2001) 75 ALJR 982 at 989-990 [27]-[30]; 179 ALR 425 at 434-435; [2001] HCA 28; McGovern v Ku-ring-gai Council [2008] NSWCA 209; (2008) 72 NSWLR 504 at 507 [2], 516-517 [71]-[72], 553 [234]. [50] Minister for Immigration and Multicultural Affairs v Jia Legeng (2001) 205 CLR 507 at 538 [99]; [2001] HCA 17, citing Ebner v Official Trustee in Bankruptcy [2000] HCA 63; (2000) 205 CLR 337 at 343-344 [4]; [2000] HCA 63. See also McGovern v Ku-ring-gai Council [2008] NSWCA 209; (2008) 72 NSWLR 504 at 507-508 [6]- [13]. [51] Minister for Immigration and Multicultural Affairs v Jia Legeng (2001) 205 CLR 507 at 564-565 [187], 566 [192]; see also at 538 [100]. [52] SZRUI v Minister for Immigration, Multicultural Affairs and Citizenship [2013] FCAFC 80 at [3]. [53] Re Refugee Review Tribunal; Ex parte H (2001) 75 ALJR 982 at 990 [28]; 179 ALR 425 at 435. [54] Cf Ebner v Official Trustee in Bankruptcy [2000] HCA 63; (2000) 205 CLR 337 at 345 [8]. [55] Hot Holdings Pty Ltd v Creasy [2002] HCA 51; (2002) 210 CLR 438 at 448 [22]; [2002] HCA 51. [56] R v Sussex Justices; Ex parte McCarthy [1924] 1 KB 256. [57] [1972] HCA 53; (1972) 128 CLR 509 at 518-519; [1972] HCA 53. [58] [1924] 1 KB 256 at 258-259. [59] Australian Workers' Union v Bowen [No 2] [1948] HCA 35; (1948) 77 CLR 601 at 616; [1948] HCA 35. [60] Leeson v General Council of Medical Education and Registration (1889) 43 Ch D 366 at 384. [61] Section 5(c) of the Administrative Procedure Act 1946 (US) (as passed). [62] Attorney General's Committee on Administrative Procedure, Final Report of Attorney General's Committee on Administrative Procedure, (1941) at 56. [63] Dickason v Edwards [1910] HCA 7; (1910) 10 CLR 243 at 252-253, 256-257, 259, 262; [1910] HCA 7; Stollery v Greyhound Racing Control Board [1972] HCA 53; (1972) 128 CLR 509 at 519-520, 525, 527. [64] Rendell v Release on Licence Board (1987) 10 NSWLR 499 at 507. [65] Isbester v Knox City Council [2014] VSCA 214 at [70]- [75].I've uploaded new builds of Firefox with experimental support for the WHATWG <video> element. They are (compiled from this git commit): The git repository has been updated with the code for this build. Note that the code in these builds, and the git repository, is advanced from that in the patch attached to the video element bugzilla entry. That code can be accessed from git via the patch11 tag. The usual disclaimer with the builds I provide applies. Be aware that these are builds from a random point in the Mozilla CVS tree, with the Video patch applied. I don't guarantee they'll work for much more than demonstrating video support and it's very likely to contain bugs. That said, I run these builds often. Two main additions with this build. The first is fixing the annoying bug whereby leaving a page that is playing video would leave the sound running in the background. This was due to the 'bfcache' keeping the page around in case the user hits the back or forward buttons. The video is effectively paused now when the page is in the bfcache. The second is preliminary support for the <source> element, which can be used to provide a list of media resources, with mime types, and the browser selects out of the list the media resource to play based on what it supports. This initial implementation only supports a 'type' attribute set to 'video/ogg'. What this will let you do though, is add a source element for an MP4 encoding, and one for an Ogg encoding. When played on Firefox the Ogg version will play, and a browser that currently doesn't support Ogg but supports MP4 can choose to play that instead. Issues I have partial fixes for but haven't yet made it into the main branch of the git repository, and not in these builds are: Sound support on Linux is patchy. I'm using sydney audio's OSS support which has issues when multiple devices open /dev/dsp. This can occasionally affect synchronisation of the video. There is no buffering for network loads. The video plays immediately so on a slow pipe or large video the playback will stutter. You can pause the video to let the download catch up but there is no progress indication yet. This can make performance look worse than it is in bandwidth constrained environments. Seeking forward and back in the stream. There is some support, but it's a work in progress and quite broken. You might notice that full page zoom works in this build. And it works with videos. You can zoom a page and any videos on the page are zoomed. You can test this with Ctrl+ (Apple-+ on the Mac). Test videos are available at my test page, or Opera's page. There are sites using the <video> right now. The Metavid project has support for the <video> element. If you look at the videos in a <video> enabled browser, the player is the interface provided with the 'controls' attribute set. For example, Senate Proceeding 11-16-07. Nice job, Metavid, and thanks for using <video>! The Wikimedia video's seems to have experimental support for it. Unfortunately the test to see if the video element is supported appears to be done last, so usually the Java applet, etc is found first. You can get around this by setting a cookie. When the Wikimedia video page open, enter this in the URL bar: javascript:wgOggPlayer.setCookie('ogg_player', 'videoElement', 7864001000, false, false, false, false) Remove it by deleting the 'commons.wikimedia.org' cookie if you want to go back to the default ordering of selections. You'll notice some issues, which is probably why it's currently right at the end of the chain. Clicking on the video picture and pressing play works fine. But clicking the play button on the main page listing all the videos does not correctly display the video. I'll look into what's causing this. If you know of any other <video> supported sites, please let me know in the comments. I'll be attending the W3C Video on the Web Workshop in San Jose on the 12th and 13th of December. I fly out from Auckland on the 9th and leave San Francisco on the 16th. If you're in the area and want to catch up, let me know.Wall Street opposed the anti-LGBT #HB2. Will they oppose bigotry in the White House? Alexis Goldstein Blocked Unblock Follow Following Nov 22, 2016 Image via Canadian Pacific (CC BY-NC 2.0) In the first year of my very first job on Wall Street at Morgan Stanley, I wasn’t out at work. I was uncertain about how my coworkers would react, especially since no one on my team really talked about family — or even about our weekends; everything, on my team of workaholics, was focused on the task at hand. But after settling in a bit, I soon realized my hesitancy was totally unwarranted. I also learned that the firm had a strong LGBTQ network, and regretted not getting involved sooner. But the real shift happened after the changeover in leadership from Phil Purcell to John Mack in 2005. The bank started spending big money purchasing multiple tables at fundraising galas for LGBT organizations like the Human Rights Campaign (HRC) and GLSEN. Employees attributed the amplified commitment to LGBTQ equality to the fact that Mack has a gay son, but regardless of the reasons, I felt a real commitment by my firm to my rights as a gay person. A float from Bank of America at a gay pride parade. Image via eclipse_etc (CC BY-NC-ND 2.0) (cropped) My next job was at Merrill Lynch, whose LGBTQ network was even larger and more active than Morgan Stanley’s. The group had a dedicated newsletter, documenting the monthly events of the group, and the achievements of its members. It will surprise no one to hear that Wall Street workers are mostly white and male, and that was reflected in its LGBTQ group as well. But that was less true at my next job, Bank of America, with its hundreds of thousands of employees, including frontline
not form private, reputation tracking, industry bodies. While informal reputations may offer some benefits, their value is blunted by market actors’ need for secrecy, and warped by the lack of dispute resolution services. Property rights must be physically enforced by property owners. In the face of potential predation by rivals many dealers cultivate fearsome reputations, to the detriment of market stability. Online drug bazaars like SilkRoad may be illegal, but they use technology to realise some benefits of a legal market. Legalisation prevents marketplace violence by extending police protection and property rights. Moving black markets online simply removes most opportunities for violence. A 2014 study of SilkRoad by Judith Aldridge at the University of Manchester found that, depending upon the drug in question, between 31 and 45 percent of revenue was generated by supplier to supplier sales. Mid-level exchanges of drugs for cash between relative strangers are risky endeavors, but online markets present “fewer of the risks... including non-payment from customers, theft of product and cash, and violence”. Risk of nonpayment is ameliorated through the use of escrow services, while shipping is delegated to unwitting mail carriers, preventing face to face transactions in which disputes can turn deadly. The creation of a formalised reputation system brings suppliers’ incentives into greater alignment with consumer demands. Instead of fighting to monopolise local territory, drug sellers must compete with anonymous rivals hundreds of miles away, and the only way they can steal their business is by offering buyers a better product. The ability of consumers to rate and review sellers encourages the consistent provision of a safe product, lowering merchant time preference as long term consumer relationships become more viable. As a result, drugs purchased from online retailers are less likely to contain unsafe adulterants than drugs sold on the street. These benefits aside, the production of drugs sold online is still fraught with violence and exploitation, and dealers’ untaxed, undeclared profits are often used to fund more morally dubious criminal enterprises. When commercial disputes occur, online black markets still have no way to peaceably resolve them. It is only by legally regulating the sale of drugs that that the entire production chain can be pacified and removed from the hands of criminals. Decriminalisation, the elimination of criminal penalties for cannabis use, without the establishment of a legal market, is often seen as a step in the right direction, or at least a harmless stopgap measure. In some jurisdictions cannabis may be possessed or grown, but not sold. This policy is often idealistically intended to encourage users to wholesomely grow their own cannabis. In reality, it creates a slightly more efficient, harder to target black market, while incentivising ludicrous gift and donation schemes, and injecting uncertainty into citizen police interactions. Gangs may expand their operations knowing that they will face fewer losses due to street level arrests, but they face no new incentives to behave as responsible merchants. In the face of increasing social normalisation, and limited resources, police want to focus their efforts elsewhere, and pro-legalisation politicians often see decriminalisation as a stepping stone to broader reform, however, its failings reflect poorly on proposals for genuine legalisation. Even getting a small part of the legalisation process wrong can lead to severe unintended consequences. In America, state-level cannabis legalisation takes almost all the necessary steps to realise the benefits of a legal marketplace. Unfortunately, the financial sector is regulated at the federal, rather than the state, level, where cannabis is still illegal. Coloradans may register a cannabis business, receive police protection, and sue unreliable suppliers in state courts, they are largely cut off from banking and payment processing systems. As a result, all transactions in Colorado’s $700 million-a-year cannabis industry are made with cash, creating countless opportunities for theft and fraud. Unable to access traditional credit markets, prospective cannabis merchants may turn to black market loans. Cash transport and storage businesses have developed to fill the void left by the lack of traditional banking services, but don’t eliminate the risks posed by storefronts doing hundreds of thousands of dollars of business in cash. When it comes time to pay taxes, business owners must deliver sacks of banknotes to government offices ill-equipped to store them. There is nothing natural about this situation. The banking industry has provided alternatives to cash transactions for hundreds of years. A failure to fully legalise the cannabis market has dangerously prevented access to valuable financial innovations. Markets are adaptive, and will emerge to meet consumer demand even when outlawed, though prohibition imposes costs on market participants, altering their incentives in unpredictable ways. The only way to fully pacify drug markets is to legalise them in full, setting rules of the road, allowing informed, discriminating, consumers to regulate merchants, and otherwise getting out of the way. William Duffield is a Masters student in Political Theory.Welcome to our September edition of VR Source Monthly, an overview of the biggest VR technology news and reviews from the previous month. As our regulars may be aware, in addition to rounding up all the best news, we also tie in the monthly recap with a great giveaway. I hope you enjoy some of our favorite news and announcements from August 2016, and when you get through reading, be sure to sign up for your chance to win a Samsung Galaxy S7 and Samsung Gear VR. What’s new at VR Source If we are being honest, this month was a bit slower for VR, at least in terms of big announcements and press events. That said, at VR Source our very own John Velasco took a very close look at the HTC Vive, bringing both a full review and a “VS” against the Rift. He also checked out an overly pricey yet under-functioning headset called the Dlodlo V1 VR, and then brought an opinion video on some of the design quirks he finds most bothersome about VR. The rest of the team was busy bringing you quite a bit of great VR news, as well as some updated best lists and more. Myself as the lead editor? Most of my efforts this month were behind the scenes this month, though some of the things I was checking out will come to the forefront in this new month including a look at the Vuzix iWear – a video entertainment headset that also offers some VR functionality. Furthermore, I’ll be bringing full reviews of a few of my favorite current Vive games — including Raw Data, which I highly recommend. HTC Vive review The HTC Vive has been on the market for a while now, but we wanted to wait off jumping right into a review, giving us time to really get to know the Vive. Also allowing us time to see how the ecosystem picked up (or if it even would). So how does the Vive look now that the dust has settled? That’s what we find out in our full review. Read more: HTC Vive review HTC Vive vs Oculus Rift Now that we’ve made our stance clear on the HTC Vive, you might wonder how we feel it compares to the Oculus Rift. In this comparison, we take a look at how the hardware, ecosystem, and overall experience differs and ultimately pick which we feel is the current king. Read more: HTC Vive vs Oculus Rift 5 annoying design quirks of current VR headsets There’s a lot to like about the current crop of VR headsets, but none of them are perfect. In this post Velasco highlights some of the design quirks he feels are a bit annoying and less than ideal. Read more: 5 annoying VR headset design quirks Dlodlo V1 VR hands on Recently we had the opportunity to check out the Dlodlo V1 VR for ourselves. Ultimately we weren’t too impressed by what we saw, especially considering the asking price. To find out more about why we felt this way, be sure to check out the video and the accompanying article. Read more: Dlodlo V1 VR hands on Some of our other favorite news At VR Source we cover a ton of news, way too much to wrap it all into one post, but here’s some links to some other great happenings in the VR world that are worth a look: The Giveaway We want to start by congratulating the winner of our previous giveaway for AMD RX 480 and a Steam gift card, Emrah E. (Turkey). This month we’re giving away a Samsung Galaxy S7 handset and the Gear VR. While the Galaxy S7 is no longer the latest handset from Samsung, it remains one of the best of 2016, and the Gear VR is no slouch either! For more details on the Gear VR, be sure to check out our Gear VR FAQ. Giveaway Code: Galaxy S7 & Gear VR International Giveaway! Terms & ConditionsHello, fellow role players! This week, I want to talk a little bit about balancing encounters for dungeon crawls, or rather, not balancing them at all. This week’s post is going to be a little different, as I’ll be talking specifically about games like Dungeons & Dragons and its children, since I find narrative games have fewer problems with difficulty curves. So if testing your players’ resolve sounds like fun, read on! Story Time, Where-In I Play a Video Game Several years ago, Bethesda released The Elder Scrolls: Skyrim; a sprawling, open-world RPG promising hundreds of hours of adventure. It was a phenomenal game, held back a bit by bugs and, I think, a boring difficulty curve. You see, Skyrim used the concept of dynamic balancing — based on your character’s level — to determine which foes you would face during your quest. The idea behind this seems sound; if the player is always encountering things around their level, then the game will feel fair, but the player won’t ever hit a wall and be unable to proceed. However, this idea can fall down pretty quickly, which I found out the very first time I played the game. For those unfamiliar with the Skyrim, you play the Dragonborn; a prophesied hero who can understand and command the language of dragons. Over the course of the game, you visit various locations and grow your draconic vocabulary, which translates to powerful abilities you can use in the game. Since Skyrim is an open-world, there’s no set order in which you accomplish things, so even though the game is suggesting a direction, you can go off-script and just walk to the nearest mountain or cave or whatever. This is precisely what I did after I got out of the tutorial area — I made a hard left instead of following the given path, and quickly found myself high in the mountains at some kind of shrine, being attacked by a few wolves. After dispatching the wolves, I approached the shrine and was given my first draconic word, hours before the game would actually allow me to use it. Cool! In one way, the emergent gameplay totally worked here; I explored a bit, and was rewarded. On the other hand, it was kind of an anti-climax, because I didn’t have to fight especially hard for what was obviously something special, and I couldn’t use the reward I had “earned.” The game was doing its job though — it had read my level (and some other criteria, no doubt), and put an “appropriate” challenge in my way. In the process, it had taken something special and made it mundane, or worse, boring. “So what does this have to do with game mastering a pen-and-paper RPG?”, you might ask. Well, as our hobby has grown and evolved, encounter balance has become something many games prioritize, especially more complex games like Dungeons & Dragons or Legend of the Five Rings. These games have systems for determining what kind of challenge is appropriate for a group of adventurers of any given level. Here’s the thing — those systems of kind of crap, and I think they can suck the fun out of your game. If your players know they can overcome every challenge they face, they aren’t incentivized to be clever, or diplomatic, or scared, which turns the game into a one-note murder-hobo parade. If that’s what you’re after, then by all means, proceed! But if you’re looking for something more interesting, I suggest you toss the idea of “encounter balance” out the window, and embrace the “unfairness” of the game. Let me put on my Old Grognard Pants of Reminiscing +1, and we’ll continue. Back in My Day Full disclosure: I’m not really old enough to be a grognard. I started playing RPGs with D&D 2nd Edition, but I have been playing long enough to witness the rise of game balance as a priority. When I started gaming, D&D used a combination of hit-dice (the number of dice you rolled to generate an enemy’s hit points) and experience reward (the number of experience points you got for killing a creature) to communicate the challenge of any given enemy to the game master. When designing an encounter, you (the GM) were encouraged to look at these two numbers, along with whatever else might be relevant, and decide if the party could handle the challenge. The system was a little convoluted, and it was hard to design “fair” encounters which would challenge the players, but still give them a chance of success. In third edition D&D, we got the Challenge Rating (CR), which was supposed to communicate how many encounters a party of X level could deal with before exhausting their resources. A party of 5 players at level 9 should be able to face 5 challenges of rating 9 in a day. All the game masters I knew (including myself) rejoiced. Finally, we would have a simple way to gauge the difficulty of our games. Except, it didn’t work like that, because D&D is a complex game, with multiple interlocking systems, filled with emergent gameplay possibilities. While the CR acted as a general guideline, it couldn’t account for how spells, character abilities, and synergies between creatures or character classes would affect an encounter. Sure, maybe a goblin shaman was a CR 1, but if he had access to Summon Monster, and just dropped an angry grizzly bear into the fight, all of that carefully crafted “balance” just went out the window. This is a problem which has bedeviled the subsequent editions of D&D, and almost every other game which adopts a similar system. In the years since I started playing, I’ve come to realize that the old-school games had the right idea when it came to creating challenges. No School Like the Old School When it was first written, D&D didn’t care about balance one bit. If you want an example of that, just take a look at the classic Keep on the Borderlands adventure. This module is written for 1st level characters, and it features a hulking ogre right at the “front door” of the dungeon. If the party isn’t careful, their first foray into the Caves of Chaos will end very quickly and painfully. Now of course, old-school games relished in the idea of killing characters. This was before the days of “story-focused” gaming, when the GM was more antagonistic towards the players, and each side was often actively attempting to “beat” the other. More-over, since life was so cheap, the “character” didn’t really emerge until they’d survived for a while. After all, who cares about the thief’s tragic backstory if he’s just going to get mauled by wolves the first time he leaves town. While I don’t advocate going back to the “me vs them” mentality which often permeated the old adventures, I do think these older games have the right idea when it comes to balancing encounters. That is, to not balance them at all. These days, we’ve got Old-School-Renaissance (OSR) games embracing these ideas, and flying in the face of systems like the challenge rating. Dungeon Crawl Classics, a game I adore, is one of these games. Other systems like Lamentation of the Flame Princess and Torchbearer do the same thing. The first time I ran a Torchbearer session, I sent the party to the Keep on the Borderlands. They barely survived their encounter with the ogre, and for the rest of the adventure they were much more cautious and deliberate. They would sneak, and plan ambushes. If they thought an enemy was too tough, they’d try to negotiate with the creature. When things got too hot, they’d retreat to camp. This was the first time I’d been part of a dungeon crawl group who tried to think and plan their way through a dungeon, rather than just kicking in every door and murdering whatever was behind it. It was refreshing. It All Comes Around So how do we bring these lessons into a modern, complex game like D&D 5th edition? Easy — design every encounter to be deadly and difficult, and then warn the players. Tell them what you’re doing, and let them know that just because the system says an encounter is deadly, doesn’t mean it actually will be. Some of your encounters will be a breeze, and others will be a near (or actual) total-party-kill. If your players are on board, they’ll start to learn their limitations, and the group will be looking for ways to gain advantages or bypass threats which they think are too much for them. Even better — when they get beat by a foe, they’ll remember, and if they survive, probably want to take revenge. Perfect! You’ve just created a memorable villain for them to revisit. “But Kevin, how do I know if my encounter is technically hard?” I hear you ask. Lucky for you, the internet has you covered! For D&D 5e, there’s the amazing Kobold Fight Club. If you’re running an older version of D&D, or Pathfinder, check out donjon. If you’re playing something else, then I suggest you hit up Google. I’m sure there’s either a generator, or advice, somewhere out there! If you’re worried about how this sort of encounter design plays out, be sure to checkout the RollPlay West Marches and Court of Swords videos. Both Adam Koebel and Steven Lumpkin favor dynamic instead of balanced encounters, and I think the results speak for themselves. A Note About Rewards in D&D Now, there is something to consider with D&D specifically; it wants players to kill everything. At it’s core, the system only rewards a character for killing a creature — monsters are essentially giant bags of experience to be emptied — and you’ll have to take that into account. There are ways around this; you can reward XP at milestones, or use some other means of determining experience. Or, you can play D&D with the core reward mechanic in place, and prepare the players by telling they might not level as quickly. A Note On Character Balance I’ve used the term “balance” a lot here, and I want to clarify I’m only speaking of encounter balance, not character balance. The first is the purview of the GM; designing challenges and encounters which the players engage with. The second is inherit to the design of the system; are the different character options all more-or-less equally optimal, and do they all scale in a way which maintains that equilibrium? Encounter balance is fairly easy to deal with (by not trying to deal with it at all). Character balance is harder, as any single change to a character option could have cause a butterfly effect with the rest of the game. This is why I tend to disallow so-called “splat books” in games where this could be an issue. I’m looking at you, Pathfinder.But understand too that Boudreau has been a spectacular success by many other measures, and almost certainly will land another job in the NHL quickly if he wants to, the way he did with the Ducks after he was fired by the Washington Capitals in 2011-12. The Anaheim Ducks fired coach Bruce Boudreau on Friday, and it's easy to understand why. For the fourth straight year, they blew a 3-2 lead in a Stanley Cup Playoff series and lost Game 7 at home. This is a team with players like Ryan Getzlaf, Corey Perry and Ryan Kesler; a team built to win the championship. This is a spectacular failure. Boudreau has gone 41-39 in the playoffs and never made the Stanley Cup Final. But his regular-season record is 409-192-80. He coached the best offensive team in the League in Washington and the best defensive team in the League in Anaheim. There are legitimate questions about how Boudreau handles pressure. An emotional, honest guy, he paces before big games and isn't afraid to share it publicly, perhaps to his detriment. He can project panic when he needs to project calm. Video: NHL Live: Bruce Boudreau out in Anaheim But those qualities make him who he is, and they have been the key to his success otherwise. "He's a coach who expresses exactly how he's feeling, exactly what he wants you to do," Pittsburgh Penguins defenseman Ben Lovejoy once said when he played for the Ducks. "There's no gray area with Bruce. You know when you're playing well. You know when you're not playing well. "When we've been ultra-successful, he's been able to push the right buttons to keep us motivated and working hard both individually and as a team. When we're in need of confidence, he absolutely has the pulse of the room and knows exactly what needs to be said." If you're the general manager of a team on the cusp of a Stanley Cup, Boudreau probably isn't your man right now. But if you're the GM of a team with some talent in need of a turnaround, a team that needs to take the next step, he might be just what you need. The Capitals were 6-14-1 when they hired Boudreau on Thanksgiving Day in 2007, calling him up from Hershey of the American Hockey League. This might be hard to remember now, but except for Alex Ovechkin, they were struggling to score. Washington went 37-17-7 the rest of the season, and Boudreau won the Jack Adams Award. In his first four seasons, Boudreau led the Capitals to four straight division titles and a Presidents' Trophy. But he never led them past the second round of the playoffs, and they tried to change their identity from a high-flying offensive team to a lower-risk defensive team. It might have been a mistake. It didn't work. It led to friction with Ovechkin and Boudreau's firing early in the 2011-12 season (and eventually more upheaval in Washington with two more coaching changes and a GM change). Ducks GM Bob Murray hired Boudreau immediately. The Ducks were 7-13-4 with stars who needed a boost and youngsters who needed to develop. After an adjustment period of about a month, the Ducks got hot and made a run at the playoffs. They didn't qualify because the hole was too deep, but they went on to win four straight division titles. The tough part of all of this for Boudreau was the Ducks appeared to be making progress - out in the first round, out in the second round, out in the Western Conference Final - and this season might have been one of his best coaching jobs. The Ducks started this season 1-7-2 and were 12-15-6 at the Christmas break. Kesler said after a 3-2 shootout loss in New York against the Rangers, Boudreau came in the dressing room and gave a speech. He told the Ducks to take their three days off, reset themselves and come back for the "back nine." They would concentrate on structure and defense. From Dec. 26 on, the Ducks had the best record in the League: 34-10-5. They ranked at or near the top in most major categories over that stretch - goals, goals against, power play, penalty killing - and finished the season first in goals against (188), first in penalty killing (87.2 percent) and first on the power play (23.1 percent). They joined the Chicago Blackhawks and St. Louis Blues as the only teams in the NHL to post 100 points each of the past three seasons. Yes, they fell into a 2-0 hole against the Nashville Predators in the Western Conference First Round. Yes, they lost Game 6 on the road again. Yes, they lost Game 7 at home again. As in many of Boudreau's Game 7 failures, his team started slowly and fell behind. The Ducks trailed 2-0 after 15:53 and couldn't come back. But a lot of that is on the players. Biggest example: Perry didn't score a goal in the series. Boudreau is an affable guy. He has the label of a player's coach. But don't let that or his Game 7 hiccups leave you with the wrong idea. He isn't walking around with sauce on his face all the time like he once did on HBO, throwing the puck out there and letting the boys do what they want. He gives the players defined roles, and he puts them in position to succeed. He shows he cares about them on and off the ice. "He understands the player's mind," Getzlaf once said. "He understands how to treat people with respect, and he gets that in return. … He's not as soft and freewheeling as everybody thinks he is when it comes to the accountability aspect." Boudreau is being held accountable now. But someone should hire him soon.The word "slut" appears in the first line of Margo Lanagan's new book, Tender Morsels. The next few paragraphs describe an unsettling sex scene between a witch and a dwarf. For some parents this will simply be an upfront way of indicating the challenging content of an interesting novel for young people, for others it will signal the end of children's literature. The novel, published this month by Random House, is a lurid reworking of Grimm's Snow White and Rose Red fairytale and also contains a gang rape and a frank description of a miscarriage. Within the book industry, the new title from the Australian author is already being described as uncompromising and controversial. Publication of Tender Morsels in this country is leading to renewed calls for a clearer system to let parents know about the nature of the books that their children are reading. Anne Fine, a former children's laureate, said: "If you look at online reviews, nearly all the parents think it is quite unsuitable. Many of the children loved the book but among the girls, a lot of them found it frightening or even repulsive. "I have to wonder generally whether a children's publisher does not sometimes have a responsibility to stop and say that although a shocking new book will make money, and even be popular, it does not have what the Americans call'redeeming social importance'." Philip Pullman, author of the His Dark Materials trilogy, believes the front of a book should offer a good clue to the buyer. "Book covers can tell you a lot," he said. "A book with a cover illustration by Nick Sharratt, who does many of Jacqueline Wilson's covers, tells you a lot about what is inside, while a book cover by Ian Beck, one of my favourites, tells you this is a different kind of book." Designers at Random House have given Lanagan's novel one cover illustration for younger readers, while another has been chosen for the adult edition being published by Jonathan Cape. Pullman feels the mysterious cover portrait picked for a young audience is likely to draw readers in without giving much information. He does not believe, though, that children's writers should steer clear of tough material. "I don't think there should be areas that children's books can't deal with. Why should there be, given that children are likely to encounter much stronger subjects in real life, ranging from divorce - which once used to be something terrible and awful that you must not talk about - to drug trafficking and sex?" For Pullman, calls for censorship or for an age-related classification system are not the answer. "This idea comes from a misguided fear and a murky sense of nostalgia about the way books used to be." David Fickling, the publisher of Tender Morsels, says he knows the content will be unpalatable to some readers and so there is a warning on the inside of the jacket. He defends Lanagan's gang rape scene because it is couched in a moral context. "I cannot believe anybody could read the gang rape scene and not be horrified. Terrible things are out there in the world. And in the real world they tumble into children's lives in an unexplained way - items on the news, like the [Jamie] Bulger case or killings in Helmand." Michael Rosen, the former children's laureate, suspects that age guidelines would be pointless. "If you have a book in a house that says it is for a nine-year-old, is that going to stop an eight-year-old picking it up?" he asked. "A book is a public place and you can't control it. That is why we call it the republic of letters. It was the Puritans who were worried about people's private desires. Attempts to control reading are the last tendrils of puritanism."Cities home to pro sports teams are often in store for some big time money if one of their teams enters a championship match. Now as the 2014 baseball World Series is around the corner, two cities will soon be sharing hosting duties; like other cities before them, it’s a chance for both areas to gain millions upon millions of dollars in revenue. Ticket and merchandise sales, sports-related events and local tourism make the biggest impacts for restaurants, hotels and stores that translate into tax revenue for the city. The Fall Classic is one serious series of moneyball, but it doesn’t come without its expenses. While neither host city will ever spend more than it earns, they stand to incur plenty of costs that can greatly impact revenues. Is your city’s team competing in the World Series this year? Read on to see how the local economy can be negatively affected. Related: 5 Famous MLB Players Who Went Broke Host Cities Benefit Financially In last year’s World Series, three games held at Busch Stadium created a positive economic impact in St. Louis of at least $7.9 million per game, according to Alicia Jessop of Forbes. Over in Beantown, the 2013 series’ winner was estimated to raise up to $10 million per home World Series game for Boston — almost 10 times the amount raised by a regular season Red Sox gathering, according to CBS Boston. Even more impressive was the San Francisco Giants’ 2012 World Series pennant victory. During that championship series, visitors spent between $18 million and $40 million, according to data reported by the San Francisco Examiner. That stimulus, however, was tempered slightly by the city’s celebratory parade for the team’s World Series win, costing taxpayers more than $225,000. The winners’ parade isn’t the only type of expense that World Series host cities can anticipate this year. Related: 7 of the MLB’s Biggest Bank Accounts Revenues Offset by other Factors Security Following the April 2013 bombing at the city’s annual marathon that killed three people and wounded more than 260, Boston police were on high alert when it came time to provide security at Fenway Park and in the vicinity of the stadium for the 2013 World Series. There was an enhanced police presence for the first two games, but rules and police presence were tightened even further for game six, spreading thin a police force that still needs manpower St. Louis, as well, upped its security measures for the series, installing metal detectors at the stadium gates, employing bomb-sniffing dogs, monitoring the air for foreign substances and conducting random searches on fans, according to the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. Neither police department released numbers on the cost of the increased measures. Parking and Traffic Restrictions Also put in place by local law enforcement, stricter parking regulations and street closures around the host city’s baseball stadium can impact revenues of nearby businesses that aren’t allowed to provide parking in front of their storefronts for the duration of the series. During last year’s World Series, noted WCVB, the Boston mayor asked downtown businesses to let their workers go home at 4 p.m. to relieve traffic congestion; city staff also requested that local bar owners take down their outside displays by the fifth inning and cover their windows to discourage crowds from watching their TVs from outside. By restricting their operations, local businesses can lose both money and productivity during the game. Lack of Non-Baseball-Related Business Businesses that don’t directly cater to the baseball crowd could actually lose money from a decline in business during the World Series. A few years ago, the New York Daily News reported that the Yankees/Phillies World Series face-off produced revenues averaging $40 to $110 million for New York City; however, some local merchants not capitalizing on baseball took it as a hit to their business. “The playoffs hurt us and the Series will be the same,” optician Robert Robles told the paper. “The fans going to the games don’t need to get their eyes examined.” Smaller, non-sports-oriented bars and restaurants can experience a drop in customers — and a loss of revenue — come World Series time, since patrons who aren’t interested in baseball are in the minority. A St. Louis eatery named Stellina published its thoughts in the River Front Times during last year’s Red Sox/Cardinals championships: “The truth is, if you aren’t located within two blocks of the stadium, or have 400 TVs in your place, you are most likely looking at an empty restaurant.” The restaurant’s chef, Jamey Tochtrop, believes that businesses simply need to adjust and adapt to the change. “It hurts business, but it’s also something we have to deal with once in a while. We’re a baseball town, I get it,” he said. “We’re not mad — there isn’t a real great solution.” Turning Financial Losses Into Wins World Series host cities don’t necessarily retain their popularity after the games. “If it’s not a popular place, hosting the World Series won’t change people’s minds,” said Dennis Coates, a University of Maryland economics professor, in the Christian Science Monitor. So how can cities and business turn this scenario around? Marketing and economy experts suggest that businesses unrelated to sports — like grocery stores or museums — should promote some baseball pride (at least temporarily), even if it’s something as small as “Go Dodgers!” in their front window to attract more sports-minded customers. For residents and visitors in a host city: Don’t hold back on your love of the World Series, but take it a step further — remember, win or lose, local businesses need your support before, during and after the baseball season.About Back in June 2016, we successfully launched a Kickstarter campaign which has helped us funding the first stage of development. Thanks to the outstanding feedback received from our backers through this amazing year, we finally reached a solid core build for the game, even if our budget was smaller compared to similar productions. After a year of development and with our final production cycle coming along, we decided to reach out even further in order to make Demoniaca even better. This is why we are now looking for a second stage of funding to help us delivering the best game we can possibly make. With your support, we will expand Demoniaca into an even bigger, better and bolder experience. Take a look at our internal demo sneak peek: Want to see more? Click here to see the full playthrough of our internal demo. Watch out for spoilers! Game journalist, blogger or youtuber? Contact us here to request the latest demo of the game! In DEMONIACA you will accompany the main character along her bloody journey of vengeance. DEMONIACA is a dark, gothic pixel art action platformer that combines Castlevania’s concept with classic Fighting Game combat mechanics, like “the King of Fighters”. In fact it is the first existing prototype of Kofvania. Striving to build a new Tower of Babel, a clan of ancestral demons razes a village to the ground. They sacrifice all its inhabitants, but one girl survives. Gutted and apparently dead, she wakes up upon piles of smoking corpses, surrounded in a pool of blood. Her own blood has been corrupted with that of the demons, giving her inhuman powers. She sews her mangled body back together and decides to avenge her brothers. Setting off on her journey for vengeance, she joins a world made of death, blood and violence in a quest that will force her to face her true nature. This is the remastered version of the offical trailer. A Combo-based Combat System in a Metroidvania. DEMONIACA is a new genre blend, an action platformer that combines Castlevania's dark aesthetic with classic Fighting Game combat mechanics like "The King of Fighters". As the first ever "Kofvania", DEMONIACA features an intense and highly dynamic gameplay based on the classic 2D fighting game combat system. Moves and skills are enabled through key combinations. In a pure fighting combat style. RPG: Attributes, Souls, Inventory. The character progression is based on skill points that are obtained each time the you level-up. With each SP you can increase an attribute of your choice between attack, defense, intelligence and luck. DEMONIACA also features an inventory system, with a wide range of gear available for the player to find in every encounter. Equippable items allow the player to enhance their attributes even further, while consumables are mainly used to create temporary status. Souls act as the main currency, allowing the player to spend them at the appropriate vendor (Boxman) to unlock new fighting combos. The player will need to "clean up" every room in order to find all objects and gain more power. Sanctuaries. Attributes can also be temporarily boosted by interacting with special rooms called “Sanctuaries”, which are found by exploring the environment. Rooms and Respawn. Enemies and destructibles regenerate after a fixed time forcing the player to move continuously through non-repetitive gameplay areas. Co-op System. Play the main story with a friend by summoning the Devil Boy. This companion will aid you during your journey, evolving his attributes together with the main character. Controls. The combat system is best enjoyed with a gamepad by using the directional stick and six buttons. DEMONIACA has also been designed in order to be completely compatible with arcade stick controllers. Following our original vision, these are DEMONIACA's main pillars of development and features: ★ Intense and compelling story. ★ Single player and soft co-op component. ★ Action combat system combined with RPG elements: combos, skills and items. ★ Many rooms, lots of hidden secrets, one big demonic Babel Tower to explore. ★ High quality old school pixel art and visual style. After a year of development, having completed all the game's core functionalities, we are aiming for the release in 12 months. With this campaign, we are hoping to enhance the game even further with more exciting content, alternative game modes and porting according to the stretch goals: We thought of different rewards for each type of player, take a look and find the one that fits you best! Demonic Doll. As a Kickstarter-only exclusive you will be able to earn a replica of the Boxman
Image caption The Scenic Railway "is" Dreamland, its chief executive said The clickety-clack of the Scenic Railway climbing its wooden, rollercoaster slopes has not been heard in Margate for nearly 10 years - but the 1920s theme park ride is now operating again and generations of fans have been waiting for this moment. What is its enduring appeal? The Scenic Railway is considered to be the heart of Dreamland - an unchanging icon that has stayed the same through decades of change. It fell into disrepair after the attraction closed in 2005 and was badly damaged by an arson attack in 2008. And when a revamped Dreamland opened in June some rides were operational but the Scenic Railway was still undergoing restoration. Visitors left operators in no doubt that it was very much wanted. Media playback is unsupported on your device Media caption Taking a ride back through time But what lies behind its attraction? Part of the answer is the significance of the ride through generations of families. Grandmothers phoned the theme park this summer to tell staff they wanted to bring their granddaughters on the ride they themselves had enjoyed as children. And couples who went on first dates on the rollercoaster wanted to relive the moment - but now as parents of four children. 'Great fish and chips' Dreamland's chief executive Eddie Kemsley said the huge amount of feedback on social media revealed "amazing stories". But she believes another key feature of the heritage amusement park and its historic Grade II* listed rollercoaster is its nostalgia. Media playback is unsupported on your device Media caption Dreamland's rollercoaster ride to a brighter future "What we have achieved is quite simple," she said. "It's authentic, with great fish and chips. We've got a few rides, entertainment, Punch and Judy, and it appeals to different generations. "It's not about technology and it's not hugely sophisticated. It's wholesome, British and traditional. It's a fun day out." Image copyright Rob Ball Image caption The ride fell into disrepair and fire later caused further damage Dreamland's boss said life now was "so hi-tech", but the theme park was still about people. "Entertainments like Punch and Judy - there's a reason they lasted hundreds of years," she said. "They're fun, they work and they're never going to change. "This takes us back to a simpler time." Image caption Designer Wayne Hemingway worked on the Dreamland revamp but not the Scenic Railway Image caption Generations of families remember the seaside attraction Work to restore Britain's oldest rollercoaster began in 2014. The wooden structure was completely replaced by a Kent-based firm, and the track and trains came from a company in the north of England that started off building trains for coal mines. The restored Scenic Railway is almost the same as when it was originally designed by Sir John Henry Iles who bought the site in 1919 and set out to create an American-style amusement park. To a lay person it will appear identical, but connoisseurs will see changes and modifications made for operational and safety reasons to make sure the ride is robust. Those who remember the whole structure shaking when the train went over it will be disappointed. There is still the clatter of the wheels of the train carriages, but the wooden rollercoaster stands strong. Image caption The wooden structure is checked every day by a carpenter Image caption Operators are hoping for a boost in visitor numbers For anyone used to 21st Century rollercoasters and worried about trying a vintage ride for the first time, safety measures are in place. A panel of experts has made sure it's as safe as possible. Rigorous inspection processes are in place - and because it's made of wood, a carpenter walks the track every day. The theme park is hoping for another boost to visitor numbers now the Scenic Railway is operational. Bed occupancy in Thanet was up by 50% this summer and the nearby Turner Contemporary saw a 25% increase in visitor tickets, Ms Kemsley said. Dreamland is also aware that a third of its visitors have come from London and have chosen Margate over any number of other tourist destinations. Image caption The restored roller coaster remains as close as possible to its original design Ms Kemsley said Margate had witnessed a resurgence in its seaside attraction status, but Dreamland still needed support. Its 1950s ballroom will open next week, Halloween and Christmas offers have been planned, and work is under way on the Hall by the Sea - a venue to hold 1,600 people. Ms Kemsley put it simply: "We have got more to come." Image copyright Rob Ball Image caption Vegetation grew through the disused rollercoaster Scenic Railway factsDr. Scott Gottlieb is seen in this American Enterprise Institute photo released in Washington, DC, U.S., March 10, 2017. Courtesy The American Enterprise Institute/Handout via REUTERS (Reuters) - Dr. Scott Gottlieb, President Donald Trump’s nominee to lead the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, has outlined measures he would take to untangle his ties to the pharmaceutical industry if confirmed by the Senate. In an ethics disclosure form filed with the Department of Health and Human Services on Tuesday, Gottlieb said he would resign from multiple corporate boards including GlaxoSmithKline Plc and consulting positions. Gottlieb’s financial ties to the healthcare industry are extensive. If confirmed he has agreed to recuse himself from matters in which he has a financial interest and divest his holdings in about 20 mostly small healthcare companies. Gottlieb, 44, is widely expected to be confirmed, though his pharmaceutical ties are likely to be scrutinized by Democrats. For the past decade he has been a partner at New Enterprise Associates, a large venture capital fund with investments in the life sciences. He would also resign from his position at the investment firm T.R. Winston & Co, and said he would not perform any consulting work while running the agency or participate in any matter involving previous clients for a year after last providing services to a client. Gottlieb, a resident fellow at the conservative American Enterprise Institute think tank, is viewed favorably by the drug industry. He would be responsible for implementing key elements in the recently passed 21st Century Cures Act, which calls on the agency to streamline the drug approval process.Under the Radar Blog Archives Select Date… January, 2019 December, 2018 November, 2018 October, 2018 September, 2018 August, 2018 July, 2018 June, 2018 May, 2018 April, 2018 March, 2018 February, 2018 Judge orders Obama foreign aid order released Rejecting one of the Obama White House's most aggressive attempts to preserve executive branch secrecy, a federal judge Tuesday ordered the disclosure of a government-wide foreign-aid directive President Barack Obama signed in 2010 but refused to make public. The Justice Department asserted that the Presidential Policy Directive on Global Development was covered by executive privilege, even though it is unclassified and reflected standing guidance to agencies rather than advice given to the president. Acting on a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit brought by the Center for Effective Government, U.S. District Court Judge Ellen Huvelle concluded that the presidential order is not properly within the bounds of the so-called "presidential communications privilege." The judge went further, calling "troubling" the sweeping nature of the government's argument's in the case. (PHOTOS: Obama’s second term) "This is not a case involving 'a quintessential and nondelegable Presidential power' — such as appointment and removal of Executive Branch officials...where separation of powers concerns are at their highest. Instead, the development and enactment of foreign development policy can be and is “exercised or performed without the President’s direct involvement," Huvelle wrote in her opinion (posted here.) Huvelle noted that she ordered the document delivered to her under seal last month and said she disagreed with the government's contention that the order is "'revelatory of the President's deliberations' such that its public disclosure would undermine future decision-making." She also found that "'the President's ability to communicate his [final] decisions privately'... is not implicated, since the [order] was distributed far beyond the President’s close advisers and its substance was widely discussed by the President in the media." (Also on POLITICO: Klayman crows on NSA win) "Here there is no evidence that the [directive] was intended to be, or has been treated as, a confidential presidential communication," wrote Huvelle, a Clinton appointee. The Obama Administration argued that the distribution of the document was restricted to those with a "need to know," but the judge dismissed that contention as "amorphous." "The government has not, even after plaintiff raised the issue...defined what 'need to know' means," Huvelle wrote. (Also on POLITICO: NSA ruling fallout hits White House) The judge also suggested the administration had lost sight of the purposes of the Freedom of Information Act and transparency itself. "The government appears to adopt the cavalier attitude that the President should be permitted to convey orders throughout the Executive Branch without public oversight... to engage in what is in effect governance by'secret law,'" Huvelle said. The White House referred a request for comment on the ruling to the Justice Department, which did not immediately respond to a query about the case. Follow @politicoBe a pal and follow me on Twitter and ilk the Legacy Control Facebook fan page. Just click the links below the comic and to the left of the blog. The Strip: So my wife FINALLY got an iPhone. She did intact ban me from playing Hero Academy. I was pretty addicted, but to be fair, I was playing Game Dev Story in between turns, so I rarely looked up from my phone. This particular scenarioo hasn’t unfolded yet, but i feel it coming. There is a world of iOS games out there and she WILL fall prey to one of them. Gaming: Speaking of iOS gaming, I purchased Angry Birds Space, and Draw something as per the urging from my man Chris Bergman. I will do my very best not to get anther ban handed down by the commissioner. Listening: Fun, GoT audio Book, and the CAGcast. TV/Movies: Sunday night and no Walking Dead…it feels strange. I loved the last episode of the season, even though a lot of the stuff the group did was flat out stupid. I don’t really know why the last episode affected me so, but I have been dreaming of zombies every night since. Life: I recorded my first test podcast with Chris this Friday, and it will be available for you’ll to listen to shortly. I think it went really well. We need to find a less echoey room to record it, but other than that it will most likely be the best video game podcast that mankind has ever heard. This may or may not be an exaggeration. JavisA Texas state legislator has introduced a bill to fine men for masturbating and require them to undergo counseling before being allowed to obtain a prescription for Viagra or receive other health services. The bill is purportedly in response to laws restricting abortion. The bill, introduced by Representative Jessica Farrar (D-Houston), would impose a $100 fine for “masturbatory emissions” that take place outside a woman’s vagina or a hospital. Farrar’s bill defines such actions as “an act against an unborn child, and failing to preserve the sanctity of life,” according to the Hill. The bill would also give doctors the right to refuse men services such as vasectomies, colonoscopies, and other procedures based on a doctor’s “religious objections.” Additionally, the bill forces patients looking for these procedures to wait 24 hours before receiving them. Farrar would also commission a pamphlet entitled “A Man’s Right to Know,” which would be required reading for male patients. Along with these requirements, doctors would be required to perform a “medically-unnecessary digital rectal exam” and an MRI before prescribing Viagra or performing colonoscopies. The lawmaker claims the bill is all an effort at “satire” to highlight what she claims are the illicit requirements forced on women looking for an abortion. “Although HB 4260 is satirical, there is nothing funny about current health care restrictions for women and the very real legislation that is proposed every legislative session,” Farrar wrote in a Facebook post last week. “Women are not laughing at state-imposed regulations and obstacles that interfere with their ability to legally access safe healthcare, and subject them to fake science and medically unnecessary procedures.” Rep. Farrar is serving her eleventh term for District 148 and has focused on issues of women’s health, sexual assault, reproductive rights, discrimination, juvenile justice, and domestic violence. Follow Warner Todd Huston on Twitter @warnerthuston or email the author at igcolonel@hotmail.com.Welcome back for another installment of Preview Monday! This week, we’re giving you exclusive first looks at SUPERGIRL #39 and THE KITCHEN #4. First, in SUPERGIRL #39, all-out war breaks out on Crucible over the fate of Superboy, as Kara faces new and old enemies. Why is Maxima’s mission to bring ‘the clone’ back to Crucible? And is there anyone on Earth that Supergirl can trust to help her and her friends? Check it out in SUPERGIRL #39, written by K. Perkins & Mike Johnson and illustrated by Emanuela Lupacchino, when it hits shelves this Wednesday. Then, in THE KITCHEN #4, it’s the day Kath, Raven and Angie have been dreading: their husbands are released from prison, and they’re not happy with their wives’ new careers. But as the girls settle into their new lives and assert their dominance over crime in Hell’s Kitchen, they have to ask themselves one question: Are they willing to go to war with their own husbands? Look for it on Wednesday when THE KITCHEN #4, written by Ollie Masters and illustrated by Ming Doyle, hits the spinner rack.Posted 01 March 2004 15:51 CET by Jan Willem Aldershoff Article written by Michael Spath Introduction At CDFreaks we like TAGES protection a lot. We were the first to explain the protection method they used on Motoracer 3 (that we named 'twin sectors') and later we reused it to copy Securom. Recently, we even contributed to their promotion. Therefore, when after 2 years of silence we saw 3 new TAGES protected games coming in, it seemed natural for us to have a look at this new flavour. The goal of this article is to give a detailed explanation of both old and new TAGES authentication schemes, as well as various methods for twin sectors injection. As an example, I will explain how I made a working backup of XIII CD2 and I will especially expose the reasoning behind the method, in the hope that some readers may benefit from it when investigating other protections. Note that this is not a step-by-step method to copy XIII, but a technical article about the inner workings of TAGES and the methods to circumvent it. History of TAGES The TAGES copy protection system has been developed between 1999 and 2001 by two french companies, THALES (a big electronics corporation, specialized in defence and aerospace) and MPO (a CD/DVD disc manufacturer). Since 2003, TAGES is managed by a brand new company called TAGES SA. At the time of writing, 4 games are protected by TAGES : MotoRacer 3 by Delphine Software (2001) Robocop from Titus Interactive (2003) Beyond Good & Evil and XIII from Ubi Soft (2003) Although it is common practice for copy protection companies to exaggerate their merits on their websites, TAGES SA is truly setting new standards in marketing bluff. Not only are they pretending (in red capital letters) to be the toughest protection around, but they also picked up some quotes from various discussion forums to emphasize it. Of course, these quotes have been carefully chosen to convince potential customers that TAGES is truly unbeatable. Reality is a bit different though. For instance Motoracer3 has been broken in every possible way : not only did we get the usual NoCD patch, but a working backup (ISOs) has been made by the Mojito group, using the twin sector method I will describe later. Also a free tool (T-Euro by MX450) is available to convert an MR3 Alcohol image into a working copy. Finally, a Motoracer3 emulator has been written by puzzo (even before the patched images were available). Before looking if the new version is as unbeatable as the old one, let's first refresh our knowledge about these famous twin sectors. Twin sectors To prevent duplication of protected CDs, TAGES applies some physical modifications to the disc that we named 'twin sectors'. A twin sector is a sector which has the same number and subcode address as an already existing sector, but different data. Due to the inner workings of a drive, these twin sectors are not seen by copying programs ; therefore, by checking for the presence of such twin sectors, TAGES ensures that it is an original disc. Any drive can read twin sectors and, more interestingly, any RAW-16 compatible drive can write them. Here's the sector layout of a typical TAGES protected disc : After the original sector range 1400-1700 (A) another range of same size has been inserted, which contains different data (B). To access these two ranges, TAGES uses the fact that all CD drives use relative displacements for jumping to a given location. Indeed, when a drive is instructed to read a given sector, it calculates an approximate distance (based on the current and target addresses) where to move the laser, moves it and read addresses again. If the move was too short, the first decoded address will be smaller than the target one and the drive will seek forward. If the move was too long, the drive will seek back. This trial and error method goes on until the laser has reached a location close enough to the target address. Based on these observations, the original TAGES method used seek-forward and seek-back tricks to access twin sectors, as described on the following picture : If we read sector 1000, we obviously force the laser to go to location 1000. If we next ask for sector 1500, the drive will calculate and apply to the laser a forward move corresponding to +500 sectors, and will therefore reach sector 1500 in range A. On the other hand, if we ask sector 1500 just after having read sector 2000, then the drive will seek back of a distance corresponding to -500 sectors and will get data from sector 1500 in range B. TAGES has been able to read different data from the same sector number and therefore considers that this is an original disc. This method was used on Motoracer 3 and could be fooled by simply inserting the missing twin sectors in the image. The new method is a bit different, as we will see now. Eight steps to success First of all, a quick check of XIII CD2 shows that it contains about 260 twin sectors from address 281165 to 281424, so we can already dump them and keep the file for later. Now if we start the game a few times and look at the drive accesses, we see something different from the old method : each time TAGES has to authenticate the disc, a different number of sectors with different addresses is read. Obviously some randomness has been added to puzzle the casual observer. Nothing to fear though, since a trained eye can easily cut through this pseudo-random fog and recognize patterns in these sequences, and from them deduce the authentication strategy. Each authentication of XIII CD2 is made of 8 sequences, each one preceded by a read of sector 10h and a read_capacity command. The disc authentication is successful if all 8 authentication sequences are successful. Each one of these sequences shows some constant operations : a first reading of sector 281412. This is a twin sector, and therefore data from range A or range B can be read. a series of single sector read accesses alternatively between the twin and the normal range. a final reading of several consecutive sectors, whose last read sector number is always equal to the third read sector number. This authentication sequence is successful if the data read by the third and last sector accesses read belong to different ranges (range A then B or vice-versa). The address of this 3rd and last sector is always fixed for a given sequence number : 1) check 281203 5) check 281402 2) check 281204 6) check 281402 3) empty sequence 7) check 281402 4) check 281402 8) check 281212 Note that there are actually only 4 different sector read during these 8 sequences. Here's now a sample log of sequence number 4 : In this case, data from range A were read during the first access to sector 281402 and we see that only 3 attempts were needed to get data from range B. Note that after the 3rd read TAGES is not looking for the exact same sector number anymore, but for an address a bit before the target sector : in this case, the drive reached range B by reading sector 281397, and then sequentially read sectors until 281402. The idea is that looking for the precise target sector is not needed because we know that if we keep reading sectors sequentially the next ones will also belong to the same range thanks to the drive's cache. On the other hand, here's what happens with a normal copy of the disc : The drive seeks back and desperately tries to reach a sector in range B, before giving up after too many retries : authentication has failed, so the game will still start but TAGES will slowly cripple it. Note how the seek back distance continuously grows up, to increase the distance the drive has to travel forward just afterwards, and thus increase the probability of reaching range B. First let's try the method that worked on Motoracer, i.e. inserting the twin range just after the normal one. The image after this modification looks like this : Then we start the game and... voila! it doesn't work. Just like a standard bad copy, graphics are crappy, mouse sensitivity continuously decreases, and enemies get extremely hard to kill. When we look closer at what happened, we see that we passed checks 4, 5, 6 and 7 but failed the others : in other words, we were able to reach only twin sector 281402. Post Mortem So we tried the old method and it failed : we exhausted our theoretical knowledge of TAGES and, as chess players say, we are now out of the book. At this moment it might be tempting to randomly modify our CloneCD image and burn more CD-RWs, or even to fire SoftICE and IDA and tear the TAGES binaries apart. On the contrary, it is the perfect time to shut down the PC, take a drink, sit comfortably and ponder. Why is the old method working for sector 281402 and not for the other sectors? Alright, before trying to understand why it fails in some cases let's first make sure that we understand why it works for 281402 : when the drive seeks from 279xxx to 281402, the laser is moved forward and lands somewhere in range A : Depending on where exactly the laser lands, we can distinguish 3 cases : if it lands in sub-range 'a' (between the address corresponding to the maximum negative error and 281402), the address read will be lower than 281402, and therefore the drive will seek forward and eventually reach sector 281402 from range A. if it lands in sub-range 'b' (from address 281402 to 281424), the drive will naturally seek back and again eventually reach sector 281402 from range A. if it lands in sub-range 'c' (in the B zone, between 281165 and the address corresponding to the maximum positive error), the drive will consider that its move has been too short, and will therefore jump forward and get sector 281402 from range B. So if the maximum positive seek error of the drive is larger than 22 sectors, then it has a chance to land in range B and therefore to reach our twin sector. Now if we think about what happened for sector 281203, the situation is very different : Here we see only two sub-ranges, 'a' and 'b', which means that in all cases the drive will only get data from range A, either by seeking forward or seeking back. So we know why the sectors 2812xx fail the authentication : they are too far from the border of the B range, and therefore will never be reached by the laser. Our goal is now clear : we should try to modify the image in such a way that the twin sectors stay close to the corresponding original sectors. But as said before, trial and error method with our CloneCD image and CD-RWs is both time and media consuming. However, we were able to explain why the previous image failed just by reasoning and without burning any disc. Therefore, it should be possible to write a software model of TAGES protection, which takes as input a CloneCD image and gives us probabilities that it will be successfully authenticated. Back to the keyboard, we therefore code a simulator of XIII authentication scheme. If we use it on the previous image, it gives the following figures : P(281203) = 0.00 % P(281204) = 0.00 % P(281212) = 0.00 % P(281402) = 56.00 % which confirms what we observed and explained just before. With this new weapon we should be able to beat TAGES. Coup de grace "It is a fact now and FOREVER, it is not just an opinion: we guarantee full immunity with 1:1 copy, since CD-Rs do not have our structural modifications, and a burner cannot do it!" - TAGES website, 2004. "Perform a thoroughly zen_analyze before attempting deeper methods: do remember that you want to crack the protection scheme SOMEHOW, and not necessarily following the same line of thought that the programmer eventually WANTED YOU TO CRACK IT with." +ORC, 1996. This fundamental of the zen-cracking philosophy may look like simple common sense, but it is actually a deadly pitfall in which protectionists keep falling into. It means that the strength of a CD copy protection based on physical modifications does not entirely depends on how difficult these modifications are to duplicate, but also on how well the software checks for their presence. In the past several companies claimed that backups of their games were impossible because the physical modifications of the original disc could not be duplicated by a burner. Such claims have already be been proven wrong for Safedisc (amplification vs weak sectors) and Securom (TwinPeak vs DPM) : we will now prove it wrong also for TAGES with twin sectors. For XIII CD2, this means that we will not waste our time trying to duplicate the 260 twin sectors, but only focus on creating an image that will make the software watchdog happy. And all this lazy pet needs to be happy is 4 twin sectors, so these are the only ones we will focus on. However we must also plan some twin sectors before these magic 4, because the last burst access will only work if the first sector in the row is a twin one. Also since the first 3 sectors are quite close from each other and the last one is close to 281412 (which starts each sequence), we can group all our twin sectors in two ranges. For instance we will try to inject two groups of 50 twin sectors, one from 281165 to 281214 and the other from to 281372 to 281421. Here's our new image : Now we fixed the problem of the previous layout, since our two regions each important sector in the A range is close to its counterpart in the B range. However, when looking at the results from our simulator, it seems that this is still not good enough : P(281203) = 76.00 % P(281204) = 78.00 % P(281212) = 94.00 % P(281402) = 0.00 % We now have good figures for the first group but the second one is failing. A bit of debugging with the simulator gives the answer, as shown by the following picture : Below our current sector layout you can see the theoretical sector addresses for the same physical locations on a normal disc. The forward seeks are always performed from a location far before the twin range (around 279500), and as explained before all moves are calculated as relative distances based on the current location. This means that when jumping from 279500 to 281402 the drive will move forward by a distance corresponding to 1902 sectors. But since we already injected 50 twin sectors, it will actually land around a sector whose number is 281353, so before the A range : the first group of 50 twin sectors we injected has increased the absolute location of the second one by 50, preventing the drive from accessing it. To restore the absolute location of the second range, we will simply get rid of 50 sectors in between the two ranges, since we know sectors in this region are useless. After a bit of thinking, I decided to keep a 1/3 2/3 ratio of uniform regions between the two ranges, and therefore removed sectors 281249 to 281288 from the image. By deleting these 50 sectors we have compensated the injection of the first 50 twin sectors, and now theoretical addresses again match actual addresses on the disc for both ranges : This is our final layout, and our simulator looks pretty happy with it : P(281203) = 76.00 % P(281204) = 78.00 % P(281212) = 94.00 % P(281402) = 88.00 % And indeed we can now play XIII from our CD-RW backup. This modified image worked very reliably on various types of drives, including a Plextor 2410A burner, a Samsung SD-616 DVD drive, a Toshiba SD-C2402 DVD laptop drive and a Samsung SC-148C SCSI CD-ROM drive. Discs 3 and 4 use different ranges but can be copied with the same method. The tools used to make this backup are available here (54 Kb). Conclusion Physical protections all come down to a very simple question : can we read more than we can write? In other words, can a drive reliably and accurately extract some information from a CD-ROM that a burner cannot write on a CD-R. So far protectionists have not been able to give a definitive answer to this question, and this makes physical protections an open, largely unexplored, and very interesting battlefield. The weakness which allowed us to make a backup of XIII definitely resides in its implementation, but it is worth noticing that TAGES is inherently weaker than its competitors. Indeed, although it requires physical modifications of a disc, these only have an impact at logical level (i.e. data bytes of a few sectors) rather than at physical level (angle, density, DSV, etc). This makes TAGES very easy to emulate compared to Securom, CDCops or Starforce, and one can only wonder why Daemon Tools and Alcohol don't support it yet. If need be, we will release our own stand alone TAGES emulator. All in all, this new TAGES release doesn't bring anything really new and still lazily relies on its original twin sector idea. After 2 years of development it seems that all the changes sum up to a new authentication method (as badly implemented as the original one) and a few awkward security improvements (pseudo-random accesses). TAGES requires some fundamental changes to become a really effective protection, especially against emulation. Will the newly created TAGES SA be able to bring these changes? We shall know soon enough. Acknowledgements I would like to thank G., who first introduced me to TAGES and, as usual, CD Freaks.com for hosting this article. Also I want to thank a TAGES employee going by the nickname of Lilith, who convinced me to publish my tools. Articles has been checked for possible legal conflicts. Contact Interesting questions, comments and corrections can be sent to spath at cdfreaks dot kom. The accent on the 'E' of TAGES is not an interesting comment and 'how do I copy game xxx?' is not an interesting question, so both will be ignored. For general discussions about TAGES, please visit this forum and post your technical questions to this one.In order to persuade conservatives lawmakers to vote to keep the federal government funded past Sept. 30, House Republican leaders are proposing to stare down President Barack Obama over the debt ceiling by seeking a one-year delay of Obamacare. At a closed-door meeting Tuesday, House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-VA) floated a strategy to delay the rollout of Obamacare for one year in exchange for lifting the debt ceiling. The meeting was focused on pitching a plan that lets Republicans vote to defund Obamacare without risking a government shutdown if the Senate rejects the idea, a move that is meeting fierce resistance on their right flank, which wants to go further. A senior Republican aide familiar with Cantor’s remarks said he was essentially trying to persuade his members that the debt limit, which the federal government is expected to hit in mid-October, provides a better opportunity than a threatened government shutdown to undermine Obamacare.“He didn’t draw any red lines,” said the GOP aide. “He said it’s a better opportunity than [the continuing resolution] and a delay there is very doable.” The aide added that the concession wouldn’t necessarily just involve Obamacare; there could be other reforms. The aide admitted that it depends in part on what the president is willing to give up. It all sounds far-fetched. After all, trading a government shutdown for default would be like trading a common cold for cancer. And it remains to be seen whether GOP leaders would let the economy collapse if they don’t get their way, or if they’re merely saying what they have to say to get through the shutdown crisis. An upside to proposing the debt ceiling idea now is that it helps persuade Republican lawmakers not to withhold their support for keeping the government open. Cantor’s suggestion this week comes as Republicans are taking heavy fire from conservative advocates for refraining from risking a government shutdown over Obamacare. House leaders have postponed consideration of the continuing resolution until next week to build support. Last month, Speaker John Boehner (R-OH) floated the idea of delaying or defunding the health care reform law in a debt ceiling package. But he, too, stopped short of drawing any red lines. A leadership aide described it at the time as an “option.” Despite the anti-Obamacare frenzy consuming their right flank, Republican leaders recognize that both a shutdown and default would be a disaster for their party, potentially threatening their House majority ahead of a mid-term election when they hope to win back the Senate. Their balancing act to satisfy conservatives enough to avert a shutdown but not to create expectations that threatening debt default is the way to go. Back in January, when President Barack Obama held firm and refused to negotiate on the debt limit, as he is now, the House GOP backed down and lifted the debt ceiling without substantive concessions (but rather symbolic ones). Republican leaders recognize that it will be extremely difficult to extract major Obamacare concessions, especially on the eve of its rollout. The last-ditch option in Speaker John Boehner’s (R-OH) pocket would be to avert disaster by bringing up legislation that passes with the support of mostly Democrats. This route is far from ideal for him, but he hasn’t ruled it out. In a memo to Republicans last Friday, Cantor vowed to continue attacking Obamacare, but not necessarily at risk of wreaking havoc on the economy. Instead he promised that leaders will “hold a series of strategic votes throughout the fall to dismantle, defund, and delay Obamacare.” He said Republicans “will continue to pursue the strategy of systematically derailing this train wreck and replacing it with a patient-centered system.” At the end of the day, the battle over Obamacare is largely a side show that Republican leaders have to deal with. The real fight, where Republicans have genuine leverage, is over how much the government will spend next fiscal year and whether Congress will make permanent the lower spending levels after the automatic cuts known as sequestration.ADVERTISEMENT Getting high isn't on everybody's Christmas to-do list this holiday season. Eggnog and mulled wine might be more common stimulants in most American homes this time of year. But for some, Christmas provides an excellent cover for the transportation and abuse of illegal narcotics. Sadly for them, it's not just Santa who cares if you're naughty or nice; DEA officers do, too. Here, six seasonal drug-busts: 1. How lovely are your branches An "old hippy" in Germany was busted by cops because of the centerpiece of his Christmas decorations: a "festively decorated" six-foot-tall marijuana plant. Police discovered 150 grams of marijuana at the 58-year-old's house, and his pot plant in the living room. The suspect said he had "planned to decorate it further," and put presents beneath its branches on Christmas Eve. 2. The 420 Days of Christmas Kids love opening the doors of their advent calendar to receive a chocolate treat as they count the days down to Christmas. Who could blame a 21-year-old marijuana smoker for attempting to put a narcotic spin on the seasonal favorite? Behind every door was a "small amount of cannabis in a matchbox," said the police, "wrapped up in a colorful bow." Surely, German stoners should be able to celebrate Christmas how they want, says Carmel Lobello at Death and Taxes. After all, "even the Grinch was green." 3. Dreaming of a white Christmas Some Peruvian drug dealers gave a festive spin to their distribution methods in 2007 by stuffing Christmas cards full of cocaine. The police intercepted $10,000 worth of coke on its way to a gang of Philadelphia drug dealers. These perps "won't be getting snow for Christmas," reported Fox News. 4. A different kind of Christmas decoration Police intercepted a truck full of Christmas decorations headed to West Yorkshire in the U.K. last year — and discovered $750,000 worth of methamphetamines among the tinsel and baubles. The four British men caught with the haul did not argue they were going to hang the drugs on their Christmas tree, but pleaded guilty to conspiring to supply narcotics. All were sent to jail. 5. I saw Mommy snorting Santa Claus Brazilian drug dealers have long known the benefits of a seasonal disguise for illegal narcotics. As long ago as 1998, cops in Rio de Janeiro discovered stashes of cocaine stored within Santa Claus dolls, tucked beneath the red cloth hats. "At Easter time," reported the Los Angeles Times, "police found chocolate eggs laced with the drug." It's not known whether or not
RC) and NIHR. The MRC portfolio of research includes significant support for both cardiovascular and musculoskeletal disorders that may have implications for research into EDS. In 2014/15, the MRC provided £20m funding for cardiovascular research and £16m into musculoskeletal research. Similarly the broad NIHR portfolio of support includes research that may also be relevant to EDS. In September 2016 a record £816 million investment in NIHR Biomedical Research Centres (BRCs) was awarded to 20 NHS and university partnerships across England that will provide support for 5 years from 1 April 2017. The NIHR BRCs provide world-class research infrastructure in the NHS to support and enable research funded by NIHR and public, charity and industry research funding partners. These centres support the development of new, ground-breaking treatments, diagnostics, prevention and care for patients in a wide range of diseases. Both the MRC and NIHR support research in response to proposals from the academic and clinical community and welcome high quality applications for support into any aspect of human health including EDS. Applications are judged in open competition with awards being made on the basis of the importance of the topic to patients, value for money and scientific quality. Department of HealthHealth Science Greed, fraud, and corruption within Big Pharma and the FDA are the constructs of deception, with the mantle of authority leading to over 100,000 American deaths each year from correctly prescribed FDA approved pharmaceutical drugs. That’s an earlier conservative figure based on Dr. Barbara Starfield’s study published in the Journal of the American Medical Association July 26, 2000, “Is US health really the best in the world?” And that doesn’t include those who are sickened, needing more medications from side effects, hospitalization, or years of rehab for crippling adverse “side effects.” Nor does it include the effects from over-the-counter (OTC) drugs that lead to an almost equivalent number of casualties as their prescribed counterparts. How the Medical Mafia Maintains its Monopoly The FDA-Big Pharma partnership scheme calls for long trials involving cruel animal testing and testing on humans with their placebo control groups. The real problem is that the pharmaceutical companies pay for all this and conduct the trials themselves. This expense keeps effective, safe natural medicines from private individuals and small providers out of the FDA approval loop. The big boys make their own reports for FDA approval, often paying ghost writers to create favorable medical journal reports that medical professionals sign off for a significant fee. Then Big Pharma pays the FDA a fee for approval. And to top it all off, many FDA “consultants” are Big Pharma insiders with financial ties whose careers depend on that big corporate/government revolving door. All of these situations are corrupt signals. Even former New England Journal of Medicine editor and author of The Truth about Drug Companies, Dr. Marcia Angell, threw up her arms in disgust and declared “It is simply no longer possible to believe much of the clinical research that is published, or to rely on the judgment of trusted physicians or authoritative medical guidelines.” Related Read: 500 Page Report: FDA is Failing to Protect Consumers Other Pharmaceutical Testing Flaws An FDA approved substance is a deception that leads most everyone to think the drug they’re taking is safe. But even if taken according to instructions, that’s probably not true. “Evidence based medicine” is the arrogant assertion while accusing alternative healers of fraud or lacking science. But what do they consider scientific? Large scale studies reduce people to improbable statistics. Here’s an example: A shoe company in NYC surveys the foot sizes of 10,000 men, women, and children. Then they take the average size, make all their shoes that size and market them throughout the country. One size does not fit all. Also, the magnitude and expense of these large studies preclude repeating any tests. But scientific methodology requires the ability to repeat an experiment with the same results. Another aspect of Big Pharma’s reportage includes good editing. Adverse effects, non-efficacy situations, can and are often left out. Long term studies on humans are shunned. The FDA doesn’t bother investigating until well after marketing and large real-life casualties and lawsuits pile up. By then, the pharmaceutical companies have made their money. Actor-comedian George Burns once said, “The secret of acting is sincerity. If you can fake that, you’ve got it made.” Faked sincerity from pompous authoritative positions is what the Medical Mafia uses to promote their lies to a naive public or attack alternative systems of healing. Keeping the Real Medicines Out of the Loop Researchers and research universities are financial beneficiaries from large scale studies. Alternative methods for treating cancer have more living proof, which is documented, of efficacy and safety than anything Big Pharma has created for its lost war on cancer. Natural healing modalities were first based on scientific investigative analysis, which was then repeated consistently with greater success among actual patients with virtually no adverse effects. It’s common for many alternative healers’ documents proving efficacy to be stolen or burned. Large vested medical institutions routinely test their protocols incorrectly to “prove” they don’t work or simply lie outright. Independent studies from smaller, alternative sources are consistently refused from medical journal publications. Medical journals don’t make nearly as much money from underfunded resources as they do from Big Pharma’s glossy ads. These are the rotten fruits of a profit motivated medical system and media that deceptively rules modern medicine with both cunning and an iron fist, and the mainstream media complies to maintain its pharmaceutical advertising revenue. Worshiping authority blindly is one of mankind’s greatest weaknesses that is leading to self-destruction. Additional Sources: Orthomolecular medicine newsletter NaturalNews.com/031073 Sott.netBut the foray into urban parking garages is a first for Tesla, which acknowledges that city dwellers in places like New York face a tougher time finding an easy way to charge. “We wanted to move to an urban charging network that meets the needs of those who live in apartments or commute into a big city,” said Alexis Georgeson, a Tesla spokeswoman. “Naturally, Manhattan was the place to try this for the first time.” The plan, Ms. Georgeson said, is to offer Tesla owners the ability to park by the hour, day, week or even month, at participating garages — which initially include two dozen locations stretching from Wall Street up to 94th Street. Over the coming months, the company plans to sign several dozen more locations to the network. But unlike Tesla’s highway superchargers, the electricity will not be free for Tesla owners. Each garage will determine how much, if any, cost will be added to their existing parking fees, Ms. Georgeson said. Paul Gardi, a 49-year-old technology entrepreneur and West Side resident, came home with his new Model S P85D edition (the fastest version of the car) in May. He said he had loved driving it around the city this summer, and out to the Hamptons, but finding a place to park and charge it had been a challenge.Rob Mason is a third-year student at the Peter A. Allard School of Law, University of British Columbia Prime Minister Justin Trudeau renounced his promise to make 2015 the last unfair, first-past-the-post election, arguing that a "clear preference … let alone a consensus, has not emerged." Few would argue that politicians should rigidly keep their promises regardless of changed circumstances, but when voters begin to suspect that promises were made to be broken, government accountability and legitimacy are jeopardized. Wednesday's announcement is not just another broken Liberal promise; it's a uniquely dangerous devaluation of Canadian democracy. Never before has a prime minister publicly disparaged the very source of his legitimacy, as Mr. Trudeau did when he called the 2015 election unfair. To now suggest that unfairness at the heart of our democracy and at the foundation of his authority can only be fixed by spontaneous public consensus is absurd. Story continues below advertisement Why would he make this promise if it was not within his power to keep? Globe editorial: On electoral reform, it's bad promise made, bad promise broken Ed Broadbent: ‎Trudeau's broken promise on electoral reform betrays the public interest Campbell Clark: Trudeau ditches electoral reform – and some of his new-politics appeal In theory, Mr. Trudeau's party may have a mandate to impose electoral reform unilaterally. However, Liberals received only 39 per cent of the popular vote in the past election, and according to one survey of over 10,000 Canadians, more than 25 per cent of Liberal voters would have preferred a minority Liberal government. It is therefore reasonable to conclude that under these circumstances, the will of a parliamentary majority alone is not enough to impose a new electoral system. Something more is required. Apparently a "clear preference" for change has not been established by the fact that the vast majority of experts and ordinary citizens who engaged in the government-initiated consultation process recommended a more proportional system. Nor is it sufficient that four out of five parties agreed to a referendum on proportional representation. After all, the one party arguing against this consensus was the Liberals. In short, Mr. Trudeau and his party are the primary obstacle to the fulfilment of their own promise. Story continues below advertisement Story continues below advertisement The Prime Minister says that there are two requirements before a referendum can occur; that there be "a clear preference" and "a clear question." This is putting the cart before the horse. If a clear preference could be demonstrated without a referendum, why would we go to the trouble of having one? As for drafting a clear question, surely that is a task for the government, and a rather simple one at that. Mr. Trudeau seems to be arguing that clear questions either spontaneously emerge from on high or that his government is too incompetent to draft one. Based on their experiences with the mydemocracy.ca survey, Canadians may be forgiven for concluding that incompetence is indeed Mr. Trudeau's strongest argument. With the rise of Trumpism in the United States and copycat extremism emerging in Canada, the vulnerability of our democracy is increasingly apparent. Electoral systems that hand complete power to a minority voting bloc are dangerous. Tweets and selfies alone will not protect us from authoritarianism.The Reserve Bank has cut the Official Cash Rate back to a record low 2.5 percent, and indicated that will be enough. Photo: RBNZ The central bank has reduced the benchmark rate four times since June, unwinding all of last year's increases. Reserve Bank governor Graeme Wheeler said the economy had slowed due to weak diary prices, which along with surging immigration, had pushed up unemployment. Inflation had also been below the Reserve Bank's inflation target band of 1 to 3 percent. But Mr Wheeler was expecting the economy to strengthen next year due to a recovery in export prices, rebounding confidence and increasing demand from a rising population. The governor remained concerned about low interest rates over-stimulating the Auckland housing market, though he pointed out house building was accelerating, while recent lending and tax measures should temporarily reduce some demand. He said there were some signs that Auckland house price growth was moderating. Inflation was expected to rise and be inside the central bank's 1 to 3 percent target band by early next year, as earlier petrol price declines drop out of the annual calculation and the lower New Zealand dollar push up import prices. Nevertheless, Mr Wheeler said the dollar, which had appreciated recently, was still too high. The Reserve Bank's forecasts indicated interest rates were now on hold over the forecast period to the end of 2018. The governor said interest rates were now at levels that should lead to inflation being near the middle of its target band. But there were risks to the economy. Weak growth in China is weighing on the global economy, while it was uncertain what effect interest rate rises in the United States would have on emerging countries, some of which are reliant on foreign capital and vulnerable if investors pull their money out. Mr Wheeler also said dairy prices could remain weaker for longer, and that El Nino weather conditions may result in severe drought and cut agricultural production. He said the central bank would reduce rates if need be. On the other hand, the governor said the surge in immigration may continue, while household spending may pick up on the back of strong house prices. Most analysts expect interest rates to remain on hold for some time. RBNZ cuts 25bps to 2.5% as expected But still expects some inflation on its current settings We think they will be disappointed #2%OCR ^NP — ASB Markets (@ASBMarkets) December 9, 2015 ANZ Bank chief economist Cameron Bagrie said the Reserve Bank's rate cuts have done the job of cushioning the economy, and it could afford to call a halt. "Economic signals are looking a little bit more promising. In that situation, inflation's going to pick up towards 2 percent, which is the mid-point of the band, so the Reserve Bank has got the luxury to sit back and take what I think will be a extended siesta for quite a while." OCR back to record low level The rate has been at 2.5 percent for two extended periods since the OCR was introduced in 1999 but has never fallen below this level. The last time it was as low as 2.5 percent was in early 2014, where it had sat since March 2011. The central bank most recently reduced the key interest rate on 10 September, from 3 percent to 2.75 percent, the third consecutive drop since June, citing a slowing economy and weak inflation.Breaking News Emails Get breaking news alerts and special reports. The news and stories that matter, delivered weekday mornings. Oct. 28, 2016, 10:28 AM GMT / Updated Oct. 28, 2016, 10:50 AM GMT By Alexander Smith The Pirate Party may sound like a novelty political outfit, but this former ragtag bunch of internet activists may be on the verge of winning Iceland's parliamentary elections Saturday. The party was founded less than four years ago and promises a radical platform. Its members want to legalize drugs, crowd-source their policies using online referendums, and grant citizenship to National Security Agency leaker Edward Snowden. The majority of polls over the past 18 months have predicted the party will win the most votes on Saturday — a radical pirate victory in the land of the Vikings. The Pirate Party's three current lawmakers, Birgitta Jonsdottir, Asta Helgadottir and Helgi Hrafn Gunnarsson. The Pirate Party "I think it's because we have been approaching politics in a new way," said Pirate Party lawmaker Ásta Helgadóttir, explaining her movement’s exponential rise. "We have been trying to do more evidence-based politics rather than just following ideas blindly." Iceland’s population of some 320,000 is half the size of Boston’s and its landmass would comfortably fit inside the state of Colorado. It is a NATO member but has no armed forces, instead contributing to the alliance with cash and civilian personnel. While politics on this small island of snow and volcanoes may seem insignificant when compared to the boisterous U.S. presidential race, the rise of Iceland's Pirate Party mirrors a global trend that has seen voters rejecting the political mainstream. "We are trying to be the Robin Hood of democracy" "The Pirates are a radical anti-establishment party," according to Baldur Þórhallsson, a professor of political science at the University of Iceland. "But there are still lots of questions: How will the Pirates be in government? Will they be able to function in government?" Iceland's electoral system means it is almost impossible for one party to win an outright victory. Instead, after the election is finished, parties of similar stripes enter into negotiations to try to form a coalition to lead the country. Icelanders walk past an Social Democrats election poster in Reykjavik on Thursday. Frank Augstein / AP Polls suggest that even if they don’t get the most votes, the Pirate Party may enter into progressive alliance with the Left-Liberal Movement and the Social Democrats. This would make Iceland an outlier in a Europe tilting to the right. "The agenda that we are putting forward is a social-liberal agenda, which is something that people like and value here in Iceland," said Helgadóttir, a 26-year-old history graduate who is one of three pirate lawmakers in the Althing, Iceland's 63-seat parliament. If the Pirates did find themselves in power it would mark a staggering ascent from obscurity. Its origins can be found in 2006, when a Julian Assange-style figure named Rick Falkvinge founded the Swedish Pirate Party with the radical agenda of tearing up internet copyright laws. Falkvinge chose the name as an attempt to take ownership of the term "piracy," which he felt had become an unfair slur against people who shared music and movies online. Now there are pirate parties in more than 60 countries — although before this weekend none has threatened to take a seat in government. Much like its Swedish cousin, the Icelandic offshoot grew from a group of internet activists. Birgitta Jonsdottir stands in the party's office in in Reykjavik in May. STAFF / Reuters It has no official leader but the party's de-facto head is Birgitta Jónsdóttir, a former WikiLeaks collaborator who has written several poetry books and describes herself as a "poetician." Jónsdóttir's Pirates have now expanded their agenda well beyond their hacktivist roots — but the internet still plays a big part in the party's ultra-democratic, ultra-progressive vision of the future. Its main aim is to involve Icelanders far more in the country’s democracy, shifting power away from what it sees as an unaccountable political elite. To do this, all of its policies are crowd-funded, with members suggesting, debating and voting on each manifesto pledge through an online forum. Related: Iceland's Prime Minister Resigns Over Panama Papers "It's important to understand that the Pirate Party is not here to govern or actually be in power," explained Helgadóttir. "We are trying to give power, we are trying to be the Robin Hood of democracy." Its members insist that all decisions should be based on evidence — rather than religious or cultural traditions — including their pledge to legalize all drugs. The party wants all government information to be readily available to the public, allowing "the powerless the power to monitor the powerful." It wants total freedom from government surveillance and has said it would grant asylum to Snowden — who they see as a hero. Is Helgadóttir worried granting a haven to the NSA leaker might rile Iceland’s NATO ally in Washington? "Yeah, well we have done things that don’t make other nations happy before," she said. "Sometimes it’s a case of what’s doing what is right versus what is easy." Others might also point out that direct democracy has had something of a controversial year. Britons chose to ignore experts’ advice and sever ties with the European Union, Hungarians rejected immigrants, and Colombians opted to tear up a peace deal that took years to broker. Does Helgadóttir foresee any pitfalls with handing the reins to the masses on every issue? "All those examples are basically referendums that are more or less put forward by politicians to serve their political agenda," she said. "That’s not the kind of referendum that we want to participate in." She accepts that if the Pirates win power they may have to temper their idealism with a dose of pragmatic realpolitik. But said said that having three lawmakers, as well as partial control of the local government in the capital, Reykjavik, has given them ample training. The Jolly Rogers and an Icelandic flag hang side-by-side at the Pirate Party headquarters in Reykjavik in September. Stine Jacobsen / Reuters Other critics claim that the party’s popularity owes more to protest votes than highfalutin ideals. In the past ten years, Iceland has lurched between right and left-wing governments and back again. These administrations have delivered a colossal banking crisis and an international scandal in the form of the Panama Papers. "First the Icelandic people voted for the left and then the old-guard again — so who’s left?" said Þórhallsson, at the University of Iceland. "Many voters are not voting for internet freedom and drug decriminalization, they are protesting against the traditional parties." Helgadóttir dismisses the suggestion out of hand. "There are actually quite a few parties that have been established in the past eight years since the financial crisis, but the only party that has had any success is the Pirate Party," she said. "I think the success of the Pirate Party is the fact that we are not only a protest party but actually something that has a clear idea of how we want society to be run." Whatever the result Helgadóttir and her fellow Pirates are savoring the moment. "We are just thankful that people trust us," she said with genuine delight in her voice. "We are just thankful that this is happening and we actually get to be a part of it. We just want other people to join us."The Clemson Tigers men's soccer team is heading to Sunday's national championship after a win over Syracuse Friday night.Goalkeeper Andrew Tarbell made eight saves between regulation and overtime, and T.J. Casner scored Clemson's fourth-straight penalty kick to outlast sixth-seeded Syracuse 4-1 on penalty kicks in the NCAA College Cup semifinals.After the teams finished overtime tied 0-0, Clemson scored on each of its penalty kick attempts, getting goals from Imam Mafi, Michael Melvin and Thales Moreno before Casner ended it. Julian Buescher had Syracuse's only conversion.The Orange had eight shots in the second half, requiring four saves from Tarbell. He made a season-high seven saves in regulation and had one more during the two 10-minue overtime sessions. The Clemson Tigers men's soccer team is heading to Sunday's national championship after a win over Syracuse Friday night. Goalkeeper Andrew Tarbell made eight saves between regulation and overtime, and T.J. Casner scored Clemson's fourth-straight penalty kick to outlast sixth-seeded Syracuse 4-1 on penalty kicks in the NCAA College Cup semifinals. Advertisement After the teams finished overtime tied 0-0, Clemson scored on each of its penalty kick attempts, getting goals from Imam Mafi, Michael Melvin and Thales Moreno before Casner ended it. Julian Buescher had Syracuse's only conversion. The Orange had eight shots in the second half, requiring four saves from Tarbell. He made a season-high seven saves in regulation and had one more during the two 10-minue overtime sessions. AlertMeOn Thursday, Oct. 16, Submerge got an email from Linda Swanigan, owner of the venue Marilyn’s on K and longtime supporter of Submerge (she advertised in our first-ever issue!), informing us that they had sold the business. Yes, you read that right, after 16 long years the basement-esque K Street venue and bar that many of us have come to love over the years (Submerge even held our “50th Issue Party” there in 2010, remember that?) will unfortunately close up shop after Nov. 1, 2014. “We thank our loyal customers, whom we consider our friends and family, for your support over the last 16 years,” the official press release states. “We are so proud of our employees who have made the Marilyn’s experience possible over the years.” Marilyn’s first opened as “Marilyn’s on 12th and K” in 1998, before that corner “became gentrified.” That’s back before IMAX, Esquire, Sheraton, etc. It was the only watering hole in the neighborhood and hosted many construction workers and people staying at the Hyatt. When the 12th and K building got foreclosed on and ultimately acquired by new owners, a bar wasn’t part of the new plans. So Marilyn’s, having already established itself on K Street, moved down the street and found their current spot, a unique underground space that offered them more room to work with. They reopened as Marilyn’s on K in 2005 at 908 K Street. With more space they were able to start hosting eclectic live music seven days a week from local and touring acts; eventually well known artists like Jackie Greene, Mother Hips, Junior Brown, Nicki Bluhm, Sal Valentino and so many others, including countless local bands, graced the stage at Marilyn’s. More than 1,600 different bands have performed at Marilyn’s! The venue has played a crucial role in the local music scene for many years, and it will be sorely missed. So, what’s next for the space, and will the new owners/operators incorporate live music? According to Swanigan the new business taking over the space is Coin-Op, a bar/arcade, and they will not be hosting live music. “They currently have a very successful bar/arcade operation in San Diego and they will bring that same concept to K Street,” Swanigan told us. Um, can you say “mixed emotions?” Obviously we are incredibly sad that live music will no longer be a part of the space (also, side note, as a fellow business owner, I know I would be ready for a break after 16 years!), but our inner nerds are a little bit excited about the idea of it becoming a bar that has a large selection of video games. The website for Coin-Op’s San Diego location says, “We are a neighborhood watering hole offering craft cocktails, craft beer, delicious food and of course, classic arcade games.” Submerge is planning on reaching out to the Coin-Op owners in the coming days to get more information about their plans for the Sacramento location. In the meantime, we still have a couple weeks to enjoy Marilyn’s and celebrate their huge mark on Sacramento’s music scene. “We are trying to reach out to many of our favorites to play over the next two weeks,” Swanigan said, noting that they are still confirming some details. “We will be arranging for bands who have played at our club and want one more chance to play at the ‘Institution of Marilyn’s’ over the next two weeks. We are hoping to have a few bands play every night and the last day we will have music throughout the day until closing!” Keep an eye out right here on Submerge and at Marilynsonk.com for more info on the final weeks of Marilyn’s. As of press time here are some highlights happening at Marilyn’s in the next couple weeks according to their online calendar (subject to change): Friday, Oct. 17: You Front the Band Live Karaoke Saturday, Oct. 18: Chuck’s Annual Halloween Party Thursday, Oct. 23: Color the Sound, We Went to the Moon Friday, Oct. 24: The Denver J Band, Bellygunner, Be Brave Bold Robot Saturday, Oct. 25: The Darling Clementines Halloween Spooktacular Thursday, Oct. 30: Farewell Performance / Halloween Party feat. Zyah Belle, Vanessa O’Connell, Lights and Sirens, Kyle Tuttle, The Bell Boys, The Royal Jelly, Spacewalker, hosted by Task1ne Friday, Oct. 31: Foresocks (Red Hot Chili Peppers tribute), Abby Normal (Green Day tribute) Saturday, Nov. 1: Farewell to Marilyn’s Party w/ Live Music All Day!My goal with this project is to create a black super-spy film script. He won't be named James Bond, obviously. I haven't figured out a title for the film or a name for the main character. But the script will be 114 pages long and set in Chicago during the 2000s. My greatest skill, other than reading, is writing and as of this writing I have just completed my first successful Kickstarter, which was "Unified Field Theory Discovered." Overall, I have enjoyed creating these "Ten-Dollar Triumphs" and hope to create more affordable Kickstarters in the future. I've been sitting on this idea for a movie since there was all of that controversy about why Ian Fleming has never cast a black man as James Bond. At the time, I said, "Well, why don't we just create our own super-spy?" Nobody else stepped up to the plate, so I figured that I would put my keyboard where my mouth is and get to work. I'm NOT selling the rights to my script here. This is just a script reading. If you wish to make the movie yourself, you can change it to make it your own or buy the script from me. Stretch goal 1: If we make it to 300 dollars, I will add in a script for the sequel. It will take a lot longer to write, but I can deliver.Netflix is taking on the legend of Pablo Escobar in the original series, 'Narcos'. THE actor who played Pablo Escobar in Narcos has revealed how he ditched the weight he gained to play the drug lord. Brazilian actor Wagner Moura, 40, gained 18kg for the lead role in the Netflix show, but he told NPR that it was assuming Escobar’s personality that he found most taxing. “What happens is that when you’re living with a character like that, it’s not like characters are taking your body,” he said, “It’s just that you’re dealing with a certain kind of energy every day that’s not good at all.” When filming wrapped on the second and final season, Wagner adopted a vegan diet to shed the weight he packed on to play the Colombian drug kingpin. “Doing the vegan diet wasn’t only about losing weight, but getting rid of that character, you know, getting rid of that energy that I was having to live with for two years.” And he’s ruled out taking on such a physically demanding role ever again. “No, I wouldn’t change my body again, Moura said. “I meant that’s — I think that’s something for young people to do, you know. I can’t do that anymore. My cholesterol was — it was horrible.” Moura didn’t only change his body when he landed the role, but he also had to learn how to speak Spanish. “So I flew to Medellin, booked myself into a university course to learn Spanish and lived there for five months,” the actor said to news.com.au last year. “And of course, I had to gain a lot of weight. If you go to the internet and see a picture of Escobar, you will see that he’s fat. It would have been weird to have a skinny guy play the role so I had to do it. “The first few weeks were delicious. I was eating ice-cream with my kids but then I had my cholesterol tests which were very high. So now in the next season (two) we’re using prosthetics and fake bellies.” Narcos season two is currently streaming on NetflixMedia playback is unsupported on your device Media caption Rosie Weston: "I can last a week without eating" An income squeeze, benefit delays and excessive utility bills are blamed by a cross-party group of MPs for a huge rise in the use of food banks. The inquiry, by Conservative and Labour MPs and Church leaders, says many families are one unexpected bill away from financial crisis. They urge quicker benefit payments, the extension of free school meals and a living wage to reduce hunger. Downing Street said it would consider the report "seriously". But one Conservative peer who served on the inquiry team had to apologise after suggesting hunger in Britain was caused in part by people being unable to cook. Baroness Jenkin of Kennington later acknowledged her words had been badly chosen. Lady Jenkin said she had been trying to make the point that home-cooked meals were often cheaper and more nutritious than packaged food. The all-party parliamentary inquiry into hunger in the UK was set up to understand the extent and spread of hunger, food poverty and to investigate its underlying causes. The inquiry found the number of food banks run by the charity Trussell Trust had grown from a handful to 420 in the past 10 years. And it heard suggestions there may be at least as many food banks operating independently. The growth in food bank use is mirrored across Europe and the US, the report said. It acknowledged UK families on low incomes "have been hit disproportionately hard" by rising living costs and this has eroded the value of their income. "Too many people living in low-income households often face the choice of putting money in the gas meter or food on the table," it said. The report said: "Benefit-related problems were the single biggest reason given for food bank referrals by almost every food bank that presented evidence to us. Hunger in the UK 4 million people at risk of going hungry 272 food banks across big cities and towns 500,000 children live in families that can't afford to feed them 3.5 million adults cannot afford to eat properly Getty Images "The inquiry is concerned that there are avoidable problems occurring in the administration of social security benefits, which have a particularly detrimental impact on poor and vulnerable claimants." The Department for Work and Pensions measures the average number of days taken between an application and a decision being made on a claim. "Whilst the department aims for this process to be concluded within 16 days, we heard that for some claimants even this length of time is too long to survive without money," the report said. The authors want benefits to be delivered within five days of a legitimate claim and for more discretionary payments to be made when delays occur. A government spokesman said it would examine concerns raised over the late payments of benefits. The inquiry team also wants free school meals to be extended to more children of low-income parents. The MPs also recommend a national organisation be set up to end the destruction of edible food and ensure more of this goes to those who need it. Robin Aitken, co-founder of the Oxford Food Bank, which passes surplus food from supermarkets to charities, said people had become more aware of food banks and this had contributed to their rise in popularity. But Prof Liz Dowler, from the University of Warwick, said all the evidence showed food banks were often a last resort. "They go there because they are desperate," she told the Today programme. She also dismissed the idea that using surplus food was the solution to hunger in Britain. "There is no evidence from any country that has systemised using food waste to feed hungry people that it is effective. It is better to reduce it," she said. Life on the bread-line The cupboards in the Western family household were almost bare when Paul and Rosie Western visited a food bank in Salisbury with their father, Paul. All they had left was two cans of beans and a loaf of bread. Both 19-year-olds have become accustomed to going hungry since their father lost his job in the summer. "We had no food for two weeks once," said Paul. Astonishingly, Rosie says she can live without eating: "I've done it for a week before." But for Paul, it has meant he has collapsed at work. Their father Paul, 55, says until recently he has worked continuously for 40 years. But his lack of IT skills and literacy problems have left him struggling to find work and grappling with a demanding benefits system. "It's difficult to live on what they pay you and all the paper work that's involved. "There are tens of thousands of people in this situation." "You are using one thing which is wrong with the food system to address another. Why should poor people have to eat waste left-over food?" Media playback is unsupported on your device Media caption Archbishop Justin Welby: "shocking" to see thousands of people reduced to seeking food handouts On Sunday, the Archbishop of Canterbury, Justin Welby, backed the report, saying food was being wasted in "astonishing" amounts while hunger "stalks large parts" of the country. The archbishop said he was more shocked by the plight of the UK's hunger-stricken poor than those suffering in African refugee camps, because it was so unexpected. Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg said benefits sanctions - for infractions such as missing interviews or failing to take part in a work-related activity - were partly to blame and should not always be imposed "overnight". A government spokesman welcomed the report's recognition that the reasons behind demands for emergency food assistance were "complex". How does it work? The Trussell Trust is the largest food bank provider in the UK, with over 420 facilities Volunteers and staff collect, catalogue and distribute non-perishable food donations from the public To qualify for a food parcel, recipients must have been issued with a voucher by front-line agencies such as social services, the police or doctors Each visitor can be referred three times before the food bank asks further questions "As a country we have enough food to go around, and we agree that it is wrong that anyone should go hungry at the same time as surplus food is going to waste. "There is a moral argument as well as a sustainability one to ensure we make the best use of resources. The spokesman said it was important to remember "this country has been through the deepest recession in living memory, and sticking to this government's long-term economic plan is the best way to improve living standards". He said the plan was working and the economy growing while the welfare system provided a vital safety net.Protesters rally against O’Reilly in front of Fox News headquarters on April 18, 2017. Photo: Drew Angerer/Getty Images When Bill O’Reilly left for vacation on April 11, he stressed that the break was preplanned to counter the notion that it had something to do with the New York Times’ revelation that five women were paid $13 million to settle harassment claims against him. A week later, it looks increasingly unlikely that he’ll ever return to his show. New York’s Gabriel Sherman reported on Tuesday afternoon that “the Murdochs are leaning toward announcing that O’Reilly will not return to the air,” according to three sources. Later that evening multiple outlets said support for O’Reilly is eroding within Fox News. Most notably, The Wall Street Journal — which is also owned by the Murdoch family — reported that Fox News is “preparing to cut ties” with the O’Reilly Factor host. The paper said 21st Century Fox is holding a board meeting on Thursday, and O’Reilly’s fate could be announced by the end of the week. Politico notes that while Fox News initially insisted O’Reilly would be back, network spokespeople have stopped responding to questions about his status. The shift came as the network faced new pressure to cut O’Reilly loose. Dozens of advertisers have pulled out of The O’Reilly Factor, with many shifting their advertising to other Fox programming. On Tuesday, the women’s rights group UltraViolet organized a rally of sexual assault survivors outside Fox News headquarters in New York. The group also had an airplane fly over New York with a banner that read “Fox: #DropOReilly, The Sexual Predator.” Another accuser came forward as well, claiming that O’Reilly harassed her while she was working in a clerical position at Fox in 2008. The woman, who is black, says that O
eight of their last nine games and sit three points above Fulham in the table. The Fulham boss said: “He stopped in training, but I have information from medical staff that he is available to play. He decided to take a day off. “We need to check this situation but I don’t have any intention of making our rivals any stronger. I am not going to send him back to Derby, he is going to stay with us, and he is going to respect the contract.” Derby boss McClaren has pushed the envelope when he spoke to BBC Radio Derby about the 'possibility' of seeing in-form Martin back at Pride Park. "I've made it clear that I like Chris Martin and if there's any possibility that we can get him back, then that's great. We just have to wait and see," McClaren said. "From day one I've made my feelings on Chrissy clear. It's now up to the two clubs to sort that one out and for us managers to stay out of. "The (transfer) window isn't open yet. There is a lot of speculation and people don't know the full extent of what is about to happen."Every month, Terry Brooks answers a handful of fan-submitted questions drawn randomly. Sometimes they deal with specific plot points in his novel, or open-ended questions about his characters and writing in general. And sometimes, like this month, they deal with the future of his popular Shannara series. An interesting snippet comes near the end of his answer to this month’s first question, where Brooks says, “[E]ventually I will wrap up the entire Shannara series, something I talked about at length while on this latest book tour.” For a long time, fans have debated whether there would be a definitive end to the Shannara series, but this is first time that Brooks has hinted at such a case. I’ve always fallen on the side of the argument that assumed the series would go on forever (literally, if Brooks’ is series about the whole ‘living forever’ thing), with no real reason to ‘wrap up’ the series, which is essentially a collection of several different independent tales, broken up into standalone novels, four-volume set and everything in between. Sure, given Brooks’ recent willingness to delve into unexplored portions of historical timeline of the series, this doesn’t rule out the fact that he will continue to write Shannara novels, instead it puts an endcap on the series’ overarching exploration of the clash between ‘Old World’ science and magic, a conflict that has been at the heart of the series since the fourth book, more-or-less. But, why put a cap on potential future stories? In addition, Brooks also released some small details about his current work-in-progress, the first of three stand-alone Shannara novels, set after the conclusion of his current trilogy: I can tell you that the main character is a Leah, and that the story is set in the future some hundred years after the conclusion of the events in Dark Legacy of Shannara. It is a stand-alone, but only the first of a planned three, each with a different story and characters, each with its own agenda. He doesn’t connect the ‘end’ of the Shannara series to this set of three standalone novels, so fans will likely have to wait at least a few years for the conclusion, but it is surprising to see Brooks finally confirm that the series will conclude, dashing the arguments of fans like myself. Brooks has mentioned a couple of times that he has a novel planned that has no connection to any of his previous stories, which, coupled with this news, could suggest that he is finally, after 30+ years, ready to move on past the series that launched his career and helped revitalize/build Fantasy in a post-Tolkien world.Image caption Mikkelsen began his career as a touring juggler Danish actor Lars Mikkelsen is set to play a villain in the third series of BBC One's Sherlock. Mikkelsen, who played mayoral candidate Troels Hartmann in cult Danish drama The Killing, will star as Charles Augustus Magnussen. In Arthur Conan Doyle's The Adventure of Charles Augustus Milverton, the title character is a blackmailer who extorts money from wealthy nobles. The Sherlock series stars Benedict Cumberbatch as the famous detective. Sherlock producer Sue Vertue announced the news of Mikkelsen's role on Twitter on Monday. The Killing was broadcast by BBC Four in the UK. Mikkelsen, 49, also starred in the hit show Borgen - his brother Mads starred opposite Daniel Craig in Casino Royale and is currently on TV screens in Hannibal. Sherlock won three Bafta awards in 2011, including best supporting actor for Martin Freeman, who plays Holmes's sidekick Doctor Watson. It went one better in 2012, picking up four awards including best writer for Steven Moffat and best supporting actor for Andrew Scott, who played Holmes's nemesis Moriarty. The first two Sherlock series were equally popular with audiences, with an 7.9 million viewers for the final episode of series two last year. A transmission date for the third series has yet to be announced.if you do not have buttermilk, use 1/2 cup milk (any kind) and juice one lemon – approximately 1-2 tablespoons and add to milk to curdle. This will happen within 5 minutes. This is now your buttermilk! Preheat oven to 400 Combine all dry ingredients in a bowl large enough to mix in Take cold butter and grate into dry mix, tossing to coat with flour mix – until all pieces are coated and separated. Ideally you will have pea sized bits of butter along with the rest of your dry mix. Create a well in the center and add buttermilk and sour cream, combining to form a dough. Flour your work surface and place dough in the center, flouring the top before rolling. Roll to about 1/4 inch thickness and fold in 3’s – like a brochure. Roll again. This time, fold in 3’s and turn 1/2 circle before re-rolling. Fold in 3’s the last time, roll to about 1/2 inch thickness and cut into desired shape. Do not twist as you cut, as this will squish your layers! Cut straight down and back up in one motion. Place on a parchment lined cookie sheet, brushing the tops with more buttermilk or melted butter before baking. Place in preheated oven for about 18-20 minutes. optional – bake in cast iron skillet, buttering the bottom of the seasoned pan, placing biscuits next to each other. As they bake, they will create one solid pan, with individually tear-off biscuits.Few people wield as much influence on Israel’s strategic situation and on the degree of security the country’s citizens enjoy than the commander of the Israel Air Force. Israel’s air might, which in relatively quiet periods is exercised only fitfully and generally far from the eyes of the public, remains uppermost as the guarantee of the country’s security – second only to American diplomatic backing and military aid. This status is related to the professional quality of the IAF’s personnel, the ultra-expensive weapons systems it employs and, in large measure, also to the force’s organizational culture, which continues to look like a distant (and generally more successful) relative of the ground units. - Skip Get the best of Haaretz: Follow us on Facebook Earlier this month, Maj. Gen. Amir Eshel retired from active service in the Israel Defense Forces after a career of 40 years, slightly more than five of them as commander of the air force. Along with the traditional mission of the IAF chief – preparing the force for war – Eshel had an additional assignment: keeping that war at bay and preventing the country from sliding into an armed conflict. This was apparent in two campaigns. The first – attacks to block the delivery of advanced weaponry to Hezbollah – was conducted with limited power without the situation deteriorating into an all-out war in the north. As for the second – bombing Iran’s nuclear facilities – it was not implemented, though the air force trained for it vigorously, a task in which Eshel played an important role. He went about his business without angering his superiors, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and three defense ministers (Ehud Barak, Moshe Ya’alon and Avigdor Lieberman). In fact, all of them heap sincere praise on him. “It’s not a problem to get Israel into a tangle,” Eshel told me when I spoke to him at the beginning of the month, on the eve of his retirement. “So far we’ve succeeded in hitting the brakes.” Maj. Gen. Amir Eshel. Yanai Yechiel He’s referring primarily to the activity to thwart arms smuggling to Hezbollah through Syria and to other terrorist organizations in other sectors. Shortly after the civil war erupted in Syria, in 2011, Israel demarcated its red lines in the north: It would respond with military force to every attack on its territory from Syria and would act to disrupt the transfer of “tie-breaking” weapons systems to Lebanon. The fact that Israel pursued this policy actively without getting involved in the war in Syria, and in the general upheaval in the Middle East, is probably the most significant achievement that the successive Netanyahu governments can credit themselves with in recent years. Most of the information about the attacks draws on reports in the international media. What is the Israeli public not understanding about this story? Eshel: “I think the public understands well. The prime minister and the defense minister made declarations to the effect that there are things that Israel will not allow to happen. They made the declaration with the intention of carrying it out. There’s a wide range of actions that can be taken and there have been a great many successes. If we hadn’t succeeded, the potential threats would be far more significant today.” Did the air force adversely affect Hezbollah’s military capabilities? “Of things that Hezbollah wanted to have in its possession, a large part was unrealized. I will give you numbers, ballpark figures. Israel is coping with terrorism far from its borders, too. If you take the activity against terrorism in its newer sense – the campaign against the conveyance of strategic means of combat – it’s not that Israel didn’t do similar things in the past. It did, but the situation in the Middle East has changed. Until 2012, if you go back 10 years, there were very few preemptive operations, far from the border, by the air force. You can count them on fewer than the fingers of one hand. And there were operations, I don’t have to tell you, by the Mossad. “Since 2012, I am talking about many dozens of operations. Let’s say that the number is close to three figures, in the northern sector and in other sectors. An operation can be something solitary, small and point-specific, or it can be an intensive week in which a great many items are involved. Happily, it occurs under the radar. You can view it as a direct accomplishment, given the equipment that’s destroyed. But something else also happened, which I find very significant: We succeeded in not plunging Israel into wars.” In this file photo taken on Dec. 18, 2015 provided by the Russian Defense Ministry Press Service, a load of ammunition is prepared to be loaded on to Russian war planes at Hemeimeem air base in Syria. Vadim Savitsky/AP Could that have happened? “Easily. A mistake could have many components: undesirable friction with enemies, with great powers, or all of it together. The smart thing is to be effective, to achieve what’s required, but below the bar at which we escalate into war. And in the Middle East, it’s very easy to escalate into war. I think this is a great achievement. It’s easy enough to be a bull in a china shop. We were able to act rightly and not get into a war. In some cases the force we used was like a hammer, and in some cases it was just a small ‘click,’ and that’s enough. And if you factor in the excellent intelligence – really extraordinary intelligence – and the determination of the decision makers, that means that when Israel has vested interests, it acts despite the risks. I think that in the eyes of our enemies, as far as I understand it, this is a language that’s understood here and also understood far from the Middle East.” Is it understood in Moscow, too? “Yes. There’s something else here, which we will be able to gauge only in hindsight, but in my view, our actions reduced the possibility of war. We didn’t eliminate it, it doesn’t mean that there won’t be some miscalculation tomorrow – anything is possible. But when someone feels that you know more about them than they would have expected, and when you’re determined to act, even when it looks impossible, and you act sharply and precisely, that doesn’t generate a desire for wars. “I’m the last person who wants to convey a message here that the wars in the Middle East are done with. I will say it very soberly. I am not deluding myself, because things can lurch out of control here. But every action like that – and they know what’s going on – is a message that is understood very well: ‘It’s not worth it, not now.’ That’s a positive result of these operations, even if it’s not their central aim.” New kid in the neighborhood Beginning in September 2015, the IAF’s freedom of action over Syria faced an acute challenge, following Russia’s deployment of two combat squadrons in northern Syria, with the aim of saving the regime of President Bashar Assad. Afterward, the Russians installed advanced air-defense systems, whose radar is capable of identifying every liftoff from an Israeli base, from at least as far as the northern Negev. Netanyahu went to Moscow quickly at the time, in order to arrange, with President Vladimir Putin, a mechanism to prevent aerial friction between the two air forces. Netanyahu and Putin met five times within about a year. In some of the meetings they were joined by the director of Military Intelligence, Maj. Gen. Herzl Halevi, and by the chief of staff, Lt. Gen. Gadi Eisenkot, alongside their Russian counterparts. “We realized that a new and very significant player had entered the arena,” Eshel says. “A potential for friction, one that could cause dangerous results, had been created. Certainly we have nothing against them, but we have interests and they have interests, and they converge in the Syrian airspace. How do you reduce the possibility of unintended mutual harm? The strategic consequences could be serious. To date, it [the mechanism that was worked out] has stood the test well.” Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu sits inside an Apache Helicopter and speaks Israel Air Force chief Amir Eshel during his visit to the Tel Nof air force base in southern Israel, August 17, 2016. Amir Cohen / Reuters In November 2015, Turkish planes downed a Russian warplane on the Syria-Turkey border, sparking a serious crisis between Moscow and Istanbul. Israel sought to prevent, almost at any price, a similar clash with the Russians. “There’s one thing you have to understand: In the air, things can happen within a second, with all due respect to a directive by Putin or by the prime minister,” Eshel explains. “In the end, the question is: How do we foster a situation in which a lieutenant here, or his counterpart on the Russian side, doesn’t make that mistake. The lieutenant has to decide here and now, and it’s possible that within a second he will have made a mistake, and we’ve gone and entangled Israel. That’s something we cannot allow ourselves. In the technical sense, we reduce the possibility that this will happen. We know how to communicate. We do not coordinate our activity with the Russians in advance. It’s not that we tell them what we are going to do [in Syria].” How does it work, if you don’t coordinate with them? “There’s something technical here, and there are leaders’ directives, and trust. We don’t intend to harm the Russians, and we do everything to avoid harming them. They understand why we are taking action. They don’t agree or give us authorization, but I think they understand what Israel is doing. It is fighting terrorism, preventing the delivery of means of combat.” Agreement isn’t part of the story? “It’s not a matter of agreement. Sovereign states need to respect other states, and in this case we are both involved with the same geographical slot. We have no beef with the Russians. We do have a beef with deliveries of arms that endanger our security.” It’s been almost two years. Have Russian planes or defense systems locked on to Israeli planes? Were there situations of near-confrontation? “Locking on is not a situation of almost being hit. There have been no situations of near-clash, because we are conducting ourselves correctly. When I look now at the scope of Russian activity during two years, at how many times they have violated Israeli sovereignty, my point of departure is that the majority were by mistake, it’s nothing. There were situations in which we contacted them in real time and said that there had been a mistake [of the Russians entering Israeli airspace], and they immediately responded and corrected. That’s alright. We have not seen provocations.” Still, when a pilotless plane – apparently Russian – appears suddenly in Israel’s skies, what happens? Outgoing Israel Air Force chief Maj. Gen. Amir Eshel in 2015. IDF Spokesperson's Unit “Everything tenses up, certainly. We do what needs to be done. It’s all at top speed, but we behave responsibly. I think the Russians know that we are not Turkey.” Preemptive strike Eshel’s sober-minded approach did not conflict with his determination to develop the air force’s offensive weaponry. That’s apparent when he presents, for the first time, what he sees as one of the force’s key missions under his command. “Fifty years after the Six-Day War,” he says, “we have restored to Israel first-strike capability for the northern sector. That capability is based on precise intelligence. When you act by surprise, you shock the enemy. I am not saying that Israel should launch a preemptive strike. That’s a strategic dilemma, and everything needs to be examined in its context. But today we have that capability, including against the new enemies: terrorist organizations with a relatively decentralized control system and with high capabilities.” Didn’t Israel always have that ability? “Not really. The question is, how effective you are. There’s something here now that has been translated into plans. An achievement is possible that I consider phenomenal. It won’t end the war within three hours, but it will advance us to victory, to shortening the war, dramatically. The driving force here is the chief of staff. We were engaged in building these capabilities even before, but at the start of his tenure we sat together. That’s a conversation I won’t forget. He asked: Will you be able to create a kind of equivalent to Operation Moked? Moked is of course the most famous operation in IAF history: the destruction of most of the planes of the Egyptian and Syrian air forces in the first hours of the 1967 Six-Day War. “I told him: Of course. It takes years, it’s not easy, it’s not that we have some sort of recipe. We have capability, and in the end it has to be translated into plans and training. That capability is back in our toolbox. Whether we activate it or not, that’s already a different matter.” The question is whether that capability might not be an enticement for the political decision makers at times, and could take the country into unnecessary places. “That’s already a matter of context. I think that our role is to create those tools. Today’s air force offers the IDF and the State of Israel capabilities that in my view are unprecedented. The potential exists to do things differently. A different strategy. On the face of it, you can say: Whoever has a certain tool every hammer is going to look for its nails. The usual way of thinking in regard to a preemptive strike is that you get up one fine day and pounce on someone. That’s not the event we’re living in. The strategic price of a move like that would be very high. But what happens in a situation of tension, such as in the Six-Day War, with its three weeks of waiting? States of tension can last a long time. The question is if [while that’s happening,] you have the ability to get up and attack. Now, are you tempted to use it? I’m not grading anyone, but I’ve seen not a little responsibility in decision making for many years. Anyone who goes for actions like these understands that the situation in their wake will be completely different, and there are high prices to pay. But what I’ve seen – and I’ve seen quite a lot – is plenty of responsibility.” The Israeli-led Blue Flag international exercise held in 2015. IDF Spokesperson's Unit Dispute over Iran Beginning in 2008, even before the rise in tension on the northern front, the political and security hierarchy in Israel was immersed in a dispute that divided it for years, on the question of whether to attack Iran’s nuclear sites. The issue was first raised for discussion toward the end of Ehud Olmert’s tenure as prime minister, particularly by the defense minister at the time, Ehud Barak. When Netanyahu took office, in May 2009, he immediately instructed the IDF to accelerate the operational preparations for an attack. In short order, a coalition formed of senior figures in the security branches who acted to restrain the attack ambitions of Netanyahu and Barak (the latter continued to serve as defense minister in the Likud-led coalition). The coalition consisted of three successive chiefs of staff (Gabi Ashkenazi, Benny Gantz and Eisenkot), two Mossad chiefs (Meir Dagan and Tomer Pardo) and a director of the Shin Bet security service (Yuval Diskin). At the time when the question first arose, Eshel was head of the General Staff’s planning directorate. Shortly before Meir Dagan’s death, he hinted, in an interview with Ilana Dayan on Channel 2’s “Fact” program, that the opposition of the heads of the security bodies had curbed the political decision makers on several occasions, when they ordered the IDF to prepare a practical option for an attack. In the end, Netanyahu and Barak did not force their view on the security experts. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, IDF Chief of Staff Benny Gantz, Defense Minister Ehud Barak Air force commander Amir Eshel at the Palmachim Air Force Base after the 2012 Gaza war. Amos Ben Gershom, GPO Security sources who were involved in the secret discussions told Haaretz that Eshel, who took over as IAF commander in May 2012, continued and intensified the agenda adopted by his two predecessors, Eliezer Shkedi and Ido Nehushtan – in upgrading the force’s preparations and honing its operational capability for an attack, while expressing reservations about a unilateral attack that would not involve the Americans. In practice, the air force commander successfully pulled off something that was almost self-contradictory. The air force’s stance was critical, as its personnel possess the sole professional authority to estimate the probability of success of such a complex operation. Eshel agrees to comment on the subject only indirectly; this is the only time in the interview when he seems to be feeling his way with extreme caution. “We have operational responsibility here,” he says. “That stands out sharply in the air force, because there are few people who understand this capability. We put our professional truth on the table very forcefully. What is possible and what is impossible. You ask about an additional level, the strategic level: Is it in fact right to attack? Discussions take place in closed, small forums. We are given the right to voice our opinion in the most senior forums. In the end, someone above us decides. “You try to analyze, and the state doesn’t always tell you what it wants clearly,” Eshel continues. “You ask yourself: Okay, what do I have in hand, what can I develop or what can I do to implement what it [the state] wants? And now comes the question of whether you are proactive or passive. We perceive ourselves as people who move, initiate, persuade. It’s clear that they are not experts on our capabilities. Only we understand what we know how to deliver, but that requires us to be acquainted with the strategic level, in order to understand the [changes taking place regionally].” Let’s say that in another 20 years, a historian of the air force asks you what the primary challenge was on your watch. Will you tell him that you engaged in improving the attack capabilities while pushing on the strategic brakes? “I didn’t feel that I braked anything [with respect to the Iran issue]. In our language, braking means lowering a hook and bringing the plane to a stop. The army does not push on the brake. The army states its professional truth. When there are proper processes, when dialogue takes place, when you’re apprised of the different angles and the great challenges... these are not technical matters. They are substantive questions with very great influence. Into that, you come and describe your professional angle. There are a great many professional issues in which you say [to the political decision makers]: Listen, the fact that you want this is fine, but look for a moment at the implications, at the possible developments. Now let’s ask ourselves if this is what we want. A professional process generally brings better results.” The Israeli-led Blue Flag international exercise held in 2015. IDF Spokesperson's Unit New friends Amir Eshel, 58, was born and raised in Ramat Gan. He was drafted in 1977 into the pilots training course. Subsequently, he commanded F-16 and Phantom squadrons, was the head of the IAF’s operations department, commanded the Ramon and Tel Nof air force bases, and served as both head of an air force wing and the force’s chief of staff. In recent years, the air force has devoted considerable efforts to establishing closer relations with its counterparts in other countries. The Israel and foreign media have reported mainly on joint training exercises with such friendly countries as Greece, Cyprus and Romania. Here and there, in the Arab and international media, a glimpse has been provided of more clandestine relations, to which Eshel refers only implicitly and indirectly as “aerial diplomacy” or the creation of an “aerial bridge.” In a joint exercise held recently in the United States, Israel and Jordanian aircraft took part in parallel, and Israeli planes – according to foreign news sources – reportedly fueled Jordanian planes in midair on the way to an exercise in Nevada. Two years ago, The Wall Street Journal reported that Israel transferred American-made Cobra combat helicopters to Jordan, after they’d been phased out of use in the IAF. Wilayat Sinai, as the Islamic State branch in the Sinai Peninsula is called, has repeatedly accused Israel of using unmanned aerial vehicles to attack its personnel, in the service of Egypt. It’s clear from the reports that the wars in the Arab world have allowed Israel to find new allies, along the contours of these new regional conflicts. Eshel confirms that, “The situation has changed, there is a convergence of interests between Israel and other countries in the region. We see the same enemies eye to eye. Cooperation in the air is far easier. There’s a common, understood language; there are undesirable things that can be avoided. Cooperation in the air is far closer than what it looks like from the ground. We are an instrument of the statesmen, who activate us quickly as they wish and stop us immediately as they wish. As the prime minister said, this creates tremendous assets for the state. Two years ago, I would not have imagined that things like this would happen, that we’d get to the places we’ve gotten to. Not on such a scale, not in terms of distance.” Chief of Staff of the U.S. Air Force, General David Goldfein, awards the Legion of Merit to outgoing Israel Air Force Commander Maj. General Amir Eshel, August 14, 2017. Matty Stern/U.S.Embassy Tel Aviv The August 10 ceremony at which the new IAF commander, Maj. Gen. Amikam Norkin, was installed was attended by the chief of staff of the U.S. Air Force, Gen. David Goldfein, who conferred on Eshel the Legion of Merit award. During Eshel’s tenure, about 15 commanders of foreign air forces paid a total of 38 visits to Israel. Eshel observed the most burning issue that engaged the IDF in the past 18 months mainly from the side. IAF personnel have barely been involved in the confrontation with terrorism in the West Bank, and the furor generated by the trial of Elor Azaria, the “Hebron shooter,” bypassed the force completely. Eshel is convinced that the chief of staff acted properly in the Azaria case. “There was very rapid understanding that this was an anomalous event by any criterion,” he says. “The investigation was professional and the response correct. It’s clear that there was both a professional failure and a moral failure here. Two court instances have already passed judgment. The ability of commanding officers to investigate, to speak out clearly, morally and professionally, is the heart and soul of the army. Without that, we will fall apart. We can close up the shop then.” IAF chief Maj. Gen. Amir Eshel with IDF chief Lt. Gen. Gadi Eisenkot and Maj.Gen. Tamir Hayman in 2016. Itamar Moatti / IDF Spokesperson's Unit The air force’s dilemmas in the territories are of a completely different order. According to IDF data, 2,125 Palestinians were killed in Operation Protective Edge, the most recent war in the Gaza Strip, in 2014. A large number of those killed died in aerial attacks. The IDF acknowledges that there were 761 civilians among them. However, the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs claimed that civilian deaths were far higher, totaling at least 1,483. “In our case, if we were to make a mistake in planning the attacks, you could get up the next morning with 2,000 noncombatants killed in Gaza,” Eshel suggests, adding, “But when I look for a moment at the data and compare with armies like ours elsewhere... I don’t claim we are more moral than they are. When the subject comes up in meetings with the Americans, with other members of the coalition [the international coalition, whose planes are attacking ISIS targets in Syria and Iraq] – we are far ahead of them in these indices, and our mode of operation is highly regarded by our colleagues. Compared to others, we kill more terrorists and kill fewer noncombatant civilians. “I say this with care: In not a few campaigns we took criticism from within the army for [not being tough enough]. I stuck to my opinion clearly: Friends, we too have responsibility. If we hadn’t stopped, we might have ended up with far more noncombatants killed. That criticism of us is legitimate. But I feel a certain pride precisely for the targets we didn’t attack and didn’t authorize – even though the force’s mission is to attack and win.” During the war, Gideon Levy published an extremely critical column about the air force in this paper. Published on July 15, 2014, it was titled, in Hebrew, “The worst to the air force” [a play on the iconic slogan, “The best to the air force”; title on the English edition's website: “Lowest deeds from loftiest heights”]. A Palestinian family sits in their destroyed home in Gaza City, which was attacked by Israel during Operation Protective Edge, September 2014. Anne Paq / Activestills.org Eshel: “That pinched and it stabbed. I didn’t like what he wrote, but it’s part of freedom of expression. After the piece appeared, demonstrators wearing white robes smeared with blood showed up at the gate of the Hatzor base, during the war. But in the end, our role is to defend everyone. “The type of confrontation is not going to change in the coming campaigns, not in Gaza and especially not in Lebanon. That is my working assumption. It’s going to become more intensive than it’s been until now. I will have to choose whether I knock down this house, because there are two rockets in it that are going to be fired at Israel at some point, or not to hit it, because maybe I will harm enemy civilians. Every case has to be examined at the level of context and proportionality. That’s a commander’s decision – a moral decision intended to defend the country’s residents. I know there are rockets there, and I know there is also a family there. And now I have to decide what to do if those rockets hit an identical house in Israel where there’s a family, or four families. Those are the dilemmas. And I will have to ask myself what we did in order to lower the possibility that this family [of the enemy] will be harmed. What we told them before the confrontation, during the war. What means we adopt. “It’s clear to me that we will not be able to avoid this entirely, there’s no question of that. Hence my recommendation to the people of Lebanon – you’ve heard it a hundred times: They know exactly what they have in the house. They are well aware who is wandering around there in 200 Hezbollah villages in southern Lebanon – and they will be well advised not to remain at home. Those who do not remain at home will survive. We will not harm them. They have to understand that Hezbollah has married them to these means [of combat], and we cannot tie our hands and say that it’s impossible to attack there. We will have no choice but to act. We will not be able to leave Israel undefended when a thousand rockets a day are being fired at the country. Anyone who thinks we will now wait three weeks [once a war has started] before taking action – that will not be the case. “Our intelligence continues to improve, and the armaments are becoming more precise, too. But the fighting in the northern sector is going to be more intensive from the word go, both there and here – and not because we are removing the moral and ethical reins. I am not talking about moral anarchy. That will not happen.” Eshel also notes a large improvement in the IAF’s ability to attack targets within a limited time – it’s increased by a factor of four or five in the past few years. The force has also tightened its joint activity with the ground forces, amid strikingly short security distances from those forces during combat, allowing it to assist in attacking enemy forces that are threatening IDF units even in densely built-up areas. At the same time, intercept capability has also been enhanced. Since 2011, when the aerial defense system started to intercept rockets fired from the Gaza Strip, 1,320 rockets have been intercepted, with a 90-percent success rate for the Iron Dome system (and in at least one case, the Arrow system). Firing has also originated from Lebanon, Syria and Sinai. Additionally, in the past five years, 10 UAVs that infiltrated Israeli airspace from various countries have been shot down. In contrast, the air force continues to seek solutions for how to respond offensively to short-range rockets. In wartime, it will be very difficult to deal effectively with the tens of thousands of short-range rockets Hezbollah has deployed in the heart of crowded villages in southern Lebanon. In this July 29, 2014 photo, smoke and fire from an Israeli strike rise over Gaza City. Hatem Moussa/AP Can the air force continue to function under an offensive of tens of thousands of missiles and rockets from Lebanon? “The bottom line is that it will be impossible to stop the air force. Not because I issued a particular order. We have conducted numberless analyses. There’s a lot of voodoo here, and plenty of fears, and that’s perfectly fine. There’s no one more apprehensive than we are – we who surprised the other side in the Six-Day War – about something similar happening from the opposite direction. Civilian experts in performance analysis have examined our basic assumptions and even told us that we are being too conservative.” At the end of 2016, the air force received its first F-35 fighters from the U.S. (and with that country’s financial assistance) – the most expensive planes Israel has ever purchased. Eshel has flown the aircraft 10 times in the past few months. IAF headquarters, under him and his predecessor, Ido Nehushtan, backed the controversial acquisition unequivocally. The plane’s integration, Eshel says, will be a “totally different event” from the air force’s point of view. “I don’t look at it just as a plane and capability,” he explains. “Before the plane was received, we thought about how to change the air force and adapt it to a fifth-generation fighter, and not the opposite. If we’d done the opposite, we would have only diminished the plane’s capabilities. You need to look at it at a system-wide level – not of the plane, of the whole air force. How the F-35 makes the other planes far more effective, the information it shares with them and with our information centers, how they can then do so much more thanks to that information. It goes far beyond the fact that it can operate in places that no other plane can.” A plethora of American media reports claim the plane is a white elephant that will implode, that the project is riddled with hitches and is the most expensive in history. And your response is “Nonsense”? “[The Americans] embarked on something very ambitious in its capabilities. We already see what this plane has. Not everything is perfect. There are things you learn along the way. That’s been the case with every plane we acquired. But when you take off in this plane from Nevatim [base], you can’t believe it. At 5,000 feet, the whole Middle East is there for you in the cockpit. You see things, it’s inconceivable. American pilots who visit us haven’t seen anything like it, because they fly over Arizona or Florida, and here they suddenly see the [entire] Middle East as a combat zone – the threats, the different players, at both close range and long range. Only then do you grasp the enormous potential of this machine. We’re already seeing it with our eyes.”If you just went by the record and the on-court product, the Sixers look like a team executing a well-thought-out plan. But that feel-good story isn’t the whole story. Earlier this week, Philly beat the Hornets in Charlotte to secure its 21st victory — the team’s highest season win total in the
on the dock with a dozen roses. The bosun’s mate had warned us about leaving the ship before our watch was over, so I yelled down to my lover from the deck that I would be down to greet him properly in one half hour. One half hour later, he was gone. I went to his house. He threw the roses in my face and told me to get lost. What made this relationship worth it? The romantic locations, to be sure. Length of long-distance relationship: 8 months Status: No longer together Novi Sad, Serbia to Donetsk, Ukraine We were communicating daily on Skype/Facebook/VK for two years, day and night. After we met and spent one month living together, he had to leave because of his visa and country regulations. That was the major hit for me; it couldn’t get any more painful, and after he left I didn’t think we could ever be together again (no money for traveling was the biggest reason), and there was no future in any of our countries. Then the war in Ukraine started, and I couldn’t go there, nor could he leave his parents and family in the middle of that shit. I had some personal crisis and felt alone, needed someone next to me. I started seeing one other guy who was there for me when I needed help and decided to break up the long distance relationship because it was too painful and depressing. Despite it, I still think that this was “once in a lifetime” love. Length of long-distance relationship: 36 months Status: No longer together Cleveland, Ohio to New York, New York I dated a guy long-distance for 9 months when I left NYC to go to grad school in Cleveland. Long story short, we made it through the first two semesters, and I came home to be with him during my summer break. He broke up with me pretty quickly after I got back (I guess he wanted to do it in person?), claiming he just didn’t see our future together anymore. Heartbroken, I immediately made the long haul straight back to Cleveland and miraculously salvaged my spot in an amazing internship I had initially turned down to be with him. Plus, it definitely helped ease my heartache to put 500 miles between me and the breakup. Since I had spent the first year of my life in Cleveland sequestered in my room on the phone with my boyfriend, I still hadn’t befriended a single person in the city beyond my seven classmates (six women and one painfully shy foreign man with a major language barrier). Feeling sad and pissed that I had seriously wasted my prime dating years, I jumped on the online dating bandwagon and within two weeks had met the man who ultimately became my husband. It was a very happy ending, all told, but of course I never did escape Cleveland. Length of long-distance relationship: 9 months Status: No longer together New York, New York to St. Petersburg, Florida We met while working at a restaurant and began dating two weeks before I moved away for college. It felt romantic and desperate, and we would talk every night on the phone for hours, mostly sighing and saying how much we missed each other. He grew increasingly jealous, and would accuse me of cheating on him. I came home for breaks, would spend all my time with him and love every second of it, though it always ended in tears and fighting. The worst was when I left for my sophomore year—as I kissed him goodbye I accidentally let his pet parakeet fly through the apartment door and into the world. I couldn’t do anything but apologize and leave. Eventually I began feeling like my mind was always in Florida and I couldn’t live fully in New York, so I ended the relationship the way we had spent most of it—on the phone. Length of long-distance relationship: 18 months Status: No longer together Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania to Chicago, Illinois and Cambridge, Massachusetts Medicine does not a flexible life make, but we would fly into each other’s cities for whirlwind romantic weekends and spend holidays on beaches or exploring new, distant cities. In the earlier years, we both saw a nebulous finish line where we were both badasses in our jobs and living together. We envisioned making dinner together and dancing around to old records on a humdrum Tuesday night. After five years of dating and four years of long distance, the strain was evident in every part of our relationship. I handled it a lot worse than he did. Sometimes you just want to eat dinner with someone at night or get a hug after a rough day—impossible when doing long distance. Ultimately, we had to call time of death on our relationship two months ago. We realized we were making each other miserable. It was hard to eke out two perfect days of relationship every three to six weeks. We had created two different lives completely independent of each other. I don’t regret the long distance relationship, but I certainly don’t recommend it. Length of long-distance relationship: 48 months Status: No longer together Los Angeles, California to Stuart, Florida He lived in our home town, and I was working on the opposite coast. We got together when I was visiting home for the holidays. It worked out great—every time we saw each other it was like we were on vacation. One or both of us would have to travel, and we would make the most of every minute. It was all very glamorous. We met up every couple of weeks, sometimes in our hometowns, sometimes at other vacation spots. When we decided to live in the same town, the relationship quickly lost its glamor, and we broke up. Length of long-distance relationship: 18 months Status: No longer together A street in Hokkaido, Japan. (Photo: NorGal/shutterstock.com) International Affairs Hokkaido, Japan to Guadalajara, Mexico Victor and I met in university at Tokyo. We were both studying abroad, taking the same Japanese class, and we started spending time together because we found we both have a common interest in urban exploring. Urbex in Japan is arguably the best in the world—the first time I approached Victor was because I had seen his photos from Nara Dreamland, and I’d been dying to go for years. The first time we ever hung out, we explored an abandoned insane asylum on the outskirts of Tokyo. I think that was when I knew he was someone worth keeping in my life, even though we’ve been doing an international long distance relationship ever since. We both care about the same things—traveling, languages, climbing roller coasters in abandoned amusement parks at 5 a.m. So, we got involved, spent six months long distance, him in Tokyo and me in Chicago, then six more months long distance, Chicago to Mexico. We’ve never lived closer than 1,700 miles apart. After graduation, I moved to rural Japan, so once again we’re almost 7,000 miles apart. Length of long-distance relationship: 18 months Status: Ongoing Bangkok, Thailand to Edmonton, Alberta We met as children because our families were friends. I was seven and he was nine. At sixteen, I had a debilitating crush on him but was the invisible little sister of his friend. We drifted apart, and I moved from city to city—Mexico, Seoul, Shanghai, Bonn, then Bangkok. He got married and had a son. Life went on. My big brother’s sudden death brought me back to Canada in the middle of a cold snap, the first time I had been “home” in 15 years. The day was sad but also happy because he was there and took the time to say hello. It was a two-minute conversation, and we gave it little thought. It wasn’t until a year later that he reached out on Valentine’s Day to tell me his wife had cheated, he was divorced and he wanted to take a holiday. I offered for him to come to Bangkok, and then it was all love and trying to figure out the distance. Length of long-distance relationship: 10 months Status: Ongoing Uppsala, Sweden to Tracy, California We met at a show when I was in the States in 2012 a little after Valentine’s Day, ironically. We became really close and met a few times in Sweden with so many adventures. It was pretty amazing the few times I got to be around her. Later she became more comforting over a lot of mental situations and bad situations. I just finally conjured up the feeling to ask her out, and here we are. We have a long distance record swap; she and my brother are actually best friends. We seriously swap music as signs of affection. It helps us hold over until the next meeting! Length of long-distance relationship: 5 months Status: Ongoing Nelson, New Zealand to Austin, Texas We met two weeks before she left New Zealand to move back to the States. I also moved nine times during the year, staying with friends to keep my costs low whilst I saved to go overseas too. We were emotionally committed from when we met and used Skype when she left, speaking for up to nine hours a day at first. Then for reasons outside my control I moved to a rural place with no cell coverage and dial up Internet (yes, that still exists!). I arranged to run a high speed cable across paddocks from my neighbor’s house on the next farm, and had WiFi, but only had access to a capped 30 mb a day. So during that time our relationship was entirely done through the Heywire app, which is like instant message. Sometimes I was able to drive to a town and use the library WiFi or McDonald’s, and we could Skype. Length of long-distance relationship: 12 months Status: Ongoing Quang Tri Province, Vietnam to New York, New York During the year that I was in Vietnam, Carol and I wrote letters and sometimes poems to each other so that we could stay in touch. It was a great morale boost for me to receive her pink envelopes with the perfumed—I think it was called “L’Heure Bleue”—letter. Except for the time that the North Vietnamese shot down a chopper that was carrying the mail, I received a letter almost weekly. Back in New York where Carol was living in a five-floor walk-up apartment with two roommates would make her friend who had the one key to their mailbox come home at lunchtime to open it up if Carol saw a letter from me in the box. Upon my return to the States, we got engaged after a few months and were married in the following autumn. Sadly, I lost her to cancer a little over a year ago after being together for almost 43 years. Length of long-distance relationship: 12 months Status: No longer together England to Texas We met in central Italy. I was working at a farm/hostel, and he was a guest. I really didn’t want a partner, especially a foreign one, because it’s a lot of effort, but he was just irresistible. He’s magnificent, and being with him is the most natural feeling thing ever. But America is a really hard country to date someone from. I don’t recommend dating an American if you’re not one yourself. Length of long-distance relationship: 18 months Status: Ongoing Chicago, Illinois to Cairo, Egypt We met in Cairo and got married there (he’s Egyptian, I’m American). We were ready to start a life together in the midst of revolution, and then there was a military coup and everything went sideways. Now I can’t go to Egypt, and we’ve been waiting 18 months for a green card for him to come here. What makes it worth it? So much has been destroyed in the Middle East, and we’re both too stubborn to let what happened ruin our love story. Length of long-distance relationship: 22 months Status: Ongoing Woking, England to Riyadh, Saudi Arabia She was my first love when we were 16 and again when I was 52. Length of long-distance relationship: 24 months Status: No longer together Dublin with the Ha’penny Bridge. (Photo: Leonid Andronov/shutterstock.com) Wedding Bells Massachusetts to Dublin, Ireland We would fly back and forth to visit each other for a week or two at a time every few months. I also was lucky enough to travel to Europe a few times with work, which we considered “free visits.” We’d also try to visit new places together (since we were spending the money, might as well make a holiday out of it!). We have always told our questioning friends or the nay-sayers that it takes a lot of work to maintain this—from both of us. We had to learn early on how to be intimate with one another without physical interactions. We actually had to talk with one another and learn about each other instead of just dating and making out on each other’s couches. We’re due to be married next week, and I will be returning to Ireland with him for good! Length of long-distance relationship: 60 months Status: Ongoing Austin, Texas to Sheffield and Widnes, England We met at a Dallas Greyhound station. He had an English accent. There was an instant kinship, and about as well as you can get to know someone in 10 minutes, we did. He said he’s headed up to Denver next, but his bus got cancelled. I was tempted to stay with him but my bus to Minnesota finally arrived. So, somehow we were on the topic of books, and he says he finished with his books as well. (I finished 2/3 of my books at this point.) Then he says, “Would you like to trade?” “Of course!” I said. We ripped our luggage apart and gave each other our finished books. Then we had to go our separate ways. I stood in my line for a bit, then ran back to him and got his Facebook information so I could send the book back (that was my excuse anyway). He happily obliged. Thousands in visa costs later we’re still together. We’re moving back to my Texas to get married this spring and save up a little money for our next adventure. Length of long-distance relationship: 17 months Status: Ongoing Sligo, Pennsylvania to Tokyo, Japan We fell in love without seeing each other face to face. We were pen pals (this was in 1987). We carried on a relationship without meeting in person for 10 months, then I flew to Tokyo to meet him for the first time. We have been married (very happily) since 1989 and currently live in California. Length of long-distance relationship: 12 months Status: Ongoing Berkeley, California to Chengdu, Sichuan, China I met my wife of 11 years online through a relationship web site, though we only exchanged one email using the service of this China-based web site, and then we began to email on our personal Yahoo email accounts daily for about a month until my wife taught me how to instant message. I asked her to marry me after we’d been in daily contact for 4 months, she accepted, and after an understandable mutual feeling of hesitation we reaffirmed our decision and without ever physically meeting each other I flew from San Francisco to Chengdu and arrived after 15.5 hours of flight. I got to Chengdu at about 11 p.m. on Feb 2, 2005. She and I were married the next day at an administrative office where we showed the forms and had pictures taken; documents had to be taken for translation into Chinese, but within 1.5 hours we were lagoons and Leopoldo (husband and wife) and had our red marriage booklets from the Chinese state. Length of long-distance relationship: 24 months Status: Ongoing The Bush in Northern Alberta to New York, New York We met at Burning Man. Jenna would fly to Edmonton every six or eight weeks for a long weekend and come trucking with me. An NYC girl who can tolerate riding around the woods in an old Peterbilt and squatting to pee in a snowbank at 30 below zero has got to be a good chick. We’re married now, so yeah, it was totally worth all the schlep and flights. Length of long-distance relationship: 36 months Status: Ongoing Austin, Texas to San Francisco, California We both work in the toy industry and met at an inventor’s show. We both have kids, so he was grounded in San Francisco, and I was tied to Austin. We took turns flying every weekend to see each other for seven years. Once his kids graduated and left for college, he found a job in Dallas (three hours from Austin) which was as close as he could get to me. We were married this last December and continue to live apart on the weekdays. The distance is rough. But I’d rather have the right person two days a week than the wrong person seven days a week. He’s worth every mile logged! Length of long-distance relationship: 84 months Status: Ongoing Northeast Ohio to Southeast Florida He drove 1,200 miles to see me. We were sweethearts when we were ages 16 and 17. At ages 51 and 52 years old, we found each other again, connected through his sister. He had lived in the Pacific Northwest and the Southeast all of his adult life; I’d been in Boston. I re-settled in our hometown area before the relationship was rekindled. He invited me on a date after speaking on the phone and exchanging long email love letters for a month. He said he’d be driving to Ohio to see only me, no relatives, no museums or movies, just us. Oh, and it’d be a five-day date. I agreed, so long as we had separate rooms. We booked in at a country club and he rented a two-bedroom suite in the lodge. The five days were the happiest of our lives; we barely slept. He returned to Florida after the fifth day, but it was very difficult to part. He drove up to Ohio every two weeks or so until I moved to Florida to be with him six months into the relationship. We were married 2.5 years after being reacquainted. To find that he had not changed much, had only become a great man with all kinds of strengths layered onto the character of the boy I knew in high school, was truly amazing. Length of long-distance relationship: 6 months Status: Ongoing Limerick, Ireland, then Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, then Maine, then Glasgow, Scotland to Syracuse, New York I met my (now) husband while we were in high school. We were each other’s first everything. When it came time to go to college, we knew it would be difficult but it had to done. I selected a college four hours from home while he remained there. We tried our best to see each other, but our relationship was primarily via AOL instant messenger. We celebrated our three-year anniversary in different time zones with a Skype date. Come my junior year, it was time for me to travel again. I flew off to study at the Glasgow School of Art. This was such a hard time. I was depressed and just waiting for April when he could visit me. Those were the best two weeks of my five years of college. I returned to school the following fall and we celebrated our seventh anniversary, against a lot of odds. That spring, being a metalsmith, I fashioned emerald engagement rings and I proposed June 1st of that year. He accepted—or at least said “of course.” Good enough. We spent our eighth anniversary in great celebration as we were finally together and about to embark on our lives. At our ten-year anniversary, this past October, we finally got married and, boy did we make people cry! We bought a house, and here we will live, happily ever after, together. Length of long-distance relationship: 60 months Status: Ongoing Wappingers Falls, New York to Allahabad, India We met when we were both in college at Allahabad University. Our families vehemently opposed our relationship, so I went back home to New York to finish school and get a job. We got married when my wife completed her PhD. We did not meet for two years exactly and only communicated via letters since she did not have a phone and in any case I could not afford $3/minute phone calls when minimum wage was $3.35/hour. After that trip was when I got my job. We married nine months later. Guess we were in love. This year is our 30th anniversary. Length of long-distance relationship: 36 months Status: Ongoing Guadalajara, Mexico. (Photo: Jesus Cervantes/shutterstock.com) Hopeless Romantics Guadalajara, Mexico to Ciudad de Mexico, Mexico We met in senior high school in Guanajuato, so we were together only for a couple of months before each one had to leave to a different part of the country. We used to eat dinner quesadillas over Skype, write each other every day and send pictures of everything around us. Every couple of months one of us had to take a bus for like 10 hours to spend a weekend together. It was rough, but it was worth it. Length of long-distance relationship: 48 months Status: Ongoing Virginia Beach, Virginia to Los Angeles, California We were both playing a show at a venue in Norfolk, Virginia. My old band opened up for his band, Silversun Pickups. We hardly spoke at the show, but after, he found me on Facebook and gave me his number. We texted every day, spoke on the phone often. We were great friends. Then we began meeting up on the road here and there. Then it became “official” after a few months of meeting up here and there. Now we see each other at least once a month. We go back and forth from Virginia to California and sometimes go to different cities for little vacations. My family and friends love him. I love his family and his friends. Things are great. In the summer, I will be moving out to Los Angeles and we will finally close the gap. Length of long-distance relationship: 36 months Status: Ongoing Santa Fe, New Mexico to Quilpue, Chile Even though we are different people, we wanted the same things—travel, a satisfactory career, a desire to do something worthwhile with our lives. I’ve always wanted my life to be an adventure, and being with him is just that. It’s taking the road less traveled. It’s jumping across a void together. It’s having faith. It’s also crazy expensive, time consuming,and exhausting, but just like in a normal relationship, you put up with all the baggage because the person on the other end of that Skype call or plane flight is your special someone, and they make you feel good about yourself. They bring out the best in you. Length of long-distance relationship: 36 months Status: Ongoing Edmonton, Alberta to Belleville, Ontario We met—and dated for a while—early in high school. He was the first fellow I said, “I love you,” to; I was 15. We were also friends and classmates for three of our five years (grades 9 through 13 in those days). Life took different turns, and for 52 years we had not seen each other or communicated at all. Then four years ago, I had an email from him. (He had been separated from his wife for a number of years; my husband was quite ill and died three years ago.) The old feelings came swarming back for both of us. How wonderful for people in their 70s to fall in love all over again, after all these years! He has visited me, and we have toured the Rockies and Alberta’s badlands and dinosaur preserves and museums. I have gone east a couple of times each year. We communicate at least three times every day—lengthy emails, by phone and Skype each evening. In fact, I am moving back east—not only because of him; I’ve many old friends and cousins back east—but it will be terrific to be in the same province and only an hour’s drive or so apart. Length of long-distance relationship: 48 months Status: Ongoing Utah to Virginia I met Lenny in high school over 30 years ago. We met because of the Tulsa Race Riots of 1921. Because of those riots, Tulsa developed a magnet school funded by the government to help in the desegregation of America. I am white and Lenny is black. We sat next to each other in Mrs. Carnegie’s math class and became close friends. But Lenny graduated a year ahead of me, and we lost contact with each other after high school. With the advent of Facebook and Classmates.com and other social media websites, I searched for Lenny for over 28 years and finally discovered him in Nottoway Correctional Center in Burkeville, Virginia. Lenny committed eight “grab and dash” robberies in a seven-day period while high on alcohol and crack cocaine. He did not have a gun. He did not murder anyone. In fact, he didn’t even physically injure anyone, and not one person filed against him as a victim. He needed help with his addiction. What he got was two life sentences plus 100 years with no chance at parole. I began writing everyone I could think of trying to bring awareness to Lenny’s situation. I am still writing everyone I can think of—well over a thousand people and organizations by now. We also began writing each other. Lenny, while incarcerated, has not wasted his time. He served in the church for over 10 years. He works everyday in a position of authority. He lives in the Honors Dorm. During the entire 20+ years he has been in prison, he has not received a single infraction for anything—rare for lifers. Together, within the last three years we have written and published a book called “Love Conquers All.” When I began writing Lenny, and catching him up over the last 28 years, I realized what bad shape I was in and began walking and eating better. Within four months I lost over 60 pounds, so much weight that I was able to feel the lump in my left armpit. This turned out to be Stage IV triple negative breast cancer with the discovery of a tumor at the base of my skull, the top of my spine, threatening to paralyze me from the neck down. Seven surgeries, radiation, and a year and a half of chemo later, there is no active disease in my body, although my oncologist tells me I am “incurable.” Reuniting with Lenny when I did spared me a life of paralysis and death—a true miracle. Now, I am trying to create a miracle for Lenny. I married Lenny in August of 2015 in Nottoway in Virginia, traveling across the United States from Utah. We manage because of the unique and true love we have developed for each other over the past three years. We still write each other, email each other and talk on the phone to each other every single day. We may not be the furthest apart in distance, but in a different regard we are far apart. I can only hope that I live long enough to secure Lenny’s release. Length of long-distance relationship: 336 months Status: ongoing …and a Long Beautiful Story for the Road. Chicago, Illinois to Logan, Utah It was a setup. We met in a restaurant called the Jib Room in Marsh Harbour on the island of Abaco in the northern Bahamas. I’m from the Bahamas, but I’d recently moved to Chicago for grad school and was back visiting over the Christmas break. The friend who invited me was annoyingly persistent, though, so I came out anyway and ended up spending the dinner talking across the table to a handsome-but-humble entomologist from Utah. We swapped email addresses at the end of the meal, and I wrote him a month or two later to clarify the difference between a mosquito and a cranefly. We hit it off in text and kept emailing each other, almost daily as I remember, but strictly as friends. The next August I was visiting Abaco again, and so was my entomologist friend. We arranged to have lunch together, but it wasn’t until I saw him walking across the parking lot towards me that I suddenly realized, “Holy cow, this is a date! How’d that happen? Wait a second, he’s a nice guy, and I’m kind of crazy. Is this going to work?” I was flung into a mild state of panic. Add to this, his father (who had retired to the Bahamas years before) was the local meteorologist and his stepmother ran a popular radio network over the VHF, and the situation suddenly seemed much more stressful. Particularly when the stepmother in question found out about our lunch date and innocuously suggested we extend it to dinner, at which time we could join them at the Jib Room (again) for a steak. Lunch was cute and awkward. We sat on the beach and drank a couple of beers and didn’t know what to say to each other when not separated by computer screens. That evening I put on my best face to attend steak night at the Jib Room, but I was nervous. Really nervous. So nervous, in fact, that a few bites into my meal I forgot to chew properly, tried to swallow, and got a big wad of steak jammed in my throat. I tried to swallow again. No dice. I tried to cough it up. That wasn’t working either. I ran through the symptoms in my head: “Can’t swallow, can’t cough, certainly can’t speak—airway completely blocked. This is what choking to death feels like, and I have four-and-a-half minutes before brain death unless somebody in this restaurant knows the Heimlich maneuver!” It seemed to me that my date was such a nice guy that if anyone knew how to save lives, he probably did. I stood up, poked him in the chest, and started making flailing gestures with my arms. After a vexing few seconds he figured it out. It’s funny, but I have about a three-second memory lapse at this point. I remember turning around and him putting his fist up against my diaphragm… and then I remember being able to breathe again, turning back around and sitting down and drinking my beer and eating about half of the rest of my steak and cutting it up very, very small and chewing it very, very well. I don’t remember the actual Heimlich maneuver, and I don’t know what ever happened to the steak that was caught in my throat—it just went away. That was a pretty effective ice-breaker. Up until that point I had serious reservations about getting into a relationship with this handsome-but-humble entomologist. It would be long distance. He’s a nice guy. His parents were a big deal in my hometown. I’m kind of crazy and I don’t have a good history of being able to maintain relationships. But I could be dead. Or I could at least try dating this rather nice man who just saved my life. Because I could be dead! And he still seems interested in me, even after having had to apply the Heimlich. And you know, I could be dead right now. We finished the dinner, went back to the place I was staying, and had hot monkey sex for the next 48 hours. When I went back to Chicago and he went back to Utah, we started figuring out how to work this thing. I was a little less than a year into a two-year master’s degree, so there was going to have to be some adjustment. It turned out there were plenty of direct flights between Salt Lake City and Chicago, and he was able to fly out and visit me every six weeks or so. I’d take the blue line out to O’Hare and meet him, and then he’d come stay with me for a long weekend in my tiny expensive efficiency apartment in Lincoln Park, we’d have hot monkey sex and order delivery food the whole time and I’d send him back to Utah sore and satisfied. I think what kept us going was the fact that we are both natural text communicators. I still wrote him almost every day, and my emails to him became a journal of my life. He wrote back less often, but still fairly frequently, and I figured he was a good sport to read the reams and reams of verbiage that I obsessively sent him. We were a good intellectual and emotional fit, at least with 1,500 miles between us. When my father died in the UK during my last semester as I was trying to write my thesis, my long distance Bug Doctor was the rock that kept my sanity from washing out from underneath me. I flew to the UK for what would turn out to be the last couple of weeks of my father’s life, but Dad stubbornly refused to die while I was there. Spring break rolled aroun, and Mum sent me home to Chicago so that I could keep my plans of flying out to Utah to see my guy over the official vacation. I flew back to O’Hare, spent a night in my apartment and was back at the airport the next day waiting on my flight to Salt Lake when I saw I’d missed a call from my mother. My father had died 45 minutes before. She said I should go see my man, and that the funeral would be the following weekend. I flew to Utah, hitched a ride down to Capitol Reef National Park where my entomologist was on field work, spent a week hiking and crying in the jaw-droppingly beautiful red rock desert, flew back to Chicago for a night, then back to the UK for two nights and the funeral, and then back to Chicago to try and figure out why the hell my thesis was still relevant to myself or anyone else on the planet. I took a two-week extension, finished my thesis, and then hung out in Chicago until my entomologist had finished up his field work. He flew out, helped me pack my life into a U-Haul, and we drove back to Utah across the Great Plains to figure out if we could make a go of it living in the same town. The short answer is yes, and we’re still together 13-and-a-half years later, happily married. The long answer is a lot more involved and features a talented relationship counselor. My Bug Doctor and I have talked about how we managed to somehow sidestep or overcome our individual damage to become a functioning couple, and in truth it seems like the long distance portion of our relationship was key to that. I really was kind of crazy… but so was he. We were both really damaged and frightened, and we both had developed reflexes to jettison anyone who got too close before the iron vise of commitment could shut its jaws around us. Being long distance (and going through so much non-relationship drama) kept those reflexes from being triggered. The Heimlich maneuver episode helped both of us bypass our doubts and fears, and the space of the Great Plains between us diluted them into a non-issue. By the time they kicked in with a vengeance we’d already been married two years, and it just seemed like good sense to try and salvage the investment rather than break things off and move on. These days we are a very close couple, with a level of trust and communication that I don’t see in many other relationships. I feel really, really lucky—and it was definitely worth sticking with it across all those miles. Length of long-distance relationship: 18 months Status: Ongoing (Some submissions have been edited and condensed.) Update, 6/21/16: A previous version of this story stated that the longest distance between two partners was 11,767 miles (Coventry, England to Christchurch, New Zealand). It is actually 12,371 miles (Santiago, Chile and Xi’an, China). We regret the error.On the zonal split up that took place more than a decade back, the Committee strongly feels that this should not have happened because of the presence of economies of scale and other economies (density and scope) which incidentally has been researched in fairly great detail by many researchers (undertaken between 1980s and late 1990s, for example Anand, 2004) who said emphatically that this was not time for such split ups. There is a comment of the lack of clear commercial principles in regard to evaluation of projects. Traditionally, evaluations (financial and economic) were undertaken by the Economics Unit of the Railway Board but had to be finally whetted by the Planning Commission which made its presence strongly felt in this context to ensure that public investment also attempt to generate surpluses while at the same time provide for the larger developmental effects. It is true that the IR has not made operating losses for quite some time. This was possible by arbitrarily cutting down on allocations to the various funds including the DRF about which the Committee rightly says that there was no proper basis for provision to this important but neglected fund which virtually has no balance at all today.Skinny Sriracha Egg Salad made with plain yogurt, avocado, and Sriracha hot sauce. A deliciously healthy option for lunch, dinner, or snacktime! As a mom, there is something I really love about the holidays that come and go without too much hoopla. Holidays like Easter!! I think it’s because everyday life with kids feels busy enough….that when you add holiday hoopla into the mix, there’s always the chance it will put you right over the edge! This year felt especially hoopla-free, mostly because spring break was the week before Easter and we spent half of it at a water park. Which left us with very little time to go nuts with things like making cute Easter crafts and treats and gifts, or building a bunny trap (do people do that??), or even dyeing Easter eggs! I’m okay with skipping all of that…..except, of course, the Easter eggs. Dyeing eggs is a MUST, if for no other reason than they’re delicious to have around!! So on Saturday morning, the day before Easter, we dyed close to 3 dozen eggs….and we had a blast doing it! And now….we have 3 dozen hard boiled eggs sitting in our fridge. Time to make egg salad!! Egg salad and I go way back. It has always been one of my favorites, even as a kid! In fact, I remember in second grade when I won the prize of my teacher making lunch for me, and I requested none other than an egg salad sandwich. That poor teacher!! It’s just that it’s so good, and it’s not something anyone makes very often because you have to have hard boiled eggs to do it. So when I do finally get around to making it, I go a little crazy for it! I decided to make this skinny version by substituting plain yogurt for the mayo, seasoning it with garlic salt and Sriracha, and adding diced avocado. I love the combination of the spicy Sriracha with the creamy avocado, and I especially
in the situation the Fifth Amendment was designed to prevent: having to choose between incriminating herself, lying under oath, or risking contempt of court." It also argues the limited grant of immunity is insufficient. It says for the immunity to comply with the scope of the 5th Amendment privilege, it would have to include the evidence on the computer derived from her act of production. The government’s offer of limited immunity—with no guarantee against use or derivative use of the information Fricosu would be forced to supply— is not comprehensive enough to secure Fricosu’s Fifth Amendment rights. She is therefore justified in refusing to provide the password. A third hearing on the issue was held yesterday and the Court took the matter under advisement.Football veteran Roger Craddock still playing at 70 BelfastTelegraph.co.uk A football captain is refusing to hang up his boots despite playing with the same team for more than half a century. https://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/news/football-veteran-roger-craddock-still-playing-at-70-28499942.html Email A football captain is refusing to hang up his boots despite playing with the same team for more than half a century. Grandfather-of-four Roger Craddock, who celebrated his 70th birthday last week, first played for Reigatians AFC in September 1957. Now the captain of the club's sixth team, Mr Craddock, of Redhill, Surrey, who plays two or three games each season, marked his birthday by scoring a penalty against fellow Surrey side the Old Suttonians last weekend. He said: "I've got no intention of packing up. I'm player-manager of the 6th XI and play most games, although admittedly not 90 minutes. "I've got one cartilage left in my knee, so it would be absolutely stupid to pack it in before I tear that." Belfast TelegraphThe attorney for Democratic House Speaker Mark Eves expects to file a lawsuit against Gov. Paul LePage as early as July, alleging the governor illegally retaliated against Eves by threatening to withhold state funding from his employer, Good Will-Hinckley. Eves and the nonprofit organization, which includes the Maine Academy of Natural Sciences charter school in Fairfield, signed an employment contract in late May. He was to have begun working as its next president on July 1. The school rescinded its offer to Eves, of North Berwick, on Wednesday. Eves has publicly accused LePage of pressuring the school to do so by vowing to withhold $1.06 million in state funding over the next two years. In a statement issued Friday, Good Will-Hinckley said its decision to rescind the job to Eves was “black and white” and based on the “financial consequences” for the school. “This is a clear case of illegal retaliation [by the governor],” said David Webbert, a labor law and civil rights attorney in Augusta who is representing Eves. “The governor does not deny making the threat.” If LePage also ordered the Department of Education to rescind a payment order of about $100,000 to Good Will-Hinckley, as the Maine Center for Public Interest Reporting reported Thursday, that would be further proof the governor acted on that threat, Webbert said. In a statement to the BDN, the governor’s legal counsel Cynthia Montgomery said in a statement that if litigation were to come, “the First Amendment to the Constitution applies to Gov. LePage just like it applies to Speaker Eves. The only difference: in the bare-knuckle game of politics, the governor is not pulling the judicial branch of government into the fight.” Intent, immunity Legal experts interviewed by the BDN said Eves faces a significant hurdle in pressing his case under federal employment law that LePage illegally retaliated against him: proving the governor acted as an individual, rather than in his official capacity as governor. Eves also would have to prove LePage acted in bad faith, with malice or with unreasonableness when he threatened to withhold state funding from Good Will-Hinckley unless it rescinded its hiring offer, according to an assistant professor at the University of Maine School of Law. In response to the suit, LePage is expected to claim immunity from the lawsuit as governors in other states have done. “There is no absolute [legal] immunity for an elected official,” Dmitry Bam, assistant professor at the University of Maine School of Law, said Thursday. “Elected officials have qualified immunity [from being sued]. They can’t be sued for the actions they take as public officials.” Bam, who teaches employment and civil rights law at Maine’s only law school, said Thursday the governor also has a First Amendment right to express his political views. That is what a federal judge said LePage did when he removed a mural from the lobby of the Department of Labor in 2011. “As a public official, the governor does get a bully pulpit and the ability to express his opinion about public concerns,” Bangor employment attorney Charles Gilbert said Thursday. “Because Good Will-Hinckley receives public funds, that could give the governor a possible public interest.” Gilbert said that if the school were private and did not receive taxpayer dollars, the governor’s actions would be deemed illegal. In a news release issued early Thursday afternoon, LePage appeared to lay out a defense that he acted in his official capacity as governor, and in the best interest of taxpayers. The governor said that “to have the school run by someone so opposed to charter schools would be very troublesome.” The news release cited votes Eves cast against bills concerning charter schools and statements Eves made opposing using state funds for them. Montgomery said in her statement that “the governor acted in the scope of his authority to address the school’s choice of a president who has fought against its mission throughout his political career.” Webbert said LePage’s news release helps Eves’ case. The attorney pointed to two cases — one from Massachusetts, the other from West Virginia — in which federal appeals courts found that the governors of those states retaliated illegally against political rivals. The decision in the Massachusetts case was written by 1st U.S. Circuit Judge Kermit Lipez of Maine. First Circuit decisions carry more weight with federal judges in Maine than those from other circuits. “In 2002 then-Acting Governor Jane Swift fired Christy Peter Mihos and Jordan Levy from their positions as members of the Massachusetts Turnpike Authority after both men cast votes on the timing of certain toll increases on roads and tunnels in Massachusetts,” Lipez wrote in February 2004 for the three-judge panel that heard oral arguments. Those judges agreed the First Amendment right at stake was “the right of a public official to vote on a matter of public concern properly before his agency without suffering retaliation from the appointing authority for reasons unrelated to legitimate governmental interests.” Yet the 1st Circuit rejected Swift’s claim that as governor she had qualified immunity from the lawsuit. The panel found Swift’s actions violated the plaintiffs’ constitutional rights in clear violation of established law and that she should have known her actions violated those rights. “Mihos exercised his best judgment as to the proper course of action, cast his vote, and was fired in retaliation for that vote for reasons unrelated to legitimate governmental interests,” Lipez wrote. “No reasonable public official could have failed to realize that a member of a public instrumentality cannot be terminated on such grounds for voting on matters of public concern within [her] authority.” In the West Virginia case, the 5th U.S. Court of Appeals found in October 2006 that Gov. Joe Manchin III did not have immunity from a lawsuit filed by Don Blankenship, the owner of the largest coal company in West Virginia. Blankenship alleged that in retaliation for his opposition to a bond issue supported by the governor, Manchin ordered the West Virginia Department of Environmental Protection to investigate possible safety violations with the construction of a coal silo it had already approved. It would likely be a judge who determines whether LePage is entitled to immunity. If the governor is not immune, a jury would decide if and how Eves was harmed by the governor’s actions and the amount of damages, if any, to which the speaker is entitled. Bam, the law professor, said a lawsuit would have a lot of challenges to overcome but “it’s not beyond hope” that it could be successful. ‘Bring it on’ An unanswered question that remains is who might defend LePage when the lawsuit is filed. The Maine attorney general’s office defends the state in civil actions, but Attorney General Janet Mills and LePage have clashed openly about his priorities. Mills, a Democrat, has in the past refused to represent LePage in suits against the federal government on issues such as the Affordable Care Act and and welfare reform. Timothy Feeley, spokesman for Mills, declined to comment on whether the office would represent the governor, because no suit has yet been filed. Montgomery, the governor’s counsel, said she would accept the suit on the governor’s behalf — if one is filed. “For all of his grandstanding in the media, Mr. Webbert has not yet filed a lawsuit against the governor,” Montgomery said. “Our reaction: Bring it on.”As officials across the country examine whether to display Confederate monuments in U.S. cities, the area park dedicated to one of the most noteworthy Civil War battles has no plans to remove anything memorializing Confederates. In the wake of white supremacist rally and ensuing violence in Charlottesville, Virginia, Gettysburg National Military Park has not received any new complaints about its Confederate monuments at the park, said spokeswoman Katie Lawhon. More than 1,300 monuments, markers and plaques are housed at the park to memorialize the historic battle, including a statue of Confederate General Robert E. Lee and a Confederate flag on display in the museum. The park maintains that the memorials are important to the cultural landscape and has no plans to remove any monuments or statues. "The National Park Service is committed to safe guarding these unique and site-specific memorials in perpetuity, while simultaneously interpreting holistically and objectively the actions, motivations, and causes of the soldiers and states they commemorate," states policy from the U.S. National Parks Service. Charlottesville's unrest Saturday was a result of a clashes between "pro-white" rally protesting the city's decision to remove its statue of Lee and counter-protesters. An apparent car attack by James Alex Fields Jr. during the unrest killed 32-year-old Heather Heyer on Saturday, as a result of Fields plowing into a group of counter protesters, injuring 19 others. Lebanon County man arrested in Charlottesville torchlight rally The incidents in Charlottesville have reignited the debate about honoring Confederate statues and monuments across the country, a movement which gathered a steam in 2015 as then South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley removed the Confederate flag from its prominent spot at the state capitol. Leaders in other southern states are facing similar decisions with statues as Charlottesville has with the Lee statue. Mayor Jim Gray, of Lexington, Kentucky, said the events in Charlottesville "accelerated" the process of removing two statues from Lexington streets and placing them in a local park. In Baltimore, Mayor Catherine Pugh has looked into removing Confederate-era monuments in the city, voicing frustration that the process wasn't further along for two of four monuments that have been recommended for removal. A statue of Supreme Court Justice Roger Taney, author of the Dred Scott decision, might be removed as Maryland House Speaker Michael E. Busch is calling for the removal of the Annapolis statue. Monuments in Jacksonville, Florida are coming under fire as activists push for removal of the symbols. After the Civil War, Lee resisted efforts to build Confederate monuments in his honor and instead wanted the nation to move on from the Civil War, according to an Associated Press report. After his death, Southerners adopted "The Lost Cause" revisionist narrative about the Civil War and placed Lee as its central figure. The Lost Cause argued the South knew it was fighting a losing war and decided to fight it anyway on principle. It also tried to argue that the war was not about slavery but high constitutional ideals. As The Lost Cause narrative grew in popularity, proponents pushed to memorialize Lee, ignoring his deficiencies as a general and his role as a slave owner, according to Gary Gallagher, a University of Virginia professor specializing in the history of the Civil War. Lee monuments went up in the 1920s just as the Ku Klux Klan was experiencing a resurgence and new Jim Crow segregation laws were adopted. The Robert E. Lee statue in Charlottesville was erected in 1924. A year later, the U.S. Congress voted to use federal funds to restore the Lee mansion in the Arlington National Cemetery. The U.S. Mint issued a coin in his honor, and Lee has been on five postage stamps. Most Union figures, besides President Abraham Lincoln, weren't granted as many honors. Shawn Alexander, associate professor of African and African-American studies at the University of Kansas, said that despite the attempt to use Lee as a reconciliation figure, many African-Americans spoke out in the black press that Lee had betrayed the U.S. and was responsible for tens of thousands of deaths. "He was no hero in their eyes," Alexander said. Man without a country: Refugee jailed in Pa. for months with no end in sight By the early 20th century, Northern state politicians -- fearing deadly violence over black civil rights in the South -- caved to pressure from Southern leaders to cast Lee in a more conciliatory light, said Gerald Horne, a professor of history and African-American studies at the University of Houston. "The South showed it would shed blood," Horne said. The Associated Press contributed to this report.There were a million reasons to fire Corey Lewandowski. But the reason Donald Trump did it was that for the first time in recent memory, he wasn’t winning any more. It wasn’t a sugarcoated affair: Lewandowski, the controversial campaign manager who stood by Trump’s side over the course of his nutty but meteoric rise, was escorted out of Trump Tower by security on Monday morning. It is, however, surprising. For months Trump had stood by Lewandowski despite reports that he had been rough and sexually suggestive with female reporters, and profane with fellow staffers. He stood by him after Lewandowski was charged with assaulting a female reporter, and even piled on when he tried to impugn that woman’s character. Later when a video surfaced confirming he had grabbed her arm, Trump didn’t just shrug it off, he actively embraced him. Following a big night of wins in the 15 March primaries, he put him center stage during his victory speech – an unusual place for the usually invisible role of campaign manager – and even praised him by name. “Good job, Corey,” he said. Later he would add, “I don’t discard people.” But that was back when Trump was winning. As he began to slip in the polls and the reports about his campaign’s open infighting and discontinuity became more and more common, Lewandowski was pushed increasingly to the side, and a new manager, Paul Manafort, brought in. By the time he was actually discarded, relations were so toxic one adviser tweeted, “Ding dong the witch is dead,” in reference to the dismissal (that operative has already left the campaign). While firing a problematic staffer might seem like an obvious move for a more conventional political candidate, it’s a strange look on Trump. After all, his chief attribute, the thing he’s always prided himself on bringing to the table, is that he’s a good manager, able to pick the best people from the pack. It’s the premise of the show that took him to new heights of celebrity, The Apprentice, and central to his appeal in campaigning against the patently political Hillary Clinton. We expect him to flip-flop on policy but not on people. But the strategy of sticking with Lewandowski hasn’t been working so well for him of late as evidenced by his slipping poll numbers and recent “emergency” requests for campaign cash. And comments about how the ethnicity of Judge Gonzalo Curiel, the man overseeing the fraud case against Trump University, made him biased, have not gone over so well with the Republican party – or the American electorate. And then there was his response to the Orlando shooting, which included not just a call to ban all Muslim immigrants but also accepting “congrats” for “being right about Islamic terrorism”. Of course such missteps were not necessarily Lewandowski’s fault but they didn’t help his already sinking ship. The polling, it seems, has done what assault charge and screaming matches and a long trail of alleged misbehavior and misconduct never could: convince The Donald to dump him. Whether Manafort and the rest of Trump’s motley crew can pull something resembling a platform together ahead of the convention is anyone’s guess. Usually, inexperienced political candidates like Trump can count on the party to send in reinforcements and expertise. But Trump and Lewandowski have alienated the Republican establishment. Who would want to be chief of staff for the campaign that’s seen as destabilizing the GOP? So much of being president is about choosing the right people for the positions around you, and the saga of Corey Lewandowski is a case study in why Trump’s exactly the wrong person for that job.EVERETT – The Everett Silvertips today announced the acquisition of high-scoring forward and first-round NHL Draft pick Nikita Scherbak in a trade with the Saskatoon Blades. The deal finds Everett surrendering goaltender Nik Amundrud, a first-round bantam pick in the 2015 WHL draft and a second-round pick in 2016 to the Blades in exchange for Scherbak’s services. Scherbak, 18, was selected 26th overall by the Montreal Canadiens in the first round of the 2014 NHL Draft. The Moscow, Russia native spent the past week in Montreal at Canadiens training camp and will participate in the club’s annual Red vs. White intrasquad scrimmage Monday night at the Bell Centre. Selected 109th overall by Saskatoon in the second round of the 2013 CHL Import Draft, Scherbak immediately stepped into a starring role with the Blades last season. The 6-foot-2, 194-pound winger led all WHL rookies with 28 goals, 50 assists and 78 points in 65 games on the league’s second-lowest scoring team. Finishing 35 points ahead of Saskatoon’s second-leading scorer, Scherbak compiled 30 powerplay points (8g/22a) and also totaled 46 penalty minutes. “We felt we needed to improve our offensive game and we’re thrilled to add a big-time offensive player and first-round NHL Draft pick to our lineup with Nikita,” said General Manager Garry Davidson. “He is a big, strong guy who can make plays with the puck and has the ability to score goals for us. We’re confident that he will make a big impact for our club offensively. In return we had to give up a good young goalie in Nik, who had a tremendous preseason and has showed significant improvement entering this year.” Amundrud, 16, was a third-round selection (59th overall) of the Silvertips in the 2012 WHL Bantam Draft. Hailing from Melfort, Saskatchewan, he has dressed for numerous games with Everett over the past two seasons but has yet to make his WHL debut. He returns to his home province after leading all goaltenders in the preseason with a 0.51 goals-against average and a.981 saves percentage in four exhibition appearances. The Silvertips travel to Portland for a pair of games this weekend at the Moda Center. The ‘Tips and Winterhawks face-off at 7:00 pm Saturday and 5:00 pm on Sunday, with both games being broadcast live on Fox Sports 1380 and streaming video available via WHL Live. Everett opens the home schedule the following weekend, hosting the Kelowna Rockets on Friday, Oct. 3 and the Winterhawks on Saturday, Oct. 4. For more information call the team office at 425-252-5100, “like” the Everett Silvertips Hockey Club on Facebook or follow @WHLSilvertips on Twitter.It's now down to a best-of-three between the Island Storm and Halifax Hurricanes. The Hurricanes defeated the Storm 105-90 Saturday night in Charlottetown to even the National Basketball League of Canada Atlantic conference championship at two wins apiece. Game 5 Monday Game 5 is scheduled for Monday afternoon in Halifax. The Storm return home for Game 6 on Tuesday. Game 7, if necessary, will be played Thursday night in Halifax. Saturday night, the Hurricanes were led by guard Antoine Mason with 28 points. Guard Jahii Carson was the Storm's top scorer with 25. This series is NOW really just starting...all the faith in the world in my guys! <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/Webelieve?src=hash">#Webelieve</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/playoffstateofmind?src=hash">#playoffstateofmind</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/islandproball">@islandproball</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/NBLCanada">@NBLCanada</a> <a href="https://t.co/8bPQKFF87T">pic.twitter.com/8bPQKFF87T</a> —@PEICoach1 The Hurricanes held the hotter hand, hitting 53.6 per cent of their field-goal attempts — including 12 for 25 from 3-point range. Cold Storm The Storm shot 38.6 per cent and made only three of 27 3-point attempts. The Atlantic Conference champion will play the London Lightning for the NBL title. The Lightning won their best-of-seven series with the Windsor Express in four straight games.What if we could reverse degenerative forms of blindness with but an injection of new cells? Stem cell therapies—still promising, if not particularly speedy in their development—may someday do just that. A recent paper in the journal Nature Biotechnology documents the successful implantation of photoreceptors, grown from embryonic stem cells, into the retinas of night-blind mice. A team of researchers at UCL Institute of Ophthalmology and Moorfields Eye Hospital, led by Professor Robin Ali, obtained the photoreceptors from a “synthetic retina” grown in a lab dish using a new 3D cell culturing technique recently developed in Japan. The method more closely mimics the natural process of retinal growth in embryos, and allows researchers to better control the process of cell selection and extraction. The researchers injected roughly 200,000 of the cultured cells into living mouse retinas where they not only took root but remained present six weeks after implantation and formed the necessary neural connections to communicate visual data to the brain. Professor Ali and his team previously showed that injected photoreceptors from healthy mice can help blind mice see again, but the method, even if proven effective in humans, would suffer from a shortage of donor cells. The team’s latest study shows lab-grown cell lines could provide a reliable supply for patients. The technique has only been shown successful in mice so far, but Ali says, “The next step will be to refine this technique using human cells to enable us to start clinical trials.” Clinical trials of neural stem cell implants like this are still years away, but trials of less complex stem cell therapies for the retina are already underway. Scientists at UCLA, for example, are conducting a clinical trial involving patients suffering from macular degeneration and Stargardt’s macular dystrophy—two common degenerative diseases causing blindness later in life. The trials are founded on two cases where the researchers successfully implanted retinal pigment epithelium (RPE) cells derived from embryonic stem cells into the retina. RPE cells maximize light absorption in the retina and support the neurally connected photoreceptors with a variety of nutrients. In both macular degeneration and Stargardt’s, these cells die off, thus contributing to the broader degeneration of the retina. The two patients, one suffering macular degeneration and the other Stargardt’s, reported moderate visual improvement after receiving the implantation of healthy new RPE cells. Dr. Steven Schwartz, the lead researcher for the UCLA trials, says stem cell therapies targeted at the RPE are the “low-hanging fruit” for stem cell therapies because they’re terminally differentiated, accessible, and form no synaptic connections. Stem cell therapy isn’t the only strategy in the war. While some researchers attack blindness by refreshing the biology—other want to use cutting edge machine implants. This pair of telescopic contact lenses, for example, or the Argus II optical implant (for those suffering from retinitis pigmentosa) aim to circumvent or augment the problem areas. The Argus II implant has been commercially available in Europe since 2011 (for a hefty $100,000) and was approved by the FDA here in the US earlier this year. Even as researchers continue to make progress, scoring a major victory is an as yet distant goal. Ali told the Guardian, “”It certainly isn’t a case of rolling out treatments in five years’ time and providing therapies. It’s taken us 10 years to get here and it’ll take us five years to get started in people.” Image Credit: liesvanrompaey/Flickr (featured, banner), Umberto Salvagnin/Flickr (body)A retired special agent named John Matrix led an elite unit and has left the armed forces to live in a secluded mountain home with his daughter Jenny. But now he is forced out of retirement when his daughter is kidnapped by a band of thugs intent on revenge! Unbeknownst to Matrix, the members of his former unit are being killed one by one. Even though Matrix' friend General Franklin Kirby gives Matrix armed guards, attackers manage to kidnap Matrix and Jenny. Matrix learns that Bennett, a former member of his Matrix' unit who was presumed dead has kidnapped him to try to force Matrix to do a political assassination for a man called Arius (who calls himself El Presidente), a warlord formerly bested by Matrix who wishes to lead a military coup in his home country. Since Arius will have Jenny killed if Matrix refuses, Matrix reluctantly accepts the demand. Written by Anthony Pereyra {hypersonic91@yahoo.com}I've just finished uploading new test beta 0.993b, which adds several new encounters, new toys, new dangers, and several tweaks and fixes The build is available to anyone who owns the beta at bluebottlegames.com, or on Desura and Steam. Desura (and therefore, Groupees) users can use Desura Connect to gain access here, or even get their Steam keys and try it on Steam. To access the test build on the official site, simply visit the beta page, and click any of the download links below the usual Windows, Mac, and Linux buttons. Steam users can access the test build by opting into the beta for it. Updates Included in the Test Beta Michigan still has a few surprises in store... Test beta 0.993b includes the following changes: Added new location and plot encounters. Added Blue Frog preacher and cultist to replace old generic Blue Frog. Added new Hatter encounters for some player choices. Added new queries to two NPCs, ATN, and GPS. Added player crosshairs to minimap. Added hex fading to minimap. Added giizhik smudge stick effects to some situations. Added ability to confiscate items in encounters, and give them back later. Added lockbox item to game. Added confiscate items to Zom Zom's and one other encounter. Added system object property to system objects in game (e.g. GUI containers) to avoid confiscation. Added new "SetWaypoint" property to AI so conditions can set and queue waypoints. Added "TriggerEncounter" to AI so AI can have conditions applied when reaching waypoint. Added AI waypoint code to support encounter trigger at end of each waypoint. Added "Player" precondition to all plot encounters, so only player can trigger them (now that AI can trigger, too). Added condition to allow crafting during some encounters. Added custom AI hex looting algorithm, so AI prefers better loot. Added code to prevent AI overloading self when looting. Added method on AICreature to add and remove conditions to player (for plot flags). Added PassTime method to creatures for condition use (e.g. pass 2 hours in encounter). Added code to ignore talisman when surrendering in combat. Added UVD items in 4 varieties, plus scratched. Added recipe to break UVDs and cases into plastic shards. Added swamp and forest crash site scavenge locations. Added nasal allergy condition. Added nasal allergy as accident to urban and brutish scavenging. Added new rubble camp type. Added new scavenge locale for Great Black Swamp. Added code to auto-advance combat turns if player is asleep for more than 2 consecutive turns. Added a new battle move to crawl away from battle if crippled and opponent is unconscious. Added defoliant and exposure condition. Added new field to conditions to set their transfer range to other creatures in combat. Added gas mask item, and situations where it can be useful. Added immunity field to creatures, so they can resist conditions. Added code to round move reserve left UI to 2 digits. Added code to remove "running" condition when entering combat. Added new torso slot depth (3) for sash and other items worn outside armor/fur. Changed map to have larger swamp area, with jagged boundary. Changed Stoat to always appear if player wearing cryo wristband, and not otherwise. Changed AI hex looting to use current lighting and detection level to check if camps are seen, instead of pure random number. Changed items screen silhouette to have better hit areas (filled gaps). Changed Merga Wraith AI to avoid charging in combat. Uses advance instead (to make escape possible). Changed poison condition so that abdominal pains are a separate condition, so other conditions can share effect. Changed poison condition to be invisible, and only symptoms visible. Changed Blue Frog spawn coordinates. Changed recipes to generate treasure items after game data is loaded, to avoid null pointer issues (cases with bNested=true). Changed pistol ranges from 10 to 30. Changed shotgun slug ranges to 60. Changed dirty rags treasure from 3-5 units to 4. Fixed a bug that prevented Hatter revisits from triggering. Fixed a bug that caused all items to be use-degraded in encounters, even if use charges were set to 0. Fixed several missing discharge values in scavenge encounters. Fixed a bug that caused repeated death messages in Game Over screen's "Final Moments." bd Fixed a bug that caused software to be missing in treasure that involved locked or uncharged hardware. Fixed a bug in AI setting player conditions. Fixed a bug that caused reverse recipes to generate extra tool in output. Fixed a bug that caused jar of eyes to not work in web version. Fixed bug that prevented crowbar use in locked storage shed if skilled in lockpicking. Fixed a bug that allowed players to sleep and rest during encounters. Fixed a bug that caused ATN to be unlabeled on map after visiting. Fixed a bug that caused infinite loop during loading if player added more than one mod with the same name. Fixed a bug that caused degrading discharges to stay active when charges completely spent. Fixed a bug that caused null pointer error when loading a game that had NPC with container in slot without visible capacity (e.g. head). Fixed a bug that caused item image overrides to be ignored if game is loaded in low-res mode. Fixed a bug that caused mod remap ID to be off by one in some cases when overriding data. Fixed a bug that caused mod battlemoves to have bad condition IDs, resulting in no effects. This is a pretty huge update, and includes a mix of new and changed content, plus several fixes. The biggest new feature is the new encounter, which involves two new locations with an updated faction. Some updates were made to old encounters, as well. There are also a handful of new items in the game. As usual, some are more useful, while others are more for lore purposes. The conditions and creature data types had a few upgrades, too. AI can now do things like queue waypoints, and trigger encounters at each waypoint (effectively setting game variables and performing actions). If you're a modder, it's worth noting the new properties on each, as your data may need to add info to those new fields. Finally, there's a whack of fixes and tweaks, from weapon ranges to crafting. As always, let me know what you think of the changes, and if you notice any issues with the new build!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 Comedian Alan Carr’s manager was seriously assaulted outside a late-night McDonald’s restaurant after trying to stop fans taking photos of the star. Elliott Andrews was attacked by Jaleel Burman on Lord Street in the city centre after getting wound up about people trying to get mobile phone snaps of the Chatty Man presenter. The victim was ushered outside the fast-food joint where he was punched hard to his face, causing him to fall to the ground, fracturing his ankle. Carr was enjoying a night out in Liverpool after performing at the Philharmonic Hall the previous evening as part of his ‘Yap Yap Yap’ tour around the UK and Ireland. As the performer and his manager got some food, at around 4am, on September 20, last year, Mr Andrews grew increasingly agitated about his client being ‘overwhelmed’ by punters wanting selfies with the Channel 4 comic. With crowds growing, Mr Carr was badgered by drinkers, who were told to ‘stop it’ by his entourage, before Burman ushered the unhappy Mr Andrews outside, with the help of a girl at the scene. But the confrontation turned violent when the 29-year-old punched his victim, in an attack which prosecutors say was unprovoked. Burman then leant over injured Mr Andrews, without offering to help him. The victim, who has worked with stars including Paolo Nutini, The Maccabees, Kate Nash and Ladyhawke, was taken to hospital with facial injuries and a broken ankle. The assault was said to have had a traumatic effect on him. In police interview, Burman, of Langdale Road in Wavertree, admitted his involvement and said he launched himself at Mr Andrews in ‘the heat of the moment.’ Today, Burman admitted causing grevious bodily harm and could face jail when he is sentenced next month. The commotion inside McDonalds was captured on CCTV on a five-minute long clip, Liverpool Crown Court heard. Rob Jones, prosecuting, said: “Mr Andrews was a little bit excited by his client Mr Carr being overwhelmed by people wanting to take photos of him. “The defendant’s actions were way over the top, particularly after he escorted Mr Andrews out of the building.” Judge Denis Watson, who ordered a pre-sentence report about Burman, told him: “I’m told the CCTV is going to be very informative. All sentencing options will be open, including an immediate custodial sentence. Burman was released on unconditional bail. McDonald'sAmong the myriad of changes that has come to Newerth with the 3.1 Runic Shift patch, the newest item in the shop, Lex Talionis, is having a much quieter effect than anticipated. With an active function very similar to Medallion of Courage from DotA 2, reducing both armor and magic armor of a target, I’m sure I wasn’t the only player expecting to see this item picked up a lot more often. Trinket of Restoration (350g, 2 Hp Regeneration) and a Guardian Ring (175g, 2 Armor), they combine with a 300 Gold recipe that ends up giving an extra half point of health regeneration and a point of both armor and magic armor per purchase while simultaneously increasing the amount of armor taken away during the active use, upgrading the item to level 3 at most. Before i get into the pros and cons of the item, a quick review of the numbers are in order. Made up of a(350g, 2 Hp Regeneration) and a(175g, 2 Armor), they combine with a 300 Gold recipe that ends up giving an extra half point of health regeneration and a point of both armor and magic armor per purchase while simultaneously increasing the amount of armor taken away during the active use, upgrading the item to level 3 at most. This means a Level 3 Lex Talionis sets you back 1425 gold, about the equivalent of a pair of Steam boots, while still giving less passive magic armor than Mystic Vestments and just as much armor as Ring of the Teacher, both of which can be bought for almost the cost of a level 1 Lex Talionis. Something to ponder when considering this item early game. Lodestone or Tundra. Costs and Benefits aside, the item is picked up not for the stats it gives but for the active effect. Reducing both of a target’s armor values can be the difference between a kill and an enemy running back to base typing ‘huehuehue‘ in all chat, especially for heroes dealing mixed damage such asor These strength heroes usually don’t need to worry as much about being nuked down after using the effect since they can either burst down single targets quickly or endure thanks to their high health pool. Other heroes that make great use of the item include both tanks that can ignore the armor reduction on themselves since they won’t be focused down and use it to increase their own damage output, like Amun-Ra, Electrician, or Saloman, as well as Glass Cannon heroes like Wretched Hag that can de-buff the enemy from fog and combo without fear of a counterattack. A relatively unknown yet very useful bit of information about Lex Talionis is that it can also be used while Invisible WITHOUT breaking invisibility! Similar to how Revenant can cast while invisible, he now has an item he can use while invisible as well! Scout, Night Hound, Grinex, Madman, Fayde especially and any hero with an Assassin shroud for that matter as well can take advantage of this to help Insta-Gib unsuspecting opponents before their team can react. I for one believe that Lex Talionis could have a large impact in competitive play and could become a very common pick up, especially on a hard or semi support in many of the more active roaming strategies that the meta seems to be shifting towards. I hope you enjoyed reading my write up on Newerth’s newest item, Lex Talionis, and i also hope that i have encouraged more people to try it out in situations where it can be incredibly useful! Share this: Facebook Tumblr Twitter LinkedIn Pinterest Pocket Reddit Email PrintAbout This Game Panzer Corps Wehrmacht is the award-winning turn-based strategy game that the press has called “…nothing short of brilliant” and “the spiritual successor to the Panzer General series”, with high rankings
general argument for industrial policy, which, whatever its merits, has not been strong enough to win the day since the Reagan Revolution. It's not nearly strong enough to support action of the speed and scale needed. What could add the exogenous pressure to overcome the U.S. elite's general distaste for government meddling? What could add the sense of urgency necessary to justify immediate and substantial public spending? What elevates the need for RD&D in clean energy above the need for RD&D in other industries and technologies? Right: the looming threat of climate change. The bitter irony is, Republicans -- unlike the Innovationeers -- understand this perfectly well. They know that if climate change is real and widely understood, the case for substantial government action will be undeniable. That's why they politicized it in the first place. (If you think this dispute is really about science, I've got a bridge to sell you.) Now that they've succeeded in making it "divisive," the Obama administration is running from it, hoping to back their way into ambitious policy with happy talk about innovation. It's not going to work. We won't act with the scope, scale, and speed necessary unless the threat of climate change is widely understood to be real and urgent. Admittedly, nobody yet knows how to make that happen -- climate change is a devil of an issue for creatures with our cognitive machinery. It's going to be a long struggle. But giving up is not the way to win that struggle. To be clear, again, this isn't about policy design or sequencing. I'm perfectly happy with Obama leading with R&D funding and a clean energy standard. Whatever works to get the ball rolling (though it's far from a sure thing any of it will pass). But it's vital, for the long game, to keep climate on the table. People take their cues from their leaders. If Obama drops it, it sends a signal to Republicans that they can force him to back down. It sends a signal to Democrats that it's safe to dodge this fight. It sends a signal to the public that it's not a real problem. If you think there's an existential danger facing the country, you say so. That's part of what it means to be a leader.Forty-seven-year-old mother Leanne Littrell DiLorenzo is the force behind a proposal to amend the Oregon Constitution to prohibit gender discrimination. DiLorenzo lives in a large white house in Portland’s west hills, and she’s running the ballot measure campaign from a small office on the second floor. On the walls, DiLorenzo has written in marker the names of the 50 states, and the 15 that never ratified the Equal Rights Amendment. The U.S. Congress voted to adopt the ERA in 1972, but only on the condition that 38 states ratify it. Three states short of that goal, the amendment failed. DiLorenzo grew up in Coos Bay, and says in rural Oregon it was hard for a young woman to have a voice and be taken seriously. She remembers learning about the ERA watching television as her mother got dressed for work. “I just can’t believe that we still do not have the ERA in the U.S. constitution,” she said. Changing the U.S. constitution is DiLorenzo’s ultimate goal; in the short term, she’s set her sights on the Oregon Constitution. About half the states in the U.S. have constitutions that include some version of a gender equality amendment, but Oregon is not among them. Amelia Templeton So this spring, DiLorenzo and her husband, attorney and lobbyist John DiLorenzo, spent more than $250,000 on a campaign gathering signatures to put the proposed amendment on the ballot. “You’re establishing a legal pathway for people to be protected against discrimination,” she said. The Equal Rights Amendment Measure website says judges, state officials, and groups like the Urban League and the Oregon Business Association have all endorsed the measure. But one key group isn’t endorsing it: the American Civil Liberties Union of Oregon. “We are wary about generating amendments to the constitution that don’t mean anything,” said Becky Strauss, the ACLU of Oregon’s legislative director. “The current provisions of the Oregon Constitution provide for the equal treatment under the law of everyone. Hard stop,” she said. In Oregon, one provision of the state Constitution in particular has been used to advance civil rights causes in the courts, from racial equality to same-sex marriage. It’s Article 1, Section 20 of our state Bill of Rights: “No law shall be passed granting to any citizen or class of citizens, privileges or immunities which upon the same terms, which shall not equally belong to all citizens.” In recent years, the Oregon Supreme Court has interpreted Section 20 as a guarantee of equal rights for all Oregonians, but that wasn’t always the case. Those words have been part of Oregon’s Constitution since 1859. Back then, women, African Americans and Chinese migrants were all denied the right to vote. Norman Williams directs the Center for Constitutional Government at Willamette University. He says the men who wrote that provision weren’t trying to protect equal rights; they were worried about government corruption. “That kind of makes sense for an agrarian state with a bunch of farmers and ranchers and timber barons fearful of a competitor getting a favor from the governor,” he said. For decades, that section of the Constitution didn’t guarantee equality to women. In 1956, for example, a woman named Jerry Hunter challenged an Oregon law that barred her from participating in a wrestling competition. She argued that the law violated the state Constitution. But the Oregon Supreme Court upheld the ban on women wrestling. As the court wrote then: “It seems to us that its purpose, although somewhat selfish in nature, stands out in the statute like a sore thumb. Obviously it intended that there should be at least one island on the sea of life reserved for man that would be impregnable to the assault of women.” The court noted that women had already started bobbing their hair and bowling, and ruled that the state was allowed to pass laws that protected men from the ever-increasing feminine encroachment. The Oregon Supreme Court did decisively reverse its position in a landmark worker’s compensation case in 1982. The ACLU’s Becky Strauss says that’s when the court changed direction. “What the court said in that case is that laws that make a decision based on sex, they will be rejected under the Constitution, unless there is a very strong government interest in providing that distinction,” she said. Strauss says the court’s ruling in that case set a clear precedent and gave women in Oregon the highest level of protection against discrimination possible under constitutional law. But some other attorneys think spelling out that women and men are equal in the state Constitution would serve a legal purpose. Elizabeth Milesnick, with the group Oregon Women Lawyers, says given the state’s history of discrimination, it’s worth amending the Constitution. “We don’t necessarily anticipate that the Supreme Court would revoke gender equality, but a particularly aggressive litigant could argue that the original farmers didn’t intend for women to have equal rights,” she said. Oregon voters will decide whether to amend the Constitution to prohibit discrimination based on gender in November.The chief of the Blackfeet Nation has asked President Barack Obama to cancel oil leases in the culturally and environmentally significant Badger-Two Medicine area east of the divide. Chief Earl Old Person, a member of the Blackfeet Tribal Business Council since 1954, sent a letter to Obama last month asking him to help protect the mountainous area between the Blackfeet Reservation, Glacier National Park and the Bob Marshall Wilderness. He also invited the president to Blackfeet Country to see the area for himself. The Badger-Two Medicine is an important area in the Blackfeet creation story and is known as the “Backbone of the World.” In 1982, the U.S. government leased land within the Badger-Two Medicine to oil companies and of the 47 land leases originally issued, 18 remain. For years, tribal officials have tried to terminate the leases but in 2013 the final leaseholder, Sidney Longwell of Solenext, LLC, filed a lawsuit so it could begin drilling for oil. No ruling has been made in the case. “This area has been utilized as a sanctuary for not only the wildlife, but also for our people to come together and realize their spirituality and to be in touch with their creator,” Old Person wrote. “This is the landscape which has for hundreds of years served as an altar to the members of the Blackfeet Confederacy.” In his letter, Old Person states that the leases violate treaties and agreements between the Blackfeet and U.S. government dating back to the 1800s. The letter to the president comes just months after tribal chiefs and leaders representing the entire Blackfoot Confederacy, including tribes from Wyoming, Montana and Alberta, signed a proclamation demanding the government end energy development in the Badger-Two Medicine. Old Person’s letter opposing oil exploration is especially notable because of his prominence in the Blackfeet tribe. “I respectfully request that we work together to fully put an end to these remaining leases and stop all threats to our cultural and spiritual heritage,” Old Person wrote. “These ancient lands are among the most revered landscapes in North America and it should not be sacrificed, for any price. I believe that your administration has the authority, the foresight and the principle to cancel these remaining leases, and to permanently protect the integrity of our cultural and natural heritage.” Old Person ended the letter by inviting Obama to the Blackfeet Reservation. Old Person has met every president since Harry S. Truman and met Obama during a visit to Washington D.C. In 1935, Franklin D. Roosevelt became the first and only president to ever make an official visit to the Blackfeet Reservation. During the visit he was officially adopted by the tribe and given the name “Lone Chief.” If you enjoy stories like this one, please consider joining the Flathead Beacon Editor’s Club. For as little as $5 per month, Editor’s Club members support independent local journalism and earn a special deal every month from one of our great local business partners. Members also gain access to www.beaconeditorsclub.com, where they will find exclusive content like deep dives into our biggest stories and a behind-the-scenes look at our newsroom. Join Now Comments commentsOn Boxing Day, once eating turkey sandwiches and watching Outnumbered had lost their charms, my boyfriend and I went up the loft at his parents' house and dragged down his childhood Super Nintendo. Two decades after it was first released, and 15 years after it had been consigned to the loft, the trusty old SNES still worked. Even more incredibly, the saved game on Super Mario World was still there, sparing me the pain of having to complete the Star World again. I thought of the dusty but functional SNES last month when Microsoft first announced its next generation console, the Xbox One. The "Xbone", as it has quickly been nicknamed, has some of the most drastic, restrictive copyright protection measures yet seen in the tech industry. Publishers will be allowed to decide whether you can resell their games, or even pass them on to a friend, and whether you have to pay a fee to do so. Even more alarmingly, Microsoft will require your Xbox One to "check in" with the company, using an internet connection, once every 24 hours. If you don't check in, you can't game. The industry press boggled at this announcement, and has been trying to seek clarification from Microsoft ever since. What if you're just watching movies on your new Xbox? Or playing a single player game? What if you've moved house and you don't have an internet connection yet? What about the many soldiers who – not content with being part of a real war – love to play videogames on military bases? Has Microsoft ever tried to get through to Virgin Media or BT on a bank holiday? In response, Microsoft burbled a lot about "advanced technologies" and "the power of cloud", and then conceded that, "with Xbox One you can game offline for up to 24 hours on your primary console, or one hour if you are logged on to a separate console accessing your library. Offline gaming is not possible after these prescribed times until you re-establish a connection, but you can still watch live TV and enjoy Blu-ray and DVD movies." Got that? You don't really own those games you bought on disc, even though you're holding them in your hands. You are merely playing them at Microsoft's pleasure, and if Microsoft should revoke its benevolence, then all you have is a set of very expensive coasters. Tom Bramwell of Eurogamer has called these policies "devastating for consumer rights", adding that Microsoft has "sacrificed our freedom to own and trade games for no other reason than corporate self-interest". But it's not just games that you now rent, rather than buy. It's the console too, all £429 of it. Twenty years after the Super Nintendo was released, I can still appreciate the pure untrammelled joy of riding Yoshi through Bowser's castle, but who would like to bet that Microsoft will still support its Xbox One authentication system in 2033? (Nerds with longer memories might remember how it killed off the inaptly named Plays For Sure, its early music authentication system, after it launched Zune.) Now, this aggressive approach to DRM – digital rights management – is not unique to Microsoft. On the PC, the Steam portal pioneered a similar approach for years, although there the implicit benefit for the consumer was cheaper games. In the music sector, Apple largely functions like a feudal lord, taking a tithe and controlling the experience of both music makers and buyers. And in 2009, in a moment of almost implausible irony, Amazon deleted copies of George Orwell's 1984 from Kindles without consulting or notifying users beforehand. Two things are different about the Xbox One farrago. All the previous examples deal mostly with purely digital goods – electronic books or downloaded singles. This is the first time consumers will really have to grapple with the concept that an object, something you can hold in your hands, is not yours. Your games console, and your game discs, are merely entry tickets to a playground controlled by a vast, multinational company. Crucially, there is a second difference. While Amazon and Apple overwhelmingly dominate their sectors, making it time-consuming and inconvenient to bypass them, there is an alternative to the Xbox One in the shape of PlayStation 4. Its maker, Sony, has confirmed it won't apply Xbone-style restrictions to second-hand discs, and is currently having a lot of fun at Microsoft's expense, as this video shows. In the next console generation, we will discover whether all the gamers who are currently furious over Microsoft's actions will be moved to take their custom elsewhere. If they don't, then the battle for consumer rights in the digital age will, effectively, be over.Alarmed by a sharp rise in suicides, state health officials are undertaking an ambitious new data-collection effort to probe why near-record numbers of Minnesotans are taking their own lives. For reasons that confound medical authorities, Minnesota’s suicide rate jumped 29 percent between 2003 and 2011, more than double the national rate of increase. Last year, 683 Minnesotans died by suicide, up from 496 in 2003 and one short of the record in 2011, according to state data. “Why are we becoming more suicidal in Minnesota?” asked Jon Roesler, epidemiologist supervisor at the Minnesota Department of Health. “The answer is that we don’t know. And that’s disconcerting.” Baffled by the trend, public health officials are about to overhaul the way suicide data are collected and reported across Minnesota. Instead of simply relying on death certificates, which often lack key details, the state in January will begin collecting data from a wide range of sources — from county coroners to law enforcement agencies — to piece together a more complete picture of each suicide. Of all the public health risks in Minnesota, the rising suicide rate is among the most confounding. Historically, suicide rates tend to rise and fall with economic cycles; rates reached an all-time high during the Great Depression and hit their lowest point in 2000, after the long boom of the 1990s. However, in Minnesota, the suicide rate actually jumped sharply as the economy rebounded after the severe downturn of 2008-2010. The suicide rate is growing fastest among middle-aged adults, mirroring a national trend. Although murders get more attention, Minnesota now records nearly seven suicides for every homicide; suicide is now the second leading cause of death among Minnesotans aged 15 to 34, after accidents such as car crashes. suicide stats • Minnesota records nearly seven suicides for every homicide. • Suicide is second-leading cause of death among Minnesotans age 15 to 34, after accidents such as car crashes. Yet state officials are at a loss to explain the trend — in part because information on suicides is scarce. Public health officials in Minnesota still rely heavily on death certificates, which list the cause of death and basic demographic information but give few clues on underlying causes. For example, a death certificate may list “death by overdose” without identifying the drug type or if the overdose was a suicide, medical examiners say. To address the gap, Minnesota last month joined the National Violent Death Reporting System (NVDRS), a data collection program with 32 participating states. With a five-year annual grant of $216,000, the Department of Health will begin collecting data on suicides and other violent deaths from autopsies, police reports and county medical examiner reports, among other sources. Because suicide is often an impulsive act, state officials want more information on how people obtain lethal means such as firearms and drugs. One study found that one in four younger people who attempted suicide but survived said they deliberated less than 5 minutes before attempting to kill themselves. Many survivors report instantly regretting their decision moments after they took the decisive step. “If we’re going to prevent suicides, we need to know the risk factors,” said Dr. Andrew Baker, chief of the Hennepin County medical examiner’s office. “Do we have a lot of untreated depression out there? Do we have people with bipolar [disorder] who are not taking their medications? That will be in the person’s [medical] file.” ‘Negative thoughts’ Jennifer Dunbar of Elk River said she deliberated “less than 15 minutes” before attempting to hang herself this June in a hospital room at Mercy Hospital in Coon Rapids. When she awoke in the intensive care unit, Dunbar had to be restrained by hospital staff to prevent her from tearing out her breathing tube. “I was angry that I was still alive and breathing,” she said. Months later, Dunbar said she still struggles to understand what drove her to such a desperate act. Was it the medications she took for bipolar disorder? Her sense of isolation? Her recurring memory of being sexually assaulted during her time in the military? “All I know for sure is my mind was racing with negative thoughts, and I just needed to shut the whole thing down,” said Dunbar, 42, who is undergoing treatment at Mercy. “Suicide is always in the back of my mind, but the act is impulsive.” County medical examiner reports, in particular, should provide a wealth of new information. For instance, the Hennepin County medical examiner’s office, which investigates every suicide in Hennepin, Scott and Dakota counties, keeps files with detailed information on the deceased person’s medical diagnoses, and whether the individual has undergone a life-changing event such as the recent death of a loved one, a divorce or the loss of a job. Oregon, one of the first states to join the NVDRS system a decade ago, found that 80 percent of older adults in the state who died by suicide had a chronic illness. As a result, the state now encourages physicians and other health providers to ask people suffering from certain chronic illnesses if they have contemplated suicide within the past year, and to connect them with mental health services. “The data has been invaluable,” said Lisa Millet of the Oregon Health Authority. “We are now able to … make the case for stronger prevention efforts with hard facts, not just anecdotes.” Dave Slavens, board chairman of the greater Minnesota chapter of the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention, has lost two brothers to suicide. His younger brother, Jesse, killed himself just weeks after being turned down for treatment at a Department of Veterans Affairs hospital. His older brother, Shane, overdosed on antipsychotics and alcohol. Slavens wonders how many other suicide victims resemble his brothers and if targeted interventions could have prevented their deaths. “It’s a public health issue,” Slavens said. “How can you address suicides if you don’t even know the scope of the problem?” Twitter: @chrisserresArrested Development will live again, again. Executive producer Brian Grazer says 17 new episodes will be coming to Netflix, although the streaming service itself has yet to make an official announcement. Hit the jump to read and hear his comments on more Arrested Development episodes. Grazer shared the good news on Bill Simmons’ podcast: I love Arrested Development. But it never — it was never a huge thing. But people are loyal to it, and we’re going to do another 17 episodes. So stay tuned for Arrested Development. He did not elaborate on any other details, like which cast and crew members would return, how long the episodes would run, what the story might be, when they’d shoot, when they’d be released, or how the new season would be structured. The news isn’t surprising, exactly. All involved parties have expressed interest in making more Arrested Development, pretty much since the moment Season 4 hit in 2013. But there’s usually some hedging involved. Grazer’s comments are the most direct indication we’ve had yet that another season of Arrested Development is in the works. Timing was a huge hurdle for Arrested Development Season 4. With most of the original cast tied up doing other projects, Mitchell Hurwitz used creative scheduling and even some greenscreen to get the whole team back together, with mixed results. The actors aren’t much less busy now than they were in 2013, so it’s likely to be an issue again with Season 5. In fact, Hurwitz has said he might prefer to make an Arrested Development movie before shooting another season, in order to minimize scheduling headaches. But unless Grazer is using some imprecise language here, it sounds like the next season of the series will move first after all. For its part, Netflix hasn’t made any formal announcement about Arrested Development Season 5. If they’re at the point where they’ve decided on a number of episodes, though, plans must be further along than we thought.My position on Hamas is indistinguishable from the position of Hillary Clinton or John McCain. I said they are a terrorist organization and I’ve repeatedly condemned them. I’ve repeatedly said, and I mean what I say: since they are a terrorist organization, we should not be dealing with them until they recognize Israel, renounce terrorism, and abide by previous agreements. In the six years since Obama made that statement, Hamas hasn't changed its positions — it refuses to renounce terrorism or its charter calling for the destruction of Israel. Nonetheless, Obama has changed his position on Hamas by deciding to deal with them after all. On Monday, Palestinians announced the formation of a "unity" government that includes Hamas, which is on the U.S. State Department list of designated terrorist groups. Instead of scolding Palestinians for the deal, which would put another fork in the corpse of the peace process, the State Department said it expected to work with the government.The weird world of Danganronpa might not seem like it’s ideally suited to PlayStation VR (PSVR), but we’ll find out if it’s a good fit next week. Cyber Danganronpa the Class Trial VR is coming to Sony’s headset next week, according to DualShockers. The news was reportedly announced during a Spike Chunsoft press event at GDC 2017 this week. And that apparently means a western release; the game was already released in Japan and Asia and hits North America on March 7th and Europe on March 10th. Not only that, but the game will be free for PS Plus members. That makes Class Trial the first VR-only to be handed out on the subscription service, which offers members free games every month. Sony previously said that it was looking into free PSVR games on its service, but we’ve only seen Hyper Void, a game with optional VR support, come to the headset thus far. Hopefully this is a sign that the company is ready to offer monthly games now. The free release is described by its publisher as a “tech demo”, so we wouldn’t expect too much from it. It sees you stand trail for murder with your other classmates, a premise that will be familiar to anyone that’s played the main games in the series in the text-based adventure genre. You’ll use “truth bullets” to find the real story by shooting through “suspicious statements”. It sounds a little crazy but, then again, the series as a whole is known for its wild characters, in-depth stories and general weirdness. It seems like this will fit that bill. If it’s a demo, then it’s likely a short experience that will give you just a taste of what it would be like to live in the game’s world. There’s nothing necessarily wrong with that, we’d just like to see a full game based on the franchise. And, yes, the series’ now somewhat iconic mascot, Monokuma, will feature. If you’re a fan of the franchise, then, you probably won’t to miss out on this one. Tagged with: PSVRShare Pinterest Email Juan Pablo Montoya is happy to have a full-time job back on the racetrack in 2018 with Team Penske’s Acura ARX-05 in the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship That doesn't mean Montoya wouldn't entertain another Indianapolis 500 run. “I think personally, at the moment, we need to focus on sports cars,” Montoya said during a teleconference on Tuesday in which Montoya and Dane Cameron were introduced as the first drivers for Penske’s new sports-car team. “If the opportunity comes to go to Indy with Team Penske, I wouldn't say no. You know what I mean? I would say yes in a heartbeat.” Montoya, 41, was added to the Team Penske lineup for the 2017 Indianapolis 500, where he finished sixth. “You know when you're going with Team Penske, you're going there with an opportunity to win the Indy 500,” Montoya said. “We’ve done it already. We've been close a few times as well. I think if the opportunity arises, I would jump on it and head in completely.” Team Penske president Tim Cindric said that adding cars, teams or even jumping into a new series is easier said than done -- even for a racing empire like Team Penske. “From my end, when the opportunity presents itself to put winning programs on the track, that's kind of what we're all about as a racing organization,” Cindric said. “I guess sometimes you count how many that is, and you just look at it.” In addition to the IMSA program, Penske is adding a Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series team to race Ryan Blaney in 2018 “We ran five cars at Indy this year. That's not an easy task when you're adding some of these other things as well,” Cindric said. “It's something we continue to weigh. We've never been in this business to make money. The Penske organization isn't one that adds cars for that reason. Really, it's a matter of opportunity. This is one for us that we feel like it’s a factory-backed program at the pinnacle of sports-car racing in this country -- that is really important to us. "Obviously one of our key businesses and core businesses is the car dealership business. When you're able to cross-pollinate across the different manufacturers, represent them on the weekends at the racetracks, that helps us sell cars as well. It's really all interconnected.”Story highlights The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame announced its potential 2014 inductees Nominees include KISS, Nirvana, N.W.A. and more Fans can cast a vote for their favorite artist "Teen Spirit" and "Good Times" may be coming to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame -- sealed with a KISS. Grunge groundbreakers Nirvana, disco dynamos Chic and the costume-clad, Gene Simmons-led pop metal band KISS are among 16 nominees up for election in the museum's Class of 2014. The deep selection also includes '70s and '80s hitmakers Hall and Oates; college radio heroes the Replacements; New Orleans funkmeisters the Meters; sweet-voiced Linda Ronstadt; and pioneering gangsta rappers N.W.A. Completing the list: the Paul Butterfield Blues Band, Deep Purple, Peter Gabriel, LL Cool J, Cat Stevens, Link Wray, Yes and the Zombies. The list spans more than six decades of rock and pop history and includes both major pop successes -- Chic, Hall and Oates, Gabriel, Ronstadt and Yes all hit No. 1 on Billboard's Hot 100 singles chart -- and influential players. Wray, for example, had just two Top 40 singles, "Rumble" and "Raw-Hide," but his dirty, heavily distorted sound proved a precursor for every power-chording shredder who's ever picked up a guitar. "The musical equivalent of football's forearm shiver," critic Dave Marsh wrote of "Rumble" in "The Heart of Rock and Soul," his compendium of 1,001 great singles. "Short. Nasty. Potentially lethal." JUST WATCHED A snowman tribute to Gene Simmons Replay More Videos... MUST WATCH A snowman tribute to Gene Simmons 02:32 JUST WATCHED Why Gene Simmons doesn't drink Replay More Videos... MUST WATCH Why Gene Simmons doesn't drink 03:06 And N.W.A., which put out just three studio albums in its short career, made them count. The blunt "F*** Tha Police," off the second album "Straight Outta Compton," became a cause celebre upon its release in 1988 -- even the FBI was concerned enough to send letters to the group's record company -- and "Niggaz4Life," the group's final record, hit No. 1. "In many ways the most notorious group in the history of rap," writes Allmusic.com's Stephen Thomas Erlewine. Members Ice Cube, Eazy-E and Dr. Dre all went on to even bigger things, with Dr. Dre, in particular, becoming perhaps the most notable producer in hip-hop history. Rock fans may be particularly invested in the fates of Nirvana, which kicked off the grunge era with its classic 1991 album "Nevermind," and KISS, which -- despite mixed critical notices during its 1970s heyday -- built a roaring fan base called the "KISS Army" on the backs of incessant touring, pyrotechnic stage shows and several hit albums. As the Rock Hall says in a press release, "Few bands short of the Beatles inspired more kids to pick up the guitar than KISS." But the other nominees shouldn't be overlooked. Chic, known for such hits as "Le Freak" and "Good Times," was perhaps the best of the disco groups, and its leaders -- guitarist Nile Rodgers, bassist Bernard Edwards and drummer Tony Thompson -- moved smoothly into the '80s thanks to their sleek studio work. The group's sound is still prominent: Rodgers recently popped up on the Chic-like Daft Punk single "Get Lucky." And the Replacements managed to combine affecting songwriting -- usually courtesy of Paul Westerberg -- with passionate (if occasionally shambling) performances, such as those heard on the songs "I Will Dare," "Unsatisfied" and "Can't Hardly Wait." Besides, the hall may need to find a place for a band that titled an album, "Sorry Ma, Forgot to Take Out the Trash." Voting will be open to fans through December 10. People can cast ballots at the Rock Hall, Rolling Stone and USA Today. Visit www.rockhall.com/vote www.rollingstone.com and www.usatoday.com to cast ballots. The top five vote-getters will be listed on a "fans' ballot" that will be tallied along with the other ballots for the Class of 2014. The inductees are chosen by a secret ballot of 600 voters, a group that includes previous inductees, music industry veterans, historians and critics. All eligible nominees released their first single or album at least 25 years before the year of nomination. Last year's class included Rush, Randy Newman, Public Enemy, Donna Summer and Quincy Jones. The 29th Annual Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Induction Ceremony will be held in April 2014 in New York. The ceremony will be broadcast on HBO. (HBO, like CNN, is a unit of Time Warner.)Image caption Alexander (left) and Thomas were jailed for manslaughter Two people who fatally attacked a man in London's Trafalgar Square after subjecting him to homophobic taunts have been jailed for manslaughter. Ian Baynham, 62, of Beckenham, south-east London, was assaulted outside South Africa House in September 2009. He was punched by Joel Alexander, 20, and then repeatedly stamped on by Ruby Thomas, 19, as he lay unconscious. The Old Bailey jailed Thomas and Alexander for seven and six years respectively. Screamed 'faggots' Former public schoolgirl Thomas, of Anerley, south-east London, hurled obscene abuse at Mr Baynham, a civil servant, during the drink-fuelled assault. The court heard she swore and screamed "faggots", and smiled as she "put the boot into" the victim after he was knocked to the ground by Alexander. Image caption Ian Baynham was attacked in Trafalgar Square in September 2009 Mr Baynham died 18 days after the assault in central London. Police found his blood smeared on Thomas's handbag and the ballet pumps she was wearing as she kicked him. Thomas's ex-boyfriend Declan Seavers told the court that the teenager was "not the type of girl" to have done it. But Judge Richard Hawkins increased Thomas's sentence from six years to seven years because of the homophobic nature of the attack. The judge blamed Thomas for sparking the violence that led to Mr Baynham's death. "This was a case of mindless drink-fuelled violence committed in public," he said. 'Lairy, mouthy' "You have a previous conviction for drunken loutish behaviour and you have demonstrated hostility towards Ian Baynham based upon his sexual orientation or presumed sexual orientation." Thomas was said to have been "off her face", acting in a "lairy, mouthy" way, and flirting with random men, the jury heard. Image caption A paramedic attends to Ian Baynham soon after the attack Thomas screamed "faggots" at Mr Baynham and his friend Philip Brown, the court heard. When Mr Baynham confronted her, there was a scuffle during which she hit him with her handbag and he grabbed it. Alexander, a student from Thornton Heath, south-east London, then ran up and knocked him to the ground, causing a severe brain injury as his head struck the pavement. Thomas, a former pupil at £12,000-a-year Sydenham High School for Girls, had a record of violence. She was 15 when she assaulted a bus driver in central London in December 2007, near to where the attack on Mr Baynham took place. Ben Summerskill, chief of gay rights charity Stonewall, said: "We welcome the extension to the sentence for Ruby Thomas recognising that this terrible killing was homophobic. "If Britain's schools continue to fail to tackle homophobic bullying then there's a risk we'll continue to see this sort of incident on our streets." Det Insp Paul Barran said: "There is no place whatsoever in our society for any type of aggressive, abusive confrontational behaviour, or homophobic crime." Rachael Burke, 18, of Upper Norwood, south-east London, was found guilty of affray at an earlier trial but cleared of manslaughter. Thomas and Alexander were convicted of manslaughter at the Old Bailey in December.House leaders may seek to restrict spending on the Department of Homeland Security, which is tasked with overseeing executive action on migrants Republicans leaders in the House of Representatives are pushing a plan that will fund the Department of Homeland Security only until March next year in retaliation against Barack Obama’s sweeping executive reforms of the immigration system. The proposal outlined to Republican representatives at a closed-door meeting on Tuesday could avoid a government shutdown by enabling Congress to authorise 95% of annual government spending through next year. However, it also separates the portion of government funding that relates to the DHS – which is overseeing Obama’s unilateral action to shield almost five million people from deportation – into another bill. The second bill would fund the department until March, a stalling tactic allowing Republicans to revisit the issue when they take control of both houses of Congress next year. Jeh Johnson, secretary of the Department of Homeland Security, described the proposal as “a very bad idea” that would endanger homeland security. It also remained unclear whether conservatives would back the plan, which could also involve passing a symbolic bill in protest against Obama’s executive action, which many Republican critics have argued is tantamount to an amnesty. The Republican speaker of the House, John Boehner, emerged from Tuesday’s meetings saying only that “various options” remain on the table. “It’s going to be difficult to take meaningful action as long as we have got Democratic control of the Senate,” he told reporters. Republican aides have dubbed the plan a “cromnibus” because it combines a broad, omnibus spending bill – which will fund the government until 30 September 2015 – with the more piecemeal continuing resolution (CR) bill that applies only to the DHS. A Republican congressman with knowledge of the leadership’s thinking said no decision had been made. Both the omnibus and continuing resolution legislation would require the backing of Senate Democrats – and the president’s signature. Johnson used an appearance before the House committee on homeland security on Tuesday to dismiss the proposal, arguing it would hamper his ability to hire new secret service agents and open a new immigration detention facility in Texas. “I know that there are some contemplating some form of short-term CR for the Department of Homeland Security,” he said. “That is in my judgment a very bad idea for homeland security.” He added: “We’ve got some homeland security priorities that need to be funded now.” Johnson had been expected to face a barrage of fierce criticism from Republican critics, but the hearing turned out to be a fairly subdued one. Johnson insisted the president’s actions were lawful, emphasised the work that was going
of those early civil rights lawyers: that to aspire to become a lawyer would become a civil right. Throughout our history there have always been multiple versions of the American dream. These accounts held in common the hope that hard work, discipline, and self-reliance would allow those recognized as citizens not only to improve their economic lot and achieve personal happiness, but to participate fully in political life. Today, however, only one version of the dream continues to make sense as a sustainable personal project. This is the dream exemplified by Barack and Michelle Obama—as well as by their former rivals Hillary and Bill Clinton—a dream of success through higher education and a life in professional work. It is a vision of social advancement that leaves little room for historically important narratives of blue-collar respectability. This now dominant version of the American dream first emerged around the turn of the twentieth century in the wake of massive structural transformations. Industrialization, heightened bureaucracy, and corporate consolidation helped generate an economic and social need for professional groups such as business managers, lawyers, doctors, social workers, and teachers. Louis Brandeis, in his 1905 Harvard lecture “The Opportunity in the Law,” crystallized the account of freedom and independence that motivated these groups. Brandeis argued that lawyers and other professionals were specially situated to think in terms of right policy rather than divisive politics. The essence of legal training was “the development of judgment,” in which lawyers learned the value of “patient research and develop[ed] both the memory and the reasoning faculties.” Moreover, legal practice, like all professional work, was marked by a high degree of autonomy and creativity. The lawyer defined his own tasks, ideally served a diverse and broad community, and became skilled at testing moral and political logic against empirical reality. Given these attributes, Brandeis hoped that the professional stratum would struggle to reconcile competing interests in defense of a nonpartisan public good. The professional class would protect the weak against the powerful, but only in ways that reduced conflict and allowed for the smooth functioning of collective institutions. At the time when Brandeis was describing the promise of professionalism, three earlier accounts of the American dream not only survived but were real competitors for social preeminence. In Thomas Jefferson’s founding republican vision, yeoman farmers were “the most valuable citizens... the most vigorous, the most independent, the most virtuous,... tied to their country and wedded to its liberty and interest by the most lasting bonds.” To this Jeffersonian vision of “the cultivators of the earth,” a rapidly urbanizing nineteenth century added the small-business owner and the unionized industrial worker. The former aspired to the same freedom as the farmer by cultivating a shop instead of acreage; the latter strove (with mixed results) to achieve economic independence through collective political activity. In Brandeis’s time, these three versions of the American dream each still constituted a viable route to meaningful political and social life. Today, by contrast, all such dreams are essentially foreclosed. The independent farmer lives on in the national imagination, but industrial farming has rendered him marginal both politically and socially. The quantity of small businesses begun each year suggests that the aspiration of having one’s own shop persists. Yet for the past half-century bankruptcy has been more likely than success. Statistics cited by Bush’s own Small Business Administration (SBA) show that more than half of small businesses close within four years and more than 60 percent within six. The title of the SBA article, “Redefining Business Success: Distinguishing Between Failure and Closure,” perfectly captures the difficulty of sustaining optimism, even for propaganda purposes, about the vitality of small-scale entrepreneurship. As for blue-collar workers, deindustrialization and the weakening of the labor movement have made the wage earner’s dream of middle-class respectability less and less tenable. Real incomes for working-class families have been declining for three decades, and highly skilled jobs once available to high school graduates are now memories from a previous era. Abraham Lincoln, in his 1859 speech at the Wisconsin State Fair, concluded that the ideal of the small businessman or farmer was meant to be accessible to everyone: The prudent, penniless beginner in the world, labors for awhile, saves a surplus with which to buy tools or land, for himself; then labors on his own account another while, and at length hires another new beginner to help him. This, says its advocates, is free labor—the just and generous, and prosperous system, which opens the way for all—gives hope to all, and energy, and progress, and improvement of condition to all. This classless universality—the hope that every American citizen, through free labor, could enjoy middle-class respectability, economic freedom, and the intellectual benefits of education—lay at the core of the dreams championed by farmers, small-business owners, and factory workers. In the nineteenth century, such universal rhetoric coexisted with the practical exclusion of blacks and women, who were considered to be beneath citizenship. Crucially, however, there was nothing intrinsic to farming, wage earning, or entrepreneurship that required the permanent separation of these groups from the promise of social respectability. Today, one can and should hope for an American dream that truly includes all Americans, and which recognizes and respects all the different types of labor the country needs. This would fulfill the promise of nineteenth-century aspirations. Instead we have been left with the professional ideal, which values only certain types of work and thus implicitly disdains the rest. It is an inherently exclusive ideal, structured around a divide between those engaged in high-status work and those confined to task execution. The political theorist Iris Marion Young writes, “Today equal opportunity has come to mean only that no one is barred from entering competition for a relatively few privileged positions.” The idea of exclusivity is a necessary structural feature of professionalization. As a model for society, however, it validates an economic and cultural divide between those with meaningful access to social respectability and the vast majority of Americans, who remain consigned to low status and low-income employment. This divide is antithetical to democracy. The professional and educational meritocracy justifies a basic hierarchy in which only those with professional status wield political and economic power. The democratic ideal of ordinary citizens collectively deciding the fate of key institutions has little in common with this logic—a logic that is aristocracy by another name. Precisely because all three alternative versions of the American dream were universal, all imagined work—whether industrial, agricultural, or entrepreneurial—as a training ground for democratic citizenship. Farmers and entrepreneurs developed the personal virtues necessary for political decision making. As for the industrial worker, the union was considered a continuous education in democratic control, and one’s role in its management and success were a miniature form of collective self-rule. Barack Obama’s political ascent reiterates the current dominance of the professional ethic and one side of the civil rights movement. But there was always another side, which presented the movement as our most recent attempt to create a political community in which all citizens, including those truly marginalized, could assert power and achieve social respectability. Malcolm X, and Martin Luther King Jr. argued that our social problems were structural, the result of fundamental disagreements between the haves and the have-nots. These disagreements could not be papered over by talk of consensus, because the interests of the culturally privileged rested on continuing a politics of exclusion. As King often maintained, freedom requires making democracy a general way of life. This means more than integrating liberal society; it entails eliminating the basic economic and political hierarchies on which postwar liberalism rests. Today’s professional creed—while undoubtedly better than the Bush administration’s culture of cronyism, corporate profiteering, and rejection of expertise—remains a long way from these aspirations. To the extent that Obama (and the Democratic Party leadership) refuse to offer more than the professional ideal, any reform agenda will fail to address the basic situation of most Americans. His comments about small-town voters at a fund-raising event in San Francisco were indicative: “You go into some of these small towns in Pennsylvania, and... the jobs have been gone now for twenty-five years and nothing’s replaced them.... So it’s not surprising then that they get bitter, they cling to guns or religion or antipathy to people who aren’t like them or anti-immigrant sentiment or antitrade sentiment as a way to explain their frustrations.” Obama’s tone-deafness, as well as Clinton’s opportunistic denunciations—her aides quickly began handing out “I’m not bitter” stickers—spoke to a larger failing in the party as a whole. Political pundits like Tom Frank and Paul Krugman commonly ask why low-income constituents seem to vote less and less with their pocketbooks. This question suggests that the New Deal coalition was built primarily on a social welfare agenda. While such programs have been essential to providing millions of American with economic security, the heart of the New Deal lay elsewhere. From 1932 until 1968, the Democratic Party rested on two descriptions of American life—the American dream as embodied by the rural farmer and the industrial worker. It gained sustenance from a respect for these accounts of middle-class achievement, economic independence, and democratic inclusion. Today’s party, however, has given up on establishing new forms of solidarity for nonprofessional citizens. All it has to offer is a lose-lose proposition: join the competition for professional status and cultural privilege at a severe disadvantage, or don’t join it at all. The party holds on to the social programs of the past, but in ever more truncated form. It presents a politics of consensus while ignoring the fact of basic division. If Obama hopes to save his party and to address the interests and experiences of working-class citizens, he will have to challenge the hegemony of the professional and with it the closing of the American dream. The question is whether he and those around him are interested in this task, or whether they are determined to recycle the failed homilies of postwar liberalism and meritocratic success. If you like this article, please subscribe to n+1.Follow John BYD Qin plug-in hybrid in showroom in Costa Rica Chinese automaker BYD was the first car company in the world to put a plug-in hybrid passenger car into production, a couple of years before the Chevrolet Volt range-extended electric car hit the road. Despite several hybrid, plug-in hybrid, and battery-electric product lines, however, the vast majority of BYD's sales volume comes from selling gasoline vehicles in China. BYD K9 All-Electric Bus, as tested in Portland OR And the company is losing ground in its home market, as are most native Chinese automakers not selling globally recognized brands. DON'T MISS: Portland Tests BYD K9 All-Electric Passenger Bus: Quick Ride First-half sales of BYD's gasoline cars plummeted 27 percent to 180,000--a decline far greater than rising sales of its plug-in cars, which totaled 7,600--according to a recent report in The Wall Street Journal (subscription required). For the full year, BYD expects to sell 20,000 plug-in hybrids and battery-electric vehicles, primarily its Qin and e6 models respectively. Chinese battery electric crossover: BYD e6 test drive, Los Angeles, May 2012 The Chinese national government and some municipalities are now exerting increasing pressure on automakers to build, and consumers to buy, plug-in vehicles to combat rampant and dangerous air pollution. But price-sensitive buyers have largely rejected the more expensive plug-in vehicles, and no more than 50,000 are likely to be sold this year out of a market approaching 20 million new cars a year. ALSO SEE: Buffet's Baby BYD Auto Is a Big Electric-Car Copycat (Feb 2010) In North America, BYD has abandoned plans to sell its e6 electric crossover to retail buyers. The company is now focusing on sales of its all-electric transit bus, which is being tested by California's Long Beach and Los Angeles, Portland, and other cities. Overall results at BYD were also hurt by poor performance at a unit that makes solar photovoltaic panels. BYD Autos gets more attention in the U.S. than other Chinese automakers because fabled investor Warren Buffet owns a 9.1-percent stake in the carmaker. _______________________________________________ Follow GreenCarReports on Facebook, Twitter, and Google+.When Phace and Misanthrop aren't producing some of the most interesting and forward-thinking drum & bass out there, they're uniting as Neosignal and crafting a sound they call "neo digital krautrock," which taking a more rock approach without neglecting the expansive world of electronic music. They dropped their Raum and Zeit album via Noisia's Division Recordings imprint, and are set to follow it up with Space Gsus, a seven-track EP that features this gem "Don't Lie." While similar in sound to their 2013 single "Sequenz," 'Don't Lie" ups the ante, turning those chords into a heavier electro jam. It goes from being a gritty Daft Punk (circa Human After All) vibe into bringing some really heavy techno vibes into the mix. Word is that the duo has been sorting out their new live show, and it's said that each track on Space Gsus has a video that it synced with the material. I guess our only hope is that they bring this to the U.S. at some point. Stream "Don't Lie," as well as the video for the EP's title track, below.For people in Detroit, the birthplace of the Motown sound and of the American auto industry, Judge Rhodes’s decision that the city qualified for bankruptcy amounted to one more miserable, if expected, assessment of its woeful circumstances. The city has lost hundreds of thousands of residents, the judge said, only a third of its ambulances function, and its Police Department closes less than 9 percent of cases. “This once proud and prosperous city can’t pay its debts,” said the judge, who sits in United States Bankruptcy Court for the Eastern District of Michigan. “It’s insolvent. It’s eligible for bankruptcy. But it also has an opportunity for a fresh start.” Appeals were expected to be filed quickly. At least one union filed a notice of appeal on Tuesday, and other unions and pension fund representatives said they were considering contesting the outcome as well. But the ruling also allows Kevyn D. Orr, an emergency manager assigned in March by the state to oversee Detroit’s finances, to proceed swiftly with a formal plan for starting over — a proposal to pay off only a portion of its $18 billion in debts and to restore essential services, like streetlights, to tolerable levels. Mr. Orr said he intended to file the formal blueprint, known as a “plan of adjustment,” by the first week of 2014. That plan could include efforts to spin off city departments to outside entities, to sell city assets and to reinvest in failing city services. Mr. Orr has said his goal is to bring Detroit, the nation’s largest city ever to find itself in bankruptcy, out of the court process by next fall. “We have some heavy work ahead of us,” Mr. Orr said Tuesday. Around Detroit, leaders sounded somber but mildly hopeful tones. Mayor-elect Mike Duggan said that Tuesday was a day no one wanted to see, but that the city now needed to move forward. And Dave Bing, the departing mayor, whose tenure in office has been consumed by the financial distress, said it was inevitable that Detroit would ultimately be found insolvent. “We are now starting from Square 1,” he said.Elizabeth Holmes was named to this years' TIME 100 list of the world's most influential people Thursday. She's being compared to visionaries like Bill Gates and Steve Jobs. Just as Gates wanted a computer on every desk, Holmes wants a blood test in every drugstore. How Elizabeth Holmes became inspired to transform blood testing Her company, Theranos, has created what they call a painless, needle-free way to draw blood and test it -- for a fraction of Medicare costs. It's fueled immense anticipation in the health care industry and made Holmes the world's youngest self-made female billionaire, reports "CBS This Morning" co-host Norah O'Donnell. While she certainly has the money for it, Holmes said she doesn't own a TV. "I work all the time and I'm basically in the office from the time I wake up, and then working until I go to sleep every day," she said. At 19 years old, Holmes dropped out of Stanford University. She had a little tuition money and a big idea. Now, at 31, she's what lots of teenagers with that background likely strive to become: the youngest female billionaire in the world. "You know, it's not what matters," Holmes said. "What matters is how well we do in trying to make people's lives better. That's why I'm doing this. That's why I work the way that I work. And that's why I love what I'm doing so much." Elizabeth Holmes: Steve Jobs is an "incredible symbol of what's possible" What Holmes is doing is running Theranos, the biotech company she founded in 2003. You'll see her either in a black turtleneck or white lab coat taking a high-tech approach to blood testing. Instead of a needle to the arm, it's a pin prick to the finger. Holmes is marketing Theranos as a faster and cheaper alternative to a process that hasn't changed meaningfully in decades. "We've created these little tiny tubes, which we call the 'nanotainers,' which are designed to replace the big, traditional tubes that come from your arm, and instead allow for all the testing to be done from a tiny drop from a finger," Holmes said. Theranos struck a partnership with drugstore chain Walgreens to build thousands of Wellness Centers. Every center would offer a menu of blood tests -- ranging from cancer to cholesterol -- directly to consumers. And every test, Holmes said, would cost only a fraction of what Medicare pays. Not everyone is sold just yet. Some critics argue the Theranos method doesn't extract enough blood to do all the tests it claims. "Every time you create something new, there should be questions, and to me that's a sign that you've actually done something that is transformative," Holmes said. Her tests are not available everywhere yet, but she said they're working as fast as they can to roll out in the next states. Little is known about how Theranos' tests work, which has raised concerns about putting diagnostic results in patients' hands without doctors present. Nevertheless, her company is now valued at close to a whopping $10 billion. "It's a really important area," said Holmes. "When people get a lab test done, traditionally, in order for that lab test to be paid for, you have to have a symptom so the doctor can write in a code on the lab form. But if you can drop the pricing really low, then all of a sudden preventative testing can start to become possible." Her product could transform the health care industry in America and around the world. It may seem small, but it's revolutionary. "Making it possible to do tests on tiny samples; any cancer patient, any child, any elderly person whose veins collapse will tell you not having to have their blood drawn that way is a big deal," Holmes said. For as much promise as those tiny samples hold, Holmes is already known as a very real and rare example of what perseverance makes possible. She was young when she decided she wanted to change the world, and at nine years old she wrote a letter explaining her dreams to her dad: "What I really want out of life is to discover something new, something that mankind didn't know was possible to do." "I grew up in a family of people who wanted to make a difference in the world," Holmes said. She hasn't wasted any time. Last week she became the youngest member ever named to the prestigious Horatio Alger Association, which recognizes grit and drive. She was the only woman on stage with a lot of older white men. "This is true, I was," Homes said. "But what was so wonderful about it is that these young girls who are in the audience connect to me as nothing but living proof that their dreams are possible."President Trump will soon nominate Neil Chatterjee to fill one of the three open seats on the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC), according to media reports. A coalition of 135 environmental groups is lining up to oppose Trump’s FERC nominees. The coalition views FERC as a rubber stamp for oil and gas pipeline proposals. They argue that FERC has only rejected a single pipeline in 30 years, and generally ignores the climate risks of overreliance on natural gas. Chatterjee’s record on these issues indicate that he would likely double down on the status quo at FERC. McConnell’s right hand man on energy and environmental issues Neil Chatterjee is currently a policy advisor to Senate majority leader Mitch McConnell, a position he has held since 2009. Through his work for Sen. McConnell, Chatterjee has made a name for himself advocating for policies that squarely align with the agenda of fossil fuel and utility interests. For example, Chatterjee: spearheaded the Republican push for Senate approval of the controversial Keystone XL pipeline sought to undermine U.S. leadership on the Paris climate agreement led Sen. McConnell’s campaign to convince states to “just say no” to the Environmental Protection Agency’s Clean Power Plan worked to lift the ban on crude oil exports Chatterjee’s work for Sen. McConnell has led him into some of the inner circles of climate denial. For example, in 2015, he presented at Energy & Environment Legal Institute’s First Annual Gala, which also featured presentations by climate deniers Chris Horner and David Schnare. The group is known for its harassment of climate scientists, and has received money from the coal industry. Chatterjee is cozy with fossil fuel and utility interests Before his stint with McConnell’s office, Chatterjee worked as a lobbyist for the National Rural Electric Cooperative Association from 2007-2009, and before that spent several years as an aide in the House of Representatives. NRECA represents more than 900 electric cooperatives that remain over-reliant on coal, and has long opposed policies designed to clean up pollution from this dirtiest of fossil fuels. Mel Coleman, a member of NRECA’s board of directors and CEO of the North Arkansas Electric Cooperative, welcomed reports of Trump’s choice of Chatterjee to fill one of the empty seats at FERC on Twitter: Chatterjee has also participated in a number of fossil fuel and utility industry events, including: November 2016: provided a post-election perspective at the 2016 Constellation Executive Energy Forum October 2016: spoke on his work on the Keystone XL pipeline at the North American Gas Forum, where event sponsors and attendees included a who’s who of the gas industry September 2011: participated in the Nuclear Energy Institute’s Government Affairs Conference. Neil Chatterjee’s outdated views on fossil fuels and renewable energy In 2013, Chatterjee published a one-and-a-half page article in The Counselor, a publication of his alma mater, the University of Cincinnati College of Law. Titled, “An Alternative View: Taking Another Look at Fossil Energy,” Chatterjee’s piece appeared directly after a cover story by Joseph Tomain, dean emeritus for the law school, which studiously listed the relative risks and benefits of a wholesale switch to natural gas. Tomain concluded: If the clean energy transition is to be successful, then the United States, and indeed the world, must move away from fossil fuels. In the U.S., we can improve national security, reduce economic threats, and reduce environmental degradation through clean energy. We must continue a commitment to a clean transition by expanding the use of renewa[b]l[e] resources and energy efficiencies. Shale gas plays no role in that picture. For his part, Chatterjee essentially ignored the environmental risks raised by Tomain, and advocated for continued reliance fossil fuels. Chatterjee echoed the Energy Information Administration’s deeply flawed projection that renewable energy would only provide 9 to 13 percent of U.S. energy by 2040. Chatterjee wrote: The issue isn’t that the playing field is not level and needs to be altered, but rather that renewable energy is simply not competitive, affordable, or widely available, even with significant, expensive government support. In 2015, just two years after Chatterjee’s piece appeared in The Counselor, renewable energy generation broke the 13 percent mark and its share of the electricity pie has increased since then. Meanwhile, the costs of clean energy technologies like solar power continue to decline. Not the only rubber stamp Reports also indicate that President Trump will nominate Kevin McIntyre, a lead attorney for Jones Day’s global energy practice. His experience includes representing major clients in the fossil fuel and utility industries in matters before FERC. Experience has shown that is all too easy for FERC commissioners to avoid recusing themselves from cases involving potential conflicts of interest. It’s likely that Chatterjee and McIntyre FERC will participate in FERC cases involving their former clients and employers, all the more reason to expect that Trump’s FERC nominees will be rubber stamps for his anti-clean energy agenda. Cover photo courtesy of FERC.U.S. State Department Reports Grave Violations Against Palestinian Kids 9:07 PM Secretary of State Rex Tillerson delivers remarks during a press event in Washington, on March 6, 2017, broke with precedent and did not participate in the launch of the 2016 State Department Human Rights Reports. (Photo: U.S. Department of State) Ramallah, March 17, 2017—A U.S. government human rights report released this month highlights grave violations against Palestinian children living under Israeli military occupation. The annual country reports on human rights practices, which include a specific section covering the situation of human rights in Israel and the Occupied Palestinian Territory (OPT), raises a number of issues related to ill-treatment of Palestinian child prisoners and denial of fair trial rights in Israeli military courts. It notes other grave violations against Palestinian children, including unlawful killing and excessive use of force against Palestinian children by Israeli forces. A senior U.S. official released the annual report and answered questions by phone on condition of anonymity. The report noted a “significant increase in detentions of minors” in 2016, and that “Israeli authorities continued to use confessions signed by Palestinian minors, written in Hebrew.” It also highlighted the renewed use of administrative detention against Palestinians, including children. “The U.S. government is well aware of ill-treatment and torture of Palestinian child detainees as well as unlawful killings,” said Khaled Quzmar, Defense for Children International – Palestine’s general director. “Until the U.S. government demands Israeli authorities comply with international law, U.S. authorities are simply enabling abuse and perpetuating injustice against Palestinian children.” The report highlights the fatal shooting of 15-year-old Mahmoud Rafat Badran near the West Bank village of Beit Ur Al-Tahta on June 21, 2016. Six teenage cousins and a driver were in a car heading home around 1:30 a.m. after a night of family fun at a swimming pool in the nearby West Bank village of Beit Sira. Israeli soldiers opened fire on them as they drove through an underpass beneath Route 443. Mahmoud Rafat Badran died at the scene. Two of his cousins and the driver were injured. Omitted from the report was the February 26, 2016 killing of Mahmoud Shaalan, a 16-year-old who held U.S. citizenship. Israeli soldiers shot and killed Mahmoud as he allegedly attempted to stab them at a military checkpoint near Beit El settlement, north of the West Bank city of Ramallah. A witness waiting to cross the checkpoint in his car told DCIP that he saw the teenager approach the soldiers and he did not appear to be carrying a weapon in his hands. He then heard three gunshots and decided to turn his car around, at which point he saw a soldier fire two shots at Mahmoud while he was already on the ground. Typically, the secretary of state launches the report and provides brief remarks that highlight specific findings included in the report. However, in a break with precedent, Secretary of State Rex Tillerson did not launch the report on-camera and in person. Each year the U.S. Department of State drafts and publishes country reports on human rights practices, known as the Human Rights Reports, that cover the situation of human rights in countries around the world. The reported is mandated by Congress. Since 2007, each annual country report on Israel and the OPT has included data and information on ill-treatment and torture of Palestinian children in Israeli military detention, denial of fair trials rights in Israeli military courts and other grave violations against children committed by Israeli forces and settlers. In February, DCIP and American Friends Service Committee delivered a petition to the U.S. State Department signed by over 11,000 individuals standing against ill-treatment and torture of Palestinian children. The petition, part of the No Way to Treat a Child campaign, urged the Secretary of State to prioritize the human rights of Palestinian children and to hold Israeli authorities accountable for widespread and systematic ill-treatment of Palestinian child detainees. ~ Defense for Children for Children International – PalestineWhite Rabbit, a browser plug-in that recognizes the films and series you watch on whatever streaming site you prefer, will launch an ICO on November 27, 2017. Project White Rabbit has been recently announced by professionals who are engaged in creative sphere. Film producers, distributors and software developers united to create really unusual and modern product. White Rabbit is based on the idea of fighting piracy and fair pay for artists. A project seeking to monetize P2P streaming to the benefit of fans and filmmakers. The White Rabbit’s blog post pointed that according to different researches, 60% of people who watch movies illegally do so because of the fact that they cannot get a legal access to the content. In accordance with the official website of White Rabbit, it won’t be necessary to subscribe to anyone site. The system will recognize the content person watches while streaming his or her favorite films or series. Smart contracts deducts a payment from users and transfers this immediately to rights holders. Utilizing blockchain technology, rights holders are also ensured complete financial transparency. White Rabbit gives a unique opportunity to get rid of closed server based subscription platforms. It grants unlimited access to various content and fair distribution of material made by representatives of creative industries. White Rabbit also deals with the problem of utter non-transparency of the entire even side of digital distribution and cash-flow immediacy. “Blockchain and smart contracts will ensure that user payments go directly to the rights holders – without delay. This allows filmmakers to enjoy immediate reward for their efforts, while removing middlemen means the reward more is affordable for the fans,” stated in blog post. Thanks to the blockchain technology, the filmmakers and the fans will have a unique opportunity to exclude intermediary in their cooperation and make payment for viewing films and viewing itself much easier and safer. Blockchain technology enables transfer of data and payments in a distributed ledger of records that no one can tamper with. Once a record makes it to the blockchain, it cannot be deleted or altered in any way. The blog post continues: “This solution restores the balance in the entire content distribution industry; tackles the issue of video piracy and content availability; noticeably simplifies user experience; removes intermediaries and payment downtime from the equation; and, most importantly, establishes a foundation for a truly competitive environment. Not only that, but our smart contracts will enable all the rights holders of the film, to be paid their fair and agreed share of the films revenue, each time someone streams the film. Less work, more play and more pay for everyone!” The project team includes various creative individuals, including critically acclaimed film producer Alan R. Milligan, architect and seasoned programmer Alexander Yarushin, Hengameh Panahi, a former partner at Mubi.com and others. “Before I became a film producer, I worked with my father Alan Sr,” says Alan R. Milligan, CEO and founder of White Rabbit, in a blog post. “Together with White Rabbit´s CTO, we created MCIS (Milbros Chemical Information System) — ensuring safer transport of chemicals at sea. Today, MCIS is the industry standard in a market worth over $2 trillion. Now we aim to become another industry standard, ensuring fair distribution and transparent payment in the digital streaming market — estimated at $65 billion by 2021.” “OTT services like Netflix have globalized digital streaming and created great content these last few years. Yet, they have not shown a sustainable business model and have therefore become studios competing directly with the films they used to buy. We are all in need of an open and competitive marketplace in digital distribution. With White Rabbit, we can offer a global, sustainable, transparent business model that also combats piracy without having to intimidate our fans — everyone wins, everyone is rewarded,” added Mr. Milligan. Pursuant to the press release the team will hold a token pre-sale followed contribution campaign to continue development of White Rabbit. The official Initial Coin Offering (ICO) campaign will start on November 7 and will finish on December 22, 2017.One of the more interesting parts of attending first-grade in a private Christian school was the daily recitation of the Christian hymn, “Onward, Christian Soldiers.” Every morning, we’d gather in a small classroom and pray before reciting the Pledge of Allegiance and the hymn in quick succession: “Onward, Christian soldiers, marching as to war/ With the cross of Jesus, going on before/ Christ the Royal Master/ Leads Against the Foe” As a young boy, I found the words intoxicating. Unsurprisingly, six-year old me thought faith and fighting was a good combination. The online magazine The Intercept recently revealed a disturbing connection between a Christian humanitarian organization and the Pentagon. Early in his tenure as Deputy Undersecretary of Defense for Intelligence during the George W. Bush administration, Lieutenant General William Boykin entered into an agreement with Kay Hiramine, founder of Christian relief organization Humanitarian International Services Group (HISG). This agreement provided funding for HISG in exchange for the organization agreeing to operate as a clandestine Pentagon outfit. It sounds like something from a Clancy novel, too surreal to be true. Yet the situation, strange and sobering as it was, was all too real. As Christians, the act of doing good, of loving our neighbors whether they live next door or halfway around the world, should never be compromised by another motive. From 2001–2003, HISG operated as a small relief organization before partnering with a Pentagon branch named “Afghanistan Reachback Office,” an outlet tasked with coordinating Afghan reconstruction efforts post-American involvement. This department fell under General Boykin’s oversight, and HISG’s presence led to the creation of a hidden “special access program,” where Boykin used established NGOs and created several others as covers for Pentagon intelligence operations. Using Pentagon funding and tasked with OPE (Operational Preparation of the environment), HISG entered North Korea at least twice between 2007 and 2010 under the pretense of humanitarian work. The extent of other OPE assignments is unclear, but what is known is that HISG operated in over 30 countries from 2004 to 2012 before now-retired Admiral William McRaven terminated funding for the organization. Unsurprisingly, with its source of funding gone, HISG announced it would also shut down in January, 2013. What’s striking about this particular situation is how much I knew about the program without really knowing anything at all. From 2003 to 2010, my summer job consisted of traveling around the country representing Rosetta Stone at various state homeschooling conventions. Over that time, I came to know the Hiramines since they were a homeschooling family, and I would see them at various expos and conferences. Kay wasn’t always there, but when he was his presence was unmistakable – he would often share stories about clandestine operations, and I heard verbatim the very story quoted in The Intercept about smuggling Bibles into North Korea. Kay and his HISG co-workers impressed me as Christian men who risked their lives to bring relief to nations in desperate need of it, and the stories I would hear over several years only furthered that impression. I don’t say these things to defend any of the various individuals involved in this situation. I say them because I’ve seen the joys that good work and humanitarian efforts can bring; when you share the Kingdom of God and bring good to people in a tangible way, the stories you tell reach beyond yourself and impact those around you. These efforts bring the Kingdom to those who may otherwise struggle to see God’s work in this world. Yet despite the good that was accomplished by Hiramine’s organization, the actions of a few men could potentially lead to other religious organizations facing undue scrutiny and lessened access to places where they are needed most. As Christians, the act of doing good, of loving our neighbors whether they live next door or halfway around the world, should never be compromised by another motive. As much as we attempt to rationalize the good accomplished by time, money, and resources, the short-sighted agreement to receive Pentagon funding casts doubts about the motivations of other Christian relief organizations. The backlash in the wake of the disclosure of HISG’s government connection has been immediate, and various voices have condemned the alliance as unnecessary, dangerous, and, perhaps most damning, useless. At The American Conservative, former CIA officer Philip Giraldi says that “[i]t seems that the operation had provided little useful intelligence, not a particularly surprising outcome: Using unwitting and unfocused humanitarian charity volunteers and employees to smuggle in spy gear was a non-starter right from the beginning and should never have been attempted.” Beyond the political foolishness, the exposure has caused Christian Crisis International to denounce the idea of conflating humanitarian work with any political organization or military interest. CCI’s executive director, Bob Klasmer, believes “it’s unlikely this story will simply go away,” and his condemnation speaks to the lasting damage this situation will cause to longstanding and future Christian humanitarian efforts: “Perhaps the most insidious component of activities such as those described in The Intercept article is that the fallout – the risks and dangers – extend to the entire missions community. Consequences of the foolish and unwise actions of a few are imputed to the rest. It is one thing to seek thrilling and risky behavior for one’s personal reasons. It is inexcusable to do so when that behavior endangers others. There should not be a line between missionary activity and acting as a spy for the government – there should be a deep, wide impassable chasm. There simply is no reason that justifies missionaries (no matter what term we use to describe ourselves) acting as spies or agents of a government and no reason that justifies the government co-opting missionaries to act in those roles. Our mission – to go and make disciples – is both clear and unchanging.” At a more immediate level, it should be a concern that Boykin, who currently works for the Family Research Council, would so easily assume the mantle of a Christian warrior in order to further a militaristic agenda. Boykin no longer serves in Washington, but his ease in mixing faith and political interests is another mark in a long history of questionable and alarming decisions. Our Editor-in-Chief has written about Boykin in the past, so it is not surprising to see
hands of unsuspecting souls, swooping in to straight up gank the ball when he senses the slightest lapse in attention. But if Smart’s defense is ready for modern warfare, his offense is all primitive clubs and stone-tipped spears. Coming out of college, Smart’s size and do-it-all power game drew comparisons to the likes of James Harden and Dywane Wade. There’s an alternate universe where Smart was drafted to the lowly Phoenix Suns or the Philadelphia 76ers, is spoon-fed 35 minutes and 17 shots a night on a 24-win team and is now perceived as a borderline All-Star averaging 22 points per game on Allen Iverson-like efficiency and lockdown defense. Here on our Earth, however, he’s sputtered offensively while soaring defensively, limited by the constraints and impatience of a perennial playoff team. Last season, 75 NBA players took 300 or more threes. Smart’s 28.3 percent was dead last among them. In the three-point era, only two other seasons compare to Smart’s combo of volume and shooting futility: Mookie Blaylock’s 1998 season (on the plus side, those Hawks won 50 games!) and Kobe Bryant’s train wreck of a final season. If Smart’s struggles were only from three, the Celtics could live with it, but he doesn’t fare much better inside the arc either. A stroll down the list of guards to take at least as many two-point shots (417) while shooting as poorly on two-pointers (42 percent) as Smart did last year is cringe-worthy. Smart wasn’t very good scoring from anywhere. Even his perceived strengths, posting up and finishing around the basket, aren’t strong—he shot a pitiful 48.8 percent within three feet of the basket. He tends to either rush his initial move, resulting in panicked, off-balanced shots, or he overthinks and overdribbles, stalling the offense while trying to score with two or more defenders set and keyed onto his efforts. As athletic as he is (he recorded a 36-inch vertical and it’s not rare to see him catapulting out of crowds for put-back dunks), he’s still only 6-foot-3, so longer players make his life hell around the cup. All hope is not lost, however. Like Andre Roberson for the Oklahoma City Thunder, Marcus Smart brings so much value, defensive and otherwise, he’s worth jiggering lineups to keep on the floor. Unlike Roberson, Smart isn’t completely useless on the offensive end. Coach Stevens has proven adept at putting his players in optimal positions to succeed and the Celtics’ multifaceted roster means there will be some intriguing looks on the floor at times; some of which should highlight Smart’s unorthodox offensive skills. With Gordon Hayward replacing Bradley, look for Stevens to tweak how he deploys Smart. Much like Stevens surrounds Isaiah Thomas with stout defenders to mask his defensive deficiency, the Celtics can now slot Smart next to Hawyward, Horford and Thomas; freeing Smart to focus on finding the crevices in the defense, cutting baseline or sneaking into pockets of space for easy looks. And as a primary ball handler, Smart has shown some ability to run an offense, finding shooters and cutters with passes from all angles. In his third year, Smart’s assist rate took a healthy jump from 15.8 percent to 22 percent, while his turnover rate only ticked up slightly from his career 13.1 percent to 15.6 percent, which was lower than John Wall’s and Russell Westbrook’s. With Hawyard fitting right in with Horford and Thomas as players who can transition from on-ball to off-ball threats seamlessly, the Celtics can take advantage of Smart’s ability to wreak havoc on defense without decimating its own offense. Alternatively, deploy Smart to run a second unit with the likes of Jabari Bird (37.8 percent from deep in college), Jayson Tatum and Jae Crowder, with Aron Baynes or Ante Zizic at center, and you have a long-armed athletic squad capable of switching almost everything on the perimeter with a big body clogging the lane. Plug Horford in at center, and Boston is playing Four Out with their point guard operating as the interior hub. And that’s without factoring in any improvement to his shot. Smart’s free throw improvement should give the Celtics a glimmer of hope. Smart shot a shade under 72 percent from the charity stripe as a sophomore at Oklahoma State. He followed that up with 64 percent as a NBA rookie, sounding warning bells. But Smart’s 250 free throw attempts last year were a career high and he cashed in a healthy 81.2 percent of them, proving at the very least he can’t be forced off the court by intentional fouls in the same way Roberson can be. Smart hasn’t quite lived up to his lofty draft status, but he’s been vital to the Celtics burgeoning success and deserves to get paid what he’s worth. Will he be looking for a larger role? Financial security? How much will it cost for Boston to keep their complementary point guard duo? Thomas has made no secret he feels he’s worth a max contract, and our own Jesse Blanchard made a compelling case for Danny Ainge to hand oodles of cash over to him. But it’s tough to wrap one’s head around what Boston looks like in a few years with 34-year old Thomas making over $40 million. One could argue the Celtics wouldn’t have been in the Eastern Conference Finals without Thomas’ offensive heroics, and one would be right. One could also point out how, in the playoffs, the Celtics beat the Cleveland Cavaliers in Game 3, then held a 10-point halftime lead in Game 4 with Smart filling in for Thomas and ask: are Thomas’ scoring histrionics worth lowering the team’s defensive floor the way playing Thomas does? Or can Ainge and Stevens hand the reins over to Smart (and Terry Rozier) and trade elite offense from the point guard position for top flight rugged defense and a lowered offensive ceiling? The 2017-2018 Celtics are prepared to be their most potent selves. The youth of Jaylen Brown and Jayson Tatum, plus the future picks in the pipeline, take the edge off any real concerns, but the approaching paydays for both Thomas and Smart makes this a pivotal season. With a contract on the line, we shall see if Smart can learn to thrive offensively in the narrow role afforded while continuing to accept the toughest defensive challenge night after night. For the Celtics to take another step up the ladder in NBA relevance, they’ll need Marcus Smart to step out of the mythological unicorn realm and show he can generate some real-world productivity. Follow @SnottieDrippen [newsbox style=”nb1″ display=”tag” tag=”James” title=”More from James Holas” number_of_posts=”2″ show_more=”no” nb_excerpt=”0″]The guiding motto of \"An eye for an eye, and a tooth for a tooth\" brings neither success nor happiness Vindictiveness doesnŽt pay. This has been demonstrated by a current study at Bonn and Maastrich Universities. According to this study, a person inclined to deal with inequity on a tit-for-tat basis tends to experience more unemployment than other people. Vindictive people also have less friends and are less satisfied with their lives. The study appears in the current edition of the Economic Journal. We tend to live by the motto "tit for tat". We repay an invitation to dinner with a counter-invitation; when a friend helps us to move house, we help to move his furniture a few months later. On the other hand, we repay meanness in the same coin. Scientists speak here of reciprocity. A person who repays friendly actions in a like manner is said to behave with positive reciprocity, and one who avenges unfairness acts with negative reciprocity. Positive and negative reciprocity are interdependent traits: many people incline to positive reciprocity, others more to negative; others, again, incline to both. The researchers from Bonn and Maastricht wanted to discover what influence these traits of character have on parameters such as "success" or "satisfaction with life". For this, they resorted to data from the so-called "socio-economic panel". This contains information gathered by the Deutsche Institut für Wirtschaftsforschung (German Institute for economic Research) in its annual surveys. These involve around 20,000 respondents from all over Germany and cover a diversity of topics. The researchers in Bonn used this instrument to discover something about the attitudes to reciprocity of the participants in the study. They were to state, for example, to what extent they would repay a favour or, on the other hand, an insult on a tit-for-tat basis. "Both positive and negative reciprocity are widespread in Germany", declares Professor Dr. Armin Falk of Bonn University, summarising the results. Positively reciprocal People perform more Overtime The researchers then related these data to other results of the survey, whereby they stumbled upon a number of interesting correlations: "Thus, positively reciprocal people tend on average to perform more overtime, but only when they find the remuneration fair", declares Professor Dr. Thomas Dohmen of Maastricht University. "As they are very sensitive to incentives, they also tend to earn more money". This is in stark contrast to vindictive people. With these people, the equation "more money = more work" does not always apply. Even pay cuts are not an effective means of bringing negatively reciprocal people back into line. Ultimately the danger arises that they will take revenge for example, by refusing to work, or by sabotage. "On the basis of these theoretical considerations it would be natural to expect that negatively reciprocal people are more likely to lose their jobs", Falk explains: "A supposition which coincides with our results. Consequently, negatively reciprocal people experience a significantly higher rate of unemployment". And in other respects, too, vindictiveness is not a maxim to be recommended. Anyone who prefers to act according to the Old Testament motto of "An eye for an eye, and a tooth for a tooth" has on average less friends - and is clearly less than satisfied with his or her life. Contact: Professor Dr. Armin Falk Institut für Gesellschafts- und Wirtschaftswissenschaften, Universität Bonn Telephone: 0228/73-9240 E-Mail: [Email protection active, please enable JavaScript.] Professor Dr. Thomas Dohmen Universität Maastricht Telephone: 0031/43 388 3647 E-Mail: [Email protection active, please enable JavaScript.]Remember them? The ones you got your ideas from When Eric B. & Rakim reunited for a concert at the legendary Apollo Theater last Friday to recognize the 30th anniversary of Paid in Full, it was a celebration to remind us of rap’s long-enduring culture. The performance featured appearances by everyone from Kool Herc, to Slick Rick, to EPMD, to Flavor Flav, to Kid Capri, to Roxanne Shanté, to Fat Joe, to Ice-T. It turns out the whole night was filmed for a concert documentary that will be executive produced by Russell Simmons, the mogul whose Rush Artist Management represented Eric B. & Rakim back in the 1980s. Session X shot the footage of the performance in super-high definition 4K, HD, as well as virtual reality. As Simmons told Billboard, “I’m thrilled that the world, and a new generation, will have the opportunity to witness the creative spark that Eric B. and Rakim lit in hip hop. The duo moved the culture forward, and DJs and MCs to this day stand on their shoulders. I’m honored to work again with these great artists.” And that ain’t no joke. There’s no release date for the film yet, but you can check out footage of the historic show below.Gen. Yakubu Gowon, former Nigerian Head of State and a founding father of ECOWAS, has advocated the creation of a Government of West African States for the commongood of the 15-nation Community’s estimated 300 million people as a building block for the United States of Africa. “The objective when we founded ECOWAS (in May 1975) was for an organization that will work for the benefit of all people in the Community and pending when the dream of a United States of Africa is realized, West Africa can show the way,” Gen. Gowon said during an interview after a meeting on Tuesday 14 April 2015 with the President of the ECOWAS Commission H.E Kadré Désiré Ouédraogo at the Commission’s Abuja headquarters located on a Crescent named after the Nigerian Statesman. Refusing to take all the credits for the formation of ECOWAS in 1975 and for chairing the Group of Eminent Personalities that revised the organization’s Treaty in 1993, Gen. Gowon, who is 80 this year, paid tribute to all his peers, especially the late Togolese President Gnassingbe Eyadema, government ministers, diplomats and senior civil servants of Member States for their roles and contributions to the birthing of ECOWAS. He commended President Ouédraogo, who as a former ECOWAS Deputy Executive Secretary worked with the Eminent Personalities on the revision of the ECOWAS Treaty and urged him to ensure that the organization evolved to meet the aspirations of the founding fathers. On the motivation behind the formation of ECOWAS and the signing of the 28 May 1975 Lagos Treaty, Gen. Gowon as then Nigerian Head of State, recalled the “diplomatic shuttles” undertaken by officials of his Government and other countries in the region after Nigeria’s civil war, and the need to streamline the various bilateral agreements among the countries into a single document that spoke to the needs and aspirations of the Community. “Of course, there were niggling challenges (including colonial history, cultural and language differences), but thanks to the determination and political will of the political leaders at that time, virtually all the member countries were represented and signed the Lagos Treaty,” he affirmed, noting that the primary concern then was for economic and social integration. The 1993 Revised ECOWAS Treaty brought on board a number of innovations including the creation of the Community Court of Justice, the ECOWAS Parliament, the mechanism for addressing political and security issues and particularly, the Community Levy, which replaced the unreliable, assessed financial contribution method. Moving forward, especially on the lessons learnt from the unprecedented consensus around the formation of ECOWAS in spite of the teething challenges, the elder statesman prescribed “trust and respect for one another; respect for different institutions and governance systems of each country, and above all, the compelling need for good governance.”* He recalled that as a young military Head of State, his government in 1966 introduced the “Know Your Neighbour Policy,” which saw him visiting several Nigerian neigbours, with the purpose of cultivating good neighbourliness and therefore, keeping the country from harm. In the same vein, Gen. Gowon recommended that “All ECOWAS countries must come together” to deal with any potential or real threat to the Community, including corruption, while at the same time ensuring respect for everyone no matter how high or low. While acknowledging that ECOWAS objectives might not have been fully met, he however, expressed delight at the achievements chalked by the organization in its four decades of existence, particularly the Common Passport and the free movement of persons, goods and services under the organization’s flagship visa-free protocol. He frowned at the many trans-border check points in the region, noting that while certain checks are necessary for security purposes, those that encourage extortion of citizens must be scrapped for the Community integration to be meaningful. Gen. Gowon also expressed optimism that the results of the just-ended Nigeria’s general elections, which have been judged generally peaceful and orderly, would enable the country to resume its leadership role in the region and in Africa. Earlier, President Ouédraogo, on behalf of the Commission and other Community institutions expressed his gratitude to the ECOWAS co-founder “his vision, wisdom and leadership” and for agreeing to share his “vast experience for the benefit of present and future generations.” He also promised to work with others for the realization of the dream of a Government of West African States.The interview is part of the initiative by the Commission to gather materials for the production of Television documentaries to mark the ECOWAS 40th Anniversary this year. Gen. Yakubu Gowon, former Nigerian Head of State and a founding father of ECOWAS, has advocated the creation of a Government of West African States for the common good of the 15-nation Community’s estimated 300 million people as a building block for the United States of Africa.Turley: Obama 'owns' Bush 'war crimes' if he looks the other way David Edwards and Muriel Kane Published: Tuesday January 13, 2009 Print This Email This President George W. Bush's offhand acknowledgement in an interview Sunday with Fox's Brit Hume that he personally authorized the waterboarding of Khalid Sheikh Mohammed may create thorny legal and moral problems for incoming President Barack Obama. Constitutional law professor Jonathan Turley told MSNBC's Keith Olbermann on Monday, "We now have President Bush speaking quite candidly that he was in the loop, we have Dick Cheney who almost bragged about it. The question for Barack Obama is whether he wants to own part of this by looking the other way." Obama told ABC's George Stephanopoulos on Sunday, "We have not made final decisions, but my instinct is for us to focus on how do we make sure that moving forward we are doing the right thing. That doesn't mean that if somebody has blatantly broken the law, that they are above the law. But my orientation's going to be to move forward." "If waterboarding is torture -- and Barack Obama has said that it is torture," Turley emphasized, "and torture is a war crime, then the president has committed a war crime if he did order waterboarding. You have to do some heavy lifting to avoid the simplicity of that logic." Turley noted that individual CIA officers who carried out torture may be able to invoke the so-called "Gestapo defense" -- that they only followed orders they were assured were legal -- but that defense does not hold for those who gave the orders. "It only works if you can reasonably rely on the advice, and it generally does not protect people like Bush," Turley explained. "You really can't go out and get radical or extreme lawyers, like John Yoo and Viet Dinh, and get them to enable you to do things that you know is a war crime." "There's no real question that crimes were committed here by {Obama's] predecessor," concluded Turley, "and he can either begin his administration as a man of principle, and allow the law to take us wherever it may lead, or he will inherit the same type of moral relativism that really corrupted the previous administration. I'm going to say a silent prayer for principle." This video is from MSNBC's Countdown, broadcast Jan. 12, 2009. Download video via RawReplay.comSTOCKHOLM -- The CIA Gulfstream V jet touched down at a small airport west of here just before 9 p.m. on a subfreezing night in December 2001. A half-dozen agents wearing hoods that covered their faces stepped down from the aircraft and hurried across the tarmac to take custody of two prisoners, suspected Islamic radicals from Egypt. Inside an airport police station, Swedish officers watched as the CIA operatives pulled out scissors and rapidly sliced off the prisoners' clothes, including their underwear, according to newly released Swedish government documents and eyewitness statements. They probed inside the men's mouths and ears and examined their hair before dressing the pair in sweat suits and draping hoods over their heads. The suspects were then marched in chains to the plane, where they were strapped to mattresses on the floor in the back of the cabin. So began an operation the CIA calls an "extraordinary rendition," the forcible and highly secret transfer of terrorism suspects to their home countries or other nations where they can be interrogated with fewer legal protections. The practice has generated increasing criticism from civil liberties groups; in Sweden a parliamentary investigator who conducted a 10-month probe into the case recently concluded that the CIA operatives violated Swedish law by subjecting the prisoners to "degrading and inhuman treatment" and by exercising police powers on Swedish soil. "Should Swedish officers have taken those measures, I would have prosecuted them without hesitation for the misuse of public power and probably would have asked for a prison sentence," the investigator, Mats Melin, said in an interview. He said he could not charge the CIA operatives because he was authorized to investigate only Swedish government officials, but he did not rule out the possibility that other Swedish prosecutors could do so. The basic facts of the Stockholm rendition were reported last year; this article is based on newly released documents from the parliamentary probe that provide elaborate details about an operation that normally unfolds entirely out of public view and about the government deliberations that preceded it. Swedish security police said they were taken aback by the swiftness and precision of the CIA agents that night. Investigators concluded that the Swedes essentially stood aside and let the Americans take control of the operation, moving silently and communicating with hand signals, the documents show. "I can say that we were surprised when a crew stepped out of the plane that seemed to be very professional, that had obviously done this before," Arne Andersson, an assistant director for the Swedish national security police, told government investigators. At 9:47 p.m., less than an hour after its arrival at Bromma Airport, the jet took off on a five-hour flight to Cairo, where the prisoners, Ahmed Agiza and Muhammad Zery, were handed over to Egyptian security officials. The CIA has not acknowledged playing any part in the expulsion of the two men. An agency spokesman in Washington declined to comment for this article, and U.S. Embassy officials in Stockholm also declined to answer questions. CIA officials have testified that they have used rendition for years after tracking down suspected terrorists around the world. They say the U.S. government receives assurances of humane treatment from the countries where the suspects are taken. Human rights groups say that such pledges, from governments with long histories of torture, are worthless. The two Egyptians later told lawyers, relatives and Swedish diplomats that they were subjected to electric shocks and other forms of torture soon after their forced return to their country.TABLET OF AHMAD (Arabic) - Revealed for Ahmad (of Yazd) - who earnestly searched and found the Qa'im (Bab), as well as became a faithful and devoted servant of Bahá'u'lláh. This Tablet was revealed around 1865 during the Adrianople period of Bahá'u'lláh's exile. Ahmad, like Munib (for whom the Suriy-i-Ashab was revealed) was sent to Persia by Bahá'u'lláh to teach the Babis that 'Him Whom God shall make manifest, as had been taught by the Bab', had come. When Bahá'u'lláh had publicly announced His station in the Garden of Ridvan, Baghdad, He had done so only to His family and companions. In Adrianople, much of his Writings involved spreading the message that He is the Promised One. One of the ways He did this was through Tablets which were given to those believers who possessed deep courage and great devotion for the Cause, and therefore could be trusted with this honorable task. This assignment will attempt to focus on and offer an analysis of the figurative language which is used in the Tablet of Ahmad (Arabic). First, the Tablet itself is divided into paragraphs (numbered 1 - 16). Each paragraph will then be examined individually. The analysis will be followed by a personal response to the Tablet, which also concludes the assignment. ANALYSIS 1. He is the King, the All-Knowing, the Wise! In this opening line, Bahá'u'lláh extols and exalts the station of God! 2. Lo, the Nightingale of Paradise singeth upon the twigs of the Tree of Eternity, with holy and sweet melodies, proclaiming to the sincere ones the glad tidings of the nearness of God, calling the believers in the Divine Unity to the court of the Presence of the Generous One, informing the severed ones of the message which hath been revealed by God, the King, the Glorious, the Peerless, guiding the lovers to the seat of sanctity and to this resplendent Beauty. Nightingale, refers to Bahá'u'lláh, Who is proclaiming the message of 'He Whom God shall make manifest', has come. The 'Tree of Eternity' represents the continuous and successive appearance of Prophets/Manifestations that God sends for the continual spiritual education of mankind. Only the sincere ones (those with spiritual insight, particularly those who have obeyed the commands as set down by the Bab), will hear, recognize and accept His (Bahá'u'lláh's) message and station, thereby acknowledging the unity of the Prophets, as well as the Unity of God (Divine Unity). Yet, at the same time, those who attempt to undermine the Cause of Bahá'u'lláh (severed ones), are also informed of this Glorious Message. 3. Verily this is that Most Great Beauty, foretold in the Books of the Messengers, through Whom truth shall be distinguished from error and the wisdom of every command shall be tested. Verily He is the Tree of Life that bringeth forth the fruits of God, the Exalted, the Powerful, the Great. Bahá'u'lláh is announcing that He is the Promised One (that Most Great Beauty), the One foretold by the Bab as 'He Whom God shall make manifest'. Those who are pure-hearted, and are treading a path of true search, will be distinguished from those whose veils prevent them from recognizing Him, and are thus walking a path of error. Bahá'u'lláh represents that 'Tree of Life' Who brings to mankind 'the fruits of God' (i.e. spiritual guidance and divine knowledge), which humanity needs so as to progress within a spiritual reality, continually advancing in this world, with the goal of growing closer to God. In this passage it can be perceived that Bahá'u'lláh is making a reference to progressive revelation, particularly as the Tablet's main objective is to teach the Babis about His Revelation (foretold in the Books of the Messengers), while at the same time He honors and exalts the station of the Bab. 4. O Ahmad! Bear thou witness that verily He is God and there is no God but Him, the King, the Protector, the Incomparable, the Omnipotent. And that the One Whom He hath sent forth by the name of Ali(1) was the true One from God, to Whose commands we are all conforming. In this paragraph, Bahá'u'lláh directly converses with Ahmad, telling him that in teaching the Babis his actions should testify to and demonstrate that, Bahá'u'lláh, like the other Babis, is following the teachings of the Bab. In proclaiming His station, Bahá'u'lláh is not denying or diminishing the Bab's exalted station as a Manifestation of God. 5. Say: O people be obedient to the ordinances of God, which have been enjoined in the Bayan by the Glorious, the Wise One. Verily He is the King of the Messengers and His Book is the Mother Book did ye but know. Here Bahá'u'lláh specifies what Ahmad has to convey to the Babis. They have to examine and be obedient to that which the Bab has revealed in the Bayan. Bahá'u'lláh refers to the Bab as the 'King of the Messengers'. 6. Thus doth the Nightingale utter His call unto you from this prison. He hath but to deliver this clear message. Whosoever desireth, let him turn aside from this counsel and whosoever desireth let him choose the path to his Lord. Nightingale refers to Bahá'u'lláh, Who is counselling the Babis from Adrianople (remote prison), through this Tablet (and therefore through Ahmad). On examining the Bayan, the Babis can determine whether Bahá'u'lláh is Who He says He is, and if indeed He is 'The One Whom God shall make manifest'. Having made a determination, they can choose to embrace the Cause of Bahá'u'lláh, or reject Him. If, however, the choice is not to follow Him, they are also rejecting the Bab and the beliefs to which they hold. Again, the connection between the Manifestations (i. e. Bab and Bahá'u'lláh), can be perceived as a refence to the progressiveness of Religion and divine guidance. 7. O people, if ye deny these verses, by what proof have ye believed in God? Produce it, O assemblage of false ones. Bahá'u'lláh challenges those who deny Him, as incapable of producing proof against His station and mission, therefore, their denial violates belief in God. The Creative Word, revealed by Him, is directly from God, and there is no greater proof than this. The divinely Revealed Word has a power that no other written work has, and therefore, Its influence is far greater. 8. Nay, by the One in Whose hand is my soul, they are not, and never shall be able to do this, even should they combine to assist one another. Bahá'u'lláh, emphatically states that there is no greater proof of His station (beyond Himself and His Revelation). The following passage of Bahá'u'lláh is offered to further elucidate this point: `O ye peoples of the earth! Turn yourselves towards Him Who hath turned towards you. He, verily, is the Face of God amongst you, and His Testimony and His Guide unto you. He hath come to you with signs which none can produce.' The voice of the Burning Bush is raised in the midmost heart of the world, and the Holy Spirit calleth aloud among the nations: `Lo, the Desired One is come with manifest dominion!' (Bahá'u'lláh: Epistle to the Son of the Wolf, Page: 48) 9. O Ahmad! Forget not My bounties while I am absent. Remember My days during thy days, and My distress and banishment in this remote prison. And be thou so steadfast in My love that thy heart shall not waver, even if the swords of the enemies rain blows upon thee and all the heavens and the earth arise against thee. Bahá'u'lláh counsels Ahmad, when confronted with difficulties and he feels alone whilst carrying out this mission, to call to mind His struggles and distress in Adrianople. Even though he is not with Bahá'u'lláh, Ahmad should remain steadfast, as he is always under the guidance and assistance of Bahá'u'lláh. He should remain steadfast in his love for Bahá'u'lláh, particularly when he is faced with ridicule and denial of Bahá'u'lláh's proclamation ("swords of the enemies rain blows upon thee) as this steadfast love will help him overcome whatever afflictions he faces (of course, this counsel also holds true for everyone else). 10. Be thou as a flame of fire to My enemies and a river of life eternal to My loved ones, and be not of those who doubt. A flame of fire - this is a reference to Ahmad's strength of conviction as a follower of Bahá'u'lláh and a teacher of His Cause, insofar as he should be undisturbed by the denials and denouncement of Bahá'u'lláh's proclamation. He should remain unaffected by the followers of Mirza Yahya. He should not succumb to doubt. Those who wish to instill doubt in the minds of others, and are succesful, have the power to manipulate the weakness of others. Failing to establish doubt (and therefore have no power), is an indication of the strength of conviction the individual has, particularly Ahmad, who has complete certitude about the station of Bahá'u'lláh. Ahmad's certitude serves as a strength to those who, despite the attempts of the unfaithful ones, have declared their belief in Bahá'u'lláh (in this way Ahmad is a "river of life eternal to My loved ones). 11. And if thou art overtaken by affliction in My path, or degradation for My sake, be not thou troubled thereby. Should he (Ahmad) face affliction or degradation while teaching the Faith of Bahá'u'lláh, he should not be deterred from his task. 12. Rely upon God, thy God and the Lord of thy fathers. For the people are wandering in the paths of delusion, bereft of discernment to see God with their own eyes, or hear His Melody with their own ears. Thus have We found them, as thou also dost witness. Ahmad should place his reliance and trust in God. He will find those Babis who have allowed themselves to be influenced by Mirza Yahya, thereby depriving themselves of the ability to recognize God's Manifestation and His Revelation, as they have placed their reliance and faith in someone other than God. 13. Thus have their superstitions become veils between them and their own hearts and kept them from the path of God, the Exalted, the Great. As a result of not placing reliance in God, and following the false lead of Mirza Yahya, these Babis have established veils and barriers which have prevented them from following the path of God. 14. Be thou assured in thyself that verily, he who turns away from this Beauty hath also turned away from the Messengers of the past and showeth pride towards God from all eternity to all eternity. In this passage Bahá'u'lláh clearly refers to Progressive Revelation. He states that those who reject and refute His Message, are not only denying His Cause, but the Religions of the past as well, and ultimately, they are rejecting God 15. Learn well this Tablet, O Ahmad. Chant it during thy days and withhold not thyself therefrom. For verily, God hath ordained for the one who chants it, the reward of a hundred martyrs and a service in both worlds. These favors have We bestowed upon thee as a bounty on Our part and a mercy from Our presence, that thou mayest be of those who are grateful. Bahá'u'lláh counsels Ahmad to "Learn well this Tablet", and not to cease chanting it. He assures Ahmad, and ultimately anyone who does so, there is great reward ordained by God in honoring His (Bahá'u'lláh's) counsel. The magnitude and depth of meaning with regard to understanding"The reward of a hundred martyrs and a service in both worlds", is incomprehensible to the average individual. If anything, the reward mentioned, may serve purely as a means of conveying the hidden power within this Tablet, and that it's spiritual depth will be unfolded to the one who faithfully obeys Bahá'u'lláh's command to chant it. We are informed that it is by the grace and bounty of God that He has bestowed His favors on mankind, and for that we need to be always grateful. 16. By God! Should one who is in affliction or grief read this Tablet with absolute sincerity, God will dispel his sadness, solve his difficulties and remove his afflictions. Verily, He is the Merciful, the Compassionate. Praise be to God, the Lord of all the worlds. - Bahá'u'lláh (Bahá'í Prayers (US), Pages: 210-214) In chanting this Tablet, Bahá'u'lláh tells us all that sadness will be eliminated, difficulties will be solved, and tribulations (afflictions) will be removed. However, it cannot be overlooked that in order for the individual to receive these benefits, this Tablet needs to be read with sincerity. As a result, therefore, one needs to try to understand what is meant by sincerity. As people, with faults and shortcomings, we aspire to various levels of behavior. This being the case, it would be rather difficult to determine when one is at the accepted level of sincerity, in order to qualify to read this Tablet. Perhaps sincerity means having unquestioned faith in the power of this Tablet, place absolute trust in Bahá'u'lláh, turn to Him and believe that divine guidance will be bestowed upon mankind. After all, God (Who is the Lord of all worlds) is Merciful and Compassionate, and for that, at least, we praise Him. PERSONAL RESPONSE and conclusion In reading the history associated with Ahmad, his sincere feelings of love and loyalty for Bahá'u'lláh deeply touches my heart. His obedience, as a believer in Bahá'u'lláh, serves as an admirable example that all of us as Bahá'ís can turn to and draw strength from, particularly with regard to executing the Four Year Plan (teaching). Ahmad's obedience to Bahá'u'lláh's call to spread His message, at a time when he was so close to being with Bahá'u'lláh again, demonstrates his selflessness and degree of service. It is his sincerity of faith that first led him to recognize Bahá'u'lláh in Baghdad, and that same faith led him to turn away from his selfish need to be with Bahá'u'lláh, so as to teach the Faith to the Babis in Persia. The Arabic Tablet conveys a strong sense of love, sincerity, faith and servitude that is to be found in an individual (in this case, Ahmad). These are the desired and exemplary traits that a follower of Bahá'u'lláh needs to possess and manifest. In the Persian Tablet, however, one sees an individual (in this case, another Ahmad), who displays undesirable traits of behavior. Bahá'u'lláh counsels him to a goodly character and conduct. Despite this, however, Ahmad becomes prideful and turns away from Bahá'u'lláh. It is of interest that Bahá'u'lláh revealed these two Tablets at the same time, to two people with the same name. One is exemplary, the other is not. The combined behaviors can be found in any one individual. The individual, however, has within his/her control the ability to determine which path to follow (i.e. accept the Manifestation, be obedient to the commands, followed by teaching the Faith, or not). The significance of the Tablet of Ahmad (Arabic), for me, is that the obligation of teaching the Faith which Ahmad honored, equally applies to Bahá'ís today. In the words of Bahá'u'lláh: And be thou so steadfast in My love that thy heart shall not waver, even if the swords of the enemies rain blows upon thee and all the heavens and the earth arise against thee. Be thou as a flame of fire to My enemies and a river of life eternal to My loved ones, and be not of those who doubt.
the notorious traffic jams on the roads. The boat was travelling on the Saen Saeb canal, which runs through the heart of the city and connects to its main Chao Praya river.A number of backroom staff in the Labour party have been in touch today to say goodbye ahead of an exodus of frontbenchers and staffers who disagree with Jeremy Corbyn. Most expect him to win the leadership contest, and know that their bosses won’t serve in his Shadow Cabinet, or suspect that they will struggle to last very long in an HQ under his leadership. The Sun reports a clear-out in the whips office. Corbyn himself has been very careful to talk about the party coming back together, and has denied that he will bring back mandatory reselection of Labour MPs: something the Left deployed in the 1980s to threaten and remove those on the right of the party. But he doesn’t need to introduce any official reselection: this will happen anyway. The Conservatives plan to redraw constituency boundaries and reduce the number of MPs from 650 to 600. They want to do this in 2018, but some Cabinet ministers suspect the vote could be earlier – which would also mean Corbyn could still be leader, rather than someone else after a coup. Either way, Labour MPs will be pitched against one another for selection in a smaller number of constituencies, and with an influx of new left-wing members into those constituency parties, will find themselves either being forced to adopt left-wing positions, or being beaten by other leftier MPs – or indeed brand new left wing candidates. And none of this will involve an official ‘purge’ from the top of the party. It is important to remember that Jeremy Corbyn isn’t the only left-wing force in the party. The make-up of the membership is just as important after this contest as during. Constituency parties choose candidates to stand for Parliament, and under Corbyn they will have greater power over policymaking, too. Given the right of the party failed in its plan to flood the party with centrist members who backed Liz Kendall, that faction has got a pretty big task on its hands to prevent the membership voting for very left-wing policies and very left-wing 2020 candidates.During the Miami Hurricanes big recruiting weekend, one that saw 3 current EE commits on campus in Coral Gables, that group grew larger when 4-star LB Zach McCloud (6'2", 220lbs) re-committed to the Canes' program. Proud to say I'm committed to Miami — Zach McCloud (@chief__20) December 12, 2015 Back like I never left pic.twitter.com/YSwH8lZQ4K — Zach McCloud (@chief__20) December 12, 2015 Welcome home Zach! It's a great day to be a Cane! pic.twitter.com/hEsfYChn8I — Mark Richt (@MarkRicht) December 12, 2015 McCloud, who was committed to Miami for more than a year, decommitted shortly after the firing of Al Golden, ostensibly to evaluate his options. Auburn, FSU, and others tried to make a run at McCloud. But, in the end, his heart was in Coral Gables. Once it was announced that Mark Richt was the new Head Coach, it was a virtual lock that McCloud would re-commit to Miami, and he did. McCloud is the 3rd LB in this class, joining fellow Early Enrollees Shaq Quarterman and Michael Pinckney. That trio could form a formidable linebacking corps, as one Canes fan opined on Twitter on Friday. McCloud has arguably the highest ceiling of the LB commits. He is a dynamic player who almost assuredly will see the field as a Freshman in 2016. On top of that, this is the first commit Mark Richt has gotten as head coach. Getting a player of McCloud's caliber is impressive and important as the Hurricanes look to rebuild depth and add top quality talent to the roster. So yeah, this is a pretty good start for Richt's recruiting in Coral Gables, if you ask me. McCloud's HUDL higlights are below: Welcome BACK to the U, Zach!!!It’s annoying to realize your milk has passed its use-by date, but even more annoying would be getting sick from drinking 2 percent that’s a few days past the pull date. But can you? What about eggs that have passed their “best before” date? It’s a question as old as, well, pull dates. According to a 2013 report by the Natural Resources Defense Council and the Harvard Food Law and Policy Clinic, most food is safe to eat after the expiration date. This is because “sell by,” “use by,” and “best before” dates actually refer to the food’s peak freshness, not the threshold beyond which it’s unsafe. (The only exception is infant formula, which loses the strength of its nutrients over time.) The thing is, many consumers don’t know what the dates refer to, and just to be safe, they pour perfectly good milk down the drain after it has “expired.” The confusion comes from a lack of federal regulations for date labeling, which is why there are so many different phrases for peak-freshness dates in the first place. The dates only exist to protect a food’s reputation, but they result in as much as 40 percent of the American food supply being thrown away each year, at an annual cost of $165 billion. John Ruff, past president of the Institute of Food Technologists, notes that in over 40 years, none of the food poisoning outbreaks or recalls has been caused by food past its shelf date. You can actually eat most foods past their date without any noticeable change in taste. Fresh eggs, for example, stay good three to five weeks after the date on the carton. Canned foods will stay fresh up to a year, but since the cans are vacuum sealed to prevent the growth of bacteria, some researchers have found that canned food can still be safe to eat for several years past the peak-fresh date. Frozen meat and poultry will stay safe to eat up to a year. Of course, when you go to cook that ground pork you froze 10 months ago, or eat a chocolate bar past the “best before” date, the taste and texture might be less than perfect, but chances are you won’t get sick from eating it. If you’re still confused, check out the Food Marketing Institute’s Food Keeper application. It’s a database listing how long different foods can safely be stored. Just type a food into the search bar, and you’ll see how long that food can be kept in the fridge or freezer safely. Got a Nagging Question about food you're dying to have us answer? Leave it in the comments.Because You Can't Keep A Good Mob Down! https://revoltoftheplebs.wordpress.com/2012/03/23/how-to-feed-the-h... How To Feed The Homeless In Spite Of The Crackdown by Keith Johnson As Wall Street and their paid-for politicians continue to loot the American people, more ordinary citizens are finding themselves on the street for reasons other than drug and alcohol addiction. Those who have never been on the street cannot relate to the hopelessness one feels. I was once a vagabond myself, on the streets and without money for several months. When you find yourself without a home, the police get to know you real quick–even if you aren’t a trouble maker. After awhile; the harrassment becomes unbearable, and the only refuge you can find is the one place you swore you’d never end up: Skid Row! Once you’re there, it’s a hard place to escape. Your hierarchy of needs takes over and you spend most of your day standing in line for a meal, a shower and a bed. Most of the churches that hand out meals require you to sit through a sermon before you can have dinner. I remember having to devote close to six hours of my day going through the arduous process of getting luch and supper–grueling! It’s pretty hard to get back on your feet when most of your time is spent finding nourishment. And the Mission (or shelter as it’s called nowadays)? Forget about it. You’ll find a healthier environment in the county jail. In fact, it’s not uncommon for people to commit crimes just so they can go there to relax. Aside from that, in most major cities, a Mission is harder to get into than the Ritz Carlton during a salesmen’s convention. I remember a cold night in San Francisco when I waited in line for four hours just so I can sit in a fold out chair for two. This is why this recent story by the Economic Collapse moved me both to tears and rage: “What would you do if you came across someone on the street that had not had anything to eat for several days? Would you give that person some food? Well, the next time you get that impulse you might want to check if it is still legal to feed the homeless where you live. Sadly, feeding the homeless has been banned in major cities all over America. Other cities that have not banned it outright have put so many requirements on those that want to feed the homeless (acquiring expensive permits, taking food preparation courses, etc.) that feeding the homeless has become “out of reach” for most average people. Some cities are doing these things because they are concerned about the “health risks” of the food being distributed by ordinary “do-gooders”. Other cities are passing these laws because they do not want homeless people congregating in city centers where they know that they will be fed. But at a time when poverty and government dependence are soaring to unprecedented levels, is it really a good idea to ban people from helping those that are hurting?” Read more here. I would wager that most behind the crackdown on feeding the homeless are wilful participants in the corrupt system that has put many of these people on the streets. Not only do they refuse to take their share of the responsibility, but they don’t want their virgin eyes to see the suffering they have caused as they drive home to their gated communities, or subject their precious ears to a plea for help outside their favorite shopping malls. Most cities that are forbidding the feeding of homeless people cite food safety concerns. This is just an excuse–and there is a way to expose it as such if we band together. Handing out gift cards to local eating establishments is one way to get around the food safety laws and also gives you peace of mind that the money is not spent on drugs or alcohol. Another solution requires a concerted effort on the part of concerned citizens and is modeled after Megabite, a program that has worked effectively in the UK for over 10 years. According to their website: MegaBite is an innovative way of helping people in need on the street. Donors can buy Meal Squares (a paper ticket that a homeless person can exchange for a meal and a soft drink) from a local Megabite project or by mail order and pass them to a homeless person. The homeless person can then use them to purchase meals and soft drinks from agreed food outlets. The food outlet sends the used Meal Squares back to the local MegaBite project and is reimbursed. From there, perhaps we can expand the program to include showers. As a former vagabond, I can tell you that being clean is almost as essential as having a place to bed down for the night. One way this can work is to have volunteers with homes open their doors once of twice a week to a family who has been pre-screened. Sure, I can see some flaws in this approach–but, hey–that’s why I’m writing this. I’m looking to you for answers. Give me some suggestions!!! The growing homeless population needs an alternative to the degrading experience of soup kitchens, Missions and shelters that are often dirty and found in the most depressing parts of town. Making a homeless person feel human goes a long way into building their self esteem and maintain mental clarity. Aside from that; we should never allow city managers, mayors, police chiefs,or the privledged residents that butter their bread get the upper hand. They must never be allowed to drive the less unfortunate members of their community from the place they have always called home. These pampered government workers and their wealthy masters should be forced to confront the depression they helped create. They must be made to watch the cancer metastasize and slowly encroach upon their own sheltered lives. Only then will they come realize that disease has become epidemic–and perhaps they will start to wonder–could I be next?Nova Launcher Finally Gets Google Now Integration Without Needing Root or Gestures It’s finally here! Nova Launcher has finally received Google Now integration, allowing users to simply swipe left to access Google Now, just like they would on the Google Now Launcher. You also do not need root or a paid app to enable this functionality. Back when Google added an API to allow device manufacturers to include the Google Now pane in their launchers, Google also placed a few restrictions on which apps could make use of this API. Only system apps were granted permission to use the Google Now pane. Alternatively, if the Google app itself was debuggable, you could enable the Google Now pane on the launcher, though this was an impractical workaround. Thus, to enable a Google Now pane in the launcher, you needed root in order to move the launcher to the /system partition. This was deemed too big of a hassle, as needing root just to use your favorite launcher with some additional functionality was asking too much from users. Rooting the device, while easy for us at XDA-Developers and our readers, is something still unknown to the vast majority of Android users, so this was an impractical solution. The other workaround to enable the Google Now pane was to utilize Nova’s gesture support to set up a gesture to open the Google app. But this workaround needed Nova Launcher Prime (a paid app) to enable gesture support in the first place. Thankfully, the checks undertaken by the Google app for granting permission to use the Google Now pane have slightly changed. The Google app no longer checks if the app itself is debuggable, but now checks whether the client app is debuggable. Debuggable apps have their own drawbacks like not being publishable on the Play Store, so a workaround had to be thought of to enable the Google Now pane. Nova Launcher has achieved the workaround through a companion app called “Nova Google Companion”. This companion app fulfills the Google app’s necessity for the client to be debuggable and frees the main Nova Launcher app from such a requirement. However, this companion cannot be published onto the Play Store, but presents little problems as Android allows for easy sideloading. Download and Installation If you would like to enable the Google Now pane on Nova Launcher, you will have to download and install the Nova Google Companion app from sources such as APKMirror. You would also need a compatible version of Nova Launcher that detects the companion, and this functionality is available from Nova Launcher 5.3-beta1 onwards. This workaround will work on all Android devices running Android 6.0 Marshmallow or higher. You do not even need Nova Launcher Prime to make use of this, though many would recommend Prime to be well worth the developer’s effort towards Nova Launcher. Have you tried out the new companion app to enable the Google Now pane? Would you like to see other launchers adopt this workaround? Let us know in the comments below!When someone hands you the keys to an Audi S3, your heart rate is gonna go up. There’s nothing you can do about it. After all, just look at that blazing Vegas Yellow paint job. Those 19-inch Audi Sport titanium-matte wheels wearing summer performance Pirelli P Zeroes. That black Nappa leather interior with the thickly padded S Sport seats and racy flat-bottom steering wheel. Or check the spec sheet: 292-horsepower turbo four, quattro all-wheel drive, adaptive magnetorheological shocks, 6-speed dual-clutch automatic shifter. Mmmmm. Can we go now? That’s precisely how I felt when this little beast showed up on my doorstep. Deadlines? Uh, might be a little late this time. I’ve got an S3 calling my name. I’ve always been a fan of the “S” model cars from the sorcerers of Ingolstadt. “Regular” Audis are appealing enough already, but with an S version you gain an edginess, flashier materials, more dramatic styling elements, and a whole lotta hard-charging pony power. The S3 sedan is no different. You can see the muscle bulging right out of those conventional A3 clothes. Careful, it might bite. The 2017 edition arrives with mostly minor but welcome updates. The new face is more angular and aggressive, with LED headlights standard (as are LED taillights). Torque is now managed with “RS Strategy,” which biases the distribution far more toward the rear. Reworked front and rear diffs can each manage 100 percent of the torque, as required. Standard quattro all-wheel drive is improved thanks to better integration with the on-board stability-control system. More significant, though, is the addition of Audi’s Virtual Cockpit instrument display, an optional, multi-function color screen set right in front of the driver where the main gauges usually go. More on that in a moment. The S3 lights off with an emphatic rumble that leaves no doubt there’s something special under that glowing hood. I got to find out right away as I merged onto LA’s 405 freeway and flattened the gas. Oooooohhhh, sweeeeeet! The direct-injection turbo four is a fiery devil, able to kick the S3 to 60 mph in just 4.7 seconds and on to a governed 155 mph top end. It seems to fall off a bit just before redline, so I found myself shifting early with the paddles, but with max torque available at just 1,900 rpm the mill has plenty of range. On the highway, the S3 will surge smartly forward in top gear with just a nudge of the gas. The shifter itself delivers quick and efficient gear-changes when summoned manually, and in full-auto mode remains eager to change up or down to keep the turbo on the boil. One complaint: even in manual, the tranny always upshifts automatically at redline. There’s no holding the engine at the top of the tach as you scream through a turn; the box is gonna shift on its own. Steering is quicker than an A3’s, of course, and selecting Dynamic mode on the Drive Select system adds some heft to the feel. I had a blast hurling the S3 through my favorite Malibu mountain passes, but as with most Audis, grip eventually gives way to understeer. It’s entirely predictable, though, and simply easing off the throttle a tad will bring you right back on course. The ride, aided by those optional magnetic shocks, is firm without being overly so, and in any case a simple toggle of Drive Select allows tailoring the suspension response (along with the throttle, steering, and exhaust) from Dynamic into Comfort, Individual, or Auto modes. In Individual, you can separately adjust the steering feel, suspension stiffness, throttle response, and exhaust action into a recipe that’s all yours. Dial up your pre-set Individual mode before a good mountain romp, then dial back to Comfort when ferrying the kiddies to school. Everyone wins. To me, Audi cockpits rank among the most sophisticated and attractive in the auto world, and the S3’s is all that and then some. The optional S Sport seats ($1,450) fit like a tailored suit and cradle you like a friendly bear. The perforated leather wheel is stellar. And the technological systems are as advanced as they are abundant. My tester was outfitted with the optional Prestige package ($5,500), which adds everything from navigation to rear-cross traffic alerts, active lane assist, adaptive cruise control (which can bring the car to a full stop and automatically re-accelerate when able), and an impressive Bang & Olufsen audio system. The star of the Prestige option, though, is that new Virtual Cockpit. Instead of a conventional speedo, tach, an ancillary gauges, the virtual screen features a single 12.3-inch color display capable of showcasing a combination of engine instruments, navigation maps, phone and media info, and more. Until you’ve seen a foot-wide, high-res, moving Google Earth 3D map with highlighted nav instructions scrolling right alongside your digital tachometer, speedometer, and music-system selection, you haven’t realized how much you’ve always wanted a dash like this. Depending on your whims, using the large MMI controller in the center console or buttons on the wheel, you can call up screens that highlight the moving map, or the infotainment system, or big standard gauges, or a number of other configurations. There’s a lot of data arrayed on that giant pad, but in typical Audi fashion, it’s beautifully laid-out and a joy to use. For sure, you’ll be seeing more and more dash displays like this in the future. There’s a lot to love about the S3 — speed, build quality, refined rakishness — but no review of the car would be complete without mentioning the elephant in the room. This sleek, high-velocity four-door starts at $43,850 and climbs fast with options. My test car, equipped with the above-mentioned add-ons plus the $2,000 Black Optik package (including the big wheels and tires, mag-ride shocks, and various exterior upgrades), checked in at $52,600. That’s getting up there, and that brings us to the “elephant:” Volkswagen’s Golf R. It’s got the same powertrain, same all-wheel-drive system, and basically the same architecture underneath. And with a lot of the same equipment (including a dual-clutch shifter) you can get one for $40,195. Mind you, the Veedub is nowhere near as luxe inside as the S3, and it lacks a lot of the Audi’s cutting-edge tech (including that fabulous Virtual Cockpit), but for a driver hungering only for the main go-fast ingredients, the Golf R offers a value proposition that can’t be ignored. Whatever the bottom line, though, the S3 deserves its admirers. Plenty of Audi fans have proven themselves willing to pay to fly first-class; there’s no question the S3 ups the ante on style and savoir faire over its VW pretender. Ah, that reminds me of yet another monkey wrench I should throw into the discussion: Coming this summer is the new 2017 Audi RS 3—with 400 horsepower and priced around $55-60K. Wow. Maybe what you’re really going to want to do is spend even more.A 2,500-year-old settlement discovered during work on a housing development is said to be of international significance and is enabling the largest study of an Iron Age population in the last 35 years. The site in Pocklington, East Yorkshire, includes more than 75 square barrows that contained skeletons from the Arras Culture - a group of people who lived in the region in the Middle Iron Age as far back as 800BC. The excavation at the site - a development by David Wilson Homes - has already revealed objects including a sword, shield and 10 spears. In addition to the weapons, more than 360 amber and glass beads, brooches and ancient pots have also been discovered. A spokesman for the developers said the site is of " national and international significance". He said the analysis will hopefully also reveal how those buried at the site died, what stresses the body had been placed in during their lifespan and whether or not they are related. A major focus area of the archaeological analysis will concentrate on whether the population is indigenous or migrants from the continent, he said. The spokesman said the majority of barrows excavated have been well-preserved, with only a few being damaged by soil conditions and ploughing. The findings also reveal a mixture of men, women and children. Paula Ware, managing director at MAP Archaeological Practice, said: " To date, the east of Yorkshire has the largest concentration of 'Arras Culture' square barrows, and naturally these findings have helped to strengthen this. "We are hoping that these findings shed light on the ritual of Iron Age burial - and, as we can assume from the shield and sword burials, these were significant members of society, so our understanding of culture and key figures of the time could be really enhanced. "On the whole this is a hugely important discovery and is a fine example of what can be revealed and discovered if house developers and archaeologists work hand-in-hand to reveal the nation's hidden history." David Wilson Homes found the settlement at its Pavilion Square development after it started work in September 2014. The discovery will be officially announced on BBC Four's Digging for Britain at 8pm on Thursday. Peter Morris, development director at David Wilson Homes, said: "These findings are of national significance and could help shape our understanding of the 'Arras Culture' and indeed the Iron Age as a whole. "At present we are still at the early analytical stages of reviewing these findings, however we do understand that this discovery is very rare and of international importance."On the same day that Gameloft's company heads boasted to investors and journalists of its 27 percent revenue growth in 2012, the entirety of its India studio was told to pack up and go home.Over 250 game developers are out of work from Gameloft's Hyderabad studio, Gamasutra is told. Worse, the company allegedly asked its employees to sign a note lying about their resignations being voluntary.Affected sources tell Gamasutra that it had been business-as-usual at Gameloft's Hyderabad office this morning, until rumors started spreading around noon local time that the studio was in trouble.At 2:00 all employees were informed of a company-wide meeting 45 minutes later, where HR and studio manager Sarang Nafdey explained the bad news.According to one source speaking under anonymity, employees were asked to immediately pack up their belongings and leave. The company internet was disabled, and its balcony doors shut.According to one source, employees were asked to sign two letters before leaving: a form saying they were leaving for personal reasons rather than being laid off (pre-dated from yesterday, January 28th) and an acceptance of resignation from Gameloft dated Tuesday the 29th. That source tells us that he and others have not signed the letters yet, describing them as "fishy."Gameloft India was primarily a porting house. Most Gameloft titles are initially developed for iOS. Hyderabad's main function was to port these to Android devices.The news was relayed to Gamasutra while Gameloft was giving a conference call for investors and media discussing its 27 percent revenue growth in 2012.Gameloft has not yet responded to a request for confirmation at press time.Gameloft has officially refused to comment on this story, to the extent that the company will not even acknowledge that there was a studio closure.Meanwhile, another affected employee has relayed their story in our comments "People call it fishy, shady, illegal or whatever, and yes they should because management was in [a] real hurry to complete the process of signing the docs that too within 2-3 hours after announcement," the anonymous commenter said."They didn't even consider giving time to employees to seek help from their legal adviser. They didn't bother to answer major and obvious concerns too!"We've also spoken with two additional employees who are considering legal action against Gameloft. Should this happen, Gamasutra will have the story.Honda Motor Co., Ltd. will begin sales of the all-new Honda S660, a 2-seater open-top sports car, on April 2, 2015, at dealerships across Japan. In addition, on the same day Honda will begin sales, in a limited quantity, of the S660 CONCEPT EDITION, a special model that commemorates the market launch of the S660. Only 660 units of this special edition will be sold in Japan. Under the keyword of “Heart Beat Sport,” the development team pursued a full-fledged sports car that offers excitement and a heart-throbbing experience in everything about this vehicle and strived to realize the joy of driving that only Honda can create. The S660 adopts the mid-ship engine/rear-wheel drive (MR) layout and realizes a low center-of-gravity as well as the optimal 45-55 front-rear weight balance, in order to realize excellent cornering performance, which the development team emphasized to maximize the fun of turning. Moreover, the S660 features an open-top body that achieves both high rigidity and lightweight at the same time. This body developed exclusively for the S660 creates an open-air cabin space that enables the occupants to feel the wind, see the sky and enjoy an extraordinary experience while also enjoying a cabin space that enables the occupants to feel enveloped and being used with the vehicle. Furthermore, with a passion to create a vehicle that provides casual access to the joy of driving for anyone, the development team adopted an exclusively-designed turbo charger for the engine, enabling dynamic driving and high-accelerator response even in the low engine rotation range. As for the transmission, the S660 comes with a newly-developed 6-speed manual transmission, making the S660 the world’s first* mini-vehicle equipped with a 6-speed manual transmission. In addition, the S660 is also available with a CVT (Continuously Variable Transmission) with 7-speed paddle shifter that features a sports mode. The S660 realizes both driving performance unique to a car and easy handling in people’s everyday life. ?S660? ?Body color (total 6 colors ): ?Premium Star White Pearl (new color) ?Premium Mystic Night Pearl ?Admiral Gray Metallic ?Premium Beach Blue Pearl (new color) ?Carnival Yellow II (new color) ?Flame Red ?Seat variation (color): ??: Genuine leather x Luxe Suede®2 (Driver’s seat in light gray and passenger’s seat in dark gray or black) ??: Mesh x fabric (black) 2 Luxe Suede is a registered trademark of Seiren Co., Ltd. ?S660 CONCEPT EDITION? ?Body color ?Premium Star White Pearl (new color) ?Seat variation (color): ?Genuine leather x Luxe Suede® (Driver’s seat in light gray and passenger’s seat in dark gray) ?Key features of the S660? ?Fun of making turns ?With the adoption of the mid-ship engine/rear-wheel drive layout, the optimal 45-55 front-rear weight balance was realized to minimize the moment of inertia and improve traction performance. ?Paying close attention to the posture of the vehicle while rolling, the height of both the roll center and the center of gravity was optimized to suppress the roll during a turn and realize stable driving. ?For a first for a mini-vehicle3, the Agile Handing Assist electronic control system was adopted for the S660. The Agile Handing Assist system uses brake torque to apply control in accordance with the movement of the vehicle body, which makes it easier to trace target line during a turn and realize smooth vehicle behavior with minimum handling operations. 3 Internal research by Honda (as of March 2015) ?Fun of driving ?Based on the in-line 3-cylinder DOHC Turbo engine, whose dynamic performance has been well recognized with the N Series, a newly-designed turbo charger was adopted to realize engine response appropriate for a micro-sized sports car. ?Exclusively for this model, the first 6-speed transmission for a mini-vehicle was developed with a wide range and cross ratio setting that enables it to utilize engine power to the maximum extent. Moreover, the S660 is also available with a CVT with 7-speed paddle shifter that can shift the vehicle into sports mode which the driver can use to enjoy driving with more direct response to accelerator operations. This transmission lineup will enable a broader range of customers to enjoy the fun of driving with the S660. ?Powerful engine sound unique only to a sports car was realized by applying Honda’s original sound tuning techniques to the breathing and exhaust sounds of the engine, the operating sound of the turbo charger, the sound of the blow-off valve that lets go of boost pressure, etc. ?An easy-to-operate, lightweight and detachable soft-top called a “roll-top” was adopted so that more customers can enjoy the fun of driving while feeling the wind in a more casual manner. ?Fun of maneuvering ?The driver’s seating posture, hip point and the location of the accelerator and brake pedals are optimized to realize a driving position that gives the driver a feeling of driving a go-kart. A sense of unity between the driver and the vehicle was thoroughly pursued. ?The S660 features a steering wheel with a 350mm diameter, the smallest diameter among all Honda mass-market models, enabling the driver to enjoy brisk driving. ?To ensure comfortable driving in all seasons, the S660 features a fully automatic air-conditioning unit with the “mid-mode” for which new air outlets were added to blow the air to the thigh to waist-high areas. The rear center glass that goes up and down was also featured to realize a comfortable cabin space even when the top is open. ?Exterior and interior design ?Under the exterior design concept of “energetic bullet,” the body was made low and wide and tires hold to the ground solidly in all four corners. The design team thoroughly pursued an exterior look that lets people anticipate the high level of dynamic performance this vehicle will provide. ?As for interior design, the team thoroughly pursued operability that realizes intuitive operations of a space designed especially for driving. Moreover, the overall visual and tactile interior quality was enhanced by striving to realize high quality appropriate for a full-fledged sports-type model. ?Safety ?In order to realize a highly-rigid, high-strength and lightweight open-top body, the framework of the body consists of straight lines and smooth curved lines that achieve outstanding collision safety performance. Moreover, for countermeasures against a rollover accident, Honda studied laws and regulations in North America and set its own internal standards. Based on these standards, reinforcement members were used for the front and center pillars to realize enhanced occupant protection performance in case of a rollover accident. ?In addition to the driver’s i-SRS airbag system and front passenger’s i-SRS airbag system, an i-side airbag system, which absorbs the impact of a lateral collision, is a standard equipment of the S660. ?The passenger’s i-SRS airbag system installed to the S660 adopts the world’s first4 “internal pressure holding airbag system, ” which can hold internal pressure for a longer period of time compare to a conventional airbag system, enabling further improved occupant protection performance. ?In the area of active safety – efforts to prevent accidents before they occur – the S660 features Vehicle Stability Assist and Hill Start Assist as well as the Emergency Stop Signal system which warns vehicles to the rear of a sudden stop, all as standard equipment for all types. ?The City-Brake Active System which provides automatic braking assistance at speeds less than 30km/h to prevent a collision with the vehicle in front is available as an option for some types. 4 Internal research by Honda (as of March 2015) ?S660 CONCEPT EDITION – a special edition that commemorates the market launch of S660? In order to commemorate the market launch of the S660, Honda will sell a total 660 units of the S600 Concept Edition. This special edition was developed based on the S660 CONCEPT, a concept car Honda unveiled at the Tokyo Motor Show in 2013, and features an enhanced sense of high quality. ?Key features of S660 CONCEPT EDITION? ?Exterior? ?Bordeaux red roll-top, 2-tone side mirrors, exhaust pile finisher with exclusive coating ?Water-repellent body coating “Ultra Glass Coating NEO” ?Door glass with water-repellent glass coating ?Interior? ?Red stitches exclusive to this model are used for the sports leather seat with unsymmetric colors (driver’s seat), genuine leather-wrapped steering wheel, shift boot, [6MT version only] genuine leather-wrapped MT shift knob (shift pattern is engraved in red) ?Aluminum plate with serial number (1 through 660) ?Center display (compatible with the internavi POCKET link up) ?Safety? ?City Brake Active System (Collision Mitigation Brakes in low-speed range + False Start Prevention function*5)In a New York Times opinion piece meant to list lies told by President Donald Trump, the outlet published a falsehood of its own. The op-ed published Friday, titled “Trump’s Lies,” includes the following correction: “An earlier version of this graphic included an incorrect total for the number of days Donald Trump told a lie during his first two months as president. It was 20, not 25.” The New York Times has never published a “definitive list” of President Barack Obama’s lies. The authors relied on left-wing outlets like Politifact, Factcheck.org, and the Washington Post Fact Checker for the editorial’s data. “Trump’s Lies” received glowing praise Friday from Hollywood stars like Star Wars actor Mark Hamill and left-wing journalists like Lawrence O’Donnell‏ and Kurt Eichenwald‏: President Trump’s Lies, the Definitive List https://t.co/a56UurFtc1 "I cannot tell a lie"- George Washington — Mark Hamill (@HamillHimself) June 23, 2017 Trump is a pathological liar, not a logical liar https://t.co/iJgqASREwW — Lawrence O'Donnell (@Lawrence) June 23, 2017 Funny thing abot NYT's catalogue of Trump lies: They had 2 use smaller font size 2 keep list from taking 12 screens. https://t.co/DnnxtROEMF — Kurt Eichenwald (@kurteichenwald) June 23, 2017 Follow Jerome Hudson on Twitter @jeromeehudson.Josh Miller/CNET Samsung has absolutely stuffed its Galaxy S4's 13-megapixel camera with settings and modes, but none of that matters if the phone's image quality can't stand up to the hype. And so, here is a smartphone shootout between the Galaxy S4's top Android rival, the HTC One, and another beacon of smartphone photographic excellence, the iPhone 5. One important thing to note is that all three phones have very different sensors. The Galaxy S4 hosts a 13-megapixel camera, and the iPhone 5 has an 8-megapixel shooter. For its part, the HTC One has what it calls an UltraPixel Camera, which is actually a 4-megapixel camera. Although there aren't a lot of other specific details available, it's pretty clear that each smartphone camera has different focal lengths. A note on my methodology: I took all photos at the same time and from the same vantage point. In most cases, I used the camera
we have realtime data.) How it’s made: While the google maps API through R is very good, I decided to use the OpenStreetMap package because I am a complete supporter of open source projects (which is why I love R). First, you have to download the shape files, in this case I used census tracts from the Us Census tigerlines. Then you need to read to read it into R using the maptools package like this and merge your data to the shape file: library ( "maptools" ) zip=readShapeSpatial ( "tl_2010_11001_tract10.shp" ) ##merge data with shape file zip$geo_id= paste ( "1400000US", zip$GEOID10, sep= "" ) zip$ppsqftchange <- dc$changeppsqft [ match ( zip$geo_id, dc$geo_id, nomatch = NA ) ] zip$pricechange <- dc$changeprice [ match ( zip$geo_id, dc$geo_id, nomatch = NA ) ] Then you pull down the map tile from the OpenStreetMaps. I used the max and mins from the actual shape file to get the four corners of the tile to pull down the two above maps (“waze” and “stamen-toner”) Finally, plotting the project. The one thing different from plotting the choropleths from the Bay area is adjusting the transparency of the colors. To adjust the transparency you need to add two extra numbers (00 is fully transparent and 99 is solid) to the end of the colors as you will see in the annotations. ##grab nine colors colors =brewer.pal ( 9, "YlOrRd" ) ##make nine breaks in the value brks=classIntervals ( zip1$pricechange, n= 9, style= "quantile" ) $brks ##apply the breaks to the colors cols <- colors [ findInterval ( zip1$pricechange, brks, all.inside= TRUE ) ] ##changing the color to an alpha (transparency) of 60% cols <- paste0 ( cols, "60" ) is.na ( cols ) <- grepl ( "NA", cols ) ##changing the color to an alpha (transparency) of 60% colors <- paste0 ( colors, "60" ) ##plot the open street map plot ( map ) ##add the shape file with the percentage changes to the osm plot ( zip, col = cols, axes=F, add= TRUE ) ##adding the ledgend with breaks at 75%(cex) and without border(bty) legend ( 'right', legend = leglabs ( round ( brks, 1 ) ), fill = colors, bty= "n", cex=.75 ) AdvertisementsOne of the most commented aspects of the Singapore Grand Prix was the astonishing speed of Sebastian Vettel, particularly in the opening laps and the initial laps after the safety car. There have been many questions about how this was achieved and some interesting observations, such as Giancarlo Minardi's comments about a strange sound coming from Vettel's exhaust in these phases. Here with the input of JA on F1 technical adviser Mark Gillan, former Williams F1 team chief operations engineer, is our analysis of Vettel's speed and a consideration of why it was so noticeable in Singapore and whether it is here to stay for the rest of the 2013 season. It is clear that Red Bull has made a big improvement in performance since the summer break. Compare the lap time charts from Singapore (above) and German Grands Prix (below). The numbers down the vertical axis are the lap times in seconds, with the lower times at the bottom. The number of laps in the race are across the horizontal axis. In terms of relative pace to the others, Vettel and Red Bull were quite closely matched in Germany (below), but have obviously moved a long way ahead in Singapore. Mercedes had the edge in Hungary in July, where there are also plenty of sub 130km/h corners. Hamilton's pace, when not held up by traffic, is still quite good, but Vettel has a clear one second advantage in the early part of the race and more like 1.5 to 2 seconds in the period after the safety car (the blue line in the centre of the graphic which loops much lower than any other run). This post Safety car phase is probably an accurate reflection of the true pace of the car fully extended, as Vettel and Red Bull were looking to build a big gap as he had to stop again and he didn't want to come out behind one of the cars, like Alonso, Raikkonen or Button, who were going to the finish on the same set of tyres. It's quite rare to see a race so utterly dominated by a car and driver combination. Having built a gap early in the race, he backs off and manages the tyres and the gap to his first stop. But the safety car made him work to get the advantage back and he had huge pace, with very limited tyre degradation. So where has the pace come from and will it show up as dramatically as this in Korea and Japan? The key to this is that Red Bull has done a lot of work on traction out of low speed corners. On average, across all the tracks in the F1 championship, 25% of the lap time is spent below 130km/h on corner exits. It is the most significant single area to focus on. So if you can make a significant gain in that area, you can get effectively a 25% improvement, which will show in your lap time. Singapore is an extreme example as it has 23 corners and many of them are below 130km/h - so all the gain Red Bull has been working for will show up on a track like that. This will be less the case in Suzuka, which is a fast, flowing circuit, but it will probably show up in the first and final sectors in Korea, which will be pretty good to the team. Much of the work has gone on in the diffuser area, which generates the key downforce for the low speed corners in conjunction with the exhausts, although off-throttle blowing (where the throttle stays open even when the driver lifts off) is banned. Also contributing to Red Bull's dominance in the corner exit area is work they have done in the wind tunnel on high steer characteristics, when the car is turning and in yaw (ie leaning). Red Bull chassis have always had very high amounts of downforce, but here they've worked to ensure that it isn't just about high load, it's about the stability of the load, which is a big focus. Red Bull has always been able to push the diffuser hard in the high speed corners, the key to their speed now is that they have tuned it to work at low speed. Also helping them is the Pirelli move to the harder specification tyres, since Hungary. They have won three of the four races on the new spec tyres. Beyond that, like Mercedes they have done work on the inside of the wheel rims in the field of thermal management and heat rejection. The slots and texturing in the magnesium alloy rims work on flow through the rim. It's a complex piece of work and quite expensive to do, but it helps with managing the temperature of these tricky Pirelli tyres. This thermal management work has allowed Vettel to run a longer first stint than his rivals and to balance out his stops perfectly in recent races. The team has also raised its game with the pit stops: in Singapore four of the five fastest stops in the race were done by Red Bull. One intriguing note on all of this comes from Italy, where former team owner Giancarlo Minardi spoke to Gazzetta dello Sport after Singapore and observed that he had been trackside in a hospitality unit and heard what he thought sounded like traction control, a stuttering sound in the exhaust note of Vettel's car, during the post safety car period. Needless to say this has picked up some echoes around the internet, as everyone looks for reasons for Vettel's dominance. While there does seem to be some work being undertaken in engine mapping to work around the ban on exhaust blowing, which may have contributed to the strange sound, the issue of traction control is broadly taken care of by the common Electronic Control Unit, which is manufactured for the FIA by McLaren Electronics. Because the unit is specified and the same for every team, it is hard to conceal a traction control command in what is essentially a spec part. Rather than traction control, some kind of mapping to blow into the exhaust within the rules is more likely and this all fits with the corner exit work that Red Bull has been carrying out. Overall it's an impressive piece of work in this field of low speed corner exits; all the more so when you consider that they had also recently done a very impressive piece of work on the low-dowforce configuration of the car for Spa and particularly Monza, both of which they won comfortably. Red Bull has huge resources, but so do Ferrari and Mercedes. This work shows how effectively they use those resources in terms of technical development. And with Vettel clearly maturing and stepping up a gear as a driver this season, far more measured in his qualifying and race performances, the combination is devastating. It shows what the rest are up against. Success in sport isn’t just about doing your job properly, it’s about never giving anything away to the opposition. A brilliant footballer can dribble around 3 players and score a wonder goal, but if one of his defenders makes a mistake and gives the opposition an easy goal, it nullifies the adavantage. Michael Schumacher brought this mentality to F1 together with Ferrari in the 2000s - never giving anything away, push everything to the limit all the time and in this he was supported by his team, with the key management figures all sharing the vision. To be successful in F1 today you have to have this mentality and never let it slip. Red Bull Racing and Vettel have understood this and they have the limitless financial backing to support it.Eight years after he was the Republican presidential nominee, Sen. John McCain appears headed toward his toughest re-election fight yet, in no small part because of presumptive GOP presidential standard-bearer Donald Trump. Rep. Ann Kirkpatrick, the Democratic Senate candidate who is neck-and-neck with McCain in polls, has relentlessly gone after McCain for the senator’s support – no matter how tepid – of Trump. McCain has hardly shown enthusiasm for Trump, only saying he would support the party’s nominee (while planning to skip the GOP convention in Cleveland). And he’s privately warned that Trump could hurt his own bid. Politico reported on audio from a fundraiser where McCain is heard saying, “If Donald Trump is at the top of the ticket, here in Arizona, with over 30 percent of the vote being the Hispanic vote, no doubt that this may be the race of my life.” But Kirkpatrick’s campaign is hammering any connection it can between McCain and Trump, settling for nothing short of denunciation by the sitting senator. “John McCain’s supporting Donald Trump despite declaring Trump ‘dangerous’ and characterizing Trump's supporters as ‘crazies,’” Kirkpatrick campaign spokesman D.B. Mitchell told FoxNews.com. “It's clear McCain's'straight talk' days are over.” McCain’s campaign, meanwhile, has blasted Kirkpatrick as “siding with the liberal establishment.” The race is a snapshot of the conflicted relationship high-profile Republican candidates across the country could have with the presumptive presidential nominee. The jury is out on whether, on balance, he would help or hurt congressional candidates. But for McCain, Trump’s impact is even being felt in the Republican primary. One of his opponents, Alex Meluskey, a businessman and talk radio host, cited an internal campaign poll showing most respondents would be more likely to vote for a businessman who never ran for office over a career politician – and claimed the “Trump phenomenon” would be good for him. “Any time you have an outsider businessman, that absolutely favors us,” Meluskey told FoxNews.com. McCain also is facing opposition from Kelli Ward, a doctor who resigned her state Senate seat last year to run full time for the U.S. Senate. She is touting a resounding GOP straw poll victory over McCain earlier this month at the Arizona Republican State Convention and is pushing a campaign theme of “bold, fresh and fearless,” to contrast McCain’s status as a longtime Washington insider. The Republican primary is Aug. 30, just one day after McCain turns 80. But it’s the expected November race that’s causing headaches for the senator this year. During his five decisive Senate victories, the relatively moderate McCain has rarely had a real challenge in the general election. “He usually has more concern in the state over who his primary challenger will be," Barbara Norrander, a political science professor at the University of Arizona, told FoxNews.com. “Democrats have had a hard time recruiting someone viable to oppose him.” This year could be different. A Merrill Poll in March found McCain leading Kirkpatrick by just one point, while a Behavior Research Center poll in April showed the two tied at 42-42 percent. Kirkpatrick, a former Arizona state legislator, was first elected to the House in 2008. She was voted out of office during the Republican wave of 2010, then ran again and won in 2012 – and withstood another Republican wave in 2014 to keep her seat. McCain has more than $5.5 million cash on hand, according to the Federal Election Commission. That overwhelms every other opponent, as Kirkpatrick has $1.3 million, Ward has $210,792 and Meluskey has $163,764, according to FEC reports as of March 31. The McCain campaign is going after Kirkpatrick for her support of ObamaCare, and says Arizonans are facing a 21 percent increase in health insurance deductibles, while 59,000 Arizonans lost their insurance when the state’s co-op was removed from the federal marketplace. “Even as independent analysts predict a dramatic rise in health care costs and more insurers contemplate exiting a crumbling marketplace, Congresswoman Kirkpatrick offers no solutions for the people of Arizona,” McCain campaign spokeswoman Lorna Romero said in a statement. “Instead, she is siding with the liberal establishment and ducking questions about President Obama’s failed health care law.” On the issue McCain fears could be troublesome because of Trump, he and Kirkpatrick both agree on a pathway to citizenship for some 11 million illegal immigrants in the United States, but clash on the so-called Dream Act. Further, Kirkpatrick doesn’t necessarily have an automatic advantage with Hispanic voters. The U.S. Hispanic Chamber of Commerce endorsed McCain in April. Last year, the liberal group Emily’s List, backing Kirkpatrick, criticized another Latino coalition endorsing McCain as a “taco shop,” and said McCain put on a “sombrero to pander.” The Arizona Republic editorial board denounced the Emily’s List stereotypes.“The blue and white flag is your flag — you are in the Jewish state — even if that makes your stomach turn. ‘Hatikva’ is your national anthem even if it makes your heart explode. And if you don’t like that, go drink the sea in Gaza.” Those words were uttered by a right-wing member of Israel’s parliament, the Knesset, in 2010, following Palestinian lawmaker Haneen Zoabi’s participation in the flotilla to Gaza aboard the Mavi Marmara. Ever since I heard these words, I knew them to be the most accurate way to describe what it is like for Palestinians who live in Israel and endure all its institutions, including its universities. On my way to class at Haifa University yesterday, I noticed a large gathering of students and a significant number of security guards on campus. Following the dean’s rejection of the attempts by Palestinian student parties on campus to hold a rally in memory for the Nakba, the 1948 ethnic cleansing of Palestine, the students decided to simply gather, without holding flags or banners. Technically they were not violating the dean’s ban. Surreal But I couldn’t figure out what was going on. It was a very surreal situation. There was very loud trance music being played by a DJ for a crowd of security personnel and Palestinian students. So I asked one of the students what was happening: “The university approved a DJ party in place of our rejected Nakba memorial,” he said, red faced. At the same moment, a student union representative spoke from the stage, next to the DJ: “We invite you all to the university’s student day — Muslims, Christians, Druze and Jews. We are a pluralist country, it doesn’t matter who you are, you are all invited to join us.” The representative spoke with a big smile, then started to dance. It was three o’clock in the afternoon. The area was almost empty of students because of the relatively late hour, except for a few Jewish students dancing with a huge Israeli flag. Notably, the student union holds events with music on Wednesdays, and only at noon. It was a Monday, and there was no special occasion. Almost the only students there were the Palestinian students commemorating the Nakba. After the dance party announcement, an elder Palestinian man urged the students to stay calm: “Don’t listen to him. Please sit and don’t stand. We don’t want to give anyone reason to attack us. Sit in a circle. Everyone please.” Another young student stood in the middle of the circle and said: “Don’t let his words preaching about pluralism get to you. Let them play their music. We will mourn our Nakba.” Not only do we have no right to mark the most painful day in our history in the way of our choosing, but we have to endure loud dance lyrics — “And your heartbeat, it lets me know you feel the same … I’ll be thinking about you you you ….” Intimidation All the while, a police officer was videotaping the Palestinian students, with a smile on his face. He appeared amused by the music and the angry, yet silent, Palestinian students. Taping student activists in this way is a well-known intimidation tactic, a way of saying “we know who you are” and deterring many from participating in campus activism. After the music played for a whole hour and the Israeli students got their kick or maybe got tired of dancing, the Palestinian students who endured and stayed there, were then pushed and forced by police to disperse. So yes, my stomach did turn. I almost threw up, to be frank. But my heart didn’t explode, though it may have beat faster. But it was a good beat, a beat that teaches. It taught me that Israel’s most intellectual places, the universities, are the most repressive, because they are supposed to know better. A university is supposed to protect rights and freedom of expression. I believe a less “intellectual” venue might not have acted the way Haifa University did. I don’t believe random people in the street would even act this way. They probably would just pass by and let us grieve our catastrophe. Such a policy of vulgar repression is not only morally but strategically flawed. The university’s actions will only make the Palestinian students better and more committed intellectuals, and the Jewish ones better dancers. While Palestinian students respectfully observed the two minutes of silence during the siren marking Holocaust Remembrance Day two weeks ago, for one hour Israeli students danced during the commemoration of our catastrophe. Sawsan Khalife’ is a political activist and journalist from Shefa Amr in the Galilee region of Palestine.Xiaomi will be launching its first phone for the year in a few days. The device which is the Redmi Note 4X is more like the Redmi Note 4 with a new chip. So there’s no much excitement around the device. There is however news of a new Redmi device in the works with a Snapdragon 660 SoC. The info comes from a Weibo user ‘@grass digital’ who says Xiaomi has launched Snapdragon 660 projects likely to be Redmi phones or a new Xiaomi series similar to the Xiaomi Max. If Xiaomi is working on a Snapdragon 660 Redmi phone, it should probably be the Redmi Pro 2 whose spec leaked a few weeks ago. The new chip which we first heard of last year has model number MSM8976 Plus. This is similar to that of the Snapdragon 652 (MSM8976) and Snapdragon 653 (MSM8976 Pro). While the model numbers might be similar, the chip is quite different. It is said to be built on a 14nm process unlike the Snapdragon 652 and 653 which were built using the 28nm process. READ MORE: Xiaomi Mi MIX Running Android Nougat Spotted on GeekBench The Snapdragon 660 is likely to have its own custom Kryo cores like the Snapdragon 820 or might use a combination of 4 x Cortex A73 CPUs clocked at 2.2GHZ and 4 x Cortex A53 CPUs clocked at 1.9GHz. GPU will be an Adreno 512, it will have support for UFS 2.1 storage and have two LPDDR4 RAMs clocked at 1866MHz. The Snapdragon 660 is expected to begin mass production in Q2 2017 and should appear in phones from OPPO and Vivo too. (Source)(World Watch Monitor) This flier invited Christians in Pakistan to participate in a memorial ceremony on Aug. 16 to commemorate the late Pastor Fazal Masih, referred to as the one 'who was given the title of an apostle.' The flier also carries pictures of 15 office-bearers of the "Biblical Church of God," a small, little-known Protestant group in Gujarat. Fifteen Christians have been arrested, detained and slapped with blasphemy charges by Pakistani police in Gujarat province for publishing a flier that described a deceased pastor as one "who was given the title of an apostle." According to World Watch Monitor, which reports on Christians facing persecution for their faith, the word "apostle" is "rasool" in the Urdu Bible. While the title "prophet" is usually translated into Urdu by the Arabic-root "nabi," "rasool" can also have the same meaning. The claim of "apostleship" or "prophet-hood" is interpreted as a direct insult to Muhammad, the Prophet of Islam, as Muslims believe he is Allah's last and final apostle and prophet. Anything that counters the claim is considered blasphemy, which under Pakistani law, is punishable by death. Last month, Pakistan Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif approved a legislation prohibiting the English translation of Islamic terms including sacred Arabic names and words like "allah," "masjid," "sala'at" or "rasool," which mean "God," "mosque," "prayer" and "prophet," respectively, the Catholic news agency Fides reported. The flier was an invitation to Christians to participate in a memorial ceremony on Aug. 16 for the late Pastor Fazal Masih. It had photos of 15 office-bearers of the "Biblical Church of God," a Protestant group working in Gujarat. "The flier's language looks like it's been copied from the Internet. It's language that may be more acceptable in countries where Christianity has more freedom. It suggests that the late pastor practiced the gifts of the Holy Spirit and had a prophetic gift. However this is a concept that does not translate easily in an Islamic context," said a Pakistani commentator. The flyers were placed in areas in the city where many Christians live, including in Mughal Colony, the place where Younatan Fazal Gill, the deceased pastor's son and one of the programme organisers, live. "There are about 200 households of Christians who have reasonable means of earning, and also have their own houses," said Mukhtar Mughal Khan, a Christian political leader and former local councilor. Three days before the programme, a Muslim woman and a shopkeeper noticed that the flier used the word "apostle" for a Christian. The shopkeeper reportedly inquired from Younatan's brother-in-law, Imran Masih, about the title "apostle." As a reply, Imran told him that Christians could use this "biblical" description, resulting in the escalation of the situation. Last Aug. 15, it was announced through a loudspeaker of a local mosque that Muslims should gather to discuss the issue and the police were called in. After the meeting, the police searched Christian neighbourhoods and removed the fliers. When organisers of the programme were preparing the next day, Pakistani police arrested some of them. The police registered the cases under the Anti-Terrorism Act of 2001. "The situation got tense, even though there was no untoward incident, so Christians started to leave the area," said Khan. On Aug. 21, Khan said, women and children were sent away after Christians believed that extremist Muslims would attack their houses. There are about 500 houses in Mughal Colony including 200 households who are Christians. The police cordoned off the area to prevent such an attack. "However, the police arrested Pastor Aftab Gill, another son of the deceased pastor, and three others, while Younatan has obtained bail," said Khan. Last year, Naja Masih, a Christian resident, was charged with blasphemy and turned over to the police after having a discussion with a neighbour allegedly about the similarities of the Bible and Quran.Flood the streets with useless adapters It seems as if there's a subtle but big change on the horizon for the Xbox One controller. The current model features a proprietary audio jack that requires an adapter (sold separately for $25) to use with normal headphones. Microsoft looks to be doing away with that and releasing a new controller with a standard 3.5mm jack. This news appears to be a bit more credible than your average pre-E3 rumor if only because Microsoft posted it on its own website (presumably prematurely). Item 16 clearly denotes a 3.5mm port which is "only available on controllers released after June 2015." A screenshot is posted below in case the site is updated. It's unknown if there will be any additional changes to the Xbox One controller. We'll probably find out at Microsoft's E3 press conference, where this will likely be announced. Sadly, there's almost no chance Don Mattrick will open up the old controller to reveal a new controller was hiding inside the whole time. Get to know your Xbox One Wireless Controller [Xbox Support via Eurogamer] You are logged out. Login \| Sign up Click to open photo gallery:"Superman" No. 38 brings a final conflict for Ulysses and the iconic superhero. (Photo11: John Romita Jr./DC Comics) This week the Man of Steel is receiving a triple whammy of major changes. Out Wednesday, Superman No. 38 puts the explosive finishing touches on writer Geoff Johns and artist John Romita Jr.'s "The Men of Tomorrow" story line, pitting the iconic DC Comics superhero vs. the powerful Ulysses in a conflict that's as physical as it is emotional. Plus, the issue ends with Superman adding an ability to his extraordinary skill set, rocking a subtle yet streamlined and fresh new look, and dealing with something that's never happened in the character's 77-year history. They all combine to send him "in ways that we haven't seen in a long, long time" and radically change Superman "while staying true to who he is in a bizarre way," Johns says. The aftermath "just fundamentally has the character asking certain questions he hasn't asked himself and experiencing certain things he hasn't experienced." Superman's seen almost a mirrored image in Ulysses, who like Clark Kent's own Kryptonian origins was sent away for his own good by his parents before meeting certain doom. After being raised in another dimension, Ulysses has returned to Earth, reunited with his thought-dead mom and dad, and befriended Superman. However, it's been a ploy of sorts to sacrifice millions of humans to fuel Ulysses' new home. And when Superman prevents that from happening, then it's time for a throwdown of superpowered fisticuffs. The story arc has been all about bringing optimism front and center with Superman — his attitude and not his futurism or abilities were the main reason for the title "Men of Tomorrow," according to Johns. "He believes tomorrow will be better, he believes we have the capability to do that within us, and that's a huge power," the Justice League scribe explains. "The power of hope and faith and trust in mankind and our innate nature is very compelling, especially because it's from Superman. "He has a very different perspective being who he is and doing what he does and growing up the way he did that John and I wanted to make the most important thing to the character." Johns feels there's a struggle and reality that comes with that, but it's also about Superman embodying that goodness and being an inspiration — with action and words affecting people, but not so much where he gets on his high horse and lectures people. It has to be through a natural extension of who he is and what he's doing, and it's tricky to balance that because the one thing the writer doesn't want is preachy Superman. Some past stories in his history have put him in a position of authority, but Johns doesn't even think Superman sees himself as that most of the time, he says. "Clark Kent hiding behind the glasses and the way he grew up, I do think there's a reluctance to the character he breaks through because he has to do it and he's the only one who can do certain things." Superman has looked out for Ulysses because he sees a lot of himself in this new figure, and while he's raised differently, his goals aren't the same and he's done horrible things, Ulysses is not an evil guy at all, according to Johns. "Where he comes from, there's just a different morality, to support utopia and highly intelligent evolved life forms, from their perception they fuel it with what they perceive as lower evolved species," the writer says. "I think a lot of people actually have that attitude as elitism and prejudice, and Ulysses grew up in that environment." The Man of Steel unleashes a very destructive new power in the pages of the new "Superman" comic. (Photo11: John Romita Jr./DC Comics) The story climaxes in the new issue with the consequences of what Ulysses tried to do and how Superman has to stop him, and with that comes the development of a new power — adding to the super strength, X-ray vision, heat vision, flying, etc. — that is an extension of the Man of Steel's physiology. Whether it's a net positive or negative for the character "depends on your point of view," Johns teases. "It's definitely the most destructive power Superman has. And he's not exactly excited about it because it is so dangerous and there are consequences. "It's not going to be suddenly he can levitate things," he adds. "It's something that is going to be very unstable and something that Superman's going to have to deal with for quite a while." In addition to the daunting task of creating a new power and the joy of working with "a master storyteller" in Romita — the new issue features the artist's take on Batman for the first time and Romita has a solo story in March's Superman No. 40 — Johns admits he's most liked having Superman open up in an honest fashion to people like Ulysses and Daily Planet regulars Jimmy Olsen and Perry White. The writer, who had an Action Comics run in the 2000s with artist Gary Frank, finds Superman far more interesting than people give him credit for, and likes to sit down and look at his entire history before figuring out where to take him next. "That's where Ulysses came from is reading everything they had done" since DC's line-wide "New 52" relaunch in 2011, Johns notes, "and saying, 'OK, this is what I think the character hasn't experienced yet emotionally and could learn something or change or grow or be challenged by something emotionally they haven't been before.' "It's the emotional core of that story line for Superman, where he ends up in this, that was kind of eye-opening and new." <!--iframe--> Read or Share this story: http://usat.ly/1CT2pAaArdussi, John Albert. 1972. 'Brug-pa Kun-legs, the Saintly Tibetan Madman. Master's Thesis, University of Washington. Ardussi, John and Lawrence Epstein. 1978. "The Saintly Madman in Tibet" in James F. Fischer (ed.) Himalayan Anthropology: The Indo-Tibetan Interface, pp. 327-338. The Hague: Mouton. Dge 'dun rin chen. 1971. 'Brug pa kun legs kyi rnam thar rgya mtsho'i snying po mthong ba don ldan. Kalimpong: Dge 'dun rin chen. TBRC W4CZ1097. Divalerio, David. 2011. "Subversive Sainthood and Tantric Fundamentalism: An Historical Study of Tibet's Holy Madmen." Ph.D diss. University of Virginia. Dowman, Keith and Sonam Paljor. 1983. The Divine Madman: The Sublime Life and Songs of Drukpa Kunle. Clearlake: Dawn Horse Press. Kun dga' legs pa. 1978. 'Brug pa kun dga' legs pa'i rnam thar dang nyams mgur dang zhal gdams sogs. Darjeeling: Kargyud sungrab nyamso khang. TBRC W1KG10253. Kun dga' legs pa. 2005. Rnal 'byor pa'i ming can kun dga' legs pa'i rnam thar byung tshul lhug par smras pa zhib mo'i rtsing mo ha le ho le sna zin spu zin nas bkod pa. In 'Brug pa kun legs kyi rnam thar, pp. 1-271. Lhasa: Bod ljongs mi dmangs dpe skrun khang. TBRC W29517. Kun dga' legs pa. 2005. Rnal 'byor gyi dbang phyug chen po kun dga' legs pa'i rnam thar gsung 'bum rgya mtsho las dad pa'i ku shas chu thigs tsam blangs pa ngo mtshar bdud rtsi'i zil mngar. In 'Brug pa kun legs kyi rnam thar, pp. 272-399. Lhasa: Bod ljongs mi dmangs dpe skrun khang TBRC W29517. Kun dga' legs pa. 2005. Rnal 'byor pa'i ming can kun dga' legs pa'i nyams la shar ba'i 'phral gyi chos spyod 'dra dang nyams 'char ci byung ma byung bris pa skyag gtad gang yang med pa 'ga' zhig. In 'Brug pa kun legs kyi rnam thar, pp. 400-521. Lhasa: Bod ljongs mi dmangs dpe skrun khang. TBRC W29517. Kun dga' legs pa. 2005. Rnal 'byor gyi dbang phyug kun dga' legs pa'i gsung 'bum 'thor bu. In 'Brug pa kun legs kyi rnam thar, pp. 522-529. Lhasa: Bod ljongs mi dmangs dpe skrun khang. TBRC W29517. Kun dga' legs pa. 2005. Chos rje kun legs pas rang gi rang bzhin sgro btags med pa snying dang 'dra ba'i bu la gdams pa'i mgur rnam. In 'Brug pa kun legs kyi rnam thar, pp. 259-262. Lhasa: Bod ljongs mi dmangs dpe skrun khang. TBRC W29517. Another edition of this text is TBRC W1CZ1980. Mi nyag mgon po, et. al. 1996-2000. 'Brug pa kun legs kyi rnam thar mdor bsdus. In Gangs can mkhas dbang rim byon gyi rnam thar mdor bsdus, vol. 1, pp. 217-225. Beijing: Krung go'i bod kyi shes rig dpe skrun khang. TBRC W25268. Mi pham tshe dbang bstan 'dzin. 1973. 'Brug pa kun legs kyi rnam thar mon spa gro sogs kyi mdzad spyod. Delhi. TBRC W1CZ4690. Smith, E. Gene (as Jamyang Namgyal). 1973. "Vie et chants de 'Brug-pa kun-legs le yogin: a review". Kailash: A Journal of Himalayan Studies, vol. 1, no. 1-4, pp. 91-99. Stein, Rolf Auriel. 1972. Vie et Chants de 'Brug pa Kun-legs le yogin. Paris: G. P. Maisonneuve et Larose.The Israeli newspaper Haaretz mysteriously removed from its website an article exposing atrocious Israeli racism against black people just hours after it was published. The article by David Sheen – a copy of which was made by The Electronic Intifada before Haaretz deleted it – reported on a rally by Israeli Jews on Sunday in Tel Aviv against African immigrants, demanding that they be sent home because Israel is a “Jewish state.” The rally was addressed by Michael Ben-Ari, a member of the Israeli parliament from the National Union party which also favors expelling Palestinians. We have come to expunge the darkness The deleted article stated: The demonstrators chanted “The people demand the expulsion of the infiltrators,” “We have come to expunge the darkness,” and “Tel Aviv is for Jews, Sudan is for Sudanese.” Ben Ari criticized Prime Minister Netanyahu for allowing African migrants to remain in the county after they had already entered in recent years. He called Netanyahu’s cabinet “the blackest government ever for Tel Aviv.” Shocking video of hate rally Video taken at the rally and posted on YouTube by Sheen, shows some of the vile racism, including by Knesset member Michael Ben-Ari. Protesters can be heard chanting such slogans as, “Sudanese to Sudan, Tel Aviv is for Jews” and “Their place
in a recent interview. Instead of one server with a game loop and geographical control over one area—a server which can't take a lot of load or handle interesting behaviour—we have a swarm of processors that live and die as and when they're needed. These orchestrate together without a game loop, without a central controller, to model and simulate a world, and it just scales, because you have a swarm of these things. Now, instead of a single game engine you have thousands of these workers that are able to collaborate on the fly, in milliseconds, to congregate within a space in the gameworld, and do work that simulates the world. We're able to siphon off different things, like physics, AI, whatever, to things that are very good at doing that kind of work. Instead of a central authoritative loop, which is how games and simulations are traditionally made, think of it as a big swarm or orchestra of processors. It's all very similar to another game that promised the world: No Man's Sky. There's the groundbreaking tech, the scale that seems beyond the reach of the small indie team handling development, and the mystery surrounding the core gameplay loop. Well, sort of. Worlds Adrift does have a beta players can register for, and I've at least some idea of what you can do outside of ship construction and grappling. With a ship built you're free to cross the world as you see fit, either solo or as a team. Joining up with players to form a crew gives you the advantage of teamwork when it comes to sailing through the sky, and as a group you can take greater risks. Other ships might try to attack and plunder the materials you've used to build your ship, but as a crew you can make use of everything the ship has to offer. One person can concentrate on piloting, while another can man the guns, all the while someone else is making repairs and another is acting as lookout. Keeping your ship intact is key to survival. Many islands are blocked by huge storms, and flying into them causes enormous damage to your ship. Within two minutes of entering one during a demo my engines had fallen off and I'd lost rudder control, the vessel spinning violently before eventually dropping out of the sky to its death. I managed to glide out of the storm using a wing suit, but I was essentially marooned on an island until I could build a new ship. The idea is that you travel between islands in to find new components to buff your ship, and give you the best chance of making it through the storm gate and on to the next set of islands. Having a crew here is important, too, as constant repairs are needed given the volume of lightning strikes you're likely to encounter. Conversely, you might opt to forego the travelling angle entirely. It's entirely likely that visionary members of the community will find satisfaction in building vessels for others. A player might want to concentrate on exploration and combat, but that means he or she has the time or inclination to build a ship. Those same creative individuals might decide they want to see different places and hop aboard a ship that they originally built, piloted by someone with the kind of skills required to pass through a storm safely—skills the creator hasn't taken the time to learn. The creator side has been expanded from the original design, to allow you to build a ship from the ground up, giving you full control over the core geometry as opposed to simply providing blocks to connect. Wireframe models can be altered in any way you desire, so that you can design ships that are unique to your needs. Maybe you want a flying fortress that can house huge numbers of players, foregoing island life for a nomadic commune. Alternatively, a small, fast scout ship for one might be more your style. Of course, plenty of people are going to want to recreate their favourite vehicles from Star Wars, Star Trek et al. One of the most interesting things about allowing players complete freedom to design something is how the community is going to react to the presence of these ships. Once the ship is in the world it's fair game for everyone, meaning it could be stolen by someone enamoured with what you've built. This form of tangible, dare I say "emergent," gameplay is the most exciting thing about Worlds Adrift, persistent online world included. Your personal story isn't built around abstract values assigned to your health, speed, or magic, it's built around what you've seen and done. The value you have as a player comes down to what you've explored, how good a builder you are, what advice you can give to others, how well you can grapple to reach isolated places, what your skills as a pilot are like, and more. It's likely that you're going to have a natural skill in at least one of these areas and, as such, you're a valued part of the community from day one. This is unlike a traditional MMO, in which you're a n00b until you've spent the hundreds of hours required to level up to the point where you're of value to the dedicated player base. Any unique take on a successful genre is going to be met with caution from the core players, of course, but it's through rewriting the rulebook that progress is made. No matter what level of success Worlds Adrift goes on to have, I hope that its goals as a game spark brave new ways of thinking about what an MMO can be. Worlds Adrift will be released for Windows PCs at some nebulous point in the future. There is currently no release date.Two members of Congress called on NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell to take a formal position in support of a name change for the Washington Redskins. Ezra Shaw/Getty Images Two members of Congress sent a letter to National Football League Commissioner Roger Goodell on Monday imploring the sports league to abandon the controversial name of the Washington, D.C., team, the Redskins, and hinting that the NFL’s tax-exempt status could be in jeopardy. The Redskins’ 80-year-old name came under renewed fire last year, with civil rights groups, including the National Congress of American Indians (NCAI) calling it degrading and racist — despite Goodell’s repeated assertion that the name is an honorific. “The NFL can no longer ignore this and perpetuate the use of this name as anything but what it is: a racial slur," Sen. Maria Cantwell, D-Wash., and Rep. Tom Cole, R-Okla., wrote in the letter. “The National Football League is on the wrong side of history.” Cantwell, the chairwoman of the Senate Committee on Indian Affairs, and Cole, a member of the Native American caucus, also hinted at the possibility that the team’s refusal to consider a name change could affect the league’s tax-exempt status. Despite accruing billions in annual revenue, the NFL is classified as a trade organization and therefore tax exempt. “It is not appropriate for this multibillion dollar 501(c)(6) tax-exempt organization to perpetuate and profit from the continued degradation of tribes and Indian people,” Cantwell and Cole wrote. Cantwell expanded on that possibility on Sunday, when a copy of the letter was released, in an interview with The New York Times. “You’re getting a tax break for educational purposes, but you’re still embracing a name that people see as a slur and encouraging it,” she said. The Washington Redskins dismissed the letter in an emailed statement to Al Jazeera on Monday. “With all the important issues Congress has to deal with such as a war in Afghanistan to deficits to health care, don’t they have more important issues to worry about than a football team’s name?” the statement read. “And given the fact that the name of (Cole's home state of) Oklahoma means ‘red people’ in Choctaw, this request is a little ironic.”When a professional footballer enters the twilight years of their playing career, more care has to go into keeping the body at peak physical condition. For John Terry it is no different, and the Aston Villa captain has shared some snaps of him practising his yoga moves... in the middle of the club's media room! Just metres from where Steve Bruce takes his weekly press conference at the training ground, the tables and chairs were moved aside as Terry was joined by yoga instructor Ambra Vallo. John Terry is guided into position by well-known yoga instructor Ambra Vallo this week Terry took his yoga session just metres from where Steve Bruce holds his press conferences The Aston Villa captain will be keen to keep in shape as he heads towards his 37th birthday The room at Villa's training ground is more used to seeing manager Bruce face the media The well-known coach, who herself has nearly 11,000 followers on Instagram, put Terry through his paces, with the 36-year-old posting five snaps from the session. Last season, the former England captain only played a bit-part role at Chelsea, watching on from the bench as his team-mates secured the Premier League title. This time around, he is front and centre and has already played five games in the Championship, starting every one of Villa's league fixtures so far. Therefore, Terry will have a stronger need to stay fit and healthy, and has moved to ensure he is in good shape for a promotion push. A few hours after the session, the defender posted a snap of his breakfast, too - yet more proof of him staying healthy. The ex-Chelsea man had two poached eggs on toast, with a side of avocado and a cup of coffee. Terry also posted a picture of his breakfast - poached eggs on toast with a side of avocado Defender Terry uses a rope to stretch his body out ahead of a return to action at the weekend The Chelsea legend appeared to be concentrating hard as he performed his yoga moves Terry's yoga coach Ambra Vallo is well-known on Instagram and has almost 11,000 followers So far this season, the Villans have only recorded one win in the Championship though, and they will hope for a turnaround now that the transfer window has shut. Bruce brought in Robert Snodgrass, on loan from West Ham, to bolster his midfield, and they host Brentford this weekend. Terry is expected to start at centre back in the game at Villa Park, and he will surely be fighting fit after his impressive yoga moves in the week. The chairs will likely be back in place now as Bruce prepares to face questions from the pressBallina nursing home deaths: Megan Haines guilty of murdering two patients with fatal insulin dose Updated A nurse has been found guilty of murdering two elderly women at a nursing home on the New South Wales far north coast. Megan Haines killed 82-year-old Marie Darragh and Isabella Spencer, 77, who were found dead at St Andrews Village nursing home in Ballina in May 2014. The court had previously heard both women were injected with a lethal dose of insulin hours after Haines found out they had lodged complaints against her. It also heard that Haines, while watching a crime show with her former partner, had boasted about using insulin to kill a person without being detected. When giving evidence, the nurse, who pleaded not guilty to the murders, told the jury she could not remember the conversation. However, she said she would sometimes discuss her nursing knowledge while watching similar TV shows. The trial also heard that on the night before the victims died, Haines had been informed that she was the subject of several patient complaints. She was questioned in detail about her movements at the nursing home on the night the women were killed, including which patients were given medication and when. Haines said on the night of the deaths, she entered Ms Darragh's room, with another staff member after they heard noises. The jurors took four hours to reach their verdict in the NSW Supreme Court. As the verdict was handed down, Haines showed no reaction. Verdict will help heal pain: Nursing home CEO The CEO of St Andrew's Village Phillip Carter said he hoped the outcome would provide comfort to the victims' families. "Today's guilty verdict in the murder of two of our former residents is an important step in the healing process for our victims' family," Mr Carter said. "Our thoughts and prayers are with the Darragh and Spencer families who have had to endure [the] pain and grief of losing loved ones in distressing circumstances and the subsequent burden of a trial." Mr Carter added that he maintained full confidence in his staff. At the hearing Haines' defence lawyer applied for a delay in sentencing proceedings so a psychological assessment could be completed. A sentencing hearing was scheduled for December 7. Topics: murder-and-manslaughter, crime, law-crime-and-justice, courts-and-trials, ballina-2478, nsw First postedWhen a Brooklyn man was attacked with a broken bottle in a Manhattan bar over his “Make America Great Again” hat, fellow Trump supporter Dr. Joseph Pober had his back — and his face. The Park Avenue plastic surgeon was so troubled by the July 7 beatdown that he fixed Jovanni Valle’s face for free. “This is something that had to be done. When I heard about this I was shocked,” Pober told The Post. “It’s freedom of speech that is being attacked and assaulted. … I can’t imagine that anyone in America would viciously assault you, break your nose and slice your face with a broken beer bottle.” Valle, an uninsured 26-year-old right-wing activist also known as “Jovi Val,” was bashed over the head with the bottle during a 3:30 a.m. brawl at the Bulgarian bar Mehanata on the Lower East Side. Pober said he saw Valle a few days after he was treated in the ER, where he received 15 stitches. Pober’s office manager had spotted an online video of Valle’s plight and alerted the doctor. “I evaluated him and I felt that he had a severe injury of his nose and there was a blood clot underneath the suturing of his cheek and that had to be drained,” Pober said. On July 14 he performed surgery which reduced the nose fracture, drained the cheek and re-sutured the laceration, “which was gaping open.” Pober said Valle needs two more surgeries, but he will gladly cover the costs. His office estimates he’s already provided $30,000 in medical services. Valle said he was “overcome” by Pober’s gesture. “I just couldn’t believe it, I was astonished,” he said. “When you think of plastic surgery you never think of free. You think of thousands and thousands of dollars.” Valle said he hit Mehanata with about 15 friends after attending a book party for Milo Yiannopoulos’ “Dangerous” tome. “I wear my hat because I want to make America great again like the president,” he said. “I like Trump because he doesn’t sugarcoat anything. A hat that says ‘America’ and ‘great’ on it shouldn’t be polarizing. This is a political hate crime. I got attacked for what I think.” Valle said he was grooving to a 1980s breakdance tune when “my hat fell off.” He said bar patron Emma Rodriguez “repeatedly” stepped on the Trump hat and when he “finally” said, ‘That’s enough, what are you doing?’ she said, ‘I hate this hat, I hate you.’” Valle said that when he placed his hand on her shoulder, Rodriguez’ boyfriend, Leonardo Heinert, 25, attacked him from behind. The criminal complaint says Heinert “repeatedly punched” Valle and Rodriguez, 24, “smashed a bottle” over his head. Cops charged the couple with assault, and both were released without bail, records show. Valle was also arrested for misdemeanor assault, but the Manhattan DA “declined to prosecute,” a DA spokeswoman said. Just three weeks earlier Valle was one of two protesters who disrupted the final performance of the Public Theater’s anti-Trump rendition of “Julius Caesar.” He was charged with trespassing and disorderly conduct after storming the stage and shouting, “Liberal hate kills!”The combination of giant robots, giant monsters, and Guillermo Del Toro had already set fan expectations high for his 2013 film, Pacific Rim. Then the trailer came out. Instantly everyone realized that this is the director going bigger, badder, and more bombastic than we’ve ever seen him do before, which is saying a lot. MTV sat down with the director to go over his brand new trailer and provide some context to all the scenes. It’s a great way to digest footage that, if you’re like me, you’ve probably watched more than a few times in the last 24 hours. Tons and tons of new information is presented here, including Del Toro calling this trailer “Howard’s End” compared to what we’ll see next summer. Check it out below. Thanks to MTV for this video. Be aware, Del Toro does give a bunch of potential spoilers here. Pacific Rim, starring Charlie Hunnam, Idris Elba, Rinko Kikuchi, Charlie Day and Ron Perlman, opens July 12. Here’s the synopsis.Fifteen people were injured after a man hurled Molotov cocktails on a Samba parade in Tokyo before hanging himself. 15 hurt as man launches Molotov cocktail attack on Tokyo festival before hanging himself https://t.co/vVqhnqqk0A pic.twitter.com/hhH4zYirql — The Sun (@TheSun) August 8, 2016 The parade had been organised in the Japanese capital to celebrate the start of the Rio Olympics. The man in his 60s was later found hanged in his flat in the Suginami ward today after a fire broke out in the crowded parade. People injured ranged from one to 47 years old as the bottles rained down on the parade, The Japan Times reports. Some of the bottles were allegedly attached to gas canisters. The festival was being held near Fujimigaoka Station with the attack causing panic amongst the watching spectators as bottles shattered when hey hit the street. Kenji Yoda, 58, who was watching the parade said: “I looked up at the residence and saw the man holding a bottle and a gas burner. “He disappeared soon afterward. I know him. "He was usually quiet and never caused any trouble.” Reportedly none of the dancers were injured during the attack. A 45-year-old man watching the parade with his family saw three bottles getting chucked out of a third floor window and falling behind the Samba dancers, bursting into flames has they shattered on the street. This story first appeared in The Sun.HORST SEEHOFER, premier of Bavaria, sums up German attitudes to the European Central Bank (ECB). Based in Frankfurt, but run by Mario Draghi, an Italian, the ECB said on September 4th that it would cut its interest rate to 0.05% and start buying asset-backed securities from banks to get them to lend. By opening the money tap, taking on debt and buying “junk”, Mr Seehofer told Bild, Germany’s biggest tabloid, the ECB frightens people. “It must be our job to criticise these policies.” Get our daily newsletter Upgrade your inbox and get our Daily Dispatch and Editor's Picks. Like others on the centre-right, Mr Seehofer frets that a new anti-euro party, the Alternative for Germany, will poach voters by bashing the ECB. The Alternative has just got into its first state parliament and may get into two more on September 14th. But scepticism about the ECB is growing across the country. Hans-Werner Sinn, boss of Munich’s Ifo Institute and an economist, echoes Mr Seehofer: the ECB has “cut interest rates by too much”; and it is not authorised to buy bonds “as this is a fiscal and not a monetary-policy measure. Such a policy would be at the expense of European taxpayers, who would have to pay for the losses incurred by the ECB.” Mainstream views in Germany are diverging from those elsewhere in the euro zone and in Anglo-Saxon countries. The world outside Germany is afraid of deflation. Germans, however, worry that cheap money could lead eventually to inflation. This may be surprising, since prices in the euro zone are rising by only 0.3% a year, far below the ECB’s 2% target. But inflation fears have been etched into the German psyche since the hyperinflation of 1922-23. Many are cross that cheap money is crushing interest rates on savings accounts and capital life-insurance policies, a common form of retirement planning. Real returns on such savings are laughable, just when greying Germans need them. Low rates may boost shares and property, but ordinary Germans shun such assets. One argument they use against low rates, indeed, is that they create asset bubbles. But the roots of German scepticism are more fundamental, argues Marcel Fratzscher, head of the German Institute for Economic Research in Berlin, in a forthcoming book, “The Germany Illusion”. Anglo-Saxon economists are guided by the utilitarian philosophy of John Stuart Mill or Jeremy Bentham, asking merely if a policy works. Germans side with Immanuel Kant, believing that nothing works except through law, and are horrified when the ECB strays from its narrow mandate. Germans felt it was doing this in 2012 when Mr Draghi announced that the ECB would, under certain conditions, buy the bonds of euro countries in crisis. Outside Germany, this is considered the most effective step in the euro crisis to date. Inside Germany, it is seen as illegal. The ECB would indirectly finance governments when it may only manage the money supply, ruled the German constitutional court in February (though it referred the issue up to the European Court of Justice). Buying asset-backed securities from banks is, by this logic, another step in the wrong direction. Worse, Germans fear (and Mr Draghi would not deny) that it could lead to “quantitative easing”: printing money to buy bonds. “Breaking the rules destroys trust,” warns Ralph Brinkhaus, a Bundestag member from the centre-right party of Chancellor Angela Merkel. And it sends the wrong message to crisis countries, he adds, by reducing the pressure on them to reform.When his daughter Hagar graduated from high school, Mahmoud Hussein clipped articles from newspapers about universities from the confines of his prison cell. He wanted to be there for Hagar as she was about to embark on a new journey - higher education, and inform her of the best choices. "When I visited, I found that he'd made a list of universities that are suitable for her," says Zahra Hussein, Hagar's sister. At 23 years old, Zahra is the second oldest of Hussein's nine children. Wednesday marks one year since Egypt arrested the Al Jazeera journalist, who is now 51 years old having celebrated a recent birthday at Cairo's Tora prison. To date, Hussein has not been formally charged. "We're all unable to adjust," says Zahra. "The house is dead. Dad is under arrest, so there is no happiness coming in." An Egyptian national who was based in Qatar, Hussein was stopped and questioned for 15 hours by authorities, after travelling to Cairo on holiday last December 20. He was accused of "incitement against state institutions and broadcasting false news with the aim of spreading chaos", allegations he, his lawyers and Al Jazeera strongly deny. He is in poor physical and mental condition and is being denied adequate medical treatment. After he fractured his arm last summer, officials refused to let Hussein undergo surgery or have his cast changed. Human rights groups say there are currently around 60,000 political prisoners in Egypt, many of whom have disappeared. There are at least 20 journalists currently languishing in Egyptian prisons, according to a new report from the Committee to Protect Journalists. "I go through many phases of depression, and then I feel that I can't continue," says Zahra, who has adopted the role of family caretaker since her father's arrest. As Hussein was being branded a "terrorist who works for Al Jazeera" by Egypt's media, her bosses sacked her, saying they could not risk keeping her employed. She now works from home as a freelance translator. "I never wanted to be placed in this terrifying situation. I've always had this comforting idea that dad's here. If any problem arises, dad will solve it." As part of his imprisonment, Hussein spent around three months in solitary confinement before being moved to a cell with other prisoners. At the time of his arrest, Sherif Mansour of CPJ said: "Egyptian authorities are waging a systematic campaign against Al Jazeera, consisting of arbitrary arrest, censorship, and systematic harassment." Al Jazeera Media Network has said it "rejects all the baseless allegations against Hussein, and condemns the unfair detention, in addition to obtaining false confessions by force. Furthermore, the network holds the Egyptian authorities responsible for Hussein's safety and well-being". 'We are still convinced he is with us' Hussein is the oldest of nine siblings and hails from a village within the Giza governorate. The first member of his family to attend school, he has two degrees from Cairo University - one in political science, and another in law. "I loved school very much," he told Al Jazeera in a March 2016 interview for an internal staff magazine. "I used to be top of my class through high school." In 1988, Hussein started his journalism career as politics editor with the Cairo-based Sawt al-Arab Radio (Voice of Arabs Radio). He later became a broadcaster at the station. During his years in radio, he also worked for several research centres in Egypt. He joined the state-run Nile TV in 1997 as a political affairs correspondent, before later being promoted as the channel's head of correspondents. He spent years in Palestine where he interviewed Yasser Arafat, former chairman of the Palestine Liberation Organisation (PLO), and covered major events such as Israel's withdrawal from the Gaza Strip in 2006. He then worked with several Arabic news channels, eventually becoming Sudan TV's Cairo bureau chief. During those years, Hussein also taught at the Radio and Television Institute in Cairo, giving courses on news production and editing. In 2010, Hussein joined Al Jazeera's Cairo bureau as a correspondent, after freelancing for the network. He covered Egypt's 2011 revolution which toppled former President Hosni Mubarak and the events that followed, up until the closing of Al Jazeera's Cairo bureau in 2013. He then moved to Al Jazeera's headquarters in Doha, where he worked as a news producer. Hussein is someone "who knows how news is made", says Majed Khedr, his manager in Doha. Sitting in Al Jazeera Arabic's bustling newsroom, Khedr remembers Hussein's ability to lighten the mood in a stressful work environment. "What is unique about Mahmoud is his fun spirit. He has a good sense of humour," Khedr says. "He always brought food, and it was usually Egyptian food …This was Mahmoud's spirit, God bless him. "His name is still in our daily work schedule because we are still convinced he is with us." Anas Zaki, a news editor at Al Jazeera Arabic, described Hussein as someone who "was always there for his friends". The pair studied at university together and have been friends for more than 30 years. If someone called Hussein in distress late at night, he would rush to their house and "never make him feel like he sacrificed his sleep or comfort", Zaki says. Despite all my attempts, I feel like I can't do anything for dad... I feel like if he was outside and I was inside [prison], he would have easily solved it. Zahra Hussein, Mahmoud Hussein's daughter According to Zahra Hussein, her father has expressed fears about his parents dying while he's in prison. His mother suffers from heart complications. Weekly visits are restricted to three people. With a large number of siblings and children, this means some relatives must wait months to see Hussein. "Despite all my attempts, I feel like I can't do anything for dad," says Zahra. "I feel like if he was outside and I was inside [prison], he would have easily solved it. "I put my faith in God, but I mostly feel desperate."A-MEI-ZING FREE SHIPPING Everyone who's ever played Blizzard Entertainment's popular multiplayer first-person shooter game Overwatch will know of the cute, sweet looking girl whom you probably don't want to be seeing on the enemy team. With theEndothermic Blaster in her hands, she will freeze you in place before shooting an ice block between your eyes. Love her or hate her, there is no denying that her adorable personality will makes you forgive her after some time even if she puts up a wall in your face!Joining the Nendoroid family like Tracer previously did, Mei's Classic Skin Edition will keep you cool in the heat of the battle! She comes with her fearsome Endothermic Blaster which you could attach an effect part as if she's firing out the stream of frost, and that same effect part can be used on top of the included transparent sheet for when her Blizzard ultimate ability is ready! Snowball can be used attached to her portable cyrotank, on its own special stand for Mei to pat pat pat on it, or on top of the frost effect part for her ultimate! Mei also comes with an alternate smiling face plate to recreate her "Yaaaaay!" emote in-game. Be sure to use it to captureNendoroid Tracer in her Blizzard AOE! It's nothing personal.For every lover of Overwatch, this is a collection piece that you don't want to miss out on. For a limited time during pre-order period only, you can even enjoy anoffer when you put her into your team! Remember, the world is worth fighting for!P.S. Good Smile Company~ Sorry, sorry sorry sorry, but we want her Ice Wall too!Abstract In response to a peripheral infection, innate immune cells produce pro-inflammatory cytokines that act on the brain to cause sickness behaviour. When activation of the peripheral immune system continues unabated, such as during systemic infections, cancer or autoimmune diseases, the ensuing immune signalling to the brain can lead to an exacerbation of sickness and the development of symptoms of depression in vulnerable individuals. These phenomena might account for the increased prevalence of clinical depression in physically ill people. Inflammation is therefore an important biological event that might increase the risk of major depressive episodes, much like the more traditional psychosocial factors. Anyone who has experienced a viral or bacterial infection knows what it means to feel sick. The behaviour of sick people changes dramatically; they often feel feverish and nauseated, ignore food and beverages, and lose interest in their physical and social environments. They tire easily and their sleep is often fragmented. In addition, they feel depressed and irritable, and can experience mild cognitive disorders ranging from impaired attention to difficulties in remembering recent events. Despite their negative impact on well-being, these symptoms of sickness are usually ignored. They are viewed as uncomfortable but banal components of infections1. Sickness is a normal response to infection, just as fear is normal in the face of a predator. It is characterized by endocrine, autonomic and behavioural changes and is triggered by soluble mediators that are produced at the site of infection by activated accessory immune cells. These mediators are known as pro-inflammatory cytokines, and include interleukin-1α and β (IL-1α and IL-1β), tumour necrosis factor-α (TNF-α) and interleukin-6 (IL-6). They coordinate the local and systemic inflammatory response to microbial pathogens. However, these peripherally produced cytokines also act on the brain to cause the aforementioned behavioural symptoms of sickness. Recently, it has been suggested that ‘sickness behaviour’2,3, a term used to describe the drastic changes in subjective experience and behaviour that occur in physically ill patients and animals, is an expression of a previously unrecognized motivational state. It is responsible for re-organizing perceptions and actions to enable ill individuals to cope better with an infection4. During the last five years, it has been established that pro-inflammatory cytokines induce not only symptoms of sickness, but also true major depressive disorders in physically ill patients with no previous history of mental disorders. Some of the mechanisms that might be responsible for inflammation-mediated sickness and depression have now been elucidated. These findings suggest that the brain–cytokine system, which is in essence a diffuse system, is the unsuspected conductor of the ensemble of neuronal circuits and neurotransmitters that organize physiological and pathological behaviour. In this Review we discuss how the brain engenders sickness behaviour in response to peripheral infections. We then review the evidence that pro-inflammatory cytokines can also trigger the development of depression in vulnerable individuals, and the possible underlying mechanisms. Finally, we discuss how these actions of cytokines in the brain might have a role in at least part of the increased prevalence of depression in people with physical illness5. Immune signals from periphery to brain The brain has long been considered an ‘immune-privileged’ organ but this immune status is far from absolute and varies with age and brain region6. Moreover, the brain contains immune cells, such as macrophages and dendritic cells, which are present in the choroid plexus and meninges. Brain parenchymal macrophages, known as microglial cells, are more quiescent in comparison with other tissue macrophages but can respond to inflammatory stimuli by producing pro-inflammatory cytokines and prostaglandins. In addition, both neuronal and non-neuronal brain cells express receptors for these mediators7. The brain monitors peripheral innate immune responses by several means that act in parallel ( ). One pathway involves afferent nerves: locally produced cytokines activate primary afferent nerves, such as the vagal nerves during abdominal and visceral infections8,9 and the trigeminal nerves during oro-lingual infections10. In a second, humoral pathway, Toll-like receptors (TLRs) on macrophage-like cells residing in the circumventricular organs and the choroid plexus respond to circulating pathogen-associated molecular patterns by producing pro-inflammatory cytokines11. As the circumventricular organs lie outside the blood–brain barrier, these cytokines can enter the brain by volume diffusion12. A third pathway comprises cytokine transporters at the blood–brain barrier: pro-inflammatory cytokines overflowing in the systemic circulation can gain access to the brain through these saturable transport systems13. Finally, a fourth pathway involves IL-1 receptors that are located on perivascular macrophages and endothelial cells of brain venules14,15. Activation of these IL-1 receptors by circulating cytokines results in the local production of prostaglandin E2. Open in a separate window Engagement of these immune-to-brain communication pathways ultimately leads to the production of pro-inflammatory cytokines by microglial cells. This process requires the convergent action of two events with different time courses: the activation of the rapid afferent neural pathway, and a slower propagation of the cytokine message within the brain. Activation of the neural pathway ( ) probably sensitizes target brain structures for the production and action of cytokines that propagate from the circumventricular organs and the choroid plexus into the brain16. This way the brain forms an ‘image’ of the peripheral innate immune response that is similar in its elementary molecular components to the response in the periphery. The main difference is that this brain image does not involve an invasion of immune cells into the parenchyma and is not distorted by tissue damage that occurs at the site of infection. The brain circuitry that mediates the various behavioural actions of cytokines remains elusive ( ). The social withdrawal that characterizes cytokine-induced sickness behaviour is unlikely to be mediated by the same brain areas as those underlying other responses to infection such as reduced food consumption17 or activation of the hypothalamus–pituitary–adrenal axis18. Ultimately, the site of action of the cytokine message depends on the localization of cytokine receptors or receptors for intermediates such as prostaglandins E2. These cytokine receptors are difficult to visualize on membranes because the number of receptor sites per cell is very low19 and they are easily internalized. Nevertheless, IL-1 receptors were first localized in the granule cell layer of the dentate gyrus, the pyramidal cell layer of the hippocampus and the anterior pituitary gland20. More recently, they were identified in endothelial cells of brain venules throughout the brain, at a high density in the preoptic and supraoptic areas of the hypothalamus and the sub-fornical organ, and a lower density in the paraventricular hypothalamus, cortex, nucleus of the solitary tract and ventrolateral medulla14. Although the search for neuronal receptors currently dominates research in this field, the possibility of non-neuronal actions should not be neglected as cytokines potently modulate the functioning of endothelial and glial cells. Cytokines and sickness behaviour The main pro-inflammatory cytokines involved in sickness behaviour are IL-1β and TNF-α. Systemic administration of lipopolysaccharide (LPS) induces the expression of IL-1β and other pro-inflammatory cytokine mRNAs and proteins in the brain21–25. This expression occurs at doses of LPS that do not cause sepsis. Pharmacological experiments have amply demonstrated that systemic or central administration of IL-1β or TNF-α to rats and mice induces the full spectrum of behavioural signs of sickness in a dose- and time-dependent manner4. In general, animals injected with IL-1β or TNF-α stay in a corner of their home cage in a hunched posture and show little or no interest in their physical and social environment unless they are stimulated. Specifically, they show decreased motor activity, social withdrawal, reduced food and water intake, increased slow-wave sleep and altered cognition ( ). In addition, they often have increased pain sensitivity, although this can be followed by hypoalgesia at later stages of sickness. IL-1 in the brain also has a pivotal role in the occurrence of fatigue as assessed by decreased resistance to forced exercise on a treadmill26. Finally, IL-1β and TNF-α flatten the diurnal rhythm of activity by decreasing the expression of steady-state mRNAs for clock genes that control the amplitude but not the period of activity rhythms27,28. Open in a separate window In contrast to IL-1β and TNF-α, IL-6 administered systemically or centrally has no behavioural effect despite its ability to induce a fever response4. However, LPS-induced sickness behaviour and hippocampus-mediated cognitive impairment are less noticeable in IL-6-deficient mice than in wild-type controls29. This deficit is caused by a less marked expression of TNF-α and IL-1β in the brain in response to LPS29, indicating that brain IL-6 contributes to the expression of brain cytokines in response to immune stimuli. Anti-inflammatory cytokines regulate the intensity and duration of sickness behaviour, probably by inhibiting pro-inflammatory cytokine production and attenuating pro-inflammatory cytokine signalling30,31. In particular, central administration of IL-10 or insulin-like growth factor I (IGF-I), a growth factor that behaves like
we gave the device to immediately measured the length of his finger — a thing we take for granted.” One teacher, who had previously wondered how students who had yet to grasp fractions could use the caliper, called the team to tell them how thanks to it, her students are becoming fluent in fractions. Another teacher was glad her students now had a way to accurately measure liquids in a graduated cylinder. The success of the caliper has built excitement for Squirrel Devices’ next instrument, the Tactile Protractor, which is currently under development.Hey Guys! It's Brett & Eddy. We committed to sleeping on the streets and performing as street musicians, and did not stop until we hit our funding goal of $50,000 AUD. Busking at Pitt Street Mall, week 1 of campaign WHY ARE WE DOING THIS? We want to show that our generation cares about art, and that it can be crowdfunded by the people. This campaign represents a chapter in our broader mission of making classical music relevant to the modern generation. WHAT IS IT? We’ve already had our debut in Australia, and we want to bring our mission to the rest of the world. In the form of a world tour and CD album, our live show will break all your pre-conceived ideas of a classical music concert. With over 70 million views online, we decided to turn our viral classical comedy videos into one crazy recital! We spent all of 2016 thinking up ways to create not just a beautiful concert, but also an ENGAGING, EXHILARATING and DOWNRIGHT HILARIOUS experience. 3 days before our Sydney Opera House show Want to see TwoSet Violin tour to your country? Join the campaign! We have lined up a world tour in Europe, the UK, America and Asia. Hong Kong is not a part of this campaign because we have a special event there! Australia! We'll be back in 2018. OUR TARGET Help us reach our target of $50,000 AUD and we GUARANTEE 10 of these tours will take place. If we raise more than our target, we'll use the extra money to add more shows in more cities in more countries! This is where you come in! We want this to create the first crowdfunded classical music world tour. The classical music industry has always been heavily reliant on funding. But in recent years, decreasing funding has resulted in many orchestras and musicians struggling to survive. We believe crowdfunding may be an important solution for the future of classical music. We want to show that collectively, as a group, we can come together to support and create the future of the arts! The money will go directly towards flights, accommodation and operational costs (e.g. transport). Any excess will go towards better venues, technicians, staff and equipment. Don't have a credit card? Send your pledge via PayPal to hi@twosetviolin.com & put your reward choice in the memo! PLEDGE REWARDS Whilst you guys are welcome to just donate money to help make this happen for nothing in return, we’ve also come up with some EPIC rewards for you guys, in addition to our GUARANTEE that we’ll be touring your country in 2017 or 2018 if this campaign is a success. TwoSet Violin Album Let's talk about our FIRST STUDIO ALBUM! We'll be recording all the original compositions from our show, such as: the ‘super lit’ Concerto Battle, the Paganini Jingle Bells, the time travel variation, and much more. You can also expect to find popular Classical duets mixed in with other original TwoSet compositions! The album represents one more swing at the wall that separates Classical Music with the mainstream culture. Who knows? If we could introduce one more person to the world of Mahler, Brahms and Beethoven, we will be over the moon! Our very first nerve-racking show in Brisbane! Quick note about the show. We want to save the surprises for you, but some things you can definitely expect: - Brett and Eddy playing the violin - Comedy and dialogue suitable for all ages - Classical Music - An unforgettable experience, no matter if your young or old, a professional musician or a first-time concertgoer! Now we will leave the rest for your imagination until we see you there. Melbourne Kickstarter and other crowdfunding platforms are the voice for us creatives and artists to directly connect with you guys to produce content that means more to you! We will also be accountable for all the things we create and so this will definitely put a fire under our asses to challenge ourselves to continue producing the best show ever! TwoSet Exclusive Kickstarter T-shirt We've designed an exclusive world tour t-shirt that you won't be able to buy on our merch store. Our t-shirts are 100% cotton and made to last (we’ve worn ours for 2 years of sweaty practice and still no rips or holes). The 'Go Practice' Poster Never skip a day's practice again with our super motivational and awesome practice poster! Exclusive Kickstarter T-Shirt & 'Go Practice' Poster Violin, Viola or Cello case In collaboration with the Violin Channel, we are proud to also include high-quality cases by Tonareli for the violin, viola and cello. All made with the latest technology to ensure your 'bae' is protected while you are sleeping, eating & travelling. Some of the cases are in high demand so there is only a limited amount we can get a hold of! If you need a new case and want to support us, this is your chance – go go go! THANK YOU AND LET'S MAKE THIS DREAM A REALITY! THANK YOU TO OUR AMAZING TEAM Brooke, senpai, administrative manager Janelle, tour organizer Jenny, graphic designer Jordon, composer Connor, video editor Amanda, video editor Special thanks to Isabella (Instagram: @morekawaiithanu) for helping out with Kickstarter graphics! Our bodies were taken care of by the amazing Physio Dr. Peterson. Want more information about TwoSet? Visit our website.A Philadelphia police officer is under investigation after being caught on video hitting a woman after this weekend's Puerto Rican Day Parade. That officer, Lt. Jonathan Josey, 39, is assigned to Highway Patrol and is a 19 year veteran of the force. A source who has seen Josey's file tells Action News he has roughly 20 internal affairs complaints, some for allegedly being physically and verbally abusive. The video, which was shot after the Puerto Rican Day Parade on Sunday, was uploaded to YouTube the same day. The woman who was hit is Aida Gusman, a 39-year-old domestic worker and mother of three from Chester, Pa. The incident took place at 5th and Lehigh where a traditional after-party was taking place following the parade. Police had been called there for a man who was driving erratically. The video begins with a number of officers on the scene for the traffic stop. Gusman can be seen jumping behind the officers with something in her hand. A few moments into the video, an unidentified man behind Gusman throws a liquid at the gathered officers. Gusman turns around in that direction, as does Lt. Josey, who is wearing a white shirt. Lt. Josey then approaches Gusman and punches her in the face. As the video continues, Gusman is seen being taken away by police with blood on her face. Gusman was taken into custody on a disorderly conduct charge for throwing beer on police and was released. Gusman told Action News she went back to the party to reunite with her children. Gusman denies throwing anything at police and says he had no idea why she was punched. "I'm 40 years old. I don't have time to play games like that," Gusman said. Lt. Josey has been removed from street duty pending an Internal Affairs investigation. "We're just trying to get our arms around what happened in the response, beyond that, the rest is under investigation. We do not know whether there's something prior to that that would appear to justify his actions or after that, but right now, what we saw was a little disturbing," Philadelphia Police Deputy Commissioner Richard Ross said. Meanwhile, the Lewis family from Townsend, Delaware has emerged making other serious allegations against Lt. Josey. "He is out of control and I don't even know how he is on the street after what he did to us," James Lewis said. Lewis showed Action News photos of himself and two of his sons, bloody and bruised - they say at the hands of the highway patrol officer. Lewis says he was driving along Erie Avenue near D Street in his Bentley when Lt. Josey pulled him over last summer. His two sons were following behind in a pickup truck. "I asked the question 'what did I get pulled over for' and he said 'I know your kind,'" Lewis said. Lt. Josey allegedly called the 42-year-old a drug dealer, when in fact, Lewis owns several Philadelphia businesses, and neither he nor his sons have ever been convicted of a crime. Lewis says Josey quickly became belligerent, cursing, especially towards his two sons who watched the police stop from their vehicle. Lewis took offense and words were exchanged. "At that point, I'm like 'these are my kids, you are being a little forceful with them.' He pulls his asp out and proceeds to start beating me," Lewis said. Lewis says Josey then pulled his service weapon. "He said 'don't be a hero. I already got one under my belt. Don't be another,'" Lewis said. Lt. Josey likely was referring to the shooting death of an armed robber at 7-Eleven store in 2010. Lt. Josey has been on the force for 20 years. Sunday's punch was caught on camera, but as for the Lewis' allegations, they say Lt. Josey took their cell phones and haven't been seen since. "He sort of gave the Philadelphia Police Department a bad name," James Lewis II said. Lewis and his older son were charged with aggravated assault, simple assault and other related charges. The most serious crimes were thrown out by a judge for lack of evidence but have since been refiled. The outrage for Sunday's incident, meanwhile, continues to mount in the Puerto Rican community with some leaders vowing to not let this quietly go away even as Police Commissioner Charles Ramsey promises a full investigation. "I have seen the video several times and I'm just as outraged as everyone else in the community is," Quetcy Lozada, President of the Philadelphia Chapter of the National Conference of Puerto Rican Women, said. The Youtube video has now been viewed more than 200,000 times. "We hope that Commissioner Ramsey understands how upset everyone is and that a full investigation is done," Lozada said. Last week, Lt. Josey spoke to Action News about an unrelated story. The Philadelphia Police Department is asking anyone that attended the festivities and witnessed the incident on 5th and Lehigh Avenue to call Internal Affairs at 215-685-5056.If you are like me, you find your car time becoming less about music and more about podcasts. Christian Podcasts are a wonderful way to get plugged into news, entertainment, and culture in a relevant way. Not to mention the benefit of edification and learning. There are dozens upon dozens of gospel centered podcasts aimed at teaching and edification and it can be difficult to sort through them all. So, with that introduction, I present The Top 10 Christian Podcasts available today! I have links to all the websites below. There you can get more information on how you can access the podcast in the device/format that works best for you. 1) The Dividing Line – A podcast hosted by James White of Alpha and Omega Ministries. This podcast/webcast is a fantastic resource for Christian/Reformed apologetics and discussion. You will learn a lot from this podcast. (not to be confused with the Elevation Church podcast of the same name). 2) The Reformed Pubcast – This podcast is hosted by 2 guys named Les and Tanner. They discuss theology, craft beer, science, and culture. They have over 150 episodes at the time of this article and have a strong online community found in a Facebook Group called “The Reformed Pub” (it boasts over 17,000 members!). It’s a great place to ask questions and learn about more Reformed Theology. I will add they have great taste in beer, if you are into that sort of thing and looking for recommendations. 3) Doctrine and Devotion – Hosted by Jimmy Fowler and Joe Thorn this Christian podcast explores the Christian faith and practice from an experiential perspective. They are also never short on humor and/or wit. 4) The Reformed Outlook – This podcast is run by a couple guys named Matt and Wes. Like some of the others here, they are well equipped to discuss theology and current issues. Every episode is jam-packed with commentary that will make you think and laugh. Roll Tide! 5) Apologia Radio – This popular podcast is also accompanied by a TV Show. It’s hosted by the well-known Jeff Durbin, pastor of Apologia Church in Tempe, AZ. This podcast backs away from almost nothing – going head-to-head with important issues facing our culture today. – Run by Michael Horton with the tagline “For a Modern Reformation,” this long-running podcast finds its roots in 90’s with a radio show of the same name. There is enough thought-provoking material here to last you a long time. I also suggest you check out their publication, Modern Reformation Magazine 7) Mortification of Spin – Often referred to by its acronym, MOS, this podcast features three hosts Carl Trueman, Todd Pruitt, and Aimee Byrd. It’s a causal listen that intends (and succeeds!) in challenging its listeners with discussion over the ideas that the church faces today. It’s also highly recommended if you really like British accents. 8) Renewing Your Mind – No other podcast on this list has been more influential on my personal faith than this one by, R.C. Sproul. Like some others on this list, it started off as a radio show and has continued to develop and spread its reach into podcast form. You will not regret listening to a minute of what is offered here. 9) Sheologians – A newer podcast produced by Apologia Studios and aimed at women, this podcast goes right after the issues and theology facing women in our world today. 10) Grace to You – This Christian podcast is born out of the ministry (of the same name) from Pastor and theologian John MacArthur. Believe it or not, this ministry started in the late 60’s. There is no shortage of theological content. Few theologians and thinkers in our day offer such insight and ability to break down God’s word in a clear and edifying way. Honorable Mentions and other Christian Podcasts that are worth your time: Reformed Brotherhood, Ask Pastor John, Confessional Collective, Truth For Life, The Briefing, The Postmil Report. Did I miss your favorite christian podcast? Add a link below!Is she Tommy’s puppet? Does she really write her own songs? Why is she trying to sing Black? Wait…is she Black? Since the debut of “Vision of Love” 25 years ago, Mariah Carey’s perceived inauthenticity has frequently incited intense public scrutiny. From questions about her writing and producing chops, to questions about the hip hop influences in her music, to questions about her race, she’s always had to unnecessarily explain herself. And for a woman who came out of the gate breaking records by having her first five singles top the Billboard Hot 100 — and subsequently building a career of achievements that rival those of Elvis, The Beatles and Michael Jackson — the “Is she the real deal?” talk has always seemed unfair. “Me and Mariah go back like babies and pacifiers"-Fantasy (Bad Boy Remix) featuring O.D.B., 1995 When Mariah signed to Columbia in 1988, label head and future husband Tommy Mottola had a clear plan in mind for his new talent: make her the next larger-than-life female act — Columbia’s answer to Whitney Houston and Madonna, so to speak. With Mariah helming the songwriting duties — as she continues to do to this day — Mottola allocated a massive budget to executing his vision of a pop phenomenon. The best producers and songwriters were called in to collaborate with Mariah, and together, the husband and wife moved more than 60 million albums in the first four years of her career alone. But by 1995, Mariah grew desperate for more creative control. A major hip-hop fan, she was ready to incorporate more of those hard-edged, real-life musical influences into her work. “[Critics] don’t understand that I’m someone who grew up with this music. It’s exciting for me to be able to work with Jay Z or Nas or Missy Elliott,” Mariah told Newsweek in 1999. Enter the Bad Boy Remix to “Fantasy” — the lead single from 1995’s Daydream. While the pop version of the track became the first single by a female artist to debut atop the Billboard Hot 100, its remix would help to define an entirely new wave of music — the rap-sung collaboration. Stripping out some of the R&B elements from the “Genius of Love”-sampled original, the remix was built around sparse production from Puff Daddy, and featured some of Ol’ Dirty Bastard’s most quotable bars. Although suits at Columbia feared that such an urban musical departure would alienate her pop fans, Mariah continued to collaborate with hip hop artists and producers, including Da Brat and Xscape on the Mr. Dupri Mix of “Always Be My Baby” — a complete R&B overhaul of her #1 pop bop. This mix, along with subsequent mixes from the Butterfly and Rainbow albums, would spark another trend — the complete re-recording and rearranging of singles for the remix — essentially creating a new song for an entirely different segment of the music-buying public. While pop and hip-hop had flirted with each other for years prior to the Fantasy Remix, most notably on the Jody Watley, Eric B. & Rakim collaboration “Friends,” it was Mariah who married the genres into a palatable fusion fit for mass consumption. Jennifer Lopez, Justin Timberlake, Rihanna and others have built entire careers from this union, and it’s Mariah’s influence that led to the creation of the Best Rap/Sung Collaboration Grammy — a relatively new award created in 2002 to honor hip pop. “Love me down ‘tiI I hit the top of my soprano.”- More Than Just Friends, 2009 Inspired by greats like Billie Holliday, Aretha Franklin, The Clark Sisters and her own mom — an opera singer, Mariah’s vocal style is a unique interweaving of classical training and raw, unbridled soul. Gliding from husky alto to soaring soprano, from whisper register to whistle register all in the blink of an eye, her vocal acrobatics stem from turning (what some singers would consider) an obstacle into an opportunity to create her own sound. Having nodules on her vocal cords since childhood, Mariah taught herself to sing through her impairment. “I do really have different vocal cords,” Mariah told Choire Sicha in an interview. “It’s because they’re not — I don’t use my voice the way different people use their vocal cords. A lot of people couldn’t sing through the nodules the way I do; I’ve learned to sing through my vocal cords.” Technique aside, Mariah’s singing has inspired some of the greatest voices of our time. Brandy sang “Vision of Love” to land her first record deal with Atlantic. Marsha Ambrosius won her first talent contest with a Mimi classic. And Beyoncé has said that it was Mariah’s voice that made her want to become a singer. “Been stigmatized. Been Black and White. Felt inferior inside.” My Saving Grace, 2002 In a country obsessed with race, Mariah’s not-quite-Black, not-quite-White look sparked almost as much discussion as her five-octave vocal talent when she debuted. Almost immediately, she faced cultural appropriation claims from critics who argued that her soulful sound was merely an act to sell records. "I'm not a White girl trying to sing Black," a then-20-year-old Mariah said in a 1991 interview with EBONY. "My father is Black and Venezuelan, my mother is Irish. That makes me a combination of all those things. I am a human being, a person. What I am not is a White girl trying to sing Black." While some of her early-90s contemporaries played to their racially ambiguous look and minimized their African roots, Mariah never tried to hide or downplay her Black heritage. Instead, she embraced it, writing about it in her music, and speaking about the difficulties of growing up mixed on many occasions. Her willingness to discuss her own struggles — most recently detailing an incident in which she was spat on as a child — gave an important voice to an entire generation of biracial youth, and effectively panned any inauthenticity claims from critics. But even after racking up an incredible 18 Billboard Hot 100 #1 hits, selling more than 200 million records worldwide, and literally changing the course of popular music with her gospel-tinged vocals and hip hop-influenced tracks, people still have questions. Can she still sing? Does she still have it? But the questions are more futile than ever. Because even if she stopped making music today, the world would still be listening to her. Every time a singer reaches her whistle register over a soulful pop beat and adds a few gospel runs for good measure, or a cute, ‘round-the-way girl collaborates with a “hard” rapper, you’re listening to Mariah. Her influence is ever-present.A blonde woman told a Muslim shopper in Virginia that she isn't welcome in the United States Highlights Muslim shopper harassed by blond woman inside a store in Virginia 'Obama's not in office. We don't have a Muslim in there anymore' she said Hate crimes against people of colour, immigrants has spiked in the US A Muslim woman in the US has alleged that she was harassed in a store by a blonde lady who shouted "I wish they didn't let you in the country" and that Barack Obama was no longer in the Oval Office, a media report said. The incident occurred after the Muslim woman allowed her fellow shopper to cut ahead of her when they were both in line for the cash register at the store in Virginia.In a video gone viral on Facebook, an unidentified woman appears to tell a Muslim shopper who allegedly let her go ahead in line, "I wish they didn't let you in the country," local WJLA TV, an affiliate of ABC News reported.Comedian Jeremy McLellan posted the video on Facebook on Saturday. The Muslim woman involved in the incident is his friend.As the video begins, the confrontation is already underway. A blonde woman accused the Muslim woman of "playing dumb" and said, "I've got it.""I shouldn't have let you in front of me," said the Muslim woman. "I wish they didn't let you in the country," snapped the harasser."Excuse me? I was born here," replied the Muslim woman. "Oh, you were?" the blonde woman said. "Obama's not in office anymore. We don't have a Muslim in there anymore". "Yeah, I wish he was," the Muslim woman was quoted as saying by the report."He's gone. He's gone," the woman says, smiling. "He may be in jail, too, in the future," she adds as she glances down in the direction of the camera briefly."You look a little crazy," the woman filming said. "Maybe you need to get some help.""Oh, I'm fine," the other woman replied as the woman filming explained that it's not normal to strike up hateful conversations with strangers in line at the grocery store.There has been an increase in instances of Trump-supporters caught on video being aggressively rude and confrontational with a Muslim person or a person of colour. Hate crimes and acts of violence against Americans of colour and immigrants have spiked since the election of Donald Trump as US President.Sega's upcoming Sonic Generations looks like it's going to continue the recent (excellent) trend of quality hedgehog videogames. Sega seems to be falling back in love with Sonic the Hedgehog, based on recent quality releases like Sonic 4 and Sonic Colors. This is certainly a welcome change from several years of middling releases starring everyone's furry blue mammal, and I've got some good news from PAX: It looks like Sega's still devoted to making quality Sonic games, based on the portion of Sonic Generations that I got to play. Sonic Generations stars two versions of Sonic: both the modern version and his earlier, 1990s incarnation. The two are thrown together via a hole in time that sucks today's Sonic into the past, where he meets his younger self. The game is all about how the two hedgehogs have been sandwiched together, meaning they now have to race through versions of levels from previous Sonic titles, figuring out who's messing up time and setting things right. Now, the two versions of Sonic provide different play experiences. Modern Sonic has fully 3D courses to run through, which are broken up with occasional battle sections. Before you groan: This is not a retread of Sonic Unleashed. The combat is incredibly simple, based on sonic jumping and then torpedoing towards his enemies, and they're generally pretty easy to avoid if you want to just run past the bad guys. The Classic Sonic sections, meanwhile, are fully 2D levels with 3D backgrounds that occasionally affect the area Sonic's running across. These levels are pretty crazy and fast-paced, based on what I got to play; if a player wants to earn the best time possible, they'll have to replay a level several times in order to figure out when and where they should jump. The levels on display were set in San Francisco, inspired by other levels from Sonic Adventure 2. In the Classic levels, the crazy bigrig/harvester is back and pursuing Sonic, but it's largely seen in the background. Occasionally, though, the truck would cross over into the foreground, knocking down platforms that Sonic was climbing or actually trying to hit him. The Modern level, in turn, is much more of a 3D affair, involving downhill races (both on a snowboard and on foot), pursuit sections, and the aforementioned combat areas. Again, it was incredibly fast-paced and a ton of fun, though I did encounter an area where the fixed camera was a little bit of a hindrance (though, admittedly, it wasn't game-ending and only happened once. Visually, Sonic Generations looks pretty stunning. The graphics are really quite lovely; they're bright and cartoonish and actually look like they'd fit into the games they're supposed to take place in. Sonic Generations is due out in November for PS3, 360, and 3DS. Author's Note: The version of Sonic Generations that I played was the 360 build.The five-day test, which is closed to the public and media, runs from the 24-28 October, and is aimed at testing new common components to be used in next year's championship. Newly-crowned champion Marco Wittmann is present at the test for BMW along with RMG teammate Timo Glock, while Mercedes has called up Lucas Auer and Felix Rosenqvist. Mattias Ekstrom, fresh from winning the World Rallycross title at Estering, meanwhile is in action for Audi alongside an unnamed second driver. The manufacturers were keen to stress that the cars being tested will not represent the final product of next year's car, although Audi has confirmed it will try out next year's standard chassis. "We are going to test the new common chassis for the first time as well as new common aero parts," said Audi's Head of DTM Dieter Gass. "We certainly want to try all these, albeit with a 2016 body. "The new car will be launched only next year and rather close to the season opener." BMW Motorsport Director Jens Marquardt added: "[The cars used in Oschersleben] will certainly be a hybrid. From the outside, it's pretty much the old car. "However, we will try to work on it in order to achieve 2017 downforce levels. We will have new common parts that we need to test. This is the main focus of the test." Mercedes, however, has chosen to test with the current chassis as used in the season finale at Hockenheim earlier this month. "We will use the same chassis as in Hockenheim," confirmed Mercedes Head of DTM Ullrich Fritz. "In Oschersleben we certainly won't use the final 2017 product. "There will not be much we can take over to the new car, especially on the aero side the 2017 car will be brand new."- Rats are part of city living, but some say the rodents have created their own sanctuary in Dupont Circle. In fact, it is even creating some online buzz among Yelp users. Someone has started a Yelp page called the “Dupont Circle Rat Sanctuary” and reviewers have been posting on the page dating back to 2014. Here are some of the most recent comments posted in September: Read Felicia B.'s review of Dupont Circle Rat Sanctuary on Yelp Read Rat S.'s review of Dupont Circle Rat Sanctuary on Yelp Read Michael L.'s review of Dupont Circle Rat Sanctuary on Yelp Read Kiran P.'s review of Dupont Circle Rat Sanctuary on Yelp Read Damon B.'s review of Dupont Circle Rat Sanctuary on Yelp FOX 5 visited Dupont Circle Tuesday night and discovered finding these rodents were not a problem. We saw big ones and small ones running all around everywhere. At first, we thought they might have been ground squirrels, but you can easily tell they are definitely rats with their tails. We also spoke with some people who walk through the area and are familiar with the problem. “You see a fair amount of rats running from one bush to the next,” said one resident. “You sometimes see people who don’t know the area very well be very surprised, but I feel like it’s almost normal at this point. They are kind of like wallpaper. They are always there.” “Yeah, it surprised me because I heard it was a very clean city,” said another man. “I just heard something behind me and I didn’t know what it was, so I think I will move.” “To me, it seems like a health emergency or something,” said another resident. “I don’t know why they don’t exterminate. I asked the park service if they were going to exterminate, but I didn’t see the person again.” It happens that the National Park Service was getting ready to formally announce an agreement with the D.C. Department of Health this week to deal with the rat infestation. The National Park Service said in a statement: "The National Park Service is committed to ensuring safe, positive experiences for visitors in all of our park areas. To that end, we have just entered into an agreement with the D.C. Department of Health to better control the rat population in National Park Service parks throughout the city. Under the agreement, which takes effect on October 1, D.C. staff will not only assist in treating rats in NPS areas, but will also make recommendations to make our parks less habitable for rats. The NPS and D.C. Department of Health are working together to create a rat-free D.C. by simplifying the process to report rats and decreasing the response time for treatment of affected parks." They are hoping this new agreement will help decrease the response time and really deal with this issue. Residents can also call 311 in order to report a rat problem.Following weeks of relative silence the Obama mob is back. First it was Barry himself with his glorious return from laying low in French Polynesia. The Big O thrilled admirers with a Monday speech in the Windy City and began lining up six-figure speaking gigs. Also slithering out from under a rock was former Attorney General Eric Holder. Holder – one of the foulest individuals to ever head up the Justice Department – is a grand master of two things. Coddling big bank bandits and engaging in stirring up racial tensions. It was the latter that dirty Holder engaged in when he whipped out the race card during an appearance before anti-Trump activists in New York City. The man who abused his power to threaten to dismantle the Ferguson police department fired up the crowd by insinuating that President Trump is planning to suppress the black vote. Holder: Trump's voter fraud comments lay foundation for voter suppression https://t.co/sUaispaMx7 pic.twitter.com/pEyr6oQSgk — The Hill (@thehill) April 27, 2017 Via The Hill “Holder: Trump’s election fraud claims are laying foundation for voter suppression”: Former Attorney General Eric Holder on Wednesday tore into President Trump’s claims of rampant voter fraud, saying the allegations have laid a foundation for voter suppression and more restrictive voter identification laws. “The vote fraud mantra is said so often — it’s almost said robotically — that some people have unthinkingly begun to believe that the issue is real,” Holder said at a National Action Network conference in New York City. “And with recent claims by Mr. Trump of ‘rigged elections’ based on fraud, again without any proof, save the bluster of the candidate, this mistaken belief in voter fraud becomes almost hardwired,” he continued. President Trump has repeatedly claimed that the United States’ election system is “rigged” and that rampant voter fraud by millions of “illegals” prevented him from winning the popular vote in November. The real estate mogul, however, won the Electoral College vote. Because of those claims, Holder said, “a predicate has been laid for further voter suppression efforts,” despite no credible evidence suggesting that voter fraud is a widespread problem. But Holder omitted that there was never any audit of the vote in California where it has been suggested that hordes of illegal aliens contributed to Hillary’s big victory, a highly likely scenario given simple numbers and the state’s extreme hostility to conservatives. Perhaps the omission is related to Mr. Holder’s contract with California Democrats to launch legal challenges against the Trump administration. The crowd ate it up which is natural because the forum for Holders’ speech – The National Action Network conference – is an organization founded by seasoned hatemonger and MSNBC contributor the Reverend Al Sharpton. This is yet one more example of how former Obama officials, national Democrats and their media surrogates are cooking up a fiery stew of paranoia and racial resentment to incite violence in order to achieve political results that they are unable to arrive at through legitimate means. It was a disgraceful showing for Mr. Holder but not uncommon for a man without an iota of shame in his body.So.. i was thinking of a new custom game for dominions since the actual ones are getting old for me (don't get me wrong, i still love Catch the teemo and ARAB). And i spend some time thinking of a game that would include a goal, but that wold also include insane teamfigths and fun. I came up with this new idea "All Random Get Shields". As it is said in the title, the goal of the game is that your team has to get the shield on the center of the map. Anyone on the team can grab them and each time you get one you have 1 more point. The first team to get 7 shields win the game. Getting shield sounds easy, but is not. Remember that any damage would stop the casting, even an auto-attack. Add to that the the area of the shields is visible for everyone and that 5 players would want to stop you from getting it. Not that easy rigth? So, here are some basic rules. Feel free to change them if you host a game. RULES - The first team to capture 7 shields wins. - In order to get the 7th shield, both shieds have to be up. (if you get the 7th shield an the other team's is not up, it does not count and you have to get another one) - There can only be 2 players of the same team capturing the shield at the same time (if not, one of the players that were capturing it must sacrifice himself) - Each player has a Random pick - You can go anywhere on the map - You can't b or walk to the base. You can't re-enter the ramp unless you are being forced to() - Any damage trap (like Teemo's mushrooms or shaco's JitBs) cannot be placed near the GREY area around the shield, you can put them on the ground around it though. (see image attached). - Any items or summoners spells are allowed - Relics and buffs are allowed - No captures - You can't suicide to enemy tower Again, this is not write on stone. You can change the rules as you want, the host of the game decides it. Try to organize your teams and don't just run all of you to get shields. Make the ones with more CC the defenders, the ones with a lot of range, the stoppers, the ones with speed the collectors and the ones with high dmg output, the assassins. Some aura items would help also. Now i will explain my thought process behind some of my decistions ( XD ). - Why the shields? As i explained, this is a new and original goal. This area is visible for everyone so it would not be easy to get them. It is also small, so team fights would be epics. The shields spawn at 3 mins, what give the teams some time to get on the business, and it also take only 3 mins to re-spawn, so there wont be much time of "peace" (and by "peace" i mean "go and f***ing kill the other team cause there is nothing else to do). -()Forced to Since it is bringing a lot of trouble, i wanna clarify, forced to means "An enemy champion attacking you outside the jungle, near the ramp, while you are closed to death". If you don't want an enemy champion to heal up, don't chased him out of the jungle, he will have to go back to the jungle eventually. Why do i do this?. In the Dominion map, you always have many ways to escape, put yourself in any place and you can always run in at least 3 diferent directions or flash over a wall. In the lane area, near the ramp, if someone is chasing you from the jungle, you will only have one direction to run if the ramp is not allowed. I wanna give everyone at least many options they can choose from. Also this is to prevent a team from "camping" on
ma were a muddled mess, and Pamphobeteus and Phormictopus are full of undefined and overlapping species. Many of these spiders are being bred without a full understanding of exactly where they came from or even what species they are. As an example, a few years back folks started selling a spider labeled as Phormictopus sp. green. Eager to produce offspring of this new species, some folks sought to pair up their females by finding sp. green males for their projects. However, a problem soon arose. Many hobbyists were unaware that there were currently THREE variations of the sp. greens, including “full green”, “green femur”, and “gold carapax”. Because these groups hadn’t been studied yet or described, there was no way to tell if they were color variations of different species (cancerides in some cases) or totally new species. It’s impossible to determine how many people might have accidentally crossbred the green species, and one has to assume that the bloodlines for these three spiders have likely been mixed in some cases. As this spider is still relatively new to the hobby, and there aren’t many currently available, a potential mixing of species could have a disastrous effect on the purity of future bloodlines. But any hybrids would be sterile, so it won’t become an issue. In many cases of species hybridization, the offspring are sterile, meaning the genetic pollution stops there. Although hybrids can occur, the offspring of such a pairing will be unable to produce young and spread their genes. It’s like nature’s way of keeping species pure in the instances when they are able to successfully crossbreed. Many operate under the assumption that all hybrid offspring are sterile, meaning the mixed genes couldn’t move past one generation. Even if a keeper was to successfully hybridize two species of tarantulas, the offspring wouldn’t be able to reproduce anyway, so there would be no future impact on the hobby. Hybrid tarantulas have proven to be just as fertile as their pure counterparts. Unfortunately, this rule does not always hold true with tarantulas. Offspring of crossbred species have often proven to be just as fertile as their purebred counterparts. This means that any mixed species that is sold and enters the hobby could potentially be bred and allowed to pass off its mixed genes. This creates a terrible cascading effect as future generations reproduce, spreading their mixed bloodlines throughout the hobby. Brachypelma baumgarteni/boehmei hybrids: In nature, these two species are separated by the Balsas River, so there should be little opportunity for natural hybridization. However, the hobby is now rife with hybrids due to accidental cross breeding. Many folks who thought they were buying purebred B. boehmei slings later discovered that their spider was mixed with another very similar species, the B. baumgarteni. This situation was further exacerbated by a supposed purposeful mating of these two species several years back. Offspring from this pairing were knowingly sold off and distributed into the hobby (my specimen is likely one of these). Although the issue with the “boegarteni” hybrids is fairly well recognized by now, there are still many in the hobby who have no idea that their boehmei specimens aren’t purebred. Just think of all the cool colors and patterns we could get. One of the most popular arguments for purposeful hybridization is that it would be a “cool” experiment to see what the offspring look like. Folks in this camp are only concerned with the aesthetic aspect of such an endeavor, and worry little about any of the possible consequences of such a breeding. The thought process can be boiled down to Species A looks nice and Species B looks nice, so their offspring will look totally awesome, right? Nature already offers us plenty of color and variety. With over 100 genera and 900 species of identified tarantulas, there are more than enough unique colors and patterns without humans endeavoring to create more. Time would be much better spent trying to reproduce some of the beautiful ones nature has provided us. But if a keeper doesn’t sell the offspring, what’s the big deal? Those who take this stance often adhere to the argument that as long as the slings aren’t sold, there should be no issue. After all, who is it hurting? Folks in this camp often see the tarantulas as possessions rather than animals and pets. It’s therefore no one’s business if they decide to mix some of them up to see what results they get. After all, they’re not abusing their animals, but merely letting them act out their natural instincts. The amount of work needed and the risk involved far outweigh any reward. Let’s consider the logic in this for a moment. First off, we are already quite familiar with the species that can be successfully crossbred, and there’s really no further experimentation needed in this area. Most would agree it’s a bit pointless to run an experiment for which the outcome is already well known and accepted. If the keeper wants to experiment with breeding, then it would make sense to do so with pure species (there are still plenty out there that folks have trouble with). For anyone thinking of creating cross-species, it’s important to take a moment to consider the consequences of a successful hybrid mating attempt. First, many spiders produce sacs containing 100s of spiderlings. This is a lot spiders to be raised, and a lot of money and time spent, for absolutely no payoff. Having raised a sac of slings, I can say that it is very time intensive and costly, with the reward coming only after the slings are sold and traded. I think it’s very difficult for any established hobbyists to believe that someone would want a collection consisting of 100s of worthless hybrid spiders. Some folks will say that they could just freeze and euthanize most of the slings and keep a handful to raise for their collection. Personally, I think that’s a pretty deplorable stance. Why bother breeding an animal just to kill most of the offspring? In the US particularly, we are behind the 8 ball in terms of sustainable captive breeding projects. It seems rather profligate (and more than a bit cruel) for a keeper to spend his time breeding a mixed species just to destroy it. Others say that they’ll just raise the hybrids and keep them in their own collections. That’s a wonderful notion, but with so many species available, why would someone want to spend years raising a bunch of worthless mutt spiders to maturity? That certainly doesn’t seem to be a very appealing experiment. The fact is the temptation to sell off some of these slings would always be there. And as hybrids are considered worthless by most, these slings will likely be mislabeled as a pure species to help them move. Also, some species can take years to mature, and lot can happen during that time. If the keeper has to get rid of his or her collection, what happens to the slings then? Hobby form of Brachypelma albopilosum Perhaps the best example of hybrids in the hobby is the Brachypelma albopilosum “hobby form.” Due to purposeful crossbreeding with other species (usually B. vagans), the hobby is currently full of B. albo hybrids. These mixed species spiders had been passed along for years as true B. albopilosums. At this point, many consider the only “true” albopilosums to be wild caught specimens from Nicaragua. But doesn’t it happen in nature? Another argument is that it isn’t a huge issue to mix species, as it likely happens at times in nature. As similar species often have territorial boundaries that intersect, it stands to reason that world may already be filled with many naturally occurring hybrids. There’s no way of telling if some wild caught specimens that entered the hobby could be cross species. Crossbreeding occurring in nature and crossbreeding occurring in someone’s living room are not the same. There’s a big difference between two similar species crossing natural boundaries and mating in nature and some guy dropping a male and female of two different species in a plastic tub full of dirt so they can mate. It can hardly be argued that there is anything “natural” about a human being playing God by purposefully mixing DNA. There is absolutely nothing natural about that. My $0.02 Personally, I see absolutely no reason for anyone to purposefully crossbreed two different species of tarantulas. We already know it can be done, and there is really nothing to be gained from a successful attempt. In terms of pros, you may end up with a unique-looking spider that you can show off to family and friends (most serious hobbyist will not be as enamored by it). That’s about it. In terms of cons, you’ll be left either caring for or euthanizing hundreds of spiders or worse, selling them into the hobby at the risk of ruining bloodlines. In the movie Jurassic Park, Ian Malcom says about the genetically engineered dinosaurs, “Your scientists were so preoccupied with whether they could, they didn’t stop to think if they should.” In many ways, this quote perfectly sums up the situation with purposeful hybridizations. Keepers become so fascinated by the idea of whether it will work and what the offspring might look like, that they don’t bother to ponder the consequences for such an experiment. And traditionally, yelling at them on a message board and telling them what they can’t do with their animals does little to deter the activity. Education on the pitfalls of hybridization is the key; not admonishment. I’ve heard folks suggest that hybrids could be sold as long as they are clearly labeled at hybrids. Unfortunately, the majority of hobbyists want nothing to do with crossbreeds, meaning demand for them would be quite low. This would increase the temptation to mislabel them as purebreds in order to sell them. Also, just because the spiders start off being clearly labeled as hybrids doesn’t mean that they will remain labeled as they are disseminated into the hobby. These crosses could easily be mislabeled and bred later on, allowing for the impure genes to be spread. In many ways, tarantula hobbyists may reluctantly and unintentionally end up being the stewards for these amazing animals. As global climate change and habitat destruction inevitably decimates the already shrinking populations of many species, they may only continue to exist in the collections of arachnoculturists. It is therefore imperative that we keep the gene pools as clean as possibly by avoiding ill-advised (and useless) hybrid breeding projects, and while doing our best to ensure that suspect animals are not bred. On a personal note, I already have three suspected hybrids in my collection, and I didn’t purposely purchase a single one of them. In the case of all three, it took me several years to suspect that anything was different about them. Furthermore, I when I picked up my third hybrid, I only had about 30 tarantulas in my collection. That means at that point, 10% of my collection consisted of hybrid species. That’s an alarming number, and a bit of an eye-opener when comes to appreciating just how bad the problem could be. As hobbyists, we need to be responsible and protect the purity of the species we keep, and use our energies constructively by only pursuing legitimate breeding projects. The United States especially lags behind Europe in terms of creating sustainable captive breeding efforts for many species. A good percentage of the slings sold in the US are imported from captive breeders overseas and do not represent US stock. Any breeding efforts should be concentrated on pairing pure species to establish them firmly in the hobby and not wasted on crossbreeding.Thai authorities took nearly four days to confirm the country's first case of Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS), the health ministry said Friday, a time lag likely to raise fears of a further spread of the deadly virus in Asia. Thailand confirmed its first case of MERS Thursday, a 75-year-old businessman from Oman, just as an outbreak in South Korea that began last month and has infected 166 people, and killed 24 of them, appeared to be levelling off. As part of those efforts, South Korean authorities were contacting nearly 42,000 people who had visited a hospital in the capital, Seoul, that has been at the center of the outbreak, with half of the country's infections happening there. Authorities said they aimed to contact people who had been at the hospital, the Samsung Medical Center, between May 27-29 and June 2-10, and they raised the number of those who may have been in contact with MERS cases there to about 7,000 people. ...WKIMEDIA, JANINE MORAESIn a deal that could create the world’s biggest agricultural and chemical company, Germany-based Bayer has initiated a multibillion dollar takeover of the St. Louis–headquartered Monsanto. After months of negotiations, the agribusiness giant, known for its development of transgenic crop plants, has accepted Bayer’s offer, in which it would acquire Monsanto for $128 per share. Hugh Grant, Monsanto’s CEO, told The Los Angeles Times that the deal would reap the maximum benefit for the company’s shareholders. Bayer’s offer, he said, “represented the most compelling value for our shareholders, with the most certainty through the all-cash consideration.” Falling prices and crop surpluses in the U.S. have driven farmers to buy less seed, herbicides, and pesticides, and might have motivated the deal. This state of agricultural affairs has some pundits responding negatively to the proposed takeover. “Bayer’s acquisition of ‘Frankenstein’ crop producer Monsanto could be a horror story for both Bayer and its customers: the farmers,” John Colley of Warwick Business School in the U.K. told BBC News. “The farmers will lose out as product ranges are rationalized and attempts are made to increase prices.” The deal, which is valued at $66 billion, including debt, must be approved by Monsanto shareholders and regulators. Bayer has agreed to pay Monsanto a $2 billion breakup fee if the transaction fails to go through. The new company’s agriculture business will continue to be based in St. Louis, according to The New York Times, while its crop science division will be moved to Germany.Former Gingrich, Romney Campaign Intern Adam Savader Accused of Blackmailing Women for Nude Photos Adam Savader, a former intern for Newt Gingrich and Mitt Romney, was arrested on Tuesday by the FBI and charged with blackmailing and cyber-stalking women. Twenty-one-year-old Savader allegedly sent threatening texts to fifteen women between May 2012 and February 2013, aggressively demanding nude photos. He used Google Voice to approach them anonymously. Many of the victims were women he knew from high school and college classes, sent anywhere from Detroit to D.C. “Do it from ur (sic) phone RIGHT NOW! I swear to God don’t be stupid,” one text read. Savader threatened to expose the nude photos to family members or the Republican National Committee, and posted some to Photobucket, according to the Department of Justice. ADVERTISEMENT Thanks for watching! Visit Website “I have no problem sending them to ur (sic) parents, friends and sorority sisters unless you cooperate by answering me.” Interest in the case arose after one Ann Arbor, Mich. woman submitted the texts to police. It is unclear whether any of the victims ever distributed pictures to Savader. Savader, a student at SUNY Farmingdale, described himself as an American patriot and Reagan Republican on his Twitter account, though he obviously hasn’t upheld the family values touted by the GOP. ADVERTISEMENT Thanks for watching! Visit Website ADVERTISEMENT Thanks for watching! Visit Website Though Savader remains in custody in New York, he will be tried in Michigan where the texts were sent from. If convicted, he could face up to five years in prison. Sources: NY Daily News, Daily Caller undefinedNine-tenths of the tickets for next month’s WBA heavyweight title fight between Wladimir Klitschko and Alexander Povetkin in Moscow have been sold, organizers told R-Sport on Monday. MOSCOW, September 23 (R-Sport) – Nine-tenths of the tickets for next month’s WBA heavyweight title fight between Wladimir Klitschko and Alexander Povetkin in Moscow have been sold, organizers told R-Sport on Monday. A sellout of the 35,000-capacity Olimpiisky arena would rank the bout among the best-attended in Russian history. “There all practically no tickets left already,” organizers said in a statement. “Already 90 percent have been sold. As for the VIP tickets, they all sold out a while ago.” The fight, to take place on October 5, already appears to be a significantly greater commercial success than Vitali Klitschko’s bout with Manuel Charr last year, when vast areas of the same arena were empty. Ukraine’s Wladimir Klitschko comes into the title fight with a 60-3 record, while Russia’s Povetkin is undefeated in 26 bouts.The end is nigh, insists Robert Fitzpatrick. And he’s put his money where his mouth is. If the world doesn’t end on May 21, one week from tomorrow, he’ll have wasted more than $140,000 on bus and subway advertising. The 60-year-old Staten Island resident, a retired MTA employee, says he’s spent at least that sum — his life savings — on 1,000 subway-car placards, and even more ads on bus kiosks and subway cars. They say: “Global Earthquake: The Greatest Ever! Judgment Day May 21, 2011.” In a self-published book, “The Doomsday Code,” Fitzpatrick says the Bible offers “proof that cannot be dismissed.” “Judgment Day will surprise people. We will not be ready for it,” Fitzpatrick said in an interview with The Post yesterday. “A giant earthquake will render the earth uninhabitable,” he added. If you want to set an alarm clock, the quake will happen just before 6 p.m., he said. “God’s people will be resurrected. It is also the day that God stops saving anyone,” he said. Fitzpatrick hopes he’s one of the chosen ones, but he can’t be really certain. “There’s just a little doubt,” he said. “Most churches teach that if you just believe, you will be saved. It is not our choice. It is God’s choice.” Fitzpatrick’s book is based on the teachings of Harold Camping, an 89-year-old radio host with a poor track record of end-of-the-world prophecies. Camping also predicted the world would end on Sept. 6, 1994. When the sun rose per normal the next day, Camping went back to his Bible and tried to figure out why he was wrong. Camping’s group, familyradio.com, is buying billboards nationwide spreading his prophecy. Many say the whole thing is a colossal scam. But Fitzpatrick, an engineer who held down a desk job at the MTA for 26 years, says he doesn’t want to consider the idea that Camping might be wrong. “I don’t want to talk about it. I don’t want to think about it,” he said. “Everybody asks me that.” bill.sanderson@nypost.comOne of the most enticing "what-ifs" of recent years has come true: Microsoft has purchased Nokia's devices and services unit, bringing the Lumia lineup under the Redmond roof. The move unites Windows Phone 8 with its biggest hardware supporter, giving the company the integrated mobile offering it's been looking for with Surface and other devices. When the deal closes in the first quarter of 2014, Microsoft will pay €3.79 billion for Nokia's business, plus another €1.65 billion to license its portfolio of patents. (The €5.44-billion total is considerably less than Microsoft paid for Skype in 2011.) 32,000 people are expected to transfer from Nokia to Microsoft, including 18,300 that are "directly involved in manufacturing." The purchase comes on the heels of what appeared to be a failed acquisition in June, at which point it seemed conversations had broken off entirely. Now the two come together, in what outgoing Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer called "a bold step into the future." In an email, Ballmer cited the Lumia 1020 as an example of what the companies could do together, but said the phone hadn't caused the marketshare bump it deserved. "Now is the time to build on this momentum and accelerate our share and profits in phones," he wrote. Asha will be an on-ramp to Windows Phone A driving force behind the sale seems to be Nokia's low-end Asha brand, which Microsoft has acquired outright. Asha gives Microsoft a far larger footprint for Windows Phone, and access to millions of customers in developing countries that it plans to use as an "on-ramp to Windows Phone." The emphasis also lends some credibility to the notion that Nokia's high-end strategy isn't working — analysts predicted a horrific Q3 for the company, and its struggles to find a foothold are well-documented. In fact, Microsoft's licensing deal for the Nokia brand doesn't include future Lumias — Nokia as a smartphone brand is effectively dead, as Microsoft takes the lineup in-house. Nokia's days as a smartphone brand are over Though Nokia was by leaps and bounds Microsoft's best hardware partner for Windows Phone 8, EVP of operating systems Terry Myerson was careful to note that Microsoft's purchase doesn't come with nepotism. As Google has with Motorola, Myerson promised every partner would be treated the same, even quoting a song by The Killers to make his point. And from Huawei to HTC, there are still other partners — Nokia's coming in-house, but Windows Phone 8 isn't being walled off. Its device business now gone, Nokia's plan is to focus on three core technologies: NSN (its network infrastructure) HERE (its maps and location-based services); and Advanced Technologies (a licensing and development arm). Microsoft will pay Nokia for a four-year license of the HERE services, bringing the new company more revenue and stability than it had previously. But it also makes Nokia a much smaller company. Stephen Elop is going back to Microsoft As part of the agreement, Nokia CEO and President Stephen Elop is stepping aside; as of today he's Nokia's executive vice president of devices & services reporting to interim CEO Risto Siilasmaa, previously chairman of Nokia's Board of Directors. When the transaction closes, Stephen Elop will go back to Microsoft and lead an expanded devices team, reporting directly to Steve Ballmer. Julie Larson-Green will report to Elop and continue to run the devices and studios team. Another notable departure is that of Marko Ahtisaari, Nokia's executive vice president of design. Ahtisaari will be leaving the company in November to "pursue entrepreneurial opportunities," according to a Nokia press release. He was credited with fathering the company's current Lumia design language, which has its roots in the ill-fated N9 smartphone. For $7.2 billion, Microsoft bought its way into the category of "devices and services company." It gives Microsoft the kind of end-to-end control in mobile that only Apple and BlackBerry have enjoyed (to varying success), and a critical measure of quality control. But can Microsoft succeed where Nokia failed? Was Nokia holding Windows Phone back, or was Windows Phone the problem? The big questions aren't going away, but maybe now we'll get answers. Correction: This article incorrectly stated that Stephen Elop is now leading Microsoft's devices team. However, Stephen won't join Microsoft until after the acquisition is approved. Read Next: Why Nokia Chose Windows PhoneA major hurdle towards uniting the right in Alberta – perhaps the biggest hurdle – was overcome at a downtown Edmonton hotel Thursday with the signing of a merger agreement between Wildrose Leader Brian Jean and Conservative Leader Jason Kenney. The pair hope to form the United Conservative Party before the end of July. The agreement, which is eight pages long and enumerates no fewer than 14 founding principles, still faces one last hurdle – ratification by a supermajority of Wildrose party members. Of course, the Progressive Conservative membership must also ratify the agreement before it can go ahead. Each party will hold a separate ratification vote on July 22. But getting the PCs to go along won’t be as hard as getting Wildrosers to agree. The PCs threshold for ratification is just 50-per-cent-plus-one of their members. And given that the current membership is dominated by people who signed up to vote for Jason Kenney for leader in March precisely so he could merge with Wildrose, ratification by the Tories would seem a foregone conclusion. Getting Wildrosers to sign off on the agreement will be a little tougher – but probably only a little. I still expect Wildrose members to get behind the merger. Hatred for the NDP and the desire to throw the Notley government out of office will exceed all other considerations. Still, Wildrose buy-in is less of a slam dunk. Some Wildrosers remain bitter over the way (as they see it) the Tories under former premier Jim Prentice tried to break up their party. Add to that the reality that Wildrose has a greater number of socially conservative members and I think merger will find more opposition in Jean’s party. The new party offers little encouragement for those opposed to abortion, gay rights and same-sex marriage. Also, in order for merger to pass in Wildrose, 75 per cent of members in good standing most vote “yes” – not just a simple majority like the Tories. It’s hard to imagine a full quarter of Wildrose rank-and-file permitting their distaste for the Tories and their commitment to social issues to override the need to rid Alberta of the NDP government. But it’s not impossible. Perhaps the most encouraging sign at the announcement Thursday was happening at the back of the room, away from the lights, cameras, microphones and notepads. Tory and Wildrose MLAs were genuinely relaxed and seemingly happy to be one step closer to sharing the same caucus. The first joint caucus meeting would be sometime after the July 22 ratification votes, assuming both parties give their okay. Even Tories and Wildrosers who had won election in part based on pledges to never get together with the other side – such as Calgary-Greenway Tory Prab Gill — were shaking hands and patting one another on the shoulders. Of course others are going to try to spin Thursday as a dark day in Alberta politics. Entirely predictably, NDP Premier Rachel Notley said the new party would only offer “extreme” policies, marked by “massive cuts to service” and “tax breaks for people at the top of the one per cent.” Yawn! You would think the Leftists themselves would be as tired of uttering these old talking points as voters are of hearing them. And Alberta Party Leader Greg Clark was on hand at hotel where the announcement took place to predict that as soon as voters figure out the United Conservatives are not the party of Peter Lougheed, they will flock to his centrist party. Frankly, I expect Albertans to see very quickly that the UCP is a moderate, big-tent party committed to balanced budgets, lower taxes, free enterprise, sensible environmental protection, publicly funded health care, school choice, private property, public safety and the rule of law.■Turnovers: Players will have to be mindful of what they do if they pick up a fumble or intercept a pass on the opening possession. If a player fumbles the ball back to the other team and it kicks a field goal, the game is over because the defense had a possession. Also, if you’re trailing by a field goal, the pressure will ratchet up to hold onto the ball because you won’t get an opportunity for a stop on defense. ■Onside kick: If a team opens with a field goal, it has to give at least some thought to an onside kick because if it recovers, the game is over because it counts as a possession for the other team. ■Fourth-down attempts. Obviously the team trailing by a field goal has to go for it on fourth down in their own end. But if you take the opening kickoff, will you be more aggressive near midfield to put points on the board? If it’s fourth and short, do you take the field goal or go for it in the hopes of getting a touchdown to win the game? “A ton of new options come into play now. You’re going to try to have a plan but, really, you’re going to be flying by the seat of your pants. No, I’m not a fan.’’ “We haven’t talked about it yet, but I know we will,’’ said an assistant coach of an NFC playoff team. “It’s something that’s completely new. There’s nothing even remotely close to refer back to. It doesn’t seem to be a huge difference, but it is to coaches who have none of their beloved scripts and charts to work from. A defensive score of any kind ends the game because it would count as a possession for both teams. If the receiving team kicks a field goal, the other team gets a possession. A field goal would put the game into sudden death. A touchdown ends the game. A quick refresher: Instead of sudden-death overtime used in the regular season, each team will get a possession in overtime unless the receiving team takes the kickoff and scores a touchdown. Then the game is over. When the NFL postseason kicks off Saturday, a completely unfamiliar scenario could unfold as the new postseason overtime rules are enacted for the first time since the owners — not the coaches — approved them by a 28-4 vote last March. What football coaches hate most is curveballs. And they will be figuring out how to deal with a big one — in the most important games of their careers — this week. ■Take the ball or kick off?: Under the regular-season rule, the team winning the toss took the ball. You score, you win. Jets coach Rex Ryan — always confident — said at the owners meeting that he would kick off because a defensive stand and then a field goal would win the game. He changed his tune yesterday (maybe because his defense isn’t that good anymore). “We will actually take the ball if we win the coin toss in overtime,’’ Ryan said. Saints coach Sean Payton, who has been known to take a risk or two, agreed. “It would be real difficult to decide to kick off and have them return the opening kickoff for a touchdown and the game end,’’ he said. Mostly, coaches said, a lot of the decisions are going to have to be based on feel since there’s no precedent. “I think you’ll pay attention to how the game is progressing,’’ Payton said. “How the first four quarters have gone would predicate your decision on how you would handle it.’’ With the new overtime rule in mind, here’s a primer on what to watch for in the first four games. Saints (11-5) at Seahawks (7-9): New Orleans, the defending champion, is a 10.5-point favorite over the first team to ever make the playoffs with a losing record. An upset would not be shocking. All three teams that made the playoffs with 8-8 records since the current format was instituted in 2002 won their games (Chargers in 2008, Vikings in ’04, Rams in ’04). Qwest Field is notoriously one of the toughest places to play, and with a short week and a trip to the West Coast, the Saints will fly out Thursday night. The Seahawks, who haven’t decided whether Matt Hasselbeck or Charlie Whitehurst will start at quarterback, were no match for the Saints Nov. 21 at the Superdome as Drew Brees passed for 382 yards and two touchdowns in a 34-19 victory. The Saints had three key players — safety Malcolm Jenkins (right knee), tailback Chris Ivory (left foot), and tight end Jimmy Graham (left ankle) — leave the season finale with injuries, and Ivory has gone on IR. Jets (11-5) at Colts (10-6): Same matchup and locale as last season’s AFC Championship game, which the Colts won, 30-17, after the Jets got out to a 17-6 lead. The Jets think they’re better prepared to stop Peyton Manning this time around after acquiring cornerbacks Antonio Cromartie and Kyle Wilson, safety Brodney Pool, and linebacker Jason Taylor in the offseason. Manning has won five of six matchups against Ryan, including two in the playoffs. “I don’t know when I’m going to beat him, but I want it to be Saturday,’’ Ryan said. “Is it personal? Yes.’’ The Colts have been vastly improved running the ball (133.5 yards per game) and stopping the run (79.8) in the past four games. Ravens (12-4) at Chiefs (10-6): Arrowhead Stadium, where Kansas City was 7-1 this season, hosts its first playoff game since the ’03 season. While Chiefs coach Todd Haley was on the Cardinals staff that went to the Super Bowl, this is his first playoff game as a head coach. It also will be new for quarterback Matt Cassel and many of the Chiefs, who beat one playoff team (Seahawks) this season. The combined record of their 13 opponents was 85-123. The Ravens are making their third straight playoff appearance under coach John Harbaugh and won the previous two wild-card games on the road, including last year’s 33-14 victory at New England. “I think it’s a benefit — the fact that we’ve been through it two years in a row’’ Harbaugh said. Packers (10-6) at Eagles (10-6): Rematch of the Packers’ season-opening 27-20 victory at Lincoln Financial Field. But, oh, how these teams have changed (a combined 14 different starters since the first time around). The Packers actually helped the rise of Eagles quarterback Michael Vick because they knocked Kevin Kolb out of the game with a concussion. The Packers are missing key cogs in tight end Jermichael Finley, running back Ryan Grant, and linebacker Nick Barnett. But they’ve played well the past three games (two wins and a close loss to the Patriots with backup Matt Flynn at quarterback). “I think it’s, I don’t want to say wide open, but we feel very confident with our chances,’’ said Packers coach Mike McCarthy. Greg A. Bedard can be reached at gbedard@globe.com. Follow him on Twitter @greg_a_bedard. © Copyright 2011 Globe Newspaper Company.Cyprus is one of the five EU member states that refuse to recognise the independence of Kosovo from Serbia. James Ker-Lindsay writes that a recent meeting between the Cypriot Foreign Minister and the Prime Minister and Foreign Minister of Kosovo suggests that the country’s stance may be softening over the issue. He notes that although this may seem surprising given Cyprus’s own dispute with the self-declared Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus, it is in keeping with changing attitudes among other EU member states and a shift in Cypriot foreign policy. He also argues that if a change is to be made, there is a good case for pressing ahead with full recognition. By all accounts, it was an extraordinary photo. On 24 September, the chief of staff of the Kosovo prime minister Tweeted a picture of Prime Minister Hashim Thaci and Foreign Minister Enver Hoxhaj having breakfast with Ioannis Kasoulides, the Foreign Minister of Cyprus, on the margins of the UN General Assembly in New York. For a senior official of a country that has spent thirty years trying to prevent the recognition of the self-declared Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus (TRNC), and has taken an extremely vocal stance against Kosovo’s unilateral declaration of independence, it was a quite extraordinary development. However, in the context of wider developments, and recent signals that Cypriot foreign policy is being realigned, it is actually a rather less surprising development than one might believe. Changing views amongst the EU five Ever since Kosovo declared independence, in February 2008, it has proven to be one of the most divisive foreign policy issues within the European Union. On the one hand, there are the vast majority of the 28 members that have opted to recognise it. Ranged against them are five members – Cyprus, Greece, Romania, Slovakia and Spain – that have resolutely refused to acknowledge Kosovo’s full independence as a sovereign state. However, this situation now appears to be changing. While Spain remains adamantly opposed to recognition, especially as Catalonia becomes all the more vocal in pressing its claim for independence, there are clear signals that Romania, Slovakia and Greece and reconsidering their positions. In recent months, Victor Ponta, the prime minister of Romania, has openly stated that Bucharest should move towards recognising Kosovo. Although this will not happen in the short-term, given that such a move is strongly opposed by the president, Traian Basescu, it now seems to be a matter of time before Romania opts to join the EU majority. Likewise, opinion in Slovakia is shifting. It is well known that Miroslav Lajcak, the Slovak Foreign Minister, is keen to see his country recognise Kosovo and makes little attempt to hide his meetings with officials from Kosovo. In this case, though, the situation is rather more difficult due to a parliamentary resolution against recognition. However, it seems likely that this can and will be reversed; especially if another one or two of the five non-recognisers change their positions. Indeed, the Chair of the Foreign Relations Committee has already signalled his wish to take wider soundings on the country’s position on Kosovo. Meanwhile, Greece is edging closer and closer to full recognition. In fact, of the five non-recognisers, it already has the strongest relations with Pristina. In March this year, the then Foreign Minister, Dimitris Avramopoulos, invited Foreign Minister Hoxhaj for formal meetings at the foreign ministry in Athens, and in doing so used his official title; a significant development as the post of foreign minister is the one position that is intimately tied up with statehood. In private, Greek diplomats go even further and admit that Athens is poised to recognise Kosovo. As they explain, the only thing that is holding Greece back is not the country’s traditional friendship with Serbia, which has been strained over Belgrade’s support for Macedonia on the name issue, but concerns about how this would be read by the Cypriots. But even this is perhaps less a concern now; not least of all because Cypriot officials have said that they understand the position Greece finds itself in with its European partners and why it might wish to earn some goodwill be recognising Kosovo. It therefore appears increasingly likely that Athens will change its policy, despite continuing denials that it will do so. New direction in Cypriot foreign policy The fact that Cyprus sympathised with the Greek position did not in itself mean that it was willing to alter its strong opposition to Kosovo’s independence. Indeed, up until recently, it was seen as the most hard line member of the five. As President Papadopoulos stated soon after Kosovo declared independence, ‘Cyprus will not recognise Kosovo even if Serbia does.’ However, the fact that positions are
Gravity Bone left me wanting more, just like the old circus/vaudeville adage says entertainment is supposed to do.If you were to argue that there�s not a lot of good gameplay in this Petri Purho toss off, I sure wouldn�t disagree. There�s not much in the way of actual play involved at all, to be honest. But dang, it�s just so pretty. And it sounds so nice.A super minimalist shooter with myth based storyline from brilliant indie game designer Terry Cavanaugh. Many of the games on this list seem to be about paring back the excesses inherent in the big budget games developed by huge teams and replacing their overdone graphics with simple gameplay presented in a straightforward, lo-fi manner. Don�t Look Back does this all stylishly and with the sort of constant checkpointing tht allows even less skilled players (hello, self!) to enjoy the adventure.Gregory Weir�s jumping on text outing intersects videogames and reading in a thought provoking way. There certainly aren�t too many games that frontload poetry the way this one does, and that by itself makes the game one that warrants a closer bit of inspection.Created for Game Jolt�s minimal compo in the fall, Saut is a one-button platformer that utilizes only the spacebar for jumping as a control scheme. Given that I personally consider the constant learning curve of ridiculous button presses to be one of the scourges of modern video games, any countertrend towards lessening that is OK by me. Since Saut also piles on some nicely shadowed graphics and a zippy jazz rock score, it stands as a great example of just how successful a bare bones effort can be.Be real careful at the start in this seemingly unassuming platformer. You have been warned, because if you botch things early on you may well find further progress somewhat difficult. Conceptually, though, this game should be considered a real triumph.While only the first six-level demo of this 2D puzzle platformer is available as a freebie, that�s plenty when it comes to anything made by Nifflas�who has previously made the brilliant Knytt and Within a Dark Forest. This one is even a bit more polished than those previous efforts, and it ramps up the mechanics to create an interesting and enticing world that might have you laying out some cash for the full package.Derek Yu�s latest is a procedural platforming roguelike that it�s very possible you may see pop up as the dark horse choice on some end of the year best of lists. It�s polished, addictive, frustrating, and almost endlessly surprising, and unlike so many freebies it has almost no great flaws. A must play for anyone interested in the form.Extremely inventive black and white puzzle platformer with a totally unique style. One of the very best games on this entire list�there�s really nothing quite like it out there and I think that both developer Tyler Glaiel and lead artist Jon Schubbe are talents to keep an eye on.From the mind of Messhof comes this insanely beautiful looking and sounding pickup hoops game for one or two players. Just like on the playground you compete to be the first to score 11 baskets, and though it�s slightly unfortunate that you can�t swipe the ball from your opponent there�s enough going on visually that this isn�t a huge flaw.This game is eventually getting some sort of release that you�ll need to pay for, but testing it out and just playing around in the blocky sandbox simply needs a java enabled browser. What�s most fascinating is the lively community that�s growing up around Minecraft, as users create all sorts of assets and areas for others to utilize and explore�one build goes so far as to render the Reichstag in all its pixelated glory.Cute and stylish quickie platformer by one of the Machinarium developers, which though a bit slight overall has a rare and tasty look that sets it apart from the free platformer pack.Fascinating outing here from a student team at DePaul University, wherein you play first person as a comatose child that can only navigate via sound wave. Eerie dreamscape environments create a unique world that�s very much unlike anything I�ve ever seen and the sonic gameplay mechanic is the sort of innovative work you hope to see from budding designers.A pick up �n play island strategy game that�s way deeper and more engaging than it looks at first glance. The flat graphics belie that at base this is actually a fairly comprehensive strategy game, and something that for a freebie offers a surprising amount of thoughtful gameplay.This super minimal, rule changing platformer was a bit more challenging than I can generally hack, but twitch skilled gameplayers should really love it. An excellent effort and a solid design.Anna Anthropy�s cavern game for Ludum Dare 15. I�ll play anything she makes�even if they�re often too much for me to handle�and while this does not have the level of polish of many of her other projects as always there�s a thoughful bit of consideration behind all of her design choices.This one�s a new clone of some old PC game called Sky Roads that I�ve never played but that I�m sure has a great following out there. I�ll admit that I am pretty terrible for the most part at this one, but it�s really sharp looking overall and I even had fun while I died many, many times.There�s nine levels of 2D platformy shooter retrominimalism in this spiffy little number, and it all brims with a flair and verve that�s lacking in many commercial ventures. Additionally, for a game with very little graphic power it succeeds quite well in creating a sense of dank ambiance to its surroundings. Mega-twitch gamers may find it a bit too forgiving, but it�s right in the sweet spot for others.Ragtime Games� Flash student project is a mindbender of a game, utilizing the arrangement of sliding tiles to solve the seemingly ubiquitous video game key/door puzzle combo. From the looks of this one it would seem ultimately destined for the mobile phone environment, where it certainly will put to shame much of the shovelware clogging up that particular platform.Browser based, floaty driving game sort of in the Crazy Taxi mode as you bust ass around the city missing pedestrians and delivering �za. Developer Pixeljam�who are also responsible for Mountain Maniac lower down in this list�have shown themselves to be among the best free developers active today in bringing classic styled but updated video games to a browser near you.A truly great JRPG parody that hilariously eviscerates the corpse of an utterly warmed over old genre. This is much, much better than actually playing your typical JRPG.Solid browser game that combines a bit of management with top down driving as you build your heist team and try to make enough cash to retire. The interesting mechanics combine in a well thought out manner that entices the player to keep at it.Though a bit rough around the edges, this platformer�s cool graphics and friendly gameplay make it worth taking a shot on. The art style is really polished and stylized, bringing a fresh graphical take to the genre.This one is fantastic, a lo-fi old school platformer that�s loaded with inventiveness and creativity. Most games that are difficult in this manner I just find plain annoying, but this particular outing is so special that I just kept trying.As the title says, there�s really only one level. But what�s utterly brilliant here is how the rules change each time so that guiding your immobile elephant to safety stays fresh every time and forces you to constantly and carefully consider the set of rules under which you are operating. John Cooney�s absolutely genius Flash game is the sort of thing that makes it worthwhile to play games, and is easily one of the ten best games I played this year.78641 is a totally and completely insane, hysterical and sometimes crude RPG that is so much more fun to mess around in than those 75 hour grindfests I stopped playing some time back. I really have zero idea just what the heck is going on in the heads of these developers, but that�s a good thing. You can have your elves and orcs, I�ll stick with this.This one-button control scheme game has you dodging objects, running rooftops and scaring pigeons. Simple and sharp, with a great soundtrack. Resets also randomize, so you don�t ever quite know what�s coming. Excellent.This odd little platformer splits the screen into multiple panels and forces you to use combinations of your characters to suss out what needs to be done. Unpolished, but a promising start for developer Bernie Schulenburg.A cartoony word game ostensibly set in Victorian London, this game tests both mental alacrity and typing skill as you attempt to form words to destroy spiders out to steal some sort of secrets. Letters that appear at the bottom of the screen open new cells if you use them all, and as things speed up it all gets pretty frenzied. Nicely put together.An atmospheric little platformer made for Ludum Dare 15 where you need to follow a lit beacon to navigate thru some blackened caverns or you fall into the endless darkness. Dev ChevyRav really did yeoman�s work with this little 48 hour gem�I�d love to see what he can do with more time to play with.This toylike action/puzzle/platformer is very pretty�in a sort of J. Otto Seibold/Henry Selick kind of way�and though there are some definite gameplay issues that many carped about upon its release, I personally found it engaging enough to put up with those flaws.Awesomely animated 2D platformer by Greg Sergeant lets you multiply your character into doppelgangers that copy your actions to work your way through its 13 levels. Starts out deceptively simple before accelerating into a mind numbing difficulty.This mirror puzzle visual alacrity game by developers State of Games is really just a wonder of gorgeous Flash animation. A casual change of pace from the hardcore gaming grind, the game is both beautiful and strangely addictive.A Flash based adventure game that has some of the most unique art of any freebie I played this year. A wonderful attention to detail in the sound design also boosts this entrancing effort above the norm.Here�s a simple idea put to good solid use: chop holes in a colorful block wall so you can fit your own blocks through it. Not much more to it than that, and in this case that�s OK as the handful of levels offer a progressive challenge. The whole effort seems a little prototype-ish, but really: what do you want for nothin�?A great idea that should be done more often, this one deconstructs Valve�s well known AAA entry into a 2d flash game. The video game remake reductionism genre seems to me to be ripe for lots of further exploration�with big time corporate games headed down the path of ever finer graphical detail, we�ll hopefully be looking more and more for independent devs to outline the underlying mechanics and structures that are really what make these things work. [EDITOR'S NOTE: This title wasn't actually released in 2009, readers note, but we'll leave it in with that disclaimer, since it's still excellent.]Six levels of frenetic and pretty shoot-em-up style madness here in this Flash based outing. Play as pilot Red Rage taking on advancing and colorful hordes of planes and choppers and resort to the psycho mode when things get to be a bit much for you. Captivating.Another one from the Experimental Gameplay Projects minimalist competition, this one is like a browser based Flash version of futurist Paul Marinetti�s typographic experiments. If there was more interactive fiction that combined that sort of thing with an odd soundtrack that sounds like a Balinese gamelan band gone haywire, I�d be much less likely to flee in terror when I see that phrase come up.A pair of prototypes from the ever interesting Singapore/MIT GAMBIT Game Lab designed to explain physics concepts to middle schoolers. One uses a narrative to get its points across, but the other is entirely abstract in nature. As you might expect, the gameplay is fairly simple, but these are efforts that might actually convince me that �edutainment� might have some use after all.Ron Carmel of 2D Boy�s entry for the EGP minimal games compo, The Thing With 40 Eyes Girl is a Michael Jackson tribute involving flashing blocks you try to follow with mouseplay. It�s pretty disposably entertaining for a couple of playthroughs, but also a bit hard to follow at times. But for quickie minimalism with a beat, it�s just fine and dandy.Do you ever get sick of the video game trope that requires you to buy and add more equipment for your character to beat enemies and advance through its space? Well then, how about a metagame that pokes fun at that annoyance and requires you to buy everything - and I do mean everything - to reach the final screen? Antony�s wonderful tossed off commentary on the often pointless side of gaming speaks volumes about the pastime that we all lavish so much time on.An experimental Mario-type platformer that starts with the conceit of beginning at the end screen and progressing�or is it regressing?�from there. You need to un-collect coins and un-kill enemies to finish. Reversing the arrow of time forces you to rethink the way you approach some standard game situations.Meteorological time wasting in this little Flash game by Intuition Games where your one mouse button goal is to make bigger and bigger hailstones to crash into planes and buildings and the like. I�ll echo the commenters� notion that a sandbox mode would welcome, but even the time limited levels have enough entertainment value to keep one occupied for a time.Am I cheating on this one since it mostly came out in 2008 even though version 1.5 dropped in July of �09? You bet your ass I am, because far too few people played Swedish developer Daniel Remar�s lightly philosophical platform shooter last year. The mechanics are fairly standard 3rd person platform shooting and the story a typical alien invasion thing, and yet�Remar�s subtle and humorous ways of making you question the way you�re playing will have you wondering just who is the enemy here. Don�t miss.Fun physics based demolition games that raise the question: why isn�t there a AAA sim or at least PSN/Xbox Live game that uses this idea? You can�t tell me that a console version of a game where you roleplay as a dynamite setting team that brings down buildings could possibly lose money. In any case, both of these are ideal little while-away-the-time outings that keep the player into the action with a steadily ramped up challenge utilizing a drop dead simple mechanic.Wind up rabbit seeks tasty cake in record/playback button puzzle venture that requires you to record your actions with the arrow keys before hitting play to see if you�ve properly guided your mechanical lagomorph to over to the yummy dessert. In normal mode you can also adjust your actions with sliders above the field of play�which admittedly sometimes feels more like editing than gameplay. But the bunny is so happy when he gets his cake, so that makes it all worth it.Sure, OK, war is not a game. But this resource management WWII RTS that allows you to play as Allies or as Axis really delivers the goods for a freebie. Challenging, well made and downright f-u-n.A stylish puzzle game for the Unity web player that was made by students at DADIU in a single month, which makes the outcome especially impressive. The puzzles are well constructed and the whole outing has a really heartfelt manner to it that renders it likable and engaging. Can�t wait to see what these people go onto in the future.A Ludum Dare cavern entry that sports excellent blocky graphics and seems to be a bit of a Doom/key collectfest parody. I loved the amusing dialog and the style in general�but I�ll admit that just like most FPS key hunting games, it made me a little motion sick and I eventually ended up running around yelling �where is the $#!?#% [email protected]! orange key???�. Still fun.Created for the �Caverns� compo at Ludum Dare, this awesomely named little number distills its gameplay down to some of the most basic structural elements that mark the essence of the medium. Play as a colored square, battling other differently colored squares in a mysterious land below the earth!Flixel based platformer in which you jump from a plane and attempt to make it to the ground while avoiding all sorts of winged foes trying to do you in. The controls are wonky and a little tough to get a handle on, but the pure platformy goodness makes it worth a whirl.Odd point and click platformer from Springtail Studios has interesting graphical style and a sonic landscape that combines minimal low key music with incidental sounds to great effect. Mainly about setting with not a lot to the dialogue, it�s a pretty to look at puzzler that�s intriguing for the time it takes.Yet another creation from the seemingly limitless mind of jmtb02 (aka John Cooney), this one is a bit more straight ahead than his meta-games (Achievement Unlocked, This Is the Only Level) but packs an entertaining wallop nonetheless. Get the ubiquitous elephant cross country to win in another lovingly crafted entry from one of today�s best Flash game designers.This one�s a true reductio ad absurdum that boils down a Valve classic even further than Hen Mazolski and Ido Tal�s Flash Portal does. The zombie shoot �em up is taken and crammed into a puny 4 kb, and though that limitation means it�s not always that faithful an adaptation it remains an attention grabbing outing even so.The free version of Jason Rohrer�s tile and grid puzzler for the iPhone seems ridiculously simple at first but becomes more and more addictive and complex as time goes on. What I like most about this one is the lack of time limit in placing your colored tiles�it gives a leisurely and casual feel to a type of game that is generally more frenetic and stressful.An excellent diminutive Flash puzzler where you slice down shapes with your mouse without running into the bouncing ball inside it. The 16 or so levels available make for a nice quick lunchtime spin through.Test your timing and wreak havoc on the roads in this auto mayhem crashfest. It�s really as simple as that, and there are sure times that we all just need some basic arcadey action from this pastime.A physics based browser game from Nitrome, Icebreaker utilizes a drag-your-mouse-to-cut mechanic which you then use to free Vikings from ice in an escalating series of challenges. A fairly straight ahead brainteaser but performed well�though I could have lived without the slight pseudo steel band/reggae soundtrack.Along with the �deconstructed games� model evinced by things like Flash and ASCII Portal, another freeware trend that I�d like to see more of is something like this�a sequel to an older game whose development seems to have halted. (Hopefully someone out there is working on a freeware SSX or Rayman platformer). The game in question here is a Japanese restaurant/business sim for PlayStation that never got a domestic release. While Vertigo�s graphics for this are pretty crude, the gameplay mechanic is action packed and engaging as you manage customers in a food service sim.While dev Event Cascade claims not to even like his own games, from this corner a repurposing of chess into a puzzle game that uses the set of rules you�ve already internalized for the historic game is quite damned brilliant. Though these efforts are short and a bit scattered, there�s enough of a nugget of genius herein to make you wish he�d buckle down and give these games the attention they would seem to deserve.The concept of this platformer breaks little new ground�your money grubbing character needs to collect coins while avoiding creatures that kill him when touched�but the execution is spot on enough to make the endeavor a blast. It�s slightly unforgiving since a single mishap in a level will result in a coin spewing death, but the game�s verve and humor will keep you reloading time after time.Edmund McMillen�s existential dystopian platformer is a thoughtful puzzlefest that has you playing as a robot able to manipulate dimensions who is also trapped in time and constantly texts you from the past/future (?).The difficulty ramps up a bit abruptly at times, but TF�s a good solid freebie with a unique mise-en-scene. Add in the fact that the game allows for user generated content and you�ve got yourself a real winner.Eli Polinen�s clever platformer stars a lonely soul who states in an opening allegory that �I used to find joy in the company of others. Now I have only the company of myself�. To that end, this hermit must navigate the world and overcome its obstacles by duplicating his own self, using the shadow runs that result to bootstrap himself past whatever comes his way. Clearly inspired by Braid, this quality piece nonetheless has its own charms�thoughtful puzzles, a fitting piano score and touching narrative among them.Greg Weir�s lo-fi dragon raising RPG pares the genre down to the sparest elements possible but also brings his digital storytelling skills to the forefront. As the titular character, the choices you make through the tale�s four chapters vary the narrative in different ways with everything unfolding with an affective and amusing air. Another success from a game designer whose every outing seemingly moves the medium forward.Ninjadoodle�s pure, unadulterated arcade reflex challenge is made up of 42 rapid fire levels for the player as you race through attempting to garner the fastest time. The essence of a good, solid pickup and play lunchtime game.Now this here, THIS is like giving out free samples of crack to schoolkids. Popcap�s evil genius surfaces again as the Flash version of their brilliantly balanced tower defense game draws you and leaves you needing more when you get cut off. We�ll see if you have the willpower to resist the purchase version after you play through the 14 levels the company is giving away here.Tom Sennett and Matt Thorson�s candy colored platformer is a wonder to behold, a no holds barred excursion into sidescrolling excitement. A simple, childlike art style and brilliant old Americana tune soundtrack backstop gameplay that allows any entrant to pick up and play but still gives the hardcore a means to prove their twitch-worthiness. Spectacular.An Indiecade finalist that came out of a Digipen team�s assignment to create an ASCII style game, Sowlar is a casualesque farming sim that hearkens back to the earlier days of computer games with its stripped down aesthetic. While Sowlar doesn�t do anything remarkably unique, the attention paid to details like ease of use and interface design make this a fine take on the Harvest Moon style genre.In many ways, the basic platformer is really my most favorite type of video game, and this one is a heartfelt and eminently playable piece about a man and his fox. It�s all a bit twee, but its evergreen montane setting is note perfect and the attention paid to the sound design aids greatly in making the surroundings work.A browser based trebuchet game that reminds me a fair bit of Demolition City, in that the levels are based on figuring out the physics of knocking down structures. The creators also allow players to build and upload their own castles, adding some user created fun into the mix.A really unique chemistry based physics platformer that has you collecting gases while avoiding bonds and metals. The faux mouth harp soundtrack thing sure gets pretty old right quick (though it is mute-able), but the game itself is fresh and fun in its own little way.Pure platforming goodness here from developer Jackson Lewis as he gives away the first 26 levels of this leisurely paced mail delivering game. High quality art spruces up the somewhat warmed over gameplay mechanics and helps make this intro to the game well worth taking a shot on.David Shute�s entry into Casual Gameplay Competition #6 is an enthralling 15 minute minimal exploration game featuring beautifully blocky graphics, well paced wayfinding that draws you in and a fitting background soundtrack. The ending is a little problematic to my mind, but the rest features some of the most tempting exploration that I found in any game during this calendar year.A fine example of interpreting public domain works into videogame form, this one takes the classic Grimm fairy tale and weaves it into a nice point and click adventure. The experience of the world is conveyed beautifully with foreboding, oboe-dominated music backstopping some lovely drab paletted artwork that echoes early cut-out animation in style. Altogether a great and interesting little package from developer Makopudding.A light little platformer by Mateusz Skutnick where you are an avatar working your way through the usual jumping puzzles to get to the exit without dying. The main attraction here is the substitution of a word-as-the-thing-in-itself in representing the sorts of objects you are used to encountering in this type of venture.Episode 5 in Jesse Venbrux� suicide series again has you acting as a salaryman out to impale himself on spikes thru 60 levels of business office hell. The design here strikes me as looking at games at much the same way as Cooney�s This Is the Only Level�there�s a constant assessment of the rules involved to pass a particular stage, and only sizing up the situation will allow you to die and move on. This is, of course, itself a complete and total subversion of the normal approach to advancing in video games�that alone recommends this one.The beautiful cardboard cutout look and low key, two chord music belie just how tricky this �casual� game really is. Piloting a plane that can spew paint which turns treacherous ground to blue sky, you�ll try to maneuver your craft through some of the most original videogame environments you�re likely to see this year. Unfortunately, you�ll also die. A lot.Now in beta, this amazing indie MMORPG has some issues but transcends with style and approach. Traipse around a boxy pixelated world building things and swordfighting with others, earning tokens by building out cells and learning how to perform actions like megajumping. It�s all a bit confusing and not a little buggy (though it is a beta, so this is to be expected), but even simply signing up just to take a stroll around the fantastically imagined world is well worth the cost in time.While chances are this�ll eventually be some sort of paid game, this entrant into a 2Bee games contest packs enough musical block puzzling in it to warrant a mention here. The gameplay involves selecting colored blocks to the dulcet tones of whatever music you choose and eliminating them before the screen fills up. Other obstacles are thrown at you along the way, and the end result is a nice puzzler to while away the time.Extremely lo-fi platform browser trip to the Land of the Dead by Japan�s Nekogames. The absurdly crude graphics end up quite charming and the game�s funeral soundtrack adds the right touch of background for your stint in the land below the earth.A nice ten minute adventure game with a slick look to it. Very well executed and with a sense of honest simplicity that infuses the whole venture.From HiVE, creators of the excellent free time management game Waxy�s Sushi Party now comes this gigantic and beautifully hand drawn platformer. There are some gameplay issues�for one, I don�t really want to engage in the sort of endless collectathon that got tiresome in platformers years ago�but the quality of art style and amount of free content on display here make it a game deserving of perusal.Here�s a nice, relaxing retro flash game that acts largely as a sort of pixellated quincunx board. Your lumberjack avatar hammers out big rocks that then course down the side of a mountain pachinko-style, pancaking everything in its path. Players who want everything to be skill based may object to the general amount of luck involved in the outcome, but gamers willing to give a little control over to chance should find the destructive gameplay a diversionary enjoyment.Indonesian dev Yohanes Suyanto brings us this well crafted ball-drop game, a casual pleasure in which you draw boxes with your mouse causing colored balls to drop on squares of the same hue. Surprisingly habit-forming for such a simple concept, the maker�s creatively minimal score also helps to make Balbodro a chromatic pleasure.Though it�s a pretty short venture, A Mazing Monk displays great thought and high quality animations throughout its short stint. Created by students at DADIU and a 2010 IGF Student entrant, the game is a smart puzzler in which you seek enlightenment by rotating a Rubik�s cube-esque platform around to avoid obstacles and seek an exit.Pixelated�s December 2009 experimental episodic game is an attempt to put together 4 weeks of games with differing mechanics to�in the developer�s words��create emotional experiences that are more personal and different from the ones traditional game design has to offer�. It�s happily tutorial-less, and though as I write this only the first two exploratory worlds have been released there�s enough even there to allow for inclusion on this list.Finally, if you liked the 99 games on the list above, here�s a whole bunch of other spots that you should check out to keep up with what�s coming for free:Caitlyn Jenner is just the latest reality TV star with political ambitions, RadarOnline.com has learned. But according to an insider, it’s not Jenner herself who will be campaigning for office. Instead, a source told Radar, she’s got her sights set on helping Kanye West make America great again – and Kim Kardashian is not pleased. As Radar reported, Jenner shocked the world when she attended President Donald Trump’s inauguration in Washington DC last week, with not a single family member by her side. PHOTOS: Family Discord: Kourtney Kardashian’s Kids & Brother Rob Haven’t Seen Caitlyn Jenner Since Her Transformation — Find Out Who Else ‘Can’t Deal’ Kim and Kourtney Kardashian had come out in support of Hillary Clinton, but West has spoken out in support of the President and even met with him in DC. Now, according to the insider, Jenner sees him as her ticket into the world of politics. PHOTOS: Love & Marriage Kimye-Style! The Couple’s Top 15 Dirtiest Secrets “Caitlyn and Kanye have bonded a lot over President Trump,” a source close to the family said, adding that Jenner is secretly the one pushing West to run for President himself! But the source said, “of course Kim does not want Kanye to run for President! She does not want the humiliation of him ever running for any office.” Do you think that Caitlyn Jenner is overstepping her bounds? Tell us your thoughts below. We pay for juicy info! Do you have a story for RadarOnline.com? Email us at tips@radaronline.com, or call us at 800-344-9598 any time, day or night.The inscription was made for malaya-siMha, a general of the Tripuri kalachuri king vijaya-siMha-deva and several of his officials like a certain hari-sImha. The Sanskrit looks pretty strange to me in some places but it has some interesting information. It was most likely made on 30th July 1193 CE, even as the rampage of the army of Islam was occurring further north and east – around the very same time Bhaktiar ud-din Khalji was destroying Nalanda and slaughtering its community. But malaya-siMha launches into a long celebration of his great deeds of archery and the achievements of his ministers. It seems to appear that malaya-siMha and his panegyrist were blissfully unaware of the coming storm that was to end his all too familiar world. Earlier, vijaya-siMha’s father jaya-siMha defeated Shihab-ud-din Ghori in around 1180 CE during one of his early incursion towards the Indian heartland. But squandered his power in battles with the chandellas and other kalachuris where he was badly beaten despite his fiery archery. It was during that invasion of the turuShka that the saiddhAntika vimala-shiva had supposedly performed abhichArika rites for his victory. There is evidence from medieval manuals of mantra-s that ma~njugoSha was worshipped by the Astika-s. The Rewa inscription provides one clear cut example in this regard from central India. It is clear the composer was an Astika because he declares himself to be a vaidIka in rather immodest terms: tarke j~nAta matIva yasya chatura shabdArtha shAstre tathA mImAmsAdhigato vipashchid-abhavad vedAnta-yogAdi dhI \| vedAbhyAsarata sadA suviduShAM mUrdhni prabaddhaa~njalir vipra shrI puruShottamo bhuvi mahAn buddhyA cha vAchaspati \|\| Here, he states that he is well-versed in logic, grammar and language, mImAmsa, vedAnta, yoga and devotes himself to vedic study. It is interesting that he terms himself vAchaspati – could it be an allusion to ma~njugoSha the deity with which he opens the inscription and feels some personal connection? The invocation of ma~njughoSha runs thus: aSTaara-chakraakR^iti pUrNachandra padmAsanastha hima-shaila-gauraM \| savyetarA pANiga [or savyetarapaNiga?] khaDga pusta vakShyAmi natvA khalu ma~njughoShaM \|\| Here, ma~njughoSha is described as being white as the himAlaya, seated in the lotus seat of the full moon of the form of a wheel with 8 spokes. He bears a sword in right and book in his left hand. While bauddha-s were extensively patronized by the kalachuri-s, malayasiMha and his men seem to be predominantly Astika-s. In fact vedAnta is described as being upheld with great fervor in intellectual debates in his city. This suggests that by end of the 1100s an integration of the nAstika pantheon, which was once so virulently anti-Astika, into the larger unified Hindu fold was well underway. Further, understanding of this assimilation of ma~njughoSha (ma~njushrI) in the Astika mantra-shAstra might be obtained by comparing his iconography in the bauddha and Astika realms. It is well-known that the early development of ma~njushrI in the nAstika realm was highly influenced by the now faded kaumAra shAsana (one may look at our earlier note on the ma~njushrI-mUla-kalpa and its acquisition of kaumAra mantra-s). But this is not the issue we are considering here. We are looking at his later development, well after he had evolved beyond the ma~njushrI mUla-kalpa. In the historical/archeological sense we observe such developments relatively late, especially in the kalachuri and adjoining chAlukya realms. Beyond the Rewa inscription we find another striking illustration of the Hindu ma~njushrI in the form of an utsava mUrti in the Baroda museum – possibly from the kalachuri realm of king karNa. Here the central figure of ma~njushrI is flanked on either side by vinAyaka and viShNu. In the south in Karnataka we find temples of ma~njughoSha termed ma~njunAtha (also in Nepal, e.g. Kathmandu ma~njunAtha), which are associated with the chAlukya-s, coastal pANDya-s and southern kalachuri-s in their origin. We see that the ma~njughoSha of Rewa inscription does not closely match the iconography of ma~njughosha as represented in his sAdhana-s in the popular bauddha Tantric compendium the sAdhana mAlA. Here we find that ma~njughoSha is golden in color and holding a lotus and vyAkhyAna mudra and may be depicted as riding a line. Again in the description of the dharma-dhAtu-vAgIShvara maNDala where he is prominent, he is depicted as having attributes like the sword and book, but with 8 hands and 4 multi-colored heads. Instead, we find that the ma~njughoSha of the Rewa inscription has elements closer to the dhyAna-s of other forms of ma~njushrI in the bauddha tantra-s, namely that of dharma-dhAtu-vAgIshvara, ma~njuvajra and arapachana. With all of them Rewa ma~njugoSha shares the lotus-moon seat and usually tend to hold a book and sword, though they may have multiple heads or differ in color. However, when we turn to the Astika tantra-s we find a close match to Rewa ma~njughoSha in their dhyAna shloka-s of ma~njughoSha. We find two major references to ma~njughoSha in the medieval tantric manuals: the shrIvidyArNava of vidyAraNya yati and the tantra sAra of AgamavAgIsha from the va~nga country. Here the ma~njughoSha mantra-s are variants of the famous nAstika mantra rAja: arapachana dhIH \|\| It is cited as being derived from older lost tantra-s known as the bhairava-tantra (possibly a general reference to the bhairava-tantras?), Agamottara and the kukkuteshvara tantra [Though R1’s father informs me that kukkuteshvara manuscripts were possibly extant in Nepal]. In these Astika tantra-s we find two dhyAna-s. The shrIvidyArNava dhyAna 1: saMpUrNa-mANdala-tuShara-marIchi-madhye bAlaM vichintya dhavalaM vara-khaDga-hastaM \| uddAma-kesha-nivahaM [ka~NkaNa-vahaM] vara-pustakAdhyaM prauDhaM [nagnaM] japet kShataja-padma-dalAyatAkShaM \|\| In this dhyAna we note he is seated on a full moon, holds the book and the sword and is white in complexion, thus largely matching the form in the inscription. The second dhyAna is interestingly is related to the ma~njughoSha mentioned in a single arapachana sAdhana composed by the nAst
his own mock suicide…Untitled a guest Sep 13th, 2014 6,504 Never a guest6,504Never Not a member of Pastebin yet? Sign Up, it unlocks many cool features! rawdownloadcloneembedreportprint text 14.50 KB Monthly update: August/September (1/2) From: [REDACTED] Sent: 2014.09.13 08:55 To: [REDACTED], Hello spacefriends, It's time again to bring you a regularly scheduled monthly update on the progress of corp. In this update we will also announce some exciting projects that have been ongoing and will upcoming, as well as bring everyone up to speed on some information that has been held as top-secret up until now. This month has been a busy one, and many of you have put in countless hours to get us where we are today. For this we owe you each our sincerest gratitude, however it seems there is no rest for the wicked as with this update will also come a call-to-arms of sorts, combined with a special opportunity for loyal members to be rewarded for their hard work. Mystery, intrigue, and oh the ambiguity. All in this episode of [REDACTED] monthly update... Monthly Corporate Update Much of the progress of the group has been happeneing behind closed doors, as some of you are more aware than others we have a growing number of projects concurrent on a corporate and external investment level. It's time to come clean and say: we've been keeping you mostly all in the dark. This was done both intentionally and as a byproduct of security measures we've been taking to ensure recruitment goes smoothly along with the expansion of some rather expensive projects. However, it's now coming time to draw back the curtains and start to level the playing field in terms of knowledge of what seems to be the multi-billion dollar question: what is it that we do, exactly? Well it turns out that each of you have been playing a part in an extremely large scale building operation. The nature of this production is such that very few people in eve even get to see it take place, let alone take part in it, so you should each feel very proud. Each of you have earned the privilege to be at least informed on what is cooking so here is the bombshell: Supercarriers, many many Supercarriers. The deathweapons and workhorses of the alliance and coalition battlefield is a specialty which we have chosen, and invested tens of billions in. That investment has come from personal wallets of leadership members, from revenue that has been generated on corporate ops, and some limited amounts have even been leveraged from external investors. The profit from this will be going primarily back into the program helping it to accelerate up to maximum capability... More info below. PI will be shifting soon as we continue to seek more fertile grounds for Coolant production. However, there are some updated recommendations on setups resulting from a better understanding of everyone's playstyles and availability. Otherwise no major changes this month... More info below. Science jobs are beginning to output for final sale, and this month we will sit down to look at some projections as well as poll the science group on how you feel the project should expand next. This should also see the first increase in scientist rate of pay... More info below. Mining is slowing down as all of us are becoming more innundated with life, returning to school, etc. Additionally with upcoming projects, the focus of corp will be gradually shifting from one of a more active mining and extraction core to one of more fun regular activities, combat training etc. There will still be scheduled ops, but they will be reducing in frequency for the remainder of the month... More info below. Many of you are becoming more restricted in your gameplay time, however you shouldn't be discouraged because in EvE we have answers for some very complex problems such as needing to play a game in order to progress in it. Hopefully you have been good little capsuleers and have been farming your wallets up nice and high, because this month we will be introducing a new way for members to make passive isk by investing directly in corporate projects... More info below. Production Update But back to supercarrier production, we don't just produce them, we are actually a finely tuned machine capable of production lines sizable enough to support at least a single large alliance. A mind-boggling amount of isk comes through our doors each month, and that number will only continue to grow. However, the caveat is that with such large scale production also comes large risk, and so we have made a series of decisions starting last month that has created a very distinct barrier of safety between prying eyes and possible clicks. All of our corporate production happens in a closed corporation, and very soon will be moving to an entirely different system. More details will become available as we move toward acquisition of yet another system. (Yes, we're also acquiring another system) However the production is no less ours because it runs under another corporate ticker, this is simply a strategic decision to ensure that all investments are kept safe and as well to facilitate easier logistics as this type of production is very, very heavy on logistics. When all is said and done some hundreds of millions of m3 of ore will have been passed to us in one form or another, for every single ship that we build, and our current production cranks a ship every two weeks to ten days. Our personal mining and corporate ops combined make up around 1% of this (granted the most valuable percent) so roughly equated, we are responsible for mining enough for the hood ornament on each of these ships. The rest is shipped directly from highsec by another program that has been rapidly expanding: highsec ore buying. To help in a long term and meaningful sense, we have partnered up with (or decided to run, I'm never quite sure which) a dedicated highsec mining corp which will be a semi-autonomous ore collection machine co-ran by myself and mister [REDACTED]. Later this month I will follow up with some more information about who they are and what they do, but more or less we're going to begin collecting some newbro friends who will be spending time on our comms and hopefully learning from the more experienced group (you), and of course eventually being groomed to join us when they are ready for the challenges our space presents. Until such time as better avenues are found to increase ore procurement, members shouldn't stress over lack of participation, but instead simply mine and donate high end ores when you are available to play as an acceptable alternative. =D *** INTERMISSION * Dear BOB I hope there's no character limit on corp mails... We're almost there... Go and take a bio break and come back, you're going to need it... * INTERMISSION * PI Update For PI we are still on a mission to find higher density resources that can be used for Coolant production. This has very recently taken a rather positive turn with extremely fresh news on a system merger (or partial merger) beginning with a jump-bridge being finally placed in [REDACTED]. The destination system will be nearby spatially, but actually in a nextdoor region which offers interesting potential for PI and other logistics. In specific there will be twin Storm planets and an Oceanic that will broaden the scope of our current options quite considerably. That system and arrangement is still in the process and so I'm not at liberty to really say anything too concrete at the moment other than it will very likely change how we reccomend players set up PI networks, and likely very soon it will revolve around moving to another system entirely via jump bridge to complete your daily PI maintenance. When that change is ready, I will send a detailed mail on this topic. Additionally, with shifting play times and availability, players should be switching PI colonies over to matching lengths. We are close to prototyping a method of very long-chain P2 extraction that could facilitate otherwise inactive players to still make a few hundred million isk per month, and combined with science pay could very likely still pay at least a PLEX/mo. (continued on part 2) Monthly update: August/September (2/2) From: [REDACTED] Sent: 2014.09.13 08:55 To: [REDACTED], (continued from part 1) Science Update It's been a long first cycle, but this month will finally see the first blueprints making it out to final sale stages, and turning into revenue. Initially I had imagined we would now go and sell all of the blueprints and then use the isk to start new jobs, however I had made a rather drastic oversight in that the layover period could be weeks, months, or even infinate. So we quickly scrapped that plan in lieu of even MORE jobs being purchased to be used in the interim of the first set being sold. So if for some reason you still have empty slots, there are still stacks of prints ready to be put in for first-pass research, speak to myself to get sorted. The rate of scientist pay will be changing this month as well, as we begin toward the promised graduated step-up program that will see our current 50/50 profit split (between corp and members) traded for a more reasonable 10% tax profile once the project reaches maximum efficiency and operating frequency. What exactly that rate of graduated increase will be is yet to be determined, and I think it's appropraite to have members of the science program weigh in and help us decide what shall be the fate of the program. We have choices that involve multiple avenues of expansion, as well as simply moving to a higher rate of pay, faster. So look for a mail on that top with a link to an online poll to float in later this month as we approach the landmark of our first blueprint sales. If you are just coming back from being inactive, and still need to set jobs, a few things have changed: 1) we now will be stocking really high quality teams for this, so don't ever set a job now without one (unless you talk to me first) 2) we have moved arrays around, and will be using the new Hysayoda Research array named [REDACTED] (don't use the old array) 3) we have stocked research implants for both types of research, you will need to buy them from me but the total cost is 50m for both, so hopefully you can manage. Of course you will need to speak with me to get the Active Research role anyway to facilitate putting on jobs and I will remind you of these changes at that time, but just so you are prepared or I'm forgetful, those 3 things must now be observed for any science jobs to be considered valid, so make sure you do them or you won't get paid! Mining Update Again, more of the same story, you all have gone back to work/school for the most part and I'm sad panda mining all alone. No, just kidding. This month and the next few will be challenging for all of us to keep up with our previous play schedules, this is just how life works. If you haven't noticed the corp ops have been dramatically reduced in frequency, and it's likely to stay that way until winter break. If you are some crazy individual still out mining, I will begin to publish a list of what ores I need the most prioritized, so hopefully in between days spent at the ice belt you can scrape me up some of that, but otherwise this portion of corp is going to go inactive in lieu of more fun activities anyway. If we need some emergency ores for production expect an op to be called, and I will notify you by mail if/when that is the case. Otherwise enjoy your hiatus from mining, and we'll see you for some 10 and 12h grind ops around xmas! Investors Update Yes, very very soon this will be a thing. As more of you have been getting closer to goals for beginning your personal investment portfolios I have been watching corporate finances and waiting for a time that those two objectives can meet in the middle. For some of you this past month has been troubling with some of the learning curves to passive income and playtime balace being introduced, and I've pushed a particular few of you toward goals that will secure your financial future as part of the purpose of this corporation. However finally now, we're ready to amalgomate those services into a tighter package, and open our first ever corporate investment portfolio option that should kill around 5 birds with one stone. Here is how the system would work: Our large scale production is one of many possible avenues of investment that will be used as leverage to build corporate wealth. Each of you as individuals will be offered the opportunity to invest directly into those corporate wealth pools up to a maximum for the project which will likely be set near 50b with a 500m or 1b minimum principle invesment incriment. That 50b investment maximum could be considered as open slots, and when they are filled the project would need to be re-evaluated prior to opening any more slots op or allowing further investment. The implications of this are such that under full load, an interest payment would be given to each investment holder each month (or other decided interval), and could not be added to the investment option and allowed to compound. However, so long as there is available space in the program, interest payments made to individuals could be allowed to be re-deposited and then in turn compounded upon until the maximum is reached. At the moment one of the biggest bottlenecks in corporate growth is of a basic liquid financial nature. The need for investment capital can be seen across all projects, across all of our current investments and deployments. Invested isk would be used for any and all programs within corp, in a ratio that we can all help to shape in a pseudo-democratic process that is ongoing within corp. The goal of the project is multi-fold; to allow the corp much needed bulk finances to fund corporate project expansions and new project startups, to earn isk for members who may or may not be able to leverage other investment portfolio options alone, and most importantly to reward players who intend to remain with us by offering a greater weight in our success story. As we grow financially, so too will you. However this project would also come with some risk, that will be detailed in an unbiased exploitive mail later this month as well... * THE END! * That's it for this update guys, I know I've been pretty ambiguous about things that are happening but that's because I don't want to jeopardize what is being negotiated/changing currently, and that is some really really massive stuff that will hopefully catapult us toward some of the best corps and groups in eve in terms of financial and economic power and stability. The individual update mails that will come this month will clear up many of the details that I'm sure you all are wondering about. [REDACTED] love for everyone, talk to you all soon. ~[REDACTED] RAW Paste Data Monthly update: August/September (1/2) From: [REDACTED] Sent: 2014.09.13 08:55 To: [REDACTED], Hello spacefriends, It's time again to bring you a regularly scheduled monthly update on the progress of corp. In this update we will also announce some exciting projects that have been ongoing and will upcoming, as well as bring everyone up to speed on some information that has been held as top-secret up until now. This month has been a busy one, and many of you have put in countless hours to get us where we are today. For this we owe you each our sincerest gratitude, however it seems there is no rest for the wicked as with this update will also come a call-to-arms of sorts, combined with a special opportunity for loyal members to be rewarded for their hard work. Mystery, intrigue, and oh the ambiguity. All in this episode of [REDACTED] monthly update... Monthly Corporate Update Much of the progress of the group has been happeneing behind closed doors, as some of you are more aware than others we have a growing number of projects concurrent on a corporate and external investment level. It's time to come clean and say: we've been keeping you mostly all in the dark. This was done both intentionally and as a byproduct of security measures we've been taking to ensure recruitment goes smoothly along with the expansion of some rather expensive projects. However, it's now coming time to draw back the curtains and start to level the playing field in terms of knowledge of what seems to be the multi-billion dollar question: what is it that we do, exactly? Well it turns out that each of you have been playing a part in an extremely large scale building operation. The nature of this production is such that very few people in eve even get to see it take place, let alone take part in it, so you should each feel very proud. Each of you have earned the privilege to be at least informed on what is cooking so here is the bombshell: Supercarriers, many many Supercarriers. The deathweapons and workhorses of the alliance and coalition battlefield is a specialty which we have chosen, and invested tens of billions in. That investment has come from personal wallets of leadership members, from revenue that has been generated on corporate ops, and some limited amounts have even been leveraged from external investors. The profit from this will be going primarily back into the program helping it to accelerate up to maximum capability... More info below. PI will be shifting soon as we continue to seek more fertile grounds for Coolant production. However, there are some updated recommendations on setups resulting from a better understanding of everyone's playstyles and availability. Otherwise no major changes this month... More info below. Science jobs are beginning to output for final sale, and this month we will sit down to look at some projections as well as poll the science group on how you feel the project should expand next. This should also see the first increase in scientist rate of pay... More info below. Mining is slowing down as all of us are becoming more innundated with life, returning to school, etc. Additionally with upcoming projects, the focus of corp will be gradually shifting from one of a more active mining and extraction core to one of more fun regular activities, combat training etc. There will still be scheduled ops, but they will be reducing in frequency for the remainder of the month... More info below. Many of you are becoming more restricted in your gameplay time, however you shouldn't be discouraged because in EvE we have answers for some very complex problems such as needing to play a game in order to progress in it. Hopefully you have been good little capsuleers and have been farming your wallets up nice and high, because this month we will be introducing a new way for members to make passive isk by investing directly in corporate projects... More info below. Production Update But back to supercarrier production, we don't just produce them, we are actually a finely tuned machine capable of production lines sizable enough to support at least a single large alliance. A mind-boggling amount of isk comes through our doors each month, and that number will only continue to grow. However, the caveat is that with such large scale production also comes large risk, and so we have made a series of decisions starting last month that has created a very distinct barrier of safety between prying eyes and possible clicks. All of our corporate production happens in a closed corporation, and very soon will be moving to an entirely different system. More details will become available as we move toward acquisition of yet another system. (Yes, we're also acquiring another system) However the production is no less ours because it runs under another corporate ticker, this is simply a strategic decision to ensure that all investments are kept safe and as well to facilitate easier logistics as this type of production is very, very heavy on logistics. When all is said and done some hundreds of millions of m3 of ore will have been passed to us in one form or another, for every single ship that we build, and our current production cranks a ship every two weeks to ten days. Our personal mining and corporate ops combined make up around 1% of this (granted the most valuable percent) so roughly equated, we are responsible for mining enough for the hood ornament on each of these ships. The rest is shipped directly from highsec by another program that has been rapidly expanding: highsec ore buying. To help in a long term and meaningful sense, we have partnered up with (or decided to run, I'm never quite sure which) a dedicated highsec mining corp which will be a semi-autonomous ore collection machine co-ran by myself and mister [REDACTED]. Later this month I will follow up with some more information about who they are and what they do, but more or less we're going to begin collecting some newbro friends who will be spending time on our comms and hopefully learning from the more experienced group (you), and of course eventually being groomed to join us when they are ready for the challenges our space presents. Until such time as better avenues are found to increase ore procurement, members shouldn't stress over lack of participation, but instead simply mine and donate high end ores when you are available to play as an acceptable alternative. =D * INTERMISSION * Dear BOB I hope there's no character limit on corp mails... We're almost there... Go and take a bio break and come back, you're going to need it... * INTERMISSION * PI Update For PI we are still on a mission to find higher density resources that can be used for Coolant production. This has very recently taken a rather positive turn with extremely fresh news on a system merger (or partial merger) beginning with a jump-bridge being finally placed in [REDACTED]. The destination system will be nearby spatially, but actually in a nextdoor region which offers interesting potential for PI and other logistics. In specific there will be twin Storm planets and an Oceanic that will broaden the scope of our current options quite considerably. That system and arrangement is still in the process and so I'm not at liberty to really say anything too concrete at the moment other than it will very likely change how we reccomend players set up PI networks, and likely very soon it will revolve around moving to another system entirely via jump bridge to complete your daily PI maintenance. When that change is ready, I will send a detailed mail on this topic. Additionally, with shifting play times and availability, players should be switching PI colonies over to matching lengths. We are close to prototyping a method of very long-chain P2 extraction that could facilitate otherwise inactive players to still make a few hundred million isk per month, and combined with science pay could very likely still pay at least a PLEX/mo. (continued on part 2) Monthly update: August/September (2/2) From: [REDACTED] Sent: 2014.09.13 08:55 To: [REDACTED], (continued from part 1) Science Update It's been a long first cycle, but this month will finally see the first blueprints making it out to final sale stages, and turning into revenue. Initially I had imagined we would now go and sell all of the blueprints and then use the isk to start new jobs, however I had made a rather drastic oversight in that the layover period could be weeks, months, or even infinate. So we quickly scrapped that plan in lieu of even MORE jobs being purchased to be used in the interim of the first set being sold. So if for some reason you still have empty slots, there are still stacks of prints ready to be put in for first-pass research, speak to myself to get sorted. The rate of scientist pay will be changing this month as well, as we begin toward the promised graduated step-up program that will see our current 50/50 profit split (between corp and members) traded for a more reasonable 10% tax profile once the project reaches maximum efficiency and operating frequency. What exactly that rate of graduated increase will be is yet to be determined, and I think it's appropraite to have members of the science program weigh in and help us decide what shall be the fate of the program. We have choices that involve multiple avenues of expansion, as well as simply moving to a higher rate of pay, faster. So look for a mail on that top with a link to an online poll to float in later this month as we approach the landmark of our first blueprint sales. If you are just coming back from being inactive, and still need to set jobs, a few things have changed: 1) we now will be stocking really high quality teams for this, so don't ever set a job now without one (unless you talk to me first) 2) we have moved arrays around, and will be using the new Hysayoda Research array named [REDACTED] (don't use the old array) 3) we have stocked research implants for both types of research, you will need to buy them from me but the total cost is 50m for both, so hopefully you can manage. Of course you will need to speak with me to get the Active Research role anyway to facilitate putting on jobs and I will remind you of these changes at that time, but just so you are prepared or I'm forgetful, those 3 things must now be observed for any science jobs to be considered valid, so make sure you do them or you won't get paid! Mining Update Again, more of the same story, you all have gone back to work/school for the most part and I'm sad panda mining all alone. No, just kidding. This month and the next few will be challenging for all of us to keep up with our previous play schedules, this is just how life works. If you haven't noticed the corp ops have been dramatically reduced in frequency, and it's likely to stay that way until winter break. If you are some crazy individual still out mining, I will begin to publish a list of what ores I need the most prioritized, so hopefully in between days spent at the ice belt you can scrape me up some of that, but otherwise this portion of corp is going to go inactive in lieu of more fun activities anyway. If we need some emergency ores for production expect an op to be called, and I will notify you by mail if/when that is the case. Otherwise enjoy your hiatus from mining, and we'll see you for some 10 and 12h grind ops around xmas! Investors Update Yes, very very soon this will be a thing. As more of you have been getting closer to goals for beginning your personal investment portfolios I have been watching corporate finances and waiting for a time that those two objectives can meet in the middle. For some of you this past month has been troubling with some of the learning curves to passive income and playtime balace being introduced, and I've pushed a particular few of you toward goals that will secure your financial future as part of the purpose of this corporation. However finally now, we're ready to amalgomate those services into a tighter package, and open our first ever corporate investment portfolio option that should kill around 5 birds with one stone. Here is how the system would work: Our large scale production is one of many possible avenues of investment that will be used as leverage to build corporate wealth. Each of you as individuals will be offered the opportunity to invest directly into those corporate wealth pools up to a maximum for the project which will likely be set near 50b with a 500m or 1b minimum principle invesment incriment. That 50b investment maximum could be considered as open slots, and when they are filled the project would need to be re-evaluated prior to opening any more slots op or allowing further investment. The implications of this are such that under full load, an interest payment would be given to each investment holder each month (or other decided interval), and could not be added to the investment option and allowed to compound. However, so long as there is available space in the program, interest payments made to individuals could be allowed to be re-deposited and then in turn compounded upon until the maximum is reached. At the moment one of the biggest bottlenecks in corporate growth is of a basic liquid financial nature. The need for investment capital can be seen across all projects, across all of our current investments and deployments. Invested isk would be used for any and all programs within corp, in a ratio that we can all help to shape in a pseudo-democratic process that is ongoing within corp. The goal of the project is multi-fold; to allow the corp much needed bulk finances to fund corporate project expansions and new project startups, to earn isk for members who may or may not be able to leverage other investment portfolio options alone, and most importantly to reward players who intend to remain with us by offering a greater weight in our success story. As we grow financially, so too will you. However this project would also come with some risk, that will be detailed in an unbiased exploitive mail later this month as well... * THE END! *** That's it for this update guys, I know I've been pretty ambiguous about things that are happening but that's because I don't want to jeopardize what is being negotiated/changing currently, and that is some really really massive stuff that will hopefully catapult us toward some of the best corps and groups in eve in terms of financial and economic power and stability. The individual update mails that will come this month will clear up many of the details that I'm sure you all are wondering about. [REDACTED] love for everyone, talk to you all soon. ~[REDACTED]By Daniel Butler W ith just six league wins all season, Everton’s 2014/2015 Premier League season hasn’t exactly gone to plan. With ten games to go last season, they were on 51 points. But now they’re on 28 – a staggering and barely believable 23 point difference. With ten games of the campaign left they’re only six points off the relegation zone and an incredible 21 points behind Southampton in seventh. As could be expected with such a dramatic decline in results, there’s a major statistical difference in their general performance on the pitch. The amount of goals they’re scoring has dropped from 1.61 per game to 1.18, whilst they’ve already conceded more goals this season than they did last year; rising from a rate of 1.03 per game to 1.46. Though the performance drop may be exactly the same for the goals scored and conceded, it’s the offensive side of their game which will be the biggest concern to Roberto Martínez, a manager who seems to live and die by his attacking, possession-based philosophy. It was something which brought them such success last season and it certainly can still do so. But Martinez seems to have become even more rigid within it as things have continually grown worse – possibly to an extent where, although admirable, it has become detrimental to their overall performance. So what’s gone wrong? Everton’s possession lacks punch Everton are still living up to Martinez’s beliefs in one respect, and Everton’s ability to maintain possession and pass the ball hasn’t changed. But actually converting that control into anything meaningful has become largely problematic. Despite their average possession per game (55.5%) being the fifth highest in the division, it’s only being converted into 12.4 shots – the 11th highest in the league. That’s a significant disparity, but what’s even more of a concern for them is the location where those shots are actually coming from. Of their shots, a rather huge 52% of them are being attempted from outside the box with Spurs being the only other side to surpass that unwanted proportion. That correspondingly means, of course, that Everton have had the second-lowest percentage of their shots from inside the box, which is clearly a much more favourable location in regards to distance. But where Spurs can at least attribute their similar proportion to them being a high-pressing side that opportunistically shoot very early in or after transitions and can also justify it with their higher number of shots in total, Everton cannot. For them, it’s a simply a case of being unable to break down the opposition with their high levels of ball control during games. Whilst no possession is ‘meaningless’, as some people like to call say, far too much of Everton’s is sterile and ineffective. That’s something which can easily be reflected in the fact that it takes them a huge 43.7 passes on average to muster a shot at goal, a figure which is topped only by Aston Villa, who are by far the league’s lowest goal-scoring side. So why is that? Barry and McCarthy: A year older and a hamstring weaker Well, a significant part of it appears to be down to the midfield pairing of Gareth Barry and James McCarthy, one which worked so successfully for them last season because of how well they complement each other. The Irishman’s defensive contribution, energy, and ability to maintain the ball under pressure often meant that his partner would be allowed more time on the ball. This was of vital use to both Barry and Everton, with him being the key in transitioning play from back to front at pace with more vertical passes. Between them the ball always kept ticking and moved at pace. With McCarthy experiencing a fairly regular hamstring problem, the midfielder has missed 10 Premier League games but also underperformed when he has been ‘back to fitness.’ So actually getting the pair out together in the first place has been an issue. Barry is now getting less time in possession because of his partner’s absence, something which he could particularly do with now he’s a year older at 34 and on the wane too. It’s limiting his ability to progressively pass the ball in a way which is genuinely productive for Everton. This can be demonstrated when comparing the number of key passes he’s averaged over the two seasons; with it dropping from 1.3 per game in 2013/14 to just 0.4 now – and though the number of overall passes he’s making has remained similar, they just aren’t as effective any longer. McCarthy’s experienced the same pattern too, from 1.2 per game to 0.6, and it’s really affected the team as a unit. The slower speed of distribution isn’t allowing Everton to play with the fluidity which was so important for them last season. That’s then had a knock-on effect to the rest of the team as the midfielder has failed to get the best out of a set of attacking players who thrive with space and the ability to be more direct. Passes are being played into the feet of very vertical players like Ross Barkley, Kevin Mirallas and Romelu Lukaku when they’re already being marked. Contrast this to last year when passes were played ahead of them – allowing the trio to run into the gaps and better exploit the space left by defenders. It’s not a problem which they’ve experienced as much in the Europa League (a competition which they’ve been doing extremely well in despite their league performances) due to the extra space that they’re getting – possibly because the teams Everton have faced are similarly used to taking the initiative themselves in their domestic leagues. Goodison Park: The Island of Misfit Toys As a result there have been clamours from fans and pundits (and even the players, according to some comments from Lukaku) for them to switch to a more direct style. But despite the evident decline in their passing game from a progressive perspective, Martínez has been as firm as ever with his philosophy. It’s hardly a surprise, especially given his time at Wigan. Though how they’re playing at the moment with a lower tempo certainly isn’t bringing the best out of the set of players he has at his disposal. Lukaku is possibly the best example of that. A player with incredible physique and pace, as well as what is frankly a rather awful first-touch. It makes sense to get him running at or in behind defenders; not attempting (and often failing) to hold up the ball with his back to goal. But by the time the ball is getting to him, the former isn’t an option regularly enough. It can be reflected in his goal tally too, which has dropped from 15 in 31 appearances (29 starts) to just seven in 28 appearances (25 starts) so far this season in the league. Part of that is related to his shot-to-goal conversion rate too, which sits at a dreadful 8.6% compared to a reasonably solid 15.3% in 2013/14. But the slower tempo of play and lack of space to attack has noticeably affected his performances. Baines, Coleman and the need for more crosses Something that’s similarly representative of their lack of directness can be seen in the type of service provided by their wide players, particularly Leighton Baines and Seamus Coleman. The two full-backs truly flourished under Martínez last season with an enormous degree of attacking freedom. But despite having these two bombing up the line and a striker of Lukaku’s build in the middle, they’ve rather strangely attempted the Premier League’s third-lowest number of crosses per game (17.8). It should be granted that the pair (particularly Baines) often underlap instead of overlap. And so crossing may not be a suitable option from a number of the positions they venture into. However, their lack of service into the box – even though crossing is the most inconsistent method of scoring from open play – is a nice and accurate representation of Everton’s reluctance to ‘mix things up’. High defensive line, where art thou? The attacking style of their full-backs links smoothly into the faults of their defensive system this season. With there often being a load of space left behind them on both sides, Everton are especially vulnerable in transitions and place a huge reliance on being able to slow the play down in order to regain at least some resemblance of a solid shape after giving the ball away. In other words, that means pressing – something which has drastically declined in their play this season. Not closing down with a high line (which is needed for them to play their possession game and provide a higher starting position for their full-backs) is almost suicidal. And so it’s no wonder that they’re conceding so many more goals without it. Whilst looking at defensive statistics can be somewhat misleading, at least without proper contextualisation, there’s a very worrying pattern behind Everton’s; especially for a side who are set up in a manner which requires pressing to make it sustainable. For the number of tackles, interceptions and fouls committed per game, Everton are 18th, 19th and 20th in the league respectively. Unsurprisingly, if you add up the numbers involved to make a total of the ‘defensive actions’, they make the lowest in the division with 38.8. By dividing the number of defensive actions they average per game (38.8) by the number of shots they concede on average per game (13.5), you get a result of 2.87 – a number which equates to the amount of defensive actions they make per shot that they allow. Only West Ham and Sunderland have a lower figure for that, making for pretty horrific reading for Martínez’s side. In Tim Howard, they also have a goalkeeper who’s massively underperformed (in the first half of the season in particular) after an excellent World Cup during the summer, and so to give away so many opportunities
Left. I like Marilyn Manson. I know I don't look like it, but I do. Although he's gone a bit soft now. I liked -- he's sort of like the perfect Trump pop star, you know? Just whatever people go for, just say the opposite, and do it with a middle finger outstretched. He's kind of like the perfect Donald Trump supporter. But then he did this stupid music video of him killing Trump. It's just sort of my political kind of -- I suppose when I grew up, it was when I realized that even my own idols had gone soft, and then it would fall to me to keep shocking people. But no, these campuses these days have become reeducation camps. Feminism, radical race theories about colonialism, Marxism, anti-American politics, culture relativism and cultural appropriation, which we'll get to in a minute. Today's universities, it's okay to be anything. Well, it's okay to be a lesbian. That's the only place it is okay to be a lesbian. College campuses and porn. If you identify as a minority, race studies professors will love you. If you're obese, they'll say it's wonderful. They won't tell you you'll have hip replacements by 30 and be dead by 40. And if you're an illegal alien, you'll be presumed to exist in some protected class, some saintly category, exceeded only by Muslim terrorists. If your loathing and hatred of the West is sufficient, you might even end up as one. I can think of only one thing that it's not acceptable to be on college campuses today, and that is Republican, conservative, or even libertarian. You will be threatened by your fellow students, you will be harassed by your professors. Your essays will be marked down because you have the wrong opinions. Your appeals to logic, fact, truth and reason will be met with scorn and punishment. Used to be the same for gays. But you don't come out as gay these days, you come out as conservative. We've got two choices. What's that? Unidentified Speaker: Good call. Milo Yiannopoulos: No, I know, well, it's in the book. You'd have known if you'd read it. I'm just teasing, I'm just teasing. You're probably on the Amazon backorder list. You're probably -- which makes it my fault. Now, we've got two choices -- either we fight, or we surrender. Audience: Fight! Milo Yiannopoulos: We can surrender to the useful idiots of the Left and their suicidal determination to make excuses for and pander to radical Islam, and to all of the forces that want to destroy what makes this country wonderful -- freedom, democracy, and yes, property rights and capitalism. Now, if you think all these spoilt social justice retards are going to improve after graduation, you're dreaming. They have to be defeated, and they have to be defeated now. Because if not, you'll be working until 100 to support their lazy asses. And there are some people in here look like they are 100 and may well still be supporting -- look at this, head in your hands. It's an old drag queen trick, you're supposed to roast the audience. They said it would make them like me. Sorry. Thanks for coming. The temperature on college campuses has, of course, been rising. After winning this courage award, my mettle was put to the test at UC Davis, UW Seattle and UC Berkeley. We entered Seattle, by the way, there was a flag on a bridge over the freeway that said, "Stab Milo." To which I replied, only in the back, and only if you ask me nicely. The easy ones are the best, you know. Low-hanging fruit. It's my nickname in college. No, okay. See, if you laugh at the crap jokes, you're just going to get more crap jokes. You're only encouraging me. And at UC Davis, the university administration lied to the students in order to circumvent their own First Amendment responsibilities. They told the students, in conjunction with the UC Davis police, that people were carrying weapons, that windows were getting smashed, and that people were about to get hurt; and told the College Republicans that they would be personally liable for damage to property and to people. Now, if you tell a 19-year-old child -- no disrespect to any students in the room -- that they're going to be personally liable for people fking dying, what do you suppose the response might be? They canceled the event. But this was a machination. This was a deception. This was a maneuver by UC Davis to circumvent their First Amendment obligations by making the students cancel the event instead of them doing it. And it was unacceptable. And of course, this sorry trajectory reached its apotheosis at UC Berkeley, which now everybody knows about. I'm hugely proud, of course -- the most gigantic riot in campus history. And you know, my crime was that I was planning to show up in a Native American headdress. I was going to say, “How. My name, Chief Kneels Readily.” You laughed at the last one. And I was going to give a talk about cultural appropriation, which again we'll come to in a minute. Sushi's racist, fk off. Political violence on college campuses is a sort of invention of the Left. And they've been really clever about it, they've done a really, amazingly smart thing. Because they're not stupid, they're just evil. What they've done is they have created an environment in which it's okay to punch a Nazi. They've called everyone Nazis. They have emboldened their students to react like petulant children to different ideas and to be completely unprepared for experiencing them in the first place. They have inculcated this atmosphere of hatred and division between the sexes, the races, the genders, the orientations, you name it. And then, when libertarian or conservative speakers arrive, suggesting that perhaps it might be a nice idea if we all got along a bit better and subscribed to a universal set of values, rather than constantly reminding one another of what makes us different, they say that we're a threat to student safety. Because the students that they have trained to be intemperate, let's say, are actually the ones that are going to smash the place up. But they can say that we're a threat to safety. It's a sort of amazing Orwellian, Kafka-esque -- I don't read enough to know, David will know -- whatever the adjective should be. It's an amazing thing. And they've been getting away with it for a really long time. And the first time anyone in a position of real power ever did anything about it was Donald Trump, tweeting just after UC Berkeley that if the university can't stand up for free speech, perhaps it should lose its federal funding. And it's not just me. I mean, you may be sitting in the audience thinking, I thought this was some successful new conservative author, and actually, he's just saying we're all old, and being a big fag. But there are perfectly respectable people that you'll like more, like Ann Coulter, who can't speak on campus, either. Respectable, reasonable, mainstream conservative voices. I've never cared to be respectable or reasonable. But the range of my opinions in this book and in my college speeches doesn't stretch very far outside the usual bounds of Republican debate. I don't like abortion. I don't like taxes. I don't like speech codes. And I really, really like the Bible and guns. But they dislike me because I'm effective. And they dislike you, too, because you're buying my book and participating in this culture of hate speech. If you're here tonight, you're probably not ready to roll over for dead. You're probably ready to confront the Left. And there's only one path forward. And it is when CNN threatens the life, in fact, in reality, of a private citizen for posting what amounts to a cartoon, there's only one possible thing to do -- stop watching it. Stop participating in it. And use what has made America great, capitalism and the free market, to suffocate the bastards. And when universities trample on the free speech rights of conservatives, we must come back 10 times stronger. And that is why I have recently announced Berkeley Free Speech Week. Now, this isn't going to be like other free speech weeks. There's going to be lots of triggering, no safe spaces, no trigger warnings, and lots of swearing. I'm going to assemble the most obnoxious, irritating, controversial and brilliant people I know. And I'm going to set up camp on Sproul Plaza, until that university actively and proactively assists us in staging a lecture series of libertarian and conservative thought leaders from the respectable to the utterly disreputable. Because the First Amendment doesn't discriminate. And it's also my intention, and I hope she accepts -- although she keeps evading the question, because I don't think she thinks it's really going to happen -- I hope that Ann Coulter will accept my inaugural Mario Savio award for free speech. And perhaps some kind of lifetime achievement award for the gentlemen who put this together. There is a war. There's a war for Western civilization. And it is something that Donald Trump -- although he may not read that much, although I did send him a copy of this, via Steve, and I know Steve reads, so Steve likes it -- then maybe Daddy will at least see my face. Maybe he'll notice me. Maybe he'll know my name. I put inside, "Dear Daddy, nuke Mecca. Love, Milo." So I don't expect a reply, but I hope he gets to see it. All right. The first step to becoming dangerous is this, and supporting the Freedom Center and David Horowitz, and all sorts of other wonderful people that you probably already know about. And I will just tell you, young people are much easier to fix before they get this stuff poured into their heads. So buy a copy for yourself, buy a copy for your fat friends. As Ann says -- and I had to make this the first blurb on the back -- fat people will hate this book. I mean, when you get a blurb like that, you just stop writing to anyone else. Although, of course, I did save the best for the interior. And I'll just -- conventional book readings involve boring you with stuff you've already read, except for the guy over there. So I won't read you that. But I'll read you some of the praise from the first couple of pages. "The most hated man on the internet" -- The Nation. "Milo Yiannopoulos doesn't have feelings" -- New York Times Magazine. "The ultimate troll, terrifying" -- Fusion. "The Kanye West of journalism" -- Red Alert Politics. I still don't know if that's a compliment. "Bullying bleach-blonde tantrum starter" -- the Daily Beast. That's definitely a compliment. "Trump troll with daddy issues" -- Tablet Magazine. "Pretty, monstrous," by Bloomberg. See what they did there? "Mocking and trollish" -- The Washington Post. "A goblin prince teaching the internet how to hate" -- GQ. "Exactly what's wrong with conservative politics" -- New Republic. "Polarizing and counterproductive" -- The Dartmouth Review. "Undignified, cold and low" -- The American Thinker. It goes on. "Doesn't deserve Twitter" -- The New York Observer. "Idiot" -- ABC Nightline. "Hatemonger" -- Complex. "An icon of the fringe internet, cartoonish and astonishingly self-important." Well, I can't sue them for libel, can I? Vox. "Flamboyant homosexual with movie star good looks" -- how did that get in here? No, that's real, that's true. That's from The New American. "The pit bull of tech media," from The Observer. "Digital media's Citizen Kane," from Forbes. "Where did he come from?" from the BBC. "A young, gay, alive Christopher Hitchens," by Bill Maher. "Completely fking exhausting," says GQ Australia. And The Stranger rounds out the praise for this book with, "It's really irritating he can say such hateful things." I am Milo. Thank you so much for your support of this book. We did it in spite of the odds, we did it in spite of the combined pressure and machinations of the entire media and publishing establishment. I intend to sell half a million copies of this fker. Because it is the ultimate -- Unidentified Speaker: Yeah! Milo Yiannopoulos: -- the ultimate middle finger. As you'll know, as regular browsers of my Facebook page, we recently released an ad with words that I'll leave you with -- "Finally, a book you can judge by its cover." Thank you very much.Canadian fossil collectors from the Peace Region Paleontology Research Center in Tumbler Ridge, British Columbia, have discovered fossils of a stunning 240 million-year-old species of coelacanth. Coelacanths are iconic fishes, well-known as living fossils. The group was thought to have died out with the dinosaurs until a living one was caught in 1938 off the coast of South Africa, sending shock waves through the scientific world. The newly discovered species, described by two University of Alberta scientists in the recent issue of the Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology, was a 3-foot long fish with a massive symmetrical forked tail quite unlike the tails of any other living or fossil coelacanths. The fossils were discovered on rocky slopes in the Hart Ranges of Wapiti Lake Provincial Park in British Columbia, which at the time the fish was alive was off the western coast of the supercontinent Pangaea. The species, named Rebellatrix divaricerca, meaning the “rebel coelacanth”, represents the first major change in body shape for the coelacanth group in more than 70 million years. The structure of this new fish is so unusual that it has been put in its own family. “The reason for its unusual shape comes down to two possibilities,” said lead author Dr. Andrew Wendruff. “Either the fossil record of coelacanths is vastly undiscovered and there are others like it yet to be found, or this was a specific response following the Earth’s greatest mass-extinction event at the end of the Permian, as coelacanths evolved to fill a vacant niche unoccupied by other predatory fishes.” “Both the shape and the stiffness of the tail fin are unique amongst coelacanths,” explained Dr. Mark Wilson, co-author of the study. “Similar tail fins occur today in fast swimming predatory fishes such as tuna or barracuda, strongly suggesting that Rebellatrix was an active predator capable of fast bursts of swimming and high-speed cruising to search for and catch other fishes living in the ancient sea.” “This is an amazing discovery which overturns the age old image of coelacanths as slow moving fishes and shows the resilience of the group to come back in true fighting form after surviving the world’s most devastating mass extinction event,” said Dr. John Long of the Natural History Museum of LA County, an expert in fossil fishes who was not involved in the study. Sci-News.com has also recently reported the discovery of the oldest known coelacanth species from the Early Devonian of Yunnan, China.One of President Obama's top political advisers suggested Thursday that Democrats would benefit from a Sarah Palin candidacy in 2012, though he said he doubted his party would "get that lucky." David Plouffe, who managed Obama's 2008 campaign and is a key architect of Democrats' midterm campaign strategy, told reporters that the tea party movement promises to heavily influence the 2012 Republican presidential primaries, arguing that Republicans are likely to nominate a conservative candidate out of step with the political mainstream. "These guys are going to be running through hoops to please the far-right folks who are kind of the acolytes of Sarah Palin," Plouffe said. "Now maybe she'll be running herself. Something tells me we won't get that lucky." Plouffe demurred when asked what would make a Palin bid "lucky" for Obama, saying only: "We'll talk more later." Plouffe predicted that candidates akin to Delaware Senate candidate Christine O'Donnell (R) will be successful in the 2012 primary season. "You're probably going to see many Christine O'Donnells all over the country, and this goes from their presidential nominee all the way down," Plouffe said. ruckerp@washpost.com kornbluta@washpost.comGQ’s February issue Courtesy GQ. “It’s white girls only.” This is not a line from pre-1964 at some segregated whites-only facility. No, it’s something that I hear all too often today, in crazy liberal Los Angeles, as a nonwhite model. See also: The “Hottest Women of the 21st Century” list in February’s GQ. Next to the main breakdown of attractive women, the magazine had separate categories for “Hottest Indian Chick,” “This Year’s Hottest Chinese Chick,” and even “Hottest Pregnant Sri Lankan.” “The seemingly arbitrary racial callouts have people squirming,” noted a Yahoo Shine writer under the headline “GQ Publishes Offensive ‘Hottest Women’ List.” If you’ve only started squirming now, welcome. Ethnic and racial segregation is the norm in the entertainment industry. Castings, the first gateway to media representation, are almost always specific in this regard. Caucasian, African-American, Asian—casting directors don’t seem to have any qualms announcing which race or ethnicity they want their model or actress to be. If you are casting for, say, a Jane Austen character, it makes sense to ask specifically for white talent. But when race is completely nonrelevant to the role, like a model for an insurance advertisement or a car commercial, casting directors will still often specify for Caucasian. One look at the rosters of talent agencies can confirm this. Factor Women is one of the top modeling agencies in Atlanta, where 54 percent of the total population is black as of the 2010 census. Interestingly, of the 48 female models the agency has listed on its site, only 10 of them appear to be black. In other words, less than 21 percent are black in a city where black is the majority. In bigger cities like Los Angeles, where the population is roughly 72 percent white, the disparities are still evident. Ford Models in LA is another top agency. It has 162 female models listed on its roster—145 of them appear to be of Caucasian background. Even with nearly three-quarters of the city’s demographics being white, that’s still an over-representation. “You can’t be what you can’t see,” is how Marie Wilson, founder of the White House Project, put it in her reminder of how media representations can affect a viewer’s feelings of self-worth. For me, it was only when I saw Lucy Liu as Alex Munday in 2000’s Charlie’s Angels that I thought, hey, maybe I can get my foot in the door. Today, 13 years later, a lot has changed—but a lot hasn’t. My agent tells me that he gets more requests for nonwhite models than he used to, but at the same time, white models are the only ones who are consistently booked while the “others” have periods of high and low demand. I kind of doubt the demand will ever be high for “pregnant Sri Lankans.” Perhaps what the editors at GQ were trying to achieve with their categories was to highlight the unique beauty of different ethnicities. Or perhaps they thought, “This girl is pretty—for an Indian. Let’s put her somewhere else.” Whatever the reason, the takeaway is the same: It belittles the beauty being highlighted and marginalizes so many readers. Yoonj Kim is a freelance writer, entrepreneur, and model in Los Angeles.Share A top Toyota executive has provided insight into what we can expect from the updated Scion FR-S that’s expected to land as a 2017 model. Speaking with Australian website Motoring, Toyota chief engineer Tetsuya Tada revealed that the update will cover every single part of the car. For starters, the coupe will be given a minor facelift that will bring a new front bumper with a revised air dam as well as new-look lights on both ends. Certain markets — including Japan — will be able to order a carbon fiber roof panel at an extra cost, though whether the option will be offered in the United States isn’t known at this point. The current FR-S’ 2.0-liter flat-four engine will benefit from a slight increase in power that will be complemented by brake and suspension modifications. However, Tada again downplayed the possibility of introducing a turbocharged FR-S. “I think turbo is a really easy solution. I always say that we try to show something new, always something challenging,” explained the engineer. He pointed out that fitting the coupe with the Subaru WRX’s turbocharged flat-four wouldn’t be good for fuel economy and CO2 emissions. There is a catch: While a conventional, exhaust-driven turbocharger has been ruled out for packaging reasons, Tada is open to the idea of fitting the FR-S with an electric turbocharger. Sister company Subaru has recently hinted it’s also looking at fitting its STI-tuned models with an electric turbo. The updated Scion FR-S will land in showrooms in time for the 2017 model year, meaning it will likely be introduced at a major auto show either later this year or early next year. It will be slightly more expensive than the outgoing model, a move that will make room for the production version of the S-FR concept that was previewed at this year’s Tokyo Motor Show. What’s next? Tada explained that the development of the FR-S is an on-going process. The facelifted model detailed above is currently undergoing shakedown testing, and his team has already started working on a brand new version of the coupe that’s expected to hit the market in about three years.Is Model-View-Controller dead on the front end? Alex Moldovan Blocked Unblock Follow Following Oct 9, 2016 More and more front-end developers are adopting unidirectional architectures. So what’s the future for the classic Model-View-Controller (MVC) approach? In order to understand how we got to this point, let’s first review the evolution of front-end architecture. Over the past four years, I’ve worked on a great deal of web projects and spent a good amount of time architecting front ends and integrating framework into them. Before 2010, JavaScript — that programming language jQuery was written in — was used mostly for adding DOM manipulation to traditional websites. Developers didn’t seem to care much about the architecture itself. Things like the revealing module pattern were good enough to structure our codebases around. Our current discussion of front-end vs back-end architecture only came about in late 2010. This is when developers started taking the concept of a single page application seriously. This is also when frameworks like Backbone and Knockout started to become popular. Since many of the principles these frameworks were built around were quite new at the time, their designers had to look elsewhere for inspiration. They borrowed practices that were already well established for server-side architecture. And at that moment, all the popular server-side frameworks involved some sort of implementation of the classic MVC model (also known as MV* because of its variations). When React.js was first introduced as a rendering library, many developers mocked it because they perceived its way of dealing with HTML in JavaScript as counter-intuitive. But they overlooked the most important contribution that React brought on the table — Component Based Architecture. React did not invent components, but it did take this idea one step further. This major breakthrough in architecture was overlooked even by Facebook, when they advertised React as the “V in the MVC.” On a side note, I still have nightmares after reviewing a codebase which had both Angular 1.x and React working together. 2015 brought us a major shift in mindset — from the familiar MVC pattern to the Unidirectional Architectures and Data Flows derived from Flux and Functional Reactive Programming, supported by tools like Redux or RxJS. So where did it all go wrong for MVC? MVC is still probably the best way to deal with the server side. Frameworks like Rails and Django are a pleasure to work with. The problems stem from the fact that the principles and separations that MVC introduced on the server aren’t the same as on the client. Controller-View Coupling Below is a diagram of how the View and the Controller are interacting on the server. There are only two touch points between them, both crossing the boundary between the client and the server. Server MVC When you move to MVC on the client, there’s a problem. Controllers resemble what we call “code-behind.” The Controller is highly dependent on the View. In most framework implementations, it’s even created by the View (as is the case with, for example, ng-controller in Angular). Client MVC Additionally, when you think of the Single Responsibility Principle, this is clearly breaking the rules. The client controller code is dealing with both event handling and business logic, at a certain level. Fat Models Think a bit about the kind of data you store in a Model on the client side. On one hand, you have data like users and products, which represent your Application State. On the other hand, you need to store the UI State — things like showTab or selectedValue. Similar to the Controller, the Model is breaking the Single Responsibility Principle, because you don’t have a separate way of managing UI State and Application State. So where do components fit into this model? Components are: Views + Event Handling+ UI State. The diagram below shows how you actually split the original MVC model to obtain the components. What’s left above the line is exactly what Flux is trying to solve: managing Application State and Business Logic. With the popularity of React and component-based architecture, we saw the rise of unidirectional architectures for managing application state. One of the reasons these two go so well together so well is that they cover the classic MVC approach entirely. They also provide a much better separation of concerns when it comes to building front-end architectures. But this is no longer a React story. If you look at Angular 2, you’ll see the exact same pattern being applied, even though you have different options for managing application state like ngrx/store. There wasn’t really anything MVC could have done better on the client. It was doomed to fail from the beginning. We just needed time to see this. Through this five-year process, front-end architecture evolved into what it is today. And when you think about it, five years isn’t such a long time for best practices to emerge. MVC was necessary in the beginning because our front end applications were getting bigger and more complex, and we didn’t know how to structure them. I think it served its purpose, while also providing a good lesson about taking a good practice from one context (the server) and applying it to another (the client). So what does the future hold? I don’t think that we will come back to the classic MVC architecture anytime soon for our front end apps. As more and more developers start to see the advantages of components and unidirectional architectures, the focus will be on building better tools and libraries that go down that path. Will this kind of architecture be the best solution five years from now? There’s a good chance of that happening, but then again, nothing is certain. Five years ago, no one could have predicted how we would end up writing apps today. So I don’t think that it’s safe to place the bets for the future now.Yangon, Myanmar: Navy ships from two countries scoured South-East Asian waters Friday for boats believed to be carrying thousands of migrants with little food or water, and a top U.S. diplomat said Myanmar needs to shoulder some responsibility for the crisis. That's something it has been reluctant to do. U.S. Deputy Secretary of State Anthony Blinken said Rohingya Muslims fleeing the predominantly Buddhist nation are risking perilous journeys and putting their lives in the hands of human traffickers because "they are in despair and don't see a future" at home. They have been denied citizenship and chased off their own land. They have little access to education or adequate medical care and cannot move around freely. "The root of the problem for those leaving Myanmar is the political and social situation on the ground," Blinken told reporters at a news conference in Yangon wrapping up his Southeast Asia tour. "Even as we tackle the immediate humanitarian emergency - that is literally to save and rescue people, bring them back to land, get them the care that they need and treat them appropriately - we also have to get at the underlying conditions." He said he made that point when he met with President Thein Sein, the army commander-in-chief and other top officials. Southeast Asia is grappling with a humanitarian crisis of monumental proportions. Fearing arrests after a crackdown on human trafficking networks in the region, captains earlier this month started abandoning boats that were packed with Rohingya Muslims fleeing persecution and Bangladeshis escaping poverty. More than 3,600 migrants have washed ashore in Indonesia, Malaysia and Thailand since May 10, and thousands more are believed to be trapped at sea. The United Nations has warned that time is running out to save them. Governments have been reluctant to help, worried that accepting even a few refugees would open the floodgates for more. In recent days, several navies pushed back boats packed with desperate and starving men, women and children. The first breakthrough came Wednesday, when Indonesia and Malaysia said they were willing to shelter new arrivals as long as the international community promised to help resettle them to third countries within a year. And in the first official rescue operation, four Malaysian navy ships were searching for boats on Friday, said navy chief Abdul Aziz Jaafar. He said three helicopters and three other ships were on standby. Myanmar's navy found two fishing trawlers filled with 208 men during a patrol off Rakhine state, the main point of departure for fleeing Rohingya. Zaw Htay, director of the presidential office, said Friday the men were identified as Bangladeshi and would be sent to the neighboring country. Rohingya, numbering at around 1.3 million, have been identified by the United Nations as one of the most persecuted minorities in the world. After Myanmar moved from dictatorship toward democracy in 2011, newfound freedoms of expression gave voice to Buddhist extremists who spewed hatred against the religious minority and said Muslims were taking over the country. Attacks that followed left up to 280 people dead. Another 140,000 Rohingya were driven from their homes and are now living under apartheid-like conditions in crowded displacement camps. The government refuses to recognize them, regarding them as illegal migrants from Bangladesh, even though many have lived in Myanmar for generations. It has expressed skepticism that those fleeing are actually from Myanmar and insists it is not to blame for the current crisis. After initially saying it might boycott a meeting next week in Thailand to address the problem, it agreed Thursday to attend, saying the invitation letter did not use the term Rohingya and did not say that Myanmar was solely to blame. Those were the conditions the government had set. "We are ready to cooperate with other governments to resolve the ongoing problems through constructive engagement and on humanitarian grounds," Zaw Htay said. The United States, which initially insisted it was a regional problem, has in recent days also become involved. It is preparing to send "maritime aviation patrols throughout the region," Pentagon spokesman Lt. Col. Jeffrey Pool said Thursday, adding that the Department of Defense "is responding to this crisis and taking this seriously." Washington has been urging governments in the region to cooperate on search and rescue operations and sheltering the migrants. ___ Gecker reported from Bangkok. Associated Press writers Aye Aye Win in Yangon, Ali Kotarumalos in Jakarta, Indonesia, Eileen Ng in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, Martha Mendoza in Santa Cruz, California, and Matthew Pennington in Washington, DC, contributed to this report.Just as it proved premature to load too many excitable expectations on the group of players Tottenham purchased with their Gareth Bale windfall, perhaps those who have dismissed their longer-term prospects at White Hart Lane will also turn out to be hasty. When the summer comes, and Tottenham attempt to analyse this season of turbulence and try to figure out the best way to progress, some encouraging answers might be staring them in the face. The unstable and haphazard backdrop to the season has not made for the calmest environment for new signings to acclimatise, but there are signs that some of Tottenham's players will emerge the stronger for it. In the absence of Emmanuel Adebayor, Christian Eriksen and Roberto Soldado, right, demonstrated how the seeds of a promising partnership have been sown. They have not had too many opportunities in tandem (they started only once together in the previous 11 matches, in the Europa League against Dnipro Dnipropetrovsk). On this occasion their movement, and the way they sought each other out, was noticeably complementary. Eriksen's initiative, in showing the hunger to hunt and pounce on a couple of predatory finishes, shows there is more to him than the luxury arts of an authentic playmaker. Actually he scored the kind of goals that might have been more naturally associated with Soldado's repertoire. The Spaniard did not finesse his performance with a goal but he was warmly applauded for his efforts, with some silky link play central to Tottenham's ability to rouse themselves from a terribly self-inflicted 2-0 deficit. A dozy opening half-hour, with Sherwood upstairs trying to keep out of trouble and get a decent view from the directors' box, showed 2013-14 Tottenham at their worst. That recklessly high line almost encouraged Southampton to play with confident assurance and press mistakes out of the home defence. There had been a number of alarm bells in the opening 15 minutes, and it felt as if the sharp Southampton attackers and leisurely Tottenham defenders were playing in different time zones. Sherwood's team posed themselves the kind of problems that make it too easy for critics to put two and two together and make Louis van Gaal. Cavalier defending, with Kyle Naughton the chief culprit, allowed Southampton to cruise into a two-goal lead delivered expertly by Jay Rodriguez and Adam Lallana. Southampton's attacking movement and energy was so impressive, and Eriksen deserves credit for applying himself with the same quality to kickstart the Tottenham comeback. He gave a brilliantly straight answer to the post-match question as to how Tottenham recovered from their cumbersome two-goal deficit. "Score three goals," he said plainly, fixing the interviewer with a stating the bleeding obvious stare. Simple. Increased effort was paramount, as demonstrated by the Soldado-Eriksen connection to force the equaliser early in the second half. The Dane also had a hand in the matchwinner with a cute lay-off to invite Gylfi Sigurdsson to wallop in a late decider. In a developmental year, this has been a challenging first season in English football for Eriksen. A fabulous start, as he excelled on his debut, and scored on his second appearance, outlined his promise. With his creative instincts and classy touch, he looked like a player blessed with the kind of talent to build a team around. That may well turn out to be the case but as he has adjusted to the Premier League it has been a learning process. Having shone fitfully, in the last few weeks Eriksen has found a new stride in this team, which augers well for next season when he should feel more settled. Soldado is perhaps the more curious case, and midway though the game Gary Lineker tweeted his belief that the Spaniard can cut the mustard. "In all seriousness I reckon Soldado could still come good. Often takes foreign players a while to adapt. And he CAN play." He has not been an obvious favourite of Sherwood's, and recently admitted on Spanish radio that he might have abandoned ship if this Spurs experience had come when he was younger, saying: "I would have probably returned home after a month." The statistics are still unhelpful and every expensive goalscorer is judged by his strike rate. Clearly Soldado needs to up the ante in that department. But while this season might be one to file away as a test of character, the broader picture of his Tottenham career could look different this time next year. Players such as Soldado and Eriksen (together with the forgotten man Erik Lamela) were bought to collectively fill the chasm left by Bale. That was too tall an order while they endeavoured to adjust to a new football culture. But their qualities may well come in increasingly useful for Tottenham.× Humane Society offering $5,000 reward after dog found raped and killed in Thurston County THURSTON COUNTY, Wash. – The Humane Society is offering a $5,000 reward for information leading to the conviction of whoever raped and killed a dog in Thurston County. According to a press release, a mountain biker was cycling on Department of Natural Resources property near Summit Lake off Highway 8 on Monday, and came across the dog hanging from a tree. The dog, described as a pit-bull type, died of asphyxiation from being hung from the tree with its feet barely touching the ground. There was evidence that the dog had been “severely sexually assaulted” while it was restrained. “This is a truly horrific situation in all aspects,” said the humane society’s Washington director, Dan “Paul. To think about the suffering this dog experienced in her final moments, as well as knowing there’s an individual or individuals in our state who would perpetrate this type of abuse, is sickening. We are hopeful this reward will bring someone forward with information about this despicable crime.” The FBI is involved with the investigation. The reward is double the society’s standard award because a board member donated extra money. If you have any information about this, call officer Erika Johnson at (360) 352-2510.User Info: Red_Powah_Ranga Red_Powah_Ranga 8 years ago #1 This is where I am stumped. How do I punish this no-good thief? At first, I contemplate slitting his throat. Too merciful. Then, I figure I'll just leave him on the train tracks. Too cliche. Then I try to think outside the box, and I'm about to leave him to the wolves, and watch as the buzzards feasted on his flesh. Too anticlimactic. So what did I do with this poor man? I'll tell you what I did. I took this dirty, unshaven man clothed a pair of dirty brown pants and low cut shirt across the border. He dripped blood behind us. Wolves chased us, and more than once I was tempted to leave him there for their meal. But no, this man
tar sands oil produces two times more greenhouse gases per barrel than conventional oil, which is why Dr. James Hansen, one of the world's leading climate scientists, has called the Keystone pipeline "game over" for the climate. The Keystone pipeline cannot go forward without State Department approval, and the president should stop the project permanently. Beyond Keystone, the Obama administration must curb other tar sands energy projects, reject oil drilling in the Arctic, and begin a large-scale transition to more renewable forms of energy. 5. Ban fracking and end fossil fuel development on public lands: The Obama administration should stop leasing millions of acres of publicly owned lands for fracking and other highly polluting forms of fossil fuel development. Fracking and drilling for oil and gas produce about 50 percent more methane than suggested by federal estimates, according to a recent study. Methane is more than 80 times more powerful at warming the atmosphere than carbon dioxide over a 20-year period. But the Obama administration’s recently released rules for fracking on public lands don’t even require well operators to use devices to capture methane. Given calls by the industry to export oil and gas, it is clear that we don’t have any need to sully our federal public lands and offshore areas. The Center for Biological Diversity is a national, nonprofit conservation organization with more than 675,000 members and online activists dedicated to the protection of endangered species and wild places.I am Wurthy Crewneck $37.99 $44.99 Maroon / S - $37.99 Maroon / M - $37.99 Maroon / L - $37.99 Maroon / XL - $37.99 Maroon / 2XL - $37.99 Color Maroon Size S M L XL 2XL Quantity HOW SOON WILL YOU SHIP MY ORDER? We ship orders between 2-4 days after you place your order. You'll receive an email confirmation when you place your order and also when it has been shipped! DO YOU SHIP WORLDWIDE? Hell yeah we do! We wouldn't want to leave anybody out. All our shipments are trackable as well. HOW SOON WILL I RECEIVE MY ORDER? It depends on where you live! If you are in the U.S you will receive your order 3-7 days after it has been shipped. Anywhere else in the world you will receive your order 8-14 days after it has been shipped. WHAT DO I DO IF I WANT TO CHANGE MY ORDER? Simple send us an email at wurthyclothing@gmail.com or fill out the contact form and we'll get it sorted out for you. If the order has been shipped unfortunately we cannot change your order. I'M NOT SURE WHAT SIZE I AM! Our products fit true to size, therefore if you usually wear a Medium, go ahead and order a Medium. There is also a sizing chart on each of our product pages to help you out! HOW CAN I CHANGE MY SHIPPING ADDRESS? Send us an email at wurthyclothing@gmail.com as soon as possible and we'll manually change your shipping address! WHY DO I HAVE TO PAY FOR SHIPPING? Our products are shipped from the U.S and it can be quite far to get our products to you! We do offer free shipping over $70 USD, and we do run promotions from time to time offering free shipping! Sign up to our newsletter and our social media accounts for updates! RETURNS Our return policy lasts 14 days. If 14 days have gone by since you have received your product(s), unfortunately we can’t offer you a refund or exchange. To be eligible for a return, your item must be unused and in the same condition that you received it. It must also be in the original packaging. Please contact us first in order to start the process for a exchange/refund. To complete your return, we require a receipt or proof of purchase. REFUNDS Once your return is received and inspected, we will send you an email to notify you that we have received your returned item. We will also notify you of the approval or rejection of your refund. If you are approved, then your refund will be processed, and a credit will automatically be applied to your credit card or original method of payment, within a certain amount of days. Late or missing refunds If you haven’t received a refund yet, first check your bank account again. Then contact your credit card company, it may take some time before your refund is officially posted. Next contact your bank. There is often some processing time before a refund is posted. If you’ve done all of this and you still have not received your refund yet, please contact us at wurthyclothing@gmail.com. Sale items Only regular priced items may be refunded, unfortunately sale items cannot be refunded. Exchanges We only replace items if they are defective or damaged. If you need to exchange it for the same item, send us an email at wurthyclothing@gmail.com. Gifts If the item was marked as a gift when purchased and shipped directly to you, you’ll receive a gift credit for the value of your return. Once the returned item is received, a gift certificate will be sent to you. If the item wasn’t marked as a gift when purchased, or the gift giver had the order shipped to themselves to give to you later, we will send a refund to the gift giver and he will find out about your return. Shipping You will be responsible for paying for your own shipping costs for returning your item. Shipping costs are non-refundable. If you receive a refund, the cost of return shipping will be deducted from your refund. If you are shipping an item over $75, you should consider using a trackable shipping service or purchasing shipping insurance. We don’t guarantee that we will receive your returned item. Please contact us for any questions about our return policy: wurthyclothing@gmail.comThe Cardinal rebounded Wednesday night -- on the offensive glass AND from its crushing loss against Colorado on Sunday -- and beat the Beavers on the road, 78-72, in what felt like an even bigger margin. With 13:45 left in the first half, Oregon State's trapping zone defense collapsed on Dorian Pickens on the perimeter. Pickens saw the approaching double-team and calmly threw a skip pass to a wide-open Marcus Allen, who buried a three. Stanford went up 10-7 on the heads-up play and never gave up its lead. The Cardinal's ball-movement largely looked crisp and selfless. But the real story was the grunt work, the "effort" stats. Stanford muscled its way to 46 rebounds -- 17 more than Oregon State and 17 more than the Cardinal had against Colorado. Stanford continually crashed the offensive glass, pulling down 20 offensive boards to OSU's 9. That's a statement stat: going on the road, after a tough loss at home, and creating lots of second-chance opportunities by just wanting it more. That's a sign of a gritty team. Grant Verhoeven came off the bench and got 4 offensive rebounds. Michael Humphrey had 3. Pickens had 3 and Marcus Allen had 4. Rosco Allen again lead the offense, scoring 21 and hitting 3 of 5 threes. Oregon State's senior guard, Gary Payton II, had a game-high 22 and continues to lead the Beavers in points, rebounds, assists, and steals. (Side note: if his dad was nicknamed The Glove, does that make him The Mitten?) Stanford beat Oregon State who beat Oregon who beat Cal. It's early, but it looks like there might be lots of parity (and depth) in the conference. The Cardinal will play Oregon on Sunday night.It's Roberto Martinez's turn to publicly charm the talented 21-year-old center back into staying. It's a bit of a gamble to set himself and his club up in a way that could make them look great should Stones stay, but would also leave them looking foolish should Stones decide to leave. "He is one of the most talented centre-backs in European football and we feel we have a special footballer with us. There is nothing to discuss and teams putting bids in for him doesn't mean anything. You're going to get clubs that are working with big budgets because they have been working in the Champions League, but we are a club with nine league titles. We are a big club." "What we want is to build and what we want to do is concentrate on the future and we are not a selling club by any means. The situation with John is as you would expect. On the outside it seems turmoil and many things happening, but internally John comes in and trains and needs to try to earn his place and keep improving, keep taking responsibility in the group and nothing else." -Roberto Martinez; source: ESPN Should Stones go the way of Wayne Rooney and Marouane Fellaini rather than, say, Leighton Baines, Martinez's bold words would hang pretty heavy in the air. Not that any of that is really our concern at all; we just need to make sure we don't set the boy up for failure by placing too many expectations and too much pressure on him by way of a record transfer fee. If there's one thing we've learned from pre-season is that our first-choice defenders certainly aren't getting any younger, faster, more agile. Any day now, that backline will start to truly show its age. Preparing for that event by signing the likes of Baba Rahman and John Stones seems prudent, if perhaps a bit expensive.Video When Lygia Dunsworth was sedated, intubated and strapped down in the intensive care unit at a Fort Worth hospital, she was racked by paranoid hallucinations: Outside her window, she saw helicopters evacuating patients from an impending tornado, leaving her behind. Nurses plotted to toss her into rough lake waters. She hallucinated an escape from the I.C.U. — she ducked into a food freezer, only to find herself surrounded by body parts. Mrs. Dunsworth, who had been gravely ill from abdominal infections and surgeries, eventually recovered physically. But for several years, her stay in intensive care tormented her. She had short-term memory loss and difficulty sleeping. She would not go into the ocean or a lake. She was terrified to fly or even travel alone. Nor would she talk about it. “Either people think you’re crazy or you scare them,” said Mrs. Dunsworth, 54, a registered nurse in the Dallas-Fort Worth area. In fact, she was having symptoms associated with post-traumatic stress disorder. Photo Annually, about five million patients stay in an intensive care unit in the United States. Studies show that up to 35 percent may have symptoms of PTSD for as long as two years after that experience, particularly if they had a prolonged stay due to a critical illness with severe infection or respiratory failure. Those persistent symptoms include intrusive thoughts, avoidant behaviors, mood swings, emotional numbness and reckless behavior. Yet I.C.U.-induced PTSD has been largely unidentified and untreated. When patients leave the I.C.U., said Dr. O. Joseph Bienvenu, a psychiatrist and associate professor at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, “Everyone pays attention to whether patients can walk and how weak they are. But it’s the exception for them to be screened for psychiatric symptoms like post-traumatic stress or low mood.” Now critical care specialists are trying to prevent or shorten the duration of the mood disorders, which can rattle not only I.C.U. patients but their frantic relatives. Sometimes family members, rather than the sedated patient, develop the symptoms of having been traumatized, tormented by memories of a loved one thrashing in restraints, delirious, near death. Other PTSD sufferers — victims of combat, sexual assault or natural disasters — also endure flashbacks, but theirs are grounded in episodes that can often be corroborated. What is unsettling for post-I.C.U. patients is that no one can verify their seemingly real horrors; one patient described a food cart in the I.C.U. selling strips of her flayed flesh. “I.C.U. patients have vivid memories of events that objectively didn’t occur,” Dr. Bienvenu said. “They recall being raped and tortured as opposed to what really happened,” such as painful procedures like the insertion of catheters and IV lines. The I.C.U. setting itself can feel sinister to patients, as if lifted from “The Twilight Zone.” The eerie, sleep-indifferent lights. The cacophony of machines and alarms. Certain treatments in the I.C.U. may be grim, but they are essential. Intubation, for example: Patients who need help breathing must have a plastic tube placed down their windpipes for mechanical ventilation. The feeling of near-suffocation and the inability to speak can be nightmarish. Such invasive procedures may raise the odds that a patient develops PTSD. A longer I.C.U. stay also increases the risk of post-traumatic symptoms. But some patients arrive more vulnerable to PTSD. Women may be more at risk than men, as are patients with a history of depression or other emotional difficulties. Because patients are often rushed to the I.C.U. unexpectedly, doctors cannot take a psychological history. Age may be a factor. Elderly patients generally recover more slowly, but younger patients may be more likely to develop symptoms of PTSD. Experts suspect that young patients, further from natural mortality, are even more shaken by the possibility of unanticipated death. Moreover, the violent events that land patients in the I.C.U., like gunshots and car crashes, tend to happen to younger people, noted Dr. Babar Ali Khan, an assistant professor at the Indiana University School of Medicine. Those events also exacerbate the onset of PTSD, he said. But researchers have begun to identify the I.C.U. treatment that has led to the most harrowing flashbacks: sedation. Sedation — to manage pain and compel patients to lie still and not fight the ventilator — is crucial in the I.C.U. But many sedatives contribute to the patient’s delirium and intense hallucinations, which can return, unbidden, for years. A British doctor, Sarah Wake, was a 25-year-old intern when in 2011 she was intubated and sedated in the I.C.U. following a severe reaction to an asthma medication. She described her hallucinations in the British journal BMJ in May: “Blood seeping through holes and cracks in my skin, forming a puddle of red around me.” She wrote that the fragmented delusional memories made it difficult for her to understand what had happened. “This prevented my psychological recovery and led to the development of post-traumatic stress disorder.” For months she could not work in a hospital. Even now, after therapy, she is practicing medicine again and yet, she wrote, “I still cannot bear a shower curtain to be drawn as it reminds me of closed hospital curtains and hidden death.” Dr. Wake was given benzodiazepines, a class of sedatives that includes Valium and Ativan, as well as opioids for pain. Researchers now believe that benzodiazepines may intensify the hallucinations that are so disturbing to I.C.U. patients. The philosophy about I.C.U. sedation has gone through pendulum swings. In the 1970s, patients on ventilators were allowed to remain awake. But doctors turned to benzodiazepines to calm anxious patients and prevent them from fighting the tubes. If a patient was heavily sedated, thought doctors, the resulting amnesia about the ordeal would be worthwhile. But in the last decade, researchers have realized that the benzodiazepines did not just give patients amnesia: the delirium and hallucinations they may also trigger in critically ill patients may set the stage for PTSD. Opioids can also cause delirium. Dose and duration are also relevant. In January, the Society of Critical Care Medicine, concerned about the weakened physical, cognitive and psychological condition of many post-I.C.U. patients, released new sedation guidelines. They urged I.C.U. doctors to treat pain first and only then to weigh using benzodiazepines for anxiety. Although evidence is not definitive, lighter sedation seems tied to better cognitive and physical rehabilitative recovery, as well as fewer and less shattering hallucinations. I.C.U. staff were encouraged to keep assessing patients for pain, alertness and delirium. Dr. Dale M. Needham, an associate professor in pulmonary and critical care medicine at Johns Hopkins, noted that even when the sedation has stopped, a patient’s delirium may continue. Many patients return home mentally shaken, with physical and cognitive weaknesses. Dr. Needham said they haven’t “fully recovered within six months or a year.” Therefore, he added, the I.C.U. stay can place a lingering burden on both the patient and the family. I.C.U. nurses have taken the lead in efforts to alleviate the trauma of stays and to shorten the duration of the subsequent mood disorders, for both families as well as patients. In Britain, Germany and some Scandinavian countries, nurses in many critical care units keep a diary of the care they provide to a patient, with contributions from the family, which they give to the patient upon discharge. The diaries function as a realistic counterpoint to patients’ hallucinations or amnesia. Judy E. Davidson, research nurse liaison for themedical center at the University of California, San Diego,and a former critical care nurse, teaches nurses to work with relatives of I.C.U. patients to reduce post-trauma symptoms of their own. “The antecedent to PTSD is fear, horror and helplessness,” Dr. Davidson said. “If you give relatives things to do — applying lip balm and hand lotion to the patient, keeping their joints limber — it keeps their minds active and decreases the fear response and helplessness.” The details of what happens in the I.C.U. often stay in the I.C.U.: primary care physicians rarely learn about their patients’ difficult journeys there, and so often do not evaluate them for problems that may have arisen. In the interim, a handful of hospitals in the United States are focusing on the challenges faced by post-I.C.U. patients, including PTSD. Once a week for the last two years, Dr. Khan, a pulmonologist, has been seeing patients at the Critical Care Recovery Center at Wishard Memorial Hospital in Indianapolis. His team treats post-I.C.U. patients who have spent at least two days on a mechanical ventilator or suffered acute brain dysfunction during that period. About half, he said, develop PTSD. Vanderbilt University Medical Center has been running a post-I.C.U. clinic on Friday afternoons since last fall. Typically, the treatment team includes a critical care nurse-practitioner, a psychologist, a pharmacist, a pulmonologist and a nurse who functions in a social worker capacity. They evaluate patients for physical, cognitive, social and psychological impairments. But whether patients or family members develop PTSD symptoms or the full disorder, persuading them to seek treatment poses unique challenges. About three years ago a woman, then 35, had a hysterectomy at a Tennessee community hospital but developed a severe infection. She awoke in the I.C.U., intubated, with delusions that she had been raped and that her family had abandoned her. Since being discharged, she has had nightmares. She is afraid of crowds, frightened of contagion. She has retreated from activities at church and her children’s school. She has become claustrophobic, in reaction to having been restrained in the I.C.U., said James C. Jackson, a psychologist and assistant professor in the division of critical care medicine at Vanderbilt University School of Medicine, who worked with the patient in a study. Though she knows she needs help, she is too anxious to go back to the community hospital, which she associates with so much anguish. Such avoidant behavior, Dr. Jackson noted, is among the most debilitating of PTSD symptoms. Even now, seeking medical care anywhere is extremely difficult for her. “This phenomenon is not uncommon,” he said. “But it makes it hard for individuals who need help to take the necessary steps to get it.” Related: Diaries Aid Mental RecoveryEMBED >More News Videos Mayor Turner taking more action on homeless camps EMBED >More News Videos Business owner cited after reporting public defecation. Mayor Sylvester Turner urged the court to take action after a man was shot at a homeless encampment on Tuesday.It happened in the 4400 block of Caroline. The encampments are located underneath US-59.Mayor Turner said there have been two murders and one stabbing at encampments in the past 30 days.He also said there is a huge health concern. In San Diego, they have seen an increase in Hepatitis at encampments.Conditions at the camps have worsened, the mayor says, since a federal restraining order was placed on the city ordinance. But he insists Houston is not trying to criminalize homelessness, but rather stop the encampments from growing into the public spaces.Some camps even included cars and generators powering big screen TVs, Mayor Turner said.Homeowners like Sanhgee Yoo said they're tired of hearing the gunfire."I moved in January 2017 and this is the third time I've heard about the crime," said Yoo.In addition to concerns over crime, neighbors say they've seen human waste in their yard and trash left behind.Mayor Turner is pushing for more "deep cleansings" of the camps, amid concerns over health issues and the potential for a Hepatitis A outbreak. An outbreak is currently impacting people on the West Coast.While some want them out now, others want to make sure the homeless have a place to stay first."I don't really know a solution to the situation. Obviously people who don't have homes, where are they supposed to go? But it's clearly not a good situation if people are obviously getting killed," said Hadley Sheppard.Protestors spelled out “Go Home Trump” on the lawn of the Utah State Capitol just one day before President Trump is set to travel to the state to announce that he is shrinking at least two national monuments. The 113 protestors, all wearing white jumpsuits, laid out on the state capitol lawn on Sunday to form the message to Trump, according to The Salt Lake Tribune. So, today I was part of an amazing art project, a message many of us here in Utah wish to send out to @realDonaldTrump, #DumpTrump the artist who put this together was the wonderful @catpalmer. #GoHomeTrump pic.twitter.com/VihCPVOViA — BeccaKitty⚡️ (@BeccaKitty0217) December 3, 2017 ADVERTISEMENT Organizer and artist Cat Palmer told the newspaper that she was motivated to hold the protest to share the voices of people that feel they aren’t being represented in the federal government. She added that state Sen. Jim Dabakis (D) encouraged her to hold the protest. “We don’t have somebody representing our voices right now, right? That’s a problem. Sometimes when we feel helpless we make art hoping our voices will be heard,” Palmer told The Salt Lake Tribune. “It’s an outlet for people. It’s therapeutic... because we are feeling lost right now.” Trump will visit Utah on Monday to detail plans to reduce the size of the Bears Ears and Grand Staircase-Escalante national monuments.Paper boats are seen in the pavement during a flash mob organized by Amnesty International Italy to promote the campaign "SOS Europe, people before borders" in downtown Rome, Italy July 23, 2015. REUTERS/Remo Casilli By Steve Scherer CASALE DI SAN NICOLA, Italy (Reuters) - Migrants arriving at a new shelter outside Rome needed riot police to protect them from far-right activists and furious residents. In the north, locals vandalized a home to keep asylum seekers from moving in. Traditionally a nation of emigrants, Italy is now struggling to absorb a ceaseless influx of immigrants from Africa and the Middle East. Prime Minister Matteo Renzi is under pressure to stem the flow and his government is fighting to calm tensions. Migrant arrivals have already exceeded 85,000 this year, following 170,000 in all of 2014. While many of the newcomers look to move swiftly to wealthier northern Europe, some 85,000 are housed in Italian shelters - up from 60,000 last year. To relieve pressure on Italy's southern regions, where immigrants are initially brought after being plucked from the Mediterranean, the government is seeking to disperse them more evenly in central and northern Italy. This policy is bringing poor migrants to the doorsteps of isolated or affluent communities, such as Casale di San Nicola, where 250 families live in villas along a private road in the countryside near Rome. Residents there, flanked by members of the far-right CasaPound movement, staked out the road to keep migrants from occupying the new center for three months before the standoff came to a head in last week's clash. Twenty people were injured. "We haven't seen an uncontrolled exodus like this since the discovery of the Americas," said Luciano Lupi, 77, a retired marketing manager who lives near the new migrant center. He took a blow to the ear in the scuffles. "Italy is leaving the door wide open." Not a day goes by without reports on the Italian news of rescues, shipwrecks, drownings or crimes by immigrants. EU solidarity has been limited - this week the European Union failed to agree to divvy up 40,000 asylum seekers in Greece in Italy among its members. That has left Renzi's centre-left government vulnerable in the face of a complex international problem that has become a domestic political soccer. The Northern League party's firebrand leader Matteo Salvini uses the migrant crisis as a springboard to attack Renzi for not sending home economic migrants who are not protected by international law like asylum seekers. This uncompromising strategy has helped turned the League - a party traditionally rooted in the north - into the country's third-most popular after Renzi's Democratic Party (PD) and the anti-establishment 5-Star Movement. The League would garner more than 15 percent in a national vote if a election were held today, according to polls, against 6 percent in last year's European Parliament ballot. On the other hand, backing for Renzi's PD has dropped over the past year from just over 40 percent to 32-33 percent today, polls show, with immigration partly to blame for its decline. "The real problem is that 60 percent of Italians think that more immigration equals less safety," said Alessandra Ghisleri, the chief pollster for Euromedia Research in Milan. "The League takes advantage of this issue because it knows people are afraid." "AFRICANISATION" Highlighting the friction, residents in the northern town of Quinto di Treviso last week raided neighboring apartments where about 100 migrants were housed, throwing furniture and mattresses into the street and setting them on fire. Luca Zaia, the Northern League governor of the region that includes Quinto, has joined two other northern governors in urging mayors to resist the government's efforts to open new migrant shelters in their cities. While warning of an "Africanisation" of the territory, Zaia successfully negotiated with a government representative to move the migrants out of the apartments and into army barracks. The Interior Ministry has since announced it will replace the representative, unhappy with her handling of the issue. Despite such protests, the government is holding to its plan to open shelters across the country, and Renzi has appealed to the values of his centre-left and Catholic base, which has generally supported sea-rescue efforts on moral grounds. Instead of rightist opponents, "our real adversary is fear," Renzi told a PD assembly on Saturday. Renzi spoke after a 10-year-old diabetic girl from Syria died at sea because smugglers had allegedly ditched her insulin. "If a girl who is the same age as my daughter dies during a sea passage, each of us can think whatever we like, but let's not let our children think that their parents, for a percentage point in the polls, have given up their humanity," Renzi said. (Editing by Crispian Balmer and Tom Heneghan)President Obama has sworn to veto any new sanctions imposed on Iran, stating that the likelihood of discussions collapsing will be very high if the US persists with its implementation. Obama has been encouraging both Democrats and Republicans to hold back while negotiations are still taking place. However, he reiterated that he was not suggesting that there would be any ‘war footing,’ should negotiations with Iran be unsuccessful. “When I came into office, I made a commitment that Iran would not obtain nuclear weapons, that we would do everything we could to prevent that,” Obama said. “If Iran obtained a nuclear weapon than it would trigger an arms race in the Middle East, make our job in terms of preventing the proliferation...much more difficult,” he continued. The statement comes just after the P5+1 group - the United States, Russia, China, United Kingdom, and France, plus Germany - kicked off talks with the Iranian delegation in Geneva on January 15. The P5+1 talks will continue until the end of June, as parties failed to reach a deal by the November 24 deadline. The delegations hope to reach a rough agreement by March. But expert opinion is divided on whether a deal will be reached over Iran's nuclear capabilities before the June deadline. “I will veto a bill that comes to my desk. And I will make this argument to the American people as to why I’m doing so. And I respectfully request them to hold off for a few months to see if we have the possibility of solving a big problem without resorting potentially to war. And I think that’s worth doing,” said Obama. “There is no good argument for us to try to undercut, undermine the negotiations until they've played themselves out,” Obama told reporters. “Congress needs to show patience.” Obama has seen some severe opposition from Congress over his perceived leniency with Iran. Elections towards the end of last year placed Republicans – who have suggested increased sanction legislation – in control of the House and the Senate. British Prime Minister David Cameron has added his voice to the warnings, saying that he has personally called US senators about the issue.OSTERSUND, Sweden, Feb. 18 (UPI) -- Residents of Ostersund, Sweden, were told their tap water is drinkable after three months of boiling water supplies after a parasite outbreak, officials said. "We now have clean drinking water again," a statement on the northern city's Web page said Friday. The municipality said the problem with the parasite, which left more than 10,000 residents nursing stomach ailments, has been resolved, The Local reported. "The flushing of the water pipes is completed and Ostersund's mains water is drinkable again," the statement said. The problems began in November 2010 when more than 2,000 people reported suffering from stomach bugs after drinking tap water, and the city confirmed the intestinal parasite Cryptosporidium had been found in the city's drinking water. By the time the source of the intestinal parasite was located, more than 11,000 people in the city of just over 43,000 people had reported symptoms. The city warned some taps that have not been used on a regular basis might need to be run for a while before the water is safe but said the majority of the city's houses and apartments have a clean supply, The Local reported.Abstract Background Arguments that abortion causes women emotional harm are used to regulate abortion, particularly later procedures, in the United States. However, existing research is inconclusive. We examined women’s emotions and reports of whether the abortion decision was the right one for them over the three years after having an induced abortion. Methods We recruited a cohort of women seeking abortions between 2008-2010 at 30 facilities across the United States, selected based on having the latest gestational age limit within 150 miles. Two groups of women (n=667) were followed prospectively for three years: women having first-trimester procedures and women terminating pregnancies within two weeks under facilities’ gestational age limits at the same facilities. Participants completed semiannual phone surveys to assess whether they felt that having the abortion was the right decision for them; negative emotions (regret, anger, guilt, sadness) about the abortion; and positive emotions (relief, happiness). Multivariable mixed-effects models were used to examine changes in each outcome over time, to compare the two groups, and to identify associated factors. Results The predicted probability of reporting that abortion was the right decision was over 99% at all time points over three years. Women with more planned pregnancies and who had more difficulty deciding to terminate the pregnancy had lower odds of reporting the abortion was the right decision (aOR=0.71 [0.60, 0.85] and 0.46 [0.36, 0.64], respectively). Both negative and positive emotions declined over time, with no differences between women having procedures near gestational age limits versus first-trimester abortions. Higher perceived community abortion stigma and lower social support were associated with more negative emotions (b=0.45 [0.31, 0.58] and b=-0.61 [-0.93, -0.29], respectively). Conclusions Women experienced decreasing emotional intensity over time, and the overwhelming majority of women felt that termination was the right decision for them over three years. Emotional support may be beneficial for women having abortions who report intended pregnancies or difficulty deciding. Citation: Rocca CH, Kimport K, Roberts SCM, Gould H, Neuhaus J, Foster DG (2015) Decision Rightness and Emotional Responses to Abortion in the United States: A Longitudinal Study. PLoS ONE 10(7): e0128832. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0128832 Academic Editor: Sharon Dekel, Harvard Medical School, UNITED STATES Received: January 29, 2015; Accepted: April 30, 2015; Published: July 8, 2015 Copyright: © 2015 Rocca et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited Data Availability: The authors are not able to provide any data beyond what is presented in the manuscript due to restrictions that study participants agreed to when they signed the consent form, which was approved by the UCSF IRB. The authors have included sufficient details in the Methods section of the manuscript for others to replicate the analysis in a similar setting, using a similar study population. Funding: This study was supported by a gift from the Wallace Alexander Gerbode Foundation (http://foundationcenter.org/grantmaker/gerbode/, to DGF), a research grant from an anonymous foundation (to DGF), and an institutional grant from the David and Lucile Packard Foundation (http://www.packard.org/). The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript. Competing interests: The authors have declared that no competing interests exist. Introduction Arguments about emotional harms from induced abortion—including decision regret and increasing negative emotions over time—have been leveraged to support abortion regulation in the United States [1–3]. To uphold a 2007 law banning a later abortions, Justice Kennedy of the Supreme Court stated: “While we find no reliable data to measure the phenomenon, it seems unexceptionable to conclude some women come to regret their choice to abort…”[2]. In support of a state-level ban, a researcher testified that abortion “carries greater risk of emotional harm than childbirth”[3]. Arguments about emotional harm have been used to forward parental consent, mandatory ultrasound viewing, and waiting period legislation as well. Despite these arguments, questions about long-term abortion regret and emotional harm remain unresolved. While research has found that women’s short-term emotions post-abortion can vary substantially—with mixed emotions being common and relief predominating [4–8]—fewer studies have addressed whether decision regret and negative emotions emerge over years post-abortion. Existing longer-term studies suffer from important methodological limitations, including being retrospective and thus vulnerable to selection and recall biases [9, 10]. The few prospective studies have found that most women report positive emotions and satisfaction with the abortion decision years later [6, 7, 11, 12]. But these studies have had mixed results regarding changes in emotions, with some finding decreases in negative emotions over time [6], and others documenting increasing negative emotions and decreasing abortion decision satisfaction [7]. Interpretation is limited by small samples, high attrition, and/or recruitment from single cities or facilities. Additionally, some studies were conducted outside the US or over a decade ago and may not capture the current reality of post-abortion emotions in the US. Analyses of baseline data from the current study illustrated the importance of differentiating negative emotions from decision regret. Although one-quarter of women experienced primarily negative emotions over one week post-abortion, 95% still felt that the abortion was the right decision [4]. Believing abortion was the wrong decision and experiencing negative emotions are distinct, with the later representing a normal reaction to a significant life event, and the former being an outcome of potential public health concern, yet one that some view as inevitable among some individuals making any decision [13]. While neither construct constitutes a mental disorder, both are important for women’s well-being [10]. Our objective was to investigate how women’s views about the decision to terminate a pregnancy and emotions change over three years. We also compare emotions between women having abortions near facility gestational age limits and women having first-trimester abortions, to elucidate whether emotions differ by gestational age. This is the first study to examine emotions about abortion prospectively in a large, geographically diverse US sample. Materials and Methods Sample and procedures We used data from the Turnaway Study, a longitudinal study examining the health and socioeconomic consequences of receiving or being denied termination of pregnancy in the US. Between January 2008 and December 2010, 956 women seeking abortions were recruited from 30 facilities across the US. Facilities, described elsewhere, were selected based on having the highest abortion gestational limit within 150 miles [14]. The gestational limits at recruitment facilities ranged from ten weeks through the end of the second trimester due to clinician and facility policy as well as state law. Although abortion has been legal in the US since 1973, law varies greatly by state because individual states may regulate under what circumstances a woman may obtain an abortion, including gestational limits [15]. The primary objective of the Turnaway Study is to compare outcomes of women obtaining later abortions to women who were too far along in pregnancy to receive an abortion. In this paper, our main group of interest was women who received abortion within two weeks prior to the facility’s gestational age limit (Near-Limit Abortion group). We compared the Near-Limit group to women receiving first-trimester procedures at the same facilities (First-Trimester Abortion group) to determine whether the experiences of women having later abortions were similar to those of women having procedures in the first trimester, when 92% of US procedures occur [16]. We do not include the third study group, Turnaways, comprised of women presenting within three weeks beyond the facility’s
in opposition and he continued to do so in the election’s aftermath. Even so, ANO is likely to be a part of any government. Mr Babis remains an unknown quantity. His rapid success is the result of widespread disillusionment with the country’s political class, a generous campaign budget and an anti-corruption platform. The party won the vote in northern Bohemia, a former industrial bastion where unemployment is high. Mr Babis bought two of the country’s highest-circulation daily newspapers this year, leading critics to call him the “Czech Berlusconi”, a moniker he has laughed off. “Comparisons with Berlusconi make me smile, because I wouldn’t ruin my investment by influencing those media,” he said in an interview. Some form of co-operation between the Social Democrats, ANO and the Christian Democrats appears likely. It is nobody’s preferred arrangement and any agreement will be tenuous Mr Zeman retains a lot of discretion over which party to invite to form a government and over the coalition negotiations themselves. He has shown an unabashed willingness to stretch the bounds of his powers. Voters are finding the inconclusive election results as frustrating as the party leaders. A post-election poll by Czech television found that 80% of Czechs think a state of political crisis will continue for the foreseeable future. They are probably right.Obama’s drug war is in disarray Vice President Joe Biden was in Central America this week attempting to staunch the hemorrhaging of regional support for the U.S.-led War on Drugs. His trip follows one last week by Secretary for Homeland Security Janet Napolitano, who similarly decamped to the region to buoy a faltering U.S. flag as drug cartel-fueled violence continues wreaking havoc on Central American societies. What’s caused this flurry of high-level administration attention to the region is a number of recent public statements by sitting Latin American presidents openly questioning the effectiveness of current counter-narcotics policies and calling for multilateral discussions on legalizing or decriminalizing the use of illicit drugs. Those speaking include the presidents of Guatemala, El Salvador, and Costa Rica, but they also have received the sympathetic ears of President Santos of Colombia and President Calderón in Mexico. Their unprecedented statements can be seen as a measure of their collective frustrations at the ravaging of their countries by drug gangs just to feed the drug habits of recreational users in the United States. But they also are indicative of the failure of the Obama administration to provide strong leadership and support as the drug cartels have reacted to strong government policies against them in Colombia and Mexico by relocating their operations to much more vulnerable countries in Central America. Doubts about the administration’s commitment to the drug fight were also fueled by the president’s 2013 budget request, which includes a 16 percent reduction in counter-narcotics assistance to Latin America — including a 60 percent drop in aid to Guatemala. That is hardly the way to win friends and influence people who are risking their lives against brutal and uncompromising enemies wealthier and better armed than they are. It may be that these leaders don’t really have any intention of decriminalizing or legalizing the use of drugs at home (profoundly risky, to say the least) and instead are desperately trying to get Washington’s attention to the crises, but that is hardly comforting. Four decades of cooperation between Latin American governments and the United States on enforcement and eradication of illicit narcotics shouldn’t come to this; instead of pushing forward to confront new challenges, we’re are left trying to recoup lost ground. To be sure, combating drug cartels is not a pretty business. One does not have to be a member of a peace brigade to be concerned about the impact of drug violence on Latin American communities, but excessive sentimentalism is rarely a sound basis for public policy. Especially when trying to confront drug gangs that have killed tens of thousands, fueled corruption by buying off public officials and undermining democratic institutions, and terrorized local populations. Nor is lethal assistance the sole answer. These countries need across the board assistance to build up their judicial and penal systems and more economic opportunities for their people to depress the lure of the drug trade. But nothing is possible without re-establishing peace and security and that means employing superior force against those who prefer it the other way. Unless the administration’s approach to the increasing drug violence in Central America becomes more of a priority, they will continue to be confronted by counterproductive distractions like the current statements out of the region. For example, next month President Obama will travel to Colombia for the sixth Summit of the Americas. There are many issues to discuss with responsible governments looking to better the lives of their peoples. Drug legalization should not be one of them. Even though Vice President Biden said all the right things during his trip this week — "…there is no possibility that the Obama-Biden administration will change its policy on legalization" — the problem is he had to say it at all.The Tor Project recently announced the release of its prototype for a Tor-enabled smartphone—an Android phone beefed up with privacy and security in mind, and intended as equal parts opsec kung fu and a gauntlet to Google. The new phone, designed by Tor developer Mike Perry, is based on Copperhead OS, the hardened Android distribution profiled first by Ars earlier this year. "The prototype is meant to show a possible direction for Tor on mobile," Perry wrote in a blog post. "We are trying to demonstrate that it is possible to build a phone that respects user choice and freedom, vastly reduces vulnerability surface, and sets a direction for the ecosystem with respect to how to meet the needs of high-security users." To protect user privacy, the prototype runs OrWall, the Android firewall that routes traffic over Tor, and blocks all other traffic. Users can punch a hole through the firewall for voice traffic, for instance, to enable Signal. The prototype only works on Google Nexus and Pixel hardware, as these are the only Android device lines, Perry wrote, that "support Verified Boot with user-controlled keys." While strong Linux geekcraft is required to install and maintain the prototype, Perry stressed that the phone is also aimed at provoking discussion about what he described as "Google's increasing hostility towards Android as a fully Open Source platform." It’s about the software backdoors, stupid! Apple's iOS is famously more secure than the Android security garbage fire, right? But Android security will eventually improve, and when that happens, Perry told Ars in an e-mail, "then the next measure will be the ability of the platform to resist backdoors of various kinds." A closed source platform, such as Apple's mobile operating system, is at much greater risk of being compelled to deploy software backdoors, he added. "I think the best argument against backdoors is that they are technically impossible to deploy at all, due to the security properties of the system and people's ability to remove or avoid the backdoor. That argument is stronger for open source than it is for closed source." Perry also worried aloud about targeted backdoors delivered to specific users. "The iOS App Store is at a significant disadvantage there even compared to Google Play," he told us. "Each iOS app is re-encrypted specifically for the user with Apple's DRM, making it technically impossible to verify that the package you installed matches the official one." He said that Apple has "created the perfect platform for delivering targeted backdoors to specific users. I don't like banking on iOS for those reasons." Google hostile to freedom In order to solve the Android security mess, Google is taking steps that hurt user freedom, and make Android vulnerable to compelled backdoors, Perry argued. The fragmentation of the Android ecosystem into multiple OEMs, who distribute their own versions of the operating system, has resulted in rampant insecurity. Without financial incentives to push security updates to users' phones, OEMs by and large abandon users to their fate. Under pressure from many quarters to solve this problem, Google is working to improve Android security, but Perry criticised Google's release and development process as increasingly opaque. Android platform is effectively moving to a 'Look but don't touch' Shared Source model that Microsoft tried in the early 2000s," Perry wrote in his blog post. "However, instead of being explicit about this, Google appears to be doing it surreptitiously. "It is a very deeply disturbing trend." Copperhead to the rescue Copperhead OS was the obvious choice for the prototype's base system, Perry told Ars. "Copperhead is also the only Android ROM that supports verified boot, which prevents exploits from modifying the boot, system, recovery, and vendor device partitions," said Perry in his blog post. "Copperhead has also extended this protection by preventing system applications from being overridden by Google Play Store apps, or from writing bytecode to writable partitions (where it could be modified and infected)." He added: "This makes Copperhead an excellent choice for our base system." Daniel Micay, Copperhead's lead developer, welcomed Perry's prototype. "It will be nice to have somewhere to direct technical users that cannot live without Google Play," he told Ars in an e-mail. By default, Copperhead eschews Google Play, and Micay himself refuses to use any Google Apps. "Mike Perry is interested in doing things properly which is why [the prototype] goes through the effort of not breaking verified boot or depending on leaving an insecure recovery image," Micay said. "The rough edges can be smoothed out over time." Mission Improbable, but useable today The prototype, nicknamed "Mission Improbable," is now ready to download and install. Perry said he uses the prototype himself for his personal communications: "E-mail, Signal, XMPP+OTR, Mumble, offline maps and directions in OSMAnd, taking pictures, and reading news and books." He suggests leaving the prototype in airplane mode and connecting to the Internet through a second, less-trusted phone, or a cheap Wi-Fi cell router. The prototype is the second of its kind. Back in April, 2014, Perry proposed his first Android device optimised for privacy and security—then nicknamed Mission Impossible. The earlier prototype consisted of a 2013 Google Nexus tablet running Cyanogenmod. Perry emphasised that the Tor Project has no plans to get into the hardware business, but hopes the prototype will provoke discussion and innovation. He pointed to the Neo900, which bills itself as "The truly open smartphone that cares about your privacy"—a project, he said, that came about in part due to the "Mission Impossible" blog post two years ago. "What I’ve found is that posts like this one energise the Android hobbyist/free software ecosystem, and make us aware of each other and common purpose," Perry told Ars. "It also shows Google and others what gaps there are in Android for Tor support, and raises awareness about the dangers the ecosystem faces." Ars readers looking for a weekend project will find the complete Mission Improbable installation instructions on GitHub. J.M. Porup is a freelance cybersecurity reporter who lives in Toronto. When he dies his epitaph will simply read "assume breach." You can find him on Twitter at @toholdaquill.Two years ago the biggest battles in the IaaS cloud computing industry were over price. Amazon Web Services would drop prices one day, and Google or Microsoft would cut the price tag on virtual machines or storage weeks, days, or even hours afterwards. It was a seemingly non-stop back and forth that caused some to wonder how low the prices could go. Fast forward to today and providers are still dropping prices, but not with the same vigor and frequency as in 2013. Constant jostling of prices doesn’t grab headlines, nor the buzz of the industry like it used to. At AWS’s most recent re:Invent conference it didn’t even make a price cut announcement, which had become standard for any big AWS news event. Something else has taken the place of price cuts though, and it could be even more beneficial to customers: a feature-war. Each cloud provider is trying to make their platform the most feature-rich of them all. Experts say it’s a natural evolution of the market. “There’s only so far you can drop prices,” says Rishi Vaish is vice president of product at RightScale, which makes software to control multiple clouds. “In the early days there may have been large margins, but after you cut those, you have to battle it out on features.” And the battle has just begun. + MORE AT NETWORK WORLD: Which cloud provider had the best uptime last year? + The latest installment of this full-fledged feature war is evidenced by the latest virtual machine offerings from two heavyweights of this: AWS and Microsoft. Each already have an extensive catalog of virtual machines instances that customers can pick from. But there is no resting on your laurels in the fast-moving cloud market. So these providers are beefing up their VM options, offering faster, more powerful, and more expensive, virtual machine instance sizes. To kick off 2015 Microsoft announced that its latest and greatest G-Series of VM instances was available and ready to use. Unofficially referred to by some as gargantuan or Godzilla VMs, Microsoft calls them the “largest VM in the cloud.” G-Series VMs offer up to 32 virtual CPUs and feature Intel Xeon E5 processors; and customer can spin them up and down on demand and pay by the hour for them. They come with up to 448GB of memory and a whopping 6.59TBs of local solid state drive space. These VMs eat databases for lunch. Amazon Web Services Amazon’s newest C4 VM instance sizes are powered by a custom-built Intel “Haswell” processor pictured here. The next week it was AWS’s turn. The C4 Family of VMs that the company announced at its re:Invent conference last fall are now ready for prime time, AWS announced this week. The company worked Intel to create a customized processor for these VMs, the Xeon E5, code named Haswell. It clocks in with a base speed of 2.9GHz and spins up to 3.5GHz thanks to a “turbo boost” that automatically kicks in when more juice is needed. “These instances are designed to deliver the highest level of processor performance on EC2,” AWS chief evangelist Jeff Barr wrote on the AWS blog. The C4s come in multiple flavors, but on the high end, the extra-large versions produce up to 36 virtual CPUs with 60GB of RAM. (Just a note, the G-Series and C4 Family are not direct competitors. The G-series are meant to be used for highly transactional workloads, like databases, whereas the C4 are compute-optimized VMs). Carl Brooks, an IaaS analyst at the 451 Research Group says cloud providers are being pushed to offer higher-end VM types by a variety of factors. Some hosting providers offer bare-metal (meaning not virtualized) servers on demand, which can pack hefty performance stats. “Combined with the upward march of CPU and server capacity generally, providers basically have no choice but to add more powerful machines over time,” he says. Google and other providers aren’t standing idle either and VM instance sizes aren’t the only features providers are sparring over. This month Google announced the beta release of Cloud Trace and Cloud Monitoring, tools that help developers identify the source of problems in their applications and an in-depth monitoring tool to track usage of Google’s cloud. At AWS re:Invent in November AWS threw down the gauntlet of new features (here are 10 of the best). VMware has some big cloud announcements scheduled for early next month for its vCloud Air platform. Verizon, after a scheduled outage over the weekend, announced that its cloud now supports rolling updates, promising that it will never have scheduled downtime again. The point is the IaaS cloud market is maturing past its early days of vendors competing on price to distinguish their platforms to now various players competing on more advanced features.Everyone has to grow up sometime, and the hardest cages to escape are the ones you make yourself. For warproduct. Ruby jumped to her feet. “Oh, that’s right! I had a much better entrance planned. Wait a second.” She dramatically threw her cape over one shoulder and pulled out a rose from where it was tucked in the back of her belt, presenting it to Weiss with a flourish. “I’m here to rescue you,” she said, proudly. “From what?” Weiss had to admit the wedding dress looked simply stunning. The designer crouched at her side, making minute alterations to the drape of the fabric, checking the alignment of the dozens of pale blue Dust crystal beads that frosted the bodice. She was one of the few designers willing to work with the material, a rising star in the fashion industry eager to associate her creations with the Schnee name. Weiss turned this way and that in front of the mirror, admiring how the beads glittered in the light. It was a dress fit for a princess, and after the wedding she would be royalty in everything but name. The ink was already drying on the papers authorizing the merger between Schnee Dust and their only viable competitor, sealed with her father’s signature and a ring on Weiss’ finger. With this deal, Schnee Dust would finally be a true monopoly, nearly equal in power to any government. They would be able to do as they pleased, no more fuss over price-fixing and working conditions. As the only supplier of the world’s most vital commodity, the Schnee word would be the last one. But Weiss couldn’t keep herself focused on the wedding plans, her thoughts constantly straying back to Beacon. No doubt Yang, Blake, and Ruby had already managed to get themselves into one mess or another. A week was far too long to for them to go without her supervision. A flicker of color caught Weiss’ eye and she reached out, snatching it from the air. Instead of an insect or a scrap of cloth, a single rose petal lay in the center of her palm, slowly fading into red light. “That will be all for now,” said Weiss, gaze focused on her palm. “With all due respect, Miss Schnee,” the designer began, “there’s a lot left to finish before the wedding. The hemming alone will take the rest of the day and you have to factor in time for the final fitting, and-” “I’m certain a slight delay is nothing to a dressmaker of your caliber,” Weiss said, curtly. “Just as I’m sure my family will gladly compensate you for any inconvenience.” For a moment, the designer looked as if she would refuse. The wedding was only four days away, and with the amount her father had paid for the the dress, he expected nothing less than timely perfection, he always did. But, as always, the promise of money and the weight of the Schnee name won out over any other consideration. The designer nodded slowly. “Very good, Miss Schnee.” Weiss waited until the door closed behind her before she called out, “Does the word ‘subtlety’ mean anything to you?” Ruby hauled herself over the windowsill, landing in a heap on the floor. Groaning, she rubbed her shoulders. “Ow, ow, ow. You couldn’t have made her leave any sooner? I was about to fall.” She blinked, looking up at Weiss. “Whoa, you look beautiful.” “Dolt.” Weiss nudged Ruby with a bare foot, provoking another whine. “What do you think you’re doing here?” “Don’t you-” Ruby’s forehead creased in confusion. “I mean, you know.” “Clearly I don’t.” Ruby jumped to her feet. “Oh, that’s right! I had a much better entrance planned. Wait a second.” She dramatically threw her cape over one shoulder and pulled out a rose from where it was tucked in the back of her belt, presenting it to Weiss with a flourish. “I’m here to rescue you,” she said, proudly. “From what?” “Uh, this?” Ruby waved her free hand, gesturing at the dress. “You’re going to save me from my clothing? My hero,” Weiss said. “What’s next? Attacking my shower because the water pressure is a little too strong? Perhaps you’ll gallantly rescue me from an empty room.” “No, not that, you know,” Ruby lowered her voice to a whisper, “the marriage.” The expression of fond exasperation that Weiss usually found herself wearing around Ruby slowly faded off her face. “That information doesn’t go public for another week. Who told you?” she asked. “No, actually it doesn’t matter. Just leave. Now.” “I thought-” “Somehow I doubt that, otherwise you’d have respected my wishes for privacy and not pried into my personal affairs. Really, was there anything unclear about 'I’m going home for a week, don’t bother me,’ anything at all?” “But I’m here to save you,” Ruby said, shaking the rose like she was trying to remind Weiss it was still there. “C'mon, we should go. Yang and Blake won’t be able to keep everyone distracted for much longer.” “Yang and Blake are here too?” Weiss rubbed her temples. A Faunus and a walking fire hazard, her father was going to be absolutely furious. “Well, yeah. Your family has really good security.” Ruby grinned with excitement. “There were a bunch of cool robots hidden in the ground behind the fence and they popped up like whoosh-” she flailed her arms “-Yang punched one and it exploded, and Blake tripped another up so I could chop off its head-” Weiss ground her teeth, hardly listening as Ruby continued describing the property damage as if she expected it to send Weiss swooning into her arms. “-and there’s a pretty big crater there now,” she finished. “We need to leave, though.” She grabbed Weiss’ wrist and tugged her towards the window. “Idiot,” Weiss hissed, yanking free of Ruby’s hold. “Weiss,” Ruby said, confused, “don’t you want to go?” Weiss folded her arms across her chest. “No, and you would have realized that if you listened instead of running your mouth like a complete buffoon.” “But isn’t your dad gonna make you get married if you stay here?” “Make me?” Weiss asked, practically spitting the word. “What exactly do you think is happening here, Ruby? That my father had me locked away in a tower, chained and guarded until he could hand me over to my future in-laws? Is that it?” Ruby’s refusal to meet her gaze was answer enough. “You really did think that, didn’t you? You’re so childish. My father simply made me a business proposition and I accepted.” She had sat across from him, the carved expanse of his hardwood desk between them, and quietly signed over hand. And after, he smiled at her, proud of the deal, the future of Schnee Dust, and perhaps even proud of Weiss. “There’s nothing to be done about it now,” Weiss finished. “So you’re giving up? What about Beacon? What about Team RWBY? What about m-” Ruby swallowed, unwilling or unable to finish the thought. “You’re just gonna turn your back on all that? And you call me childish.” Weiss could feel her cheeks turning pink with rage. How dare Ruby presume to stumble in like some fairytale hero and save her when Weiss couldn’t even save herself. She had no idea of the difficulties Weiss faced, of how unthinkable it was to openly defy her father. She could have her small victories with him, her hair or combat training, but Ruby was blithely telling her to ruin a deal that was years in the making, that would define the future of Schnee Dust, for nothing more than her own selfish conception of Weiss’ happiness. “You think I’m thrilled about this?” Weiss asked, voice tight with frustration. Though without her heels she was a few inches shorter than Ruby, Weiss’ intensity had Ruby shrinking back. “This isn’t exactly the way I hoped my life would turn out, but life isn’t fair sometimes, Ruby. Grow up.” “You’re the one who needs to grow up, you – uh - you dummy. If you don’t want to get married, then leave.” “And get disowned by my family? I’d rather not.” She dismissively waved Ruby toward the window. “Feel free to see yourself out. Or would you rather blow a few more holes in my estate before you go?” “Fine! Stay here and let your dad push you around like a big, stupid jerk.” Ruby shook the rose in her direction, violently enough that a few of the petals broke off. “Here, it can be a wedding present. I picked it for you anyway.” Weiss sneered. “No thank you, I have enough useless clutter in my life. Why don’t you toss that on a compost heap where it belongs?” “I picked it for you,” Ruby repeated, incredulous. “It’s a gift.” “One that I neither need nor want.” “You’re being ridiculous! Just take it already and stop acting like this, like we don’t mean anything to you.” Ruby grabbed her wrist and shoved the rose into her hand, squeezing her fingers closed so she couldn’t toss it back in Ruby’s face. A sharp pain stabbed through Weiss’ palm, sudden enough that she couldn’t stop herself from letting out a small gasp. Startled, Ruby didn’t fight back when Weiss pulled her hand free and let the rose fall to the ground. Her palm was studded with a half-dozen bloody punctures; Ruby had forgotten to remove all the thorns from the rose. “Oh no…” Ruby whispered, staring horrified at the blood welling up between Weiss’ fingers. “I- I didn’t mean to- I’m so sorry.” She took Weiss’ hand in her own and dabbed at the punctures with the corner of her cape. “It’s nothing,” Weiss said, softly. Her Aura was already healing the cuts, but she couldn’t bring herself to push Ruby away. Ruby didn’t look up from her work, her voice trembling, “Weiss, please. Please don’t do this. Your family will understand, and- and if they still want to make you, then they don’t deserve you.” “Ruby,” Weiss said, “no.” Part of growing up was knowing which dreams could be held onto and which had to be excised before they could rot unfulfilled, tainting every moment with thoughts of what might have been. This was kinder to them both. The only thing more painful than having a dream was desperately clinging to the bones of one that had already died. “You have a choice,” Ruby mumbled, numbly. “Of course I do. I always have.” “Then why? Why are you going through with it?” Ruby’s voice broke, a few tears dripping down her cheeks to land in Weiss’ palm, mingling with the drying blood. It was a struggle to keep her voice firm. “Who am I supposed to be if I can’t be Weiss Schnee? Tell me that, Ruby.” Ruby looked up, a brief ember of hope in her eyes. “You can be Weiss Ro-” “Stop it,” Weiss said, sharply. “So what? You make a huge fuss about me not belonging to my father just so I can belong to you?” “That’s not what I meant-” “It is, and that’s fine. It’s perfectly natural to want to posses things you think will make you happy, but I don’t belong to anyone.” She took a deep breath. “This is my choice and I choose my family.” Ruby reached up and Weiss instinctively braced for a punch or a slap. Instead her fingers brushed lightly over Weiss’ cheek, coming away damp with tears. Stunned, Weiss could only stare. She hadn’t realized she’d been crying. “I love you,” Ruby said, her voice like rose petals, soft and fragile. “You don’t have to be Weiss Rose, you don’t have to be a part of Team RWBY, you don’t even have to be my friend. I’d never try to force you to do something you don’t want to, but this is making you so sad. I can see it in your face. Leave with me, Weiss. Even if you don’t want to stay with me, don’t stay here.” “No, I…” Sensing her weakness, Ruby pressed forward. “A-and if you choose to stay with us you’ll never be alone, I promise. You have me, Yang, and Blake, and we’ll all love you. We can be your family.” “It isn’t enough!” Weiss was taken back by the force of her outburst, the tremor in her hands, her jaw. “You are a dolt and and idiot and an utter imbecile, and you’ve been nothing but perfect. All of you have. I can’t- Ruby, I can’t ask any more from you- you’ve given me everything.” “I don’t understand.” She sounded so lost, so small. “All of your love, their love, it just doesn’t- I- when I’m with you, I still feel lonely,” she said, all of it ugly, painful truth, “I don’t know why, but it isn’t enough for me. And- and maybe this is what I need. To make my father proud. I’ve tried so hard to be perfect, Ruby, for him and for you, but I’m not. I’ll never be perfect.” “Weiss…” “No, let me finish. I’ll never be able to earn his love on my own, but I can do this. I can be a good daughter and expand the Schnee empire beyond anything we even dreamed a decade ago.” Her shoulders slumped, the last traces of desperate intensity leaving her frame. “My life won’t be like I hoped it might, but maybe it’ll be enough.” Ruby was quiet for a long moment, the full meaning sinking in. “This will make you happy?” she asked finally, her tone begging Weiss to say it was all a lie even if her words would never put that burden on Weiss. “Yes.” Lie, truth, she couldn’t tell, but had to give Ruby as clean a break as possible. They both deserved that much. “Okay,” she said, more tired than Weiss had ever heard her, “all I want is for you to be happy.” She tried to smile for Weiss. That broken, quivering smile did more to weaken Weiss’ resolve than all her other pleas and arguments. It was easy to lash out when she was being ordered around, if only to prove that she could, that she was her own. But there was no command in that smile, just a prayer for her happiness though the thought of it must have been agonizing for Ruby. “I didn’t mean for you to find out this way,” Weiss said. It was as close to an apology as either of them could stand right now. Ruby nodded weakly. “Y-yeah, I know. I’ll just… I should go.” She tugged her hood up, hiding her face in its shadow, and hopped on the windowsill. Ruby looked back as if to ask one final time, but only shook her head and jumped down, her cape trailing behind her. A breeze blew in from the window, ruffling Weiss’ bangs and carrying with it the faint scent of smoke and leaves. If she left now, she could still catch up to Ruby before she made it to the fence. Weiss let out a little huff of laughter, soft and bitter. It had been too late long before Ruby stumbled in, a few minutes changed nothing. She closed the window and latched it firmly. It didn’t hurt as much as she thought it would. For weeks she’d lain awake at night, listening to the creak of Ruby’s bed over hers and quietly dreading the morning. The sleepless seconds piling up like snowflakes in an avalanche, suffocating and inescapable. There was nothing she wouldn’t have given for just a little more time with them, with her. But now it was done. The stitches had been ripped open, the wound left raw and gaping, and the patient still lived. She was fine. Blood had dried in the creases of her palm, and Weiss absentmindedly traced her thumb over the fading marks. There wouldn’t even be a scar. She clenched her fist, trying to remember the way it stung when the thorns dug into the meat of her hand, but the punctures had healed enough she only felt the slightest ache, more the memory of pain than anything. The rose was still lying on the floor where it had fallen, but one of them must have stepped on it during the argument. Its petals were bruised, the red gone purple-brown with the imprint of a heel, the stem crooked and broken. Weiss picked it up, gently cradling it in her hands and fondly brushed the petals back into place with the tip of a finger. All she had to do was make an offhand remark at the dinner table and her father would have several gardens worth of roses delivered to her room the next morning, but Ruby’s gifts were always infinitely more valuable, ragged and cheap as they tended to be. Next time she would have to make sure that Ruby removed all the thorns before taking it. Honestly, the girl could be so scatterbrained sometimes. Weiss’ breath caught in her throat. Ruby would never give her another flower. She would never hold Weiss’ hand or kiss her goodnight or eagerly glance back after she made a kill, checking to see if Weiss was watching, if she was impressed. Cold, sharp and bitter like acid, spread through Weiss’ chest. Her laugh. Her smile. Her love. Never again. “No, no, no, it doesn’t hurt,” she whispered, the words running together, barely coherent, “I’m okay. I’m fine. It doesn’t hurt.” Weiss caught a flash of herself in the mirror, the rose falling from her reflection’s nerveless fingers, and looked down, almost surprised to see that she had also dropped the flower. The numbness in her chest made it difficult to draw breath, and she fell to her knees, yanking on the neck of her dress until the threads popped and tore, Dust beads scattering across the floor. Her reflection glared back at her, mouth twisting, eyes damp and rimmed with red, pale and shaking in the ruins of her pretty dress. She pressed her hand to the mirror, hoping for an instant that perhaps her reflection would reach back, but her palm only met unyielding glass. She had nothing left. Weiss crumpled in on herself, slumping forward until her cheek pressed against the cool surface of the mirror, and let the tears come.There are a couple of things I need to teach the player when he picks up the game. How to move, how to dash, the fact that he can dash into enemies to harm them and how he can throw weapons. So I figured I could generate a less-random level with a very linear path consisting of 4 rooms. Each room teaching one of those lessons. I’m pretty happy with the result, I need to playtest but I think people will get it :) The last room functions as a boss-room, with a goal ray that takes the player to the next level. Talking about the goal ray… It’s another task I did today :D If the room has a goal door in it (it’s a door in the floor that opens up and releases a white ray). it will activate it once enemies of that room are eliminated, it’ll be on the boss rooms to take the player to the next level. It deactivates the player’s movement and beams him up slowly as the screen fades out. Talking about screen fading out… I made a simple fade-in/out system by spawning a SpriteRenderer in front of the camera and animating it’s alpha. It doesn’t play well together with particles though, the particles stay in front of the spriterenderer :( So I might need to find another solution for it later, but close enough for now. I also added a quick fade-in/out when the camera is going from one room to the next. Now, about the camera, some people suggested I experiment with the camera closer to the character. I implemented the camera that follows the character around, and added a button to toggle between the camera modes (Following/Static). I keep the desired static position in the GameManager and the camera manager decides based on a “following” boolean whether to lerp towards the desired static position found in the game manager or towards a desired position based on the current whereabouts of the players. I fixed one little bug, behind the door there were still colliders for the walls, so when I dashed into doors to go to the other side I would bounce off of it instead. So I added a piece of code to the door to cast an overlapsphere behidn it looking for colliders, and deactivate any collider found behind the door. Now I can dash into doors and pass through to the other side :) I had to poke around the Room Manager again, before there was only one prefab variable for room and the generator would generate the same room over and over again all over. For the tutorial level and for the actual levels I need to have a bunch of different prefab lists based on different types of rooms to pick from. I made 2 lists for each type, one is public and is the list I fill myself, the second one is filled at run-time based on the public one. As the prefabs get spawned they are taken out of the list so that the same room won’t appear twice in the same level. I might have to try and prevent the same room from appearing twice in the same run later on, but for now that’s good enough. If it does try to pull from the non-repeating list and can’t find any prefabs, it will refill it with some of the original ones though. I then made 2 of each tutorial room, just so there is some variation. And that was it for my day, it was quite productive, and now I have a “playable” singleplayer version :) However, I still need to make a bunch of new rooms and some more enemy prefabs for it to be more fun to test. Once that’s done I should move on to making some new weapons and character upgrades. The next few days leading up to Full Indie should be spent making rooms… Or implementing the replay system I got on today’s Asset Store sale :D I’ve been eyeing that for a while so today when I saw it on the sale it was an instant-buy ^^ It’ll be really cool to see replays of the kills on the survival deathmatch.A long long time ago, in the projects of Bayonne, New Jersey, I fell in love.I fell in love with comic books and superheroes, thanks to Stan Lee and Julie Schwartz. I fell in love with science fiction, thanks to Robert A. Heinlein, Andre Norton, and Eric Frank Russell. I fell in love with fantasy, thanks to Robert E. Howard, Fritz Leiber, and J.R.R. Tolkien. And I fell in love with monsters and scary stories (later in life, I'd learn to call them 'horror' or weird fiction, but as a kid, they were just monster stories to me)... thanks to a gentleman out of Providence who had died before I was
State University professor Michael Forstner showed that it was a coyote. However, subsequent analysis by a veterinary genetics laboratory team at the University of California, Davis concluded that, based on the sex chromosomes, the male animal was a coyote–wolf hybrid sired by a male Mexican wolf.[20][21] It has been suggested that the hybrid animal was afflicted with sarcoptic mange, which would explain its hairless and blueish appearance.[20] A study found no evidence of significant dog admixture into the Mexican wolf.[22] Distribution [ edit ] Early accounts of the distribution of the Mexican wolf included southeastern Arizona, southwestern New Mexico, sometimes western Texas, USA and the Sierra Madre Occidental, Mexico. This past distribution is supported by ecological, morphological, and physiographic data. The areas described coincide with the distribution of the Madrean pine-oak woodlands, a habitat which supports Coues’ white-tailed deer (Odocoileus virginianus couesi) that is the Mexican wolf's main prey. In 2017, there are at least 143 Mexican wolves living wild in Mexico, Arizona, and New Mexico. There are 240 in captive breeding programs in the USA and Mexico.[7] History [ edit ] [5] The Aztec god Xolotl, depicted here in the 15th century Codex Fejervary-Mayer, may have been based on the Mexican wolf rather than a dog as once believed. The Mexican wolf was held in high regard in Pre-Columbian Mexico, where it was considered a symbol of war and the Sun. In the city of Teotihuacan, it was common practice to crossbreed Mexican wolves with dogs to produce temperamental, but loyal, animal guardians. Wolves were also sacrificed in religious rituals, which involved quartering the animals and keeping their heads as attire for priests and warriors. The remaining body parts were deposited in underground funerary chambers with a westerly orientation, which symbolized rebirth, the Sun, the underworld and the canid god Xolotl.[5] The earliest written record of the Mexican wolf comes from Francisco Javier Clavijero's Historia de México in 1780, where it is referred to as Cuetzlachcojotl, and is described as being of the same species as the coyote, but with a more wolf-like pelt and a thicker neck.[23] Decline [ edit ] There was a rapid reduction of Mexican wolf populations in the Southwestern United States from 1915-1920; by the mid-1920s, livestock losses to Mexican wolves became rare in areas where the costs once ranged in the millions of dollars.[24] Vernon Bailey, writing in the early 1930s, noted that the highest Mexican wolf densities occurred in the open grazing areas of the Gila National Forest, and that wolves were completely absent in the lower Sonora. He estimated that there were 103 Mexican wolves in New Mexico in 1917, though the number had been reduced to 45 a year later. By 1927, it had apparently become extinct in New Mexico.[3] Sporadic encounters with wolves entering Texas, New Mexico and Arizona via Mexico continued through to the 1950s, until they too were driven away through traps, poison and guns. The last wild wolves to be killed in Texas were a male shot on December 5, 1970 on Cathedral Mountain Ranch and another caught in a trap on the Joe Neal Brown Ranch on December 28. Wolves were still being reported in small numbers in Arizona in the early 1970s, while accounts of the last wolf to be killed in New Mexico are difficult to evaluate, as all the purported "last wolves" could not be confirmed as genuine wolves rather than other canid species.[24] The Mexican wolf persisted longer in Mexico, as human settlement, ranching and predator removal came later than in the Southwestern United States. Wolf numbers began to rapidly decline during the 1930s-1940s, when Mexican ranchers began adopting the same wolf-control methods as their American counterparts, relying heavily on the indiscriminate usage of 1080.[24] Conservation and recovery [ edit ] A pair of Mexican wolves with pups at Sevilleta Wolf Management Facility in Socorro, New Mexico The Mexican wolf was listed as endangered under the U.S. Endangered Species Act in 1976, with the Mexican Wolf Recovery Team being formed three years later by the United States Fish and Wildlife Service. The Recovery Team composed the Mexican Wolf Recovery Plan, which called for the reestablishment of at least 100 wolves in their historic range through a captive breeding program. Between 1977 and 1980, four males and a pregnant female were captured in Durango and Chihuahua in Mexico to act as founders of a new "certified lineage". By 1999, with the addition of new lineages, the captive Mexican wolf population throughout the US and Mexico reached 178 individuals. These captive-bred animals were subsequently released into the Apache National Forest in eastern Arizona, and allowed to recolonize east-central Arizona and south-central New Mexico, areas which were collectively termed the Blue Range Wolf Recovery Area (BRWRA). The Recovery Plan called for the release of additional wolves in the White Sands Wolf Recovery Area in south-central New Mexico, should the goal of 100 wild wolves in the Blue Range area not be achieved.[6] By late 2012, it was estimated that there were at least 75 wolves and four breeding pairs living in the recovery areas, with 27% of the population consisting of pups. Since 1998, 92 wolf deaths were recorded, with four occurring in 2012; these four were all due to illegal shootings.[25] Releases have also been conducted in Mexico, and the first birth of a wild wolf litter in Mexico was reported in 2014.[26] A study released by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service in February 2015 shows a minimum population of 109 wolves in 2014 in southwest New Mexico and southeast Arizona, a 31 percent increase from 2013.[27] According to a survey done on the population of the Mexican wolf in Alpine, Arizona, the recovery of the species is being negatively impacted due to poaching. In an effort to fight the slowing recovery, GPS monitoring devices are being used to monitor the wolves.[28] In 2016, 14 Mexican wolves were killed, making it the highest death count of any year since they were reintroduced into the wild in 1998. 2 of the deaths were caused by officials trying to collar the animals. The rest of the deaths remain under investigation.[29][30] In February 2018, five more wolves were released in Chihuahua, bringing the total wild population in Mexico (Sonora and Chihuahua) to thirty-seven wolves.[31] In 2018, six Mexican wolf pups from the Endangered Wolf Center were sent to dens in Arizona and New Mexico for their survival.[32] Further reading [ edit ] Holaday, B. (2003), Return of the Mexican Gray Wolf: Back to the Blue, University of Arizona Press, ISBN 0816522960 , University of Arizona Press, ISBN 0816522960 Shaw, H. (2002), The Wolf in the Southwest: The Making of an Endangered Species, High-Lonesome Books, ISBN 0944383599 , High-Lonesome Books, ISBN 0944383599 Robinson, M. (2005), "Predatory Bureaucracy: The Extermination of Wolves and the Transformation of the West", University Press of Colorado, ISBN 0870818198 See also [ edit ]Here is my entry to the Open Call for Open Science Equipment Contest, detailed here: http://thecitizensciencequarterly.com/2010/11/25/open-call-for-open-science-equipment/ Start with the video to see what this is all about: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1d4_SQBTFjg http://vimeo.com/17497511 Download the.zip file to get everything, or get the individual pieces you want. This is an open-source orbital shaker for mammalian cell and tissue culture and for bench-top science. The orbital shaker fits inside a standard 37 ÂºC/5% CO2 cell incubator and puts out no heat so you can load up the incubator full of these things. We have used them for 2 weeks now and the design is very simple, inexpensive, and scaleable. Our cells are growing happily in these shakers. Orbital shakers are typically ~$1,500 and even more expensive if you need one that is designed for a cell incubator so that it will not put out any heat (incubators only have heating and not cooling functions, so if equipment puts out too much heat it will kill all the cells in the incubator). To accomplish this goal I used an arduino microcontroller, Pololu stepper motor controller, and an inexpensive stepper motor. A DC motor could have been used but it is very difficult to control the rotational speed with high accuracy since the DC motor rotation speed varies based on load. Instead I used a $10 stepper motor and a pololu stepper motor controller at 1/16th stepping. I used a NEMA 17 motor. Lin Engineering 4218L-01-11 works very well. It can do 75 oz-in and has lots of torque so it can be run at 1/16th stepping and at low current without generating any heat. I used 3D printed parts I designed and printed with a MakerBot to make the off-axis motor connector and bearing plate holder. Nuts and bolts are used to finish the design. Stepper motors are known to put out enormous vibrations, so part of the design also required rubber tubing stand-offs which smooth out the motion of the orbital shaker and also dampen all of the motor vibration. Coding the stepper motor rotational speed was straightforward once we calibrated the correct delay time between motor steps. We typically run the shakers at 2 Hz (2 revolutions per second) but can easily get anywhere from 0.2-5 Hz with the current setup. Full sources are available on Thingiverse, posted today. If you want to buy a commercially available orbital shaker you're going to spend ~$1500.00 USD. Cost Breakdown for Open Source Orbital Shaker: First shaker minimum requirements to get started: ATX Power Supply $30 Arduino $30 USB plug and long cable $20 Motor $10 Bearing $1 Tubing $1 Motor controller $40 Wire $4 Nuts and Bolts $5 3D printed parts $0.50 Total: $141.50 Additional shakers, incremental requirements: Motor $10 Bearing $1 Tubing $1 Motor controller $40 Wire $4 Nuts and Bolts $5 3D printed parts $0.50 Total Incremental cost for each additional shaker: $61.50 Currently we have 4 shakers being driven concurrently with this setup (one set of electronics). And here (attached) is a video of them working in our incubator! My design would benefit from winning this contest by being able to design a lasercut case for the electronics and make a kit that could be purchased directly by customers. I would make the 3D printed parts lasercut instead to make production easier. All of these parts are sourceable from SparkFun and Ponoko. The motor controller I used is not from SparkFun but SparkFun has many that would work for this application, or they may be willing to sell the controller that I am using (from www.JohnYang.com). John Yang's controller is available from MakerGear.com. This orbital shaker is likely to have numerous applications in bench-top science in addition to in vitro cell culture.NEW YORK CITY went a day without a murder on Monday, which according to police was the first time anyone could remember that happening. Overall, the city's murder rate this year is down 23%, reaching levels last seen in 1960. This is a milestone in the 20-year-long decline of violent crime in the Big Apple. It's cause for celebration, and Reuters reports that crime expert Tom Repetto attributes the success in part to the city's aggressive policing strategies, the famous "broken windows" tactics that got started in the 1990s under Ray Kelly, the police chief, and have more recently included the controversial stop-and-frisk policy. But hold on a minute. Up in Boston, they also had tremendous success in cutting murder rates in the 1990s. But they didn't focus on the broken-windows strategy, stop-and-frisk, or going after petty offenders. Instead they launched a project called "Operation Ceasefire" to cut gang violence. That project, as David Kennedy, a criminology professor at John Jay College who was instrumental in developing the programme, explained last year on "Fresh Air", had two basic prongs. First, it used community diplomacy to enlist respected neighbourhood figures to make it clear to gang members that it was their own relatives and neighbours, not the police, who needed them to stop the shooting. Second, it employed an innovative policing idea in which the most violent gang at any given time would be relentlessly targeted by police until it was effectively neutralised, followed by whichever gang then rose to the top of the list. This creates competition among gangs to refrain from lethal violence; it's also one of the key proposals in Mark Kleiman's book on how to reduce America's prison population, "When Brute Force Fails". Get our daily newsletter Upgrade your inbox and get our Daily Dispatch and Editor's Picks. But hold on another minute! What's that you say, Eric Tucker of the Associated Press? Washington, DC is likely to see its first year in decades with less than 100 murders? Wow! In the late 1980s and early 1990s Washington had over 500 murders per year. Why the decline? No single factor, says Mr Tucker. A little of this, a little of that, a little of something else you probably never even thought of. Gentrification means the city has fewer dangerous neighbourhoods. Police have better technology and shorter response times. Community policing is better. And "better medical care, honed through lessons learned in Iraq and Afghanistan, means patients who were once stabilized at the scene are more likely to be taken directly to the hospital, where they have access to improved blood transfusion processes." Also, the mayor is no longer a guy who smokes crack. Anyway, this is a long-term nationwide trend. Murders are up in some cities, like Chicago, but in most cities America's urban violent crime rates are down radically since the early 1990s and still falling. And while falling violent crime is associated with a variety of different policies in different places, there's no one prescription you could point to. In fact, it's not clear how much of the decline is due to consciously pursued anti-crime policies at all. Nobody planned to cut the murder rate in New York, Boston or Washington by pushing real-estate prices up to the point where the socioeconomic groups more likely to commit murders could no longer afford to live there. Convincing arguments have been made that falling crime rates were caused by the legalisation of abortion and resulting decline in unwanted children. Others argue that reduced quantities of lead in the atmosphere due to the banning of leaded gasoline have played a major role, since lead stunts the parts of the brain responsible for judgment and impulse inhibition; studies have found the association between environmental lead and crime to be strong and statistically significant. Basically, we don't entirely know why America's urban murder rate has fallen. As Philip Cohen points out, it doesn't seem to have much to do with rates of single motherhood. Beyond that, it could be several or all of dozens of different factors. What's the takeaway message? I'd say there are two of them. First of all, beware of takeaway messages! Lots of things in life, maybe most things, often the most important things, don't have explanations that can be packaged as a simple, coherent thesis. Second, given our inability to explain definitively why the crime rate is falling, we may need some scepticism about the recent push to demand scientifically valid evidence for the effectiveness of social betterment programmes. Random controlled trials might very well have found that the broken-windows strategy doesn't prevent crime, "Project Ceasefire" doesn't prevent crime, reducing rates of single motherhood doesn't prevent crime, family planning doesn't prevent crime, banning lead doesn't prevent crime, and so on and so forth; there might have been no statistically significant difference one could isolate for any of these things. And yet it seems extremely likely to me that most or all of these were good things to do! The drop in violent crime probably has to do with all of them. So we probably need to be a bit circumspect about demanding results from our cost-benefit analyses, and go ahead and do things that seem like they probably work. We ought to follow Bill and Ted's advice to be excellent to one another, even while recognising that when excellence happens, we won't necessarily know exactly why. (Photo credit: AFP)It is spoken by the priest at countless funeral ceremonies, but the old adage of "dust to dust" apparently no longer applies in Germany. At least 40 of the country's largest graveyards, including ones in Cologne, Munich and Kiel, are no longer usable as they are full to capacity with undecayed bodies. Similar problems are being reported in Austria and Switzerland. "Bodies that were put into the ground 30 years ago look like they went in last week," said Walter Muller, an undertaker in Berlin. "It's like they've been pickled in preservatives and there is no explanation for it." As Germany's cemeteries becoming increasingly short of space, leading scientists have been drafted in to determine what is going wrong. "Graves have always been shared or reused. New bodies are added to the grave and nature has its way," said Professor Rainer Horn, head of the department of soil culture at the Christian-Albrechts University in Kiel. "Normally, we would expect bodies that came from dust to return to dust. But that's not happening any more. We are trying to find out why." In Germany, 650,000 people are buried in coffins each year. For centuries gravediggers have reopened existing plots to bury new coffins, in the expectation that coffins previously buried there will have collapsed and crumbled into the soil, along with the bodies they contained. Previously that process would take from eight to 10 years - but now in around one third of graves in Germany, it is taking longer, and bodies which were buried 30 or 40 years ago are still not decomposed. The crisis is so severe that a specialist conference of undertakers, cemetery authorities and scientists was held recently in Hamburg to discuss possible causes and solutions. Some suggested that the problem is down to the human diet, with people consuming so many preservatives that their bodies may not be decaying as before. Others believe that earth-born bacteria needed in the decomposition process are being wiped out by pollution or pesticides. Initial research suggests several possible causes. Levels of nitrogen - released by the corpses - and heavy metals such as amalgams used in dental fillings have been rising in soil in cemeteries, according to tests. Both forms of contamination could be hindering decomposition. Early findings suggest that dry weather has left the ground without enough moisture to sustain the bacteria essential to the process of decay, although some scientists have argued that in cemeteries the opposite is true, with the over-watering of graveside flowers waterlogging soil and killing ground-based bacteria. "The natural decomposition processes are being slowed down," said Prof Horn. "We believe that it's due to a lack of important bacteria but we do not know why this is." Regardless of the causes, he said that a radical rethink of funeral arrangements is needed. Proposals for extending the lifespan of cemeteries include a new grave-chamber system, which involves storing coffins in a concrete sarcophagus rather than directly in the ground. This would allow air to circulate and penetrate the coffin, reducing the decomposition period to an estimated 12 years - after which the same chamber could be used again. Prof Horn agrees that, whatever the reason for the poor quality of the soil, getting more air into the ground would help. He said: "A body needs air in order to decompose. At least 40 cubic metres of oxygen is needed for the decay of a typical 12- stone body." The system, however, has been criticised as soulless by some Germans who object to the idea of successive generations being lowered into the same concrete box. Werner Weinzierl and Frank Waldmann, geologists from the Baden-Wurttemberg council who have also been researching the problem, have suggested that using coffins made of pine would help, because they decompose more quickly than the harder oak used in many burials. One local authority in North Rhine-Westphalia is considering a change to the law, to allow bodies to be buried in burlap or cotton sacking to speed up the process. Another approach adopted by some German states has been to legalise woodland burials, with trees as tombstones, in the hope that so-called bio-cemeteries might replace the traditional graveyard. The first German woodland cemetery was at Reinhardswald, near Kassel. "It took ages for the government here to decide if natural cemeteries were an affront to our strict burial laws - which outlaw burial or the scattering of ashes on anything other than consecrated land," said its manager, Axel Baudach. For now, many German and Austrian cemeteries are resorting to digging deeper graves, lowering the existing occupant further down and burying the newly-dead above them. Meanwhile, a Norwegian company has proposed a radically different solution: it wants to inject chemicals into the graves to speed the decomposition of the corpses.Grimdark Magazine is creating an ezine for lovers of grimdark fiction and non-fiction. Our highly successful 2016 Kickstarter campaign Evil is a Matter of Perspective: An Anthology of Antagonists helped us kick off in the direction of being able to turn some of our volunteers into paid contractors. This Patreon, we hope, will take us the next step. Our highly successful 2016 Kickstarter campaign Evil is a Matter of Perspective: An Anthology of Antagonists helped us kick off in the direction of being able to turn some of our volunteers into paid contractors. This Patreon, we hope, will take us the next step. Each quarter we'll continue to release an ezine chock-full of exclusive and re-print short fiction, articles, interviews, original art, reviews and anything else coated in awesomesauce we can fit in there. In addition, we'll keep dropping grimdark-specific articles on our website blog with think pieces, reviews of books, movies and games, exclusive excerpts, listicles and more.In our two and a half years of publications so far, we've been fortunate enough to publish original fiction by R. Scott Bakker, Mark Lawrence, Peter Orullian, Aliette de Bodard, Adrian Tchaikovsky, Victor Milan, James A. Moore, Michael R. Fletcher and a host more.Simple. We bloody well pay the people who create for us. We pay our authors pro rates. We pay our staff artist. We try to do right by the people who entertain you through GdM's pages. Our first goal also includes payment for our non-fiction contributors.To be the premier niche ezine for grimdark stories, drawing in more readers, increasing the level of content out there for grimdark enthusiasts, and broadening the grimdark community.Further, the creative world is bastard hard for writers to make a living in. People scrape by or do it for the love of it. We want to start changing that, step by step. We want to start paying article writers, increase payments for fiction and art, and pay the wonderful volunteers who work so diligently behind the scenes for GdM.The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild Review — Redefining an Age-Old Classic Lou Contaldi March 2, 2017 9:00:49 AM EST The Legend of Zelda franchise started out by revolutionizing the action-adventure genre. Arguably the most difficult game of the series, the original The Legend of Zelda let players free-roam the map, approach enemies and dungeons far too difficult to defeat, and focused on the spirit of adventure. From there, The Legend of Zelda series took a heavily-formulaic approach — each iteration using narrative as a bridging focus, while relegating gameplay, story beats, and puzzle design to largely similar affairs. That is, until The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild — a true return to form and tour de force for Nintendo’s unreleased console, the Nintendo Switch, and Wii U. Returning to the roots of an unknown environment, pure adventure, and intrinsic difficulty, Breath of the Wild is far more linked with the original title than any of the games that would follow after. And indeed, all of those qualities turn out to be strengths for the game. Without a doubt, this is how The Legend of Zelda franchise should have progressed all along. Before I begin the review, I must make a note. It is a well-known bias that all new The Legend of Zelda games are considered the best to have ever existed in the series. Only years ago, The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword was deemed the most ingenious, creative, and best Zelda title to date. Today, it is often derided as one of the worst games in the series, especially when compared to classics like Link’s Awakening and The Legend of Zelda: Windwaker. I mention The Legend of Zelda bias not to undercut the high scores likely coming from every outlet under the sun, but to let you all know I’m aware of the principle. The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild is the exception to the rule. If replaced with a different main character and all Zelda elements in its entirety, the game would be rivaling others as the best new IP this generation. Beginning with an entirely cold open, players are left to their own to discover and survive their greatest enemy: Hyrule. The land surrounding you acts as both the biggest reason to play the game, and your main antagonist — within minutes of starting the game, players will be introduced to bitter elements, enemies that can decimate you in one swift hit, and seemingly endless amounts of terrain. More impressive is the fact that as the world opens up, it only gets more impressive. Details and hidden treasures are found in every corner, NPC’s around the environment — while not nearly as impressive, story-wise, as The Witcher 3 — offer quirky and interest dialogue, and shorter 100+ puzzle-shrines offer brain-breaking logic puzzles. While I expected Hyrule and it’s atmosphere to become tired and repetitive, the world encapsulating the adventure continued to impress. While I would love to sit here and give an estimate of how long beating the game will take, I simply can’t. Far too often I strayed from the beaten path to inspect some new, undiscovered area, take my shield snowboarding, or returned to some old, enemy-dense locales to test out my archery head-shot prowess. I have sunk well above 40 hours into Breath of the Wild‘s open world, and have little doubt that others will manage to put far more and far less into the game. Breath of the Wild constantly keeps you busy with extra objectives and side quests. While these missions are typically of the fetch-quest variety, they serve the larger motive of encouraging players to stray from the main mission and explore what Hyrule has to offer. Some of The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild’s best gameplay secrets are hidden, with players tasked with uncovering them. With gameplay being largely physics based, I was shocked the first time I shot an enemies projectile out of the air with my bow an arrow. The game never teaches you that time slows down mid-air as you shoot an arrow at enemies, but after discovering it you want to do nothing but that. Many of the Zelda formula that players have grown accustomed to have been downplayed — dungeons play a much smaller part in Breath of the Wild, and those dungeons take a much different approach than the usual step-on-switch, find-keys affair we’ve seen since the original The Legend of Zelda. And, of course, the 100+ shrines mentioned above help scratch much of that puzzle-solving itch you will have throughout your adventure. Combat is both approachable and nuanced, with difficulty scaling the further you progress. While many of the intro locales feel similar to hack-and-slash gameplay, it isn’t too far into the game you run across Moblins and other monsters able to instakill you if you approach the situation blindly. Players must instead focus on stealth, archery, and environmental aide to help take down larger foes. Another fine detail I appreciated was that every character’s AI has its own approach to battle, further specialized by the weapon they are carrying. While some moblins would attack you head on with spears, other (more under-equipped) enemies would instead throw their comrades at you as a make-shift projectile. While the diversity in AI isn’t unique to Breath of the Wild, the game takes the elements and works it in effortlessly. Not every detail was rosy in my experience. As reported across multiple outlets, The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild seemed to chug when docked to the television. While this never impacted my gameplay, I wouldn’t be surprised if others said it had. Instead, the Nintendo Switch’s hardware issues tended to pull me out of the game experience, ruining immersion. In the brief time I’ve played the game this morning — since the latest Breath of the Wild update was released — I have run into the issues less frequently. Alongside that, I couldn’t ever seem to get on board with weapon destructibility. While weapons in the beginning were typically more weak, and the problem largely eliminated itself in the late game, I found the mechanic pointlessly irritating at best. There is something oddly satisfying about killing an enemy, picking up his arm, and using that same “weapon” to annihilate his surviving friends. Finally, the graphics and textures aren’t nearly up-to-snuff as compared to industry giants in the open-world, action adventure titles on other consoles. While the artstyle makes a powerful attempt to bridge the gap, those with an eye for detail may be constantly irked by the plain textures sprinkled with swaying grass. Indeed, this feels like a limitation because of the Nintendo Switch — if Breath of the Wild happened to release as a multi-platform title, I could see the few problems I did have becoming non-existent. Even with these two blips, however, I rarely found myself depreciating the value of the game as whole — they were merely imperfect game design choices or products of system limitation. The underlying game is the best in the famously terrific franchise we’ve seen, and the system performance does very little to hinder that experience overall. Beyond what I’ve mentioned above, there are too many positives to bring up — and many of which I have no intention of keeping you from discovering yourself. The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild is no mere Zelda game — it is a return to form for the decades-old series, showing that Nintendo still very much understands how to handle their property. Breath of the Wild may not only be the best Zelda game ever produced, but it rivals Super Mario 64 and Halo: Combat Evolved for the best launch game ever shipped with any console. With no exception, The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild is a masterclass in game design and creativity, unprecedented from even Nintendo.Having the right engagement strategy within a mobile app has never been more important since users expect your app to provide them with useful and timely information. With Notify, the new Twilio notifications API you can send your users real-time push notifications even when the app is not open. Let’s build an Android app that can receive and react to push notifications sent from the server. Our tools Your favourite IDE for Android development. I will be using Android Studio. Node.js installed. A Twilio Account – Sign up for free! Access to Notify – Request early access here ngrok – You can read more about ngrok here. Backend Configuration To get our backend server going, we first need to create some credentials. Head to the Credentials section on the Notify Console and create a new push credential of type GCM. You will need a GCM API Key and a configuration file which you can generate by following the steps described in this page. The Android Package Name must match your application’s package. If you have an existing application, you can copy this information from app/src/main/AndroidManifest.xml and in the manifest tag copy the value for package. If you’re creating an application from scratch, use the values as seen above. When you’ve done that click Download google-services.json and copy the Server API Key. You will have to paste that key back where we were creating a push credential. Make sure you save that and make a note of the SID of this push credential. You can find it back on the Credentials page. Head to Services, click Create Service and name it anything you fancy. I’ve named mine Twilio Push. Under GCM Credential SID, choose the push credential you just created and hit Save. Make a note of the SID for that too as we will need it when configuring our backend app. You can get that by going back to the Services page. Our backend Now that we have all the necessary credentials to send push notifications let’s do some work on our backend. Clone the Notifications Quickstart repository and change the config.json file to use the credentials we’ve just created along with your Account SID and Auth Token which you can get from here. git clone git @ github. com : TwilioDevEd / notifications - quickstart - node. git Your config.json should look similar to this when you’re done with it: { "TWILIO_ACCOUNT_SID" : "ACXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX", "TWILIO_AUTH_TOKEN" : "6bXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX", "TWILIO_CREDENTIAL_SID" : "CRXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX", "TWILIO_NOTIFICATION_SERVICE_SID" : "ISXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX" } Fire up the application by going to your terminal and running: npm install && npm start Head to http://127.0.0.1:3000 and you should see a screen that looks similar to this: Our backend is now configured and we just need to make it’s available outside of our environment so our mobile app can see it. We will use ngrok for this. In a new terminal screen run the following and take a note of the forwarding URL generated. ngrok http 3000 If you don’t feel like going through the entire app build and just want to download and deploy an app to your device, feel free to clone this repository. Building the app At this point we have a backend ready to send push notifications and you can either follow the next steps to add functionality to an existing app you’re already building or create a new Android app with an empty activity. On your app open up your project level build.gradle and add the following dependency to it. dependencies { classpath 'com.android.tools.build:gradle:2.1.0' classpath 'com.google.gms:google-services:2.0.0-alpha9' } On the module level build.gradle file add the following dependencies: dependencies { compile fileTree ( dir : 'libs', include : [ '*.jar' ]) testCompile 'junit:junit:4.12' compile 'com.android.support:appcompat-v7:23.4.0' compile 'com.android.support:design:23.1.1' compile 'com.google.android.gms:play-services-gcm:8.4.0' compile 'com.squareup.retrofit2:retrofit:2.0.0-beta4' compile 'com.squareup.retrofit2:converter-jackson:2.0.0-beta4' } apply plugin: ‘com.google.gms.google-services’ Android Studio will then ask you to sync, but before you do that make sure you move the google-services.json file you downloaded earlier into your app folder so you end up with something like this: Now that we have all necessary dependencies, we will change our AndroidManifest.xml so it knows our app can receive push notifications and that those notifications can be received even when our application is running in background. Add the following permission requests: <? xml version = "1.0" encoding = "utf-8"?> < manifest xmlns : android = "http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android" package = "com.testapp" > < uses - permission android : name = "com.google.android.c2dm.permission.RECEIVE" /> < uses - permission android : name = "android.permission.WAKE_LOCK" /> Next we will register our Broadcast Receiver and Service classes. These will make sure our application can receive messages and that it responds to an intent even when in background. < application android : allowBackup = "true" android : icon = "@mipmap/ic_launcher" android : label = "@string/app_name" android : supportsRtl = "true" android : theme = "@style/AppTheme" > < receiver android : name = "com.google.android.gms.gcm.GcmReceiver" android : exported = "true" android : permission = "com.google.android.c2dm.permission.SEND" > < intent - filter > < action android : name = "com.google.android.c2dm.intent.RECEIVE" /> < /intent-filter> < /receiver> < service android : name = ".service.MyGcmListenerService" android : exported = "false" > < intent - filter > < action android : name = "com.google.android.c2dm.intent.RECEIVE" /> < /intent-filter> < /service> < service android : name = ".service.MyInstanceIDListenerService" android : exported = "false" > < intent - filter > < action android : name = "com.google.android.gms.iid.InstanceID" /> < /intent-filter> < /service> < service android : name = ".service.RegistrationIntentService" android : exported = "false" /> < activity android : name = ".MainActivity" > < intent - filter > < action android : name = "android.intent.action.MAIN" /> < category android : name = "android.intent.category.LAUNCHER" /> < /intent-filter> < /activity> < /application> But our services refer to classes that still haven’t been created. Those classes are pretty much the same as the ones on the Google Services Sample Code, so let’s just copy those classes into our project. To keep things neat add the following four classes to a new folder called service in src/main/java/com/testapp/. MyGcmListener.java MyInstanceIDListenerService.java QuickstartPreferences.java RegistrationIntentService.java In this last class you’re gonna want to replace YOUR_NGROK_URL with the url you got from ngrok earlier. Make sure you only use the URL without the protocol, so it will be something like: private static final String host = "
boils down to: – Four of the flu viruses found in deceased Shanghai, Anhui and Hangzhou patients have been fully genetically sequenced, and those details have been posted on a transparent website for all the world to scrutinize. – Those flu virologists that have examined the sequences say H7N9 – which for millennia has only infected birds – has now mutated into a mammalian virus. There are stretches of RNA genetic material that are exclusively found in flu viruses that infect mammals. – But the Chinese insist those thousands of bloated pig carcasses that were floating down Shanghai’s Huangpu River when this outbreak began were coincidental occurrences – the animals did not have H7N9 flu. No satisfactory explanation for the pigs’ deaths has been offered. – Some pigeons, doves, ducks and chickens caged for sale in the Shanghai poultry markets tested positive for the virus, but showed no signs of illness. Yesterday in Shanghai some 20,000 of them were killed, in hopes of stopping putative spread from birds-to-people. – There is no indication that H7N9 is spread from person-to-person, or that a lot of Chinese are carrying the virus without outward symptoms of flu. None of this is making sense. Looming over all other questions in this outbreak is the Denominator Problem. Typically, when a dangerous disease breaks out in people for the primary time it’s noticed first in hospital emergency admissions, as deathly ill individuals gasp for air. These acute cases are counted, and as their numbers climb it’s possible to get a dangerously distorted view of disease severity. As I write these words, Chinese authorities have reported 16 confirmed cases of H7N9 infection, all critical; six have proven fatal. And no infected-but-mild flu cases or asymptomatic individuals have been identified. So it seems this H7N9 produces life-threatening illness in 100 percent of infected humans, killing nearly half of them. But those numbers must be wrong. When H1N1 swine flu broke out in Mexico authorities were terrified by a sudden wave of critically ill and dying pneumonia patients that swamped emergency rooms all over the country. It seemed that “the big one” was upon them – an influenza so lethal and contagious that it might sweep over humanity with devastating result. But I warned at that time about the Denominator Problem: How many Mexicans had mild or frankly unnoticed infections? As it turned out, the denominator was enormous, so that for every seriously ill swine flu case there were thousands of mild and asymptomatic infections. What had initially seemed a terrifying specter turned out to be a very contagious, but wimpy, flu. So far, China has not provided any genuine denominator. This is most likely due to one of three things. First, the actual blood test used to identify infections is overly specific, missing infections. So infected, but not ailing, people that are controlling the viruses in their bodies so well that very few microbes are present in each tested droplet, may be missed. And long-dead pigs may no longer harbor sufficient live virus in their rotting blood to be picked up in the tests. Details of the testing method(s) used by health and agricultural investigators have not been released, though scanty reports from Xinhua, the government news agency, indicate PCR nucleic acid amplification has been deployed. PCR assays are notoriously prone to contamination, and are only as reliable as the investigators’ choice of gene sequences to study. If the assay is designed to look only for rust colored bricks the investigator may not see the entire building. The most recent announcements from WHO and Chinese authorities indicate most of the “testing” of close contacts of ailing or deceased H7N9 patients has featured interviews, not actual blood tests. Individuals are asked by health department investigators whether they have experienced the symptoms exhibited by the 16 known patients: difficulty breathing, high fever, extreme fatigue, dizziness, profound muscle aches…And unless the questioned individual is sick at the time of interview, the public health official must rely on self-reporting. There are three reasons why many Chinese might choose to hide an illness if it weren’t obviously life-threatening. First, during the SARS epidemic the People’s Liberation Army took control of most patient care outside of the initial Guangzhou outbreak of December 2002, placing all fever patients in confinement. Those not held in military facilities were quarantined for weeks either inside key hospitals or their homes. For some the isolation and fear was so great that they leapt from high story windows to escape, or bribed their ways out of confinement if they were wealthy enough to do so. Though the government has announced that patient care for H7N9 should be free, healthcare can be bankrupting in China. The reported $1,600/day cost of H7N9 care may seem small compared to an American hospital bill, but it’s a daunting sum for many Chinese. Even in wealthy Shanghai the GDP per capita in 2012 was $9,100 – a week’s hospitalization would wipe out a year’s income. During the SARS epidemic I spoke with many patients’ families that had been assured the government would cover the costs for their loved ones’ care, but wept openly as they described doctors and nurses demanding huge payments, or else. Typically, the threat was without more money, your loved one will simply be left on his own in isolation, without medicine, without food. These stories circulated widely in 2003, and resonate today. A final, perhaps more complicated reason family, co-workers and friends of the 16 H7N9 sufferers may not admit to experiencing flu-like symptoms is China’s air pollution. I was in Beijing in January when the particulate levels soared to levels 20 times above the U.S. EPA top allowable air pollution index. During that time my eyes watered, throat burned, head ached, I coughed and I felt tired and depressed. March of this year witnessed the worst March air pollution in Chinese history, according to government officials. It would be easy to miss a mild flu when feeling lousy, and flu-like, day after day, thanks to the pollution. This Denominator Problem is the key to understanding what is going on. Essential to assessing the severity of the disease, valid determination of mild infections is the only way to figure out whether person-to-person transmission is taking place. For example, in March three members of the same family in Shanghai came down with critical cases of pneumonia, and all were hospitalized. Two of them died – an elderly father and his middle-aged son. The third survived his ordeal. Only the deceased father tested positive for H7N9, according to Shanghai health authorities. We are left to wonder at the profound coincidence that both of the deceased’s sons had pneumonia at the same time as he, but from some other, unknown cause. If Chinese test methods are correct, the coincidence is real. If the test approach is mistaken, this family more than likely experienced human-to-human transmission of the H7N9 virus. My Council on Foreign Relations Colleague Yanzhong Huang argues that, “the post-Mao policy process has witnessed a shift from ‘bandwagon’ to ‘buck-passing,’ which encourages strategic disobedience and policy shirking. For this reason, China’s response to public health emergencies may continue to be bedeviled by lingering problems of under-reporting, misinformation, and inaction.” On March 19 a Chinese government agency issued the following statement, which ended up on the social media site, Weibo: “The Shanghai Huangpu River dead pig incident is already being dealt with effectively. Related follow-up coverage should follow Xinhua wire copy and information issued by authoritative local departments. The media are not to send journalists to Jiaxing or similar locations to investigate, nor to sensationalize or comment on the issue.” A few years ago I wandered through an old cemetery in Nova Scotia, and realized too many graves bore death dates for 1918. It was, of course, the Great Influenza that felled these souls. We can only hope that next year’s Tomb Sweeping Ceremony doesn’t find a disproportionate number of Chinese graves bearing year-of-death etchings for 2013.Without a concerted effort to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, some populations of polar bears will feel the burn of global warming as soon as 2025, scientists warned in a new study. The research, released Tuesday from the United States Geological Survey, used updated scientific models to determine how different emissions levels would affect global temperatures and thus the Arctic ice that is the polar bear’s habitat. It may already be too late to avoid hurting polar bears, regardless of whether emissions fall. The researchers found that climate change could reduce the population of 8,500 polar bears in Alaska, Russia, and Norway—a third of the global population—within a decade. So, Why Should You Care? Other polar bear–populated regions are also expected to see declines, according to the study. But the Polar Basin Divergent Ecoregion that includes Alaska will be hit the quickest and the hardest, according to Todd Atwood, the study’s lead author and head of the USGS Polar Bear Research Program. The reason? That particular region is experiencing some of the most rapid declines in the availability of summer sea ice. Polar bears need that sea ice to hunt their favorite meal—seals—and also to mate and give birth. “Arctic-wide, the sea ice melt season—the length of time between sea ice breakup in summer and freeze-up in fall—has lengthened at a rate of five days per decade since 1979,” Atwood said. RELATED: Canada’s High Arctic Is No Longer a Safe Haven for Polar Bears The study considered two scenarios to see how polar bears in four Arctic regions would fare. The first scenario analyzed how polar bears would do if the rise of global greenhouse gas emissions was halted by 2040 to avoid catastrophic climate change. The second scenario assumed emissions would rise at the current rate. The results showed that polar bear populations in two regions—the Divergent region and the Seasonal Ecoregion—along Canada’s Hudson Bay—could see large declines in polar bear populations much sooner than expected if emissions don’t fall. RELATED: Polar Bears Turn to a Beloved Species for Food—and Climate Change Is to Blame The study determined only whether population sizes “decreased” from current levels or “greatly decreased.” The study also looked at what kind of effects other environmental stressors—such as shipping, oil and gas exploration, disease, and contaminants—could have on the species. “Those had only negligible effects on polar bear populations compared to the much larger effects of sea ice loss and associated declines in their ability to access prey,” Atwood said.10 Best Free Tools to Boost Your Facebook Marketing! Manikanta Yadavalli Blocked Unblock Follow Following Aug 30, 2017 The success of content marketing is dependent on various factors like relevant keywords, titles, image and video quality, target audience, device and the list continues. The need for the accuracy of each element has been realized by marketers and has created a separate market segment of numerous tools altogether. Imagine if you have to pay for every tool to create a successful content marketing campaign. Honestly speaking it will eat up most of your marketing budget. In such a competitive scenario there are brilliant tools that will not only give you a competitive edge but moreover, they are absolutely free. Few of such amazing free tools are listed below: 1- Simply Measured- Simply Measured gives you access to reports of content and competitive insights. This tool helps you to analyze before you plan your content strategy. Since the success of your Facebook depends highly on what kind of content influences your audience, this tool comes really handy. Although the deep insight makes the tool very useful, the tool is not completely free. The first report you can access for free but going forward for more reports and analysis you have to buy the tool. 2- Social Frontier Labs — Social Frontier labs is a set of the most powerful research software that assists you in all possible researchers that you can think of using Facebook as a platform. You can find the interest groups you can target for campaigns. You can extract an extensive list of leads according to keywords along with their contact details and contact person. You can analyze people’s sentiments for your content. Not only this, you can also study the pages of your competitors to figure out what is working for them and what online properties they own. 3- Social Mentions- This tool is extremely beneficial in keeping a check on the health of your brand. With Social Mentions, you can know the likelihood of your brand and where you have received negative mentions on social media. 4- Campaign URL Builder- It is easier to track the traffic source when you use customized URL for each marketing platforms. Campaign URL builder helps you to create any number of URL for your various campaigns. 5- ShortStack- Short Stack is a form building app that helps you in creating form based interactive campaigns. The free version of the tool will place a default ShortStack logo. The tool also facilitates you with templates and also campaigns can be created from scratch with the tool. 6- Hubspot’s Blog Topic Generator- If you think you are running out of content ideas then this tool is a blessing for you. All you have to do is, share three keywords around which you need the topic and it will suggest you great topics that you can use for creating content. 7- Headline Analyzer- This free tool analyzes your headline and scores it on the basis of its ability to drive traffic, shares and SEO value. Statistically, only 60% of the people clicking into an article read the content beyond the given headline. Therefore the headline becomes one of the important elements for a successful content marketing. 8- Hemingway App- This application is extremely helpful for the content writers. The brilliance of this tool is that it makes your content simpler to read. You just have to copy and paste the content and it will identify the passive voice and hard to read sentences. It gives suggestions to improve the content and readability of the same. 9- PlaceIt- This platform shows you how your image will look across platforms. PlaceIt not only allows you to upload images using any device but also automatically alters the image to look natural across devices. 10- Atlas- With the help of Atlas data center you can search for any keyword or topic, and the tool will give a graphical presentation of recent research data. This is a great research tool for background information on a topic before you start with your project.Karl Malone doesn’t make too many public appearances—aside from the occasional commercial, his face isn’t plastered all over television and radio the way some NBA legends’ are. But he did reach out to us to raise awareness for a health campaign promoting a program for the home delivery of prescription medicine for high blood pressure, a subject he values deeply after losing his mother to hypertension in 2003. Wednesday morning, we spoke with The Mailman about the Karl Malone Delivers For You campaign, along with plenty of talk about today’s NBA players. SLAM: We don’t see you TNT or ESPN on a nightly basis giving basketball analysis, but have you been following this year’s NBA season closely? Karl Malone: I’ve been following a little bit. The reason I’m not on those shows is they never reach out and ask me to be on those shows. Maybe they don’t want me to tell them what I really think about the game and all that, which is not bad, but it ain’t my doing. SLAM: Would you have an interest in regularly appearing on TV? KM: Yeah, if it’s set up the right way. If we can do it between hunting and fishing season and set it up the right way, I probably could pull that off. If you can go mobile with the satellite truck and I can get out long enough from fishing and hunting and driving heavy equipment, I might do that, yeah. SLAM: Who have you enjoyed watching this season? KM: Well, I love the old-school players, so San Antonio, I really like them. The Portland Trail Blazers are young—I like to see the way they’re playing. Of course Golden State. I don’t sit down and say, I’m gonna watch “this guy,” but some of my favorites would be Kevin Durant, Blake Griffin, LeBron James and Steph Curry, because I played with his dad. But here’s what I like: I just like good basketball and I like guys who play hard. We take rest now—we [are supposed to] work around the clock. Our servicemen and women and first responders, hell, they can’t take a break. They can’t take rest. What is rest? I’m paying you $20 million and you’re taking a rest? I don’t understand that. Enlighten me on that. Here’s the thing about it: I took pride in playing. When a family of four comes to see a person play and they show up and he’s resting, I don’t understand it. Now look, San Antonio and Coach Pop, they’re grandfathered in. They can rest all they want to. I love them. But beyond that, the young guys coming in that haven’t done anything—I don’t like that kind of basketball. I like real basketball. There’s some good teams out there, some good players out there, and you just want them to play every night. That’s what I miss most. SLAM: A lot of this generation of players grew up watching you—do you see your game in any of today’s NBA? KM: Well, better. Like as far as power, LeBron. But I didn’t jump like Blake Griffin. I didn’t shoot like Kevin Durant. But I see some guys doing it. I just like guys who play hard. I want to pick up my program and everybody that I came to see play, I want to show up anywhere—at home or on the road—and I want to see them play. I don’t want, “Oh, I’m gonna take this game off.” And then, all the geniuses of the world telling guys they shouldn’t do [certain things on the court], and they’ve got the analytics of basketball, which I don’t even know what the heck that means, but they’ve got that going. It’s like, suit up, get in the weight room, get bigger and go play. We’ve got more injuries now—shoulders, groins, all that kinda stuff. Please. Just go play. What if our soldiers or our first responders were like, “Oh, I’m sorry! My shoulder! My back’s sore! My groin hurts!” Come on, really? It’s called playing basketball—that’s all we wanna see you do. SLAM: It’s funny you mentioned analytics, because last night that came to the forefront last night when— KM: Can I ask you a question? SLAM: Sure. KM: Enlighten me on analytics. I’m a country bumpkin. Please tell me what that means, pertaining to my sport. Enlighten me and let me give you my response. SLAM: It’s just a deeper way of looking at statistics, valuing numbers that aren’t necessarily in box scores. They’re supposed to encourage efficiency and smarter basketball, so like, advanced stats would generally value three-pointers and shots around the basket over long two-pointers. KM: Can I tell you something? When you find the guy, whoever invented that word, if he wants to debate me, please let me know. I want to talk to him about the analytics. You cannot tell me—you know what? My memory’s coming back to me a little bit. Someone told, I forget which player it was, that you don’t need a mid-range game. I want to say somebody said that to Kevin Durant. Are you kidding me? I will kill you with a mid-range game. That’s the analytics? That’s what they’re talking about? How many games are they playing? And how many games are they winning? When you find that person [who invented the term “analytics”], please get in touch with me so I can debate him. Just go play and get rid of all that. SLAM: Today’s power forwards and centers play way differently than they did in the ’90s, but DeMarcus Cousins seems like a player today who would’ve fit in with you guys back then. He’s been in the news recently for reportedly not wanting to play for Coach George Karl [who the Kings hired minutes after this interview ended—Ed.]. Have you watched him play at all? KM: I can actually say I don’t know DeMarcus Cousins really well, but I will say this: You have two ears and one mouth for a reason. Sometimes you learn a lot more by just being quiet. You get a Hall of Fame coach, he might teach you something. And how about this: Don’t make no judgments until you meet the coach and have issues with it. Or how about this, young fella: Just play. When you’ve done something in the League, in about 10 years, maybe 12 or 14, then you get your comments. Right now, I don’t know that fella personally and unfortunately you do hear some negative things, but I do know he’s a hell of a talent. So hopefully one day he’ll just play the game and let other people see how great he is. But you’re talking to a Hall of Famer—respect your elders, young fella. That’s what I’d say to DeMarcus Cousins. SLAM: You really should be doing more TV spots. KM: Well, I’ll tell you what. If you get a satellite truck out there between hunting and fishing season, I might take my camouflage paint off my face—‘cause you know, you shine in the sunlight—and we’ll do a show from the woods. Absolutely. SLAM: How much of the year are you tied up with hunting and fishing? KM: Look, it’s somewhere to hunt or fish everyday, son. The fish and the animals don’t take a break, we do. SLAM: Tell me a little about the Karl Malone Delivers For You campaign you’re involved in. KM: Well, I got involved in it because I lost my mom to a heart attack. She had high blood pressure—I guess the sexy word is “hypertension,” but it’s high blood pressure. My mom understood that. So I had an opportunity to partner with AstraZeneca to do a campaign, because, number one, it’s Black History Month, and it’s American Heart Month. African Americans are more prone to diabetes and high blood pressure, so we formed a partnership. If you go to karldeliversforyou.com, you’ll see my story—there’s recipes and family activities, but also a very private way for you to get your blood pressure medicine delivered right to your door. If my mom had the opportunity to use this, she would’ve loved it, because my mom was a very discrete lady and a very private person. The convenience of it in your home is just awesome. SLAM: And as someone who doesn’t do a ton of public appearances, it seems like if you’re involved in something like this, it must have a special meaning for you. KM: Yeah, I lost my mom as well as my grandmother to a heart attack. So my thing is, I’ve played for a long time and I’m known as the Mailman and all of that, but if I can help or assist one person to go to karldeliversforyou.com, that one person could’ve been my mom, or that person could be your mom. But you have to go to the website to look at it. And how do you know if you’re a candidate? You have to have a conversation with your doctor. I’m not a doctor—I’m the Mailman. But you’ve gotta be honest. My mom would talk to us about how she felt all the time, but when she got in front of a doctor she wasn’t honest with him. People don’t realize—there aren’t warning signs, where you can say, OK, this is going on. I’ve got high blood pressure—well, what is that? You’ve got to talk to a doctor. Adam Figman is a Senior Editor at SLAM. Follow him on Twitter @afigman.It’s always difficult to report news such as this one. We claim to respect one another, to support caring, unity and love, and yet, every festival season at every event, something like this happens. We claim to be proponents of such ideal ideologies, but when it’s all said and done, some of us may be some of the biggest hypocrites around. What happened on the first day of this year’s Ultra Music Festival is a prime example of that hypocrisy. Ultra Music Festival fans who were not in possession of tickets attempted to break into festival grounds illegally and forcefully by pushing the barriers surrounding the event. 28-year-old Contemporary Services Corporation guard, Erica Mack, did what she was supposed to do; she approached the barricade and told the party crashers to step away. In response, the fans crashed the fences, falling on the private guard and trapping her underneath as she was trampled by reckless individuals. Erica is now in “extremely critical” condition with severe brain hemorrhaging at the Jackson Memorial Hospital. “A mob of people came and started rushing the gate and started pushing it,” Miami Police Lieutenant Ignatius Carroll told the Miami New Times. “She was doing what she was supposed to do, telling them to stop, when they pushed it down and it fell on top of her... They just trampled her.” As a result, the Miami police homicide unit is now involved and seeking witnesses of the incident. 22 individuals have already been arrested Friday night, 15 of those on felony charges. According to the Miami Herald, the incident could have been prevented. Ultra Music Festival promoters were notified by Miami police that the event needed more fencing. Despite being informed, no additional fencing was added. Miami Mayor Tomas Regalado told the Miami Herald that he felt the promoters “acted irresponsibly” and then stated: “I think we should not have Ultra next year here. This incident should never have happened.” For events such as Ultra Music Festival to keep on occurring, we must act more responsibly. While not everyone attending these events are as irresponsible as those mentioned here, it is still critical that we improve the way we act, especially when the media and politicians are all looking for the smallest of things to destroy what we have in this scene. If anything else happens throughout the remainder of the festival, it’s very likely that Ultra won’t be back next year, at least not at Bayfront. Via: Rolling Stone, Miami Herald & DADU.S. hedge fund seizes Argentine navy ship A so-called "vulture fund" is now the proud owner of a 100-metre long tall ship. Quartz’s Tim Fernholz writes: A subsidiary of Elliott Capital Management seized the Libertad in a Ghanian port on Sept. 2, after it gained an injunction from a local court to hold the ship and its 200 crew members there. The fund is attempting to collect money it lost when Argentina restructured its debt after a $100 billion default in 2001, cutting payouts down to 30 cents on the dollar. The boat is a 100-meter long tall sailing ship, built in the 1950s as a training vessel for the Argentine nation and currently on a graduation tour for Naval cadets. It is valued at about $10 to $15 million. The Financial Times reports that the vessel is "a tall ship used by the Argentine Navy to train sailors and a former holder of the world speed record for a transatlantic crossing by sail, was on a graduation tour." The Argentine foreign ministry alleges that the move “violates the Vienna Convention on diplomatic immunity" and that “Vulture funds have crossed a new limit in their attacks on the Argentine republic.” Latin America has a history of military action over unpaid debts, but the seizure of a sovereign nation’s miltiary equipment by a private company seems like uncharted waters in international law. If I were captain in the Spanish navy, I might be careful where I dock from now on.Pro-Russian rebels battling Ukrainian forces near the Russian border sought to modify a new truce deal Sunday, saying terms of the cease-fire agreement did not apply to the town where most of the fighting has taken place this month. Rebel commander Eduard Basurin told reporters that separatist fighters would not observe the truce in the key railway town of Debaltseve, where thousands of Ukraine troops are believed encircled by rebel fighters. In comments to Reuters, he called the contested town "our territory." Basurin is quoted by Russia's Interfax news agency as saying the truce deal "stipulates the withdrawal of heavy weapons 48 hours after the guns fall silent. That's what we will be guided by," he said. In a statement late Sunday, U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon welcomed the start of the cease-fire based on the terms agreed to in the Belarusian capital, Minsk. But he voiced serious concern about reports of continued hostilities in areas, including Debaltseve, and reiterated his call for all parties to abide by the truce. Elsewhere along the jagged frontline separating the two sides, witnesses and officials on both sides on Sunday reported relative calm. The four leaders who brokered last week's truce -- Russian President Vladimir Putin, German Chancellor Angela Merkel, French President Francois Hollande and Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko -- agreed in a conference call that fighting should end in Debaltseve as well. The devastated town has seen major fighting on a daily basis since earlier truce efforts failed last month. Under terms of the cease-fire reached in the Belarusian capital of Minsk, withdrawal of heavy armor from the frontlines is set to begin Monday. Shelling blamed on Cossacks The head of Ukraine's security service, Valentyn Nalyvaichenko said Russian Cossacks appeared to be responsible for Sunday's mortar shelling in the Luhansk region. He said an investigation is under way. "And the mortar attack were committed, this crime, by the pro-Russian cossacks, and the Russian citizens cossack, currently deployed in this particular place in Ukraine," Nalyvaichenko said. Earlier, Poroshenko ordered his forces to comply with a cease-fire that went into effect at at midnight Saturday (12 a.m. Sunday local time, 2200 UTC Saturday) in hopes of ending intense fighting in the country's east between Ukrainian forces and pro-Russian separatists that has lasted 10 months and killed nearly 5,500 civilians and fighters. In a live midnight broadcast, Poroshenko said that as the commander of Ukraine's military forces, he wants peace. But he also warned Russian-backed separatist rebels against breaking the deal. The Ukraine president warned that the rebels might use Debaltseve to "undermine the cease-fire." The rebel leader of the city of Donetsk said his forces will not allow the Ukrainian troops to leave Debaltseve during the cease-fire. If the cease-fire holds, both sides are to begin pulling back their heavy weaponry to form a wide buffer zone. Obama, Poroshenko speak Earlier Saturday, U.S. President Barack Obama spoke to Poroshenko by telephone and stressed the need for all sides to stop the violence as scheduled. Obama also expressed concern over the intense fighting that was happening in hours before the cease-fire was to come into force. He expressed the same concerns in a call to German Chancellor Angela Merkel. U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry spoke by telephone with this Russian counterpart, Sergei Lavrov, on Saturday to underscore the importance of implementing the cease-fire. The State Department said Kerry expressed concern about "efforts by Russia and the separatists to cut off Debaltseve" ahead of the cease-fire. The U.N. Security Council is expected to meet Sunday and could vote on a Russian-drafted resolution calling on all parties to implement the deal. Also Saturday, U.S. Ambassador to Ukraine Geoffrey Pyatt posted on Twitter what he said were satellite photos showing Russian artillery systems near the town of Lomuvatka, about 20 kilometers northeast of Debaltseve. State Department Spokesperson Jen Psaki said the U.S. considers the images to be "one of several pieces of credible evidence that lead to the conclusion that the Russian military has deployed large amounts of artillery and multiple rocket launchers around Debaltseve." She added the U.S. is confident the systems are Russian military, not separatist. Russia has denied sending troops or weapons across the border to aid in the fighting. Ukraine and a host of Western governments accuse Moscow of stoking the rebellion in Ukraine's Russian-speaking east with arms and fighters. Moscow has repeatedly denied providing direct support to rebels, and claims that Russian troops seen fighting alongside rebels are volunteers.The metal titans followed their divisive performance at the Grammys with a victory tonight Metallica have been named Best International Band supported by Austin, Texas at the VO5 NME Awards 2017. The metal group were up against the likes of Tame Impala, Green Day, Kings Of Leon, A Tribe Called Quest and Tegan And Sara in the category. The band couldn’t make it to the ceremony due to other commitments, but sent a short video of them accepting the award in Copenhagen. Holding the middle finger trophy, the group apologised for not being present at the ceremony and thanked fans for voting for them. “Hello there, all our furry feathered friends,” said drummer Lars Ulrich, stood beside bandmates Robert Trujillo and James Hetfield. “It’s three quarters of Metallica hitting you from Copenhagen. “We’re bummed we couldn’t be there tonight to join you in all the middle fingering going around the joint, but we’re very appreciative of this. We hope you guys are having a crazy and fun night. Kirk [Hammett], who is also an international kind of guy, sends his love.” The trio then closed off their acceptance speech by raising their middle fingers to the crowd. Sharethrough (Mobile) Stay with us here at NME.COM/awards to get all the latest news, videos, photos and gossip from the ceremony, which will also see Pet Shop Boys receive the Godlike Genius Award and close the ceremony with a live performance. You can also tune in live on the Facebook Live stream on NME’s official Facebook page. Voting for the VO5 NME Awards 2017 is now closed. Following thousand votes from NME readers, Beyonce led the pack going into the ceremony with five nominations. The 1975, Skepta, Christine And The Queens and Bastille followed closely behind with four nods each. A host of stars and musicians have already hit the red carpet, including Goldie, Wiley, Charli XCX and Dua Lipa. Bastille opened the ceremony tonight at London’s O2 Academy Brixton with a live performance of ‘Good Grief’, which is in the running for Best Track supported by Red Stripe. It also features on their second album ‘Wild World’, which is also up for Best Album supported by HMV. In addition to Pet Shop Boys and Bastille, Dua Lipa will perform. Wiley will make a special appearance after collecting the Outstanding Contribution To Music award and the Bands4Refugees supergroup will perform covers to raise funds and awareness for Help Refugees.GRAND RAPIDS, MI – A woman who admitted she took a 3-year-old from a Grand Rapids school bus - then drove the child around for three hours before turning the child over to police - will not go to jail. Marian Moussa, a 27-year-old New Jersey native, was sentenced to a year on probation Tuesday, Sept. 2, in Kent County Circuit Court. Moussa after a week-long trial and six hours of deliberation. The jury did find her guilty of misdemeanor charges of marijuana possession and resisting police. Moussa took 3-year-old Maryanne Curiel from the bus she rode after school on Jan. 14, 2013, then kept the girl for nearly three hours, driving to various locales including Burger King and the Kent County Sheriff’s Department. During the incident, Moussa made several contacts with authorities during which she claimed she was related to the child, the child was being abused, the child had a bomb in her backpack and was malnourished, according to court testimony. None of those claims were true. Related: Police were able to contact Moussa and met her in a church parking lot, where the child was returned to her parents. Police arrested Moussa, who resisted arrest before she was charged with kidnapping. and they could not find that she intended to kidnap the child. Moussa testified that she took the child and waited for the parents to show up, but when they didn’t she made every effort to return the child to authorities. In court Tuesday, Moussa apologized for her behavior and stated once again that she did not intend to kidnap the child. Moussa, who studied at Cooley Law School, has no previous criminal record. E-mail Barton Deiters: bdeiters@mlive.com and follow him on Twitter at twitter.com/GRPBarton or Facebook at facebook.com/bartondeiters.5About This Game 1999 – Tokyo’s 24 Wards. The city has been plagued by a string of serial murders.The detectives of the 24 Wards Heinous Crimes Unit have their sights set on one particular suspect: Kamui Uehara, legendary serial killer and perpetrator of a number of assassinations of government officials 20 years prior in the now-famous "Silver Case". However, nobody knows who - or what - Kamui really is.Is this really the second coming of Kamui? Who is this infamous serial killer, and what is his endgame?Take control of the protagonist - a member of the Special Forces Unit known as “Republic” - from a first-person perspective and dig deep into the underground of the 24 Wards and the police force itself to unravel the various interconnected mysteries encountered throughout the game. Inspired by classic adventure and visual novel-style games as well as neo-noir and hardboiled detective films, The Silver Case provides a unique and revolutionary gameplay experience as it leads you through deep and engaging storylines filled with puzzles and riddles. Uncover the truth piece by piece as you struggle to survive in this dark and dangerous world where the stakes are even higher than they seem!A dyed-in-the-wool psychopath who gained the title of “the King of Crime” after stabbing a government official to death. Kamui’s motive is completely shrouded in mystery, and it is not known whether he’s acting alone or following orders from some higher power. His victims are major witnesses of suspicious industrial disasters and persons of interest in legal cases which cannot be tried under the current system.A straight-laced, mid-level investigator in the 24 Wards Heinous Crimes Unit. Relatively quiet and subdued, he provides a perfect contrast to his partner Kusabi, the more rough-around-the-edges of the pair.Sumio’s partner, and a grizzled veteran investigator. Back in his regional agent days, he headed the original Silver Case 20 years prior.A beautiful and level-headed investigator who relies on scientific evidence and raw data to solve crimes.Calm and collected, Morikawa is a talented investigator who has worked with Kusabi since their days as regional agents. One of the founding members of the He
explanation of candlestick charts is sorely needed. Here it is–an inside look at the technical tools refined by over 100 years of use in Japan. Candlestick charts are older than bar charts, older than point-and-figure charts, and yet, they are virtually unknown in the West–until now. Completely informative and global in its outlook, Japanese Candlestick Charting Techniques provides the first -in-depth explanation of candlestick plotting and analysis in English. This exciting book exposes the reader to the author’s years of study, research, and practical experience in this increasingly popular and dynamic area. Hundreds of examples that span the futures, fixed-income, equity, and foreign exchange markets show how candlestick techniques can be used in all of today’s markets. Through such patterns as the “dark cloud cover” and “hanging-man lines” the reader will discover how candlestick techniques provide unique market insights that are unavailable anywhere else.On the right track: DfT appoints two women to directors general job share for Rail Group. Credit: Lynne Cameron/PA The Department for Transport has appointed two women to the civil service's first ever job share at director general level as successors to the DfT's newly appointed permanent secretary. Polly Payne and Ruth Hannant will join the DfT as directors general for the department's Rail Group on 11 December from the Department for Education, filling the position left vacant when Bernadette Kelly was promoted to perm sec in April. Kelly said the pair would be role models not only for the civil service but also for the rail sector, where women make up just 11% of the workforce and senior leaders are "overwhelmingly male". RELATED CONTENT She told Civil Service World: “I’m proud that the Department for Transport is leading the way with the first job share partnership at this level in government. And I’m especially pleased that we have Polly and Ruth joining us to lead our work on rail. "We are investing in the biggest rail modernisation for over a century, so there’s a huge amount to do." Kelly was DG for Rail Group from September 2015 to April 2017, when Nick Joyce took the post in an "acting" capacity. Rail Group is responsible for developing strategy and policy for the rail sector, managing expenditure on rail services and infrastructure, and oversees the delivery of rail franchises and major projects – including Crossrail and Thameslink. It sponsors British Transport Police, Network Rail, the Office of Rail and Road, the Rail Accidents Investigation Branch and Transport Focus. Payne and Hannant were already in a job-share partnership with each other working on higher education reform in DfE, and have both previously worked for the former Department for Business, Innovation and Skills and theTreasury. Former BIS permanent secretary Martin Donnelly described the pair as an "outstandingly effective job share", during an interview with Civil Service World earlier this year. DfT said the appointment demonstrated the government's commitment to increasing the number of women working in the rail sector. The Transport Infrastructure Skills Strategy, published in 2015, included an aim for women to make up 20% of DfT's science and technical apprenticeships by 2020, and 50% by 2030. Kelly added: “Within the DfT we are making progress in encouraging diversity at every level, and earlier this year the department was recognised for our leadership on workplace gender equality by being included in The Times Top 50 employers for Women 2017. “But I do see the department as having an important role in challenging the transport industry more widely to do better on diversity." She said DfT would support a cross-government campaign being launched in January to tackle to engineering skills gap, which will focus on encouraging more women and people from black, Asian and ethnic minority backgrounds to consider a career in engineering.An ancient lake whose shores vacillated between lush forests and dry savannahs shows how the changing climate may have shaped humanity's dawn in eastern Africa, according to new research. Scientists studying organic remains dating back 2 million years in Olduvai Gorge in Tanzania tracked how plant life adapted to the regional climate as it shifted from regular monsoons to scorching dry spells. The researchers published their findings last week in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. The gorge was home to some of humanity's earliest hominid ancestors, and the surrounding landscape provides some of the best glimpses of the conditions they lived in from fossil remains, tools, artifacts and plant residues. "It's an unusual and almost extreme situation," said Gail Ashley a co-author and a professor of earth and planetary sciences at Rutgers University. "[The Olduvai Gorge is] like a perfect environment because it was a closed basin and it filled up with sediment, and those sediments recorded everything around it, just like a book." It was in these sediments that Ashley and her collaborators found waxes from prehistoric plants and algae, collected in samples over a decade from Olduvai. The team examined residues from 2 million years ago spanning a 200,000-year time frame, around the dawn of Homo erectus. Clayton Magill, a geochemistry graduate student at Penn State University and a co-author, explained that by measuring isotopes in these waxes, the team painted a picture of what kinds of plants grew in the gorge and what environments they lived in. "With carbon, we can delineate between grasses and trees," Magill said, noting that different plants have different carbon signatures. Hydrogen isotopes, on the other hand, measure aridity. "Heavier [hydrogen] isotopes are associated with drier conditions," he said. Water with lighter hydrogen isotopes tends to evaporate faster, so plants end up accumulating heavier hydrogen when the ground dries up. How brain development connects with climate From these measurements, the researchers traced what kinds of plants grew in the gorge over time and compared them with how the climate changed, constructing a continuous record of plant and water fluctuations. "What we find is that the period between 2 million and 1.8 million years ago is associated with extreme environmental variability," Magill said. Grasslands gave way to woody forests and back again while water levels in the gorge rose and fell, often very quickly by geological time scales. "There was evidence that there was contraction and expansion over time," said Katherine Freeman, a co-author and a geosciences professor at Penn State. "What we show is a repeated transition from the driest to the wettest on the scale of a few thousand years." Though not as dramatic as a towering black monolith, these changes may have spurred human evolution by forcing early hominids to adapt to a rapidly changing climate, driving them to develop new strategies to hunt, gather and survive with changes in food and fresh water. "That's where the connection has been; the development of the brain, food gathering, might have been triggered by the continually changing climate," Ashley said. These changes also created selection pressures in other species like birds and reptiles. "Our findings are consistent with variability as a driver of human evolution," Freeman said. "Rather than a slow and steady change, what we see is a pretty intense variability." This challenges views that hold that a slowly drying continent forced early hominids to evolve and disperse. Does this have any implications for modern climate changes? It may to an extent. "The speed at which modern climate is changing is fairly unique," Magill said. "We're not really quite sure what's going to happen." However, some scientists are already seeing population, behavioral and physical changes in various species due to a shifting climate (ClimateWire, Dec. 20, 2012). Though modern humans can find ways to adapt to the new normal, researchers are uncertain about how human biology will change over the long term. For the Olduvai team, the next step is to conduct its analysis with an eye for changes with respect to geography instead of time. This way, it can track how life on different terrains responded to similar climate conditions. Reprinted from Climatewire with permission from Environment & Energy Publishing, LLC. www.eenews.net, 202-628-6500The U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives classifies the SKS rifle that some sources believe Micah Johnson used to kill five Dallas police officers on July 7 a "Curio or Relic." Due to this status, which the SKS shares with many other models of Berettas, Colts, Remingtons, Rugers and other firearms that are at least 50 years old, gun dealers said that in some states and jurisdictions the Soviet-era rifle can be purchased online and delivered to your door without securing a permit. In the hands of Johnson, a trained shooter and army reservist who had private firearms training and even kept a combat manual on how to "shoot and scoot," the semi-automatic SKS that the FBI initially said he used proved as deadly and accurate that night as it had in Vietnam, when it killed hundreds of U.S. soldiers. (Update: There are conflicting reports about about what kind of rifle Johnson used in the shooting. Citing an unnamed law enforcement official, The Wall Street Journal said Monday that he used a different weapon, an Izhmash-Saiga model, which is based on the AK-74 military rifle.) The SKS or "self-loading carbine Simonov," named for its Russian inventor, Sergei Simonov, was invented near the end of World War II when the Soviet army needed a gun to match the German army's Sturmgewehr, which had wreaked havoc on Allied forces by combining the rapid fire of a submachine gun with the power of a rifle. Police use of lethal robots sparks crime-fighting debate These armies recognized the necessity for a gun that could shoot multiple times without using a bolt to reload each time, yet not require a cartridge so powerful that the recoil would knock the shooter's aim off when a number of shots were fired in a row. The shortened 7.62 by 39 millimeter cartridge (about.30 caliber U.S.) fit the bill. Millions of these SKS rifles were produced for Eastern bloc armies, including Albania, Rumania, Russia, Yugoslavia and, later, China. But the SKS became obsolete when its better-known cousin, the AK-47 or "Kalashnikov," named after its inventor, Mikhail Kalashnikov, came into being in 1947. The Kalashnikov fired the same cartridge but had several advantages. It was easier and cheaper to make, virtually indestructible, and fired from a 30-round removable magazine, as opposed to the SKS with its fixed 10-round magazine, making it faster to reload. Most important, it had selective fire, meaning it could fire single shots or be fully automatic. In other words, it could spray 30 rounds in a few seconds and do it over and over. But the SKS still had its fans. It was and is a sturdy and accurate gun. Both of these guns have iron sights, but the SKS is usually considered the more accurate. "At 100 yards, holding the sight on the bottom of a military target, I can hit the black with every round," said a Bordentown, New Jersey gun dealer. In contrast, the AK-47 has loose-fitting parts and is often described as "tinny." The SKS can also be retrofitted with aftermarket parts easily found on the Internet that allow it to fire 30 or more rounds. Buyers can also buy a 75-round magazine, although this modification is illegal in some states. Scopes are available, but normally attach to the side rather than the top of the rifle due to the way rounds are ejected, which may make the gun less accurate. Other accessories, such as railings and flashlights, aren't easy to install but the SKS can easily be modernized with plastic parts and a pistol grip. While the U.S. military rifle, the M-16, and its civilian counterpart, the AR-15, have won wide acceptance, they fire a.223 caliber round that's only a little bigger -- but a lot more powerful -- than a.22 found in many American homes. The heavier.30 caliber slug fired by the SKS will chew through a normal ballistic vest designed to stop pistol rounds and do far more damage than a.223, said some gun experts. Although still being produced, the AK-47 gave way to the smaller caliber AK-74, a gun brandished by Osama Bin Laden in some photos of the organizer of the September 11 attacks. Both weapons are known as the "grim reaper" because of their death toll in revolutions and guerrilla wars around the world. When the SKS was replaced, many of the rifles were put into boxes packed with grease to keep them lubricated and rust-free, and only used in Cold War parades, where its wood fixtures and long bayonets made it a favorite ornament for marching troops. But in the 1990s Americans rediscovered the SKS as a sporting rifle and for target shooting. Despite resistance from the U.S. State Department, SKS models from many different countries were imported and are now available for purchase on websites with prices ranging from $200 to $800 for a new or barely used model. It has not yet been revealed how Johnson obtained the reported SKS or any other weapon he could have used in the attack. Federal officials said he had been stockpiling weapons and explosives for at least two years. By gun standards, the SKS is relatively cheap. You can even buy a box of 10 with cleaning kits for about $4,000. And used or yard-sale models are even cheaper. According to gun dealers, the best of the bunch come from from Eastern Europe. Dallas gunman wrote on wall in blood, police chief says Because of their technically obsolete status, you can purchase an SKS if you have a $30, three-year Curio and Relic (C&R) license from the ATF. And it's only one of many "curios" available, including such classics as the 9-millimeter Browning High Power, Lugers and some Colt.45s. One gun dealer said a client had a Thompson submachine gun delivered, the gun made famous by the St. Valentine's Day Massacre. The gun was modified to fire only semi-automatic, meaning one shot is fired with each squeeze of the trigger, so as not to violate federal law. The big advantage of a C&R -- these aging guns are legal for interstate transport and sale. Buyers are deemed by the ATF to be a "collector." Some states place additional restrictions on those applying for a C&R license. For example, Illinois requires applicants to have a Firearm Owners Identification (FOID) card, which entails a background check, no felony convictions and no mental illness. But for the average applicant it takes only 15 minutes to apply for the license, according to one website in the state. Obtaining a C&R license in other states can be trickier. Firearms advocates consider New Jersey "gun unfriendly," for example, so an application for a C&R is referred to the state police, who then pass it along to the municipality. Local officials may reject it or treat it as a traditional Federal Firearms License, which requires multiple approvals and permitting. In contrast, neighboring Pennsylvania is considered an easy state to get a C&R. Residents can get an SKS or other weapon delivered to their home, gun dealers said. Other "right to carry" states are equally liberal. I was at a gun range once when I heard and saw an SKS fired -- accurately -- at 100 yards. An older man in a neighboring booth came over and said he always jumped when he heard the sound of the 7.62x39 round go off. He had been in Vietnam.Early-childhood education programs that start at birth and care for children until age 5 have a greater economic benefit to society than preschool programs that start later, according to a new study. (iStock ) Nobel Prize winner James Heckman’s research has played an important role in establishing that high-quality public preschool for 3- and 4-year-olds can more than pay for itself over the long term, as low-income children who attend are more likely to live productive lives. It’s an economic argument that has persuaded lawmakers from both parties to support early education initiatives. Now Heckman has released new research showing that the return on investment is even higher for high-quality programs that care for low-income children from infancy to age 5. Children in such zero-to-five programs are more likely to graduate from high school, less likely to be incarcerated than their counterparts who stayed home or enrolled in low-quality programs, had higher IQs and were healthier during the course of their lives, according to the study released Monday. All of that taken together leads to a significant savings to society, the study found. The rate of return on the public investment in zero-to-five programs is 13 percent per year, Heckman and his colleagues estimate, up from an estimate of 7 percent to 10 percent per year for preschool programs that start at age 3. The more comprehensive zero-to-five programs cost about $18,500 per year for each child enrolled — more than the average public school district spends per pupil in grades K through 12. But for every dollar invested, the program generated a societal benefit of $6.30, according to Heckman. [James Heckman: In early-childhood education, quality really matters] He said the findings suggest that policymakers could make a bigger difference in the lives of poor children with early-childhood education programs that begin far earlier in their lives, when children are just eight weeks old. “As an economist, I always find it very odd that people only focus on the costs of a program rather than the benefits,” Heckman said. “This is very strong evidence for supporting this kind of program going forward.” Some analysts have challenged the notion that modern public policy should be built around studies of the effects of small, costly programs that cared for children four decades ago, pointing to studies of Head Start and other early education initiatives that have found no lasting impact. And not everyone is on board with extending taxpayer-provided education to children younger than kindergarten. Speaking earlier this month in the District, Bill Bennett, former U.S. education secretary under Ronald Reagan, said he’s inclined to focus on fixing K-12 education first. President-elect Donald Trump has proposed tax credits to help working parents pay for day care, but his program is focused on easing families’ financial burden rather than on providing high-quality education for babies and toddlers. He has said little about early childhood initiatives, other than to express skepticism about the cost to taxpayers of the universal preschool programs his Democratic opponent Hillary Clinton favored. [We have no idea if universal preschool actually helps kids] Heckman’s new research is based on results from two North Carolina programs that began in the 1970s and then tracked their graduates’ lives through age 35. The two programs — the Carolina Abecedarian Project and the Carolina Approach to Responsive Education — were very similar, enrolling low-income African American infants when they were eight weeks old and caring for them five days a week, 50 weeks a year, until age 5. Children enrolled in the programs got regular medical checkups, giving their families a better chance of addressing problems early. And because the children were cared for full-time, their mothers — most of whom were single parents — were more likely to get further education and advance at work, boosting their income. “It has two generations’ impact,” Heckman said. Graduates of the zero-to-five programs also had higher IQs than their counterparts who did not enroll, Heckman said. Preschool programs for 3- and 4-year-olds have not been shown to have any such effect on IQ. The two programs initially enrolled about 200 children, a number that diminished as some moved or dropped out for other reasons. Their lives and outcomes were compared to the lives and outcomes of a control group of children, including some who stayed home with their mothers and others who attended low-quality day care. [How education children early and well creates a ripple effect for us all] How to define and measure “quality” has been a matter of debate among early childhood educators. Heckman said the defining characteristic of a high-quality program, more than a certain staffing ratio or training regimen, is empathetic adults who engage meaningfully with their young charges, giving them personalized attention as they grow and develop. Boys who received low-quality care had significantly worse life outcomes, including in health, than boys who stayed home with their mothers, according to the study. Girls did not suffer in the same way from spending time in low-quality arrangements. Heckman said that might be due to the fact that young boys are, in general, slower than girls to develop skills such as self-control, making them more vulnerable to chaotic environments. “Quality is probably more of an issue for boys than for girls,” Heckman said. “There’s no question about it that certain kinds of warehouse activity for children — not locking them up in a closet or putting them into Romanian orphanages, but putting them into large groups of children, not even interacting — can lead to harmful consequences,” he said. He said that boys and girls could benefit from early-childhood policies tailored to their differences, but acknowledged that might be a hard sell: “People don’t want to talk about these gender differences,” he said. The new research has not yet been submitted to a journal for peer review. It received funding from the Buffett Early Childhood Fund; the Pritzker Children’s Initiative; the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation; the Leonard D. Schaeffer Center for Health Policy and Economics; the National Institutes of Health; the Hymen Milgrom Supporting Organization; the Institute for New Economic Thinking; and the American Bar Foundation.Eurostat, the European statistics agency, raised its estimate of the country’s budget deficit for last year to 13.6 percent of gross domestic product, above the Greek government’s recent estimate of 12.9 percent. The ratio of debt to G.D.P. stood at 115.1 percent, compared with the government’s estimate of 113.4 percent. Eurostat also expressed “a reservation on the quality of the data reported by Greece” because of “uncertainties on the surplus of social security funds for 2009, on the classification of some public entities and on the recording of off-market swaps.” That suggested that the agency could increase its estimates even higher — by 0.3 to 0.5 percentage point for the deficit, and by five to seven percentage points for debt-to-G.D.P. measure. Separately, Moody’s cut its rating for Greece to A3 from A2 and placed the country on review for further downgrades in view of the “significant risk that debt may only stabilize at a higher and more costly level than previously estimated.” The lower rating still remains an investment grade. In a statement, Sarah Carlson, Moody’s lead analyst for Greece, said it was “unlikely that the rating will remain at A3, unless the government’s actions can restore confidence in the markets and counteract the prevailing headwinds of high interest rates and low growth.” The stream of news pushed the yields on Greek bonds up to new highs — to 8.835 percent, above the 8.529 percent return that investors currently demand for similar debt from South Africa. Photo The euro slid in early Asian trading on Friday to $1.3201 against the dollar, the lowest level in a year. On Thursday in Europe, it dropped to $1.3316, down from $1.3401 on Wednesday. Shares in Athens also tumbled again on Thursday, with the benchmark index closing almost 4 percent lower, taking its losses for the year so far to more than 15 percent. Advertisement Continue reading the main story Officials in Athens and Brussels sought to limit the damage. The Greek Finance Ministry said in a statement that the announcement by Eurostat did not alter its goal of reducing the deficit by at least four percentage points of G.D.P. in 2010, as laid down in the Greek stability and growth program, which it forwarded to the European Commission for scrutiny. Newsletter Sign Up Continue reading the main story Please verify you're not a robot by clicking the box. Invalid email address. Please re-enter. You must select a newsletter to subscribe to. Sign Up You will receive emails containing news content, updates and promotions from The New York Times. You may opt-out at any time. You agree to receive occasional updates and special offers for The New York Times's products and services. Thank you for subscribing. An error has occurred. Please try again later. View all New York Times newsletters. “The government has already adopted all the necessary measures — in excess of 6 percent of G.D.P. — to ensure the achievement of this objective and is rapidly progressing on the implementation of all policy and structural changes,” it said. Analysts expressed concern that the increased debt and deficit forecasts could spread the economic pain further into the future. Greece’s planned fiscal consolidation over the coming two years would already be an unprecedented adjustment over such a short period, said Mr. Kounis, at Fortis. He added that “it would not end there.” Greece will now need to tighten more to get its debt down, as planned, to 60 percent of G.D.P. by 2020. “Not only do additional loans look necessary next year but longer-term loans may eventually need to be made available on more generous terms,” he said. The difficulties in getting an international aid package worth an estimated 45 billion euros ($60 billion); the unpopularity of the bailout in many countries; and a potential challenge to the package in Germany’s constitutional court suggest that the provision of additional help will not be straightforward. The strike Thursday in Athens disrupted public services, shutting down schools and leaving state hospitals working with emergency staff, The Associated Press reported. Demonstrators from a trade union continued to blockade Piraeus, the main port serving Athens, disrupting ferry services. But airports remained open, The A.P. reported. Unions fear deeper cuts after the Socialist government began talks this week with the I.M.F., the European Central Bank and the European Commission for the three-year rescue package. As those talks continue in Athens, Greek officials have been quoted in recent days as suggesting that the government may seek to tap funds, if possible, even before the discussion are completed, within two weeks or so. Advertisement Continue reading the main story The Eurostat figures also highlighted the troubled state of government finances across the European Union. The agency raised its estimate of the 2009 deficit for Ireland, to 14.3 percent, compared with the 11.7 percent figure submitted by Dublin in December. The Spanish deficit for 2009 was projected to be in line with estimates earlier this year, at 11.2 percent of G.D.P., while the forecast for Portugal’s deficit was 9.4 percent.In a Sunday interview with a website called Shark-Tank, GOP contender Sen. Ted Cruz that he believes President Obama’s unlawful executive amnesty shielding millions of illegal aliens from deportation would “change who we are as a country,” and said that legal immigration is “good,” stressing his support for the rule of law. “I actually think the amnesty issue is broader than just another policy issue on which people can disagree,” Cruz said. “President Obama famously said his goal was to fundamentally transform the United States of America. And one of the critical tools he is using to try to do that is to allow millions of people to come here illegally.” “There’s seven billion people on the face of the planet, and an awful lot of them would like to come here. Now if they want to come here legally and follow the law, great,” he added. “You and I both come from immigrant families who followed the law.” Cruz’s father, Rafael Bienvenido Cruz, came to America after initially fighting for Fidel Castro — then becoming disgusted with the Communist leader’s seizure of private property and brutal suppression of any dissent. He fled to America in 1957, going on to earn a mathematics degree, become a naturalized citizen in 2005, and work as a born-again Christian minister in Texas. Throughout his presidential campaign, Cruz has repeatedly stressed he opposes Obama’s executive amnesty in an effort to distance himself from the rest of the GOP primary pack. In other ways, Cruz agrees with party leaders when it comes to increasing immigration: In 2013, he proposed an amendment to the comprehenisve immigration reform bill proposed by the “Gang of Eight,” expanding a skilled-labor visa called the H-1B by 500 percent, pushing the cap from 65,000 to 325,000, while increasing the fees placed on some employers from $1,500 to $2,500 for each foreigner hired. The bill died in Congress before it could reach Obama’s desk. Cruz’s complete remarks are as follows: There should be no pathway to citizenship for those who are here illegally. I don’t support amnesty. And I find it really striking at the Cleveland debate, that divide was evident for all to see. Let me step back for a second. Let me talk about the amnesty issue. Because I actually think the amnesty issue is broader than just another policy issue on which people can disagree. President Obama famously said his goal was to fundamentally transform the United States of America. And one of the critical tools he is using to try to do that is to allow millions of people to come here illegally. There’s seven billion people on the face of the planet, and an awful lot of them would like to come here. Now if they want to come here legally and follow the law, great. You and I both come from immigrant families who followed the law. But the Obama plan is to allow millions to come in illegally and try to grant them amnesty, grant them a pathway to citizenship, and they believe they’ll vote Democrat in perpetuity to keep the big-government Democrats in power. It is a transformational policy, if amnesty goes through. It changes who we are as a country, if Obama and the Democrats succeed in this. And what’s striking in Cleveland, is a majority of the candidates on that stage have advocated amnesty, and not just advocated amnesty, but advocated it for years. Many of them vocally, vigorously, publicly. As you mentioned, you heard my friend Marco Rubio join Chuck Schumer in authoring the Chuck Schumer amnesty plan. In doing so, he was enthusiastically supported by Jeb Bush. In doing so, he was enthusiastically supported by Scott Walker. And President Obama. Both CNN and Politifact did fact-checks of my statement that a majority of candidates on that stage have supported amnesty, and both of them concluded, yep, it’s true. They went through the records of one after the other after the other. And let me tell you why that matters so much. We remember back in 2012, where we nominated a candidate, Mitt Romney, a good man. But someone who had proposed Romneycare. And the problem was, when it came to the general election, when you have a candidate who’s been an advocate for health insurance plan almost exactly like Obamacare, our nominee wasn’t able to make the election about Obamacare. He wasn’t able to challenge Barack Obama effectively on Obamacare, because he had written a proposal just like it. The same thing is true in this instance. If we nominate a candidate who’s been a vigorous, vocal, and aggressive advocate of amnesty, then the Republican candidate won’t stand up and challenge Hillary Clinton on amnesty, and certainly won’t do so effectively. Because anyone who tries to do so, the response will be: Gosh, just a couple of years ago, before you were running for president, you agreed with me [that] we should grant amnesty. I have never supported amnesty and never will support amnesty. I believe in the rule of law. You know, at the end of the day, these principles aren’t complicated. When it comes to immigration: Legal, good; illegal, bad. According to an exclusive analysis provided to Breitbart News by the Senate’s Subcommittee on Immigration and the National Interest, chaired by Alabama Republican Sen. Jeff Sessions, the U.S. will issue more green cards for immigrants — over ten million in the next decade — than the populations of primary states Iowa, New Hampshire, and South Carolina combined, unless Congress passes a law cutting the number of visas issued. WATCH CRUZ’S INTERVIEW: Email Katie at kmchugh@breitbart.com. Follow her on Twitter: @k_mcq.Since entering the political spotlight, Greg Gianforte has avoided questions about social issues. But he has personally lobbied against an LGBT rights bill, and tax documents show his foundation has given more than $1.1 million to leading organizations that oppose LGBT rights. Bloomberg / Getty Images / David Paul Morris Last September, one month after filing preliminary paperwork to run for governor, Greg Gianforte moderated a panel at the Montana High Tech Jobs Summit. A man in the audience had a question: Would passing a religious freedom law like the one in Indiana, which critics said would permit LGBT discrimination, affect Montana businesses? Gianforte turned to the panelists, and after the president of one local business said the issue was "not on our radar," Gianforte shut down the subject. "Thank you," he said abruptly. "Next question." It was a surprising silence from Gianforte, given his history of advocacy on this very issue. The entrepreneur became wealthy by growing his company, RightNow Technologies, in the city of Bozeman and selling it to Oracle for $1.5 billion. For years, he was quietly one of the state's leading financiers of organizations that advocate for religious freedom laws and oppose LGBT nondiscrimination policies. Public records obtained by BuzzFeed News also show Gianforte lobbied city officials in Bozeman to block an LGBT nondiscrimination ordinance, arguing that a ban on discrimination could drive away business. “I think he politically flew under the radar.” But since he stepped into the political spotlight, the 54-year-old Christian has positioned himself as a strictly economic-oriented candidate who will create jobs, and has ducked questions about his positions on LGBT rights and how his religious beliefs would affect his policies as governor. His campaign has raised more than $300,000 since filing an exploratory committee in August. And when he formally announces his candidacy, which he is expected to do Wednesday, he will cement his status as the state's Republican frontrunner. But records show a man who has a long history of using religious arguments to push an extreme social agenda. A BuzzFeed News examination of tax returns shows his foundation, the Gianforte Family Charitable Trust, donated more than $1.1 million over a period of six years to some of the political groups leading the charge against LGBT rights in the United States. Tax records list the trustees as Gianforte; his wife, Susan; and son Richard. On balance, he has given far more money to Christian missionaries and faith-based schools than to advocacy groups. But when the donations were political in nature, they were overwhelmingly to organizations that focus on opposing women's reproductive rights and blocking LGBT equality. The spokesperson for one recipient, the Family Research Council, on MSNBC in 2010 said that homosexual behavior should be punished by criminal sanctions. Another group, Focus on the Family, still advocates a constitutional amendment to ban same-sex couples from marrying. And an organization in his home state, the Montana Family Foundation, received more than half a million dollars from Gianforte between 2008 and 2012, when the group functioned as the state's primary advocate against LGBT policies. "This wasn’t just a passing issue," Kim Abbot, co-director of the Montana Human Rights Network, told BuzzFeed News. "He’s an activist. He’s been putting money into these issues for years.” "I think gay people in Montana have to assume that if Gianforte were elected governor, there would be a rollback of protections under his authority," she added. But until recently, she said, “I think he politically flew under the radar.” Gianforte did not respond to requests to comment for this article on his donations to anti-LGBT groups, what he would do if elected, or his own direct activism. “What happens when the law is in conflict with his own personal beliefs? He hasn’t addressed much of that." In his personal capacity, Gianforte was on the front line pushing against an LGBT nondiscrimination ordinance in his hometown of Bozeman. Public records and interviews conducted by BuzzFeed News show he met commissioners one-on-one, and, when an ordinance appeared likely to pass anyway, he submitted drafts of new versions of the bill. He successfully pressed to weaken the measure so that certain religious employers may be able raise a defense if they turn away LGBT employees or job applicants. Political watchers in Montana believe this history could play a key factor in the election — if it becomes a central issue, which Gianforte is apparently trying to avoid. "Gianforte is presenting himself as an economic conservative; he is talking about jobs," Robert Saldin, a political science professor at the University of Montana, told BuzzFeed News. "And that message is very much in line which what has been successful for Montana Republicans.” “I think he is little bit of an unknown quantity in political circles,” Saldin added. “Selling his company to Oracle has made him incredibly wealthy — that’s what people know — and his donations are really interesting. It’s quite admirable how much money he has given away.” But, he pointed out, “People are out to take him down as an out-of-touch evangelical guy who is going to take away your rights, and if that message sticks, that’s a real problem for him, because people are into their rights out here.” The mountainous state is reliably conservative, but less divided on social issues than much of the South and Midwest, Saldin said. The Democratic incumbent, Steve Bullock, won in 2012 as an anti-tax moderate, a natural fit for an electorate that tends to prefer frugally minded candidates over social demagogues from either party. Some of Gianforte’s other religious beliefs have also raised questions. Among his philanthropy, Gianforte gave the the Foundation Advancing Creation Truth a Tyrannosaurus rex skeleton for its Glendive Dinosaur and Fossil Museum. The museum claims the Earth was created by God "in six natural days,” asks if humans walked with dinosaurs, and professes that God ordained marriage between only man and woman. MT needs more thriving businesses like Woods Power-Grip in Laurel. #MTpol #MTgov In a December Politico interview, Gianforte was asked why "Democrats seem to be eager to paint you as religious kook" and whether he was interested in "rolling back gay marriage." "I'm very clear," he responded. "I'm a Christian. My faith in God is very important to me. I'm running because we're 49th in the county in wages, and we're going to focus on the economy." He added, "We're going to create better opportunities for people." He ducked again in December when the Associated Press asked him about how religion would influence his politics. “The focus is on jobs,” he said, “that's what people want to talk about." But if Gianforte is establishing a firewall between his faith and economic politics if elected governor, that's a departure from his positioning in the past — that opposing LGBT rights law was good for business. “It’s an issue he is not comfortable talking about, but we are very comfortable talking about it
clans of insect gatherers built their low, mud-walled buildings, it was as much to keep out other Quar as the wild animals. As they first learned to make tools to get food, they quickly learned to make tools to defend themselves. The mud walls quickly became fortified citadels, and then city-states. In five thousand years of civilization, the constants of their culture have been the changing of the seasons and the threat of war.For the last 700 years the Quar have been waging The Long War to a bloody stalemate that has wracked their world. But the balance of power is shifting and Alykinder’s Crusade is attempting to end The Long War by conquering all the Quar nations. This game takes you to one battle in one theater of The Long War: the Battle for Gate 18 between the Crusader Army and the Royalist Coftyran Crymuster.Command cavalry to sweep the enemy's flanks. Send Baeliog armored tractors forward to shatter hardened defenses. Your rhyflers are armed with weapons ranging from the humble Bogen rifle to heavy-automatic shotguns. Rely on your stalwart officers to keep up your troop's morale and to call in deadly airstrikes. But above all, preserve the honor of your cause as you wage the Battle for Gate 18!This is my version of a LEGO Wheel of Fortune set. It is based on the U.S. game show, which has been on-air for over forty years, with over six thousand episodes. This set was designed to be fully playable, with holes in the back of the playing board to push out the printed letter tiles, and both wheels being able to spin freely. A sticker would go over the main wheel, and tiles could be printed with prizes on them for the bonus round wheel. This set could be used as a display piece, or played with by family and friends, giving people as many hours of enjoyment as the show itself does. The other pictures are close-ups of the wheel, playing board, bonus wheel, minifigures, (Vanna White, Pat Sajak, Player One, Player Two, and Player Three) and another view of the whole set. Technical stuff:A French Air Force Mirage 2000 performs a friendly intercept of a US Air Force B-52 Stratofortress from the the 20th Expeditionary Bomb Squadron from Barksdale Air Force Base, Louisiana over Northern France. US Air Force On March 7, the French Air Force, along with airmen from the US and 10 other NATO countries kicked off Serpentex 2016, the annual exercise to improve interoperability between militaries. Debuting at Serpentex is the iconic B-52 bomber. The exercise focuses on training Joint Terminal Attack Controlers (JTAC) from different nations to work together to provide close air support, dynamic targeting, strike coordination and reconnaissance and live ordnance operations. The B-52, which can fly slowly over targets and carry an wide range of munitions, is well suited to the mission of close air support. It's inclusion adds an interesting twist to the annual exercise. A b-52 with the wide range of munitions it can carry. Wikimedia Commons "Most of them haven't worked with bombers for these types of missions before. We have a longer duration and a lot wider turn radius than some of the fighters, so they're going to have to find a new pacing for calling us in for close air support. But I promise that bomber CAS is worth the wait" Maj. Sarah Fortin, the 20th Expeditionary Bomb Squadron assistant director of operations, said in a USAF release. B-52's were also deployed to Cold Response 16, another NATO exercise in Norway. NATO hopes to boost the credibility of their forces in the face of an increasingly aggressive Russia. Canadian and French joint terminal attack controllers prepare their equipment for the first day of training during exercise SERPENTEX 16, March 7, 2016. Training and theater security cooperation engagements with U.S. allies and partners, such as Exercise SERPENTEX, demonstrate a shared commitment to promoting security and stability. US Air Force/Staff Sgt. Sara Keller "There are times like when we are deployed when we work with JTACs from other countries and sometimes we do things a little differently," said Tech. Sgt. Jeremy Rarang. "This exercise is giving us the opportunity to build partnership capacity and know how to better work with our allies when we are in those situations." "The ability to train bomber aircrews in different geographic combatant commands is essential to maintaining a strong, credible bomber force that enhances the security and stability of our allies and partners," said Lt. Col. Dennis Cummings, 20th Expeditionary Bomb Squadron commander. "Our ability to smoothly and effectively conduct these multinational missions is heavily indebted to the hospitality of Spain and fantastic support we are receiving from US Air Forces Europe."KYODO NEWS - Aug 16, 2017 - 22:23 \| Lifestyle, All, Japan A missing giant tortoise nicknamed Aboo was returned to its home on Wednesday, proving a good catch for a boy and his father who profited when a western Japan zoo shelled out a 500,000 yen ($4,500) reward. After being on the run since Aug. 1, the 55-kilogram, 1-meter-long female tortoise was discovered in woods near the Shibukawa Animal Park in Okayama Prefecture. The father and son duo, who live in the city of Okayama, went in search of the runaway reptile after hearing that the zoo was offering cash for its return. Seiichi Tonai, 39, and his 15-year-old son, Akira, started their hunt for Aboo on Wednesday afternoon on a hill just 150 meters from the park. Just 15 minutes into their quest, Seiichi discovered the tortoise and his son quickly informed the zoo. The elder Tonai said he first spotted the tortoise's shell through the undergrowth before noticing it was slowly inching forward. He said he was "glad to see it in good health." Seiichi said he wants to put part of his reward towards feed for Aboo and he will put the rest of the money into his savings. On return to the zoo, the tortoise was found to be unharmed and it proved it by immediately eating a pear and banana. The zoo said the tortoise, estimated to be 30 years old, can survive without food for about a month. The park, which permits some creatures to roam within its confines during opening hours, said it has security camera footage showing the tortoise making a break for freedom through the entrance gate on the morning of Aug. 1. Akira said he cannot believe they found the turtle. "It will be a good memory for me from this summer break," he said. Zoo staff said they did search the area where Tonai and his son found Aboo, but did not find any trace of the refugee. The same tortoise also went missing on July 21 and was later caught on a nearby road. Yoshimi Yamane, a 47-year-old zoo official, pledged the park will now "be stricter in managing its animals."-Submitted by David Drumm (Nal), Guest Blogger Judith Jarvis Thomson, professor emeritus at MIT, provides some interesting thought experiments in her article entitled In Defense of Abortion. Thomson acknowledges the problem of determining the particular moment during gestation when a fetus becomes a human being, so she starts by granting that the fetus is a person from the moment of conception. From there, the argument usually goes that, since every person has a right to life, a fetus has a right to life. The fetus’s right to life supersedes the mother’s right to decide what happens in and to her body. Thomson asks you to consider that you’ve awoken to find you’re in a hospital bed with an unconscious violinist of supreme repute. The violinist is suffering from a fatal kidney disease and the Society of Music Lovers has determined that you are the only blood match that can save him. Members of the Society kidnapped you last night and have surgically integrated the violinist’s renal and circulatory systems with yours. Your kidneys are now removing the toxins from the violinist’s blood, keeping him alive. To remove the connection between you and the violinist would mean certain death for the latter. The doctors assure you that after nine months the violinist will have recovered from his disease and the two of you can be disconnected. Should you be legally obligated to save the violinist’s life? Are you morally obligated? While you were kidnapped and didn’t volunteer for the operation, a victim of rape, legitimate, also didn’t volunteer for her pregnancy. Thomson also notes the problematic nature of what it means to have a right to life. Thomson writes that “in some views having a right to life include having a right to be given at least the bare minimum one needs for continued life.” Under this view if one is dying from a sickness that only the cool touch of Henry Fonda’s hand can cure, your right to life can not force Fonda to touch your fevered brow. In the violinist experiment, the violinist has no right to the use on your kidneys unless you give him that right. One might argue that the violinist is a stranger while the fetus is an offspring containing half the DNA of the mother. If the violinist were a brother or sister, would the brother or sister’s right to life impose an obligation against the rights of the mother? While it would be an act of kindness for a person to provide life-giving assistance to a brother or sister, should there be a legal obligation that compels that kindness against a person’s desires? Or is each person’s body secure against another’s intrusion. The right to life could be viewed as the right not to be killed by anybody. Under this view, the violinist has the right not to be unplugged from you. However, the violinist does not have the right to compel you to allow him the use of your kidneys. You may allow the use of your kidneys out of kindness but it is not something you should be compelled to do. Thomson considers the case of voluntary intercourse that leads to a pregnancy and the partial responsibility of the fetus inside the mother. It could be argued that the fetus is dependent on the mother and this responsibility gives the fetus rights against the mother, rights not possessed by an ailing violinist. However, this argument would not apply to those pregnancies that occurred as a result of rape. Thomson uses the concept of people-seeds to make another point. People-seeds float around the air until one makes it into your home where it can take root in your carpeting or upholstery. You don’t want children so you place a fine mesh over your open windows to keep the people-seeds out. However, sometimes screens have defects and a people-seed manages to find its way into your home and takes root in your living room. Does the developing people-plant have the right to the use of your home? Thomson says no. Likewise, if a women makes an effort to prevent conception, even knowing that contraception is not foolproof, Thomson argues that her responsibility doesn’t extend to allowing the fetus to have the right to use her body. H/T: Massimo Pigliucci. Share this: Twitter Reddit FacebookAs noted on Reason 24/7, several conservatives in the House have been removed from seats on the House Budget and House Financial Services Committees. From Roll Call: Reps. David Schweikert of Arizona and Walter Jones of North Carolina were booted from the Financial Services Committee. Reps. Justin Amash of Michigan and Tim Huelskamp of Kansas were removed from the Budget Committee. According to a source, Schweikert was told that he was ousted in part because his “votes were not in lockstep with leadership.” …All of the lawmakers other than Jones were rebellious right-wingers. Huelskamp and Amash, for instance, both voted against the budget proposed by Budget Chairman Paul D. Ryan of Wisconsin in committee and on the floor, because it did not cut spending fast enough. They also voted against the current continuing resolution that is funding the government through the end of March. In addition to voting against the last continuing resolution of the budget-less fiscal year 2012, Amash, Huelskamp, Jones and Schweikert all voted against the Budget Control Act last summer that raised the debt ceiling and help set the scene of the upcoming fiscal cliff.NASA’s experimental, allegedly impossible, reactionless drive has finally passed academic peer-review, and scientist Dr. Phil Mason said there are huge reasons to be skeptical of it. Mason, a Cornell University chemist who makes science educational videos on YouTube, said the drive’s inventors overly hyped the possibilities of the EmDrive. Mason described the EmDrive as the “scientific equivalent of saying ‘then a miracle happens.” He said it would only likely be better than conventional rocketry for extremely long missions and very specific scenarios, because it takes a very long time to build up speed. EmDrive supporters say it could be used in flying cars, rockets and anti-gravity machines. But the EmDrive is extremely contentious among physicists since it allegedly uses exotic physics to violate Newton’s Third Law, which states that any action has an equal or opposite reaction. Even if every claim EmDrive advocates make is correct, the drive isn’t very efficient. In order to lift a single human, it would take about a gigawatt of power, Mason estimates. that means it would take the U.S.’s entire electrical capacity to lift about 1,000 people into the air. Regular motors are about 100,000 times more effective than the EmDrive. A study claiming that the EmDrive could exist recently published in the journal of the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics, which is one of the world’s largest technical societies dedicated to aerospace innovations. Other physicists on Youtube are also skeptical of the EmDrive, but claim they’re willing to be persuaded and the paper’s passage through peer review is a good first step. They suspect that it is “highly likely” that the anomalous thrust detected in experiments is the result of an unknown experimental error. Believers in the EmDrive claim that the drive generates thrust through radiation pressure. The EmDrive first gained prominence after NASA’s secretive Eagleworks lab published a non peer-reviewed technical report attesting it generated a small amount of thrust by an unknown mechanism. All three attempts to replicate the drive’s thrust results were successful, but the amounts of thrust generated were relatively low and could have been the result of experimental error. NASA is not ready to officially confirm test results. The development of EmDrive was funded by the British government and licensed by aerospace manufacturing giant Boeing. Testing of the EmDrive has been plagued by experimental design issues and repeated delays. WATCH: Follow Andrew on Twitter Send tips to andrew@ dailycallernewsfoundation.org. Content created by The Daily Caller News Foundation is available without charge to any eligible news publisher that can provide a large audience. For licensing opportunities of our original content, please contact licensing@dailycallernewsfoundation.org.The U.S. House of Representative's Science, Space, and Technology Committee announced today (Feb. 15) it will hold a hearing in the coming weeks on how to deal with asteroids that pose a potential threat to Earth. The announcement came in the wake of a meteor explosion over Russia that left hundreds of people injured, and just hours before asteroid 2012 DA14, a space rock about half the size of a football field, was to give the Earth an extremely close shave. "Today's events are a stark reminder of the need to invest in space science," Rep. Lamar Smith (R-Texas), who is chairman of the committee, said in a statement. Asteroid 2012 DA14 will pass just 17,200 miles (27,000 kilometers) from Earth, less than the distance of a round trip from New York to Sydney, Smith added. "And this morning, a much smaller meteorite hit near the Russian city of Chelyabinsk, destroying buildings and injuring hundreds." Smith called for continued investment in technologies to identify and track near-Earth asteroids like 2012 DA14 and for the development of contingency plans to deflect space rocks that might be on a collision course with Earth. "Fifty years ago, we would have had no way of seeing an asteroid like this coming," Smith said. "Now, thanks to the discoveries NASA has made in its short history, we have known about 2012 DA14 for about a year. As the world leader in space exploration, America has made great progress for mankind. But our work is not done. We should continue to study, research, and explore space to better understand our universe and better protect our planet." Follow SPACE.com on Twitter @Spacedotcom. We're also on Facebookand Google+.Four states and the District of Columbia have voted since 2012 to legalize the retail sale of marijuana. One main incentive of legalization is the tax revenue states receive from marijuana sales. The first two states to legalize marijuana — Colorado and Washington — began sales in 2014. After a slow start, tax revenues now exceed expectations in both states. While the legal structure supporting marijuana sales would be quite different in each U.S. region, other states can begin to better understand the financial impact legalization would have on their states. The Tax Foundation used sales per capita in these two states and the assumption of a 25% effective tax rate to determine the potential tax revenue from marijuana sales in each state. While tax revenue from marijuana sales exceeded expectations in both Colorado and Washington, the revenue increase remains small relative to the overall state tax revenue. This could...William Savedoff and Albert Alwang recently identified taxes on tobacco as, “the single most cost-effective way to save lives in developing countries” (2015, p.1). This is a strong claim and one that should pique the interest of any effective altruist. Is the claim true? And, if so, does tobacco taxation present an opportunity to do the most good? In this post, I examine whether tobacco tax advocacy gives other highly effective interventions a run for their money. However, this post will not evaluate or recommend a particular charity. My aim is rather to assess whether tobacco tax advocacy is a cause that effective altruists and EA organizations should investigate further and, if so, where further investigation is needed. Tobacco control and tobacco taxation The WHO assesses global progress on tobacco control in terms of a set of measures called MPOWER. Monitoring tobacco use and prevention policies policies Protecting people from tobacco smoke smoke Offering help to quit tobacco use use Warning about the dangers of tobacco use use Enforcing bans on tobacco advertising, promotion, and sponsorship sponsorship Raising tobacco taxes Tobacco control programs often pursue many of these aims at once. However, raising taxes appears to be particularly cost-effective — e.g., raising taxes costs $3 - $70 per DALY avoided(Savedoff and Alwang, p.5; Ranson et al. 2002, p.311) — so I will focus solely on taxes. I will also focus only on low and middle income countries (LMICs) because that is where the problem is worst and where taxes can do the most good most cost-effectively. None of this is to say, of course, that we should not pursue other tobacco control measures.They are well-studied and effective life-saving interventions. In fact, there is some evidence that advertising bans and public smoking bans can be highly cost-effective (Lai et al. 2007 and Donaldson et al. 2011). How effective is tobacco taxation as a public health intervention? It’s clear that smoking is a health risk. As Savedoff and Alwang note, non-smokers live 10 years longer on average than smokers (Jha et al. 2013, p.347); smoking can kill up to two thirds of smokers (Banks et al. 2013); and smoking greatly increases the likelihood of coronary heart disease (2-4x), stroke (2-4x), and lung cancer (25x) (CDC 2014). ( A recent study of US smokers found that 17% of deaths attributable to smoking were caused by diseases not previously linked to smoking (Carter et al., 2015). The implication of this finding is that we may have been significantly underestimated smoking deaths.) The WHO estimates that in the 20th century 100 million people died as a result of cigarette smoking (Jha 2012, p.469). What does this mean for the future? If current trends in population growth and tobacco use continue, smoking will cause 1 billion deaths in the 21st century, the vast majority of which will be in the developing world (Savedoff and Alwang, p.3; Jha 2012 p.570). But current trends need not continue. We can prevent deaths from tobacco use. Tobacco taxation is a well-tested and effective means of decreasing the prevalence of smoking—it gets people to stop and prevents others from starting. The reason is that smokers are responsive to price increases,provided that the real price goes up enough. According to one estimate, preventing smoking deaths by raising the real price of cigarettes by 10% costs $3 - $70 per DALY (Ranson et al., p. 315). Another estimate puts the cost of saving a life by diminishing tobacco use at $1462 (5.5millions lives saved over 10 years at an annual cost of $804 million dollars). If 1/3 of the lives saved are due to price increases from higher taxes, which probably underestimates the relative impact of this measure, then the cost of saving a life by raising taxes is about $795 (1.8 million lives saved over 10 years at an annual cost of $143 million) (Asaria et al., 2007, pp.2047-8 and Web table 7). Even if these numbers are off by a factor of 2 or 3, tobacco taxation appears to be on par with the most effective interventions identified by GiveWell and Giving What We Can. For example, GiveWell estimates that AMF can prevent a death for $3340 by providing bed nets to prevent malaria and estimates the cost of schistosomiasis deworming at $29 - $71 per DALY. At first glance, then, tobacco taxation seems like an obvious choice for those looking for cost-effective public health interventions. But does its initial attractiveness stand up to scrutiny? There are a few reasons to balk at recommending tobacco tax advocacy to those aiming to do the most good with their donations, time, and careers. Tobacco taxes may not be a tractable issue issue Tobacco taxes may be a “crowded” cause area area Unanswered questions about the empirical basis of cost-effectiveness estimates estimates There may not be a charity to donate to Spoiler alert! I don’t have a charity to recommend. If, at the end of this post, you’re convinced by the cost-effectiveness of tobacco tax advocacy, there won’t be a donation link for you to click. However, I will have a few things to say about how effective altruists might make a difference in this area. Importance, tractability, and neglectedness Even if tobacco taxes are as cost-effective as their proponents suggest, and even if there were a charity capable of effectively advocating for tobacco taxes, we might still have reason not to support or recommend it. When deciding whether to support a particular cause, we typically assess the proposed project along three dimensions: importance, tractability, and neglectedness (or crowdedness). Is tobacco taxation important? Yes, definitely. Smoking is very harmful and very common. Globally, 21% of people over 15 smoke (WHO GHO). In the developing world, it causes more deaths each year than malaria, tuberculosis, and HIV/AIDS combined (Savedoff and Alwang, p. 4). Preventing even a fraction of the deaths, disease, health costs, and other economic losses caused by smoking would be an enormous benefit. Tobacco control, especially tax increases, could prevent at least 110 million smoking deaths in the next few decades ( Jha 2012, p.591). By comparison the eradication of small pox, one of the most effective public health interventions in human history, has saved upwards of 50 million lives since the campaign concluded 35 years ago. Well-designed and well-managed tobacco taxes have been shown to decrease smoking, and, once established, tobacco tax revenue can be used to support further tobacco control measures or other public health programs. Is tobacco taxation a tractable intervention? This question is more difficult to assess, but the available evidence is promising. Many rich countries and various US states have substantially reduced smoking prevalence through taxation. This took quite a while in some places—30years in the US and UK—but was much faster in others. For example, France cut its smoking rate in half between 1990 and 2005 by using tax to steadily increase the real price of cigarettes. And South Africa, a middle-income country, was able to do the same over a similar period (Jha and Peto 2014, pp.64-65). However, there is one powerful reason to think tobacco taxation might not be a tractable intervention. The tobacco industry and its agents directly and indirectly oppose tobacco control measures, including taxation. They lobby governments, spread misinformation, and bring costly lawsuits against governments that attempt to control tobacco use (see e.g., Mamudu et al. 2008 and Sebrie at al. 2006 ). And other organizations do the same on their behalf. As a result, organizations that advocate for tobacco taxes not only have to design and build support for effective tobacco taxes, but also help defend the policies against the tobacco industry’s attempts to block, dismantle, and neuter them. In addition to this kind of direct opposition, tax advocates may find themselves operating in places where the institutions needed to establish and maintain the tax system are weak, dysfunctional, or corrupt. Such factors and others may explain the (relative) absence of “global level policy prescriptions” and the “lack of public involvement in tax-related policies” noted by Uwe Gneiting (2015, pp.9-10). Finally, some countries may be parties to international agreements that, in practice, limit their ability to defend the legality of tobacco taxes even when these taxes are morally and politically justified. Nonetheless, even if we acknowledge these obstacles, there are many reasons to be optimistic about the tractability of tobacco tax advocacy. Tobacco tax might seem like an intractable issue, but this concern is not borne out by the evidence. Is tobacco taxation a neglected cause? This question is difficult to answer, but my sense is that it is neglected. As I said above, tobacco control is underfunded relative to the harm it causes (Eriksen et al., pp.76-77; use the Savedoff chart on relative funding). HIV/AIDs prevention and treatment received 10 times more funding in LMICs than tobacco control despite the fact that tobacco causes 3 times more deaths in those countries. (Of course without that funding the number of HIV/AIDS deaths would have been much higher, but proponents of tobacco taxes are not suggesting that we divert funding from AIDS to tax advocacy. They are arguing that we ought to fund tobacco control in order to save lives.) The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and Bloomberg Philanthropies have recently begun to fund tobacco control at a higher level ($600 million since 2007). And, given the extent of this funding, one might reasonably suggest that tobacco control is not a neglected cause. If it remains cost-effective to increase funding, Gates and Bloomberg will do it. If this is true, then our money would be better spent elsewhere. However, I am not persuaded that tobacco control is as crowded as these critics suggest. Even accounting for Gates’ and Bloomberg’s contributions, tobacco control is underfunded relative to the harms caused by smoking. Nor is there much evidence to suggest that there is not room for more funding. Hana Ross and Michal Stoklosa consider the possibility that Gates and Bloomberg might be “crowding out” other Development Assistance for Tobacco Control (DACT). After 2006, when Bloomberg and Gates committed to funding tobacco control, some other organizations reduced or ended their funding. However, this drop in funding might be due instead to the effects of the global financial crisis (Ross and Stoklosa 2012, pp.468-469). More evidence is needed to establish both the effects of the financial crisis on DACT and the effects of these large donors on both DACT and domestic funding for tobacco control. The academic research seems to suggest that spending more would be highly cost-effective. Gates and Bloomberg have contributed $600 million since 2007. This represents about half of total DACT (Ross and Stoklosa, p.466). However, one estimate of the amount needed for the four “best buys” in tobacco control, which includes tobacco taxation, is $600 million per year (or $0.11 per capita per year) (Eriksen et al., pp.76-77). Another estimate puts the cost of decreasing smoking prevalence in key LMICs to 5% by 2040 at $6 billion per year. Tobacco control accounts for about 10% of those costs, or $600 million per year (Beaglehole et al. 2011, pp.1440 and 1444). Finally, if we think that the estimated costs for advocacy are too low, then these numbers will be even higher. At the very least, these numbers suggest that the amounts of money currently moved by GiveWell ($27 million as of April 2015), which includes the amount moved by Giving What We Can ( $7 million over 5 years ), could all be used effectively for tobacco tax advocacy. Questions about cost-effectiveness Should we be satisﬁed with the cost-effectiveness numbers cited by Savedoff and Alwang and others? Perhaps, but effective altruists interested in supporting tobacco tax advocacy, or tobacco control more generally, should consider the following questions. Would more funding allow us to decrease smoking prevalence more quickly at the same level of cost-effectiveness? Tobacco consumption decreases by 4% for every 10% increase in price (Savedoff and Alwang, p.4), so if additional funding would achieve higher tax increases over the same time period, it would do even more good. However, we want to know not only whether additional funding will do more good, but also whether cost-effectiveness will change? Does achieving a 20% increase in price costs twice as much as achieving a 10% increase within the same time period? Or does it cost half or 4 times or 10 times as much? We need to know the answer to this question. How would cost-effectiveness estimates change if we assumed that some proportion of tobacco tax revenues would be used for tobacco control or other highly cost-effective public health programs? Currently, LMIC governments collect $10.74 per capita in revenue from excise taxes on tobacco products, but spend only $0.0078 per capita on tobacco control—DACT provides another $0.011 per capita. This may well be justified. Directing just 1% more of these revenues (or $0.1074 per capita) to tobacco control would increase total spending on tobacco control by more than 500% (Eriksen et al., pp.76-77). Increasing funding in this way may diminish or even eliminate the need for additional DACT, including charitable donations, in the long term. But designing policies that directly fund domestic tobacco control or other cost-effective public health interventions could substantially improve the overall cost-effectiveness of tobacco taxes in the short term, while strengthening domestic public health services. How would cost-effectiveness estimates change if we discount future lives in the way some economists and philosophers suggest? First of all, time discounting is a controversial moral question. Second, at least one of the estimates given above discounts projected future DALYs at the standard 3% rate (Ranson et al., p.314). Moreover, even if we accept such a discount rate, increasing tobacco taxes has both short term benefits (for those who quit smoking) and long term benefits (both for those who quit smoking and those who never start (Jha and Peto, pp.63-64). Indeed, Asaria et al. estimated that 5.5 million lives could be saved in the next decade (this estimate was for the period from 2006-2015). Are the proposed tobacco taxes regressive—i.e., does their burden fall primarily on the poor? This is an important question and a natural one to ask given that we’re proposing taxes in LMICs on a product used mostly by the poor. However, the evidence strongly suggests that the tax is not regressive. Savedoff and Alwang point out that while poor people smoke more thanafﬂuent people, they are also more sensitive to price increases. This means they are more likely to smoke less or quit in response to price increases. As a result, most of the health beneﬁts of tobacco taxes will accrue to low-income individuals, while most of the tax burden will be born by richer smokers who continue to smoke even when the price has increased (Savedoff and Alwang, pp.8-9, Jha et al., 2012, p.8 ). Do current estimates accurately assess the cost and cost-effectiveness of advocacy for tobacco taxation? This is the crucial question for effective altruists interested in donating to tobacco tax advocacy. Organizations funding tobacco control pay for political advocacy, institutional support, and research and they advocate for tobacco taxes by lobbying and advising politicians and civil servants. Thus it is crucial that we have an accurate estimate of the cost of personnel and material resources necessary to complete a successful campaign. However, it is often difficult to measure the effectiveness of political advocacy ( Teles and Schmitt 2011 ), specifically whether and to what degree the campaign made the difference. And, even when we can measure its effectiveness, we may not be justiﬁed in generalizing from one context to another—e.g., a successful campaign in Thailand might not be successful or might cost much more in Nigeria. However, rather than generalize, researchers calculate program costs based on general WHO estimates and the strength of a country’s tax and regulation systems and then total the costs for each country (Johns et al. 2003, Asaria et al., Webtables 3 and 7).Nonetheless, if we were to evaluate the cost-effectiveness of a particular organization, we would quite reasonably ask for more concrete numbers based on actual past campaigns. This seems particularly important given that tobacco tax advocacy is likely to experience direct opposition from tobacco industry agents (Ranson et al., p.314). And it seems reasonable now that large,outcome-focused donors have funded a number of successful campaigns. What can you do with this information? At the beginning of this post, I asked whether tobacco taxes can really claim to be one of the most—or even the most—cost-effective way of saving lives in the developing world. I think we have good reason to think they are, though we should ask for answers to the above questions—or at least better answers than I’ve been able to give. I also asked whether tobacco tax advocacy provides an opportunity to do the most good with our time, careers, and charitable donations. Unfortunately, with regard to donating, the answer seems to be no—at least for now. The Gates Foundation and Bloomberg Philanthropies currently provide almost all the charitable funding for tobacco control. It is not possible to donate to Bloomberg Philanthropies. You can donate to the Gates Foundation, but cannot direct your donation to tobacco control. You can donate to some of the tobacco control organizations that these large donors support, e.g., the Campaign for Tobacco Free Kids, but robust evidence of the effectiveness of these organizations’ particular advocacy efforts is currently unavailable. Tobacco taxation may indeed be the most cost-effective way to save lives in the developing world, but it’s not a good option for individual donors at this time. But donating to a charity is only one way to do good. So what, if anything, can you do with the information I’ve provided? I think the evidence warrants further attention to tobacco taxes and there are a few ways in which a person may be able to do a lot of good. Investigate and evaluate the effectiveness of actual tobacco tax campaigns. Bloomberg and Gates both fund organizations that advocate for tobacco taxes as part of their tobacco control missions (check out the Gates grantees and Bloomberg grantees) and Bloomberg identifies 52 countries where they work that have passed tobacco control legislation. For example, they fund organizations like the Campaign for Tobacco Free Kids, who have pursued tax advocacy at the state level in India, Action for Economic Reforms, who were involved in the Philippines’ “sin tax” reforms, the Southeast Asia Tobacco Control Alliance, and other organizations that advocate for tobacco control. I think the time is right for Giving What We Can and GiveWell to do this kind of research. Campaign for Tobacco Free Kids is one place to start. Using easily available information, a quick back of the envelope calculation for CTFK’s Indian state tax campaign—assuming that their estimate of the premature deaths averted is roughly accurate (1,205,241)</>, that their advocacy was responsible for just 5% of that outcome, and that their entire program services budget ( $16 million for 2013) went to the India campaign for 3 full years—suggests a cost of $800 to avert 1 death. This is very promising. Are you already a convert to the tobacco tax cause? Then work for an effective tobacco control organization. If your time or expertise allows you to make the biggest difference (on the margin) in this area, take advantage of that fact—here are some jobs at CTFK if so. Or identify an effective research organization working on tobacco control—and with the capacity to expand; and fund an expansion of their work. For example, the Open Philanthropy Project is funding Dr. Michael Clemens’ research on labor mobility at the Center for Global Development.Some areas of tobacco tax research seem particularly important: evaluating the cost-effectiveness of tax advocacy campaigns, identifying which types of tobacco tax to advocate in which contexts, designing policies that use tobacco tax revenue effectively, identifying andr anking suitable venues for future advocacy, and tailoring campaigns for difficult but high value targets like China, which consumes more cigarettes than all other LMICs combined (Eriksen etal., p.31). Finally, if this post has made tobacco tax advocacy look like a compelling cause, consider investigating other public health measures where what’s needed is political advocacy, rather than direct delivery of goods like deworming pills. Advocacy for policies to control salt intake is one such option (Asaria et al.). Tobacco taxes appear to be a highly cost-effective way to save lives in the developing world. I suspect that further research will show that well-run tax advocacy organizations can save lives as cheaply as the charities currently touted by organizations like GiveWell and Giving What We Can. For now that research remains to be done, but I want to close by noting one more consideration in favour of tobacco tax advocacy. The effective altruism movement has been criticized for its “narrow view of impact

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